In a televised address to the nation, French President Emmanuel Macron acceded to several of the demands made by the “Yellow Vests” movement, including raising the minimum wage, eliminating extra tax on overtime, and reducing workers’ pension contributions. Meanwhile, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said that Mr. Macron was to blame for the violent protests in France.
In other news, British Prime Minister Theresa May delayed a “meaningful vote” on the Brexit deal because she was facing certain defeat.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Dean, Dora, Insubria, LL, 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.
The OECD is so worried about the collapse in Sydney and Melbourne’s housing market it is urging the government to prepare for a ‘crisis situation’ that could hit the financial sector.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Ministry of Truth, Part IV: Crime and Punishment
Understanding America’s “Ministry of Truth” requires coping with the tenacity of The Narrative, the academic sources that created it, and its outcomes in the format of “news,” which inundates citizens in a fashion reminiscent of George Orwell’s famous quip about Soviet commissars — “half gangster, half gramophone.”
Unfortunately, The Narrative’s relentless ubiquity is poisoned by its transmitters’ arrogance and lack of accountability. …
Any passing experience with the decades of media accounts about those who run afoul of The Narrative yields two basic crimes that trigger the wrath of its custodian commissars:racism and heresy. Racism is a conceptual holding company bulging with —isms and phobias, such as sexism, homo— and trans-phobia, microaggressions, cultural appropriations, myriads of other deprecations, along with—who knows?—skipping tire rotation on your car or failing to floss regularly.
Doesn’t matter—crimes require punishment, though not all criminals receive the same treatment.
This point is more easily understood by recognizing that progressivism is a secular cult whose acolytes treat individuals in terms of their relationship to The Narrative. Notable public figures with guts and determination face accusation, defamation, and occasionally threats of violence and loss of employment; others go through a three-step protocol, involving confession, apology, and mandatory absolution. In the final analysis, keepers of The Narrative inflict as much retribution as they can get away with.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Summit Language Reveals Real But Hidden Agenda
[…]
One of these terms is “climate finance.” However, it is not about financing climate, whatever that might mean. It is about the developed countries paying for everything the developing countries do in the name of stopping, or at least adapting to, supposedly human-caused climate change. Annual payments of $100 billion (!) are supposed to begin in 2020, but may well rise thereafter if developing countries decide they need (and will demand) more, which they no doubt would. The more they demand or receive, the more money they will expect to get.
But this $100 billion a year is by no means the big ticket when it comes to payments. That honor belongs to something called “loss and damage. This is basically “compensation for” all of the damage allegedly caused by climate change — which now appears to include all bad weather. Every hurricane, drought, wildfire, snowstorm and flood is now attributed to human-caused climate change, not to mention sea level rise. All must be compensated. …
One of the sneakier wealth transfer terms is “technology transfer.” In the US, this term is widely used to mean the licensing of new technologies to companies, who then move them from the laboratory to widespread use. At Katowice, the term means something entirely different, including the unlicensing of technologies.
The idea is that companies holding patents will waive them, to allow developing countries to manufacture the patented stuff free of charge. It can even mean that these companies build manufacturing facilities and train the workers, also for free. I am not making this up. …
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
In the United States, burglars generally try to break into homes that are unoccupied. We tend to take this fact for granted, but it isn’t true everywhere. There are advantages to breaking into residences when the owners are home: you can force them to tell you where valuables and drugs are kept, rather than having to search. And if a woman is present you may choose to assault her. This is why, in countries where gun ownership is rare, invasions of occupied homes are much more common.
Last week the Telegraph reported: “Half of burglaries on occupied homes as thieves grow bolder.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Magazine for Millennials Threatens Vehicle Attacks Near U.S. Capitol
Declaring that ISIS is a “globalist” organization, a new magazine geared toward young recruits is calling on jihadists to wage vehicle attacks outside of the U.S. Capitol.
Shabab al-Khilafah, or The Youth of the Caliphate, debuted its first issue on Oct. 10 as a colorful collection of articles, posters and teasers to online videos encouraging home-turf attacks on behalf of the Islamic State. Supporters were encouraged to submit content for future issues.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Local Newspapers End Print Run After Photographer’s Shooting
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio newspaper company has said it will no longer publish its local newspapers after the shooting of the newspapers’ photographer by a sheriff’s deputy who said he mistook a camera tripod for a rifle.
KBA News LLC owner Dale Grimm and his son Andy made the announcement last week, saying photographer Andy Grimm hasn’t been able to return to work since the shooting. The company says that is a main reason for ending the print production of the New Carlisle News, Enon Eagle and Tippecanoe Gazette though the newspapers will continue publishing online.
A grand jury last month declined to indict the Clark County sheriff’s deputy for shooting Andy Grimm in 2017.
