Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who gained worldwide fame for a “selfie” taken with President Obama at the funeral of Nelson Mandela, has resigned her post, and has also stepped down as the leader of the Social Democrats. Ms. Thorning-Schmidt’s party was bested in this week’s elections by a bloc of center-right parties, in which the Danish People’s Party was the largest winner.
In other news, a stowaway in the wheel well of a British Airways flight from South Africa to the UK fell to his death on a London rooftop as the plane made its descent to land at Heathrow. A man who accompanied him survived, and is recovering in a hospital.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, LF, LP, Phyllis Chesler, RRN, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
ECB Says Pension Reform Reversal Could be Costly
‘Recovery to expand, but Greek crisis driving spreads up’
(supersedes previous)(ANSA) — Rome, June 18 — The European Central Bank said in its monthly bulletin Thursday that backtracking on pension reform in some eurozone countries could affect productivity and employment.
This could be the case in Italy, Portugal and Spain, where expectations on productivity and employment could turn out optimistic as a result of “risks connected to reversal of adopted reforms”, the ECB said. The ECB also said eurozone economic recovery “should expand further”, with analysts forecasting eurozone GDP growth at 1.55% this year, 1.9% in 2016, and 2% in 2017. However uncertainties over Greece and other geopolitical situations “continue holding recovery back” and have driven spreads between sovereign paper and their ultra-safe German counterparts up by 40 basis points in Italy and Spain, and by 60 points in Portugal. In Italy, the spread between the benchmark 10-year bond and it German equivalent opened Thursday at 155.1 points, up from 150.3 basis points at yesterday’s close.
The yield on Italy’s 10-year paper opened trading at 2.315%.
Eurozone inflation is expected to reach 0.3% in 2015, 1.5% in 2016 and 1.8% two years from now, according to the ECB.
As well, the ECB said its quantitative easing (QE) program of massive bond-buying is showing “positive results” and will continue at a pace of 60 billion euros a month through September 2016 or as long as needed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Euro Leaders to Discuss Greece at Emergency Summit
Eurozone leaders are to meet on Monday in Brussels for an emergency summit to discuss Greece after talks between finance ministers broke off without agreement on Thursday evening.
“It is time to urgently discuss the situation of Greece at the highest political level,” EU council president Donal Tusk said in a statement.
A few minutes earlier, at a press conference following the meeting, Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that “too little progress (had) been made in the talks between the institutions and Greece and that no agreement as yet (was) in sight”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Kremlin: Aid Possible if Athens Asks
Tsipras in Russia, accord signed on Turkish Stream pipeline
A view of Moscow’s Kremlin
MOSCOW — Russia is ready to consider providing financial assistance to Greece, Russian Deputy Premier Arkadi Dvorkovich told broadcaster Russia Today. “We will support any decision that will be proposed by Greece and by European partners. If Greece needs financial assistance, we will examine the issue”.
Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, added that Russia can consider the possibility of providing financial assistance to Athens only if it is requested by the Greek government.
A meeting is scheduled on Friday between Vladimir Putin and Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras on the sidelines of the economic forum in St Petersburg.
Russia and Greece signed a deal for a section of the so-called Turkish Stream gas pipeline on Friday, Kathimerini online reports quoting Russian media. The deal was signed between energy ministers Alexander Novak of Russia and Panagiotis Lafazanis of Greece, for a pipeline with a capacity of 47 billion cubic meters a year. Moscow, according to Novak, will give Athens a loan covering 100% of expenses of the gas pipeline and Gazprom will not control that section.
Construction of the Greek section of the Turkish Stream pipeline will start in 2016 and be completed by 2019. The two countries will have equal shares in the company, Novak was quoted by RT as saying at International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on Friday. “Our meeting today is a historical meeting… The memorandum expresses the readiness of both sides to bring the south direction of the pipeline to implementation,” Lafazanis said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greeks Withdraw €1bn in a Day as Capital Flight Intensifies
Greeks withdrew a further €1 billion from national lenders on Thursday, intensifying fears of a bank run, according to sources at the Bank of Greece. Over €2 billion has been withdrawn this week. ECB official Benoit Coeure warned Thursday that banks might stay closed on Monday to stem the crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Bank Deposit Outflows Topped 1 Bln Euros on Thursday: Sources
Greek savers pulled more than 1 billion euros from banks in one day on Thursday, three senior banking sources told Reuters, with the pace of withdrawals gaining speed since talks between the government and its creditors collapsed last weekend.
The withdrawals between Monday and Thursday have reached about 3 billion euros ($3.39 billion), representing about 2.2 percent of household and corporate deposits held by Greek banks at the end of April.
“There are no lines or panic, it has been a quiet and gradual phase of withdrawals,” one of the bankers said. “They are due to worries whether a deal will be clinched with the country’s lenders.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Debt: Fears Grow Over Greek Banks’ Health
Fears are growing over the health of Greek banks after indications that savers have withdrawn billions of euros in the past week.
Capital flight from beleaguered Greek banks this week alone could be more than €4bn (£2.9bn), reports say.
Savers are moving funds as time runs out to resolve Greece’s debt crisis.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has approved more emergency help for the banks and will review funding again on Monday, officials told news agencies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) The current leaders of Greece were not in power when the financially strapped nation was begging the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank for bailout funds a few years ago. However, for current leaders to now declare that such loans were somehow illegal and unjust is particularly galling to some, especially those currently attempting to get Athens to pay back what it owes.
And yet, that is precisely what a committee of the Syriza Party-led Greek parliament just concluded.
In April, as noted by Zero Hedge, Zoi Konstantopoulou, speaker of the Greek Parliament and member of Syriza, a socialist party, claimed she had assembled a new “Truth Committee on Public Debt,” whose purpose was to “investigate how much” of the country’s “debt is ‘illegal’ with a view to writing it off.”
On June 17, the committee released its preliminary findings, in which it concluded:
All the evidence we present in this report shows that Greece not only does not have the ability to pay this debt, but also should not pay this debt first and foremost because the debt emerging from the Troika’s arrangements is a direct infringement on the fundamental human rights of the residents of Greece. Hence, we came to the conclusion that Greece should not pay this debt because it is illegal, illegitimate, and odious.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Grexit ‘Beginning of the End of the Eurozone’: Greek PM
A Greek exit from the eurozone would be the beginning of the end of the single currency, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was quoted as saying Friday in a newspaper interview.
“The famous Grexit cannot be an option either for the Greeks or the European Union. This would be an irreversible step, it would be the beginning of the end of the eurozone,” Austrian daily Kurier quoted Tsipras as saying, in an interview published in German.
“That would be very negative for the people of Europe. But I must remind you that the debate about a Grexit began when the application of strict savings programmes began,” he said.
“The Greek government cannot absorb the savings programme forced upon it by the EU and the International Monetary Fund. The cuts would also not be positive for the Greek economy. Greece would not become more competitive and the debts would also not be reduced. The whole concept needs to be changed,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lagarde Warns Greece Close to Default, Demands ‘Adult’ Talks
IMF chief rules out ‘grace period’
(ANSA) — Luxembourg, June 18 — International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde urged Greece to get back to the negotiating table on Thursday and said Athens risked defaulting in its debt with the agency at the end of the month. “If Greece does not pay the installment it owes us by June 30, it will be in default with respect to the IMF,” Lagarde said, adding there would be “no grace period or possibility of delay”. She added: “there can only be a solution with dialogue. Now the emergency is re-establishing dialogue between adults in a room”. European Council President Donald Tusk on Thursday called an extraordinary eurozone summit on the Greece crisis on Monday June 22 at 19:00 after the Eurogroup failed to reach a deal amid widespread calls for Athens to make new proposals.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New York Lawyer Goes Nuts Over Texas Gold Plan
New York attorney Joe Patrice at Above the Law (a popular blog for lawyers) has issued a screed condemning Texas’s creation of a gold “bank” and has declared it contrary to the so-called supremacy clause in the United States constitution.
While reading the emotionally charged piece, one has to ask one’s self, “why is he so worked up over something that is going on 2,000 miles away in Texas?” It is to be funded with Texas tax dollars, so Patrice isn’t even paying for it. Nor will it impose any mandates or restrictions on Patrice at all. Nor is there any human rights issue at stake. This isn’t a case of police beatings or similar outrages. But, being a left-wing New Yorker apparently means that everything that happens everywhere is your business.
Patrice writes: “You may be wondering why any state would even want to build a gold repository when the federal government already provides one so secure and so large that most American allies keep their reserves there as well.”
As one reads on, it quickly becomes apparent that Patrice is mad that anyone would do anything that suggests that 100% total faith in the US government and the federal reserve is a bad thing. (Patrice of course ignores that many rich countries are attempting to get their goldout of the US.) In other words, Patrice is outraged that someone insulted our beloved government and central bank. Patrice is also angry that anyone would dare suggest that it is wise to keep wealth in an alternative to US dollars:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Prepared for the Worst’ Over Greece: Britain
(CITY OF LONDON) — Britain on Friday said it “must be prepared for the worst” as Greece risks exiting the eurozone in the absence of a deal over bailout repayments.
“We have entered the eleventh hour of this Greek crisis, and we urge the Greek government to do a deal before it is too late,” British finance minister George Osborne said in a statement ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Friday.
“We hope for the best, but we now must be prepared for the worst,” he said.
Britain, though not a member of the eurozone, counts the neighbouring bloc as its main trading partner.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne said Britain had already taken measures to increase its “economic security” from risks abroad.
“And clearly now we must go on and complete that plan,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Willing to Consider Loans for Greece
Russia is willing to consider giving financial aid to Greece, a Russian government official said Friday ahead of talks between the leaders of the two countries.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras traveled to Russia as his country struggles to reach a deal with its creditors for new loans it needs to avoid defaulting on debt payments at the end of the month. Without the bailout, Greece could be headed for bankruptcy or an exit from the euro.
