Police in the town of Passau, just across the border from Austria in Bavaria, warn that they have completely run out of accommodations for “refugees”, and that migrants will soon run a real risk of freezing. They say that it is only a matter of time before a baby freezes to death.
In other migration news, the “refugees” who protested at being relocated to remote camp in Sweden have changed their minds, and decided to accept accommodations there, despite their fear of the trees.
In other news, the Chinese government has abolished its one-child policy, which had been in force for 36 years.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nick, Upananda Brahmachari, 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: Rate Falls Below Zero for First Time at 6-Month Bond Auction
Spread remains steady at 97 points after sale
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — Interest rates on six-month Italian treasury bonds fell to below zero for the first time in an auction on Wednesday.
The average yield fell to -0.005% from 0.023% at an equivalent sale in September, marking a new historic low after the zero interest rate registered in April. The treasury placed all of the six billion euros worth of bonds on offer. The spread between the 10-year BTP bond and the German equivalent, a key measure of investor confidence and of Italy’s borrowing costs, remained steady at around 97 basis points after the auction. The yield on the 10-year BTP stood at 1.42%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-EU Bad Bank Talks Stalled
Commission requested new proposal
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 28 — Negotiations between Italy and the EU on setting up a so-called bad bank to absorb toxic loans have stalled, ANSA sources said Tuesday.
Talks have been ongoing for almost a year, with the aim of defining what measures to take to bail out ailing banks that have too many non-performing loans.
The European Commission has requested a new proposal, the sources said.
In related news, on Monday Italy’s Interbank Deposit Protection Fund (FITD) told the Senate finance committee that it plans to roll out two billion euros to bail out Banca Etruria and Banca Marche banks CariFerrara and CariChieti savings.
“If all the deposits guaranteed by these four banks had to be reimbursed in full, the sum would be 12.5 billion euros… an amount the Fund does not and never will have,” said FITD President Salvatore Maccarone.
However the bailout would not take place without a green light from the European Commission, Maccarone said.
“If we can’t overcome this obstacle (of obtaining EU approval) the fate of these banks would be tragic,” he said.
Under the new EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) as of January 1 this year, all member States must apply a single rulebook for the resolution of banks and large investment firms. The FITD’s hands are tied as long as the BRRD is not applied, Maccarone said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait Finds Itself “Poorer” After Oil Price Drop Cuts Revenues by 60 Per Cent
Oil income represented 94 per cent of Kuwait’s revenues in the past 16 years. Oil prices have dropped by about 60 per cent since June 2014. In a speech to parliament, the emir calls for “serious and fair measures” to cut “public expenditures.” The emirate’s reserves now stand at US$ 600 bn.
Kuwait City (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Kuwait’s ruler said that the oil-rich emirate must find alternative revenue sources and reduce public expenditure after state income dropped due to the recent drop in crude prices.
Addressing parliament at the beginning of its new term, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah urged the legislators and Kuwaitis to understand the new measures.
“The decline in global oil prices has caused state revenues to drop by around 60 per cent,” the emir said. By contrast, spending did not change, “leading to a huge deficit”.
This requires “speedy actions to adopt serious and fair measures to complete economic reforms . . . and reduce public expenditures.” And “Any delay would only increase the budget deficit and make the cost (of reforms) higher”.
Oil prices plunged by 60 per cent since June 2014, hitting the coffers of energy-dependent countries like Kuwait. For the past 16 years, oil revenues accounted for about 94 per cent of the emirate’s budget.
Over the years, the emirate posted large budget surpluses and piled up massive fiscal reserves of around US$ 600 billion. The reserves are invested mostly abroad by the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
The International Monetary Fund said in a report last week that under existing conditions, the reserves would be enough to last Kuwait for the next 23 years.
Still, Sheikh Sabah said the government should avoid tapping the sovereign fund to finance the budget shortfall.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
California Now Meddling With Employee Pay, Accelerating Mass Exodus of Employers Out of the State
(NaturalNews) The ruling Democrats in the deep blue state of California seem forever intent on “out-liberaling” themselves, always failing to understand the very real consequences they create for state residents when they govern by ideology instead of pragmatism.
Recently, it was the state’s authoritarian move to ban parental choice and order all school-aged children to be vaccinated. Now, we have the state’s new “equal-pay” law, which Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed recently. Billing it as the “nation’s toughest” law of its kind, Brown’s signing drew raucous applause from the usual suspects — but also from the vast flock of sheep comprising the majority of the California electorate who have no idea what is coming next.
As reported by the Washington Times, the California Fair Pay Act supposedly strengthens the existing equal-pay law by banning employers from paying any employee less than what their opposite sex counterparts are earning for “substantially similar work,” not simply “equal work” — a definition that is far more subjective and, thus, more susceptible to interpretation and litigation. In addition, the law prohibits employers from retaliating against an employee who might seek to raise his or her pay under its provisions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
College Posts Contact Info of 5 Officials Standing by to Tell Students if Their Costume’s Offensive
Think your Halloween costume might be culturally insensitive?
If you’re a student at State University of New York at Geneseo, all you’d have to do is email or call the no less than FIVE campus officials whose phone numbers and email addresses have been hung around campus on posters titled “Halloween checklist: Is Your Costume Offensive? Check yourself and check your friends.”
“Unsure if your costume might be offensive,” the poster asks. “Don’t be scared to ask questions.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Detroit Public Schools: 93% Not Proficient in Reading; 96% Not Proficient in Math
In the Detroit public school district, 96 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in mathematics and 93 percent are not proficient in reading.
That is according to the results of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress tests published by the Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics.
Only 4 percent of Detroit public school eighth graders are proficient or better in math and only 7 percent in reading. This is despite the fact that in the 2011-2012 school year—the latest for which the Department of Education has reported the financial data—the Detroit public schools had “total expenditures” of $18,361 per student and “current expenditures” of $13,330 per student.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hispanic Republicans Vow Boycott if Donald Trump Wins Nomination
Facing the growing threat of Donald Trump capturing their party’s presidential nomination, Hispanic Republicans are hitting the panic button and taking a unified stand against the bombastic billionaire.
On the eve of the third GOP debate, about two dozen Hispanic leaders emerged Tuesday from a closed-door meeting in Colorado with a stark warning for Republicans: They can kiss the Hispanic vote, and their chances of winning the White House, goodbye if Mr. Trump is nominated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Law enforcement agencies around the country have been all too eager to adopt mass surveillance technologies, but sometimes they have put little effort into ensuring the systems are secure and the sensitive data they collect on everyday people is protected.
Case in point: automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems.
Earlier this year, EFF learned that more than a hundred ALPR cameras were exposed online, often with totally open Web pages accessible by anyone with a browser. In five cases, we were able to track the cameras to their sources: St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, and the Kenner Police in Louisiana; Hialeah Police Department in Florida; and the University of Southern California’s public safety department. These cases are very similar, but unrelated to, major vulnerabilities in Boston’s ALPR network uncovered in September by DigBoston and the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.
After five months of engagement with these entities, we are releasing the results of our research and the actions these offices undertook in response to our warnings.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Mentally Unstable’ Obama Looking to Start a War With China?
This week, Barack Obama sent a guided missile destroyer into disputed waters in the South China Sea to see if the Chinese would start shooting at it. Yes, this is what he actually did. Fortunately for us, the Chinese backed down and did not follow through on their threats to take military action.
Instead, the Chinese have chosen to respond with very angry words. The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, says that what Obama did was “a very serious provocation, politically and militarily.”
And as you will see below, a state-run newspaper stated that China “is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region”. So why in the world would Obama provoke the Chinese like this? Yes, the Chinese claims in the South China Sea are questionable. But there are other ways to resolve things like this. My friend Rick Wiles began his radio broadcast yesterday by suggesting that these kinds of actions show that Barack Obama has become “mentally unstable”, and I would have to agree. You don’t risk military confrontations that could potentially spark World War III unless you have a really good reason to do so.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sleeping Comfortably While White Now Racist, Scientists Claim
Author calls for racial justice over “black-white sleep gap”
An article posted to the National Journal last week claims whites are more likely to sleep comfortably than blacks because of widespread racism.
