Reader’s Links, July 18, 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

161 Replies to “Reader’s Links, July 18, 2018”

  1. BREITBART – Watch: Tech Giants Can’t Answer Rep. Gohmert on Foreign Propaganda Aside from Russia’s

    Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) grilled representatives from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter about whether or not foreign powers aside from Russia use their platforms to spread propaganda — none of the Masters of the Universe were able to answer the question.

    Rep. Louie Gohmert pulled no punches today, grilling representatives from Facebook, YouTube, and Google about the influence of foreign powers aside from Russia on their platforms. Gohmert asked the Silicon Valley representatives: “Did you ever find any indication of use of your platform, utilized by the Chinese, North Korea or any other foreign country intelligence or agency of that country?”

    Facebook’s representative Monika Bickert replied to Gohmert first saying: “I would note Congressman that we are not in North Korea or China, in terms of whether we’ve seen attacks on our services, we are of course a big target, we do have a robust security team-” Bickert was then interrupted by Gohmert: “that’s not my question, it’s a very direct question, have you found — you don’t have to be in North Korea to be North Korean intelligence, we have foreign intelligence agencies in this country. It seemed to me you were each a little bit vague saying ‘oh yes we found hundreds- or whatever,” said Gohmert referencing responses from the representatives relating to Russian interference. “I’m asking, specifically were any of those other countries besides Russia using your platform inappropriately, it should be a yes or no.”[…]

    + video

    more :

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/07/17/watch-tech-giants-cant-answer-rep-gohmert-on-foreign-propaganda-aside-from-russias/

    • Bickert was then interrupted by Gohmert: “that’s not my question, it’s a very direct question, have you found — you don’t have to be in North Korea to be North Korean intelligence, we have foreign intelligence agencies in this country. It seemed to me you were each a little bit vague saying ‘oh yes we found hundreds- or whatever,” said Gohmert referencing responses from the representatives relating to Russian interference. “I’m asking, specifically were any of those other countries besides Russia using your platform inappropriately, it should be a yes or no…

      Good luck with getting a straight answer out of any of these High Tech mega-weasels. Much like the Dems, they’ve convinced themselves that they are above the law.

  2. EXPOSED: Peter Strzok Grew Up In Iran, Worked As Obama and Brennan’s Envoy To Iranian Regim

    A former co-worker of Peter Strzok tells Big League Politics about Strzok’s extensive background in the intelligence community, including the fact that he grew up in Iran. Many intelligence officers like Strzok are complete ghosts with questionable history and gaps in their life story. But now we have some insight.

    (RELATED: Strzok Worked For CIA And FBI At Same Time, According To Document).

    https://bigleaguepolitics.com/bombshell-peter-strzok-was-cia-and-fbi-at-the-same-time/

    Peter Strzok was born in the late 1960’s – he attended the American School in Iran up until 1978 when it closed down and then he attended the American School in Saudi Arabia. He supposedly attended a Catholic School, St. John’s Prep in Minneapolis (the school refused to confirm or deny attendance) and then completed a Bachelors at Georgetown and some form of graduate degree after that.

    The truth is that after Peter Strzok III turned 18 his life is arcane, which is the usual story of many like him. Did you know that Peter Strzok II (Strzok’s father) and Hillary Clinton have a lot in common? It turns out after advocating for Khomeni in Iran and then working in Saudi Arabia to calm the waters of an Iranian government (appeasing them with anti-Semitic rhetoric), Strzok’s father Strzok II also dabbled in “charity work.” Strzok’s father was involved in so-called charity work in Haiti but also helped dismantle and reassemble Upper Volta..now known as Burkina Faso.

    Despite Deep State efforts to scrub information, the Internet is forever. Below you will see a very controversial happening in the early Eighties. Peter Strzok II (Strzok’s father, also known as Peter Strzok Sr.) was an employee of Catholic Relief Services and was interviewed by the New York Times in 1985 over his testimony or statements regarding mishandling money intended for Ethopia. In the article he identifies himself as a former employee of the charity and he is a retired US Army Corps Engineer who served the agency in Africa and Haiti. So Peter Strzok II worked in Haiti with a charity? That sounds eerily familiar. Can we all guess which charities partnered to help Haiti?

    The Clinton Foundation and The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) seem to work in tangent. Coincidence? Peter Strzok Sr. was actually the director of CRS in Haiti. If we look into CRS financials they seem to overlap and feed into Clinton Global initiatives and balance sheets.

    In the early 80’s Upper Volta was in turmoil. It is said that mineral disputes with neighboring countries brought about great duress and so in 1985 the country of Upper Volta ceased to exist and was then named Burkina Faso during Strzok II’s term there. Specifically, in 1981 he was advised of a government visit to Upper Volta, which places him in Upper Volta for a period of 4 years as his son Strzok III was at the American School in Saudi Arabia from 1978- 1980. This happened after their sudden move from Tehran when Khomeni attained power over the Shah. Looks like whenever there is a regime change in modern history a Strzok is lying in the shadows waiting.

    We know Peter Strzok III, the man who sent those vile text messages about our President. The man who was biased and wanted to ensure a Clinton Presidency was raised in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

    Our source reveals how Strzok and his father both talked about Iran favorably and both accidently reminisced about the rose water smell of the ju-jeh kebab by Shemiran Hill… something that disappeared after 1987 and only those who are old enough to remember can discuss.

    Peter Strzok’s Persian is impeccable.

    Our insider tells us that Peter Strzok III is the key Middle Eastern Intel operative for the Iranian airline Mahan Air’s purchase of United States government planes during the Obama administration from 2011 to 2013 (when Iran sanctions were in place). He handled the Iranian relations from start to finish. Just like his father did for Reagan and just like he’s been doing for years under cloak and dagger says the BLP insider.

    Peter Strzok Sr. and of course John O. Brennan were involved with Iran. In fact, our source tells us that Strzok Sr. was involved in the Iran-Contra scheme that led to a six-month prison term for Reagan national security adviser John Poindexter. Back in the Eighties the government was just as corrupt as it is today and for some reason we keep giving weapons, planes, and planes full of money to Iran. Even Barack Hussein Obama sent money to Iran on a plane in his last year of office — $1.4 Billion worth. Just a few weeks ago, Iran demanded Germany send them 300,000 Euros in cash on a plane to them, and of course Angela Merkel complied. What’s the deal with Iran? Why are they so important?

    Here is a clipping from the Wisconsin-based Leader-Telegram newspaper from 1979 in which Strzok Sr. describes his activities in Iran and expresses good will for the Ayatollah.

    What were Strzok, Brennan, and Obama really doing? That is a very good question that maybe President Trump can get answered for us if a Summit with Iran can happen early this fall. One thing that is constant in modern history over the last five decades with anything involving Iran: There is a Peter Paul Strzok involved.

    The BLP insider who’s worked with both Breannan and Strzok tells us that Strzok was never FBI he was part of the highest level of covert operatives, sliding into posts within the CIA or FBI to infiltrate, influence and observe. This is exactly what we saw with the Special Counsel appointment that resulted after a failed operation.

    Peter Strzok Jr. was placed in the FBI to ensure a win for Hillary Clinton and buffer negative press (like the Weiner laptop case, which he covered up). That’s the real deal. Revealing Peter Strzok’s identity would have been a problem because it’s called unmasking but since he is in the limelight and out of the shadows it’s time to lay all the cards FACE up on the table for all to see who Peter Strzok really is.

    Spooks feared him, but like our source they still maintain secrecy — simply connecting the dots of publicly and privately available information.

    https://bigleaguepolitics.com/exposed-peter-strzok-grew-up-in-iran-worked-as-obama-and-brennans-envoy-to-iranian-regime/

    • How can a scoop with so many details be credible? Even if true, what kind os employee discloses this?

      Of course, a school cannot disclose attendance–that is a FERPA violation–federal privacy reg– so why is someone writing this up in a be credible?

      • The amount of detain is suspicious, however the sentence that other spooks feared him hints at a revenge motive, which also casts doubt on the accuracy of the details. I think we have to put this one into the unverified report until we can get other sources saying the same. Other sources that don’t refer back to BLC.

      • I read it the other day on conservative-targeted social media. Another theme-package distributed to the Omniscient Twitterati™. All of a sudden this new scandal breaks, captures everybody’s attention.

        Who knows? I can only say _for sure_ that’s it’s a coordinated campaign to drive a narrative. An agenda.

        A social media celebrity mixes info and disinfo. What he writes then appears in sites like the Daily Caller, then gets echoed and amplified. Till it “takes”.

        _Yuge_ multiplier effect. This is deliberate, strategic cognitive warfare on the home-front.

        It’s fun reading, patriotic, and reliably on our side.

        But I know for sure at least SOME of it is 100% fake. In just in one specific sector I have sufficient expertise to call BS. Lies.

        And then propaganda angle becomes transparent. It’s what the Trump administration wants the lumpen-Deplorable to believe. Official sources can’t put garbage out directly, so they feed it to vectors.

        And suddenly it’s everywhere. Challenge it, you’re a heretic. Trust Trump! He’s got this!

        Strzok, Iran, 0. Feels good, maybe there’s something to it. I hope so.

        But that’s besides the point I’m trying to make. We have to recognize we’re being played.

          • None can be trusted completely. They all tell partial stories, depend on the feeds they subscribe to. There’s leftist-corporate MSM, pro-Trump conservative alternative media, foreign consolidators in English, other…

            Foreign is easier to spot than domestic. There are no – or very few – independent investigative journalists. “On-the-ground” reporting comes from local stringers beholden to one side or another. They tailor their stories to versions acceptable to local honchos.

            Read the bio of Heshmat Alevi, the single most quoted source on Iran in (mostly) conservative social media. His tweets on the protests are everywhere. He’s into humanitarian issues (probably some quasi-autonomous NGO) and writes articles published in Arab state mouthpieces.

            Some of his recent tweets purporting to be from Arab cities in Iran were in fact clips from the uprising in Bahrain, 2011. Other stuff was undoubtedly legit.

            The other day Wrath reminded me why he posts articles from government mouthpieces of Iran, Pak, the Turk, Euro-MB, Middle East Eye. Tens of thousands of data points, we begin to get a clue.

            Domestic – I’m just on the look out for bursts of “theme-packages”. (That’s J.E. Dyer’s term.)

    • What’s the deal with Iran? Why are they so important?

      Tehran throws the biggest tantrums and sponsors a huge portion of MME terrorism. That’s enough right there to get Merkel’s skirts all het up.

      • And terrorism in Africa and Latin America. Cells already exist all over Europe and probably North America as well.

    • Excellent video clip, Xanthippa! At under 12 minutes, it’s well worth watching.

      Eeyore, please think about sending this clip over to GoV (if they’re not already running it at their site).

      Paul Golding’s counter-suit against against British law enforcement will be a particularly important story to follow. Golding’s case, much like that of Tommy Robinson, is the byproduct of biased, unjustified, Human Rights violations.

      From: TheLaw.com

      REASONABLE MAN STANDARD

      Law Dictionary & Black’s Law Dictionary 2nd Ed.

      The standard for which the liability for negligence is measured. That which a reasonable person would have done. Hence, negligence is a standard of care that is less than what a reasonable person would have done under the circumstances.

