Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/3/2017

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a railway carriage at a metro station in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, killing eleven people (or ten or twelve, depending on the news source) and wounding dozens more. A CCTV still of the alleged perpetrator showed a man wearing a traditional Central Asian Muslim hat and robe. Some reports say the suspect is thought to be from one of the “stans”. The unfortunate incident had nothing to do with Islam.

In other news, the Standard & Poor’s rating agency downgraded South Africa’s sovereign debt to “junk” status.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Dzsihádfigyelo, ESW, Insubria, JD, PS, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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.

Financial Crisis
» 30% of Italian Wealth in Deposits, Like 1980s — Visco
» Venezuela Money Supply Up 200 Percent in Year, Fastest on Record
» What is America Going to Look Like When Stocks, Home Prices and Even Used Cars All Crash by at Least 50 Percent?
 
USA
» Adam Schiff Admits He Has No ‘Definitive’ Proof of Trump-Russia Collusion
» Dump Susan Rice and Valerie Jarrett From Membership in Any Government Agency
» Head of US Military Kit-Testing Slams F-35, Says it’s Scarcely Fit to Fly
» Matt Drudge Warns Trump Surrounded by Traitors, In Crisis
» Meet Obama Holdovers Still in Trump’s Government
» NYT Boss Mark Thompson Covered Up BBC Pedo Jimmy Savile Scandal
» People Are Fleeing New York at an Alarming Rate
» Susan Rice Requested Intelligence on Trump Associates
» Teen Admits to ISIS-Inspired Terror Plot to Kill Pope Francis
» Trump Conservatives Thankful for Ryancare Failure
» U.S. Rig Count Up, OPEC Influence Down
» Why Democrats Are Attacking Devin Nunes: He Knows Team Obama Was Spying on Team Trump During the Transition
 
Canada
» Toronto: Escalating Violence Over Motion 103
 
Europe and the EU
» Brexit: Eurosceptic MEP Calls for Denmark to Follow UK Out of EU
» Former British MP Suggests Raising Catalonia Pro-Independence Aspirations at the UN
» Gibraltar: European Union is Acting Like ‘Cuckolded Husband’ Over Brexit
» Hungary: Facebook Just Suspended 888.hu Without Prior Notice
» Indictment of Sicilian Judge Saguto Asked
» Italian Schools Close Gap Between Rich and Poor — OECD
» Italy: TAV Protests Not Terror Says Top Court
» Italy: M5S Up Another 0.5%, PD Steady in New Poll
» Marine Le Pen Win ‘Very Likely’
» OVS: Expansion Plan in Slovenia, 11 Shops Will Open
» Romania and Bulgaria Most Attractive Due to Low Labor Costs
» Sassoli Says ‘Scandalised’ By EU Quake Money Cut
» Teen Girls Held in Nice for ‘Plotting Attack in France’
» Tellinas Off Italian Dinner Tables for a Month
» UK: Innocent Man Reveals His Five-Year Ordeal at Hands of ‘Out of Control’ Officers
 
Balkans
» Croatia: Growing Intolerance and Violence Against Serbs
 
North Africa
» Kuwaiti Ambassador to Austria Puts His Glamorous Ex-Wife Behind Bars in Morocco After Claiming She Cheated on Him During Their Marriage
 
Middle East
» Turkish Referendum: First Step to ‘New Turkey’ Or Shameless Power-Grab?
 
Russia
» St. Petersburg Metro Explosion Suspect ‘From Central Asia’
» St. Petersburg Blast: Trump and Putin Vow to Fight Terrorism Together
» Ten Dead After Explosions in Saint Petersburg Metro
 
South Asia
» Facebook Blocks ‘Blasphemous’ Content — in Pakistan
 
Far East
» South Koreans Oust President After Corruption and “Occult Activity”
 
Australia — Pacific
» African Teen ‘Linked to Apex’ Gang Who Stole $200,000 Worth of Jewellery After Terrorising Staff Walks Free — Because Judge Says He Would Leave Prison ‘Someway Broken’
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Breaking: S&P Downgrades SA to Junk Status
 
Latin America
» Venezuela Credit Dashboard: Default Risk Spikes as Payment Looms
 
Immigration
» Borders Do Matter
» For Sweden, It is Too Late
» Globalist Le Pen Rival Promises to ‘Emancipate’ Migrant Communities
» Lithuania: PM: No Fast Solutions to Migration Problem
» Migrants: Amnesty: EU-Turkey Accord ‘Shameful Mark’
» Police Issue Warning as Around 1500 UK-Bound Migrants Return to Calais
» Sweden: Viral Video Shows 4 Cops Struggle to Control One Violent Migrant
» Vatican Not Against Trump Says Turkson
 
Culture Wars
» 43 Facts About Love, Sex, Dating and Marriage That Are Almost Too Crazy to Believe
» James Dobson Names ‘Villain’ In Plot to Destroy American Families
» Transgenders Mentally Ill & Should be Treated With Compassion
 
General
» Demystifying Artificial Intelligence: Here’s Everything You Need to Know About AI
 

30% of Italian Wealth in Deposits, Like 1980s — Visco

Level had gone down to 20% in early 2000s

(ANSA) — Rome, March 30 — Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said Thursday that around 30% of Italian households’ four billion euros in wealth was held in “bank and postal deposits”.

He said the effects of the economic crisis had taken the proportion of wealth in deposits back up to the levels of the late 1980s. At the start ofthe century the proportion had dropped to around 20%. He said around 10% of the wealth was held in bonds and State paper, as in the 1950s.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela Money Supply Up 200 Percent in Year, Fastest on Record

Crisis-stricken Venezuela’s money supply has surged over 200 percent in a year, its fastest rise since records began in 1940, putting it on track for what is likely the world’s highest inflation.

Soon after a month-long hiatus from publication, the central bank said late on Friday the total amount of local currency in circulation — known as M2 by economists — as of March 24 was 13.3 trillion bolivars, up 202.9 percent from a year earlier.

In contrast, the United States’ money supply was up 6.4 percent in the same period.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

What is America Going to Look Like When Stocks, Home Prices and Even Used Cars All Crash by at Least 50 Percent?

Have you ever thought about what comes after the bubble? In 2008 we got a short preview of what life will be like, but most Americans seem to have come to the conclusion that the last financial crisis was just a minor bump in the road toward endless economic prosperity. But of course the truth is that the ridiculously high debt-fueled standard of living that we are enjoying now is not sustainable, and after this bubble bursts it will be an extremely painful adjustment for our society.

Since the last financial crisis, the U.S. national debt has nearly doubled, corporate debt has doubled, stock valuations have reached exceedingly ridiculous extremes, the student loan debt bubble has surpassed a trillion dollars, we are facing the largest unfunded pension crisis in U.S. history, and in many parts of the country (particularly the west coast) we are facing a housing bubble that is even worse than the one that burst in 2007 and 2008.

And even with all of these bubbles, U.S. GDP growth has been absolutely anemic. Even if you believe the grossly manipulated numbers that the federal government puts out, the U.S. economy grew at a “miserably low” rate of just 1.6 percent in 2016…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Adam Schiff Admits He Has No ‘Definitive’ Proof of Trump-Russia Collusion

House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Adam Schiff admitted Sunday on CNN that they’ve still yet to find any “definitive” proof of Trump’s campaign colluding with Russians.

“I don’t think we can say anything definitively at this point,” Schiff told Jake Tapper. “We are still at the very early stages of the investigation.”

As Pat Buchanan said earlier this week, they’ve been investigating this garbage for eight months.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Dump Susan Rice and Valerie Jarrett From Membership in Any Government Agency

Before moving on to private life as a community activist now operating from a life of luxury, Barack Hussein Obama boobytrapped the future of President Donald Trump with carefully placed human IEDs waiting to be set off at the most opportune moment.

In conventional-military tactics, Improvised Explosive Devices are commonly used as roadside bombs.

In Marxist politics they’re hardly noticed activists waiting to be detonated.

The cunning of what Obama did just before leaving office is breathtaking in scope.

Weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump, Barack Obama signed off on over 100 federal government jobs-putting more than 100 aides and close friends in government as a parting gift to himself and his most trusted cronies.

Trump, Obama concluded, could never make it past the undermining of the Czars he left behind.

In other words, a shadow government , replete with undying vengeance, was already in place before the new administration was sworn in.

Suspicion would never be aroused when Obama installed top aides Valerie Jarrett and Susan Rice to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts board of trustees.-As the mainstream media was quick to point out, they’re just “ceremonial” titles for which they’re not even paid.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Head of US Military Kit-Testing Slams F-35, Says it’s Scarcely Fit to Fly

Gun: fail. Flight: fail. Software: fail. Schedule: fail. Budget: fail. Plus 270 more fails

Now-retired Dr Michael Gilmore, until recently the Director of Test and Evaluation for the US military, has published his final evaluation of the F-35 program, and it’s a treat.

In his parting report (PDF), deliciously dated April 1, Gilmore details a host of issues remaining with the US$391 billion-and-counting project, with everything from its combat-readiness to its wing design under the microscope.

“The Services have designated 276 deficiencies in combat performance as “critical to correct” in Block 3F, but less than half of the critical deficiencies were addressed with attempted corrections in 3FR6”, the report states.

Even Gilmore’s most optimistic scenario regarding the aircraft’s Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) is gloomy: “the program will not be ready to start IOT&E until late CY18, at the soonest, or more likely early CY19. In fact, IOT&E could be delayed to as late as CY20, depending on the completion of required modifications to the IOT&E aircraft.”

There remain “hundreds” of critical performance deficiencies and maintenance problems, the report says; Dr Gilmore also doubts about the F-35A’s ability to succeed either as an air-to-air or an air-to-ground fighter.

In an analysis of the report at the Straus Military Reform Project, picks over the report in detail.

The problem with the wing design makes the F-35 a challenge to fly at around the speed of sound: “All F-35 variants display objectionable or unacceptable flying qualities at transonic speeds, where aerodynamic forces on the aircraft are rapidly changing. Particularly, under elevated ‘g’ conditions, when wing loading causes the effects to be more pronounced, pilots have reported the flying qualities as ‘unacceptable’,” the report states.

As a close support aircraft, Dr Gilmore’s report says, the Electro-Optical Targeting System is hamstrung by low resolution and range. That means if pilots are trying to single out a ground target, they need a first approach that’s too close to use guided weapons, so they have to blow their cover, then circle back to a safe distance before launching an attack.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Matt Drudge Warns Trump Surrounded by Traitors, In Crisis

‘I do think there is a crisis, on many fronts’

Independent media mogul Matt Drudge made an ultra-rare appearance on The Savage Nation radio show Friday, taking over the airwaves to warn President Trump’s young administration is in peril.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Meet Obama Holdovers Still in Trump’s Government

Despite his promises to “drain the swamp” and sweeping out the Barack Obama-era bureaucrats from all levels of the federal government, President Donald Trump and his administration have found it difficult to complete the process even after two months in office.

According to the New York Times:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NYT Boss Mark Thompson Covered Up BBC Pedo Jimmy Savile Scandal

Thompson was the Director-General of the BBC from 2004-2012, during which time BBC DJ and host of The Top Of The Pops Jimmy Savile was on air and his reign of horror on children was still ongoing. Thompson also canceled the documentary on Savile that was set to air on News Night.

Although Savile’s most prominent abuse is said to be between the 1960s-90s it’s highly doubtful that Savile didn’t sexually abuse any kids or adult females during his time as a host on the Top Of The Pops in 2004, a British music charts show similar to the old MTV.

In fact there is even video proof that Savile molested a 18 year old girl Sylvia Edwards live in 1976. Dame Janet Smithan, one of the lead investigators into the Savile scandal, called Top Of The Pops a “breeding ground for sexual abusers including Savile.” Staff were even amused at the fact Savile was assaulting young girls on the stage live.

A Documentary on Savile was canceled by News night, similar to how the Conspiracy Of Silence was canceled years prior in the 1990’s after being set to air on Discovery, Both programs exposed high levels of pedophilia — more on that later — but here we see a pattern with the media protecting elitist pedophiles.

Thomspon at first denied having any information about the News Night documentary, then later admitted that the decision to cancel the documentary was a “lack of imagination” on his part when he failed to ask detailed questions about why News Night’s investigation into Jimmy Savile was cancelled.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

People Are Fleeing New York at an Alarming Rate

More people are leaving the New York region than any other major metropolitan area in the country.

More than 1 million people moved out of the New York area to another part of the country since 2010, a rate of 4.4 percent — the highest negative net migration rate among the nation’s large population centers, US Census records show.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Susan Rice Requested Intelligence on Trump Associates

Susan Rice, the national security advisor for President Obama, made dozens of requests seeking to unmask the identities of Donald Trump associates identified in raw intelligence reports.

Rice’s involvement in the request to unmask the Trump officials was discovered by White House lawyers last month, Bloomberg View’s Eli Lake reported on Monday.

Michael Cernovich, the pro-Trump publisher of Cernovich Media, first identified Rice in a report on Sunday night.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Teen Admits to ISIS-Inspired Terror Plot to Kill Pope Francis

A New Jersey teen plotted to kill Pope Francis during his 2015 visit to Philadelphia — attempting to hire a sniper to shoot him during his Papal mass, federal prosecutors say.

Santos Colon, 17, pleaded guilty Monday to attempting to provide material support to terrorists, according to court documents.

The Lindenwold resident now faces up to 15 years behind bars after being charged as an adult in Camden federal court.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Conservatives Thankful for Ryancare Failure

Congressman Mo Brooks said he voted against Obamacare 2.0 “because it has more bad policy than any bill I have ever faced. I simply cannot, and will not, vote for bad legislation that hurts so many Americans solely because Washington friends and colleagues ask me to. While this bill has many major flaws, I emphasize just two.”

1. ObamaCare 2.0 Increases Insurance Premiums by 15-20%. 2. ObamaCare 2.0 is the Largest Republican Welfare Program in History.

Read what Brooks said about this bill and the problems with it, and watch his Fox New interview.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Rig Count Up, OPEC Influence Down

An announcement on Friday by Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest oil-field services companies, put one more nail in OPEC’s coffin. Despite the cartel’s attempt to manipulate world crude-oil prices to its benefit, the oil and gas rig count in the United States jumped by 15 last week and now sits at 824, an increase of 374 in just the last year.

Two days earlier, another nail had been pounded into place: The announcement that the number of drilled-but-uncompleted wells (DUCs) stands at 5,443, which, according to global energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, translates into 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude just waiting to come online and add to OPEC’s woes.

OPEC is in disarray, with little chance of ever recovering its former influence over global oil prices.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Why Democrats Are Attacking Devin Nunes: He Knows Team Obama Was Spying on Team Trump During the Transition

So they have to destroy his credibility before he comes forth with the full evidence . . . which he’s going to do.

[A]s you might expect, the attention has not been on the seriousness or the crime nor on the nature of the evidence it happened, but rather on the details of how Nunes gathered the evidence, and with whom he might have spoken in the course of doing so. The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel breaks down just how absurd all this is:

All this engineered drama served to deep-six the important information Americans urgently deserve to know. Mr. Nunes has said he has seen proof that the Obama White House surveilled the incoming administration-on subjects that had nothing to do with Russia-and that it further unmasked (identified by name) transition officials. This goes far beyond a mere scandal. It’s a potential crime. […]

Democrats have been screaming for more than a week that Nunes needs to recuse himself from the investigation because it was supposedly “unethical” for him to view the information at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. But Nunes isn’t about to surrender to such nonsense. He understands exactly what it is, which is an attempt to cast asperions on the evidence prior to it being released.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Toronto: Escalating Violence Over Motion 103

On Saturday, April 1, 2017, Protesters affiliated with the Canadian Coalition of Concerned Citizens (CCCC) held at Toronto’s Nathan Philips Square a rally in support of free speech and against Motion 103, also known as the anti-Islamophobia motion…

Masked activists, who took part in Antifa’s counter protest, attacked the pro free speech protesters and clashed with the police. The police apprehended several suspects.

Antifa announced victory over the free speech protest:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Brexit: Eurosceptic MEP Calls for Denmark to Follow UK Out of EU

AN EUROSCEPTIC MEP called for Denmark to follow the UK’s example and abandon the European Union in a fiery debate on Brexit.

Rina Ronja Kari, of the People’s Movement against the EU, argued the bloc can not deliver the cooperation needed to resolve the issues facing the Continent.

During the DR debate ‘Farewell to EU?’, she said: “The EU is unable to resolve all the big challenges we face today.

“We have an economic crisis, where the EU has created joblessness and poverty. We have a climate crisis where the EU isn’t delivering. We have a refugee crisis where the EU cannot deliver.

“We need European cooperation, but the EU we have today cannot solve these problems.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Former British MP Suggests Raising Catalonia Pro-Independence Aspirations at the UN

London (CNA).- Former British Minister for Labour, Lord Norman Tebbit, suggested “raising Catalonia’s desire for independence at the United Nations”in an article published this Sunday in the ‘Daily Telegraph’. “Were I in No 10 I think I would let it be known in Madrid that I was thinking of inviting leaders of the Catalan independence movement to London, or even to raising their desire for independence at the United Nations”, he said and noted that “Catalans are different from the Spanish”since they are “an outward-looking Atlanticist people who were trading with Cornwall and Wales a thousand years ago”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Gibraltar: European Union is Acting Like ‘Cuckolded Husband’ Over Brexit

The Gibraltar government have restated their position that they are not to be a bargaining chip in Britain’s Brexit negotiations, and are certain they wish to remain part of the Kingdom, as the row over Spain’s posturing over the rock continues to ruffle feathers.

Speaking out on Spain’s move to seize Gibraltar as leverage for the European Union’s Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom as it moves to withdraw from the bloc, chief minister of the British Overseas Territory Fabian Picardo made his views clear in the strongest terms in an interview with Reuters.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary: Facebook Just Suspended 888.hu Without Prior Notice

George Orwell’s idea regarding the existence of “thought police” has come to life, after Facebook’s algorithms — influenced mainly by George Soros’s and Zuckerberg’s liberal mafia — have inexplicably suspended 888.hu’s social media account without any prior notice, what so ever.

Thanks to Facebook’s suspension, the ground breaking, opinion based news site, 888.hu — which prides itself on speaking the truth, establishing a genuinely frank tone among its readers and followers — has lost contact to approximately 100 000 followers via social media.

It seems like the admins of Facebook and some particular individuals of the liberal elite do not like the fact, that there are still some media outlets that will not align themselves with the nihilist, destructive political approach that George Soros and his accomplices wish to force upon the world.

888.hu will never bow down before these foreign forces, we will prevail!

           — Hat tip: Dzsihádfigyelo [Return to headlines]
 

Indictment of Sicilian Judge Saguto Asked

Magistrate probed for wrongdoing in handling seized Mafia assets

(ANSA) — Caltanissetta, March 31 — Sicilian prosecutors on Friday requestedthe indictment of suspended Palermo judge Silvana Saguto and other suspects under investigation for wrongdoing in the handling of seized Mafia assets.

Saguto is being probed by prosecutors in Caltanissetta for alleged corruption and abuse of office in collusion with judicial administrative staff and family members.

In October prosecutors ordered the urgent precautionary seizure of money and property allegedly deriving from crimes attributed to Saguto and her alleged accomplices.

Saguto was suspended by the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), whichis the judiciary’s self-governing body, late in 2015 on the request of Justice Minister Andrea Orlando and Supreme Court Prosecutor Pasquale Ciccolo.

The “gravity” of her alleged behaviour has led to an “irreparable loss of prestige”, the CSM said at the time.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Schools Close Gap Between Rich and Poor — OECD

Perform better than other countries

(ANSA) — Rome, March 29 — Italian schools are better than others at reducing the gap between rich and poor students, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday.

“Italians schools function better than other countries in the OECD, in particular as regards the inclusion of kids in high schools who come from underprivileged households,” said an OECD-PISA report on performance at school and as adults (26-28).

But the gap between the classes tends to reappear once students have completed their educational careers, the study went on to say.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: TAV Protests Not Terror Says Top Court

Cassation rejects Turin prosecutors’ appeal

(ANSA) — Rome, March 28 — Violent protests against the construction of a high-speed rail (TAV) line in Val di Susa north of Turin were not terrorism, Italy’s top court ruled Tuesday, rejecting an appeal from Turin prosecutors. The Cassation Court confirmed a three-and-a-half-year sentence for four’no TAV’ activists, Claudio Alberti, Niccolò Blasi, Chiara Zenobi and Mattia Zanotti, who were found guilty of throwing molotov cocktails against the work site at Chiomonte in 2015. No TAV protests have been going on for years in the Val di Susa along the route of the Turin-Lyon link. Activists say the line wreaks huge environmental damage in a pristine Alpine valley and causes unacceptable disruption and pollution.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: M5S Up Another 0.5%, PD Steady in New Poll

Grillo’s party stretches lead at top

(ANSA) — Rome, March 31 — Comedian Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-StarMovement (M5S) has again stretched its lead over the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD), a new poll said Friday.

The M5S is up another 0.5% to 28.4% while the PD edged up 0.1% to 26.5%, said the weekly Ixè poll for Raitre.

The PD was ahead of the M5S until a recent split by leftwingers.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Marine Le Pen Win ‘Very Likely’

Marine Le Pen can win the French presidency in May — and here’s how.

Do you remember a French sociophysicist called Serge Galam? You might, but if his name does not sound too familiar, his work almost certainly will.

Back in the summer of 2016, when opinion poll after opinion poll was predicting a Hillary Clinton presidency, Galam — a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research — was pointing to an unlikely Trump victory:

“The Trump phenomenon […] according to a model of opinion dynamics from sociophysics […] was in principle predictable from the start,” he wrote in his paper The Trump Phenomenon: An Explanation from Sociophysics (2016).

Galam is at it again, applying his unique perspective based on combining methods from physics and statistical sociology, to the French presidential contest.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

OVS: Expansion Plan in Slovenia, 11 Shops Will Open

In the place of Charles Voegele shops, about 20 stores

(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Italy’s OVS Spa, leading in fast fashion, has launched an expansion plan in Slovenia, with the opening of 11 Shops, sale area from 800 up to 1,000 square metres. The shops will take the place of 11 “Charles Voegele “ stores, besides the 9 OVS stores already active in the country, bringing to 20 the overall number of retail outlets in Slovenia. This step occurs less than three months after the successful conclusion of the Sempione Retail AG bid — in which OVS Spa has a 35% share — for Charles VoegeleHolding AG. The latter company is the major stakeholder of a network of 400 shops in Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Germany and Hungary.

The whole network will be renovated in accordance with the Italian group format. An OVS shop was set up in Nova Gorica was opened, 826 square metres on 22 March. This is the last of a series of openings occurred in Kranj, Celje and Murska Sobota. Today OVS opens in Maribor (895 sqm.) and Velenje (896 sqm.), whereas new shops will be inaugurated in Slovenska Bistrica, Koper, Novo Mesto, Kamnik and Ptuj at the beginning of April.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Romania and Bulgaria Most Attractive Due to Low Labor Costs

While Poland excels in education, study says

(ANSA) — BUCHAREST — Romania and Bulgaria are the countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) offering investors attractive labor costs, while Poland excels in education, according to a study by financial group ING, quotinga Deloitte analysis.

CEE’s advantages are represented by labor costs and labor availability, while the disadvantages are the confidence that the justice system gives, as well as educational system and traffic infrastructure. As regards wages, INGpoints out that they grow faster in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, maybe too fast to be sustainable.

Moreover, the reforms of the education system in Romania and Bulgaria are still pending which suggests medium-term challenges for the labor market, the document also shows.

However, most countries have made improvements in terms of competitiveness.Bulgaria is the best reformer in Central and Eastern Europe in this respect, but compared with Germany, the countries do not record the same performance regarding the infrastructure and educational quality, the study in question reveals.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sassoli Says ‘Scandalised’ By EU Quake Money Cut

Juncker shd ‘relaunch’ proposal, overcome govts’ egoism

(ANSA) — Brussels, March 29 — European Parliament Vice President David Sassoli told an ANSA forum Wednesday that “we are scandalised” by the EU’s decision to cut money earmarked for quake reconstruction in Italy.

The measure, which envisaged 100% European funding, was voted for by the EP, “that is by European citizens”, Sassoli stressed.

“We’ll certainly talk about it next week in Starsbourg,” added Sassoli.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker should “relaunch” theproposal, Sassoli said, “overcoming the egoism of national governments”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Teen Girls Held in Nice for ‘Plotting Attack in France’

Two teenage girls were arrested Saturday in southern France on suspicion of plotting a terror attack, a judicial source said.

The pair, aged 14 and 15, were taken in for questioning by the anti-terrorism prosecution service after a search of both girls’ homes turned up evidence suggesting they could have been planning an attack, a judicial source said.

“At this stage we do not know how far advanced the preparations were,” a source close to the inquiry told AFP, adding no weapons had been found.

Several girls have been among a swathe of teenagers arrested in recent anti-terror swoops in France on suspicion either of plotting attacks or having contact with Islamic State members or sympathisers.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Tellinas Off Italian Dinner Tables for a Month

Ban on catching molluscs amid illegal practices

(ANSA) — Rome, March 31 — A 30-day ban on catching tellinas, small marine molluscs that are a popular ingredient for spaghetti dishes and bruschettas,comes into force in Italy on Saturday.

Tellina prices have collapsed due to a four-fold rise in output compared to last season.

Experts say this sector of the market is badly affected by illegal trading practices.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Innocent Man Reveals His Five-Year Ordeal at Hands of ‘Out of Control’ Officers

It was a chilly winter’s night. Juan Gilly had picked up a takeaway curry and was driving back to his home. Frustratingly, he got stuck behind a police van crawling along at 15mph. At a junction it stopped. Mr Gilly waited ten seconds, then seeing the coast was clear, he edged past.

It was a big mistake. Moments later the van’s blue lights were flashing and a shocked Mr Gilly found that he was being chased.

He pulled over and was confronted by three burly officers, yelled at and handcuffed.

He didn’t fight back. A police body-cam shown in court would later reveal him insisting that he wanted to ‘come in peace’. But that didn’t stop one officer pepper-spraying him in the face, temporarily blinding him.

It would be shocking enough to discover that Mr Gilly was charged in December 2015 with causing the policemen ‘harassment, alarm or distress’ under the Public Order Act. His ordeal only ended last week when Newcastle-under-Lyme magistrates found him not guilty and it emerged that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was investigating the use of the pepper spray.

But what makes this story truly alarming is that the case was the culmination of what would appear to be a five-year vendetta waged by Staffordshire Police against Mr Gilly, an entirely innocent man.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Croatia: Growing Intolerance and Violence Against Serbs

Ethnic hatred even in the media

(ANSA) — ZAGREB — In 2016 in Croatia were recorded 331 cases of assault, discrimination or incitement to violence against the Serbs, 57% more over theprevious year. These data emerge from a report issued by the National Council of Serbs in Croatia (SNV), organization which is responsible for protecting the interests of the Serbian minority in Croatia.

According to figures released today, out of the 331 cases of different types of discrimination, 16 are assaults against Serbs motivated by ethnic hatred.

The rest is made up of verbal insults, press articles representing the Serbpopulation in a negative way, or cases of historical pro-fascist revisionism with regard to the Croatian regime, that during the Second World War II was guilty of persecution and killings of tens of thousands of Serbs. “This is not isolated to the above mentioned 331 cases, since the phenomenon has been growing in recent years and from the borderline society is moving toward its center”, said Milorad Pupovac, leader of the Serb community in Croatia and Member of the Zagreb Parliament. Something which is particularly worrisome: the growth of cases of ethnic hatred in the media, which is no longer relegated to the Internet portals attended by the far right, but increasingly present in public media, including public television.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Kuwaiti Ambassador to Austria Puts His Glamorous Ex-Wife Behind Bars in Morocco After Claiming She Cheated on Him During Their Marriage

Hind El-Achchabi, 38, president of luxury charter airline Dalia Air, was handed a prison term after Kuwaiti diplomat Sadiq M. Marafi made criminal allegations against her.

Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Rai reports that Marafi, ambassador to Austria, claimed one of his daughters is the product of an affair with a Moroccan businessman…

           — Hat tip: ESW [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Referendum: First Step to ‘New Turkey’ Or Shameless Power-Grab?

Yes or no questions, by definition, are supposed to be clear-cut, black and white.

But like so much in Turkey, the decision more than 58 million of its citizens — including three million abroad — will make on April 16 is a lesson in shades of grey.

Turks are voting in a referendum on whether to change their country’s constitution and give more power to current president Recep Tayyip Erdogan — there’s no disputing that.

The real question is, would these changes help or hurt a country crucial to the stability and balance of power in the region?

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

St. Petersburg Metro Explosion Suspect ‘From Central Asia’

The man suspected of killing 11 people in a St Petersburg train is in his early 20s and from Central Asia, Russian media report.

At least 45 people were injured in the explosion between two underground stations on Monday afternoon.

Another explosive device was found and made safe at a station nearby.

The Interfax and Tass news agencies said the suspect had been identified, but there are conflicting reports as to whether he was a suicide bomber.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

St. Petersburg Blast: Trump and Putin Vow to Fight Terrorism Together

DONALD Trump and Vladimir Putin have pledged to join forces and fight terrorism together following the St Petersburg metro explosion.

At least 11 people were killed and 40 others were injured in the blast between two underground stations in the Russian city yesterday afternoon.

The US President expressed his condolences to the victims’ families in a phone call with the Russian leader.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “In a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump expressed his deep condolences to the families of the victims killed due to the barbaric act carried out in the St Petersburg metro, and asked to convey the words of support to the Russian people.”

He added: “The presidents noted that terrorism is an evil that must be jointly fought with.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Ten Dead After Explosions in Saint Petersburg Metro

At least ten have been killed and 30 wounded after two explosions happened on the Saint Petersburg metro on Monday afternoon. Russia’ s international news agency RIA Novosti reports the Russian President Vladimir Putin has been alerted to the explosion, which the agency calls an “ attack” . It is possible there have been up to ten fatalities and dozens of injured, according to the agency. According to reports in Russian-language media several casualties have been reported at the Institute of Technology station, and Sennaya station of the Saint Petersburg metro. Security services and medical first responders are on the scene. All central Saint Petersburg metro stations have been closed, and security provision has been stepped up in other Russian cities including the capital, Moscow. Vladimir Putin has expressed condolences and said the state security services were looking into “ all positive motives” , including terror motives.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Facebook Blocks ‘Blasphemous’ Content — in Pakistan

WASHINGTON — Facebook has capitulated to the Pakistani government’s demand that the social media giant block what the Islamic republic considers “blasphemous” content, and, according to the country’s Interior Ministry, has already removed 85 percent of it.

And Pakistan is only the first Islamic country to make the demand and is working with 27 other Muslim countries to make similar demands, reports Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.

Pakistan is in the midst of a series of arrests and prosecutions for posting so-called “blasphemous” content — an offense that carries the death penalty.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

South Koreans Oust President After Corruption and “Occult Activity”

South Koreans are celebrating her removal, and now they want her to be locked in prison for her crimes and corruption.

Now-former President Park Geun-hye faces at least 13 charges after having businesses donate to a fraudulent Foundation in exchange for political favors.

She also shared highly classified State secrets with a female aide with whom she had an intimate relationship. Police arrested her before she could destroy or tamper with the evidence.

Via the use of subtle propaganda, she had the people of South Korea convinced she was a champion of progress and human values. When they uncovered the truth, however, millions of people took the streets and demanded she step down and be arrested.

Thanks to the people’s determination, the now-former South Korean President has indeed been arrested, reports say.

The arrest took place today and a convoy of black vehicles was observed transporting her to jail.

The people of South Korea began celebrating upon hearing the news.

“Finally we see that it can happen. Justice is real,” said one commenter.

The disgraced politician was found to be involved in numerous instances of high-profile corruption which resulted in over two million people taking to the streets to protest against her.

It was also reported that she was involved in occult activity or rituals during which she believed entities were taking “complete control” of “her body and mind.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

African Teen ‘Linked to Apex’ Gang Who Stole $200,000 Worth of Jewellery After Terrorising Staff Walks Free — Because Judge Says He Would Leave Prison ‘Someway Broken’

A 19-year-old (pictured) who police alleged was linked with the Melbourne APEX gang has been granted 12 months to show his rehabilitation.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Breaking: S&P Downgrades SA to Junk Status

Cape Town — Ratings agency S&P Global Ratings on Monday downgraded South Africa to sub-investment grade and said a massive Cabinet reshuffle shortly after midnight on Friday has put policy continuity at risk.

The decision follows a Cabinet reshuffle which claimed the jobs of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas.

Barely 24 hours into his new job as Minister of Finance, Malusi Gigaba clarified two important aspects of his new appointment which represent major shifts from his predecessor. Both aspects of the new Gigaba era should leave South Africans concerned and calling for greater scrutiny than ever before on government, political analyst Daniel Silke earlier wrote on Fin24.

“Firstly, Gigaba unambiguously placed the highly contentious nuclear power build project firmly back on the agenda.

           — Hat tip: PS [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela Credit Dashboard: Default Risk Spikes as Payment Looms

Traders boosted their bets on a Venezuela default as state oil company known as PDVSA faces a $2 billion bond payment next week

The implied probability of nonpayment in the next 12 months surged to 56 percent in March from 40 percent in February, according to credit-default swaps data compiled by Bloomberg.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Borders Do Matter

Political elites have used social engineering to control masses of people and territories over the millennia. They have redrawn borders and moved tribes and herded people into harsher environments, not ideally suitable for human habitation and agriculture; they have sent humans to occupy already heavily populated areas through invasion, conquering them, destroying the local inhabitants’ religion in the process, and forcing them to accept the conquering religion of Islam. Christians organized their own crusades in response, to regain the territories occupied by Muslims.

Many borders have been erased or redrawn as the result of greed, war, war reparations, communism, colonialism, Nazism, Islamic conquests, tribal wars, and other politically and economically driven searches for land, natural resources, drinking and irrigation water, navigable water, oil, diamonds, and precious metals. In the 21st century, the technocracy and the global elitists have pushed the social engineering much further, by planning to erase all national borders and destroying sovereignty in order to allow free massive migration of peoples around the globe, and by redistributing wealth from the haves to the have nots, regardless of effort.

The British found out that borders are important and chose to vote for Brexit, the exit from the mammoth technocratic experiment called the European Union, a state-like federation controlled by Germany.

Angela Merkel invaded her own people with Islamist “refugees,” men of military age who have left their wives, mothers, elderly, and children behind to fight their tribal wars in Syria, while they slashed and burned across Europe, in order to eventually conquer thousands of years of Christian civilization through demographics and the politics of multiculturalism.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

For Sweden, It is Too Late

Recently,two Swede Democrat leaders penned a WSJ op-ed imploring Americans to avoid the mistakes Sweden made :

“For the sake of the American people…we can only hope that the leaders in Washington won’t make the same mistakes that our socialist and liberal politicians did,” they wrote.

Donald Trump is absolutely right, they opined, and America needs to listen.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Globalist Le Pen Rival Promises to ‘Emancipate’ Migrant Communities

Banking on minority voters pushing him to victory, globalist Emmanuel Macron has promised the “emancipation” of migrant communities, and to ‘free them’ from the crime-plagued, riot-prone suburbs in which they reside.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Lithuania: PM: No Fast Solutions to Migration Problem

Statistics,over 50,000 people emigrated from the country in 2016

(ANSA) — VILNIUS — Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis admits that the government has to step up efforts to combat migration in Lithuania, but he underlines that there are no easy and fast solutions to this problem.

“Jokingly, I could say if we passed a law banning people from leaving Lithuania, that might be a fast solution. But if we want to stop at least thosewho are leaving because they are unhappy and they are unhappy because theycannot live in dignity socially, then these steps will not be something wecould feel or see within the government’s first 100 or 150 days in office,” he told reporters on Thursday, as The Baltic Times reported.

Official statistics show that over 50,000 people emigrated from Lithuania last year and nearly 14,000 left the country during the first two months of this year. Almost half of the migrants last year went to the United Kingdom.

The Lithuanian population shrank from 3.7 million in 1990 to 2.8 million this year due to aging and emigration.

Polls suggest that most emigrants leave Lithuania for Western Europe in search of higher pay. According to official statistics, the average net monthly salary in Lithuania, at around 640 euros, is the third-lowest in the EU after those in Bulgaria and Romania.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Migrants: Amnesty: EU-Turkey Accord ‘Shameful Mark’

‘Accord a year ago caused suffering of thousands of refugees’

(ANSA) — ROME — On the eve of the first anniversary of the agreement between the European Union and Turkey, which was signed on March 18, 2016 and came into effect two days later, Amnesty International spoke about a “shameful mark on the collective conscience of Europe”, which has caused the suffering of thousands of migrants and refugees.

The agreement, aimed at sending back to Turkey asylum seekers and based on the premise that Turkey is a safe country for them, did not reach the objectives it had set and left thousands of people in squalid and unhealthy conditions on the islands of Greece.

“Today we remember a black day in the history of the protection of refugees: a day in which European leaders tried not to fulfill their internationalobligations, ignoring the cost that it would have in terms of human misery”, said John Dalhuisen, director of Amnesty for Europe.

