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Hungary Magyarország
Dec. 20, 2015 Hungary’s migrant stance, once denounced, gains some acceptance. Like most members of Hungary’s liberal intellectual elite, Konrád, a distinguished novelist, loathes his country’s stridently illiberal prime minister, Orbán. “He is not a good democrat and I don’t believe he is a good person,” said Mr. Konrad, a veteran of communist-era struggles against dictatorship. All the same, he thinks Mr. Orban, the self-declared scourge of mainstream elites across Europe, was right and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany was wrong about how to respond to the chaotic flood of migrants seeking refuge from war and poverty — perhaps Europe’s most serious crisis since World War II. “It hurts to admit it, but on this point Orbán was right,” Mr. Konrád, 82, said, lamenting that in the absence of a joint European effort to control the flow, Hungary was wise to seal its borders and sound the alarm over the perils of allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants, mostly Muslims, to enter Europe willy-nilly. Officials in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union, acknowledge in private that Mr. Orbán got many things right, but they say that he and his supporters undermined their case with belligerent tirades that variously cast the influx of asylum seekers as a Muslim invasion, a conspiracy by European socialists to import future left-leaning voters and a plot by the Hungarian-born Jewish philanthropist Soros to undermine European nation states. Even as it has moved closer toward his policies, the European Commission, fed up with Mr. Orbán’s mocking of its impotence, announced in early December that it would take Hungary to court over legislation it adopted in September that made it difficult for asylum seekers to appeal speedy rejections of their applications and other alleged violations of European rules. Speaking in Brussels at the end of the summit meeting, Mr. Orbán said that “it has taken us a long time” but that there was now “an absolute consensus among the prime ministers on the issue of protection and control of the external borders. In a recent interview with European newspapers, Tusk, president of the European Council, the body that presides over European Union summit meetings, described Ms. Merkel’s welcoming approach to migrants as “dangerous” and endorsed the view long promoted by Mr. Orbán — that most of the asylum seekers entering Europe were not Syrians fleeing war but economic migrants seeking jobs. Emphasizing the need to secure Europe’s external borders, another longstanding Hungarian demand, he suggested that asylum seekers be detained for up to 18 months to give the authorities time to identify and send back economic migrants. Mr. Szijjártó, the Hungarian foreign minister, dismissed the move as “revenge” for Hungary’s own decision to challenge the quota-based relocation plan at the European Court of Justice. (Source: The New York Times): http://tinyurl.com/nvth2al
2015. XII. 18. A Hóman Bálint Kulturális Alapítvány elállt tervétől, hogy szobrot emel az egykori politikusnak, erről Székesfehérvár polgármesterét levélben tájékoztatták. A város közgyűlése tudomásul vette a döntést, ezért hatályon kívül helyezte júniusi határozatát, ami a kétmillió forintos önkormányzati forrásnak és a szoborállítás támogatásának a visszavonását jelenti. A Fővárosi Törvényszék bűncselekmény hiányában március 6-án mentette fel Hóman néhai kultuszminisztert a háborús bűntett vádja alól és egyúttal hatályon kívül helyezte az 1946-os népbírósági ítéleteket. Hómant 1946-ban a népbíróság életfogytiglanra ítélte, mert álláspontja szerint háborús bűntettet követett el azzal, hogy 1941-ben kormánytagként megszavazta Magyarország Szovjetunió elleni hadba lépését. Hóman börtönben hunyt el 1951-ben. (Forrás: Origo)
Erdély
2015. XII. 20. Domokosról (forrás: NOL): http://tinyurl.com/odrfkbn
Great Britain
17 Dcember 2015 British Government threatened with legal action to stop it exporting weapons to the Saudi Arabian regime. Saudi Arabia has been accused of war crimes in its war in Yemen and ministers admit its army is using British weapons there. Most weapons in the UK are produced by private companies but the Government gives consent and licences all exports and has complete control over which countries can buy from British producers. Those used in Saudi are thought to include flagship Eurofighter Typoon aircraft and Paveway guided missiles. In August the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Saudi Arabian attacks on civilian areas had clearly broken international law. Saudi Arabia is intervening in the Yemeni civil war on the side of the internationally-recognised Government. It says Shia Houthi groups who have taken control of most of the country are not the country's legitimate government. (Source: TheIndependent)
