EU leaders have given Greece until Sunday to come up with a plan for restructuring its debt. If it fails to do so, it will be forced out of the Eurozone. German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says that there will be no adjustment of Greece’s “nominal debt”; the Treaty of Lisbon forbids it.
In other news, at least 45 mujahideen for the Islamic State died after eating an Iftar dinner. It is not yet clear whether they died of food poisoning, or deliberate poisoning.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, CSP, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, K, LP, MS, RL, 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.
We’ve previously warned that elements within the U.S. government have been feverishly working to take control of all retirement assets in America. The reasoning, of course, is that the government can manage your personal finances better than you can. They’ve already begun plans to have workers invest their earnings directly into government-managed funds, but at some point, should we get into trouble, they may look to seize those assets outright and put them under central control. Like the idea of socialized, centrally-managed health care, this sounds like an impossibility in the Land of the Free. However, it’s already been established, with passage of Obamacare as clear evidence, that should they want to do this, they will.
It’s a danger to be sure, but perhaps not as dangerous as what is happening in China right now. While Chinese stock markets are in the midst of a massive collapse, the Chinese have tried just about everything to halt the crash that has so far vaporized about 25% of investor wealth in under a month. Zero Hedge asks:
What do you do when two policy rate cuts, $19 billion in committed support from a hastily contrived broker consortium, and a promise of central bank funding for the expansion of margin lending all fail to quell extreme volatility in a collapsing equity market?
The answer as far as the Peoples’ Republic of China is concerned, is to simply ban people from selling. Yes, you read that right, as over bloated Chinese stocks disintegrate before our eyes, the Chinese government has contacted their retirement fund brokers and in no uncertain terms told them that they are not allowed to sell a single share of stock.
They can buy all they want, but selling is strictly prohibited, leaving millions of pensioners stuck just watching their retirement accounts being decimated before their eyes…
When the inevitable panic being seen in Greece and China makes its way to American shores our government will enact emergency measures that may include everything from withdrawal limits on ATMs and seizing money from your personal bank account, to taking control of retirement assets and forcing Americans to use a digital currency.
[Comment: Highly recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Moody’s Downgrades Carinthia’s Credit Rating
Negative outlook
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Moody’s yesterday downgraded the rating of the Austrian province of Carinthia from Baa3 to Ba2. The outlook is negative. According to Moody’s, the decision is due to increased exposure of the Austrian Land to financial risks. The issue Moody’s is referring to is the legal argument with the bondholders of Heta Asset Resolution (Heta), the ‘bad bank’ Hypo Alpe Adria (with regard to its closure process). According to a note posted on the official website of Moody’s, Carinthia provides a guarantee on a very high portion of the Heta’s debt, equivalent to 10.2 billion euro, almost five times the Austrian state’s total revenue in 2014. Carinthia’s current credit rating, Moody’s adds, “takes into account the strong operational and financial performance in recent years, the moderate debt levels and strong liquidity” of the Austrian state.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Economic Crisis Pushing Italians to Slash Funeral Spending
Bare-bones send-offs at half the price of traditional affairs
(ANSA) — Rome, July 7 — Italy’s long-running recession has forced families to trim spending across the board, including the financing of lavish funerals.
With the average cost of an Italian funeral running at about 4,000 euros, according to consumer groups, some bargain companies are offering a full package for less than half that price.
That is, if customers are willing to forego the most expensive trends, including walnut casks decorated with a 300-euro wreath, a 500-euro plaque, and newspaper obituaries.
Even cremation can become costly, ranging between 250 euros and 750 euros, depending on the urn to hold the ashes.
Simple plans are finding traction.
A funeral outlet store in Milan offers a basic package for 1,499 euros that still offers some upgrades.
Other operators are offering a complete pre-planning package that allows clients to pay in advance and choose exactly what they want in their funeral, from the psalms to the flowers to the funeral car.
These boast such slogans as ‘why should your loved ones cry twice — once at the funeral and again at the bill?’.
The early-bird payments are held in a kind of an interest-bearing trust and can even be financed over time with some tax deductions available.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Euro Leaders Expect Tsipras to Make Concessions
Most eurozone leaders coming to Brussels for an emergency summit on Tuesday (7 July) are likely to maintain a tough line when Greek PM Alexis Tsipras presents his new bailout proposal.
According to an EU source quoted by Greece’s Kathimerini, 16 out of 18 of Tsipras’ colleagues around the table are in favour of letting Greece leave the eurozone.
Only France and Italy appear ready to accept Tsipras’ demands on debt relief and investments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Final Deadline for Greece, As EU Prepares for Grexit
The Greek government has been given a “final deadline” until the end of the week to present a proposal of reforms, ahead of a meeting of all 28 EU leaders in Brussels on Sunday (12 July).
But in a sign of the general pessimism following Tuesday’s meeting of euro leaders, the European Commission said it already has plans for how to deal with a Greek exit from the eurozone.
“We have a Grexit scenario prepared in detail”, said commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, although he added that it is something he is “strongly against”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Five Days to Avoid Grexit After European Leaders Openly Warn That Eurozone Exit is Now Looming
EU leaders have now given their clearest sign that Greece will have to leave the eurozone without an agreement by the end of this week. Donald Tusk has said creditors are ready to deal with the “dark scenario” of a humanitarian crisis that could follow a Grexit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece and the Flight From Reality
A People who want Wealth Without Work Will Have Neither
By Bret Stephens
On Sunday, Greece became only the second country in history—Argentina was the first—to make the transition from membership in the developed world to membership in the developing one. Now the question is: Who’s next?
The question is worth asking since so many very serious people— Thomas Piketty, Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Sachs and Joseph Stiglitz among them—think Greeks did the right thing by voting down their creditors’ demands that they attempt to live within their means as a condition of further largess. Mr. Stiglitz, who doubles as a cheerleader for Argentina’s Kirchner government, says a “no” vote gives Greece the chance to “grasp its destiny in its own hands” even if it means a future “not as prosperous as the past.”
Destiny can seem so romantic—particularly to intellectuals wealthy enough to disparage the value of other people’s economic aspirations…
| — Hat tip: RL | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Given Sunday Debt Deal Deadline
(BRUSSELS) — European leaders gave debt-stricken Greece a final deadline of Sunday to reach a new bailout deal and avoid crashing out of the euro, after Greek voters rejected international creditors’ plans in a weekend referendum.
In the first step of its renewed bid for funding, Greece’s leftist government must submit detailed reform plans by Thursday, EU President Donald Tusk said after eurozone leaders held an emergency summit with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
All 28 European Union leaders will then examine the plans on Sunday in a make-or-break summit that will either save Greece’s moribund economy or leave it to its fate.
“Tonight I have to say loud and clear — the final deadline ends this week,” Tusk told a news conference.
