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 must use it while we can.
Putin interview at G20.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-48795764
Man-made–err–person-made European heat wave reveals previously undiscovered sex: overweight man expresses self by identifying as naked moped driver, moped later disappears into man’s arse, vexed climate scientists claim it is sure proof of something:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-27/central-europe-alert-heat-wave-hell-terrorizes-france
“… overweight man expresses self by identifying as naked moped driver, moped later disappears into man’s arse, vexed climate scientists claim it is sure proof of something:”
Even though their engines only have a single cylinder, during the exact right sort of skidding collision, a Moped owner can get his head up his ass.
Wire harness horse tail extra.
On the collapse of fiat now compared to the Weimar collapse:
https://marcfabersblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/marc-faber-all-fiat-currencies-will.html?m=1
Interesting, I don’t think much of crypto currencies because of how all of the big tech companies are acting.
History of Western Civilization. Ten hours! I’m only an hour into it, impressive.
Best to start at hour 9 so you can avoid wasting time with the rest. LOL
Start at hour 9.
Leaked Memo: ‘Apolitical’ Google Encourages Staffers to Protest Against Tough Migration Policies (sputniknews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/us/201906281076079008-leaked-memo-google-protests-migration/
“The purported internal memo lists pro-immigration chants among examples of what to shout at protests. Last year, when Google employees were reported to have discussed tweaking search functions to help protest against Trump’s travel ban, the company said it did not favour any political agenda.
Project Veritas, a conservative transparency group, has obtained what it calls an internal document circulated among Google employees, titled ‘Beginner’s Guide to Protesting’.
As it appears from the title, the company, which claims it is devoid of political bias, wants its staffers to know what to do when they come out in the street for a protest.
The purpose of the document is “to assemble best practices and ensure that everyone feels comfortable and pumped about Re****@****le.com marches/protests”.
No further details are given about the mysterious ‘Re****@****le.com’, which could be an internal group coordinating protesters or merely a service providing information about upcoming events.
The memo instructs would-be demonstrators to bring appropriate attire and to appear involved in the event because “media might be present”.
The ‘Do’s and Dont’s’ part argues that it is not necessary for protesters to stop at crossroads, since “the point is to disrupt, and a crosswalk can split up the group when it’s large”.
It also floats some ideas for signs to carry during a protest, including “#NoMuslimBan #NoWall”, “Immigrants Welcome”, “Make America Welcoming Again”, “Never Again”, “No Ban No Wall”, and “Muslims cure cancer”.
Interestingly, Google also mentioned the motto “Don’t Be Evil” as an example of an appropriate slogan for a protest sign. This is the company’s catchphrase that previously was the preface to its code of conduct but today only remains in the document’s final line.
A section of the leaked memo titled “Example chants” includes some politically-charged slogans such as “No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are welcome here” and “From Palestine to Mexico, All the walls have got to go”.
While Google has yet to comment on the authenticity of this leak, Project Veritas has recently published a number of incriminating leaks related to the top tech firm.
According to one internal document, Google employees have compared several popular conservative speakers to ‘Nazis’ and discussed manipulating the autocomplete search feature to stop it from advising users to type their names in the search box.
Furthermore, an undercover video of a Google executive showed her speaking about “preventing the next Trump situation”. She later stated, however, that she was talking about countering “online foreign interference” rather than Trump’s chances of re-election.
She wrote: “Google has repeatedly been clear that it works to be a trustworthy source of information, without regard to political viewpoint. In fact, Google has no notion of political ideology in its rankings.”
Project Veritas, meanwhile, said it received a ban on several platforms following the exposés, including video-sharing site Vimeo and Reddit.
Last year, the Wall Street Journal obtained Google’s internal e-mails in which employees allegedly considered tweaking the search algorithm in favour of pro-immigration information when users would search terms related to Donald Trump’s 2017 travel ban.
In response to the flurry of questions that followed, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that “we do not bias our products to favour any political agenda”, while the company did not deny the report but assured that the idea had never been implemented.”
Women Defying Burkini Ban Prompt Shutdown of Public Pools in French City (sputniknews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201906281076079480-women-defying-burkini-ban-prompt-shutdown-public-pools-french-city/
“In 2016, several French municipalities banned the wearing of burkinis, claiming it was a security threat, only to have the bans later overturned by a court.
Authorities in the French city of Grenoble have shut down the city’s two municipal swimming pools amidst a blistering heatwave gripping western Europe after two Muslim women were seen swimming there wearing burkinis, reports AFP.
The burkini-clad women went to the pools twice at the initiative of the Alliance Citoyenne, a civil rights NGO, to challenge a city ban on the full-body swimwear, which they claim is discriminatory.
The women said they wanted the public pools, which currently require men to wear swim briefs and women to wear bikinis or one-piece swimsuits, to change their regulations to accommodate those who opt to wear a burkini.
A Town Hall statement says lifeguards at the pools requested the shutdown because “they are there to maintain safety and they can’t do that when they have to worry about the crowds”.
It added: “We are working towards a positive solution.”
Right-wing politicians expressed their opposition to the burkini on Monday, the day after the event in Grenoble, as a local MP, Eric Ciotti, said on Twitter the burkini “has no place in France where women are equal to men”…”
Turkey Launches Strike on Positions in Syria – Reports (sputniknews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201906281076082202-turkey-launches-strike-on-positions-in-syria—reports/
“Earlier in the day, Ikhbariya broadcaster reported that the Turkish military had fired 18 mortars on the villages in Syria’s Hama province from the south of Idlib.
Anadolu news agency reported Friday citing the Turkish Defence Ministry that the country’s military shelled the area from where Turkey’s observation post in Idlib had been attacked.
On Thursday, the Turkish Defence Ministry said one soldier had been killed and three had been injured in the shelling of one of its observation posts in Idlib. The ministry claimed that the shelling had been carried out from the areas controlled by the Syrian government forces and was deliberate.
The same day, Reuters reported that Russian attache had been summoned to the Turkish military headquarters amid the shellings.
The latest attack on Turkey’s observation post in Idlib occurred on June 13. Following the attack, Russian combat jets carried out four airstrikes on terrorist positions in the region, using coordinates provided by Turkey.”
Sweden Alarmed By Migrant Kids Sent Abroad on ‘Educational Trips’ to Avoid Westernisation (sputniknews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201906281076078747-sweden-migrant-kids-sent-abroad-to-avoid-westernisation/
“In absence of comprehensive national statistics, the existing data is feared to merely scratch the surface of this phenomenon, where hundreds of migrant kids are believed to be sent “home” each year to avoid immersion in Swedish culture.
So-called “educational trips” for migrant boys and young men, who are taken to their home countries, often against their will, in order to prevent them from becoming “too Westerinsed” have become an increasingly larger problem in Sweden.
“It can be anything from visiting relatives to schools that can be quite strict. And there are also special centres, educational institutions”, Mikael Thörn, a senior investigator at the Equality Authority, told national broadcaster SVT.
This problem is notoriously difficult to track in the absence of comprehensive national statistics. The existing data is feared to barely scratch the surface. Last year, the Foreign Ministry only recorded 127 cases of forceful abductions abroad, involving forced marriage, female genital mutilation and so-called “education trips”. Of these, about 30 cases concerned boys.
However, Mikael Thörn is sure this is barely the tip of the iceberg. The Somali language even has a special expression, “dhaqan celis”, translated as “return to culture” or “rehabilitation trip” to denote a situation where children born and bred in Europe or the Americas are sent to their parents’ native land for “enlightenment”.
“There may be hundreds. There are no national statistics”, Thörn said, calling the victims “a forgotten group”.
According to Thörn, such trips often have a traumatic effect on the children’s psyche, and many come back in much worse shape.
