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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/11/2017 11:48:57 PM

US troops attacked in Syria



War-ravaged Syrian city slowly rebuilds 02:27

(CNN) US troops who had been performing a de facto "peacekeeping" role in northern Syria came under direct attack multiple times in the last week, a spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting ISIS told reporters Thursday.

US Army Col. Ryan Dillon told reporters at the Pentagon that the US forces came under attack by small arms fire and that the engagement had resulted in "no damage to equipment or casualties on our side."
    He added that the coalition troops did not return fire but added: "We do reserve the right to defend ourselves."
    A US defense official told CNN that the engagements took place near the town of Manbij in northern Syria.
    US troops have been performing "overt patrols" in the area since March, often flying the American flag from armored vehicles, in a bid to deter forces in the region from attacking one another and undermining the fight against ISIS.
    The US trains and advises the Manbij Military Council, a group of local Arab fighters that is allied to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. But Turkey and its local Syrian allies are strongly opposed to both US-backed groups which they see as linked to Kurdish separatists in Turkey.
    The US boosted its patrols in the region following armed clashes between the various groups.
    While Pentagon spokesman US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis declined to call the troops "peacekeepers" upon their initial deployment in March, he referred to them as "a visible reminder for anybody looking to start a fight."
    Dillon said that the attacking forces were most likely aware that they were firing on US troops.
    "These patrols are overt. Our forces are clearly marked and we have been operating in that area for some time," Dillon said, adding "It should not be news to anyone that we are doing this, operating in that particular area."
    Asked who among the various groups operating in the area was behind the attacks, Dillon said the coalition was unable to identify the attackers.
    "We do not know who is behind these attacks," Dillon told reporters via video teleconference from Baghdad.
    The US stepped up its patrols in Northern Syria in April after Turkey bombed US-backed Kurdish YPG fighters, a key element of the SDF.
    Turkey has threatened to push on Manbij in the past, and if Turkey or more likely Turkish backed rebels were found to be behind the attacks, it could cause another major diplomatic rift between Washington and Ankara.
    Dillon said that the coalition would continue to support local forces in the area.
    "We will continue to advise our partners and reassure them in that area," he said.

    (CNN)

    "Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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    Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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    RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
    8/12/2017 10:44:06 AM

    Amazing moment boat carrying dozens of African migrants arrives on Spanish beach in front of shocked tourists and scatter before police arrive


      • ·
        Clip shows a inflatable boat coming ashore in Cadiz, on southern Spanish coast
      • · Group managed to escape from the beach before police arrived at the scene
      • · It is believed migrants crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from Northern Africa
      • · Were you on the beach? Email sara.malm@mailonline.co.uk

    A boat carrying dozens of African migrants landed on a Spanish beach in front of shocked holidaymakers.

    Footage shows the migrants leaping out of a black inflatable dinghy and dashing across the sand on beaches at Cadiz in southern Spain, after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.

    The group managed to leave from the beach before the authorities arrived some time after.



    The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon, with footage showing the boat coming up behind a man and a child taking a dip in the sea.

    As the boat pulls into shallow water, those on board leap out and run up the beach.

    One onlooker asks in an astonished voice, 'What's going on?'

    Carlos Sanz, who shot the video while on vacation in Cadiz, said the group quickly vanished and police only arrived some time later.

    Spanish officials couldn't immediately be reached after office hours.

    The incident comes as the International Organization for Migration warned on Thursday that Spain could overtake Greece this year in the number of migrants arriving by sea, using boats and even jet-skis.

    According to the IOM's latest figures, until August 6, close to 8,200 migrants had arrived in Spain so far this year.

    That is more than triple the number who reached Spain at the same time last year, according to Joel Millman, a senior IOM spokesman, and already more than the total arrivals in 2016.

