Reader’s Links for December 5, 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

174 Replies to “Reader’s Links for December 5, 2018”

  1. US soldier jailed for 25 years after IS support (alaraby, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/12/5/us-soldier-jailed-for-25-years-after-is-support

    “A US soldier has been sentenced to 25 years for attempting to provide support to the Islamic State group, media reported on Tuesday.

    Ikaika Erik Kang, 35, whose sentence was part of a plea agreement, will also be under supervision for 20 years after he completes his prison term.

    “Kang swore to defend the United States as a member of our military, but betrayed his country by swearing allegiance to [IS] and attempting to provide it material support,” John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

    Kang, a sergeant in the US Army, became sympathetic to [IS] by at least early 2016 and regularly watched propaganda videos published online by the group while and expressed wish to become a member, according to authorities.

    Prosecutors alleged that he planned to launch attacks at public gatherings such as the Honolulu Christmas Parade and planning a suicide bombing at his army barracks.

    In June and July 2017, he met with undercover FBI agents posing as people with connections to IS and provided them with sensitive material.

    He also supplied the agents with a small aerial drone and military-style clothing and gear.

    Kang is also accused of providing two undercover FBI employees – one pretending to be a high-ranking IS leader and another a fighter – with brief combat training.

    Kang was arrested after he swore allegiance to IS during a ceremony conducted by the purported leader of the group.

    “This is the first case in the state of Hawaii where someone was convicted for providing material support to terrorism,” said Sean Kaul, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Honolulu. “This should serve as reminder that even though we are 2,500 miles from the US mainland these crimes can and do happen everywhere.”

    According to local media, Kang grew up in an abusive household and his father suffered from mental health issues. Two former members of the US military also testified that he had mental health issues and could easily be influenced.”

    • Kang was arrested after he swore allegiance to IS during a ceremony conducted by the purported leader of the group.

      Incontrovertible proof that slow executions still have their place.

    • If colleagues were convinced he had mental issues, why was he allowed to stay in the military?

  2. Germany: Town hall hires security service because of one rioting asylum seeker only+++
    Because a 26-year-old asylum seeker has been frightening the employees of the town hall for a long time, the municipal administration has now decided – at taxpayer’s expense – to engage a private security service.For several weeks now, a 26-year-old asylum seeker has been tyrannizing Steinhagen’s town hall employees. “As soon as an employee spots the man approaching, we are going to close the town hall,” Mayor Klaus Besser told the newspaper Neue Westfälische. Nevertheless, the situation had repeatedly got out of control in the past week. According to the helpless local politician, the 26-year-old, who has a residence permit and has so far escaped deportation because of his nationality, which has not yet been clarified, came to the municipal administration despite ban on entering the house and insulted employees there and threatened them with death.The last time, the so-called refugee went berserk because he was no longer given his money in the form of a cheque, but the money was transferred to an account.Mayor Besser explains the difficult situation as follows: “One cannot imprison the man permanently. Therefore, the police, the district court and the immigration authorities are working hard to find a long-term solution to the “problem”.As a result, a security service was hired at taxpayers’ expense to protect the main entrance of the town hall against Angela Merkel’s guest and to demonstrate once again the defencelessness of this country.
    Read more:
    https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2018/12/germany-town-hall-hires-security.html

    • Mayor Besser explains the difficult situation as follows: “One cannot imprison the man permanently…”

      Aaaaand there Oberbürgermeister Besser scores an “own goal”. However carelessly, he inadvertently makes public recognition of the fact that only prolonged incarceration provides any protection against SJS (Sudden Jihad Syndrome) or terrorist recidivism. It’s also important to keep in mind how recent rejection of traditional penal measures is only a symptom of the underlying rot that continues to mar Western Civilization’s rule of law.

      This was proven beyond doubt when—during the 2016–2017 New Year’s party at the main train station—Köln’s police profiled hundreds of arriving “Nafris” (North Africans) who were seeking to enrich yet another annual, native German celebration. Despite initial, withering criticism about “racism”, such predictable blamestorming disappeared almost instantly once public support poured in for the quality of police-provided security (as opposed to the unpatrolled mass sexual assaults of 2015–2016).

      So, Mayor Besser’s gotten all of the pitching signals that home-plate will ever give him. Hiring a guard—at public expense, no less—evidently carries less electoral stigma, regardless of how it is a classic example of “slapping a Band-Aid® on a sucking chest wound.”

    • The UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration makes the Mayflower Compact look like a sane and rational document. Hell, I can get a higher quality compact down at the local five and dime.

      Any Western leader who signs this preposterous UN diktat is committing treason in its most base and heinous form. Inking such Tranzi, Globalist, Quango, Borderless filth is suicidal and warrants immediate confinement in physical restraints for (amongst many legitimate reasons) their own personal safety and that of the general public.

  3. NYPD launches drone program

    NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) – The skies above New York City will be covered by a fleet of drones piloted by police officers.

    The New York City Police Department announced its Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) program on Tuesday. Licensed NYPD officers of the Technical Assistance Response Unit will operate them.

    http://www.fox5ny.com/news/nypd-drone-program

  4. Secret Service testing use of facial recognition outside White House

    A facial recognition program is being tested by the U.S. Secret Service in the vicinity of the White House.

    The agency started the program late last month, and its existence was publicized by the ACLU on Tuesday.

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said that the facial recognition software will only be used to identify volunteer Secret Service members in public spaces, but there is no way to separate the images of volunteers and pedestrians walking in front of the White House.

    https://thehill.com/policy/technology/419762-secret-service-testing-use-of-facial-recognition-outside-of-white-house

  5. Cameras, drones: Rio de Janeiro to put electronic eyes on crime

    Rio de Janeiro state is moving ahead with plans to deploy security cameras and drones to help fight crime, according to its next governor, a far-right politician loyal to president-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

    A tender to install 30,000 cameras will be launched soon, Wilson Witzel, who takes up the governorship of the southeast Brazilian state in January, told a media conference late Monday.

    “Security is our priority,” he said.

    On Tuesday Witzel traveled to Israel to view drones that could be used to monitor armed drug gangs.

    O Globo, a Brazilian news outlet, said it understood the drones included combat versions capable of firing weapons, which could be used for targeting gang members in hard-to-access favelas, or high-density slums.

    Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-12-cameras-drones-rio-de-janeiro.html#jCp

    • O Globo, a Brazilian news outlet, said it understood the drones included combat versions capable of firing weapons, which could be used for targeting gang members in hard-to-access favelas, or high-density slums.

      Where’s the Liberal outrage? Evidently, it’s just tickety boo for our Little Brown Brothers down south to blast their own people out of existence.

      But if the evil USofA dares to use a drone-launched missile to snuff homegrown terrorist, Anwar “Mind if I smoke in your car?” al-Awlaki and his prodigal son over in the Islamic paradise of Yemen, it’s hell for breakfast from this nation’s Left.

        • They aren”t screaming because no one has died yet.

          Now I get it. People have to die first before something suddenly becomes morally objectionable.

        • People who voted for Jair Bolsonaro are enthusiastic about fighting the violence that’s plagued Brazil. BAMN.
          Let the leftist banshees shriek. Beats the screams of mothers whose kids are murdered.

