Reader’s Links on October 14, 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

152 Replies to “Reader’s Links on October 14, 2018”

  1. BOSTON, MA — Hundreds of Asian Americans gathered in Copley Square Sunday afternoon to send a message to Harvard University the day before a lawsuit accusing the college of discriminating against Asians was set to start trial. The message as seen from two large banners hanging in the backdrop: “Harvard: STOP Discriminating Against Asian American Students” and “I Have A Dream.”

    Asian-American communy leaders and groups gathered in an effort to show support the Students for Fair Admissions lawsuit against the university and to protest what they say is a practice of anti-Asian discrimination in admissions. The lawsuit’s plaintifs claim the admissions office has a purposeful pattern of rating Asian-American applicants lower than any other race on personal traits that might boost their chances.

    The Justice Department said there is evidence supporting the plaintiffs’ claims, saying the process “may be infected with racial bias.”

    https://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/hundreds-rally-copley-sq-message-harvard-university

  2. Victor Davis Hanson 2018 – Post-Kavanaugh Confirmation Syndrome Ensues | Breaking Fox News

  3. Austria may join the U.S. and Hungary in withdrawing from the United Nations (UN) migration pact, Sebastian Kurz has said, following news that Poland is preparing to quit the agreement over security concerns.
    At a press conference Wednesday, the Austrian leader cited concern over sovereignty relating to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which claims that huge movements of people across borders are “inevitable, necessary, and desirable”.

    “We view some of the points in this agreement very critically. We will therefore do everything to maintain the sovereignty of our country and ensure that we as the Republic of Austria can decide for ourselves on migration issues,” Reuters reported the Chancellor as saying.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/10/12/poland-un-migration-pact-country-safe/

  4. Shaid Hanif faces jail after being found guilty of raping a woman he found intoxicated, covered in blood, and with cracked teeth and suffering a broken jaw after a night out in Bradford, England.
    Bradford Crown Court heard the 40-year-old “used the woman, who was a total stranger, for his own gratification”, after coming across her by chance outside a Jurys Inn hotel, according to local media.

    He found his victim staggering along the street alone in the early hours of the morning with her shirt covered in blood, after she had been out with friends at a nightclub in the racially-divided Yorkshire city, jurors heard.

    Prosecutor Matthew Bean said the 22-year-old woman was seriously injured with a broken jaw, cracked teeth, a fractured finger, and was covered in grazing and bruising when she was encountered by Hanif, who called a taxi and took her to his home and raped her.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/10/14/bradford-rape-stranger-blood-broken-jaw/

  5. A top Republican lawmaker said Sunday that the FBI failed to provide a federal surveillance court with evidence that “directly” contracted the bureau’s rationale for opening the Trump-Russia investgation
    Rep. John Ratcliffe told Fox News that the evidence related to former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos
    The FBI opened its investigation in July 2016 based on intelligence from the Australian government about Papadopoulos
    Republican lawmakers have hinted for months that the FBI failed to provide federal judges on the surveillance court with information that undercut the government’s premise for opening the Trump-Russia probe in 2016.

    Republicans have suggested in interviews that the information related to George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser whose conversation with an Australian diplomat prompted the FBI to open its investigation into the Trump campaign.

    Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe provided Sunday the clearest picture to date of what the FBI allegedly withheld from the surveillance court.

    Ratcliffe suggested that the FBI failed to include evidence regarding former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, in an interview with Fox News.

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/14/fbi-evidence-refutes-papadopoulos/

  6. Matteo Salvini explains Italy’s new immigration + security law, English subtitles, Decreto Salvini

    • from the YT page :

      Some notes on this video-

      I edited out about 6 minutes, mostly about pension reform and Salvini’s itinerary over the next week.

      The date of the video was October 4th (this was a Facebook livestream).

      deputy PM = deputy prime minister.

      “Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.” He literally says “Take that and bring it home”. The tone and meaning of this are the same as the English phrase “Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.” He says this in non-standard Italian btw (Milan dialect).

      At 5:00 Salvini lists some of his harshest critics, people who regularly criticise him publicly. To clarify he is giving these people a “big kiss”.

      Roberto Saviano is a writer.

      Riace is a village in Calabria (southern Italy). For years the mayor there has tried to increase the population with migrants. He was recently arrested for facilitating sham marriages, and for bypassing regulations by awarding contracts to local co-operatives (that employed local people and migrants).

      Gad Lerner and Michele Santoro are journalists.

