Tag Archives: Britain

Ex NATO and U.S. defense chiefs warn U.K. against an EU exit

Former NATO secretary-general Fogh Rasmussen speaks during a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev,

LONDON (Reuters) – Former NATO secretary generals warned on Tuesday that a British exit from the European Union would help enemies of the West while ex-U.S. foreign and defense chiefs cautioned that Britain would have less clout outside the bloc.

The double warning comes as the two campaigns for and against Brexit step up their rhetoric about the impact staying or leaving the EU would have on Britain’s security.

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that Britain was safer in the EU while former London mayor Boris Johnson, a member of his Conservative Party, accused him of suggesting World War Three would break out should Britons vote to leave in a referendum on June 23.

The five ex-NATO chiefs – Peter Carrington, Javier Solana, George Robertson, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Anders Fogh Rasmussen – said the imposition of EU sanctions against Russia and Iran, a move led by Britain, showed the importance of the bloc.

“Brexit would undoubtedly lead to a loss of British influence, undermine NATO and give succor to the West’s enemies just when we need to stand should-to-shoulder across the Euro-Atlantic community against common threats,” they wrote in a letter to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

In a separate letter to the Times, 13 former U.S. secretaries of state and defense and national security advisers from every U.S. administration from Barack Obama’s to Jimmy Carter’s in the 1970s said Britain’s global position would suffer if it left the EU.

“We are concerned that should the UK choose to leave the European Union, the UK’s place and influence in the world would be diminished and Europe would be dangerously weakened,” said the letter signed by, among others, former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Madeleine Albright.

Their warning echoes a similar message from Obama during the U.S. president’s visit to Britain last month.

Those campaigning for Brexit have repeatedly dismissed such warnings, saying membership of NATO, rather than the EU, was key to British security.

In a sign of deepening divisions within Cameron’s own party, Iain Duncan Smith, the former Work and Pensions Secretary, said Germany had sabotaged the prime minister’s plans to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU, forcing him to drop his plans to demand an emergency brake on migration.

“They have a de facto veto over everything,” Duncan Smith told Tuesday’s Sun newspaper which accompanied their story with a picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel holding a puppet Cameron.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Bleak picture reigns as EU presidents debate future of Europe

European Parliament President Schulz and European Commission President Juncker talk during a meeting at the Capitol Hill in Rome

By Crispian Balmer

ROME (Reuters) – The presidents of Europe’s three main institutions on Thursday presented a bleak picture of the European Union, saying the 28-nation bloc lacked leadership and was descending into petty, nationalistic politics.

“We have a lot of salesmen in the European Council and only a few statesmen,” said Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, bemoaning the current crop of EU government chiefs who are struggling to overcome a string of crises.

Schulz joined European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Council President Donald Tusk for a debate on the future of Europe in the room where the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957, which laid the foundations of today’s European Union.

“The idea of one EU state, one vision … was an illusion,” said Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, who is now tasked with finding consensus and cohesion amongst EU leaders.

Such unity has become an almost impossible mission at a time when hundreds of thousands of migrants are fleeing into Europe in search of a better life, sending a shockwave through the staid and conservative continent.

Britain, the Union’s second biggest economy, is due to hold a referendum in June on whether to withdrawal from the bloc.

Years of economic underperformance, particularly in the continent’s southern rim, have also frayed the fabric of European solidarity.

“PART-TIME EUROPEANS”

“We have full-time Europeans when it comes to taking and part-time Europeans when it comes to giving,” said a particularly downbeat Juncker, adding that the “part time” Europeans were often those who received most from EU funds — a clear reference to new member states from the east.

Without naming names, Tusk also said that the newcomers were often the most opposed to finding a common policy on the migration crisis “sometimes in a very irritating fashion”.

Italy and Greece are the main ports of entry for the migrants but say they should then be sent on to other European countries to share the burden.

However, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have rejected European Commission plans to introduce mandatory quotas of refugees and have accused Brussels of trying to blackmail them.

