Contributor’s Links post for January 3rd, 2019

Daily Links Post graphic

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We muse use it while we can.

About Eeyore

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

96 Replies to “Contributor’s Links post for January 3rd, 2019”

  1. Port Sudan sees renewed mass demonstrations (memo, Jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190103-port-sudan-sees-renewed-mass-demonstrations/

    “Popular demonstrations erupted Thursday in Sudan’s eastern city of Port Sudan, where protesters condemned alleged repression by the government and deteriorating economic conditions.

    Security forces dispersed hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas, eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency.

    In December, the port city saw similar protests that were also dispersed by security forces…”

  2. Morocco: 7 new suspects to be tried for murder of tourists (memo, Jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190103-morocco-7-new-suspects-to-be-tried-for-murder-of-tourists/

    “The Moroccan Public Prosecutor today referred seven new suspects to trial in the case of the murder of two foreign tourists, bringing the number of people to be tried in the case to 22, including one foreign national.

    On 17 December, Rabat announced the discovery of the bodies of two Norwegian and Danish tourists near Toubkal Mountain in the province of Al-Haouz.

    A few days ago, the Moroccan prosecutor’s office said in a statement that 15 suspects had been transferred to trial in connection with the deaths of the two tourists.

    “Seven [new] persons suspected of having been involved in the killing of the two tourists have been referred for investigation charged with terrorism, including a Swiss citizen of Spanish nationality,” Attorney General Hassan Daki said in a statement.

    Prosecutors demanded that they be investigated for “terrorist acts, including the crimes of forming a gang to prepare and commit terrorist acts, deliberately assisting those who commit terrorist acts and training people to join a terrorist organisation.”

    Last Monday, Interior Minister Abdulwafi Lafitit, said those involved in the murder were “wolves moving in the shadows”.”

  3. Qatar approves setting up global data centre for Microsoft (memo, Jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190103-qatar-approves-setting-up-global-data-centre-for-microsoft/

    “The Qatari cabinet yesterday approved plans to set up a global data centre for Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure and took measures to draft a law to create a Media City.

    The cabinet said in a statement that the Media City will have an independent budget and its borders and coordinates will be determined by the Council of Ministers.

    The Media City aims to manage and develop media activity and attract international media and technology companies as well as research and training institutions in the fields of media and digital media.

    South Africa’s Cape Town and Johannesburg were also among Abu Dhabi and Dubai as newly announced Middle Eastern and African regions that Microsoft have secured. Azure has 54 regions worldwide and is available in 140 countries.”

  4. Naples mayor offers to welcome in stranded NGO migrant boat (reuters, Jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-ngo-italy/naples-mayor-offers-to-welcome-in-stranded-ngo-migrant-boat-idUSKCN1OX14L

    “ROME (Reuters) – Naples is ready to defy Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and let in a charity-run ship carrying 32 migrants that is blocked in the stormy Mediterranean, the city mayor said on Thursday.

    His offer adds to a growing challenge from opposition politicians to Salvini’s far-right League, which has vowed to bar migrants and make life difficult for those already here.

    Both Italy and Malta are refusing to let the Sea-Watch 3, a ship operated by a German non-governmental organization (NGO), dock and set down the migrants who were rescued off Libya on Dec. 22.

    Both countries say they have taken in too many migrants and accuse NGO rescue ships of acting as a taxi service for would-be refugees.

    Naples’ center-left mayor Luigi de Magistris said Salvini was playing politics with peoples’ lives.

    “To leave people and children in the middle of cold and stormy seas is a crime — not simply indecent, immoral and appalling,” de Magistris told Radio Crc.

    “I hope that this boat approaches the port of Naples because, unlike what the government says, we will launch a rescue operation and we will let it enter the port,” he said. “I will be the first to lead the rescue.”

    Naples is hundreds of miles to the north of the Sea-Watch 3 and there was no immediate response from the boat to the offer.

    Malta overnight allowed the boat into its waters to sail closer to land where the seas are less choppy, but is refusing to let it dock.

    Several local politicians from opposition parties have defied Salvini’s anti-migrant policies.

    On Wednesday, the mayor of the Sicilian capital Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, said he would join other cities in ignoring a new security law because it abolishes asylum protection for many migrants.

    Salvini on Thursday threatened mayors with legal action.

