This news feed was reconstructed from the database entries for this date. My original introduction, whatever it was, has been lost. I might have said something amusing, who can tell?
Anyway, here are the news items.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, RRN, Steen, Upananda Brahmachari, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
10 Very Strange Things That Have Happened in Just the Past Few Weeks
Have you noticed that events have begun to accelerate?
Over the past few weeks, things have officially started to get very weird. Chinese stocks are crashing, the Greek debt crisis is spiraling out of control, the New York Stock Exchange was down for about four hours on Wednesday thanks to a ‘technical glitch’, and global politicians have been acting very strangely. After several years of relative calm, could it be possible that the second half of 2015 will usher in a time of chaos and confusion on a worldwide scale? Personally, I have never been more concerned about a period of time as I am about the last six months of 2015. And if I am right, what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. The following are 10 very strange things that have happened in just the past few weeks —
#1 On Wednesday, the New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines and the Wall Street Journal were all taken down by unexpected ‘technical glitches’. Authorities are assuring us that hackers were not responsible for any of this.
#2 In China, a full-blown stock market crash is unfolding. The Shanghai Composite Index has plummeted more than 30 percent in less than a month, and the Chinese version of the NASDAQ has dropped by more than 40 percent. The amount of ‘paper wealth’ that has been lost in China is 15 times greater than the GDP of Greece.
#3 Just the other day, hackers were able to hack into a German surface-to-air missile battery —
Well, this is absolutely terrifying. According to The Local, hackers attacked a German Patriot surface-to-air missile battery, like the one shown above, stationed along the Turkish-Syria border. The cyber attack caused the battery to carryout ‘unexplained’ orders.
It’s believed that cyber attackers managed to exploit the Patriot battery in two different ways. The first exploit was through the Sensor-Shooter-Interoperability, which controls interactions between the actual, physical missile launcher and its control system, while the other was on the guidance chip. These weaknesses could have allowed the hackers to steal data or, more worryingly, actually take control of the battery.
#4 Earlier this week, Barack Obama told reports that ‘we’re speeding up training of ISIL forces’ — (video)
[Comment: Obama inadvertently reveals the truth.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chicago: Already the Next Detroit
Over the 4th of July weekend, Chicago featured 82 gunfights, 15 killings and countless individuals fleeing for their lives. Accelerating violence caused homegrown Americans to flee for their lives and families. Chicago devolves into the next Detroit, Michigan.
Thirty years ago, similar violence erupted in Detroit as jobs outsourced, insourced and offshored to other parts of the world — thanks to our U.S. Congress and our presidents who pushed for those job losses overseas. At the same time, welfare became the mainstay for minorities accustomed to working on the auto lines.
Additionally, illegal aliens invaded big cities in Michigan to push American minorities out of jobs. To add more misery, Congress in 1965, started importing 100,000 legal immigrants every 30 days. That allowed employers to hire cheap labor, which destroyed unions, placing our citizens at risk for their jobs at a living wage. Result: anger, frustration and hopelessness cascaded into street violence, car jackings at stoplights, car burnings, arsons, shoplifting and graffiti.
Within a 20-year period, Detroit plummeted from 1.85 million people to 648,000 today. While NPR, NBC, CBS and ABC spun endless euphemistic reasons, the fact remains: whites fled for their lives. See my column from 2009, ‘Tragedy of Detroit’ which became the bedrock story of what really happened in Detroit.
Today, Middle Eastern immigrants flood into Detroit to make it a new caliphate for Islam in America. Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, stands as a Muslim Mecca of Sharia Law, 5 calls to prayer daily blasted over loudspeakers and a signal of things to come for America. We face Islam’s demand for four wives per man, honor killings, arranged marriages, female genital mutilation, burkas for all women, Arabic language and violence toward gay people. Yet, the onslaught continues with the importation of 75,000 Syrian refugees this year on top of the usual flood of Muslim immigrants.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China Media: Negative Market Sentiment ‘Exaggerated’
State-run media continue to try to calm investors as Beijing implements measures to stop volatile trading on China’s stock markets.
Around 1,300 companies have stopped trading on the stock market in recent days to avoid losses.
A commentary in Xinhua’s Economic Information Daily says investors’ negative sentiment in recent days is “exaggerated”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Stock Markets Bounce Back
Stocks listed in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong rose sharply following days of losses. The gains came after Beijing announced yet more measures to prop up the markets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The IMF cut its forecast for global growth this year, citing a weaker first quarter in the U.S. and warning that financial-market turbulence from China to Greece clouds the outlook.
The world economy will grow 3.3 percent in 2015, less than the 3.5 percent pace projected in April and slower than the 3.4 percent expansion last year, the International Monetary Fund said in revisions to its World Economic Outlook released Thursday in Washington. The fund left its forecast for growth next year unchanged at 3.8 percent.
While the IMF left its 2015 projections for China and the euro area unchanged from April, it singled out both economies as areas sources of potential risk. Chinese stocks have tumbled in recent weeks and Greece is struggling to reach a deal with European creditors to stay in the euro area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Banks ‘Weathered Crisis’ Says Bank of Italy
Wrote down bad loans with loan-loss provisions
(ANSA) — Rome, July 9 — The deputy chief of the Bank of Italy told the Senate Thursday the Italian banking system has weathered a rough patch without a public bailout.
Italian banks have been weakened by the financial and sovereign debt crises, a long recession, and market tensions, Fabio Panetta said.
However, they have “autonomously weathered this impressive succession of negative shocks, under the guidance of the Bank of Italy,” Panetta said.
They “did not rely on significant public intervention” thanks to an exceptional rise in loan-loss provisions — equal to 53 billion euros in 2012-2013 and 26 billion euros in 2014.
EU banking union will become fully operational in 2016, and its most innovative measure will be the so-called bail-in, meaning that losses will be borne by shareholders and creditors.
“The possibility that small savings accounts will suffer is very remote,” Panetta said.
Accounts under 100,000 euros will be protected by the Interbank Deposit Protection fund, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
OECD Unemployment Still 10 Million Higher Than Before Crisis
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said unemployment in its member countries is only slowly declining and remains well above its pre-crisis level.
In its 2015 Employment Outlook, the Paris-based group said the number of unemployed has fallen to 42 million from 45 million in 2014, though that’s still 10 million more than just before the financial crisis struck.
The OECD also warned that long-term unemployment remains “unacceptably high,” with more than a third of jobseekers out of work for 12 months or more. That’s up 77 percent since 2007. For those out of work for two years or more, “their chances of finding work again are shrinking,” the OECD said.
“Time is running out to prevent the scars of the crisis becoming permanent, with millions of workers trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria. “If that happens, the long-run legacy of the crisis would be to ratchet inequality up yet another notch from levels that were already far too high.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
OECD Says Italian Growth Timid, Youth Unemployment 42%
GDP rises of 0.6% and 1.5% forecast for 2015, 2016
(ANSA) — Rome, July 9 — The OECD said that Italy is set to enjoy only timid growth after years of recession and depicted difficult labour market conditions, especially for young people, in a report released on Thursday.
“The Italian recovery will remain timid for some time,” the OECD said in its employment outlook.
“According to the most recent OECD projections, Italy’s real GDP growth will be 0.6% in 2015 and 1.5% in 2016, both below the expected growth for the Euro Area and the OECD as a whole”.
It noted that Italy’s unemployment rate has started to decrease from the 13% peak reached in November 2014, dropping to to 12.4% in May while stressing that this was still 1.3 percentage points above the eurozone average.
The situation is particularly bad for young people, it said.
The OECD said that Italy’s youth unemployment rate for 2014 was 42.7%, up 2.7 percentage points on 2013 and more than double the rate of 20.4% in 2007. It added that more than one in four people under 29 in Italy are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET). “The NEET rate has soared by 40% since the onset of the crisis, opening a wide gap with the OECD average,” it said.