Entitled “The Black-White Sleep Gap: An unexpected challenge in the quest for racial justice,” the article cites several studies which state that black Americans experience less “slow-wave sleep” than other races.
“Generally, people are thought to spend 20 percent of their night in slow-wave sleep, and the study’s white participants hit this mark,” author Brian Resnick writes. “Black participants, however, spent only about 15 percent of the night in slow-wave sleep.”
Danielle L. Beatty Moody, a psychologist at the University of Maryland, suggests that factors such as “mistreatment” or “maltreatment” only greatly affect the sleep of blacks, not whites.
“It’s uncomfortable for them to sleep because they are thinking back over mistreatment, thinking back over maltreatment, thinking back over bias they experienced,” Moody said. “In thinking about those experiences, they are getting more aroused, more cognitive arousal, which does the opposite of what you need it to do to go to sleep.”
University of Calgary psychology professor Lianne Tomfohr made similar statements as well, pointing to discrimination as the reason behind poor sleep patterns among black Americans.
“That was our thought: If people are feeling really discriminated against, then of course they are not going to want to get into a really deep stage of sleep,” Tomfohr states.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
SPLC Attacks First Amendment, Says Alternative Media is “Destructive to Democracy”
Mark Potok and the Southern Poverty Law Center warn in an article posted this week that news and information contrary to that disseminated by the establishment “hides deep, dark and destructive forces” endangering democracy.
Potok and the SPLC attack alternative media head on.
“One factor fertilizing such beliefs is the proliferation of alternative forms of media, from cable television and talk radio to social media and a seemingly endless number of websites. Almost any belief that a person has, no matter how far out or disconnected from the facts, has some kind of ‘news’ source to back it up,” Potok and Dan Terry write.
The SPLC believes investigative journalism highlighting Common Core, military exercises and FEMA, Agenda 21, the North American Union, the financial manipulation of the elite and more—topics rarely if ever covered by the establishment media—pose a serious threat the very fabric of the nation.
Alternative news and information at odds with the narrative spun by the elite and their propagandists in the corporate media “have consequences” and “wreck any chance for finding real solutions,” Potok argues.
The SPLC does not call for political or legal action against “the chief enablers of these destructive tall tales,” including Alex Jones.
Instead, the organization adds to the hysteria rampant on the so-called progressive left as its more activist and shrill members increasingly call for everything from prison sentences for “climate change deniers,” to shutting down the First Amendment of those who disagree, and going so far as to call for outlawing language it finds corrosive to its political agenda.
In part, the renewed campaign to attack and demonize those who oppose the political status quo is due to an appearance by Matt Drudge on the Alex Jones Show.
Drudge warned that the establishment is moving to shut down the free speech rights of its opponents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Koskinen Impeachment: A Factual Necessity and a Likely Political Failure
A lot of people probably didn’t know that Congress has to power to impeach any public official, not just presidents, if they are found to have committed high crimes and misdemeanors. One of the reasons this fact is so obscure is that it happens even more rarely than the impeachment of presidents. The last time it happened was in 1876. And it makes sense that it would happen rarely, because normally if a public official has done such things, the Justice Department would bring its own charges and no action by Congress would be necessary.
But that doesn’t apply in the Obama Administration, where lawbreaking is not a problem if it’s done in the service of Democrats and their political agenda, and no charges will be brought regardless of the evidence. So when we find ourselves dealing with a public servant who combines the arrogance and the lawlessness of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen — and Obama’s Justice Department, as is its typical practice, refuses to do anything — Congress can either ignore the evidence and let him skate, or proceed on its own.
It looks like House Republicans have made their decision:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Cruz Blasts Media, Crowd Goes Wild
Ted Cruz took an early and commanding lead with the total destruction of the moderators and the media in general.
CRUZ: Let me be clear. The men and women on this stage have more ideas, more experience, more common sense than every participant in the Democratic debate. That debate reflected a debate between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why the CDC Pushes Flu Season Fear Like Clockwork: $1.6 Billion in Annual Revenue for Big Pharma
(NaturalNews) Just about everywhere you turn, invitations to get the flu shot abound. Popular supermarkets set up flimsy privacy dividers, somewhere between the junk food aisle and the feminine products section, at which point a doctor emerges from behind the pharmacy counter and jabs your arm with a needle.
Some street corners boast cardboard signs urging drivers to enter a nearby store and get a flu shot.
You can do it on your lunch break, while heading home from work or while driving to see grandma.
Or, of course, you can do it the old-fashioned way — if an in-store shot isn’t your thing — and book an appointment with your primary physician.
While many people may think this is a great idea, let’s take a deeper look at this flu shot phenomenon. The REAL reason we’re bombarded with flu season worries and why flu vaccines are shoved down our throats has little to do with genuine care for our health. That would be too much to ask.
Ladies and gentlemen — it’s all about money. Well, who would have guessed?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Blatter Blames FIFA Crisis on Platini, England and USA
Sepp Blatter blames Michel Platini, England and the United States for igniting and escalating the corruption scandal engulfing FIFA.
“At the start it was only a personal attack, it was Platini against me, then it was no longer only Platini against me,” the suspended head of football’s world governing body told Russian news agency Tass on Wednesday.
“It was also those who had lost (hosting) the World Cups.
“England against Russia (the 2018 hosts), and the United States who lost the (2022) World Cup to Qatar,” the 78-year-old Swiss claimed…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels: The City That Just Doesn’t Give a Damn
Welcome to Brussels — the city that doesn’t give a damn how it is run and home to EU institutions that don’t give a hoot what you think.
Welcome to Brussels — the world capital of law-making and law-breaking, where pavements are car parks, speed limits entirely optional and health and safety rules about as respected as in Bangladeshi sweatshops.
Welcome to Brussels — the global headquarters of hypocrisy, where symposia on sustainable cities are held in buildings with 1,000-place car parks, where calls for budget cuts and flexible labour forces are made by well-paid bureaucrats with jobs for life and where the world’s tightest air pollution laws are passed in the most congested country on earth.
It is unlikely anyone in the Brussels regional government worries about the image this urban car-crash in the heart of Europe conveys.
After all, the tens of thousands of people who work in and around the EU organisations are a captive audience. Because as long as the main EU bodies are based in Brussels, their jobs will remain tied to the city most would prefer not to live in. And as long as these mainly non-Belgians cannot vote in regional and national elections, no politician need fret about what they think of the patchy public transport, the shoddy streets or the poor service doled out by local officials.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cameron Warns Against Norway-EU Model for UK
Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday warned against calls by some eurosceptics for Britain to adopt a Norwegian model for relations with the European Union as debate heats up ahead of a membership referendum.
“I would guide very strongly against that,” Cameron told lawmakers in parliament at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions, just before leaving for Iceland to attend the Northern Future Forum.
“Norway actually pays as much per head to the EU as we do, they actually take twice as many, per head, migrants as we do in this country, but of course they have no seat at the table, no ability to negotiate.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Halloween Came to Push Out All Hallows’ Eve
In Spain, Halloween continues to make inroads despite irritation from the Catholic Church and some sectors of society, who view it as too commercial and American. This year, a Cádiz church official called it “a satanic celebration that features monsters.”
Dismissed by many Spaniards as too American, the celebration’s roots lie firmly in old Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Orfini Says ‘Manipulative Opportunists’ Won’t Stop Rome PD
Leader of Democratic Party in Rome to colleague Barca
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — Leader of the Democratic Party (PD) in Rome, Matteo Orfini, spoke up Wednesday in support of his PD colleague Fabrizio Barca, who had expressed concern over the party’s progress in the capital in light of the resignation of Rome’s outgoing PD Mayor Ignazio Marino.
“Fabrizio, the process of renewal and rebuilding Rome’s PD won’t stop because of manipulative opportunists. In these months we’ve fought a lot together and together we’ll continue to change Rome’s PD,” Orfini wrote on his Facebook page, attaching an interview Barca conducted with Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano that was republished on PD’s website.
In that interview, Barca said, “Marino’s resignation has hit us at the most difficult point, halfway, before the rebuilding (of the party). I’m very concerned that the process of change will stop and go backwards”.
