A draft report on arms exports, which will be tabled at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg later this week, suggests launching an investigation into how EU-made weapons end up in the possession of terrorists in the Middle East.

One provision of the document, presented by German MEP Sabine Lösing, says that the European Parliament is “shocked at the amount of EU-made weapons and ammunition found in the hands of Daesh* in Syria and Iraq.”

Despite the rumors that no one is willing to host the trade mechanism over fears of US sanctions, France or Germany have been named as the most viable options.

Either France or Germany might become the host nation for the European clearing house, usually referred to as a "special purpose vehicle" (SPV) — a payment mechanism that would allow European companies to bypass US-imposed sanctions on Iran.

The establishment of this mechanism is widely viewed as the moment of truth on whether the EU is genuinely ready to live up to its promise to keep the so-called Iranian nuclear deal. And, as US sanctions kicked in on November 5, Tehran is becoming more restless regarding the establishment of the SPV, the Guardian notes.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Sajjadpour has already expressed his frustration at the pace with which the SPV is being set up, saying: "What is lacking is both speed and efficiency."

In recent weeks, NATO conducted its largest military exercises in decades in the frigid waters and icy mountains of Norway. But something odd happened. The GPS signals guiding ships, aircraft, tanks, trucks and troops started to fail.

Civilian airliners, cars, trucks, cargo ships and smart phones operating in and around Norway and Finland experienced similar disruptions.

Why?

Russia is the chief suspect.

It was riled by the scale and location of NATO’s Trident Juncture manoeuvres — despite having itself conducted several massive military exercises in the Baltics recently.

The ultra-nationalist crowds that flocked to Poland for its independence day march were seen performing Nazi salutes and burning flares at the event attended by staggering 200,000 people. Police, however, stood idly by.

Crowds of people, including various far-right groups, unleashed a sea of fire and smoke on the streets and squares of the Polish capital of Warsaw during an event marking a centenary of Poland's independence on Sunday. Videos posted on social media show a Warsaw square being lit with thousands of red flares burnt by the marchers.

Addressing the issue, chief of Britain's defence staff General Sir Nicholas Carter noted earlier that the British Armed Forces were making "sensible" contingency plans for Brexit and other matters.

"There are contingency plans being made, there are discussions being held behind the scenes as to what support our armed forces will do," British Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence People and Veterans Tobias Ellwood said on the 'Ridge on Sunday' TV show. "With the transition from Brexit, if there is a requirement to provide assistance we're looking right across the full spectrum of requirements to make sure that we are prepared," he added.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, was questioned on Monday in Poland as part of a parliamentary investigation into a pyramid scheme that swindled thousands of Poles during his time as prime minister.

The Amber Gold scandal, which came to light in 2012, was one of the biggest business affairs in Poland since the fall of communism in 1989.

The case is being investigated by the Polish government, led by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which set up a special multi-party commission that has questioned dozens of state officials.

European Council President Donald Tusk lashed out at US President Donald Trump after the latter expressed opposition to the idea of a European army, and also warned against the rise of right-wing nationalist movements within the EU.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, criticized Trump on Saturday, accusing the latter of being against "strong and united" Europe, following the US president's criticism of the idea of a European army.

"For the first time in history we have an American administration that is, to put it mildly, not enthusiastic about a united and strong Europe," Tusk said in a speech on the eve of celebrations to mark Poland's 100th anniversary of independence.

France has vowed to fulfill plans to defy the US’ sanctions on Iran while increasing the international role of the euro in order to prevent Washington from acting as the world’s “trade policeman”.

France’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, told the British newspaper Financial Times that Europe is planning the formation of a special financial channel to Iran in order to keep trade flowing with the country and assure its own “economic sovereignty”, with the aim of making the euro as powerful as the dollar.

“Europe refuses to allow the US to be the trade policeman of the world,” Le Maire stated in an interview in Brussels, emphasising that Europe must “affirm our sovereignty” in regards to the US sanctions on Iran and its wider economic hegemony.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister has issued a rather undiplomatic request to Canadian academic and internet sensation Jordan B. Peterson, thrilling a Stockholm audience by expressing her desire to see him fade from the public eye.

