Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/10/2018

Mikael Jansson, the former leader of the Sweden Democrats, has defected to the new rival party, Alternative for Sweden. The news comes as the Sweden Democrats surge in the polls, anticipating at least 20% of the vote in September’s elections.

In other news, the Italian government has announced a crackdown on the networks of human traffickers that bring migrants from Tunisia to Sicily on “de luxe” high-speed rubber dinghies.

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

Thanks to Charles Low, Fjordman, Insubria, 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
» Chinese Investment in the US Falls Sharply in 2017
» Unbridled Capitalism Widened Rich-Poor Gap — Pope
 
USA
» Anti-Gun Hysteria Drives Rise in Gun Sales, Concealed-Carry Permits
» China’s Xi Promises to Cut Auto Import Tariff, Warns Against ‘Cold War’ Mentality
» Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Testifies Before Senate Committee
» In Fighting Homeless Camp, Irvine’s Asians Win, But at a Cost
» Memo to Trump, Sessions: Start Prosecuting the Activist Networks — and Their Billionaire Funders
» Sen. Paul: FBI Raid on Trump’s Attorney Was ‘Great Overstep’ By Mueller
 
Canada
» YouTube Suspends Canadian Anti-Terror Expert… Before First Video Even Posted
 
Europe and the EU
» EU’s Threat to Hungary After Resounding Election Victory, Claims Bloc Will Prevent ‘Dictatorships’
» Far-Right Defections Could Help Soften Swedish Nationalists’ Image
» Former Sweden Democrats Head Defects to Rival Party
» Fox UK London Headquarters Raided by European Union Commission Investigators
» Half of French Want Tougher Prison Conditions, Attitudes Hardening
» Hillary Clinton Meddles in Brexit Again, Claims Leaving EU Will Lead to Violence
» Italy: Doc ‘Lied About Infection’ To Justify Private Op
» More Than Half Your Body is Not Human
» More Suspects of Violence Against Dutch Emergency Workers
» Norway Defies EU and Backs Tariff-Free Trade With UK After Brexit
» Poland Honours Victims of 2010 Presidential Air Crash
» Radicalised Islamists Pose-Long Term EU Threat
» Spanish Police Arrest 7 in Connection With Catalan Secession
» Sweden’s Crime Wave Cities Have Left Rural Areas Without Police Officers, Complain Locals
» Sweden: Police Detonate Suspected Bomb Found Under Gothenburg Apartments
» Sweden: Stockholm Sniffer Dog Uncovers Gun ‘Suited for War’ In Drug and Weapons Haul
» Ten ISIS Fanatics Who Planned to Film a Beheading and Attack Police, Banks and Jewish People in Barcelona Are Jailed
» Ten Sentenced to Jail for Planned Barcelona Attacks
» UK: Ancient Sea Reptile Was One of the Largest Animals Ever
» UK: London Mayor Sadiq Khan Targets Knives as Murder Rate Spikes: ‘There is Never a Reason to Carry a Knife’
» UK: London Mayor Sadiq Khan May be Reconsidering “Stop and Search” Ban
» UK: Museum of Brexit, ‘Centre of European Disintegration Studies’ To Launch, Collecting Artefacts
» Wilders Wants Dutch With Dual Nationality to Lose Voting Right
 
Middle East
» “Imminent Announcement” of US Action in Syria Coming Amid Expectations of Air Strikes “Within Hours”
» Assad Had No Reason to Launch Chem Attack, Unlike Those Who Want US Involvement — Ron Paul
» Saudi Arabia Threaten to Cut Off Qatar With Border Moat as Middle East Tensions Rise
» Trump’s Options in Syria Include Airstrikes, Partnerships, Experts Say
» World War Syria With Syrian Girl
 
Russia
» Russia Faces ‘100 Years of Solitude’ (or More), Putin Aide Says
» World Cup Terror Warning: Russia Told ‘You Will Pay’ In Chilling Threat
 
South Asia
» Indonesian Bootleg Alcohol Poisons Dozens in Weeks
 
Far East
» Missile Could Hit Sydney in Just 12 Minutes if China Pushes Ahead With Plan to Build a Military Base and Put Warships on Australia’s Doorstep
» US Carrier Sails in Disputed Sea as China Shows Own Force
» US-China Trade: Xi Warns Against ‘Cold War Mentality’
 
Australia — Pacific
» ‘Halal Certification is a Racket and a Scam’: Fresh Calls to Scrap Islamic Food Branding as Senator Slams the ‘Cockroaches’ Running the Industry
 
Immigration
» ‘Asylum Shopping’: 8,000 Refugees Already in EU Made Second Asylum Applications in Germany
» Australia: Revealed: How Peter Dutton Tabled Slashing Immigration by 20,000 Last Year — But Was Shut Down by Malcolm Turnbull and Other Senior Party Members
» France: Two Teen Asylum Seekers Stabbed in Latest Inter-Ethnic Brawl
» Italian Police Bust Tunisian Human-Trafficking Ring
» Italy: ‘De Luxe’ Migrant Trips on Speed Boats From Tunisia
» Jihad Expert: Stop Accepting Refugees — Europe is Importing a Civil War
» Netherlands: Failed Asylum Seekers Try to Take Over More Amsterdam Buildings
» Pope Francis Insists Immigration is Not a ‘Secondary Issue’ For Christians
» Three Southwestern Governors Sending Guard Troops to Mexican Border
» Walls Have Defended Civilisations for Millennia. Europe Has Forgotten That
 
Culture Wars
» Brooklyn Museum Defends Its Hiring of a White Curator of African Art
 

Chinese Investment in the US Falls Sharply in 2017

Chinese investment in the US plunged last year as tensions between the two countries mounted.