  6. A teacher was killed by a former student in Courbevoie

    A teacher at the Léonard-de-Vinci university center in Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine, died on Wednesday after being assaulted by a former student in front of the school.

    The victim, a 66-year-old English teacher, was stabbed several times, including in the throat. He was assaulted shortly before noon, as he left the establishment to take his lunch break.

    The teacher was sexagenarian of Irish origin and has been teaching in the Leonardo da Vinci University for 20 years. He was “appreciated by all” according to the direction of the private faculty.

    The perpetrator, aged 37 and of Pakistani nationality, was arrested. Admitted to the university in 2016, he was refused the validation of his school year and was expelled from the school in August 2017
    http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/courbevoie-un-enseignant-poignarde-mortellement-par-un-ancien-eleve-05-12-2018-7961241.php

    btw. Courbevoie is the university that lies in the business district of La Défense. It has been founded in 1995 by the right-wing eurosceptic, Minister Charles Pasqua. The university is attacked as “right-wing” and elite. It is the only university in France which is completely private but financed by the public

  7. Mueller sentencing memo for Michael Flynn recommends no prison time
    By J.E. Dyer December 4, 2018
    Special counsel Robert Mueller filed his sentencing memo on retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn on Tuesday 4 December, recommending no prison time for the single count of giving false information. Flynn pleaded to that count in 2017. We had an update on Mueller’s potential readiness to go to sentencing in September, but the sentencing move today seems to have come out of the blue.

    Mueller cited Flynn’s cooperation with the special counsel investigation, which he characterized as “substantial assistance,” in the sentencing document.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/04/mueller-sentencing-memo-for-michael-flynn-recommends-no-prison-time/

    • The article is interesting in the way it raises questions about what is going on, as she points out there are mixed signals from what is happening, is Mueller about to wrap up his investigation? Why the raid on a Whistle Blower’s house? Why the Chicago raid? Is all of the above related so something Jeff Sessions was doing? Is it related to the FBI IG investigation?

      Questions but at the moment no answers.

  8. Republicans hired DNC’s cyber firm, CrowdStrike – then got hacked during 2018 campaign
    By Daily Caller News Foundation December 4, 2018

    The National Republican Congressional Committee was hacked during the 2018 election after hiring CrowdStrike, the cyber-firm that the Democratic National Committee employed that allowed DNC emails to be stolen even after the 2016 hack was detected.

    The emails of four top NRCC officials were stolen in a major hack that was detected in April — eight months ago, Politico reported Tuesday. The NRCC did not tell Republican leaders or the public that it had been hacked, though it did notify the FBI.

    The NRCC would not say what information was compromised.

    Trending: Top Clinton donor indicted for defrauding U.S. in sham bid to win $8 billion Pentagon contract

    “We don’t want to get into details about what was taken because it’s an ongoing investigation,” a senior party official told Politico. “Let’s say they had access to four active accounts. I think you can draw from that.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/04/republicans-hired-dncs-cyber-firm-crowdstrike-then-got-hacked-during-2018-campaign/


  9. Mueller is finished with Flynn, recommends no jail time

    The moral of this story is: the process is the punishment.

    Yesterday, witch-hunter Robert Mueller released a highly-redacted sentencing memo for former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn that recommended no jail time for the former Trump advisor. The “no jail time” recommendation comes because Flynn was cooperative with the witch-hunters. “Given the defendant’s substantial assistance and other considerations set forth below, a sentence at the low end of the guideline range — including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration — is appropriate and warranted,” the memo said.

    Really, the objective of targeting Flynn has been met. There’s no need to toss him in the clink because the deep state has severely damaged him. He’s bankrupt, he lost his house, he’s going to have a problem getting employed. I’m sure his security clearance has been permanently yanked so… what’s he going to do to earn a living and take care of his wife and family? Remember, Flynn was the only person Obama told Trump not to bring on board in his administration. Obama and his administrative state thugs did not want Flynn coming in and undoing their globalist achievements.

    https://pjmedia.com/blog/liveblogevent/live-blog-137/entry-247358/

  10. COPENHAGEN — A pro-government lawmaker says Danish plans to banish rejected asylum seekers or those with a criminal record to a remote island may breach international law — but added that his party doesn’t “mind challenging (international) conventions.”

    Martin Henriksen of the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which supports the centre-right government, told The Associated Press Tuesday that the government’s move “is a signal to the world that Denmark is not attractive” for migrants.

    The isolated island of Lindholm was until this summer a laboratory facility for the state Veterinary Institute researching contagious animal diseases.

    https://montrealgazette.com/news/world/danes-plan-to-banish-unwanted-migrants-to-remote-uninhabited-island/wcm/a6c04f4b-4bfc-4f44-854e-61306f6601b1

    • Martin Henriksen of the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which supports the centre-right government, told The Associated Press Tuesday that the government’s move “is a signal to the world that Denmark is not attractive” for migrants.

      I prefer the term, “Islam Unfriendly”, but “not attractive for migrants” will do in a pinch. I’m still waiting the near-atomic Muslim detonation which will accompany any discovery that pigs (i.e., P.O.R.K.) ever set foot upon—or even farted in the general direction of—Lindholm Island.

  11. France cut its carbon tax after deadly riots. Here’s how it compares to Canada’s

    […]Asked if the government was worried about similar protests in Canada over the introduction of carbon taxes and other climate plans, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna dismissed the idea.

    “Our approach has always been how do you have smart policies that reduce emissions, but in a way that makes life affordable for Canadians,” she said Tuesday.

    “I think Canadians understand the costs of climate change — they’re paying the cost,” she said.

    “I had to call a rancher whose ranch literally burned down. I met with paramedics who had to rescue people from flooding in Toronto. People have died of extreme heat; we’re paying the cost right now of our inaction over decades.”

    Canada’s planned carbon tax, introduced in October and expected to take effect in January, would see a tax of $20 per tonne of emissions — and that would rise by $10 a year until it reaches $50 per tonne.

    The tax will be on industry and companies, but it’s expected the cost will be passed onto consumers via higher electricity and heating bills along with added driving costs from the gas surcharge.

    […]A big difference between Canada’s carbon tax and France’s carbon tax is where the money is going. In the provinces that will use Canada’s carbon tax instead of their own plan, 90 per cent of the revenue from the taxes are expected to be refunded during tax time, the government says.

    “Although the carbon tax in B.C. is still fairly low, when it was introduced, the funds it raised went to community projects, schools, etc., so people saw that it had benefits elsewhere in their lives,” Simon Dalby, a specialist in the political economy of climate change at Wilfrid Laurier University, told Global News.

    “The problems with carbon taxes come when there aren’t practical alternatives for people to cope when prices rise.”[…]

    https://globalnews.ca/news/4728184/france-carbon-tax-riots-canada/

    • France cut its carbon tax after deadly riots.

      France cut its carbon tax after guillotine erected.

      There, fixed that.

  12. Some students and staff at an Ottawa high school have been warned they may have been exposed to tuberculosis earlier this year.

    Ottawa Public Health (OPH) announced Tuesday it’s reaching out to about 150 students and a few staff members at Ridgemont High School in south Ottawa that they may have been exposed to the potentially serious infectious disease between early September and mid-November.

    “The potential exposure would be whether or not somebody has spent a significant amount of time with the actual case,” said Pam Oickle, infectious disease program manager for OPH.

