Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan leader who fled Spain and is now in Belgium, issued a scathing attack against the European Union, labeling it a “club of decadent and obsolete countries”. Mr. Puigdemont called for a Brexit-style vote to determine whether Catalonia will remain in the EU.
In other news, in the early hours of this morning, unidentified assailants damaged a Muslim cultural center in Warsaw.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Charles Low, Fjordman, JD, Reader from Chicago, 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.
A Third of Baltimore Schools Have No Students Proficient in Math
Despite some of the highest spending per pupil in America, more than a dozen government high schools in Baltimore, Maryland, have failed to produce even one single student proficient in mathematics this year. Not that any of the students would know it, but that number represents a third of the 39 government high-schools in the city.
The other schools in Baltimore are not doing much better, according to Project Baltimore, the group that first published the findings. Another six, for instance, had just one percent of students scoring “proficient” on the already dumbed-down math tests. Out of those 19 government schools, more than 3,800 took the federally mandated state test — and just 14 students scored proficient.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Christmas Threat Against Times Square in New ISIS Santa Poster
An ISIS supporter released a poster of Santa Claus on the group’s social media haunts. The poster shows Santa overlooking Times Square with a case of dynamite at his side.
In the image, the New York streets are filled with pedestrians at nighttime and Santa carries a bulky red sack.
“We meet at Christmas in New York… soon,” reads the text on the image.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Birmingham, ALABAMA — Court documents related to Tina Johnson, an Alabama woman who claims that Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore groped her in his office decades ago, may raise questions about Johnson’s motives in making the accusation.
The documents, reviewed by Breitbart News, show that Moore represented Johnson’s mother in a nasty custody case for Johnson’s then 12-year-old son, Daniel Sitz. In the case, Johnson was repeatedly painted by Moore’s client as an unfit, absent, and unstable mother and was accused of taking her son from his elementary school against his will. Johnson’s mother was ultimately awarded custody in the case.
One affidavit signed by Johnson’s mother while she was represented by Moore accused Johnson of having a “violent nature” and noted that she “has been treated by a psychiatrist when she was approximately 15 years of age.” Johnson was a teenage mother.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sometimes a story comes along that makes your blood boil, and this is one of them. All over the nation CPS is stealing children from Christian families that express concerns about the safety of vaccines, but I never expected it to happen in north Idaho. Actually, a large number of families from all over the country have moved to Idaho in recent years specifically because of the vaccine issue. In Idaho, there is no legal requirement to vaccinate your children, and so no child should ever be taken away because parents do not intend to vaccinate. Unfortunately, that appears to be what happened in this case. Earlier today I spoke with Simona Mona of Health Freedom Idaho on the telephone. She said that she would send me a basic account of the facts in this case, and I told her that I would share those facts with my audience. Simona is hoping to get as many people as possible out to a court hearing that is being held on Monday morning…
It is very important to note that the state did not take any action until the parents expressed a desire not to vaccinate the child. This is a common theme that comes up again and again in cases such as this around the country. If you do not intend to vaccinate, it is probably best not to give birth at a hospital if you have that option.
— From what I am being told, the authorities hope to institutionalize Diamond, declare the father to be unfit, and permanently keep the baby away from the parents. This makes me so angry that I don’t know if I have the words to express what I am feeling right now. As you can see from the photo at the top of this article, obviously Diamond is not “bedbound”. She is just fine and definitely does not need to be institutionalized. And the authorities have never even been to the husband’s home, and so they have absolutely no grounds for declaring him to be “unfit”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gov’t Confirms ‘Muslims of America’ Jihadi Cult Under Investigation
A U.S. government agency confirmed in a letter to the Clarion Project that an investigation into a terror-linked Islamist cult named Muslims of America (MOA) is ongoing. The group is known for its “Islamic villages” in North America, with its “Islamberg” headquarters receiving the most attention.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
‘Hillary Would be a Dangerous President’ Susan Sarandon Hits Back at Clinton Supporters
HILLARY Clinton would have been a danger to the US if she had won the 2016 race against Donald Trump, Susan Sarandon has claimed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indiana Nurse Says Every White Male Baby Should be Killed
Nurse Taiyesha Baker of Riley Children’s Health in Indiana is under investigation for tweeting that every white male baby is “a detriment to society” that “should be sacrificed to the wolves.”
“Every white woman raises a detriment to society when they raise a son. Someone with the HIGHEST propensity to be a terrorist, rapist, racist, killer, and domestic violence all star. Historically every son you had should be sacrificed to the wolves B***h,” Baker said on Twitter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
McCain Blasts Clinton’s Post-Election Memoir: ‘You’Ve Got to Move On’
Sen. John McCain is blasting Hillary Clinton for penning a memoir so soon after her stunning defeat in the 2016 presidential election while also noting that her problem is “she doesn’t have anything to do.”
“What’s the f****** point? Keep the fight up?” McCain, R-Ariz., says in suggesting in an interview with Esquire published Monday that Clinton erred in writing “What Happened” when she did and then going on a media blitz to promote it.
“History will judge that campaign, and it’s always a period of time before they do,” the senator told writer David Usborne. “You’ve got to move on. This is Hillary’s problem right now: She doesn’t have anything to do.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yes, this is a true story. I was completely shocked when I learned about this too, and this just underscores the importance of repealing the individual mandate immediately. Shortly after taking office, President Trump issued an executive order which was intended to move the IRS away from enforcing Obamacare’s individual mandate, but now the IRS has found a way around that executive order. According to the official AARP website, the IRS has announced that it will not process any tax returns from individuals that are not willing to disclose whether they currently have health insurance or not…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Salon Magazine: Hillary Should Run Again in 2020
An op-ed on Salon.com makes the case for why Hillary Clinton should run for president again in 2020. Writer Matthew Rozsa pointed to a recent tweet from President Donald Trump that said Clinton is good for the Republican Party and encouraged her to “give it another try.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World War II Islam and Modern Islam: Know Thy Enemy
As American leftists align themselves with communist ideology, we can see that they act not in the interests of America, but in the interest of an ideology that has always sought to destroy America.
And, horrifyingly, as W. August Mayer has written in Islamic Jihad, Cultural Marxism and the Transformation of the West, “the morphing of the Democrat party over the last century from the conservative, traditional liberalism of President Grover Cleveland to the statism of Barack Hussein Obama” is a “downward slope to totalitarian rule towards which political gravity irresistibly draws us ever nearer.”
Only a few years before the Keenan analysis, a document was carefully hidden and preserved in a kerosene can in the hopes that it would be discovered once World War II concluded. In his searing diary written under the most excruciatingly difficult times, Chaim A. Kaplan in his Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary wrote an “extraordinary first person record of the Nazi occupation and destruction of Warsaw’s Jewish community.” Kaplan is believed to have died in late 1942 or early 1943, but his words reverberate to this day.
These documents stand as testaments to the nature of totalitarianism — whether it be Nazi socialism, Russian communism, or jihadist fascism. As Kaplan wrote:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Antifa Starts Snowball Fight With Police
Some Antifa clowns started a snowball fight with police officers in Quebec Sunday, but got shut down quickly.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Fed’s Clean Fuel Standards Will Kill Jobs: Just Look at Ontario
New clean fuel regulations are coming to Canada “in the coming months,” federal Environment Minister Catherine Mc-Kenna announced earlier this month. She says the policy — titled the Clean Fuel Standard — is “a really important piece of our climate plan” and an “economic opportunity” for Canada. The idea behind the plan, which will require fuel producers to reduce the carbon intensity of their products, is being cheered on by Clean Energy Canada, an organization launched by Tides Canada in 2010 and now connected to Simon Fraser University.
According to a recent report from Clean Energy Canada, more federal fuel regulations would be an economic boon for the country. It argues that additional regulations “would increase economic activity in clean fuels in Canada by up to $5.6-billion a year in 2030” and create as many as 31,000 new jobs. Even after accounting for the negative effects of the regulations in other sectors, it is claimed, there will still be a large positive net effect on the economy and employment.
This is nonsense. The “logic” behind the claim that the Clean Fuel Standard would be economically beneficial is that government regulation somehow grows the economy by forcing people and businesses to spend money complying with the regulation. Those of us who don’t buy into that thinking might well suspect that politicians who claim economic benefits of punitive energy regulations are simply catering to rent-seekers and climate activists.
Indeed, if it is good for the economy to institute a clean fuel regulation to increase economic activity in clean fuels by $5.6 billion annually, then why not spur economic growth by encouraging other industries in the same way, by loading on regulations that require costly compliance? This is the lens through which we should view the 31,000 new jobs that would be allegedly be created by Ottawa’s coming clean-fuel regulations.
Is it good for the economy when 31,000 workers, rather than being efficiently employed to produce goods and services that Canadians demand, are instead put to work to achieve compliance with government rules?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Home Minister Pledges to Deal With ‘Orchestrated Riots’
Jan Jambon has spoken of his conviction that the Brussels riots are being organised by a network. He says the police were well prepared this time and he is determined to dismantle the network.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Buys Israeli ‘Iron Dome’ Missile Defence System for Falklands
The British government has purchased the technology used in the Israeli-made Iron Dome missile defence system, to be deployed in the Falkland Islands. According to Ynet, the £78 million-pound purchase will see the technology, developed by a subsidiary of Iron Dome developers and Israeli arms giant Rafael, “used for command and control of a British air defence system called Land Ceptor”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Club of Decadent and Obsolete Countries’ Catalan Leader Issues Staggering Attack on EU
The pro-independence politician attacked the organisation as outdated in an interview for Israeli TV after his failed attempts to get European backing for his cause from his hideaway in Brussels.
He claimed the EU was a “club of decadent and obsolescent countries controlled by a small few and closely linked to increasingly debatable economic interests”.
Arguing Catalonia should turn the tables on EU chiefs who have warned there would be in place in Europe for the region if it breaks away from the rest of Spain, he added: “They’re constantly telling us we’re going to be left out of the European Union but the ones who should take that decision are the citizens of Catalonia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A 17-year-old Danish girl who offered to fight for Islamic State was sentenced on Monday to eight years in prison by the Danish high court for planning bomb attacks on two schools, one of them Jewish.
The high court on Friday found the girl — who was 15 years old at the time — guilty of the offences, upholding an earlier district court ruling.
The district court had initially sentenced her to six years in jail.
The prosecutor had called for her to sentenced to preventive detention indefinitely.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exiled Catalan Leader Calls for Brexit-Style Vote to Leave EU
Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has called for a Brexit-style vote on whether Catalonia should leave the European Union, deepening the breach with Brussels over its support for Spain against the independence movement.
Speaking from his self-imposed exile in Belgium, Mr Puigdemont lashed out at the EU as a “club of decadent, obsolete countries” with power concentrated in the hands of a few and entwined with “ever more questionable” economic interests.
“Let’s see what the people of Catalonia say. Perhaps there are not many people who want to be part of this EU… so insensitive to the abuse of human rights, of the democratic right of a part of its territory only because a post-Franco Right wants it to be that way,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Bataclan Survivor Commits Suicide Two Years After Terror Attack
A charity that supports victims of the Paris terror attacks has sounded the alarm after it revealed that a Frenchman who survived the Bataclan had taken his own life shortly after the second anniversary of the horror.
The suicide of Guillaume Valette, aged 31, was announced by the charity 13Onze15 Fraternité — Verité, which was set up to support the victims of the Paris terror attacks.
He took his life on the night of Saturday November 18th, just a few days after France and its president Emmanuel Macron had paid homage to the 130 people killed including 90 at the Bataclan music venue, two years ago.
While Paris as a city has been keen to show it has moved on and recovered from that horrific night, for those people who were caught up in the horror it is clearly a far more difficult task.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France is Close to an Islamic Explosion
Open war with French Muslims has not yet broken out, but recent events are bringing it closer.
“Everyone realizes that a second people has formed in France, a branch that wants to define its life on religious values and is fundamentally opposed to the liberal consensus on which our country was founded,” writes Christian de Moliner. “But a nation always rests on a fundamental pact, a minimum of laws that all approve. This is not the case anymore”.
De Moliner’s practical proposal is clearly utopian, but the very fact that in France writers and journalists are trying to imagine such solutions to the current state of the country gives you an idea of what is happening in Paris. It is in a panic. Muslim extremists and bandits took control of many no-go French areas, Jews are leaving their historic areas to regroup in more safe ones, the magazine Charlie Hebdo is suffering a new wave of mortal death threats, Emmanuel Macron just returned from a trip in Abu Dhabi and Ryadh where he praised Islam and the French foreign fighters are returning to their home country after the defeat of ISIS in Syria.
Everything is now returning to its proper place. Ready for a future Islamist explosion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: A Year on From Terror Attack, Berlin Christmas Market Opens Calmly
Security has been tightened, but otherwise things were relaxed at the site of the 2016 terror attack that claimed twelve lives. DW’s Jefferson Chase was on hand for the market’s first day — and he wasn’t the only one.
Journalists and cameras teams were omnipresent at the opening of Christmas market where terrorist Anis Amri drove a hijacked truck through crowds of people. Berlin police say that security has been enhanced, but other than concrete barriers and guards at the entrances, there was little visible sign of enhanced protective measures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
BERLIN (AP) — German authorities say investigators somehow didn’t spot a photo of a Tunisian terrorist suspect holding a firearm when evaluating data on his cell phone, months before he killed a dozen people in a truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister Herbert Reul said Monday the phone was confiscated during a police spot-check in Berlin in February, 2016, and 12,000 media files were sent to investigators in his state, where the suspect was living.
One file was a photo showing Anis Amri with a firearm. Reul called for a review of police procedures to “avoid such mistakes in the future.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Katie Hopkins Leaves MailOnline ‘By Mutual Consent’
Broadcaster Katie Hopkins has left MailOnline after two years as a columnist for the website.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Are ‘Not Completely Human, ‘ Swedish Politician Claims, Causing Uproar
Martin Strid, of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD), made the comments while addressing party faithful gathered for the SD’s national conference. Other members have distanced themselves from Strid who now faces expulsion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A minority Islamic sect has brought in airport-style security at its mosques in the UK as the Metropolitan Police investigates death threats sent to the community by Muslims.
The Ahmadiyya Community UK (AMC) has put in place security measures including metal detectors, identity checks, and bag searches at its 50 mosques and prayer halls in Britain, after threats were made against the group, and its leader Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad.
Ahmadi Muslims face violent oppression in large parts of the Islamic world and are classed as “apostates” by the UK’s largest umbrella group for followers of Islam, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Muslim Cultural Centre in Warsaw Damaged in Attack: Report
Unknown perpetrators threw stones at a Muslim cultural centre in Warsaw in the early hours of Monday, according to media reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Populism Will Lead to ‘Stagnation and Collapse’ of EU if Left Unchecked Warns Shock Report
EUROPE is facing an uncertain future amid an ongoing rise in populism which could lead to the EU’s eventual “stagnation and collapse”, a shock report warns eurocrats today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rare Collection of Iron Age Metal Artifacts Discovered in England
Archaeologists from the University of Leicester have unearthed a rare collection of Iron Age metal artifacts, including decorated cauldrons, a complete sword, and a 3rd century BC brooch, at the site of Glenfield Park in Leicestershire, England.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Terror Threat: Hunt for Bombs in Saint Pere De Ribes, Catalonia
POLICE with sniffer dogs are hunting for explosives in an ongoing anti-terror operation in Catalonia.
Bomb disposal experts have also been mobilised as officers search several properties in Sant Pere de Ribes near Barcelona.
The operation is targeting Islamic terrorism.
Regional Mossos d’Esquadra officers are expected to announce arrests later this morning from a series of dawn raids.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Teenager, 17, Guilty of Plotting Cardiff Terror Attack
A teenager from south Wales has been found guilty of plotting a terror attack in Cardiff.
The boy, from Rhondda Cynon Taff, who cannot be named, was arrested on the day of a Justin Bieber concert at the Principality Stadium on 30 June.
The 17-year-old has been found guilty of five terror-related charges at Birmingham Crown Court.
The trial heard he was found with a “martyrdom letter” when arrested, which revealed details of his planned attack.
The court heard the A-level, who is white and British, had set up an Instagram account encouraging jihad and supporting al-Qaeda. Police found the password for the account was “truck attack”.
One post read: “May Allah bring terrorism to Cardiff on 30th June.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Church Bells That Have Rung Since 1779 Silenced After Noise Complaint
The bells of a church which have rung since 1779 are to be silenced after a noise complaint by a neighbour.
St Peter’s Church in Sandwich, Kent, chimes every 15 minutes but Dover District Council served a night-time noise abatement order, despite 85% of the town’s population objecting.
Carole George, Save The Chimes campaign leader, said it threatened “traditions and history” in the medieval town.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Letting Suspects Go and ‘Hoping for the Best’
Police are “letting [suspects] off with a warning and hoping for the best” because they can’t cope with the scale of the crime problem, a senior officer has warned.
Since 2010, the number of custody cells has dropped by as much as 50 per cent, with further cuts planned to the suites where suspects are taken after they are picked up by police.
In a similar timeframe, the number of arrests saw a dramatic fall from 1.5 million in 2006/2007 to 780,000 in the year to March — despite large increases in recorded crime.
But, with the number of arrests over “hateful” comments posted online rising as much as 877 per cent in some parts of England, the Met boasting of having more than 900 specialist “hate crime” investigators, and officers touring mosques to tell worshippers to report any perceived slights to their community, people have questioned whether forces are spending their resources wisely.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prince Harry is Engaged to Meghan Markle, Kensington Palace Says
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made their first appearance as an engaged couple, briefly posing for photographers on the grounds of Kensington Palace, hours after their engagement was announced.
Harry, wearing a blue suit and tie, said he was “thrilled” and that details about his proposal would come out later. He was then asked if the proposal was romantic, and he replied: “Of course!”
Markle, who said she was “so happy,” was wearing an engagement ring for the first time in public. She held Harry’s hand and rubbed his arm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What Was the Inspiration for “The Murder on the Orient Express”?
Agatha Christie wrote her famous detective novel based on an even more famous kidnapping
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Africans Are Being Sold at Libyan Slave Markets. Thanks, Hillary Clinton.
by Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Black Africans are being sold in open-air slave markets right now, and it’s Hillary Clinton’s fault. But you won’t hear much about that from the press or the foreign-policy pundits, so let me explain.
Footage from Libya, released last week by CNN, showed young men from sub-Saharan Africa being auctioned off as farm workers in slave markets.
And how did we get to this point? As the BBC reported back in May, “Libya has been beset by chaos since NATO-backed forces overthrew long-serving ruler Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Oct. 2011.”
And who was behind that overthrow? None other than then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Long Record of Terror on the Sinai Peninsula
Friday’s attack on worshipers attending prayers at a mosque was the most brutal so far amid escalating violence in Sinai. The troubles there have a long history, with both religious and social factors playing a role.
More than 300 dead, along with some 120 injured, all of them people taking part in Friday prayers. Just as the worshipers were leaving the mosque, terrorists detonated the bombs they had previously laid around the building, and then opened fire on those who fled.
The Egyptian air force responded by carrying out strikes in Sinai, bombing suspected terrorist hideouts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Iron Dome System Deployed on Ships for First Time
Israel’s military has for the first time deployed its Iron Dome rocket defense system aboard a ship. Head of the Weapons Department in the Israeli Navy Col. Ziv Barak said the system will defend Israel’s ships and “strategic assets” at sea, like its offshore gas platforms, and is now operational.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Says it Will Increase Missile Range if Europe Threatens Tehran
The deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the Guards will increase the range of missiles to more than 2,000 kilometres, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday.
The United States accused Iran this month of supplying Yemen’s Houthi rebels with a missile that was fired into Saudi Arabia in July and called for the United Nations to hold Tehran accountable for violating two UN Security Council resolutions.
Iran has denied supplying Houthis with missiles and weapons.
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said last month that Iran’s 2,000-kilometre missile range could cover “most of American interest and forces” within the region, and Iran does not need to extend it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel and Saudi Arabia: What’s Shaping the Covert ‘Alliance’
To all intents and purposes, Saudi Arabia and Israel are de facto allies in the struggle against Iran’s rising influence in the region. It’s a developing but highly sensitive relationship, but every so often there is a hint of what may be going on beneath the surface.
Last week Israel’s Chief of Staff, General Gadi Eisenkot, said in an interview with UK-based Saudi newspaper Elaph, that Israel was ready to exchange intelligence with the Saudis in order to confront Iran.
“There are shared interests and as far as the Iranian axis is concerned we are in full accord with the Saudis,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Nobel Women’ Laureates Urge Saudis to End Blockade on Yemen
A group of Nobel Peace Laureates on Monday urged the Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen to end their blockade on the Arab world’s poorest country that has deprived it of much-needed aid and squeezed it to the brink of famine.
Over the past two years, the war in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 people and left over 3 million displaced amid the coalition’s air campaign.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Reuters: Iran Warns it Will Bring Europe Into Missile Range if Threatened
Iran has warned that if Europe threatens Tehran the Revolutionary Guard will work to increase the range of their missiles, bringing European cities into the range of strikes, reports Reuters.
The news agency reports:
The deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the Guards will increase the range of missiles to above 2,000 kilometers, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday.
France has called for an “uncompromising” dialogue with Iran about its ballistic missile program and a possible negotiation over the issue separate from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia in Syria: ‘Victory’ In War But Can Moscow Win the Peace?
Russia has emerged from the Syrian crisis with its military and diplomatic reputation significantly enhanced. But this has been achieved amid huge controversy over the means used and amid much international criticism.
It has ensured the survival of the Assad regime at the same time expanding its own small military footprint in the country. But the diplomatic ramifications too have been considerable.
It, not the United States, is the “go to” player. Russia is marshalling a loose alliance of Iran and Turkey to try to plot Syria’s future. Even the Saudis have had to beat a path to Moscow’s door.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Cypriots Split Over Islam’s Rise in Northern Cyprus
But the construction of the huge mosque has become emblematic of fears held by some Turkish Cypriots that a resurgence of the Islamic faith is a direct assault on their long-held secular way of life, and a means by which Turkey can further expand and entrench its control over all facets of their 270,000-strong community.
Religious leaders and education authorities in the north counter such talk as baseless fear-mongering among a radically secular few. They insist what’s happening is the restoration of Islam at the core of Turkish Cypriots’ collective identity, as it was for centuries.
Leftist Turkish Cypriots have long bemoaned Turkey’s high-handed ways with Turkish Cypriots, especially after the island was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup by supporters of union with Greece. But the issue has again come to the fore after a promising round of talks with the majority Greek Cypriots to reach a reunification deal failed in the summer.
Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence. It keeps more than 35,000 troops in the north.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bali Volcano: Non-Evacuees May be Forced to Leave Area
People who have not left their homes around a rumbling volcano in Bali may be forcibly evicted, Indonesian authorities have said. Tens of thousands of people stayed put near Mount Agung after an alert was raised to its highest level.
The island’s airport has now closed, leaving thousands stranded in the tourist hotspot.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Supreme Court Intervenes in ‘Love Jihad’ Case
The Indian Supreme Court has intervened in the case of a Hindu woman whose marriage to a Muslim man was earlier annulled by the high court in Kerala.
The top court allowed Hadiya Jahan, earlier known by her Hindu name Akhila Asokan, to resume studies and appointed her college dean as her guardian.
Her case has grabbed headlines in India, with her father alleging that she was forced to convert to Islam.
But Hadiya has always insisted that she acted out of her own free will.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Opinion: Pakistan’s Ignominious Surrender to Islamists
November 27 will be remembered as a “black day” in Pakistan — a day when religious hardliners forced the entire state to surrender over a blasphemy row. And the military sided with Islamists, writes DW’s Shamil Shams.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, and Islamic groups have the street power to paralyze the country. So when the police operation couldn’t break up the Islamabad blockade and disperse Islamists, the government ordered the military to assist with the operation. But army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa “advised” Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to deal with protesters “peacefully” and engage in political dialogue.
The army, which political analysts believe is the most powerful institution in Pakistan, also reportedly said they would not intervene in the violent situation as they could not use force against their “own people.” It was a hint, an indirect message to the government that the army would not side with them in confronting religious extremists.
After these developments on Sunday, it was pretty clear that the only option for the civilian government was to surrender to Islamists. This happened on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Islamists Call Off Protests After Minister Resigns
Pakistani Islamists who clashed with police at the weekend have called off national protests after the resignation of Law Minister Zahid Hamid.
Reports from Islamabad and other cities say protesters are starting to leave.
The civilian government is being criticised for backing down in the crisis, which raises new questions about the military’s role in Pakistani politics.
The law minister was accused by the protesters of blasphemy after a reference to the Prophet Muhammad was left out of a revised version of the electoral oath. He called it a clerical error.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Relatives Kill Newlyweds for Free-Will Marriage
Pakistani police say they have arrested ten people for killing a newly-wed couple who entered into a free-will marriage in the southern port city of Karachi. Officer Qasim Hameed said Monday that Abdul Hadi, 24, and Hasina Bibi, 19, were killed by relatives last week for marrying without permission from their elders earlier this month.
Nearly 1,000 Pakistani women are killed by close relatives each year in so-called honor killings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sri Lanka Arrests 22 Trying to Go to Australia by Boat
Sri Lankan police said Monday that they have arrested 22 people who were attempting to migrate illegally to Australia by boat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism is a Threat to Humanity: Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Every government in the world now sees terrorism as its biggest challenge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday, pointing out that while India repeatedly raised the issue, many in the world did not take the threat seriously until a few years ago.
“We in India are facing a lot for the last 40 years on account of terrorism,” the prime minister said on his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio show, which also marked the ninth anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
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Beijing Criticises Australia Over South China Sea Policy
China has criticised Australia for making “irresponsible remarks” over the South China Sea in a policy paper.
Beijing said the paper was generally positive towards China, but Australia should not get involved in the dispute.
Rival countries have wrangled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tension has steadily increased in recent years.
Its islets and waters are claimed in part or in whole by Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
Beijing has been building artificial islands on reefs and carrying out naval patrols in waters also claimed by these other nations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China is taking its multibillion-yuan “toilet revolution” nationwide as the door closes on a three-year bathroom blitz at tourist sites.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said public toilets throughout the country — from rural villages to urban areas — should be upgraded to help improve living standards, Xinhua reported on Monday.
“Toilet issues are not petty matters but an important aspect of improving infrastructure in urban and rural areas,” Xi was quoted as saying.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Could Ghost Imaging Spy Satellite be a Game Changer for Chinese Military?
China is developing a new type of spy satellite using ghost imaging technology that could change the game of military cat and mouse within a decade, according to scientists involved in the project.
Existing camouflage techniques — from simple smoke bombs used to hide tanks or soldiers on battlefields to the hi-tech radar absorption materials on a stealth aircraft or warship — would be of no use against ghost imaging, physics experts said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Key Work Finished on Chinese Submersible to Carry Humans to Greater Depths
The exit and observation window have been completed on a titanium sphere — a key part of a submersible being built by a Chinese state-owned company to carry humans to 10,000 metres below sea level.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Six Years After Tsunami, Debate on What to Do With Fukushima’s Tanks
More than six years after a tsunami overwhelmed the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan has yet to reach consensus on what to do with a million tons of radioactive water, stored on site in around 900 large and densely packed tanks that could spill should another major earthquake or tsunami strike.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US, South Korea Warn North Korea Using Bullhorn on Armistice Violations, Reports Say
U.S. and South Korean authorities used a bullhorn to reprimand North Korea regarding several armistice violations, with at least one U.S. Navy official reportedly standing in the rain at the Demilitarized Zone to admonish Kim Jong Un’s regime that “this sort of thing should never occur again.”
The violations occurred after several of the Hermit Kingdom’s soldiers chased a comrade who was defecting to South Korea earlier this month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A court in Vietnam jailed a blogger on Monday for seven years for “conducting propaganda against the state”, the latest action against a critic of the one-party state
Nguyen Van Hoa, 22, rose to prominence after a toxic waste spill from a steel mill built by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Corp’s Vietnam unit that polluted more than 200km of coast, sparking rare protests in the Communist Party-ruled country.
Despite sweeping economic reforms and growing openness to social change, including gay, lesbian and transgender rights, Vietnam retains tight media censorship and its government does not tolerate criticism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Vaccination; All Doctors Under the Gun; Minister of Health Keeps Lying
Welcome to the Australian state of Victoria, where the minister of health, Jill Hennessy, has just put all doctors under the gun.
