Graffiti on the Berlin ‘Trains to Life – Trains to Death’ memorial by Frank Meisler
Berlin’s Kindertransport memorial has been vandalised with graffiti sprayed over the bronze statues of children and images of what appeared to represent the Al-Aqsa mosque daubed elsewhere on the monument.
The famous ‘Trains to Life – Trains to Death’ bronze sculpture by Frank Meisler was created to commemorate the 10,000 Kindertransport Holocaust survivors, and the millions of other children who were transported by train and killed by the Nazis.
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Following a pro-Palestinian protest in the German city on New Years Eve photographs of the graffiti attack were shared on social media, prompting outrage.
Anti-Israel demonstrations had officially been banned by the German authorities over the Christmas and New Year period, but anti-Israel protesters had illegally rallied on New Year’s Eve, hundreds were arrested in scenes of disorder.
As the national organization representing and caring for Holocaust survivors and refugees – The AJR is disgusted that this poignant and cherished monument, which commemorates the desperate yet life-saving journeys of the youngest victims of Nazi oppression, has been desecrated. pic.twitter.com/spFnvmFfwV
— The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) (@TheAJR_) January 3, 2024
The Berlin memorial graffiti incident is widely believed to have been carried out by activists involved with the pro-Palestine demo.
In a statement the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) said: “As the national organisation representing and caring for Holocaust survivors and refugees, the AJR is disgusted that this poignant and cherished monument, which commemorates the desperate yet life-saving journeys of the youngest victims of Nazi oppression, has been desecrated.
“This antisemitic act comes at a time of already heightened anxiety in Jewish communities following the terror attacks in Israel last October and will be especially sickening to the Kinder and their families.”
Revital Yakhin Krakowski, deputy director general of the World March for Life, told Israel’s Channel 12. “The monument was not vandalised by accident, the damage to it was intended to weaken the Jewish spirit by damaging the most important symbols to us.
“There is a clear connection between the denial of the Holocaust and the denial of the acts of terrorism on October 7.”
The latest report from the French Court of Auditors is scathing about President Emmanuel Macon’s immigration plans.
Among the Court’s observations was the fact that: “The direct cost of the policy to combat illegal immigration amounts to approximately €1.8 billion per year, involving the commitment of nearly 16,000 full-time civil servants and military personnel.”
The withering report comes just a couple of weeks after the French National Assembly approved a migration law, with the help of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National.
Pierre Moscovici, First President of the Court of Auditors and a former European Commissioner, said Macron’s goal of expelling all foreigners under an “obligation to leave French territory” (OQTF) was “fantastical”.
Macron’s migration legislation aims to tackle the influx of foreigners to France and give newcomers fewer benefits, or incentives, than they receive today.
A key element of the law is the expulsion of “unwanted” people, something Paris wants to expand on.
In its latest report published on January 4, the Court of Auditors picked those plans to pieces, stating the current expulsion policies are “ineffective”.
In the report, which studies the relationship between the means used and the results obtained in relation to the objectives the State set for itself, the Court noted that France currently only manages to expel a “small minority” of foreigners under OQTF.
The State needs to “organise itself better”, the Court said, as France currently only expels 10 per cent of those ordered to leave the country.
It added that deportation occurs in 2 per cent of cases where the asylum claim or residency of an individual is denied.
According to the Court, Paris could benefit from altering the current “ineffective” strategy that is centred primarily on the widespread issuance of OQTF.
Administrative services and the courts tasked with managing illegal aliens are struggling to fulfil their missions due to inadequate resources, the Court observed. “Prefectures are overwhelmed,” it said.
In 2022, there were 153,042 expulsion orders issued in France, of which 134,280 were OQTF cases. In that year, the country only deported 11,406 people, including 7,214 in a “forced” manner.
The Court said: “This decoupling between the number of expulsion orders issued and their effective execution demonstrates the difficulties of the State in enforcing its particularly numerous decisions, including under duress.”
The auditors noted that the French Government has given priority to migrants who “pose a risk to public safety” or have previously faced criminal convictions.
Since December 2022, more than 90 per cent of those in administrative detention centres were held there due to public disorder or radicalisation “offences”, compared to 44 per cent four months earlier.
