According to a recent survey, almost half of German women feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods. Many women resort to carrying pepper spray and similar defensive precautions when they go out after dark.
In possibly unrelated news, a migrant was arrested for sexually assaulting two 13- and 14-year-old girls on a railway station platform in the German town of Neiderwiesa.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, JD, LP, MC, Reader from Chicago, 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.
Eurozone Youth Unemployment Rises Sharply Despite Wider European Union Falls
Unemployment in the European Union fell to its lowest point since February 2009 but youth unemployment rose sharply, adding further weight to concerns about the uneven nature of Europe’s recovery.
The unemployment rate in the EU fell to 8.3 per cent in November, down 0.1 percentage points from the month before, according to the European Commission. However, seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rose by 0.3 percentage points in the Eurozone to 21.2 per cent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Youth Unemployment Skyrockets to 39% Amid New Jobs Referendum
THE ITALIAN economy is showing signs of serious turmoil amid new figures that reveal unemployment is on the rise.
And worringly some of the country’s largest corporate firms are getting set to slash jobs as the nation faces uncertainty over political decision making and its worsening financial crisis.
The next two weeks will be nail biting for new Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni who is facing yet more fall-out from another potential damaging referendum.
Italy’s Constitutional Court will make a ruling on the Jobs Act referendum proposed by Italy’s main union on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
It’s a Retail Apocalypse: Sears, Macy’s and the Limited Are All Closing Stores
It has only been two weeks since Christmas, and already we are witnessing a stunning bloodbath of store closings. Macy’ s shocked the retail industry by announcing that they will be closing about 100 stores. The downward spiral of Sears hit another landmark when it was announced that another 150 Sears and Kmart stores would be shutting down. And we have just learned that The Limited is immediately closing all stores nationwide. If the U.S. economy is doing just fine, then why are we experiencing such a retail apocalypse? All over America, vast shopping malls that were once buzzing with eager consumers now resemble mausoleums. We have never seen anything quite like this in our entire history, and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.
Not too long ago I walked into a Macy’ s, and it was eerily quiet. I stumbled around the men’ s department looking for something to buy, but I was deeply disappointed in what was being offered. After some time had passed, an employee finally noticed me and came over to help, but they didn’ t have anything that I was looking for.
And it is a sad thing, because over the past several years when I have gone into Macy’ s looking to spend money, most of the time I have come out of there without spending a penny. Macy’ s has made some very bad decisions recently, and I am hoping that they can still turn things around. But for the moment, they are closing stores and cutting jobs. The following comes from the New York Times…
Thanks to the last eight years, approximately two-thirds of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. More than a third of all Americans have a debt that is at least 180 days past due, and the rate of homeownership has been hovering near the lowest level that we have seen in about 50 years. As you read this article, more than 95 million Americans are not in the labor force, and that number has grown by 18 percent under Barack Obama. Homelessness in New York City and other major cities is at a record high, and as a nation we have accumulated the largest mountain of debt in the history of the world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“It Finally Happened”: Trump Thanks Fiat and Ford for Investing in the US, Adding New Jobs
Having succeeded in turning around Ford’s plans to invest $1.6 billion in Mexico last week, and converting it into a US-targeted investment into the US last week, after similar twitter-based confrontations with Toyota and GM also last week, moments ago Trump tweeted his thanks to Fiat which as reported last night, also announced plans to invest $1 billion in Ohio plants, adding some 2,000 jobs.
“It’s finally happening — Fiat Chrysler just announced plans to invest $1BILLION in Michigan and Ohio plants, adding 2000 jobs. This after Ford said last week that it will expand in Michigan and U.S. instead of building a BILLION dollar plant in Mexico. Thank you Ford & Fiat C!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
10 Years Ago Today: Black Criminals Kill, Torture Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom
[Warning: Disturbing Content ]
It has been 10 years this week since the heinous kidnappings, rape and murders of a young Knoxville couple. The crime forever changed two families, resulted in several new laws and led to years upon years of court proceedings.
The randomness of the crimes left the community in fear and the victims’ families have been forced to constantly relive the nightmare, appearing in court more than 350 times in their pursuit of justice.
The Murders
Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Chris Newsom, 23, did not arrive at a friend’s party on January 6, 2007, and never returned home to their parents. They were last seen at the Washington Ridge Apartments. The next day, a train conductor reported a body near the railroad tracks and 9th Avenue in East Knoxville. The next day it was learned the bound and burned body was that of Chris Newsom and later it was revealed he had been raped, beaten and shot…
Friends and family feared the worst and later investigators confirmed Channon Christian was dead. She was found in a trash can — beaten, raped and with bleach poured down her throat. The medical examiner determined she suffocated in the trash can.
WATE 6 On Your Side legal analyst and attorney Greg Isaacs remembered what it was like as the true details of the crime started leaking out.
“Then the injuries and the extent of the torture, and how the victims were found started permeating out. And you could tell… veteran prosecutors were impacted and couldn’t talk about it,” he said. “This was a very horrific and sinister crime that touched everyone involved and started permeating throughout the community.”
[Comment: If you dont know about this case, then you should read about it. The horrors inflicted on this young white couple were pure evil.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
At the outset, everyone should recognize the abject failure that is Obamacare. Advocates of the system promised that it would cause 50 million uninsured individuals to become insured, that it would prevent rates from skyrocketing, and that it would have no adverse effect on choice of doctor. Among its many failings, Obamacare has fallen far short of the number of enrollees required to make it sustainable (only about 11 million are enrolled), has been rejected by most physicians and hospitals, has caused health insurance rates to skyrocket, and has caused many individuals to lose their preferred choice of doctor.
In my book, Restore the Republic, I offer a market based alternative to the existing system, a system that empowers patients. The following reforms need to be made to ensure that the 11 million enrolled can have options to choose from other than a system that is not working and cannot survive.
Congress should require all hospitals and physicians to reveal prominently their fees and drug and device charges, enabling competition in price. Congress should create tax free medical savings accounts and medical IRAs with no contribution caps, available to each taxpayer. Congress should exempt from any federal income tax all individuals who are diagnosed with a terminal illness or who are in hospice care. Congress should provide a $1.50 federal individual income tax reduction for each $1.00 spent by a taxpayer on the cost of medical care of a family member or relative. Congress should provide a $1.50 business tax reduction for each $1.00 spent by an employer on the cost of an employee’s health insurance or medical care. Hospitals and physicians should be given a dollar for dollar tax deduction for all services provided to the indigent.
There should be no legal limits or mandates on the mix of coverages available for health insurance. A person should be able to decline from buying health insurance, buy health insurance with only a limited menu of coverages, or choose only to buy health insurance for catastrophic care without suffering any adverse consequence. The death tax should be eliminated; there should be no tax on the transfer of an estate from parents to children or relatives due to death.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ABC Enrages NFL Viewers With Anti-Trump ‘Black-Ish’ Promo
(HEATST) — The liberal ABC-Disney Television Network generated outrage during its televised coverage of the Houston Texans’victory over the Oakland Raiders Saturday night in the Wild Card round of the AFC Playoffs, but it had nothing to do with the football.
Instead many viewers were annoyed at a promo for next Wednesday’s episode of ABC’s sitcom Black-ish, which features a predominantly African-American cast being decidedly anti-Trump in tone and nature. Get our exclusive newsletter-the best of Heat Street every day
In the promo, which bills the episode as the “election through the eyes of Black-ish”, Lucy (a white character played by Christine Reitman) tells her predominantly African-American co-workers: “I voted for Trump!” before adding the clichéd justification, “I’m a racist? I have black friends!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Airport Shooting Suspect Makes His First Court Appearance
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/AP) — The man accused of going on a shooting rampage inside Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, killing five and injuring another six, made his first court appearance in Fort Lauderdale federal court.
Just before 9 a.m. on Monday, 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, wearing a red jumpsuit and in handcuffs, was escorted out of the Broward jail into van that would took him to the courthouse.
The initial hearing Monday focused on ensuring that Santiago had a lawyer and setting future dates.
They also read the charges against him and explained the maximum penalties — charges that could put him on death row, if he’s convicted.
“They’re all very serious charges, starting with that first one violence at an international airport. That is death penalty eligible,” said David Weinstein, a former U.S. prosecutor.
Santiago is also charged with using, or carrying a firearm, during a crime of violence and causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, both of which also carry the death penalty.
“Clear that this man is both a risk of flight and a danger to the community. It’s a very tough hurdle for his defense attorney to overcome,” Weinstein said.
CBS4’s Ted Scouten said when he walked into the courtroom Santiago was very pale and had four security officers around him. He was shackled at both his hands and feet…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Assange Blasts ‘Embarrassing’ US Intel Report, Insists Russia Not His Source
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fired back Monday at the U.S. intelligence community for its report stating the anti-secrecy website was used by the Russian government to distribute hacked information from Democratic figures during the run-up to the presidential election.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Families of Americans Killed by ISIS Are Suing Twitter
Family members of three Americans killed by ISIS attacks in Belgium and France have sued Twitter for allegedly failing to keep members of the terrorist organization off its platform.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the southern district of New York on January 8, alleges that Twitter has played “a uniquely essential role in the development of ISIS’s image, its success in recruiting members from around the world, and its ability to carry out attacks and intimidate its enemies.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Arrests Volkswagen Exec Charged With Conspiracy to Defraud the US
While various other carmakers, such as GM, Ford, Fiat and Toyota, have had their share of headaches in recent weeks worried if and when Trump will tweet about them next, the epicenter of all car scandals over the past two years remains Volkswagen, and sadly for the German carmaker things continue to get worse: according to the NYT, the FBI haed arrested a Volkswagen executive on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Oliver Schmidt, who headed the company’s regulatory compliance office in the U.S. from 2014 to March 2015, was arrested on Saturday by federal investigators in Florida, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. Starting in late 2014, Mr. Schmidt and other Volkswagen officials repeatedly cited false technical explanations for the high emissions levels, the state attorneys general said. In 2015, Mr. Schmidt acknowledged the existence of a so-called defeat device that allowed Volkswagen cars to cheat emissions tests.
VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software known as “defeat devices” in 475,000 U.S. 2.0-liter diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner in testing. In reality, the vehicles emitted up to 40 times the legally allowable pollution levels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Let Alleged Pedo Walk Free Rather Than Explain How They Snared Him
In a surprising and worrying move, the FBI has dropped its case against a man accused of downloading child sex abuse images, rather than reveal details about how they caught him.
Jay Michaud, a middle school teacher in Vancouver, Washington, was arrested in July last year after visiting the Playpen, a dark web meeting place tens of thousands of perverts used to swap mountains of vile underage porn.
Unbeknown to him at the time, the FBI were, for about a fortnight, running the site after taking over its servers, and managed to install a network investigative technique (NIT) on his computer to get his real public IP address and MAC address. The Playpen was hidden in the Tor anonymizing network, and the spyware was needed to unmask suspects — about 1,300 public IP addresses were collected by agents during the operation.
According to the prosecution, a police raid on his home revealed a substantial hoard of pictures and video of child sex abuse on computer equipment. But now, guilty or not, he’s now off the hook after the FBI filed a motion to dismiss its own case [PDF] late last month.
Why? Because Michaud’s lawyer insisted that the FBI hand over a sample of the NIT code so it could be checked to ensure that it didn’t breach the terms of the warrant the FBI obtained to install the malware, and to check that it wouldn’t throw up any false positives.
US District Judge Robert Bryan agreed, saying that unless the prosecution turned over the code, he’d have to dismiss the charges. The FBI has since been arguing against that, but has now decided that it’s better to drop the case than reveal its techniques.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Shares Fall as Anti-2nd Amendment Threat Fades
The election of Donald Trump has left the gun market shot and injured.
While the Dow Jones industrial average has surged 8.9 percent since Trump was elected president — to within 0.37 points of 20,000 on Friday — shares of gunmakers have tanked.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
How Washington Post Rewrote Its Fake News Story on ‘Russian Hack’ Of Vermont Power Grid
Many now believe that Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos has transformed the Washington Post from a ‘ paper of record’ into the world’ s most expensive fake news blog.
The Washington Post sparked a wave of fear when it ran the breathless headline “Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont, U.S. officials say.”
The lead sentence offered “A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials” and continued “While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a security matter, the penetration of the nation’s electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability.”
Yet, it turns out this narrative was false and as the chronology below will show, illustrates how effectively false and misleading news can ricochet through the global news echo chamber through the pages of top tier newspapers that fail to properly verify their facts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Denies Request to Keep Jury Anonymous in ISIS Trial
The first ISIS case to be tried in Manhattan federal court kicked off Monday with a judge ruling against prosecutors’ request to keep the jury anonymous for fear of retribution.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Large Brawl at Mall Leads to Pandemonium at Westfield Culver City
CULVER CITY (CBSLA.com) — A large fight at the Westfield Culver City mall Saturday led to pandemonium at the facility, officials said.
The mall, formerly known as the Fox Hills Mall, was unable to handle a brawl between as many as 50 juveniles.
Culver City Police were dispatched to handle the brawl. A SWAT team was also dispatched.
Reports of a male with a gun, or an active shooter on scene, appeared to be erroneous…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Repeal, But Don’t Replace ObamaCare
Let me get this straight…We’re going to be “gifted” with a healthcare plan we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don’t, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that didn’t read it, but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a Dumbo President who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we’ll be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke. -Donald J. Trump
Healthcare is Not a Right
Last year, a man at my local meat market stopped taking his blood pressure medication because he could no longer afford it when his employer switched to a cheaper insurance plan. Obamacare literally priced him out of his life. He died two months later.
Now that 2017 is here, and Obama is leaving office, the real stranglehold of Obamacare is hitting the American middleclass with huge cost increases and heavy deductibles.
Please President Trump, repeal Obamacare, but do not add another boondoggle to our already ridiculously huge government. NO REPLACEMENT OF OBAMACARE IS NECESSARY!
What is wrong with allowing the free market to handle healthcare?
Past major laws and other policies implemented by the Federal and state governments have interfered with the health care marketplace to the point where our people are not only suffering, but dying. Is that the intent? Nearly every law regarding healthcare that has been passed since the early 1900s should be repealed, not just Obamacare!
