Reader’s Links for December 19, 2018

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

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

About Eeyore

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

168 Replies to “Reader’s Links for December 19, 2018”

  1. Morocco: Huge blaze engulfs migrant camp in Casablanca, no casualties reported

    A huge fire broke out at a camp sheltering African migrants near Casablanca on Tuesday.

  2. I have nothing to attach other than my thoughts.

    We are living through a political NUCLEAR attack.

    We are not powerless other than to be made feel powerless, but we’re not.
    We are the majority.

    And we must express ourselves by wearing a Yellow Vest. Amazon has them, free shipping. $50.00. Type ”Yellow security vests”.

    A symbol is worth 1,000 words. No words needed. Especially in this election year.

    BTW: Conservative leadership contest results – Maxime Bernier 49.5%, Andrew Scheer 50.5%. All ballots were destroyed within 60 seconds of election results. Think about it.

      • It was kept very quiet until some asked for a recount. And then, we found out. Which tells me the fix was in for a Scheer victory.

        Also, the fix is in to prevent Bernier from participating in the electoral debates. All parties knew Bernier would attract quite a few new voters from all parties. So, they settled the problem by passing a Parliament MP motion that will allow only the top three parties in the televised debates.

        Haven’t you noticed that no party is targeting Bernier? They’ve successfully isolated him from the democratic process.

    • We are living through a political NUCLEAR attack.

      If Antifa had nuclear weapons, Idaho and Montana already would be smoking craters right now. These modern Brownshirts don’t (yet) have access to any unconventional weapons, so good old unprovoked initiation of physical violence will just have to do.

      We are not powerless other than to be made feel powerless, but we’re not.
      .
      Unfortunately (as might be expected), Conservatives experience a poor learning curve when it comes to adapting their well-founded moral doctrine to deal with those for whom unscrupulousness, deceit, and an immediate resort to violence are all regarded as virtues. We have nothing to fear but fear itself or, as Sir Francis Bacon observed: “Nothing is terrible except fear itself.

      And we must express ourselves by wearing a Yellow Vest.

      Too right, Sassy! I’m going shopping in a few minutes and will be wearing my Yellow Vest outdoors all day. Until I hear more from yucki, I’m treating that one outburst of Antisemitism on the A6 as an exception and not the rule.

      That said, I’m hoping the Yellow Vests are purging their ranks of this Neanderthal putrescence and publicly disowning such throwback Vichyesque merde.

  3. ‘We Don’t Want That for Brazil’: Bolsonaro Vows to Exit From UN Migration Pact (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/latam/201812191070810607-brazil-un-migration-pact/

    “Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has pledged that his administration will withdraw the country from the UN Global Compact for Migration and introduce tough immigration rules.

    “Unfortunately, incumbent Foreign Minister [Aloysio Nunes] signed the UN migration pact. I think everyone knows what’s going on with France: living in some places in France has become unbearable… We don’t want that for Brazil. We are not against immigrants, but there will be very strict criteria to enter Brazil. We will cancel the migration pact [for Brazil],” Bolsonaro said in a video address, posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday…”

  4. US Designates Ex-Serbian General for Murder of 3 Albanians After Kosovo War (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/us/201812191070806884-usa-serbia-kosovo-war-goran-radosavljevic/

    “The United States has publicly designated former Serbian police general Goran Radosavljevic for being implicated in the murder of three Albanian-American brothers after the 1999 Kosovo War, the US Department of State said in a press release.

    “The Department is publicly designating Goran Radosavljevic of Serbia … due to his involvement in gross violations of human rights,” the release said on Tuesday.

    “Radsosavljevic was credibly implicated in the 1999 murder of the Bytyqi brothers, three Albanian-American brothers killed in Serbia after the Kosovo War.”

    In addition to Goran Radosavljevic’s designation, the State Department also publicly designated his wife Svetlana and daughter Ana.

    Prior and during NATO’s 1999 military intervention in the then-Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Radosaljevic led a group of counter-terrorism teams that were established to counter the US-supported and equipped Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

    The Serbian War Crime’s prosecutor brought Radosavljevic in connection with the killing of the Bytyqi brothers, who arrived to Kosovo from the United States to fight for the KLA.”

  5. Houthis Accuse Yemeni Govt, Saudi-Led Coalition of Ceasefire Violation – Reports (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201812191070807327-yemen-houthis-saudi-led-coalition-ceasefire-violation/

    “The Houthi movement has accused the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition of shelling the port city of Al Hudaydah in disregard of the ceasefire agreement, the Houthi-controlled media reported on Wednesday.

    According to Al Masirah broadcaster, the government forces and the coalition shelled the east of the Hudaydah airport and the east of the Yemen Mobile station. Al-Tuheita district of the city was also reportedly hit by a missile attack.

    The ceasefire in Al Hudaydah officially came into force at midnight on Tuesday. Minutes after the truce took effect, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya broadcaster reported that the Houthis started shelling the government forces.

    Yemen has been ravaged by almost four years of war between the internationally backed government, supported by the Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthi rebels.

    The one-week UN-mediated talks on Yemen crisis settlement finished on Thursday. The sides agreed on a governorate-wide ceasefire and withdrawal of forces from Al Hudaydah, the establishment of a UN-chaired committee to monitor the process, a prisoner exchange, and humanitarian corridors to the city of Taiz.”

  6. US State Department Calls on Gunmen to Surrender Libya’s Sharara Oil Region (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201812191070807636-usa-state-department-libya-sharara-oil-region/

    “The United States calls for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of armed elements from the Sharara oil field region in Libya, US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said in a press release.

    “The United States continues to monitor the situation at the Sharara oil field and echoes the UN Support Mission for Libya’s call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of armed elements in the area which is crucial to allow oil production for the benefit of all Libyans to resume,” Palladino said on Tuesday.

    The US government called on all parties to resolve issues through constructive dialogue and peaceful means in the spirit of compromise, rather than through threats of violence, Palladino said.

    Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has declared force majeure after a group of local protesters “occupied” the country’s largest oil field Sharara and forced production to shut down, the company said in a statement on Monday.

    According to media reports, the protesters belonging to the Fezzan Anger Movement demand that better living conditions be provided in the country’s impoverished southwestern region of Fezzan, where the oil field is situated.”

    • US State Department Calls on Gunmen to Surrender Libya’s Sharara Oil Region

      Or else what? All America needs right now is another battlefront.

      As it is, Russia and Red China both are getting a little too frisky for comfort.

      Mucking about in Libya is all we need added to our military’s dance card.

  7. Syria Militants Create Hotbeds of Terror in Africa – Russian Security Council (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/africa/201812191070808402-syria-africa-terrorism-relocation/

    “Some militant groups, after their defeat in Syria and Iraq, have been relocating to Africa, where they create large enclaves of the Daesh terrorist group, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, Alexander Venediktov, the Russian Security Council secretary’s assistant, told Sputnik.

    “Let’s take the problem of terrorism, which today is acute for African countries. After the defeat in Syria and Iraq, some militants have been on their way to the Sahel and further southward. As a result, bandit enclaves under the banners of ISIS [Daesh], al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to IS [Daesh] militants, are emerging on the vast territories,” Venediktov said…”

  8. Rape Gang Found Guilty of Sexually Abusing Oxford School Girl (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/18/rape-gang-found-guilty-abusing-oxford-school-girl/

    “Three men have been found guilty of historic sexual offences against an Oxford school girl who was groomed and raped from the age of 14.

    Anjum Dogar, 36, and brothers Mohammed Karrar, 44, and Bassam Karrar, 39, were found guilty by unanimous verdict by a jury at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday of ten charges including indecent assault, conspiracy to rape, and rape, reports the Oxford Mail.

