Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/27/2017

A man carrying a rucksack full of kitchen knives was stopped by police and arrested near the Houses of Parliament in London today. It is thought that the man was planning a large banquet for which he needed to slice a lot of fruit, or he may have been a circus performer who juggles knives to entertain children, and was arrested by racist police.

In other news, a Russian military reconnaissance ship sank in the Black Sea after colliding with a freighter carrying livestock.

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

Thanks to AF, Dean, Dora, Fjordman, Insubria, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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.

USA
» 130,000-Year-Old Bones Could Shatter the Story of When Humans First Appeared in the Americas
» Cruz Interested in Updating Outer Space Treaty to Support Commercial Space Activities
» First Americans May Have Been Neanderthals 130,000 Years Ago
» Guest Opinion by Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
» Humans May Have Occupied North America 100,000 Years Earlier Than Thought
» NASA Spacecraft Dives Between Saturn and Its Rings
» Obama’s $400k Wall Street Speech Leaves Liberal Base Stunned
» Ohio Man Detained at Airport for Trying to Help ISIS, Officials Say
» Phyllis Chesler Disinvited From Academic Conference on Middle East Honor Killings
» Report: Detroit FGM-Doctor Mutilated Girls Far Worse Than She Admits
» US Murders Concentrated in 5 Percent of Counties
» White House: What is Happening With Free Speech on Campus is ‘Appalling’
 
Europe and the EU
» A Reader Reports National Review Says “Conservatives” Must Support French Globalist Macron
» Another ‘Terror Attack’ In Westminster: Armed Police ‘Swarm Like Bees’ To Tackle Man, 27, Carrying ‘A Rucksack Full of Knives’ Yards From Parliament as it’s Revealed He Was ‘Known to Security Services’
» Armed Man Arrested on Suspicion of Terrorism Near U.K. Parliament
» Berlin ‘U-Bahn Kicker’ Suspect Accused of Sexually Harassing Women: Report
» ‘Britain is Deluded’ Merkel Says UK Will be Stripped of Rights When it Leaves EU
» Bundestag Bans Face Veils for Civil Servants Amid Security Measures
» Coffee Stops Prostate Cancer, Italian Team Says
» Czech Republic Parliament Recognizes Armenian Genocide
» Danish Vikings ‘May Have Made Their Own Wine’
» EU Starts Legal Action Against Hungary
» European Rights Body Calls on Hungary to Suspend Laws on NGOs, Universities
» European Union Regulation of Internet Speech Demonstrates Its Secular Trend
» France Election: Teenagers Protest at Candidates Macron and Le Pen
» French Prime Minister’s Paris Apartment Targeted by Burglars
» French High School Pupils Clash With Police in Paris Anti-Election Demo
» Heavily Armed Police Shoot Woman in Her 20s and Arrest Four in Anti-Terror Raid as Five Shots Ring Out on Quiet North London Street
» How Kids in Germany Are Using Playmobil to Reenact the Protestant Reformation
» Hungary Intensifies as Verhofstadt Slams Orban in Parliament Rant
» London Police Arrest Man With Knives Near Westminster on Suspicion of Terrorism
» Marine Le Pen’s ‘Fake Jobs’ Cost EU Parliament ‘€5 Million’
» Norway’s Wealth Fund Hits NOK 8 Trillion Milestone
» Ötzi the Iceman Froze to Death
» Poll: Over Half of Finns Think a Terrorist Attack Likely Within a Year
» Sadiq Khan Urged to Launch New Campaign Against FGM and to Make London ‘Zero Cutting City’
» Soros-Backed NGO Braces for Polish Crackdown Over Norway Aid
» Sweden: ‘Facebook Rape Video’ Trio Sentenced to Prison
» Swedish Woman Shocked at SAS Uniform Policy Banning Headscarves
» Terror Risk Sees Germany Slump to 51st Place for Security in World Tourism Rankings
» The Libation Made 20m Below Paris
» This is How Marine Le Pen Could Become the Next President of France
» Wives Wanted in the Faroe Islands
 
North Africa
» Pope Francis Heads to Egypt to Boost Ties With Muslim Community
» The Pope’s Pilgrimage to Al-Azhar
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» A Palestinian State or an Islamist Tyranny?
» Palestinians: This is How We Intimidate Journalists
 
Middle East
» ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’ is Accurate and ‘Helpful’
» Sanction Iran’s Regime, Add IRCG to Terrorist List
» Saudi Arabia: Man Sentenced to be Beheaded for Atheism
» Saudi Arabia’s Silent Desert City
» Saudi Shake-up Strengthens King’s Powerful Son
» The Forgotten Genocide: Why it Matters Today
 
Russia
» Russian Warship Sinks After Collision With Freighter in Black Sea
 
South Asia
» ‘Hobbits’ May Have Led Early Humans Out of Africa
» Is India Losing Kashmir?
» ‘Islamist’ Shoots Two Policemen on French Island of Réunion
 
Far East
» China Launches Aircraft Carrier, Boosting Military Presence
» China Bans List of Islamic Names, Including ‘Muhammad’, in Xinjiang Region
» Kai-Fu Lee: Robots Will Replace Half of All Jobs
» North Korean Crisis ‘Worst I’ve Seen,’ Top Navy Officer Warns
» North Korea: US Vows Sanctions and Will Activate Thaad System ‘Within Days’
» North Korea Threat: Top Admiral Calls on More Missile Interceptors in Hawaii
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australia Warns Gas Companies They Risk Export Restrictions
» Teenage Sex Attacker Who Groped Eight Women in the Surf at a Gold Coast Beach Walks Free
» ‘You Are Brown: A Muslim and a Girl — That’s the Only Reason You Have a Job at the ABC’…
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Homo Naledi Is Only 250,000 Years Old — Here’s Why That Matters
 
Latin America
» In Mexico City, Water a Rare Commodity
 
Immigration
» Australia: Iraqi Refugee Jailed After Ploughing His Speeding Truck Into Six Cars Stopped at the Lights During Peak Hour — Leaving a Police Officer With a Brain Injury
» EU Considering Giving Ships Armed With Machine Guns to Libyan Coastguard Accused of Killing Migrants
» EU Defense Chiefs Huddle on Libya
» EU on Track to Pay Turkey Three Billion for Migrants This Year
» Far Right French Mayor Fined for Saying There’s ‘Too Many Muslim Children’ In Schools
» Fewer Than 3% of Migrants Who Reached Italy After Crossing the Mediterranean in 2016 Were Deemed Refugees, UN Report Shows
» Germany Took in 160 Times More Syrian Refugees in 2016 Than UK
» Ivanka Trump: Allowing Syrian Refugees Into the U.S. ‘Has to be Part of the Discussion’
» Judge Who Blocked Trump’s “Sanctuary City” Order Raised $200,000 for Obama, Issued Restraining Order Against Pro-Life Group
» Libya Lacks Plan to Prevent More Migrants Crossing to Europe — EU Officials
» Migrants: Austria Wants to Extend Border Controls
» Norwegian Rejection of Afghan Family Reunification Linked to Sharia Law: Report
» Shock Report: Migrants Become Less Integrated the Longer They Stay in Europe
» Sweden Cracks Down on Illegal Workers After Truck Attack
» Swedish Government Proposes Measures to Increase Deportation Success Rate
» Trump’s Order to Restrict ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Funding Blocked by Federal Judge
» Two Afghan Migrants Are Jailed for up to Two Years for Raping a Woman in Sweden as Their Friend Broadcasted it Over Facebook Live
 
General
» Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Linked With Differences in Gut Bacteria
» Dog Family Tree Reveals Hidden History of Canine Diversity
» Oops, Warmists Just Lost the Antarctic Peninsula — it is Now Cooling
» Science Record Set on Space Station
 

130,000-Year-Old Bones Could Shatter the Story of When Humans First Appeared in the Americas

Shattered mastodon bones from a Southern California site bear the scars of human activity from 130,700 years ago, a team of scientists says — pushing back the generally accepted date that humans are thought to have settled North America by a whopping 115,000 or so years.

