Reader’s Links for August 28, 2020

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.

About Eeyore

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

79 Replies to “Reader’s Links for August 28, 2020”

  1. Two of my favourite YouTubers are at it again……Chain Smoking and “Speculating” so that they don’t get censored again.
    This time it’s over China again.

    CHINA UNDER PRESSURE – Sheer Speculation – CHAINSMOKE SERIES

  2. I have only one comment: I admire Vlad Tepes.
    In these times that we live, it is difficult to keep one’s sanity while we witness insanity and evil, day in and day out.
    Good will triumph over evil.
    And Vlad, congrats for your great work.

  3. A recent court ruling in South Africa could make your back yard home for unwanted and uninvited guests.

    City of Cape Town blows the whistle over land grabs

  4. Now the ANC are planing to nationalize the South African Reserve Bank.
    If this is going to happen, South Africa will be bled dry by the African National Criminals and then when the Country is completely destroyed Blood will flow in Rivers, meanwhile the ANC-Cadre has fled the Country.

  5. Now the ANC are planing to nationalize the South African Reserve Bank.
    If this is going to happen, South Africa will be bled dry by the African National Criminals and then when the Country is completely destroyed Blood will flow in Rivers, while the ANC Cadre has fled the Country.

  6. Obama Voter Explains Why He SWITCHED To The Republicans And Is Running For Congress, SLAMS Democrats

    (Tim Pool does great job in this liveinterview)

  7. Lifelong Democrat (elected to office as such) Walks Up to RNC Podium and explains why he is voting for Donald Trump:

  8. Merkel on Greece-Turkey East Med Row: All EU Countries Have Obligation to Support Athens (sputniknews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/202008281080301006-merkel-on-greece-turkey-east-med-row-all-eu-countries-have-obligation-to-support-athens/

    “Tensions in the eastern Mediterranean have been escalating since Turkey renewed its efforts to explore energy reserves near Cyprus. Ankara claims rights to parts of the island’s offshore resources despite vehement opposition from Greece and some other EU states.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stated that all European Union countries have an obligation to support Greece in its row with Turkey over Cyprus’ offshore energy resources. The chancellor added that she had already discussed the dispute between Athens and Ankara “intensely” with French President Emmanuel Macron.

    Merkel also confirmed that Germany is “committed to” preventing an escalation of the dispute between the two countries over the eastern Mediterranean and has called for jointly resolving the conflict over Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone…”

  9. Bomb Blast in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Kills 13 Civilians, Source Says (sputniknews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202008281080300541-bomb-blast-in-afghanistans-kandahar-kills-13-civilians-source-says/

    “An explosion in the Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan, killed 13 civilians on Friday, a security source said.

    “This morning, a bomb exploded on Tunas vehicle in the Loy Karez area of Spin Buldak district, killed 13 civilians, including women and children,” the source said.

    Earlier this week, a car bomb exploded near the Balkh district of northern Balkh province of the country killing at least one soldier and injuring six others.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the blast

    Last week, the Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar condemned recent explosions, which caused civilian casualties, and called on all parties to the intra-Afghan conflict to protect civilian lives”

  10. Austrian Synagogue Attacker has Asylum Status Removed (breitbart, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/28/austrian-synagogue-attacker-has-asylum-status-removed/

    “A Syrian asylum seeker believed to be behind the vandalism of a synagogue in the city of Graz has been stripped of his asylum status and is being investigated as a member of a terrorist group.

    The 31-year-old Syrian migrant confessed to several crimes while in police custody, including attacks on the Graz synagogue and attacking the president of the local Jewish community Elie Rosen with a chair leg.

    He also explained his motivation to investigators saying that he hated Jews, homosexuality and claimed that homosexual acts are against his Islamic faith, newspaper OE24 reports.

    The man is also alleged to have attacked a local gay and lesbian club in the city, throwing rocks at it.

    As a result of the charges against him, the Federal Office for Foreign Affairs has begun the procedure to remove his asylum status.

    Investigators have also raided the man’s apartment and confiscated various electronic devices and suspect that the Syrian may be tied to radical Islamic terrorist groups, according to Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer.

    The attack on the Graz synagogue took place earlier this month and saw the historic place of worship, which had been rebuilt after being demolished by the Nazis on Kristallnacht in 1938, defaced with pro-Palestinian graffiti.

    “The situation has deteriorated considerably over the last five years, especially in the last two or three, the situation has deteriorated very much,” Mr Rosen commented earlier this year.

    Graz has been a “stronghold” for radical Islam for years, and according to a 2017 report, over half of the mosques in the city were linked to the preaching of radical Islamic theology…”

  11. Migrant Poster Boy of ‘Positive Integration’ Accused of Throwing Child Under Train Faces Court Verdict (breitbart, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/28/migrant-poster-boy-of-positive-integration-accused-of-throwing-child-under-train-faces-court-verdict/

    “A verdict is expected Friday in the trial of an Eritrean man who fatally threw a boy under a train in Germany, with the suspect likely to be placed in psychiatric care.

    Habte Araya, 41, stands accused of pushing the eight-year-old boy and his mother onto the tracks in an apparently random attack at Frankfurt’s main station in July 2019.

    The mother was able to roll off the tracks to avoid the oncoming high-speed InterCity Express train, but the boy was killed instantly.

    Araya, who had entered Germany from Switzerland days earlier, is also accused of trying to push a 78-year-old woman onto the tracks, though she managed to save herself.

    The attack stunned Germany and stoked a heated debate on immigration and security.

    A psychiatric expert who examined Araya told the district court in Frankfurt on Thursday that the suspect was experiencing an episode of paranoid schizophrenia at the time and continues to suffer from a “pathological mental disorder”.

    He said Araya could not be held criminally responsible for his actions and still posed a danger to the public.

