Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/6/2019

A third member of the Virginia governor’s cabinet is causing controversy over his politically incorrect past. First it was Gov. Ralph “Coonman” Northam who got in trouble for a blackface photo in his med school yearbook. Then it was revealed that Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax had been accused of forcing a woman to perform a sex act some years ago. And today Attorney General Mark Herring admitted that he, too, wore blackface once in his youth. The latter two men are in line to succeed Gov. Coonman if he should resign, and all three men are Democrats. However, the next in line after those three is the Republican speaker of the House of Delegates, which puts the Democrat race-baiters and #MeToo activists in a quandary. Stay tuned, and keep a big bowl of popcorn handy.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Dean, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, Srdja Trifkovic, Vlad Tepes, 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.

Financial Crisis
» New York Governor Cuomo Blames Exodus of Wealthy on Trump
 
USA
» Another Anti-Trump Democrat Embroiled in Racist Controversy
» Elizabeth Warren on Meet the Press (3-11-2018) Said She “Never Used [Native American Status] For Anything”
» Laura Loomer, Right-Wing Activist, Punted From PayPal for Clashing With Company’s ‘Core Values’
» N.J. High School Student Rejected From National Honor Society for Supporting President Trump
» Ocasio-Cortez Failed to Applaud Stopping Sex Trafficking of Girls, Kamala Harris Shook Her Head
» Police Suspect New Mexico Blast That Killed 1 Was Suicide
» President Trump to Attend London NATO Meeting in December
» Socialism is a Lie and Kamala Harris is a Liar
» SPLC Hires Top Defamation Attorney to Defend Against Lawyer’s Claim
» The Fall of the Media Temple
» Top YouTube Result After Trump’s SOTU Speech: CNN Fact Check With No Views
» Twitter Locks Daily Caller Eic’s Account Over Traumatizing “Learn to Code” Tweet
» Two of Three Convicted in ISIS Trial Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Appeal
» Video: CNN S***s on Its Own SOTU Poll for Second Year Running
» Virginia Attorney General Says He Wore Blackface at College Party
» Washington State County Sheriff Nullifies State Statute’s Gun Grab
 
Canada
» Poll: Majority of Alberta and Saskatchewan Support Western Separatism
 
Europe and the EU
» 33 Men Arrested Over Historic Child Sex Abuse Allegations in Northern England
» Alarmists: Climate Change Caused British Chips to ‘Shrink by an Inch’
» Austrian Chancellor Kurz Announces Meeting With President Trump
» Chalencon Doesn’t Represent us, Would Meet Di Maio — Levavasseur
» Despite Promises to Trump, NATO, Germany to Miss Defence Spending Target
» ‘Devilish Euro Maniac’ Tusk Declares ‘Special Place in Hell’ For Brexiteers
» Dutch Delegation Not Welcome in Hungary — “They Compared Hungary to Islamic State”
» European Leaders Stand by Refusal to Cooperate With PM May Over Brexit
» EU’s Brexit Punishment Tactics Working as Swedish Eurosceptics Say it’s Frightened Them Off Independence
» Finnish Ministry Goes GDR With Hate Speech
» France: Mentally Ill Woman Arrested Following Fatal Paris Fire That Killed Ten
» France: How Can I Find Out Route of Gilets Protest?
» French Assemblée Votes in Divisive ‘Anti-Vandal’ Law
» Govt Considering Zero Tariffs, Tech Options for Irish Border in No-Deal Brexit
» Italy: PD Symbol Not on Zingaretti Manifesto
» Lord Trimble: May’s Brexit ‘Deal’ Would Do Serious Damage to Northern Ireland
» May Refuses to Scrap Contentious Irish Backstop
» Pope Francis: Christianity and Islam Protect ‘Common Values’
» Right Wing in Spain is Booming — a Landslide is Coming in May
» Salvini Complains About Paris Seeing TAV Report Before Him
» Sweden Predicts Orderly, On-Time Brexit
» Third of Britons, Half of Germans Believe ‘Fundamental Clash’ Between Islam and Local Values
» UK: ‘Biased Brussels Corporation’: Farage Criticises BBC for Taking £4m From EU
» UK: Claim: Government to Delay Brexit by Another Two Months With ‘Grace Period’
» UK: Khan’s London: Children, Teenagers Behind Half of Knife Crime
» UK: Khan’s London: Teen Knifed on Bus, Man Fatally Stabbed Near Prince George’s School
» UK: Landmark First Conviction for Female Genital Mutilation
» UK: Mixed Messages on Brexit Negotiation, As Merkel Now Says There is Time for Change
» UK: Unearthed Video: Corbyn Slams ‘European Empire’, Referendum Re-Runs
 
Middle East
» Dialogue With Islam Key for Peace — Pope
» Journalist Interrogated, Fired for Story Linking CIA and Syria Weapons Flights
» Pope Francis Holds Historic Mass to 170,000 People in Abu Dhabi Marking End to UAE Visit
» Pope Francis in Arabia (II): Futility of Appeasement
 
Russia
» Russia to Build Mid-Range Nuclear Missiles After Inf Treaty Withdrawal
 
Far East
» New Oviraptorosaur Species Discovered in Mongolia
» Trump to Hold Second Nuclear Summit With North Korea’s Kim Jong UN in Vietnam on Feb. 27-28
 
Latin America
» New Dinosaur Species With Spiky Backbone Discovered in Argentina: Report
» Six New Species of Hideously Adorable Tentacle-Nosed Catfish Discovered in Amazon
» Venezuela Army ‘Blocks Aid Corridor’
 
Immigration
» Belgian Secretary of State Deports Cop Killer on Last Day in Office
» Finnish City Bans Asylum Seeker School Visits After Child Abuse Cases
» Italy: Salvini to Left-Wing Activist: “Take in 10-20 Migrants in Your Home!”
» Right-Wing Mayor Reverses Leftist Policy, Gives Italians Priority for Apartments Over Migrants
» ‘We Can’t Hide Behind Walls’: Macron Hails ‘World of Mass Migration’
 
Culture Wars
» Catholic College Distributes Free ‘Chest Binders’ To Coeds Who Think They Are Male
» Catholic Bishop: Democrats Have Become ‘The Party of Infanticide’
» Pew: Actively Religious People More Likely to be ‘Very Happy’
» The War on Michigan’s Christian Adoption Agencies Enters a New Phase
 
General
» Firefox 66 to Block Automatically Playing Audible Video and Audio
 

New York Governor Cuomo Blames Exodus of Wealthy on Trump

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed his state’s revenue shortfall of $2.8 billion on Donald Trump during a press conference on Monday, stating,

“There is no doubt that the budget we put forward [$175 billion for fiscal year 2019-20] is not supported by the revenues. It’s as serious as a heart attack….