    New arrivals: A video filmed by a witness show the dinghy pulling into shallow water at Cadiz


    New arrivals: A video filmed by a witness show the dinghy pulling into shallow water at Cadiz

    Embarking: Some two dozen people, reportedly African migrants, jump off the boat and run onto the beach in front of surprised sunbathers and tourists


    Embarking: Some two dozen people, reportedly African migrants, jump off the boat and run onto the beach in front of surprised sunbathers and tourists

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    While the figure pales in comparison with arrivals in Italy - where more than 96,400 have landed so far this year - Spain is catching up with Greece where 11,713 have arrived by sea in the same timeframe.

    'It's possible that Spain will outperform Greece this year,' Millman told AFP.

    'If so, that's a big change.'

    He said many people taking the long route towards Italy via the Sahara and Libya were from west Africa.

    But with the dangers faced, some may be deciding to go up along the coast instead.

    'We assume that some of the change is due to the fact that the route is considered a safe route up to the coast through Morocco,' Millman said.

    He added that the boats crossing the short but choppy sea to Spain were much smaller than those launching from Libya to Italy.

    In Libya there 'appears to be a very deliberate strategy to put people out there, in overloaded boats that begin to take on water almost immediately and then it's a race to see how quickly the people on the boat can summon aid,' he said.

    'Whereas in Spain, the strategy is smaller craft hoping to come in undetected, and undoubtedly some do.'

    Unexpected: The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon, with the migrants reportedly leaving the beach before Spanish authorities arrived


    Unexpected: The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon, with the migrants reportedly leaving the beach before Spanish authorities arrived

    The boat came ashore in Cadiz, however it is not known from where the group had travelled


    The boat came ashore in Cadiz, however it is not known from where the group had travelled

    Disembarkations by migrants on Spanish beaches are not common but have happened before, especially at Spain's north African enclave cities Melilla and Ceuta, which border Morocco.

    Ceuta and Melilla have the EU's only land borders with Africa, and as a result, they are entry points for people desperate to get to Europe.

    Migrants regularly try to climb the high double border fences, swim along the coast or hide in vehicles crossing the frontier.

    In recent days, migrants have repeatedly stormed the border with Ceuta by either attempting to cut through the wire fencing or running through the border post.


    Once on Spanish soil in Ceuta, they are taken to migrant reception centres where they can apply for asylum.


    But many are desperate to get to mainland Spain, believing that the process in Ceuta is slow or fearing that they will be returned to neighbouring Morocco, and try to hide in lorries boarding ferries.


    On Tuesday, Spanish police found 30 Moroccan and Algerian migrants, ten of them minors, hidden in fairground vehicles in the enclave city.


    The group had hidden in bumper cars and the ghost train loaded on lorries which were due to leave Ceuta for mainland Spain a after an annual festival.


    Agents used heartbeat detectors and dogs to locate the migrants while the vehicles waited to board ferries to the mainland, the Guardia Civil police force said.


    'They try to use attractions that are only half covered up to jump in and hide inside,' a spokesman said.


    Spanish police push back 700 migrants as they attempt to storm a 20-foot border fence in Ceuta


    Hundreds of migrants have attempted to storm the border between Spain's North African Ceuta territory and Morocco.


    The Interior Ministry's office in the small enclave said the migrants tried to scale the 20-foot high barbed-wire fences around Ceuta after a crossing attempt at the Tarajal post failed.


    All of the migrants - about 700 - were repelled by the Moroccan and Spanish authorities.


    Spain and Morocco agreed yesterday to close the Tarajal post to freight traffic for a week because of recent migrant crossing attempts.


    More than 180 migrants also stormed the border on Monday. Over 700 were repelled today


    More than 180 migrants also stormed the border on Monday. Over 700 were repelled today


    Footage showed migrants from Africa sprinting over the border from the Moroccan side while it was still dark on Monday


    Pedestrian and passenger vehicles were still allowed.


    Every year, thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants living illegally in Morocco try to scale the border fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's other North African enclave, in a bid to enter Europe.


    On January 1 more than 1,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa tried to scale the fence at Ceuta during a violent assault in which one officer lost an eye.


    At about 5am on Monday, 186 migrants stormed the border and reached European Union soil.


    Once there, they celebrated, raising their hands in joy as they ran through the streets - with one man kneeling on the floor.