    The expert recommended that Araya be placed long term in a secure psychiatric facility.

    Prosecutors and Araya’s own defence team supported the recommendation in their closing arguments.

    Prosecutors have said they believe Araya had “at least a considerably reduced ability” to control his actions.

    – ‘Infinitely sorry’ –

    Araya apologised in a written statement read by his lawyer at the opening of the trial on August 19.

    “I am infinitely sorry, especially for the family,” he said, admitting that the crime “must have happened according to all the information I have received”, though he could not remember it.

    The tragic case led the far-right AfD party to call for tighter controls on foreigners entering Germany, although the suspect was not in the country illegally.

    “Protect the citizens of our country at long last,” the anti-migration party’s parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel tweeted.

    Conservative Interior Minister Horst Seehofer also saw the case as an occasion to take a tougher line on immigration, suggesting more extensive screening and “occasional temporary checks” at borders.

    – Married father of three –

    A married father of three, Araya had been living in Switzerland and was on the run from Swiss police after a violent incident the previous week.

    He had threatened a neighbour with a knife and locked her up, and also trapped his wife and their children, aged one, three and four, in their flat before running away.

    Police said it appeared the suspect had not been listed as wanted in European police databases and had been able to cross borders freely.

    Araya had been living in Switzerland since 2006 and was granted asylum in 2008.

    According to the Bild newspaper, he had worked for a local transport company and was described by authorities as “an example of successful integration”.

    He was even featured in a campaign by Swiss authorities to promote positive integration.”

  12. Greece starts more training exercises amid Turkey tension (abcnews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greece-starts-training-exercises-amid-turkey-tension-72675112

    “Greece and the United Arab Emirates have begun joint air force training exercises in the eastern Mediterranean, in the latest build-up of military forces in the region where Greece and Turkey are at odds over seabed mineral rights.

    The training flights started Friday, a day after the UAE completed the transfer of nine F-16 fighter jets and four transport planes to a Greek airbase on the island of Crete, the Greek Defense Ministry said.

    In an escalating dispute, Greece and Turkey have led multiple military exercises in the area in recent weeks, with more to follow, after Turkey launched a survey mission in waters where Athens asserts jurisdiction.

    Ankara argues that Greek islands shouldn’t be included in calculating maritime areas where oil-and-gas can be exploited — a view opposed by most Western allies.

    France, Italy, and the UAE have joined recent military exercises and training missions held by Greece and ally Cyprus, while the United States has also held separate exercises with Greece.”

  13. Israel lists first commercial passenger flight to UAE (abcnews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israel-lists-commercial-passenger-flight-uae-72674772

    “Israel has listed an El Al flight taking off Monday for Abu Dhabi, which would be Israel’s first commercial passenger flight to the United Arab Emirates after the two countries agreed to a U.S.-brokered deal to normalize relations.

    The confirmation of the flight comes as the latest concrete sign of a deal that saw Israel agree to halt plans to annex land sought by the Palestinians. It also brought into the open a long-standing relationship between Israel and the UAE that both countries hope now will benefit their economies and strengthen their ties to the U.S. amid tensions with Iran…”

  14. Iranian women flood Twitter with stories of sexual abuse (abcnews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/iranian-women-flood-twitter-stories-sexual-abuse/story?id=72575083

    “Iranian women have taken to Twitter to break years of silence and share detailed stories of sexual abuse, including intrafamilial incidents, naming alleged abusers with hashtags such as #rape, #assault and #NoMeansNo.

    Some alleged abusers are well-connected and famous figures in Iran — stars of sports and media and the arts, doctors, teachers and professors.

    It all started with a tweet in early August by an anonymous user explaining how one could convince a woman to engage in sexual activity on a first date by kissing her without asking and pretending it was because “her beauty was striking.” That user later deactivated his account after facing a huge backlash.

    The unprecedented support of Twitter users encouraged not just women but also men to reveal the names of their alleged perpetrators, which even led to revealing some individuals accused of serial abuse…”

  15. Red Pill Germany

    Hey guys, our government says the infection numbers are going up again, and so they decided on a number of further restrictive measures that directly impact the lives of our citizens and our economy.
    But the numbers do not really go up. In fact, they just did 1 Million (!) tests in calendar week 34.
    It is three times the number of tests from earlier this year and of course it creates three times the false positive count.
    In other words: this is just a measurement artefact and not a real signal.
    They base their policies on a fat lie.

    German Government Introduces Fines and Restrictive Measures Based on Absolutely Nothing

  16. “Bye Bye BRI”,Aussie PM Scott Morrison gives the final fatal blow to China with a unique legislation

    • This is like our FISA.
      All depends on enforcing it properly, being prepared to take a heavy economic hit. Their state of Victoria is as bad as Calif. The universities everywhere – ugh.

      • Things are going to get nasty all around the world, and stay nasty for a lot longer then we want.

  17. China Threatens US With South China Sea Actions; Defense Secretary Says US Prepared to Defend

  18. (Richard: Given what China is doing this action scares me.)

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigns due to health reasons

    • No, he’s genuinely sick. Bad flare of ulcerative colitis.
      In and out of the hospital for the last few weeks. He’s getting IV treatment, it’s just taking too much out of him now. He hopes to stay on till his majority party in Parliament selects his replacement.

      I’m really sorry for him. And us.

      (My father had UC his whole life. It’s manageable and doesn’t affect the lifespan, but complications require aggressive treatment.)

      • I don’t doubt he is sick, I am worried about who is replacement will be, will he or she be willing to use the Japanese Military to stop Chinese Aggression and protect freedom of the Seas?

    • Kazuko says it’s terrible, nobody’s as strong for Japan as PM Abe.
      She’s hoping he recovers and comes back next year. It’s possible. Must be awful for him, so much effort went in to covering up how sick he’s become.