The value of deals announced in 2017 fell by more than 90% from the year before, according to joint studies by the National Committee on US-China Relations and the Rhodium Group.

The reports said policy shifts in both countries triggered the decline.

China has curbed outbound investments, while the US is raising concerns about deals for national security reasons.

“This altered policy environment has already changed patterns of two-way [foreign direct investment] and will continue to reshape investment levels and composition in the future,” the authors of the reports say.

Chinese firms completed $29bn (£20.5bn) worth of investments in the US last year, down 35% from the record $46bn completed in 2016, the report found.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Unbridled Capitalism Widened Rich-Poor Gap — Pope

Has created precariousness, slavery Francis says in new book

(ANSA) — Rome, April 10 — The unbridled capitalism of the last few decades has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, “generating new precariousness and slavery,” Pope Francis says in the preface to a book, Power and Money, collecting his writings on the economy. The pope stresses “the paradox of a globalised economy” which “concentrates in the hands of very few people the same wealth that is owned by around half the world population”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Anti-Gun Hysteria Drives Rise in Gun Sales, Concealed-Carry Permits

The Left’s push against the Second Amendment is having the opposite effect, as more Americans are signing up for training to carry concealed weapons and gun sales in general are on the rise. There has been a significant surge in sales following the Parkland school shooting in Florida, despite the Left’s and media’s calls for more gun control, the Washington Times reports.

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

China’s Xi Promises to Cut Auto Import Tariff, Warns Against ‘Cold War’ Mentality

China’s President Xi Jinping appeared to strike a conciliatory tone during a speech Tuesday where he promised to cut China’s auto import tariffs and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in its auto industry as tensions play out with Washington over tariffs.

Xi made no direct mention of the dispute with President Donald Trump but pledged to open China’s markets further and improve conditions for foreign companies. He warned against having a “Cold War” mentality, which he called outdated.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Testifies Before Senate Committee

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce Committees Tuesday to discuss the social media platform’s policy on user privacy amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Cambridge Analytica is a political consulting firm that worked on then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The firm received a $15 million investment from Robert Mercer, a billionaire Republican donor, to influence voters, The New York Times reported.

The firm allegedly used a personality quiz to gather data from users and their friends, including details they had not intended to share. They are also accused of using private information from at least 50 million Facebook users’ profiles to influence elections. The committee will ask Zuckerberg about the scandal — the worst in Facebook’s history — and how the company failed to guard against other abuses of its service.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

In Fighting Homeless Camp, Irvine’s Asians Win, But at a Cost

One by one, the buses pulled up to the Orange County Hall of Administration last week carrying posters with messages such as “No Tent City” and “No Homeless in Irvine.”

Many of the loudest voices in the movement to block the shelter plan were Chinese Americans who came together through social media apps and various community groups. They were joined by immigrants from South Korea, India, Mexico and the Middle East, along with some whites.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Memo to Trump, Sessions: Start Prosecuting the Activist Networks — and Their Billionaire Funders

President Trump can use existing law to prosecute organizers (and funders) of the Marxist “People’s Tribunals” being led by the Mexico caravan organizers and their “comrades” in the “open borders” and “sanctuary cities” networks who are already here.

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

Sen. Paul: FBI Raid on Trump’s Attorney Was ‘Great Overstep’ By Mueller

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) questioned why the FBI raided the office of President Trump’s attorney on Monday, saying that the action was a “great overstep” in Robert Mueller’s original Russia investigation.

Michael Cohen’s home and hotel room were also searched. The action was based in part on a referral from the special counsel, according to Cohen’s lawyer.

The New York Times reported that some of the documents were related to communications between Cohen and the president, as well as Stormy Daniels.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

YouTube Suspends Canadian Anti-Terror Expert… Before First Video Even Posted

Canadian intelligence expert Tom Quiggin has quite the resume. He’s worked with the RCMP, Canadian Armed Forces, the UN Protection Force in Yugoslavia, to name but a few. He’s testified before the Senate and at the Air India Inquiry. He was even an arms control inspector in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

EU’s Threat to Hungary After Resounding Election Victory, Claims Bloc Will Prevent ‘Dictatorships’

Comparing the newly re-elected government of Hungary to Cold War Communist states, EU Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans has made a thinly veiled threat towards Victor Orban’s new government, warning Europe must not allow nations in the bloc to slide into “dictatorship”.

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

Far-Right Defections Could Help Soften Swedish Nationalists’ Image

The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats is being hit by a wave of defections from its more extreme members, opening up a way in from the cold for a party long shunned by the establishment because of its neo-Nazi roots.

SD is poised to become a kingmaker in September’s election, potentially winning close to 20 percent amid a wave of dissatisfaction against immigration after Sweden became a haven for refugees during the 2015 migrant crisis.