Also on January 4, the Government announced that 4,686 foreign delinquents were expelled from French territory in 2023, an increase of 30 per cent compared to 2022 and more than double that of 2021.
The majority of individuals deported are headed for the Northwest African Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa and Central Europe, it is believed.
The Court noted that some countries are “difficult to work with” regarding forced removals, in particular Algeria and Iraq. Other states such as Morocco are regarded as troublesome in view of the implementation of assisted voluntary return.
It also suggested that those in an “irregular situation”, without any wrongdoing, could receive support for their return. It recommended enhancing the flexibility of the “departure encouragement system” by offering a payment of up to €2,500.
The Court noted that the re-establishment of internal border controls, initially intended to be temporary, had been in place for eight years and has proven to be only “minimally effective”.
To enhance border surveillance, it recommended aligning the inspection powers of the border police with those of customs, reassessing the allocation of border-crossing points between these two administrations, and ensuring the collection and maintenance of the identity of individuals apprehended at the border.
A trans-identified male in Wales who previously avoided prison for his part in a national child pornography ring has been busted by a local group of volunteers working to catch sexual predators. David Griffiths, 69, who dresses up in women’s clothing and calls himself Penny Price and alternatively Mabel Mint, was turned over to authorities by Innocent Voices Stings on January 4 in Connah’s Quay after members of their team had been sent pornography by Griffiths via a decoy which he believed was a 14 year-old girl.
In a live video streamed to the Innocent Voices Facebook page, Griffiths can be seen being interrogated by a volunteer identified as ‘Izzy’ before police officers arrive to arrest him. Izzy describes the interactions that took place online between Griffiths and the decoy.
“You start off talking like you’re going to save these children. ‘You girls are beautiful.’ You’ve made numerous photos of this child which make her look a lot older and sexualized,” Izzy said.
“You’ve sent porn videos to this child, you’ve sent pictures of you dressed as ‘Penny’ with your penis out, and you’ve sent a video of you dressed as ‘Penny,’ and you pan down and show her your penis. Do you think that’s right to do to a 14 year-old child?”
Izzy continued by emphasizing that during the course of Griffiths’ grooming efforts, he would find ways to disparage the girl’s appearances in a bid to force emotional dependence on the would-be victim.
“The thing that really used to make me feel sick is you used to say to this child, ‘Oh, can you send a picture?’ and she’d send a normal picture. You’d say something like, ‘Your hair is a bit wild, or, ‘You look tired.’ You’d always put this child down. Then you’d say, ‘Don’t let anyone put you down. Mummy Penny’s here to look after you.’”
During the course of the questioning, Griffiths looks away and denies the accusations, but at one point can be heard asking Izzy which child she is referring to.
“So how many different children have you spoken sexually to?” Izzy responds. “They’re coming forward. Different teams are saying that you’ve spoken to people they know,” she responds, suggesting that other predator hunting groups have had interactions with Griffiths.
“But I’m more concerned about the real children that we don’t know about. I know at least three. I’m not going to give their names, but they’re the ones you said you’ve received indecent images from.”
Griffiths has previously avoided a prison term after he pleaded guilty to 11 counts of distributing indecent images, with another 108 similar offenses that were taken into “consideration.” In 2001, walked out of the Old Bailey courthouse smiling despite acknowledging his involvement in a child pornography ring wherein he sent indecent images and videos to other pedophiles he met through a pen-pal agency.
Griffiths and two other men were only handed community rehabilitation orders, even though one co-conspirator, Graeme McLeod, wrote in a letter after his arrest: “There has been a considerable amount of discussion recently about rehabilitation, even curing pedophiles. I do not believe this is possible. I am a pedophile.”
Griffiths’ rehabilitation order was set to 15 months, and he was required to register as a sex offender for five years. In total, the investigation resulted in 15 arrests across the UK.
This is not the first trans-identified male who has been caught in a predator sting in recent months.
Just days ago, a trans-identified male from Ohio was caught in a sting in Indianapolis, USA, after attempting to meet with a child for sexual abuse. During the interview with predator hunters, Alice Blaze Clark admitted to being sexually attracted to infants.