  19. Egypt arrests acting Supreme Guide of terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood Mahmoud Ezzat at Cairo hideout

    Ezzat was named the group’s acting leader in August 2013 and has been in hiding ever since; he is also the head of the Brotherhood’s international organization

    Egyptian authorities have arrested Mahmoud Ezzat, the acting supreme guide of the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood, at a hideout in eastern Cairo, in the most significant Brotherhood arrest in recent years.

    In a statement on Friday, Egypt’s interior ministry said the fugitive group leader, who is also the head of the Brotherhood’s International Organization, was arrested following intelligence that he was hiding at a flat in New Cairo’s Fifth Settlement neighbourhood.

    They said Ezzat had used the apartment as his latest hideout, “despite rumours promoted by the Brotherhood’s leaders about him being abroad, to mislead authorities.”

    The leader was arrested after a raid carried out per a warrant by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, the statement said, adding that several laptops and mobile phones with open-source software to secure communication with leaders and members of the banned group inside the country and abroad were found.

    According to the statement, Ezzat was in charge of forming the Brotherhood’s “armed wing” and the supervisor of major terrorist operations since 30 June 2013 until his arrest.

    “Operations supervised by Ezzat include the assassination of former general prosecutor Hisham Barakat in 2015, policeman Wael Tahoun in 2015, top-ranked army officer Adel Ragei in 2016, and the attempted assassination of the general prosecutor’s former aide Zakaria Abdel-Azim in 2016,” the statement said.

    It also charged him with supervising a deadly car blast outside the capital’s main cancer hospital in August 2019 which killed 20 people.

    Ezzat was also responsible for “cyber-attacks which manage [spreading] rumours and fake news to stir confusion and divide public opinion,” the statement said, adding that he managed the “movement of the group’s funds and funds to activities through the group’s members abroad from suspicious international organisations.”

    Ezzat, 76, has been in the Brotherhood ranks since the 1960s and was named a member of the group’s Guidance Bureau, or its executive board, in 1981. He has previously been detained for several years for his activism and affiliation with the group.

    He was named the group’s acting leader in August 2013, after the arrest of Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, who received a fourth final life sentence in July on violence-related charges, totalling 100 years.

    Ezzat’s whereabouts had previously been unclear since that date.

    He has been given several sentences in absentia, including life imprisonment terms and the death penalty, during mass trials of the Brotherhood’s leading members on charges of espionage with Palestinian group Hamas and other violence-related crimes.

    Under Egyptian law, in absentia convictions must be re-tried once the defendant is apprehended.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/378775/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-arrests-acting-Supreme-Guide-of-terroristdes.aspx

  20. Wis. Gov. Evers: More Nat’l Guard members being deployed to Kenosha

    Wisconsin’s governor has deployed additional National Guard members to help contain protests in Kenosha. On Thursday, Tony Evers announced more members from Arizona, Michigan and Alabama are headed to the city to support law enforcement.

    Evers recently requested other states send guard members, equipment and resources to assist. According to officials, these officers are state guard members, not federal agents.

    “They will be here and hopefully be assisting us as early as tomorrow night, in some cases. For clarification, I want to also say those National Guard members, much like the Wisconsin National Guard, are not federal troops. They’re here on state active duty. They’re here through mutual aid agreement, a compact between the states, specifically the governors. They will be under my command.” – Major General Paul Knapp, leader of the Wisconsin National Guard

    The Wisconsin National Guard has been on duty in Kenosha since Monday, when protests broke out over the death of Jacob Blake.

  21. Germany: 15 German states agree on minimum €50 fine for breaking mask-wearing rules

    Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that all but one of Germany’s Federal States, Sachsen-Anhalt, agreed to implement a minimum €50 ($60) fine for those caught breaking mask wearing rules, while speaking to the press in Berlin on Thursday.

    • France: Parisians required to wear masks in public as COVID cases resurge

      Wearing a face mask in outdoor public spaces has become mandatory across Paris and its suburbs on Friday, as new COVID-19 cases in France has reached the highest increase since the lockdown was eased in mid-May.

      Parisians could be seen walking the streets in the early hours of Friday abiding by the new rules, which came into effect at 8 PM local time . Cyclists and joggers are exempted from mask-wearing after an intervention by Paris city hall.

      “Personally, I don’t find it [the mask] necessary, at least outside, but I wear it to prevent people from bothering me. But if it were up to me, I wouldn’t put on a mask,” said Thelma, one local.

      According to the government, France has reached a critical threshold of 50 infections per 100,000 inhabitants.

    • Deutsche Pravda – Berlin court overturns ban on weekend coronavirus protest

      The court ruled the protest can go ahead under certain conditions — but the verdict can be appealed.

      Officials had banned the demonstration out of concerns that protesters would not wear masks or keep their distance.

      A protest against coronavirus restrictions appears likely to take place in the German capital this weekend, after an administrative court in Berlin overturned a ban on the demonstration on Friday.

      A court spokesman said that the demonstration, which is expected to draw over 22,500 people on Saturday, will be allowed to go ahead under certain conditions.

      Shortly after the decision, Berlin police appealed at the city’s Higher Administrative Court for review. The court was expected to decide on the matter later on Friday evening.

      Some protesters had been calling for demonstrators to travel to Berlin over the weekend, regardless of whether the demonstrations were permitted.

      In their decision, the court said the protest organizers had taken “sufficient precautions” for Saturday’s demonstration, including providing one hundred de-escalation teams.

      The court added that there was no evidence in the organizer’s demonstration application that would suggest that they would “deliberately disregard” social distancing requirements.

      The judges further criticized city administrators for not sufficiently examining alternatives to banning the event, such as limiting the number of participants or changing the location.

