The European Union Times |
- Europe is Increasingly ‘Disenchanted’ With Obama Over Russia
- Majority of Democrats Now View Socialism Favorably
- Russia finds fragments not belonging to A321, US satellite records thermal flashes
- Greek island has run out of burial ground after influx of dead refugees
- Anthropogenic Climate Change is a Geostrategic Weapon – Putin
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Posted: 04 Nov 2015 05:32 AM PST
 European leaders and the White House do not exactly see eye to eye on a number of issues, particularly when it comes to Russia, but there is a major change in this dynamic: European officials and media have lately started blaming Barack Obama directly for what they see as bad decision-making on the part of the US president. “For years, Europe treated Mr. Obama as virtually untouchable, an off-limits symbol of positive change in America,” journalist John Vinocur asserted. In 2008, the Old World was infatuated with a young US senator and his message of change that all could contribute to and should definitely believe in. Seven years and many unfulfilled promises later this affair is apparently over and “the continent is growing disenchanted with Barack Obama,” Vinocur noted. Moreover, “there is a willingness in Europe to place blame on [the US president] himself.” Nowadays European “politicians are naming him specifically in their rationalizations for cozying up to Russia. Commentators are mocking what they see as Mr. Obama’s boundless caution,” the journalist added. This dramatic shift in European rhetoric took place some two weeks ago when Angela Merkel’s former chief of staff Ronald Pofalla chastised the US president for antagonizing Moscow. “It wasn’t clever of Barack Obama to have downgraded Russia, in connection with the Ukraine conflict, to the level of a regional power,” the journalist quoted Pofalla as saying. The remark could have gone largely unnoticed if other influential European politicians did not make statements echoing this sentiment. Last week, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy underscored that unlike Obama he viewed Russia as a “global power, not a regional one.” “The US president is getting openly dissed,” Vinocur wrote. A brief look at European media outlets provides similar picture. For instance, in late October, Berlin-based Tagesspiegel called Obama a man “no longer feared in the Middle East” in an article titled “Indecisive and Half-Hearted.” Source           |
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Posted: 04 Nov 2015 04:35 AM PST
 Socialism, Communism, Maoism, and National Socialism are all offshoots of Marxism. What once was taboo is now embraced by Democrats. For the first time ever, a majority of Democrat voters view Socialism favorably. Doug Ross reported: Over at Rasmussen, the pollsters have discovered that, for the first time in history, self-identified members of the Democrat Party now view socialism favorably. The man currently running a distant second for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, is a self-declared socialist, and most of his party’s voters now have a positive view of socialism. They are almost evenly divided as to whether they like capitalism or socialism more. Socialism, Communism, Maoism, and National Socialism are all offshoots of Marxism. They are all branches of the same defective tree. Marxism has failed in literally every venue it has been tried, despite progressives’ laughable efforts to claim certain countries have implemented it successfully. No country has and no country ever will. Source      |
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Posted: 04 Nov 2015 03:17 AM PST
 Rescuers and the investigation team working at the crash site of the Russian aircraft in the Sinai Peninsula, found fragments that did not relate to the design of the Airbus A321 aircraft, TASS reports with reference to a source from to investigation. “Experts have found elements that do not relate to the aircraft structure,” the source said. The elements have been collected and sent for expertise, the source added. It was also reported today that flight recorders from Airbus A321 registered the sounds that were not typical for the normal operation of the aircraft. The sounds were recorded moments before the crash. US satellite records thermal flashes above Sinai in area of Airbus A321 crash An American satellite recorded a thermal flash over Sinai at the time of the crash of the Kogalymavia airliner. According to experts, the flash could indicate either an explosion in the fuel tank or a bomb detonation. A US infrared satellite recorded a thermal flash over the Sinai Peninsula at the time of the crash of the Russian plane, CBS News reports. However, it was later reported that the thermal flashes could be either connected with explosions at the time when the plane hit the ground. It could also be possible that the recorded flashes were not related to the crash of the Russian passenger jet, Pentagon officials said. The thermal flashes were recorded in the area of combat clashes with Islamist fighters and could therefore had no connection with the Russian plane, a Pentagon official said. Meanwhile, the information that was obtained from flight recorders did not confirm the version of an external impact. Source      |
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Posted: 04 Nov 2015 02:38 AM PST
 A surge in the number of bodies of refugees whose boats capsized as they desperately tried to reach Europe has filled the burial grounds of the Greek island of Lesbos to capacity, the island’s mayor said, adding that over 50 bodies remain unburied. The island’s morgues, cemeteries and emergency services have been overwhelmed with a record number of bodies of migrants who died trying to cross the Mediterranean in October. According to the latest UN data, over 218,000 people arrived in the EU during the month, beating the total annual number for the whole of 2014. Some 744,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe in 2015 alone, of which at least 3,300 died while making the journey. Mayor Spyros Gallons told the Greek media that, while five funerals were held this weekend, 55 bodies remain at the morgue and the island is having a hard time finding burial ground for them. “Yesterday we held five funerals, but there are still 55 bodies at the morgue,” NBC News quoted Galinos as saying. “Who could have anticipated such a carnage in the Aegean?” Lesbos, with a population of 86,000, lies in the Aegean Sea near Turkey’s cost. It has served as one of the main destinations for refugees and other migrants trying to escape violence and poverty in Syria and other conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa. On Monday, the tragic situation was exacerbated, as 11 refugees, most of them children, drowned in the Aegean Sea while trying to reach Lesbos. Moreover, on Sunday another 15 people, including six children, died in the Aegean after their boat capsized off the Greek island of Samos. Galinos told the media that authorities are working on fast-tracking procedures for creating new burial ground next to the main cemetery. The situation on the island has also prompted ambulance workers to protest state budget cuts that have downsized the number of emergency vehicles to only three, despite the increasing number of refugees. Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras has criticized the ineffectiveness of EU policies for dealing with the refugee crisis. “These are hypocritical, crocodile tears which are being shed for the dead children on the shores of the Aegean,” Tsipras told the Greek parliament last week. “Dead children always incite sorrow, but what about the children that are alive who come in thousands and are stacked on the streets? Nobody likes them.” Source      |
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Posted: 04 Nov 2015 02:23 AM PST
 Russian President Vladimir Putin says global warming is being used as an economic weapon against his country. He characterized climate change as a “fraud” used to prevent Russia from tapping its vast oil and natural gas reserves. Greenpeace claims 85 percent of CO2 equivalent emissions in Russia come from its energy industry. According to a political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky, Putin believes “there is no global warming, that this is a fraud to restrain the industrial development of several countries, including Russia.” “We found that, while climate change does exist, it is cyclical, and the anthropogenic role is very limited,” Andrey Illarionov, Putin’s senior economic adviser in the early 2000s, told The New York Times. “It became clear that the climate is a complicated system and that, so far, the evidence presented for the need to ‘fight’ global warming was rather unfounded.” In September Putin’s top adviser on global warming dismissed criticism of Russia by Climate Action Tracker, a group of climate research groups linked to the United Nations and the World Wildlife Fund, a Rockefeller funded NGO. The group said Russia has a worse record of carbon emissions than China, the United States and the European Union. Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund have complained Russia does not consult them on its climate policies. “It is their opinion, it does not reflect anything and is not objective,” said Alexander Bedritsky. Bedritsky made the remark on the sidelines of a Moscow meeting of the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change. “They can say whatever they want, but our commitments are based on around 70 scenarios of how the climate system will be developing.” Source     |
