The Spanish government is redoubling its efforts to stop the independence reference in Catalonia, with the prime minister, the prosecutor’s office, and the judiciary all making moves to prevent it. Meanwhile, the mayor of Barcelona has called on the EU to mediate in the dispute.
In other news, 25 migrants were rescued by Frontex near a small Greek island, but one child died in the hospital after being rescued.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Charles Low, Insubria, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, Vlad Tepes, 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.
US 2Q GDP Growth Revised Up to 3.1 Percent
WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) — The U.S. economy grew a bit faster than previously estimated in the second quarter, recording its quickest pace in more than two years, but the momentum probably slowed in the third quarter as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma temporarily curbed activity.
Gross domestic product increased at a 3.1 percent annual rate in the April-June period, the Commerce Department said in its third estimate on Thursday. The upward revision from the 3.0 percent pace of growth reported last month reflected an increase in inventory investment.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Antifa: New Documentary by Trevor Loudon Pull Off the Mask
New Zealander Trevor Loudon has done it again, producing an extraordinary, hard-hitting, timely documentary about a subject crucially important to America’s survival.
The target of his just-released video is “Antifa,” which is the name adopted by the violent mobs of masked, black-clad anarchist/communist thugs that have been rampaging throughout America for the past year. If the American media (New York Times, Huffington Post, CNN, NBC, PBS, etc.) were doing their job, Mr. Loudon’s would be unnecessary. As it is, the so-called mainstream media actually have been serving as a cheering section for the Antifa gangsters, as they escalate their campaigns of hate, rioting, burning, property destruction, insurrection, and violent criminal assault.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Mystery Surrounds Metal Towers Popping Up in Tunnels & Bridges
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Mysterious metal towers are popping up at local tunnels, and soon they’ll start appearing at bridges, too.
But even people on the MTA board in charge of the towers can’t say why they’re being used or what’s in them, CBS2’s Dave Carlin reports.
Jose Lugo said the tall metal towers quickly appeared up after the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel tolls booths came down.
“We don’t really know what’s the purpose of this,” he told Carlin.
It’s a $100 million MTA project shrouded in secrecy, with 18 of them for tunnels and bridges. So what are they exactly?
The MTA’s man in charge of the bridges and tunnels, Cedrick Fulton, dodged Carlin’s questions Wednesday.
“I said no comment,” he said.
Some MTA board members, including New York City Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, say they know too little about the towers — even with half the money already spent and some of the towers already up.
“A lot of the board members felt they didn’t have all the details they would have wanted, myself included,” she said.
Residents suspect there is much more going on in the towers than meets the eye and wonder if they’ll ever really know what’s going on inside of them…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Professor Threatens to Sue Berkeley
Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz said Thursday if the University of California, Berkeley doesn’t change its guidelines for campus speakers, he will take them to court.
There is an eight-week delay for speakers the school deems “high profile,” but Dershowitz claimed on “Fox and Friends” they get around this rule by issuing a department invite to certain speakers.
“So we have the eight week barrier. Whereas anti-Israel speakers don’t have the eight-week barrier, and I’m going to sue Berkeley if they don’t allow me to speak. They may make me wait eight weeks and allow anti-Israel speakers to come within three or four days. That’s a lawsuit,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Military to Replace Cops on Danish Streets and Border
Starting Friday, armed soldiers from the Danish Armed Forces (Forsvaret) will replace police officers at both Denmark’s southern border to Germany and at potential terror targets in Copenhagen.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Catalonia Referendum Latest: Madrid Pulls Out the Stops to Block Vote
SPAIN has launched an all-out assault on the Catalan government with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary all making moves to block a binding referendum on independence on October 1.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Euroracists’ Attacking Poland: MEP
Poland is being attacked by “Euroracists” in Brussels, officials driven by “a sense of leftist ideological crusade” and “convinced about Western Europe’s superiority over a backward Central Europe,” a Polish MEP has said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Fincantieri-STX Deal Sealed at Lyon Summit
Gentiloni, Macron see eye-to-eye on building better Europe
(ANSA) — Lyon, September 27 — Italy and France have reached a deal on Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri’s takeover of the French STX shipyards, Italian government sources said Wednesday.
Fincantieri will have a 50% stake in the Saint Nazaire shipyard plus an additional 1% loaned to it by the French state for 12 years in the deal reached before Wednesday’s Italian-French summit in Lyon, French government sources said, confirming a report in Le Monde. France can take back the 1% if Fincantieri does not comply with the deal during those 12 years, they said.
If Paris takes back the 1%, Fincantieri will have the option of selling the 50%, Rome government sources said.
The deal, which also envisages military cooperation by the end of next year, was ratified at a Lyon summit where French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni saw eye-to-eye on a range of issues including collaborating to construct a better Europe.
Gentiloni said at a press conference with Macron that “Italy and France are united by a European impetus which I recognised in the speech Macron made at the Sorbonne and which we greatly need now that the eurozone has started growing again”.
Gentiloni said that “each ministry will have its working plan for the next few months, it is very important that the message arrives that Italy and France have a common work programme for the coming months”.
Gentiloni said that “now is the time for ambition. Changes will not take place in a month, they do not all have the same deadlines but it is time to put this European impetus on the European agenda. Now there are the conditions to try to go forward. We must do so together with Germany, a fundamental partner for a European relaunch and with a format open to all willing countries”.
Gentiloni said that ““Europe must be an engine for investments, work and growth, initiatives like common budgets are not only architecture, super controllers are not needed but we have to reinforce the drive towards unity to create growth, development, investments and jobs”.
Gentiloni said that “Europe must be a force for stabilisation and peace above all in the Mediterranean and in Libya”. Macron said that “we went into the details of the joint road map to map out the work of the coming months. We tackled important bilateral issues, on which together we can go forward with concrete projects for the next few months”.
Macron said that there was a “full commitment” by both sides to complete the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail (TAV) line.
Macron said that “there will be intense military cooperation and it will be improved with the launch, with our industries, of a global naval leader”, referring to the Fincantieri-STX deal.
Macron said that the Fincantieri-STX deal was a “win-win accord”. He added: “To those who think it’s terrible that there is a non-French operator, I remind them that the shareholder was Korean before. is a Korean better than an Italian?” Macron said that “both STX and the Turin-Lyon (high-speed rail line, TAV), see France and Italy winning”. The ownership of STX, where France and Italy are working, Gentiloni, to create a global player, is now thus constituted: 50% Fincantieri, 34.34% French State, 10% Naval Group, 3.66% local companies, 2% workers. The board is made up thus: 8 members, of whom 4 from Fincantieri, 2 from the French State, one representing workers and one the Naval Group. The president and CEO will be up to Italy to name, while France will have a veto over the appointments, it was reported after earlier reports that France’s Laurent Castan would remain president.
Fincantieri shares fell 2% on the Milan bourse on news of the deal. The deal, which sets up a global leader with revenues of 10 billion euros, “is an improvement on the previous one from all standpoints”, Italian industry and economy ministry sources said. The Italian shipbuilding group “will have direct control of 51% (of the Saint Nazaire shipyards), something not granted in the previous accord which envisaged 48% for Fincantieri and 4% for an Italian financial institution”. They said the Italian group “will also have the president, managing director and majority on the board via the casting vote”. The deal sets up the “construction of a world leader in the naval, civil and military sector, through an equal partnership between Italy and France”, the sources said. The 1% of STX loaned by the French government for 12 years can be revoked for non-compliance with the terms of the deal, the sources noted, saying this provision was already in the previous accord.
The Trieste-based company had been set to take over the company but the French government exercised pre-emption rights on STX capital in July, blocking the takeover and causing considerable tension with Rome. Paris had called on Fincantieri to accept an offer to divide STX’s capital 50-50. But at the time Rome said it would not accept a deal in which Fincantieri did not have control of STX.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
French Court Sentences Mother of Jihadist for Financing Terrorism
The mother of a Franco-Algerian jihadist who is believed to have died in Syria was sentenced Thursday in Paris to two years in prison for “financing terrorism” by sending him money, a conviction her lawyer said she intends to appeal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Populist Beatrix Von Storch Says ‘Israel Could be a Role Model for Germany’
The deputy chairwoman and one of the public faces of Germany’s populist, euro-skeptic AfD party says that despite pejorative labels of “far right” her party is staunchly pro-Israel and looks to it as a role model.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: CasaPound to March for Closure of Rome Islamic Centre
After Mali man attacked kissing couple
(ANSA) — Rome, September 27 — The far-right extraparliamentary CasaPound group is to stage a torchlit march in Rome Friday to demand the closure of a Rome mosque outside which an Italian kissing couple were attacked by a Mali man last Sunday. “We want the immediate closure of the illegal mosque in Via San Vito after this umpteenth episode of intolerance,” CasaPound said, adding that the road was “the most degraded one in the Esquilino district” which is home to many immigrants.
The Malian was released earlier Wednesday after receiving a five-month suspended sentence for the attack.
The 24-year-old Mali national was arrested Sunday night for allegedly attacking a couple who were walking hand-in-hand and kissing near the Islamic centre. The man reportedly told them “you can’t kiss in front of the mosque” before pushing the young woman and punching and kicking the young man. The assailant also allegedly attacked police who came to the scene. A Carabiniere was slightly hurt.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rector of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa Uni Probed
Allegedly helped son of ex-minister Zecchino get research post
(ANSA) — Naples, September 27 — Lucio D’Alessandro, the rector of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa university, is under investigation for allegedly helping the son of former minister Ortensio Zecchino get a research position at the institute, several newspapers reported on Wednesday. Zecchino and his son Francesco are not being probed, according to the reports. The news came two days after seven university teachers were arrested by Florence finance police in relation to a probe into the alleged rigging of exams to qualify as lecturers. Another 22 people have been barred from holding academic positions for 12 months in relation to the probe and 59 people are under investigation in total, including two-time former cabinet minister Augusto Fantozzi. The probe was triggered by an alleged attempt by some teachers to persuade a researcher who was a candidate in an exam to qualify as a tax-law teacher to withdraw the bid in favour of a less qualified candidate. The first researcher was allegedly promised a pass in the next exam.
Fantozzi, 77, served as economy and finance minister in the 1995-’96 Lamberto Dini government.
He went on to serve as foreign-trade minister for Romano Prodi’s 1996-98 administration.
The seven arrested teachers were placed under house arrest.
They are: Fabrizio Amatucci, of Naples’ Federico II University; Giuseppe Maria Cipolla, of the University of Cassino; Adriano di Pietro of Bologna University; Alessandro Giovannini of the University of Siena; Valerio Ficari of the University of Rome 2; Giuseppe Zizzo of the Carlo Cattaneo University of Castellanza in Varese; and Guglielmo Fransoni of the University of Foggia.
Education, University and Research Minister Valeria Fedeli said she wanted to “get to the bottom” of the case.
She said a sort of code of conduct to combat nepotism and corruption in Italy’s universities would be launched by the end of October.
Fedeli said her ministry had been working on it for months with Italy’s anti-corruption authority, ANAC, led by former top anti-mafia prosecutor Raffaele Cantone, one of the targets on a hit list of the notorious Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia.
“The draft has been ready since the start of July,” Fedeli told reporters.
“It’s now at the consultation stage and we absolutely want to wind it up by the end of October”.
Fedeli added that this latest instance of corruption was related to university lecturing qualification procedures in 2012 and 2013.
On Wednesday Fedeli said those who report university corruption should be held up as “examples” rather than being discouraged.
Several probes over the years have highlighted high levels of nepotism and corruption in Italian university departments, whose powerful heads are known as ‘baroni’ (barons).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Priest Suspended for Tying Down Elderly in Care Home
In Predappio
(ANSA) — Forlì, September 27 — A 60-year-old priest in charge of a Catholic care home for the elderly in Predappio near Forlì has been suspended after police found many of the residents were tied down to chairs and beds for hours.
The priest, who ran the San Camillo home with a woman who was also suspended, has not been named.
Predappio is the home town of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex CEO of Vatican’s ORP Denies Financial Decline
‘Ejected via deceit’ says Cesare Atuire
(ANSA) — Rome, September 27 — The former CEO of Vatican religious travel group ORP on Wednesday denied bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy. Father Cesare Atuire told ANSA “when I was CEO, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi went through the most flourishing period in its history.” He said 2007-2011 profits were up 64.5% over the previous five-year period, at 22.7 million euros. “When I took up the lead I had to fix a series of irregularities: money laundering, tax evasion, offers of kickbacks,” he said, adding that he was “ejected via deceit”.