      Social centres are organisations, usually left-wing / anarchist / counter-cultural, involving many young people and students, they advocate for various causes and are often involved in occupying buildings.

      Asia Argento is an actress.

      Mario Balotelli is a football player.

      Gemitaiz is a rapper.

      99 Posse are a band from Naples (this is why Salvini says Zulu was jealous of the reception he got in Naples recently).

      When Salvini is talking about the number of “arrivals” he is talking about the numbers arriving on ships (he actually says “disembarkations”).

      ARCI is a left wing organisation that also advocates for various causes.

      Salvini is under investigation for an incident in August when he refused to allow migrants on a ship (the Diciotti) to disembark in Catania (Sicily).

      This video took a bit longer than expected, I have lots of AfD stuff coming up next, I will upload the first of those probbaly on Wednesday / Thursday.?

    • Italy won’t be a refugee camp anymore, Salvini says at Lyon G6

      (9 Oct 2018) Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, known for his tough stance on migrants, says his country “won’t be considered a refugee camp anymore.”
      He told reporters on Tuesday that the Italian approach was gaining ground.

      Italy, a front-line state for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, is refusing to allow the rescue ships of non-government organisations to dock in Italy with migrants they save when rafts are stranded or sinking.

      Up to four months ago, Salvini said “we were considered racists, populists, ignorant. Now, the Italian model of migration management and of closing ports when necessary is becoming popular.”

      Salvini was taking part in a meeting of European security chiefs in Lyon, France, on fighting terrorism and controlling migration.

      US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Claire Grady, plus Morocco, joined.

      Salvini said that “all the ministers at the table today supported Italy’s idea that economic migrants cannot be welcomed in Europe,” insisting that “to come to Europe you have to do it legally if you are escaping war.”

    • Italy’s Interior Minister announces deportation of 3 Muslim extremists who wanted to murder ‘white tourists’ and Christians

      The man keeps his promises. Italy’s Minister of the Interior led by Matteo Salvini released a statement on Friday describing three men, identified as linked to “Islamic extremism”, having been determined to be “a danger for national security” who will be “repatriated”.

      The Italian government announced the deportation of the three African migrants suspected of Islamist terrorist group ties, one of whom has said he wants to kill “white tourists” and “Christians”.

      This announcement follows on the heels of the expulsion earlier this week of 26-year-old Egyptian imam, Ahmed Elbadry Elbasiouny Aboualy, charged with “inciting to Islamic terrorism.” The Egyption had lived in Italy on a work permit since 2005.

      According to the Interior Ministry, Friday’s deportations brings the number of expulsions to 339 since January 2015. This includes 102 which happened in 2018.

      The men being deported are:

      A 22-year-old Moroccan with “numerous precedents” for such crimes as drunkenness and disorderly behaviour and threatening people outside a synagogue in Florence with a kitchen knife, shouting “Allah Akbar” (Allah is greatest).

      A 24-year-old Gambian national, who besides some common crimes, is charged with having served in “international terrorist groups”. In a notebook he had diagrams of explosive devices, instructions for assembly and use, as well as notes declaring his sympathies for a paramilitary group active in central-western Africa. He also wrote of a strong desire to “kill white tourists” and “Christians” in Gambia by striking hotels and churches and said he endows the success of his future attacks to Allah.

      The third man to be expelled is a 28-year-old Tunisian arrested in Modena for vandalism and selling drugs. At the man’s trial, he repeatedly praised the Islamic State and attacked prison police.

      The Lega leader’s popularity continues to rise with Italians as their promises are kept. Salvini proving Italy won’t be pushed around by the EU, having made several public criticisms of Jean-Claude Juncker and EU polices.

      https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/10/italys-interior-minister-announces-deportation-of-3-migrants-who-wanted-to-murder-white-tourists-and-christians/

  7. https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/10/12/outrage-over-short-sentences-for-migrants-who-gang-raped-13-year-old/

    Weak punishments of as little as one year and eight months, suspended, for a migrant rape gang which targeted a 13-year-old girl have sparked outrage in Germany.
    Eight migrants aged 14 to 17 and holding Bulgarian citizenship had sexually harassed the victim at a swimming pool in a Velbert, North Rhine-Westphalia, and dragged her into the woods as she was making her way home in the early evening, reports Der Spiegel.

    Two of the six defendants — two more suspects will be tried separately after they have been extradited from Bulgaria, where they fled with their families after the attack — took turns raping the young teen while the others watched, at least one of them filming the assault on a mobile phone.

