More than 20,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in the first 122 days of 2018. Meanwhile, Spanish maritime services rescued 476 crossing to Spain from North Africa. And 350 migrants arrived on the Greek islands of Lesvos in Chios in a single day.
In other news, Sen. John McCain said that he does not want President Donald Trump to come to his funeral, but would prefer that Vice President Mike Pence be there instead.
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.
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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.
Hollywood celebrities are notorious for being hypocrites. George Clooney wanted everyone to take in refugees but he never took any into his huge estate in Como, Italy. They’re just like the politicians who want YOU to follow the law but refuse to do so themselves.
One of the classic liberal moves is to shout about gun control but arrive on the scene with bodyguards. This is exactly what happened in Texas today. The armed guards proceeded to try to kick out anyone who questioned why the anti-gun Hollywood actress wouldn’t let them stay. A PUBLIC PARK!
Some of what happened was captured on video below via American Mirror:
Actress Alyssa Milano attended an anti-NRA protest in downtown Dallas today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeologist Experiments With Possible Bronze Age Saw
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA—Science News reports that archaeologist Nicholas Blackwell of Indiana University built a pendulum saw to test stone-cutting techniques that may have been employed by Mycenaean builders, beginning about 3,300 years ago. Distinctive, curved cuts have been found in the hard stone conglomerate at Mycenaean palaces, and scholars have surmised that they were made with some kind of swinging blade, but no ancient blades or evidence for pendulum saws have been found to date.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Billionaire-Backed Sex Trafficking Cult Partied With Richard Branson on His Private Island
Last week, The Free Thought Project reported that a celebrity sex cult backed by billionaires has been accused of trafficking children. The leaders of the organization, Keith Raniere and Smallville actress Allison Mack were arrested and charged with child sex trafficking and slavery.
Now that Raniere is in jail and Mack is on bail and ordered not to have any contact with other cult members, Clare Bronfman has taken on the role of leader within the organization. Bronfman and her sister, Sarah, are the primary backers of the cult, funding the organization with hundreds of millions of dollars. The Bronfman sisters are among multiple heirs to the Seagrams liquor fortune.
One of the main whistleblowers in the case is Frank Parlato, a former NXIVM publicist who has been leaking verifiable information to the press through his blog Frank Report. In a new post this week, Parlato provided evidence of another interesting connection in this case — Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson.
According to Parlato, the organization hosted multiple events on Branson’s private island, Necker Island.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Heather Mac Donald—bestselling author, City Journal contributing editor, and Thomas W. Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute—joins John Stossel to talk about the free-speech crisis on college campuses and how identity politics is consuming the nation’s top universities.
Last year, a campus conservative group invited Mac Donald to speak at Claremont McKenna College in California about her book, The War on Cops. Hundreds of protesters surrounded the auditorium where she was to speak, preventing many students from entering and forcing Mac Donald to deliver her address to a near-empty space. Many other conservative speakers have had similar experiences on campuses in recent years.
Under intense pressure from student activists to limit “hate speech,” college administrators can either acquiesce to demands or face protests. Many choose to acquiesce. As Mac Donald wrote last year: “Unless the campus zest for censorship is combatted now, what we have always regarded as a precious inheritance could be eroded beyond recognition, and a soft totalitarianism could become the new American norm.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump has been formally nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for the US President’s efforts to solve the North Korean nuclear tensions.
A group of 18 of Mr Trump’s biggest Republican supporters in the House of Representatives sent a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee urging it to consider Mr Trump for next year’s award in recognition of “his tireless work to bring peace to our world.”
Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are working out the details of a historic summit that could take place by the end of May or early June.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ESPN Loses 1/2 Million Subscribers… in 1 Month
(Dailywire) And the plummeting of ESPN continues apace. On Tuesday, data was revealed that the sports network (aka MSNBC with footballs, according to Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro), lost half a million subscribers in April. That’s 17,000 subscribers a day.
In the same time period in 2017, ESPN lost 683,000 subscribers, so the dizzying pace of the network’s decline has barely slowed down as subscribers flee for greener pastures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
McCain Says Trump Should Skip His Funeral, Wants Pence to Attend
John McCain, who has been battling an aggressive form of brain cancer for more than a year, doesn’t want President Trump to attend his funeral and prefers Vice President Pence to be there, according to a New York Times report.
In addition, former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have been asked to deliver eulogies at McCain’s funeral, sources close to both former presidents and McCain told CNN.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA’s Insight Mars Lander Has Left Earth: So What’s Next for the Probe?
Set to study the deep interior of the Red Planet — detecting marsquakes and monitoring subsurface heat flow in an effort to understand how rocky planets are formed—InSight has a plunge into the Martian atmosphere followed by a parachute— and thruster-assisted descent to the lava plains of Elysium Planitia in its future. The lander is scheduled to touch down on Mars at around 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Nov. 26.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Reed Students Say Humanities 110 Should Not Include White or European Authors
Reedies Against Racism, a student group at Reed College, is demanding that the school’s Humanities 110 course remove all European texts and replace them with non-European reading materials as “reparations for Humanities 110’s history of erasing the histories of people of color, especially black people.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Seattle Hiding Tenants’ Criminal Records From Landlords
The city of Seattle, fresh off a huge courtroom loss in its campaign against “unconscious bias” by landlords, is facing another challenge to a newly created measure that conceals any criminal history of a prospective tenant.
A lawsuit has been filed over the city’s ordinance, adopted just months ago, that calls it an “unfair practice” for landlords to ask about a prospective tenant’s arrest records, conviction records or other criminal history, or “to take an adverse action” based on criminal history.
It even makes it an “unlawful practice” to refuse to rent to prospective tenants who are on a sex offender registry. And it bans landlords from making decisions based on their own personal safety, the safety of other tenants, or discomfort with convictions for “sex offenses, crimes against children, or even hate crimes.”
The action was brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of several property owners that would be impacted by the rule.
Called the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, it “forbids landlords from considering applicants’ criminal histories when selecting tenants.”
“In other words, landlords cannot base a rental decision on concerns over their own safety or the safety of other tenants and neighbors. Violators face fines and penalties of up to $55,000,” PLF said.
The lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court argues the ordinance violates the Due Process and Free Speech provisions of the constitutions of Washington and the U.S.
That’s the same court that ruled earlier this year that a city measure requiring landlords to rent to the first applicant, no matter other circumstances, was unconstitutional. The decision said choosing a tenant is “a fundamental attribute of property ownership.”