ORP is the pilgrimage arm of the Vicariate of Rome.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rubbish Tax TARSU to be Cut 40% for Bad Service
Cassation Court upholds Naples hotel suit
(ANSA) — Rome, September 27 — Citizens and firms who get “serious and protracted” bad trash disposal service will have a 40% discount in the TARSU rubbish tax, the supreme Court of Cassation said Wednesday, upholding a suit from a Naples hotel.
The cut will be applied independently of the responsibility of the town council, it said. The suit was brought by the Britannique Hotel, which had been denied a cut in the tax because the city council was judged not to be at fault regarding the “well-known dysfunctions”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mayor of Barcelona Calls for EU to Mediate in Catalonia
Barcelona’s mayor Ada Colau has called for European Union mediation in the standoff over Catalonia’s planned independence referendum, in an opinion piece in Britain’s Guardian.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
So Long: Wojtyla and Caffarra. Here Comes the Francis Family
The earthquake that has changed the face of the Pontifical Academy for Life has also struck the institute for studies on marriage and the family created by John Paul II and first headed by the theologian and then cardinal Carlo Caffarra.
As of today this historic institute has been eliminated and replaced with another institute, with a different name.
As is in fact stated in article 1 of the motu proprio “Summa Familiae Cura” published this morning, with which Pope Francis “has put his signature” to the transformation:
“With the present motu proprio I institute the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, which, associated with the Pontifical Lateran University, succeeds, replacing it, the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, established by the apostolic constitution ‘Magnum Matrimonii Sacramentum’, which therefore comes to an end.”
All of the professors of the defunct institution have therefore also been dismissed, while there remain in office the current grand chancellor, Vincenzo Paglia, and the dean, Pierangelo Sequeri, whose appointment by Pope Francis had been, one year ago, the prelude to the current cataclysm.
The two accompanied the publication of the motu proprio with a note that emphasizes the “direct involvement” of the pope, who — they are careful to say — “entrusts the task of crafting the rules, structures, and operations of the new theological institute” to the same “academic authorities of the historic John Paul II Institute,” meaning precisely to those two and to none other.
In describing the “wider horizons” in which the institute will now have to move, Paglia and Sequeri refer, naturally, to “Amoris Laetitia,” but also to “Laudato Si’“ and to the “care for creation.”
It now remains to be seen who will be the professors of the new heading, who will be reconfirmed and who not, both in Rome and in the other branches all over the world.
As it also remains to be seen what will become of the last publications of the defunct institute, especially that “Handbook” on the correct interpretation of “Amoris Laetitia” which is looked on as the plague by the paladins of communion for the divorced and remarried.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Suspected Spanish ISIS Recruiter Arrested in Belgium
Belgian police arrested a Spanish man suspected of recruiting for the Islamic State group and planning attacks in Belgium, in a raid near Brussels airport on Wednesday, officials said, The Local writes.
Officers, acting on a request from Madrid, swooped on the man’s home in the city’s Zavantem district, Belgian prosecutors said.
The Zavantem airport was targeted by a deadly Isis-claimed double suicide bombing last year.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swede Accused of Sexually Abusing Children Online in US, UK and Canada
Prosecutors are trying to get a Swedish man convicted of rape for a string of cyber sex attacks — even though he was never in the same room as his alleged victims.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
UK Preacher Gets 6 1/2 Years for Promoting Terrorism in Sermons
LONDON — A Muslim cleric in England has been given a 61/2-year prison sentence for backing the Islamic State extremist group and encouraging terrorism through his sermons.
Police secretly recorded 40-year-old Kamran Hussain last year giving sermons in which he told children that martyrdom was better than school.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman, 19, Arrested in South London on Suspicion of Funding Terrorism in Syria
A 19-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of funding terrorism in Syria.
The woman was arrested by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command after attending a south London police station by appointment.
She was held on suspicion of being involved in funding terrorism, contrary to section 17 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and remains in custody.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
AMU Jihadi Students Create Ruckus at Aligarh Railway Station, Fight With Hindu Passengers
Aligarh Muslim University’s Jihadi students create ruckus at Aligarh railway station, fight with Hindu passengers, threatened to kill them.
Sanjay Jha | HENB | Hathras | Sept 28, 2017:: It’s not a mere an University of Islamic propaganda that helped the partition of India, not is active as Jihad solidarity network though out its network in Murshibad and Kishanganj Centers. With this network they may paralyze the Railways system, roadways or the normal public life at any moment through phone calls or posting in social media platforms.
A group of MBA students from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)’s Murshidabad Center got involved in a fight with a few Hindu passengers in the Kalka Express, enroute from Howrah to Delhi.
The Muslims students have, however, alleged that during the fight, they were tried to be pushed out of the train by the passengers.
It is known from the source that the Muslims students of the scene tried to hackle the Hindu passengers out of some disputes related to misbehavior to a Hindu lady travelling in the train. The Muslims students tried to take control over the ruckus but the added co-passengers of Hindu side overpowered them at a point of time.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Notorious Islamic State fighter Neil Prakash who incited terror attacks in Australia says he is sorry for joining the terrorist organisation, but wants to be deported to a Muslim country.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Notorious Australian ISIS fighter Neil Prakash, 26, claims he was forced into become a terrorist recruiter by Islamists who threatened to kill him if he left, a Turkish court heard Thursday.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A niqab-wearing Muslim woman has won the right to appeal after a judge refused to let her give evidence with her face covered.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Day has been compared to celebrating the Nazi holocaust by a Moreland City Councillor, in Melbourne, who voted to scrap the event over fears it offended Aboriginal people.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A multi-million dollar deradicalisation helpline has taken only five phone calls in two months as Muslim community leaders reveal its link to counter terrorism ministry means is it not trusted.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Men wishing to join the Australian Federal Police need not apply — for the next few months at least. The commonwealth law enforcers are only accepting women until Christmas.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Melbourne’s Port Phillip City Council could become the fourth council to ban Australia Day celebrations after a councillor called for the issue to be voted on.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Costs of Immigration Greater Than FAIR Survey Shows
A report published by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) entitled “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on U.S. Taxpayers” has provided a much-needed public service, giving us some real numbers detailing the high cost of illegal immigration to the average tax-paying American.
The major drawback of the report is that it probably understates the negative consequences of continued illegal immigration on the country.
But the raw figures are certainly bad enough. The report concluded that the flood of illegal immigration is costing American taxpayers $135 billion per year. This is the most in U.S. history, with the bulk of the costs caused by free medical care, education, and large costs for increased law-enforcement problems.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: 25 Migrants Rescued, 1 Child Dies in Boat Accident
ATHENS, GREECE — More than 20 migrants or refugees were rescued and one child died Thursday on a Greek island after the boat they set sail in overnight from the nearby Turkish coast either capsized or sank, Greek authorities said.
A vessel from the European border agency Frontex patrolling the area initially picked up six people — one man, two women and three children — it spotted in the sea off the small southeastern island of Kastellorizo in the early hours of Thursday, the Greek coast guard said. The six were transported to land immediately because one of the children, a 9-year-old girl, needed medical attention, but she later died, the coast guard said. Another four of the survivors were hospitalized.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ius Soli Still Govt Objective — Finocchiaro
Issue to address after DEF blueprint, says minister
(ANSA) — Rome, September 27 — Relations with Parliament Minister Anna Finocchiaro said Wednesday that the ius soli citizenship bill for migrants’ children remains one of the government’s objectives. “We all know that… the ius soli is among the aims of this government,” Finocchiaro said. “It is one of the objectives to address after the DEF (economic blueprint), no doubt about it”.
She added that putting the bill to a confidence vote would not get the bill through the Senate as “there is a difference of 30 votes” between those in favour and against.
“There’s no need for a battle every day…but both the government and Minister Finocchiaro have set the bill as a priority”, Finocchiaro said.
She was speaking after the small Italian Left (SI) party on Wednesday called for the bill to be put on the Senate agenda but the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said No, saying they didn’t have the numbers to approve it. Premier Paolo Gentiloni’s government is in turmoil over conflicting demands from within the ruling coalition over the the bill. The law, which would give Italian citizenship to the children of long-term immigrants who were born in Italy and have completed at least five years in the Italian school system, has become bogged down in the Senate after being passed by the House, amid staunch opposition from parties on the right.
Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, leader of the centrist AP group that is part of the government coalition, has called it the right measure at the wrong time amid a migrant crisis and says his party would not back a confidence motion on it.
The left-wing MDP, meanwhile, has threatened not to back the 2018 budget law if the government does not put it to a confidence vote in a bid to push it through. The PD of Gentiloni and ex-premier and leader Matteo Renzi is in favour of the bill but looks reluctant to force AP’s hand.
“The PD has forced through unacceptable things in this parliamentary term. This time they should do it for a good cause and put this law to a confidence vote,” said MDP House whip Francesco Laforgia. “The numbers (in parliament) will be there”. But Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin reiterated AP’s line on Wednesday. “It’s a civilised law, but realism tells us that it would not pass,” she said.
Anti-migrant Northern League (LN) leader Matteo Salvini claimed the stoppage of the bill as a “victory” for LN, saying “you can’t just give out citizenship as a gift”.
Currently migrants’ children born in Italy can apply for citizenship at the age of 18. The proposed law would lower that to 10-12 years of age.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss City Votes to Greatly Reduce Money Benefits Paid to Failed Asylum Seekers
The people of the canton of Zürich, Switzerland, have voted to greatly reduce failed asylum seeker social benefits which could see the canton save as much as 10 million Swiss Francs (£7.6 million).
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has taken aim at the first group of refugees to leave Australia’s offshore detention centres for resettlement and claims the country ‘has been taken for a ride.’
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Two Danish Ministries Taken Offline by Cyber Attack
A Turkish hacker group has claimed responsibility for a cyber attack that has rendered the Danish Ministry of Immigration website inaccessible.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Launches Two-Year Campaign to Provoke a ‘Shift in Thinking’ On Immigration
Pope Francis launched a two-year campaign Wednesday to educate people about the plight of migrants, and to encourage a more welcoming attitude toward them worldwide.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A woman who supports gay marriage racially taunted a man backing the ‘No’ case before running across a busy intersection in Sydney’s south-west to pull down his posters from traffic light poles.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Malcolm Turnbull tried his hand at rapping on The Project during a discussion of Macklemore’s NRL Final performance, as Tony Abbott opposes his pro-gay marriage song.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
What stupid rescue operations.
Who will rescue Europeans, poor Europeans, godless and fatherless and Fuhrerless from the – – – – RESCUED.
Good point! But, one needs to be in desperate straits to be wishing for rescue Anonymous. At this time there just is not enough desperation or even the ability to project where all these ‘rescues’ will lead to, but given time, that recognition will arrive eventually.
On Australia Day not being celebrated by some Local Councils: There are only two tiers of government legally recognized within the Australian Constitution, and they are federal and state, there is no legal recognition of Local Councils that were initially set up by state governments to administer to local counties or shires, what has become known within Australia, as Roads, Rates and Rubbish.
In other words, Councils were put in place within each county or shire, to maintain local roads take care of accumulated household garbage and to collect a tax from those households who lived within their designated areas so the three ‘RRRs’ could be carried out.
We now live in an era where those who once attended meetings as ‘Honorary Councillors’, and were paid a small stipend each year for doing so, as apart from their higher earning day jobs soon became like politicians and believed that their own input deserved a regular salary to the point that their Council salary has now far exceeded that of their original day job.
So now we have political parties running town councils, and the most extremist of them, vying for political favor by becoming involved in politicizing social issues to suit their own party agenda. Australia Day has always been about the founding of this, what used to be called a nation, Australia.
There is no politics involved in the founding of a nation because a nation represents all who live within it regardless of their political affiliations or perceived grievances!
“Pope Francis launched a two-year campaign Wednesday to educate people about the plight of migrants”
Pope Judas I strikes again.
I say that with a heavy heart as a practicing Catholic, though I’m more focused on the self guilt and booze in my old age
The Vatican has slipped into a goofy dogma hole, free from any self-examination or logic.
The smoke of Satan has returned!
One news stroke me yesterday: several people were saved near a Greek Island -refugees.
The new thing is that 2 were from Dominican Republic!
What were 2 people in way to Spain from the Caribbean doing on the Aegean Sea?
What is going on that we are not still aware of?
Van attack in Midtown Manhattan:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-29/multiple-people-injured-after-van-slams-pedestrians-near-penn-station
Must be those frigging Amish again!