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.
Kevin Kühnert of the Young Socialists from the German Socialist Party SPD wants to drive the Population Replacement fast forward by giving Migrants that “work” Voting Rights .
SPD Kevin Kühnert und die UMVOLKUNG!
“The soverienty of the individual. The cornerstone of Western Civilization.”
Image at:
https://vladtepesblog.com/2019/04/21/breaking-multiple-explosions-reported-at-churches-in-sri-lanka/comment-page-1/#comment-479256
“Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.[d])
Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+25%3A19-34&version=NIV
Those famished for sex will sellout their own forefathers: Islam, Marxism and LGBTQ+. ‘Four wives and all that your right hand possess,’ ‘open marriage,’ or sadomasochistic heaven. You own father merely a useful stud, or a cuck making women frustrated to open them up, or objectifying himself-into-her.
But when Jesus came in famished:
1. “…tell these stones to become bread.”
‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’.
Do not be imprinted by the stones, to be locked into the world that creates LGBTQ…XYZ
2. .”..throw yourself down.” “‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,..”
‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’
Go on, try out the Socialists, and see what Housing and Benefits they will give you when you simply present somebody else’s baby as your own. You will be amazed at the locked-in, teat-to-mother liar-relationship that has formed.
3. All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
” Away from me, Satan!” “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”
To submit and serve Muhammad and his Sock Puppet. Locked in forever – or they kill you.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A1-11&version=NIV
The soverienty of the individual. Is the cornerstone of Western Civilization.
Until along came Prosperity Christianity hungering for Abundance.
Oops. Image here: https://images.app.goo.gl/ZVXjoeXsoQZgc49p9
Abundance: https://youtu.be/yocogZqDKXs
Just FYI, that man is a Catholic priest who has faced courts and prison for his stance against abortion. He has a couple of signs which he is allowed to hold at a certain distance from an abortion clinic nearby. The signs he chooses to display generally are about core principles which lead to the notion that an unborn baby is still a human being. Hence the choice of words. Often he has signs about the right of freedom of speech. The reason is because he, and or, other people have been jailed for having signs too close to the clinic or to close to the topic.
I interviewed one of them who subsequently passed away. And I saw how he was treated by passers by who did not agree with him. It was frightening.
A UK police officer who is Christian also has been investigated for his thought crimes:
https://youtu.be/iCxQI9U_xHE
Deaf-Con 2 (the Marxists are emboldened)
(2005) https://www.memri.org/reports/debate-arab-and-muslim-world-over-normalization-israel
Sheikh Ali Abu Al-Hassan, former assistant in matters of religious rulings to Al-Azhar Sheikh Tantawi, issued a fatwa against Sheikh Tantawi’s ruling in favor of normalization. Abu Al-Hassan’s fatwa prohibits the participation of Israeli sports teams in competitions that take place in Muslim countries. He also told the Egyptian daily Al-Yaum that “Israelis’ participation in the judo championship is prohibited by Shari’a, since they are rivals who stole land, money and honor. [Participation in] sports competitions and cooperation with them imply consent to their actions against us.” [13]
https://www.tellerreport.com/news/–a-symposium-in-london-calls-on-the-arab-summit-to-criminalize-normalization-and-consider-it-a-threat-to-national-security-.HJiZQzCuV.html
A symposium in London calls on the Arab summit to criminalize normalization and consider it a threat to national security
3/31/2019, 6:14:27 AM
https://jewishjournal.com/news/world/307371/a-groundbreaking-arab-initiative-to-repudiate-bds/
LONDON, UK – In a groundbreaking event in London on Nov. 19 and 20, 30 public figures from 15 countries in the Arab world came together to repudiate the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel and to call for direct civil relations between the Jewish state and their respective societies.
No Israelis were present, because some of the delegates [from Arab countris] could have been subject to prosecution in their home countries for the “crime” of normalizing relations. It was clearly, Braude said, “a civil initiative in which no government had a hand,” but the views expressed are bound to resonate throughout the Middle East.
[Me: and Arabs from Israel who seem also not to have been included–what might they have faced?]
Per Ofsted, Hebrew not modern enough to count as foreign language. I guess Jewish schools in England could have taught Yiddish as a modern foreign language if it were 1920.
Oftsed also marked the school down for failing to teach music and a modern foreign language besides Hebrew.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/global/uk/chassidim-may-be-less-hostile-to-corbyn-than-others/2019/11/14/
Hebrew not a “modern” language?
They WISH!
Ladino is “precious” like the spotted owl. It goes extinct when my generation dies. Entire departments in Spanish universities are devoted to studying it, recording all they can before it’s too late.
Like all those horrid museums, ghastly collections of dead-Jew artefacts.
PT Iran policies working:
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15183/iran-mullahs-bankrupt
Given time and economic sanctions do as much damage as military action.
An excellent Day by Day Cartoon that tells the facts about the Dem.
https://www.daybydaycartoon.com/comic/democrats/
“AntiFa are the new KKK”
Using terror, AntiFa keep all the identity-herds in line.
Promised Prosperity or promised Harm. halal-haram. Dhimmido or dhimmidum.
Antifa, BLM, BAMN and their off shoots are the new KKK and are the militias of the Radical Left. The left sees their groups and knows that they are larger then the various militia groups on the right. What the left ignores is the 30 million vets a large number of whom are still capable of combat. The large number of hunters in US as well as the people who are target shooters or just own the firearms for self defense. They don’t understand the debth of hatred they have created and don’t realize how lethal people that have been trained in the intelligent use of violence are.
Read the J.E. Dyer article about the reports of the Naval Brass defying the President. (I know that you haven’t served so you won’t get the nuances of the article or the comments.) then listen to the radio host in the next thread and understand that both are war warnings. Of the two the J.E. Dyer article is much scarier then the radio host, she is talking about a mutiny in the military with the very real possibility of Blue on Blue fighting. What the Dems are doing with their impeachment hearings is damaging the Republic and our traditions but given time they can be fixed. But an open mutiny against a duly elected will do damage that will take centuries to repair.
(I know that you haven’t served so you won’t get the nuances of the article or the comments)
Forgive me. I have served
Hong Kong elections: voting kicks off in first polls since protest crisis erupted
Hong Kong municipal elections: What’s at stake? | DW News
Record numbers vote in Hong Kong’s elections
This is the clear choice Hong Kong faces TODAY
Why Did Horowitz Produce Two Reports?
Record turnout for Hong Kong’s district council elections
Fox News just said that over 4 million people turned out to vote.
Giuliani Says Biden Documents to Be Released ‘If I Disappear’
(Bloomberg) — Rudy Giuliani, a focus of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s foreign policy dealings in Ukraine, suggested on Twitter that he has dirt on the Biden family that would be released were he to get into trouble.
Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, also described as “sarcastic” a statement he made recently about having “an insurance policy” should he fall out of favor with the president.
That followed an interview with Fox News during which he was asked whether Trump might soon conclude that Giuliani is a liability, and throw him “under the bus.”
“This is ridiculous,” Giuliani, 75, said. “We are very good friends. He knows what I did was in order to defend him, not to dig up dirt on Biden.”
Without offering proof, Giuliani tweeted that he had “files in my safe about the Biden Family’s 4 decade monetizing” of the former vice president and senator’s office. “If I disappear, it will immediately appear.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/giuliani-says-biden-documents-released-223757774.html
zero hedge – State Department Releases Detailed Accounts Of Biden-Ukraine Corruption
A liberal watchdog group’s attempt to nail Rudy Giuliani has backfired in spectacular fashion after their FOIA request resulted in the US State Department releasing detailed accusations of corruption against the Bidens – based on interviews with former Ukrainian officials who were in charge of the investigations.
Responding to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from the group American Oversight, the State Department on Friday night released almost 100 pages of records detailing efforts by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to investigate corruption, which include contacts with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) earlier this year.
While American Oversight’s ‘gotcha’ is that Giuliani had “multiple contacts” with Mike Pompeo and others while investigating Ukraine corruption, they completely ignore interview notes containing detailed allegations by former Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin – who Joe Biden had fired, as well as his successor, prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko – who “believes Mr. Viktor Shokin the former Prosecutor General is honest.”
more :
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/state-department-releases-detailed-accounts-biden-ukraine-corruption
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From 2014: R. Hunter Biden Should Declare Who Really Owns His New Ukrainian Employer, Burisma Holdings
This 2014 post by our house Sherlock Holmes of international scammers, Richard Smith, is a classic example of Naked Capitalism not simply being onto a story early, but even more than five years later, demonstrably providing depth and detail you won’t find anywhere else.
Richard did a deep dive into the dodgy appointment of Hunter Biden and then Secretary of State John Kerry’s long-standing bundler, Devon Archer, to the board of Burisma Holdings. Richard quickly got past the noteworthy fact that Biden Jr. was being paid quite a lot for no relevant expertise and no investment in the company…so what was he being paid for, exactly? Oh, and Richard also describes how Hunter’s and his uncle James Biden’s past financial rides were with con artists.
But the real puzzlement is that from everything that can be inferred, Burisma is either tiny or just a shell company. So who is behind these big director payoffs payouts? Richard found some bread crumbs that pointed to Burisma being owned by Privat Group, a conglomerate controlled by the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. We’ll turn the mike over to Mark Ames:
Kolomoyskiy is the Berezovsky of current Ukrainian oligarchs. The dirtiest of the bunch, absolutely loathed by the IMF/creditor crowd especially for his theft of billions through the collapse of Privat Bank a few years ago.
more :
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html
The Dems are ;making the mistake of believing their own propaganda about Trump and his allies, the more they did the more dirt on the Dem leaders they make pubic.