In mid-2023, a trans-identified male who had been caught in multiple, unrelated predator stings was finally imprisoned at a Sussex court after admitting to having “uncontrollable sexual urges” towards children.
Danielle Edney, who also goes by the name Ariana Grande, had told a decoy posing as a 13-year-old to “pack an overnight bag and bring her school uniform and bikini.” He also reportedly instructed the girl to visit a sexual health clinic for condoms prior to the meeting and spoke of using restraints on her. In August of 2023, he was jailed for 4 years.
From the left: Snochia Moseley, Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney, Audrey Elizabeth Hale and Dylan Butler
On Thursday (4th January), a 17-year-old ‘gender-fluid’ boy named Dylan Butler opened fire at the Perry High School in Iowa State of the United States.
As per reports, a total of 6 people were injured including the school principal Dan Marbuger. One 6th-grade student studying at the same school was killed during the mass shooting.
Prior to the incident, Butler posted a video from the school bathroom with the caption ‘Now, we wait.’ The video was uploaded on his TikTok account ‘@tooktoomuch.’
Armed with a handgun and a pump-action shotgun, the mass shooter reached Perry High School early Thursday (4th January) morning. He also had an explosive device, which did not detonate at the time of the attack.
Dylan Butler killed himself after going on a shooting spree. The incident triggered the evacuation of 1785 students from the school.
While speaking about the incident, a 13-year-old student named Carlos said, “I heard a couple of bangs, they weren’t loud. We saw loads of people run out. We thought it was a prank or something. We didn’t think it was real at first.”
Another student Ava Augustus recounted, “‘I run and you can just see glass everywhere, blood on the floor. I get to my car and they’re taking a girl out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg.”
It has now come to light that the mass shooter carried out a ‘mock trial’ of the school shooting in December last year. He had uploaded the disturbing video on his TikTok account as well.
Dylan Butler identified as ‘non-binary’ on his Instagram and TikTok accounts. He used the pronouns ‘he/they’ and the profile bio reflected a ‘pride flag’ (representative of the LGBTQ+ community).
The mass shooter had also shared a post on TikTok, which read, “Love you trans kids.” Interestingly, this is not the first time that a mass shooting was conducted by a transgender/ non-binary individual.
School shooting in Nashville by trans-man
On 27th March 2023, a 28-year-old woman named Audrey Elizabeth Hale went on a shooting spree at a private Christian school in Nashville city in the Tennessee state of the US.
Hale, who identified as a trans-man, killed three children (all of them were just 9 years old) and three adults during the deadly attack. The mass shooter was a former student of the same school.
Prior to the shooting, Hale reportedly sent a message to a school friend – “One day this will make more sense. I’ve left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.”
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as a transgender male (a biological woman), was a former student at the school and a Nashville resident who lived with their parents pic.twitter.com/0CExCs05oJ
In videos that surfaced on social media, she was seen armed with two rifles and a pistol. Hale shot at glass doors and made her way into the building of ‘The Covenant’ school.
The mass shooter fired over 150 rounds and killed three 9-year-old children, namely, Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. The Head of School, Katherine Koonce, custodian Mike Hill and a substitute teacher named Cynthia Peak were also shot dead by the ‘trans-man’.
The nightmare ended after the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department swung into action and took down Audrey Elizabeth Hale. In her manifesto, she chronicled all events of the fateful day.
“I’m a little nervous, but excited too. Been excited for the past 2 weeks…Can’t believe I’m doing this, but I’m ready… I hope my victims aren’t,” her manifesto read.
Audrey Elizabeth Hale zealously wrote about killing ‘privileged’ white children. “Wanna kill all you little crackers…Bunch of little fucking w/ your white privilages fuck you fuckers,” she had written.
STEM school shooting in Colorado
On 7th May 2019, a 16-year-old girl named Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney shot 9 students at the STEM School in Highlands Ranch in Colorado state of the United States.
McKinney, who was a girl at birth but ‘identified’ as a boy, carried out the deadly attack along with an 18-year-old man named Devon Erickson. They were equipped with three handguns and a 22-caliber rifle.