Tsipras’s visit has given rise to speculation that the Greeks may be seeking Russian loans. He meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin later Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Central Bank Readies for Grexit ‘Crisis’
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is preparing for the possibility of a “crisis scenario” if Greece leaves the eurozone, the central bank’s chairman told German-language state broadcaster SRF on Thursday.
“We are watching the situation very closely, of course, but we still go on the assumption that in Europe a solution can be found,” Thomas Jordan said after the SNB announced that it was maintaining negative interest rates in a bid to weaken the franc.
If a “Grexit” does occur, Jordan said he expected turmoil in the financial markets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Authorities Say Charleston Church Shooter Confessed to Massacre
Dylann Roof has confessed to opening fire two days ago inside a historically black church in South Carolina, killing nine people, a source close to the investigation told Fox News on Friday.
Roof, 21, was charged with nine counts of murder and one count of weapon possession in connection with Wednesday night’s mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Authorities say Roof walked into a Bible study class at the church, stayed until the session was about to end, then began shooting.
Roof was arrested Thursday in North Carolina and extradited back to South Carolina ahead of a scheduled Friday bond hearing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Right on cue, the narrative that’s going to be hammered home on all this will exploit these tragic deaths for political gain. Here’s what you’re going to see unfold in the government-controlled media:
- A renewed call for a nationwide revocation of the Second Amendment and the outlawing of gun ownership by private citizens.
- The mainstream media screaming about how racial hatred is endemic across America, all while painting all white people as “violent extremists” who might open fire on innocent victims at a moment’s notice. Somehow, Texans will also be blamed in all this, even though this attack happened in South Carolina.
- Renewed calls for a ratcheting up of the police state surveillance of so-called “domestic extremists,” which will include anyone who believes in the U.S. Constitution and / or owns a firearm.
- Public condemnation of anyone who opposed the Patriot Act and unconstitutional government surveillance, along with ridiculous claims that if we only had more government spying on all the citizens, “we could have stopped this crime before it happened!”
[Comment: What media won’t talk about are the SSRI psychiatric drugs the perp was taking]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black Minister Leads Powerful Rally to Oppose CA’s Genocidal Mandatory Vaccination Bill — Video
(NaturalNews) Another influential group has joined the pushback to stop forced vaccinations in California: the black community. Speaking on behalf of Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, Minister Tony Muhammad, the group’s Western Regional Representative, gave a rousing speech in front of the capitol building in Sacramento earlier this week urging unification in the fight to stop corrupt lawmakers from eliminating vaccine exemptions.
Invoking the power of God in what he says is a “universal fight,” Muhammad warned rally attendees that the government is basically waging war against the people by trying to mandate vaccinations. As long as we let them, compromised elected officials like Senate Bill 277’s Dr. Richard Pan will gradually chip away at our collective rights, in this case the right to refuse dangerous medical treatment, until these tyrants assume complete control over every decision we make, including for our own children.
Comparing SB 277 to another Tuskegee-type experiment on humans, Muhammad expressed deep convictions about the heinous bill, which would disallow California parents the freedom to reject vaccinations for personal or philosophical reasons. Only medical doctors, it turns out, would be granted permission to decide whether or not other people’s children should be exempted from vaccination, removing proper guardianship of parents over their own children and handing it over to the state.
“When Pharaoh saw that he could not control the people, Pharaoh called his enchanters or his magicians and he made a decree to destroy all boy babies two and under,” thundered Muhammad to a boisterous crowd on the capitol steps, referencing a biblical story of similar government tyranny that resulted in mass death. “Could this be a bill to destroy all boy babies?”
Such a comparison is strikingly chilling in light of the fact that vaccines have been proven to cause horrific damage in children, including young boys who in some cases suffer permanent hormonal changes as a result of early exposure to vaccines. The presence of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in many vaccines was highlighted in a 2009 report by The Huffington Post that links them to the autism epidemic.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Charleston Church Shooting: Questions Swirl Around Suspect Dylann Roof
Dylann Roof has confessed to authorities to shooting and killing nine people this week at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, two law enforcement officials said Friday. One of the officials said that Roof, who is white, told investigators that he wanted to start a race war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Charleston Shooter Was on Drug Linked to Violent Outbursts
Dylann Storm Roof was taking habit-forming drug suboxone.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton Breaks With Obama on Trade, Despite Supporting Deal as Secretary of State
After being coy for weeks on her position, Hillary Clinton on Thursday clearly broke with President Obama on his trade push — despite having supported the trade deal he wants as secretary of state.
The now-Democratic presidential candidate made her position clear in an interview with veteran Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston.
After speaking at length about the uncertainty of what’s in the deal and trade in general, Clinton was pressed for a yes-or-no answer on whether she’d vote for the package going through Congress.
“At this point, probably not,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
DHS Admits to “Behavioral Detection” Video Surveillance Program at Airports
Program being conducted using “trained actors posing as passengers, as well as members of the traveling public.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DNA Study Backs Native American Claim to Kennewick Man Remains
Kennewick Man, perhaps the most controversial of all North American archaeological finds, has finally had his DNA sequenced. The results suggest he is closely related to Native Americans — and could even be a direct ancestor of some living populations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Every Mass Shooting Shares One Thing in Common & It’s Not Weapons
Nearly every mass shooting incident in the last twenty years, and multiple other instances of suicide and isolated shootings all share one thing in common, and its not the weapons used.
The overwhelming evidence points to the signal largest common factor in all of these incidents is the fact that all of the perpetrators were either actively taking powerful psychotropic drugs or had been at some point in the immediate past before they committed their crimes.
Multiple credible scientific studies going back more than a decade, as well as internal documents from certain pharmaceutical companies that suppressed the information show that SSRI drugs ( Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors ) have well known, but unreported side effects, including but not limited to suicide and other violent behavior. One need only Google relevant key words or phrases to see for themselves. http://www.ssristories.com is one popular site that has documented over 4500 “ Mainstream Media “ reported cases from around the World of aberrant or violent behavior by those taking these powerful drugs.
The following list of mass shooting perpetrators and the drugs they were taking or had been taking shortly before their horrific actions was compiled and published to Facebook by John Noveske, founder and owner of Noveske Rifleworks just days before he was mysteriously killed in a single car accident. Is there a link between Noveske’s death and his “outting” of information numerous disparate parties would prefer to suppress, for a variety of reasons ? I leave that to the individual readers to decide. But there is most certainly a documented history of people who “knew to much” or were considered a “threat” dying under extraordinarily suspicious circumstances.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Jeffrey Sterling Took on the CIA — and Lost Everything
A former covert officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, Sterling sat down in a federal courtroom with a lawyer on either side, looking up at a judge who would announce in a few moments whether he would go to prison for the next 20 years. A few feet away, three prosecutors waited expectantly, hoping that more than a decade of investigation by the FBI would conclude with a severe sentence for a man who committed an “unconscionable” crime, as one of them told the judge…
Sterling’s case has drawn attention primarily for two reasons: it was part of the Obama Administration’s controversial crackdown on leakers and whistleblowers, and prosecutors had tried to force the Times reporter, James Risen, to divulge the name of his source, whom the government believed was Sterling. The case, known as United States of America v. Jeffrey Alexander Sterling, was treated mainly as a freedom-of-the-press issue, with Risen as the heroic centerpiece. Lost in the judicial briefs about the First Amendment was the black man in the middle…
Also in 2003, Sterling met staffers from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to let them know his concerns about the mismanagement of a classified program he worked on at the agency. Merlin, as the program was called, involved the CIA giving Iran faulty nuclear blueprints. If the blueprints were used, Iran’s nuclear program would be delayed. The blueprints were given to the Iranians by a Russian scientist who lived in the United States, and Sterling was his CIA handler. The CIA has said the program worked well, but Sterling told the committee staffers it was botched and that the Iranians learned the blueprints were flawed; the Iranians might have gained nuclear insights from the accurate parts.
By the time he talked to the Senate staffers, Sterling had become radioactive by Washington standards. This is the usual whistleblower’s fate. He applied for jobs with the private-sector contractors that tend to eagerly recruit experts like him, and they initially seemed quite interested, Sterling recalls, but their attention vanished suddenly, presumably when they learned about his disputes with the CIA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kennewick Man’s Genome Suggests Native American Ancestry
New genetic evidence turns existing theories on their head and settles a fierce debate over the remains of a prehistoric man once and for all.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Man ‘Blown Away’ By Wife’s Role in New York Prison Escape, Lawyer Says
The husband of a New York maximum-security prison worker was “blown away” after learning his wife discussed having two inmates kill him as she helped them plot their successful escape earlier this month, his lawyer said Thursday.
Joyce and Lyle Mitchell worked as instructors at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, where convicted murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt were reported missing June 6. Sweat and Matt remain at large and have been added to the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 Most Wanted fugitives list.
Joyce Mitchell is accused of giving the inmates hacksaw blades and other tools to cut through their cells and a steam pipe to get beyond the prison walls. Authorities say she planned to be the convicts’ getaway driver but backed out at the last second.
Authorities have said that Mitchell discussed having her husband killed with the men while getting close to them while they worked in the prison tailor shop.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Military Movements on the Northern Border: Small Groups of Foreign Military Units Sighted
Jeremiah Johnson is a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne) and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape). You can contact JJ by using this form.
The information presented within this article is in follow-up to the activities observed by the author in relation to U.S. Military maneuvers taking place on the Canadian Border in Montana. Since the first article was printed, a tremendous amount of comments, e-mails, and observations have trickled in to supplement the observations. Please take note: all commentators and information providers will be kept anonymous and their identities withheld. The area the observations were made will be the only thing provided.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama-Linked Extremist Group Publishes “Hit List” Of Anti-Sharia Females in the U.S.
The Obama-tied leftist group that helped a gunman commit an act of terrorism against a conservative organization has assembled a starter kit for Islamists to attack American women who refuse to comply with Sharia law, the authoritarian doctrine that inspires Islamists and their jihadism.
