Month: October 2023

Germany is spending a fortune every single day to cope with its massive and growing immigrant population, and in individual cities like Hamburg, those costs are becoming unbearable.

The budget committee for the city is now looking to increase its funding for the reception of migrants by €212.8 million, after having already raised it by €118.7 million earlier this year. Now, with the latest increase, the total amount of money for housing and caring for migrants in 2023 will total €1 billion.

This hardly covers all the costs for migrants either, with schooling, daycare centers, and healthcare all not factored into that €1 billion figure. The state alleges that the amount being spent on schooling cannot be calculated either.

However, last year, Remix News reported specifically on the healthcare costs for migrants in Hamburg, which according to data obtained by the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the city-state had spent half a billion euros on migrant healthcare since 2016. This figure has likely ballooned further in 2023, as Hamburg received another large increase in migrants.

Hamburg politicians are now calling on the pro-migration federal government to send more money. However, the federal bill for housing and caring for migrants is expected to top €36 billion this year, which is putting strains on the federal budget as well.

Finance Senator Andres Dressel, of the Social Democrats (SPD), stated: “We were only able to provide needed reinforcements again through extreme efforts. We didn’t have to make cuts elsewhere, but were able to secure funding for 2023 with our own and federal funds. For the next few years, it won’t work without additional federal funding. The federal government must provide the states with more money for integration, not less, as planned so far. The traffic light (government) must understand that anything else would be poison for social cohesion. Poorer states and municipalities would have to cut back elsewhere to pay for refugee reception – the federal government can’t want that!”

It was just last week that Social Affairs Senator Melanie Schlotzhauer, also of the SPD, said: “There is no relief in sight, and our capacities are 97 percent full. We are at the limit of what good integration is possible in Hamburg. The admission numbers are too high, they have to come down.”

Notably, in 2020, Remix News reported that the SPD and other left-wing parties enthusiastically called for more refugees and migrants into Hamburg and other cities under the hashtag #WirHabenPlatz, which translates into “We have space” in English.

Hamburg, like many German cities and towns, has been forced to open emergency accommodations to deal with the unrelenting stream of newcomers. According to Germany’s Bild newspaper, the city is now using a trade fair hall to house them, which should be open until the end of January. In August, the city took in another 1,400 refugees, and in September, another 1,700.

However, the city will now have to open yet another emergency shelter, although it is unclear where that will be.

The SPD, along with its coalition partners at the federal level, say Germany needs more immigrants. Recent polling shows that support for the ruling government has hit a record low, while the anti-immigrant AfD has soared to a record 23 percent. Germans rate immigration as their number one issue by a large degree, with 44 percent saying it is the most pressing concern. Another poll from this month showed that 64 percent of Germans believe the country should accept fewer migrants and the same number say migrants bring more disadvantages than advantages.

https://rmx.news/germany/germany-spending-on-migrants-in-hamburg-to-exceed-e1-billion-this-year-as-costs-spiral/

Two schoolgirls were threatened at the Lycée Charles-Mongrand in Port-de-Bouc (Bouches-du-Rhône) on Tuesday October 17, BFM Marseille Provence learned from the town’s mayor’s office.

According to the course of events, which the municipality reported to BFMTV, a man approached around 40 young girls in front of the high school. He had a knife in his hand and was shouting Allahu Akbar. According to several police sources, the man declared that it was a joke before fleeing. So far, the perpetrator has not been found and there were no injuries. The girls fled inside the school. BFMTV

https://www.fdesouche.com/2023/10/17/port-de-bouc-13-deux-etudiants-au-lycee-charles-mongrand-menaces-par-un-homme-arme-dun-couteau-qui-aurait-prononce-allah-akbar-lagresseur-en-fuite-le-lycee-conf/

Access to the premises of the France 3 Champagne-Ardenne channel was not possible on Tuesday October 17 in Reims (Marne). The first staff, who arrived early in the morning, have been under police protection since 8.30am. The remaining workers were told to stay at home and telework based on an email they received on Tuesday morning, October 17, the wording of which was clear. The author of this email makes violent threats against people and the building and asserts that he wants to commit this act “for the glory of Allah”. The ICI 12/13 Champagne-Ardenne news programme was cancelled. The criminal investigation department has just been called in. France TV info

La station de France 3 Champagne-Ardenne fermée suite à des menaces dans le contexte d’alerte attentat https://t.co/BDK5p3T7Hs

— France 3 Champagne-Ardenne (@France3CA) October 17, 2023

https://www.fdesouche.com/2023/10/17/reims-france-3-champagne-ardenne-nassurera-pas-son-jt-du-12-13-et-restera-fermee-apres-la-reception-de-violentes-menaces-sur-les-personnes-et-le-batiment-un-individu-assurant-vouloir-agir/

The Danish government has been accused of “racism” after launching a controversial plan to crack down on “ghettos” of inner-city migrant communities.