CBC – Biden investigation not raised during 2017 meeting, former Ukrainian president says
Petro Poroshenko met Rudy Giuliani in the fall of 2017
Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, said he had conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer two years ago, but Rudy Giuliani “definitely did not” raise the possibility of investigating former vice-president Joe Biden’s son.
The meeting with Giuliani took place in the fall of 2017 and focused on cybersecurity and reforms in the financial sector, Poroshenko told an international security forum on Sunday.
At the heart of the U.S. impeachment inquiry is the allegation that President Trump, for his own political purposes, leaned on Poroshenko’s successor, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate the Bidens and Hunter Biden securing a directorship on the Burisma board.
Allegations of corruption involving Ukrainian natural gas giant Burisma and Hunter Biden’s presence on the board was not something they discussed, Poroshenko said of his meeting with Giuliani. He suggested it would not have been something he would have tolerated during his time.
“Look, I’m the president of Ukraine, the great European nation, the great European country; the biggest [in terms of] territory in Europe and definitely I cannot imagine this type of talks with me as the president of Ukraine,” he said during a brief question and answer session in Halifax.
For the most part, the former Ukrainian president skirted the raging political fire in Washington. He did say that the internal political struggle between Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. has nothing to do with the pressing issues that face Ukraine, including the bloody five-year-old war with Russian-back separatists in the eastern districts of the country, and Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.
Poroshenko also said he met with Trump at the White House and suggested U.S. domestic politics never entered the conversation.
His country, he said, has enjoyed solid bipartisan support in both the United States and Canada, adding: “We need the unity of the whole free world.”
The real winner throughout the American political crisis has been Russian President Vladimir Putin, Poroshenko said.
“Don’t allow Putin to destabilize us. And by the way, I have a unique almost six years experience in communication with Putin. My strong piece of advice — please don’t trust Putin.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/hunter-biden-investigation-never-raised-in-2017-giuliani-meeting-1.5371489
==============================================
CTV News – Former president of Ukraine reveals details of 2017 meeting with Rudy Giuliani
HALIFAX — The former president of Ukraine confirmed Sunday he met with Rudy Giuliani in late 2017, but Petro Poroshenko told a security conference in Halifax he and President Donald Trump’s then-adviser talked only about U.S. support — and he insisted Giuliani did not ask for anything in return.
Poroshenko, who in April was defeated by Volodymyr Zelensky in a presidential election, said he spoke with Giuliani about increasing American support for the Ukrainian military, cybersecurity and financial reforms.
During a question and answer session at the annual Halifax International Security Forum, moderator Robin Shepherd asked Poroshenko if Giuliani had imposed any conditions on U.S. support.
Giuliani, a Trump ally who later became the president’s personal attorney, has been accused during the Trump impeachment inquiry of running a parallel diplomatic effort aimed at getting Ukraine to investigate former vice-president Joe Biden — Trump’s potential rival in the 2020 U.S. election.
“Definitely, I cannot imagine this type of talks with me as a president of Ukraine,” Poroshenko told the moderator.
Poroshenko’s account of the meeting in October or November 2017 came under intense scrutiny at the forum because of the close connection between Ukrainian politics and the ongoing presidential impeachment inquiry in Washington.
The impeachment process started after an anonymous whistle-blower alleged that during a July 25 call, Trump told Zelensky he would withhold military aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky investigated Biden and his son Hunter.
The whistle-blower and other U.S. officials have accused Trump of using the power of his office to illegally solicit interference from a foreign country.
At the Halifax event, Poroshenko was asked if Giuliani mentioned Biden or Burisma, the Ukrainian natural-gas company that employed Hunter Biden.
“Definitely not, and it cannot be,” Poroshenko answered.
The former president was also asked about his White House meeting with Trump in June 2017.
“We talked about global co-operation and security sector and support for reforms,” Poroshenko said without elaborating.
Poroshenko’s role in the political intrigue surrounding Trump is expected to gain attention in the weeks ahead as one of Trump’s most vocal defenders — South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham — confirmed last week he is seeking documents related to Joe Biden’s communications with Ukrainian officials.
Graham’s inquiry is focused on any calls Biden may have had with Poroshenko regarding an investigation of Burisma.
Without citing any evidence, Trump has alleged Biden, as vice-president, pressured Ukrainian officials to fire the country’s lead prosecutor to protect his son.
Despite the political upheaval in Washington, Poroshenko was quick to praise Trump for providing military support to Ukraine as it continues to wage war with Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and has encouraged a pro-Kremlin insurgency along the country’s eastern flank.
In particular, Poroshenko said Trump’s decision to send Javelin anti-tank missiles has proven to be an effective deterrent to Russian tank commanders — even before the highly accurate weapons were deployed.
“All the Russian tanks on the occupied territory stopped appearing on the front,” Poroshenko said. “Russian tankers refused to sit in the tank because Ukraine had the Javelin. Our … casualties were significantly reduced because of this psychological factor.”
Poroshenko said the impeachment proceedings have created a global distraction that has benefited Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Now, we have switched attention away from Russia to Ukraine-Gate,” he told the forum. “Who has an interest in that? Ukraine? No. The United States? Definitely not. One man who sits in Moscow.”
As for the Crimea region, Poroshenko said he had no doubt it would one day regain its status as Ukrainian territory, and he renewed his drive to see Ukraine join the NATO military alliance.
Poroshenko said he was grateful for the support from the United States and Canada, saying these allies understand Ukrainians are fighting for freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
He cited former prime minister Stephen Harper, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former foreign affairs minister, whose Ukrainian roots were also mentioned.
“We should keep this solidarity … Don’t allow Putin to destabilize us,” he said.
“I have almost six years of communication with Putin. My strong piece of advice: Please, don’t trust Putin.”
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/former-president-of-ukraine-reveals-details-of-2017-meeting-with-rudy-giuliani-1.4700246
As for the Crimea region, Poroshenko said he had no doubt it would one day regain its status as Ukrainian territory, and he renewed his drive to see Ukraine join the NATO military alliance.
Dream on, big fella.
Soros-conjured fantasies won’t change majority Russian-speaking, historically Russian Crimea into NATO-ville. That’s the reality on the ground.
Whether you love or loathe Putin is beside the point. Unless you’re following the Alinsky playbook: Personalize, demonize, deflect from the real issue.
Think about it. EU/NATO aggression along 1500 miles of the border of the Russian Federation. Like positioning an invigorated Warsaw Pact army along our border with Canada. Worse, given Russia’s lack of alternative warm water ports.
Poroshenko’s “solidarity” is expressly ANTI-Putin, PRO-Soros. The real destabilization has come out of the West, that keeps stirring the pot of enmity between Russia and Ukraine. President Zelenskiy is a much healthier alternative to Poroshenko.
This garbage passes for normal in the twisted Western media. Which also publishes our President saying, “I don’t care about Ukraine,” and, “These are bad people.”
Try explaining those snippets to your family in Kiev, as my Russki did this morning. The so-called “Russia experts” who testified before Congress last week know nothing.
They’re selling us a tribalization narrative that’s largely artificial. Russians live in Ukraine, just as they live in Georgia and Belarus.
Western leftist operatives are using divide-&-conquer as effectively as their Soviet role models!
NEW FACTS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL CORRUPTION, BURISMA AND SCHEME TO BANKRUPT UKRAINE
Press conference on the facts of international corruption with detailed translation.
This press conference was focused on a high profile case that involved officials of Ukraine and US, diplomats, security forces, lobby companies, Burisma and Bidens, Yanukovich and his “family”, Hontareva and Poroshenko.
Ginsburg hospitalized for treatment of chills and fever
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized after experiencing chills and fever, the court said Saturday.
Full Coverage: U.S. Supreme Court
In a statement, the court’s public information office said Ginsburg was admitted Friday night to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was initially evaluated at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington before being transferred to Johns Hopkins for further evaluation and treatment of any possible infection.
With intravenous antibiotics and fluids, her symptoms abated and she expected to be released from the hospital as early as Sunday morning, the statement said.
https://apnews.com/59ece692dd804865bac9df546549ab70
What’s really killing her is knowing she should’ve resigned before PTrump was elected. Arrogant elitist was counting on the Witch, boo-hoo.
And when she is gone it will be a 6-3 court with the swinging of the Chief Justice not mattering in the least. Once this happens we will have a Supreme Court that cares what the laws and the Constitution say not what the left wants. It has been a long time since we had that.
Watch this: China surveillance tech seeks to go global
China is the best represented of the 53 nations at the security fair save for host nation France
China is the best represented of the 53 nations at the security fair save for host nation France (AFP Photo/NOEL CELIS)
Villepinte (France) (AFP) – Chinese firms are omnipresent at a Paris homeland security trade show, capitalising on their vast experience in developing surveillance systems for Beijing to conquer the global market despite concerns the technology has been used to violate human rights.
With 89 out of 1,100 companies demonstrating their wares at the Milipol security trade fair, China is the best represented of the 53 nations present save for host nation France.
But contrary to weapons and ammunition on display at other stands, Chinese firms offer non-lethal equipment: helmets, bullet-proof vests and tactical clothing for special forces or riot troops. Jamming equipment. And cameras, lots of cameras.
https://news.yahoo.com/watch-china-surveillance-tech-seeks-global-030241832.html
Yahoo puts a positive spin on Gestapo paraphernalia of the Chicom state. $$$
Yup they are another left wing company that is digging a real deep hole for themselves.
We’ve got to tackle the media oligarchs. The mafia’s got to be throttled.
