Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/22/2018

A massive brawl broke out between Turks and Kurds at the airport in Hannover, Germany. The Kurds were reportedly angry at the Turks because of yesterday’s Turkish invasion of Kurdish areas of Syria.

In other news, in defiance of a threat by the Spanish authorities that they would have him arrested, the former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont traveled from Belgium to Denmark, where he is scheduled to host a debate.

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

Thanks to Charles Low, 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
» IMF Raises Italy Growth Forecasts, Points to Election Risk
 
USA
» Donut Contest Winner Robs Dunkin’ Donuts
» Nagi Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Join ISIS
» U.S. Oil Production Will Soon Overtake Saudi Arabia’s
 
Canada
» Muslim Leaders: Execute LGBTs
 
Europe and the EU
» 2nd Explosion Rocks Malmo, Sweden in Less Than a Week
» EPP Backs Berlusconi’s Programme — Lopez
» France: Paris Dustman Film Swarming Plague of Rats
» France: ‘Allahu Akbar’: Prison Guards Wounded by Knife Wielding Islamic Extremist Inmates
» Italy: Trial Asked for Fini: Tulliani
» Italy: Richemont Launches Bid for 100% of YNAP
» Norwegian Football Fan Names Daughter After Liverpool Supporter Song
» Sacked Catalan Leader Arrives in Denmark Despite Arrest Threat
» UK: Pamela Anderson Visited Pal Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London
» We’ll Respect 3% Deficit Limit — Berlusconi
 
Middle East
» Germany: Huge Brawl Between Kurds and Turks at Hannover Airport
 
Russia
» Appeal Begins in Geneva for Russian Athletes Suspended in Doping Scandal
 
Australia — Pacific
» American Doctor Left With Serious Head Injuries After He and His Son, 17, Were ‘Bashed by Teenage Thugs’ On Their Way Home From the Australian Open
 
Latin America
» Pope Says Sorry for Saying ‘No Proof’ On Barros
 
Immigration
» ‘Deport Him’: More Than 17,000 People Call for Man to be Kicked Out of Country After He Cowardly Hit a Teenager in One-Punch Attack and Then Laughed Outside of Court When He Escaped Jail
» German City Banishes Asylum Seeker After Knife Attack
» I Am Not Willing to Donate My Country
» Immigration Scandal: French Border Guards Are ‘Turning Off Migrant Monitors’ At Calais
 
Culture Wars
» Reversing the Damage Done by Chairman Barack
» Sweden Considers ‘Third Gender’ Option for Government Documents
 

IMF Raises Italy Growth Forecasts, Points to Election Risk

By 0.3 and 0.2 percentage points respectively in ‘18 and ‘19

(ANSA) — Davos, January 22 — The International Monetary Fund on Monday raised Italian growth forecasts but pointed to the potential risks to structural reforms of Italy’s March 4 general election.

The IMF raised its growth forecasts for Italy to 1.4% this year and 1.1% next. In its World Economic Outlook, presented at the Davos-based World Economic Forum, it said the two forecasts had improved respectively by 0.3 and 0.2 percentage points.

The IMF said it saw “a stronger push from external demand” and from exports on the Italian economy.

But the Fund also said Italy’s March general election posed a risk to structural reforms. “The political uncertainty create risks in the realisation of reforms or the possibility of a re-orientation of the agenda, also in the context of elections coming in various countries” including Italy, Mexico and Brazil, it said in its World Economic Outlook, presented on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Donut Contest Winner Robs Dunkin’ Donuts

A North Carolina man who won a police-hosted donut eating contest in 2014 was charged after robbing a Dunkin’ Donuts in November 2017, according to a Monday report.

Bradley Hardison, 27, was charged Thursday with breaking and entering and larceny, after attempting to steal from a Dunkin’ Donuts, reported the Associated Press.

The suspect previously won a competition in 2014 — called the National Night Out Against Crime — for eating eight glazed donuts in two minutes, reported the Virginia Pilot. Hardison beat police officers by scarfing down donuts in an event aimed to get “citizens and police to come together, standing in a united front against crime.”

[Comment: This is not from The Onion.]

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

Nagi Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Join ISIS

Two and a half years after he was arrested by federal authorities, a Lackawanna man has admitted he attempted to travel abroad and join the efforts of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, or ISIS. On Monday, Arafat Nagi entered a guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara in downtown Buffalo.

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

U.S. Oil Production Will Soon Overtake Saudi Arabia’s

Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), told a congressional committee last week, “What we see is a result of the shale revolution [fracking]. The U.S. is becoming the undisputed leader of oil and gas production worldwide. [U.S.] oil production is growing very strongly and will continue to grow. We think that this growth is unprecedented [both in the] size of the growth and the pace of the growth.”

In 1973, Saudi Arabia punished U.S. citizens with an oil embargo in retaliation for the U.S. government’s support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. It could do so because it held the biggest hammer: Saudi Arabia controlled the world’s largest reserves of crude oil and the kingdom. Within months, the price of oil quadrupled in the United States, resulting in shortages and rationing. Gas stations were closed, and when they reopened they were forced to restrict gasoline purchases to “odd” and “even” days depending upon their customers’ license plate numbers. The federal government imposed “double-nickel” (55 mph) speed limits on highways, and experimented with “daylight saving” time in order to reduce the impact of the embargo.

Those days are long gone and not likely ever to return.

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

Muslim Leaders: Execute LGBTs

The American Center for Democracy (ACD) published a video exposing Muslim religious leaders’ stance on the LGBT community.

In an article on ACD’s website, Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote, “Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau touts himself as a leader who grants equality and rights for the LGBTQ community. At the same time, he also embraces and promotes the growing Islamist movement in Canada, which views homosexuality as a crime punishable by lashing and even death.”

She also noted that “the Islamists make no secret of their views. They promote them in mosques, public lectures, articles and books often distributed free in bookstores and on city street corners.”

Muslim books sold in Canadian bookstores detail how to execute LGBT individuals, including throwing them from roofs, stoning them, and burning them to death, Dr. Ehrenfeld continued

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

2nd Explosion Rocks Malmo, Sweden in Less Than a Week

Another explosion has rocked the Swedish city of Malmo, just days after a grenade attack directly targeted a police station.

No injuries have been reported in the blast that happened around 9pm local time outside a restaurant located in an office building in the Rosengard city district, police said. The facade of the building was damaged in the explosion, the Aftonbladet reported.

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

EPP Backs Berlusconi’s Programme — Lopez

Italy is fundamental says Secretary-General

(ANSA) — Brussel, January 22 — The European People’s Party (EPP) is giving “very clear support” to Silvio Berlusconi’s election programme after the ex-premier and Forza Italia leader presented it in Brussels on Monday, EPP Secretary-General Antonio Lopez said. “Italy is fundamental for us, the southern part of the EU needs to have a bigger impact on the decisions that are being taken in Europe,” Lopez said.

“This will be possible with the new, future government”.

He added that the EPP was Berlusconi’s “home”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

France: Paris Dustman Film Swarming Plague of Rats

Paris rubbish collectors have released a video to sound the alarm over a plague of rats that have invaded the banks of the Seine, claiming that the rodents now pose a physical threat to dustmen.

Shot last month between the tourist landmark of the Musée d’Orsay and the Pont Royal, the film shows a huge group of the large vermin desperately trying to escape from a deep plastic municipal rubbish bin.

The dustman who shot the film, known only as David, can be heard shouting: “Look in the bin, there are a million rats!”

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

France: ‘Allahu Akbar’: Prison Guards Wounded by Knife Wielding Islamic Extremist Inmates

Two French prison guards at the Borgo prison in Corsica were wounded Friday after a group of three inmates including a radical Islamic extremist attacked them with knives while shouting “Allahu Akbar”.

One of the guards was severely wounded in the incident and had to be transferred to a hospital in the nearby city of Bastia where he received treatment for his wounds, according to Bastia prosecutor Caroline Tharot.

While Tharot did not comment on further details about the case, it was confirmed that one of the men involved in the attack was under observation for being a radical Islamic extremist, Europe1 reports.

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

Italy: Trial Asked for Fini: Tulliani

For money laundering

(ANSA) — Rome, January 22 — Prosecutors on Monday asked that former House Speaker Gianfranco Fini be put on trial in a money laundering case. They also requested the indictment of Fini’s partner Elisabetta Tulliani and her father and brother, Sergio and Giancarlo, along with slot-machine king Francesco Corallo.

Former foreign minister Fini, 66, a former neo-Fascist leader, was once the heir-apparent of three-time ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, the media magnate and centre-right Forza Italia leader.

His fall from grace was linked to a Monte Carlo house belonging to Fini’s former post-Fascist party that was sold to Giancarlo Tulliani, and was the centre of a 2010 probe.

Tulliani is still facing legal action over the house.

Tulliani, was arrested in Dubai in early November after being on the run since March in the money laundering probe.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Richemont Launches Bid for 100% of YNAP

Swiss group offering 38 euro per share for part doesn’t already own

(ANSA) — Rome, January 22 — Richemont said Monday that it is making a bid to buy 100% of fashion online retailer Yoox Net-a-Porter. The Swiss luxury group is offering 38 euros per share to buy the half of the company that it does not already own.

Three years ago it merged Net-a-Porter with Italian rival Yoox.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norwegian Football Fan Names Daughter After Liverpool Supporter Song

A Norwegian Liverpool fan has named his daughter Ynwa Sofie in tribute to English Premier League club Liverpool, whose fans famously sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ before matches.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

Sacked Catalan Leader Arrives in Denmark Despite Arrest Threat

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont disembarked his flight to Copenhagen on Monday morning despite a threat by Madrid to issue a warrant for his arrest if he leaves Belgium, where he has been in exile since a failed independence bid.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Pamela Anderson Visited Pal Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London

The ex-Baywatch star, 50, was dressed in black as she brought the Wikileaks founder, 46, a vegan lunch.

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

We’ll Respect 3% Deficit Limit — Berlusconi

Forza Italia leader presents programme in Brussels

(ANSA) — Brussels, January 22 — Ex-premier and Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi said Monday that Italy will respect the EU’s 3% deficit-to-GDP-ratio limit if the centre right wins the March 4 general election. “We presented our programme to the EPP (European People’s Party),” Berlusconi said after meeting EPP Secretary-General Antonio Lopez in Brussels.

“The important thing is our desire to respect the 3% deficit rule”.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement’s (M5S) premier candidate Luigi Di Maio has mooted breaching the 3% limit. The centre-right coalition FI is part of also features the Euroskeptic League.

Berlusconi added that his relations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel “have always been positive and the lady is backing us with determination”.

Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi said Berlusconi’s 23% flat tax proposal was “unjust and does not have the financial cover”.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Monday he had had an “excellent” meeting with Berlusconi.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Huge Brawl Between Kurds and Turks at Hannover Airport

A mass brawl has broken out at a German airport, sparked by demonstrators protesting about Turkish military action against Kurdish fighters.

Kurds who had gathered at airport for the protest came under attack from Turkish Airlines passengers, haz.de reported.

Video shows protesters waving flags exchanging punches with a group of men, who ran towards them, and some of the flags being used as improvised weapons.

According to haz.de, the police had to use pepper spray to separate both sides.

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

Appeal Begins in Geneva for Russian Athletes Suspended in Doping Scandal

Dozens of Russian athletes banned by the International Olympic Committee for life over doping began an appeal against their suspension on Monday at the world’s top sports court

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

American Doctor Left With Serious Head Injuries After He and His Son, 17, Were ‘Bashed by Teenage Thugs’ On Their Way Home From the Australian Open

Edik Pribitkin, 17, had always dreamed of visiting the country’s renowned tennis tournament with his dad Edmund, however, the trip took a nasty turn when the pair were allegedly attacked.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Says Sorry for Saying ‘No Proof’ On Barros

The word wounded many abuse victims

(ANSA) — On board the papal plane, January 22 — Pope Francis on Monday apologised for “wounding” the victims of Chile’s most notorious clerical sex abuser by saying there was “not a shred of proof” that Bishop Juan Barros knew about predator Ferando Karadima. The pope said he had not meant to speak of “proof but of evidence”. He said “there are a lot of abused people who cannot have proof, they don’t have it. Perhaps they have it, but they feel shame and suffer in silence”. Francis stressed “ I must say sorry because the word ‘proof’ wounded (the victims): it wounded so many abused people”.

The pope thanked Cardinal Sean O’Malley who said the pope had wounded victims with his words about Barrso, bishop of the city of Osorno.

Francis said he fully agreed with o’Malley and there was no conflict between them.

“I thank him for his statement,” the Argentinian pontiff said, while stressing that the American cardinal had reiterated Francis’s own statements about zero tolerance for abusers, and his apology for abuse.

On Thursday Francis said on his trip to Chile that he had yet to see “a shred of proof” against Osorno Bishop Barros who victims accuse of shielding Karadima, the charismatic cleric who trained him.

The pope’s words were rejected by Karadima’s victims and the lay people in Barros’s diocese who are trying to have him removed.

“When I see some proof against Bishop Barros then we’ll see, perhaps. So far I haven’t seen any at all,” Francis told journalists.

Shortly before the pope addressed the case for the first time, Barros told the press that Francis had been “very affectionate” with him and had offered “words of support”.

A group of faithful from Osorno, a southern city, have been demanding Barros’s removal for three years.

In February 2011, after several years of a Catholic canonical investigation, the Vatican found Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors and psychological abuse in Chile.

It sent him to a “life of prayer and penitence” and to “lifelong prohibition from the public exercise of any ministerial act, particularly confession and the spiritual guidance of any category of persons.” But the Chilean Church has yet to fully recover from the scandal.

Many of the local faithful are still furious over a 2015 decision by Pope Francis to appoint Barros, who had been one of Karadima’s proteges.

Barros has always denied he knew that Karadima was Chile’s worst clerical sexual predator.

On Thursday Karadima’s victims and the lay people from the bishop’s diocese harshly criticised the pope’s words in defence of Barros.

Victim Juan Carlos Cruz tweeted: “it’s not as if I could have taken a selfie or photo while Karadima was abusing me with Barros standing beside him, seeing it all!” He added “These people are mad” and said “it all goes on in the same way, the demand for forgiveness remains an empty gesture”.