“Inability to find an agreement may lead to bankruptcy of Greece and insolvency of its banking system,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Greece Was Robbed by the Bankers
Every single mainstream media has the following narrative for the economic crisis in Greece: the government spent too much money and went broke; the generous banks gave them money, but Greece still can’t pay the bills because it mismanaged the money that was given. It sounds quite reasonable, right?
Except that it is a big fat lie … not only about Greece, but about other European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland who are all experiencing various degrees of austerity. It was also the same big, fat lie that was used by banks and corporations to exploit many Latin American, Asian and African countries for many decades.
Greece did not fail on its own. It was made to fail.
In summary, the banks wrecked the Greek government, and then deliberately pushed it into unsustainable debt … while revenue-generating public assets were sold off to oligarchs and international corporations. The rest of the article is about how and why.
If you are a fan of mafia movies, you know how the mafia would take over a popular restaurant. First, they would do something to disrupt the business — stage a murder at the restaurant or start a fire. When the business starts to suffer, the Godfather would generously offer some money as a token of friendship. In return, Greasy Thumb takes over the restaurant’s accounting, Big Joey is put in charge of procurement, and so on. Needless to say, it’s a journey down a spiral of misery for the owner who will soon be broke and, if lucky, alive.
Now, let’s map the mafia story to international finance in four stages.
Stage 1: The first and foremost reason that Greece got into trouble was the “Great Financial Crisis” of 2008 that was the brainchild of Wall Street and international bankers. If you remember, banks came up with an awesome idea of giving subprime mortgages to anyone who can fog a mirror. They then packaged up all these ticking financial bombs and sold them as “mortgage-backed securities” for a huge profit to various financial entities in countries around the world.
A big enabler of this criminal activity was another branch of the banking system, the group of rating agencies — S&P, Fitch and Moody’s — who gave stellar ratings to these destined-to-fail financial products. Unscrupulous politicians such as Tony Blair joined Goldman Sachs and peddled these dangerous securities to pension funds and municipalities and countries around Europe. Banks and Wall Street gurus made hundreds of billions of dollars in this scheme.
But this was just Stage 1 of their enormous scam. There was much more profit to be made in the next three stages!
[Comment: Highly recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nominal Debt Cut is ‘Red Line’ For Slovakia
Slovak finance minister Peter Kazimir Tuesday said that “nominal debt cut” for Greece is a “red line” for his country. “I am rather sceptical that a deal will be found today” he said, adding that prolonging a decision on Greece would be “detrimental” for both Greece and the eurozone.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oath Keepers: Prepare for Economic Collapse
Obama trying to start race war.
While speaking at the New York Oath Keepers Awards Banquet, Founder and Director of Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes urges all Oath Keeper chapters across the country to hold an Emergency Summit by state, in order to prepare for an economic collapse. ‘Assume the worst’ and formulate support teams. Food storage the most crucial.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Schaeuble: Debt Cut Prohibited by EU Treaty
German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble Tuesday said he was waiting for the next proposals from Greece “with interest”. Asked about debt relief for the country, he said: “Whoever knows the EU treaties knows that this is prohibited.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The German Siege of Greece Begins (No, This is Not a Repeat From 1941)
In fact, it is being reported that the initial reaction to the “no” vote from top European politicians was “a thunderous silence”. Needless to say, the European elite were not pleased by how the Greek people voted, but they still have all of the leverage. In particular, it is the Germans that are holding all of the cards. If the Germans want to cave in and give the Greeks the kind of deal that they desire, everyone else would follow suit. And if the Germans want to maintain a hard line with Greece, they can block any deal from happening all by themselves. So in the final analysis, this is really an economic test of wills between Germany and Greece, and time is on Germany’s side. Germany doesn’t have to offer anything new. The Germans can just sit back and wait for the Greek government to default on their debts, for Greek banks to totally run out of cash and for civil unrest to erupt in Greek cities as the economy grinds to a standstill.
In ancient times, if a conquering army came up against a walled city that was quite formidable, often a decision would be made to conduct a siege. Instead of attacking a heavily defended city directly and taking heavy casualties, it was often much more cost effective to simply surround the city from a safe distance and starve the inhabitants into submission. In a sense, that is exactly what the Germans appear to want to do to the Greeks. Without more cash, the Greek government cannot pay their bills. Without more cash, Greek banks are going to start collapsing left and right. Without more cash, the Greek economy is going to completely and utterly collapse.
So yes, the Greeks voted for change, but the Germans still hold the purse strings.
And right now the Germans do not sound like they are in any mood to compromise. The following comes from a Reuters report that was published on Monday…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unintentionally, The Greeks Have Done Themselves a Favour. Soon, They Will be Out of the Euro
By Jeremy Warner
Unintentionally, Greeks have done themselves — and perhaps the rest of Europe too — a favour by voting no. They have been misled by their Government, not to mention a whole host of famous American, salt water economists — Sachs, Krugman, Stiglitz — into thinking they can somehow bring the rest of Europe to heel by facing their creditors down. They cannot. (To be fair, Krugman seems to appreciate better than the other two the vital importance of exchange rate in debt relief). By voting no, they have put themselves on a path to exit and the unilateral debt relief of default. Like Germany in 1953, this offers Greeks the possibility of a new beginning, and with a bit of luck, they might also have fatally wounded the entire euro project. It’s been a long time coming, but there’s a good chance that economics is finally about to triumph, as inevitably it always does, over delusional political will.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Preparing Coup to Prevent Greece From Falling Under Russian Influence
The United States and Germany are prepared to engineer a coup in Greece to keep the country operating as a strategic asset on NATO’s vulnerable southeast European flank.
“A putsch in Athens to save allied Greece from enemy Russia is in preparation by the US and Germany, with backing from the non-taxpayers of Greece — the Greek oligarchs, Anglo-Greek shipowners, and the Greek Church,” writes John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia not connected to the corporate media.
The primary tip-off something is brewing can be detected by the presence of Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, in Athens in March.
Nuland, The Guardian reported on March 17, “flew into the capital amid mounting US concerns that the great euro debt crisis has begun to pose a geopolitical threat. Allowed to veer out of control, Greece could end up in the ambit of Russia, financially bereft and without the EU links that keep it bounded to the west. Nato’s south-eastern flank would be immeasurably weakened at a time of mounting global security worries over Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East.”
Nuland and the United States may be working closely with Greek military to foment a coup following the historic “No” vote in a referendum of the demands of the banksters.
She is notorious for her role in the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Ukraine and it now appears she has been assigned for a repeat in Greece. Helmer writes that when Nuland visited Athens to issue an ultimatum against breaking the anti-Russian sanctions regime, and the Anglo-American think-tanks followed with warnings the Russian Navy is about to sail into Piraeus, the object of the game [became] clear. The line for Operation Nemesis has been that Greece must be saved, not from itself or from its creditors, but from the enemy in Moscow.
