Reader’s links for December 18, 2018

Daily Links Post graphic

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

134 Replies to “Reader’s links for December 18, 2018”

  1. Pressure tuned magnetism paves the way for novel electronic devices

    Advances in the technology of material growth allow fabricating sandwiches of materials with atomic precision [e.g., ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition)]. The interface between the two materials can sometimes exhibit physical phenomena which do not exist in both parent materials. For example, a magnetic interface found between two non-magnetic materials. A new discovery, published today in Nature Physics, shows a new way of controlling this emergent magnetism which may be the basis for new types of magnetic electronic devices.

    Using very sensitive magnetic probes, an international team of researchers led by Prof. Beena Kalisky, of Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Physics and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), has found surprising evidence that magnetism which emerges at the interfaces between non-magnetic oxide thin layers can be easily tuned by exerting tiny mechanical forces. The team also includes Prof. Lior Klein, of Bar-Ilan’s Department of Physics and BINA, and researchers from DTU (Denmark) and Stanford University (USA).

    Magnetism already plays a central role in storing the increasing amount of data produced by humanity. Much of our data storage today is based on tiny magnets crammed into our memory drive. One of the promising means in the race to improve memory, in terms of quantity and speed, is the use of smaller magnets. Until today the size of memory cells can be as small as a few tens of nanometers — almost a millionth of the width of a strand of hair! Further reduction in size is challenging in three main respects: the stability of the magnetic cell, the ability to read it, and the ability to write into it without affecting its neighboring cells. This recent discovery provides a new and unexpected handle to control magnetism, thus enabling denser magnetic memory.

    These oxide interfaces combine a number of interesting physical phenomena, such as two-dimensional conductance and superconductivity. “Coexistence of physical phenomena is fascinating because they do not always go hand in hand. Magnetism and superconductivity, for example, are not expected to coexist,” says Kalisky. “The magnetism we saw did not extend throughout the material but appeared in well-defined areas dominated by the structure of the materials. Surprisingly, we discovered that the strength of magnetism can be controlled by applying pressure to the material”.

    Coexistence between magnetism and conductivity has great technological potential. For example, magnetic fields can affect the current flow in certain materials and, by manipulating magnetism, we can control the electrical behavior of electronic devices. An entire field called Spintronics is dedicated to this subject. The discovery that tiny mechanical pressures can effectively tune the emerging magnetism at the studied interfaces opens new and unexpected routes for developing novel oxide-based spintronic devices.

    NR: The ability to elicit dipolar behavior from non-magnetic materials—typically via an externally applied EMF field—is frequently referred to as paramagnetism. The foregoing example is of extreme interest because, after application of carefully controlled mechanical force, there appears a highly localized magnetic field on the surface of notoriously dielectric (i.e., nonconductive) oxides.

    There are other relatively insulating materials that exhibit magnetic properties. One is pure ferrite (Fe2 O3)—that has all the electrical conductivity of damp wood—which served at the critical material for heads in tape recorders and disk drives for many decades.

    A truly outstanding example of harnessing paramagnetic effects was during the 1980s when Sony blanketed a CZ (Czochralski) crystal puller with a powerful magnetic field. Although semiconductor wafer-grade silicon*, at 99.999999999% purity, also called “nine nines” for the number of nines after the decimal point,—as compared to the four nines of Walmart solar cell grade at 99.9999%—is thoroughly non-magnetic.

    The possibility of using paramagnetic effects to induce highly localized magnetic fields could play a vital role in new generations of ultra-dense, high capacity solid state memory devices.

    * In my high-tech collection are 1” (25 mm) and 2” (50 mm) wafers from the 1960s, as opposed to the current industry standard diameters of 12” (300 mm), which I also have, and 18” (400 mm). That’s the size of a pizza!

    NOTE: It’s curious why a prestigious industry journal like Semiconductor International took some two years to publish this article. A comment cited further on may help to clarify this matter. ——————–

    From the original link:

    Dev Gupta

    SMIC tried for 12 years to catch up with the latest nodes and in spite of huge subsidies from the PRC who also arm twisted TSMC to help SMIC, failed to catch up with the latest nodes. Having realized the limits of Chinese technologists to develop state of the art technologies on their own, last year the G. of PRC decided to go the M&A route. This is the background of Tsinghua Unigroup a largely Govt funded VC using the best minds of China’s premier university to devise strategy. Since then this VC with strong patronage from the G. of PRC has attracted contributions from Intel and promise to help SMIC get to 14 nm as “tribute (protection money)” to continue doing business in China.

    So upbranding ( see headline ) Tsinghua U. Unigroup, the mostly Chinese Govt funded tech VC, as a “CHIPMAKER” is a deliberate and shameless attempt by this US based reporter / editor to curry favor with the rising monster, perhaps in the hope of a future “baksheesh”. It is these TROJAN HORSES operating under the cover of “Free Market” who have been transferring prosperity from the US to China and before that to Japan.

    Due to their political clout, no industry in the US, no matter how hard the technologists try, is immune from their depredations. So it is a shame that Solid State Technology, now the sole printed news / opinion maker of our industry in which the US once had unquestionable and well deserved dominance, too has fallen under their control.

    Communist Chinese fingers in the pie. Why am I not surprised?

  2. World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency

    NR: Yawn. Wake me up when they achieve these efficiencies with standard, single-junction PV (Photovoltaic) solar cells. This latest generation of expensive-to-fabricate conversion devices is employed in a comparatively obscure variant of solar power called CPV (Concentrator Photovoltaic) technology. It involves using (dust sensitive) parabolic reflectors as concentrating optics that direct partially collimated sunlight onto small, thermally ruggedized solar cells. Heterojunction (multilayer) devices have a steep price tag compared to the 23% average conversion efficiency of more common single-junction PV (Photovoltaic) rooftop panels.

    See image: How a Solar Concentrator Works

    To date, the biggest market for costly heterojunction arrays remains in aerospace (e.g., satellites or probes) and applications calling for remote, rugged, low maintenance, harsh-environment installations. In fact, one of the very first commercial PV solar cell applications (not coincidentally priced at hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars per Watt—compared to modern rates that are plummeting towards the magic number of 50¢ per Watt) was for AT&T’s 1960s coast-to-coast telecom “Skyway” that utilized line-of-sight Microwave transmission relay stations where line voltage could not be run to such isolated sites.

    This supposedly “new” advance (CPV has been around in this same format for well over a decade) involves temperature-hardened conversion devices (typically composed of exorbitantly expensive III-IV materials similar to those used in LED illuminators) receiving more than 1,000 suns in a focused beam of concentrated sunlight. The key economic aspects being a much smaller footprint than regular PV panels (making them less expensive to axially track the sun) and, as seen in the above image, an ability to interchange receiver head technology (e.g., Stirling engine)

    Woo-effing-hoo!

    Three years ago the US Energy Department’s NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) attained 45.7% conversion efficiency with this same technology as part of an international race to the 50% efficiency benchmark. So, while laudable, Fraunhofer is once again trumpeting an existing technology as though it’s better than sliced bread.

    CPV remains “not ready for prime time”. Molten salt versions like the Mojave One array are proving to have their own unique set of problems. Roasted birds and partially vaporized insect parts tumbling from the sky being the least of that technology’s worries.

