Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/24/2017

Dozens of “teens” swarmed a BART commuter train today in Oakland, California, attacking and robbing passengers on the train. When the first high-spirited youths arrived at the platform, they held the doors of the train open to let their companions enter. At least two passengers sustained head injuries in the mischievous mêlée.

In other news, Swedish police have arrested a second suspect in the April 7 truck jihad attack in Stockholm.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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.

Financial Crisis
» 11 Facts That Prove That the U.S. Economy in 2017 is in Far Worse Shape Than it Was in 2016
» Italy’s 2016 Deficit 2.4%, Debt 132.6% — Eurostat
» Pew Research: Gap Between Promises and Assets Widens for State Pensions
 
USA
» 50 ‘Juveniles’ Swarm BART Train in Oakland, Rob People
» AI Could Evolve to Hack Itself, John McAfee Warns
» Berkeley Sued for Cancelling Ann Coulter’s Speech
» Caitlyn Jenner Spoofed as ‘It’ Clown in Ads Near Fox Studio
» CFR: Trump Sabotaging Globalist World Order
» Climate Scientist Urges President Trump Not to Cave to Ivanka’s ‘Climate Change Madness’
» Here’s What Happened When a Muslim Complained About Restaurant’s Bacon Sign
» Is Trump’s National Security Team Trustworthy?
» New Orleans Begins to Take Down Prominent Confederate Monuments
» New York Times Scraps ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ For Being ‘Culturally Loaded’ Term
» President Trump Removes Obama’s Pro-Gun Control Surgeon General
» Remembering Earth Day Founding Father and Girlfriend-Composter Ira Einhorn
» The Democrats Were Here Before and Tore the Nation Asunder — Consider Lincoln
» The Knight’s Tombstone Conserved in Jamestown
» The Possibility of Silicon-Based Life Grows
 
Europe and the EU
» Can the Muslim Vote Sway the French Elections?
» Danish Musicians in Aquariums Make Sounds in a Silent World
» EC to Send Italy Reasoned Opinion Over Smog
» Europe’s Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets
» Europe’s Terror Capital Revealed in Shock Numbers That Will Send Attack Fears Soaring
» Eurosceptics in Finland Call for Referendum on European Union and Euro
» Evidence Indicates French Government Coverup of ISIS Involvement in Kardashian Paris Incident
» France Elections: Le Pen ‘Steps Aside’ As Party Leader
» Germany’s ‘Love Parade’ Organisers to Face Trial Over Stampede Deaths
» Germany’s National Security Breakdown, Which Failed to Prevent Terror Attack, Spurs Debate
» Italy: Moroccan Arrested, Was Planning Terror Attack
» Italy: MPS Ex-Execs Profumo, Viola to be Indicted
» Journey Deep Into the Finnish Caverns Where Nuclear Waste Will be Buried for Millenia
» Macron Gains Backing of French Political Establishment Fearful of Le Pen
» Muskoxen in Norway
» Salvini Blasts Macron, Roots for Le Pen
» Sweden: Terrorism Researcher: Follow the Money
» Sweden Arrests Another Suspect Over Stockholm Attack
» Switzerland: Building Owner Blocks Islamist Conference
» UK: Gang Hack Teen to Death in Machete Attack in London Just Hours After Man, 40, Killed
» Weird Clouds May Have Inspired Norwegian ‘The Scream’: Scientists
 
North Africa
» Egypt’s Tourism Officials Insist Popular Sites Are Safe
» Trump Intervention Frees U.S. Citizen Held Three Years in Egyptian Prison
 
Middle East
» Amid Global Donor Fatigue, UN Asks New Billions for Famine Relief
» Armenians Commemorate Start of Massacre by Ottoman Turks
» Article 308: Jordan to Scrap Marriage Loophole for Rapists
» Historian Finds Documentary Proof of Turkish Role in Armenian Genocide
» Syria: Trump’s Bay of Pigs?
» US Imposes ‘Sweeping’ Syria Sanctions Over ‘Chemical’ Attack
 
South Asia
» “Everything’s Worse” — Where India’s Disintegration is Set to Begin
» ‘Hobbit’ Species Did Not Evolve From Ancestor of Modern Humans, Research Finds
» Mystery Human Hobbit Ancestor May Have Been First Out of Africa
 
Far East
» China Calls for Restraint as US Carrier Group Nears Korean Waters
» Entire Senate Being Called to White House for North Korea Briefing
» Japanese Demand for Nuclear Shelters, Purifiers Surges as North Korea Tension Mounts
» North Korea’s Sad ATMs Aren’t Dispensing Any Cash
» North Korea ‘Ready to Sink’ US Aircraft Carrier Vinson
» Phillippine President Rodrigo Duterte: ‘I’D Eat the Livers of ISIS Terrorists With Salt and Vinegar’
» Trump Discusses North Korea Tensions With Asian Leaders
» US Citizens Held in North Korea See Diminished Hope of Freedom Amid Rising Tensions
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australians Attending Gallipoli’s ANZAC Day Memorial Drops From 10,000 to 700 Over Fears of a Terrorism Attack
 
Latin America
» The Daily Battle for Survival in Venezuela
» Venezuelans Shut Down Roads and Highways as Protests Enter 4th Week
» Venezuela Death Toll Rises as Unrest Enters Fourth Week
 
Immigration
» Canada Weakens Citizenship While Australia Strengthens it
» Europe: Making Itself Into the New Afghanistan?
» Germany Accepting Fewer Afghan Asylum Seekers
» Illegal Aliens Have More Rights Than IRS Taxpayers
» Immigration Altering the Political DNA of America
» Italy: Di Maio in Spat With Saviano Over NGOs Rescuing Migrants
» Italy Top for Making Migrants Citizens — EU
» Migrant Rescue Boats Are Colluding With People Traffickers, Italy Prosecutor Claims
» Migrant Crime Up 52 Percent in Germany
» MSF ‘Indignant’ Over Migrant-Rescue Accusations
» Number of Migrant Criminal Suspects in Germany Surged in 2016
» Perfect Storm Advancing Upon America: National Suicide
» Pope Says Some Refugee Centres ‘Concentration Camps’
» Report: Only 2.65 Percent of Immigrants Into Italy Are Refugees
» Woman Dies in Stampede at Ceuta-Morocco Border
 
Culture Wars
» Teacher Bans Cross and Forces LGBT Agenda on Students
 

11 Facts That Prove That the U.S. Economy in 2017 is in Far Worse Shape Than it Was in 2016

There is much debate about where the U.S. economy is ultimately heading, but what everybody should be able to agree on is that economic conditions are significantly worse this year than they were last year. It is being projected that U.S. economic growth for the first quarter will be close to zero, thousands of retail stores are closing, factory output is falling, and restaurants and automakers have both fallen on very hard times. As economic activity has slowed down, commercial and consumer bankruptcies are both rising at rates that we have not seen since the last financial crisis. Everywhere you look there are echoes of 2008, and yet most people still seem to be in denial about what is happening. The following are 11 facts that prove that the U.S. economy in 2017 is in far worse shape than it was in 2016…

#1 It is being projected that there will be more than 8,000 retail store closings in the United States in 2017, and that will far surpass the former peak of 6,163 store closings that we witnessed in 2008.