[Comment: Ukraine 2.0 coming to Greece.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Work Program Proposed by Bernie Sanders Will Create Unemployment
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a massive government program to address unemployment, which he states is at 10.5 percent (in fact, it is more than double that at 23.1 percent).
“Even though the programs may ‘create’ jobs for some workers, the resources to pay for the programs must be extracted from the private sector,” writes Thomas J. DiLorenzo. “Taxing the private sector reduces its ability to create jobs, so, at best, government jobs programs can only alter the composition of employment, not the total volume. More government jobs are created, but at the expense of fewer private-sector jobs.”
DiLorenzo and others note that massive employment programs initiated by FDR during the Great Depression did nothing to stem unemployment and, in fact, increased it. The unemployment rate was higher in 1939 despite millions of Americans enrolled in “public works” government jobs by the Roosevelt administration than it was in 1931 as the Federal Reserve engineered depression unfolded.
[Comment: Trade deals that outsource manufacturing and importsource have decimated the economy. The same politicians who approved these treaties now want US citizens to suck on the government teat — this is not a long term solution.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BET, Bounce TV Pull ‘Cosby Show’ Reruns From Air
BET announced it will pull “Cosby Show” reruns from the air. The network’s assistant executive president of programming, Glenn Kornegay confirmed the decision.
The network did not confirm whether the programming change is permanent.
In the wake of the latest news surrounding comedian Bill Cosby’s rape allegations, Bounce TV has also decided to immediately terminate reruns of the series.
Several women who accused Cosby of drugging and raping them are saying newly unsealed testimony by the comedian in a 2005 case corroborates their claims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Cosby Admitted He Gave Woman Drugs Before Sex
US comedian Bill Cosby admitted he obtained sedatives with the intent of giving them to women he wanted to have sex with, court papers from 2005 show.
The unsealed files, obtained by the Associated Press news agency, show Mr Cosby made the admission in a sex abuse civil case brought by a woman.
That case was settled for an undisclosed sum in 2006.
Mr Cosby, now 77, is facing a series of sexual assault accusations dating back decades. He has denied the claims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Coca-Cola Removes Its Name From Cans for Ramadan
The Middle East branch of the soft drink company announced Tuesday that it has debuted cans in the region without its trademark label as part of a new campaign to combat prejudice.
The can design features a red background and Coca-Cola’s signature wavy, silver stripe — but not the words “Coca-Cola. On the back of the can, it says: “Labels are for cans not people.”
Ramadan, the Muslim holiday, runs from June 17 to July 17.
Coca-Cola also released a YouTube video showing the misconceptions that can arise from prejudice.
“Through this campaign, Coca-Cola encourages the world to see without labels, but instead to open their hearts and see with their hearts,” Coca-Cola said in a statement. “Coca-Cola is removing its own iconic labels in an effort to promote a world without labels and prejudices.”
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Should Protect Itself From the Executive Branch
By Paul Craig Roberts
Gary Hart was a good senator, an independent person. Consequently, he was eliminated with a sexual scandal. The woman was a ten, and the powers that be got rid of Hart. Better to go that way than with an airplane crash or a frame-up that leads to prison like happened to US Rep. George Hanson and others including Dan Rostenkowski, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Rostenkowski was eliminated by the despicable Eric Holder, a US attorney at the time who rose to become Obama’s Attorney General, proving the point that in the US government only the totally corrupt succeed. Holder’s false conviction of Rostenkowski was overturned with a pardon by President Bill Clinton. Even former Republican President Gerald Ford regarded Rostenkowski’s conviction as a fraud…
Former Senator Hart describes, accurately, America’s present state:
“To begin with, the founders created a republic, and all of the founding debate in the late 18th century used the language of the republic from ancient Athens and Greece. And one of the key qualities of the republic was resistance to corruption. Now, they did not define corruption as bribery. They defined corruption as placing special or personal interests ahead of the common good — or today what we would call national interest. And when you apply that standard to politics in America today, we are a massively corrupt republic.”
The corrupt Republican Supreme Court has given a pass to this corruption, having ruled that it is an exercise of free speech for corporations to purchase the US government with campaign donations.
Today, no branch of the US government is respected. The executive branch is recognized as a power-crazed police state operation hell-bent on war. The Supreme Court is understood as agents for the One Percent. Congress refuses to defend the people, because any member who does will be framed and prosecuted.
Congress should use its power to make laws to change the situation. Otherwise, Congress should resign and leave Washington as it cannot make a difference.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctors: Del. Family Sickened by Pesticide While Vacationing Will Probably Not Recover
Youngest son, a 14-year-old, is reportedly paralyzed from the neck down, while the oldest son, 16, has no sensation in his limbs.
Doctors are now saying a Delaware family poisoned by pesticide while vacationing in the Caribbean will likely never recover.
The family of four was hospitalized with seizures after they all inhaled methyl bromide that was being sprayed to treat indoor bugs at their high-end hotel in St. John, US Virgin Islands, last March.
The insect repellent affected their neurosystems.
The youngest son, a 14-year-old, is reportedly paralyzed from the neck down, while the oldest son, 16, has no sensation in his limbs.
The boys’ father is also paralyzed.
The mother has shown the most improvement; she is reportedly in good condition.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A federal grand jury has indicted a former Tennessee congressional candidate for allegedly soliciting others in a plan to burn down a mosque in Islamberg, a predominantly Muslim hamlet in Hancock, New York.
Robert Doggart, 63, allegedly planned to burn a mosque, as well as a school and a cafeteria in the community. Investigators said he sought others to join the plan through Facebook posts and in telephone conversations.
The case was investigated by the FBI, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is prosecuting Doggart.
According to court documents, Doggart is a member of several “private militia groups.” He ran as an independent candidate for Congress in Tennessee’s fourth congressional district in 2014. The Department of Justice pressed charges in Tennessee, where Doggart still lives.
Doggart was allegedly recorded by the FBI telling unnamed people cooperating with the bureau that his plan involved killing residents and burning at least three buildings. He met with at least one source in Nashville.
“Those guys (have) to be killed,” Doggart is accused of saying during one call. “Their buildings need to be burnt down.”…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
F-16: Small Plane Collide in Midair Over South Carolina
An Air Force F-16 fighter jet and a small plane collided Tuesday over South Carolina, raining down plane parts and debris as one of the pilots ejected to safety.
Maj. Morshe Araujo, a spokeswoman at Air Force headquarters at the Pentagon, told The Associated Press that the F-16 originated from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. Araujo says the pilot of the jet, which collided with a Cessna, ejected safely.
Lt. Jenny Hyden at Shaw Air Force Base said the pilot was taken to the base for observation, though she did not disclose his condition.
It was not immediately known how many people were on board the Cessna or if any of them survived. Its fuselage has been located.