The mass shooting led to the death of a student named Kendrick Castillo, who was 18 years old at the time. 8 other students were seriously injured. One student identified as Lucas Albertoni had a bullet stuck to his body, the removal of which was deemed too risky by the doctors.
Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney (left), Devon Erickson (right), images via NBC/AP
As such, he needs to be regularly checked for lead poisoning. Another victim had to permanently leave playing soccer in the aftermath of the shooting.
After being apprehended, McKinney told investigators that she planned the mass shooting for several weeks. She wanted to harm the students who supposedly mocked her for being a transgender.
“He (sic) wanted everyone in that school to suffer and realize that the world is a bad place…He (sic) wanted the kids at the school to experience bad things, have to suffer from trauma like he has had to in his life,” read an affidavit summing the actions of Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney.
Alec McKinney has been sentenced to life in prison for a school shooting that resulted in 1 death and 8 injuries. Because McKinney is trans, a campaign has started for their release, saying McKinney was right to murder people because society is transphobichttps://t.co/N1jlUuoJeUpic.twitter.com/4why8rmxgm
In July 2020, Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney was found guilty of first-degree murder and 16 other charges. She was sentenced to life in prison (with the possibility of parole after two decades behind bars) and an additional 38 years.
On the other hand, Devon Erickson was found convicted of 46 charges and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in September 2021. McKinney was hailed as a ‘victim’ on social media by members of the transgender community on social media.
Fatal Shooting in Aberdeen by woman transitioning to a man
On 28th September 2018, a 26-year-old ‘woman’ named Snochia Moseley shot 6 of her co-workers at a Rite Aid warehouse in Aberdeen city in the Maryland state of the US.
She fired more than a dozen shots using her Glock handgun and killed 3 people in the process. The victims were identified as Sunday Aguda (45), Brindra Giri (41) and Hayleen Reyes (41).
The other three people who were shot, namely, Hassan Mitchell, Wilfredo Villegas and Purna Acharya, fortunately made it alive. In a bid to evade arrest, Moseley then took her own life.
Flashback: In September 2018, a female-to-male identifying #trans shooter named Snochia Moseley murdered three colleagues at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, Md.
While speaking about the incident, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said, “She (Snochia Moseley) chose to begin the shooting at break time. She was moving pretty quickly, not taking a lot of time to aim. A total of 13 rounds that we know of were fired…You don’t have to be highly accurate when you’re in close quarters.”
According to Snochia Moseley’s close friend Troi Coley, the mass shooter initially came out as a ‘gay teenage girl’ before identifying as a ‘transgender.’
“This is a girl who was depressed most of her life because she couldn’t accept herself to be who she was after she came out as gay, and she thought nobody else could accept her either,” informed Troi Coley.
Snochia Moseley reportedly began receiving hormone therapy in 2017 as part of her plan to completely transition from a woman to a man.
Conclusion
There have been attempts by the left-wing media ecosystem to tie mass shootings to one ‘race’ and one ‘gender’ in the context of the United States. The shootings that do not fit the agenda find little to no space.
While manifestos of assailants are released immediately after mass shootings, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) sat over the manifesto of woman-turned-transgender Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
There were concerted attempts by news publications to brush such cases as ‘one-off’ and ‘rare’ incidents. If the unadulterated hate disseminated by the woke ecosystem remains unchecked, then, we should anticipate more such attacks over ‘make-believe privilege.’
The BBC has sparked outrage after omitting the word “Jewish” from its promotional material for a film about World War Two hero Sir Nicholas Winton.
Winton, who died in 2015 at the age of 106, rescued hundreds of predominantly Jewish children from the Nazis with the kindertransport scheme.
A new film, One Life, tells Winton’s story as Adolf Hitler expanded his grip across mainland Europe.
Despite much coverage of the heroic mission, the word “Jewish” was not initially featured on the website on the information page on BBC Film.
The wording, echoed by co-producers See-Saw Films and distributors at Warner Bros, instead claimed Winton saved “669 children”.
GB News understands that the BBC has consistently used the film’s official synopsis but updated it alongside its co-producers and distributors yesterday.