“The situation is made worse by mental health issues, abuse and trauma”, Thörn explained.
In the early 2000s, he worked in social services in Gothenburg. There, nine such cases were discovered in a single year.
“The National Board of Health and Welfare made a survey and this was debated, but now I feel that the question has disappeared and is largely forgotten. No one seems to know how many people are involved and few municipalities have routines to tackle this,” Mikael Thörn said. “When they disappear, some cases are written off”, he continued, calling this discrimination.
According to Shanazi, a local NGO working against honour-related oppression, so-called “educational trips” are not uncommon in Linköping municipality. A few years ago, 17 primary school students were missing after the summer vacation, most of them boys, Hoshi Kafashi of Shanazi explained to SVT.
At present, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that Sweden has no embassy in Somalia and cannot provide timely help.
According to Thörn, surveys at the national and municipal level are needed to address the problem in full. Also, it is the school’s responsibility to alert the authorities if they suspect a child is at risk of being sent abroad against their will.
Previously, the authorities have warned that summer vacations entail a higher risk of child marriage and other problems.
“We want to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that children and young people can land in trouble during school holidays. They can be taken abroad and become married away or subjected to genital mutilation”, Sara Mühling, expert adviser at the National Competency Team warned.
According to researcher Tobias Hübinette, associate professor at Karlstad Univeristy, about 40 percent of the Swedish population aged 0-30 have some form of foreign background. The Somali diaspora in particular has exploded since the 1990s, as refugees from the Somali Civil War started to arrive in Sweden. Today, the Somali diaspora is estimated to number over 60,000, with over half of them retaining their Somali citizenship.”
Parents have a right to send their kids to visit their grandparents. What were the Swedes thinking when they invited outsiders to live with them? that the Swedish culture was so compellingly perfect that no one would ever want to leave?
Former Miss Teen Great Britain semi-finalist and one-time WAG, 21, is to face trial accused of funding terrorism after ‘sending cash to group called The Merciful Hands’ (dailymail, Jun 28, 2019)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7191263/Former-Miss-Teen-Great-Britain-semi-finalist-face-trial-accused-funding-terrorism.html
Revealed: Entire British family of 12 – including three children aged 11, five and one – who fled their home in Luton to join ISIS in Syria are all now DEAD (dailymail, Jun 28, 2019)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7189225/Entire-British-family-12-fled-home-Luton-Syria-join-ISIS-DEAD.html
Khan’s London: Thefts on Subway Surge 80 Per Cent in Three Years (breitbart, Jun 28, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/06/28/khans-london-thefts-subway-surge-80-per-cent-three-years/
“Thefts on the iconic London Underground subway system have surged by more than 80 per cent since 2016/17, around the time Sadiq Khan became city major…”
Swedish Man Convicted for ‘Hate’ Comments He Did Not Write (breitbart, Jun 28, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/06/28/swedish-man-convicted-hate-comments-he-did-not-write/
“A 52-year-old Swedish man has been convicted for “hate” comments posted in a social media group, despite the comments having been written by other people.
The “hate” comments were written in the Facebook group “Stand up for Sweden” and contained material that was deemed to have broken Swedish law against threats or intimidation towards ethnic groups, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
The 52-year-old, who was the administrator of the group, was found guilty of breaking the BBS Act of 1998, according to news website Nyheter Idag, which held him liable for not deleting the comments made in the group, even though he had not made them himself.
Should the case not be overturned by appeal in the supreme court, it will be the first conviction under the law.
The 52-year-old denied having committed a crime saying that he had not even seen the comments that were highlighted and it was noted that the group has around 162,000 members and saw three million comments per year.
A witness from the NGO Juridik Fronten (Legal Front), a group which engages in “opinion-forming activities related to nationalist right-wing populism and violent offences”, claimed that they had sent a pdf file of hate comments to the defendant.
The man claimed that he had not opened the file, telling the court he did not open attachments from people he did not know and therefore had not seen the comments.
After finding the 52-year-old guilty, the court sentenced him to 60 days of daily fines, a conditional sentence, and required him to pay 40,250 Swedish kronor (£3,425/$4,347) for legal fees.
The case was reported to police initially by the online social justice activist group Näthatsgranskaren which has been touted as being responsible for a rise in investigations and prosecutions for online hate speech in Sweden.
The group was founded in 2017 by former police officer Tomas Åberg who described the group’s work in 2018 saying: “We have developed a programme that searches for criminal networks on social media by searching for keywords, combinations of words, and phrases that can constitute criminal acts.”
Åberg also admitted the majority of those reported were elderly men and women, including a 70-year-old man who was convicted earlier this year after being reported to the police by the organisation for writing on Facebook that Somalis were”lazy”.”
Those dam old people keep forgetting that 2 + 2 = 5.
Salvini’s Popularity Soars Amidst Sea-Watch Migrant Controversy (breitbart, Jun 28, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2019/06/28/salvinis-popularity-soars-amidst-sea-watch-migrant-controversy/
“Matteo Salvini’s hardline approach to a Dutch migrant vessel’s efforts to storm an Italian port has done nothing but raise his capital in the eyes of the Italian people, who elected him to curb illegal immigration.
Rado Fonda, director of leading Italian market research agency SWG, noted Friday that just one month after the European elections Mr. Salvini’s Lega party has risen by an impressive 3 percent among Italian voters, from 34 percent to 37 percent, widening its lead over the second-place Democratic Party (PD), which has remained stable at 22.6 percent.
“Matteo Salvini still has a pool of potential expansion and having gone from 34 to over 37 percent in one month he could easily reach 40 percent,” Mr. Fonda said.
The PD, on the other hand, “does not have the drive to move from being an opposition party to a governing party,” Fonda said. “The PD has regained the left-wing electorate, which had escaped into abstentionism or even the Five Star Movement, but has lost support among the moderates. It is more left, less center.”
Mr. Salvini has stood his ground in the face of international pressure to disembark 42 migrants aboard the Sea-Watch 3, an NGO vessel flying a Dutch flag, insisting that he does not give in to strong-arm tactics.
“It is clear that a German NGO vessel flying a Dutch flag, which picks up immigrants in Libyan waters and does not go to Tunisia or to Malta, but heads straight for Italy, disobeying the finance police, the Government, the Navy, everyone, does so for reasons of a political battle,” Mr. Salvini said on Twitter.
“Anyone who crashes a checkpoint with his car is stopped,” he added. “I hope that in the coming hours there will be a judge to rule that there are outlaws aboard that ship, starting with the captain.”
“If the ship is seized and the crew arrested, I will be delighted,” he said.
The interior minister also took advantage of the situation to remind Italians that his firmness in dealing with illegal immigration has saved numerous lives.
“More than 5,000 people died at sea in 2016,” Salvini noted. “This year we are at a tenth of that. We have gone from 76,858 landings in 2017 to 2,544 this year.”
“I want to continue positive trend,” he said.”
Young German captain takes on Italy’s hard-line minister (abcnews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/young-german-captain-takes-italys-hard-line-minister-64018439
“The 31-year-old German captain with tied-back dreadlocks and a steady voice as she defies Sicily port authorities in defense of dozens of migrants rescued at sea has enraged Italy’s interior minister. Matteo Salvini has derided her both as “that uppity captain” and “a heroine from the left, born white, rich and German.”
An experienced sailor, Carola Rackete has commanded a handful of rescue missions for the German humanitarian group Sea-Watch since joining in 2016. During one of her first at command, her ship picked up 45 dead bodies floating in the sea from a major shipwreck in May 2016, which colleagues described as “a really tough mission, where she was standing her ground really well.”