“Seattle can’t decide what landlords are allowed to know about potential tenants,” said PLF attorney Ethan Blevins. “Landlords have the right to protect themselves by asking basic questions about a potential tenant’s criminal history.”
One of the plaintiffs is Kelly Lyles, who rents out a second house she owns.
PLF is arguing that such landlords, whose livelihoods depend on steady rental income, have the right to choose tenants they believe will be reliable and compatible.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Seventy-Year-Old Grandma Lights up Alleged Home Intruder, Leaves Him Hospitalized
A 70-year-old grandmother shot an alleged home intruder in Philadelphia, Pa., early Saturday morning, leaving him hospitalized.
Maxine Thompson woke around 4:30 a.m. after she heard a loud banging noise, she said. She looked out her window and saw a man pounding on her door, trying to break in — she told him to stop. He then smashed a window and entered her house. Thompson grabbed her handgun, which she said was from her mother, and fired shots at the suspect, according to Fox News.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Stormy Daniels Warns Trump on SNL ‘Storm’s a Coming Baby’
US porn star Stormy Daniels has made a surprise appearance on US TV show Saturday Night Live as her legal wrangle with President Trump over an alleged affair continues.
Playing herself in the latest in the show’s series of sketches lampooning the president, she mocked him, saying: “I know you don’t believe in climate change but a storm’s a coming baby.”
Ms Daniels was paid $130,000 by Mr Trump’s lawyer in 2016 to keep quiet.
Mr Trump denies the affair.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Feigned outrage against Marshall DeRosa, a professor of political science at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, has now taken predictable forms. Nietzsche observed that a successful war can be used to justify any cause. At Florida Atlantic, even going after an implausible victim can provide sadistic satisfaction to bullying students and faculty.
Professor DeRosa’s picture has been plastered on the walls of college buildings by supposedly concerned students with demeaning messages that he’s a “white supremacist” and that his presence on campus is an outrage “demanding action.” In my opinion, it’s ridiculous to describe those engaged in these defamatory actions, as some commentators do, as “snowflakes.” They are dangerous thought police, who in this case have targeted a thoroughly decent teacher.
Marshall is someone I have known for decades and who has suffered unbearable personal tragedy. Last fall, he lost a brilliant son of twenty-seven, who practiced law in Boca, when a car struck him from behind while he was loading his parked vehicle.
Leading to these attacks was, among other factors, Marshall’s acceptance of a Koch grant to teach prison inmates in a nearby correctional institute.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trudeau Insults Christians by Providing Islamist Supremacist Group Summer Jobs Grant Funding
Another controversial Islamic group with ties to a terrorist organization will receive the Trudeau government’s Canada Summer Jobs Grant, the Sun has learned.
According to a government database of grant recipients, the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) has been approved to receive ten grants to fund activities for its various chapters across Ontario. MAC’s Mississauga chapter is listed as receiving three separate grants.
In 2015, QMI news agency obtained an RCMP search warrant that linked MAC headquarters in Mississauga to the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy-Canada (IRFAN-Canada) — a banned terrorist organization with financial ties to Hamas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
140 Vineyards and Counting: Asian Investors Are Big in Bordeaux
Over the past decade Chinese investors have conquered dozens of chateaux in Bordeaux, France’s famed wine-growing region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
80 Per Cent of European Hashish Smuggled in Every Year to Spanish Town Near Gibraltar
Spanish police are struggling to contain extremely organized crime networks in the narco-hub town of La Linea, just north of the Spain-Gibraltar border.
A Spanish coastal town of under 65,000 people is the entry point for 80 per cent of the hashish resin consumed annually by Europe, claims a report by northern Spanish daily La Voz de Galicia.
The officer estimates that smugglers drop off 2,000 kilograms of hashish seven times per night, 20 days per month.
Local residents say the are scared to enter certain districts. In February 2018, an alleged clan boss was broken out of hospital by armed men and ferried to Morocco for treatment after being injured in a chase with police. The man’s bodyguards allegedly intimidated local police officers who were guarding the suspect, reports the daily.
The Madrid daily argues that the strength of the drug cartels in La Linea is linked to a 33 per cent unemployment rate in the area. A prosecutor told El Pais that the drug traffickers’’ “infrastructure is far superior to ours.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Air France Could ‘Disappear’ As More Strikes Begin
The survival of strike-hit Air France is in the balance, according to the country’s economy minister.
Bruno Le Maire’s warning that Air France could “disappear” comes as staff begin another round of industrial action over a pay dispute.
Air France-KLM is one of Europe’s biggest airlines, but has seen a series of strikes in recent weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anger in France Over Trump Comments on Bataclan Attacks
France on Saturday condemned remarks by US President Donald Trump about the 2015 attacks in Paris and called on him to show respect for the victims of the bloodshed that saw jihadists attack the Bataclan concert hall and other targets.
“France expresses its firm disapproval of the comments by President Trump about the attacks of November 13 2015 in Paris and asks for respect of the memory of the victims,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a statement.
Trump spoke about gun laws in France and Britain during a free-wheeling speech in front of gun owners in Texas on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Astronomers Spot Helium on Exoplanet for First Time
After more than a decade of searching, scientists finally detect the element billowing out of a gas giant.
A big, puffy planet orbiting a small, bright star in the constellation Virgo is leaking helium into space. It’s the first time astronomers have spotted the element on a planet beyond the Solar System, after more than a decade of searching.
Many similar planets probably exist, so the work opens new possibilities for probing the atmospheres that enshroud distant worlds, says Jessica Spake, an exoplanet astronomer at the University of Exeter, UK. She and her colleagues describe the finding today in Nature.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Dangerous Fantasy’? Brussels Launches €13 Billion Fund for EU Army
The European Commission has announced a €13 billion “Defence Fund” paving the way for closer EU military integration — plans once called a “dangerous fantasy” by anti-Brexit Remainer Nick Clegg.
The Commission confirmed on Wednesday that the EU’s 2021-2027 bloated budget — €1.279 trillion — includes the multi-billion euro fund. At €13 billion, the EU military fund is now greater than the whole defence budget of Turkey, which has a larger standing army than any European Union nation.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Divisions Resurface as Germany Celebrates Marx at 200
Germany marks the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth on Saturday, but celebrations risk being marred by protests as the revolutionary philosopher remains a divisive figure almost three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Marx’s birth city of Trier will lead commemorations of the man officials describe as a “great son of the city”, with 600 events planned around the 19th-century scholar hailed for foretelling the ills of capitalism.
