This only adds to the ingredients that are turning our teens into anti-social addicts.

14 February 2023
By Amy Orben and Sarah Jane Blakemore

Depression, anxiety and suicidality (click here) have all sharply increased in adolescents over the past decade1. So, too, has the amount of time that young people spend online (see ‘Troubling trends’). Partly because of fears that there’s a link between these trends, governments around the world are under pressure to do more to regulate technology companies.

In the United Kingdom, the Online Safety Bill, currently being debated by Parliament, seeks to protect children from harmful content online. Last year, the European Union approved the Digital Services Act — which, among other things, has introduced tougher mandates requiring companies to remove illegal content from their websites. And in 2021, the US surgeon-general called for social-media companies to prioritize adolescent health and well-being at “all stages of product development”.

A difficulty facing policymakers, however, is that most of the scientific evidence on the impact of social media and other online activities on adolescent mental health is inconsistent. Some studies might report similar effects, such as small negative correlations between time spent on social media and measures of well-being, but researchers differ in how important they think such findings are.

There might be many reasons why psychologists, psychiatrists, computational scientists and others have failed to obtain a clearer picture of what is going on2. Many have called for more detailed, objective assessments of what activities users engage in during their time online — an issue being addressed in part by smartphone apps that track the amount of time people spend on certain platforms4. Others say that what makes any one person vulnerable to the negative impacts of social media needs to be better understood....

Ron DeSantis is a revivalist.

The Republicans have for a very long time sought to end any government program that benefited minorities.

I remember when President Obama was elected that was the Republican talking point, in that, the African Americans were equal with that election. In fact, that was simply another chapter. Each movement to equality of civil rights has garnered more and more freedom, quality of life and the end of racism. But, the struggle is hardly over.

While the election of President Barak Hussein Obama was a major page turner, it was not the end of the story to equality. It was a focus. I believe it was the Late Senator Harry Reid that stated as a candidate Obama was a light skinned black and he might actually have a chance to win. That was a racist statement by a man who was the leader of the Democratic Senators for some time. President  Obama was the new reality. He was a focus. He had effect on the African American community and it was a good movement forward, but, it wasn't complete.

It seems ludicrous to me to write about DeSantis in the same entry as Obama, but, Ron DeSantis is the anti-Obama. How many times was the Affordable Care attacked as it was called Obamacare. The estrangement of Obamacare from the Affordable Care Act occurred. Some Americans would never purchase Obamacare, but, thought the Affordable Care Act was a good idea. The Republicans harassed Americans into believing those laws were different, when in fact it was the same law.

Ron DeSantis, no different than the Republican Right Wing is a throw back to other times in the USA when there were laws that did horrible things like making sure there was no anti-Klan movements or legislation. At the time when these horrible laws existed the Klan was burning crosses and hanging black people. But, they were a voting constituency.

The Republican Party is an anti-American party with the election and leadership of Trump. There has never been a more dangerous president for his anti-American sentiment that still exists today.

But, as to the DeSantis' throw back to the "good ole days" when racism felt like a well fitting ready for church service suit, he is just a fading enigma that is racism. He will have his day in the sun, but, inevitably he will disappear into the horizon of wrongful men that sought glory as an anti-American mired in judgement, ridicule and hate.

February 14, 2023
By Iram X. Kendi

As African American studies faces resistance, (click here) a conversation about the continued relevance of Carter G. Woodson’s 1933 book, The Mis-education of the Negro

In 1925, teachers at the Negro Manual and Training High School of Muskogee, Oklahoma, made what they thought was an appropriate choice of textbook: The Negro in Our History, by the Harvard-trained Black historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson had written this "history of the United States as it has been influenced by the presence of the Negro" to supply the "need of schools long since desiring such a work," as he wrote in the book's preface. Upon learning of this textbook choice, White segregationists on the school board sprang immediately into action. They decreed that no book could be “instilled in the schools that is either klan or antiklan,” insinuating that Woodson’s Black history textbook was “antiklan."