    The migrants then brought her to a parking lot several hundred yards away, where the same two gang members raped her again, and then back to the woods — where, fortunately, they were interrupted by a walker who happened to be in the area.

    • Think the tariffs had anything to do with this fall in housing prices, or is this the much expected crash of the Chinese Economy?

      • When reading the thread about Iran trying to influence the Brazilian election remember this article and the one Johnnyu posted on that thread, things aren’t looking good for Iran or China.

        Economic and political collapse in one or both nations would free up US assets needed in the Middle East and maybe in South America.

  8. WATCH: Former prime minister Stephen Harper said in an interview with Mercedes Stephenson, that job losses in the resource sectors help drive populist movements.

    Could failing to get Canada’s natural resources to market through the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion drive populist forces here?

    Story continues below
    In an exclusive broadcast interview airing Sunday, former prime minister Stephen Harper joined the West Block’s Mercedes Stephenson in New York City to talk global trade, protectionism, populism and how they tie together in his new book, Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption.

    READ MORE: Stephen Harper on why it’s Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, not Donald Trump, who scare him

    https://globalnews.ca/news/4542070/trans-mountain-stephen-harper-populism/amp/

  9. An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen’s Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, killed at least 17 people in the port city of Hodeida on Saturday, Yemeni rebel officials said.

    The strike, which hit in the Jebel Ras area, also wounded 20 people, said Youssef al-Hadari, a spokesman for the rebel-run Health Ministry.

    READ MORE: Saudi Arabia, UAE may be guilty of war crimes in Yemen: UN experts

    Hodeida, with its key port installations that bring in U.N. and other humanitarian aid, has become the centre of Yemen’s conflict. Ground troops allied to the coalition have been struggling to drive out the rebels who control it.

    https://globalnews.ca/news/4546991/saudi-led-airstrike-kills-17-yemeni-city/

  10. Intelligence Minister: Hundreds of Terrorist Groups Disbanded in Iran (farsnews, Oct 14, 2018)
    http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970722000933

    “The ministry has so far eliminated 300 terrorist groups inside the country, killing hundreds of their members, Alavi said, addressing a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday.

    According to the intelligence ministry, Iranian security forces disband dozens of terrorist teams, sponsored by some regional and trans-regional states, every year.

    In a relevant development in September, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force dismantled a terrorist team in Southeastern Iran, killing at least 4 terrorists.

    “The IRGC’s Quds Force killed four members of a terrorist group during clashes near the city of Saravan (Sistan-Balouchestan province) in the Southeastern border with Pakistan,” the IRGC said in a statement.

    The statement noted that a considerable amount of weapons, ammunition and telecommunication equipment were seized from the terrorists after the team was dismantled.

    Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Ground Force Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour warned last month that the IRGC would give a crushing response to any move by the terrorist groups, adding that his forces would even chase the terrorists to their hideouts outside Iran’s borders.

    “Everyone should know that our retaliation for the recent (terrorist) act (by PJAK (the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan) terrorist group) in Marivan (in August) will be crushing. No one knows its place and time but our retaliation will be crushing at any point, including their camp in Northern Iraq,” General Pakpour told reporters in Tehran.

    He added that 12 members of a team of PJAK terrorists who had martyred 11 Iranian border guards in Marivan were killed in Kermanshah province early last year, while many more were hunted down in other parts of Northern and Northwestern Iran.

    General Pakpour also said that 21 ISIL members were also killed early last year in Western Iran, reminding that 28 Iranian border guards were martyred in the past 4 months.

    Alavi said in September that the country’s security forces had disbanded two terrorist teams in the western parts of Iran.

    “The terrorist outfits were affiliated to hostile countries and arrested through intelligence operations,” he added.”

    • This article says that there is an active resistance in Iran, if there wasn’t an active resistance they wouldn’t be talking about killing so many and breaking up so many groups. The question is how much is truth and how much is BS, My guess is that there is a lot more BS then truth.

      • None.
        Fars News, aka, Farce News. The Mossad spoofs them regularly.
        Zionists pervert the atmosphere, impair clouds over the Islamic Republic. That’s why there’s drought.

  11. Iran Involved In Smuggling of Somali Charcoal (aawsat, Oct 14, 2018)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1426006/iran-involved-smuggling-somali-charcoal

    “A UN group of experts tasked with applying sanctions slapped on Somalia uncovered that Al-Shabaab rebels are profiting from the illegal trafficking of charcoal exports produced in Somalia, by often passing the product through Iran to have their origins obscured.