Further backlash came after several cinemas described the story as one involving a man “who helped save Central European children from the Nazis”.
Director of public affairs at the Board of Jewish Deputies Daniel Sugarman said: “This is how the film is described on their website. No mention of Jews at all.
“That’s 2024 for you. Half the time we’re experiencing Holocaust inversion, the other half we’re getting written out of our own history.”
HMV have apologised for its wording, adding: “We understand how this choice of wording could be interpreted and we have updated it to say that Sir Nicholas Winton rescued 669 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi-occupation.”
Responding to HMV’s initial post, Countdown host Rachel Riley wrote: “Wow. They can’t even bring themselves to say ‘Jewish children’ were saved from the Nazis.
“Jewish child Holocaust survivors no longer creditable? Sign of the messed up times.”
Warner Bros and the BBC recently updated their websites to describe the children as “predominantly Jewish”.
Winton, who was born into a Jewish family in Hampstead, spent nine months in 1939 rescuing 669 children from Czechoslovakia to London Liverpool Street.
He also worked to fulfil the legal requirements to bring them to safety, finding homes and sponsors for them.
The Second World War hero is being played by ace actor Sir Anthony Hopkins.
German farmers in Schlüttsiel successfully blockaded German Economic Minister Robert Habeck’s (Greens) ferry last night as he was returning from vacation, with the move making headline news across the country.
Politicians from the Greens have reacted with fury to farmers in Schleswig-Holstein preventing Habeck (Greens) from leaving the ferry, with Agriculture Minister Özdemir describing them as “radicals” and “fanatics” who dream of overthrowing the government.
Habeck, along with the rest of the federal government, is pushing forward radical proposals to cut subsidies for farmers and increase taxes, which have prompted protests around the nation.
WATCH: German farmers attack the ferry carrying the Green Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck as he returned from vacation.
Habeck was forced to return to the island of Hallig Hooge, where he was vacationing. However, he has since returned home with the help of police.
“With all understanding for a lively protest culture, no one should care about such a brutalization of political mores,” wrote government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit early Friday morning on the X platform.
These are “people who don’t care about German agriculture,” said Özdemir on Friday on ARD. “They have wet dreams of overthrows, and that won’t happen. To be very clear: This is not acceptable.”
Climate activists from Last Generation have been shutting down roads, attacking art, and causing mass disruptions across Germany. However, some from the left have been openly supportive of the group.
The German government currently has abysmal approval ratings, with two in three Germans demanding snap elections.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wrote on X that the incident was an “attack on Robert Habeck’s privacy.” She called on the German Farmers’ Association (BvD) to distance themselves from the incident.
Erschreckend, eine völlige Grenzüberschreitung und ein Angriff auf die Privatsphäre von Robert #Habeck ! Das hat nichts mit friedlichem Protest in einer lebendigen Demokratie zu tun. Vom @Bauern_Verband erwarte ich,dass er sich in aller Klarheit von solchen Aktionen distanziert. https://t.co/P0hm6EgVRN
It is clear that no violence was committed against Habeck. Nevertheless, his personal vacation was disrupted by the incident, raising questions about how far the protesters could go to express their disapproval of government policy.
The government has already acceded to some demands from the farmers. On Thursday, the federal government responded to the massive farmers’ protests over the planned reduction of subsidies: The coalition wants to forego the abolition of the vehicle tax exemption for agriculture. They also say the abolition of tax relief for agricultural diesel should be extended and implemented in several steps. However, the German Farmers’ Association considers the measures to be inadequate — and is sticking to a week of action planned starting on Monday.
German farmers have organized another rally of staggering proportions in Berlin, with thousands of disgruntled people on tractors on a main road in the German capital. The organizers of the demonstration say that if the government does not withdraw its plan to cut the fuel subsidies for agricultural vehicles and the idea of a tax on agricultural vehicles, they will partake in nationwide protests on Jan. 8.
NEW: The German federal government has BACKTRACKED on one of the cuts to farmers' subsidies and will NOT cancel the tax exemption for agriculture vehicles in the face of considerable opposition and mass protests.