      Although an American legal standard, it is hardly one that Old Bailey should have the unmitigated gall to ignore. What Golding has been subjected to is nothing short of Criminal Law Enforcement Negligence™. The judge knew it, Golding and his solicitor knew it, even the opposition Probation Council’s line manager bloody-well knew it! If this doesn’t meet the Reasonable Man Standard of criminal negligence, I don’t know what will.

      This is just part of why following Golding’s counter-suit will be of such immense interest. A higher court attempting to dismiss all counter-charges of intentional harassment will, effectively, be voiding the (outraged) lower magistrate’s legal decision. That, alone, should touch off the blue paper for some spectacular pyrotechnics.

      Here’s hoping that Rebel Media and other truth-oriented media voices will consider dedicating airtime to providing regular updates about this case. It is a glaring example of what to expect from an overly-empowered and thoroughly biased police state.

      • Just a note: The case is interesting. But our own man-on-the-ground, Sid Snot, said we should be careful of this guy and that organization.

    • 1) Trump doesn’t control the Deep State spying on US citizens.

      2) Most of the pointless wars he is talking abut were justified self defense. He appears to be one of the people who think we fight in the US only and t hat if anyone not in the US attacks us overseas we pull back from overseas.

      3) He is listening to the anti American propaganda and believing most of it.

      4) No all of the US intel orgs and the US military don’t want war, I doubt that the left wants an overseas war but they are so deranged by Trump they are ignoring the very real possi9blity of war with Russia if they keep ractching up the tensions and attacking the policies to lower those tensions. Russia doesn’want war because they know that unless they use nukes they can’t win the war. This doesn’t m ean that they won;t fight if pushed too far but the libs don’t see to understand that.

        • Thank you, Eeyore.

          … Ashlee married a Muslim and took five days to die on the bathroom floor.

          Sounds like TMB (Typical Muslim Behavior) to me. This widespread and sadistic ability of Muslim “men” (yes, those are sneer quotes) to ignore the suffering of women, almost tops the list (along with FGM) of why Islam has no place in the Civilized World. It is also indicative of a severe “market correction” in Islam’s overall stock sometime soon (we can only hope).

  3. WATCH Sweden Fight ‘Most Serious Wildfire Situation of Modern Times’ (sputniknews, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/environment/201807181066462748-sweden-forest-fires/

    “A spell of scorching dry heat has settled across Scandinavia, resulting in a historic wildfire outbreak in Sweden, with about 80 forest fires ranging across the country. The nation’s deficient preparedness, however, has been attributed to “bureaucracy and dumb greed.”…

    Many of the fires are believed to have been sparked by people using disposable barbecues despite the ban on any kind of open fire in the majority of municipalities at the moment.

    Despite the unparalleled spread of forest fires stretching from the Baltic south to the Arctic north, the worst affected regions are all located in central Sweden — Gävleborg, Jämtland and Dalarna, where many locals have been evacuated. National forecaster SMHI warned of a risk for forest fires in virtually every municipality…”

    • Many of the fires are believed to have been sparked by people using disposable barbecues despite the ban on any kind of open fire in the majority of municipalities at the moment.

      That Muslims have been caught attempting to start cooking fires in their luxury hotel rooms (or Housing Council apartments [waves at the smoking ruins of Grenfell Tower]) starts pointing at a Root Cause™.

      Now, consider how Muslims have been found attempting to use an open flame for making tea on an commercial passenger airliner in MIDFLIGHT.

      While I freely confess that my initial reaction to the lede was one of “characteristic jihadi arson”, mere mention of those “disposable barbecues”—and we all know how Muslims just can’t live without their kebabs—kicked in some associative thinking and, Hey Presto!

      Between bone-dry forests, luxury hotel rooms, Council Estate apartments, and in-flight airliners, there begins to emerge a significant pattern. Namely,

      COLLECTIVELY OR INDIVIDUALLY, MUSLIMS CONTINUE TO DEMONSTRATE IQ LEVELS THAT ARE EASILY SURPASSED BY A BAG OF HAIR.

      These people aren’t just stupid, they’re dumb … dumb and dangerous.

      Much like their Liberal water carriers…

  4. British Soldier Accused of Plotting to Smuggle Immigrants into UK from France (sputniknews, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807181066463013-british-soldier-accused-of-plotting-to-smuggle-immigrants-from-calais/

    “Another two men, one of them a British Army officer, are also facing charges with assisting unlawful migration.

    David Plumstead, a member of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, has appeared at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent to face charges in a scheme to help undocumented immigrants enter the UK from the French port of Calais, The Daily Mail reports.

    A Lance Corporal, 24, who is serving at an army base in Paderborn, Germany is accused of committing the offence between March 1 and May 7, 2016.

    According to The Daily Mail, immigrant smuggling accusations were also brought against Zinden Ahmed, 36, a Kurdish Syrian who owns a carwash business.

    Their trial was postponed until mid-October after the judge was “made aware of difficulties with the availability of barristers.”

    The motive of the suspects is yet unclear.

    In 2016, a retired British soldier attempted to smuggle a four-year-old Aghan girl from the Calais refugee camp into the UK. Back then, he avoided jail and was instead found guilty of endangering a child, and got away with a €1,000 fine.”

  5. 200 People Posing ‘Security Threat’ Enter Sweden Amid Migration Crisis (sputniknews, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807181066459961-sweden-migrant-crisis-security-threat/

    “The recent wave of asylum immigration from Muslim countries to Sweden has coincided with a tenfold increase in Islamist extremists identified by the country’s security forces.

    Sweden’s Security Police SÄPO have so far identified 200 people among “new arrivals” who can pose a threat to the Scandinavian country. This discovery is based on automatic data obtained from the Swedish Migration Board, Swedish Radio reported.

    Since July 2017, the Swedish Migration Board has been automatically forwarding certain data, including names, citizenship and date of birth, on all immigrants seeking residence permits in Sweden to SÄPO. The idea of this automatic procedure is to find individuals who could pose a threat to the country. By the end of May 2018, SÄPO had received data on 190,000 individuals.

    “The focus right now, and especially with the applicant groups we have, is on counter-terrorism, so it’s about people who have manifested or have been suspected to manifest any threat of political violence in different ways,” Oskar Ekblad, the head of information analysis at the Swedish Migration Board told Swedish Radio.

    The Swedish Migration Board also performs in-depth investigations its own, where newly arrived immigrants are asked questions about military service and political activity.

    Since the beginning of 2017, the Swedish Migration Board has forwarded about 1,500 such cases to the Swedish Security Service. These investigations, however, tend to take place at a later stage and the automatic controls are therefore considered an important vehicle for detecting threats at an earlier stage.

    Sweden previously ran into problems in the European Court of Justice, which ruled it wrong to expel suspected terrorists. Sweden had tried to expel a Moroccan identified by the Security Police as a threat to the national security.

    In April 2018, SÄPO admitted that every other day, new alarms about terrorist attack plans against Sweden appear. Fredrik Hallström, deputy director of the SÄPO unit for ideologically motivated actors, said that about 6,000 intelligence pieces are handled each month, and stressed that it is far from guaranteed that no terrorist attacks will hit the Scandinavian country, national broadcaster SVT reported.

    A 2017 report by SÄPO estimated the number of violent extremists in the Scandinavian country of 10 million at some 3,000, two thirds of them allegedly driven by Islamist motives. By contrast, a similar SÄPO report from 2010, that is less than a decade ago, estimated the number of Islamist extremists at only 200, a tenth their estimated current number.

    Recently, reports of an increasing Salafist presence and the activity of radical Islamist networks’ such as the Muslim Brotherhood* have also emerged.

    Since 2015, the peak year of Europe’s migrant crisis, Sweden has taken in over 200,000 asylum seekers, predominantly from Islamic countries.”

    • Let’s please call this ‘SÄPO unit of ideologically motivated actors’ for what it truly is.

      A buncha SÄPS. Eh?

      PS: A favorite Gary Larson cartoon shows some random idiot dashing about in whatever sprouting forest.

      Its caption reads:

      SPRING HAS COME AND THE SAP IS RUNNING THROUGH THE TREES

      Need I say more? [Don’t all speak up at once now!]

  6. Iranian Centrifuge Plant Comes Online as Nuclear Deal at Risk of Falling Apart (sputniknews, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201807181066464976-iran-centrifuge-plant-operational/

    “Tehran is bracing for the fallout of renewed US sanctions following President Trump’s pullout from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and has threatened to relaunch its uranium enrichment program if the nuclear agreement breaks down.

    Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi has announced that the factory producing rotors for centrifuges has come online, and will assist with Tehran’s plans to increase its uranium enrichment capacity to 190,000 SWUs.

    Speaking to the Iranian TV channel IRIB on Wednesday, Salehi announced the completion of the rotor plant, which has the capacity to produce about 60 IR-6 centrifuge machines a day, and explained that the factory was built during nuclear talks with world powers, but never started up.

    “Of course, [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] was completely informed and we gave him the necessary information at the time. And now that he has given the order this factory has started all of its work,” the official said.

    The factory does not break the terms of the JCPOA, Salehi said. The capacity is part of pre-JCPOA Iranian plans to produce its own nuclear fuel for the Bushehr Power Plant, with the nuclear plant estimated to require about 100,000 SWUs.

    Last month, Salehi said that Iran had developed the infrastructure at the Natanz nuclear facility in central Iran which would allow it to enrich up to one million SWU.

    Also this week, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization warned that it was preparing the groundwork for increasing enrichment if needed and if the negotiations with Europe to salvage the JCPOA failed…”

    • Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi has announced that the factory producing rotors for centrifuges has come online, and will assist with Tehran’s plans to increase its uranium enrichment capacity to 190,000 SWUs.

      Yoo hoo! Stuxnet I!! Where are you when we really need you? Come back little Stuxnet! (Anyone who gets that obscure cinematic reference without searching on it, please check in for your ten silver dimes.)

      P’raps this particular situation will need to rely more upon “conventional” (and highly kinetic) solutions. After all, since the last time we went around this fetid Shiite Mulberry Bush™, we didn’t have hypersonic penetrator (i.e., “bunker busting”) missiles.

      “Rapid Catastrophic Spontaneous Disassembly” (as the US Navy nuclear reactor advisory labels warn us) is of a more permanent and dependable nature when it comes to ensuring a lack of Iranian nuclear recidivism.

      This entire Hesitation Waltz (hat tip: Richard) is wearing a bit thin and—heaving a collective sigh of relief—we should thank our stars that Trump is sitting in the “Captain’s Chair” for these opening phases of The Battle™.

      PS: Is it even possible to imagine Hillary’s gelatinous political “spine” bringing America this far forward in less than two years? Vomit >here<.

  7. Bavarian Police Begin Patrols on Border With Austria – Region Head (sputniknews, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807181066466716-bavaria-germany-border-patrols-migrants/

    “The Bavarian border police began patrolling the German-Austrian border on Wednesday, Markus Soeder, the minister president of Bavaria, said.

    “Starting from today, the Bavarian border police is carrying out flexible control of our borders, and [doing] this with the most up-to-date equipment and technology,” Soeder said on Twitter.

