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.

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

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

  1. Richard: Data point on the collapse of civilization.

    Set your DVRs: Netflix to offer film chronicling the life of Louis Farrakhan
    By Ben Bowles July 31, 2018

    Set your DVRs: Netflix to offer film chronicling the life of Louis Farrakhan
    By Ben Bowles July 31, 2018

    Presumably, a documentary on the life of Louis Farrakhan scheduled to air on Netflix starting Aug. 1 (and, no, this is not from The Onion) will include a clip from a 1984 speech when the Nation of Islam founder proclaimed that “Hitler was a very great man.”

    This may cause some confusion among liberals, who routinely dismiss President Donald Trump as another Hitler. But no doubt there will be other tidbits in the amusingly named “The Honourable [sic] Minister Louis Farrakhan: My Life’s Journey Through Music” that are more in keeping with leftist opinion. Such as his views on Jews and whites (via FrontPage’s Daniel Greenfield):

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/31/set-your-dvrs-netflix-to-offer-film-chronicling-the-life-of-louis-farrakhan/

  2. Liberals offering their organs to keep Ruth Bader Ginsburg healthy
    By LU Staff July 30, 2018

    The question “How crazy are liberals in the era of Donald Trump?” just became slightly more difficult to answer.

    The president already appointed one new justice to the Supreme Court in the person of Neil Gorsuch, and he currently has another nominee in the works in the person of Bret Kavanaugh.

    The confirmation of Kavanaugh will be sufficient to enable Roe v. Wade to be overturned should a case challenging the law come before the high court. This is the reality whether Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is 85, retires or not. Yet some people appear to be willing to lay down their lives to keep the liberal octogenarian alive and (reasonably) well.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/30/people-offering-their-organs-to-keep-ruth-bader-ginsburg-healthy/

    • EU( =Germoney) wants to pay countries who take in illegal immigrants 6,000Euro per migrant.

      Intelligence reports indicate that Sweden is sitting on a ticking Jihad bomb, with muslim radicalism increased by 900% -the chickens have come home to roost on Swedens open door immigration policy. A report last year, compared crime in Sweden to Mexico.

  3. Cultural Enrichment Du Jour ! Massive gypsy fight in Gelsenkirchen,Germany

    About 50 romanian gypsies got this sunday in Gelsenkirchen in a fight with bats, bottles, hammers and sticks. 5 gypsies got hurt, 1 in critical condition, 3 arrested. homicide unit is investigating. A 27-year-old in critical condition with severe head trauma.

    Gelsenkirchen. After the bad mass brawl in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday evening, the police came to first investigation results.

    Apparently there was a confrontation between members of families from the Roma and Sinti-Millieu, a spokesman for the police told DER WESTEN. The thugs had come up with a fierce fight with bottles, baseball bats and chairs.

    A 27-year-old man from Gelsenkirchen suffered severe head injuries, which could well be life-threatening, as it turned out on Monday.

    For this reason, the Police Headquarters Gelsenkirchen entrusted a homicide with the further investigation. (already removed from Youtube)

    https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=s2UzX_1532909554

  4. The Democrat Future Isn’t Socialist, It’s Crazy
    They don’t want socialism, they want Trump dead.

    The socialists are having a moment. At least if you believe the media

    But if the socialists were really having a moment, their big show wouldn’t be a 28-year-old birdbrain whose big achievement was beating a boring white guy in a Hispanic district he didn’t even live in.

    If you’re going to take over the Democrats, you need something more to show for it than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or a senile socialist who came in number 2 in the primaries and then again in the DNC.

    The Democrats are adopting socialist ideas wholesale. The 2020 Dem nominee will run on a guaranteed minimum income or ‘Welfare for All”. Along with free health care, free college and free copies of Das Kapital. And socialism polls brilliantly with the four core Dem bases of angry government workers, angry college students, angry welfare recipients and San Francisco eco-billionaires who keep all their money in Caribbean banks. But that’s because the Democrats have no ideas except hating Trump and Republicans.

    Eight years of Obama ushered in primary elections notable for a nominee who jumped on every bandwagon she could catch with both feet, her socialist ankle biter who flip-flopped almost as much as she did, even flipping and flopping on the question of whether he was a Democrat, a distant third place loser running on painting all the electricity green, and a fourth placer still running against the Iraq War.

    The Democrats have become a mob looking for a leader who will make them feel strong and sure. That leader wasn’t Hillary Clinton. But it won’t be the socialist opposition either. Antifa or Black Lives Matter may be more like it. Hitting the outrage button is also all they know, but they offer a better release for that helplessness and rage than making campaign contributions to lefty candidates through ActBlue.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270900/democrat-future-isnt-socialist-its-crazy-daniel-greenfield

    • Be sure are read the entire article, it details why a civil is coming to the US and why Antifa is going to create chaos in Europe. Things in Europe as so bad that it will take a major miracle to prevent civil wars in all European Nations. China, Russia and the wanna be Caliphs will try to take advantage of the civil wars but that will be a very big mistake on their parts, the Western Europeans are waking up and are going to be in the mood to destroy anyone trying to enslave them.