    “Anyone who helps clandestine migrants hates Italians. They will answer for their actions before the law and the history books. I will not back down,” Salvini tweeted.

    “Italy’s ports are closed. We have taken in too many fake refugees. We have enriched too many people-smugglers. Left-wing mayors should think of the difficulties of their own citizens and not clandestine migrants.”

    On taking office last year, Salvini barred NGO boats and moved to help Libya prevent people leaving its shores.

    Some 12,977 migrants entered Italy in 2018 via boats from Libya, down 87.9 percent on 2017 and 92.85 percent on 2016, according to government data.”

  5. Bab Al-Mandeb Strait: Sino-American duel in the Red Sea (ahram, Jan 3, 2019)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/321123/Egypt/Politics-/Bab-AlMandeb-Strait-SinoAmerican-duel-in-the-Red-S.aspx 

    “Like several regional powers that have rushed in recent years to the southern Red Sea, various global powers have also established naval bases near the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait that controls the passage between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean.

    Some of these powers, often established in Djibouti on the western shore of the Red Sea, have a relatively old presence in this region of the Horn of Africa.

    France has had a military base there since 1977, the date of independence of this former French colony. The United States established a base there in 2002 after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

    Other powers such as Italy, Japan and most recently China have also gained a foothold in Djibouti because of its strategic position to the southern entrance to the Red Sea and its relative political stability compared to its neighbours.

    The last great power to set its sights on the Horn of Africa was Russia, which announced in August last year that it was going to build a “logistics” base on the Red Sea in Eritrea.

    Without indicating exactly where or when the project was to be carried out, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with his Eritrean counterpart that it aimed to boost bilateral trade and infrastructure investment.

    The projected base will be Russia’s first in Africa since the end of the Cold War, and it will provide it with the opportunity to project its power across the Middle East and the shipping routes between Asia and Europe.

    The project is undoubtedly the result of the determination of Russian President Vladimir Putin to assert the global role of his country and to ensure its place in the race for influence with the US and China.

    In August 2017, China inaugurated its naval base in Djibouti at a cost of $600 million and hosting up to 10,000 soldiers. According to the Chinese government, the base is intended to help Beijing in its humanitarian and peacekeeping missions in Africa (2,400 Chinese soldiers are now deployed on the continent) and Western Asia and to lead emergency relief, protection, and evacuation work of Chinese citizens living overseas and engage in military cooperation, including joint manoeuvres, and combat piracy.

    The base will also be responsible for ensuring the security of international and strategic seaways near the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, in order to protect China’s massive economic interests in Africa and the Middle East. It will serve as a transport route for raw materials from the Horn of Africa countries to China and electronic products from China to the Horn of Africa.

    China has invested more than $30 billion in Sudan and South Sudan, for example, both of which are oil-rich countries. In addition, it has built a 750km railway line linking Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to the Red Sea via Djibouti. The Chinese base will see the extension of this rail network to the countries of the Horn of Africa region to assist in transporting goods between these countries and China through the port of Djibouti.

    The establishment of the Chinese base in Djibouti also marks a break with Beijing’s traditional foreign policy focusing on the East Asian region. It is a projection of Chinese power that expresses the country’s growing interest in Africa and the Middle East, especially in the framework of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “Belt and Road” initiative, also known as “One Belt, One Road”, which aims to establish land and sea routes linking China to Europe via Eurasia and the Middle East.

    The base is a result of China’s desire to build a new “Maritime Silk Road” joining up “a string of pearls” in the shape of a series of Chinese “footholds” linking the Indian Ocean, the Gulf region and the Red Sea and serving the “One Belt, One Road” initiative announced in 2015. As part of this initiative, China plans to invest $8 trillion in infrastructure in 68 countries, including Djibouti, which is essential for the African and European routes to China.

    CHINESE PLANS:

    The establishment of the first Chinese base in the region came after several years of increasing economic and commercial involvement in Africa and the Middle East.

    Now the second-largest economy in the world after the United States, China plans to become the largest by the 2030s. In order to help achieve this, Beijing is seeking through its naval base in Djibouti to protect its growing economic interests in this part of the world. It is seeking to secure natural resources to support its economic growth, as can is clear when one considers that half the oil imported by China passes through the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait and most Chinese exports to Europe are channelled through the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.