Art imitating life:
https://youtu.be/5askXpPvUeA
Life imitating Art:
https://youtu.be/5askXpPvUeA
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BY GRAHAM YOUNG, ZOE CHAMBERLAIN, STEPHANIE BALLOO
11:30, 24 NOV 2019UPDATED11:38, 24 NOV 2019
See news near you
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ARRESTS AT BIRMINGHAM CINEMA OVER ‘MACHETE BRAWL’
Controversial gang film Blue Story has been banned from all Vue Cinemas following the riots at Star City on Saturday night (November 23).
A recorded message on the cinema answerphone says that the movie will no longer be screened at any of its venues, BirminghamLive can reveal.
Lots of families were at the Nechells multiplex ready to enjoy the first opening Saturday of Frozen II when violence broke out at the cinema after a gang arrived with machetes.
Two schoolgirls, a boy and a man were arrested and seven police officers were injured as dozens of officers swarmed the area just after 5.30pm on November 23. People were evacuated as Vue cinema managers decided to close the venue.
0_GPY_BEM_070319vuecinema_007JPG.jpg
Vue Cinema at Star City(Image: Graham Young / BirminghamLive)
The message from Vue said: “We regret that we will no longer be screening the film Blue Story at any of our venues.
“Should you have a booking for this film, please say cancellation when prompted and a member of our team will be with you shortly to assist you with your booking.”
On Sunday morning, there were 50 minute waits for refunds for cancelled tickets.
A former Birmingham cinema manager has said the film’s distributor should consider pulling Blue Story out of all of the city’s cinemas in the wake of Saturday night’s.
BLUE STORY DIRECTOR ANDREW ONWUBOLU SAYS THAT HIS NEW FILM BLUE STORY, WHICH TELLS THE STORY OF RIVAL GANGS, IS BASED ON HIS OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
“Released on more than 300 screens nationwide on Friday, November 22 by Paramount Pictures UK, Blue Story (15) is a London gangland drama about two boys from different postcodes – a depressingly familiar story in real-life Birmingham down the years.
The 91-minute film was directed by Andrew Onwubolu aka rap artist Rapman.”
The Bell Curve doesn’t lie.
“…that human intelligence is substantially influenced by both inherited and environmental factors and that it is a better predictor of many personal outcomes, including financial income, job performance, birth out of wedlock, and involvement in crime than are an individual’s parental socioeconomic status.” – wiki
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/exclusive-vue-bans-blue-story-17307755
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-50536472
Wiki doesn’t lie.
Is neither right nor left, fact-based neutrality.
hahhahhahhahhah(Richard: Read the entire article, it is as valuable for what it implies as for what it says.)
Trump, the SEALs, and Eddie Gallagher: Defiance and rumors of defiance
By J.E. Dyer November 24, 2019
It’s troubling watching what we’re told the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command is doing; i.e., openly defying the president on a question of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher’s status.
At least, it looks troubling, if that’s what is actually happening. As regards the egregious public defiance, I’m not so sure it is. It’s possible we’re being misled by reports that are either outright fabrications, or the product of politicized “leaking” that pushes a one-sided story line. Such “leaking” could as well come from the Pentagon as from anywhere else in Washington. I would hope it’s not coming from uniformed military personnel. But it could be.
(There’s a report that the secretary of the Navy, who commented publicly on Friday that the board to be convened in Gallagher’s case should go forward, said he would resign if President Trump overruled a Navy decision on Gallagher. There’s also a report I’ve seen no sourcing for that Secretary Richard Spencer denies saying he would resign.)
So we should tread warily on this.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/11/24/trump-the-seals-and-eddie-gallagher-defiance-and-rumors-of-defiance/
Richard: I pray that she is right about the false information but there are a lot of indications that at least part of the top Naval Brass are setting out to openly defy the President and his authority. The last time something like this happened General MacArthur got into a fight with Truman (Mac was right but by going public he gave Truman no choice but to fire him).
We all know that Obama purged t he military of most of the high ranking officers who weren’t personally loyal to him and promoted those who were personally loyal to him. We say the result of this in the testimony of Vindman who complained how Trump was changing the Obama policies. What I am afraid of is that the Naval Brass are Obama loyalists who are defying the President because they don’t like Trump changing policies and rules that Obama wrote.
As JE said in the article the Brass could have done all of this in private rather then taking the fight public. given the Machiavellian/Byzantine actions of the Dems in their quest to reverse the 2016 election having some high ranking officers setting themselves up to be fired to make Trump look bad is highly possible. Especially after the reactions of the high ranking people after Trump pardoned the 3 men Obama wanted in the pen.
Pakistanis praise youth who jumped in to stop the desecration of the koran in Norway
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry says it has summoned Norway’s ambassador to convey the deep concern of the government and Pakistani people over the recent burning of Islam’s holy book by a Norwegian man that was caught on video.
In Saturday’s statement, the ministry said: “Such actions hurt the sentiments of 1.3 billion Muslims around the world.”
Major General Asif Ghafoor of the Pakistan Armed Forces said on Twitter, “Salute to brave Ilyas for displaying courage to stop an absolutely deplorable action.Such Islamophobia based provocations only promote hatred & extremism. All religions are and must stay respectable. Islamophbia is threat to global peace and harmony. #TheGloriousQuran #Norway…”
The statement demanded action against the person in the city of Kristiansand who desecrated the koran at an anti-Islam rally last week. Pakistan’s reaction comes after video surfaced on social media showing a non-Muslim man burning the book.
In the video, a Muslim youth is seen jumping over a fence and kicking the person burning the koran. The incident drew nationwide condemnation, with many Pakistanis praising the youth as a hero for defending the koran.
https://www.gulftoday.ae/news/2019/11/24/pakistanis-praise-youth-who-jumped-in-to-stop-the-desecration-of-holy-quran-in-norway
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Archbishop Sebastian Francis Shaw … Condemned the Desecration of the Holy Quran in Norway
More norwagian accept islam after quran burning video by norwagian hate preacher | umar ilyas
Norway Muslim Community Recites the Holy Quran at the same place where hate incident took place
Brave Man ilyas Saves The Quran in Norway
Sweden Checks over 5,000 Vehicles in New Anti-Gang Border Operation (breibart, Nov 24, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/11/24/sweden-checks-5000-vehicles-new-anti-gang-border-operation/
“Swedish authorities have stopped and inspected over 5,000 vehicles in 36 hours at the ports of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Trelleborg as part of a new operation to tackle gang crime networks.
The initiative, labelled operation Trident, is set to last a week but has already led to 22 individuals being excluded from the country, broadcaster Sveriges Radio reports.
In addition to police, the Swedish customs authority and the coastguard are also participating in the operation.
Mats Löfving, head of the police’s national operational department Noa, commented on the operation saying: “We are very intensive in our border surveillance to prevent people who travel to Sweden to commit crimes from even entering the country.”
Löfving added that the operation would also aid police who are expected to file a report to the government in February on how to improve tactics to fight against international gang networks.
“We learn both about people and vehicles and what we call mode — that is, the approaches that criminals use,” he said.
The operation comes as Denmark recently enacted much stricter border checks with Sweden due to the rising level of gang violence, especially explosions and bombing attacks.
One bombing, which occurred at a Danish Tax Agency office in the capital of Copenhagen in August, was revealed to have been allegedly carried out by Swedish nationals living just across the border in the multicultural city of Malmö.
The stricter Swedish border controls are also likely in response to the high number of foreign gangs involved in vehicle thefts in the country. Figures from Nao released earlier in the month showed that nine in ten car thefts in Sweden are linked to foreign gangs.
The report also added that border agents had a difficult time stopping stolen vehicles from leaving the country due to a lack of legislation.”
Far-Left Guardian, Julia Wong Deliberately Omit Key Facts in Piece Smearing Breitbart (breitbart, Nov 24, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/11/24/guardian-julia-wong-smears-breitbart/
“In a breach of journalistic ethics, the far-left British newspaper Guardian deliberately omitted key facts in a recently published smear job of Breitbart News and is refusing to come clean about the article, including the decision to allow the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center to make disparaging claims while leaving out Breitbart’s responses.
When reached by phone for comment, senior technology reporter Julia Carrie Wong refused to answer questions about the inaccuracies in her Guardian story, referring all queries to her editor. She then hung up the phone on a Breitbart News reporter.
Later, she rushed to portray herself as a victim by posting screenshots of Breitbart’s questions to her on Twitter.
Wong has a history of using her Twitter account to malign her ideological foes as “racist” and has wielded the term “white people” in pejorative ways. “My favorite thing about civility is that I don’t give a flying fuck about it,” she once tweeted.
Her article titled “White nationalists are openly operating on Facebook. The company won’t act” was published Thursday and inaccurately conflates Breitbart News with white nationalists and members of the alt-right, even though Breitbart has no affiliation with them and even has a reputation for promoting minorities in top editorial posts.
Breitbart News leaders agreed to speak with Wong by phone and to answer her written questions. As part of its responses, Breitbart sent her a Harvard-MIT study and a New York Times magazine article that concluded Breitbart has no affiliation with these groups.
But these responses didn’t appear in the published article.
Instead, the Guardian gave an open platform to the SPLC, a leftist partisan organization that was recently ordered by a court to pay $3.4 million to British political activist Maajid Nawaz for defaming him as an “anti-Muslim extremist,” even though he is Muslim.
The SPLC has also falsely labeled human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is Somali born and a victim of female genital mutilation, as an anti-Muslim extremist.
In the article, the Guardian allowed Heidi Beirich, the director of the SPLC Intelligence Project, to claim Breitbart is a “conduit of conspiracy theory and racism into the conservative movement.” But the article makes no mention of the SPLC’s libelous practices and partisan biases.
