Two Danish men were attacked and wounded by a knife-wielding man in a market in Gabon. The knifeman’s motive is not known, but he reportedly yelled “Allahu Akhbar” before the attack. The unfortunate incident had nothing to do with Islam.
In other news, Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned President Trump to thank him for a CIA tip that enabled the Russian authorities to arrest seven Islamic State terrorists before they could carry out a series of attacks inside Russia.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Charles Low, Dean, Dora, Fjordman, LP, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Bitcoin to ‘Soar to $60k’ Before ‘Russia and China Engineer Crash’, Saxo Bank Predicts
The cryptocurrency will continue to rise “during most of 2018” peaking at an eye-watering £45,000 ($60,000) until Moscow and Beijing begin a crackdown on digital currencies, according to Saxo Bank.
Cryptocurrency experts made the forecast as part of the company’s “outrageous predictions” for 2018, events the Danish bank says are “highly unlikely” but “with under-appreciated potential” to send shockwaves through financial markets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UBS Chairman Warns of ‘Bitcoin Bubble’
Axel Weber, the board chairman of big bank UBS, has warned of a possible Bitcoin currency crash. With increasing numbers of small investors jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, it is time for regulators to intervene, he says.
Bitcoin has surged from $1,000 (CHF990) at the start of the year to above $16,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blackout Continues at Atlanta Airport
Hundreds of Monday flights canceled
An underground fire caused a complete power outage Sunday afternoon at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, resulting in thousands of canceled flights at the world’s busiest terminal and affecting travelers worldwide.
Here are the latest updates:
10:42 pm — Georgia Power says repairs are “well underway” in restoring power to the airport.
10:15 pm — Mayor Kasim Reed says all passengers have been deplaned.
10 pm — City officials have mobilized the Georgia International Convention Center and will provide shuttle services for anyone who needs a place to stay for the night. Chick-fil-A is providing food for passengers.
9:37 pm — Delta has canceled 300 flights on Monday as a result of today’s airport blackout.
8:59 pm — During a live press conference, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says there is no evidence to suggest the fire that caused the airport blackout was the result of criminal activity…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump Allies Say Special Counsel ‘Unlawfully’ Obtained Thousands of Emails
US President Donald Trump’s transition team has accused special counsel Robert Mueller of “unlawfully” gaining access to thousands of private emails as part of a probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
FBI-Gate: Deep State in Deep Spit
Who says it couldn’t happen here?
Call me a sentimentalist, but I liked the days when FBI agents went undercover as subversives better than today when subversives go undercover as FBI agents.
“Maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace,” FBI agent Lisa Page texted colleague and lover Peter Strzok. “I can protect our country at many levels,” Strzok responded.
Presumably, these “levels” included Strzok changing language in FBI director James Comey’s report on the Hillary Clinton server scandal that initially described her actions as “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless,” an alteration that removed verbiage potentially triggering an indictment. Strzok also signed the document that launched the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and personally interrogated former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Why did a partisan so emotionally invested in the presidential election play such a “Where’s Waldo?” role in all of the recent high-profile investigations? Strzok was everywhere even if we only spotted him after much delay.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strozk wrote Page about a conversation about Trump in the office of current FBI director Andrew McCabe. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
In January, the Justice Department’s inspector general launched an investigation into a possible conflict of interest involving McCabe’s failure to disclose donations to his wife by arguably the closest political ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Terry McAuliffe. The governor of Virginia recruited McCabe’s wife, Jill, to run for state senate in the commonwealth and donated $467,500 from his political action committee into her coffers.
The Department of Justice demoted Bruce Ohr last week for hiding secret meetings with Fusion GPS, the opposition research outfit that paid, with money received from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, for the so-called “dossier” smearing Donald Trump with outlandish allegations based, in some instances, on second— and third-hand information. Fusion GPS hired Ohr’s wife to investigate Trump.
Like McCabe, Page, and Strzok, the lawyers working for special counsel Robert Mueller strangely — or perhaps not so strangely — exhibit an extremely partisan bent. According to Politifact, they gave $62,043 in donations to Democrats and $2,750 to Republicans in campaigns for federal offices.
People unaffected, or even pleased, by the feds intercepting private conversations of associates of the Republican presidential candidate in the midst of a campaign vehemently denounce these invasions into the privacy of these public servants, as though texts on tax-funded Justice Department cell phones or the political donations of federal lawyers should remain off limits to eyes.
