Elon Musk has threatened to take legal action following reports that a California state commission cited his politics in a decision that refused a request by SpaceX. Meanwhile, Donald Trump said he would appoint Elon Musk to a new White House post, “Secretary of Cost-Cutting”.
In other news, three people were hospitalized after a chemical explosion at the University of Sydney. A staff member was reportedly carrying a bucket of acid at the university campus, when a chemical reaction occurred.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, JW, LP, MM, Reader from Chicago, Roger, TN, 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.
200 Arrested in Anti-Israel Protest in Outside of New York Stock Exchange
LOWER MANHATTAN (WABC) — 200 protesters were arrested on Monday after they demanded the U.S. stop arming Israel and profiting from its genocide in Gaza.
The sit-in — organized by the group “Jewish Voice for Peace” — took place outside the New York Stock Exchange and drew upwards of 300 people.
“The U.S. government is sending bombs to Israel that it is using to massacre Palestinians in Gaza and we are calling for that to stop now,” said “Jewish Voice for Peace” political director Beth Miller.
Those who gathered were also protesting the one-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Demonstrators flooded Broad Street, many of them sitting on the pavement inside the secure perimeter of the stock exchange. Many insisted on being carried away be members of the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group. Others chained themselves to the gates outside.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
21% of Gen Z Americans Think Adolf Hitler Had Some ‘Good Ideas’
If people across the American political spectrum can agree on one thing, it’s that Adolf Hitler and Nazism were not just bad but the personification of consummate evil. After all, Americans, along with their Second World War allies, fought Hitler and Nazism all the way into Germany. The Holocaust, the deliberate extermination of six million Jews by Hitler and his Nazis, is accepted historical fact in US institutions of learning.
Yet, an increasing number of Americans in the Gen Z age bracket as well as a small percentage of black and Hispanic Americans have begun to believe that Hitler wasn’t that bad and had some “good ideas.” A DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners polldiscovered that 11 percent of Americans in general, 21 percent of Gen Z and black voters and 19 percent of Hispanic voters agreed that Hitler had some good ideas.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Asian students are being discriminated against by elite colleges even after the Supreme Court ruled affirmative action unconstitutional, the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) group alleges.
Princeton, Yale, and Duke have come under scrutiny as the demographic breakdown of their incoming classes has barely budged despite the ruling, apart from a decline in Asian students, according to data published by the schools.
At Duke, the percentage of Asian students dropped from 35% to 29%, according to the New York Times, and at Yale it plummeted from 30% to 24%, their published statistics show. Black and Hispanic student percentages held steady at both.
Princeton University’s school newspaper boasted that their incoming class breakdown was “untouched by [the] affirmative action ban.” However, the percentage of Asian student enrolled dropped from 26% to 24%, according to the student publication.
“It is likely that universities that did not have a decline in the [percentage] of racial minorities are using a proxy for race [in the admissions process] instead of direct racial classifications and preferences,” Blum, the legal strategist who brought the case that overturned affirmative action before the Supreme Court, alleged to The Post.
At other schools, such as MIT, the percentage of Black, Hispanic, Native American and Pacific Islander students in the Class of 2028 dropped to 16%, compared with 25% in the prior year. Meanwhile the percentage of Asian students climbed from 40% to 47%.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Tells Iran Killing Trump Would be Act of War: Report
President Joe Biden has warned that if Iran were to assassinate Donald Trump that it would be considered an act of war. This comes as it has been revealed that over a half dozen former Trump aides have been targeted by Iran for their roles in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani. Trump has also been the subject of two assassination attempts within the last few months.
According to Fox News, Biden has reportedly instructed to his National Security Council to signal to Iran an attempt on Trump’s life will be seen by the United States as an act of war and will trigger a response. This also comes as the former president has sought higher military-grade protection.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Butler Rally Shooting Survivors Blame Trump Assassination Attempt on Secret Service: ‘Rush Job’
The two men who survived the assassination attempt on former President Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, are placing the blame squarely on the Secret Service.
James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57, sat down with NBC News for an interview that aired Monday to share their experiences and the emotions they went through. Dutch said his anger overrode everything else.
“I was more mad about it than anything,” Dutch said. “I mean, I was in the service, went through a war, didn’t even get a scratch. And yet, go to a rally and you get shot at in the crowd.”
Asked what he was specifically mad about, Dutch said: “The security.”
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat-Led Washington Silent on SpaceX’s Historic Breakthrough
Elon Musk’s private company SpaceX successfully ‘caught’ a rocket booster after returning it to its launch pad for the first time, a historic breakthrough in its journey toward taking humans to Mars before the end of the decade. But because of the billionaire’s endorsement of the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, the Democrat-led administration in Washington clearly doesn’t think that congratulations are in order.
SpaceX’s ‘Starship,’ the craft designed to turn humanity into a multi-planetary species, was developed to be a fully reusable launch vehicle, with its launch tower capable of ‘catching’ both of its rocket stages, the ‘Super Heavy’ booster and the spacecraft.
On Sunday, October 13th, the biggest rocket ever built took flight for the fifth time, with the intention of testing a bold maneuver that’s never been tried before: catching its giant, 71-meter-tall booster with the launch tower’s ‘chopsticks.’
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DUI-Driver Slams Into Transformer, Which Went Flying and Killed Pedestrian in San Diego: CHP
One person was killed Sunday evening when Kia Sol went off the road on a San Diego freeway off-ramp and hit a transformer, which then fatally struck the female pedestrian.
The crash was first reported to the California Highway Patrol at 9:10 p.m. Sunday on the Imperial Avenue off-ramp from the southbound Interstate 5 near downtown.
The car crashed into a cement barrier, went down an embankment and hit the transformer, a witness told the CHP. The agency reported the pedestrian died.
The female died at the scene, the CHP said Monday in a news release.
The 29-year-old Chula Vista woman driving the Kia was arrested “on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs,” according to the CHP.
| — Hat tip: Roger | [Return to headlines] |
GOP House Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as well as Senator Joni Ernst (R-ID) are demanding that a pro-Palestinian group at Columbia University be investigated over “violent threats” made by a member of the pro-Palestinian group, the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition, as well as calls for violence from the group that were made on Oct. 8 this year.
The GOP lawmakers cited threats from one member of the group, Khymani James, who in the spring said that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” The group initially published a statement to apologize, but now the group has retracted the apology and doubled down on a message of violence.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Elon Musk threatened to take legal action following reports that a California state commission cited his politics in a decision.