The centrepiece of the festivities will be the unveiling of a 5.5-metre (18-foot) tall statue of the philosopher — a gift from communist China — with dignitaries including a Chinese delegation and the head of Germany’s Social Democratic Party to attend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Law Should Include Islamophobia: Turkish FM
The Turkish foreign minister urged European countries to include Islamophobia as a crime in their constitution, without waiting for a Holocaust-like situation to unfold.
“We should ensure that Islamophobia is included in [European] constitution as a crime clearly,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said during an event at capital Ankara marked to unveil the latest European Islamophobia Report (EIR).
“There is no need to relive Auschwitz or wait for Muslims to be burned in gas chambers like Jewish people,” he said, referring to the Nazi concentration camp in Poland and the Holocaust.
Cavusoglu said that hate speech, which is a crime in Europe, is still used by politicians.
He recalled that populist politicians in Europe, especially in Germany, used anti-Turkey discourse and Islamophobia to win elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘F*cking Irish C*nt’ — Man Jailed for Knife Killing in London
A murderer who shouted “f*cking Irish c*nt” as he wielded two knives to stab an Irishman and his sister, killing one, has been sentenced to 23 years.
Keith Nelson, 51, (pictured) was found guilty at the Old Bailey on Thursday of the murder of Alfred Purcell, 31, in East London in June last year.
He also stabbed the victim’s sister, Connie Purcell, in the breast as she attempted to intervene, receiving 18 months for gross bodily harm (GBH) as a result — but will effectively serve no time for the crime, as the term will run concurrently with his murder sentence.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Freedom No More. England’s Local Elections
Yesterday was World Press Freedom Day, and the tendentious media misrepresentation of the election results reminds me why I could not get excited about it. A media with the extremely concentrated ownership we see in the UK can never be free, and certainly does not represent a wide spread of political opinions. Even the views of the official Leader of the Opposition are almost entirely deemed to be outside the Overton window. In Scotland the Scottish government is subject to unreasoning media attack, day in and day out, which contrasts strikingly with the treatment of Westminster ministers and issues.
There is a seriously worrying example from Leeds of the decline of free speech, where disgracefully a meeting discussing the bias of the corporate and state media has now been banned by Leeds City Council because of its content. We are not allowed even to get together to discuss media bias. Retired Ambassador Peter Ford, Professors Piers Robinson and Tim Hayward, Vanessa Beeley and Robert Stuart were to address the meeting at Leeds City Museum entitled “Media on Trial”. I cannot sufficiently express my outrage that Leeds City Council feels it is right to ban a meeting with very distinguished speakers, because it is questioning the government and establishment line on Syria. Freedom of speech really is dead.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: EU Chief: Don’t Judge Karl Marx for His Followers’ Crimes
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says German philosopher Karl Marx shouldn’t be judged for the crimes that his followers committed decades after his death.
Juncker spoke Friday at an event commemorating the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth in the western German city of Trier.
Marx laid the philosophical foundations for Communism, an ideology that aims for shared ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes.
A 4.4-meter (14-feet) statue of Marx, donated by China, is to be unveiled in Trier on Saturday.
A German group representing victims of Communism has criticized the Marx anniversary celebrations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Protester Interrupts Juncker’s Speech as EU Chief Defends Marx Over Legacy of ‘Atrocities’
JEAN-CLAUDE Juncker delivered an impassioned speech praising the legacy of German philosopher Karl Marx at an event commemorating his 200th birthday, despite huge controversy surrounding the occasion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The president of the European Commission has defended Karl Marx’s record as a philosopher, arguing that he is not “responsible” for mistakes and atrocities committed in his name after his death.
In a speech in the German philosopher—economist’s hometown of Trier to mark his 200th birthday, Jean-Claude Juncker said that “Marx isn’t responsible for all the atrocity his alleged heirs have to answer for”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German State is Losing Control Due to Massive Increase in Terror Suspects
Police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia are flooded with tips about terror suspects. Because the cases of potential terrorists are growing strongly the state could lose control, Die Welt reports.
In 2017, the police of North Rhine-Westphalia worked on 14,000 cases of potential Islamist terrorism, that is more than ever before. North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany’s most populous state, with 18 million inhabitants.
Some information about the suspects comes from neighbours or acquaintances, who warn about the radicalising individuals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Karl Marx Statue Unveiled in Trier for 200 Anniversary Celebrations
The western German city of Trier has unveiled a statue of Communist philosopher Karl Marx to commemorate 200 years since his birth. More than 300 events were organized to mark the occasion, which also drew protesters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Statues of Saints and Crosses Destroyed in Five Churches in Bamberg
Statues of saints and crosses have been destroyed in five Bamberg churches. Affected were Catholic churches and a Protestant church. The spokesman for the Archdiocese of Bamberg, Harry Luck, responded to an inquiry from kath.net: “We are shocked and saddened by the violence in Bamberger churches. We can currently confirm 6 cases of vandalism in 5 churches. Sculptures and saints were overturned, pictures were torn off the walls and a window pane was broken.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary’s ruling party expects Brussels to show more respect for the victims of Communism, Fidesz MEP Tamas Deutsch stressed, speaking in front of Budapest’s House of Terror Museum on Saturday.
Deutsch expressed his shock that Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission is “openly celebrating the father of Communism”. The day before, Juncker attended the celebration marking the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth in Trier.
On Thursday, the European parliamentary group of Fidesz-KDNP called on Juncker to cancel his speech. “Marxist ideology led to the death of tens of millions and ruined the lives of hundreds of millions,” the statement said. “The celebration of its founder is a mockery of their memory,” it added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Karl Marx Statue From China Adds to German Angst
With Germany unsure about how to mark 200 years since Karl Marx was born, a giant bronze statue of the philosopher given by China to the town of his birth is adding to the unease.
The small town of Trier near Luxembourg in western Germany eventually decided to accept the 4.5m (15ft) statue created by China’s most famous sculptor — but only after years of wrangling over whether taking it would appear to condone rights abuses in China.
Marx co-wrote the Communist Manifesto, which said that all of human history had been based on class struggle. China’s capitalist government presents his work as central to its way of governing.