Andy Grimm says the shooting has strained relations between the company and the involved entities.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
NIH Study Probes Impact of Heavy Screen Time on Young Brains
(Bloomberg) — Brain scans of adolescents who are heavy users of smartphones, tablets and video games look different from those of less active screen users, preliminary results from an ongoing study funded by the National Institutes of Health show, according to a report on Sunday by “60 Minutes.”
That’s the finding of the first batch of scans of 4,500 nine— to 10-year-olds. Scientists will follow those children and thousands more for a decade to see how childhood experiences, including the use of digital devices, affect their brains, emotional development and mental health.
In the first round of testing, the scans of children who reported daily screen usage of more than seven hours showed premature thinning of the brain cortex, the outermost layer that processes information from the physical world.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ohio Man Arrested for Planning ISIS-Inspired Mass Shootings Against Synagogues in Toledo
On Monday, the FBI announced that it had arrested 21-year-old Damon Joseph for planning multiple mass shootings at synagogues in the Toledo, Ohio, area. Joseph had reportedly been inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS) and announced his intention to target Jews on the Sabbath. He had also expressed hatred for gays, Christians, Catholics, and Jews.
Joseph was arrested on Friday after purchasing two AR-15 rifles and openly announcing his plans to kill many people, including a rabbi, the Times of Israel reported. According to an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court in Toledo, Joseph said he was inspired by the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pa., in October, which killed 11.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sen. Mazie Hirono: ‘We Democrats Know So Much’ That We Tend to Alienate Voters
Sen. Mazie Hirono suggested Tuesday that Democrats have a hard time connecting with voters because their breadth of knowledge tends to turn people off.
The Hawaii Democrat made the comment during a discussion at the “Bend Towards Justice” conference in Washington when she was asked by Slate editor Dahlia Lithwick how to make the judicial system a top campaign issue for voters.
[…]
“I’ve been saying it at all our Senate Democratic retreats we need to speak to the heart, not in a manipulative way, not in a way that brings forth everybody’s fears and resentments, but truly to speak to the heart so that people know that we’re actually on their side,” she continued.
“We have to kind of tell everyone how smart we are, and so we have a tendency to be very left-brain,” the senator added.
[Note: They’re humble, too…]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Social Media Outpaces Print Newspapers in the U.S. as a News Source
Social media sites have surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans: One-in-five U.S. adults say they often get news via social media, slightly higher than the share who often do so from print newspapers (16%) for the first time since Pew Research Center began asking these questions. In 2017, the portion who got news via social media was about equal to the portion who got news from print newspapers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
I see that Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Bernie Sanders are pushing something called a “Green New Deal”, so I thought I’d take a look. The Hill has a piece entitled “Progressives say dire climate reports point to need for ‘Green New Deal’“, and the Atlantic magazine has an article on it headlined “The Democratic Party Wants to Make Climate Policy Exciting”. Make climate policy exciting? Well, I guess so, but only if you consider economic suicide exciting…
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
The One-Sided Worldview of Eco-Pessimists
Toynbee, McKibben, and Brown, however, saw all of this as irrelevant because of present-day problems that would soon prove catastrophic. In earlier generations these typically revolved around soil erosion and air and water pollution. Needless to say, McKibben has thrown in his lot with human-induced climate change and the catastrophes it has allegedly induced such as droughts, floods, and wildfires. Not surprisingly though, past catastrophic weather was once blamed on everything from religious insubordination to the deployment of the lightning rod, wireless telegraphy, First World War ordnance, atomic tests, and supersonic flights. A few decades ago, the kind of evidence now marshalled by McKibben was used to support the hypothesis of anthropogenic global cooling due to particulate air pollution. To give but one illustration, in his influential 1976 book The Cooling, science journalist Lowell Ponte invoked frost damage at coffee plantations in Brazil, the expansion of the Sahara Desert, crop failures in the Soviet Union, severe floods in the American northeast, and severe droughts in the American southwest to prove his point. Global cooling, Ponte argued on the basis of this evidence, “present[ed] humankind with the most important social, political, and adaptive challenge we have had to deal with for ten thousand years.”6 Like today, most of the preferred policy solutions of cooling advocates revolved around reducing economic activities and implementing population control.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Urban Heat Island Influence Inadequately Considered in Climate Research
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) deliberately limited climate science to focus on CO2 and temperature. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) directed them only to consider human causes of climate change. They used this to narrow the focus of all variables that create the climate and thus eliminate major variables that cause climate change. A major example is the so-called greenhouse gases (GHG). Three of them account for almost 100% of the total; by volume, they are Water vapor (H2O) (95%), Carbon dioxide (CO2) (4%) and Methane (CH4) (0.36%). There are no accurate measures of any of these regarding the amount actually in the atmosphere or the changes in input and output from natural sources over any period.