The Guardian article also falsely accused a Breitbart story of “promoting the alt-right” movement.
The 2016 Breitbart article in question, “An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right,” never promoted the movement but rather served as an explainer of its many factions. Bloomberg News included the Breitbart article in its “Jealousy List” of articles they wished they had written for 2016.
This isn’t the first time that Wong has faced criticism for her journalistic shortcomings.
Her reporting on a 2017 Guardian story about a seastedding project backed in part by billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel was deemed “lousy” for insulting French Polynesians and for misleading readers about the tax implications of such an endeavor.
When reached via email, Guardian west coast editor Malik Meer declined to answer all questions from Breitbart, instead sending a statement that he said should be attributed to a spokesperson.
While the Guardian refused to publish all of Breitbart’s answers to its questions, Breitbart is publishing the Guardian‘s statement in its entirety:
We stand by our reporting. This story is predominantly about white nationalists operating on Facebook. Where we mention Breitbart we have clearly included comments from Breitbart in response, as well as a quote from your former chairman, Steve Bannon.
The Guardian has experienced a number of public embarrassments in recent years. The newspaper was forced to retract 13 articles and excerpts from other stories in 2016 after a freelancer couldn’t provide evidence to back up his reporting.
More recently, the Guardian was forced to delete sections of an article about Candace Owens that inaccurately claimed that the conservative activist and speaker once defended neo-Nazis. The newspaper retracted the claim after Owens, who is African American, threatened to sue the Guardian for libel.
Like many mainstream media organizations, the Guardian has been called out for the liberal biases of its reporters and editors, some of whom freely express their radical political and cultural views on social media.
Wong, who wrote Thursday’s article, has a history of using the words “racist” and “white people” to describe people she disagrees with. As a freelancer for Salon, she covered the intersection of social justice and technology, at one point calling for the dismantling of “white patriarchy.”
Wong recently called British pop star Morrissey a racist after he wore a shirt reading “Fuck the Guardian” while performing at a Hollywood Bowl concert.
She also called gay journalist Andrew Sullivan a racist when he argued on Twitter that “preventing illegal immigration is not racist… it’s integral to any democracy functioning.”
Wong has also used the term “white people” in pejorative ways on social media. In a deleted tweet from 2016, she called for a “moratorium on white people writing about what it means to be basic.” A post from this year slammed “white people” for defending Chelsea Clinton’s criticisms about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic tweets.
Wong didn’t reply to questions from Breitbart News about her past tweets…”
Machete Gang Storm Cinema, Police Assaulted in Birmingham, UK (breitbart, Nov 24, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/11/24/machete-gang-storm-cinema-police-assaulted-birmingham-uk/
“In another horrifying instance of knife crime in the UK, an entertainment complex in Birmingham was evacuated after around 100 people, some carrying machetes, stormed the cinema and began brawling over the release of a new gangster movie.
A group of mostly youths, armed with machetes, arrived at a Birmingham cinema on Saturday night, breaking out into fights. Armed police were called to the scene of the fight, in which police officers were assaulted and several arrests were made.
According to witnesses, the mayhem broke out over the release of Blue Story, a film which depicts gang culture in southeast London.
“That’s probably one of the scariest moments of my life. Me and my daughter were in a queue to watch Frozen, loads of little kids there, all dressed up and everything, then these girls jumped on another girl and loads of these kids just started fighting,” one witness told The Mirror.
“Armed police came with Tasers. All the people that were fighting run off into the cinema. There’s about 15 to 20 police cars. I’m shaking,” the witness added.
“This is the most horrifying thing I’ve been involved in. I’m scared and I’m 45. [There were] little girls dressed in Frozen dresses crying and screaming. Appalling behaviour all over a gangster film set in London,” another witness said.
Police arrived at the entertainment centre after reports of armed youths roaming the cinema with machetes poured in.
“A number of arrests have been made following disorder at Star City in Birmingham tonight.
“We were called just before 5.35 pm to reports that a group of people with machetes had arrived at the cinema within the complex.
“Officers arrived to find a group of more than 100 people, and pockets of fighting broke out as police moved to clear the area. A number of police officers have been assaulted, and several arrests have been made,” a spokesman for West Midlands Police said.
The BBC reports that five of the arrests were of teenagers. One 13-year-old girl, a boy and a girl both aged 14, and a 19-year-old male were held on suspicion of assaulting police while a 14-year-old boy was held on suspicion of obstructing police.
On Friday evening, two people were also arrested in neighbouring Wolverhampton, after a man was attacked with a machete and an ‘imitation’ fire-arm, reports the Birmingham Mail. One man aged 29 and a 31-year-old woman were arrested; the victim thankfully only suffered minor injuries to his hand.”
Over 800 Migrants Set Sail for Italy in One Week as Numbers Rise (breitbart, Nov 24, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/11/24/800-migrants-set-sail-italy-one-week-numbers-rise/
“In the past week, around 800 migrants have attempted to reach Italy from North Africa as migrant transport NGO activity has resumed the flow of migrants in the Mediterranean.
The NGO ships account for facilitating 367 of the 800, many of whom were intercepted by coastguards. The France-based NGO Sos Mediterranée and its ship the Ocean Viking currently has 215 migrants aboard her, Il Giornale reports.
Another NGO, the Spanish-based Open Arms, also picked up 73 migrants from the Libyan coast this week, along with the Aita Mari which retrieved 79 migrants.
Tunisia has also become a hotspot for migrants to head for Europe. The coastguard on the island of Djerba collected 43 migrants who were on board a boat around 10 miles from the island. The vessel began its voyage from the commune of Houmet Essouk, but authorities quickly identified and intercepted it.
The Tunisian authorities noted that none of the migrants on the boat were actually from Tunisia. Over half of the migrants came from Ethiopia, and the rest originated from Eritrea and Somalia.
Following the exit of anti-mass migration former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and the League from the government in Italy, activity in the Mediterranean has dramatically increased.
No more than a month after the departure of Salvini, whose closed port policy drastically reduced the number of new arrivals and the number of drownings, ten NGO vessels are now operating in the Mediterranean Sea in the Search and Rescue (SAR) zone off the Libyan coast.
The main driver of the change in policy has been the leftist Democratic Party (PD) led by Nicola Zingaretti who made it clear he would reverse the anti-mass migration policies of Salvini.
Italy is not the only country to see a renewal of migrant numbers. Greece is also facing a new wave of migrants as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has repeatedly threatened to allow millions of migrants into Europe.”
Anti-government protests sweep oil-rich southern Iraq (abcnews, Nov 24, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraq-officials-13-protesters-wounded-amid-ongoing-clashes-67266508
“Anti-government protests swept Iraq’s oil-rich south on Sunday as demonstrators burned tires and blocked main arteries, outraged by rampant government corruption, poor services and scarcity of jobs.
In Basra, the southern province that accounts for nearly 85% of the country’s crude oil production, protesters burned tires in the city center cutting main roads.
At least 342 people have died since demonstrations began Oct. 1, when thousands of Iraqis, mostly youth, took to the streets to decry corruption and poor services. The leaderless uprising seeks to overthrow the political establishment.
Security forces appeared to have fired live rounds at protesters near the Umm Qasr port, killing three according to an official from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, who requested anonymity in line with regulations.
Protesters had cut roads leading to Umm Qasr, the country’s main commodities port, halting all trade activity. Security forces cleared the area of protesters on Thursday.
In the southern province of Nassiriya, protesters blocked key thoroughfares and main bridges with burning tires. Acrid smoke billowed from the city’s Shiite Endowment building, a governing body in charge with regulating the administration of mosques, when protesters set it alight.
In Baghdad, at least 13 people were wounded as clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces continued for a fourth day.
Sixteen people were killed and over 100 wounded in the renewed clashes, which kicked off Thursday as protesters tried to scale a concrete barrier on historic Rasheed Street prompting security forces to fire live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them.
On Sunday, protesters carried the coffin of one dead demonstrator across Rasheed Street to the adjacent Ahrar Bridge. Protesters are occupying part of three strategic bridges – Jumhuriya, Ahrar and Sinar – in a standoff with security forces.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence encouraged the Iraqi government to show restraint with the protesters, speaking during an unannounced trip to Iraq on Saturday.”
Italian coast guard: migrant bodies washed ashore or in sea (abcnews, Nov 24, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italian-coast-guard-recovers-bodies-migrants-off-island-67266196
“The bodies of five migrant women, two of them washed ashore, were recovered Sunday, the Italian coast guard said, as search efforts continued in rough seas near the tiny island of Lampedusa for around another dozen people feared missing in the capsizing of a fishing boat.
Three of the bodies were retrieved from the sea, where waves as high as three meters (10 feet) complicated the coast guard search by boat and helicopter.
The Italian news agency ANSA, reporting from the Italian Mediterranean island, had said that a total of seven bodies had been brought ashore by mid-day. Later, ANSA said the number of recovered corpses had been confirmed at five.
On Saturday, the coast guard said it had rescued 149 migrants after their foundering boat overturned. Once ashore, survivors told authorities that 169 had been originally crowded aboard the 10-meter (33-foot) long boat utilized by Libya-based migrant smugglers.
Survivors included a 1-year-old baby, two other children whose parents couldn’t immediately be located among the survivors, and 13 women, RAI said.
Often, those aboard traffickers’ boats in distress call for help, but this time no such request from those aboard was made, the coast guard said, adding that they were alerted by a private citizen.
