Tory whips have been summoned to Westminster, and there are rumors that a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Theresa May could occur as early as next week. Meanwhile, Angela Merkel warned the UK that Brussels’ proposed deal was final, and there would be no further bargaining on Brexit.
In other news, a Somalia migrant stripped naked on the street in the Italian town of Ortona, and then raped a 68-year-old woman who was sunning herself on a nearby beach.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Insubria, 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.
Copy-Paste Error Reveals Assange Already Facing US Indictment
Update: The ACLU has published a statement declaring the US’s decision to prosecute Assange to be “unprecedented and unconstitutional”.
Mere hours after the Wall Street Journal reported that the DOJ was preparing to indict Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange, the Washington Post discovered that Assange has already been charged under seal by the Eastern District of Virginia, which has been handling the yearslong probe into Wikileaks’ disclosures of classified government information.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Blames Human Nature for the Need to Shadowban ‘Sensationalist and Provocative’ Content
Facebook could artificially limit the reach of your content even if it doesn’t break the platform’s rules, according to a new post from Mark Zuckerberg that describes how the platform will limit “sensational,” “provocative” and “offensive” content that allegedly comes close to violating rules.
In a lengthy blog post, the Facebook CEO framed the natural preferences of users as a problem. “Left unchecked, people will engage disproportionately with more sensationalist and provocative content,” wrote Zuckerberg.
His post included two images that show how Facebook plans to limit the traffic of “sensationalist and provocative content,” that contrast the natural pattern of users’ engagement with posts with the socially engineered pattern that Facebook hopes to achieve.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
FIRE Statement on New, Proposed Title IX Regulations
Below is a statement from Samantha Harris, FIRE’s vice president for procedural advocacy, on the Department of Education’s proposed Title IX regulations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A 10-year-old girl is being lauded by police for her quick thinking in a scenario where she didn’t feel safe.
Arizona-based mom Brenda James and her daughter Maddison Raines opened up to Good Morning America Tuesday about the incident that transpired last week, when Maddison and a friend were walking near a park and a stranger approached the duo in a white SUV.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In Renewed Criticism of Russia Probe, Trump Says Mueller Team is Threatening Witnesses
“The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t care how many lives the ruin,” the president added. “These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!”
While the full scope of Mueller’s investigation remains classified, Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed him in May 2017 to investigate allegations of collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia. Mueller reported to Rosenstein until Nov. 7, when Whitaker took over the probe.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Orders White House to Immediately Restore CNN Reporter Jim Acosta’s Press Pass
A judge on Friday ordered the White House to immediately restore the hard pass press credential of CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta after it was temporarily suspended following a tense exchange with President Donald Trump.
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly, citing the legal precedent from the 1977 D.C. Circuit Court case, Sherrill v. H. Knight, said the White House did not provide Acosta “due process” in revoking the pass. Kelly, a Trump appointee, made clear that the ruling was not based on whether the White House violated Acosta’s First Amendment rights. Rather, CNN and the White House correspondent demonstrated a likelihood of success in arguing that their Fifth Amendment rights to due process were breached, the judge said.
Further, the judge stated the fact that CNN has other pass holders does not reduce the level of “harm” towards the network’s White House correspondent. The judge also remarked on Acosta “laying hands” on a White House intern, calling the characterization “likely untrue” and “partly based on evidence of questionable accuracy.”
Notably, Kelly, referring to his ruling as “very limited” in nature, left the door open for the White House to revoke Acosta’s credentials, granted due process is respected.
“I just want to say something very briefly and that is I want to thank all of my colleagues in the press who supported us this week and I want to thank the judge for the decision he made today. Let’s get back to work,” Acosta said as he exited the courthouse.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Man Pleads Guilty in Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIS
Law enforcement officials said a New York man has pleaded guilty to attempting to provide and conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers and U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman for the Southern District of New York said Adam Raishani, aka “Saddam Mohamed Raishani,” 32, of the Bronx, New York, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Matt Gaetz: Democrats ‘Are Testing What They Can Get Away With’ To ‘Steal 2020’
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow that Democrats are “stress-testing the integrity of our election system” to build a “road-map on how to steal the election from Donald Trump in 2020,” offering his remarks on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily.