Her current mission, culminating in a 16-day stand-off with Italian authorities after rescuing 53 migrants off Libya on June 12, has put her on the international stage in a very personal way. She has publicly and openly defied port authority orders on two successive days as she pressed to deliver the migrants to a safe port, citing “a state of necessity” on board.
As a result, Rackete was placed under investigation by Sicilian prosecutors on Friday for allegedly aiding illegal immigration and entering Italian waters against the orders of the Italian authorities, news agency ANSA reported.
Speaking to foreign reporters via video call from aboard the Sea-Watch 3, Rackete expressed more concern for the 40 remaining migrants on board and the 21 members of her crew than for her possible legal woes, noting that she had yet to be notified of the investigation. In Twitter posts after entering Italian waters, she said she knew the risks.
“The need which we have on board is psychological and that the reason why I declared the state of necessity,” Rackete told reporters. “Keeping the people here in a type of prison, even if it’s very nice, keeping theme here on board and not giving them access to a place of safety is a very, very grave thing.”
Sea-watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer described Rackete as one of the organization’s most experienced captains. He recalled the early 2016 mission where they responded to the deadly shipwreck.
“She was standing her ground really well, even if it was terrifying,” he said. “She is a really impressive person, always clear in her decisions.”
Rackete spent part of her childhood abroad, before returning to Germany where she graduated high school. She told Italy’s La Repubblica daily that her first experiences abroad in South America made her realize how privileged she was, and motivated her to give something back.
She has an undergraduate degree in nautical science from a German university and a Master’s degree in environmental conservation from a British university. She has previous nautical experience with a cruise company, on polar expeditions and for Greenpeace.
She told La Repubblica that she has never faced such a difficult situation as the current standoff “not even when I was on an ice-breaker in the Arctic Sea.”
Leaked tapes of her radio calls pointedly disregarding orders from Italian port officials have presumably been intended to shore up Italy’s case against her for not only disobeying authorities but also for flouting a government decree passed this month denying entry to Italian territorial waters on public order grounds that could see Sea-Watch slapped with a fine of up to 50,000 euros ($56,400).
The decree, which also includes seizing ships for repeated offenses, has been criticized by human rights organizations, with Human Rights Watch saying it puts Italy in violation of EU law, including asylum procedures, and the charter of fundamental rights.
Her actions have gained her a following on social media, with memes of the Walt Whitman poem: ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ An anti-fascist group has raised more than 220,000 euros for any legal defense while demonstrations to support the migrants have taken place in Rome, Milan and Palermo. The mayor of the German city of Rottenburg has offered to send a bus to Italy to pick up the migrants, and the Palermo mayor made her and the crew honorary citizens.
Rackete said Thursday that her duty to save people at sea and bring them to safety on land according to maritime law was in direct conflict with Italian arguments that the migrant arrivals are a threat to the national security.
“I’m fairly sure that the Italian courts will recognize that the law of the sea is much more important, and the right of people to the safety and their lives indisputably more important than the right of Italy to their territorial waters,” she said.”
Italy allows 2 more migrants to leave German rescue ship (DW, Jun 28, 2019)
https://www.dw.com/en/italy-allows-2-more-migrants-to-leave-german-rescue-ship/a-49388607
HRW: Syria Regime Co-opting Aid to Entrench Repressive Policies (aawsat, Jun 28, 2019)
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1788796/hrw-syria-regime-co-opting-aid-entrench-repressive-policies
“The Syrian regime is co-opting humanitarian aid and reconstruction assistance and sometimes using it to “entrench repressive policies,” said Human Rights Watch on Friday, calling on donors and investors to ensure their contributions are used for the good of the Syrian people.
In the 91-page report released in Geneva. HRW said the Syrian regime has developed a policy and legal framework to divert “reconstruction resources to fund its atrocities, punish those perceived as opponents, and benefit those loyal to it.”
Syria’s civil war, now in its ninth year, has killed some 400,000 people, wounded more than a million and displaced half the country’s population, including 5 million who fled as refugees, mostly to neighboring countries.
Large parts of the country are totally destroyed and the regime estimates reconstruction will cost some $200 billion dollars and last 15 years.
Many Syrians rely on aid to survive amid poverty and lack of food and medicine in parts of the country that had a pre-war population of 23 million.
While seemingly benign, the Syrian regime’s aid and reconstruction policies “are being used to punish perceived opponents and reward its supporters,” said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
The Syrian regime’s aid framework “undermines human rights, and donors need to ensure they are not complicit in the government’s human rights violations,” Fakih said.
The report notes one case in which an unnamed UN agency decided to partner with a local group founded by a member of the pro-regime National Defense Forces — which the opposition blames for major atrocities — to implement a project. HRW says despite warnings, the UN agency moved forward only to discover six months later that the local partner never implemented the project, despite receiving money from the UN.
It also mentions, without giving names, senior regime officials who own stakes in various businesses and are known to fund “abusive entities,” such as the NDF.
The report warns investors and donors that there is a risk to becoming involved in these sectors because they might indirectly be working or funding abusive individuals or entities.
“As the number of international humanitarian organizations seeking to register and transfer their operations to Damascus increases, the risk of a slippery slope is increasingly significant,” the report warned.
The report found that in extreme cases, reconstruction projects that rehabilitate infrastructure of “abusive” regime agencies “can facilitate abuses by empowering them to continue forcibly displacing, torturing, and arbitrarily detaining individuals.””
IOM – UN Migration Lauds Kuwait for Upgrade to Tier 2 (iom, Jun 28, 2019)
https://www.iom.int/news/iom-un-migration-lauds-kuwait-upgrade-tier-2
Parents should be stopped from withdrawing children from religious education over Islam lessons, headteachers say (independent, Jun 27, 2019)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/parents-religious-education-islam-headteachers-liverpool-hope-university-study-a8976366.html
“Parents should not be allowed to selectively remove their children from religious education (RE) lessons, headteachers say, as study reveals many withdrawal requests are over the teaching of Islam.
More than two in five school leaders and RE teachers have received requests for students to be withdrawn from teaching about one religion, research from Liverpool Hope University has revealed.
Islam is the dominant focus of these parental withdrawal requests, according to the study of 450 school leaders and heads of RE.
One participant, who received requests for children to be withdrawn from mosque visits said: “The students that have been removed are the ones that need to understand different cultures the most.”
The majority (71 per cent) of teachers believe a law allowing parents to withdraw their children from RE is no longer required, according to the study in the British Journal of Religious Education.”
Parents should be stopped from withdrawing children from religious education over Islam lessons, headteachers say
All of which reeks of imposing a state-sanctioned religion via public institutions. Not that the Church of England doesn’t fit that precise category but when was the last time you saw the Archbishop of Canterbury slam a fully loaded passenger jet into an occupied skyscraper?
https://www.klaus.cz/clanky/4411
This is a talk by Vaclav Klaus on the recent Hillsdale College cruise.
(Who knew Hillsdale College had a cruise? Seems like everyone’s got a cruise now a days.)
“Who knew Hillsdale College had a cruise?”
Hell, my high school graduation featured its own special cruise. Most of a mile down Main Street and back as I recollect … and then it was off to lover’s lane for a little In-N-Out.
Parents have a right to send their kids to visit their grandparents. What were the Swedes thinking when they invited outsiders to live with them? that the Swedish culture was so compellingly perfect that no one would ever want to leave?
House Passes Senate Version of Border Funding Bill After Pelosi Backs Down on Amendments
Fake News Media in Serious Trouble
Candace Owens: The Victim Mentality of the Left
Washington needs less Cowards and more Patriots!
North Korea Threatens U.S., Pompeo for Breakdown in Diplomacy
New fiery rhetoric from Pyongyang comes as Trump visits the region to try to broker another summit with Kim Jong Un.
