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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.
Not sure what this is – putting it here for further investigation:
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/search/?q=STATE+SECRETS%3A+HOW+AN+AVALANCHE+OF+MEDIA+LEAKS+IS+HARMING+NATIONAL+SECURITY&search-button=Search&access=p&as_dt=i&as_epq=&as_eq=&as_lq=&as_occt=any&as_oq=&as_q=&as_sitesearch=&client=hsgac&sntsp=0&filter=0&getfields=&lr=&num=15&numgm=3&oe=UTF8&output=xml_no_dtd&partialfields=&proxycustom=&proxyreload=0&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&requiredfields=&sitesearch=&sort=date%3AD%3AS%3Ad1&start=0&ud=1
Written in July 2017, it compares the number of leaks in Trump’s administration to the number in Bush’s and Obama’s and cites which laws the leaks violate.
Violations of the Espionage Act are punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, as are violations of a separate statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(1), which prohibits the communication of classified information retrieved from a computer if the information “could be used to the injury of the United States.”
The Obama administration laid out a zero-tolerance policy for leaks and the harm they cause. President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, wrote in a blunt 2012 Intelligence Community Directive: “National intelligence and intelligence sources, methods and activities shall be protected
PERSON OF INTEREST SOUGHT AFTER TWO EXPLOSIVES START FIRE AT EAGLE RIDGE MALL
Two explosive devices detonated inside the mall Sunday evening.
http://www.wtsp.com/mobile/article/news/local/person-of-interest-sought-after-two-explosives-start-fire-at-eagle-ridge-mall/67-510263632
Florida
17 Syrian refugees frozen to death in Lebanon (memo, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180122-17-syrian-refugees-frozen-to-death-in-lebanon/
“The number of Syrian refugees who froze to death due to a snowstorm in eastern Lebanon rose to 17 in three days, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense source…”
For nearly 25 years on the internet I have always subscribed to many info sites(vocabulary, archaeology, history, science, astronomy etc) none of them are crucial but they all bring the occasional interesting titbit to my notice. Sadly I have had to admonish one (vocabulary) and to simply unsubscribe from many others due to their absolutely blatant leftist, anti-western, pro-islam, anti-Israel, anti-Trump stance. Now while I support Trump I am no lover of him but see him as the only chance we have vs the pernicious lying left. However, with the indoctrination that is now a part of sites such as these what chance does a young adult have of seeing the truth? They have destroyed official education in the west and now they are destroying alternatives.
It’s likely that this Israeli archaeology dept still maintains a list.
http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/orion/archives/1999a/msg00284.html
Try site:.huji.il
Why poverty hasn’t reduced significantly in Pakistan (tribune, Jan 22, 2018)
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1614607/2-poverty-hasnt-reduced-significantly-pakistan/
“Focusing too much on programmes and redistributive policies has done more harm than good. Almost all of the programmes have fallen prey to government failure and corruption…”
Bomb in market in Thailand’s south kills three, wounds 18: security official (reuters, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-south-bomb/bomb-in-market-in-thailands-south-kills-three-wounds-18-security-official-idUSKBN1FB05M?il=0
“A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand’s southern Yala province on Monday, killing three people and wounding 18, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said.
The mostly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in Thailand’s far south are home to a long-running insurgency by ethnic Malay Muslims fighting for autonomy in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since 2004.
“The criminals put a bomb in a motorcycle and placed it next to a market cart. The force of the explosion caused three people to lose their lives,” ISOC spokesman Pramote Prom-in said. The ISOC is a government security force that operates in the region.
No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack.”
Saudi Graft Settlements May Top $100 Billion as Probe Nears End (bloomberg, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-22/saudi-graft-settlements-may-top-100-billion-as-probe-nears-end-jcpp192u
“Saudi authorities will likely recover more than $100 billion in settlement agreements with corruption suspects in a probe that has implicated dozens of princes and billionaires, a senior government official said…”
Oerlinghausen, NRW. Ever since Oerlinghausen opened a large shelter for rejected asylum seekers, the burglary and theft figures are exploding in the area. The citizens are scared and angry. The media and police are still trying play down the situation(as usual).
Scumification.
Young people do not realize their social environment is engineered that the sexual-partner pool is so limited that in time, through intellectual and emotional isolation, they sucumb to a well-seasoned whore.
Then they are left as the only one to save their child from the authorities.
‘Conquest’ prayers performed across Turkey’s mosques for Afrin operation (hurriyetdailynews, Jan 21, 2018)
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/conquest-prayers-performed-across-turkeys-mosques-for-afrin-operation-126072
“Special “conquest” prayers were held across all of Turkey’s 90,000 mosques on Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 for the victory of the country’s military, which launched a cross border operation in Syria’s northwestern Afrin region on Jan. 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“Sessions will be held after the isha prayer tonight [Jan. 20] and the morning prayer [on Jan. 21] due to Operation Olive Branch,” said Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) head Ali Erbas in a message sent on Jan. 20 to all offices of muftis and religious officials across the country.
“The Surah Conquest [Surah al-Fath] will be cited during the special sessions to pray for the victory of our heroic security forces, who have launched an operation against terrorist groups that threaten our nation and our peace,” Erba? added.
Responding to the call by Turkey’s top cleric, thousands across the country gathered in mosques to pray for servicemen taking part in the operation.”
“Indeed, We have given you, [O Muhammad], a clear conquest
That Allah may forgive for you what preceded of your sin and what will follow and complete His favor upon you and guide you to a straight path
And [that] Allah may aid you with a mighty victory.
It is He who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers that they would increase in faith along with their [present] faith. And to Allah belong the soldiers of the heavens and the earth, and ever is Allah Knowing and Wise.
And] that He may admit the believing men and the believing women to gardens beneath which rivers flow to abide therein eternally and remove from them their misdeeds – and ever is that, in the sight of Allah, a great attainment –
And [that] He may punish the hypocrite men and hypocrite women, and the polytheist men and polytheist women – those who assume about Allah an assumption of evil nature. Upon them is a misfortune of evil nature; and Allah has become angry with them and has cursed them and prepared for them Hell, and evil it is as a destination.
And to Allah belong the soldiers of the heavens and the earth. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise.
Indeed, We have sent you as a witness and a bringer of good tidings and a warner
That you [people] may believe in Allah and His Messenger and honor him and respect the Prophet and exalt Allah morning and afternoon.
Indeed, those who pledge allegiance to you, [O Muhammad] – they are actually pledging allegiance to Allah . The hand of Allah is over their hands. So he who breaks his word only breaks it to the detriment of himself. And he who fulfills that which he has promised Allah – He will give him a great reward.
Those who remained behind of the bedouins will say to you, “Our properties and our families occupied us, so ask forgiveness for us.” They say with their tongues what is not within their hearts. Say, “Then who could prevent Allah at all if He intended for you harm or intended for you benefit? Rather, ever is Allah, with what you do, Acquainted.
But you thought that the Messenger and the believers would never return to their families, ever, and that was made pleasing in your hearts. And you assumed an assumption of evil and became a people ruined.”
And whoever has not believed in Allah and His Messenger – then indeed, We have prepared for the disbelievers a Blaze.
And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.
Those who remained behind will say when you set out toward the war booty to take it, “Let us follow you.” They wish to change the words of Allah . Say, “Never will you follow us. Thus did Allah say before.” So they will say, “Rather, you envy us.” But [in fact] they were not understanding except a little.
Say to those who remained behind of the bedouins, “You will be called to [face] a people of great military might; you may fight them, or they will submit. So if you obey, Allah will give you a good reward; but if you turn away as you turned away before, He will punish you with a painful punishment.”
There is not upon the blind any guilt or upon the lame any guilt or upon the ill any guilt [for remaining behind]. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger – He will admit him to gardens beneath which rivers flow; but whoever turns away – He will punish him with a painful punishment.
Certainly was Allah pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you, [O Muhammad], under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquillity upon them and rewarded them with an imminent conquest
And much war booty which they will take. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise.
Allah has promised you much booty that you will take [in the future] and has hastened for you this [victory] and withheld the hands of people from you – that it may be a sign for the believers and [that] He may guide you to a straight path.
And [He promises] other [victories] that you were [so far] unable to [realize] which Allah has already encompassed. And ever is Allah, over all things, competent.
And if those [Makkans] who disbelieve had fought you, they would have turned their backs [in flight]. Then they would not find a protector or a helper.
[This is] the established way of Allah which has occurred before. And never will you find in the way of Allah any change.
And it is He who withheld their hands from you and your hands from them within [the area of] Makkah after He caused you to overcome them. And ever is Allah of what you do, Seeing.
They are the ones who disbelieved and obstructed you from al-Masjid al-Haram while the offering was prevented from reaching its place of sacrifice. And if not for believing men and believing women whom you did not know – that you might trample them and there would befall you because of them dishonor without [your] knowledge – [you would have been permitted to enter Makkah]. [This was so] that Allah might admit to His mercy whom He willed. If they had been apart [from them], We would have punished those who disbelieved among them with painful punishment
When those who disbelieved had put into their hearts chauvinism – the chauvinism of the time of ignorance. But Allah sent down His tranquillity upon His Messenger and upon the believers and imposed upon them the word of righteousness, and they were more deserving of it and worthy of it. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing.
Certainly has Allah showed to His Messenger the vision in truth. You will surely enter al-Masjid al-Haram, if Allah wills, in safety, with your heads shaved and [hair] shortened, not fearing [anyone]. He knew what you did not know and has arranged before that a conquest near [at hand].
It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion. And sufficient is Allah as Witness.
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah ; and those with him are forceful against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating [in prayer], seeking bounty from Allah and [His] pleasure. Their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration. That is their description in the Torah. And their description in the Gospel is as a plant which produces its offshoots and strengthens them so they grow firm and stand upon their stalks, delighting the sowers – so that Allah may enrage by them the disbelievers. Allah has promised those who believe and do righteous deeds among them forgiveness and a great reward.”
https://quran.com/48
Shopping centre bloodbath as two men are stabbed in front of horrified families before attacker flees the scene (dailymail, Jan 21, 2018)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5295045/Double-stabbing-Luton-shopping-centre.html
“Shoppers watched on in horror as two men were stabbed at a busy mall in Luton.
Grisly pictures show a trail of blood and a large knife lying on the floor of the shopping centre and Bedfordshire Police said the two men had been taken to hospital.
A video taken from inside The Mall appears to show screens erected around emergency services while they work on one of the victims.
The footage also shows dozens of horrified shoppers walking over the bloody footsteps.
Both of the men’s conditions are unknown…”
Philippines Arrests Explosives Expert Tied to Mideast Militants (NYT, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/world/asia/philippines-explosives-expert-arrested.html
“Philippine intelligence operatives have arrested an Iraqi explosives expert who has eluded the local authorities since last year and were checking whether he had been in contact with Filipino militant groups, the police said Monday.
The man, Taha Mohamed al-Jabouri, 64, arrived in the Philippines in August as the country was getting ready to host a gathering of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in preparation for a November summit meeting that included President Trump.
Mr. Jabouri was a “chemist with knowledge of explosives” and is known to have ties to militant extremist movements in the Middle East, said Ronald dela Rosa, director general of the Philippine National Police, citing Iraqi intelligence information.
“The Iraqi Embassy in Manila alerted the Philippine intelligence community of his presence,” he said…”
Indonesia investigates online insults of Brunei’s sultan (wapo, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indonesia-investigates-online-insults-of-bruneis-sultan/2018/01/22/ae82f4d4-ff44-11e7-86b9-8908743c79dd_story.html
“The Sultan of Brunei has made a complaint of defamation to the Indonesian police about an Instagram account that criticized the wealthy autocratic leader of Southeast Asia’s smallest nation.
Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said Monday the complaint was made on behalf of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah by the deputy director of the Royal Brunei Police Force.
Yuwono said the police officer, who is also a prince in Brunei’s royal family, was on a visit to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, when he found photos of Bolkiah posted along with insulting comments on Instagram by the account “anti_hassanal.”…”
Turkish troops face fierce battles in Syrian Kurdish enclave (wapo, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkish-troops-face-fierce-battles-in-syrian-kurdish-enclave/2018/01/22/5a60b832-ff4e-11e7-86b9-8908743c79dd_story.html
“Syria’s Kurdish militia says it has repelled Turkish troops and their allies from villages they seized during the Turkey-backed offensive against the enclave.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia has waged a ferocious counteroffensive, repelling Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters from two villages they briefly captured
The Observatory says Turkey-backed troops opened two new fronts on the third day of the offensive, attempting once again to enter Afrin in northwestern Syria.
The Kurdish militia, known as People’s Defense Units or YPG, says it’s clashing with the Turkish troops northwest of Afrin.
Turkey considers the YPG a terror organization because of its affiliation to its own Kurdish insurgency. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to expand the operation.”
Syria offensive: Turkish troops ‘capture villages’ in Afrin (BBC, Jan 22, 2018)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42771469
“Turkish forces have captured a number of villages in north-western Syria, on the third day of an offensive to oust Kurdish fighters, Turkish media report.
Troops, accompanied by allied Syrian rebels, reportedly seized control of several areas in Afrin on Monday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would not “step back” in the assault following talks with Russia.
Turkey considers the Kurdish YPG militia it is targeting in the region to be a terrorist group.
“We are determined, Afrin will be sorted out,” Mr Erdogan said in a live television broadcast in Ankara on Monday.
“We will take no step back,” he said, adding: “We spoke about this with our Russian friends; we have an agreement.”
The YPG, which controls much of north-eastern Syria, is believed by Turkey to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades.
The YPG denies any direct links and is a crucial part of a US-backed alliance battling Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria.
Ankara has condemned the US for supporting the YPG and this latest development in the Syrian civil war puts Turkey on a collision course with its Nato ally…”
Turkish Army extends Syria operation to Azaz district, east of Afrin (RT, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.rt.com/news/416627-turkish-army-syria-operation/
“Turkish armed forces have advanced into the Azaz district of Syria, east of the Afrin region. This comes as Operation Olive Branch against Kurdish forces enters its third day…”
Here is a highly suspicious story. Ottawa used to be a beautiful, boring sleepy backwater to Toronto and Montreal with very little crime. Now there seems to be a shooting every day with the most predictable sorts of names consistently attached to police reports. I just don’t see how this guy’s story will stand scrutiny:
http://ottawasun.com/news/local-news/i-have-to-move-now-they-could-come-back/wcm/9cb173fb-a7c6-4feb-8a6a-b3b213beaec9
One dead and two injured in Helsingborg youth brawl (thelocal, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.thelocal.se/20180122/one-dead-and-two-injured-in-helsingborg-youth-brawl
“A teenager and two men in their twenties have been arrested after a large brawl in Swedish city Helsingborg resulted in one death and multiple injuries…”
Afghan asylum seeker flees to Sweden with new ID after being accused of sexually abusing girl, four, in Germany (dailymail, Jan 21, 2018)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5294795/Asylum-seeker-accused-child-sex-abuse-flees-Sweden.html
“An Afghan asylum seeker in Germany has fled to Sweden and registered under a new identity after being accused of sexually abusing the four-year-old daughter of the family caring for him.
The case of Ahmed M., who claimed to be just 12 when he entered Germany in 2016, is another sorry tale of abused trust and bureaucratic blunders that have left him free and the girl he allegedly abused in therapy…”
Editor: Erdogan urged attack on Turkish Cypriot newspaper (abcnews, Jan 22, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/editor-erdogan-urged-attack-turkish-cypriot-newspaper-52517545
India, Pakistan continue trading fire and blame in Kashmir (abcnews, Jan 22, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/india-pakistan-continue-trading-fire-blame-kashmir-52516306
“Indian and Pakistani soldiers again targeted each other’s posts and villages along their volatile frontier in disputed Kashmir after a day’s lull, killing at least one civilian and wounding three others, officials said Monday.
Fighting erupted overnight as the rivals traded gunfire and shelling until dawn Monday, leaving a civilian dead and three others injured on the Indian side. The two sides resumed intermittent fighting at several places later Monday, officials said.
The recent flare-up has left 13 civilians and nine soldiers dead and dozens injured on the two sides. The fighting also has caused extensive damage and sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing from their border homes.
Pakistan did not immediately comment on Monday. Both of the nuclear-armed rivals routinely blame the other for starting any firing and insist they are only retaliating.
As in the past, both also called the violence an unprovoked violation of a 2003 cease-fire agreement and summoned each other’s senior diplomats in their capitals to register their anger and protest. They also issued statements condemning the violence.
Officials say the latest violence has sent tens of thousands of villagers fleeing from their homes in hundreds of affected villages along the border to government buildings converted into temporary shelters or to the houses of friends and relatives living in safer places.
Hundreds of houses have been destroyed and bullets and shrapnel have scarred homes and walls on both sides. Hundreds of cattle and livestock have also perished in the confrontation.
Indian civilian official Arun Manhas said an entire village along the frontier was destroyed in a fire caused by the shelling. He said over 100 cattle were killed in the village.
“Damage to the huts and cattle is huge in the village. It was a daunting task to shift over 4,000 cows and buffaloes from the village along with about 1,200 residents who are mainly milk suppliers for the vast area,” Manhas said.
Most of the fighting is taking place along the portion of the frontier which is somewhat-defined and where each country has a paramilitary border force guarding the lower-altitude 200-kilometer (125-mile) boundary separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab.
But the fighting has also escalated to the contentious frontier that includes a 740-kilometer (460-mile) rugged and mountainous stretch called the Line of Control that is guarded by the armies of India and Pakistan.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over their competing claims to the region. Since 1947, they have each administered part of it.
Many see the fighting as part of what’s become a predictable cycle of violence, as the region convulses with decades-old animosities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, where rebel groups demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
A flare-up last year similarly sent thousands to temporary shelters for days.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training anti-India rebels and also helping them by providing gunfire as cover for incursions into the Indian side.
Pakistan staunchly denies this, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown since 1989.”
World War 3: India ‘EVACUATES 36,000 PEOPLE’ from Pakistan border to escape heavy shelling (express, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/907950/World-War-3-India-Pakistan-Line-of-Control-evacuation-Jammu-and-Kashmir
“INDIA has evacuated “over 36,000” people from its border with Pakistan to escape heavy shelling that has devastated buildings and killed cattle as tensions soar between the two nations, it has emerged…”
Now we know why China is moving troops up to the border with India.
Doctor who aided hunt for bin Laden languishes, forgotten (abcnews, Jan 22, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/doctor-aided-hunt-bin-laden-languishes-forgotten-52514549
“Shakil Afridi has languished in jail for years — since 2011, when the Pakistani doctor used a vaccination scam in an attempt to identify Osama bin Laden’s home, aiding U.S. Navy Seals who tracked and killed the al-Qaida leader…”
Germany’s SPD wants Merkel to sweeten coalition deal
BERLIN (Reuters) – The leader of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) said on Monday he wanted to renegotiate key issues agreed in a coalition blueprint with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives after his party narrowly agreed to pursue formal coalition talks.
At an SPD congress where divisions over the proposed alliance were laid bare, 56 percent of delegates voted on Sunday to start formal negotiations on the basis of a blueprint agreed earlier this month.
That was tighter than many analysts had expected, with discontent among the party’s rank-and-file widespread. The SPD sought on Monday to appease them by demanding that the conservatives make concessions on immigration and healthcare.
Merkel, SPD head Martin Schulz and the leader of her Bavarian CSU allies, Horst Seehofer, will meet on Monday and the full talks may start as early as Tuesday.
The conservatives have insisted they will not give ground, but Schulz said negotiations would be starting anew.
Swedish Migrant Center Employees Quit Over Accusations of Sex With Migrant Kids (sputniknews, Jan 22, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201801221060952611-sweden-migrants-sex/
“In addition to posing financial difficulties and severe integration problems, it’s been found that the migrant crisis in Sweden has a morbid underside in the form of unethical sexual relations between the newcomers and staff…”
Teens roam streets with rifles as crime swamps Sweden
The army may be called in to halt a gang surge in immigrant areas
The blast was so powerful that it shook windows a mile away. Ahmad’s first thought was that someone had thrown yet another bomb at the police.
He was right. On Wednesday night an explosive device was hurled at the police station in Rosengard, a troubled area of Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city.
Attacks on the police are increasingly frequent. Rosengard’s force works from a black fortress of reinforced concrete with narrow windows and a 10ft-high electric fence.
“I knew it was a bomb again,” said Ahmad, 53, who lives in the area with his wife and their four teenage children.
French prison guards start nationwide strike (reuters, Jan 22, 2018)
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-security-prison/french-prison-guards-start-nationwide-strike-idUKKBN1FB10Z?rpc=401&
“French prison guards launched a nationwide strike on Monday in a showdown with President Emmanuel Macron’s government over staffing levels and violence which they say is spiralling out of control in overcrowded jails…”
U.S. navy warship to spend winter in Montreal due to icy weather
The USS Little Rock’s maiden journey was complicated by unusually heavy ice conditions that have kept it in Montreal since Christmas Eve.
MONTREAL—A brand new U.S. navy warship that has been stuck in Montreal for weeks will spend the winter in Canada after its journey to Florida was thwarted by cold and ice.
The USS Little Rock was commissioned in Buffalo on Dec. 16 in a grand ceremony attended by over 8,000 people that featured a brass band, speeches by military leaders and a chaplain who prayed for “fair winds and following seas.”
But it hasn’t gotten very far since then, after its maiden journey was complicated by unusually heavy ice conditions that have kept it in Montreal since Christmas Eve.
Now the U.S. navy has decided to wait until weather conditions improve before allowing the ship to continue to its home port in Mayport, Fla., according to a spokesperson.
“The temperatures in Montreal and throughout the transit area have been colder than normal, and included near-record low temperatures, which created significant and historical conditions in the late December, early January time frame,” Lt.-Cmdr. Courtney Hillson said in a phone interview.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/01/21/us-navy-warship-to-spend-winter-in-montreal-due-to-icy-weather.html
China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials
U.S. scientists helped devise the Crispr biotechnology tool. First to test it in humans are Chinese doctors
HANGZHOU, China—In a hospital west of Shanghai, Wu Shixiu since March has been trying to treat cancer patients using a promising new gene-editing tool.
U.S. scientists helped devise the tool, known as Crispr-Cas9, which has captured global attention since a 2012 report said it can be used to edit DNA. Doctors haven’t been allowed to use it in human trials in America. That isn’t the case for Dr. Wu and others in China.
In a quirk of the globalized technology arena, Dr. Wu can forge ahead with the tool because he faces few regulatory hurdles to testing it on humans. His hospital’s review board took just an afternoon to sign off on his trial. He didn’t need national regulators’ approval and has few reporting requirements.
Dr. Wu’s team at Hangzhou Cancer Hospital has been drawing blood from esophageal-cancer patients, shipping it by high-speed rail to a lab that modifies disease-fighting cells using Crispr-Cas9 by deleting a gene that interferes with the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. His team then infuses the cells back into the patients, hoping the reprogrammed DNA will destroy the disease.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-unhampered-by-rules-races-ahead-in-gene-editing-trials-1516562360
China takes aim at hip-hop, saying ‘low-taste content’ must stop
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Jan 22 (Reuters) – China’s censors have a new target in a widespread clamp-down on popular culture: the country’s nascent hip-hop scene, which resonated with Chinese youth last year on hugely popular television show “Rap of China.”
Hip hop artists Wang Hao, known as “PG One” and Zhou Yan, known as “GAI” – the two winners of the show – have been sanctioned in recent weeks for bad behaviour or content at odds with Communist Party values. GAI was pulled from hit show “The Singer” last week.
The crackdown on hip-hop, still very much a new genre in China, reflects a broader squeeze on popular culture as the country’s stability-focused leadership looks to rein in potential platforms for youthful dissent.
Beijing is eager to use popular culture to shape public opinion, including co-opting rap artists ahead of its five-yearly congress last year. With state support comes the insistence that Party values must take centre stage in the artists’ work.
http://news.trust.org/item/20180122095311-4tpfd
Yeah, free speech. Fight to the death for your right, blah, blah…
Hip-hop, rap – it’s awful stuff – from what I can tell when it’s translated for me. Degenerate, unwholesome.
Doesn’t cause perversion, just normalizes it.
Communist Purge Plays Out in Vietnam’s Trial of the Decade
A Hanoi court on Monday sentenced a former official to life in prison, calling it ‘a necessary warning against the abuse of power’
The disappearance of a former Vietnamese official in Berlin last summer gave the outside world an early glimpse into an anticorruption drive captivating communist-run Vietnam.
Germany said Vietnamese agents kidnapped Trinh Xuan Thanh, who had been seeking asylum there. But Vietnam said the former executive at state-owned oil-and-gas giant PetroVietnam returned home of his own accord to face corruption charges stemming from losses of $150 million.
On Monday, a Hanoi court sentenced him to life in prison. He was convicted alongside other defendants, including a former Politburo member who had once been groomed as a potential senior leader and who was himself ordered to serve 13 years. Other officials and executives were handed sentences ranging from a 13-month suspended sentence to 22 years in prison.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/communist-purge-plays-out-in-vietnams-trial-of-the-decade-1516598232
More texts turned over from FBI agent taken off Mueller team
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has turned over to Congress additional text messages involving an FBI agent who was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team following the discovery of derogatory comments about President Donald Trump.
But the department also said in a letter to lawmakers that its record of messages sent to and from the agent, Peter Strzok, was incomplete because the FBI, for technical reasons, had been unable to preserve and retrieve about five months’ worth of communications.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-texts-turned-over-fbi-agent-taken-off-161343170–politics.html
Byron York: Congress seeks answers after FBI claims texts missing in Trump-Russia probe
Investigators in both House and Senate were stunned late Friday when, receiving a batch of newly-released texts between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, they also received notice from the bureau that the FBI “failed to preserve” Strzok-Page messages from December 14, 2016 through May 17, 2017.
Given the amount of texting that went on between Strzok and Page, who were having an extramarital affair, that probably meant thousands of missing documents.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-congress-seeks-answers-after-fbi-claims-texts-missing-in-trump-russia-probe/article/2646644
Was Lynch coordinating with Comey in the Clinton investigation?
Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch knew well in advance of FBI Director James Comey’s 2016 press conference that he would recommend against charging Hillary Clinton, according to information turned over to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Friday.
The revelation was included in 384 pages of text messages exchanged between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and it significantly diminishes the credibility of Lynch’s earlier commitment to accept Comey’s recommendation — a commitment she made under the pretense that the two were not coordinating with each other.
And it gets worse. Comey and Lynch reportedly knew that Clinton would never face charges even before the FBI conducted its three-hour interview with Clinton, which was supposedly meant to gather more information into her mishandling of classified information.
http://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/370019-was-lynch-coordinating-with-comey-in-the-clinton-investigation
Undercover report on Polish neo-Nazis sparks investigation
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — An undercover television report that showed members of a Polish neo-Nazi group celebrating Adolf Hitler’s birthday and burning a swastika has prompted a criminal investigation.
Poland’s prime minister also denounced fascism in response to the report broadcast by Polish news channel TVN24 on Saturday.
The report featured members of a group called Pride and Modernity wearing Nazi uniforms. It said the same group was behind a November protest where pictures of centrist European Parliament lawmakers from Poland were hung on mock gallows.
Poland’s prosecutor general opened an investigation Sunday for suspected “public propagation of fascism,” a crime punishable by up to two years in prison.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said propagating fascism tramples “the memory of our ancestors and their heroic fight for a Poland that is just and free from hatred.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/undercover-report-polish-neo-nazis-sparks-investigation-185039236.html
Spy oysters and night-vision goggles: How France is fighting back against food thieves
by Alice Tidey
Night-vision goggles, drones, patrols on kayak: French authorities are deploying a wide range of resources to prevent robbers from targeting gourmet delights including oysters, cheese and wine.
Earlier this month, a cheese producer in the Puy-de-Dome region woke up to find that 10,000 euros ($12,200) worth of Saint-Nectaire — a semi-soft cow cheese — had been stolen.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/spy-oysters-night-vision-goggles-how-france-fighting-back-against-n839076
Paris dustmen film swarming plague of rats as Paris faces up to mass rodent infestation
Paris rubbish collectors have released a video to sound the alarm over a plague of rats that have invaded the banks of the Seine, claiming that the rodents now pose a physical threat to dustmen.
Shot last month between the tourist landmark of the Musée d’Orsay and the Pont Royal, the film shows a huge group of the large vermin desperately trying to escape from a deep plastic municipal rubbish bin.
The dustman who shot the film, known only as David, can be heard shouting: “Look in the bin, there are a million rats!”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/22/paris-dustmen-film-swarming-plague-rats-paris-faces-mass-rodent/
Jamaica declares emergency over parts of island as gun crime soars
Montego Bay (Jamaica) (AFP) – Jamaica has declared a state of emergency in the island’s second city Montego Bay, where authorities are battling to stem a wave of killings.
Tourists have been urged to remain in their resorts following the declaration by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Thursday, resulting in the deployment of thousands of members of the military and police in the city of 200,000, home to some of the biggest and most luxurious resorts on the island.
The move came days after the United States upgraded its travel advisory to its citizens. Canada and Great Britain issued warnings following the declaration of emergency.
“You should limit your movements outside of resorts in the area at this time, and exercise particular care if travelling at night,” Britain’s foreign office said on its website.
Montego Bay has seen its murder rate rise over several years with a record 335 deaths in 2017, most tied to gang violence, and an illegal lottery scam that has
https://www.yahoo.com/news/jamaica-declares-emergency-over-parts-island-gun-crime-044941190.html
Timeframe of missing Strzok-Page texts is very informative
By J.E. Dyer January 21, 2018
The FBI disclosed to the Senate on Friday that it had “failed to preserve” five months’ worth of text messages between officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, whose correspondence has been of ongoing interest in coverage of the Mueller investigation.
From Chuck Ross at the Daily Caller:
The timeframe could hardly be more freighted if it were a Hanjin shipping container.
Read the timeline, it is very telling, and very important. The time line of the actions tells us a lot more then the words of the politicians do, what it says is damning.
According to former military lawyers, Chelsea Manning cannot legally run for office
By LU Staff January 22, 2018
Chelsea Manning has filed to run for Senate as a Democratic candidate in Maryland. But Manning’s political ambitions put him in jeopardy of prosecution for violating Pentagon regulations on political activities, according to former military lawyers.
Manning, the transgender soldier who spent seven years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 sensitive documents to WikiLeaks, before having sentence commuted by Barack Obama, recently filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission. Manning is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the Senate seat in Maryland currently occupied by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, a two-term senator.
In a Thursday tweet, Manning posted a certificate of candidacy obtained from the Maryland State Board of Elections, an important and required step in the process of running for Senate. One of the lines of the certificate states: “I am a registered voter and a citizen of Maryland and meet all other requirements for the above listed office.”
The website of the state board shows that Manning filed in Annapolis on Thursday, which is far in advance of the late February deadline and raises the stakes for the Democratic primary in Maryland set to begin at the end of June.
As part of the coverage of Manning’s filing with the FEC and state board, virtually every media organization has referred to Manning as a former Army private. To the contrary, Manning is still an active-duty soldier, as the Army confirmed to The Daily Caller News Foundation in September 2017. He is on excess leave in a non-pay status pending his appeal of a general court-martial for violating the Espionage Act and other orders. And as ABC News noted in May 2017, Manning must remain in an active-duty status while the appeal process continues.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/01/22/according-former-military-lawyers-chelsea-manning-subject-prosecution-running-office/
Bureaucrats are still pushing racial quotas in school discipline
By Jerome Woehrle January 22, 2018
All too often, bureaucrats think they are above the law — such as civil rights’ officials pressure on schools to have unconstitutional racial quotas.
Twenty years ago, the federal appeals court in Chicago declared illegal a provision that forbade a “school district to refer a higher percentage of minority students than of white students for discipline unless the district purges all ‘subjective’ criteria from its disciplinary code.” It considered that to be an unconstitutional racial quota. And quotas, it said, were unfair to students, violating the requirement that “discipline be administered without regard to race or ethnicity.” “Racial disciplinary quotas,” it said, “violate equity” by “either systematically overpunishing the innocent or systematically underpunishing the guilty.” (People Who Care v. Rockford Board of Education, 111 F.3d 528, 538 (7th Cir. 1997)).
But even today, bureaucrats are still prodding school districts to meet such quotas, pressuring them to having the same discipline rates for students of all races, even if students of different races don’t misbehave at the same rate. Indeed, bureaucrats in the very same city where racial-discipline quotas were outlawed are still encouraging schools to have quotas.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/01/22/bureaucrats-still-pushing-racial-quotas-school-discipline/
While troops go without pay, Pelosi ‘treats’ House Dems to taxpayer-funded dinner party
By Thomas Madison January 21, 2018
“Let them eat sh*t.” That might be the motto of Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s latest stunt.
Reminiscent of her defiant march around the Capitol following the passage of Obamacare, wielding a giant gavel, the former speaker of the House decided that the Democrat-driven shutdown of the federal government wouldn’t be complete without a celebration.
So she invited the Democratic members of the House of Representatives out to dinner at the pricey Italian restaurant Aqua al 2 (where antipasti run as high as $24, main courses to $36).
The U.S. military meantime will not be receiving pay, but — hey! — mangia, right?