There also are reports that toxic flames were coming from the F-16, according to WCSC.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the fighter jet collided with the Cessna around 11 a.m., about 11 miles north of Charleston. A witness told WCSC that the crash occurred in a rice field close to the historic Lewisfield plantation home…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Latest Images of Pluto From New Horizons
These are the most recent high-resolution views of Pluto sent by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, including one showing the four mysterious dark spots on Pluto that have captured the imagination of the world. The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) obtained these three images between July 1 and 3 of 2015, prior to the July 4 anomaly that sent New Horizons into safe mode.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Martial Law Concern About Jade Helm is “Racist… Because We Have a Black President”
Desperate to rebrand conspiratorial concern about the coming Jade Helm training exercises — fears that it could be an attempt to bring martial law to ‘hostile’ Texas — the media is spinning its wheels to portray opponents of the military occupation as racists.
Yes, concern about martial law and a military takeover under an emergency pretext is now racist… not because the issue clearly effects everyone, but just because there’s a black president… that’s a good one.
Denial runs deep. Disturbing preparations for martial law and civil unrest have been ongoing for decades, and ramping up since 9/11, not since the election of Barack Obama. Yet, the system has been in damage control mode sense news of the training exercise spread on the web, and sounded the alarm about potential threats to liberty…
Desperate to rebrand conspiratorial concern about the coming Jade Helm training exercises — fears that it could be an attempt to bring martial law to ‘hostile’ Texas — the media is spinning its wheels to portray opponents of the military occupation as racists.
Yes, concern about martial law and a military takeover under an emergency pretext is now racist… not because the issue clearly effects everyone, but just because there’s a black president… that’s a good one.
Denial runs deep. Disturbing preparations for martial law and civil unrest have been ongoing for decades, and ramping up since 9/11, not since the election of Barack Obama. Yet, the system has been in damage control mode sense news of the training exercise spread on the web, and sounded the alarm about potential threats to liberty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Memphis Professor Behind Racist Tweets Resurfaces at Crosstown School
A Memphis professor who left her job under a cloud after a series of racist tweets and Facebook posts has resurfaced at a school across town, where some of her new faculty peers are not happy to have her as a colleague.
Zandria Robinson, who taught sociology at University of Memphis until resigning on June 11, had previously posted on Facebook and Twitter that she did not want her daughter attending school with “snotty privileged whites,” apparently ramped up her social media rhetoric after leaving the job. In a series of tweets that began June 26, nine days after white racist Dylann Roof gunned down nine African Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church, Robinson wrote that “whiteness is most certainly and inevitably terror” and said she expected to see “thinkpieces about how more mental health services could prevent white people from acting how they are conditioned to act.”
Officials at Rhodes College announced Robinson’s hiring last week, and praised her for her “provocative” comments, some of which were first reported by the website SoCawlege.
“As a leading scholar and author in the areas of race, class, gender, culture, and the South, Dr. Zandria Robinson’s comments are sometimes provocative, controversial, and debatable,” the school said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Leaked TPP Chapter Shows Countries Converging on Anti-User Copyright Takedown Rules
In most respects the chapter follows previous drafts pretty closely; for example, the text on DRM circumvention and copyright term are both largely unchanged. But there is one area in which significant progress has been made since the last draft, and this is in the text on intermediary liability rules. Specifically, the new change involves the immunity that Internet companies enjoy from copyright liability, provided that they satisfy certain safe harbor conditions.
Under the United States’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), these safe harbor conditions require Internet intermediaries to comply with a “notice-and-takedown” process. This has seen legitimate content taken off the Internet in response to bogus claims of infringement, as in the famous dancing baby case, as well as being misused for political censorship. Until now, one point of contention among the TPP partners has been whether countries that don’t already have an equivalent to the DMCA’s broken notice-and-takedown rules would be forced to adopt one.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Officials Forced to Deny Fake News Story About ‘White Supremacist’ Murder of Black Teens
Local officials were forced to deny a fake news story that claimed two black teens were murdered by white supremacists at a July 4th festival in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina after the post went viral on Facebook.
The article, posted by the ‘NewsWatch 33’ website, reported that three black teens were brutally attacked by a group of “white guys” after they protested against the Confederate flag. The black teens were subjected to racial slurs before being attacked with bats, the site claimed. Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene while another was in critical condition. Police subsequently labeled the massacre a “hate crime”.
However, the incident never occurred. As ABC 15 reports, “There was no hate crime attack in Myrtle Beach over the July 4th holiday weekend.”
“There’s no reason for that (story) to exist, it’s false, it’s made up. I can’t explain that,” said city spokesman Mark Kruea. After receiving numerous calls about the story, Myrtle Beach police also sent out a post on Facebook and Twitter asserting that the incident did not happen.
Kruea pleaded with other media outlets to report the hoax and “expose this darkness from wherever it came.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oregon is First State to Charge Drivers for Each Mile They Drive
When he’s not riding his bicycle, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, said he’s driving a fuel-efficient hybrid, and that’s a problem, because it means he’s not paying his “fair share” for highway maintenance.
Blumenauer says that’s why he signed up for OReGO, the nation’s first program to charge drivers based on the number of miles they drive.
The program launched on July 1. It is voluntary at the moment, but Blumenauer expects that to change:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
South Carolina Votes to Remove Racially Divisive Confederate Flag
South Carolina’s senators have passed a bill to take down a Confederate flag from the State House in Columbia. Long denounced as a symbol of slavery, the flag had come under fire after last month’s Charleston killings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Victim in Metro Slaying Stabbed Repeatedly During Robbery on Train
The passenger who was killed during a robbery aboard a Metro train on July 4 was punched until he fell and was then repeatedly stabbed in the chest, abdomen, back, side and arms, according to a D.C. police arrest affidavit filed in court on Tuesday.
Police said in the document that the victim, Kevin Joseph Sutherland, 24, of Northeast, had struggled with the assailant after he grabbed Sutherland’s cellphone from his waist. After the stabbing, police said the suspect threw Sutherland’s cellphone at his body and then robbed two other passengers before fleeing when the train reached the NoMa-Gallaudet stop…
| — Hat tip: MS | [Return to headlines] |
7/7 Minute’s Silence Request by UKIP Ignored by EU President
A mark of respect had been requested during a session in the European Parliament in Strasbourg by UKIP MEP Gerard Batten (pictured), but was refused, according to two of his colleagues.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Remembers 7/7 Bombings Amid Growing Terrorism Threat
Britain is commemorating the 10th anniversary of the London suicide bombings that killed some 52 people. British PM David Cameron said the last week’s Tunisia attacks were a reminder that terrorism was as real as before.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cashless Society Coming to Germany
The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Finance Norbert Walter-Borjans (SPD) has called for an upper limit for paying with cash of €3000. The justification is to end crime and tax evasion. Germany is not introducing the €1000 limit as in France and Italy, but it is just getting their foot in the door. Once you get people to accept that limitation, then Brussels will lower it on a unified basis.