It’s the summer special from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an extremist nonprofit that lists conservative organizations that disagree with it on social issues on a catalogue of “hate groups.” A few years ago a gunman received a 25-year prison sentence for carrying out the politically-motivated shooting of the Family Research Council (FRC) headquarters after admitting that he learned about the FRC from the SPLC “hate map.” Prosecutors called it an act of terrorism and recommended a 45-year sentence.
Now the SPLC, which has conducted diversity training for the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ), is targeting female bloggers, activists and television personalities who refuse to comply with Sharia law which is rooted in the Quran. The European Court on Human rights has repeatedly ruled that Sharia is “incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy” yet politically-connected radical Muslim groups—such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)—keep pushing to implement it in the United States and the movement has gained steam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Progressive Tweets: Drudge Trying to Start Race War
Race war perpetrated by black activists and Obama administration.
[Comment: Use the blacks as “revolutionaries” is one of the communist goals to destabilize the USA.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
S.C. Massacre ‘Demonic, ‘ Baptist Pastor Says
CHARLESTON, S.C. (BP) — Christians are uniting in prayer and benevolence across racial distinctions in Charleston, S.C., after a 21-year-old man massacred nine Christians in a June 17 prayer service at historic Emanuel AME Church, said neighboring Southern Baptist pastor Keith Biggs.
“Everyone together — white, black, Hispanic, everybody — we’re coming together in unity to see this not only [as] an attack on people, but an attack on the body of Christ,” said Biggs, associate pastor of Citadel Square Baptist Church, which neighbors the site of the crime. “I mean, who can walk into a church and sit for an hour and have prayer, and then just begin to kill everybody?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spokane Votes to Remove Rachel Dolezal From Police Commission
The Spokane City Council has voted to remove Rachel Dolezal, the former Spokane NAACP president, from the city’s volunteer police ombudsman commission.
The evidence and interviews confirmed workplace harassment allegations and “a pattern of misconduct” by Dolezal, the chairwoman, and two other commissioners, the report said. The council accepted the resignation of one of those commissioners and voted to give the other more time to respond.
Dolezal, 37, resigned as head of the NAACP’s Spokane chapter this week after her parents said she was a white woman pretending to be black.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Institutionalization of Foolishness
“Liberalism is a Mental Disorder” is the title of a book written by radio talker Dr. Michael Savage over a decade ago. It was a catchy phrase—sort of a tongue-in-cheek assessment of the condition of the modern liberal.
Is it just me, or does 2005 seem like a generation ago?
“Political Correctness” was just beginning to take root, but most of us had no idea how dangerous liberalism really was. In fact, we laughed at the liberals. We chuckled at their crazy assertions knowing full well that their crazy ideas would never gain much traction in the American mind. That was back when common sense was a little more common.
When Dr. Savage wrote his book, most of us thought that communism was dead. We didn’t realize how deeply the communist agenda had become entrenched in our society. We were oblivious to the threat of ‘diversity” and the cultural Marxism that it was ushering in.
At its very root “Political Correctness” is a weapon of destruction. But actually, it destroys by deconstruction. It breaks down a culture by destroying the very pillars upon which a society is built. Since at least the 1960’s we have experienced an aggressive deconstruction of the American society by the cultural Marxists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Vultures Descend on Charleston
In a nation which has already had to deal with the scaremongering and false narratives surrounding Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and others that have been peddled by the radical Left and which have helped to rip America at the seams, the last thing we needed was yet more division and strife. So along comes a messed up white kid gunning down innocent black Christians in their own house of worship. It’s comforting, at least, to know that nobody out there would fall back on their baser, lizard-like instincts and try to exploit a horrible tragedy like this just to promote their petty political agenda.
Oh wait.
Sigh. The bodies were not even cold, and the vultures were already circling. And President Obama, that vulture in human form, was chief among them.
It takes a special kind of sickness of the mind to purposefully exploit the assassination of nine human beings inside a church building so that you can push your agenda. Yet that’s what he did. A speech which could have been used to promote unity, to cool simmering tempers, and to mourn the loss of the dead was instead turned into a gun control circus chock full of simpering platitudes and inane, fact-free assertions about guns and gun ownership, such as the claim that other advanced countries (with gun bans) don’t have the kind of mass killings like we saw in Charleston. Except of course, this claim is utterly and completely bogus. A lost opportunity. Yet, given that this President “never lets a crisis go to waste,” maybe he thinks that the opportunity was fully seized.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UAE Port Agreement: More Clinton Pay for Play?
While in 2006 a multiple port purchase with links to a government with ties to terrorists incited controversy and outrage among the media and in Washington, a UAE terminal lease starting this month has been met with a virtual media blackout.
“In 2006, that concern was over port security and was centered on President George W. Bush approving a deal with Dubai Ports World to operate shipping operations in six major American cities,” writes columnist Ellen Ratner for WorldNetDaily. “The media and the political establishment went ballistic over the revelation.”
Hillary Clinton, then a Democratic senator from New York, was one of the leaders of the successful effort to ultimately block the Dubai Ports World from happening.
“Nine years later, however, a similar announcement is being met with relative silence.”
Ratner points out that Port Canaveral is home to, among other things, a “U.S. Air Force base, a submarine base and NASA’s Kennedy Space center,” making it a national security target. Yet, as Jerome Corsi wrote for WND, “Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew, a former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, approved the Gulftainer deal without seeking the formal approval of the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS.”
“U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, who played a key role fundraising for Barack Obama’s 2008 successful presidential run, appears to have signed off on the Gulftainer deal with Port Canaveral,” reports Corsi.
The Wall Street Journal did report on Gulftainer’s terminal opening on June 12. However, the very short article reads more like a press release, merely repeating the statements of the company’s managing director without including alternative perspectives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Catholics Ready to Follow Pope’s ‘Marching Orders’ On Climate Change
Leaders of the Catholic church in America took their “marching orders” from the pope’s encyclical on Thursday, fanning out to Congress and the White House to push for action on climate change.
The high-level meetings offered a first glimpse of a vast and highly organised effort by the leadership of America’s nearly 80 million Catholics to turn the pope’s moral call for action into reality.
“It is our marching orders for advocacy,” Joseph Kurtz, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Archbishop of Louisville, said. “It really brings about a new urgency for us.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Climbers Rescued From Canada’s Highest Peak Huddled in Snow Cave for Days
Three climbers rescued from Canada’s highest peak are recounting their week stranded in a whiteout, battling 100mph winds, freezing temperatures and frostbite.
When the three experienced adventurers got caught in a blinding storm on June 2, they became trapped at 20,000 feet on Mt. Logan in Kluane National Park, and had to dig a snow cave with their hands for shelter, the Canadian Broadcasting Company reported Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As it Happened: Denmark Gets Centre-Right Govt
Denmark’s election resulted in a stronger-than-expected right-wing coalition, with the Danish People’s Party as the largest ‘blue’ party and Lars Løkke Rasmussen returning to the Prime Minister’s office.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Daniel Mann on Finding Daughter Lillie in Arms of a ‘Kidnapper’ At Cyprus Resort
Daniel Mann, 28, believes his two-year-old daughter Lillie was snatched while the family enjoyed a day at the pool of the Anastasia Beach Complex last August.
A horrified father-of-two has told how he found his toddler in the arms of a suspected kidnapper at a Cypriot resort where British tourists this week foiled another alleged abduction.
Daniel Mann, 28, believes his two-year-old daughter Lillie was snatched while the family enjoyed a day at the pool of the Anastasia Beach Complex last August.
His claims come as it was revealed 50 British holidaymakers fled the same resort this week amid allegations that a gang dressed as waiters had tried to kidnap children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Election: Opposition Bloc Wins
Denmark’s opposition parties have beaten the governing coalition after a close general election.
The centre-right group led by ex-PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen beat Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s centre-left coalition, although her party is the largest.
Ms Thorning-Schmidt has now stood down as Social Democratic Party leader.
The right-wing, anti-immigration Danish People’s Party will become the second-largest in parliament.
With almost all votes counted, the centre-right bloc led by Mr Rasmussen had secured the 90 seats needed to form a government in the 179-seat parliament.
Turnout was 85.8%, the interior ministry said.
Talks are due to begin soon on forming a cabinet, which correspondents say could take weeks.
Mr Rasmussen wrote on Facebook that “difficult negotiations lie ahead”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Thorning-Schmidt Stepping Down as Party Leader
Last night was a big blow for Helle Thorning-Schmidt. She not only lost her post as prime minister, but she also resigned as leader of Socialdemokraterne after ten years in charge. She announced her resignation on Thursday night at Christiansborg.
Thorning-Schmidt led Socialdemokraterne for a little over 10 years, of which she has been prime minister for almost four.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Dansk Folkeparti: The Election’s Biggest Winner
Thursday’s general election saw Dansk Folkeparti trump Venstre as the country’s main blue bloc party, with 21.1 percent of the votes. However, despite its success, it will be Venstre’s chairman, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who is faced with the difficult task of forming a new government. Dansk Folkeparti’s chairman, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, took a moment to bask in the glory of the party’s success.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Ancient Urn Hints at Global Trade Network
Archaeologists “couldn’t believe their eyes” when a perfectly preserved urn turned up in a grave in Southern Jutland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Opens Case Against Germany Over Road Tolls for Foreigners
Berlin has two months to reply to the Commission
(ANSA-AP) — BRUSSELS — The European Union has opened a legal case against Germany over Berlin’s plan for a highway car toll to raise money from foreign drivers.
EU transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said Thursday the infringement case was opened because she had “serious doubts” the toll would be in line with EU non-discrimination laws, since German car owners would be compensated by an equivalent cut in a separate car tax.
The plan calls for the system to start in 2016. Germany’s transport minister has said it will raise 500 million euros ($550 million) annually.