All agencies agree that Water vapor is by far the largest and most important, but it gets virtually no attention. I do not intend to argue about the various attempts to downplay its importance. They are all proof of how little we know because each manipulator achieves different results. The IPCC admits humans add H2O to the atmosphere. However, they consider the amount so small relative to the atmospheric total and therefore of no consequence in their calculations. The problem is the effect of water vapor as a GHG is so large that it is probable that even a 2% variation could explain a great deal of the effect of CO2 and indeed all the effect of human-produced CO2. Proving this is complicated by the fact that H2O and CO2 overlap significantly on the Electromagnetic Spectrum.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
YouTube Bans Proud Boys Founder Gavin McInnes for Copyright Infringement
Alt-right commentator and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes is now banned from YouTube for “multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement,” according to the company. At the time of the ban, McInnes, who also co-founded Vice Media in 1994 prior to his involvement with numerous nationalist causes, had over 200,000 subscribers. It is not clear which videos on McInnes’ channel led to the ban, but YouTube confirmed that the channel had exceeded the threshold for copyright strikes, leading to a “repeat offender” ban.
In November, the FBI labeled the Proud Boys an extremist group only for an agent to later clarify that the label was the result of a misunderstanding. (The FBI still considers the Proud Boys to have links to white nationalism, and considers some individual members to be potential violent and criminal threats with possible national security implications.) Regardless, McInnes had begun distancing himself from the group following the FBI’s initial classification, which was due in part to a violent altercation involving members of the Proud Boys at a New York City event in October at which McInnes was speaking.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Threat to Ottawa Over Huawei CFO Arrest Ignores Rule of Law in Canada
[…]
What the Chinese communist regime may be ignoring, however, is that governments in democratic nations can’t interfere with legal proceedings.
“I think this is very typical of China’s behavior,” said Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the think tank Macdonald-Laurier Institute. “They look at how they behave domestically, and how every institution in China must bend to the will of the Communist Party, and they just assume that every other society is organized the same way.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
The Many Passports of Arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou
[…]
According to the U.S. Justice Department and the United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, Meng has used seven passports from China and Hong Kong in the last 11 years to enter the United States. The passports include four issued by China, and three issued by Hong Kong.
Both Chinese and Hong Kong passports have a typical validity period of 10 years. Legally, a mainland Chinese citizen cannot hold both a Chinese and Hong Kong passport at the same time. …
Each of the offences Meng is charged with carry a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. Meng denies the charges. Her first bail hearing was held on Dec. 7 in Vancouver, and will resume on Dec. 10.
Huawei, a Chinese telecommunication giant, was founded by a former officer of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The intelligence community has raised alarms about Huawei’s close ties to Beijing, with the United States, Australia, and New Zealand banning the company from their emerging 5G networks. …
Zhu Mingguo, the disgraced former chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Political Consultative Conference who was investigated for bribery in 2014, reportedly held 14 Chinese passports under different names. A peculiar finding revealed during his investigations was that while the photos of the passports were all of Zhu, the gender marked in the passports were female. Zhu was sentenced to death with reprieve for taking bribes worth of tens of millions of dollars.
In another similar case in the same year, Ling Jihua, the chief of the General Office of the Communist Party of China between 2007 and 2012, reportedly held six passports under different names.
In another case, Xi Xiaoming, vice president of the Supreme Court of the Chinese Communist Party, was found in 2015 to hold six passports, and three travel documents from Hong Kong and Macau.
Yet another case in 2015 involved Zhou Benshun, secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hebei Provincial Committee, who was sentenced on 15 years in prison for taking bribes worth 40.01 million yuan ($5.82 million) in 2017. During investigations it was revealed that he held 12 passports.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
EU Court Confirms Britain Has Sovereign Right… to Stay in the EU
The highest court in the European Union has ruled that the United Kingdom remains sovereign in one key aspect — in its ability to unilaterally choose to remain in the European Union.
The ruling came after a group of concerned pro-Brussels UK politicians petitioned the European Court of Justice to discover whether the United Kingdom could cancel the Brexit process, or whether it would have to ask other European nations for permission to do so.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: MSM Ignores Violence by Masked Antifa Thugs at Labour’s ‘Counter-Protest’
LABOUR and AntiFa held a protest against the Working classes in London yesterday, they branded Brexiteers as ‘Far Right Thugs’ and the media has lapped it up — even though the far-left group clashed with Police.
The Guardian and ‘not so’ The Independent have reported the event with a positive spin but has ignored MASS VIOLENCE by Labour’s brownshirts.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France ‘Investigating’ If the Russkies Are Secretly Behind Yellow Vest Protests
If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that Western governments can dodge all responsibility for their failed leadership by blaming all domestic strife on the Russkies.
From Bloomberg, “France to Probe Possible Russian Influence on Yellow Vest Riots”:
France opened a probe into possible Russian interference behind the country’s Yellow Vest protests, after reports that social-media accounts linked to Moscow have increasingly targeted the movement.
[Comment: I predicted this.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Marine Le Pen recently made a statement on the yellow vest protest in France. According to the political leader, Macron should get out of the Palace and become aware of the suffering of the people.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Macron Offers Minimum Wage Increase to Buy Off Yellow Vest Protesters
President Emmanuel Macron addressed the French nation Wednesday, promising a 100 euro a month increase in the minimum wage, tax-free overtime pay, and year-end bonuses following the Yellow Vest protests.
The French leader immediately denounced the violence of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) at the beginning of his speech, saying “The events of recent weeks in France and overseas have deeply troubled the nation. They have mingled legitimate claims and an unacceptable level of violence,” Le Monde reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Turin Metropolitan Authority Says Yes to TAV
Issue is divisive, we’re waiting for analysis says Mayor Appendino
(ANSA) — Turin, December 10 — The conference of mayors of the Turin Metropolitan area on Monday voted in favour of a motion to back the controversial TAV Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link. The motion presented by the centre-right and centre-left opposition passed with 167 votes in favour, eight abstentions and one vote against.
Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino, whose 5-Star Movement (M5S) has long been hostile to the project, did not take part in the vote.
The approved motion called on the mayor to “recognise the benefits of the project for the whole metropolitan area and carry out actions to support its completion in the scheduled time frame”. The M5S-League national government has said it will decide whether to press ahead with the TAV after a new cost-benefit analysis.
Appendino described Monday’s vote as a “political act”.
“The Turin-Lyon is a highly divisive issue that it is hard to talk about,” she said.
“We are waiting for the conclusion of the cost-benefit analysis and the legal analysis about the eventual cost of stop the work, which should be finished by the end of the month”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Golden Pensions Must be Cut’ — Di Maio
Would be suicidal not to says deputy premier
(ANSA) — Rome, December 10 — Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio said Monday there was no doubt that the government would slash so-called golden pensions — State pensions that are very high. “They must be cut, there is no discussing this,” 5-Star Movement (M5S) Di Maio said amid reports their coalition partners, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s League, were pushing back against the plan. “The M5S are in favour of cutting all golden pensions and we will reiterate our position with the Premier (Giuseppe Conte) in a meeting of the ruling majority.
“I’m sure we’ll find an solution because no one is so suicidal as to want to block these cuts at a time when the Italian people are angry”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Macron to Break Silence, Address French Nation Monday Evening
The president will consult in the morning with an array of national and local officials as he tries to get a handle on the ballooning and radicalising protest movement triggered by anger at his policies, and a growing sense that they favour the rich.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French president Emmanuel Macron tonight announced a range of dramatic Socialist-style financial concessions to struggling workers so as to end an ‘economic and social state of emergency’.
In a TV address lasting 12 minutes, he said a month of rioting and blockades justified a €100 (£90) increase in the minimum wage, taking it to €1498 (£1360).
This will not ‘cost anything to the employer’, said Mr Macron, and will be accompanied by all taxes and other charges on overtimes being scrapped.
There were also be an end-of-year bonus that employers can pay without being charged by the government, while taxes on those earning less than €2000 (£1800) will also end on January 1.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Macron to Blame for Yellow Vest Protests — Italian Interior Minister
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, said on Sunday that French President Emmanuel Macron, is to blame for the “yellow vest” protests.
The Yellow Vest movement has thrown France, especially Paris, into chaos since mid-November. The bold Salvini, who has had an ongoing dispute with Macron over immigration policy, has admonished Brussels to pay attention to what is happening.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
May Should Head Back to Brussels and Show Some ‘Steel and Determination’ — Boris Johnson
Conservative MP Boris Johnson again has asked that lawmakers reject Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
Mr. Johnson, being hailed as the man to replace Tory leader and Prime Minister Theresa May, has asserted that Mrs. May should be heading back to Brussels and doing “what they have been expecting all along — and that is finally show some steel and determination.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Grooming Gangs in Finland — Exposed, as in U.K., by “Right-Wing Extremists”
What comes to mind when you think of Northern Finland? A Winter Wonderland? Sleepy streets of wooden cottages? Children sledging along snow-blanketed roads, their parents confident that in such a homogenous, trusting society they have nothing to fear? That’s how it was as recently as 15 years ago. But now those little girls may well meet up with a gang of Muslim “refugees” from the local “reception center” who have “groomed” them online, and go back to their apartments where they’ll be forced to suck penises or have full penetrative sex. And, as in Britain, this scandal has only come to light because “right-wing extremists” exposed it.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
PM May Delays ‘Meaningful Vote’ On Brexit Deal in Face of Likely Defeat
British Prime Minister Theresa May is to announce a delay on the so-called meaningful vote scheduled to take place in Parliament Tuesday, according to reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-EU Cambridge Professor: ‘Lower Voting Age to Six’
The Head of Politics at the University of Cambridge has called for the voting age to be lowered to six in the wake of the EU referendum.
Professor David Runciman proposed a dramatic expansion of the franchise on his Talking Politics podcast, claiming it would help to correct what he described as a “huge structural imbalance” in favour of older Britons in the voting system.
