May 21

Today’s News 21st May 2019

  • Ukraine's Comedian-Turned-President Vows "First Task" Is To "End War In Donbass"

    There’s fresh hope that unrest in Donbass raging since 2014 could find resolution as Ukraine’s new president, comedian and presidential impersonator turned overnight real political leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was just sworn in on Monday, and immediately he is dissolving parliament and urging peaceful settlement in the country’s east. 

    The 41-year old Zelenskiy said in translated comments via The Moscow Times: “Our first task is to end the conflict in the Donbass.” With a clear mandate from Ukrainian voters who overwhelmingly want to see an easing of tensions with Russia, and the exit of oligarchs from power to halt mass political corruption, he announced during the inauguration ceremony from Kiev he wants to achieve a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, even if it means losing his post. 

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    Via Reuters: High Fives, Selfies and a Snap Election as Zelenskiy Takes Power in Ukraine.

    In his much anticipated inauguration speech, Zelenskiy switched from Ukrainian to Russian to say: “I believe that the first step to begin this dialogue will be the return of all Ukrainian prisoners [held by Russia].”

    He further emphasized he would pursue peace at a cost to his reputation — “and, if need be, even this job” — according to The Moscow Times. Zelenkiy’s upset victory over Petro Poroshenko by a double-digit margin has led some to dub him the “Donald Trump of Ukrainian politics” given his outside the system status and willingness to break from the establishment on the question of dialogue with Russia. He promised Ukrainians that he would seek to do this “without losing our territory, never.”

    The five-year long conflict in the east involving Russian-backed separatists who’ve severed ties from Kiev in a move for de facto independence has killed an estimated 13,000 people and has at times threatened to escalate to the level of western intervention.

    The billionaire chocolate magnate Poroshenko, who came to power as a result of the West-backed so-called Euromaidan revolution gave one parting shot during his concession speech: in the Kremlin, he said, “they believe that with a new inexperienced Ukrainian president, Ukraine could be quickly returned to Russia’s orbit of influence,” according to a translation by the LA Times. 

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    But it doesn’t appear the more than 70% of Ukrainians who voted for Zelenskiy see this as a loss of sovereignty, given the former comedian had long been on record as rejecting Kiev’s hardline anti-Russian language initiatives. 

    Reception in Moscow, however, was cool and perhaps cautiously optimistic, per an AP/Reuters report: 

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked if Vladimir Putin will congratulate Zelenskiy on his inauguration, said the Russian president had no such plans. 

    He said that Putin would congratulate his newly-elected counterpart if Zelenskiy makes progress in settling the conflict with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and mending relations with Russia. 

    Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as President Putin in Sochi to discuss a broad number of security related issues. During comments in front of reporters Pompeo said Russia should now “work with Ukraine’s new president-elect to bring peace to eastern Ukraine,” according to a summary of Pompeo’s words by Reuters.

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    Image via Reuters: An armed pro-Russian separatist from the so-called Battalion Vostok (East).

    The unlikely “Ukrainian Donald Trump” rode a wave of popular support among a majority of Ukrainians exhausted with politics-as-usual marked by wave after wave of corruption scandals. 

    Poroshenko was seen as the deeply corrupted establishment’s man in Kiev, thus much of Zelenskiy’s support can be seen as more of an anti-Poroshenko vote, perhaps somewhat akin to Hillary Clinton’s shock defeat by Trump in 2016. 

  • Spain Sees Surge In Migrant Crime "Because Of Political Cowardice"

    Authored by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

    • “We have tasers, but they are stored in a closet because of political cowardice.” — Spokesperson, Municipal Police of Bilbao.

    • In Madrid, an elderly couple returning home from vacation discovered that their apartment had been “occupied” by African migrants. When a camera crew from the Madrid television channel Telecinco went to investigate, the migrants destroyed the camera…. Spain’s notoriously lethargic justice system now rules on who is the apartment’s rightful owner.

    • The Madrid city council, run by Mayor Manuela Carmena, in a case study of political correctness run amok, ordered police to keep out of the neighborhood of Lavapiés. The result is that illegal immigrants, far from facing the threat of deportation, are now secure in the knowledge that their violent actions have empowered them effectively to take control of an entire neighborhood of a major European capital.

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    The Madrid city council, run by Mayor Manuela Carmena, in a case study of political correctness run amok, ordered police to keep out of the neighborhood of Lavapiés, one of the most “multicultural” districts of the Spanish capital, to “avoid situations of tension.” Pictured: Police officers in Lavapiés on November 12, 2015. (Image source: Luis Sánchez de Pedro Aires/Wikimedia Commons)

    Six African migrants gang-raped a 12-year-old girl in a small town near Madrid, but Spanish authorities kept information about the crime hidden from the public for more than a year, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.

    On March 15, 2018, the 12-year-old girl was playing in a park in Azuqueca de Henares with several other girls when, at around one o’clock in the afternoon, six migrants — five Moroccans and one Nigerian — approached the playground. They carried two of the girls off to a nearby abandoned building, but then let one of them go after discovering that she was a Muslim. The migrants, aged between 15 and 20, grabbed the 12-year-old by her arms and legs and took turns raping her, first anally and then vaginally, for nearly an hour.

    The public was not informed about the crime until March 20, 2019, when the newspaper El Mundo published the results of an investigation. According to the report, Spanish prosecutors and judges secretly decided that three of the minors will be held in a young offender institution for three years and then be “reinserted” into Spanish society rather than be deported. One of the adults is being held in preventive detention; the other adults were released.

    The gang rape has cast a spotlight on spiraling migrant criminality in Spain, where “progressive” immigration policies — promoted by all the mainstream political parties and opposed only by the populist party Vox — are fueling an influx of illegal migration from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The gang rape has also cast a spotlight on a lenient justice system that routinely releases migrant criminals back onto the streets.

    Reliable statistics on migrant-related crimes are unavailable: the data compiled by the Spanish Interior Ministry on specific categories of crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, etc.) do not break down the offenders by nationality.

    In addition, different Interior Ministry databases produce different results on the actual number of crimes. One database, for instance, shows that there were 332 homicides in Spain in 2017, while another shows that there were 308. One database shows that there were 865 rapes in 2017, while another shows that there were 1,382 — a difference of 60%.

    The official Spanish statistics agency (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) shows that immigrants comprise roughly 10% of the overall Spanish population, but 32% of the Spanish prison population. The INE does not break the statistics down by the nationality of the inmates, although Interior Ministry data show that the majority of immigrants arrested in 2017 were from just two countries: Romania (18,032) and Morocco (17,464).

    Despite the lack of official statistics, anecdotal evidence found in the crime reports of local newspapers shows that migrant criminality — ranging from petty theft to sexual assault to murder — is a growing problem nationwide.

    In Barcelona, for example, 15 members of a North African itinerant crime gang known as “Allah’s Wolfpack” sexually assaulted a woman at a metro station. The migrants, some of whom are unaccompanied minors and all of whom are in Spain illegally, had long rap sheets and were well known to the police.

    The attack, which occurred in the Barcelona suburb of Santa Coloma on November 11, 2018, took place when a couple attempted to exit the Can Peixauet subway station. The youths, from Morocco and Algeria, hurled insults and verbal abuse at the couple as they walked off a train, then followed the pair into an elevator, where they assaulted the woman and stabbed her male companion.