Juncker, a former Luxembourg prime minister who has been at the heart of EU policy making for three decades, reminisced about the time when Europe moved towards economic union and created the single euro currency.

“In former times we were working together … we were in charge of a big piece of history. This has totally gone,” he said, complaining that EU citizens did not understand what the European Union was trying to do.

“This is fertile ground for the populists.”

Tusk, Juncker and Schulz are in Rome for the presentation of the Charlemagne Prize to Pope Francis on Friday. The prize is awarded to people who are seen to have furthered the cause of European unification.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Lebanese military gets U.S., British aid for defending border with Syria

US Helicopters in Lebanon

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s armed forces acquired three U.S. helicopters worth $26 million on Thursday to help in efforts to stop Syria’s civil war spilling over its border, along with almost $29 million of British aid as EU countries also step up their support.

The Lebanese armed forces have now received a total of nine Huey II multi-mission helicopters from the United States as part of $1.3 billion in security assistance given since 2004, U.S. interim Ambassador Richard H. Jones said.

“We have no plans to slow down or alter that level of support,” Jones said at Beirut’s military air base.

Fighting between Islamic State and al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front militants often overlaps Lebanon’s mountainous northern border with Syria, where a civil war is now in its fifth year.

Fighters briefly overran the northern Lebanese town of Arsal in 2014 before withdrawing to the hills after clashes with the army. Fighting in the border area killed at least 32 Nusra and Islamic State fighters this week.

The helicopters will improve the army’s ability to quickly reinforce “remote areas of tension along the border in support of the army’s fight against terrorists”, Jones said.

Lebanon has a weak government and a number of nations support its armed forces, concerned that regional conflict and a power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia could again destabilise a country which emerged from its own civil war 26 years ago.

On a visit to Lebanon on Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond announced a further $22 million for border guard training through to 2019 and $6.5 million for general training of 5,000 Lebanese troops. “Lebanon is an important part of the front line against terrorism,” Hammond said.

“We are delighted by the way the UK support is being translated into strengthened border security and is enabling the armed forces to take the fight to Daesh and keep Lebanon safe from the incursions of Daesh,” he said, referring to Islamic State.

EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini, who visited Lebanon last week, said that Lebanon’s security was important for Europe’s safety too and the EU was willing to expand its support for the Lebanese armed forces.

In February Saudi Arabia suspended a $3 billion aid package for the Lebanese army in what an official called a response to Beirut’s failure to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

Lebanon’s Iranian-backed group Hezbollah is also a significant military presence in the country, with extensive combat experience. It fought Israel in an inconclusive 2006 war and is supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Issam Abdallah; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

U.K. to Build Cyber Attack Forces to Take On ISIS

British Finance Minister George Osborne said on Tuesday that Britain was building an elite cyber force to take down ISIS fighters, hackers, and hostile powers.

Osborne went on to tell Reuters that the Islamic State is trying to develop a way to attack British infrastructure including power networks, air traffic control systems, and hospital.

“The stakes could hardly be higher – if our electricity supply, or our air traffic control, or our hospitals were successfully attacked online, the impact could be measured not just in terms of economic damage but of lives lost,” he told CNBC News.

As a response, he stated that Britain would fight fire with fire by developing their own cyber attack force.

“We will defend ourselves. But we will also take the fight to you,” Osborne said in a speech at Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency.

“We are building our own offensive cyber capability – a dedicated ability to counter-attack in cyberspace. When we talk about tackling (Islamic State), that means tackling their cyber threat as well as their guns, bombs and knives.”

The cyber attack force will be headed jointly by GCHQ – Britain’s spy agency – and the Defence Ministry. They will target criminal gangs, individual hackers, militant groups, and hostile powers.

Public spending on cyber security will be doubled by 2020 Osborne told Reuter, raising the budget to almost $3 billion. GCHQ has already been monitoring various cyber threats as cyber security issues have doubled to 200 a month since last year. The new cyber security plan also includes training coders, blocking bad URLs, and fending off malware attacks.

Currently, ISIS has been using the Internet to spread its propaganda and lead more people to their radical cause.

