Pope Francis’s Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, called for Catholic churches to take in migrants. The cardinal made it his express intention to empty the camps in the Greek islands and resettle the inmates in Church facilities.
In other migration news, 79 migrants traveling in five separate boats were intercepted by the UK’s border force while attempting to cross the English Channel to England.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I 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.
Conte Rules Out Veto on ESM, Says Govt Not Split
ESM text shouldn’t be changed says Eurogroup chief
(ANSA) — London, December 4 — Premier Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday ruled out vetoing the reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) at an upcoming EU summit, and also ruled out the government splitting on the issue.
“I don’t see either the first or the second risk,” he said in answering a question on the two possible scenarios.
“When the ESM is signed the political chiefs of the individual countries will decide, there are times and ways that we will decide after that”.
Eurogroup President Mario Centeno said Wednesday “we can see no reason to change the text” of a reform to the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund. He said the new treaty on the ESM will be signed “at the beginning of next year”. After agreement in the Eurogroup and at a mid-December EU summit, sources said, it will take a couple of months to translate the text into the various languages needed. The ESM reform is the subject of intense debate in Italy with the opposition accusing the government of “betraying Italians” and the ruling 5-Star Movement (M5S) clashing with partner the Democratic Party (PD) and Premier Giuseppe Conte on the issue.
One of the most controversial issues is whether debt restructuring will be automatic under the reform. Opposition League leader Matteo Salvini says the reform will mean Italian taxpayers paying for German banks. The German far-right Alternative for Germany says that it will mean German taxpayers bailout out Italian banks. Centeno said “the debate is ongoing, today we will take another important step and then we will weigh the need for debate that are present in our countries”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Salvini Renews Attack on Conte Over ESM
‘We will decide whether reform package passes’-M5S head Di Maio
(ANSA) — Rome, December 3 — Opposition League leader Matteo Salvini on Tuesday denied he was aware of changes to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) when he served as deputy premier and interior minister in the previous cabinet, as claimed by Premier Giuseppe Conte in a speech to Parliament on Monday.
“Someone in the government is saying the truth and someone is lying”, Salvini said.
“Nobody ever showed me the text of changes to this treaty and it is also thanks to us that we are talking about it”.
“Parliament needs to be able to intervene on that text”, he said.
Salvini’s previous government partner, Foreign Minister and 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio on Tuesday responded saying: “We knew that the ESM had reached a certain point of its reform, but also that it was part of a package that included the reform of the bank union and insurance on deposits”.
“These three things go together for the M5S and it is not possible to do one thing at a time”, he continued.
“We will decide how and if the ESM reform will pass”, Di Maio concluded.
Conte on Monday blasted the center-right opposition as he reported to the Lower House about the ESM after the reform of the eurozone’s bailout fund caused a controversy in Italy. “The accusations made in recent days by several opposition figures about a lack of information or consultation over such a sensitive issue are completely false”, said Conte, who also served as premier in the previous government.
The reform, which is set to be signed off later this month, would make the ESM more similar to the IMF, with support for States in financial difficulty made conditional on debt restructuring.
Italy is considered by experts to be vulnerable to market turbulence due to its huge public debt of over 2,000 billion euros.
The center-right opposition said the ESM reform penalizes Italy and is “not amendable” by Parliament after Conte agreed to it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore Mayor Warns of Body “Snatching” White Van Targeting Young Girls to Sell Their Organs
We tend to report on how Baltimore City’s socio-economic crisis is sending the region into a collapse. Now there’s a new report that appears to be literally from a third world country!
Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young warned in an interview this week with WBAL News’vanessa Herring that a white van has been running around the city targeting young girls for their organs, reported The Baltimore Sun.
“We’re getting reports of somebody in a white van trying to snatch up young girls for human trafficking and for selling body parts, I’m told. So we have to be careful because there’s so much evil going on, not just in the city of Baltimore, but around the country,” Young said. “It’s all over Facebook.”
.@mayorbcyoung says, “we’re getting reports of somebody in a white van trying to snatch up young girls for human trafficking and for selling body parts.
Adding, “it’s all over Facebook” & “that’s something that our police officers are aware of because its been reported.” #WBAL pic.twitter.com/k1y1o96z7T
— Vanessa Herring (@VanessaWBAL) December 3, 2019 Police spokesman Matt Jablow told The Sun that the department is “aware of the posts on social media, but we do not have any reports of actual incidents.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Activists Plan Another Gridlock Protest This Friday
For the fourth time this year, a group of D.C. protesters plans to cause gridlock during the morning commute to draw attention to the global climate crisis.
On Friday, a coalition of activists that call themselves Shut Down D.C. plan to blockade several busy streets surrounding the World Bank starting as early as 7:30 in the morning, the group announced in a press release on Wednesday. The protesters will be demanding that the bank fully divest from fossil fuels, which it hasn’t yet done, despite increasing its investments in clean energy projects.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DHS Wants Americans Subjected to Mandatory Facial Recognition at Airports
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is pushing hard for mandatory facial recognition scans at airports. The government wants to “remove a loophole” that is currently allowing Americans to opt-out of it right now.
Considering artificial intelligence is already watching and judging almost every move we make, this could be the last nail in the coffin for what’s left of individual freedom. The government is asking for complete domination over everyone and everything, and so far, people have allowed their very human dignity to be eroded because of it.
A survey released in November, 2019 (Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation) found 70% of millennials are in favor of socialism and likely to vote socialist, with 36% saying they approve of communism. With those results, we have to be more than concerned. We need to be horrified and willing to take action. Generation Z, the succeeding generation, promises to be no better. It should be to no one’s surprise that Pelosi wants to see the voting age dropped to 16.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
George Zimmerman Files $100m Lawsuit Against Trayvon Martin’s Family
George Zimmerman has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Trayvon Martin’s family — six years after he was acquitted of killing the unarmed black teen in Florida.
The former neighborhood watch volunteer accuses Trayvon’s mother, prosecutors and others of conspiring to concoct a false narrative through “imposter and fake witness” Rachel Jeantel, who was on the phone with the teen just before he was shot.
The complaint, filed Tuesday in Polk County court in Florida where Zimmerman lives, also cites the documentary “The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America,” which makes similar accusations against the Martin family.
“Because of the arrest, charges, prosecution and federal investigation, Zimmerman lives in constant fear of physical harm due to regular death threats, which often are expressed in rap music as well as online social media commentary,” the suit says.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
James O’Keefe Teases Major New Project Veritas Bombshell
James O’Keefe teased a new Project Veritas bombshell which he suggested shows people working inside a political campaign discussing massive wealth confiscation by force.
O’Keefe was responding to actor Mark Ruffalo, who tweeted, “It’s time for an economic revolution. Capitalism today is failing us, killing us, and robbing from our children’s future.”
“Why not just exterminate people with money and take their stuff? That’s what we’re really talking about right?” responded O’Keefe.
“I guarantee your like minded comrades talk this way in private inside campaigns. In fact we know they do. Stay tuned…” he added.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jeffrey Epstein’s private wealth banker, who brokered and signed off on untold multiple millions of dollars in controversial Deutsche Bank and Citibank loans spanning two decades for the convicted pedophile, has died from a reported suicide.
The news of yet another mysterious Epstein-linked death comes shortly after the FBI was seeking to interview the bank executive about loans he approved for Epstein and the indicted child trafficker’s labyrinth of US-based and offshore companies.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Fundraises for Anti-Trump Lawsuit Factory
Left-wing actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus is urging her fans to donate money to an anti-Trump environmental lobby group that has taken the president and his administration to court 100 times in the last three years.
The Veep actress posted an online video Tuesday encouraging donations to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has tried repeatedly to block President Donald Trump’s agenda while at the same time working closely with China, the world’s biggest polluter.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Linguist Refutes MSNBC Host Maddow’s Defense in ‘Russian Propaganda’ Defamation Suit
Santa Barbara linguist may have just dealt the coup de grace to MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow’s legal defense in a suit brought against her by One America News (OAN) alleging defamation when she claimed the network “really literally is paid Russian propaganda.”
“Maddow did not use any typical opinion-markers when she stated that OAN ‘really literally is paid Russian propaganda,’“ Amnon Siegel, a lawyer for OAN owner Herring Networks, wrote in response to a motion to throw out the suit made by Maddow’s lawyers in late October.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Millennials, America’s 5th Column?
I’m aware that not every Millennial is a nut job. There are a multitude serving our country overseas, in responsible positions, right here, helping to right the ship of state, and large numbers of millennials just working by the rules to make a life for themselves. But, we are in trouble, big trouble, and we had better deal with it.
Millennials were born between 1981 — 1996. That makes them between 23 and 38 years old. They have been well indoctrinated in the Marxist religion disguised as liberalism since early grade school. Millennials look upon socialism as a giant IOU, advantage them, with little or no detriment. The more government, the better.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nancy Pelosi traveled to Madrid, Spain with a delegation of Democrat politicians for the the 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Pelosi is attending the Global Warming junk science COP25 meetings.
Pelosi told the delegation she has been attending these meetings since 1992 when Global Warming was not even a conspiracy yet.
And then Pelosi told the UN delegation that the “United States is still in.”
Of course, she’s wrong. President Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement in June 2017.
Pelosi either does not know what she is talking about or she’s playing president and needs to be slapped back into reality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stifled: 6.4 Million Students Denied Free Speech by Top American Colleges
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 4, 2019 — Millions of students nationwide check their free speech rights at the door when they arrive on campus, according to a new report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
Spotlight on Speech Codes 2020: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation’s Campuses, released today, analyzes the written policies at 471 of America’s top colleges and universities for their protection of free speech. The report finds that 89% of American colleges maintain policies that restrict — or could too easily be applied to restrict — student expression
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sundar Pichai Just Got the Worst Job in Silicon Valley
Congrats to Sundar Pichai, who just got promoted to the worst job in Silicon Valley.
