Police and the public prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday ( November 10) that a young woman was found dead in her flat in Warendorf. An autopsy has already been carried out on the body. The result: The 21-year-old woman was the victim of a violent crime. Late in the afternoon, heavily armed police forces searched a refugee accommodation in Ennigerloh in connection with the crime. The woman’s mobile phone, wallet and sweatshirt were discovered at a viewing platform.
According to investigations so far, the young woman did not show up at work on Wednesday, November 9. Her colleagues were worried. They tried to reach the 21-year-old by phone – without success. The colleagues then went to the young woman’s flat in Grabbehofe Street.
On the spot, they made a gruesome discovery: at 10.53 a.m. they found their work colleague lifeless in the flat. According to the police and the public prosecutor’s office, “the situation in which she was found already indicated that she might not have died of natural causes”. In order to clarify the exact cause of death, the body of the 21-year-old was autopsied on Thursday morning. “The result confirmed the suspicion that it was a violent crime,” it continues. A homicide squad led by Frank Schneemann is working with the Münster police.
Late on Thursday afternoon, the police in Ennigerloh were in action in the area of the former Heidelberg cement power plant. According to senior public prosecutor Martin Botzenhardt, the task was to search for possible evidence.
Dogs were used to comb the green area of the quarry. Around 5 p.m., heavily armed forces of one hundred policemen entered the former office building of the cement power plant, which now serves as refugee accommodation. In the early evening, the police requested assistance from the fire brigade to carry out lighting measures.
On Friday morning, Frank Schneemann, head of the homicide squad, gave further information. The search in the area came about because investigations revealed that the woman’s mobile phone was logged to a cell tower in Ennigerloh. Late in the evening, the mobile phone, the wallet and a sweatshirt of the victim were found in the area of a viewing platform at the quarry pond on Wulfsbergstraße. The police are now analysing the traces and the mobile phone.
The police are asking witnesses who can provide relevant information to contact them by calling 0251 275-0. Especially if anyone saw anything suspicious in the area of the quarry.
In Germany, rising food and energy prices catapulted inflation to a new high in October, Welt reported. Inflation last month was 10.4 percent compared to the same month last year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Friday, thereby confirming an initial estimate from the end of October. Excluding food and energy, inflation would have been just 5 percent.
Energy prices rose by 43 percent due to the global increase in purchase prices, with the price of natural gas more than doubling, up 109.8 percent. District heating became more expensive by 35.6 percent. The prices of firewood, wood pellets, and other fuels increased by 108.1 percent, statisticians said. Heating oil was 82.8 percent higher than in the same month last year, electricity was 26.0 percent more expensive, and gasoline cost 22.3 percent more.
The statisticians also observed price increases in all food groups: Edible fats and oils (up 49.7 percent), dairy products and eggs (28.9 percent), vegetables (23.1 percent), and bread and cereal products (19.8 percent) were particularly expensive. Overall, food prices increased by 20.3 percent.
There has been a change of leadership at the Rassemblement National, the former Front National. For the first time ever, the party will no longer be led by a member of the Le Pen family.
The previous interim leader Jordan Bardella, who is considered the political foster son of long-time party leader Marine Le Pen, received 85 percent of the votes in an online vote. The only 27-year-old prevailed against his competitor Louis Aliot.
Bardella had regularly supported Marine Le Pen in the past. In party circles it is assumed that he is aiming for a presidential candidacy in 2027. Marine Le Pen had indicated that she did not want to compete a fourth time, but had not completely ruled it out either.
She withdrew from the party leadership during the election campaign, leaving Bardella to chair the party on an interim basis. After the RN entered the French National Assembly with group strength, Marine Le Pen took over as group leader and announced that she would concentrate on this work in the future.
Under Le Pen’s aegis, Bardella, who is in a relationship with her niece Marion Maréchal, quickly rose to the top of the party hierarchy. From party spokesman and head of the youth organization to leader of the list for the European elections, he made it to the post of party vice president and eventually became interim president.
The big challenge for Bardella in the future will be to anchor the RN more firmly in the country side. The party still has staffing problems there. In the last general election in June, however, the RN was able to increase its seats in the National Assembly tenfold. It is now the strongest political force there and achieved an exceptional historic result of 41,45 percent.
Hindus contributed 40% of donations for Ayodhya Mosque
Construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya began in August 2020, almost a year after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case and allotted 5-acre of separate land to the party contesting for Babri Masjid. The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), which has been set up for the construction of the mosque then appealed to the people to donate an amount for not only the construction of the mosque but also other public facilities like a hospital, library, community kitchen, and research institute on the five-acre land in Ayodhya’s Dhannipur village.
While people promised to raise Rs 1 crore for the construction, Rs 10 lakh was immediately collected by the Trust when its president Zufar Farooqui visited Farrukhabad on August 12 for making a donation appeal. Also, the Trust already had collected Rs 25 lakh for the construction of the mosque. However, even after three years of the SC’s decision, the construction of the Mosque has not begun. Reports emerged on Friday stating that the maximum amount for the construction of the Mosque on the land has been donated by Hindus.
An exclusive report by Dainik Bhasker revealed that around 40 per cent of the donations received by the Trust are given by Hindus, while Muslims have only contributed 30 per cent. The other 30 per cent of the total donations are corporate donations. Foundation secretary Athar Hussain confirmed that the Trust has to date received Rs 40 lakhs of donations and 40 per cent of it has been contributed by the Hindu community.
“In August 2020, we issued bank details for cooperation in the construction of the mosque. So far we have received a donation of Rs 40 lakh. Tax exemption is provided to the donors under Section 80 G of the Income Tax Act. About 30 per cent of the donation has come from the corporate, 30 per cent has come from the Muslim community, and the remaining 40 per cent has come from the Hindu community”, said Hussain.
However, he claimed that the construction of the Mosque has not yet begun as the land allotted by the Court for the purpose is agricultural land. “15 days back we came to know that the land we got is of agricultural use, we cannot do construction in it. We have applied to Ayodhya Development Authority to change the land use and construct a 7-story building on it,” he said.
The first cheque of donation for the Mosque was from a Hindu
Hussain also recalled the first cheque of donation received by the Trust and said that it was from a Hindu person. “The first donation to build the mosque was given by Rohit Srivastava, a member of the Faculty of Law, Lucknow University. The amount of donation was Rs 21,000. Along with this, many Hindus including Professor RK Singh of Avadh University have donated”, he said. He added that the Trust had visited Farrukhabad and appealed to people for donations. “On August 12, many big businessmen of the city, retired officials, and others organized a fundraising program in Farrukhabad. We got a donation of Rs 10 lakh in one visit. Similarly, from Mumbai and various districts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, people are calling the Foundation team. We are now making our ‘route map’ so that all these places can be visited and funds raised”, he added.
First cheque given by Rohit Shrivastav (L)
He said that the Muslim side contesting for the Babri Masjid in the Supreme Court wholeheartedly accepted the 5 acres of the land allotted for the construction of the mosque. “The Muslim community tried to give a message to the whole country that we have no regrets in our hearts. After the verdict, the Sunni Bakf Board approved a trust to be formed to build the mosque. The name of the trust is Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation”, he said.
Other facilities to be developed by the Trust along with the mosque
Reports mention that the registry of the land was executed ten months after the Court verdict. The Trust now plans to build a mosque on the land along with other facilities for the people of Ayodhya. It plans to build a mosque in which more than 2 thousand Muslims will be able to offer Namaz together. The Masjid Trust will also build a 300-bed multi-speciality hospital on the land offering free treatment to the patients. A community kitchen will also be built on the land, in which more than 1000 people will be able to eat food every day for free.
According to Hussain, a research centre will also be built next to the mosque on the land. “In this, it will be taught, and told what is the contribution of Hindustani Muslims in nation building. This will eliminate the escalating hatred in society”, he said.
Earlier also foundation secretary of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) had said that the maximum donation to the Trust for the construction of the Mosque was being provided by non-Muslims. “Not only Muslims, but people from other communities are also trusting the Foundation. Initially, non-Muslims donated a lot to the Foundation but now Muslims have also started showing interest in participating in a big way,” he was quoted.
Donation to build a mosque on the 5-acre land is ‘haram’: Owaisi
To note, earlier many Islamic organizations and leaders unhappy with the Supreme Court’s verdict had claimed that contributing amount towards the construction of the mosque on the 5-acre land would be ‘haram’. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaaduddin Owaisi also said that construction of the mosque on the allotted land in Ayodhya is not permissible in Islamic law.
“Performing prayers and contributing for the construction of that masjid is haram (not permissible). It must not be called a masjid and prayers cannot be performed there”, he had said while addressing a public meeting in Bidar, Karnataka. He had also requested Muslims not to contribute money for the construction of the mosque in Ayodhya.
Threats issued by Islamists to demolish Ram Mandir
The Islamists meanwhile had also issued threats saying that they would demolish the Ram Mandir in the future and build Babri Masjid at the same spot instead. On August 5, 2020, when the Bhoomi pujan of the Ram Mandir was performed, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) issued a threat against the construction of the Ram Mandir and demanded to undo the alleged ‘injustice’ that was meted out to them by the country’s judiciary in the Ram Janmabhoomi case. The controversial Islamic body also had said that the demolished Islamic structure ‘Babri Masjid’ would remain a mosque for them till eternity.
Then, Islamic cleric Maulana Sajid Rashidi, the President of the All India Imam Association made provocative statements against Hindus and issued threats to demolish the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. He had asserted that the Babri Masjid was not built after demolishing a Hindu temple at the disputed site, but it would happen in the future. Also, the recently banned Islamist terrorist organization named Popular Front of India (PFI) had planned to demolish Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir as they wanted to build Babri Masjid instead at the same spot.
Why mosque construction has been stalled for 3 years?
According to Hussain, there are two approach roads to reach the land that has been allotted by the Supreme Court. One connects to the east and the other to the west. “Both these roads are 4.10 meters wide and if a multi-story building is to be built on the land, large vehicles would want to come inside for construction, and for this 12 meters wide road is required”, he said.
Application sent by the Masjid Trust to the DM to widen the road
“The map has not yet been passed from the Ayodhya Development Authority. For such construction, 15 types of NOC ie No Objection Certificates are required. 14 were made available by the Ayodhya Development Authority however, we were asked to get the NOC of the fire department ourselves. When we started the process of getting fire NOC, it came to know that no NOC can be obtained due to the narrow road”, he added.
He further said, “We went to Ayodhya Development Authority with an application for widening the road. But the officials told us after 3 years that the map cannot be passed as the land allotted for the mosque is suitable for agriculture and not for construction. They’ve asked us to change the land use. We applied on November 5, 2022. The day the map will be passed, the construction work will start the very next day,” he said.
Speaking on the issue, Ayodhya Development Authority Secretary Satyendra Singh said, “We ourselves want to get the map of the mosque passed as soon as possible. Every kind of legal process is being completed so that there is no problem in future”.
Singh said that a 2-story building can be built on agricultural land but the Masjid Trust wants to build a 7-story building. “There is a need to change the land use for this. We attached the documents 20 days ago. The application was however sought on November 5, 2022. Now the application will be passed as soon as the ADA board meets. After this, the land use will be changed and the Trust will be able to start the construction work soon. All types of NOCs including fire have been cleared”, he confirmed.
Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday blasted France’s “aggressive” response in a big diplomatic row over the NGO-run search-and-rescue ship the Ocean Viking. “When there is talk of retaliation in EU dynamics, something is not working,” Meloni told a press conference. “I was struck by the aggressive, incomprehensible, unjustifiable reaction of the French government”. On Friday Paris allowed the Ocean Viking, which is run by French NGO SOS Méditerranée, to dock in Toulon with 230 asylum seekers on board after Rome ignored the ship’s appeals to be assigned a port of safety for weeks. But French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that Paris has suspended plans to take in 3,500 refugees currently in Italy and called on “all the participants” in the EU’s migrant-relocation mechanism to adopt similar measures. Darmanin called on “Germany in particular” to suspend the relocation of asylum seekers from Italy. “The request to isolate Italy betrays a curious EU dynamic,” Meloni said. “I hope this does not happen. it would not be smart. “The issue today is how the EU should deal with this matter. “It could choose to isolate Italy. I think it would be better to isolate the traffiickers. “You can decide to isolate Italy but it is not the solution. “I think it’s worth putting two numbers together,” Meloni added. “The Ocean Viking NGO ship that docks in France today is the first NGO ship to have ever docked in France and it has 230 migrants. “This generated a very tough reaction with respect to Italy, which has allowed almost 90,000 emigrants to enter. “What makes me angry? That Italy has to be the only (country to provide a) disembarkation port. “This is not written in any agreement”. The French Secretary of State for EU Affairs Laurence Bonne told France Info that trust with Rome had broken down following the row. “The current Italian government has not respected the mechanism which it had committed to,” Bonne said “There was a unilateral decision that put lives in danger and that, moreover, does not comply with international law”.
Italy intends to implement its own immigration policy which favors those in need, regardless of opinions from liberal governments of its neighbors and the European Union, the country’s newly-appointed Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto has revealed.
In an interview with Il Messaggero newspaper, Crosetto took aim at a European Union that has for too long provided insufficient support to national governments bearing the brunt of the migration crisis, and said the new administration’s intention was to “oblige and force” the European Union to “not turn away” and to take a “serious, rational, definitive” approach to the ongoing problems in the Mediterranean.
The Italian government under Giorgia Meloni has laid down the law recently with a hard-line response to NGO humanitarian vessels attempting to continue a long-held practice of dropping migrants rescued in the Mediterranean off at Italian ports.
Two vessels operating under German and Norwegian flags were granted permission to dock in Catania, Sicily, but only to allow vulnerable people, namely women, children, and those with medical issues, to disembark. The captains of the ships were ordered to leave Italian territory with the remaining fighting-age adult males on board, and instructed to take them to the vessels’ host nations to be dealt with there.
Crosetto insisted this new approach by the Italian government “has shown that it knows how to combine rigor with humanity, the welcome of the weak, and is willing to tackle the problem of illegal immigration,” unlike its predecessors.
Meloni’s administration has been accused by humanitarian charities funding the NGO vessels of breaching international law by not providing safe harbor for all those aboard its ships. The SOS Humanity charity even launched legal proceedings against the Italian government to this effect, however Crosetto defends the policy adopted by Italian authorities, insisting the approach of dumping migrants on the shore of one member state is not the way to solve the problem.
“Getting migrants ashore, not caring what their destiny will be, is not a serious way of dealing with them, but only a choice to wash one’s conscience without doing anything,” the Italian defense minister told the newspaper.
He also raised the important point that by offering everyone who makes the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to reach safe harbor in Europe, European governments are continuing to line the pockets ofprofiteering people smugglers taking advantage of vulnerable people.
“Behind every departure from Africa, there are thousands of euros paid to traffickers and smugglers,” Crosetto said, insisting the time has come “to put an end to this dramatic quarrel that has been dragging on for years.”
Italy has long borne the brunt of the migration crisis due to its strategic geographic location, and has taken in more than 85,000 migrants since the beginning of the year, according to the UN.
The new hard-line approach taken by Meloni and her right-wing coalition partners is bound to ruffle some feathers in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris, but is likely to be applauded by other member states on the front-line such as Hungary and Poland which have long been defending the European Union’s external frontier without much acknowledgment or appreciation from those less affected.
Macron’s tool of repression? Didier Lallement. Facebook
Former Paris police prefect Didier Lallement shared his view on illegal immigrants: “The reality is that, in order not to become a delinquent after arriving in France in chaotic situations, you have to be a saint.”
The controversial Didier Lallement also revisited his questionable managementof the Yellow Vest crisis and denounced the “bitterness and acrimony” of the demonstrators. He praised “the courage of the police officers” who “almost opened fire”.
Forty-three cases of eye injuries were recorded in 2018 and 2019 in France during the Yellow Vest protests, compared to only two reported in 2016 and one in 2017. The figures from this study, conducted in French hospitals, was published in the scientific journal The Lancet.
The former police prefect in the French capital, whose management of policing was highly contested during the Yellow Vest crisis, looked back on his experience without remorse. Now Secretary General of the Sea, Didier Lallement defended his doctrine that led to dozens of injuries in the ranks of demonstrators.
“There were no deaths in Paris during the crisis. We came close to opening fire but, thanks to the courage of the police officers, this did not happen. The day we have to open fire, we will enter another dimension. That may happen one day,” the sixty-year-old said in a long interview with L’Opinion.
The senior civil servant had been appointed by Emmanuel Macron in December 2018, after Act 3 of the Yellow Vests which had led to a huge protest on the Champs-Élysées and under the Arc de Triomphe. His mandate then was clear: Direct contact with the demonstrators to discourage them even if it meant violent confrontation.
“Your hands must not tremble,” Christophe Castaner, then Minister of the Interior, told him. And Didier Lallement never wavered, quite unconcerned that such actions were provoking protesters.
The scene, in November 2019 Place d’Italie, where he crossed paths with a woman wearing a yellow vest, was symptomatic of this posture. He would later concede “a clumsiness”. In fact, in reality he had set a deliberate deadly trap for the protesters.
This is in any case what two figures of the movement, Priscillia Ludosky and Faouzi Lellouche, believe. They filed a complaint against the senior official in particular for “endangering others” and “infringement of personal freedom by a person in public authority”.
All afternoon, several hundred demonstrators were crowded into the square while violent clashes took place between black blocs and police officers in the same place. Although the prefecture indicated that exit lanes had been opened for the demonstrators, many testimonies affirmed the opposite.
“The setting up of this trap, which is totally contrary to the freedom of movement […], encouraged the rise in tension between the people gathered and the police, creating confusion among the demonstrators and leading to crowd movements and panic”, the complainants said.
“There is a necessary debate to be had on the methods used by Didier Lallement to maintain order,” insisted Guillaume Martine, the lawyer of the two Yellow Vests. “A demonstration is banned but no order is issued to do so officially, demonstrators are banned from demonstrating but are prevented from leaving,” he added.
At the beginning of September, a judge opened an investigation into this episode. Another judicial enquiry also targeted him for “arbitrary detention”.
“The Yellow Vest movement is an illustration of the absence of political outlets for social struggles […]. Its participants, who moreover systematically eliminated their leaders, were left with their bitterness and acrimony,” the former Parisian police boss said. Lallement forgot to add that the leaders of the movement were either injured or smeared by the media.
Repeating Macron’s talking points
Finally, Didier Lallement spoke about the government’s future bill on immigration. “Some of the foreigners in the big cities commit the bulk of the acts of delinquency”, he told BFMTV.
“The reality is that, to avoid becoming a delinquent after arriving in France in chaotic situations, you have to be a saint. People arrive on the territory, are not deported for various reasons and are not allowed to work,” the former police prefect explained.
Before adding: “What choice do they have? To work illegally? To subsist on other illegal resources? Man is neither naturally good nor naturally evil. We are creating the conditions for a reality.”
At the General Secretariat for the Sea, Didier Lallement now has “a mission of control, evaluation and forecasting” in terms of maritime policy.
Swedish Education Minister Mats Persson has written an article for Swedish newspaper Expressen detailing how his ministry will launch an investigation into instances of “cancel culture” in Swedish universities, which he says inhibits freedom of speech and creates a “stale” academic environment.
“If reality is to be understood, certain words or theories cannot be forbidden. A culture of silence and finger pointing — also called cancel culture — creates a vapid and stale academic environment. I will initiate a review to map how widespread it is,” writes Persson, adding that such a culture “threatens the ability of individual researchers to make assessments based on their knowledge and professional skills.”
Western universities, once seen as a bastion for freedom of expression, have increasingly silenced dissenting voices. The education minister says that Sweden’s universities are at extreme risk of being places where open debate and criticism are no longer tolerated.