“I would lower the voting age to six, not 16. And I’m serious about that,” he insisted, as most children are able to read by that age.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
The French People Feel Screwed
On December 4, French Prime Minister Édouard Phillipe told deputies of the ruling party, “La République en Marche”, that a proposed fuel tax rise, which had led to the largest protests France has seen in decades, would be suspended.
The protesters, called Gilets-Jaunes — “Yellow Vests,” because of the vests drivers are obliged by the government to carry in their vehicles in the event of a roadside breakdown — say that the fuel tax was the last straw from a president who took office with a promise to help the economically left-behind but instead has favoured the rich.
Even by French standards, the protests of the “Yellow Vests” during the weekend of December 1 were startling. Burning cars and vast plumes of grey smoke seemed to engulf the Arc De Triomphe as if Paris were at war. Comparisons were drawn with the Bread Wars of the 17th Century and the spirit of the Revolution of the 18th Century.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Rage of the Yellow Jackets
[…]
The rejection of traditional parties and politics, now widespread across well-established democracies, is a consequence of the endemic pathologies of mature economies, and of specific violations of their social contracts. Over the past ten years, since the financial crash, public discourse has pointed at inequality of wealth and income as a source of social strife. This analysis is not wrong, but it deserves closer scrutiny.
People do not measure their situation only, or even necessarily, against that of the wealthiest 1 percent or 0.1 percent. Often the comparison is made closer to home, measured against peers, and particularly against oneself. The question for workers is not “why am I not as rich as Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH?” Rather, it’s “why am I worse off than last year?” or “why am I worse off than my parents?”
Part perception and part reality, the deterioration in living standards has obvious causes. One is that in mature economies, productivity gains are hard to come by, and therefore wage increases elusive. Moreover, productivity gains often occur through automation, which leaves some workers jobless and forces the rest to chip in for social safety nets. Second, governments have arbitrary ways of measuring inflation, and the official figures from central banks may not correspond to what people experience. Stagnant incomes and rising prices have always fed resentment. And year after year of that regimen, with no hope of improvement for oneself or one’s children, will erode any sympathy for the political class.
It must be fate that, just as the French government raised taxes on gas, the Japanese government arrested the CEO of Renault, the main French car manufacturer and a partly state-owned company, for tax evasion. The charges bear on what amounts to some €62 million of unreported income, earned between 2011 and 2017. Carlos Ghosn did not invent the automobile. He is an administrator who revived two venerable car companies by consolidating research and development and cutting costs. For those achievements he was compensated at around €20 million per year, about a thousand times the median yearly wage in France.
The allegation that he was evading taxes came to a public already primed for outrage by the fiscal scandals revealed in the Panama Papers and the Luxembourg Leaks. Mr. Ghosn, a Franco-Lebanese Brazilian, embodies globalization, as do the hundreds of thousands of migrants who are looking at Europe for well-paid jobs that may very well not exist. The United States faces similar challenges, and the anti-globalization, anti-immigrant discourse has been vociferous on both shores of the Atlantic. But unlike Europe, the United States has been able to smooth the edges with loose monetary policies and deficit spending.[…]
[NOTE: this is a snip from a much larger piece. The site is behind a firewall but non-subscribers may read two essays a month]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Patriots March Through Central London Demanding a Hard-Brexit
Thousands of peaceful patriots marched through central London today against Mrs May’s soft Brexit deal demanding a hard-Brexit.
The march, co-organised by UKIP and Tommy Robinson was hailed as a ‘huge success’ despite attempts by the far-left and the press to smear the organisers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Muslim chaplain has been arrested after allegedly trying to smuggle £60,000 worth of illegal drugs into one of Britain’s most notorious prisons.
Mohamed Rawat was caught at Belmarsh jail allegedly carrying more than 60 sheets of paper soaked in the highly addictive synthetic substance spice.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tommy Robinson: Brexit Was About Culture, Not the Economy
In London on Saturday, Tommy Robinson spoke to a patriotic pro-Brexit crowd about the United Kingdom’s fight for independence from the European Union, and why the British people voted to leave.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Google Approves App for Muslims to Report People Who Commit Blasphemy
A new Android app has launched with the focus of allowing Muslims to report individuals who commit blasphemy, or insult Islam.
No, this is not a joke. The app, “Smart Pakem”, which launched in Indonesia last month at the request of the Indonesian government, will allow users and government officials to uphold Sharia law and target and report people who hold “misguided” beliefs in violation of Islamic law, which forbids insults of Islam, insults against the Prophet Mohammed, or the recognition of any other religion besides Islam.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Fortnite Gamer, 26, Is Charged After ‘He Livestreamed Himself Bashing a 21-Year-Old Pregnant Mother’
The 26-year-old man was arrested after police were called to a home in Franklin Grove, Oran Park, in south-west Sydney, about 11.30pm on Sunday following reports of an alleged assault.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Melbourne’s Petite, Shy, Honours-Student Terrorist
by Daniel Pipes
Why did Australian authorities allow Momena Shoma into the country after Turkey, and perhaps Tunisia and the United States as well, rejected her visa application? They did, alas, and the international student’s host almost paid with his life when ‘sudden jihadi syndrome’ saw her plunge a knife into his throat.
A petite, pretty twenty-four-year-old Bangladeshi named Momena Shoma (left) arrived in Melbourne on February 1, 2018, to study linguistics on an excellence scholarship at La Trobe University. Describing herself as “an introvert and very shy in nature”, she spoke of an ambition to become a university instructor. Coming from an affluent and secular Dhaka family which considered her “brilliant”, Momena had been an A student at some of the capital’s elite English-language educational institutions: Loreto School, Mastermind School and North South University (NSU). She graduated from NSU with an honours degree in English language and literature in 2016, then enrolled for a master’s degree at NSU before switching to La Trobe.
Like many newly-arrived foreign students, Momena turned to the Australian Homestay Network (AHN), “Australia’s largest and leading homestay provider”, to find a family with which to board. She quickly settled in a home in Bundoora, near the university.
What could be more innocent? Anyone worrying about her being dangerous because of her Muslim faith would have been called out for racism, chauvinism, xenophobia, bigotry and (that most dreadful of accusations) “Islamophobia”. That she wore a burka (the black full-body Islamic covering) only made such suspicions the more heinous…
| — Hat tip: LL | [Return to headlines] |
Recent figures show the number of Chinese nationals applying for refuge in Australia has tripled in just a year.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Shoppers have been captured on video rushing in and out of supermarkets to defy the nationwide baby formula limit — with some even leaving their children outside to guard their stockpile.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Researchers Suggest ‘Little Foot’ Is an Entirely New Species of Early Human
Several teams of researchers have announced that the skeletal remains of a hominin believed to have lived approximately 3.67 million years ago represent a new species of early human. The researchers report that the specimen, known as “Little Foot,” has characteristics that make it unlike any other known species.
The skeleton first became known when Ronald Clarke of the University of Witwatersrand looked through a bone collection back in the 1990s—he came across foot bones that were labeled as monkey bones. After determining that they were not ape, he and colleagues ventured to the Sterkfontein caves near Johannesburg in 1994, where the bones had been found, and began digging. Because of the challenges involved, it took the team approximately 10 years to fully extricate the skeleton from the rock in which it was embedded. It took another 10 years to fully clean and study the skeleton. Four teams with ties to Clarke have written papers describing aspects of the skeleton, all of which conclude that it represents a unique species. Clarke and his team have therefore given it a name: Australopithecus Prometheus. The researchers are offering some details of their findings as their papers make their way first onto bioRxiv, and then presumably into a journal.
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Brazil Makes Official Intervention in State Bordering Venezuela
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) — Brazilian President Michel Temer has signed a decree making official a federal “intervention” in the state of Roraima which borders Venezuela, the government’s official newspaper said on Monday.
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Amnesty Accuses Italy of Repressive Management of Migration
Report laments erosion of asylum seekers’ rights
(ANSA) — Rome, December 10 — Amnesty International criticised Italy for its treatment of asylum seekers in a report released on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Monday. The report lamented the “erosion of the human rights of asylum seekers” following the approval of the government’s security-and-migration decree.
It also complained about the “xenophobic rhetoric of the political world”.
It said that Premier Giuseppe Conte’s government had “immediately distinguished itself for repressive management of the migratory phenomenon”.
“The authorities have hampered and continue to hamper the landing in Italy of hundreds of people saved at sea, inflicting further suffering on them and undermining the overall functioning on the system of maritime search and rescue,” it said. Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, who has spearheaded the government’s tough stance that has seen NGO ships with rescued migrants denied access to Italian ports, said he was not concerned about the report.
“Drug-dealers, mafiosi, delinquents and illegal immigrants do not have asylum in my country,” he said. “My conscience is clean and I’m going to keep going”.
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Another Migrant Murder? Afghan Suspected of Murdering 16-Year-Old Austrian Girl
An Afghan migrant is the main suspect in the murder case of an Austrian teen. The girl was found murdered by her mother in her room yesterday evening.
The 16-year-old was in her mother’s apartment in the district of Münichholz. She had a visit from her boyfriend, a 17-year-old Afghan citizen.
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Belgian Government Collapses Over UN Migration Pact
The Belgian government has split apart after Prime Minister Charles Michel ignored the objections of his ruling coalition’s biggest party and insisted he would sign the UN migration pact.
The Flemish nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party quit the government following crisis talks over the weekend, prompting Michel to announce he would travel to Marrakesh to sign the controversial compact representing a minority government.
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Criminal Migrants Should Feel That They Are Not Welcome Here — Danish Integration Minister
UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet criticises the Danish government’s plan to place criminal migrants on a deserted island. According to her, it is not good to stigmatise migrants in this way.