Speaking on a “pro-women” panel in Sweden’s capital on Wednesday, Margot Wallström said that Peterson should "crawl back under the rock he came from,” adding that she "can't grasp why people waste so much time on that man." The snide remarks were reported by local media that covered the event.

Peterson recently visited Sweden to promote the international release of his new book, '12 Rules For Life, an Antidote to Chaos.’ The book has been slammed by the left as conservative snake oil and an affront to feminism.

After a five-year legal battle, James Dyson has finally succeeded in his long-running legal battle to get the EU’s top court to strike down their absurd regulation that vacuum cleaners should be tested… without dust. The regulation enabled Dyson’s German competitors to market their vacuum cleaners with superior energy labelling, despite the fact that their performance dropped significantly as soon as their bags contained dust. That is, as soon as they were used…

Earlier, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that Scotland should come up with its own version of the Brexit "backstop" scheme which is currently being negotiated on for the Irish border by the European Union and the United Kingdom.

The Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, ruled on Thursday that the UK authorities can't stop a legal case that seeks to determine if the UK has the right to unilaterally reverse Brexit, which is being considered by Europe's top court, Reuters reported citing a lawyer close to the case.

Norway has evacuated all 137 crew from one of its warships after it collided in a fjord with a Maltese oil tanker.

Eight people were lightly injured in the collision in the Hjeltefjord near Bergen. The KNM Helge Ingstad frigate has been listing dangerously.

The warship had been returning from Nato military exercises. The tanker, the Sola TS, was slightly damaged and it appears that it did not spill oil.

The incident led to the shutdown of a major oil terminal and a gas plant.

The mess left by foreign soldiers during NATO's Cold War-style exercise on Norwegian soil includes arable land damaged by tracks and piles of human excrement.

A total of 442 complaints have been filed with the Norwegian Armed Forces during Joint Trident 2018, a NATO drill said to be the largest in decades. Some have drawn attention to foreign soldiers relieving themselves near kindergartens, schools and sports facilities, national broadcaster NRK reported.

Most of the complaints are from farmers whose plots and pastures have suffered damage from vehicles during the drill. Others, by contrast, lament the unsanitary conditions left by NATO soldiers.

"This is terrible, it's about having common decency. We have to clean up after soldiers who have relieved themselves. It's literally a s****y job", Major Marianne Bø responsible for damages and environmental

Russia is finishing the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capable of reaching any point in continental Europe if they start from the Kaliningrad region, or Canada if they fly from Chukotka, the Russian Armed Forces' official newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda ("Red Star") reported on Tuesday.

The new UAV systems will be capable of performing tasks to a range of up to 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles), the newspaper said.

Over the past six years, almost 40 "unmanned" military units and subunits have been formed within the Russian army, they received over 1,800 vehicles capable of conducting reconnaissance at a distance of up to 500 kilometers, the publication said.

Our country is preparing to hand over a huge amount of money for absolutely nothing in return

Russia is flexing its muscle or is at least engaged in some serious trolling just as Trident Juncture 18 is underway in Norway — NATO’s largest drills in decades with some 50,000 troops, 10,000 combat vehicles, 65 ships, and 250 aircraft.

On Friday a Russian Tupolev Tu-142 bomber unexpectedly flew close to the USS Mount Whitney at the very moment Marines on board were gathered for a group photo during the NATO military games.

Russian media confirmed the incident, describing the U.S. Sixth fleet's flagship (the command and control ship for the fleet) as being "blindsided" while the military and aircraft analysis site The Aviationist described the provocative flyover as "more or less overhead".

Turkey, thanks to the United Nations, will now officially be in charge of deciding not only who is a refugee but also where he or she will be placed or transferred. Turkish state authorities have repeatedly threatened to flood Europe with refugees, such as President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's message to Europe in 2016:

"You cried out when 50,000 refugees were at the Kapikule border. You started asking what you would do if Turkey would open the gates. Look at me -- if you go further, those border gates will be open. You should know that."

Given the Turkish threats, this new official position for Turkey should be of concern.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted that Israel is behind what Iran calls "false flags" in Europe where Tehran has been accused of assassination plans.

Netanyahu on Thursday claimed that Israel had recently revealed a number of “Iranian plots to carry out attacks on European soil.”

