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David Cameron has been warned that Britain cannot afford any more defense cuts in the wake of the growing threat posed by Vladimir Putin—despite claiming the UK military is strong enough to fend off Russian aggression. The Conservative chair of the Defense Select Committee, Rory Stewart, said Mr. Putin was watching to see if Britain was going soft on defense. He said Britain’s military could not stand another round of defense cuts after the election. Mr. Stewart’s stark warning comes after RAF fighters were scrambled to escort two Russian bombers in international airspace off the coast of Cornwall yesterday. A...

Climate Fraud: The United Nations climate chief blames the Philippines devastation on climate change, ignoring the historical record that 33 of the 35 most devastating storms occurred with CO2 below current levels. One can appreciate the genuine grief felt by an emotional Naderev "Yeb" Sano as the delegate from a Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan spoke at the start of two-week talks in Warsaw where more than 190 countries will try to lay the groundwork for a new pact to fight global warming. "We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now, right here," Sano told delegates in...

RAF Typhoon fighters won a mid-air showdown with two Syrian warplanes heading towards Britain’s main base in Cyprus, the Sunday People reports. The dramatic confrontation came after President Bashar Al-Assad’s air chiefs sent two Russian-made Sukhoi Su-24s to probe British air defenses, the report said. The Syrian bombers refused to respond to repeated attempts by the control tower at the UK’s Akrotiri air base to contact them. RAF pilots flying the advanced combat jet were scrambled before the Sukhois could enter our 14-mile air exclusion zone. The Typhoons – which can scream from runway standstill to seven miles high in...

Small quakes may act as a release valve that prevents catastrophic convulsions. Typhoons may release stress from faults, preventing violent earthquakes.Wikimedia Commons Typhoons pack enough punch to trigger slow earthquakes in eastern Taiwan, scientists have found. Slow earthquakes occur as a result of slippage or rupture of a geologic fault — the same process that leads to violent earthquakes. But unlike the sudden release of energy in an ordinary earthquake, slow quakes take place over the course of hours or even one or two days.Now, scientists in the United States and Taiwan have examined slow earthquake events in eastern Taiwan...

Scientists at Harvard University have found that tropical cyclones readily inject ice far into the stratosphere, possibly feeding global warming. The finding, published in Geophysical Research Letters, provides more evidence of the intertwining of severe weather and global warming by demonstrating a mechanism by which storms could drive climate change. Many scientists now believe that global warming, in turn, is likely to increase the severity of tropical cyclones. "Since water vapor is an important greenhouse gas, an increase of water vapor in the stratosphere would warm the Earth's surface," says David M. Romps, a research associate in Harvard's Department of...

QUEZON PROVINCE, Philippines, Nov 30 - "More than 300 people died after flash floods and landslides devastated three coastal towns and left swathes of the northern Philippines under water on Tuesday. The death toll was expected to rise as rescuers were unable to reach areas cut off by huge mudslides and fast-moving floodwater in the wake of tropical depression Winnie and as the country braced for another powerful storm. At least 306 people died in the towns of Real, Infanta and General Nakar in Quezon province, about 80 km (50 miles) east of Manila, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told...

Picture credit: TheCabal"I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat"LINK TO THREAD TEN Iran seeks swap of Brits for suicide attackers Report says 40 Revolutionary Guard 'volunteers' held by UK Iran apprehended British military personnel and Navy vessels earlier this week in order to secure release of 40 "suicide operations volunteers" held by the UK, according to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard source. The source told the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the British Army command in Iraq received the demand from the Revolutionary Guard, reported the Middle East Media Research Institute. According to the source,...