The Paris-based organization said that Italian workers who start a career on a temporary contract find it particularly difficult to obtain a permanent job on a stable basis. “Only 55% of the typical labour market entrants who start with a temporary job are on a permanent contract 10 years later in Italy, one of the lowest figures within the OECD,” the outlook read. It said the percentage of under-25 workers employed on atypical contracts in 2014 was 56% up from 52.7% in 2013, from 42.2% in 2007 and from 26.6% in 2000. The outlook also said that Italy’s proportion of long-term unemployed — the share of those who have been searching for a job for more than one year — among the jobless was among the highest within the OECD at 61.1%.
But the OECD did see identify positive areas too, hailing Italian Premier Matteo Renzi’s Jobs Act labour reform. Among other things, the reform weakens the laws on unfair dismissal in a bid to encourage firms to hire people on permanent contracts, giving new employees gradually rising levels of worker protection.
“The Jobs Act — by increasing incentives for the creation of open-ended jobs under the new contract with a gradual increase in protection, and extending the coverage of out-of-work benefits — represents an important step forward towards the reduction of long-term inequality and the elimination of segmentation,” the OECD said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Passport Applications in Greece Rise Amid Fears of Default
Daily requests up more than 50% over 2014
(ANSA) — Athens, July 9 — Passport applications have increased in Greece amid fears of an imminent default and subsequent exit from the eurozone, the on-line edition of Kathimerini reported Thursday.
In Athens some 1,580 passport applications were filed on Wednesday alone, the paper said.
This represents an increase of over 50% over the same period last year, while the long-term average for this point in the summer holiday season is around 600 applications per day. On Sunday Greeks voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to reject new austerity measures in exchange for further financial support. Greek and other European leaders are now rushing to negotiate an alternative bailout accord.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stop Throwing Cash at Greece: Bundesbank
The European Central Bank should not provide any more emergency liquidity to Greece, the head of the German central bank said on Thursday, calling for any further financial aid to the debt-wracked country to be put up by governments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
21.5 Million Exposed in Second Hack of Federal Office
Counterintelligence experts have also said the database will allow China to select the most likely targets for recruitment, blackmail or even just a phishing attack, based on who has privileged access to federal computer systems.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Museum Accused of Racism With ‘Kimono Wednesday’
Boston — Following an uproar on social media, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has cancelled “Kimono Wednesday,” a popular interactive event, because protesters have labeled it racist and culturally insensitive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Confederate Flag to be Removed From South Carolina Capitol
The bill to take the Confederate battle flag down from the state house in Columbia has passed both houses of the South Carolina legislature. The measure was finally approved after over 13 hours of emotional debate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Conservative Revolt Brewing Against Scott Walker Over Staffer Hired by His PAC
Last week, Right Wing News did an article about Scott Walker’s PAC hiring Brad Dayspring. If you don’t know who Brad Dayspring is, here’s an introduction from one of the conservative candidates he slimed during the GOP primaries.
‘Brad Dayspring is well known as a despicable establishment operative who specializes in slander and character assassination against conservative candidates,’ Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel — one such conservative Dayspring personally frequently attacked — told Breitbart News exclusively on Wednesday. ‘He is the perfect example of why conservatives no longer trust the GOP. He’s little more than a paid attack dog, without principle and honor, the personification of everything wrong with our present political system.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Double-Digit Premium Hike Requests Signal Start of ObamaCare ‘Death Spiral’
Obamacare is exhibiting early signs of a ‘death spiral’ as hundreds of insurance plans listed on the federally-run exchanges in 37 states and the District of Columbia request double-digit premium increases for 2016, says David Hogberg, a health care analyst and senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR).
A ‘death spiral’ — which is the insurance pool equivalent of a bankruptcy — occurs when rising premiums force younger, healthier people to drop their insurance coverage due to the increased cost. But their exodus leaves the remaining ‘risk pool’ older, sicker and more expensive to insure than before, necessitating further rate hikes.
Thirteen percent of the people who signed up for Obamacare in 2015 have already been dropped from coverage because many of them failed to pay their share of the subsidized premiums, The New York Times reported.
And that’s before the premiums on many policies are due to skyrocket next year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Director Reveals July 4 ISIS Attacks in US Foiled
FBI Director James Comey revealed on Thursday that US authorities had prevented several Islamic State (ISIS) inspired plots to murder Americans in the US on the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
Comey announced that over ten people who were influenced by ISIS’s online recruitment campaign were arrested in the last four weeks, reports Reuters.
Of the jihadists, several had planned attacks on the Fourth of July holiday, but thanks to the swift action of law enforcement no attacks were carried out.
Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security had warned local law enforcement ahead of July 4 to be on the lookout for attacks.
Comey did not divulge how many terror plots were foiled, or where their intended targets where…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Director Says Scientists Are Wrong, Pitches Imaginary Solution to Encryption Dilemma
Feds attempt to dismantle internet security “for the children.”
Testifying before two Senate committees on Wednesday about the threat he says strong encryption presents to law enforcement, FBI Director James Comey didn’t so much propose a solution as wish for one.
Comey said he needs some way to read and listen to any communication for which he’s gotten a court order. Modern end-to-end encryption — increasingly common following the revelations of mass surveillance by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden — doesn’t allow for that. Only the parties on either end can do the decoding.
Comey’s problem is the nearly universal agreement among cryptographers, technologists and security experts that there is no way to give the government access to encrypted communications without poking an exploitable hole that would put confidential data, as well as entities like banks and power grids, at risk.
But while speaking at Senate Judiciary and Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Wednesday, Comey repeatedly refused to accept that as reality.
[Comment: Backdoors are exploitable and weaken security. Comey is either too stupid to understand this or knows this and doesn’t care because the desire for a backdoor is greater than the desire for security.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Director James Comey: Several ISIS-Inspired July 4 Attacks Foiled
Some of the dozen arrests made by federal agents in the last four weeks helped to thwart potential terror attacks during the Fourth of July holiday, FBI Director James Comey said Thursday.
“I do believe our work disrupted efforts to kill people, likely in connection with July 4,” Comey told reporters at FBI headquarters in Washington.
Comey’s comments are a public confirmation made by other law enforcement that several people were arrested in the past month over concerns that they might have been inspired by ISIS to carry out attacks either during the holiday or during the Muslim holy period of Ramadan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
FBI’s Amazing Trick to Avoid Accountability
As is standard practice, prosecutors asked that Wolf submit to an FBI interview in advance of any courtroom testimony. The interview reports, commonly called 302 reports, are named after the form on which they are written.
The FBI’s process for handling 302s is hardly an ideal one for accurate recording and transmittal of what was said during an interview.
The process is as such: two FBI agents ask questions and listen to the answers — without tape recording or obtaining a certified transcript. Instead, they return to their office and, based on their recollection and any notes they may have taken during the interview, write up a summary of what transpired. Summaries are, in most cases, written hours later, sometimes even the following day.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Judge Orders Cancellation of Washington Redskins’ Trademarks
A federal judge in Virginia has ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to cancel six of the Washington Redskins’ registered trademarks because their depiction of an Indian brave is considered offensive to Native Americans.
‘The evidence before the Court supports the legal conclusion that between 1967 [when the first Redskins’ trademark was registered] and 1990, the Redskins Marks consisted of matter that ‘may disparage’ a substantial composite of Native Americans,’ U.S. District Judge Gerald Lee wrote in his July 8 ruling in Pro-Football Inc. v. Blackhorse.
In his 70-page decision, Lee rejected the Redskins’ argument that the trademark cancellation was an infringement of the teams’ First and Fifth Amendment rights.
‘The federal trademark registration program is government speech and is therefore exempt from First Amendment scrutiny,’ he ruled, adding that ‘a trademark registration is not considered property under the Fifth Amendment.’
The order does not prevent the pro football team from continuing to use the logo. However, the loss of federal trademark protection could jeopardize some of its commercial and licensing activities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hackers Stole Social Security Numbers From 21.5 Million, Gov’t Admits
Hackers swiped Social Security numbers from 21.5 million people — as well as fingerprint records and other information from background check investigations — in the massive breach earlier this year of federal personnel files, the government acknowledged Thursday.
The Office of Personnel Management included the findings in a statement Thursday on the investigation into a pair of major hacks believed carried out by China.