Speaking to reporters after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart in Sofia, Netanyahu said he had “warned” Europe of what he called “possible Iranian attacks on its soil.”

He did not provide further details, but his comments could be a sign that the accusations recently raised by Belgium and Denmark against Iran had been triggered by the Israeli regime.

Trident Juncture 18, NATO's largest Arctic drills since the Cold War, kicked off last week in central Scandinavia, with 50,000 troops, 140 aircraft and 70 ships including a US carrier group simulating a response to an attack "from the north." Speaking to Sputnik, military observers said that it's obvious who this "northern threat" is meant to be.

On Wednesday, the Russian defense ministry confirmed that two Tu-160 strategic bombers had performed a 10 hour flight over neutral waters in the Barents and Norwegian Seas, prompting the UK to scramble jets to accompany them amid the massive NATO drills in the area. The same day, Russia announced it would be holding naval rocket firing drills near Finnmark, northern Norway, several hundred kilometers from the NATO exercises, starting next week.

Nato has said it will continue its military manoeuvres in Norway as planned despite Russian missile tests announced off the coast.

More than 50,000 Nato troops, 250 aircraft, 65 ships and 10,000 vehicles are exercising in Norway, Iceland and Finland as part of Trident Juncture, the biggest Nato drills since the Cold War.

But it has emerged that Russia will hold missile tests from ships off the Western coast of Norway from Thursday to Saturday. Moscow has called the Nato exercises “anti-Russian” and disputed that they are defensive in nature.

While the bulk of the war games will take place in central Norway, some operations will take place on the coast and in the Norwegian Sea.

Trials are underway of an EU-funded scheme where AI lie-detector systems will be used to scan potentially dodgy travelers coming from outside the bloc. Too Orwellian? Or just the latest step towards smoother travel?

Commencing from November 1, the iBorderCtrl system will be in place at four border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia and Greece with countries outside EU. It aims to facilitate faster border crossings for travelers while weeding out potential criminals or illegal crossings.

Like all AI technologies in their infancy, the system is still highly experimental and with a current success rate of 76 percent, it won’t be actually preventing anyone from crossing the border during its six month trial. But developers of the system are “quite confident” that accuracy can be boosted to 85 percent with the fresh data.

Europe’s coastal guards are examining whether Israel’s warplanes would be helpful tools in repressing refugees.

In September, the EU’s border management agency Frontex announced the start of trial flights for drones in Italy, Greece and Portugal. There was a major omission in the Frontex statement: the type of drones being tested have been used previously to attack Gaza.

Some details of the companies involved in these trials were published earlier this year. A “contract award notice” revealed that Israel Aerospace Industries was one of two bidders selected.

Israel Aerospace Industries is being paid $5.5 million for up to 600 hours of trial flights.

MPs will approve Theresa May's Brexit deal because they are 'terrified' of crashing out of the EU, David Davis has admitted.

The former Brexit secretary said 'irrational fear' would win out in Parliament if the PM manages to get any kind of agreement with Brussels.

Mr Davis tried to backpedal today by insisting no package based on Mrs May's Chequers plan would get passed.

But the comments, from a vehement critics of Mrs May's stance, will encourage Downing Street.

The premier is engaged in a desperate scramble to break the deadlock with the EU, with a 'backstop' for the Irish border still the main sticking point.

Members of the Social Democrat Youth, once a talent pool that produced many prominent Social Democrat politicians, have called Islam a "universal solution," expressed homophobic and anti-Semitic sentiments, and substituted the traditional Internationale anthem played at a party conference with an Islamic song.

The Social Democrats, Sweden's largest party, whose motto once was "Everyone belongs here," have announced a package of measures to stop the Islamization of its youth organization in Skåne County, which it claims has gone too far. Removing sponsorship has been is considered, Swedish Radio reported.

For several years, the Social Democrat Youth Skåne (SSU Skåne) has been ruled by a group of people spreading Islamic fundamentalist beliefs that contradict both the party's own platform and Swedish values, the daily newspaper Expressen reported.

The anti-EU campaigner issued the warning amid the Italian government’s standoff with Brussels over its proposed fiscal budget, with the bloc threatening hefty fines against Rome if it defies them.