#2 The number of retailers that have filed for bankruptcy so far in 2017 has already surpassed the total for the entire year of 2016.

#3 So far in 2017, an astounding 49 million square feet of retail space has closed down in the United States. At this pace, approximately 147 million square feet will be shut down by the end of the year, and that would absolutely shatter the all-time record of 115 million square feet that was shut down in 2001.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s 2016 Deficit 2.4%, Debt 132.6% — Eurostat

Deficit figure up from EU’s February estimate

(ANSA) — Brussels, April 24 — Italy’s deficit-to-GDP ratio for 2016 was 2.4%, Eurostat said on Monday. The figure is 0.1 of a percentage point higher than that of 2.3% given in the European Commission’s economic forecasts in February. Italy’s public debt was 2.217909 trillion euros, 132.6% of GDP, 0.2 of a percentage point less than the figure given in the February forecasts.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Pew Research: Gap Between Promises and Assets Widens for State Pensions

After reviewing the investment results for 230 public pension plans for the last two years, Pew reported last Thursday that, despite strong recent stock market performance, the gap between liabilities (promises) and assets for those plans widened by 17 percent, to $1.4 trillion. Put another way, those plans should have nearly $4 trillion in assets to enable them to keep their promises. The latest data shows them with just over $2.5 trillion instead.

Said Greg Mennis, director of the project, “Many states face significant challenges in meeting pension promises to workers. The continued volatility [in stock market performance] and low investment returns are a reminder that policymakers cannot count on investment returns to close the pension funding gap.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

50 ‘Juveniles’ Swarm BART Train in Oakland, Rob People

Dozens of young people reportedly mobbed an Oakland train station over the weekend, annexed one of the train cars, and robbed passengers.

Two people suffered head injures from the alleged crimes, reports SFGATE, an online news site run by the San Francisco Chronicle, citing witnesses.

The incident occurred Saturday night at Coliseum Station, one of the most convenient stops to access the Oakland Raiders’ official NFL stadium.

Witnesses claim that approximately 40 to 60 juveniles swarmed the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station and circumvented the payment process by jumping over the fare gates. After arriving to the second-story platform, the thieves manually held open the doors to the train car while other miscreants flooded in, according to SFGATE.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

AI Could Evolve to Hack Itself, John McAfee Warns

Artificial intelligence systems that can hack themselves to improve their capabilities are not only possible at this point, but would be ‘trivial’ to create, a security expert has warned.

According to John McAfee, AI is a ‘self-conscious entity’ that is inherently self-interested, which could give rise to conflict with the human species.

The cybersecurity expert argues that any system created by humans would be flawed by nature — and, ultimately, the AI’s goal would include the ‘necessary destruction of its creator.’

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Berkeley Sued for Cancelling Ann Coulter’s Speech

Two conservative students groups are suing the University of California, Berkeley for cancelling a speech by conservative commentator Ann Coulter.

The groups, the Young America’s Foundation and Berkeley College Republicans, argue in a lawsuit filed in California on Monday that Berkeley placed the rights of masked protesters above those of tuition-paying conservative students.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Caitlyn Jenner Spoofed as ‘It’ Clown in Ads Near Fox Studio

A conservative street artist has appropriated Stephen King’s story It, only in this version, Caitlyn Jenner is portrayed as the evil clown.

The artwork, in the form of posters and fake advertisements, showed up Sunday around the Los Angeles Fox News bureau and Fox studios, timed for Tucker Carlson’s interview of Jenner during his show Monday night — his debut in the time slot previously occupied by Bill O’Reilly…

Sabo, a street artist known for chastising Hollywood, created the phony posters knowing he’d probably be verbally attacked for the politically incorrect nature of his most recent work.

“I converted to the Muslim faith and I joined ISIS, so what’s going on with Bruce Jenner goes against my new-found faith,” Sabo told The Hollywood Reporter. “If any progressives have a problem with this poster, then I’ll just have to label them ‘Islamophobic.’

“This poster pales in comparison to throwing Bruce off a building or hanging him the way we Muslims do in many countries, and progressives don’t seem to have a problem when we do that,” Sabo added.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CFR: Trump Sabotaging Globalist World Order

Calls for proponents to block Trump’s America First agenda

President Donald Trump is “a hostile revisionist power” at the heart of the free world dedicated to overturn the “U.S.-led liberal order,” according to Foreign Affairs — the mouthpiece of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Climate Scientist Urges President Trump Not to Cave to Ivanka’s ‘Climate Change Madness’

In an open letter to Donald Trump, climate expert Dr. Duane Thresher has urged the President not to give in to his daughter Ivanka’s misguided views on global warming and her insistence that the U.S. remain in the Paris climate agreement ratified by Barack Obama last August.

“Climate treaties like the Paris Agreement have little to do with climate,” Thresher notes in his letter, which he made available to Breitbart News. “They are about economic competition. As the greatest economy in the history of the world, other countries will do anything to cripple the United States.”

Thresher, who has a PhD in Earth & Environmental Sciences from Columbia University and NASA GISS and worked for years in climate monitoring, says he understands the President’s temptation to listen to his daughter’s advice, but begs him not to give in to that temptation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Here’s What Happened When a Muslim Complained About Restaurant’s Bacon Sign

After the Sneakers Bistro restaurant in Winooski put up a sign that read, “Yield for Sneakers Bacon,” an outraged Muslim woman took to an online community forum to complain about it.

“Given the large number of Muslim families in Winooski, as well as many others who do not eat pork for a variety of reasons, it seems unnecessary for this insensitive business sign to be at the city’s main crosswalk,” the woman wrote.

Unfortunately, the restaurant’s owner basically let an acolyte of Shariah law bully him into submission, which is extraordinarily sad given that the U.S. Constitution affords him the right to display his sign.

When the owner of Sneakers Bistro heard about her complaint, he responded by taking down the sign.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Is Trump’s National Security Team Trustworthy?

Trump’s policy reversal and unilateral attack on Syria resulted in an immediate and somewhat violent backlash from about half of his voters, who found themselves in social media tussles with the other 50% of Trump loyalists who never separated Trump’s well-intended decision from the quality of intel he was acting on, delivered by the likes of McCain and Graham, both of whom have been anti-Trump from the start.

Not only had Trump’s opponents succeeded in getting Trump to reverse his policy and unilaterally attack Syria without provocation, they were succeeding in dividing Trump loyalists in that process.

