Poland and the United States have struck a deal in which Poland will import liquefied natural gas, reducing its dependence on Russian natural gas. It is hoped that that the LNG from the USA will eventually supply 15% of Poland’s energy needs.
In other news, two illegal immigrants in Italy were arrested for beating up an elderly woman in an attempt to rob her.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Dora, MB, Reader from Chicago, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Fed Hikes Rate, Lowers 2019 Projection to 2 Increases
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate a quarter-point but lowered its projections for future hikes.
As markets had expected, the central bank took the target range for its benchmark funds rate to 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. The move marked the fourth increase this year and the ninth since it began normalizing rates in December 2015. It came despite President Donald Trump’s tweets against rate hikes. On Monday, he said “it is incredible” that “the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Romanian Taxes Trigger ‘Black Wednesday’ On Stock Market
New Romanian taxes targeting banks and energy companies triggered a heavy selloff on the local stock market on Wednesday that dropped more than 10 percent as worried investors headed for the exits.
Faced with difficult choices to keep the budget deficit below three percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the leftist government late Tuesday announced a series of tax amendments that are to kick in quickly, without prior consultations with businesses.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Strong GDP in 4Q, Despite Slowdown in the Eurozone
November activity data came in above our expectations. Today’s release suggests solid 4Q GDP growth at 5.1% YoY. However we still expect deceleration in 2019.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Expert Weighs in on Series of Explosions in the Valley
PHOENIX — Since October, folks living west of Interstate 17 between Thunderbird and Happy Valley roads have been bombarded by explosions .
The constant barrage of loud booms now has local law enforcement on the clock to figure out whose behind them.
“It’s a terrorist attack, the motive to be determined,” said Steve Hooper.
Hooper spent decades training FBI bomb technicians. We had him take a look at surveillance videos capturing the explosions as well as witness statements.
All in hope of him giving you an idea of the seriousness of what many are now calling a rogue bomber detonating devices around the Valley.
“I don’t think a cherry bomb is sending a shock wave a mile away, I think these are significantly bigger than a cherry bomb, significantly more powerful,” Hooper said.
He says whoever is making these devices could easily learn their technique on the internet.
He says based on the blast impact, the suspect is using significant amounts of flammable powder to carry out the explosion. Powder that could come from an array of products such as legal fireworks.
“Those can be taken apart, those can be combined, you can find enough stuff on the internet to put it together,” Hooper said…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: John McCain Associate Gave Dossier to BuzzFeed
A longtime associate of late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain provided a copy of the infamous Steele dossier to BuzzFeed News, according to an explosive court filing released Wednesday.
David Kramer, a former State Department official who was an executive at the McCain Institute, met on Dec. 29, 2016 with BuzzFeed reporter Ken Bensinger, according to a filing submitted Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro.
BuzzFeed published the dossier, which was authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, on Jan. 10, 2017.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Sentenced to 40 Years for ISIS Plot to Attack Times Square, Subway
A Canadian who confessed to plotting terrorist attacks in New York City for the so-called Islamic State was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years’ imprisonment.
U.S. prosecutors had asked for a life sentence for Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, who pleaded guilty to working with ISIS to attack Times Square and the New York subway system.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t Rule Out Alien Intelligence in UFO Sightings, Says Scientist
Is Earth being visited by space aliens? A lot of people think so, although few of them are scientists. Professional researchers are not easily persuaded by eyewitness testimony, blobby photos, or claims that evidence for itinerant aliens has been stashed away by a paranoid government.
Put more succinctly, academia doesn’t give a whole lot of credence to the incessant claims that some of the thousands of UFOs sighted every year are actually alien craft. But at least one scientist has recently gone on record suggesting that the clipboard-carrying crowd should be a little less sure.
That scientist is Silvano Colombano, a computer expert and roboticist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Shares Drop as Data Privacy Fallout Spreads
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Facebook Inc shares sank on Wednesday as concerns about its ability to safeguard user data sparked a government lawsuit, criticism in the U.S. Congress and a New York Times report on how it had shared data with other companies.
