Contributor’s links post for December 23, 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

114 Replies to “Contributor’s links post for December 23, 2018”

  1. Exonerated but not free: Asia Bibi to spend Christmas in custody (france24, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.france24.com/en/20181223-exonerated-but-not-free-asia-bibi-spend-christmas-custody

    “Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi will celebrate Christmas under guard, despite being cleared of the blasphemy charges that kept her in jail since 2010.

    Bibi — a former labourer who was on death row for eight years — remains a prime target in conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan, with extremists calling for her blood and the government refusing to reveal her location out of fear for her safety.

    “It’s too dangerous… People want to kill her,” said Yousaf Hadayat, a resident from one of Islamabad’s impoverished Christian ghettos, littered this week by a smattering of Santa hats and Christmas trees.

    Security this Christmas, like many before it, will be tight with the government set to deploy armed forces to the Christian colonies.

    Residents say they feel more uneasy than ever during the religious holiday while Bibi’s fate continues to loom large.

    “We’re afraid,” said Pastor Munawar Inayat at Holy of Holies Church in Islamabad. “We can’t speak against anyone.”

    The Supreme Court overturned Bibi’s death sentence for blasphemy in October, and she has legally been a free woman ever since.

    But the ruling ignited days of violent demonstrations that paralysed large swathes of the country, with enraged Islamists calling for her beheading, mutiny within the powerful military and the assassination of the country’s top judges.

    The government has since launched a crackdown on the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) party — the Islamist group driving the violent protests — charging its leaders with sedition and terrorism.

    But authorities also struck a deal with the protesters to end the violence, forming an agreement which included allowing a final review of the Supreme Court’s judgement.

    Bibi, who is seeking asylum abroad, is believed to be in protective custody inside Pakistan as the review continues.

    But there is no clear timeline for when it will be completed.

    A government spokesman refused to comment on its status, saying only that the matter is with the court.

    Analyst Fasi Zaka warned that the longer Bibi remains in limbo, the greater the danger. “For some elements if they don’t have access to Asia Bibi they’ll find stand-ins for their vengeance,” he told AFP.

    – ‘Lightning rod’ –

    Blasphemy continues to be a massively inflammatory issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven accusations of insulting Islam can spark lynchings.

    Many cases see Muslims accusing Muslims. But rights activists have warned that minorities — particularly Christians — are often caught in the crossfire, with blasphemy charges used to settle personal scores.

    “This is a lighting rod issue that affects a whole community,” said Zaka.

    The allegations against Bibi date back to 2009, when a fight erupted between her and fellow Muslim labourers, who later accused Bibi of blasphemy. She was convicted under Pakistan’s controversial anti-blasphemy laws and in 2010 sentenced to death.

    Since her acquittal speculation has been rife that an asylum deal with a European or North American country may be in the works.

    Many residents of the 100 Quarters Colony in Islamabad cautioned against Bibi’s release, saying her safety would only be guaranteed once she was granted asylum in a foreign country.

    “No, no. She cannot stay,” said resident Hadayat.

    Polio campaign worker Shahnaz Arif argued against Bibi’s ongoing custody. “We should get the same freedom that others enjoy,” she said.

    Even so she admitted she was afraid, citing Pakistan’s long history of political assassinations, including some over blasphemy.

    “There is not enough security for our leaders — we are just poor citizens,” she explained.

    – Blacklisted –

    Christians — who make up around two percent of the population — occupy one of the lowest rungs in class-obsessed Pakistani society, largely living in slums and working menial jobs as street sweepers, cleaners and cooks.

    The tension comes as Washington added Pakistan this month to a blacklist of countries that it says wantonly violate religious freedom, citing the country’s high number of blasphemy convictions and failure to hold perpetrators targeting religious minorities to account.

    Islamabad later dismissed the US move as politically motivated.

    Back in the 100 Quarters Colony, residents said their thoughts were with a mother who has already spent many Christmases in solitary confinement.

    “Christmas is celebrated with near and dear ones, and not in custody,” said Christmas decoration seller Amjab Burgkat.

    “There are security fears, but she should celebrate Christmas with her family.””

    • Islam ruins or kills everything it comes into contact with. They come to the West and don’t produce anything of high value either, except for the food industry.

      And Pakistan is probably the filthiest place on earth. Enough said.

      • BTW, back around 1975, I worked with a woman who had traveled to Karachi. She said when the plane landed, the passengers couldn’t deplane because the fumigators had to disinfect the aircraft with the passengers in it. Truly, a backward people.

      • except for the food industry.

        There have been a lot more cases of food contamination since the Islamic move into the food industry.

        Just saying.

        • There have been a lot more cases of food contamination since the Islamic move into the food industry.

          Am I sensing a pattern here?

          UK allows Muslim nurses to not wash to protect their “modesty”

          “The UK Department of Health recently announced that it would loosen hygiene rules for Muslim and Sikh doctors and nurses. From now on, Muslim female staff will not need to wash their hands before procedures as it compromises their modesty. Instead, they will have the admittedly less sanitary option of wearing disposable plastic over-sleeves.

          Acknowledging the danger of microbes and death, a Department of Health spokesman said, “The guidance is intended to . . . balance infection control measures with cultural beliefs.” But, believe it or not, from a culturist perspective, the death of some patients is not the main cause for concern that this policy elicits.

          The most dangerous problem is that this policy encodes multiculturalism not culturism. Whereas culturism acknowledges that England has a majority culture to protect and promote, this multiculturalist policy implicitly says that England has no core culture. It says that the nation can be whatever pressure groups decide it is. It, therefore, officially ends the dominance of English culture in England.”

          http://www.eutimes.net/2010/04/uk-allows-muslim-nurses-to-not-wash-to-protect-their-modesty/

            • Why does everybody get so butt hurt and offended when Trump calls these places “$h!thøles”? It’s probably about the nicest thing any honest person can say about these monstrous one-stop combination latrine and open grave dumpsites.

              Please remember that the word “Pakistan” means, “Land of the Clear” (or Land of the Pure).

              How much more pure can anyone hope for Islam to be than the version practiced in Pakistan?

              After all, nothing says “Pure Islam” like endless murders, rapes, FGM, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, car bombings, “honor” killings, acid attacks, child marriages, minority pogroms, or just good-old illiterate frontier tribesmen parking their women and children in earthquake-destroyed, high altitude wintertime encampments so they can stay behind and freeze to death whilst the yobs mosey down-slope to pick up Red Crescent relief packages.

              Remember, body-bags or not, we can’t have none of them furriners ogling our wimmenfolk!

              Make no mistake. Pakistan is one of the purest forms of Islam these is. Near constant violence, bloodshed, and mayhem epitomize perfectly what the outside world can expect upon Islam’s arrival.

              Europe is irrefutable proof of this.

  2. Italian Police Arrest 17 Moroccan Migrants in Massive Drug Bust (breitbart, Dec 22, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2018/12/22/italian-police-arrest-17-moroccan-migrants-massive-drug-bust/

    “Italian narcotic police carried out a major drug bust Saturday in the northern Italian seaside town of Viareggio, arresting 17 Moroccan immigrants believed to be responsible for dealing drugs in the area.

    The “Souk 2018” operation, which began last October, led to accumulated evidence of drug dealing on the part of 25 North African migrants, some of whom were asylum seekers or in the country illegally and 17 of whom were taken into custody on charges of dealing cocaine, hashish, heroin, and marijuana. The other eight are still are large.

    All in all, throughout two months of investigation, police were able to document 57 separate drug deals through the use of undercover agents and hidden cameras.

    One of the ways in which the drugs were sold, Italian media reported, was by hiding it among the bushes or flowerbeds in the town center or buried in a nearby pine forest. Sales reportedly took place in broad daylight, even in the presence of numerous passersby and regardless of weather conditions, leading the prosecutor of the case to express his astonishment at the dealers’ “bravado.”

    Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted about the arrest Saturday, saying that the 25 drug dealers were “selling death, even to little children,” noting that thanks to the recently passed Salvini decree, the asylum seekers among them will be eligible for immediate deportation.

    The “Salvini Decree” on security and immigration refers to three-part legislation addressing (1) asylum and citizenship, (2) security measures against organized crime, and (3) the administration of goods confiscated from organized crime.”