Gaetz discussed ostensible vote recount efforts in Florida: “The law requires certain reporting and transparency to occur regarding who voted, when they voted, and by what means they voted. That transparency isn’t just to make us feel better, it’s the kryptonite to fraud, because if we know how people are voting you’re able to triangulate against any of the fraudsters that would cast the illegal ballots.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Michael Avenatti’s Law Practice Evicted From Offices
Stormy Daniels’ embattled lawyer Michael Avenatti lost a last-ditch appeal Friday to block the eviction of his law practice from its California offices, according to a new report.
Avenatti — who was busted earlier this week in LA on domestic violence allegations — now needs to move out of his ocean-view suite in a Newport Beach office building after Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Moss affirmed an October order that the attorney and his staff vacate the premises, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Avenatti’s longtime firm, Eagan Avenatti, had skipped four months of rent payments — totaling $213,254 — prompting the landlord, Irvine Co., to sue for eviction.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 1,000 People Unaccounted for in California Wildfires
The death toll from the Camp Fire in northern California increased to 71 people while 1,011 people are unaccounted for, the Butte County Sheriff said Friday. Sheriff Kory Honea cautioned the list is “dynamic” and will fluctuate.
Firefighters gained ground against the two deadly California wildfires on Friday but residents in northern parts of the state faced a new threat: the dirtiest air quality levels in the world.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nolte: Crony Capitalism: Democrats Give Away $2 Billion in Welfare to Amazon
[…]
Already, New York City says it cannot afford to fix its crumbling subway system, but it is going to give away $1.5 billion to the richest of the rich and further overwhelm that system with 25,000 additional professional jobs?
This move is not about helping New Yorkers or Northern Virginians, and it is certainly not about helping the taxpayers who will pay for all of this. When you expand a business into the financial, media, and cultural centers of the universe, you are looking for one thing — to attract a certain kind of person, to offer something shiny to those strangers you wish to import.
This is a disaster for the people who currently reside in these communities, a disaster you have to try and imagine happening to you, to your way of life, to your neighborhood — and then imagine being forced to pay for it.
The incentive for these elected Democrats is that the coming wave of strangers are almost all Democrats. So what’s $48,000 per vote when working people are footing that bill?
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Open Letter: We Demand That Julian Assange’s Rights be Restored
With deep pride in the rights we hold so dear, we are calling on those who share our love of liberty to respectfully ask the Ecuadorian government to give Julian Assange back his voice. We are also asking that the United States end the Grand Jury investigation into WikiLeaks and drop any charges against the publisher and all other staff members.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Return of the Fifth Columnists
[…]
Those dreaded two words are hardly used nowadays, although subversion that undermines a nation’s solidarity by any means is alive and kicking. The New York Times, The New Yorker, MSNBC, CNN—I could go on naming most of America’s mainstream media—have done their utmost to reverse the 2016 presidential result. To call them fifth columnists would be an understatement. When the 45th president openly declares he’d like good relations with a country that has more nukes than we do, they call him a traitor. (Coming from an ex-head of the CIA, this is a bit rich.) When he calls a spade a spade, like the “shithole countries” that are sending their criminals over here, they forget that no truer words have ever been spoken, and instead ask for the smelling salts.
What got me thinking about fifth columnists was a new book that I, of course, will neither buy nor read by one Max Boot, a so-called neoconservative who has announced in his opus that he’s leaving the Republican Party for good because he cannot be associated with people who like Trump or those who voted for him. Losing Boot, of course, feels like losing an obese dead man in a tiny overcrowded lifeboat in a storm. The Republican Party is well rid of him, because if ever there were a fifth columnist among conservatives and Republicans, it was the likes of Boot and that poisoned dwarf William Kristol.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Spencer in PJ Media: Why Democrats Would Dare to Steal Elections in Plain Sight
The brazenness of the theft is astounding. Democrat election officials in Arizona and Florida, not finding the will of the people to their liking, are manufacturing a will of the people of their own. In Florida, they’re miraculously finding ballots — overwhelmingly votes for Democrats, of course — that were somehow inexplicably overlooked on election day. In Arizona, the Republican Party has accused Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes of “premeditated destruction of evidence” leading to “voting irregularities.”
The Democrats are determined to overturn the Republicans’ gain last Tuesday of two Senate seats, and are in the process of stealing those seats in plain sight.