    The migrants were eventually rounded up and taken to a reception centre, where they can apply for asylum in Spain.



    Pictured: Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta. Hundreds of migrants attempted to storm the border today

    Pictured: Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta. Hundreds of migrants attempted to storm the border today


    (dailymail.co.uk)


    "Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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    Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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    RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
    8/12/2017 11:15:49 AM

    WHY IS RUSSIAN AIRFORCE FLYING OVER TRUMP GOLF COURSE, CAPITOL AND CIA HQ?


    BY


    As if Washington had not had enough of talking about Russia, the country’s air force sent an intelligence-gathering jet above the U.S. capitol, flying over the U.S. Capitol, Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency at low altitude on Wednesday.

    Far from a surprise though, the Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 overflight is agreed thanks to a mutual arrangement which Russia, the U.S. and a handful of other militaries are part of. The agreement, called the Treaty on Open Skies, ensures 34 states have an equal right to periodically fly unarmed surveillance aircraft above one another's territories. This year, Russian unarmed jets have already flown above U.S. skies in April and May.

    The flight passed over downtown Washington at an altitude of 3,700 feet and then moved on to the Maryland base where Air Force One is based.

    The Russian jet also had authorization to enter the P-56, airspace - the highly secure skies above and around the White House, CNN reports, though it is not immediately clear if it flew over the presidential office.

    U.S. President Donald Trump is currently on vacation so he is not in the White House anyway, though according to two officials familiar with the route of the US government-approved Russian flight, the jet also passed over Bedminster, New Jersey, where Trump is vacationing. The jet passed over the Trump National Golf Course in the state, where he is currently residing.

    The 1992 treaty, intended to build trust between countries, has provided some opportunity for friction and in February 2016, some Republicans criticized Russia’s desire to equip their planes with high-definition cameras, considering it a form of spying, according to reports inThe New York Times.

    Despite arriving into the White House with stronger approval in Russia than any major U.S. politician, Trump has presided over an even worse deflation of U.S.-Russia relations than his predecessor Barack Obama. Russian lawmakers and most recently Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have begun to openly criticize the U.S. leader.


    (Newsweek)


    "Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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    Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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    RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
    8/12/2017 11:31:39 AM

    Scientists on research vessel spot rare whale in Bering Sea

    DAN JOLING


    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Federal researchers studying critically endangered North Pacific right whales sometimes go years without finding their subjects. Over the weekend they got lucky.

    A research vessel in the Bering Sea photographed two of the animals Sunday and obtained a biopsy sample from one, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.

    NOAA Fisheries research biologist Jessica Crance was on board the Yushin Maru 2, when the whales were spotted. The ship is part of the Pacific Ocean Whale and Ecosystem Research program, a collaborative effort headed by the International Whaling Commission. Using an acoustic recorder, and between sounds of killer whales and walrus, Crance picked up faint calls of a right whale east of Bristol Bay, Alaska.

    The sounds came from an estimated 10 to 32 miles (16 to 51 kilometers) away and the ship headed west, she said in a blog entry. After four and a half hours, despite the presence of minke and humpback whales, and only a few calls from the right whales, the rare animals were spotted.

    The two right whales are part of the eastern stock that number just 30 to 50 whales, said Phillip Clapham, head of the cetacean program at NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

    A French whaling ship recorded the first kill in 1835 and reported seeing "millions" of others. That claim was exaggerated but it drew hundreds of other whalers to the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, Clapham said.

    Within 14 years, Clapham said, the overharvest of the slow, buoyant animals sent many whalers through the Bering Strait to hunt bowhead whales instead.

    A modest comeback of right whales in the 20th Century was derailed when Soviet whalers in the 1960s ignored critically low numbers and illegally killed eastern stock right whales in the Gulf of Alaska, Clapham said.

    The right whale sampled Sunday had been seen eight times before, Clapham said. The last time was a decade ago.

    A biopsy sample, he said, can positively identify the animal, reveal its gender, indicate whether it's pregnant and reveal information on diet and reproductive hormones.