“A year ago, the Greek islands were transformed in temporary camps and European coasts turned from a haven to a dangerous place. A year later, thousands of people remain blocked in a risky, desperate and apparently endless limbo”, he added.

Although European leaders continue to pretend that Turkey is a safe country, up until now Greek tribunals have blocked the return of Syrian asylum seekers to Turkey. Amnesty has however reported that some asylum seekers from Syria were forcibly returned to Turkey in a violation of international legislation, without being granted access to asylum procedures and without being able to appeal against the decision. Others returned to Turkey “voluntarily” due to the hideous conditions they found on Greek islands. Instead oftrying to send back to Turkey asylum seekers and refugees, the EU should cooperate with Greek authorities to urgently transfer asylum seekers inland and examine their cases.

European governments should make places available for them, or legal and safe ways to reach other European countries, for example through humanitarianvisas or visas to join their families, concluded Amnesty

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Police Issue Warning as Around 1500 UK-Bound Migrants Return to Calais

AROUND 1,500 UK-bound migrants are back in Calais as police warn of a new “summer of hell” at the border.

The fresh flood into northern France has raised the prospect of new “Jungle” style camps and more chaos for British tourists and truckers.

A senior border police commander told the Daily Express: “It’s been a tough winter, but when the sun is shining again it will be much easier for them to sleep rough. That’s when we expect to see many more coming here trying to set up illegal camps again.”

French authorities are officially enforcing a “zero tolerance” policy to asylum seekers yet police say 1,500 migrants are still found every month

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Viral Video Shows 4 Cops Struggle to Control One Violent Migrant

The video, which was originally shared Sunday on Facebook by Mikael Nyren, has managed to rack up 2.2 million views in less than 12 hours

Viral video out of Sweden reportedly shows three female police officers and one male struggling to control one violent asylum seeker.

The video, which was originally shared Sunday on Facebook by Mikael Nyren, has managed to rack up 2.2 million views in less than 12 hours.

While the video starts with what’s presumably another migrant tackling the suspect all by himself, the three female officers who pile onto the suspect are seen getting easily thrown off.

When a male officer comes to help, none of the female officers step in to assist him until it’s clear he lost, then move in one at a time, only to get shoved to the ground and beat back.

Eventually, they give up and let the suspect smash up their police car with a rock, then let him walk away back to the housing center where he was presumably being given free room and board.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Not Against Trump Says Turkson

But US system may also revise his choices

(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 31 — Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Vatican’s Prefect for the Dicastery of Integral Human Development, on Friday denied the Vatican was against US President Donald Trump. “Pitting the Vatican againstPresident Trump is rather exaggerated,” Turkson told ANSA. “The United States has a valid and democratic government that deserves all our respect” and which is now “carrying out election pledges”.

He added, however, that “in the USA there is a system of checks and balances, in which we trust just as much, able, to revise some of the promisesmade during the campaign”.

Turkson was speaking a day after saying that The Vatican is hoping Trump will revise his policies and is “counting” on lobbying by the Catholic Church in the USA. Trump’s decisions are “concerning”, Turkson said, “but luckily there are dissenting voices, contrary voices, in the US, in explicit disagreement with Trump’s positions: his immigration ban was blocked by a lawyer in Hawaii.” Turkson said “that is a sign that there can be another voice and hopefully via political means, gradually Trump himself will start rethinking some of his decisions”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

43 Facts About Love, Sex, Dating and Marriage That Are Almost Too Crazy to Believe

Is it more difficult for a woman to find a husband in America today compared to several decades ago? If a couple lives together before marriage, are they more likely or less likely to get divorced? Are married men more satisfied with their intimate relationships than single men are? You will get answers to these questions and many more in this article, and what the numbers actually show may surprise you. The truth is that there have been some seismic cultural shifts when it comes to romantic love, courtship, marriage and parenting in America. The way things worked for our parents and grandparents is not necessarily the way that things work in 2017. I expect that the statistics I am about to share with you will provoke some extremely strong reactions, and that is okay, because we need to have open and honest discussions about these things. The following are 43 facts about love, sex, dating and marriage that are almost too crazy to believe…

#1 The percentage of men in America aged 20 to 39 that are married has declined by about half since the early 1970s. Once upon a time 70 percent of all males in that age group were married, but today that number has dropped to around 35 percent.

#2 The Brookings Institute just released a study that found that parents that just “live together” are far more likely to break up than parents that are actually married…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

James Dobson Names ‘Villain’ In Plot to Destroy American Families

Dr. James Dobson, the pioneering radio voice of Christian and family values for tens of millions through Focus on the Family and now Family Talk is issuing a call to flood the telephones lines for two U.S. lawmakers and the secretary of defense to object to plans to impose the military draft on women.

In his April newsletter, he lists the office telephone numbers for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., (202-225-5672), Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., (202-224-2235) and Secretary of Defense James Mattis (703-571-3343).

“Please weigh in on what is happening here. Contact the … ‘ players’ and tell them you will not stand for this intrusion into America’s young womanhood. Pull no punches. Irreversible decisions could be made at any minute.”

He asks mothers and fathers: “Do you want your daughters engaged in combat situations during national emergencies?”

Dobson noted the Pentagon “has already decided that women will help fight our wars.”

“Speaking personally, I resent McCain, Hunter and other members of Congress trying to ram this policy down the throats of American families,” he said.

A WND message left with Hunter’s office seeking comment did not generate a response. There was no option to leave a message at McCain’s office.

[Comment: Part of the globalist plan of population replacement. No more wombs…no more American babies = More room for “refugees”. ]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Transgenders Mentally Ill & Should be Treated With Compassion

Transgender is based on ZERO science. It is based soley on how someone “feels” about themselves from one day to the next and THAT — just like the issue of being born a sexual deviant — is exactly what any argument on this issue should focus on — science, not politically correct psycho babble about fluid feelings.

This is not about hating anyone who has been brainwashed into ‘identifying’ as the opposite of their biological sex at birth. It’s about science and the truth which the ‘left’ and brainwashed Americans across this country don’t want to hear.

Princeton Prof: Transgenderism Not Scientific, ‘Superstitious Belief’ — Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton. “A noted Princeton University professor has attacked the very notion of transgenderism, saying that the belief “that a woman can be trapped inside a man’s body” is ludicrous and superstitious, with no basis in medical fact.”

American College of Pediatricians: Gender Ideology Harms Children

“No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one. No one is born with an awareness of themselves as male or female; this awareness develops over time and, like all developmental processes, may be derailed by a child’s subjective perceptions, relationships, and adverse experiences from infancy forward. People who identify as “feeling like the opposite sex” or “somewhere in between” do not comprise a third sex. They remain biological men or biological women. 2,3,4

“A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V).5 The psychodynamic and social learning theories of GD/GID have never been disproved. 2,4,5 “

The column above is quite lengthy, but I urge you to read it. Any parent who promotes or allows their biological son or daughter to act out as the opposite of their born DNA and sex and begin mutilating their bodies is guilty of child abuse in my opinion…

The Democratic/Communist Party USA is one of the major supporters of this phony ‘civil rights’ issue, but then again, they support anything that contributes to destroying the core values and Christian beliefs this country was founded upon. It’s really all about politics, not science:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence: Here’s Everything You Need to Know About AI

Crazy singularities, robot rebellions, falling in love with computers … artificial intelligence conjures up a multitude of wild what-ifs. But in the real world, AI involves machine learning, deep learning, and many other programmable capabilities that we’re just beginning to explore. Let’s put the fantasy stuff on hold — at least for now — and talk about this real-world AI. Here’s how it works, and where it’s going.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

18 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/3/2017

  1. On the once dominant OPEC Arab cartel – goodbye to that propped up and sordid kingdom known since the 1920s, and initiated by British Intelligence, as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its sycophant Islamic states, and that is fast becoming another well deserved nail in the coffin of the New World Order!

  2. On Adam Schiff and the Democrats looking for Russian influence in the election of Donald Trump – is no one familiar on that witch hunt with the old adage concerning the flogging of a dead horse?

  3. On Gibraltar, the Brexit, and the E.U. acting like a cuckolded husband.

    Someone should tell poor old Claude Junker that one too many wines, as he is known to imbibe, has a diminishing effect on the performance of the husband.

  4. On the F-35 that Australia has 100 on order – what, or who, has been undermining American know how in the technology area for such a poorly designed aircraft to even get off the drawing board?

    • Perhaps it was done on purpose knowing that the Chinese would abscond with the designs and build it for themselves. The aircraft version of Chinese handcuffs, if you will.

      • A little wishful thinking there Saxum Mons! I am still waiting to hear from our own Defence Department dunderheads the cancellation of that F-35 order.

        Russia now has better fighter/bombers available – and cheaper!

        • The original “Lightning” (Lockheed P-38, made by the predecessor of the F-35’s manufacturer) also had major problems before becoming a successful and versatile ‘plane in WW2, though I doubt it was quite as expensive to fix!

          Your own country of Australia has them on order, and the Israelis are starting to receive theirs (“Obama’s revenge”?) We Brits are heavily committed as we plan to use them on our two new carriers, having prematurely scrapped the old ones and the Harriers. I don’t envy any of the politicians who have to decide how to deal with this fiasco.

          • Just the different technology aspect to both types of aircraft alone is mind blowing!

            But, the main concern with the F-35 is its apparent aeronautical problem in that it’s total design is barely airworthy.

            And there is only one way that can be fixed!

  5. On the Balkans – haven’t the Serbs (Orthodox Christian), Croatians (Roman Catholic) and Bosnians (Muslim) yet figured out that there is a snowball’s chance in Hell of them living peacefully together?

  6. On Artificial Intelligence – who controls the artificiality of such intelligence, the maker or the made? Man is able to learn from the Tree of knowledge, but there are things on the Tree that Man should not take from.

    • The truth is, of course, that we haven’t yet been able to define exactly what human intelligence is. So despite the hype, it’s all nonsense. The biggest danger – and we at GoV know this – is that the “general public” will accept (and glorify) any definition that comes from the AI community.

      • We know wery well what human intelligence is, it`s just that it is verboten to talk about it (different IQ in different populations(races(Gasp!))).
        We dont`t even understand how the brain operates.Physics professor David Deutsch has a good article here https://goo.gl/340RaL on the progress in AI , keywords are intuition and creativity…

      • keelie and Arne: There is much evidence for those who wish to seek it out that the current crop of Human (Sapien Sapiens) is less ‘intelligent’ than Cro-Magnon Man whose brain capacity was larger.

        The Human species is far older than what we are currently led to believe, some complete skeletons, and completely modern human, have been found in areas in strata estimated at over 500,000 years, some even older.

        An IQ test does not necessarily denote higher intelligence but the ability of the tested to recognize a required standard as put together by another human who made up the standard test.

        Artificial Intelligence would have no soul, as we have a soul, no inner conscience that can weigh up the dictates of God given morality in determining problems that could affect the outcome of whole human populations, no sense of empathy for those it would deal with or know and feel the emotive state that is within us all as naturally created human beings.

        It would be a completely soul less intelligence that would have no emotive boundaries or ties with anything at all – even when dealing with those who created it.

        And that is frightening!

  7. Viral video out of Sweden reportedly shows three female police officers and one male struggling to control one violent asylum seeker.

    I watched this video and it troubled me a lot. I want to know the follow-up. I want to know if this man was arrested. I want to read, subsequently, about his trial and appropriate, fitting punishment (though a month or two in jail and then being allowed to stay is not unlikely).

    This man has no place in Sweden or any civilized society. I want him out. I want him put on an island somewhere, where he and people like him are left to sort things out among themselves. Food supplies can be dropped in from a helicopter.

    • Totally agree with you, however must comment on such a bungled attempt at an arrest.

      Where was the back up? Did the officers not have access to at least
      One taser?

      The ingrate will be strutting the halls of the asylum, a legend in his own mind, a hero to his fellow ingrates too.

      Just hope none the officers suffered any injuries alerted from their
      Wounded pride.

      • what I said! Under conditions of martial law,I would sue these officers in terms of disciplinary codes of engagement for neglect of duty and jeopardy of governement property.They just watched and wasted paid for time as their duty vehicle was demolished and did not stop the perp.And I mean STOP.

  8. 14 confirmed to have died in the St Petersburg attack. The original image of a suspect in the media, led to the individual going to a police station to deny taking part.

    Russian authorities say Saint Petersburg metro suicide bomber identified. No details released, yet it is a Kyrgyz suicide bomber behind Saint Petersburg metro blast.

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