    All three men were already in prison after being convicted in 2013 of similar crimes — being described as part of a “violent” sex grooming gang by the BBC — having abused six vulnerable Oxford girls over an eight-year period.

    The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was abused by the three men between 2002 and 2005 when she was aged 14 to 16.

    Now in her thirties, the rape survivor told jurors she was taken to different locations around the famous university city to be plied with drugs and alcohol, raped, and forced to perform sex acts on groups of men at parties…”

  9. Italy’s Migrant Crackdown: Expulsions up, Squatter Camps Cleared (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/18/italy-migrant-expulsions-camps-cleared/

    “After just six months in charge of Italy’s Interior Ministry, the country’s populist deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has driven migrant deportations up 28 percent, new figures show.

    The number of illegal migrants who were put on aeroplanes and sent home stood at 2,833 between January 1st and May 31st this year prior to Salvini’s entering the Viminale. Since then, it has risen to 3,626 for the period between June 1st and December 9th.

    After sending sea arrival numbers down by 65 per cent compared to the previous year with his tough stance on NGO boats ferrying migrants across the Mediterranean Sea, the League (Lega) leader promised in September that upping deportation numbers was next on the government’s to-do list.

    Hailing the interior ministry figures, Salvini told a press conference his “aim is to ensure that immigration to Italy is regular and regulated”, adding that migrant drowning deaths in Italian waters have plummeted from 216 in 2017 to just 23 this year due to the decline in attempted crossings.

    On Monday, local media reported that authorities in Turin have begun evicting squatters from the city’s former Olympic Village, which had been illegally occupied by a figure of around 1,000 predominantly sub-Saharan African individuals, according to estimates earlier this year.

    League politicians had long sounded the alarm on the situation at the site, which has acted as a migrant hub for several years, with MEP Mario Borghezio demanding its clearance in 2016 after it emerged that three African men from the site had kidnapped, held for 30 hours, and repeatedly raped a girl with mental disabilities.

    Breitbart London previously reported how occupants of the former Olympic Village terrorised locals when they took to the streets to protest against “racist” Italian taxpayers’ failure to provide illegal immigrants with a “decent life”.

    The riots in question saw around 300 migrants head into Turin to block traffic, overturn garbage bins, and hurl projectiles and threats at passers-by, with one protester hailing the Bataclan massacre in France in which 89 people were brutally murdered by Islamists as the “revenge of the excluded”.”

  10. Germany Under Fire for Funding Palestinian Textbooks Promoting Terrorism (breitbart, Dec 18, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2018/12/18/german-funding-of-palestinian-textbooks-praising-terror-against-israel-prompts-outcry/

    “TEL AVIV – Germany has come under fire for funding Palestinian Authority textbooks that glorify violence and incite hatred towards Jews and Israelis as well as omit any mention of the existence of Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported.

    Frank Müller-Rosentritt, a German member of the federal parliament for the Free Democratic Party, on Monday demanded Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration explain why taxpayer monies are being used to fund books that include praise for the Black September group’s murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the report said.

    Müller-Rosentritt’s call came in response to an article in the German Bild daily that exposed German funding of the Palestinian Authority’s education department.

    Writing on his Twitter feed, the MP said: “Unbelievable, children should receive an education for a better future, not be educated for hate and violence? Federal government must provide an explanation. German tax money should not flow into terror propaganda.”

    Citing an investigation by education monitoring group Impact-se, the Bild report charged Palestinian textbooks as being full of instances in which terrorism is praised.

    The Black September attack and Palestinian airplane hijackings are presented to schoolchildren as “success” stories that should be emulated, the report said. The murders of the Israeli athletes are only described as a “strike against Zionist interests abroad,” the report outlined.

    The textbooks described female terrorist Dalal Mughrabi as a heroine and martyr. Mughrabi was behind Israel’s most lethal terror tragedy with the 1978 hijacking of a bus that claimed the lives of 38 Israelis, including 13 children. Several PA schools and events have been named after.

    One instance said that Israel’s existence on a map of the region was left out altogether.

    Germany has said it would launch “an independent investigation of Palestinian school books” with results expected in early 2019.”

    • Germany Under Fire for Funding Palestinian Textbooks Promoting Terrorism

      Any students of WWII history, or travelers to Germany, will know how the nation’s unofficial motto is, alles in Ordnung (literally, “nothing amiss”). The Nuremberg Trials concretely proved this when meticulous Nazi documentation was used to convict so many of Hitler’s cronies.

      NOTE: More than a few times, people have described my penmanship—left-handed printing (you southpaws know why)—as “disgustingly neat”. Some individuals have looked at my hand-drawn drafting and asked what sort of computer printed it out.

      Imagine my barely contained jealousy upon discovering that a German colleague I worked with had perfect (and I do mean perfect) Copperplate writing. We are talking draftsman quality. This chap’s handwriting could have been used, without ready detection, in a font catalog. Yes, it was that precise.

      When it became clear to my supervisor in the R&D lab that I was less-than-enthused over not being given any credit for helping to discover an angular, crystalline-metal stacking bias related to the longitudinally deposited magnetic disc coatings we were investigating, he sought to punish me by assigning another department’s field service engineer to conduct my next round of assigned experiments.

      This marginally competent engineer was fired two weeks later. Imagine my overwhelming sense of schadenfreude upon finding out that all two weeks worth of this galah’s process development work—which consumed many thousands of dollars in machine operating time and specialty target materials (e.g., CoNi or Cobalt Nickel alloy)—had been recorded in handwriting that was so totally illegible to where no one in the entire company could decipher his scrawl.

      From then on, it became a motto of mine that, “If you can’t read my writing, I didn’t do the work”. Even today, it’s still open to debate regarding whether or not, over that entire two week period, my boss ever once examined this poor bastard’s unreadable laboratory notebook (clearly he didn’t).

      So—whenever I’m feeling even slightly smug about my own brand of crayon-in-fist scribbling—all I do is think back to Joakim’s painfully neat hand and immediately get over myself. Curiously, after ruining employee morale and squandering a major chunk of the lab’s monthly budget, for naught, this conniving lab stupidvisor trundled off to work for one of our clients and I got a new manager—someone who put my name on every paper our department published thereafter. ——————–

      And so, having been to (and through) Germany a handful of times, I can only confirm that the German fetish for orderliness borders on behavior more often associated with sufferers of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).

      As a consequence, it is virtually impossible to believe how the whole chain of German command that financed this genocidal “Palestinian” filth somehow neglected to vet it, much less remain unaware of the textbook’s obscene Antisemitic merde.

  11. Most Syrian territories liberated from terrorists (mehrnews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://en.mehrnews.com/news/140661/Most-Syrian-territories-liberated-from-terrorists

    “Russian President Vladimir Putin said that most of the Syrian territories have been liberated from terrorists, but there are still pockets of them that must be eliminated.

    In a speech on Tuesday at the Russian Defense Ministry, Putin said that Russia is determined to continue the war against terrorism and to provide all kinds of support to Syria in this regard.

    Shoygu: Main part of Russian forces participating in fighting terrorism in Syria has withdrawn

    Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu announced the completion of the withdrawal of the main part of the Russian forces that had been participating in fighting terrorism in Syria.

    During a meeting at the Ministry attended by President Putin, Shoygu said that Moscow finished the process of reducing its military presence in Syria to the level needed to carry out operations now that the Syrian Arab Army established control over the majority of Syrian territory.

