A presenter for the London-based Iran International news channel has been repeatedly stabbed outside his home in the city’s south, his channel said on Friday, according to the BBC.
Iran International, which reported extensively in 2022 on anti-government protests in Iran, said Pouria Zeraati, 36, was attacked by a group.
The Metropolitan Police said an investigation had been launched into a stabbing in south London, adding the victim was stable in hospital.
“A scene is in place and police are working to understand the circumstances,” a Met spokesman said, adding that no arrests have been made thus far.
Iran International is a media platform for the Iranian opposition and is known to have ties to the Saudi Arabian royal family. Saudi Arabia is Iran’s regional foe.
Nearly 18 months ago, the outlets became one of the main providers of news during the wave of anti-government protests in Iran. Those protests broke out after the death of Mahsa Amini, who died while in police custody after being arrested for violating the country’s strict dress code for women.
In November 2022, two British-Iranian journalists from the channel were warned by police of a possible risk to their lives, according to the BBC.
An armed police presence was stationed near the channel’s studios, and concrete barriers were placed outside the building.
Last February, Iran International said it had moved its broadcasts to Washington “to protect the safety of its journalists” after being targeted by Tehran.
Operations resumed at a new location in London last September, noted the BBC.
Poland is the latest country to join the ‘international coalition’ set up to provide security at the Olympic Games in France, starting July 26th.
“The Polish Armed Forces will join the international coalition established by France to support the preparations and security of the 2024 Summer Olympics,” Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on social media platform X on Thursday.
Siły Zbrojne RP dołączą do międzynarodowej koalicji powołanej przez Francję w celu wsparcia przygotowań i zabezpieczenia Letnich Igrzysk Olimpijskich w 2024 roku. Do Paryża zostanie skierowana grupa zadaniowa naszych żołnierzy, w tym przewodników z psami. Jej głównym celem…
— Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (@KosiniakKamysz) March 28, 2024
Poland will be sending “a task force … including dog handlers,” he added, “to undertake activities related to the detection of explosives and counteracting terrorist phenomena.”
The pledge, made on the same day France’s chief of defense staff Thierry Burkhard visited Warsaw, comes as France’s terror alert level is currently at its highest level in response to the terror attack in Moscow last Friday.
In anticipation of hosting the Olympics, and keeping in mind the image Paris wants to present to the world, its organizers have been accused of transferring migrants from the capital, where they are often living in makeshift camps, to—mostly rural— municipalities across France.
Nosta Lgia
While such ‘clean-up’ operations may be advantageous to the Olympics organizers, local mayors, such as Orleans’ Serge Grouard, have been up in arms for months, saying that they have been wholly left in the dark about the relocation efforts.
Grouard complained about the unexpected arrival of up to 500 homeless migrants in his town of 100,000 people.
Nosta Lgia
“It has been proved that every three weeks, a coach arrives in Orleans from Paris, with between 35-50 people on board,” he told La Republique du Centre, citing rumors this had been done to “clean the deck” in the capital ahead of the Olympics.
While each new arrival is offered three weeks in a hotel (naturally funded by the taxpayer), he is thereafter left to find accommodations by himself, Grouard explained.
As reported by France24, the state’s regional security office responded to the Orleans mayor’s complaint that the influx was “not linked to the organization of the Paris Olympics,” adding that Orleans was one of ten “temporary regional reception centers.”
Grouard found himself an ally (at least, in part) in Floriane Varierasin, deputy mayor of Strasbourg, who told AFP when asked about a regional facility for hosting migrants near her city, that they too hadn’t been consulted, “either about the creation [of reception centers] or about the people who will go there.”
“That’s where I agree with the mayor of Orleans, the rather opaque side of what is happening,” she added.
While Paris has been offered a fortuitous occasion to ease the burden of migrants on its own territory, the city’s unilateral approach is unlikely to win much affection from the (non-Parisian) French.
The murderer had sent a text message to his mother: “I swear to Allah, I will not date a white person”.
Public prosecutor Elisabeth Anderson is today bringing charges against Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim for the murder of his girlfriend Saga Forsgren Elneborg last spring. This was announced by the public prosecutor’s office in a press release.
Motive: Islamic honour
“The murder took place against the background of an honour killing,” Anderson said in a press release.
The indictment against the 21-year-old will be presented to the district court in Örebro this morning.
“Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim killed Saga Forsgren Elneborg by suffocating and strangulating her by applying pressure to her neck, which impaired the trachea and blood supply to the head,” the prosecutor writes in his indictment.
The 20-year-old woman was murdered in her bed on the night of April 28-29 last year.