We are headed into the cashless society all because these people cannot collect enough taxes ever. We must pay for their fiscal mismanagement on a global scale for governments create debt year after year with no intention of ever paying yet are bound to pay interest forever reducing the national wealth. A two-year old can figure out the current world monetary system and government debt structure is unsustainable.Cyprus and Greece were the first casualties. The contagion has begun.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Security Head: “Political Islam” Is the Future of Europe
As the threat from ISIS extremists grows, the European Union’s head of foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini has caused consternation by asserting that “political Islam” is a firm part of Europe’s future.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Media giant Google’s corporate motto is “Don’t Be Evil,” but it increasingly appears as though the company rarely follows its own advice.
As reported by Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, privacy advocates and open source developers are livid after discovering that the installation of Google’s browsing software, Google Chrome, comes with an added capability: it allows remote technicians to listen in on conversations held near computers where the browser is installed.
The capability was first identified by open source developers, who noticed that the Chromium browser that Chrome is based on remotely installed audio surveillance code enabling computers to be tapped.
As noted by the paper:
It was designed to support Chrome’s new “OK, Google” hotword detection — which makes the computer respond when you talk to it — but was installed, and, some users have claimed, it is activated on computers without their permission.
“Without consent, Google’s code had downloaded a black box of code that — according to itself — had turned on the microphone and was actively listening to your room,” Rick Falkvinge, the Pirate party founder, wrote in a blog post. “Which means that your computer had been stealth configured to send what was being said in your room to somebody else, to a private company in another country, without your consent or knowledge, an audio transmission triggered by… an unknown and unverifiable set of conditions.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Holocaust Claims Conference Fraud Likely ‘Much Higher’ Than $57 Million
The scope of a conspiracy to defraud the world’s largest Holocaust reparations organization, uncovered in 2009, was much greater than previously believed, a former senior official has alleged.
This is one of several recent revelations that are causing a shake-up behind the scenes at the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Writing to the Claims Conference’s board last week, recently terminated ombudsman Shmuel Hollander asserted that, while reports had said organizational insiders had siphoned off $57 million in German taxpayer funds meant for survivors, “the final sum is in all probability much higher.”
Hollander’s letter was prompted by the board’s decision not to renew his contract — a move that he saw as retribution for his role in preparing a 2013 report that blamed the fraud on “systematic failings and problematic organization behavior.”
For over a decade, a criminal ring within the organization embezzled tens of millions of dollars through false restitution claims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Metro in Chaos as Drivers Refuse to Punch in
Mayor furious as work-to-rule actions snarls subways
(ANSA) — Rome, July 7 — Rome commuters faced a second day of chaos Tuesday as subway drivers embarked on a work-to-rule action that reduced trains to a minimum and left hundreds of passengers stranded in sweltering underground stations during an ongoin heat wave.
Drivers have since Monday been protesting the introduction of a new badge to make sure they show up for work.
“A reduced number of trains will be circulating,” Rome public transport company ATAC said in a statement earlier.
Mayor Ignazio Marino has set up a task force to “identify those responsible for the inconvenience in public transport…and weigh the need for sanctions”.
“At least 40% of ATAC personnel has refused to punch in,” said the mayor. “We do not intend to accept this and we are at work to restore (the public transport) service to normality as soon as possible”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Protests Held Across Italy Against School Reforms
PM Renzi aims to improve education with ‘Good School’ bill
(ANSA) — Rome, July 7- Protests are being held across Italy against Premier Matteo Renzi’s controversial educational reform as it goes before the lower house of parliament.
The “Good School” bill aims to improve education via private sector funding, by allowing schools greater autonomy and by giving permanent open-ended contracts to thousands of teachers on temporary contracts. But unions are furious, saying many teachers risk being excluded from the new system.
Protestors from the Gioventù Nazionale rightwing youth association put up symbolic obituaries in front of schools in Rome on Monday evening, including slogans such as “in memory of the public school” and blocked entrances with plastic film.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Skype Conversation With Corriere Della Sera: Italian Woman Jihadist Speaks
Maria Giulia Sergio attacks unbelievers in Skype exchange. “We kill because the Sharia orders us to”. And asks for news of arrested parents
“When we cut someone’s head off — I say ‘we’ because I am part of Islamic State (IS) — when we do something like that, we are obeying the Sharia”. Maria Giulia Sergio’s voice is ice-cold at the start of our Skype conversation. Every word is tinged with folly.
Her Skype account has been silent for days but in the end Maria Giulia, the Italian jihadist wanted on suspicion of terrorism-related criminal association, has taken the call. The connection is disturbed and not good enough for a face-to-face videochat but her voice is clearly recognisable. It’s the same voice from the intercepts by Milan DIGOS security police who kept tabs on her for months. It’s the voice of the Torre del Greco-born 28-year-old who left for Syria in September 2014 with her Albanian husband, Aldo Kobuzi…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Police Arrest Woman for Recruiting Young Girls for ISIS
Spanish police have arrested a woman suspected of recruiting pre-teen girls and teenagers of both sexes to send to areas controlled by the Islamic State group in Syria.
An Interior Ministry statement said the woman, a Spaniard, was arrested Tuesday in the city of Arrecife on the Canary Island of Lanzarote.
The ministry says the woman maintained contact with Islamic State militants in Syria.
It adds that the operation was being conducted by the National Court in Madrid.
Spain has arrested dozens of suspected jihadi militants and recruiters in recent years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BBC to Continue Using Term Islamic State (IS) Despite “Negative Connotations”
THE BBC will continue to use the term Islamic State (IS) to describe the jihadist group in order to maintain the broadcaster’s impartiality, its director general has said.
Tory Rehman Chishti and more than 120 other MPs had written to Tony Hall to ask that the corporation use the term Daesh in reports about the group’s activities as it was an acronym with “negative connotations”.
But in a response to Mr Chishti, Lord Hall said using Daesh instead of Islamic State “would not preserve the BBC’s impartiality”.
The debate surrounding the use of IS has gathered pace in recent weeks and Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested the media follow the Government by referring to the jihadists as Isis or Isil.
According to the Times, Lord Hall said Daesh was a “pejorative name coined in Arabic by its enemies”, including supporters of Syrian president Bashar Assad.
“Unfortunately this term may give the impression of support for those who coined it and that would not preserve the BBC’s impartiality,” he said…
| — Hat tip: K | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptians Lambast ‘Ugly’ New Nefertiti Statue
The unveiling of an ugly copy of a famously beautiful bust of Queen Nefertiti caused Egyptians to mock the authorities as well as the current state of art in the country.
Queen Nefertiti ruled Egypt alongside her husband in the 14th century BCE, and her beauty is legendary — her name in fact translates as “a beautiful woman has arrived.”