“SALT [which capped deductions for state income and local property taxes for the wealthy in Trump’s tax reform act] was an economic civil war. It literally restructured the economy to help red [Republican] states at the cost of blue [Democrat] states.

“That’s exactly what it did. It was a diabolical, political maneuver.”

Cuomo could have accepted the blame for the state’s ongoing exodus (out-migration) of wealthy individuals by pinning the blame where it belonged: on his state’s increasingly unfavorable environment for them thanks to its high taxes. Instead, he said he did the right thing by extending the temporary “millionaires’ tax” levied following the financial crisis a decade ago, and signing into law a bill raising sales tax rates to 8.82 percent.

In other words, Cuomo attacked the very people he needed the most to pay for his spending bill: the top one percent of New York’s taxpayers that account for almost half of the state’s tax revenues.

[Comment: Perhaps this communist buffoon should build a wall around NY, like East Germany, to prevent NY’ers from escaping.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Another Anti-Trump Democrat Embroiled in Racist Controversy

Virginia’s Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring admitted today he wore blackface — after a similar admission by Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) and an uncorroborated sexual assault allegation by a college professor against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D-VA).

Mr. Herring said in a statement that the incident transpired at a party, where the then 19-year-old undergraduate and his friends dressed up like rappers they idolized. (NBC News)

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Elizabeth Warren on Meet the Press (3-11-2018) Said She “Never Used [Native American Status] For Anything”

The mainstream media must sense that Elizabeth Warren is a wounded candidate due to her Native American controversy.

And it may be time for them to turn on her.

The Washington Post yesterday published an image of Warren’s 1986 Texas State Bar registration, in which she listed herself as “American Indian” under “race”.

This was good sleuthing by WaPo, though they buried the finding in an article about Warren apologizing the the Cherokee Nation. Nonetheless, credit where credit is due.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Laura Loomer, Right-Wing Activist, Punted From PayPal for Clashing With Company’s ‘Core Values’

Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and agitator, was punted from PayPal on Tuesday on the heels of being similarly banned from services including Twitter and Uber.

“We can confirm that we’ve canceled Laura Loomer’s account,” a spokesperson for the payment processor told The Washington Times. “PayPal works to ensure that our platform and services are not used for purposes that run counter to our core values.”

A self-described investigative journalist, Ms. Loomer, 25, has been previously booted from leading social networking and ride-sharing services over comments decried by her critics as anti-Muslim.

“I plan on suing all of the Left wing terrorists and tech tyrants who are trying to shut me down simply because I am a Conservative Jewish woman who speaks truth about Islam,” Ms. Loomer said in a social media post responding to PayPal’s decision.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

N.J. High School Student Rejected From National Honor Society for Supporting President Trump

A New Jersey high school student said he was rejected from the National Honor Society, because of his support for President Trump.

16-year-old Boris Kizenko spoke out about the incident in a recent interview, saying it all started when he posted a quote from President Trump to the class Instagram page he was in charge of.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Ocasio-Cortez Failed to Applaud Stopping Sex Trafficking of Girls, Kamala Harris Shook Her Head

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez failed to applaud President Trump’s vow to stop the sex trafficking of children during last night’s State of the Union speech, while presidential candidate Kamala Harris was caught on camera shaking her head.

While wearing white to promote women’s rights, AOC looked sullen when Trump announced, “More than 1,500 sadistic traffickers have been put behind bars.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Police Suspect New Mexico Blast That Killed 1 Was Suicide

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Police said Tuesday they suspect a man who died in an explosion behind an Albuquerque, New Mexico, strip mall intended to kill himself.

The improvised device exploded Monday in an alley near a busy intersection, killing one man. No one else was injured in the afternoon blast that shook nearby homes and businesses.

A cement wall and dumpster were destroyed in the explosion. Businesses at the mall on the west side of the city were evacuated.

Preliminary evidence indicates the incident was a suicide, police spokesman Officer Simon Drobik said.

Police have said the blast did not appear to be linked to terrorism, and no suspects were under investigation.

“Investigators believe this incident is isolated to the lone individual who was found deceased,” Drobik said.

The name of the man who died has not been released by police, and they have not said whether he had a connection to the mall that includes a grocery store and other businesses.

The FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting with the investigation, which Drobik described as complicated without providing further details.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

President Trump to Attend London NATO Meeting in December

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is to host a key meeting in London in December, an event which will bring dozens of government and state leaders from allied nations across to the world to the British capital just months after the United Kingdom officially departs the European Union.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Socialism is a Lie and Kamala Harris is a Liar

Kamala Harris is a socialist. She is also a liar. This is because socialism itself is a lie.

Webster defines socialism as the “governmental ownership …of the means of production and distribution of goods…a system in which there is no private property.”

Socialist theory is antithetical to the principles on which America was founded. Under the original American view of government, private property rights are championed and protected. But in the socialist view, private property ownership is denounced and demonized.

While Harris, Sanders, Waters, Cortez and their ilk continue to push for Americans to embrace “new rights” like a socialist European healthcare system, they are not the originators of this concept in America.

Franklin Roosevelt, in his annual address to Congress, set the nation on this path.

Here’s what FDR said in that speech:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

SPLC Hires Top Defamation Attorney to Defend Against Lawyer’s Claim

The Southern Poverty Law Center, it appears, is a little worried.

Facing two major lawsuits that assert multiple state and federal claims, including allegations that the SPLC has trespassed the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, the leftist hate group has retained a big-hitting defamation attorney to defend itself against one of them.

That regardless, the group’s long reign of terrifying power over the media and who gets designated as an “extremist” or “hate group” might be ending. Its own extremist views and attacks on mainstream conservatives as “haters” long ago wrecked the undeserved reputation it had.

But now, some of the nearly $500 million it has in the bank might wind up in the pockets of its victims.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Fall of the Media Temple

Journalism is as extinct as the worshipers of Thoth and the Newseum. The media sold off its temple last week, but long before that its hacks and flacks had sold their soul.

Last week, the $450 million temple constructed by the media to worship itself was sold off for $372 million to Johns Hopkins. There’s no word on whether they threw in the statue of their fallen god.

The fall of the media temple comes just as the media is on the defensive after fallout from a fake news hate campaign targeting a 16-year-old boy based on an out of context video clip. And the only thing that the media can say in defense of its lies about Covington Catholic is that it got them from social media.

That’s also its epitaph. The media doesn’t make the news. It’s just the noisiest part of the echo chamber, amplifying messages from lefty politicians from above and lefty social media trends from below.

The media temple was a project of the Freedom Forum. The Forum was backed by media giants like the New York Times, Bloomberg, Comcast, ABC, NBC and Time Warner. And much of the cash came from the Gannett media titan. In 1999, it commanded over $1 billion. By 2001, it was down to $700 million. Blowing through $450 million on a temple, complete with idol, couldn’t have helped.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Top YouTube Result After Trump’s SOTU Speech: CNN Fact Check With No Views

Following President Trump’s State of the Union address, the top search result on YouTube was a CNN ‘fact check’ that had no views, proving once again how Google is manipulating its algorithm for partisan ends.

The top result when a user searched for “state of the union 2019” shortly after the speech ended was a CNN “reality check” that was listed as having “no views”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter Locks Daily Caller Eic’s Account Over Traumatizing “Learn to Code” Tweet

Twitter left bird droppings all over the First Amendment again after The Daily Caller‘s Editor in Chief Geoffrey Ingersoll was locked out of his Twitter account Tuesday night for tweeting “learn to code” at an unfunny joke made by The Daily Show.

Somehow the Daily Show writers thought it was funny to tweet an 8-second clip noting an “asymmetrical background” when Vice President Mike Pence stood up behind Trump during Tuesday’s the State of the Union address while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remained seated.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Two of Three Convicted in ISIS Trial Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Appeal

Two of three Minneapolis men convicted in 2016 of attempting to join the terror group ISIS are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear challenges to their decadeslong prison sentences.

An appeals court has already upheld the sentences handed down against Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, Abdirahman Yasin Daud and Guled Ali Omar after federal juries convicted them of trying to murder in the name of ISIS. Six other defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Video: CNN S***s on Its Own SOTU Poll for Second Year Running

An overwhelming majority of CNN viewers (of all people) registered positive reactions to President Trump’s State of The Union speech Tuesday night, prompting the network’s political director David Chalian to dismiss the poll numbers as “skewed” for the second year running.

“A very positive reaction from those who watched the speech tonight. 59 percent very positive. 17 percent somewhat positive. 23 percent negative.” Chalian noted when breaking down the numbers.

That equates to a grand total of 76 percent of viewers positively approving of the speech.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Virginia Attorney General Says He Wore Blackface at College Party

Richmond, Va. (AP) — The political crisis in Virginia exploded Wednesday when the state’s attorney general confessed to putting on blackface in the 1980s and a woman went public with detailed allegations of sexual assault against the lieutenant governor.

With Gov. Ralph Northam’s career already hanging by a thread over a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook, the day’s developments threatened to take down all three of Virginia’s top elected officials, all of them Democrats.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Washington State County Sheriff Nullifies State Statute’s Gun Grab

Another lawman in the State of Washington has gone on the record refusing to enforce a recently enacted state statute that infringes substantially on the right of the people of that state to keep and bear arms as protected by the Second Amendment.

Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones issued a statement on February 4 regarding his and his department’s attitude toward Washington State Initiative 1639. A story in the Western Journal chronicling the course this measure has followed since it was proposed in the state legislature summarizes its prohibitions:…

To Sheriff Jones, laws made contrary to the Constitution are prima facie null, void, and of no legal effect, and if he and his officers were to enforce the new restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms, they would be violating their own oaths of office, as he explained in his press release.

Some readers may agree with Jones in principle, but believe that since the citizens of Washington have spoken, he should recognize their will and carry it out, even if he is personally opposed to it. After all, according to state election data, nearly 60 percent of those who voted voted to approve Initiative 1639.

The reality is that resisting federal trampling of the Constitution is not only a right of state lawmakers, it is a constitutional obligation. Therefore, the Washington state legislators who voted for Initiative 1639 were in violation of their oaths.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Poll: Majority of Alberta and Saskatchewan Support Western Separatism

Angus Reid just released a new poll, and the results are jaw-dropping: Sixty percent of Albertans and fifty-three percent of Saskatchewan residents either moderately or strongly support a Western separatist movement.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

33 Men Arrested Over Historic Child Sex Abuse Allegations in Northern England

Thirty-three men have been arrested in relation to allegations of sexual abuse against a child in Halifax, West Yorkshire, between 2002 and 2005.

All men, now aged between 30 and 40, have been released under investigation, whilst homes in the West Yorkshire borough of Calderdale, where Halifax is located, Kirklees, and Bradford are being searched, reports the Halifax Courier.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Alarmists: Climate Change Caused British Chips to ‘Shrink by an Inch’

The UK’s Independent newspaper blamed “climate change” for lower potato yields in 2018 resulting in pommes frites one inch shorter on average as compared to prior years.

Tuesday’s article, titled “British chips shrink by an inch as climate change slashes potato yields,” cited an analysis by the Climate Coalition network and scientists at the University of Leeds who claim that rising global temperatures are causing diminishing crop production that will make British-grown produce “harder to find.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Austrian Chancellor Kurz Announces Meeting With President Trump

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has confirmed that he will be visiting President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. later this month with the meeting focused on trade relations between the U.S. and the European Union.

The meeting between the two world leaders will be the first time an Austrian chancellor has visited a President of the United States in Washington D.C. since Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel met with President George W. Bush in 2005, Kronen Zeitung reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Chalencon Doesn’t Represent us, Would Meet Di Maio — Levavasseur

Tuesday meeting behind my back but not his fault

(ANSA) — Paris, February 6 — The head of one of the Yellow Jackets lists, Ingrid Levavasseur, on Wednesday denied that the butcher who 5-Star Movement (M5S) leaders Luigi Di Maio and Alessandro Di Battista met in Paris Tuesday was the spokesman for her list, but said she would be “honoured” to meet Di Maio at some point.

She said reports that Christophe Chalencon was the RIC list spokesman were “false”.

M5S leader Di Maio and No.2 Di Battista agreed to cooperate with Chalencon in view of the May European elections.

Levavasseur said Chalencon “wanted to show off with the Italians”.

She said the meeting with Di Maio “has no link to the RIC list”.

Speaking to ANSA later, Levavasseur said “I don’t say we shouldn’t meet Di Maio.

“Quite the opposite, I would be honoured to be able to meet him, but not now, it’s too early.

“I’ve always said I would like to do so at the end of February, when we have structured ourselves better.

“But yesterday a meeting was organised behind my back.

“What Chalencon did was dishonourable.

“I’m only sorry that Di Maio was blindsided by all this situation and it is certainly not his fault”.

M5S sources said that they had sought “dialogue but not alliances”.

Tuesday’s meeting between Di Maio and Chalencon was “a fresh unacceptable provocation between neighbouring countries and partners within the European Union, a French foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Despite Promises to Trump, NATO, Germany to Miss Defence Spending Target

Having already admitted it would fail to meet the two per cent of GDP spent on defence it promised in 2014, Germany is now set to likely miss even its reduced target in news that will doubtless do nothing to ease tensions between Chancellor Merkel and U.S. President Trump, who is pushing for fellow NATO members to pull their own weight.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Devilish Euro Maniac’ Tusk Declares ‘Special Place in Hell’ For Brexiteers

There is a “special place in hell” for UK politicians who supported leaving the EU, Eurocrat Donald Tusk has claimed, but a Brexiteer has hit back, calling him a “devilish Euro maniac” in return.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Delegation Not Welcome in Hungary — “They Compared Hungary to Islamic State”

The Hungarian government will not receive the Dutch parliamentary delegation visiting Budapest to investigate the state of the rule of law in the country, a foreign ministry official told public media on Tuesday.

Tamas Menczer, state secretary for communications and international representation, said The Netherlands was not a Hungarian oversight body, and Dutch pro-migration politicians had no right to carry out an investigation in Hungary.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

European Leaders Stand by Refusal to Cooperate With PM May Over Brexit

Hours before British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to travel to Brussels to meet with European Union leaders, the men she will be seeking to win concessions of went public with their determination to see no changes are made.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

EU’s Brexit Punishment Tactics Working as Swedish Eurosceptics Say it’s Frightened Them Off Independence

The leader of a Swedish populist party that has long campaigned to get a referendum on European Union membership for the nation said Tuesday that the punitive tactics of the European Union are enough for him to reconsider wanting to leave the EU — for now.

The leader of the populist, anti-mass migration party the Sweden Democrats Jimmie Åkesson made the remarks on Swedish radio Tuesday morning, saying “clearly the EU does its utmost to complicate Britain’s departure.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Finnish Ministry Goes GDR With Hate Speech

The Ministry of Justice in Finland is going GDR-style all the way with a video on it’s official YouTube-channel.

In the video they ask citizens to report each other for hate speech at the police.” Did you know that hate speech can be a crime? The same laws apply on the web as elsewhere”, they say.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

France: Mentally Ill Woman Arrested Following Fatal Paris Fire That Killed Ten

Investigators in Paris have arrested a woman in connection with a fatal apartment fire that led to the deaths of ten people on early Tuesday morning, saying she has a history of psychiatric illness.

The fire occurred at around one o’clock in the morning at an apartment building on the Rue Erlanger and as the fire began 40-year-old Essia B. was found setting a garbage bin on fire and making attempts to set a vehicle on fire as well, Le Parisien reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

France: How Can I Find Out Route of Gilets Protest?

I am supposed to be coming to Paris from the UK on the weekend of February 15-18 but I am now unsure what to do because of the yellow vest protests. However I have just read your article which says that the numbers were fewer this weekend and also that they followed a prearranged route. What was this route and how would it be possible to find out that route in the future?

Another protest on February 16 is not predictable yet as the gilets jaunes organise their protests from week to week and the route changes. The route they take is only known the day before the protest because that is when they must inform the police so the march is legal.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

French Assemblée Votes in Divisive ‘Anti-Vandal’ Law

The French Assemblée Nationale has voted in a controversial new “anti-vandal” bill by 387 to 92, in response to the violence seen during some of the gilets jaunes protests since November.

The proposed law, known as the “loi anti-casseurs“ in French (meaning “anti-breakers/smashers law”), would explicitly make it illegal to cause physical damage during a protest.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Govt Considering Zero Tariffs, Tech Options for Irish Border in No-Deal Brexit

The government is considering temporarily dropping import tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit while ministers are said to be examining hi-tech freight tracking across the Irish border.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox raised scrapping tariffs at a meeting with business leaders in the ceramics industry on Monday, according to original reporting by HuffPost.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: PD Symbol Not on Zingaretti Manifesto

Lazio governor favourite in leadership race

(ANSA) — Rome, February 6 — The symbol of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) is not on the manifesto and leaflet backing Lazio Governor Nicola Zingaretti’s campaign to win the party leadership, it emerged Wednesday.

Zingaretti is favourite in the PD leadership race ahead of former caretaker leader Maurizio Martina.

The winner will be announced later this month.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Lord Trimble: May’s Brexit ‘Deal’ Would Do Serious Damage to Northern Ireland

Veteran Northern Irish politician David Trimble is backing a court challenge to the British Government over the Withdrawal Agreement which he says could threaten the Good Friday Agreement.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

May Refuses to Scrap Contentious Irish Backstop

Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out removing the Irish backstop from the Withdrawal Agreement, claiming the “insurance policy” prevents a “hard border.”

Mrs May described her commitment to maintaining the Good Friday Agreement and avoiding a hard border as “unshakeable,” in a speech to business leaders in Belfast on Tuesday, telling media, “I’m not proposing to persuade people to accept a deal that does not contain that insurance policy for the future.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis: Christianity and Islam Protect ‘Common Values’

Christianity and Islam have more in common than people think, Pope Francis said Wednesday, and the two religions defend common values that are necessary for the future of civilization.

“Despite the diversity of cultures and traditions, the Christian and Islamic worlds appreciate and protect common values: life, family, religious sense, honor for the elderly, the education of the young, and others as well,” the pope told the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Right Wing in Spain is Booming — a Landslide is Coming in May

Ever since the leftist coalition’s soft coup last summer, Spain’s immigration policy changed dramatically overnight as we covered in detail at the time. Consequently, as has happened across The West when immigration policies unravel and begin to import chaos in massive numbers, voters turn to the more conservative parties for solutions.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Salvini Complains About Paris Seeing TAV Report Before Him

I haven’t read it either says Di Maio

(ANSA) — Terni, February 6 — Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Wednesday that it was odd that the government had allowed Paris to have access to a key cost-benefit analysis on the controversial TAV Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link before him. The government has said the analysis will have a major bearing on whether it decides to press ahead with the project. It sent the report to the French government on Tuesday.

League leader Salvini says the project should go ahead but his coalition partners in the 5-Star Movement (M5S) are opposed to it.

“I, the deputy premier who represents the Italian people, do not have the cost-benefit analysis on the TAV but it seems that Paris does,” Salvini said during as visit to the central city of Terni.

“This is quite bizarre”. M5S leader, Labour and Industry Minister and fellow Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio disagreed.

“Salvini should relax. I haven’t read the cost-benefit analysis either,” Di Maio said.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli said it was normal for the French authorities and the European Commission to see the analysis before other members of the Italian executive. “We gave the report to France first because it relates to an international treaty,” said Toninelli, an M5S member.

“Today we will give the cost-benefit dossier to the European Commission. “Matteo will have to have a little patience and wait 24 hours. “When the time comes, I’ll take it to him personally in a closed envelope”. The transport ministry said Wednesday evening it had sent the report to the EC.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Predicts Orderly, On-Time Brexit

Newly appointed Swedish European Union Minister Hans Dahlgren has declared that despite the multiple setbacks faced by Prime Minister Theresa May, he believes an orderly Brexit will occur on March 29th.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Third of Britons, Half of Germans Believe ‘Fundamental Clash’ Between Islam and Local Values

More than one-third of Britons believe that there is a “fundamental clash” between Islam and British values.

The findings were revealed by a YouGov survey conducted in advance of a meeting between the Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar on Monday and Shaikh Ahmed Mohammad al-Tayeb on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Biased Brussels Corporation’: Farage Criticises BBC for Taking £4m From EU

Brexit architect Nigel Farage has labelled the BBC the “Biased Brussels Corporation” after it was revealed the tax-payer funded broadcaster has received more that £4 million in funding from the European Union.

The BBC has received €4.8 million (£4.2 million) in grants from Brussels since 2015 as part of the bloc’s Horizon 2020 programme, according to The Telegraph.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Claim: Government to Delay Brexit by Another Two Months With ‘Grace Period’

The British government is working in private to engineer another delay to Brexit, this time a two month period pushing back the legally enshrined March 29th departure date.

Christened with another obscuring name akin to the negotiation period, transition period, and even a mooted extension to the transition period — all simply means of delaying the actual date the United Kingdom becomes free of the European Union — the new so-called “grace period” is now being discussed in “secret” meetings in Westminster by senior members of the Government.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Khan’s London: Children, Teenagers Behind Half of Knife Crime

Half of all knife crime in London is carried out by people aged 19 and under, and three quarters of offenders are from minority ethnic groups, the latest figures show.

Statistics from the London Metropolitan Police revealed that 49 per cent of knife crime perpetrators in the capital are teenaged or younger, with 41 per cent of offenders aged between 15 and 19 and eight per cent aged between ten and 14.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Khan’s London: Teen Knifed on Bus, Man Fatally Stabbed Near Prince George’s School

A teenage boy has been taken to hospital after being stabbed on a bus in Clapham Common, south London.

The Metropolitan Police were called to Castlewood Road, Upper Clapton in the borough of Hackney shortly before 3pm on Wednesday where they found a youth with stab wounds, the Evening Standard reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Landmark First Conviction for Female Genital Mutilation

Editor’s Note: February 6 is International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, a United Nations-sponsored annual awareness day aimed at eradicating the practice.

In a landmark ruling, a mother-of-three has become the first person in Britain to be found guilty of female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that has been outlawed in the country for more than three decades.

Under British law, anyone found guilty of performing FGM can be imprisoned for up to 14 years. It has been illegal in Britain since 1985 under the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act, later amended in the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Mixed Messages on Brexit Negotiation, As Merkel Now Says There is Time for Change

The German Chancellor appeared to throw British Prime Minister Theresa May a lifeline Tuesday morning when she was it was “humanly possible” to reach an agreement on Brexit, in comments that at least superficially appear to contradict those of other top EU figures in recent days.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Unearthed Video: Corbyn Slams ‘European Empire’, Referendum Re-Runs

Footage has emerged of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slamming the “empire” of the European Union and its habit of re-running public referendums until it gets its way.

The recording unearthed by The Red Roar, a hard-left blog, shows Corbyn encouraging “No” campaigners at a peace conference ahead of Ireland’s second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in 2009.

“If you succeed in getting a ‘No’ vote here, that will be such a boost to people like us, all over Europe, that do not want to live in a European empire of the 21st century,” Corbyn implored Irish eurosceptics as they campaigned, ultimately without success, to defeat Lisbon a second time.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Dialogue With Islam Key for Peace — Pope

Faiths must meet, dialogue, Francis says after UAE trip

(ANSA) — Vatican City, February 6 — Dialogue between Christianity and Islam is crucial to promote peace worldwide, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday following a landmark visit to the United Arab Emirates.

“Dialogue between Christianity and Islam needs to be a key factor for peace in the world today”, the pontiff said.

The pope said the trip was “brief but very important”, linking it to his 2017 visit to Al-Azhar, Egypt, the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam, and wrote “a new page in the dialogue between Christianity and Islam and in efforts to promote peace in the world based on human brotherhood”.

Francis noted that it was the “first time that a pope visited the Arabian peninsula” and that “providence wanted it to be a pope called Francis, 800 years after the visit of St Francis of Assisi to Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil.

The pontiff said the UAE has grown a lot over the past few decades becoming a “crossroads between East and West, a multi-ethnic and multi-religious ‘oasis’ and thus the right place to promote the culture of encounter”.

“In an era like ours, when there is a strong temptation to see an ongoing clash between the Christian and Islamic civilization, and also to consider religions as sources of conflict, we have wanted to give a further clear and decided sign that it instead possible to meet, it is possible to respect one another and dialogue and that, despite the diversity of cultures and traditions, the Christian and Islamic worlds appreciate and preserve common values”, the pope went on to say, citing life, family, a sense of religion, honoring the elderly and educating the young, among others.

The pontiff in particular recalled the he has signed with the grand imam of al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi a historic declaration of fraternity, calling for peace between nations, religions and races in which “we condemn all forms of violence, especially when it is motivated by religion and we pledge to promote authentic values and peace worldwide”.

He recalled that over one million Christians live in the UAE, mainly workers from Asian countries, and that he met with representatives of the Catholic community at Abu Dhabi’s St Josepth Cathedral, celebrating a mass with patriarchs, archbishops and bishops in which they “prayed in particular for peace and justice, with special intention for the Middle East and Yemen”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Journalist Interrogated, Fired for Story Linking CIA and Syria Weapons Flights

A months-long investigation which tracked and exposed a massive covert weapons shipment network to terror groups in Syria via diplomatic flights originating in the Caucuses and Eastern Europe under the watch of the CIA and other intelligence agencies has resulted in the interrogation and firing of the Bulgarian journalist who first broke the story. This comes as the original report is finally breaking into mainstream international coverage.

Investigative reporter Dilyana Gaytandzhieva authored a bombshell report for Trud Newspaper, based in Sofia, Bulgaria, which found that an Azerbaijan state airline company was regularly transporting tons of weaponry to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Turkey under diplomatic cover as part of the CIA covert program to supply anti-Assad fighters in Syria. Those weapons, Gaytandzhieva found, ended up in the hands of ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq and Syria.

While it’s long been understood that the US-Gulf-NATO coalition arming rebels inside Syria facilitated the rapid rise of the Islamic State as the group had steady access to a “jihadi Wal-Mart” of weapons (in the words of one former spy and British diplomat), the Trud Newspaper report is the first to provide exhaustive documentation detailing the precise logistical chain of the weapons as they flowed from their country of origin to the battlefield in Syria and Iraq. Gaytandzhieva even traveled to Aleppo where she filmed and examined labeled weapons shipping containers held in underground jihadist storehouses.

The Bulgaria-based journalist obtained and published dozens of secret internal memos which were leaked to her by an anonymous source as part of the report. The leaked documents appear to be internal communications between the Bulgarian government and Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Sofia detailing flight plans for Silk Way Airlines, which was essentially operating an “off the books” weapons transport service (not subject to inspections or tax under diplomatic cover) for the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Silk Way Airlines has been the subject of other recent investigations involving weapons supplies for the Saudi war on Yemen. In addition, the military monitoring site Balkan Insight has exposed similar weapons cargo flights in and out of neighboring Serbia.

But perhaps the more explosive finding involves private American companies contracting with the US government to help train and equip militants in Syria. An investigative series by Buzzfeed — the first of which was published in 2015 — named military contractor Purple Shovel LLC as the recipient of two no-bid contracts totaling more $50 million as part of the US train and equip program for Syria. Gaytandzhieva’s report definitively links Purple Shovel and other private American military contractors to the Azerbaijan Silk Way Airlines shipments. One leaked memo includes a cargo manifest for multiple tons of anti-tank grenades purchased in Bulgaria by Purple Shovel which were ostensibly designated for the official consignee — the Ministry of Defense of Ajerbaijan — but which never made it to Ajerbaijan. The documents, however, reveal that the military cargo was offloaded at Turkey’s Incirlik air base, which is one of the US and NATO’s main command centers for covert operations in Syria.

Though Gaytandzhieva’s report is months old and began through a series of smaller investigations, it gained little traction in Western or international press, even though it was promoted on social media and discussed among some of the world’s foremost experts on Syria and the Middle East. However, on Sunday Qatar-based Al Jazeera featured the story while reporting the shocking news that Gaytandzhieva had been interrogated by Bulgarian authorities before being fired from her newspaper:

[Comment: Deep State controlled CIA elements funneled weapons from Libya to Syria and armed ISIS.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Holds Historic Mass to 170,000 People in Abu Dhabi Marking End to UAE Visit

POPE Francis held an unprecedented public mass attended by 170,000 people in Abu Dhabi today.

The Pope led the service at the Zayed Sports City stadium on the last day of his trip to the United Arab Emirates, marking the first time a pontiff has visited the Gulf, where Islam was born. Some 50,000 people packed inside the venue, while another 120,000 watched via video link on large screens outside. Huge crowds waved Vatican flags and cheered as the Pope made his entrance in a white open-top jeep for the milestone moment.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis in Arabia (II): Futility of Appeasement

by Srdja Trifkovic

In the course of his 48-hour visit to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis addressed an “interreligious meeting” in Abu Dhabi on February 4 and celebrated an open-air Mass attended by 135,000 Catholic guest workers the following day. His homily at the city’s Zayed Sports Stadium, inspired by the Sermon on the Mount, was unremarkable but harmless. His address to “Fraternity Conference” on Monday night was not, and deserves close scrutiny. (The Pontiff’s words are in italics.)

“As-salamu alaykum! Peace be with you!”

Even the opening three words were hugely problematic. As-salamu alaykum is a wholly inappropriate greeting for a Christian to use under any circumstance; it defies belief that a pope would use it, even as an act of courtesy to his hosts. It is not a matter of dispute that as-salamu alaykum is a religious salutation among Muslims. Furthermore, according to authoritative Islamic sources, if a non-Muslim uses the salutation, a Muslim believer must not return it in its regular form. A “solid” hadith (Saheeh Muslim) is clear: “Do not initiate the greeting of salaam to a Jew or a Christian”; therefore “we can conclude that there may be a problem giving salam (or returning it) to non-Muslims.” Nurideen an-Nigeri of virtualmosque.com explains in detail that even those Islamic scholars who consider responding to salaam from a non-Muslim to be permissible agree that the reply should not be wa ?alaykum salam (“and peace be upon you too”), which is reserved for Muslims. To a kufr like Francis, the proper response is simply ‘wa’alaikum (“and upon you too”) or just Alaikum’ (“let it be upon you”) and no more. It would be interesting to check if the Muslims in attendance responded to Francis’s greeting, and in what exact form.

“I give heartfelt thanks to . . . Doctor Ahmad Al-Tayyib, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar . . . “

As we have already pointed out in these pages, Sheikh al-Tayyib—the moving spirit of the Abu Dhabi meeting—is not a “leading moderate” as claimed by the pope, but a solid, orthodox Sunni Muslim cleric. As a Washington Post columnist has noted, “the Gulf state’s decision to present Sheikh al-Tayeb as a pope-like figure, able to speak for a wide swath of Muslims, is misleading at best and perhaps intentionally deceptive at worst.” This “moderate” approvingly affirms that Islam is both a religion and an ideological blueprint for governance. He accepts that a Muslim apostate “must either renounce his apostasy or else be killed.” When asked why Al Azhar refused to issue a formal statement denouncing the Islamic State, Tayyib responded: “Al Azhar cannot accuse any Muslim of being a kafir as long as he believes in Allah and the Last Day, even if he commits every atrocity . . . I cannot denounce ISIS as un-Islamic.” Al Azhar’s programs under him preach the renewal of the caliphate, hostility towards non-Muslim minorities, enforcing the jizya (poll tax for “infidels”), and stoning sexual transgressors. He turns a blind eye to the unceasing persecution of Coptic Christians.

“From your country, my thoughts turn to all the countries of this peninsula. To them I address my most cordial greetings, with friendship and esteem.”

This presumably includes the largest, richest and most populous country “of this peninsula,” the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It deserves neither friendship nor esteem for its barbarously repugnant treatment of Christians and other “infidels.” On the contrary, a Christian leader should feel obliged at least to refrain from addressing his warm feelings “to all the countries” in Arabia, and preferably to express regret that in most of the peninsula all non-Muslims are savagely oppressed. It should be noted that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ)—the de facto rules of the Emirates who invited and lavishly hosted the pope—is simultaneously in cohorts with the murderous regime in Riyadh…

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]
 

Russia to Build Mid-Range Nuclear Missiles After Inf Treaty Withdrawal

Russia’s defense minister said the nation intends to build mid-range, nuclear-capable missiles. The announcement came less than a week after the United States and Russia decided to abandon the INF Treaty.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

New Oviraptorosaur Species Discovered in Mongolia

A new oviraptorosaur species from the Late Cretaceous was discovered in Mongolia, according to a study published in February 6, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Yuong-Nam Lee from Seoul National University, South Korea, and colleagues.

Oviraptorosaurs were a diverse group of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of Asia and North America. Despite the abundance of nearly complete oviraptorosaur skeletons discovered in southern China and Mongolia, the diet and feeding strategies of these toothless dinosaurs are still unclear. In this study, Lee and colleagues described an incomplete skeleton of an oviraptorosaur found in the Nemegt Formation of the Gobi desert of Mongolia.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Trump to Hold Second Nuclear Summit With North Korea’s Kim Jong UN in Vietnam on Feb. 27-28

President Trump on Tuesday announced a second nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam on Feb. 27-28 as the White House seeks to jump-start moribund negotiations.

Trump made the disclosure in his State of the Union address, hailing the summit as a sign of progress in his bid to blunt the Kim regime’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program, despite public testimony from U.S. intelligence officials last week that the North continues to develop its arsenal in secret.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

New Dinosaur Species With Spiky Backbone Discovered in Argentina: Report

A new dinosaur species, notable for a row of two-foot spines protruding from its neck, has been discovered by scientists in Argentina.

Scientists have dubbed the new dinosaur, “Bajadasaurus,” an herbivore that lived 140 million years ago, according to the scientific journal Nature, which first revealed the findings. Its name is an amalgam of Spanish, Greek, and Latin, meaning “lizard from Bajada with forward-bending spines.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Six New Species of Hideously Adorable Tentacle-Nosed Catfish Discovered in Amazon

No one knows just how many species live in the Amazon rainforest—scientists estimate that it’s home to one-third of the world’s animal and plant species. There are still thousands out there waiting to be discovered—like these six new catfish with faces covered in tentacles.

“We discovered six new species of really cool catfish from the Amazon and Orinoco River basins. They have tentacles on their snouts, they have spines that stick out from their heads, almost like claws, to protect themselves and their nests, and their body is covered with bony plates like armor,” says Lesley de Souza, a conservation scientist and ichthyologist at Chicago’s Field Museum and lead author of a paper in Zootaxa describing the new species. “They’re warriors, they’re fish superheroes.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela Army ‘Blocks Aid Corridor’

Venezuelan soldiers have blocked a bridge on the border with Colombia ahead of a shipment of humanitarian aid, the opposition says.

The aid is being arranged by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who declared himself interim president last month.

But it is not clear how the aid will be distributed. President Nicolas Maduro, who has the support of the army, has rejected letting it into the country.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Belgian Secretary of State Deports Cop Killer on Last Day in Office

Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken used his last day in office to sign the deportation order of cop killer Hassan Iasir to Morocco despite him being born in Belgium.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Finnish City Bans Asylum Seeker School Visits After Child Abuse Cases

The Finnish city of Oulu has banned asylum seekers from making visits to local schools and day care centres as an investigation into migrants abusing children in the city continues.

The so-called “integrational visits” were organised by charities including the Red Cross but the local school authority has now banned them due to concerns from parents as the child abuse investigations remain ongoing, Yle reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Salvini to Left-Wing Activist: “Take in 10-20 Migrants in Your Home!”

When Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini recently held a campaign speech in the city of Giulianova, he was interrupted by an angry left-wing activist who called him a “shitty murderer”.

Salvini patiently explained that communists who are well-off financially are the people who preach the most morals to other citizens.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Right-Wing Mayor Reverses Leftist Policy, Gives Italians Priority for Apartments Over Migrants

The right-wing mayor of Sesto San Giovanni has reversed the leftist policy of prioritising non-European Union citizens for vacant apartments and is giving them to Italians instead.

Mayor Roberto Di Stefano, along with the centre-right coalition governing the municipality, has reversed the former leftist policy which saw 29 out of 36 available apartments allocated to non-EU citizens in 2017, Il Giornale reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘We Can’t Hide Behind Walls’: Macron Hails ‘World of Mass Migration’

“We are living in a world of mass migration,” Emmanuel Macron has proclaimed, warning citizens not to be “deceived” by claims Europe could stem the flow, because border walls “don’t work”.

At a town hall in the suburbs of Essonne, a migrant-heavy department south of Paris which was hit hard during the 2005 riots, the French president also hinted he was in favour of amnesty for illegal immigrants while answering questions during what was his first urban appearance as part of a ‘grand debate’ tour.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Catholic College Distributes Free ‘Chest Binders’ To Coeds Who Think They Are Male

A Catholic college in New York is offering free “chest binders” to allow female trans students identifying as males to flatten their breasts, the school’s newspaper announced Monday.

“When someone who was born female later begins to identify as transgender or non-binary their breasts are often something that seems uncontrollable when they attempt to present in a more masculine or agenda [sic] way,” states an article in the Chronicle, the newspaper of the College of Saint Rose in Albany.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Catholic Bishop: Democrats Have Become ‘The Party of Infanticide’

The bishop of Knoxville, TN, slammed Democrats as “the party of infanticide” Tuesday for their blocking of anti-infanticide legislation in the Senate.

Bishop Rick Stika tweeted out congratulations to President Donald Trump “for his words regarding the slaughter of babies in the womb” in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, adding that the response of the Democrats “demonstrates that they are the Party of Infanticide.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Pew: Actively Religious People More Likely to be ‘Very Happy’

Actively religious people are much more likely than those who are less religious to describe themselves as “very happy” according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center.

In the United States, 36 percent of the actively religious describe themselves as “very happy,” while only 25 percent of the inactively religious and 25 percent of the unaffiliated self-identify in this way, Pew revealed.

Similarly, in Japan, those who are religiously active are significantly happier than the religiously inactive and the unaffiliated, with 45 percent, 34 percent, and 31 percent respectively being “very happy.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The War on Michigan’s Christian Adoption Agencies Enters a New Phase

As discussed here last July, Michigan’s Christian adoption agencies have been deliberately targeted by the ACLU in a federal lawsuit accusing them of discrimination for declining to place children with same-sex couples on religious grounds. In 2015, state lawmakers foreseeing this sort of thing passed Public Act 53, prohibiting state and local agencies from forcing faith-based agencies to provide services “that conflict with the child placing agency’s sincerely held religious beliefs.” Regardless, the lawsuit, Dumont v. Lyon, seeks a declaration that the state’s practice of contracting with these agencies violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments and demands an order prohibiting Michigan from entering into contracts with religious agencies that don’t believe in placing kids with same-sex couples. For Christian agencies, the choice will be either to “give up their beliefs or close their doors.” As described in a friend of the court brief submitted in Dumont by the Alliance Defending Freedom, rather than violate their beliefs about marriage, Christian adoption agencies had to shut down in Boston; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and Illinois.

It looks as if Michigan is next.

Because the two named defendants in the case are the directors of state agencies, it falls to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office to defend the case and the statute. But Michigan’s newly elected attorney general, Dana Nessel, has no intention of defending the statute, the only purpose of which, she stated incorrectly during her campaign, “is to discriminate against people.” A.G. Nessel lost no time obtaining a stay of the case from the court so she can conduct settlement negotiations with the plaintiffs on behalf of “[o]ur client agency.” Seeing as she and the plaintiffs share the same point of view, the negotiations should go smoothly.

Nessel was lead attorney in one of the lawsuits to redefine marriage, DeBoer v. Snyder, that led up to the Supreme Court’s nationally imposing a new definition of marriage including same-sex couples in the Obergefell decision. She is also, as the media never tire of repeating, openly gay. Not that being a lesbian disqualifies her from being attorney general of Michigan, which is why I didn’t bring it up in the opening paragraph. I have no doubt there are qualified lesbian attorneys who understand that religious liberty is a right guaranteed under both the federal and state constitutions. (Michigan’s constitution guarantees that “[t]he civil and political rights, privileges and capacities of no person shall be diminished or enlarged on account of his religious belief.”) I just don’t believe that Nessel is one of them.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Firefox 66 to Block Automatically Playing Audible Video and Audio

Isn’t it annoying when you click on a link or open a new browser tab and audible video or audio starts playing automatically?

We know that unsolicited volume can be a great source of distraction and frustration for users of the web. So we are making changes to how Firefox handles playing media with sound. We want to make sure web developers are aware of this new autoplay blocking feature in Firefox.

Starting with the release of Firefox 66 for desktop and Firefox for Android, Firefox will block audible audio and video by default. We only allow a site to play audio or video aloud via the HTMLMediaElement API once a web page has had user interaction to initiate the audio, such as the user clicking on a “play” button.

Any playback that happens before the user has interacted with a page via a mouse click, printable key press, or touch event, is deemed to be autoplay and will be blocked if it is potentially audible.

Muted autoplay is still allowed. So script can set the “muted” attribute on HTMLMediaElement to true, and autoplay will work.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

8 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/6/2019

  1. What could possibly go wrong?????

    When are the European nations going to finally wake up
    From the seemingly endless miasma of ethno-masachistic,
    Self loathing, self inflicted, flagellation bout they are grimly
    Intent on indulging themselves in?

  2. “Despite the diversity of cultures and traditions, the Christian and Islamic worlds appreciate and protect common values: life, family, religious sense, honor for the elderly, the education of the young, and others as well,” the pope told the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience.”

    Jesus!

    • AK-47 : are you praying to Christ, or swearing? …

      I share your exasperation, but really !

      I’ve long had my doubts about our ‘Pope’ (?). I think the very BEST that can be said about him is that he’s the worst pope in at least 500 years. The worst that can be said about him is … well, I leave that to your imagination. Annoys the Hell out of me, either way.

      Still … no reason to take it out on the Deity. Wash your mouth.

      • Originally I wanted to elaborate, but really, it would be a waste of time. Valuing life or educating youngsters in islam? Yeah right. Educating them in stoning maybe…

        I agree with you, at first I was welcoming about Francis, he seemed like a good guy, but soon he turned out to be a traitor to Christianity. He lost my support when he washed the feet of migrants. I’m not sure if he’s that naive at his age or if he really is just a puppet.

        Anyway, the kind of Pope we would need in this day and age is someone like Urban II.
        Or return to our original religions, as people seem to have lost all faith into the Church, but still feel a deep connection to Celtic, Germanic or Slavic religions once they learn about them (and it’s no wonder since those grew out of the same root as their people).

  3. “Similarly, in Japan, those who are religiously active are significantly happier than the religiously inactive and the unaffiliated, with 45 percent, 34 percent, and 31 percent respectively being “very happy.”
    I believe this comparison isn’t very accurate, as most Japanese are practising shintoism without thinking of themselves as religious. In that light it’s probably the feeling of belonging into a group (Christians, Buddhists) that makes the people happier, rather than superstition or believing as such.

  4. This blackface thing – cultural appropriation thing – to be honest when you study the topic “what is love”, there is some evidence that when you love something, you want to be like it. Dolphins show love by copying movements of the dolphin they love, synchronized movement, people show “love” by drinking together and showing the same behavior at the same time, etc…

    Therefore, one of the greatest shows of love to the Black Men of Africa, or respect, could very well be going to a party dressed like a Black Man from Africa. When I was young, American Western was very popular in Bohemia: We would play cowboys and indians, make our own bows and arrows, shooting air guns, we wanted to be in the wild wild west with them!

    So – this struggle against “cultural appropriation” – In my humble opinion it is a direct attack on love and respect.

  5. Re: Alarmists: Climate change causes British chips to shrink by an inch.

    The real threat to proper chips (aka “French fries”), especially at home, is the dreaded, very dry frozen “oven chips” (cue scary music). I make chips in a chip pan, using corn oil, which goes to a high temperature without burning; after heating the oil, I plunge them in for a couple of minutes, lift them out, then put them back for a bit longer; they come out brown and crispy on the outside, but soft in the middle- perfect!

    Here in London, we have many establishments which fry fish really well, but the best chips come from an American burger chain recently established here, “Five Guys”, and the burgers are to die for. If you live here, enjoy them before the Climate Change mafia ban them!

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