Clearly, there are two very different conflicting stories regarding chemical attacks in Syria and who may be responsible for the release of chemical or biological gas in Syria. It’s only a little odd that many Trump supporters supported Trump’s decision to strike Syria, even though the attack was unprovoked and without congressional authorization… But it is very odd that those folks would suddenly trust the very swamp creatures Trump was supposed to drain, and the intel they provided to get Trump to take that action…

Half of Trump supporters oppose Trump’s attack on Syria — not because they no longer believe in Trump, but because they still don’t believe in the swamp creatures providing the intel. The other half support Trump without ever considering the possibility that the same people they didn’t trust before, may now be feeding rotten intel to Trump.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Orleans Begins to Take Down Prominent Confederate Monuments

New Orleans began removing the first of four prominent Confederate monuments under the cover of darkness early Monday, the latest Southern institution to sever itself from symbols viewed by many as a representation of racism and white supremacy.

Truckers arrived at around 1:25 a.m. to begin removing the Liberty Monument, which commemorates whites who tried to topple a biracial post-Civil War government in New Orleans. The workers started early in an attempt to avoid disruption from supporters who want the monuments to stay. Some have even made death threats, according to officials.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New York Times Scraps ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ For Being ‘Culturally Loaded’ Term

A top New York Times editor decided the paper shouldn’t use the term “female genital mutilation” because the phrase is too “culturally loaded” and widens a divide between the Western world and “people who follow the rite.”

Health and Science editor Celia Dugger said she came to the conclusion to refer to the act of removing the female genitalia of young girls as “genital cutting” during a trip to Africa in the 1990s. She spoke about her decision in a Times mailbag article in response to a reader’s question.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

President Trump Removes Obama’s Pro-Gun Control Surgeon General

On Friday, the Trump administration asked Obama’s pro-gun control Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, to resign.

Murthy was confirmed to the position of Surgeon General on December 15, 2014. The lead-up to the confirmation vote on Murthy focused on his “political activism,” particularly his positions on gun control.

Opposition from the NRA and other gun rights groups — together with Republican opposition — actually made it difficult to predict whether Murthy could be confirmed.

In fact, he was so pro-gun control that Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), a red state Democratic proponent of gun control, refused to vote for him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Remembering Earth Day Founding Father and Girlfriend-Composter Ira Einhorn

Although Senator Gaylord Nelson usually gets the credit for organizing that first Earth Day in 1970, it was people like Einhorn who were putting the pieces together on the ground.

Einhorn’s terrain was Philadelphia. By his lights, environmental protection required a fundamental transformation of society or, as he phrased it, “a conscious restructuring of all we do.” To pull off so ambitious a program, Einhorn claimed to have enlisted a happy cabal of business, academic, and governmental factions. Together, they formed a broad popular front to deal with this unraveling of the planetary web, much as the Soviets organized popular fronts ostensibly to deal with the threat of fascism in the 1930s. And recall, this was back when “global cooling” was the reigning anxiety.

Whether or not Einhorn did as he claimed, there is no denying how well he had insinuated himself into the upper reaches of Philadelphia’s good deed-doer set. Ira had a “brilliant network,” a local oil executive would later tell Time magazine. “He knew enough corporate people to get our projects funded simply by strolling into people’s offices and asking for the money.”

These connections would come in handy just nine years after that first Earth Day, when police found the battered and “composted” body of Einhorn’s girlfriend, Holly Maddux, in a steamer trunk in Einhorn’s apartment. She had been stashed there for eighteen months.

At his bail hearing, one after another of the city’s liberal elite took the stand to sing the accused murderer’s praises. These included a minister, an economist, a corporate lawyer, a playwright, and many more — what Time called “an unlikely battalion of bluebloods, millionaires and corporate executives.”

Representing Einhorn was none other than future Democrat and Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter. The combined clout of these worthies swayed the judge to set bail at $40,000, only $4,000 of which was required to put Einhorn back on the streets.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Democrats Were Here Before and Tore the Nation Asunder — Consider Lincoln

The Democrats, through their rhetoric and their actions, are opposing the Trump administration at every turn. Through Obama administration government holdovers, they intend to bring down the present government and maintain and expand the bureaucratic Administrative State which is destroying federalism, taking away Americans’ individual rights, and nullifying large swaths of the Constitution of the United States. Their presidential candidate failed to win the office, and the Democrats’ expected triumph of the Administrative State will at best be postponed and at worst be dismantled to a great extent by President Trump and his appointees.

The Democrats are furious, and, as has been reported in these pages and in other sources, their reaction has been militant, irrational, and destructive to our nation.

We have seen this before. Over 150 years ago the issues were cogently examined and argued by presidential hopeful Abraham Lincoln in his Feb. 27, 1860 address at Cooper Union in New York City. The issue then was slavery, whether the federal government had a right to prevent its expansion into U.S. territories not yet organized into states. Because of the Dred Scott U.S. Supreme Court decision, Lincoln predicted that the right to own slaves would spread to the entire nation if Democrats had their way.

Today the issue is the Administrative State and whether it will destroy federalism and our citizens’ G-d given individual rights, some of which are enumerated in the Constitution as amended, and our representative republic.

In 1860 the Democratic Party was divided. The slave states were the exclusive territory of the Democratic Party. It was, without argument, the party of slavery.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Knight’s Tombstone Conserved in Jamestown

The Williamsburg Yorktown Daily reports that Preservation Virginia conservators are working with large-stone specialist Jonathan Appell to preserve the so-called Knight’s Tombstone, which has lain on the floor of the church at Historic Jamestowne for some 400 years. The stone is carved with an image of a knight and was once adorned with monumental brasses.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Possibility of Silicon-Based Life Grows

Science fiction has long imagined alien worlds inhabited by silicon-based life, such as the rock-eating Horta from the original Star Trek series. Now, scientists have for the first time shown that nature can evolve to incorporate silicon into carbon-based molecules, the building blocks of life on Earth.

As for the implications these findings might have for alien chemistry on distant worlds, “my feeling is that if a human being can coax life to build bonds between silicon and carbon, nature can do it too,” said the study’s senior author Frances Arnold, a chemical engineer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Can the Muslim Vote Sway the French Elections?

In case of a runoff between Marine Le Pen and another candidate, the Muslim electorate will rally behind her opponent.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Danish Musicians in Aquariums Make Sounds in a Silent World

Talk about fluid tunes: A group of innovative Danish musicians submerged like fish in an aquarium have created an underwater concerto with instruments specially adapted to resonate in a silent world.

In Aarhus, a concert hall at the Godsbanen culture hub looks more like a fish farm than a music set, with its jumble of water tanks, canisters, tubes, pipes and retrofuturistic objects.

One after the other, the five members of the Between Music band — Laila, Robert, Morten, Dea Maria and Nanna — descend into their own individual glass-paned water tanks for their latest project AquaSonic, where they play the violin, cymbals, bells, a crystallophone with a pedal, and a kind of hurdy gurdy with a long neck.

Hydrophones, or special microphones that pick up the sound of the music in the water, amplify the soundwaves, producing music that resembles the sounds whales make.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EC to Send Italy Reasoned Opinion Over Smog

Pollution over allowed level in several urban areas

(ANSA) — Brussels, April 24 — The European Commission is set to send Italy a reasoned opinion — the second phase in an infringement procedure — for having had unacceptable pollution levels in several urban areas for over seven years, ANSA sources said Monday. The move, concerning particulate matter (PM10) levels, will be made official on Thursday, the sources said.