The theft of elections, even defying court orders to stop while the whole world is watching, is a new low in American politics, and testifies to the Left’s overriding lust for power. The Democrats have never recovered their equilibrium after losing to Donald Trump in 2016, and now appear to be willing to stop at nothing — absolutely nothing — to neutralize Trump and regain their hegemony.
But there is more to this open theft than just that. The shamelessness and unapologetic audacity of this election fraud is no accident. The Democrats in Arizona and Florida and their allies in the establishment media piously intone that “all votes must be counted” as this fraud unfolds before our eyes, but they’re neither stupid nor naïve. It is much more likely that their very brazenness is not a bug, but a feature.
The Left is doing this out in the open to send a message:
There is nothing you can do. We will win. If we lose, we will cheat. We will lie. We will steal. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that you can do about it.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
WashPo: DOJ Accidentally Reveals WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Has Been Charged
The Washington Post wrote:
The disclosure came in a filing in a case unrelated to Assange. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen S. Dwyer, urging a judge to keep the matter sealed, wrote that “due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.” Later, Dwyer wrote the charges would “need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested.”
Dwyer is also assigned to the WikiLeaks case. People familiar with the matter said what Dwyer was disclosing was true, but unintentional.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Belgian police are only now investigating the case of a man who was put into a coma after being attacked for drinking during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, sixth months after the assault took place.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Brief Guide to Brexit: Where We Are, And How We Got Here
Theresa May’s premiership is teetering on the verge of collapse after she unveiled a draft agreement on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union described as “the worst deal in history” — but what are the sticking points, and how did we get here?
The Prime Minister’s leadership of the British government and the Conservative and Unionist Party has never seemed more in doubt after the terms of her draft withdrawal agreement caused a number of her ministers to resign in protest, but the political landscape could be confusing for observers too busy to keep up with at least four years of intrigues and infighting.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese-Born German Engineer Charged With Stealing Industrial Secrets
German prosecutors on Thursday announced criminal charges against two Chinese-born German citizens accused of stealing data from a chemical reactor project and exploiting it for commercial gain in China.
Reuters reports the charges were first filed in June, the targeted company filed a complaint with the police about two years ago, and the alleged data theft occurred between 2011 and 2013.
Details of the sensitive case have been kept quiet until now, and prosecutors still declined to release the names of the accused, describing them only as a 48-year-old engineer and a 40-year-old accomplice, both German citizens of Chinese descent. A third individual allegedly involved in the data theft was completely unidentified and his or her current whereabouts are said to be unknown.
According to the very vague outline of the case given to Reuters, the 48-year-old engineer worked for a chemical company headquartered in Cologne called Lanxess, which was spun off from pharmaceutical giant Bayer. This individual “gained access to large amounts of sensitive data as he moved up Lanxess’s corporate ladder” and began passing it along to an outside accomplice:
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Deutsche Bank Sees 50% Odds of May Resigning or Calling for 2nd Referendum
With UK stocks and the pound recovering from the Brexit-related chaos of the past week, it appears traders are still unwilling to accept the fact that, in trying to ram her extremely unpopular draft agreement down the throats of intransigent Tory Brexiteers (not to mention the still-furious DUP), Theresa May is facing an impossible task.
Even analysts at now-bearish Goldman Sachs were willing to base their ‘base case’ on the likelihood that a modified version of the draft agreement would eventually pass at the eleventh hour as “it is characteristic of European negotiations to come down to the wire.”
But in a note published two days after May secured her cabinet’s reluctant backing of the draft deal (setting off a furious confrontation with Brexiteers and other slightly more moderate pro-Leave Tories wary of becoming a “vassal state” of the EU), analysts at Deutsche Bank took what appears to be a more sober look at the steep odds facing a Brexit deal. Unlike Goldman, DB dares to assign odds to the possible outcomes: and it sees the probability that Theresa May will survive a leadership challenge and successfully pass the deal in hand at a paltry 35%.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: No Punishment for Man Who Stabbed Someone Six Times Over ‘Handshake Problem’
Fahim A. a young man gets off scot-free once more. This time for stabbing a man in the back six times in 2017.
The man was already well known to police for two ongoing drug offences as well as theft in 2014 and 2015, yet these had no weight on the judgment by the court in Frankfurt.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Woman Charged With Islamic State Membership
Federal prosecutors say they’ve charged a 26-year-old German woman with membership in a terrorist organization on allegations she joined the extremist Islamic State.