      Still, the judges said protest organizers and participants must provide barriers in front of the stages where speeches will be held — and must regularly remind participants to observe social distancing rules and keep their distance.

      Wearing masks was not included in the judge’s guidelines for the protest.

      Health and safety concerns

      Berlin police earlier this week announced the ban on the protest, citing health concerns.

      A similar protest earlier this month that was set up by the same organizers (a scene from which is pictured at the top of this story) had to be broken up after thousands of participants did not wear masks or socially distance from others.

      There were also concerns about potential conflicts between counter protesters and right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists within the anti-coronavirus restriction movement.

      Berlin police prepare for possible clashes

      Berlin police are now working to prepare for possible clashes during upcoming protests. In recent days, some opponents of coronavirus restrictions have been calling on social media followers across Europe to join them in Berlin, a few even advocated violence.

      “This openly expressed willingness to use violence against authorities is a new dimension for us,” Berlin police Vice President Marco Langner told a news conference.

      Some 3,000 officers would be patrolling the streets, including reinforcements from other parts of Germany, and water cannons would be used if necessary, police said.

      Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik emphasized that not all the participants were extremists, but that many had likely not been socially distancing.

      “These are people who are opposed to [coronavirus containment measures], so we assume they have exercised absolutely no caution in recent months,” Slowik said, adding that authorities would end the event “very swiftly” if hygiene measures were not being adhered to.

      ‘Those who call for violence are not with us’

      The court’s decision was celebrated as a victory by the organizers of Saturday’s protest, the Stuttgart-based initiative Querdenken 711 (Lateral Thinking 711).

      “This is a success for our basic rights,” Michael Ballweg of the Querdenken initiative said in a YouTube video.

      He called for peaceful protests and said “those who call for violence are not with us.”

      Others online voiced doubt about whether the many, varied groups that are planning on participating in the protests will adhere to the guidelines set out by the court.

      “I trust that the people who yesterday still wanted to storm the city with weapons in order to demonstrate against the security rules will now adhere to the security rules,” comedian Shahak Shapira wrote sarcastically on Twitter.

      Former Green party politician Volker Beck noted on Twitter that the decision puts police in an even more difficult position — having to review the court’s guidelines and intervene if protesters don’t adhere to the rules.

      On the Berlin city government’s decision to ban the protests in the first place, Beck wrote: “The bazooka is not always the best weapon of choice.”

      https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-court-overturns-ban-on-weekend-coronavirus-protest/a-54730165

  22. People gather in Washington ahead of mass anti-racism protest

    People start gathering in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, as tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to march in the US capital to mark the date of civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s historic “I have a dream” speech.

  23. UK: ‘Activist Lawyers’ Block Deportation of Every Single Migrant on Planned Removal Flight (breitbart, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/28/uk-activist-lawyers-block-deportation-of-every-single-migrant-planned-deportation-flight/

    “Lawyers have successfully frustrated the government’s efforts to deport every single illegal migrant on a planned return flight to Spain.

    Dozens, sometimes hundreds of illegal migrants have been crossing the English Channel from France in small boats in recent months, with none being turned back by the Border Force, very few being turned back by the French authorities, and only a small minority being deported at a later date.

    This is in spite of the fact that virtually all of them have no legal right to asylum in Britain, as they are arriving in the country from a safe, first world EU member-state, and have usually passed through multiple safe countries prior to that as well…”

  24. Amnesty says India police violated rights in religious riots (abcnews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/amnesty-india-police-violated-rights-religious-riots-72674277

    “Indian police violated human rights during deadly religious riots in New Delhi earlier this year, Amnesty International said in a report released Friday.

    It said police beat protesters, tortured detainees and in some cases took part in riots with Hindu mobs.

    Authorities say more than 50 people were killed when clashes broke out between Hindus and Muslims over a controversial citizenship law in February in the worst rioting in the Indian capital in decades.

    Amnesty said that in spite of dozens of people alleging police misconduct, to date there has been no independent investigation of the role of the police in the rioting, nor any first information report registered against any police official — a prerequisite for a criminal investigation.

    Delhi police spokesman Eish Singhal said that he was “not privy to the events,” and therefore couldn’t confirm the veracity of the claims.

    Ved Prakasah Surya, the deputy commissioner of police responsible for northeast Delhi, the corner of the city where the rioting occurred, referred questions back to Singhal.

    Joint Commissioner of Police Dr. O.P. Mishra, put in charge of the area in the aftermath of the rioting, said he was “not aware” of another of the report’s allegations — that people were arrested without warrants, deprived of legal counsel and in some cases tortured in custody.

    “I am not aware. I was on special assignment and left as soon as things normalized. These are part of investigation,” he said, also referring questions to Singhal.

    From Feb. 23 to 29, armed mobs of Muslims and Hindus threw rocks, exchanged gunfire and burned hundreds of vehicles, homes and businesses.

    The violence coincided with a state visit by President Donald Trump on Feb. 24-25.

    It followed months of protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act, a law that fast-tracks naturalization for foreign-born illegal migrants from several neighboring countries of all major faiths in South Asia except Islam.

    Delhi police were accused of beating student demonstrators at university campuses, and failing to protect peaceful protesters at the Muslim-majority enclave of Shaheen Bagh and later in northeast Delhi.

    The violence that consumed northeast Delhi began after Kapil Mishra, a leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, threatened the police saying that if they failed to stop the citizenship law protests, he and others would take the matter into their own hands.

    The Amnesty report comes days after the Bloomsbury publishing house decided to pull a new account that attributed the riots to a “Leftist plot.” A controversy erupted after an ad for a virtual book launch indicated that Mishra was due to appear as a guest of honor.

    The small publisher Garuda Prakashan, which describes itself as “committed to bringing books and publications towards furthering India’s civilizational narrative,” said it would publish the book instead.”