  3. Kazakhstan celebrates independence with detentions (eurasianet, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstan-celebrates-independence-with-detentions

    “Authorities in Kazakhstan tightened control on the streets for independence day on December 16, which is also the anniversary of the bloody crushing of unrest in a western oil town in 2011.

    As a result of enhanced security, many politically engaged people spent much of the holiday in police cells. Rights activists put the estimate of detainees, who also included journalists, in the dozens. As far as is known, all were released by the evening.

    Many of those detained had apparently planned to hold a vigil to mark the events of 2011, when police shot dead around a dozen oil workers in the town of Zhanaozen who had been striking for several months in demands for higher salaries.

    RFE/RL’s Kazakhstan service, Radio Azattyq, reported that police were on particular alert in Zhanaozen and Aktau. Some residents in those places were purportedly warned by the management of the companies where they work to avoid going to town main squares on December 16.

    Analogous measures were taken elsewhere. Raul Uporov and Maria Melnikova, correspondents with independent newspaper Uralskaya Nedelya, based in the northwestern city of Oral, were held by police for several hours.

    Those who managed to evade arrest were restricted by other means. Almaty activist Bakhytzhan Toregozhina wrote on her Facebook account that she was prevented from going onto the streets because there were police posted outside her apartment for the entire day.

    Some detained people reported being asked by police about whether they had any ties to the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan movement, the brainchild of disgraced banker and exiled government foe Mukhtar Ablyazov.

    Ablyazov routinely appeals to would-be likeminded people to use public holidays as opportunities to register their support and express discontent with the rule of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. This time, the former banker, who is believed to live in France, created a 50-minute video appeal asking people to hold memorial events for the victims of Zhanaozen.”

    • Source: Police Arrest 3 Suspects for Killing Scandinavian Tourists Near Mount Toubkal

      Moroccan police have arrested three suspects involved in the murder of the two Scandinavian tourists in Morocco.

      Rabat – A source from the village of lmlil told Morocco World News that law enforcement arrested three suspects involved in the killing of two women from Norway and Denmark near Toubkal mountain.

      Authorities are now bringing the suspects to demonstrate how they perpetrated the crime in Imlil, a village in the high Atlas Mountains, said the source.

      The same source said that the three males arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder are from Marrakech.

      “The suspects were camping in the same area that the murder took place,” he said, adding that “witnesses saw the group at night as they were heading to the camp area.”

      The source added that the police identified the suspects through surveillance cameras placed in local shops in the village. One of the suspects, according to the source, also left his identity card behind at the camp where he and his friends were staying.

      Earlier today, Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation arrested the first suspect in Marrakech.

      Tourists in the area found the bodies of the murder victims. “A local guide met the tourists crying and they told him what they saw.” The guide called the Royal Gendarmerie to report the crime. The source told MWN that authorities are still getting the guide’s full statement.

      The source excluded robbery as the motive of the crime, as none of the victims’ belongings were missing. However, he said, “sexual assault may have been the motive for the crime.”

      One of the women, 24 year old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, came from Denmark to Morocco against her family’s wishes. In an interview with Danish news sources, Jespersen’s mother said that they pleaded with her to avoid Morocco “because of the chaotic situation.”

      Information from Jespersen’s Facebook account showed she studied to become a travel guide in Norway prior to traveling to Morocco. The last post on her Facebook was excitedly announcing her trip. The status reads “Dear friends, [I am] going to Morocco in december. Any of you guys whos around by then or any mountain friends who knows something about Mount Toubkal?”

      The other victim, 28 years old Maren Ueland, traveled from Norway with Jespersen, according to Norwegian media.

      Ueland’s mother said in an interview that both girls were studying together at the University of South-Eastern Norway. They left Norway on December 9th to spend their holiday backpacking in Morocco.

      The women were found in their tent, located about six miles from Imlil, with “signs of violence on their necks,” according to the Interior Ministry Authorities, who proceeded to close down the entire area.

      Morocco is statistically one of the safest African countries, leaving locals noticeably shocked by the murder of the two women.

      https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/12/260806/source-police-arrest-3-suspects-for-killing-scandinavian-tourists-near-mount-toubkal/

      Louisa Vesterager Jespersen

    • Two Women found murdered in Morocco

      Two students found dead in the mountains of Morocco

      A Norwegian and a Danish woman are found dead with stab injuries outside a village in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, according to the country’s Ministry of the Interior.

      The female tourists were found with violent injuries caused by a sharp object, the ministry reports in a statement on Monday.

      A criminal investigation is underway.

      The Norwegian authorities were informed about the incident on Monday afternoon. On Monday night there was still uncertainty about a number of circumstances surrounding the case, including if their relatives had been notified.

      – We are working on mapping what is the status of the case, says press officer in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (UD), Ane Lunde, to NTB. They are now in contact with Moroccan authorities.

      The female students were found in a remote mountain area near the village of Imlil in the Atlas mountains. Imlil, located 70 kilometres from Marrakech, is often used as a starting point for trips to the Toubkal mountain, the highest mountain in North Africa.

      It is not yet known exactly when the two Scandinavians died during the night.

      Person apprehended
      The day after a Norwegian and a Danish student were found killed in Morocco, a person has been arrested and charged with the murder of them.

      According to the Interior Ministry of Morroco, the police are searching for several more suspects in the case, but it is not revealed who they are.

      The two women, Maren Ueland (28) from Bryne, near Stavanger in Rogaland and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen (24) from Grindsted in Southern Jutland, Denmark, were found dead in a mountainous area near Imlil south of Marrakech in Morocco on Monday.

      Moroccan authorities state that the two had injuries consistent with violence caused by a sharp object. Both are students at the University of Southeastern Norway in Bø in Telemark.

      Gathers fellow students
      On Tuesday morning fellow students and teachers will get together at the school.

      – We have today received the bad news that two USN students at campus Bø have been killed in Morocco. I will meet their fellow students and teachers today. They are in grief, and we first and foremost concentrate on taking care of them. Eventually, we will arrange a memorial, the Head Master, Petter Aasen, tells NTB.

      The students attend the second year of a bachelor program in outdoor life that the university offers at Bø in Telemark.

      – They were experienced outdoors-people. I have been informed that they were on a private holiday. The trip was well planned and it went to an area that is considered as safe, the Head Master informs.

      The university states on its website that the trip they embarked on was planned to last one month. USN got the message that the two were found dead during the night before Tuesday and have formed a crisis handling staff.

      Very surprised

      – Everyone here is very surprised and quite put out of by what has happened, Norwegian resident in Morroco, Thor Arne Hauer, says.

      He lives in Morocco and arranges tours in the area where the women were found. Hauer points out that Morocco is low in the lists of dangerous travel destinations for tourists.

      The murder scene is, according to VG, on a secluded path in the Sidi Chamharouch mountain range, about 10 km from the city of Imlil. Imlil is located 70 km south of Marrakech. The city is frequently used as a starting point for trips to the mountain Toubkal, which is the highest in North Africa.

      Sources tell the newspaper that the women arrived on Sunday. They were found by passers by’s on Monday morning.