The California Coastal Commission on Thursday rejected a request for more-frequent SpaceX launches.
The request was filed by the US Space Force, seeking more launches from the state’s Central Coast. It was rejected by six votes to four.
Space Force had asked the commission to allow SpaceX to carry out 50 launches a year of its Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Space Force Base, up from 36.
In a video of the meeting viewed by Business Insider, the commissioner Gretchen Newsom expressed concerns over Musk’s political posts and working conditions at SpaceX.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Israel activists in downtown Seattle called for “Death to America” and “Long Live October 7th” during a rally in Seattle marking Columbus Day and one year since the deadly Hamas massacre. Terrorist supporters in Seattle were joined by Native American activists marking Indigenous People’s Day and made their way to Lake Union to rally outside the Museum of History and Industry.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Fani Willis Tries to Block Nathan Wade From Testifying to Congress
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking to block former special prosecutor Nathan Wade from testifying before Congress, arguing he might “improperly divulge confidential information.”
In a letter released Monday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., the Georgia attorney said that Wade’s testimony could violate protected privileges that are upheld by the Fulton County District Attorney’s office.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Whistleblower’s Testimony Sparks YouTube Block: House Judiciary Expands Big Tech Probe
The US House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into suspected collusion between the government and Big Tech to censor speech has been expanded to include the case involving an FBI whistleblower.
The whistleblower, Marcus Allen, was interviewed by the nonprofit Catholics for Catholics in a video uploaded to YouTube last month — only to swiftly get blocked.
Now the Committee’s Chairman Jim Jordan wants YouTube owner Alphabet (Google) and its CEO Sundar Pichai to explain what exactly happened, and why. In a letter, Jordan also noted that Allen was one of the witnesses before the Committee’s Select Subcommittee looking into the alleged collusion.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Illinois Bill Would Give Colleges Taxpayer Dollars for Each Minority Student Enrolled
Authored by Macy Gunnell via Campus Reform
A bill currently being considered in the Illinois legislature would grant public colleges and universities thousands of taxpayer dollars for every student they admit who belongs to certain minority groups.
Democratic Illinois Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford introduced the legislation, S.B. 3965, on July 30. State Representative Carol Ammons, also a Democrat, introduced the bill in the House.
The bill would grant public institutions of higher education $6,000 per each black or American Indian student they accept, $4,000 per Hispanic student, and $0 for white and Asian students, according to a Washington Examiner op-ed by Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Gonzalez pointed out that the quantity provided per Hispanic student is lower than that given for black students, even though Hispanic Illinoisans’ degree attainment rate is lower.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Joker 2 Bombs at Box Office After Raping and Killing Its Own Lead Character
Warner Bros. had a surprise hit in 2019 with the Todd Phillips directed ‘Joker’ staring Joaquin Phoenix; the movie made over a billion dollars at the box office. Phillips’ idea was to “sneak a real movie” into the superhero genre, and to his credit he succeeded in that plan. Joker was a wildly popular but very different take on the DC villain’s origin story.
In his second installment of the franchise, Joker: Folie à Deux, Phillips seems to have set out to deconstruct and destroy his own lead character in way that left many audience goers disappointed. The film grabbed $81 million worldwide at the box office opening weekend (keep in mind that half those revenues go to the theater chains), and it cost over $300 million to make and market. Compared that to the first film, which made $247 million worldwide opening weekend and cost only $60 million. Joker 2 has also suffered the largest second week drop in receipts in DC movie history.
Folie à Deux reverses the entire arc of the first movie. This time around Arthur Fleck (the Joker) is trapped in an insane asylum after the vengeful murders of the previous film and is embroiled in his own trial. His rebelliousness has been subdued by medications and he struggles with his alter ego and an abusive prison system. He has musical fantasies in which he’s able to be the Joker again, but the scenes fall flat like most dream sequences in movies where the character wishes he was something he’s not.
By the end of the film Arthur fires his attorney and defends himself in court, calling out the asylum and it’s terrible treatment of patients. The psychotic prison guards return the favor by beating our main character and then, apparently, raping him (the rape is implied, not shown). After the rape, Arthur fleck abandons his Joker image and submits his guilt to the court. In other words, his rebelliousness was raped right out of him.
Finally, he is stabbed to death by his own cellmate.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Live Updates: UCUP Locks Cobb Gate, Protesters Arrested
The Chicago Maroon reported live from UChicago United for Palestine’s (UCUP) October 11 rally, which ended with the arrest of three protesters.
Protesters locked Cobb Gate, which stands at the entrance of the main quad, before proceeding north toward Ratner Athletics Center, where several police officers used pepper spray and batons on protesters. The rally, which began at 2:30 p.m., morphed into a brawl involving at least 200 University— and community-affiliated protesters, 20 University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers, and more than 30 Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers.
Over the course of the afternoon, protesters sprayed graffiti on the Nuclear Energy Statue and its surrounding area, Eckhardt Research Center, Regenstein Library, and Max Palevsky Residential Commons. Facilities Services removed most of the graffiti Friday evening, though graffiti remained on the Nuclear Energy sculpture and the Regenstein as of noon on Saturday, October 12.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Filmmaker Claims Evidence of Alien Life Could be Revealed Within the Next Month
A NASA filmmaker has claimed that telescopes on Earth have discovered evidence of intelligent alien life, and the announcement may come within the next month.
Science filmmaker Simon Holland, who has worked on projects with the BBC, Nat Geo, and NASA, told The Mirror last week that two groups of astronomers are vying to publish the first confirmed evidence of a possible extraterrestrial civilization.
“We have found a non-human extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy, and people don’t know about it,” Holland said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Lawsuits Accuse Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of Sexual Assault Against 6 People, Including a Minor
NEW YORK — A new wave of lawsuits filed Monday accuses Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting a 16-year-old boy.
At least six lawsuits were filed against the hip-hop mogul in federal court in Manhattan. They were filed anonymously, two by women identified as Jane Does and four by men identified as John Does.
The accusers are part of what their lawyers say is a group of more than 100 alleged victims who are in the process of taking legal action against Combs in the wake of his sex trafficking arrest last month.
One of the John Does, a man living in North Carolina, alleges that Combs fondled his genitals when he was 16 at one of the rapper’s famous white parties in Long Island’s Hamptons in 1998.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
NYT Lies to Downplay ‘Racist’ Kamala Plagiarism Scandal — So Chris Rufo Brings Receipts
Update (1745ET): After journalist Chris Rufo relayed the results of an in-depth analysis proving that Kamala Harris plagiarized ‘at least a dozen’ sections of her book on crime, the NY Times scrambled into damage control mode. First, they framed it as ‘conservative notices.’
They then completely lied about Rufo’s reporting. So of course, Rufo hit back.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Owner of Time Magazine Slams VP Harris for Not Responding to Interview Requests
Time magazine owner Marc Benioff criticized Vice President Kamala Harris over the weekend for not responding to interview requests from the outlet.
“Despite multiple requests, TIME has not been granted an interview with Kamala Harris—unlike every other Presidential candidate,” Benioff wrote on the social media platform, X.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Says it Can’t Stop Mysterious Drones From Surveilling US Military Sites
Dozens of drones as well as mysterious flying objects have been spying on some of the most sensitive military bases in the United States of America. Now, the Pentagon is admitting that it can do very little to stop the surveillance from happening.
According to the Wall Street Journal, drones of unknown origin have been flying over military bases in Virginia as well as in Nevada during the past year. This includes spying on the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six commando unit and Naval Station Norfolk, which is the largest naval port in the world. Federal laws have gotten in the way of the country from doing anything to shoot down the drones over fears that debris will harm people on the ground.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Residents Explain Why They Fled the Bay Area: Homelessness Was ‘Just Getting Out of Hand’
Former residents report having found better quality and cost of living outside the Bay Area, where homelessness and housing prices have skyrocketed.
“It’s a challenging place to live — the most expensive metro area in the country for consumer prices and buying a home. In a recent poll of Bay Area residents, nearly half said they were considering leaving in the next few years,” the East Bay Times reported.
One family who left the Bay Area to live in Idaho said that homelessness had become a problem.
“The homeless situation in downtown Martinez was just getting out of hand,” Ken Freeze told the Times.
“Beautiful Marina Park was just littered with needles. People didn’t want to take their families down there,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rumble CEO Calls Out Google for Burying Dan Bongino Show in Search Results
Chris Pavlovski, CEO of Rumble, a video-sharing platform, has escalated his company’s ongoing battle with Google, alleging unfair treatment in search results. In a series of posts on X, Pavlovski criticized Google for not listing Rumble in searches related to “Dan Bongino” or “Dan Bongino Show,” despite the show’s exclusive live stream on Rumble and Bongino being one of the top podcasters in the US.
Rumble only appears in Google’s search results when paid for as a sponsored listing, despite ranking as the #2 result on other search engines like DuckDuckGo and Bing and on the first page of Google Search competitor Brave.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Security Guard Stabbed 90-Year-Old Over 50 Times at Buckhead Complex, Warrant Says
A security guard arrested last week on a murder charge is accused of stabbing a 90-year-old man more than 50 times at a Buckhead apartment complex that houses the elderly and people with disabilities, according to a warrant obtained Monday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Janet Williams is charged in connection with last month’s killing of Chun Ki Kim, who was found dead on the kitchen floor of his apartment at the Marian Road Highrise complex Sept. 25 after being stabbed in the torso and face. During the investigation, police said Williams, who worked as a guard in the building, stood by and watched investigators at the scene, asked questions and even went inside the apartment of a fifth-floor resident who had a doorbell camera near the victim’s unit.
“While it was still unclear what her intentions initially were, Williams stabbed Mr. Kim to death,” the warrant stated.
Kim, who was from South Korea, ran a shoe repair shop in metro Atlanta. His caretaker called police around 7:40 a.m. Sept. 25 after finding his body at the complex, located in the 700 block of Sidney Marcus Boulevard near Piedmont Road in the Lindbergh/Morosgo neighborhood.
| — Hat tip: TN | [Return to headlines] |
Here’s Donny!
The daughter of the late film director Stanley Kubrick says former President Donald Trump has her “blessing” to use footage from her father’s Vietnam War masterpiece “Full Metal Jacket” in a campaign video touting a return to a strong US military.
Vivian Kubrick on Sunday defended the 45th president’s new campaign video, which used the iconic performance of real-life Marine Corps drill instructor R. Lee Ermey in the 1987 film to rail against “woke” initiatives pushed by the Harris-Biden Pentagon.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Thunderbird Email Client Arrives on Android
Only those who remember — or are aware of the browser and related tools landscape in the first half of the 2000’s, with Microsoft’s embarrassing IE still ruling the usage statistics the way Google’s Chrome does now — can appreciate what we had when Mozilla Firefox came on the scene.
And then, the magnitude of what has been lost in the meantime.
Without going into the details of how the Mozilla Foundation badly fumbled the ball over the years, attempting to stretch itself in all manner of directions (remember, there was a phone once, not to mention wasting money and energy on politically correct “causes”) — there has been at least one “Firefox offshoot” that made sense.
It’s the Mozilla Thunderbird email clients — but, cynics will say, of course since it made sense to develop, it eventually became the proverbial red-headed stepchild of a foundation (company, really) “high” on that Google Search money, and the “woke wave.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Tim Walz Ducks Free Speech Debate in Evasive Interview Over Misinformation Crackdown
In an interview with Fox News Sunday’s Shannon Bream, Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Walz found himself in the hot seat over his stance on free speech, particularly regarding so-called “misinformation” and “hate speech.” Walz, who has previously expressed a desire to limit certain forms of expression, gave an evasive and meandering response when asked to clarify his position.
Walz’s comments have been the subject of concern, especially following his assertion that “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech” if he and Kamala Harris win the upcoming election.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump: I’ll Appoint Elon Musk the ‘Secretary of Cost-Cutting’
Donald Trump says he would appoint tech mogul Elon Musk to a new White House post — “Secretary of Cost-Cutting” — if the former president wins the November election.
“He’s a great business guy, and he’s a great cost-cutter,” Trump, 78, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” of the world’s richest person. “And [Musk] said, ‘I could cut costs without affecting anybody.’ “
Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, said that while the 53-year-old billionaire X and Tesla honcho doesn’t want to be a part of the cabinet, he does want to focus on cost-cutting.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Sending Troops and Anti-Missile System to Israel
The United States announced on Sunday it will deploy an advanced missile defence system to Israel, along with around 100 soldiers to operate it.
If implemented, the initiative would diverge from the earlier U.S. condemnation of—and lukewarm sympathy with—Israel since the October 7th massacre last year. For now, the U.S. government appears to have paused its repeated calls for ceasefire. If heeded by Israel, any ceasefire simply would have provided first Hamas and now Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy terror group in Lebanon, time to regroup and rearm.
Hours later, Hezbollah underscored the threat faced by Israel by killing four Israeli soldiers and injuring at least seven more in a drone attack on an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) base near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina.
President Joe Biden approved the sending of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system—known as THAAD—to Israel, as well as troops to operate it, allowing the IDF to fend off potential incoming ballistic missile attacks from Iran.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Vice President Harris Agrees to Do an Interview With Fox News Anchor Bret Baier
Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to do a sit-down interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, according to an announcement from the network on Monday.
The interview will air on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET during Baier’s “Special Report,” and will be conducted in Pennsylvania, according to The Hill.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Author Harari Warns Europe Risks Becoming a ‘Data Colony’ of US and China
Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli university history lecturer and best-selling author of popular science books, has said Europe is at risk of becoming a “data colony” of larger world powers.
In an interview with German daily Handelsblatt on October 10, the writer of Sapiens and Homo Deus, connected current international and political trends with “the revolution in information technology”.
Amid warnings about how profoundly the world was about to change through advanced technology, Harari said there already existed large geopolitical divisions regarding technology.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trees fallen on power lines, weakened dams, damaged crops — these are just some of the ways that Europe’s largest rodent, the beaver, can make people’s lives miserable.
The Hungarian Ecological Research Institute has prepared the Hungarian beaver map, which shows that the harmful aquatic rodents are expanding rapidly.
Once nearly hunted to extinction, the beaver has returned with a vengeance.
The beavers reintroduced to the Drava and its tributaries in 2007 have now conquered the largest sections of the border river, and their numbers are growing dynamically in Somogy, according to Hungarian newspaper Somogy Varmegyei Hirportal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Denies Snubbing Elon Musk as it Hosts an International Investment Summit
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s new Labour Party government announced 63 billion pounds ($82 billion) in investment in U.K. artificial intelligence, life sciences, infrastructure and technology on Monday at a business summit attended by executives from major international companies — though it was the absence of Elon Musk that made headlines.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer ‘s center-left administration is eager to attract investment into Britain’s sluggish economy and to convince corporations that its push to improve workers’ rights won’t come at the expense of businesses. It also needs to reassure trade unions, key Labour backers, that wooing business won’t come at workers’ expense.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Could a Hungarian Tied to Orban End Up Owning Poland’s Powerful TVN Media Group?
Warner Bros. Discovery plans to sell its subsidiary TVN Group, a media and entertainment company that runs TVN25 along with several other channels, Salon24 writes citing a report from Polish Newsweek.
Potential buyers reportedly include the Czech PPF group, an unidentified American broadcaster, and Hungarian billionaire József Vida, who is closely associated with Fidesz. Many journalists fear the third option, as they believe that in this scenario, Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice (PiS) will gain control of the powerful broadcaster.
Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly facing problems with its business model amidst weak net profits and is thus looking to divest TVN for some PLN 10 billion (€2.3 billion), although Warner Bros. Discovery estimates that the transaction will ultimately end up at half that amount.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Czechia: Prague Bans Pub Crawls in Bid to Clean Up City’s Image as Cultural Hotspot
The Prague city administration has officially banned organized pub crawls led by specialized agencies in an attempt to curb alcohol tourism and rebuild the city’s image as a destination of culture.
The city council approved the new regulation on Monday, with the ban taking effect immediately upon publication of the relevant legal regulations.
The move comes in response to increasing complaints from residents, particularly in Prague 1, the Czech capital’s historic district, about the disturbances caused by noisy, drunk tourists.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Skoda Warns EU Car Emission Targets Will Not be Met, Calls for Policy Rethink
EU car emission targets for 2025 are unattainable for the industry, Martin Jahn, Skoda Auto board member and vice-president of the Czech Industry Confederation, said on Sunday.
Speaking on Czech television, Jahn stressed that the predicted increase in demand for electric vehicles has not materialised, making it increasingly clear that the industry will struggle to meet stringent CO2 emission limits. The calculated EU fleet-wide target for 2025 is 93.6 g/km for passenger cars.
“At the moment, it is becoming apparent that it will be impossible to meet those targets. The interest in electric cars firstly increased from 14% to 16%, but then fell back to 14%, while we were expecting 20% on average,” Jahn explained. He also noted that the situation is unlikely to improve in the near future, with natural demand for electric vehicles expected to remain flat next year.
Jahn also expressed concern about the financial consequences for European carmakers if the policy remains unchanged.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Condemns All Attacks on UN Missions, Foreign Policy Chief Borrell Says
Brussels has condemned all attacks against United Nations missions in a statement published by outgoing foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
The condemnation comes in response to the alleged targeting of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, by the Israel Defence Forces.
“Such attacks against UN peacekeepers constitute a grave violation of international law and are totally unacceptable. These attacks must stop immediately,” Borrell said in a statement on behalf of the EU published Sunday night.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
European Parliament Ends Free E-Vehicle Charging
MEPs will from December have to pay to charge their electric cars as part of a European parliament decision to “save energy”.
Free EV charging points on Parliament premises have until now been one of the benefits MEPs enjoy, to the embarrassment of some.
The Strasbourg-based Parliament has been a prime mover in the transition to cleaner fuels across the bloc though its members have themselves passed EV charging costs onto the tax-payer until now.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The far-left and pro-immigration Education League has announced the closure of a social center in the multicultural 15th arrondissement of Marseille, following a series of violent incidents targeting employees.
The La Solidarité social center will permanently close its doors after a series of temporary closures due to violence against staff and the infiltration of local drug trafficking networks.
A notice posted on the center’s walls informed residents of the closure, stating: “Following repeated attacks, the La Solidarité social center will remain closed. We will soon inform you of a date for the organization of an information meeting.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
FPÖ Leader Accuses Austrian President of Ignoring the Will of the People
The anti-immigration right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) made important electoral progress on Sunday, October 13th, finishing second in the regional elections in Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The party collected more than a quarter of the votes, 28.2%, its best-ever result in the state, doubling its numbers from 2019.
The winner was the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), whose support dropped five percentage points compared to the last election; it won 38.4% of the vote. It is a disappointment for the party which suffered its worst-ever result in the state, which it has ruled uninterruptedly since the end of the Second World War.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen Faces Court on Charges of Embezzling EU Funds
PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen strongly denied committing any wrongdoing at a Paris court Monday as she and her National Rally party stand trial over the suspected embezzlement of European Parliament funds.
The nine-week trial is a critical juncture for Le Pen, expected to be a strong contender in France’s next presidential election in 2027. A guilty verdict could significantly affect her political career and aspirations.
Le Pen appeared self-confident and determined in court, stating in a loud voice: “I’m telling you very clearly: I absolutely don’t feel I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest illegal move.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Government Threw €50 Million at Failed Hydrogen Train Fleet
A prestigious train project in Germany, aimed at introducing a fleet of hydrogen-powered locomotives to the railway system, has fallen flat despite over €50 million in government investments.
As part of the German ‘Energiewende‘, the country’s transition to so-called green energy, the Taurus project was set to be a shining example of clean energy use for public transport.
More than €50 million of taxpayer money was put into the project, including €24 million for a hydrogen filling station.
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Germany’s Scholz Banks on ‘Made in Germany Bonus’ for National Election
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, whose popularity is currently at an all-time low ahead of the 2025 general election, propose introducing a ‘Made in Germany’ bonus to encourage foreign companies to produce in Germany.
This is part of a core programmatic strategy for the upcoming national elections that Scholz and his Social Democratic Party (SPD) were to agree on at a retreat on Sunday (13 October).
Scholz is facing an uphill battle as his popularity in polls is the lowest on record (since 1997) of any chancellor. His party is polling in third place behind the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
But SPD leader Lars Klingbeil emphasised ahead of the retreat that Scholz’s party still believes in a comeback victory.
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German Intelligence: Russian Sabotage Almost Caused Plane Crash
An act of sabotage believed to be linked to Russia came close to causing a plane crash in Germany this year, intelligence services warned on Monday.
The incident in July saw a package catch fire at a DHL logistics centre in the eastern city of Leipzig, setting a cargo container alight.
Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the domestic intelligence agency (BfV), told lawmakers in a public session of a parliamentary oversight committee that only a lucky coincidence had prevented the package from bursting into flame while aboard a plane.
The package, which arrived in Germany from the Baltic region, is believed to have remained in the cargo centre after the flight it was due to travel on was delayed, dpa has learned.
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Iceland’s Government Coalition Collapses, PM Calls for Snap Elections
Iceland’s Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson announced the dissolution of the current coalition government at an emergency press conference on Sunday, adding that elections would be held at the end of November.
Benediktsson told reporters that the coalition of his Independence Party (the EPP’s partner party) with the agrarian-liberal Progress Party and the Left-Green Movement, in power since 2017, had been unable to find solutions to move the coalition forward.
“I think I would be letting down the people of the country, and not least my party members, if I pretended that I could continue to lead the government,” said Benediktsson.
The ruling coalition’s approval rating has hit an all-time low recently, with the prime minister’s Independence Party, one of Iceland’s main historic centre-right parties, polling at 14%.
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Macron Persists in Demanding an Arms Embargo on Israel
After sparking international outrage by arguing for suspending arms deliveries to Israel earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron doubled down on his statements at a European summit in Cyprus on Friday—despite having assured Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of France’s “unfailing support” for Israel. At the summit, attended by the Mediterranean powers of the European Union, the French President reiterated his comments on the need for an embargo on Israel. He said that a halt to arms deliveries was “the only lever” that could “put an end” to the war in Lebanon.
Two days before the commemorations in honour of the victims of the Hamas attack on October 7th, Emmanuel Macron provoked the Israeli PM, by calling for an end to the supply of weapons used by Israel in Gaza.
On Saturday, October 5th, during a special programme on France Inter, Emmanuel Macron said that “the priority” was to return “to a political solution, to stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza.”
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NATO Will Not be Intimidated by Russia’s Threats, Rutte Says at Ukraine Mission
WIESBADEN, Germany, Oct 14 (Reuters) — NATO will not be cowed by Russian threats but keep up its strong support of Kyiv, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on his first visit to the alliance’s Ukraine mission in Wiesbaden, set to take over the coordination of military aid from the U.S.
“The message (to Russian President Vladimir Putin ) is that we will continue, that we will do what’s necessary to make sure that he will not get his way, that Ukraine will prevail,” he told Reuters in a joint interview with German public radio Hessischer Rundfunk on Monday.
Rutte spoke at Clay Barracks, the U.S. base hosting the headquarters of the new mission, dubbed NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), which will gradually assume the coordination of Western military aid to Kyiv.
The move is widely seen as an effort to safeguard the aid mechanism against a possible return of NATO critic Donald Trump to the White House. Republican Trump is running against Democrat Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 U.S. election. Diplomats, however, acknowledge that the handover of military aid coordination to NATO may have a limited effect given that the U.S. is NATO’s dominant power and provides the majority of arms to Ukraine.
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‘Nothing Can be Done’ in French Parliament Without National Rally Support, Bardella Says
It is impossible to achieve anything in the French parliament without the support of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), party leader Jordan Bardella has said.
In an interview with BFMTV on October 14, Bardella said his party intended to push the current French Government towards the Right, describing it as the key party strategy going towards the next elections.
“Nothing can be done without us in Parliament and French political life,” the party leader, who is also an MEP within the Patriots for Europe group, said.
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Relative of Afghan Accused in US Election Terror Plot Nabbed in France for Similar Scheme
A family member of an Afghan arrested in Oklahoma last week for allegedly plotting an Election Day terror attack reportedly has been apprehended in France on suspicion of plotting his own strike in support of ISIS.
Authorities indicted a 22-year-old Afghan man Saturday on charges of “foment[ing]” a “plan for violent action” at a soccer match or shopping center, according to the Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office in Paris.
France 24 reported Sunday that the suspect, who has not been publicly named, is the younger brother of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who was charged Oct. 8 with conspiring to commit a mass shooting in Oklahoma City.
American authorities investigating Tawhedi’s case tipped off French terrorism investigators about the plot after discovering communications between the two relatives on Telegram, according to the report.
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‘Show Same Respect to Poles as You Do to Germans’, Polish Foreign Minister Tells Ukraine
Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski has asked Ukraine to pay Polish victims of the Second World War Volhynia massacre the same respect it has paid to Germany whose fallen Wehrmacht soldiers have been exhumed in Ukraine.
Ukraine has over the past few years suspended the exhumation of the 40,000-60,000 Polish victims of the Volhynia slaughter that took place in the 1940s. The killings were perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists. The expatriation of the remains of German soldiers who were killed on Ukrainian territory during the Second World War continues to be allowed.
Sikorski made his remarks at the University of Torun on October 13 during a lecture about the European Union.
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Sweden to EU: Designate Iranian Revolutionary Guard a Terrorist Group
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will ask the EU to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. The request comes after several attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, perpetrated by organized crime networks suspected to be working on orders from Iran.