But Marx also remains a controversial figure among Germans, many of whom lived under the Soviet Union’s communist government his work inspired.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A 13-year-old boy is recovering after being blasted in the head with a shotgun — moments after another teenager was shot in broad daylight on a busy London high street.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Mesolithic Settlement Found in Copenhagen
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK—The Copenhagen Post reports that flint arrowheads as well as human and animal bones have been uncovered during construction work at Kastellet, a star-shaped fortress dating to the seventeenth century located in what is now Copenhagen. The artifacts suggest a settlement stood on the site some 7,000 years ago. The people who lived there are thought to have been hunter-gatherers who were part of the Kongemose culture, which covered southern Scandinavia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Neolithic Humans Used Dried Fungi to Start and Transport Fires
Some 7,000 years ago, inhabitants of a small settlement at the Early Neolithic waterlogged site of La Draga (Girona, Spain) dried non-edible fungi for use as tinder to light and transport fires.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Criminals Used Grenades 43 Times in 2017
The Swedish National Forensic Centre has revealed hand grenades were used in connection with 43 crimes and the rate of grenade use has risen 140 per cent since 2014.
According to Anna Nilsson, an expert in explosive subjects at the National Forensic Centre (NFC), the surge in crimes involving hand grenades is a new phenomenon, Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A 10-year-old girl was attacked by three men after she left school and was on her way home. The child was raped at a cemetery in Östervåla, Sweden’s Aftonbladet reports.
It was Thursday, around 3 pm, that the terrible incident occurred. According to the police three perpetrators were involved. At least one of them raped the girl.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Turkish Embassy Accused of Spreading Propaganda
The Turkish embassy to Switzerland faces accusations of supporting ‘war games’ involving pupils attending special classes in a public Swiss school.
The tabloid SonntagsBlick reported that children staged war games during a performance in the village of Uttwil attended by hundreds of Turks in Switzerland and diplomatic guest of honour from Turkey.
The play was apparently staged with the backing of the Turkish embassy trying to promote nationalist propaganda among the expat community in Switzerland, according to SonntagsBlick.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Paris museum became the first in the city to open its doors to nudist visitors, on Saturday, granting them special visiting hours to tour an exhibit in a one-off naturist event.
The tour, at the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art museum, was attended by around 160 visitors — and sold out in under two days.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Vicar of Christ” is a historic description of bishops and popes, originally representing the “earthly manifestation of Christ.” The bishop of Rome, or the pope, is the modern-day example of the vicar of Christ. He is currently known as Pope Francis, the 266th pope, the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope from outside Europe since the 8th century.
The outspoken Pope Francis is a proponent of social justice, perhaps influenced by his youth in Buenos Aires or a stint as a night club bouncer before joining the seminary. He speaks passionately about climate change, immigration, and now guns. Is the pope virtue-signaling?…
Pope Francis sent virtue signals to his flock of eager congressional open borders advocates. The pope didn’t, however, invoke the teachings of his heavenly investor, Jesus, who spoke of hypocrisy during his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus asked his flock, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
Does the pope have a plank in his own eye regarding immigration? It turns out, according to a 2012 Library of Congress study, that “[t]he Vatican, for its part, welcomes millions of visitors a year — but allows only a very select few, who meet strict criteria, to be admitted as residents or citizens.” In reality, only about 450 of its 800 residents hold citizenship, those being church cardinals, Vatican diplomats, and employees such as the Swiss Guard.
The Vatican is also surrounded by a high wall, similar to the walls and fences around the homes of elite American open borders proponents. Walls for me but not for thee. Wasn’t anyone listening to the Sermon on the Mount? If immigrants are so important, why doesn’t the Vatican have an open borders policy? Why is it that only America is tasked with accepting anyone from anywhere, without scrutiny or vetting, without limits or objections, forcing legal residents to pay the expenses of these illegal aliens?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Quickly Growing Influence in Europe is an Underestimated Threat
Turkish increasing influence and power over the Turks and the Muslims in Europe is the single most imminent threat to European security.
The European establishment is looking the other way, while the Turks are slowly increasing their foothold in Europe. the EU prefers to mock Putin rather than confront Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP. Meanwhile the Turkish state and especially its ministry of the religious affairs uses the Turkish diaspora in Europe to acquire political power on the continent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boys Will be Given Potentially Lifesaving HPV Vaccine, Health Minister Hints
The NHS recently extended vaccinations to gay men, but in another hint that he supported a policy shift, Mr Brine said that ‘is certainly not the end of the story’.
Experts on the NHS’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), have been reconsidering their stance.
[Comment: Google the side effects of Gardasil. Who knows? Perhaps in a decade or so there will be an “unexplained” explosion of sterility in western men…]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boys Aged 12 and 15 Shot in North-West London
Two boys aged 12 and 15 have been shot in north-west London.
The 15-year-old was found with a gun shot wound after police were called to High Street in Wealdstone at about 13:15 BST.
Minutes later, paramedics alerted officers to reports a 12-year-old boy had also been shot on the same road.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Holds ‘Day of Freedom’ Protest Aimed to Protect Free Speech (Video)
Some right-wing speakers, including the former leader of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson and Trump-supporter Milo Yiannopoulos, attended the ‘Day for Freedom’ rally in Whitehall today.
Thousands of people have registered to participate in the event, vowed by Robinson to become “the biggest free speech demonstration the UK”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A policewoman who claims she was left traumatised by having to watch child abuse videos is seeking more than £200,000 in damages.
In what is thought to be the first case of its kind, Cara Creaby is suing the Metropolitan Police for the ‘psychiatric injury’ she says she suffered because she was exposed to ‘harrowing and dangerous material’ while investigating the rape of three young girls.
She had to watch many hours of videos of their ordeals, which she says caused her to experience ‘intrusive flashbacks and nightmares’, ruined her sex life and ended with her being diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
She asked for help, but her bosses at Scotland Yard simply told her to ‘stick to the job at hand’, according to legal documents seen by The Mail on Sunday.
[Comment: Even the FBI rotates investigators to prevent psychological damage from occurring. This stuff is so evil it disturbs normal people — globalist elite excepted — their ranks are full of such perps.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A ruthless modern day slavery gang has been jailed for a total of 40 years after police discovered photographs of a large suitcase stuffed to the brim with tens of thousands of Euros from the family’s ‘enterprise’.