    Police later found the youths in a nearby abandoned building, where they had been squatting for months, and where they had previously been arrested in connection with a series of robberies in the area. Police also said the youths were infected with scabies, which required police to activate a special decontamination protocol for the officers involved, the police vehicles and the jail cells. Eight of the 15 youths have since been released from police custody and are back on the street.

    Migrant gang rapes have become increasingly common in Spain:

    • Alicante, April 16. Three Algerians gang-raped a 19-year-old woman. One of the men was arrested at the Alicante airport while trying to flee the country.
    • Tarragona, March 28. Eleven underage migrants were arrested for gang-raping a girl at the Roman amphitheater. Of the 11, only one was remanded in custody.
    • Alicante, March 26. Four underage Moroccans gang-raped an underage girl. They filmed the rape and then demanded that the girl pay 50 euros to avoid having the video posted online.
    • Alicante, March 22. Ten Algerians were arrested for gang-raping three girls aged between 14 and 17. Police said that the gang members sustained themselves by robbing homes and businesses and later selling the stolen items on the black market.
    • Sabadell, February 2. Eight Moroccans gang-raped an 18-year-old woman in an abandoned warehouse. The woman was celebrating her birthday when she became separated from her friends. The Moroccans, aged between 21 and 53, were homeless and squatting in the warehouse. Of the eight, only two were remanded in custody.
    • Algeciras, January 6. Three Dominicans were arrested for gang-raping a 14-year-old girl.
    • Benidorm, January 5. Four Ecuadorians were arrested for drugging and gang-raping a 19-year-old woman on New Year’s Eve.

    The victims of migrant-related sex crimes often are young children and teenagers as well as elderly women:

    • Barcelona, May 18. A 36-year-old Dominican drug dealer was arrested for raping a 13-year-old girl in the Raval district.
    • Valencia, May 16. A Bolivian man was arrested for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old daughter.
    • Granada, April 17. A 45-year-old Moroccan man was arrested after masturbating in front of children during a Holy Week procession.
    • Salt (Girona), April 4. A 42-year-old Malian man was arrested for sexually abusing his 14-year-old daughter.
    • Hospitalet de Llobregat, March 11. A 25-year-old Indian man was arrested for raping an underage girl he had groomed on social media.
    • Sagunto (Valencia), February 23. A 24-year-old Ecuadorian man charged with repeatedly raping a 16-year-old girl justified the crime by telling the judge, ” I am the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and I have documents to prove it.”
    • Valencia, February 22. A Honduran man was sentenced to four years in prison for being in a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. The age of consent in Spain is 16.
    • Sils (Girona), February 20. Three men, including one from Venezuela, attempted to kidnap a 12-year-old child as she was leaving school.
    • Berga (Barcelona), February 18. A 33-year-old Senegalese migrant was arrested for sexually assaulting a 72-year-old woman.
    • Barcelona, February 7. A 40-year-old imam at a mosque was charged with anally raping a 13-year-old boy during a Koran lesson.
    • Blanes (Girona), February 6. A 24-year-old Senegalese migrant was arrested for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl.
    • Beniel (Murcia), February 5. A 34-year-old Moroccan man was arrestedafter he grabbed the breasts of two girls at an outdoor festival.
    • Sant Josep (Ibiza), February 2. A 48-year-old Moroccan was arrested for sexually assaulting an 87-year-old woman in her home. The man broke into her home and after verifying that she was alone, he threw her to the ground and sexually assaulted her. The woman suffered severe trauma to her face. Police said the same man had sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman in nearby Sant Antoni in April 2018.
    • Leganés, January 28. A Pakistani man was arrested for sexually assaultingtwo teenage girls in his home. The man lured the girls by placing false advertisements in which he said he was looking for child care and housecleaning services.
    • Archena (Murcia), January 27. A 38-year-old Guatemalan man was arrested for sexually abusing his 11-year-old stepdaughter.
    • León, January 19. A Senegalese migrant was arrested for soliciting the prostitution of a 16-year-old girl. He offered her money and asked how much she charged per night.
    • Santomera (Murcia), January 15. An Algerian man was arrested for making sexual propositions to a group of children and inviting them to his home.
    • Valencia, January 12. A Colombian man was arrested for drugging a 16-year-old girl and attempting to rape her.

    Other migrant-related sex crimes in Spain include:

    • Valencia, May 17. An 18-year-old Moroccan was arrested for raping an 18-year-old Belgian tourist.
    • Madrid, May 10. A 27-year-old Guinean man was arrested for sexually assaulting three woman at a night club in Carabanchel.
    • Martorell, May 9. A 40-year-old Moroccan man was arrested for attempting to rape three women who were jogging along the banks of the Llobregat River. A local judge sent the man to a mental health clinic.
    • Barcelona, April 19. A 32-year-old French citizen of Moroccan origin rapeda 37-year-old Portuguese woman in the gardens of the Maritime Museum, located just off La Rambla, one of the top tourist attractions in Barcelona. The rapist bit off his victim’s ear, broke her arm and left her badly bruised. Police delivered the severed ear to a local hospital, where doctors performed reconstructive surgery. A week before the attack, local residents had alertedpolice to the man’s aggressive behavior. He was arrested three times and released. Some believe that with stricter law enforcement, the attack could have been prevented.
    • Murcia, April 15. Two Moroccans, aged 21 and 26, were arrested for kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 18-year-old transsexual.
    • El Vendrell (Tarragona), April 8. A 23-year-old Dominican man was arrested for raping a 32-year-old woman in the entrance to her apartment building.
    • Crevillent (Alicante), March 5. A 32-year-old Moroccan man was arrestedfor stalking and sexually assaulting several women on city streets.
    • Bermeo, March 4. A sub-Saharan African attempted to rape a woman in the town center.
    • La Palma del Condado (Huelva), February 27. A Romanian man was arrested for sexually assaulting two women in a public park.
    • Lloret de Mar (Girona), February 23. A 23-year-old Moroccan man raped a woman in an ATM booth.
    • Lorca, February 26. A 31-year-old Moroccan man attempted to rape a woman he ambushed from behind.
    • Madrid, February 26. A 31-year-old Romanian man was arrested for sexually assaulting at least five women near the Tres Cantos railway station.
    • Valencia, February 24. A 48-year-old Pakistani man attempted to rape a woman in a parking garage.
    • Santa Cruz de Tenerife, February 22. A Moroccan man was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman in front of a refugee shelter. When the woman’s boyfriend intervened, he was attacked with blows to the head.
    • Pamplona, February 19. Three Romanians, aged 17 and 18, were arrestedfor sexually assaulting a woman in the restroom of a bar.
    • Palencia, February 14. A 36-year-old Peruvian man was arrested for sexually assaulting his partner’s daughter.
    • Marbella, February 13. A 35-year-old Chinese man was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman on two separate occasions. Both times, the man tied with woman with a rope and gagged her. He beat her, sexually assaulted her and then used her cell phone to transfer money from her bank account.
    • Beniaján (Murcia), February 12. A Moroccan man raped a 37-year-old woman he had met a few days earlier. In May, three men had also been arrested for gang raping a woman in the same town.
    • Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid), February 9. A 21-year-old Cameroonian man raped a 21-year-old British student. The man, who arrived in Spain as a political refugee, had received free housing and social assistance for a year while his asylum application was processed.
    • Marbella, February 8. A Senegalese man attempted to rape a waitress at a restaurant. The man entered the establishment at around 11AM and began flirting with the woman, who told him that she was married. The man left. Shortly thereafter, she stepped outside to make some purchases at a nearby supermarket when the man ambushed her and tried to rape her.
    • Cádiz, February 7. A 19-year-old Guinean migrant was arrested after he repeatedly flashed his genitals at passersby. Police said he was in the country illegally.
    • Palma de Mallorca, February 4. A 42-year-old Moroccan man was arrested after he repeatedly grabbed the breasts of female passersby at the central train station.
    • Capdepera (Majorca), January 22. A 25-year-old Moroccan man was arrested for sexually assaulting a 39-year-old woman who was riding her bicycle.
    • Culleredo, January 21. A Peruvian man sexually assaulted a woman on a regional bus.
    • Guadalajara, January 20. A 25-year-old Algerian man was arrested for attempting to rape a 40-year-old woman.
    • Formentera, January 20. A woman was sexually assaulted by two men who seemed South American or Moroccan in appearance.
    • Mataró, January 14. A Moroccan man sexually assaulted a woman in a parking garage.
    • Safor (Valencia), January 11. A Pakistani man was arrested for sexually assaulting his stepdaughter. While traveling on a bus to Italy, he was detained at a police checkpoint.
    • Valencia, January 9. A Lebanese man was arrested for drugging and raping a 20-year-old woman on New Year’s Eve.
    • Villajoyosa (Alicante), January 8. A 29-year-old woman was sexually assaulted at Hospital de la Marina Baixa by two men who appeared to be Moroccan. The hospital has been the scene of several sexual assaults: workers must walk along a dark road when going from the hospital to the parking garage.
    • Mislata (Valencia), January 5. A 28-year-old Colombian drugged and rapeda 16-year-old girl.
    • Burriana (Castellon), January 2. Two Romanian men were arrested for kidnapping and raping a 17-year-old girl on New Year’s Eve.
    • Valencia, January 1. An 18-year-old Guinean sexually assaulted a female street cleaner.