Two fishermen who said bad weather kept their fleet from going out to sea on Saturday spotted the migrant’s struggling fishing boat.
Stefano Martello said he and his fellow fisherman were walking along a stretch of coast when “we understood immediately that the very high waves were about to knock over the boat,” ANSA reported.
“We called the coast guard port office, and (their) motorboats arrived within a few minutes,” Martello was quoted as saying. “It was this speediness that saved the migrants who in the meantime had fallen into the water. Without the immediate intervention of the motorboats, they all would have died.”
Risking their lives in hopes of a better future in Europe, hundreds of thousands of migrants have set out in recent years on decrepit fishing boats and flimsy rubber dinghies launched by the Libya-based traffickers.
The coast guard described Saturday’s rescue as particularly dramatic.
In addition to two specialized rescue divers, also jumping into the sea from the coast guard vessel was the crew member in charge of the engine room, since so many people had tumbled into the sea at the same time.
“In the meantime, the coast guard crew who remained aboard took to throwing everything possible into the sea — life preservers, floating buoys, sideboard bumpers and every other thing that could allow the shipwrecked to grab onto and save themselves from certain drowning,’’ the coast guard said in a statement.
Among the first to be pulled aboard, it said, was a visually impaired man who attracted the rescuers’ attention.
Docking at Messina, Sicily, on Sunday was the humanitarian rescue ship Ocean Viking, with 213 migrants aboard. The Italian government announced a day earlier that the port was assigned after four countries — Italy, Malta, France and Germany — asked the European Commission to start procedures to find fellow EU countries willing to take the migrants.
Italy and Malta have insisted they shouldn’t bear the burden of caring for the migrants while they seek asylum and have pitched for EU solidarity. Their insistence has sometimes kept charity rescue ships waiting at sea for days or weeks awaiting permission to disembark the migrants.
Germany and France are among several countries which agreed earlier this year to take some of the rescued migrants on a regular basis, replacing ad hoc solutions.
Last week, two migrants aboard Ocean Viking were evacuated to Malta. One was a woman pregnant with twins and the other a man with gunshot wounds from this time spent in Libya waiting to be smuggled by the traffickers aboard a boat for Europe.
Two humanitarian groups, Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee operate Ocean Viking. It wasn’t immediately known which EU countries might have offered to take some of the 213 migrants reaching Sicily.”
Blast targets UN vehicle in Afghanistan, kills 1 foreigner (abcnews, Nov 24, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-official-taliban-storm-army-checkpoint-killing-67266758
“A United Nations vehicle was targeted in a bombing Sunday in the Afghan capital Kabul and initial reports indicated at least one foreign citizen was killed, an Afghan official said.
Nasrat Rahimi, Interior Ministry spokesman, said five others, including two Afghan U.N. workers, were wounded in the attack. The vehicle was heavily damaged.
The blast targeted the vehicle on one of the busiest roads in the city, in police district 9, according to Rahimi.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in the capital and have repeatedly claimed previous attacks.
The Taliban control or hold sway over about half of Afghanistan, staging near-daily attacks that target Afghan forces and government officials across the country.
In central Daykundi Province, at least eight soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters stormed their checkpoint, said provincial Gov. Anwar Rahmati. He said four other soldiers were wounded in the hours-long gunbattle.
Rahmati said reinforcements were dispatched early Sunday to the area in Kajran district, driving off the insurgents, killing at least 20 of them.
Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the checkpoint attack. He disputed the Taliban casualty figures provided by the governor and said the insurgents had seized weapons and ammunition.”
CNN – Meet the lawmaker leading the Trump impeachment inquiry
+ comments on the YT page 🙁
Steve Bannon: Schiff did Trump a great service with impeachment hearings
Rep. Stefanik slams Schiff: ‘He doesn’t want to hear the truth’
Protesters Burn American Flags and Pictures of Trump in Front of US Embassy in Beirut – Photo, Video (sputniknews, Nov 24, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201911241077390113-protesters-burn-american-flags-and-trumps-pictures-in-front-of-us-embassy-in-beirut—photo-video/
Recent Unrest in Iran’s Province Bordering Iraq Staged by Daesh-Linked Rioters – Governor (sputniknews, Nov 24, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201911241077390335-recent-unrest-in-irans-province-bordering-iraq-staged-by-daesh-linked-rioters—governor/
“Among those who staged the recent unrest in the Iranian province of Kermanshah, located on the border with Iraq, were people linked to terrorist groups, including the Daesh terrorist organisation, Governor Houshang Bazvand said on Sunday.
“Saboteurs and rioters torched many businesses in Kermanshah. They were linked to PJAK [Kurdistan Free Life Party], Daesh*, MKO [People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, all banned by Tehran] and anti-establishment groups, but they have all been identified by the police and security forces and will be dealt with legally”, Bazvand said, as quoted by the Press TV news network.
According to the governor, the city of Kermanshah was one of those few places in Iran where the militant-linked rioters managed to capitalise on peaceful protests. The rioters, he says, attacked both ordinary people and security forces, also inflicting damage to public property and businesses.
Protests broke out in several Iranian provinces last week over the government’s decision to suddenly increase gasoline prices. Some of them turned violent and resulted in casualties among protesters and security forces. Afterwards, a number of counterrallies took place in Iran in protest against the unrest.
According to President Hassan Rouhani, the protests were organised by the United States and Israel to undermine Iran’s national security. Washington notably openly voiced support for demonstrators.”
Somali Migrant Attacks Swiss Bus Driver, Attempts to Hijack the Vehicle (breitbart, Nov 24, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/11/24/somali-migrant-attacks-swiss-bus-driver-attempting-hijack-vehicle/
“Police arrested an intoxicated Somali migrant in St. Gallen, Switzerland, after he attacked a female bus driver and attempted to steal her vehicle.
The 29-year-old Somali was reportedly arguing with another individual at the bus stop, and the altercation continued after both had boarded. Police said that the bus driver attempted to calm the two men, leading to the attack by the Somalian migrant.
According to Swiss newspaper Blick, the migrant slapped the driver in the face before biting her.
The Somalian attempted to hijack the bus with all of the passengers on board but was prevented when the bus driver took the keys away from the intoxicated man. All of the passengers then left the bus, and the driver was able to lock the migrant inside until police arrived on the scene.
The head of the St. Gallen public transport company, Ralf Eigenmann, congratulated the actions of the bus driver saying: “It’s very good how she handled it.” He added that the driver was able to give the migrant over to the police “on a silver platter”.
Eigenmann added that it was unlikely the migrant would have been able to drive away with the bus, saying that they are difficult to operate and require training.
The attack comes only months after a Senegalese migrant in Italy, who was himself a bus driver, set fire to a bus containing 51 children to enact revenge Italy’s migrant policy, telling officers after his arrest: “I wanted to avenge the deaths at sea. I’ll commit a massacre in Linate.” None of the children was seriously injured.
Attacks on buses by migrants have occurred in several European countries since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, including an attack in 2017 in Siena, Italy, in which an African migrant stabbed a bus driver in the chest.”
INDONESIA – Eleven people are caned in public by a hooded Sharia officer in Indonesia
Caned in public for getting too close to the opposite sex: Six men and five women are flogged by hooded Sharia enforcer for breaking Islamic law in Indonesia
One woman begged for mercy and another sobbed uncontrollably as ‘s Aceh arch-conservative province flogged 11 people for getting too close to members of the opposite sex.
The six men and five women were rounded up by religious officers who caught them behaving amorously in public, a crime under local Islamic law.
Dozens watched as the humiliated victims were whipped outside a mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.
Despite widespread criticism, public whipping is a common punishment for a range of offences in the deeply conservative region at the tip of Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking , and having gay sex or relations outside of marriage.
Aceh is the only region in the world‘s biggest Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law.
Punishment: A hooded member of the Sharia police (pictured left) prepares to dish out 11 canings to people caught with the opposite sex in public, including the woman on the far right
Public caning: One of the men feels the pain of the whipping as he punished is for being too close to the opposite sex in the only Indonesian province to practice Islamic law
Spectator event: People standing near the stage watch the public flogging as the kneeling man is hit with the cane for breaking the Aceh region‘s Sharia law
A masked sharia officer known as an ‘algojo‘ rained down between eight and 32 strokes from a rattan cane on their backs after they were caught with members of the opposite sex.
The six men and five women – all in their late teens and early twenties – were rounded up by religious officers who caught them behaving amorously, a crime under local law.
Authorities gave few details, but couples have been whipped in the past for cuddling or holding hands in public.
One 19-year-old woman caught in an unidentified building with a man burst into tears as the whipping started, while another woman begged for the punishment to stop.
A Buddhist man caught with a woman inside a hotel room got more than two dozen lashes.
About 98 per cent of Aceh‘s five million residents are Muslims subject to religious law, known locally as Qanun.
Memories: A woman uses her phone to record the public caning of 11 people who were rounded up by religious authorities in Indonesia
Humiliated: A woman receives a stroke from the cane in Indonesia‘s staunchly conservative Aceh province on Thursday
Brutal: A masked and hooded official hits one of the men on the back after he broke the region‘s strict Islamic law
While it‘s relatively rare, non-Muslims who have committed an offence can choose to be prosecuted under Islamic law, sometimes to avoid a prison sentence.
On Friday, Banda Aceh‘s mayor Aminullah Usman warned hotels and businesses to comply with the region‘s conservative regulations – or risk losing their license to operate.
‘We‘ve warned hotels to not even think about breaking the rules‘ by renting rooms to unmarried couples, he told reporters after the flogging.
‘Otherwise, we will revoke their licenses,‘ he added.
The whipping came a day after three people in Lhokseumawe, a district a few hours from Banda Aceh, were flogged 100 times each for having premarital sex, including a 19-year-old man who had relations with an underage girl.
In December, two men caught having sex with underage girls were whipped 100 times each.
Rights groups have slammed public caning as cruel, and Indonesia‘s President Joko Widodo has called for it to end, but the practice has wide support among Aceh‘s population.
Public event: Security personnel secure the public caning location in Banda Aceh, as dozens turned out to watch the punishment being handed out
Aftermath: Sharia police tend to one of the whipped women after she was flogged in public for breaking the region‘s strict religious laws
Hidden: The hooded guard brandishes their weapon as they carry out the public flogging. The most severe punishments in Indonesia‘s Aceh province can see offenders caned up to 100 times
Terrified: One of the women who was punished for breaking Sharia law keeps her head down as she is flogged on the back
https://dentondaily.com/eleven-people-are-caned-in-public-by-a-hooded-sharia-officer-in-indonesia/
Adam Schiff admits he will not stop investigating Trump even after he finalizes impeachment report
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday that he will not stop investigating President Donald Trump even after his committee has finalized its impeachment report.
After weeks of closed-door testimony and two weeks of public hearings, Schiff’s committee has began drafting its impeachment report, which will be handed off to the House Judiciary Committee to continue the proceedings against the president.
However, finalizing his part of the impeachment effort will not stop Schiff from continuing his investigation into Trump, the California Democrat told CNN host Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
Schiff’s admission came in response to a New York Times editorial that criticized his decision to not call additional witnesses, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and John Bolton, the former national security adviser.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/adam-schiff-admits-he-will-not-stop-investigating-trump-even-after-he-finalizes-impeachment-report?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20191224Trending-SchiffWontStopCantStop&utm_term=TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News
Sky news Australia – American Left is ‘supporting fundamentalist Islam’
( 10 min 13 )
It’s disappointing to see the Far Left supporting the hijab and other forms of female oppression, according to ExMuslim and Canadian human rights activist Yasmine Mohammed.
Sheriff David Clarke on FISA Warrant and Epstein Case
BOMBSHELL: Ukraine Indicts Burisma Owner, Hunter Biden Implicated For Soaking Up $16.5 Million in Illicit Scheme
Ukrainian MP Alexander Dubinsky announced at a press conference on Wednesday that the Office of the Prosecutor General is indicting Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky, and the consequences could be dire for Hunter Biden.
Dubinsky alleges that Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, and his affiliates received $16.5 million from the Ukrainian gas firm. He claims that this money was transferred to Biden and his associates as apart of a criminal scheme.
“Zlochevsky was charged with this new accusation by the Office of the Prosecutor General but the press ignored it,” Dubinsky said. “It was issued on November 14.”
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/bombshell-ukraine-indicts-burisma-owner-hunter-biden-implicated-for-soaking-up-16-5-million-in-illicit-scheme/
WikiLeaks
RELEASE: Secret internal e-mail from OPCW whistleblower, a member of the fact-finding mission sent to Douma, Syria, after the alleged chemical attack in April last year, accusing OPCW management of doctoring report on the incident and distorting facts.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1198390941314420736
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https://twitter.com/wikileaks
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Internal OPCW E-Mail
23 November, 2019
OPCW management accused of doctoring Syrian chemical weapons report
Wikileaks today publishes an e-mail, sent by a member of an OPCW fact-finding mission to Syria to his superiors, in which he expresses his gravest concern over intentional bias introduced to a redacted version of the report he co-authored.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons sent a team of experts to investigate allegations that a chemical attack took place in the Syrian city of Douma on the 7th of April 2018. The author of the e-mail was a member of that team and claims the redacted preliminary version of the report, misrepresents the facts he and his colleagues discovered on the ground. The e-mail is dated 22nd of June. It is addressed to Robert Fairweather, Chief of Cabinet, and forwarded to his deputy Aamir Shouket and members of the fact-finding mission to Douma.
He says this misrepresentation was achieved by selective omission, introducing a bias which undermines the credibility of the report. Further it is claimed that crucial facts, that have remained in the redacted version:
“…have morphed into something quite different to what was originally drafted.”
This is said to have been done at the behest of the Office of the Director General (a post that was held by Turkish diplomat Ahmet Üzümcü at the time, he has since been replaced by Spaniard Fernando Arias).
The attack in question was widely attributed to the Syrian Army, based on reports by rebel forces that were present in Douma at the time, and this assertion was backed up by the United States, British and French governments. These three countries carried out air strikes against Syrian government targets in response, on the 14th of April 2018. This was before the fact-finding team had gained access to the site in Douma, the mission there was delayed for nearly two weeks by entrenched rebel fighters and subsequent clashes between the rebels and government forces that moved into the area.
Upon arrival the team found much of the physical evidence, including the bodies of the deceased, was no longer available. It was alleged that 49 had died and up to 650 had been seriously affected by a weaponized chemical gas released in a specific area of rebel-held Douma on that day in April. Rebels claimed the gas came from cylinders dropped from aircraft, clearly implicating Syrian government forces who had complete air superiority.
The redacted report seemed to support these conclusions but the author of the released e-mail outlines some specific aspects of it which he considers: “particularly worrisome.”
Firstly, there is a statement in the redacted report. It states that there is sufficient evidence to determine the presence of “chlorine, or another reactive chlorine-containing chemical.”
The e-mail points out that this was:
“likely one or more chemicals that contain a reactive chlorine atom. Such chemicals could include… the major ingredient of household chlorine-based bleach. Purposely singling out chlorine gas as one of the possibilities is disingenuous.”
The redacted report also removed context from a claim in the original draft, which concerned the likelihood of the gas having emanated from cylinders found at the scene in Douma. The original text is said to have purposely emphasised that there was insufficient evidence to affirm this being the case. This is “a major deviation from the original report” according to the author.
He also cites problems with paragraph in the redacted version, which states:
”based on the high levels of various chlorinated organic derivatives detected in environmental samples”.
This is said to overstate the case. According to the e-mail:
“They were, in most cases, present only in parts per billion range, as low as 1-2 ppb, which is essentially trace quantities.”
One piece of evidence, which was shown on news networks across the world, was a video said to show victims being treated in a hospital in the aftermath of the attack in Douma. The symptoms shown were, however, not consistent with what witnesses reported seeing that day. A detailed discussion of this was apparently omitted from the redacted version of the OPCW report.
The e-mail states:
“Omitting this section of the report (including the Epidemiology which has been removed in its entirety) has a serious negative impact on the report as this section is inextricably linked to the chemical agent identified… In this case, the confidence in the identity of chlorine or any other choking agent is drawn into question precisely because of the inconsistency with the reported and observed symptoms. The inconsistency was not only noted by the fact-finding mission team, but strongly supported by three toxicologists with expertise in exposure to chemical warfare agents.”
Yet another point of contention is the placement and condition of the cylinders reported to have contained the chemical agent. It has been alleged that their condition may not be consistent with having been dropped from the air, compared to damaged in the immediate surrounding area. This was discussed in an unreleased engineering report from OPCW that was leaked and Wikileaks published in October 2019 and indicates it is unlikely the cylinders were air-dropped (see previous release: OPCW Whistleblower Panel on the Douma attack of April 2018)
Sections discussing this are largely absent from the redacted report. “This information was important in assessing the likelihood of the ‘presence’ of toxic chemicals versus the ‘use’ of toxic chemicals,” states the e-mail.
The author ends his letter with an appeal to the management to allow him to attach his differing observations to the document.
The annual conference of the states parties of the OPCW that is composed of representatives of all member states of the convention starts Monday November 25th in The Hague.
Media partnership and coordination: La Repubblica (Italy), Stundin (Iceland), Der Spiegel (Germany), Mail on Sunday (U.K.)
more :
https://wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/
No wonder Russia loves Assange so much.
He may be perfectly neutral, probably is.
He just happens to reinforce the Kremlin narrative ALL THE TIME.
~notthatheresanythingwrongwiththat~
The Chinese Are Doing What the Mongols Did Before Them, Only Better
The Chinese Are Doing What the Mongols Did Before Them, Only Better
By Emil Avdaliani
November 24, 2019
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Mongol soldier of the Qing era, painting by Giuseppe Castiglione via Wikipedia
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,353, November 24, 2019
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The vast attention paid to China’s Belt and Road Initiative misses the historical precedents on which it is based. Hearkening back to the nomadic understanding of geography of medieval times, the Chinese are following through on what the Mongols, and later Tamerlane, attempted: to unify the Eurasian landmass by establishing trade routes and encouraging commercial activities from the Mediterranean to the Pacific.
Nascent Chinese Eurasianism is slowly taking shape. It is a concept not so much of forceful engagement of Eurasian states by China, as some in the West view it, but rather an economic initiative that aims to gain access to the natural and financial resources of major Eurasian states by providing them with large sums for infrastructure projects.
The Chinese idea obviously requires control over major trade routes to and from Europe (a market of almost 500 million people).
Though invisible on geographic or political maps, trade corridors and control over them have been a major driving force in the development of Eurasia. Conquests and invasions were often motivated by the need to secure financial resources running through major trade routes in Central Asia and from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.
Western powers have sought access to the huge Chinese market for centuries. Geography has largely precluded this, however, as the Chinese hinterland is closed off by the Himalayas, the Gobi Desert, and the Eurasian steppes. In ancient and medieval times the only land route connecting the Chinese kingdoms to the outer world was through the modern Xinjiang province.