In February the Commission said it was sending a final warning to Italyfor failing to address repeated breaches of air pollution limits in 12 airquality zones, including Rome, Milan and Turin.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Europe’s Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets

High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Europe’s Terror Capital Revealed in Shock Numbers That Will Send Attack Fears Soaring

Staggering figures have showed Belgium is now home to 20,000 people with links to terrorism.

The terrifying number — which has risen tenfold since 2010 — is huge in comparison to the 2,000 people in Britain linked to terror.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Eurosceptics in Finland Call for Referendum on European Union and Euro

An up-and-coming leader of Finland’s only Eurosceptic party has proposed a national referendum on leaving the European Union as well as on abandoning the euro in favor of a national currency.

Sampo Terho, a former member of the European Parliament and one of the top figures of the new populist and Eurosceptic party called Peerussuomalaiset (the True Finns, or just the Finns), is pushing for Finland’s exit from the Eurozone, an outcome he considers inevitable

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Evidence Indicates French Government Coverup of ISIS Involvement in Kardashian Paris Incident

The 2016 robbery of Kim Kardashian sent shockwaves around the globe and caused observers to question the efficiency of France’s state of emergency. However, the incident may have been more serious than authorities and the press have previously admitted. Research by Disobedient Media has revealed that the French government may be attempting to conceal the involvement of terror group ISIS in Kardashian’s robbery to prevent further public panic over the event.

Conflicting facts given by sources to the media, analysis of the criminal group allegedly behind the attack given the known involvement of terror groups in organized crime, the French government’s apparent mishandling of the investigation into the robbery and reports that the proceeds from the heist made their way into the hands of jihadists all suggest that authorities may be seeking to conceal the involvement of terrorism in the incident.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

France Elections: Le Pen ‘Steps Aside’ As Party Leader

Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has announced that she will step down as leader of her National Front (FN) party.

The move comes just a day after she reached the second round of the French election, where she will face Centrist Emmanuel Macron.

It is not clear if her decision will be permanent. She told France 2 that France is approaching a “decisive moment”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany’s ‘Love Parade’ Organisers to Face Trial Over Stampede Deaths

The organisers of the “Love Parade” festival will stand trial in connection with the deaths of 21 people in a crush in 2010, a German court has ruled.

More than 500 others were injured in the crush, when thousands tried to squeeze through a tunnel that served as the only access to the music festival.

Ten people will now face charges of manslaughter and negligence for the disaster in Duisburg.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany’s National Security Breakdown, Which Failed to Prevent Terror Attack, Spurs Debate

Germany, still reeling from its first large-scale radical Islamist terrorist attack, is now embroiled in a heated debate over the failures of its system of national security and the effectiveness of its counterterrorism measures.

This debate could impact the German national elections in September.

On December 19, Anis Amri, a Tunisian, drove a trailer truck into a crowded Berlin Christmas market in a terrorist attack that killed 12 people and wounded 53. Amri, a supporter of the Islamic State (ISIS), had been on a terrorist watch list in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), the most populous of Germany’s 16 states, but was removed when officials found no proof he was planning an attack.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Moroccan Arrested, Was Planning Terror Attack

Judge says suspect was extremely dangerous

(ANSA) — Turin, April 24 — Carabinieri police on Monday arrested a 29-year-old Moroccan national, Mouner El Aoual, for allegedly promoting Islamist extremism on the Internet, planning attacks in Italy and looking for people to carry them out with.

In the arrest warrant, a preliminary investigations judge said El Aoualwas “extremely dangerous” and at a “high risk of moving to the execution of serious acts of violence”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: MPS Ex-Execs Profumo, Viola to be Indicted

For financial irregularities

(ANSA) — Milan, April 21 — A Milan judge on Friday instructed prosecutors to indict Alessandro Profumo and Fabrizio Viola, respectively former president and ex-CEO of troubled Tuscan lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), for suspected financial irregularities. Prosecutors had asked to shelve the case against the pair.

Profumo and Viola said they were innocent of the charges.

“I am sure my actions were correct,” said Profumo. MPS has endured a string of probes and financial woes that have forced the government to launcha precautionary recapitalisation to offset bad loans that helped place it last in a European Central Bank stress test last summer.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Journey Deep Into the Finnish Caverns Where Nuclear Waste Will be Buried for Millenia

A hole in Finland is being prepared to contain radioactive waste for 100,000 years. But will the future co-operate?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Macron Gains Backing of French Political Establishment Fearful of Le Pen

Following Macron’s win on Sunday — and the second place finish by far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen — many of the defeated presidential contenders threw their voice behind the centrist front-runner ahead of the May 7 run-off.

The conservative former French Prime Minister François Fillon — once the favored candidate to win the presidency — conceded on Sunday night after pulling in just less than 20 percent of the vote. In a speech to his supporters, Fillon announced that he was supporting Macron’s bid for president because there is “no other option but to vote against the far right.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Muskoxen in Norway

The Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park in Norway is home to some of the last remaining muskoxen on the European mainland. Trained guides show tourists how the animals live in the wild.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Salvini Blasts Macron, Roots for Le Pen

League leader says politicians, journalists ‘idiots, slaves’

(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — Northern League leader Matteo Salvini on Monday blasted Emmanuel Macron after he came top in the first round of the French presidential election and reiterated his support for the centrist’s run-off opponent Marine Le Pen. “Politicians, journalists, philosophers and pseudo artists have been repeating that the populists are the danger for Europe since yesterday evening. And who cares about the terrorists? Idiots and slaves,” said Salvini on Facebook. “While the bankers toast Macron (the euro andstock exchange are up), 40% of workers and farmers voted for Le Pen yesterday. “Come on Marine! P.S. It should be noted that in France the candidateswho want to change the euro and the crazy policies of Brussels are 48% of the vote”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Terrorism Researcher: Follow the Money

The Swedish government and the main opposition group are holding talks on anti-terror measures including electronic tags, but a researcher says cutting off terror financing is key.

Magnus Ranstorp is one of Sweden’s most influential researchers into terrorism. He says that a more effective way to combat terrorism would be to look at financing and links with organised crime

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Arrests Another Suspect Over Stockholm Attack

Sweden has arrested a second suspect in connection with the deadly Stockholm truck attack, prosecutors said on Monday.

Four people were killed, including two Swedes, one Briton and one Belgian, when a truck mowed down pedestrians on a busy shopping street in central Stockholm on April 7th.

Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek national, confessed to driving the stolen truck and is being held in custody but investigators are still searching for possible accomplices.

Construction worker Akilov is a father of four who was refused permanent residency in Sweden in June 2016. He went underground last year after receiving a deportation order, police said.

He is known to have sympathies for jihadist groups, including Isis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Switzerland: Building Owner Blocks Islamist Conference

The owner of Zurich’s World Trade Center will not allow the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland to hold a conference within its walls.

The building’s owner, pension fund BVK, said on Monday the decision followed a detailed analysis of the situation, Swiss newspaper Blick reported. But the Islamic council has an alternative plan for holding the conference and a demonstration.