According to the public prosecutor, the 21-year-old Somali man was driven by a sense of honour when he brutally murdered his girlfriend, who was pregnant with their unborn son, in the middle of the night. The unborn child also died.
“I think the murder was driven by a sense of honour because the man wanted to preserve or restore his honour and that of his family by killing the woman who was carrying his child,” said Elisabeth Anderson, prosecutor and head of the preliminary investigation.
Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim was convicted of attempted theft and illegal driving in the past and originates from Somalia. He arrived in Sweden in October 2012 and was granted Swedish citizenship in 201
Devin Rexvid, who researches questions of oppression and violence in connection with the concept of honour at Stockholm University, was called as a witness. A statement written by him also provides the basis for the indictment. According to Rexvid’s statement, a son who chooses the wrong wife dishonours his family. The son may be pressurised to break off the relationship with the woman, as she is considered unsuitable as a mother and wife. To restore his honour, the man often has to kill the woman who is close to him and who is believed to have dishonoured him. The man’s right to respect therefore takes precedence and is more important than the woman’s right to life. A man without honour is regarded as a “living dead man” and considers himself as such.
The next Pope? Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom–Budapest , screen grab youtube
Pope Francis is 87. After two operations in the last three years, several medical visits (some made public, others not), and the trip to Dubai for COP 28 cancelled due to bronchitis, the Pope’s health has become a central concern at the highest levels of the Church.
The Pope’s health inevitably creates speculation about what the next Conclave will look like and who Pope Francis’s successor might be.
Will he be European?
After many centuries of Italian and two non-Italian but European Popes, the cardinals had chosen a Pope from Latin America for the first time. There had been Popes from the African continent or Asia, for example, but never from Latin America.
The election of Pope Francis brought to the Church’s heart a continent that was eager to free itself from its colonial past and ultimately wanted to overcome its sense of subjection to the European continent.
The significant innovations of the Latin American continent in the theological field are derivations of Western philosophical thought. The famous, or infamous, Liberation theology takes Marxist categories directly from European universities in France and Germany, where the founders of these currents, such as Gustavo Gutierrez or Leonardo Boff, went to study.
After eleven years of Pope Francis’s pontificate, can the European continent find new impetus within the Catholic Church?
Let’s look at the numbers. Pope Francis has convened nine consistories in eleven years to create new cardinals, as many as John Paul II convened in 27 years of pontificate.
Pope Francis has created 142 cardinals, of which 113 are eligible to vote in a conclave – only cardinals under 80 can elect the Pope.
The red hats created by Pope Francis come from 70 different nations, 22 of which had never had a cardinal before.
If we entered the Conclave today, there would be 94 cardinal electors created by Pope Francis, compared to the 27 made by Benedict XVI and the eight created by John Paul II. To elect the Pope, a block of 86 votes would be needed (two-thirds of the assembly). The cardinals installed by Pope Francis make up more than two-thirds.
The numbers suggest a much more varied college of cardinals than in the past; the territorial component must give way to different considerations.
The European component is still significant. Although fewer than before, Europe is still the most represented continent among the cardinal electors, with 52 electors.
Second in this ranking is, incredibly, Asia with 22 voters. North America has 17 cardinal electors, like Africa, while Central America has four and South America has 14.
By the end of 2024, ten more cardinals will lose the right to vote in the Conclave. Therefore, if Pope Francis were not to convene a new consistory at the end of the year, he would fall back below the limit of 120 cardinal electors established by Paul VI. This has never been repealed.
In attempting to work out what might happen, one finds oneself in treacherous terrain with constantly changing configurations.
Things are made even more unpredictable because Pope Francis has rarely convened consistories to discuss general issues (he did so in 2014, 2015, and 2022).
As a result, the cardinals, incredible as it may seem, do not know each other. And, in a conclave, personal knowledge of the candidate affects the choice in a very significant way.
This means the cardinals will not feel obliged to vote for a Pope with a profile similar to that of Pope Francis. After the first Latin American, it will probably be awkward to have a Pope who comes from the same continent again.
But is there a possibility of a European Pope? Generally speaking, the answer is yes, for several reasons.
The first is that there is talk of the need for a Pope legislator to replace Pope Francis, and the European cardinals would bring that legal and social mindset that would allow “putting order back” into some administrative issues.
One of the candidates everyone thinks of is Péter Erdő, archbishop of Esztergom–Budapest, expert canonist, and indeed a man familiar with the institutions.
His star was bright two years ago during the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest. He would bring attention to Europe because he was president of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe for two terms.
The second reason a European Pope would be possible is that European cardinals find themselves “naturalised” in mission lands.