Prosecutors said Thursday that Derya O., whose full name wasn’t given in line with privacy laws, is accused of joining the group in Syria in February 2014 and marrying a fighter there with whom she had had previous contact over the internet.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
If the EU Penalises us, 60 Million Italians Will Rise Up — Interior Minister Salvini
Italy won’t accept EU penalties fearless Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, a man proving he is tougher than steel, says Brussels would be hurt more than Rome.
The deputy premier has said the Italian people will not accept if the European Commission imposes penalties over their 2019 government budget.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Jihadi Linked to Anis Amri Gets 4 Yrs for Terror
Palestinian part of Berlin attacker’s support network
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — A Palestinian jihadi linked to Berlin attacker Anis Amri got four years in jail on terror charges on Thursday.
Abdel Salem Napulsi, ruled to be among the support network for Amri, was sentenced by a Rome court.
It was the first verdict in Rome against a jihadi accused of training himself for terror purposes, judicial sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Conte Will Call Pernigotti Turkish Owners — Di Maio
Toksoz represented by consultants at industry ministry talks
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Premier Giuseppe Conte will call the Turkish owners of historic chocolate maker Pernigotti in an effort to change their minds aboiut closing its plant at Novi Ligure near Genoa, Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Di Maio said Thursday.
Di Maio said talks at the industry ministry about the announced closure “can only go forward if the owners come”.
He said “for this reason the premier will call the Turkish owners to the premier’s office”.
At Thursday’s talks, owners Toksoz were represented by consultants.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Di Maio Clashes With Salvini on Waste Incinerators
Not in govt contract says M5S leader
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, the two leaders of Italy’s ruling populist coalition, on Thursday clashed over Salvini’s vow to install a waste incinerator for household rubbish in every province in the southern region of Campania.
Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5s) Di Maio said anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Salvini’s pledge was not relevant in Campania because the toxic waste fire disaster there was linked to industrial refuse and not domestic waste.
“So incinerators don’t come into it one blooming bit and among other things they’re not in the government contract” between the two parties, Di Maio said.
Salvini retorted that if incinerators were not built then the local Camorra mafia would continue to manage waste treatment in and around Naples.
Di Maio shot back that “the Camorra invested in incinerators”. The two leaders are both deputy premiers in Premier Giuseppe Conte’s executive.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Astrophysicist Benvenuti to Take Over ASI
Extraordinary commissioner for ‘no longer than six months’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 16 — Astrophysicist Piero Benvenuti is to take over the Italian Space Agency (ASI) as extraordinary commissioner replacing former president Roberto Battiston who was recently axed by the government, sources said Friday.
A decree putting ASI under Benvenuti is ready, the sources said. “I have accepted this post out of a spirit of service to the country,” Benvenuti told ANSA.
“I will carry it forward until a new president is appointed, and in any case for a period no longer than six months”.
Benvenuti said he would start work next week.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Just 28 Percent of Britons Want to Stop Brexit, Plurality Wants May to Go
Just 28 per cent of Britons want to stop Brexit while a plurality wants Theresa May to step down as prime minister.
YouGov asked a sample of citizens where they wanted to go next with Brexit and 16 per cent said that Britain should accept the draft deal arranged between bureaucrats in the European Union and Prime Minister Theresa May, while 11 per cent said the country should reject it and negotiate a different deal.
However, a higher number, 19 per cent, said that Britain should reject it and leave the EU without any deal, trading with the bloc as it does with other international countries on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Populist League leader Matteo Salvini is seen as the most powerful politician within the government by a majority of Italians.
The survey, conducted by the EMG polling agency, shows 60 per cent of Italian voters believe that Salvini is the most powerful member of the government ahead of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who received 14 per cent in the survey.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Next Year Sees New Benefits for Large Families — Polish Minister
Poland’s minister for family, labour and social policy, Elzbieta Rafalska, describes to Radio Zeto the government’s plans to begin paying mothers of four or more children, a special minimum pension.