    The new equipment includes drones, thermal imaging cameras and night-vision devices, according to Soeder.

    According to media reports, the border police will begin its work with 500 personnel of the regional police…”

  8. Transgender prisoner who was put in a female jail despite not having sex-change surgery ‘sexually assaulted four women inmates before being moved to a male prison’ (dailymail, Jul 18, 2018)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5964539/Transgender-prisoner-female-jail-sexually-assaulted-four-women.html

    “A transgender prisoner has been accused of sexually assaulting four female inmates after being sent to a women’s prison, despite not having had reassignment surgery.

    It is alleged the first attack took place within days of the inmate arriving at New Hall jail in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

    The prisoner, who has been living as a woman for more than two years, was seen visibly aroused during the assault at the high security complex…”

    • Transgender prisoner who was put in a female jail despite not having sex-change surgery ‘sexually assaulted four women inmates before being moved to a male prison’

      Let us all hope that this gender-bending scumbag made lots of BFFs in that male prison’s general population. After all, if this wingnut so thoroughly self-identifies as a “woman”, the opportunities presented for casual (or not-so-casual) sex must be endless.

      PS: Please recall that, in general, male prisoners take an extremely dim view of rapists and child molesters. Unable to protect their wives and children who are on the outside, prisoners tend to look upon rapists and child molesters as little more than sex toys (or somewhere to plant a shiv).

      When the prison populations shift over to majority Muslim incarcerees, expect a very different (and more often voluntary) situation.

  9. Norwegian Stabbed to Death at Rural Supermarket by ‘Child Asylum Seeker’ (breitbart, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/18/norwegian-stabbed-death-asylum-rural/

    “An Afghan asylum seeker has been arrested after an 18-year-old Norwegian cashier was stabbed to death in an apparent random attack while working at a store in his tiny, rural hometown.

    At just before 10 pm on Saturday night, police were called to an attack at the Coop supermarket in Vadsø, said local media, reporting that victim Håvard Pedersen was found with cuts to the throat, and declared dead shortly after emergency services arrived at the scene.

    With the help of a private boat after the suspect jumped into the sea, police arrested a 17-year-old Afghan at just before 8 am on Sunday morning. He was questioned by detectives on Monday, when they told reporters it was “too early to say if the 18-year-old was a random victim”.

    At a press conference in Vadsø, which has a population of just 5,064 people, Finnmark police prosecutor Ylva Helen Kvikstad said the suspect had arrived in Norway in 2015 as an unaccompanied minor and was given a temporary residence permit.

    “As far as I know, there was no pending deportation decision hanging over him,” she said, adding that the suspect “seems to be fine, other than the very serious charges he is facing”.

    Acting mayor of the town, Otto Strand, said it was “outrageous to think that such a tragic event could strike someone just going about their everyday business”, but stressed that “there are some tens of asylum seeking minors in Vadsø”.

    The murder provoked some discussion on social media, according to regional newspaper Adresseavisen, which reported that the victim’s family believe it is important not to focus on the fact the 17-year-old suspected killer is not Norwegian.

    Representing Pedersen’s close relatives, legal counsel Edel Hennie Olsen said the family “does not want any speculation” over the case, telling NTB: “They have no desire for this to be presented in such a way that it could end up encouraging racism.”

    One of the victim’s co-workers said that he had sounded the alarm over the Afghan two weeks before the murder, reporting that authorities responsible for refugees and asylum seekers in Vadsø had dismissed his concerns.

    Police confirmed that they had spoken to the teenager on two occasions within the last month after reports of “annoying behaviour”, NRK said, reporting officers had “explained [to the suspect] that, among other things, he should not be following young girls”.

    Conservative Norwegian news website Document commented that the case bears a number of striking similarities to a knife attack in July last year, when a 15-year-old girl with an Afghan background fatally stabbed 17-year-old Marie Skuland and seriously injured a 23-year-old Norwegian woman at a Coop in a mall near Kristiansand.”

  10. London’s Police Fails to Record 100,000 Crimes Including Sex Offences (breitbart, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/18/london-police-failed-record-100000-crimes/

    “London’s Metropolitan Police fails to record over 94,500 reported crimes each year, representing 10.5 percent of all reported crimes, according to estimates by the policing and fire services watchdog.

    Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that officers were failing to accurately record crimes including domestic abuse and violence when they occurred alongside other crimes as well as some public order offences and low-level crimes.

    Last year, the Met recorded over 800,000 crimes and the HMICFRS believes these near-100,000 annual missed recordings occur because officers did not “recognise” when crimes were committed or did not “understand” the need to record multiple offences when reported during police investigations.

    “We believe that instances of crimes not being recorded generally occur when staff and officers do not recognise that a crime has been committed, or do not fully understand the need to record multiple offences disclosed during investigations,” the inspectorate found.

    When auditing 1,369 reports of crime from the period 1 July 2017 to 31 December 2017, the HMICFRS found that 271 were related to domestic abuse and of these the force has recorded 230 – the remaining 41 not recorded “were mostly offences involving violence, such as actual bodily harm and common assault”.

    By their estimates, the force failed to record over 28,100 violent crimes. Almost one in ten sexual offence crimes, including rape, were not recorded and of the 118 audited rape reports, 20 were not accurately recorded by London police.

    These findings come after a shock poll revealed that more than half of people in the UK have lost confidence in the police with 57 percent saying they think that the control of whole areas has been surrendered by officers to criminals…”

  11. UK Kids’ Books ‘Too White’: Report Demands Minority Representation ‘Across All Genres’ (breitbart, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/18/british-childrens-books-white/

    “Children’s books across every genre need to feature more black characters in central roles, according to a government-funded report on UK-published literature.

    Highlighting figures showing almost a third (32.1 per cent) of primary school pupils in England are from a minority ethnic background, the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) said it was unacceptable that only 4 percent of books published for this age group in Britain last year featured non-white characters.

    Noting that the figure dropped to 1 per cent for books in which the protagonist was from a black, Asian, or minority ethnic (BAME) background, researchers demanded authors place non-white characters in roles which are “central” to the narrative rather than “[featuring them only] in the margins”.

    The CLPE stressed it was important that “BAME characters should exist across a range of genres” in the report, which found that 56 percent of books featuring non-white characters involved “contemporary realism” issues such as war, refugees, and racism, compared to just 9 percent classed as historical fiction.

    In addition to calling for greater representation of ethnic minority characters, the report urged their inclusion “not as a tick box exercise but as a meaningful and accurate representation of the interconnected, diverse society within which our children are growing up”.

    Such characters should not be “predominantly defined by their struggle, suffering or ‘otherness’”, researchers said, adding that stories should allow for cultural details “without reducing characterisations to derogatory stereotypes”.

    Contending that minority groups are at heightened “risk of marginalisation” in “the current socio-political climate” — a claim often cited by leftist commentators displeased with Brexit and U.S. President Donald J Trump — the study blasted underrepresentation of ethnic minority characters as “tremendously damaging”.

    “To redress imbalances in representation is not an act of charity but an act of necessity that benefits and enriches all of our realities,” alleged the report, which was funded by Arts Council England.

    In December, The Guardian lamented that British publishing was “still hideously… white”, after a survey found white people accounted for 90 percent of employees working in the industry — a proportion not so dissimilar to that seen in the wider UK population, which was recorded at the last census in 2011 as 86 percent.

    Achieving a workforce with demographics that accurately mirror British society does not appear to be the goal of the “diversity” drive pushed by activists and The Guardian, however, with the leftist newspaper quoting publishing leaders who — while admitting “publishers have been very proactive in trying to encourage [ethnic] diversity … in their companies” — proclaimed the industry has “not got true diversity” until the ratio of white people to non-white “is reduced to about 60/40”.

    What is also made clear in the coverage about demands for “diversity” is that, despite claims that the campaign wants publishing to be “less homogenised”, there are no calls for change regarding the massive overrepresentation of women in the field, which stands at 85 percent.”

    • Children’s books across every genre need to feature more black characters in central roles, according to a government-funded report on UK-published literature.

      Sure thing, just like 0bama administration’s top NASA official being instructed about, “reaching out to the Muslim world”.

      DIEversity. Who’s fooling fü¢king whom?!?

    • Ezra is in London covering TR’s appeal.

      Most excellent good news! Now, if only there was some way to siphon off a tiny bit of that important coverage to address the, much deserving, Paul Golding case (Hat Tip: Xanthippa), that’d represent some serious traction.

  12. Australia succeeds in stopping migrants but many in limbo (abcnews, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/australia-succeeds-stopping-migrants-limbo-56657392

    “When Aziz Abdul reached Australia’s Christmas Island aboard a smuggler’s boat, he had no idea that weeks earlier in 2013, his fate as a refugee from Sudan seeking a new life in a new world had been sealed.

    Australia drew a line in the sand on July 19, 2013, to stem a rising tide of asylum seekers brought by people smugglers on long and treacherous ocean voyages. No refugees who attempted to reach its shores by boat from that date forward would ever be allowed to make Australia their home.

    Five years later, the polarizing policy — both lauded as a template for other countries and condemned as a cruel abrogation of Australia’s international obligations — appears to have succeeded as a deterrent. The rickety fishing boats that were arriving from Indonesian ports at a rate of more than one a day have virtually stopped.

    But the question of what will become of the hundreds of asylum seekers banished by Australia to sweltering immigration camps in the poor Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru has become more pressing.

    “The simplest way for me to describe it is it’s just like hell,” Abdul, 25, told The Associated Press by phone from an immigration hostel in a Papua New Guinea village. He now hopes to be chosen among the 1,250 refugees barred by Australia but who President Donald Trump has reluctantly agreed to accept as part of a deal struck between the Australian government and former President Barack Obama’s administration.

    “You send people to a place and you want those people to either die or go back to where they came from even if that place is very, very dangerous,” Abdul said. There was a growing sense of hopeless and fear of hostile villagers among the asylum seekers, some of whom no longer speak because of their despair, he said.

    Daniel Webb, director of Australia’s Human Rights Law Center, told the U.N. Human Rights Council last month that Nauru’s refugee population included 134 children, 40 of whom had been born there. The number had dropped to 124 by this week, with some children sent to Australia for medical treatment and others to the United States for resettlement.

    “With every anniversary, with every birthday and with every death, the sense of hopelessness and sheer exhaustion in these island prisons rises,” Webb said this week. “Our government can’t just imprison them forever.”

    Australia offers to pay thousands of dollars to asylum seekers who agree to go home, and many have taken up the offer over the past five years rather than languish any longer in their island limbos. Australia also struck a multi-million dollar deal with Cambodia to accept refugees who agree voluntarily to leave Nauru and Papua New Guinea, but few took up that offer.

    New Zealand has offered to resettle 150, but successive Australian governments have declined for fear that the wealthy near-neighbor would become a back door for the exiled refugees to enter Australia.

    The island camps have been the scenes of riots, murder, suicide and escalating mental illness.

    The Australian government last year reached a settlement of around 90 million Australian dollars ($68 million) with more than 1,905 asylum seekers who sued over their treatment in Papua New Guinea. The asylum seekers were seeking damages in an Australian court for alleged physical and psychological injuries they say they suffered.