    “We work very closely with the school to identify all the classes that this student attended. All of those students and teachers have been identified and received a letter.”

    OPH is recommending they take part in tuberculosis testing at the school next week.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tuberculosis-ottawa-high-school-1.4931536

      • … I wonder where patient zero came from.

        C, you demonstrate a better-than-average understanding of contagious diseases. A book that I found truly inspiring, and that’s not often, was Pulitzer winner, Tracy Kidder’s (“The Soul of a New Machine”), chronicles of MDR TB (Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis) battler, Paul Farmer. In, “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World”, Kidder limns out the history of this scourge and even records his own experiences in the field, working with Dr. Farmer among some of this world’s most wretched people, the Haitians.

        Very much worth the read.

  13. Not even “Saturday Night Live” writers are safe from the Ivy-League PC crowds.

    Nimesh Patel, comedian, Emmy Award nominated writer, and the first Indian-American writer for SNL, was performing stand-up comedy last Friday for an event hosted by Columbia University’s Asian American Alliance (AAA). But mid-set, the 32-year-old was removed from the stage because his jokes were making some audience members uncomfortable.

    The event was called cultureSHOCK: Reclaim, but apparently attendees neither wanted a shock nor to reclaim anything, as Patel’s treatment shows.

    Patel’s set focused on his experiences growing up in a diverse neighborhood in New York City, according to the student newspaper the Columbia Spectator. But when he made a joke about a gay, black man he knew growing up, things turned sour. Patel joked that being gay couldn’t possibly be a choice because “no one looks in the mirror and thinks, ‘this black thing is too easy, let me just add another thing to it.’”

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/39013/snl-writer-removed-stage-offensive-jokes-columbia-ashe-schow

    • … no one looks in the mirror and thinks, ‘this black thing is too easy, let me just add another thing to it

      Fool! Only the worst sort of idiots don’t realize that all snowflakes have had medically supervised, total humorectomies performed at birth.

  14. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said the deep state is exerting power over Congress and keeping information from him regarding the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

    Paul was discussing the highly anticipated Senate testimony of CIA Director Gina Haspel on “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday and said he and other lawmakers are being kept in the dark by intelligence agencies.

    “To my mind this is the very definition of the deep state,” Paul said. (RELATED: Rand Paul Says Congressional Votes Are Rigged: They’re Counting The Votes In Advance)

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/04/rand-paul-deep-state-gina-haspel/

  15. THREE time UKIP leader Nigel Farage has sensationally QUIT the party tonight.

    Ukip’s most famous face has torn up his membership card after 25 years in disgust at the party’s “obsession” with Tommy Robinson.

    The 54-year-old claimed the party, under anti-Islam leader Gerard Batten, was “turning a blind eye to extremist politics”.

    He says that he had always banned BNP and EDL members from joining Ukip, but now under Batten it seemed that he had aligned himself with the EDL founder who has a “pretty suspect record”.

    Speaking on his radio show on LBC, the anti-Brussels stalwart said: “I don’t recognise the party as that I helped to found all those years ago.

    “I think the brand is tarnished. It cannot capitalise on the opportunities being presented to it.

    “So with a very great reluctance, I have as of now, cancelled my membership of UKIP.”

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/7899373/nigel-farage-quit-ukip-fears-party-turns-bnp/

  16. President Trump hailed the trade agreement he signed with Mexico and Canada last week as “great for all our countries.” Perhaps he doesn’t know that the NAFTA-replacing trade agreement, USMCA, gives tech giants in Silicon Valley a special legal privilege to censor his own supporters — and anyone else they find “objectionable.”
    Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube all engaged in pre-election censorship against Republicans and Trump supporters. Yet they’ve managed to sneak a liability protection into President Trump’s trade bill that would make it even easier for them to censor their own users.

    USMCA entrenches the tech giants’ legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grant them legal immunity for user-generated content. This is an important part of the law that allows tech platforms to host a wide variety of speech with light-touch moderation.

    But USMCA also entrenches tech companies’ right to censor without liability. Article 19.17 of the trade agreement gives tech companies immunity from any lawsuits arising from actions taken to “restrict material it considers to be harmful or objectionable.”

    Section 230 has a similarly problematic provision, which needs to be amended by the next Congress if the censorship of the internet is to be stopped. But the new, even broader censorship provision, will make it nearly impossible for the tech giants’ privilege of legal immunity from any lawsuit that arises out of their censorship practices to be taken away.

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/12/03/usmca-entrenches-tech-companies-right-censor/

  17. NORTHERN EUROPE
    ‘It is time to bring out our inner Vikings’ – Swedes start protesting against mass migration in front of Parliament

    Around 1000 people participated in the 3-hour-long event outside the Swedish Parliament on Sunday.

    Several speakers participated, including Sweden’s most active and well-known journalist and freedom fighter Katerina Janouch, Reader in Business Administration Jan Tullberg, and lecturer and writer Lennart Matikainen.

    Janouch stated that Sweden has gone from being a model country to a country that doesn’t care about its own citizens.

    “The billions flow and no one is held accountable. Sweden is run by a bunch of imposters who abuse their power and don’t care about our well-being.”

    “Criticism of mass migration may be silenced by the agreement. We must stand up for free speech. It is time to bring out our inner Vikings, to ignore political correctness and become even braver and clearer in how we speak and express ourselves”, she said.

    https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/it-is-time-to-bring-out-our-inner-vikings-swedes-start-protesting-against-mass-migration-in-front-of-parliament/#.XAVSzEQEM0V.reddit

    Note: sorry if this is a repeat…

    • “Criticism of mass migration may be silenced by the agreement. We must stand up for free speech. It is time to bring out our inner Vikings, to ignore political correctness and become even braver and clearer in how we speak and express ourselves”, she said.

      And so the fuse it lit.

  18. Bernie Sanders, Climate Hawk, Spends Nearly $300K On Private Jet Travel In Month

    Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s re-election campaign spent just under $300,000 on private jet use in October, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

    The Sanders campaign, which is funded primarily by small-dollar donors, paid Apollo Jets $297,685.50 on Oct. 10, FEC records reveal. The payment was marked for “transportation.”

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/04/bernie-sanders-private-jet-climate-change/

    • One of the reasons for the “Gilets Jaunes” protests

      MP Emmanuelle Ménard addresses the Prime Minister, in defence of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests), and mentions just one of the screaming injustices towards the people of France.

      The native French Patriots certainly come a long way after the “Asylum Seekers” and the more trendy ecological concerns of President Macron.

    • Une vidéo montre des CRS matraquant des Gilets jaunes dans un Burger King

      Cette vidéo a été tournée samedi 1er décembre, vers 19 heures avenue Wagram, dans le 17ème arrondissement parisien, en marge de la manifestation des Gilets jaunes, qui protestent contre l’augmentation de la taxe sur le carburant.

      L’auteur de cette vidéo affirme que des Gilets jaunes « réfugiés » à l’intérieur d’un Burger King ont été roués de coups par des CRS, alors qu’ils tentaient de se protéger des gaz lacrymogènes lancés par les forces de l’ordre.

      Toujours selon l’homme qui a filmé la scène, les CRS ont assené des coups de matraque pendant près d’une minute aux manifestants qui levaient leurs bras en l’air.

