Reader’s Links, July 31, 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.

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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

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

142 Replies to “Reader’s Links, July 31, 2018”

    • Wow!! How long did it take to work that out? Even a brief look at any imperial Rome author etc. gives that “clue” away. The smell alone would be a clue to just how rotten is the west thanks to the Left.

  1. Jake Tapper calls Obama out for partying with Beyonce while the Democratic Party’s in shambles
    July 30, 2018 | Frieda Powers | Print Article
    SHARE1.6KTWEET49EMAIL
    CNN’s Jake Tapper went there in criticizing the Obamas and set himself up as a target for angry Democrats who were instantly triggered by his truth bomb.

    Tapper called out the former president for effectively fiddling while the Democratic Party burns, reacting to a story in Huffington Post showing the former first couple at a concert over the weekend by Jay-Z and .

    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2018/07/30/jake-tapper-calls-obama-out-for-partying-with-beyonce-while-the-democratic-partys-in-shambles-659226?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=BPR%20Email&utm_campaign=DMS

  2. DNC CHAIR TOM PEREZ SPOTTED CARRYING $1,840 DESIGNER BAG AT AIRPORT AFTER CALLING SOCIALISM ‘FUTURE’ OF PARTY
    4:31 PM 07/30/2018
    Benny Johnson | Reporter At Large

    A sharp-eyed sleuth snapped a picture Friday of Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez at DC’s Reagan National airport. The former Obama secretary of labor was standing in line, carrying a travel bag that looked outside the working man’s budget.

    Perez has recently embraced the rise of socialism within the Democratic ranks. He recently described the socialist views of rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the “future” of his party.

    “I have three kids. two of them are daughters. One just graduated college, one who is in college — and they were both texting me about their excitement over Alexandria because she really — she represents the future of our party,” Perez said in a recent interview. Perez also called Maryland gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous “spectacular.” Jealous is also a self-described democratic-socialist.

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/30/tom-perez-louis-vuitton-travel-bag/

    Xan: A lot of people are asking what this ‘new fangled’ “democratic socialism” is. No worries, history has the answer. Remember DDR? Former ‘East Germany’? The middle ‘D’ stands for Democractic – and it was a self-described ‘democratic-socialist republic’. Yes, THAT is what “She Guevara” and her ilk are trying to aim for.

  3. MOSCOW — U.S. and Tajik officials say that two American cyclists and two others have been killed in a car crash in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation in what may have been a deliberate attack. Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry said an unidentified driver rammed a car into a group of foreign cyclists about 60 miles south of the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Sunday.

    Two Americans died, the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan said on Facebook. Another foreign tourist also died on the spot and a fourth died after being transported to hospital, according to the Interior Ministry. The other two fatalities were nationals of Switzerland and the Netherlands.

    Three other cyclists in the group sustained light injuries and sought medical help.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20180730170750/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tajikistan-car-attack-cyclists-americans-killed-possible-terror-attack/

    • Holiday in a muslim shithole. Can’t spare any sympathy for the Darwin winners.

  4. Canada has pledged $50-million in foreign-aid funding to support vulnerable Palestinians coping with the effects of the continuing humanitarian crisis and boost economic prosperity for women and youth in the West Bank and Gaza.

    International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the new money on Monday, following her trip to Israel and the West Bank. She said the funding will help support a two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    “These initiatives will ultimately help the Palestinian people to build the social and economic conditions necessary for a two-state solution,” Ms. Bibeau said in a statement.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canada-pledges-50-million-for-vulnerable-palestinians/

  5. Jordanian National Arrested in New York to Face Charges for a Conspiracy to Bring Aliens Into the United States
    WASHINGTON – A Jordanian national residing in Monterrey, Mexico was arrested Saturday on arrival at JFK International Airport to face a criminal complaint issued in the Western District of Texas for his role in a scheme to smuggle special interest aliens from Mexico into the United States.

    Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney John F. Bash of the Western District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Shane M. Folden of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Antonio made the announcement.

    On May 29, an arrest warrant was issued pursuant to a criminal complaint, which alleges that in the later half of 2017, Moayad Heider Mohammad Aldairi, 31, conspired with others to smuggle six Yemeni nationals across the Texas border and into the United States in exchange for a fee.