The farmers’ protests began last December across the country after the German government announced austerity measures in the wake of budgetary difficulties, a blow against German farmers already hard hit by ill-considered green policies. The president of the German Farmers’ Association said that “the government has declared war on those who make their living from agriculture.”
He promised that if the situation did not change, after January 8 the country would experience something it had “never experienced before.”
In 2007, Philippe Legrain published the book Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them with Princeton University Press in which he claimed that “sober-minded economists reckon that the potential gains from freer global migration are huge.”
At the height of the 2015 migration crisis the chief economist of the Deutsche Bank, David Folkerts-Landau euphorically proclaimed that “I can even picture a cultural and economic renaissance similar to the one in the decades prior to the beginning of World War I.”
According to him, refugees are “the best thing that has happened [to Germany] in 2015”. The World Bank makes similar arguments, and the International Organization for Migration, a UN body, recently published a Dutch funded video about how “migration is part of the solution”.
So why do a majority of European citizens still steadfastly refuse to embrace the benefits of mass migration, when according to “sober-minded economists” like Folkerts-Landau it is the best thing that can happen to the Old (metaphorically and literally) continent?
One reason could be that despite their sober-mindedness, these economists never ran the actual numbers. The Dutch mathematician Jan H. van de Beek took a closer look at the experience with migration in the Netherlands, and his results are sobering.
According to his numbers, the federal government spent approximately 17 billion euro per year on migration in the period between 1995 and 2019, which translates into more than one billion euros every single month over this time period.
Van de Beek ventured with his study into an area not many dare to this days. He distinguished between Western and non-Western immigration and the different economic outcomes: It is the cost of mostly non-Western immigration that amounts to 17 billion euros per year, while immigration of individuals with a Western background causes a surplus of roughly one billion Euros.
This distinction matters for the future of the Dutch, and for many other European, welfare systems: If immigration remains at the 2015-2019 levels, the annual budget burden will increase from 17 billion euro in 2016 to about 50 billion. An increase that the welfare state most likely would not survive.
The Dutch findings are mirrored in similar studies all across Europe: The Danish Finance Ministry, found out that non-Western immigrants are most likely to remain lifelong welfare recipients at much higher rates than native Danes or immigrants from Western countries.
The same is true in Germany and Austria: About 45 per cent of those who receive unemployment benefits are not German citizens, costing the tax payers around 20 billion euro per year. One of the largest migrant groups, the Turkish community, now stands at 1.4 million and over 2 per cent of the German population.
On average they perform much worse than their German peers: They have higher unemployment numbers, retire earlier, and depend more on government benefits than other groups. Austria shows similar numbers with almost 60 per cent of recipients of some form of state benefits having a “migrant background”.
Not all non-Western migrants, however, are the same. An official French study concluded that while South-East Asian immigrants outperform even the native population in educational attainment and economic activity, it is particularly immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa who appear to struggle.
Contrary to the popular narrative that “structural racism” is to blame, we see significant differences between groups with a similar ethnic background. Immigrants from India, for example, tend to outperform those from Pakistan and Bangladesh, while Nigerians tend to outperform other African migrants.
It is highly unlikely that the average European can distinguish between these groups of people, or that Europeans are so selective in their racism that they like migrants from Nigeria and dislike those from Somalia.
Van de Beek and others see the structure of the welfare state as the cause of the problem. It often creates perverse incentives.
If access to government paid services is too easily available it becomes a primary motivation for migration, discouraging any motivation to look for work, regardless of their country of origin.
A wrongly designed welfare system can lead to disparate outcomes even among people with the same background, as the European experience with Ukrainian refugees shows: In Denmark over 70 per cent are integrated into the labour market, in Poland and the Czech Republic over 60 per cent, in the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Ireland around 50 per cent – while in Germany and Austria the number remains below 20 per cent.
That being said, however, there is no denying that cultural factors play a massive role, and the blanket claim that immigration is always a “net-good” simply does not pass the empirical test.
European leaders should start to recognise this, because the people did so a while ago.
Hans-Georg Maaßen, Germany’s former domestic intelligence chief has announced his intention to break away from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to establish a new political party. Maaßen serves as the chairman of the Values Union, a grassroots conservative movement.
