Angry protesters stormed the offices of the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council in Kensington Town Hall in London today. The crowd demanded answers about Wednesday morning’s deadly fire in Grenfell Tower, but the offices remained locked and they could not get in.
Meanwhile, another tower block fire broke out in the upper floors of an apartment building in London. There’s no information about casualties in the new incendiary incident.
In other news, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has died at the age of 87.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Reader from Chicago, Seneca III, 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.
Could Illinois be the First State to File for Bankruptcy?
Illinois residents may feel some solidarity with the likes of Puerto Rico and Detroit.
A financial crunch is spiraling into a serious problem for Illinois lawmakers, prompting some observers to wonder if the state might make history by becoming the first to go bankrupt. At the moment, it’s impossible for a state to file for bankruptcy protection, which is only afforded to counties and municipalities like Detroit.
Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection could be extended to states if Congress took up the issue, although Stanford Law School professor Michael McConnell noted in an article last year that he believed the precedents are iffy for extending the option to states. Nevertheless, Illinois is in a serious financial pickle, which is why radical options such as bankruptcy are being floated as potential solutions.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Powerball, Mega Millions to Drop Illinois Due to Budget Crisis
The Multi-State Lottery Association, or MUSL, which runs the Powerball and Mega-Millions lottery games, intends to drop Illinois from its games due to concerns over the state’s fiscal crisis, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. At the end of June, Illinois will no longer participate in these lotteries if the state remains without a budget. As Illinois approaches its third fiscal year without a budget, MUSL’s looming departure illustratesthe wide-ranging effects of Illinois’ fiscal irresponsibility.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian, Russian Officials Set Aside Differences to Talk Terrorism
OTTAWA — The Canadian government hosted talks with counter-terrorism officials from Russia this week despite persistent tensions between the two countries.
The discussions were held Thursday in Ottawa, the first such meeting in years after Canada suspended much of its contact with the Russian government because of the latter country’s actions in Ukraine.
Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Natasha Nystrom described the meeting as “an exchange of perspectives” between senior counter-terrorism officials from both countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the fight against terrorism a priority for his country, which saw 16 people killed when a suicide bomber struck the St. Petersburg subway system in April.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Helmut Kohl, Architect of Germany’s Reunification, Dies at 87
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who for more than a decade and a half helmed a country through historic upheaval, died Friday at age 87. The German leader’s political party, the Christian Democratic Union, confirmed Kohl’s death on Twitter.
“We are in sorrow,” the party tweeted.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Juncker Reveals EU Would Not Have Accepted Poland and Hungary if They Applied Today
JEAN-CLAUDE Juncker has revealed the European Union would not have accepted Poland and Hungary as members if they applied today.
The European Commission President strongly criticised the eastern states for their refusal to take in refugees during the height of the migrant crisis.
Poland and Hungary refused to take in a single person under a plan agreed in 2015 to relocate 160,000 asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece, which had been overwhelmed by mass influx of people from the Middle East and Africa.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Left Wing Extremist Offences Up 112 Per Cent in Austria
Left wing extremist offences have risen considerably in the last year according to Austrian officials who say that Islamic terror is still the most pressing danger.
The new report, presented by the Austrian Federal Office for Constitutional Protection and Counterterrorism (BVT), shows that criminal offences involving left wing extremists rose 112 per cent in 2016.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Jihadist Arrests in EU Doubled Last Year, Rising for Third Year in a Row
A new Europol report today on terrorism in eight European Union member states finds that jihadist arrests doubled in 2016, rising for the third year in a row.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Islamophobia Expert Who Joined ISIS Now Calling for Attacks in Sweden
Swedish former “Islamophobia” expert Michael Skråmos, who joined the Islamic State and travelled to Syria, has now called for Islamists to attack targets in Sweden.
Michael Skråmos, an Islamic convert, is one of the many Swedish residents who has travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for the Islamic State terror group. Living in the ISIS capital of Raqqa, Mr Skråmos has not only tried to recruit for the terror group but has now called for jihadists to attack Sweden itself Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Thousands’ of Violent Islamists in Sweden: Security Police
The number of militant extremists living in Sweden has soared from a couple of hundreds a few years ago to thousands today, the security police Säpo believes.
“We have never seen anything like it before,” said Säpo chief Anders Thornberg in an interview with Swedish news agency TT.
The vast majority of the extremists support violent Islamist ideologies, according to Säpo, whose security experts in a report in 2010 estimated that there were around 200 such sympathizers in Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Grenfell Protest Video: Protesters Storm Kensington Town Hall
A BBC reporter at the scene was barged out of the way as crowds flocked towards the building’s doors as they demand answers from the Government in the wake of the tragic disaster on Wednesday morning.
The journalist said “people are actually trying to get in” to the offices of the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council to vent their frustrations.
He added: “It looks like the doors of the office are closed and locked, and we don’t think anybody has been able to get in.”
Helicopter footage has shown aerial shots of scuffles breaking out amongst the demonstrators outside the Kensington Town Hall.
Reports has claimed fellow protesters are attempting to calm the crowds before any police intervention…
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Fire: Firefighters Rush to Shadwell Flats
Four fire engines were dispatched to Tarling Street after worried residents made 36 calls to emergency services.
Two roof extraction units were completely and the wooden decking and fencing of a third floor balcony was partially destroyed in the early hours of Friday morning.
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Burying Obama’s Legacy
It may very well be that this week was the week that Israel and the US put to rest former president Barack Obama’s policies and positions on Israel and the Palestinians.
If so, the move was made despite the best efforts of Obama’s team to convince the Trump administration to maintain them.
The details of Obama’s policies and positions have been revealed in recent weeks in a series of articles published in Haaretz regarding Obama’s secretary of state John Kerry’s failed peacemaking efforts, which ended in 2014.
The articles reported segments of two drafts of a US framework for a final peace treaty between the PLO and Israel. The drafts were created in February and March 2014.
The article series is predicated on the assumption that Kerry and his team were on the precipice of a historic breakthrough between PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. But a close reading of the documents shows that the opposite was the case.
There are two reasons that Kerry had no prospects for reaching a deal.
First, he, Obama and their advisers were too hostile to Israel and its citizens to ever convince Netanyahu that Israel’s interests would be secured…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Media Claim That Deported Afghan Was Killed in Terror Attack Was Fake News
Swedish media and the NGO Human Rights Watch claimed that an Afghan asylum seeker deported from Sweden had been a victim of a terror attack in Kabul until evidence later showed he wasn’t among the victims.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The contempt of court case currently being heard in Victoria that involves three senior ministers could in turn lead to the shutting down of the Turnbull government.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
As questions swirl around the future of Channel 10, The Project host Waleed Aly and his wife Susan Carland have reportedly taken out a second mortgage to buy a $2.11 million home in Melbourne.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A Muslim man told The Project host Waleed Aly his life changed the first time he tried bacon after ditching his religion and becoming an atheist.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Adelaide Muslim sheikh Mohammad Tawhidi has withdrawn his application to become an Army chaplain so he can continue to criticise the Greens and offend Islamist extremists.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Shocking new footage has emerged of a fight between three men of Sudanese appearance and two other men on a busy street in Newcastle.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Former Labor leader Mark Latham has started a petition against curtains going up around Sydney pools to cater for Muslim women citing ‘Public services must be available to all the public.’
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Gang leader Farhad Qaumi has been jailed for at least 43 years for his role in the fatal ‘violent underworld rampage’ that erupted in western Sydney in late 2013. His brothers were also jailed.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
In Bankstown, western Sydney, the classic Australian breakfast of an ‘egg and bacon roll’ can be called any one of three things — but while all sound similar, only one actually contains pork.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A taxpayer funded study has made the audacious claim that Australians need to show ‘cultural sensitivity’ towards migrant men who physically abuse their wife and children.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: More Asylum Seekers Going Back to Native Countries for ‘Holidays’
Despite claiming to be persecuted in their home countries, more asylum seekers living in Germany are travelling back to their homelands for “holidays.”
The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) claim that there have been even more cases of asylum seekers travelling back to the countries they say they are fleeing. A BAMF spokeswoman said that they have become aware of the cases through working with the federal police Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish NGO Brings 420 Migrants to Europe From Libyan Coast
MADRID (AP) — A Spanish aid organization has rescued 420 migrants attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in packed smugglers’ boats from Libya.
Laura Lanuza, spokeswoman for Spain’s Proactiva Open Arms aid group, said its crews on Thursday rescued most of the migrants from two packed rubber dinghies and a wooden boat that were sailing in international waters 18 miles (29 kilometers) north of the Libyan coastal town of Sabratha. Each boat had over 130 migrants aboard.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Richard Dawkins: Islam is ‘The Most Evil Religion in the World’
Professional atheist Richard Dawkins told an audience this week that Islam is “the most evil religion in the world,” and therefore must be combatted.
While opposed to all religion, the British evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion has been rethinking his positions and insisting that certain distinctions must be made between one religion and another.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
On that ‘blonde’ man laying out three Africans in Hamilton, Newcastle, NSW.
According to my source – The Party for Freedom – 5 Africans had been harassing bar patrons at the Kent Hotel in Hamilton, an inner suburb of Newcastle, for some time before that ‘blonde’ and his mate asked all five Africans outside for a fisticuff dance.
Apparently 2 against 5 was fair odds to the ‘blonde’ and his mate who laid out all five Africans before Hotel security – where were they when the Africans had been harassing patrons earlier? – began to break the fun and games up.
According to my source, the Africans were all spruiking that they were members of the notorious Apex Gang in Melbourne prior to hitting – literally – the pavement outside.
Obviously attending police have forgotten the first rule of every story, that there is always two or more sides if they believe those Africans are the victims.
Well done to that pair of upstanding and outstanding, young Aussies!
Most youths across Africa are scrawny, slow, and weak from malnourishment and a lack of proper weight-training.
The Aussies likely recognized this and calculated it was worth their while to take out the trash and get on with their evening.
“…..and weak from malnourishment….” You’re serious? Not what I’ve seen in documentaries or pics from the MSM. They all look well nourished.
Though for DECADES we in the west have been insulted by pictures of starving African kids and their well nourished mothers, with the plea: “These kids are starving–won’t you help?”
All across Europe we are seeing countless photo’s of ‘migrants’ who are not exactly starving, attacking Europeans, and the police.
Those Africans, Rapsailwasright, were born here. They have had every chance to assimilate into a country that is still able to benefit those who decide to ‘muck’ in with the rest of us, but they chose not to.
The weakness is not in the African immigrant, or their children, but in the system that refuses to place Australian values first and the immigrant second – and it is that systemic weakness that sets people like those young Africans against white Australians and that is deliberate in its design.
If one suffers from malnutrition one does not go into a pub intending to stir up trouble – think about it.
I forgot to add; Alice Springs in central Australia has had its fair share of African harassment on white and black Aussies over the years. So bad in fact was the ‘assimilation’ problem that the Africans (Sudanese) had to be relocated to Melbourne around 2005/6.
Now they are Melbourne’s problem.
Sorry Nemesis and Peter, I just watched the footage and my points stand.
The Sudanese in the clip are clearly noodle-armed and in over their heads.
Also, Africans are not known for handling alcohol well. Certainly not as well as Aussies, Irish, (real) Germans, etc.
I believe you have missed the point entirely Raspailwasright.
Those Sudanese – generally long and lanky people – have been making a bit of a reputation for themselves ever since they landed here back in the early 1990s – and that reputation is generally of a criminal nature because most of them are Muslim.
Their favored group tactic is to intimidate lone whites into submitting to what they demand they hand over, be it cash, phones, car or house keys or whatever. Few of them when caught ever go to jail – look at what the current crop of Sudanese criminals, the Apex Gang, is doing to parts of Melbourne right now. They may be noodle armed and not able to handle their liquor as you suggest, but their group violence and intimidating tactics generally gets them a free pass, such as in pubs or home invasions or jewellery store robberies, etc, etc, and just because they are scrawny in build that does not indicate they are not effective in hand to hand combat as some Aussies have already found out.
Some of the strongest opponents in my day at physical violence were of the scrawny build – they can be very agile, quick in reflex and surprisingly strong, so strong in fact that the unsuspected strength they can display really comes as a shock.
