RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-to-invoke-emergency-powers-to-ban-masks-at-protests-11570089982

Hong Kong’s cabinet will meet Friday to invoke emergency powers to tackle spiraling protests and lawlessness, starting with a ban on people wearing masks that are used to protect themselves from tear gas or hide their identities, people familiar with the plan said.

The city’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam called the special meeting of her executive council to propose the ban, which, if agreed, would become law Friday, one of the people said. The measure is almost certain to be approved as the cabinet comprises mostly pro-government figures.

Police and pro-Beijing groups ramped up calls for the British colonial-era law to be used for the first time in half a century after the city was rocked by the worst day of violence in 50 years during China’s National Day celebrations on Tuesday. Protesters and riot police clashed in more than a dozen districts, leaving more than 100 injured. Police shot one protester in the chest.

The shooting brought people back into the streets to condemn the city’s police force Wednesday evening, targeting subway stations. Police were mostly absent from the streets until about midnight. Officials, who fear similar scenes this coming holiday weekend, have been running out of options to contain the unrest that has increasingly taken over the city and has sent the economy tumbling toward a recession.

The government is taking the unusual step of invoking the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to “end the violence and restore law and order to the streets,” one of the people familiar with the plan said. It would be the first time it has been used since the British colonial government invoked it to suppress 1967 leftist riots that shook the city during China’s Cultural Revolution.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14941/macron-appeasing-iran

Has French President Emmanuel Macron forgotten that he is helping and appeasing a state leading in human rights violations? In 2018, according to Javaid Rehman, the UN expert on human rights in Iran, at least 273 people were executed in Iran, and 6,000 over ten years, according to Iran Human Rights.

In addition, the use of cruel and inhuman punishment is also on the rise in Iran; according to Amnesty International, the use of various forms of torture such as amputation and flogging has been increasing at an alarming rate.

Macron also fails to recognize that the nuclear deal never contained or adequately addressed Iran’s multifaceted threats, which include but are not limited to: The arming and financing of terror and militia groups in the region; intervening in the internal affairs of regional countries; pursing a sectarian agenda by pitting Shiites and Sunnis against each other; carrying out cyber attacks against other nations; and committing human rights violations inside Iran and abroad through its proxies.

French President Emmanuel Macron appears to be following the footsteps of former US President Barack Obama when it comes to appeasing the top state sponsor of terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In a recent development, the French government offered $15 billion to bail out the Iranian government from US sanctions, and a plea to “restart negotiations.” The Iranian government was most likely thrilled; a headline of a major Iranian state-controlled media outlet, Abrar Eqtesadi read: “Iran to receive $15 billion line of credit!”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-opens-a-second-front-along-israels-border-11570056375

Israel is fighting off Iranian expansion across the Middle East, but danger for the Jewish state lurks near its own borders. Painstaking work by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their loyal proxies has succeeded in laying the groundwork for a second Iranian front with Israel in the Golan Heights.

The first front is to Israel’s north in South Lebanon. The Golan, which Israel won from Syria in 1967, lies further east. Though Israel rules the skies, the Syrian land adjoining Israel’s border appears increasingly to belong to Iran. Reports from both Israelis and Syrian opposition groups have revealed glimpses of the methods the Iranians and their allies have employed to build a military infrastructure on the Syrian side of the Golan.

One is “The Iranian Conquest of Syria,” a report published last month by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. The authors are two retired senior Israeli military intelligence officers, Brig. Gen. Shimon Shapira and Col. Jacques Neriah. They explain how Iranian and Hezbollah fighters have crept methodically westward from the Syrian lava field of Lajat, 40 miles from the Golan Heights in Syria’s southwest, to the broken nation’s Quneitra province, which is even closer.

The Iranian element, made up of the Revolutionary Guard, Lebanese Hezbollah and the local Syrians they have recruited, is tightly woven into the border villages and the official Syrian security forces. That much is clear from the locations of the four permanent bases used by Lebanese Hezbollah in southwest Syria. One is at Al Haraq, within an area controlled and maintained by the Syrian army’s 52nd Brigade. Two others are in the Lajat area. These are used to train locally recruited fighters and store short- and medium-range missiles.