At its general meeting set to be held in Erfurt, Thuringia on January 20th, the organization plans to change its statutes and transfer its naming rights to a newly founded party called Values Union (WerteUnion).
“If the general meeting agrees to these far-reaching changes, this would be the first step towards a separation of the Values Union from the CDU and CSU,” Maaßen said.
The new party, the former BfV chief said, will be based on the “classic positions of the Union parties.” He added that, if successfully established, the party could run in this year’s elections in the eastern German states of Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg.
According to the latest polling data, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) commands the support of 37%, 36%, and 32% of the population in Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg, respectively. If Maaßen’s party does run in these states’ elections, set to be held this coming September, it will likely siphon off votes from both the CDU and the AfD. To what extent, however, remains to be seen.
As things stand, even though nearly half of the German population supports the AfD’s participation in government, all parties with a parliamentary presence have ruled out the possibility of forming a government with it. This could potentially change if Maaßen’s party were to run and garner a considerable number of seats.
Maaßen stated that he would work with all parties that are “ready for a change in policy in Germany,” leaving the door open for future cooperation with the AfD. Previously, he has argued that all firewalls should be torn down.
The former spy boss didn’t hesitate to level sharp criticism against CDU party leader Friedrich Merz for wanting to continue what he described as the “left-wing course” taken by former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Unfortunately, the past year has shown that Merz and the current federal executive committee of the CDU are not ready for a policy change. The decision to exclude the Values Union and the party expulsion proceedings against its chairman shows that the CDU under Merz is fighting any course correction.
Merkel’s policies have caused significant damage to Germany in all political areas. The recent statement by the General Secretary of the CDU that Merkel had ‘governed the country well’ confirms the impression that the Merz CDU has not understood the catastrophic situation Germany is in and that it is not prepared to deal with the situation for this. The German people have to deal with Merkel’s catastrophic policies.
The Values Union boasts a membership of around 4,000 people and already has 16 state associations, which puts the formation well ahead of other start-up parties looking to establish themselves as a regional or nationwide political force.
Maaßen’s announcement comes just months after Sahra Wagenknecht—who similarly to Maaßen was ostracized from her party for having anti-establishment, anti-mass migration positions—broke away from Die Linke to form a new party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance for Reason and Justice (BSW). Whether the BSW will run in this fall’s state elections is unsure. Party chairman Amira Mohamed Ali said last week the party’s financial situation may force it to abandon state elections to instead focus on the European Parliament elections.
The migrant who posed with a knife and a Palestinian flag with the Acropolis in the background in a Tik-Tok post is being sought by State Security officials.
Authorities believe he is a man of Pakistani origin and are investigating whether he is the same person as the user who posted the video on his social media account on New Year’s Day.
In addition to the “protagonist” of the post, the police are trying to identify seven more people, probably of the same nationality, who are captured in the video. If caught, they could face charges of violating the Arms Act, inciting acts of violence and desecrating a national monument.
The Tik-Tok making the rounds on the internet was 13 seconds long and was probably taken on Areopagus Hill.
One of the seven foreigners is first shown holding a Palestinian flag in his left hand and then displaying a folding knife in his right hand. Immediately after, the person taking the video with their mobile phone turns the camera towards the rest of the group.
Areopagus Hill was once the site of the most respected men of ancient Athens; now, it is a hang-out spot for Pakistani criminals on New Year to brandish knives and wave the Palestinian flags.
The Areopagus, next to the Acropolis, is also known as the “Hill of Ares” as it is… pic.twitter.com/lz0q9d7MPt
Another foreigner forms a pistol with his fingers, while a third member of the group has covered part of his face with a scarf. Around them are tourists and other people who had been on New Year’s Day in the crowded spot overlooking the Acropolis.
The police officers of the Athens Security Directorate have put the Tik-Tok video under the microscope of the preliminary investigation, but there seem to be no other corresponding older posts.
Most of the videos appear to show the same faces of Pakistani origin, which is expected to facilitate investigations to identify the hitherto unknown foreigners.
The Taliban arrested women in Kabul for wearing “bad hijab” as part of their efforts to reinforce Afghanistan’s severe female dress code regulations, a spokesman at the country’s vice and virtue ministry said on Thursday, January 4.