If verified and corroborated by other scientists, the discovery described in the journal Nature could radically rewrite the timeline of when humans first arrived in the Americas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cruz Interested in Updating Outer Space Treaty to Support Commercial Space Activities

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate space subcommittee said at a hearing April 26 that it may be time for the United States to update a key space treaty to reflect growing commercial space activities.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) raised the prospect of updating the 50-year-old Outer Space Treaty, widely considered a cornerstone of international space law, at a hearing to discuss other regulatory reforms needed to promote continued growth of space companies in the country.

“As we look to the future of American free enterprise and settlement in space, we should also thoroughly review the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty, which was written and enacted in a very different time and era in 1967,” he said. “It’s important that Congress evaluate how that treaty, enacted 50 years ago, will impact new and innovative activity within space.”

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

First Americans May Have Been Neanderthals 130,000 Years Ago

An extraordinary chapter has just been added to the story of the First Americans. Finds at a site in California suggest that the New World might have first been reached at least 130,000 years ago — more than 100,000 years earlier than conventionally thought.

If the evidence stacks up, the earliest people to reach the Americas may have been Neanderthals or Denisovans rather than modern humans. Researchers may have to come to terms with the fact that they have barely scratched the surface of the North American archaeological record.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Guest Opinion by Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

For Totalitarianism Day (formerly Earth Day), over three dozen weather forecasting organizations have issued a joint (or, in their revealing word, “Collective”) “Global Climate Statement”. It has not exactly made headlines: even the Mainstream media are tired of yet another pietistic, self-serving demand that more taxpayers’ money should be sent in the direction of yet another generously-proportioned trough in which the rent-seekers keep their snouts.

Let’s take this drivelling international-socialist agitprop apart, line by line, beginning with the tediously earnest title: …

Then comes the nakedly rent-seeking bit:

“Meteorological and climate services are an essential element of the response to climate change. They provide early-warning information and understanding of present-day climate variability, projections of future changes, and they inform mitigation and adaptation options, …”…yada, yada.

On the evidence of this Collectivists’ Statement, “meteorological and climate services” are no longer to be trusted to give independent and impartial advice. The correct response of the Trump administration to their latest intervention in politics would be to defund them altogether and make them live by the accuracy of their forecasts. On that basis, IPCC is doomed.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Humans May Have Occupied North America 100,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

Early humans may have lived on the North American continent 130,000 years ago, more than 100,000 years earlier than scientists previously believed, according to a new study. The research examined ancient mastodon bones that bore “conclusive” signs of being handled by intelligent beings, the researchers said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

NASA Spacecraft Dives Between Saturn and Its Rings

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is back in contact with Earth after its successful first-ever dive through the narrow gap between the planet Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017. The spacecraft is in the process of beaming back science and engineering data collected during its passage, via NASA’s Deep Space Network Goldstone Complex in California’s Mojave Desert. The DSN acquired Cassini’s signal at 11:56 p.m. PDT on April 26, 2017 (2:56 a.m. EDT on April 27) and data began flowing at 12:01 a.m. PDT (3:01 a.m. EDT) on April 27.

“In the grandest tradition of exploration, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has once again blazed a trail, showing us new wonders and demonstrating where our curiosity can take us if we dare,” said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

As it dove through the gap, Cassini came within about 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) of Saturn’s cloud tops (where the air pressure is 1 bar — comparable to the atmospheric pressure of Earth at sea level) and within about 200 miles (300 kilometers) of the innermost visible edge of the rings.

While mission managers were confident Cassini would pass through the gap successfully, they took extra precautions with this first dive, as the region had never been explored.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s $400k Wall Street Speech Leaves Liberal Base Stunned

Former President Obama’s upcoming speech to Wall Streeters is putting $400,000 in his pocket — and putting longtime supporters in a difficult situation.

Democratic Party leaders and grass roots activists alike are at a loss to explain how the onetime champion of the 99 percent could cash in with a September address at a health care conference run by investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

“Spiritual leader of the people’s #Resistance cashes in with $400k speech to Wall Street bankers,” read one tweet.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ohio Man Detained at Airport for Trying to Help ISIS, Officials Say

HEBRON, Ky. — A man from Dayton, Ohio was arrested at Cincinnati/Kentucky International Airport after attempting to fly to the Middle East to fight with the Islamic State.

FBI agents took Laith Waleed Alebbini, 26, into custody Wednesday afternoon almost immediately after he obtained his boarding pass for a flight to Chicago O’Hare. Alebbini admitted he intended to travel to Turkey and join the fight for ISIS, court records show.

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

Phyllis Chesler Disinvited From Academic Conference on Middle East Honor Killings

Scholar Phyllis Chesler was disinvited from a speaking event on honor killings at the University of Arkansas due to articles she has published on Breitbart News.

Chesler was slated to appear as a part of a conference at the University of Arkansas Law School’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies on honor killings, but was ultimately disinvited after concerns arose over Chesler’s alleged “Islamophobia.”

Three professors that work at the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies wrote a letter denouncing Chesler. In the letter, which was addressed to King Fahd Center Director Thomas Paradise, Professors Joel Gordon, Ted Swedenburg, and Mohja Kahf called Chesler a “bigot” and a “prominent Islamophobe” for her commentary on Islam. They expressed concerns that Chesler had her writings published by Breitbart News.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Detroit FGM-Doctor Mutilated Girls Far Worse Than She Admits

[…] One of the victims told the FBI she screamed in pain as she Dr. Nargawala operated between her legs and that she was barely able to walk as she left the clinic. According to the complaint, Doctors working with the FBI found that both seven-year-olds’ genitals were “abnormal looking” with “scar tissue” and “small healing lacerations.”

Authorities believe many more than these two girls have been mutilated by this suburban Detroit FGM operation. Evidence suggests girls have been being brought to Michigan from around the midwest to undergo the gruesome operation since at least 2005. According to the complaint, several Michigan girls have complained to authorities that they were mutilated by Dr. Nargawala in Dr. Attar’s clinic. Authorities believe Nargawala came on weekends to the Burhani clinic to perform FGM separately from her weekday job as an emergency room doctor at Detriot’s Henry Ford hospital. In her interview with the FBI, Farida Attar, the clinic owner’s wife, claimed Nargawala came to their clinic to see six to nine girls a year.

The defendants will face up to five years in federal prison for each count of FGM in this first case, in a wider push to eradicate the barbaric Islamic practice from America.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

US Murders Concentrated in 5 Percent of Counties

The majority of murders in the U.S. occur in only a small percentage of counties across the country.

The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) said in a new report that there is a “geographical concentration” of murders, with 68 percent of killings occurring in just 5 percent of the nation’s counties. The homicides also tend to be concentrated to relatively small pockets of those counties, the report said.

“It is stunning how concentrated murders are in the U.S.,” John Lott, president of the CPRC said to Fox News. “And we show that even within these counties, with all these high rates, murders are very concentrated.”

“These high [rate] counties have very large areas where there are no murders.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

White House: What is Happening With Free Speech on Campus is ‘Appalling’

[…] Asked about recent events like the cancellation of Ann Coulter’s speech and the chilling impact on free speech of ongoing leftist protests at UC Berkeley and elsewhere, Sims said, “Free speech is the lynchpin of democracy here in the United States. As I watch personally what is going on out there, it is appalling.”

