Manifestations against World Cup in Brazil: Clash between rebels and police

PressTV has published a news regarding to the actual situation in Brazil, caused by the FIFA World Cup. According to this, opposers to this event gathered in Sao Paulo, more specifically in the suburb of Guarulhos, to demand better life conditions. They also said that the police started throwing tear gas and stunt grenades at them, whose response was to throw ignited fireworks at the security forces over there. A video of this violent manifestation can be seen at the link of this news.

This news could not be found in any brazilian newspaper I read. No matter how much you look into it, Brazil doesn't want to make a lot of fuzz about these kind of problems regarding the World Cup. This is right now the most anticipated event for most of the people in the world, therefore is only natural that brazilian government wants to hide this kind of setbacks from their foreign customers (who are pretty much the biggest income these days).

On the other hand, brazilian government also has their hands full with the police protests, therefore this could be another reason to "justify" the fact that they didn't publish this news. Rebellious policemen are in the streets because of a lack of a fair salary and at the same time people opposing to the WC are fighting the very few "loyal" officers because of lack of decent life conditions; this doesn't precisely say a good thing about the actual government. If all of this fuzz gets to the mass media, people will stop relying on the actual government and are going to think that the country is reaching way out of their hands, therefore chaos will only become bigger and bigger and then the actual government would have to resign one way or another.

Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/05/17/362955/sao-paolo-police-clash-with-protesters/

Two sides of the story: Talks in Venezuela

Taken from: http://www.islamicinvitationturkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/362987_Nicolas-Maduro-.jpg

Colombian paper El País says that venezuelan talks between Maduro's government and the opposition reached a dead end. According to them, it's quite complicated that any agreement might be reached because both parts are not willing to give in.

This news also says that, according to a MUD lecture, government has not only dishonored the commitments taken over a month ago, but also that they don't even know the consequences this has done to the internal situation of the country.

Another important point to consider from this paper is that both sides seem to have different views about these debates. Maduro's government see them as a space to debate about the country's internal problems, while the MUD want those dialogues to go beyond retorics and expect to actually see results.

On the other hand, Terra news says that Maduro has told the media news that dialogues with the opposition are "frozen", as the opposers would say, but they are "hotter" than ever.

Maduro says that the conversation is really hot right now because there are governors of all the country debating an endless flux of topics. He also says that the MUD was invited to the talks but they froze those by themselves because of lack of results.

From what I've read, I can tell that MUD is quite right in some points. Those conversations seem to be a lot like ... well, every single politics conversation ever made; a lot of people tirelessly defending their own ideas about the problems of the country without reaching a common veredict. 

I also noticed that Maduro uses the word "opposer" to describe pretty much everyone who's not part of his political view while the newspaper El País limited the use of this word to the MUD, therefore both sides are actually telling the truth about conversations being dead or alive, which is kinda paradoxical if you ask me.

Sources: http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2014/05/20/actualidad/1400552224_091772.html
http://noticias.terra.com.br/mundo/america-latina/maduro-diz-que-dialogo-com-oposicao-esta-mais-quente,5f19353f9c616410VgnCLD2000000ec6eb0aRCRD.html

China Hacking US: Two countries, two versions

Taken from: http://jto.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/w1-t1-chinahack-a-20140521-e1400553393423-870x479.jpg

According to USA Today, these five chinese military members hacked various U.S. enterprises to steal volumes of trade secrets and intellectual property. These companies are: Westinghouse Electric, U.S. Steel, SolarWorld, United Steel Workers Union, Allegheny Technologies Inc.and Alcoa.

They also say that they were using military and intelligence resources to download a massive quantity of data, such as strategic plans, prices, designs, costs from these industries, which include nuclear power, solar power and metals.

Of course China was prompt to react. According to China Daily, "Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang described the US move as "based on fabricated facts" and "grossly violates the basic norms governing international relations and jeopardizes China-US cooperation and mutual trust"."

China also defend itself by saying that USA did not say if the "hacking" was or not for military security purposes, pretext that has been used by the US to hack many other countries like China, in which case, not only government has been targeted by cyber spies, but also their companies and universities, as Snowden revealed.

Let's be honest here, am I the only one who thinks US government is being absolutely cynical? The NSA has been known to invade the virtual privacy of most countries in the name of security. Therefore, I'm not sure if USA has the right of making such a big fuss over this.

About China, well, I can't say they did or that they did not hack those companies and stole that amount of information. I don't have any proof to condemn or save them. Both USA and China are the ones that need to talk and see how they can solve this, because, if they don't, this could be a huge step into returning to an era of Cold War.

Sources: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/19/us-accuses-china-of-cyber-espionage/9273019/
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/us/2014-05/20/content_17519691.htm

Is Japan brainwashing kids?: China Daily appears to think so

Taken from: http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1802/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1802R-21640.jpg

According to China Daily, Japan is brainwashing kids by changing the texts in schools so the chinese Diaoyu islands are known as the japanese Senkaku islands.

Daily China also says that "The fact-twisting textbooks for schools will teach Japanese students a false version of history,which risks breeding generations of confrontation, says a Xinhua News Agency commentary" and that "Keeping Japan's younger generations, the future of the nation, ignorant of the truth of history shows the recklessness of the Abe administration and its willingness to gamble regional peacefor its own shameful aims."

As you would expect, there's nothing about such a thing in any japanese newspaper. I personally think this is not precisely because of a need to hide the truth but because it was a pointless argument to counter-attack. Even though the Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands conflict is still not solved and both countries have actually something to prove their sovereignity over this territory, this article is so poorly written and argumented that is a complete waste of time for any serious reporter to say something about it. This article shows more the unilateral, unchangable, point of view of the writer than a serious investigation been made about this "brainwashing", therefore it just makes no sense debating about it.

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/China-Japan-Relations/2014-01/30/content_17327188.htm

Syrian rebels armed with anti-tank weapons: Is US involved or not?

Recently, the rebels in Syria have been spotted holding a new weapon in their arsenal, a BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile, which are US-made tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided anti-tank missiles. You can watch some videos here, here, and here.

According to Fars News, the missiles have been seen at the hands of Hazem militants, who are loyal to former head of the military council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Salim Idris, in Idlib countryside in Northwestern Syria. These militants are recently operating MANPADS as well, shoulder-launched anti- aircraft missiles also made by the USA.

Fars News also reported that their sources said the US has supplied the anti-tank missiles to the militants fighting against Assad.

In RT is said that if this is true, it would be “the first advanced US weapon to be deployed in more than three years of civil war.”

They also say that "Syrian tank armor is not thick enough to withstand the BGM-71 TOW rockets. To save his tanks, Assad has shifted the brunt of his anti-rebel operation to heavy air force bombardments, which claim a heavy toll among civilians,” Debkafile continued. “Washington is therefore confronted with its next decision about whether to give the rebels sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons as well."

Taken from: https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQA-S6C0jiVZ_3q4&w=377&h=197&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.syrianperspective.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F04%2FUnited-States-secretly-sending-anti-tank-missiles-to-Syrian-rebels-reports-YouTube.png&cfs=1

On the other hand, according to Reuters, the shipments the USA sends to the syrian rebels are quite modest and they do not contain advanced weaponry, since they fear it could be taken by the syrian government, therefore MANPADS missiles are definetly not included in the shipments.

If the USA declaration about this is true, we could also look at other options about how could the rebels get such advanced weaponry:- It could have been supplied by Saudi Arabia. 

- It could have been acquired via the Lebanese black market.

- The missiles could have been captured from regime forces. Hizbullah is known to have TOWs in its inventory, and Iran is manufacturing its own copy of TOW, called Toophan, it could have delivered those to pro-Assadists. However, it should be noted that as of now there is no evidence of Hizbullah bringing its TOWs into Syria or of Toophan missiles being used by pro-Assad forces.

Taken from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/TOW_antitank_greek.jpg/350px-TOW_antitank_greek.jpg

The only way to verify the true supplier of these weapons is to wait until more photos and videos are taken, and then try to see which would be the true suppliers of such massive weaponry. Until then, even though the USA - support theory would be the most probable, it's not necessarily the true one, so there's no way to make a veredict.