North Korea issued new warnings to the U.S. on Thursday, blasting recent statements by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and threatening military action if diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang continues to falter.
A statement from North Korea’s foreign ministry said the U.S. “viciously slandered” the country, citing the recent release of State Department reports about human trafficking and religious freedom that rank North Korea poorly, and Pompeo’s comments on Sunday reiterating that 80 percent of North Korea’s economy remains under U.S. sanctions.
“It would be difficult to look forward to the improvement of bilateral relations and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula as long as American politics are dominated by the policy-makers who have an inveterate antagonism towards the DPRK,” the statement read, using North Korea’s preferred acronym for itself. “If anyone dares to trample over our sovereignty and the right to existence, we will never hesitate to pull a muscle-flexing trigger in order to defend ourselves.”
https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2019-06-27/north-korea-threatens-us-pompeo-for-breakdown-in-diplomacy
Iran warns Trump against ‘illusion’ of short war
Tehran (AFP) – Iran’s foreign minister on Thursday warned US President Donald Trump he was mistaken to think a war between their countries would be short, as Washington sought NATO’s help to build an anti-Tehran coalition.
The latest developments in the Iran-US standoff came as a diplomatic source in Vienna said Tehran would not exceed a uranium stockpile limit agreed with world powers, contrary to what it had said earlier this month.
Iran had said it expected to surpass on Thursday the agreed 300-kilogram (660-pound) maximum reserve of enriched uranium because it no longer felt bound by certain limits contained in the 2015 deal, which the United States unilaterally pulled out of in May 2018.
“They won’t exceed it today,” the diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP in Vienna on the eve of a meeting by a commission that oversees the nuclear deal.
The source suggested there might be a “political reason” for this, given intensified efforts by European governments in recent days to de-escalate tensions in the Gulf region.
https://news.yahoo.com/iran-warns-trump-against-illusion-short-war-172201838.html
I wonder how much of the Iranian North Korean belligerence is caused by Kerry and Obama telling them to ignore Trump because he will be voted out of office in 2020?
Line just went Orwellian on Japanese users with its social credit scoring system
It appears other countries besides China are heading toward a bleak dystopian future where a human being is scored by their online activities. Only this time, it’s a tech company and not a government implementing the social credit score. While not as bleak as China’s social credit system, today Line, Japan’s dominant social media company, introduced a slew of new products—the most alarming among them, Line Score, reports the Verge.
Line Score will use AI to give a social credit score to Line users. The strength of their social credit score will allow them to get access to better special deals and offers that Line users with lower social credit scores will not have access to.
While the new product is unnerving, it’s not completely out of character for Line. Recently the company has been positioning itself as a fintech provider, and its Line Pay digital wallet system is wildly popular in Japan. Line Pay also allows users to shop for insurance and allows them to invest in personal portfolios. Line Score builds on top of Line Pay by offering those with higher scores better perks.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90370203/line-just-went-orwellian-on-japanese-users-with-its-social-credit-scoring-system
Hong Kong anti-extradition protesters rally again near government offices
HONG KONG (Reuters) – More than 1,000 people, mostly students dressed in black, rallied outside government offices in Hong Kong on Friday as protests over a controversial extradition bill that has plunged the Chinese-ruled city into turmoil showed no signs of let-up.
Embattled Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam suspended the bill, that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial, after some of the largest and most violent protests in decades, but she has stopped short of protesters’ demands to scrap it.
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The activists have seized on the G20 summit of world leaders in Japan this week to appeal for the former British colony’s plight to be put on the agenda, a move certain to rile Beijing, which has vowed not to tolerate such discussion.
“The government hasn’t given a proper response to the public. It’s the government who forces us to come out,” said Paul Chan, 27.
“The government always tells us ‘don’t do this and don’t do that’. We also want to tell the government ‘don’t do any policy we don’t like’. But she didn’t listen,” he said of Lam.
https://www.oann.com/hong-kong-anti-extradition-protesters-rally-again-near-government-offices/
Vatican says China intimidating Catholics loyal to pope
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican asked China’s communist government on Friday to stop intimidating Catholic clergy who want to remain unequivocally loyal to the pope and refuse to sign ambiguous official registration forms.
The request, contained in Vatican guidelines to clergy in mainland China, was the latest hiccup in relations between the Holy See and Beijing since the two sides signed a historic and disputed pact on the naming of bishops last September.
Under Chinese law, priests and bishops must register with the state. They also must sign a form accepting the principle of independence, autonomy and self-administration of the Church in China.
Some have refused, fearing that it could jeopardize their fidelity to the pope as their religious leader and the independence of the local Church on doctrinal matters.
https://www.oann.com/vatican-says-china-intimidating-catholics-loyal-to-pope/
NYT graph meant to blame Republicans for polarization shows Dems actually more at fault
By Daily Caller News Foundation June 28, 2019
The New York Times published an analysis Wednesday that blamed the Republican Party for political polarization in America, but the article’s argument was undermined by the very data it cited.
“The Republican Party leans much farther right than most traditional conservative parties in Western Europe and Canada, according to an analysis of their election manifestos,” Times graphics editor Sahil Chinoy wrote in his article.
But a graph accompanying Chinoy’s article showed the current gap between the Republican and Democratic parties isn’t the result of a Republican shift to the Right, but rather the result of a sharp Democratic pivot to the Left.
all
The graph shows the Democratic Party has veered far to the Left since 2000 — and especially since 2008 — while the Republican Party only moved slightly right during that same time period.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/06/28/nyt-graph-meant-to-blame-republicans-for-polarization-shows-dems-actually-at-fault/
Fake women being offered Pap smears and breast screenings, but real women are not
By Ben Bowles June 28, 2019
Ordinarily, catering to people who think or claim to be a gender other than the one nature assigned them is silly but harmless. But now Public Health England (formerly the National Health Service) has implemented a practice that could prove deadly. It has begun inviting men who identify as women to come in for annual Pap smears and breast screenings despite their lack of a cervix on which to administer the first test. But PHE has also stopped inviting women who identify as men to come in for these crucial screenings out of fear of offending them.
The policy is explained, The Sun reports, in a 24-page booklet titled “Information for trans people” that advises, “Any trans woman [born male] will have the same risk as a man and should consider accessing screening.” But the pamphlet also warns, “If you are a trans woman aged 65 who is registered with a GP as female, you won’t be invited for screening.”
The risks are real:
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/06/28/fake-women-being-offered-pap-smears-and-breast-screenings-but-real-women-are-not/
Prosecutor endorsed by AOC wants shorter sentences for violent crimes, or no jail time at all
By Hans Bader June 27, 2019
The incoming district attorney for Queens supports “shorter” sentences for violent crimes, or no jail time at all. Ultimately, she wants to reduce prison populations to “zero.” That will increase the crime rate, leading to more murders and rapes, and an increase in violence.
On Tuesday, Tiffany Cabán won the Democratic Primary in strongly Democratic Queens, the largest borough in New York City. That effectively guarantees that she will become the borough’s top prosecutor. As Time Magazine notes, she “is likely to win the general election in November.”
New York Magazine reports on Cabán’s extreme views. Not only does she seek “shorter prison sentences” for violent crime, but she also wants to consider “alternatives to incarceration” for “any crime,” even violent crimes like murder:
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/06/27/prosecutor-wants-shorter-sentences-for-violent-crimes-or-no-jail-time-at-all/
Libya : captured Portughese pilot was in fact American
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U.S. Air Force veteran accused as mercenary in Libya’s civil war is freed
An American Air Force veteran who was accused of acting as a mercenary in Libya has been freed after a six-week detention, officials said Tuesday, in a murky episode that highlights the tangled nature of that country’s civil war.