  25. 55 migrants on crippled yacht safely towed to Greek island (abcnews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/55-migrants-crippled-yacht-safely-towed-greek-island-72679194

    “A crippled yacht carrying 55 migrants has been safely towed to port on the southeastern Aegean Sea island of Rhodes following an overnight search and rescue operation, Greek authorities said Friday.

    Two of the people on the yacht were arrested on suspicions of working with a trafficking ring that arranged for the migrants to illegally enter Greece from nearby Turkey. Officials said everyone on the vessel was in good health.

    A coast guard statement said the rescue effort was hampered by high winds blowing in the area since late Thursday, which prevented the migrants from being transferred onto ships that hastened to the spot, some 17 miles southeast of Rhodes.

    In separate incident on Tuesday, a total 96 people were rescued from the sea by helicopters, patrol boats and nearby merchant ships after their yacht partially sank west of the small island of Halki, near Rhodes. Two other people originally on the boat have been reported missing.

    Thousands of migrants try to reach Greece’s eastern islands every year from Turkey, usually paying high sums to smuggling rings that place them on unseaworthy boats without any crew on board — offering instead a reduced price to passengers who are prepared to navigate by trial and error.

    Greek authorities say increased vigilance in patrolling has cut sea arrivals by about 95% so far this year, compared to January-August 2019, despite reduced cooperation by the Turkish coast guard amid high tensions between Greece and Turkey.”

  26. Turkish lawyer dies on hunger strike demanding fair trial (abcnews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkish-lawyer-dies-hunger-strike-demanding-fair-trial-72676722

    “A human rights lawyer on hunger strike in a Turkish prison to demand a fair trial for herself and colleagues has died, an attorney’s group said.

    Ebru Timtik, 42, died in an Istanbul hospital late Thursday, the Progressive Lawyers’ Association said. She had been fasting for 238 days.

    The lawyer and 17 of her colleagues were accused of links to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP/C, a militant group designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. She was convicted in March 2019 and sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison. Her case was under review by an appeals court.

    Timtik started the hunger strike in February to protest alleged unfair proceedings during the trial, along with another colleague, Aytac Unsal, who is reported to be in a critical condition.

    Opposition parties have long questioned the impartiality and independence of Turkey’s courts under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule, while lawyers’ groups reported several flaws during the trial. They included the removal of judges who had initially ordered the lawyers’ release from pretrial detention and the use of anonymous witnesses who testified against them.

    On Friday, police tried to prevent a crowd of her supporters from gathering outside the Istanbul Bar Association for a memorial, the Evrensel newspaper reported. Later, riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to block a protest march. At least one lawyer was detained, the paper said.

    “Ebru Timtik is immortal” and “Aytac Unsal is our honor,” some of the mourners chanted, according to Evrensel.

    European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said the EU is “deeply saddened” by Timtik’s death.

    “Ebru Timtik’s hunger strike for a fair trial and its tragic outcome painfully illustrate the urgent need for the Turkish authorities to credibly address the human rights situation in the country and the serious shortcomings observed in the Turkish judiciary,” Stano said.

    “A strong and independent legal profession, along with an independent judiciary is a core principle of a fair justice system,” he said

    Europe’s democracy and human rights body, the Council of Europe — of which Turkey is a member — called on the country to “restore and uphold” the role of lawyers as human rights defenders.

    “Ms. Timtik’s death is a tragic illustration of the human suffering caused by a judicial system in Turkey that has turned into a tool to silence lawyers, human rights defenders and journalists,” said Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner.

    Hunger strikers in Turkey traditionally refuse food but consume liquids and take vitamins that prolong their protests.

    Timtik’s death comes months after two members of a left-wing popular folk group that is banned in Turkey also died of a hunger strike. They had also been accused of links to the DHKP/C.”

  27. Egypt police arrest leader of outlawed Muslim Brotherhood (abcnews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-police-arrest-leader-outlawed-muslim-brotherhood-72677863

    “Egyptian police arrested a high-level leader in the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood at his hiding place in Cairo, an Interior Ministry statement said Friday.

    Investigators recently learned that Mahmoud Ezzat, the acting Supreme Guide of the country’s oldest Islamist organization, was hiding in an apartment on the outskirts of Cairo, the statement said.

    After searching the apartment, the police found computers and mobile phones with encrypted software that allowed the 76-year-old Ezzat to communicate with group members in Egypt and abroad, the statement said.

    Documents bearing the group’s “destructive plans” were also found, according to police. The statement did not say when the raid took place.

    It wasn’t immediately clear if Ezzat had an attorney.

    Ezzat had been at large since the summer of 2013, after the military removed Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who hailed from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi’s short-lived rule proved divisive and provoked mass protests nationwide.

    Ezzat was named the group’s acting leader in August 2013. He was convicted of several terror-related crimes and sentenced twice to death in absentia. He was believed to have fled the country along with many of the group’s leaders following the crackdown on their organization.”

  28. President Trump Offers a Choice Between Loving and Destroying America

    The “People’s President” gives Americans back their country. Will they take it?
    Fri Aug 28, 2020 Daniel Greenfield
    78

    When President Trump walked down the staircase to the strains of Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA, followed by chants of, “USA, USA”, it was not only a callback to his famous escalator moment, no longer at Trump Tower, but at the White House, but a contrast between the parties.

    “How can the Democratic party lead our country when they spend so much time tearing down our country?” President Trump asked.

    Where the DNC had the feel of some long zoom session in a liberal suburb where everyone works from home and tries to keep up with the latest politically correct trends, the RNC was unapologetically physical and patriotic, its speakers embraced the great landmarks and trademarks of the nation, demonstrating that you can be diverse without destroying America.

