TURKEY SHOOTS DOWN RUSSIAN JET
Two Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane this morning near the Syrian border after the Turkish military repeated warnings about airspace violations. This is the first time the armed forces of a NATO member shot down a Russian or Soviet aircraft since the 1950s, Reuters reports. The Turkish military claimed the jet had been warned 10 times in five minutes about the violation. Officials also said a second plane approached the border and had been warned. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed a Su-24 fighter-bomber was shot down on the Turkey-Syria border, Sputnik reports, but it contested the air violation claim, saying it could prove the aircraft had not left Syrian airspace. A Kremlin spokesperson said it was a “very serious incident” but that it was too early to draw conclusions. A video shows the jet going down in flames. The two pilots reportedly ejected before the crash. The Turkish military intercepted Russian jets in its airspace last month.
PARIS FLIGHT BOOKINGS DROP 27%
The number of flights booked for Paris between Nov. 14 and 21, the week after the terror attacks that shook the French capital, plummeted 27% compared to the same week last year, Les Echos reports. The number primarily represents tourist bookings, as business reservations remain about the same.
BRUSSELS REMAINS LOCKED DOWN
Photo: Eric Lalmand/Belga/ZUMA
Belgian authorities announced last night that Brussels would remain under high alert today for the fourth consecutive day and at least until the end of the week, Le Soir reports. The aim is to prevent a terrorist attack similar to the one that left at least 130 dead in Paris on Nov. 13. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said schools, transportation and markets would remain closed today but would gradually reopen starting tomorrow.
- Of the 21 people Belgian police have taken in for questioning since Sunday, 17 have been released, three remain in custody for further questioning and one has been charged for terror-related activities.
- Police still haven’t found Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the Paris terror attacks.
- A belt of explosives was found yesterday in a garbage bin in Montrouge, a Paris suburb where Abdeslam’s cell phone was traced after the attacks, Le Parisien reports. The belt reportedly contains the same material as those used by seven suicide bombers in the French capital on Nov. 13.
- French police conducted a search in Artigat, a village in southern France that is home to 69-year-old salafist imam Olivier Corel, known as the “white emir.” He is close to jihadist Fabien Clain, who claimed the Nov. 13 attacks in the name of ISIS.
HOLLANDE VISITS OBAMA IN D.C.
After receiving British Prime Minister David Cameron in Paris yesterday, French President François Hollande will meet U.S. counterpart Barack Obama this morning in Washington to discuss a coalition against ISIS. According to Le Monde, Hollande hopes Washington will strengthen its airstrikes against the terror organization in Syria and Iraq, increase its support to anti-Assad and non-ISIS groups and heighten monitoring of the financial resources fueling the jihadist groups. Hollande will also meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Thursday.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
Argentina’s next president, the center-right Mauricio Macri, must be deft in reforming the economy of a society that has moved beyond a developmental stage to one that sees itself as “at risk,” Dante Caputo writes for Clarin. “This defensive agenda includes two particularly relevant issues: Firstly, the new president must stop the economic deterioration bequeathed by President Cristina Kirchner, reduce the spending deficit and inflation rate, ease domestic and external trade, and recreate conditions in which the market will work reasonably well. Secondly, the need to order the economy must consider a chief aspect of the risk society: the fear of ungovernability, which carries more weight in our country than any specific values or ideologies.”
Read the full article, Macri’s Challenge: How To Lift A Defensive, Fearful Argentina.
NORTH SINAI BLAST KILLS 4 POLICE
At least four Egyptian police officers were killed and 12 people were injured when a car bomb exploded today outside a hotel in al-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai, Al Arabiya reports. The attack targeted a hotel hosting election judges charged with supervising a second round of parliamentary elections in Egypt. No group has claimed the attack, but an ISIS affiliate in Egypt has carried similar violence in the region.
$5 MILLION
For the first time ever, U.S. law enforcement seized more property from American citizens than burglars did in 2014: $5 million worth versus $3.5 million worth, according to the blog Armstrong Economics.
BRAZIL MUDSLIDE REACHES OCEAN
Brazil is facing its greatest ecological disaster in memory after a huge wave of mud, caused by the Nov. 5 collapse of a dam at an iron ore mine, reached the ocean, pouring toxic waste into the Atlantic, Folha de S. Paulo reports. Read more about it on Le Blog.
ON THIS DAY
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Farewell Freddie Mercury, hello Lucy. That and more in today’s shot of history.
WEST BANK CAR ATTACK LEAVES 4 INJURED
Four people, including two Israeli soldiers, were injured in a car attack early today at a West bank junction, The Jerusalem Post reports. The attacker, a 21-year-old Palestinian man, was shot and wounded by border police before receiving treatment at the scene. This is the latest of a series of almost daily anti-Israeli attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Tel Aviv this morning for talks with Israeli and Palestinian authorities about the wave of violence that has killed at least 92 Palestinians and 17 Israelis.
MY GRAND-PÈRE’S WORLD
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#1IN5MUSLIMS
After The Sun‘s controversial front page yesterday in which the British tabloid reported that one in five British Muslims sympathize with ISIS jihadists, people have taken to Twitter to ridicule the claim with the hashtag #1in5Muslims.