Unfortunately, the replica that resulted bore so little resemblance to the legendary beauty that many began to despair for the state of Egyptian art. In simple terms, it was just plain ugly.
“This is an insult to Nefertiti and to every Egyptian,” tweeted one Egyptian woman. Another wrote: “It should be named ‘ugly tasteless artless statue’… not Nefertiti.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Has Holy City Become Jihadist Breeding Ground?
When the so-called Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for last week’s attack at the beach resort of Sousse in Tunisia, it celebrated the gunman, Seifddine Rezgui, by his nom de guerre, Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani.
As often, his given surname was a reference to where he came from; or rather, in this case, where he was studying, the city of Kairouan.
It has since emerged that Seifddine Rezgui had completed the first year of his masters degree only two weeks before he carried out a massacre of at least 38 people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Apparently There’s an ‘ISIS Husband’ Catalog Out There So Child Brides Can Select a Terrorist
It seems ISIS employs the point-at-the-picture method when asking little girls to select the animal who will dominate the rest of their lives. It’s kind of like a low-end Chinese restaurant with a bunch of backlit photographs behind the counter. “I guess I’ll take the number three suicide bomber with with noodles and plum sauce.”
For the record, if you’re wondering why the media has shown a general lack of sympathy for the girls in question, it may have something to do with their glee over recent terrorist attacks. Specifically, Amira Abase (one of the 15 year olds, now 16) finds the slaughter of 30 British tourists on a Tunisian beach hilarious.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 45 ISIS Fighters Reportedly Die After Eating Ramadan Meal in Mosul
At least 45 Islamic State fighters died after eating a fast-breaking Ramadan meal in the Iraqi city of Mosul Tuesday, Haaretz reported.
According to Saeed Mamozeny, a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party, 145 ISIS fighters took part in the iftar meal, the traditional evening meal when Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset. Shortly afterwards, 45 members were reported dead. The spokesman also said that they have not determined if the cause was food poisoning or deliberate poisoning.
Mosul, once with a population of over 1 million, was captured last June by Islamic State fighters. It is the largest city in the group’s self-declared caliphate,.
ISIS has reportedly suffered casualties as a result of poisoned food in the past.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Defense Secretary Carter Says Just 60 Syrian Rebels in Training
President Obama’s $500 million plan to raise an army of Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State horde is falling far short of its target, attracting only a few dozen recruits to the cause.
“As of July 3, we are currently training about 60 fighters,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter told lawmakers Tuesday.
He and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey faced skeptical lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee as they addressed the administration’s strategy for fighting the Islamic State. Even after Obama said a new effort to train Iraqi fighters is starting to pick up, Carter’s estimate showed how far behind they are on the Syrian side of the border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
For the Custody of the Holy Land, Nusra Front Might be Holding Priest Seized in Syria
Fr Dhiya Azziz, a Franciscan born in Mosul, Iraq, is missing. No contacts have been possible with him since last Saturday. According to the Custody, “Some militants of an unknown armed brigade, perhaps connected with Jabhat al-Nusra,” took him. His name now goes on the list of missing clergymen, including two bishops and Fr Paolo Dall’Oglio.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) — Another priest has gone missing in Syria, probably seized by a unit of the Jabhat al Nusra Front, the Custody of the Holy Land announced in a statement. Like the latter, the missing clergyman belongs to the Franciscan order.
So far, no official confirmation of his disappearance has been made, but what is known is that, late in the afternoon last Saturday, “we lost contact with Father Dhiya Aziz, an Iraqi Franciscan of the Custody of the Holy Land, parish priest in Yakubiyah, Jisr ash-Shugur District (Idlib Governorate),” said the Custody statement.
“Some militants of an unknown armed brigade, perhaps connected to Jabhat al-Nusra, came to take him away for a brief interview with the Emir of the place,” the Franciscan Fathers said. However, “We are unable to trace his whereabouts at the present moment”.
Meanwhile, “We are doing everything possible to locate the place of his detention and secure his release.” At the same time, they have called on the faithful to pray for his speedy release.
Since the start of the Syrian conflict, militia groups and jihadi fighters have seized several prominent Christian leaders, including two bishops, Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi (of the Orthodox Church of Antioch), and Metropolitan Mar Gregorios Youhanna Ibrahim (of the Syriac Orthodox Church), both abducted on 22 April 2013.
On 9 July 2013, Fr Paolo Dall’Oglio, a Jesuit priest from Italy, was also kidnapped, along with two other priests and some lay volunteers.
Last year, Jihadis also abducted 13 nuns, north of Damascus, eventually releasing them after a few months in a prisoner exchange.
Similarly, two Italian women in their early twenties seized in August 2014 were released in mid-January.
Fr Azziz was born on 10 January 1974 in Mosul, Iraq, which includes the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh.
After medical studies, he embraced the religious life, starting his novitiate at Ain Karem. He made his profession of religious vows on 1 April 2002.
In 2003, he moved to Egypt, where he remained for several years. In 2010, he came back to the Custody, which sent him to Amman. Subsequently, he moved to Latakiyah, in Syria.
In Syria, he volunteered in Yakubiyah, near the Asi (Orontes) River, a particularly dangerous region now under the control of Jabhat al-Nusra.
Since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began in 2011, more than 3.2 million people have fled Syria with an additional 7.6 million internally displaced. Some 230,000 people have died, with 2014 as the worst year.
Since it emerged amid war and terror, the Islamic State group has lived up to its reputation of violence and brutality. An estimated 3,000 people, including 1.800 civilians and 74 children, have been executed since it established its so-called caliphate from seized chunks of Syria and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Inside the Saudi Prison That’s Home to New Wave of Militants
Riyadh: The man visible on the block’s control room monitor, pacing his small cell in uniform grey robe, is one of a rising number of security prisoners in Saudi Arabia, where the wars in Syria and Iraq have led to a surge in domestic militant activity.
Until last year, the population of inmates at security prisons like Ha’er, just south of Riyadh, had been dropping as those detained during an Al Qaida uprising a decade ago were gradually released.
But as anger has grown in the kingdom over what many Saudis see as oppression of Muslims in Iraq and Syria, an increasing number of young Saudis have sworn to help by taking up arms themselves.
As of March, nearly 2,300 Saudis had travelled to Syria to join militant groups like Daesh and Nusra Front, according to the Saudi Interior Ministry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Mosul: Islamic State Abducts 111 Children
Aged 10-15 years, the kidnapped children are set to be trained as terrorists, a spokesperson for the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party said. IS also took away78 adults, who tried to protect the children.
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Islamic State group militants abduct 111 schoolchildren in Mosul to train as terrorists, Iraq’s Arabic news channel Al Sumaria reported.
The abducted children, mostly aged between 10 and 15 years, were moved to the IS terrorist group’s educational and military centres for brainwashing, Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party spokesperson Saeed Mamuzini told the TV channel.