“The team has now concluded with high confidence that sensitive information, including the Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of 21.5 million individuals, was stolen from the background investigation databases,” the agency said of the second breach, which affected background investigation files.
The number affected by this breach is higher than the 14 million figure that investigators gave reporters last month. They said the government was increasingly confident that China’s government, and not criminal hackers, was responsible for the extraordinary theft of personal information.
China has publicly denied involvement in the break-in.
A former senior intelligence official also told Fox News that the attack is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader campaign by China to build a massive database that can be used to earmark and index the intelligence for future use. This information is being aggregated, and the level of organization points to backing of Chinese military units.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IBM Makes Chips With ‘Smallest Components’
IBM has said it has overcome technical hurdles threatening to delay the manufacture of silicon chips with the smallest components so far.
It said it could now make chips with parts 7nm (nanometres) wide — about the same as a red blood cell.
The smallest parts on current chips are about 14nm. One nanometre is equal to one billionth of a metre.
So far, the 7nm chips have been made in the lab. IBM is now working on ways to replicate them in manufacturing plants.
The breakthrough means Moore’s Law — the general rule describing the steady growth of computer power — will continue operating for the next few years.
Moore’s Law suggests that computer power should double every couple of years, typically because novel ways are found to make components shrink in size.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Just yesterday, I published a post titled: Florida Man Sentenced to 2.5 Years in Jail for Having Sex on the Beach. The purpose of that post wasn’t to justify his actions, but rather to highlight the difference between how average citizens are treated under the U.S. ‘justice’ system, and how thieving, remorseless financial oligarchs are treated.
While, Mr. Caballero may have ruined the day of a few beach goers by crudely having sex on a public beach in broad daylight, he didn’t run the U.S. economy into the ground and cause destitution to tens of millions of Americans. Nor did he received trillions in taxpayer backstops and bailouts, only to turn around and pay himself a record bonus and then carry on with extremely profitable, illegal financial schemes. No, it was the bank executives who did (and continue to do) all of that. Guess who ends up in prison?
And now, for the latest financial scam perpetrated by JP Morgan, as well as the insignificant slap on the wrist fine, I present the followingfrom Reuters:
JPMorgan Chase & Co has agreed to pay at least $125 million to settle probes by U.S. state and federal authorities that the bank sought to improperly collect and sell consumer credit card debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
The settlement also includes about $50 million in restitution, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Gets 2.5 Years in Prison for Having Sex on the Beach While a Cop Rapes a Toddler and Walks
Manatee, FL — On July 20, 2014, Jose Caballero and Elissa Alvarez were ‘caught’ in broad daylight, making love on Bradenton Beach. In May, Caballero was convicted of having sex on the beach.
On Monday, Caballero was given a sentence of 2 1/2 years in prison. Meanwhile, a former cop admits to raping a toddler and avoids jail altogether.
On June 17, John Van Trump was convicted of sexually assaulting a little girl. However, instead of the minimum 25-year sentence he originally faced, Trump was given 10 years deferred adjudication and will not see another day in jail.
No one was hurt, no one was forced to do anything against their will, and there were no victims. But somehow, the state feels this man must be deprived of his freedom and locked in a cage — for what?
The couple was caught on video by a woman who was so offended that she decided to pull out her camera and film it. Their swimsuits remained on the entire time, but their movements, which are necessary for the proliferation of human life, caused them to be arrested and charged with felony lewd and lascivious exhibition.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 21 Million Affected by Government Data Breach
Hackers stole Social Security numbers, health histories and other highly sensitive data from more than 21 million people, the Obama administration said Thursday, acknowledging that the breach of U.S. government computer systems was far more severe than previously disclosed.
The scope of the data breach — believed to be the biggest in U.S. history — has grown dramatically since the government first disclosed earlier this year that hackers had gotten into the Office of Personnel Management’s personnel database and stolen records for about 4.2 million people. Since then, the Obama administration has acknowledged a second, related breach of the systems housing private data that individuals submit during background investigations to obtain security clearances.
Numerous U.S. lawmakers, including Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, have said China was behind the attack. But Michael Daniel, Obama’s cybersecurity coordinator, said the government wasn’t yet ready to say who was responsible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Horizons Snaps Pluto From Eight Million Km
New Horizons has acquired yet another stunning view of Pluto.
The US space agency probe captured the latest image on Tuesday when it was just under eight million km from the dwarf world.
The face of Pluto seen in the image is broadly that which will be examined in detail on 14 July.
At closest approach, New Horizons will be about 12,500km above the surface.
Its high-resolution camera Lorri should then be able to discern features at a resolution better than 100m per pixel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New MTV Show Publicly Shames White People for ‘What They’Ve Done in America’ (Video)
MTV will air a show later this month entitled White People which shows young white Americans crying on camera over their ‘white privilege’ and publicly shaming them for ‘what they’ve done in America’.
No, this is not a joke. The documentary is hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, an illegal immigrant and amnesty activist who has worked for the Washington Post and the Huffington Post.
The trailer for the show, which has been widely criticized by YouTube respondents, features white people expressing angst about how they are desperate not to appear ‘racist’ or ‘offend people.’ According to Kimberly Ricci, the documentary forces the participants ‘to internalize what they’ve done in America’ — in other words, this a huge exercise in white guilt tripping for public consumption.
[Comment: This is disgusting. This is pure brainwashing and reprogramming. Young people are not mature enough to understand that “guilt” “shame” are powerful reprogramming tools used by social engineers. MTV youngsters are being “played”. Parents, dump your subscriptions to MTV. This is all part of the elitists strategy of divide and conquer. Play blacks and white against each other so they don’t understand the real enemies of humanity are the banksters.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Orders Cities and Towns to Racially Integrate
The Obama administration unveiled new rules Wednesday to rid the country of racially segregated neighborhoods by directing cities and towns to set goals for reducing segregation, and then regularly report their progress to the feds.
Communities nationwide will be given a series of questions designed to help them figure out whether racial bias is causing segregated neighborhoods, racial or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, unequal access to opportunity or disproportionate housing needs in their jurisdiction. They will be required to set goals related to that data and publicly report on their progress every three to five years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pluto Flyby Begins: NASA Probe Enters Encounter Phase
NASA’s New Horizons probe has officially begun to execute its sequence of Pluto flyby observations as it zooms toward its closest approach to the dwarf planet on July 14.
Mission representatives say New Horizons is “back on track” after it experienced an anomaly on July 4 that caused it to go into a temporary “safe mode.” The anomaly was later shown to be the result of too many commands being executed at once.
The spacecraft is already collecting data about the Pluto system, and its nine-day flyby sequence will continue through July 16. It’s taken more than nine years for the $700 million New Horizons mission to traverse the 3 billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers) between Earth and Pluto, but the peak of the spacecraft’s journey will last a matter of hours.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police Chief Pushes for Hate Crime Charges in Black Mob Beating of White Man
After initially backing away from reports that the July 4 beating of a white man by a black mob was racially motivated, Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell is now pushing for hate crime charges to be filed.
As we reported earlier this week, 27-year-old Christopher McKnight was brutally attacked in Fountain Square after a hip-hop concert by a group of black teens who choked and punched the victim, leaving him hospitalized with serious internal injuries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rebirth of the Kennedy Dynasty?
Since Teddy died and Caroline took off for Japan—where she’s the U.S. ambassador—we haven’t heard much from America’s most famous political dynasty. But the Kennedys keep regenerating, so you never know. Yesterday Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III, who is now in his second term in Congress, announced on his Facebook page that he and wife, Lauren, are expecting in December their first child, a girl. “(We) can’t wait to introduce her to Team Kennedy around the holidays,” wrote the 34-year-old scion, the son of former Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, and grandson of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy and his wife met while students at Harvard Law School; they were married in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
SC Gov. Haley Signs Bill to Remove Confederate Flag From Statehouse Grounds
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill into law Thursday that will bring down the Confederate flag outside the Statehouse, a move that seemed unthinkable only a month ago in this Deep South state that was the first to secede from the Union.