Germany now has two months to reply to the EU’s legal questions on the case.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Every Year, Norway Hosts an Oil Cleanup Drill
The annual release of offshore oil is no accident — it’s a chance to train, test, and prepare for the possibility of a catastrophic oil spill.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Helsinki Theatre Changes Name From ISIS to Osiris
Is a name change a sign of surrender by an organisation whose name has been co-opted by a ruthless jihadist group? That question has been pondered by at least two Finnish firms.
A Helsinki children’s theatre group has changed its name from Isis to Osiris to avoid association with the extremist militia Islamic State, the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (HS) reports on Tuesday.
“The goddess Isis sang, wept and danced her beloved spouse Osiris to life: and so the leading responsibility of our theatre has been given to OSIRIS,” the company said in a statement in May.
The troupe is the latest in a series of firms worldwide to change their name following the gory rise of the Islamist group. These include a Belgian chocolatier, a US mobile payment company and a UK private equity firm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: New Tribunal to Weigh Allegations of Discrimination
The Finnish government-appointed board’s mandate will stop short of issues related to private life, family life and practice of religion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Anish Kapoor ‘Vagina’ Sculpture Vandalised
Vandals have sprayed-painted a controversial Anish Kapoor sculpture on display in the gardens of France’s Palace of Versailles.
The 60-metre steel tube was called “dirty” and “gross” by critics, after Kapoor was quoted as saying it signified “the vagina of the queen who took power”.
The vandalism was discovered on Wednesday, and the work is currently being cleaned.
Kapoor called the incident “a tragedy”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Minister Dreams of 32-Hour Working Week
While many outside France still balk at France’s 35-hour working week, one government minister would like to see it reduced even further. She might be onto something.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gazprom Plans New Gas Pipeline to Germany
Russian gas giant Gazprom on Thursday agreed to a plan with Shell, E.ON and OMV aimed at building a new gas pipeline to Germany, the companies said in a statement.
In the memorandum of understanding, Germany’s E.ON, Austria’s OMV and Anglo-Dutch Shell would join up to construct the new route under the Baltic Sea from Russia with a capacity of 55 billion cubic metres per year, the statement said.
The project — for which no timeframe was given — would double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream pipeline currently linking the two countries.
The announcement comes as Russia seeks more routes to deliver its gas to the European Union, avoiding crisis-hit Ukraine, despite the 28-nation bloc insisting it wants to cut its dependence on Russia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How to Spot Home-Grown ISIS Recruits Online Before They Leave
Britain’s youngest suicide bomber. That is how the name Talha Asmal was introduced to the public last week. It’s believed that Asmal, 17, blew himself up as part of a bombing linked to Islamic State (ISIS) at an Iraqi oil refinery. The attack killed 11 people. Now crime analytics software is being used to track the people being targeted by radical groups like ISIS in an effort to stop them being recruited.
Asmal was from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and had travelled from the UK to Syria in March to join ISIS. The tally of young people recruited by the terrorist organisation from across Western Europe and the US is growing. More than 20,000 foreign fighters have joined the group, surpassing the Afghanistan conflict of the 1980s.
The race is on to stop people, especially young people, leaving their families to join the jihadi group. Looking at activity online has been suggested as a way of spotting who is intending to join up.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Raoul Bova Indicted for Tax Evasion
Trial to start Sep 21 2016
(ANSA) — Rome, June 17 — Italian heartthrob actor Raoul Bova was indicted Wednesday on charges of tax evasion along with his sister Daniela and his ex-wife and agent Chiara Giordano. The trial is set to start on September 21 next year. Bova, 43, mainly known to international audiences for Under The Tuscan Sun (2003), denies the charges.
The three defendants are accused of filing false tax statements by paying a lower VAT rate than was due by shifting costs to the company that manages Bova’s image, between 2006 and 2010. Bova’s defence lawyer said he was “stunned” by the preliminary hearings judge’s decision to send the case to trial, saying rulings by another court and the high Court of Cassation had been ignored.
“Now we’ll do the trial and show there is no crime,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marino Staying Unless Romans Decide Otherwise — Orfini
Orfini says mayor knows he must do more
(ANSA) — Rome, June 17 — Democratic Party (PD) Chairman Matteo Orfini said Wednesday that under-fire Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino will be staying in his position until the people of Rome decide otherwise. Marino has come under pressure to quit after the council was hit by the so-called Mafia Capitale corruption probe, even though he is not personally implicated. On Tuesday Renzi said Marino could not afford to be “relaxed” in his position and had to show he could govern the capital or go home. “Marino is perfectly conscious he must do more,” Orfini said Wednesday.
“I talk to Marino and Renzi on a daily basis, and the mayor experienced the premier’s words as a stimulus to do more and do it better”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Audit Court Estimates San Raffaele Fraud at 30 Mn Euros
Nine chief surgeons, officials under investigation
(ANSA) — Milan, June 18 — Doctors and administrators suspected of making fake expenditure claims on some 4,000 surgeries at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital may have defrauded the national health service of over 30 million euros, prosecutors at the state audit court said Thursday.
The Rome-based court is conducting its own financial investigation into the alleged fraud committed in 2011-2013 alongside the criminal probe being conducted by prosecutors in Milan. On Tuesday nine people including ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s personal doctor were placed under investigation in relation to the probe at the private university hospital, one of the most prestigious operating and training facilities in the Lombard capital.
Police said that, as well as getting trainees to perform critical procedures, several San Raffaele doctors filed pay sheets claiming to be in more than one operating room at the same time.
The suspects are chief heart surgeon Ottavio Alfieri, chief vascular surgeon Roberto Chiesa, past and current chief urologists Patrizio Rigatti and Francesco Montorsi, chief thoracic surgeon Piero Zannini, and chief of anesthesia and reanimation Alberto Zangrillo, who is also ex-premier Berlusconi’s primary care physician.
Also under the investigative spotlight are past and current hospital administrators Mario Valsecchi and Nicola Bedin and health director Roberts Mazzuconi.
The hospital itself and the Monte Tabor Foundation were also named as being accountable.
However the San Raffaele administration said that it “radically contested” prosecutors’ charges, while doctors said in a statement they were “indignant” at what they called “invented” findings.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Report of Islam Conversion a ‘Slur, ‘ Says Lo Porto’s Family
Sister in says hostage would never have changed faith
(ANSA) — Rome, June 18 — Giovanni Lo Porto’s family said Thursday that al-Qaeda claims that the Italian hostage and a fellow captive, American Warren Weinstein, converted to Islam before being killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan in January were nothing more than a slur. The SITE Intelligence Group cited al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) as making the claim. AQIS posted online photos of the two captives dated January 14, 24 hours before the raid. “We are indignant and disgusted by what is being written,” his sister-in-law Giovanna Piazza told ANSA in the name of the whole family. “Not only did they kill him, now they are covering his name in mud. “He was a pearl of a person, a golden person. Knowing him, he would never have converted. He believed only in one God”. Lo Porto, a 39-year-old aid worker for German NGO Welt HungerHilfe, was kidnapped in Pakistan in January 2012.
“His mother is angry and wounded,” added Piazza. “Not just for the pain of losing a son, but also because seeing these things written months after is an offense to his memory.
“Giovanni died to help others and writing this stuff about him is shameful”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lava Lakes Spotted on Venus May be How it Stays So Blemish-Free
Venus is leaking lava. Researchers have found oozing volcanoes on our closest planetary neighbour, a discovery that may help solve the planet’s deepest geological riddles.
Past observations revealed that Venus’ surface is “new”, at least in geological terms. Because it doesn’t sport many craters, scientists think the planet has been paved over by upwelling lava within the last billion years. There have been hints of more recent volcanism, too: some terrain looks as young as a few hundred thousand years and we have seen changes in the amount of sulphur — an element produced by volcanoes — in the planet’s atmosphere. But no solid evidence of fresh lava.
Until now. An international team has dug through data from the European Space Agency’s Venus Express probe, which orbited from 2006 until 2014, and found short-lived hot patches they attribute to lava lakes bubbling up along a geological rift.
“By chance we found this bright event, and by carefully analysing the region we found three more,” says Eugene Shalygin of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nutellagate: French Minister Grovels to Italy
France’s ecology minister has apologized to Italy after she told French people that they needed to stop scoffing Nutella for the sake of the planet. Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal offered “a thousand apologies” on Wednesday after her comments kicked off a storm in Italy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One Selfie Too Many — The Rise of the Danish People’s Party
Looks like Denmark’s tea party faction, the Danish People’s party (Dansk Folkkparti) has re emerged in great strength on the backs of social disappointment voters, angry over spending socialist funds on known terrorists, fumbled immigration, and the usual list of issues ranging from social services through trade, on to death and taxes.
What Denmark’s national election reveals is that Denmark’s voter support for the Danish People’s party, dumped what we in the USA would deem to be a liberal, Helle Thorning Schmidt for Lars Lokke Rasmussen, which is like trading out what was in effect a Hillary light, for a Rick Perry-style long-serving U.S. conservative.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Populist Surge Topples Danish PM
Denmark will get a new government after the right-wing opposition won Thursday’s (18 June) parliamentary elections against the ruling Social Democrat-led coalition.
The populist Danish People’s Party (DPP) came first (21.1%) among the four parties in the right-wing ‘blue’ bloc raising questions about whether the party will enter goverment for the first time.
Normally the biggest party in the winning bloc can claim the position of prime minister.
But DPP-party leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl hesitated to claim the post on Thursday evening, saying the role of forming a new government should be left to the second largest party in the bloc, the Liberals’, Lars Loekke Rasmussen (19.5%).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Right Wins in Danish Elections
Prime minister concedes defeat, resigns
(ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — The anti-immigrant and anti-EU Danish People’s Party (DF) scored a significant victory in national elections on Friday, taking home 21% of the vote to become the second-biggest party in parliament.