    The monitors also said banned charcoal exports from Somalia were generating millions of dollars a year for the Qaeda linked group.

    The world body estimates that some 3.6 million bags of charcoal were produced in 2017 for exports, generating some $7.5 million in revenue for the Shabaab.

    Six years after the UN Security Council prohibited exports of prized Somali charcoal to try to choke off a money stream to al-Shabaab, an estimated three million bags of the commodity are making their way out of the Horn of Africa country each year, the monitors say in excerpts of a yet-unpublished report.

    The main destinations are ports in Iran, where the charcoal — already falsely labeled as coming from Comoros, Ghana, or Ivory Coast — is transferred from blue-green bags into white bags labeled “product of Iran,” the report added.

    “The process involved using false Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Ghana certificates of origin to import Somali charcoal, repackaging the charcoal from typical blue-green bags into white bags labeled as ‘Product of Iran,” it added.

    The monitors said Tehran largely didn’t cooperate with their investigation in the document, which will be made public next week.

    The report also explained that the overall implementation of the charcoal ban by member states has improved compared to the previous mandate, and seizures of cargoes of Somali charcoal by Oman and the UAE have been influential in deterring the illicit charcoal trade.

    The document called Iran a “weak link” in implementing the charcoal ban and pointed to countries such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast for allowing charcoal traffickers to “exploit weaknesses” in the certification processes.”

    • Iran Involved In Smuggling of Somali Charcoal

      So more Iranian women and children can die prematurely.

      The vast majority of residential charcoal-cooking takes place in a confined and poorly ventilated space. This increases exposure to, and intake of, carbon monoxide along with superfine carbon particles. In domestic situations, women do most of the cooking. Since very young children are consigned to the mother’s care they tend to experience the same conditions that their mother does.

      However, a child’s low body-weight magnifies the effects such that, for instance, carbon micro-particles can trigger allergies or asthma. None of which addresses the tremendous environmental impact that charcoal-making has on nations that are marginally sustainable to begin with.

      Somalia needs all the soil stabilization it can get. Sawing down centuries of arboreal growth for a quick season’s profit is pure suicide. Topsoil loss due to wind erosion (of poorly maintained or improperly contoured land) continues to be a global problem. Food security and topsoil loss are inextricably intertwined.

  12. Saudi Arabia is always a lofty sky, dearly loved by its citizens, Minister Awwad says (saudigazette, Oct 14, 2018)
    http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/545611/SAUDI-ARABIA/Saudi-Arabia-is-always-a-lofty-sky-dearly-loved-by-its-citizens-Minister-Awwad-says

    “Riyadh – Dr. Awwad bin Saleh Al-Awwad, Minister of Media, said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will remain that lofty, difficult for its enemies to harm it and dearly-loved in the souls of its citizens, under the prudent leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Prince Muhammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Crown Prince, Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Defense.

    In a tweet on his own account on Tweeter, Dr. Al-Awwad said the Kingdom cannot abandon its values and principles derived from the tolerant Islamic Sharia as well as from the Arab noble values. SPA”

  13. Anti-Corruption Journalist Murdered

    Bulgarian journalist and television personality Viktoria Marinova was found brutally murdered and raped on Saturday. She was 30 years old.

    According to the USAToday, her body was found in the Danube River, near the Bulgarian town of Ruse. She had last been seen earlier that day after she met a group of friends for breakfast.

    Investigators say that she was beaten, raped, and strangled to death before she was dumped in the river. While no evidence of a motive has appeared at this time, local law enforcement is not ruling out the possibility that her death is connected to her journalistic work.

    Marinova hosted the talk show “Detector” on the channel TVN, where she spoke with other reporters about topics regarding the European Union. She frequently hosted Romanian journalists who were investigating alleged corruption among EU politicians and businessmen. Two of her guests were arrested in September, the BBC reports.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/36865/european-anti-corruption-journalist-found-murdered-jacob-airey

    • She was famous for identifying corruption in various EU groups, the police say that her murder is not connected to her work but I wouldn’t want to put much money on that.

  14. Moroccans, Largest Foreign Student Community in France (moroccoworldnews, Oct 14, 2018)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/10/255308/moroccans-largest-foreign-student-community-in-france/

    “The French Agency for the Promotion of Higher Education, Hospitality, and International Mobility, “Campus France,” has ranked Moroccans as the largest foreign student community in France during the 2017/2018 academic year.

    French newspaper Le Monde shared the agency’s statistics regarding foreign student communities in France.

    According to the statistics, the number of Moroccan students enrolled in French higher education institutions is 39,855 students.

    During the 2016-2017 academic year, the number of Moroccan students in France stood at 38,002, or 43.9 percent of foreign students. It reflects an increase of 17 percent compared to the 2011-2016 period.

    Algerian students come after Morocco, with 30,521 students, followed of China with 30,071 students, Italians with 13,341 students, while Tunisia is ranked 5th with 12,842 students.

    The number of African students in France represents 46 percent of international students in France followed by Europe (25 percent), Oceania (16 percent), the Americas (9 percent) and the Middle East (4 percent).

    Campus France said that 37 percent of foreign students prefer science and medicine while 32 percent of them choose humanities and social sciences.

    Business and management is third with 20 percent of foreign students, against 12 percent for law and political science.

    according to the same source, 52.5 percent of international students were female during the 2017-2018 academic year.

    France ranks fourth among the countries that host international students, behind the US, the UK and Australia, and ahead of Germany.”

  15. Spain Receives 765 Asylum Requests from Moroccan Migrants (moroccoworldnews, Oct 14, 2018)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/10/255327/spain-765-asylum-requests-moroccan-migrants/

    “The number of Moroccan migrants who sought asylum in Spain has increased from 531 in 2017 to 765 in 2018.

    Spanish news outlet El Pais reported that 40 Moroccan migrants, who arrived in the Spanish port of Motril on Monday, applied for asylum.

    Spanish police told El Pais that the 40 Moroccans are a group of activists who were involved in Rif protests, which took place in 2016 and 2017 after the death of Mouhcine Fikri, a local fishmonger who was killed in a garbage truck.

    Spain, according to El Pais, cannot deport the activists who were given the right to stay in Spain for one month until they complete the primary procedures of their asylum requests.

    Traditionally, undocumented migrants from Morocco and Algeria are returned home in accordance with bilateral agreements signed between Spain and the two Maghreb countries.

    Moroccan immigrants stand no chance to qualify for asylum status in Spain. On October 3, Consuelo Rumi, Secretary of State for Migration in the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Social Security, Morocco for a working visit. After her meetings with Moroccan officials, Rumi explained that Moroccans are not eligible for political asylum.

    She said that Moroccan nationals’ applications for political asylum are generally rejected because Spain does not view Moroccans migrants as refugees.

    Addressing a message to would-be immigrants, the Spanish official said that the European dream is a lie.

    “Emigration is not the solution because the journey of irregular migrants often ends badly,” she said.

    An anonymous source from the Spanish ministry of interior was quoted by El Pais as saying that the number of Moroccans who sought asylum increased by 44 percent this year (765 requests).

    Spain’s Ministry of Interior said earlier this year that Moroccan nationals make up the highest number of the 38,000 migrants believed to have entered Spain in 2018.

    El Pais’ article about Moroccan asylum seekers come at a time when Morocco and Spain are redoubling their efforts to stem the arrival of undocumented immigrants to Spanish costs. “

  16. Clash erupts among Afghan, Pak borders forces along the Durand Line (khaama, Oct 14, 2018)
    https://www.khaama.com/clash-erupts-among-afghan-pak-borders-forces-along-the-durand-line-06154/

    “A clash erupted among the Afghan and Pakistani borders along the Durand Line close to Spin Boldak district of southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan on Sunday.

    According to the local officials, the latest clash has erupted in Saro Sahan area located between Spin Boldak and Shorabak districts.

    The officials further added that clash has erupted due to the circumstances surrounding the fencing works by the Pakistani forces along the Durand Line.

    Reports received from the area of the incident suggest that sporadic clashes still continue between the two sides.

    The Commander of the 4th Brigade of the Border Forces in Kandahar Colonel Aminullah confirms that a clash has erupted between the two sides close to Spin Bodak district along the Durand Line.

    Col. Aminullah Further added that sporadic clash still continues but no one has been hurt during the exchange of fire so far.”

  17. Istanbul conference spotlights problems of Muslim Ummah (AA, Oct 14, 2018)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/istanbul-conference-spotlights-problems-of-muslim-ummah/1281658

    “Global scholars gathered on Sunday to discuss problems facing the Muslim world at a conference titled “The Muslim Ummah,” using the Arabic word for community.

    The three-day conference bringing together 20 international scholars was organized by the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul’s Sabahattin Zaim University.

    Speaking at the opening session, Sami A. Al-Arian, the center’s director, said that the conference was “the embodiment of some of the problems that we see across the Muslim world.”

    The conference will discuss “four problems that the Muslim world is facing today,” namely sectarianism, secularism, nationalism, and colonialism, he said.

    For his part, Mehmet Bulut, the university’s rector, said those issues “continue to exert incredible pressure and influence on the lives and destinies of Muslims across the world.”

    “It is not only essential that we know how to understand, express, and outline these multilateral problems but it is also incumbent upon us thinkers, researchers, scholars, and academics to articulate some of these potential ways by which we — and by that I mean we as citizens of the world — can begin to advance solutions,” he added.

    “The problems we face as Muslims are not easy ones to discuss. They are even harder to solve,” he said.

    Hope and optimism

    Louay Safi of the College of Islamic Studies at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifah University said that challenges that Muslim societies face today are many and growing more complicated by the decade.

    “It is our duty to shed light and clarify the picture, to bring clarity because defining the issues … forces understanding of what is going on, [which] is the most important step in addressing and moving toward a better future,” he said.

    “I am always optimistic, I think the entire Muslim world has been going through tough times, to say the least, but I see under the surface many currents that give a lot of hope and optimism,” he added.

    “There are changes,” he said, stressing “the level of consciousness, which is to me the most of important level of change because that is where all the changes start.”

    At the conference, Halil Berktay of Istanbul’s Ibn Haldun University made a presentation titled “Muslim Societies & the Legacy of Colonialism: What History Tells Us About Today.”

    Joseph Massad of New York’s Columbia University also spoke on “Liberalism versus Liberation: The Arab World at Present,” and Farid Esack from South Africa’s University of Johannesburg gave a presentation on “Muslim Societies and Modernity: The Struggle for Liberation and Pluralism.””

  18. Migrant caravan swells in Honduras as group nears Guatemala

    Hundreds more Hondurans have joined a caravan of migrants moving toward the country’s border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States.

    Dunia Montoya, a volunteer assisting the migrants, said Sunday that the group had grown to an estimated 1,600 people from an initial 160 who first gathered early Friday in a northern Honduras city.

    Caravan participants planned to spend Sunday night at a community center in the town of Ocotepeque before attempting to cross into Guatemala on Monday.

    Montoya said many in the group might not be allowed to enter Guatemala because they lack official identification documents.

    The migration began to swell after local media coverage of the initial group whose members had agreed to depart together Friday from a bus station in San Pedro Sula, one of the most dangerous cities in Honduras.

    Hundreds more soon joined the ranks, wagering a mass exit could improve their chances for getting over borders. Many had already planned to leave Honduras and also felt traveling in numbers could lessen chances of falling victim to robbery and assault that often plague migrants.

    Families arrived with infants in their arms and toddlers in strollers. They packed light, most carrying little more than a backpack.

    The caravan formed just one day after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home.

    “Tell your people: Don’t put your families at risk by taking the dangerous journey north to attempt to enter the United States illegally,” said Pence.

    U.S. President Donald Trump threatened in April to withdraw foreign aid from Honduras and countries that allowed transit for a similar caravan that set out from the Central American country earlier this year. That caravan dwindled as the group approached the U.S. border, with some giving up along the way and others splitting off to try to cross on their own.

    Frustration with poverty is a common explanation by migrants for participating in the latest caravan. About 65 percent of Honduras’ people are poor and many get by on the equivalent of a dollar or two a day.

    The country of 9.4 million people has also led the world for homicide rates in recent years.

    Roberto Castro, one of the travelers in the caravan, said via telephone that he is a 26-year-old bus driver and construction worker, when there is work. These days, there is none, he said.

    Most of the migrants are on foot, walking shoulder-to-shoulder, 15 deep, at the edges of roads. Trucks with empty cargo holds have stopped intermittently to pick some up and get them as far along as possible. Other Hondurans handed out bottled water and food in a show of support.

    Castro said he grabbed a change of clothes — a T-shirt and pants — and joined the group Friday after not hearing for days from the mother of his two young children. He put her and the kids on a bus heading north from San Pedro Sula two weeks ago.

    He began crying as he described his worry about finding them at one of the many waystations between Honduras and the U.S.