“Publication of someone’s private texts — even if they are conducted on government phones — is an astonishing breach of privacy…. FBI officers and lawyers are American citizens with the same free speech rights as the rest of us,” Eli Lake writes at Bloomberg.
That op-ed, posted without an accompanying laugh track, highlights the inability of partisans to apply the same standards to their enemies that they reserve for their allies. This gets to the heart of why stacking the team investigating the president with people who despise him represents an abuse of power. It’s not merely the wrong optics. It’s wrong.
“Bought all the president’s men,” FBI agent Lisa Page texted her beau. “Figure I needed to brush up on watergate.”
Alas, she gleaned the wrong lesson. The Watergate scandal involved a presidential administration illegally snooping on the opposition party’s presidential candidate. Sound familiar?…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Illinois: Muslim Students at Catholic Univ Complain Christmas Gets Too Much Attention
Muslim students who knew they were enrolling into a Catholic university are now expressing dismay that come Christmas time, the campus is decorated for the holiday season. They want Islamic holidays to receive the same attention even though they represent just a small fraction of the entire student population.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Milo Yiannopoulos on Net Neutrality: ‘Soros Funded Groups Are Pushing Lies”
Controversial right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has weighed in on the Net Neutrality debate. Yiannopoulos claims that George Soros-funded organizations are telling lies to bring about government control of the internet.
“The Soros-funded organizations that are pushing Net Neutrality and advocating for more government control of the internet have told you two big lies,” Yiannopoulos told an audience in a video posted on his Facebook page.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Mueller’s Team Accused by Trump Lawyer of Inappropriately Obtaining Thousands of Emails
The special counsel probing whether US President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia has unlawfully received tens of thousands of emails, a lawyer for Trump’s transition alleges, according to US media.
In a letter to congressional committees, Kory Langhofer says the General Services Administration (GSA) “unlawfully produced” the private materials, including privileged communications which special counsel Robert Mueller then used as part of his Russia probe, Axios news site reported on Saturday.
GSA is the government agency which supports presidential transitions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump’s Regulatory Rollback: Not 2 to 1 But 22 to 1!
In his first 11 months in office, President Donald Trump is keeping another of his campaign promises: reducing regulations so that the economy can breathe again. Speaking in the Roosevelt Room — an irony that may have been intended — Trump summarized brilliantly exactly how the greatest economic miracle in history got bogged down:
Congress has abandoned much of its responsibility to legislate [see Article I, Section I of the U.S. Constitution: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States”], and has instead given unelected regulators … extraordinary power to control the lives of others. The courts have let this massive power grab go almost completely unchecked and have almost always ruled in favor of big government. With billions and billions of dollars wasted, regulation is a stealth taxation. So many of these enormous regulatory burdens were imposed on our citizens with no vote, no debate, and no accountability.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A terrorist attack in Britain over Christmas is likelier than ever as around 20,000 extremists roam the country’s street, a former anti-terror chief has warned.
Chris Phillips, who was once head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, has said there should be ‘no surprise’ if terrorists strike before December 25.
His warning comes after ISIS propaganda threatening to attack Christmas shoppers on Britain’s High Streets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: New Government to Resist “Islamization”
by Soeren Kern
A coalition between the anti-immigration Austrian People’s Party and the anti-establishment Austrian Freedom Party, which will be sworn into office on December 18, is poised to catapult Austria to the vanguard of Western Europe’s resistance to mass migration from the Muslim world.
The massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country, appears irreversible. Austria has also emerged as a major base for radical Islam.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bronze-Age Tomb Discovered Near Loch Ness
LOCH NESS, SCOTLAND—BBC News reports that a second Bronze-Age burial has been found on the western shore of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. A single Beaker pot was found in the 4,000-year-old cist, which had filled with soil. The small pot, which has a flared neck and a simple, incised decoration, may have held an offering.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christmas Market Terrorist Anis Amri May Have Been Used as ‘Lure’: German Newspaper
According to data obtained by Welt newspaper, German authorities knew more than a year in advance that Anis Amri presented a clear danger. Intelligence services may have hoped that he would lead them to other terrorists.
If a report in the Sunday edition of Welt newspaper is accurate, the story of Anis Amri — the Tunisian terrorist who killed 12 people on December 19, 2016, when he drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz — will have to be rewritten.
