mediterranean

Authored by Vanand Meliksetian via Oilprice.com:

Spain’s new government has stepped up and offered to take in a rescue ship that is drifting in the Mediterranean sea with 629 migrants on board after Italy and Malta refused to let it dock.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a socialist who took office just over a week ago, gave instructions for the humanitarian vessel to be admitted to the eastern port of Valencia, his office said in a statement on Monday.

A reason frequently given by Western commentators for Russia’s support for President Assad is Russia’s supposed wish to protect its naval base in Tartus in Syria.  Some commentators have suggested conversely that one of the reasons for the whole Syrian war was to drive the Russians out of Syria.
In my opinion neither of these claims is true, but there is no doubt that one consequence of the war is that it has hugely increased the scale of Russia’s military presence in Syria beyond anything conceivable in 2011 when the Syrian conflict started.

At least 100 people are missing after a migrant boat capsized this week.

Here's the big picture that nobody seems to be talking about.

The decision comes a day after Russian media reported that Egypt is in talks to allow Russia use of military bases across the country.

The base is Russia’s only naval base in the Mediterranean.

(MEE) More than 3,000 migrants and refugees have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, while nearly 250,000 have made the journey to Europe, the International Organisation for Migration has said.

On a recent visit to Paris almost everyone I met asked me the same question: “Are you British insane? Are you really going to vote to leave the European Union?”
Based on the most recent polls, despite the deep scepticism of those same surveys after the last General Election, I could only answer: “It looks that way.”
Cue disbelieving looks, gasps and snorts of Gallic derision, often followed by the words: “You can always come and live here.”

(ZHE) Over the weekend Zero Hedge noted that US aircraft carrier, the USS Harry Truman, which has served as a launching point for a near-constant barrage of airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria and which since November has accounted for a little more than half of the total sorties flown over those two countries by the U.S.