The Rafaels — a family of Slovakian gypsies living in Newcastle — enjoyed the high life while their victims lived on stale food in cellars below their homes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Universities Must End ‘Chilling’ Hostility to Free Speech, Says Govt
Universities must stamp out the “institutional hostility” towards free speech that has taken root on campuses, the universities minister has demanded ahead of a free speech summit.
Sam Gyimah MP called for guidance on free speech in higher education to be re-written for the first time in nearly 30 years.
“A society in which people feel they have a legitimate right to stop someone expressing their views on campus simply because they are unfashionable or unpopular is rather chilling,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The US Embassy in Finland issued a security alert for US citizens living in Finland on May 4. The Finnish Security Intelligence Service says it is not aware of anything that could have prompted the warning.
The US Embassy in Helsinki, Finland issued a security alert on May 4 that warns of terrorists “intent on targeting U.S. citizens, including children.” A similar security alert was issued on the same day at the US Embassy in Stockholm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Azhar denounced French calls for the “freezing” of verses in the Koran, and claims that they were urging the killing of non-Muslims.
Earlier, Le Parisien published a controversial petition calling for the removal of allegedly anti-Jewish verses from the Koran, signed by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and 300 political figures from the left and the right, as well as Arabs and Muslims.
Egyptian media quoted Dr. Abbas Shuman, deputy of Al-Azhar, as saying on Thursday that “the demand of 300 French personalities to freeze verses in the Koran, claiming that it urges the killing of non-Muslims, is unjustified and unacceptable…
Shuman condemned the claims, saying: “No to freezing a single letter from the Koran, and those calling for this can go to hell.”
Al-Azhar’s deputy pointed out that the existence of such calls indicates “their ignorance, at best.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Atheist Blogger Arrested for Criticizing Islam
An atheist blogger who was previously detained for promoting his anti-religion views, was arrested by Egyptian police, a rights lawyer said on Saturday.
Sherif Gaber was in police custody on Saturday and set to be questioned by the prosecution on Sunday, Gamal Eid, head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, told AFP.
“He has been arrested and should be questioned tomorrow,” Eid said.
In late March, Gaber tweeted that “some Muslim lawyers” filed a complaint against him with the attorney general for his critical views on Islam.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Says No Hidden Rooms in King Tut’s Tomb After All
Egypt’s antiquities ministry says new radar scans have provided conclusive evidence that there are no hidden rooms inside King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Armenian Genocide: Turkey Cracks Down
The Christian genocide in Ottoman Turkey lasted for 10 years — from 1913 to 1923 — and targeted Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and other Christians. It resulted in the annihilation of around three million people. Sadly, Turkish aggression against the remaining Armenians continues.
According to Turkish myth, it was actually the “treacherous” Armenians who persecuted Turks; and the Turks were acting in self-defense to rid themselves of murderous Armenians. A widespread Turkish claim is, “They deserved it.”
The lies and state propaganda, which hold the victims responsible for their own annihilation, are what enable the ongoing Turkish persecution of the country’s remaining Armenians, including the conversion of their churches into mosques and the digging up of Armenian graves and churches by treasure-hunters who search for gold.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Henningsen: White Helmets ‘Video Production Unit’ Running Out of Room to Operate in Syria
21WIRE’s Patrick Henningsen spoke to RT International about the White Helmets and the latest news on their funding status with the U.S. As the terrorists factions continue to be cleared out, have the White Helmets outlived their usefulness to regime change strategists in Syria?
Henningsen told RT:
“They’re running out of room to operate in Syria, as the Syrian Arab Army and its allied forces clear up and liberate areas like Eastern Ghouta, for instance, like Douma, like East Aleppo last year. They’ll use this as a fundraising opportunity… This is basically a video production unit. It’s an information operation that’s used to underpin regime change and essentially destabilize Syria.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Election Manifesto, Erdogan Vows New Military Campaigns
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is promising new military operations against Kurdish militants along its border in Syria and Iraq as he presented his election manifesto.
Speaking before thousands of supporters in Istanbul on Sunday, Erdogan described next month’s snap presidential and parliamentary polls as a “milestone” for a strong Turkey. He says Turkey would “take the stage as a global power.”
Erdogan called elections more than a year earlier than planned for June 24 — a move analysts say partly aims to capitalize on nationalist sentiment running high following a successful campaign that ousted Syrian Kurdish militia from the Syrian border enclave of Afrin.
The elections will usher in a new governing system that abolishes the prime minister’s office and consolidates most powers in the hands of the president.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Vows Not to Renegotiate as Trump’s Key Decision on Nuclear Deal’s Future Looms
Just days before President Trump is expected to make a key decision on the future of the Iran nuclear deal he has repeatedly threatened to scrap, Iran’s foreign minister has publicly vowed that the country will not take any part in renegotiating the terms of the 2015 agreement.
“Iran will not renegotiate what was agreed years ago and has been implemented,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a five-minute English-language video posted on YouTube.
Zarif’s speech, delivered directly to the camera as he sat at his desk, is significant because the White House has shown some willingness to preserve the structure of the Iran deal if some of its key terms are modified.
But Zarif rebuked that notion as well as “the response from some Europeans,” which he described as “offer[ing] the United States more concessions from our pocket.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry Colluding With Iran to Undercut Trump
(Boston Globe) John Kerry’s bid to save one of his most significant accomplishments as secretary of state took him to New York on a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, where, more than a year after he left office, he engaged in some unusual shadow diplomacy with a top-ranking Iranian official.
He sat down at the United Nations with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to discuss ways of preserving the pact limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It was the second time in about two months that the two had met to strategize over salvaging a deal they spent years negotiating during the Obama administration, according to a person briefed on the meetings.
With the Iran deal facing its gravest threat since it was signed in 2015, Kerry has been on an aggressive yet stealthy mission to preserve it, using his deep lists of contacts gleaned during his time as the top US diplomat to try to apply pressure on the Trump administration from the outside. President Trump, who has consistently criticized the pact and campaigned in 2016 on scuttling it, faces a May 12 deadline to decide whether to continue abiding by its terms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Slams French Figures Demanding Change in Quran
Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Ömer Çelik on May 6 slammed a French manifesto proposing the removal of some verses from the Quran, saying those 300 prominent French figures demanding the changes were as “bigoted” as members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who infer violence from the holy book, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
“This is the most striking example of intellectual violence and barbarism. Whoever these people are and whatever they have been doing up till now, they will be written at the beginning of the history of bigotry,” Çelik said on Twitter.