    To serve its trade and economic interests in Africa, China is also investing heavily in the construction of infrastructure in the east of the continent. The most obvious example has been the construction of a railway line in Kenya between Nairobi, the capital, and the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean at a total cost of $3.6 billion. Inaugurated in May 2017, the railway is the most expensive infrastructure project undertaken in the country since Kenya’s independence in 1964.

    In addition to China’s economic aid, investment and business activities in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, the region is also home to thousands of Chinese workers. In 2015, Beijing evacuated 600 Chinese workers from Yemen because of the conflict in the country. In 2011, it sent a warship and a military transport plane to Libya to evacuate some 35,000 Chinese nationals following the overthrow of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Libyan crisis was a major factor in the decision to establish a base in Djibouti.

    The Chinese base was also built in the context of growing economic relations between Beijing and Djibouti, which allowed China to override the objections of the United States. Nearly 40 per cent of the financing of major infrastructure and investment projects in Djibouti now comes from China, and these have included the Ethiopia-Djibouti oil pipeline and the Ethiopia-Djibouti fresh water pipeline.

    China’s Export Import Bank has granted $957 million to finance other infrastructure…”

    • “… projects, including the railway line linking the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to Djibouti City on the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait. It is hoped that this rail link with one of the African economies experiencing strong economic growth will turn Djibouti into a hub for East African trade.

      This is particularly the case since Djibouti has few opportunities for economic growth outside the exploitation of its geostrategic location near the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait. In addition to direct financial gains from land leasing and foreign bases like that of China, employment opportunities for Djibouti citizens are provided by the US and French bases in the country, with these also contributing significantly to foreign trade. Port activity now accounts for 70 per cent of Djibouti’s GDP.

      China’s military engagement in the Horn of Africa began in 2008 with mainly counter-piracy missions. Today, its commitment has broadened in line with the deepening of its economic and commercial relations with the region and as part of a nascent but growing global military engagement policy stretching from the South China Sea to East Africa. This has meant the establishment of a strong navy allowing China to project its power around the world, and naval bases like that in Djibouti will be essential to achieve this ambition.

      A US Pentagon report released last year said that the Djibouti base, along with the regular visits of Chinese warships to foreign ports, reflected China’s growing global influence. Similarly, the Chinese have recently stepped up their naval patrols near the Gulfs of Oman and Aden.

      Another indicator of China’s global ambition came in the parallel it drew between the inauguration of its base in Djibouti and the celebration of the legacy of Zheng He (1371-1433 CE), an early 15th-century Chinese admiral whose travels in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean have become the symbol of past Chinese power and of China’s desire to see a new world order led by China.

      Accompanied by 27,000 men on 62 large and 255 small ships, Zheng He led seven naval expeditions to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the east coast of Africa over 28 years during the Chinese Ming Dynasty. It is not a coincidence that the day Chinese ships embarked for the port of Djibouti on 11 July 2017 was the same day on which Zheng He undertook his famous voyages more than 600 years ago.

      The Chinese vision of a new “Maritime Silk Road” is thus closely linked to the official celebration of Zheng He who brought fame and power to China centuries ago. In Chinese publications of recent years, Zheng He’s fleets are described as tools for economic growth, scientific research, peaceful cultural exchange and universal friendship. His travels are often seen as symbols of a global order based on trade rather than conflict.

      However, it should be noted that the main objective of Zheng He’s travels was to assert the power and dominance of the Chinese Ming Dynasty and to collect tribute from local rulers.

      US COUNTER-PLANS:

      Located just a few miles from the Chinese base, the US military base in Djibouti, called Camp Lemonnier, hosts some 4,000 soldiers.

      It has several aims, the first of which is to assist in the fight against terrorism. The foremost target is Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, which controls about a quarter of the central and eastern parts of the country. The US military regularly conducts secret operations and drone raids against this terrorist organisation from its base in Djibouti, as well as against the Islamist group Al-Shabab in Somalia that has carried out suicide bombings in the capital Mogadishu. This insurgency, which has spread to neighbouring Kenya, has become a key target of US President Donald Trump’s war on terrorism.