A further limiting factor was that the Chinese were never particularly eager to trade with foreigners (the country had most of what it needed and functioned primarily as an autarkic state). Chinese policies did not reflect any kind of Eurasian vision. The country’s rulers considered neighboring states tributaries, but knew little of far-flung Eurasian lands. No economic necessity propelled them to venture far away.
https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/china-trade-routes/
I should have read it before I posted it, this is revisionist history at its worst. According to this man the Mongols were conquering the nations and murdering the people who fought against being conquered so they could trade with the locals.
BESA is a mixed bag.
This guy is feeding out of the Sino-ricebowl.
Whistleblower and Leaker Lt. Col. Vindman Accuses John Solomon of Lying During Testimony — John Solomon Responds with a 28 Point List and a Warning
During his basement star chamber testimony in the US Capitol Lt. Col. Alex Vindman accused investigative reporter John Solomon of lying about all of his facts… but his grammar may have been OK.
Vindman is widely believed to being the original leaker and whistleblower who shared the contents of a classified phone call with anti-Trump CIA “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/11/whistleblower-and-leaker-lt-col-vindman-accuses-john-solomon-of-lying-during-testimony-john-solomon-responds-with-a-28-point-list-and-a-threat/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=weekend
Keep an eye on Hong Kong elections held today. Results are coming in. Record number of voters, above 70%.
Last election, pro-Beijing ridings won 2/3 of the vote.
Predictions for this election today: pro-Beijing would win again.
Incredulously, Pro-Democracy is wiping them out from the electoral map as results come in.
Amazing.
Commies on Campus
Iran Embassy Files Complaint against Hostile TV Channels Based in UK
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/11/23/2144895/iran-embassy-files-complaint-against-hostile-tv-channels-based-in-uk
“The Iranian Embassy in London filed a formal complaint with the Office of Communication (Ofcom) against adversary Persian-language TV channels based in the United Kingdom for provoking violence in the Islamic Republic, the ambassador said.
In a post on his Twitter account on Friday, Hamid Baeidinejad said the embassy has sent a formal letter to Ofcom to complain against the Persian-language UK-based TV channels, including Iran International, BBC Persian and Manoto, for their politically-motivated misreporting on the recent developments in Iran and calling for widespread violence against Iranian civilian institutions.
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the UK government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers across the television, radio, telecoms and postal sectors.
Following a hike in the price of gasoline last week, a number of Iranian cities saw sporadic protests that turned violent in some cases. A number of banks and government buildings were set ablaze.
Meanwhile, anti-Iranian media outlets, including those based in the UK, voiced support for the rioters who took advantage of the protests in a number of Iranian cities.
In an address on Sunday morning, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned that the sporadic protests and acts of vandalism in Iran would create insecurity.
Describing insecurity as the worst calamity for society, the Leader said that “all evil centers in the world” have mobilized efforts in recent days to encourage unrest in Iran.
Ayatollah Khamenei also called on the Iranian authorities to be careful that the rise in the price of fuel would not increase the price of other commodities.
The Leader also called on the people to separate themselves from a group of thugs who are encouraged by the foreign-based anti-Iranian front to foment insecurity.”
Mobilization Forces in Muslim Nations Inspired by Iran: Basij Chief
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/11/24/2145604/mobilization-forces-in-muslim-nations-inspired-by-iran-basij-chief
“The commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) Force said people of Islamic nations in the region have drawn inspiration from Iran to form mobilization forces.
Addressing an open session of the Parliament on Sunday, Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani highlighted the significant role of Basij in shaping the Islamic Revolution’s defense strategy during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s.
Today’s version of presence of the Iranian voluntary forces in the battlefield has contributed to the formation of mobilization forces in other Muslim countries, such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen, the commander added.
Soleimani also praised the Basij forces for presenting a unique model of strategic and widespread performance in the field and for serving the national interests.
Basij is a paramilitary voluntary force established in 1979 on late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini’s order.
The force consists of often young Iranians, who have volunteered, with a strong sense of fidelity to both the Islamic system and religious beliefs.”
Basij is Gestapo.
And proud of it.
IRGC, Basij Forces Implementing over 3,500 Development Projects in Western Iran
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/11/24/2145839/irgc-basij-forces-implementing-over-3-500-development-projects-in-western-iran
“A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in the western province of Kurdistan said the IRGC and the Basij (Mobilization) forces are implementing more than 3,500 development projects in deprived areas of the province…”
As Internet Restored, Online Iran Protest Videos Show Chaos
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2006621/internet-restored-online-iran-protest-videos-show-chaos
“Machine gun fire answers rock-throwing protesters. Motorcycle-riding Revolutionary Guard volunteers chase after demonstrators. Plainclothes security forces grab, beat and drag a man off the street to an uncertain fate.
As Iran restores the internet after a weeklong government-imposed shutdown, new videos show the demonstrations over gasoline prices rising and the security-force crackdown that followed.
The videos offer only fragments of encounters, but to some extent they fill in the larger void left by Iran’s state-controlled television and radio channels, reported The Associated Press. On their airwaves, hardline officials allege that foreign conspiracies and exile groups instigated the unrest. In print, newspapers offered only PR for the government or had merely stenographic reporting at best, the moderate daily Hamshahri said in an analysis Sunday.
They don’t acknowledge that the gasoline price hike November 15, supported by its civilian government, came as Iran’s 80 million people already have seen their savings dwindle and jobs scarce under crushing US sanctions. President Donald Trump imposed them in the aftermath of unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Authorities also have yet to give any overall figures for how many people were injured, arrested or killed during the several days of protests that swept across some 100 cities and towns.
Amnesty International said it believes the unrest and the crackdown killed at least 106 people. Iran disputes that figure without offering its own. A UN office earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people.”
Starting November 16, Iran shut down the internet across the country, limiting communications with the outside world. That made determining the scale and longevity of the protests incredibly difficult. Some recycled days-old videos and photographs as new, making it even more difficult.
Since Saturday, internet connectivity spiked in the country, allowing people to access foreign websites for the first time. On Sunday, connectivity stood nearly at 100 percent for landline services, while mobile phone internet service remained scarce, the advocacy group NetBlocks said.
The restoration brought messaging apps back to life for Iranians cut off from loved ones abroad. It also meant that videos again began being shared widely.
Recently released videos span the country. One video from Shiraz, some 680 kilometers (420 miles) south of Tehran, purports to show a crowd of over 100 people scatter as gunfire erupts from a police station in the city. One man bends down to pick up debris as a person off-camera describes demonstrators throwing stones. Another gunshot rings out, followed by a burst of machine gun fire.
In Kerman, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Tehran, the sound of breaking glass echoes over a street where debris burns in the center of a street. Motorcycle-riding members of the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Guard, then chase the protesters away.
Another video in Kermanshah, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of Tehran, purports shows the dangers that lurked on the streets of Iran in recent days. Plainclothes security forces, some wielding nightsticks, drag one man off by the hair of his head. The detained man falls at one point.
“Look, (the agents) wear styles like the youth,” one man off-camera says, swearing at them.
On Sunday, it remained unclear if and how widespread any remaining demonstrations were. The acting commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Ali Fadavi, repeated the allegation that America was behind the protests, without offering any evidence to support his claim.
“Why did (the Americans) get angry after we cut off the internet? Because the internet is the channel through which Americans wanted to perform their evil and vicious acts,” Fadavi said. “We will deal with this, Iran supporters, and our proud men and women will sign up to make a domestic system similar to the internet with operating systems that (the Americans) can’t (control) even if they want.”
That likely refers to what has been known as the “halal net,” Iran’s own locally controlled version of the internet aimed at restricting what the public can see. The system known as the National Information Network has some 500 government-approved national websites that stream content far faster than those based abroad, which are intentionally slowed, activists say. Iranian officials say it allows the country to be independent if the world cuts it off instead.
But while Fadavi earlier said the protests were put down in 48 hours, he also acknowledged the scope of the unrest by comparing it to Operation Karbala-4, one of the worst military disasters suffered by Iran during its bloody 1980s war with Iraq.
That scope could be seen in one video. In the capital, Tehran, footage earlier aired by the BBC’s Persian service shot from a car purports to show a tableau of violence on Sattarkhan Street, as anti-riot police officers clashed with protesters.
In the video, a woman’s scream rises over the shouts of the crowd as plainclothes security forces wearing white surgical masks accost one man, who puts his hands up to his face and hunches over to shield his body. Men walk backward to watch the chaos amid police with batons and riot shields, then run.
A woman in a green headscarf argues with one anti-riot police officer in front of a car.
“What do you say?” the police officer asks.
“He kicked my car,” she responds.
“Move,” the police officer orders. “Whom do you want to blame in this situation?”
Someone chases a man in front of a bank as people curse. The car makes a right-hand turn onto another street. A police officer off-camera shouts: “Come here!”
“Go, go, go!” a woman in the car cries out.
The car speeds away, passing burning debris. The clip ends. It lasts only 35 seconds.”
Iran Vows Severe Punishment to ‘Mercenaries’ behind Protests
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2006606/iran-vows-severe-punishment-%E2%80%98mercenaries%E2%80%99-behind-protests
“Iran will severely punish “mercenaries” arrested over a wave of street violence that erupted after a sharp hike in fuel prices, a Revolutionary Guards commander warned Sunday.
Tehran claims it has restored calm after the unrest that broke out on November 15, hours after the surprise announcement that petrol prices would go up by as much as 200 percent.
Citing law enforcement officials, Fars news agency said Sunday that 180 ringleaders had been arrested over the protests that saw highways blocked, banks and police stations set alight and shops looted.