    “It hurts,” he said between tears, “because one just wants an opportunity.”

    Mexico’s Interior Ministry issued a stern reminder Saturday that Mexico does not issue entry visas for those who don’t meet “the requirements to transit toward a neighboring country.” Also, Mexico said it issues visas at its consulates abroad, not at border entry points.

    http://apnews.com/200195140809441bbb214f4dcaef1cb4

    • They are fleeing poverty in their home countries and don’t understand that they are bringing that poverty to the US.

      We need the wall and we need it last year at the latest.

  19. UKIP’s Gerard Battern grilled on Tommy Robinson and Islam

    Recorded from BBC2 HD, Politics Live, 12 October 2018.

  20. Yemen could be ‘worst famine in 100 years’ (BBC, video, Oct 15, 2018)
    https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-45857729/yemen-could-be-worst-famine-in-100-years

    “The United Nations is warning that 13 million people in Yemen are facing starvation.

    It’s calling on the military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, to halt air strikes which are killing civilians, and contributing to what the UN says could become “the worst famine in the world in 100 years”.

    Yemen’s civil war began three years ago, when Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, seized much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

    Saudi Arabia, backed by the US, the UK and France, is using air strikes and a blockade – in support of the internationally-recognised government.

    At least 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict and millions are displaced.

    Our international correspondent Orla Guerin, producer Nicola Careem and cameraman Lee Durant sent this report from Sanaa.

    It contains some distressing scenes.”

  21. Secret Service Says Foiled An Assassination Attempt Against Trump in Philippines (sputniknews, Oct 15, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/us/201810151068886474-secret-service-trump-assassination/

    “The president’s bodyguards determined that there was a credible assassination attempt during US President Donald Trump’s 2017 visit to the Philippines, according to a National Geographic documentary.

    The US Secret Service, an agency tasked with the personal security of a US president, foiled an assassination attempt on Trump, during his 2017 visit to Manila, Philippines, for an ASEAN summit.

    The revelation comes from a National Geographic documentary aired Sunday.

    According to the film, days before the ASEAN summit, Manila escalated to “critical threat level,” due to threats attributed to Daesh terrorists. The videos published by Daesh urged solitary “lone wolf” attackers to “lie in wait” and “ambush” the president while he was visiting the Philippines.

    As Trump, reportedly codenamed ‘Mogul,’ prepared to depart to Manila, the Secret Service combed social media for indications of a possible assault, and they found one, in a form of a tweet.

    “Gonna be in Manila the same time as Trump […] I’ll take one for the team lads,” the tweet read, accompanied with a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald, the notorious alleged killer of US President John F. Kennedy.

    According to the NatGeo video, special software exists to shuffle through social media posts faster humans can.

    “The bread and butter of what we do is the human element-and the people that work the mission-and that’s never going to change,” a US special agent told The Daily Beast.

    The Service reportedly viewed a perpetrator’s Instagram account, where they found a picture of a book entitled How to Kill: The Definitive History of the Assassin.

    Deciding that these two clues were enough to stipulate a credible threat, the Service traced the owner’s computer and found it in Manila, mere kilometers away from the hotel in which the president was scheduled to stay.

    As the documentary details, the Secret Service had no idea as to the computer owner’s precise location some 20 minutes ahead of Air Force One’s touchdown in Manila.

    Following the POTUS landing, in a matter of minutes, the agents tracked the suspect to Luneta Park, one mile from the hotel where Trump was scheduled to stay. With the assistance of the Manila police, the Service reportedly swept the park and apprehended the suspect.

    Speaking in an interview, Special Agent Chad Ragan attributed much of the operation’s success to technology.

    “We were able to know that he was moving close to us, where he was, and track him. That was a huge piece of stopping the threat,” he said, but added that without the assistance of Manila law enforcement, the mission would have been much more difficult.

    “That’s an essential key to it that can’t be understated, is how great these foreign governments are, or even locals,” he added.

    Disclosing some of the details of the Secret Service’s job, Ragan pointed out that it is crucial for the success of the mission that the operatives remain non-partisan while they are on duty.

    “It’s sad, just as an American, how partisan everything is,” Special Agent Ragan said, cited by NatGeo.

    “That being said, it doesn’t matter if you like the person that’s in office, it doesn’t matter if you don’t like the person that’s in office-the bottom line is you’re not protecting that person, you’re protecting the office and what it stands for,” he stated.”