A brand-new pedestrian bridge at Florida International University in Miami collapsed today on top of numerous cars that were waiting for a red light. An undetermined number of people were killed in the cars pancaked under the bridge, which had been touted by the construction company, the university, and local politicians as an example of high-tech excellence.
In other news, Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton is considering fast-track immigration procedures for whites fleeing genocide in South Africa.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Insubria, LP, Reader from Chicago, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Bulgaria: Strong Decrease in Unemployment Rate in 2017
-1.4% between 2016 and last year
(ANSA) — BELGRADE — The unemployment rate in Bulgaria dropped from 7.6% to 6.2% between 2016 and 2017, -1.4% year-on-year, the ‘Labour Force Survey’ of the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (Nsi) said today.
Nsi noted that the employment rate for the age group 20-64 years was 71.3% in 2017, 75.3% for men and 67.3% for women. The employment rate increased by 3.6% in total between 2016 and 2017, +4% for men and +3.3 for women.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Apartment Building Where Explosion Took Place to be Burned
BEAVER DAM, Wis. (AP) — Fire officials say weather conditions should be favorable for a controlled fire at a Beaver Dam apartment building where a fatal explosion took place.
Authorities will set fire to the building Thursday to burn the chemicals that cannot be removed because of their volatility. Those who lived in the building have not been allowed to return to retrieve any belongings or keepsakes because of the danger of another explosion.
About 20 area fire departments with at least 100 firefighters will assist with the controlled burn.
Twenty-eight-year-old Benjamin Morrow, who lived in one of the units, was killed in last week’s explosion. Police believe he was making bombs when chemicals accidentally detonated. A funeral service for Morrow will be held Thursday in Madison.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Controlled Burn Set to Start at Beaver Dam Apartment Building
BEAVER DAM, Wis.(WMTV)—- Crews are set to start a controlled fire at the Village Glen apartments in Beaver Dam on Thursday morning.
21 different fire crews are assisting with the burn which will begin around 10:00 a.m.
Chief Alan Mannel of the Beaver Dam Fire Department said a plan has been carefully crafted to protect the surrounding buildings in the complex. Crews will not control this burn. They’ve been instructed by chemical experts to let it burn as long and hot as possible. The heat is what breaks down the explosive material.
Chief John Kreuziger of the Beaver Dam Police Department said Benjamin J. Morrow was found dead after the explosion at Village Glen apartments on March 5th. It was confirmed through DNA analysis with cooperation from the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory in Madison.
Kreuziger said the FBI has set up a 24-hour tip line for anyone who may have information concerning this investigation. People are encouraged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Choose option 3.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
FIU Bridge Collapse: Several Dead: Cars Trapped Underneath
MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Florida International University’s (FIU) massive new pedestrian bridge collapsed, killing at least one person and crushing several vehicles under it.
The 950-ton bridge, located at 109th Ave and 8th Street, came crumbling down onto a number of cars.
“I was looking at the bridge. It was fine and all of a sudden, I saw it collapse from the left towards the middle,” said the witness to CBS4’s Ted Scouten. “I jumped out of my car and I ran towards the victim to see if we could help anybody but when I saw, the only thing you could see were the car lights in the front. It was totally smashed, almost to the ground. So, there was only one girl who survived. It smashed the back-end of her car…they were able to pull her out….They couldn’t get anyone out of their cars. They’re smashed.”
Miami-Dade Police Chief Juan Perez said 8 people have been taken to the hospital and eight vehicles are stuck under the bridge and the number of dead is undetermined. At least one person has reportedly died.
“We do know that there are 8 vehicles that they can see that are under there,” said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez. “In reality, nobody can tell you if it was a vehicle that only had a driver or had a driver and 4 passengers. So, when you’re asking about numbers, we really don’t know.”…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Historian: Silicon Valley Will Decide Future Election Winners Unless Conservatives Do Something
British historian Niall Ferguson warns that Silicon Valley will decide the winners of future elections unless conservatives do something to combat social media censorship and skewed algorithms.
“If we do nothing, the mid-terms are going to be worse than you already think — a lot worse — because never again will the network platforms in Silicon Valley allow conservative candidates to use them as Donald Trump’s campaign used them in 2016,” said Ferguson, adding that Facebook couldn’t believe how vital their platform was in helping Trump get elected.
“I don’t think he would have become president without Facebook,” said Ferguson.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Honduran on Protected Status Plotted to Bomb a Miami Mall Pleads Guilty to Supporting ISIS
Honduran national Vicente Adolfo Solano pleaded guilty Wednesday to providing material support to the Islamic State, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Solano is reportedly an illegal immigrant who obtained Temporary Protected Status (TPS), according to the Miami Herald, citing Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert. He arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s and resided in Miami, where this ISIS sympathizer produced terrorist propaganda videos and “planned to place and detonate an explosive device in a crowded area of a popular Miami mall.”