One of these is Cardinal Cristobal Lopez, archbishop of Rabat, Morocco. Spanish, naturalized Paraguayan during the years of his mission in Latin America, Cardinal Lopez has a profile as an “evangeliser”. He is highly charismatic and capable of bringing an institutional awareness that he developed very well during his years as archbishop in Morocco, dealing regularly with the Muslim king.
The third reason a European Pope would be possible is that, after the Latin American experience, the cardinals would like to return to a more orderly style of government, and the European Popes have previously guaranteed this.
It must be said that the disorganisation or, to put it another way, the authoritarianism with which Pope Francis has operated – legislating with extraordinary documents such as the so-called motu proprio – can also be attributed to Pope Francis being a Jesuit.
Although this may only be a prejudice, it could be a decisive prejudice for not choosing Pope Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg, vice-president of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe, and former president of the Commission of Episcopal Conferences of the European Union. His appointment would risk replicating Francis’s model of governance.
The fourth reason to expect a European Pope is simply as a collective reaction, a rebound as it were, to Pope Francis. In the election of Francis, the North American cardinals, and then those who worked in the Roman Curia, were decisive in moving the votes necessary to guarantee his election.
North Americans could look to Europe precisely because they want a discontinuity from this pontificate.
It is worth noting that last month, a document called Demos II was released – referencing the first Demos document on the situation of the Church. This was released in 2022 and its author was Cardinal George Pell, although this was only revealed after the death of the Australian cardinal on January 10, 2023.
Demos II seems clearly to originate in the Anglo-Saxon world and criticises the current pontificate (on its style of government and management of doctrinal issues in practice). This too could favour a European candidate.
An educated guess would suggest that the next Pope will be European. This is, however, only an educated guess for now.
Not a day goes by without reports of new death threats against teachers. According to Le Figaro, a teacher at a school in Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine) has now filed a complaint after being threatened with death by a pupil.
The first incident in this conflict took place on March 7 at the Lycée Michel-Ange. Following a disagreement between a pupil and a teacher, the situation became heated with threats and insults: “In the name of Allah, she has an oversized ego”, “She pisses me off”, “Fat bitch” and “In the name of Allah, I will shoot her”. As a result, the pupil was permanently excluded from school.
On Wednesday, the student’s brother approached the reception of the Michel-Ange Lyceum to ask for an explanation for his sister’s expulsion. The teacher felt threatened and went to the police station in Villeneuve-la-Garenne to report the threats made by the girl earlier this month. According to our information, the schoolgirl has not yet been arrested for questioning by the investigators. She was not previously known to the police. […] Le Figaro
A Muslim migrant and ISIS operative? But…but…aren’t the French authorities carefully vetting the migrants they’re admitting into the country?
(In reality, French authorities aren’t vetting the migrants, and since they deny the reality of jihad, they wouldn’t even know what to look for if they were.)
France: Muslim migrant arrested on suspicion of plotting jihad attack against Notre Dame Cathedral – https://t.co/JvXTtO1u47
The village of Lias was the scene of an act of vandalism that left the inhabitants sad and angry at the same time. In the early morning of March 26, the cross that had adorned one of the main squares for generations was found lying on the ground, detached from its pedestal and broken into four pieces. It was not a simple cross; it was a landmark, a symbol of the history and continuity of the village. Mayor Gérard Paul made no secret of his shock at this loss: “This cross was more than a religious representation, it was the soul of our village, as it had been enthroned there for centuries”. The reasons for this act are not known. The restoration of the cross will cost the community and its inhabitants a great deal. He recalled previous acts of vandalism in which topiari and flowerbeds created by local associations to beautify the village were destroyed.
Traditional Easter Service from King’s College, Cambridge BBC
The BBC has been accused of “abandoning” Britain’s Christian faith after it made the decision to axe a traditional Easter service broadcast.
The programme, which would have broadcast a traditional religious service from King’s College, Cambridge, was dropped in favour of religious coverage elsewhere across the broadcaster’s platforms.
King’s College Easter service has been a staple of the BBC lineup for more than a decade, having been shown on television since 2010.
Following the decision, critics have accused the BBC of deliberately abandoning its Christian audience.
Chief executive of Christian Concern Andrea Williams told the Telegraph: “The BBC’s motto, ‘Nation shall speak peace unto nation’, is Biblical in origin.
“The more the BBC seeks to forget and minimise the primary role of the Christian faith shaping this nation, the darker all things will become.
“Easter reminds us of Christ’s victory over death, which is a good-news message for us all.”
However, the BBC has rejected claims that it has ignored the Christian faith after dropping its Easter service.
According to the broadcaster, the Faith and Hope for Spring 2024 season will feature a “vibrant mix of programmes across TV and radio channels, shining a spotlight on faith at a time when many of the major religions are marking key moments in the calendar”.