Vaccinating every child has become so important to Hennessey, she’s declared that a doctor who writes an exemption will be ignored. In fact, that doctor, by implication, will be considered “rogue.”
He could have his license to practice stripped. He could be prosecuted. He could be denied a way to earn a living.
Instead, in order to allow a child an exemption from taking vaccines, evidence must be shown from some sort of medical registry. How this system will work is not clear.
What is clear: In violation of privacy, all children’s medical records and history will be recorded and made available to health/government authorities, who will then see whether there is a prior incident where a child has reacted badly to a vaccine, whether the child has an allergy to vaccine ingredients (such as chicken eggs), whether there is a history of adverse vaccine reactions in the child’s family.
The government, not the child’s doctor, will decide whether vaccination can be skipped or must take place.
And because the State is firmly and irretrievably pro-vaccine, despite evidence showing vaccines are ineffective and dangerous, you can see how this plan will work out. Like sheep, children will be led into the pen where the needles are waiting.
Doctors who stand up and say no to vaccination, for any reason, will be excommunicated.
So it is now time for doctors, singly, and in groups, to stand up and speak up. Their silence is collaboration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fault Line Wakes Up: New Zealand Could be Destroyed by Massive 9.0 Earthquake
A 2016 earthquake has awoken a fault line that was thought to be dormant. Now that it’s becoming active, fears have arisen that New Zealand could be destriyed by a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Melbourne Man Planned New Year’s Eve Terror Attack, Police Say
Australian police have arrested a man they allege was planning to carry out a terror attack during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Melbourne.
The 20-year-old man will be charged with terrorism offences that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, authorities said.
Police allege the man had planned to shoot people with an automatic gun at Federation Square in the city’s centre.
There is no ongoing threat to the public, police said.
Authorities said the man had not obtained an automatic weapon before his arrest in Werribee, a Melbourne suburb, on Monday.
“What we will be alleging is that he was intending to use a firearm to shoot and kill as many people as he could,” Victoria Police deputy commissioner Shane Patton said on Tuesday.
“This is a person who would become particularly energised, for a lack of a better word, when overseas [terrorism] events occurred and would express a great deal of interest in committing an attack himself.”
Last year, about 500,000 people celebrated New Year’s Eve in Melbourne’s city centre.
Mr Patton said the suspect was born in Australia to Somali parents and had been monitored by police as a “person of interest” since January.
He had obtained an al-Qaeda manual online with instructions for staging a terrorist attack, and was a sympathiser of so-called Islamic State, according to police.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Why Climate Change is Creating a New Generation of Child Brides
As global warming exacerbates drought and floods, farmers’ incomes plunge — and girls as young as 13 are given away to stave off poverty.
The new factor is climate change, says Mac Bain Mkandawire, executive director of Youth Net and Counselling, which campaigns for the rights of women and children from its base in Zomba, Malawi.
“We do not have detailed figures, but I would say 30% to 40% of child marriages in Malawi are due to the floods and droughts caused by climate change,” he says. There are no detailed figures, he explains, because no one has previously thought to connect the two issues and to ask the right questions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels Police Officer Says We Are at War With Immigrant Youth
This is a partial translation of a Belgian magazine’s interview with policemen following recent riots in Brussels. We’ve made it a monologue to fully focus on what is really happening in Belgium’s capital. Let’s listen to the police:
We constantly clash with young, lefty judges who believe that we are racists. The leftist anti-racist “don’t want to know” government policies are causing the extremely frustrated Brussels police to lose the street war. The police chiefs do not dare to take risks. They have no experience with enforcement of the law. They are supposed to be capable of leading a squad in a street war but are more likely to need a change of underwear when faced with a street battle situation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chad: The Unexpected Migration Debate
Many Chadians are surprised: Since France’s President Emmanuel Macron has been planning to set up asylum centers in Chad, the country has been the focus of a migration debate. But on the ground, it’s not really an issue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Car Ploughs Into Calais Police Headed for Britain
MIGRANTS ploughed into a group of riot police at a roadblock in Calais.
The migrants crashed the car, registered in Germany, into the police barricade, with officers responding with gunfire as the car came hurtling towards them.
Nine people, including suspected people smugglers, were arrested after the crash, which took place near the ring road leading to the port of Calais just after 8pm local time (7pm GMT) on Saturday. Three of the men come from war-torn Afghanistan, while six come from Iraq, local officials said.
A source close to the case said: “One riot police officer suffered a knee injury when the car ploughed into the roadblock.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: “Second Chance” Could be Offered to Many Child Asylum Seekers
A government proposal could allow unaccompanied children who sought asylum before 24 November 2015 a chance to stay in Sweden.
In order to qualify, applicants would have to be in full-time education. Alternatively, they must have previously been studying, and now have the intention to take up their studies again. Both academic and vocational studies would be acceptable.
The proposal was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lövin, Labour Market Minister Ylva Johansson, Education Minister Gustav Fridolin and Minister for Migration Heléne Fritzon in Stockholm on Monday afternoon.