      A large number of police and security people are present on and around the crime scene.

      – The whole region is cordoned off, there is much police in the area and helicopters in the air. All planned hikes are cancelled for safety reasons, writes the Moroccan online newspaper Medias24.

      The newspaper has contacted a local guide who says that if they had brought a guide along, they would never have been allowed to spend the night in the remote area where they were found.

      Mother remembers an outdoors-loving daughter

      Maren Ueland and her Danish tour companion had taken every precautionary measure before the Moroccan trip, according to the mother of the Norwegian murder victim.

      – She was so incredibly good. Her first priority was safety. The girls had taken all the necessary precautions before embarking on this trip, Irene Ueland tells NRK.

      She describes the 28-years-old daughter as a warm, open-air lover and as an engaged person. The mother last heard from her daughter on Sunday, December 9th when they arrived in Morocco. She then texted that everything was fine, but that she did not want to use the mobile phone much in the time to come.

      Ueland is from Bryne, south of Sandnes in Rogaland but studies in Bø in Telemark. That also applies the Danish victim, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen (24).

      The mother of Jespersen says, on her part, that her daughter went to Morocco contrary to the wishes of her family.

      – We advised her not to travel there because it’s so chaotic and you’ve heard of persons who have been killed down there, Helle Jespersen states to the Danish newspaper, Berlingske Tidende.

      She tells her daughter was hunting for experiences and remembers her as a happy and positive girl.

      http://norwaytoday.info/news/two-women-found-dead-in-morocco/

      • Sorry but naive (aka dumb) girls. There’s no such thing as a safe Muslim country for young and pretty blonde girls traveling on their own in remote areas.

        • There’s no such thing as a safe Muslim country for young and pretty blonde girls traveling on their own in remote areas.

          Even if they’re feeling suicidal?

        • Sorry but naive (aka dumb) girls. There’s no such thing as a safe Muslim country for young and pretty blonde girls traveling on their own in remote areas.

          Sassy, in case it wasn’t apparent, my dark humor about suicide represented a roundabout way of strongly agreeing with you.

          This isn’t to say that Caucasian women (especially blonde Scandinavians) always have to go traveling in Morocco with menfolk along. That settled, were I a Western female (who wears regular clothing) and intended to tour ANY Muslim majority country, at the very least, I’d be in a LARGE GROUP of women, preferably with some assortment of sharp blades acquired after arrival.

          The pair in question, knowingly or not, took their lives into their own hands (by surrounding themselves with Muslim men) and paid the ultimate price for such blithe-minded idiocy.

          Sadly, the West cannot afford to lose such genetic specimens as these (whose foolishness is curable through education) in the battle against colonizing Muslims. The children that this pair of naïve twits might have borne with good Caucasian Danish men could have gone on to become the next Tania Groth or Nicolai Sennels.

          This is yet one more form of attriting human capital (i.e., reproductive jihad) that only serves to further cripple the West and the Muslims damn well know it. Whether it is through traumatic gang rape, co-opting them into Islamic servitude or grooming them for a life of drug-fueled sexual slavery, all of this is a genetic drain on the Caucasian gene pool that cannot be tolerated.

    • Tourists in shock after two Scandinavian tourists murdered

      Tourists say they are in shock following the discovery of the bodies of two Scandinavian women in an isolated mountainous area 10 kilometres (six miles) from the tourist village of Imlil in the High Atlas range, a popular trekking destination.

      Moroccan authorities arrested a suspect following the murder of the two hikers, who were found dead with cuts to their necks.

      • Tourists in shock after two Scandinavian tourists murdered

        Meanwhile, in other news, visitors to Imlil and its vicinity are going stone deaf from the thundering silence of local Muslims about these vicious murders.

        Again, notice how it’s only the “Tourists” that are particularly “in shock”. Where’s the outrage? Where are the locals who ought to be up in arms at this besmirching of their turf?

        Perhaps it’s better to rephrase that last question. As in: <strongAre the natives even up in arms at this besmirching of their (tourist dependent) turf? At day’s end, those who dwell in Imlil and remain unprotestingly mute typify the “Moderate Muslim” ocean in which all terrorist fish swim.

        When will Westerners finally learn that this lack of local outcry represents tacit approval for these killings? Until proven otherwise, it’s all too likely that the perpetrator (or perpetrators) were from the same area.

        NOTE: Most of Earth’s human population never travels more than twenty miles (32 km) from where they’re born—and homicidal, West-hating Muslims weltering in some arid, under-oxygenated, overpopulated, lowlife, High Atlas, Moroccan $h!thøle are no exception to this rule. ——————–

        It’ll be an amusing spectacle to see whether what-passes-for Morocco’s judicial system will have the requisite scrotal endowment to penalize this little episode of Islamic jihad.

    • UN celebrates World #ArabicDay for some reason

      Good for them! I say, “make hay while the sun shines” because there may not be very many future opportunities to celebrate like (or about) this, ever again.

      Grim post 9-11 humor:

      One year after the 9-11 atrocity a young preschooler and his father are in Manhattan visiting Ground Zero. The little boy looked down into the gigantic excavated pit and asked, “Daddy, what’s that big hole in the ground.”

      The somber parent replied, “That’s where the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers once stood.”

      The child then asked, “Daddy, what were the Twin Towers?”

      He answered, “They were some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers until Muslim hijackers demolished both buildings by crashing passenger jets into them.”

      The lad looks up into his father’s eyes and asks, “Daddy … what’s a Muslim?

      So go right ahead and celebrate while you can, @$$holes. The true day of reckoning has yet to arrive and when it does, woe betide those who danced in the streets on 9-11.

      As one waggish theologian put it, “After a while, Muslims are going to start feeling pretty silly bowing down five times a day towards a plain of hot smoking glass.”

  4. Richard: I don’t know how much of this is real but it fits with what has been happening.

    Berkeley is About to Take Control of All Social Media Platforms

    • Black Pidgeon is becoming distateful for some reason.
      Maybe living as an aloof Round-Eye in Japan, he’s acquired a precious tone. Not exactly commie, more ivory-tower judgemental.
      Could be the Classiarius brand, I’m not familiar with it.

    • … they have targeted a new generation of refugees for recruitment

      I really wish that people would be a little more precise with their language.

      These novice mobsters aren’t “refugees”. They’re “Merkel’s houseguests”.

    • If anyone ever wondered what would become of an entire generation that had the collective attention span of a fruit fly, wonder no more.

  5. Chinese internment camp factory sends sportswear to US

    HOTAN, China (AP) — Barbed wire and hundreds of cameras ring a massive compound of more than 30 dormitories, schools, warehouses and workshops in China’s far west. Dozens of armed officers and a growling Doberman stand guard outside.

    Behind locked gates, men and women are sewing sportswear that can end up on U.S. college campuses and sports teams.

    https://apnews.com/99016849cddb4b99a048b863b52c28cb

    • Terrible.
      The Gulf Arabs could stop this montrous evil in no time flat.
      Without ruffling feathers, they could mitigate the conditions. That oil veto remains a powerful weapon against the godless ChiComs.

      Where’s the MB? They’ve got a booming voice in Europe and the US. Agents planted in every corporate media platform. Or are they too deeply enmeshed in China, Inc?