The party has been working to shed its most extreme members and soften its language since winning 13 percent in 2014. A new party, Alternative for Sweden, has now been formed by some of those who were excluded, which could further polish its image, according to Ann-Catherine Jungar, an associate professor at Sodertorn University, who specializes on the far-right in the Nordic countries.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Former Sweden Democrats Head Defects to Rival Party

The former leader of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats has defected to its upstart rival Alternativ för Sverige (Alternative for Sweden), the third sitting Swedish MP to make the move.

Mikael Jansson led the populist party for a decade until he was replaced by the then 25-year-old Jimmie Åkesson in 2005. He said he hoped to lead the push to get the new party over Sweden’s four percent parliamentary threshold in September’s election.

Alternativ för Sverige was launched at the start of last month by Gustav Kasselstrand, once chairman of the Sweden Democrats’ former youth wing Sweden Democratic Youth (SDU).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fox UK London Headquarters Raided by European Union Commission Investigators

Investigators from the European Union Commission have raided the offices of billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox UK offices and have seized computers and other documents.

The exact nature of the investigation is currently unknown, as is the reason behind the raid, which took place on Tuesday evening in the Hammersmith offices of 21st Century Fox the Telegraph reports.

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

Half of French Want Tougher Prison Conditions, Attitudes Hardening

Fifty per cent of French citizens say they want prisons to be tougher on inmates as polling trends continue to show a surge in favour of traditionally conservative policies, just days after a separate poll showed 88 per cent supported banning radical Islam.

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

Hillary Clinton Meddles in Brexit Again, Claims Leaving EU Will Lead to Violence

Failed U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has again intervened in the Brexit process, praising the European Union (EU) and claiming the peace in Northern Ireland is jeopardized by the UK’s divorce from the bloc.

Clinton, who made her opposition to Brexit known during her presidential campaign, claimed that border checks in Ireland would be an “enormous setback” — implicitly backing the UK staying tied to many of bloc’s rules inside the Single Market and Customs Union.

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

Italy: Doc ‘Lied About Infection’ To Justify Private Op

Surgeon described as ‘true criminal’

(ANSA) — Milan, April 10 — Giorgio Maria Calori, a CTO-Pini hospital surgeon arrested over a kickbacks probe on Tuesday, allegedly lied about a non-existent infection that would lead to “the amputation of a foot” to convince a patient of the need to have an operation at a private Milan clinic. Another doctor who was arrested in relation to the case, Carmine Cucciniello, said this in a wiretapped conversation, according to evidence registered with the court, calling Calori a “true criminal”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

More Than Half Your Body is Not Human

More than half of your body is not human, say scientists.

Human cells make up only 43% of the body’s total cell count. The rest are microscopic colonists.

Understanding this hidden half of ourselves — our microbiome — is rapidly transforming understanding of diseases from allergy to Parkinson’s.

The field is even asking questions of what it means to be “human” and is leading to new innovative treatments as a result.

“They are essential to your health,” says Prof Ruth Ley, the director of the department of microbiome science at the Max Planck Institute, “your body isn’t just you”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

More Suspects of Violence Against Dutch Emergency Workers

The number of people suspected of violence against people with a public duty, like police officers, firefighters and paramedics, increased by nearly 20 percent last year. In 2017 a total of 8,964 people were suspected of verbally or physically attacking an emergency worker, compared to 7,502 the year before, NOS reports.

59 percent of last year’s cases involved verbal aggression, such as insults or threats. 35 percent involved physical violence, such as assault or public violence. Only 3 percent involved a serious crime like aggravated assault, murder or manslaughter, or attempts thereto. The rest involved many different crimes that rarely occur, like deliberately filing false charges, according to the broadcaster.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway Defies EU and Backs Tariff-Free Trade With UK After Brexit

Norway’s government has signalled its support for the UK being handed access to European Union markets after Brexit, which it is likely to agree to.

There are numerous non-EU nations with tariff-free access to the bloc’s Single Market, each of which will have a say in agreeing to the UK’s future post-Brexit trade deal.

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

Poland Honours Victims of 2010 Presidential Air Crash

Poland’s top officials on Tuesday took part in commemorations marking eight years since a fatal presidential plane crash in western Russia, a disaster that scarred the national psyche and which continues to trigger bitter debate.

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

Radicalised Islamists Pose-Long Term EU Threat

Europe’s estimated 60,000 radicalised Islamic militants, of which around 20,000 are found in France alone, will remain a threat for years to come, according to an expert.

“That is no doubt the main thing which is going to be of a direct concern for years going forward,” Jean-Charles Brisard of the Paris-based Centre for the Analysis of Terrorism, told MEPs on Monday (9 April).

Brisard said that while the Islamic State (IS) group may have lost territory in Iraq and Syria, its operational capacity to carry out attacks had not diminished and “remains very much a force to be reckoned with.”

He noted that the group has since morphed into a global terrorist network, making the threat more elusive and difficult to tackle.

“Reducing the territory of the Islamic State and thinking that this would cause the threat to simply disappear was misguided,” he said.

The group is now implanted in places like Afghanistan, Libya, Philippines, and Yemen.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spanish Police Arrest 7 in Connection With Catalan Secession

MADRID — Spanish authorities on Tuesday detained seven people in Catalonia as part of a crackdown on disturbances associated with the region’s attempts to secede from Spain, saying one of those arrested is suspected of terrorism.