The law requires the battle flag to be gone within 24 hours; her staff said it would be removed during a ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday and relegated to the state’s Confederate Relic Room.
The flag first flew over the Statehouse dome in 1961 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War and was kept there as a symbol of official opposition to the civil rights movement. Mass protests decades later led to a compromise in 2000 with lawmakers who insisted that the flag symbolized Southern heritage and state’s rights.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Undiscovered Country — How Many More Plutos Are There?
Pluto may only be the beginning of NASA New Horizons’ exploration of the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt. Project scientists Alan Stern and Mark Buie explain how the surprising population of Kuiper Belt Objects are time capsules from the formation of our Solar System.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Liberal Harasses Open Carry Supporter
Hopping mad liberal attempts to shame open carry advocate defending constitutional rights.
Last month, an intransigent liberal filmed himself outside of the St. Louis Zoo berating a man who was open carrying a pistol.
The St. Louis area man open carrying, Brian Lewis, stood his ground and defended his constitutional rights while the man filming, Richard Johnson, proceeded to call him names and spout liberal anti-gun talking points.
As Johnson filmed, several more men with holsters exited the zoo, whom he also referred to as ‘pussies.’
WARNING GRAPHIC LANGUAGE:
[Comment: video has been removed by the user, probably due to the negative feedback.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What in the World Just Happened to the New York Stock Exchange?
Do you believe that the New York Stock Exchange shut down because of a ‘technical glitch’ on Wednesday? At 11:32 AM on Wednesday morning, trading on the New York Stock Exchange was halted due to ‘internal technical issues’, and it did not resume until 3:10 PM. Officials insist that there is no evidence that a cyberattack caused the technical problems even though hactivists had hinted that something may happen the night before. Adding to the suspicion is the fact that United Airlines and the Wall Street Journal also experienced very serious ‘technical glitches’ on Wednesday. Others found it very curious that trading on the NYSE was halted just after Chinese stocks had absolutely plummeted the night before. In fact, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index experienced the largest one day decline that we have witnessed since November 2008. So is there more going on here than meets the eye?
Overall, the Dow was down 261 points on Wednesday, and the Dow and the S&P 500 both closed below their 200 day moving averages. Iron ore had its biggest daily price drop ever, and the price of oil continued to decline. But it was the stunning shut down of the New York Stock Exchange that made headlines all over the world —
The New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines and the Wall Street Journal have all fallen victim to a series of massive technical glitches within hours of each other.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
13-Year-Old Water Skis From Norway to Denmark
A thirteen-year-old boy from Norway has water skied all the way to Denmark without pausing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
20,000 Students Without Housing in Sweden
As Swedish and foreign students prepare to start university this autumn, a new report suggests 20,000 of them will struggle to find a place to live, despite a national push to tackle the housing shortage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Copenhagen Shop Held Hundreds of Stolen Bikes
After a customer recognized his previously-stolen bicycle being refurbished in a Nørrebro shop, police uncovered a massive fencing operation involving hundreds of stolen bikes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Don’t Turn Churches Into Mosques, Says Sarkozy
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy has signed a petition in a far—right magazine under the title “Don’t touch our churches” after a French Muslim leader called for empty places of Christian worship to be converted into mosques.
Sarkozy added his name to a list of signatories that includes controversial writer and political journalist Éric Zemmour and philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, as well as Jeannette Bougrab, partner of the late Stéphane Charbonnier, Charlie Hebdo editor .
The petition, published in the magazine Valeurs Actuelles comes after Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris said he was in favour of turning empty churches into mosques due to the serious shortage of places of worship for Muslims.
In France there are currently 2,500 mosques, with another 300 under construction, but Boubakeur says the number falls far short of what is needed.
With upwards of 5 million Muslims in France — the largest Muslim population in Europe — Boubakeur and other imams suggest as many as 5,000 mosques are needed.
But his call stirred up a hornet’s nest and Sarkozy has come out firmly against the idea. So too has former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: AfD Founder Resigns Over ‘Xenophobic’ Power Grab
Bernd Lucke founder of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) resigned his membership of the party on Wednesday evening after being voted out of the leadership at a party conference last weekend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadi supporters have been circulating a radical guidebook on social media, providing deadly instructions on how to create an active terror cell. The shocking handbook, which has not been named by the MailOnline, worryingly contains a chapter by chapter guide to financing ‘Muslim gangs’ and obtaining weapons in the UK.
The book appears to be targeting a British audience, with harrowing references to a number of Britain’s worst terror cases.
Behind the cover of a charitable organisation raising awareness of Islamic teachings, gang members are urged to draw in recruits covertly off the streets.
Terrifyingly detailed bombmaking instructions are laid out in another chapter . . . Gang members are encouraged to carry out muggings and acts of credit card fraud to pay for weapons and materials for large scale attacks. Even police anti-terror tactics are scrutinised, as well as lengthy quotes of guidance from the dead terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
It goes on to explain how to test improvised devices as well as obtain more money and weapons
Dedicated gang members are given plans on how to best board up houses from an impending terror raid, oddly referencing the American comedy film Home Alone as an example of defending your home.
It praises Anjem Choudary for his knowledge of the law and claims people like the former spokesman for Islam4UK, ‘study the latest version of the Anti-Terrorism Act (Law)’ so they call for Islamic Law in the UK without being arrested.
The handbook draws on some of the latest terror arrest cases, including the jailing of 20-year-old Zakariya Ashiq, from Coventry, for allegedly trying to join ISIS.
It draws on short, distorted Qu’ranic quotes to justify why Muslims should only fear Allah and not show any fear of being jailed by the authorities.
The financial strategy of carrying out muggings and recruiting people by handing out leaflets on an Islamic street stall, was used by British jihadist Choukri Ellekhlifi before he travelled to Syria. Video footage emerged of Choukri Ellekhlifi working on a Dawah stall in West London, attempting to convert passers-by. He was also known for being part of a West London gang, who used tasers and mopeds to mug their victims.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: INPS Chief Gets Flak After Mooting Pension Overhaul
Social security agency posts 12.7-bn-euro deficit for 2014
(ANSA) — Rome, July 8 — Tito Boeri, the head of pensions and social security agency INPS, came under fire on Wednesday after outlining his vision for a pensions overhaul at the presentation of the agency’s annual report. Boeri argued that the contributions-based pensions system brings with it the scope for greater flexibility for people wanting to take early retirement, although the catch is that their pensions will be lower. “The rules of the contributions-based system allow for a certain degree of outgoing flexibility,” Boeri said. “Sustainable flexibility means that those who retire earlier must spread out the sum of their contributions over more months than those who retire later”. Premier Matteo Renzi’s government has said it wants to make the pensions system more flexible to cater for people wanting early retirement. In recent years Italy raised the retirement age for men from 65 to 66 and seven months and is gradually taking it up to that level for women by 2018 to make the system more sustainable.
It has also switched towards a contributions-based system, rather than the old system based on final-working-years salaries, although it will take a long time to completely phase out the old system. Annamaria Parente, a Senator for Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and a labour committee member, said Boeri’s speech had provided interesting input.
But Parente also warned against “accelerating the adoption of a totally contributions-based system” as this would mean “further depressing medium and low pensions”. Susanna Camusso, the leader of Italy’s largest trade union CGIL, said that Boeri’s proposal was plain “wrong”.
“That means reducing by 30% to 35% the pensions of the poorest,” Camusso said. Renata Polverini, an MP for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s opposition centre-right Forza Italia party, described Boeri’s proposals as a “useless pitch invasion”. Boeri also said Wednesday that retirees on high State pensions should pay a “solidarity contribution” to help make the national pensions system sustainable in the long term. “We think that its right to ask those who have high pensions earnings thanks to a system that was much more advantageous than for those who will have pensions in the future to make a contribution to finance a more flexible system,” Boeri said.
In the annual report, INPS said it posted a deficit of 12.7 billion euros in 2014. However, the agency stressed that its operating deficit was much lower, 7.8 billion euros, adding that the sustainability of the social-security system “is not at risk”.