Although the Social Democratic Party remains the top party with 26% of the vote, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt resigned, conceding defeat to former prime minister Lars Lۼkke Rasmussen, leader of the conservative Liberal Party.
Although the Liberal Party came third on 19.5%, it received enough coalition votes to grab the 90-seat majority necessary to put its leader in power.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Romanian Minister Resigns After Slur on Wives of Expatriates
Resignation could help Ponta during corruption scandal
(ANSA/AP) — BUCHAREST — The Romanian transportation minister has resigned after calling the wives of millions of Romanians working abroad “whores.” Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Thursday accepted the resignation of Ioan Rus a day after the minister said in a TV interview that the 3 million Romanians working abroad were sending remittances home to wives who were “whores” to pay for children who were “good-for-nothings.” The embattled Ponta was named June 5 as a possible corruption suspect, including money laundering and being an accomplice to tax evasion. Parliament voted to keep his immunity and he faces a vote of no-confidence Friday that he is expected to win.
The resignation of Rus is expected to help Ponta by showing he is responsive to wrongdoing from his ministers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sighet Museum is a Living Monument to the Cruelty of Communism
I was digging furiously through my book shelves, looking for one special volume which I had brought with me from Romania when I immigrated to the United States. After half an hour I found my May 1977 first edition of Romulus Rusan’s book, ‘Greyhound’s America’, published in Romanian during the brutal communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.
I never understood how such a book that told the truth about life in the west escaped his publishing censor goons. I was going to finally find out as I was going to meet Romulus Rusan and his equally famous and lovely wife, the poet Ana Blandiana.
Romulus Rusan told me that his editor revealed to him that, of the 100,000-plus copies of his first edition book that were sold in Ceausescu’s Romania, probably half of the readers immigrated to the U.S. He could not understand why Rusan was not arrested by the communist regime. His wife joked that they must have labored under a lucky star, under divine protection.
I met Ana Blandiana and Romulus Rusan at a Romanian Embassy serata honoring their literary work and their untiring efforts to bring to light the horrors of communism in the First Memorial to the Victims of Communism at Sighet, Romania. A true labor of love, their work began in 1993 with the acquisition of the Sighet Prison, a condemned ruin.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Massive Strawberry Heist Ahead of Midsummer
Thousands of boxes of strawberries have been stolen from a farm in Vinslöv, in Skåne, southern Sweden, with the search for the thieves gripping Swedes planning to feast on the fruits over Midsummer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Nationalists Score Record Support
The Sweden Democrats now have the support of one in five Swedish voters, according to two major polls released on Thursday demonstrating record backing for the nationalist party.
The anti-immigration party, led by Jimmie Åkesson, would be the choice of 20 percent of people (one in five) surveyed for a poll by YouGov for Sweden’s Metro newspaper, while 18 percent of respondents told Novus that they would back the nationalists in research for broadcaster TV4.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Plane Stowaway’ Body Found on Richmond Roof
A stowaway who is believed to have clung on to a plane has fallen to his death, while another is in hospital.
The two men are believed to have been clinging to a British Airways flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow.
The victim was found on the roof of notonthehighstreet.com’s headquarters on Kew Road, Richmond, at about 09:35 BST on Thursday. Police said his death was being treated as unexplained.
The man who was injured is in a critical condition in hospital.
The Met Police said it could not confirm if the two cases were linked…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Grandmother With False Teeth Bites Dog in Desperate Attempt to Save Yorkshire Terrier
A grandmother has revealed how she sank her false teeth into an Alsatian in a desperate attempt to stop it savaging her Yorkshire Terrier.
June Hatton, 80, was walking her pet Milly when an Alsatian attacked, sinking its teeth into the beloved dog.
But she only came away with tufts of the dog’s hair in her mouth, and could not stop Molly being mauled to death.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Move Out of Parliament or Repairs Will Cost Taxpayers £7bn and Take Up to 40 Years, MPs Are Told
Repairing the crumbling Houses of Parliament could take as long as 40 years and cost taxpayers £7 billion if MPs refuse to temporarily decamp elsewhere, a report has concluded.
An independent appraisal by industry experts set out the options for refurbishing the 150-year-old Grade I listed building, with the cheapest option — costing £3.5 billion — requiring MPs and peers to decamp to an alternative location for six years while repairs are carried out.
But the Cabinet minister in charge of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling, told MPs this morning that he did not want to see MPs evacuated, suggesting it would undermine Britain’s democracy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Stowaway Plunges to Death From BA Plane
A stowaway has died after falling from a British Airways jet onto a shop in southwest London. He and another man are believed to have clung on to the passenger plane as it flew more than 8,000 miles from Johannesburg in South Africa to Heathrow. The second man, aged between 25 and 30, is in a serious condition in a west London hospital after miraculously surviving the ordeal.
Flight International magazine consulting editor David Learmount said: “If these two were neither airline nor airport staff and somehow managed to get on a flight then it becomes a serious security issue. Just how did they get (on the restricted) airside at the airport?”
There have been previous cases of stowaways falling from planes in the Heathrow flight path area in southwest London.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Shocking Footage of 12-Year-Old Bradford Boy Being Beaten by 2 Thugs
The video, uploaded to Facebook by a user who lists his address as Bradford, West Yorkshire, shows the youngster being punched and kicked in the head as he lies on the ground.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Stowaway on South Africa to London Flight Survives, Another Reportedly Falls to His Death
Police are investigating the case of two stowaways on a flight from South Africa to London after one man was found in the wheelwell of the plane when it landed, and the other apparently fell to his death, landing on a London rooftop.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vega E ‘Green’ Rocket Launcher Engine Plan at Paris Air Show
First flight for lower-cost engine could take place in 2022
(ANSA) — Paris, June 16 — At the Paris Air Show Tuesday, Avio President Pier Giuliano Lasagni told ANSA about the company’s plans for the Vega E, a ‘green’ rocket launcher engine that could fly as soon as 2022.
Avio is a manufacturer of engines for Vega European rocket launchers and headquartered outside Rome.
The Vega E engine follows on the heels of the Vega C, whose first flight is scheduled for 2018, but unlike its predecessor is considered ‘green’ because it uses oxygen and methane as propellants rather than harmful substances like hydrazine.
Lasagni, who is also chief executive officer, said launcher engines are “destined to become less costly and easier to build” thanks to 3D printing, which allows all components to be produced in one unified piece.
The engine for the Vega E is called Mira, and was developed in conjunction with the Lyra program financed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
The engine will allow an increase in payload from two to three tons.
“The Vega E promises to become a war horse for bringing medium loads into orbit,” Lasagni said.
“Even the nose cone of the pitcher will be wider, so as to accommodate bulkier satellites,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia’s Main Political Leaders Resume Talks on Deal to Resolve Country’s Political Crisis
SKOPJE, Macedonia — The leaders of Macedonia’s main political parties have resumed meeting in country’s capital of Skopje for the first time since negotiations aimed ending a major political crisis collapsed in Brussels last week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Caroline Glick
Over the past two decades Israel has managed to destroy its regional reputation.
With our own hands, we have twice shown our neighbors they have little reason to tie their fates to ours. We are unreliable.
In 1994, Israel betrayed the Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and Gaza who had helped us fight against PLO terrorists for decades. Open season on our Palestinian allies officially began in July 1994 with the entrance of thousands of PLO terrorists — led by Yasser Arafat — into Gaza and Jericho. Arafat’s henchmen did not limit their murderous wrath to the Palestinians who saved countless Israeli lives by working with the Shin Bet and the IDF. They killed Palestinians who sold their lands to Jewish buyers. Palestinians who simply enjoyed normal work relations with Israelis found themselves targeted as suspected “collaborators.”
Six years after Israel betrayed its Palestinian allies, we abandoned our allies in south Lebanon.
After 18 years of fighting shoulder to shoulder with the IDF, Israel left the soldiers and commanders of the South Lebanese Army and their families to face Hezbollah alone.
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinian Shoots Israeli Dead Near West Bank Settlement — Yahoo News
Near Dolev settlement (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) — A Palestinian opened fire on two Israeli men near a West Bank settlement on Friday, killing one and wounding the other, authorities said, in what appeared to be a lone-wolf attack.
Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said a “Palestinian approached a vehicle that was in the area and asked them to stop… and shot the two from close range.”
A spokeswoman at Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv confirmed that one of the men had died and the other was lightly wounded.
The attacker fled, prompting a manhunt.
Local media named the dead man as Danny Gonen, a 25-year-old from the central Israeli city of Lod. Lerner said that Gonen and his friend, also from Lod, had been hiking in the area.
The incident occurred near the Dolev settlement, according to Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom, which said the victims were in their 20s.
The army said the two men were in a car at the time of the shooting, which took place northwest of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter that “the evidence on the ground indicates this was a terror attack, and we’re working to find the perpetrator.”
“We can’t let the relative quiet achieved thanks to many successfully prevented attacks mislead us,” he said.
“The attempts to hurt us continue all the time, and we’ll continue to fight them with all the means we have.”…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Bradford Dawood Family ‘Split to Cross Syria Border’
Three Bradford sisters and their nine children split into two groups to cross the border into Syria, an Islamic State smuggler has told the BBC.
The smuggler in charge of some of IS’s border operations said the first group went early on Wednesday and the second on Thursday.
Sisters Khadija, Sugra and Zohra Dawood and their children went missing after travelling to Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday, two of their husbands made an emotional appeal for them to return.
Akhtar Iqbal and Mohammed Shoaib said they “could not live” without their families and begged them to come home.
Their lawyer Balaal Khan said they were shocked to hear that the women had entered Syria and urged the police to corroborate the smuggler’s information.
BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood, who is on the Turkish-Syrian border, said he had spoken to the smuggler who confirmed the crossing…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Confirms Three British Sisters in Syria
Crossed border with their nine children, BBC reports
(ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — An ISIS smuggler confirmed Friday that three sisters from the UK have crossed the border into Syria with their nine children, the BBC reported.
