The situation in Syria became significantly more complicated as Turkey has shot down a Russian bomber it said strayed into its airspace. This incident likely precludes the possibility that the US and Russia will cooperate any time soon in their activities against the Islamic State. The more immediate problem is how Russia will respond to this attack since it represents a serious challenge to Russia’s ability to maneuver to protect its military base near Latakia (which is very close to the place where the bombers were shot down). It also highlights the risks of US and allied airplanes operating in such close proximity to Russia airplanes–accidents are impossible to avoid completely.
One of the arguments used by those who deny that a climate change problem exists is the assertion that there was a “pause” in increasing temperatures in recent years. Indeed, using NOAA data there does seem to be a slight plateau in global surface temperatures (although it is hard to believe given the weather we’ve have this fall). New research, however, based upon NASA data, which includes more than land surface temperatures, indicates that there is, in fact, no pause and the the assertions claiming a pause use inconsistent time periods and data bases. Unfortunately, the evidence for increasing global temperatures appears to be conclusive.
A new study indicates that European banks are holding about €1 trillion worth of non-performing (“bad”) loans. This number reflects about 10% of the outstanding loans held by European banks to entities other than other banks–the equivalent rate for US banks is about 3%. The figure suggests that European banks may be especially vulnerable to any shap downturn in economic growth globally–something to wrry about since key countries such as China and Brazil seem to be experiencing dramatic slowdowns in their demand for European products.
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