INPS said that its net worth rosed from 9.028 billion euros to 17.952 billion thanks to the State covering debts from INPDAP, an agency for public-sector workers that has been incorporated into INPS. The agency said that more than 6.6 million Italian pensioners (some 42.5% of the total) have incomes of less than 1,000 euros a month. INPS said that this group of people’s incomes represented only 18.9% of overall expenditure in 2014, receiving little more than 50 billion. It added that it found irregularities at 47,000 of the 58,000 companies it did inspections at last year, around 81%. As a result, the agency identified over 77,000 workers employed under contacts featuring irregularities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Power Consumption Hits New High
Heat wave pushes record to 56,883 megawatts
(ANSA) — Rome, July 8 — Baking heat has helped push Italian electricity consumption up to a new daily high of 56,883 megawatts, 61 MW higher than the previous record set in 2007 and registered Tuesday at 16:00, grid operator Terna said Wednesday.
Temperature highs were more than five degrees higher than the same period last year, Terna said. Italy has been sweltering in a heat wave in the last few days with struggling AC units rachetted up to the max.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
MEPs Set Course on US Trade Talks
EU-US trade talks should be transparent and any agreement should protect workers’ rights, personal data and public services, MEPs said Wednesday while rejecting a private arbitration court.
The resolution — months in the making due to heated debates on a controversial special court that allows firms to sue governments -was backed by 436 MEPs, with 241 against.
The final text on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) allows for a more public system for businesses wanting to sue governments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Cops Call for Tougher Bridge Checks
Police in Malmö have called for strengthened border control on the Öresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark in a bid to crack down on a recent wave of gun crime in the city.
Violence in Sweden’s third largest urban centre has escalated in the past two months, including shootings, explosions, hand grenades being thrown and cars and buildings set on fire.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Troubling Question in the French Jewish Community: Is it Time to Leave?
by Marie Brenner
‘How can anyone be allowed to paint a swastika on the statue of Marianne, the goddess of French liberty, in the very center of the Place de la République?”
That was what the chairman of one of France’s most celebrated luxury brands was thinking last July, when a tall man in a black shirt and a kaffiyeh leapt to the ledge of Marianne’s pedestal and scrawled a black swastika. All around him, thousands of angry demonstrators were swarming the square with fake rockets, Palestinian and Hamas flags, even the black-and-white banners of ISIS. Here, barely a mile and a half from the Galeries Lafayette, the heart of bourgeois Paris, the chants: “MORT AUX JUIFS! MORT AUX JUIFS!” Death to the Jews. It was Saturday, July 26, 2014, and a pro-Palestinian demonstration turned into a day of terror in one of the most fashionable neighborhoods of the city.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter Helps Spanish Police Make More Than 800 Drug Arrests
What started as a campaign asking for the public’s help on Twitter has grown to become one of the most effective methods for cracking down on drug traffickers in Spain, with more than 800 arrests in the past two-and-a-half years.
Spain’s National Police has gone from putting up wanted posters for traffickers to searching for them with help from the social networks using the hashtag #tweetredada (tweetraid).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Road Tax Reform Will Hit Drivers of Luxury and Greenest Cars Hardest
Families attack ‘madness’ of £900 annual bill for two cars
Many of Britain’s motorists will pay a high price for cars getting ‘greener’ after George Osborne announced a major overhaul of road tax.
Drivers of eco-friendly hybrids and luxury vehicles will be hardest hit by the Chancellor’s reform of vehicle excise duty (VED).
Families said it was ‘madness’ that they could be hit with an annual bill of £900-a-year, but Mr Osborne pledged to spend the money on building and improving the nation’s major roads.
Right Wing News has contacts with Scott Walker’s campaign and with his PAC. We reached out to both and asked for them to go on the record about Brad Dayspring. Unfortunately, nobody was willing to go on the record defending him — which should tell you a lot.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Clinton Chosen to Lead US Srebrenica Delegation
Former US President Bill Clinton has been chosen to lead the US delegation to a weekend commemoration of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. He will be joined by his former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Tensions Mount Ahead of Srebrenica Massacre Anniversary
As the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre draws near, tensions are mounting whether to call the killings “genocide.” Russia vetoed a proposal at the UNSC while the US House called it “genocide” in a resolution.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Attack: UK Tourists Advised to Leave Country
All British nationals are being urged to leave Tunisia because “a further terrorist attack is highly likely”, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says.
Thirty Britons were among 38 tourists killed in a gunman’s attack on 26 June.
The Foreign Office is advising against all non-essential travel to Tunisia.
The FCO said that although the Tunisian authorities had put in place more security measures since the June attack, these did not “provide adequate protection for British tourists”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World’s Smallest Bible is the Size of a Grain of Sugar
The world’s smallest bible, etched on a microchip the size of a grain of sugar, has been placed on display as part of the Israel Museum’s 50th anniversary celebration.
Created by scientists at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, the Nano Bible is a gold-plated silicon chip the size of a pinhead on which the entire Hebrew Bible is engraved. The tiny bible needs to be magnified 10,000 times to be legible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS’ Latest Executions Show Risk Faced by Caliphate’s Secret Resistance
The two men killed in the latest execution video from ISIS likely were among a handful of activists who remain within the terrorist army’s caliphate, working secretly under the noses of the black-clad jihadists to offer the world a glimpse from inside the belly of the beast.
The men, identified on the gruesome video as Bashar Abdul Atheem, 20, and Faisal Hasan al-Habib, 21, wore the signature orange jumpsuits and “confessed” to spying before being tied to wooden posts and shot point-blank in the head. The group Raqqa is being Slaughtered Silently, among the most prominent activists who send dispatches, images and video out to world media organizations from inside ISIS’ Syrian stronghold, denied that the men were part of its efforts.
Whether the disavowal was genuine or offered to protect others may never be clear. But the executions show the risk faced by those who dare to expose atrocities from within ISIS strongholds, said Christoph Wilcke, Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher for the Middle East and North Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Istanbul police launched an investigation after a MHP-linked youth organization reportedly attacked a group of Korean tourists in Sultanahmet Square on July 4, following a march to protest China’s restrictions on the religious freedom of ethnic Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
Three days before the attack, a Chinese restaurant in Istanbul was vandalized by ultranationalists, although its owner was a Turk and its cook was an Uighur.
MHP-linked groups have now begun openly printing death threats against the Chinese. “We crave Chinese blood,” said a banner hung in a building where the MHP-linked youth organization “Idealist Hearths” (Ülkü Ocaklari) is headquartered in Istanbul’s Kemalpasa neighborhood on July 7.
As anti-China protests spread around Turkey, Beijing issued a travel warning to its citizens on July 7, stressing that some tourists had been “attacked and harassed.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Consulate in Turkey Attacked for Deporting Uighurs
Turkish protesters have attacked the Thai consulate in Istanbul following the deportation from Thailand of about 100 Uighurs to China.
Thai officials said that protesters stormed the compound late on Wednesday night. No injuries were reported.
Rights groups have criticised such deportations, saying Uighurs face persecution in China.
Turkey has seen growing anger at Chinese discrimination against Uighurs, who are ethnically Turkic Muslims.
But China has said it respects the freedom of Muslim beliefs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trial Opens of Turkish Columnists Over Mohammad Cartoon
Two Turkish newspaper commentators went on trial on Thursday for illustrating their columns with a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Ceyda Karan and Hikmet Cetinkaya, writers at the secular Cumhuriyet daily, face up to 4 1/2 years in jail on charges of “inciting public hatred” and “insulting religious values” in connection with the cartoon.
Karan and Cetinkaya were not present at the first hearing, which was attended by over 100 plaintiffs, most of whom described themselves as readers offended by the columns, Cumhuriyet reported.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s daughter, Sumeyye, his son, Bilal, and his son-in-law Berat Albayrak, a newly-elected lawmaker, also asked to be plaintiffs in the case, their lawyer said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia May Ban Soros Charity in NGO Crackdown
Hedge fund billionaire George Soros’s charitable foundation may be kicked out of Russia, as Moscow considers banning foreign non-governmental organizations (NGO) that promote democracy.
TASS, Russia’s state-owned media service, reported on Wednesday that the Federation Council would consider a ‘stop list’ of NGOs accused of carrying out ‘soft aggression’ in the country.
Twelve organizations are on the ‘patriotic ‘stop list,’’ including Soros’ grant-making foundation. It aims to promote ‘vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens,’ according to the Open Society Foundations website, which was founded by Soros.
CNBC believes this is the ‘Soros Foundation’ to which TASS refers. However, Open Society Foundations was not immediately available to comment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
India: Communal Tension Tamed by Police After Clash Between Hindu-Muslims in Pune
Cops fire in air in Pune after communal clash over heavy stones pelting between Hindu-Muslims near Noore-e-Ilahi mosque. Several injured, 11 arrested.
Milind Anand Patil | HENB | Pune | July 8, 2015: The Pune police fired three rounds in the air and resorted to a mild lathi-charge to disperse two groups of people who clashed after stones were thrown at a mosque at Parvati junction here on Tuesday night. Six persons were injured in the stone pelting, the police said. 11 persons were arrested by the police so far.
Eyewitnesses told the police that four or five people threw stones at the mosque around 10.30 pm when several people had gathered to offer Namaz. Trouble broke out soon after, and the attack was defended by the other group and its members took to the streets. Over a thousand people, representing both sides, started pelting stones at each other and damaged several vehicles passing through the area.
The scuffle started at around 10 pm on Tuesday with a group of Muslim youngsters allegedly troubled over headlights of a bike directly focused on their eyes. Seeing a huge Muslim gathering inside the Mosque, the Muslim juveniles trended the thrashing upon Hindu bike riders on post iftaar jolly. They beat the Hindu duo on the bike and went off the place and mixed with the post iftaar congregation in the nearby Noore-e-Ilahi mosque. The injured Hindus left soon to report to a nearby police station.
“In the meanwhile, a group gathered and pelted stones and bricks at the Noore-e-Ilahi mosque, about 100 metres from the spot,” Azhar Tamboli, an activist associated with Maharashtra Action Committee and AIMIM’s Pune district general secretary said. “The two groups clashed and people from the area got involved too. Two of their people were injured, while from our side 18 were injured. These included two women and children too,” reacted Tamboli in a despair of a defeat to the Hindu reaction…
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Aceh: Muslim Extremists Asking Government for Money to Join the Islamic State Group
Scores of former members of the GAM separatist group are ready to fly to Syria to fight for jihad. A formal letter was sent to the province’s governor asking for money. Since January 2014, a group affiliated with the Islamic State group has existed in Aceh, the only Indonesian province where Sharia is enforced.
Banda Aceh (AsiaNews) — Some former militants with the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) have sent a letter to the provincial governor, Zaini Abdullah, asking him to provide financial support so that they can join the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria. GAM was a separatist group that once sought independence for Aceh, a province on the island of Sumatra, from Indonesia.
According to the Serambi news agency, which reported the story, Safaruddin, from the Aceh-based Muslim Lawyers Team, signed the letter. At a public press conference on Monday with former Gam commander Fakhruddin Bin Kasem, he said that scores of fundamentalist fighters are ready to join the Islamic State’s jihad in Syria.
Indonesia’s central government has not yet reacted since it is presently involved in appointing the country’s new military and national intelligence chiefs. By contrast, In Aceh, a province where Sharia is enforced, the story has caused a stir. However, some local experts have dismissed the demand.
Aryos Nivada, a senior researcher at The Aceh Institute, said, “Such a public statement at the press conference last Monday was nothing more than bluffing. [. . .] GAM had nothing to with the ISIS” because their respective political agendas are totally different since the latter sought independence from Jakarta.
According to Fadhil M. Rahmi, a member of the Middle East Alumni Forum, people in Aceh must watch out for this propaganda. “We should not allow Aceh to be linked to the global problem of IS, which has tarnished the image of Islam”.
For his part, H. Syamsul Rijal, vice rector of Aceh’s Ar-Raniry State Islamic University, insists on the need to investigate carefully fundamentalists’ demand and “let the provincial government deal with them. These ex-combatants should be marginalised and ignored. “
Speaking to the media yesterday, Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah dismissed the issue. “If they want to join [IS], why worry about it?” he said. “This is not my concern (as governor) but the Central Government’s concern.” A former GAM member, Mr Zaini spent 30 years in exile in Sweden,
The presence of sympathisers in Aceh is nothing new. A report published in August 2014 by Serambi said that a group of pro-IS elements was set up in the province in January 2014.
The group’s spokesman, Abu Jundallah, claims to have direct contact with the Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but not with the official IS affiliated Indonesian group, led by Abu Muhammad Al-Indonesi.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Bans Translation of Islam’s “Sacred Words” Into English
“Forbidden” WORDS include Allah (God), Masjid (mosque), Sala’t (prayer) and Rasool (the Prophet). Christian activist slams policy for its “negative impact on Christians and religious minorities.”
Islamabad (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Pakistan has banned the translation of Islamic words and Arabic names into English. Local media report that on June 4 last, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved a document that prohibits the translation of words such as Allah (God), Masjid (mosque), Sala’t (prayer) and Rasool (the Prophet) . Many Muslim leaders have welcomed the move, but it has drawn criticism from several activists.
According to Nasir Saeed, director of the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS-UK), it is difficult to predict what kind of impact this decision will have on Pakistani society. “Taking into account the current situation — he says — where extremism, fundamentalism and hatred against Christians and other religious minorities is on the rise, there is a chance that this policy can have a negative effect, especially on the lives of non-Muslims.”
“It is curious — he added — that this was done one day before the anniversary of the coup of General Zia in 1977, who deposed the elected Prime Minister and began a Islamization of the country and its laws, pushing Pakistan into darkness “.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Lahore: A New Future for the Children of Shama and Shahzad, Burnt Alive by Muslims
The Cecil Chaudhry & Iris Foundation took charge of the Catholic couple’s four children, and are providing them with an education. The eldest, Suleiman and Sonia, have past their year-end exam with flying colours. For Fr Mendes, the “Foundation is not just paying their fees, but is giving them the love they miss so badly.”
Lahore (AsiaNews) — The four children of Shama and Shahzad Masih, a Catholic couple that was stoned to death and burnt by a group of Muslims in November 2014 after they were accused of blasphemy, have not been abandoned.
The Cecil Chaudhry & Iris Foundation (CICF) took charge of the children, who were between 18 months to 8 years, when they lost their parents.
Named after veteran Pakistan Air Force fighter pilot and Catholic activist Cecil Chaudhry and his wife Iris, the foundation is paying for the costs of the children’s education: school fees, books, uniforms, private lessons, public transport, etc.
Suleiman and Sonia Masih’s First Term Examination Results came out this week. Both kids did well. Suleiman got an A+ and Sonia got a B. The CICF celebrated this by buying them toys, colouring books, and sweets.
“We are overjoyed to see these children not only enjoying school but also doing so well,” said Michelle Chaudhry, daughter of Iris and Cecil Chaudhry and president of the foundation.
“We thank all our supporters whose generosity has made this possible,” she added, “especially the group members of ISWMOKB and all our friends who have enabled us to contribute towards bringing about a positive change in the lives of these unfortunate children.”
“We at the CICF strongly believe in the power of education and the fact that it is education that brings change and security.”
Lastly, “It is my conviction that education is one of the best defences against exploitation and oppression,” the CICF president noted. “Academic empowerment is certainly the way forward for any oppressed community in an intolerant society.”
“Getting the poor, especially two small children who lost both parents tragically, thrown into the burning furnace of a red hot brick kiln on false charge of blasphemy, is very difficult,” said Fr Bonnie Mendes.
Despite this, “both kids are doing very well in their studies,” the priest said. The “Foundation is not just paying their fees, but giving them the love they miss so badly.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sharif and Malala Hold First Meet in Oslo
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai held their first official meeting on Wednesday after both attended a UN education summit in Oslo.