  3. Why the issue of immigration has become central issue in Belgium

    »FIGAROVOX / INTERVIEW – Alain Destexhe analyzes the tensions around immigration in Belgium. The multiculturalist model has failed, he argues

    FIGAROVOX.- Why is there a crisis around the question of immigration in Belgium?
    Alain DESTEXHE.- The largest political party of the Kingdom, the NV-A (New Flemish Alliance, a right-wing “nationalist” party), has refused to allow the Belgian Government to sign the UN “Migration Pact”. From then on, Prime Minister Charles Michel no longer had a majority in Parliament. He tried to rule with a minority, but after a few days he was forced to resign.

    What reproached the NV-A to the Pact of Marrackech?

    First, it had serious doubts about the “non-binding” nature of the Covenant, since the signatories “pledged to honor the commitments contained in the Covenant”. Secondly, she feared that the Covenant would be part of the “soft law” of international custom and therefore could be invoked by NGOs, Belgian judges or the ECHR. Lastly, and most importantly, she rejected part of the text: the clear non-distinction between legal and illegal migration, the obligation to take into account the culture of migrants, for example in health care (which could mean the obligation to women doctors to treat women), the absolute protection of children and therefore the prohibition to place a family in a closed center to repatriate, even as a last resort, etc.

    Why is the immigration issue so important in Belgium?

    Compared to its population, Belgium has received many more immigrants than its neighbors, including France. In the 2000s, net migration was four times higher in Belgium than in France or Germany! The resulting problems (lack of integration, communitarianism, development of Islamism) have been denied or minimized.
    There is also a cleavage between Flamands and Walloons. In the north of the country, the NV-A and the Vlaams Belang (party close to the theses of Marine Le Pen) have deal with the migrants question for a long time . In the south of the country, the press and political parties have been more reluctant. Moreover, the north of the country votes mostly on the right (the extreme right and the nationalist right account for nearly 40% of the electorate while the south votes on the left.) The PTB (Workers’ Party of Belgium), a movement of far left, still relating itself to Marxism and communism, is making a spectacular breakthrough.This difference is clearly a threat to the unity of the country.The N-VA president, Bart de Wever, who is also an intellectual, has developed the thesis of two democracies in Belgium that are no longer in phase, which would justify moving from federalism to confederalism.The current debate around immigration can only strengthen his beliefs.

    Is the problem more acute in Belgium than in France?

    In the 2000s, a policy of opening was practiced in Belgium: facilitating family reunification (which now constitutes 50% of immigration), regularization operations for illegal immigrants, tolerance vis-à-vis Islamism, naturalisations en masse … In twenty years, almost a million people have been naturalized out of a population of ten million. Many are not integrated. Imagine that five or six million people gain French nationality without being asked for economic or cultural integration into French society: this would provoke an outcry. However, it is, proportionally, what happened in Belgium.

    How is Brussels today a multicultural city?

    Brussels already has probably 30% Muslims. In just a few years, native Belgians have become a minority in Brussels. In itself, it would not be a problem if integration (in Belgium, we have not talked about assimilation for a long time) had taken place, but most indicators show that this is not the case. Let’s look at some of it. At every election in Turkey, Erdogan and his AKP party achieve a score of about 10% higher among Belgo-Turks than in Turkey. Most of them, belonging to the second or third generation of immigrants, are nevertheless born in Belgium. The authoritarian drift and Islamist Erdogan does not raise any protest among the many of the elected Turks in Belgium, among which are deputies and a mayor, former minister. Among Muslims, homophobia and anti-Semitism remain widespread. The different communities become more and more inward-looking.

    The Brussels Regional Parliament, where Belgians of foreign origin are in the process of becoming majority, votes on resolutions on Palestine or the Rohingyas of Burma but does not focus on the human rights situation in Turkey. In public primary schools in Brussels, more than 50% of children attend the Muslim religion course. We are witnessing the emergence of a new model of multiculturalism in Brussels, which in my view is very problematic if we are taking about the bedrock of common values, but the official discourse celebrates this diversity and “living together”. The wake up call caused by the terrorist attacks is a long way off. Terrorism is being fought, but Islamism, which is mostly non-violent, is progressing with almost universal indifference. There are no studies like the one of Institut Montaigne in France that would attempt to measure the degree of integration. The political and media world prefers not to see the problems.

    Is this situation worrying?

    This diversity model should be studied objectively, because with the migratory thrust experienced by most major cities in Western Europe, it could gradually impose itself, almost everywhere, through democratic elections. As we know, democracy is the power of numbers, the power of the people, which does not necessarily go in the direction of liberal values ??or concepts of secularity or neutrality of the state (notions sometimes not accepted by certain immigrants).
    Demography is here a central issue. Brussels has become the second most cosmopolitan city in the world after Dubai, without having the wealth. Formerly, the richest city of the kingdom, it is in the process of impoverishment following the waves of migration. In Brussels, 90% of social recipients are of foreign origin. This should make think those who advocate open borders while denouncing the rise of inequalities.

    How is this evolution perceived by the other regions of Belgium?

    What is happening in Brussels serves as a object picture to part of Flanders. Without sinking into the extreme right, the NV-A became aware of the dangers of multicultural society and the need for identity, a central theme in his speech. It has also succeeded in attracting some prominent young women from civil society of foreign origin but who refuse this evolution towards multiculturalism..
    http://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/politique/2018/12/21/31001-20181221ARTFIG00326-pourquoi-la-question-de-l-immigration-est-devenue-centrale-en-belgique.php

  4. Norwegian Girl, Butchered in Morocco, Shared a Pro-Muslim Clip – Reports (sputniknews, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812231070940796-norway-morocco-terrorists-killing-girls/

    “… The reports about Maren Ueland, 28-year-old Norwegian killed in the mountains in Morocco, sharing a post with a video shaming Islamophobia emerged on the website Morocco World News. The outlet has published a print-screen of her Facebook page (apparently deleted by now), showing the young woman sharing a post with a pro-Islam video as long ago as in 2015. The clip titled Never judge people by their appearance was shared was posted by some Sanaullah Mojaddedi.

    It shows a European-looking woman walking with a daughter and suspiciously peeking at a bearded man with a sports bag. The woman freezes when several people looking like police show up and start running towards the man. However, they pass by him and detain another Scandinavian-looking man. The clip ends with the bearded character helping out a girl and walking away with a family. The final title reads Think for yourself…”

    • Norwegian Tourist Shared a Pro-Muslim Video Three Years Before Her Murder (moroccoworldnews, Dec 22, 2018)
      https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/12/261319/norwegian-tourist-shared-pro-muslim-video-three-years-before-murder/

      “Rabat- The video shows how a seemingly western lady looking suspiciously at a bearded man in an Islamic outfit carrying a bag.

      The frightened lady tried to protect her child while looking at the man on the other side of the street, when a couple of police officers were seen rushing out of their car behind the bearded man.

      Surprisingly, the last scene showed how the police apprehended another man while the bearded guy was giving a hand to a child to the astonishment and shock of the terrified lady.

      “Never judge people by their appearance. Dear all. Must share it,” an accompanying comment reads next to the post, which goes back to January 2015. The video was shared by Maren Ueland in her Facebook account.

      Maren’s post has ironically reflected how a peaceful young lady who loved life and defended Islam ended in the ruthless hands of criminals who pledged allegiance to a terrorist group that claims to be inspired by the teachings of Islam.

      Moroccan police found the corpses of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark and Maren Ueland, 28, in an isolated area near Imlil, in the Atlas Mountains on Monday.

      On Wednesday, Moroccan authorities hinted that the murder of the two Scandinavian women was potentially linked to terrorism. The four suspects in the murder were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday.

      Shocked by the sad news, millions of Moroccans condemned the murder of the tow innocent Scandinavian women and expressed their condolences to and solidarity with the families of the victim.

      Moroccans’ strong condemnation of this murder and their outpouring of solidarity with the families of the victims elicited the praise of Danish and Norwegian ambassador to Morocco. Both of them expressed their deep gratitude to the Moroccan people for standing up against terrorism and showing empathy to the victims and their families.”

  5. Al Qaeda seeking new attacks on airports and flights (thenational, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/al-qaeda-seeking-new-attacks-on-airports-and-flights-1.805522

    “Al Qaeda has been revitalised and is planning to commit new and spectacular attacks on the West, according to a senior British minister.

    The group, which committed the 9/11 hijackings in 2001 that killed almost 3,000 people in New York City, is now trying to plot attacks on airports and develop technology that can bring down airliners.

    British Security Minister Ben Wallace, in an interview with The Sunday Times, said Al Qaeda posed such a threat that it was keeping top ministers “awake at night”.
    Such technology may include drones with explosives attached or miniaturised bombs capable of being smuggled on to airliners.

    The group’s most powerful wing is in Yemen and is known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but it also has a presence in Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and the Maghreb.

    His comments come only days after US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw US troops from Syria. Experts and diplomats have given warnings that the withdrawal may embolden militant groups such as Al Qaeda, which has used the chaos of the civil war to plot attacks on the West.

    The militant group, which has had a reduced profile in recent years after the growth of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, has long targeted aviation for spectacular attacks.

    In 2006, British police discovered a transatlantic Al Qaeda plot to bring down airliners using liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks. The result was increased security measures on flights regarding the carrying of liquids.

    Three years later, Al Qaeda’s top bomb maker Anwar Al Awlaki discussed a plot with a young Nigerian volunteer in Yemen, sending him on a mission to bring down an airliner with explosives in his underwear.

    His explosives failed to detonate when his underwear caught fire as the plane approached Detroit on Christmas Day. Awlaki would later become the first American citizen deliberately killed on the orders of a US President without charge because of the threat he posed to national security.”

  6. Death toll hits 168 after Indonesia tsunami: officials (dailystar, Dec 23, 2018)
    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2018/Dec-23/472495-death-toll-hits-168-after-indonesia-tsunami-officials.ashx

    “JAKARTA: A tsunami following a volcanic eruption in Indonesia has killed at least 168 people, with hundreds more injured, officials said Sunday.

    “The total number of people who have died is 168 people, 745 were injured and 30 people are missing,” Indonesia’s national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.”

  7. GET THE GRINCH Gatwick drone – Ex-soldier, 47, and wife, 54, arrested over drone chaos released without charge as cops offer £50k to catch culprit

    Paul Gait, 47, and wife Elaine Kirk, 54, were arrested at their Crawley home on Friday night over the attacks but have now been released without charge

    A COUPLE arrested over the Gatwick drone chaos have been released without charge – as cops reveal they have found a “damaged drone”.

    Paul Gait, 47, and wife Elaine Kirk, 54, were arrested at their Crawley home on Friday night over the attacks – with Gatwick now offering a £50,000 reward for the real culprit

    But Sussex Police confirmed today they are no longer suspects and said a drone found near Gatwick would be taken away for investigation.

    Sussex Police Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley said: “Both people have fully co-operated with our enquiries and I am satisfied that they are no longer suspects in the drone incidents at Gatwick.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8048880/gatwick-drone-arrests-couple-released/

    • Maybe the droners were Red eco-arseholes like Eeyore posited, or maybe a more sophisticated test by tards to calibrate police response before a greater move?

      • Either way the jihadists are watching and studying the police response, It won’t be long before another incident at different airport causes causalities, possibly a large number of causalities. If a drone is flown into an engine on take off or landing it will take one real good pilot to prevent a disaster.

      • Maybe the droners were Red eco-arseholes like Eeyore posited…

        Of far greater importance is recognizing how Eeyore succinctly merged the airspace intrusions at Gatwick into the category of Terrorism in general. To date, Antifa-types and “watermelons” (i.e., green on the outside, red on the inside) like PETA, ELF, and Greenpeace have shown little, if any, reluctance about committing genuine terrorist acts.

        Ergo, much like how “reverse racism” does not exist (i.e., it’s just plain-old racist wine in a new bottle), so it is with “eco-terrorism”. Attaching various and sundry prefixes like “Eco” or “Islamist” to describe the rhetoric or acts of such ideologically and psychiatrically compromised spastics only makes a distinction without a difference.

        It is this sort of pretentious discernment which opens the door for endless (and arbitrary) moral grandstanding, xenon-strobe flashes of virtue signalling, and courtroom high jinks that give prosecutors brain aneurysms.

        These malicious, potentially violent, and well-documented cases of flat-out assault* (be it interpersonal or paramilitary) cluster with equal ease around the expansive nexus of terrorism that jihadis know and love so well. This murderous landscape is attracting far too many splinter groups far too fast. A Western Culture in this current state of sociopolitical disarray cannot hope to properly address and militarily prosecute these myriad terror cells.

        * Remember to take all of my polemics with a grain of assault.

        Many of these cause du jour mini-mobs fabricate identities and agendas on the fly. They do it specifically to further crowd the already brimming bowl of “Alphabet Soup”. This alphanumeric hodge-podge serves some vital functions:

        • Fragmenting unified opposition by imposing whack-a-mole tactics

        • Laying in shell after shell of terrorist funding conduits

        • Fogging the intelligence terrain per Clausewitz’s own “fog of war”

        Hell, I can envision a not-too-distant future when Leftists and Jihadists are doing false flag attacks for each other. Just as Erdogan trumpeted about how “Islam is Islam”, it’s long overdue to begin recognizing how “terrorism is terrorism”.

  8. Judicial nominee faces Senate scrutiny over Knights of Columbus membership

    Washington D.C., Dec 21, 2018 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- A judicial nominee faced questions from Senators this month about whether membership in the Knights of Columbus might impede his ability to judge federal cases fairly. The Knights of Columbus say that no candidate for public office should have to defend his membership in a Catholic service organization.

    Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) raised concerns about membership in the Knights of Columbus while the Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed the candidacy of Brian C. Buescher, an Omaha-based lawyer nominated by President Trump to sit on the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.

    Senators also asked whether belonging to the Catholic charitable organization could prevent judges from hearing cases “fairly and impartially.”

    https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/senators-quiz-nominee-about-membership-of-extreme-knights-of-columbus-78683

    • The Constitution says there shall be no religious test for Government Office, of course the Dems haven’t paid any attention to the Constitution for a long time.

      • … of course the Dems haven’t paid any attention to the Constitution for a long time.

        It’s all a conspiracy.

  9. License-to-Kill Policing to Get a Trial Run in Rio de Janeiro

    (Bloomberg) — Teams of marksmen next year will patrol swaths of Rio de Janeiro with high-powered weapons and a license to kill, said a security adviser to Governor-elect Wilson Witzel.

    As many as 120 sharpshooters will accompany police incursions into the slums of Brazil’s postcard city to exterminate gun-toting criminals, according to Flavio Pacca, a longtime associate of Witzel who the governor-elect’s press office said will join the administration. The shooters will work in pairs — one to pull the trigger, one to monitor conditions and videotape deaths.

    https://www.bloombergquint.com/law-and-policy/license-to-kill-policing-to-get-a-trial-run-in-rio-de-janeiro#gs.OMLBIb8

  10. Nicaragua news director accused of terror after station raid

    MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — The director of a TV station critical of President Daniel Ortega was accused Saturday of inciting terrorism after authorities raided and shut down the station’s offices in their latest salvo against independent media and nongovernmental organizations.

    Miguel Mora’s wife, Veronica Chavez, who is also a journalist, accused police at a news conference of carrying out a “kidnapping” of her husband “on orders of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and (first lady and Vice President) Rosario Murillo.”

    https://www.apnews.com/6a7689f6dd3e40309dbeebf40c097595

  11. Yellow vests’ protests spread to Beirut: ‘The people want to bring down the regime’

    BEIRUT — Hundreds of Lebanese protested Sunday against deteriorating economic conditions as public anger mounts against politicians deadlocked over forming a new government since May.

    The protesters marched to the government building in central Beirut, carrying placards that called for an end to the deadlock and corruption. Some protesters sported the yellow vests worn by anti-government protesters in France. The call for the protests began on social media, with some using the symbol of a yellow vest with a cedar tree, a national symbol that appears on the country’s flag.

    The protests grew rowdy and angry protesters pelted security forces with water bottles.

    Security forces deployed, setting up barricades separating them from the protesters in a standoff that locked down the city center. By mid-afternoon, the demonstration began to fizzle but scores of protesters marched to a commercial district in Beirut, chanting “revolution” and urging others to join them.

    Protests have spread in recent weeks as rival politicians have failed to form a new government following parliamentary elections in May.

    Highly publicized efforts to form a compromise national unity government faltered Saturday, fueling the protesters’ anger the following day.

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/23/yellow-vests-protest-beirut-lebanon/

    • Lebanon: Military clashes with protesters in Beirut

      Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Beirut on Sunday to call out the political system and standard of living in Lebanon.

      The military can be seen arriving to the protests in armoured vehicles, where they met protesters on the streets of Beirut. After some small clashes the military was able to clear the street.

      Boshraa, one of the protesters, explained her reasons for attending, saying: “There are no jobs, there is nothing, and our rights as Lebanese citizens do not grant us things that are considered rights in Europe, that are mandatory for the state to provide.’’

      While another said “this sit-in is because enough is enough. We are not slaves.”

      Many among the crowd donned yellow vests reminiscent of the protests which started in France in November and have since spread to other countries.

  12. How arrest of Chinese ‘princess’ exposes regime’s world domination plot

    Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s arrest in Vancouver on Dec. 6 led to immediate blowback.

    Furious Chinese Communists have begun arresting innocent Canadians in retaliation. So far, three of these “revenge hostages” have been taken and are being held in secret jails on vague charges. Beijing hints that the hostage count may grow if Meng is not freed and fast.

    Even for a thuggish regime like China’s, this kind of action is almost unprecedented.

    So who is Meng Wanzhou?

    Currently under house arrest and awaiting extradition to the US, she will face charges that her company violated US sanctions by doing business with Iran and committed bank fraud by disguising the payments it received in return.

    But to say that she is the CFO of Huawei doesn’t begin to explain her importance — or China’s reaction.

    https://nypost.com/2018/12/22/how-arrest-of-chinese-princess-exposes-regimes-world-domination-plot/

    • Be sure and read the entire article about the power of this “Communist Chinese Princess”. A member of the new Chinese Nobility.

      • From the NY Post article: “In other words, Meng is the heiress apparent of China’s largest and most advanced hi-tech company, and one which plays a key role in China’s grand strategy of global domination.

        In fact, “Made in China 2025” — the party’s aggressive plan to dominate the cutting-edge technologies of the 21st century — singles out Huawei as the key to achieving global 5G dominance.

        Any network system installed by a company working hand-in-glove with China’s intelligence services raises the danger of not only cyber espionage, but also cyber-enabled technology theft.

        And the danger doesn’t stop there.

        The new superfast 5G networks, which are 100 times faster than 4G, will literally run the world of the future. Everything from smartphones to smart cities, from self-driving vehicles to, yes, even weapons systems, will be under their control.

        In other words, whoever controls the 5G networks will control the world — or at least large parts of it.

        Sounds like an oppressive régime’s intelligence gatherer’s dream! It makes NSA demands to unlock specific phones (as if, given enough time, they couldn’t decrypt any data on earth), and even the vilely intrusive Clipper initiative, look comparatively demure.

        Sidelining this wannabe global dominatrix is a top priority for any nation that wants to stay out of Communist China’s orbit.

        • This begs the questions, will the economic collapse and semi to full collapse of communist China hold off that long? Will the series of civil wars that will be the opening rounds of WWIII hold off that long?

    • Beijing hints that the hostage count may grow if Meng is not freed and fast.

      Much like “flight to escape prosecution”, don’t Beijing’s extortionate hostage tactics amount to a frank admission of guilt? As in: Unintentional proof of just how important it is to swiftly extradite, prosecute, convict, and incarcerate Meng Wanzhou?

      PS: Imagine if there was some possible way to “turn” her. Maybe by spiriting her loved ones (sans baba) to America she might feel safe enough to sing. Yust think of the tales she could tell!

      • I would have to know a lot more about her to know is she can be flipped, it does make a nice scenario but even if we succeed in that could we trust what she was saying? Would she stay flipped or would she double?

        • Nothing she could ‘sing’ would be sufficient.
          Cage this one. Partnering with Iran (Death to America!) is enemy conspiracy.

          Figure out how to chop the whole enterprise. Or sabotage, delay, delay. Enlist Israeli help.

  13. Private sector nondiscrimination laws are brutal, un-American
    By Benny Huang December 23, 2018

    Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski thought they lived in a free country. Silly girls.

    The two Arizona small business owners make custom artwork for hire. They are also devout Christians. After hearing about nondiscrimination laws in other locales being used as weapons against people of faith, they began to realize how vulnerable they are. Their city, Phoenix, has a private sector nondiscrimination law covering “sexual orientation,” which is coded language for sexual conduct. Seeing that it was only a matter of time before the LGBT community decided to ambush them in the same way it did Colorado baker Jack Phillips, they decided to file suit against the city. The Arizona Supreme Court will hear their case in January.

    As crazy as it sounds, violations of this law are punishable by hard time. That’s right — not making custom artwork for sham same-sex weddings is a crime so heinous that it can result in actual confinement. Every day that a violator persists in her violation carries a penalty of six months in prison.

    I can just imagine these two ladies in a rough prison block filled with beefy, tattooed lesbians, who I am sure will be kind to them for what they have done for the “LGBT community.” The conversations would be comical. “What are you in for?” “Not making wedding invitations.” “No, seriously. All joking aside, what are you in for?”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/23/private-sector-nondiscrimination-laws-are-brutal-un-american/

  14. Poll: Which profession is considered to have the lowest ethical standards?
    By Daily Caller News Foundation December 22, 2018

    Members of Congress are considered the least honest and ethical of professions including telemarketers and car salespeople, according to a Gallup survey released Thursday.

    Fifty-eight percent of people said they had low or very low faith in the honesty and ethics of members of Congress, according to the survey. Only 44% of people surveyed said the same about car salespeople, and 56% said the same about telemarketers.

    Nurses came out on top of the survey, with 84% of people saying they would rate the honesty and ethical standards of nurses as high or very high. Nurses’ high ratings were followed by physicians, pharmacists and high school teachers.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/22/poll-which-profession-is-considered-to-have-the-lowest-ethics/

  15. Pakistani police: 4 young people killed over ‘family honor’ (abcnews, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistani-police-young-people-killed-family-honor-59983221

    “Police in northwestern Pakistan say four cousins were shot dead over “family honor” on the orders of a village council.

    District police chief Raja Abdus Saboor said Sunday that police have arrested one man involved in the killings and are searching for others. The four victims, two men and two women, were 18 to 21 years old. Their bodies were found on Friday near their remote mountain village.

    More than 1,000 women are killed every year in the conservative, Muslim-majority country over suspicions they engaged in relationships that went against the family’s wishes. The so-called “honor killings” are often carried out by the women’s own relatives.

    In 2012, five women were killed in the same region for cheering male dancers during a wedding.”

  16. Austrian police detain 2 in Vienna restaurant shooting (abcnews, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/austrian-police-detain-vienna-restaurant-shooting-59985107

    “Austrian police say they have detained both a witness and a man who was wounded in a shooting at a Viennese restaurant that left another man dead.

    Police said Sunday that the 29-year-old witness, who was eating with the two other men at a central Vienna restaurant before Friday’s shooting, became a suspect because he made contradictory statements.

    The 23-year-old who was wounded in the shooting was also detained.

    Police said all three men had connections to organized crime and come from the western Balkans. They said it appears the dispute was over illegal drug deals. Due to the ongoing investigation, police did not release any names of the suspects.

    A 32-year-old man was killed during the shooting at the Vienna restaurant.”

  17. Afghan president appoints Pakistan critics to 2 top posts (abcnews, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-president-appoints-pakistan-critics-top-posts-59983751

    “Afghan President Ashraf Ghani appointed hard-line opponents of neighboring Pakistan to two top security posts on Sunday, potentially complicating U.S. efforts to revive peace talks with the Taliban ahead of next summer’s withdrawal of 7,000 American troops.

    Ghani announced that Amrullah Saleh will be the next interior minister and Asadullah Khaleed will be defense minister. Both are former intelligence chiefs who have blamed Pakistan for the Taliban’s resurgence in recent years and have even called for it to be declared a state sponsor of terror.

    Afghanistan’s parliament will have to approve the appointments.

    Pakistan, which has influence over the Taliban, is taking part in the latest U.S. effort to revive the peace process. It was Pakistan that helped orchestrate last week’s talks in the United Arab Emirates. Representatives of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Pakistan and the United States attended those talks with the Taliban. In a significant development, Afghanistan’s national Security Adviser was also in the UAE and while he did not attend talks with the Taliban he met with Washington’s Peace Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who reportedly kept him informed of the discussions.

    However, two high ranking officials in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said Ghani was displeased that the Taliban refused to hold direct talks with the Afghan government in the UAE. The Taliban have repeatedly refused to talk to Kabul calling them American puppets…”

  18. Doctors to strike in Sudan as protests enter 5th day (abcnews, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/doctors-strike-sudan-protests-continue-59983823

    “Sudan’s doctors will go on an indefinite strike in the first of a series of work stoppages amid protests calling on the country’s longtime autocratic leader, President Omar Bashir, to step down, an umbrella coalition of professional unions said on Sunday.