Francesco Donato, director of Eurexit – a group campaigning for Italy’s withdrawal from the eurozone – has claimed the monetary union is looking more and more likely to collapse, urging Italy and others to pull out in an organized fashion to avoid the subsequent economic fallout.

Speaking to The Express on Wednesday, Donato said the “probability that sooner or later there will be an uncontrolled collapse of the eurozone is higher and higher,” highlighting mounting opposition to the union.

The so-called Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which has been much criticised by anti-mass migration politicians as being massively disadvantageous to first world migration-target nations, is made up of 23 goals which states worldwide are expected to sign up to. Some 17 of those goals are unacceptable to the Austrian government, reports best-selling national newspaper Kronen Zeitung, which is “seriously concerned about the content and objectives of the UN Migration Compact.”

Speaking earlier this month, conservative Austrian Chancellor Kurz said: “We view some of the points in this agreement very critically. We will, therefore, do everything to maintain the sovereignty of our country and ensure that we as the Republic of Austria can decide for ourselves on migration issues.”

At least 11 people have been killed and many injured after severe storms produced heavy rain and strong winds across Italy on October 29 and 30, 2018, causing widespread floods and damage. Some of the worst affected areas are on the west coast, particularly in Liguria. Many people were evacuated due to increased river levels across the country.

Winds up to 180 km/h (112 mph) were reported in parts of Italy on October 29, 2018, and blamed for the deaths of at least 6 of the 11 killed people. Trees were downed from the country's north down to capital Rome and further south to Naples.

Poland’s government is interested in establishing a permanent U.S. military presence in their country and they’re willing to pay for it.

The Polish defense ministry said there is a “clear and present need for a permanent U.S. armored division deployed in Poland,” and is willing to provide financial backing to host the soldiers that could reach $2 billion, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by Polish news outlet Onet.

The ”clear and present need” outlined in the document appeared to be sparked by Russia.

“Establishing such a force is necessary to present an unequivocal challenge and deterrence to Russia’s increasingly emboldened and dangerous posture that threatens Europe,” the proposal reads.

The Russian Navy plans to test missiles in international waters off Norway's coast this week, Norwegian and NATO officials say, as the Western military alliance conducts its largest military exercise since the end of the Cold War.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on October 29 the alliance was informed last week about the planned tests.

"Russia has a sizable presence in the north, also off Norway," Stoltenberg told the Norwegian news agency NTB.

"Large [Russian] forces take part in maneuvers and they practice regularly," he added.

Russian officials did not immediately comment on the planned missile tests, which come amid persistent tension between NATO and Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backs separatists in an ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine but accuses the alliance of provocative behavior near its borders.

Three vehicles crashed one into another, while the fourth attempted to evade the pile-up, but slid from the road.

Four US soldiers were injured in an accident involving four vehicles in Norway, according to a statement by the US military.

"The accident occurred when three vehicles collided and a fourth vehicle slid off the pavement and overturned while trying to avoid the three vehicles that had collided," US officials said, according to Reuters.

Three of the soldiers remain hospitalized and under observations, but their condition is stable, the report says. The fourth soldier was released after a short hospitalization.

Much has been said about the Trident Juncture 2018 NATO exercise being held in the immediate vicinity of Russia’s borders. This is the largest training event since the Cold War, but it’s only part of a broader picture, in which military war preparations targeting Russia are in full swing. Exercises are being coordinated, along with infrastructure facilities that are being built, expanded, and modernized. For instance, last week the construction of an aircraft maintenance hangar at Estonia’s Amari Air Base, the first military project fully funded by the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI), was completed.

US President Donald Trump earlier announced that Washington would be withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, citing alleged violations by Moscow. Russia has firmly denied the accusations and expressed regret at the decision.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that the US is currently in talks with its EU partners over Washington's decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty.

"We are in consultations with our European counterparts, I was speaking about it the day before with the German defense minister, and so as I said the consultations continue," Mattis said.

Ramstein Air Base in Germany has received around 100 containers of ammunition in the largest delivery of ordnance to the US forces in Europe since the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

The US Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa said that “a variety of munitions rolled into Ramstein during the month of October.” The delivery is intended to support NATO’s European Deterrence Initiative and pump up the resources available to US Air Force in Europe.