“We will certainly respond in accordance to the viciousness carried out by them,” said Rear-Admiral Ali Fadavi, deputy commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards.
“We have arrested all stooges and mercenaries who have explicitly made confessions that they have been mercenaries of America, of Monafeghin and others,” he told a news conference in Tehran.
Monafeghin is a term Iran uses to refer to the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) opposition in exile group, which it considers a “terrorist” cult.
Fadavi added that “we have arrested all of them and, God willing, the judiciary will give them maximum punishments”.
Rights group Amnesty International said in a release earlier this week that security forces shot into crowds of protesters from rooftops and, in one case, from a helicopter.
Amnesty said at least 115 people have died in the unrest. Iran has rejected death toll figures as “speculative”.
The total number of people arrested over the unrest remained unclear, but the UN human rights office put the figure at more than 1,000 on Tuesday.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group, said on its website that a tally based on official figures and credible reports suggested that “a minimum of 2,755 people have been arrested with the actual minimum number likely being closer to 4,000”.
With tensions over the gasoline price increases remaining high, some 50 lawmakers have submitted a proposal to parliament that could ultimately lead to the impeachment of Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh.
“Parliament’s presiding board has received the censure motion against Zanganeh over various issues including … gasoline price hikes,” said a member of the presiding board Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, the website of Iran’s Young Journalists Club reported.
It was not immediately clear whether the lawmakers would go through with the motion or eventually withdraw it as has happened in some previous cases.
Iran’s clerical rulers have blamed “thugs” linked to exiles and foreign foes – the United States and Israel – for stirring up unrest which has led to some of the worst violence in the country in a decade.”
Mayo Clinic, Abu Dhabi Health Services Open Hospital in UAE
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2006616/mayo-clinic-abu-dhabi-health-services-open-hospital-uae
“Mayo Clinic and Abu Dhabi Health Services Company have joined together to open a hospital for complex care in the United Arab Emirates.
Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City began accepting patients earlier this month and is expected to be in full operation early next year.
The hospital is licensed for 741 beds and is designed to provide specialty care across multiple practices.
The companies said they hope to make Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City a top destination for medical care in the Middle East over the next decade.
It will include a research center and the latest technology, including robotic surgery.
This is Mayo Clinic’s first joint venture to operate a hospital abroad. The Minnesota-based hospital opened a four-physician clinic earlier this year in London with Oxford University Clinic.”
France says Abu Dhabi to host headquarters for European Gulf naval mission
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/france-says-abu-dhabi-host-headquarters-european-gulf-naval-mission
“A French naval base in Abu Dhabi will serve as the headquarters for a European-led mission to protect Gulf waters that will be operational soon, France’s defence minister said on Sunday.
France is the main proponent of a plan to build a European-led maritime force to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after tanker attacks earlier this year that Washington blamed on Iran, Reuters said.
Tehran has denied being behind the attacks on tankers and other vessels in major global shipping lanes off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in May that increased tensions between the United States, Iran and Gulf Arab states.
“This morning, we formalised that the command post will be based on Emirati territory,” Defence Minister Florence Parly told reporters at a French naval base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.
It will be run by 10 to 15 staff members deployed at the French base who will “contribute to making maritime navigation in the Gulf as safe as possible”, AFP quoted her as saying
On Saturday, Parly said the initiative that was first announced in July may start early next year and about 10 European and non-European governments would join, pending approval by their parliaments…”
Migrant with gunshot wound evacuated from Open Arms rescue ship
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-ngo-evacuation/migrant-with-gunshot-wound-evacuated-from-open-arms-rescue-ship-idUSKBN1XY0ML
“ON BOARD THE OPEN ARMS, OFF SICILY (Reuters) – A man from Niger who was shot in the foot while in Libya was among a group of 11 migrants evacuated from the Open Arms rescue vessel by the Italian Coast Guard on Sunday.
Mamoudou Doulla, 38, stepped gingerly around the deck of the Open Arms while waiting to be taken ashore after medics from the charity dressed his wound and wrapped his foot in plastic to protect it from the water.
Doulla, one of the most seriously injured of the 73 migrants pulled from a dinghy around 50 miles off the Libyan coast on Wednesday night, told a Reuters journalist on board the Open Arms that he had spent 14 months in Libya, trying to scrape together the $1,300 needed to pay for the crossing to Europe.
He said he and his fellow migrants were hounded by the authorities in the north African country and forced to work without pay.
Doulla said he was arrested by police in the port city of Zuwara where he spent 16 days in prison before managing to escape. He did not say how or when he was shot, other than it happened in Libya.
He said he would be happy to be accepted by any European country but Spain would be his first choice for a new home.
“I’m going to work to save my life because, while I left my country, I’m a married man with two wives and five children,” he said.
The Open Arms is searching for a port to disembark the remaining 62 migrants.”
Italy grants access to Spanish migrant rescue ship
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-ngo/italy-grants-access-to-spanish-migrant-rescue-ship-idUSKBN1XY0BW
“Italian authorities have agreed to grant the Open Arms ship access to a port to disembark 62 African migrants it has been carrying since Wednesday, the founder of the Spanish rescue mission said on Sunday.
Oscar Camps said the vessel is set to dock at the southern Italian port of Taranto on Tuesday afternoon, although the eventual destination may change.
Italy initially refused entry for the group of 73 African migrants which the Open Arms crew plucked out of a packed rubber dinghy drifting about 50 miles off Libya, suggesting that the vessel should instead put them ashore at Tripoli.
However, earlier today the coastguard evacuated 11 of the group who required medical attention to the port of Augusta and Italy’s Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese signaled the country might be softening its position.
Conditions aboard the vessels have been deteriorating as a powerful storm hit the Mediterranean, creating waves of up to 3 meters (10 feet).
A Reuters cameraman on the ship saw migrants huddled under a makeshift shelter on deck as the ship rolled through choppy waters and lightning flashed overhead.
Among the group of mostly Central and West Africans are three women, two toddlers and 24 unaccompanied minors who braved the dangerous crossing in search of a better life in Europe.
The Italian government has taken a hard line against immigration and has previously resisted attempts by rescue ships to land migrants in its territory.
A prolonged standoff with the Open Arms this summer was only resolved after a court ordered authorities to open a port, allowing 100 migrants to disembark.
On the Italian island of Lampedusa, the bodies of five women were retrieved early on Sunday after their boat capsized in bad sea conditions on Saturday, Italian Coast Guard said.
Three were found at sea and two more on a beach, a Coast Guard statement said. Searches were continuing but bad weather was complicating the effort.
The Coast Guard saved 149 people on Saturday, including 13 women and three children, from the sinking vessel after it was reported in distress less than a mile off Lampedusa.
Survivors said up to 20 people were unaccounted for, a judicial source said. Those missing at sea were from Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan.
There have been nearly 1,000 confirmed deaths on the three main migration routes across the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“We need decisive action from the Italian government and form Europe to stop human traffickers,” Lampedusa Mayor Salvatore Martello said from Barcelona, where he is meeting his counterpart Ada Colau to discuss the migrant crisis.”
@KTHopkins
How the hell have 25 brides of ISIS managed to have 60 kids whilst living in ‘horrendous’ conditions in a Syrian camp?
And WHY the hell are these kids now the responsibility of the British taxpayer?
https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/1197981292505243649
=====================================================
Iraq: 13 dead in 1 of ‘worst’ days of protest in south
https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/iraq-13-dead-in-1-of-worst-days-of-protest-in-south-1.1574628721411
“Baghdad: Thirteen anti-government protesters were killed Sunday by Iraqi security forces in one of the “worst’’ days of clashes in the country’s south, as protests swept through the oil-rich area, officials said. Demonstrators outraged by rampant government corruption and poor services burned tires and blocked main road arteries.
Seven protesters were killed in the southern province of Basra, near the Umm Qasr port, when Iraqi authorities used live fire and tear gas to disperse them, said security and hospital officials, who requested anonymity in line with regulations.
One security official in Basra said it was ‘one of the worst’ days since the start of the protest movement. At least 150 protesters were wounded in clashes across southern Iraq.
Four protesters were killed in Nassiriya province, and one killed in both Najaf, the seat of Iraq’s Shiite religious authority, and Diwanieh provinces.
Earlier in Basra, which accounts for nearly 85% of the country’s crude oil production, protesters burned tires in the city center cutting main roads. Nearly 90% of Iraq’s state revenue is derived from oil exports, but there is no indication that the protest movement has impacted production.
Protesters had cut roads leading to Umm Qasr, the country’s main commodities port, halting all trade activity. Security forces cleared the area of protesters on Thursday.
At least 342 people have died since demonstrations began Oct. 1, when thousands of Iraqis, mostly youth, took to the streets to decry corruption and poor services.
In Nassiriya on Sunday, protesters blocked key thoroughfares and main bridges with burning tyres. Acrid smoke billowed from the city’s Shiite Endowment building, a governing body in charge with regulating the administration of mosques, when protesters set it alight. In Baghdad, at least 13 people were wounded as clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces continued for a fourth day.
Sixteen people have been killed and over 100 wounded in the renewed clashes in the capital, which kicked off Thursday as protesters tried to scale a concrete barrier on historic Rasheed Street prompting security forces to fire live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them.
On Sunday, protesters carried the coffin of one dead demonstrator across Rasheed Street to the adjacent Ahrar Bridge. Protesters are occupying part of three strategic bridges — Jumhuriya, Ahrar and Sinar — in a standoff with security forces.
The international community, including the United Nations and the United States, have denounced the use of force against peaceful demonstrators in statements.
The leaderless movement seeks to dismantle the sectarian system and unseat the government, including Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.”