Juan Carlos Claret, the spokesman for the Osorno lay community, said “the real scandal in Francis’s words lies in the fact that he is giving the lie to the victims and not to the man who abused them”.

He stressed that Cruz was not the only victim who said Barros knew about Karadima.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

‘Deport Him’: More Than 17,000 People Call for Man to be Kicked Out of Country After He Cowardly Hit a Teenager in One-Punch Attack and Then Laughed Outside of Court When He Escaped Jail

A man who laughed as he walked free from court despite pleading guilty to a cowardly one-punch attack on the Gold Coast is now the subject of a petition calling for his deportation.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

German City Banishes Asylum Seeker After Knife Attack

The German city of Cottbus, Brandenburg has forced a 15-year-old Syrian asylum seeker and his father to leave town and never return after he pulled a knife on a local couple last week.

The eviction is the first time the local government has ordered an asylum seeker to move elsewhere and they say he has been a repeat offender since moving to the area.

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

I Am Not Willing to Donate My Country

As the United States Congress continues to import 1.1 million legal and 500,000 illegal immigrants into this country annually — enormous sociological pressures boil under the surface of America.

Today, women march to oust an elected president, Black Lives Matter march against the very concept of America as well as a separate African state, La Raza advocates for a Mexican nation within America, Moslem Brotherhood immigrants promote Sharia Law to create a parallel society, DACA illegal aliens march for amnesty, and another 20 million illegal aliens demand amnesty for violating America’s borders.

Liberal and conservative Americans fight one another tooth and nail. The gridlock in Congress reflects a nation and its people at odds with itself and themselves. On most news programs, you hear the same, “America was built by immigrants so we can’t stop them from coming. I wouldn’t be here if my parents didn’t immigrate…”

Writer Gary Gobel said, “For the same reasons that you no longer drink your mother’s breast milk, we no longer need immigration. We are a mature nation of over 330 million citizens and we have somewhere between 12-20 million foreign nationals living in our country. We are a nation of expensive social programs and have all the non-assimilating ethnic diversity we can handle. Close the border and stop all immigration entirely till we get our mess straightened out.”

“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’.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Immigration Scandal: French Border Guards Are ‘Turning Off Migrant Monitors’ At Calais

HIGHLY sensitive equipment for detecting migrants hiding in UK-bound trucks has been deliberately turned off by French border guards in Calais, it was claimed last night.

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

Reversing the Damage Done by Chairman Barack

Friday’s March for Life, 45 years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand, demonstrates how difficult it is to reverse the effects of evil decisions and policies. The fact that complete victory is not immediately at hand does not cause true believers to give up the fight. That’s why thousands will turn out for the 45th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Overturning Marxist or “progressive” policies is a difficult challenge when much of the media and even some prominent members of your own political party are against you. But the economic and financial turnaround under President Trump has already been amazing. Trump’s record of appointing conservative and pro-life judges is also impressive. Some pro-lifers have declared Trump is the most pro-life president in modern history.

Economically, one of Trump’s major challenges is to reverse eight years of Obama selling out our economic base and America’s workers to Communist China. If progress is made here, we may also see progress in other areas, such as reversing the social and cultural breakdown that we see all around us.

Sensing a confrontation is in the works, Obama in November rushed over to Beijing to clink glasses with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. The Chinese media hailed the reunion as a meeting of “veteran cadre,” an extraordinary term that means the former U.S. President has been operating as a communist agent or operative. We had warned about this before Obama was elected, when we disclosed his relationship with Communist Party USA operative Frank Marshall Davis. Last year we published two books, Comrade Obama Unmasked and Red Star Rising, explaining the significance of America’s first Marxist president.

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has linked U.S. trade policies under Obama and other presidents to the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs and the resulting economic and social costs. White House documents published by Navarro, in the form of PowerPoint slides, link economic problems to social problems, including a higher abortion rate, more drug use, higher crime, and more homelessness.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Considers ‘Third Gender’ Option for Government Documents

The Swedish government has announced plans to look into introducing a third gender option for official government documentation which would allow Swedes to describe themselves as neither male nor female.

A majority of members of the Swedish parliament voted last week to investigate implementing a third neutral gender for government documents. The plan was backed by the Centre Party, Sveriges Radio reports.

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

3 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/22/2018

  1. RE; Oil production, it has been alleged that the Saudi rulers have their underwear in a knot. As oil falls below $70.00 US from time to time, they get closer to financial ruin, they only possibly have a 3 yr. supply of money to keep their Islamic Welfare State afloat, with no other means of income or manufacturing base. A lower oil price also spells a hard time for Iran. Thanks to the changes by the administration of DJT we are exporting Coal,Oil and Liquified Natural Gas. It’s about damned time!

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