17 December, 2015 Government accused of cover-up as data suggests million EU migrants unaccounted for in Britain. HMRC fails to release data which could show true number of EU migrants coming to Britain because it would be 'unhelpful' to renegotiation. There were accusations that the figures are being suppressed amid fears that releasing the data could lead to Britain leaving the EU. It came as Mr Cameron was left isolated as more than a dozen European leaders spoke out ahead of a crucial Brussels summit to say that they would oppose his plans to strip EU workers of in-work benefits for four years. Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic issued a joint statement ahead of the debate, saying that they "will not support any solutions which would be discriminatory or limit free movement". Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said that while she wants Britain to remain in the European Union there must be no restrictions on "basic freedoms", while Hollande, the French President, warned that the proposals are "not acceptable". The Prime Minister in 2010 pledged that he would get net migration down to the “tens of thousands” by the 2015 election. Official data from the Office of National Statistics shows that around 760,000 EU migrants have settled in the UK in the last four years. A survey of Britain's Labour force suggests a slightly lower figure of around 525,000. A total of almost two million EU migrants have been allocated national insurance numbers in the last four years – far higher than the 760,000 counted into Britain via surveys. (Source: TheTeleraph): http://tinyurl.com/jtsl6ka
14 December 2015 New rules mean all drones which weighs much more than half a pound must register with national database. Drones have been seen as a major menace and have disrupted firefighting efforts, been used to snoop on neighbors and to smuggle drugs into prison (not to mention regularly flying too close to manned aircraft). (Source: TheGuardian): http://tinyurl.com/h2slxo9
Norway
December 14, 2015 Hundreds of “refugees” caught with images of isis flags, severed heads on their phones. Police raise alarm about asylum seekers entering Norway. A recent poll found that an astounding 21 per cent of Syrians support isis. (Source: InfoWars): http://tinyurl.com/p36ytt8
Poland
December 18, 2015 Poland’s new government raided a NATO intel facility in the dark of night. Today officials from the country’s new right-wing government tried to enter NATO-affiliated counter-intelligence offices in Warsaw after midnight, using a copied key and accompanied by military police, in order to replace the head of the office. The move is part of a campaign by the new Law and Justice government to staff official posts with people loyal to the party. NATO has cooled the alarmist atmosphere in Poland, saying that last night’s events were an internal matter, underlining that the center was not “accredited” by NATO. (Source: DefenseOne): http://tinyurl.com/h8kpkay
Romania
December 18, 2015 In Romania, US wraps construction of anti-missile battery. With radar and interceptors in place, the Pentagon intends to be ready to shoot down Iranian missiles next year. The U.S. has all of the pieces in place at its missile-defense complex in Deveselu military base, southern Romania, despite Moscow’s objections and the highest NATO-Russia tensions since the Cold War. The site will be declared operational — able to down a missile — in 2016, after the successful completion of a training exercise. Military testers shot down a target over the Pacific Ocean using a land-based Standard Missile-3 interceptor launched from Kauai, Hawaii. This successful test of the SM-3 Block 1B clears the way for its use in Romania, along with its Aegis guidance radar — the first operational ground-based version of two systems originally designed for shipboard use. “The test’s success keeps the Aegis Ashore program and the SM-3 Block 1B on track for deployment in Romania by the end of this year,” said a statement from Raytheon, which builds the interceptor. When fully active, the Deveselu facility will be operated by more than 200 U.S. sailors and civilians plus Romanian military personnel. Russia has opposed the European missile shield since its inception last decade. The third fase is the deployment of more interceptors to Poland. In April, Gen. Gerasimov, Russia’s top general said Moscow would target NATO’s new missile interceptor bases in Romania and Poland. U.S. officials broke ground at the Romanian missile interceptor complex in October 2013. Deveselu is the first new Navy installation in 20 years, after Naval Station Everett in Washington state. (Source: DefenseOne): http://tinyurl.com/zyrypys