    The Minister said the forces withdrawn do not belong to the Hmeimim and Tartous bases, and that the Russian Aerospace Forces reduced operations in Syria from around 100-120 sorties per day to 2-4 operations per week, most of them are reconnaissance operations for gathering intelligence.”

  12. Children as young as 10 fight, kill and die in Yemen’s war (abcnews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/children-young-10-fight-kill-die-yemens-war-59901775

    “The number etched on the bracelet around Mohammed’s wrist gave the 13-year-old soldier comfort as missiles fired from enemy warplanes shook the earth beneath him.

    For two years Mohammed fought with Yemen’s Houthi rebels against a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States. He says he tortured and killed people and didn’t care whether he lived or died.

    But if he died, the bracelet would guarantee his body made it home.

    “When I become a martyr, they enter my number in the computer, retrieve my picture and my name, then print them with the name ‘Martyr’ underneath,” Mohammed said. It would be pasted to the lid of his coffin for return to his family.

    Mohammed was among 18 former child soldiers interviewed by The Associated Press who described the Houthis’ unrelenting efficiency when it comes to the recruitment, deployment and even battlefield deaths of boys as young as 10.

    While both sides in the four-year civil war have sent children into combat in violation of international human rights conventions, the Houthis are believed to have recruited many more than the coalition — often forcibly.

    The Houthis have inducted 18,000 child soldiers into their rebel army since the beginning of the war in 2014, a senior Houthi military official acknowledged to the AP. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information.

    That figure is higher than any number previously reported. The United Nations was able to verify 2,721 children recruited to fight for all sides in the conflict, the large majority for the Houthis, but officials say that count is likely low, because many families will not speak about the issue out of fear of reprisals from Houthi militiamen.

    The Houthis say officially that they don’t recruit children and send away those who try to enlist.

    Some of the children told the AP they joined the rebels willingly, mainly because of promises of money or the chance to carry a weapon. But others described being forced into the service of the Houthis — abducted from schools or homes or coerced into joining in exchange for a family member’s release from detention.

    Many can be seen manning checkpoints along main roads across northern and western Yemen, AK-47s dangling from their narrow shoulders. Others are sent to the front lines as foot soldiers.

    A 13-year-old named Riyadh said half of the fighters he served with on the front lines in Yemen’s mountainous Sirwah district were children. Rebel officers ordered them to push forward during battles, even as coalition jets zoomed overhead, he said.

    He said he pleaded with his commander to let the young fighters take cover during airstrikes: “Sir, the planes are bombing.”

    The reply, he said, was always: “Followers of God, you must attack!”

    An unknown number of child soldiers have been sent home in coffins…”

    • Children as young as 10 fight, kill and die in Yemen’s war

      Cool beans! Get these (already) semi-psychotic prepubescents down to room temperature long before there’s the slightest chance that they might spawn.

      After all, by the time they’re given a gun, they’ve already had plenty of sex … if only on the receiving “end” of things. Small wonder they are happy to die if it means that, for once, they get to do the penetrating.

      Here’s the deal. When Muslims abandon their “subjugate or (preferably) kill all Infidels” shtick, maybe then I will promise to try and find some way of squeezing out a tear over Muslim ten year-olds being turned into Islamic cannon fodder.

      Until that highly improbable outcome happens, I’ll just keep Islam on my personal Christmas List™ and continue toasting inspirational headlines like these.

    • Militants Engaged in Chemical Attacks Are Under Western Patronage – Sec. Council

      This lede barely passes the “So what?” test. Recall how the Afghani Taliban and bin Laden were under similar “Western Patronage” prior to the 9-11 atrocity.

      The only meaningful takeaway from this is that, with too-predictable universality, Muslims are unquestionably the most thankless and ungrateful shites in the world.

      Great Gamesters would be idiotic to think that any weapons placed in the ummah’s covetous hands will, somehow, not be used against them as well in the near future. Believing that jihadist vermin will abruptly begin to demonstrate an iota of respect for the societal mores of their Infidel patrons—oh, let’s say; by avoiding the use of chemical weapons or gang raping whatever captives and POWs are on hand—is beyond all rational hope. Such deluded behavior epitomizes the very worst sort of Magical Thinking™.

  13. Swedish PM Nominee Urges Pupils to Learn Arabic for ‘Long-Term Success’ (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812191070815034-sweden-arabic-success/

    “Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson has compared the situation in Sweden’s third-largest city, Malmö, to a “gangster movie”, and called mastering languages such as Arabic and Chinese an “exciting long-term challenge”.

    A lengthy Christmas speech held by Moderate Party leader and prominent opposition figure Ulf Kristersson at Haymarket Hotel in Stockholm focused on problems and challenges facing today’s Sweden, such as a weakening economy, growing healthcare queues and organised crime.

    Among other things, he slammed the recent record wave of deadly shootings and bombings that engulfed the once-peaceful Scandinavian country.

    “It’s like a scene from a gangster movie, but it’s reality in the country’s third largest city”, Kristersson said about Malmö, where he spent his childhood. “44 dead in shootings this year alone is no challenge, it’s a big problem”, the Moderate leader said.

    At the same time, Kristersson admitted “exciting long-term challenges” to deal with in the future.

    “Such as Sweden’s competitiveness in the increasingly globalised economy, how the labour market is being affected by digitisation and artificial intelligence, such as Swedish students need to master not only English, school-level French and school-level German, but also Arabic and Chinese”, Kristersson said, emphasising that this is crucial for Sweden’s long-term success. In 2018, Arabic became Sweden’s largest minority language, edging out Finnish, which had occupied the position for several hundred years.”

    • Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson has compared the situation in Sweden’s third-largest city, Malmö, to a “gangster movie”, and called mastering languages such as Arabic and Chinese an “exciting long-term challenge”.

      On the bright side of things, at least Kristersson knows (and openly admits) exactly who his overlords are.

  14. ISIL kills 700 prisoners in east Syria: Syrian Observatory (mehrnews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://en.mehrnews.com/news/140680/ISIL-kills-700-prisoners-in-east-Syria-Syrian-Observatory

    “The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that the ISIL terrorists had executed nearly 700 prisoners in nearly two months in eastern Syria.

    The UK-based war monitoring group said the prisoners were among 1,350 civilians and fighters that ISIL had been holding in territory near the Iraqi border, Reuters reported.

    The Syrian forces have battled ISIL there for several months; while, reportedly, a big number of the terrorists still remain holed up in the enclave.”

  15. Fulani herdsmen more threatening to Nigerian Christians than Boko Haram (premierchristianradio, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://www.premierchristianradio.com/News/World/Fulani-herdsmen-more-threatening-to-Nigerian-Christians-than-Boko-Haram

    “A Nigerian Bishop has warned that authorities aren’t doing enough to prevent attacks on Christians in the country.

    Bishop William Amove Avenya of Gboko Diocese, in Benue state, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: “The Fulani have claimed far more victims during 2018 than Boko Haram, but no one is doing anything about it.

    “Fulani tribesmen armed to the teeth, are murdering pregnant women and children, and destroying our smallholdings.”

    According to the 2018 Global Terrorism Index, as many as 1,700 deaths have been attributed to Fulani-militia attacks carried out between January and September 2018.

    Bishop William also accused EU politicians he had met during a meeting in Brussels as being “poorly informed” about the violence in the West African nation.

    “This is a time bomb that threatens to ignite the whole region,” he added.

    Violence between Christian farming communities and Muslim Fulani herdsmen in the middle belt areas of Nigeria has increased in recent years.

    Earlier this year the Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), Bosun Emmanuel, accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration of “openly pursuing an anti-Christian agenda”.

    He also claimed that “Christianity is on the brink of extinction in Nigeria”.