The fourth base is in Quneitra, outside Al Hadr, about 3 miles from the Israeli border. According to the Israeli researchers, the base is protected by the Quneitra Hawks Brigade, which is part of the Syrian National Defense Forces, a reserve army established by Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. The base is situated within a position of the Syrian army’s 90th Brigade and used mainly for intelligence gathering and eavesdropping. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.jns.org/corbyn-sparks-controversy-for-rosh-hashanah-video-featuring-ha

Jeremy Corbyn sparked outrage for releasing a Rosh Hashanah video that features an activist who last year led a public Jewish mourning prayer for dead members of Hamas.It features Rob Abrams, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist who in May 2018 led the Kaddish prayer in Parliament Square for 62 Palestinians killed on the Israel-Gaza border, at least 50 of whom were Hamas operatives.

In the clip posted on Twitter ahead of the Jewish holiday, Corbyn visits a grocery store with Jewish Labour Party members to discuss the symbolism of honey and apples for the Jewish new year and promote Labour’s “Green Industrial Revolution” program.

Alongside him is Rob Abrams, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist who in May 2018 led the Kaddish prayer in Parliament Square for 62 Palestinians killed on the Israel-Gaza border, at least 50 of whom were Hamas operatives, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

Israel activist David Collier wrote in response to the clip, “There is no way you are not aware much of the Jewish community were outraged when this person explicitly led a prayer service for dead Hamas terrorists. Which makes your actions here deliberate. Your spiteful nature highlights you are a real danger.”

Also in the video is Labour counselor Sue Lukes, who tweeted an article titled the “Jewish ‘War against Corbyn’ risks bringing real antisemitism to Britain” and wrote a piece to “honor” Malia Bouattia, the former National Union of Students president who was accused of anti-Semitism.

https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/berlin-antisemitism/

Berlin has surpassed Malmö as Europe’s antisemitism capital, with a wide variety of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel attitudes on display. They include dozens of cases of physical aggression against Jews, including rabbis. Jewish pupils have had to leave public schools. Thirty-five percent of Berliners view Israelis as analogous to Nazis. An Al-Quds Day march takes place annually that calls for the destruction of Israel. Both the municipality and the federal government are two-faced  about the problem of antisemitism.

For years, experts viewed Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city, as the capital of antisemitism in Europe. Incidents of anti-Jewish hatred occurred there on a regular basis. Mayor Ilmar Reepalu, a former socialist, was an antisemite. A bomb was thrown at a local synagogue. Complaints filed by Jews were ignored by judges. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) put out a travel warning concerning the town.

Antisemitism in Malmö has not weakened significantly, but even a superficial look at the scale of classic antisemitism and anti-Israelism in Berlin shows that it by far surpasses Malmö. There are so many facets to antisemitism in the German capital that any summary remains incomplete.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/brexit-boris-johnson-geoffrey-cox-refuse-to-surrender/

On the afternoon of this past Wednesday — following the U.K. supreme court’s ruling that the prorogation of Parliament by Her Majesty’s Government was unlawful, null, and void, had never happened at all legally, and would have to be reversed — the U.K’s chief legal officer, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, rose to speak to a largely hostile House of Commons. In addition to feeling the government’s general travails, Cox seemed to be in a sticky position personally because it was he who had advised the cabinet that prorogation was indisputably legal — to the point that anyone who denied it could have only political motives for so doing.

Cox was therefore defending himself as much as the government.

When he sat down a short time later, the Tory benches were buoyant, cheering for the first time in weeks. Cox had knocked Labour MPs, ex-Tory dissidents, Liberal Democrat scolds, and the entire anti-Brexit Coalition of Incompatibles around the Commons chamber with the kind of robust theatrical performance that only a top Queen’s counsel (a kind of super-lawyer) can put across with easy conviction.