The Guardia Civil said it arrested a woman believed to be a leader of Catalonia’s so-called Committees for the Defense of the Republic — a grassroots group that organizes protests. Those groups have been behind the blocking of road and train lines in Catalonia to press their demand for independence.

Read more here: #storylink=cpy

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

Sweden’s Crime Wave Cities Have Left Rural Areas Without Police Officers, Complain Locals

Swedish politicians in the northeastern area of Skåne county have complained there are no police in their area as available officers are sent to the heavily migrant-populated city of Malmö to help deal with serious crimes.

Lars Johnsson of the Moderate Party sits on the local council for the municipality of Hässleholm and has expressed concern over the lack of police in the city centre which is becoming rife with problems, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Police Detonate Suspected Bomb Found Under Gothenburg Apartments

An apartment building in Gothenburg was evacuated by police on Tuesday morning after a suspected bomb was found in a crawl space underneath it.

Builders working at the site in the southern suburb of Frölunda found the suspicious object at 10am and immediately informed the police, after which officers evacuated all those who were still at home out of the 65 people registered as living in the building.

“We suspect it is a home-made bomb, and that it might be quite powerful,” Thomas Fuxborg, spokesman for the police in western Sweden told the Göteborgs Posten newspaper.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Stockholm Sniffer Dog Uncovers Gun ‘Suited for War’ In Drug and Weapons Haul

A man has been arrested in Stockholm after a police sniffer dog uncovered a large amount of drugs and weapons including explosives stored in a parked car.

The dog signalled the alert as police were searching a garage in the southern suburb of Skärholmen on April 8th, and after examining the vehicle, officers broke in.

“An automatic weapon suited for use in a war was found in the car,” Jonas Lindberg, from the Stockholm police serious crimes division said in a statement.

“We also found explosives, hunting rifles, pistols, ammunition and several kilograms of narcotics of various kinds.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ten ISIS Fanatics Who Planned to Film a Beheading and Attack Police, Banks and Jewish People in Barcelona Are Jailed

Ten members of an ISIS-linked cell who planned to launch terror attacks in Barcelona have been jailed in Spain’s National Court today.

Five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian, calling themselves the ‘Islamic Fraternity, Group for preaching jihad’ were handed between eight and 12 years in jail.

The group, based in Terrassa, near Barcelona, had planned attacks against ‘police, banks or Jewish institutions’ and also expressed desires to join ISIS and film a jihadist execution video.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ten Sentenced to Jail for Planned Barcelona Attacks

Ten members of a jihadist cell linked to the Islamic State group (IS) who planned attacks in Barcelona and to film a decapitation were sentenced to 8-12 years in jail on Tuesday.

The defendants included five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian, the National Court, which handles terror cases, said in a ruling.

They were “ready to wage an attack against institutions such as the police, banks or Jewish institutions in Spain at any time, or to join the ranks of Daesh,” it added, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The cell was based in Terrassa, not far from Barcelona, the Catalonian capital.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ancient Sea Reptile Was One of the Largest Animals Ever

Sea reptiles the size of whales swam off the English coast while dinosaurs walked the land, according to a new fossil discovery.

The jaw bone, found on a Somerset beach, is giving clues to the “last of the giants” that roamed the oceans 205 million years ago.

The one-metre-long bone came from the mouth of a huge predatory ichthyosaur.

The creature would have been one of the largest ever known, behind only blue whales and dinosaurs, say scientists.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: London Mayor Sadiq Khan Targets Knives as Murder Rate Spikes: ‘There is Never a Reason to Carry a Knife’

London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a tough crackdown on knives Sunday as the city reels from a spike in stabbings that have led its number of homicides to top New York City’s for two straight months.

He tweeted: “No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife. Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law.”

The tweet also included an action plan to boost police power and prevent future violence.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: London Mayor Sadiq Khan May be Reconsidering “Stop and Search” Ban

Mayor Sadiq Khan is calling for the use of “stop and search” by police in London, following a huge spike in knife crime.

But all is not as it seems.

Khan had been against stop and search, but now he’s calling for a “targeted” version. This modified tactic simply means that police will be allowed to stop someone only if they have prior intelligence — which is just normal policing!

Stop and search works. It’s been proven in the States. And if Sadiq is serious about tackling crime, he should really u-turn on this policy.

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

UK: Museum of Brexit, ‘Centre of European Disintegration Studies’ To Launch, Collecting Artefacts

Academics and campaigners are working to establish a Museum of Sovereignty — or a Brexit Museum — to facilitate future understanding and academic research of why Britain decided to pursue her own destiny in 2016, and is seeking to collect items for an archive.

Among objects being collected for the Brexit Museum are photographs, draft speeches, placards, badges, posters, diaries, and pamphlets from both sides of the debate on Britain’s membership of the European Union over the past 40 years.

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

Wilders Wants Dutch With Dual Nationality to Lose Voting Right

Dutch citizens with dual nationality must lose their voting rights and must not be eligible for political positions in the Netherlands, according to PVV leader Geert Wilders. This is in the interests of “the Netherlands’ survival”, he said in an interview with the Telegraaf.

“The Netherlands is our country. It must be run by Dutch, who are elected by Dutch. By Dutch wo do not even have the appearance of double loyalty”, he said to the newspaper.