“We have a plan B,” the council’s spokesperson Qaasim Illi was quoted as saying.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Gang Hack Teen to Death in Machete Attack in London Just Hours After Man, 40, Killed

TWO people including a teenager were stabbed to death within hours of each other in separate violent attacks in London.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Weird Clouds May Have Inspired Norwegian ‘The Scream’: Scientists

The psychedelic clouds in Edvard Munch’s iconic “The Scream” have alternatively been interpreted as a metaphor for mental anguish or a literal depiction of volcanic fallout.

On Monday, scientists hypothesised that the Norwegian painter’s inspiration may in fact have been rare clouds which form in cold places at high altitude.

The first version of “The Scream” was released in 1893. It depicts a dark humanlike figure clutching its head in apparent horror against the backdrop of a swirling, red-orange sky.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt’s Tourism Officials Insist Popular Sites Are Safe

Egypt’s tourism levels are still around a third of what they once were, and despite security concerns Egypt’s tourism minister insists the country’s popular Red Sea resorts and Ancient Egyptian sites are “safe” and “airports are secure”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Intervention Frees U.S. Citizen Held Three Years in Egyptian Prison

I never lit into Barack Obama more viciously than I did the day we learned how Kayla Mueller died, and it still makes me angry when I think about it. Caught up in a hostage situation with Doctors Without Borders, this young American Christian woman was just trying to help others and hurting absolutely no one. But Obama not only refused to help her, he threatened to prosecute her family if they paid the ransom demanded for her release.

So she was tortured and killed. If I get started again on what this says about Obama, I’ll start turning red and gritting my teeth, so instead I will happily report that our new president is already giving us very different outcomes to such situations:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Amid Global Donor Fatigue, UN Asks New Billions for Famine Relief

Amid dire predictions of mass starvation, the United Nations is calling on the developed world to pour billions of dollars into humanitarian relief in Africa, starting with Yemen, where a two-year civil war and drought have displaced more than 3 million people.

The U.N. describes Yemen as the world’s largest “food insecurity” humanitarian crisis, with drought atop the escalating two-year civil war that has left not only some 3.1 million refugees but 14 million people overall that the U.N. nebulously calls “food insecure,” including 6.8 million who are “severely” so. Among those are 2 million “acutely malnourished” children.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Armenians Commemorate Start of Massacre by Ottoman Turks

Tens of thousands of people have marched to a hilltop memorial complex in Armenia’s capital to lay flowers in commemoration of the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago by Ottoman Turks.

The massacre that began 102 years ago is viewed by Armenians and many historians as genocide. This is vehemently rejected by Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman Empire.

President Serzh Sargsyan said Monday’s commemoration was the “march of a resurrected nation, which has not forgotten what it left behind but looks to the future with confidence.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Article 308: Jordan to Scrap Marriage Loophole for Rapists

A law which protected Jordan’s rapists from punishment if they married their victims looks set to be scrapped.

The Jordanian cabinet revoked Article 308 on Sunday, after years of campaigning by women’s activists, as well as Muslim and Christian scholars and others.

The law had meant rapists could avoid a jail term in return for marrying their victim for at least three years.

Its supporters said the law protected a victim’s honour and reputation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Historian Finds Documentary Proof of Turkish Role in Armenian Genocide

For more than a century, Turkey has denied any role in organizing the killing of Armenians in what historians have long accepted as a genocide that started in 1915, as World War I spread across continents. The Turkish narrative of denial has hinged on the argument that the original documents from postwar military tribunals that convicted the genocide’s planners were nowhere to be found.

Now, Taner Akcam, a Turkish historian at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., who has studied the genocide for decades by piecing together documents from around the world to establish state complicity in the killings, says he has unearthed an original telegram from the trials, in an archive held by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

“Until recently, the smoking gun was missing,” Mr. Akcam said. “This is the smoking gun.” He called his find “an earthquake in our field,” and said he hoped it would remove “the last brick in the denialist wall.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Trump’s Bay of Pigs?

One of the fateful steps taken by Kennedy after he was sworn as president was to scrap the National Security Council mechanism. Being statutory, he could not abolish the NSC unilaterally, but he simply ignored it. Then, after the Bay of Pigs debacle — which actually was a very successful PSYOP carried out by the CFR conspirators — he fired CIA Director Allen Dulles, a senior CFR conspirator closely associated to the Rockefeller gang, as well as Richard Bissell, the man in charge of CIA’s covert operations and also a CFR member, and told some close friends that he wanted to “splitter” the CIA “into a thousand pieces and scatter [it] to the winds.” Unfortunately, the CFR conspirators already had a counter plan to prevent JFK from carrying out his plan.

Most Americans who gave their votes to Trump are still shocked trying to understand the logic of his ordering a missile attack against Syria, a sovereign state we are not at war with. Even if the sarin gas attack on civilians was real — something that has all the characteristics of a false flag operation — the U.S. has no right whatsoever to continue acting as the policeman of the world. Actually, to stop these foreign entanglements was one of the reasons why most people gave their vote to Trump.

Moreover, the fact that Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer, the Neocons, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other CFR-controlled media praised Trump’s illegal military action against Syria is a clear indication that his decision was wrong.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Imposes ‘Sweeping’ Syria Sanctions Over ‘Chemical’ Attack

The US has imposed “sweeping” sanctions on officials in a Syrian government agency in response to a suspected chemical attack earlier this month.

The treasury department ordered a freeze on all assets in the US of 271 employees of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC).

The US believes it made the nerve agent that killed more than 80 people in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

Syria says the incident was a fabrication.

President Bashar al-Assad has accused the West of making up events in Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April so the US had an excuse to carry out missile strikes on the government’s Shayrat airbase, which took place a few days after the alleged attack.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

“Everything’s Worse” — Where India’s Disintegration is Set to Begin

Given that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has been at the helm for only three years, it is hard to blame him in general for any of the above mentioned monstrosities marring daily life in India. The best the head of the executive of an extremely diverse and complicated country can achieve is to nudge the Titanic in the right direction.

The problem is that Modi has actively sped the Titanic toward collision with an iceberg, from which he himself will not emerge unharmed. He must be blamed for his naiveté, his upside-down understanding of economics and a complete lack of awareness of the realities of life, his narcissism and obsession of making a hero out of himself, and an utter lack of self-respect that drives him to seek solace in Hindu fanaticism. He and his party have been a catalyst fanning the flames of nationalism and fanaticism among Indians.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Hobbit’ Species Did Not Evolve From Ancestor of Modern Humans, Research Finds

Researchers who studied the bones of Homo floresiensis, a species of tiny human discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, say their findings should end a popular theory that it evolved from an ancestor of modern humans.

Prof Mike Lee of Flinders University and the South Australian Museum used statistical modelling to analyse the data collected by the researchers. He said the findings were clear.