Russia
December 17, 2015 Putin calls Trump 'outstanding, talented'. "He says that he wants a different level of relations, tighter and deeper relations with Russia, how can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it," Putin said. (Source: Yahoo): http://tinyurl.com/o6qhz64
Svájc
2015. XII. 15. Svájci mentőöv Simonnak. A helvét államban az adóelkerülés nem bűncselekmény. Az államszövetség így nem adta át a KNYF-nek azokat az iratokat, amelyek Simon svájci számlájának kivonatait, illetve a nyomozó hatóság által vizsgálni kívánt tranzakciók adatait tartalmazták. A válasz része volt az is, hogy az adatszolgáltatás a gyanúsítottat mentő célból lehetséges, azonban ehhez a terheltnek írásban is hozzá kell járulnia. Ezt a szívességet Simon azonban nem tette meg, így a jogsegélykérelem nem teljesült. Simon 2008 januárjától a következő év áprilisáig több mint 570 ezer eurót és 160 ezer dollárt meghaladó amerikai fizetőeszközt helyezett el a Grazban működő Spängler bankban nyitott számláján, amelyekről ott saját vagyonaként nyilatkozott. Az akkori MSZP-s országgyűlési képviselő 2012 tavaszán a svájci bankban vezetett számlájáról legalább 340 ezer euro-t utalt át a grazi pénzintézetbe, és a nyomozás azt is kiderítette: Simon egy másik osztrák bankban létesített számláin is tekintélyes összeget tartott. A KNYF a jogsegélykérelem keretében beszerzett adatok alapján feltárta, hogy ebben az intézményben a szocialista politikus 2009 tavaszától 2012 januárjáig megközelítőleg 270 ezer euro-t, illetve több mint 9000 dollárt helyezett el. Mint ismert, Simonról 2014. február elején derült ki, hogy több száz milliós vagyont tart egy bécsi bankszámlán, amelyet nem tüntetett fel képviselői vagyonnyilatkozataiban, és az összeg után jövedelemadót sem fizetett. Az egykori honatya a kihallgatások alatt nem tett érdemi vallomást, az eljárás során pedig visszafizetett több mint 128 millió forint adóhátralékot, így könnyen megtörténhet, hogy nem vagy csak rövid időre kerül rács mögé, a bankszámlákon lévő vagyon fennmaradó részével pedig minden további nélkül rendelkezhet majd. (Forrás: MagyarIdők): http://tinyurl.com/oqzvdh4
Syria
11 December 2015 isis release chilling new video showing final battle with 'crusaders'. The video is meant to depict the islamic state's vision for the end of the world. It has titled the video 'Meeting at Dabiq' which refers to the location of a final battle between the 'Crusaders' and the 'Believers'. The video also shows an isis 'armoured unit' advancing towards the Colosseum in reference to the 'armies of Rome'. In the footage the terrorist organisation shows a dead fighter being kissed by his comrades, a Jihadi on horseback trying to look like a honourable soldier and groups of men with the majority too scared to show their faces to the camera. The propaganda video then shows a convoy of cars driving at sunset, before switching to a man raising the black and white flag of isis. It then moves on to show the isis flag over Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Iraq before parading the flags of the countries it has decided, isis is at war with. The British flag is one of 60 on the screen. Last week, the terror group also released a new video threatening terror attacks in major cities across the world. (Source: Mirror): http://tinyurl.com/o6a3ky5
Törökország
2015. XII. 17. Netanjahu miniszterelnök küldöttei december 16-án Zürichben találkoztak a török külügyminiszter helyettesével, és megegyeztek a kapcsolatok normalizálásának elveiről. Izrael ezek szerint húszmillió dolláros kártérítést fizet a Mavi Marmara hajón 2010 májusában megsebesült vagy megölt török civileknek és hozzátartozóiknak egy rendkívüli alapítvány közvetítésével, Törökország pedig lemond az akcióban közreműködő izraeli tisztek elleni perekről. Ankara felszámolja területén a palesztin szélsőséges Hamász katonai szárnyának tevékenységét, kiutasítja a Hamász katonai szárnyának vezetőjét, Arúrit, aki Isztambuli székhelyéről irányítja a szervezet ciszjordániai működését. Ankara emellett korlátozza Törökországban a Hamász politikai tevékenységét is. Izrael és Törökország a megállapodás alapján rendezi diplomáciai kapcsolatait egymással, a nagykövetek visszatérnek Ankarába és Tel-Avivba. Az egyezmény végleges aláírása után a két ország megvizsgálja a török földgázvásárlás lehetőségét Izraeltől, s egy gázvezeték lefektetését, melyen át az izraeli földgázt Törökország érintésével Európába lehetne exportálni. (Forrás: ATV): http://tinyurl.com/jhearxe
Tunisia
17 Dec 2015 17 December 2010 Tunisia: Vegetable seller sets himself ablaze - 20 October 2011 Libya: Col. Gaddafi killed in Sirte (cronology). (Source: The Telegraph): http://tinyurl.com/jyql5bz
United States
December 18, 2015 Feds can't say whereabouts of those whose visas were revoked over terror threat. The Obama administration cannot be sure of the whereabouts of thousands of foreigners in the U.S. who had their visas revoked over terror concerns and other reasons. The U.S. has revoked more than 122,000 visas since 2001, including 9,500 because of the threat of terrorism. At issue is how closely the U.S. government examines the background of people seeking entry to the country, including reviews of their social media postings. Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told committee members that such checks aren't being done in an abundant manner, and he was not specific about when or how it would occur. Both DHS and the State Department are reviewing the process for vetting visa applications, including the K-1 program, and have been directed by the White House to create specific recommendations for improvements. DHS is specifically reviewing policies on when authorities at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can look at social media posts as part of the process for evaluating applications for certain visas. Lawmakers have also pressed for changes to the Visa Waiver Program, which allows many citizens from 38 countries to travel to the United States without being subjected to the in-person interview required to receive a visa. Many fear that foreign fighters who carry western passports will be able to exploit that system to travel freely to the United States. (Source: FoxNews)
December 17, 2015 America first - or World War III. A U.S. Marine Corps aviator describes the S-300: “A complete game changer for all fourth-gen aircraft [like the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18]. That thing is a beast and you don’t want to get near it.” Midway through the debate, Trump cut loose with a sweeping indictment of mindless American interventionism in the Middle East: “We’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that, frankly, if they were there and if we could have spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems – our airports and all the other problems we have – we would have been a lot better off. … “We have done a tremendous disservice not only to the Middle East – we’ve done a tremendous disservice to humanity. The people that have been killed, the people that have been wiped away – and for what? It’s not like we had victory. It’s a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized, a total and complete mess. I wish we had the 4 trillion dollars or 5 trillion dollars. I wish it were spent right here in the United States on schools, hospitals, roads, airports and everything else that are all falling apart!” If we do not want Syria in 2016 to become what Sarajevo became in 1914, the powder keg that explodes into a world war, the War Party Republicans, who have learned nothing from the past, should be relegated to the past. (Source: WND): http://tinyurl.com/hz6626e
December 16, 2015 As lawmakers clash over refugees, Syrian immigration quietly tops 100,000 since 2012. Numbers obtained from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection show 60,010 Syrian visa holders have entered the U.S. since 2012, including 16,245 this year through August. Additional numbers provided by a Congressional source showed another 42,303 Syrians were granted citizenship or green cards during the same period. The Syrians being admitted are coming directly from their homeland, usually through the U.S. visa program. (Source: FoxNews): http://tinyurl.com/qxb3cqn
December 16, 2015 Earthquake-proof beds might be the scariest part of a natural disaster (Source: Gizmodo): http://tinyurl.com/ofppo8c
December 14, 2015 The Pentagon is nervous about Russian and Chinese Killer Robots - in Russia’s case, ones capable of independently carrying out military operations. What does an adversary robot military look like? Perhaps like some future version of the Armata T-14 from Russian defense contractor Uralvagonzavod. Or tomorrow’s robot enemy army could look like one of these armed ground robots from China’s Harbin Institute of Technology, unveiled at the Beijing 2015 World Robot Conference. The robots can wield anti-tank weapons, grenade launchers, or assault rifles. DARPA expressed concerns about endowing ground robots with the autonomous, lethal capabilities. Pratt said that humans would be better than machines, for some years to come, at deciding whether to fire a weapon. “The chance of making a military situation much worse by having a machine autonomously make a mistake outweighs the benefit” - he said. (Source: DefenseOne): http://tinyurl.com/hrq2sfz