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

“Imminent Announcement” of US Action in Syria Coming Amid Expectations of Air Strikes “Within Hours”

Update: FoxNews just reported that an announcement on US Action in Syria is imminent.

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

Assad Had No Reason to Launch Chem Attack, Unlike Those Who Want US Involvement — Ron Paul

Washington and the US media seem to have no doubts about the Syrian government’s complicity in the Douma incident despite the fact that those who want America to stay in Syria have far more solid motives, Ron Paul told RT.

The assertion by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that Washington is “confident” that Syrian President Bashar Assad is culpable for the alleged chemical attack on the Damascus suburb of Douma does not stand up to scrutiny, Ron Paul, former congressman and founder of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, told RT.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia Threaten to Cut Off Qatar With Border Moat as Middle East Tensions Rise

SAUDI ARABIA is considering a proposal to build a 200m wide and 60km long canal along its border with Qatar, cutting off the peninsula and turning it effectively into an island in a sign of increasing tensions between the two nations, it has been reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Trump’s Options in Syria Include Airstrikes, Partnerships, Experts Say

After another suspected chemical attack in Syria, President Trump promised the U.S. would respond “forcefully” but so far has not given specifics.

“We’re making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near Damascus, and it will be met and it will be met forcefully,” Trump said as he met with top military leaders at the White House, adding that “we have a lot of options militarily.”

The president canceled a planned trip to South America this week, instead choosing to stay in the U.S. to “oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world,” according to press secretary Sarah Sanders.

The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad has denied responsibility for the alleged attack.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

World War Syria With Syrian Girl

Numerous different countries are preparing to air strike Syria.

Russia has vowed to retaliate.

World wars have started on lesser pretexts.

And all anyone is talking about is Stormy Daniels & Mueller’s investigation.

WTF is going on?

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

Russia Faces ‘100 Years of Solitude’ (or More), Putin Aide Says

A veteran adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia has abandoned its centuries-long hopes of integrating with the West and is bracing for a new era of geopolitical isolation.

In an article for Russia In Global Affairs magazine released on April 9 and titled The Solitude Of A Half-Blood, Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov wrote that “Russia’s epic journey toward the West” is over, marking an end to its “repeated fruitless attempts to become a part of Western civilization” over four centuries.

In the article, he describes Russia as a kind of “mixed breed” culture that incorporates elements of both the East and the West, like “someone born of a mixed marriage.”

“He is everyone’s relative, but nobody’s family. Treated by foreigners like one of their own, an outcast among his own people. He understands everyone and is understood by no one. A half-blood, a half-breed, a strange one,” he wrote.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

World Cup Terror Warning: Russia Told ‘You Will Pay’ In Chilling Threat

ISIS have sent a grim threat to Russia and the West ahead of the star-studded tournament, suggesting that they want to attack one of the biggest global events in our calendar.

ISIS has targeted a series of football matches and events across Europe in recent years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Indonesian Bootleg Alcohol Poisons Dozens in Weeks

At least 45 people have died and dozens more are being treated in hospitals in Indonesia after drinking illegally produced alcohol.

The death toll is likely to rise, with fatalities recorded in several provinces in recent days, police said.

Spirits bought on the black market in the Muslim-majority country can contain lethal amounts of methanol.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Missile Could Hit Sydney in Just 12 Minutes if China Pushes Ahead With Plan to Build a Military Base and Put Warships on Australia’s Doorstep

Initial talks have already begun with Vanuatu, which could see China establish a major military presence and upset the delicate strategic balance in the Pacific Ocean.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

US Carrier Sails in Disputed Sea as China Shows Own Force

A U.S. aircraft carrier is sailing through the disputed South China Sea in the latest display of America’s military might after China built a string of islands with military facilities in the strategic sea it claims almost in its entirety.

The U.S. Navy flew a small group of Philippine generals, officials and journalists on Tuesday to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, where fighter jets landed and took off by catapult with thunderous blasts.

Recent U.S. deployments of aircraft carriers, backed by destroyers, to the disputed waters for freedom of navigation challenges to Beijing’s territorial claims are reassuring allies but also sparking concerns with China’s own show of force in the busy waterway.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US-China Trade: Xi Warns Against ‘Cold War Mentality’

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned against a “Cold War mentality” as he vowed to open up parts of the country’s economy.

His speech at the Boao Forum for Asia — often referred to as Asia’s Davos — appears to be an attempt to calm a trade row with the US.

He pledged to cut import tariffs on cars and relax requirements for foreign firms investing in China.

But there were few specifics on when the changes would happen.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Halal Certification is a Racket and a Scam’: Fresh Calls to Scrap Islamic Food Branding as Senator Slams the ‘Cockroaches’ Running the Industry

Adelaide-based senator Cory Bernardi has has accused the Islamic halal certification industry, which charges food producers fees to declare their goods contain no pork or alcohol, of lacking transparency.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘Asylum Shopping’: 8,000 Refugees Already in EU Made Second Asylum Applications in Germany

More than 8,000 migrants granted refugee status in European Union member-states made a second “inadmissible” asylum application to Germany last year.

Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) confirmed that in 2017, 8,210 recognised refugees attempted to hedge their bets and made the second application — nearly tripling from 2,997 the year before, reports Die Welt.