The school board banned the book. It confiscated all copies. It punished the teachers. It forced the resignation of the school’s principal. “It’s striking how similar that feels and sounds to the contemporary moment,” the Harvard education historian Jarvis R. Givens told me.

A century ago, white segregationists were banning anti-racist books and “Negro studies” as well as punishing and threatening anti-racist educators all over Jim Crow America.

In response to these incidents, Woodson embarked on a new initiative to support educators and promote Negro history. In 1926, he founded Negro History Week, which officially became Black History Month 50 years later. And Woodson’s most important scholarly contribution, his 1933 book, The Mis-education of the Negro, highlighted the importance of teaching Black history....

This is the society we have given our children. Proud of it?

World Psychiatry. 2005 Jun; 4(2): 114–120.

Global suicide rates (click here) among adolescents in the 15-19 age group, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) Mortality Database, were examined. Data for this age group were available from 90 countries (in some cases areas) out of the 130 WHO member states. The mean suicide rate for this age group, based on data available for the latest year, was 7.4/100,000. Suicide rates were higher in males (10.5) than in females (4.1). This applies in almost all countries. The exceptions are China, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador and Sri Lanka, where the female suicide rate was higher than the male. In the 90 countries (areas) studied, suicide was the fourth leading cause of death among young males and the third for young females. Of the 132,423 deaths of young people in the 90 countries, suicide accounted for 9.1%. The trend of suicide rates from 26 countries (areas) with data available during the period 1965-1999 was also studied. A rising trend of suicide in young males was observed. This was particularly marked in the years before 1980 and in countries outside Europe. The WHO database is the largest of its kind and, indeed, the only information source that can currently be used for analysis of global mortality due to suicide. Methodological limitations are discussed....

March 15, 2022

By Sandy Cohen

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people age 15 to 24 in the U.S. (click here) Nearly 20% of high school students report serious thoughts of suicide and 9% have made an attempt to take their lives, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Recent weeks have brought heartbreaking examples of this trend, including the March 1 death of Stanford soccer captain Katie Meyer, 22; and Ohio State football player Harry Miller’s revelations that he attempted suicide, shared his struggles with his coach and got help. Miller announced his medical retirement from football on March 10 in a Twitter post that’s been shared more than 10,000 times.

“This is not an issue reserved for the far and away,” wrote Miller. “It is in our homes. It is in our conversations. It is in the people we love.”...

February 13, 2023

By Donna St. George

Teen girls across the United States (click here) are “engulfed in a growing wave of violence and trauma,” according to federal researchers who released data Monday showing increases in rape and sexual violence, as well as record levels of feeling sad or hopeless.

Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls reported in 2021 that they seriously considered suicide — up nearly 60 percent from a decade ago — according to new findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 15 percent of teen girls said they were forced to have sex, an increase of 27 percent over two years and the first increase since the CDC began tracking it.

“If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we’ve ever seen,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health who said the rise of sexual violence almost certainly contributed to the glaring spike of depressive symptoms. “We are really alarmed,” she said....

"Focus Area: Experiencing Violence" begins on page 42 (click here)

This is not about competition or the pressure teens are under to succeed. This is about the level of violence teen girls are EXPOSED to as a part of their quality of life.

Violence is a leading cause of death and nonfatal injuries among adolescents in the United States. Violence places the lives of adolescents at risk, and experiencing violence may be associated with mental health problems, diminished academic success, sexual risk behavior, and substance use.

The YRBS includes several measures of experiences of violence, including feeling unsafe at school, bullying, forced sex, and sexual violence by anyone. Two questions assessed experiences and perceptions of school safety, including being threatened or injured with a weapon at school during the past year and missing school because of safety concerns during the past 30 days. Two questions assessed bullying during the past year, including bullying at school and electronic bullying. Two questions assessed experiences of sexual violence, including whether students had ever been physically forced to have sex or forced by anyone to do sexual things....