The leaders of Russia, France, Germany, and Turkey met in Istanbul on October 27 to discuss issues of the Syrian peace settlement. They also discussed the case of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that the European Union might make a collective decision to halt all arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. At the same time, she agreed with her French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that the decision should be made after more is known about those responsible for his death.

In a historic vote, the European Parliament has just approved, by a huge margin of 571 to 53, a complete ban on a range of single use plastics across the union in a bid to stop pollution of the oceans. One member of the parliament said if no action was taken, “by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans.” The MEPs backed a ban on plastic cutlery and plates, cotton buds, straws, drink stirrers and balloons sticks. The proposal also calls for a reduction in single use plastic for food and drink containers like plastic cups.

As Turkey escalates in the Eastern Mediterranean the real question is how determined Greece is to respond.

Greece is confronting a huge diplomatic and military dilemma after Turkey sent a seismic vessel to the eastern Mediterranean to allegedly explore the existence of natural gas deposits.

The vessel began investigating on Tuesday night (16.10.2018) before withdrawing temporarily after the Greek Navy sent a strict radio alert.

After the incident, Turkey sent three frigates and two patrol ships there to protect the movements of their own seismographic ship.

Turkey, however, seems to be pushing tension by sending Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa vessel to explore in an area that includes part of the continental shelf of Greece.

On October 18, the Helsinki District Court sentenced the founder and editor-in-chief of the network publications MV-lehti and Uber Uutiset Ilya Yanichkin to 22 months in prison, and another person involved - human rights activist, lawyer and journalist Johan Beckman - to a year of probation. In addition, the convicts will have to pay 136,000 and 10,000 euros, respectively, to journalist Jessica Aro, the principal snitch who initiated the process.

In its ongoing battle against the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign Israel is pushing for European political parties to declare the movement “fundamentally anti-Semitic”. The latest drive saw Israel’s Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Ze’ev Elkin, attending a conference in Brussels backed by the Israeli government which proposed a text for prospective MEPs and political parties to sign up to before European elections in May next year.

The text, the Guardian reported, urges European parties to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) “working definition of anti-Semitism” and exclude from government any politicians or parties that breach it.

Most controversially, one of the red lines – based on a resolution adopted by Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in Germany in 2016 – calls on “all political parties to pass a binding resolution rejecting BDS activities as fundamentally anti-Semitic”.

TENS OF THOUSANDS of people have signed an online Government petition to stop a second Brexit referendum after mass protests in London last weekend saw Remainers demand a “People’s Vote”.

Italian police have arrested three migrant men, two Senegalese and one Nigerian, in connection with the alleged drugging, rape, and murder of 16-year-old Desirée Mariottini.

The three migrants, along with a fourth suspect who remains at large, are suspected of having drugged the 16-year-old to the point of unconsciousness and then raped her before she died of a drug overdose. She was abandoned in a known drug den in Rome’s San Lorenzo area, Il Giornale reports.

Prosecutors say they believe the arrested men fed Desirée drugs, starting at around 6 pm on the night of her death, and she was asleep during the acts of rape. It is also alleged that the migrants gave her a cocktail of drugs that they knew would lead to not only an overdose but would be fatal.

US Marines are landing in Iceland and warplanes are flying overhead in Scandinavia, just days ahead of the kickoff of Trident Juncture. The annual exercise, focused on the Arctic Circle and Scandinavia, is set to be the largest operation since the Cold War.

Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the INF treaty will have a multilateral negative impact. Earlier, Trump committed to withdraw from the accord citing violations on the part of Moscow.

Sputnik discussed whether President Trump will actually go through with his plan to pull out the US from the treaty with Dr. George Szamuely, political analyst and author of "Bombs for Peace: NATO's Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia."

Thousands of migrants are stuck in Bosnia and are now trying to enter the European Union as temperatures are dropping. It is believed that Croatia isn't their main interest, with their final destination being the wealthier countries of Western and Northern Europe.

Croatian riot police have clashed with migrants seeking to enter the country from across the Bosnian border, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of migrants broke a Bosnian police cordon and blocked the Maljevac border checkpoint in northwestern Bosnia in a bid to pressure Croatian authorities into allowing them clear path towards Western EU countries through Croatia.