If Obamacare is allowed to stand — and the purchase of government-endorsed health insurance remains compulsory — there will be no meaningful limit on Washington’s reach into the lives of the American people. That is certainly not what the Founders intended, and neither is it liberty, freedom or free enterprise.
[Comment: Recommended reading. Check out the costs of illegals on the healthcare system.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Someone is Trying to Take Down the Drudge Report
The Drudge Report, the highly trafficked conservative news website, has been knocked offline for extended periods of time over the course of the last two weeks, succumbing to large distributed denial of service attacks, according to its founder, Matt Drudge.
And it’s a mystery who’s behind it all.
Drudge wrote on Twitter that a December 30 attack was the “biggest DDoS since [the] site’s inception.”
A DDoS attack is executed by using hijacked computers or electronic devices to flood a website with redundant requests, aiming to overload the website’s hosting server and render it unavailable.
But, according to cybersecurity experts who spoke to Business Insider, using such a method to take down the Drudge Report would not be easy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Russian Hack Narrative and the Real Reasons Behind it
The Democrats have not been this decimated since 1928. They’ve become hysterical, unhinged, wholly ineffective as a political party, repudiated, recalled, replaced, and marginalized by a nation they had not served. Their media, their propaganda arm, has been discredited. Into this vacuum the Hacking Narratives arrived to explain away the disaster that was the Obama Presidency; to salve the wounds and medicate the collective self-inflicted anxiety experienced by the once-great party’s supporters…
Sean Hannity’s interview with Julien Assange appears to be of an astute, honest and sincere man. The host presented few leading questions and the guest showed little, if any, partisanship.
After watching it in its entirety, whom do you believe: DNI James Clapper, DCI John Brenner, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, or Julien Assange who is hounded and under house arrest by these three because of his activities, and what he knows about them? Consider this may be upcoming next from WIKI: The goods on Obama and some of his associates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Paul Ryan Cracks Up as Democrats Try to Stop Certification of Trump’s Win
Clowns need Biden to tell them: “It’s over.”
Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee wouldn’t know when to leave it alone
It’s as it should be, no? Democrats and their media scribes have done everything possible to convince people Trump’s election was illegitimate, that the Russians did it, or whatever (second thoughts on that whole thing about everyone accepting the results, it would appear), so you had to know the likes of Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee wouldn’t know when to leave it alone.
Finally, Biden had had enough:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
When “Peace” Means Capitulation to Islam
European leaders staged a show of solidarity in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Muslims had a good laugh about that.
What inspired al-Qaeda to attack the United States, according to one of the terrorists, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who helped plan 9/11?
The American psychologist, James E. Mitchell, who crafted the interrogation program that helped stop terrorist attacks and saved countless lives after 9/11, just published a book, Enhanced Interrogation.
In it, KSM is quoted as saying that al-Qaeda expected the United States to respond to 9/11 as it had to the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut — the United States “turned tail and ran.” In the end, KSM told Mitchell:
“We will win because Americans don’t realize… we do not need to defeat you militarily; we only need to fight long enough for you to defeat yourself by quitting. … Eventually, America will expose her neck for us to slaughter.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t Let Climate Alarmists Muzzle Your Skepticism
Two things happened in Alberta politics this week that demonstrate just how zealous “green” politicians everywhere are about the theory that human activities are causing dangerous climate change.
Under pressure from voters over the $3-billion-a-year carbon tax that it brought in on Jan. 1, Alberta’s NDP government lashed back.
First, on Tuesday the NDP caucus officially demanded that Wildrose Leader Brian Jean remove MLA Don MacIntyre from his post as opposition critic for renewable energy and electricity.
Why? Had MacIntyre been pilfering funds from taxpayers? Had he been harassing interns? Making racist statements?
No. MacIntyre’s sin was expressing doubts about the manmade climate change theory. In short, the NDP wanted MacIntyre removed for exercising his right to free expression.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mentally Ill Drug Addict or Terrorist? Gonyou-McLean Released From Jail
By all accounts, Tevis Gonyou-McLean has been punished enough.
And so Ontario Court Justice Matthew Webber agreed to release the suspected terrorist from jail after he pleaded guilty to two counts of mischief (smashing his GPS bracelet, twice) and two counts of breaching his release conditions (missing curfew, twice).
After all, Gonyou-McLean, a youthful pizza maker who struggles with drug addiction, has already spent 73 days in jail for breaching his release conditions from his original charge — uttering threats — which federal prosecutors dropped on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau grew up as a trust fund baby in a historically wealthy family headed by his father, the former prime minister of Canada.
Over the Christmas, New Year holiday, he vacationed with family and friends on the $100-million private, Bahama island of a foreign billionaire.
He met with other foreign billionaires — and wealthy Canadians — as part of the Liberals’ cash-for-access fundraising efforts.
In all seriousness, then, how can Trudeau claim to intuitively understand — as he constantly does — Canada’s middle class?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Journalists Ordered to Shut Their Mouths on MH17 Disaster
The police of the Netherlands detained two Dutch journalists Stephen Beck and Michel Spekkers in Amsterdam, upon their return from the Donbas. The police confiscated all the materials that the journalists collected in the south-east of Ukraine.
The journalists visited the Donbass to examine the crash site of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing that crashed over the region on July 17, 2014. According to the journalists, they found fragments of the liner on the crash site, even though all the fragments of the airplane were supposed to be collected long ago. The police of the Netherlands confiscated all the fragments of the aircraft that the journalists had with them, along with all the video materials from the Donbas, including interviews with eyewitnesses of the disaster.
Stefan Beck and Michel Spekkers spent eight days in the Donbas. They came to the southeast of Ukraine to conduct a series of interviews with local residents, who showed them the place, where Flight MH17 of Malaysia Airlines crashed.
The journalists were amazed to find out that many pieces of the aircraft were still on the crash site.
[Comment: Plane was taken down by NATO supported Ukrainian Nazis using Russian tech — in order to pin blame on Russia. Globalist goal is to trigger WWIII. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Considers ‘Electronic Tags for Potential Terrorists’ In Wake of Berlin Attack
Germany is considering electronically tagging potential terrorists with electronic ankle bracelets even if they have not been convicted of a crime.
Detention without trial is also on the cards if the countries of origin of terror suspects refuse to take them back.
Justice minister Heiko Maas is discussing the issue with police chiefs and other ministers in the wake of the pre-Christmas lorry massacre in Germany which left 12 dead and 48 injured.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Half of German Women Feel Unsafe in Their Own Neighborhoods
Nearly half of Germany’s women now feel unsafe walking about their local neighbourhood, a survey has revealed, with many taking precautions such as pepper spray with them when out at night.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Government Proposes “Fantastically Dangerous” University Reforms Pandering to ‘Snowflake’ Demands
With social justice warriors everywhere still sobbing across the globe after sexist, racist, bigoted, mysognist, anti-semite, satan-worshipping, Putin-puppet (did we miss one?) Donald Trump’s election victory, it appears the special safe-space-seekers may be about to get a win in Britain where universities will be forced to pander to the demands of ‘snowflake’students if controversial reforms placing student satisfaction at the heart of a new ranking system, are approved.
As “safe space” and “no platform” movements have swept across campuses, The Telegraph reports, the Government faces a cross-party revolt in the Lords this week over proposed reforms to higher education, which include placing student satisfaction at the heart of a new ranking system.
It is feared that this will lead to a “fantastically dangerous” culture where authorities will give in to student demands, however unreasonable they may be.
Baroness Wolf, a professor at King’s College London (KCL), warned: “Universities are increasingly nervous about doing anything that will create overt dissatisfaction among students because they are being told that student satisfaction is key.
“It has had a real effect on the willingness of universities to stand up to student demands which in the past have been removing statues, safe spaces and no-platforming. This whole movement is a direct threat to academic standards and the ability of universities to stand up for freedom of speech.”
She added: “The student satisfaction measure is fantastically dangerous. The way to make students happy is not asking them to do any work and giving them a high grade. “This will reduce standards and undermine quality. I just think this is totally mad, and destructive of everything universities stand for.”
The Higher Education and Research Bill, championed by Universities Minister Jo Johnson (below), will reach committee stage in the Lords on Monday, where is expected to be subject to a barrage of criticism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Residents Welcome Removal of 40ft-High Stinking Rubbish Heap From Cul-De-SAC
Beleaguered residents can finally breathe easily in their own homes after the removal of a 20,000-tonne rubbish heap in Orpington, Kent — which was like ‘living next to rotting corpses’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘This Isn’t About Occupation — it’s a Clash of Civilizations’
Amid reports the perpetrator in Sunday’s deadly terror attack in Jerusalem was inspired by the ISIS terrorist organization, one Likud MK said the attack was part of a larger trend towards a global front of radical Islam facing Western civilization.
MK Amir Ohana (Likud) rebuffed the notion that the attack, committed by an Arab resident of the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, was a response to Israel’s administration of Judea and Samaria.
“Israeli citizens have been facing terror for more than 100 years,” said Ohana. “It’s not since the ‘occupation of 1967’. In just one weekend of August 1929, 133 Jews were killed — murdered, and many hundreds more were severely wounded, raped, butchered.”
“Why did it occur then, in Hevron, in Tzfat, in other locations in Israel? Was it the ‘occupation of 1967’? Of course not. Was it the desperation? Was it the unemployment? What was it? Actually what it was — and still is — is the unwillingness of the Arab influential majority around us to accept the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state. And it will go on, it will not stop. We saw it yesterday. And what we need to do is to fight and combat the Islamic terror that hurts not only us but the Western world.”
