After welcoming more than 17,000 “refugees” in just two days, Croatia reversed its policy, and closed its border with Serbia to new immigrants. It assisted the migrants’ efforts to reach Hungary and Slovenia, but Slovenia has closed its border with Croatia, and Hungary impounded the train loaded with immigrants that was sent from Croatia. Meanwhile, more migrants arrived in Finland today than had arrived during a single day since the Russian Revolution in 1917.
In other news, Syria has reportedly begun using the new military hardware sent by Russia, including airplanes, to fight the Islamic State. Perhaps coincidentally, the U.S. Secretary of Defense and the Russian Foreign Minister held direct talks by telephone for the first time since the Ukrainian crisis began.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, TM, 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.
Italy: Fed Weighs on Europe Bourses, Milan Worst Hit
Milan 2.2% down, Frankfurt 1.7%, Paris 1.5%
(ANSA) — Milan, September 18 — Milan led European bourses down Friday after the Fed’s decision to delay rate action sparked fresh fears about the world economy amid persistent concern over China’s transition.
Milan was 2.2% down, Frankfurt 1.7% and Paris 1.5% down.
London was buffered by being outside the euro zone and lost only 0.4%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan to Issue $500 Million Euro Bond This Year
Funds to pay outstanding debts and local projects
AMMAN- Jordan ministry of finance said today it will issue $500 million euro bonds in October to pay outstanding debts and fund projects. Arrangements are being made with international banks and creditors to issue the bonds before being released in the market later this year, said ministry of finance in a statement.
But the ministry is concerned that interest rate on the bonds would be higher than recently issued bonds by Amman that were guaranteed by the US government at an interest rate of %3.875.
According to the government, as the US central bank plans to raise interest rates on lending, the kingdom’s attempt to issue the bonds is expected to be affected by the upcoming decision.
During 2015, Jordan’s foreign debt climbed by 4 percent, or $1.1 billion after a series of borrowing agreements aimed at financing projects. Total foreign debt has climbed to 78.8 percent of GDP, a slight drop from the 80 percent of GDP recorded in 2014. Economists warn that the heavy dependency on borrowing is likely to cause serious financial troubles for the government if it fails to pay creditors on schedule.
The government must pay by end of the year more than $ 1.5 billion, or face serious impact on credit standing and local economy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Martin Armstrong Warns: The Fed Just Made the Same Mistake as it Did in 1927
In 1927, the Fed lowered US rates to try to help Europe which was then in the middle of an economic debt crisis the same as today.
It is very curious how history repeats and we have just witnessed the Fed yield to international pressure once again. In doing so, they are condemning US pension funds as well as the elderly to financial doom setting in motion the next financial crisis.
[Comment: Yeah, sure …a “mistake”. Nothing the Fed does is a “mistake”; all their actions along with the repurcussions are planned.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pain in Store for Greek Pharmacists to Farmers After Vote
From farmers to pharmacists, pain lies in store for Greeks across the board as whoever wins Sunday’s election will have to raise taxes and rewrite the economic rule-book in line with tough reforms demanded by the country’s international creditors.
The controversial economic to-do list set to upend daily life was signed and sealed in July by former radical left premier Alexis Tsipras, in return for an 86-billion-euro ($96-billion) rescue by the lenders, the third EU-IMF rescue of Greece in five years.
Under the deal, creditors chalked up some 15 “prior actions” to be passed by parliament by October — days after the September 20 poll…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
2015 Ig Nobel Prizes: From Egg-Y Science to Penis Bee Stings
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Getting stung by a bee on the top of your middle toe doesn’t hurt as much as getting stung by a bee on the shaft of your penis (or your nostril, for that matter). If you attach a plunger to a chicken’s butt, the chicken will walk like a dinosaur.
These are just two of the (real) scientific findings celebrated tonight (Sept. 17) at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, an annual event held here at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre. The over-the-top affair, hosted by Harvard student groups and the Improbable Research organization, honors scientific research that “makes people laugh and then think.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A New Agenda 21 Threatens Our Way of Life
In 1992 they told us that Agenda 21 was just a suggestion. Today, after experiencing the “wrenching transformation” of our society that Al Gore called for, we know it was much more than that. And we have suffered the consequences as our economy has plummeted, as the middle class is disappearing, jobs are now existent and the world is in turmoil.
Now the power elite which prey on the poor and helpless are determined to finish the job. They are fast moving toward the goal of eliminating individual nation states; controlling individual actions and wiping private property ownership from the face of the Earth. Their goal is to make us all “equal” in the same chains to assure none of us can disrupt their well ordered utopian nightmare.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Can the Senate Sue the President Over His Handling of the Iran Deal? New English Review
Yesterday, the Senate Republican majority failed in a last move to upend the Iran Nuclear deal. As reported by the AP, a Senate vote on a resolution linking lifting of sanctions to the Islamic Republic recognition of Israel failed once again to reach the 60 votes threshold. The vote was 53 to 45 before the deadline of September 17th under the Corker-Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, in an AP report on the Administration’s start to implement the JCPOA, the deal “likely will be revisited by the next commander-in-chief.” However, at present we don’t know who the contending Democrat and Republican nominees for President in the 2016 race will be…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Congressman: Impeach EPA Chief for ‘False Science’
Nearly two-dozen House Republicans are already on board an effort to impeach Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy for allegedly committing perjury and making false statements to Congress as part of her effort to push a controversial new rule on water.
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He said McCarthy broke the law multiple times before the committee while advocating for the Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, standard. The rule is lauded by environmentalists, but critics say it gives the feds power to regulate everything as small as a puddle.
One of the responsibilities of Congress is the power of the purse, but there is also oversight,’ Gosar told WND and Radio America. ‘In order to have proper oversight, you have to have agency administrators, directors and secretaries of those agencies speak frankly and about the facts.’
Despite the EPA’s controversial proposals on water, ozone and power-plant rules, Gosar said the impeachment is explicitly in response to McCarthy deliberately misleading Congress.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
For those of you who have been called ‘paranoid’ or ‘schizoid’ or just plain stupid for opining that, someday, an authoritarian, ‘progressive’ federal government hell-bent on stifling all political opposition once and for all would round such people up and toss them into camps, you have been vindicated — although that might not really be much of a consolation to you.
As reported by investigative news site The Intercept, former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Gen. Wesley Clark, a onetime Democratic candidate for president, in recent days called for the revival of internment camps fashioned after those used in World War II, in which ‘disloyal Americans’ would be placed
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
When The Wall Street Journal discovered that the price tag of Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) proposals would be in the neighborhood of a staggering $18 trillion, Washington Post blogger Paul Waldman went into action. Waldman, also a senior writer with the “liberal” American Prospect magazine, figured out a way to make socialism seem positively beneficial for all and practically without cost to anyone.
Waldman said that ‘…while Sanders does want to spend significant amounts of money, almost all of it is on things we”re already paying for; he just wants to change how we pay for them.’
Please think about this formulation. We already pay for these things, so what Sanders is proposing, in terms of a bigger role for Washington, D.C., is really nothing to get alarmed about. In fact, it’s something we should welcome. This logic says that, if the federal government takes over spending for everything, it’s nothing to object to. After all, we were paying for those things anyway. Left unsaid is that Sanders wants to redirect the spending from our own pockets to Washington bureaucrats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Knock Out Game’ Back as Black Teen Admits Gang Attack on White Victim; ‘it’s Called KO’
The knock out game typically involves young blacks trying to knock unconscious unsuspecting victims, usually white, with a single blow.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lloyd Blankfein: Wall Street is Terrified of a Donald Trump Presidency
Blankfein likened Trump’s rise in U.S. politics to that of Andrew Jackson’s momentous White House win in the 1800s. Jackson was seen as the unconventional populist who had railed against the elite, which drew large support from average people.
‘We’re being kind of dismissive of things,’ he added. ‘But people must’ve dismissed that.’
Trump has already conceded that he will lose a lot of friends on Wall Street, much of whom have supported the Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush campaigns (SEE: Crony Alert: Wall Street banking on Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton in the White House). Some of his plans consist of reining in CEO pay and eliminating the carried interest loophole and making hedge funds pay higher taxes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lockheed Martin Unveils Potential U-2 Successor
The U-2 spy plane was first constructed at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works in 1955 and went on to become one of the most important intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft of the Cold War. It is one of the few aircraft of its vintage still in active service with the US Air Force, but Lockheed has now unveiled details of its possible successor. Designated the TR-X, the concept aircraft is an improved, stealthier version of the 60-year-old design and could enter service in 10 years.
With a wingspan of 103 ft (31 m) and a cruise speed of 475 mph (764 km/h), the U-2 carries a payload of 5,000 lb (2,268 kg) and can climb to its cruising altitude of over 70,000 ft (21,000 m) in a little over 45 minutes. According to Lockheed, at this altitude the spy plane can maintain surveillance over a wide area from a standoff position outside of hostile borders while providing longer line of sight data links.
The U-2 provided reconnaissance in almost every major international crisis involving the United States and was thrust into the public eye in 1960 when a CIA U-2A piloted by Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union. It underwent a major redesign in the 1980s and its mission expanded to include work as a flying NASA observatory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 20 Students at Virginia High School Suspended for Wearing Confederate Flag on Clothing
More than 20 western Virginia high school students were suspended Thursday after holding a rally to protest a new policy banning vehicles with Confederate flag symbols from the school parking lot and refusing to take off clothing displaying the symbol.
Christiansburg High School Senior Houston Miller, who organized the rally, said he doesn’t believe the administration should be able to tell students what they can wear or put on their vehicle. He said he doesn’t intend to back down and is encouraging more students to show their support for the flag Friday.
“I feel like I should have the right to wear whatever I want, and I’m standing up for this,” Miller said.
The dress code at the school in Christiansburg — south of Blacksburg along Interstate 81 — prohibits students from wearing articles that reflect adversely on people because of race, gender, or other factors. A new policy this fall bans students from having Confederate symbols on their vehicles in the parking lot.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Group Doesn’t Fault School or Police for Ahmed Mohamed’s Arrest
One of the largest Muslim groups in Texas said Thursday that it does not fault police and school officials who handcuffed and suspended a 14-year-old Muslim boy after he brought a homemade clock to class that they mistook for a possible bomb.
Instead, Khalid Hamideh of the Islamic Association of North Texas blamed political leaders for espousing inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric and creating a “climate of fear.”
“We’re not pointing a finger at the school district or the police department,” Hamideh said. “Under the current climate that exists in this country, you can’t really blame them because when they see something like that, they have to react.”
School district spokeswoman Lesley Weaver did not return a call for comment Thursday but previously said school administrators followed district policy, which allows staff to take action if a student has a “look-alike” weapon or engages in behaviors that “substantially disrupt or materially interfere with school activities.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A priest has prepared for the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia- by building a Lego model of the Vatican.
Father Bob Simon spent about 10 months building the St. Peter’s Basilica and Square with a half-million plastic bricks.
The creation is on display at the Franklin Institute as part of an exhibition which includes treasured art and religious relics from the Holy See.
It features a Lego pope figure on a balcony overlooking the crowd, a nun with a selfie stick and a bespectacled figurine of Rev. Simon.
The minister leads St. Catherine of Siena church in northeastern Pennsylvania and plans to participate in the papal Mass in Philadelphia later this month.
His architectural feat includes St. Peter’s Square, which is made up of about 44,000 Lego pieces resembling cobblestones.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Qatari Sheikh Leaves US After Ferrari Race Through LA
A Qatari sheikh has abruptly left the US after his yellow Ferrari was caught on camera racing through Beverly Hills.
Police were considering charging Sheikh Khalid Hamad Al-Thani with reckless driving and other offences before he — and his cars — disappeared.
The Thani family rule Qatar, but it is unclear whether Sheikh Al-Thani is part of the Arab state’s royal family.
Sheikh Al-Thani has been dubbed the “patron sheikh” of drag racing, according to the Los Angeles Times.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Democratic Party’s Deepening Dilemma
While Republicans are preparing for their second debate on Wednesday night, with most of the attention focused on the surprising, continuing strength of the Donald Trump campaign, the Democrats are facing an identity crisis of their own. It could prove far more chaotic than the one that the Republicans are facing.
After years of assuming Hillary Clinton would be nominated by the Democrats and swept into office by the American people, the party doesn’t know which way to turn. With the radical, left-wing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) now leading in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Hillary, facing possible indictment for mishandling classified information, the party is looking for help. The names that emerge are Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, and even former VP Al Gore. If the Obama Justice Department greenlights an indictment for Hillary, there would be open warfare between the Obama and Clinton forces, creating havoc and a deeply divided party for whoever the eventual nominee would be. And if they don’t indict, they are risking having her as a badly tarnished candidate, since she is rapidly losing the support and trust of a large percentage of the American people, including her natural constituency.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Takes Heat for Not Correcting Man Who Called Obama Muslim, Not American
Donald Trump is taking heat from both sides of the aisle after he declined Thursday to correct a questioner at a town hall event who incorrectly stated President Obama is Muslim, and “not even an American.”
Trump was kicking off a town hall event in Rochester, N.H. — his first since Wednesday evening’s second Republican primary debate.
“We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims,” said the first man Trump called on to ask a question. “We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.”
Trump, who was a driver of the “birther” movement that claimed Obama wasn’t born in the U.S, first responded with feigned exasperation — “We need the question,” he said, to laughs — but let the man continue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Plan Calls for Nationwide Concealed Carry and an End to Gun Bans
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump — who said he has a concealed carry permit — called for the expansion of gun rights Friday, including making those permits applicable nationwide.
In a position paper published on his website Friday afternoon, Trump called for the elimination of gun and magazine bans, labeling them a “total failure.”
“Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice. The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own,” Trump wrote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Shale Drillers Are Drowning in Debt
As much as 400,000 barrels a day of oil production is at risk as U.S. shale companies like Samson Resources Co. run out of money and are forced to slow drilling.
Total debt for half of the companies in a Bloomberg index of more than 60 producers has risen to a level that represents 40 percent of their enterprise value. It’s a sign of distress that shows equity values falling in the face of oil’s crash, said Rob Thummel, a managing director and portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital Advisors LLC who helps manage $15.6 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yikes: Bernie Sanders Wants to Implement an $18 Trillion Tax Hike Over 10 Years
Bernie Sanders, an Independent Vermont senator and self-identified socialist, wants to increase the size of government. Not just increase, but astronomically, exponentially expand the size and scope of the federal government. The size: $18 trillion worth over the next 10 years. This is making both sides of the political aisle shake their heads. Not in the disgust, but ‘how come I didn’t think of that!’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: 12 Month Sentence for ‘Jihadist’ Woman
A 20-year-old Chechen woman from Graz has been sentenced to a 12 month conditional prison sentence for planning to join Islamic State militants in Syria, after falling under the influence of a German jihadist.
The woman’s family fled with her to Austria to escape the civil war in Chechnya when she was four years old. Her parents found work in Graz and she completed her high school education there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hollande and Renzi Dine at Celebrity Chef Bottura’s Modena Eatery
Tour of event for political left after dinner
(ANSA) — Modena, September 18 — French President Francois Hollande and Italian Premier Matteo Renzi spent roughly two hours together over dinner in Modena Thursday evening. The two went to the famed Italian restaurant Osteria Francescana where they were welcomed by its celebrity chef Massimo Bottura. After a two-hour dinner, the socialist French president and centre-left Italian premier — who is also head of the Democratic Party (PD) — attended Modena’s Festa d’Unità (Unity Celebration), an event honouring of solidarity across the spectrum of Italy’s political left, from the Italian Communist Party (ICP) to the Democratic Party (PD).
Renzi explained to Hollande how the Festa d’Unità works as they toured the various stands.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 5% Coop Rule Must Change After Rome Mafia Case Says Prefect
Gabrielli says system corrupted after starting with good intent
(ANSA) — Rome, September 16 — Rome Prefect Franco Gabrielli said Wednesday that the system in which 5% of city contracts are reserved for cooperatives must be changed in the light of the Mafia Capitale case. “The issue of 5% for the cooperatives, which some have defined a hunting reserve, should be revised,” he said.
“It started out of a good intention, but the way it has been used is a crime gene and it produces the fragmentation of contracts”. The Mafia Capitale probe, which erupted last year, concerns allegations that a mafia organisation muscled in on city contracts worth millions. Many of the contracts under suspicion went to cooperatives.
Rome city government between 2011 and 2014 was a “free port” for procurement contracts, according to a front-page article in Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Wednesday, based on a report by Italy’s anti-corruption authority ANAC. The article said ANAC’s analysis of city government management in those years found that 43% of contracts for city jobs and services, paid for with public funds, were awarded through private negotiations without following official procedure.
In the report, ANAC inspectors said the use of private negotiations instead of public tenders was “generalized and indiscriminate” and in “clear variance and contrast with the rules, often revealing a nonchalant and sometimes even reckless application or evasion of the regulations”.
“This suggests that the practices revealed have their origin in the distant past and represent in many cases more a polished ploy that oriented the contractual work of the offices towards a simplified route, a foretelling — as evidenced by recent news reports — of distortions of a corrupt nature, rather than from unusual conditions that characterised the political and administrative work of the Rome city government in the last few years,” ANAC said.
Corriere della Sera said that hiding behind the approximately three billion euros awarded through private negotiations over four years, there was “more wrongdoing than a solution to emergency situations, and the Mafia Capitale investigation did nothing more than confirm this hypothesis”.
The ANAC report, completed August 7, was sent to Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino as well as Rome Prefect Franco Gabrielli for evaluation and action, as well as to the public prosecutor’s office (antimafia division), and the prosecutor of the Audit Court for possible further investigations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Campania Anti-Mafia Committee Chief Probed
Paolino suspected of vote buying
(ANSA) — Salerno, September 18 — Monica Paolino, a Campania councillor for Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia Party and the head of the regional assembly’s anti-mafia committee, is under investigation by Salerno prosecutors for alleged mafia vote buying, ANSA sources said Friday. Early on Friday, Carabinieri police searched the home where Paolino lives with her husband Pasquale Aliberti, the mayor of the town of Scafati. Aliberti is also under investigation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: UIL Calls for Return to Union Unity, as in 1972
Barbagallo says unions must get together to respond to nation
(ANSA) — Rome, September 18 — UIL chief Carmelo Barbagallo on Friday made an appeal to Italy’s two other big trade union confederations, CGIL and CISL, to regain the united they once enjoyed, calling for them to rewrite a pact that brought them together in 1972. “Today the true response to the country, to the government, to the political world and our members, is to get together,” Barbagallo said, handing the CGIL and CISL a copy of the 1972 pact.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Urgent’ To Find Out Why Cassano Quit — CGIL
‘Reshuffle or due to plan and Fiumicino woes’ asks Cortorillo
(ANSA) — Rome, September 18 — It is “urgent” to find out why Alitalia CEO Silvano Cassano quit, Italy’s biggest trade union CGIL said Friday.
“The news comes totally unexpected to us and we don’t know the reasons,” said the head of GCIL’s air transport section, Nino Cortorillo, after Cassano stepped down citing personal reasons.
“It’s urgent to find out, a year after Etihad came in, if the causes of this resignation are due to a reshuffle at the top or they can be linked to the results of the (relaunch) plan and the problems that have emerged at Fiumicino”, Cortorillo said.
Fiumicino has been beset by problems this summer with a major fire causing a closure after it happened and also weeks afterwards when high levels of toxic air pollutants were found.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: SD to Expel New Youth Wing Leader From Party
The Sweden Democrats have decided to expel the newly elected leader of their youth wing, Jessica Ohlson, from the party, tabloid Aftonbladet reports. The decision comes less than a week after the mother party announced it wants to cut its ties with the youth wing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Hospital’s Emergency Staff Feel Strain of Capacity Shortage
A group of doctors at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, just outside Stockholm city, are calling for external investigations after hospital management said they want to reopen 100 hospital beds in their emergency room in order to solve a capacity defecit, but without hiring new medical staff.
“It isn’t realistic to open hospital beds without more staff. Very simply, we can’t do the job faster. The situation is so serious and uncontrolled that we want an external review of the work environment by the Swedish Work Environment Authority and of patient safety by the Health and Social Care Inspectorate,” said Umut Heilborn, who spoke for the group of emergency medical staffers at the Solna hospital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It came as the head of MI5 Andrew Parker, pictured, warned that the UK is facing an unprecedented terror threat with home-grown fanatics are ‘being radicalised to the point of violence within weeks’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Special Branch officers from Scotland Yard, who dealt with matters of national security, are accused of being part of an alleged conspiracy to protect VIP paedophiles in the 1970s and 1980s.
One MP — likely to be Cyril Smith — was believed to be a child sex offender but officers who tried to arrest him were silenced using the Official Secrets Act, one former detective has said.
High-ranking officers have also been accused of closing cases ‘prematurely’ and stealing and destroying crucial evidence taken from inside police stations.
One case may have taken place less than 10 years ago and takes the number of alleged corruption cases involving the Met to 29, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: What’s Labour Come to When Pro-IRA Murderers is Shadow Chancellor? Tom Utley Writes
God in heaven, what has the Labour Party come to if its leader thinks it acceptable to choose John McDonnell as this to shadow one of Britain’s three greatest offices of state?, writes TOM UTLEY.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: ISIS: Prison Inside Tripoli Airport Attacked
Jihadists claim action to liberate prisoners
CAIRO — Isis in Libya announced that it “attacked an area of the Tripoli Mitiga airport used as prison and clashed with guards”.
In a statement released on the web, jihadists claimed “a group of mujaheddin of the martyred knights assaulted the prison to liberate Muslim prisoners under torture”.
According to Libyan sources, the prison run by the Ministry of the Interior, is under the control of Fajr Libya militias.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt ‘Starts Flooding Gaza Tunnels’
The Egyptian military has begun flooding tunnels used by Palestinian militants and smugglers under the border with Gaza, reports say.
It is the latest move by Egypt to destroy the tunnels, part of an offensive against insurgents.
Hundreds of tunnels were operating until Egypt began to eliminate them in recent years, but some remain functional and others have been rebuilt.
The tunnels, which emerge in the Sinai Peninsula, have played a vital role in the economy of Gaza, which has been under a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt in 2007 as a measure against the territory’s Islamist Hamas rulers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians Clash With Israeli Forces in Jerusalem, West Bank
Violence between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces spread beyond the walls of Jerusalem’s old city on Friday, with at least eight Palestinians shot in clashes in the West Bank and Israeli policemen injured by firebombs in a restive part of the city.
In a rare decision, Israeli leaders called up a few hundred border police reservists to beef up security as tensions rise over Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site. One Israeli civilian has been killed in the violence since Sunday.
In the West Bank, violent protests broke out after Muslim prayers Friday afternoon. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 8 Palestinians were seriously hurt after being shot by live rounds. About 20 were lightly hurt in clashes with Israeli soldiers, it said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinian Oktoberfest Back in Taybeh
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, SEPTEMBER 18 — Following two years of highs and lows, locations seen as questionable and friction with the municipal council, Taybeh’s Oktoberfest (the first and only one in the Middle East) is back in a Palestinian Christian village not far from Ramallah.
Tomorrow and the next day will be the ninth edition of the festival created by the beer maker Nadim Khouri, who — with the help of his wife Maria and his brother — has since 2005 organized an event that has become a regular event for fans of Palestinian beer and for an ever-growing number of foreign tourists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Assad Goes on Offense, Bombs ISIS “Capital”, Deploys New Russian Weapons
Now that Moscow has officially confirmed that Russian boots are on the ground at Latakia and that the Kremlin is actively ramping up its technical and logistical support for the Assad regime, one point we’ve been keen to drive home is that rebels, “freedom fighters”, and marauding, black flag-waving jihadists alike will now have a much tougher time routing government forces and taking control of the country.
After all, battling Assad’s depleted army (which is effectively fighting a three-front war with limited resources) is one thing, but fighting Russian special forces is entirely another, which is of course why the US is so “concerned” about the Russian presence in Syria. Put simply: if the Kremlin doesn’t want Assad to fall, then Assad will probably not fall if the only challenge comes from various ragtag militias and Islamic militant groups. That calculus obviously changes if the challenge suddenly comes from a US-backed coalition consisting of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, France, Britain, Jordan, and Qatar.
It’s with that in mind that we go to Reuters, who reports that the Russians may have breathed new life into Assad’s forces which have reportedly begun using new weaponry and launching offensive strikes on Raqqa (the de facto ISIS capital). Here’s the story:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Special Forces Colonel Claims Fall of ISIS is Imminent
A British Special Forces Colonel has claimed that ISIS fighters are ‘fragile’ and in a ‘poor position’ after suffering both devastating loses of land and militant fighters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Train Kurdish Battalion to Fight ISIS
As part of Kurdish Training Coordination Center (KTCC)
(ANSA) — Rome, September 18 — Italian military instructors belonging to the Erbil Task Force have concluded the first, six-week stage of training for a Kurdish Peshmerga battalion, the defence ministry said Friday.
The idea is to increase the tactical combat skills of Peshmerga units in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) fundamentalist militia.
The course was conducted by the Kurdish Training Coordination Center (KTCC) Multinational Command — currently under Italian lead — which also includes Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hungarian and Norwegian trainers.
The KTCC, currently made up of 530 men and women from seven different nations, has trained some 4,000 Kurdish troops since January this year, according to the ministry’s website.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Jets on Ground in Syria, As Carter Speaks to Moscow Counterpart
Russian fighter jets are on the ground in Syria, Pentagon officials told Fox News, in the latest escalation of Moscow’s military build-up there — as the Obama administration seeks answers from the Putin government on their intentions.
In the first step in direct military talks proposed by Russia about the military buildup, Defense Secretary Ash Carter called his Russian counterpart on Friday. The 50-minute conversation marked the first time that American and Russian defense chiefs have spoken in more than a year amid U.S. anger over Russian invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Army Reportedly Starts to Use New Weapons Provided by Russia
The Syrian military reportedly has started using new air and ground weapons supplied by Russia as part of a boost in support for Syrian leader Bashar Assad that has alarmed U.S. officials.
Reuters, citing an unnamed Syrian military source, reported Thursday the Syrian army had been training to use the weapons in the last few months and was just now starting to deploy them. However, the source didn’t specify what type of new weapons Syria was using.
“The weapons are highly effective and very accurate, and hit targets precisely,” the source told Reuters. “We can say they are all types of weapons, be it air or ground.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Thursday that Russia had provided weapons and trained Syrian troops in how to use them. He said the Assad government would be willing to ask Russian troops to fight alongside Syria as it battles the Islamic State group (ISIS).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Crisis: US and Russian Defence Ministers Hold Talks
US and Russian defence ministers have held their first talks in more than a year, to discuss the conflict in Syria.
The phone call follows signs that Moscow is taking a more active role in the conflict, and American concern over the extent of the plans.
Meanwhile, four Russian fighter jets have arrived at an airfield near the Syrian city of Latakia, the US said.
The US and Russia have disagreed sharply on Syria’s bloody civil war and the role of President Bashar al-Assad.
While Moscow has backed the Syrian government, the US sees the removal of President Assad as essential to resolving the conflict.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In a day of diplomatic snafus by the Pentagon, which first admitted it had spec ops forces in Syria (remember when it was just ‘advisors’?) and the Obama administration was blaming Russia for escalating the conflict by daring to join the fight against ISIS and sending its own troops in Damascus) then promptly retracted, using the old ‘there was no Freudian slip’ explanation, the US promptly needed another diversion to cast the blame back in Putin’s court.
Which brings us to our post from Monday in which ‘anonymous’ US officials told Reuters that ‘Russia has positioned about a half dozen tanks at a Syrian airfield where it has been steadily building up defenses’ with Reuters adding that ‘one of the U.S. officials said seven Russian T-90 tanks were seen at the airfield near Latakia, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The two U.S. officials said Russia had also positioned artillery there’ adding that ‘the two U.S. officials said Russia had also positioned artillery, which they said appeared.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Caroline Glick
This week US President Barack Obama informed Jewish leaders that he plans to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on November 9.
Yawn.
After 42 Democratic senators spent September 11 blocking their Senate colleagues from voting on Obama’s nuclear deal with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, the time has come to stop trying to influence the Obama administration’s policy toward Iran specifically and toward the Middle East in general. It’s a sucker’s game.
Obama’s supporters like to argue that the administration’s rupture with Israel over the Iran deal is nothing more than a difference of opinion about how best to deal with a problem that both sides wish to solve. But this is not the case.
On Tuesday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius hailed Obama’s “enormous victory” on the Iran nuclear deal. To be sure, Obama’s victory was not against Iran. It was against Netanyahu.
Based on an interview he conducted with Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, Ignatius wrote, “A weak president Obama may be. But a paradox of his presidency is that he has been at his toughest in fighting for the Iran nuclear deal against Netanyahu, the leader of one of America’s closest allies.”
Through Ignatius, Rhodes basked in the president’s great victory over Israel, a victory he views as Obama’s greatest foreign policy achievement.
The takeaway lesson is obvious…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
We’ll Mull Sending Troops to Syria if Asked Says Moscow
But ‘hard to talk about hypotheses’
(ANSA) — Rome, September 18 — Moscow said Friday it would consider sending troops to Syria if the government there asked it to, a Kremlin spokesman said.
“But it’s difficult to talk about hypotheses,” he said.
The Russian security service, the FSB, said separately that 2,400 Russian citizens were fighting for ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cossack Guards: Coming to a Store and School Near You
Cossacks are competing to win government contracts to serve as security guards at Moscow schools and stores, a move that could serve to hasten their expanding role within Russian society as conservative social enforcers and for-hire lawmen.
“We are taking part in contests and tenders, and as soon as we win we will man our posts. We might protect schools, stores, and government buildings as well,” said Andrei Shustrov, the head of the Moscow Cossacks, the local M24 news site reported Thursday.
The Cossacks are a quasi-military group found in Russia and parts of Ukraine that once served the Russian tsars but were persecuted by Soviet authorities. Under President Vladimir Putin’s national revival, the Cossacks have been embraces as patriotic defenders of Orthodox order and patriotic virtues by Russian authorities.
Moscow introduced its first sanctioned Cossack militia in late 2014 to mostly patrol parks, city beaches, and combat drinking in public spaces and smoking in prohibited areas. Next year, Cossacks will begin regular patrols of Moscow streets, trading their horses for motorcycles, M24 reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin and Berlusconi in Crimea Wine Row
Ukrainian prosecutors say are preparing charges against the director of a Crimean winery for allegedly opening a 240-year-old bottle for Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The two friends spent last weekend in Crimea touring ancient ruins.
Prosecutors say they drank at Crimea’s renowned Massandra winery.
Massandra was Ukrainian government property before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014.
Any charges could not currently be pursued in Crimea, where Russia has full control.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Bars Journalists From Entering Ukraine
Among them three from BBC, seven bloggers
(ANSA-AP) — MOSCOW — Ukraine has barred a few dozen reporters, including three BBC journalists, from entering the country as an unspecified security threat. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko late on Wednesday signed a sanctions list barring nearly 300 individuals from entering Ukraine.
The decree which was published on the president’s website said the three BBC journalists — two Britons and one Russian — and other reporters and media executives presented an unspecified “threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty or territorial integrity.” It did not specify why the BBC was singled out but a spokesman for the presidential administration said late Wednesday night that the Ukrainian Security Service would give an explanation on Thursday.
Ukraine has barred entry to Russian journalists in the past, accusing them of inciting unrest in the Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Am a Blogger. I Am Threatened by Islamic Extremists. So I Have to Flee Bangladesh.’
Adam Anupam, an atheist blogger born into a Catholic family, goes public with his fears. A writer for several websites and social media, he says that Europe and the developed world are safer for intellectuals who denounce religious fanaticism. The arrest of extremists is “just smoke and mirrors” because the government does not want to lose Muslim votes.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — The government of Bangladesh “is not doing anything to protect bloggers threatened with death by Islamic extremists. I cannot wait to leave the country because I do not feel safe,” said Adam Anupam, an atheist blogger, who shares with AsiaNews his concerns about increasing violence against intellectuals who denounce religious fanaticism by Muslims.
Anupam is atheist but from a Catholic family. Educated at Catholic schools, he now writes for several websites and social media.
“Bloggers are fleeing to Europe and other developed countries because they are safer there than in their homeland.”
“I denounce all kinds of religious extremism that is harmful to human brings in general,” he said, “but I fear that I could be attacked in Bangladesh at any time by unscrupulous extremists.”
The situation is becoming riskier for those who do not share the ideology of Islam. For some time, Muslim extremists have been targeting free thinkers and democracy activists, justifying their killing by calling their victims “atheists”.
Ahmed Rajib Haider was the first blogger to be killed for his “anti-Islam” ideas in 2013. So far this year, four other bloggers have lost their lives.
in February Avijt Roy was murdered near the University Dhaka; in late March, also in the capital, Muslim fundamentalists hacked to death Oyasiqur Rahman; two months later, it was the turn of Ananta Bijoy Das, who was murdered in Sylhet; and finally, Niloy Chakrabarti was killed, execution style, in August in broad daylight, under the eyes of his mother and sister.
In such an atmosphere of fear, 12 bloggers have been pushed to leave the country, concerned about further attacks after the publication of a series of threatening letters sent to the press, in which they are named as the next targets.
Anupam is also afraid. “When I sit down to write, I realise that there are many things I cannot say, for fear of reprisals.”
The most serious thing, he added, “is that the government remains silent in the face of the persecution of intellectuals because they do not want to lose Muslim votes. Although some murderers have been arrested, this is just smoke and mirrors. The government will not take effective action against fanatics.”
“Bangladesh is still a hundred years behind the modern era because this country’s majority is against bloggers,” he said in concluding. “There is no freedom of expression here. Although there has been some progress and people make more money, the way of thinking still hasn’t changed.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Japan Tourist at Taj Mahal ‘Dies After Fall’
A Japanese tourist has died after allegedly slipping down the stairs at India’s Taj Mahal monument. Eyewitness Sagar Singh told BBC Hindi that the tourist fell while taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal’s Royal Gate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Hindu Radicals Suspected in Bomb Attacks Against Three Protestant Churches
Just hours before a vote that declared Nepal a secular state, four bombs exploded at three Protestant churches in the eastern part of the country overnight Tuesday, the scene of clashes for weeks. The toll from the attacks is three wounded, all policemen. So far no one has claimed responsibility, although leaflets of a Hindu extremist group, who wanted not a “secular”, but “Hindu” constitution , were found in front of targeted churches.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Opinion: Is India Turning Into ‘BAN-istan?’
A temporary ban on beef and meat has infuriated many Indians already reeling under increasingly intrusive actions by the government. DW’s Sanjiv Burman looks at what is behind India’s obsession with bans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Allows India to Shape Ties With Iran
Modified: Sep 18, 2015 at 2:01 pm
In a rare first, the Barack Obama administration has officially announced that Washington has no problem with ‘close’ ties between India and Iran.
Since Iran and six world powers struck a historic nuclear deal on July 14, the US has made no comment on India’s cordial relations with the West Asian nation, keeping in mind that New Delhi and Tehran have always maintained healthy ties.
Very recently, senior State Department spokesperson John Kirby said that the Iranian nuclear deal has an ‘international architecture’ and India has every right to shape its ties with Iran in the wake of the deal. He also made clear that the US would take time in lifting economic sanctions imposed on Iran.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington over the weekend, Kirby stressed: “Each nation has, obviously, sovereign rights to impose sanctions on their own. The unilateral US sanctions against Iran’s nefarious activities will remain in place and we will continually review those as we go forward.”
The spokesperson also said that the US had no plan to ask India not to import oil and other petroleum products from Tehran, saying: “It would not be appropriate for us to tell India how to work their way through this. But we do believe that the architecture of the Iran deal is truly an international architecture. This was many countries coming together to try to make sure that Iran never possess a nuclear weapon and the deal does that.”
In India, political experts have welcomed Kirby’s statement, as they are of the opinion that the Obama administration has started understanding the reality. According to them, the political tug of war between the two countries or two groups of countries cannot dictate terms in global markets and every country shapes its foreign policy to serve its national interest. As the US realises that India will never stop purchasing oil from Iran, Washington has softened its stance, with Kirby emphasising the ‘international architecture’ of the Iranian nuclear deal.
The South Asian country is not at all interested either in Iran’s nuclear policy or in steps taken by Tehran to satisfy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for earning the ‘peaceful’ status for its nuclear programme. India has always considered Iran as a friendly nation and will do so in the future mainly to ensure a steady supply of oil at a comparatively cheap rate.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy and China to Co-Produce TV and Films Together
(AGI) Rome, Sept 16 — China and Italy will promote new forms of collaboration through co-productions in television, film, and publishing, sources from Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development told AGI. The ministry’s Undersecretary for Communications, Antonello Giacomelli, will depart for China on Thursday, where he will stay from September 21 to 27 on an invitation from SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film, Television, Press and Publication). Giacomelli will meet with a number of Chinese publishing and television groups during the business mission. “During his visit to the Ministry of Economic Development around a year ago, the deputy minister of SARFT, Tin Jin, and Undersecretary Giacomelli expressed their hopes for greater collaboration between our two governments,” the sources said. “In June 2014, Italy and China signed the regulations to put the co-production agreement into effect, under which every co-produced movie or documentary — whether for cinema, television, or the web — can have dual nationality and therefore qualify for fiscal benefits and subisidies, which the respective governments will make available to promote and pass on cinematographic culture.” In addition, guidelines approved by Italy’s Council of Ministers on March 27 and a new convention — to be signed by 2016 — plan to shift the state broadcasting company RAI onto the international stage through the production of programs in English. The business mission, led by Giacomelli, therefore aims to deepen the ties between RAI and CCTV, which financed the mission. RAI does not have authorisation to broadcast its programs in China, unlike international channels such as BBC World News, CNBC Asia, HBO, TV5Monde Asie, Eurosport News, and Bloomberg. “A request to SARFT has never been filed,” the ministry sources said. With the recent changes, RAI will be tasked with spearheading Italy’s audiovisual industry, strengthening its presence abroad, and promoting independent productions, Italian culture, and the Made in Italy brand.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japan to Allow Military Role Overseas in Historic Move
Japan’s parliament has voted to allow the military to fight overseas for the first time since the end of World War Two 70 years ago.
A vote on the new law was delayed for several hours as the opposition tried to stop the measure coming into force.
Outside, demonstrators rallied in a last-ditch show of protest.
Many Japanese are attached to the pacifist provisions in the constitution which banned fighting overseas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan’s Parliament Approves Controversial Security Bill
Japan’s upper parliament has approved a contentious law that removes post-World War II curbs on troops fighting overseas. The issue has sparked protests from pacifists who question the need to join global conflicts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea: Kim Regime Expands Secret Prison Camp for Women Forcibly Returned From China
The communist regime in North Korea has been expanding space for women in its notorious prison labor camps to accommodate the number of Koreans forcibly returned from China, where they had sought the economic means to survive.
The atrocities that await inmates in the North Korean gulag include forced labor, savage beatings, starvation, episodic executions and other crimes against humanity, according to a new report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (CHRNK), a Washington-based non-profit group.
The most recent changes in North Korea’s remote and extensive secret prison network is documented in The Hidden Gulag IV, an update of the Committee’s decade-long examination of the North Korean system, published on Friday. The report is buttressed by a separate analysis of satellite photographs and based on interviews with inmates who endured stays in the horrific system and subsequently escaped to South Korea after their release.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Latest Plan to Spend Tax Money … in Kenya
The Obama administration yet again is expanding one of its aid initiatives to Kenya, but is attempting — however clumsily — to keep details secret as it creates an agribusiness financing mechanism ‘similar to a venture capital fund.’
A heavily redacted Justification and Approval, or J&A, document that WND discovered via routine database research makes clear the administration’s intention to keep the American people in the dark about how it will ‘increase the total estimated cost’ of the expanded Kenya Feed the Future Innovation Engine, or KFIE.
The J&A,, likewise blacks out the name of the vendor selected to carry out a newly created phase of an existing project, which expands the scope of the initiative by giving greater authority to the contractor doling out grants to private Kenyan entities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Official: Death Toll Rises to 183 in South Sudan Tanker Explosion; Many Have Serious Burns
MARIDI, South Sudan — The death toll from a fuel tanker explosion in a rural South Sudanese state reached 183 on Friday, a regional official said, as medical staff and volunteers struggled to keep up with the influx of severely burned patients.
At least 60 more people are unaccounted for, said Commissioner Wilson Thomas Yanga of Maridi County in the state of Western Equatoria, where the fuel tanker exploded.
The truck carrying petrol overturned Wednesday outside Maridi and then exploded shortly after hundreds of villagers had gathered around to siphon fuel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Half of Mexicans Don’t Know Nation Won Its Independence From Spain
On September 15 in Mexico, everywhere you look is draped with the green, white and red of the national flag. It’s a night when even the least-patriotic Mexican celebrates with his fellow countrymen, and when the president lets out a triumphant cry from the balcony of the National Palace: “Long live independence!”
But independence from whom? Most Mexicans — 51% — have no idea that the country won its independence from Spain, while 13% believe it was an American colony.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Luis Fleischman: Venezuela’s Upcoming Phony Elections
Upon hearing the verdict that condemned its leader Leopoldo Lopez, to 14 years in prison, the Venezuelan opposition was posed in a dilemma. What do we do? Shall we vote in the upcoming December 6th parliamentary elections, or shall we protest?
The main accusation against Leopoldo Lopez is that he incited mass protests on February 12, 2014 that resulted in deaths, damage to property, and other losses. Of course, the protests were caused by the Government’s failed and repressive policies. The resulting casualties were not caused by Lopez but by government supported goon squads. Lopez, as an opposition leader, rightly supported these protests.
But let us not argue with the Venezuelan government so much. It is not interested in justice; it is simply interested in criminalizing the opposition or any type of dissent, which is what it has been doing for a long time.
Yet, surprisingly, the opposition still believes in the electoral process. Even Leopoldo Lopez, himself, called for a mass demonstration this coming September 19th with the sole purpose of “initiating the road towards election.” The leader of the unified opposition (Mesa de Unidad Democratica), Jesus Torrealba added, “The only possible rebellion for us, is the electoral rebellion.”…
| — Hat tip: TM | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum Claims Soar by 25 Percent in Sweden
The number of people applying for asylum for the first time in Sweden shot up by 25 percent between April and June, figures released by the Brussels statistics authority Eurostat showed on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Sees 79 Percent Jump in Asylum Claims
Applications for refugee status from asylum seekers increased by 79 percent in Austria in the second quarter of 2015, figures released by the Brussels statistics authority showed on Friday.
The highest number of asylum seekers applied for refugee status in Germany — where authorities received 80,900 applications of the 213,200 made across the EU between April and June according to Eurostat data.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia Shuts Most Serbia Border Crossings, Angering Serbia
Slovenia has stopped all rail traffic between the two countries
(ANSA) — ZAGREB (AP) — Croatian authorities closed all of the country’s border crossings with Serbia except for one Friday after straining to cope with 11,000 migrants and refugees who have entered the country after Hungary closed off its border.
Huge numbers of people surged into Croatia after Hungary erected a barbed wire-fence and took other tough measures to stop them from using it as a gateway into Western Europe. Croatia represents a longer and more difficult route into Europe, but those fleeing violence in their homelands had little choice.
Many of the migrants are Syrians and Iraqis fleeing war, who are seeking safety and prosperity in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe.
Serbian officials, fearing the closure in Croatia would block thousands of migrants inside the country, protested Zagreb’s move. Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s social affairs minister, said Serbia will take Croatia to international courts if the international border crossings remain closed.
Hundreds remained stranded on the Serbian border crossing with Hungary after Hungary sealed its borders, unable or too afraid to make the uncertain trek through Croatia.
Meanwhile, Slovenia — the next country on the migrant route to Western Europe — has been returning migrants to Croatia and has stopped all rail traffic between the two countries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia Opens Corridor for Migrants to Hungary
TV images show people entering buses
(ANSA) — ZAGREB — Croatia has decided to open a corridor for refugees who want to reach northern Europe. According to Croatian Tvs, the Croatian-Hungarian border, between the villages of Baranjsko Petrovo Selo, Croatia, and Beremend, Hungary, buses are carrying migrants which are then left in Hungary.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia to Start Redirecting Migrants to Slovenia, Hungary, PM Says
A picture made available on 18 September 2015 of refugees waiting to cross the border between Serbia and Croatia near the city of Tovarnik, Croatia, September 17, 2015. EPA/BGNES
Croatia is not closing its borders, but has reached its capacity and will redirect people to Slovenia and Hungary, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has said.
Slovenia has meanwhile effectively closed its border with Croatia and is refusing to accept migrants.
This comes as, by 9:00 local time, more than 14 000 had entered Croatian territory, according to the country’s Interior Ministry website. The influx rose on Wednesday after Hungary sealed off its border with Serbia and migrants moving across Serbia from the country’s southern region of Presevo were redirected to Sid at the Croatian border.
Zagreb then said it would accept migrants crossing into the country, but announced it was closing 7 of its 8 border points with Serbia on Thursday morning.
Later on Thursday, Milanovic also made clear that migrants that have already entered will be provided with food, water and medical help, “where necessary”, as the BBC quotes him as saying.
He has also dismissed the option of asking the military to protect the borders which was raised by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.
Reuters quotes him as saying he will not allow his country to be the “hotspot” of the migrant crisis.
He urged a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss steps that will help deal with the crisis.
“Croatia showed it has a heart, both as a country and as people. We have to remind our neighbors and the EU we also have a heart and know what our interest is. Those who are calling for closure of borders should know what they are calling for.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia Closes Border to Refugees After Nearly 17,000 Enter in 2 Days
Croatia sent 19 busloads of migrants to Hungary Friday after Croatia’s prime minister said it could not cope with the recent influx, but Hungarian police met the buses at the border and initially refused to let them in, as Europe’s refugee crisis continues to leave thousands unsettled and strain diplomatic relations.
Reporters on both sides of the Croatian-Hungarian border watching the standoff Friday said 19 buses carrying migrants across to Beremend, Hungary were met by Hungarian police and soldiers on two humvees mounted with machine guns. At first the Hungarians said they would not let the refugees into the country, but later they were put on Hungarian buses.
It was not clear where they were headed next. Those asking for asylum will have their requests decided quickly, per a new law this week, while the rest could be sent back to Croatia.
Croatia closed all its border crossings with Serbia Friday in an effort to halt the flow of refugees seeking a way to Western, Central, and Northern Europe. None of the Balkan countries are willing or prepared to handle the crisis and have been trying to close off their borders, pushing the problem onto their neighbors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: The Latest Hotspot in the 1,000-Mile Exodus Toward Western Europe
Lost in a maze of borders and with no end in sight to the crisis, Syria’s refugees walk relentlessly on through Croatia
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Draft Law Would Tighten Asylum Rules in Germany
Criticsm from human rights groups
(ANSA-AP) — BERLIN — German officials rejected criticism Friday of a draft law that would significantly overhaul the benefits system for migrants and speed up deportations for failed asylum seekers.
Rights groups claim the bill currently being circulated within the German government could result in migrants becoming homeless and destitute.
Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth declined to comment on individual measures, saying the bill still had to be finalized, but said the overall thrust of it was to simplify procedures, remove “wrong incentives” for those without a hope of asylum and improve the integration of recognized refugees.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Police Break Up People Smuggling Gang From Syria
Two Syrian nationals have been arrested in the Netherlands and charged with smuggling ‘hundreds’ of people into the country via Italy, Greece, Austria and Hungary. The main suspect is a 35-year-old man based in Eindhoven. His 26-year-old nephew was also picked up, as was an unidentified woman. She is suspected of handling the money and was released on Sunday pending further investigation, the public prosecution department said in a statement. A 27-year-old man has also been arrested in Budapest in connection with the case.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Asylum Applications Surge 85% in One Year
(BRUSSELS) — The EU received 213,000 asylum applications from April to June this year, a jump of 85 percent from the same period in 2014, with over one third coming from Syria or Afghanistan, official figures showed Friday.
Germany had the highest number of new applicants, with more than a third of the total for the EU, while Hungary was the country that received the most asylum applications relative to its population size, the EU’s Eurostat statistics agency said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Mandatory Refugee Quotas Could be Forced Through by Majority Vote, Warns German Minister
The EU “should seriously consider” forcing through mandatory quotas to distribute refugees across Europe by using a majority vote, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned.
Mr Steinmeier said that a majority vote, meaning the backing of 55 per cent of EU states which represent at least 65 per cent of the total EU population, in order to overrule opponents may be the only way to break the deadlock, rather than trying to win a consensus among the fractious member state leaders.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Preparing ‘Substantial’ Aid for Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Luxembourg Minister
(ANKARA) — The European Union is preparing a “substantial” aid package for Turkey to help it meet the cost of hosting around two million Syrian refugees, the foreign minister of Luxembourg said Friday during a visit to Ankara.
Addressing a press conference with his Turkish counterpart Feridun Sinirlioglu, Jean Asselborn, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said it was the EU’s “responsibility” to “financially support a country which is confronted with a problem, involving huge costs”.
Turkey and Lebanon have borne the brunt of the refugee crisis caused by Syria’s four-year civil war, the effects of which are suddenly being felt in Europe as hundreds of thousands of refugees pour into the EU.
Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Friday his country had spent $7.6 billion (6.6 billion euros) on aid for Syrian refugees since 2011.
“We really have to start sharing the load,” Asselborn said.
“It’s not that we want to buy Turkey off for blocking the route to those who want to come to Europe,” he said referring to Turkey’s efforts to prevent migrants crossing illegally into Greece and Bulgaria.
“It’s about providing support on the one hand, and, on the other hand, avoiding the anarchy we’re seeing at borders where asylum seekers are entering,” he added.
On Thursday, French President Francois Hollande called for the EU to “work with Turkey” so that “those who are in Turkey can stay there”.
Germany, which is battling to cope with an influx of refugees that Berlin says could reach one million this year, has also set its store by aiding the lot of refugees sheltering in Turkey.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier held talks Friday on the refugee crisis with his Turkish counterpart as well as with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: More Migrants on Friday Than in Nearly a Century
The Finnish Red Cross reports that the first 200 asylum-seekers to have arrived in Tornio have been housed in emergency facilities. The number of migrants arriving in Finland today Friday is the highest in a single day since the Russian Revolution.
At least 800 asylum-seeekers are expected to arrive in Tornio in Lapland today Friday. The first 200 arrivers were housed successfully this afternoon in a local sports hall and office building.
Of the 11,000 asylum-seekers to enter the country so far this year, 6,700 are from Iraq, as is the majority of those arriving in Tornio now, the Immigration Service says.
The Finnish Red Cross says that most of those entering Finland have walked across the border from Sweden. Bus services are being organised from Umeå and Luleå in Sweden.
The 800-1,000 migrants coming into Finland this Friday represent the largest number of asylum-seekers to enter the country during a single day since 1919, when people fled the Russian Revolution.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four Out of Five Migrants Are Not From Syria
EU figures expose the ‘lie’ that the majority of refugees are fleeing war zone
Only one in every five migrants claiming asylum in Europe is from Syria.
The EU logged 213,000 arrivals in April, May and June but only 44,000 of them were fleeing the Syrian civil war.
Campaigners and left-wing MPs have suggested the vast majority of migrants are from the war-torn state, accusing the Government of doing too little to help them.
‘This exposes the lie peddled in some quarters that vast numbers of those reaching Europe are from Syria,’ said David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth. ‘Most people who are escaping the war will go to camps in Lebanon or Jordan.
‘Many of those who have opted to risk their lives to come to Europe have done so for economic reasons.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Says Majority Decision May be Needed on Refugees
Steinmeier says will be necessary if things don’t work otherwise
(ANSA) — Berlin, September 18 — German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier on Friday proposed putting the issue of quotas to redistribute refugees to a majority vote among EU member States to break through the current impasse. “If things don’t work out otherwise, we’ll have to seriously consider using the instrument of a majority decision,” Steinmeier told Neue Passauer Presse.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Migrants’ Rape Epidemic
by Soeren Kern
A 13-year-old Muslim girl was raped by another asylum seeker at a refugee facility in Detmold, a city in west-central Germany. The girl and her mother reportedly fled their homeland to escape a culture of sexual violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Fights Next Crisis and This Time it’s Not About the Euro
On the Greek island of Symi, where the clear eastern Mediterranean Sea gently laps onto secluded beaches, a gray warship maneuvers in the main bay while a patrol boat with commandos docks alongside luxury yachts.
Surrounded on three sides by Turkey, this rugged outpost is the front line of Europe’s struggle to get a grip on the mass influx of refugees from war-torn parts of the Middle East and Africa. The island, which has one local doctor and no public toilets, has received 5,500 refugees since March, almost double the total in 2014 and roughly twice its population.
“Every day we try above all to save people at sea,” Vassilis Milathianakis, Symi’s coastguard chief, said this week on the patrol boat as it hummed through the waters beyond the natural harbor that’s the heart of the island. “There are so many incidents, very often two or three a day.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian FM: Croatian Authorities Should Stop Spreading Lies
A Hungarian police officer patrols along the temporary border fence on the Hungarian-Serbian border near Roszke, 180 kms southeast of Budapest, Hungary, during sunrise one day after Hungary closed its border to Serbia. — Photo: REUTERS
BELGRADE — Hungary has started building a security barrier along the border with Croatia in order to prevent migrants from crossings into the country illegally, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Belgrade on Friday.
The fence is being erected along a 40 kilometer-long stretch near the Hungarian border town of Beremend, Szijjarto told reporters after his meeting with Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic.
The Hungarian minister criticized Croatia for transporting refugees — without providing care or even registering them — by buses to the Hungarian border, claiming that this is being done in agreement with the Hungarian police.
We have never made such an agreement and I would like to ask the Croatian authorities to stop spreading lies, Szijjarto said, adding that the 40 km-long fence is being put up to reduce or prevent illegal border crossings.
The fence along the border with Serbia has nothing to do with Serbia itself. Hungary was forced to build it in order to stop the illegal entries, underlined Szijjarto.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary, Croatia Trade Jabs Over Migrant Train
Croatia has sent a train carrying migrants to Hungary without consulting Budapest, Hungarian officials have claimed. EU President Juncker offered logistical assistance in a phone call with the Croatian prime minister.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In EU, Asylum Applicants Jump to 213,000 in Three Months
In the second quarter of 2015, more than 210,000 first time asylum seekers have applied in the EU, reported Eurostat. More than one out of three applied in Germany, also the country with the biggest backlog to process.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On September 16, 2015, the information office for the Islamic State (ISIS) in Salah Al-Din Province in Iraq released a video titled “Would You Substitute Something Good For Something Far Inferior?!” The video features an ISIS cleric and two fighters, one of them apparently French, who harshly criticize the migrants leaving Iraq and Syria for relinquishing their honor and abandoning the fighters that shed blood for Islam and for their people. The cleric argues that “the lands of unbelief” such as Germany and France embrace Muslim immigrants out of their economic interests and with the intent to convert them to Christianity. The men then call on Muslim youths to immediately immigrate to the Islamic State.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Allocates Further 1 Mln Euros for Somali Refugees
(AGI) Rome, Sept 17 — Italy has allocated another million euros to support refugees in Somalia in a financial agreement signed in Nairobi by Italian ambassador to Somalia, Fabrizio Marcelli and the UNHCR representative to the country, Bushra Halepota, in the presence of the Somali National Commissioner for Refugees and IDPs, Ahmed Nur, Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya, Jamal Mohamed Hassan, and the country’s special envoy for the rights of children and refugees, Mariam Yassin Hagi Yussuf. The money will be channelled through Italian Cooperation to provide assistance to Somali refugees fleeing Yemen and its conflict.
In particular, the initiative aims to integrate the immediate assistance to Somalis who land on the northern coast of Somalia, with sustainable solutions to facilitate their long-term social and economic reintegration in their areas of origin, mainly in the southern central region of the country.
The contribution is part of a bigger Italian commitment in the field of refugees and displaced persons in Somalia, with a series of activities financed by the Italian government and implemented by the UN agency for a total of 4.7 million euros in the period 2010 to 2015.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lower Wages for Whites, Higher Wages for Immigrants, And Inequality for All
Earlier today, the Census Bureau released data showing that 2014 was much like 2013 and the years prior: meh for the majority of Americans. Real income for the median household has been level or declining each year since the recession, and in 2014 that number remained 6.5 percent lower than it was in 2007.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants: 38% Request Asylum in Germany, 7% in Italy
(ANSAmed) — BRUSELLS, SEPTEMBER 18 — In the second trimester of 2015, 38% of asylum seekers in Europe (80,900 people) made their plea to Germany, 15% (32,700 people) to Hungary, 8% to Austria (17,400), 7% to Italy (14.900),the same percentage of requests to France and Sweden, Eurostat reported.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Blocked in Turkey Inch Towards Greek Border
Edirne (Turkey) (AFP) — Several hundred migrants who were blocked by police in northwest Turkey from crossing a land border to Greece this week drew a few kilometres closer to their destination Friday after the authorities briefly opened the route.
There were jubilant scenes as the crowd of mostly Syrian refugees who have been camping at the side of the road outside the city of Edirne for four days, began to advance towards the border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Neighbours Squabble After Croatia U-Turn
Waves of migrants seeking to enter the EU from the south-east have been shunted from one border to another as governments disagree over the crisis.
Croatia reversed its open-door policy after 17,000 arrivals since Wednesday. It is now sending thousands of migrants north, angering Slovenia and Hungary.
Hungary, which is putting a fence on its border with Croatia, is reportedly sending new arrivals on to Austria.
Two EU crisis meetings will take place next week.
Many of the migrants are fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Welcome… to the Age of Stupid
Yvette Cooper’s pledge to take in migrants is proof emotion has replaced intelligence
We live in the Age of Stupid, where noisy emoting has replaced quiet intelligence.
Pixie’s promise to adopt a migrant family was a pledge for the gormless Twitter generation — a desperate public ‘Look At Me’ in 140 characters or less. Fat lot of good it did her. She still got stuffed by Corbyn.
As I pointed out a few days ago, if she really was that concerned about the plight of migrants, she could have taken in a few of those delightful Roma gipsies camped out in London’s Hyde Park.
Come to that, she could have opened her heart and hearth to one of the thousands of homeless British families currently stranded for years in bed and breakfast accommodation. But no. It’s all about political opportunism and humanitarian posturing…
Some of the #refugeeswelcome crowd are demanding there should be no upper limit.
That’s on top of the 600,000-plus foreign nationals who arrived last year, and the 8.3 million foreign-born citizens already in Britain. No one has yet explained where they are all supposed to live.
The emoters don’t have a serious answer. Nor can they be bothered to seek one. All they can do is resort to smearing those who dare to ask these difficult questions as heartless racists. Just so long as they feel good about themselves, that’s all that matters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia Accuses Croatia of Breaking EU, Schengen Rules
Modified: Sep 18, 2015 at 3:24 pm
LJUBLJANA — Slovenian Interior Minister Bostjan Sefic has accused Croatia of breaking the rules of the EU and the Schengen zone after the Croatian prime minister said his country would not register or accommodate refugees and migrants.
“The actions of Croatia are not in line with EU and Schengen systems as they decided they are no longer registering migrants,” Sefic said, as cited by Reuters. He added that police are reinforcing units in advance of an influx of asylum seekers from Croatia.
Croatia “cannot and will not accept this burden any more”, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has declared earlier today.
“They will get food, water and medical help, and then they can move on. The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant ‘hotspot’. We have hearts, but we also have heads,” Milanovic said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Valls Blasts Hungary’s Approach to Refugees
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged the Hungarian government to treat refugees at its borders humanely, saying its current attitude toward them was unacceptable.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Hosting Four-Member Syrian Refugee Family
Holy See keeping identity confidential
(ANSA) — Vatican City, September 18 — The Vatican is hosting a family of Syrian refugees from Damascus made up of a father, mother and two children, ANSA sources said Friday. The family arrived in Italy on the first Sunday of this month, the same day when Pope Francis called on all European Catholic parishes to host at least one family of refugees. They have been taken in by the parish Saint Anne in the Vatican. Italy has not yet decided whether to grant the family asylum, the sources said. The Holy See is keeping he family’s identity confidential.
Also on Friday, the Almonry of the Pope said Vatican has been loaning a mobile clinic used for papal public appearances to help refugees at migrant processing centres on the outskirts of Rome. The medical volunteers staffing the mobile clinic — doctors, nurses and Swiss guards — come from Vatican City, the University of Tor Vergata and the healthcare charity organization Associazione di Istituto di Medicina Solidale.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vulin: I Am Sorry to See That Croatia’s Humanity and Solidarity Lasted Just Two Days
HORGOS — Minister of Labor and Social Policy Aleksandar Vulin has warned Croatia not to close the border and international roads as, otherwise, Serbia will ask for protection before international courts.
“We would like to warn Croatia and any other country that the closing of international roads is out of the question, and that we will seek to protect our economic and any other interests before international courts,” Vulin told Tanjug on Thursday evening.
Croatia has closed traffic on seven road border crossings with Serbia as thousands of migrants streamed westward across Serbia toward the Croatian border after Hungary sealed its borders amid a rising influx of refugees.
Croatia’s Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said on Thursday that Croatia would close the borders if several thousand refugees again arrived in the country in just one day.
“The fact that Croatia is not capable of taking care of only 6,000 people is not and must not be the reason for it to threaten the neighboring countries, and especially not to deny to refugees their fundamental human rights. We will not pay the price for the incompetence of others,” Minister Vulin said.
“Should Croatia not be capable of coping with 6,000 migrants, Serbia is willing to send assistance and people who provided food, medical treatment and protection for 140,000 peaceful and civilized migrants that did not cause a single incident,” he noted.
“I am sorry to see that Croatia’s humanity and solidarity lasted just two days,” Vulin said. “Had Serbia closed the border when over 9,000 migrants arrived in the country across Macedonia and Greece in just one night, Macedonia would have faced a collapse, and the EU — a humanitarian catastrophe of unfathomable proportions,” Minister Vulin said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A Solution for the Same-Sex Marriage Problem
In other words, just as in the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion-on-demand, the Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex ‘marriage’ was judicial activism pure and simple. There were no precedents for either decision. Think of the brilliant minds in law, philosophy, and religion over two thousand years of Western Civilization that somehow missed the ‘right’ of homosexuals to ‘marry.’
What I’m saying is, I realize that militant homosexuals, ultra-leftists, and judicial activists have been waging war on America’s historic Christian values for decades — and they won a huge victory with the Obergefell decision. I also understand that these people will never be satisfied until they have totally and thoroughly expunged these values from America’s public life. There is no question they will resort to any tactic — no matter how morally unjust or constitutionally corrupt — to achieve their radical, amoral agenda. Kim Davis will not be the last Christian to be persecuted for her faith in this country.
That said, the Obergefell decision has successfully divided the liberty movement almost in half, between those who agree with the decision (on whatever grounds) and those who disagree. But, instead of arguing over the SCOTUS decision, here is what ALL OF US in the liberty movement should be doing: we should be using whatever influence we have to promote the idea of taking marriage OUT OF THE HANDS OF THE STATE ALTOGETHER.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Issues Subpoena for Baby-Parts Footage
Republican members of Congress have overcome attempts by abortionists to keep secret the statements they made to undercover investigators looking into Planned Parenthood’s body-parts business.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Health Care, Benefits and Administrative Rule has issued a subpoena for the full and unedited videos made by the Center for Medical Progress, according to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
CMP created a fake company that purported to buy body parts of aborted babies and sell them to researchers.
Over several years, CMP secretly recorded conversations with Planned Parenthood officials who engaged in negotiation for body parts and candidly discussed gruesome aspects of the trade.
Jordan said the recently released undercover Planned Parenthood videos are ‘beyond disturbing.’
They are outright appalling, and show activity that is not only morally wrong, but appears to be potentially illegal as well,’ he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ohio Factory Worker Fired for Recommending Christian Movie to Lesbian Co-Worker
Gay marriage won’t affect you at all. Gay rights won’t take away your rights at all. Remember those? Seems like a long time ago that the secular left was making those claims, when in fact its was only a few months ago. Before Sweet Cakes by Melissa. Before Memories Pizza. Before Kim Davis. And let’s talk about Kim Davis for a second, because the secular left claims the issue with her is not her faith, but that she didn’t do her job — an argument that implies that as long as she did her job, she could have exercised her faith all she wanted.
Well that brings us to Chris Rouston. Rouston had spent the past 13 years as a material handler for Middletown, Ohio-based Precision Strip, and he was well known for sharing his Christian faith with everyone at the company. So it was not unusual that he did so in the form of a message to a new employee, who happened to be lesbian. Rouston and this particular colleague got into a discussion — outside work hours over Facebook — about whether Christians hate homosexuals, and in an attempt to demonstrate that Christians do not hate homosexuals, Rouston — who lives in nearby Monroe, Ohio — recommended that she see the film Audacity, which was actually produced for the purpose of addressing that very issue.
And that’s where Rouston’s trouble started, leading all the way up to his termination for making her ‘uncomfortable’:…
I’ll tell you again what I’ve been saying all along here: The gay marriage/gay rights thing has never been about gay marriage or gay rights. It’s about finding a clever way to effectively criminalize Christianity. You can’t pass that straight-out bans the exercise of religion, but what the secular left has decided it can do is to redefine ‘discrimination’ so that anyone who talks about their faith to others is essentially guilty of it. Now all you have to do is make someone ‘uncomfortable’ and you lose your job.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Beauty Beyond — Winning Astronomy Photography
Shimmering phenomena in the night sky — and starry sights billions of light years away — take a look at some of the finalists in the 2015 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Baron, I remember once you said the times had changed and blogs rather than violence would determine the outcome of the conflict with Islam. Jewish prophets do show impressive strategy.
The angry wog again is on the air
https://youtu.be/Ey0vKsCJNEc