On Tuesday, Google’s parent company Alphabet dropped the bombshell that co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are stepping down as CEO and president, respectively, and that the 47-year-old Pichai will become CEO of all of Alphabet.
The move comes over four years after Page orchestrated the most genius retirement plan in the history of business. Growing bored of Google’s day to day chores, he split the company into several “Other Bets,” or separate companies exploring science projects like self-driving cars and smart cities, while leaving the main internet search business to his trusted deputy Pichai. That freed Page to explore his passion projects.
Now, after spending the last several years effectively AWOL from the public and much of Alphabet, Page and Brin, both 46, are out just in time for the company to muddle through its biggest challenges in its history.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Based on the public response to the Schiff Sham impeachment of President Trump and the ramifications of going forward, there are two potential scenarios that Speaker Pelosi is most likely to take.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump-Hating Democrats Are the Real Cult
The fact that liberal elites cannot understand why Americans support the president shows that they are severed from reality, normalcy, and common sense.
But, the reason for the depth of support for President Trump is neither mystical nor strange. Contrary to Stelter’s belief, no mind control ray is involved. The answer is simple. The president is working tirelessly to support all Americans, even the morons that are dragging around the baby Trump balloon.
The rush to declare Trump-supporters as deranged cultists is the cultlike activity. And, all the hate-filled members have engorged themselves on the poisonous Kool-Aid.
The ever-insightful Candace Owens observed, “Hating Trump has manifested itself as a cult. It’s dark, sickly obsessive, and its members will sacrifice literally anything (including America) to uphold their obscure demands for his destruction.” Liberalism is a fevered swamp of rage, entitlement, and envy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tucker: Vulture Capitalists Like Paul Singer Have Looted Our Country and Destroyed Rural America
If you’re wondering why conservatives have failed to conserve anything, look no further
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night released one of the most important segments ever aired on television exposing predatory GOP megadonor Paul Singer for helping loot our country and destroy our middle class…
Instead the model is ruthless economic efficiency: buy a distressed company, outsource the jobs, liquidate the valuable assets, fire middle management, and once the smoke has cleared, dump what remains to the highest bidder, often in Asia. It has happened around the country. It has made a small number of people phenomenally rich. One of them is a New York-based Hedge Fund manager called Paul Singer, who according to Forbes has amassed a personal fortune of more than $3 billion dollars. Singer made a lot of his money by purchasing sovereign debt from financially-distressed countries, usually at a massive discount. Once a country’s economy regained some stability, Singer would bombard its government with lawsuits, until he made his money back with interest. The practice is called vulture capitalism — feeding off the carcass of a dying nation. In some ways, it’s not so different from what Singer and his firm, Elliott Management, have done in this country. Over the past couple of decades, Elliott has made billions by buying large stakes in American companies, firing workers, driving up short-term share prices, and in some cases, taking government bailouts. Bloomberg News has described Singer as “the world’s most feared investor,” which tells you a lot. No one’s even pretending Paul Singer’s tactics are good for anyone but Paul Singer and his fund.
Consider the case of Delphi, the automotive parts supplier. During the last financial crisis, a consortium of hedge funds, including Singer’s Elliott Management, purchased Delphi. With Singer and the other funds at the helm, the company took billions of dollars in government bailouts. Obama’s auto-czar compared the tactics to extortion. Once they had the bailout money, the funds moved most of Delphi’s jobs overseas, and then either cut retiree pensions entirely or shifted the costs to taxpayers. With lighter financial commitments at home, and cheap factories abroad, Delphi’s stock soared. According to investigative reporter Greg Palast, of the 29 Delphi plants in operation when the hedge funds started buying Delphi debt, only four were still operating in the United States by 2012. Tens of thousands of unionized and white-collar workers lost their jobs. Paul Singer’s hedge fund cashed out for more than a billion dollars.
Some countries, including the United Kingdom, have banned this kind of behavior. It bears no resemblance to the capitalism we were promised in school. It creates nothing. It destroys entire cities. It couldn’t be uglier or more destructive. So why is it still allowed in this country? Because people like Paul Singer have tremendous influence over our political process. Singer himself was the second biggest donor to the Republican Party in 2016. He’s given millions to a super PAC that supports Republican senators. You may never have heard of Paul Singer. But in Washington, he’s rock star famous. That may be why he’s almost certainly paying a lower effective tax rate than your average fireman. Just in case you’re still wondering if the system is rigged.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Updated: Multiple Victims in Shooting at Pearl Harbor
Update 9:15 p.m. Eastern:
Three civilians were injured, and the shooter committed suicide, Hawaii News Now reported. One of the victims was taken to the Tripler Army Medical Center, one to Pali Momi Medical Center and a third to the Queen’s Medical Center.
The lockdown has been lifted.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia Democrats Reportedly Beginning Effort to Confiscate Lawfully Owned Firearms
A sweeping ban on many popular guns has been proposed in Virginia, which in November handed total control of the state’s legislature to Democrats.
Senate Bill 16, which was introduced by Sen. Richard Saslaw, seeks to expand the state’s definition of so-called “assault weapons.” Violation of the law’s provisions would be a Class 6 felony, which in Virginia is punishable by up to five years in prison.
In its analysis of the legislation, the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action waved a red flag.
“The restrictions included in the proposed legislation does not grandfather current owners. The legislation is clearly designed to be firearms confiscation, as current owners would be forced to dispossess themselves of their property or face a felony conviction,” the NRA-ILA wrote.
Much of the legislation is devoted to a discussion of the characteristics of what would be called, in Virginia, an assault weapon. In reducing that to plain-speak, the NRA-ILA said that “SB 16 would outlaw America’s most popular rifle, the AR-15, along with countless other rifles, pistols, and shotguns that Virginians use for hunting, target shooting, and self-defense.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
During a little break at the NATO meetings in London Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was seen mocking US President Donald Trump with other world leaders — while President Trump is out of the room.
Trudeau, who acts like a shy school girl in Trump’s presence, mocked Trump to French President Macron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and Boris Johnson from the UK over drinks.
On Wednesday President Trump responded to the Canadian leader, “Well, he’s two-faced.”
The US President then went on to add, “And honestly, with Trudeau, he’s a nice guy. I find him to be a very nice guy but the truth is I called him out on the fact that he’s not paying 2% (to NATO) and I guess he’s not very happy about it… Look I’m representing the United States and he understands that.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Trump Calls Trudeau ‘Two-Faced’ In Response to PM Caught Talking About POTUS to World Leaders
At the second day at the NATO anniversary gathering US President Donald Trump called Justin Trudeau “two-faced” when asked by a reporter if he saw the video of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau caught on a hot mic talking to other world leaders about him behind his back.
“Well, he’s two-faced… And honestly with Trudeau he’s a nice guy, I find him to be a very nice guy. You know the truth is, I called him out that he’s not paying two percent [GDP on military] and I guess he’s not very happy about it,” Trump said at a press conference Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Jesuit Coup? Speculation Rises of a Vatican Takeover by the Pope’s Own Religious Order
Speculation has arisen lately about the status of the Society of Jesus, now that the highest office in the Church is held by a member of the Jesuits.
Historically, the Society has been the object of considerable suspicion from more traditional religious orders and from sections of the Catholic laity. Pope Paul IV, who served from 1555 to 1559, described the Society’s internal structure as a tyranny, and in a difficult and bad-tempered exchange with the second superior general of the Jesuits, he alleged that if they did not begin the choral recitation of the office, one day “Satan would arise from their ranks.”
Famously, one of the greatest theological disputes in the history of the Church, the de Auxiliis controversy, was left unresolved because of Pope Paul V’s fear that condemning the Jesuit theology of grace as heretical (as the older theological schools insisted that it was) would do irreparable harm to the society’s prestige, damaging the Counter-Reformation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Conte ‘Doing Fantastic Job’ Says Trump
Italy safe in China 5G projects, didn’t talk about tariffs — PM
(ANSA) — London, December 5 — Premier Giuseppe Conte “is doing a fantastic job, he has become very popular in Italy and I’m not surprised at that,” President Donald Trump said before bilateral talks Wednesday.
Trump called Conte “a good friend”.
“We have many topics to discuss, including trade and the Mediterranean,” added Trump.
Conte responded with a tweet in which he thanked Trump and said “we are doing a great job together, as allies and friends”.
Conte said after the talks with Trump that “I clarified to Trump that we will apply our legislation, which is among the most advanced, and this will ensure protection from any risk” connected with Chinese 5G projects.
Conte said that “we didn’t talk about tariffs, so I don’t expect any”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Elderly Woman Shoved in Front of Train in Sweden
Police withholding key details about suspected attacker.
A woman in her 70s suffered major injuries after being pushed in front of a freight train in Lund, Sweden, according to reports.
Police arrested a 33-year-old male suspect and charged him with attempted murder.
“The woman was taken to a hospital with serious injuries,” a security officer told SVT Nyheter.
Despite revealing the man’s age and the fact that he was “unknown” to the victim, no further details about the suspect have been divulged by police, who have also declined to discuss whether he already holds a criminal record or has any ties to the local area.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian Minister Praises American Leadership in NATO, Criticises Macron’s Brain Dead Comments
Hungary’s foreign minister Péter Szijjartó has praised the American leadership in NATO and said that he did not agree with French President Emmanuel Macron’s assessment that NATO was brain dead.
President Macron had claimed last month that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was suffering a “brain death”. NATO members are in the UK to mark the 70th anniversary of the defence union, and when asked about the French premier’s remarks on Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump condemned them as “nasty”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pakistani Man Gets Life for Killing Daughter
Muhammad Riaz broke girl’s jaw,left her in street where run over
(ANSA) — Macerata, December 4 — A 45-year-old Pakistani man got life in jail Wednesday for murdering his 19-year-old daughter in February 2018.
Muhammad Riaz was also convicted of sexual violence and domestic abuse.
He beat Azka Riaz, broke her jaw and left her lying in the street on the evening of February 24 2018, when a car ran her over.
She died near Macerata in Marche.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Zingaretti Lambastes Exploitation of Bibbiano Child-Abuse Case
PD leader comments after Cassation ruling on town’s mayor
(ANSA) — Rome, December 4 — The leader of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), Lazio Governor Nicola Zingaretti, on Wednesday slammed the “indecent” political campaign against the suspended PD mayor of a northern town at the center of a child-abuse case, after the Cassation Court on Tuesday released him from mandatory residence in Bibbiano.
“The indecent campaign against PD and the mayor of Bibbiano can’t be forgotten”, Zingaretti wrote on Facebook.
“But there is also another question: Who will apologize to (Bibbiano Mayor) Andrea Carletti and to the people who have been unjustly pilloried?”, he continued.
“Justice is following its course and it has all our support.
“To those who used a judicial case to organize a political campaign I once again say: Shame on you”, the PD leader concluded.
Italy’s supreme Cassation Court on Tuesday revoked a mandatory residence order against Carletti, who is under investigation in a probe into alleged malpractice by social workers in fostering cases in the Emilia-Romagna town. Carletti was ordered not to leave his town of residence by a court in Bologna in September that released him from house arrest.
Carletti is one of 28 people under investigation and faces charges of abuse of office and false statements. Social workers are alleged to have coached and coerced kids into saying their parents were abusing them so that they could be entrusted to ‘friendly’ families for a profit, according to investigators. The case has frequently hit the headlines in recent months and sparked political rows, notably between PD and the right-wing opposition League party and with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S).
M5S and PD formed an alliance for a new government under Premier Giuseppe Conte after League leader Matteo Salvini pulled the plug on the first Conte executive in August.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway’s Top Cop Seems Baffled by Free Speech — But Not by the Inviolability of the Koran
Recently I wrote here about how, on November 16, the group Stop Islamization of Norway (Stopp Islamisering av Norge — SIAN) set fire to a copy of the Koran in a public square in Kristiansand, only to have the fire doused pronto by a group of 30 or more police officers. It later emerged that they were under secret orders from the chief of the Norwegian police, Marie Benedicte Bjørnland, not just to put out any such fire but to prevent SIAN members from committing any such act.
Bjørnland defended her orders by citing the so-called “racism clause” of Norway’s criminal law, and the Minister of Justice, Jøran Kallmyr, stood behind her, making the baffling statement that while burning a Koran was not illegal, it could (depending on how you translated his words) “become” or “morph into” a crime.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Scolds Nations for ‘Weak’ Response to Climate Crisis
ROME — Pope Francis upbraided political leaders for their half-hearted response to the climate crisis Wednesday, suggesting their weak resolve in cutting emissions reveals a lack of political will.
In his message to the participants in the COP25 United Nations convention on climate change, currently taking place in Madrid, the pope reiterated his conviction that climate change is “one of the main challenges for humanity” because it threatens the future of the human race.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Albanian Teen Stabs ‘Krampus’ At Holiday Parade
A teenager from an Albanian background was arrested after attacking another teen dressed as Saint Nicholas’s demonic counterpart “Krampus” during a festive parade in Switzerland.
The attack took place at a Saint Nicholas parade in the Swiss municipality of Rickenbach in the district of Winterthur on Saturday and saw the Albanian-background teen attack a 17-year-old Swiss who was dressed as “Schmutzli”, the Swiss name for the demon Krampus, Austrian tabloid Kronen Zeitung reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boris Johnson’s Election Pledge: PM Outlines Major Reforms on First 100 Days
Boris Johnson today promises to deliver Brexit, cut taxes and launch bold domestic reforms in his first 100 days if he wins the election. The Prime Minister’s first act will be to introduce new laws taking Britain out of the EU by January 31.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boris Won’t Rule Out Possibility of Clean-Break Brexit
Prime Minister Boris Johnson would not rule out taking the UK out of the EU in a no-deal, clean-break scenario next month.
The prime minister said in comments reported by The Guardian that when asked if businesses should continue preparing for a clean break, he said: “We have a great deal. It’s going to allow us to come out smoothly and efficiently on 31 January.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Bridge Terrorist Was Upgraded to a ‘High Risk’ Category a Prisoner After Threats to Staff
London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan was upgraded to a “high risk” category A prisoner after making threats to senior prison staff, The Telegraph can reveal.
Prison officials increased the convicted terrorist’s threat level in prison from “standard risk” after he breached security and put staff in danger.
Only the most serious offenders have such a classification, requiring a constant watch and armed police escort when moved from prison.
Prison sources claim it was one of a number of incidents including violence early on during the eight years he served for a terror plot to blow up the London stock exchange.
He remained “high risk” until released on licence from Woodhill high security jail last December into the hands of probation and police who were responsible for supervising him in the community.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Polish Hero Was Stabbed Five Times in London Bridge Terror Attack, But Kept on Fighting
When Usman Khan emerged into the hallway armed and ready to begin his rampage of terror it was his mentor Jack Merritt who was the first to rush to stop him.
Friends and colleagues have said that he had found an “affinity” with the convicted terrorists, and was convinced that he could “guide him to redemption”.
But that faith was repaid with violence as Khan slashed out at those who tried to prevent his murderous spree.
A detailed account of the first moments of Friday’s London Bridge attack has emerged for the first time along with stories of the incredible acts of heroism of members of the public.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two-Thirds of Britons Think the BBC is Biased
A poll has revealed that nearly two-thirds of Britons think that the BBC is biased.
A Norstat poll of 1,108 Britons taken between the 21st and 29th of November and reportedin Guido Fawkes found that 38 per cent of respondents said that the public broadcaster was “somewhat biased” while 26 per cent said it was “greatly biased”. Overall, a total of 64 per cent of people believe that the BBC expresses some degree of bias.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: 11-Year-Old Girl Stoned to Death by Her Parents Over Plan to ‘Elope’
An 11-year-old girl in rural Pakistan was stoned to death by her own parents to the point where her face was unrecognizable over an alleged plan to elope.
The honor killing occurred in the village of Shahi Makan in Pakistan’s Sindh province on November 21.
According to Gulf News, police arrested the parents of the girl on Saturday after news of the murder began to spread on social media.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
AP Exclusive: 629 Pakistani Girls Sold as Brides to China
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Page after page, the names stack up: 629 girls and women from across Pakistan who were sold as brides to Chinese men and taken to China. The list, obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled by Pakistani investigators determined to break up trafficking networks exploiting the country’s poor and vulnerable.
The list gives the most concrete figure yet for the number of women caught up in the trafficking schemes since 2018.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
China has threatened to respond after the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve a strongly worded bill paving the way for sanctions against Chinese officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
In a statement, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the bill “deliberately defames the human rights situation in Xinjiang and discredits Beijing’s efforts to fight against extremism and terrorism in the region”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Gene-Edited Babies: Chinese Scientist He Jiankui ‘May Have Created Unintended Mutations’
The gene edits given to Chinese twins last year meant to immunise them against HIV may have failed in their purpose and created unintended mutations, scientists said on Tuesday after the original research was made public for the first time.
Excerpts from the manuscript were released by MIT Technology Review for the purpose of showing how Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui ignored ethical and scientific norms in creating the twins Lula and Nana, whose birth in late 2018 sent shock waves through the scientific world.
He made expansive claims of a medical breakthrough that could “control the HIV epidemic”, but it was not clear whether it had even been successful in its intended purpose — immunising the babies against the virus — because the team did not in fact reproduce the gene mutation that confers this resistance.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong Residents Living With Tear Gas Worry of Effects
HONG KONG (AP) — By day, the small commercial kitchen in a Hong Kong industrial building produces snacks. At night, it turns into a secret laboratory assembling a kit for pro-democracy protesters seeking to detox after repeated exposure to tear gas.
Volunteers seated around a kitchen island sort and pack multicolored pills into small resealable bags. At another table, a woman makes turmeric pills by dipping gelatin capsules into a shallow dish of the deep orange spice.
“Police have used so much tear gas and people are suffering,” said the owner of the kitchen, speaking on condition of anonymity because she fears repercussions for her business. “We want to especially help frontline protesters, who have put their lives on the line for the city.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hope for a U.S.-China Trade Deal is Completely Dead, And Wall Street is Starting to Panic
The reality of what we are now facing is starting to sink in for Wall Street investors, and they are starting to panic. Hope that the U.S. and China would be able to agree to a trade deal had fueled a tremendous stock market rally over the last couple of months, but of course it just turned out to be a cruel mirage. There isn’t going to be a trade deal prior to the 2020 presidential election, and at this point even President Trump is telling us not to expect one before November 2020. Just check out what he told the press on Tuesday…
“In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal, but they want to make a deal now and we will see whether or not the deal is going to be right,” Trump told reporters earlier on Tuesday.
When asked if he had a deal deadline, he added: “I have no deadline, no … In some ways, I think it is better to wait until after the election if you want to know the truth.”
President Trump is attempting to spin things to make it sound like it is his decision to hold off on a trade deal, and that may be a politically savvy thing to do.
But the truth is that the Chinese never wanted to do a comprehensive trade deal with Trump. They have been stringing him along all this time, because they wanted to delay Trump’s tariffs for as long as possible. But their original intention was to wait until a Democrat was in the White House to cut a deal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Dumb Have We Become? Chinese Students Are 4 Grade Levels Ahead of U.S. Students in Math
Our society is literally in a death spiral, but nobody seems to have a way to stop it
How in the world is America supposed to remain “the greatest country on Earth” when other nations are absolutely running circles around us when it comes to education?
As you will see below, one survey found that 15-year-old students in China are almost four full grade levels ahead of 15-year-old students in the United States in mathematics. This is one of the most damning indictments of our education system that I have ever come across, and it is yet another clear indication that what we are doing is simply not working. Our children are not being given the tools that they need to compete in our modern society, and we have only ourselves to blame.
Perhaps you are thinking that the survey must be flawed somehow.
Well, this wasn’t some fluky survey that was only given to a handful of students. Every three years, the Program for International Student Assessment evaluates 15-year-old students all over the world in a variety of subject areas, and in 2018 approximately 32 million students participated…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A group of eight Taiwanese women on the 457 visa were working at a fruit picking farm in the Riverland region of South Australia and were expected to perform sex acts for more hours.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Colombia Protests Resume After Talks Flounder
Trade unions, student and indigenous groups are marching in Colombia’s major cities to increase the pressure on the government of President Ivan Duque.
The protests started almost two weeks ago with hundreds of thousands of people taking part in rallies.
The demands of those demonstrating are wide-ranging and include making access to education more accessible.
The two sides are due to meet again on Thursday but so far little progress has been made in talks between them.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Let’s Open Churches to Refugees Says Vatican
Almoner makes appeal as he arrives with refugees from Lesbos
(ANSA) — Vatican City, December 4 — Pope Francis’s Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, called for Catholic churches to be opened to refugees as he arrived in Italy on Wednesday with a group of 33 asylum seekers who were on the Greek island of Lesbos. The refugees will be hosted by the Holy See, through its Almoner’s Office, and the Comunità di Sant’Egidio Catholic pro-migrant and diplomatic community.
“Starting with me, let’s open our rectories, our convents, our monasteries to at least one family each from the Lesbos refugee camps so that we can empty them all,” Krajewski said. “I have seen terrible situations in the camps on the island of Lesbos.
“There were 7,000 people in May. Today there are over 15,000 with 800 unaccompanied children.
“There is no hope for them stuck in Greece today.
“They are living in dramatic conditions.
“It is a problem for Europe and shameful”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Just put it on the tab: A former North York Hydro building occupying prime Toronto real estate is now Hogtown’s newest refugee claimant centre.
Before the Trudeau Liberals came to power, refugee-claimants occupied 11% of Toronto’s emergency shelter spaces; now refugee-claimants occupy 34% of these spaces.
As for the cost to Toronto taxpayers? $75 million per year.
We spoke with Henry, a refugee-claimant from Uganda, to hear more about the living conditions inside the building.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Near-Record Number of Migrants Make Channel Crossing in One Day
A total of 79 migrants have crossed the English Channel in five boats — close to the record number to do so in one day.
The group of migrants, which included children, was intercepted in five separate incidents on Wednesday, the Home Office said.
It is close to the record number of people to cross the Channel in a single day, which is 86, recorded in September, according to the House of Commons Library.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Stockholm: Elderly Residents Kicked Out of Apartments to Make Way for Migrants
Dozens of elderly residents were forced to leave their apartments in an area of Stockholm after the block was closed, only to be re-opened again for migrants to replace them.
Residents at Dianagården were told they would have to leave because the toilets in the facility were 5cm too small to comply with regulations.
However, soon after the 48 apartments were emptied, they were filled with newly arrived migrants.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Castration Incorporated: Planned Parenthood & the Business of Transgenderism
Watch & share this powerful investigative report on the nightmare history & roots of transgenderism
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No matter how good old St Nick Chris Cringle is, in his red and white suit, he’s not as good as Orange man is bad. And that’s why Christmas is canceled for leftists.
Whingy Amanda Marcotte of Salon complains that everything about Christmas is ruined, because all of her family are fans of President Trump, so she can no longer have any relationship with them.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Elite Using AI to Stage Final Revolution Against Human Race
The future needs real humans with a conscience and the ability to question authority.
In 2000, Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems wrote an article titled Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us that detailed the anti-human worldview of the elite.
If we are to believe Elon Musk, Ray kurzweil and other top Transhumanists, we will need to merge with the machines in order to survive.
In reality, the exact opposite is true. Humanity’s survival depends on remaining human and defying the post-human agenda.
Two recent stories vividly demonstrate the anti-human future that we all face.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hollywood’s Unending Love of Socialism
by John Stossel
Hollywood is now obsessing about increasing ethnic and gender diversity. Good. There’s been nasty racial and gender discrimination in the movie business.
Unfortunately, Hollywood has no interest in one type of diversity: diversity of thought.
In most every movie, capitalism is evil.
In the new Amazon series “Jack Ryan,” the hero asks a good question about Venezuela: “Why is this country in the midst of one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history?”
Because socialism ruined the country’s economy! But no, that’s not the answer Jack Ryan gives.
“Nationalist pride,” not socialism, is named as the culprit — and the politician who will fix things is an activist running “on a social justice platform.”
The producers reversed reality, portraying leftists as Venezuela’s saviors rather than as the people who destroyed it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How to Stage a Study: The Transgender Lobby in British Academia
Six researchers from the UK have recently been awarded a grant by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) for a project entitled “Reforming Legal Gender Identity: A Socio-Legal Evaluation,” which runs from May 2018 through April 2021. This project is funded by the ESRC for £579,717 with the remaining 20% of funding coming from the host institution, bringing the total research funds to £724,000. This is an enormous amount of money for a research project whose aim, according to the project website, is to delineate these four aims:
To critically explore different ways of reforming legal gender status, focusing on England and Wales, while drawing on experiences in other countries, the different legal approaches taken towards other social characteristics, such as religion, disability, ethnicity and sexuality, and the views of activists, policy-makers, NGOs, lawyers and the wider public.
To contribute to ongoing policy and political discussions relating to current legal reform proposals, while taking a longer-term approach.
To understand different people’s hopes and worries in relation to both the current legal framework and different approaches to legal reform.
To contribute to broader discussions about the changing character of gender and the contribution law can make to how it is changing.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Malmö Church Unveils LGBT Altar Painting
The St. Pauli church in the multicultural Swedish city of Malmö has unveiled a LGBT-themed altar painting featuring same-sex couples to celebrate advent.
The painting, entitled Paradise, depicts two same-sex couples along with transgender individuals and is based on the 16th-century painting Adam and Eve by German master painter Lucas Cranach, Swedish newspaper Expressen reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Infantilization of Popular Culture
Why are superhero movies so popular?
Why are millennials regressing back to an infantilized state of permanent adolescence?
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: School’s ‘Head Teacher’ Bans Christmas Cards
(FOX NEWS) — The principal of an elementary school in England has apparently banned students from sending Christmas cards to fellow students — claiming the festive tradition is bad for the globe.
Jonathan Mason, of Belton Lane Primary School in Lincolnshire, claimed in a letter to parents that many students approached him with concerns “about the impact of sending Christmas cards on the environment.”
“Throughout the world, we send enough Christmas cards that if we placed them alongside each other, they’d cover the world’s circumference 500 times,” Mason wrote, according to Sky News. “The manufacture of Christmas cards is contributing to our ever-growing carbon emissions.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“Pope Francis’s Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, called for Catholic churches to take in migrants”. Still hasn’t taken one migrant into the Vatican this is hypocrisy at its most evil incarnation.
Catholic, a semi-Russian semi-Baltic living in Austria (he is a little over 50 years old) wrote a note comparing life in Vienna with the late USSR
We are moving towards “real” socialism: a household sketch
https://edgar-leitan.livejournal.com/398064.html
I went yesterday in Vienna at the Lidl (supermarket) to buy food. Two hours before closing I went. And met – half-empty and empty counters! I barely found what I need, cheaper. He asked if the war was an hour? An employee of the store, a Turkish young man, says that by order of the European Union for three months now, the delivery of products to all Austrian branches is planned in a single place, in the Lidla Directorate in Gerasdorf. And what, I ask, what to do if you want to buy food? He must, he says, arrive early in the morning. Yeah, I get it. We have to have food not to buy a little, but to “get it.” How familiar this is! I think that the empty shelves in the late afternoon – this is only a modest start. I wonder if there will be tails of lines soon?…
… German-Austrian green mold zombies among the green mold clientele are sure that “for the sake of saving the holy climate” we need to “tighten our belts”, we should “abolish capitalism”, introduce a planned economy and provide all the solutions to vile, greasy, deceitful millionaires- to bureaucrats in Brussels, but to Brussels or their local, from among the same greens, political instructors to decide what we can talk about and think about and what not.
Well wait, fans of Mrax and Che Guevara! I know how to live on “monoproducts” (potatoes, macaroni, beans …), wash in cold water, wear the same clothes for many years, without buying monthly fashion brands. Do you know how, gretin followers?
I don’t use Lidl that often, but they usually seem well stocked (and cheap), even if many brands are unfamiliar to British shoppers.
The owners, like those of another German chain, Aldi, are quite secretive, but they are in business to make a profit, even if they don’t have to answer to external shareholders. Maybe there are inefficiencies within Lidl’s Russian organisation, which they are (or should be) dealing with?
Islamists cry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJpXogIjb0o