    Bishop William appealed to the international community “not to wait for a genocide to happen before intervening”.”

  16. Syrian Army foils terrorists’ attempts to attack military posts in Hama (mehrnews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://en.mehrnews.com/news/140682/Syrian-Army-foils-terrorists-attempts-to-attack-military-posts

    “A Syrian Arab army unit foiled attempts by terrorist groups to attack military posts positioned in the surroundings of al-Masasneh town in Hama northern countryside.

    SANA’s reporter in Hama said that army units engaged in violent clashes with terrorist groups affiliated to the so-called “al-Ezza Brigades” which are positioned in al-Latamina town after they tried to attack military posts in the surroundings of al-Masasneh town in the eastern countryside of Mharda area.

    The reporter added that the terrorist attacks were foiled after killing many members of the terrorist groups and forcing the rest to flee towards al-Latamina which is considered as one of the biggest gatherings of foreign mercenaries in Hama northern countryside.”

      • “Sidney Powell: It’s Not A Crime To Speak To Russians”
        JohnFredericksShow – Published on December 10, 2018

        • “Klayman Excoriates Flynn’s Lawyers for Intentional Malpractice! Flynn Thrown Under Bus by Law Firm!”
          Freedom Watch – December 18, 2018

          • When Judge Sullivan asked Flynn if he was satisfied with his lawyers, and Flynn answered YES, I understood there and then that Flynn isn’t the brightest star in the sky.

            And now we know he hired a high profile Democrat law firm to defend his interests.

  17. Swedish Cities Lose Track of Returning ISIS Fighters (breitbart, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/19/swedish-municipalities-revealed-lost-track-returning-isis-fighters/

    “Half of Sweden’s 300 Islamic State fighters have returned from the Middle East, but a survey has revealed several municipalities have little idea who among their residents are former fighters.

    The survey found that out of the municipalities believed to be the homes of the 150 returnees, the local authorities could only identify 16 adults and ten children, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reports.

    The cities and municipalities of Malmö, Borås Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Örebro saw the most fighters leave to fight with the terror group.

    Estimates state that in Gothenburg and Västra Götaland, the number of returnees is somewhere in the dozens, but Gothenburg could only name ten adults and eight minors that they were aware of.

    Stockholm, which identified one individual who turned out to live in another municipality, is thought to have 35 to 40.

    The heavily migrant populated city of Malmö is thought to have at least 15 returnees, although the city did not answer the survey.

    Terrorist researcher Magnus Ranstorp said the survey showed there was a “deep culture of silence” in areas such as those in Stockholm where some locals are unwilling to speak to police and other authorities about returning fighters.

    Ranstorp slammed the government saying the fighters presented a very real security risk and the government needed to do more to act and prosecute fighters if they engaged in terrorism overseas.

    “They return, and their threshold of violence is totally different. This means that they can be extremely dangerous,” he said.

    The terror expert has been vocal in the past about his criticism of the way the government has handled the issue of returning fighters.

    In 2017, he came out against suggestions that the country should reintegrate returning fighters, saying “This is how ill-prepared we are to deal with returnees” in response to an interview with then-Swedish Minister for Culture and Democracy Alice Bah Kuhnke.

    He also came out against a court ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) earlier this year that prevented Sweden from deporting a migrant linked to terrorist activities.”

    • Facepalm!

      Apart from the danger to Sweden, the country is part of the Schengen area, so these fighters can travel around the european continent, endangering the whole EU.

      Good job.

  18. Illegal Migrants Arrested After Brutal Robbery of Elderly Italian Woman (breitbart, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/19/egyptian-migrants-arrested-brutal-robbery-italian-pensioner/

    “Two illegal migrants were arrested over the weekend in Rome after they were caught by police beating and attempting to rob a woman in her 60s in the vicinity of Termini train station.

    The Egyptian migrants approached the woman, who was walking with another woman on the Via Giolitti road, on Sunday afternoon on the south-west side of the train station which serves as the largest in the city, Il Giornale reports.

    When one of the women noticed the migrants were attempting to steal her wallet from within her purse, she let out a scream which initially startled the robbers. Immediately after the scream, one of the migrants grabbed the woman and violently threw her to the ground giving her serious injuries, according to police.

    Officers in the area also heard the scream and proceeded to block the two migrants, aged 20 and 21, from escaping. Investigators say that as a result of the attack the victim had her upper arm broken and she was taken to a hospital where she is believed to scheduled for surgery in the following few days.

    Termini train station has become a hub of migrant and Roma Gypsy crime over the last several years, with robberies and drug dealing common in the area and police officers also being attacked, as was the case last month when an officer was forced to discharge his weapon after being surrounded by a gang of Roma following an attempted robbery.

    Other areas of Rome have also become synonymous with illegal drugs, like the San Lorenzo area where Italian teen Desirée Mariottini was found dead.

    Soon after the discovery of the 16-year-old’s body, three migrants were arrested and it was alleged that they had sexually abused the young girl for hours and had purposely given her a large amount of drugs to kill her.”

  19. Jammu & Kashmir: Terror-Infested Indian State Set to Go Under President’s Rule (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/asia/201812191070822191-jammu-kashmir-under-president-rule/

    “The central government has recommended the imposition of president’s rule in the northernmost Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir at the behest of a report submitted by the state governor.

    New Delhi (Sputnik) — The northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is set to go under the president’s rule from Thursday as the six-month governor’s rule will expire on Wednesday. The state’s constitution stipulates that six months of governor’s rule is mandatory before the imposition of president’s rule is possible.

    It has been 22 years since the state last went under the president’s rule.

    Indian President Ram Nath Kovind will shortly issue a proclamation declaring that the “Powers of the legislature in the state shall be exercisable by or under the authority of Parliament.”

    Earlier, a communication from Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s office was sent to the central government, before being forwarded to the union cabinet for approval.

    The state of Jammu and Kashmir plunged into a political crisis in June when the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government was reduced to a minority after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew their support.

    Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik had earlier dissolved the 87-member State Assembly on November 21 even though the other two major political parties, the PDP and the National Conference, had staked claims to form a government in the state. Furthermore, the People’s Conference Party also staked its claim to form a government with the support of the BJP and other members of the House.

    The governor dissolved the State Assembly due to difficulties in forming a stable government, as parties proposing to jointly form the new government are from irreconcilable political ideologies, and, all the while, the state is facing an unstable security situation.”

  20. US Military Preparing for Full Withdrawal From Northeastern Syria – Reports (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/us/201812191070826973-us-military-syria/

    “WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Earlier on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US military was preparing to withdraw all of its forces from northeastern Syria.

    US President Donald announced in a Twitter statement that the Daesh* terrorist group has been defeated in Syria, adding that this was the only reason for the United States to be in the Middle Eastern country during his presidency.

    Donald J. Trump
    ?
    @realDonaldTrump
    We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.

    However, later in the day, US Defense Department spokesperson Robert Manning told Sputnik that the US is continuing to work with its partners in Syria amid reports that President Donald Trump’s administration has decided to pull US troops out of the Middle Eastern country.

    “At this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region,” Manning noted.

    Trump’s announcement came shortly after The Wall Street Journal reports that cited people familiar with the matter stating that US officials have started telling partners in northeastern Syria about the plans to immediately pull all American forces out of the area.

    Last week, Department of Defence spokesperson Col. Rob Manning said that the US has finalised the establishment of observation posts in northeast Syria and will be coordinating with Turkey its security efforts in the border region.