After analyzing thousands of files from the Federal Criminal Investigations Office (BKA), dozens of reports by informers and records of internet and mobile phone surveillance, the paper concluded that police and intelligence agencies knew that Amri had posed a terrorist threat since at least November 2015 — far earlier than previously thought.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christians “Slaughtered Like Chicken”
Luc Ravel, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Strasbourg “went against the grain of Church leaders in France who have largely remained politically correct,” states a report, because he criticized “the demographic shift in France. Muslims, he said, are having far more children than native French, and slammed the widespread ‘promotion’ of abortion.” “Muslim believers,” he continued, “know very well that their birthrate is such that today, they call it … the Great Replacement, they tell you in a very calm, very positive way that, ‘one day all this, it will be ours.’“
Another Christian leader, while discussing Sudan in particular, touched on what Christians throughout the Muslim world are facing, and why. “The government in Sudan wants to Islamize the whole population and they want to finish off Christianity and other faiths in Sudan,” said Pastor Strong. “We have to put pressure on the government so that the rights of the people to practice their faith openly will be given to them.” To achieve this, he added, they need the support of the “global Church”: “They are in the midst of trials, persecution, hunger — a lot of problems. And yet in the midst of all that, they rejoice. They’re always ready to die, and they testify their faith in every circumstance. They are willing to serve no matter what they have and what they might lose.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘EU is Killing Europe’ Brussels Condemned as Threat to Economy and Security
THE European Union has been condemned as a “disaster” and a threat to Europe’s economy and security as leaders of the far-right gathered in Prague.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Vows to Fight Local and ‘Imported’ Anti-Semitism
Germany should appoint an anti-Semitism commissioner to counter growing hate speech against Jews and Israel from both its home-grown far right and the immigrant community, the interior minister said on Sunday.
Thomas de Maiziere spoke days after protesters in Berlin burnt Israeli flags to protest the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
“Every criminal act motivated by anti-Semitism is one too many and a shame for our country,” de Maiziere, the caretaker minister since inconclusive September elections, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germans Knew Berlin Christmas Market Terrorist Planned to Attack Nearly a Year in Advance
Germany’s intelligence services knew Berlin Christmas market terrorist Anis Amri downloaded bomb making instructions on his phone nearly a year prior to a Dec. 2016 incident, German media reports.
German police were reportedly approached by an informant about Amri in Nov. 2015 and had his cell phone under surveillance when they learned of him downloading terror instruction manuals. Ten months prior to the attack German authorities also knew that Amri was using his cell phone to message Islamic State operatives in Libya.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy 5 Star Party Keeps Option Open on Euro Referendum
MILAN (Reuters) — The leader of Italy’s main opposition party said he was keeping the option of a referendum on the euro open in the event his party won elections and failed to convince Brussels of the need to change some of the euro zone’s economic rules.
In comments made on state TV on Sunday, Luigi Di Maio, the man widely tipped to be the candidate for prime minister of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, said he wanted to negotiate concessions on EU governance.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Norway to Decriminalize Drug Use
Norway’s parliament has voted to decriminalise drug use.
Users caught with small amounts of drugs — from marijuana to heroin, and everything in between — won’t be arrested or charged, but instead be offered treatment.
The move was inspired by a recent trip to Portugal by a government health committee. Portugal decriminalised drugs in 2001, and has seen use plummet since then.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Crown Prince ‘Buyer of $300 Mn French Chateau’
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been revealed as the owner of a French chateau described as the world’s most expensive home, according to a report in the New York Times.
The purchase of the vast property west of Paris for $300 million (€275 million) would be the latest in a string of extravagant purchases by the powerful prince, who has been waging a sweeping anti-corruption campaign.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘My life is not easy. There’s a lot of aggro to deal with,’ he says. ‘I can’t walk down the street in London on my own. The level of aggression and unpleasantness is constant. I’ll never be able to live a normal life in London.
‘I have thought about the States. Life is easier over there, but I am very English. I like going to watch cricket at Lord’s. I like my walks on the North Downs [near his home in Kent]. So, we’ll just have to see. It’s quite tough.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A taxi driver found with an arsenal of weapons and £1.5m worth of drugs was starting a 20-year 10 month prison sentence today. Mohammed Asif leapt naked from an upstairs window when police burst into his home in the early hours of May 26, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A 16-year-old schoolboy was subject to a beating by a group of men after he was spotted talking to a girl who was in his class, a court has heard.