    Migrant-related honor crimes and domestic violence:

    • Madrid, May 6. A Moroccan man stabbed to death his fiancé, a 47-year-old Spanish woman named Juana U.M. Police said the man, who has a long criminal record, with at least 30 prior convictions, is believed to have fled to Morocco to evade Spanish justice.
    • Granada, May 17. A 36-year-old Moroccan man stabbed and seriously injured his 32-year-old ex-wife.
    • Sueca (Valencia), April 1. A 40-year-old Moroccan man was arrested for kidnapping and physically assaulting his wife and daughters.
    • Tudela, February 21. An Algerian man was arrested after he threatened to kill his wife.
    • Burriana, February 20. A Moroccan man physically assaulted his 18-year-old daughter because she had a conversation with a male classmate.
    • Totana (Murcia), February 3. A 41-year-old Ecuadoran was arrested for beating and raping his 31-year-old girlfriend after she refused to have sex with him.
    • Reus, February 1. A 19-year-old Dominican man decapitated his wife and then committed suicide by jumping from a fifth-floor window.
    • Salamanca, January 28. A 31-year-old Colombian man was arrested for physically assaulting his wife in the middle of the street.
    • Mula (Murcia), January 27. A Bolivian woman was arrested for physically assaulting her 15-year-old daughter. Police said that the girl had been whipped with a leather belt every day for two years at the hands of her mother and older brother.
    • El Palmar (Murcia), January 25. A 50-year-old Moroccan man was arrestedfor physically assaulting and threatening to kill his wife after she said she wanted a divorce.
    • Bonavista (Tarragona), January 20. A 44-year-old Argentinian man was arrested for pushing his wife from a third-floor balcony.
    • Vigo, January 14. A 41-year-old Moroccan man was arrested after threatening to kill his wife. The couple got into an argument after he accused her of spending too much time talking with the neighbors.
    • Murcia, January 8. A 29-year-old Moroccan man was arrested for assaulting his wife and forcing her to hide in a closet.
    • Vilagarcía (Pontevedra), January 7. A 60-year-old Romanian man physically assaulted his wife at a public park.
    • Salamanca, January 7. A Moroccan man stabbed his pregnant wife.
    • Laredo, January 3. A 29-year-old Ecuadorian stabbed to death his ex-girlfriend.
    • Madrid, January 2. A 41-year-old Ecuadorian serious injured his wife after beating her with a metal broomstick.

    Underage unaccompanied migrants — known in Spain as Menas (menores extranjeros no acompañados) — are also engaged in criminal activity:

    • Barcelona, May 12. A group of 40 Menas squatted in an entire five-story apartment building in front of a police station. The Menas insulted and threatened police who approached the building.
    • Zaragoza, April 27. A 15-year-old Mena was arrested after punching a woman in the face and breaking her nose while trying to rob her cellphone. He then assaulted and injured three police officers who tried to arrest him.
    • Zaragoza, March 14. Three Menas were arrested for physically assaultingtheir tutor.
    • Melilla, March 12. Fifteen Menas physically assaulted a police officer.
    • Valencia, March 11. Three Algerian Menas who were on the run from French authorities were arrested after they boarded a train without a ticket. The Menas had stabbed and tortured two other Algerians in the French city of Lyon. One of their victims died in the March 5 attack, which was filmed and shared by the Menas on social media.
    • Palma de Mallorca, February 25. An Algerian Mena sexually assaulted his 24-year-old teacher at a migrant shelter. The boy, completely naked, pushed the woman into a bathroom.
    • Palma de Mallorca, February 14. Two Algerian Menas were arrested for sexual assault, harassment, domestic violence and making threats against neighbors and the staff at an asylum shelter.
    • Arenys de Mar (Barcelona), February 10. Three Menas physically assaulted and robbed town counsellor Susanna Mir of PDeCat, a Catalan independence party. All three of the attackers were repeat offenders, known to police.
    • Barcelona, February 7. A Moroccan Mena was arrested for raping six women between the ages of 40 and 78.
    • Zaragoza, January 10. Three Menas were arrested for assaulting police officers and attempting to rob a 58-year-old woman.

    Some migrant criminals are serial offenders:

    • Tarragona, May 8. A 36-year-old Moroccan man was arrested after breaking into seven cars in one night. Although he has a long criminal record, with at least 17 different prior convictions, he was released.
    • Salou (Tarragona), May 7. A 67-year-old Algerian man was arrested for stealing a purse containing two high-end cellphones. Police said the man has a long criminal record, with at least 170 prior convictions.
    • Gijón, April 18. A 24-year-old Algerian was arrested after breaking into more than 20 cars in one week.
    • Usurbil (Gipuzkoa), April 3. A 47-year-old Algerian gang leader was arrested for the fourth time in five years for stealing cars and robbing homes across the Basque Country. The gang is responsible for around 100 car thefts and 200 burglaries since 2013, according to police.
    • Madrid, March 29. Eight members of a Moroccan gang were arrested for stealing 57 cars and vans and reselling them in Africa.
    • Gijón, March 22. A Moroccan was arrested for robbing a woman of her purse. The man, who dragged the woman along the ground for several meters before seizing her purse, has a long criminal record, according to local police.
    • Beniaján (Murcia), March 14. A 24-year-old Moroccan was arrested for breaking into more than 50 cars and stealing computer equipment, cellphones, and watches, among other items.
    • Leganes, February 9. A Polish man was arrested for trying to rape a woman as she was leaving her office. Police said the man has a long criminal record, with at least 18 different prior convictions.
    • El Ejido (Almería), January 6. An 18-year-old Moroccan, illegally in Spain, was arrested for sexual assault. Police said he was responsible for at least six armed robberies.