“Barbarism is intellectually and politically centered in the modern world,” he added.
Çelik drew parallel between the “barbaric and immoral” proposal and the ideology of ISIL.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Funding for Terrorist-Linked White Helmets ‘Under Review’
The White Helmets, who operate mainly in ‘rebel’ and terrorist-held areas inside Syria, are no longer receiving any U.S. funding and their status according to the State Department is now “under active review,” CBS News reports.
21WIRE reported just two weeks ago that the group’s funding status was in question, after State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert ‘ played dumb’ when asked about it by CBS News reporter Kylie Atwood during a press briefing.
An internal State Department document surfaced recently stating that if continued funding for the White Helmets wasn’t approved by April 15th “shut-down procedures on a rolling basis” would commence. That time is now, at least for the near future.
As expected, many supporters and critics took to Twitter to voice their opinions on this recent development, including Samantha Power, former US ambassador to the UN:
[Comment: Globalists should fund this propaganda organization themselves, instead of pretending the WH are self less volunteers. But that would reveal the real goal of globalists — to instigate WWIII.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Are These Neanderthal Etchings a Long-Lost Message?
A Neanderthal seems to have left a message etched in stone about 35,000 years ago, a new study finds.
An analysis of the slanted, zigzag lines — engraved on a piece of flint discovered at a Neanderthal site in Crimea — reveals that they likely weren’t made willy-nilly. Rather, the Neanderthal artist would have needed excellent fine motor skills and attention to detail to etch the lines, which may carry symbolic meaning, the researchers said.
If this new interpretation is correct, the engraved piece of flint will join a growing list of artifacts showing that Neanderthals were likely complex beings who partook in symbolic activities, including intentionally burying their dead and decorating ornaments, the researchers said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Slams Police ‘Violence’ At Russian Rally, Yet Sides With Authorities in Catalonia Crackdown
The EU has released a statement condemning police “violence” at an unauthorized opposition rally in Russia. Seven months earlier, Brussels took a different view on brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in Catalonia.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Protest Leader Navalny Out of Jail, Faces 2 Charges
Alexei Navalny, the leader of protests against President Vladimir Putin that resulted in the arrests of more than 1,500 demonstrators across Russia, says he has been released from detention but faces two charges.
Navalny said Sunday on Twitter that he had been released after being arrested on Moscow’s Pushkin Square on Saturday. He said he faces charges of organizing an unauthorized meeting and of resisting police. Each of those charges can carry a jail sentence of 15 days.
OND-Info, an organization that monitors Russian political arrests, said at least 1,575 people were arrested in demonstrations in 26 cities across Russia protesting Putin’s upcoming inauguration Monday for a new term.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: At Least 14 Killed in Khost Mosque Blast
At least 14 people have been killed and 37 wounded in an explosion at a mosque in the Afghan province of Khost, local officials say. People had gathered for afternoon prayers at the mosque, which was also being used as a voter registration centre.
No group has claimed responsibility but the Islamic State group has carried out similar attacks in the past.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gunman Injures Pakistan Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal in Punjab
A gunman has shot and injured Pakistani Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal while he was visiting his constituency in the north-eastern city of Narowal. Mr Iqbal had just attended a rally in the Punjab city when he was hit at least once in the arm and taken to hospital. His life is not in danger.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Police Arrest Main Suspect After Teen Raped and Burned Alive
Indian police say they have arrested the main suspect in an alleged gang-rape and murder of a teenage girl.
Dhanu Bhuiyan and his accomplices are accused of burning the 16-year-old alive on Friday in the state of Jharkhand.
She was killed after her parents complained to village elders that she had been raped, according to police.
The elders had told two accused rapists to do 100 sit-ups and pay a 50,000 rupee (£550; $750) fine as punishment.
The men were allegedly so enraged by the penalty that they beat the girl’s parents then set her on fire.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Engineers Kidnapped in Afghanistan’s Baghlan Province
Seven Indian engineers have been kidnapped in Afghanistan along with their Afghan driver, police say.
Kidnappings are a serious problem in Afghanistan where large areas are blighted by gangs or militant groups.
Provincial council chairman Mohammad Safdar Mohseni said the group had ignored warnings to take a police escort through an area largely controlled by the Taliban.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Cities Dominate World Air Pollution List
Fourteen Indian cities are among the world’s 20 most polluted, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
700,000-Year-Old Butchery Site Found in the Philippines
LUZON, PHILIPPINES—Science Magazine reports that a team of scientists led by Thomas Ingicco of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and M. Clyde Shago of the National Museum of the Philippines has found butchered rhino bones and stone tools at Kalinga, an archaeological site on the island of Luzon. The enamel of one of the animal’s teeth was dated to about 709,000 years old, which corresponds with the results of electronic spin resonance testing of the sediments above and below the fossils and artifacts.
The discovery is said to push back the known date for ancestral human occupation of the Philippines by more than 600,000 years. Archaic human fossils have not been found at the site, however, so scientists are not sure who butchered the rhino, but Homo erectus is a likely candidate. Homo erectus is thought to have evolved in Africa nearly two million years ago, and Homo erectus fossils of the same age as the site in the Philippines have been found in China and Java.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Slams Macron Warning on Chinese ‘Hegemony’
China on Friday hit back at French President Emmanuel Macron’s warnings against allowing a single nation to dominate the Indo-Pacific region, where many countries fear Beijing’s growing might.
During his visit to Sydney on Wednesday, Macron said that France, India and Australia shared a responsibility to protect the region from “hegemony” — in a remark widely interpreted as a stab at China.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China to Test Rocket Reusability With Long March 8 Booster
China is developing a Long March launch vehicle with a reusable first stage that could have its trial launch as early as 2020, according to a senior Chinese rocket designer.