“It is a sad state of affairs to the legacy of … a campus that has been a beacon — considered itself a beacon of free speech throughout the years. And it is just disheartening to see that in the United States of America today that more and more free speech only applies to speech that you agree with.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

A Reader Reports National Review Says “Conservatives” Must Support French Globalist Macron

Hard to believe, but the National Review “Editors” (Rich Lowry and donors) have endorsed Emmanuel Macron for president of France. [France’s Tragedy, by The Editors, April 25, 2017] Their British neo-con Tom Rogan says that conservatives should support Macron because he is more pro-military, and Marine Le Pen is too mean to the African and Middle-Eastern invaders.

Macron has made statements that continued Third-World immigration to France is inevitable and that there is no such thing as French culture! Marine Le Pen represents the true nature of conservatism, that of preserving and sustaining the indigenous, European French people, their culture, history, and nation.

These fundamental aspects of conservatism now disdained by National Review in its fealty towards globalism will leave nations such as France as decimated shells overflowing with human rabble. They should be ashamed.

We are witnessing the destruction of France if Macron is elected. NRO’s cowardly positioning on this election makes me ill.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Another ‘Terror Attack’ In Westminster: Armed Police ‘Swarm Like Bees’ To Tackle Man, 27, Carrying ‘A Rucksack Full of Knives’ Yards From Parliament as it’s Revealed He Was ‘Known to Security Services’

Armed police tackled a suspected terrorist ‘with a rucksack full of knives’ near Parliament Square this afternoon — just five weeks after the Westminster terror attack killed five people.

A bundle of gruesome-looking knives were seen on the floor after a team of officers swooped and arrested a bearded man dressed all in black shortly before 2:30pm.

Witnesses said the man, who was wearing a tracksuit and trainers, was crossing Whitehall amid the usual crowds of tourists and political staff when a police car suddenly pulled up and officers confronted him.

A large number of armed officers then flooded the scene as the suspect was pinned to the ground just yards from Downing Street. He was then held against the wall of the Treasury before being taken away in a van to a police station.

The area was then sealed off as Scotland Yard’s forensics experts investigated the scene, where at least three knives and a rucksack were seen laying on the ground on a central reservation.

Police say the arrest was made following a ‘stop and search’ which was part on an ongoing operation. The suspect — who has not been named but is 27 years old and thought to be known to police — is being questioned by anti-terror detectives at a south London police station…

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Armed Man Arrested on Suspicion of Terrorism Near U.K. Parliament

LONDON — London police arrested a man with knives on terrorism charges Thursday near Britain’s Houses of Parliament.

The Metropolitan Police force said no one was injured in the incident, which brought armed police flooding into the area around Parliament.

Witnesses reported seeing armed police blocking off Whitehall, a street lined with government buildings, and a man on the ground surrounded by police.

A black-clad man could later be seen standing on the sidewalk, surrounded by police, before being put into a police vehicle.

[Comment: From the photo, it looks like that the suspect comes from the Religion of Peace.]

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

Berlin ‘U-Bahn Kicker’ Suspect Accused of Sexually Harassing Women: Report

The man accused of brutally kicking a woman down a flight of stairs in Berlin has also been implicated in sexually harassing women and girls in the past, local media report.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Britain is Deluded’ Merkel Says UK Will be Stripped of Rights When it Leaves EU

ANGELA Merkel has warned Britons not to delude themselves over a future relationship with the bloc in a major speech to German politicians this morning.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bundestag Bans Face Veils for Civil Servants Amid Security Measures

Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday approved a draft law that would prevent civil servants, judges and soldiers from wearing Islamic full-face veils at work.

Germany’s ruling coalition said in a statement said that a “religious or ideological covering of the face contradicts the neutrality required of state functionaries.”

The law would also require women to show their face during identity checks.

The law still has to be approved by the upper house, the Bundesrat, before coming into effect.

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

Coffee Stops Prostate Cancer, Italian Team Says

At least three cups a day

(ANSA) — Rome, April 26 — Coffee wards off prostate cancer, a new Italian s tudy says.

At least three small cups of coffee a day lower the risk of getting the cancer by more than 50%, according to in vitro studies on 7,000 Italians c onducted by IRCCS Neuromed in Pozzilli in Molise in collaboration with the Higher Health Institute (ISS) and the IRCCS Istituto Dermopatico of Rome’s Immacolata Hospital.

“Caffeine is directly responsible for the protective effects,” said the study led by George Pounis of Neuromed and published in the International Journal of Cancer.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Czech Republic Parliament Recognizes Armenian Genocide

Zeman, a tragic chapter in the history of civilized world

(ANSA) — TRIESTE — The Czech parliament approved on Tuesday a resolution re cognizing the fact of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 in Ottoman Empire, Arka news agency reports. Czech President Milos Zeman called the killing of Arm enians genocide as well. On the occasion of the anniversary, on 24th April, the president sent a letter to Barsega Pilavchian, the leader of the Armen ian community in the Czech Republic.

“I agree that history is not meant to be interpreted by politicians. At the same time, however, I believe that the events that cost 1.5 million innoce nt people represent a tragic chapter in the history of not only the Armenia n nation but also of the entire civilized world,” Zeman wrote in his letter according to Arka.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Danish Vikings ‘May Have Made Their Own Wine’

New research suggests the Vikings indulged in a bit of viticulture.

Studies of grape pips point to wine production in Denmark during the time of the Vikings.

The Vikings liked alcohol, but while it is easy enough to grow crops and produce beer in the Danish climate, wine is a different challenge and was thought to have always been imported from southern parts of Europe to northern countries.

But new research has showed that at least one of the two oldest grape cores found in Denmark was grown locally, reports science news site Videnskab.dk.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Starts Legal Action Against Hungary

The European Commission launched an infringement probe into Hungary’s higher education law that critics say was aimed at shutting down the Soros-founded Central European University (CEU). The EU executive said the law “is not compatible with the fundamental internal market freedoms”, mainly infringing the freedom of services and establishement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

European Rights Body Calls on Hungary to Suspend Laws on NGOs, Universities

The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly has called on Hungary to suspend a debate in the country’s parliament of bills which tighten rules on non-governmental organizations and foreign universities.

The two bills, drafted by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing government, have drawn strong protests at home and abroad.

The European Union opened a case against Hungary on Wednesday over the law on foreign universities, which targets a university in Budapest founded by the liberal U.S. financier George Soros.

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

European Union Regulation of Internet Speech Demonstrates Its Secular Trend

The European Parliament (EP) voted earlier this week to increase regulation of speech on the Internet, specifically targeting Google’s YouTube and Vimeo — platforms in which average citizens can share videos. The EP, the legislative body of the European Union (EU), has decided that some videos do not meet their standards.

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

France Election: Teenagers Protest at Candidates Macron and Le Pen

Teenagers in Rennes and other French cities have held rallies or blocked schools in a protest against both presidential candidates.

In a campaign tagged “We deserve better”, about 1,000 people came out in the western city to chant “neither Le Pen nor Macron”.

Riot police used tear gas to stop them reaching the historic city centre.

The far right’s Marine Le Pen is speaking in Nice and centrist Emmanuel Macron visited a troubled Paris suburb.

Opinion polls taken since the first round on Sunday suggest Mr Macron, candidate of the En Marche (On The Move) movement, will easily beat Ms Le Pen, who has temporarily stood down as leader of the National Front (FN), in the second round on 7 May.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Prime Minister’s Paris Apartment Targeted by Burglars

The Paris apartment owned by French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been targeted by burglars, according to reports, but his office insist no sensitive documents were stolen.

Statistics published in 2014 revealed there were 40 break-ins a day in the French capital, a steep rise on the previous year.

The interior ministry linked the hike in burglaries to organised crime gangs from eastern Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French High School Pupils Clash With Police in Paris Anti-Election Demo

Protesting French high school pupils clashed with police in Paris on Thursday in a demonstration against both presidential candidates in France’s upcoming runoff election.