She explains that “a realistic and safe date” for introducing the new benefits was 1 March.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘No More Bargaining’ — Merkel Warns Offer is Final as Brussels Chiefs Hope Brexit Will be Called Off
There is “no question” of renegotiating the super-soft Brexit deal agreed with Theresa May, Angela Merkel has warned, as Eurocrats voiced hope that the divorce could be called off altogether.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Potsdam, the German Chancellor said: “We have a document on the table that Britain and the remaining 27 EU states have agreed. There is, as far as I am concerned, no question of further bargaining at present.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
‘No More Bargaining’ — Merkel Warns Offer is Final as Brussels Chiefs Hope Brexit Will be Called Off
There is “no question” of renegotiating the super-soft Brexit deal agreed with Theresa May, Angela Merkel has warned, as Eurocrats voiced hope that the divorce could be called off altogether.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Potsdam, the German Chancellor said: “We have a document on the table that Britain and the remaining 27 EU states have agreed. There is, as far as I am concerned, no question of further bargaining at present.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Government Forces Dead People to Pay TV Tax — Regardless Whether They Owned a TV or Not
The Swedish Parliament recently voted through a new law that will abolish the TV license fee from 1 January 2019.
Instead, the already heavily taxed Swedes will be forced to pay a compulsory tax to finance the public service. This, regardless of whether they are watching, or even own a TV.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Non Brexit Deal, Bin it and Let’s Really Take Back Control This Time — Janice Atkinson
May must go. I thought she would be toast yesterday but the Conservative party are playing games.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Prime Minister has betrayed the principles of Brexit and is subjecting the United Kingdom to political slavery at the hands of Brussels, Brexiteers have said, as the details of the Prime Minister’s deal leaked to Irish media Tuesday afternoon.
Brexiteers within the Conservative party met Tuesday as the news emerged of a “technical level” agreement emerged — apparently leaked to Irish journalists sympathetic to the European Union but not to figures within the United Kingdom — and spoke of launching a “coup” against the Prime Minister, Britain’s The Times reported in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Baker Urges Brexiteers to Get Letters in: ‘You Must Act Now’
Former Brexit minister Steve Baker has urged colleagues wavering on whether to write to the 1922 Committee to call for a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May to “act now. Time is short.”
Speaking to a media scrum in Westminster Friday, Mr Baker said: “If colleagues have agreed with me that we cannot tolerate this policy and that if we cannot tolerate this policy that it is time to recognise it is connected with Theresa May as Prime Minister, it is my sorry duty to say that it is time to put the letters in and to have the vote and test the will of the Conservative Party to continue.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Reports: Tory Whips Summoned, No Confidence Vote ‘Likely’
Media are reporting that sources have told them Conservative Party whips have been recalled from Friday constituency duties to Westminster and that a vote of no confidence could happen as early as next week.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rotherham Grooming Scandal: Six Jailed for 22 Child Sex Offences
Six men of Pakistani heritage have been handed jail sentences for sexually abusing five underage girls in Rotherham following an eight-week trial, during which jurors heard the men had “destroyed” their victims’ childhoods.
Mohammed Imran Akhtar, Nabeel Kurshid, Asif Ali, Iqlak Yousaf, Salah El-Hakam, and Tanweer Ali were sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, after they were convictedat the end of last month of 22 child sexual exploitation (CSE) offences which took place in Rotherham between 1998 and 2005.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Video: EU Head Juncker Appears Incapable of Dressing Himself
A new video shows EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who has been dogged by rumors that he’s a hardcore alcoholic, wearing different colored shoes during a public event.
The clip shows Juncker interacting with an aide, who appears to notice that one of his shoes is black and the other is brown. Juncker then shuffles away awkwardly, leaving the podium.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
World Looks Other Way on Christian Persecution — Pope
‘Being killed in ever increasing numbers’ says Francis
(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 16 — The world is “looking the other way” on the persecution of Christians, Pope Francis said Friday at an audience with the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
He said Christians “are being killed in ever increasing numbers”.
The pope also called for “dialogue and respect” to try and achieve peace in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Secret Diplomacy to Save Its Relationship With the Pentagon
[…]
In another change, the Pentagon has also begun publicizing the transit of U.S. warships through the Taiwan Strait, as Breitbart News also first reported. This year, the U.S. confirmed sending two warships through the strait, the first time it has confirmed doing so since the Bush administration sent an aircraft carrier through in 2007.
The Trump administration has also sought to regularize arms sales to Taiwan, by approving smaller and more frequent sales, versus bundling them in larger and less frequent packages. Also in September, the State Department approved an arms sale of $330 million to Taiwan.