    Australia blames the asylum seekers for their plights. The government believes they remain in the islands under the mistaken belief that Australia will eventually relent and let them in.

    That’s what happened after Australia adopted a forerunner to the current policy in 2001.

    When Norwegian freighter MV Tampa rescued 433 Afghan asylum seekers from a sinking Indonesian fishing boat and attempted to deliver them to the nearest port, Christmas Island, Australia sent special forces troops to stop the ship. The Tampa with its human cargo was sent to Nauru under Australia’s new policy of keeping asylum seekers from its coast that became known as the Pacific Solution.

    Conservative Prime Minister John Howard was re-elected weeks later in a campaign that focused on his tough stance on asylum seekers.

    The boat arrivals slowed over the next few years as Australia-funded immigration detention camp populations grew on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. A few countries took some refugees off Australia’s hands. In the end, Australia quietly accepted the last several hundred refugees without political protest.

    A new center-left Labor Party government closed the Nauru camp in February 2008, when the final 21 Sri Lankan refugees were flown to Australia. Papua New Guinea had been closed years earlier. Then-Immigration Minister Chris Evans called the Pacific Solution policy “a cynical, costly and ultimately unsuccessful exercise introduced on the eve of a federal election.”

    But when the boats started coming back, it was a Labor government that reopened the camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea in 2012. Weeks before an election the following year, Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratcheted up the policy with the declaration “asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia.”

    Andrew Markus, a Monash University expert on immigration, said studies of Australians’ attitudes found that majority-support for the government’s tough refugee policy remained entrenched despite no boats arriving since mid-2014.

    Markus does not believe it would be politically possible for a government to resettle the island refugees in Australia now as happened a decade ago.

    “They’ve really painted themselves into a corner,” Markus said of the promise that boat arrivals would never be accepted.

    Some are still trying. The government revealed this week that it had turned 33 asylum seekers boats back to Indonesia in the past five years. Meanwhile, the U.S. promise to accept up to 1,250 refugees will not settle the futures of all.

    The Human Rights Watch Law Center said there are almost 800 asylum seekers in the male-only facilities in Papua New Guinea and almost 900 men, women and child asylum seekers in Nauru.

    More than 400 have gone to Australia for medical attention or to support a sick relative and have taken court action to prevent their return to the islands, the human rights group said.

    Abdul, the refugee on Papua New Guinea, believes the asylum seekers are victims of Australian politics and of lawmakers prepared to spend billions of dollars to maintain the current stalemate to protect their careers.

    “I believe no matter how long we spend on this island, we are not going to go to Australia,” Abdul said.

    “What do you expect from this government? Do you expect that this government at the end of the day will say: ‘Ok, we surrender. OK, we give up and these people, they won’ — that’s not going to happen,” Abdul added.”

  13. ‘Threat to the World’: Hungary to Quit UN Migration Accord Before It is Approved (sputniknews, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807181066464102-hungary-migration-pact-withdrawal/

    “Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a fierce critic of European migration policy. Budapest has repeatedly stressed the necessity to strengthen the protection of the EU’s external borders and to create migration transit centers outside the bloc.

    Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced that Budapest would withdraw from the United Nations Migration Pact before it is formally approved.

    “This document is entirely against Hungary’s security interests,” he said, adding that the accord posed a “threat to the world.”

    The UN migration agreement, officially called the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, was negotiated in the wake of 2015 refugee crisis in Europe when over a million migrants came to Europe fleeing from wars and disasters in their home countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

    According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the goal of the accord is to guarantee the basic human rights of all refugees.

    Although Europe struggles to find a unified solution for the crisis, there are many divisions over the way it should be done. Hungary is not the first country to pull out of the UN pact. Washington decided to boycott the agreement in December 2017, as US President Donald trump took a hostile stance towards refugees.

    The agreement is due to be finally approved in December during a meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco.”

    • Hungary to quit U.N. migration pact shunned by Washington (reuters, Jul 18, 2018)
      https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-migrants-hungary-un/hungary-to-quit-u-n-migration-pact-shunned-by-washington-idUKKBN1K81AU

      “BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary will quit a U.N. migration pact before its final approval, it said on Wednesday, calling the agreement a “threat to the world”.

      The Global Compact For Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was approved on Friday by all 193 U.N. member nations except the United States, which pulled out last year.

      But Hungary, led by right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has decided not to sign the final document at a ceremony in December.

      “This document is entirely against Hungary’s security interests,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference, adding: “This pact poses a threat to the world from the aspect that it could inspire millions (of migrants).”

      Hungary, along with Poland and Czech Republic, has taken a tough stand against the admission of migrants, putting it at odds with the European Union, but striking a chord with voters by arguing that irregular immigration threatens European stability, and fencing off Hungary’s southern borders.

      Szijjarto said the U.N. pact was “extreme, biased and facilitates migration.

      “Its main premise is that migration is a good and inevitable phenomenon … We consider migration a bad process, which has extremely serious security implications.”

      Szijjarto said Hungary’s proposals were brushed aside during the debate of the document, which he said mostly favoured the interests of African and Latin American countries, from where migration is more likely to originate.”

  14. Richard: The following may be cause by things, Russia may need more hard cash right now, Russia may be trying to freak out the western leaders and businessmen, or Russia may think a crash is coming.

    Russia Liquidates Its US Treasury Holdings

    Last month we showed that as Trade Wars began in April, the world’s central banks and other official institutions dumped more Treasuries than in any month since January 2016, some $48.3BN, perhaps over concerns of others selling first, and precipitating a sharp move higher in yields. Fast forward one month later to May, when according to the latest just released Treasury International Capital (TIC) update, in May the selling of Treasurys by official entities continued, with another $24BN sold in the month of May, when yields continued to rise and eventually hit the 2018 highs of 3.11%.

    But while the selling of Treasuries was to be expected – after all someone had to sell aggressively to push yields sharply higher in April and May – the question was who.

    What we showed last month, is that contrary to some speculation, it wasn’t Beijing, because after shedding a modest $6BN in April, China actually bought $1.2BN in Treasurys in May, leaving its holdings largely unchanged over the past month.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-17/russia-liquidates-its-us-treasury-holdings

  15. EU fines Google $5 billion over Android antitrust abuse

    European Union regulators have slapped Alphabet-owned Google with a 4.34 billion euro ($5 billion) antitrust fine for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system, which is by far the most popular smartphone OS in the world.

    The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, ordered the company to put an end to illegal conduct within 90 days, or else face additional charges of up to 5 percent of Alphabet’s average daily worldwide revenue.

    The EU fine is the largest ever issued to Google, which was slapped with a $2.7 billion penalty for favoring its shopping service over competitors last year.

    Google said in a statement that it would appeal the ruling, arguing against the EU’s view that its software is restrictive of fair competition.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/10/eu-hits-alphabet-google-with-android-antitrust-fine.html

    Richard: As much as I like seeing google getting hit I have to wonder if this isn’t the EU warning other tech giants to follow the Social Marxist line in Europe.

    • “Richard: As much as I like seeing google getting hit I have to wonder if this isn’t the EU warning other tech giants to follow the Social Marxist line in Europe.”

      Your concerns are entirely justified, Richard.

      This Global Grand Guignol™ only can be described as some sort of obscene, world-wide-scale, socio-anthropological, Multicultural “social engineering experiment” that ultimately transcends all definitions of EVIL (much less having—as Robert Burns might have put it):

      Gang aft agley.

  16. Richard: Believe as much about this one as you want, personally I can see the military wanting to be able to directly connect to their equipment but outside of using it for communications I don;t see much else. Despite what the left wants us to think for the military to be effective to soldier has to be a thinking individual who will follow through on the mission but if they hit a roadblock will figure how to go around the roadblock instead of blindly attacking the road block. You don’t want robots but thinking people.

    The Pentagon Wants to Bring Mind-Controlled Tech To Troops

    The Defense Department’s research arm is working on a project that connects human operators’ brains to the systems they’re controlling—and vice versa.

    The idea of humans controlling machines with their minds has spun off sci-fi blockbusters like “Pacific Rim” and entire subgenres of foreign film, but while today skyscraper-sized fighting robots exist only on the big screen, the Pentagon is building technology that could one day make them a reality.

    Today, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is selecting teams to develop a “neural interface” that would both allow troops to connect to military systems using their brainwaves and let those systems transmit back information directly to users’ brains.

    The Next-Generation Non-Surgical Neurotechnology, or N3, program aims to combine the speed and processing power of computers with humans’ ability to adapt to complex situations, DARPA said. In other words, the technology would let people control, feel and interact with a remote machine as though it were a part of their own body.

    “From the first time a human carved a rock into a blade or formed a spear, humans have been creating tools to help them interact with the world around them,” said Al Emondi, the program manager at DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office. “The tools we use have grown more sophisticated over time … but these still require some form of physical control interface—touch, motion or voice. What neural interfaces promise is a richer, more powerful and more natural experience in which our brains effectively become the tool.”

    DARPA began studying interactions between humans and machines in the 1960s, and while technology that merges the two may sound far-fetched, the organization already proved it’s possible.

    https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2018/07/pentagon-wants-bring-mind-controlled-tech-troops/149776/

    Richard: The article was more in line with what the Military would want then I expected, the way the tech is described is what I would want. I worry about the people who want nano computers implanted in the human body, this is a move that will lead to disasters. John Ringo and David Weber have a series where an implanted computer is hacked and Travis Taylor has another. that is enough to make me avoid that procedure. A few years ago there was a toy where children were using a headband connected to the toy to steer a ball around a course.

    • …but while today skyscraper-sized fighting robots exist only on the big screen, the Pentagon is building technology that could one day make them a reality.

      Like hell! Sew the lips shut on these hysterical little funny-bunnies.

      • Why does the leftists always think in terms of giant machines that are impossible to hide and are easy targets for the enemy? Always remember the bigger the weapon the better target they make.

        • Maybe it’s a Stalinist gene. Huge, monumental everything. I hate Freud, but there’s something about big and thrusting forward that gives rise to such theorizing…

  17. 4 blue states sue Washington over GOP tax overhaul

    ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland sued the federal government over the Republican-led tax overhaul Tuesday, alleging the new law championed by President Donald Trump unfairly singles out high-tax blue states.

    The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, was dismissed as a long-shot political stunt by supporters of the new tax code, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it is a practical act of self-defense against an adversarial federal government. The challenge alleges that lawmakers crafted the new tax code to target left-leaning states and interferes with their constitutionally granted taxing authority.

    “This is their political attempt to hurt Democratic states,” said Cuomo, a Democrat who is considered a possible White House contender in 2020. “It’s totally repugnant.”

    The tax law passed by Congressional Republicans and signed into law last year by Trump caps a deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000. The deduction was especially popular in high-tax, Democratic states, where many homeowners will see big increases in their federal tax bill. New York estimates that taxpayers will pay $14 billion more in 2018.

    http://www.wsaz.com/content/news/4-blue-states-sue-Washington-over-GOP-tax-overhaul-488396511.html

    • Trump, House Republicans discuss further tax cuts at White House

      WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump and Republican U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday discussed another possible round of deficit-financed tax cuts, highlighting an initiative seen by some tax experts as an election-year effort with little chance of becoming law.

      Trump sat down at the White House with Kevin Brady, chairman of the House of Representatives tax-writing committee, and a handful of other Republicans from the panel to plot a path forward on further tax cuts that would appeal to their conservative political base ahead of the Nov. 6 elections.

      The discussion began only after Trump sought to defuse intense criticism leveled at him by lawmakers in both parties over his summit meeting on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, saying he misspoke about Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

      https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-house-republicans-talk-tax-cuts-white-house-172917398–business.html

  18. ‘A stunt’: Outrage builds over MGM Resorts’ decision to sue victims of Las Vegas massacre

    A lawsuit filed by MGM Resorts International, owner of the Las Vegas hotel from which Stephen Paddock fatally shot 58 people and wounded hundreds, is drawing outrage from survivors of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

    The suit filed against hundreds of the victims of the rampage Oct. 1 outside the Mandalay Bay hotel claims the entertainment giant has “no liability of any kind.”

    MGM said in a statement the filing was meant to provide a “timely resolution” for shooting victims who sued or will sue in the aftermath of the attack during the Route 91 Harvest Festival. MGM said litigation filed against it “must be dismissed.”

    “The unforeseeable events of October 1st affected thousands of people in Las Vegas and throughout North America,” MGM Resorts spokeswoman Debra DeShong said in a statement. “From the day of this tragedy, we have focused on the recovery of those impacted by the despicable act of one evil individual.”

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/07/17/mgm-resorts-sues-victims-las-vegas-massacre-denies-liability/791511002/

    • If it can be proven that MGM employees were involved in the planning or execution of the attack MGM is responsible for damages. If it is just people saying that MGM should have taken more care on who they rented to and what the guests brought into the hotel they shouldn’t be held liable for damages. There is a certain point where the hotels will be invading the privacy and violating the rights of their guests if they go beyond in determining what can or can’t be brought into the hotel. In my opinion the calls for the hotel to become a gun free zone is a violation of the 2nd Amendment rights of the guests.

      Unless you want to live in a nation controlled by big brother you have to accept a certain amount of risk to offset the rights you have. Total safety isn’t possible in a free society.

  19. Sparks fly at hearing on anti-conservative bias in tech
    By Ali Breland – 07/17/18 03:43 PM EDT

    Lawmakers clashed Tuesday at a contentious hearing over claims that social media platforms and tech companies are biased against conservative viewpoints.

    Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said the hearing addressed a serious issue. But Democrats said the hearing, coming one day after President Trump dismissed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a waste of time.

    “This

    http://thehill.com/policy/technology/397474-republicans-slam-tech-companies-over-anti-conservative-bias-democrats-slam

  20. APNewsBreak: Twitter suspended 58 million accounts in 4Q

    NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter suspended at least 58 million user accounts in the final three months of 2017, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. The figure highlights the company’s newly aggressive stance against malicious or suspicious accounts in the wake of Russian disinformation efforts during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

    Last week, Twitter confirmed a Washington Post report that it had suspended 70 million accounts in May and June. The cavalcade of suspensions has raised questions as to whether the crackdown could affect Twitter’s user growth and whether the company should have warned investors earlier. The company has been struggling with user growth compared to rivals like Instagram and Facebook.

    The number of suspended accounts originated with Twitter’s “firehose,” a data stream it makes available to academics, companies and others willing to pay for it.

    The new figure sheds light on Twitter’s attempt to improve “information quality”

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/apnewsbreak-twitter-suspended-58-million-190410826.html

    • Twitter suspended 58 million accounts in 4Q

      Whatever monumental challenge to their superlative Internet skillz was it that perverted prevented them from doing so years earlier?

  21. Facebook removes page inciting violence against Republicans after lawmaker’s appeal

    Facebook on Tuesday removed a page for inciting violence against Republicans after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) brought it up in a hearing.

    Gaetz said his office previously brought the page to Facebook’s attention and the social media giant dismissed concerns. But he presented the page to Facebook’s head of global policy management directly during the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing examining how social media companies filter content.

    During the hearing, the Florida Republican highlighted content posted on a page titled “Milkshakes against the Republican Party” that called for “crazed shooters” to target the GOP’s congressional baseball team and attack the NRA.

    Gaetz noted the social media

    http://thehill.com/homenews/house/397527-facebook-removes-page-inciting-violence-against-republicans-after-lawmakers

  22. Thousands of leading AI researchers sign pledge against killer robots

    Co-founder of Google DeepMind and CEO of SpaceX amongst the 2,400 signatories of pledge to block lethal autonomous weapons

    Thousands of scientists who specialise in artificial intelligence (AI) have declared that they will not participate in the development or manufacture of robots that can identify and attack people without human oversight.

    Demis Hassabis at Google DeepMind and Elon Musk at the US rocket company SpaceX are among more than 2,400 signatories to the pledge which intends to deter military firms and nations from building lethal autonomous weapon systems, also known as Laws.

    The move is the latest from concerned scientists and organisations to highlight the dangers of handing over life and death decisions to AI-enhanced machines. It follows calls for a preemptive ban on technology that campaigners believe could usher in

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/18/thousands-of-scientists-pledge-not-to-help-build-killer-ai-robots

  23. Russian warship carrying £100BILLION worth of GOLD found off South Korea
    A RUSSIAN warship called Dmitrii Donskoi carrying gold worth £100 billion has been discovered off the coast of South Korea and is believed to have sunk in a naval battle 113 years ago.

    It is thought that the battle ship, which was discovered off the island of Ulleungdo, was sunken during the Russo-Japanese War and could have had the gold of an entire flotilla on board.

    The Dmitrii Donskoi was an armoured cruiser in the Russian Imperial Navy’s Baltic fleet which was deployed to the Pacific in the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War.

    The warship would have taken part in the Battle of Tsushima which saw Russia defeated by Japanese warships.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/990585/Dmitrii-Donskoi-Russian-warship-South-Korea-gold

    • Russian warship carrying £100BILLION worth of GOLD found off South Korea

      I smell Jarndyce and Jarndyce LAWSUIT!.

      I’d be astonished if Mel Fisher doesn’t have a finger (or three) in this tasty little bit of peninsular Mandu.

  24. House Passes Small Business Bill

    OAN Newsroom
    UPDATED 6:30 AM PT — Wed. July 18, 2018

    Small businesses are rejoicing as the House passes a bipartisan package aimed at increasing access to capital markets.

    32 bills came out of the lower chamber Tuesday in what’s collectively being called the Jobs and Investor Confidence Act.

    The act rolls back several Dodd-Frank Act banking rules as well as regulations on capital markets.

    The bill was overwhelmingly supported in a 406-to-four vote.

    http://www.oann.com/house-passes-small-business-bill/

  25. BBC – IS fighters’ orphaned children stranded in Libya –

    When the Islamic State group was pushed out of its Libyan stronghold in the city of Sirte nearly two years ago, the children of some foreign IS fighters were left behind.

    Some have returned to their home countries, but more than 20 orphans, most of them from neighbouring Egypt, are still stranded in the Libyan city of Misrata.

    The BBC’s Sally Nabil met one of them, Jumana, and the grandparents longing for her return.

  26. CBC – Asylum seeker’s refugee claim accepted by Canada

    Asylum seeker Guled Omar, whom CBC News first met last year, has had his refugee claim accepted by Canada.

    CBC News first met Guled and his friend Abdikhadir Omar in Mexico City more than a year ago, when they had already escaped death threats in Somalia and a refugee camp in Kenya.

    • USA: Alyssa Milano leads ‘Make America AMERICA again’ – White House rally

      Hundreds of protesters packed into Lafayette Square in Washington DC on Tuesday, for a second day of protests following US President Donald Trump’s meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

      Left-wing groups in Washington sought to confront the President for what they deemed an act of treason following Trump’s rebuff of the American intelligence community in favour of Putin’s word.

      It is time to make America “independent, respected and America again,” Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti said, in the protest alongside former Hillary Clinton advisor Philippe Reines and actress Alyssa Milano.

  27. Chinese Trade, Investment Rise Ahead of Expected U.S. Crackdown

    OAN Newsroom
    UPDATED 7:21 AM PT — Wed. July 18, 2018

    Mainland China’s trade and outbound investment rose in the first half of this year.

    According to reports Tuesday, China’s monthly trade surplus with the U.S. surged to a record high of almost $29 billion last month — up from $25 billion in May.

    Total Chinese exports rose 11-percent in June, while its exports to the U.S. alone gained 14-percent in the first half of this year.

    Companies may be rushing to ship goods ahead of the looming U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Companies expect lower profits after the tariffs take effect.

    The record trade surplus will likely not ease tensions with Washington.

    “Our country’s trade development is facing more uncertainties and unstable factors,” said Song Xianmao, Deputy Director General – Dept. of Foreign Trade China. “Our next step is to firmly establish and implement the new concepts of development, guided by President Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.”

    China is seeking to increase its investment in Asia and Europe to make up for the expected losses in trade with the U.S.

    http://www.oann.com/chinese-trade-investment-rise-ahead-of-expected-u-s-crackdown/

  28. al jazeera – Libyan coastguard left refugees to die in Mediterranean: NGO

    A woman and a child were found dead hours after they were left in their damaged boat by the Libyan coastguard.

    Proactiva Open Arms, which has been rescuing refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Europe, says the Libyan coastguard has left at least two refugees to die after abandoning them at sea.

    The Spanish NGO, which carries out search and rescue operations in Mediterranean, posted a video and pictures on Twitter showing how their boat took on board three people; two women and a child.[…]

    Later, Camps blamed the death of the refugees on Italy and its new interior minister, Matteo Salvini.

    Since taking up his post in early June, Salvini has pushed the divisive issue of migration to the forefront of the EU agenda[…]

    […]Italy’s new, stricter polices have led to condemnation from several NGOs, but also from countries like Spain and France.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/libyan-coastguard-left-refugees-die-mediterranean-ngo-180717195213059.html
    ==================================================
    Spanish rescue ship heads home after dramatic rescue

    A Spanish NGO that saved a woman off Libya who was drifting on a deflated dinghy next to the bodies of a boy and another woman said Wednesday it is taking her to Spain for her safety.

    Proactiva Open Arms, whose two ships sail back and forth in the Mediterranean to save migrants in distress, said it had decided to return a day after saving the 40-year-old woman from Cameroon.

    In a statement explaining why it had decided to go back to Spain, the NGO said authorities in Italy had offered to take in the woman but not the two bodies.

    It added it feared “for the protection of the surviving woman and her complete freedom to testify” on what had happened at sea if they left her in Italy, which has taken a hardline stance towards migrant arrivals.

    […]

    Italy’s far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini, meanwhile, denounced “lies and insults (that) confirm that we are doing the right thing: reducing departures and landings means reducing deaths, and reducing the profits of those who speculate on illegal immigration.”[…]

    https://www.thelocal.es/20180718/spanish-rescue-ship-heads-home-after-dramatic-rescue
    ==============================================
    Italian interior minister declares war on Spanish NGO rescue ship

    Matteo Salvini says that crew of one of the few vessels still working to save migrants in the Mediterranean will “only see Italian ports in postcards”

    Italy’s deputy prime minister and interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has already imposed an anti-immigration policy in his own country, and he is well on his way to doing the same elsewhere in Europe. He faces very little opposition on land, and out at sea, where one in seven migrants died on their Mediterranean crossing in June alone, there are increasingly fewer ships to get in the way of his no-entry policy.

    This week, Salvini has lashed out against the Spanish non-profit group Proactiva Open Arms, which recently brought a group of migrants to the port of Barcelona after Italy refused them entry. Via his Twitter account, the federal secretary of the League party asserted that Proactiva “will only see Italian ports in postcards.”

    Two ships operated by the NGO were in the central Mediterranean at the time, trying to save migrants in an area where there are practically no other rescue boats left. One of the ships, the Astral, found the remains of a rubber dinghy and the floating bodies of a woman and a child. The only survivor was another woman who had been clinging to a piece of driftwood for 48 hours.

    According to Proactiva, there is only one possible explanation for this scene: the three migrants refused to go back to Libya with that country’s Coast Guard, and the latter destroyed their boat and left them to their fate. A merchant ship that was passing by allegedly also refused them aid.

    “I want to report a failure to provide assistance by the cargo ship Triades, which left a vessel to its fate in the middle of the night, and by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, who got there two days late and left people to their fate,” said the head of the Spanish non-profit, Óscar Camps. “This is the direct result of hiring armed militias to make the rest of Europe believe that Libya is a safe state with a Coast Guard able to deal with this. This is the direct result of not letting us work in the Mediterranean.”

    Also aboard the Astral, in international waters some 80 nautical miles from the coast of Libya, was Erasmo Palazzotto, a representative for the Italian leftist federation Free and Equal (LeU), who blamed the Italian government for the deaths.

    “It is responsible for the crimes that are committed by this so-called Coast Guard,” he said. “Forty-eight hours earlier there had been an announcement that a boat with 158 people aboard had been intercepted and provided with medical and humanitarian assistance. Too bad they forgot to mention that they left behind two women and a four-year-old child and that they sunk the boat because they refused to board the Libyan ship.”

    Salvini is blaming the Libyan Coast Guard for the deaths. His closed-dock policy is based on the allegation that Libya’s rescue teams work efficiently, and that somehow Libya represents a “safe port,” a requirement of the maritime code for dropping off people rescued at sea. That is why the Italian Interior Ministry is trying to salvage its own credibility by defending another country. “These insults and lies from some foreign non-profit confirm that we are on the right track: reducing the number of departures and reducing the arrivals means reducing deaths,” Salvini said in a Facebook post.

    The Italian government has assimilated the League’s immigration policy and closed the ports to all ships carrying migrants, even military missions. It is of little consequence that arrivals have dropped 80% from last year, and that only deaths have increased (more than 1,000 so far in 2018, according to the UN migration agency).

    Last week, Salvini even questioned whether an Italian Coast Guard ship would be allowed entry unless all migrants aboard were handcuffed first.

    This elicited a response by the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, although the first reply came from the writer Roberto Saviano, who has become Salvini’s public scourge: “The minister of the Bad Life talks about ‘lies’ and ‘insults’ about the dead at sea. Confess, rather, how much pleasure you derive from watching innocent children die at sea.”

    https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/07/18/inenglish/1531901276_303984.html

    ==============================================
    euronews – Migrant Tragedy: woman and boy die adrift in the Mediterranean

    + comments on YT — people don’t buy it anymore

    • euronews – A rescue boat found two bodies off Libya’s coast. One survivor was rescued.

      A rescue boat operated by Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms found the two bodies about 80 nautical miles off Libya’s coast.

      One survivor was rescued. Open Arms say the three were left to their own devices after refusing to board a Libyan patrol ship.

    • euronews – Libyan coast guard deny the accusation they abandoned migrants

      A rescue boat operated by the Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms found a woman and a boy dead, and a second woman alive, clinging to the remains of the vessel and accused the coast guard of leaving them in the middle of the night…

    • euronews – Migrant Tragedy; We speak to Ricardo Gati the Captain of the vessel “Astral”

      Captain of the “Astral” vessel who discovered the two bodies of migrants and a lone survivor speaks to our Tokunbo Salako about this latest Mediterranean migrant tragedy.

    • Italian ‘Open the Ports’ campaign arrives in Brussels

      Sit-in at Italian embassy to support open ports policy

      (ANSAmed) – BRUSSELS, JULY 18 – The Italian ‘Apriamo i Porti’ (Open the Ports) campaign, against the Italian government’s recent policy of closing harbours to ships carrying migrants, has arrived in Brussels.

      A group of Italians living in the Belgian capital have held a sit-in in front of the Italian embassy to call on the Giuseppe Conte government to bring in an “open” migration policy. A delegation was received in the embassy to deliver a letter to Ambassador, Elena Basile, to be conveyed to the Italian government. A statement noted that the letter asks for “an immediate end to the policy of closing ports and criminalizing the NGOs” as well as “an end to the alarming number of deaths, abuse and human beings subjected to torture, especially by ending the Italy-Libya Accord”.

      The accord was signed early last year by the Renzi government and aims to stem migration from Libya to Italy.

      The letter also called for the European Council to reject “the continuing of a policy of reception and de facto detention of migrants and asylum seekers in third countries such as Libya and Tunisia.” Another request was to “ward off the spread of misinformation and data forgery for demagogical and propaganda ends”. 🙂 🙂 🙂 The statement noted that the initiative is supported by several organizations, including Libera Bruxelles, Casi-Uo, Anpi Bruxelles, Crer and Medex.

      During the sit-in, Ambassador Basile expressed the hope that “the movements trying to highlight reception principles and just immigration policies will address the European Union and certainly not Italy, a country that for years has honored its obligations and played a fundamental role, dealing in solitude and at a national level with European challenges, such as the emergency of migration flows. Any movement that is able to get Europe to fulfill its duties and acknowledge the urgency of a ‘shared asylum policy’ is welcome,” Basile said.

      http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2018/07/18/italian-open-the-ports-campaign-arrives-in-brussels_4157864c-840f-4a3a-a290-be8a00d52d59.html

    • Migranti, Salvini: “In Italia polemiche di basso livello e meschina propaganda”

      POLITICA (Roma). Il Ministro dell’Interno Matteo Salvini in conferenza stampa alla Camera dei Deputati si sofferma sulla Libia. “La stabilizzazione della Libia non deve passare attraverso balzi come quelli francesi dettati da interessi economici che nulla hanno a che fare con generosità e pace in Libia. C’è bisogno di cautela, attenzione e rispetto. In Italia polemiche di basso profilo. Sono contento che le ONG si trovino meglio in Spagna. Ci restino a lungo Sono contento sia iniziato l’iter per la legge di legittima difesa che non è un progetto mirato ad armare chiunque. La guardia costiera libica è pagata per salvare vite. Il resto è meschina propaganda. Farò qualsiasi cosa affinché si garantisca meno presenze rispetto a quelle odierne. Dall’Egitto da più di un anno non parte nulla. Lavoreremo perché il modello di controllo egiziano sia anche libico”.

    • Tunisian boat with 40 migrants aboard blocked off coast

      Tunisia, Italy, Malta have refused docking permission

      Rome, July 18 – A Tunisian gas-company ship that rescued 40 migrants has been blocked off the Tunisian coast for several days, Infomigrants said Wednesday.

      It said Tunisia, Italy and Malta have refused it permission to dock and offload its human cargo.

      The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) confirmed that the ship is still <strongoff the Tunisian coast Wednesday morning.

      http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2018/07/18/tunisian-boat-with-40-migrants-aboard-blocked-off-coast_f9d4008a-6744-4068-aef8-e31e5b29aa7f.html

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

      DAILY MAIL – Italy’s far-right interior minister says his job is to ‘think first of the millions of poor Italians’ after country refused to allow the bodies of drowned migrant woman and child to be brought ashore

      A woman and a child were found dead in the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday
      One woman survived the wreckage of their raft found floating 80 miles off Libya
      The trio were ‘abandoned by the coastguard’ which earlier said it ‘rescued’ 158
      Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms is attempting to take the two bodies to Spain
      Interior Minister Salvini said it was first job to think of ‘millions of poor Italians’

      Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has said it is his job to first ‘think of the millions of poor Italians’- after his country refused a rescue boat carrying a dead woman and child floating on a wrecked rubber raft.

      A rescue crew found the bodies of a dead woman and child floating on a wrecked raft in the Mediterranean and were seeking permission to return to Spain, after claiming Italy has refused to accept the corpses.

      On Twitter, in response to an article about the incident, Mr Salvini said: ‘With all possible respect for the shepherd of Souls, instead of encouraging the arrival in Europe of the poor of all Africa, my duty to the government is to think first of the millions of poor Italians. Mistake?’

      Lifeguards for Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms made the horrifying discovery in the central Mediterranean, 80 miles off the coast of Libya, on Tuesday.

      Astonishingly, one woman who was with the dead was pulled aboard the rescue boat, the Open Arms, seriously ill but alive.

      Now, rescuers are seeking a port to return to with the corpses of the deceased and the survivor, amid a political storm over refugees in Europe.

      Italy gave the boat permission to dock in Catania, Sicily, and offered to receive the surviving woman, but the country would not accept the dead bodies, Proactiva said.

      The group then rejected the offer and instead appealed to Spain, whose new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has made high-profile gestures to welcome migrants since taking power in June.

      ‘It is incomprehensible that they agreed to receive the rescued woman, who is suffering from severe hypothermia, but did not show the same willingness for the two corpses,’ Proactiva said on Twitter.

      The lone survivor of the three found in the Mediterranean has told how she was aboard a rubber raft with 157 others, attempting to get to Europe.

      They were intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) whose officers attacked them, she claimed.

      The LCG, which is backed by the European Union, ordered everyone to get onto their vessel and be taken back to Libya but the two women and child did not oblige, she said.

      The coastguard then left them to die, as the rest of the group was dragged back to Libya, the Cameroonian woman, named as Josefa, said.

      She told journalist Annalisa Camilli Libyan guards attacked them and were hitting them after they were found at sea after ‘two days and two nights’.

      The discovery of the trio has raised questions over the Libyan Coastguard who had previously reported ‘rescuing’ all 158 people on the raft. The EU-backed group failed to mention leaving anyone behind.

      They later denied the accusation.

      The Open Arms, currently around 75 nautical miles from the coast of Sicily, will face a four-day voyage to a Spanish port if Madrid accepts its request. The distance from Catania to Madrid is around 650 nautical miles.

      Medics have said Proactiva arrived just hours after the male child died.

      The sea rescue charity founded by veteran lifeguard Oscar Camps has rescued tens of thousands of migrants from the Mediterranean since they began operations there in 2016.

      However, Malta and Italy have recently opted to seal ports and refused to take would-be refugees from Libya, even accusing the charity of ‘trafficking’.

      Anti-migrant groups say rescuers create a ‘pull-factor’ but charities argue Libya, from where migrants launch their boats, is so unsafe they will leave regardless.

      Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini labelled footage of the most recent rescue ‘lies and insults’ – just a month after the nation refused to allow a boat with 629 migrants to dock on its shore.

      Mr Salvini, leader of the right-wing Lega party and the new deputy prime minister, said in a tweet that victory had been achieved when Spain said it would take the rescued, at the time.

      Salvini, is pushing for Libya’s coast guard to handle all rescues and take migrants back to Libya, where torture and rape is widely documented.

      In recent months horror stories have emerged from the North African nation of families being abused inside camps set up for refugees.

      There are hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals in the country hoping to head for Europe. Many who have attempted to return to their home nations have been refused re-entry.

      Militia have control of much of the country outside the capital of Tripoli. Gangs and traffickers can make hundreds of thousands per week in human slavery and passage onto boats, as a result.

      The Mediterranean between Libya and Italy is known as the ‘deadliest border on earth’.

      The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said 1,443 people are dead or missing after attempting to cross the route up to July 15 this year.

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5966739/Italy-refuses-accept-bodies-woman-child-abandoned-Libyan-coastguard.html

    • A woman and a child were found dead hours after they were left in their damaged boat by the Libyan coastguard.

      Ya pays yer money an’ takes yer chanskes.

      [/Popeye]

  29. Iran builds new centrifuge rotor factory: nuclear chief

    (Reuters) – Iran has built a factory that can produce rotors for up to 60 centrifuges a day, the head of its atomic agency said on Wednesday, upping the stakes in a confrontation with Washington over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear work.

    The announcement came a month after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he had ordered agencies to prepare to increase uranium enrichment capacity if a nuclear deal with world powers falls apart after Washington’s withdrawal from the pact.

    Under the terms of the 2015 agreement, which was also signed by Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

    The other signatories have been scrambling to save the accord, arguing it offers the best way to stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb.

    Iran has said it will wait to see what the other powers can do, but has signaled it is ready to get its enrichment activities back on track. It has regularly said its nuclear work is just for electricity generation and other peaceful projects.

    http://www.oann.com/iran-builds-new-centrifuge-rotor-factory-nuclear-chief/

  30. Iran builds new centrifuge rotor factory: nuclear chief

    (Reuters) – Iran has built a factory that can produce rotors for up to 60 centrifuges a day, the head of its atomic agency said on Wednesday, upping the stakes in a confrontation with Washington over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear work.

    The announcement came a month after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he had ordered agencies to prepare to increase uranium enrichment capacity if a nuclear deal with world powers falls apart after Washington’s withdrawal from the pact.

    Under the terms of the 2015 agreement, which was also signed by Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

    The other signatories have been scrambling to save the accord, arguing it offers the best way to stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb.

    Iran has said it will wait to see what the other powers can do, but has signaled it is ready to get its enrichment activities back on track. It has regularly said its nuclear work is just for electricity generation and other peaceful projects.

    Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the new factory did not in itself break the terms of the agreement.

    http://www.oann.com/iran-builds-new-centrifuge-rotor-factory-nuclear-chief/

    • Iran has built a factory that can produce rotors for up to 60 centrifuges a day.

      And America has Enhanced Emission Devices (i.e., “Neutron Bombs”) that could wipe out all life at those Iranian facilities in a mere few seconds.

      Enough of this prinking about…

  31. Obama urges Africa to do more to stem brain drain

    JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Former U.S. president Barack Obama advised talented young Africans on Wednesday to drive change at home rather than emigrating, and urged their governments to do more to curb a brain drain.

    Obama, whose Kenyan-born father studied in the United States but later returned home to work as an economist, described the phenomenon of the best minds leaving for global centers abroad as “a real issue”.

    “More and more not only are we seeing concentrations of wealth, we are seeing concentrations of talent in various global centers, whether it is Shanghai or Dubai,” said Obama, who is on his first visit to Africa since leaving office in January 2017.

    Obama told young African business people and activists at a gathering in Johannesburg that opportunities could be greater in their own countries. “Precisely because there may be less of a concentration of talent, … your chances of being transformative are going to be higher,” he said.

    His non-profit organization, The Obama Foundation, runs a leadership program aimed at helping aspiring Africans to solve pressing problems on the continent.

    “If we have African leaders, governments and institutions which are creating a platform for success and opportunity, then you will increasingly get more talent wanting to stay,” Obama said. “Once you reach a tipping point, not only will you stop the brain drain, then it will start reversing.”

    http://www.oann.com/obama-urges-africa-to-do-more-to-stem-brain-drain/

  32. Lawsuit: Brooklyn school told girl, 13, to ‘move on with her life’ after she reported being raped
    NY Daily News July 18, 2018

    [Ed. – This would be an example of getting it really, really wrong.]

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/18/lawsuit-brooklyn-school-told-girl-13-to-move-on-with-her-life-after-she-reported-being-raped/
    EXCLUSIVE: Brooklyn school officials told girl, 13, to ‘move on with your life’ after reporting rape by a classmate: suit

    Brooklyn school officials sent a 13-year-old girl home after she reported she was raped by a classmate — telling her to move on with her life while bullies distributed a video of the attack and taunted her, a shocking lawsuit charges.

    The victim was a happy eighth-grader at Spring Creek Community School who made good grades when she was raped in an alley just two blocks from campus in 2015, according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Friday.

    Now 17 and a rising senior at another city school, the teen, who wants to remain anonymous, suffers depression and suicidal thoughts thanks to Spring Creek officials’ callous and irresponsible handling of the matter, the suit charges.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-metro-brooklyn-student-sent-home-from-school-for-reporting-rape-suit-says-20180716-story.html#

  33. Planet Fitness bans woman for objecting to sharing locker room with ‘transgender’ woman
    By Ben Bowles July 18, 2018

    The motto of Planet Fitness is “Judgement [sic] Free Zone,” but the health club chain was pretty judgmental in its treatment of a rape survivor who refused to share the women’s locker room with a biological male who was “transitioning” to a woman, according to LifeSite.

    The biological woman, who was banned from the facility, is identified in a lawsuit she is filing against the club only as “Mrs. H.” The defendant in the suit goes by the name of Jordan “Ivy” Rice.

    In the suit, filed on Mrs. H’s behalf by Liberty Counsel (LC), a national litigation, education, and public policy organization with an emphasis on civil liberties and the First Amendment, is calling on Planet Fitness to “immediately reinstate Mrs. H’s membership, and make changes to its membership and locker room policies to prevent blatant sex-based harassment by males in the women’s lockers and restrooms.”

    One factor that makes the case different from previous ones is that Rice demonstrated what might best be described as “attitude”:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/18/planet-fitness-bans-woman-for-objecting-to-sharing-locker-room-with-transgender-woman/

    • Unborn generations of future lawyers already are salivating over the prospect of endless gender-lunacy-based cases. The opportunities are limitless.

  34. CNN’s latest claim: Movement to #WalkAway from Democratic Party is a Russian bot campaign
    By Joe Newby July 18, 2018

    When you’re CNN, which used to advertise itself as “the most trusted name in news,” you see Russian bots in your sleep. On Tuesday, the network published an article asserting that the viral movement to #WalkAway from the Democratic Party is, in reality, a Russian bot campaign designed to help Republicans hurt their ideological rival.

    “Now, in this 2018-midterm election season, as some predict a blue wave of resistance to Trump, his policies and alarming authoritarianism, Republicans want to split up the Democratic political opposition and divide black and Latino voters. And Russia looks like it wants to help here, too. But this time it won’t work,” David A. Love wrote, adding:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/18/cnns-latest-claim-movement-to-walkaway-from-democratic-party-is-a-russian-bot-campaign/

  35. Human Right Watch – France: Migrant Kids Left to Sleep in the Street

    Child protection authorities in Paris are using flawed age assessment procedures for unaccompanied migrant youths, excluding many from care they need and are entitled to.

    Hundreds of unaccompanied children sleep on the streets of Paris each night, according to estimates from lawyers and nongovernmental organizations.

  36. euronews – Hungary-Israel: What does the leaders’ new bond mean for Europe?

    Israeli PM Netanyahu is rolling out the red carpet today for his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban, who has been criticised in the past for his alliances with parties deemed ‘anti-semitic.’

    • al jazeera – Hungary PM dogged by corruption allegations

      Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who secured a third term just months ago, continues to be dogged by allegations of corruption and nepotism.

      Critics say friends of Orban are benefiting from large EU-funded projects.
      Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reports from Hungary.

    • France 24 – Despite allegations of anti-Semitism, ”Netanyahu sees Hungary’s Orban as an ally”

  37. Orangutan asks girl for help in sign language

    a new national campaign exposing the US snack food industry […] share this video far and wide to help us achieve the greatest impact possible.

    […]our goal is to collect 60,600 photo petitions – that’s one person for each orangutan[…]

    Learn much more, upload your photo, and join[…]

    **Now with english captions for the hearing impaired.

    • At less than three minutes in length, this clip is a Must Watch.

      Needless overconsumption of difficult-to-produce palm oil is just another example of large-scale environmental rape being carried out by those whose only concern is that last 0.000001% in profits. May they rot in everlasting hell.

      At this point, I really do not care if the entire video was staged. This world only has so many hectares of remaining primitive environment (especially rain-forests). Relinquish these at the risk of all humanity’s future. Who knows what obscure, tiny little treefrog might yield up the cure for HIV/AIDS or overcome this planet’s current dependence upon the (much abused) drug-of-last-resort, Colistin?

      Shred these ancient ecological resources like you might your stock certificates.

  38. Turkey wary of US-Russia deal on Syria

    The summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki was watched very closely in Turkey. Ankara’s focus, however, was on what it may produce for Syria, rather than the issues that created a storm in the United States and Europe.

    Ankara is disconcerted by recent reports in the American press of behind-the-door talks between Washington and Moscow about US forces leaving Syria on the condition that Russia limits Iran’s influence in that country.

    Military gains by the Bashar al-Assad regime in southern Syria, with active support from Russia, while the United States backed off from supporting opposition fighters have also heightened Ankara’s concerns.

    The implications of any US-Russian deal for northern Syria are at the heart of Turkish fears. Turkey wants to clear US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters in northern Syria and prevent an autonomous Kurdish entity from emerging.

    Reports that Washington is working with Moscow to secure an accord for northern Syria between the Assad regime and the Kurds in areas currently controlled by the YPG are increasing Ankara’s concerns.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to jockey himself into a position between Trump and Putin that would give him a decisive say on what happens in Syria.

    Traveling back from last week’s NATO summit in Brussels, Erdogan told reporters he planned to talk to Putin prior to the Helsinki summit and invite him for talks after the summit.

    “This would be a meeting to discuss regional issues. If he accepts this after Helsinki, it will be good for us,” Erdogan said.

    He added that other regional countries could also attend the meeting that he planned to propose to Putin. “I think we can make the situation in the region more stable in this way,” Erdogan said.

    In a further indication of the close tabs he is keeping on the US-Russian talks, Erdogan also held a phone conversation with Trump immediately after the Helsinki summit, even though the two had met only a few days earlier during the NATO gathering when they discussed Syria.

    Ilter Turan, a professor in the department of international relations at Bilgi University in Istanbul, believes Erdogan is justified in his concerns about a US-Russian deal for Syria.

    “If the two superpowers arrive at an arrangement, it is unlikely that they are going to be too sensitive about what other countries say about this,” Turan told Al-Monitor.

    Turan also pointed to Trump’s controversial performance during his recent visit to Britain, at the NATO summit and his statements in Helsinki. “Relying on Trump for anything would be misplaced because he does not take anyone seriously,” Turan said.

    “For America, the main issue now is containing Iran. For Russia, it is to remain in Syria. So it would not be difficult for Moscow to dump Iran if a favorable agreement with the US can be reached,” he added.

    The Kurdish issue is emerging as the single most important agenda item for Ankara now, as a Syrian endgame of sorts appears to be in the making after the regime’s victory over the mainly Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the south.

    Despite Turkey’s successful Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in northern Syria, which upset YPG plans for establishing a corridor connecting Kurdish-held territories east and west of the Euphrates River, Ankara’s Kurdish problem in Syria remains largely unsolved.

    Turkey relies on its burgeoning ties with Russia to counterbalance its deteriorating ties with the West. Nevertheless, calls from Moscow for Turkey to hand over areas it captured from the YPG in northern Syria to the Assad regime have caused irritation in Ankara.

    “Pressure on Turkey to pull out of areas it currently holds will increase if a Syrian settlement is reached with US and Russian backing,” Turan said.

    He added that Turkey does not have the necessary leverage to withstand these pressures in the long run.

    Russia’s plans for the Kurds in any future constitution for Syria — a topic that is expected to be revived in the coming weeks — also represent an area of uncertainty for Ankara. Turkish officials are aware that Washington and Moscow do not share their concerns regarding the YPG and the Syrian Kurds.

    Remarks by Alexander Lavrentiev, Putin’s special envoy for Syria, regarding the Syrian Kurds only add to Ankara’s dissatisfaction.

    “The Kurds will take part in the Syrian Constitutional Committee anyway,” Lavrentiev was quoted as saying by Al-Monitor’s Anton Mardasov, after a meeting of Russian, Turkish and Iranian officials in Geneva in June.

    “Their representatives will be included in every faction: opposition groups, the government’s delegation and civil society. We ask everyone to abstain from dividing the Kurds into pro-Turkish, pro-Russian or PYD [Democratic Union Party] and YPG [People’s Protection Units] categories, the latter of which is viewed negatively in Ankara,” Lavrentiev added.

    Erdogan told reporters on his way back from Brussels last week that “Turkey had no issue with the Kurds, but with terrorists who are trying to carve out a terrorist region in northern Syria.” Turkey is also trying to select Turkey-friendly names to represent the Kurds in talks for a new Syrian constitution.

    Given that Assad will ultimately have to negotiate with the YPG and PYD in northern Syria if pushed by Washington and Moscow, Ankara’s task does not appear easy.

    Meanwhile, the Turkish side is upset at reports that Russia is warning the FSA that Idlib in the north will be the regime’s next target following its successful operations in the south.

    Turkey has troops deployed in Idlib in so-called de-escalation zones agreed on by Russia, Iran and Turkey.

    Some of the opposition fighters streaming into the region after being defeated in the south are listed as terrorist groups by Moscow and are seen as legitimate targets. These include Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which many claim is supported by Turkey.

    Erdogan reportedly issued a counter warning during his phone conversation with Putin before the Helsinki summit, saying that any move against Idlib would destroy the Astana peace process for Syria, which is sponsored by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran.

    Apart from the prospect of losing Idlib to the regime, Ankara is also worried about a new influx of refugees from the region. That could leave it facing a crisis like the one Jordan now faces after regime forces defeated the opposition in Daraa.

    Turan pointed to another dilemma for Ankara regarding Syria. Referring to the $11.2 billion budget deficit recorded in the first half of this year, he believes that Turkey’s expenditures on its Syrian operations have contributed to this, and he argues that this could prove to be unsustainable in the long run.

    Reflecting some schadenfreude, a Western diplomat talking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity argued that Putin had manipulated Erdogan’s anger with the West to great advantage.

    “Erdogan’s hatred of the West has strengthened Russia’s hand. Erdogan needs Putin more than the other way around, especially now that Putin has consummated his great friendship with Trump,” the diplomat said.

    Erdogan’s choices in Syria may be running out, as developments move in a direction he does not desire.

    At best, he faces the prospect of having to share a border with the Assad regime that he loathes and openly vilifies. At worst, he faces the prospect of sharing a border with the Kurds if they come to a US-Russian sponsored arrangement for some degree of autonomy with Assad.

    Still, there is time yet for the endgame in Syria to take shape in earnest — time, that is, for Erdogan to work out a more coherent Syrian policy if he does not want to see Turkey come out as one of the losers of the Syrian conflict.

    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/07/turkey-russia-united-states-syria-deal-worries-ankara.html

    • DEBKA – Secret Helsinki deal: US & Israel hand Russia controlling role along Syria’s Israeli, Jordanian borders

      The scandal over President Donald Trump’s defense of President Vladimir Putin against US intelligence at the Helsinki press conference – for which he, sort of, apologized – served him too as a distraction from a momentous military-intelligence deal the two presidents secretly contracted at their summit, with Israel’s approval.

      DEBKAfile has obtained exclusive access to this deal and can reveal for the first time that it provides for the handover to Russian responsibility of all parts of southern and southwestern Syria abutting on the Israeli and Jordanian borders, including, most importantly, surveillance and observation elevations that oversee all parts of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and the eastern Mediterranean.

      Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu thereby gave Putin a valuable asset for boosting Russia’s military presence in Syria and the region at large.

      https://www.debka.com/secret-helsinki-deal-us-israel-hand-russia-controlling-role-along-syrias-israeli-jordanian-borders/

    • This is a fun article.
      And DEBKA-Disinfo™ piles on to torment the Turk.
      He’s so easy to troll, his paranoia is so cute. Red-faced and frothing, what’s not to like?
      Bless his heart…

  39. euronews – Kremlin or pranksters? New audio reveals Juncker and Mogherini talked policy in Russian prank call

    Russian relations, the Kardashians and rock band System of a Down were discussed with the pranksters pretending to be the Armenian prime minister. But one security expert has warned of ‘unwitting espionage’.…

  40. UK: Tommy Robinson supporters protest as jail sentence appeal delayed by judges

    Dozens of Tommy Robinson supporters gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Wednesday, to demand the release from jail of the founder of the far-right English Defence League (EDL).

    The rally took place while The Court of Appeal was hearing challenges by Robinson (real name: Stephen Yaxley Lennon) against his 13-month jail term for contempt of court.

  41. Houthis Claim Drone Attack on Saudi Aramco Refinery in Riyadh (sputniknews, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201807181066476613-houthis-drone-attack-saudi-aramco/

    “According to representatives of Aramco, there was a fire in the storage of its refinery in the Saudi capital, which, however, has already been extinguished.

    The Houthi-run television announced that that the Yemeni Shiite militants had attacked Saudi Aramco refinery in Riyadh using a drone.

    While Saudi authorities have yet to comment on the claim, Aramco said its fire control teams and the Saudi civil defence had contained a limited fire that erupted in the early evening in a storage containers at the refinery…”

  42. Turkey Launches Probe Against Opposition Leader over Erdogan Cartoon Tweet (breitbart, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/07/18/turkey-launches-probe-opposition-leader-erdogan-cartoon-tweet/

    “Turkish prosecutors opened an investigation against Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu, the head of the secularist opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), on Wednesday for tweeting a cartoon depicting President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an as several wild animals.

    The cartoon has been the source of much controversy over the years, resulting in prosecution against the illustration and surfacing repeatedly in student protests, as the Turkish judiciary found that the cartoon did not sufficient violate obscenity standards. K?l?çdaro?lu tweeted the image in apparent support for the student protesters who had recently revived it.

    “Insulting the president” is a crime in Turkey, punishable by either fines or prison time, depending on the severity of the insult. It also allows Erdo?an to pursue civil charges against anyone he accuses of having insulted him.

    According to Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper, the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for a full investigation into K?l?çdaro?lu’s use of the offending illustration. K?l?çdaro?lu published the image on Twitter with the caption reading, “You’re going to tolerate criticism and humor—you’ve got to! You cannot get in the way of criticism and humor by imprisoning [people]”:

    K?l?çdaro?lu appeared to be referencing an incident at Turkey’s Middle East Technical University (ODTU) early this month, when four students brought along a large banner with the cartoon displayed on it to their graduation ceremony, emblazoned with the caption, “The World of Tayyip.” The four students were arrested for displaying the image.

    Hurriyet notes that it is traditional at Middle East Technical University for graduates to bring banners with political statements imprinted on them to the graduation ceremony.

    K?l?çdaro?lu is now the subject of a “probe,” under suspicion of having violated Turkish penal law against insulting the president. It is unclear what police need to further investigate, as K?l?çdaro?lu has not deleted the tweet or denied his intention in publishing it. Cumhuriyet, a secularist newspaper, reported that 72 legislators in the CHP are also facing charges for having insulted Erdo?an in relation to the poster, and that K?l?çdaro?lu is reportedly facing up to one million Turkish lira in fines ($208,589.70).

    “Look at how far we’ve gone back on democracy,” K?l?çdaro?lu reportedly said about the student arrests before the probe was opened, arguing that the tradition of students making political statements at graduation was a sound one. “There is no insult, but there is [the students’] intelligence,” he explained.

    “My Twitter account will publish this, and all my deputies will publish this cartoon,” the CHP head had promised.

    A spokesman for Erdo?an’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) railed against K?l?çdaro?lu in response to the new prosecutorial charges on Wednesday. “We see this situation of K?l?çdaro?lu as extremely depraved,” spokesman Mahir Ünal said, according to Cumhuriyet.

    Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency also reported Wednesday that K?l?çdaro?lu was charged a fine for a separate statement against Erdo?an: accusing the president of corruption. The state outlet reported that K?l?çdaro?lu was fined 359,000 Turkish liras (around $75,000) for insulting Erdo?an by claiming that he and some cronies “made illicit money transfers to the Isle of Man, a British crown dependency” in a speech in November. Hurriyet notes that K?l?çdaro?lu did not only make the accusation, but publicly release documents that CHP had collected the proved the illegal money transfers had occurred…”

  43. Germany Introduces Bill to Reduce Migration From North African Nations, Georgia (breitbart, Jul 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/18/germany-introduces-bill-to-reduce-migration-from-north-african-nations-georgia/

    “Germany’s government launched a renewed attempt Wednesday to declare three North African states and Georgia “safe countries of origin”, which would raise the hurdles for asylum requests by its citizens.

    Legislation, which aims to reduce the migrant influx to Germany, would add Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as well as Georgia to the “safe” country list that so far includes all EU members, six Balkans countries, Ghana and Senegal.

    However, passage of the bill into law was far from certain after a first attempt was rejected last year in the upper house by states ruled by the Greens party, which advocates a humanitarian approach toward people seeking safe haven.

    Greens party co-leader Robert Habeck said his left-leaning ecologist party had not changed its position on the three Maghreb states, arguing that journalists, homosexuals and other groups were not safe from persecution there…”