“Identity politics risks finding its way into the university world. In a repoort from “Kalla Fakta” (a Swedish news program), several cases emerge where what started as a lively debate or a perfectly reasonable question degenerated into ostracism and pressure to adapt to the students’ identity politics agenda.
“A university is not just any place. Criticism, questioning, and straightforward discussions should be commonplace there. Consensus is not the goal.”
He also adds that topics related to racism and sexism need to be openly debated in order to understand their “causes and consequences.”
“A further risk from cancel culture is that research on politically controversial topics is neglected in favor of more comfortable areas. Who wants to research racism or sexism if you risk being accused of sharing ideas with what you are studying? We also need knowledge about the subjects that can be perceived as sensitive,” he writes.
Just last year, three respected Swedish academics faced prosecutionafter their research revealed that most rapes are committed by immigrants. In fact, the lead author of the paper, Prof. Kristina Sundquist from Sweden’s Lund University, was the most cited professor at her university regarding social research when the prosecution launched its case.
The Swedish minister further wrote that he not only has concerns about promoting a fair environment for the left and right, but also for religious students.
“Sweden basically has a good academic environment. We have strong and independent colleges and universities that are at the forefront. Today, research also takes place in areas that can be provocative for both the political left, the right, and the religious.
“That’s how it should be in a liberal democracy. The academy’s strength lies in seeking new knowledge unconditionally, without forbidden words or blinders. All of society will benefit from this.”
The minister also refers to an open letter published in Harper’s in 2020 in which 150 intellectuals warned of the dangers of restricting free speech. Some of the names included Anne Applebaum, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Noam Chomsky, Francis Fukuyama, Michael Ignatieff, Garry Kasparov, Kati Marton, J. K. Rowling, and Fareed Zakaria.
“In an open letter, well-known researchers and authors such as Francis Fukuyama, Noam Chomsky, and Salman Rushdie write about how there is a risk of open debate being silenced. They describe how an intolerant culture is emerging that threatens the free exchange of thoughts and ideas. The identity politics movement is at its strongest in the USA but risks finding its way into Swedish universities,” writes the education minister.
“Reality is elusive, history cruel, and society full of injustice. If reality is to be understood, certain words or theories cannot be forbidden.”
Questions around race, IQ, biological differences between men and women, and other hotbed subjects have long been taboo or completely forbidden in Western academic settings, but the issue extends far beyond universities. A former Swedish politician was convicted last year for citing South Sudanese people’s IQs, which he argued made it difficult for them to integrate into Swedish society.
“They have one of the world’s lowest levels of education and widespread illiteracy; the majority have worked as farmers and herders for generations. Placing them in northern Europe is not very wise as I see it,” said Bertil Malmberg, who was a member of the Sweden Democrats before being expelled from the party for his remarks.
“I had intended to refer to the HDI [development index] from the UN and make it clear that it was about these people becoming impossible to integrate into the labor market, but I never got that far,” Malmberg added, noting that he was interrupted and prevented from finishing his testimony during the trial.
Persson appears to promote a full and open discourse in universities, even on sensitive topics, but it is unclear how far Sweden will go in allowing free debate in these areas, especially given Sweden’s stringent hate speech laws. For example, if an academic paper were, for example, to determine that Asians are smarter than Whites based on IQ results, would this constitute a form of hate speech? Would such a debate even be allowed to happen in a university?
“Censorship, forbidden words, or ostracism must not occur in Swedish higher education. University management has a responsibility as an employer and responsibility to stand on the side of research, even when it is perceived as inconvenient,” writes Persson. “Our freedom of expression and tolerant society means we can speak openly about various phenomena. This government will not see academic freedom as just a piece of paper, a slogan. Intolerance will not be tolerated. We will vigorously defend academic freedom.”
Persson does not detail what form the investigation will take, but the question remains whether any legislative or official action will be taken based on the investigation. In the United Kingdom, for example, teachers were bannedfrom displaying Black Lives Matter flags or teaching through a lens of left-wing ideology. Most universities in Sweden are not private but fall under the authority of the government.