      • Wonder how much fight Belgium and the Netherlands will put up…?
        They might hasten their stroll to the local euthanasia clinics, where business is booming.

  5. VICE News – Michigan Could Elect America’s First Muslim-American Governor

    As a candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for governor in Michigan, is not unlike Bernie Sanders. He’s a progressive outsider avoiding corporate PAC money and embracing Medicare for All for the state. But for many voters, he’s defined by one thing: His religion.

    El-Sayed, the former director of the Detroit Health Department, is a practicing Muslim, and he would be the first Muslim-American governor in the nation if elected. He’s one of what experts are calling a “wave” of Muslim-American candidates running for office nationwide this year, with as many as 100 candidates launching campaigns.

    But El-Sayed has had to deal with religion-focused attacks from one of his GOP opponents — attacks which one of his Democratic opponents has refused to denounce. El-Sayed also told VICE News “very powerful people” in the Michigan Democratic Party told him he’d have trouble winning because of his religion and name.

    VICE News spent time in Michigan with El-Sayed to see how the Democrat is responding to the attacks and handling his religion on the campaign trail.

  6. “Reactions to Donald Trump’s Hollywood Star Being Destroyed | BLACK MIC”
    Official Black Mic – July 26, 2018

    • Are most of those people being interviewed -on drugs? Why do they talk so strange? Slurred.

      • Are they on drugs? One girl said she was and the others could be brain damaged from the drugs they h ave taken.

  7. Wise Giants and Arrogant Dwarves
    The follies of our modern age.
    July 31, 2018
    Bruce Thornton

    In the 12th century Bernard of Chartres first pointed out that we have more knowledge than those who came before us not because of our greater intelligence and understanding, but because we are “dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants,” and can see farther because of the accumulated achievements of generation after generation of intellectual pioneers who preceded us.

    That intellectual modesty and respect for tradition that once characterized Western Civilization has been scorned and spurned by modernity, leading to many of the bad ideas and lethal ideologies that have plagued the last two centuries. Indeed, we are historically unprecedented––but only in the coexistence of an astonishing depth of knowledge about nature and its laws, with a profound lack of the wisdom and common sense once possessed by even our illiterate forbearers. Rather than acknowledge the traditions and wisdom on whose shoulders we sit, we arrogantly imagine ourselves to be self-created giants.

    Our hubris comes from the remarkable success of Western science at understanding the material world and its laws, and then using that knowledge to create transformational technologies. But the wonders of technology led us into a category error. We began to think that human beings could be understood in the same way and with the same predictability as we achieved with the material world. Such knowledge in turn would lead to “scientific” techniques that could transform humans and correct the evils caused by ignorance, tradition, and superstition.

    This illusion and the hubris it nourishes dominates our culture, especially among those called progressives, who endorse the arrogance of technocratic elites who believe power backed by the “human sciences” can reshape and improve humans, and so create a perfect society free from the suffering and misery of the past.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270886/wise-giants-and-arrogant-dwarves-bruce-thornton

  8. Hillary Clinton’s Dark Money Group Finally Gives Dems $95K
    July 31, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    I’m not sure why CNN felt this required a headline instead of an eye roll.

    Hillary Clinton is getting more involved in the 2018 midterms.

    Clinton, through her political organization Onward Together, donated the maximum of $5,000 to 19 Democratic House candidates and four secretary of state candidates in June, according to the group’s filings with the Federal Election Commission. The donations represent the most concentrated midterm effort the former Democratic presidential nominee has made to date

    Hillary’s most concentrated midterm effort was donating $95K? That’s her monthly chardonnay bill.

    Onward Together promised to make a difference. It’s been taking in money for a while… and then it disgorges $95K?

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/270899/hillary-clintons-dark-money-group-finally-gives-daniel-greenfield

  9. Senator Smackdown Gets the Nod for November
    California Dems endorse Kevin de León over Dianne Feinstein, and illegal votes will be crucial.
    July 31, 2018
    Lloyd Billingsley

    In California primaries the top two vote-getters advance regardless of party. Republicans are again shut out of the Senate race, leaving state senate boss Kevin de León to contend with Dianne Feinstein. The San Francisco Democrat, 85, seeks her fifth term in the Senate but the California Democratic Party fails to follow along.

    In July, 28 percent of the Party’s executive board voted “no endorsement” for Feinstein and a full 65 percent supported Kevin de León, only 51 and a newcomer to the national scene. So there’s a few things people nationwide should know.

    “The name on his birth certificate isn’t Kevin de León,” explains Christopher Cadelago of the Sacramento Bee. On his birth certificate and voter rolls, the name is Kevin Alexander Leon and “the certificate says he was born on Dec. 10, 1966, at California Hospital on South Hope Street in Los Angeles.”