      In addition to logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting against the Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015, the US military in the Horn of Africa has been helping to ensure free navigation through the Bab Al-Mandab Strait. A large proportion of the oil exports going from the Gulf region to the West goes through this strait, as do almost all the US warships, including aircraft carriers and submarines, that cross the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. US warships, as well as those of the European Union, Russia and China, have also been conducting patrols in the Gulf of Aden since 2008 to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia.

      However, the US, which has long dominated the region through its military presence and political influence, was caught off its guard by the decision of Djibouti to approve the installation on its soil of a Chinese naval base in 2016. Two years before this, Susan Rice, the then national security advisor to US president Barack Obama, came to Djibouti in order to head off a similar deal with Russia. However, Washington could do nothing to prevent China from setting up a base in Djibouti, given the solid and growing economic relations between the two countries.

      The establishment of a Chinese military base in the Horn of Africa, the first outside China, is a negative strategic development for the US, and it has serious implications for the long-standing US dominance in the region. Shortly after the 2016 decision, the White House announced the renewal of the lease of the US base in the country for another 20 years and the doubling of its annual payments to Djibouti to $63 million, as well as plans to modernise the base at a cost of over $1 billion.

      Among other things, the Pentagon fears that the installation of a Chinese base in Djibouti just a few miles from Camp Lemonnier will allow Beijing to monitor US military operations in the region and the means used in their implementation.

      Moreover, in March last year Thomas Waldhauser, commander of the US Africa Command AFRICOM, warned the US Congress that China could threaten US interests in Africa, especially in the Red Sea, should it be allowed to take over the key port of Doraleh in Djibouti. This port had been operated by Dubai Ports World (DP World), a United Arab Emirates-owned company, since 2006, but the Djibouti government broke its agreement with the Emirati company and nationalised the port in February last year.

      According to Waldhauser, Djibouti had assured the United States that it would not lease the port to the Chinese, but he still warned that the US could not afford to run the risk of seeing the port fall under China’s control, since this could affect the resupplying of the US military base in the country and the ability of US Navy ships to refuel there. There was a need for the “rewriting of US military strategy in the region with China in mind”, he said.

      Given China’s strong economic involvement in Djibouti, unmatched by the US, Washington seems to have sought an alternative in its neighbour Eritrea, which also enjoys a strategic position on the southern Red Sea. Some scholars believe that Eritrea could in future host a new American military base and allow US access to its ports, though for this to happen Eritrea would first have to break out of its diplomatic isolation and normalise relations with Ethiopia.

      In order to bring this about, last year the US launched a quiet campaign by Christian Church leaders and US diplomats to lobby both sides to meet and resolve their differences. In April 2018 after the accession of new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto visited Eritrea, the first such visit in over a decade, before travelling on to Ethiopia in a sign of the US interest in rekindling ties with Asmara.

      Yamamoto had previously hosted meetings between senior officials of the two countries in Washington and set up diplomatic back-channels. Diplomatic sources said he had brought together Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and Yemane Gebreab, a long-standing advisor of the Eritrean president, and former Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn, with a view to laying the foundations for a peace agreement to be announced a few months later.

      Washington also encouraged its allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have important interests in the Horn of Africa particularly because of the war in Yemen, to mediate between Addis Ababa and Asmara to put an end to the state of war between the two countries. These efforts were successful thanks in part to Saudi and Emirati financial support, and in July 2018 Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki signed a peace agreement in Saudi Arabia ending two decades of enmity sparked by a two-year border conflict that broke out in 1998.

      Faced with the growing influence of China in the Red Sea, the Horn of Africa, and on the African continent in general, the United States has been determined to counter the ambitions of Beijing. In its National Security Strategy for 2017, the Trump administration described China as a “revisionist power” and a “strategic competitor” of the US that was seeking to undermine US power, influence, security and prosperity. Like Russia, China is now seen as challenging US power, influence and interests.

      The US recognises that it cannot match the scale of China’s investment in Africa, even as it has vowed to reduce its economic influence in the region. Washington is particularly concerned about the security implications of China’s taking control of strategic assets in the wider world as a result of unsustainable borrowing by developing countries, especially in Africa. Its strategy, therefore, partly relies on encouraging American companies to invest more in the continent, explaining why US loans have recently increased to Africa. This development has been widely seen as one way of countering Chinese largesse in Africa and in other emerging markets.

      A recent study by the international law firm Baker McKenzie has indicated that the battle for influence between China and the United States is expected to intensify over the next decade. It notes that China spent $8.7 billion on infrastructure projects in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2017 alone and that the decision by Trump last October to change the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) into the International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) and double its loans to $60 billion in the developing world, notably in Africa, was intended to counter the rapidly growing influence of China.

      This decision will considerably speed up the race for influence in Africa, especially in the Horn of Africa region, between the two superpowers.”

  6. US Police Arrest Teacher Trying to Traffic Minor to Morocco For Prostitution (moroccoworldnews, Jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/262307/us-teacher-traffic-minor-morocco/

    “After a joint investigation by the Freestone County Sheriff and the McLennan County Sheriff, police arrested an American school teacher in central Texas for conspiring to traffic a minor to Morocco for prostitution.

    The arrested woman, Amber Michelle Parker, 37, is an eighth-grade teacher in Mexia Junior High School in Mexia, Texas.

    Freestone County Sheriff Jeremy Shipley said that Parker “was placed under arrest for the offense of Trafficking of Persons.”

    The arrest came after other family members contacted police, doubting Parker’s intentions with the girl.

    Texas news outlet KBTX quoted Shipley as saying the woman “was online talking to multiple guys in Morocco trying to get it setup where she could take [the minor] with her over there to them.”

    Parker promoted the girl as a virgin…”

  7. El Pais: Morocco Asks Spain for More in Exchange for Border Control (moroccoworldnews, jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/262349/el-pais-morocco-spain-border-control/

    “Morocco has made a list of demands to Spain in exchange for Morocco’s efforts in curbing the flow of irregular migration to Europe.

    Spain, which is often the first entry point of irregular migrants to Europe, is demanding that Morocco double its border control. In return for its cooperation with Spain’s concerns, Morocco is requesting more compensation from Spain and the European Union, according to Spanish outlet El Pais.

    Morocco handed Spanish authorities “a list of demands in exchange for intensifying border control,” El Pais reported.

    Morocco is a regular EU partner, having struck a number of agreements in all important sectors, namely agriculture, fisheries, and security.

    On the migration front, the North African country is the most used route by migrants seeking to reach the European Union. Recently, Brussels pledged a €140 million fund to help Morocco curb the ongoing flow of irregular migration to the European continent.

    But Morocco has still not received the funds that Europe promised.

    Key among Morocco’s demands to Spain is the delivery of the promised funds be accelerated, as well as a new cooperation on education and training of Moroccan nationals.

    El Pais explained: “In addition to the 140 million Euros the EU has promised Morocco, the Maghreb country is demanding aid to train workers in key sectors such as tourism and health.”

    As for Moroccan university students, Rabat is reportedly pushing for an Erasmus-like program between Spain and Morocco, giving Moroccan students a one-year abroad experience at Spanish universities. For students who have already completed their undergraduate studies in Morocco, the program also allows for postgraduate experience at Spanish institutions.

    Spain ready to satisfy Morocco’s demands if EU provides funds

    Between July and August 2018, Morocco launched an unprecedented campaign to harden its migration policy, making it harder for migrants to cross to neighboring Spain.

    While the unprecedented crackdown decreased the number of successful irregular attempts, the number of migrants arriving in Spain is still significant, according to Spanish authorities.

    Spanish officials at the Ministry of Labor and Migration are supportive of Morocco’s demands, saying that Morocco’s cooperation is a key factor in the success of Europe’s and Spain’s migration policy.

    “You have to invest in this type of initiative; the EU has to get involved,” the newspaper quoted the officials as saying.

    As long as the EU provides the necessary funds for the projects, Spain is ready to comply with Morocco’s demands, Spanish sources argued, indicating a deep-seated belief in Madrid that Rabat’s cooperation is essential for Europe’s migration policy.

    While advocating in December for more EU support to secure Morocco’s cooperation, Consuelo Rumi, Spain’s State Secretary for Migration, said: “It is about Morocco having no excuse for not collaborating.””

  8. Turkey takes over FETO-linked schools in Pakistan (aa, Jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/todays-headlines/turkey-takes-over-feto-linked-schools-in-pakistan/1354576

    “Turkey’s Maarif Foundation has taken over the management of education institutions once linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in Pakistan.

    In a written statement Thursday, the foundation said Pak-Turk Cag Education Foundation schools were handed over to Turkey’s education body.