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

Australia: Revealed: How Peter Dutton Tabled Slashing Immigration by 20,000 Last Year — But Was Shut Down by Malcolm Turnbull and Other Senior Party Members

Peter Dutton proposed reducing the cap on Australia’s annual permanent immigration from its record 190,000 to 170,000 to cabinet last year, but it didn’t get off the ground.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

France: Two Teen Asylum Seekers Stabbed in Latest Inter-Ethnic Brawl

A 17-year-old asylum seeker has been arrested in the French city of Dijon after stabbing two teen African asylum seekers in a large inter-ethnic brawl between Pakistani and African migrants.

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

Italian Police Bust Tunisian Human-Trafficking Ring

Italian police broke up a gang including suspects with jihadist sympathies who charged migrants thousands of euros to rush them in speedboats across the Mediterranean from Tunisia, officials said on Tuesday.

Officers arrested 13 Italian, Tunisian and Moroccan suspects in a dawn raid on the network accused of trafficking people and contraband cigarettes, a police spokesman told AFP.

The traffickers brought migrants from Nabeul in north-eastern Tunisia to Trapani on the west coast of Sicily, police said in a separate statement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ‘De Luxe’ Migrant Trips on Speed Boats From Tunisia

Organisation ‘included jihadis’

(ANSA) — Palermo, April 10 — Palermo prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the arrests of the members of a criminal organisation brining migrants from Tunisia to Sicily on “de luxe” voyages on high-speed dinghies, judicial sources said. The passengers were prepared to pay dear in exchange for safe journeys, the sources said.

Those who landed were able to elude police controls and identification procedures.

This service could also be used by terrorists wanting to preserve their anonymity, police said.

The organisation included jihadis among its members, police said. The suspected extremists manifested attitudes hostile to Western culture, police said, also via propaganda using fake profiles on social media platforms.

Seven members of the gang have been arrested and six are wanted, police said.

Those arrested are: Adele Micalizzi, wife of the Brancaccio boss Cosimo Geloso, who ran cigarette smuggling for the gang, Mokhtar Riani, Mohamed Zoubirim, Fouzia Ganouane, Mondher Hamrouni, Hamid Hassoune and Mehdi Ben Ayed. One of those arrested is a suspected jihadi who allegedly praised jihad on social media, police said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Jihad Expert: Stop Accepting Refugees — Europe is Importing a Civil War

Palestinian-Belgian jihad expert Montasser AlDe’emeh has issued a serious warning to Europe. In Dutch newspaper “De Telegraaf”, he states that Europe is essentially importing a civil war by admitting refugees.

AlDe’emeh believes that Europe’s politicians are naïve when it comes to mass-immigration, Islam and failed integration. He advises halting the influx of refugees, stating that Western Europe is “importing a civil war”, adding that “we first have to know what we need to do with the people who are already here”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Failed Asylum Seekers Try to Take Over More Amsterdam Buildings

We Are Here, a group of failed asylum seekers in Amsterdam, tried and failed to take over more two buildings belonging to housing corporation Ymere on Monday. These homes are located on Stephensonstraat in Amsterdam Oost, Het Parool reports.

Employees from Ymere were installing locks on the homes to prepare them for being rented when We Are Here showed up, Ymere spokesperson Coen Springelkamp said to the newspaper. The lease contract for both homes have already been signed, Springelkamp said. “The future residents are already packing their stuff.”

One of the failed asylum seekers denied this to the newspaper. According to him, members of We Are Here were already squatting in the homes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Insists Immigration is Not a ‘Secondary Issue’ For Christians

Immigration and the care of migrants should be put on the front burner and not considered a second-tier issue, Pope Francis has insisted in a new teaching letter released Monday morning in the Vatican.

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

Three Southwestern Governors Sending Guard Troops to Mexican Border

In response to a request from President Trump, the governors of three southwestern states (Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) on April 9 committed 1,600 National Guard members to help patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. The only governor of a border state to refrain from making such a pledge was also the only Democrat to head a border state, California Governor Jerry Brown. Brown has repeatedly fought with Trump over immigration policy and signed a bill into law last October 5 prohibiting state and local agencies from enforcing immigration laws or from working with immigration enforcement agencies, effectively making California a sanctuary state.

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

Walls Have Defended Civilisations for Millennia. Europe Has Forgotten That

Walls are not perfect, but they do work. Just ask the Chinese who fought off invading hordes from Mongolia, or the Romans who walled IN the “barbaric” Scots (Hadrian’s Wall), or more recently the Israelis who saw a massive reduction in Palestinian incursions once their wall was finished.

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

Brooklyn Museum Defends Its Hiring of a White Curator of African Art

A recent decision by the Brooklyn Museum to hire a white person as an African art consulting curator has prompted opposition on social media and from an anti-gentrification activist group that argues the selection perpetuated “ongoing legacies of oppression.”

In response to a letter from the group that stated its concerns, Anne Pasternak, the director of the Brooklyn Museum, said in a statement on Friday that the museum “unequivocally” stood by its selection of Kristen Windmuller-Luna for the position.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

23 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/10/2018

  1. In the Muslim segment of the Russian social network VKontakte more than a week there is a massive psychosis. They grieve over the broken school at the mosque in Afghanistan and blame it on ALL KAFIRS. Although the school was bombed by the Air Force of Afghanistan, the Russians living with them in the neighborhood are also to blame for this. The second part of the psychosis correlates with Syrian affairs.
    I do not like this rising wave. As if the army decided to rally the ranks.