More broadly, said Ohana, the attacks on Israel are part of a larger rejection of Western civilization by radical Islam.
“It is what Samuel Huntington referred to as the clash of civilizations. One civilization which supports freedom and another civilization which opposes it. And in this struggle we should stay united — the Western world, the free world should stay united and fight that terror very seriously.”[…]
[Some politicians do actually understand what is happening!]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Aoun in Riyadh, Asserts Independence on Visit With Saudi “Enemies”
On assuming the presidency, Aoun will not bow to past constraints and aims to restore the Land of the Cedar’s to its role as a nation of encounter.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — Asserting his own and Lebanon’s political independence by dedicating his first foreign visit to Saudi Arabia, that the country that has long opposed his ambition to the highest office of the Republic, because of his links with Hezbollah and then with Iran. Thisis how diplomatic circles are interpreting Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s decision to travel to Riyadh on Monday for a two day visit before going to Qatar, another important country in the Middle East alliances.
First Aoun wants to show that the alliance of his “Courant patriotique libre” with Hezbollah will not influence his Presidency, which he will carry out independently. In this logic, the trip is of relative importance. The fact that the deal that paved the way for his Presidency also allowed the return of Saad Hariri as head of Government, leader of the Sunnis of the Courant du Futur, a great friend of the Saudis.
This equidistance from the opposing parties and the consequent freedom of action might foster Lebanon’s return as an example of coexistence that it had in the past, and even enable it to find the space to become a mediator between the Saudis and Iranians, or at least a moderator.
Aoun also hopes that the visit will bring financial gain: first the return of investors and the wealthy Gulf tourists to Lebanon and also those three billion dollars that Riyadh had promised to support the Lebanese army, but which stopped a year ago to protest Hezbollah’s hostile attitude. (YH)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Assad Welcomes French Presidential Candidate Fillon’s Views on Syria
In an interview with French media Sunday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he welcomed conservative French presidential candidate François Fillon’s policies on terrorism.
“[Fillon’s] priority to defy the terrorists and not meddling in the affairs of other countries are welcome,” he told RTL radio, LCP TV and France Info radio reporters.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
British Jihadi Who Was Freed From Guantanamo Bay ‘Has Fled to Syria to Join Al Qaeda’
A jihadi from Britain who claims to be a former Guantanamo Bay detainee has fled to Syria where he is now fighting for Al Qaeda.
The terrorist — who has dubbed himself Abu Mugheera Al-Britani, meaning ‘from Britain’ — has written in detail about his experience in the notorious US prison camp.
Although Al-Britani’s real identity has not been established, at least 16 UK nationals and residents were held at the military camp in Cuba.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Shocker: 7-Year-Old Jihadist Beheads Man
(PJMEDIA) — After an end-of-the-year video showing pre-teens hunt down and kill bound prisoners in an abandoned building, the Islamic State today released an even more gory follow-up with children as young as preschool age murdering prisoners tied to broken carnival rides.
The 18-minute highly produced video out of ISIS’ Khayr province in Syria was distributed through publicly accessible Islamic State media channels, social media and file-sharing sites, including Google Drive and, briefly, YouTube.
It begins by showing adults training in a bombed-out building, but transitions into adults leading small children in exercises. A boy about 9 or 10 years old is shown gleefully participating in a public stoning.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Syrian Policy, Through the Looking Glass
President Obama’s assertion that the Islamic State was a “JV” team demonstrates how he arrogantly ignored the possibility that this jihadist terror group could eventually threaten the United States. But what the press will not report is that President Obama is at least partially responsible for the arming of ISIS.
A recent article by Jerome Corsi of WorldNetDaily sheds further light on how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama worked to actively arm Syrian rebels, ultimately supporting groups that would coalesce into the Islamic State.
“…[I]t’s become increasingly clear that President Obama and his secretary of state at the time, Hillary Clinton in 2011, armed the Free Syrian Army rebels in an effort to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad, mirroring a strategy already under way in Libya to help al-Qaida-affiliated militia overthrow Moammar Gadhafi,” writes Corsi. “A consequence of the strategy was the emergence of ISIS out of the loosely coordinated Free Syrian Army coalition as well as the disastrous Benghazi attack in which a U.S. ambassador was murdered.”
In other words, Mrs. Clinton and Obama are at least partially responsible for the current Middle East chaos, the death of four brave Americans at the hands of terrorists in Benghazi, and Islamic State-inspired homegrown terrorism. In Syria, the civil war has cost 470,000 lives as of last February, according to The New York Times, a half million by most estimates today. But don’t look to the Times or other news organizations to blame President Obama or former presidential candidate Clinton for the death toll.
[Comment: Bingo. 100% correct.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Talibani Imam of Kolkata Threatened Tarek Fatah to Slit His Throat.
Fanatic Kolkata Imam threatens Liberal Islamic writer Tarek Fatah to ‘slit throat’ on television show.
Anupam Gupta | HENB | Kolkata | Dec 10, 2014:: Just two days after issuing a ‘fatwa’ against Prime Minister Narendra Modi+, a fanatic Kolkata cleric on Monday threatened to ‘slit the throat of Pakistan-born author and political commentator Tarek Fatah’, with whom he appeared on a television program.
“Your throat will also be slit,” Syed Mohammad Nurur Rahman Barkati, the Shahi Imam of Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan Mosque, told Fatah while responding angrily to the latter’s statement that India has come a long way from the medieval practices when people’s throats were slit…
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Police Investigate Afghans Over New Year’s Sexual Assaults
Austrian police are investigating six Afghan refugees over sexual attacks on 18 women during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the western province of Tyrol, a police officer involved with the case said on Monday.
One man has confessed and apologized but the other five deny the accusations, Ernst Kranebitter of the Tyrol police force said, adding that police had made no arrests yet pending the end of their investigation.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
British Government Will Not Request Prison Sentence for ‘Child Migrant’ Who Raped 5-Year-Old Boy
The Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) will not request a prison sentence for a “child migrant” who raped a 5 year-old boy in late 2015, Breitbart London has established. The migrant, who told the boy he would “break him into pieces” if he told anyone about the attack, was handed a non-custodial, three-year rehabilitation order by Judge Jonathan Bennett. Defence lawyer Alwyn Jones welcomed the ruling, saying he hoped it would “address the underlying issues this young man has.” Any member of the public can request that the Law Officers of England and Wales appeal sentences of this nature under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme. Breitbart London reported last November that at least one unknown member of the public had done so in this case.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Calais Farce: New Border Threat as Migrants Sneak Back to Jungle-Style Camps
HUNDREDS of British-bound migrants have returned to secret camps in Calais just months after the notorious “Jungle” was demolished.
Despite 10,000 being dispersed from the port those desperate for a new life in the UK have already drifted back in the hope of finding a new way to cross the Channel.
The emergence of at least six rural settlements in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region has raised fears of a fresh border crisis.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Invaders Commit 1 Crime Every 2 Minutes
Third World invaders in Germany committed one crime every two minutes during the first nine months of 2016, including at least 366 murders/attempted murders, and 214,600 other serious crimes-or 32 crimes every hour, 787 per day, and 23,844 every month, an official police report has revealed. North and sub-Saharan Africans-named as coming from the Gambia, Nigeria, and Somalia-are particularly noted for their violence, and the amount of crimes they commit is completely disproportionate to their numbers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Threatens Aid Cuts to Countries Which Reject Failed Asylum Seeker Repatriation
Countries that refuse to take back migrants who have been rejected asylum in Europe are running the risk of losing German development aid, said Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. His stance was backed by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.
“Those who do not cooperate sufficiently cannot hope to benefit from our development aid,” Gabriel said in an interview with Der Spiegel released on the weekend, according to AFP.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Afghan Refugee Who Raped Sleeping Woman in Her Own Home Jailed
AN AFGHAN refugee who raped a woman after she let him stay in her flat has been jailed for three and a half years.
The 26-year-old, who has not been named, was found guilty of sneaking into the 20-year-old woman’s bed after they visited the Long Night of Museums event in Cologne, where museums stay open late.
He attempted to make advances towards her hours before the rape but she had told him to stay away.
Judges in Cologne had previously handed the refugee a two and a half year sentence in June last year but his lawyers had demanded an acquittal, which ended up with a year being added on to his jail-term.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany — Nurse Beaten and Sexually Abused by ‘African’ Men in Hamburg Park
POLICE are today hunting five men of “African appearance” who lured a nurse into a park with fake cries for help then beat her unconscious and sexually abused her.
Officers in the German city of Hamburg are appealing for witnesses following the brutal attack on the female hospital worker, who was unconscious for so long that she developed hypothermia.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
THE number of radical Islamists is growing in Germany and adapting to increased state pressure by fragmenting into small cells that are hard to keep tabs on.
Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution — Germany’s domestic intelligence service — said the fundamentalist Sunni Muslims population in Germany has exploded to nearly 10,000 sharply up from 3,800 in 2011.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Heroic German Father Saves Terrified Daughter From Syrian Rapist Then Hauls Him to Police
A GERMAN father is being hailed as a hero by police after rescuing his daughter from a refugee rapist and then turning the suspect in.
The 57-year-old man raced to the crime scene in the town of Kleve after his daughter telephoned him to say; “There’s a man following me home dad…”
When he got there the man had punched his daughter almost unconscious, was on top of her and tearing at her clothes after dragging her from the side of the road into undergrowth.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Arrested After Sex Attack on Teen Girls at Neiderwiesa Train Station in Germany
A GROUP of teenage girls were sexually assaulted as they waited for a train in the latest shocking attack to hit Germany.
The three young girls, aged 13 and 14, had been waiting at the Dresden Street train station at Neiderwiesa, to the east of the country, on Saturday night.
According to police, they were approached at around 6.30pm by two men aged 21 and 39 before being attacked on the platform.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
More Britons Wants Greater Control of Immigration Than EU Free Trade
Greater control of immigration is more important for Britons than access to free trade with the European Union during negotiations for the UK’s departure from the bloc, according to a poll on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Migrants Creating Dangerous ‘No Go’ Zones Warns Czech President
MUSLIMS who fail to integrate into European society are causing tense divisions with the creation of thousands of ‘no go’ zones, according to the Czech President.
Millions of undocumented migrants have fled from war-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa to Europe, finding any way imaginable to cross borders to find safety.
Yet, despite risking life and limb to reach the West, many are failing to adopt the cultures of their new homes — according to Czech President Milos Zeman.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Miss Helsinki 2017: Ever Get the Feeling That a Diversity Box Just Had to be Ticked?
This is actually hilarious. In this Miss Helsinki 2017 competition, there were many stunningly beautiful European woman and one fairly ugly African woman, Sephora Ikalaba. Guess who won?
“People of Africa, please accept this small gesture in atonement for slavery and all the terrible crimes we hideously pale Europeans have committed against you.”
Below is Vivianna Eksymä, who placed second in the contest.
UPDATE: The original video showing the winner being declared has now been taken down. I’m guessing the person who posted it removed it after seeing it was being used by “racists”. I’ve put up another video that shows the final contestants and gives you a clearer view of their respective qualities.
UPDATE 2: It seems the mystery is solved. This page shows the judges in the contest (link). Several were non-Whites. It looks as if they voted along purely anti-white racial lines.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
They are titans of philosophy, without whose work an understanding of the subject is all but inconceivable.
But now students at a University of London college are demanding that such seminal figures as Plato, Descartes, Immanuel Kant and Bertrand Russell should be largely dropped from the curriculum simply because they are white.
These may be the names that underpin civilisation, yet the student union at the world-renowned School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is insisting that when studying philosophy ‘the majority of philosophers on our courses’ should be from Africa and Asia.
The students say it is in order to ‘decolonise’ the ‘white institution’ that is their college.
Last night philosopher Sir Roger Scruton lambasted the union’s demand, saying: ‘This suggests ignorance and a determination not to overcome that ignorance. You can’t rule out a whole area of intellectual endeavour without having investigated it and clearly they haven’t investigated what they mean by white philosophy. If they think there is a colonial context from which Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason arose, I would like to hear it.’
The vice-chancellor of Buckingham University Sir Anthony Seldon said: ‘There is a real danger political correctness is getting out of control. We need to understand the world as it was and not to rewrite history as some might like it to have been.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Former Asda Worker Will be First British Man to Become Pregnant
Former Asda worker Hayden Cross, 20, became pregnant four months ago. He found a sperm donor on Facebook and decided to pause his gender reassignment process.
[Comment: First “man” to become pregnant? Really? A human with XY chromosomes? This is the kind of anti-science headline that ticks me off. It is a woman who decided to live as a “man” and then decided to get pregnant.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
On the Knoxville couple who were murdered in their prime. I disagree with the comment about this murder being pure evil, it was more a racist motivated crime that has its genesis from those who were treated by what has now become a lax system of’ ‘justice’.
One of the aspects of so called ‘justice’ today, and which I totally disagree with, is that when the arresting police who get to put in a ‘fact sheet’ when charging for criminal behaviour and that is part of the charge process, and is routinely accepted by a court of law as to the criminal behaviour of the accused mentioned within, is that the bench often times recuses itself from the personal observation/s of the accused by the arresting officer/s who is/are indisputably, the first and most experienced pair of eyes regarding the accused’s behaviour after the fact. I would imagine that arresting officers of those mentioned as the offenders in their earlier years of coming under police notice would have put forward their own observations of what those offenders may have been capable of doing.
Yet, their recommendations and observations were ignored.
It is the police themselves who are witness to some of the most horrific crimes that humanity is capable of committing and it is the police who then have to deal with the emotional fallout from the family and friends of the victims while investigating the crime in the hope of apprehending those responsible for such heinous acts. But, it is the emotionless and torpid actions of the courts, and those who run them, and how they appear to be more concerned with rehabilitation of those who commit such heinous acts that have a tendency to demoralise the diligent police officer who only seeks real justice and let down the real victims of crime and those who have to deal with the outcome.