The Bengali student was taken prisoner by the Pakistani girl’s uncle, before her father, brother and cousin all joined in the attack, a court was told.
Preston Crown Court heard the boy was escorted to a cul-de-sac, where he was repeatedly kicked in the head, battered with weapons and told: “Don’t mess with our blood — find someone your own kind.”
As the victim fought for his life onlookers — thought to include women — were heard shouting: “Kill him, kick him in the head, finish him off.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Suspects Sought After Gay Men Assaulted, Told ‘You Are Not Welcome’ In Multicultural London
Police in Walthamstow have issued e-fit images of suspects wanted in connection with two homophobic assaults on gay men who were told they were “not welcome” in the area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Told to Keep Out of Catalonia Crisis
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been told to keep out of Catalonia’s separatist crisis.
Mr Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, has angered Spain’s government by using his Twitter account to post messages of support for Catalan independence and accuse Madrid of “repression”.
Spanish foreign minister Alfonso Dastis has said there were signs that Mr Assange was attempting to “interfere and manipulate”, following him meeting with a prominent Catalan pro-independence figure.
Now Ecuador’s President has stepped into the row.
Lenin Moreno told the Spanish newspaper El Pais: “We do not want to intervene under any circumstances with respect to Catalonia. We hope the problem is resolved as soon as possible for the benefit of all Spaniards.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza Rocket Smashes Into Israeli Town Near Border, Damaging Home
No injuries reported as two missiles fired at southern Israel, latest in upswing of attacks amid rise in tensions with Palestinian enclave
A rocket fired by a terrorist group in the Gaza Strip on Sunday night struck next to a home in an Israeli community north of the coastal enclave, causing damage but no injuries, according to media reports.
The army confirmed that two rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip and struck inside Israel, in the Hof Ashkelon region.
Police said that one rocket hit inside an Israeli community, and the other struck an open field, causing neither damage nor injury. The names of the communities were not immediately cleared for publication.
A photograph that was posted on social media appeared to show damage caused to the house. An outside wall was charred and several concrete tiles surrounding the home were destroyed.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Devastated Family of British Embassy Employee Found Dead in Beirut Reveal Heartbreaking Loss
A UK woman working for the British Embassy in Beirut has been found dead.
Rebecca Dykes’ body was found on Saturday close to the Metn expressway, in the Lebanese capital. Sources have confirmed to the Mirror that Lebanese authorities have now launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances of Ms Dykes’ death.
It is reported by Al Jadeed TV that Ms Dykes, who was in her 30s, had been raped and murdered some time after leaving her friends. The BBC added that senior police sources revealed that she had been strangled.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The German schoolgirl who followed her jihadi lover to Iraq and joined ISIS before being captured in Mosul this year has been reunited with her mother.
Linda Wenzel, from the town of Pulsnitz in Saxony, joined the Islamist terror group at the age of 15.
She was said to have worked for a female-only brigade that whipped women if they were not wearing the right clothes.
Linda forged her mum’s signature last year to buy a ticket to Istanbul, before moving into ISIS territory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A notorious Australian jihadi who was deported from the country for plotting terrorist attacks has vanished and is believed to have been killed in an act of retribution.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Prepare for Attacks Trying to Bring Down Muslims From Within: Erdogan
The Muslim world is the target of plots to reshape it to the benefit of others, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his address on Dec. 16.
“Like a century ago, the Islamic world faces attempts to reshape it through blood, tears and intercenine warfare,” Erdogan said in Istanbul, at the 7th Hadith and Sira Studies Awards Ceremony.
He called on people “to be ready for attacks that aim to bring down Muslims from within.”
“As Muslims fight each other, the ones that benefit are terrorist groups, and terrorist states such as Israel,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Slams Austria ‘Discrimination’ Over New Government Programme
Turkey on Sunday slammed the incoming Austrian government, a coalition between conservatives and the far-right, for “discrimination” after its programme contained a pledge that Vienna will not agree to Ankara joining the EU.
The landmark coalition deal, marking the return to power in Austria of the Freedom Party (FPOe), has sparked ripples of concern throughout Europe after a year of successes for far-right movements in Europe.