The man was, according to the FBI, self-radicalized, and in March 2017, he reportedly changed his name to Abad and posted on Facebook: “I am Abad, son of Allah. May our black flag live on and we continue our battle.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Man Who Claimed He Buried Natalee Holloway Fatally Stabbed
John Christopher Ludwick killed during in Florida
NORTH PORT, Fla. — A man who once claimed he helped bury Natalee Holloway’s remains in Aruba has died after police said he was stabbed during a foiled kidnapping in Florida.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that John Christopher Ludwick, 32, tried to kidnap a woman Wednesday as she exited her driveway in North Port.
Police said she fought back and Ludwick was stabbed in the struggle. He ran, but officers found him in a wooded area. He died at a hospital.
The Times reported that Ludwick was a friend of Joran Van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 kidnapping of Holloway. Van der Sloot is in prison for an unrelated murder. North Port police said they’ve informed authorities involved in the Holloway case of Ludwick’s death.
Holloway, who moved from Clinton, Mississippi, to Alabama with her mother after her parents divorced, disappeared during a 2005 high school graduation trip to Aruba. Her body has not been found.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Canada to Boost Nuclear Power to Help Meet Climate Target
OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada, the second largest producer of uranium, will boost its reliance on nuclear energy to reduce its carbon footprint and will encourage other nations to do the same, public broadcaster CBC said Thursday.
The move would mark a change in the climate strategy Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government unveiled just last December, which did not mention nuclear energy.
In May, Canada is expected to promote nuclear energy at a forum in Denmark, seizing the opportunity to “place nuclear energy at the center of global efforts to fight climate change,” Natural Resources Parliamentary Secretary Kim Rudd said in a speech quoted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
“The CEM (Clean Energy Ministerial) meets again in Copenhagen in May and we have ensured that nuclear energy has its place as part of a broad and high-level discussion on a global transition to a low-carbon economy,” she said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Britain: February 2018
February 1. Foreign Office officials invited 1,800 female staff members to wear Islamic headscarves to mark World Hijab Day. The department gave away taxpayer-funded headscarves, claiming they symbolized “liberation, respect and security.” Critics, citing the compulsory veiling of women in Islamic countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, said the garment is a symbol of male oppression. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said, “I’d like to know whose bright idea this was. It is ridiculous, a complete waste of taxpayers’ money and not the business of a government department. I can’t see the Foreign Office promoting Christianity or the handing out of crosses.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch MEP Charged for Saying ‘Muslims Will Launch Europe Straight Back Into the Middle Ages’
Congolese-Italian Member of the European Parliament, Cécile Kyenge, wants sanctions for Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff. According to Kyenge, de Graaff made “Islamophobic” statements during a debate in the European Parliament.
De Graaff, a member of the Dutch Freedom Party, said in a debate with Portugal’s Prime Minister, António Costa, that “Uneducated people from a backward culture [Meaning Muslims] will launch Europe straight back into the Middle Ages” and the word Islam “is the definition of inequality between men and women, polygamy, child marriages and honour killings”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EP Gives Conditional OK to EMA Move to Amsterdam
Italy, Milan appealing against decision
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, March 15 — The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday gave conditional approval to the relocation of the European Medicines Agency from London to Amsterdam due to Brexit.
Italy and Milan, which missed out on winning EMA after lots were drawn when the cities tied in the vote to decide the agency’s new home, are appealing the decision.
They argue that important information about the move to Amsterdam was withheld during the bidding process after doubts emerged about its readiness to host EMA.
The EP set three conditions: the Netherlands must ensure the full and continuous operations of the EMA; EU institutions must be more greatly involved in future choices of offices; and the European Commission must report on a quarterly basis on the EMA dossier’s progress.
The relocation was approved with 507 votes in favour, 112 against and 37 abstentions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: How a Soros-Funded NGO Lobbied One EU Country Against Another
The head of an organization funded by George Soros described how the group used its influence on one government to pressure another country for the benefit of the Hungarian-American billionaire.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: 3 Syrians Sentenced to Prison for Belonging to ISIS
A German court on Monday sentenced three Syrians to years-long jail terms for belonging to ISIS and forming sleeper cell in Germany to carry out terrorist operations.
The oldest of the accused, identified as 27-year-old Mohamed A., was given the longest sentence of six-and-a-half years by Hamburg’s higher regional court, and his 19— and 20-year-old co-accused, minors at the time of the acts, received prison terms of three and a half years each.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Court Forces Volkswagen to Rehire Islamic Extremist Fired for Alleged Terrorist Threat
The German automotive giant Volkswagen has been forced to rehire a known radical Islamic extremist who they had previously fired because they feared he might commit a terror attack on their factory.
The Islamic extremist Samir B. was fired from his job at the Volkswagen car plant in November 2016 after he threatened several of his colleagues and expressed a desire to fight for the Islamic State in the Middle East.
