RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-starts-to-come-around-on-china-11620341264?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

President Biden wants to work with traditional American allies to resist China’s increasing belligerence. While the European Union has tried to steer its own course, Beijing is doing its part to revive the trans-Atlantic alliance.

“We now in a sense have suspended . . . political outreach activities from the European Commission side,” EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told AFP on Tuesday. “The environment is not conducive for ratification of the agreement.” Mr. Dombrovskis is referring to the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, a deal meant to provide Europe and China greater access to each other’s markets.

Weeks before becoming U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan requested “early consultations” with Brussels about the pact. Europe responded by announcing it had reached an agreement-in-principle with China. But the European Parliament and 27 national leaders still have to approve the deal.

That process became more complicated in March, when the European Union announced sanctions targeting four Chinese officials involved with human-rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. Beijing responded by imposing sanctions on several members of the European Parliament and other Europeans critical of the Chinese Communist Party.

It’s hard to ratify a deal with a country that has sanctioned officials who will vote on ratification, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel is still trying. She spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron last month, and the German readout of the call didn’t mention human rights. The French later said it came up, but Ms. Merkel is trying to play down the issue as she seeks to solidify the deal before elections this year.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/major-swedish-hospital-bans-puberty-blocking-for-gender-dysphoria/

The actual science is beginning to overcome transgender ideology. First, the U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence — basically the NHS’s decision-maker for what to cover — determined that there was “very low” evidence of benefit to allow children with gender dysphoria to have their natural puberty blocked — which is an “off label” use of those drugs, by the way.

Now, Karolinska Hospital, a major health institution in Sweden, is stopping their use. First, there is little scientific to support such interventions. From the hospital’s official statement:

In December 2019, the SBU (Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services) published an overview of the knowledge base which showed a lack of evidence for both the long-term consequences of the treatments, and the reasons for the large influx of patients in recent years.

Even more importantly, the potential for harming the patient physically is very real:

These treatments are potentially fraught with extensive and irreversible adverse consequences such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk, and thrombosis. This makes it challenging to assess the risk/benefit for the individual patient, and even more challenging for the minors and their guardians to be in a position of an informed stance regarding these treatments.

Yikes!

As a consequence the hospital wisely enacted the following policy:

In light of the above, and based on the precautionary principle, which should always be applied, it has been decided that hormonal treatments (i.e., puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones) will not be initiated in gender dysphoric patients under the age of 16.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17299/arabs-warn-west-iran-deception

“Those who commit the same mistakes and expect different results are deceiving themselves.” — Abdullah bin Bajad Al-Otibi, Saudi writer and researcher, Alarabiya.net, April 19, 2021.

After the deal expires in a few years…. Iran may build as many nuclear weapons as it wants. In that sense, the JCPOA deal was a runway to a full-blown nuclear weapons program.

“[T]he agreement did not address the Iranian regime’s ambitions of hegemony and its blatant interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries through direct and semi-direct occupation in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen…. Iran today is targeting Saudi oil and global energy supplies, as well as civilians, as the world is watching.” — Abdullah bin Bajad Al-Otibi, Alarabiya.net, April 19, 2021.

“All the concessions that the Western powers intend to make to Tehran do not bind anyone in the Middle East, and cannot force Israel or the Arab countries to respect the outcome of the talks in Vienna, especially if these negotiations increase the danger of the Tehran regime to stability and security.” — Syrian writer Bahaa Al-Alawam, Al-Ain, April 19, 2021

“The truth is that there is a political, military, security and economic Iranian occupation of four Arab countries – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.” — Former Jordanian Minister of Information and Culture Saleh Al-Kallab, Asharq Al-Awsat, April 15, 2021.

This message, directed mainly at the Biden administration, accuses the West of ignoring Iran’s ongoing occupation and terrorism in the Arab countries. Evidently, there is a profound fear among Arabs that a revival of the nuclear deal will add fuel to the mullahs’ fire and support their slash-and-burn policies of destabilizing Arab countries and promoting terrorism through their proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi militias in Yemen.

Arabs are growing increasingly concerned about Iran’s sinister intentions and deception as the Iranians and representatives of Germany, France, Britain, Russia, and China continue their negotiations in Vienna about reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the Trump administration abandoned in 2018.