    The final night of the RNC wasn’t just a powerful antidote to the DNC, or even to the mainstream media alone, but to the hypocritical totalitarianism and the corporate buzzwords that we have been drowning in since the winter gave way to the spring, and to fear and violence.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/president-trump-offers-choice-between-loving-and-daniel-greenfield/

    • Rabbi Sacks: US Jews making a ‘big, big mistake’ in politics
      Former Chief Rabbi of the UK warns Jews against ‘blurring the line’ between politics and Judaism. ‘This is a very big thing.’

      [Lord] Sacks, who was chief rabbi [UK] from 1991 to 2013, said that even as he grew close and provided advice to political leaders of many stripes, he never endorsed any or allowed rabbis under his supervision to engage in political advocacy or electioneering.…

      Sacks made the comments in response to a question about Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, an influential haredi Orthodox rabbi who recently said that Jews should vote to reelect Trump out of gratitude. Another Orthodox rabbi, Aryeh Spero, blessed Trump and his reelection campaign this week at the Republican National Convention.

      On the Left, Reform and Conservative rabbis frequently wade into partisan political issues and even argue for specific political candidates in their personal capacity. They even marched against Trump in the protests at his inauguration…

      “You mix religion and politics, you get terrible politics and even worse religion….”
      http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/286127
      ….Maybe tweet this to the Pope?

  29. US Seizes Websites of Iranian Companies Involved in Brokering Fuel Shipments to Venezuela (sputniknews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/world/202008281080307018-us-seizes-websites-of-iranian-companies-involved-in-brokering-fuel-shipments-to-venezuela/

    “The United States has seized three websites of Iranian companies involved in fuel shipments to Venezuela, the US Department of Justice said in a statement on Friday.

    “The Justice Department today announced the seizure of three websites used by three front companies: Mobin International, Sohar Fuel, and Oman Fuel, who arranged a multimillion-dollar fuel shipment by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization, that was bound for Venezuela,” the statement said.

    All three websites now show a picture with a displayed US flag and notice that the domain has been seized and is under control of the US government…”

  30. Rand Paul recounts being surrounded by protesters as he left the RNC

    “I believe there are going to be people who are involved with the attack on us that actually were paid to come here, are not from Washington, D.C., and are sort of paid to be anarchists,” he said. “This is disturbing because really, if you’re inciting a riot that’s a crime, but if you’re paying someone to incite a riot that person needs to go to jail as well.”

    “They were inciting a riot and they would have killed us had the police not been there,” the senator added.

  31. Virginia Dems Pass Bill Allowing Assault Of A Police Officer To Be Treated As A Misdemeanor

    Virginia Democrats in the state’s Senate banded together to pass a controversial bill allowing the assault of a law enforcement officer to be treated as a misdemeanor — that is, as a crime punishable by less than one year in jail.

    The bill, which passed the Virginia Senate Thursday by a margin of 21-15, “would allow an assault against a law enforcement officer to a misdemeanor if the person attacked is not hurt,” according to WSLS Virginia.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-dems-pass-bill-allowing-assault-of-a-police-officer-to-be-treated-as-a-misdemeanor?itm_source=parsely-api?utm_source=cnemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=082820-news&utm_campaign=position2

  32. UK media disproportionately focus on terror attacks carried out by Muslims – report

    Even though attacks carried out by white supremacists and neo-nazis are more frequent, UK media are disproportionately focusing on terror attacks carried out by Muslims, according to a report ‘How The British Media Report On Terrorism‘.

    However, The Muslim Council of Britain did note that the ‘imbalance has improved’ since the Christchurch and El Paso attacks, where Muslims were the victims.

    RT discusses the report with one of its authors, Rizwana Hamid.

  33. Moon of Alabama – ‘Mostly Peaceful’ Rioting And Looting Is Helping Trump’s Campaign

    The Civil War of 2020 continues apace.

    After three months of continuous clashes in Portland between Antifa rioters, who hide behind peaceful protests, and the police, the mayor is finally concerned about the damage:

    Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Wednesday he hasn’t done enough to focus on damages caused by some city protests over the last three months and the fallout from coronavirus. He called on the community to help him come up with better solutions to city issues.
    During the last months the Magnificent Mile in Chicago was looted – twice. Yesterday new riots and looting occurred in Minneapolis after a rumor of another police killing incited some people:

    Police Chief Medaria Arradondo tried to dispel rumors that spread on social media about the death of the unidentified Black man, who was suspected in a Wednesday afternoon homicide and fatally shot himself on the Nicollet Mall as officers approached several hours later. His death, which was captured on city surveillance video and released by police within 90 minutes, nonetheless sparked protests and unrest in the heart of downtown.
    The video confirmed the police account of what happened and showed the man glancing over his shoulder before pulling out the gun and firing, then collapsing to the ground as a half-dozen witnesses ran away with their hands in the air. The officers, one of whom had his gun drawn, shooed a remaining witness away and kicked the suspect’s gun away before performing chest compressions.

    Last Sunday police in Kenosha, Wisconsin proved to be too incompetent to arrest a man they had already had under control. They shot him 7 times into the back when he was trying to get into his car. Nights of rioting followed. Buildings were burned down and businesses were looted.

    Yesterday a white teen with a semi-automatic weapon had the stupid idea to join others in ‘protecting the businesses’ in Kenosha from further looting. He ended up killing two people and wounding more after he was attacked by some of the rioters. The teen was arrested and he is facing charges but I doubt that he is guilty of more than sheer stupidity and manslaughter in self defense.

    The cycle of violence will likely continue. There are too many racist in the police and the level of U.S. police training seems to be abysmal. There is also too much tolerance for violence within the general community.

    Politically this plays into Trump’s law and order campaign. The Democrats have lauded Black Live Matters and the protests but have hardly spoken out against the rioting and looting that comes with them.

    This CNN chyron from yesterday evening is an expression of their position:

    ‘Mostly peaceful protests’ are like the ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria – propaganda constructs that do not exist in the real world. The people who owned the burning cars and whose businesses were destroyed will not be relieved by such phrasing.

    Joe Biden’s attempt to swing Republican voters to his side has failed. At the same time he has rejected many of the issues progressives favored. This will hurt the election turn out the Democrats will need. Add to that the unrest which plays into Trump’s hands. The Democrats who fear that are right:

    “There’s no doubt it’s playing into Trump’s hands,” said Paul Soglin, who served as mayor of Madison, on and off, for more than two decades. “There’s a significant number of undecided voters who are not ideological, and they can move very easily from Republican to the Democratic column and back again. They are, in effect, the people who decide elections. And they are very distraught about both the horrendous carnage created by police officers in murdering African Americans, and … for the safety of their communities.”
    Trump, of course, is positioning himself as the antidote to urban unrest. “So let me be clear: The violence must stop, whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha,” Vice President Mike Pence declared in his Republican convention speech Wednesday night, with Trump looking on. “We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color.”

    Republicans had chided Joe Biden and other Democrats for not calling out the violence in the aftermath of the Blake shooting. Biden immediately addressed the shooting, but didn’t condemn the ensuing violence until Wednesday in a video posted on social media.

    Despite Trump’s failure to bring the pandemic under control his job approval rating continues to be high while Biden’s lead in the polls is shrinking. The United States seem to have a higher tolerance for avoidable death by guns or viruses than other societies have. It is not the only point that makes it exceptional.

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/08/mostly-peaceful-rioting-and-looting-is-helping-trumps-campaign.html

    • CBC – Protests, violence play into Trump’s law-and-order campaign strategy

      A summer of protests and violence in the U.S., wrapped up in calls for racial justice after the police shootings of Black people, are playing into U.S. President Donald Trump’s law-and-order campaign for re-election.

  34. Turkey Releases Footage of F-16 Jets Scrambled to Intercept Greek Fighters (sputniknews, Aug 28, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/world/202008281080307699-turkey-releases-footage-of-f-16-jets-scrambled-to-intercept-greek-fighters/

    “Turkish Air Force jets were scrambled after Greek F-16s approached the country’s NAVTEX area – an up to 400 nautical mile-wide (740-kilometre) zone covering waters in proximity to shores to help ships navigate. Ankara used the NAVTEX system to send Athens information about its seismic surveys in search for offshore resources.

    Turkey’s Defence Ministry released a video recorded by one of the Turkish Air Force’s F-16s that were scrambled on 27 August to intercept F-16 jets belonging to Greece. The footage shows the Turkish fighter’s targeting interface closely following a Greek jet…”

  35. China’s ‘Debt-Trap’ Diplomacy with Third-World Nations

    by Lawrence A. Franklin
    August 28, 2020 at 5:00 am

    Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy proposal has been the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) commercial and strategic program. At first, the network was pitched as a restoration of the ancient overland trade route, the “Silk Road,” that linked China to Europe. This “New Silk Road,” like its predecessor, would traverse the vast steppes of Central Asia — but the contemporary BRI is allegedly meant to serve also as an economic boon for all the countries along the route.

    Xi quickly followed the overland BRI with a maritime version, presumably to connect Chinese ports on the South China Sea to seaports in the Indian Ocean, continuing on to the Middle East states and ultimately reaching European ports. Initially, these proposals had only involved countries along BRI routes. Now Xi’s grand thoroughfares are global in scope, extending as far as Djibouti, a strategic maritime chokepoint in Africa, just west of the Arabian Peninsula, or Ecuador, home to South America’s third-largest oil reserves. The economic benefits, however, of some of these deals between China and poor “Third World” countries in Africa and Latin America are questionable. A few of these bilateral packages appear contrived to imprison already impoverished states into realms of permanent economic vassalage to China.

    The BRI networks clearly intend to benefit China, either by stimulating an enormous increase in commerce, or, when debts cannot be repaid, by appropriating whatever assets China selects. China, as the world’s largest importer of oil, will be able to diversify its sources of petroleum as a consequence of several bilateral BRI deals. China most likely also hopes to secure political benefits through BRI arrangements. Countries participating in China’s BRI, and generally friendly to the US and its allies, might shy away from supporting the West’s national security concerns for fear of losing large Chinese investments in their local economies.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16396/china-debt-trap-diplomacy

  36. Crazy CCP slogans in China; Prison prevents mother from calling son; China: opening door is crime
    92,697 views
    •Premiered 17 hours ago

  37. CBC – What a pandemic election might look like in Canada

    Elections Canada is ramping up its plan to run a pandemic election that might come as early as this fall — a plan that could include a two-day weekend voting period instead of the traditional one-day vote.

    + comments on the YT page

  38. Taiwanese Government Continues to Remove CCP Infiltration | China | Taiwan | Epoch News
    2,744 views
    •Aug 28, 2020

  39. Trump lays out ambitious vision; China lockdown: Leaving home illegal; FBI probe Jacob Blake case

  40. Mutating Terror Threat Still Looms Over Europe
    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2020/08/28/terror-threat-europe/

    “The terrorist threat against Europe has mutated in the last half-decade as jihadist groups have seen their Middle East sanctuaries eroded, but analysts say the West must remain braced for more attacks.

    Both Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group — together responsible for the highest-profile and most horrific terror attacks of the past two decades — have lost potency as global organizations.

    Despite splintering into branches and franchises, their murderous ideology is still able to inspire individuals to carry out random attacks in their name.

    Next week in Paris, 14 people face trial over the massacres in January 2015 at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and hostages in a Jewish supermarket — violence claimed for both IS and Al-Qaeda.

    The murderous shooting spree heralded an unprecedented wave of attacks in France.

    The deadliest was the coordinated attacks in Paris on November 13 that year at the Bataclan music venue and other venues, when gunmen killed 130 in a plan stemming from the IS group’s core leadership in Syria.

    Experts believe the same style of assault would be unlikely to recur now, not least because IS has seen a dramatic loss of its territory and membership in Iraq and Syria.

    More typical this year were “isolated individuals who were not spotted by the intelligence services… and their limited or even non-existent contacts with identified jihadist networks,” a source in the French anti-terror prosecutors’ office told AFP.

    Since 2015, France has seen 17 crimes classified as acts of terror.

    Three took place in 2020, none of which were claimed by the terror groups but were instead perpetrated by isolated individuals suffering from psychological problems.

    But anti-terror prosecutors still see signs of operational coordination, including “networks of false documents and funding,” the source said.

    Attack Possible
    Seth Jones, director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, said that in recent years, the US and other military operations had “decimated” the IS external operations network, killing or capturing many of its key operational leaders.

    Its military rout and the loss of territory IS had declared as a caliphate in Iraq and Syria have also diminished its status, and the motivation for individuals to carry out attacks in its name.

    It remains possible that Al-Qaeda could carry out a major attack in Europe, Jones said, either directly or through individuals inspired by its ideology, though this was “not a high probability.”

    The COVID-19 pandemic may have taken some focus off terrorism for security forces worldwide. But it has also complicated the task of the jihadists, who have been active on a local level but very cautious about ranging further afield.

    “In general, the short-term terrorist threat has risen in conflict zones and fallen in non-conflict zones,” a UN report said in mid-July.

    Easier in Africa
    Plots continue to emerge, however.

    German authorities said in April they had foiled a plot to target American military installations, and arrested five Tajiks suspected of acting in the name of IS.

    Another source of risk comes from individuals released from jail in Europe or freed or escaped from Kurdish-controlled prisons in northern Syria where they have been held since the IS was defeated.

    Jean-Charles Brisard, head of the France-based Center for the Analysis of Terrorism (CAT), told AFP he did not rule out a new targeted action by IS, pointing to recent attacks foiled in Europe. “The next cycle will be that of those who are leaving jail,” he said.

    The CAT has established that 60 percent of prisoners in France convicted over their actions in past conflicts in Bosnia, Iraq or Afghanistan reoffended violently after their release.

    A French security source, who asked not to be named, said West Africa is a particular concern after France’s forces deployed in the region in June killed the head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelmalek Droukdel.

    Eight people, including six young French aid workers, were killed in a suspected jihadist raid on August 9 in Niger but no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

    “I find it more likely that AQIM will conduct a revenge attack against French forces or other French targets in Africa — including North and West Africa — than in France itself,” said Jones. “It is easier for the group to operate in Africa.””

  41. Four Mali Troops Killed in Attack Blamed on Jihadists
    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2020/08/28/mali-troops-killed/

    “Four troops were killed and 12 were wounded on Thursday in an ambush in central Mali, the army said, blaming the attack on jihadists who launched an insurgency eight years ago.

    The troops, from an anti-poaching unit, fell into a trap set by “terrorists,” the army said on social media. It was the second time that the armed forces have suffered a loss on this scale since the military took over the country on August 18.

    The attack took place between Konna and Douentza, near the town of Mopti.

    Four soldiers were killed on Saturday when their vehicle was hit by a bomb.

    That incident also occurred in central Mali, a volatile, ethnically-diverse region that has been badly affected by the jihadist revolt.

    The army added that it also suffered major equipment losses in Thursday’s attack.

    It said that it was unable to give any details about any enemy losses.”

  42. ISWAP Fighters Kill 14 in Nigeria-Cameroon Border Over ‘Blockade’
    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2020/08/28/jihadists-kill-14-nigeria-cameroon-border/

    “Jihadists have killed 14 people on a Cameroonian island on Lake Chad near the border with Nigeria after their town decided to block food supplies to the insurgents, security sources said Thursday.

    Fighters from the so-called Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) landed on the island of Bulgaram aboard speedboats from an enclave on the Nigerian side late Tuesday, they said.

    “They came around 6:30 pm (1830 GMT) while people were preparing for evening prayers and shot dead 14 community leaders,” a security source told AFP.

    Some of the victims were shot in their homes while others were killed in the mosque where they had gone to pray, said another source, who gave a similar toll.

    The assault was launched after the town — a major logistical route for ISWAP jihadists on the Nigerian side of the lake — decided to cut off food supplies for the jihadists.

    In recent days, local chiefs had invoked the Koran at a town hall meeting and placed a curse on any resident allowing supplies to the jihadists.

    The insurgents viewed the decision as a betrayal and a show of support for the local authorities.

    The past week has seen several Nigerian air raids on ISWAP strongholds that have inflicted heavy casualties, according to military and local sources.

    “The terrorists believe the blockade is part of the ongoing military operation aimed at starving them while they are under bombardment,” a source added.

    The Lake Chad area is a vast marshy area shared by Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad.

    Western parts of the lake have become havens for Nigerian jihadists, whose 10-year-old campaign has claimed tens of thousands of lives.”

  43. Arab Coalition Destroys 2 Armed Houthi Drones Fired at Najran
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2475096/arab-coalition-destroys-2-armed-houthi-drones-fired-najran

    “The Saudi-led Arab coalition destroyed on Friday two booby-trapped drones that were fired by the Iran-backed Houthi militias towards Saudi Arabia.

    Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said the aircraft were launched by the Houthis towards southern Saudi Arabia and Najran city.

    He accused the militias of deliberately firing the drones at civilian targets.

    Organization of Islamic Cooperation chief Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen condemned the Houthis for their ongoing attacks against the Kingdom.

    He also slammed the sides that are supporting them with money and weapons to commit their terrorist crimes.”