The 30-year-old then took his case to court where judges have ordered the manufacturer to give him his job back because the company could not demonstrate he was a reasonable threat to other employees, Bild reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Defiant Against Brussels: Thousands Join Rally in Support of EU Rebel Viktor Orban
HUNGARY’S nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told a huge rally in Budapest that they must fight the “external forces and international powers” who want to allow mass immigration into their country.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In Central, Eastern Europe Death Rate Higher Than EU Average
At the top Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary
(ANSA) — BELGRADE, 14 MAR — Several countries in Central- and Eastern Europe are among the ones with the highest mortality rate in the European Union, said today Eurostat, the EU statistical office.
Bulgaria, with 1,660 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, has the highest death rate across EU member states, according to 2015 data. Bulgaria was followed by Romania (1,530 deaths per 100,000), Hungary (1,500), Lithuania (1,490), Latvia (1,489), Croatia (1,430) and Slovakia (1,390). The average death rate in the EU in 2015 stood at 1,036 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
According to Eurostat, over 5.2 million people died in the EU in 2015, some 272,000 more that in 2014. Around 1.9 million died from diseases of the circulatory system, 1.3 million from cancer, the two main causes of the death in the European Union, followed by 442,100 persons who died from diseases of the respiratory system.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Warning: Thousands of Militant Jihadi Sleeper Agents Lying in Wait in Britain
Since the emergence of ISIS in 2014, around six thousand European nationals have fled to Syria and surrounding countries to join the savage regime.
And Europol estimates about a third have died in combat situations, while some may have returned home.
But the agency insists the vast majority are unaccounted for.
Rob Wainwright, executive director of Europol, said: “A large number, possibly over a thousand, are perhaps capable of coming back.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Bust ‘Sect’: Acolytes ‘Enslaved’
Forced to donate money, in Marche, Emilia Romagna
(ANSA) — Rome, March 14 — Italian police on Wednesday busted a ‘macrobiotic’ sect that allegedly enslaved acolytes and forced them to donate money.
The alleged sect operated in Emilia Romagna and Marche, police said.
The members were allegedly enslaved, police said, through stringent dietary restrictions and the prevention of all contact with the outside world.
One of the so-called acolytes of the macrobiotic sect lost so much weight that she ended up wighing only 35 kg, police said.
Five people were placed under investigation.
The sect’s guru, Mario Pianesi, told his followers “drugs don’t work, they only get rid of symptoms, medicine kills, doctors are killers”, members of the sect told police.
The man managed to persuade sick sect members to abandon traditional medicine and follow his macrobiotic diet to allegedly solve their physical and psychological problems, police said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Condotte President Arrested in Graft Probe
Astaldi held for kickbacks on Siracusa-Gela motorway
(ANSA) — Messina, March 13 — The president of the Condotte construction company, Duccio Astaldi, was among six people arrested over suspected kickbacks in the construction of the motorway between Siracusa and Gela in Sicily on Tuesday, judicial sources said.
Astaldi resigned after being informed of his arrest, “with the utmost transparency”, a statement from his office said. Also arrested were COSIGE Scarl president Antonio D’Andrea and the former technical secretary of ex-Sicilian governor Rosario Crocetta, Stefano Polizzotto. All six are believed to have been involved in the payment of a huge kickback for the construction of three lots on the motorway, police said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pignataro Banned in FSE Bankruptcy
Accused of fraudulent bankruptcy
(ANSA) — Rome, March 14 — BNL Rome marketing chief Giuseppe Maria Pignataro was banned from office for 12 months Wednesday in a probe into the bankruptcy of the southern rail company Ferrovie Sud East. He is accused of fraudulent bankruptcy in complicity with FSE former chief Luigi Fiorillo and another two BNL managers, Fabio ferretti and Vito Colaprico.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Colombian National Arrested for Milan Couple Attack
24-year-old suspected of assault, rape
(ANSA) — Milan, March 15 — Carabinieri police on Thursday arrested a 24-year-old Colombian man suspected of attacking a couple and raping the woman on the outskirts of Milan on Monday night.
The man, who lives in the city, was arrested by police in the night between Wednesday and Thursday.
The man, Freilin David Lopez Villa, is suspected of attacking the couple and threatening them with a knife before raping the 19-year-old woman and beating her 22-year-old boyfriend.
The man then allegedly fled in the couple’s Fiat Punto car.
Lopez Villa told police Thursday he could not remember what had happened because he had taken drugs.
“I don’t remember much, I only remember the robbery, not the violence, I had taken magic mushrooms,” he said.
The attack occurred in the same street, Via Chopin, in the Ripamonti southern area of Milan, where on June 4, 2005, a similar attack and rape were reported.
Five Romanian nationals, including two minors, were convicted for the crime to sentences of up to five years in jail.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Elliott Wants to Pull 6 TIM Directors
Including president de Puyfontaine
(ANSA) — Rome, March 15 — The Elliott fund and two other allied partners on Thursday asked the TIM board to revoke six directors including the president, Arnaud Roy de Puyfontaine, and the deputy executive president Giuseppe Recchi, replacing them with six of their own. The other four directors Elliott International, Elliott Associates and The Liverpool Limited Partnership want replaced are Hervé Philippe, Frédéric Crépin, Félicité Herzog and Anna Jones.