Jamie Sponaugle, a 31-year-old Florida man was piloting an aircraft near the Libyan capital of Tripoli on May 7 when his plane went down, according to officials and individuals familiar with the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Libyan National Army said it shot down the aircraft, which it said was a Mirage F1 combat jet piloted by a man The Washington Post is now identifying as Sponaugle, as it conducted bombing raids against LNA forces in the area. The Post withheld publication of Sponaugle’s detention at the request of U.S. officials who were working to secure his release.
The LNA is one of two factions locked in a years-long fight for control of Libyan territory and government institutions, a conflict that has plunged the country into a protracted limbo and erased much of the hope created by the 2011 revolution.
The apparent involvement of an American military veteran in a battle for Tripoli between the LNA and its rival, the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord, illustrates the complexity of a long-simmering conflict that has emerged as a major global proxy war involving illicit arms and dueling accusations of mercenary use.
It also draws attention to the shifting U.S. policy on Libya. While senior Trump administration officials have devoted limited time to Libya, the president appeared to upend years of steady support for the Tripoli-based GNA in April when he publicly praised Khalifa Hifter, the strongman who heads the rival LNA.
“We are always pleased to see Americans held captive overseas returned home to their friends and family,” Ambassador Robert O’Brien, President Trump’s envoy for hostage affairs, said in a phone interview. “We appreciate his captors’ decision to release him. We also thank the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its role in resolving this case.”
Officials said that Sponaugle was flown on Tuesday to Saudi Arabia, where he was expected to meet with U.S. consular officials and undergo a medical and psychiatric examination.
According to an individual familiar with the case, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took an interest in Sponaugle once Saudi officials learned he was being detained and asked subordinate officials to get involved. The Saudi government did not pay the LNA for his release, the individual said.
In remarks to the media the day after Sponaugle’s release, Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Mismari, spokesman for the LNA, said the American had been held in the eastern city of Benghazi before being “extradited” to his home country.
Showing a video of Sponaugle pointing to locations on a map of western Libya, Mismari said he had “confessed” to conducting strikes on bridges and other infrastructure but had not carried out requested operations on more populated areas around Tripoli.
Stephen Payne, president of Linden Government Solutions, a firm the LNA has retained to lobby on its behalf in the United States, called on the United States to “seriously investigate reports of other American mercenaries fighting for the GNA, including other pilots, and, if proven true, demand their immediate return.”
The GNA did not respond to a request for comment.
Sponaugle, whose identity as an American has not been previously reported, became an enlisted airman in 2006 and worked as a mechanic, Air Force officials said. After leaving active duty in 2013, he served in the Florida Air National Guard until late 2016. His last job as an active-duty airman was airspace technician, and his last duty station was MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
He was not a pilot in the Air Force but earned a pilot’s license following his active duty service.
In images released by the LNA shortly after the incident, Sponaugle is seen bloodied and receiving medical treatment from LNA forces after his aircraft went down. Video that appeared on social media showed him identifying himself as a Portuguese national named Jimmy Rees and saying he was in Libya under a civilian contract focused on “destroying bridges and roads.”
Sponaugle did not say in that video that he worked for the GNA but named someone named “Hadi” as his chief Libyan contact. Senior GNA officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeg, who was in Washington this month as part of a trip designed to drum up American support for his government, have denied that the GNA uses foreign pilots. A Western official with knowledge of Libya said that foreign instructors had long worked at Libya’s air academy, based in the city of Misrata.
Even after his release, U.S. officials do not have a clear understanding of what Sponaugle was doing in Libya. If Sponaugle was piloting a Mirage, a French-made fighter jet, as the LNA alleges, he is unlikely to have had the kind of combat training that military pilots typically undergo because he was not a pilot in the Air Force.
It’s not clear whether Sponaugle would have violated U.S. law by working for or fighting in Libya. Many countries, including the United States, employ foreign security contractors, who can play a variety of roles and are sometimes armed. The GNA and the LNA have repeatedly accused each other of using foreign fighters.
Ben Fishman, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who worked on Libya policy during the Obama administration, said the incident “demonstrates that the longer this phase of the conflict lasts, the .?.?. higher the risk will be of more foreigners getting involved.”
“It’s bad enough that there’s a clear flow of weapons and technology,” Fishman said. “Mercenaries or contractors from the region, Africa, or even the West would signal a new and dangerous form of escalation.”
Already the Libyan conflict involves a host of foreign actors. U.S. officials have said that the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have long provided support, including weaponry, to Hifter and the LNA, which have sought to depict themselves as the only force capable of defeating extremists in Libya. Turkey, meanwhile, is among the nations that have provided support to the GNA.
Just before he launched the Tripoli operation in April, the Saudi government offered to help Hifter fund the operation, the Wall Street Journal reported.
U.N. officials have sought for years to broker an end to the Libyan conflict in a peace process that has moved in fits and starts. While the feuding sides have at times seemed close to striking a deal, they now appear far apart as the Tripoli operation remains locked in what analysts say is an extended stalemate.
Initially, the State Department condemned Hifter’s offensive in pointed terms. Then, in a seeming about-face, the White House shortly afterward announced that Trump had held a call with Hifter. Describing the call, the White House highlighted Hifter’s efforts against extremists and did not address the ongoing battle for Tripoli, appearing to enhance the Libyan leader’s stature on the world stage.
The LNA said following Sponaugle’s capture that he — at a moment when he was still being identified as Portuguese — was being treated humanely and in accordance with international law. But U.S. officials remained concerned about his welfare as they spent weeks in discussions with LNA officials. Sponaugle’s father declined to comment when reached at his home before his son’s release.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-air-force-veteran-accused-as-mercenary-in-libyas-civil-war-freed/2019/06/25/08cafbe6-49b2-4295-88e0-56c2377312e3_story.html
ITALY – Collapsed Genoa bridge demolition
Opposition protests continue in Tbilisi, Georgia
Protesters gathered for the eighth straight day of demonstrations in the Georgian capital, demanding the resignation of the interior minister in connection with harsh police actions last week. More than 240 people were injured last week as police fired rubber bullets and water cannons to turn back crowds trying to enter the parliament building.
the gateway pundit – Breaking Video: Jimmy Carter Says Trump Is an Illegitimate President Put in Office by Russia
Former President Jimmy Carter said President Donald Trump is an illegitimate president who lost the 2016 election but became president because of Russia.
Carter made the remarks during a joint interview Friday with his Vice President Walter Mondale conducted by Jon Meachman that was posted by C-SPAN.
“If fully investigated, it would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put in office because the Russians interfered …on his behalf.”
Meacham: “Russia has been proven by our intelligence community to have interfered with one of our human rights, which is the of right free and fair elections. What’s your reaction? How should we deal with Russia?”
Carter: “Well, the President himself should condemn it, admit that it happened. Which I think sixteen of intelligence agencies have already agreed to say. And, uh, there’s no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election. And I think the interference, although not yet quantified, uh, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in two-thousand-sixteen. He lost the election and he was put into office because the Russians interfered–on his behalf.”
Meahcham: “So do you believe President Trump is an illegitimate president?”
Carter: “Based on what I just said, which I can’t retract, (laughs) yes.”
Back in April, NPR reported Trump spoke on the phone with Carter about China policy after Carter wrote to Trump:
(Excerpt)…Earlier this year, Carter sent Trump a letter with some advice about managing the U.S.-China relationship. Carter oversaw the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries 40 years ago.
On Saturday evening, Trump called Carter to talk about it. It was the first time they’d spoken, Carter said. He said Trump told him that he is particularly concerned about how China is “getting ahead of us.”
Carter said he agreed with Trump on this issue.
…The White House confirmed the conversation in a statement released Monday.