The chancellor-elect, Sebastian Kurz of the conservative People’s Party (OeVP), already has a deeply-fractious relationship with Ankara due to his staunch opposition to Turkey’s EU bid while serving as foreign minister.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kremlin Says Putin Thanked Trump for CIA Tip on Bombings
Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned U.S. President Donald Trump Sunday to thank him for a CIA tip that helped thwart a series of bombings in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin said.
During the call, the two leaders’ second in three days, Putin expressed gratitude for the CIA information. The Kremlin said it allowed Russia’s top domestic security agency to track down a group of suspects that planned to bomb Kazan Cathedral and other crowded sites this weekend.
“The information received from the CIA proved sufficient to find and detain the criminal suspects,” the Kremlin said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Called Trump to Thank Him for CIA Tip That Prevented Terrorist Bombings
The Kremlin confirmed today that the Trump administration and Russia have indeed colluded…To save lives from a looming terrorist attack!
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Seven ISIS Terror Suspects Caught Red-Handed in St. Petersburg
Seven alleged members of the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) were detained in Saint Petersburg on Friday. The group was reportedly planning to carry out several attacks.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Putin Call: CIA Helped Stop Russia Terror Attack
Information provided by the CIA helped Russian security services foil an attack on St Petersburg’s Kazan cathedral, US and Russian leaders say.
President Vladimir Putin phoned Donald Trump to thank him for the information, the White House and Kremlin confirmed.
The attack was allegedly planned to take place on Saturday, Russia says.
A White House statement said “terrorists” were captured prior to an attack “that could have killed large numbers of people”.
Russia’s FSB security service said in a statement on Friday that it had detained seven members of a cell of Islamic State supporters and seized a significant amount of explosives, weapons and extremist literature.
The cell was planning to carry out a suicide attack at a religious institution and kill citizens on Saturday, the FSB statement said (in Russian).
The group was preparing explosions targeting the cathedral and other public places in Russia’s second city, the Kremlin statement said on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A sense of fear has settled into Muslims of every social class and region, the ever-lurking idea that they are unsafe, that they must adjust to second-class citizenship
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Bombers Attack Pakistan Church, Killing at Least 9, Officials Say
Two suicide bombers attacked a church in Pakistan where hundreds of worshippers were attending service ahead of Christmas, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens of others, officials said.
One of the suicide bombers was shot dead outside Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, but the other assailant made it to the church’s entrance hall as Sunday services opened, said Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister for the southwestern Baluchistan province. The gunman — who didn’t gain access to the main building — opened fire at the churchgoers before detonating his explosive vest.
“There were nearly 400 people inside the church, but the attackers couldn’t get inside the services,” provincial police chief Moazzam Jah told Reuters. “We killed one of them, and the other one exploded himself after police wounded him,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Videos: Suicide Bombers Attack Pakistani Church Ahead of Christmas
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber attack in Pakistan in the city of Quetta on December 17 2017.
CAUTION: The video below contains images inside the Church after the attack that may be disturbing to some.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Fallout With Australia: The Tip of the Iceberg?
As Beijing’s influence in the global economy grows and Washington’s clout recedes under its “America First” policy, political fallouts similar to that between China and Australia are to be expected.
Even before President Donald Trump’s presidency, China was making strides as a world power. The “Belt and Road Initiative”, in which Beijing plans to invest US$1 trillion in the next five years in a New Silk Road that will involve the building of infrastructure across some 65 countries, revealed its ambition to become an even bigger force in the global economy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Tourists Flock to Sichuan Province for Start of Annual Pig Festival
Crowds gather to see porkers carried through streets of ancient town as three-week celebration gets off to a crackling start
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
While the ‘Made in China’ label has long held negative connotations, the newly embraced ‘Created in China’ designation celebrates a nation that is blazing a trail in manufacturing, technology and the new economy
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NoKo’s Commemoration of the Death of Kim Jong Il
North Koreans on Sunday marked the sixth anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, the former leader of the country and father of current leader Kim Jong Un.
The commemoration came amid heightened tensions with the U.S. over concerns about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Bearing flowers, thousands of somber-faced North Koreans were photographed bowing in front of statues and portraits of their leaders in freezing weather.
[See video at URL]
As sullen, recorded music played, the mourners marched up Pyongyang’s Mansu Hill and placed flowers at the feet of two giant bronze statues of Kim Jong Il and national founder Kim Il Sung, who is North Korea’s “eternal president” and Kim Jong Un’s grandfather.
Kim Jong Il died at age 69 on Dec. 17, 2011, reportedly of a heart attack. Kim was known to have had health problems in the years before his death, including a stroke in 2008…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
‘North Korea is a Time Bomb’: Government Advisers Urge China to Prepare for War
China must be ready for a war on the Korean peninsula, with the risk of conflict higher than ever before, Chinese government advisers and a retired senior military officer warned on Saturday.
Beijing, once seen as Pyongyang’s key ally with sway over its neighbour, was losing control of the situation, they warned.
“Conditions on the peninsula now make for the biggest risk of a war in decades,” said Renmin University international relations professor Shi Yinhong, who also advises the State Council, China’s cabinet.
Shi said US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un were locked in a vicious cycle of threats and it was already too late for China to avert it. At best, Beijing could stall a full-blown conflict.
“North Korea is a time bomb. We can only delay the explosion, hoping that by delaying it, a time will come to remove the detonator,” Shi said on the sidelines of a Beijing conference on the crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thought Police Create Climate of Fear in China’s Tense Xinjiang Region
Chen Quanguo’s campaign has seen mass disappearances, detention camps, unprecedented levels of police and cutting-edge digital surveillance systems that track where Uygurs go, what they read, who they talk to and what they say.
The mass disappearances, beginning the past year, are part of a sweeping effort by Chinese authorities to use detentions and data-driven surveillance to impose a digital police state in the region of Xinjiang and over its Uygurs — a 10-million strong, Turkic-speaking Muslim minority that Beijing says has been influenced by Islamic extremism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Attacker ‘Shouting Allahu Akbar’ Wounds Two Danes in Gabon
Two Danish nationals were wounded on Saturday in a knife attack in Gabon’s capital apparently committed in retribution for “US attacks against Muslims”, a rare assault in a Central African nation that has escaped Islamist violence.
The two men, who were working for the National Geographic channel, were stabbed while shopping in a market popular with tourists, said defence minister Etienne Massard, adding that the attack appeared to be politically motivated.
“According to the first testimonies at the scene, the assailant, a 53-year-old Nigerien man, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ (“God is Greatest”) during the attack. He was arrested on the spot,” said Massard.
The man, who has lived in Gabon for 19 years, “in his first statements said he acted in retaliation for US attacks against Muslims and America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Men Injured in Gabon Knife Attack in Revenge for ‘US Attacks Against Muslims’
Two National Geographic magazine reporters have been wounded in a knife attack in Gabon’s capital apparently committed in retribution for “US attacks against Muslims”. The Danish nationals were stabbed while shopping in a popular tourist area on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UNHCR’s Grandi Appeals for Urgent Action as South Sudan Crisis Enters Fifth Year
Marking four years since the outbreak of South Sudan’s civil war, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi today appealed for urgent action by all sides to settle the conflict and put an end to the country’s deepening humanitarian crisis and Africa’s largest refugee crisis.
“The world cannot continue to stand by as the people of South Sudan are terrorized by a senseless war,” the head of the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said. Grandi declared that the devastating effects of the fighting were a direct consequence of tragic failures in political leadership.
The South Sudan conflict has created the largest refugee crisis on the African continent. UNHCR estimates the refugee population could exceed three million by December 2018.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders Calls for Trump-Style Muslim Travel Ban in Europe
European countries should adopt Donald Trump-style travel bans to counter a wave of Islamisation supposedly sweeping the continent, the Dutch anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders has said.
Wilders, the leader of the Netherlands’ Freedom party (PVV), made his comments at a gathering of far-right leaders in Prague. He also urged Europe to adopt Australia’s tactics in turning back migrant boats and to build new border walls, as Trump has vowed to do along the US frontier with Mexico.
Wilders was flanked during his press conference by France’s Front National leader, Marine Le Pen, and Tomio Okamura, the leader of the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy party (SPD), which finished joint third in recent parliamentary election with nearly 11% of the vote.
Security was tight at the press event, held at a hotel just off Wenceslas Square, apparently in recognition of death threats against Wilders in response to his fierce denunciations of Islam.
Wilders, who was convicted last year by a Dutch court for incitement against Moroccans, cited US research he claimed showed that the Czech Republic would be bordered to the north, south and west by countries that were more than 20% Muslim by the middle of the century if current demographic trends continued.