The Dawood sisters from Bradwood — Khadija, 30, Sugra, 34, and Zohra, 33 — and their children ranging in age from 3 to 15 years old, entered Syria in two separate groups between Wednesday and Thursday, the smuggler told the BBC.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS is Following a Plan Laid Out Ten Years Ago by Al-Qaeda, And it’s All Working
by Robert Spencer
Ayman Al-Zawahiri and bin Laden communications reveal that a caliphate has always been the goal.
It has been almost a year since June 29, 2014, when the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) declared the formation of a new caliphate and dropped the second half of its name, rebranding itself as simply the Islamic State. It has survived nine months since Barack Obama vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” it.
It has survived, and has continued to attract Muslims from all over the world, even after virtually every major world leader and Islamic group has condemned it as un-Islamic. And it shows no sign of going anywhere anytime soon.
All this is well-known. What is less known is that the plan for the restoration of the caliphate was sketched out ten years ago by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, and has been followed out more or less exactly by the Islamic State.
The claim to reconstitute the caliphate is the key to the Islamic State’s success — the importance of this cannot be overstated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Not to Act Against Evil is to Act
by Phyllis Chesler
Christians, Kurds, and Yazidis are being ethnically cleansed—massacred, exterminated—in Iraq and Syria and neither President Obama nor any stable, allegedly moderate Muslim regime (is there one?) has done anything to stop it.
ISIS and Boko Haram have been kidnapping, torturing, and turning Muslim, Christian, Kurdish, and Yazidi girls into sexual slaves and, despite his professed pro-Arab, pro-African, and pro-Muslim biases, the American President has not stopped this nor has he come up with a viable strategy to do so.
At least five, if not ten, million refugees have fled the war-ravaged region of the Middle East’s “Arab Spring.” Many are trying to enter southern Europe and are dying in the process. Nevertheless, global leaders, the media, andthe United Nations continue to focus on an artificially inflated number of Palestinian refugees—and are failing to confront or resolve the greatest and most complex refugee story of our times.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Ruckus Breaks Out at Yemen Talks as Woman Hits Houthi Negotiator with Shoe
Yemen peace talks descended into chaos on Thursday after a woman threw a shoe at the head of the Houthi delegation, causing fights to break out and bottles and books to be thrown.
The woman, who has not been named, reportedly stormed into a press conference being held by the Yemeni delegates and hurled a shoe at Hamza al-Houthi, the head of the Houthi delegation in Geneva, and called him a mass murderer.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Fears Over Bradford Family Missing After Saudi Pilgrimage
Three sisters from Bradford are feared to have travelled to Syria with their nine children after going on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
The sisters and their children, aged between three and 15, were due back in the UK on Thursday, Khan Solicitors said on behalf of the family.
Ten are thought to have boarded a flight to Istanbul in Turkey on 9 June.
Lawyer Balaal Khan confirmed concerns about them “travelling to Syria”. West Yorkshire Police is investigating.
There has been no contact since 9 June from mother-of-two Khadija Dawood, 30, mother-of-five Sugra Dawood, 34, and mother-of-two Zohra Dawood, 33, after they left Medina in Saudi Arabia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Jobless Afghans ‘Paid by Iran’ To Fight for Assad
Among the many images of suffering that have emerged from the conflict in Syria are videos that appear to show young Afghan men, bruised and bloodied and held prisoner by anti-government rebels.
The fighters say they were paid by the Iranian government to fight for Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad, and promised passports and jobs if they survive.
The videos cannot be verified by the BBC but there is evidence that young, jobless Afghans, mostly from the minority Hazara community, are fleeing the country for a better life and ending up as pawns in Syria’s bloody civil war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
WikiLeaks Says it’s Leaking Over 500,000 Saudi Diplomatic Documents, Some Files Already Online
The transparency website WikiLeaks says it’s in the process of publishing more than 500,000 Saudi diplomatic documents, a move that echoes its famous release of U.S. State Department cables in 2010.
WikiLeaks says in a statement that it has already posted roughly 60,000 documents to its website. Most of the documents appear to be in Arabic.
There was no immediate way to verify the authenticity of the documents, although WikiLeaks has a long track record of hosting large-scale leaks of government material. Many of the documents carried green letterhead marked “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” or “Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece-Russia Accord on Gas Pipeline Turkish Stream
Along Greek territory, Moscow lends 100% expenses
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 19 — Russia and Greece signed a deal for a section of the so-called Turkish Stream gas pipeline on Friday, Kathimerini online reports quoting Russian media. The deal was signed between energy ministers Alexander Novak of Russia and Panagiotis Lafazanis of Greece, for a pipeline with a capacity of 47 billion cubic meters a year. Moscow, according to Novak, will give Athens a loan covering 100% of expenses of the gas pipeline and Gazprom will not control that section.
Construction of the Greek section of the Turkish Stream pipeline will start in 2016 and be completed by 2019. The two countries will have equal shares in the company, Novak was quoted by RT as saying at International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on Friday. “Our meeting today is a historical meeting… The memorandum expresses the readiness of both sides to bring the south direction of the pipeline to implementation,” Lafazanis said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Fury at Belgium Asset Seizure in Yukos Oil Case
Russia has protested to the Belgian ambassador over the seizure of Russian state assets in Belgium — a move triggered by a court ruling over the now-defunct Yukos oil firm.
The ambassador was told that the asset seizure was “an openly hostile act” that “crudely violates the recognised norms of international law”.
Last year a court told Russia to pay Yukos shareholders $50bn (£32bn) in compensation, after Yukos’s break-up.
A Russian state firm took over Yukos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Peace Talks Start in Oslo
Taliban militants arrived in Norway on Monday for peace talks with Kabul officials, as militants continue to launch attacks on army, police and civilians in Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand Confirms First MERS Case: Health Ministry
Thailand confirmed its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) on Thursday, becoming the fourth Asian country to register the deadly virus this year. Public Health Minister Rajata Rajatanavin told a news conference that a 75-year-old businessman from Oman had tested positive for MERS.
MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered China’s deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The vast majority of MERS infections and deaths have been in Saudi Arabia, where more than 1,000 people have been infected since 2012, and about 454 have died.
Last month, a MERS outbreak erupted in South Korea resulting in 23 deaths so far. A total of 165 people have been infected and 6,700 people are in quarantine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Asian Media Critical of US Gun Violence, Racism After Charleston Shooting
Often the target of U.S. human rights accusations, China wasted little time returning such charges following the shooting at a historic black church in South Carolina that left nine people dead. Elsewhere in Asia, the attack renewed perceptions that Americans have too many guns and have yet to overcome racial tensions.
Some said the attack reinforced their reservations about personal security in the U.S. — particularly as a non-white foreigner — while others said they’d still feel safe if they were to visit.
Especially in Australia and northeast Asia, where firearms are strictly controlled and gun violence almost unheard of, many were baffled by the determination among many Americans to own guns despite repeated mass shootings, such as the 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Would You Pay HK$3,500 for One Strawberry? In Japan They Do
Growers of giant, juicy, sweet strawberries are competing to be Japan’s top strawberry brand, reflecting an increase in demand both at home and abroad, as well as efforts to promote local produce and stimulate prefectural economies.
Often bought as a gift item for weddings, birthdays or parties, strawberries can command high prices in Japan where one strawberry can fetch as much as 50,000 yen (HK$3,254) on an online shopping site.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Officials Probing Matric ‘Cheats’ Attacked
by Leanne Jansen
Durban — Education officials investigating matric exam cheating in KwaZulu-Natal have been attacked during violent protests by pupils.
The Basic Education Department revealed on Thursday that at three schools where disciplinary inquiries were being held, officials were locked inside the venues where the hearings were proceeding.
The attacks happened in the past week.
Six cars, most of them rented by the department, were vandalised.
The schools where protests were staged were Mashiyamahle (Ilembe district), Sibanesihle (Umgungundlovu district) and Ntsikakazi (also Umgungundlovu).
Department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said the hearings had been moved to more secure locations and criminal charges had been laid.
“We will not be intimated and the hearings will go on as scheduled. Those resorting to such violent and drastic measures appear as if they have something to hide. We will work closely with police to have them arrested. These disruptions only serve to delay the inevitable outcome for those who may be found guilty at the end of this process,” Mhlanga said.
The pupils demanded that their results, which were being withheld, be immediately released .
One thousand and seventy-six KwaZulu-Natal pupils have been accused of cheating…
| — Hat tip: RRN | [Return to headlines] |
The Ongoing Tragedy of Post-Apartheid South Africa
Inside a leftist death culture
The South African government currently estimates there are 31 murders per 100,000 people per year, which comes out to about 50 per day. That ranks the nation above drug cartel-infested Mexico, the nation of Rwanda that endured the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers in the ‘90s, and Sudan, where the government of Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir precipitated the mass slaughter and rape of Darfuri men, women and children that continues to this day. That would be the very same Omer al-Bashir the ANC allowed to leave South Africa on June 15, ignoring a pending arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which had charged him with multiple counts of genocide and crimes against humanity. In doing so, the ANC violated South Africa’s international legal commitments and its own constitution.
The same stench of ANC corruption applies to the aforementioned murder statistics: outside groups believe the murder rate is actually double that total admitted by the government.
Moreover, white Boer farmers remain a primary target. According to the Times of London, over 4,000 of them were murdered since the end of apartheid in a nation rated six on a scale of eight for genocide by Genocide Watch. Of the 50 murders committed daily, 20 percent of the victims are white, and the black on white murder rate is approximately 95 percent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The World’s Priciest City (You’ve Probably Never Been There)
In the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, a fast food meal will set you back over $17, a pair of jeans will leave you out of pocket by $250 and a non-descript apartment costs a whopping $6,800 a month.
So where is this place where the streets must be paved with gold? It’s the city of Luanda, the capital of oil-rich Angola, which has once again topped human resource consultancy Mercer’s 2015 Cost of Living ranking released on Wednesday.