...In 2021, 7% of high school students were threatened or injured with a weapon, such as a gun, knife, or club, on school property during the past year. Asian students were less likely than students from most other racial and ethnic groups to be threatened or injured with a weapon at school. LGBQ+ students and students who had any same-sex partners were more likely than their peers to be threatened or injured with a weapon at school....

In this beating in New Jersey, the girls knew each other and the harassment was chronic. This is a lack of a value system that includes TOLERANCE of difference. There is no compassion or respect of "the other." There is just judgement, ridicule and hate. Judgement, ridicule and hate. Those are about the lowest common denominator in any society. Every American parent needs to ask themselves how we got here, because, something has to be done to rescue our youth from adulthood that will continue to be violent and full of hate for others; if they survive their teenage years.

Putin has no respect for life, not even his own people.

Putin's head of intelligence is afraid of being assassinated, as well as his family, and finds it difficult to be completely frank with the genocidal maniac.

February 12, 2023

By Julia Mueller

Russia is likely suffering its highest casualty rate (click here) since the first week of war in Ukraine, according to a new intelligence update from the British Defense Ministry.

The average Russia casualties for the last week of warfare was 824 casualties each day, a figure U.K. Defense determined from daily statistics shared by Ukraine’s General Staff — a figure four times higher than what was reported between June and July of last year.

“The uptick in Russian casualties is likely due to a range of factors including lack of trained personnel, coordination, and resources across the front,” U.K. Defence concluded.

Russia suffered a daily average of as many as 1,140 casualties in February of last year, but that number starkly fell in the following months to less than 200 on average in mid-2022, according to a chart from the intelligence update.

Ukraine last week reported that more than 1,000 Russian soldiers were killed in a single day of fighting, raising the total throughout the war to more than 133,000.

Russia’s war on Ukraine will hit its first anniversary on Feb. 24, and Moscow appears to be amassing troops in preparation for an offensive to coincide with the one-year mark....

February 11, 2023

By Susie Blann

Kyiv - The owner of the Russian Wagner Group private military contractor (click here) actively involved in the fighting in Ukraine has predicted that the war could drag on for years.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview released late Friday that it could take 18 months to two years for Russia to fully secure control of Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. He added that the war could go on for three years if Moscow decides to capture broader territories east of the Dnieper River.

The statement from Prigozhin, a millionaire who has close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was dubbed “Putin’s chef” for his lucrative Kremlin catering contracts, marked a recognition of the difficulties that the Kremlin has faced in the campaign, which it initially expected to wrap up within weeks when Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24....

Ron DeSantis is a Nazi.

Gov. DeSantis (click here)Making Florida a Place of Intolerance (OPINION)

26, 2022
By Kat Bouza

Sen. Rick Scott (click here) was the only featured speaker at Turning Point USA's conference who openly condemned the display of swastikas and other Nazi imagery by a group of pro-DeSantis protestors...

February 12, 2023

by Ian Shapira

The College Board lashed out late Saturday against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) (click here) and his state’s Education Department, saying that their disparagement of the nonprofit’s new Advanced Placement African American Studies course amounted to “slander.”

The organization’s heated remarks come after a statement last month from the Florida Department of Education’s spokeswoman, who said the AP class — now under a pilot program at about 60 public high schools nationwide — “lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law,” and even implied that the class contained falsehoods. “If the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the Department will reopen the discussion,” said the spokeswoman, Cassie Palelis.

On Saturday, the College Board issued a response, saying it was time “to clear the air and set the record straight.” The group, which oversees the AP program and the SAT, said it regretted “not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander” and that its failure to speak up, “betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.”...

The Chinese did this for a reason. It wasn't a benign interest. We have a right to defend our country.

President Biden and the USA military did the right thing. Passivity of such insults to our national security is not the direction to take. If this has been going on for some time, the question is why? A blind spot is one thing, but, any deliberate order to look the other way to keep the peace is something entirely different.

Why would China use a spy balloon when it has satellites? (click here)

China is Russia's ally. What else is there to know?

February 12, 2023

By Allison Pecorin

The downing of a third high-altitude object (click here) -- this one over Canada, on Saturday -- only increases the urgency for Congress to get to the bottom of what appears to be a previously unknown surveillance program by the Chinese, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

In an exclusive interview, Schumer told ABC "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos that "the bottom line is, until a few months ago, we didn't know of these balloons."

The suspected Chinese reconnaissance program also existed during the Trump administration but was only recently discovered by the U.S. intelligence and military communities, according to Schumer.

"It's wild we didn't know, isn't it?" Stephanopoulos said.

"It is wild that we didn't know, absolutely," Schumer said, adding, "Now they are learning a lot more."...

Twitter

Daryl G Kimball (click here)

@DarylGKimball

Octagonal, eh? The Chinese have a long history flying octagonal objects with a low radar profile. These objects have also been sighted over Bermuda.

Kelly O'Donnell

@KellyO

·

3h

Officials say this time the airborne object was at 20k feet and octagonal in shape. Radar detected something over Montana and Wisconsin and Michigan. Unknown if it had surveillance capability. Pres Biden ordered this 4th object shot down.

China is monitoring the world because it believes he has a right to do so considering they have port cranes in every country on Earth. China does not have a right to monitor the world. It is a blatant disregard of a country's sovereignty.

February 12, 2023

'Octagonal' object shot down by military aircraft over Lake Huron, US officials confirm (click here)

Another high-altitude object was shot down Sunday, this time over Lake Huron, three U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News. According to one of the officials, the object was shot down by a U.S. military aircraft.

This is a developing story and will be updated

At 2:45 p.m., a U.S. Air Force F-16 fired a sidewinder missile at the objects, the Pentagon said in a statement Sunday.

"Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation. The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery. There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected," North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement.

A senior administration official told ABC News that President Biden directed Sunday's object be shot down "out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of military leaders."...

This is exactly what I have been writing about, racism in the emergency manager asset sale.

Flint, Michigan (click here) is the most important city in the history of the Middle Class that ever existed. It is a great city with a great heritage that every American should treasure.

A city or town has value. It comes in many forms. The value of the land, the assets of the city, the investments in community interests like education. When Snyder sent Emergency Managers into Michigan cities they simply saw the balance sheet and not the long term goal of a better future for the city and it's people. The assets were viciously taken from the ownership of the cities and sold to pay off debts. Following the Emergency Managers there was far less value to the city.

There is no favorable bond rating for Flint, Michigan. There is nothing to assure anyone purchasing municipal bonds that Flint would be able to provide a reasonable return on investment.

Hurley Medical Center is probably the largest public corporation near Flint and it only carries a "BBB" rating (click here).

There were simply no long term plan for Flint. All the sales were punitive and without investment that would improve the value of Flint and it's future.

February 3, 2023
By Ron Fonger

Flint - A new study shows (click here) the value of Flint’s housing stock dropped following the city’s water crisis and says the stigma of the man-made disaster persisted with “no evidence of recovery.”

The study, “Economic Effects of Environmental Crises: Evidence from Flint, Michigan,” was published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. It compared Flint’s housing prices to other distressed cities that were once industrial centers with declining incomes and populations since the 1970s as well as other Michigan cities that were also run by state-appointed emergency managers....

Sure, Wall Street loves fire sales, but, it left Flint empty of value. It is called corruption. The year long corruption cover up only to be exposed by media and explained away while children were brain damaged, women experienced miscarriages and people died.

June 2022

Flint’s financial challenges (click here) are long-term and structural. Flint is a city built for 200,000 mostly middleclass auto workers, but the decline of the auto industry and white flight have left Flint with a population just over 80,000, significantly poorer and blacker than the rest of the state, to pay the bills. Running a city that is over half empty is unsustainable without structural changes.

 
State-appointed receivers made temporary improvements to balance budgets and improve short-term liquidity, but failed or were simply unable to address the structural causes of Flint’s fiscal distress. The focus of Michigan’s takeover policy has been eliminating deficits, which has been primarily achieved through spending cuts. Other than cutting retiree benefits, policies imposed under receivership largely failed to have any measurable effect on Flint’s long-term solvency. In fact, it is likely that some problems like deferred infrastructure maintenance, which does not show up on basic financial statements, worsened as a result of budget cuts.

 
Absent state-level policy changes, particularly around revenue sharing, Flint will likely continue to struggle. Over the past several decades, Flint’s tax base has been hollowed out, as most of its wealth fled to surrounding suburbs, while its debt remained in place. But as a result of restrictive state policies, the City has very little autonomy to adjust its tax policies and is dependent on an underfunded State revenue sharing program. While the State could use the statutory portion of its revenue sharing program to recognize and remedy historical inequities, the program is chronically underfunded....

The people of Flint focused on clean, safe drinking water. Ironically, they have suffered a near week of having to boil water because of a water main break recently. But, the people cared about themselves and rightfully so, no one else even attempted to change their plight. They weren't able to solve their own problems because of their financial state. The people were low income and "just one more thing" was simply their reality.

In response to Flint's inability to improve it's financial state, there is now a website for investors.

February 8, 2023

The City of Flint, Michigan (Flint), (click here) today announced the rollout of its new investor transparency initiative to attract more investors to its municipal bond offerings. The City of Flint launched a new investor relations website, CityofFlintInvestors.com, to centralize the latest news, project updates, reports, and more related to Flint's bond programs.

"We're excited about launching this new investor relations program alongside BondLink. Technology like this enables us to be more transparent and tell our story about how we're making critical investments in public infrastructure, public health, environmental projects, and more throughout the City of Flint," said Robert J.F. Widigan, chief financial officer of the City. "We're proud of our work to improve our financial positions; we continue to focus our efforts toward addressing the unfunded pension liability, quickly deploying one-time ARPA dollars into our community wisely and equitably, and increasing transparency and better governance in how we report financial data."...

Normally municipal bonds are viewed as some of the best and most stable for investors. What Snyder did was corrupt, racist and cruel. There is no doubt as far as I am concerned. The Michigan Emergency Manager Law under Snyder (I remind how the voter referendum was to terminate the law) was destructive. It was never written or carried out to rescue Flint and set it on a solid path. The assets were sold to the highest bidder and Flint was abandoned to continue to flounder in providing a solid footing for education and city services.

Antakya, Turkey has a population of about 200,000 people.

February 11, 2023

By Adam Samson and Ayla Jean Yackley

A stone sculpture (click here) in Antakya, which rivalled Alexandria as a major centre of early Christianity

Turkish authorities (click here) have launched a crackdown on developers connected to buildings that were toppled by this week’s devastating earthquake as president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces growing discontent over the quality of construction in the stricken region.

The justice ministry has authorised almost 150 local prosecutors’ offices to set up earthquake investigation units to probe contractors, surveyors and other experts with links to destroyed buildings and ensure they do not flee or destroy evidence, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported late on Saturday.

In an indication that these legal processes are already underway, a contractor for a building of luxury flats in the hard-hit Hatay province in Turkey’s south was detained on Friday at Istanbul airport on his way to Montenegro, Anadolu reported. Prosecutors in Istanbul ordered the arrest after finding his flight plans, the agency said....

The earthquake struck at cities.

Hatay Province in Syria was a coastal city near Allepo. If I am not mistaken that was where many Alawites lived. It is the northern reach of their homeland with something like a million people living there.

 

This is just to instill some doubt in warming weather.

I have read a few articles today in newspapers that address what they see as relief from the elements in a warming trend. That is inaccurate. The weather on Earth has become erratic. When a week of warming is followed by a cold record, that is not normal. It is also repeating itself and is not just a one time occurrence.

People and industry need to pay attention. There should also be hyper-vigilance with any travel industry, especially airlines. There is a lot of turbulence described in this article. NOAA and/or NASA needs to provide more details to the airline industry of episodes of erratic weather. 