Perhaps most significantly, the Pentagon identified China as a great power competitor in its National Defense Strategy, which is guiding the decision-making on everything from budgets to training.
The Chinese have reacted angrily to these challenges. At the State Department on Friday, the Chinese foreign minister said he “made it clear” to the U.S. that it should stop sending ships and aircraft close to “Chinese Islands” in the South China Sea.
But the Pentagon has no intentions of relenting. Trump administration officials have tried to make it clear to the Chinese that “competition does not mean conflict.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Majority of Popular Free VPN Apps Owned by Chinese Firms Susceptible to User Data ‘Harvesting’
[…]
Surprisingly, one of the apps, VPN Super Unlimited Proxy, traces to a company whose corporate address is located within a well-known tech incubator in Beijing: the Dongsheng Science and Technology Park.
Other VPN apps, such as Super VPN Free VPN Client, which has 50 million downloads on Android, have no website. Its registered address in Singapore is part of a university campus, and likely is fake.
The presence of such VPN developers is unsettling given that Chinese authorities have also jailed VPN operators for selling or developing “unauthorized” VPN software. As recently as October, a VPN developer was sentenced to a three-year suspended prison term.
In recent weeks, Chinese netizens who have used a VPN to access Twitter and post comments critical of the Chinese regime have been interrogated, arrest, and detained by local police. They were also forced to close down their accounts.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Study: China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Infrastructure Project Running Low on Funding
[…]
Compounding the instability of Belt and Road — also known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR) — financing is the stress placed on China’s economy by its trade war with the United States. The conflict has gone more poorly for Beijing than anticipated, leaving it with less money to spend on Belt and Road at a crucial moment when developing countries are rethinking their commitment to the project and private investors are backing away.
Another interesting quirk AEI’s research uncovered is that China’s hybrid public-private mega-corporations are not quite the obedient instruments of aggressive central policy Beijing might have hoped for. Many Belt and Road projects are meant to expand China’s political influence across the hemisphere, but they are not terribly profitable.
The prospect of making Third World countries dependent on Chinese engineers to maintain their expensive new trains and power stations is tremendously appealing to the Communist Party but not for the Chinese engineers actually charged with doing the work, or the companies that pay their salaries. Some of the countries where China is pushing huge Belt and Road projects with lousy profit margins offer few business opportunities that would entice CEOs to swallow their losses on infrastructure construction.
Also unappealing for Chinese executives is the prospect of getting charged with “corruption” and “disappearing” into the prison system when the Politburo is displeased with their decisions. The fate of one such executive demonstrated what AEI drily described as “a risk-reward trade-off that most private firms would flee.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
The Melbourne attack saw Somali-born terrorist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali park a four-wheel drive laden with gas cylinders in the CBD and stab three men.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Local Professor Discovers New Species of Kissing Bug
NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) — A Loyola professor discovered a new species of a “kissing bug,” known to transfer a deadly parasite to people and pets.
While most cases are found in Latin America, the bug is also found in the U.S.
Loyola professor Patricia Dorn has studied a life-threatening parasitic disease called Chagas for more than two decades, and recently discovered a new species during a research trip in Belize.
“These parasites from the Rio Frio cave in Belize carry the deadly parasite at really high numbers,” Dorn said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Chinese Telecom Giant Building Venezuela a ‘Social Credit System’
Chinese telecom giant ZTE is helping the socialist dictatorship in Venezuela implement a social credit system similar to Beijing’s through its ration cards, Reuters revealed Thursday.
According to Reuters, Nicolas Maduro regime’s recent release of the “Carnet de la Patria,” or “Fatherland Card,” to all citizens forms part of a plan to develop widespread control over the population. Venezuelans have needed a card for access to subsidized food, healthcare, and gasoline since 2014. The Maduro regime has recruited China to help the cards expand their use not just to track what citizens eat, but their social, political, and economic behavior.
Last year, the report claims, the Venezuelan regime spent $70 million on hiring ZTE to help develop their project in a supposed effort to bolster “national security.” Now, a team of ZTE engineers is reportedly working in Caracas at a special unit within the Venezuelan state telecommunications company Cantv to help build a more sophisticated database.