Homo floresiensis occupied a very primitive position on the human evolutionary tree,” Lee said. “We can be 99% sure it’s not related to Homo erectus and nearly 100% it isn’t a malformed Homo sapiens.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mystery Human Hobbit Ancestor May Have Been First Out of Africa

The identity of the mysterious Homo floresiensis, aka the hobbit, has once again been turned on its head. New research suggests the tiny hominin evolved from an unknown ancestor that was the first to ever venture out of Africa.

Remains of the extinct species were first discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesia just over a decade ago, but there is still fierce debate about where they came from.

The dominant idea has been that H. floresiensis was descended from the larger Homo erectus, an extinct human species that once occupied Asia. Proponents believe ancestors of H. erectus were the first humans to stray out of Africa about 1.8 million years ago.

The theory is that after members of the big-bodied group reached Flores, they gradually shrunk to just 1 metre tall because of the scarce island resources.

Another possibility is that the hobbits were simply short members of our own species — Homo sapiens. The miniature size of the one skull that has been uncovered could be the result of Down syndrome.

Now, the most comprehensive analysis yet suggests the hobbits were, in fact, descended from a mystery ancestor that lived in Africa over 2 million years ago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Calls for Restraint as US Carrier Group Nears Korean Waters

China’s president has urged US President Donald Trump to show restraint in dealing with North Korea. Trump also spoke with Japan’s premier Shinzo Abe as a US fleet heading to Korean waters trained with Japanese warships.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Entire Senate Being Called to White House for North Korea Briefing

The entire U.S. Senate has been invited to the White House for a briefing Wednesday on the North Korea situation, amid escalating tensions over the country’s missile tests and bellicose rhetoric.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed the upcoming briefing, for all 100 senators, on Monday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats plan to provide the update to lawmakers.

It is rare for the entire Senate to be invited to such a briefing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Japanese Demand for Nuclear Shelters, Purifiers Surges as North Korea Tension Mounts

Sales of nuclear shelters and radiation-blocking air purifiers have surged in Japan in recent weeks as North Korea has pressed ahead with missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

A small company that specializes in building nuclear shelters, generally under people’s houses, has received eight orders in April alone compared with six orders during a typical year.

Concerns about a possible gas attack have grown in Japan after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliament session this month that North Korea may have the capacity to deliver missiles equipped with sarin nerve gas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea’s Sad ATMs Aren’t Dispensing Any Cash

No modern airport terminal is complete without an ATM, and Pyongyang’s now has two. But they don’t work — because of new Chinese sanctions, according to bank employees — and it’s not clear when they will.

But how much Chinese policy toward North Korea has changed is hard to gauge. Though China banned coal imports from the North in February, overall trade between the two countries has grown in recent months.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea ‘Ready to Sink’ US Aircraft Carrier Vinson

North Korea is “ready to sink” a US aircraft carrier heading for the peninsula, state media have said. A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper warned that the USS Carl Vinson could be sunk “with a single strike”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Phillippine President Rodrigo Duterte: ‘I’D Eat the Livers of ISIS Terrorists With Salt and Vinegar’

Controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is prone to bizarre and lurid quotes, has delivered the ultimate warning to ISIS terrorists.

In a recent speech, Duterte boasted that he is “50 times” more hardcore than ISIS. To prove it, he said he would eat the livers of captured terrorists with salt and vinegar (tasty!).

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Discusses North Korea Tensions With Asian Leaders

President Trump talked to leaders of both China and Japan on Monday as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have boiled over and North Korea appears ready for an ICBM launch.

Trump spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Japan’s military claimed it sent destroyers to join the USS Carl Vinson carrier group on its way to North Korea’s doorstep — and South Korea was in talks to take part as well, Reuters reported.

North Korea called the carrier group’s approach “an extremely dangerous act by those who plan a nuclear war to invade,” according to a commentary in the ruling Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun. “What’s only laid for aggressors is dead bodies.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Citizens Held in North Korea See Diminished Hope of Freedom Amid Rising Tensions

North Korea has put another American behind bars, bringing to three the number of U.S. citizens imprisoned in the rogue regime’s infamous gulags even as tensions on the peninsula threaten to spiral out of control.

Tony Kim, a 58-year-old Korean-American professor, was detained at Pyongyang International Airport after teaching accounting for a month at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology and working on aid and relief programs to North Korea.

In the past, North Korea has generally quickly released any American citizens it detained — waiting at most for a U.S. official or statesman to come and to personally bail out detainees. But that appears to be changing.

Kim’s arrest makes him the third American citizen currently detained in North Korea.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Australians Attending Gallipoli’s ANZAC Day Memorial Drops From 10,000 to 700 Over Fears of a Terrorism Attack

Terrorism fears have stopped Australians attending the Anzac Day memorial in Gallipoli on Tuesday. Only 700 Australians will attend, compared to 10,000 in years past.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

The Daily Battle for Survival in Venezuela

The anti-government protests that have rocked the Venezuelan capital of Caracas over the last three weeks have created an increasingly polarized city where two distinct realities live in parallel.

Customers are limited to four packets each of rice and sugar, as well as the same number of bottles of cooking oil. People are taking advantage to stock up ahead of the continued street protests. A packet of rice now costs 4,700 bolívares, equivalent to $1, with the price creeping up as it works it way through the chain of hands in the black market.

Venezuela, an oil producer dependent on crude prices, is in the grip of rampant inflation, with the IMF estimating price rises of more than 1,700% in the coming two years.

For the last year, the country has been in the throes of an unprecedented crisis that is hitting it from all sides: it has the highest inflation rate in the world, violence is rampant, people have trouble finding and buying necessary everyday items, and the very fabric of society is breaking down.

“People are dying of hunger. We have to fight so that Venezuelans can express themselves,” says Ismael García, a veteran politician who once supported Hugo Chávez, the former president and founder of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, but who is now a deputy on behalf of the MUD opposition coalition that controls the National Assembly.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuelans Shut Down Roads and Highways as Protests Enter 4th Week

Hundreds of Venezuelans in more than a dozen cities around the country shut down main roads to express their anger with the increasingly embattled socialist administration of President Nicolas Maduro.

The protest movement is entering its fourth week, and has become increasingly deadly.

On Sunday, a 21st death was linked to the unrest that began almost a month ago over the Supreme Court’s decision to gut the opposition-controlled congress of its powers. The Interior Ministry said that Almelina Carrillo died in a hospital after being struck on the head with a frozen water bottle thrown from a high rise during a pro-government rally last week.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela Death Toll Rises as Unrest Enters Fourth Week

Gunmen killed two more people during political unrest in Venezuela on Monday, bringing the total number of deaths to 12 this month, as anti-government protests entered a fourth week with mass “sit-ins” to press for early elections.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Canada Weakens Citizenship While Australia Strengthens it

Canada now has the weakest immigration rules in the English-speaking world.

Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada has reduced the barriers for citizenship while others across the West are heading in the opposite direction. Our allies are strengthening citizenship rules to meet the new reality that our borders-and, increasingly, our values-are under siege.