    The US-led coalition and its majority-Kurd Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) allies have ramped up a campaign against the remnants of Daesh holed up in several towns east of the Euphrates River.
    The Syrian government has repeatedly accused the coalition of using white phosphorus and cluster bombs in the region, and of causing heavy civilian casualties in built-up areas. The coalition has confirmed carrying out a heavy campaign of airstrikes in the area, including in the city of Hajin, but has denied that the strikes are causing mass civilian casualties, and adamantly denied using banned white phosphorus and cluster munitions.

    Since early November, Sputnik has reported on the deaths of nearly 200 civilians in coalition strikes in Hajin and al-Shaafa.”

  21. At Least 3 Hospitalised After Stabbing at Health Facility in London – Reports (sputniknews, Dec 19, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812191070824709-stabbing-health-london/

    “At least three people were hospitalised following a stabbing attack at a health centre in East London, Sky News reported on Wednesday.

    A man has been arrested following a machete attack that has left at least three injured, British media reported on Wednesday.

    The incident reportedly took place at a health facility near Roman Road in Tower Hamlets at about 11:00 GMT.

    According to police, the attack is not believed to be terror-related.

    Further details are yet to be released.”

  22. Is Turkey Aiming To Head A Global Islamic Union Governed By Sharia

    Turkey appears to be accelerating its endeavor to establish an Ottoman-style Islamic government encompassing several Muslim nations. One such effort was apparent in early November at the second “International Islamic Union Congress,” in Istanbul. The conference is sponsored mainly by the Strategic Research Center for Defenders of Justice (ASSAM), headed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s chief military advisor, Adnan Tanr?verdi, a retired Islamist lieutenant general.

    Other organizers of the congress — the next one of which is to be held in December 2019 — include the Association of Justice Defenders (ASDER), Istanbul’s Üsküdar University (ÜÜ), the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World (UNIW), the International Muslim Scholars Association (UMAD) and the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS).

    The self-described aim of the congress is “to make determinations on an academic and political ground with regard to current problems in world politics, particularly in Islamic world geography, and to offer solutions to decision-makers.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-18/turkey-aiming-head-global-islamic-union-governed-sharia

  23. China warns US against ‘weaponising’ space

    China said Wednesday it opposed the “weaponisation” of space as it criticised US President Donald Trump’s orders to create a new command centre for controlling military space operations.

    “China has consistently proposed the peaceful usage of space, and opposes the weaponisation of space and a space arms race,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a press briefing.

    “We oppose even further turning space into the new battleground,” she added.

    On Tuesday, Trump ordered the creation of “Space Command”, a new organisational structure within the Pentagon that will have overall control of military space operations.

    SpaceCom, as it will inevitably come to be known, will be on equal footing with other US military commands, such as Central Command in the Middle East or Indo-Pacific Command in Asia, and will require a new headquarters as well as a commander and deputy commander who will need Senate approval.

    It is not the first military space entity proposed by the US president this year.

    https://www.france24.com/en/20181219-china-warns-us-against-weaponising-space

    Richard: Russia and China have already put weapons in space, but they don’t want us to respond.

  24. Third Canadian citizen has been detained in China, Global Affairs Canada confirms
    The office did not suggest the arrest was linked to the arrest of Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou

    OTTAWA ? Global Affairs Canada confirmed on Tuesday that a third Canadian citizen has been detained by Chinese authorities, but did not connect the incident to Canada’s high-profile arrest last month of a Chinese tech executive.

    A spokesperson with Global Affairs said it was “aware of a Canadian citizen” who has been detained, but did not provide further details, citing the Privacy Act.

    The office did not suggest the arrest was linked to the arrest of Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on Dec. 1, who was held by Canadian authorities at the request of U.S. officials.

    Since the arrest two Canadians ? Calgary-born entrepreneur Michael Spavor and former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig ? have been held by Chinese authorities.

    https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/third-canadian-citizen-has-been-detained-in-china-global-affairs-canada-confirms

  25. Flynn sentencing postponed; outburst from the judge; Sudden Turkey Syndrome
    By J.E. Dyer December 19, 2018

    Hardly anyone seems confident in what to say about the events in Judge Emmet Sullivan’s court on Tuesday. The editors of the Wall Street Journal used my word to describe them: bizarre. The outbursts from Judge Sullivan seemed weirdly out of character for someone who has been rigorously professional and developed a strong reputation for integrity.

    Some things we know for sure: Sullivan did not mean to say Michael Flynn was guilty of being the agent of a foreign government while he was working in the White House (an allegation for which there is no basis, and which has never been made by Mueller or the Department of Justice). Sullivan clarified that by apologizing later and asserting flat out that he didn’t mean to say it.

    Sullivan asked Flynn several times if Flynn wanted to withdraw his guilty plea. Flynn said no. Sullivan said he had concerns about some of the actions of the FBI and the prosecution. Sullivan postponed sentencing until March, so Flynn will have another 90 days to wait. Sullivan also noticed, apparently for the first time, that Flynn has not been under standard travel restrictions. So the judge imposed the standard travel restrictions, and asked Flynn to surrender his passport.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/19/flynn-sentencing-postponed-outburst-from-the-judge-sudden-turkey-syndrome/

  26. Financial Times selects George Soros as its ‘Person of the Year’

    The Financial Times has named George Soros as its Person of the Year for 2018, citing the prominent liberal activist and billionaire as a “standard bearer of liberal democracy and open society.”

    “The Financial Times’s choice of Person of the Year is usually a reflection of their achievements,” the editorial board of the London-based newspaper wrote of its choice. “In the case of Mr. Soros this year, his selection is also about the values he represents.”

    FT goes on to say that Soros’s ideas are “under siege from all sides” including from “Vladimir Putin’s Russia to Donald Trump’s America” while attracting “the wrath of authoritarian regimes.”

    “For more than three decades, Mr. Soros has used philanthropy to battle against authoritarianism, racism and intolerance,” the editorial continues. “Through his long commitment to openness, media freedom and human rights, he has attracted the wrath of authoritarian regimes and, increasingly, the national populists who continue to gain ground, particularly in Europe.”

    Soros is a frequent target of conservatives, including President Trump.

    In October, Trump charged that Soros paid activists to disrupt Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

    The president noted one incident in particular when a woman confronted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) during the confirmation process.

    “The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers,” Trump tweeted Oct. 5.

    Soros says the criticism means he “must be doing something right.”

    “I’m blamed for everything, including being the anti-Christ,” Soros, 88, told the Financial Times. “I wish I didn’t have so many enemies, but I take it as an indication that I must be doing something right.”[…]

    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/422024-financial-times-selects-george-soros-as-its-person-of-the-year

    =================================================

    FT Person of the Year: George Soros

    The philanthropist has become a standard bearer for liberal democracy, an idea under siege from populists

    […]

    https://www.ft.com/content/2bd12012-01e4-11e9-9d01-cd4d49afbbe3

    • FINANCIAL TIMES – Brexit: how to hold a second referendum

      FT economics editor Chris Giles explains his almost foolproof method for finding the will of the people in a vote between ‘no deal’, Theresa May’s deal, and Remain.

  27. Dem senator to GOP aide who accused him of abusing Senate-issued parking pass: ‘Kill yourself’
    By Ben Bowles December 19, 2018

    For a party that believes itself to exemplify civility, the Democrats certainly harbor a fondness for wishing people dead — especially those who belong to the other major party. In August, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) was overheard saying at, of all things, a prayer breakfast:

    The big orange president. … He’s going to come down here and he is going to endorse Marsha Blackburn, because Marsha Blackburn, if he says, ‘Jump off the Harahan Bridge,’ she’ll jump off the Harahan Bridge. I wish he’d say that.

    Now the torch has been passed to New York State Sen. Kevin Parker who, you also may recall, proposed that individuals looking to buy a gun be required to submit their social media profiles and three years’ worth of search history.

    Despite his conspicuous dislike of violence, Parker responded to a GOP aide who calmly and rightly accused him of abusing his senatorial parking privileges by inviting her to kill herself. Here, embedded in another tweet, is Parker’s over-the-top reaction, which he promptly deleted.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/19/dem-senator-to-gop-aide-who-accused-him-of-senate-issue-parking-pass-kill-yourself/

  28. Antifa leader who relied on anonymity to push radical, violent communist agenda unmasked
    By Daily Caller News Foundation December 19, 2018

    [Ed. – The subject of this story is being identified because he’s pushed radical rhetoric and has advocated for politically-motivated violence from behind a mask. The Daily Caller News Foundation does not and will not publish truly private information such as home addresses.]

    Smash Racism DC organizer Jose Martin, also known as “Chepe,” is a radical communist and Antifa leader operating in the U.S. He advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and for the murder of the rich and claims to have international involvement in left-wing movements.

    Smash Racism DC is the Antifa group that protested in front of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s house and berated Sen. Ted Cruz at a restaurant until he and his wife were forced to leave. It’s only one of the Antifa leader’s radical left-wing projects.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/19/antifa-leader-who-relied-on-anonymity-to-push-radical-violent-communist-agenda-unmasked/

  29. Turkey: Turkish military convoy seen moving near Syrian border

    A convoy of Turkish military trucks passed by the town of Islahiye on Wednesday, in the vicinity of the Syrian border.

    The convoy follows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement, made on December 12, that a new operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) east of the Euphrates would be launched within the next “few days.”

    Erdogan claims the YPG threatens Turkish national security.

  30. europravda – Verhofstadt calls on Facebook to remove ‘false video’ after Euronews debunk

    The MEP wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling on the platform to remove a video sponsored by the Hungarian government.

    • Journeyman Pictures -NOV 2018 – Border Fences & Academic Suppression: Inside Orbán’s Hungary

      Hungary: Europe’s Right Wing Rebels: Since far-right Viktor Orban gained power, Hungary has taken an uncompromising stance against migration, media and academic freedom, causing alarm across Europe and beyond.

      “Islam and Christianity are not going to integrate because they are different”, says government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs, justifying the ruling party’s intolerance of immigrants. Alleged human rights abuses and the suppression of free speech have sparked outrage amongst thousands of Hungarians.

      + comments on the YT page

  31. Robert Spencer got mentioned on Tucker Carlson!!!

    OK, he got mentioned on MSNBC first, but then he got on Tucker Carlson!

    He is first mentioned somewhere between the 8 and 9 minute mark, then at the end of that specific segment.

  32. German cabinet approves immigration laws to ease worker shortage
    19 Dec 2018 10:35PM
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    BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet passed new immigration laws on Wednesday to make it easier for lower-skilled foreigners to seek work in Germany and offer rejected asylum seekers who can’t be deported a path to residency.

    The laws are risky for Merkel’s conservatives and their Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners, who have been losing voters to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) over her 2015 decision to welcome almost 1 million refugees.

    Approval of the laws shows a willingness to risk political fallout from liberalising immigration rules in order to ease a labour shortage that companies say could hurt future growth.

    The new rules are designed to allow workers from outside the European Union with lower qualifications to search for work in Germany for a period of six months, if they have the means to fund their stay and have knowledge of the German language.

    https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/german-cabinet-approves-immigration-laws-to-ease-worker-shortage-11047084

    • Net migration of 400,000 people per year needed ”

      With its immigration law, the federal government wants to expand the legal immigration of unskilled non-EU citizens. The Council of Experts on Migration supports this – although there is no shortage of such workers in this country.
      How strongly should Germany facilitate the immigration of non-European migrant workers with and without training? The Black-Red coalition is currently discussing this key aspect of its planned immigration law – and is receiving support from the German Council of German Foundations for Migration (SVR) for its project. This is an influential expert panel with its own research area, which advises the policy on migration and integration issues. It is funded by Volkswagen, Mercator, Bertelsmann, Bosch and other major foundations.

      Although Germany has significantly liberalized its “immigration law provisions in the field of employment and education migration in the last ten years,” says a study by the SVR, however so far, academics and trained profesionals profited from the liberalization. Legal immigration opportunities for non-EU foreigners without graduating in Germany, however, are scarce, write the migration researchers in the study published on Friday.  In 2017, 41,000 non-EU foreigners entered Germany through a residence permit for training purposes – mainly university studies, but also vocational training, internships and further education. Another 48,000 would have done so for employment purposes. Among them were 20,000 skilled workers (persons with vocational training), 8000 jobseekers, 2000 with a “Blue Card EU” for academics and highly qualified workers – and finally 18.000 unskilled migrant workers….

      According to the SVR study,” according to long-term labor force predictions in the area of ??low to medium-skilled workers” Germany “does not steer towards general bottlenecks”; on the contrary, as a result of digitization and automation, jobs in this area would disappear in the coming years. Nonetheless, the scientists recommend that labor immigration should be permitted to more than low-skilled non-EU citizens, in addition to the legal immigration of unskilled EU citizens and Balkan residents, which is already possible today – as envisaged by the Federal Government’s Immigration Act.

      The rationale of the researchers: A comprehensive policy must not only reconcile labor market policy but also development, regulatory and foreign policy interests. Thus, there is the hope that more legal migration routes will relieve the asylum system. The countries of origin could benefit from remittances from the migrants working here. In addition, more legal migration options could encourage other countries’ willingness to cooperate, for example in withdrawing rejected asylum seekers.

      The German labor market is still dependent on trained immigrants, the researchers write: in 2017, just over two-thirds of the total of 1.2 million unfilled vacancies would require a vocational qualification.By contrast, only about one-fifth of vacant positions required no professional or academic degree. Nearly half of the almost 2.5 million registered unemployed in 2017 did not have a vocational qualification. For example, in the nursing sector, the supply surplus among the low-skilled and the lack of supply by skilled workers becomes clear: “In 2017, a total of 522 unemployed people came to 100 open positions for elderly care workers in Germany. For aged care professionals, there were only 29 unemployed in 100 jobs. ”

      In principle, the SVR researchers advocate permanently strong immigration. Thus they write: In order to keep the labor force potential at today’s level, a net migration of altogether 400,000 persons would be necessary annually in the long term. Much of this will have to come from third countries, as the intra-European immigration potential is limited. ”
      https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article185527326/Arbeitsmigranten-Sachverstaendigenrat-will-Einwanderungsgesetz.html

  33. French generals who signed an open letter accusing President Macron of “treason” for committing France to the UN migration pact are facing disciplinary action.

    As we reported last week, a letter written by General Antoine Martinez and signed by ten other generals, an admiral and a colonel, as well as former French Minister of Defense Charles Millon, warned Macron that the signing of the pact strips France of more sovereignty and provides an additional reason for “an already battered people” to “revolt”.

    The letter accuses Macron of being “guilty of a denial of democracy or treason against the nation” for signing the pact without putting it to the people.

    According to a report by French news outlet l’Opinion, the cabinet of the Minister of Armed Forces responded to the letter by calling the content “inadmissible and unworthy”.

    Asserting that military personnel are tasked with “setting an example,” the cabinet said that the signatories to the letter had abandoned their responsibilities and statutory obligations “and thus expose themselves to disciplinary sanctions,” which will occur within days.

    https://www.infowars.com/french-generals-face-disciplinary-action-after-accusing-macron-of-treason-for-signing-un-migration-pact/

  34. The Man Who Broke the Bank of England, the Guardian of Liberal Values, the Anti-Christ – George Soros has been awarded multiple, and sometimes contradictory titles, but the latest one is perhaps one of the most flattering. However, a host of critics were surprised, to say the least, with the FT’s choice.