Black-clad demonstrators who had broken off from the march of around 1,000 students hurled bottles at police who responded with tear gas.

The march was called by student groups opposed to both business-friendly centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right Marine Le Pen, who face off in the May 7 vote.

Protesters smashed storefronts and set rubbish bins alight while some waved signs that said “Neither the banker, nor the racist”, referring to Macron and Le Pen respectively.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Heavily Armed Police Shoot Woman in Her 20s and Arrest Four in Anti-Terror Raid as Five Shots Ring Out on Quiet North London Street

Dramatic video footage has showed the moment heavily armed police swooped on a north London house in an anti-terror raid today.

Armed police could be seen approaching the terraced house in Willesden, north London, before pointing their guns towards the windows.

Five shots could be heard ringing out on the quiet London street just before 7pm this evening.

A woman in her 20s was shot by police and taken to hospital, where she remains under police guard.

Due to her condition she has not yet been arrested.

All four have been arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of terrorist acts under Section 41 of the terrorism act 2000.

They had been under observation by counter terrorism officers as part of an ongoing intelligence led operation.

Searches at the address are continuing, as well as further searches at linked addresses across London…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

How Kids in Germany Are Using Playmobil to Reenact the Protestant Reformation

From Martin Luther narrowly missing a lightning strike to his 95 theses, children in Germany have replicated scenes from the reformer’s life — using Playmobil. They are on show to mark 500 years since the Reformation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Intensifies as Verhofstadt Slams Orban in Parliament Rant

The European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt launched a scathing attack against Hungary’s Victor Orban in the European Parliament during which he was accused of violating the values of the European Union and came short of directly calling the Prime Minister a coward.

Likening Orban to Communist leaders Joseph Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev, Verhofstadt railed against Orban for abandoning “democratic principles” and wanting to create an “illiberal state”.

“Is it not the time to ask yourself in your soul how you will be remembered in the future? Do you want to be remembered as somebody that liberated your country from Communism — and that you did — or do you want to be commemorated as an eternal enemy of our open European democratic society,” Verhofstadt said. “That’s the choice you have to make now.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

London Police Arrest Man With Knives Near Westminster on Suspicion of Terrorism

London’s Metropolitan Police took a man into custody as part of a “stop and search” operation. He was detained in Whitehall — the political heart of the UK — near the site of last month’s deadly terror attack.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Marine Le Pen’s ‘Fake Jobs’ Cost EU Parliament ‘€5 Million’

The European Parliament now believes the fake jobs scandal involving French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s National Front (FN) party has cost the institutions nearly €5 million ($5.5 million), a source in the French probe said on Thursday

The cost of the scandal, which involves the employment of assistants and a bodyguard, has risen to €4,978,122 after “new information” was discovered, the source told AFP.

The previous cost was estimated at €1.9 million.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway’s Wealth Fund Hits NOK 8 Trillion Milestone

The value of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, rose to a record 8 trillion Norwegian crowns ($935 billion) on Tuesday, data from its manager showed, increasing the money available for public spending.

The fund, run by a unit of the central bank, invests proceeds from Norway’s oil and gas industry in foreign stocks, bonds and real estate, and is now worth more than 2.5 times the country’s annual gross domestic product.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ötzi the Iceman Froze to Death

Ever since Ötzi’s mummified body was found in the Italian Alps in 1991, researchers have been trying to pin down how the 5,300-year-old Tyrolean Iceman died. It now looks like this Copper Age hunter-gatherer simply froze to death, perhaps after suffering minor blood loss from an arrow wound to his left shoulder, anthropologist Frank Rühli of the University of Zurich reported April 20 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Poll: Over Half of Finns Think a Terrorist Attack Likely Within a Year

An Yle-commissioned survey has found that 54 percent of respondents believe that a terrorist attack is likely to take place in Finland in the near future. At the same time, though, public trust in officials charged with maintaining security remains high.

At present, the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) is not permitted to gather intelligence abroad, even though there is a significant number of people from Finland in conflict areas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sadiq Khan Urged to Launch New Campaign Against FGM and to Make London ‘Zero Cutting City’

Sadiq Khan was today urged to lead a new campaign against female genital mutilation as a report called for London to be turned into a “zero cutting city” to protect girls from barbaric violence.

The London Assembly said that “positive progress” was being made in the battle to eliminate FGM, with police, health staff and teachers all working to tackle the problem.

But it warned that “new cases of FGM in London are still being discovered” and called for the Mayor to begin a publicity drive to spell out the dangers of mutilation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Soros-Backed NGO Braces for Polish Crackdown Over Norway Aid

A Polish non-profit group financed by George Soros is bracing for government efforts to curb its work, the latest attack on the billionaire’s civil-society activities in eastern Europe.

The Warsaw-based Batory Foundation, responsible for distributing some of the 809.3 million euros ($882 million) Norway plans to give Poland by 2021 to reduce economic and social disparities, is afraid it will be starved of funding. Poland wants the chunk that’s earmarked for building civic society to be managed by a state-run entity, Deputy Prime Minster Piotr Glinski said last month. Norway requires the cash to be handed out by an independent body.

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

Sweden: ‘Facebook Rape Video’ Trio Sentenced to Prison

Three men have been sentenced to prison in connection with the rape of a woman in Uppsala, which was broadcast live on Facebook.

The three men were arrested in January after police were alerted to a suspected ongoing sexual assault by witnesses, who reported watching the crime being committed live in a closed Facebook group with more than 60,000 members.

An 18-year old man from Afghanistan was sentenced today to one year in jail on account of rape, and a 21-year-old, also from Afghanistan, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

The third man, a 24-year-old Swedish citizen, who was behind the camera, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for gross defamation as well as for failing to report rape.

The men were also sentenced to pay a total of 330,000 ($37,000) kronor in damages to the victim, a woman in her thirties.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Woman Shocked at SAS Uniform Policy Banning Headscarves

A Swedish woman has explained her shock at being told during a job interview with Scandinavian airline SAS that she would have to take off her headscarf if she wanted the position.

Aye Alhassani, 23, had completed several tests and a group interview before she was invited to an individual interview for the position with the airline. It was during the interview that she was informed SAS has a uniform policy banning the wearing of religious symbols.

“At first they were cautious and I don’t think the interviewer wanted to be straight about it. But eventually it was clarified that it’s not permitted to wear a headscarf according to their policy. I was quite shocked,” Alhassani told The Local.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Terror Risk Sees Germany Slump to 51st Place for Security in World Tourism Rankings

Germany now sits between the Gabon and Mongolia in the 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report’s “safety and security” field, having plummeted 31 places since the 2015 edition of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) biannual report measuring how “tourism-friendly” economies are.

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

The Libation Made 20m Below Paris

Audric de Campeau has chosen to make his mead in a place almost as ancient as the drink itself: a 2,000-year-old network of tunnels that stretches more than 300km under Paris.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

This is How Marine Le Pen Could Become the Next President of France

The chances of Marine Le Pen becoming the next president of France on May 7th appear minimal but a combination of events could see her pull off the shock to end all shocks.

With Emmanuel Macron enjoying a seemingly unbeatable lead over Marine Le Pen (roughly 60 percent to 40 percent) in all opinion polls, the man who set up his own political movement just a year ago appears to have the keys to the Elysée Palace in his pocket.

But there is a way Marine Le Pen could yet defy the odds and the analysts and pinch those keys from her liberal rival in the crunch head-to-head vote on May 7th.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Wives Wanted in the Faroe Islands

There’s a shortage of women in the Faroe Islands. So local men are increasingly seeking wives from further afield — Thailand and the Philippines in particular. But what’s it like for the brides who swap the tropics for this windswept archipelago?