    In a statement, it said the doctors will continue to deal with emergencies during the strike, which begins Monday and aims to “paralyze” the government and deny it much-needed revenues. The coalition also called on citizens to continue their street protests, which entered their fifth day Sunday, according to activists, with demonstrations in several cities.

    There have also been calls by a number of independent trade and professional unions for a general strike on Wednesday…”

  19. Suspect tied to Charlie Hebdo attack sent to France, charged (abcnews, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/suspect-tied-charlie-hebdo-attack-france-charged-59983291

    “French authorities handed preliminary terrorism charges Sunday to a fugitive extremist who is suspected of fighting U.S. forces in Iraq and helping to organize the 2015 shooting attack at satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people.

    Peter Cherif, who recently was arrested in the former French colony of Djibouti and expelled to France, was immediately taken into custody and charged upon his arrival Sunday at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

    Cherif is accused of criminal association with a terrorist enterprise. France’s defense minister says he played an “important role in organizing” the Charlie Hebdo attack, though his specific actions were unclear.

    He embodies a generation of French Muslim youths who traveled to war zones from Afghanistan and Iraq to Yemen and Syria. Cherif traveled to Iraq in the early 2000s and was arrested in Fallujah in 2004 and held for 19 months by U.S. troops. Cherif, also known as Abu Hamza, later traveled to Yemen, where he was believed to have joined Al-Qaida’s fighters there.

    Until last week’s arrest in Djibouti, Cherif had been on the run from French authorities since 2011, when he disappeared just before a Paris court sentenced him to five years in prison on terrorism charges for fighting as an insurgent in Iraq.

    He was a close friend of brothers Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi, who killed 11 people at Charlie Hebdo’s offices and a policeman nearby in Paris in January 2015. In the following days, their associate, Amedy Coulibaly, killed a policewoman outside Paris and four people during a hostage-taking at a kosher supermarket. The three attackers were killed in shootouts with police.

    Fourteen people charged with providing assistance to the brothers or Coulibaly are scheduled to go on trial over the killings. Cherif is not among them.”

  20. Disgraced German reporter could face donation fraud charges

    BERLIN (AP) — A German journalist who was found to have made up information for numerous articles may now be charged with allegedly soliciting donations for Syrian orphans from his readers.

    The German magazine Der Spiegel said Sunday that its award-winning former reporter, Claas Relotius, had asked readers by email from his private account for donations to be transferred to his personal bank account.

    Der Spiegel said it’s not clear how many people donated money, how much Relotius collected or what happened to the money. But the magazine said it will press charges and will work with prosecutors to find out the details.

    https://www.postbulletin.com/news/state/disgraced-german-reporter-could-face-donation-fraud-charges/article_19b4ae0b-9dfa-5f28-9a79-0cd4a3fa1c68.html
    ===============================================
    Spiegel to file criminal complaint against cheating reporter

    BERLIN: Influential German news weekly Der Spiegel said Sunday (Dec 23) it would file a criminal complaint against a disgraced reporter after it emerged he may have embezzled donations intended for Syrian street children.

    Claas Relotius, 33, resigned this month after admitting to making up stories and inventing protagonists in more than a dozen articles in the magazine’s print and online editions.

    Spiegel said it now had information that Relotius allegedly launched a campaign for readers to give money to help subjects of an article he wrote but that the bank details he gave directed the funds to his own account.

    “Der Spiegel will give all the information it collects to public prosecutors as part of a criminal complaint,” it said on its website.

    Spiegel said concerned readers had in recent days reported Relotius’s call for donations purportedly for orphaned Syrian children living on the streets of Turkey.

    It said it had been unaware of the campaign and that it was not immediately clear how much money was raised from the appeal, apparently made by email to readers who contacted him about the story.

    Spiegel published the article by Relotius in July 2016 but a Turkish photographer who worked with him on the piece has since noted significant inaccuracies.

    The magazine said it now believes Relotius may have simply made up one of the main protagonists, whom the article described as young siblings.

    Relotius described his attempts to help the children in a subsequent collection of articles, including a months-long effort to bring the children to Germany to be adopted by a family. Spiegel said this also appeared to be a lie.

    In its most recent edition, the magazine said the scam was the “worst thing that can happen to an editorial team”.

    Acknowledging the damage to faith in its own work and the media in general, it apologised promised to “do everything to boost our credibility again.”

    http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/spiegel-to-file-criminal-complaint-against-cheating-reporter-11058092

  21. New Revelation: Previous US Administration Facilitated Christian Genocide in Nigeria

    by Raymond Ibrahim
    December 23, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13447/obama-christian-genocide-nigeria

    In a bombshell revelation, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s former president (2010-2015), has accused the Obama administration of meddling with his nation’s politics in order to replace him with its current president, Muhammadu Buhari — whom many blame for facilitating the persecution of Christians. In his new book, My Transition Hours, Jonathan writes:

  22. Why Trump Can’t Be Airbrushed Out of the Picture

    by Amir Taheri
    December 23, 2018 at 4:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13454/trump-agenda

    As the American political elite head for Christmas holidays, the buzz in Washington circles is that 2019 will start with fresh attempts at curtailing the Trump presidency or, failing that, preventing Donald Trump’s re-election in 2020. Amateurs of the conspiracy theory may suggest that the whole thing may be a trap set by the Trump camp to keep the president’s opponents chained to a strategy doomed to failure.

    By devoting almost all of their energies to attacking Trump personally and praying that the Mueller probe may open the way for impeachment, the president’s opponents, starting with the Democrat Party leadership, have shut down debate about key issues of economic, social and foreign policy — issues that matter to the broader public. Reducing all politics to a simple “Get Trump!’ slogan makes them a one-trick pony that may amuse people for a while but is unlikely to go very far.

    • An interesting article that gives us hope that Trump will easily win a second term, I have never doubted that he would serve two terms but am worried that a Dem may win in 2024. Hopefully Pence will win in 2024 and will give us the third and fourth Trump terms.

  23. Israel: Hundreds of Israeli ‘Yellow Vests’ protest high cost of living

    Hundreds of protesters wearing yellow vests took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday, outraged by high cost of living.

  24. France’s Macron says deeply regrets Trump decision on troops in Syria

    N’DJAMENA (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday he deeply regretted U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.[…]

    “I very deeply regret the decision made on Syria,” Macron said during a news conference in Chad.

    “To be allies is to fight shoulder to shoulder. It’s the most important thing for a head of state and head of the military,” he said. “An ally should be dependable.”

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-macron/frances-macron-says-deeply-regrets-trump-decision-on-troops-in-syria-idUSKCN1OM0EL

    • ASSOCIATED PRESS – Trump call with Turkish leader led to US pullout from Syria

      WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State group, according to U.S. and Turkish officials.

      Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers and much of the world with the move by rejecting the advice of his top aides and agreeing to a withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, two U.S. officials and a Turkish official briefed on the matter told The Associated Press.

      The Dec. 14 call, described by officials who were not authorized to discuss the decision-making process publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, provides insight into a consequential Trump decision that prompted the resignation of widely respected Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. It also set off a frantic, four-day scramble to convince the president either to reverse or delay the decision.

      The White House rejected the description of the call from the officials but was not specific.

      “In no uncertain terms, reporting throughout this story is not true,” National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said. “It is clear from the context that this false version of events is from sources who lack authority on the subject, possibly from unnamed sources in Turkey.”

      The State Department and Pentagon declined to comment on the account of the decision to withdraw the troops, which have been in Syria to fight the Islamic State since 2015.

      Despite losing the physical caliphate, thousands of IS fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, and the group continues to carry out insurgent attacks and could easily move back into territory it once held if American forces withdraw.

      The Dec. 14 call came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu agreed to have the two presidents discuss Erdogan’s threats to launch a military operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish rebels in northeast Syria, where American forces are based. The NSC then set up the call.

      Pompeo, Mattis and other members of the national security team prepared a list of talking points for Trump to tell Erdogan to back off, the officials said.

      But the officials said Trump, who had previously accepted such advice and convinced the Turkish leader not to attack the Kurds and put U.S. troops at risk, ignored the script. Instead, the president sided with Erdogan.

      In the following days, Trump remained unmoved by those scrambling to convince him to reverse or at least delay the decision to give the military and Kurdish forces time to prepare for an orderly withdrawal.

      “The talking points were very firm,” said one of the officials, explaining that Trump was advised to clearly oppose a Turkish incursion into northern Syria and suggest the U.S. and Turkey work together to address security concerns. “Everybody said push back and try to offer (Turkey) something that’s a small win, possibly holding territory on the border, something like that.”