Under the plans, large communities will be encouraged to integrate into other parts of the city, allowing the redevelopment of urban areas currently plagued with crime, lower wages, poor educational standards and unemployment.

However, migrants have complained that Copenhagen is treating them as second-class citizens as the laws, which received all-party support, allow people to be evicted and moved elsewhere.

Critics are set to challenge the new laws in the European Court of Justice.

Former Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has been credited as the architect of the scheme and warned that violence from the “ghettos” could “reach out their tentacles onto the streets”.

He added that the “ghettos” have caused “cracks to appear on the map of Denmark”.

Charges of racism were filed leading to the word “ghetto” being replaced with terms such as “parallel societies”.

Despite the criticism, MPs from across the spectrum agreed that the plans were needed to force migrants to better integrate with their new homeland.

Residents of one 18-block estate targeted by the ‘anti-ghetto’ law have filed a legal case against the government, arguing that the selling of two of the blocks is unlawful.

Chairman of the estate’s tenant’s association Muhammad Aslam, 57, was previously sent to Egypt at the behest of the Danish government in 2005 to help quell anger at Copenhagen over the depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.

“When the Danish government needed me to help solve their diplomatic problem I was only too happy to help,” he told the Daily Mail, “but now they treat me and my family as second-class citizens because of the colour of our skin”.

The creation of the ‘anti-ghetto’ laws comes just months after anti-Islam activists burned copies of the Quran.

Both British and US authorities warned that possible terrorist attacks were likely.

The Foreign Office warned: “Terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Denmark.

“Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by foreigners.”

https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/denmark-branded-racist-crackdown-ghettos

Andre Walker addresses the protest against the BBCs refusal to accept #Hamas are terrorists in #Israel.

Three men aged 19, 20 and 27 have been temporarily arrested in Hamm after sexually assaulting and robbing teenagers.

The predatory trio became conspicuous on Sunday, October 15, at around 6 p.m. in the Südring-Anlage in Hamm, when they chose two 13-year-olds and a 15-year-old as their victims. This was reported by the Hamm police.
According to the report, a 27-year-old man from Soest first harassed a 13-year-old girl and tried to kiss her on the mouth several times against her will. Before that, he took her in his arms and rubbed himself against her.

But that was not enough: he and his accomplices, who come from Möhnesee and Mönchengladbach, robbed the 13 and 15 year old companions of the girl from Hamm of a Bluetooth box and mobile phones.
The victims fled to the nearby Westentor, from where they called the police. The police discovered the trio in the course of the search and thanks to a tip-off at Südenwall. All three had hidden in the bushes under a balcony. The 27-year-old was arrested on the spot.

However, in an attempt to prevent the 20-year-old offender from fleeing, he resisted. He hit a female officer in the head with his elbow and was then able to flee together with his 19-year-old accomplice.

Despite the blow to the head, the policewoman chased after the two fugitives and was able to catch up with and detain the 19-year-old man from Möhnesee at the corner of Südenwall and Westhofenstraße.

Both the 27-year-old, during a search the Bluetooth box and a mobile phone were seized, and the 19-year-old were taken into temporary custody.

The fugitive 20-year-old from Mönchengladbach was found by officers of the Federal Police, who were also involved in the manhunt, in the area of the main railway station – he was also arrested provisionally. All three were taken to police custody.

The three men were all born in Morocco and all live in different central accommodation facilities for refugees in their respective places of residence.

13-Jährige sexuell bedrängt und ausgeraubt – Polizei schnappt Täter-Trio (wa.de)

Belgian police have succeeded in neutralizing a suspect in the Monday murder of two Swedish nationals, reports said.

The suspect (photo above) is a man of Tunisian descent.

According to BBC, the man was shot in a café in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood. Though Belgian prosecutors reported the incident, they could not confirm whether the man was the attacker.

Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said that the shot individual was likely to be the suspect, and may be have died on the way to hospital. She also told VRT that the weapon found on the suspect was the same as the one used in the Monday attack.

AP reported that the man was a “a suspected Tunisian extremist,” and quoted Verlinden as telling VRT, “We have the good news that we found the individual” and that the weapon believed to have been used in the attack was recovered.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that the attacker was a Tunisian living illegally in Belgium, and confirmed that the he used a military weapon in the attack and that a third victim suffered serious injuries.

Belgium: Police shoot man suspected of murdering two in Brussels (israelnationalnews.com)

The BBC has suspended several of its journalists associated with the BBC Arabic news portal and launched an internal investigation into their actions after staff appeared to endorse Hamas’ terror attack in Israel.

Reporters working for the British taxpayer-funded corporation in the Middle East were found to have made several communications and interactions on social media in relation to the bloody offensive by Hamas that left more than 1,300 Israeli civilians dead, sparking a number of complaints over perceived bias within the organization.

An independent investigation by the U.S.-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), reported its findings to the BBC, providing evidence of concerning behavior by several members of the organization.

One journalist allegedly described the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 as a “morning of hope,” while another posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the attack had left “Israel’s prestige crying in the corner.”

Others, including Cairo-based correspondent Salma Khattab, liked a post describing Hamas as “freedom fighters,” while Beirut-based programs editor Nada Abdelsamad reposted footage of Israeli civilians in hiding who were described as cowering “inside a tin container in fear of the Palestinian resistance warriors.”

Another senior correspondent was reported to have poked fun at the relatives of an Israeli grandmother who was abducted by Hamas and is being held captive in Gaza.

In addition to the remarks of certain individuals, the impartiality of BBC Arabic’s output, both through its TV channel and news website, has been called into question after referring to towns within the recognized state of Israel as “settlements” and the local residents as “settlers.”

In total, six reporters and a freelance journalist have become the subject of an investigation into alleged anti-Israel bias, and some of those involved have been suspended.

Freelancer Aya Hossam liked a post that suggested that no Israeli could be classed as a civilian, as “every member of the Zionist entity served in the army at some point in his life, whether men or women, and they all had victims of explicit violations… This term ‘civilians’ applies to the animals and pets that live there and they are not seriously at fault.”

Hossam also reposted a comment that read, “The Zionist must know that he will live as a thief and a usurper.”

CAMERA accused the broadcaster of “whitewashing the practice of targeting Jewish civilians.”

“They constantly claim that they apply the same editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality to their services in all languages, including those with which BBC management is not familiar and can’t oversee properly, such as Arabic. But these lapses do not occur anywhere near as frequently in their English language content, so that can’t be taken seriously,” a statement from the U.S.-based organization read.

On Sunday, the BBC issued a statement announcing the investigation and confirmed that Ms. Hossam would no longer be working with the organization.

“We take allegations of breaches of our editorial and social media guidelines with the utmost seriousness, and if and when we find breaches we will act, including taking disciplinary action,” a spokesperson said.

The public broadcaster has been embroiled in controversy following the attack on Israel, which has sparked formidable retaliation in Gaza after editors refused to refer to those involved in the Hamas surprise attack as “terrorists.”

This is despite Hamas being classified as a proscribed terror organization by the U.K. government back in 2021, thus justifying the use of the term for a corporation that strives to be impartial.

https://rmx.news/israel/bbc-suspends-several-arabic-journalists-for-social-media-posts-endorsing-hamas-terror-attack/

Two men were arrested by the Digos security police in Milan on Tuesday in an anti-terrorism operation, prosecutors said.
The pair – an Egyptian and an Italian of Egyptian origin – are accused of criminal association for terrorism and instigation to commit crime for terrorism purposes.
Milan prosecutor Marcello Viola said the suspects were “extremely active in digital propaganda and proselytism on behalf of ISIS” and had allegedly “sworn an oath of belonging and loyalty” to the Islamist terror group.
They are also accused of financing the causes of the so-called Islamic State.
Photo: an archive image of Italian police.

Two people arrested on terrorism charges in Milan – English – ANSA.it

By John Horvat II

Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum, is a hard document to characterize. Exhortations are supposed to encourage Catholics in their faith. However, this document deals with ecological issues and is addressed to “all people of goodwill on the climate crisis.”

Thus, the work reads more like an eco-lamentation, a written debate, or a United Nations report, not a theological treatise. It breaks all the rules. Lacking are the citations of saints and theologians. Its style can be imposing, allowing for no other climate opinions.

The text comments upon recent meetings and events, taking away the atemporal tone and gravitas found in past pontifical pronouncements meant to counsel future generations. Papal documents also do not normally get technical, as this one does, with its discussion of carbon emissions, global temperature readings, and climate statistics.  

The document is not original. It was announced as a second part of the pope’s earlier environmental encyclical, Laudato si’. However, this much shorter 7500-word supplement has little to add since it quotes the earlier work nineteen times.

 A Gloomy Lamentation of a Failed Eco-Agenda

Laudate Deum begins as a lamentation decrying the lack of action on the part of the global community to heed the pontifical 2015 warning. Pope Francis implies that time is running out. Ocean levels are rising, and ice caps are melting. Humanity is responsible for this disaster and must immediately act.

It is an angry document stemming from a failure to convince a skeptical public. One has the impression that the first part is written as if engaged in a personal debate with an unknown, invisible (presumably American) climate denier whose rational and scientific arguments are too compelling for the pope to refute.

Indeed, a recent Public Religion Research Institute survey found that only 27% of Americans believe climate change to be a crisis. Among religious Americans, all categories are below one-third of climate believers, with many groups reporting significant drops.

Perhaps this is why Pope Francis mercilessly attacks this invisible debater’s stands by denouncing those who ridicule, “deny, conceal, gloss over or relativize the issue.” The pope asks his readers to disregard these unenlightened ones. He evangelizes with harsh zeal, calling upon all to convert to the climate change gospel.

Pope Francis affirms the reality of climate change with an air of scientific infallibility. Thus, the document is punctuated with phrases like “no one can ignore that,” “it is verifiable that,” or “it is no longer possible to doubt that.” No one can question the climate alarmist dogma, even in its minute details. The scientific doubters, and there are many, including Nobel laureates, receive no acknowledgement on the journey to sustainability.

Global Government as a Solution

Adding to the gloom is a large section that chronicles the failures of the various U.N. climate conferences known as COPs over the decades. He dates his message by mentioning the coming COP28 conference in Dubai (which is also probably doomed to fail) as an opportunity to enact meaningful change.

,To do this, Pope Francis insists that the present “international politics are insufficient to deal with the climate problem.” Thus, he cites his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti calling for some form of world authority regulated by law, “equipped with the power to provide for the global common good, the elimination of hunger and poverty and the sure defense of fundamental human rights.”   

Many critics question this vague global framework, invested with immense powers that seem to trump national sovereignty or religious connection. They know well that opening this Pandora’s Box might lead to greater problems — especially when implemented without a moral conversion of its leaders to God and His Church.

A Spiritual Side

The exhortation attempts to give a spiritual side to the problem. However, bereft of supernatural content, the document’s naturalistic vision is a vague command for people to unite themselves with nature. Human life is “incomprehensible and unsustainable without other creatures.”

Absent is an appeal to God’s loving Providence to provide for human needs, intervene on behalf of the faithful and thus avert climatic disaster. There is no mention of the Blessed Mother, the angels, and saints as a part of the reality of human life and to which one might have recourse. There is no mention of sanctification, which should be a central theme of any apostolic exhortation, not carbon footprints.

Traces of Ideology

Many other aspects of the document could be analyzed. However, one important characteristic that fails to convince Catholics deserves to be mentioned. Throughout the appeal, one senses ideological threads that weave their way into the document’s narrative to present a determined message outside the scientific framework.

Pope Francis has labeled conservatives as the evil followers of ideologies. And yet, in this document can be found many modern ideologies that are so much a part of the Catholic left’s agenda. Traces of class struggle, liberation theology, naturalism, deep ecology, anti-market rhetoric, and indigenism unite to form an ideological foundation for the document’s message to the world.

Some Catholics find the text unconvincing due to an anti-Western (and offputtingly anti-American) focus that attacks certain modern abuses together with many elements of order and progress. 

The Church as the Solution

The apostolic exhortation elicits a feeling of sadness for what is missing. To please “all people of goodwill on the climate crisis,” the document fails to offer the Church’s wisdom. One expects biblical and religious references, citations of the saints and moral principles, not U.N. boilerplate.

The Church has much to offer in the realm of stewardship and love of God’s creation. Indeed, the Church is the best equipped to deal with any true ecological crisis. The faithful living in accordance with Church moral teaching and natural law will necessarily be the best stewards of the earth. Christian civilization is the best possible solution to any ecological crisis since it is mindful of God’s creation and humanity’s central role to dominate it wisely and virtuously.

The tragedy of the apostolic exhortation is that it neglects to do what it is supposed to: Encourage the faithful in the practice of virtue and love of neighbor. It gets involved in technical and scientific arguments that are best left to experts in the field. It forces the unconvinced faithful to the sad situation of defending themselves against those on the Left who might use the papal document to advance their subversive agenda.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/10_13_2023_18_46.html