The African seaport has held the title of the world’s priciest city every year since 2010, except for 2012, when it was briefly knocked off the top spot by Tokyo.
“Despite being recognized as a relatively inexpensive city, the cost of imported goods and safe living conditions in this country are available at a steep price,” said Mercer of Luanda, which typically attracts expatriates that work for multinationals operating in the energy or diamond sectors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As the Organization of American States (OAS) gathered in Washington for its 45th annual General Assembly (GA) on June 15 and 16th, a number of important issues are coming into question.
First it is important to point out that it is the first GA in the aftermath of the normalization process that began last December. Secondly, the OAS has a new Secretary General (SG).
What so far has characterized the new SG of the OAS, former Uruguayan foreign minister, Luis Almagro, is that he has spoken ceaselessly of bringing change and modernization to the organization. Most importantly, he has spoken about promoting dialogue, democracy, human rights and transparency.
However, all that took place before and during the General Assembly suggest a few clues about the contradiction of the SG and the organization as a whole. A few days before the opening of the GA, Almagro wrote an article published in several newspapers in Spanish. He pointed out that the OAS needs to be the institution in charge of expanding rights in the region for as many people as possible. “We must not compromise when it comes to the issue of human rights and democracy. There will not be double standards in my Administration. We need to be a leading example in terms of transparency, tolerance, dialogue and accountability before we place demands on others”. Likewise, Almagro pointed out that the region needs to be part of the solution of global problems including climate change, religious intolerance and hunger. He also criticized the idea of creating mandates that are never implemented and end up being nothing but “a piece of paper”…
| — Hat tip: LF | [Return to headlines] |
185,000 Asylum Requests in 2015 Q1 Says Eurostat
Most of them from Kosovo
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS — The EU received 185,000 asylum requests in the first quarter this year, Eurostat statistics agency said Thursday. Most were Kosovars (50,000 requests or 26%), followed by Syrians (16%) and Afghans (7%). Most people requested asylum in Germany (73,000 or 40%), followed by Hungary (32,800 or 18%), Italy (15,200, 8%) and France (14.800, 8%).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Stops Processing Asylum Requests in EU Quota Row
Austria has stopped processing asylum requests in a bid to pressure other European Union member states to do more to help absorb refugees entering the continent, the country’s interior minister said.
Application processing was suspended on Friday in a move designed to make the country less attractive to refugees in comparison with other EU countries and to “stop the Austria asylum express”, said Johanna Mikl-Leitner.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Adios America by Ann Coulter brilliantly demonstrates how America commenced its own suicide in 1965 with the Immigration Reform Act. From the usual 175,000 legal immigrants annually since 1924, Congress began injecting 1.2 million legal third world immigrants into the United States annually. By the year 2006, immigrants added over 100 million in 45 years. We continue our accelerating decline into a third world hellhole with another 100 million immigrants projected within 30 years via immigrants, their birth rates and chain migration, plus diversity visas. Paradoxically, we don’t solve their problems in their countries but encourage even higher birth rates by third world countries that can exhaust their overpopulated citizenry off on Western countries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Criminal Alien Rapists, Child Predators Freed in U.S. Instead of Deported
President Barack Obama’s idea of protecting Americans includes restricting gun ownership, disrespecting and denigrating police officers, and releasing illegal aliens convicted of heinous and serious crimes such as sex crimes against children, rape and kidnapping for ransom, according to veteran law enforcement officers. An example of this politically-correctness gone berserk was discussed on Tuesday by Judicial Watch and as well as U.S. Border Patrol Agent Chris Cabrera, a whistleblower that appears to be daring the Obama administration to try silencing him.
In fact, this year while testifying before a panel of U.S. Senators, Agent Cabrera said,”Agents who repeatedly report groups larger than 20 face retribution. Management will either take them out of the field and assign them to processing detainees at the station or assign them to a fixed position in low volume areas as punishment,” Needless to say Agents got the message and now stay below this 20 person threshold no matter the actual size of the group, Cabrera told the senate panel on March 13.
According to the watchdog group Judicial Watch, there are literally thousands of criminal aliens who were convicted of felonies, such as rape, child molestation and kidnapping, who were released in the United States by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). To make matters worse, and the DHS directorates responsible for immigration enforcement don’t keep track of the now free illegal alien felons.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dominicans Poised to Round Up Haitian Workers as Deadline Passes
The Dominican Republic was preparing on Wednesday to enforce a new registration deadline that has raised fears of mass deportations of undocumented workers and others of Haitian descent.
The head of the country’s immigration agency, Army Gen. Ruben Paulino, told reporters that his agency along with Dominican soldiers would begin patrolling migrant neighborhoods looking for those who have not registered with the government. If they do not have papers, he said, “they will be repatriated.”
The prospect of large-scale deportations is the result of a controversial 2013 ruling by the country’s highest court that called into question the citizenship status of people of Haitian descent, even those who were born in the Dominican Republic. Described by critics as racist and nationalistic, the ruling retroactively stripped people of citizenship and sparked an international outcry as it effectively created a pool of thousands of stateless people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: IS Wants Me: Young Refugee Resists Extremist Scouts
The extremist organisation Islamic State is recruiting youngsters from immigrant backgrounds in Finland to join ranks of fighters. That’s according to one young refugee who’s been five years in the country, Habat. He told Yle that particularly during the long and idle summer months, there are dozens of young drifters ripe for enlistment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Local Councils Lukewarm on Refugee Plan
Federal, state and local governments agreed a raft of new measures to deal with growing numbers of refugees at a summit on Thursday — but local authorities in particular say more needs to be done.
The gathering of the different layers of government agreed on motions to speed up the asylum process, do more to deport failed applicants and more quickly integrate those who stay.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Island of Lesbos Struggles With Migrant Arrivals
(MYTILENE) — Some 25,000 refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria, have descended on the Aegean island of Lesbos so far this year, local officials say — a massive increase that has piled pressure on debt-ridden Greece.
“From January 1 we have received 25,000 migrants compared to 8,500 last year,” the island’s coastguard chief Nikos Varthis told AFP on Thursday.
The island also known as Myteline has been hard-pressed to give temporary shelter to the migrants until they can be documented and then moved to Athens for asylum applications.
This week, scuffles broke out between Syrian and Afghan migrants over priority access to the ferry to the mainland.
More than 100,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe by sea from North Africa over the last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary’s Anti-Migrant Fence Draws Rebuke
Hungary has said it will build an anti-migrant fence on its border with Serbia, drawing an immediate rebuke from its neighbour.
“We’re talking about a stretch of border 175km long, whose physical closure can happen with a four-metre high fence,” Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister, told press in Budapest on Wednesday (17 June).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Orders 100-Mile Serbia Border Fence to Keep Out Migrants
Hungary has unveiled plans to erect a fence along its border with Serbia as part of a controversial anti-immigration drive, saying it “cannot afford to wait any longer” for the European Union to come up with a solution to the migration crisis.
“The Hungarian government has instructed the interior ministry to physically close the border with Serbia,” Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister said on Wednesday, adding that preparations would be completed within a week.
The fence will be four metres high, 110 miles long, and may employ barbed wire, officials said.
Hungary is one of the main points of entry for migrants into the Schengen passport free zone and is witnessing a spike in migration, with about 57,000 people entering the country illegally so far this year, up sharply from 43,000 in all of 2014. 95 percent of those cross from Serbia, which is not a member of the EU but has started accession talks. Last year, Hungary received more refugees per capita than any other EU country apart from Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary’s Prime Minister Says Plan to Build Fence on Serbian Border Will Also Protect Europe
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Hungary’s prime minister says his government’s plan to build a 4-meter (13-foot) high fence on the border with Serbia to stop the flow of migrants will also protect Europe “from every illegal entry.”
Viktor Orban said Friday that “if a question is complicated, choose the easiest solution,” so in the case of the migrants, “the state will defend its external borders.”
Hungary has received more than 53,000 asylum requests this year, compared with fewer than 43,000 in 2014 and 2,150 in 2012.
Orban, in the Slovak capital of Bratislava to meet with Central European leaders and French President Francois Hollande, said Hungary considered it a state obligation to defend its borders and would not seek help for the task.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bus Drivers ‘Not Racist’ For Refusing Immigrants
Bus drivers in Milan are refusing to transport migrants because of fears they will catch diseases, but have insisted the move was not racially motivated.
In a letter to the Milan’s transport authority (Atm), the drivers said they were concerned about the health risks posed from transporting migrants from the city’s central station to accommodation centres.
In the letter, the bus drivers were quick to deny any suggestions of racism stating: “It’s not racism. The correct sanitation measures are not in place, neither for workers or passengers.” Corriere Quotidiano reported.
Hundreds of migrants have arrived in Milan in recent weeks, and the letter comes after migrants set up makeshift camps in Milan’s Central station while they waited for trains to Northern Europe last week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Politician Suspended ‘For Housing Migrants’
A politician for Italy’s right-wing Northern League has been suspended from the local council for hosting 15 African immigrants in her properties in Padua.
Daniela Faggion was removed from her position on the council of Selvazzano Dentro by the town’s mayor, Enoch Soranzo, also a member of the Northern League.
Soranzo told her that her suspension was due to her renting apartments in Padua to migrants, in addition to her not renewing her party membership which was due to expire in September.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia Allows Migrants to Legitimately Transit Country
Move after fatal accidents on railway from Greece to Serbia
(ANSA-AP) — SKOPJE — Macedonia has changed its asylum law to let migrants entering the country illegally avoid jail if they leave within three days.
Thursday’s move follows a series of fatal accidents involving migrants traveling through Macedonia on the way to more prosperous European countries, following dangerous routes to avoid police arrest.
Macedonia has become a major transit route for thousands of Middle Eastern and African refugees and migrants who cross over from Greece. At least 25 have been killed by trains since January as they walked on railway tracks. Many others are robbed by criminal gangs.
