Russia has threatened to intervene in Ukraine if “Russian citizens” or “Russian interests” are threatened by Ukrainian police. The crackdown by Ukrainian authorities was sparked by the murder of a local politician who had tried to take down the flag of Russian separatists in the town of Horlivka. There are reports of 12 Ukrainian citizens being kidnapped by the separatists. Russian Foreign Minister continued to blame the US for the turmoil in Ukraine, saying that ““So I have no grounds not to think that Americans direct this show in the most hands-on manner….They have an excessive influence. Lavrov made the statement after the visit by US Vice-President Biden to Ukraine.
Scientists are predicting a high likelihood that a strong El Niño will develop in the Pacific later this year. If the prediction comes true, then most computer models suggest that 2014 and 2015 will be very warm years. The El Niño effect is strongly correlated with high rates of precipitation on the US West Coast (perhaps bringing relief to the current savage drought in California) as well as very high temperatures across the globe. The last major El Niño was in 1997-98 and 1998 was one of the hottest years on record.
The Guardian ran a very chilling story about US Federal Bureau of Investigation tactics to coerce Muslims to become informants to the Bureau. There are charges that individual Muslims are placed on “no-fly” lists which prevents them from traveling. They are then told that their names will be removed from the lists only if they agree to inform on suspicious activities in local Muslim communities with which they are familiar. If true, the tactic is an egregious abuse of state power. Being asked to be an informant is one thing; being coerced to become an informant is an illegitimate technique.
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