“It will be almost as if you are bordering a kind of Gaza Strip on almost every border,” he said.
“We must adopt a totally new strategy. We must have the courage to restrict legal immigration instead of expanding it, even if we sometimes have to build a wall.”
Trump’s travel ban, which applies to six Muslim-majority nations plus North Korea and Venezuela, has been one of his most controversial policies. It has been the subject of various challenges in court, and rulings that have overturned and suspended it. The US supreme court ruled this month that it could be implemented for now while numerous challenges were resolved…
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Ireland: Protesters Raise Concerns Over Newly Opened Asylum Centre in Killarney
A group of around 30 people, a small number of whom were parents of children attending nearby schools, protested outside a reception centre in Killarney Co Kerry today where the first of 55 men seeking international protection arrived.
Placards by the group spoke of 3,000 homeless children in Ireland and the need to house local people first.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan coast guards rescued at least 270 migrants off the country’s shores yesterday, a Navy official said.
The Arab and African migrants, who included women and children, were found at sea in an area between the coastal towns of Garabulli and Zliten, east of the capital, Tripoli, and were taken to a naval base.
The latest mission brings the total number of migrants rescued by Libyan coast guards to more than 450 in less than a week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Syrian Asylum Seeker Pair Murdered by Another Migrant in Knife Attacks
A 37-year-old Syrian asylum seeker has been arrested in the Dutch city of Maastricht after stabbing two other Syrians to death. and wounding several others.
The Dutch police claim that they are not investigating the attacks, which took place on Thursday night, as terrorism with some believing instead that the man arrested may have been motivated by revenge, the Telegraaf reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Forced to Raise Retirement Age to Pay for Mass Immigration Policy
The increasing costs of population growth in Sweden, driven almost entirely mass migration, have forced the government to seriously consider raising the national retirement age to pay for the additional costs.
Swedish Socialist party Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson announced that the retirement age would likely be raised in the near future in order to offset increased welfare costs, Swedish newspaper Expressen reports.
“Looking at those who start working at 30, there should be opportunities to work longer than 65,” Andersson said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I’m a Pediatrician. Here’s What I Did When a Little Boy Patient Said He Was a Girl.
As a pediatrician for nearly 20 years, that’s how many of my patient relationships began. Our bodies declare our sex.
Biological sex is not assigned. Sex is determined at conception by our DNA and is stamped into every cell of our bodies. Human sexuality is binary. You either have a normal Y chromosome, and develop into a male, or you don’t, and you will develop into a female. There are at least 6,500 genetic differences between men and women. Hormones and surgery cannot change this.
An identity is not biological, it is psychological. It has to do with thinking and feeling. Thoughts and feelings are not biologically hardwired. Our thinking and feeling may be factually right or factually wrong.
If I walk into my doctor’s office today and say, “Hi, I’m Margaret Thatcher,” my physician will say I am delusional and give me an anti-psychotic. Yet, if instead, I walked in and said, “I’m a man,” he would say, “Congratulations, you’re transgender.”
If I were to say, “Doc, I am suicidal because I’m an amputee trapped in a normal body, please cut off my leg,” I will be diagnosed with body identity integrity disorder. But if I walk into that doctor’s office and say, “I am a man, sign me up for a double mastectomy,” my physician will. See, if you want to cut off a leg or an arm you’re mentally ill, but if you want to cut off healthy breasts or a penis, you’re transgender.
No one is born transgender. If gender identity were hardwired in the brain before birth, identical twins would have the same gender identity 100 percent of the time. But they don’t…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Activists Want Free Sex-Change Hormones for Children: ‘We Demand Hormones and Blockers’
Action for Trans Health (ATH) has trained hundreds of NHS staff and its director, Jess Bradley, 29, was at the central of the government’s 2016 equality inquiry
And this week the group has released a radical manifesto making several controversial demands of of the UK health system and the treatment of transgender people.
The Trans Health Manifesto reads: “We demand an end to birth certificates and to legal gender. Gender records should be anonymised, and only ever recorded as part of equalities monitoring.
“Birth certificates are not just a violence against trans people, they are a material to the state’s oppression of ‘undocumented’ immigrants and asylum seekers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Criminalizing Sexual Harassment Fosters Witch Hunts
Sexual harassment digests a degenerate thug like Harvey Weinstein with a college student who makes an awkward pass or a well-intentioned boss who compliments a dress.