About a week ago Denmark’s Finance Minister Kristian Jensen announced that criminal foreigners in the future will be placed on an uninhabited island in anticipation of expulsion.
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France: Macron Concedes Anger Over Mass Immigration Must be Acknowledged
During a speech to the nation this evening, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that yellow vest demonstrators were angry about mass immigration and that the issue needs to be debated at the national level.
Almost 2000 people were arrested on Saturday in France while 264 people were injured during protests that boiled over into riots and looting, the fourth round of such demonstrations in recent weeks.
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Gallup: More Than 750 Million People Globally Now Wanting to Migrate
More than 750 million people want to migrate to another country permanently, according to Gallup research published Monday, as 150 world leaders sign up to the controversial UN global compact which critics say makes migration a human right.
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Greek Party Opposes UN Migration Pact: ‘Greece Belongs to the Greek’
A Greek nationalist party has savaged the UN Migration Pact and vowed to keep ‘Greece for the Greeks’.
The spokesman of Greek nationalists party of Golden Dawn, Mr. Ilias Kasidiaris said today from the Parliament for the UN pact on migration:
“Migration is the Trojan horse of globalisation for the destruction of national states, so that’s why serious countries such as the United States and Hungary are reacting to the UN’s deplorable UN immigration pact as opposed by government of Tsipras and Kammenos that aims at the destruction of Greece.
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Many Worldwide Oppose More Migration — Both Into and Out of Their Countries
As the number of international migrants reaches new highs, people around the world show little appetite for more migration — both into and out of their countries, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 27 nations conducted in the spring of 2018.
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Merkel Hails UN Migration Pact Le Pen Says Would ‘Forever Change’ France
The face of the UN Migration Pact German Chancellor Angela Merkel has hailed the agreement signed Monday as good for migrants and the world, while populist anti-mass migration French politician Marine Le Pen has warned it will “forever change” the face of France.
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Migrant Visas Present a Security Risk to 500 Million European Citizens — Hungarian MEP
Fidesz MEP Tamas Deutsch has said that the European Parliament’s “pro-migration majority has gone haywire” over the issue of migration visas.
In an interview to public radio broadcast on Sunday, the ruling party politician recalled that the European Parliament had discussed a proposal to introduce the so-called migrant visa, but this had failed to receive a majority in the final vote.
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Migrant Crisis Video: Shock Moment Illegal Immigrants Land and Sprint Up Spanish Beach
THIS is the astonishing moment a group of African migrants sprint up a Spanish beach after jumping out of a rickety wooden boat as they reach the shoreline. Around 30 people, including several children, were filmed running up the sand and disappearing up steps at the back of the beach in broad daylight.
The surreal scene, a replay of incidents in summer when African migrants stunned holidaymakers by reaching the Spanish shoreline as they topped up their tans, happened at Santa Maria del Mar Beach in Cadiz in the south-west of the country.
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Polish Border Guards Detaining Targeted Human-Trafficking Ring
Seven suspects of a human-trafficking ring have been arrested near Warsaw in a targeted human-trafficking probe.
The Vietnamese-Polish gang is suspected to have illegally transported at least 100 Vietnamese citizens to Western Europe, PAP news agency reveals.
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Syrian ‘Refugee’ Accused of Sexually Abusing Two Children in Austria
The arrested alleged 21-year-old Syrian refugee and possible drug dealer is accused of sexually abusing two girls aged 12 and 14 in Krems, Austria.
Susanne Waidecker heading the prosecution confirmed the request for investigative custody of the suspect but did not go into further detail regarding the case.
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UN Members Sign Global Migration Pact After 10 Countries Shun Deal Over Sovereignty Fears
The non-binding deal was agreed by all 193 UN countries, except the United States, in July. But in the months that followed, 15 more nations have either pulled out or expressed concerns over the impact of the agreement on sovereignty and ability to control their borders. At a signing ceremony in Marrakesh today, the deal was described by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres as a “roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos”
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Underage Afghan Migrant in Sweden Convicted of Attempted Murder and Set for Deportation
A Swedish court has found a 15-year-old Afghan guilty of attempted murder and sentenced him to a year of juvenile care as well as deportation, the migrant claiming he wanted to leave Sweden as he felt bad about the attack.
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Teacher Fired After Refusing to Use Transgender Student’s Preferred Pronouns
A Virginia high school teacher, who refused to use the preferred pronouns of a student who claims to be transgender, was fired Thursday.
In a case that is believed to be the first of its kind in the state, the West Point School Board voted unanimously to fire Peter Vlaming, a French teacher in the district’s high school.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Vlaming “resisted administrators’ orders to use male pronouns to refer to a ninth-grade student who had undergone a gender transition.”
“I can’t think of a worse way to treat a child than what was happening,” said West Point High Principal Jonathan Hochman, who testified that he instructed Vlaming to use male pronouns.
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Mr. Macron asked for the employers to pay more to the employees in the form of bonuses. Mmm… wasn’t he in some big financial organization where he used OPM(*) to enrich himself. Now he tries to use OPM to bail himself out of the political disaster he’d single handed created. Well, here in NJ we had one like this, Corzine, and we’d sent him packing. But we waited for the election. The French seem to be more restless and restless French has proven to be dangerous. I think that by chanting Macron démissionne, they are actually giving him a loving advice.
(*) OPM – Other People Money
“Teacher Fired After Refusing to Use Transgender Student’s Preferred Pronouns” what age are ninth grade children in the US? 15 like in Europe? Then there’s no way that child has already undergone transition. At best the child in question is taking those puberty stoppers. If said child is backed by experts from the medical field then that’s a different story, however the article doesn’t mention anything like that.
It’s a shame the teacher is once again hiding behind the pretense of religion though because there’s no such thing in Christianity and by saying he’s painting a bad picture of it. In a time where, more then ever, we need to make clear Christianity is one of the two essential cultural aspects that made Western civilisation possible, such behaviour is really not helping at all.
That is a good point about Christianity. It can be a difficult position for Christians to prove with Scripture alone.
As a believer myself, and having worked with some very strange and difficult mental disorders and young people who were simply confused, I can say that at the end of the day it is love which calls us to refuse to jump on this social bandwagon. Because we believe God loves the young person, we love them also and we feel that God’s sort of love does not give in to social pressure, and we are called to act the same. Of course, this is not an act that a teacher can easily back up with secular ideas.
I think that if Christian teachers were to continue to stand on their faith as a reason for this sort of refusal to accept a social norm, then eventually when more muslim teachers begin to openly oppose this, society will not be able to easily oppose the Christians. Of course we know muslim opposition to transgenderism is more readily accepted but I suspect that eventually, at least to a degree, Christian opposition will be more tolerated if we are able to link our opposition to that of muslims while still maintaining our adherence to our faith. That is, that this is a common ground we share with islam, for the most part, and we can use this to try to have the tolerance for islam’s opposition applied to us Christians.
Unfortunately, mainline Christianity has watered down the example of Paul and his demands on the State to treat him according to the laws and customs applied to all others.
Christianity calls Christians to view people as we believe He views them. The teacher was doing what he believes he is called to do, out of love.
The fact that this brought down the wrath of society against him is what Christ meant when He said:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Matt: 10:34,35
https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2018/12/11/Probe-ordered-into-question-of-Muslim-man-slaughtering-cow-in-front-of-Hindus-in-law-exam.html
Life in India is becoming more interesting.
Interesting.
Many Christians have been beaten and killed for far less offence than the test paper presents and there was little done about it.
I thought it was a law already that it is an offence to ‘insult the religious sentiments of a religious group’ or some such thing.
This article brings to light one of the great problems plaguing India: the great disconnect or divide between federal and state law and application of law.
At the federal level India has very strong and western human rights laws to protect all classes and religions. However, at the state level, and especially the local level, the laws are either ignored or differ from the federal. Here the local authorities often in connection with local cultural leaders have swung towards a nationalism that seeks to persecute Christians and to a degree islam and elevate Hinduism as a unifying force. While I believe that India needs a strong nationalism to help it stand against foreign commercial interests and foreign social experiements, Christianity needs to be viewed as a far less and different sort of threat than islam. The federal gov’t wants to play a game of good cop – bad cop with the local authorities being allowed to persecute islamisation while the federal gov’t appears to be very peace minded. The BJP must be anti-islamisation without appearing to be so at the national level or else risk setting off more serious riots and high death tolls.
I watch India’s response to islamisation with interest and hope they stay the strong, nationalistic course the BJP has set. Only hope they stop persecuting the poor low caste Christians and spend their efforts on the true danger of islam.
China’s Threat to Ottawa Over Huawei CFO Arrest Ignores Rule of Law in Canada
I am no expert on any of this but here goes. In the US a govt agency must decide whether and how to prosecute a crime. I imagine it is similar in Canada. So, the CA govt very well could decide not to prosecute this ‘crime.’ It would ignore the rule of law to try to influence the judge in the case but not the govt prosection.
Banks are involved in internatonal trade all the time. Maybe they provide credit or guarantees while goods are in transit. In order for the Chinese to skirt US sanctions on Iran the Chinese may well tell the bank the container has ABC chips instead of XYZ chips. This would make it harder for the US to detect. This was likely the ‘bank fraud’ under Canadian law, assuming it was a Canadian bank being used. “Fraud’ does not mean that China was trying to cheat the bank out of money, only that they provided false information in the paperwork.
I see HSCB bank was involved. Remember that the US govt did not prosecute a single individual for laundering money for international drug lords and arms smugglers, despite having a boatload of inside evidence from a whistleblower.
Canadian banks are generally quite strict with fraud and money laundering prevention. They are more so now since 9/11.
When I had to pay for watch repair supplies from a Swiss company, using a bank transfer, I had to fill out plenty of paperwork with many questions being asked.