Four of these directors are linked directly to shareholder Vivendi while two are independents but still elected in the majority partner’s list.
Elliott and the other two investors want thjem to be replaced by the following six: Fulvio Conti, Massimo Ferrari, Paola Giannotti De Ponti, Luigi Gubitosi, Dante Roscini and Rocco Sabelli. TIM said it would add the issue to its agenda for a shareholders meeting on April 24.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Salvini Open to Coalition With 5 Star Party
ROME — The leader of Italy’s far-right League said Wednesday he was open to forming a governing coalition with other parties, including the anti-establishment 5Star Movement — but not the center-left Democratic Party.
The League’s center-right alliance with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia emerged as the largest political force in the March 4 election with 37 percent of the vote, but fell short of the 40 percent threshold needed to reach a majority in parliament.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Revealing “a lot of work is being done” by authorities to prepare for an expected influx of jihadis from the Middle East, Britain’s Justice Secretary said the prison system needs an incentive system that rewards “understand[ing of] society’s values”.
“There is a likelihood that we are going to see people returning from the Middle East in the months ahead and many of them are going to become our problem within the prison system,” David Gauke told the Evening Standard.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Man Found Guilty of Murdering Family in Denmark
A jury at Frederiksberg City Court has found a 39-year-old man guilty of last year murdering his wife and three children.
The jury reached its decision in the case on Wednesday, reports news agency Ritzau.
A sentence will be given in May following a statement by the Danish Medical Legal Council (Retslægerådet) in regard to the man’s psychiatric state, the agency writes.
He admitted the crimes at a preliminary hearing shortly after his arrest last year and again at the start of his trial in February.
The man, who is of Afghan heritage, said that the killings were the culmination of a long-running conflict with his wife.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Air-Electric Line to Connect Bulgaria to Greece
Project is part of the North-South priority energy corridor
(ANSA) — SOFIA — By order of the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Valentin Yovev, a detailed development plan for the construction of a new air-electric line on the territory of Bulgaria was approved.
This was announced by the press center of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, as Novinite.com reports.
The pipeline will connect the Maritsa East in Bulgaria and Nea Santa in Greece.
The project is part of the North-South priority energy corridor and is designated a national site and a site of national importance.
It is envisaged that the power line will maintain a high voltage of 400 kV.
The energy project is an element of the technical infrastructure outside the boundaries of the urbanized territories and will be built on the territories of the municipalities of Simeonovgrad, Haskovo, Harmanli, Kardzhali, Momchilgrad and Kirkovo.
The construction of the power line will contribute to the increase of the electricity transmission capacity of the energy system in the region as well as to the security of electricity exchange between the two countries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
No Manipulation of Benedict Letter — Vatican
‘Photo is artistic, Msgr Viganò read blurred part’
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 15 — There has been no manipulation of a letter from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lauding his successor Pope Francis, authoritative Vatican sources told ANSA Thursday. “No one hid or manipulated anything,” they said, stressing that “a photo some media outlets are talking about is a clearly artistic photo: in fact a part of the letter was fuzzy and also presented the collection of books published by (Vatican publisher) LEV”.
The sources said that “the blurred part was read by Msgr Viganò publicly, on the occasion of the press conference in front of participants and journalists”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Survey: Czechs and Italians Nations Liked the Most
Arabs, Roma and Russians the most disliked
(ANSA) — BELGRADE — Poles see in a positive light Czechs and Italians, with 44 percent of respondents in a survey saying they like nationals from the two countries, the website of Radio Poland said, citing a survey of the CBOS Public Opinion Research Center.
According to the survey, based on a 1,057 sample of adult respondents, 43 percent of respondents said that they liked Britons and Americans as well.
Sixty-two percent of respondents said also that they feel negative about people from Arab countries, while 59 percent and 49 percent noted that they dislike Roma and Russian respectively.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Right-Wingers Focus Ire on ‘Irish Lesbian Judge’
Mainstream media praises Aileen Donnelly’s referral of extradition case to Europe
Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly of the High Court, whose decision to refer an extradition case to the European courts has angered Polish conservatives. Photograph: Dave Meehan
Conservative media in Poland have stepped up their attack on High Court Justice Aileen Donnelly for suspending the extradition of a Polish man there and seeking clarity from Europe’s highest court.
Two days after her decision, conservative newspaper Dziennik Narodowy and website wpolityce.pl saw a link between her decision and her sexual orientation.
“Irish lesbian judge suspends the extradition of a Polish criminal because she is concerned about the rule of law in our country,” wrote the Dziennik Narowdny daily in a headline.
In its report it described Justice Donnelly as “the first openly homosexual person working at the High Court” and noted her work between 1996 and 2002 for the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).