      Selon ce témoin, les CRS ont quitté les lieux quelques instants après et aucun des Gilets jaunes présents dans le Burger King n’a été interpellé.

      • Wow! Those are some extremely pissed-off cops. Was that pair on the floor getting the complimentary wood shampoo a couple of stone throwers? Molotov makers? Farters in the Gendarmes’ general direction? Wouldn’t want to be either one of them, ah nope, not either one.

      • Man alive! When they say, “Home of the Whopper”, they mean it!

        As in, some tenderizing happening on the other side of the counter.

    • Macron Sticks to His Guns, With More Turmoil in France Expected

      French president’s team expects protests to escalate Saturday

      “We won’t undo anything” achieved since election: Macron

      President Emmanuel Macron said he “won’t undo anything” he’s pushed through since taking power in the strongest signal yet that he won’t back away from his agenda ahead of new days of turmoil and violence.

      The 40-year-old leader sent the law and order message that will be heard by opponents from Yellow Vests movement participants to opposition parties leaders ahead of Saturday’s planned actions. easures taken since his May 2017 election, mainly the dilution of the wealth tax.

      Macron’s position, confirmed by the Elysee presidential palace, come as protesters plan another day of action on Dec. 8. His office expects a movement “of great violence,” France Info radio reported. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in Parliament Wednesday authorities will “be uncompromising” in the face of violence.

      Over the last two weekends, the Yellow Vests brought the fight to Paris, with images of burning cars, broken stores windows and clashes between the police and demonstrators making the rounds worldwide. The Elysee palace expects “a hardcore group of several thousands of people” in Paris on Saturday “to riot and kill,” France Info reported, citing Macron’s office.

      Across the spectrum, opponents of Macron have criticized his response to the crisis: suspending some energy tax increases for six months. That was part of his landmark climate protection policy, which had sparked the protest in the first place. The Republicans’ Christian Jacob called the moratorium a “provocation.”

      Late Wednesday, the president’s team said they would cancel planned fuel price increases for next year, according to BFM television.

      The current responses to his move show how Macron will struggle to put the genie of revolt back in the bottle.

      Earlier on Wednesday, Philippe promised he “won’t raise new taxes,” but added that he also wouldn’t “deepen the deficit,” without giving details on how he’d reconcile those conflicting goals. Philippe also said that Macron’s 2017 election agenda would be maintained and his reforms, including pensions, are still on schedule.

      Macron’s words echo former conservative Prime Minister Alain Juppe who in December of 1995 said “I stick to my guns.” About two million transport workers, from urban transit drivers to high-speed train engineers, had brought the country to a halt over his plan to reform the social-benefits system, impose welfare cutbacks and raise the retirement age for public transport workers. Juppe eventually canceled the reforms on Dec. 15.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-05/macron-sticks-to-his-guns-as-he-expects-very-violent-rioting

      ==================================================
      French unions join protests, piling new pressure on Macron

      PARIS—Nationwide protests against French President Emmanuel Macron took on an even bigger dimension Wednesday after trade unions and farmers vowed to join the fray, unimpressed by government concessions that tried to stem the momentum of the most violent demonstrations France has seen in a decade.

      The “yellow vest” protests began over a government plan to raise fuel taxes, but by the time Prime Minister Edouard Philippe bowed to three weeks of violence and suspended the plan Tuesday, the protesters were demanding much more. Many workers in France are angry over the combination of low wages, high taxes and high unemployment that have left many people struggling financially.

      Macron’s popularity has slumped to a new low since the first demonstrations took place on Nov. 17. The former investment banker, who has pushed pro-business economic reforms to make France more globally competitive, is accused of being the “president of the rich” and of being estranged from the working classes.

      The sweep of the protests and their wide support by citizens of all political stripes has shocked the government. In the last few days, Paris saw the worst anti-government protest riot since 2005. French students set fires outside high schools to protest a new university application system. Small business owners blocked roads to protest high taxes and retirees marched to protest the president’s perceived elitism.

      On Wednesday, France’s largest farmers’ union said it will launch anti-government protests next week, after trucking unions called for a rolling strike.

      Trade unions have not so far played a role in the yellow vest protest movement but are now trying to capitalize on the growing public anger. A joint statement from the CGT and the FO trucking unions called for action Sunday night to protest a cut in overtime rates. France’s transportation minister agreed to meet with truckers’ representatives on Thursday.

      The FNSEA farmers’ union said it would fight to help French farmers earn a better income but would not officially be joining forces with the “yellow vests” — protesters wearing the high-visibility vests that French motorists are required to keep in their cars.

      French police have cleared most of the fuel depots that protesters had blocked earlier in the week, but fuel shortages continued to hit parts of France on Wednesday, with hundreds of gas stations affected.

      Demonstrators were also blocking toll booths, letting drivers pass without paying, to press demands that ranged from higher incomes and pensions to the dissolution of the National Assembly, France’s parliament.

      At Tolbiac University in downtown Paris, students took over a school building and classes were cancelled.

      “We need taxes, but they are not properly redistributed,” protester Thomas Tricottet told BFM television. “We obviously need to fight against this.”

      The high school students’ FIDL union called for a “massive and general mobilization” on Thursday and urged France’s education minister to step down.

      One student was injured during protests at a high school in Saint-Jean-de-Braye in north-central France. BFM said he was shot in the head with a rubber bullet but authorities did not confirm that. Julien Guiller, a spokesman for the regional school administration, told The Associated Press the student was expected to survive.

      The French government is clearly on the back foot. A day after announcing a six-month suspension of the higher fuel tax, it opened the door for more concessions as spokesman Benjamin Griveaux did not rule out bringing back a wealth tax that was slashed after Macron came to power in May 2017.

      “If something isn’t working, we’re not dumb — we’ll change it,” Griveaux told RTL radio, though he said “the issue is not on the table for now.”

      That’s one reason other groups are joining the yellow vest protests — they hope to win concessions from France’s weakened government.

      Since returning from the G-20 summit in Argentina over the weekend, Macron’s actions have done little to reassure protesters that he is listening to their concerns.

      He has refrained from speaking publicly about the protests and has largely remained in his palace residence. On Tuesday night, the young leader was booed and jeered as he travelled to a regional government headquarters that was torched by protesters last weekend.

      Four people have been killed in the unrest since mid-November. One activist said Wednesday that he fears more deaths if Saturday’s “yellow vest” demonstration in Paris goes ahead, and urged Macron to speak out and bring calm to the nation.

      “If not there will be chaos,” said Christophe Chalencon, a 52-year-old blacksmith from southern France.

      He told the AP that the French public needs Macron to “admit he made a mistake, with simple words … that touch the guts and heart of the French.”

      By caving in to French protesters’ demands to halt the new fuel tax, Macron has lost some credibility in his fight against climate change.

      U.S. President Donald Trump rubbed that notion in Macron’s face, claiming that his decision to delay the tax hikes showed that the French leader doesn’t believe in the 2015 Paris global climate accord.

      “I am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protesters in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters.”