“They have not been able to use it to kill people yet by attacking our infrastructure through cyber attack,” Osborne added. “But we know they want it and are doing their best to build it.”

The global cyber war against ISIS has also caught the attention of the hacktivist group “Anonymous” who released a video earlier this week declaring cyber war on the Islamic State.

Investigation of Russian Plane Crash Continues; Bomb Theory Supported By Egyptian Officials

New evidence, including a voice recording of the cockpit, is bolstering the theory that a bomb did take down the Russian airplane, killing 224 people. The Egyptian team investigating the crash told Fox News that they are “90 percent sure” a bomb brought down the plane.

“The indications and analysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb,” the investigator added.

The investigator did ask to remain anonymous due to “sensitivities.”

An Egyptian official heading the investigation told CBS News that there is a noise that can be heard on the recording of the cockpit just before it cuts out, however, they cannot define it as a bomb at this time.

Over the past week, U.S. and U.K. investigators believed that the evidence pointed to a bomb being planted on the plane by Islamist militants due to intercepted chatter from members of ISIS, but Russian and Egyptian officials dismissed the claim. However, an ISIS affiliate has claimed that they brought down the plane since the beginning of the investigation.

And while Egyptian and other officials believe there is a high chance of a bomb being the cause of the crash, Russian forensic experts did warn NBC News that it could be weeks or months before they can conclusively affirm that theory. Pieces of the plane have been sent to Moscow for analysis.

Since the crash, Russia has suspended all flights to Egypt for security issues. Russian inspectors have been sent to the Sharm el-Sheikh airport to investigate security concerns. Egyptian officials are also questioning airport security and staff and some employees are even under surveillance. Security officials at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport have told the Associated Press that there have been gaps in security for awhile. Between non functioning equipment, lax searches, and policemen who can be bribed, that drugs and weapons slip through security all the time according to Fox News.

British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond stated that if a bomb was the cause of the plane crash, that airport security in all areas where ISIS is active would have to be rethought.

At this time Britain and the United States have stopped flights to the resort and Russia has suspended all flights to Egypt due to security concerns.

Scarlet Fever Making a Comeback and May Now Resist Antibiotics

After nearly 100 years, the bacterial infection, scarlet fever, has made a comeback in Britain and in parts of Asia. And to make matters worse, it may no longer be an easy treatable infection as new research suggests that the infection is showing signs of antibiotic resistance.

“We have not yet had an outbreak in Australia, but over the past five years there have been more than 5,000 cases in Hong Kong (a 10-fold increase) and more than 100,000 cases in China,” said Mark Walker, one of the researchers, in a news release. “And an outbreak in the UK has resulted in 12,000 cases since last year.

The Washington Post reports that scarlet fever is caused by a group of A Streptococcus bacteria that can turn strep throat into scarlet fever. Most people who are affected are children between the ages of 5 and 12. The disease develops a red, sandpaper-like rash on the person’s body, and while it’s unpleasant, it can easily be treated with antibiotics. There is currently no vaccine.

“We now have a situation which may change the nature of the disease and make it resistant to broad-spectrum treatments normally prescribed for respiratory tract infections, such as scarlet fever,” said Nouri Ben Zakour, one of the researchers.

The idea that this new outbreak of scarlet fever could easily be treated was rethought when researches from the University of Queensland discovered that the new scarlet fever cases were resisting antibiotics. While penicillin is still effective, other treatments such as tetracycline, clindamycin, and erythromycin may not be, which poses an immediate threat to people who are allergic to penicillin.

The rise in scarlet fever could pre-empt a future rise in rheumatic heart disease, which causes permanent heart damage. Knowing this, researchers hope to continue studying the patterns of the disease and the effects it has on a person’s health, according to Science World Report.

Over 300 British Academics Pledge to Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions

As an act of protest over Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people, over 300 professors and lecturers from several academic institutions in England and Wales, including Oxford and Cambridge, have pledged to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

“As scholars associated with British universities, we are deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement,” the academics write in the letter.

While they say they will still work with individual Israeli academics, the pledge states that the academics will not take parts in events organized or funded by them, act as referees for them, or accept invitations to visit their institutions, according the Guardian newspaper.

The letter continues saying that the participants in the pledge are “deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people, and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement.”

The Higher Education Statistics Agency reports that there are 194,245 academic staff employed by higher education in the U.K. That would mean that the amount of protestors is less than a quarter of 1% of the overall number of academic staff in the U.K. This is a “statistically insignificant minority” according to director of the Academic Friends of Israel organization, Ronnie Fraser.

Despite the small numbers of protestors, the British and Israeli governments responded to the boycott. The British ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, stated that the British government would not allow the boycott to affect the relationship between Israel and Britain as the 60 year partnership makes both countries stronger.

The Israeli embassy in London replied with a published response: “The only path to advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians passes through the negotiation room. Israel has called time and again for the renewal of talks immediately, without any preconditions. Those who call for a boycott against Israel during a month which saw 45 stabbing attacks – in which more than 100 Israelis were wounded, and 10 were murdered – blatantly ignore the lives of Israelis, and the conditions necessary for peace.”

Israel Asks Britain to Help Stop Militant Islam

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in London visiting with British Prime Minister David Cameron and is asking him to bring the weight of the British military to the Middle East to stop ISIS.

“The Middle East is disintegrating under the twin forces of militant Islam: The militant Sunnis led by ISIS and the militant Shiites led by Iran,” said Netanyahu.

“And I believe that we can cooperate in practical ways to roll back the tide of militant Islam both in the Middle East and in Africa altogether.”

Cameron told reporters after the meeting that Britain “remains staunch in our defense of Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself.”

Netanyahu spoke with leaders of Britain’s Jewish community and told them despite any anti-Semitic comments or actions that may come against them, they should never apologize for defending Israel.

“This is an important struggle for public opinion and it has to be done with determination while saying in a clear voice that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and is standing at the front in the struggle against radical Islam,” he said.

The meetings came as anti-Israeli protesters tracked Netanyahu’s every move and presented the British government with a petition demanding Netanyahu be arrested as a war criminal.

UN: EU Must Accept 200,000 Migrants

The United Nations has told member nations of the European Union (EU) that they must accept 200,000 migrants in a “common strategy” rather than their current “piecemeal” approach.

The head of the UN’s refugee agency said that the EU is reaching a “defining moment.”

Antonio Guterres said that the EU leadership must demand “mandatory participation” of any country in the EU.

Germany has been taking in the majority of the migrants but is starting to limit migrant access because of the mass influx.

“Germany is doing what is morally and legally required of us, no more and no less,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday. “That’s why this problem concerns all of us in Europe.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron said that because “Britain is a moral nation” they will fulfill their responsibilities.

Germany and France have sent a proposal to all EU nations with suggested amounts of migrants for each country but has found backlash from the smaller nations.  CNN reported over 350,000 migrants have come into Europe this year, a level not seen since World War II.  Over 3,600 people have died trying to make the journey.

Ex-Head of Communications for British Treasury Says “Stock Up On Bottled Water”

A former head of communications for the British treasury is telling the public they need to prepare to spend “a month indoors” because of public unrest that will come from a looming economic collapse.

Damian McBride, who served under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, wrote on Twitter after today’s giant Chinese stock market crash:

“Advice on the looming crash, No.1: get hard cash in a safe place now; don’t assume banks & cashpoints will be open, or bank cards will work”

“Crash advice No.2: do you have enough bottled water, tinned goods & other essentials at home to live a month indoors? If not, get shopping.”

“Crash advice No.3: agree a rally point with your loved ones in case transport and communication gets cut off; somewhere you can all head to.”

McBride added that today was the stock market catching up with the terror over defaults that’s been impacting the bond market for the last few months.

McBride’s comments come as the world reels from the Chinese stock market crash and the UK’s FTSE 100 losing 60 billion British pounds in only a few hours, causing the largest one day fall of the market since 2008.  Over the last two weeks the market has lost over 160 billion British pounds.