IS terrorists also detained 78 men who protested against the abduction of their children.
Since the terrorist group captured Iraq’s second city over a year ago, it has kidnapped 1,420 Iraqi children, the Kurdish official said.
In a previous statement, he said that IS terrorists had executed 15 of its own militants after facing a defeat in Bashiqa town, northeast of Mosul, adding that they were executed by children trained by the terrorist group.
Local Iraqi government and security officials also said that IS terrorists abducted 500 children in the eastern province of Diyala and western province of al-Anbar.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nine Red Lines for a Nuclear Agreement With Iran
by Frank Gaffney, Jr. and Fred Fleitz
The Iran nuclear talks have missed the June 30 deadline imposed by US President Barack Obama for a final agreement, but the US negotiators are hoping a deal can be struck by July 7. This is an important date because under the Corker-Cardin bill (the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015), if an agreement is sent to Congress by July 9, the House and Senate will have only 30 days to review it. If submitted after July 9, however, legislators will have 60 days.
We believe the Obama administration has made unacceptable concessions to Iran in the nuclear talks and, as a result, that any agreement produced by these talks will be a very bad deal.
But what would a “good” deal with Iran look like? To answer this question, the Center for Security Policy, in conjunction with many experts, came up with the following nine red lines, which we have nicknamed “The National Security Nine,” for an acceptable nuclear agreement with Iran. These red lines are:
1. No uranium enrichment.
The nuclear agreement currently being negotiated will allow Iran to continue to enrich uranium. None of Iran’s uranium centrifuges (or any of its nuclear infrastructure) will be destroyed or removed from the country. The timetable to an Iranian nuclear bomb will be shortened during a nuclear agreement since Iran will be allowed to develop advanced enrichment centrifuges during a nuclear agreement.
We reject all of these concessions and call on the United States to return to its previous position — and that of the UN Security Council — that Iran must halt its uranium enrichment program. Conceding uranium enrichment to Iran legitimizes its use of a dangerous nuclear technology and will undermine global nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
We also fear this concession will lead to uranium enrichment by other states. Any nuclear agreement with Iran must bar uranium enrichment and require that all uranium enrichment centrifuges be disassembled and removed from enrichment facilities. Iran must halt R&D of advanced centrifuges. Iran also must send its entire enriched uranium stockpile out of the country.
2. No plutonium-producing reactors…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Influence Grows as Russian Crisis Rocks Central Asia
At a bazaar in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, once a far-flung outpost of the Soviet Union, cheap goods from neighbouring China are helping offset the pain caused by Russia’s economic meltdown.
As low world prices for Russian energy exports and Western sanctions over Ukraine stir economic trouble in Russia, Tajikistan has seen its national somoni currency weaken and thousands of migrants drift back home to a mostly jobless environment.
Last month the impoverished Central Asian country’s national bank announced remittances — mostly transfers from Russia where close to half of Tajikistan’s working age males are believed to work — had fallen by over 40 percent comparing the first quarters of 2014 and 2015.
Yet the economic bonds tying the nation of eight million people to gargantuan China are growing stronger every day…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India Woman ‘Set on Fire by Police’ In Uttar Pradesh
A woman in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has died after alleging that she was set on fire by two policemen inside a police station after she refused to pay a bribe.
Neetu Dwivedi, 40, told a magistrate before her death that the policemen asked her for 100,000 rupees ($1,578).
She had gone to the police station to free her husband, who had been detained for questioning in a crime.
The accused policemen deny the charge and say she tried to immolate herself.
The policemen have been suspended and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has ordered an inquiry into the case.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rigged Tests Scandal Takes Deadly Turn in India
Nobody knows exactly when or why the witnesses and small-time crooks caught up in one of India’s biggest-ever corruption scandals began dying under mysterious circumstances. But in the past two years, that’s what’s happened to more than two dozen people implicated in a $1bn test-rigging scheme.
Even by standards in India, where corruption is routine, the scale of the scam in the central state of Madhya Pradesh is mind-boggling. Police say that since 2007, tens of thousands of people have paid hefty bribes to middlemen, bureaucrats and politicians to rig test results for medical schools and government jobs. Around 2,000 people have been arrested and more than 500 are on the run. Hundreds of medical students are in prison — along with several bureaucrats and the state’s education minister. Even the governor has been implicated.
Police have had their hands full racing to meet a deadline in the criminal probe. And now they are faced with the deaths of more witnesses and suspects. Last week, police said, one of those accused died after having chest pains in prison, another drowned in a village pond and a third died of a liver infection.
Last Saturday, television reporter Akshay Singh died while investigating a suspect’s death. Singh sipped tea during an interview and began coughing and foaming at the mouth, according to media reports. He was rushed to hospital, where doctors said he had suffered a heart attack. Police said the initial examination did not reveal anything “suspicious”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shares listed on the Shanghai and Shenzen blue-chip indices fell sharply on Tuesday despite measures to brake plunging prices. At the weekend, the government halted IPOs and announced fresh funds to prop up the markets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Shabab Strikes Town in Northeast Kenya
The terrorist group al-Shabab is thought to be behind the most recent attack on a group of workers in Kenya. This is the latest in a string of attacks as the militants have become increasingly active in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty International: Refugees Abused While Passing Through Balkans
Police beat migrants in Serbia and Macedonia, and force them to pay bribes, Amnesty International has claimed. Thousands of refugees travel through those countries every year, in an attempt to sneak across the EU border.
The non-EU members Serbia and Macedonia had become “a sink for the overflow of refugees and migrants that nobody in the EU seems willing to receive,” Amnesty’s representative Gauri van Gulik said Tuesday.
“Thousands of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants — including children — making dangerous journeys across the Balkans are suffering violent abuse and extortion at the hands of the authorities and criminal gangs,” according to a new report by the London-based group.
The people fleeing war, poverty and persecution are being “shamefully let down” by EU institutions, Amnesty International says, stressing that migrants stranded in non-EU Balkan countries are left without protection.
The new report is based on four research missions to Serbia, Hungary, Greece and Macedonia in 2014 and 2015, as well as interviews with more than 100 refugees and migrants.
The number of people arrested on the EU border between Serbia and Hungary has risen by more than 2,500 percent since 2010 — from 2,370 to 60,602, according to Amnesty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
California Killing Sparks Push to Ban Illegal Immigrant Safe Havens
ON THE HEELS OF THE MURDER last week of Kathryn Steinle, allegedly by Francisco Sanchez — an illegal immigrant deported five times, and released months earlier by San Francisco police — a California lawmaker is moving to crack down on the state’s sanctuary cities, requiring them to fully cooperate with federal immigration laws.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian MPs Approve Anti-Migrant Fence
A plan to erect a fence at the Hungarian-Serbian border to keep out migrants was approved by the Hungarian parliament on Monday: 151 MPs voted in favour, 41 against. When Hungarian PM Orban announced the proposal for a four-metre high fence last month, it was sharply criticized.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Dies on Channel Tunnel Train Trying to Reach UK
A migrant who is believed to have jumped onto a freight train heading for Britain has died, Eurotunnel has said.
The Channel Tunnel operator tweeted that the shuttle had been stopped following the incident on the French side at about 05:00 BST.
The death comes days after about 150 migrants tried to storm the Channel Tunnel terminal in France.
Passengers and freight services are facing delays with Eurotunnel advising some customers to rearrange travel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants ‘Suffer Violent Abuse’ In Balkans
Amnesty International said Tuesday in a report that thousands of migrants and refugees face “violent abuse and extortion at the hands of the authorities and criminal gangs” in the Balkans. “Serbia and Macedonia have become a sink for the overflow of refugees and migrants”, it said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Murderer: I Chose SF Because it is a ‘Sanctuary City’
Five-time deportee, seven-time convicted felon Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez said in a new interview Sunday with a local ABC News affiliate that he came to San Francisco because he knew the sanctuary city would not hand him over to immigration officials.
He also claimed that he was “looking for jobs in the restaurant or roofing, landscaping, or construction.”
Lopez-Sanchez has confessed to shooting Kathryn Steinle last Wednesday at Pier 14.
Had San Francisco police not refused a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer request, Lopez-Sanchez may not have been in the United States and Steinle might still be alive.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
San Francisco Politicians Have Blood on Their Hands
Sanctuary cities and the growing movement to frustrate federal immigration enforcement will get more innocent U.S. citizens like Kate Steinle killed
Left-wingers in San Francisco should be hanging their heads in shame after their borderline seditious, destructive immigration policies allowed an illegal alien felon to murder a young woman randomly in broad daylight.
Nor did gun control laws prevent Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a 45-year-old illegal alien deported five times to Mexico, from allegedly firing one bullet into the upper body of medical device sales representative Kate Steinle on busy Pier 14 last Wednesday, a popular tourist destination. Steinle was cut down in front of her father and mother and died later in hospital.
No motive has been established for the shooting but Lopez-Sanchez is a five-time felon. An hour after the shooting, he was picked up by police roughly a mile away.
Although this violent thug pulled the trigger, progressives, through the laws they have enacted, put this man on the streets which allowed him to murder.
Federal authorities had Lopez-Sanchez in custody in March after he was set free from a federal prison. They transferred him to San Francisco authorities because he was wanted by them on drug-related charges. The feds filed what’s called an “immigration detainer” requesting that the local authorities notify them before releasing the man.
But San Francisco, home of the most militant leftists in America, refused the request because local policy forbids it. The prisoner in effect got a “get out of jail free card” from the left-wing open-borders movement which argues that keeping illegals in jail violates their constitutional rights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shipping Industry Pleads for EU to Save More Migrants
Big European ships operating within and near Libyan territorial waters are pleading with the international community to step up rescue efforts in the Mediterranean.
Sturla Henriksen, CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, says merchant vessels are plucking around one in five migrants from the sea.
“This very much affects us. Neither are the crew trained, nor are these vessels equipped for large-scale search and rescue operations”, he told this website on Monday (6 July).
An estimated 1,200 commercial vessels were involved in search and rescues since the start of 2014. Last year, they saved around 40,000 people.
The ships are now seeing a spike in the numbers of people they rescue when compared to the same period last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
They’re Just Committing the Crimes Americans Won’t Commit
Obama’s plan to “seed” communities around America with foreigners
These terms are not too strong. I previously reported on Obama’s plan to “seed” communities around America with foreigners who would, as the scheme goes, “navigate” and not assimilate as they “push citizens into the shadows” (that is, those they don’t push into graves). Again, what do you call such people?
It isn’t just Obama, of course. These traitors have many names, such as Jerry Brown, Jeb Bush, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Luis Gutierrez and Mark Zuckerberg. But, hey, who can blame them, right? They’re just pushing the policies Americans won’t push.
Unfortunately, and as has been said before, treason today is now the norm. If you don’t drink deeply of the cup of multiculturalism, internationalism, Western demographic genocide and cultural suicide, you’re a “nativist” or, worse still, a “racist,” the latter of which has just come to mean “anything bad” to young skulls full of mush whose now putrefying gray matter endured endless sanitary spin cycles in the propaganda mills masquerading as universities. The inmates not only run the asylum, they’re numerous enough to classify the normal as abnormal. You’re a boy who’s sure he’s a girl? You’re white but identify as black? You think an invader is the equivalent of a citizen? Those people who’d cramp your style with that pesky Objective Reality are the problem. Off to re-education camps with them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ontario Court Rules Totalitarianism in the Public Interest
A recent Ontario court decision has denied British Columbia’s Trinity Western University’s law school from receiving accreditation because university administrators did the unthinkable. As a private Christian university Trinity requires its students and faculty to sign a “Community Covenant” which promises, among other things, to abstain from sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and woman. Seems the covenant didn’t sit well with the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society and the Toronto-based liberals at the Law Society of Upper Canada, which both moved to block Trinity’s accreditation on the premise that the covenant, presumably, offended homosexuals. The matter moved to the courts and while the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled in favour of Trinity, as expected, the Ontario Court ruled the polar opposite, denying Trinity’s accreditation in Ontario.
We must remember that Trinity is a private institution which means it receives no public funding for its day-to-day operations. Furthermore, students attending Trinity do so voluntarily and law students who cannot contain their liberal tendencies have the choice of attending the other 20 law schools (which have no comparable covenant) that currently operate in practically every province in Canada. In other words, if you’re a liberal law student your choices are practically infinite. If you are a conservative or worst still, a Christian law student looking to attend a college that reflects your values and traditions, you may want to reconsider your career choice.
It is interesting to note that all 20 law schools operating in Canada are publicly run — which means tax-payer subsidized, government-owned and union-run — and in order to receive accreditation and public funding, presumably, they must tow the politically correct party line. Since Canadian law schools are the breeding ground for tomorrow’s Liberal politicians, and the armies of lawyers that are needed to fuel Canada’s legal industrial complex, (what with endless native land claims, Charter lawsuits and the parade of legal proceedings grinding on as a result of an over-regulated society) graduates must fit the secular, leftist mold as prescribed by our law society social engineers…
We must also remember that it is the same Ontario judicial establishment ruling in the Trinity case that legalized bawdy houses (# houses in plain-speak) and swinger’s clubs in Ontario. For those of you conservative Neanderthals that aren’t up on the latest liberalized sexual practices, swinger’s clubs are for adventurous people who want to have sex with multiple partners, often strangers, at the same time. That way a husband can share his wife with other men and vice versa. Isn’t it a wonderful, liberal brave new world we live in!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |