Reader’s Links, March 17, 2018

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

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.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

199 Replies to “Reader’s Links, March 17, 2018”

    • Germany: Scuffles break out as PEGIDA march met by counter-protest in Munich

      Police officers were seen pushing and shoving with members of the press and protesters in central Munich, Saturday afternoon, as a PEGIDA gathering was met by a counter-demonstration in the southern German city.

      After the march, the PEGIDA supporters gathered at Marienplatz, where founder Lutz Bachmann addressed the crowd. Around 500 police officers were deployed to secure the rallies and keep the demonstrators apart.

      • Germany: Counter-demo dwarfs PEGIDA protest in Munich

        Fewer than 300 PEGIDA supporters gathered at Marienplatz in central Munich on Saturday, where they were met by a much larger counter-demonstration.

    • Germany: 4,500 rally for anti-refugee protest in Cottbus

      Around 4,500 demonstrators participated in an anti-refugee protest in the Brandenburg city of Cottbus on Saturday, organised by ‘Zukunft Heimat’ (‘Future Homeland’).

      The protest follows tension and violence in the area, including an alleged knife attack by Syrian teenagers last month in which a German teenage boy was injured and an attack on a bachelor party last year.

      According to the group, such attacks are commonplace around Germany and Cottbus has suffered due to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ‘open door’ refugee policy.

  1. A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed lower court injunctions that had partially blocked implementation of a Texas anti-sanctuary law. A District Court will now consider the merits of the case although opponents are still free to challenge the manner in which Texas implements the law.

    The Texas anti-sanctuary law (SB 4) requires jail officials to honor all requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold illegal aliens for pickup and deportation; imposes civil and criminal penalties on officials who refuse detainers; allows police officers to question the immigration status of people they detain or arrest; and prohibits policies that ‘materially limit’ the enforcement of immigration laws.

    https://www.numbersusa.com/news/appeals-courts-frees-texas-implement-anti-sanctuary-law

  2. Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed into law a bill banning so-called “free speech zones” at public universities and allowing students and speakers to sue the schools for violating their First Amendment rights.

    Free speech zones are limited areas, sometimes only fractions of a campus, where students may express themselves freely. Critics argue that an entire campus should allow free speech, not small and restrictive areas.

    The legislation, called the Excellence in Higher Education Act, reads: “A public institution of higher education may not designate any area of campus as a free speech zone or otherwise create policies restricting expressive activities to a particular outdoor area of campus.”

    https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/03/13/florida-bans-free-speech-zones-state-colleges/

  3. The number of child sexual offences in London rocketed by 30 per cent to more than 1,000 crimes last year, new figures reveal today.

    Statistics show there were 1,200 offences of child sexual exploitation in the capital in 2017 – compared to 922 crimes in 2016.

    The figures were released as Barnardo’s launched a pilot scheme to help child victims of sexual exploitation in London.

    The charity said a new pilot scheme was helping child victims of rape and serious sexual assaults in two London boroughs, Hammersmith and Fulham and Redbridge.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/child-sex-crimes-in-london-up-by-30-per-cent-a3791526.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1521202577

  4. Russia: US readying strikes on Syria – Russian MoD

    Several militant groups have been trained by US instructors in the vicinity of the Syrian town of Al-Tanf to stage provocations involving chemical warfare agents in southern Syria, according to Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy, speaking during a briefing in Moscow, Saturday.

    “These provocations are supposed to be a pretext for the US and its allies for strikes against military and government targets on Syria’s territory,” he stated.

    “We note that there are signs of preparations for possible attacks. Strike groups of cruise missile carriers have been formed in the east of the Mediterranean Sea, Persian Gulf and Red Sea,” he added.

    Rudskoy also asked: “whom is the USA going to help with these strikes? Al-Nusra terrorists and its accomplices operating in Eastern Ghouta?”

  5. IT HAS STARTED! Taking our guns and locking us up in a mental institution, to be drugged up beyond any ability to protest…

    The guns and ammunition of a 56-year-old Lighthouse Point, Florida, resident were confiscated by police in what is reportedly the first such seizure under gun control laws signed by Gov. Rick Scott (R) last week.
    The Orlando Sentinel reports that “four firearms and 267 rounds of ammunition” were taken from the man, and he was “taken to a hospital for involuntary psychiatric treatment.”

    The seized firearms were listed as “a Ruger LCP .380 pistol, an M2 Mauser .45 pistol, a Charter Arms .357 mag snub nose revolver and a Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun.”

    The paper notes that “the civil ruling removing his access to guns and ammunition was granted under … new legislation — which permits confiscating guns from people who have not been committed but are deemed a potential risk to themselves or others, according to the order signed by Broward’s Chief Judge Jack Tuter.”

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/03/16/begins-florida-firearms-ammunition-confiscated-gun-control-law/

  6. Cyril Winter was probably the most reviled and admired figure on Bank Street, the man with dead babies around his neck.

    Winter, 70, the city’s most dogged anti-abortion demonstrator, died in hospital on March 9, only days before his first court appearance for violating Ontario’s new law providing a bubble zone around abortion clinics.

    Friends and family say he did not survive a procedure to insert stents in his failing cardiac system.

    Winter and others that joined him in protest outside the Morgentaler Clinic on Bank Street were divisive figures in Ottawa.

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/03/16/begins-florida-firearms-ammunition-confiscated-gun-control-law/

  7. Communist militia leader arrested on weapons charges
    We have reported extensively on the violent communist militia group, Red Guards Austin. This far-left extremist group openly praises a dictator who butchered millions of people, openly advocates for armed “revolutionary violence”, and is actively recruiting students via their campus organizing arm, Revolutionary Student Front.

    In a statement from the Red Guards Austin, they claim that one of their organizers was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm on Friday, March 9th:

    “Dallas [not his legal name] and a friend headed to the bail bond office to meet the further requirements of his bail. Immediately upon exiting the car, they were surrounded by undercover cops and federal agents. Dallas was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon”

    https://farleftwatch.com/2018/03/16/communist-militia-leader-arrested-on-firearms-charges/

  8. Greece: Anti-fascists call for open borders amid refugee crisis

    Almost two years since the European Union and Turkey reached an agreement on limiting migration into Europe, around 2,000 people protested for open borders, in Athens on Saturday.

  9. Germany: Hundreds of Hamburg AntiFa march for G20 detainees

    Hundreds of anti-fascist activists marched against what they describe as political repression in Hamburg on Saturday, demanding justice for the 186 detainees of the large-scale anti-G20 protests in the north German city in July 2017.

  10. Islam & Capitalism: “We must reclaim the word ‘radicalisation’”

    (Maytha Alhassen) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maytha_Alhassen

    We really must understand the intersection of capitalism and racism for the latter served the former. Islamophobia cannot be talked about without mentioning racial capitalism and cannot be fought by mere “interfaith dialogue”.

  11. Maldives police arrest 139 opposition protesters under emergency rule (reuters, Mar 17, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-maldives-politics/maldives-police-arrest-139-opposition-protesters-under-emergency-rule-idUKKCN1GT0SB?rpc=401&

    “Police in Maldives arrested at least 139 opposition protesters, its spokesman said on Saturday, as they attempted to defy orders under the state of emergency and march into the high security zone in capital Male.

    Maldives President Abdulla Yameen has extended the state of emergency for 30 days through March 22 after declaring it on Feb. 5 following an order by the Supreme Court for nine opposition leaders to be released.

    The protesters are calling for the arrest of Yameen and for the Supreme Court ruling, which the president has defied, to be enforced.

    Police spokesman Ahmed Shifan told Reuters that 141 people were arrested in protests late on Friday, though two men were subsequently released.

    Witnesses said masked special operations policemen arrested several protesters, while riot police charged with shields and used pepper spray and tear gas to break up the protests.

    The arrest came after authorities warned last week that the protests would not be allowed, saying that police had received word that there was an attempt to violently overthrow the government and create unrest.

    Rights group Amnesty International said, Maldivian authorities are using the state of emergency as a licence for heightened repression and the 139 people have been detained “solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.

    “They must be released immediately and unconditionally,” Omar Waraich, Amnesty’s deputy South Asia director said in a statement.

    Police accused a protester of fracturing an officer’s arm in a tweet and said: “A policemen is injured after being attacked by a protester. The policemen has a fracture in his hand.”

    The government has said that there were no plans to extend the state of emergency after it expires on March 22.”

  12. Here is another possible conflict between India and China, there are reports that both nations are planning of diverting the same river, China to take most or all of the water and divert it deep into China. India to divert the river from one section of India to another. Here is the Duck Duck Go page with links on the subject, I don’t know what is happening outside a lot of screaming.

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=china+planning+a+tunnel+to+divert+an+Indian+river&t=ffsb&ia=web

    • A new front opens in Asia’s water wars

      China has long regarded freshwater as a strategic weapon – one that the country’s leaders have no compunction about wielding to advance their foreign-policy goals. After years of using its chokehold on almost every major transnational river system in Asia to manipulate water flows themselves, China is now withholding data on upstream flows to put pressure on downstream countries, particularly India.

      For decades, China has been dragging its neighbors into high-stakes games of geopolitical poker over water-related issues. Thanks to its forcible annexation of Tibet and other non-Han Chinese ethnic homelands – territories that comprise some 60% of its landmass – China is the world’s unrivaled hydro-hegemon. It is the source of cross-border riparian flows to more countries than any other state.

      In recent years, China has worked hard to exploit that status to increase its leverage over its neighbors, relentlessly building upstream dams on international rivers. China is now home to more dams than the rest of the world combined, and the construction continues, leaving downstream neighbors – especially the vulnerable lower Mekong basin states, Nepal, and Kazakhstan – essentially at China’s mercy.

      So far, China has refused to enter into a water-sharing treaty with a single country. It does, however, share some hydrological and meteorological data – essential to enable downstream countries to foresee and plan for floods, thereby protecting lives and reducing material losses.

      http://www.atimes.com/article/new-front-asias-water-war

  13. Mayotte unrest: French island residents round up ‘foreigners’ (BBC, Mar 17, 2018)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43443716

    “A group of residents from the Indian Ocean French island of Mayotte has been rounding up suspected illegal migrants and taking them to local police.

    The move targeted around 100 “foreigners, Comorans and Africans”, a member of the group told AFP.

    Protests against the economic crisis and illegal immigrants from the Comoros islands have paralysed the island.

    Mayotte has been in turmoil since mid-February, with roadblocks, a general strike and protests.

    France’s minister for overseas territories, Annick Girardin, has condemned the move, saying “this kind of practice does not exist in a department”.

    She urged the population to let the police do their job, adding that security arrangements were already in place.

    Locals complain that the arrivals of migrants are putting Mayotte’s health, housing and education services under pressure.

    Violent clashes between rival gangs at a school sparked anger over spiralling crime which many residents blame on migrants from the non-French Comoran islands.

    Ms Girardin visited the island earlier in the week to negotiate with protest leaders, and an agreement seemed to have been reached then.

    But they later said they had felt “betrayed” by Ms Girardin’s suggestion that an accord had been reached before they had had a chance to consult with demonstrators.

    They announced they were carrying on with their movement, but were willing to hold new talks with government representatives…”

  14. Qatar sues online critics of its government – U.S. lawsuit (reuters, Mar 17, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qatar-lawsuit/qatar-sues-online-critics-of-its-government-u-s-lawsuit-idUKKCN1GT0QA?rpc=401&

    “Qatar’s government communications office has filed a U.S. lawsuit against people who it said are conducting an illegal social media and internet campaign to spread false information and hurt the country’s businesses.

    In a complaint filed on Friday night with a New York state court in Manhattan, the office said the defendants have since October operated accounts under the QatarExposed name, using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a website, ((qatar-exposed.org)), to post false statements about Qatar’s government, “including promoting the sanctioning of Qatar.”

    The website describes itself as “a dossier on the world’s leading state sponsor of extremism” and refers several times to what it considers Qatar’s support for terrorists and terrorist groups.

    Operators of the accounts mentioned in the lawsuit could not immediately be reached on Saturday for comment…”

  15. France: Anti-fascist protesters march for migrant rights in Paris

    Activists marched through Paris on Saturday to condemn what they see as persecution of migrants by the French state.

      • You do believe in understatements, this is very interesting and probably a lot more important then we know.

        I wonder if he has any backing from the Government in his campaign to change the Chinese government and bring rule of law to China?

      • From what I have been able to find out he is probably as corrupt as the other rich Chinese, he is also probably telling the truth in most of his charges of corruption in Chinese officials. There are some charges against him that may or may not be true, this is a case of not knowing which story to believe (if either is wholly or even mostly true). Right now he seems to be helping the US so we should make use of him while trying to discover more about him and hopefully discover how far we can trust him.

        • I have a contact who knows him. I am told he is a genuine fighter for liberal values, individualism and liberty. I hope to get a chance to interview him.

          • You got better info then I do, I knew most of what I was finding was BS but wasn’t sure which was which with most of it. Some of it is so obvious you have to wonder about the intelligence of the people putting out the propaganda/

          • I will put him on my list of people to watch and will revisit the videos with your statement in mind, knowing this there are several that should be posted.

        • China has a warrant on him for rape but the US government has decided not to honor the warrant, this probably means there isn’t enough evidence. The anti Trumpers are saying he wasn’t deported because he is a member at Mar-a-largo.

  16. Victor D Hanson Explains The Complete Corruption of the Obama Administration helped Sabotage Hillary

  17. UK: Ross Kemp Had to ‘Wear the Same Body Armour I Wore in Syria’ for Documentary on Multicultural Birmingham (breitbart, Mar 17, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/03/17/ross-kemp-wear-same-body-armour-i-wore-syria-documentary-birmingham-extremists-drug-gangs/

    “Soap star turned investigative journalist Ross Kemp has said he had to wear the same body armour he wore in Syria while filming in Birmingham, England.

    The 53-year-old, famous in Britain for his role as EastEnders hardman Grant Mitchell, was filming with armed response and counter-terror units attached to West Midlands Police, the British Transport Police, Northumberland Police, and South Yorkshire Police, the Birmingham Mail reports.

    Kemp has fronted a number of documentaries on the war in Afghanistan, post-apartheid South Africa, and other extreme locations since he stepped away from the long-running soap opera — but the Mail reports he considered working in multicultural Birmingham his most shocking experience yet.

    “I am making a documentary about our armed response units and counter-terrorist units – armed police across the UK – [and asking] do we have enough to meet the threat that is now posed to us?” explained Kemp. “Not only by terrorists, but also by the increase in the use of hand guns by drugs gangs.”

    He also revealed he had to “wear the same body armour that I wore in Syria on the streets of Birmingham” in an interview with the Metro.

    Birmingham, one of Britain’s great industrial cities during the country’s heyday, has undergone large-scale immigration in recent decades, particularly from the Islamic world…”

  18. Former Icelandic minister claims US sent ‘planeload of FBI agents to frame Julian Assange’ during mission to the country in 2011
    Ögmundur Jonasson said US authorities first told him in June 2011 that there was an ‘imminent attack’ on Iceland’s government databases
    But when they arrived in August, Jonasson claims the FBI ‘sought Iceland’s cooperation to frame Assange and WikiLeaks’
    Jonasson said he then immediately kicked them out of Iceland
    The story was widely reported on in 2013, but Jonasson made no mention of the US trying to frame Assange
    It became known that the mission was part of a ‘wide-ranging investigation’ into Assange and WikiLeaks
    Jonnason said himself he made it clear he is on ‘Assange and WikiLeaks’ side’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4021166/Former-Icelandic-minister-claims-FBI-tried-frame-Julian-Assange.html

    • That was under Obama which means that as long as the actions weren’t patriotic anything is possible.

  19. Police Uncover Antifa-Linked High-Explosives, Chemicals, and Mobile Bomb Factory (breitbart, Mar 17, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/03/17/police-uncover-antifa-hoard-chemicals-high-explosives-mobile-bomb-factory-germany/

    “The authorities have uncovered an Antifa-linked hoard of chemicals, high-explosives, and a mobile bomb factory in Thuringia, Germany, according to local media.

    There is some suggestion that the haul, which is suspected to be linked to alt-left extremism, has been played down for political reasons, Welt Am Sonntag reports.

    Bodo Ramelow, Thuringia’s Minister-President and a member of Die Linke (The Left Party), gave one of the two individuals accused of being linked to the materials a democracy award for their commitment to taking on ‘Neo-Nazis’, according to WAS.

    “The findings available so far suggest that the spokesman of an alliance honoured by the Ramelow government prepared explosives attacks,” said Mike Mohring, who is chairman of Angela Merkel’s nominally conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Thuringia, as well as CDU leader in the region’s parliament.

    “The days-long, almost booming silence of the entire state government is more than strange.”

    “We have a lot to do with extreme right-wing violence in Thuringia, but the escalation of left-wing violence at the G20 summit in Hamburg has shown that there is also a dangerous potential on this side of the spectrum,” admitted Thuringian Minister of the Interior Georg Maier.

    Left Party parliamentarian Katharina König-Preuss, whose “anti-fascist” credentials are displayed prominently on her Twitter account, has been particularly damaged by the case, as she knows one of the accused personally.

    One of the two accused, a 31-year-old wheelchair user, told WAS that the “plot allegations are total humbug, but that’s all I’m going to say.”

    Police found quantities of butyric acid in the accused’s home, which WAS describes as “a malodorous chemical often used in attacks on political opponents” in Germany.

    But he claims the acid was for his mother, to be used as “pesticides against voles and moles”.”

  20. Survey: Three Quarters of Germans Say Islam Does Not ‘Belong’ in Germany (breitbart, Mar 17, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/03/17/survey-three-quarters-germans-say-islam-not-belong-germany/

    “Asked whether Islam belongs in Germany, some three quarters (74 percent) of Germans polled answered “absolutely not” or “probably not,” in direct opposition to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    In their responses to a poll by the Civey institute, published Friday by FOCUS, 54.6 percent of Germans said that Islam was “absolutely not” a part of Germany, with an additional 19.7 percent answering “probably not.”

    Only 6.4 percent responded that Islam “definitely” belongs in Germany and another 14.9 percent answered, “probably yes.” Of those polled, 4.4 percent abstained…”

  21. “Update Brazil – The Red Thread with Diana West”
    Allan Dos Santos, Jeff Nyquist & Diana West
    Terça Livre – March 16, 2018

    • I am listening through the audiobook version of Diana West’s book on communist and Islamic subversion of the US government. It is really really good and also quite accessible compared to many books on these subjects. I hope to do a real review of it for the site once Im deeper into it.

      The audiobook version was just released on Audible and is read by Diana herself.

  22. Channel 4 – Cambridge Analytica: Whistleblower reveals data grab of 50 million Facebook profiles

    The British data firm described as “pivotal” in Donald Trump’s presidential victory was behind a ‘data grab’ of more than 50 million Facebook profiles, a whistleblower has revealed to Channel 4 News.

    In an exclusive television interview, Chris Wylie, former Research Director at Cambridge Analytica tells all.

    ( + comments on the YT page … )

    • CBC -( reuters ) Facebook suspends data analytics firm that worked for Trump campaign

      Massachusetts attorney general launching investigation over use of private information

      […]The paper quoted Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, Canadian data analytics expert Christopher Wylie,

      “We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis that the entire company was built on,” the Observer quoted Wylie as saying.

      […]On its website, Cambridge Analytica says it “provided the Donald J. Trump for President campaign with the expertise and insights that helped win the White House.”

      http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-1.4581228

      =============================================
      toronto star – How Trump consultants got banned by Facebook for exploiting millions of users’ data

      Cambridge Analytica harvested private information from the social-media profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission, according to former employees, associates and documents.

      Christopher Wylie, who helped found the data firm Cambridge Analytica and worked there until 2014, said, “Rules don’t matter for them. For them, this is a war, and it’s all fair.”

      LONDON—As the upstart voter-profiling company Cambridge Analytica prepared to wade into the 2014 U.S. midterm elections, it had a problem.

      The firm had secured a $15 million (U.S.) investment from Robert Mercer, the wealthy Republican donor, and wooed his political adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, with the promise of tools that could identify the personalities of U.S. voters and influence their behaviour. But it did not have the data to make its new products work.

      So the firm harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission[…]

      https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/03/17/how-trump-consultants-got-banned-by-facebook-for-exploiting-millions-of-users-data.html

      ============================================
      the guardian – Cambridge Analytica: links to Moscow oil firm and St Petersburg university

      Data company gave briefing to Moscow firm Lukoil, and the lecturer who developed the crucial algorithm worked for St Petersburg university

      Aleksandr Kogan, the Cambridge University academic who orchestrated the harvesting of Facebook data, had previously unreported ties to a Russian university, […]

      […]also attracted interest from a key Russian firm with links to the Kremlin.

      […]Cambridge Analytica also discussed “micro-targeting” individuals on social media during elections.

      The revelations come at a time of intense US scrutiny of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, with 13 Russians criminally charged last month with interfering to help Donald Trump.[…]
      https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-academic-trawling-facebook-had-links-to-russian-university
      ====================================================
      the guardian – Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: ‘We spent $1m harvesting millions of Facebook profiles’

      Christopher Wylie, who worked for data firm Cambridge Analytica, reveals how personal information was taken without authorisation in early 2014 to build a system that could profile individual US voters in order to target them with personalised political advertisements. At the time the company was owned by the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, and headed at the time by Donald Trump’s key adviser, Steve Bannon. Its CEO is Alexander Nix

      How Cambridge Analytica turned Facebook ‘likes’ into a lucrative political tool

    • Financial Post – Trump-linked data analysis firm taps 50M Facebook profiles

      WASHINGTON — A data analysis firm employed by President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign tapped the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission, allowing it to capitalize on the private social media activity of a large portion of the U.S. electorate, newspapers reported Saturday.

      […]Cambridge Analytica, which had ties to Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon

      Wylie could not immediately be located.

      The company has surfaced in the U.S. probes into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. British officials are also investigating the firm in connection with the June 2016 EU referendum.

      Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, disclosed an advisory role with Cambridge Analytica last August. SCL later said that position never materialized. Flynn is co-operating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference after pleading guilty to a felony charge.

      Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix also disclosed last November that the company reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the campaign to request emails related to the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton. Nix said Assange denied the request,

      Revelations that Cambridge Analytica misused social media data could also be of interest to Mueller’s investigation. While much of the thrust of special counsel’s investigation has been tightly held, Mueller has requested that the firm turn over the emails of any employees who worked on the campaign, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal last year.

      Mueller is also looking at the role Wikileaks played in acquiring and making public the stolen Clinton campaign emails.

      http://business.financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/facebook-bans-trump-affiliated-data-firm-cambridge-analytica

      ================================================

      Global News – Donald Trump consultants used private info from 50 million Facebook users

      The Observer said the data was collected through an app called thisisyourdigitallife, built by academic Aleksandr Kogan, separately from his work at Cambridge University.

      Through Kogan’s company Global Science Research (GSR), in collaboration with Cambridge Analytica, hundreds of thousands of users were paid to take a personality test and agreed to have their data collected for academic use, the Observer said.

      https://globalnews.ca/news/4089282/donald-trump-consultants-private-info-facebook-users/

      ==============================================

      CNN – Facebook suspends data firm with Trump ties

      Facebook has announced it is suspending Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump’s campaign, over concerns about violations of the social media site’s policies.

      […]Facebook’s move to suspend Cambridge Analytica came just hours before The New York Times and the British newspaper The Observer both released reports that raised questions about the handling of Facebook data by the company and its associates.

      […]Sen. Mark Warner called the suspension “more evidence that the online political advertising market is essentially the Wild West.”

      Warner, a Virginia Democrat, serves as vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In his statement, he added: “Whether it’s allowing Russians to purchase political ads, or extensive micro-targeting based on ill-gotten user data, it’s clear that, left unregulated, this market will continue to be prone to deception and lacking in transparency.”

      […]Elizabeth Denham, information commissioner for the United Kingdom, announced an investigation into the matter Saturday.

      “We are investigating the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used,” Denham’s statement said.

      “It’s part of our ongoing investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes which was launched to consider how political parties and campaigns, data analytics companies and social media platforms in the UK are using and analysing people’s personal information to micro target voters,” she added.

      https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/17/politics/facebook-cambridge-analytica/index.html
      ============================================
      CNN – Facebook suspends data firm with Trump ties

      Facebook has announced it is suspending Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump’s campaign, over concerns about violations of the social media site’s policies.

    • BBC – Did Cambridge Analytica play a role in the EU referendum? – BBC Newsnight

      Did the data analytics company Cambridge Analytica play a role in the UK’s EU referendum? BBC Newsnight’s Gabriel Gatehouse reports.

      • This is all tracing back to a Facebook statement and the statement of one person, no other evidence. Given the fake news out there trying to trash the President I want more evidence then one mans statement and the actions of an known anti-Trump company.

  23. BREAKING: Car ploughs into busy nightclub in Kent ‘nearly killing’ hundreds of partygoers (express, Mar 18, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/933381/car-ploughs-blakes-nightclub-kent-gravesend-hundreds-nearly-dead

    “A CAR has been driven at speed into Blake’s nightclub in Gravesend in Kent as an angry man who was refused entry on a night out “nearly killed” people, it has been reported.

    One witness at the scene said: “My God I nearly died.

    “This car comes through the club.

    “A guy who didn’t get let in drove through the club.”

    It is believed the rapper Giggs was performing at the club.

    One person tweeted: “Lots of emergency services at Blake’s where a vehicle has allegedly been driven into the nightclub.”

    Onlookers are said to have tried to attack the culprit after emergency services arrived at the scene.

    One witness tweeted a snapchat conversation which read: “Anyone get hurt?”

    “Yeah ambulances and fire engines police there.”

    There is no official confirmation how many people have been injured in the incident.

    More to follow…”

  24. “Woman Brutally Beaten By 9 ANTIFA Thugs Speaks Out”
    The Alex Jones Channel – March 16, 2018
    Lucy Brown joins Lee Ann McAdoo and Alex Jones live via Skype to break down her experience with Tommy Robinson when they were attacked by vicious ANTIFA thugs at a McDonald’s in the UK.

  25. Iran detains close ally of former president Ahmadinejad (abcnews, Mar 17, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-detains-close-ally-president-ahmadinejad-53821123

    “Iran’s semi-official ILNA news agency is reporting that authorities have detained a close ally of former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    The Saturday report says the office of Tehran prosecutor’s said police detained Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei for “investigations.” It did not elaborate.

    On Thursday, Mashaei, in front of the British embassy in Tehran, burnt a copy of a court verdict sentencing Hamid Baghaei, another Ahmadinejad ally who was sentenced to 15 years for the misuse of public funds when he was a vice-president under Ahmadinejad. Baghaei began serving his term earlier this week.

    Several of Ahmdainejad’s allies are in jail over the misappropriation of public funds.

    During Baghaei’s trial, Ahmadinejad repeatedly appeared outside the court criticizing many officials, including the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani.”