The 17-year-old activist, who was shot and nearly killed by the Taliban in Pakistan in October 2012 for insisting girls had a right to an education, said Sharif told her his government would support her if she decided to visit the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s New Cybersecurity Law Sparks Censorship Concerns
China has released a draft cybersecurity law which immediately sparked concerns that it is too vague and could signal Beijing’s widespread censorship of the Internet becoming even more far-reaching.
The ruling Communist Party oversees a vast censorship system — dubbed the Great Firewall — that aggressively blocks sites or snuffs out Internet content and commentary on topics considered sensitive, such as Beijing’s human rights record and criticism of the government.
The proposed legislation will ‘ensure network security, (and) safeguard the sovereignty of cyberspace and national security,’ according to the draft law, which was posted Monday on the website of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the rubber-stamp parliament, but reported by state media Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Bangkok Forcibly Returns More Than 90 Uyghurs to China
The Uyghur refugees had entered in the country irregularly about a year ago. They include many women and children. They were taken from prisons and transported to a military airport where for a flight to China. Men who refused to climb on board the plane were drugged. Activist reports that the “Beijing government behind this shameful act.”
Bangkok (AsiaNews) — More than 90 ethnic Uyghur, including several women and children, have been forcibly deported to China. They are accused of illegally entering Thailand, having fled from Beijing persecution in the north-western region of Xinjiang.
This was reported by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an organization of exiled Uyghurs based in Monaco, which shows how the detainees, after more than a year in prison in Thailand, were transported from prison to the military airport near the capital Bangkok. The news is also confirmed by the Turkish newspaper Yenisafak, contacted by a social worker who attended detainees at the airport.
Bilal Degirmeci of the Turkish aid group Cansuyu, told the paper: “ We have learned that Uyghurs were taken to the military airport in handcuffs with three military vehicles. “[The authorities] said 50 male and 25 female detainees were taken from the Bangkok detention center. “ According to the WUC’s source, the women and children from the five detention centers had already been taken onboard, while the men had “resisted getting on a plane heading to China” amid a heavy Thai army presence at the airport”. The Thai army is using “a special chemical gas” to knock the men unconscious and force them onto the plane, the source said.
The WUC said it was “gravely concerned” about the fate of the Uyghurs, noting that the consequences of their repatriation were likely to include criminal allegations used to justify punishments that would be inflicted on them upon their arrival in China. “The children — continues the statement — are in deep shock, unable to comprehend the cruelty engulfing them at the airport. The crying plea of women is falling on deaf ears, disappearing over the horizon. The situation of the men is still unknown. “
Beijing has been cracking down on the Uyghur community for a long time. The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority that lives in the Chinese region of Xinjiang. The population speaks a Turkish dialect and considers itself much closer to the tradition of Central Asia than China.
Since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, Beijing has seen the Uyghurs as terrorists affiliated to al-Qaeda, accusing their members of receiving training in military camps in Afghanistan before returning home and threatening the Chinese territory. Also in recent times China fears that the Uyghurs may adopt the ideology and tactics of the Islamic state extremists.
The policy of discrimination against this minority has resulted in a mass migration, which passes from the territories of Central and South America, especially through Thailand and Malaysia. To curb this immigration, Beijing has signed a series of extradition deals to bring Uyghur detainees back to home soil.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mbeki Says Hated Afrikaner Legacy ‘Still Lingering in South Africa’
The Anglo-Xhosa politician and former South African president Thabo Mbeki says the legacy of Afrikaner rule still hangs over the country, and it’s now up to the youth to bring change.
According to media reports, the former head of state addressed matric history students at Westerford High School in Cape Town today.
The students heard Mbeki speak about the secret negotiations between the former Afrikaner government and the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1980s.
You could hear a pin drop as the small group paid close attention to every detail Mbeki shared with them.
The former president relived the late 1980s when the ANC held secret negotiations to take over the country with, among others, the Afrikaner organisation, the Broederbond, the then ruling National Party, the international community, and ultimately the government itself.
He also told of meetings in Switzerland and other parts of the world as part of the ANC’s quest for power and instituting radical Afrocentric rule in South Africa.
Mbeki says the legacy of Afrikaner rule is still prevalent and it’s up to today’s youth to change society…
| — Hat tip: RRN | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Teachers Bound and Shaved for Following Education Reform
Violent protests that broke out in several Mexican states last month over President Enrique Peña Nieto’s controversial education reform have reached new heights with radical groups now chasing down teachers who try to comply with the new law.
In recent days, dozens of teachers have been targeted by hardline members of the powerful National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE) union when they try to cross picket lines to take the now-required evaluation test or simply apply to fill classroom vacancies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Morales Gives Pope Cross Carved in Hammer and Sickle
Pontiff gives unusual present puzzled look
(ANSA) — Rome, July 9 — Pope Francis received an unusual crucifix carved into a wooden hammer and sickle during his meeting with Bolivian president Evo Morales in La Paz on Wednesday.
The pontiff reportedly looked puzzled when he was handed the strange Communist-inspired cross by the Bolivian anti-clerical champion of indigenous rights.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Ministers Fail to Reach Agreement on Relocating 40,000 Refugees Who Landed in Greece, Italy
BRUSSELS — European Union ministers have failed to agree on relocating 40,000 of the refugees making risky boat trips from North Africa to Italy and Greece and will try again later this month to broker a deal on how many people each country will accept.
The stalemate came a day after the UN refugee agency announced that data from Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain showed 137,000 people arriving in those countries between January and June, 83 percent more than the same time last year. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said 1,867 people died making the crossing, up from 588 a year earlier.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country hosted the ministerial meeting Thursday, says ministers will meet again July 20 to try to reach an agreement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Keeps Swiss Housing Market Tight
Immigration of is continuing to put upward pressure on rental housing costs and residential property prices, particularly in the Lake Geneva region, a report from Bern says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: More Than 170,000 Migrant Arrivals in 2014, Orlando Says
In 2013 just 42,000. 360 trafficker arrests 2013-15
(ANSA) — Rome, July 8 — More than 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy across the Mediterranean in 2014, Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando said on Wednesday.
In 2013, the total was just 42,000, Orlando said during a constitutional affairs hearing in the Senate.
Between 2013-15, 327 boats, containing 59,555 migrants, arrived along the Sicilian coast, close to the city of Siracusa.
There were also “360 arrests for aiding and abetting illegal immigration and 47 boat seizures,” Orlando said.
Migrant arrivals in 2015 could surpass those in 2014. The UN has estimated that more than 100,000 migrants have already arrived so far this year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Terrorists May be Running Migrant Boats Says Orlando
‘Extremist organizations need to self-finance’ says minister
(ANSA) — Rome, July 8 — Justice Minister Andrea Orlando told a Senate constitutional affairs committee hearing Wednesday that Islamist terrorist organizations may be running migrants across the Mediterranean in order to raise money for their extremist causes. “We believe organizations that aspire to exercise sovereignty over certain territories cannot but fuel the phenomenon (of migration),” Orlando said. “They need to self-finance”.
The minister went on to say that 26,218 refugees have disembarked in Italy in the first four months this year, 6.4% of them unaccompanied minors.
Orlando cited United Nations data showing a total of 137,000 people crossed the Mediterranean in the first six months of 2015, an 83% increase over the same period last year.
The minister also said the government plans to abolish the crime of illegal immigration from its penal code.
Criminalizing illegal immigration has proven “of limited if not zero effectiveness as a deterrent,” Orlando said.
“The threat of sanctions has not diminished the flow (of refugees),” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Says Federal Officials Must Personally Appear in Court for Violating Amnesty Injunction
A federal judge in the district court of South Texas has ordered top officials with the Department of Homeland Security — including Secretary Jeh Johnson — to appear in person in his court in Brownsville next month to show why they should not be held in contempt for violating an injunction issued against President Obama’s executive amnesty order.
Andrew Hanen issued the rare order on Tuesday in the latest court filing for a lawsuit filed to halt President Obama’s executive amnesty order. Obama announced the action on Nov. 20. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, then the state’s attorney general, filed the suit on Dec. 3.
Hanen called the Obama administration’s response to his Feb. 16 injunction ‘unacceptable’ and ‘unprofessional.’ He also stated that he is ‘shocked and surprised at the cavalier attitude the Government has taken’ towards it.
At issue is the federal government’s failure to clear up why DHS issued 2,000 work permits to illegal aliens even after the injunction was in place. The Justice Department made that announcement in May, but DHS and its sub-agencies have not yet explained why applications for the permits were approved.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Arrivals in Europe Jump by Two-Thirds in Early 2015, EU Seeks Deal
The number of migrants seeking protection in the European Union soared by 68 percent in the first five months of 2015 compared with the year-earlier period, the EU said on Wednesday at a time of haggling between member states over how to share the burden.
EU ministers responsible for migrant issues will meet on Thursday to weigh details of a plan aimed at deterring migrants from making dangerous sea crossings to Europe while helping Mediterranean EU countries — especially Italy and Greece — bearing the brunt of the influx and struggling to cope.
Member states have rejected a mandatory scheme to share migrants proposed by the European Commission, the EU executive, and are negotiating on voluntary commitments. “The work is still ongoing,” a diplomat told Reuters on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Slovakia to Take in 500 Refugees From Austria
Conditions have become so bad at Austria’s overcrowded refugee reception centre in Traiskirchen that the interior ministry has announced it will be sending 500 asylum seekers to neighbouring Slovakia.
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner stressed that Austria will still be responsible for processing asylum claims but that Bratislava and Vienna will share the accommodation and care costs. “It’s likely to be a cheaper solution for Austria,” she said, adding that the costs of care will not be any higher than they are in Vienna.
The first 50 asylum seekers will move to Slovakia this month, a further 200 in August, and 250 in September, Mikl-Leitner told media on Thursday. They will be housed in accommodation which is around 30km away from the Austrian border. If a refugee receives a positive outcome from their asylum application they will return to Austria.
“With this initiative Slovakia is showing solidarity. It’s a small step, but one which sends a great signal,” Mikl-Leitner said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Traitor Cities: Obama’s Municipal Allies Take Deadly Aim at America’s Borders
The “sanctuary city” movement that gave illegal aliens permission to rob, rape, and murder Americans is the product of decades of concerted collusion by radical groups like the ACLU to get cities to pledge to violate laws that protect U.S. national security.
Cheered on by the Left, sanctuary cities frustrate immigration enforcement efforts and shield illegal aliens from federal officials as a matter of policy.
The Obama administration is fine with that. President Obama has made America a sanctuary country, rolling out the red carpet for illegal aliens, especially those from Mexico, to come to the U.S. and depress labor markets while they suck the nation’s welfare state dry.
What these traitor cities do is itself unlawful, Hans von Spakovsky notes, but they get away with it because President Obama is determined to dismantle America’s immigration system in order to flood the country with desperately poor, illiterate peasants from the Third World.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Says EU Migrant Path Shifts East
UN refugee head, Guterres, said Thursday there’s a “clear pattern” of Syrian migrants increasingly entering the EU via Greece instead of via the central Mediterranean Sea. He forecast the flow will “drastically increase” because refugee camps on Syria’s borders “cannot provide the minimum level of assistance that human dignity requires”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ontario Lesbian Premier Dumbfounded by Sex Ed Objections
In a meeting, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne couldn’t respond to objections parents had to the state sexualizing their children.
A delegation of family, religious and ethnic groups met Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne at Queen’s Park on 29 April 2015 for 90 minutes to discuss her controversial sex education curriculum.
Gwen Landolt, National Vice President of REAL Women of Canada, was a part of the delegation and one of its speakers. The Premier seemed at a loss to come up with responses to our questions and statements about the curriculum. Ms Wynne appears to exist in her own bubble, where no one has raised these questions with her before.
For Example:
1. Ms Wynne informed us that, according a recent study, approximately 20% of children are engaged in sexual activity. We reasonably stated that this meant that 80% of children are not involved with sexual activity, presumably because of their families’ values, ethnic and religious beliefs. We then politely inquired, what then, was the purpose of all students taking this course? Was it so that all children can learn how to become sexually active? Ms Wynne was unable to make a response.
2. When one of the members of the delegation asked why very young children (grade 3) were being introduced to homosexuality and same-sex marriage, Ms Wynne stated that some children were living in same-sex families and they should not be excluded in discussions about families. When the delegation brought to Ms Wynne’s attention that, in fact, less than 1% of children are living in same- sex families, so what about the other 99% of children? Ms Wynne was startled by this statistic, but had no response.
3. We raised our concern about teaching consent for sexual activity to, as early as, grade one (six year olds). We noted that under the Criminal Code consent to sexual activity is restricted to those 16 years old and over. We also referred Ms Wynne to section 21 of the Code which provides that it is an offense to: aid, abet or encourage an individual to enter an unlawful act. Would this consent provision then not set up teachers and school boards for future legal problems? Ms Wynne appeared to be unaware of these provisions in the Criminal Code and asked her assistant to make a note of them. Rather late in the game to do so…
Ms Wynne does not grasp the fact that sex education establishes social and moral norms, and her curriculum seeks to change the current norms. It attempts to adopt values diverging from the wide spectrum of religious, cultural and social diversity in Ontario. In short, why is the province trying to set social and moral norms, rather than the parents, who properly have this responsibility?
[Comment: If a stranger on the street talked to kids the way this “education program” suggests he/she would be arrested for “corruption of a minor”. Why should teachers be allowed to sexualize/brainwash children?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oregon Allowing 15-Year-Olds to Get State-Subsidized Sex-Change Operations
The list of things 15-year-olds are not legally allowed to do in Oregon is long: Drive, smoke, donate blood, get a tattoo — even go to a tanning bed.
But, under a first-in-the-nation policy quietly enacted in January that many parents are only now finding out about, 15-year-olds are now allowed to get a sex-change operation. Many residents are stunned to learn they can do it without parental notification — and the state will even pay for it through its Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan.
“It is trespassing on the hearts, the minds, the bodies of our children,” said Lori Porter of Parents’ Rights in Education. “They’re our children. And for a decision, a life-altering decision like that to be done unbeknownst to a parent or guardian, it’s mindboggling.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Protect Traditional Families, Italian Bishops Say
‘Never met Cirinnà’ says Galantino
(ANSA) — Rome, July 8 — The government should safeguard traditional families and beef up policies for “the family founded on a father and mother who seem to be absolutely missing at the moment,” the secretary-general of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Msgr Nunzio Galantino, said Wednesday, denying reports he had met the rapporteur of a civil-union bill, Monica Cirinnà. The government led by Premier Matteo Renzi aims to introduce German-style legislation putting civil unions a rung below marriage with adoptions ruled out.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
One of the objects of public education, as stated by its founders and developers since the early 19th century — and quoted in abundance by R. J. Rushdoony in ‘The Messianic Character of American Education’ — is to undermine the family and eventually to phase it out of existence, leaving the rearing of the young to the tender mercies of ‘scientific experts.’ Public educators have never dropped the ball on this.
From the beginning they want parents to know who’s boss. When a mother and father in Connecticut recently went to enroll their child in kindergarten, they were asked to fill out a form which included some rather intrusive questions, including this one:…
Without parents’ knowledge or consent, Seattle public schools have been implanting IUDs (intrauterine device) into schoolgirls, some of them as young as sixth grade, for birth control. The schools are doing this in collusion with the Washington State Health Care Authority.
First, starting in kindergarten or as late as first grade, they teach your children all about sex, especially in its more aberrant forms. Almost always, this pre-empts any instruction that the parents or the church might give: the school gets there first, and the family must play catch-up.
Next they teach the kiddies how to have sex. Some readers will doubt me. It’s too bad they couldn’t come along with me to the sex educators’ conventions I have covered. The hard part about covering those is that there’s always so much that’s just too filthy to print. When I taught in public schools in the 1990s, students were forbidden to bring home any sex education class materials. Parents were not allowed to see them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |