Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/21/2019

Indian intelligence analysts believe that today’s bombing attacks in Sri Lanka were organized and carried out by affiliates of the Islamic State. Meanwhile, major media in the West have avoided any mention of “Islam” when discussing the attacks.

In UK news, Lord Ahmed of Rotherham is facing an additional charge of buggery for his alleged molestation of an 11-year-old boy.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Dora, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, 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
» INPS Official Hospitalized for Stress After Comments Outcry
» Italy: League Says it is Against ‘Save Rome’ Measures
 
USA
» Lies of the Left, Part 2
» Major Win for Free Speech in Florida as Gov. Gets Campus Heads to Sign Resolution
» Media Mentions “Impeachment” Over 300 Times After Mueller Report Finds No Collusion
» NASA’s Tess Exoplanet Mission Finds 1st Earth-Size Alien World
» NYT: The Tables Have Turned — Time to Investigate the FBI, Steele and the Rest of the ‘Witch Hunters’
» Seattle’s Revolt of the Elites
» These Are Your Democrats America: Insanity, Stupidity, And Utter Chaos in the Wake of the Mueller Report Release
» When Will We Hold Them Accountable to Their Oath?
 
Europe and the EU
» “Some People Did Something” — Where Does Christianity Make Its Stand?
» Church of England Vicar Likens Disruptive Climate Protestors to Jesus
» Croatian Mass in Munich Disrupted by Mentally Ill Person Shouting “Allahu Akbar”
» EU Populists Playing on Fears Say Bishops
» France: Leftists Call for ‘Modern Roof’ on Notre Dame That Conservatives ‘Will Hate’
» French Right Furious Over Plans to Rebuild Notre Dame With Modern Materials
» Hungary is Key to Shoring Up NATO Alliance
» Pope Celebrates Easter Sunday Amid Bloodshed in Sri Lanka
» Russian Security Chief: “1,500 ISIS Terrorists Have Made Their Way to Europe From the Middle East”
» Swedish Teachers Stop Student Speech for Being Too Pro-Israel
» UK: Emergency Meeting Set to be Called to Oust Prime Minister Over Brexit ‘Farce’
» UK: Professor: Only 4 Percent of MPs Working Class, Brexit Party Could Shatter Status Quo
» UK: Report: Lord Ahmed of Rotherham Facing New Charge of Buggery Against Boy Under 11
 
Russia
» Comedian Who “Came to Break the System” Wins Ukraine Presidential Election by Landslide
» The Rule of Law in the Russian Jungle
 
South Asia
» Al-Jazeera Journalist Claims Reporting Name of Alleged Sri Lanka Suicide Bomber is “Islamophobic”
» Alleged Sri Lanka Suicide Bomber: “Anyone Who Disagrees With Muslims Should be Killed”
» Bloody Sunday: Sri Lanka Easter Church and Hotel Bombings Kill Over 200
» Britons and Americans Are Among 35 Foreigners Killed in Sri Lanka Blasts After the Island’s Rebranding Sparked $3.2bn Tourist Boom in Wake of Civil War
» Easter Sunday Explosions at Multiple Churches and Hotels Rock Sri Lanka, Death Tolls Rises Past 200
» Hindu Bride Commits Suicide Being Blackmailed by Her Ex Muslim Friend in a Love Jihad Trap
» Indian Intelligence: Sri Lanka Attack Carried Out by ISIS
» Journalist Blames “Western Christian Missionaries” After Islamic Terror Attacks in Sri Lanka
» Media Downplays Sri Lanka Islamic Bombing That Killed 400% More People Than Christchurch
» Sri Lanka Attacks: Several Arrested After 207 Killed at Hotels and Churches on Easter Sunday
» Sri Lanka: Jihadi Suicide Bombers Hit Churches on Easter. World Must be United Against Radical Islam.
» Suicide Bombers Kill More Than 156 People and Hurt 400 in ‘Targeted Attack on Christians’ On Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka: Americans, British and Dutch Among the Dead in Six Blasts at Churches and Five-Star Hotels
 
Far East
» China’s Belt and Road Continues to Win Over Europe While Technocrats Scream & Howl
 
Australia — Pacific
» A ‘Secret’ Prostitute Wife, Nightclub Gun Fight and $20,000 Gold Chain: Nomads Bikie President Boasts About Latest Trip to Lebanon (But it’s His Mother Who Has the Last Laugh)
» Australia’s First Convicted Terrorist Who Plotted to Blow Up a National Electricity Grid and Three Army Bases Has Parole Bid Quashed
» ‘He’s Tweeted About Religion for a Long Time’: Waleed Aly Says Israel Folau Will be Sacked After Declaring Gay People Will Go to Hell on Social Media
» Pictured: Much-Loved Mother Who Was Found Dead in Her Garage Just Metres From Her Sleeping Children, Six and Ten — as Police Arrest Her Injured Husband
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» 6 Million Euros Found Stuffed in Suitcases at Home of Ousted Sudanese President
» Nigeria: Jihad Against Christians
 
Latin America
» Latin America’s Geopolitics: Why Russia Sent Troops to Venezuela?
 
Immigration
» PayPal Blacklists United Constitutional Patriots After They Helped Catch Illegal Aliens Invading U.S.
» Pope Francis Highlighting Migrants’ Plight During Way of the Cross
» Swedish Greens Euro Candidate Demands EU Take ‘Climate Refugees’
» UK: ‘Jesus Was a Refugee’: Corbyn Uses Easter Message to Demand Britain Opens the Border
 
Culture Wars
» Swedish Social Justice Group Credited With Tripling Hate Crime Convictions
 

INPS Official Hospitalized for Stress After Comments Outcry

Social-media official ‘has my sympathy’ says President Tridico

(ANSA) — Crotone, April 19 — The head of the Italian pensions and social security agency INPS said Friday that a female official who had prompted a furore by responding impolitely to comments on the agency’s Facebook page had been hospitalized due to stress from the incident.

“She is an official who just couldn’t stand the pressure and not — as a newspaper reported this morning — a badly paid intern,” INPS president Pasquale Tridico said. “Yesterday evening I called our official, who had spent the day in the hospital due to the stress she suffered from the incident. She has my complete sympathy and solidarity.” “Our colleague had a difficult day and I felt it was the right thing to support her and to invite her to continue her work in serenity. “Of course one must respond appropriately and I am sure that this employee does so. INPS is open to social media because we want transparent and direct communication with citizens. Often, however, it happens that there is pressure on our officials and employees as occurred yesterday.

“Of course there is the need for training and to develop our skills to an appropriate level, but the point is that the stress that we are subjected to leads to reactions lacking in composure.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: League Says it is Against ‘Save Rome’ Measures

Party says Mayor Raggi unable to give prospects to the city

(ANSA) — Rome, April 19 — The head of the League party in the Rome council assembly said Friday that he was against the so-called ‘Save Rome’ package on the grounds that Mayor Virginia Raggi is unable to administer the city properly. The ‘Save Rome’ measures to guarantee the city council liquidity and take it out of an extraordinary administration regime over its high debt had been set to feature in the central government’s decree aimed at boosting growth. But after League leader and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini expressed reservations, the party’s branch in the city has come out fully against.

Raggi is a member of the 5-Star Movement, which is allied with the League for the coalition supporting the central government, but the parties are not partners at the local level.

“The ‘Save Rome’ package is not convincing because the mayor had not given any real prospects for the city’s development,” said Maurizio Politi, the League caucus head in the Rome assembly.

“The government is ready to help Rome, the League first and foremost. “The real problem is that the M5S has not offered any vision for the city in three years (at the helm of the administration).

“Everything has gotten worse and Raggi is not capable of administering”.

On Thursday Salvini, who is also interior minister, said Raggi was not up to the job and should move aside.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Lies of the Left, Part 2

The liberal left has been lying to the American people for decades and the MSM has followed along with their lies supporting the undermining of our country. In a meeting of the Trilateral Commission, an anti-American organization founded by David Rockefeller, he bragged about how the media had kept quite about the intentions of the Commission to the American people. IN a 1991 meeting of the Trilateral Commission Rockefeller said this: “We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries.”

The media’s silence on this is treasonous at best. David Rockefeller was even proud of the fact that he and his family were traitors. On page 405 of his autobiography Memoirs he states this: “Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as internationalists and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” Again, media has remained silent about these acts of treason because they are right in the middle of it…

The editorial board of the Boston Herald published a piece on Monday titled “Democrats and toxic media at their worst,” revealing how top names in the news business intentionally twist the president’s words to mislead and divide the public.

“The left and its compliant media are willfully reporting false news to the American people,” the Herald’s editors said.

“Whether it is a symptom of mass hysteria that is the genesis for this confirmation bias-style reporting or an intentional maneuver to spread anti-Trump propaganda, its effect is toxic and pernicious.” [2]

There was a time when what was reported in the newspaper was proper information, relevant to what was needed to maintain a civilized society but that hasn’t been the case for over a hundred and fifty years. It has become a publication for indoctrination into the leftist agenda. Virtually all media has gone down that road.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Major Win for Free Speech in Florida as Gov. Gets Campus Heads to Sign Resolution

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Florida colleges and universities on Monday to adopt free speech resolutions in order to protect and promote free expression and inquiry on campuses.

DeSantis’ remarks during a press conference at Florida State University followed his push for a statewide resolution, which was signed earlier in April by all state university system presidents, including the presidents for the largest state universities such as FSU, the University of Florida, and the University of Central Florida (UCF). DeSantis said that the resolutions should follow the University of Chicago’s “Chicago Statement” on free speech.

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

Media Mentions “Impeachment” Over 300 Times After Mueller Report Finds No Collusion

Cable networks desperately continue claiming report can somehow lead to president’s removal from office.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NASA’s Tess Exoplanet Mission Finds 1st Earth-Size Alien World

But HD 21749c doesn’t look like a great candidate for life as we know it.

NASA’s newest planet hunter has discovered its first Earth-size alien world.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) spotted the planet, as well as a weird “sub-Neptune” world, circling the star HD 21749, which lies about 53 light-years from Earth, a new study reports.

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

NYT: The Tables Have Turned — Time to Investigate the FBI, Steele and the Rest of the ‘Witch Hunters’

As we now shift from the “witch hunt” against Trump to ‘investigating the investigators’ who spied on him — remember this; Donald Trump was supposed to lose the 2016 election by almost all accounts. And had Hillary won, as expected, none of this would have seen the light of day.

We wouldn’t know that a hyper-partisan FBI had spied on the Trump campaign, as Attorney General William Barr put it during his April 10 Congressional testimony.

We wouldn’t know that a Clinton-linked operative, Joseph Mifsud, seeded Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos with the rumor that Russia had ‘Dirt’ on Hillary Clinton — which would later be coaxed out of Papadopoulos by a Clinton-linked Australian ambassador, Alexander Downer, and that this apparent ‘setup’ would be the genesis of the FBI’s “operation crossfire hurricane” operation against the Trump campaign.

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

Seattle’s Revolt of the Elites

Since the release of Eric Johnson’s documentary Seattle Is Dying, which depicts an epidemic of street homelessness, addiction, crime, and disorder, city elites have launched a coordinated information campaign targeted at voters frustrated with the city’s response to homelessness. Earlier this month, leaked documents revealed that a group of prominent nonprofits—the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Campion Advocacy Fund, the Raikes Foundation, and the Ballmer Group—hired a PR firm, Pyramid Communications, to conduct polling, create messaging, and disseminate the resulting content through a network of silent partners in academia, the press, government, and the nonprofit sector. The campaign, #SeattleForAll, is a case study in what writer James Lindsay calls “idea laundering”—creating misinformation and legitimizing it as objective truth through repetition in sympathetic media.

The key messages of the campaign include a number of misleading claims, including: “Seattle is making progress to end homelessness,” “1 in 4 people experiencing homelessness in our community struggle with drug or alcohol abuse,” and “[62 percent of Seattle voters believe] we are not spending enough to address homelessness.” All three contentions fail to meet basic scrutiny: street homelessness has increased 131 percent over the past five years; King County’s lawsuit against Purdue Pharma admits that “the majority of the homeless population is addicted to or uses opioids” (not one in four); and 62 percent of Seattle voters agree to the statement “we are not spending enough” only when it is directly prefaced in the polling questionnaire by the phrase “other cities of the same size are spending 2 to 3 times the amount that Seattle is and are seeing significant reductions in homelessness”—itself an unsubstantiated claim. (When the same question is presented neutrally, without the framing, support for “we are not spending enough” drops to 7 percent).

[…]

The inner workings of the #SeattleForAll campaign tell a clear story: a group of well-funded philanthropies hired a PR firm to produce misleading polling results, distributed them through the city’s main newspaper and other media outlets (many of which enjoy generous donations from those same philanthropies), and then concealed the fact that the messaging was part of a broader campaign coordinated with the city. The “counter-narrative” to the Seattle Is Dying documentary was not a spontaneous reaction of a diverse group of experts; it was a planned effort by Seattle’s philanthropic, academic, media, and governmental elites to steamroll critics. Seattle’s institutional powers, in other words, attempted to quash the emerging public consensus that the city’s approach to homelessness is failing.

A quarter-century ago, social critic Christopher Lasch observed the beginnings of this kind of phenomenon, arguing that America’s political and cultural elites were starting to revolt against the people. While during Lasch’s time this elite contempt was directed against “middle America”—an early iteration of today’s “deplorables”—coastal progressivism has now reached the point that the new elites have gone into revolt against themselves. In Seattle, the emerging activist class—billionaire philanthropists, multimillionaire politicians, and likeminded commentators in academia and prestige media—has begun an information offensive against the liberal, wealthy, educated residents of a city that gave Hillary Clinton 92 percent of its votes. Scolding the public to be more “compassionate,” this new hyper-elite has shown only contempt for middle-class residents in Seattle’s hardest-hit neighborhoods…

[See original for link to the documentary, “Seattle is Dying” that started this]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

These Are Your Democrats America: Insanity, Stupidity, And Utter Chaos in the Wake of the Mueller Report Release

(True Conservative Pundit) The Democratic reaction to the release of the Mueller Report was exactly as anticipated, illogical, ignorant, stupid, and pathetic. Did anyone expect anything less?

You can listen to AG Barr’s press conference here, (the relevant portion begins at the 22:05 mark).

The Democrats have completely lost touch with reality and are proving this to be true on a daily basis. No less than five Democratic House Chairman sent a letter to AG Barr demanding that he cancel his scheduled press conference on the release of the Mueller Report.

This is not about a press conference or even Congress right to see the report — this is solely about that fact that the Politicrats can’t publically spin this before the public sees the information for themselves.

There are several problems with all of this:

By United States law, the Attorney General has complete authority on what to release or not release from a special counsel report — including to Congress

The AG has the sole discretion on what is or is not redacted in the special counsel’s report

Congress has NO authority to compel the AG in this matter to release anything whatsoever, again by law

Another problem with Mueller’s Report according to Rush Limbaugh is that it seems apparent that Robert Mueller wrote his report in a such a manner that although he did not directly implicate President Trump in any wrongdoing whatsoever — the report was worded so as to leave the door open to the implication that there was wrongdoing on Trump’s part, Mueller just could not find it or prove it. This of course will give the Politicrats plenty of sunshine to make hay.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

When Will We Hold Them Accountable to Their Oath?

Congress early on was advised of the Communist Goals which were entered into the Congressional Record on Jan. 10, 1963 which included control education and promote feminism, which was designed to get both parents out of the home and into the workforce where they will pay taxes and then the Government could raise and educate the children the way they want. If you ask anyone in Congress today, they probably are not even aware of this record. I helped launch News With Views in 2001and my first article was entitled: OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES AND OUR SACRED HONOR hoping that Americans would recognize the sacrifice they made for our Constitutional Republic and that we should do no less.

My second article was: IS COMMUNISM DEAD?

On June 19, 1962 Nikita Khrushchev said, “The U.S. will eventually fly the Red Flag…the American people will hoist it themselves.” Back then it was viewed as humorous but today, after what they’ve been doing to President Trump, humor has left town!

Of the Democrat candidates in 2016 Clinton and Sanders— one was openly and defiantly Socialist, while the other attempted to mask her Socialism. Sanders wanted to demolish Capitalism as we know it. Could it be that Khrushchev realized this youthful vulnerability 60 years ago and the political unrest being institutionalized throughout academia? Khrushchev warned they could spit in our face and we’d call it dew. Today, college unrest has mushroomed into adoring throngs of Socialist-minded students.

Ralph Epperson in his 1985 book THE UNSEEN HAND, the conspiratorial view of history showed a picture of two individuals, the Russian “Communist” Nikita Khrushchev, and the American “Capitalist, Cyrus Eatron, who are supposedly mortal enemies yet they are smiling because American and European “Capitalists” have been selling Russia strategic goods since about 1920. “There is no such thing as Soviet technology. Almost all, perhaps 90 to 95% came directly or indirectly from the U.S. and its allies.”

And why we are still embedded in the United Nations and paying dues, remains a mystery. The U.N. is an illegally established terrorist organization operating under the guise of Humanitarian aid; however their mission is to destroy sovereign nations and to build a One World Totalitarian Government. On June 26, 1945 the U.N. Charter was signed in San Francisco with almost ALL of our reps being members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and later proven in sworn testimony to be secret Communists. America joined the push for Global Government and both parties were not only lauding and funding the recently formed United Nations organization, but were practically tripping over each other to transfer more and more power to the global body.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“Some People Did Something” — Where Does Christianity Make Its Stand?

On March 20, 2019, Breitbart reported “Twelve French Churches Attacked, Vandalized In One Week.” Without evidence, we cannot make a connection between these attacks and the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral. But, shouldn’t we at least be a little suspicious. The article further reported an average of two Christian churches per day were vandalized during 2018. Yet, none of this was mentioned during the coverage of the Notre Dame fire. Just seems to me we, in America and across the World, we go to great lengths to downplay attacks on Christianity and Christian symbols. If this was just one of the other more than 1000 attacks on European Christian churches in the past year, we would have not heard of it.

I watched a little of the coverage on Fox News during the Cavuto show. Cavuto interrupted and cut off Catholic League President Bill Donahue who mentioned his suspicions that that it may be more than an accident. Actually, Cavuto was closer to we can’t talk about that, speculate about that even mention that hysteria as he continued to talk over Donahue until his mic was dropped. Another of Fox’s liberals, Shepard Smith did the same to a guest on his program. Hear no evil, see no evil heads in the sand and unwilling to entertain the slightest possibility that is was anything other than an accident. Or maybe American Journal contributor Kelleigh Nelson had it right and Neal and Shep were toeing the corporate line.

Just to educate Fox and the remainder of the intentionally ignorant media, Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute reports: “European Churches: Vandalized, Defecated On and Torched “Every Day”“ He reports of incidents across Europe adding, “Sometimes, sadly, in European regions with large Muslim populations, there seems to be a concomitant rise in attacks on churches and Christian symbols.” He concludes with a comment from a German News Site, (Politically Incorrect) PI-News that states: “Hardly anyone writes and speaks about the increasing attacks on Christian symbols. There is an eloquent silence in both France and Germany about the scandal of the desecrations and the origin of the perpetrators…. Not a word, not even the slightest hint that could in anyway lead to the suspicion of migrants… It is not the perpetrators who are in danger of being ostracized, but those who dare to associate the desecration of Christian symbols with immigrant imports. They are accused of hatred, hate speech and racism.” Sounds like a description of the American News Media and our chicken politicians and a tenet of the new world order…

Do you think there are no attacks on Christianity here in the land of the free? David Limbaugh wrote a well-sourced book on the topic, Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christians. Although published in 2003, the book lays out many examples of attacks on Christianity. It would be worth your while to read.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Church of England Vicar Likens Disruptive Climate Protestors to Jesus

An eco-activist has praised a Church of England clergyman for playing a major role in bringing Waterloo Bridge in London to a standstill during this week’s illegal protests by Extinction Rebellion, with the vicar going on to liken the protestors to Jesus Christ.

Reverend Canon Giles Goddard of St John’s Church, Waterloo, London, had agreed three weeks ago to allow the eco-extremists to use the church crypt to sleep in between shifts whilst blocking traffic on Waterloo Bridge, according to The Times.

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

Croatian Mass in Munich Disrupted by Mentally Ill Person Shouting “Allahu Akbar”

ZAGREB, April 21, 2019 — The person of African descent who disrupted Mass in St Peter’s Church in the Croatian Catholic parish in Munich on Saturday evening by shouting “Allahu Akbar” and throwing stones, is mentally ill and not connected with terrorism, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs said on Sunday.

The man was shouting and throwing stones at the congregation and around the church, and the people fled in panic. Twenty-five Croatian nationals were slightly injured in the confusion, the ministry told Hina, adding that police said that the man did not use firecrackers as some media reported.

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

EU Populists Playing on Fears Say Bishops

Migrants, Islam, Jews depicted as ‘enemies’

(ANSA) — Rome, April 19 — European populists are playing on people’s fears, the head of Europe’s Catholic bishops said Friday.

Speaking in Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, Luxembourg Archbishop mons. Jean-Claude Hollerich said “there is a wicked game” by populists playing on people’s fears on migrants and security. The “drama” of the migrants in Europe, he said, was a “disgrace”.

“To remove our fears we are presented with enemies: migrants, Islam, the Jews, etc,”, said the bishop.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

France: Leftists Call for ‘Modern Roof’ on Notre Dame That Conservatives ‘Will Hate’

‘Medieval Europe was a crossroads of global influence, not a mythical all-white past,’ says Daily Beast writer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

French Right Furious Over Plans to Rebuild Notre Dame With Modern Materials

Globalists fight to rebuild classic landmark as contemporary art

Conservative French politicians are outraged over President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion that modern materials like steel, titanium and carbon be used in the reconstruction of Notre Dame as the president seeks to fulfill his promise of finishing the project within five years.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the Rassemblement National, the right-wing party formerly known as the National Front, lashed out at her former presidential rival on Twitter. Responding to a tweet by French PM Edouard Philippe about an international architectural competition to replace the 19th-century spire, which collapsed during the fire, Le Pen tweeted #Touchepasnotredame — or hands off Notre Dame.

#TOUCHEPASÀNOTREDAME ! ?? MLP https://t.co/fts5twpxro

— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) April 18, 2019

In his tweet, the PM questioned whether the spire should be made out of the same materials, or whether it should even be rebuilt at all.

According to the FT, Macron’s promise to rebuild the cathedral within five years would probably be impossible if builders had to source, season and fit the type of massive oak beams used in the original construction…

Meanwhile, Jordan Bardella, a 23-year-old rising star of the far-right who is leading the RN into the European elections in May, mocked the idea of a contemporary roof for the cathedral, instead demanding an “identical” reconstruction while condemning the prospect of “some awful piece of contemporary art, modern art.”

Bardella told a French television station: “We have to stop the madness now. France’s heritage deserves the utmost respect.”

But Le Pen and RN weren’t the only ones attacking Macron over his suggestion.

Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the Republicans, the party of former prime minister Nicolas Sarkozy, also demanded that the reconstruction be identical to the original, while Francois-Xavier Bellamy, the head of his party’s list for May’s European Parliament elections, suggested that Macron and his ministers were guilty of arrogance and haste in trying to second-guess experts for the rebuilding of the cathedral.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary is Key to Shoring Up NATO Alliance

Closer ties with the countries of Central Europe are a national security policy priority for the Trump administration—and a long-overdue return to the policies of President George W. Bush after years of neglect by the Obama administration.

Within NATO, these countries are reliable allies, and within the European Union, they form a bloc friendly to Washington.

Twenty years ago last month, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic became members of the NATO. It was a historic reversal, moving from the Warsaw Pact to NATO, and a great affirmation of their independence from Soviet/Russian domination.

In his March 13 speech at the 20th anniversary commemoration, U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Cornstein recalled that Hungarians in 1999 voted by 85% in favor of joining NATO.

On the sidelines of the celebration in Washington of NATO’s 70th anniversary, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan signed an updated defense cooperation agreement, building on the established status of forces agreement and military assistance from the U.S.

“Security conditions have changed significantly in recent decades,” Szijjarto said. The new agreement would ensure that NATO remains “the world’s most successful and strongest military alliance in the future.”

One of the areas not envisioned in the original agreement, however, was the surge in Russian cyberwarfare and information warfare, nor the Russian incursion in Ukraine, which abuts Hungary.

[…]

An additional reason for advancing U.S.-Hungarian relations was provided by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February during his visit to Budapest, the first such high-level visit in many years.

Pompeo warned the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban not to get too close to China and Russia, both of whom are showing keen interest in splitting up NATO.

The United States is not the only game in town these days. In other words, it’s very much in the interest of both the United States and Hungary to get their priorities straight.

Closer U.S.-Hungary ties are a major step in the right direction.

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Celebrates Easter Sunday Amid Bloodshed in Sri Lanka

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis celebrated Easter Mass on Sunday, marking the most joyful moment of the year for the faithful even as the church faced a fresh round of bloodshedtargeting Christians in Sri Lanka.

Hours after celebrating a late-night vigil, Francis processed into a flower-decked St. Peter’s Square for the liturgy commemorating the resurrection of Christ after his crucifixion.

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

Russian Security Chief: “1,500 ISIS Terrorists Have Made Their Way to Europe From the Middle East”

Some 1,500 foreign terrorists, who took part in combat actions in the Middle East, are in Europe now, Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov told a conference on countering international terrorism.

“Some 1,500 out of 5,000 terrorists have arrived in the European Union from the Middle East, according to experts’ estimates. A significant number of them are gunmen, who have been sent by chieftains to Europe to continue terrorist attacks”, Bortnikov informed the conference attendees.

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

Swedish Teachers Stop Student Speech for Being Too Pro-Israel

A 17-year-old Swedish high school student attempted to give a pro-Israel speech in front of her classmates but was shut down by teachers who said it would be met with negative reactions.

Anna, a student at a major high school in Gothenburg, wanted to give a speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of the Israeli side of the conflict and immediately started to get negative comments from classmates, SVT reports.

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

UK: Emergency Meeting Set to be Called to Oust Prime Minister Over Brexit ‘Farce’

A TORY grassroots plot to force Theresa May into quitting has secured enough support to trigger an emergency party meeting for a no-confidence vote. The Prime Minister’s failure to secure Britain’s exit from the European Union has unleashed a furious uprising in the party.

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

UK: Professor: Only 4 Percent of MPs Working Class, Brexit Party Could Shatter Status Quo

An eminent British academic has warned that a political status quo defined by an increasingly insular and out of touch political class could be shattered by the rise of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

John Gray, an Emeritus Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics (LSE), pointed out that while around a third of MPs from the Labour Party came from working-class families in 1945, when that party won its first ever majority government, today “only around four percent of [all] MPs come from this background.”

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

UK: Report: Lord Ahmed of Rotherham Facing New Charge of Buggery Against Boy Under 11

Lord Ahmed of Rotherham has been charged with another alleged historic child sex offence at Sheffield Crown Court.

A former Labour councillor and magistrate elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer by Tony Blair in the 1990s, Pakistan-born Nazir Ahmed had already been charged with two counts of attempting to rape a girl under 16 and one count of indecently assaulting a boy under 14, between 1971 and 1974, at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court.

An additional charge of buggery against a boy under 11 has been added to his charge sheet at the higher Sheffield Crown Court, the Rotherham Advertiser reports.

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

Comedian Who “Came to Break the System” Wins Ukraine Presidential Election by Landslide

According to exit polls, millions of voters — weary of war and economic hardship — have thoroughly rebuked the incumbent elites, overwhelmingly voting for 41-year-old TV comedian Volodymyr Zelenskii in Ukraine’s presidential election today.

“I voted for Zelenskii because everything he said is true,” said Viktoriia Bengalska, a 45-year-old secretary in Kiev.

“It’s impossible to survive on this salary, prices have increased like crazy, and we were promised something totally different.”

With no political record (aside from playing the president on TV), Zelenskii crushed President Petro Poroshenko, who was running for his second five-year term, with 73% of the vote.

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

The Rule of Law in the Russian Jungle

On the morning of the 25th of November last year, three Ukrainians vessels approached the Kerch Strait, from the side of the open sea [ed. entering the Azov Sea]. They were ordered to stop by the Russian Navy—the part of the Russian Navy that belongs to the Russian Border Service. (They have vessels of their own, it’s not a part of the Black Sea Fleet.) The Ukrainian vessels were told that this is a closed area, which is not true because such messages were not dispatched by the navigation system.

That very evening, after dark, it became quite clear that the Russians would not permit the Ukrainian vessels to enter the Azov Sea—access to which, I hasten to add, is guaranteed both by international law of the seas and by bilateral treaties between Russia and Ukraine.

When it became clear that they would not be permitted to enter, the Ukrainian vessels were ordered by the Ukrainian Navy to return and to stop any attempts to enter the strait. And when they set sail towards the open water, they were attacked by the Russian Navy. They were fired upon. According to our information, more than 1,000 rounds were fired at them out of 30 millimeter automatic guns. Three of the Ukrainians seamen were wounded. And after the vessels had been stopped, the Russian Navy boarded them. The Ukrainian seamen were made to proceed to the Russian-controlled Kerch Port on the Crimean Peninsula, where they were arrested.

From the Russian point of view, this is just a normal criminal case. There are no international law aspects, no politics to talk about—nothing. That’s their position.

[…]

Russia is thus not entitled to hold these people in jail-style facilities. They cannot be held in custody in jail. Meanwhile, they are right now in the top-security Lefortovo jail in Moscow. They cannot be separated from one another. And yet they are being held in 24 separate cells. They cannot be prohibited from wearing their uniform. And yet the first thing the Russians did after having brought them to jail was to force them to change into prison uniforms. If Russia wants to legally prosecute them, they should be prosecuted in military courts. They were denied that. They were told, “You are just normal criminals. You are not members of the Russian armed services.”

So we insist that, given the situation, Russia must meet all the conditions set forth in the Third Geneva Convention. They have failed to do so. We are quite sure that our case is well-grounded.

The Russian position is quite simple: “We completely ignore international law. We know nothing about what these laws say about straits. We simply arrested 24 culprits. We are going to prosecute them as normal criminals.”

[…]

The experience of the last five years has shown that the Russian authorities are not too concerned with the destiny of their own people in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has published a list of some 100 Ukrainian citizens who have so far been arrested and convicted in Russia for political reasons. They proposed an exchange, but the Russians have thus far not shown any interest. So we cannot expect that the Ukrainian seamen will be exchanged for anyone.

Right now, we hope that strong messages—like the sanctions that have already been imposed on Russia and Russian officials as a result of this incident—will help. President Trump’s refusal to meet with Putin—when he canceled his meeting with Putin [ed. on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina] and explained clearly that the reason was this very incident—can also help persuade Putin that it’s not worth prolonging the situation. He needs to get rid of it.

[…]

DM: If you could just maybe talk a little bit more about that. Besides your pro bono human rights work, you have a private law firm as well. Give our readers a sense: in your experience, is there any rule of law in Russia? How does it work? How broken is it?

IN: It’s quite broken.

DM: Bribery?

IN: It’s not about bribery. The Russian judicial system is very corrupt, but in a different way, not by private money. Every judge in Russia understands that he or she may be easily disrobed if the head judge of the court is unhappy with him or her. They understand quite well that if they acquit the defendant, that acquittal will be appealed by the prosecution—something that is permitted by Russian law—and that acquittals are overruled by appeal courts much more often than convictions. So even if the judge sees that the case is poorly investigated, that the prosecution has no position, just in order to save his own career, just in order to not get in a quarrel with the prosecution, the judge will strive to do the prosecutor’s work for them, and will lean towards conviction even with a lack of needed evidence.

So even in non-political cases, in so-called normal criminal cases, the defendants cannot expect much from the system. If their case has already been brought to court, if the case was not dropped by the prosecutor’s office, he is as good as convicted already. And we, the attorneys, know that the main part of our job, where there are the best chances for a client, is to have the charges dropped before the case is brought to court. When it’s in court, it’s too late to do anything. If you’re in court, the best you can hope to achieve are some palliative measures. At that point, we just try to save our client from the worst, not to get him acquitted…

NOTE: Part of a much longer essay on Russia’s corrupt justice system. The website allows one free page a month.]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Al-Jazeera Journalist Claims Reporting Name of Alleged Sri Lanka Suicide Bomber is “Islamophobic”

Al-Jazeera journalist Saif Khalid claims that reporting the name of one of the alleged suicide bombers in Sri Lanka is “Islamophobic”.

Over 200 people have died after explosions rocked three luxury hotels in the nation’s largest city, Colombo, and three packed Catholic churches. Two additional attacks took place at other sites.

One of the alleged suicide bombers behind the attack on the Shangri La hotel has been identified as Islamic extremist Zahran Hashim.

However, Al-Jazeera journalist Saif Khalid suggested that even reporting Hashim’s name was “Islamophobic.”

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

Alleged Sri Lanka Suicide Bomber: “Anyone Who Disagrees With Muslims Should be Killed”

One of the alleged suicide bombers responsible for the terror in Sri Lanka previously made a video in which he stated “anyone who disagrees with Muslims should be killed.”

Imam Mohamad Tawhidi posted a video of Islamic extremist Zahran Hashim uttering the statement, which was made in front of a backdrop showing a knife and blood.

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

Bloody Sunday: Sri Lanka Easter Church and Hotel Bombings Kill Over 200

Just as Sri Lanka’s minority Christian population gathered to celebrate Easter at churches across the nation on Sunday morning, six nearly simultaneous explosions ripped through three churches and three high-end hotels packed with tourists.

Local police have said they believe at least two of the church blasts were carried out by suicide bombers in a highly coordinated attack, leaving over 200 people dead and multiple hundreds more injured, including more than 27 foreigners, according to the AP.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Britons and Americans Are Among 35 Foreigners Killed in Sri Lanka Blasts After the Island’s Rebranding Sparked $3.2bn Tourist Boom in Wake of Civil War

St Anthony’s Shrine (pictured today) in Colombo, the scene of one of the blasts, is a popular site in Sri Lanka which has tried to rebrand itself as a tourist destination since the end of its civil war.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Easter Sunday Explosions at Multiple Churches and Hotels Rock Sri Lanka, Death Tolls Rises Past 200

A pair holding U.S. and British nationalities were among the 11 foreigners killed after a series of explosions struck three churches and three luxury hotels in and just outside of Sri Lanka’s capital Easter Sunday, leaving at least 207 people dead and 450 others injured, officials said.

Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry said the other foreigners whose nationalities have been verified included three Indians, one Portuguese national, two Turkish nationals, and three British nationals.

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

Hindu Bride Commits Suicide Being Blackmailed by Her Ex Muslim Friend in a Love Jihad Trap

Muslim boy takes Hindu name, makes relation with Hindu girl and keeps obscene photographs to blackmail…

Biswajit Mondal | HENB | Kolkata | April 21, 2019:: In another case of fatal Love Jihad, A Hindu girl of 18 years commits suicide by hanging with her scarfs under the severe pressure of blackmail made by her ex-Muslim friend at Diamond Harbour, a sub-divisional town in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

Priyanka Chatui, a student of senior secondary level and an inhabitant of West Chatuipara in Kultali block, met one Raju Das two years ago, whe she went to Raidighi in a tour. They fell into a love out of their new friendship. But, Priyanka made a distant with Raju when she came to know that Raju was not a Hindu. One Faizullah Molla, a young Muslim guy of 18 yrs made a ‘love Jihad’ trap to seduce and grab Priyanka by taking a fake Hindu name as Raju Das alias Raj.

When Priyanka expressed her annoyance to the affair with Faizullah, the Muslim guy started various harassment towards the Hindu girl with the menace of blackmailing. Priyanka told her embarrassments to her parents and all of them requested Faizullah to stop the odd and unreal relationship between Priyanka and Faizullah.

In the meanwhile grown up Priyanka appeared in the Higher Secondary examination and her parents settled her marriage with one Somenath Pramanik of Ramchandrapur village of Dakshin Barasat in the same district of South 24 Pgs in WB…

           — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari [Return to headlines]
 

Indian Intelligence: Sri Lanka Attack Carried Out by ISIS

Intelligence sources in India on Sunday claimed the terror attacks in Sri Lanka, in which 215 people were murdered and 450 wounded, were marked by the pattern of action typical of the Islamic State (ISIS). According to these sources, ISIS’ method has always been to launch a series of coordinated explosions in crowded urban centers.

The first wave of attacks struck at the heart of the country’s minority Christian community on Sunday morning, during busy Easter services at churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa. Three churches and three hotels were targeted at the same with almost simultaneous blasts. Additional blasts ripped through three high-end hotels, the Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury, all in capital city Colombo.

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

Journalist Blames “Western Christian Missionaries” After Islamic Terror Attacks in Sri Lanka

A left-wing journalist reacted to the horrific Islamic terror attacks in Sri Lanka which killed over 200 people by blaming “Western Christian Missionaries”.

“There is no excuse for terror attacks against innocent people but as a journalist I saw Western Christian missionaries unscrupulpusly converting Buddhist orphans for food and shelter after the Asian tsunami. Don’t send your prayers,” tweeted Andy West.

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

Media Downplays Sri Lanka Islamic Bombing That Killed 400% More People Than Christchurch

The Sri Lanka terror attack by Islamic jihadists that resulted in 207 dead is being carefully downplayed by the mainstream media, omitting in their headlines that the attacks were perpetrated by Islamist suicide bombers.

Several media outlets have been careful to avoid any mention of radical Islam in their headlines, or that the deaths were the result of a terrorist attack.

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

Sri Lanka Attacks: Several Arrested After 207 Killed at Hotels and Churches on Easter Sunday

09:30

Two Turkish citizens were among the more than 200 people killed in bomb blasts at three churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday, reports Reuters, citing Turkey’s state media, Anadolu.

Anadolu said the Turks were engineers working on a project in Sri Lanka.

09:15

Sri Lanka’s minister of finance says that the country’s different communities have been pulling together in the wake of the attacks.

Mangala Samaraweera (@MangalaLK) In the midst of this tragedy, it’s reassuring to see the outpouring of solidarity as people donate blood. Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim & others are donating because we are humans with the same blood & same spirit of compassion.Nobody can deny our common humanity. #lka

09:02

The British high commissioner to Sri Lanka has confirmed that Britons were among those caught up in the attacks…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Sri Lanka: Jihadi Suicide Bombers Hit Churches on Easter. World Must be United Against Radical Islam.

India based Thawheed Jamat, group active in Tamil Nadu, prime suspect behind Sri Lanka blasts.

Surama Rai | HENB | New Delhi | April 21, 2019:: Peace of Islam again divulged now in Sri Lanka. A pair holding U.S. and British nationalities were among the 27 foreigners killed after a series of explosions struck three churches and three luxury hotels in and just outside of Sri Lanka’s capital Easter Sunday, leaving at least 207 people dead and 450 others injured, officials said.

Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry said the other foreigners whose nationalities have been verified included three Indians, one Portuguese national, two Turkish nationals, and three British nationals.

Indian External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed the identities of the Indian nationals as Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh. “Indian high commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about death of three Indian nationals,” she tweeted, adding, “We are ascertaining further details.”

The U.S. State Department confirmed in a statement that “several U.S. citizens were among those killed” in the explosions, though details were still emerging. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went on to condemn the Easter morning “terror attacks.”

“Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security,” Pompeo said in the statement.

The six nearly simultaneous blasts—followed hours later by two more explosions—marked the bloodshed as among the worst since the South Asian country’s 26-year civil war ended a decade ago, a spokesperson for the Sri Lanka police said.

A police spokesman said 13 suspects have been arrested in connection with the attacks. Police said they also found a vehicle they believe was used to transport the suspects into Colombo, along with a safe house used by the attackers.

Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the attacks as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, though no one immediately claimed responsibility. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the violence could trigger instability in the country and its economy.

Three police officers were killed while conducting a search at a suspected safe house in Dematagoda, on the outskirts of Colombo, when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest.

In the meanwhile, Sri Lankan government blocked social media and imposed curfew following deadly blasts+ to check untoward incidents including social clashes.

The eight serial blasts that shook Sri Lanka on Easter and reverberated around the world have drawn attention to an arc of radicalisation stretching from the Maldives to Bangladesh where Islamic State-inspired modules have been regularly linked to terror incidents.

Though counter-intelligence experts are cautious in the absence of an acknowledgement, topping the shortlist of suspects is Thawheed Jamaat, a hardline group with a significant presence in Tamil Nadu too.

Though suicide bombing was virtually invented by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam decades ago, Sunday’s attacks bear the hallmark of Islamist groups. The Wahhabi-aligned Sri Lanka Thawheed Jamaat (SLTJ) has found traction in the country’s eastern province and has been pushing Sharia law with burqas for women and building mosques to disseminate radical messages.

The attacks, in their operationalisation, seem similar to the Holey Artisan Bakery suicide attack in Dhaka in 2016, which was carried out by local boys but trained by Islamic State. The spectacular scale bears the IS signature and is in keeping with the desire of jihadi groups from Al Qaida to IS, and including variants like Lashkar and Jaish, to stage attacks that serve to intimidate enemies and attract recruits. Maldives, with the dubious distinction of having one of the highest number of IS fighters, has been a source of worry. Apart from terrorist acts, the deeper radicalization due to IS messaging is a serious challenge to social stability.

Whether the Thawheed has made the leap into suicide bombings is not clear and will await investigation even though the scale of the attacks might indicate that jihadi terrorism has made a major landfall in Sri Lanka. SLTJ’s activities have triggered a Buddhist backlash which has resulted in some tension between Buddhists and Muslims, including recent attacks against Buddha statues in the country.

Since the attack on Sunday was specifically directed against Christians on a holy day, the likelihood of the event being part of a bigger Islamist jihad is not ruled out.

The initial assessment is that the attack was likely to have been carried out by radicalized Lankan Muslims. But counter terrorism specialists say it would be difficult for a local group to carry out coordinated attacks of the magnitude seen yesterday without the help of an outside terror force.

The whole world is following the series of Islamic peace movement through Jihadi blasts, massacre, attack on Non Islamic worship places and direct attack upon non-Muslims. The growth of Jihad in Islam is now taken a shape of advance stage of Cancer, operation of which is the only but risky way to save the life and health of the free and global society.

Non-Islam world of Hindus-Chritians-Buddhists-Sikhs-Jews must be united as the only way to annihilate the curse of Jihadi Islam to save the global peace and prosperity.

           — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari [Return to headlines]
 

Suicide Bombers Kill More Than 156 People and Hurt 400 in ‘Targeted Attack on Christians’ On Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka: Americans, British and Dutch Among the Dead in Six Blasts at Churches and Five-Star Hotels

A string of blasts hit high-end hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Sunday, injuring hundreds of people as worshippers attended Easter services.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

China’s Belt and Road Continues to Win Over Europe While Technocrats Scream & Howl

The fact that China formalized an economic and trade cooperation agreement with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in May 2018 is extremely relevant as it incorporated its five nation membership of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan directly into the BRI. Already China has invested $98 billion into the real economies of the EEU involving 168 BRI-connected projects.

The new model of development which has increasingly won over central, and eastern Eurasian countries as well as Greece and Italy have provided a breath of fresh air for citizens everywhere who are looking with despair upon a Trans-Atlantic system which can do nothing but demand obedience to a defunct set of rules that commands only austerity, hyperinflationary banking practices and no long term investment into the real economy. Thus the technocratic mobilization against the BRI over the past days in response to this new paradigm can only be seen as an absurd attempt to save a system which has already failed. The Technocrats Defend their New World Disorder

Two recent counter-operations against the BRI and the new win-win operating system it represents are worth mentioning. The first is found in the formation of a trilateral alliance between the American-based Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), Canada’s Finance and Development Agency (FinDev Canada) and fifteen members of the European Union announced on April 11. A second counter-operation was created several days earlier with the Canada-Germany-France-Japan “Alliance for Multilateralism” during the G7 meeting in France.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A ‘Secret’ Prostitute Wife, Nightclub Gun Fight and $20,000 Gold Chain: Nomads Bikie President Boasts About Latest Trip to Lebanon (But it’s His Mother Who Has the Last Laugh)

Moudi Tajjour spoke about spending time in Tripoli on his ‘Can’t Fight Fate’ podcast. Tajjour said he married a woman from Syria, and she lives in his home in Lebanon.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Australia’s First Convicted Terrorist Who Plotted to Blow Up a National Electricity Grid and Three Army Bases Has Parole Bid Quashed

Faheem Khalid Lodhi, who migrated to Australia in 1998 and studied at Sydney University, is believed to have al-Qaeda links to the Parkistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘He’s Tweeted About Religion for a Long Time’: Waleed Aly Says Israel Folau Will be Sacked After Declaring Gay People Will Go to Hell on Social Media

The Project host Waleed Aly has sensationally claimed Israel Folau will be stripped of his $4million rugby contract for declaring gay people will go to hell.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Pictured: Much-Loved Mother Who Was Found Dead in Her Garage Just Metres From Her Sleeping Children, Six and Ten — as Police Arrest Her Injured Husband

Syeda Nirupama Hossain’s body was found by a concerned friend at about 4am on Sunday morning in the garage of her Minto home.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

6 Million Euros Found Stuffed in Suitcases at Home of Ousted Sudanese President

Last Thursday, we reported that the 75-year-old president — or dictator, according to some — of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir stepped down after ruling the country for 30 years after a lighting fast military coup d’état, which involved very little gunfire or violence. And while as so often happens in Africa — and the rest of the world — after a dictator is toppled, investigations into corruption immediately started, this time they struck gold — both figuratively and literally — almost immediately.

According to Sky News, after investigators launched a probe for money laundering into ousted president Omar al Bashir’s regime, they found large sums of foreign currency at his home. Specifically, military intelligence found cash worth 6 million euros stuffed in suitcases, as well as 351,000 US dollars. They also uncovered five million Sudanese pounds (£80,000).

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

Nigeria: Jihad Against Christians

Christians are being massacred in Nigeria by Fulani and Boko Haram jihadists — and no one seems to care.

The most severe persecution of these defenseless Christians — who make up half of Nigeria’s total population — has been taking place mostly in the Muslim north of the country, which is governed by sharia law, and in the states known as the “Middle Belt,” which are a transition zone between the northern and southern states.

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

Latin America’s Geopolitics: Why Russia Sent Troops to Venezuela?

On March 28, Russia acknowledged that the country has sent “military experts” in order to deal “with the practical implementation of provisions of military-technical cooperation agreements,” a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said in a televised briefing.

White House officials have warned Moscow to stop interfering in Venezuela’s ongoing political crisis as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared in light of the recent developments that “the Russians have got to leave Venezuela.” It seems so far that Russia has other plans.

“Russia sees Venezuela as an opportunity in ideological and economic terms. In order to remain in opposition to the US, which rejects Maduro, Putin continues to support the president of Venezuela and deny recognition of the self-proclaimed Juan Guaidó, explains journalist Lucas Berti, specialist in Latin American politics…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

PayPal Blacklists United Constitutional Patriots After They Helped Catch Illegal Aliens Invading U.S.

Every indication suggests PayPal kicked off group over politics.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Highlighting Migrants’ Plight During Way of the Cross

Mediations prepared by missionary nun Eugenia Bonetti

(ANSA) — Vatican City, April 19 — Pope Francis will highlight the plight of the victims of human trafficking during the traditional Good Friday Way of the Cross ceremony at the Colosseum.

The meditations the pontiff will recite at the 14 stations of the cross were written by Eugenia Bonetti, a 80-year-old missionary and head of the ‘Slaves No More’ Association who has devoted her life to helping women victims of human trafficking and sex slavery.

The Argentine pontiff will call on people to reflect on the situations of the homeless, jobless young people, migrants forced to live on the margins of society, children who are discriminated against because of the color of their skin or their social class and girls who are forced onto the streets by groups of slave traffickers.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Greens Euro Candidate Demands EU Take ‘Climate Refugees’

Swedish Green Party candidate for the European Parliament Pär Holmgren has demanded the European Union do more to distribute so-called climate refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

Holmgren, who is running to become an MEP next month and is second on the party list, has said he wants to make climate change his focal issue if he wins a seat.

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

UK: ‘Jesus Was a Refugee’: Corbyn Uses Easter Message to Demand Britain Opens the Border

Jeremy Corbyn has called for Britain to relax immigration controls, with the claim that Christian teachings demand nations roll out the red carpet for unlimited numbers of ‘refugees’.

The Labour leader used his Easter message to declare that the UK faces “a great moral test” as the number of people “forced to flee persecution, war and abject poverty” soars across the globe.

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

Swedish Social Justice Group Credited With Tripling Hate Crime Convictions

The work of a Swedish online social justice group is being touted as the reason for the country seeing over 450 hate crime prosecutions in 2018.

According to the Swedish Public Prosecutor’s Office, 459 prosecutions for hate speech were brought against individuals last year and in northern Sweden, there has been a tripling in the number of convictions since 2016, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

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

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/21/2019

  1. Climate refugees are created by Western aid funding population growth in existing deserts. Stop irresponsible aid.

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