The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is ostensibly aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of uranium gas centrifuges for 13 years. After the deal expires in a few years, however, Iran may build as many nuclear weapons as it wants. In that sense, the JCPOA deal was a runway to a full-blown nuclear weapons program.

On May 8, 2019, Trump announced the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, which Iran had been secretly violating, and Iran has been repeatedly violating the terms of the accord ever since.

The Iranians appear optimistic that the talks will bring the US back to the deal, saying a “new understanding” seems to be taking shape.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/they-are-burning-us-alive-say-sinais-coptic-raymond-ibrahim/

The recent execution of a Coptic Christian man in the Sinai is a reminder that the peninsula is a hotbed of wanton, jihadi terrorism in dire need of a crackdown.

Although the murder of 62-year-old Nabil H. Salama was videotaped in an Islamic State propaganda video—meaning it received some media attention in the West—much lesser known is that the Muslim terrorists have been terrorozing, massacring, and displacing the small Coptic community for years in the Sinai.

Early 2017 probably saw the worst atrocities.  Then, the Islamic State in Sinai had released a video promising more attacks on the “worshipers of the cross,” a reference to the Copts of Egypt; the terrorists also referred to the Copts as their “favorite prey” and the “infidels who are empowering the West against Muslim nations.”

Thereafter followed a massive “jihad” on the Copts; the following are some of the more notable examples, all occurring in early 2017, mostly in al-Arish, Sinai:

A 65-year-old Christian man was shot in the head and killed; the Copt’s 45-year-old son was then abducted and tortured by the Muslim terrorists; they then burned him alive and dumped his charred remains near a schoolyard (image here).
A 35-year-old Christian was in his small shop working with his wife and young son when three masked men walked in, opened fire on and killed him.  The Muslim murderers then sat around his shop table, eating chips and drinking soda, while the slain Copt lay in a pool of blood before his terrified wife and child.
A 57-year-old Christian laborer was shot and killed as he tried to fight off masked men trying to kidnap his young son from off a crowded street in broad daylight. After murdering the Coptic father, they seized his young son and took him to an unknown location.
A 45-year-old Christian schoolteacher was moonlighting at his shoe store with his wife, when masked men walked in the crowded shop and shot him dead.
A 40-year-old Coptic medical doctor was killed by masked men who, after forcing him to stop his car, opened fire on and killed him.  He too left a widow and two children.
A group of armed Muslims attacked St. George, a Coptic Christian church in the Sinai on Sunday 15, 2017, leaving seven—including a young child—dead, and 15, mostly women and children, wounded.   
A Christian father and his two sons were abducted; their decapitated bodies were later found discarded.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17342/iran-sanctions-relief

Iran’s economy is state-led. Significant parts of the economy are controlled by just two major entities: the Office of the Supreme Leader, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)…. The IRGC and its front companies have a stake in almost every sector of Iran’s economy such as construction, transportation, telecommunication, banking and insurance….

The Supreme Leader and the IRGC will be the first beneficiaries of any extra revenues; they will most likely use additional cash first to strengthen their military apparatuses and guarantee the survival of the Islamic Republic and their positions in it. Increased revenues would also allow the IRGC and the Supreme Leader to crack down more easily on any domestic unrest against their government.

The other priority of the regime is to export its revolutionary ideals to other countries….promoting the regime’s interests and ideology — including anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.

The billions of dollars that Iran will gain from the Biden Administration’s potential sanctions relief will be directed towards sponsoring terrorism, funding and arming militia and terror groups across the Middle East, harming US national and security interests, undermining US allies, particularly in the Middle East, further advancing the regime’s clandestine nuclear program to obtain nuclear weapons, and suppressing the Iranian people by squashing their hopes of establishing a democracy there.

Is this what the Biden Administration really wants as its legacy?The extent to which the Biden administration is willing to go to appease the Iranian regime to revive the 2015 nuclear deal boggles the mind. During the current nuclear negotiations, the Biden administration has reportedly been offering increasing concessions and sanctions relief to the Iranian leaders.