Both of the BBC’s heads of religion and ethics for television and radio have said the broadcaster’s output will feature a “diverse range of content” for watchers and listeners.
Daisy Scalchi, head of religion and ethics on BBC Television, said: “This is such a special time of year and we’re delighted to work across our networks to bring viewers a diverse range of content that brings faith, belief and spirituality into focus.”
Tim Pemberton, the head of religion and ethics on BBC Audio, said: “I’m delighted to be bringing listeners such a wide range of special programming, with opportunities for worship and reflection, as well as some wonderful music.”
This year, the BBC is set to show a special performance of Bach’s St John Passion from Cardiff on BBC One on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis’s Easter message and blessing and a special edition of Songs of Praise from Canterbury.
Radio listeners will also have the chance to hear a Choral Evensong live from Canterbury Cathedral on Radio 3 and a Sunrise Service from Durham Cathedral on Radio 4.
Speaking about the story on GB News’ Headliners, Nick Dixon suggested the BBC has been “gradually erasing Christianity for decades”.
He said: “I’ve been renouncing Christians for decades, so it’s ‘BBC abandoned Christianity after dropping traditional Easter service broadcast’, which they normally broadcast from Kings College, Cambridge.
“In addition to that, just as an extra little bit of salt in the wound, they, Alice Roberts, an atheist, was on the Good Friday edition of Desert Island Discs and chose not to take a Bible with her to the fictitious island. So instead, you know, they’re not showing the usual thing.”
He added: “So, you know, enjoy Islam or enjoy this secular dystopia you’re going to get as it is Christianity that made this country great.
“And now you’re gonna get just awfulness. This is nothing new though. Read something like Peter Hitchens’s Rage Against God, they’ve been gradually erasing Christianity for decades.”
Adding his voice, Josh Howie said: “I think this desert island this thing is a really bad decision, the singing thing for the Easter service from Kings College.”
He continued: “I will say the BBC is of course there to reflect the audience. So there’s a question here – Are they cutting these? They are actually.
“They do have a lot of other Christian programmes or Easter programmes, to be fair. But is it because they’re taking their lead from the fact that there are less Christians now, which has been proven it’s in decline? Or there’s the other idea, of course, that is the decline in the programmes leading to a decline in Christianity.
On today’s #ncfnewspeak, NCF Director Peter Whittle, Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo and SDP London mayoral candidate Amy Gallagher discuss: * Public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest ever level. Is it time to rethink the NHS? * Which nationalities pay the least tax, receive the most benefits and commit the most crimes? Denmark publishes this data. But in Britain we’re not allowed to know. * The population of Europe and the world is going to decline rapidly this century. Is that a good or bad thing?
In 1822, European capitals were inundated with reports about a massacre against Christians in the Aegean, and the supposed birthplace of the ancient poet Homer, had become the scene of one of the bloodiest episodes of the Greek War of Independence.
At the time, Greece belonged to the Ottoman Empire.
Starting in March 1821, an armed uprising against the Sultan’s rule emerged in different places in Greece.
In the reconquest of Chios island in April 1822, Ottoman troops operated with extreme brutality.
They pillaged and plundered the Greek settlements, murdering an estimated 25,000 residents.
They also abducted more 45,000 people to the slave markets of the Ottoman Empire.
European reporting concentrated on the Ottoman atrocities against the Christian population.
Such messages inspired French painter Eugène Delacroix to create his famous painting – “The Massacre of Chios.”
The painting presented in Parisian art galleries in 1824 caused a stir to the wider public.
Eugène Delacroix, Le Massacre de Scio, oil/canvas, 1824.
The emotionally charged depiction of the Greeks, who had been at the mercy of the Ottoman soldiery, drew on a humanitarian narrative that had already more or less developed in the course of the campaigns against the slave trade.
With his visualisation of suffering, Delacroix intended to arouse viewers’ concern and sympathy for the Greeks’ fate and thereby mobilise political support for the Greek struggle for independence.
The events on Chios provoked (not least thanks to Delacroix’s painting) a sense of outrage throughout Europe and a feeling of solidarity with the Greeks striving for freedom.
The Philhellenism, which originated in the late 18th century from a cultural enthusiasm for ancient Greece, now took on tremendous political relevance in the wake of the reporting of the massacre.
An act of revenge for the massacre would come three months later when a group led by Konstantinos Kanaris, a native of Chios who had survived the massacre, returned and set fire to the Turkish fleet that was stationed in the port of Chios town.
They killed 2,000 Turks and destroyed every single Turkish ship in the port.