While respecting the supreme court’s judgment, he said he did not agree with it. He refused to apologize for the legal advice he had given the cabinet, which reflected what the law was before the supreme court’s judgment. He responded forcefully and even dismissively to successive critics on the Opposition benches, telling one Labour MP that he ought to beg the forgiveness of his voters for betraying them over Brexit. And overall, he denounced the opposition parties for cowardice and obstructionism:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14894/swedes-are-fleeing

As a consequence of taking in so many migrants within a relatively short time span, not only during the extraordinary migration crisis in 2015 but generally in the years 2012-2017, municipalities are fighting high unemployment, a rise in child poverty and rising social welfare expenditures, according to Jim Frölander.

“I have tried to defend Malmö,” Emma Zetterholm said, “But the more time passes and you notice that there is no improvement, you eventually lose your resilience”.

“As a parent, you become angry, desperate… The result is that those who can, and can afford it, move…. To a quieter part of the country or abroad. Those who do not have the same opportunities [to move] remain where they are. It’s devastating…” — Former Minister of Labour Sven Otto Littorin, who now lives and works in Dubai, on Facebook.

“About 13 percent of the population in Sweden experience problems in their own residential areas with crime, violence or vandalism. It is one of the highest proportions in Europe.” By comparison, the other Nordic countries were placed among the countries with the lowest percentage of the population who experience such problems….” — Statistics Sweden, April 25, 2019.

Swedes are on the move. Problems in many municipalities are prompting Swedes to leave for other areas with fewer socioeconomic problems. The issue has recently gained the attention of the Swedish mainstream media.

Take the small, picturesque town of Filipstad (population 10,000), for example. Swedish television recently made a documentary about the town, which finds itself in both a financial and an existential crisis. “We are experiencing a population exchange. You can think of that what you want… But it is simply a statement of fact that this is actually what we are going through and we have to deal with it”, Jim Frölander, integration manager in the Filipstad municipality, says in the documentary. Between 2012 and 2018, 640 native Swedes left the town, and 963 foreign-born people moved into the town. Those leaving are people of working age (20-64), which means that the municipality’s tax revenues are shrinking, exacerbating town’s financial crisis.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14946/wobbly-on-iran

Iran has, indeed, seen its economy crumble, inflation and unemployment soar, and its oil exports rapidly fall to under 200,000 barrels a day from more than two million.

In short, through a combined policy of military restraint and economic pressure, the Trump administration has shifted the entire discussion on Iran.

No longer is preserving the JCPOA the issue, but rather jettisoning it and perhaps starting over. No longer is the use or abuse of American military power the focus of debate, but rather Iran’s terrorist activities — not just against America and Israel — but against the entire world’s energy sources.

Since the Islamic Republic of Iran was created in 1979, the regime in Tehran has been at war with the United States and its allies, revealing itself to be an expansionist nation, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and having “blood lust for its enemies.”

The 2015 signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — which Iran did not sign — and otherwise bafflingly known as the “nuclear deal with Iran,” was falsely claimed by its supporters in the West to prevent the ayatollah-led regime from obtaining nuclear weapons, even though its most salient feature was its “sunset clause” enabling Iran to have as many as it liked in just a few short years. As the Israeli government repeatedly warned, the JCPOA actually “put Iran on a glide path” towards a nuclear-weapons capability.

Furthermore, the Iranian government refused to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect sites at which there was suspected nuclear activity for military purposes. It was not until the Israeli Mossad retrieved a trove of documents from a warehouse in Tehran in mid-2018 that concrete evidence of such activity was shown.

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-tragedy-of-communist-china/90852/

Communist China’s 70th anniversary, with its spectacle of violence against demonstrators for democracy in Hong Kong, is a moment to mark a profound truth: There is no difference between political liberty and economic liberty. They cannot be separated, nor can one be put before the other. It turns out that economic liberty and political liberty are the same thing — warp and woof of the fabric of freedom.

This became evident in Asia in the 1970s, when our defeat in Vietnam ushered in an era in which the so-called non-aligned nations began to assert themselves. Their conceit was that communism and capitalism were both bad. So non-aligned countries set up authoritarian regimes pursuing Western style development by focusing on business. They delayed political freedom until, in theory, they could afford it.