The Polish government has attacked as “incomprehensible” the High Court decision to seek a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg before deciding on the request to hand over a suspected drug trafficker.
Deputy justice minister Marcin Warchol said the decision was based on “general, abstract deliberations, projections and speculation”. He described the man at the centre of the case, Artur Celmer as a “criminal sought in the whole of Europe”.
Widespread coverage in Poland on the Irish case has now focused in some quarters on the woman behind the decision.
On the website wpolityce.pl, columnist Stanislaw Janecki noted Justice Donnelly was the “first lesbian” in the High Court and to “expect similar actions from progressive judges in other countries … and Aileen Donnelly will go into the world encouraging lawyers to cite her precedent”.
Another website said it “sincerely hopes that … the majority of Polish criminals will flee to Ireland because the courts are so kind to the degenerates”.
Poland’s mainstream independent media has been more positive.
Ms Ewa Siedlacka, a commentator at weekly magazine Polityka, described the Irish decision as “a huge shame but also a moral boost for those who are attached to the standards of the rule of law, to the independence of the courts and the independence of the judges”.
‘Brought to heel’
The case has been applauded by Polish lawyers critical of the judicial reforms of the national conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, and who see a common pattern in all 13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system.
“They have brought to heel the constitutional tribunal by weaponising the constitutional review against the opposition and limiting the court to rubber-stamping all legislative projects of the majority,” said Prof Tomasz Konciewicz, a Polish law professor teaching at Princeton University in the US.
He said Justice Donnelly’s referral “sends a clear signal that something very serious is happening”.
“The stakes could not be higher,” he said.
Mr Ruairi O’Neill, a Belfast-born lecturer in English and European Law at the University of Warsaw, agreed huge consequences loom if the ECJ declares Polish judges are no longer capable of exercising independent judgment.
“The European Commission will have the power, even the obligation, to freeze the transfer of EU funds to Poland if the Court declares that there is no independent dispute resolution mechanism in Poland to ensure compliance with EU funding rules,” he said.
Such a ruling would end the principle of mutual trust between Polish courts and those in the rest of the EU.
“That means all EU mutual recognition provisions — ranging from debt enforcement to cross-border issues on child custody and maintenance — can be suspended,” he said, “until the court reforms in Poland are reversed, and the EU institutions are satisfied that judicial independence has been restored.”
Leading ex-constitutional justices in Poland have applauded the Irish decision,with one telling The Irish Times: “We should send a letter of thanks to Justice Donnelly.”
The Irish Times contacted the judge, the Courts Service and the Association of Judges for comment. None was forthcoming.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Stephen K. Bannon Declares Marine Le Pen Leader of Europe’s Populist Movement
Former senior advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump and former executive chairman of Breitbart News Stephen K. Bannon declared French populist leader Marine Le Pen the leader of Europe’s populist movement.
Mr. Bannon added he expected that if Ms. Le Pen runs for the French presidency in 2022, she has a very good chance of winning France’s highest political office, L’Express reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: TV Show Describes Youths Who Gang Raped Woman for 10 Hours as “Victims”
A Swedish television show reacted to the brutal 10 hour gang rape of a woman by a group of youths in Malmö by repeatedly referring to the perpetrators as “victims”.
A woman in the Malmö district of Lindängen was drugged and viciously abused during an incident last month by a group of boys aged 13-16.
National broadcaster SVT responded by portraying the rapists in a sympathetic light.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Army Greenlights Islamic Headscarf for Female Soldiers
The Islamic headscarf is compatible with the Swiss army dress code, Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin has told local media, confirming reports that a hijab-wearing Muslim is enrolled in Switzerland’s school of recruits for the first time.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Telford Rape Scandal Isn’t Unique: Grooming Gangs Are a UK Epidemic
The news from Telford, UK, that up to 1,000 young girls have been abused, murdered, trafficked, and raped over a period of decades, is just one example of how politicians and authority figures in Britain are not willing to protect our children.
Whether it’s fear of being called racist, or politicians just not wanting to do what’s politically inconvenient, our leaders appear perfectly willing to pretend that our children are not being gang raped.
But they are — and we know who the perpetrators are.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Is it possible that mainstream politicians and the mainstream media are finally recognising what the European public can see with their own eyes? Two recent occurrences suggest that this might be so.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BBC and Police Play Down Telford Child Rape Scandal, Slam ‘Unhelpful Headlines’
After being accused of “ignoring” the Telford grooming gang scandal, the BBC has now run a headline on the recent revelations, claiming “victim numbers sensationalised”.
In their report, the BBC also sought to question the claims of local Tory MP Lucy Allan that victims were mainly white, working-class girls and the officer they quoted suggested white people were equally guilty of child sex crimes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A group of Members of Parliament and other parliamentary staff cost taxpayers £84,000 for a trip to the United States to investigate the phenomenon of fake news, spending a remarkable 11,506,749 per-cent more on the jolly than the total spent by the alleged Kremlin “troll farm” on Facebook adverts during the Brexit referendum campaign.