[Comment: Note Trudeau’s use of the term “post nation state”. He is a puppet of those that seek to deconstruct western nation states prior to implementation of a globalist new world order.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Europe: Making Itself Into the New Afghanistan?

by Giulio Meotti

“Those (migrants) who come to seek freedom in France must participate in freedom. Migrants did not come to seek asylum in Saudi Arabia, but in Germany. Why? For security, freedom and prosperity. So they must not come to create a new Afghanistan,” said Algerian writer Kamel Daoud. Right. But it is the European mainstream that is letting them turn our cultural landscape into another Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Accepting Fewer Afghan Asylum Seekers

In the first two months of 2017, Germany has granted asylum to only 48 percent of Afghan migrants, local German media has reported. This is a drop of 30 percent since 2015.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Illegal Aliens Have More Rights Than IRS Taxpayers

How could government possibly know how many illegal aliens are in America when so many are not apprehended at the border and live in the shadows? How do you count a shadow? The government can’t even properly manage or keep track of the hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals that overstay their visas.

Then there is the crime perpetrated by illegal aliens. Just about everyone knows of San Francisco’s Kate Stienle who was gunned down by an illegal alien criminal. That criminal illegal alien had been deported five times and returned to San Francisco, a sanctuary city. The Stienle event has been reported on every major news outlet, leading to proposed legislation called Kate’s Law, which the Democrats blocked.

But very few Americans know the scope of crime committed by illegal aliens. In the State of Texas alone, as reported in the Texas Department of Public Safety: “According to DHS status indicators, over 217,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011 and March 31, 2017. During their criminal careers, these criminal aliens were charged with more than 579,000 criminal offenses. Those arrests include 1,179 homicide charges; 68,900 assault charges; 16,854 burglary charges; 68,999 drug charges; 699 kidnapping charges; 40,818 theft charges; 45,104 obstructing police charges; 3,813 robbery charges; 6,190 sexual assault charges; and 8,693 weapons charges. Of the total criminal aliens arrested in that timeframe, over 144,000 or 66% were identified by DHS status as being in the US illegally at the time of their last arrest.”

“According to DPS criminal history records, those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 260,000 convictions including 485 homicide convictions; 25,882 assault convictions; 8,239 burglary convictions; 34,077 drug convictions; 238 kidnapping convictions; 18,543 theft convictions; 22,179 obstructing police convictions; 1,939 robbery convictions; 2,812 sexual assault convictions; and 3,625 weapons convictions. Of the convictions associated with criminal alien arrests, over 173,000 or 66% are associated with aliens who were identified by DHS status as being in the US illegally at the time of their last arrest.”

In each one of these crimes in Texas there is a Texas victim or victims that you never hear about, whose lives have been altered forever by the criminal actions of an illegal alien. Many of the convicted criminal illegal aliens are now in our jails and the American taxpayer gets to pay for their incarceration as well. And this is just one state. Good Lord, are you beginning to get the picture? Are you angry yet? If not, why not?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Immigration Altering the Political DNA of America

Since 1965, via legal immigration, birth rates and chain-migrated relatives, the United States added 100,000,000 (million) people from 196 countries around the world. If that trend continues on the same path, America expects to add 100,000,000 more people from around the world by 2050. (See population graph below)

Not mentioned by politicians, those 100 million people from 196 different countries represent 190 different worldviews, religions, language and cultures. America faces a complete altering of its political and cultural DNA toward millions of immigrants pulling in their own directions, rather than for the American way of life.

Foremost among incompatible immigrants, Muslims number 3.3 million today within the United States, but they expect to reach as high as 20 million or more by 2050 at current immigration rates, birth rates and chain migration. A recent Fox News survey recorded that 51 percent of Muslim-Americans demand Sharia Law. As their numbers grow, so does their power to vote Sharia Law into their communities. They create parallel societies within our country, but in defiance of our country.

If Congress allows an illegal alien worker amnesty, America shall suffer 20 million illegal aliens becoming U.S. citizens. That will change the DNA of America to resemble Mexico’s failed society. It will become our first step down toward becoming a Third World country.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Di Maio in Spat With Saviano Over NGOs Rescuing Migrants

‘Issue exploited for 20 yrs’, ‘seeks votes even if deaths rise’

(ANSAmed) — Rome, April 24 — Deputy Lower House Speaker and 5-Star Movement(M5S) bigwig Luigi Di Maio on Monday reiterated his call for greater clarity on the “business of immigration”, after anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano accused him of seeking votes even at the cost of higher migrant deaths.

In an interview with the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, Di Maio noted that it was taboo to speak about immigration as a business, since “many are living off of it”, but added that he wanted answers and “not votes” in calling for greater clarity on the issue.

He stressed that there was no “aggressive targeting” of NGOs involved in rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea but that “we have raised the issue due to the many alarms received on deaths at sea and the increase in landings. We want to shed light on certain disfunctions — as does the Catania prosecutor’s office, which would like to open an investigation — and like Frontex, the EU agency tasked with the issue.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Top for Making Migrants Citizens — EU

178,000 in 2015, Albanians, Moroccans, Romanians top

(ANSA) — Brussels, April 21 — Italy is top in Europea for making migrants citizens, with more than 178,000 new citizens created in 2015, the EU said Friday. The three nationalities most represented are Albanians (19.7%), Moroccans (18.2%) and Romanians (8.1%), Eurostat said. Britain came second in the rankings with 118,000 nationality grants, followed by Spain with 114,351, France with 113,608, and Germany with 110,128.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Rescue Boats Are Colluding With People Traffickers, Italy Prosecutor Claims

Charity boats rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean are colluding with traffickers in Libya, an Italian prosecutor was quoted as saying on Sunday, stirring up a simmering row over aid groups’ role in Europe’s migrant crisis.

In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa, Sicily-based prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro made his most specific claims yet over NGO activities off Libya, which the EU border agency Frontex recently described as tantamount to providing a “taxi” service to Europe.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in the rescue effort include long-established groups such as Doctors without Borders and Save the Children, and smaller, newer operations such as the Malta-based MOAS.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Crime Up 52 Percent in Germany

Migrant crime “increased disproportionately” in Germany in 2016, according to a report the Interior Ministry released Monday.

The number of migrant criminal suspects increased by 52.7 percent from 2015 to 2016. Migrants account for 8.6 percent of all crime suspects in Germany, up from 5.7 percent in 2015.

Politically or ideologically motivated crimes by foreigners went up by 66.5 percent, with 3,372 cases throughout the year.

“There is nothing there to sugarcoat,” Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maiziere said of the statistics, according to Deutsche Welle. “There is an overall rise in disrespect, violence, and hate.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

MSF ‘Indignant’ Over Migrant-Rescue Accusations

NGO considering taking action

(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — Medical-aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hit back on Monday at those who have suggested migrant-rescue operations in the Mediterranean by NGOs could be benefiting human traffickers. MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said it was “indignant about the cynical attacks on the work at sea of the NGOs by some political figures, which have seen a crescendo of venom and false accusations over the last few hours”. It added that it “will evaluate in which seats to intervene to protect its work, image and credibility”.