Needless to say, the news was not well received by the families of our troops, especially those stationed overseas, who reacted on Twitter.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/01/21/troops-go-without-pay-pelosi-treats-house-dems-taxpayer-funded-dinner-party/
Schumer’s claim of having agreed to border wall in exchange for DACA support is a lie
By Howard Portnoy January 21, 2018
To listen to the sob story Sen. Chuck Schumer told on the Senate floor on Saturday, he was the voice of reason during his Friday night bargaining session at the White House, while the president refused to be mollified. “In exchange for strong DACA protections,” Schumer carefully enunciates in the video that follows, “I reluctantly put the border wall on the table for discussion. Even that was not enough to entice the President to finish the deal.”
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/01/21/schumers-claim-agreed-border-wall-exchange-daca-support-fails-smell-test/
Two improvised explosive devices detonated at a mall in central Florida on Sunday, authorities said.
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Police are still searching for a person of interest who was seen running from the building.
No one was injured by the blasts around 5:30 p.m. at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida, about 30 minutes east of Tampa, NBC News reported.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/2-ieds-explode-florida-mall-073521103.html
Germany: City forces Muslim migrant to leave town after he pulls knife on local couple
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/01/germany-city-forces-muslim-migrant-to-leave-town-after-he-pulls-knife-on-local-couple
Rape reports up by 400% in Sweden’s capital since 1996
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/01/rape-reports-up-by-400-in-swedens-capital-since-1996/
Belgian police officers injured after attack by 40 migrants in car park
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/01/belgian-police-officers-injured-after-attack-by-40-migrants-in-car-park/
WESTERN EUROPE
German socialist Minister says migrant sex attacks can be prevented by importing more migrants
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/01/german-socialist-minister-says-migrant-sex-attacks-can-be-prevented-by-importing-more-migrants/
‘Even refugees with a university degree have an IQ of only 93?
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/01/even-refugees-with-a-university-degree-have-an-iq-of-only-93/
‘Even refugees with a university degree have an IQ of only 93?
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/01/even-refugees-with-a-university-degree-have-an-iq-of-only-93/
2nd explosion rocks Malmo, Sweden in less than a week (RT, Jan 22, 2018)
https://www.rt.com/news/416593-second-explosion-rocks-malmo-sweden/
“Another explosion has rocked the Swedish city of Malmo, just days after a grenade attack directly targeted a police station.
No injuries have been reported in the blast that happened around 9pm local time outside a restaurant located in an office building in the Rosengard city district, police said. The facade of the building was damaged in the explosion, the Aftonbladet reported.
Police secured the area and a bomb squad was sent to the scene. An Audi was seen close to the area moments before the blast, according to reports…”
Opposition Official to Asharq Al-Awsat: Iranian Regime Is a Soviet Product (aawsat, Jan 22, 2018)
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1151406/opposition-official-asharq-al-awsat-iranian-regime-soviet-product
“… He told Asharq Al-Awsat that former US President Barack Obama betrayed the Iranians, the Middle East and the whole world…”
‘Raping muslim men preying on our children’: Van driver ‘who tried to kill as many people as possible when he drove into crowd of worshippers outside Finsbury Park mosque became obsessed after watching Rochdale grooming drama’ (dailymail, Jan 22, 2018)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5297157/Finsbury-park-attacker-tried-kill-possible.html
“An unemployed father-of-four who drove a van into a group of worshippers outside a mosque, murdering a grandfather, had become obsessed with Muslims after watching a TV drama about the Rochdale grooming gang, a court has heard.
Darren Osborne, 48, crushed Makram Ali, 51, under the wheels of his rented Citroen van and injured nine other men near Finsbury Park Mosque in north London in June last year, jurors heard.
Osborne allegedly jumped out of the vehicle and shouted: ‘I’m going to kill all Muslims – I did my bit,’ after attacking worshippers who had recently left night-time prayers.
The court heard he launched the attack days after watching the BBC drama ‘Three Girls’, a dramatisation of the Rochdale grooming scandal.
A rambling letter found in the van’s cab hit out at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, London mayor Sadiq Khan and singer Lily Allen over their responses to Islamist terror attacks and Asian sex gangs, the court heard.
Osborne had searched for Britain First, who the prosecutor referred to as a ‘far right’ group, as well as Tommy Robinson and Jayda Fransen, the court heard.
His partner Sarah Andrews described Osborne as ‘something of a loner’ and an ‘alcoholic’, it was said.
She also said he had become ‘obsessed with Muslims’ after they watched the BBC drama ‘Three Girls’, documenting the Rochdale grooming gangs, broadcast on 16 May, 2017.
This was said to be the ‘catalyst’ of Osborne’s obsession.
Osborne had written a note shortly before attack decrying terror attacks at the Manchester Arena, Westminster Bridge and London Bridge, as well as the ‘lack of reaction’ from London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
He also denounced Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and singer Lilly Allen not condemning the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal…”
Wheelchair-bound ISIS suicide bomber says goodbye to his sobbing children before being lowered into an armoured car and blowing himself up in Syria (dailymail, Jan 22, 2018)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5296745/ISIS-fighter-says-goodbye-daughter-suicide-bomb.html