    Last month, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the government to declare the FETO a terror group and and to ban its affiliated schools in the country.

    The high court ordered the transfer of FETO’s “all movable and immovable assets,” schools, colleges, education centers and other similar entities to the Maarif Foundation.

    After the top court ruling, the Interior Ministry declared the Pak-Turk Cag Education Foundation as a terrorist organization and banned its activities in the country.

    The government has also frozen the bank accounts of the FETO-linked foundation.

    Turkey established the Maarif Foundation in 2016 after a coup attempt to take over the administration of overseas schools linked to FETO. It also establishes schools and education centers abroad.

    FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 in Turkey, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

    Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.”

  9. Egypt destroyed 37 Gaza-Sinai tunnels last year: Army (aa, Jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/egypt-destroyed-37-gaza-sinai-tunnels-last-year-army/1355013

    “Over the course of 2018, the Egyptian army has destroyed 37 cross-border tunnels linking the blockaded Gaza Strip to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the army announced Thursday.

    In a statement, the army also said that 18,965 illegal immigrants — of various nationalities — had been detained over the same period.

    Following Egypt’s 2013 military coup — which saw the country’s first freely-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, ousted and imprisoned — the Egyptian authorities began cracking down on Gaza’s cross-border tunnel network.

    Cairo has attempted to justify the crackdown by pointing to an ongoing militant insurgency in Sinai, which erupted following the 2013 coup.”

  10. 26,500+ irregular migrants held in Turkish seas in 2018 (aa, jan 3, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/26-500-irregular-migrants-held-in-turkish-seas-in-2018/1355112

    “Turkish security forces held 26,678 irregular migrants seeking safety in Europe in the seas surrounding the country in 2018, according to security sources.

    Sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said the number of migrants held at sea increased 21.6 percent compared with 2017.

    At least 96 migrants died of drowning or hypothermia in the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black seas in 2018 — 65 of whom died on the Aegean sea. This is an increase from the total 56 migrants who died of drowning or hypothermia in 2017.

    Additionally, 87 people were arrested for alleged human smuggling.

    Every year, hundreds of thousands of migrants flee from civil conflict or economic hardship in their home countries with hopes of reaching Europe.

    While some are able to make the perilous journey over land or sea via human smugglers, many are held by security forces before crossing the border to Europe.

    There were 25,398 migrants rounded up in the Aegean Sea in 2018, which is 95 percent of the total migrants who came by sea last year.”

    • The lies coming out of Washington against Trump.
      Michael Savage play a clip from a speech given by Congressman Hank Johnson – 6:07.

      “Hank Johnson compares President Trump to Hitler in New Year’s Day speech” 11Alive – January 2, 2019

      • “Congressman Hank Johnson fears Guam will tip over, March 25, 2010”
        MikeCANN – Published on December 13, 2012

  11. “Turkey’s Top Muslim Official: There’s No Such Thing As European Islam…”
    Weasel Zippers – January 3, 2019
    https://www.weaselzippers.us/407373-turkeys-top-muslim-official-theres-no-such-thing-as-european-islam/

    “Newly-Elected Muslim Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib Sworn In On Thomas Jefferson’s Quran”
    Weasel Zippers – January 3, 2018
    https://www.weaselzippers.us/407454-newly-elected-muslim-congresswoman-rashida-tlaib-sworn-in-on-thomas-jeffersons-quran/

  12. Belgium: ‘March for Democracy’ held by far-right party excluded from local parliament

    Far-right Forza Ninove party’s supporters gathered in the Flemish city of Ninove on Thursday, to march against their party’s exclusion from the local parliament.

    Forza Ninove, which is close to the far-right Vlaams Belang, won the 40% of the votes in the November’s local elections.

    However, the other parties applied the principle of “no discussion with the extreme far right” and formed a majority excluding the far-right party.

    Member of Vlaams Belang Filip Dewinter said: “We are defending our democracy today, it’s important because in our country something like a ‘cordon sanitaire’ exists. That means that one party, that’s Vlaams Belang, whenever we win elections we can’t govern”. He then added “People have voted, one party won the elections, so we have to respect the vote of the people, they have to respect the elections.”

    Thursday’s “March for Democracy” coincided with day the local parliament first met after the elections.