Deputy Lower House Speaker and 5-Star Movement (M5S) bigwig Luigi Di Maio on Monday reiterated his call for greater clarity on the “business of immigration”, after anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano accused him of seeking votes even at the cost of higher migrant deaths. In an interview with the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, Di Maio said that it was taboo to speak aboutimmigration as a business, since “many are living off of it”, but added that he wanted answers and “not votes” in calling for greater clarity on the issue. He stressed that there was no “aggressive targeting” of NGOs involved in rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea but that “we have raised the issue due to the many alarms received on deaths at sea and the increase in landings. We want to shed light on certain disfunctions — as does the Catania prosecutor’s office, which would like to open an investigation — and like Frontex, the EU agency tasked with the issue.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Number of Migrant Criminal Suspects in Germany Surged in 2016

The number of migrant criminal suspects in Germany soared by more than 50 percent in 2016, data from the Interior Ministry showed on Monday — a statistic that could boost support for the anti-immigration party five months ahead of a federal election.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Perfect Storm Advancing Upon America: National Suicide

“Diversity within a nation destroys unity and leads to civil wars,” said social scientist Garret Hardin. “Immigration, a benefit during the youth of a nation, can act as a disease in its mature state. Too much internal diversity in large nations has led to violence and disintegration. We are now in the process of destabilizing our own country. The magic words of destabilizers are ‘diversity’ and ‘multiculturalism’.”

This Hardin quote may be the most profound and prophetic in the 21st century. It should frighten the daylights out of you for your kids as this refugee mob overruns America.

Thirdly, the sheer numbers threaten our environmental well-being. That 100,000,000 (million) immigrants, once they land on our shores, become our problem, our crisis, our unsolvable, and irreversible future. And yet, Trump and Congress pump them into America at over 120,000 immigrants every 30 days.

“The stresses caused by population growth cannot be solved by international migration. They must be confronted by and within each individual nation. Fundamental to the concept of national rights and responsibilities is the duty of each nation to match its population with its political, social, and environmental resources, in both the short and the long term. No nation should exceed what the biologists call its ‘carrying capacity.’“ Dr. John Tanton, www.TheSocialContract.com

Yes, I explained what’s coming in words. If you have 42 minutes, I explain it even more clearly in a speech I presented to a political club last December 2016. I explain in this video what will happen if we fail to stop all immigration. I support my claims with facts and figures. If the 100,000,000 (million) immigrants doesn’t sink our country into a third world stupor-the cultural chaos and environmental breakdowns facing our civilization-will most definitely degrade us into cultural, political, racial, ethnic and religious breakdown.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Says Some Refugee Centres ‘Concentration Camps’

Pope Francis on Saturday described some of Europe’s refugee centres as “concentration camps”, as he paid tribute to an unknown Christian woman slain for her faith in front of her Muslim husband.

“These refugee camps — so many are concentration camps, crowded with people… because international accords seem more important than human rights,” Francis said in impromptu remarks at a ceremony in memory of modern-day Christian martyrs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Only 2.65 Percent of Immigrants Into Italy Are Refugees

According to official reports, during the year 2016, only 2.65 percent of those immigrating into Italy were awarded asylum as refugees, with the vast majority staying on in the country as illegal, undocumented immigrants.

According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), a total of 181,436 migrantscrossed the Mediterranean Sea into Italy during 2016, a record year in recent history. This figure does not include those who were able to enter the country undetected, but only those who were officially registered either by Italian officials or NGOs.

Of these, only 4,808 were recognized as refugees and awarded asylum in Italy, a mere 2.65 percent of the total number of those making the crossing.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Woman Dies in Stampede at Ceuta-Morocco Border

A woman died on Monday in a stampede at a border crossing between Morocco and Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta, the second such death in weeks, media and activists said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Teacher Bans Cross and Forces LGBT Agenda on Students

TAMPA, FL-Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to the Hillsborough County Public Schools regarding a teacher who has prohibited Christian jewelry, is engaging in outrageous LGBT political activism in her classroom, and punishes students who do not agree with her LGBT propaganda.

Lora Jane Riedas, a math teacher at Riverview High School, placed LGBT rainbow stickers on her students’ notebooks. Riedas’ classroom décor blatantly promotes a pro-LGBT agenda. Riedas retweeted, apparently during the school day, “favorite queer web series for kids” from “huffpostqueer” stating: “Here’s how to talk to kids about what it means to be an LGBTQ ally.” She is part of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) Leadership Institute.

Riedas has prohibited at least three students from wearing Christian cross necklaces in her classroom, claiming they are “gang symbols.” One of the crosses, a tiny crucifix worn by Liberty Counsel’s ninth grade client, is less than one inch long. Riedas demanded the student stop wearing her cross necklace and singled her out for several false “misbehavior” allegations after the student removed the LGBT rainbow sticker from her class notebook. Riedas’ lesbian partner, who is also a teacher at Riverview, dressed as a nun for school spirit week, complete with a “cross necklace” made of skulls. She tweeted she has “a bad habit” and the point is to be “creepy.”

[Comment: This news item illustrates what is going on in schools now… an agenda is being overtly rammed down children’s throats.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

13 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/24/2017

  1. Not too long ago I visited some friends in San Francisco and in the evening we went for a walk. Once we reached the water my host pointed to the other side and he said: “Do you see those beautiful sparkling lights over there in Oakland?”, “Well those are muzzle flashes” – he added…

  2. Canada. I see our embarrassing apology of a Prime Minister continues to drag our country further into the mire.

    The democRATS south of the border mumble about impeaching President Trump; while we have far more reason to look into getting rid of Trudeau, yet I hear nothing….

  3. “…Swedish police have arrested a second suspect,” how much is the Swedish government going to increase his welfare payments?

  4. I believe Servando Gonzales’ assessment of Trump’s first big mistake in attacking Syria is correct. I am concerned that Trump appears not to be listening to those whose foreign assessments really matter.

  5. I’m moving to South Korea next month and now it seems the whole region may implode. And I’ll be living right near Gangnam, which will likely be ground zero for any attack. I seriously have the absolute worst luck of anyone I know.

    • Worst of all, you may be unable to avoid hearing “Gangnam Style”. Those North Koreans are amateurs when it comes to torture!

      • Nah, man, “Gangnam Style” is old news. It was already old news when it hit in the US and apparently Koreans were a little baffled as to why we were suddenly obsessed with an old song!

        Alas, Pay is coming out with a new album soon and that really will be unavoidable.

        • You’d be surprised at the number of people who will find it quite avoidable. The choice to walk through muck is the decision of the individual out for a walk, no?

  6. In other news, Swedish police have arrested a second suspect in the April 7 truck jihad attack in Stockholm.

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    The arrested person in the investigation of the deed on Drottninggatan was released

    2017-04-25
    The person who was arrested on April 23 in the investigation of the deed on Drottninggatan was released Tuesday 25 April in the evening.
    The person is no longer suspicious.
    No further information is currently available. Since April 11, a person is arrested for probable reasons is suspected of terrorist offenses by murder in the case.

    Press service 010-562 50 20

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