“This is a really dangerous cocktail that we need to do something about, and I think the time is now,” Kristersson said.
Already last spring, a majority in the Swedish parliament wanted the government to raise the issue at an EU level. The PM will now bring the question to this week’s European Council meeting, where the situation in the Middle East will be one of the discussion points.
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Trial Starts Against Dutch Woman Accused of Enslaving Yazidi Women in ISIS Caliphate
This week, Hasna A. from Hengelo will stand trial for allegedly enslaving two Yazidi women in the ISIS caliphatein Syria. “It is the first case in the Netherlands in which someone is prosecuted for crimes against the Yazidi community that were committed by ISIS,” lawyer Brechtje Vossenberg, who is representing the victims in this case, told EenVandaag. For security reasons, her clients’ names will not be released.
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UK Begins Inquiry Into Woman’s Death by Novichok Nerve Agent
A public inquiry into the death of a woman who Britain says was unwittingly killed by the Novichok nerve agent following the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal six years ago will begin on Monday (14 October).
Dawn Sturgess died from exposure to Novichok in July 2018 after her partner found a counterfeit perfume bottle which police believe had been used by Russian intelligence operatives to smuggle the poison into the country.
Skripal, who sold Russian secrets to Britain, and his daughter Yulia had been found slumped unconscious on a public bench in the southern English city of Salisbury four months earlier.
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UK Fertility Rates Experience Sharpest Decline in G7
The United Kingdom is witnessing a significant drop in fertility rates, outpacing all other Group of Seven (G7) nations. According to an analysis from the left-leaning Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP), the UK has experienced an 18.8% decline in its fertility rate since 2010, worse than any other nation in the G7, an intergovernmental forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the U.S.
This trend raises concerns about the country’s future demographic and economic landscape, as a growing number of pensioners will eventually outnumber working-age individuals.
Italy follows the UK with the second-largest fertility rate decline, while the United States, Canada, France, and Japan have also seen drops, though to lesser extents.
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UK Nanny State Law Would Force Pubs to Employ ‘Banter Police’, Warn Free Speech Advocates
Apparently not content with merely policing speech on the internet or on the streets, the leftist Labour Party government in Britain is reportedly looking to pass legislation which would crack down on supposedly offensive comments made in pubs.
The government of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, in its impending Employment Rights Bill, would change equality laws in Britain to mean that employers would be held responsible for their employees being offended by “third parties” like their customers or the general public.
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UK: Brexit Reversal Talks Could Start in 10 Years, New Labour’s ‘Prince of Darkness’ Says
A senior British Labour peer and former European Commissioner for Trade has broken ranks on Brexit, suggesting talks on reversing the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union could happen in 10 years’ time.
Lord Mandelson, the former fixer for ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair — and dubbed “the Prince of Darkness” by the media — told an audience at the Reform Scotland thinktank annual lecture that undoing Brexit “could be a conversation that starts in 10 years’ time”.
This view is at odds with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who previously insisted that such talks would not happen in his lifetime.
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Violence Against German Police Officers Up 8% in 2023
Germany saw a significant rise in violence against police officers in 2023, a report said on Monday.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said the latest annual figures show an 8% rise in physical attacks.
In total, the Wiesbaden-based agency said 46,200 cases of violence were recorded, with more than 105,000 officers affected.
“Since 2017, the number of cases in this area has been rising continuously,” the report stated.
Cases of dangerous and serious bodily harm fell by 13% to 1,260.
Police officers were not the only emergency services to be attacked. Firefighters and ambulance crews were involved in more than 2,500 incidents of violence, the report said.
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Israeli Forces Seize Documents That Reveal Hamas Plan for More Elaborate Attacks: Report
Years before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and started the latest war in the region, the terror group plotted other assaults, including a scheme to blow up a skyscraper in Tel Aviv while pressuring Iran to assist in its battle against the Jewish state, according to documents found by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, the Washington Post reported.
The documents seized from Hamas command centers uncovered planning for the attacks using trains, boats and even horse-drawn chariots, according to the newspaper. The 59 pages of documents include an illustrated presentation detailing possible options for an attack as well as letters from Hamas to Iran’s top leaders in 2021 requesting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and training for 12,000 additional Hamas fighters.
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Israel Vows to Eliminate Hezbollah Drone Unit After Rare Deadly Successful Strike
The Israeli Air Force vowed to take out Hezbollah’s drone unit after one of the terrorists’ devices killed four teenage Jewish soldiers and injured nearly 60 people outside of Haifa on Sunday, officials say.
Hezbollah’s Unit 127, the battalion responsible for producing and operating the Lebanese terror group’s drones, has become the No. 1 priority for the IAF, since the enemy’s unmanned aerial vehicles have proven harder to deflect than its constant missile barrages, sources told the Times of Israel.
IAF officials said they would be ramping up Israel’s aerial defenses after an investigation found that the enemy drones near the Golani training camp were incorrectly believed to have been destroyed before they went on to do damage.
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Netanyahu Orders Failed U.N. ‘Peacekeeping’ Force to Withdraw From Combat Zones
A United Nations force working in Lebanon has failed in its mission to prevent Hezbollah from stockpiling weapons, even allowing terrorists to establish attack positions right under its nose, and is now putting itself in “harm’s way” of Israel’s ground operation, Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
The Israeli prime minister responded to international criticism of reports that his forces deliberatelyfired at U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) personnel over the weekend, saying the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has “repeatedly asked” for the supposed peacekeepers to withdraw from Hezbollah strongholds, “and has been met with repeated refusals, all aimed at providing a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists.”
The U.N. has itself called “on parties to refrain from all actions putting peacekeepers at risk.”
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Kyiv Willing to Surrender Ukraine Territory for Peace, German Media Reports
Ukraine is willing to surrender some of its territory to Russia if it means ending Moscow’s invasion, a major news website in Germany has reported.
Der Spiegel, which is highly sympathetic to Kyiv’s defensive war efforts, reported on October 11 that authorities in the Ukrainian capital no longer believe a total victory over Russia is possible.
Instead, the growing feeling is that territorial concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin will need to be made in the name of peace.
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Russia Says it Captured a Southern Ukraine Village in a Push Before Winter Comes
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said Monday it captured the village of Levadne in southern Ukraine as it probes for weaknesses along the war ‘s roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, including in eastern areas that are the main focus of Moscow’s military effort before winter arrives.
Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, reported no nighttime Shahed drone attackson the country for the first time in about six weeks, after saying five days ago they struck a Shahed storage facility in Russia’s Krasnodar region where around 400 drones reportedly were being kept.
Levadne, in the Zaporizhzhia region, was seized by the Russians early on during the full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022, but was recaptured by Ukrainian forces during a counteroffensive in the summer of 2023.
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Russia Says Ukraine Kidnapped Over 1000 Kursk Residents, Seeks Whereabouts
The Kremlin has issued a formal accusation saying Ukraine’s military has captured and is holding over 1,000 Kursk residents against their will, since launching the cross-border offensive in early August.
Russia’s presidential human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said Monday, “I’ve received messages regarding more than 1,000 such people from relatives trying to find them.”
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The Islamization of Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus — Backed by Obama, Soros, Clintons
Bangladesh, a country being promptly being shifted towards Talibanization under Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus — openly backed by Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Soros and the U.S. Democratic Party — is experiencing a total nightmare.
Bangladesh’s former leader, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was forced to flee on August 5, following a coup d’état. Now, Hindus in Bangladesh, who constitute a small minority of the population, are facing repeated threats and intimidation from Yunus’s men — a thuggish gang of Islamists and jihadists from hardline Islamist groups such as Hizbut Tahrir and Hefazat-e-Islam. To the utter surprise of Hindus, Yunus’s regime has asked them, during Muslim prayer times, to avoid playing musical instruments and refrain from activities that are a part of the Hindu Durga Puja festival celebrations, thereby interrupting the holiday.
Since the ouster of Hasina, orchestrated attacks on Hindus have been taking place, including murder, rape, abduction and arson targeting Hindu homes, businesses and temples, in addition to coerced religious conversions.
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Reported Chemical Explosion at Sydney University Campus Sends Three to Hospital
Three people have been rushed to hospital following reports of a chemical explosion at the University of Sydney.
It’s understood a staff member was carrying a ?bucket of acid down Darlington Lane, Darlington, at the university campus, when a chemical reaction occurred just before 10am.
The staff member was reportedly using an umbrella to protect the chemical before the reported explosion.
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A brutal crew of baby-faced Tren de Aragua migrant gangbangers at a city-funded Manhattan shelter are pulling off armed robberies in Times Square — and they’re getting away with it, officials and sources said.
Nearly two dozen young migrant thugs, some as young as 11 years old, are part of a dangerous asylum-seeking brat pack that has graduated from purse snatchings to gunpoint heists targeting New Yorkers and tourists alike, a top NYPD official told The Post.
But they’re managing to stay out of jail because of their ages and the Empire State’s lenient criminal justice laws, Detective Bureau Assistant Chief Jason Savino said.
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Denmark: Non-Western Migrants Commit Nearly 30% of All Violent Crimes, According to Government Data
Non-Western immigrants, who make up 8.4 percent of the Danish population, commit 14 percent of the country’s serious violent crimes and 24.3 percent of rapes based on the number of convictions, according to data from Danish Ministry of Justice.
However, second-generation non-Western immigrants, who make up only 2.2. percent of the population, is responsible for 15.6 percent of violent crimes and 8.1 percent of rapes.
Taken together, this data shows that 29.6 percent of violent crimes and 32.4 percent of rapes are committed by people of non-Western origin, despite making up only 10.6 percent of the population.
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The EU is set to discuss Rwanda-style asylum centres across Europe as diplomats have secretly admitted that they are ‘the most feasible solution to illegal migration’.
The interior ministers of the member states have told the European Commission to work on proposals for the feasibility of offshore processing centres similar to the UK’s Rwanda plan, which has since been scrapped by the governing Labour party.
‘Offshore hubs were widely mentioned as the most feasible innovative solution currently on the table. So the commission is now tasked to work on them. Quite a big step forward,’ one diplomat told the Telegraph.
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Exclusive: Afghan Terror Suspect Flagged Before Arrest as Border Records Conflict With DOJ Story
Nasir Ahmed Tawhedi, the Afghan refugee charged last week in Oklahoma with plotting an Election Day terror massacre was previously flagged by U.S. Customs Border and Protection this summer, weeks before his arrest, during a re-evaluation of his 2021 entry into the country, immigration records reviewed by Just the News show.
Those records conflict with the Justice Department portrayal of Tawhedi, 27, in the criminal information filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City.
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French Government to Propose Tougher Immigration Laws in 2025
The French government will propose a new immigration law in 2025 that will extend the period during which migrants in an irregular situation and deemed dangerous can be held in administrative detention, government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said on Sunday.
The last immigration law, which came into force in January 2024, was the subject of heated debate. The party of President Emmanuel Macron, which had a relative majority at the time, pushed through the law due to the far-right National Rally’s abstention, though some of the proposals put forward by the right-wing MPs were rejected by the Constitutional Council.
For 2025, however, “there will be a need for a new immigration law’ in 2025,” said government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon on Sunday morning on BFM TV.
This time, the new government, led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier and with the influential right-wing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau (LR, Les Républicains), wants to reverse the law.
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Bremens’ immigration policy has been a disaster and is contributing to housing and social problems, including an exploding crime rate, said Bremen’s Interior Senator Ulrich Mäurer of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD).
The city is “completely overwhelmed with taking in so many people,” said Mäurer while speaking with German newspaper Weser-Kurier. He said that the problems have “worsened.”
Bremen is arguably the most left-wing major city in Germany and has been ruled by the Greens, SPD, and the Left Party for many years.
Mäurer has been there since the start, helping guide the city’s radical policy towards immigration. The 73-year-old has been in office for 16 years. It is only now that he blames “massive immigration” for the housing shortage and “enormous difficulties” in daycares, schools, and at job sites.
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Germany: Berlin Freezes School Budgets While Allocating Billions for Migrant Housing
Berlin’s public schools are facing a budget freeze that has halted spending on key activities, including school trips, as the city contends with major financial challenges.
The freeze follows the Berlin House of Representatives’ decision to allocate an additional €1.3 billion for the accommodation of migrants, raising concerns about the city’s spending priorities.
In a letter issued on Wednesday, Education State Secretary Christina Henke (CDU) informed school administrators that they are no longer allowed to enter into “financially effective” contracts that extend into the next financial year. According to Tagesspiegel, this restriction includes school trips, where teachers’ travel expenses — typically reimbursed by the state — will no longer be covered.
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Here’s How Much Each NY State Resident Will Have to Fork Over in Taxes to Cover Migrant Crisis Bill
Each of New York’s 10.7 million taxpayers would have to fork over $215 on average to foot the bill for the state’s ongoing migrant crisis, according to a new analysis.
Put another way, it would take the entire tax bill paid by 328,471 New Yorkers together to cover the $2.3 billion tab to house and care for the staggering number of asylum seekers in the state.
The analysis was conducted by the campaign of Gina Arena, the Republican candidate in the 40th state Senate district in the lower Hudson Valley, based on the average $7,000 state income tax bill for New Yorkers in 2022.
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Italy: 10-Year-Old Child Undergoes Abortion After Rape by Bangladeshi Migrant in Asylum Center
An asylum seeker from Bangladesh is in custody facing accusations of raping and impregnating a 10-year-old girl at a migrant reception center in Italy.
The 28-year-old suspect is charged with aggravated sexual assault following the attack in San Colombano di Collio, Brescia.
The assault was brought to the attention of the authorities on Oct. 1 after being reported by the child’s mother who had noticed drastic changes in her daughter’s behavior.
According to QuiBrescia, the accused befriended the mother and his victim, both of whom were fellow asylum seekers staying at the facility, which accommodates around 20 migrants.
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Italy Sends the First Ship With Migrants to Albania as Rights Groups Warn of a Dangerous Precedent
ROME (AP) — Italy is transferring the first group of migrants to Albania, the Interior Ministry said Monday, as part of a contentious plan to process thousands of asylum-seekers outside its borders.
A naval ship departed from the island of Lampedusa with 16 men — 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt — who were rescued at sea after departing from Libya. The ship is expected to arrive Wednesday morning, a ministry spokesman said.
Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government on Friday formally opened the two centers in Albania where Italy plans to process thousands of male migrants requesting asylum after being intercepted in international waters while trying to cross to Europe.
The centers can accommodate up to 400 migrants at first, with that expected to increase to 880 in a few weeks, according to Italian officials.
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The proof of Tren de Aragua’s violence in Aurora, Colo., is written in blood.
A fed-up landlord in the Denver suburb has shared a bloody photo of one of its workers after the man was allegedly beaten to a pulp by members of the brutal Venezuelan prison gang for refusing to let them stay in a vacant apartment they had taken over.
The Brooklyn-based company claimed that the gang effectively stole entire apartment complexes out from under it by threatening employees and tried to extort it for a cut of the rent in exchange for being allowed to keep operating the properties.
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Poland: Tusk Steals Orban’s Playbook on Migration, Faces Critics and Doubters on Both Sides
During Saturday’s Civic Coalition (KO) convention, Prime Minister Donald Tusk presented the government’s migration strategy, including the temporary, territorial suspension of the right to asylum in light of the hybrid war on Poland’s borders, stating that the right to asylum is being used as a tool by regimes hostile to Europe.
“I will demand the right to recognize this decision in Europe,” announced Donald Tusk. “If someone wants to come to Poland, they must accept Polish standards and customs. […] People who come to Poland must want to “work honestly, pay taxes, integrate with Polish society, and study at a real university,” he added.
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Polish PM “Demands” EU Green Light to Suspend Asylum Rights
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that he will temporarily suspend the right to claim asylum in Poland for migrants who cross the borders from Belarus. He sees such crossings as part of Russia’s ‘hybrid warfare’ against the East Central European member states.
It’s obvious that the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government would have been sanctioned by the European Union for such an initiative. But will Brussels act against one of its own?
Anticipating that such an unprecedented move would stir up emotions, Tusk stressed that he would “demand” the EU’s acceptance of his decision during this week’s EU Council Summit.
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Media and government officials are downplaying the impact of Venezuelan gangs in Aurora, Colorado, says one woman who moved out of her apartment earlier this year due to increasing violence.
“I feel like it’s a slap in the face,” Cindy Romero told Fox News Digital. “How many gangs is okay to have in Aurora? How many properties is okay to take over? How many people, who are citizens paying their bills, is it okay to displace?”
Romero’s comments come after GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance and ABC News host Martha Raddatz clashed during an interview Sunday about the presence of Venezuelan gangs in Aurora.
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Swedish Teachers’ Union, the nation’s leading education union, has announced it will provide legal assistance to members who refuse to comply with a proposed law requiring teachers to report illegal migrant students.
The union’s chairman, Anna Olskog, strongly condemned the government’s plan, calling on officials to “back off” and emphasizing that educators should not be tasked with immigration enforcement.
“We will not back down,” said Olskog in a public statement. “If the proposal has consequences for individuals, we will support them with our legal aid policy.”
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The Home Office is preparing for small boat crossings of the Channel to carry on for more than a decade after advertising contracts worth more than £520million to manage arrivals.
The department is seeking private companies to manage the Western Jet Foil in Dover, where migrants are subjected to initial checks after being picked up in the Channel, and the nearby Manston processing centre.
The tenders cover the provision of security, healthcare, catering, accommodation, transportation and other support services required by new arrivals, and are slated to start in January 2026 and run until January 2032.
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Watch: Bill Clinton Unintentionally Creates Trump’s Next Campaign Ad
Former President Bill Clinton was supposed to be campaigning for VP Kamala Harris but inadvertently spilled the beans about just how disastrous open southern border policies pushed by the Biden-Harris administration have been, leading to the deaths of innocent Americans, including Laken Riley from Georgia, who an illegal alien murdered.
Clinton admitted that Laken Riley would still be alive today if there were actual vetting procedures on the southern border. Yet there weren’t as ‘Border Czar’ Harris facilitated the greatest migrant invasion this nation has ever seen.
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A top Oregon state official has been put on administrative leave after a pink-haired, DEI-obsessed subordinate complained he was making hiring decisions based on qualifications instead of personal identity considerations, according to a report.
Mike Shaw, who until recently served as the Oregon Department of Forestry’s second-in-command, was put on blast by Megan Donecker, the department’s former DEI strategy officer, for looking “beyond gender and identity in hiring, seeking only candidates most qualified for the job,” OregonLive reported.
He was formally placed on administrative leave Aug. 6 after Donecker filed a formal complaint, according to the Daily Mail.
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A top university in England has sparked backlash after giving students a trigger warning before reading The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer as seminal work contains “expressions of Christian faith”.
The University of Nottingham issued a series of woke warnings to students studying a module called ‘Chaucer and His Contemporaries’, the Mail on Sunday revealed following a Freedom of Information request.
According to the paper, supposedly fragile-minded students were warned that the 14th Century Canterbury Tales, which describe a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, contain violence, depictions of mental illness, and “expressions of Christian faith”.
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