      Erdogan, though, quickly put Trump on the defensive, reminding him that he had repeatedly said the only reason for U.S. troops to be in Syria was to defeat the Islamic State and that the group had been 99 percent defeated. “Why are you still there?” the second official said Erdogan asked Trump, telling him that the Turks could deal with the remaining IS militants.

      With Erdogan on the line, Trump asked national security adviser John Bolton, who was listening in, why American troops remained in Syria if what the Turkish president was saying was true, according to the officials. Erdogan’s point, Bolton was forced to admit, had been backed up by Mattis, Pompeo, U.S. special envoy for Syria Jim Jeffrey and special envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition Brett McGurk, who have said that IS retains only 1 percent of its territory, the officials said.

      Bolton stressed, however, that the entire national security team agreed that victory over IS had to be enduring, which means more than taking away its territory.

      Trump was not dissuaded, according to the officials, who said the president quickly capitulated by pledging to withdraw, shocking both Bolton and Erdogan.

      Caught off guard, Erdogan cautioned Trump against a hasty withdrawal, according to one official. While Turkey has made incursions into Syria in the past, it does not have the necessary forces mobilized on the border to move in and hold the large swaths of northeastern Syria where U.S. troops are positioned, the official said.

      The call ended with Trump repeating to Erdogan that the U.S. would pull out, but offering no specifics on how it would be done, the officials said.

      Over the weekend, the national security team raced to come up with a plan that would reverse, delay or somehow limit effects of the withdrawal, the officials said.

      On Monday, Bolton, Mattis and Pompeo met at the White House to try to plot a middle course. But they were told by outgoing chief of staff John Kelly and his soon-to-be successor Mick Mulvaney that Trump was determined to pull out and was not to be delayed or denied, according to the officials. The trio met again on Tuesday morning to try to salvage things, but were again rebuffed, the officials said.

      The White House had wanted to announce the decision on Tuesday — and press secretary Sarah Sanders scheduled a rare briefing specifically to announce it. But the Pentagon convinced Trump to hold off because the withdrawal plans weren’t complete and allies and Congress had not yet been notified, according to the officials. The first country aside from Turkey to be told of the impending pull-out was Israel, the officials said.

      Word of the imminent withdrawal began to seep out early Wednesday after U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Joseph Votel started to inform his commanders on the ground and the Kurds of the decision.

      Following the official announcement the White House emphasized that the U.S. will continue to support the fight against IS and remains ready to “re-engage” when needed. But in a tweet, the president said U.S. troops would no longer be fighting IS on behalf of others.

      “Time to focus on our Country & bring our youth back home where they belong!”

      https://apnews.com/ec2ed217357048ff998225a31534df12

  25. WATCH: Days After Pittsburgh, Israeli Lawmaker Shows ‘How Every Gun-Carrying Citizen Should Act’

    Sharren Haskel, 34, a member of the ruling Likud party, is the first female member of the Israeli Knesset to have served as a combat soldier during her mandatory military service. She still carries a firearm and was at the range for her annual training as ?required by Israeli law.

    …”Since my service as a combat soldier and commander in the Border Police and a level 07-Rifleman basic training, I carry a personal firearm. It’s my duty to maintain my shooting skills, so I’ll be ready for any situation. That’s how every gun-carrying citizen should act.”

    Haskel, who was born in Canada…noted that during the “?lone wolf intifada” of 2015 and 2016 — which saw a wave of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, mostly in Jerusalem and the West Bank — armed citizens neutralized a number of the attackers.

    According to Israel Police data, citizens were the first responders in 60 percent of the attacks in Jerusalem. Among them was Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.…

    Like Israel’s government in general — and in contrast with liberal American Jews — Haskel also praised President Donald Trump’s response. She tweeted a clip of a speech in which she said he had “delivered” a clear message that condemns & call[s] to fight racism and any form” of anti-Semitism.…

    https://www.pluralist.com/posts/2068-watch-days-after-pittsburgh-israeli-lawmaker-shows-how-every-gun-carrying-citizen-should-act?view_source=channels_page&view_medium=%5Bculture%5D

    • It’s such a pity that Judge Pirro tends to be so melodramatic (he said shyly). Her vocal inflections nearly lapses into “scold and nag” toned histrionics which can grate upon the nerves. Regardless, I certainly congratulate her for having the ovaries to emphatically demand (at video time point – 00:05:51), “Who gives a damn?”

      Unfortunately, whatever praise for Trump that leaks through all of her Sturm und Drang ends up coming across almost like a backhanded compliment (e.g., “The whole family’s so bucktoothed they could eat apples through a picket fence … but they all have hearts of gold!“). To Pirro’s credit, she does not stoop that low.

      • She is good, and when she falls into nag and scold mode she takes skin off those she is mad at.

    • Worthless vermin, total trash. Deport, deport, deport!

      I hope more becomes clear about the context as these guys are caught. It looks like a rural area, and it sounds like they’re speaking Arabic among themselves.
      Why a video of a video playing on a mobile though?

      • Because that is the best way to share a photo or video without identifying the source device. Everyone remember that in case you get a photo or video of something important. Allow people to take a photo of it or a video of your device playing it but do not send the original anywhere you may be concerned that the people receiving it do not have your best interests at heart.

  26. Circumcision at home in Monterotondo: two-year-old child dies, twin in hospital
    https://vaaju.com/italyeng/circumcision-at-home-in-monterotondo-a-two-year-old-child-dies-a-serious-twin-in-a-hospital/

    A two-year-old boy died and his twin was hospitalized in a serious condition at the hospital after being subjected to a ritual circumcision in the home. It happened in Monterotondo, near Rome.
    The dead child and the second hospital are of Nigerian origin. Exercising the surgery would have been a so-called physician of Nigerian origin, who in these hours is heard by the investigators. According to a first reconstruction, the exercise was first performed on a child and then on the other: when the conditions of the two appeared severe, the alarm was triggered and 118 were warned. For one of the two children, however, there was nothing to do because he had already lost a lot of blood.
    The Prosecutor’s Office in Tivoli has opened a file with the hypothesis of murder in relation to the child’s death and in the same file the most serious injuries are also assumed with reference to the other serious conditions.

  27. London stabbing: Horror as teen knifed in Mile End park (express, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1062674/london-stabbing-mile-end-tower-hamlets-police-scotland-yard

    “A TEENAGER has been taken to hospital after being stabbed during a possible robbery in an east London park.

    Police rushed to the scene at 8pm on Friday December 21. A spokeswoman from Scotland Yard Police said: “Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 8.18pm on Friday to reports of a man stabbed in Mile End Park close to Burdett Road.

    Officers attended. A 19-year-old man has been taken to an east London hospital. We await an update on his condition.

    “At this early stage, it is thought that the victim may have been assaulted during a robbery.

    “Officers remain at the scene.

    “There have been no arrests and enquiries continue.”

    Tower Hamlets Police tweeted a picture of police tape in Mile End Park.

    On Twitter, they said: “Due to an incident the bridge from Mile End Park that links to Solebay Street is closed.

    “We shall endeavour to open it as quick as we can.

    “Please find an alternative way around.”

    Only two days earlier, on Wednesday, three people were stabbed in a knife attack outside a doctor’s surgery in Tower Hamlets.

    This is the latest in a series of violent knife attacks to blight London this year.

    Just hours earlier in a separate incident, a man was rushed to hospital after he was stabbed on Chiswick High Street at 11am on Friday.

    The man was taken to hospital with stab wounds.”

    • A TEENAGER has been taken to hospital after being stabbed during a possible robbery in an east London park.

      Hokay. So now we’ve been moved along (“nothing to see here, folks”) from the preposterous codespeak of “lone wolf attacks” over to “mentally disturbed” and now, “a possible robbery”. The only genuine mystery is what new insult to our collective intelligence they are busily concocting.

      It’s bad enough that these wonks and wankers trot out this latest bright and shiny new euphemism for what any drooling imbecile would know well enough to call Islamic jihad. As it is, sincere doubt exists about whether most Infidels even will sit still through all of this nonsensical “Fan Dance of the Seven Veils” jihadist taqiyya.

      There’s only two or three of them what have come off and restless Western audiences are pulling up floorboards in preparation to rush the stage. Way too many ordinary people are donning yellow vests twigging onto the flaccid ineffectiveness of these mincing, Politically Correct Socialist wannabe autocracies with their coquettish prinking about and limp-wristed, stripey-pants nuanced diplomacy.

      Far too often we have been fed Zhou Enlai’s PoMo half-truth of, “All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.” For both Red China and Islam, The War Never Ends, it is only lunatic outsiders who adamantly refuse to admit this.

      In a tidal wave that is sweeping Western shores, increasing numbers of indigenous citizens are realizing the real truth of Clausewitz’s more apt maxim:

      War is a continuation of state policy by other means.

      When enough voters subscribe to this original doctrine, terrorists and Communists (is there any difference?) will have their pudenda on the anvil.

  28. Medieval carol to be performed for first time in 550 years (telegraph, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/23/medieval-carol-performed-first-time-550-years/

    “A medieval Christmas carol found in a university library will be performed tomorrow for the first time in 550 years at a special cathedral service.

    Parit Virgo Filium was transcribed from a 15th Century manuscript and will be sung at Newcastle Cathedral on Christmas Eve.

    The piece, described as “delightful” and worthy of a place in the national repertoire of carols, features a single line with Latin lyrics celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

    A series of fragments containing the music for the carol were discovered on parchment that had been used to bind a separate manuscript.

    Professor Andrew Wathey, one of the founders of the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, discovered and transcribed the song while carrying out research on the manuscript in Cambridge University Library.

    “The original manuscript is in very poor shape,” said Professor Wathey, a musicologist and the vice chancellor of Northumbria University. “It’s a piece we didn’t know existed and there is no other surviving source for this music, so it’s unique.

    “It’s a bit like archaeology working with these fragments and there’s an element of reconstruction.

    “Only the top part survives, as a mensural monophonic – a single unaccompanied vocal line with both pitch and rhythm notated, usually a signal that other voice parts were to be provided from memory or following simple musical convention.

    “Copied in the early or mid-15th Century, it was added at the foot of two pages of a service book which itself was later broken up and used to bind another manuscript, acquired at auction by Cambridge University Library in 1996.”

    He said it was quite common for parchment, which was costly and so reused, to be recycled as binding for other books.

    While the words of the carol were relatively common, it had only been set to music once before. The music on the fragments was written using the C2 clef with rhythms notated in breves and semi-breves.

    Professor Wathey added: “There are a handful of cases from this period where polyphonic music was jotted into service books containing the plainsongs and texts of the liturgy, but this is the only such instance involving the use of carols in the Christmas liturgy in the 15th Century. The carol is quite widely found, but usually without music .

    “There’s inevitably a bit of a thrill in being able to perform music after a half a millennium.”

    The carol will be performed by Newcastle Cathedral Choir at an evening service called the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

    Ian Roberts, the choir’s director, said the music had proven popular with the singers.

    “Newcastle Cathedral Choir is enjoying learning Parit Virgo Filium, and we are looking forward to performing it on Christmas Eve,” he said. “For our boy and girl choristers this is a unique experience – to be the first choir to sing a carol that will have not been heard for 550 years.

    “It’s a delightful carol that deserves a place in the national repertoire of carols.””

  29. Swedish Broadcaster Guest Compares Pro-Life Christians to ISIS, Nazis (breitbart, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/23/swedish-broadcaster-guest-compares-isis-nazis-pro-life-christians/

    “Swedish public broadcaster SVT has been criticised for not challenging a guest on one of its programmes who compared pro-life Christians to Islamic State fighters and Nazi Germany.

    The criticism comes after the broadcaster aired its Current News programme which was on the topic of Islamic State radicalism within families and featured Islamologist Mohammad Fazlhashemi, Swedish newspaper Världen Idag reports.

    Mr Fazlhashemi commented on a recent video which emerged in Sweden showing Swedish Islamic State supporters interacting with their children urging them to say “Allah hu Akbar” and another describing to his children how he had killed an “unbeliever.”

    When asked if he saw any resemblance in the behaviour to other extremist ideologies, Fazlhashemi said, “Yes, violent ideologies. From Nazism to Christians who kill abortionists. They all think the same way.”

    Programme host Jon Nilsson was slammed by the newspaper, which has a Christian leaning, for allowing the point to go unchallenged noting that fewer than ten Christians had been convicted for murdering abortion doctors compared with the millions of deaths under Nazism and untold thousands under the oppressive yoke of the Islamic State.

    Frida Mörtsell from SVT’s press office claimed the comments were directed at Christians who killed abortion doctors and not Christians in general, while Fazlhashemi himself clarified his words saying, “The difference may lie in the scope, but the mindset is the same: to have the right to violate others because they ‘do not think as we do’.”

    While the programme was slammed by the Christian-leaning newspaper, it is unlikely to have caused much in the way of controversy across Sweden, where the exceedingly liberal state church is losing members every year and some are predicting it will lose as many as a million members in the next ten years.

    According to a report released earlier this year, the number of baptisms has also fallen sharply, from 73 per cent of Swedish children being baptised into the Church of Sweden in 2000, to only 43 per cent in 2017, largely due to the recent mass influx of migrants.”

  30. ‘Iron-bar wielding stowaways’ accused of trying to take over cargo ship in English Channel before the vessel was rescued by the elite SBS are charged with affray (dailymail, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6524815/Iron-bar-wielding-stowaways-accused-trying-cargo-ship-charged-affray.html

    “Four men accused of trying to take over a cargo ship in the English Channel have been arrested

    The men have been charged with affray after police boarded the ship on Friday in the Thames Estuary amid reports of stowaways threatening crew.

    Samuel Jolumi, 26, Ishola Sunday, 27, Toheeb Popoola, 26, and Joberto McGee, 20, all of no fixed address are all due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

    Essex Police was called at around 9.15am on Friday to a call relating to the safety of the crew on board the Grande Tema, a 71,000-tonne ship which set off from Lagos, Nigeria, on December 10.

    A dozen heavily armed Special Boat Service commandos abseiled from a helicopter on to a cargo ship on a daring mission to end a hostage drama.

    Under cover of darkness, the crack troops swung on to the deck of the 770ft Grande Tema to tackle a gang of iron- bar-wielding stowaways who had forced the terrified crew to lock themselves in the bridge.

    As their Royal Navy Merlin helicopter hovered overhead, the SBS team – armed with assault rifles – rounded up the men and locked them in a cabin before freeing the ship’s 27 Italian and Filipino sailors.

    Once the mission – understood to have been codenamed Operation Buckthorn – was complete, the troops were joined by police officers who arrested the stowaways.

    SBS boarded the ship and detained the four people at around 23:00 on Friday night – 14 hours after the authorities were first alerted.

    The vessel was sailing in circles in the Thames Estuary until the SBS unit were helicoptered onto the ship.

    Crew believe the stowaways boarded the 71,000-tonne ship when it set off from Lagos and wanted to jump into the water as it was approaching land.

    SBS abseiled onto the ship and detained the stowaways in a 20-minute operation.

    No one was injured in the incident and police said the situation was not being treated as a hostage, piracy or terror-related issue.

    The cargo ship arrived at the Port of Tilbury in Essex just after 4.20am on Saturday, according to MarineTraffic.com.

    The ship’s operator, Grimaldi Lines, said there were no reports of injuries.

    Once the mission – understood to have been codenamed Operation Buckthorn – was complete, the troops were joined by police officers who arrested the stowaways…”

      • …a very sick data point.

        Twisted enough to make Michael Jackson look normal.

        PS: This fits perfectly with Eeyore’s generalized theory* of terrorism.

        * A classic example:

        The Iceberg Theorem: This hypothesis posits that only 10% of things are readily visible.

        The Generalized Iceberg Theorem: A blanket stipulation that 90% of everything is $h!t.

        This is Norseradish, and I approve of Eeyore’s Generalized Terrorism Theorem.

      • I don’t think so, serial killers in the pen receive a large and I do mean large amount of fan mail from women of all ages. This sounds like a new type of fan mail to the killers.

        • I don’t think so, serial killers in the pen receive a large and I do mean large amount of fan mail from women of all ages.

          Not just “fan mail” but marriage proposals and invitations to bear children with them..

          At times, it becomes difficult, if not nigh well impossible, to tell which party is more demented. Those who are inside or the ones running around free on the outside?

          This sounds like a new type of fan mail to the killers.

          I, too, got the same impression. This enters the realm of some stereotypical psycho–loner–outcast’s projection fantasy. If it weren’t for prison security, these types would be hanging out in the nearest supermax’s visiting area.

          Although I abhor conspiracy theories, there emerge two weird possibilities:

          1.) This is a Leftist quasi “false flag” operation whose actual intent is to incite more school shootings to trigger increased gun control. (As in: Who cares how many kids die if we finally can get a ban on all assault weapons?)