      The Trump tweet came as thousands of climate experts were spending two weeks in Poland to further work out national responsibilities in the global fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

      https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/12/05/protesters-now-joined-by-unions-reject-french-concessions.html

      • Macron’s Political Career = French Toast

        I’m on safe comedy ground here seeing as how, in France, it’s always about the food. France is the only place on earth where you will hear people talking about, talking about food. As in, “Ah yes, Pierre. Eftairr le déjeuner we will discuss the ratatouille recipe.”

        Some French humor:

        People who brag about their ancestors are like potatoes, the best part is underground.

        Charles De Gaulle was being interviewed about why it was taking so long to reconstruct post-WW II France when he famously quipped, “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?”

        Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an occasion.

        Hey, how’d that last one get in there?

    • The Latest: France’s Macron scraps fuel tax after protests

      Associated Press DECEMBER 5, 2018 — 2:00PM

      French President Emmanuel Macron has scrapped a fuel tax rise amid fears of new violence, after weeks of nationwide protests and the worst rioting in Paris in decades.

      An official with the Elysee palace told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the president decided to get rid of the tax.

      Philippe told lawmakers that “the tax is now abandoned” in the 2019 budget, and the government is “ready for dialogue.” The budget can be adjusted or renegotiated through the course of the year.

      Three weeks of protests have left four people dead and were a massive challenge to Macron.

      http://www.startribune.com/the-latest-leading-protest-activist-macron-must-speak-out/501979591/

  19. BBC – SCOTLAND – Meet the man who blesses Scottish salmon

    +video

    Clambering on board a boat at Ardmair, near Ullapool, is a rather special passenger.

    Hatim Ameen is sitting alongside Wester Ross Fisheries staff speeding out across the sea to the fish farm which lies in the shelter of Isle Martin in the middle of Loch Canaird.

    His long beard is blowing in the icy wind, and there’s a smile across his face.

    He’s flown up from Manchester for the day on an unusual mission.

    Hatim is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra, a relatively small branch of the Shia community.

    He travels to north west Scotland to bless each and every fish to make it halal just before it is slaughtered.

    […]Generally in Islam fish is already halal, but Hatim says that the ritual of silently saying “In the name of the God” is enough to make each salmon fit for consumption by followers of Dawoodi Bohra.

    He reckons he touches and blesses 400 to 500 fish in a session, which on a Scottish sea loch in November means cold hands.

    […]Fifty miles away on the other side of the country in Dingwall, the fish are processed.

    The halal batch will go to Manchester, Leicester, London and Detroit.

    Julie Ross, who is in charge of the processing, said: “It’s exactly the same except Mr Ameen has been there and blessed each and every fish.

    “At the end of the day you do exactly what the customer requests. The customer is number one.”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-46426001

    • Deustche Welle – Far-right nationalists on the rise in Spain

      In Spain the far-right Vox party has won seats in an election for the first time since the end of the Franco dictatorship. The anti-migrant, euroskeptic party overturned decades-long rule by the Socialists in Andalusia. Its leader says he hopes to put together a coalition with the centre-right Citizens Party.

  20. Deutsche Welle – Right-wing populists’ denial of climate change

    Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, right-wing populists around the world say that global warming is a massive lie perpetrated by mainstream politicians and media. And even in environmentally conscious Germany, the far-right is trying to shift the discussion.

    • Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, right-wing populists around the world say that global warming is a massive lie perpetrated by mainstream politicians and media. And even in environmentally conscious Germany, the far-right is trying to shift the discussion.

      Notice how the goalposts eco-narratives were shifted away from The Great Warmening and over to “Climate Change”? How else to explain the way Earth seems to entering a mini-ice age—as well-documented sunspot activity appears to predict?

      Humanity at large has been astoundingly fortunate to have arisen (as logic would indicate) during an interglacial period. This relatively benign geological interval has—particularly in the case of scientifically disconnected Postmodernists—allowed many of today’s people to think that such clement ambient conditions are the norm, instead of being an exceptionally rare case.

      A central point being that Earth’s climate is changing all of the time. Liberals have become so psychologically unhinged to where they are demanding what essentially amounts to the shutdown of all profitable Western industry—even as their pseudoscience confreres cherry-pick data to please grant sponsors—with almost near-religious credulity and belief in this barely investigated phenomenon.

      As an example, only of late have UK geologists finally realized that a mysterious layer of diatom laden sand that appears 48 miles (80 kilometers) inland and four meters above sea level is the residue of a 80 mph (128 kph), nearly 100 foot (25 meters) high tsunami that swept eastern Britain some eight thousand years ago—permanently submerging Doggerland, the once inhabited low-lying land bridge twixt Europe and the British Isles..

      With the foregoing as a caveat, and despite all the decades worth of dutifully collected ice cores and other meteorological indicators, only just recently has there appeared sufficiently sensitive and repeatable quantitative analytical instruments—and the supercomputers required to crunch their data—that are truly capable of addressing, what can only be described as, one of the most complex problems ever to confront humanity.

      I continue to believe that this entire debacle has yet to be investigated in a genuinely empirical and unbiased manner. Until that time arrives, all of the handwaving and hysteria surrounding climate change will remain exactly that, a manic, overexcited frenzy of quasi-superstitious rubbish.

  21. ‘This Guy’s Nuts’: Graham Blasts MBS, Says U.S. Can’t Give Him ‘A Pass’ for Khashoggi Murder

  22. Yellow vests in Iraq: Demo over poor living conditions dispersed by security forces in Basra

    Scores of Iraqi activists held a demonstration in front of Basra’s provincial council building on Tuesday, according to local reports.

    The demonstrators protested against the deterioration of living conditions in the country and demanded better job opportunities.

    They reportedly tried to storm the government building, but were then dispersed by Iraqi security forces.

  23. Lithuania to Refrain From Signing UN Migration Pact – Prime Minister (sputniknews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812051070419562-lithuania-no-sign-migration-pact/

    “Vilnius will voice approval for the UN Global Compact for Migration, but will not sign the agreement, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said Wednesday.

    “A minister will participate in the conference, express approval of the UN pact… Nothing will be signed by the minister,” Skvernelis told the press conference without elaborating on which minister would that be…”

    • Lithuania to Refrain From Signing UN Migration Pact

      Another sane member of the asylum’s audience slowly backs away from the stage.

  24. Nigel Farage has resigned from UKIP, saying it has become extremist and an anti Islam party, obsessed with Tommy Robinson, and focussing on street protests. In his letter to members, Gerard Batten says he hopes Farage will do the right thing and hand over his EU seat to UKIP. First Anne Marie Waters and now Nigel Farage as well as others leave UKIP. It’s hard to see how they can achieve anything if they keep splitting like this.

  25. London Police Use Force Disproportionately Against Black People – Reports (sputniknews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812051070415473-london-police-black-people/

    “Police in London have been using force against black people at a rate over four times higher than against white Londoners, figures published by The Guardian newspaper have shown.

    Statistics for the use of force by the Metropolitan Police in April-September 2017 shows that stun gun was used a total of 3,167 times, while restraint techniques were used 10,657 times, according to the outlet.

    The data reportedly translates to 13 in 10,000 black Londoners being Tasered and 39 in 10,000 being restrained, compared with respectively three and 10 white Londoners.
    An independent review of deaths and serious injuries in police custody out in January 2017 found that stun gun and all restraint techniques have the potential to cause death.

    For instance, face down restraints could lead to asphyxia. The risk of death is heightened by an unstable mental condition of people in custody.