The new law effective next week allows migrants to apply for temporary asylum at the border or the nearest police station.
That will allow them to travel legally through the country for three days.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Saved by Swedish Ship Poseidon
The Swedish ship Poseidon rescued some 213 migrants in the Mediterranean on Friday after they called for assistance off the coast of Malta.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Populist Movements Weigh on EU Migrant Accord, Expert Says
Immigration expert ‘not very confident’ on agreement
(ANSA) — Brussels, June 18 — Nationalist and populist movements in European Union countries are contributing to the difficulties weighing on the migration quota proposal brought by the European Commission in May, said UN immigration expert Francois Crepeau on Thursday.
The proposal, in which 40,000 asylum seekers arriving in Italy and Greece would be redistributed throughout the EU, has met with difficulty from EU nations hesitant to open their borders to the arrivals, mainly from African nations. A decision about whether or not to implement the plan was put on hold this week after interior ministers from 28 EU member states failed to come to an agreement at a home affairs meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
Crepeau, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said he’s “not very confident” that an agreement can be reached, and added, “it will depend on the national electoral campaigns of the next 12 months”.
“In many countries, nationalist and populist movements have dictated the terms of debate for thirty years, and the principal political parties haven’t been able to assert different themes,” Crepeau said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Refugees Fleeing ISIS to be Granted Asylum in Britain Says David Cameron
The PM has announced that the UK will ‘modestly expand’ a scheme to take in more migrants from the war-torn Middle East. He had previously only committed to take in 500 migrants from Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Migrant Invasion: Dramatic Pictures Show Calais Crisis Descend Into Anarchy
A baying mob yesterday brought a busy motorway to a standstill, openly attacking trucks laden with goods bound for Britain.
The aggressive pack of 2,000 refugees desperate to reach the UK overran police as they flooded roads approaching the port.
In what are becoming alarmingly frequent scenes terrified lorry drivers and petrified tourists feared for their lives as hooded men ran amok.
The Daily Express was able to capture the chilling images after being caught in the gridlock just a mile from the docks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Drivers Warned After Tensions Rise in Calais
With thousands of migrants massed in Calais desperately attempting to get to the UK, driving to the port has become hazardous and Britons are being urged to take care as the summer peak season starts.
Tens of thousands of Britons including tourists and truckers are expected to head to France in the coming weeks for their summer holidays.
A great many will arrive and return through the port of Calais, where the ongoing migrant crisis appears to be spiraling out of control and tensions are heightening.
This week there were renewed flare ups between migrants and police on the approach roads to the port that left one officer injured.
Migrants are resorting to ever desperate and more dangerous methods to get aboard trucks with reports that they were hurling stones and bags onto roads in order to slow the traffic and give them a better chance of clambering on board a truck.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two Couples Who Swapped Partners as Part of a Sham Marriage Scam
Muhammad Hanif and his girlfriend Huma Aslam, from Pakistan, planned to each be married off to Czech couple Michael Mankos and Katerina Gerychova so the non-EU pair could live in Britain
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
United Europe? The Migrant Crisis Proves Just What a Sad Joke That is, Writes Dominic Sandbrook
History has a habit of punishing Utopian idealism. For even as the EU celebrates its supposed achievement, the human tide of migrants across the Mediterranean has exposed the historic fault lines at the heart of the European project.
Thanks to the collapse of authoritarian regimes in Iraq, Syria and Libya — that initially had Britain’s liberals clapping with joy — much of the Middle East and North Africa has descended into Islamic fundamentalism, sectarian anarchy and bloodshed.
It is no wonder then that so many people have decided to risk their lives on the dangerous sea voyage to a new life in the EU. Almost 60,000 have arrived in southern Italy this year, with tens of thousands more expected to follow.
To many observers, the scenes of desperation and chaos recall the aftermath of World War II or the last days of the Roman Empire.
Indeed, I believe this massive influx of asylum seekers poses a moral and political challenge on a scale almost unprecedented in the history of the EU.
Unfortunately, it is also the perfect example of the bureaucratic incompetence, blind indifference and sheer inaction that has characterised the EU’s response to major crises.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christianity’s Demographic Challenge in the United States
The Pew Research Center’s latest report on America’s religious landscape highlights the significant demographic challenges that Christianity is facing in the U.S.
According to the report, “the percentage of adults who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4 percent in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6 percent in 2014.” Based on the error bars in the survey methods, the number of Christians in the United States is thought to have declined in absolute terms between 2.8 million and 7.8 million during the past seven years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cultural Marxism: Nobel Scientist Sacked for Making Innocent Joke About Women
And what was his trespass? Did he take the podium drunken and make lewd comments about women’s anatomy? Was it a remark about wife-battery? It must be just awful, as the 39 words uttered have now ended his career. Here’s the joke he told attendees:
“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry.”
No, I’m not joking. That’s it. Nothing more. Yet it inspired social-media campaigners to hunt for Hunt, and the 72-year-old was ousted from his research position. Is this shell of Western civilization we’re living in for real?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
There are few things as evil and tragic in this fallen world as an adult who abuses the trust of a child—be it a son, daughter, niece, nephew, student, family friend, etc.—to fulfill his (or her) own selfish sexual lusts. I urge you to watch the ABC News interview video below, then watch it again—and then share it far and wide. I applaud Jolene Burdge, sister of the late Steve Reinboldt, for fighting for years to get out the story about the former high school wrestling coach who destroyed her brother’s life, then went on to become a famous legislator before the weight of his past sins came crashing down upon him. That man is former Speaker of the House, Republican Dennis Hastert, who has just pleaded “not guilty” to federal charges of lying to the FBI as the target of an alleged extortion scheme involving—according to an anonymous leak—a former sexual victim. Hastert is not being prosecuted for his sexual crimes alleged by Burdge, but he should be.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Horrendous Father’s Day Example
When Barack Obama campaigned for president in 2008, few Americans would have guessed that his administration would become the most anti-family force in U.S. history by celebrating gay marriage and the spectacle of men becoming women through the phenomenon of “transgenderism.” Obama had portrayed himself as a committed pro-family Christian who recognized the importance of male role models and fathers in the family structure. “Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation,” Obama said in a “Fatherhood speech” in June of that year.
But in response to Bruce Jenner, a biological father of six, declaring he was actually female, Obama said, “It takes courage to share your story.” Nothing was said about the impact such a bizarre declaration would have on one’s children, or the condition of one’s mental state to bring that about. Obama seemed to be endorsing genital mutilation as a way out of mental confusion or mental illness.
Obama’s definition of family has certainly changed. Indeed, he was once in favor of marriage being between one man and one woman, and today he celebrates fatherless and motherless families. He lied about his commitment to traditional marriage in order to get elected. It was a big con, but only one of many deceptions from the candidate of “hope and change” whose lasting legacy, as noted in Professor Paul Kengor’s new book Takedown, could very well be cultural and not economic transformation. After all, parts of Obamacare could be repealed over time, and economic reforms could arrest our debt problem, which has accelerated under Obama. But restoring the traditional family is a mammoth undertaking that even Republican presidential candidates are generally afraid to talk about.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Teacher Who Read Homosexual Book to Third Graders Resigns Following Parental Outrcy
An elementary school teacher who read a book about homosexuality to third graders has resigned following outcry from parents who were upset that their children were exposed to the material.
Both teacher Omar Currie and Assistant Principal Meg Goodhand have resigned from their positions at Efland-Cheeks Elementary School following the incident, which occurred in April of this year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Transgender “Female” MMA Fighter Brutally Injures Female Opponent
The video of the Brents-Fox fight was pretty brutal: Fox threw knees to Brents face and torso right at the beginning, to kick off the fight. Brents ultimately turned her back to avoid more damage—and took almost a minute of hard strikes from Fox’s elbows and fists, before the referee stopped.
Because of how men and women are differently built—Fox, who was born a man, has larger hands, shoulders, bones, and muscle mass—a transgender opponent has a huge advantage. Because Fox transitioned her gender so recently, she atill has many of the advantages that being a man has.
And, on Saturday night when Fox fought Brents, those advantages were very clearly on full display.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Elite Financier George Soros Warns of World War III: “Not an Exaggeration”
To say Soros is influential within the realms of business and politics would be an understatement.
[Comment: He should know, he helped set the stage.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis: Humans Are Turning the Earth Into an “Immense Pile of Filth”
An excerpt from the pope’s encyclical on climate change, the environment and inequality.
[Comment: product of liberation theology — aka marxism .]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Not sure if this showed up in the news feed but check this out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/world/europe/teaching-the-holocaust-to-muslim-germans-or-not.html?_r=0
Notice this: “Lower-ranked secondary schools, he said, have a higher proportion of immigrant pupils, often recent arrivals whose parents sought refuge from war and hardship. “Many are from Muslim families,” Mr. Steiner said. “These children and their parents will need time before they can identify with our past.”
Apparently this Steiner idiot doesn’t realize that it isn’t just Germany’s past, but due to the cooperation of Hitler with Muslims in Palestine it’s a part of their past too. Then again, maybe he does know and that’s what he’s so desperate to cover up.
You can bet they will not be taught about the visits by the Grand Mufti whether they go or not.
Wilders blames sabotage for failure to broadcast Mohammed cartoons
The national public broadcasting company NPO is investigating why a party political broadcast by the PVV showing anti-Mohammed drawings was not transmitted as planned. PVV leader Geert Wilders pledged to show the drawings during the broadcast but instead an old item was aired instead. Wilders has accused the public broadcaster of sabotage and has now placed the item featuring the cartoons, which is 2.45 minutes long, on YouTube. The video is due to be broadcast twice more later this month.
Read more at DutchNews.nl: Wilders blames sabotage for failure to broadcast Mohammed cartoons http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/06/wilders-blames-sabotage-for-failure-to-broadcast-mohammed-cartoons/