    The Financial Times unveiled on Tuesday its 2018 Person of the Year: the honorific was bestowed upon George Soros, a controversial US billionaire of Jewish-Hungarian descent, who is known for financing liberal causes across the globe.

    The FT branded the 88-year-old investor a target of “daily attacks” for his left-wing activism from “forces of nationalism and populism”. This choice, the newspaper stressed, was not only about what Soros has achieved, but also about the values that he represents — those of liberal democracy and open society.

    READ MORE: Swedish Liberals, ‘Soros Admirers’ Struggling to Stay in Power – Academic

    The Soros-funded Open Society Foundations were forced out of Hungary after thirty years this summer, after Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused the NGO of meddling in the country’s domestic affairs and promoting illegal immigration. The FT chastised Orban’s accusations as “false”, insisting that he used his anti-Soros narrative as an election-winning tool.

    https://sputniknews.com/viral/201812191070826764-ft-soros-choice-backlash/?fbclid=IwAR3hU0IxFY9W-amzPJySga4MEngBHI-Hv1NWT-63qZxbSHwTYZbjvbwLEPQ

  35. Tunisia refuses expulsion of Tunisian irregular immigrants
     December 18, 2018 17:38
    Tunisia categorically refuses the expulsion of Tunisian irregular [illegal] migrants by host countries, said Mohamed Trabelsi, Minister of Social Affairs, at a seminar on the occasion of the celebration of International Migrants Day, Tuesday on the theme “Prioritizing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to Migration in National Development Strategies”.

    The number of illegal Tunisian immigrants is 200 thousand, said Trabelsi at the inauguration of the seminar, stressing that the government supports their rights to access services and integration to host countries and to accept their return only if they express the desire to return.

    The minister denounced the recourse of some host countries to unilateral measures, stating that the problem of irregular migration can only be solved through recourse to conventions and international meetings.
    https://www.mosaiquefm.net/fr/actualite-national-tunisie/464252/la-tunisie-refuse-l-expulsion-des-immigres-irreguliers-tunisiens

  36. The White House has confirmed US troops are being withdrawn from Syria, after President Trump said the Islamic State (IS) group had been “defeated” there.

    Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the US troops had already begun to return home.

    Some 2,000 troops have helped rid much of north-eastern Syria of IS, but pockets of fighters remain.

    It is thought defence officials wanted to maintain a US presence to ensure IS did not rebuild.

    There are also fears it will cede influence in Syria and the wider region to Russia and Iran.

    After the caliphate: What next for IS?
    Can Trump quit Syria ‘very soon’? It’s complicated
    The statement from Ms Sanders said: “We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign”.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46623617

  37. Germany: Der Spiegel says star reporter made up material

    BERLIN (AP) — An award-winning journalist who worked for Der Spiegel, one of Germany’s leading news outlets, has left the weekly magazine after evidence emerged that he committed journalistic fraud “on a grand scale” over a number of years, the publication said Wednesday.

    Spiegel published a lengthy report on its website after conducting an initial internal probe of the work of Claas Relotius, a 33-year-old staff writer known for vivid investigative stories. The magazine said Relotius resigned Monday after admitting some of his articles included made-up material from interviews that never happened.

    The Hamburg-based magazine said Relotius contributed almost to 60 articles published in print or online since 2011, first as a freelance writer before being hired full-time last year. The reporter previously worked for other German and Swiss publications and won numerous awards, including CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014. 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Spiegel said Relotius acknowledged fabricating parts of at least 14 stories, including a piece about an American woman who he said volunteered to witness the executions of death row inmates, such as one in Texas at the beginning of the year.

    Relotius didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

    The case, which is still being investigated, “marks a low point in the 70-year history of Der Spiegel,” the magazine said.

    It said concerns about Relotius’ work first were raised in November by a fellow reporter who worked with him on a story about a border militia in Arizona and discovered that supposed interviews had never taken place.

    Further fabrications by Relotius included a phone interview with the parents of American football player Colin Kaepernick, who protested police brutality by kneeling during the pre-game singing of the national anthem, Spiegel said. Another was reporting that a sign on the edge of a Minnesota town read “Mexicans Keep Out,” Spiegel said.

    The magazine said Relotius told editors he the fabrications were an attempt to avoid failure and that he was aware of his deceptions.

    “The management of Der Spiegel will appoint a committee of internal and external experts,” the publication said, adding that the results will be published.

    The German Journalists’ Union DJU called the case “the biggest fraud scandal in journalism since the Hitler diaries” that Germany’s Stern magazine published in 1983 and were later found to be forgeries.

    Spiegel’s revelations echoed past instances of journalistic fraud by reporters elsewhere, including Jayson Blair of The New York Times, Christopher Newton of The Associated Press and Janet Cooke, whose 1980 piece about a child addicted to heroin won The Washington Post writer a Pulitzer Prize before it was exposed as untrue.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/der-spiegel-says-star-reporter-perpetrated-years-long-134139746.html

  38. Media ‘in cahoots’ with French govt: Censored Yellow Vest protester speaks to RT

    A French news channel’s eyebrow-raising edit has reinforced the belief that the media “are in cahoots” with the country’s political elite, a Yellow Vest protester, whose anti-Macron placard was airbrushed from a photo, told RT.
    Jean-Baptiste Redde said he was shocked when he learned that TV channel France 3 had sanitized an AFP photograph showing him holding a sign that read “Macron out.” The channel, which dropped the “out” part of Redde’s message, blamed the curious Photoshop-job on a “human error.”

    That explanation was far from being enough for the activist. “The censorship by France 3 casts a shadow on the media in general,” he told RT France.

    Those who claim that the media intentionally “manipulate” people now see themselves as vindicated, Redde said, adding that reaction to troubling edit has been especially fierce on social media.

    Although the channel has characterized the photo altering as an honest mistake that “will not happen again,” Redde remains unconvinced.

    The Yellow Vest demonstrations, which began on November 17, were originally against a forthcoming fuel tax – but soon became a catalyst for expressing anger and frustration at President Emmanuel Macron’s administration.

    The protests spread across France, with violence erupting in Paris and other cities. More than 4,500 people have been arrested during the month of unrest, while many others have been injured, including police.

    The French government has announced it’s abandoning the plan to hike fuel prices and tax – but protests still continued, with people calling for broader reforms and even the resignation of Macron.

    https://www.rt.com/news/446843-yellow-vest-placard-censorship-interview/

  39. Another Murder of Peace in Rotterdam, the Netherlands:
    https://dutchreview.com/news/dutch/suspect-now-charged-after-shooting-a-girl-outside-a-school-in-rotterdam-yesterday/

    “Yesterday we reported some breaking news about a 16-year-old girl, identified as Humeyra Öz, who was shot dead near a school in Rotterdam. Late last night NOS reported that the 31-year-old suspect Bekir, E. was convicted of multiple offences. He already held a criminal record and was on probation, however what the crime was has not been disclosed.

    Both victim and offender were Rotterdammers with a Turkish background and they were in a rocky relationship. When the victim decided to call an end to the relationship, he began harassing her. The two families were also said to be quarrelling at the time. The police are now worried that the family will take revenge for the attack.”