Bibliography:

- http://rt.com/usa/us-syria-moderate-opposition-weapons-921/

- http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930118000768

- http://spioenkop.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-new-weapon-on-syrian-battlefield-bgm.html

- http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/04/us-usa-syria-rebels-idUSBREA331ZI20140404

Nuova politica ambientale in Europa

Per il 2030, l'unione europea ha cercato di sviluppare una nuova politica ambientale. In particolare, i nuovi pilastri di questa nuova politica sono: la riduzione delle emissioni di gas a effetto serra; l’aumento dell’utilizzo di energie rinnovabili; delle politiche di efficienza energetica più ambiziose; la riforma del mercato delle emissioni; un nuovo sistema di governance; e una serie di nuovi indicatori per assicurare un sistema energetico competitivo e sicuro.

Un tema principale di questa è l’obiettivo di ridurre le emissioni del 40% rispetto al livello del 1990. Per raggiungere questo ambizioso traguardo, la Commissione ha previsto che i settori vincolati dalla direttiva sul mercato ETS dovranno garantire una riduzione del 2,2% annuo. Gli altri settori, non compresi nel mercato ETS, dovranno generare una riduzione del 20% al di sotto del livello del 2005. Questo sforzo sarebbe ripartito equamente tra tutti gli Stati membri. Inoltre, la Commissione invita il Consiglio e il Parlamento a concordare, entro la fine del 2014, che l’UE si impegni a realizzare una riduzione del 40% nell’ambito dei negoziati internazionali per un nuovo accordo mondiale sul clima, che si concluderanno nel 2015 a Parigi.

Presa da: http://www.noticiassin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Union-Europea.jpg

Personalmente aspetto che questa nuova politica ambientale non sia un fiasco come il protocollo di Kyoto. Sarebbe bello che ci sia per lo meno un paese del primer mondo che serva come esempio al resto del mondo per prendere coscienza del nostro mezzo ambiente (specialmente perché se é un paese primermondista sará molto piú menzionato per i mezzi di telelcomunicazioni internazionali).

Anche se il vero resultato di questa politica si vedrá nel 2030, se si vede per lo meno qualsiasi diminuzione delle emissioni di gas serra e un aumento dell' efficienza dell' energía a breve termine sará molto piú che quello che si viene facendo questo secolo. Perció, anche se l'idea di riparare il mondo suona molto utópica, se si puó per lo meno diminuire il danno che si viene facendo, quello giá é un guadagno per tutti noi.

Preso da: http://www.geopolitica.info/la-nuova-politica-energetica-e-ambientale-europea/

Ucraina richiama i riservisti

Il Consiglio di Sicurezza Nazionale ucraino ha deciso di richiamare i riservisti per “garantire la sicurezza e l’integrità del territorio”. Questo si fece per la contromossa di Kiev in seguito allo sbarco di truppe russe in Crimea ed alla presenza di migliaia di militari e mezzi corazzati  sul confine orientale dell’Ucraina,  i quali sono pronti per intervenire nel caso che arrivasse l’ordine d’attacco.

La giustificazione morale accampata da Putin per aggredire l’Ucraina si basa principalmente sul fatto che nell’est del paese ed in Crimea una buona parte della popolazione è russofona ma, non per niente l’invasione della Crimea e la conquista degli aeroporti e degli scali navali della penisola, avvenuta negli ultimi giorni con l’ausilio di 6000 uomini fatti sbarcare in territorio ucraino con un ponte aereo, è stata portata avanti scandendo lo slogan “difendiamo la popolazione russa!” e favorendo la nascita di gruppi paramilitari di guerriglieri sostenitori dell’ex presidente Yanukovich.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2tptCw2ScQ

La situazione in Ucraina ha diventato molto peggiore in un tempo relativamente corto. La Russia ha deciso di intervenire di una maniera molto attiva in questa rivoluzione dopo il ritiro dell' ex presidente Yanukovic. É molto piú probabile che questa invazione sia stata per il debito tanto grande che questo paese ha con la Russia che per "diffendere la popolazione russa", ma, considerando questo, se l'America anche decide di inviare truppe all' Ucraina, utilizzando uno slogan come "diffendiamo la popolazione ucraina" o qualisasi scusa "umanitaria", questo potrebbe diventare una vera guerra internazionale.

Il governo ucraino deve avanzare con moltissima precauzione d' ora in poi, giacché qualsiasi movimento mal fatto potrebbe fare la differenza tra il fine di una rivoluzione e l' inizio di una vera guerra con loro come l'epicentro, e se succede la seconda, é sicuro che l´Ucraina sará esterminata della faccia del pianetta.