    Something similar happened last year in connection with the events in Myanmar. Russian Muslims could not find this country on the world map, and then went to mass unauthorized meetings.
    Peculiar reconnaissance by battle.

    Is it interesting when the Sunni world rises against Russia?

    • yes it is! And I am looking forward to, as I expect a no-nonsense reaction from the not so gutmenshkis in Russia.

    • @Елена:
      Thank you greatly for your reports on the Russian-language events.

      What role does the Muslim leader of Muslim Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, whose soldiers are loyal Muslim fighters for the Russian govt., play?

      Do any of those who say they support him or identify as Chechens on VKontakte also grieve over the Afghan madrassa you mention and over Syria or do they fight the ISIS-line Russian Muslims on VKontakte?

      • When the Russian “Western partners” were not allowed to crush the Caucasian separatists, there was nothing else to buy loyalty Kadyrov clan.
        Kadyrov positions himself as a” traditional ” Sufi Muslim. While Moscow is flooded Chechnya with money, he performs the role of watchdog Putin. Salafis consider him a traitor and hate him. In Russia, it is not advertised that in Chechnya, along with the laws of the Russian Federation are Sharia laws. Truth, hands no one not chop down.
        The Chechen Prosecutor’s office to block the atheist and anti-Muslim sites all over Russia.
        Here is an example of a rally in support of Rohingya Muslims.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dm9TaFnZts
        The same mass rally was after the publication of cartoons Charlie Ebdo-protested against blasphemy. Yes, part of Kadyrov’s men are fighting on the side of Putin in Syria. But the same Kadyrov aircraft exports “Brides of Jihad”, along with their offspring from Syria. No one knows how this cunning Asian will behave when the balance of power changes. The topic of Chechnya and the Republic’s problems is very extensive. This small article describes the situation to some extent.
        “The balance of power in Russia: the siloviki (security official) and the Kadyrov’s associates”
        http://eurasiadiary.com/ru/news/analytical-wing/225504-balans-sil-v-rossii-siloviki-i-kadirovci#.WjeIIULDK1Y.facebook

  2. The pope stresses “the paradox of a globalised economy” which “concentrates in the hands of very few people the same wealth that is owned by around half the world population”.

    1. Capitalism cannot operate with a billion Chinese slaves undercutting wages of free people!
    2. As recently as 2008, the Western Banking Monopoly has gone bankrupt, but was bailed out by governments. Can anyone consider this ‘a capitalism’ anymore?
    3. Capitalism means equal rights to property and trade. But how can one trade when big corporations have lobbied through the EU great obstacles that make it impossible for average Joe to enter the market? Pharma forbade natural remedies, car industry forbade home made cars, milk industry has made sure you need a multi million Euro equipment just to milk a cow.

    is this ‘capitalism’?

    • Yeah, it is the same capitalism that produced the Rothschilds, JPMorgans, Rockefellers, Carnegies etc. Facebook contributes to most of the legislators questioning Zuckerberg, so he avoided being under oath and given a sit-upon. He’s sitting pretty and gained $3 billion in worth in one day for his unethical spying activities.

      The problem is that few of the anti-trust laws are enforced by corrupted political hacks. You nailed the billion slaves of communist China as the main culprit over the last generation. Worse, our politicians become rich as self-declared public servants.

      Welcome to the New World Order, as original as the Roman Empire and pagan to its very soul.

  3. “Adviser to Putin” – Vladislav Surkov.
    His real name is Aslanbek Dudayev. He is Jewish for his mother and a Chechen for his father.
    Pretenders for the role of the main “discourse monger” (brain washer)

    His opus in one of the main news media was published under the title “The Solitude of the half-breed”

    Such as he has long been irritating. Otherwise, would not appear such mocking videos
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2HaN8AglS8

  4. I read the article on the British turning to knife control with some sadness. This has been building over England and other parts of Europe for several years now. Check out how many brands of kitchen cutlery have gone to rounded tips on the knives. It is particularly saddening when I compare to my own experience and that of many of my peers of starting to learn the safe and responsible use of sharp kitchen tools shortly after we emerged from toddlerhood. For the late bloomers, there was formal instruction available around age seven when they joined the Cub Scouts. I suspect our experience is similar to that of many other societies.

    But when a people, after years of introspection and self analysis concludes that they are individually and collectively unfit for the responsibility of keeping and using basic kitchen tools, it is hard to argue with their conclusions. Such individuals and such a people need firm, detailed, and continuous supervision to avoid harming themselves and others. What is especially sad is that this introspection and self analysis were not completed several decades earlier. Then, the job of providing that supervision could have been awarded to the Germans when they applied for it in 1939, saving millions of lives and enormous amounts of treasure.

    • That is how freedom is destroyed: For their inability to deal with few violent criminals, the politicians destroy freedom to carry knives for all. It’s one twisted logic: They don’t go after criminals: They go after the freedom of the free.

      • Since we are not allowed to carry guns in the UK (separate discussion?), it should carry a mandatory prison sentence to be caught with a knife, unless a new one for the kitchen or similar.

        The sensible answer would be to legalise drugs, crippling the power of the gangs.