But, the points you have raised for whatever reason you chose to do so, do not take into consideration that both Aussies who laid those five Africans out were also affected by intoxicating liquor or some other substance – as is also evident in that video of the ‘blonde’ and my source of information.
Too, you choose to disregard that those five Africans were used to getting their free pass from their victims via their intimidating tactics until that ‘blonde’ and his mate showed up and laid them all out.
I don’t know about you, but two against five in my opinion, is not odds that I would have taken on, even if my opponents were intoxicated and noodle armed.
Poland and Hungary are the only smart countries in Europe. At least they try to protect their people!
A people who forget their history are often condemned to repeat it.
Julian Assange — A story of corrupt justice
https://newmatilda.com/2017/05/21/getting-julian-assange-the-untold-story/
K. The problem with the writer (John Pilger) of the article that link leads to is that he tends to award those he believes is as far Left as he, with a halo – read his article on Chavez and Venezuela – while he attacks those he does not agree with by calling them ‘Conservative’ such as Malcolm Turnbull, current Australian PM – who by anyone’s stretch of the imagination except Pilger, ain’t no Conservative.
However, Pilger’s basic premise on Assange is right because all Assange has done is to release those ‘national security’ secrets as they were given to him – he has had no hand in ‘stealing’ them, and so therefore there can be no ‘law’ laid against him as it is those who have taken those files who have done the ‘wrongdoing’.
But Assange’s publishing of the many secrets he has been given is not covered by the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because Assange is an Australian citizen – and Pilger knows that, yet cannot help himself in raising such a diversion just to denigrate the most powerful human rights document of all time.
And Pilger’s nose for the real truth of how this world operates cuts itself short at blaming the United States for all that he sees is wrong – he stops short of going just that one step further in trying to unmask the power behind the throne in Washington, and that tells me he may too be part of the Globalist agenda that also thrives on disinformation with a spattering of truth thrown in to throw off the semi-serious investigator.
So, if I were you, I would take what Pilger writes with a large dose of salt.
Everybody, everywhere is liable for adding their own spin to a story they relate. I take everything with that in mind, so no worries. But thank you very much for the details. The topic is not so much about the American stance on Assange and what he did, whether it is good or bad and should he be tried a criminal or hailed a hero. The report is about the European side and its corrupt justice being used as a political tool. We are brought up under the illusion that this is a thing of the past, while it keeps happening under our eyes. The two women did not accuse him of rape or even any “milder” version of it as Swedish law provides. This was entirely the doing of Marianne Ny’s feminst ardour who would just love to hang his head in her trophy room. The ideal tool for politics much bigger than herself, which of course she can’t imagine.
I meant “liable to…”, not “for”. I won’t get a hang of these subtleties of English in yet another 30 years…
Thanks for your feedback. I think you do OK with the English.
“The crowd demanded answers about Wednesday morning’s deadly fire in Grenfell Tower, but the offices remained locked and they could not get in.”
But posted on the door to the offices was this notice.* George Clooney and his wife Amal have invited all the fire-displaced Muslims to his resplendent home, Aberlash House, in the quaint hamlet of Sonning, Oxfordshire, which is just a charming little boat ride up the Thames. Their home, itself right on the Thames, consists of many rooms and comfortable grounds which the Clooneys, being liberals, are willing to see ruined by their Muslim guests. A smiling Clooney was quoted as saying that “[his] estate is so large, it’ll probably take these Muslims at least 3-4 weeks to ruin it all.”
*The Housing Council notice was typed out only in English. The UK Human Rights Council has been notified and formal charges will be lodged next week. The HRC regulations expressly state that “any public notice must be clearly written in a language that the illiterate can read.”
I’m sure Clooney would appreciate your warm gesture and may have already alerted his security guards at that estate – employed to keep away the Deplorables – upriver from London to not fire on those fleeing this horrible situation.
Good ol’ George, I knew he would be the type of guy to put into practice what he preached!
Kohl will not rest in peace. What Merkel does to Germany, will cause him to spin in his grave.
kohlkopf was a traitor, hope he will rot in his grave, he gave Germany this human garbage Merkel, I had no sympathy for this men ever, never voted for him. To bad he lived so long.
