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NATO/Russia Tensions, Neutrinobel, Goat's Blood

NATO/Russia Tensions, Neutrinobel, Goat's Blood

NATO WARNS RUSSIA ON INCURSIONS IN TURKISH AIRSPACE

Nato has strongly condemned Russian violations of Turkey's airspace, after Ankara reported two incursions in two days. The rising tensions between Moscow and the West come as Russia has launched air raids in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

  • The NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Russia's incursions into the Turkish airspace do "not look like an accident," adding that Moscow had not provided "any real explanation" for the incidents. He called on Russian authorities to avoid further escalation with NATO.
  • The 28 NATO members, including Turkey, delivered a statement Monday night warning of the extreme danger of such irresponsible behavior" and urged Russia "to cease and desist."
  • Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet DavutoÄŸlu warned that his country's military will react if Russia crosses the border again, Hürriyet reports.
  • The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Turkey would have been within its rights to shoot the jets down, the AFP reports.
  • Turkey says a Russian warplane operating in Syria briefly entered its airspace Sunday, after a first violation was reported Saturday, near Yayladagi, in the southern Hatay region. Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov both times, the BBC reports.
  • Moscow said the first incursion was a "navigation error" due to bad weather, the news agency TASS quoted the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying. He also warned against attempts to find some conspiracy motives behind the incident.

ISRAEL RAZES HOMES OF PALESTINIAN MILITANTS

Israel's government has followed through on threats to destroy the homes of Palestinians responsible for terror attack. At least two residences in East Jerusalem were razed on Tuesday in the midst of rising violence, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reports.


YEMEN PM HOTEL STRUCK BY ROCKET

A rocket has struck a hotel being used as headquarters by the deposed government of Yemen. Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, who was in the hotel at the time, was not hurt in Tuesday morning's attack in the city of Aden, even as casualties continue to climb in the Saudi-led coalition attacks on Yemen. Read more from Al Jazeera.


ON THIS DAY


The first "talkie" turns 88 today! This and more in your 57-second shot of history.


NEUTRINOBEL

This year's recipients of the Nobel Prize in physics are Takaaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo and Arthur B. McDonald of Queen's University for their discovery of neutrino oscillations, which show that neutrinos — a kind of subatomic particle — have mass.


AFGHAN FORCES CALLED IN KUNDUZ HOSPITAL AIRSTRIKE

Afghan forces had asked for U.S. air support while fighting the Taliban in Kunduz shortly before an airstrike killed 22 people in an Afghan hospital run by aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Saturday, the American commander of international forces in Afghanistan John Campbell said Monday, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, MSF has reiterated a call for an independent investigation into the incident.


EXTRA!

Angry workers and union members stormed Air France's headquarters at Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, to protest some 2,900 proposed layoffs — nearly lynching two company executives on Monday. See how French daily Le Parisien featured the violence on its front page here.


25 MILLION

Photo: Andrew Patron/ZUMA

One-fifth of the Japanese population — 25 million people — watched their national rugby team beat Samoa in the World Cup on Saturday, making it the biggest national viewing audience in the sport's history, Japan Today reports. This victory means the "Brave Blossoms" still have a chance of reaching the quarterfinals. Japan will host the rugby World Cup in 2019.


WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO

German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung sees the massive Volkswagen emission scandal as part of the broader battle over the future of the automobile, which now includes some of the major technology companies from Silicon Valley. "So as Tesla, Apple and Google push with all their might on to the global automobile market, the longtime colossus of the German car industry has never looked so old. The coincidence of these events, from California to Wolfsburg, might sound the bell for a whole new era."

Read the full article, How Volkswagen Scandal Could Change Global Auto Industry Forever.


MY GRAND-PÈRE'S WORLD



VERBATIM

"Yes, I drank the goat's blood." Augustus Sol Invictus, a Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida has fessed up, after criticism for once allegedly "sacrificing" a goat and drinking its blood as part of a pagan ritual, the Orlando Sentinel reports. "I did sacrifice a goat. I know that's probably a quibble in the mind of most Americans," he said. "I sacrificed an animal to the god of the wilderness." The 32-year-old candidate, who changed his name to a Latin phrase meaning "majestic unconquered sun," has been accused of trying to recruit white supremacists in to the Libertarian Party. Adrian Wyllie, the state party's chairman, has resigned to draw attention to Invictus' candidacy.

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Economy

Lex Tusk? How Poland’s Controversial "Russian Influence" Law Will Subvert Democracy

The new “lex Tusk” includes language about companies and their management. But is this likely to be a fair investigation into breaking sanctions on Russia, or a political witch-hunt in the business sphere?

Photo of President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda

Piotr Miaczynski, Leszek Kostrzewski

-Analysis-

WARSAW — Poland’s new Commission for investigating Russian influence, which President Andrzej Duda signed into law on Monday, will be able to summon representatives of any company for inquiry. It has sparked a major controversy in Polish politics, as political opponents of the government warn that the Commission has been given near absolute power to investigate and punish any citizen, business or organization.

And opposition politicians are expected to be high on the list of would-be suspects, starting with Donald Tusk, who is challenging the ruling PiS government to return to the presidency next fall. For that reason, it has been sardonically dubbed: Lex Tusk.

University of Warsaw law professor Michal Romanowski notes that the interests of any firm can be considered favorable to Russia. “These are instruments which the likes of Putin and Orban would not be ashamed of," Romanowski said.

The law on the Commission for examining Russian influences has "atomic" prerogatives sewn into it. Nine members of the Commission with the rank of secretary of state will be able to summon virtually anyone, with the powers of severe punishment.

Under the new law, these Commissioners will become arbiters of nearly absolute power, and will be able to use the resources of nearly any organ of the state, including the secret services, in order to demand access to every available document. They will be able to prosecute people for acts which were not prohibited at the time they were committed.

Their prerogatives are broader than that of the President or the Prime Minister, wider than those of any court. And there is virtually no oversight over their actions.

Nobody can feel safe. This includes companies, their management, lawyers, journalists, and trade unionists.

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