    Aldairi was presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marilyn D. Go in the Eastern District of New York for his initial appearance. At the hearing, Judge Go ordered that Aldairi be held pending transfer to the Western District of Texas for further criminal proceedings.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jordanian-national-arrested-new-york-face-charges-conspiracy-bring-aliens-united-states

  6. Chinese Regime Recruits American Communists
    Beijing opens new chapter, seeking to take the lead among world’s communist parties

    With little fanfare and no mainstream media publicity, two of the world’s most important communist parties have begun rebuilding relations after five decades of minimal contact.

    At the invitation of the Communist Party of China (CCP), a two-member delegation from the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) toured China from May 26 to June 3. The duo, Chicago-based party Chairman John Bachtell and New York official Carol Widom, represented the CPUSA at a conference on the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth.

    Bachtell wrote: “We were invited to attend a forum to celebrate the 200th birthday of Karl Marx with 70 communist, socialist, left, and revolutionary parties in Shenzhen, an eco-planned city, followed by a week touring Beijing, Hefei, Fengyang County, and Xiaogang Village, the site of the first rural economic reforms.

    “The event reflected the feeling by the Communist Party of China [CCP] that a qualitative turning point has been reached in socialist construction and that China is playing a new role on the global stage. The meeting is an example of China and the [CCP] opening wider to the world and expanding and deepening relations with communist and workers’ parties.”

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-regime-recruits-american-communists_2608647.html

  7. Connect with WJ
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    COMMENTARY POLITICS
    518
    Kamala Harris’ Ignorance Shines Through With Completely Idiotic, And Downright Incorrect, Tweet
    BY JOE SAUNDERS
    JULY 30, 2018 AT 3:36PM
    Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print
    Their ignorance is shining through.

    With ambitious Democrat senators like California’s Kamala Harris, Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren and New Jersey’s Cory Booker already trying to outflank each other to get to the left of the leftiest liberal competition, the American electorate is going to be in for some loony ideas long before the 2020 presidential campaign gets into high gear.

    But with a Twitter post Sunday on helping Americans deal with housing costs, Harris got a big step on her competition.

    Unfortunately for Harris – and the American people – her idea makes approximately zero sense.

    In the post, Harris tried to explain the Rent Relief Act that she introduced into the United States Senate earlier in July.

    TRENDING: Fmr. Obama Adviser Under Fire After Surveillance Footage Catches Him Committing Unthinkable Sexual Act

    “Under the Rent Relief Act, anyone who spends more than 30% of their income on rent would be eligible for a federal tax credit,” Harris wrote. “What would you do with that extra money in your pocket?”

    https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/kamala-harris-ignorance-shines-through-with-completely-idiotic-and-downright-incorrect-tweet/

    • Not good enough if he is still alive. Had it been Tommy Robinson he would be dead.

  8. There’s a subtle effort at re-branding al-Q.
    They’re now evolving into “moderate jihadis”.

    UNDERSTAND: The Saudis and others never stopped funding and equipping such branches of al-Q as ISIS, al-Nusra, and the ever-loving White Helmets.

    We’ve done the same: Obama’s fake “coalition war” against ISIS, the recent evacuation of “non-combatants” that exchanged the Sunni population for Shittes in line with Iranian manifest destiny. The ongoing “humanitarian funding” via MB-friendly E.U. “representatives” like Mogherini and U.S. “statesmen” like McCain and Sasse.

    When they saw it was a lost cause, they stepped back. They’ve moved on to the current tactics. And PTrump has decided this makes sense for now.

    This evolution is described differently depending on the target audience. For the realists in the Arab ME, they’re straightforward foot soldiers against Shitte invaders.

    The Israeli brass knows this as well, accepts the facts.

    It makes public kissy-face with the most coherent Arab forces arrayed against Iran. MSM in Israel gushes over cooperation. Fabulous business opportunities! How could we doubt the commitment of one of our own, Jared Kushner?

    But more sober voices warn that while we trust our Security Cabinet – our govt military strategists – we must not get carried away with fantasies spun for distant consumer populations. Arab Jews, Jews who’ve lived in the contemporary Arab milieu, dealt with it on the front, at the negotiating table, in tents over tea with tribal chieftains.[*]

    Americans think: This is fun - we win! Score PTrump!
    We see what they don't, or what's deliberately obscured from them. Body parts strewn over the Golan, tribal minorities as threatened by "moderate jihadis" as by Shitte militias dressed in Syrian uniforms.

    For Israelis, beyond survival objectives, optimism for the “Axis of Moderation” has to be tempered by the reality of the region and tribal affiliations that are enduring.

    Peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan have been COLD. A one-way street where Israel guarantees the survival of el-Sisi and the dwarf-kinglet, while their national textbooks and media are MORE antisemitic and anti-Israel than in the Nasser era.