5 12 14 Musk and other tech giants pledge $1 billion to stop humanity being taken over by evil robots. Mr Musk has repeatedly warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence, calling them the biggest threat to humanity. A range of other famous scientists and technologists have warned about the same, including Hawking. (Source: TheIndependent): http://tinyurl.com/j8t8gh4
Globalization
December 18, 2015 The global conflicts to watch in 2016. Among the scenarios in this high-priority tier of conflict are a mass-casualty attack on the U.S. homeland; a major cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure; a crisis with or in North Korea over, say, nuclear-weapons testing or political tumult in Pyongyang; increased fighting between Kurdish groups and Turkish forces, aggravated by the Syrian Civil War; a deterioration in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; political disarray in Libya and Egypt; and Iraq splintering further as a result of isis advances and Sunni-Shiite violence. Another worry appeared for the first time in the survey: “political instability in EU countries stemming from the influx of refugees and migrants, with heightened civil unrest, isolated terrorist attacks, or violence against refugees and migrants.” And this judgment was made before isis’s November attacks in Paris; the survey concluded the day of the rampage. This fear isn’t solely about the influx of asylum-seekers from Syria and other countries, or Europe’s ongoing economic struggles. There’s this sort of unease among American experts about the whole European project, the integrity of the European Union, and its viability as a U.S. partner. Two contingencies were downgraded from high to medium priorities between this year’s survey and last year’s, even though hostilities in each case are still pronounced: an armed confrontation between China and its neighbors over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and an escalation in fighting between Russian-backed militias and Ukrainian security forces in eastern Ukraine. The third tier includes three contingencies that haven’t featured in the survey before: political instability in both Saudi Arabia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the growth of Islamist militancy in Russia and particularly the North Caucasus region, spurred in part by Putin’s military operations in Syria and the threat of Russian isis fighters returning home. (Source: DefenseOne)
December 17, 2015 Secret hashtags help teens share dangerous habits. Moreno, a specialist in adolescent medicine at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Research Institute and colleagues used the search term #selfharmmm to identify public posts on the social media platform Instagram, a photo-sharing service popular with teens, that related to destructive habits like cutting and burning. Then, they used the search results to identify a list of ambiguous hashtags such as #blithe, #MySecretFamily and #SecretSociety123 that were tied to the same dangerous behaviors. Other hashtags related to mental health conditions through use of common names, such as #Deb for depression, #Annie for anxiety, and #Olive for obsessive-compulsive disorder. The number of search results for self-harm hashtags was high and grew over time. The broad term #cat, which refers to cutting, had more than 44 million search results in 2014 and more than 56 million in 2015, the study team reports in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Over that same period, use of #selfharmmm also grew, generating 1.7 million search results in 2014 and more than 2.4 million in 2015. In its various permutations, #SecretSociety123 grew by approximately 500,000 search results. researchers analyzed videos posted on YouTube that promoted eating disorders using terms like “pro-ana” as well as posts opposed to the dangerous behavior with terms like “anti pro-ana.” While pro-ana videos were more popular, garnering 4.8 million views compared to just 1.4 million views for clips opposed to this behavior, the opposition content drew more comments overall and more positive feedback, the study found. This suggests that posting content advocating against dangerous behavior might help combat social media content promoting unhealthy choices. (Source: Yahoo): http://tinyurl.com/pmfr3re
13 December 2015 Sex, love and robots: is this the end of intimacy? (Source: The Guardian): http://tinyurl.com/jfzxo2n
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