Are you exhausted with sexual harassment allegations? Their noise and strut are turning into one of those chronic conditions that we schlep around with, like athlete’s foot. Or a hangnail.
As I write this, Tennessee State University announces that it considers whistling “in a suggestive manner” to be sexual harassment. Depending on the tune, it may lead to suspension or expulsion. The College Fix explains:
In sum, there are at least 20 different ways students and employees can be found guilty of sexual harassment, according to the policy. Campus officials state they will consider the ‘totality of the circumstances’ before deeming whether an act is sexual harassment.
In the expanding reach of sexual harassment, 20 ways today is a down payment on 30 ways tomorrow. Did this-or-that fellow do what a snowballing list of accusers claim he did half a lifetime ago? Are starlets-in-waiting gullible enough to go to a Hollywood mogul’s hotel room to watch a video? Do such naifs actually exist, or are they mythical creatures, like bread-and-butter flies? How many women posting on #MeToo are telling the truth?
There is a kind of baroque grandeur to the chorus of high dudgeon. But how much of it is bandwagon hysteria? How much free-floating animus?
A Vague Crime with Accusations Sufficing to Convict
Forgive me for wondering if there might be some gravy in the feedbag for women willing to cooperate with efforts to bring down men targeted for their politics. Or simply their authority. Harassment accusations are a handy tool for spite, jealousy, or retaliation for assorted grudges. In a widening pool of indicters, there are bound to be women channeling George Washington Plunkett: “I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.”
Which ones are they? None of us know. Not really.
What we do know is that something called sexual harassment is an imprecise but stubborn old nuisance sharpened into a crime by Catherine MacKinnon in the late ‘70s and codified by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). As first introduced, the term referred to a loose chain of workplace irritants never to be confused with sexual battery, rape, or attempted rape. By now it has expanded into an all-purpose indictment, a universal solvent for turning radical feminist choler into a blunt object.
Like that shapeless thing in the old sci-fi movie, “The Blob,” the concept of sexual harassment swallows everything it meets. It digests a degenerate thug like Harvey Weinstein together with a college student who makes an awkward pass at a girl, an office worker who tells a risqué joke, or a well-intentioned boss who compliments a woman on her dress. MacKinnon’s devouring blob is covered throughout the country by a mélange of federal, state, and city laws as a form of discrimination under human rights laws.
Delirium over harassment plays out like the courtroom scene in “Alice in Wonderland.” You remember it: The Queen of Hearts had made some tarts and someone took them quite away. Who did it? Theft is pinned on the Knave of Hearts, but evidence is a shambles, scanty at best. Accusations fly; denials tumble over each other. The king calls the jury to consider its verdict. His wife interrupts: “‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first—verdict afterwards.’“…
[See links at URL]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Dr. Smartphone the Medical Profession’s Digital Revolution is Here
The health care sector is facing a far-reaching and unpredictable revolution. Smartphones are capable of replacing many devices that have become standard in medical practices and some apps will soon be able to provide diagnoses as well. Patients are becoming less reliant on doctors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Linda Sarsour, everyone’s favorite Muslima hypocrite, has been accused of enabling a culture of sexual assault:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/17/linda-sarsour-accused-of-enabling-sexual-assault-against-woman-who-worked-for-her/
UK: ‘I’m 53, Separated and Skint’: Nigel Farage Reveals the ‘Price He Has Paid for Brexit’ Claiming the Referendum Triumph Has Left Him ‘Unable to Walk Down the Street Alone’ In Case He’s Attacked
This is why we can’t get decent people to run for office
Nigel and Assange are international heroes. Most voters like the truth.
Grim happenings for a naive young diplomat who strayed too far outside the diplomatic bubble:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-18/taxi-driver-arrested-rape-murder-british-diplomat-lebanon
Turkey on Sunday slammed the incoming Austrian government … for “discrimination” … . But why should anyone, or any government, be “slammed for discrimination”?
Discrimination is entirely normal. We choose who we do and who we don’t want living with us (in our countries, for example). Not all would-be newcomers are equally suitable or desirable. On other levels too, we discriminate. I’ve just been food shopping. I rejected some possible purchases, opted for others.
Discrimination?
Is that what they call it when Western countries prefer to have civilized standards of public conduct instead of feral savagery?
** Controversial right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos **
Witty and refreshingly commonsense commentator Milo . . . .