Led by MP Damian Collins, members of the Parliamentary Digital Select Committee including ten further members of parliament, the committee clerk, a senior committee specialist, and a media officer flew to the United States in February, costing the taxpayer a whopping £84,000.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Hide Emergency Trauma Kits Around City of London for Terror Attacks
Police have stashed 100 ‘emergency trauma’ kits across the City of London to treat casualties in terror attacks. Sixty officers will be trained to use the packs, which are filled with specialist medical equipment and are hidden in various spots — to be used only in major incidents.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tommy Robinson ‘Forced by Police to Leave Speakers’ Corner Ahead of Free Speech Talk’
People in Britain are now living in a “post-freedom of speech era”, anti-Islamisation activist Tommy Robinson has said, in a video alleging police forced him to leave Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park.
“I’m trying to talk about freedom of speech being under attack, and as I’m trying to talk about freedom of speech these guys have turned up,” he says in the video, turning the camera to reveal a parked police car.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Former New Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw has said grooming gangs are a “cultural problem” and some Pakistani-heritage men view young white girls as “easy meat”, whilst insisting that Islam is not a factor.
Mr. Straw was Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001 — a time of activity for many of the grooming gangs so far discovered — overseeing an unprecedented increase in mass immigration and a continued shift towards politically correct culture within government.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Russia’s ‘Night Wolves’ Banned From Entering Country
For security reasons and to avoid possible provocation
SARAJEVO — Aleksandar Zaldostanov, leader of the ‘Night Wolves’, a Russian motorcycle group close to President Vladimir Putin, was banned from entering Bosnia for security reasons, the usually well-informed news site Zurnal.ba reported on Thursday. According to the website, Serbian citizen Sasa Savic, who is believed to be the Night Wolves’ leader in the Balkans, was also refused entry.
Zaldostanov, known as the surgeon, whose name is included in a US ‘black list’ due to his connections and activity with pro-Russian Ukraine separatists, should lead a group of a few dozen Russian bikers on a nine-day tour called ‘Russian Balkans’.
The tour is scheduled to start on March 19 in Serbia, then Bosnia through Bijeljina, Brcko, Doboj, Banja Luka, the main city of the Republika Srpska (Rs, the Serbian-majority entity in Bosnia).
In Banja Luka, Rs president, Milorad Dodik, together the energy minister, Petar Djokic, considered the leader of the Wolves in Bosnia, was meant to hand to Zaldostanov a high honor of Rs for the “promotion of Orthodoxy”.
Bosnia’s security minister, Dragan Mektic, has said that the current government of Rs means to use the Night Wolves to intimidate political rivals in elections to be held in October in Bosnia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Is the US Planning a New Operation for Turkey?
When U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson was suddenly dismissed from office one morning with a seven-line tweet, the term “Tillersoned” was coined in social media — meaning, “The one who was left without notice.”
The gossip aside, we cannot disregard that the matter is too serious to joke about.
Mike Pompeo, who replaced Tillerson, being someone who has astonishing views, and the “torturous” identity of Gina Haspel, who replaced him as the head of CIA, reveals the gravity of it all…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Guterres Says UNWRA Crisis Unprecedented, $446 Mn Deficit
UN secretary calls on donors for Palestinian refugees
ROME — UNWRA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, needs “446 million dollars for 2018” in an unprecedented financial crisis in its history, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres denounced on Thursday. Primary services like education, healthcare and food could be reduced or even cut off completely for about 1.7 million Palestinian refugees, he said, opening an UNRWA donors’ conference in Rome at FAO.
“Today I ask you to bridge the agency’s shortfall for 2018 with predictable, sustained and additional funding. I also appeal to you to increase support in the years ahead to ensure schooling, health care and food assistance”, he said. “Such spending is an investment with wide-ranging dividends — in the human development of the Palestinian people, in stability today and in a peaceful future in and beyond Palestine. It can also address some of the despair and other factors that lead to radicalization”.
“I appeal to all donors — each government and organization in this room today — to step forward and give UNRWA what you can. Truly, what you can. “If each of you does that, we will be able to address UNRWA’s shortfall. More importantly, we will send a strong message to Palestine refugees that we are committed to their rights, their well-being, and meeting their daily needs.
To those who may question the expense, let me echo UNRWA’s fundraising campaign: Dignity is priceless. As a matter of human solidarity, and as a matter of smart steps for peace, let us give UNRWA our full and generous support”, Guterres told participants.
Over 70 delegations attended the conference. Participants included Palestinian Premier Rami Hamdallah — who escaped an attack in Gaza two days ago — the foreign minister of Italy, Angelino Alfano, Lebanon, Gebran Bassil, France, Jean-Yves Le Drian and EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini. The secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed Abul-Gheit and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation attended. For Gulf countries, the deputy foreign ministers of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were also at the conference.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Unlikely That Vladimir Putin Behind Skripal Poisoning
Attack would have been counterproductive for Russia and jeopardise future spy swaps
British prime minister Theresa May put two scenarios to parliament on Monday. The attack on former British-Russian spy Sergei Skripal may have been planned directly by the Kremlin or that through lax scrutiny Russia allowed the nerve agent to fall into the wrong hands. The situation is more complicated than that.