The latest development adds to the growing difficulties encountered by Afghan women and girls, who are already barred from education, employment, and public settings by the Taliban since they seized power in 2021.
Taliban arrest women for 'bad hijab' in the first dress code crackdown since their return to power https://t.co/ttfn7mLHz2
Abdul Ghafar Farooq, a spokesman for the vice and virtue ministry, did not indicate how many women had been jailed for what constitutes “bad hijab.” However, he said that the arrests were made three days ago. He added that female police officers were sent to arrest the women after they failed to follow the ministry’s advice of dressing appropriately.
The crackdown emphasizes the Taliban’s austerity measures since taking power in 2021, which are similar to those in neighbouring Iran, which has imposed the hijab for decades.
For the past three days in Kabul city, there has been a continuous arrest of girls and women who are accused of not adhering to the hijab requirement imposed by the Taliban. The majority of those arrested are teenagers and students.@heatherbarr1@UN_HRC@HNeumannMEPpic.twitter.com/EqkRbiLAyF
In May 2022, the Taliban issued a diktat requiring women to cover their faces and only reveal their eyes and promote the head-to-toe burqa, similar to restrictions imposed under the Taliban’s previous administration between 1996 and 2001. According to the Taliban spokesman, the ministry has been receiving complaints about women wearing incorrect hijab in Kabul for the past two years.
In response to the concerns, the ministry issued guidelines to ladies and asked them to carefully adhere to the dress code.
“These are the few limited women who spread bad hijab in Islamic society. They violated Islamic values and rituals and encouraged society and other respected sisters to go for bad hijab. Police will refer the matter to judicial authorities or the woman will be released on strict bail. In every province, those who go without hijab will be arrested,” Farooq warned.
Restrictions on women by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan
Notably, since the Taliban government came to power in Afghanistan in 2021, it has imposed draconian restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, and movement for women and girls. Women are prohibited from holding important positions in all spheres of life and are required to adhere to the strict Islamic dress code. They are also excluded from employment and education. Women are also barred from entering parks and gyms and from travelling without a male relative.
This recent restriction on women’s rights is part of a systematic and broader range of regressive measures taken by the Taliban since the terror outfit regained control over Afghan soil, two years ago.
Teenage girls and women have been barred from classrooms, gyms, and parks. They have also been banned from working for the United Nations. Women are forced to wear only such dresses which would allow them to reveal only their eyes.
Women in Afghanistan can only work in hospitals as nurses and doctors. Currently, this is the last and only job women are allowed to perform under Taliban rule. However, media reports claim that these increasing restrictions have forced women to work secretively from home as teachers and makeup artists.
From 1996 to 2001, the previous Taliban regime had also imposed sweeping restrictions on Women’s rights and curbed their freedoms. For Afghan women, the recent closure of beauty parlours reminds them of the dark times under the previous Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
However, when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, beauty salons reopened and operated normally till the Taliban regained power two years ago. Although the Taliban didn’t immediately shut down hair and beauty salons, they asked shops to cover and spray-paint their windows and posters to conceal the faces of women on them.
Last year in January, the Taliban government instructed the country’s female clothing retailers to mask the mannequins showing off the latest fashions. The mannequins with their heads covered have come to represent the Taliban’s puritanical rule over Afghanistan.
Mahsa Amini from Iran was killed for wearing an improper hijab
The crackdown emphasizes the Taliban’s austerity measures since taking power in 2021, which are similar to those in neighbouring Iran, which has imposed the hijab for decades. Earlier in the year 2022, a 22-year-old Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini was reported dead after being brutally beaten by the ‘Morality Police’ for wearing an ‘improper hijab’.
The woman was spotted by the ‘morality police’ while she was wearing an improper hijab that showcased some of her hair. She was taken to a ‘re-education class’ where she was allegedly tortured by the police leading to the death of her brain.
Amini’s death sparked global outrage condemning Iran’s law for treating women in such a manner. Several women cut their hair to protest against Amini’s death. However, the Iranian police maintained that the woman had died due to illness and not due to the actions of the country police.