“President Jimmy Carter wrote President Trump a beautiful letter about the current negotiations with China and on Saturday they had a very good telephone conversation about President Trump’s stance on trade with China and numerous other topics,” said the statement, which wasn’t attributed to a spokesperson.
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Former President Jimmy Carter: If fully investigated, it would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put in office because the Russians interfered …on his behalf.
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1144621211516903424
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/breaking-video-jimmy-carter-says-trump-is-an-illegitimate-president-put-in-office-by-russia/
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Carter’s fuckups in office are the reason the Moslems decided they could take over the world, now he is trying to cripple the only US President who has been effective against the Islamic Conquest as well as China.
ANARCHY IN THE HOME
The Man Who Would Be Britain’s Next PM Shines A Spotlight On The Deterioration Of Biblical Principles In The Home
It should be obvious: if you can’t run your own household, how can you be expected to run the affairs of the nation? This remains one of the key stipulations for leadership in the Church. And I don’t see why it shouldn’t also apply to those aiming to lead what for centuries has been known and admired as a Christian nation. The would-be Prime Minister’s dalliance with Miss Symonds, who is 24 years his junior, is evidently the latest in a string of extra-marital affairs. Further, he is not yet divorced from his wife Marina, and his four children are reportedly, and not surprisingly, hugely upset by the breakdown of their 25-year union. My point is that there are clear generational characteristics of weaknesses or curses caused by past sin which are likely to continue through the generations unless and until there is an intervention by the only one capable of reversing such a dreadful plague – the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Another factor at play here is the likely, and unprecedented, scenario of an incoming resident of No 10 Downing Street sharing the home with someone to whom he is not married. Whatever our politicians say, the breakdown of family life is the real issue of the day – it is a factor in the exponential rise of knife crime and gang culture, in the acute housing shortage and in the dreadful epidemic of mental illness, especially among the young. It won’t be fixed while ever we continue to ignore the only ‘rule book’ we can truly trust – the Word of God, otherwise known as the Bible. Charles Gardner
https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/anarchy-in-the-home/
Comey’s FBI Agent Peter Strzok Manipulated Search Warrant For Weiner’s Laptop To PROTECT HILLARY
FBI agent Peter Strzok secretly manipulated the warrant to search Anthony Weiner’s laptop in order to protect Hillary Clinton from prosecution. This is just one of the shocking details that have emerged about how James Comey’s FBI and Democrats covered for Anthony Weiner’s sex crimes in order to protect Hillary Clinton from exposure and prosecution during the presidential election.
Weiner was even getting paid to work for a firm inside a known Democratic National Committee satellite office alongside a DNC official. (RELATED: Woman Found Dead, Stuffed Inside Garbage Chute At Anthony Weiner’s Apartment Building).
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/comeys-fbi-agent-peter-strzok-manipulated-search-warrant-for-weiners-laptop-to-protect-hillary/
Woman Found Dead, Stuffed Inside Garbage Chute At Anthony Weiner’s Apartment Building
A woman has been found dead inside the garbage chute at Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin’s Manhattan apartment building.
The woman, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene on Tuesday at 1 Irving Place in Union Square, where Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin own an apartment. However, the medical examiner has not yet provided a cause of death.
The identity of the woman remains unknown, as police have decided to not release her name until her family is notified of her death.
Although it is unknown how the woman ended up stuffed inside a compactable garbage chute, it was reported that the woman’s purse was found nearby, suggesting foul play.
Security footage from inside the apartment building shows the woman walking inside shortly before she was found dead inside the garbage chute.
Weiner and Abedin have owned an apartment at the same address for the past 16 years. However, the swanky Manhattan apartment was listed for rent for a price tag of $11,900 a month on May 19, 2017, which is the same day Weiner plead guilty to sexting an underage girl, a crime he is now serving a two year prison sentence for, sending sexual messages to a minor.
On the same day, Abedin filed for divorce from Weiner, but nearly one year later, and the couple is still married and the listing for the apartment has been removed, suggesting that Abedin and Weiner decided to keep their shared apartment.
When President Donald Trump hinted that Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, and Anthony Weiner may be indicted, Abedin suspiciously decided to not proceed with her divorce, causing some to wonder whether she is staying married to her convicted pedophile husband for the sake of obtaining spousal privilege, which would prevent Abedin and Weiner from testifying against each other in the court of law.
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/woman-found-dead-stuffed-inside-garbage-chute-at-anthony-weiners-apartment-building/
DAILY MAIL – Revealed: Entire British family of 12 – including three children aged 11, five and one – who fled their home in Luton to join ISIS in Syria are all now DEAD
The Mannan family came to the world’s attention when they left the UK and joined ISIS
They are believed to have crossed into Syria soon after arriving in neighbouring
Turkey in May 2015 on the way home from visiting relatives in Bangladesh
Two months after arriving in Syria, the Mannans released a statement declaring their support for Islamic State
But those left behind in Luton have told MailOnline that all those relatives who made the trip have died
Seven of them were killed in an airstrike while three brothers were all slain fighting for ISIS
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7189225/Entire-British-family-12-fled-home-Luton-Syria-join-ISIS-DEAD.html
“The Tears of a Clown”
Paul Joseph Watson – Published on June 28, 2019
Those… Far Away Eyes
Panel Transcript and Audio: The Border Crisis
Center for Immigration Studies
by Mark Krikorian, Tom Homan, A.J. Louderback, and Andrew R. Arthur – June 27, 2019
https://cis.org/Transcript/Panel-Border-Crisis
Audio mp3 Link – 1:24:09
https://cis.org/sites/cis.org/files/cis_files/border-crisis-2019_MP3_256kbit_44kHz_stereo.mp3
“Western Unions being cleaned out as migrants pass through one Texas city”
by Anna Giaritelli – June 22, 2019
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/western-unions-being-cleaned-out-as-migrants-pass-through-one-texas-city
“Story is so outrageous that I am back here at Twitter because I want the news to break into the national spotlight.
6 more families file suit against senior living facility that didn’t protect their loved ones from illegal alien alleged serial murderer.”
Ann Corcoran – June 27, 2019 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/RefugeeWatcher/status/1144205815882113031
“Texas: Kenyan Killer Linked to Six More Deaths of Elderly Retirement Home Residents”
by Ann Corcoran – June 27, 2019
https://fraudscrookscriminals.com/2019/06/27/texas-kenyan-killer-linked-to-six-more-deaths-of-elderly-retirement-home-residents/
“VIDEO: Hundreds of Haitians, Africans wade through Rio Grande, stroll into USA — carrying luggage!”
by Victor Skinner – June 28, 2019
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/video-hundreds-of-haitians-africans-wade-through-rio-grande-stroll-into-u-s-carrying-luggage/
“#USBP Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 2 large groups of over 100 in 2 days. Total of 3 large groups this fiscal year. More info:…”
CBP South Texas – June 27, 2019 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/CBPSouthTexas/status/1144335481703976960
reuters – German captain becomes anti-populist heroine in Italy migrant standoff
ROME (Reuters) – The young German captain of a migrant-rescue ship stranded off Italy dismissed threats of arrest and personal criticism from the country’s far right interior minister on Friday, saying her main priority was the safety of 40 rescued Africans.
After two weeks at sea, the dreadlocked 31-year-old , Carola Racket has become a symbol of defiance for challenging the authority of minister Matteo Salvini, known as “Il Capitano” at home for closing ports to non-government rescue ships.
Speaking to reporters from her ship, the Sea Watch, via a Skype connection, Racket said she was forced to enter Italian waters due to the worsening condition of the migrants plucked by her crew from international seas off Libya on June 12.
“The need which we have on board is psychological… The necessity to go into port is to prevent any harm or any self-harm which people might be contemplating,” she said.