    Some photos of crime scene:
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6508423/Girl-16-shot-dead-school-bike-shed-Rotterdam-police-arrest-31-year-old-boyfriend.html

    Full name of the shooter is Bekir Eraslan. He’d already been convicted for assault, intimidation and threats made against the 16yo girl and her family, not clear why he wasn’t in jail. He also did 3,5 years for stabbing his (ex)brother-in-law. Mugshot here (in Dutch):
    https://www.geenstijl.nl/5145423/total-loser/

    It seems the (Facebook) relationship started 2 years ago, when she was around 14yo. He pretended to be younger. So how is this guy not a groomer and a pedo?

  40. Murder of 2 Scandinavian Tourists in Morocco, Act of Terror: Source

    The murder of two Scandinavians tourists in Morocco’s Toubkal mountain is an “act of terror,” government officials have said.

    Rabat – An official source told Morocco World News that the murder of the two Scandinavian tourists was, in fact, a terrorist act.

    Twenty four hours following the arrest of the first crime suspect, authorities concluded that the killing bore the characteristics of terrorism.

    Local police are currently tracking down the three other suspects.

    The terrorists filmed the murder of the two tourists. A video circulating on social media shows a man armed with a knife slicing the head of one of the two tourists.

    The video sparked outrage among Moroccans. Some internet users who watched the footage on Facebook advised people to not watch it if they received it, due to the graphic content.

    Morocco World News could not verify the accuracy of the video.

    No terror organization claimed the act yet. Pending further details from law enforcement, photos of three suspects are going viral on social media.

    The incident is unprecedented in the region, causing shockwaves among its inhabitants, as well as throughout Morocco.

    On Monday, the bodies of two foreign tourists, one Norwegian and the other Danish, with signs of stabbing at the neck, were found in the mountainous and unsupervised area, 10 kilometres away from the Imlil centre, towards the summit of Mount Toubkal.

    According to a MWN source, the suspects were camping in the area when the murder took place.

    The victims are 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen from Denmark and 28-year-old Maren Ueland from Norway.

    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/12/260957/murder-scandinavian-tourists-morocco-terror/

      • Removed everywhere. We can handle looking at the decapitated bodies, we’ve seen so many decapitations throughout the years.

        I’ll never forget my first beheading video clip. It was among the worst of the worse. Johnson, I think. A short dull blade, it took so long, you could hear the poor guy gurgling and everything else.

        I stopped the clip three times, I almost passed out. Today, I look at them with no emotion. What truly disturbs me are the live torchings of people.

        BTW, I’m not against the Saudi Sword beheadings at Chop-Chop Square. Really fast and painless death.

        • The issue is far far less the method than the reason why, and the method of determining guilt.

    • Morocco links suspect in Scandinavian women’s killing to militant group (reuters, Dec 19, 2018)
      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-crime/morocco-links-suspect-in-scandinavian-womens-killing-to-militant-group-idUSKCN1OI2J8

      “RABAT (Reuters) – A man suspected in the killing of two female tourists from Norway and Denmark in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains belongs to a militant group, a prosecutor said on Wednesday, without identifying the group.

      The women’s bodies were found on Monday in an isolated area near Imlil, on the way to Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak and a popular hiking destination.

      The man was arrested in Marrakech, Morocco’s main tourist hub, and police were hunting other individuals identified as suspects.

      “We are working to bring before justice three other suspects on the run,” said police spokesman Boubker Sabik.

      The two tourists, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark and 28-year-old Maren Ueland of Norway, were killed in an unguarded area in hard to reach mountains, he said.

      Investigations are also going on to authenticate a video tape shared on social media claiming to show the killing of one of the tourists, the general prosecutor said in a statement.

      The video purportedly showed the killing, with a woman screaming while a man cuts her neck with what appears to be a kitchen knife.

      A source from Imlil said one of the victims was found dead inside her tent while another was found outside.

      Citing a security source, Morocco’s public TV channel 2M said on its website that investigations showed that the slaying of the two tourists was militant-related. It did not elaborate.

      Morocco has been largely insulated from the militant attacks that plagued other countries in North Africa. The latest bomb attack in the country dates back to April 2011 when 17 people were killed in a restaurant in Marrakech.

      Morocco has stepped up its effort to counter militant groups with the creation in 2015 of its own version of the FBI. The Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations has so far broken up 57 militant cells, including eight in 2018.

      More than 1,000 Moroccan youths, predominantly from the north of the country, have joined militant groups in the Middle East.”

    • reuters – Morocco links suspect in Scandinavian women’s killing to militant group

      er.... not militant : a Muslim group ...

      RABAT (Reuters) – A man suspected in the killing of two female tourists from Norway and Denmark in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains belongs to a militant group, a prosecutor said on Wednesday, without identifying the group.

      The women’s bodies were found on Monday in an isolated area near Imlil, on the way to Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak and a popular hiking destination.

      The man was arrested in Marrakech, Morocco’s main tourist hub, and police were hunting other individuals identified as suspects.

      “We are working to bring before justice three other suspects on the run,” said police spokesman Boubker Sabik.

      The two tourists, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark and 28-year-old Maren Ueland of Norway, were killed in an unguarded area in hard to reach mountains, he said.

      Investigations are also going on to authenticate a video tape shared on social media claiming to show the killing of one of the tourists, the general prosecutor said in a statement.

      The video purportedly showed the killing, with a woman screaming while a man cuts her neck with what appears to be a kitchen knife.

      A source from Imlil said one of the victims was found dead B.E.H.E.A.D.E.D inside her tent while another was found outside.

      Citing a security source, Morocco’s public TV channel 2M said on its website that investigations showed that the slaying of the two tourists was militant-related. It did not elaborate.

      Morocco has been largely insulated from the militant attacks that plagued other countries in North Africa. The latest bomb attack in the country dates back to April 2011 when 17 people were killed in a restaurant in Marrakech.

      Morocco has stepped up its effort to counter militant groups with the creation in 2015 of its own version of the FBI. The Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations has so far broken up 57 militant cells, including eight in 2018.

      More than 1,000 Moroccan youths, predominantly from the north of the country, have joined militant groups in the Middle East.

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-crime/morocco-links-suspect-in-scandinavian-womens-killing-to-militant-group-idUSKCN1OI2J8

  41. EXCELLENT NEWS from QUEBEC

    Religious symbols: François Legault suggests moving the recalcitrant as a compromise

    François Legault suggested transferring the teachers, police officers, judges and prison guards who refuse to remove their religious symbols to offices where there isn’t any contact with the citizens.

    The Prime Minister has the firm intention to ban the wearing of religious symbols among employees of the State in a position of authority. But Mr. Legault does not wish to see people lose their jobs.

    “Are there many people currently in these categories of employees who wear a religious sign?

    -What we are able to offer these employees are jobs in offices where they are not in contact with clients or students, he stated at the microphone of Antoine Robitaille, host to QUB radio. I don’t want to have a victim who comes to say “I lost my job while I was not told that when they hired me”. Is not ideally what I want. ”

    Acquired rights

    The head of the caquiste Government is not totally closed to the idea of allowing current employees who wear religious signs to keep an acquired right.

    ‘I want an opening. I know the PQ proposes a grandfather clause, so, let’s listen to the oppositions, let’s listen to the groups in the Committee’, he said, in an interview to be aired on the show Up on the hill from 13: 00.

    Future employees of the State in a position of authority must comply with the new rules, which will be included in the Bill on secularism to be presented in Government.

    “What is important, and it’s a commitment we took very clear during the campaign, it’s that the people who are in authority, police officers, prison guards, judges and teachers of primary and secondary school, can no longer wear “religious,” symbols, he insisted.

    The Legault Government promised to legislate to resolve the issue quickly, probably in the spring.

    https://www.journaldequebec.com/2018/12/18/francois-legault-suggere-de-deplacer-les-recalcitrants