    Elderly and handicapped persons are also increasingly victims of migrant-related assaults and robberies:

    • Vitoria-Gasteiz, May 14. A 75-year-old woman died of injuries sustained when she was assaulted and robbed by two Moroccans at the entrance to her apartment building.
    • L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), April 26. A 52-year-old Algerian man was arrested for brutally assaulting a 91-year-old woman. The woman was walking with her son in the early afternoon when the Algerian man pulled a metal bar from a shopping cart and began striking her. She was hospitalized and received more than 100 stitches to her head and neck. Police said the Algerian man was homeless and had mental health problems.
    • Gandia, April 26. A 22-year-old Pakistani man was arrested for assaulting and robbing a handicapped man. After confessing to the crime, a judge handed him an eight-month suspended sentence, apparently because he was a first-time offender. A few hours later, also in Gandia, the same man was accused of sexually assaulting and robbing a woman.
    • Jerez de la Frontera, April 24. A 34-year-old Moroccan man was arrested for assaulting and robbing an elderly couple, aged 81 and 83, at the entrance to their home.
    • Cieza (Murcia), April 3. An undocumented immigrant was arrested for robbing several elderly women.
    • Cantabria and Vizcaya, March 12. Two Algerians, aged 45 and 51, were arrested for robbing the homes of 35 elderly women. The Algerians, posing as plumbers, gained access to the homes by pretending to carry out repairs.
    • Lérida, February 16. A 48-year-old Algerian was arrested for robbing six elderly women. On November 9, he was arrested for robbing two women, aged 70 and 84. Police said the man had robbed at least 17 others the same way: he would stalk his victims, all elderly, as they returned home from the grocery store. He would then gain access to their buildings by offering to help them hold the door or carry bags for them.

    Other migrant-related homicides, aggravated assaults and violent robberies include:

    • Cobeña (Madrid), May 3. Two Dominican gang members were arrested for murdering a 20- year-old student during a fight at a local festival. Police said the gang, dedicated to stealing wallets and cellphones during festivals, routinely rob between 80 and 100 people each night.
    • San Sebastian, April 28. Basque police arrested seven people, including three Romanians and two Moroccans, after a 17-year-old boy was killed during a brawl at a well-known discotheque.
    • Vigo, April 24. A Moroccan man stabbed a female passerby after she refused to hand over her purse.
    • Madrid, April 11. A large gang of Moroccan youths physically assaulted a 15-year-old boy after he “looked” at two girls from the group. The boy suffered serious injuries to his eyes, cheekbone and jaw and teeth. The boy’s mother said that the gang has up to 50 members, aged between 14 and 20, who have been terrorizing the Congosto neighborhood in southern Madrid for more than a year. “Gang members wait outside schools,” the boy’s mother said. “They carry chains and clubs to beat students. They shove the elderly and steal their shopping bags. We need a solution because things cannot continue as they are.” Another parent added: “They attack and steal as a hobby. Early in the afternoon, or late at night. In one area of ​​the neighborhood, or in another. That is the worst. There is no way to guarantee that your children are safe anywhere. The gang has been taking control of Congosto because of police passivity. It is unbearable.”
    • Rojales (Alicante), April 2. A 49-year-old Hungarian man murdered his 39-year-old Hungarian wife at their home.
    • Almería, March 27. A Moroccan man, illegal in Spain, was sentenced to one year in prison for physically assaulting a prostitute after she refused to give him free sex.
    • Sant Carles de la Ràpita (Tarragona), March 18. A 25-year-old Moroccan man was arrested for kidnapping his wife and demanding a ransom of 5,000 euros.
    • Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, March 12. Two Moroccans, aged 19 and 41, were arrested for committing a series of assaults and robberies.
    • Alcorcón, March 9. A 20-year-old Moroccan and a 20-year-old Dominican were arrested for stabbing a 21-year-old Dominican in the neck.
    • Tarragona, March 7. Two Moroccans kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach after she refused to hand over her backpack.
    • Cieza (Murcia), March 7. Two Moroccans with outstanding deportation orders were arrested after breaking into an automobile.
    • Tarifa, March 5. Three Moroccans assaulted and robbed an elderly couple.
    • A Coruña, March 3. A Moroccan and a man with Portuguese citizenship were arrested for robbing a pharmacy and a dental clinic.
    • Valencia, March 1. A 20-year-old Guinean man was arrested for robbing a woman of 20 euros. The man attacked the woman from behind, grabbed her neck and rendered her unconscious.
    • Elche, February 18. Three teenagers, one from Algeria, one from Ecuador and another with Spanish citizenship, were arrested for violently robbing a woman of her purse.
    • Jaén, February 15. A 19-year-old Moroccan arrested for physically assaulting his wife escaped from police custody.
    • Lepe (Huelva), February 4. A 28-year-old Moroccan, who was in Spain illegally and had a pending deportation order, physically assaulted a woman and seized her purse. When police tried to arrest him, he became violent and assaulted the police. He is also believed to be responsible for numerous property thefts.
    • Palma de Mallorca, February 3. Four Algerians, one Moroccan and another man with Spanish citizenship were arrested after physically attacking and robbing a man who had just won 1,200 euros at a bingo parlor.
    • Ceuta, January 22. A Moroccan man was arrested for violently robbing a woman.
    • Barcelona, January 13. A Polish man was arrested for pushing an Asian prostitute from a balcony. The woman was hospitalized with serious head injuries.
    • Galapagar (Madrid), January 12. Three Moroccans were arrested for breaking into a home, threatening two children at knifepoint and forcing their mother to withdraw money from an ATM. They then stole a tablet, which had a GPS tracking system that enabled police to arrest them.
    • San Javier, January 24. An 18-year-old Moroccan man was arrested for assaulting and robbing a woman at the entrance to her building.
    • Granada, January 15. Five Moroccans were arrested for assaulting and robbing a couple of a cellphone and money.

    Violence is also on the rise at migrant shelters:

    • Madrid, April 17. An 18-year-old Moroccan stabbed a 17-year-old Moroccan at a shelter for unaccompanied minors in Hortaleza. Violence at the facility is reportedly spiraling. “There is an escalation of violence and there is no one to stop it,” said one worker. “Many come to Madrid thinking that it will be the solution to their lives and when they see that this is not the case they are disappointed,” said another. On March 26, more than 20 underage migrants attacked security guards at the same shelter.
    • Palma de Mallorca, February 14. Two unaccompanied underage migrants were arrested for “sexual abuse, harassment, domestic violence and serious threats to the staff” at an asylum shelter.
    • Melilla, January 2. A 21-year-old Algerian man was arrested for sexually assaulting a 21-year-old Moroccan man at a migrant shelter.

    Migrants have been increasingly attacking law enforcement officers:

    • Las Cabezas de San Juan (Seville), May 12. Two Moroccans shot at police officers who were attempting to serve them with a warrant.
    • Palma de Mallorca, May 10. Four migrants hawking counterfeit goods physically assaulted police by throwing them to the ground and repeatedly kicking them in the head.
    • Gijón, April 16. A 28-year-old Moroccan man stripped naked and then head-butted a police officer who ordered him to get dressed.
    • Murcia, March 7. A 34-year-old Algerian man tried to run over a policeman who stopped his car during a routine traffic patrol.
    • Barcelona, March 6. A 35-year-old Moroccan man shouting “Allahu Akhbar” was arrested after he tried to stab several police officers.
    • Salamanca, March 1. A 24-year-old Moroccan man was arrested for assaulting three police officers.
    • Bilbao, August 25. A 25-year-old Senegalese migrant, accused of stealing a mobile phone during an outdoor festival, kicked a police officer in the chest and broke another officer’s leg. Nine officers were needed to restrain the man, who called on other Senegalese migrants for backup. The Basque Union of Police and Emergency Workers (SVPE) denounced the “lack of equipment” that requires the Municipal Police of Bilbao to work in precarious conditions. “We have tasers, but they are stored in a closet because of political cowardice,” a police spokesperson said. City police also do not have access to helmets or riot shields.

    Several migrant-related criminal cases are working their way through Spain’s judicial system, which in some instances has shown leniency:

    • Sanlúcar la Mayor (Seville), April 24. A Romanian migrant who had head-butted a police officer and broken his nose, and then bitten another officer in the arm, was released without bail. The Romanian, who has a long criminal history, attacked the officers after they tried to break up a fight. Local prosecutors and a judge decided that the assaults were insufficient to justify provisional detention. Local media reported that the decision was met with anger by police, who said they could not understand how someone who acted with such violence can be free, and who said his release would reinforce the feeling of impunity among criminals.
    • Murcia, April 22. A 32-year-old Moroccan man who admitted to raping a woman, was handed a five-year suspended sentence, on the condition that he not rape again within the next five years. The Provincial Court of Murcia justified the lenient sentence after establishing that the defendant acted the way he did because of his addiction to cannabis, which “diminished his intellective and volitional faculties.”
    • Palma de Mallorca, April 11. Three Pakistanis were each sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for selling drugs in Magaluf, Majorca.
    • Ciudad Real, April 9. A 47-year-old Romanian man was sentenced to 81 years in prison for raping his two daughters, aged 14 and 15, six times while their mother was away.
    • Murcia, March 17. A Moroccan man was sentenced to nine months in prison for repeatedly exposing himself to an 11-year-old girl in Águilas. The man remains free pending an appeal.
    • Alicante, March 6. A 32-year-old Brazilian man was handed a 16-month suspended sentence for ejaculating on an underage girl on a city bus. He was also prohibited from using public transportation for eight months.
    • Valencia, February 20. Prosecutors called for a 41-year-old Brazilian man to be sentenced to eight years in prison for raping a 16-year-old in the showers of a gymnasium.
    • Palencia, February 1. A 39-year-old Costa Rican man was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl who was babysitting his two children.
    • Zaragoza, January 16. A Guinean migrant was spared a prison sentence after he admitted to sexually abusing two underage girls.
    • Palma de Mallorca, January 8. A Senegalese migrant was sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to rape a 29-year-old British tourist in the bathroom of a bar in Magaluf, Majorca. He was also ordered to be deported after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
    • Seville, January 8. Three Romanians were sentenced to 14 years in prison for gang-raping a 27-year-old Paraguayan woman in a field next to the Olympic Stadium.

    In Jerez de la Frontera, meanwhile, a 70-year-old woman named Juana, who offered shelter in her home to an immigrant named Mohammed, has been left homeless. When the woman returned home after a hospital stay, she found that Mohammed, whom the woman originally met at a soup kitchen, had changed the locks and refused to allow her to return. Due to idiosyncrasies in Spanish real estate law, which often favors tenants at the expense of landlords, the woman will face an uphill battle to regain control of her apartment.

    In Madrid, an elderly couple returning home from vacation discovered that their apartment had been “occupied” by African migrants. When a camera crew from the Madrid television channel Telecinco went to investigate, the migrants destroyed the camera. The couple is presently living with family members while Spain’s notoriously lethargic justice system now rules on who is the apartment’s rightful owner.

    Also in Madrid, hundreds of undocumented migrants from sub-Saharan Africa went on a rampage in Lavapiés, one of the most “multicultural” districts of the Spanish capital. The riots were the direct result of many years of extreme deference by Spanish officialdom toward illegal immigrants, and a sweeping failure to enforce the law — all, apparently, out of a fear of being accused of racism.

    The riots were triggered by false rumors that the local police had killed a 35-year-old Senegalese street hawker named Mmame Mbaye. Spanish cities today are filled with illegal migrants from Africa who sell counterfeit merchandise on city streets. They are known as manteros (blanket men) for displaying their goods on blankets (mantas), and whenever the police approach, for scooping up the blankets and fleeing.

    Mbaye died, according to initial reports, after allegedly being chased by police from Puerta del Sol, in the city center, to Lavapiés, where he collapsed. On April 22, 2019, however, a court in Madrid confirmed that Mbaye did not die as the result of a police chase. Instead, he had heart disease and died of cardiac arrest while walking with a friend in Lavapiés. “The events do not reveal even the slightest indication that the deceased was personally subjected to any type of harassment or previous police persecution that could have triggered the lethal effects of the cardiac pathology from which he suffered,” the court ruled. “There is no objective data or any witness to affirm the existence of such harassment or persecution, which has no support other than the mere assertions of the appellant [an NGO called SOS Racism Madrid].”

    Mbaye’s death nevertheless sparked violent protests that lasted for several days and caused massive destruction of public and private property.

    The Madrid city council, run by Mayor Manuela Carmena, in a case study of political correctness run amok, ordered police to keep out of the neighborhood of Lavapiés to “avoid situations of tension.” The result is that illegal immigrants, far from facing the threat of deportation, are now secure in the knowledge that their violent actions have empowered them effectively to take control of an entire neighborhood of a major European capital.

  • North Korean Sex Slaves Forced To Endure Rape, Exploitation And Forced Marriage In China

    Tens of thousands of North Korean women and girls are actively trafficked into the Chinese sex trade by criminal organizations, and are often forced to endure “systematic rape, sex trafficking, sexual slavery, sexual abuse, prostitution, cybersex trafficking, forced marriage and forced pregnancy,” according to a new report. 

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    Following an extensive investigation, the Korea Future Initiative found that victims are “commonly aged between 12-29 and overwhelmingly female.” Many of them are sold more than once, and are “forced into at least one form of sexual slavery within a year of leaving their homeland.” 

    Sex trafficking and exploitation is a $105,000,000 per year business for the Chinese underworld, according to the report. 

    “Victims are prostituted for as little as ¥30 Chinese Yuan ($4 United States Dollars), sold as wives for just ¥1000 Chinese Yuan ($146 United States Dollars), and trafficked into cybersex dens for exploitation by a global online audience.”

    “Pushed from their homeland by a patriarchal regime that survives through the imposition of tyranny, poverty, and oppression, North Korean women and girls are passed through the hands of traffickers, brokers, and criminal organisations” according to the London-based Korea watchdog group. 

    According to the report’s author, Yoon Hee-soon, prostitution has overtaken forced marriage as the “primary pathway” into the sex trade for North Korean women and girls. 

    “Enslaved in brothels that litter satellite-towns and townships close to large urban areas in northeast China, victims are mostly aged between 15-25 and are habitually subjected to penetrative vaginal and anal rape, forced masturbation, and groping,” said Hee-soon.

    Girls as young as nine are forced to perform graphic cybersex acts and are sexually assaulted in front of webcams which are streamed to a global audience. 

    “Prospects for North Korean women and girls trapped in China’s multi-million-dollar sex trade are bleak,” said the report’s author, adding “Many victims have perished in China, while small rescue organisations and Christian missionaries struggle to perform rescue work. Urgent and immediate action, which will run contrary to the prevailing politics of inter-Korean dialogue, is needed to save the lives of countless female North Korean refugees in China.”

  • Escobar: "Clash Of Civilizations" Or Crisis Of Civilization?

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

    Talk about a graphic display of soft power: Beijing this week hosted the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations. 

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    Organized under the direct supervision of President Xi Jinping it took place amid an “Asian Culture Carnival.”  Sure, there were dubious, kitschy and syrupy overtones, but what really mattered was what Xi himself had to say to China and all of Asia.

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    In his keynote speech, the Chinese leader essentially stressed that one civilization forcing itself upon another is “foolish” and “disastrous.” In Xi’s concept of a dialogue of civilizations, he referred to the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as programs that “have expanded the channels for communication exchanges.”

    Xi’s composure and rationality present a stark, contrasting message to US President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign.

    West vs East and South

    Compare and contrast Xi’s comments with what happened at a security forum in Washington just over two weeks earlier. 

    Then, a bureaucrat by the name of Kiron Skinner, the State Department’s policy planning director, characterized US-China rivalry as a “clash of civilizations,” and “a fight with a really different civilization and ideology the US hasn’t had before.”

    And it got worse. This civilization was “not Caucasian” – a not so subtle 21st century resurrection of the “Yellow Peril.” (Let us recall: The “not Caucasian” Japan of World War II was the original “Yellow Peril.”) 

    Divide and rule, spiced with racism, accounts for the toxic mix that has been embedded in the hegemonic US  narrative for decades now. The mix harks back to Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, published in 1996.

    Huntington’s pseudo-theory, coming from someone who did not know much about the multi-polar complexity of Asia, not to mention African and South American cultures, was mercilessly debunked across vast swathes of the global South.  In fact, Huntington did not even come up with the original, flawed concept. That was the work of Anglo-American historian and commentator Bernard Lewis, who passes for a Middle East guru in the US.

    Divide, rule, conquer

    As Alastair Crooke, the founder of the Conflicts Forum, has outlined, Lewis consistently preached divide and rule, tinged with racism, in Islamic states. He was a fervent proponent of regime change in Iran and his recipe for dealing with Arabs was “to hit them between the eyes with a big stick” because, in his world view, the only thing they respect is power.

    Crooke reminds us that since the 1960s, Lewis has been a master at spotting vulnerabilities in “religious, class and ethnic differences as the means to bring an end to Middle Eastern states.” Lewis is a hero across a certain spectrum – a spectrum that includes former US Vice President Dick Cheney and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    Now, we live in the era of “Lewis redux.” Given that the Islamic world is  largely subdued, in torpor or in turmoil, the clash of civilizations basically applies, on a downsized scale, to containing or destroying Shi’ite Iran.

    Meanwhile the real clash – as the State Department insists – is with China.

    Huntington, the sub-Lewis, did not include Russia among “The West.” The revisionist State Department does. Otherwise how could “Nixon in reverse”be justified? (“Nixon in reverse,” let us remember, is the Kissingerian recommendation to President Donald Trump: Apply divide and rule between Russia and China – but this time seducing Russia.)

    A revisionist Pentagon also came up with the “Indo-Pacific” concept. The only justification for the amalgam is that these two zones should conduct a foreign policy subjected to American hegemony.

    The logic is always divide and rule and clash of civilizations – divisions provoking chaos all across Eurasia. 

    But this strategy is being applied against the background of a crucial historical juncture: The era when BRI is being configured as the road map for progressive Eurasian integration.

    Quo vadis, humanity?

    It’s not hard to detect the faintest of smiles on the faces of Chinese strategists as they survey “The Big Picture” from the vantage point of 5,000 years of civilization. The Christian West as the unique road map to deliver humanity from evil – in fact, the foundation of Pax Americana – is regarded as an amusing fiction at best.

    That fiction is now looking downright dangerous, wallowing in exceptionalism and demonization of “The Other” in myriad forms. The Other – from the Islamic Republic of Iran to atheist China, not to mention “autocratic” Russia – automatically qualifies as a manifestation of “evil.”

    China, by contrast, is polytheist, pluralist, multi-polar – embracing Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism. That is mirrored by the current drive towards a multi-polar world-system. What matters is unity in multiplicity – as Xi stressed in his keynote speech. In it, we find China and Persia, two ancient civilizations – not by accident linked by the Ancient Silk Road – thinking alike.

    Then there’s the appalling state of the planet, which dwarfs the current appalling spectacle of political madness. UCLA geographer and global best-selling author Jared Diamond is not being terribly precise, but he estimatesthere’s a 49% chance “that the world as we know it will collapse by about 2050.”

    As encapsulated by author Nafeez Ahmad:

     “Over the last 500 years or so, humanity has erected an ‘endless growth’ civilization premised on a particular patchwork of ideological worldviews, ethical values, political and economic structures, and personal behaviors. This is a paradigm that elevates the vision of human beings as disconnected, atomistic, competing material units, which seek to maximize their own material consumption as the principal mechanism for self-gratification.”

    What we’re living now is not a clash of civilizations; it’s a crisis of civilization.

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    If the paradigm under which most of humanity barely survives is not changed – and there’s precious little evidence it will – there won’t be any civilizations left to clash.

  • Iran Says Uranium Enrichment Quadrupled, On Pace For Weapons-Grade Levels

    It appears Iran is following through on its prior warnings issued to European leaders that it’s ready to surpass enriched uranium production limits previously agreed to under the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA). News that Iran has “quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium” comes as rhetoric between Tehran and Washington has reached new belligerent heights, with President Trump tweeting Sunday that US attack would be the “end” of Iran.

    Crucially, on Monday both the semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies cited Iran’s nuclear agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi to say the country would reach the 300-kilogram limit set by the nuclear deal merely “in weeks” — in what appears counter-threat signalling to Washington. Iran has also for months complained the EU is failing to hold up to its end of the bargain under the JCPOA to provide sanctions relief. 

    The AP notes of the Iranian media statements that “While the reports said the production is of uranium enriched only to the 3.67% limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran reached with world powers, it means that Iran soon will go beyond the stockpile limitations established by the accord” if it continues on this pace. 

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    Image source: AFP

    Kamalvandi’s statement made clear this didn’t mean Iran increased the number centrifuges in use — a key requirement of the deal — however, The Wall Street Journal cited European diplomats two weeks ago who said they were informed by the Iranians of thier intent to ramp up research efforts into centrifuges that could produce highly enriched uranium faster.

    Amid renewed US pressures and military build-up in the Persian Gulf of late, Tehran has little confidence that the EU is capable of facing US sanctions, and despite some meager past efforts, such as the attempt to establish a ‘SWIFT alternative,’ EU initiatives to salvage the deal have been too little too late.

    Assuming war is not triggered by then, the Iranians have issued Europe an ultimatum to come up with new terms by July 7th or else weapons-grade levels of uranium will be enriched, per the AP: 

    Iran has said it would begin backing away from terms of the deal, setting a July 7 deadline for Europe to come up with new terms or it would begin enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels. Tehran long has insisted it does not seek nuclear weapons, though the West fears its program could allow it to build them.

    British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told journalists in Geneva that Iran should not doubt the U.S. resolve, warning that “if American interests are attacked, they will retaliate.”

    Hunt also noted how easily both sides are blundering their way into war: “We want the situation to de-escalate because this is a part of the world where things can get triggered accidentally,” he added. 

    Meanwhile, after Trump’s ultra-aggressive Sunday tweet putting Tehran on notice that “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran” and to “never threaten the United States again,” an Iranian military commander did just that. 

    On Monday Iranian General Ali Hajilou told a military ceremony Tehran would have a “crushing response” to any armed confrontation with the US. 

    “The enemies of Islamic Iran are incapable in operation fields and have resorted to media warfare because of their fear of Iran’s military power,” he said according to Tasnim. “We have not invaded any country and will not do so but we will give a crushing response to [any] aggression by enemies.”

    Following this, late Monday, President Hassan Rouhani restated in public remarks that Iran’s position remains that “current conditions are not conducive to negotiations with the United States but to resistance and steadfastness.”

  • Study Identifies Hundreds Of Coordinated 'Anti-Trump' Instagram Trolls

    When it comes to electoral interference on Facebook platforms, Congress has tended to focus on ads linked back to the nefarious and mysterious Internet Research Agency, which purportedly carried out a campaign to ‘sow discord’ with memes meant to inflame racial tensions (and stoke both anti-Clinton and anti-Trump sentiment).

    Well, a new study has been released this week by an independent research agency called Ghost Data, which claims to have ferreted out a next of interconnected profiles numbering roughly 350 that spout a circular ring of anti-Trump memes and vitriol, and appear to be acting with some degree of coordination. Of thousands of politically active Instagram accounts examined by the researchers, posting patterns and other indicators suggest that these accounts are mostly ‘bots’ – perhaps employed by forces allied with Beijing – programmed to smear the president.

    “Our study focused on a dataset comprising ~350 Instagram accounts whose content is scorning, mocking or generally negative about Donald Trump. We further identified a subset of 19 suspicious accounts that appear to lead such dataset in this posting activity,” the researchers said.

    Imaging software showed that one of the accounts, purportedly set up by a young American woman, was actually using the profile photo of a Russian woman taken from a Russian social media site. Another account used an image of a Ukrainian woman.

    These anti-Trump ‘bots’ are hardly alone: GhostData estimated that another 95 million bots are active on the platform posing as real users.

    But even more amusing than the transparent fakeness of the accounts is the quality of the memes, which are reminiscent of the low-quality ads attributed to the Internet Research Agency.

    Here are a few of our favorites included in the report:

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    Moving on from the images, one of the charts included in the GhostData report broke down the “vulgar words” used by anti-Trump trolls identified by the study.  Some of the violent imagery might even qualify as hate speech, the researchers pointed out.

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    Of the Trumpland figures targeted by the trolls, it’s probably no surprise that Trump was the most frequently mentioned by far, with 89% of the mentions. After Trump, the second most frequently mentioned was Ivanka, with 3.2% of mentions.

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    In summary: Facebook might care about rooting out ‘Russian trolls’, but it clearly hasn’t prioritized rooting out ‘anti-Trump’ trolls.

  • Saudis Claim Intercept Of Iran-backed Houthi Missiles Headed For Mecca

    Authored by Ahmed Abdulkareem via Mint Press News

    Saudi Arabia has claimed that its air defenses shot down two ballistic missiles over the city of Taif, just 65 kilometers east of Mecca, in the early hours of Monday morning. Saudi officials claim that another missile was intercepted over the Haddah in western Saudi Arabia.

    The Saudi newspaper Okaz reported the missiles were intercepted as residents were breaking their day-long Ramadan fast. The paper claimed that the attempted attack was evidence that Yemen’s Houthis had no regard for the safety and security of Muslim pilgrims visiting Mecca during the nights of Ramadan. The Houthis have unequivocally denied any involvement in the attacks.

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    The Ka‘ba in Mecca, via British Museum blog

    Mohammed AbdulSalam, a spokesman for the Houthi political wing Ansar Allah, said in a statement, “We avoid targeting civilians as well as holy places, and this [accusation] is Saudi bankruptcy,” adding “Saudi Arabia fabricated the Houthi threat [to Meccia] in order to mobilize official and popular support.”

    The Yemeni army, which is allied with the Houthis, said in a statement in the wake of Saudi accusation: “This isn’t the first time the Saudi regime has accused us of targeting Mecca. The objective of these accusations is to gain support and approval for their monstrous aggression.” An army spokesperson noted that the Houthis have never denied previous military maneuvers, saying “We do not hesitate to announce our military operations.”

    The Houthis did claim responsibility for last week’s attack on two Saudi oil pumping stations in the provinces of Dawadmi and Afif near the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

    High-ranking officials in the Yemeni army, as well as the Houthi Political Council, told MintPress that the pumping station attack was not part of a regional effort to stir up tension between Iran and the United States, and was planned before those tensions came about.

    The attack was carried out with domestically manufactured Houthi drones and reportedly caused a four-meter rupture in one of the station’s main oil pipes, in turn resulting in a 1000-square-meter leak in the area surrounding the facility.

    Qatari television network Al Jazeera released satellite imagery showing the extent of damage to Saudi energy giant Aramco’s Pump Station 8 following the drone attack.

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    An aerial view of Saudi Aramco Pump Station 8 after (left) and before (right) Houthi drone strikes. Source: Al Jazeera

    The Houthis have said that the attack on Saudi pumping stations was the start of an operation that will target 300 vital military and economic targets, including military headquarters and facilities inside Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Saudi-led Coalition military targets inside Yemen.

    Long-distance drone strikes have served as a breakthrough for Yemen’s civilians and Houthi-allied military forces alike. They have served as an equalizer against one of the most well-funded and -equipped military forces in the region.

    Yemen’s Houthi-allied military says the drone weapons are a necessary tool in the war and can serve as a means to finally reach peace — further pointing out that Yemen poses no threat to any country outside of the Saudi-led Coalition and has no aggressive intentions against its neighbors or U.S. interests in the region.

    “We have no choice, we are being killed every day and our suffering has slid into oblivion in the rest of the world,” Amar Faress, a father who lost his entire family when Saudi airstrikes targeted his home in 2015, said of the Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia. “Maybe the world will care about us if their interests are compromised.”

    Meanwhile, a spate of Saudi Coalition airstrikes across Yemen this weekend into Monday took a predictably heavy civilian toll. Local witnesses told MintPress that at least four civilians were killed and 11 others injured when Saudi aircraft targeted a vehicle as it was traveling along a road in the Mustaba district of Hajjah province on Monday afternoon.