Some of the information already stored on the database reportedly includes “birthdays, family information, employment and income, property owned, medical history, state benefits received, presence on social media, membership of a political party and whether a person voted.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Auditors Claim Billions of Euros Sent to Turkey for Migrants Improperly Used
The European Union Court of Auditors has slammed inefficient use of the billions of euros sent to Turkey for asylum seekers, saying that up to half of the proposed projects have not achieved their expected results.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Estonia is the Fifth EU Nation Leaving the UN Migration Pact — Prime Minister
After Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, Estonia has also left the UN migration pact.
“In forming the governing coalition, we agreed that we make decisions only by consensus. The government has today failed to reach agreement at the Cabinet meeting on support for the UN migration pact. Therefore, the government will not join the agreement, “wrote Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Center Party) on Thursday on Facebook.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Eritrean Refugees Barely Work and Around 90% Live on Benefits in the Netherlands
The around 20,000 Eritrean refugees in the Netherlands are mostly not well integrated, a newly published report of the Social Research Institute SCP shows.
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French Teen Dies After ‘Refugee’ Stabs Him 23 Times for No Reason
A 19-year-old French teen has been brutally murdered in a friend’s home after a ‘refugee’ complained about loud noise.
The victim, Baptiste, was leaving the apartment of a friend, when a stranger confronted him in the staircase over too much noise.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Has Made Denmark a Poorer, Less Secure and More Polarised Country — Study
Mikkel Andersson and Niels Jespersen call mass migration into Denmark a ‘failed experiment’ as the country would be better off without it.
In their newly published book “The Experiment That Failed”, the authors argue that especially non-Western migration has a bad effect on the country, making it more polarised and less secure.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Interior Minister Welcomes Real Refugees at Airport
The head of Italy’s right-wing League Matteo Salvini, along with the coalition government, which includes the Five Star Movement (M5S), has vowed to stop illegal migrant arrivals and Rome has closed its ports to the NGO rescue boats.
However, the ‘tough on illegal immigration and human trafficking’ minister is not against helping genuine refugees, as is evidenced by the scenes of Matteo meeting with dozens of African migrants recently evacuated from Libya by the UN.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Man Strips Naked in Street, Rapes Old Woman
In Ortona
(ANSA) — Ortona, November 15 — A 20-year-old Somali man stripped naked in the street and raped an elderly woman who was sunning herself on a beach in the Abruzzo town of Ortona on Thursday, local sources said.
The man was said to be have a protected status as immigrant.
The attacker first slammed the woman’s head against some large rocks and then forced her to submit to sexual violence, the sources said.
The woman managed to wriggle free and flee while the Carabinieri arrived at the scene.
“I was afraid he wanted to kill me, but luckily I managed to break free,” said the 68-year-old at a hospital where she was treated for cuts and bruises and severe concussion.
Anti-migrant League leader and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted: “20-year-old Somali man, who arrived in Italy on a migrant boat, goes around NAKED and then attacks a 68-year-old woman, injuring her and using sexual violence on her. These are the thanks for getting protection from Italy! WORM!”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Salvini Hits Back at Council of Europe Over Security Decree
Human rights commissioner Mijatovic said legislation a step back
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini hit back on Thursday after Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, described the Italian government’s security-and-migration decree as a step back. “Ignorance of the measure and anti-Italian prejudice,” said League leader Salvini, who drafted the decree, “the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner tears up the security decree.
“Turkey is in the Council of Europe too and Ankara is not exactly a model of democracy an the protection of human rights.
“Enough with the lessons and insults from Strasbourg. There’s a limit to everything”. Mijatovic told ANSA that the security decree “raises several concerns regarding the human rights of migrants and asylum seekers. “It is a step back in terms of the access to protection for people who could face, or have already faced, serious threats,” she added. “Not allowing asylum seekers to access the SPRAR system (of assistance) puts the Italian system of reception and integration into further difficulty”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Unacceptable suspension’ says French capital’s city council
(ANSA) — Paris, November 16 — Paris city council on Friday approved a motion backing Riace Mayor Domenico ‘Mimmo’ Lucano who has been suspended for allegedly aiding illegal immigration by arranging marriages among other things.
The council said “the decision by Italian justice to suspend the mayor of Riace from his post as mayor is a politically unacceptable decision”.
Lucano has won national international plaudits for the ‘Riace Model’ of integration to keep his small town alive and was named among the world’s 50 greatest leaders in 2016 by Forbes magazine.
The Paris city government voiced the hope that Mayor Anne Hidalgo would invite Lucano to the French capital “to testify to the support of the city of Paris”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Racist? Mexican Citizens Clash With Migrant Caravan in Tijuana
Hundreds of Mexican residents waving flags clashed with members of the migrant caravan in Tijuana, demanding that they leave.
“Pushing, shoving, kicking and a couple of blows broke out between masses of residents and migrants,” reports the Palm Springs Desert Sun, adding that, “After midnight, residents assaulted journalists, injuring at least three, according to reporters on the scene.”
Footage shows Mexicans chanting songs before attempting to attack some of the migrants.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Reduced Migration is Illegal — Court Opens for Even More Generous Family Migration
Restrictions on family reunification in the temporary asylum law violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
This has been established by the Migration Supreme Court in a new verdict, which, according to the Swedish Migration Agency, may affect “many cases”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch— Caravan Migrants Arrive at Southern Border, Scale Fence
[…]
Nearly 400,000 illegal border-crossers have crossed into the U.S. this year, as of last month. In October, nearly 51,000 border-crossers were apprehended, Breitbart News reported.
As Breitbart News has chronicled, though the establishment media has repeatedly claimed that the caravan is seeking to enter the U.S. to seek asylum, the Central American migrants have continuously admitted they are not seeking asylum.
Instead, the migrants are looking for jobs, crime-free communities, and many are previously deported illegal aliens who are looking to go back to their former, illegal life in the U.S. None of these cases is eligible as asylum claims.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Produces Fake News to Attack Its Opponents
The social media giant has been producing a lot of its own fake news lately. After harassing conservative websites with “hate speech” rules and “fake news” rules, Facebook has been producing fake news of its own.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Did the generation of “Mr. Robot” submission to Kadyrov?
Background: The Americans released a board game about Chechen vampires and “Sultan Ramzan.” In the republic, they called it “blackening”
https://hybridtechcar.com/2018/11/16/the-americans-released-a-board-game-about-chechen-vampires-and-sultan-ramzan-in-the-republic-they-called-it-blackening/
Result: White Wolf Publishing, the publisher of Vampire: The Masquerade, will be absorbed by its parent company and no longer be allowed to independently publish products after a recent book depicted persecution of the LGBTQ community in Chechnya as a misdirection to mask the presence of vampires in that region.
https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/11/16/vampire-masquerade-white-wolf-publishing-chechnya/
Or did I misunderstand everything and did the game developers submit to LGBT?
Or did they obey everyone at once?
“Angela Merkel warned the UK that Brussels’ proposed deal was final, and there would be no further bargaining on Brexit”
This alone is reason for a British walkaway. Excuse me, Frau Merkel, you don’t dictate British policy. You dictate to the Germans, enforcing on them the diktats of the UN and EU, leading them into hell and to obliteration as a people, but your writ stops there.
From Russia the news is much harsher than from Italy.
In the Moscow region, a migrant raped a disabled woman and injured a Dagestani man who came to her rescue.
The suspected 38-year-old migrant from Kyrgyzstan, while drunk, attacked a 56-year-old woman who was traveling on crutches.
“The men passing by – Dagestanis, hearing the cries of the victim for help, demanded that the illegal actions be stopped. The attacker tried to escape, but one of the men managed to catch up with him, ”said the source.
Fleeing from prosecution, the suspect inflicted a penetrating knife wound on the chest to a man, the victim was hospitalized.
https://vz.ru/news/2018/11/16/950985.html
Deutschland is just not big enough to contain Kaiser Merkel.
Woman blows herself up near police checkpoint in Chechen capital
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/woman-dies-explosion-suicide-bomber-grozny-chechnya-russia-a8638901.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-chechnya-blast/woman-blows-herself-up-in-chechen-capital-grozny-ria-idUSKCN1NM0HX
China is ready to help Europe solve the Muslim problem.
We’ll probably have to reopen Auschwitz. Or will China offer innovative ideas?
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1126345.shtml
Merkel says this is it “no further bargaining”. Note Merkel not the Council of Europe, not anybody in Bruxelles, nobody with formal EU authority. Well Mutti, lass dich mal umficken. We fought two horrendous wars NOT to be dictated to by Berlin. Vive le Brexit!!