    According to this document, which has not been revealed to the public, the father is Andres Leon, “a 40-year-old cook whose race was Chinese and whose birthplace was Guatemala” and mother Carmen Osorio, “was also born in Guatemala.” Kevin Alexander Leon remembers meeting Andres and thinks he is “a quarter, or as much as half-Chinese, pointing to the pockets of Asian populations in Mexico, including Mexicali.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270885/senator-smackdown-gets-nod-november-lloyd-billingsley

  10. NYC Enlists Shop Keepers, Not ICE, To Combat Transnational Gangs
    New lows in immigration lunacy.
    July 31, 2018
    Michael Cutler
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    oday we will examine a confluence of events and connect the dots to expose hypocrisy and dispel the myths and lies spewed by immigration anarchists.

    Let’s begin with a July 18, 2018 report from the NY Post newspaper stating that the state of New York is suing the Justice Department over immigration laws. According to this report both the City of New York and the State of New York are suing the U.S. Justice Department to stop the DOJ from blocking four million dollars in federal funds for not complying with regulations that require that the city and other recipients of federal grants provide notice to the Department of Homeland Security at least 48 hours in advance of the date and time of any inmate for whom the DHS had requested such an advance notice, and to provide DHS with access to inmates in city-maintained detention facilitates when DHS deems them to be “persons of interest.”

    U.S. News & World Report also published an Associated Press news report about the same story but also noting that in addition to New York City and New York State, five other states, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, Massachusetts and Virginia had also filed lawsuits on July 18, 2018 in the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan.

    The total amount of money being withheld by the DOJ is twenty-five million dollars of which four million would go to New York City.

    The news report included this excerpt which quoted New York City’s mayor:

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270894/nyc-enlists-shop-keepers-not-ice-combat-michael-cutler

  11. LONDON BLOODBATH: Teen ‘stabbed multiple times in back’ in West Drayton attack (express, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/996953/london-news-west-drayton-station-stabbing-met-police-london-knife-crime

    “A TEENAGER has been rushed to hospital after being stabbed “multiple times in the back” in West Drayton, west London, in a shocking broad daylight attack this afternoon.

    A resident who lives near to the scene outside West Drayton train station reported the male victim was attacked with a Rambo-style hunting knife.

    They said: “16-year-old kid had just been stabbed multiple times in the back. Literally 100 metres from mine. Local guys said it with a ‘Rambo’ knife and said the kid was harmless. Jesus lord what is happening to London…”

    Police said the victim, who is in his “late teens”, is in a “serious but stable” condition.

    Emergency services were called to the scene at Station Approach shortly after 2pm after receiving reports of a stabbing…”

  12. At Least 22 People Kidnapped by Taliban in Eastern Afghanistan – Reports (sputniknews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/asia/201807311066829787-afghanistan-kidnapping-taliban/

    “At least 22 civilians were kidnapped by Taliban militants on the road connecting the Afghan capital of Kabul and the city of Gardez in the country’s eastern province of Paktia, the Khaama Press news agency reported Tuesday, citing police.

    Paktia Police Chief Mohammad Mandozai confirmed the information, adding that the incident occurred on Monday, according to the Khaama Press. The Afghan forces have launched an operation against Taliban in order to rescue those abducted…”

  13. French Police Clashing With Migrants in Calais: Four Injured – Reports (sputniknews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807311066829808-calais-migrants-police-clashes/

    “Four officers of a French police special unit were injured in clashes with migrants in the port city of Calais on Monday evening, BFMTV reported on Tuesday, citing sources in a prosecutor’s office.

    According to the BFMTV channel, the policemen interfered when a group of migrants broke into one of the companies located in an industrial zone next to a road to the port city of Calais.

    The migrants reportedly threw stones at the policemen, injuring four of them. One of them sustained a head injury, the channel reported.

    The UNSA-Police trade union has already denounced the violence.

    Meanwhile, BBC reported about a blast that hit the Port of Calais…”

  14. Salvini Rebuts Reports Italian Ship Illegally Returned Rescued Migrants to Libya (sputniknews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807311066829231-salvini-migrants-ship/

    “Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refuted on Tuesday allegations by a migrant’s’ charity about an Italian ship bringing rescued migrants back to Libya being a breach of international law.

    “The Libyan Coast Guard has saved 611 immigrants in the last hours. Are NGOs protesting and smugglers losing their business? Great, we will continue this way!” Salvini wrote on Twitter.

    “The United Nations earlier accused an Italian ship of violating international law after it returned more than 100 migrants it had earlier rescued in the Mediterranean to Libya, even though the country is not regarded as safe, The Guardian reported.

    A spokesman for the UN migration agency said it could not establish the location of the rescue. He added that the agency was still investigating the case, but confirmed the return of the migrants to Libya.

    According to Spanish sea search and rescue charity Proactiva Open Arms, the Asso 28, an oil rig support vessel, allegedly saved 108 people from a dinghy in international waters earlier this week and then took them to Tripoli.

    “The Asso 28, with an Italian flag, rescued 108 people in international waters and is now deporting them to Libya, a country where human rights are not respected,” Proactiva Open Arms founder Oscar Camps wrote on his Twitter account.

    “No chance [for them] to get asylum or shelter,” he added. Twitter.

    If confirmed, this would constitute a serious violation of international law, according to which refugees rescued in international waters are not to be returned to where their lives may be in danger.

    Italy’s coast guard said on Tuesday that the migrants had been plucked out in Libyan territorial waters and that the Libyan coast guard had coordinated the rescue operation.

    The Libyan coast guard hasn’t commented on the information yet.

    The incident comes two weeks after Italy assured Germany that it would continue to accept migrants rescued at sea until an EU-wide plan on redistributing people across the continent was established.

    Migrants’ charities are at loggerheads with the new Italian government and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who wants to dramatically cut the number of migrants arriving on Italy’s shores…”

  15. Report Finds NGO Staff Sex Abuse ‘Endemic’ Across Aid Sector (breitbart, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/31/report-ngo-sex-abuse-endemic/

    “Sexual abuse of the most vulnerable and poverty-stricken is “endemic” across the international aid sector, according to a new government report, which accused NGOs of “complacency verging on complicity” regarding the problem.

    In a report published Tuesday, the Commons international development committee found that the delivery of aid to crisis-hit communities had been “subverted by sexual predators … to exploit some of the most vulnerable people in the world”.

    Highlighting how the “globalised and often chaotic nature” of aid work makes it an “attractive sector for people who wanted to exploit others”, MPs called for the creation of a global register of aid workers to tackle the scandal of “predatory and potentially dangerous” individuals being able to evade consequences for their behaviour by moving from one charity to another.

    Committee chairman Stephen Twigg said the report outlines “the collective failure” of the international aid sector to tackle rampant sex abuse by staff over a period of nearly 20 years, telling CNN that NGOs appeared to have prioritised “their reputation ahead of women, children and other victims of sexual exploitation and abuse”.

    Branding the sector “deluded”, the Labour MP warned the United Nations (UN) and self-styled humanitarian organisations must not be allowed to “continue a ‘culture of denial’ when confronted with allegations of sexual exploitation”.

    “The committee is concerned that previous attempts have amounted to limited action in order to quell media clamour,” he said. “No matter how insurmountable this looks, solutions must be found. This horror must be confronted.”

    Asserting that “a macho form of masculinity dominates the humanitarian relief space”, MPs also warned a “boys’ club attitude” had contributed to the failure to tackle abuse, singling out Save the Children UK for particular criticism in this field. The NGO was the focus of metia scrutiny following the departure of its policy director, left-wing campaigner Brendan Cox, amidst sexual harassment allegations.

    According to the Daily Mail, committee member Pauline Latham remarked that “deep cultural change is required across all aid organisations, starting with their – all too often male – senior leadership.

    “Sexual abuse of aid beneficiaries and of women aid workers, which I believe is linked, must be stamped out.”

    As Breitbart London reported earlier this month, MPs in the inquiry heard how desperate children in third world countries were gang-raped and paid for sex by staff working for foreign aid NGOs, with victims’ families reporting they were powerless to stop the abuse.”

  16. Powerful bomb in van kills at least 11 in south Philippines (abcnews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/powerful-bomb-van-kills-south-philippines-56929122

    “A bomb-laden van driven by a suspected militant went off in a powerful blast Tuesday that killed 11 people, including a soldier, five militiamen and the driver, in a brazen attack that reignited terrorism fears in the southern Philippines.

    Regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Gerry Besana said six army scout rangers and a militiaman were also wounded in the explosion outside an army militia outpost. The blast tore a crater on the road and damaged the outpost in Lamitan city in one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country this year.

    Militiamen, who had been alerted about possible bombings, stopped the van at a checkpoint in Colonia village, where the bomb went off, military officials said.

    “If he triggered the bomb, he was probably waiting for a more opportune time to inflict harm on a bigger number of people,” Besana said by phone, referring to the driver, who died in the blast. “That’s their death wish — the more, the merrier.”

    The Philippine government condemned the terrorist attack, calling it a “war crime.”

    The Islamic State group, through its media arm, claimed credit for the attack, saying the attacker was a Moroccan. However, it cited a much higher death toll…”

  17. 7 soldiers, 4 extremists killed in clash in Algeria (abcnews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/soldiers-extremists-killed-clash-algeria-56934430

    “Four extremists were killed in a violent clash in the Skikda region, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) east of the capital city of Algiers, Algeria’s defense ministry said Tuesday.

    Meanwhile, local police and a military official in Algiers told the Associated Press that seven soldiers were also killed in the skirmish that occurred Monday in the locality of Bessi during a search and sweep operation.

    The police and military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly to journalists, said the dead soldiers’ bodies were taken to the local morgue and several other wounded soldiers were treated in the Skikda hospital.

    The ministry confirmed the “elimination” of four “terrorists” in which the military recovered three machine guns — but did not comment on the soldiers’ deaths.

    The Skikda region was a former stronghold of armed groups during the 1990s and is known for its mountainous and wooded terrain. It has not seen extremist violence in several years.”

    • Black Pidgeon disappoints with a bait-&-switch title.

      0 was the one who “ignored tradition” by turning against our partners in the Sandbox. PT sought to restore our alliances.

      The oily guys were thrilled: dancing camels and swords with oldest of best buddies, Exxon Sec of State Tillerson. (Who was also friendly with the MB. What a relief he’s gone!)

      Useful: The map shows Iran’s obvious vulnerability, one I’ve described as their “femoral artery”: Kharg, on the Gulf near the border with Iraq (90% of its oil ships from there). Their “carotid artery” would likely be Bandar Abbas.

      Bombing the complex topography of Iran isn’t a good choice, anyway. Just slash those two arteries and let ’em bleed out.

  18. Guess Who Cleared/Exonerated Manafort 8 Years Ago Of The Crime He’s Being Charged With Now?

    • “This is going to be quite a show….you could sell tickets” – Judge Nap. 😀

    • Here’s the full version – crazy eyes and all! Oh-my-gosh, this lady is full on psycho and she’s a teachers.

  19. the independent – Tommy Robinson appeal: Police bracing for potential disorder as appeal judges decide whether to free far-right leader

    Lord chief justice due to hand down ruling at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday

    Police are bracing for the possibility of mass protests and disorder over Tommy Robinson’s appeal result.

    Backers of the far right leader have threatened to riot if he is not freed from prison by Court of Appeal judges on Wednesday, following violence and arrests at previous protests.

    Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the force had “made contingencies for potential issues”.

    “We’ll see where the Free Tommy Robinson supporters go next and what they’re thinking next – it is a large set of people at the moment,” she told The Independent. “We are thinking about it and will be well-prepared.”

    Ms Dick, who is Britain’s most senior police officer, said Scotland Yard had “excellent ways of monitoring all protest groups within the law, including our ability to keep in touch with them, and monitor what they are thinking and what they are talking about doing”.

    The lord chief justice and two other justices will be ruling on claims by Robinson’s lawyers that he should be released because of alleged “procedural deficiencies” in two cases that led to him being jailed for contempt of court.

    Robinson appeared at a hearing on 18 July via video link from prison and spoke only to confirm his real name, Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon.

    His barrister, Jeremy Dein QC, called on the judges to overturn contempt findings from May 2017 and May 2018 and to order Robinson’s release.

    “There has been a conglomeration of procedural deficiencies that have given rise to prejudice and should lead to both findings being quashed,” he told the court.

    Robinson was handed a three-month suspended sentence for attempting to film defendants at Canterbury Crown Court during a rape trial, which was activated and lengthened after he violated a blanket reporting restriction at Leeds Crown Court in May.

    “He did not intend to breach any [reporting restriction] order, albeit that he was aware that there was an order,” Mr Dein told the court, claiming that Robinson was “operating as a journalist” and attempted to be legally vigilant.

    Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said the English Defence League founder had admitted committing contempt of court in a Facebook Live video, which was broadcast for more than an hour and watched 250,000 times within hours of being posted.

    The Court of Appeal heard that footage of Robinson discussing the ongoing case caused jury deliberations to be paused, sparking an attempt by defence lawyers to have jurors dismissed.

    Mr Dein also claimed his client was effectively being held in solitary confinement at HMP Onley, with limited access to telephones, visits and rehabilitation activities.

    But he acknowledged the restrictions had been imposed in “good faith” to protect Robinson from potential attacks by other prisoners.

    The appeal was launched outside the 28-day time limit for challenging convictions, but was allowed because of delays to legal meetings.

    Louis Mably QC, an independent barrister appointed by the attorney general to assist the court, said judges had to ask if any of the alleged procedural failings ultimately affected findings that Robinson had committed contempt of court.

    He said the case was a question of “substance not form”, adding: “There is nothing in the rules to suggest an order or finding of contempt is invalidated if a particular aspect of the rules is not complied with.”

    Police officers kept a watchful eye on a small group of “Free Tommy” protesters who gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice during the hearing, as other supporters sat in the court.

    MPs and campaigners have warned that far right extremists are using the case as a rallying point to create a new “racist street movement”, amid rising hate crime and Islamophobic attacks.

    Protests have taken place around the world since the 35-year-old was jailed but the largest have been in London, where supporters performed Nazi salutes and attacked police officers in June.

    Earlier this month, a “Free Tommy” protest merged with a pro-Donald Trump march during the US president’s visit to the UK.

    Demonstrators were condemned for blocking a bus driven by a Muslim woman during the event, which included speeches by Ukip leader Gerard Batten, Dutch opposition leader Geert Wilders and other populist figures.

    A neoconservative US think-tank has claimed it funded both protests and Robinson’s legal costs, while his former employers at Rebel Media are also crowdfunding in his name.

    Robinson has been forming links with the American alt-right, which characterises him as a “citizen journalist” and his imprisonment as a violation of freedom of speech.

    Lobbying by the far right Breitbart news website reportedly caused the US ambassador for international religious freedom to raise Robinson’s case with the British government.

    Sam Brownback is said to have told Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the US, that the UK should be more “sympathetic” to the former leader of the EDL, warning that the Trump administration might publicly criticise its ally’s handling of the case.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/tommy-robinson-jailed-free-appeal-date-judgement-court-contempt-far-right-a8471406.html

  20. UN Reveals More Evidence of Iran Link to Yemen’s Houthi Militias (aawsat, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1348956/un-reveals-more-evidence-iran-link-yemen%E2%80%99s-houthi-militias

    “The United Nations accused on Monday Iran of continuing to supply the Houthi militias in Yemen with ballistic missiles and drones.

    A report by a UN panel of experts said in a report submitted to the Security Council that the missiles and drones “show characteristics similar” to Iranian-made weapons.

    In the confidential report, a copy of which was seen by AFP on Monday, the panel said it “continues to believe” that short-range ballistic missiles and other weaponry were transferred from Iran to Yemen after an arms embargo was imposed in 2015.

    Iran has repeatedly denied that it is arming the Houthis in Yemen, but the United States and Saudi Arabia have accused Tehran of providing military support to the militias.

    Recent inspections of weaponry including missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used by the Houthis “show characteristics similar to weapons systems known to be produced in Iran,” said the 125-page report.

    During recent visits to Saudi Arabia, the panel was able to inspect debris from 10 missiles and found markings that suggest an Iranian origin, said the report spanning January to July this year.

    “It seems that despite the targeted arms embargo, the Houthis continue to have access to ballistic missiles and UAVs to continue and possibly intensify their campaign against targets in KSA (Saudi Arabia),” said the report.

    The panel said there was a “high probability” that the missiles were manufactured outside of Yemen, shipped in sections to the country and re-assembled by the Houthis.

    The experts are also investigating information that the Houthis received from Iran a monthly donation of fuel valued at $30 million.”

  21. Pakistan election sees rise of anti-blasphemy party (gulfnews, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://gulfnews.com/news/asia/pakistan/pakistan-election-sees-rise-of-anti-blasphemy-party-1.2259785

    “A relatively new anti-blasphemy party whose leader has reportedly vowed to nuke the Netherlands should he ever come to power did surprisingly well in Pakistan’s elections last week, which were tainted by the rise of extremist groups.

    Islamic fundamentalist parties fielded more than 1,500 candidates in Pakistan’s provincial and national elections that were won by cricket hero turned politician Imran Khan.

    Extremists were a major talking point going into the contest with politicians, including Khan, accused of pandering to their vote base by trumpeting hardline issues such as blasphemy.

    Here AFP looks at how the main extremist parties fared during Wednesday’s polls.
    The performance of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), led by radical preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, will worry mainstream politicians and human rights activists the most.

    The group, founded in 2015, entered the national consciousness last year when it blockaded the capital Islamabad for several weeks calling for stricter enforcement of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.

    It wants the automatic death penalty for anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

    Rizvi reportedly told journalists recently that if he took power in the nuclear-armed country he would “wipe Holland off the face of the earth”, over cartoons of the Prophet published there.

    Fortunately for the Netherlands, TLP failed to win any of the 272 seats up for grabs in Pakistan’s National Assembly.

    It did, however, capture two seats in the provincial assembly of Sindh.

    TLP polled more than 2.23 million votes in the national assembly elections, its first general election, and more than 2.38 million provincial votes, election commission website data shows.

    “Their overall number of votes is very surprising. It’s a really spectacularly rapid rise,” political commentator Fasi Zaka told AFP.

    TLP’s strong showing is of particular concern to Pakistan’s Ahmadi community, which has long been targeted by extremists. They consider themselves Muslims but their beliefs are seen as blasphemous in most mainstream Islamic schools of thought.

    Group linked to Mumbai attacks

    Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek was backed by Hafiz Saeed, the man accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. Saeed has been designated a terrorist by the United Nations and has a $10-million bounty on his head.

    Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek was formed after Pakistan banned the Milli Muslim League — the political party of hardline militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is headed by Saeed — from the election.

    None of the party’s candidates won seats but they did register more than 435,000 national and regional votes.

    Zaka said he had expected work done in Punjab by LeT’s long-established charitable arm — Jamaat-ud-Dawa — to have translated into more votes.

    “They have been in the business of service delivery where the state has not fulfilled its remit … I think they have underperformed,” he said.

    Sunni hardliners

    Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) is a radical Sunni group that frequently spouts hatred against Pakistan’s minority community, considering them heretics.

    ASWJ is considered to be the political face of sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has been behind numerous bloody attacks on Shiites in Pakistan.

    Its candidates ran as independents and were known to have won at least one seat, in the Punjab assembly.

    Zaka, the analyst, said that while votes for extremist parties did not translate into many seats in a first-past-the-post system, their sizeable vote banks will give them clout in an increasingly competitive political landscape.

    “The interesting thing about this election is not what it says about Pakistan now but what kind of space it creates for a Pakistan five years down the line,” he told AFP.”

  22. Cleric ‘brutally thrashes’ girl for going out of class without permission (tribune, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1770377/1-cleric-brutally-thrashes-girl-going-class-without-permission/

    “In a weird act of punishment, an eight-year-old girl was tortured and hanged with a rope for going out of a class without permission by a cleric of a religious seminary at Qadir Pur Raan in Multan on Tuesday.