Not only has the current US administration seemingly been planning a major rollback of nuclear and economic sanctions on Iran, it is also reportedly eyeing lifting non-nuclear sanctions, for instance those linked to terrorism, missile development and human rights. According to the Associated Press:

“American officials… have said they are open to lifting any sanctions that are inconsistent with the nuclear deal or that deny Iran the relief it would be entitled to should it return to compliance with the accord. Because of the complex nature of the sanctions architecture, that could include non-nuclear sanctions, such as those tied to terrorism, missile development and human rights.”

Through sanctions relief, the regime would be able to breathe a sigh of relief: it would be capable of increasing its oil exports, doing business with more countries and corporations particularly companies in Europe, and bringing in foreign investment.

What will the Iranian authorities do with increased revenues — potentially billions of dollars? Will they be grateful of the Biden administration and alter their anti-American policies? Who will be the beneficiary of this windfall?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17333/france-islamism-civil-war

The warning comes amid a wave of jihadist attacks — including the beheading of a schoolteacher — committed by young men, none of whom were previously known to French intelligence services. The letter also comes after widespread public indignation over a French justice system compromised by political correctness — as evidenced by the refusal to prosecute an African immigrant from Mali who, while shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (“Allah is the Greatest”), killed an elderly Jewish woman by breaking into her home and pushing her off her balcony.

“Every Frenchman, whatever his belief or non-belief, should everywhere be at home in continental France [l’Hexagone]; there cannot and must not exist any city or district where the laws of the Republic do not apply.” — From an open letter signed by 20 retired generals, a hundred senior officers more than a thousand other members of the French military, April 21, 2021.

“What is written in this letter is a reality. When you have a country plagued by urban guerrilla warfare, when you have a very regular and very high terrorist threat, when you have more and more glaring and flagrant inequalities, when you have a part of our patriots who are breaking up from society, we cannot say that the country is doing well.” — Rachida Dati, mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris and former Justice Minister .

“These harmful drifts do not result from a moment of distraction but from a political direction driven by fundamentally corrupting ideological considerations.” — Marine Le Pen, French presidential candidate.

The open letter and Le Pen’s response come amid a spate of at least nine consecutive jihadist attacks in France, all of which were carried out by individuals who were unknown to French intelligence services, and who therefore were not suspected of being radicalized and consequently were not on a jihadist watchlist. The attacks suggest that French authorities have lost control of monitoring Islamic radicals in the country.

A group of retired generals has warned in an open letter that France is sliding toward a civil war due to the government’s failure to control mass migration and creeping Islamism in the country. The letter, which has broad public support, according to polls, also warns against cultural Marxism, runaway multiculturalism and the expansion of no-go zones in France.

The warning comes amid a wave of jihadist attacks — including the beheading of a schoolteacher — committed by young men, none of whom were previously known to French intelligence services. The letter also comes after widespread public indignation over a French justice system compromised by political correctness — as evidenced by the refusal to prosecute an African immigrant from Mali who, while shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (“Allah is the Greatest”), killed an elderly Jewish woman by breaking into her home and pushing her off her balcony.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mexico-city-metro-system-overpass-collapses-killing-at-least-13-people-11620106656?mod=world_minor_pos1

MEXICO CITY—An elevated section of the Mexico City metro system collapsed and sent a subway car plunging toward a busy boulevard late Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring about 70, officials said.

A crane was working to hold up one subway car left dangling on the collapsed section so that emergency workers could enter to check the car to see if anyone was still trapped. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said. She said 49 of the injured were hospitalized and seven were in serious condition and undergoing surgery.

Ms. Sheinbaum said a motorist had been pulled alive from a car that was trapped on the roadway below. Dozens of rescuers continued searching through wreckage from the collapsed, preformed concrete structure.

“There are unfortunately children among the dead,” Ms. Sheinbaum said, without specifying how many.

The overpass was more than 16 feet above the road in the southside borough of Tlahuac, but the train ran above a concrete median strip, which apparently lessened the casualties among motorists on the road below.

“A support beam gave way,” Ms. Sheinbaum said, adding that the beam collapsed just as the train passed over it.

Rescue efforts were briefly interrupted at midnight because the partially dangling train was very weak.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-grieve-for-my-native-india-11620078871?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

I’m an immigrant, happy and assimilated. I pay closer attention to America than I do to other parts of the world. This isn’t only because I live here. Settling in a country calls for integration that is meticulous, not just heartfelt. That doesn’t mean that I wall myself off from the world. Like many immigrants, I also pay near-obsessive attention to the land of my birth.

Previous immigrant generations needed to erase their old selves to become American. You were more American by being less Italian, or by letting the Greek or Serb in you dwindle. But America now demands less. I’ve never felt pressed to forget India, where I was born. Even if I’d wanted to, I wouldn’t be able, because of technology. An immigrant now can never let go of the country of his birth.

These days have been suffused with India. I’ve spent my waking hours reading and watching news, talking to people by telephone, taking in tweets and Facebook posts, all of which describe the enormity of India’s pandemic collapse. A decade ago, I spoke to Liberian immigrants who followed from afar that country’s battle with Ebola, and also to people from Haiti as they wrestled with the earthquake’s aftermath. They spoke to me of their impotence (at being unable to help), their guilt (being in America while relatives perished from precisely the sort of fate the immigrant moved here to avoid), and their gut-churning sense of distance from loved ones who’d been sickened or buried under rubble in Port-au-Prince.

I’m in close touch with my family. I speak daily to my mother, who is isolating at home in Delhi, and to my sister, who’s raising her Zoom-schooled sons in that city and doing her job as an elementary-school teacher. My brother works as an editor, putting out a publication whose reporters go out, masked and tireless, writing up the grim news they see. A part of that news was the death of his own wife’s father.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/democracies-abetted-irans-election-to-a-u-n-womens-rights-post/?utm_source=

The election of Iran, China, and other countries with delinquent human-rights records to the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women last month kicked off an international whodunnit.

According to the NGO U.N. Watch, at least five Western democracies eligible to vote on commission membership would have needed to support Tehran’s bid. Meanwhile, the U.S. government called the development “troubling” but declined to issue a sharper condemnation.

Human-rights advocates blame this ambiguous stance on the Biden administration’s efforts to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as ongoing talks in Vienna get closer to producing an agreement to jumpstart the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “The Biden administration has joined Canada and Europe in a most disciplined reticence to criticize the Islamic Republic’s mounting repression, in the hope that the lack of scrutiny will be seen by the regime as another concession to curb its nuclear program,” said Marian Memarsadeghi, a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

The problems with Tehran’s participation in any international entity involving women’s equality should be self-evident. At a Monday morning U.N. Watch press conference that focused on Iran’s election to the commission, panelists, including Memarsadeghi and Shaparak Shajarizadeh, an activist who was jailed twice and assaulted for speaking out against Iran’s mandatory hijab law, pointed to Iran’s manifest hostility to women, including the fact that the age of marriage for girls is 13 and that domestic violence and marital rape are not criminally punishable. (Read more on this from Isaac Schorr.)

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17332/china-new-zealand-five-eyes

The survival of the alliance in its current form, though, is under threat after Ms Ardern’s administration announced that it was making improved trade relations with Beijing its priority, rather than maintaining its support for Five Eyes.

“No matter if they have five eyes or ten eyes, as soon as they dare to harm China’s sovereignty, security or development interests, they should be careful lest their eyes be poked blind.” — Zhao Lijian, the spokesman for China’s foreign minister, BBC, November 19, 2020.

New Zealand’s naive approach to the threat posed by Beijing not only poses a threat to the future of the alliance itself. There is a distinct possibility that Wellington could find itself being expelled from the alliance over its pro-Beijing stance.

As a senior Western intelligence official recently commented about New Zealand’s continued membership of the alliance, the country was now “on the edge of viability as a member” of the alliance because of its “supine” attitude to China and its “compromised political system”.

New Zealand’s socialist government may believe that it is a good idea to throw in their lot with China’s communist rulers. But by doing so, they risk sacrificing their future to domination by China’s despots.

China is making a deliberate attempt to create divisions within the elite “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance by forging closer relations with the left-wing government of New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern.

The Five Eyes alliance, comprising the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, dates back to the Second World War, when a number of key allies decided to share intelligence in their bid to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan.

Today, maintaining intelligence-sharing cooperation between the five Anglophone nations is deemed essential to combating the threat posed by autocratic states, such as Russia and Communist China.