Helmut Kohl was a silent Nazi. It was Deutschland uber alles when Helmut -Euro- Kohl introduced the euro just to unify East and West Germany into current day gross Deutschland.
Nothing bad is said about the dead. [redacted] Helmut Kohl’s grave and his legacy. Helmut Kohl always was and has been a Nazi.
that is not correct: Kohl was ushered into the Euro by France in exchange to accept german unification.And to defeat the strong Deutschmark.Neither was he ever close to a radical nationalist or a Nazi.I am one who never voted for his party.But maybe my expertise in german history is not as profound as yours, dutch patriot. Duie!
Herb,
This is the link http://www.taz.de/!5421767/
which says Helmut Kohl was a member of the Hitler Jugend.
A member of the Hitler Jugend is a Nazi .Do we agree on that? So in my book Helmut Kohl was a Nazi, Normally i don’t do the guilty by association thing but i make an exception for Helmut the Nazi. Helmut’s father was an officer in the German Army. Very few officer’s in the German army were non partisan. Since Helmut joined the Hitler Jugend you can guess the environment in which Helmut grew up. No matter what the father said about the war crimes he saw in Poland.
I know the rumors about Mitterand pressuring Kohl into the euro ( Mitterand so politely telling Helmut about the French nucleair capability). I just don’t believe these rumors. No one but these two were there.
Fact of the matter is that Germany now dominates Europe politically and through it’s economy. The euro serves the German elites very nicely. An old Nazi dream of a “unified” Europe is realized with non military means. Helmut the Nazi can be proud of his works….
This is where for particularly for the past 20 years, large numbers of Kiwis and Aussies and then also Turks, would meet up for Anzac dawn memorial service on 25th April in Turkey
Just look at the before and after photos of that supposed upgrading/refurbishment.
It just follows the pulling down shifting of Ataturk’s statues and the secularization that Ataturk first instigated in establishing modern Turkey.
I believe the Australian government should be warning all future travelers to Turkey of the risk to them that Yap Yap Erdogan’s descent into Islamism now represents to all Westerners.
Most Aussies are well aware of the ANZAC legend as it has been passed down to us from 1915 – no one needs to visit Turkey to understand and embrace as an Australian what happened there because ANZAC is now part of our folklore.
Starting from the first anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign in 1916.
Not only is it national day for Australia and New Zealand, it was a recognition of the new beginnings of Turkey with Kemal Ataturk bringing modernization and secularization.
In some ways it is good for us to see the actual change reverting back to islam.
Now as you say, we do not need the pilgrimage.
What we do need to know and promulgate is the dangers of the ideology of islam and its creeping sharia.
————————–
Radio news right now is saying the words will remain the same on the same monument.
It still looks like an ugly rough break down of that scripture on that monument.
Proof of the pudding will be 2018 ANZAC service, when all will be unveiled.
Erdogan is still making other changes in his museums etc.
All a cautionary tale about the followers of Mohammad, and a warning to all.
This is no surprise on Erdogan’s part.
He will be hugely surprised as the Turkish economy falls part because of increasing Islamization.
‘”First time he ate BACON and how it changed his life” In addition to the above ‘news feed link.
Though similiar there is other interesting information as well.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4612724/Why-Australian-Muslim-couple-turned-backs-Islam.html#ixzz4kFxQoted.
We must remain strong in our Western culture and application of our laws,
No agreement to any part of sharia law, even if presented as being benign.
As Osama bin laden points out that the “people will side with the strong horse”.
So keep our horse, strong, fit and healthy, by knowing ourselves
Great thanks to muslims who decide to apostatize and become active ex muslims.
Take care and best wishes in your new freedoms.
Great thanks to Baron and Dymphna, giving us great balance in the knowledge of islam, and centering us to what Western Civilization means to us.
Of course bacon would change one’s life….it is one of the most glorious foodstuffs placed here by the Lord and one of the little pleasures that makes life in the West worth living!
These folks seem like rational, intelligent, well-groomed people. The sort of immigrants you would want in the West, and might even want as your neighbors.