A large bomb exploded in the middle of a street in downtown Bangkok, killing at least twenty people and injuring more than a hundred others. The blast occurred just outside a Buddhist shrine that is popular with both locals and tourists. So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
In other news, a man who was said to be drunk or on drugs stabbed three people in central Norrköping in Sweden before being subdued by a bystander. A 24-year-old suspect has been arrested.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, EM, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JLH, Nick, Phyllis Chesler, Seneca III, 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.
Congress is Trying to Make it Harder to Know How the Economy is Doing
Confusion about today’s labor market, anxiety about the future of jobs, a rapidly evolving economy and so many other reasons make now exactly the wrong time to diminish the government’s ability to collect and construct labor market data. But that is exactly what is happening, and may continue to happen.
Jonathan Schwabish at the Urban Institute catalogues the damage: In 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the principal agency charged with producing information on the labor market, received $41 million less from Congress than the president requested. Statistics on mass layoffs — an important source of information about the behavior of businesses facing sharp reductions in demand — were eliminated. In 2014, facing a gap of nearly $22 million, BLS pulled back on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, a vital pillar supporting our ability to know detailed information on how many jobs and businesses the economy is supporting and how much workers are earning. The same year, BLS continued to produce information on import and export prices — from which we know how the United States is performing in international markets — by the skin of its teeth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doomsday Clock for Global Market Crash Strikes One Minute to Midnight as Central Banks Lose Control
When the banking crisis crippled global markets seven years ago, central bankers stepped in as lenders of last resort. Profligate private-sector loans were moved on to the public-sector balance sheet and vast money-printing gave the global economy room to heal.
Time is now rapidly running out. From China to Brazil, the central banks have lost control and at the same time the global economy is grinding to a halt. It is only a matter of time before stock markets collapse under the weight of their lofty expectations and record valuations.
The FTSE 100 has now erased its gains for the year, but there are signs things could get a whole lot worse.
1 — China slowdown
China was the great saviour of the world economy in 2008. The launching of an unprecedented stimulus package sparked an infrastructure investment boom. The voracious demand for commodities to fuel its construction boom dragged along oil- and resource-rich emerging markets.
The Chinese economy has now hit a brick wall. Economic growth has dipped below 7pc for the first time in a quarter of a century, according to official data. That probably means the real economy is far weaker.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Lure Greek Deposits Back to Banks With Bail-in Shield
Euro-area finance ministers shielded Greek bank depositors from any losses resulting from the restructuring of the nation’s financial system, as part of Friday’s deal on an 86 billion-euro ($96 billion) bailout.
Senior bank bondholders will be in the crosshairs if Greek lenders tap into any of the financial stability funds set aside in the new bailout. Euro-area finance ministers agreed to a deal that would next week place 10 billion euros in Greece’s bank recapitalization fund, with another 15 billion euros available if needed.
“Bail-in of depositors will be explicitly excluded” from European Union rules to make private investors share the cost of fixing troubled banks, Eurogroup President and Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters after the six-hour meeting in Brussels.
By shielding all depositors, the euro area will protect small and medium-sized enterprises who have more than 100,000 euros in their accounts and aren’t covered by government deposit insurance, Dijsselbloem said. This prevents “a blow to the Greek economy” that ministers wanted to avoid, he said. Instead, the focus will turn to bond investors.
[Comment: “I promise Charlie Brown, I won’t move the football.” said Lucy.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece to Trouble Euro Zone for Decades: Finnish Foreign Minister
HELSINKI (Reuters) — Greece will be a headache for the euro zone for decades, Finland’s eurosceptic foreign minister said, and called for the International Monetary Fund to participate in the Greece’s new bailout package. “Unfortunately, this problem will be in front of us for decades, I would say, if the euro zone stays together,” foreign minister Timo Soini said in an interview with public broadcaster YLE on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Eurozone Growth Slows, German, French GDP Below Expectations
Euro economy up 0.3% in Q2, compared to 0.4% in Q1
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, August 14 — The 19-nation eurozone’s gross domestic product increased 0.3% in the second quarter of 2015, compared to 0.4% in the first quarter, Eurostat said Friday.
The French and German economies performed less well than expected.
French growth was flat in the second quarter, while the German economy grew 0.4%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Business: Opposition Grumble as GDP Edges Up 0.2%
Renzi government says data shows progress being made
(ANSA) — Rome, August 14 — Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased 0.2% in the second quarter of 2015 compared to the first three months of the year, Istat said on Friday. The national statistics agency added that GDP was 0.5% higher in the second quarter than in the same period last year, according to its seasonally adjusted preliminary estimate. Italy has returned to positive growth this year after a long, painful recession.
However, the 0.2% growth rate for the second quarter was below the 0.3% registered for the first three months of the year.
Nevertheless, the government said the data was encouraging.
Economy ministry sources said Friday that the 0.2% rise was “as expected”, adding that this confirmed that “the government’s financial programme is based on reliable forecasts”. The sources added that “after 13 consecutive quarters of quarter-on-quarter falls, now we have two quarters of growth.
“The country can and must do better. Structural reforms and economy policy will help it accelerate”. The optimistic interpretation of the figures was echoed by Filippo Taddei, the economic pointman for Premier Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
“Italy is officially out of recession after 13 consecutive quarters of negative GDP (growth) and that is not to be taken for granted,” Taddei said.
He added that the data showed the growth was led by domestic, not external, demand.
Many analysts would read that as a positive factor, suggesting that growth and confidence are rising at home, which in turn fuels greater spending and demand.
In contrast Giorgio Squinzi, the head of industrial employers’ confederation Confindustria, said Istat’s GDP data showed that Italy has not yet embarked on a real recovery after years of negative growth. “It’s what we expected,” Squinzi told Affaritaliani.it regarding the 0.2% GDP rise in the second quarter.
“Unfortunately, it is confirmation that this isn’t a real recovery”. Opposition parties jumped on the data as evidence that the government’s economic policies were not working.
“(The goverment’s 2015 growth forecast of) 0.7% is at risk,” Renato Brunetta, the House whip for Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia (FI), said via his Twitter account.
“Goodbye GDP dreams. Poor (Premier Matteo) Renzi. Poor Italy”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel: No Certainty That Greek Bailout Will Succeed
German lawmakers to vote Wednesday
(ANSA-AP) — BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says there’s no certainty the latest bailout for Greece will succeed but she is hopeful the country can overcome its economic crisis if it adheres to the agreements forged with its creditors.
Merkel also told German broadcaster ZDF on Sunday that Greece can’t expect its debt to be cut.
German lawmakers will hold a special session Wednesday morning to decide on a new bailout package for Greece. In a letter Saturday, German parliament speaker Norbert Lammert asked lawmakers to interrupt their summer holidays and return to Berlin for the vote. Merkel’s coalition is expected to win the necessary backing for the third Greek bailout to proceed, despite dozens of opponents of the deal in her own party’s ranks. At a similar vote in July, 60 members of Merkel’s 311-member conservative bloc voted against further bailout negotiations to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debts. Finance ministers of the 19 nations that use the euro currency gave their approval Friday for first 26 billion euros ($29 billion) to help rebuild Greece’s shattered economy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Urges Bundestag to Back Greek Bailout
Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schaeuble have urged German MPs to back the Greek bailout ahead of a Bundestag vote on Wednesday (19 August).
Merkel’s ZDF interview, her first public remarks after her summer break, also highlighted the severity of the migrant crisis in Europe.
She said the issue will “preoccupy Europe much, much more than the issue of Greece and the stability of the euro” in future.
She also indicated that Germany is in favour of reforming EU asylum laws, which, in their current state, put the burden of frontline countries, such as Greece and Italy, where asylum seekers first enter EU territory.
“The issue of asylum could be the next major European project, in which we show whether we are really able to take joint action”, Merkel said.
With Germany expecting to receive 450,000 asylum applications this year, far-right groups have perpetrated more than 200 arson attacks against migrant shelters in the past eight months
“That is unworthy of our country”, the chancellor said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Reverse Engineering the American Dream: Confronting the Big Lie That the American Dream is Over
America is in the process of being destroyed…the world’s most successful sovereign nation along with its unique ideals is being removed in order to replace it with a global government. A soaring trillion dollar plus deficit, dismantling of our military, the attacks on local police, outsourcing of manufacturing and jobs, race riots, low educational scores of our children, the shrinking middle class, the destruction of the family, and the destruction of Christianity are all part of a long term strategic plan to destroy America as we know it and replace it with a Third World socialist state that will fit neatly into a one world government.
The primary strategy in destroying America is a psychological attack designed to destroy the very nature of what was once proudly called the American Dream. This psychological destruction of an idea called the American Dream in the hearts and minds of men and women has been carried out over the last 100 years through scientific brainwashing, propaganda and indoctrination through the educational system, media, music, both political parties, science, law, and through the Christian church.
The first part of this process, which is nothing less than psychological warfare, was to imbed in the minds of children, men, and women a false collective shame and guilt about America. This was accomplished by taking the very real and tragic mistakes that America and the American people have done and blow them out of context.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
When the banking crisis crippled global markets seven years ago, central bankers stepped in as lenders of last resort. Profligate private-sector loans were moved on to the public-sector balance sheet and vast money-printing gave the global economy room to heal.
Time is now rapidly running out. From China to Brazil, the central banks have lost control and at the same time the global economy is grinding to a halt. It is only a matter of time before stock markets collapse under the weight of their lofty expectations and record valuations.
The FTSE 100 has now erased its gains for the year, but there are signs things could get a whole lot worse.
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
Amazon: Devastating Expose Accuses Internet Retailer of Oppressive and Callous Attitude to Staff
‘Working four days in a row without sleep; a woman with breast cancer being put on “performance-improvement plans” together with another who had just had a stillborn child; staff routinely bursting into tears; continual monitoring; workers encouraged to turn on each other to keep their jobs.
Life at Amazon sounds bleak, according to a devastating, 5,900-word expose by The New York Times.
The global internet retailer founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, which paid just £11.9m in tax in Britain last year despite UK sales of £5.3bn, has previously been accused of treating warehouse staff in the UK “like cattle” as they are driven to work harder.’
However, it’s claimed that their counterparts in the US have faced even tougher conditions. Staff in a Pennsylvania warehouse allegedly worked in temperatures in the high 30s Celsius — as ambulances waited outside to take them away when they collapsed — and air conditioning was only fitted after newspaper reports.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black Separatism and the New Age of Racism
In sum, the Black Lives Matters movement views American institutions as incontrovertibly anti-black and doomed to brutalize blacks. The anti-black infection is, in their view, an inherited characteristic of American democracy, is systemic and is incurable. They therefore advocate dismantling all that is, both public and private. They condemn every government entity, every government actor, and every private entity and actor as part of “structural racism,” as if anti-black sentiment is embedded in the concrete of each building and the DNA of each person. With a racist sweep, they condemn all as they brandish all institutional racists.
They oppose all of the foundations and emblems of America, its Declaration of Independence, its Constitution, and its systems for law and order, which they also ascribe as by-products of structural racism. It is as if anti-black racism exists everywhere, even in those who have never acted against a person based on the color of their skin in their lives (indeed, even in those who have fought against racism in their careers). By this logic, anti-black racism can never be eliminated from America because it once existed in America and can never be said to be non-existent in any person because all are infected with the viewpoint in one way or another. In this way, black government officials are condemned as promoters of institutional racism with the same enthusiasm as white government officials are so condemned and liberal politicians, like Bernie Sanders, are cowed into shame with equal zeal as conservative politicians.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
If Pluto Keeps Spewing Nitrogen, Why is it Still Full of it?
Something mysterious is happening on the surface of Pluto: No matter how much nitrogen the atmosphere releases into space, it’s still chock-full of the stuff. New work examines the possible culprits for the stealthy nitrogen resupply, hinting at active geologic activity inside the dwarf planet.
Pluto’s atmosphere has 10,000 times lower pressure than Earth’s at the surface, and hundreds of tons of nitrogen are escaping every hour. Nevertheless, the atmosphere remains 98 percent nitrogen. Researchers are investigating potential sources of the nitrogen: whether it’s riding in on comets, flying from impact craters or — what they think is most likely — a geological process pulling nitrogen up and out of Pluto’s interior.
“We currently have only a tiny fraction of the data back from the New Horizons flyby, but the fact that there are young-looking areas on Pluto hints at relatively recent geological activity,” Singer wrote in a NASA blog post.
Stay tuned, she said: The New Horizons spacecraft is sending back more and more detailed information collected in its July flyby, and over the coming months, researchers will learn a great deal more about the dwarf planet’s inner life and atmosphere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Man Quietly Protests Confederate Flag Decision
SALEM — Gary Egge says he isn’t the kind of guy who likes to make waves or cause trouble.
But when the 71-year-old Vietnam War veteran recently heard about the Confederate flag controversy in South Carolina, he just had to speak out in his own quiet way.
The retired Osram Sylvania executive was upset when he learned that lawmakers in South Carolina decided to remove the rebel flag from the Capitol grounds earlier this summer in response to the firestorm that erupted after nine people — all black — were slain at a church in Charleston.
“I am not a racist, but I like to express my opinions,” Egge said.
Dylann Roof, described as a white racist, has been charged in the deaths. Tolerance of the flag was tested in June when photographs circulated on the Internet showing Roof posing with the Confederate symbol, prompting the state to remove it from its statehouse as well.
Across the country, opposition mounted against flying Confederate flags. Political leaders, including some presidential candidates, called for their removal.
Egge did just the opposite — he began searching online for a Confederate flag he could fly next to his American and Revolutionary War flags above the veterans memorial display he created in the front yard of his Veronica Avenue home.
“All of a sudden they are taking it down off buildings,” he said. “I was ticked off.”
Egge sympathizes with those affected by the tragedy in South Carolina, but said taking down the flag isn’t the way to resolve racial issues.
“I have the right to fly the Confederate flag,” he said. “One of my neighbors asked me to get one for him.”
Egge said he’s tired of a society controlled by political correctness…
| — Hat tip: JLH | [Return to headlines] |
Official: More Than 300 Clinton Emails Flagged for Potentially Classified Info
The number of Hillary Clinton emails flagged for potentially classified content has grown to more than 300, Fox News has learned — with the potential to grow even more as officials scramble to screen the documents.
The State Department revealed the updated count in a federal court filing, which pertained to Clinton emails sent to other agencies for review. An official familiar with the investigation confirmed to Fox News that, as referenced in that filing, the department has recommended 305 of Clinton’s emails be sent to various agencies for review to see whether they contain classified information.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi Staffer Helped Block Washington DC Highway Traffic in #BlackLivesMatter Protest
A congressional staffer for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took part in a Black Lives Matter protest that shut down traffic on I-395 in Washington D.C. Saturday.
[Comment: More blacks are killed at abortion mills than anywhere else.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Raymond Ibrahim on Newsmax TV: Obama Admin’s Anti-Christian, Pro-Islam Bias
On August 13 I appeared on Newsmax Prime, hosted by JD Hayworth and Miranda Khan. We discussed how the West in general, the Obama administration in particular, not only ignore but exacerbate the plight of Mideast Christians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists Develop ‘GMO Painkillers’ Using Rat DNA, Yeast
Are you in enough pain to swallow this pill? Stanford scientists have developed a new way of creating painkiller components like hydrocodone by injecting 23 different engineered genes from plants, bacteria, and rats into yeast.
The result is the beginning of the journey towards ‘GMO painkillers,’ and another entrance into the world of genetically modified pharmaceuticals. A world that far expands beyond the tinkering of Monsanto’s GMOs. The ‘advancement’ places into perspective the depths to which the booming industry of DNA alteration will take us.
Overall yields from this new yeast-based system aren’t currently strong enough to replace the traditional use of poppies in the full-scale production of painkillers, but it does in fact directly convert sugar to hydrocodone. Perhaps more importantly, it can also produce something known as ‘thebaine’ from sugar, which is the key precursor to opioid compounds. We currently rely on poppies to fulfill this production when it comes to pharmaceutical manufacturing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-KGB Agent Gives Up Church Asylum in Canada After Six Years
A former KGB agent is returning to Russia after hiding in a church in Canada for six years. He surrendered after fighting deportation over fears of repercussions in Russia — having revealed the names of other agents.
Russian Mikhail Lennikov, 55, left the First Lutheran Church in Vancouver where he had sought refuge in 2009, after Canada refused to grant him residence rights because of his KGB past.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ancient Monolith Suggests Humans Lived on Now-Underwater Archipelago
During a high-resolution mapping of the seafloor surrounding Sicily, researchers discovered an ancient treasure: a stone monolith spanning 39 feet (12 meters), resting on the bottom of the Mediterranean.
Stunned, the researchers sent down divers with cameras and video recorders to get a closer look at the monolith, which had broken into two parts. They dove 131 feet (40 m) underwater in an area called the Pantelleria Vecchia Bank, located about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of Sicily.
“It was a great,” said lead researcher Emanuele Lodolo, a staff researcher at the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in Italy. “We were very excited about this discovery.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bedtime Phenomenon: Scientist Develops Book to Send Children to Sleep in Minutes
For most authors the prospect of their books sending readers to sleep would be horrifying.
But the latest publishing phenomenon which is topping the Amazon charts is a book which promises to do just that, at least for children.
The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep, has been created by Swedish behavioural psychologist and linguist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin and is currently outselling Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman and Paula Hawkins The Girl on The Train.
The 26 page paperback, which is the first self-published work to ever top the Amazon charts, uses psychological and positive reinforcement techniques to help children relax, focus and eventually drift off.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulls Kill Seven at Spain Summer Festivals
Bulls have gored seven people to death during festivals across Spain since the beginning of July — four of them over the past weekend. The deaths occurred during bull-running in the streets, not in bullrings. It is an unusually high number of fatalities for such a short period.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A three-year-old boy learnt the harsh reality of airport security after having his Minion toy gun confiscated because officials said it posed ‘a threat’.
Toddler Leo Fitzpatrick was left distraught after being told he could not take the toy with him while trying to board a flight from Dublin Airport with his family on Saturday.
The airport said toy guns — especially those with a trigger mechanism — are on the prohibited items list.
[Comment: It seems silly to confiscate this, but such “security” is not the real goal. Real goal is conditioning public to obey the police state.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: First Pregnancy From Free Donor Insemination in Bologna
Process used local gametes rather than purchases from abroad
(ANSA) — Bologna, August 13 — Officials at San’Orsola Hospital in Bologna on Thursday said they recorded their first successful pregnancy using artificial insemination of sperm from an unpaid donor made at the hospital.
The pregnancy is in its sixth week, they added.
Two men and several women have donated to the hospital for use in assisted reproduction, said officials, adding they plan to begin a major public campaign next month to raise awareness of the importance of donations. In general, gametes used in artificial insemination are often paid from and come from abroad, officials said.
Some 171 couples are on a waiting list and 10 treatments have been carried out, they added.
The issues surrounding reproductive rights and laws is a hot political potato in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy.
Last month, new guidelines on assisted fertility were approved bringing Italy more into line with other advanced countries.
The norms introduce sperm and egg donorship, but selection of physical characteristics has been ruled out.
The guidelines effectively supersede an assisted-fertility law that was among the most restrictive in Europe and whose constitutionality has been repeatedly challenged in the courts.
In the most recent challenge in March, a court sent the law to the Constitutional Court for a ruling in a case involving a couple concerned about the likelihood of transmitting a serious genetic disease to any offspring.
For that reason, the couple — which is fertile — wanted to have access to forms of genetic screening despite Law 40’s restrictions.
Other courts have previously sent the law’s measures on genetic screening to the Constitutional Court for review.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tax Revenue Up 1% Jan-June
Taxes yield 0.6% more, contributions 1.9%
(ANSA) — Rome, August 17 — Revenues from taxes and contributions rose 3.353 billion euros or 1% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year, the economy ministry said Monday. Tax revenue was 0.6% up (a rise of 1.319 billion) and income from contributions up 1.9% (1.933 billion).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Holidaymaker Raped on Rimini Beach
Tall black man with dreadlocks sought
(ANSA) — Rimini, August 17 — A 20-year-old holidaymaker from Milan was raped on a beach in Rimini Sunday morning, local media reported Monday.
The woman went to the beach to find her companions about five a.m. because she wanted to return to her hotel and didn’t have taxi fare, police said.
There she met a man who treated her kindly at first but then assaulted her, they said.
The suspect was described as a tall black man with dreadlocks.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Acid-Attack Baby Confiscation Woman ‘Desperate’
Martina Levato’s newborn up for adoption
(ANSA) — Rome, August 17 — A woman sentenced to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of throwing acid on her ex-boyfriend said Monday she was “desperate” after her newborn child was taken away from her immediately after birth at the weekend. “They have destroyed me,” said Martina Levato, 22. Milan prosecutors had ordered the newborn to be taken away from its mother, and have begun proceedings to put it up for adoption. Levato, formerly a student at Milan’s private Bocconi University, was convicted in June along with co-defendant Alexander Boettcher, a 30-year-old real-estate broker, of throwing acid at Pietro Barbini, 22, last December 28.
Prosecutors had requested 15 years citing aggravating circumstances including premeditation and cruelty.
The couple were also sentenced to pay Barbini one million euros in damages.
The victim suffered third-degree burns to his face and body and may lose an eye.
During trial prosecutors said they believe Levato intended last year to castrate another Bocconi student after a relationship between them ended.
Levato arranged to meet him in her car, then allegedly insisted they move into the back seat for sex, telling him to close his eyes because she had a surprise for him.
She then allegedly pulled a knife and stabbed at his crotch.
A juvenile court may decide as early as tomorrow where her child will be placed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Suspects Confess to Killing Brescia Couple
Business rivals owed victims money
(ANSA) — Brescia, August 17 — Two suspects arrested Sunday in connection with a double homicide in the northern city of Brescia have confessed to their crime, city prosecutors said Monday.
Investigators said the motive was business rivalry.
Giovanna Ferrari, 63, died on the scene last Tuesday and husband Francesco Serramondi, 65, was hospitalized but did not survive his injuries after two gunmen fired at them with a sawed-off shotgun — which was later recovered by police — at their popular take-away pizza and pastry shop called Da Frank (At Frank’s).
The pair fled on a scooter, but were identified by security cameras. The confessed killers are two men, one Indian and one Pakistani, who had bought a pizza and pastry shop from Serramondi called Dolce e Salato (Sweet and Salty). The killers’ shop went out of business while they still owed money to Serramondi, whose place flourished because it had a permit to stay open late while theirs didn’t.
The two also confessed to the non-fatal shooting last month of a 43-year-old Albanian employee of Da Frank’s.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim and Gypsy Gangs Battle for Supremacy on Streets of Europe
German magazine RP Online reports the scene at a Dusseldorf hospital this past weekend, which was turned into a fortress by state police to prevent what they feared were to be serious riots. A number of members of the same family had been admitted for treatment after a mass brawl and officers feared a siege as others attempted to finish the job.
Reports indicate that much of the infighting between the Roma gangs are over the ownership of women, while the Arabs are much more profit-motivated. Even in areas where gypsies have seized control of the prostitution rackets, they are still forced to pay protection money to the Muslims who rule the city, reports the Berliner Kurier.
Focus.de reports a theme often repeated in relation to these gangs, that they are ruthless, violent and exist entirely independently of national law. Running whole neighbourhoods of Germany’s largest cities, the Arab gangs operate their own parallel legal system, where the punishment for treason is death.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
New Temperature Record is Huge Achievement for Superconducting
A new record-high temperature has been achieved for superconductors — extraordinary materials that conduct electricity without dissipating energy. The advance may be an important step in the long-standing quest to achieve a room-temperature superconductor, which could cities build vastly more efficient power grids, researchers say.
Now, researchers have achieved superconductivity at a critical temperature of minus 94 F (minus 70 C). This is about 34 F (19 C) warmer than the coldest known temperatures in Antarctica, said study co-lead author Mikhail Eremets, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany.
“Even higher (temperatures), and likely room critical temperatures, are possible,” Eremets told Live Science.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Disaster Movie Trashes Fjord Town
Norwegian horror director Roar Uthaug has shot a disaster movie, subjecting the picturesque village of Geiranger to a 85m tidal wave.
Norway’s first disaster movie Bølgen, or ‘The Wave’ in English, is set in the Geiranger fjord, a Unesco world heritage site and major tourist destination, where more than 300,000 cruise ship passengers visiting each year.
What makes Bølgen remarkable is that a tidal wave actually did hit Geiranger fjord in 1934, killing 40 people, and that the disaster is likely to happen again.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Docfest Boycotts Israeli Films
A Norwegian documentary film festival been harshly criticised after announcing that it was joining the cultural and academic boycott of Israel and would not accept Israeli-made films.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Superconductivity Record Sparks Wave of Follow-Up Physics
Researchers strive to reproduce and understand landmark result.
Hydrogen sulfide — the compound responsible for the smell of rotten eggs — conducts electricity with zero resistance at a record high temperature of 203 kelvin (—70 °C), reports a paper published today in Nature.
The first results of the work, which represents a historic step towards finding a room-temperature superconductor, were released on the arXiv preprint server in December2 and followed up by more in June3. They have already sparked a wave of excitement within the research community.
The results are the work of Mikhail Eremets, Alexander Drozdov and their colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. They find that when they subject samples of hydrogen sulfide to extremely high pressures — around 1.5 million atmospheres (150 gigapascals) — and cool them below 203 K, the samples display the classic hallmarks of superconductivity: zero electrical resistance and a phenomenon known as the Meissner effect. The Meissner effect occurs when a superconducting material is placed in an external magnetic field and there is no field inside the sample, unlike in normal materials.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Three Stabbed by Man in Norrköping City Centre
Three people have been taken to hospital after being stabbed in central Norrköping on Monday afternoon, according to Swedish newspaper Norrköpings Tidningar. A 24-year-old man has been arrested.
The attacker, who witnesses claimed was “obviously on drugs” according to the newspaper’s website, stabbed his first victim, a man, in the back outside the city library before running off to stab a woman and a female beggar moments later.
A member of the public then overpowered the attacker and held him until police arrived and arrested him.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
You can see my previous collections of mainstream reports of a similar nature here
Unfortunately, this list is to be continued…
An ex-undercover officer claims that five suspected child abusers were released without charge despite admitting to being part of a paedophile ring with the former MP Cyril Smith. see here
MI5 hid child abuse at boys’ home see here
Abuse survivor from Belfast care home claims he was abused by a London VIP paedophile ring — with very powerful figures. see here
Liberal party offered “hush money” to cover up for Cyril Smith see here
Former MP Harvey Proctor faces allegations of paedophilia see here
Lord Bramall investigated by police about paedophile ring claims see here
Three boys murdered by Westminster VIP paedophile ring see here
Police ask that a publication of a report into VIP peadophile Jimmy Savile be delayed see here
House of Commons speaker, George Thomas, accused of child abuse see here
Police to question “thirteen celebrities, politicians and sports stars” in an investigation into historic child abuse on the island of Jersey see here
Home Office Secretary, Leon Brittan, opposed banning Paedophile Information Exchange see here
High profile ex-politician faces claims that he raped a girl in the woods see here
Margaret Thatcher blocked plans to strip paedophile Sir Peter Hayman of his knighthood see here
Top Tory MP escaped prosecution for child sex abuse after promising not to see victim again see here
Victim of 1970s Dolphin Square VIP paedophile ring tells of being forced to perform sex acts as senior Tories celebrated Thatcher victory see here
[Comment: This is only a fraction of the list. Political circles and elites and infested with psychopathic deviants.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
David Cameron will orchestrate a ‘bang the table’ row with the French to try to convince voters he has secured a good deal from Brussels, senior Tories have admitted.
Former health secretary Andrew Lansley is reported to have told business leaders last week that the Prime Minister plans to ‘choreograph’ a row with French president Francois Hollande before putting his new deal on Europe to voters in an in/out referendum in the following months.
Another senior Tory said it was vital for the Prime Minister’s talks to have some ‘theatre’ to persuade voters that Mr Cameron had fought hard for Britain in the negotiations, which will be conducted behind closed doors.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
David Miliband intervened in the Labour leadership race on Monday to warn supporters against voting for Jeremy Corbyn — just hours after his brother Ed announced he would not comment on the race.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Edward Heath’s Former Secretary Shot Himself After Child Abuse Arrest
‘An ex-aide of former Tory Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath, shot himself in the head following his arrest for potential child abuse offences. Two days after being questioned by police investigating images on his computer, 40-year-old Nick Edgar killed himself near his parents’ Cambridgeshire estate.
The Sun reports the father of three, who worked as Sir Edward Heath’s Private Secretary in the 1990s, was held by police investigating child abuse crimes in April 2010. Having been questioned again four months later, Edgar shot himself with a shotgun near his parents’ home.
The former Oxford University Union president started working with Sir Edward in 1992 when he was in his early 20s. He worked as his Private Secretary for several years, spending months at the former Prime Minister’s Wiltshire home.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: How ISIS Lured Three London Teenagers With a Mix of Jihad and ‘Girl Power’
LONDON — The night before Khadiza Sultana left for Syria she was dancing in her teenage bedroom. It was a Monday during the February school vacation. Her niece and close friend, at 13 only three years younger than Khadiza, had come for a sleepover. The two girls wore matching pajamas and giggled as they gyrated in unison to the beat.
The scene in her bedroom, saved on the niece’s cellphone on Feb. 16 and replayed dozens of times by Khadiza’s relatives since, shows the girl they thought they knew: joyful, sociable, funny and kind.
As it turned out, it was also the carefully choreographed goodbye of a determined and exceptionally bright teenager who had spent months methodically planning to leave her childhood home in Bethnal Green, East London, with two schoolmates and follow the path of another friend who had already traveled to the territory controlled by the Islamic State.
These girls have become the face of a new, troubling phenomenon: young women attracted to what some experts are calling a jihadi, girl-power subculture.
| — Hat tip: EM | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Legal Scholars Warn Against 10 Year Prison for Online Pirates
The UK Government wants to increase the maximum prison sentence for online copyright infringement from two years to ten. A number legal experts and activists are pushing back against the plan. One such group, The British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association (BILETA) has concluded that changes to the current law are not needed. “legitimate means to tackle large-scale commercial scale online copyright infringement are already available and currently being used, and the suggested sentence of 10 years seems disproportionate,” the group writes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Richard Glanville in Murder Investigation After ‘Intruder’ Was Fatally Injured
Police swooped on former Oasis, Warehouse and Coast boss Richard Glanville’s (pictured) Essex farmhouse after neighbour Ricci Gallagher, 46, suffered head injuries during a scuffle.
Mr Gallagher’s nearby shack — which ran without any electricity — was destroyed by fire just minutes before the skirmish.
Neighbours in Little Burstead, Essex, claimed that Mr Gallagher broke into the large country house armed with a baseball bat.
They said that Mr Glanville and a second man, thought to be his gardener, tried to remove the him.
However, police were called to reports of an injured man at the farmhouse 15 minutes after the fire was reported around 9.20am on July 30.
Two men were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder as Mr Gallagher was airlifted to hospital in an air ambulance reportedly piloted by Prince William.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Women’s Urinals Spark Controversy in Austria
Pravda.Ru In Salzburg, Austria, women will soon be able to learn how to use urinals in public restrooms.
The first few urinals for women were installed in 2002, but in 13 years, women have hardly ever used them. Now local officials and urinal makers are going to install new ones, the cost of which goes up to 21,000 euros, The Local reports.
The manufacturers of alternative toilets said that they were disappointed with the reaction of the female population to their products. According to them, women do not need to contact the urinals when using them.
In addition, urinals use less water than conventional toilet bowls. Nevertheless, Salzburg women said that they were not going to use urinals in public toilets. The devices force women take an uncomfortable position, whereas some women take them for men’s rooms and do not go to the ladies’ rooms where women’s urinals are installed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Mi-17 Helicopters in Serbia by Year’s End
BELGRADE -Russia will deliver two Mi-17V-5 helicopters that the Serbian armed forces need by the end of the year.
The negotiations on the purchase of the helicopters are in the final phase, and as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in talks with his Serbian counterpart Bratislav Gasic, they will be supplied by the end of 2015.
Gasic and Shoigu met at the Patriot Park in the vicinity of the Alabino Ranges near Moscow after the final race of the Tank Biathlon, in which Serbia won the third place, China the second and Russia the first spot.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A Look at Egypt’s Sweeping New Anti-Terrorism Law, Which Criminalizes ‘False News’
CAIRO — Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has approved a new draconian law that offers a sweeping definition of terrorism and sets harsh punishments, including heavy fines for journalists who don’t toe the government line.
The government has said the law is necessary to combat a growing Islamic insurgency and help restore stability after years of unrest. But the new law has alarmed rights groups and even some senior politicians, raising fears of a return to the decades-long emergency rule of President Hosni Mubarak, ousted by a 2011 revolt largely driven by anger at police brutality.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Al-Sisi Approves Severe Anti-Terrorism Measures
Egyptian President Abdul al-Sisi on Monday approved a new package of severe measures to fight Islamic terrorism, the BBC said. Among the measures approved was the death penalty for whoever establishes or leads a terrorist cell.
The package includes 54 new measures against terrorism, described as “every act that harms public order by force”. Also included are very heavy fines for journalists who publish “false news or declarations” about terrorist acts or who publish information contradicting defence ministry news releases.
According to al-Sisi critics, the laws will serve to suppress dissent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Says Libya Risks Being ‘Another Somalia’
Italy warned on Monday that Libya risked turning into “another Somalia” as it signed a joint statement with the US and several European allies condemning “barbaric” acts carried out by the Isis group there.
Italy has been badly hit by the chaos in the North African country, with hundreds of thousands of migrants attempting to reach its shores from Libya on often unseaworthy vessels — 102,000 this year alone.
But the rise of a jihadist Isis offshoot in the centre of the country is now causing alarm on the other side of the Mediterranean.
“We are deeply concerned about reports that these fighters have shelled densely populated parts of the city and committed indiscriminate acts of violence to terrorise the Libyan population,” said a joint statement by Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the United States.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Aodi: Sirte Doctors Forced to Treat Only ISIS Wounded
Italian foreign doctors association,14 dead,56 wounded civilians
(ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 17 — The toll of dead and wounded civilians in the Libyan town of Sirte continues to rise on Monday. “Since this morning, the count has risen to 14 dead and 56 wounded, according to the Libyan doctors with whom we’re in constant contact,” Foad Aodi, president of the Italian Association of Foreign Doctors (AMSI), told ANSA.
“Libyan doctors are forced to treat only the wounded from ISIS and their sympathizers, so many of the wounded die from hemorrhaging and infections”. He also said there are many “bodies being picked up from homes at this time”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Balagan Revisited: 10 Years After the Gaza Withdrawal
August 15-18, 2015 marked the 10th year following the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from 21 settlements in Gaza and four in Samaria. The legendary Israeli PM Gen. Ariel Sharon, aka “the bulldozer,” convinced his cabinet with the aid of a complicit Israeli press corps to adopt the plan on June 6, 2005. The forced withdrawal witnessed 45,000 IDF troops and Israeli police in their largest non-combat operation eject residents and destroy settlements on the sand dunes in Gaza over several days. Four settlements in Samaria were similarly evacuated and destroyed ten days later. It was traumatic for the 8,500 Jewish settlers who came to Gaza in the 1970’s creating high tech green houses that produced most of Israel’s floral and herbal exports valued at over $120 million annually. The withdrawal was estimated to have cost over $900 million. Israel lost over 70 percent of its fresh produce. Many were dragged screaming pleading to remain where they had established flourishing communities. Despite Fatah and Hamas terrorists who attacked and killed residents they employed Palestinian greenhouse workers and befriended local fishermen. Many of the thousands of evacuees are still housed in temporary communities inside Israel. Many have not been adequately compensated for their homes and business losses. Many are still disillusioned with how the State of Israel treated them. Within hours of the last IDF troops leaving on September 21, 2005, the gift of high tech green house to Gazans, paid for by American Jewish moguls, and abandoned synagogues were desecrated and destroyed. A small museum in Jerusalem tells the story of the Gaza withdrawal from Gush Katif with relics from destroyed synagogues and communities.The irony was as the forced evacuees departed, the first of the home made Kassam rockets fell on the Gush Katif settlements. Within months Hamas ejected Fatah from Gaza leading to establishment of a terrorstan that has triggered three wars and launched more than 12,000 rockets and missiles at Israel over the past decade.
Sharon cabinet members like current Israeli PM Netanyahu, Moshe Ya’alon Defense, Minister and Natan Sharansky, Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Jerusalem, now Jewish Agency head resigned in 2005 over Sharon’s ill-advised effort. Conferences and interviews on this tenth anniversary reveal how calamitous the unilateral withdrawal was to appease world opinion. Sharon was rewarded with back slapping praise from the Bush Administration and others in the corridors of the UN in September 2005. Several months later in 2006, Sharon suffered a stroke from which he would languish in a moribund state until his death on January 11, 2014.
The left in Israel applauded Sharon’s move at the time with polls indicating that 3/5ths of Israelis approved of his action. The left wanted to punish Jewish settlers for occupying Gazan lands. The settlers believed that Jews once lived there and that all of Israel was a covenanted gift from Ha Shem. Polls taken during the 10th anniversary indicated that the majority of Israelis now consider the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza a mistake. Trading land for peace didn’t pay off with the Palestinians. Rather Israelis feel they do not have a peace partner in the Palestinian Authority leadership they can trust, given terrorist acts committed against them.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorist, Torturer, Turncoat Make Short List to Succeed Palestinian Chief Abbas
The age and flagging popularity of Mahmoud Abbas have spurred speculation the Palestinian Authority president is preparing to step down, and the short list of likely successors is topped by a convicted terrorist serving life in an Israeli prison.
Abbas, who is 80 and reportedly in failing health, has led the West Bank government for the entire decade since the death of Yasser Arafat. But growing and open discontent with Abbas has been accompanied by an Egyptian TV report that he told that nation’s president he intends to step down in the coming months.
“He doesn’t have a protege, he hasn’t facilitated a system in which people feel they can rise to the top,” Grant Rumley, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Jerusalem Post.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Prime Minister in Rousing Speech to Thousands in Dubai Says UAE to Invest $75 Billion
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — India’s prime minister gave a rousing speech to tens of thousands of Indian expatriates in Dubai on Monday, telling them leaders in the United Arab Emirates have promised to invest $75 billion in India and back its bid for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council.
Narendra Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit the UAE in 34 years. He wrapped up his two-day visit with the speech at the Dubai Cricket Stadium to an estimated 50,000 Indians, among them a diverse crowd of Muslims and Hindus, who work and live in the Arab country.
With around 2.6 million Indians living in the UAE, Indians not only outnumber the local Emirati population, but also comprise around a third of the total population in the UAE, a federation of seven emirates that includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants From Turkey Flood Into Greece; Scuffles on Boat
Migrants on a Turkish beach scuffled over places on one inflatable dinghy and frantically bailed out another to keep it from sinking during a dramatic night that highlighted their desperation to reach the Greek island of Kos — and the safety of Europe.
The scenes of human trafficking, captured early Saturday by Associated Press journalists on a moonless night, came as Turkish authorities reported that 2,791 migrants have been caught in the Aegean Sea in the past 5 days alone, most of them Syrians.
Overall, more than 33,000 migrants have been caught or rescued in the Aegean this year, according to the governor’s office in Izmir.
Kos is only 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from Turkey at its closest point, its twinkling lights at night an irresistible beacon to those fleeing war or poverty.
Tensions were high early Saturday at Fenerburnu Beach near the Turkish tourist town of Bodrum. Two migrants tried to clamber onto a small dinghy only to be forced off by angry fellow passengers, one of whom shouted: “You haven’t paid!” One passenger was also upset that the male intruders had touched the arm of a female migrant wearing an Islamic headscarf.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Situation in Refugee Camps Dire as Millions of Christians, Yazidis Flee ISIS
by Phyllis Chesler
Even as the Western intelligentsia continue to focus upon the fake and inflated refugee crisis among Palestinians, the world’s real refugee crisis— Christians and Yazidis persecuted by ISIS— has become both overwhelming and hidden in plain sight.
There may be sixty million refugees and “internally displaced people” in all, primarily from Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Congo, and other countries. Nine and a half million”refugees” and “internally displaced people” are Syrians. Some now live in refugee camps in Jordan, Israel (where they are also treated in hospitals), Lebanon, Iraq, and on the Syrian-Turkish border. Half are children. Most of the children are no longer in school; worse, unvaccinated, they remain in deadly danger of contracting polio and measles in addition to other camp related diseases such as dysentery. Families are destitute and cannot afford the emergency surgeries that will save young lives, limbs, or eyes.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Lira Hits Another Record Low on Political Uncertainty
The Turkish lira weakened to a fresh record low against the dollar on Monday as investors fretted about the growing prospect of a snap election and a surge in conflict between Ankara and terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members. The lira stood at 2.86 against the US currency, weakening from 2.8279 late on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Pulling Patriot Missiles From Turkey
The U.S. military is pulling its Patriot missiles from Turkey this fall, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara announced Sunday.
The Patriot missiles “will be redeployed to the United States for critical modernization upgrades,” according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Turkey. “This decision follows a U.S. review of global missile defense posture.”
“The U.S. and NATO commitments to the defense of Allies — including Turkey — are steadfast,” the statement said.
The U.S. military has deployed Patriot missiles along the Turkey-Syria border since 2013 along with a ground force of 300 U.S. Army soldiers to operate them, protecting Turkey from potential Syrian missiles.
The decision to pull the missiles has been “long planned” and is not a response to Turkey’s unannounced massive airstrike against a Kurdish separatist group in northern Iraq on July 24, a State Dept. official said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yazidi Refugees Flee ISIS, But Find Door to US Asylum Closed
A year after U.S. airstrikes and Kurdish fighters saved Iraq’s Yazidi population from death at the hands of ISIS atop Mount Sinjar, the historic religious enclave is facing death in its homeland and a cold shoulder from America, say activists.
Despite the ongoing threat of execution in Iraq, nearly all Yazidis, a Kurdish monotheistic community that lives throughout Iraq, Syria, Turkey and even Armenia and Georgia, who have applied for asylum in the U.S. have been rejected, FoxNews.com has learned. The reason why is not clear, but advocates say Washington is turning a blind eye on the situation.
“What we are seeing, in real time, is genocide,” said Frank Wolf, a former congressman from Virginia and senior fellow at 21st Century Wilberforce, a nonprofit that seeks to protect Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. “To declare it genocide, that would expedite relief. You can’t allow it to go on.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran and Russia Use Nuclear Deal to Boost Military Ties
Monday’s meeting between Russian and Iranian foreign ministers is fueling new speculation both countries are forging closer ties after July’s nuclear agreement.
Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland spoke to foreign policy experts John Hannah and Anna Borshchevskaya about Iran’s evolving relationship with Russia.
“We’ve seen the warming of Russian-Iranian relations ties for several years now … now that we have a new deal, they are simply profiting from it,” said Borshchevskaya, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Claims Kyiv is Planning a New Offensive in Eastern Ukraine
The Russian foreign minister has said the government in Kyiv is planning a new offensive in its conflict with pro-Moscow separtists, flouting the ceasefire. Germany has also warned that the situation is “explosive.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shelling in East Ukraine Kills Nine as Clashes Escalate
At least nine people have died in heavy exchanges of artillery fire between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has visited Crimea, which Moscow annexed last year. He said it would be “dangerous” for ethnic groups to seek special status, seen as a reference to the Tatars who make up about 10% of Crimea’s population and largely opposed the takeover.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Again ‘Explosive’, Germany Warns
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned on Sunday that conditions in Ukraine once again threatened to tip Europe into a full-blown military conflict.
“The situation in eastern Ukraine is explosive,” Steinmeier told Bild Am Sonntag.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangkok Bomb: Deadly Blast Rocks Thailand Capital
Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent
There is no previous history of attacks in the Thai capital on this scale or with such murderous intent. One possibility is that they might be the work of Malay-Muslim insurgents in the south who have been fighting Thai rule for more than a decade. However, they have never targeted Bangkok before and casualties from their attacks have been falling.
National political turmoil has prompted some low-level bomb attacks by rival factions in the past — but again, nothing on this scale. There also seem to be few, if any, links between Thai militants and groups like the so-called Islamic State.
The shrine is popular with Chinese tourists and this raises at least the possibility of a connection to the Uighurs — a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority in the far west of China. They complain of cultural and religious persecution at the hands of the Beijing authorities.
But while there are violent elements in the Uighur movement, an attack on this scale outside China would be unusual to say the least.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Erawan Shrine: The Hindu Shrine and Tourist Hotspot and in the Heart of Bangkok
A bomb blast in Thailand has detonated directly outside the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok, an important location to the country’s Buddhists.
The exact number of people killed in the explosion is still unknown, but the death toll currently stands at around 27.
The explosion is likely to send shockwaves across the country, partly due to its proximity to the famous shrine. Both the shrine and the area surrounding it are hugely significant in the religious, social and politicial life of the country.
The shrine is home to a statue of Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of Hindu creation God, Brahma.
Unusually, for an important shrine, it is relatively new. It was built in 1956.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Explosion Rocks Bangkok, Multiple Casualties
The death toll continues to rise following a bomb blast in a central shopping area.
The bomb detonated in front of the Erawan shrine in the Chidlom district, a shopping area popular with tourists. The Hindu shrine is visited by thousands of Buddhist devotees every day.
Witnesses described seeing body parts scattered across the street.
At least two other explosive devices were found in the area and defused.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Bangkok Bomb Blast: What Do We Know So Far?
Tom Vater, Telegraph Travel’s Bangkok expert, who resides in the city, said the attack hit the city at its very heart. “The bomb detonated at Ratchaprasong intersection, right in the heart of downtown Bangkok, an area crammed with high end hotels and shopping malls and the well known Erawan shrine, a popular Buddhist shrine, both with locals and tourists.”
Thai police say the bomb was almost certainly placed there to kill and maim tourists, pointing out the vast popularity of the Erawan shrine. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. According to local media reports, foreign tourists are among the casualties but are yet to be identified.
Prawit Wongsuwong, defence minister, said: “It was a TNT bomb… the people who did it targeted foreigners and to damage tourism and the economy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Bangkok Blast: ‘It Was Total Chaos’ — Eyewitness
A bomb has exploded close to a shrine in the centre of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more.
A second bomb has been found in the area and made safe, officials say.
No-one has yet said they carried out the attack, which took place close to the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok’s central Chidlom district.
Richard Sri-kureja, who was in the vicinity when the blast happened, told the BBC the immediate aftermath of the blast was “total chaos”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: 19 Killed, 123 Hurt as Bomb Blast Rocks Bangkok Tourist Attraction
A bomb explosion inside one of Bangkok’s most popular tourist attractions killed at least 19 people and injured 123 others — mostly foreign tourists — on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Bangkok Bomb ‘Intended to Destroy Economy’
Thailand’s military leaders think a deadly bomb blast that ripped through central Bangkok on Monday was an attempt to “destroy the economy.” Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise.
Eyewitnesses described seeing body parts, motorcycles and other debris strewn across the street outside the Erawan Shrine, a Hindu sanctuary that is also popular with Buddhists. The area was packed with worshippers at the time of the blast.
“Whoever planted this bomb is cruel and aimed to kill,” said national police chief Somyot Poompummuang. “Planting a bomb there means they wanted to see a lot of people dead.”
In recent years, the Thai capital has been the center of anti-government protests that saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets for weeks on end, calling on former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down. The army eventually stepped in and ousted her government. The military has ruled the country since May 2014.
In February this year, two small pipe bombs exploded outside a luxury shopping mall in the same area of Bangkok.
But larger bombs are more frequently used in southern Thailand, where a Muslim separatist insurgency has been waged for several years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What Was in Osama Bin Laden’s Tape Collection?
After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Osama Bin Laden was forced to flee the city of Kandahar, where he had been based since 1997. Several compounds were hastily vacated, including one, opposite the Taliban foreign ministry, where al-Qaeda bigwigs met. Inside it, 1,500 cassettes were waiting to be discovered.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Protesters Demand Compensation for Homes Damaged in Tianjin Explosions
TIANJIN, China — About a hundred people whose residences were damaged in the massive Tianjin blasts gathered Monday for a protest to demand compensation from the government as the death toll from the disaster rose to 114 with 70 still missing.
The blasts lasts Wednesday night originated at a warehouse for hazardous material, where hundreds of tons of sodium cyanide — a toxic chemical that can form combustible substances on contact with water — were being stored in amounts that violated safety rules. That has prompted contamination fears and a major cleanup of a 1.8-mile radius, cordoned-off area in this Chinese port city southeast of Beijing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taiwan: “Happiness” Boom: Never Such a High Quality of Life
The annual survey published by the National Development Council shows that 88% of citizens are satisfied with their family life . The only drawback sis ocial involvement: almost 50% never help in community life.
Taipei (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Around 82 percent of people in Taiwan are happy with their overall quality of life, the highest level in eight years, according to the National Development Council. This was announced by the National Development Council, which published the annual survey on quality of life (QoL) conducted on 29-30 June this year and which involved 1,076 individuals aged 20 years and older.
According to research, Taiwanese quality of life has reached a very high standard. On a basis of 19 indicators, almost 71% of respondents expressed satisfaction with their economic conditions, the highest since 2008. More than 88% of Taiwanese say they are happy with the lives of their loved ones, and 85% believe their neighborhood a safe place to live.
The data are also positive on the environmental theme. The 85% of respondents are satisfied with the management of waste, 84% of the treatments carried out on the waste material. A small decline was recorded for air quality, which satisfies 64% of the population.
As for the workplace, the environment and conditions of employment are considered “acceptable” by 72% of people, while 57% are satisfied by their performance at work. 69% of Taiwanese people are happy with how they spend their free time.
79% of the inhabitants of the island are satisfied with the healthcare, 65% with public transport and security.
The only negative result was seen in the social commitment: only 41% are satisfied with this sphere of their life, and nearly 49% said they had never participated in any social activity.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tianjin Blasts: Another of China’s ‘Profound Lessons’
(CNN) Apocalyptic scenes of the smoldering aftermath of successive explosions in Tianjin have once again illustrated the dangers of Chinese industry.
Lax safety procedures and oversight have been blamed for the blasts, which have killed more than 100 people and sent toxic fumes into the air, threatening even greater devastation.
President Xi Jinping has urged authorities to learn from the “extremely profound” lessons from the accident.
The State Council is rolling out a nationwide inspection of all businesses using dangerous chemicals and explosives. Meanwhile, China’s public security minister says those found to be responsible for the Tianjin disaster “will be punished severely,” according to state news agency Xinhua.
The problem is China has seen and heard it all before, and the accidents keep coming, though figures from the Bureau of Statistics suggest that the rate of lethal accidents is falling.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Some Ebola Survivors Still Suffer—and Doctors Don’t Know Why
For the communities in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia where Ebola took the greatest toll last year, the worst is over. After claiming 11,000 lives, the fatal virus has finally begun to retreat. Numbers of new Ebola cases are dwindling. But for some of the survivors—the 50 percent or so of the infected who pull through—Ebola’s effects still linger.
Many survivors are now returning to clinics complaining of mysterious symptoms: chronic headaches, debilitating joint pain, even eye problems that can progress to blindness. Some doctors in the region have begun calling the suite of problems “post-Ebola syndrome,” and they’re developing clinics devoted to caring for Ebola survivors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brazilian Protesters Call for President Dilma Rousseff’s Impeachment
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests across Brazil calling for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.
Support for Ms Rousseff has fallen to single-digit figures in recent polls.
Many voters have accused her of failing to stamp out corruption and blame her for the economy’s worst slump in 25 years.
Marchers took over Copacabana beach in Rio and also demonstrated outside congress in the capital Brasilia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty International, Migrant Rights in Austria Violated
Over 1,000 forced to camp out in the open close to Vienna
(ANSA-AP) — VIENNA — Amnesty International is reporting serious human rights violations at Austria’s main immigrant collection center, including overcrowding forcing more than 1,000 people to camp out in the open.
The Amnesty report says those without a roof over their head at the Traiskirchen center, south of Vienna, include women with families and unaccompanied children.
Presenting the findings Friday, Amnesty Austria head Heinz Patzelt said he is “unspeakably angry.” He said the conditions represent a failure to care for refugees fleeing wars and violate U.N conventions on the rights of children and women.
The Interior Ministry acknowledged a “precarious situation.” It noted that a pending law would allow migrants to be housed on or in property owned by the federal government, over the objections of Austria’s provinces that have rejected migrant quotas.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 2,300 Deaths in Mediterranean This Year — IOM
Over 250,000 asylum seekers have landed in Europe
(ANSA) — Geneva, August 14 — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Friday that “at least 2,300” people have died this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to reach Europe. It added that close to 250,000 asylum seekers have landed in Europe this year, more than the number for the whole of 2014.
This month has seen the long series of migrant-boat disasters in waters south of Italy continue.
On 5 August, a fishing boat carrying over 200 migrants capsized off the coast of Libya with an as yet unknown number of drownings. On 11 August, roughly 60 people drowned in the same area when their overcrowded rubber dinghy began deflating in the summer heat. Rescuers saved 54 people, most from sub-Saharan Africa, out of the 120 reportedly on board. “These latest tragedies underscore the dangers faced by migrants in the Channel of Sicily, now the deadliest route for those fleeing violence, natural disasters and abject poverty,” the IOM said.
“Despite the dangers, some 102,000 migrants crossed the Channel of Sicily from Libya to reach safety in Italy so far this year”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Rejects Calls for German Border Controls
The Austrian interior ministry has rejected calls for the reintroduction of border controls with Germany, following claims from the German state of Bavaria that large numbers of refugees are crossing the border.
On Sunday, Bavaria’s interior minister Joachim Herrmann demanded more police checks on the Austrian border. “Given the huge problems on Bavaria’s border with Austria, the federal police must be significantly strengthened,” Herrmann said.
An Austrian police source told the Kronen Zeitung that Bavaria would only be “harming itself if it tries to reintroduce pre-Schengen border controls”.
Countries belonging to the Schengen area allow passport-free movement across their borders, making it easier to travel. Members of the Schengen agreement may reinstate border controls for a short period, if this is necessary for “public policy or national security” reasons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
California Gave Driver’s Licenses to More Than 1.5 Illegal Aliens
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) surge in giving driver’s licenses to up to 1.5 million illegal immigrants, a/k/a undocumented immigrants in current Golden State “newspeak,” is disturbing to many law enforcement officers, according to news reports on Wednesday. Police officials are very concerned with this latest policy, so much so that a homeland security newsletter on Thursday had begun covering what many believe is just one more magnet for illegal immigrants from terrorist havens throughout the world who pose a danger to the U.S. and Americans.
In January 2015, California began allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain the same driver’s licenses as legal immigrants and citizens. Police officers claim that there are tens of thousands of immigrants who stand on long lines at DMV centers throughout their licenses which not only allows them to drive vehicles but also doubles as identification for conducting many business transactions.
According to Police Officer Jose Cardoza, this latest action by the Californian politicians is another benefit in a long line of other state benefits such as free healthcare, food stamps, and sanctuary from federal law enforcement who seek their deportation. In addition, in California “undocumented immigrants” in the state are allowed to practice law or dentistry, among other licensed professions.
“How they can do that if they are undocumented is a travesty on its face. If these guys are undocumented how do you know they’re really graduates for accredited universities or law schools? How do know the name on a diploma is the name of the person showing it to you?” asked Officer Cardoza.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU: We Want to Remove Barriers Not to Build Them
Avramopoulos, answer is valid for Hungary but also for UK
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS — “We have to break down walls, not to build them,” the EU Commissioner for Immigration Dimitris Avramopoulos said — referring to the official position of the EU Commission — while Hungary and Britain are moving forward with their plans for anti-immigration barriers. “The answer is valid both for Hungary and for Britain,”, added Avramopoulos, remembering that border surveillance is up to the Member State and must be conducted with respect for human rights and of the principle of non-refoulement.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Kos Drowning With Refugees, Tourism Disrupted
Some 124,000 arrived in the country since January
(ANSA) — ATHENS — As if the current economic crisis, the capital controls and the negative media portrayal of the country weren’t enough, Greek border islands, among them Kos, are having to also deal with a growing migrant problem at the peak of the tourism period.
The otherwise popular Dodecanese island of Kos — as Greek Travel Pages (Gtp) website reports — saw its tourism season abruptly disrupted this week when chaos broke out as police were trying to relocate hundreds of migrants to a football stadium for registration. The thousands of so-called ‘boat people’, mostly refugees from Syria who traveled from Turkey in rubber dinghies, have camped out at the island’s main port, beachfront and parks waiting for temporary travel documents. Kos Mayor Giorgos Kiritsis says some 1,000 people make it to the island every day, and foresees a further increase this week due to the good weather.
There are currently 7,500 refugees and migrants on the island. “The situation is out of control,” Kiritsis has repeatedly warned. In the meantime, with very few resources and slow EU assistance to deal with the influx, Kos authorities are seeing tourism figures dwindle, with a 7.3% drop in the first seven months of 2015. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 124,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Greece by sea since January, a massive 750% rise on the same period in 2014.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Minister Admits Migrant Problem Worse Than Predicted, Blames Hungary-Serbia Border Wall
As hundreds of undocumented migrants continue to arrive on Greece’s Aegean islands daily, Alternate Minister for Immigration Policy Tasia Christodoulopoulou conceded that the problem was bigger than authorities had anticipated.
“All the predictions we have made were overwhelmingly proved to be wrong as the problem with migrants on the islands is more serious than in urban centers and that’s where we reallyneed reception centers,” the minister told Skai on Monday.
According to Christodoulopoulou, there is an explanation behind the spike in arrivals: the fact that Hungary is building a wall along its border with Serbia to stem immigration flows. As a result, she said, migrants are attempting to get through before the wall’s completion which is expected by the end of August.
As regards the situation on the eastern Aegean island o Kos, where more than 1,000 Syrians have boarded a large ferry that has anchored off the island, she said the measures that have been taken are a temporary solution aimed at relieving congestion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Growing Refugee Traffic Boosts Life Jacket, Boat Sales in Turkey
The recent increase in refugees traveling through the Mediterranean Sea has prompted an unexpected boom in life jacket and inflatable boat sales in Turkey, a transit point for those who have been fleeing their homelands for a better life in European countries.
The refugee influx, however, has increased the volume of boat and life vests that are sold in the Turkish market. Boats for four people, which cost between TL 1,500 and TL 5,000, are out of stock both online and in stores, and life jackets, priced between TL 50 and TL 250, are quite hard to find.
In recent years, Turkey has become home to around 1.9 million Syrian refugees escaping the bloody civil war in their homeland. Unofficial figures speculate that the real number of refugees is around 2.5 million when unregistered migrants are included.
Earlier news reports this month reported that thousands of Syrian refugees hoping to travel to Europe via the Greek islands are in Turkey’s Aegean province of Izmir, turning it into a hub of human smuggling.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Church-League Clashes Over Migrants Continue
Bishops’ daily blasts Salvini’s ‘little politics’
(ANSA) — Rome, August 13 — Avvenire, the daily newspaper of Italian Bishops Conference CEI, took aim at the Northern League on migrants Thursday, continuing a clash between the Italian Church and the right-wing party led by Matteo Salvini.
On Wednesday Salvini said CEI Secretary-General Monsignor Nunzio Galantino was being a “pain the neck” by intervening in this issue.
In an interview, Galantino had criticised politicians who fuelled anti-migrant sentiments, calling them “cheap peddlers willing to say extraordinarily inane things just to get a vote”.
He added that comments by League politicians such as Salvini and Governor Luca Zaia of Veneto amount to a sort of “tavern talk, boasting” that could be turned into violence against newcomers.
Galantino also criticised the government’s response to the Mediterranean migrant crisis as being “completely absent”. Salvini responded by accusing the Church of overstepping the mark.
“Is Italy still a republic or dependent on the Vatican?” he wrote on Facebook. “Immigration without limits and without rules is just chaos”. Avvenire joined the debate on Thursday with an editorial by Editor Marco Tarquinio.
“There are those who blabber and insult for awful reasons of little politics and those who take action,” Tarquinio wrote.
“Those who don’t do anything serious try to poison the hearts of the Italians by odiously and outrageously attacking those who do the right thing”. Salvini has also criticised Pope Francis for making appeals for governments not to reject refugees.
When the pope said last week that rejecting refugees was an act of war, the League leader replied: “No, it’s a duty. Am I wrong?”.
Salvini also hit out at the pope in June, when Francis asked the faithful to pray for forgiveness for those who “close the door” to refugees.
“How many refugees are there in the Vatican?” Salvini told his party’s Radio Padania.
“The problem is that the refugees are a quarter of those who arrive (while the rest are economic migrants). We don’t need to be forgiven”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: UN Must Address Migrant ‘Human Tragedy’ — Bagnasco
‘Have int’l organs ever addressed this?’ wonders CEI chief
(ANSA) — Genoa, August 17 — Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) chief Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said after meeting 50 refugees in Genoa Monday he wondered whether “these international organs like the UN in particular that gathers political and financial power have ever seriously addressed this human tragedy”. He went on: “when we see hundreds and thousands of people, human beings, men, women and children making voyages of death to get to countries far from their own for reasons we know well, we cannot help concluding that this problem is a real humanitarian tragedy.
“It is the West especially that, through its European and international and world organs must seriously address and find effective solutions for this huge human tragedy, for these people who flee their countries because of war, violence and famine, seeking a better future”, said the CEI president.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean Desperation: Saving Lives at the World’s Most Dangerous Border
Doctors Without Borders is the only major humanitarian organization actively rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean. So far, it has saved more than 10,000 people. But in the world’s biggest crisis region, timing is everything.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Mass in Turkey to Take Shortest Route to Europe
The city of Bodrum, a magnet for wealthy tourists from Turkey and around the world, is these days drawing plenty of other visitors — migrants fleeing conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and seeking a better life in Europe, a continent so close they can almost reach out and touch it from the Bodrum peninsula’s many beaches.
Migrants, mostly from Syria, but also from Afghanistan, Iran and African nations often try to cross from the secluded beaches of Bodrum peninsula in groups upward of eight people in inflatable plastic boats meant for a maximum of four, powered by tiny electric outboard motors and plastic paddles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Misery: Greek Island of Kos Makes Refugees Fend for Themselves
Up to 600 people arrive each night on the Greek island of Kos, fleeing wars, oppression and hunger. When they arrive, they are often made to sleep outside with not sanitation facilities available. Greek authorities seem uninterested in improving the situation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Mayor Insults Migrants and Refugees, Controversy
‘They have no basic elements of intelligence and culture’
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — “They come by bus from Belgrade, from Presevo and from Subotica, they destroy our cemeteries, public spaces, parks”. They are “foreigners who lack the most basic elements of intelligence and culture, even though they seem to have money and this seems the essence of the whole question”.
These hard words, who are unleashing a fuss of controversy in the Balkan country, were said in recent days by Mihalj Bimbo, mayor of Kanjiza, a town near the border with Hungary in northern Serbia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Slow Response to Migrant Surge in Kos Leaves Refugees Adrift
The Greek island of Kos has been unprepared for the huge influx of refugees that have landed on its shores. The authorities have done little for the migrants, who have been left to themselves, reports Andres Caballero.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Syrian Refugee Who’s Telling His Compatriots: ‘Don’t Come to Sweden!’
A Syrian refugee is using social media to dispel what he says are myths about what life as a migrant is like in Sweden. “They give you a big house, a nice car and a job and lots of money… that’s what Syrians back home think Sweden offers asylum seekers.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump’s Illegal Alien Policy Has Welcome Details Discussed by No One Else
By David North
Don’t get me wrong, as a liberal Democrat I think Donald Trump would be a disaster as president.
On the other hand, I must say that I was impressed by the level of detail in his recently released immigration policy paper.
As Mark Krikorian has written, Trump’s position “clearly has advanced the immigration debate.”
What I find significant, and surprising, is that his illegal alien policy paper is so detailed, and so appropriate, particularly on some of the financial specifics of immigration policy that no one else has even mentioned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Pledges to Deport All Illegal Workers From the US if Elected
The frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump, on Sunday showed once again that he remained unapologetic over his comments about illegal immigrants in the US and, moreover, that he was prepared to go even further.
Just two months after the real estate tycoon set off an avalanche of criticism by accusing Mexico of sending over “rapists” and “drug traffickers” to the United States, he presented a plan to deport all of the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented workers should he win his White House bid.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press aboard his private plane, Trump reiterated his commitment to push the Mexican government to pay for a wall to keep illegal migrants from crossing the border and said he was ready to lead a campaign to attract the Republican Party’s most conservative wing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump’s Immigration Plan: Mass Deportation
Donald Trump unveiled his immigration policy paper on Sunday, pledging to “(put) the needs of working people first — not wealthy, globetrotting owners” and vowing to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
Trump’s three principles of the plan include: “1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border. 2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced. 3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.”
Until Mexico pays for the wall, the United States would, “among other things,” “impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards — of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico (Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options),” the plan reads.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Calls for Deportation of Illegal Immigrants, End to Birthright Citizenship
Donald Trump vowed to deport illegal immigrants and end the policy known as birthright citizenship as he unveiled a tough immigration platform which by Monday was meeting mixed reviews on both sides of the aisle.
The Republican presidential front-runner sought Sunday to detail his policies on several fronts, after weeks of criticism that his campaign has been short on specifics. His rolled out his immigration platform on his website and in a Sunday show interview.
As part of it, Trump said he wants to rescind President Obama’s executive orders on immigration; deport many of those in the U.S. illegally while providing an expedited return process for “the good ones;” and do away with automatic citizenship for children of illegal immigrants born on U.S. soil.
The Trump campaign said the policy, known as birthright citizenship, is the “biggest magnet” for illegal immigration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nearly Half of Young People Don’t Think They Are Heterosexual
Do you ever imagine yourself falling in love with the same sex? Almost half of Britain’s young people think it’s possible, according to a new YouGov survey.
A total of 51 per cent of 18-24 year olds who took part in the survey defined themselves as completely heterosexual, meaning they don’t think they could ever be attracted to someone of the opposite sex.
This is in stark contrast with the general population of the UK, with 72 per cent defining themselves as exclusively heterosexual, and 28 per cent falling somewhere else on the Kinsey scale.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mystery Deepens: Matter and Antimatter Are Mirror Images
Matter and antimatter appear to be perfect mirror images of each other as far as anyone can see, scientists have discovered with unprecedented precision, foiling hope of solving the mystery as to why there is far more matter than antimatter in the universe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Expose and examin the Koran in the MSM. On the front pages. Why has this ignoring the obvious been ALLOWED to go on for so long. In Churchill’s day a Prime Minister held the cursed koran up saying words to the effect that while this evil book exists there will never be peace in the world. To hear Osoma, Blair and Bush rant about religion of peace is something akin to three stooges gone seriously bad. (That’s ‘bad’ as in ‘bad’ and not the ghetto lingo ‘bad’ as in ‘good’.)
Your quote is from Gladstone, speaking in Parliament, not Churchill; he merely (!) compared the Qu’ran to “Mein Kampf”!
The most correct description I read of the Erawan shrine in the above would be “a Hindu shrine popular with Buddhists.” The shrine is dedicated to the Great Brahma (which would correspond to God) and while honoring the Great Brahma would be worth some merit according to Buddhist doctrine, it isn’t specifically required. Buddhists would have no religious reason to want to destroy the shrine, and doing so (especially if many people were killed in the process) would be considered an evil act earning someone much demerit, plaguing them with bad “luck” and one or more trips to hell in the afterlife especially if people were killed.
It’s too difficult to say exactly who would have set off the bombs since if it’s an attempt to damage the ruling regime it could have been carried out by anyone who would want to do so, including dialectical materialists or Muslims.
What in Fredrikstad, Norway, could possibly attract tourists from the United Arab Emirates…?!
Locals are, reportedly, by MSM, not happy with their open air performance, “praying” in the middle of the city.
Grenade deliveries?
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/08/18/draw-mohammed-uk-exhibition-cancelled-after-security-service-pressure/
Re the Erawan Shrine bombings, I used to go past it on occasion when I lived in Krung Thep Mahanakorn Amonrattanakosin etc. etc. When the Thai police catch the perp(s) of the bombing, I will let out three ringing “Chayo!”