          2.) The website is an FBI “honey pot” intended to database potential mass murderers, formative killers or active shooters.

          Regardless, if this is real and the feds aren’t monitoring all traffic at the site’s URL and doing it nine ways to Sunday on a 24–7–365 basis, then all it’ll take is just one uninterdicted active shooter arising from this digital pile of excrement, and heads will roll for sure.

  31. Egypt police kill 14 in Sinai shootout (memo, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181223-egypt-police-kill-14-in-sinai-shootout/

    “Egyptian security forces killed 14 suspected militants in the restive Sinai Peninsula, according to the country’s interior ministry as reported on Anadolu Agency.

    A ministry statement said the militants were killed in a shootout during a raid on a “terrorist” hotbed planning attacks in the North Sinai city of Arish.

    The ministry’s narrative could not be verified from an independent source.

    On Thursday, security forces shot dead eight suspected militants in an exchange of fire in Cairo.

    Egyptian authorities have stepped up security measures across the country ahead of Christmas, which Egyptian Coptic Christians celebrate on Jan. 7.

    The Sinai Peninsula has remained the epicenter of a militant insurgency since mid-2013 when Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was ousted in a military coup.

    Coptic Christians are estimated to account for roughly 15 per cent of Egypt’s overall population of some 104 million.”

    • 14…
      Saved lawyers’ fees, court costs, appeals, incarceration expense. Must save a pretty penny, so many shot dead every day.

  32. German journalist who ‘faked’ numerous stories faces charges for soliciting Syria donations (alaraby, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/12/23/journalist-who-faked-stories-faces-charges-over-syria-donations

    “A German journalist who was found to have made up information for numerous articles may now be charged with allegedly soliciting donations for Syrian orphans from his readers.

    Award-winning reporter Claas Relotius, 33, was recently sacked by German magazine Der Spiegel after it was revealed that he had fabricated information for dozens of stories.

    Relotius had most recently won an award in early December, for a story about a child in war-torn Syria.

    Der Spiegel said on Sunday that its former reporter had asked readers by email from his private account for donations to be transferred to his personal bank account.

    The alleged appeal followed a July 2016 article by Relotius on Syrian orphan children in Turkey. A Turkish photographer who worked with him on the piece has since noted significant inaccuracies.

    Der Spiegel has said it believes Relotius may have simply made up one of the main protagonists, whom the article described as young siblings…”

  33. Qatar group reportedly shaped Khashoggi columns (gulfnews, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/qatar/qatar-group-reportedly-shaped-khashoggi-columns-1.61092405

    “Dubai: A news feature in the Washington Post highlighted how Qatar “at times shaped the columns slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi submitted to The Washington Post, proposing topics, drafting material and prodding him to take a harder line against the Saudi government.”

    The feature about Khashoggi’s final months in his self-imposed exile said that “Khashoggi came under mounting suspicion because of his writing as well as associations he cultivated over many years with perceived enemies of Riyadh.”

    “Among Khashoggi’s friends in the United States were individuals with real or imagined affiliations with the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, and an Islamic advocacy organisation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, regarded warily for its support of the public uprisings of the Arab Spring,” the feature said.

    “Perhaps most problematic for Khashoggi were his connections to an organisation funded by Saudi Arabia’s regional nemesis, Qatar. Text messages between Khashoggi and an executive at Qatar Foundation International show that the executive, Maggie Mitchell Salem, at times shaped the columns he submitted to The Washington Post, proposing topics, drafting material and prodding him to take a harder line against the Saudi government. Khashoggi also appears to have relied on a researcher and translator affiliated with the organisation, which promotes Arabic-language education in the United States.”

    Editors at The Washington Post’s opinion section, which is separate from the newsroom, reportedly said they were unaware of these arrangements.

    Khashoggi was never a staff employee of the Post, and he was paid about $500 per piece for the 20 columns he wrote over the course of the year. He lived in an apartment near Tysons Corner in Fairfax County that he had purchased while working at the Saudi Embassy a decade earlier, The Post said.

    Salem, a former US diplomat who had known Khashoggi since 2002, said that any assistance she provided Khashoggi was from a friend who sought to help him succeed in the United States.

    She noted that Khashoggi’s English abilities were limited and said that the foundation did not pay Khashoggi nor seek to influence him on behalf of Qatar.

    “He and I talked about issues of the day as people who had come together, caring about the same part of the world,” Salem said. “Jamal was never an employee, never a consultant, never anything to [the foundation]. Never.”

    However, according to a voluminous collection of messages obtained by The Post, Khashoggi appears to have accepted significant help with his columns and Salem reviewed his work in advance and in some instances appears to have proposed language,

    In early August, Salem prodded Khashoggi to write about Saudi Arabia’s alliances “from [Washington] DC to [occupied] Jerusalem to rising right wing parties across Europe … bringing an end to the liberal world order that challenges their abuses at home”.

    Khashoggi expressed misgivings about such a strident tone, then asked, “So do you have time to write it?”

    “I’ll try,” she replied, although she went on to urge him to “try a draft” himself incorporating sentences that she had sent him by text.

    A column reflecting their discussion appeared in The Post on August 7. Khashoggi appears to have used some of Salem’s suggestions, though it largely tracks ideas that he expressed in their exchange over WhatsApp.

    Other texts in the 200-page trove indicate that Salem’s organisation paid a researcher who did work for Khashoggi, The Post said.

    The foundation is an offshoot of a larger Qatar-based organisation. Khashoggi also relied on a translator who worked at times for the Qatari embassy and the foundation.

    Khashoggi and Salem seemed to understand how his association with a Qatar-funded entity could be perceived, reminding one another to keep the arrangement “discreet.” He voiced concern that his family could be vulnerable.

    As she reviewed a draft of the August 7 column, she accused him of pulling punches. “You moved off topic and seem to excuse Riyadh…ITS HIGHLY PROBLEMATIC.”

    Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Saudi authorities have arrested 21 individuals linked with the murder and following initial investigations, the public prosecution asked for the death penalty for five of them.”

  34. Police in Tangier Dismantle Irregular Migration Network (moroccoworldnews, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/12/261348/police-tangier-irregular-migration-network/

    “Police in Tangier busted a human trafficking network on Friday evening. The network was organizing irregular migration. The operation resulted in the arrest of four suspects aged between 24 and 44.

    A statement from the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) said that the police arrested three Moroccans involved in human trafficking, and fourth suspest of unspecified nationality. Police also arrested 22 irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

    Police placed the defendants in custody while further investigation is underway. With the supervision of the public prosecutor, possible links with other criminal networks in Morocco and abroad are under investigation.

    Morocco has dismantled a dozen irregular migration networks throughout the year. The pressure this put on Morocco led to the European Union proving financial aid, while the North African country tries to help Spain to cope with irregular migration issues…”

  35. Two PSP workers gunned down in Karachi office attack (tribune, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1873310/1-two-psp-workers-gunned-karachi-office-attack/

    “Two Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) workers were killed and as many sustained injuries when unidentified assailants opened fire on the party’s office in Karachi’s Nazimabad neighbourhood late on Sunday night, Express News reported.

    Rescue teams reached the PSP office, situated in Nazimabad’s Gulbahar Town, soon after the attack and shifted the bodies and injured to nearby Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Injured were said to be in critical condition.

    Meanwhile, police and other law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to bring the culprits to book…”

  36. K-P sees a rise in parents refusing polio drops (tribune, Dec 23, 2018)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1873285/1-k-p-sees-rise-parents-refusing-polio-drops/

    “Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has seen a rise in parents refusing to administer polio drops to their children with 13,000 such cases being reported this year.

    The highest number of these incidents were in Peshawar throughout the province.

    In the ongoing Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) drive against the debilitating disease, 13,743 parents from 17 districts turned down vaccination for their children.

    According to EPI, 10,319 parents in Peshawar turned down the polio teams.

    Moreover 971 parents refused their children being administered the polio vaccine in Charsadda, 797 in Laki Marwat and 564 parents in Bannu.

    Peshawar’s Shaheen Muslim town saw over 1,400 children not being vaccinated.

    Not a single parent refused polio vaccination for their children in Batgram, Bonir, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Kohistan, Malakand, Shangla and Torghar. Director EPI program Dr.

    Akram Shah has said that big cities have relatively high number of refusing parents than the small cities.

    He hoped that the number of declining parents will be curtailed soon as EPI program was giving special attention to such parents.”