Long Lehao of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), on April 24 revealed the new plans for the Long March 8 medium-lift launcher at a space industry conference in Harbin, northeast China, an event held to mark China’s third national space day.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How ‘China’s MIT’ Tsinghua University Drives the Country’s Tech Ambitions
Founded in 1911, Tsinghua University is located in the northwestern suburbs of Beijing and named after the former royal garden on which it is sited. The university was tasked to train engineers in 1952 and is still most famous for its engineering and sciences programme. Many members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering — the two state-level institutes devoted to spearheading science and technology research, are Tsinghua alumni or faculty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Warns US: Don’t Mistake Our Good Mood for ‘Weakness’ Ahead of Talks
The US should not mistake ‘the peace-loving intention of the DPRK [North Korea] as a sign of weakness and [continue] to pursue its pressure and military threats,’ a North Korean spokesman said
North Korea warned the United States on Sunday not to misread peace overtures as a sign of weakness, accusing the Trump administration of deliberately provoking Pyongyang with tough talk and a show of military strength.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Accuses China of Pointing Lasers at Its Pilots From Djibouti Base
The US has formally complained to China over several incidents of its pilots being irritated by lasers it says are coming from a Chinese base in Djibouti.
The Pentagon said it had asked China to investigate several “very serious incidents”.
It said people at the east African base had been shining military-grade lasers at US pilots coming in to land.
China has rejected the allegations, saying they are “inconsistent with facts”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Remembering Eritrea-Ethiopia Border War: Africa’s Unfinished Conflict
Two decades have passed since two of Africa’s poorest countries began the continent’s deadliest border war.
The conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia left tens of thousands dead or injured in the space of just two years.
But despite a peace deal signed in December 2000, the two sides remain on a war footing — their massive armies still facing off.
So what happened 20 years ago to spark Africa’s unfinished war — and what hope is there that it might finally come to an end?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: Malcolm: ‘Poor’ Asylum Seekers Dump Expensive Electronics
Toronto Sun has found evidence that casts doubt on what the Trudeau government has been telling us about the flood of asylum seekers crossing into Canada on foot. We have been told that these refugees are poor migrants, fleeing Donald Trump, and yet, evidence on the ground suggests something very different.
Thousands of dollars of electronics and phones were found by the Toronto Sun, discarded near a popular illegal border crossing on Roxham Rd. in rural Quebec.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Government Should Look at Bringing Rohingya Refugees to Canada, Minister Says
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada needs to look into bringing Rohingya refugees here to reunify families.
“We can just imagine if it were our brothers, sisters, uncles, who were in these dire straits, we would be desperate to bring them to join us in Canada,” she told reporters on Saturday.
“I think that is an issue we need to be looking at.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian PM Orban Getting Tougher on Immigration: ‘We Are Building a Christian Democracy’
After a huge electoral victory that saw his party win a two-thirds super-majority, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has announced tougher immigration rules and his vision of a Hungary built on “Christian democracy”.
The Hungarian leader announced his new plans in a radio broadcast on Friday, saying: “We are building a Christian democracy. An old-fashioned Christian democracy whose roots are in the European tradition, where human dignity is essential and where there is a separation of powers,” newspaper Ouest France reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Deaths Mount as Over 20,000 Refugees Arrive in Europe Since the Start of 2018
The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that at least 22,439 migrants and refugees traveled to Europe by sea in the first 122 days of 2018.
According to the organization, which records migrant travel worldwide, 42 percent of illegal seaborne migrants arrived in Italy, followed by 38 percent in Greece, and 20 percent in Spain. The Geneva agency states that this compares with 45,540 recorded arrivals throughout the region in the same period in 2017, and 184,793 in 2016.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Multiculturalism Umbrella: Islam Manufactured Wool
Ever since the massive arrival of Muslims to the Western hemisphere, our Western culture and world have been forever altered, thanks to the ceaseless attempts of the left to create a failing Utopian Multiculturalism paradise while forcefully jamming it down the throats of its unsuspecting citizens. Multiculturalism in Europe is dead in the water, as every recent election has shown. Even the politicians are admitting it now. Then why they still insisting that we must coexist and keep importing more Muslims who will NEVER assimilate? Let me be clear, multiculturalism spells the demise of our Western culture. Is that what we want?
The controversy is ongoing: whether in Europe or in the US, the leftist intelligentsia and elitists continue to demand that they have seen the truth, that all people can live peaceably together so long as we are tolerant and have the right laws in place.
The West has been tolerant, but “tolerance in the face of evil is not tolerance, it is a crime.” It wasn’t long ago, we were defending ourselves at the Gates of Vienna from a Muslim invasion. Now, we welcome Muslims with open arms and generous welfare policies. Any pushback to these open immigration practices is labeled Islamophobia, racism, bigotry, etc.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Migrant Arrivals on Lesvos and Chios Reach 350 in One Day
A total of 350 undocumented migrants landed on the islands of Lesvos and Chios on Sunday morning, official figures showed amid rising concerns about a growing influx of refugees from both the land and sea borders.
Some 270 migrants landed on the shores of Lesvos from neighboring Turkey in five separate boats.
Four of the boats, carrying a total of 226 migrants, arrived on the beaches near Mytilene, the island’s main port, while another vessel reached northern Lesvos with 45 people aboard.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Over 20,000 Migrants Cross Sea to Europe in First 122 Days of 2018
Over 20,000 migrants have travelled to Europe by sea in the first 122 days of 2018, according to the UN Migration Agency.
The International Organization for Migration (IoM) recorded 22,439 sea arrivals in total, with about 42 per cent arriving in Italy, 38 per cent in Greece, and 20 per cent in Spain — where illegal, seaborne migration has been steadily rising, as controls in first Greece and then Italy have tightened.
People-smugglers had also begun to exploit the dangerous Black Sea route to Europe for the first time since 2014 last summer, with almost 500 making landfall in Romania in a month over August-September — but the latest IoM bulletin does not discuss how the situation is developing on this particularly treacherous front.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paris Mayor Backs Communist Party Plan to Turn Public Park Into Migrant Camp
Communist Party councillors elected to the Council of Paris have demanded that part of the Bois de Boulogne park be allocated for asylum seekers to set up a new shelter, with the support of Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
The Communist Party councillors have asked for a part of the park, the former hunting grounds of French kings, be allocated for the use of migrants as the number of new arrivals continues to grow, Le Figaro reports.
It is not the first time the park has been suggested as a place to house the city’s growing migrant population, many of whom are squatting in makeshift tent camps across the city. The proposal was previously rejected due to the distance of the site to the nearest public transportation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Rescues 476 Migrants Trying to Cross Mediterranean
Spain has saved 476 migrants in two days from small boats, as they tried to make the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean from Africa.
Spain’s maritime rescue service said it pulled the migrants from 15 small boats on Friday and Saturday. There were no reported casualties.
Favorable weather in the Strait of Gibraltar appears to have sparked a surge in sea crossings.