The Greens had long been campaigning to lift restrictions on unaccompanied minors, but until now had been unable to reach an agreement with their Social Democratic governing partners.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Government Told to Accept High Immigration or Forget Trade Deal With India After Brexit
Britain will struggle to sign new free trade deals with economic powerhouses like India after Brexit unless it is willing to accept high levels of immigration from these countries into Britain.
That’s according to Lord Bilimoria, co-founder of Cobra beer, and one of Britain’s most well-known entrepreneurs.
Bilimoria spoke to Business Insider on Friday following International Trade Secretary Liam Fox’s claim that his efforts to make Britain a great trading nation are being undermined by the unwillingness of British businesses to export.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Complaints Over New Zealand Commonwealth Games Transgender Selection Laurel Hubbard
Australia’s weightlifting chief says New Zealand’s selection of transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard will create an uneven playing field at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
Hubbard, who will compete in the 90kg-plus division on the Gold Coast, will be the first transgender athlete to represent New Zealand at a Commonwealth Games.
As Gavin Hubbard, the 39-year-old was a national junior record-holder in the male 105kg class before she transitioned into a woman in her mid-30s.
Rival athletes complained that she had an unfair advantage after she won gold at the Australian Open this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hijab Barbie: Useful Idiots of the Cultural Jihad
Far from being a symbol of empowerment, the new Hijab Barbie is an example of a cultural and civilizational jihad — and the submission of a Western company, Mattel, to that jihad. Cultural jihad is the attempt to change and subvert Western culture from within, or more simply put: to Islamize it.
Rather than reminding girls of a world of opportunities, the hijab reminds them of all the things they cannot do in many Muslim countries. These include decisions about their own lives and bodies, such as not having their genitals mutilated, and generally not leading the free lives that women in the West — including the ones working at Mattel — probably take for granted
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Government Commits to Improving Living Conditions for Trans People
An investigation into a third legal gender and gender-neutral toilets were some of the ideas proposed on Monday by a government inquiry into the living conditions of trans people in Sweden.
Earlier reports have shown that the living conditions for trans people in Sweden are worse than for the average person, and they are more likely to rate their health as poor or to take their own lives than cis people (those who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Truth Behind ‘Transgender’ Deaths
I examined online reports of each of the 25 American individuals on the Human Rights Campaign’s “Violence Against the Transgender Community” list for 2017. I looked specifically for mainstream media accounts — such as the Chicago Tribune, the Times Picayune (more than once), the Baltimore Sun, the Miami Herald, and so on. In other words, I looked for news publications that had almost every reason in the world to stick to the LGBT agenda on “transgender” deaths. Though the articles often hopefully hinted that a possible “hate criminal” was behind the murders, there was not one single person the media could definitively claim was the victim of a “hate crime.”
Quite the contrary, more than one “transgender” person died as the result of violently attacking the police. Others were involved in dangerous activities such as prostitution, gang activity, or drug use, and still others had shown themselves to be prone to violence. In other words, much — if not most — of the “violence against transgenders” is due to the poor lifestyle choices of those who reject simple science and morality.
If the mainstream media really wanted to tell the truth when it comes to death and the gender-deluded, it would do well to note the dangers of denying basic biology and the tragic results that often accompany attempting the impossible-”transitioning” from one sex to another. Instead, the media again embraces a lie and is guilty of malpractice.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Digital Tyranny: Google Will Make ‘Those Kinds of Sites’ Harder to Find
This has been an ongoing project of the search giant, long in the making, and already underway. In fact, this website, 21stCenturyWire.com, has felt the impact of its content being ‘disappeared’ in Google’s search results — resulting in a drop of over 50% in our organic search query traffic since April.
It’s ‘those kinds of sites’ like RT, Sputnik, 21WIRE and many others that are targets in the grand plan, as outlined here by Robert Parry of Consortium News:
“You don’t need a huge amount of imagination to see how this combination of mainstream groupthink and artificial intelligence could create an orwellian future in which only one side of a story gets told and the other side simply disappears from view.”
Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, says the company will “engineer” specific algorithms for RT and Sputnik to make their articles less prominent on the search engine’s news delivery services.
“We are working on detecting and de-ranking those kinds of sites — it’s basically RT and Sputnik,” Schmidt said during a Q & A session at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada on Saturday, when asked about whether Google facilitates “Russian propaganda.”
[Comment: Why bother using google anymore? 10 alternatives to google: https://www.bforblogging.com/best-google-alternative-search-engines-list/ ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Enlisting Viruses as Allies to Fight ‘Superbugs’
As infections become harder to treat because of drug resistance, creating so-called superbugs, scientists are once again enlisting help from the oldest enemy of bacteria: viruses. Though researchers have used bacteriophages (Latin for “bacteria eaters”) to treat people for a century, these biological agents have been largely ignored in much of the world since antibiotics became available. That’s changing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |