Europe

In a bid to stem the flow of migrants, the EU struck a controversial deal with Turkey.

In exchange for political sweeteners such as visa-free access to the Schengen zone for Turkish people, Ankara agreed a ‘one-in-one-out’ system for migrants trying to cross into Greece.

Implemented in March, it is aimed at halting the mass movement of migrants into Europe by sending those who do not apply for asylum or if their claim is rejected back to Turkey.

This is a likely explanation for the meteoric rise in Turkish smugglers, as new ways are found around security measures implemented by governments, leading to ever-shifting routes.

The impact expands further than the operational F-35 inventory, as there are 42 aircraft currently on the production line that has received parts from the same provider. That includes three three Norwegian aircraft scheduled for delivery early next year. It is unclear if those parts will need to be replaced or if other nations planes will be impacted.

There is often a fine line between pity and fear when it comes to the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have landed on European shores in the last year. On one hand, it’s difficult not to feel an outpouring of sympathy over pictures of babies born on perilous rescue missions, or the bodies of children washed up […]

Though hidden from public view, the escalation in espionage activity is part of a broader renewal of conflict and competition between the United States and Russia after a two-decade lull. Surging tensions now cut across nearly every aspect of the U.S-Russia relationship.

Russia’s new, asymmetric approach is perhaps best exemplified by its state-run nuclear contractor Rosatom’s strategy of creating security vulnerabilities in Europe. A recent report from a think tank in Finland – where Rosatom partly owns a nuclear power plant being built in Pyhajoki – suggested that the Kremlin is striking deals such as these to create dependencies in other countries. Separately, Lithuania has said it may file a lawsuit over the poor-quality construction of the Astravets nuclear power plant, which is being built by Rosatom in neighboring Belarus with no supervision and at a very low cost. Lithuanian officials are worried that Rosatom is using substandard Russian security systems that are likely much weaker than their Western equivalents – a state of affairs that analysts believe could pave the way for a nuclear disaster. Recent reports that at least ten workers died in mysterious circumstances while working at Astravets, and that a 330-ton reactor shell was dropped thus triggering an emergency situation, have hardly reassured Vilnius. Outside of Europe, Rosatom is also playing a very delicate role in Iran’s nuclear program, working on the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant while the Obama administration tries to preserve its controversial Iran nuclear deal.

Formed in the early nineties, just after the country won its independence, the Latvian Special Forces, like those in other countries, are considered elite soldiers. Their operations include counter-terrorism, search and rescue, sea landings, underwater missions, attack and detention, and airborne operations.

The investigators for Italy’s antidrug unit were used to measuring the flow of hashish from Moroccan fields to European shores one speedboat or Jet Ski at a time. So when the phone rang with a tip that an enormous freighter loaded with hashish was plying international waters south of Sicily — bound for Libya, hundreds of miles […]

“Every day, the intelligence services, the police, gendarmes, are foiling attacks, unraveling Iraqi-Syrian networks. The threat today is maximum and we are a target, everyone understands that.”

Valls said 700 French jihadis were believed to be fighting with Islamic State in Syria, among them more than 200 women. French intelligence services were watching 15,000 people suspected of being radicalized.

Lieutenant Hess explains the division was responsible for the defense of Bastogne leading up to the Battle of the Bulge. As Lt. Hess recounts the action, we see snow-covered scenes of the battle and the frozen bodies of soldiers killed in action. Lt. Hess tells of one of the most famous events in WW2 history.

On December 22, 1944, German emissaries asked for the American surrender, to which General McAuliffe answered tersely, “Nuts!” (Lt. HessHess explains that it was “just GI American for ‘Go to hell!’”) A few days later the skies cleared, allowing Allied air forces to retaliate and to drop much-needed food, medicine, and weaponry to ground troops. On Christmas Eve, the Americans allowed the Germans to get as close as possible before opening fire. “You could hear them hollering, ‘Comrade!’ Begging for mercy. Asking for a break. Oh sure. We gave ‘em a break,” says Lt. Hess as the film shows the dead, frozen bodies of Nazi soldiers in the mud and muck. “The German supermen. They didn’t know what the hell had happened.”

“It’s like after the Afghanistan war in the 1980s,” said Neumann, citing the period after Soviet troops withdrew in 1989 and legions of foreign fighters formed a diaspora of radicalized veterans that subsequently fueled the rise of al-Qaeda. “They’ll be asking themselves, ‘What’s next?’ “

The probe began in September last year after an Italian was arrested in Hungary “while driving in a vehicle with several illegal migrants”, Eurojust said in a separate statement. Italian police said the smuggling ring picked up migrants who had reached Hungary, and from there they were moved on toward Germany, Austria, and more rarely to France and Italy.

Hundreds of refugees from the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya this week mounted a small, and perhaps fruitless, protest on the Polish border with Belarus, seeking political asylum in the European Union from persecution at home. The demonstration, a sit-in in the transit zone between the Belarusian and Polish borders, was an attempt to return media attention to […]