It is too early to declare Spring has arrived and all is well with the world. It ain't. People that have been struggling through horrible storms should not let their guard down. Not at all. The northern hemisphere is still in for trouble. Yes, this is trouble.

Stratospheric Polar Vortex during Sudden Stratospheric Warming (click here)

February 6, 2023
By Mark Torregrossa

The top of our atmosphere (click here) is about to warm dramatically. The warm-up usually sends a cold blob of air eventually into the eastern half of the U.S. and the Great Lakes region.

The stratosphere is the second layer in our atmosphere and lies about 50,000 feet above Earth. Years ago, researchers discovered what we now call a “Sudden Stratospheric Warming” or SSW for short.

When the stratosphere warms dramatically over the course of a few days, it ripples an influence down into the weather atmosphere, called the troposphere. Think of it as someone jumping on an old school waterbed - the older beds without the baffles. You jumped on the bed and waves traveled across the bed.

The same thing occurs when the stratosphere warms quickly and expands in thickness. The corresponding effect on the lower atmosphere is somewhat predictable.

Judah Cohen, director of Seasonal Forecasting at Verisk Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), studies the effects of these Sudden Stratospheric Warmings. He says immediately after a SSW, a cold blob of air moves off the polar region and heads toward Siberia. While this shift of the cold blob is occurring on the other side of the globe, our part of the U.S. usually turns unusually warm. This scenario is indeed upon us with a mild to warm period coming over the next two weeks....

The State of the Union 2023 is about quality of life and who has a right to it. Not all Americans are afforded quality of life. Impoverishment is out and equality is in.

The PRO Act

H. R. 842

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 11, 2021

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

To amend the National Labor Relations Act, the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, and for other purposes.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

(a) Short Title.—This Act may be cited as the “Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021”.

(b) Table Of Contents.—The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

TITLE I—AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

Sec. 101. Definitions.
Sec. 102. Reports.
Sec. 103. Appointment.
Sec. 104. Unfair labor practices.
Sec. 105. Representatives and elections.
Sec. 106. Damages for unfair labor practices.
Sec. 107. Enforcing compliance with orders of the board.
Sec. 108. Injunctions against unfair labor practices involving discharge or other serious economic harm.
Sec. 109. Penalties.
Sec. 110. Limitations on the right to strike.
Sec. 111. Fair share agreements permitted.

TITLE II—AMENDMENTS TO THE LABOR MANAGEMENT RELATIONS ACT, 1947 AND THE LABOR-MANAGEMENT REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1959

Sec. 201. Conforming amendments to the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947.
Sec. 202. Amendments to the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.

TITLE III—OTHER MATTERS

Sec. 301. Electronic voting in Union elections.
Sec. 302. GAO report on sectoral bargaining.
Sec. 303. Severability.
Sec. 304. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 305. Rule of Construction.
Sec. 306. Rule of Construction.
Sec. 307. Rule of Construction.
Sec. 308. Rule of Construction.
Sec. 309. GAO Report.

To be continued...

I could not agree more. President Biden needs to carry through with the US Senate in agreement regarding Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism.

This is not taken lightly, it has been more than a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia has had more than ample time to present a reason for the unprovoked invasion into Ukraine to the world and the United Nations. It has not presented a case at all. The proof that Russia overwhelmingly wasn't just invading to correct a specific danger to its people is exhibited by the lack of diplomacy, the lack of instituting agreements previous to the invasion, lack of limiting weapons to the rebels in Donbas, and the overwhelming proof of mass graves of innocent civilians, including children and the elderly.

March 15, 2022

Ukraine and Russia explore neutrality plan in peace talks (click here)

July 27, 2022

Calling on the Secretary of State to designate the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism. (click here)

23-11-2022

On Wednesday, (click here) Parliament adopted a resolution on the latest developments in Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. MEPs highlight that the deliberate attacks and atrocities committed by Russian forces and their proxies against civilians in Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of international and humanitarian law amount to acts of terror and constitute war crimes. In light of this, they recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state that “uses means of terrorism”.