That theory, though, was upended in those Asian lands where democracy managed to emerge — Japan, Free Korea, and the Free Chinese Republic on Taiwan. It wasn’t easy; real democracy almost got defeated in, say, South Korea and took some time to emerge in, say, Taiwan. Eventually, though, the countries that chose multiparty democracy, freedom of religion, and the rule of law emerged as winners.

This was always recognized in America — and not just by Republicans. One of the clearest expressions of it was given by President Carter. That was in May 1977, when he spoke at Notre Dame. Said the 39th President: “The great democracies are not free because we are strong and prosperous. I believe we are strong and influential and prosperous because we are free.”

By then, though, that truth was already being betrayed. That started in the United Nations. Free China was one of its founders and — with America, Russia, Britain, and Free France — a permanent member of the Security Council, with full veto powers. Yet on a motion of one of the world’s worst tyrannies, Albania, the UN in 1971 gave China’s seat to the communist camarilla.

Nixon’s trip to Peking followed. Then President Carter, at Free China’s expense, and with Congress providing the hechsher, formally recognized the communist regime. This was challenged in the Supreme Court by Senator Goldwater. The justices took the case, but refused to hear arguments, and ordered a lower court to dismiss Goldwater’s claim as non-justiciable.

UNITED KINGDOM

A rapist migrant who tied his victim up with a phone cable after forcing his way into a flat has been convicted of rape; Temesgen Desta, 32, grabbed his victim by the throat to stop her screaming for help and hit her causing her to fall, in Birmingham city centre, West Midlands; also wanted for attempted sexual assault of a 54-year-old woman at Crosby beach, Merseyside, the previous afternoon; both women who were unknown to Desta.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rape-phone-cable-birmingham-liverpool-sex-attacks-temesgen-desta-a9124516.html

Two men in their 20’s in critical condition after shooting in Ilford, east London; No arrests have been made and a crime scene remains in place.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/28/two-men-in-critical-condition-after-east-london-shooting

A gang member who stabbed his rival in an unprovoked attack in broad daylight in Luton, Bedfordshire, has been jailed; gang member ran up to his rival’s car at a set of traffic lights brandishing a knife; repeatedly stabbed him through the open passenger window

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/luton-stabbing-gang-violence-dashcam-video-police-tyriq-richards-tindle-a9124226.html

Police officer rushed to hospital after being injured in hit and run attack in Coventry, West Midlands; officer was attempting to stop a car; driver sped off after hitting officer

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1182671/Coventry-Police-officer-hit-and-run-injured-west-midlands-police-appeal

Man suffers serious burns after being soaked in flammable liquid and set alight in Skelmersdale, Lancashire; the man is in hospital in a critical but stable condition after suffering serious burns at his home; Officers have launched an attempted murder inquiry

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/26/lancashire-man-set-on-fire-on-doorstep-in-dreadful-targeted-attack

Hillingdon, west London, stabbing: Man brutally knifed to death on platform of London tube station by a group of young men

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1182196/hillingdon-stabbing-london-knife-crime-london-underground-tube-metropolitan-line

A car was deliberately driven into pedestrians in north London, injuring one; the driver deliberately mounted the pavement after an argument earlier in the day, and hit “a number” of pedestrians; It took place outside Highbury and Islington Underground station.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/highbury-islington-station-car-crash-met-police-hit-run-a9117196.html

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) could and should have extradited a PAEDOPHILE music teacher suspected of grooming and sexually abusing a string of girls at a school in Manchester; was first investigated in 1990 after abuse allegations but case was dropped due to supposed lack of evidence

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/30/cps-could-and-should-have-extradited-paedophile-music-teacher

Illegal skin lightening creams found on sale in England and Wales; Criminals exploiting boom in market, with products ‘acting like paint stripper’; skin-whitening cream market is predicted to almost double in the next 10 years; the highly toxic creams could increase the risk of cancer.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/28/illegal-skin-lightening-creams-on-sale-england-wales