    Studying North Pacific right whales is complicated by the expense of reaching their habitat in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. Critical data remains unknown, including their winter habits and many of their preferred summer feeding areas for copepods, a tiny crustacean plankton.

    "We don't know what habitats continue to be important to the species," Clapham said.

    The biggest threats to the animals are fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes, Clapham said.


    (Yahoo News)


    "Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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    Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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    RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
    8/12/2017 5:10:05 PM

    North Korea isn’t flinching: it’s announced detailed plans for a missile strike near Guam

    Pyongyang is calling Trump’s bluff, and the stakes are getting higher.

    Updated by

    Kim Jong Un could sign off on the missile launch within a week.
    Getty Images

    In the escalating game of chicken between North Korea and the US, North Korea is showing no signs of flinching: Pyongyang has announced detailed new plans for firing four ballistic missiles that would fly over Japan and land between 19 and 25 miles off the shore of the US territory of Guam.

    North Korea says the plan could be ready for sign-off by North Korean leader Kim Jong Unwithin a week. If he does decide to launch the missiles, it would raise questions of whether the US would attempt to intercept them using the THAAD missile defense system it has stationed at Guam.

    If the US intercepted the missiles successfully, it would make the US look stronger, but if it failed, it would be a humiliating spectacle and a blow to the credibility of US power. So it’s not hard to see how firing missiles so close to Guam raises the stakes in the US-North Korean standoff in way the North’s previous ballistic missile tests haven’t.

    Recently North Korea has avoided flying the missiles it’s testing over neighboring countries — so the fact that this one would fly over Japan is also a combative gesture. Japan and South Korea have promised a strong response if Kim fires the missiles.



    Javier Zarracina/Vox

    North Korea’s bold announcement is a direct response to President Trump’s recent unprecedented escalation in the war of words between the two countries. On Tuesday, Trump broke with the US tradition of using a measured tone when discussing the threat posed by North Korea and instead spoke with a level of intensity that North Korea typically directs at the US.

    “North Korea had best not make any threats against the United States,” Trump told reporters at his golf resort in New Jersey. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

    In the state media report announcing the new plan on Guam, North Korea attempted to call Trump’s bluff, stating that the president had “let out a load of nonsense about 'fire and fury'" and accusing him of "failing to grasp the on-going grave situation."

    The report also said that "sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him."

    So why Guam?

    North Korea has a strategic interest in threatening Guam and testing its ability to strike in the area with accuracy: The island houses 6,000 American troops and hosts bases that could be used in case of an unlikely war with North Korea.

    The American military presence on Guam actually consists of two bases, Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam. Only 2,200 miles southeast of North Korea, it also houses American bombers, submarines, and other ships in the Pacific Ocean.

    The B-1B bombers the US flew alongside South Korean and Japanese fighter jetsafter North Korea’s second intercontinental ballistic missile test on July 28 took off from Andersen.

    That response shows just how useful the bases on Guam can be. It allows US troops and military equipment to be “forward deployed,” which means they are already in the region and wouldn’t need to be sent from someplace else in case of conflict.

    The Guam bases also help protect the 163,000 residents of the island, whose natives are US citizens by birth.

    Following North Korea’s threat, Guam’s governor, Eddie Baza Calvo, released a YouTube video designed to try to allay any concerns residents might have. “I know we woke up to media reports of North Korea’s talk of revenge on the United States,” he said. “I want to reassure the people of Guam that currently there is no threat to our island or the Marianas.”

    It’s not clear if North Korea could hit Guam with nuclear missiles. Even though Pyongyang has medium-range missiles that can reach the two US bases, it may not be able to reliably place a nuclear warhead on top and have it detonate once it reaches the island. The plans that North Korea has currently proposed, however, do not involve nuclear-tipped missiles — these would only be ballistic missiles.

    Even if Kim did launch missiles at Guam, the island is equipped with a THAAD missile defense system that is intended to stop a North Korean weapon before it reaches US territory. The system has successfully worked 15 out of 15 times in tests, but it has yet to be used in an actual war.

    The bases are clearly important to the US. They may be even more so down the line.


    (VOX)


    "Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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