The nerve agent called Novichok is a very deadly substance, eight times more powerful than its western equivalent known as VX. There are also indications that it could have been smuggled out of the former Soviet Union as far back as 1993.
In September of 1993 as The Irish Times Moscow correspondent I obtained a list of chemical and biological weapons, including Novichok, that were being produced by Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union. I brought these documents to the recognised expert at the time Dr Thomas Stock of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Colombia Blocks ISIS Linked Plot to Kill US Diplomats
Police hauled a handcuffed Cuban man into court in Colombia’s capital Thursday for allegedly plotting to kill U.S. diplomats in the name of the Islamic State extremist group.
A judge ordered the suspect, Raul Gutierrez, held without bail on terrorism and conspiracy charges. He was arrested earlier in the week in the western city of Pereira in a coordinated investigation involving police in Spain and the FBI, officials said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Anger After Croatia Leader Praises Argentine Immigrants
ZAGREB (AFP) — The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center on Wednesday condemned the Croatian president for praising the country’s immigrants to Argentina and warned they included many officials of its World War II pro-Nazi regime.
Visiting Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said earlier this week in Buenos Aires that “after WWII many Croatians sought and found indeed in Argentina the space of freedom where they were able to prove their patriotism”.
But her remarks were strongly criticised by the Nazi hunters who warned that Croatian immigrants to Argentina included a number of the country’s WWII Ustasha regime officials…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Official to Consider Fast-Track Immigration Process for White South Africans
Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton has reportedly asked his department to explore an expedited escape path for white South African farmers in response to rising violence against them and new legislation aiming to confiscate their land.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Threatens to Punish Non-Member States Who Refuse to Take Deported Migrants
The European Union has threatened countries with limiting the issue of work and travel visas if they refuse to take back failed asylum seekers and illegal migrants.
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it would be looking to enact tougher measures on countries which do not cooperate with the deportation procedures, Reuters reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Hand Turkey Billions More to Extend Migrant Deal
The unelected European Commission is set to approve an additional three billion euros in funding for Turkey, the second part of a deal whereby they make efforts to stem the flow of migrants from the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Sentences Syrian Migrant to Seven Years for Border Riot
BUDAPEST/SZEGED (Reuters) — A Hungarian court sentenced a Syrian-Cypriot man to seven years in prison for illegally crossing the border and for being an accomplice in “an act of terror” during clashes with police in September 2015, state news agency MTI reported on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
NGO Ship Saves 117 Migrants, ‘Chased by Libyans’
‘Confused’ messages from Italy coast guard
(ANSA) — Rome, March 15 — A ship run by a Spanish NGO saved 117 migrants in the Mediterranean even though it was allegedly pursued by an armed Libyan patrol boat on Thursday, the NGO said. Proactiva Open Arms said it had intervened to save the migrants, who had ended up in the seas, despite the pursuit and also the fact that the Italian Coast Guard had allegedly provided “confused” messages via radio.
Proactiva photographed the rescue operation and stressed that the shipwrecked migrants had been at risk of drowning.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Jihad in Asylum-Seekers’ Clothing
The case of Mourad T. highlights a crucial concern: the ability of jihadists to pose as refugees, operating freely around Europe to bring about its downfall.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Third German Teen Girl Murdered by an Afghan Migrant: She Refused to Convert to Islam
Another migrant murder has rocked Germany. After the murder of Maria Ladenburger, and Mia Valentin, a third teen girl has now been murdered. Her name is Mireille. Similarities? All perpetrators were Afghan migrants.
The 18-year-old Mireille B. was stabbed to death by her Afghan boyfriend Ahmad in the city of Flensburg on Monday, German newspaper Bild reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Afghan Migrant Storms Toward Merkel, Has ‘Psychological Problems’
BERLIN (AP) — Police say a man from Afghanistan who tried to reach German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she exited Parliament has been committed to a psychiatric clinic.
German TV stations showed the man shouting unintelligibly while being tackled by plainclothes police as Merkel walked out of the Bundestag following her election for a fourth term Wednesday. The man was tackled to the ground about 20 feet (6 meters) away from Merkel as she got into her car.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
It will be a “Hate crime” soon to refuse to “Revert”. The British Police are drooling in anticipation. I do wonder if the British Army will open fire on the Public if the riots start- and they will if they keep supporting the Islamic takeover of UK. I still cannot comprehend why any sane politician would want an Islamic UK? Yet they do desire it.
I do not think it is “fear” of Islamic takeover or Moslem violence as the Jihadis are let back in. I think and increasingly believe that the UK Govt, want an Islamic UK at any cost. I have always said this and I reckon by 2023, UK will declare sharia state.