    ONLY in Arabic, never in publications for the English-speaking reader, govt mouthpieces like al-Arabiya or al-Monitor. NOTHING in English COUNTS. Even what their leaders say with utmost sincerity to PTrump.

    Those of us in the U.S. who support this administration understand the immediate threat of Iran and her worldwide proxies. We trust the experts devising our foreign policy. But we’re still queasy about buddying-up with the folks who brought us 9/11.

    So it has to be sold to us by the alternative media we depend on. Who else is there? After all, these revealed the evil Hag! Trust Trump, he’s got this!

    True.
    Just be aware.
    The most popular “voices” are packaging a product: the moderate Sunni allies, our friends who will bring the Islamic world into a bright, new 21st century.

    Rival PR firms are involved: some for Qatar, others for Morocco, etc. But the very best image consultants – experts in BRAND creation and promotion – work for our President.

    His money’s on the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Such open American support, by the unapologetic U.S. superpower – that fact alone – can swing Arabs in the region to MbS as Strong Horse. Whatever their reservations about him, the USA has the means to set up a winner.

    Just as Realpolitik has thrown us in with the faction aligned with the Crown Prince, same goes for Israel. The “Axis of Resistance” led by Iran is tightly integrated and has a huge organizational advantage.

    Our side is working on the message to various constituencies. Here it’s the “Axis of Moderation’. It’s different elsewhere.

    The Sunni Arabs get in line according to their tradition. Silence the opposition, bribe the rest. Win over tribal elders. Some bribes are subtle, modern: plum placements, awards ceremonies, flattering appearances on TV as “experts”.

    This is an ancient courtship exercise; everybody knows it. Let’s hope it works. For as long as necessary.

    In the U.S. we’re getting positive images to unite us in support of policies that run counter to own experience. After years of wars in the Sandbox, we’re not easily convinced.

    Ask Moon of Alabama to swallow “jihadis are freedom fighters against the villainous Assad and his satanic guardian, the Russian Megalomaniac.”
    You ask him. He's a twisted jew-hater with his own agenda, but he's no dummy.

    But others are on board, have massive influence in social media, and they’ve been conditioning their followers for years. PTrump is the Messiah who’s accomplished secret missions for decades. (Top Secret details revealed ONLY to select hundreds of thousands of social media followers).

    Believers know that al-Qaida has been infiltrated, taken over by Good Guys. (“Good” by Western standards of morality.) So has Hezbollah! And the Houthis! Body-doubles replace Bad Guy honchos; we’re the only ones who know!

    If you don’t believe it, you don’t believe in PTrump. You’re no better than the MSM-brainwashed haters.

    And it’s all bs.
    ____
    [*]See, for example, Mordechai Kedar, Jonathan Spyer, Seth Frantzman.

    • How can any muslim be trusted by definition? Unless Arabic or Farsi (or Mandarin for that matter) and being an infidel are prescribed preconditions for employment all western intelligence services will fail to be competent. The numbers from what I gather are far too low to really be effective even now and they have had enough time.

      • We know that.
        THEY know that.
        Try convincing a leftist idiot OR a follower of alternative pro-Trump media that’s selling the Madison Ave, PR image of the NEW, Moderate Sunni Arabs of soft-focus MbS.
        VOMIT-worthy stuff.

  9. The Latest Casualty of the Marines’ Surrender to Political Correctness
    Marcus Mainz was relieved of his command, effectively finishing his career, in May.

    Several weeks ago, the United States Marine Corps copied its old Japanese adversary and committed seppuku. It did so by relieving its best battalion commander and most promising future senior combat leader of his command, thus terminating his career. As another Marine lieutenant colonel said to me, “The last light shining in the darkness has been put out.”

    The officer relieved of his command was Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Mainz. Some years ago Mainz, as a captain, was one of my students in a Fourth Generation War seminar at the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Warfare School. He was one of the best—bright, tremendous energy, a powerful personality, and an ability to get results. These are exactly the qualities the Marine Corps needs in its leaders if it is to implement its doctrine of maneuver warfare. Now that doctrine seems to be little more than words on paper.

    Mainz, through the innovative training program he implemented in his battalion, had built a substantial and devoted following throughout the Marine Corps. Now many of his admirers are giving up and putting in their paperwork to resign or retire. Their hope is gone. A Marine major said to me, “The second- and third-order effects of his dismissal are massive.”

    What led the Marine Corps to devour its young? The answer lies in the moral cowardice the senior Marine Corps leadership (and that of our other armed services) routinely displays in the face of “political correctness,” i.e., cultural Marxism.

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-latest-casualty-of-the-marines-surrender-to-political-correctness/

    • It is the same all over the western world. The only good thing about this red wave is that it is confined to the “red tabs” and when push comes to shove, the rank and file will eat them and IMHO it wont be too soon. Patriotism rises when traitors are in power.

    • One more data point in the collapse of civilization, it isn’t surprising that he was removed from command but it is surprising that it took this long. Obama purged the top ranks of the military of our best and brightest and we are now trying to rebuild a fighting military with an officer corp that consists of people that Obama considered politically reliable. This will make it easier for the Patriots to win the coming civil war but it is going to cost us a lot of good men when our overseas enemies attack while the civil war is being fought.

  10. HOME RUNSMORE: Co-Founder of SPLC Allegedly Blackmailed, Beat Ex-Wife into Signing Separation Agreement
    These are the same people who claim to be America’s moral compass.

    Today Big League Politics reported on Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) co-founder Morris Dees’ allegedly indecent behavior with his step-daughter, to which she testified in divorce court proceedings.

    The divorce court appellate brief obtained by BLP contains more colorful stories about Dees and his relationship with his ex-wife Maureene, including that he allegedly stalked, blackmailed and physically abused her in order to coerce her into signing a divorce agreement. The brief was filed by Maury Smith, Julia S. Waters and Charles M. Crook, attorneys for Maureene, in the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals:

    https://bigleaguepolitics.com/more-co-founder-of-splc-allegedly-blackmailed-beat-ex-wife-into-signing-separation-agreement/

  11. https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2018/07/30/garbage-bins-wrapped-vancouver-west-end/

    Garbage bins on the streets of Vancouver’s West End are currently swaddled in a protective wrapping, causing some eyebrows to be raised about safety concerns. Recently, the City of Vancouver took to social media to explain just what’s going on.

    The City explains that they are working with the Vancouver Police Department and wrapping the bins as a “safety precaution” for the large special events taking place in the area between now and early August, like the Celebration of Light and Vancouver Pride festivities.

    Xan: gee – what kind of danger could garbage bins pose to a city that they have to be shut down during a target-rich period of time?

  12. Manchester Arena bomber was rescued from Libya by Royal Navy
    Salman Abedi, who killed 22 people in a suicide attack last year, was saved from civil war in 2014

    The Manchester Arena suicide bomber was rescued by the Royal Navy from the civil war in Libya three years before he killed 22 people at a pop concert, it has emerged.

    Salman Abedi was 19 when he boarded the HMS Enterprise in Tripoli in August 2014 with his younger brother Hashem and more than 100 other British citizens.

    It is understood Abedi’s name was on a list of stranded citizens handed to the crew in charge of the evacuation. The vessel took them to Malta where they caught a flight back to the UK.

    In May last year, he killed 22 people, including seven children, at an Ariana Grande concert with a homemade suicide vest.

    Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate – sent direct to you
    Read more
    A government spokesman said: “During the deteriorating security situation in Libya in 2014, Border Force officials were deployed to assist with the evacuation of British nationals and their dependants.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/31/manchester-arena-bomber-was-rescued-from-libya-by-royal-navy

  13. WHAT A BUNCH OF RACISTS!

    Chinese-born Parisians began Wednesday’s unofficial night patrols to protect themselves and their neighbors in Creteil from robberies and other violent crimes. In the southeastern suburb of the capital live many people who come from Wenzhou. Many of them run restaurants and retail outlets in their adopted home country.

    As a member of the new vigilantes reported, chaos reigns on the ground: “Many people, especially women, are robbed between 11 and 12 o’clock when the restaurants close, and many people from Wenzhou live in the block. They patrol the area around noon and noon 12. Black people often steal Chinese bags because they think money is in. Sometimes we do not even have something in our pockets, sometimes they beat our girls, rob our compatriots in their garages. Black people have smashed car windows and stolen the pockets and clothes of the Chinese, it’s really a mess. ”

    The patrols will last from 9pm until midnight until they all come home safely. In recent years, the number of victims of crime against Chinese has increased significantly. In 2016, a group of 26 Chinese tourists were attacked by six men when boarding a bus. In 2017, 40 Chinese tourists were attacked with tear gas in a robbery near Paris. Just a few weeks after the incident, three Chinese students in Blagnac were hit by a car.

    For English subtitles, please activate the subtitle function on Youtube.

    • Forgot the title:

      Paris – “Chaos rules here” – Chinese residents in France become vigilantes and created neighbourhood patrol to fight violent crimes.

      • Vigilante action is coming to all nations, while these actions show the collapse of civilization and the rule of law they also show the way the European nations will be saved.

  14. Libyan Coast Guard Takes 611 Migrants Back to Africa (breitbart, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/31/libyan-coast-guard-takes-611-migrants-back-to-africa/

    “Between Monday and Tuesday, the Libyan Coast Guard reportedly rescued 611 migrants aboard several dinghies off the coast and took them back to the African mainland.

    Along with the Libyan search and rescue operation, an Italian vessel, following indications from the Libyan Coast Guard, rescued 108 migrants aboard a rubber dinghy and delivered them back to the port of Tripoli. The vessel, called La Asso 28, was a support boat for an oil platform.

    Italian mainstream media have echoed complaints of NGOs claiming that in taking migrants back to Libya the Italian vessel would have violated international law that guarantees the right to asylum and does not recognize Libya as a safe haven.

    In recent weeks, a spokesman for the Council of Europe had stated that “no European ship can bring migrants back to Libya because it is contrary to our principles.”…”

  15. Study: Turkish Background Germans Increasingly Feel Closer Bond to Turkey Than Germany (breitbart, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/31/study-turkish-background-germans-closer-bond-turkey-germany/

    “A study has found that a growing number of ethnic Turks in Germany no longer see both Germany and Turkey as their homeland, but identify solely as Turks.

    The study, undertaken by Martina Sauer of the Centre for Turkish Studies and Integration Research (ZfTI) at the University of Duisburg-Essen, says that many Turks feel excluded from German society, SVT reports.

    The report comes after German star footballer Mesut Ozil quit the national side over allegations of racism sparking a movement called “Metwo” in Germany in which people of migrant backgrounds share stories of alleged discrimination.

    Ozil had been heavily criticised for posing for a photograph with Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an which he defended saying: “Like many people, my ancestry traces back to more than one country. Whilst I grew up in Germany, my family background has its roots firmly based in Turkey.”

    “I have two hearts, one German and one Turkish,” he added.

    According to the study, the main driving force behind the trend has been second generation migrants who are said to feel a deeper sense of social exclusion than first-generation immigrants.

    The study echoes the loss of identity described by French radical Islam expert Gilles Kepel who noted that in France many migrants from Muslim backgrounds eventually began to feel excluded from society and instead of seeing themselves as French, increasingly saw themselves as primarily Muslim instead.

    While the study shows an increasing number of Turkish-Germans identifying with Turkey as their homeland, a large section of the Turkish-background population across many Western European countries are also supporters of President Erdo?an.

    Figures released following Erdo?an’s election victory in June revealed that 64.8 percent of Turks in Germany voted for the Islamist. and in other countries such as Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the figure was over 70 percent.

    The celebration of Erdo?an’s victory and the sheer number of Turks who voted for him in Austria led Vice Chancellor Heinz Christian Strache, leader of the populist Freedom Party (FPÖ), to state: “I recommend all the Turks in Austria who voted for Erdo?an should return to Turkey!””

  16. Pro-Migrant Group Withdraws Aid From ‘Dangerous’ Paris Migrant Camp, Claims Operation too Risky (breitbart, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/31/pro-migrant-group-give-up-helping-paris-migrants-camp-dangerous-place/

    “The pro-migrant association Solidarité Migrants Wilson will halt all operations in La Chapelle, Paris, in August due to their staff being subjected to rising levels of violence from illegals.

    For the past 20 months, the group had been working with migrants living in makeshift camps on the streets of La Chapelle handing over 250,000 meals and other items.

    Now the area, according to the group, has “become an extremely dangerous place, where the exiles, men, women, children, live in appalling sanitary conditions: they are at least 700 people, permanently, with only two water points, which have been restored by the city after dozens of emails from us.”

    “The hygienic conditions are very worrying. We want to warn the public authorities about the totally explosive nature of the situation and call them once again to take on their responsibilities,” Solidarité Migrants Wilson added, according to Le Parisien.

    The Porte de la Chapelle makeshift camp was cleared by police in June but migrants soon returned including at least a hundred drug addicts.

    “Cohabitation between these various populations is going badly. Drug addicts are suffering, but they are also aggressive, including with us,” the group wrote on Facebook.

    “The minimum security and humanity conditions for our daily distribution cannot be assured,” they added.

    The group also noted the constant influx of new migrants to the French capital, which some have estimated to be as many as 500 per week and a new report has claimed there could be as many as 400,000 illegal migrants living in the French suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis.

    As many as 300,000 illegals are said to live in the suburb of Saint-Denis alone, according to a parliamentary report.”

  17. Act of betrayal: Manchester bomber was rescued by the Royal Navy from Libyan warzone and evacuated back to Britain – three years before he slaughtered 22 people at a pop concert (dailymail, Jul 31, 2018)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6008369/Manchester-bomber-rescued-Royal-Navy-Libyan-warzone-evacuated-Britain.html

    “The Manchester suicide bomber was rescued by the Navy from war-torn Libya three years before his pop concert atrocity, the Mail reveals today.

    HMS Enterprise plucked Salman Abedi, then 19, from the Libyan coast and took him to Malta for a flight home to Britain in August 2014.

    Last May he set off a bomb in Manchester Arena that killed 22, including seven children.

    Abedi’s younger brother, Hashem, who is in jail in Tripoli facing trial over the attack, was also rescued by HMS Enterprise.

    The pair had been caught up in fighting in Libya and were among more than 100 British citizens taken to safety.

    Photographs released by Ministry of Defence officials at the time showed the group being brought on board the Navy vessel.

    A Whitehall source said: ‘For this man to have committed such an atrocity on UK soil after we rescued him from Libya was an act of utter betrayal.’…”

  18. Pair jailed over fixed marriage (express, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/996677/man-woman-jailed-forced-marriage-leeds-crown-court

    “THE “monster” parents of a British-born Asian woman were yesterday jailed for threatening to slit her throat if she did not enter a forced marriage to her cousin.

    The husband and wife were jailed for a total of eight years at Leeds Crown Court.

    The 18-year-old girl was rescued from a village in Bangladesh in 2016 in a dramatic police operation by the British High Commission.

    She had been lured there under the pretext of a family holiday, only to find her parents had made arrangements for her to marry a cousin.

    The pair, who cannot be named, were found guilty of forced marriage and one count of using violence, threats or coercion to force their daughter into marriage…”

  19. Blasts & heavy gunfire reported in eastern Afghanistan (RT, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.rt.com/news/434693-afghanistan-blast-gunfire-migrants/

    “Several blasts, followed by heavy gunfire, were reported near a provincial hospital and the Department of Migrants and Refugees in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, according to local media.

    Officials confirmed the incident to TOLOnews, but have yet to reveal further details. According to the outlet, gunfire is currently ongoing. Pajhwok news agency has reported that the explosions took place at the building of the Nangarhar refugees department…”

    • 11 die in Afghan roadside blast; militants hit eastern city (abcnews, Jul 31, 2018)
      https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-official-roadside-bomb-kills-11-western-province-56931568

      “A roadside bombing hit a passenger bus in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people, as militants launched a coordinated attack on a city in the country’s east, setting off gunbattles with Afghan troops, officials said.

      The morning attack in western Farah province took place in the Bala Buluk district and also wounded 31 people, all civilians, according to Abdul Jabar Shahiq, the provincial health department chief. There were women and children among the casualties.

      The bus was on its way from Herat province toward the capital, Kabul, when it hit the roadside bomb, Shahiq said.

      Details were sketchy for the attack in eastern Afghanistan, where militants launched a coordinated assault Tuesday on Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar, according to local officials.

      Zabihullah Zemarai, a member of the provincial council, said there was first a car bombing — likely an explosion set off by a suicide car bomber — near the city’s provincial hospital and health department, followed by gunfire.

      Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the target appeared to be the provincial refugee and repatriation department, which is also located in the same area of the city.

      He could not provide any detail on possible casualty figures as fighting was still underway at the department compound.

      No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. In Nangarhar, both the Taliban insurgents and the Islamic State group have been active…”

  20. Shooting in Brussels Injures at Least One Person /sputniknews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807311066819592-brussels-shooting-injured/

    “A shooting has taken place in the area of the Brussels-South railway station this morning, the prosecutor’s office is investigating the incident, the supervisory agency reported.

    The incident occurred on Argon Street, by the Brussels-South railway station and several hotels.

    “One person, whose name has not yet been identified, received two gunshot wounds, there is no threat to his life,” the Brussels prosecutor’s office said.

    The prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the attempted murder and begun “investigative actions, including examining the recording from CCTV cameras and ballistics,” the office said, adding that the suspect or suspects have not been identified yet.

    According to media reports, citing witnesses, two men opened fire but managed to escape.”

  21. IS claims responsibility for Tajikistan attack that killed 4 (abcnews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/claims-responsibility-tajikistan-attack-killed-56932908

    “The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a weekend attack on Western tourists in Tajikistan that left four people from the U.S. and Europe killed.

    The group said in a statement late Monday that several of its soldiers attacked the “citizens of the Crusader coalition,” referring to an incident on Sunday when a car rammed into a group of foreign cyclists south of the Tajik capital Dushanbe. The driver and the passengers then got out and attacked the tourists with knives, leaving four dead and three injured.

    The Islamic State group often refers to the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting it in Syria and Iraq as crusaders…”

  22. ‘Pro Refugee’ Paris Now Has 300,000 Illegal Migrants Crammed Into ONE Neighborhood

  23. Portland Police Refused To Help ICE Agents Who Called 911, Agents Say

    Portland, Oregon, police refused to respond to at least two 911 emergency calls from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees inside their offices where violent protesters held week-long demonstrations.

    The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, a union representing ICE employees, wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler, asking him to ensure the police enforce the law equally and protect innocent people.

    “Your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause,” the letter says.

    Demonstrators, some affiliated with the domestic terrorist organization Antifa, set up a city of tents outside the ICE offices. After setting up camp, they became violent and incited violence several times.

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/30/portland-police-ice-911-calls/

    • When reading this one remember the report that Antifa and Patriot Prayer are going to clash this weekend with the possibility that Antifa will bring firearms.

  24. Iran Guards Call on President Rouhani to Halt Rial’s Drop

    (Bloomberg) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in unusually pointed language, called on President Hassan Rouhani to do more to prop up the rial after the currency fell to a historic low this week in anticipation of renewed U.S. sanctions.

    “The unique and extensive backing you benefited from in past weeks shouldn’t preclude you from taking revolutionary actions to control prices and prevent the enormous increase in the price of foreign currency and gold,” Guard commander Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying in an open letter to Rouhani, published by the Tasnim news agency. “Decision-making in today’s difficult circumstances necessitates revolutionary determination and decisiveness in dealing with certain managers’ weaknesses.”

    https://www.bloombergquint.com/markets/2018/07/31/iran-guards-head-calls-on-president-rouhani-to-halt-rial-s-drop#gs.NldQSZY

  25. Returning to nuclear deal can pave way for talks with U.S., tweets Rouhani ally

    ANKARA (Reuters) – To pave the way for talks with Iran, the United States should return to a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers, an aide to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday.

    “Respecting the Iranian nation’s rights, reducing hostilities and returning to the nuclear deal are steps that can be taken to pave the bumpy road of talks between Iran and America,” tweeted Hamid Aboutalebi, an advisor to Rouhani.

    Trump said on Monday he would be willing to meet Iran’s leader without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying, “If they want to meet, we’ll meet.”

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-usa-talks/returning-to-nuclear-deal-can-pave-way-for-talks-with-u-s-tweets-rouhani-ally-idUSKBN1KK2I3

  26. U.S. spy agencies: North Korea is working on new missiles

    U.S. spy agencies are seeing signs that North Korea is constructing new missiles at a factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, according to officials familiar with the intelligence.

    Newly obtained evidence, including satellite photos taken in recent weeks, indicates that work is underway on at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled ICBMs at a large research facility in Sanumdong, on the outskirts of Pyongyang, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe classified intelligence.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-spy-agencies-north-korea-is-working-on-new-missiles/ar-BBLhxFf

  27. How legal cannabis actually made things worse for sick people in Oregon

    The medical marijuana market is in a downward spiral as businesses, lured by big money, shift to recreational

    In 2015, Erich Berkovitz opened his medical marijuana processing company, PharmEx, with the intention of getting sick people their medicine. His passion stemmed from his own illness. Berkovitz has Tourette syndrome, which triggers ticks in his shoulder that causes chronic pain. Cannabis takes that away.

    Yet in the rapidly changing marijuana landscape, PharmEx is now one of three medical-only processors left in the entire state of Oregon.

    On the retail end, it’s also grim. At the height of the medical marijuana industry in 2016, there were 420 dispensaries in Oregon available to medical cardholders. Today, only eight are left standing and only one of these medical dispensaries carries Berkovitz’s products.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/31/oregon-cannabis-medical-marijuana-problems-sick-people

  28. Priest punched, doused in wine, beaten with bottle, police say

    Pastor William Graney and another Resurrection Parish staff member were assaulted on Monday at the Pike Creek Catholic church, according to New Castle County Police.

    County police officers were called to the church at about 2 p.m., according to a statement from the department. After arriving, witnesses directed the officers to a suspect who was leaving the area on a skateboard, police said.

    The officers approached the suspect, described as a 25-year-old white man, and apprehended him after a struggle, police said.

    A subsequent police investigation found that church employees first were alerted to a problem when they heard arguing and then a struggle inside of Graney’s office, according to police.

    They followed the sounds into his office and there they saw the assailant punching and kicking the priest in the face and stomach while he was on the floor.

    The church employees tried to break up the fight, “but the white male subject pushed them aside and (then) went into another room, grabbed a bottle of wine, returned and poured it all over the injured pastor,” police said in the statement.

    He used the empty wine bottle to then strike Graney in the head, police said. Then, he grabbed a can of compressed air and sprayed it into the priest’s mouth, police said.

    https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2018/07/30/priest-assaulted-pike-creek-parish/867390002/

  29. Unknown Man Blows Himself up at Football Field in Belgium – Reports (spuntiknews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807311066821764-man-blows-himself-up/

    “A man, wearing a belt of explosives, blew himself up at 8:40 a.m. local time at Stembert, on the heights of Verviers, on the Linaigrettes football pitch.

    As specified by the broadcaster RTB, it could be a man approximately 50-60 years old, who at the time of the incident was alone in the center of the field.

    “The police went to the scene after an eyewitness reported that an unknown person had blown himself up in the center of the football field in the Stembert area,” the prosecutor’s office stated, noting that there will be no additional information for the duration of the investigation.

    The motives and circumstances of the incident are still being clarified.

    “It would seem that he is a European in his fifties and a former career military officer,” City Hall deputy mayor Hasan Aydin said.

    The deputy mayor told reporters that at the moment suicide is being looked at as a priority, the authorities are currently trying to establish the identity of the deceased.

    “Suicide seems the most likely reason for the moment because if he had wanted to cause casualties, the man would have chosen another place at another time,” he stated.”

  30. China urges U.S. not to allow stopover by Taiwan president

    BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) – China urged the United States on Tuesday not to allow Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to transit its territory when she visits Belize and Paraguay next month, adding to tension between Beijing and Washington that has worsened amid a trade war.

    Beijing considers democratic Taiwan to be a wayward province of “one China”, ineligible for state-to-state relations, and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

    China regularly calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue between it and the United States, and Beijing always complains to Washington about transit stops by Taiwanese presidents.

    Taiwan’s government announced on Monday that Tsai would travel to and from its two diplomatic allies via the United States, standard procedure for visits by Taiwanese presidents to Latin America.

    Taiwan’s Presidential Office said Tsai would be stopping off in Los Angeles and Houston, though did not provide exact dates.

    Speaking at a daily news briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China had already lodged solemn representations with Washington about the planned transits.

    “We have consistently resolutely opposed the United States or other countries with which China has diplomatic relations arranging this kind of transit,” Geng said.

    http://www.oann.com/china-urges-u-s-not-to-allow-stopover-by-taiwan-president/

  31. New academic consultant for Twitter ‘conversational health’ initiative about what you’d expect
    By J.E. Dyer July 31, 2018

    Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, reeling from widespread accusations that Twitter systematically “shadow-bans” conservative users and their tweets, announced on Monday that Twitter has selected a group of academic partners in two programs to improve the “conversational health” of the Twittersphere. In his words, it’s the first step in a process:

    Our first goal is working to measure the “health” of public conversation, and that measurement be open and defined by third parties (not by us).

    jack
    ?
    @jack
    · 1 Mar
    Replying to @jack

    We simply can’t and don’t want to do this alone. So we’re seeking help by opening up an RFP process to cast the widest net possible for great ideas and implementations. This will take time, and we’re committed to providing all the necessary resources. RFP: https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2018/twitter-health-metrics-proposal-submission.html

    jack
    ?
    @jack

    An update! We’ve selected 2 partners from 230 idea submissions. Our first goal is working to measure the “health” of public conversation, and that measurement be open and defined by third parties (not by us). https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2018/measuring_healthy_conversation.html

    This initiative isn’t likely to have a salutary impact on Twitter’s market health, which suffered a notable setback on Friday 27 July.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/31/new-academic-consultant-for-twitter-conversational-health-initiative-about-what-youd-expect/