  6. Chaos on French highways as ‘yellow vests’ torch toll booths

    PARIS, Dec 18 (Reuters) – French “yellow vest” protesters caused transport chaos on Tuesday after occupying highway toll booths and setting some of them on fire.

    France’s biggest toll road operator, Vinci Autoroutes , said demonstrations were under way at some 40 sites in its network and that several highway intersections had been heavily damaged, notably in the south of France.

    The Bandol toll station, east of Marseille in the south of France, suffered fire damage overnight into Tuesday and the A50 highway was closed, said Vinci, whose network is mainly in the south and west of the country.

    “Motorists should take utmost care as they approach toll gates and motorway access ramps due to the presence of numerous pedestrians,” Vinci said in a statement.

    Several people have died in roadside accidents at yellow vest roadblocks in recent weeks, mostly at the many roundabouts blocked by groups of demonstrators.

    http://news.trust.org/item/20181218145115-px79z

  7. Robot to begin patrolling Los Angeles mall

    LOS ANGELES (WIVB) – One mall in Los Angeles is looking towards the future when it comes to security.

    A robot will soon begin regular patrols at The Bloc. It is expected to begin its work in two weeks.

    The robot was first introduced to the public over the weekend.

    “We really like the fact that this is kind of on the cutting edge of technology. It’s picking up video footage. It’s picking up Mac addresses,” Dan Cote, general manager of The Bloc says. “So, it’s able to pick up a lot of information that humans just aren’t capable of. You want to ask when they’re here? I forgot to turn if off!”

    The mall’s general manager says the robot will not take away jobs, but rather improve what’s already available.

    The mall has also launched a contest to give the robot a name, with the winner getting a gift certificate to shop at the mall.

    https://www.wivb.com/news/national/robot-to-begin-patrolling-los-angeles-mall/1662988353

  8. Former diplomat expelled from UK over rape allegations  (telegraph, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/18/former-diplomat-expelled-uk-rape-allegations/

    “A foreign diplomat was expelled from the UK after allegations of two rapes and one attempted rape, the Foreign Office has revealed.

    The individual involved and the country represented have not been identified.

    The Foreign Office said that the diplomat – who also faced an allegation of malicious communication – was thrown out of the UK after the country involved rejected a request for immunity to be waived in the case.

    The allegations were among 12 serious or significant offences allegedly committed by people entitled to diplomatic immunity in 2017.

    Nationalities – but not identities – of diplomats facing criminal allegations are normally made public in the round-up of cases released annually by the Foreign Office (FCO).

    But officials said that in the case of the rape allegations, the embassy involved is so small that identifying the nationality could result in inaccurate speculation about other mission staff.

    The Foreign Office also revealed three allegations of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime between 2009 and 2013, made against a former Cameroonian diplomat and two locally employed members of staff at the African country’s High Commission, which were not previously made public because they were still under investigation.

    Other allegations relating to 2017 included one report of sexual assault involving an individual representing Algeria, one of blackmail (Egypt) and one possession of a firearm with intent to injure (Cambodia).

    Officials from the Austrian embassy and Commonwealth Secretariat were accused of drink-driving, a representative of Sierra Leone of driving without insurance or a licence and individuals from the Finnish and Saudi Arabian missions of driving without insurance.

    Revealing the cases in a written parliamentary statement, the Foreign Office said: “Around 23,000 people are entitled to diplomatic immunity in the UK and the majority of diplomats and dependants abide by UK law. The number of alleged serious crimes committed by members of the diplomatic community in the UK is proportionately low.

    “Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, we expect those entitled to immunity to obey the law. The FCO does not tolerate foreign diplomats breaking the law.

    “We take all allegations of illegal activity seriously. When the police bring instances of alleged criminal conduct to our attention, we ask the relevant foreign government to waive diplomatic immunity where appropriate.

    “For the most serious offences, and when a relevant waiver has not been granted, we request the immediate withdrawal of the diplomat.””

  9. Danish Minister Tells Somalis ‘Go Home and Rebuild Your Country’ (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/18/danish-minister-tells-somalis-go-home-rebuild-your-country/

    “Denmark’s migration minister Inger Støjberg has told the country’s Somali migrants to return home and work on improving their own country after the Danish government ruled parts of Somalia safe.

    Since the Immigration Service began its review of refugee residency permits in early 2017, nearly 1,000 Somalis have had their Danish residency permit revoked, reports the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

    Of those, 516 had been directly granted asylum while another 412 were family members who joined them as through chain migration, also known as “family reunion” or “family reunification”.

    “If you no longer need our protection and your life and health are no longer at risk in your home country, and specifically in Somalia, you must of course return home and rebuild the country from which you came from,” Ms Støjberg said.

    The automatic right to asylum from countries like Somalia was revoked in Denmark’s 2015 amendment to its Immigration Act.

    As a result, the Immigration Service announced in autumn 2016 that it would use the new legal basis to review about 1,200 residence permits given to Somalis because of changes to “general conditions” in parts of their country, whereby “there is no longer a basis for asylum, simply because they come from there”.

    Unlike neighbouring Germany and Sweden, Denmark has taken a tough line on asylum and integration since the Syrian conflict sparked Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015…”

  10. Migration Watch Blames Population Boom for London Congestion (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/18/migration-watch-blames-population-boom-londons-status-second-most-congested-city/

    “Migration Watch UK has suggested “immigration-driven population growth” is to blame for London’s status as the second-most gridlocked city in Europe after Moscow.
    The migration-sceptic think tank was commenting on a study by traffic data firm Inrix reported earlier in 2018, which suggested that not only was London runner-up to Russia’s troubled capital in the gridlock stakes, but that the United Kingdom as a whole was the world’s number ten most-congested country.

    It is likely that, if taken singly, England would be even higher up the rankings, as the United Kingdom’s other Home Nations are much less densely packed — particularly Scotland, with the wide expanses of its iconic but sparsely populated Highlands.

    Quoting an observation from a BBC report on the Inrix study that “The UK is the world’s 10th most congested country and London is Europe’s second most gridlocked city after Moscow”, Migration Watch asked its Twitter followers: “Could it have anything to do with immigration-driven population growth where the equivalent of a new city arrives each year from overseas?”

    Net annual immigration to the United Kingdom from the European Union, which is effectively unlimited and unvetted under the bloc’s Free Movement regime, was 74,000 in the year to June 2018 — a significant drop from previous years, due in part to the Brexit vote and in part to incomes in the poorer EU countries British employers had been sourcing low-paid workers from improving.

    Non-EU net immigration, however, is at 14-year high of 248,000 — despite the Government having more or less full control it, and having promised in three consecutive General Elections to reduce total immigration “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands”.

    George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer turned Evening Standard editor, bragged that the governments he served in under David Cameron never intended to control immigration, and that none of the senior members of the current Cabinet “supports the pledge [to reduce immigration] in private”.”

  11. Iraqi, Afghan Migrants Vastly Over-Represented in Sex Attack Statistics (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/18/iraqi-afghan-migrants-vastly-overrepresented-final-sex-attack-statistics/

    “Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers were up to 40 times more likely than native Finns to be suspects in sexual crimes in Finland in 2017, according to official statistics.