Most people-especially the well of Metrosexuals will simply “revert” to the new state theology of Islam. This rot and plan was started by the Foreign Office back in the 1920’s. The FO was rotten with Moslem -Arab empathisers and still is. The future of UK is Islam ad this has elite support. The FO funded and trained the Founder of Moslem Brotherhood Hassan-al-Banna in 1928. Those plans have now matured to fruition. Look around you, if you fail to see this.
Read the history England. Protestantism was the old preferred state faith. Then it was Marxism. That failed so now it is Islam. The lesson to learn herein, is that Britain absorbs ideologies. Islam the simply the latest preferred official faith. Like Catholicism,
Protestantism it will fade into our background like all the rest. Charles will be an Emir and client King of Saudi Arabia.
One can only hope our national cultural history that forms our character will assuage some of the more extreme penalties of sharia law. UK is well on its way to joining Dar- al-slam. This is why the Saudis are being courted by PM Sharia May. The “elite” sold out decades ago. Should be obvious to any body with a better understanding of the British State. The elite want an Islamic UK.
Let me quote one of my earlier comment in this topic to answer for your question: why would UK government support islam?
“The Globalists want to keep Islam for sure. If you think about it, it is the perfect control for the masses. While Christianity lost its teeth as societal control (it was not as aggressive to begin with as Islam), the cult of Islam stayed unchanged and their members just as happily beating to pulp anybody from their own group, who accidentally born with more brains than them… for 1400 years, without any change. For the Globalists this is an extra advantage, they will not need to keep an expensive and dangerous army or police force. (dangerous because they can bite their master’s hand and took over). Islam is cheap, reliable for the new “consumer” society. The technology will be maintained by the new progressive leftist cast… Purple-haired, safe-space loving, multi-gendered wussy transvestites will be kept in line with some muslim muscle, while muslims will be held back with remote controlled drones and other advanced weaponry. Dissenters from either group will be at the mercy of the others, with no possibility to mount any cooperation across the society. This will be the “bright new world” in the style of the Hunger Games and Elysium.”
Also another commenter from a different site answers similarly:
“The globalists LOVE Islam. It’s everything they could possibly want in a false religion. They love its brutality, the way it viciously polices its own and crushes dissent from within. They love its dehumanization, how it turns its followers into little more than human ammunition, eager to be spent in the slaughter of infidels. They love its crushing of spirit, how it keeps entire populations ignorant of history and science while living in destitute poverty, convincing them that fighting the infidels is more important than civilian infrastructure. They love its real rape culture, the way it reduces women and girls to mere livestock, to be raped or beaten or killed or sold on a whim. But most of all, they love its system of unquestioning loyalty, how its followers wouldn’t dare think twice if their imams told them to butcher that person or blow up that kindergarten or beat their own daughter to death. This is why the demonic death cult of Islam has been chosen by the globalists as the official false religion of their new world order.” – cyberjacques
I think the more important question to ask about that bridge, if gender and racial equality was maintained in the project? If the answer is yes, then I probably have a very good idea about the quality of the final product… By the way, I am so sorry and condolences to the victims families!
“Lord Pearson in Parliament “Can we talk about Islam?”” interviewed by Tommy Robinson. 25m :38 secs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=479&v=5bjks3fmajM
Lord Pearson is a life peer who has stood up many times in the House of Lords to question the government on its policies and attitudes towards Islam.
This week he stood up to ask the government about their inaction on Muslim grooming gangs and to ask “can we talk about Islam in the UK?” The reaction from other Lords was to sneer and jeer at him and to refuse to even look at how the Quran may be linked to the crimes prevalent within the Islamic community.
So I decided to sit down with Lord Pearson to find out what it’s like to be a lone voice within Parliament and what needs to be done to stop the UK from heading down the dangerous
From 22.30 interesting points being made about UK’s blasphemy laws plus hate crimes and the legality of it all, and people taking offense, that activates those laws.
Worth while listening to the whole interview, to glean the politics of what is happening and what may change in the UK.
Could UKIP with Gerald Batten be able to achieve the balance of power?
—————
“Meeting Sargon of Akkad for the first time”. interviewed by Tommy Robinson. 40m 12 secs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zumq1U7NprU
33 minutes on, taking back liberal, from socialist, and comparison of where the progressive, tolerance, is used, and the consequence of liberalism is tolerance. and the purpose of how it is used in their power structure, and the different goals. Oppressed, oppressive, tenets in common but different goals.
Worth listening to it all.
Touched on is Jacob William Rees-Mogg may also be a key in changing things.
It is possible that if Theresa May slips a bit, it is possible that he could be come the leader of the conservative party?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Rees-Mogg.
All the best Britain, get in behind and support what may change things.
In particular to safe guard free speech.
Good news from Oz then!
I’m surprised that the UKistan and Francistan haven’t already threatened to nuke Oz for even considering offering expedited visas to oppressed Afrikaaners.