EU legal framework needed

As the EU currently cannot officially designate states as sponsors of terrorism, Parliament calls on the EU and its member states to put in place the proper legal framework and consider adding Russia to such a list. This would trigger a number of significant restrictive measures against Moscow and have profound restrictive implications for EU relations with Russia.

In the meantime, MEPs call on the Council to include the Russian paramilitary organisation ‘the Wagner Group’, the 141st Special Motorized Regiment, also known as the “Kadyrovites”, and other Russian-funded armed groups, militias and proxies, on the EU’s terrorist list....

 

The Middle Class

 President Joe Biden’s greatest achievement is the return of a strong Middle Class and their unions. 

Erdogan is trying to have it both ways.

First, the Free World is very concerned for the people of Turkey and Syria that have suffered due to enormous earthquakes that have turned cities to rubble. That should be reassuring to the leaders involved. The USA has been responding to disasters in countries normally considered enemies of the USA, first Cuba and now Syria.

February 6, 2023

The United States has deployed a team of disaster response specialists (click here) after an earthquake killed more than 2,700 people in Turkey and northwest Syria, USAID Administrator Samantha Power said on Monday.

The Disaster Assistance Response Team "will work in close coordination with Turkish authorities on the front lines, as well as with our partners on the ground and agencies across the U.S. government," Power said in a statement....

February 6, 2023

Governments around the world (click here) were quick to respond to requests for international assistance after Monday’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, deploying rescue teams and offering aid.

The European Union said it was urgently dispatching search and rescue teams from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania to Turkey to help. In a statement, the bloc also said it was directing its satellite system to support Turkish efforts in mapping the quake and its aftermath.

Greece said it was sending a C-130 transport aircraft to help neighboring Turkey, along with 21 members of the Greek fire service’s special disaster management unit, rescue dogs, a rescue vehicle, medics and the head of the government’s organization for disaster management, the Greek Civil Protection Agency said....

But, with the dust settling after the earthquakes, Turkey needs to remain loyal to it's NATO allies. Turkey is often viewed as a friendly country to Russia as its geographic location places it at Russian borders, the Black Sea, Crimea, Syria, Iraq and Iran. What a neighborhood. But, Turkey is also near Greece and Europe. So, President Erdogan must improve his loyalty to those most moral and aligned with anti-genocide values. Turkey needs to clearly express it is not involved in any way with the support of such regimes as Putin assembled. Supply lines to Russia is killing people.

Russia has not been attacked. There is no moral reason to provide Russia with parts or supplies to any aspect of the Russian military including the Wagner Group. There is a right and wrong side, Turkey needs to make clear where it stands by ending it's shipments to Russia.

February 6, 2023

By Paul Iddon

Aside from having the second-largest army in NATO, (click here) Turkey also operates the third-largest fleet of U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets in the world. However, unlike many U.S. allies in the wider region, it does not have any French or British jets, making it heavily reliant on the United States, a state of affairs some Turks have begun to question and scrutinize.

Cagri Erhan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security and foreign policy advisor, brought up the iconic fighter jets several times in January. For example, he tweeted on Jan. 20 that Turkey doesn’t need any more F-16s and even dubiously claimed that the aircraft is not even among the top 10 best fighters in the world.

Erhan later expressed similar sentiments in a Jan. 28 television interview. He questioned why Turkey does not operate any non-American fighter jets. He claimed that Ankara did not turn to other NATO countries for any different fighter types over the decades since its pilots had received specific training for the F-16....

February 4, 2023
By Jonathan Spicer

The United States warned Turkey (click here) in recent days about the export to Russia of chemicals, microchips and other products that can be used in Moscow's war effort in Ukraine, and it could move to punish Turkish companies or banks contravening sanctions.

Brian Nelson, the U.S. Treasury Department's top sanctions official, visited Turkish government and private sector officials on Thursday and Friday to urge more cooperation in disrupting the flow of such goods....