    Local police told The Express Tribune that Mahnoor, eight, a student of Madrassah Ameer Muawiya, went out of the classroom to drink water without the permission of cleric Qari Abdul Haq. When the girl came back in the classroom, the cleric tortured her and hanged her from a tree in the yard of the seminary, the police said.

    When contacted, victim’s father Muhammad Jameel said that he received a call from the madressah administration to pick his daughter as she was not feeling well. “When I reached the madressah, I found her lying unconscious and there were marks of torture on her face, arms, neck and other parts of the body,” he added.

    He pointed out, “I took my daughter to a hospital and when she regained consciousness after three hours, she revealed that cleric Abdul Haq tortured her and hanged her with a rope.”

    Meanwhile, area residents, whose children also go to the same seminary, told this scribe that they received complaints from their children that the cleric inflicts violence on the children on regular basis…”

  23. FOCUS: Spain under strain with spike in migrant arrivals (thelocal, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.thelocal.es/20180731/spain-under-strain-with-spike-in-migrant-arrivals

    “Since being plucked from a packed inflatable boat by Spanish rescuers in the Mediterranean on Friday, Glenn Alban has slept outdoors on a bed of flattened cardboard boxes in the port of Algeciras in southern Spain.

    The 18-year-old Cameroonian says he gets just two meals a day — milk and a biscuit for breakfast and juice and a sandwich for dinner — as he waits to be identified by police and allowed to leave the port, one of Europe’s biggest.

    “As you can see it is difficult. It is so hot,” he told AFP on Monday as he pointed to his makeshift bed, which was sheltered from the blazing sun by a Red Cross blanket he had tied between a fence and a concrete road barrier.

    “I did not expect to stay here for a long time like this. I am shocked. I can’t believe it,” said Alban, who lived in Morocco for two years before making the crossing to Spain, adding that he had expected a more efficient
    reception in Europe.

    He is part of a surge in the number of migrants arriving by sea on Spain’s southern shores from North Africa that is stretching the country’s security forces and safety net.

    Spain has overtaken Italy as the preferred destination for migrant arrivals in Europe this year as a crackdown by Libyan authorities has made it more difficult for them to reach Italian shores.

    Close to 23,000 people have arrived by sea so far this year with 307 dying in the attempt, according to the International Organization for Migration – more than during all of last year.

    Just since Friday more than 1,500 migrants have landed in the southern province of Cadiz in Andalucia, with the majority of the new arrivals funnelling through Algeciras.

    Dozens of migrants were filmed landing on a beach at Tarifa near Algeciras on Saturday before sprinting into woodland as stunned sunbathers — some of them naked — looked on, in videos that went viral on social media.

    ‘Lack of means’

    With police stations and makeshift emergency shelters set up in sports centres in Cadiz full, many rescued migrants have been forced to sleep inside an orange rescue boat docked in the port of Algeciras, or on the pavement beside it.

    During a fact-finding visit to Algeciras on Saturday, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska denied there was a “collapse” in the system to receive migrants, saying the situation is “absolutely under control and controllable”.

    But police and charities that work with migrants say the surge in arrivals is exposing Spain’s response as unplanned, underfunded and understaffed.

    “The number of migrant arrivals is very significant, as is the lack of means to deal with it,” the representative of the Cadiz branch of the United Police Union (SUP), Carmen Velayos, told AFP.

    There are not enough officers to process migrants within 72 hours of their arrival as required by law, even though agents have been pulled from other tasks or in some cases worked every day for the past month, she added.

    In a sign that police are struggling to control the situation, 62 migrants escaped on Sunday from a warehouse which has been turned into a temporary shelter in the port of Barbate in Cadiz.

    ‘Completely overwhelmed’

    The authorities have not had not enough blankets, mattresses and even food for the migrants who arrived in recent days, said Ana Rosado, an activist with the Andalusian Pro-Human Rights Association (APDHA) which provides aid to the new arrivals.

    In some cases officials have asked local residents to donate water and basic food items for them, she added.

    “They are completely overwhelmed,” Rosado said.

    Migration has become a political issue in Spain since Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took office in June and promptly agreed to accept two ship loads of asylum seekers denied entry by Italy.

    The main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) accuses Sanchez’s approach of creating a “pull factor”, but the government points out that the rise in arrivals started more than a year ago.

    It accuses the previous PP administration of not preparing for a predictable rise in migrant arrivals.

    The interior minister said the government was working against the clock to open a new migrant reception centre near Algeciras with room for 600 people…”

    • Spain denies ‘mass’ migration, says Europe needs ‘new blood’ (thelocal, Jul 31, 2018)
      https://www.thelocal.es/20180731/spain-denies-mass-migration-says-europe-needs-new-blood

      “Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell denied Monday that the country was experiencing “mass” immigration and said Europe needed “new blood” to compensate for a low birth rate.

      “We’re trivialising the word ‘mass’,” he told reporters after talks in Madrid with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi.

      Close to 21,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea since the beginning of the year and 304 died in the attempt, the International Organization for Migration says.

      The Libya-Italy Mediterranean route, which was the main one until recently, has dwindled by 80 percent while Spain has now become the main destination for migrants trying to reach Europe.

      Migrants are also reaching Spain by land, with 602 managing to scramble over the double barrier between Morocco and the Spanish territory of Ceuta in North Africa last Thursday, throwing caustic quicklime, excrement and stones onto police below.

      Borrell recognised that “this shocks public opinion and the disorderly nature of immigration produces fear.”

      But he said it was all relative, and “600 people is not massive compared to 1.3 million” Syrian refugees currently in Jordan.

      “We’re talking about 20,000 (migrants) so far this year for a country of more than 40 million inhabitants,” the Socialist minister said.

      “That’s not mass migration.”

      Borrell also said the arrivals were under control, even if NGOs are warning that many migrant reception centres in Spain are saturated.

      He suggested this could even help Europe, where many countries have a low birth rate.

      “Europe’s demographic evolution shows that unless we want to gradually turn into an ageing continent, we need new blood, and it doesn’t look like this new blood is coming from our capacity to procreate.””

      • Cameroon – avg. I.Q _64_.
        Is this the “new blood” that’s supposed to compensate for failing to fulfill the very 1st Commandment?

  24. Calais: Migrants Smash Through Car Window, Attack Women Inside with Makeshift Wooden Weapons (breitbart, Jul 31, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/31/calais-migrants-smash-car-window-attack-women-weapons/

    “Two women who were driving through Calais thought they were facing certain death when a mob of asylum seekers smashed through the car window and attacked them with sticks, a court has heard.

    Nord Littoral reports that the pair were driving through the French city’s Beau-Marais neighbourhood on Wednesday evening when, shortly before 10 pm, their vehicle was approaching a roundabout when a group of around a dozen men walked up to the car and surrounded it.

    Five or six of the migrants, who were heavily intoxicated from alcohol and had reportedly been stumbling around in the area insulting locals, “started whacking the car with stones and tree branches”, according to one of the women…”

  25. ‘MAJOR INCIDENT’ at Bradford children’s play centre – several hurt (express, Aug 1, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/997042/bradford-alphabet-zoo-police-incident

    “EIGHT people – including four children – were hurt at a play centre in Bradford in what is being described as a “major incident”.

    Police rushed to the Alphabet Zoo after a man jumped over secured doors and grabbed a woman by the neck before crashing from a balcony onto tables where children were playing.

    West Yorkshire Police said the man, believed to be in his early 30s, was already being sought “as part of a call for concern” before the incident at the play centre.

    Officers responded at 4.30pm this afternoon and a police cordon remains in place tonight.

    Alphabet Zoo Owner Ashiq Hussain told the Mirror: “A man came into our centre and climbed over the double secured doors and into the centre.

    “He began to cause mayhem and caused injury to customers and staff while police tried to control him.

    “Then he jumped off the first floor mezzanine and landed on the hard floor below.

    “Both adults and kids were present and injured as a result of this.”

    A post on the Alphabet Zoo’s Facebook page said: “Due to major incident, the Alphabet Zoo is currently closed, but we will reopen as soon as we can…”

  26. Man ‘SHOT three times’ at St James Street station in East London (express, Aug 1, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/997099/London-crime-man-shot-shooting-st-james-street-station-closed-Walthamstow-east-london

    “A MAN has been shot with a gun at point black range at least three times at St James Street overground station, located in Walthamstow, East London, according to reports.

    Officers and London Ambulance Service attended and the man, believed to be 18, was taken to to the Royal London Hospital in the Major Trauma Centre.

    The victim is in a critical condition…”

  27. Iran protesters face DEATH PENALTY for striking over economic woes as Trump sanctions bite (express, Aug 1, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/997119/iran-protest-donald-trump-economic-crisis-currency-crash-isfahan

    “IRAN has been engulfed in mass demonstrations as hundreds of protesters took to the streets over the Islamic Republic’s worsening economic crisis, which has sparked warnings over human rights abuses as the regime threatens to execute activists.

    The country’s currency hit a new low on July 29 as investors began to fear the potential impact of US sanctions on the Middle East county after Donald Trump chose to reimpose tariffs.

    Demonstrations have spread to the historic city of Isfahan as protestors demand an end to Iran’s intervention in neighbouring countries.

    Activists are angry at the cost of the operations abroad and have called for the government to spend more money fixing the domestic economy.

    Video footage shows hundreds of protesters chanting: “No to Gaza, no to Lebanon, my soul is Iran’s redemption.”

    The slogan has been repeated at a series of protests that started at the end of last year.

    At least 29 people have been arrested on vague charges, such as “economic disruption, and some even face the death penalty.

    Spokesman for the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, told Arab News: “In recent weeks and months we’ve had many protests.

    “Human rights are suffering and every day they suffer more.

    “Iran is amongst the biggest violators of human rights in the world today.”

    He said the recent arrests served two purposes.

    The first was to suggest the government is trying to stamp out “huge corruption” and the other is to instil fear in the public…”