When Athaya Slaetalid first moved from Thailand to the Faroe Islands, where winter lasts six months, she would sit next to the heater all day.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Heads to Egypt to Boost Ties With Muslim Community

Pope Francis heads to Egypt on Friday to bolster relations with Muslims and show solidarity with the largest Christian community in the Middle East following devastating attacks.

Security will be high for the Cairo visit after two bombings in Coptic churches earlier this month that killed 45 people, with the country currently observing a three-month state of emergency.

But the 80-year-old, who prefers face-to-face contact to pomp and circumstance, will shun armoured cars for a normal vehicle and electric pope mobile-style golf carts.

During the two-day trip, Francis will meet privately with the grand imam of Al Azhar mosque, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, an Islamic philosophy professor who visited the Vatican last year, easing a decade of tensions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Pope’s Pilgrimage to Al-Azhar

by Lawrence A. Franklin

During a meeting between the former Papal Nuncio to Cairo, Archbishop Jean-Paul Gobel, and Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam warned Gobel that “speaking about Islam in a negative manner was a ‘red line’ that must not be crossed.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

A Palestinian State or an Islamist Tyranny?

Recently, one of the brightest Palestinian novelists, Abbad Yahiya, saw his fourth book, Crime in Ramallah, seized by the Palestinian police in the West Bank. The order came from Palestinian Attorney General Ahmed Barak, who ruled that the book “threatens morality”. The novel’s publisher was arrested and a warrant was issued for Yahiya’s arrest

His novel revolves around the murder of a Palestinian girl in Ramallah, and follows the lives of three other boys, from a homosexual to a drinker of alcohol. The novel takes aim at Palestinian taboos such as fanaticism, Islamic extremism and homosexuality. The young gay protagonist of the novel ends up moving to France.

“I do not know what to do”, said Yahiya, who fled to Qatar. “If I return, I will be arrested”.

Open Letter to National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Palestinians: This is How We Intimidate Journalists

Seven Palestinian journalists are the latest victims of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) continued crackdown on the media.

The repressive measures are aimed at silencing critical voices among the journalists and deterring others from reporting stories that reflect negatively on the Palestinian leadership in particular and Palestinians in general.

In the view of President Mahmoud Abbas and his PA, Palestinian journalists exist to write stories slamming Israel or praising PA leaders. Media, for them, is defined as a mouthpiece for Abbas, the PA leadership and the Palestinian cause.

Any journalist who dares to think outside this checkpoint is subject to severe punishment. Under Abbas and the PA, there is no room for an independent media.

The three major Palestinian newspapers — Al-Quds, Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda — are controlled, directly and indirectly, by the PA.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’ is Accurate and ‘Helpful’

During his first “all hands” staff meeting on February 23, President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, called terrorism “un-Islamic” and the term “radical Islamic terrorism” not helpful. …

In January 2016, al-Kalbani gave an interview to the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based network, MBC, in which he acknowledged with regret, “We follow the same thought [as ISIS], but apply it in a refined way.” He added that ISIS “draws its ideas from what is written in our own books, from our own principles.” (Author’s emphasis)

McMaster should have been listening. …

In addition, many fatwas (Islamic legal decrees) issued by senior Saudi clerics are markedly similar to those issued by ISIS and other terrorist organizations. As recently as February 2017, in fact — in a lesson aired on Saudi regime-aligned Ahwaz TV — Sheikh Ayman Al-Anqari cited various hadiths (a collection of the Prophet Mohamed’s sayings) supporting his fatwa that “coexistence in the sense of freedom of religion… is null and void.” He also advocated offensive jihad and death as a punishment for apostates.

It should be noted that Al-Anqari is a professor in the Aqidah (Islamic Faith) and Current Doctrines department in the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Al-Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.

In other words, as al-Kalbani has confirmed — and contrary to what McMaster has been telling his staff and his commander-in-chief, President Trump — Muslim terrorists are Islamic, and the term “radical Islamic terrorism” is apt, accurate and extremely “helpful.”

Time to defund the weather-forecasting rent-seekers

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Sanction Iran’s Regime, Add IRCG to Terrorist List

A subtle, but dangerous force is spreading throughout the West. It has been seeping into the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Middle East, the United States, South America and much of Europe.

Who are they?

They are pro-Iran regime advocates. They appear to be Westerners, but pursue a unique agenda. Under the guise of being average Western citizens, they have been infiltrating the social, political, economic and religious sectors of most Western societies.

These are not my words. They came directly out of the mouth of Iran’s Minister of Intelligence, Mahmoud Alavi. In a rare, recent interview on Iran’s state media, he stated that many Westerners with a dual citizenship “have a lobby group for the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“We should not accuse them and say things that discourage them about the ancestral homeland, this is not good, and losing this capital is not good for the regime… It is wrong to say that all dual nationals are traitors, spies, or foreign agents; many of these dual nationals love Iran, and are a capital for Iran.

“Many who live in Canada, London, or the United States [are devoted] to the [Islamic] revolution and the supreme leader … In those places some attend religious ceremonies. [Those people] love the [Islamic] Revolution.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia: Man Sentenced to be Beheaded for Atheism

A man in Saudi Arabia has reportedly been sentenced to death on charges of apostasy after losing two appeals.

Several local media reports identified the man as Ahmad Al Shamri, in his 20s, from the town of Hafar al-Batin, who first came to the authorities’ attention in 2014 after allegedly uploading videos to social media in which he renounced Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.

He was arrested on charges of atheism and blasphemy and held in prison before being convicted by a local court and sentenced to death in February 2015.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia’s Silent Desert City

Madain Saleh isn’t as well-known as Petra, but the Nabateans’ second-largest city played a crucial role in their mysterious empire.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Shake-up Strengthens King’s Powerful Son

A recent Saudi government and security shake-up aims to strengthen King Salman’s increasingly powerful son against a royal rival and to bolster ties with Washington, analysts and diplomats say.

Royal decrees at the weekend saw a number of allies of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman moved into key positions and another son of the king named as ambassador to Washington.

The goal, a foreign diplomat told AFP, is “to strengthen MBS (Mohammed bin Salman) and the Salman branch” of the al-Saud family which has ruled Saudi Arabia since the country’s founding.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Forgotten Genocide: Why it Matters Today

by Raymond Ibrahim

Today, April 24, marks the “Great Crime,” that is, the Armenian genocide that took place under Turkey’s Islamic Ottoman Empire, during and after WWI. Out of an approximate population of two million, some 1.5 million Armenians died. If early 20th century Turkey had the apparatuses and technology to execute in mass—such as 1940s Germany’s gas chambers—the entire Armenian population may well have been annihilated. Most objective American historians who have studied the question unequivocally agree that it was a deliberate, calculated genocide.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Warship Sinks After Collision With Freighter in Black Sea

A Russian naval reconnaissance warship has collided with a Togo-flagged boat near Turkey’s Black Sea coast, prompting an evacuation. There were no reports of casualties on either ship, but the Russian boat sank.

A Turkish coastal safety official told Reuters that 78 crew members had been evacuated from the Russian ship.

Russia’s defence ministry said its vessel, the Liman, had a hole as a result of the incident. The ministry told the Interfax news agency there were no casualties among the ship’s crew, who were “fighting to keep the boat in the water”.

However, the Turkish coastguard later reported the boat had sunk, around three hours after the crash.

The shipping agent GAC said the Liman and the other vessel, which it identified as Youzarsif H, collided in fog and low visibility. The Togo-flagged boat is believed to have been carrying livestock. All its crew were also unhurt.

The incident occurred shortly before noon local time, around 20 miles north-west of the Bosphorus strait, which divides Istanbul into European and Asian sides. Coastguard and emergency teams were dispatched to the site.