Racket, a conservationist who has served on cruise ships and on a Greenpeace vessel in the past, has drawn strong support from Italy’s pro-immigration opposition parties and also felt the sting of Salvini’s ever-busy Twitter account.
She says she now devotes her time to rescuing migrants as a reaction to her privileged upbringing.
“My life was easy…I am white, German, born in a rich country and with the right passport,” she said in comments provided by Germany’s Sea Watch, a charity that has been running rescue operations in the Mediterranean since 2014.
“When I realized it, I felt a moral obligation to help those who did not have the same opportunities as me.”
In a stream of tweets, the latest on Friday, Salvini has called her a pirate and outlaw, and drawn attention to her motivation for captaining a rescue vessel.
“The lady has said ‘I have to volunteer because I was born white, rich and German’. But not everybody who is white, rich and German have to come and break Italy’s balls. Help the kids in Germany!”
On Friday, Salvini also compared her with an earlier rescue volunteer from another charity, a man who sported a red mohawk and was reported to have called the minister a “fascist”.
ITALY WANTS EU HELP WITH MIGRANTS
Salvini says he will only allow Racket to dock when other EU states agree to immediately take the migrants once ashore, and even then Italian authorities would seize the ship and prosecute its captain for assisting people-smugglers.
However, a European Commission official was quoted by Italian news agency AGI on Friday as saying the allocation of migrants among EU nations needed to be worked out and that in the meantime the ship must be allowed to dock.
After waiting in international waters for an invitation from Italy or another EU state to accept the Sea Watch, Racket decided this week to sail for the southern Italian island of Lampedusa but was blocked by Italian government vessels.
On board the ship, sitting off Lampedusa, Rackete responded sharply when asked to comment on Salvini’s criticisms.
“To be honest I haven’t read the comments, I really don’t have time. I have 40 people to take care of … Mister Salvini might just get in line.”
Racket is already under investigation for breaking Italy’s beefed up laws against non-government rescue ships. A prosecutor in southern Italy added that it was a formality once the Sea Watch had entered Italian waters.
Sea Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer said the group hoped Racket would be allowed to dock later on Friday or Saturday and that it was a disgrace for Europe that it was taking so long.
“We are really proud of our captain that doesn’t hesitate to even take personal consequences for doing exactly the right thing, for following the law of the sea and for bringing these people to safety,” Neugebauer told Reuters TV in Berlin.
Sea Watch asked the European Court of Human Rights to force Italian authorities to allow the ship to dock, but the request was rejected. Instead, the court ruled that Italy should provide all necessary assistance to those aboard.
In a tweet on Friday, Racket said she was ready to face the consequences of Italian law. Once informed that she was under investigation, she tweeted: “I will deal with everything with the support of lawyers and Sea Watch, now I just want people to be put ashore.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-italy/italy-puts-captain-of-migrant-rescue-ship-under-investigation-idUSKCN1TT1GN
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europravda – Captain of Sea Watch 3’s message to Salvini: ‘Don’t play games with people’s lives’
A special report from on board the Sea Watch 3 rescue ship shows the conditions the migrants are living in. The boat is now in Italian waters after being denied permission to unload its passengers
Sea-watch migrants appear to be in good health
Italy: Several EU nations agree to take migrants from ship
ROME — Italy’s appeal to fellow EU nations to take some of the 40 migrants still aboard a rescue ship anchored off a tiny Mediterranean island in a weeks-long standoff has obtained a “positive” response from five countries, the Italian foreign minister said Friday.
In a tweet, Enzo Moavero offered his “sincere thanks to the governments of Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal” for giving a “positive response” about the migrants aboard Sea-Watch 3, a German humanitarian organization’s vessel which had rescued them more than two weeks ago.
Moavero also expressed gratitude to the EU migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, for his efforts in lining up countries willing to take in the asylum-seekers.
Italy didn’t immediately say if the migrants would now be allowed to disembark on Lampedusa, an Italian island south of Sicily.
Earlier, a German interior ministry spokesman said Germany would take in some of the migrants if other EU member states did too. Later, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer was quoted by German news agency dpa that he was very confident that there would be a solution to the Sea-Watch 3 stalemate by the weekend.
Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, had declared that until countries are found to accept every one of the 40 asylum-seekers, none would disembark on Italian soil.
The vessel is Dutch-flagged, and Salvini for days pressed the Netherlands to deal with the private rescue vessel.
Originally, 53 rescued migrants were aboard. But that number decreased as various passengers were taken ashore because of medical conditions, including one on Thursday evening and another early Friday.
Sea-Watch 3 captain Carola Racket has defied orders from port authorities, first not to enter Italian waters and second in her attempted approach to the port of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island.
This is the latest standoff of several over the past months between Italy’s year-old populist government and humanitarian rescue ships that Salvini accuses of essentially aiding migrant traffickers.
The EU had urged Italy to bring the migrants to land.
In a news conference via Skype on Friday from the rescue vessel, Racket said that Sea-Watch 3 headed to Italy since it had “the closest port from the rescue position” and because Malta “denied straight away” permission to dock.
Humanitarian groups, as well as U.N. agencies dealing with migrants and asylum-seekers say those rescued at sea shouldn’t be returned to Libya, where migrant traffickers are based, because the migrants risk torture, rape, forced labor and are kept in squalid, overcrowded detention centers with scant food.
In the past couple of years, Italy has supplied equipment and training to the Libya coast guard in hopes the Libyans would thwart launches of traffickers’ unseaworthy, overcrowded vessels.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/2-migrants-evacuated-from-german-rescue-ship-off-italy/2019/06/28/28052984-997d-11e9-9a16-dc551ea5a43b_story.html
BREITBART – Report: Sea-Watch Assault on Italy ‘Organized Piracy’
ROME — “This is not resistance to Salvini but organized piracy against a sovereign state,” declared Giorgio Gandola in La Verità newspaper Friday, noting that the captain of the Sea-Watch 3 is violating laws not only of Mr. Salvini, but of the Italian Republic itself.
Carola Rackete, the German captain of the NGO vessel Sea-Watch 3, has become the new poster-child of the Italian left, Gandola observes, replacing the recent occupants of that coveted chair: climate-change activist Greta Thunberg and antifa novelist-Sardinian separatist Michela Murgia.
Ms. Rackete, Gandola notes, has a perfect progressive pedigree, having worked years for Greenpeace and animal rights causes, and appropriately ashamed of her “white privilege.”
The only problem is that her crusade against Matteo Salvini has become a crusade against Italy itself, since the laws she is flouting were passed by the Italian parliament and approved by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
The German NGO Sea Watch has official yearly revenues of two million euros, without counting the generous donations from their ample liberal fan base made up of German greens, actors, and rock bands, Gandola notes.
For her part, Carola Rackete turned down offers to head to Tunisia with her human cargo as well as every other solution that was not Italy.
Her interest in the 42 migrants aboard her vessel was marginal, Gandola affirms, while her primary interest was creating an international incident by confronting Mr. Salvini. In other words, he suggests, Rackete has exploited the fate of 42 human beings to make a political statement and draw attention to herself.
In her own words, in fact, Rackete had said that “for me, Lampedusa is the only option,” discarding a priori any other port to disembark her passengers, including Spanish ports that would have shortened her 1400-km journey considerably.
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2019/06/28/report-sea-watch-assault-on-italy-organized-piracy/
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BREITBART – Salvini’s Popularity Soars Amidst Sea-Watch Migrant Controversy
ROME — Matteo Salvini’s hardline approach to a Dutch migrant vessel’s efforts to storm an Italian port has done nothing but raise his capital in the eyes of the Italian people, who elected him to curb illegal immigration.
