Needless to say, the European “migration crisis” dominates tonight’s news. Mass rallies in support of the “refugees” took place in Britain, Denmark, Germany, and Austria. Mass rallies opposed to immigration took place in Slovakia, Hungary, and several cities in Poland. The new Iron Curtain, or so it seems.
Meanwhile, Hungary has completed its fence along the Serbian border, Austria has stopped the flow of refugees coming in from Hungary, and a Turk rammed his car into a crowd of Kurds in Bern, killing two people and injuring an unknown number (that last one is not in the feed, but Vlad gave me some video links).
In other news, an engineer from the Bin Laden Group says that there was no technical fault responsible for yesterday’s crane collapse in Mecca. He insists that the tragedy can only be described as an act of Allah.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, 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.
2015 Has Been the Year for Central Banks Taking Their Gold Out of Federal Reserve Vaults
Are central banks not trusting the Federal Reserve anymore? The latest trend over the past couple of years has been for central banks worldwide to yank their gold out of the Fed’s vaults. Austria wants its gold back. Germany wanted its gold back. Russia is piling onto its gold holdings. And even the state of Texas is petitioning the Fed to get its gold back.
A new report from the Federal Reserve found that physical gold holdings from foreign official assets declined 9.6 tons in August to 5,950 tons. This means total foreign physical gold holdings stand at $8 billion, down roughly $67 million year-to-date.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil’s Junk Relapse Makes Its Bonds Even Riskier Than Russia
Brazil’s plunge into junk status may be far from finished.
On Wednesday, Standard & Poor’s stripped Latin America’s biggest country of its investment grade, lowering it to BB+ and keeping a negative outlook on its debt.
With Brazil headed for its longest recession since the 1930s, bond traders are bracing for more rating cuts as political gridlock stymies desperately needed economic reforms.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Inside Ground Zero of Canada’s Recession
In the past year, we have extensively profiled the collapse of ground zero of Canada’s oil industry as a result of the plunge in the price of oil, in posts such as the following: •”Canada Crude Contagion: Calgary Home Prices Drop Most In 2 Years” •”Canada’s Biggest Oil Casualty To Date: Calgary’s Nexen Shutters Oil Trading Desk” •”The Canadian Housing Bubble Has Begun To Burst” •”Canada’s Oil Patch Confidence Crashes” • “Canada Mauled by Oil Bust, Job Losses Pile Up — Housing Bubble, Banks at Risk” •”The Stage Is Set For A Massive Housing Market Correction in Canada’s Oilpatch”
Since then it has gotten far, far worse for Canada. In fact, as of September 1 it culminated with the first official recession in 7 years.
And it’s only downhill from there. As Mark Thornton of the Mises Institute points out, in a report from the Financial Post shows that Calgary in Alberta Canada now has 1.7 million square feet of empty office space, the most in North America with another 5.2 million under construction! After years of booming construction, the natural resource rich country is starting to feel the pinch. To wit:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Yields Fall at Treasury Bond Auction
3-yr 0.24%, 7-yr 1.37%, 30-yr 2.96%
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — Yields fell Friday as the Treasury sold 3-year, 7-year and 30-year bonds worth some 7.75 billion euros. The average yield on the 3-year paper fell to 0.24% from 0.48% on July 13, the 7-year yield was down from 1.6% to 1.37% and the 30-year yield fell from 3.24% to 2.96%. Yields have been falling lately since the agreement over Greece’s new debt programme.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Wal-Mart Wage Hike Debacle Continues as Suppliers Forced to Layoff Employees Amid New Fees
Earlier this year, in “What Happens After A Mega Corporation Raises Its Workers’ Wages,” we detailed the plight of Wal-Mart’s supply chain in the wake of the retailer’s decision to raise the pay floor for its lowest-paid employees. Here’s a recap:
When mega-corporations such as WalMart and McDonalds, whose specialties are commoditized products and services and who have razor thin margins, yet which try to give an appearance of doing the right thing, by raising minimum wages, they start flexing their muscles, and in the process trample all over the companies that comprise their own cost overhead: their suppliers and vendors. Take the case of WalMart: the world’s biggest retailer “is increasing the pressure on suppliers to cut the cost of their products, in an effort to regain the mantle of low-price leader and turn around its sluggish U.S. sales.”
What WalMart is doing is borderline illegal: it is explicitly telling its vendors “this is what you will do with your excess cash.” Of course, we say borderline because WMT’s action is perfectly legal in the confines of the pure law. However, in the context of an economy that is sputtering, WMT’s vendors have no choice but to comply or risk losing what is certainly their largest revenue stream and risk bankruptcy. The irony is that while WMT (or MCD or GAP or Target) boosts the living standards of its employees by the smallest of fractions, it cripples the cost and wage structure of the entire ecosystem of vendors that feed into it, and what takes place is a veritable avalanche effect where a few cent increase for the lowest paid megacorp employees results in a tidal wave of layoffs for said megacorp’s vendors…
Now, we get still more evidence that the world’s largest physical retailer is attempting to make up for the cost of hiking wages by pressuring its suppliers only this time, the supply chain is pushing back. Here’s Bloomberg with more:
After years of meeting demands for ever cheaper prices, many Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suppliers are saying no to new margin-squeezing storage fees and a payment schedule that could delay for months how quickly some are paid.
The world’s largest retailer says the changes, laid out for vendors starting in June, reflect a push to simplify its relationships with suppliers, put them all on the same footing and reduce costs so it can offer customers the lowest prices. But some vendors see the new policy as an attempt by Wal-Mart to fatten its margins and offset wage hikes for store workers earlier this year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Oligarch Problem: How the Super-Rich Threaten US Democracy
The sky’s the limit when it comes to the United States’ campaign finance system. Increasingly, the country’s richest sector is gaining influence and control over America’s politicals. The development threatens the country’s once proud democracy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
California Town of 2,700 Told to Prepare to Leave as Wildfire Surges
Hundreds of people were forced to evacuated on Friday as a Northern California wildfire threatened rural communities, destroying six homes, threatening thousands more and prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency.
“It’s expanding like a balloon,” state fire spokeswoman Nancy Longmore said. “It’s moving very fast. There’s many homes threatened. … This fire is extremely dangerous.”
The slow-moving fire managed to burn about a single square mile on Thursday. However, the fire exploded, burning 101 square miles by Friday evening. It was only 5 percent contained.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former FBI Agent Mark Rossini Driven to Expose CIA’s 9/11 Secret
In 2000, then-FBI agent Mark Rossini was a witness to perhaps the most disastrous and consequential incident in the history of the U.S. intelligence community—one he believes is ultimately the only reason why al Qaeda was able to kill 2,977 people on September 11, 2001 and unleash a chain of worldwide aftershocks that continue to this day.
Rossini told 28Pages.org about the CIA’s intentional obstruction of a warning about a future 9/11 hijacker, and the agency secret that he thinks lies behind it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Moonquakes Unearthed in Data From 1970s Apollo Mission
Quakes deep inside the moon have been unearthed in seismic data recorded during the Apollo 16 mission. The algorithm behind the find could help NASA’s next Mars mission study similar quakes on the Red Planet.
We have known that the moon shakes since shortly after Neil Armstrong’s first step. Seismometers left by the Apollo missions picked up echoes from meteor strikes, deep quakes linked to the moon’s orbit around Earth and powerful shallow quakes of unclear origin — all of them different-looking and of different origin to the seismic activity we see on Earth.
Since then, a catalogue of the moon’s tremors has been painstakingly assembled both by hand and by computer, with about 13,000 events identified. But software trained by a human eye and then loosely supervised could do an even better job, says Brigitte Knapmeyer-Endrun of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Right Before 9/11, Wall Street Made Highly Suspicious Trades
The mainstream media initially blew the whistle on the highly suspicious aggressive surges of the trading of put options, basically a bet that the stock will go down, on American Airlines and United Airlines just before the 9/11 tragedy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shocking! Area 51 Family Describes Bombings, Machine Gun Attacks, Nuclear Testing by Feds
The Sheahans, a mining family that has owned about 400 acres of land in Nevada since the 1800s, are being threatened with eminent domain seizure by the U.S. Air Force, which seeks to expand testing capabilities around the clandestine Area 51 military base.
Benjamin, Joseph and Lisa Sheahan joined David Knight on the Infowars Nightly News Thursday to break down the Air Force’s attempts to bully and intimidate the family in efforts to kick them off the coveted land, which overlooks the notorious military installation at Groom Lake.
The Sheahan’s described how the military bought up land gradually encircling their silver and lead mining property, and even launched aerial assaults in the 1940s strafing the property with 50 caliber rounds — even while people were present.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Special-Needs Student Dies After Being Left on School Bus
A 19-year old student with special needs died after being left on an empty school bus in Whittier, Calif., on Friday.
The student typically left school at 2:30 p.m. and arrived home by 4 p.m., but when he didn’t arrive Friday afternoon, his mother called the school to report him missing. He was found in a bus in the district’s bus parking lot just before 4:30 p.m., slumped in the aisle and in “full arrest,” according to the Whittier Daily News.
Bus drivers and officers responding to the scene attempted CPR, but he was pronounced dead at 4:33 p.m. Temperatures in Whittier reached a high of 95 degrees on Friday.
“We are still gathering information about what happened,” said Whittier Union High School Superintendent Sandy Thorstenson in a statement. “The district is calling for a speedy and thorough investigation to determine how something like this could happen.”
Thorstenson added that counseling services will be provided to staff, students and his family.
The 19-year-old, who was not named, attended Sierra Educational Center’s Transition Program, which is adjacent to the bus depot where he was found dead.
Whittier Police Department spokesman Brad White told the Los Angeles Times that the death is being labeled as “suspicious” because there is no evidence that he had a medical condition that would have led to his death.
White added that there were no obvious signs of trauma on his body.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
The crux of the ruling is centered upon upholding a taxpayer’ right to vote and maintain local accountability. The Court disallowed Charters as they deemed them unconstitutional taxation without representation. Isn’t that why we fought the Revolutionary War? Charter schools have appointed boards while using taxpayer money, but the tax payer has no say in how the money is to be spent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘There is No God But Allah’? School Accused of Islamic Indoctrination
Maury County, Tennessee is in the heart of the Bible Belt. So it’s understandable why the local church ladies got all shook up when they discovered that school children had been forced to declare, “There is no God but Allah.”
Seventh graders at Spring Hill Middle School spent three weeks covering Islam in a Social Studies class — enraging some parents who say the lessons crossed the line into indoctrination and proselytization.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Think Your Meeting’s Important? 25 Years Ago, This One Spawned Wi-Fi
The IEEE 802.11 Working Group started standardizing wireless LANs in 1990
If you’re reading this story over Wi-Fi, thank a department store designer.
It was retail remodeling that spurred NCR, a venerable cash-register company, to find out how it could use newly opened frequencies to link registers and mainframes without wires. Its customers wanted to stop drilling new holes in their marble floors for cabling every time they changed a store layout.
In 1985, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to leave large blocks of spectrum unlicensed and let vendors build any kind of network they wanted as long as they didn’t keep anyone else from using the frequencies. NCR jumped at the chance to develop a wireless LAN, something that didn’t exist at the time, according to Vic Hayes, a former engineer at the company who’s been called the Father of Wi-Fi.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Weird Microscopic Animal Inspires New Kind of Glass
A really weird, really tiny animal — the microscopic tardigrade — is the inspiration behind a new material that could improve the efficiency of things like LED lights and solar cells.
The material under investigation is glass, and tardigrades (sometimes known as “water bears” or “moss piglets”) know a thing or two about glass. These water-dwelling critters, which look like tiny blimps with pudgy bodies and eight stubby legs, are capable of shedding almost all of the water in their cells when exposed to extreme conditions, such as heat, cold or even the vacuum of space.
“When you remove the water, they quickly coat themselves in large amounts of glassy molecules,” Juan de Pablo, professor of molecular engineering at the University of Chicago and one of the authors of a recent study on the tardigrade-inspired glass, said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
First Image of Planet Birth Shows Tightly Packed Worlds
A controversial space image does indeed show the first picture of planets being born, a new study confirms.
When an image of the system HL Tau was unveiled last year, it sparked controversy over whether or not grooves in the disk of dust surrounding the star could be explained by the presence of newly formed giant planets. Now, a new paper suggests that the orbit of those planets could serve to stabilize rather than eject one another, as had originally been suggested. That means this image is the first time scientists have observed a forming planetary system, and a tightly packed one at that.
“The big question is, are we really seeing giant planets carving out the disk out of which they are forming?” lead author Daniel Tamayo, from the University of Toronto in Canada, had said in a presentation at the Emerging Researchers for Exoplanet Science Symposium hosted at Pennsylvania State University in April.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: New Spy Agencies Would Have Vast Powers
Austria’s parliament is due to vote next month on whether to create ten new surveillance agencies with wide-ranging powers to spy on organisations and individuals.
The planned State Protection Act (Staatsschutzgesetz) would see the Federal Agency for State Protection and Counter Terrorism, currently a police department, upgraded to a surveillance agency and additional agencies would be created for each of Austria’s nine provinces — giving local politicians their own personal intelligence service.
The draft law for this extension of domestic surveillance was written in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen earlier this year.
A petition against the new law gives details of some of the powers the ten agencies would be granted — including being allowed to spy on any citizen without needing a warrant from a judge. Agents could carry out surveillance to assess whether there is a risk of an “attack on the constitution”, with only a “justified suspicion” of danger required.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Catalonia: Independence: Campaign for Sept. 27 Vote Starts
Thousands separatists celebrate in Barcelona
Pro-independence party ‘Junts pel Si’ candidates Artur Mas (L) and Oriol Junqueras (R) during the Catalonia election campaign opening meeting in Barcelona, Spain
MADRID — The electoral campaign for crucial regional elections in Catalonia, scheduled on September 27, officially opened on Friday. Separatists led by Catalonia’s outgoing president Artur Mas mean to transform it into a vote on independence. The start of the campaign coincides with Diada, the Catalan national holiday during which this afternoon hundreds of thousands of separatists are expected in Barcelona for the “Via Liuvre a la Republica Catalana” (the green light to the Catalan Republic).
The latest surveys indicate that separatists could win the absolute majority of seats in the new parliament of Barcelona, while remaining under the absolute majority of votes. Mas has announced that if they win, the “disconnection” with Spain will start with the objective of declaring a secession within 18 months.
The Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy believes that the independence of a region is banned by the Spanish Constitution that came into effect after the end of the Franco regime and has announced he will oppose Catalonia’s independence.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Companies Are Developing “Safe” Screens That Filter Blue Light Emitted by Electronic Devices
The blue light emitted by the screens on cell phones, tablets, TVs, and computers could be making it hard for us to sleep, and perhaps worse yet, may be damaging our retinas. Manufacturers are trying to look at this as more of an opportunity than a problem.
Enter “safe” screens.
Dutch company Philips unveiled its “SoftBlue” computer screens at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. The company claims “SoftBlue” is easier on the eyes. It’s not alone. Asus and BenQ, along with American firm ViewSonic, are also using the health crisis to introduce their own lines of “safe” screens and turn a profit.
“We are shifting the harmful blue light frequencies, which are below 450 nanometers, to above 460 nanometers,” said Philips’ marketing director Stefan Sommer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Counter-Terrorism Conference Simulates Responses to Impending ISIS Terror Attack in Europe
A security simulation held Thursday at a key counter-terrorism conference in Herzliya saw players representing European decision makers respond to the scenario of an impending large-scale terrorist attack, organized by ISIS in Syria.
The simulation occurred at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism’s (ICT) 15th international Conference.
The players, representing decision makers in Belgium, grappled with multiple dilemmas, before ultimately choosing to forgo air strikes in Syria, in favor of arresting and prosecuting the terrorists, who were Belgian citizens, on Belgian territory.
The simulation began with a scenario in which the Belgian cabinet receives word of a group of seven ISIS operatives — veterans of battlefields in Syria and Iraq — using an apartment in a Syrian city to plot mass casualty attacks in Belgium.
In the game, the prime minister was played by Brian M. Jenkins, senior Advisor to the president of the RAND Corporation, a US-based global think tank. The minister of defense was played by Ambassador Dr. Dimitar Mihaylov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria to the State of Israel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Crops Farmed by Leafcutter Ants Show Signs of Domestication
Leafcutter ants in the rainforests of South America beat us to the invention of farming by some 50 million years. Now it seems that their fungus crop has undergone the same genetic changes as human crops.
As people selectively bred new crop plants, they often inadvertently made changes to their genomes. Wheat, bananas, tobacco and strawberries are all polyploid — meaning they have three or more copies of each chromosome rather than the usual two.
Now, a team at Copenhagen University have discovered that leafcutter ant crops are the same.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Authorities Find Body of Stowaway in Landing Gear of Plane That Arrived From Africa
Dutch authorities have discovered the body of a stowaway in the landing gear of a plane from Africa that landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
Military police spokesman Dennis Muller says the body was discovered Saturday morning. He says military police at Schiphol are investigating.
Muller says the plane carrying the stowaway arrived from Africa, but he declined to name the country or city it left from or the airline.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
First-Semester Exports Jump 7% in Italy’s South Says ISTAT
Only Sicily and Sardinia down, by 2.9%
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — Italian exports increased by 7% in Italy’s south in the first semester of 2015 on previous semester results, but decreased by 2.9% in the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, said ISTAT on Friday.
First semester (January-June) exports also increased 6% in Italy’s northeast, 4.7% in the northwest, and 4.3% in central Italy.
Second quarter results in seasonally adjusted terms showed increases in exports on first quarter 2015 results of 5.7% in the south and islands, 5% in central Italy, and 2.1% for the northwest, with a 1.5% decrease in the northeast.
Meanwhile, in regional terms of contribution to the total export increment in the first semester, increases were seen by Lazio (14.4%), Piedmont (9.6%), Friuli-Venezia Giulia (7.6%), and Veneto (7.3%).
Decreases in regional terms of contribution to total exports were reported in Sicily (-8.2%), Molise (-3.3%), and Marche (-2.8%).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: UN Rights Chief Blasts Paris for Roma Evictions
France has once again been blasted for its treatment of Roma communities. This time it’s the UN’s human rights chief who has taken Paris to task for forced evictions of Roma camps.
The UN rights chief on Friday condemned what he described as a “systematic national policy” in France to evict Roma, two weeks after more than 150 people were forced from a shantytown north of Paris.
“It is becoming increasingly apparent that there is a systematic national policy to forcibly evict the Roma,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement, attacking the policy as “punitive and destructive.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Greatest Living Composer Turns 80
As Arvo Pärt celebrates his 80th birthday on September 11th, the German-Estonian composer can look back on decades of fame, respect and awe from around the globe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Thousands Gather in Barcelona to Demand Independence From Spain
Thousands of people have gathered in Barcelona’s streets to call for Catalonia to break away from Spain. The rally comes before a local election that is being seen as decisive for the regional independence movement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Murder-Suicide Over Debt in Palermo
‘String of arguments over money’
(ANSA) — Palermo, September 9 — A construction worker shot dead a fellow worker after rowing over a debt and then committed suicide in central Palermo Wednesday, police said. The shooter was named as Giuseppe Di Stefano and the man he killed as Alessandro Valenti. They reportedly were working together on improvements to Di Stefano’s house. Carabinieri said they had had a string of arguments over money.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: CasaPound Says Rally to Take Place Despite Revoked Permit
Milan prefecture aware of situation
(ANSA) — Milan, September 11 — The national president of neo-fascist group CasaPound said Friday that a rally organized in the town of Castano Primo, about 45 minutes northwest of Milan, would take place this weekend despite the fact that the mayor of the town revoked the group’s authorization on Thursday.
“There are people coming from all over Italy, there are important guests, there’s an organisation that’s been working for a long time for this initiative, and at the last minute, the day before, they revoke authorisation. You can’t do that,” said Gianluca Iannone, adding that the rally would start Friday at 6 p.m. as scheduled and continue through Sunday.
On Friday the Milan Prefecture held a meeting of its Provincial Committee for Order and Public Safety regarding the CasaPound rally and said it had “taken note” of the revoked authorisation “relative to the use of a marquee in the municipal territory”.
“The city of Castano Primo will inform judicial authorities immediately of any violations of the measure, together with the most opportune interventions,” the Milan Prefecture said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kabbala and the Future at Jewish Culture Festival
Over 20,000 visitors to Rome Ghetto events
(by Elisa Pinna) (ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 9 — From the Jewish mysticism of the Kabbala to the most advanced technologies to treat humans, this year’s International Festival of Jewish Language and Culture focused on the theme ‘Around the Future’. The myth of the mysterious protector figure of the Jewish population Golem, the revolution in robots and Israeli writers and architecture that plots out man-size cities all filled the five days of the festival’s eighth edition. The cultural, gastronomic and musical events held in Rome’s Ghetto have drawn over 20,000 spectators and will end on Wednesday evening with an initiative entitled ‘The Future as told by Animation Cinema’. The festival has become one of the most important international events of Jewish culture and was this year inspired by one of the foundations of Judaism, ANSA was told by curator Ariela Piattelli. ‘Tikkum ‘Olam’ (“Repair the World’) means improving life through all the means at one’s disposal, including culture and technology, she said. For a festival created eight years ago as a literary event, this proved a challenge, Piattelli admitted, but one of the most popular events was the presentation of the robotic exoskeleton ReWalk, an advanced technology system that enables paraplegics to get up and walk. Its inventor, the Israeli “dreamer” Amit Goffer, is quadriplegic (with both arms and legs paralyzed) and thus unfortunately cannot make use of his own revolutionary idea. Presenting it in Rome was Carmine Consalvi, a 27-year-old who was paralyzed in a road accident and who can now — he said — go back to “looking people in the eye”. Another successful event was on water and technology to preserve it, humanity’s most precious resource. Israel is exemplary in that it wastes only 3% of his hydric resources. The celebrity architect Daniel Libeskind discussed his ideas on the architecture of the future, a synthesis of tradition and progress, while Israeli writer Etgar Keret talked about ‘his’ Tel Aviv, a ‘smart city’ that celebrated its 100 years of existence with a 100-kilometer bike path. Piattelli noted that all the above was connected with a future invented daily on Rothschild Avenue, Tel Aviv’s main street, where there is the highest concentration of start-ups in the Middle East and possibly in the world. On Wednesday evening, the festival will close by paying homage to animation films. “The People of the Book were pioneers in and continue to drive the art of images,” the curator said. Discussion will be had on how technologies have made it possible for everyone to think up and make an animated film.
Animated videos will accompany ‘Massà, the Journey’, a performance dedicated to women’s lives in all their phases, with representatives from Israel’s top dance companies. The festival — curated also by Marco Panella, Raffaella Spizzichino and Shulim Vogelmann — showed that the Rome Ghetto “wants to be an open place”, Piattelli said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-UAE Together to Create Center to Treat Camels
Cooperation for Italian centers of excellence in Gulf
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 10 — Italy and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will cooperate to create and develop a center of excellence to treat diseases affecting camels. The five-year-long initiative will involve from the Italian side, through the health ministry, three experimental zooprophylactic institutes in Brescia, Teramo and Palermo, already centers of reference of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and, from the UAE side, the Abu Dhabi Food Control authority (ADFCA).
The cooperation, said Italy’s ambassador to Abu Dhabi, Liborio Stellino, will include training sessions by Italian personnel in both Abu Dhabi and Italy, in zooprophylactic institutes. This project of scientific cooperation will promote the excellence of Italian centers in the Gulf region.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy Seal Infrastructure Pact
(AGI) Genoa, Sept 12 — Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy sealed a pact for the construction of common infrastructures at the Milan Expo on Saturday. “Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy have common development models and need to modernise their infrastructures and make them efficient. The world marches on, the Suez Canal has been doubled and the Swiss are doubling their mountain passes: Italy too must keep up pace,” said Giovanni Toti, the president of the Region of Liguria. Together with Roberto Maroni and Sergio Chiamparino, respectively the presidents of Lombardy and Piedmont, they reached a general agreement on the strategic coordination and promotion of a logistic system in north-western Italy. “Europe’s integration crisis must induce local authorities to make a great cohesive effort in order to achieve common growth and international competitiveness objectives,” explained Mr Toti. The geographic area lying between the North Tyrrhenian Sea and Bavaria, the so-called “Rhine-Alpine Corridor”, includes Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, a large part of Switzerland and the German States of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg and represents a market with an extraordinary potential if it proves capable of assuring the free movement of goods and services, efficiency, competitiveness and compliance with the rules. The port of Genoa, and more generally all Ligurian hub ports, represent a big opportunity to connect this area to international markets if they succeed to become the main source of input for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor while assuring efficiency and international competitiveness. Mr Toti added: “We’re not talking of infrastructures only serving Lombardy, Liguria and Piedmont but all of Italy, like the Frejus Pass and the Third Pass, the rationalisation of the the three regions’ motorway networks, or like the big dyke in the Port of Genoa, which will serve to harbour increasingly larger ships. Let’s say that we’re now starting to think in terms of how the three regions will be in twenty years’ time.”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Kicks Off World’s Largest Indoor Ski Centre
The world’s largest indoor ski centre is to be built just ten minutes drive from Norway’s capital Oslo after the project got given the go ahead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Opens Summer Papal Residence to Tourists
Vatican Museum director calls it ‘sign of the times’
(ANSA) — Vatican City, September 11 — Vatican Museums Director Antonio Paolucci on Friday said that Pope Francis’s decision to open the pontifical villas of Castel Gandolfo to the public is a “sign of the times” and a clear reflection of his papal politics.
Paolucci said Pope Francis met with him to request the initiative, which will bring the first tourists by train on Saturday.
“The Pope told me, ‘I don’t go to Castel Gandolfo because I have too much to do in Rome, but I don’t want these riches, this beauty, to be closed. Make plans to open them,” Paolucci said, adding that Pope Francis is “informed on everything” including Friday’s inaugural journey by steam train and Saturday’s opening to the public.
Paolucci said Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI may continue to use Castel Gandolfo for summer holidays, but the areas open to tourists are far from Benedict’s living quarters, so the tourist visits “won’t interfere at all” with Benedict’s holidays.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Seven Million Italians Tattooed
More women than men
(ANSA) — Rome, September 7 — Seven million Italians, or 13% of the population, have a tattoo somewhere on their body and woman outnumber men, the Higher Health Institute (ISS) said in its first survey of tattoos Monday.
Some 13.8% of female Italians are tattooed and some 11.7% of males.
Some 3.3% of the total have had reactions or complications including pain, granulomas, skin thickening, allergic reactions, infections and pus, the ISS said, adding that this figure “is likely lower than the real one”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Nuclear DNA Obtained From Sima De Los Huesos Fossils
Science reports that paleogeneticist Matthias Meyer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has sequenced nuclear DNA from fossils recovered from the Sima de los Huesos, or “Pit of Bones,” in Spain’s Atapuerca Mountains. The 300,000 to 400,000-year-old fossils had been classified as members of Homo heidelbergensis, which resemble primitive Neanderthals, by paleontologist Juan-Luis Arsuaga of the Complutense University of Madrid, but a study of their mitochondrial DNA, inherited through the maternal line, showed that it more closely matched the mitochondrial DNA of Denisovans.
Now Meyer and his team have been able to generate enough base pairs from the ancient nuclear DNA to see that the Sima fossils share a close affinity with Neanderthals. “Indeed, the Sima de los Huesos specimens are early Neanderthals or related to early Neanderthals,” Meyer said at the annual meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution. The results also suggest that the lineage that gave rise to Neanderthals split from other archaic humans earlier than had been thought. The Denisovan mitochondrial DNA found in the Simos fossils may thus have been the result of interbreeding between species.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Nespresso Opens 300-Million-Franc Coffee Plant
Nespresso on Thursday inaugurated its third Swiss coffee capsule plant, a 300-million-franc ($309-million) facility in Romont, a municipality in the canton of Fribourg.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jeremy Corbyn is the most radical Labour leader in the party’s history.
The veteran left-winger does not merely advocate a return to 1970s-style socialism, the re-opening of the mines and nationalisation of all public utilities.
Mr Corbyn also opposes Nato, Britain’s nuclear deterrent and any controls on immigration.
He refused to support the Falklands War, backed the right of Iraqi insurgents to target British troops and, more recently, has defended Vladimir Putin, ISIS and Palestinian terrorists.
His views are so hard-line he even split with his second wife because she refused to send her child to the failing local state school in his constituency.
Michael Foot, who led the Labour party to its worst post war defeat in 1983, was never so far from public opinion — even supporting Margaret Thatcher’s re-taking of the Falkland Islands in 1982.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Edible Insect-Farming Hatches New Breed of ‘Entopreneurs’
Could you describe the taste of roasted crickets? Grasshoppers? Mealworms?
“They are meaty and crunchy and have a prawny, bacony flavour when roasted,” says Neil Whippey, of Grub, describing the sensation of eating cricket. “They aren’t squishy and horrible.”
Whippey is one of a handful of U.K. “entopreneurs,” building businesses around entomophagy — human consumption of creepy-crawlies. As an insect-farmer and distributor, he’s vying for a share of a European market predicted to be worth €65 million ($73 million) by 2020, according to analysis by New Nutrition Business, a consultancy.
Whippey and his business partner Shami Radia launched Grub in 2014 to sell a range of edible insects to British customers, focusing on flavor rather than novelty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jeremy Corbyn Wins Labour Leadership Contest and Vows “Fightback”
Jeremy Corbyn has promised to lead a Labour “fightback” after being elected the party’s new leader by a landslide.
The veteran left-winger got almost 60% of more than 400,000 votes cast, trouncing his rivals Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.
He immediately faced an exodus of shadow cabinet members — but senior figures including Ed Miliband urged the party’s MPs to get behind him.
Mr Corbyn was a 200-1 outsider when the three-month contest began.
But he was swept to victory on a wave of enthusiasm for his anti-austerity message and promise to scrap Britain’s nuclear weapons and renationalise the railways and major utilities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sadiq Khan Named as Labour’s Candidate to be London Mayor as Party Lurches to the Left
The result will be seen as an early indication of the mood in the party ahead of the naming tomorrow of the new Labour leader, which is widely expected to be arch-leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn.
[Comment: For communists, if something doesn’t work, the answer is always MORE communism.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Pushes France and Bulgaria to Stop Expulsions of Roma
In France “there is a national policy of systematic expulsion”
(ANSA) — GENEVA — Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has expressed great concern over the forced expulsions of Roma and nomadic peoples in several European countries, and especially over the recent evictions in France and Bulgaria. In France “it is becoming increasingly evident that there is a national policy of systematic expulsion of Roma by force”, Zeid underlined in a press release issued today in Geneva.
Forced evictions of Roma and other nomadic peoples have continued in recent years in several European countries, including Italy, but also in Albania, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and the UK, the UN says.
In Bulgaria, on September 7, the local authorities have proceeded with the expulsions of Roma in the Kremikovtzi camp (Gurmen) and, according to civil society sources, no alternative accommodation was offered. A total of 41 people, including 21 children, would be homeless, the UN reported.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Who is Corbyn? A Look at the Background, Beliefs of UK’s New Labour Leader
Far-left lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn has won the race to lead Britain’s opposition Labour Party, a result many considered unimaginable just months ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Vucic: Albanian Southern Communities, ‘Irresponsible’
After the creation of Serbian communities in Kosovo
(ANSA) — BELGRADE — Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic called it “irresponsible” to announce the creation of an Association of Albanian Municipalities in Serbia, in response to the Association of Serbian communities in Kosovo, recently agreed in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
This controversial announcement was made yesterday in Presevo, the main town in a region predominantly inhabited by Albanian population in southern Serbia, bordering Kosovo and Macedonia.
The founding session of this new Albanian entity in Serbia should take place tomorrow in Presevo. “Serbia wishes to respond wisely and calmly to this initiative, without making hasty decisions, though showing in due time its firmness and determination”, Vucic said, speaking on the Serbian public television RTS.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cairo to Hold ‘Miss Cemetery’ Beauty Contest
For inhabitants of necropolis-turned-slum City of the Dead
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 8 — A beauty contest to vote for ‘Miss Cemetery’ launched in recent days in the Egyptian capital has raised both support and polemics. Several local dailies including Al-Ahram and El-Watan have called it a philanthropic initiative proposed by Egyptian activist Hussein Hassan, that intends to change the image of the very poor girls living in the famous ‘City of the Dead’ — Cairo’s oldest cemetery, which has over the years become a slum.
Despite criticism, the activist decided to push forward with his project, saying that the idea is to elect a ‘Miss Simplicity’ from the over 1,000 14-year-old girls that will compete in the contest and who are often “victims of sexual abuse in the slum” they live in. Hassan said that the slogan of the competition would be ‘You are the queen, despite what surrounds you’, in reference to the degradation of the cemetery and the living conditions of the people that live amid mausoleums and tombs.
The activist added that the final ceremony of the contest will be held in November in Sharm El-Sheik and that the winner will be awarded a trip to Austria funded by Egyptian residents abroad. Many have criticized the idea, saying that only criminals and drug dealers live in the ‘City of the Dead’, and that slums have nothing to do with beauty. A report drawn up in 2014 by the central statistics institute CAPMAS stated that around 1.5 million Egyptians live in the famous Cairo cemetery, while 8 million live in the 700 other slums throughout the country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Salafist Party in 2 Coalition Lists for Election
(AGI) Cairo, Sep 10 — The Egyptian Salafist party Al-Nour announced that its candidates will run in the upcoming parliamentary elections in October within two coalition lists: one for al Said and one for Delta. The Al-Nour party’s leader, Younis Makhyoun, said in a statement that “the decision was made in order to allow greater participation by all the political forces that sincerely wish to get the country out of this embarassing situation”. The various coalition parties agreed on the common goal of “working for Egypt’s stability” within its constitutional framework. The parliamentary elections will consist of two phases, each with two rounds. The first phase will involve 14 governatorates, with the first round to be held on October 18-19 and the second from October 27-28. The second phase will cover the 13 remaining governatorates, with the first round from November 22-23 and the second round, which will close the elections, from December 1-2. The elections, originally scheduled for March 22, were postponed after Egypt’s Constitutional Court declared that the new electoral law was unconstitutional. Egypt has been lacking a parliament since June 2012, when the Egyptian Supreme Court’s judges dissolved the chamber, then dominated by the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Freedom and Justice Party.
Without a working parliament, legislative powers are exerted by Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Government Resigns Amid Corruption Row
The Egyptian government has resigned nearly a week after one of its ministers was arrested over corruption allegations. Oil Minister Sherif Ismail has been tasked with forming a new cabinet.
Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb tendered the Egyptian cabinet’s resignation on Saturday, nearly a week after the agriculture minister was arrested over corruption allegations.
“The prime minister handed the government’s resignation to the president, who accepted it,” a statement from the president’s office said.
Mehleb and the rest of the Egyptian cabinet were asked to continue in their capacity until Oil Minister Sherif Ismail (left) forms a new government within the week, according to the president’s office.
The move follows the arrest of Agriculture Minister Salah el-Din Helal and his aides on Monday for allegedly accepting more than $1 billion (880 million euros) in bribes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Tunisians March Against Law Forgiving Corruption Cases
TUNIS, Tunisia — Hundreds of Tunisians have gathered in the heart of the capital under heavy security to protest against a law which offers amnesty for those accused of corruption.
The controversial draft law on economic reconciliation is a centerpiece of the new government’s program and seeks to boost the economy by clearing cases against businessmen and civil servants accused of corruption.
Opponents to the law, however, see it as an attempt to whitewash the crimes of the old regime.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Protests Corruption Amnesty Law
Hundreds of Tunisians have poured into Tunis’ streets to protest a controversial law offering amnesty to corrupt businessmen and politicians. The bill was introduced by the president over the summer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Addiction Among Girls of 13 Worries Iranian Media
The average age of hard drug use among girls and women in Iran has fallen to just 13 — according to one of the country’s vice president — raising alarm bells among the media.
Iran has one of the highest rates of addiction in the world. One 2012 estimate by an Iranian NGO said that the country, with a population of roughly 80 million, may have 5 million hard-core drug addicts and millions more occasional users.
But entrenched attitudes among many, such as blaming “enemies” and foreign satellite TV stations for what one newspaper described as a “devastating” social phenomenon, means that there is no clear policy on how Iran is going to tackle the issue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Leader Al-Zawahiri Rejects ISIS Caliphate, Predicts Imminent ‘Islamic Spring’
On September 9, 2015, an online jihadi forum published a new audio message by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in which he rejected the Islamic caliphate, predicted an “Islamic Spring,” and urged jihadi groups to consider exchanging their hostages for Muslim women prisoners. Most of the message, titled “Series of the Islamic Spring” and posted on the Al-Qaeda-affiliated forum Al-Fidaa’, was devoted to rejecting the Islamic caliphate declared last year by the self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
Also in his message, in addition to his fierce criticism of the Islamic State (ISIS), Al-Zawahiri talked about the importance of winning the war in Syria, which he considered a prelude to liberating Jerusalem; eulogized top leaders of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and praised an operation carried out by Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) against the U.S. and Pakistani navies. Al-Zawahiri also urged jihadi groups to include Muslim prisoners, especially women, in any negotiations for the release of hostages, and thanked Caucasus Emirate leader Abu Muhammad Al-Daghistani for including him in a letter to a number of Muslim scholars, among them prominent salafi clerics Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi, Abu Qatada Al-Falastini, and Hani Al-Siba’i, regarding the dispute between jihadi groups.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgian Fighters in Syria and Iraq
by pietervanostaeyen
The maximum number of Belgians who at one point were active in Syria or Iraq has climbed to 507. This implies that the steady flow from foreign fighters to (mainly) The Islamic State has somewhat slowed down. Since April 2015 that would be an increase of only 22 (known) individuals.
This number means that out of Belgium’s Muslim population of about 640.000 individuals, there is one per 1260 who has been involved in Jihad in Syria and Iraq. At this point Belgium is, pro capita, by far the European nation contributing the most to the foreign element in the Syrian war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Crane Collapse in Mecca Kills at Least 107
A powerful rainstorm in Mecca knocked down a crane at Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque Friday, and the Associated Press reported at least 107 people are dead.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense authority confirmed the accident in a Twitter post.
Photos on social media showed shocked pilgrims in bloodied robes, and debris from part of a crane that looks like it crashed through a ceiling.
Authorities in Mecca have been preparing for the millions of faithful making the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage there later this month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Jihadist Drugeon Likely Killed in Syria: US Official
French jihadist David Drugeon was likely killed in a coalition strike in Syria in July, a US official said Friday.
Drugeon, an alleged bombmaker, has been described as a key figure in the Al-Qaeda offshoot Khorasan group, which American officials say is a dangerous militant outfit planning to attack the United States and other Western countries.
US officials previously thought Drugeon was killed in a November 2014 drone strike, but the claim was later disproved.
“There are very good chances that we did get him in a strike in July in Syria,” a US official told AFP on Friday…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Growing Unrest in Turkey Following Deadly Attacks by Kurdish Militant Group
As mobs blazed through his neighborhood in the Turkish capital, attacking Kurdish political party offices, shops and associations, Sulhattin Atas watched them torch his two fruit trucks.
“We’ve lived in Ankara for 35 years and never experienced anything like this,” said the 54-year-old Kurdish resident of Altindag, an ethnically mixed working-class district. “Next, it may be our house that gets burnt, or us.”
Throngs of young people driving around the neighborhood in cars draped with Turkish flags at night fired occasional shots in the air. Amid concern that attacks and vandalism could spark clashes as Kurdish residents complained of delayed police responses, authorities deployed riot squads in Altindag.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Iranian government has found a surprise uranium reserve which could allow the country to fuel its nuclear programme without having to look abroad.
It was previously thought that Iran would have to import uranium from other countries in order to power its nuclear plants, which would have made it easier for the West to monitor the develop of the controversial project.
Any indication Iran could become more self-sufficient will be closely watched by world powers, which reached a landmark deal with Tehran in July over its programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On September 9, 2015, in a public address at the tomb of the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the U.S. — the “Great Satan” — is worse than Satan, and warned the Iranian people and the moderate stream against being deceived by its attempts to infiltrate Iran. Khamenei added that in 25 years, Israel would no longer exist and that until then it would not have one minute of quiet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mecca Crane Collapse ‘Act of God’: Engineer
The collapse of a construction crane that killed 107 people at Mecca’s Grand Mosque was “an act of God” and not due to a technical fault, an engineer for the developer said Saturday.
The engineer for Saudi Binladin Group, which is carrying out a massive expansion of the mosque, told AFP the crane, like many others on the project, had been there for three or four years without any problem.
“It was not a technical issue at all,” said the engineer, who asked not to be identified.
“I can only say that what happened was beyond the power of humans. It was an act of God and, to my knowledge, there was no human fault in it at all.”
Authorities are investigating the tragedy, which occurred as hundreds of thousands of Muslims from around the world were gathering for the annual hajj pilgrimage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow Urges Anti-ISIS Coalition to Cooperate With Damascus
Lavrov, we will continue to provide military aid
(ANSAmed) — MOSCOW, SEPTEMBER 11 — Moscow has asked the anti-ISIS coalition “to cooperate with the government of Damascus and its army”, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“ISIS cannot be defeated only with air raids”, added Lavrov. “It is necessary to cooperate with ground troops and the Syrian army is the most effective and powerful ground force to fight against ISIS”.
Moscow, Lavrov also said, “will continue to provide war material to Syria to guarantee its defense capacity in the fight against the terrorism threat”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
by Richard Fernandez
Very few would have predicted on September 11, 2001 that the headlines 14 years later would feature an American president arming Iran; that there would be millions of Middle Eastern Arabs flooding into the heart of Europe. Or Saudi Arabia, while refusing to accept any refugees from an Islamic civil war in Syria, would instead offer to build 200 mosques in Germany, one for every hundred who has arrived to spare the Germans the trouble and expense of building the mosques themselves.
Few could have imagined that rail and road transport from Hungary to Germany would be interrupted to hold back floods of people in numbers unseen since World War 2. Not many would have guessed that the Palestinian flag would fly over the UN in New York, despite the objection of the United States.
Bin Laden knew that the weakness of the West lay, not in it’s armed forces, technology or economy, but in the alienation of its own elites. Attempting to explain the complete capitulation of the Western decision makers to the refugee flood rushing at their borders Peggy Noonan notes in her Wall Street Journal article that the political and cultural elites no longer even regard territorial integrity as an existential issue. It was something well enough to have, but certainly nothing worth defending to the point of inconvenience; and most assuredly not unto the death.
Like the barons of yesteryear, they were secure in castles rising above the squalid countryside, safe from pestilence, hunger and even war. Noonan describes the modern aristocracy as a law unto themselves, living in a world unto itself, with more in common with foreign princes, other elite classes than with the commoners who surround them.
Yet despite the outward calm, it is a time of tremendous tension with everyone waiting for a trigger event which will initiate the clear break. There will be many false starts which portend a resolution, indeed some activists may even try to manufacture trigger events to precipitate things intentionally, only to see their efforts fizzle.
Such events are not so easily anticipated. Ironically a real trigger event will almost certainly be completely unexpected. No one — or only very few — will recognize a trigger’s significance when it arrives. Only belatedly and after it takes a life of its own will it be identified. The best anyone can do is build up their networks to be ready for the day. The irksome thing about the future, is that except for climate scientists, Marxists and Islamists, it is hard to predict.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Saudi official has confirmed that the annual hajj to Mecca will go ahead, despite the horrific crane disaster that killed 107 people and wounded 238 in the city yesterday.
The tragedy occurred when a crane crashed through the ceiling of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, the largest mosque in the world, amid high winds and thunderstorms on Friday afternoon.
An investigation has been launched today, to probe claims that the health and safety standards at the mosque were insufficient.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia: Military Planes Flying to Syria Carry Materials to Set Up Tent Camp for 1,000 Refugees
Russian military cargo planes have taken supplies to Syria to set up a tent camp for more than 1,000 refugees, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday as the main Syrian opposition group blasted Moscow over its military presence in the Arab country.
U.S. President Barack Obama has expressed concern about Russia’s increased military activity in Syria, particularly at an air base near the coastal city of Latakia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia is airlifting weapons to Syria, a longtime ally, and Russian troops are training the Syrian army on how to use them.
Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday the humanitarian aid included materials for setting up a tent camp, including beds, mattresses, stoves, water cisterns and food.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In an article in the official Saudi daily Al-Watan, Saudi journalist Sa’ud Al-Balawi argued that, following the recent nuclear agreement with Iran, the U.S. is expected to become an ally of Iran and even to hand over regional control to it and give it carte blanche to operate there. According to Al-Balawi, it is already proven that Arab countries cannot rely on their historic alliance with the U.S., and therefore the only thing that can protect them and guarantee their stability are their peoples. For this reason, he said, he is calling on Arab countries to strengthen themselves at home by enacting widespread reforms, including in education, culture, and freedoms.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Security Officials Say Yemen Rebels Intensify Attacks in Southern City of Taiz, 14 Killed
SANAA, Yemen — Security officials in the southern Yemeni city of Taiz say Shiite rebels have intensified attacks against pro-government forces.
They say fighting has killed 14 and wounded 27, with the toll including both fighters and civilians.
The officials, who remain neutral in a conflict that has splintered security forces, said Saturday that the rebels known as Houthis aim to seize the strategic Jarrah mountain overlooking many neighborhoods in Taiz, the country’s third-largest city.
The rebels controlled the city’s presidential palace and a judicial compound before pro-government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes, gained control of much of Yemen’s south in recent weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Where did ISIS come from? How was it able to gain land, arms and money so quickly?
This book will answer those questions … and unmask ISIS.
Part 1 shows that the U.S. — through bad policies and stupid choices — is largely responsible for the rise of ISIS.
Part 2 reveals the strange history of the leaders of ISIS … Including one who never really existed, and another who — if you read mainstream media drivel — was killed … then arrested … and then killed again.
Part 3 delves into the little-known, secret history of Iraq and Syria … and discusses the real motivations behind our current policies towards those countries.
And Part 4 reveals the shocking truth about who is really supporting ISIS.
So grab a cup of coffee, and prepare to learn the real story.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Washington: Islamic State “Produces and Uses Chemical Weapons” In Syria and Iraq
US government believes that jihadists are using mustard gas and other rudimentary chemical agents. At least four attacks along the border between the two countries in which use emerged. IS fighters also producing handmade weapons. The United Nations has launched an investigation.
Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Islamic State militias (IS) “are producing and using” rudimentary chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq, US officials reported to the BBC, while Washington has stated that it now has credible reason to believe that jihadists are using unconventional weapons in the wars in the Middle East. According to the US government, on at least four occasions the IS has exploded bombs of mustard gas in the battles along the border between Syria and Iraq.
The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also states that the chemical agent has been used in powder form and placed within traditional ordnances. The same BBC also reports that its crew have found evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the Islamic State at the border between Turkey and Syria, which is also the theater of war and a crossing point used by extremists to carry weapons and cash.
With regard to the manner in which the jihadists obtained supplies of chemical material, at the moment there are several suspicions: the first is that they produce it themselves; that the militiamen found chemical material concealed within caches in the territories now under their control, in Syria or Iraq (less likely).
However, the most plausible theory is that they have produced it themselves using weapons and materials available on the Web and on the market. Moreover, experts warn, “it is not that hard” to make mustard bombs.
What’s more there should no longer be a threat of chemical weapons following the agreement strongly wanted by the United Nations, under which Damascus handed over more than 1,100 tons of toxic agents and chemical materials. The process began in October 2013 and ended in June of the following year.
Last month, the UN has promoted an investigation to determine whether individuals, groups or army fighters are using chemical weapons in Syria. At the same time, US military sources reveal that the analysis of exploded missile fragments used by the Islamic State show traces of chemicals. What’s certain is that the Daesh (Arabic acronym for the IS) used chemicals in attacks on Kurdish militias in northern Iraq.
Since March 2011, the date of the beginning of the clashes between Assad’s government and a varied coalition of opponents, 240,381 people have died. According to UN figures, there are about 10 million displaced. At least 4 million have chosen neighboring countries — Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq — while another 150 thousand have applied to the European Union for asylum. The other 6.5 million are internally displaced, people who have had to abandon everything but have chosen to remain in the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Weapons and Words: Russia Has a Strategy in Syria
The US fears that Russia may decide to use military force in Syria. At the same time, governments in Washington and Moscow have been finding common ground, at least in terms of their stance toward the Assad regime.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi Meets Putin at Crimea War Monument
At monument to Italian war dead
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi visits Crimea (c) ANSA/EPA
(ANSA) — Moscow, September 11 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday met Russian President Vladimir Putin at a monument in Sevastopol dedicated to Italian soldiers who died in the Crimean War, Tass reported.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Old Pals Berlusconi and Putin Reunite in Crimea
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italy’s billionaire former leader Silvio Berlusconi on Friday met for informal talks in Crimea which Moscow annexed from Ukraine last year, an official said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Welcomes Jeremy Corbyn in Labour Leadership Contest
Fyodor Lukyanov, a key associate close to the Russian foreign ministry, says Russia would welcome a leader like Jeremy Corbyn after leftwinger suggests Britain should have closer ties with the country
By Michael Wilkinson, Political Correspondent, and Roland Oliphant, Moscow Correspondent
Russia would welcome Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, a key associate linked to the Russian foreign ministry has said.
It comes after the leftwinger hinted that he would want to form a closer relationship between Britain and Russia.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Human Cost of Socialism in Power
The attempt to establish a comprehensive socialist system in many parts of the world over the last one hundred years has been one of the cruelest and most brutal episodes in human history.
Some historians have estimated that as many as 200 million people may have died as part of the dream of creating a collectivist “Paradise on Earth.” Making a better “new world” was taken to mean the extermination, the liquidation, the mass murder of all those that the socialist revolutionary leaders declared to be “class enemies,” including the families, the children of “enemies of the people.”
The Bloody Road to Making a New Socialist Man
We will soon be marking the hundredth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (November 1917) under the Marxist revolutionary leader, Vladimir Lenin. In Soviet Russia, alone, it has been calculated by Russian and Western historians who had limited access to the secret archives of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the KGB (the Soviet secret police) in the 1990s, that around 68 million innocent, unarmed men, women and children were killed over the nearly 75 years of communist rule in the Soviet Union.
The communist revolutionaries in Russia proudly declared their goal to be destruction and death to everything that existed before the revolution, so as to have a clean slate upon which to mold the new socialist man.
The evil of the Soviet system is that it was not cruelty for cruelty’s sake. Rather it was cruelty for a purpose — to make a new Soviet man and a new Soviet society. This required the destruction of everything that had gone before; and it also entailed the forced creation of a new civilization, as conjured up in the minds of those who had appointed themselves the creators of this brave new world.
In the minds of those like Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lenin’s close associate and founder of the Soviet secret police, violence was an act of love. So much did they love the vision of a blissful communist future to come that they were willing to sacrifice all of the traditional conceptions of humanity and morality to bring the utopia to fruition.
Thus, in a publication issued in 1919 by the newly formed Soviet secret police, the Cheka (later the NKVD and then the KGB), it was proclaimed:
“We reject the old systems of morality and ‘humanity’ invented by the bourgeoisie to oppress and exploit the ‘lower classes.’ Our morality has no precedent, and our humanity is absolute because it rests on a new ideal. Our aim is to destroy all forms of oppression and violence. To so, everything is permitted, for we are the first to raise the sword not to oppress races and reduce them to slavery, but to liberate humanity from its shackles . . .
“Blood? Let blood flow like water! Let bloodstain forever the black pirate’s flag flown by the bourgeoisie, and let our flag be blood-red forever! For only through the death of the old world can we liberate ourselves from the return of those jackals.”…
The nightmare of the socialist experiment, however, did not end with Stalin’s death in 1953. Its form merely changed in later decades. As head of the KGB in the 1970s, Yuri Andropov (who later was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union after Leonid Brezhnev’s death in 1982), accepted a new theory in Soviet psychiatry that said that opposition to the socialist regime was a sign of mental illness.
Why? Because only the mentally disturbed would resist the logic and the truth of Marxian dialectical determinism and its “proof” that socialism and communism were the highest and most humane stage of social development. Those who criticized the system, or who wanted to reform or overthrow the Soviet socialist regime were mentally sick and required psychiatric treatment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Azerbaijan Furious Over EU Criticism, Wants to ‘Revise’ Relations
Azerbaijan on Friday fiercely rejected European criticism of its human rights record and threatened to “revise” relations over a European Parliament’s resolution calling for sanctions against Azeri authorities.
“(Azerbaijan’s) relations with the European Union should be revised due to its anti-Azeri and anti-Islamic tendencies,” the oil-rich Caucasus nation’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The European Parliament passed on Thursday a non-binding resolution strongly condemning the “unprecedented repression against civil society in Azerbaijan.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 89 People Killed in Explosions at Central India Restaurant
At least 89 people were killed at a restaurant in central India on Saturday when a cooking gas cylinder exploded and triggered a second blast of mine detonators stored illegally nearby, police said.
The restaurant, located next to the main bus station in the town of Petlawad in Madhya Pradesh state, was crowded with people having breakfast when the blasts occurred.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gas Cylinder Blast Kills Dozens in India
A powerful explosion has ripped through a crowded restaurant in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, killing dozens of people. Rescue workers warn more victims may be trapped beneath the rubble.
Police said at least 60 people were killed and scores more wounded when a cooking gas cylinder exploded around breakfast time in the town of Petlawad on Saturday.
The blast caused the building’s roof to collapse and prompted evacuations from adjoining buildings.
Authorities said the power of the blast may have been compounded by the storage of dynamite sticks near the restaurant.
“It looks like someone had stored those explosives, the ones used in mining, in one of the buildings. But only further investigation will reveal the exact details,” senior district police official Seema Alava said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Restaurant Blast in Madhya Pradesh Kills 89
At least 89 people have been killed in a powerful explosion that tore through a restaurant in Petlawad in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, officials say.
It was packed with workers and schoolchildren eating breakfast.
A cooking gas cylinder exploded, causing explosives illegally stored nearby to detonate, police said.
Rescue efforts efforts have now ended — officials say they have pulled all the bodies out of the wreckage. At least 35 people are in hospital with injuries.
The explosives were mining detonators which were stored illegally in a room next to the restaurant, officials said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: A Christian Woman Succeeds as a Small Farmer
Through a small loan from an NGO, Razia Irshad, a 46-year-old mother of seven, has been able to boost output on rented farmland. Before that, her peasant husband was the only wage earner. Her peers respect her and view her as a brave woman.
Faisalabad (AsiaNews) — Micro-credit in rural Pakistan is having some positive impact. Razia Irshad, a 46-year-old Christian woman, spoke to AsiaNews about her experience.
Two years ago, the mother of seven from Tehsil Samundri (Faisalabad district) took out a small loan from a Pakistani NGO, the Association for Women’s Awareness and Rural Development (AWARD). With the money, she bought “seeds and fertilisers”.
Since then, as she put it, “my work continues,” this despite losses last year due to heavy rains.” The latter “did not discourage us”. Indeed, refusing to call it quit, she “kept struggling.” And now “I have a happy life and people give me a lot of love and respect.”
Born into a poor family, Razia is married to Irshad Masih, a farmhand who worked on the land of a big landowner. For most of their life together, he was the only breadwinner. Despite their best efforts, the couple could not send their many children to school.
About two years ago, Ms Razia found out about AWARD, an association that provides micro-credit services and land to women in Pakistan’s poorest areas.
Through AWARD, she got a small loan and some farmland she could rent. Her conservative family and neighbours were against the idea, as a woman’s station in life is in the family and not in business.
Fortunately, her husband backed her. Slowly but surely, Razia earned the respect of the community who now see her as a “brave woman”.
Thanks to training courses offered by AWARD and her own experience, she was able to develop a retail business selling the vegetables she grows on two acres of land.
Now she plans to save 1,500-2,000 rupees a day (US$ 15-20) to get a bigger plot of land and expand her farming activities.
Her husband told AsiaNews that he feels great about working their own land when before he was just a labourer for a landowner who often did not pay enough money for him to support his family.
“We now live a life of dignity,” he said. “I am proud of my wife who worked hard to build our home. Thanks to her work, we are consolidating our position in society, and we can send our children to school. I hope that other women follow her example and help make Pakistani society more prosperous.”
AWARD executive director Christina Peter reports that 30 other local women have received loans. Since it was founded 21 years ago, the association has helped more than 84,000 people. “Razia Irshad is one of our success stories,” she said proudly.
The last word goes to Razia Irshad. “I am grateful to AWARD for the support they gave me,” she said, “but I am even more grateful to Jesus Christ for the strength and courage he gave me”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Police Looking for ‘Uighur’ Man Over Bangkok Bombing
Thai police have issued an arrest warrant for an ethnic ‘Uighur’ man over last month’s deadly shrine blast in Bangkok. It is the first time authorities have identified a suspect as a member of the Chinese minority group.
Speculation has been growing in the country that the attack may have been carried out by militants from China’s Uighur minority — or from among their supporters — in revenge for Thailand’s forced deportation of 109 Uighur refugees in July.
The Uighurs, many of whom have their home in the northwestern Xinjiang region of China, have long accused Beijing of discrimination as well as religious and cultural repression, with scores fleeing to Turkey via Southeast Asia in recent years.
Up to now, Thai authorities have avoided suggesting that Chinese nationals were deliberately targeted in the August 17 attack and have declined to mention the word Uighur in briefings to reporters for fear of harming Thailand’s vital tourism industry and ties with China.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Embassy Opens School in Beijing
(AGI) Beijing, Sept 7 — Courses began on Monday at the first Italian school in the Far East, set up by the Italian embassy in Beijing. There was an opening ceremony at the school in the diplomatic residential compound of San Li Tun, in the centre of the Chinese capital, close to the Italian embassy. The school grew out of a project by the embassy with the Italian Chamber of Commerce in China and coordinated by Mariassunta Peci. The institute will be assisted by Reggio Children, an international centre for the protection and promotion of the rights and potential of boys and girls, founded in 1994 by Loris Malaguzzi. The school will have an infants’ section and elementary courses began on Monday with the first year and will expand in the next few years. The school will teach children of the Italian community with bilingual classes in Italian and English and with a strong Chinese character. Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi cut the ribbon and quoted an ancient Chinese proverb: “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan, China Sign Agreements Worth $7B, Including National Railway Deal
Jordan and China on Thursday announced the signing of a number of investment agreements worth over $7 billion.
The agreements were signed on the sidelines of the 2015 China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Hui autonomous region, which was inaugurated Thursday in the presence of His Majesty King Abdullah, who opened the Jordanian pavillion.
Jordan is an honorary guest at the event that will run through September 13.
The agreements include $1.7 billion project to build Jordan’s first oil shale-fired power plant in the Attarat area, in the south of the Kingdom, to produce around 900 megawatt of electricity.
The agreement, signed in Beijing on Wednesday in the presence of King Abdullah, stipulates that a consortium of Chinese companies and Jordan’s Al Lajjun Oil Shale will build the power station in the Southern Governorate of Karak, according to Jordan Investment Board Commissioner Montaser Oqlah.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: China Cyber Attacks ‘Unacceptable’
US President Barack Obama has said that alleged Chinese cyber attacks are “not acceptable”, ahead of a visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Several hacks on US institutions have been blamed on China, including one involving millions of government staff.
Mr Obama said the US needed to be more rapid in its response to such attacks.
Separately, the White House said Mr Obama will no longer stay at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, which was bought by a Chinese company last year.
White House Spokesman Josh Earnest would not comment on whether the purchase raised concerns about Chinese spying.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Petroyuan Cometh: Launch of Renminbi-Denominated Oil Futures Contract Imminent
Whenever one talks about the death of the petrodollar, the unspoken question lurking just beneath the surface is this: is the rise of the petroyuan just around the corner?
This year, we’ve gotten quite a bit of evidence to suggest that the answer to that question may indeed be a resounding “yes.” In May for instance, Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia as the largest oil supplier to China and what’s especially notable there is that beginning in 2015, Gazprom began settling all of its crude sales to China in yuan meaning that, at least partly, the petrodollar was supplanted just as soon as its death became inevitable.
Now, just as China has moved to play a greater role in determining the price of gold by participating in the LBMA auction and by establishing a yuan-denominated fix, it’s moving quickly to create a yuan-denominated oil futures contract. Here’s Reuters:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vinitaly Adds Food to Shanghai’s Wine & Dine Festival
(AGI) Beijing, Sept 9 — Vinitaly International opens up the world of Italian wine to food at Shanghai’s Wine & Dine Festival from Sept. 18 to 20. Vinitaly’s strategic branch in China will attend the business-to-consumer event where Italian wine and food products will be represented by the city’s two major catering brands, “Da Marco” and “Jacky Group”, and their chefs, Marco Barbieri and Jacky Xue. They will prepare Italian culinary specialties for visitors to the festival’s Italian Pavilion. The Shanghai Wine & Dine Festival is organised with the city’s major newspaper, the Shanghai Morning Post, the Gewara Group, the Bank of Communications, one of China’s major banking groups, and Unionpay. “Italian food combined with our wines will be the secret to approaching Chinese visitors and consumers,” said Stevie Kim, managing director of Vinitaly International. Fabbri and Illy, two of Italy’s best-known food brands, will offer ice-cream and coffee at the festival.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bribes, Debt, $100 Billion Lost: Nigeria Can’t Keep the Power on
There’s no end in sight to the daily blackouts that the government says are costing Africa’s largest economy about $100 billion a year in missed potential and that President Muhammadu Buhari calls a “national shame.” Gas shortages, pipeline vandalism, inadequate funding, unprofitable prices and corruption mean fixing the electricity cuts two years after a partial sale of state power companies to private investors won’t be easy.
Generated output has never risen above 5,000 megawatts, which is about a third of peak demand, and if it did the state-owned transmission system can’t deliver any more than that before it starts breaking down. South Africa, with a less than a third of Nigeria’s population of about 180 million, has nine times more installed capacity and it too is grappling with blackouts.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, ranked the worst of 189 countries after Bangladesh and Madagascar on the ease of getting electricity connected to businesses, costing almost 7 percent of lost sales each month, according to a 2015 World Bank Doing Business report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Kenyan Wildlife Park, Animals Roam Against a City Skyline But Development Looms
NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK, Kenya — In Nairobi National Park, lions, rhinos and other animals roam just six miles (10 kilometers) from downtown Nairobi, but the carefully managed co-existence of wildlife and city life is constantly vulnerable to the pressures of urban expansion.
Sometimes the threats are posed by wildlife. As a boy, this reporter attended school across a street from the park and once had to wait in a bus until a lion was shooed away from the parking lot. But more often, the threat is intrusion by humans.
That encroachment has blocked animals’ migratory paths along the only unfenced side of the 45-square-mile (117-square-kilometer) park, where tourists can photograph striking images of animals in tall grass with city high-rises in the background.
Now, the government has announced plans to build a railway that will traverse part of the reserve. The railway for cargo and passengers will go from Kenya’s Mombasa port to Nairobi as part of a regional plan to upgrade rail links, replacing a track originally built under British rule more than a century ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Fossil Discovery May Change What We Know About Human Evolution
The ancient species Homo naledi had small brains and seems to have intentionally carried their dead into caves
On October 7, 2013, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger posted a job ad on Facebook looking for fellow scientists with a very particular set of skills: they had to have caving experience, be small enough to fit through an opening barely seven inches wide and be able to leave immediately for South Africa. Berger chose six women out of 60 applicants and sent them down a narrow channel deep inside a cave about 30 miles from Johannesburg.
Inside, they found a trove of fossilized remains belonging to a previously unknown human relative. Named Homo naledi—naledi means “star” in the local Sotho language—the ancient species could offer new insight into the story of human evolution.
“This is the first time we’ve found human fossils alone in a chamber like this in Africa,” Berger said on a conference call to members of the press on Wednesday. The discovery was announced at an official ceremony in South Africa on the morning of September 10.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Chancellor Compares Hungary’s Treatment of Migrants to the Jews Under the Nazis
Austria’s chancellor compared Hungary’s treatment of refugees to the ordeal of Jews under the Nazis on Saturday as the two neigbours exchanged bitter recriminations.
Werner Faymann, a Social Democrat who became Austria’s leader in 2008, launched a blistering attack on the handling of the migration crisis by Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister.
“Refugees put on trains in the belief they are going somewhere else entirely brings back memories of the darkest period of our continent,” said Mr Faymann in an interview with Germany’s Spiegel magazine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Ministers Hammer Out Plan for Refugee Influx
The Austrian government is holding talks on Friday on how to deal more effectively with the large numbers of refugees entering the country from Hungary, some of whom are claiming asylum in Austria. They will discuss integration, housing and employment opportunities.
The flow of migrants continues, with as many as 4,000 people crossing the Hungarian border overnight and many having to sleep outside in Nickelsdorf. A section of the A4 road which crosses the border has been closed to traffic due to safety concerns, and a speed limit of 60km/h is being enforced along the motorway to prevent accidents as refugees continue to walk across the border.
Buses have been dispatched to Nickelsdorf to transport refugees to Vienna but a police spokesman there has said it is becoming difficult to maintain order.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: A Place … in History: Easing the Refugee Crisis by Opening Up Their Homes
Ever since the first wave of refugees hit Europe in earnest, the people of Europe have responded unwaveringly: whether it was flying to Greece and Turkey to assist the refugees as they came ashore from their dilapidated boats, or stockpiling food and supplies, or opening up their homes.
Initiatives involving the public are popping up all over Europe to house the refugees and migrants. And across the border in Germany, the response has been staggering. One parliament member, Martin Patzelt, has even opened his home to two refugees from Eritrea.
But how about Denmark? Is there more to the Danes than anti-refugee ads in Lebanese newspapers and politicians calling for tougher border checkpoints and for refugees to stay away?
There certainly is. As the first wave of refugees arrived in Rødby on Sunday evening, Danes lined up to say ‘Velkommen’ and lend a helping hand where they could. And for an increasing number of Danes, opening their hearts to the refugees also means opening the doors of their homes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Difficult for Sweden to Register Refugees’
Norway on Friday pulled back from criticising Sweden after the country’s migration authorities admitted that they could not force refugees to register if they wanted to move onwards to Norway.
“Many EU countries are now experiencing the challenge that people evade detection, and it is difficult for the authorities to have an overview of all the refugees who have arrived,” Jøran Kallmyr, a Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, said on Friday evening, after Finland’s Interior Minister criticised Sweden for doing too little to prevent refugee coming through.
“Through my contact with Sweden, they confirm that they are prepared to comply with the Schengen commitments and their obligations under international law,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Don’t Throw Refugees Off Sweden’s Trains’
Refugees who board a train and have do not have enough money for the entire journey will not be thrown off the train, according to to an internal e-mail from Sweden’s state-owned train operator, SJ.
“We will not force any refugees to get off a train,” SJ’s communications director Monica Berglund said in an e-mail to employees.
“If in doubt, let them stay on,” the e-mail continued. “In the current circumstances, where many people are in difficulties, it is better if we show our humanitarian side.”
According to Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, most SJ employees reacted positively to the e-mail. “It is good because we now have the tools to act — it takes away the uncertainty when faced with such a situation,” said one.
SJ is laying on extra trains from Malmö to Stockholm over the weekend to accommodate the influx of refugees.
Sweden, one of many European countries struggling with the worst migration crisis since World War Two, has become a top EU destination for refugees by issuing permanent residency to all Syrian asylum seekers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Rallies Over Refugees Show Clear Divide
Tens of thousands of Europeans have taken part in rallies for or against welcoming refugees. The protests show wide differences within the European populace as to how the current refugee influx is viewed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Migrant Crisis: Germany Readies for 40,000 Arrivals
Some 40,000 migrants could arrive in Germany over the next two days, officials say — double the number who entered the country last weekend.
The southern city of Munich received another 3,600 on Saturday morning but there are concerns about how the region will cope with another large influx.
Around 4,000 troops are being deployed in Germany for logistical support.
Germany has become an attractive destination for Syrian refugees since it waived EU rules.
The government announced in August that it would deal with Syrian asylum applications regardless of where the migrants first arrived in the EU. Up until then, people had to claim asylum with the first EU country they reached.
Tens of thousands of mainly Syrian migrants have been making their way from Turkey, through the Balkans and Hungary to reach Austria, Germany and Sweden.
Migrants have continued to arrive in Macedonia from Greece.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Obama Admin. Resettling Refugees in Republican States
Nearly 80% of states receiving most refugees have GOP upper house majorities.
[Comment: Why am I not surprised by this tactic?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Finland’s government announced plans for tightening the country’s immigration policy on Friday. Among other things, the government wants to assess the option of transferring people who have been granted asylum away from the sphere of residence-based social assistance to a new bespoke ‘integration programme’. They also seek to cut the amount of money asylum seekers receive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Commuter is Mugged by Roma Gypsies on Street and No-One Came to Help
A woman is summarily mugged by two Roma gypsies in central Paris on Wednesday. No-one bothers to help stop a crime that’s become common in the world’s most popular tourist city.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France Suspends Honorary Consul in Turkey Over Boat Sales to Migrants
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday suspended an honorary consul in Turkey for selling boats to migrants.
“The minister has just ordered his suspension,” the foreign ministry told AFP following a television report showing the man in his sailing goods shop in the Turkish resort town of Bodrum.
Outside the shop hung a French flag and a plaque identifying him as an honorary consul representing France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Takes in Refugees But Abandons ‘Migrants’
France gave a warm welcome to hundreds of refugees this week, but the government is being criticized for doing little or nothing for thousands of “migrants” who have been living for months in squalid camps in Calais and Paris.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany ‘Took Our Jews and Gave us Arabs’: French Ex-Minister
A former French minister stirred up controversy Friday after saying Germany “took our Jews and gave us Arabs” as France began taking some of the thousands of refugees arriving in Germany.
Patrick Devedjian, a right-winger who served in the governments of presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, made the remark at a press conference, but quickly tried to backtrack on social media.
“My humorous jest was misplaced,” Devedjian wrote on his Twitter account, saying he regretted it all the more because he himself helps refugees in need.
Devedjian, who comes from an Armenian family and now leads the Hauts-de-Seine region of wealthy suburbs west of Paris, said the joke was meant to be about Syrian and Iraqi refugees…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Munich Calls for National Help to Accommodate Refugees
Thousands of refugees are arriving at Munich’s main train station, relieved to have reached Germany safely. Officials in the Bavarian capital are calling on other states to pitch in with the new arrivals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: 4,000 Soldiers on Alert as 40,000 Refugees Expected
Germany will place 4,000 soldiers on standby over the weekend to help with a new wave of up to 40,000 refugees arriving in the country, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts to soften up Germany’s eastern EU neighbours made little progress.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Anti-Racism Demonstration, Leftist Violence in Hamburg
Thousands of people in the northern German port city of Hamburg have rallied in support of refugees. But another even larger demonstration was marred by violent clashes between some leftist protesters and police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Lesvos Feels Benefits of Faster Refugee Processing
A push by the caretaker government to relieve pressure on the island of Lesvos from thousands of refugees and migrants started bearing fruit Friday, following the transfer to the capital of more than 29,000 people.
In the first phase of the scheme, the government in cooperation with the UN refugee agency set up a 24-hour registration center at a soccer field to process the thousands of asylum seekers and migrants who became trapped due to registration delays on the island and were living in makeshift camps or in the streets, also putting mounting pressure on the local community.
Preparations are under way in Thessaloniki so the northern city will be in a position to house refugees who will find it more difficult to cross Greece’s northern borders while heading to Central Europe in the winter.
Kathimerini understands that around 120 prefabricated structures, similar to those used to house refugees at the Elaionas camp in Athens, have been moved to the city and are to be installed on land belonging to the Hellenic Railways Organization.
Tens of thousands of mostly Syrian refugees have passed through northern Greece this summer as they head to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary on their way to Germany and other European countries further north.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Half a Million Refugees Could Arrive in Hungary This Year — Govt Minister
The total number of refugees arriving in Hungary could reach 400,000 to 500,000 this year, Peter Siarto, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said after a meeting between the foreign ministers of Germany and the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) on Friday. According to Siarto, up to now 180,000 refugees have already arrived in Hungary and the figure will rise unless the country strengthens its borders. A new law, which will come into force on September 15, will prohibit illegal border crossing and damaging the border fence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Italy’s Cara Mineo Became a Refugee Ghetto
Armed guards patrol the perimeter of Italy’s biggest migrant centre, the focus of a fierce debate over whether the country should open large “hotspot” camps to process new arrivals and stem the flow of people across the continent.
The grisly murder of a local couple and subsequent arrest of an Ivory Coast man from the Sicilian centre sparked an outcry in a country tired of being on the frontline of Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Calls for Aid to Syria’s Neighbors as EU Grapples With Refugee Crisis
Hungary’s prime minister wants the EU to provide sizeable aid to countries neighboring Syria to help them cope with the influx of refugees. His country came under fire for what one politician called Nazi-like policies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: Italian Found With 33 Syrian Refugees in Van
An Italian man arrested in Hungary after 33 Syrian refugees were found in his van could have earned up to €1,000 thousand for each person, an Italian criminologist told The Local.
The 52-year-old was driving his Fiat Ducato towards Germany when he was stopped by police near Lake Balaton, near Budapest, La Repubblica reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
An Isil fighter from Syria is hiding in a migrant camp in Calais with the aim of illegally entering Britain to commit “terror attacks”, according to local French media.
French police have been told to locate and arrest the man who left Syria in August and is on a French terror suspect watch list known as “fiche S”, according to La Voix du Nord, the regional French newspaper.
“His intention is to reach Britain to commit terrorist attacks,” it wrote, without citing sources.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: We Do Not Want Palestinians
by Khaled Abu Toameh
“Improve the living conditions of the Palestinian refugees. Allow them to settle down. Give them citizenship so that they can live as human beings.” — Dr. Ahmad Abu Matar, an Oslo-based Palestinian academic, blasting Arab the world for its continued mistreatment of Palestinians.
The Arabs do not care about the Palestinians and want them to remain Israel’s problem. Countries such as Lebanon and Syria would rather see Palestinians living as “animals in the jungle” than grant them basic rights such as employment, education and citizenship.
It is no surprise that refugees fleeing Syria have no ambitions to settle in any Arab country. They know that their fate in the Arab world will be no better than that of Palestinians living in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and other Arab countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel’s Syrian Refugee Stance Reflects Spirit of Integrating East Germany
Germany’s decision to open welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees echoes back to when West Germany opened its arms — and tax coffers — to integrate the former GDR, US foreign policy scholar John Harper tells DW.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: The Footage the Media Refuses to Broadcast
What you won’t see on CNN…
Why are mainstream media outlets like CNN and BBC only broadcasting footage which shows the migrants in a positive light?
[Comment: Watch it all. The mainstream media disinfo (to fit an agenda of migration) compared to what actually is going on is stunning.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Rallies in Europe as 9,000 Arrive in Munich
Tens of thousands of people have taken part in a “day of action” in several European cities — and in Australia — in support of refugees and migrants.
There have also been counter-demonstrations in some countries.
Europe is struggling to cope with an enormous influx of people, mostly from Syria, who are fleeing violence and poverty in their own countries.
More than 9,000 migrants arrived in Munich on Saturday. Germany expects 40,000 to arrive over the weekend.
Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the decision to let in large numbers of refugees, saying she was “convinced it was right”.
However, she faces growing criticism from her political allies, including the premier of the state of Bavaria, who told Der Spiegel magazine (in German) the situation would soon be beyond control.
Around 4,000 troops are being deployed in Germany for logistical support.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migration Agency: Sweden Not Built to Handle Large Influx of Refugees
The head of the Migration Agency, Anders Danielsson, says that Sweden’s building and procurement laws are hampering the agency’s attempts to deal with the current influx of refugees.
In an interview with newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Danielsson suggests that the agency should be exempt from the public procurement laws in order to speed up the process to find accommodation for the new arrivals. He also wants the agency to be allowed to build prefabricated modular homes that could be moved from town to town, a proposal which is currently being reviewed by the Swedish Justice Ministry.
The Migration Agency estimates that 90,000 refugees will be coming to Sweden this year, and according to Danielsson to hardest part is finding a place for them to live. He says that the Agency could handle an influx of up to 4,000 refugees per week, but points out that over 10,000 new arrivals are currently waiting to be placed in one of Sweden’s municipalities.
Danielsson, however, underlines that Sweden is not facing any kind of crisis because of the recent influx of refugees.
“Of course it’s a serious situation. But it’s a crisis for those who flee their homes to seek refuge in Europe, not for Sweden. In what way have things gotten worse for you or me?” Danielsson says in an interview with tabloid Aftonbladet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Greens Mull Sending Refugees to Arctic Island
Norway’s Green Party has proposed opening a reception centre for asylum seekers in the Svalbard archipelago deep in the Arctic ocean.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One in Three Italy Migrants Refuse ID
Of the 122,000 migrants who have arrived in Italy so far this year, only 80,000 have agreed to be identified, according to figures from the Italian police.
Daniela Stradiotto, the director of the servizio di polizia scientifica, the unit of the Italian police force that deals with forensics and identification, told Ansa news that it was mostly Eritrean, Syrian and Somalian migrants refusing to be identified.
“It’s technically illegal to force them to undergo photo and fingerprint identification,” she said.
“Police are looking for new legal powers to hold migrants for 72 hours instead of the current 12 in order to try to force them to undergo identification,” Stradiotto added.
According to the EU’s Dublin regulation, migrants seeking asylum must identify themselves before their asylum applications can be processed — in theory, this must be done in the first EU country they arrive in.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Refugee Barefoot Protests Sweep Italy
Italian van driver stopped with 33 Syrians aboard in Hungary
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — More barefoot marches took place in several Italian cities on Friday calling for refugees to be welcomed in Europe.
Thousands of people attended barefoot protests in Venice, Rome, Mantua and Naples Friday after similar demonstrations on other parts of the country in recent days.
A red carpet event at the Venice Film Festival Friday was set to feature barefoot marchers walking from the canal city’s Lido to protest the plight of Syrian refugees. Among those expected to arrive barefoot at the Venice festival red carpet were Susanna Camusso, head of Italy’s largest union CGIL, left-wing politician Nikki Vendola and director Marco Bellocchio.
Some 2,000 people took part in the Rome event.
In Mantua, meanwhile, writers and intellectuals from the city’s literary festival were taking part in another barefoot march, including African author Noo Saro-Wiwa, organised crime historian Enzo Ciconte, and engineer Gianni Silvestrini as well as photographer Mario Boccia.
“I want to show solidarity with the refugees because it seems to me there is not enough empathy with them,” said Noo Saro-Wiwa, author of ‘In search of Transworldland’, in which he recounts his return to Nigeria as an adult. His book recently was published in Italy.
“We have to be able to guarantee these people a safe place to have refuge until the situation in Syria improves,” he said.
In Naples, a barefoot march left the central Piazza Plebiscito in a protest organised by Amnesty International supported by 50 civil society groups with some 1000 people taking off their shoes and taking part.
“Bare feet are a very strong symbol to make you feel nearer as possible to migrants and the discomfort they can have undergone during their journeys,” said Serena Salzano, a young Amnesty volunteer.
“It is a bit sad seeing all these people who only felt involved in the tragedy after seeing the photo of the (dead) child on the beach, but since then something has changed in public opinion”.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Friday that 432,761 migrants have arrived in Italy, Greece, Spain and Malta so far this year after crossing the Mediterranean. It said 2,748 people died attempting the crossing, above all in the Channel of Sicily.
The agency said that 309,356 migrants arrived in Greece between January 1 and September 10, while 121,139 landed in Italy in the same period, 2,166 in Spain and 100 in Malta.
European Union sources, meanwhile, said Friday ‘Phase Two’ of the EU’s naval mission in the Mediterranean, featuring the active hunting down and arrest of human traffickers and the confiscation or destruction of boats, should start “by early October at the latest”. On Friday turmoil continued in many parts of Europe due to the refugee emergency.
An Italian van driver was stopped with 33 Syrians aboard heading for Germany near Budapest Friday, police said. The man, 53, from Como, driving a red Fiat Ducato, was stopped near Lake Balaton. There were two women among the refugees in the back. The Italian embassy is investigating the matter. The man reportedly said he had picked up the refugees after he saw them shivering in the cold. He has been accused of human trafficking.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Refugee Rallies Due as Europe Squabbles
Tens of thousands were due to rally in European capitals on Saturday in support of refugees as Hungary’s populist prime minister called for a giant aid package for countries around war-ravaged Syria to stem mass migration to Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Mario: The Video Game of the Migrant Crisis
It’s not quite what you’d imagine when you think of Super Mario and his adventures through the fictional Mushroom Kingdom: a satirical take on the original Nintendo video game is being used to explain the reality for Syrians crossing Europe.
Through the character “Refugee Mario,” this YouTube video shows the perilous journey taken by thousands seeking refuge in Europe. Gone are Luigi and Princess Peach. Smugglers take Mario on a risky journey across the Mediterranean Sea where he eventually encounters Hungarian border guards and is thrown into prison. At several points throughout the video Refugee Mario faces obstacles which lead to his death.
The video was made by a 29 year old Syrian man based in Istanbul, Turkey.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Free to Move Through Denmark
It started last night when the police let around 200 refugees, who had been sitting on a train in Rødbyhavn since Tuesday refusing to get off, leave the train without taking any action.
The majority of those refugees got into private cars that took them to their desired destination: Sweden. Today, the police are letting hundreds of refugees around the country move freely through Denmark.
According to the state police chief Jens Henrik Højbjerg, the police can’t detain the refugees longer than 72 hours before having to release them.
“As part of the immigration law, we have the power to detain people for 3 x 24 hours,” Højbjerg told Dr Nyheder. “Clearly, when that time expires, we can’t detain them from travelling to another country.”
Initially the train was heading to Sweden, but it was then rerouted to Copenhagen before coming to halt in Rødbyhavn.
More than 3,000 refugees have arrived to Denmark since Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Pose as Syrians to Open Door to Asylum in Europe
At Budapest’s Keleti Train Station last week, Mahmoud, a Syrian from Aleppo, looked around the underground concourse packed with new arrivals like himself. Judging from their accents and dialects, he reckoned that little more than 10 percent of them were Syrian. But he saw many more passing themselves off as Syrians.
Indeed, during his journey through Greece and the Balkans on his way to Hungary, “I found a bunch of Iraqis buying fake Syrian passports,” said Mahmoud, adding that now Syrians “are worried that their passports are being stolen.” Nearby, a countryman furtively showed his passport, tucked between the sole and padding of one of his sneakers.
As Europe moves to take in large numbers of refugees, particularly from Syria, some other migrants—often Iraqis, Libyans, Palestinians and Egyptians—are attempting to pass themselves off as Syrian, said aid workers, government officials and fellow migrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Anti-Immigrant Party Draws in More Support
A new poll showed that Swiss voters are shifting more in favour of the right-wing anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) while support for more centrist groups started to weaken ahead of elections next month.
Backing for the SVP increased by about 2 percent between June and August polls, from 26.1 percent in June to 28 percent of voters in August.
The results strengthened the party’s position ahead of all others in the poll released by gfs.bern research institute on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Breaking Point? Germany’s Asylum System Struggles to Cope
As the migrant influx continues, the ‘Refugees Welcome’ high is beginning to wear off. People are beginning to wonder if Germany will really be able to cope with all the newcomers. And the system is already completely overwhelmed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Flock to Anti-Migrant Demos in E.Europe
Thousands of people joined anti-migrant protests in three eastern European capitals on Saturday after leaders from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia opposed an EU scheme to fix refugee quotas.
In the Polish capital Warsaw, nearly 5,000 people, many chanting anti-Islamic slogans, marched through the city, an AFP correspondent said.
“Islam will be the death of Europe”, one of the banners said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Arsenal Fans Unveil ‘Refugees Welcome’ Banner at the Emirates
Arsenal fans displayed ‘Refugees Welcome’ banner outside the Emirates ahead of their game against Stoke City.
The display comes after a wave of similar actions took place in Germany in response to the growing European refugee crisis.
Borussia Dortmund invited a group of refugees to watch a Europa League tie at their home ground, the Westfalenstadion.
And various different Bundesliga teams, including Dortmund, displayed their own ‘Refugees Welcome’ banners in the crowd during matches.
Champions Bayern Munich have also pledged to set up football training camps for the asylum seekers, which will include meals and language classes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Warns of Influx of Refugees Fleeing ‘Hell’ As Half of Syria is on the Move
Millions more Syrians could come to Europe to seek asylum, a United Nations agency chief predicted yesterday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video of Police Welcoming Refugees to Sweden Goes Viral
A group of nine police officers have posted a video on social media where they welcome newly arrived refugees to Sweden, news agency AFP reports.
In the video, the nine officers are seen speaking to the camera offering kind words of support.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure that everyone feels safe here. Welcome to Sweden,” says one of the officers. “We’re equals with the same rights and obligations. You are allowed to believe in whatever you want, whichever God you want and marry whoever you want,” says another.
The video was posted Thursday and has already been viewed over 400,000 times.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Do So Many Refugees Avoid Bulgaria?
In an Arabic language “Refugee Handbook,” Bulgaria ranks first among countries asylum seekers should avoid. Refugees say xenophobia and Islamophobia are widespread and that they try to skirt around the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shepard Smith Calls Christians “Haters”
With his reckless comments, Smith, regularly featured by Out magazine as a powerful homosexual media personality, has embarrassed his channel and turned himself into a liability with the channel’s conservative viewers. He has completely dropped any pretense of objectivity on his show, by apparently taking it personally that many people find the gay lifestyle to be morally repugnant.
His coverage of the pro-Davis rally on Tuesday was openly hostile to the clerk, as he denounced her and her supporters as the equivalent of racists who objected to interracial marriage. The idea of comparing blacks to homosexuals is a frequent claim made by the gay lobby and its adherents. However, skin color is a fact of life, and sexual orientation can be learned, chosen, and even rejected…
Fox actually pours money into the homosexual lobby. As reported by AIM, Smith and other Fox News personalities, including Megyn Kelly, have raised money for the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), a special interest lobby which has guided pro-homosexual coverage in virtually all major media organizations. In April, the Fox News Channel joined CBS News and CNN as “silver” sponsors of the NLGJA 20th annual New York “Headlines & Headliners” fundraising event. A male stripper performed at the event…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sinister Forces Behind Judge David Banning’s Persecution of Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis
The very notion that the Supreme Court can create any law at all is unconstitutional on its face. Article 1, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution says, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” If Congress has “all” the law-making power, what is left? None! When the Supreme Court creates law, they violate the very Constitution which gives them their power in the first place, rendering their decision unlawful and non-binding.
The 9th and 10th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution limit the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, as well as the other two branches of the federal government, to specifically enumerated powers. Any right not explicitly granted to the federal government is forbidden it, and belongs to “the states, or the people.” State misgovernance may justify intrusion or intervention from the outside, but if it is outside the federal government’s lawful jurisdiction, they do not have the right to intervene except by Amendment that extends their power to that particular jurisdiction. Otherwise, their oath or promise to “uphold and defend” the U.S. Constitution means nothing.
However, who would argue that the federal government should be disallowed from intervening in a state if the state leaders were persecuting people of faith or committing genocide? Even Christian opponents of same-sex marriage would have no problem at all with the Supreme Court intervening to keep marriage between one man and one woman. By our actions, and by the testimony of our consciences, we would approve of such judicial activism, even if in theory we believe the federal government is limited to specifically enumerated powers. Therefore, the constitutional jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, by itself, is not the heart of this contention. Christians conservatives appeal to it because it is winsome and convenient, but not because it is central to the debate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baron
My own research tells me that there have been no casualties (so far) mentioned in the press regarding the clash between The Kurds and Turkish nationalists in Bern
The crane collapse was not an act of Allah! Why would Allah hurt his own people on the anniversary of 9/11 at his most sacred site, using the instrument of the plane dart-throwing Osama’s family? No! It was the act of another God who used to live in Europe, parts of the ME and the USA, AU and many other nations, but has now been spat upon by the Post-Modern Marxist elites, ever since Nietzsche was able to inform us that God is Dead.
I guess God took pity on Nietzsche and sped his mind into oblivion. Perhaps he will do the same to the bottom feeders now inhabiting his former realms and then we can get up another Crusade and wipe out Allah’s spawn once and for all!
I’m willing to predict the popular Muslim interpretation of this Act of Allah. It will be spread widely beginning with next Friday’s sermons in the mosques:
The lightning strike on the Grand Mosque was the judgment of Allah against Muslims for their failure to kill enough infidels. The faithful will be exhorted to renewed zeal at that task, so that Allah will once again be pleased with them.