Each year, tens of thousands of migrants attempt to reach Spain and other southern European countries by crossing the Mediterranean in smugglers’ boats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Rescues 476 Migrants Crossing Mediterranean Sea From Africa
MADRID (AP/Meredith) — Spain’s maritime rescue service said Sunday that it saved 476 migrants who were attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea from African shores.
The migrants were pulled from 15 small boats on Friday and Saturday, officials said. There were no reported casualties.
Separately, a Spanish nonprofit dedicated to helping migrants at sea rescued 105 more migrants in waters near Libya during a mission on Sunday.
[Comment: Article dated May 6, 2018.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Social Democrats Want to Halve Refugee Numbers
Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats have announced a bid for new asylum restrictions aimed at halving the number of refugees coming to the country, if they win the election in September.
The new migration policy promises to stop those who have had their applications rejected from receiving any social support in Sweden, and even goes so far as to ban their children from attending schools.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Testing Out a “Hate Speech” Button, Inadvertently Launches it Live
Facebook accidentally set a “hate speech” button live on its platform for a short period of time, a company spokesperson confirmed in a statement Tuesday. The button asked users: “Does this contain hate speech?”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is California Spearheading the Fall Into Darkness and Perversion?
While New York is a close second to California, no state has done so much since the days of the repeal of California’s Prop 8 first introduced on August of 2008, to seal up the path for sexual deviancy, child endangerment and general lawlessness. It is barely recognizable as a U.S. state.
[Comment: This is what happens when communists and radicals are elected to office.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Northern Ireland Defends Christian Bakery Before U.K. High Court
Christians in the United Kingdom are waiting, as are Christians in the United States, for their highest court to decide whether an LGBT activist can force a Christian baker to produce a product that promotes homosexuality in violation of his faith.
Arguments concluded this week in the U.K.’s Supreme Court in the case against Ashers Bakery, which was fined by a lower court judge for refusing the request of activist Gareth Lee to make a cake for a same-sex couple.
An intermediate court admitted that the request to make the cake was declined because of the message, not the homosexual status of the person who ordered it. Nevertheless, the court said the rejection of the order amounted to discrimination.
The same issue was argued only weeks ago before the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case against Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who declined to create a wedding cake for two homosexuals at a time when same-sex marriage still was illegal in the state.
Both decisions are expected later this year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Very First Animal Appeared Amid an Explosion of DNA
The animal kingdom is one of life’s great success stories — a collection of millions of species that swim, burrow, run and fly across the planet. All that diversity, from ladybugs to killer whales, evolved from a common ancestor that likely lived over 650 million years ago.
The new genes also proved to be remarkably durable. Of all the genes in the human genome, 55 percent were already present in the first animal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Anger in France” – over what???
“…a Spanish nonprofit dedicated to helping migrants at sea rescued 105 more migrants in waters near Libya during a mission on Sunday…”
Why am I 99% convinced that such “nonprofits” picking up the pseudo-refugees near Libya and transferring them to Europe are in fact FOR-PROFIT human traffickers, who act in arrangement with the traffickers on shore?
I hope the Greeks are happy with being members of the EU…fat lot of good it has done for them.
You mean borrowing tens of millions of Euros from Germany to keep up their slovenly lifestyle?
–
Get to know a true muslim gentleman!
“In Allah’s eyes, it is worse to miss a single prayer than to kill”
Salafist hate preacher Mohamed Hoblos from Australia comes to Denmark and Sweden now in May to talk and show movies.
His main message is: Murder, child abuse or drug trafficking are considerably less serious crimes for Muslims than missing one single of the oday’s five prayers.
In a 45 minutes long video from 2017 produced by the Australian Muslim production company OnePath Network, that is said to be inspired by real events, the in Islam well educated Mohamed Hoblos explains to Muslims that they can basically commit any sins and crimes – just they do not miss any of the day’s five prayers.
He screams and gaps when he is teaching his congregation:
“He who sells drugs, cheats, drinks alcohol, commits murder and rapes children every day is better in Allah’s eyes than a person who
does not commit any of these sins but shuns in his prayers!
Whoever for no reason misses a single prayer in his life is worse than a murderer, worse than a rapist, worse than a terrorist and worse than a pedophile in the eyes of all mighty Allah. ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5dnmTm9tD0
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=australian+islamic+scholar+mohamed+hoblos++memri
Norway and Sweden… obviously not to be missed. Isn’t he going to Britain, too?
He has “a large Facebook following” (50,000) but surely he must have been permanently banned by now?
Yes, I often met in the Muslim segment of social networks, that a woman who does not pray is worse than thieves, drunkards and adulterers.
45 minutes talking nonsense – that’s so Muslim!
Yes but there’s much more to it than “talking nonsense”. I listened to Mohamed Hoblos and found his words quite seriously disturbing. T0 say that to miss one of the five prayers is worse than raping a child or killing a person are the words of the devil, and that god himself, to whom prayers are being directed, if that’s what he indeed wants, is the devil, not a god at all.
But this foul, filthy, anti-human invective is what Muslims hear from Hoblos, and some of them, one supposes, believe it, take it to heart. The best that can be said is that he himself is a sick man, but still the sick can do much damage.
The word “evil” can be used lightly to blacken a name, but this Hoblos character fits the bill.
The Vicar of Virtue article is anti-Catholic propaganda. The Vatican has a huge open entrance, with only metal detectors to screen. The walls? They’re 1200 years old, hardly pertinent to today’s immigration problems.
“Catholic parishes of Dubuque give gift to mosque” by D. Russo.
An article in The Witness newspaper of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
Link to article
http://www.thewitnessonline.org
Thanks….Catholics are losing it for sure.
They couldn’t find a widow from the parish who needs her house painted or the lawn mowed?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/syrian-refugee-fighting-life-after-12494504
When the government does not want to listen to citizens…
Syrian refugee fighting for his life after being stabbed six times by gang in racist attack in hostel
Re “Astronomers spot helium on exoplanet”, could they tell whether the inhabitants spoke in funny voices?
Al-Azhar on French Call to Reform Qur’an: “Go to Hell!” Violent Verses Are “In Reality Verses of Peace”
Priceless, YJCMTSU.
I’ll certainly give the French credit for stirring up a hornet’s nest when it comes to any reformation of the Koran. It shows the entire world just how ossified, hidebound, intolerant, and generally obsessed these loons are with their little war manual.