    Elish Angiolini, the author of the report, told the newspaper that police officers should be held accountable for custody deaths, which she said were lopsided against black men.”

    • The data reportedly translates to 13 in 10,000 black Londoners being Tasered and 39 in 10,000 being restrained, compared with respectively three and 10 white Londoners.

      One of the groups mentioned does have a rather well-documented propensity for violence (amongst other criminal tendencies). I wonder which one of the two it could possibly be?

  26. Terror suspect, 22, who ‘plotted attack in UK had a video introduction to ISIS filmed by accomplice who was caught after accepting fake suicide vest in British secret service sting’ (dailymail, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6463923/Terror-suspect-planned-travel-Libya-join-ISIS.html

    “A terrorist plotting an attack in Britain was given a video recommendation by an accomplice who planned to kill Theresa May with a suicide bomb, a court heard.

    Mohammad Imran, 22, wanted to travel to the Middle East and hoped the ‘gold card’ introduction from Naa’imur Rahman, 21, would be his passport after Rahman had blown himself up on Downing Street.

    But Rahman, who warned his friend to ‘stop trusting people too much’, was set up by security services who gave him a suicide bomb pack to carry out his mission…”

  27. UK Issues Travel Warning for Christmas Markets Across Europe Including Germany, France (breitbart, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/05/uk-issues-travel-warning-christmas-markets-across-europe-including-germany-france/

    “The UK government has warned British citizens to “remain vigilant” in crowded places including Christmas markets while in Germany, France, and eight other European Union countries.

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is in charge of promoting British interests overseas, updated their travel advice on Monday, with the vast majority of Christmas market warnings being in Western European countries that have been affected by the migrant crisis and recent Islamist terrorism.

    The warning for Germany reads: “There is a general threat from terrorism.

    “There may be increased security in place over the Christmas and New Year period, including at Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds.

    “You should remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities.”…”

    • The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is in charge of promoting British interests overseas, updated their travel advice on Monday, with the vast majority of Christmas market warnings being in Western European countries that have been affected by the migrant crisis and recent Islamist terrorism.

      I suppose gone are the days of genteel conduct when, on Christmas, a mutual truce was declared that saw British and German troops come up out of their WWI trenches* to trade shots of whisky and schnapps.

      Nowadays, opportunistic predators are expressly searching for large groups of Western holiday shoppers as part of maximizing casualties and disrupting what, for many Europeans, still remains the most spiritual, if not religious, time of year.

      Should further irony be required: Do Christians go about assaulting or killing Muslims when they bunch up during their holy season of Ramadan? No. Instead, that Islamic period of celebration is regularly punctuated by every imaginable sort of jihadist terror attack.

      It is the usual one-way-street of Islam’s infiltration, colonization, and subversion.

      * Old WWI saying about trenches:

      The wind blew
      The shit flew
      And out of the trenches
      Came the whole damn crew

      Reproduced here verbatim out of respect for all of those who died in WWI.

      • Then the Angel of Death brought in the Influenza Pandemic of 1918.

        Terrible toll: Grandparents and their first cousins on both sides of my family lost young siblings.
        That’s why the offspring of that generation were drawn to careers in epidemiology.

        (And I’m a germophobe, from a long line of same.)

  28. Populist German MP: Germany, EU Funding Anti-Israel Organizations (breitbart, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/05/populist-german-mp-claims-anti-israel-forces-highest-circles-german-government/

    “Populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Petr Bystron has claimed that anti-Israel groups enjoy growing influence on the German government, and are funding organisations working against the Jewish state.

    Mr Bystron specifically refers to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), to which Berlin has given 80 million euros, and accuses the group of being “pro-Hamas,” a charge that has been levelled before at the group when Hamas tunnels were found underneath a school it had been running in 2017. UNRWA schools have also been accused of disseminating anti-Israel propaganda.

    Writing for the Israeli radio broadcaster Arutz Sheva, Bystron said his party, the AfD, had been investigating NGOs funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) and claims, “The Open Society Foundations have enormous influence in Berlin and Brussels. It is no accident that they are moving to Berlin, of all places, after Viktor Orbán’s government forced OSF out of Hungary.”

    Bystron added that the OSF-funded European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) have had members who are openly anti-Israel including their Middle East and North Africa programme director Daniel Levy who has supported the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement in the past and called it “a legitimate and non-violent form of protest against an illegal and inhumane policy of occupation.”

    The former foreign minister and former leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) Sigmar Gabriel is also a member of the ECFR with Bystron saying Gabriel had deliberately chosen to meet with Soros-funded NGOs while on a visit to Israel in 2017.

    In total, Bystron claims the German government has given the ECFR €451,636 over the last three years saying, “in effect, the German government is paying ECFR to lobby it.”

    “The AfD will continue to expose German and EU funding for anti-Israel NGOs, and work closely with our allies in Israel to do this,” Bystron said and added, “While many media portray us as racist or even fascist, we strongly support Israel and the Jewish community in Germany – much as Israel is demonised in many media in the West.”

    Bystron, who serves as the AfD speaker for foreign affairs, has risen to prominence in recent months after first offering to help former English Defence League leader turned citizen journalist Tommy Robinson claim asylum in Germany following his imprisonment earlier this year.

    The populist MP was also behind an initiative to bring criminal charges against activists working on migrant transport NGO vessels, accusing them of people trafficking.”

  29. Bulgaria Latest Nation to Pull Out of UN’s Global Migration Pact (breitbart, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/05/bulgaria-latest-nation-to-pull-out-of-uns-global-migration-pact/

    “Bulgaria’s government says the country will not sign a global pact to promote safe and orderly migration.

    The government’s press office said in a Wednesday statement: “At this stage, the Bulgarian government believes that the decision not to join the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration protects to the fullest extent the interests of the country and its citizens.”

    The agreement, which won’t be legally binding, was finalized under United Nations auspices in July. It is due to be formally approved at a Dec. 11-12 meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.

    Bulgaria’s government plans to vote “abstained” during the final approval of the pact in the U.N. General Assembly.

    Bulgaria has sealed off its border with Turkey with a barbed wire fence to halt the influx of illegal crossings…”

  30. Officer Could Be Prosecuted for Taking Down Criminal After Police Applauded for Tough Approach to Moped Thieves (breitbart, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/05/officer-faces-charges-taking-down-criminal-tough-approach-moped-thieves/

    “A London Metropolitan police officer could be charged with a criminal offence after ramming a criminal moped driver.

    The investigation is a result of the officer using “tactical contact” to stop a 17-year-old driving dangerously on a moped in Ealing in November 2017, authorities revealing the officer could face criminal proceedings on Tuesday, reports the BBC.

    The youth was not wearing a helmet and was treated at a London hospital afterwards for a serious head injury and a broken foot, but was later discharged.

    He later pleaded guilty to five charges in juvenile court including theft, dangerous driving, and driving without a licence.

    Scotland Yard has said it refers all pursuits ending in injury to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)…”

  31. French Islamist Allegedly Plotted To Kill Men After Luring Them on Gay Dating Apps (breitbart, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/05/french-islamic-state-supporter-allegedly-plotted-killing-homosexuals-dating-websites/

    “One of a pair of Islamic State supporters arrested in 2018 for plotting terrorism allegedly planned to lure homosexual men to their deaths using dating websites.

    The pair of jihadis, a 23-year-old of Pakistani origin and a 21-year-old Chechen, who have been friends since high school, were arrested on June 9th, but newly released information has shown the extent of their planning, Le Parisien reports.

    The 23-year-old Pakistani, identified only by his initials AB, came on the radar of the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) intelligence agency in early 2018 belonging to Salafist circles online. The intelligence agency also noted the use of gay dating websites which he used to contact young men.

    One of the 20 or so young men contacted by AB spoke to investigators saying that the Pakistani had used a picture of a blond caucasian male on his profile and had called him offering oral sex while speaking in a thick accent. The young man hung up the phone and called police after suspecting the man may be trying to lure him after trying to find out his address.

    Following his arrest, AB denied being homosexual or bisexual and said he had not been in contact with any of the young men who claimed to have spoken with him. “I am a practising Muslim but against terrorism,” he told police.

    What investigators found on his mobile phone painted a much different picture as they discovered references in the encrypted messaging app Telegram to a “project” he told others he had to be “discreet” about. They also discovered around 7,000 images of Islamic State atrocities.

    Investigators were then led to his Chechen friend who was revealed to own a ring with Islamic State symbols on it along with several knives and a makeshift firearm. The 21-year-old attempted to explain away the device saying, “I just wanted to be like MacGyver on TV.”

    The foiled plot is one of five major terror plots to be foiled so far this year according to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner who revealed the number in October.

    Another foiled plot involved a planned attack on a swingers club by a 38-year-old convert to Islam who was arrested in May.”

    • French Islamist Allegedly Plotted To Kill Men After Luring Them on Gay Dating Apps

      Well now, this should only improve the popularity of those doe-eyed, dark skinned, mincing young men with kebabs and mint tea on their breath.

  32. Somali officials report deadly US-backed raid on al-Shabab (abcnews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/somali-officials-report-deadly-us-backed-raid-al-59621019

    “Somali commandos backed by U.S. forces raided two al-Shabab checkpoints at which the extremists extort money from commercial vehicles, killing several fighters, Somali intelligence officials said Wednesday.

    The officials also said two U.S. airstrikes in the area during the overnight raid destroyed an explosives-laden minibus that was prepared for a complex attack on an unspecified location. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

    The U.S. Africa Command in a statement said four extremists were killed in a “self-defense airstrike” after U.S. and partner forces came under attack. It said no civilians were involved…”

  33. Albania condemns extremism in 4 Albanians’ deaths in Greece (abcnews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/albania-condemns-extremism-albanians-deaths-greece-59627676

    “Albania’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the murder of four ethnic Albanians in neighboring Greece and denounced the hate speech propagated by the extremist Golden Dawn party.

    A statement Wednesday called on Greek authorities “to denounce and put on a break any effort from the Golden Dawn or other extremist segments to violate Albanians’ security and dignity” there.

    Four Albanians died in Greece in the past two weeks, including one killed by an alleged Golden Dawn Greek supporter and another shot by Greek police while trying to illegally cross the border transporting drugs. An Albanian prisoner and an 18-year-old were found dead in suspicious circumstances.

    Tensions between the neighbors heightened in October after the killing of an Albanian-Greek citizen, a Golden Dawn member, in a shootout with Albanian police.”

  34. Despite Afghan deaths, slow peace efforts, NATO vows to stay (abcnews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-deaths-slow-peace-moves-nato-vows-stay-59625347

    “Fifteen years after NATO took the lead on international security efforts in Afghanistan, the military alliance’s foreign ministers on Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to stay the course despite mounting Afghan casualties and the slow pace of peace efforts.

    At talks in Brussels, the ministers underlined their “steadfast commitment to ensuring long-term security and stability,” reaffirming that NATO’s mission in the insurgency-wracked country will last as long as conditions demand it.

    NATO took the lead of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2003. It wound down combat operations in 2014 and began training and advising Afghan security forces so they could handle the country’s security needs. The work is carried out in a combat environment and remains dangerous.

    U.S. forces, which entered Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, now number around 15,000 and provide close support to Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations.

    The renewed NATO commitment came in a week when the Marine officer nominated to command U.S. forces in the Middle East warned that the fight there is at a stalemate and the number of Afghan troop deaths in the war is not sustainable. Four U.S. soldiers were also killed by a roadside bomb, the deadliest attack against U.S. forces this year.

    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the increase in violence could be a sign that things are about to change.

    “Sometimes there is an uptick, an increase in violence because different parties try to gain the best possible position at the negotiating table. So it may actually become worse before it becomes better,” he told reporters.

    NATO’s top civilian representative in the country, Cornelius Zimmermann, agreed that warlords and factions could be fighting for turf.

    “We are hopefully at a pre-negotiation stage, and there are some elements trying to improve their bargaining position by trying to make military progress,” he said.

    NATO and European leaders for years have expressed optimism about Afghanistan’s future while pouring billions of dollars into the security forces, development support and political and other assistance, yet the military alliance appears little closer to leaving the country than when it arrived.

    Zimmermann based his optimism on Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s unprecedented offer of unconditional peace talks with the Taliban, a recent and unprecedented three-day cease-fire agreed with the insurgents as a sign of goodwill and the changing attitudes of Afghan elders weary of years of conflict.

    “This is clearly a qualitative step ahead” of what’s happened in the past, Zimmermann said.

    Still, in Washington this week Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie warned the Senate Armed Services Committee against an abrupt withdrawal of American forces or change in strategy.

    “If we left precipitously right now, I do not believe they would be able to successfully defend their country,” McKenzie said. He said the U.S. and its allies need to keep helping the Afghans recruit and train forces to fight the Taliban’s estimated 60,000 troops.

    On Oct. 30, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said more than 1,000 Afghan personnel were killed or wounded during August and September alone. Ghani said in November that over 28,000 of his country’s forces had been killed in the last four years.

    The U.S. and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, insisted that the Afghans are doing more, running regional training centers and teaching their own special forces.

    “That’s already more heavily balanced in terms of the Afghans doing their own training. What we try to do is help out where it’s required,” Miller told reporters in Brussels.

    Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani conceded that the security forces are sustaining many casualties, but he said they are increasingly successful in repelling enemy attack.

    “In any war there are casualties on both sides and of course this is not an exception,” Rabbani said on the sidelines of the NATO meeting. “But as far as the determination and resolve of the Afghan security forces are concerned, I reassure you that they are very resilient.””

  35. Romania detains Turkish journalist on Turkey’s request (abcnews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/romania-acting-warrant-detains-turkish-journalist-59621939

    “A Turkish journalist suspected of links to Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Turkey for orchestrating a failed coup in 2016, was temporarily detained Wednesday in Romania, authorities said.

    Bucharest prosecutor Viviana Ciuca told The Associated Press that Kamil Demirkaya was detained based on an extradition request from Turkey for “being a member of criminal, terrorist group.”

    The Zaman Romania newspaper said their employee was arrested “on the order” of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Demirkaya later appeared in court and is free pending a court ruling.

    The case is delicate for Romania, which takes over the EU’s rotating presidency on. Jan. 1.

    Demirkaya denied allegations of terrorism, saying he had been a teacher in Turkey and abroad for 11 years and had worked as a journalist for eight years.

    “I don’t recall ever killing a fly or an ant,” he told Digi24 news channel. “Unfortunately, I am accused of terrorism.” He said Romanian authorities had followed legal procedures following Turkey’s request to extradite him.

    Zaman’s edition in Turkey was shut down by the government after the failed coup, in which Gulen denies involvement.

    Zaman, critical of Erdogan, now has editions in Romania and Bulgaria. Zaman Romania said Demirkaya has lived in Romania for two years with his wife and son, “writing about the abuses of power in Ankara.”

    Cristian Preda, an independent Romanian lawmaker in the European Parliament, called on the justice minister to halt the extradition process, saying Romania had “international commitments not to extradite citizens to countries where human rights are endangered.”

    “Turkey is one such country,” Preda said in a statement, adding that if the government extradites Demirkaya “it (will be) disqualified all over the European Union.””

  36. Egypt hands Muslim Brotherhood leader another life sentence (abcnews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-hands-muslim-brotherhood-leader-life-sentence-59625570

    “An Egyptian court has sentenced five people, including the head of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, to life in prison on charges related to inciting violence and supporting militants.

    The Cairo Criminal Court has convicted Mohammed Badie and five others of providing weapons, ammunition and explosive devices to Islamic militants.

    Wednesday’s sentences are not subject to appeal. The court also acquitted six Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including former speaker Saad el-Katatni, in the same trial.

    The suspects were also charged with inciting riots, violence and premeditated murder outside the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo’s Mokattam neighborhood in 2013 that killed nine people and injured 91.

    Brotherhood chief Badie has gotten several death sentences in separate trials since his 2013 arrest. Charges have included inciting violence and planning attacks against the state.”

  37. The Latest: Austrian police stop van with 22 Iraqis, Syrians (abcnews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-slovakia-stay-migration-pact-59624494

    “Austrian police say they have found 22 asylum-seekers from Iraq and Syria in a van near the country’s eastern border.

    Police in Burgenland province said the Romanian-registered van was stopped Tuesday evening at Rattersdorf, on the border with Hungary.

    Soldiers who stopped the vehicle found 13 men, two women and a roughly 3-year-old boy from Iraq inside the vehicle, as well as six men from Syria. None of them were carrying identity papers and all of them immediately asked for asylum.

    Police said Thursday that the 40-year-old Romanian driver was arrested and the van seized.”

  38. First Afghan woman appointed to high Interior Ministry post (abcnews, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-woman-appointed-high-interior-ministry-post-59624388

    “Afghanistan has appointed its first woman to a senior post at the Interior Ministry, naming Hosna Jalil as deputy for policy and strategic affairs.

    Following her appointment ceremony on Wednesday, Jalil said she relished the challenges of the job.

    Afghan women have forged ahead since the 2001 collapse of the Taliban regime, which denied girls the right to go to school and women the right to work.

    With their rights guaranteed under the constitution, they have become lawmakers and joined the workforce.

    Jalil says her appointment sends a message to the radical religious movement that “this is a winning story for the government of Afghanistan … having a woman in the security sector.”

    She added: “I think it delivers a message, the entire message.””

  39. Video footage has emerged of a Spanish warship sailing past Gibraltar apparently playing the Spanish national anthem over loudspeakers in provocation.

    Publicly available tracking data shows that the Infanta Elena, a Corvette-class vessel armed with automatic cannons and torpedoes, sailed past the British territory on Tuesday.

    The Independent has so far been unable to verify whether the footage which shows the anthem being played is genuine, or whether the music was added afterwards.

    Read more

    Is Spain’s threat to ‘veto Brexit’ over Gibraltar just an empty one?
    The supposed drive-by anthem rendition comes after weeks of heightened tensions between the UK and Spain over the British Overseas Territory and its status after Brexit.

    Fisherman Nicholas Karnani, who uploaded the video to Twitter after he was sent it by a colleague, described the incident as an “invasion of British Gibraltar territorial waters”.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gibraltar-spain-warship-national-anthem-a8667171.html?utm_source=reddit.com#comments

  40. The scale of the deceit of Theresa May’s so-called “worst deal in history” deal has been dramatically revealed after the government was forced to publish a key legal document by a vote in Parliament.
    Members of Parliament received the document Wednesday morning, and it was due to the published to the public around 11:30. Yet scanned pages of the paper quickly spread on social media as opposition politicians shared what they had received.

    Click here to skip to the latest updates

    Controversially, the legal advice reveals that with Theresa May’s Brexit deal there would be regulatory and customs checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland — in effect creating a border in the Irish sea between two equal and full parts of the United Kingdom.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/05/british-government-publishes-full-brexit-legal-advice/

  41. BRUTAL ATTACK Man punches his partner in the face and tells cops ‘it’s part of my culture to hit women’ (thesun, Dec 5, 2018)
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7901575/man-hit-wife-part-of-his-culture-kirklees-brighouse/

    “A MAN punched his new partner in the face and then told cops it’s part of his “culture” to hit women, a court heard.

    Chaudry Mahmood, 51, and the victim, who is his former sister-in-law, were arguing at a fair in Wellholme Park, Brighouse, West Yorkshire.

    Tensions within their families were high after they had started seeing each other before Mahmood hit struck his wife.

    A Good Samaritan stopped his car when he saw the incident and took photos of Mahmood before calling the police.

    The assailant pleaded guilty to assault by beating when he appeared in Kirklees Magistrates’ Court.

    Prosecutor Natalie Chapman said the witnesses’ attention was drawn to the victim sitting on a bench in the park.

    She told magistrates: “A male was stood up close by and with his right hand he punched her to the side of her face, causing her to move.

    “Immediately the witness pulled over, took photos of the defendant and called 999.

    “He heard a heated exchange but not what was being said. She looked annoyed and walked towards a car, getting into the driver’s seat.

    “The defendant then walked over and sat in the passenger seat.”

    Mahmood, of Bradbury Street in Ravensthorpe, was arrested and initially told police that he’d only pushed his partner.

    Miss Chapman told magistrates: “He said it was Asian culture, an open hand to the back to the head to shut them up.

    “When asked if he’d do anything differently he said ‘no’.”

    The Huddersfield court was told that the victim declined to give a statement to police.

    Mohammed Arif, mitigating, said that the couple had been together for five months.

    He told magistrates: “She was his sister-in-law and it’s not gone down very well within the family.

    “They are very upset that the defendant has entered into a relationship with his ex sister-in-law, now his partner, and he’s been the subject of harassment by members of the family from both sides.

    “He’s reported matters to police on numerous occasions and on the day in question they’d gone to get away from the harassment when the family issues have arisen.”

    Mr Arif said that a disagreement between the couple ensued and the victim struck his client first.

    He told magistrates: “He’s then retaliated and accepts he’s gone beyond any kind of self-defence.

    “He regrets his actions, it was a momentary incident.

    “Having been charged with this offence they’ve waited for this hearing to take place so that they can make a fresh start and move away from the area.”

    Magistrates told Mahmood that the case was aggravated by the fact that it took place in a public place and people would have been upset by what they witnessed.

    They fined him £80 and ordered him to pay £85 prosecution costs plus £30 victim surcharge.”