Referring to Marino, Barca said, “You can’t say in public, ‘I’ll give the money back.’ A poor man who steals three kilos of pears in the market, can he give them back as if nothing happened? Too many mistakes, in the end he (Marino) was no longer defensible”. Marino said Sunday he “would not disappoint” supporters who have called for him to withdraw his resignation over an expenses row when the legal term for him to do so expires on November 2.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Making Couples Pay for Donor Treatment ‘Illegitimate’
Couples using their own gametes get treatment for free
(ANSA) — Milan, October 28 — The Lombardy Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) on Wednesday ruled that making patients pay out of pocket for donor fertility treatment is “illegitimate”. The court thus upheld an appeal by the SOS Infertility non-profit association against the region’s decision not to include the treatment in the public health service.
The court found that requiring couples to pay for donor treatment is illegitimate when the same treatment is free for couples using their own gametes.
This “violates the canon of rationality,” the court wrote. The region said it will appeal the decision.
Italian couples unable to conceive on their own were forbidden to use donor sperm or eggs until the supreme Constitutional Court overturned the ban in June 2014.
The justices struck it down because it unfairly penalized low-income couples who could not travel abroad to seek treatment.
In April this year, Italy’s highest administrative court suspended Lombardy’s law demanding couples pay for donor gamete fertility treatments out of pocket. “Our choice was motivated by legislative and certainly not ideological motivations,” authorities said at the time. “The treatment is not included in the health ministry’s Essential Health Care Levels (LEA). When it is, the region will do its part”.
Lombardy is the only region to request couples pay for the whole treatment. In other regions, couples pay a contribution that is a fraction of the overall cost, which ranges from 1,500 to 4,000 euros.
The court upheld petitions from two medical associations that the regional law created inequality between people seeking fertility treatment in different parts of Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Court Rejects Touil Extradition Over Bardo Massacre
Prosecution asks for case to be shelved
(ANSA) — Milan, October 28 — A Milan court on Wednesday rejected Tunisia’s request for the extradition of Abdel Mayid Touil, a Moroccan national suspected by Tunis of involvement in the Bardo Museum massacre. The Milan appeals court judges ordered the man to be released from jail.
Touil, 22, now faces expulsion from Italy on grounds he is in the country without a regular permit of stay. He was arrested in May on charges of mass murder and international terrorism at the request of the Tunisian authorities.
They believe he participated in the March 18 attack on the museum in the Tunisian capital that claimed the lives of 21 tourists and one Tunisian police officer.
He may have faced the death penalty in Tunisia. Subsequent to the court decision Milan prosecutors asked for the investigation against him to be shelved on grounds there is no evidence to support the charges against him.
Touil will be held in a centre for identification and expulsion (CIE) in Turin until he is expelled from Italy, police sources said Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex-Priest Arrested for Child Prostitution
Patrizio Poggi suspected of sex with minors
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — Police on Tuesday arrested a former priest on suspicion of child prostitution.
Patrizio Poggi allegedly lured two underage boys, one of whom he approached outside a school in the Lazio city of Viterbo in 2014.
He is also accused of raping one of the two victims, a Romanian minor, and filming the incident.
Poggi had reported the boy for attempted extortion, but prosecutors did not find the allegation credible and slapped Poggi with slander charges instead.
The defrocked priest is currently on trial on separate charges of slander after he accused high-ranking prelates of being in a pedophile ring in 2013.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Muslim Men in UK Having 20 Kids With Multiple Wives’ And it’s Legal Under Sharia Law
Cross-bench peer Baroness Cox raised several “shocking” cases of Sharia law “discriminating” against Muslim women — and claimed it could even fuel extremism.
She revealed cases of men divorcing their wives by simply saying “I divorce you” three times under the “quasi-legal system”.
She said: “My Muslim friends tell me that in some communities with high polygamy and divorce rates, men may have up to 20 children each.
“Clearly, youngsters growing up in dysfunctional families may be vulnerable to extremism and demography may affect democracy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands “Justice” Looking Like Wilders “Hate Trial”
by Diana West
Today’s De Telegraaf features an extensive interview with Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, leader of anti-Islamization, anti-EU PVV, now polling as the No. 1 political party in the Netherlands. In a process alarmingly remininscent of old Soviet show trials, Wilders once again must stand trial for exercising his freedom of speech — the subject of this interview.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Finance Minister Quits Government After Populist Right Surge
Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf announced Wednesday she would quit after seven years in government, vacating a seat coveted by the populist right party that swept parliamentary polls earlier this month.
Widmer-Schlumpf was vague about her reasons for leaving, but insisted her departure had nothing to do with the results of Swiss parliamentary elections on October 18.
She had been widely expected to announce her resignation after her already tiny Conservative Democrats lost ground in the elections, while the populist rightwing anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) strengthened its already dominant position…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Telecom Italia Shares Rise After Neil Stake Revealed
French businessman holds 11% in group
(ANSA) — Milan, October 29 — Shares in Telecom Italia rose as much as 8% on Thursday before being suspended due to volatility, after the news that French entrepreneur Xavier Neil now owns 11% of the group.
Telecom shares rose to 1.22 euros before they were suspended. Neil’s participation in the company includes 6% in shares and 5% in derivatives.
Separately Brazil’s Globo newspaper reported that the executive board of telecommunications company Oi voted unanimously in favour of a proposal from LetterOne, the investment firm controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman. LetterOne has said it could pour up to $4 billion into Oi if it merges with rival TIM, which Telecom Italia owns two thirds of. Oi agreed to the deal but asked Fridman to guarantee a cash injection of $4 billion, rather than “up to” that figure. It also asked for the time to find an agreement with TIM to be reduced, Globo reported, adding that Oi and advisers Btg Pactual would now starting working on a proposal for Telecom Italia for the Oi-Tim merger.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Croydon Police Hunt for Cat Killer Who Has Butchered 20 Pets With Machete
Owners have been urged to keep their cats indoors after two more were found butchered in the Croydon area of south London in the past week — including one beloved pet which was beheaded.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
World Jewish Congress Praises Relations With Catholics
Head speaks of Francis’s ‘excellent’ role
(by Elisa Pinna). ROME — Relations between Catholics and Jews “have never been better”, said World Jewish Congress (WJC) leader Ronald Lauder on Wednesday.
Lauder met with Pope Francis on Wednesday morning as part of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the declaration with which the Second Vatican Council revolutionized relations between Jews and other non-Christian religions. Contributing to a climate of collaboration and understanding — added the Jewish representative — is the “excellent role” played by Pope Francis. During the private meeting that he had with a small WJC delegation on Wednesday morning, the pope said “very important words”, Lauder said. Pope Francis, Lauder added, “told us that attacking Jews is anti-Semitism, as is a deliberate attack on the State of Israel.
(Pope) Francis added that we can disagree with the various (Israeli) governments, but that the State of Israel has the right to exist in prosperity and security.” The Jewish leader also complained of the many heads of state that deny being anti-Semitic but say that they are anti-Israeli, “as if Martians lived in Israel”.
On the issue of conflict in the Middle East, Lauder said that “this is the right time for Palestinians and Israelis to resume talks, as soon as possible and without any pre-conditions.” “There is no doubt that without the two-state solution there will not be peace,” he added in a press conference in Rome. In his view, both Israeli president Benyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas are ready to resume talks. Lauder said that he had had contact with both recently. “I cannot tell you,” he told journalists, “that the talks will resume. I can only say that they could and should resume soon”, if not in Paris — which Lauder said Abbas seems to rule out — then perhaps Vienna. The Jewish leader did not want to comment on the Israeli prime minister’s words on the Jerusalem Grand Mufti’s responsibility for the Holocaust. I do not know why he said those words and I do not have any information to make a judgment on,” he said. Lauder chaired a two-day meeting in Rome of 150 Jewish representatives from around the world. The World Jewish Congress represents 100 countries in the world and 14.2 million Jews. On Wednesday morning, WJC delegates took part in the pope’s general audience at St Peter’s Square. Later a small WJC delegation led by Lauder met for about 30 minutes with Pope Francis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Top for Exports
Exported cars for 944,3 mln euros in first nine months 2015
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, OCTOBER 28 — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Serbia has been confirmed at the top of the main Serbian exporters, the finance ministry in Belgrade said. Over the first nine months of 2015, FCA — which produces the 500L model in the factory of Kragujevac (central Serbia) — has exported cars for 944,3 million euros. Far behind, second place went to Smeredevo steelworks with exports worth 247,5 million euros over the same period. Tigar Tyres came third with 218,1 million euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
300 British Academics Join Israel Boycott Over Treatment of Palestinians
More than 300 academics from British universities have announced that they will boycott Israel and its educational institutions as part of a protest against the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinian rights.
343 professors from 72 British universities signed the pledge, titled: “A commitment by UK scholars to the rights of Palestinians” which states that those involved will not accept invitations to Israeli institutions, participate in conferences, act as referees or cooperate in any other ways with Israeli officials. In a statement, the group said:
“As scholars associated with British universities, we are deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people, and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement.”
The statement said the boycott would remain “until the State of Israel complies with international law, and respects universal principles of human rights.”
Jane Hardy, professor of Global Political Economy at the University of Hertfordshire, said the campaign was an opportunity for academics to raise their concerns over the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli government.
“This is an opportunity for academics to add their voices to the growing international movement to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses and specifically, the deprivation of opportunity for our Palestinian colleagues to participate in the global academic community.”
Ms Hardy did note however, that they would work with Israeli colleagues on an individual basis.
“The commitment does not call for the termination of links with individual colleagues nor the end of dialogue, rather it is a boycott of institutions directly or indirectly complicit in the systematic and illegal occupation of Palestine.”
The academic boycott is the latest in a number of campaigns aimed at increasing political pressure on Israel over the treatment of the Palestinian people.
Among the highest-profile is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, with a number of NGOs and businesses taking part in a self-boycott of Israeli goods.
Critics have argued that such measures are anti-Semitic and unfair on Israeli businesses and institutions, as they don’t take into account the provocative actions from many Palestinians.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Soldier Who Vanished in 2001 Emerges as Apparent Al-Qaeda Commander in Syria
A former Australian soldier who vanished in 2001 and was long thought dead is believed to have resurfaced as a senior al-Qaeda commander in Syria.
Mathew Stewart, a former infantryman who fought in East Timor, is believed to have fled to Afghanistan after telling his parents, Vicki and Peter, that he was going on holiday. His family heard nothing more from him and held a private wake in 2004.
But it appears that the 39-year-old, who grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, is training combatants from Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda.
His apparent whereabouts emerged in the latest edition of al-Qaeda’s English-language online magazine, Al Risalah, which featured an interview with a jihadist named Usama Hamza Australi. In the interview, the man said he was from Queensland, joined al-Qaeda about 14 years ago and previously served in the Australian military. These details match Stewart’s description.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bank Looting: Oil Sales Drive Up to $1.5bln in Islamic State Revenue
US Treasury Department spokesperson said that ISIL made about $40 million in one month from the sale of oil, making close to $500 million a year.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Islamic State (ISIL) has derived up to $1.5 billion in revenue from looting banks and illicit oil proceeds, a Treasury Department spokesperson told Sputnik on Thursday.
“Our most recent estimates that we can provide publicly are between $500 million and $1 billion in seized bank assets, based on 2014 data,” the official said. “Earlier this year, ISIL made about $40 million in one month from the sale of oil…that equals close to $500 million a year.”
Earlier in the day, Iraqi’s Oil Ministry told Sputnik that the ISIL has cost the nation’s oil industry up to 400,000 barrels of oil every day and billions of dollars by selling oil abroad at low prices on the black market.
The spokesperson added that the ISIL also pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars per year from extortion-related activities, the sale of antiquities, kidnapping for ransom and foreign donations.
The terrorist group needs funds to pay fighter salaries, which can be as much as $1,000 per month, the Treasury noted.
At this maximum amount, ISIL fighter payroll could reach $360 million per year, the spokeserpson claimed.
In October 2014, a Treasury Department official estimated that the ISIL brought in up to $1 million per day from illegal oil operations.
In February, the Pentagon said oil was no longer the main source of funds for the ISIL, claiming that it was relying more on foreign donations to finance its terrorist operations.
The Counter ISIL Finance Group (CFIG), co-chaired by the United States, Italy and Saudi Arabia, was established this January to disrupt ISIL sources of revenue, according to the Treasury Department.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
German IS Rapper Believed Killed in US Air Strike in Syria
Denis Cuspert, a German rapper who joined the Islamic State group, has likely been killed in a US air strike in Syria, a defense official said Thursday.
“We believe he was killed in a US strike earlier this month,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He was not considered a high-value target (and) we were not specifically targeting him,” he added, noting that other IS jihadists may also have been hit…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
No: Thanks! Iraq Rules Out Need for US Ground Operation
Baghdad has not asked and does not need the United States to conduct ground operations against Islamic State in Iraq, Prime Minister Haider Abadi’s spokesman said Wednesday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that the Pentagon had not ruled out conducting ground attacks against ISIL.
“This is an Iraqi affair and the government did not ask the U.S. Department of Defense to be involved in direct operations,” Saad Hadithi told NBC News, adding that Baghdad had “enough soldiers on the ground.”
Hadithi said the United States is required to coordinate through Baghdad any military activity in the country, including the airstrikes that an international US-led coalition is currently conducting against ISIL targets on Iraqi soil.
The spokesman, however, admitted that US assistance was important to Iraq to arm and train its forces.
Some 3,300 US troops are currently deployed in Iraq to train local forces and protect US facilities, according to NBC News.
US forces and Kurdish militia last week carried out an anti-ISIL operation in northern Iraq. The United States did not inform the Iraqi government of its actions in advance.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey on War Footing Ahead of Polls
Deadly clashes between security forces and militants in Turkey’s restive southeast continue, while Ankara suggests Kurdish militants are in league with their nemesis, “Islamic State.”
A lot has changed here since the June 7 parliamentary election in which the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) made historic gains, denying the ruling party the ability to form a government for the first time since 2002.
Turkey’s citizens will return to the polls November 1 for a re-run snap election , in which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will try to recover the AKP’s losses by rallying its traditional religious base as well as court Turkish nationalists distrustful of Kurdish militants who have waged a 31-year insurgency for language rights and autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Georgian President’s Ukraine Ambitions Suffer Blow
Ex-Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s nascent but ambitious career in Ukraine got off to a stuttering start Wednesday when his candidate for mayor of Odessa was beaten by a pro-Russian in the historic port.
The 47-year-old foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin was voted out of office in ex-Soviet Georgia after losing a brief but disastrous 2008 war that saw his tiny Caucasus nation lose disputed regions to Moscow’s control.
But Saakashvili was a prominent member of Ukraine’s three months of protests in 2013-14 that swept a Kremlin-backed leadership from power and appeared to set the EU-neighbouring country on its current westward course.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko rewarded Saakashvili in May by appointing him as governor of Odessa — a Black Sea region that remains under firm government control and enjoys a rich cultural history as well as a thriving port…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘World Needs Russia’: Former French President Sarkozy Tells Putin on Moscow Trip
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared “the world needs Russia” as he met with the country’s leader Vladimir Putin in a controversial visit to Moscow Thursday.
“I’m happy to be here in Moscow, and you know my conviction that the world needs Russia,” Sarkozy told reporters ahead of his hour-and-forty-five-minute-long closed door meeting with Putin at the Russian leader’s residence just outside the capital.
“Russia and Europe should work together… To discuss, listen and respect, this is the destiny of France and Russia.”
The meeting between the two men, the third since Sarkozy left the Elysée Palace in 2012, comes at a time of fraught relations between the Kremlin and current French President François Hollande over Russia’s involvement in the conflict in Ukraine and recent military intervention in Syria…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A Night Patrol With India’s Cow Protection Vigilantes
Several nights a week Mr Sharma marshals his “patrolling soldiers”, as he calls them, to keep a watch on what they say are smugglers illegally transporting cows to sell for slaughter.
Groups like his are thriving thanks to the rising hysteria and sporadic violence over slaughter of cows and consumption of beef in India. The ruling BJP government has tightened laws on both since coming to power last year. The cow, venerated by India’s majority Hindu people, has re-emerged as India’s most polarising animal.
Mr Sharma’s “soldiers” are a rag-tag, but committed bunch of vigilantes who are mostly members of militant Hindu groups like Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and Shiv Sena. All of them attend local camps held by the right-wing Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers’ Organisation), which has umbilical ties with the ruling BJP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Nestle Noodles Back on Shelves After ‘Political’ Ban
Lab tests on 200 million packs of instant noodles confirm product safe for consumption. Withdrawn from the market in June; the company has destroyed 400 million packets, with a loss of about 42.6 million Euros. Experts point out the political motivation of ban, which affected foreign investment.
New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) — From November, Maggi instant noodles will be back on Indian supermarket shelves. Nestle, the Swiss company that produces and sells Maggi in India, will resume production of one of the most loved products nationwide for over 30 years.
A Nestle India spokesperson said: “The laboratory tests have established that the food is safe and contains lead levels well below the limits allowed by law. We have resumed production of noodles in Nanjangud (Karnataka), Moga (Punjab) and Bicholim (Goa)”.
This brings to an end an episode that began in June with an National Authority for Food Safety order banning the sale of the product in stores, after some Uttar Pradesh health inspectors found in dozens of packs with high levels of lead and flavor enhancers not indicated in the ingredients list.
Nestle was obliged to withdraw the product from over 500 stores “as a precaution”, but then the High Court in Mumbai in August lifted the ban as “illegitimate” and called for other tests to ascertain toxicity. Meanwhile Gujarat and Karnataka followed the directions of the court and withdrew the ban, unlike Maharashtra who opposed the move.
The company destroyed by 400 million packs after the first ban, with an economic loss of 4.5 billion Indian rupees [approximately 62.6 million euro — ed]. It also performed 3,500 tests on 200 million packages, both in India and abroad, in compliance with the High Court decision. The three laboratories that conducted the tests — indicated by the same court — have confirmed the safety of the food samples. Even the control agencies of other countries such as the US, UK and Australia have ruled that the instant noodles made in India are safe.
Many experts argue that the ban was actually a political measure to target foreign investment in the country. India only recently opened its retail market to big foreign supermarket chains, like Carrefour and Walmart, when in 2012 controversial economic reforms were approved. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which was in the opposition at the time, led the fight against foreign products.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadi Muslims Attacked Hindu Village in Lakshmipuja for an Islamic Loot in Bangladesh
Injured many Hindus including a pregnant woman causing the death of a baby in womb.
Jihadi Muslims belonging to Awami League attacked Lakshmi Puja Celebration in Bangladesh, attacked Hindu village in Feni, looted rampantly, heavily injured 20 Hindus including a pregnant Hindu woman causing accidental abortion and death of the baby.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
China Signs Deal for 100 Airbus A320s: Manufacturer
China signed a contract to buy 100 A320 aircraft from European manufacturer Airbus, a spokesman for the firm told AFP, worth $9.7 billion at list prices.
The deal, signed as German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Beijing on Thursday, also includes the confirmation of 30 previously announced options for twin-aisle A330s, the spokesman told AFP.
The firm — which has an assembly facility in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin — is engaged in a fierce struggle with Boeing of the US for dominance in the crucial Chinese market…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Says it Will Use ‘All Necessary’ Means to Respond to Future US Patrols
China’s military will take “all necessary” measures in response to any future U.S. Navy incursions into what it considers its territorial waters around islands in the South China Sea, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.
The statement by Col. Yang Yujun followed the sailing of a U.S. guided missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of one of the islands newly created by China in the strategically vital region. The U.S. refuses to recognize the man-made islets as deserving of sovereign territory status.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China to End One-Child Policy and Allow Two
China has decided to end its decades-long one-child policy, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports.
Couples will now be allowed to have two children, it said, citing a statement from the Communist Party.
The controversial policy was introduced nationally in 1979, to slow the population growth rate.
It is estimated to have prevented about 400 million births. However concerns at China’s ageing population led to pressure for change.
Couples who violated the one-child policy faced a variety of punishments, from fines and the loss of employment to forced abortions.
Over time, the policy has been relaxed in some provinces, as demographers and sociologists raised concerns about rising social costs and falling worker numbers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Decides to End Remaining 1-Child Policy, Allowing All Couples to Have 2 Children
China’s ruling Communist Party announced Thursday that it will abolish the country’s decades-old one-child policy and allow all couples to have two children, removing remaining restrictions that limited many urban couples to only one, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The move to allow all couples to have two children was “to improve the balanced development of population” and to deal with an aging population, Xinhua said on its microblog.
Citigroup researchers said they expected a 5 to 10 percent rise in Chinese births, according to The Associated Press.
The widely unpopular policy was first introduced in 1979 as a temporary measure to curb a surging population and limit demands for water and other resources. It was long considered one of the party’s most onerous intrusions into family life.
But the country has been moving toward easing family planning restrictions in recent years due to a variety of factors, including a looming labor crisis. China’s working-age population is drastically shrinking, and the United Nations projects that China will lose 67 million workers from 2010 to 2030. Meanwhile, China’s elderly population is expected to rise from 110 million in 2010 to 210 million in 2030. By 2050, the seniors will account for a quarter of the population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Short of Workers and Consumers, China Abandons One-Child Policy
China ended one of the most ambitious demographic experiments in human history, abandoning the limit of one child for most families to foster the population growth required by the world’s second-biggest economy.
Introduced by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to husband a then-impoverished nation’s scarce resources, the baby limit now threatens to undermine growth: the working-age population shrank last year for the first time in two decades and the cohort of senior citizens is projected to grow rapidly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s New Zealand Farm-Buying Runs Into Opposition
Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Pengxin Group has been on a buying spree ever since it entered New Zealand in 2011.
The food giant has bought 29 farms through local subsidiaries to become the country’s third largest dairy producer.
Pengxin’s expansion plans in New Zealand seemed to be going smoothly until last month when the government unexpectedly rejected its $56m (£36m) bid to buy the sprawling and iconic Lochinver farm.
New Zealand is the world’s largest dairy producer — exporting 95% of its production — and its central bank has had to cut interest rates three times this year, partly to stem the fallout from tumbling prices.
Also, China is the largest foreign investor in the country’s dairy sector, according to the New Zealand China Council.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil’s Embattled Ex-President Lula Vows to ‘Survive’
Brazil’s embattled ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed defiantly Thursday to “survive” corruption probes against him and his family, including his son.
Lula, president between 2003 and 2010, before being succeeded by his protege Dilma Rousseff, is fighting to protect his reputation and the legacy of his leftist Workers’ Party.
Speaking in Brasilia to a party congress, Lula, 70, made light of his family’s legal troubles, saying he had three other children and seven grandchildren who were not yet under investigation.
“I’ve also got a daughter in law who is pregnant. There’s a foetus there — what will he be charged with?”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuelans Leave 21st-Century Socialism for US, Spain
Venezuela’s 21st-century Socialism is pushing ever more people into exile. The exodus has reached record levels.
“The country’s political, economic and social crises, as well as growing uncertainty and violence, have prompted ever more Venezuelans to leave their homeland,” Paez said. A phenomenon that was previously a privilege of the educated and wealthy has now seized all social classes .
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty: Australia Paid Off People Smugglers to Turn Back Boats
International rights group Amnesty International claims it has uncovered evidence suggesting Australian officials paid people smugglers to turn back a boat full of migrants attempting to reach New Zealand.
The Australian government argues that this tough policy saves lives and prevents people smugglers from exploiting vulnerable and desperate migrants. Former PM Abbott even recently urged European countries, which are currently facing a refugee influx, to adopt similar policies to stem the flow of migrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Will Build Fence to ‘Control’ Migrant Flow at Slovenian Border
Austria will build a fence along its border with fellow EU member Slovenia to slow down the flow of migrants, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said Wednesday.
Both countries are part of the passport-free Schengen zone and have been key transit countries for tens of thousands of refugees and migrants desperately seeking to reach northern Europe via the Balkans.
“This is about ensuring an orderly, controlled entry into our country, not about shutting down the border,” she told public broadcaster Oe1.
The politician of the conservative OeVP party added that the situation risked escalating as people were forced to wait in freezing temperatures for hours before being allowed to cross from one nation into another…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Women Empowered Against Muslim Rapists
Although it is practically impossible for most Europeans to purchase and own firearms, women in Austria have this option.
Unfortunately, most stores have run out of firearms, primarily due to women buying them up to protect themselves from rapists.
“People want to protect themselves,” Stephen Mayer, a gun trader, told Trioler Tageszeitung. “Nonetheless, the most common purchasers of arms are primarily Austrian women.”
A popular alternative is pepper spray and other self-defense items.
Although mostly left unmentioned in the corporate media, there is currently an epidemic of rape in Europe.
According to the Gatestone Institute and others, “growing numbers of German women in towns and cities across the country are being raped by asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Many of the crimes are being downplayed by German authorities and the national media, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.”
Muslim males from the Middle East are unaccustomed to seeing women not covered from head to toe and many cannot control their sexual and often predatory desires.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Needs Border Barrier, Insists Interior Minister
Austria’s interior minister on Thursday reiterated the need for some kind of “barrier” at its Slovenian border to control the record migrant influx, but eased off her call for an actual fence.
Johanna Mikl-Leitner told the APA news agency she backed the installation of a “security construction” which would allow a “controlled entry” into Austria.
“The best border crossing is worthless if its sides are wide open,” she said.
“I don’t really see the added humanitarian value of using (shipping) containers instead of a fence, but if it is possible to avoid the word ‘fence’ from a technical point of view, then that’s fine by me.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Condemned by Germany for Following Hungary’s Lead
Austria has provoked outrage from Germany by following in Hungary’s footsteps and announcing plans to build a fence on its border with Slovenia. It would be the first barrier between two members of the Schengen zone, threatening the European ‘Union’.
“This is about ensuring an orderly, controlled entry into our country, not about shutting down the border,” Austria’s Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told Oe1.
“People are marching towards Germany because they feel they are invited there,” Mikl-Leitner said, attacking German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming approach to a million Syrian refugees by the end of the year.
Relations among EU leaders are rapidly deteriorating over the refugee crisis. Hungary was condemned for building a razor wire fence — but other countries soon followed suit. Austria, which opposed fence building in other member states, is now the latest country to build its own ‘wall’ and Slovenia has pledged to do the same, following Austria’s lead.
Geruld Klug, the Austrian defense minister said a fence would be built to “control the refugees in an orderly way.”
Austria’ Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner says the country is struggling to cope with the flow of people crossing the border “because Germany is taking too few.”
But Germany has accused Austria of surreptitiously waving through record numbers of refugees over the border. Thomas de Maiziere, Germany’s Interior Minister, said: “Refugees are being driven to certain points without warning at the fall of darkness and then come to the German border without any preparation.
“Austria’s behaviour in recent days has been out of line.”
Despite continuous meetings and summits held over the past year Europe has failed to gain a handle on the refugee crisis. EU leaders were warned more than a year ago to prepare for the numbers of dispersed people arriving in Europe and to treat them humanely.
Instead leaders squabbled over asylum seeker quotas while countries built walls — defying rules allowing freedom of movement among EU member states — while the world watched thousands of people arriving by boat on Greek shores and treading across farmland in Slovenia.
“We do not believe the migrant crisis that Europe is facing can be resolved with the building of fences or walls”, Steffan Seibert, spokesman for Angela Merkel’s government.
“We can solve it only if we as Europe take the same line, if we act together.”
But never has the European Union appeared so dispersed, with UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage claiming the refugee crisis is “threatening to blow Europe apart.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chaos Continues at German-Austrian Border as Thousands of Refugees Arrive Overnight
Despite efforts to improve coordination between Germany and Austria, chaos has continued at the countries’ border. Thousands of refugees are continuing to flood across the borders.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
CSU Minister Warns of ‘Coalition Crisis’ With Merkel’s CDU Over Refugees
Days before Germany’s government meets over the refugee crisis, Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has said the political situation is a “coalition crisis.” Pressure is growing on Chancellor Angela Merkel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish MP: Swedish Asylum Fires ‘Expected’
A member of parliament from the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party has been slammed for her remarks that put the blame for Sweden’s rash of asylum centre fires on the Swedish government’s liberal policies.
Danish People’s Party (DF) MP Dorthe Ullemose wrote a letter to the editor of local newspaper Fyns Amts Avis in which she said that the series of apparent arson attacks on refugee housing in Sweden is “to be expected”.
“A quickly growing number of residents in a Sweden on the brink of collapse feel completely powerless over politician’s irresponsible actions and have chosen to burn buildings that were to house migrants. What did the politicians expect?” Ullemose wrote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Travel Firm Drops Lesbos Over Migrants
Danish travel agent and tour operator Bravo Tours said Wednesday it was dropping the Greek island of Lesbos from its list of destinations because of the high number of migrants arriving there.
Authorities in Lesbos have been struggling to clear the island’s beaches, a major tourist attraction, of thousands of life vests and boats left behind by migrants crossing the Aegean Sea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Disappointed Migrants ‘Too Frightened’ To Live in Swedish Woods
When he fled the war in Syria, Abdullah Waez dreamed of a new life in Sweden. But now that he’s arrived, surrounded by a dark and cold forest, he says he’s scared and doesn’t see a future here.
Waez and 52 other asylum seekers were shocked when migration officials brought them by bus to their new accommodation on Sunday: a cluster of red wooden cabins in a forest in the village of Limedsforsen, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) northwest of Stockholm.
Some of the migrants moved into the cabins right away.
But a handful of others have refused. On Thursday evening they finally agreed to get off the two buses that drove them there, but continued to block one of the vehicles from leaving. Warming themselves in the glow of a bonfire, they were demanding to be taken to a bigger town…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU Has Relocated Only 86 Refugees Out of 160,000 Pledged
It’s been revealed that only 86 refugees who arrived in Italy and Greece this year have been relocated amid a pledge by the European Union to resettle 160,000.
The quota system, proposed by the European Commission has been fiercely contested by many Eastern European countries which have been overruled by Brussels and forced to participate in the plan. In response, individual governments have barricaded their borders with walls and wire fences.
It was hoped that the program to share the burden of asylum seekers from the Middle East would decrease the number of people making the journey to Europe in the first place. But the figures speak for themselves. More than 700,000 people have fled to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea so far this year. The EU’s pledge to resettle 160,000 seems like a drop in the ocean.
According to EU Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud, the 86 refugees who have been relocated are currently in Italy. Bertaud told reporters in Brussels that the EU is planning more transfers this week from Italy to Finland, France and Spain.
The reason given by Bertaud for such a paltry number of refugees being resettled is because many countries have not told the EU Commission how many spaces they have allocated for migrants.
“[The EU needs] all member states to tell us how many places they have available right now out of their share of 160,000.
“We have some of this information but we do not have it from all member states. We now have 30 people who are ready to be relocated from Greece and expect the flight to go to Luxembourg soon,” she said.
It has taken over a year of discussions, mass drownings, dramatic rescue operations and funerals to reach some kind of solution to the refugee crisis facing Europe, however, it hasn’t been welcomed by all. Countries reluctant to take part in the relocation program, appear to be withholding information from the Commission, building barriers on their borders, and therefore, exacerbating the situation even more.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU Risks ‘Disintegration’ Over Migrant Crisis, Warns Mogherini
The European Union risks disintegrating if it fails to respond to its worst migration crisis since World War II collectively, its top foreign policy chief warned in an Italian daily Thursday.
Federica Mogherini said that if the EU merely relied on national responses to a European issue, “the crisis will get worse, with chain reactions from public opinion and national governments”.
To prevent this, she told the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper, the bloc needed to be equipped with “instruments up to the challenge” without which, she warned, “there is the risk of disintegration”.
The comments came a day after Austria announced plans to build a fence at a major border crossing with fellow EU state Slovenia to “control” the migrant influx.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security “Concerned About Security Breach” From ISIS as Refugees Prepare to Flood America
Get ready. All the controversy that has just swept over Europe with migrant refugees is now coming to America.
Will a threat emerge from the ten thousand or more that will pour in? Homeland Security has noted their concern, as they vow to “carefully screen” for security risks among refugee populations.
Now that Europe has been upended by the refugee crisis, it is time for refugees in the United States. The Obama Administration admits that at least 10,000 are coming, and likely many more later, though Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson refused to hold to a number in the interview. But in a twist, mass exodus from the Syrian proxy war may well bring with it the enemies the U.S. have unleashed. There is, officially speaking, cause for alarm — according to the very same authorities who so often stoke fear in order to yield emergency power and strengthen perception.
To simplify that, the U.S. is inviting a new attack.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Almost no one but the most learned and astute historian understands the massive societal transformation that is currently taking place in Europe, thanks to waves and waves of migrants and refugees from the war-torn Middle East — a transformation that will result, inevitably, in the Muslim conquest of a dying continent.
Ground Zero for this massive transformation is Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel recently was forced to walk back her open invitation to tens of thousands of Middle Eastern and North African migrants and refugees following protests from her people.
Worse, her open-door policy has created innumerable problems, not the least of which is a severe strain on the nation’s available social services and, in particular, its medical services. And local leaders are pleading for more help from the central government.
What’s more, the migrants themselves are creating problems — cultural problems, in particular. As the UK’s Express reports, Muslim men in the German settlement centers who are seeking asylum are refusing to be treated by female doctors, nurses and medics.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is Trump for Real on Immigration?
The real question is whether that paper even reflects Trump’s immigration policy. The candidate, who lost his longtime first place standing in the Washington Examiner‘s power rankings to Rubio, certainly uses the sharpest rhetoric in criticizing illegal immigration. But his comments frequently don’t match the details of his supposed immigration plan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Aims to Allow Force on Migrants Who Refuse Photo ID
Plans correspond to European requests, official says
(ANSA) — Rome, October 29 — The Italian government aims to introduce rules that will allow the use of force on migrants who refuse to undergo photo identification procedures, an official from the Interior Ministry’s Department of Public Security told a parliamentary commission on Thursday.
Giovanni Pinto from the immigration and border police section of the department said it involved “allowing the use of force corresponding to the need to identify who is arriving in Italy, as Europe is asking of us”.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said on Thursday that a planned quota system for dealing with migrants in Europe was in its trial phase, responding to a question about delays to redistribution of migrants around the bloc.
“The important thing is to have started,” he said. “It’s clear that in coming months the numbers are going to get bigger, but we are in the breaking-in phase,” he said.
Meanwhile EU high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini said the migrant crisis risked damaging the bloc’s relations with its global partners.
“The refugee crisis risks becoming a structural impairment to the EU’s relations with our partners in the world,” she told a parliamentary commission meeting.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany will import 1.2 million completely unskilled migrants this year, many of whom will go straight onto unemployment benefits, according to a leaked government document.
The Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) October migration estimates document outlined a number of key statistics previously not in the public domain.
Among the revelations is that fact over 80 per cent of migrants have no qualifications, the majority are under the age of 45, and the agency expects 400,000 new benefit claimants next year to be migrants.
Leaked to the German weekly anti-establishment paper Junge Freiheit this week, but ignored by the national mainstream media, the document optimistically insists that despite the enormous cost of migrants to the country it was good news.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lesbos Braces for Winter as Refugees Keep Coming
On Lesbos, the numbers of refugees coming continue to rise, despite the weather. Omaira Gill reports from the Greek island where even the cemetery is overwhelmed by new arrivals from across the sea.
“Our dead are buried facing east,” explains Christos Mavraheilis, “but the Muslims ask to be buried on their side, facing Mecca.”
This is the final resting place for those who were unsuccessful in completing the perilous journey from Turkey to Lesbos. The graves are marked with a serial number, burial date and the words “unknown minor” or “unknown Afghan.”
“We’re not running out of space, we’re already completely out of space.” Mavraheilis explained.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Clash With Police as Security Stepped Up at French Camps
French police clashed with stone-throwing migrants near the northern French port of Calais on Thursday, leading the local mayor to call for their camp to be “immediately dismantled”.
Teteghem mayor Franck Dhersin described the camp as a “lawless zone”.
“I am asking for the immediate dismantling of the camp, if necessary by force,” he told AFP.
“The camp has always been in the hands of smugglers. It’s a mafia that functions like a drug gang.”
It is thought to house better-funded migrants, who can afford to pay thousands of euros to be smuggled in vehicles across the Channel to Britain.
Some 6,000 poorer migrants are gathered a few kilometres away at the “New Jungle” camp in Calais, hoping to find their own ways of sneaking into the Channel Tunnel or aboard ships.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pied Piper of Berlin: Merkel’s Migrant Policy Alienating Europe
An editorial in Deutsche Welle expresses German fears that its government’s handling of the migrant crisis will lead other European countries to stop cooperating on key issues.
The future of European cooperation is threatened by Angela Merkel’s insistence on forcing other European nations to follow Germany’s course on issues such as the migrant crisis and Greek debt crisis, leading Germany to bear the weight of the unpopular decisions it has imposed, warned Deutsche Welle on Wednesday.
“There is was again, the German arrogance — and it is still that, even if the fight is for a noble goal,” wrote Christoph Hasselbach, warning that the authority built by the German Chancellor during the Greek debt crisis was then spent by poor handling of the migrant crisis.
“She stood for the observance of rules, for solidarity, but also for the interests of European cohesion. However, she was willing to compromise if necessary. Her policy of stability didn’t suit everybody, but even many of her critics could see that ‘mom’s’ was good medicine,” Hasselbach describes the mood after the conclusion of the Greek debt talks in July.
“All that was up to late summer, when Merkel uttered two fatal sentences on the developing flow of refugees: ‘There are no upper limits,’ and ‘we can manage it,’ both of which she holds to, to this day.”
Merkel kept to her word by taking selfies with refugees, deciding unilaterally to break the Dublin regulations, shrugging at the loss of state border control, and then condemning countries which sought to protect their borders with fences, writes Hasselbach.
“If all this is not enough, she stood in front of other Europeans and explained that her personal view of things is the only morally right one.”
“In other words: European partners should help Germany to absorb the consequences of a policy for which Merkel carries significant responsibility.”
“Indeed, no-one claims that Merkel is responsible for the migration movement per se. But the pull to Europe has in any case got significantly stronger, and with it other European countries have to carry the burden against their will.”
The political consequence of Merkel’s unilateral action is “icy rejection” of her proposals at EU summits, and weakening support from erstwhile supporters such as French President Francois Hollande, Hasselbach writes.
“Hungarian President Victor Orban even openly calls the flow of refugees a ‘German problem’ and closes off his land. After the shift to the right in Poland, there will be no more concessions from there whatsoever. Even Swedish Prime Minister Lofven is under domestic pressure to close the borders.”
While her fiscal policy of austerity was able to prevail over the Greeks because European public opinion was mainly in agreement, “her ideas about a borderless Europe aren’t only opposed by a majority in Germany, but for a long time already, a large majority in Europe.”
“Everybody is trying to save himself, even at the expense of others,” says Hasselbach, warning that the German encouragement of refugees to come to Europe has dealt a critical blow to unity on the continent.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees to Cost Up to €16 Billion: City Leaders
The continued arrival of large numbers of refugees in Germany could cost the country’s towns and communities up to €16 billion, far outstripping funds that have so far been allocated to deal with the crisis, a report suggested on Thursday.
The report, presented on Thursday by the Association of German Cities, found that a total number of 500,000 new arrivals would cost €7 billion overall, while 1.2 million refugees would cost €16 billion.
That adds up to a maximum of €5.5 billion more than has already been promised to local governments by Chancellor Angela Merkel from federal funds, the association’s finance chief told reporters in Berlin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Risk of Refugees Freezing to Death: Bavarian Police
Police near Passau, on the Bavarian border with Austria, have warned that there are no places left in emergency accommodation centres as crowds wait to cross into Germany in plummeting temperatures.
“It’s only a question of time before the first baby freezes to death here,” Passau district police spokesman Lothar Venus said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Refugees in Bus Protest Accept New Forest Homes
Most of the asylum seekers who were refusing to move into a holiday village in west Sweden have accepted their new temporary homes, Swedish officials have confirmed.
Fourteen refugees had said that they were scared about living in the holiday park, which is in a remote area surrounded by forest, close to the Norwegian border.
“I have spoken with the Swedish Migration Board. I’m going to move in here. I do not want to cause problems,” one of the protestors, Ahmad Assas, told the TT news agency. But he added: “I’m afraid of the dark. It is only the forest here. There are no shops, no pharmacy, no health care.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Viktor Orban has taken a people already wary of outsiders and whipped them into an anti-immigrant frenzy.
By James Traub
The European response to the refugee crisis that escalated this August has two poles: Germany’s Angela Merkel and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. Merkel has consistently maintained that the immense flow of refugees from Middle Eastern war zones constitutes a collective moral obligation for Europe; Orban has called this view a species of madness. Orban is as powerful a spokesman for nativism and xenophobia as Merkel is for universalism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Slovenian Town of Dobova Has Become a Hub for Refugees
The Slovenian town Dobova, where trains arrive from Croatia and leave for Austria, has become a hub on the migrant route.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tony Abbott Tells European Leaders to Turn Back Asylum Seekers or Risk ‘Catastrophic Error’
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has used a speech in London to call on European leaders to close their borders to asylum seekers or risk imperilling their nations.
He used the occasion to promote the Coalition’s hardline asylum seeker policies as a solution to Europe’s migrant crisis, which has seen hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from the Middle East, cross into the continent.
He urged regional leaders to act by “turning around boats [and] denying entry at the border for people with no right to come”.
“It will require some force, it will require massive logistics and expense; it will gnaw at our consciences,” Mr Abbott said.
“Yet it is the only way to prevent a tide of humanity surging through Europe and quite possibly changing it forever.”
He outlined his concern that “misguided altruism” was “…leading much of Europe into catastrophic error”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Raises Price on EU Refugee Deal
Turkish negotiators are asking the EU to pay €3 billion a year in bilateral aid in return for cooperation on slowing the flow of refugees, according to a senior EU diplomat familar with the talks.
“First, we offered €1 billion [in aid]. Then we offered €3 billion. Now the Turks have put a figure of €3 billion per year on the table in return for their agreement on the Action Plan”, the contact said, referring to a European Commission blueprint on joint refugee control measures, published on 16 October.
A second EU source noted that visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to the EU has become a red line for Ankara in the ongoing talks. “They’re insisting on this, even though it’s very unpopular in some EU capitals”, the source said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Women and Children Are Turning Themselves in at the Border
Groups of women and children are showing up at the border in Laredo, Texas, and seeking out Border Patrol agents to turn themselves in. U.S. authorities are releasing them into Texas. The numbers and methods of the illegal entries are reminiscent of the beginnings of the 2014 border crisis, according to Border Patrol agent Hector Garza. He spoke to Breitbart Texas in his role as National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) Local 2455 President.
“We are seeing five to ten groups per day and they usually consist of three to five individuals,” Agent Garza said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart Texas. “This is a significant uptick and appears to be the beginning of an influx. They are mostly Honduran.”
Though both the numbers of groups and the numbers within the groups are often greater in the Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV), the fact that they are showing up in the Laredo Sector is significant, largely due to differences in the transnational criminal organizations that control immediately south of the two sectors—and that control the flow of narcotics and human smuggling within those sectors on U.S. soil.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Joe Kennedy, Praying Football Coach, Suspended
Joe Kennedy, the public praying football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington, has been suspended from his position because he refused to stop expressing his Christian faith on the field’s 50-yard line, post-game.
“Effective immediately,” Superintendent Aaron Leavell wrote in a letter to the coach, Fox News reported, “pending further District review of your conduct, you are placed on paid administrative leave from your position as an assistant coach with the Bremerton High School football program. You may not participate, in any capacity, in BHS football program activities.”
Kennedy has been fighting for his right to continue his pre- and post-game prayers, some of which took place in the middle of the football field, for weeks now, as WND previously reported. In a mid-October appearance on Fox News, Kennedy described his reasons for praying: “It’s something that I kind of made an agreement with, my personal faith in God, that this is something I was going to do — give Him the glory after every single game and do it on the 50 and I’m kind of a guy of my word.”
As WND reported, he also clarified he’s prayed both before and after games for years for the safety of all the players, and oftentimes, players and visiting team members would join him on the field to bow their heads.
But now he’s facing firing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sacked Priest Accuses Vatican of Making Life ‘Hell’ For Gays
A high-ranking Polish Catholic priest who was sacked after he came out as gay has accused the Vatican of making the lives of homosexuals “a hell”, in a letter sent to the pope seen Wednesday by AFP.
Krzysztof Charamsa thanked Pope Francis for his positive words and gestures but criticised what he called the Vatican’s hypocrisy in banning gay priests even though he said the clergy was “full” of homosexuals.
“Have a minimum of mercy. At least leave us alone, allow civil societies to make our lives more human, while you, with your church, have managed to make the lives of us homosexuals a hell,” he wrote in the letter dated October 3.
Charamsa sparked outrage at the Vatican that day by publicly declaring his homosexuality — and presenting his Spanish boyfriend Eduardo Planas — on the eve of a bishops’ synod which touched on the divisive issue of the Church’s relationship to gay believers…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
SPLC Calls Parents Against Common Core “Conspiracy Theorists”
The Southern Poverty Law Center blasted the thousands of parents with legitimate concerns over Common Core as “conspiracy theorists,” even though most criticism against Common Core is directed at its poor teaching methodologies.
The controversial group claimed criticism of the federal public school program is based on “outlandish conspiracy theories” and “wildly untrue claims,” but parents are generally upset with Common Core because it penalizes students for correctly answering questions.
“The latest and most virulent example of [Common Core criticism] is the rapidly spreading idea that the Common Core State Standards, an ambitious effort to lift student achievement across the country, is actually a dangerous conspiracy to indoctrinate young people into ‘the homosexual lifestyle,’ communism and globalist ideology, all the while collecting detailed and highly personal information about millions of citizens,” the SPLC asserted.
However, the vast majority of criticism from parents against Common Core has nothing to do with the “homosexual lifestyle” or “communism” but rather that Common Core teaches children overly complicated methods to solve simple math problems.
In a recent example, a third-grader was penalized for correctly answering 5+5 +5=15.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.K. Companies Asked to Make a Third of Directors Women by 2020
Britain’s biggest companies should aim to have women making up a third of their board members by 2020, a government-sponsored report into gender equality recommended.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Drudge warned that the establishment is moving to shut down the free speech rights of its opponents.”
One has only to look at the activities of Government in China, North Korea, the former Soviet Union, Cuba et al to see where this sort of censorship leads. A classic leftist totalitarian ploy.
>> “It’s uncomfortable for them [blacks] to sleep because they are thinking back over mistreatment, thinking back over maltreatment, thinking back over bias they experienced,” Moody said. <<
The possibility of stray bullets coming through the bedroom walls might make one a light sleeper too, but I suppose "past bias" makes the most sense.
>> Federica Mogherini said that if the EU merely relied on national responses to a European issue, “the crisis will get worse, with chain reactions from public opinion and national governments”.
To prevent this, she told the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper, the bloc needed to be equipped with “instruments up to the challenge” without which, she warned, “there is the risk of disintegration”. <<
Hmmm. "Instruments up to the challenge"? Would I be indelicate to suggest the Swedish K 9mm submachine gun?
What better instrument for the EU with which to deal with "national" foot dragging, resistance, outrage, white hot fury, and malevolent disintegrationism?
It would be "up to the challenge" all right. When you show up at the party with one of those, well, everybody wants to know your opinion.
Muslims might freeze to death? Well, I think I’ll have a ham sandwich.