    Over the weekend, three civilians were killed and a young girl sustained injuries when militiamen loyal to the Saudi-led Coalition shelled a home in the Qa’atabah district of the southwestern Yemeni province of Dhale.

    Yemen’s humanitarian crisis remains the worst in the world and shows no sign of ending. UNICEF chief Henrietta Fore said that around 360,000 children now suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and half of Yemen’s children under five (2.5 million people) have stunted growth — an irreversible condition. More than 2 million of Yemen’s children are out of school.

    Fore added that famine still threatens millions, and a new cholera outbreak continues to spread, claiming almost as many victims in the first four months of the year as in the entirety of 2018. Cholera has affected 300,000 people in Yemen this year alone, compared with 370,000 during the whole of 2018.

    UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said during a speech to UN Security Council members, “Ten million were still in need of emergency food assistance, while the specter of famine still looms.”

  • Crowley Joins Board Of Cannabis Firm After Historic Loss To AOC

    Since losing a historic primary race to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it appears former Queens Congressman and Democratic Party Boss Joe Crowley has moved on to, uh, greener pastures.

    Like former Speaker John Boehner, Crowley has joined the board of a promising cannabis-focused investment firm (Boehner joined the board of Acreage Holdings back in 2018. The company has since gone public in Canada).

    Both Crowley and another once-prominent Democrat, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, will join the board of Northern Swan Holdings, which is focused on hemp and marijuana cultivation in Colombia.

    Crowley – who famously lost the Democratic Primary for New York’s 14th Congressional district to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – will help Northern Swan “try to win regulatory approval to export medical marijuana and CBD into Europe, Canada and possibly the US.”

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    Tom Daschle, Joe Crowley

    Northern Swan CEO Kyle Detwiler worked at both Blackstone Group and KKR,  before co-founding Northern Swan. The firm has been ramping up production in Colombia, where medical marijuana is legal and companies are allowed to export cannabis oil. In Colombia, the company can produce a gram of weed for 20 cents, far less than the cost of production in Canada.

    “Because we view smart cannabis investing as smart regulatory investing, I think it was important to bring to bear some seasoned experts around Washington to help us expand our business,” Detwiler, 36, said in an interview.

    Like other cannabis firms, Northern Swan is broadening its focus beyond the US, Europe and Canada, and focusing increasingly on Latin America, which has begun easing its marijuana laws.

    Northern Swan, which is based in New York, has raised $100 million and hopes to go public later this year, or in early 2020. The company is trying to gain regulatory approval to export medical marijuana to Germany.

    We doubt Crowley and Daschle will be the last formerly prominent politicians to find comfortable perches in the cannabis industry.

  • How The US Regime Uses Sanctions To Soften A Country Up For Invasion

    Authored by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

    On May 13th, Reuters headlined “Iran insists on ramping up oil sales to stay in nuclear pact” and reported that “EU officials … estimate Iran needs to sell 1.5 million bpd to keep its economy afloat. A drop below 1 million bpd could bring hardship and economic crisis.”

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    Prior to US President Donald Trump’s cancellation of the nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposition of economic sanctions against Iran and against any companies that trade with Iran, Iran had been selling around 2 million bpd (barrels per day).

    Furthermore:

    Once Europe’s biggest supplier, Iran has seen its exports gradually cut off from European buyers.

    China – Iran’s largest oil customer with imports of 475,000 bpd in the first quarter of this year – has also stopped buying from Iran after Washington chose not to renew sanctions waivers.

    Therefore, companies both in Europe and in China are terminating trade with Iran. The likelihood is consequently that Iran will be forced back into its nuclear program, and that things will be like what they had been before Obama had struck his deal with Iran. Here’s what that was like:

    On 22 April 2010, the Congressional Research Service reported to Congress that:

    Iran’s economy is highly dependent on the production and export of crude oil to finance government spending, and consequently is vulnerable to fluctuations in international oil prices. Although Iran has vast petroleum reserves, the country lacks adequate refining capacity and imports gasoline to meet domestic energy needs. Iran is seeking foreign investment to develop its petroleum sector. While some deals have been finalized, reputational and financial risks may have limited other foreign companies’ willingness to finalize deals.

    Trump seems likely to exceed the hostility toward Iran that had been in effect during Obama’s and Bush’s Presidencies. If Trump is trying to force Iran to retaliate, then the goal is to use such retaliation from Iran as an excuse for the US military to move in — to invade.

    The Reuters article says “One year after Washington quit the deal, Iran announced on Wednesday steps to relax some restrictions on its nuclear program.”

    So: that is already restarting.

    OilPrice.com bannered on 22 April 2019, “Iran Threatens To Block Key Oil Chokepoint If It Can No Longer Export Crude” and reported that, “Iran will block the world’s most important chokepoint for global oil trade, the Strait of Hormuz, if Tehran is barred from using it to export its oil, Navy Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said.”

    A year ago, on 13 May 2018, Dr. Arshad M. Khan had headlined at Modern Diplomacy, “The Eclipsing Iran Deal: Truth And Consequences” and stated that,

    Iran commands the Strait of Hormuz and a blocked Persian Gulf could see a quadrupling or more in the price of oil, bringing the current economic and stock market boom to a crashing end. Missile attacks from Iran and its ally Hezbollah would cause havoc in Israel’s cities; asymmetric warfare in Syria and Iraq would cost American lives.

    On 5 July 2018, Britain’s Guardian headlined “Iran threatens to block Strait of Hormuz over US oil sanctions”, and reported that,

    Tehran threatened to block the Gulf passageway in retaliation for Washington’s looming sanctions against Iranian oil exports – a threat the US military said would be immediately countered. … Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Guards commander, was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying: “We will make the enemy understand that either everyone can use the Strait of Hormuz or no one.”

    Iran’s fear here is that those “looming sanctions against Iranian oil exports” will be accompanied by a US military blockade in order to enforce the economic sanctions militarily, and not merely by sanctioning both Iran and any company that trades with Iran. That would then be a physical blockade in addition to the economic blockade. In a sense, it would be like what the US and Saudi Arabia and UAE are doing to the residents in the Houthi area of Yemen.

    The Trump regime is clearly hoping for an excuse to invade Iran, and if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, then Trump and his friend Netanyahu will have their wish, their excuse to invade that country.

    Iran is being abandoned now, not only by America’s allies such as in Europe, but even in countries that had formerly been friendly toward Iran, such as China. Trump and Netanyahu are having their way. Iran is apparently trapped by the two fascist regimes in US and Israel.

    The US regime is also trying this strategy against Venezuela, of economically strangling the country with sanctions as a way to soften it up for an invasion. The excuse for an invasion there will probably be ‘humanitarian’, in order to stop the shortages of food, medicine and other necessities, which shortages are being caused by America’s economic sanctions against Venezuela and against any company that trades with Venezuela.

    If Russia abandons any of its allies, such as Iran and/or Venezuela, then the US regime will have discredited Russia in the eyes of any remaining allied or even just friendly country, and this too could be part of Trump’s strategy.

    These examples show how economic sanctions against a country are the first stage of war by the US regime, an unofficial declaration of war against that ‘enemy’ country, and the preparatory stage for a coup, or, if the coup fails to work, then for an invasion.

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