‘We’ll crush them!’ Greece threatens NATO ally Turkey over Aegean islets

Greece’s top military brass have fired off a set of unusually stern warnings to Turkey, threatening to crush its troops if they dare to land on any disputed islet in the Aegean Sea – but Ankara didn’t mince its words either.

Reacting to violations of Greek airspace by Turkish jets over the Aegean, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos warned that Ankara would pay a price. “If they make the slightest move, we will crush them,” Kammenos threatened. Athens wants peace and harmony, he said, but it won’t “concede a single centimeter” of its land.

The minister was visiting a military outpost on the small Aegean island of Leros, so the bellicose rhetoric could be explained by his desire to raise the troops’ morale. But it was also echoed by Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, chief of the Hellenic General Staff.

“If the Turks land on a rocky islet, we will raze it to the ground. That is a red line that is espoused by the government,” Apostolakis declared. He suggested that a military confrontation with Turkey is a possibility, but said “along with the US and the European Union, we want to ensure that the Turks do not reach that point.”

It comes after Greece’s military said that a pair of Turkish F-16s made a flyover of the island of Kastelorizo in the eastern Aegean on Thursday, minutes after a helicopter carrying Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos traveled through the area en route to Athens.

Turkey, however, will not allow “any fait accompli in the Aegean and the Mediterranean,” according to Gen. Hulusi Akar, chief of its General Staff. There is no way that Turkey will back down “from the rights of our country and our people,” he said.

Despite formally being NATO allies, Greece and Turkey share an uneasy history. The modern-day Turkish Republic was founded after a bloody war with Greece and Western powers back in 1923.

Hostility between Athens and Ankara persisted throughout several decades, reaching its peak during the Cyprus Crisis, which almost erupted into full-scale war after Turkish troops invaded the north of the island in 1974.

urrently, Greece and Turkey have several disputes over the Aegean. The sea is dotted with dozens of small islets, making delimitation of the maritime border especially challenging. Several clashes between both countries’ warships have taken place over the last few years, along with numerous mid-air encounters of Turkish and Greek jets.

At times, both countries have tried to come to an agreement over the issue, but to no avail so far.

https://www.rt.com/news/447106-greece-turkey-threat-aegean/

Game Changer: French Police to Join Yellow Vests After Finding Out Gov’t is Ripping Them Off Too

France — As the “gilets jaunes” or “yellow vests” protests continue to take place across France, the government has been slowly acquiescing to the demands of citizens. However, the concessions have not been enough and so they’ve stayed in the streets although mostly calm. Also in the streets are the French police, who, according to reports, are also growing wary with the French state.

The protests have been ongoing for around a month now and the police force is tiring out—and they aren’t getting paid for it. Police in France have racked up a massive 23 million hours of overtime as they work protests and not a single one of them have been paid for it.

Once the union realized that their officers were not being paid the money they were owed, the Alliance Union called on officers across France to only handle emergencies only as they negotiated with the interior ministry over their compensation.

On Wednesday, activists called on police to cross the line and join them. Police did not rule this option out and they went so far as to threaten the French government with doing just that.

Negotiations between three unions—Alliance, UNSA-Police and Unity-SGP-FO—and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Tuesday failed to reach a settlement, according to Newsweek. As talks resumed on Wednesday, France 24 reported that activists were calling on forces across the country to commit to a “slowdown” and only respond to emergencies until the dispute had been settled.

The slowdown took place and yet the government still failed to address their concerns. So, police held a “black day for the police” protest on Wednesday. Now, they are threatening Act II, and even Act III. Using the term ‘Act’, the police are aligning themselves with the yellow vests as this is a similar tactic used in the current demonstrations.

“Despite our repeated appeals to the President of the Republic to announce an emergency plan for the security forces, so far nothing has been said,” the union said this week.

The Interior Minister, Christophe Castaner claims that paying the officers what they are owed will “take time” and finding the money isn’t easy.

“It is in a spirit of dialogue and mutual trust that we will provide concrete responses to our security forces,” he said.

However, the police do not appear to be buying into the rhetoric and a “blue vest” protest now appears to be imminent.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/police-yellow-vests-join-protests/

Islamic State threatens US & EU cities with drone attacks in chilling new poster after Gatwick chaos

Terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has launched a new propaganda campaign against the West, threatening US & EU cities with drones, in a new poster prompted by the travel chaos at London’s Gatwick Airport.

The post, circulating on social media, shows a photoshopped image of a drone carrying cargo with the terrorists’ logo, ominously flying over New York city, with five separate scenes of carnage at the bottom, seemingly the aftermaths of attacks on Western cities carried out by IS.

Attached is the tagline: “Sender: The Islamic State.”

https://www.rt.com/uk/447144-isis-drones-attack-gatwick/

Highly Decorated Officer Arrested for Filming Himself Raping Over a Dozen Animals

A Louisiana cop has been arrested on over a dozen charges of sexual abuse against animals after police raided his home and found multiple disgusting videos he produced.

Bossier City, LA — A police officer from the Bossier City Police Department has been arrested this week for filming an unspeakable act with an animal. Officer Terry Yetman, 38, has been charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of animals—and he produced the evidence himself.

According to the Louisiana State police, Yetman was arrested on December 19 and charged with 20 counts of sexual abuse of animals by performing sexual acts with an animal, and 20 counts of filming sexual acts with an animal.

Yetman was a decorated officer on the departments Domestic Task Force. The task force was responsible for championing the rights of domestic violence victims and their families. And, just this year, Yetman was awarded the the 2018 Trey Hutchison Award for his work on the force.

According to the Bossier Parish sheriff’s department, Hutchison was killed in the line of duty in August 2004 as he responded to a domestic violence call. Officer Yetman was given this award and “recognized for (his) outstanding efforts over the past year to champion the protective rights of domestic violence victims and their families,” according to the department.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/highly-decorated-officer-arrested-for-filming-himself-raping-over-a-dozen-animals/

Amazon’s Alexa Goes Haywire, Tells Customer To ‘Kill Your Foster Parents’

One of Amazon’s newest projects is researching ways to make Alexa a more human-like communicator for customers, but sometimes the virtual assistant’s language comes across as creepy and offensive.

New research is making Alexa better mimic human response, Reuters reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The research sometimes results in awkward moments for people who frequently interact with the device.

One user, for instance, was surprised after Alexa said: “Kill your foster parents.” It’s not an isolated incident, according to Reuters. There are also instances of Alexa chatting with users about graphic sex acts and dogs defecating.

The report also showed sources noting that a hack of Amazon traced back to China likely exposed some customers’ data. The hack comes as the company works night-and-day on operations making artificial intelligence better at handling complex human interactions.

“Many of our AI dreams are inspired by science fiction,” Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s vice president and head scientist of Alexa Artificial Intelligence (AI), said during a talk last month in Las Vegas.

https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/21/amazon-facebook-privacy/

Mitch McConnell Rejects Trump Call for ‘Nuclear Option’ to Fund the Wall

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rejected President Donald Trump’s call to partially fund the border wall with a simple majority vote on Friday, suggesting not enough Senate Republicans support the measure.

President Trump called on McConnell to use the “nuclear option,” or switch to a simple majority vote in the Senate, to pass the continuing resolution (CR) that would partially fund the border wall. The House passed a CR last night that would fund $5.7 billion in border security.

“Mitch, use the Nuclear Option and get it done!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Our Country is counting on you!”

McConnell spokesman David Popp released a statement on Friday, contending that the Majority Leader continues to oppose going to a simple majority, or 51 votes, to partially fund the border wall. Popp said not enough Senate Republicans support the measure.

Popp said:

The Leader has said for years that the votes are not there in the Conference to use the nuclear option. Just this morning, several senators put out statements confirming their opposition, and confirming that there is not a majority in the conference to go down that road.

Retiring Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) all released statements on Friday, opposing the nuclear option to fund the wall.

“We have rules to follow. I want to put a stop to this practice of the Senate breaking its rules to change its rules,” Alexander said. “I will not vote to turn the Senate into a rule-breaking institution, and I hope that my colleagues will not.”

Not all Senate Republicans agree with the three retiring GOP lawmakers.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) tweeted after the House passed its spending bill with wall funding that the Senate can do the same if it went to a simple majority. Daines noted that McConnell went “nuclear” to confirm judges through Congress’ upper chamber.

“House just passed a bill that fully funds government and enables @realDonaldTrump to secure our border/build the wall. Senate can do same by eliminating the filibuster,” Daines charged. “51 votes, same as we do for judges!”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/21/mitch-mcconnell-rejects-trump-call-for-nuclear-option-to-fund-the-wall/

Pope To Pedophile Priests: Turn Yourselves In

"Convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice."

Pope Francis dedicated his Christmas message in the Vatican's Clementine Hall on Friday to the issue that he lamented as having "undermined" the credibility of the church: the ongoing pedophilia scandal allegedly involving hundreds of Catholic Church officials.

In his strongest statement on the scandal yet, the Pope urged all priests who have molested or raped children to turn themselves in — and prepare themselves for "divine justice."

"Convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice," Pope Francis told predatory priests.

The church, Francis vowed, will "never again" cover up abuse by clergy. "Let it be clear that before these abominations the Church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes," he said, USA Today reports.

"This is no easy task, since the guilty are capable of skillfully covering their tracks," he said. To help bring the predators to justice, the Pope urged those who have been abused to come forward: "The Church asks that people not be silent, but bring it objectively to light, since the greater scandal in this matter is that of cloaking the truth."

Comparing the predators who betrayed their vows to Judas betraying Christ, Francis warned that a Judas will "always be present" in the church, but promised that never again would the church fail to be vigilant about weeding such betrayers out.

"The sins and crimes of consecrated persons are further tainted by infidelity and shame; they disfigure the countenance of the Church and undermine her credibility," he said.

Though the church is currently in a period of darkness, he said, quoting Romans 13:12, it will emerge from these scandals stronger. "The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light," he said.

NPR notes that the pope also offered "heartfelt thanks" to members of the media "who were honest and objective and sought to unmask these predators and to make their victims' voices heard."

Francis' strong comments come after a series of much-maligned responses by the church's leadership to revelations of appalling actions by clergy and evidence of widespread cover-ups going back decades — and potentially going all the way to the top.

A flood of accusations in both Chile and the U.S., in particular, have shaken the church to its core, triggering a series of investigations, strong criticism of the Pope's handling of the crises, and prompting him to call for a meeting in February of church leaders to work through plans to prevent further abuses of power by predator priests.

Among the cardinals and bishops of the Curia present for the Pope's address was the dean of the cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, "who has long been blamed for the Vatican’s refusal to acknowledge the depth of the problem during the quarter-century pontificate of St. John Paul II," USA Today reports.

NPR notes that the speech comes a few days after the pope accepted the resignation of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Alexander Salazar, who was accused of sexually abusing a child in the 1990s and was the subject of a 2002 police report, but spared any charges by the attorney general. Despite church authorities being aware of the accusations against him, Salazar was allowed to remain a bishop under undisclosed restrictions.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/39591/pope-pedophile-priests-turn-yourselves-james-barrett