    • This isn’t the last restriction on the road to perdition. It’s a test to see how far government can go in limiting people’s freedoms. And without a written constitution it can go very far indeed. Government has been playing the evil witch in Britain ever since the end of WWII.

      It may be that the years from 1938 to 1945 (following as they did their father’s experience of 1914 to 1918) irreparably harmed the British psyche. The damage was immediately seen when they turned to socialism and booted Churchill. Not to mention the huge wound America inflicted by insisting they pay back war loans while letting the USSR have it all for free. Had Churchill been kept in office he might have resisted that US ignominy.

      Countries can live on half dead for a very long time. Shadowland will morph into something else. The geography doesn’t change but the soul of the people does.

      Here in America, they will have to shred the Constitution before they can bring us to our knees. Since we don’t bear the psychic wounds Brits do, it will take longer. Besides, the powers that be are facing a whole lot of Scots-Irish; they’ll have to figure out a way to emasculate them first but since the women are equally contrary that may not work.

      • In my view a written Constitution is more of a reminder than an actual defense. There’s no need for the liberty thieves to shred it if they’re allowed to just re-interpret it out of existence. Half of what the Federal government does is already beyond its enumerated powers. And apparently, by rough count, there’s at least twenty or thirty thousand ways to re-interpret “shall not be infringed”.

        Lawyers, judges and politicians have been slow walking the US citizenry into serfdom without changing a single word in the Constitution. A document won’t protect anything if the people have already lost the will and desire for the kind of government it represents.

        • I understand and know what you are saying, but Dymphna is right. The UK has a collective mindset, one that does not usually openly challenge authority except within its perimeters of order. The US has an approach that is more disconnected and independent, the person vs. the state with the constitution ALWAYS as pivot – in UK the law is the governing authority, the establishment and courts, and there is little you can do about that, with no viable accepted position to start from, if you happen to disagree. There are many good sides to British culture, but the dynamic of public recognition of individual freedom at par with any institution or its representatives is not there, it is an old system of political compromise that is now being abused of, and few have any better idea of what to do to right it.

          • I agree with you that US and UK start from a different approach. In US, as you said, it’s the individual first (backed up by the Constitution) to hold back the power of the State. This is different than most European nations that started with people as subjects of the Crown. I haven’t lived in UK but I accept your point on the collective mindset.

            However, sadly times are changing. US and UK are both evolving to a similar all powerful central government. As Dymphna says, it will take the US longer to get where UK is, but we are both headed for the same place. My only disagreement with Dymphna is that I believe the Constitution won’t be much of an impediment to slow down our travel to our common destination.

            I believe this because the citizens of the US have sacrificed so much of their Constitutional rights over the last century already. They did this because they did not understand, or did not care enough about, the rights they were losing. They will sacrifice what little remains in the exact same way.

            The Constitution did not protect them before and it won’t again because it’s just a document to remind them of what their rights are. They have take that reminder to heart and fight to keep them. Not enough cared before and not enough care now.

            In the end, US and UK governments will still retain their paperwork differences. The people may retain their cultural differences. None of that will matter. We’ll both have the same lack of freedoms. Constitutions protect nothing.

          • I believe the Constitution won’t be much of an impediment to slow down our travel to our common destination.

            It all depends. The geriatrics are holding on in the Supreme Court, but for how long? So there’s one unknown.

            In addition, a good number of Mexican immigrants are naturally conservative and that cohort is growing.

            And as I’ve said, look out for the Scots-Irish.

      • Churchill was a great defender of our country and democracy (and the wider world?) However, to many servicemen and women, and others, voting in 1945, he also represented the deferential, class-ridden Britain which people were sick of; hence his rejection at the ballot box.

  5. “The news comes as the Sweden Democrats surge in the polls, anticipating at least 20% of the vote in September’s elections.”

    Unless they get an absolute majority in their own right they’ll be stitched up by all the rest forming some “coalition” or other.

    The voting trajectory (and rate of societal change) also suggests that civil strife will intervene long before they achieve such a majority in any event.

    As long as Nuremburg Mk2 trials are held then at least some degree of “closure” can be gained.

    Some.

    What a sad bloody mess.

  6. News from the “cultural capital” of Russia.
    https://lenta.ru/news/2018/04/10/umer/
    The investigators opened a criminal case against a 20-year-old man who brutally beat 70-year-old guard of the St. Petersburg Cathedral Mosque. The victim fell into a coma and died in hospital from the injuries.

    “Fontanka” reported that the cause of the conflict between the parishioner and the guard was a theological dispute. The beating occurred directly in the mosque between the prayers.

    • What the heck are people doing hiring old, retired types as ‘security guards’? It’s nuts. This is not ‘security’.

      Give me someone who is quick, trained and ready to pull the trigger if need be.

      People need to stop putting older people in these positions.

  7. “Imminent Announcement” of US Action in Syria Coming Amid Expectations of Air Strikes “Within Hours”

    Ladies and Gentlemen … John Bolton has entered the building.

    And it’s the only way to get the Don out of his little predicament at home.

    Just stop believing in politics and politicians! We are past that!

    The War Pigs win the day again. America loses.

    • Trump’s failure to clean out the Obama and Hillary dead-enders was a terrible decision, and it the consequences are going to haunt the entire world.

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