The stock of the world’s largest social media company fell 7.25 percent, its biggest intraday drop since July, taking losses for the year to about 24 percent. Investors are concerned about snowballing legal and regulatory efforts over data use polices that have upset many customers and could carry significant penalties and costs.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Guardian Challenged Over ‘Fake’ Assange & Manafort Story, As Luke Harding Goes AWOL
Leading journalists have called out the Guardian for not retracting their story that claimed Wikileaks’ Julian Assange met with ex-Donald Trump operative Paul Manafort despite a lack of evidence to support the claims.
Lead by ex-Guardian writer, now co-editor at the Intercept, Glenn Greenwald, various journalists and activists attacked the publication for going silent on the ‘bombshell’ story, while at the same time hailing that they are Britain’s most trusted news outlet.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
More Violent Extremism Unearthed on Funding Platform Patreon
Following last week’s report on Patreon-funded violent extremism, another group of violent extremists has been discovered on the platform. Dubbed the “Red Guards of Austin,” the group calls for armed conflict inside the United States.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Relotius Case Answers to the Most Important Questions
In recent years, DER SPIEGEL published just under 60 articles by reporter and editor Claas Relotius. He has now admitted that, in several instances, he either invented stories or distorted facts.
What happened?
Claas Relotius, a reporter and editor, falsified his articles on a grand scale and even invented characters, deceiving both readers and his colleagues. This has been uncovered as a result of tips, internal research and, ultimately, a comprehensive confession by the editor himself.
How was the fraud discovered?
The first suspicions emerged following the publication in November 2018 of the article “Hunter’s border” about an American vigilante group that patrols the border between Mexico and the United States.
Juan Moreno, who reported the story together with Relotius for DER SPIEGEL, grew distrustful of his colleague. Moreno also reported his concerns to DER SPIEGEL. He didn’t relent, and he took advantage of a trip to the U.S. for reporting on another story to gather incriminating information about Relotius — and also in order to take steps to protect himself, given that his byline had also appeared on the article…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Universities funded by the Department of Education to help shape the way U.S. K-12 schools and colleges portray the Middle East and Israel are simultaneously bankrolled by $600 million tied to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Muslim-majority countries, a Daily Caller News Foundation data analysis found.
One critic called the payments “a back-door route to Saudi influence over America’s K-12 curriculum.”
The Cold War-era Higher Education Act of 1965 created a program called “Title VI” that pays colleges to help students better understand international relations and includes funds earmarked for studying the Middle East. It was intended to help prepare a cadre of intelligence agents and diplomats.
Instead, the money has funded anti-Americanism and anti-semitism in U.S. higher education, according to a November 2014 report by the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. There have been instances where some of the universities hosted or employed anti-semites, with some facing accusations of having ties to terror groups.
[…]
A senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Stanley Kurtz, has been warning about the issue for years.
The system “has opened up a back-door route to Saudi influence over America’s K-12 curriculum,” he wrote in the National Review in 2007. “Believe it or not, the Saudis have figured out how to make an end-run around America’s K-12 curriculum safeguards, thereby gaining control over much of what children in the United States learn about the Middle East.”
The Muslim nations awarded $603 million to the 12 universities from 2011 to 2016 — 80 times more than the allocated Title VI funding, TheDCNF found. Israeli interests donated a total of $13 million to eight of the schools, but in every case, their funding was only a fraction of the Muslim nations’.
[Much more information at the URL, including a chart of some involved schools]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Charge in Ganatchio Trail Beating Upgraded to Second-Degree Murder
The charge against Habibullah “Danny” Ahmadi, the 22-year-old man accused of severely beating Windsor senior Sara Anne Widholm, has been upgraded to second-degree murder following her death.
Her long list of injuries included brain hemorrhages, skull fractures, and vertebrae fractures.
Ahmadi was arrested later the same day. He was denied bail and has remained in custody.
Windsor police have described the attack as “vicious” and “unprovoked.”
[Comment: Her husband passed away several months after the incident. Sources state he died of the extreme stress of his wife’s attack.]
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
StatsCan Just Exposed How Worthless ‘Green’ Industries Are to Canada’s Economy
StatsCan’s green-economy accounts show environmental and clean-technology industries accounted for a puny 3.1 per cent of Canada’s GDP in 2017
The vocal and well-financed green lobby regularly lectures Canadians that there is no contradiction between a strict environmental agenda and economic growth. In fact, green advocates trumpet that the two are positively related, since clean energy is supposed to be the foundation of our economy in the future. So Statistics Canada’s release this week of the first estimates of its Environmental and Clean Technology Accounts will make for sober reading for low-carbon lobbyists and their supporters.
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Mosque Raided Over Suspected ‘Terrorist Criminal Acts’
A Berlin mosque was raided by German police on Monday night as part of a larger terrorism probe seeking connections to Middle East terror activities.
A 45-year-old preacher suspected of transferring funds to an Islamist militant in Syria for the purpose of carrying out “terrorist criminal acts” was questioned, prosecutors said. No arrests were made.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
CNN’s “Journalist of the Year” Committed Journalistic Fraud “On a Grand Scale” At Der Spiegel
German news magazine Der Spiegel has admitted that one of its top reporters has faked stories for several years.
Award-winning journalist Claas Relotius had “made up stories and invented protagonists” in approximately 14 out of 60 articles which appeared both in print and online editions. He had worked for Der Spiegel for seven years, winning numerous awards for his investigative journalism — including CNN’s Journalist of the Year award in 2014, according to the Guardian.
Relotius, 33, tendered his resignation after admitting to the fraud.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian Opposition Parties Carry “Huge Responsibility” For Demo Violence — Ruling Party
Opposition politicians attended a demonstration in front of the public media headquarters in Budapest on Monday, calling for a “free and independent public media” as well as the abolishment of MTVA, the public media asset manager and fund.
Bertalan Toth, the Socialist Party’s leader, said that when ruling party Fidesz won a two-thirds for a third time, it was time to conclude that the opposition’s parliamentary actions had been ineffective, and this is why they had disrupted the plenary session last Monday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Macron in Trouble as French Police Union Announces Protest
French police union Alliance Police Nationale called for a “black day for the police” for 19 December in France. The protest is to be “Act 1” just like the “yellow vests”, according to The Local.
The police union is staging their own protests against the embattled Macron’s upcoming cuts to the police budget.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland’s Goal of Ditching Russian Natural Gas Bolsters American LNG and Trump’s Energy Agenda
Poland took another step towards weening itself off Russian energy supplies on Wednesday by signing a 20-year agreement with San Diego-based Sempra Energy to import U.S. liquefied natural gas.
The signing marks the third long-term contract the state-controlled Polish Oil and Gas Company, or PGNiG, has inked with an American LNG company this year. In the coming years, Warsaw plans to replace Russian gas with pipeline supplies from Norway and shipments of LNG, or gas super-chilled to liquid from for transport by sea.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Possible Next EU Boss Says Nationalism is “The Way of Destruction”
Left-wing politician Frans Timmermans from the Netherlands was nominated last week as the next President of the European Commission.
If elected, he promises to crush all conservative governments in the EU and make Europe and Africa a joint continent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Cities Lose Track of Returning ISIS Fighters
Half of Sweden’s 300 Islamic State fighters have returned from the Middle East, but a survey has revealed several municipalities have little idea who among their residents are former fighters.
The survey found that out of the municipalities believed to be the homes of the 150 returnees, the local authorities could only identify 16 adults and ten children, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour MP Found Guilty of Perverting Course of Justice
Fiona Onasanya MP has been suspended from the Labour Party after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice, raising the possibility of a by-election.
Ms Onasanya was found guilty at an Old Bailey retrial on Wednesday of lying to police over who was behind the wheel of a speeding car, the BBC reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ministers Accuse Remainer Chancellor of Slowing Down No Deal Brexit Preparations
Two ministers have reportedly accused Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip “Remainer Phil” Hammond of keeping a tight grip on Treasury funds meant for No Deal Brexit preparations
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tory Ultra-Remainers to Resign From Party if Govt Pursues ‘No Deal’ Brexit
Ultra-Remain Tory MPs are threatening to resign from the Conservative Party if the Government shifts its main focus to planning for a No Deal Brexit.
With only 100 days to go until Brexit Day, the current moves to prepare for a clean break with the EU are seriously belated, and Cabinet heavyweights such as Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip “Remainer Phil” Hammond are accused of continuing to frustrate No Deal planning.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Watch: Jeremy Corbyn Accused of Calling Theresa May a ‘Stupid Woman’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised for allegedly calling Prime Minister Theresa May a “stupid woman” in the House of Commons.
UPDATE 16:00 — Corbyn Denies Calling May a ‘Stupid Woman’
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Says Climate Change is ‘Global Problem With Grave Implications’
The Vatican has called for the “decarbonisation of the current fossil fuel-based economy” in its hard-hitting final declaration for the U.N. climate summit in Katowice, Poland, Wednesday.
Climate change, the declaration states, “is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Yellow Vests Protests if Macron Fails, Europe Fails
French President Emmanuel Macron has tried to calm protesters by raising the minimum wage, among other concessions. But if the yellow vests continue eroding his authority, it’s not just France that will suffer. And Germany is partly at fault.
A Commentary by Henrik Enderlein
Famed German political sociologist Max Weber once argued that the two great drivers of revolutionary power were charisma and rationality. Charisma depends on enthusiasm, rationality on intellectualization. According to this blueprint, Emmanuel Macron would seemingly be the ideal revolutionary. He combines charisma and intellect like few others and believes in the need to change France, Europe and the world. The book about his campaign is called simply: “Révolution.” Macron sees himself as a know-it-all in the best sense of the term, but precisely that is also his greatest weakness. Nowhere did Weber write that charisma and intellect magnify each other when combined. A glance at the trajectory of Macron’s popularity in France might lead to the assumption that the two qualities cancel each other out. Can a charismatic leader be a know-it-all? Can a know-it-all have charisma?
Many French people now see Macron’s election to the presidency as something of an accident. Emmanuel Macron had no party, little experience, and lots of luck. His political opponents destroyed each other. Indeed, polls show that far less than half of Macron’s voters in spring 2017 voted for him out of conviction. The rest of his voters, though, indicated that the other candidates, Marine Le Pen first and foremost, were simply unelectable.
Luck is not a factor in Max Weber’s discussion of charismatic rulers. Macron, who suddenly became head of state at the age of 39, first needed to develop his authority. And he did so with a clear strategy, setting out doing so with single-minded determination, seeking to develop charisma through images and symbols, and to carry out his revolution through shrewd argumentation. He put himself at the epicenter of French politics. As a candidate, he was alone. And he remained so as president. But this over-personalization had its price. Macron’s system relied on the complete centralization of power in the hands of the president and of a few intellectually gifted advisors, who sometimes send out text messages at 3 a.m., as Macron does himself. Macron’s IQ-absolutism was successful in his first year. The furthest-reaching job-market reforms in recent French history, which he instituted in fall of 2017, didn’t even lead to a general strike, as had been feared. Macron loosened the rules for firing employees and broke up the rigid wage-negotiation system. He simultaneously lowered the budget deficit below the 3-percent mark for the first time since 2007. He even modernized the sacrosanct French secondary-school diploma, known as the baccalauréat. Emmanuel Macron has already reformed his country more profoundly than all the presidents before him — at least since Mitterrand, who implemented an important wave of modernization starting in 1983…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Grand Imam Congratulates Pope Francis for Christ’s Birthday
The Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo telephoned Pope Francis Tuesday to wish him a merry Christmas as well as congratulating him for his 82nd birthday, which was celebrated December 17.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
This author once described a Turkish university as “just a group of buildings gathered around a library and a mosque,” to paraphrase a quote from Shelby Foote. Today, universities in Turkey are increasingly becoming seats of Islamic learning, zeal and government bootlicking.
Life, for many scholars, is gloomy. Since the attempted coup in July 2016, nearly 6,000 academics have been dismissed from public universities under emergency decrees, including 378 who had signed a January 2016 Academics for Peace petition condemning the government’s security operations in the Kurdish southeast. Another 38 academics from public universities and 48 from private universities have been dismissed by their universities and were told by university officials that the reason was signing the petition. Scores of academics (more than 265) who signed the “peace call” are being prosecuted on charges of terrorism.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump, Tweeting on Syria Withdrawal, Says He’s ‘Saddened’ by Fallen Soldiers
In a video shot outside the White House and posted to his Twitter account on Wednesday, President Trump explained his sudden decision to pull troops out of Syria earlier in the day in unusually personal terms, saying he has found it increasingly difficult to inform soldiers’ loved ones that their kin had died in combat.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A New Species of Narrow-Mouthed Frog Discovered in the Western Ghats
In a recent study, researchers have reported the discovery of yet another species of frog in the Western Ghats of Kerala. This species, named Microhyla darreli belongs to the genus Microhyla, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs because of their triangular-shaped body and pointed snout. The frogs of this genus are widely distributed through Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Brexiteer MP Calls on PM May to Oppose Racist Land Grabs in South Africa
Brexiteer MP Andrew Bridgen called on Theresa May to oppose the South African government’s plans to seize land from white farmers during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil’s Bolsonaro Says He Will Target Venezuela, Cuba
SAO PAULO (Reuters) — Brazil’s far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that he would take all action “within the rule of law and democracy” to oppose the governments of Venezuela and Cuba.
Bolsonaro, who takes power Jan. 1, is a fervent anti-communist who has praised his country’s 1964-1985 military regime. He frequently targets Venezuela and Cuba for verbal attacks, a drastic change from Brazil’s governments under the leftist Workers Party that ruled from 2003 to 2016 and had warm relations with those regimes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Snake Species Discovered in Another Snake’s Belly
SCIENTISTS HAVE DISCOVERED a species of snake unlike any seen before, but this special serpent wasn’t found sliding through its forested habitat in tropical Mexico. The newfound animal made its scientific debut in a more unconventional place: inside another snake’s belly.
Newly-described in a recent paper in the Journal of Herpetology, the creature has been appropriately dubbed Cenaspis aenigma, which translates to “mysterious dinner snake.” The name derives from the Latin cena (dinner), aspis (a snake variety), and enigma.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Belgian PM Resigns After Public Anger Over UN Migration Pact
Belgian prime minister Charles Michel has been forced to hand in his notice after anger over the UN Migration Compact brought the country’s government down.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Police Warn Arabic Crime Gangs Recruit Refugees
Arab criminal gangs are targeting refugees for recruitment, “to do their dirty work”, German police have warned.
Germany, that accepted more than a million migrants and refugees during the migrant crisis, is the home of several Arab clans.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Migrants Arrested After Brutal Robbery of Elderly Italian Woman
Two illegal migrants were arrested over the weekend in Rome after they were caught by police beating and attempting to rob a woman in her 60s in the vicinity of Termini train station.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
More Countries Will Not Sign UN Migration Pact — Hungarian FM
At a hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, foreign minister Péter Szijjartó tells Parliament that there are at least 13 countries set to vote against the UN Migration compact on 19 December.
The countries who will vote against the plan include the Visegrad Four group of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, as well, Bulgaria, Latvia, Austria, the United States, Israel, Australia, Dominica and Brazil, Péter told at the hearing.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Politician Reprimanded for Using the Word “Illegal Migration” In the European Parliament
An EU Commission official was put in place when he spoke in Parliament’s LIBE committee last week.
He used the term “illegal migration” repeatedly regarding people who come to Europe without legal basis.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis: Like Today’s Migrants, Jesus Knew Pain of ‘Not Being Welcomed’
In a Tweet commemorating International Migrants’ Day Tuesday, Pope Francis compared migrants of today with the cold welcome of the Christ child in Bethlehem.
“Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed,” the pope said. “May our hearts not be closed as were the houses in Bethlehem.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tories to Open Britain to ‘Even More Massive Levels of Immigration’ Post-Brexit
Migration Watch UK has warned that the Government’s plans for immigration after Brexit will lead to an influx to Britain “even more massive” than the record levels it is already experiencing.
Delayed for almost a year, the White Paper on immigration after Brexit has now been unveiled by Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who campaigned for a Remain vote as Business Secretary during the EU referendum.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Boys Don’t Have Periods — Children Need the Truth
Why are we ignoring biology when teaching our children? asks Celia Walden.
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
‘Male-Free’ Music Festival is ‘Discriminatory’ Swedish Authorities Rule
The first annual ‘Statement Festival’ took place in late August in Gothenburg, Sweden. It made global headlines as it not only featured exclusively women, including non-binary and transgender performers, but it also only allowed women (including non-binary and transgender) to attend.
The event saw 80 per cent of its tickets sold, despite disallowing any “cis-men”. However, it amassed criticism which reached the state level.
The Swedish government agency for fighting social inequality, the Swedish Discrimination Ombudsman (DO), has officially ruled billing the concert as “male-free” an act of discrimination.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Begs Christians Not to ‘Secularize’ Christmas
Pope Francis, in his general audience Wednesday, urged pilgrims to keep Christ at the center of Christmas and to resist the temptation to turn the feast into a secular holiday.
“Please, let us not secularize Christmas!” Francis pleaded. “Let us not push aside the one being celebrated, as happened back then when he ‘came among his own, and his own did not receive him.’“
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Members of the Scottish Parliament must have overindulged at this year’s Christmas party after deciding to change the name of gingerbread men to a gingerbread person in their on-sight cafe so they didn’t cause offence.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
re: Der Spiegel fake reports
That’s no problem.
Most Germans, I am sure, only pretend to read Der Spiegel.
I do not pretend anymore.The Spiegel used to be my ” bible” for more than 35 years, monday was Spiegel day.
I gave up buying it years ago. Sort of gut feeling that winds had turned. BTW, the author of the fake news also launched those ” groundhog-day” stories of illegal immigrants who found purses with 1,2,3,4 k euros ( all to frequently to believe)and immediately reported them to the next police station AND fended off deserved rewards, so generous they were. I for one have never believed a word of that new variety of urban legend.
add. Best thing about the Spiegel fakes is that the author was awarded a price in journalism delivered by the most impertinent Gutmenschen of the TV anchors premier league. Couldn’t suppress a chuckle…
No; but we are totally baffled their ordinary behavior should be a crime.
.
Meet Aisha:
Amazon’s New Sharia-Compliant Version of Alexa!
https://youtu.be/r93oq-VRm_w
Haha haha!!
One of the funniest videos I have seen in a long time!
Thank you for posting this.
“Pope Francis Begs Christians Not to ‘Secularize’ Christmas” Pope Francis advocating for Christianity? Surely this must be a mistake!
“Egypt’s Grand Imam Congratulates Pope Francis for Christ’s Birthday” If only all muslims were as enlightened as this man. Considering our reality, though, I worry for his safety after this gesture.
“Pope Francis: Like Today’s Migrants, Jesus Knew Pain of ‘Not Being Welcomed’” Just as the article notes his knowledge (or twisting?) of the event is severely lacking. But worry not, Francis, nobody would turn their backs on infants, we’re not like the well fed, well dressed, healthy young men that are invading our homeland.
Meanwhile in the UK madness continues ! This man is clearly guilty of attempting a terrorist attack but is found NOT guilty.When I first read the article I thought it was a JOKE! If this man goes on to kill there will be hell to pay! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6512385/Uber-driver-not-guilty-plotting-terror.html?offset=14&max=100&jumpTo=comment-378460623#comment-378460623
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70B1S5WRcxY
I think it is no coincidence that chocolate contains crispy (blow up) rice.
Does this conspiracy?
Hmmm…I noticed they disabled comments for the “Fatima Loves Crunch” commercial. That huge American flag at the beginning was no mistake, either.
Makes me glad I don’t eat sugar (fruitcake at Christmas doesn’t count).
Congresswoman Maxine Waters puts stupidity on the map in the US but Frans Timmermans takes First Prize in the vileness sweepstakes.
If he is “elected” as the next president of the European Commission it will rival Caligula’s appointment of a horse to the Roman senate as an expression of contempt for the people of the nations imprisoned in the European Union. The Commission itself will experience spasm of joy that such an educated zealot takes the reins.
re: Islamic funding of Universities uncovered
Several years ago I heard credible rumours that this may become an issue for school boards and districts in the US and Canada which are struggling financially. That is, that primary and secondary schools may become involved in similar schemes.
I’m sure it is already occurring but it has not yet come to light.