Rado Fonda, director of leading Italian market research agency SWG, noted Friday that just one month after the European elections Mr. Salvini’s Lega party has risen by an impressive 3 percent among Italian voters, from 34 percent to 37 percent, widening its lead over the second-place Democratic Party (PD), which has remained stable at 22.6 percent.
“Matteo Salvini still has a pool of potential expansion and having gone from 34 to over 37 percent in one month he could easily reach 40 percent,” Mr. Fonda said.
The PD, on the other hand, “does not have the drive to move from being an opposition party to a governing party,” Fonda said. “The PD has regained the left-wing electorate, which had escaped into abstentionism or even the Five Star Movement, but has lost support among the moderates. It is more left, less center.”
Mr. Salvini has stood his ground in the face of international pressure to disembark 42 migrants aboard the Sea-Watch 3, an NGO vessel flying a Dutch flag, insisting that he does not give in to strong-arm tactics.
“It is clear that a German NGO vessel flying a Dutch flag, which picks up immigrants in Libyan waters and does not go to Tunisia or to Malta, but heads straight for Italy, disobeying the finance police, the Government, the Navy, everyone, does so for reasons of a political battle,” Mr. Salvini said on Twitter.
“Anyone who crashes a checkpoint with his car is stopped,” he added. “I hope that in the coming hours there will be a judge to rule that there are outlaws aboard that ship, starting with the captain.”
“If the ship is seized and the crew arrested, I will be delighted,” he said.
The interior minister also took advantage of the situation to remind Italians that his firmness in dealing with illegal immigration has saved numerous lives.
“More than 5,000 people died at sea in 2016,” Salvini noted. “This year we are at a tenth of that. We have gone from 76,858 landings in 2017 to 2,544 this year.”
“I want to continue positive trend,” he said.
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2019/06/28/salvinis-popularity-soars-amidst-sea-watch-migrant-controversy/
MEMRI –San Francisco Friday Sermon: Morsi Was Murdered by Zionist Agents Who Are Working for Satan
Dr. Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Sidiqqi said in a June 21, 2019 Friday sermon at Masjid Darussalam in San Francisco, which is the largest mosque in downtown San Francisco and which is managed by the Islamic Society of San Francisco, that former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who died recently, had been murdered by Zionist agents.
He said that there are many of these agents in the Muslim world working for Satan.
Dr. Siddiqi said that Morsi had only been trying to help humanity by spreading the truth of Islam and its message of justice throughout the world, but that the “forces of evil” did not allow it and will not allow it until the Muslims “connect” with each other and “establish the kind of unity that is required.”
Dr. Siddiqi’s website says that he has been serving the Bay Area and the U.S. since 1983.
It says that he currently lectures in Islamic Studies and Arabic at Chabot College, at Mission College, at Ohlone College, and at the Graduate Theological Union’s Center for Islamic Studies, and that he is the Director of the Islamic Education and Information Center and the founder of the Islamic Law Council. Dr. Siddiqi holds a PhD in Quranic Studies from the University of London and a Master’s in Quranic Exegesis from Al-Azhar University in Egypt.
The video was uploaded to a YouTube page called IqraTube, which is run by Dr. Siddiqi.
Turkey Moving Special Forces, Military Equipment to Syrian Border – Reports (sputniknews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/military/201906281076088951-turkey-moving-special-forces-military-equipment-to-syrian-border/
“Turkey is moving special forces and military equipment to its border with Syria, the Anadolu news agency reported on Friday, after Turkish forces shelled the Syrian army’s positions in Idlib.
A convoy of armoured vehicles and special forces units have arrived in Reyhanli and Kirikhan cities in Turkey’s southern province of Hatay on the border with Syria, according to the local media.
The shelling by the Turkish forces came a day after a Turkish soldier had been killed in an attack on a Turkish observation post in Idlib. The Turkish Defence Ministry has said that the shelling had been carried out from the territory controlled by the Syrian government and was deliberate.
Reuters reported late on Thursday, citing the Turkish Defence Ministry, that Russia’s Ankara attache had been summoned after the attack on the observation post. The Russian Embassy in Ankara declined to comment on the matter.
Last year, Russia and Turkey agreed a deal that created a demilitarised zone in Idlib along the contact line between the armed opposition and the government forces.”
8 German men charged over plan to start violent uprising (abcnews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-men-charged-plan-start-violent-uprising-64014486
“German authorities have indicted eight far-right extremists on suspicion they planned to start a violent uprising.
Federal prosecutors said Friday that they have formally indicted the German men, aged 21 to 31, on suspicion of forming a terrorist organization.
The suspects were arrested last year in eastern Germany’s Chemnitz area. They are alleged to have formed a group calling itself “Revolution Chemnitz.”
Several of the suspects are alleged to have been involved in an attack on a group of migrants in Chemnitz on Sept. 14.
Authorities intercepted communication between the men indicating that they were trying to obtain firearms.
German officials have warned that far-right extremists pose a serious threat to the country, after a violent neo-Nazi was arrested recently on suspicion of killing a pro-migrant politician.”
Official: Blast during prayers in Afghan mosque wounds 11 (abcnews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/official-blast-prayer-mosque-wounds-11-people-64017595
“A bomb blast inside a mosque wounded at least 11 people Friday in northern Samangan province, a provincial official said.
Sediq Azizi, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the blast took place during Friday prayers as dozens gathered in the mosque in Aybak, the provincial capital. He said the mullah of the mosque was in critical condition and was transferred to neighboring Balkh province for further treatment.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack…”
Fighting in northwest Syria kill scores of fighters (abcnews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkish-soldier-killed-attack-syrias-rebel-province-64011704
“Syrian government forces and insurgents fought fierce battles that left dozens dead in the country’s northwest Friday as troops tried to regain control of two villages they lost earlier this month, state media and an opposition war monitor said.
Syrian state news agency SANA said the army carried out “intense rocket and artillery strikes” on insurgent positions on the front line in the central province of Hama and nearby Idlib that is the last major rebel stronghold in Syria’s civil war, now In its ninth year.
SANA said the aim of the bombing is to destroy fortifications built by insurgents, many of them members of the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. It said the strikes were mostly near the villages of Jubayn and Tel Milh adding that they inflicted many casualties among the insurgents…”
Al-Qaida accuses Egypt of killing ex-president Morsi in jail (abcnews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/al-qaida-accuses-egypt-killing-president-morsi-jail-64014485
“Al-Qaida is accusing Egyptian authorities of killing jailed former President Mohamed Morsi, who died in a Cairo courtroom during his trial earlier this month.
The militant group’s media arm as-Sahab posted a statement on Thursday, urging Egyptians to rise against current President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Al-Qaida says: “We do not doubt that he (Morsi) was killed, oppressed and humiliated” in jail.
Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president who hailed from the Islamist, now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, was ousted by the military in 2013 after massive protests against his divisive rule. He had been jailed for six years until his death.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a fierce el-Sissi critic, has claimed that Morsi’s death was suspicious while rights groups said the government deliberately denied Morsi access to medical care.”
Suspected suicide bombings in Philippine army camp kill 7 (abcnews, Jun 28, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/suspected-militant-attack-philippine-army-camp-kills-64013946
“Two suspected Muslim militant suicide attackers detonated bombs in an army camp in the southern Philippines on Friday, killing three soldiers, two civilians and themselves, military officials said.
Twelve other soldiers were wounded in the “inhumane” attack by suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen on the headquarters of an army brigade combat team in southern Sulu province’s Indanan town, officials said. About 300 newly deployed soldiers were based in the combat camp, they said.
The military has deployed large numbers of troops to predominantly Muslim Sulu to bolster a months-long offensive against remnants of the Abu Sayyaf, which is listed by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings…”