    Statistics for the first 11 months of 2018 show a similar result, with Iraqi asylum seekers and migrants being suspected in a total of 157 sexual offences, making them the most numerous of any foreign group in the statistics — despite only being the third-largest minority in the country, behind Russians and Estonians, Ilta-Sanomat reports.

    Finnish refugee councillor Ala Saeed explained that part of the reason is that Iraqis, especially those from older clans, have cultural norms in which men are able to do anything they like to women without consequences.

    “Many women are being raped, but they do not even tell their mother about the fear of their honour,” Saeed said.

    Honour culture has become a major issue in neighbouring Sweden, where some organisations estimate that as many as a quarter of a million young people from migrant backgrounds live under some form of honour culture.

    It has led to girls in Sweden being forced into marriages overseas and sometimes subjected to violence from family members, including honour killings.

    One such killing occurred in Stockholm’s suburb of Årsta in September of 2015 and saw a man brutally stab his wife 66 times and mutilate her face by cutting off her upper lip and nose.

    Tuija Hietaniemi, Special Investigator at Finland’s Central Criminal Police, noted that she had seen asylum applications where women were afraid to let their husbands know they had previously been raped due to honour culture.

    “She’s afraid that a man will kill her if he gets to hear it. Applications are therefore usually taken separately by the spouses,” she said.”

  12. Berlin Mosque Raided over Suspected ‘Terrorist Criminal Acts’ (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2018/12/18/berlin-mosque-raided-over-suspected-terrorist-criminal-acts/

    “A Berlin mosque was raided by German police on Monday night as part of a larger terrorism probe seeking connections to Middle East terror activities.

    A 45-year-old preacher suspected of transferring funds to an Islamist militant in Syria for the purpose of carrying out “terrorist criminal acts” was questioned, prosecutors said. No arrests were made.

    German newsagency Deutsche Welle reports State criminal police, intelligence officers as well as special police forces joined the raids, which included the As-Sahaba mosque in the Berlin neighborhood of Wedding.

    The suspect, Ahmad A., whose last name wasn’t given in line with privacy laws, was questioned over allegations surrounding money transfers to an Islamist fighter in Syria “for purchasing military equipment to carry out terrorist criminal acts,” prosecutors said on Twitter.

    The As-Sahaba mosque is under surveillance by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency and is considered an important meeting point for members of Germany’s radical Salafist scene, according to the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.

    The mosque was founded in 2010 by the German-Egyptian Islamist Reda Seyam, who is accused of taking part in a terror attack in Bali, according to the paper. He later left Germany to travel to Syria to become the “education minister” for the Islamic State terrorist group.”

  13. New Spanish Migrant Route Sees 150 New Arrivals in Basque Country Per Day (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/18/new-spanish-migrant-route-sees-150-new-arrivals-in-basque-country-per-day/

    “A new migrant route is forming in the Basque Country of Spain following the tightening of migrant routes in Turkey and Italy, with observers claiming that up to 150 migrants arrive daily attempting to get to France and northern Europe.

    The main route lies across the French-Spanish border region where migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, attempt to cross from Spain into France while police on both sides of the border attempt to prevent them, Le Parisien reports.

    The so-called “Spanish road” had previously been one of the more minor migrant routes but since the shutdown of the Balkan route in 2015 and 2016 and the of the central Mediterranean route by Italian interior ninister Matteo Salvini, Spain has become the main migrant hub in Europe.

    Since the beginning of 2018, around 50,000 migrants have entered Spain illegally from Morocco, either across the straits of Gibraltar or into Spain’s North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

    Spain’s North African enclaves have seen several instances of migrants storming the fences and even injuring police officers. In July, around 800 migrants stormed Ceuta and attacked police with quicklime and makeshift flamethrowers, injuring 15 officers.

    The French-Spanish border has also seen a total of 6,000 migrants caught by authorities attempting to get into France illegally from January to November of this year.

    Amalia Oca, who works for a pro-migrant NGO in the area, said that most of the migrants come from Mali and Guinea but also noted that she had seen Yemeni, Egyptian, and Eritrean migrants as well.

    The increase in mass migration into Spain has also begun to shift the political scene, with the populist VOX party now polling near 10 per cent after years in the low single digits.

    Earlier this month the party won 11 per cent of the vote in Andalusia’s regional elections and became the third-largest party in the Andalusian province of Almería.”

  14. UK Govt Set to Open Visa Route for Low-Skilled Migrants Against Official Advice (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/18/uk-open-route-low-skilled-migrants/

    “Post-Brexit Britain will open visa routes for low-skilled migrants, according to immigration plans set to be unveiled this week, despite the government having been urged not to do so by its own expert policy body.

    Home Secretary Sajid Javid will also reportedly announce an end to the current cap on high-skilled migrants when he lays out plans for a new immigration system “based on skills, not where people come from” to mark the United Kingdom’s exit from Free Movement migration rules within the European Union.

    According to the Daily Mail, low-skilled workers who have no history of immigration abuse will be handed short-term visas which expire after a year and bar holders from returning for up to 12 months under the new regime.

    This would go directly against proposals outlined in the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) long-awaited report in September, which — to the alarm of business interests and corporate lobbyists who have claimed that Britain would “wither away” without a limitless supply of cheap foreign labour — said there was no need to create routes for low-skilled migrants…”

  15. Arab Refugees in Sights of Berlin’s Notorious Crime ‘Clans’ (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2018/12/18/notorious-berlin-crime-families-seek-new-recruits-from-middle-east-refugees/

    “BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Berlin crime gangs of Arab origin have long earned infamy with violence and brazen robberies but now, police warn, they have targeted a new generation of refugees for recruitment.

    Known in the media as Berlin’s “clans,” whose founders themselves fled war in Lebanon in the 1980s, they have long controlled much of the city’s illegal drugs trade, street prostitution and protection rackets.

    While East European and Asian organized crime and homegrown biker gangs are also active, the clans have been especially visible, given many members’ love of gangster bling and muscle cars.

    The dozen or so Arabic and Kurdish-origin extended families, with their patriarchal structures and codes of honor, have also been mythologized by rap artists and portrayed in the TV series “4 Blocks.”

    Now police warn that the clans have sought out new members from among the over one million asylum-seekers who have arrived in Germany since mid-2015, half of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The clans “are trying to get others to do the dirty work” such as selling drugs or committing small burglaries, said Benjamin Jendro of the GDP police union.

    Many refugees, he said, are “men who have arrived alone in Germany” and who “have not yet had to do with the justice system,” making it less likely they will go to prison if caught.

    An undercover police investigator also told Die Welt newspaper that “above all, it is the young, physically strong men who are in the sights of the clans, who make them do the dirty work.”

    ‘Parallel societies’

    The migrant wave that peaked three years ago sparked a xenophobic backlash in Germany, and stoked heated debate about integration efforts and crimes committed by foreigners.

    This has thrown a new focus on the clans and raised questions about how Berlin’s police could let them openly flout the law for so long in a generally fairly low-crime country.

    Germany’s best-known rapper, Bushido, long boasted about his close ties to one Berlin clan — until they had a falling out this year and he sought the protection of a rival group.

    Bushido’s wife, Anna-Maria Ferchichi, told news weekly Stern that the couple now feared for their lives from gangsters who had formed “parallel societies right here in Germany.”

    The clans’ latest show of force was the September 13 funeral of an infamous underworld figure, when 2,000 mourners congregated in the Islamic section of a Berlin cemetery, watched over by some 150 police.

    In scenes Stern described as “worthy of a mafia movie,” they paid their last respects to Nidal Rabih, a 36-year-old violent repeat offender who had been shot dead in front of his family days earlier.

    Rabih, a Palestinian born in Lebanon, had achieved cult status in the Berlin criminal underworld.

    Boasting more than 100 offences from robbery to attempted manslaughter, he had spent more than a decade behind bars but avoided a 2004 deportation attempt when Lebanon refused to issue him a passport.

    Days after his death, Berlin municipal workers guarded by police whitewashed over a wall mural at the murder scene that depicted Rabih in the style of a martyred Islamic fighter.

    Guns and machetes

    Sociologists say the story of Berlin’s clans is a cautionary tale about failed integration.

    Their patriarchs mostly arrived in the 1980s as refugees from then war-torn Lebanon, among them Palestinians and members of Turkey’s Arabic and Kurdish minorities.

    Many had only temporary protection status and “did not have access here to education or work,” said Islamologist Mathias Rohe, arguing that this sped up the descent into delinquency.

    The extended families, aside from now running large chunks of Berlin’s illegal economy, have also committed some of the city’s most headline-grabbing criminal stunts.

    In 2010, masked men wielding machetes and guns robbed a poker tournament in the Berlin Grand Hyatt, making off with about 240,000 euros ($270,000).

    In 2014, robbers rampaged through Berlin’s KaDeWe luxury department store, smashed glass displays and stole watches and jewellery worth 800,000 euros.

    And last year, clan-linked bandits stole a 100-kilogram (220-pound) Canadian commemorative gold coin worth over 3.75 million euros from Berlin’s Bode museum, around the corner from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s apartment.

    ‘Spoiling their fun’

    Berlin’s police is now under fire for having long neglected the problem — something researcher Ralph Ghadban blames partially on a “fear of stigmatizing and discriminating against certain minorities”.

    In recent months, authorities have started to hit back by stepping up raids of shisha bars and betting shops, many in Berlin’s Neukoelln district, and confiscating expensive cars for speeding.

    In August, police and prosecutors seized 77 properties worth 10 million euros, alleged to have mostly been bought with proceeds from a major 2014 bank robbery.

    Some of the properties were officially owned by one convicted bank robber’s 19-year-old brother whose only declared income was state welfare.

    The confiscations still have to stand up in court against challenges from the clan’s expensive lawyers, but authorities believe they have struck a first blow.

    “We’re stepping on their toes,” said Berlin interior minister Andreas Geisel. “We’re spoiling their fun in Berlin.””

  16. Japan unveils new defense strategy, plans to spend $10B on American goods

    Japan has announced plans to increase defense spending and weapon capabilities. Members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet revealed the country will spend around $10 billion purchasing over 100 American made fighter jets.

    This comes after President Trump urged Abe to increase spending on American goods to lower its trade surplus with the U.S.

    The Japanese military also unveiled plans to begin developing small aircraft carriers as the country seeks to develop countermeasures against threats from China and North Korea.

    https://www.oann.com/japan-unveils-new-defense-strategy-plans-to-spend-10b-on-american-goods/

  17. Judge orders original Flynn 302 made public in redacted version; as usual, it exposes what the FBI was doing
    By J.E. Dyer December 18, 2018

    As I speculated on Friday, there is, it turns out, an original 302 of the Michael Flynn interview done by FBI agents Strzok and Pientka on 24 January 2017. Mueller filed it under seal, and Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered that it be filed publicly, with redactions. That was done on Monday, 17 December.

    There are 302s for the 24 January interview with two different “entry dates,” or dates of entry into the FBI document system. One date is 15 February 2017. The other is 31 May 2017. I haven’t been able to discover why that’s the case as of this writing. But an initial inspection of the two documents – which are both in the PDF at the link – appears to indicate no differences in wording between them. Both are five pages long, and the differences in where words appear on the pages seems to be due to slightly different letter spacing, and thus where lines break.

    Superficially, the unredacted portions appear to make Mueller’s case for him, when set beside the charging document on Flynn, filed by Mueller on 1 December 2017. Mueller lists two instances in which the FBI apparently had records of communications – between Flynn and Russian Ambassador Kislyak – for which Flynn’s stated recollections did not match up. The instances involved the UN vote in December 2016 on Israeli settlements, which the Obama administration was determined to hold, for the purpose of entering a politically damaging abstention by the United States; and the sanctions imposed on Russia by Obama as retaliation for the attempted Russian election interference. The date of imposition for those sanctions was 28 December 2016.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/18/judge-orders-original-flynn-302-made-public-in-redacted-version-as-usual-it-exposes-what-the-fbi-was-doing/

  18. German high court throws out far-right complaint on migrants (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-high-court-throws-complaint-migrants-59879288

    “Germany’s highest court has thrown out complaints from the far-right Alternative for Germany party claiming Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 2015 decision to allow in hundreds of thousands of migrants was a constitutional violation.

    The party, known as AfD, argued that Merkel’s decision not to refuse migrants’ entry at Germany’s borders violated parliament’s right to participate and other principles.

    But the Federal Constitutional Court said Tuesday that the three complaints didn’t meet prerequisites for a constitutional hearing because the AfD “failed to sufficiently substantiate that the federal government’s decisions on this matter violated or directly threatened its rights.”

    It also noted that while the AfD argued parliament should have been enlisted to draft a “migration management act,” the party also stated its “unwillingness to participate in the introduction of a corresponding bill.””

  19. Terror charges issued in France’s Christmas market attack (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/terror-charges-issued-frances-christmas-market-attack-59880652

    “A man suspected of supplying the gun used in the Christmas market shooting attack that killed five people in Strasbourg has been handed preliminary terror charges, according to a French judicial official close to the investigation.

    The official, who could not be named with the case ongoing, said the individual appeared Monday before a judge and was charged with criminal association with terrorists, as well as possessing and supplying arms in connection with a terrorist enterprise.

    The man is suspected of furnishing the weapon that alleged gunman Cherif Chekatt used in the Dec. 11 attack, the judicial official said. He was remanded into custody.

    Chekatt, 29, died in a shootout with police in Strasbourg on Thursday.

    Two other people were arrested and detained Monday as part of the terror investigation the Paris prosecutor’s office is conducting into the attack. They also were suspected of “playing a role in supplying the firearm,” said the official.

    Their arrests bring the number of suspects in custody since the attack to three; Chekatt’s parents and two of his brothers were questioned by police last week and released.

    The death toll from the attack increased to five Sunday night after a Polish man died of his wounds in a Strasbourg hospital. Barto Orent-Niedzielski, 36, lived in the city, where he worked at the European Parliament and as a journalist. The other casualties include a tourist from Thailand and an Italian journalist.

    According to reports, Orent-Niedzielski fought the shooter and stopped him from entering a crowded club, possibly preventing more deaths.

    Polish President Andrzej Duda wrote on Twitter that “I knew him by sight. I am shocked. I had not realized that he was the one mortally wounded protecting other people. Honor to his memory. RIP.””

  20. Mexico announces plan to crack down on illegal immigration at its southern border
    By LU Staff December 17, 2018

    Ask any Democrat, and he’ll tell you that singling out illegal aliens who breach a nation’s border is heartless and inhuman. It is the sort of thing that Republicans and enemies of the state like Israel do. According to House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, young illegals are “patriotic” and erecting a wall to make it more difficult for them to violate our sovereign borders is “immoral.”

    Dems are more of a mind with former Mexican president Vicente Fox, who called the “f*cking wall” a “racist monument.”

    So how are they going to deal with the news that Mexico, a nation with which Democrats have long been simpatico,is now planning to follow Donald Trump’s lead. The Associated Press (via the Washington Examiner) reports:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/17/mexico-announces-plan-to-crack-down-on-illegal-immigration-at-its-southern-border/

  21. British Airways to resume flights to Pakistan in June (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/british-airways-resume-flights-pakistan-june-59879933

    “British Airways announced Tuesday it will resume flights to Pakistan in June, a decade after suspending them in the wake of the suicide truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens.

    In a statement, Robert Williams, the BA head of sales for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, said it was going to be “exciting to be flying between Islamabad and Heathrow” again.

    BA said flights would resume on June 2, 2019, three times a week and that “tickets are on sale from today.”

    Thomas Drew, Britain’s top diplomat in Pakistan, said the resumption of flights was excellent news and would “give a particular boost to our growing trade and investment links.”

    Pakistan’s government and its military also welcomed the announcement. Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, the military spokesman, said the development was one of the dividends of the decades-long struggle of the Pakistani nation and security forces to restore peace and stability in the country that are on the way.

    BA suspended its operations shortly after the Sept. 20, 2008, suicide truck bombing devastated the Marriott in Islamabad, killing at least 54 people and wounding more than 270.

    A little-known militant group calling itself “Fedayeen al-Islam” claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities blamed al-Qaida linked militants.

    Since the attack, the Pakistani army has carried out several operations against the Taliban, al-Qaida and other extremist groups, seeking to rout militants from their strongholds. However, large-scale attacks still occasionally take place in the country.”

  22. Elementary school-age children now being taught that boys can have periods, too
    By LU Staff December 18, 2018

    It’s unclear that any child at this age needs to learn about menstruation, but it is a certainty that children born with male plumbing need not be concerned.

    Unless, of course, the child is “trans” or “non-binary,” in which case all bets are off.

    This “breakthrough” in education was was approved by Brighton & Hove City Council in the England “as they try to tackle stigma around menstruation,” according to The Telegraph.

    A report released by council advises that “menstruation must be inclusive of all genders,” toward which end “bins used for menstruation products will be provided in all toilets for children.” Leaving no stone unturned, the council also recently released a “Trans Inclusion Schools Toolkit” to help teachers treat gender identity sensitively.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/18/elementary-school-age-children-now-being-taught-that-boys-can-have-periods-too/

  23. German Chancellor Angela Merkel to receive Fulbright prize (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-chancellor-angela-merkel-receive-fulbright-prize-59881109

    “The Washington-based Fulbright Association says its 2018 prize for international understanding will go to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    The organization said Tuesday it had decided to award the prestigious prize to Merkel “for her remarkable, compassionate leadership and her strong commitment to mutual understanding, international cooperation and peace.”

    Merkel has been Germany’s leader since 2005 and a central figure in international diplomacy and crisis-resolution efforts in Europe and beyond. In her most controversial decision, she allowed large numbers of asylum-seekers into Germany in 2015.

    She was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2015 and earlier this month Harvard University announced she would be its commencement speaker next year.

    Merkel will be given the Fulbright award at a ceremony in Berlin on Jan. 28.”

  24. Top Dem wants DOJ to change its guidelines so Trump can be indicted
    By Ben Bowles December 18, 2018

    And while they’re at it, can the guys at Justice also fix it so that Trump, if found guilty of having colluded with Russia of whatever, receives the death penalty?

    The modest proposal advanced by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) stopped short of that radical solution, though the fix he prescribes — changing the Department of Justice guidelines so that sitting presidents can be indicted — has far-reaching implications.

    Cummings, the likely incoming House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, made his recommendation during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” telling host Jake Tapper:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/18/top-dem-wants-justice-department-to-change-its-guidelines-so-trump-can-be-indicted/

    https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1074318994847555591

  25. BOOM: Steele hired to ‘help challenge the validity’ of the 2016 election outcome
    By J.E. Dyer December 17, 2018

    Wait a minute. What?

    So…Steele wasn’t just hired to help fabricate a brief against the Trump campaign (or, as some still prefer, to “dig up dirt” on Trump) — i.e., something the Hillary Clinton campaign could use as opposition research?

    The purpose of his contract went beyond that, according to a court filing by Christopher Steele in the defamation lawsuit brought against Steele’s intelligence firm by the owners of Alfa Bank, a Russian bank named in the Steele “dossier.” Steele wasn’t just hired for general oppo research. He was hired to lay a basis for challenging the outcome of the 2016 election.

    Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times picked up on that from a set of responses made by Steele to the plaintiffs’ questions in August 2018. The document is from the British High Court and was furnished to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where a separate case on the matter was being heard. (The U.S. judge dismissed the lawsuit later in August, but the plaintiffs intended to appeal at that time.) In his filing, Steele attests that he was hired by Fusion GPS in June 2016 for the following purpose:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/17/boom-steele-hired-to-help-challenge-the-validity-of-the-2016-election-outcome/

  26. 9 migrants trying to reach UK rescued in English Channel (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/migrants-reach-uk-rescued-english-channel-59881482

    “French officials say that nine migrants, including a woman and child, have been rescued off the coast of Dunkirk after two distress calls from their small boat as they tried to sneak to Britain.

    French maritime authorities in charge of the English Channel area said the migrants were located early Tuesday after a three-hour air and sea search.

    A statement said the small boat was located 30 kilometers (about 20 miles) northwest of Dunkirk.

    The large search party included a helicopter and three ships, and was later joined by two more helicopters from Belgium and Britain who searched the northern area of the English Channel.

    Since fall, migrants have increasingly resorted to unguided sea crossings to reach Britain. Rescuers intercepted 18 migrants in two boats on Nov. 22.”

  27. Saudi king extends allowances as living costs rise (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-king-extends-allowances-living-costs-rise-59881862

    “Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has extended monthly allowances for government employees, military personnel, pensioners, social security recipients and students into next year.

    The announcement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday, comes on the same day the kingdom’s 2019 budget is scheduled to be unveiled. The government will also release its deficit for this year as lower oil prices squeeze its main source of revenue.

    The royal decree extends a monthly payout of 1,000 Saudi riyals ($266) for civil servants and soldiers for another year. Retirees and students will also receive continued allowances.

    Many Saudi citizens are feeling the pinch of austerity measures from new taxes on goods and businesses. Saudis have also seen their electricity and water bills skyrocket as subsidies are reduced.”

  28. Norway allows cleric to face court in Italy (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/norway-cleric-face-court-italy-59881984

    “An Iraqi-born cleric suspected of enticing recruits to fight in Iraq and Syria has been given travel documents to travel to Italy where he faces trial, Norway’s justice minister said Tuesday.

    Justice Minister Tor Mikkel Wara said the Norway-based cleric known as Mullah Krekar will be escorted by Norwegian police to Italy for his trial.

    Italian prosecutors allege Krekar is behind Rawti Shax, a European network aimed at violently overthrowing the government in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and replacing it with a radical caliphate.

    Krekar, born Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad, has denied the allegations.

    No date for his travel to Italy has been announced.

    Krekar previously had tried to fight an extradition request from Italy.

    The 62-year-old cleric who came to Norway as a refugee in 1991, has been convicted of threatening Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, making other death threats and praising the 2015 extremist slayings of cartoonists at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.”

  29. Dutch student, 16, shot dead in school’s bicycle shed (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dutch-student-16-shot-dead-schools-bicycle-shed-59882751

    “A 16-year-old girl was shot dead in front of fellow students in her high school’s bicycle shed Tuesday, Dutch police said.

    A 31-year-old suspect, police said in a statement, was arrested shortly after the shooting at the school, which was identified by local media as Rotterdam Design College.

    Police said the victim and the male suspect, who was arrested about two kilometers (a mile and a half) away, knew one another but didn’t reveal details of their relationship or a possible motive.

    A number of people, including fellow students, witnessed the attack, police spokeswoman Yvette de Rave told national broadcaster NOS.

    The shooting happened less than a week after an American psychology student at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University was fatally stabbed in her apartment. A suspect in her killing was arrested last week.

    Gun ownership is tightly restricted in the Netherlands and most shootings that happen in the country are linked to power struggles between criminal gangs.”

  30. EU urges Kosovo to drop tariffs as political tensions mount (abcnews, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/eu-urges-kosovo-drop-tariffs-political-tensions-mount-59884190

    “The European Union’s top diplomat is calling on Kosovo to lift tariffs on goods from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as tensions rise between the former Serbian territory, and the EU and NATO.

    Kosovo last month slapped a 100-percent tax on Serbian imports, apparently in retaliation after its bid to join the international police organization, Interpol, failed amid intense Serb lobbying.

    EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday that “it is in the interest of Kosovo to immediately revoke this decision.” She urged Pristina to settle its grievances through dialogue.

    Mogherini’s remarks came as Kosovo’s prime minister accused her of mismanaging EU-backed talks on normalizing ties with Serbia.

    NATO ambassadors, meanwhile, were weighing Tuesday Kosovo’s decision to transform its security force into an army.”

  31. europravda – Is immigration ” TO BLAME ” for the rise of the populist Vox Party in Andalusia?

  32. Judge delays sentencing for Michael Flynn

    Sentencing delayed 90 days in the case of Trump’s former national security adviser lying to the FBI;

    Catherine Herridge reports from the district court in D.C. on the ‘dramatic’ hearing.

  33. Mufti of Moscow: Guantanamo Bay Turned Inmates into Wild Animals Who Were Released to Join ISIS

    Albir Krganov, the mufti of Moscow, was interviewed on Al-Nujaba TV (Iraq) on December 15, 2018.

    He said that ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra are banned in Russia because they are recognized as terrorist organizations.

    He added that the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay were subjected to extreme violence in order to prepare them to fight alongside Jabhat Al-Nusra and ISIS and to kill innocent people after being released.

    He also asked, “Who is the real owner of Charlie Hebdo?” but stopped short of answering his own question.

  34. UK – [ Muslim ] Man accused of having sex with dead body after breaking into funeral home

    Khurum Shazada, 23, has been charged with sexual penetration of a corpse and trespass at a Central England Co-op funeral parlour in Great Barr, Birmingham

    A man is due to appear in court after allegedly breaking into a funeral home and having sex with a dead body.

    Khurum Shazada is accused of illegally entering the Central England Co-operative undertakers in Great Barr, Birmingham, on Sunday, November 11 and sexually violating a body that was lying in a coffin.

    Police charged him with sexual penetration of a corpse and trespass following the break-in.

    The 23-year-old appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, November 21 and was remanded into custody.

    He gave his address at Kenilworth Road in Aston, Birmingham.

    A spokesperson for West Midlands police said: “An unemployed Birmingham man has been charged with sexual penetration of a corpse and trespass following a break-in at a Co-op funeral parlour in Great Barr on Sunday 11 November.

    “Khurum Shazada, 23, appeared at Birmingham magistrates’ court on Wednesday 21 November and was remanded into custody.”

    Shazada, who is unemployed, is due to appear before Birmingham Crown Court tomorrow to enter a plea.

    Relatives of the desecrated body have been informed of the offence.

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-accused-having-sex-dead-13748181

  35. Never Trumpers Who Accuse Trump of Being a Russian Spy Are Funded by Backer of Russian Spy Site
    Hypocrisy, greed and treason.
    December 18, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    t was the summer of 2016. Trump had won the nomination, but Bill Kristol, the most recognizable figure in the Never Trump camp, was laying out a case against him that rested heavily on Russia.

    “Honest and patriotic Republicans who support Trump,” Kristol urged, should review the evidence of his “many troubling connections with Vladimir Putin’s regime.”

    These days, Kristol is using Defending Democracy Together, a 501c4 dark money organization of “conservatives and Republicans “, to try and primary Trump. Components of DDT include, Republicans Against Putin and an analysis of Russian troll tweets. Beneath the concerns about national security and Russia, Kristol’s organization shares a funding source with a platform for the greatest Russian intel coup.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272219/never-trumpers-who-accuse-trump-being-russian-spy-daniel-greenfield

    • Notice these so-called Republican “hawks” are also MB voices, like Flake and McMullin. They promoted moderate-jihadis fighting Assad in Syria (aka ISIS). Boosted the Iran Deal.

      Some of the worst are moving on in January, but not all. Plugged into the Turk/Qatar + Iran money and money-laundering.
      Hitherto respectable journalists like Max Boot taking money from Omidyar? A disgrace. Boot’s father, Alexander, was a distinguished Refusenik.

      Bizarre that these were supposedly pro-Israel voices. Presumably it took more than a dime for them to turn, more like thirty pieces of silver.

      The only satisfaction is that the Weekly Standard was shut down. Not sold, murdered by its publisher.

      [Forgive the link to CNN. I accessed it via an Israeli blog so my machine wouldn’t get cooties.]
      The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine critical of Trump, to shutter after 23 years https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/media/weekly-standard-end/index.html

  36. Demonstration Of Pensioners In Paris

    Pensioners take part to a protest organized by French retired pensioners union or association in front of the Ministry of Finance in Paris on December 18, 2018, to defend their purchasing power .

  37. europravda- Hungary criticises western media over protests coverage

    In an interview with Euronews, Government Spokesman Zoltan Kovacs suggested western media inflated the scale of the protest against two new laws.

    • europravda -Why are people protesting in Hungary? | Europravda explains

      All you need to know about ongoing demonstrations in Budapest