The Liman is a former research vessel that the Russian navy has retrofitted into a reconnaissance ship. It is part of Russia’s Black Sea fleet and is equipped with radio and sonar equipment. According to Russian media reports, it had returned from a voyage to the Mediterranean at the end of January…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

‘Hobbits’ May Have Led Early Humans Out of Africa

The Flores hominins were, more clearly than ever, rooted deep in that tree: they could not be descendants of Homo erectus. They came from something more primitive — a close cousin of Homo habilis. But what was an ancient-looking hominin like this doing in Indonesia?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Is India Losing Kashmir?

As India’s most restive region stares down the abyss of what a commentator calls another “hot summer of violence”, the doom-laden headline has returned with a vengeance: Last summer was one of the bloodiest in the Muslim-dominated valley in recent years. Following the killing of influential militant Burhan Wani by Indian forces last July, more than 100 civilians lost their lives in clashes during a four-month-long security lockdown in the valley.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Islamist’ Shoots Two Policemen on French Island of Réunion

A man suspected of being a radicalised Islamist shot and wounded two policemen on the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion as they tried to arrest him on Thursday, authorities announced.

“The man refused to be arrested and fired a rifle at police,” a local government official on the island said.

The official said that the suspect — a man in his twenties who is believed to be a recent convert to Islam — was now in custody.

The lives of the two officers are not in danger.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Launches Aircraft Carrier, Boosting Military Presence

China has launched a new aircraft carrier in the latest sign of its growing military strength.

It is the country’s second aircraft carrier, after the Liaoning, and the first to be made domestically.

The as-yet unnamed ship was transferred into the water in the north-eastern port of Dalian, state media said. It will reportedly be operational by 2020.

It comes amid heated rhetoric between the US and North Korea and ongoing tensions in the South China Sea.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Bans List of Islamic Names, Including ‘Muhammad’, in Xinjiang Region

Authorities in China’s Xinjiang region are prohibiting parents from giving children some Islamic names in the latest effort to dilute the influence of religion on life in the ethnic Uighur minority heartland.

“Muhammad,” ‘‘Jihad” and “Islam” are among at least 29 names now banned in the heavily Muslim region, according to a list distributed by overseas Uighur activists.

An official at a county-level public security office in Kashgar, a hub in southern Xinjiang with strong Islamic influences, says some names were banned because they had a “religious background.” It is unclear how widespread the ban is or whether it is tightly enforced. The official refused to identify herself, as is common with Chinese officials.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kai-Fu Lee: Robots Will Replace Half of All Jobs

Robots are likely to replace 50 percent of all jobs in the next decade, according to Kai-Fu Lee, founder of venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures and a top voice on tech in China.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the wave of the future, the influential technologist told CNBC, calling it the “singular thing that will be larger than all of human tech revolutions added together, including electricity, [the] industrial revolution, internet, mobile internet — because AI is pervasive.”

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

North Korean Crisis ‘Worst I’ve Seen,’ Top Navy Officer Warns

The senior U.S. Navy officer overseeing military operations in the Pacific region told lawmakers Thursday that the North Korean crisis is the worst he’s seen — testifying that it’s only a matter of time before Kim Jong Un has the capability of launching a nuclear warhead toward the United States.

“The crisis on the Korean peninsula is real—the worst I’ve seen,” said Commander of U.S. Pacific Command Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. “There is some doubt within the intelligence community whether Kim Jong Un has that capability today or whether he will soon, but I have to assume he has it, the capability is real, and that he’s moving towards it.”

Harris spoke to the Senate Armed Services Committee a day after all 100 U.S. senators were invited to White House grounds for a North Korea briefing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea: US Vows Sanctions and Will Activate Thaad System ‘Within Days’

The US says it plans to activate a missile defence system in South Korea “within days” and tighten economic sanctions against North Korea.

The announcements from the Trump administration come amid rising fears about the North’s military advances.

The Thaad system was originally not expected to be in use until late 2017. Many South Koreans oppose it, fearing they will become a target.

North Korea has vowed to conduct more missile and nuclear tests.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Threat: Top Admiral Calls on More Missile Interceptors in Hawaii

A top U.S. commander in the Pacific on Wednesday said he believes Hawaii needs more missile interceptors in response to the growing threat on North Korea and Pyongyang’s capability to launch a rocket.

Adm. Harry Harris told the House Armed Services Committee that Hawaii’s defenses were sufficient for now, but could one day be overwhelmed in an onslaught.

“I don’t share your confidence that North Korea is not going to attack either South Korea, or Japan, or the United States … once they have the capability,” Harris said.

He could not comment on the precise capability of the U.S.’ defenses, but he said, “I do believe that the numbers could be improved. In other words, we need more interceptors.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Australia Warns Gas Companies They Risk Export Restrictions

Australia’s prime minister warned energy companies on Thursday that they would be restricted from exporting gas if Australians are not also provided with adequate supplies at internationally competitive prices.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was unacceptable that Australia was about to overtake Qatar as the world’s biggest exporter of liquid natural gas yet domestic gas users face shortages and sky-rocketing prices.

Australia is entitled under its international trade agreements to protect local industry from gas shortages by preventing companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell, Santos and Origin from fulfilling export contracts from July 1, he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Teenage Sex Attacker Who Groped Eight Women in the Surf at a Gold Coast Beach Walks Free

A Victorian teenager who groped several women in the surf at a Gold Coast beach has avoided conviction. He has been placed on a two-year probation order.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘You Are Brown: A Muslim and a Girl — That’s the Only Reason You Have a Job at the ABC’…

Reality TV star Lisa Oldfield calls activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied a ‘b***h’ in bizarre outburst on Sky News

Real Housewives of Sydney’s Lisa Oldfield has lashed out at Muslim activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied, calling her offensive and a ‘b****.’

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Homo Naledi Is Only 250,000 Years Old — Here’s Why That Matters

In 2013, Lee Berger at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and his colleagues made an extraordinary discovery — deep inside a South African cave system they found thousands of bones belonging to a brand new species of early human — and now we finally may know when this species lived and how it fits into our evolutionary tree.

By 2015 it was becoming clear that the new species, which was named Homo naledi, was unlike anything researchers had discovered before. Although parts of its skeleton looked identical to our modern human anatomy, it had some features that were strikingly primitive — including a skull that was only slightly larger than that of a chimpanzee.

Today, news broke that Berger’s team has finally found a way to date the fossils. In an interview published by National Geographic magazine, Berger revealed that the H. naledi fossils are between 300,000 and 200,000 years old.

“This is astonishingly young for a species that still displays primitive characteristics found in fossils about 2 million years old, such as the small brain size, curved fingers, and form of the shoulder, trunk and hip joint,” says Chris Stringer at the Natural History Museum in London.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

In Mexico City, Water a Rare Commodity

In a teeming, hardscrabble neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City, Virginia Solis spends a big part of her day hauling sloshing buckets to her home — one of tens of thousands in the capital without running water.

Iztapalapa is the poorest and most populous area in Mexico City — 1.8 million of the capital’s 8.8 million people live here.

It is also the one that suffers most from a lack of water. Even in neighborhoods that have running water, it often doesn’t work.

But Iztapalapa isn’t alone. Across the city, more than half a million homes lack a daily water supply, and nearly 50,000 have no running water.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Australia: Iraqi Refugee Jailed After Ploughing His Speeding Truck Into Six Cars Stopped at the Lights During Peak Hour — Leaving a Police Officer With a Brain Injury

An Iraqi refugee who lost control of his truck and crashed into peak hour traffic while speeding through a busy intersection in 2014, has been jailed for a minimum of three years.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

EU Considering Giving Ships Armed With Machine Guns to Libyan Coastguard Accused of Killing Migrants

Libya is asking the EU for armed ships and helicopters to increase its refugee patrols in the Mediterranean Sea amid allegations of widespread abuse against migrants.

The German parliament said a “list” of wanted equipment, including diving suits, ambulances, communications equipment and night vision gear, was being considered by the European Commission.

EU states are already deploying submarines, ships and aircraft to assist in reconnaissance efforts, although they have been criticised for focusing on smuggling rather than rescue missions as a record number of refugees die at sea.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Defense Chiefs Huddle on Libya

Libyan has requested the EU provide an extensive range of equipment and boats for its coast guard to stop migrants. The EU is concerned over a wave of migrants using chaotic Libya as a springboard to reach Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU on Track to Pay Turkey Three Billion for Migrants This Year

(AP) — The European Union says it expects to finish allocating this year all of the 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) it has pledged to Turkey to help the country accommodate the nearly 3 million Syrian refugees living there.

Senior European Commission official Myriam Ferran told EU lawmakers Thursday that “we consider we are on track. The deadline should be met.”

Ferran said more than two-thirds of the money already has been allocated and 1.5 billion euros worth of contracts have been signed.

The EU offered Turkey the money in March 2016 as part of a deal to prevent migrants from reaching Greece. The agreement also calls for giving Turkey fast-tracked EU membership and visa-free travel for Turkish citizens.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Far Right French Mayor Fined for Saying There’s ‘Too Many Muslim Children’ In Schools

A far-right French mayor has been fined for comments that include a claim the number of Muslim students in his city was a “problem”.

Robert Menard, who is an ally of France’s anti-immigrant National Front party, was fined €2,000 for inciting hatred.

“In a class in the city centre in my town, 91 percent of the children are Muslims. Obviously, this is a problem. There are limits to tolerance”, he said in September 5 comments on French news channel LCI.

Also in September, on France’s first day back to school, he tweeted his regret at witnessing “the great replacement”, using a term by xenophobic writer Renaud Camus to describe the country’s white, Christian population being overtaken by foreign-born Muslims.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fewer Than 3% of Migrants Who Reached Italy After Crossing the Mediterranean in 2016 Were Deemed Refugees, UN Report Shows

Only 2.65 percent of those migrants who arrived in Italy were granted asylum as genuine refugees, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said 181,436 migrants arrived in Italy last year, most of them crossing the Mediterranean from north Africa in flimsy boats.

UNHCR said only 4,808 were granted asylum in Italy and 40% of the arrivals were found to be in need of international protection.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Took in 160 Times More Syrian Refugees in 2016 Than UK

Of the 406,000 Syrian refugees given protection in Europe in 2016, almost 300,000 were offered sanctuary in Germany, new figures show.

The figures released by Eurostat on Wednesday display in clear terms how a few countries have shared the majority of the burden in taking in refugees from war-torn Syria.

While Germany took in 295,000 of the 406,000 Syrians who were granted asylum in the EU during 2016, major economies such as France and and Great Britain failed to offer protection to more than a few thousand.

The UK offered protection to 1,850 Syrians, 160 times less than Germany.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ivanka Trump: Allowing Syrian Refugees Into the U.S. ‘Has to be Part of the Discussion’

Assistant to the president and first daughter Ivanka Trump said allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. “has to be part of the discussion” of how best to help those fleeing Islamic State militants and Syria’s long-running civil war.

Trump’s remarks, which aired Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show, marked a break from the policies put in place by her father, President Donald Trump, who has signed multiple iterations of an executive order that places an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees entering the U.S.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Judge Who Blocked Trump’s “Sanctuary City” Order Raised $200,000 for Obama, Issued Restraining Order Against Pro-Life Group

Why should cities receive funds if they harbor illegal immigrants?

U.S. District Judge William Orrick III ruled against President Donald Trump’s executive order that would withhold funds from so-called “sanctuary cities.”

However, as Breitbart reports, the judge has a history of raising money for far-left candidates. Case and point, former President Barack Obama.

Donor records show he raised $200,000 for Obama in 2008 AND raised $30,000 to committees supporting the former president that year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Libya Lacks Plan to Prevent More Migrants Crossing to Europe — EU Officials

Libya’s U.N-backed government has no clear plan to help prevent more migrants reaching Europe’s shores this summer, European Union officials said on Thursday, citing confused requests for equipment to patrol its shores.

Libya’s newly trained coastguards lack a strategy on where to deploy or how to detect and intercept smugglers, officials told Reuters, basing their analysis on two documents prepared for EU defence ministers meeting in Malta, the route to Italy on which thousands of people drowned last year.

The confidential EU assessment contrasts with the upbeat message the bloc has promoted after training 93 Libyan coastguards since late last year to tackle smugglers as the bloc scales back its plans to go into Libya’s territorial waters.

The European Union says it cannot go into Libyan waters without a United Nations Security Council mandate, which the EU says Russia is unlikely to provide because of grievances over the West’s 2011 air campaign that helped oust Muammar Gaddafi.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Migrants: Austria Wants to Extend Border Controls

Minister Sobotka announced

(ANSA) — BERLIN — Austria wants to extend border controls, due to expire in mid-May, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka announced. “As long as the ex ternal borders cannot be adequately protected, we will continue to take nat ional measures” Sobotka told told the German newspaper die Welt.

“For the purposes of public order and internal security, I simply need to know who comes into our country”, he added.

Sobotka said he is confident that Brussels will give green light to an exte nsion of controls at Schengen’s internal borders. According to die Welt, th e Commission will decide next week to extend them beyond May.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norwegian Rejection of Afghan Family Reunification Linked to Sharia Law: Report

Norway’s immigration authorities have denied an Afghan family reunification due to a lack of documentation which has its roots on the Asian country’s civil law, which is partly derived from Islamic sharia.

Parwin, a 30-year-old Afghan woman, told newspaper Aftenposten that she fled the country with her daughters, who are now with relatives in Pakistan, to escape an arranged marriage planned for one of them by her husband, who was also abusive towards her.

She has now been denied family reunification with the daughters by authorities, who cited a lack of documentation for her right to custody — something that does not exist in the sharia law under which she married.

“I thought all my troubles would be over in Europe,” Parwin told Aftenposten.

The woman left Afghanistan because she wanted to help her daughters avoid the fate she suffered: being forced into an arranged marriage as a second wife to a man thirty years older than her.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Shock Report: Migrants Become Less Integrated the Longer They Stay in Europe

A new Norwegian study has found the gap in labour participation rates between citizens born in Norway and third world migrants widens the longer newcomers have been in the country.

Researchers at the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research uncovered “encouraging signs of labour market integration during an initial period upon migrants’ admission”.

But after a period of just five to 10 years, according to the report, “the integration process goes into reverse with widening immigrant-native employment differentials and rising rates of immigrant social insurance dependency”.

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

Sweden Cracks Down on Illegal Workers After Truck Attack

STOCKHOLM (AFP) — Sweden on Thursday announced tougher measures against illegal immigration, weeks after the main suspect behind the deadly Stockholm attack was identified as an Uzbek who had ignored a deportation order.

Slammed for having failed to expel 39-year-old Rakhmat Akilov, who had gone underground after being denied a residency permit in 2016, the government vowed to take action

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

Swedish Government Proposes Measures to Increase Deportation Success Rate

The Swedish government has proposed new measures to help ensure people who have had a residence permit application rejected leave the country.

On Thursday, justice minister Morgan Johansson and interior minister Anders Ygeman presented the new provisions designed to increase the possibilities of dealing with those who try to go off the radar after having their residence application rejected.

Sweden’s Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) predicts that 33,000 people will abscond after having a residence permit application rejected in the next three years. It also expects fewer people to voluntarily leave Sweden than it previously predicted.

By January the Swedish police had more than 12,000 cases of people who were being sought by the Migration Agency. One high profile case is Stockholm terror attack suspect Rakhmat Akilov, who was subject to a deportation order from December 2016 onwards.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Trump’s Order to Restrict ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Funding Blocked by Federal Judge

Fresh legal setback for administration as judge issues temporary ruling in lawsuit over order targeting cities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Two Afghan Migrants Are Jailed for up to Two Years for Raping a Woman in Sweden as Their Friend Broadcasted it Over Facebook Live

Three men — including two Afghan migrants — were sentenced to prison in Sweden for participating in a gang rape that was live streamed in a closed Facebook group.

The three men, aged 18 to 24, were arrested in January in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, after police received tips about the rape streaming in the group of 60,000 members and interrupted the broadcast.

Two of the men are Afghan citizens and the third is a Swedish citizen of Afghan descent.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Linked With Differences in Gut Bacteria

People with chronic fatigue syndrome may have imbalances in their gut bacteria, a new study suggests. The study found that people with chronic fatigue syndrome had higher levels of certain gut bacteria and lower levels of others compared to healthy people who didn’t have the condition.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dog Family Tree Reveals Hidden History of Canine Diversity

Genetic map showing how dog breeds are related provides a wealth of information about their origins.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Oops, Warmists Just Lost the Antarctic Peninsula — it is Now Cooling

A warming trend of 0.32 °C/decade during 1979—1997 to a cooling trend of -0.47 °C/decade during 1999-2014.

Remember the much ballyhooed paper that made the cover of Nature, Steig et al, “Warming of the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 International Geophysical Year”, Nature, Jan 22, 2009 that included some conspicuously errant Mannian math from the master of making trends out of noisy data himself? Well, that just went south, literally.

And it just isn’t because the Steig et al. paper was wrong, as proven by three climate skeptics that submitted their own rebuttal, no, it’s because mother nature herself reversed the trend in actual temperature data in the Antarctic peninsula, and that one place where it was warming, was smeared over the entire continent by Mannian math to make it appear the whole of the Antarctic was warming.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Science Record Set on Space Station

If anything should break in space, let it be records. The astronauts of Expedition 50 have done just that by setting a new record for most time spent on scientific research on the International Space Station.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson, and cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Andrei Borisenko and Sergei Ryzhikov clocked a combined 99 hours of science in the week of 6 March.

To put this into perspective, astronauts average a 40 hour working week split between science experiments, Station maintenance and exercising for 2.5 hours a day. The record-breaking hours exclude these non-science tasks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

14 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/27/2017

    • Smart, but not as smart as I’d hoped. Needs to learn a few facts about those ‘nice’ people she defends. (so do others)

    • Ivanka is not the real problem, her husband is the problem.

      Jared appears to be Trump’s ‘handler’ on behalf of the Deep State.

  1. Red Bull’s CEO Loves Breitbart. Here’s Why the Art World Should Care.

    The Austrian billionaire is considered a pioneer of marketing through branded content.

    Red Bull’s CEO Dietrich Mateschitz has earned a reputation as a marketing genius who has managed to do the impossible: make cultural content sponsored by a multi-billion-dollar corporation cool. He has used the energy drink’s name to underwrite a global, highly influential electronic music platform, an exhibition space in New York, and a residency program in Detroit. But participants in the company’s forward-thinking cultural projects may be surprised to learn about the CEO’s latest initiative: a soon-to-be-launched populist German-language media venture that has already been compared to the ultra-right-wing US outlet Breitbart.

    Mateschitz has made no secret of his reactionary political views: He’s backing the Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz, the young leader of the right-wing populist arm of the conservative People’s Party. But earlier this month, he harshly criticized Germany and Austria’s policies towards refugees in a rare interview with the regional Austrian paper Kleine Zeitung on April 8. The reclusive billionaire also expressed his support for Donald Trump and announced plans for his new media venture, Näher an die Wahrheit (Closer to the Truth), an initiative that he described as a “research platform” with a mission to “tell the truth.”

    It is not yet clear what the platform’s content would look like, but the controversial interview—which has not been widely reported in English, except for one article, unsurprisingly, on Breitbart—has already divided public opinion in Austria. Some readers urged the 72-year-old Austrian, who is estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $15.2 billion, to get into politics. Others said his aspirations are dangerous and likened his proposed platform to Steve Bannon’s former outlet.

    The comparison isn’t too far fetched: In the interview, Mateschitz condemned the political correctness of the “intellectual elites” and claimed that the Austrian government wanted the public to be “scared and uncritical.” “I fundamentally oppose being told what to think, even if one immediately makes oneself suspicious in all directions: in America you’re branded a communist, in Europe as a conspiracy theorist or a right-wing populist,” he said.

    He spoke of the government’s “blindness” regarding the refugees, referring to the crisis as a “wave of immigration” into Europe, claiming that “it was clear from the start that most of the people weren’t refugees, at least not according to the definition of the term in the Geneva Conventions.” He also expressed concerns about the “public servants in Brussels [referring to the European Union] who say that countries with homogeneous cultures should vanish from the face of the earth.”
    (continues at link)

    • Not sure how relevant this is, but here’s my six cents’- sorry, pennies’ worth.

      As a WW2 aircraft buff, my favourite ‘plane is the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Red Bull sponsors the only flyable one (indeed the only one) in Europe (though another is under restoraton in the UK). It’s in postwar guise as a racer: no guns or superchargers, polished silver finish: actually authentic, except for the Red Bull logo on the side. When I see it at airshows I don’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed!

  2. Did Germany entertain the idea that its soldiers SHOULD be allowed to wear Islamic full-face veils “at work”? (It wouldn’t surprise me at all.) Perhaps such soldiers would be trans or TV males who in the interests of “diversity”, “acceptance” and “tolerance” must be allowed to fully “express themselves” while”at work”. Or perhaps they are real Islamic women ready to fight and die for the Fatherland. Deutschland, was ist Dir passiert? Germany, what has happened to you? You will be devoured.

  3. The Westminster knife-man has been named. He is Khalid Mohamed Omar Ali. How odd. What a surprise! But Britain “will never give in to terrorism”.

  4. In Sweden, a man can rape while it’s being filmed and as a punishment receive either one year or two years and four months in jail (less remission?).

    Does Sweden deserve what’s coming to it?

  5. Some Norwegians have finally come to the conclusion that ‘migrants’ become less integrated the longer they stay in Europe.

    And some people wonder why it takes other people so long (decades) to come to conclusions which are so blindingly obvious!

  6. National Review campaigned against Trump and now opposes LePen for this Macron fraud. Rename it the New New Republic or Commentary.

  7. “Westminster terrorism suspect claimed he was approached by MI5”, the “quality” newspaper of the left, the one whose writers don’t seem to be able to get their heads and typing fingers round standard, correct English, informs us today, May 1st.

    “Police detained a man following an incident in Whitehall, central London, last Thursday” reads the caption under a photo of a dark-skinned man with a heavy black beard. A man …. an incident… . One can’t get much more neutral than that.

    “The man who was arrested in Westminster and found to be carrying knives has said that he was approached by MI5 as recently as last year, the Guardian has learned.”

    “Then: Sources in the British Muslim community said Khalid Mohamed Omar Ali, 27, described the security services attempting to contact him in 2016”. (sic).

    He was “approached”?? I read that to mean that MI5 wanted him to help them with information gathering of some kind. The security services “attempted to contact him”. “Attempted” means “tried but failed”, I’ve always understood.

    If the Guardian means ‘questioned on suspicion of being a terrorist’, why don’t they say so?

    “On Sunday”, the article continues, “Ali remained in police custody in Southwark police station, south London, facing questions about whether he intended to carry out a terrorist attack last Thursday”. Nah, surely that wasn’t his intention. Are the police looking for a way of letting him go, as they might well do in Germany? As our news feed said, perhaps he was indeed “planning a large banquet for which he needed to slice a lot of fruit, or he may have been a circus performer who juggles knives to entertain children”. Perhaps they’ll just decide that all they can do is let him go or come up with something about carrying an offensive weapon.

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