ISIS Shock: Families of British jihadis plot to smuggle them to UK as Johnson’s Cabinet sink his calls for children to be repatriated; ISIS members have already been smuggled out of camps where British citizens are held

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1184282/isis-news-shamima-begum-terrorism-boris-johnson-priti-patel-conservative-ben-wallace

Jihadi bride Shamima Begum begs to come home saying she was brainwashed about Islam; regrets her past and wants to come back to the UK for a “second chance to start my life over again” after being “brainwashed” before leaving Bethnal Green for the desert; “I came here believing everything that I had been told while knowing little about the truths of my religion.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1182885/isis-bride-shamima-begum-return-britain-bethnal-green-schoolgirl-syria

Dover BOMB SCARE: P&O ferry passengers evacuated after suspicious package found; army bomb squad have been ordered in to investigate

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1183786/dover-P-O-ferry-security-suspicious-package-evacuation

UK courts powerless to prevent deportation of girl, 10, at risk of FGM; Fear child may return to Sudan via Bahrain; A family court had ruled that the girl could be subjected to FGM if taken abroad. But Britain’s Home Office challenged the court’s power to prevent her deportation and on Wednesday the court accepted it did not have such powers; About 87% of Sudan’s women aged between 15 and 49 have been cut, and the majority have undergone the severest form, infibulation, according to the World Health Organization.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/25/girl-10-at-risk-of-fgm-faces-deportation-from-britain

Grooming gang members who targeted girls as young as 12 in Manchester park jailed; Two brothers and two cousins jailed after other members of Romanian gang flee UK; the men met victims in a park and then targeted them in the Levenshulme area and using social media between 2016 and 2018.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/grooming-gangs-manchester-jailed-rape-romanian-calin-baltatu-levenshulme-a9117391.html

Youth services ‘decimated by 69 per cent’ in less than a decade amid surge in knife crime, figures show; Campaigners warn austerity is pushing more children and young people into street violence; Knife crime has meanwhile surged, with 43,516 offences reported to police last year across England and Wales

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/knife-crime-youth-services-cuts-councils-austerity-ymca-a9118671.html

POLICE in Manchester have responding to reports of a suspicious package at Manchester Airport’s train station, with bomb disposal officers carrying out a controlled explosion after an incident apparently triggered by a naked man running amok.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1181465/Manchester-Airport-latest-bomb-police-lockdown-terror-attack-Manchester-airport-flights

Moorgate, London, tube station evacuated: Police swoop in after ‘suspect package’ spotted

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1180605/moorgate-tube-station-security-alert-suspect-package-travel-delay-london-underground

Inspectors discover poor standards at 28 mental health units; Psychiatrists call for inquiry after report on private units, many occupied by NHS patients

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/25/inspectors-discover-poor-standards-at-28-mental-health-units

PAEDOPHILES, killers and drug dealers were among 12,000 who applied to be carers for the vulnerable and elderly last year. It is unknown how many applicants with criminal pasts might have been hired by bosses desperate for staff.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1181313/care-home-horror-crimes-vulnerable

Prisoners take over wing in disturbance at HMP Long Lartin; Staff retreat from wing after being attacked with pool balls at Worcestershire prison

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/24/prisoners-take-over-wing-in-disturbance-at-hmp-long-lartin

MORE than 60 rapes and killings were carried out by suspects on bail for other crimes last year. They were among 13,456 offences committed by so-called “bail bandits”, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1181057/Crime-UK-rape-killing-murder-bail

Women’s rights group sues CPS over failure to pursue rape cases; New approach has led to collapse in number of defendants charged, say activists

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/24/womens-rights-group-sues-cps-over-failure-to-pursue-rape-cases

The amount of money stolen by criminals through bank transfer scams has risen by 40% in a year and is running at more than £1m a day, according to official UK data; people were duped into authorising a payment to an account controlled by a criminal; scam is officially known as authorised push payment (APP) fraud and includes cases where criminals hack into email accounts of individuals or companies the individuals have employed, to dupe consumers into sending large sums to criminal accounts.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/sep/26/number-of-bank-transfer-scams-in-uk-rise-by-40-in-a-year