"Gold is a pretty metal, soft and easy to work with for artists and with some interesting electrical properties, but otherwise rather useless other than as a symbol of wealth and power. If an alien race wanted to conquer the Earth (although one has to wonder what there could possibly be here on Earth worth the trouble) all they would have to do is start handing out 500 pounds of gold to every living human being and the financial/political foundations of our civilization would crumble overnight. I am not convinced that would be a bad thing in the long term" -- Michael Rivero
An under-the-radar Army missile defense mission in southern Turkey got a boost this month when a new operational headquarters that was seven years in the making finally came to fruition.
The so-called Ready Building, where soldiers are responsible for surveillance and early warning of tactical ballistic missile threats, also [services forces] operating at one of the Army’s more austere and secretive locations.
In the aftermath of the first round of elections in Turkiye, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a speech on 23 May where he vowed that the opposition will be “erased from politics,” in what was seen as a threat to his main rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
“We will attack the polls on May 28 … opposition leaders will be erased from politics,” Erdogan said at a rally of his supporters in Malatya ahead of the runoff election scheduled for this coming Sunday.
On the morning of May 24, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted to attack Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs of the Black Sea Fleet. The ship was ensuring the safety of the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in the economic zone of Turkey.
Three unmanned boats targeted the ship at about 5.30 am local time. The incident took place 140 kilometers northeast of the Bosphorus.
As a result of response fire, the attack failed. All Ukrainian boats were destroyed by fire from the standard armament of the Russian ship:
Turkish intelligence (MIT) says it has uncovered a spy network linked to the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, according to Turkish media reports on Tuesday. The network allegedly operated within Turkey and consisted of 15 individuals.
The investigation led to the arrest of 11 members, who reportedly were trained in Israel and sent to Turkey with the aim of establishing a company involved in trading with Iran.
Turkey's main opposition presidential candidate has promised to expel all refugees from the country in a bid to attract nationalist voters ahead of the second round of elections on 28 May.
In his first public address since the elections last Sunday, in which he came in almost five points behind President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kemal Kilicdaroglu criticised the longterm ruler's immigration policies.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that the Black Sea grain export deal designed to keep goods flowing through Ukrainian ports has been extended for two more months. Erdogan’s statement comes just one day before Moscow could have scrapped the agreement over long-standing impediments to its own fertilizer and grain exports, despite technical exemptions.
Although Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s victory in the second round of the presidential election in Turkey is almost assured ahead of the second round of votes, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in case of victory, would alter the country’s foreign policy and put the relationship with Russia into a framework that is acceptable to the US. The question surrounding Kilicdaroglu is whether he would introduce sanctions against Russia or turn Turkey away from its newfound independent foreign policy.
The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept up and jailed a team of international observers on hand to monitor election day activity in Turkey on Sunday, members of the team told The Intercept in a statement.
The delegation had not been granted official observer accreditation by the Erdogan government, but were formally invited by the HDP, the leading Kurdish party and a key member of the opposition coalition.
