RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/07/inside-north-korea-the-land-where-lies-are-king/

My tour guide, Mr Li, asks “Is Australia divided into a North and South as well?”. Resisting the urge to make a joke about the Northern Territory, I tell him that it is not. These were the type of naïve, yet always cordially couched questions about everyday Australian banalities that I fielded during my visit to North Korea, a nation of 23 million prisoners – physically and psychologically. But it is important to separate the regime from the perpetually violated – yet often still jovial, and always inquisitive – people who have the misfortune of living in the last truly rogue state.

Arid land, emaciated husks of livestock (their owners not dissimilar), and a myriad other abject miseries fly past the window of the 17:27 to Pyongyang. Local farmers stare wide-eyed, some wave at perhaps the first foreign person they have ever seen.

“Thirty minutes until arrival”.

The “city of flat soil”, the literal translation of Pyongyang, is by far the most gentrified in the nation, yet the bleak hopelessness which defines rural life doesn’t ebb when you arrive on urban ground; it is simply traded for an existence – perhaps even crueller – among total artificiality, a state of limbo in which one knows they are imprisoned while acquiescing with their captors, lest they be sent to one of the North’s notorious ‘aquariums’. Pyongyang is only for those who are, relatively speaking, in on the joke – those who know that the outside world at least exists; those who know that Kim Jong Il didn’t, in fact, hit eleven holes-in-one the first time he picked up a golf club. These are mostly political elites, families with a history of loyalty to the regime, and polyglot tour guides, Mr. Li included.

Outside residents are prevented from travelling anywhere near the capital by checkpoints littered along the inbound roads. From afar, Pyongyang almost passes as an average city, mutatis mutandis. Pastel-shaded apartment buildings occupy the outskirts of the city, dated — but not offensively so — glass structures cast shadows over downtown, and spotless public squares are plentiful.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14624/turkey-threatens-migrant-crisis

“We are facing the biggest wave of migration in history. If we open the floodgates, no European government will be able to survive for more than six months. We advise them not to try our patience.” — Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

“Turkey is fully committed to the objective of EU membership… The finalization of the Visa Liberalization Dialogue process which will allow our citizens to travel to the Schengen area without a visa, is our first priority.” — Statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, May 9, 2019.

“This doesn’t mean that I have anything against the Turks…. But if we begin to explain it — that Turkey is in Europe — European school students will have to be told that the European border lies in Syria. Where’s common sense? … Can Turkey be regarded a European country culturally, historically, and economically speaking? If we say that, we want the European Union’s death.” — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

If the EU approves the visa waiver, tens of millions of Turks will gain immediate and unimpeded access to Europe’s passport-free zone. Critics of visa liberalization fear that millions of Turkish nationals may end up migrating to Europe. The Austrian newsmagazine, Wochenblick, reported that 11 million Turks are living in poverty and “many of them are dreaming of moving to central Europe.”

Turkey has threatened to re-open the floodgates of mass migration to Europe unless Turkish nationals are granted visa-free travel to the European Union. The EU agreed to visa liberalization in a March 2016 EU-Turkey migrant deal in which Ankara pledged to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.

European officials insist that while Turkey has reduced the flow of migrants, it has not yet met all of the requirements for visa liberalization. Moreover, EU foreign ministers on July 15 decided to halt high-level talks with Ankara as part of sanctions over Turkish oil and gas drilling off the coast of Cyprus.

In an interview with Turkish television channel TGRT Haber on July 22, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey was backing out of the migrant deal because the EU had failed to honor its pledge to grant Turkish passport holders visa-free access to 26 European countries. “We have suspended the readmission agreement,” he said. “We will not wait at the EU’s door.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14626/iran-maritime-violations

Tehran is clearly violating international law, specifically the internationally-agreed UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)…. The theocratic establishment of Iran is a signatory to this UN convention but has long refrained from ratifying it.
Wherever silence prevails, rogue states thrive. In the instance of Iran, the silence of the international community has been earsplitting. Moreover, any destructive behavior left unchecked is being passively reinforced; if the international community continues its silence while their unruly pet violates UN resolutions and maritime laws, they can only expect such violations to become the norm.
The UN needs to hold the Iranian leaders accountable and take appropriate measures against Iran’s aggression in the Gulf. If the UN fails to do this, other nations would be stupid not to take the cue deliberately to disobey existing international laws — possibly leading to a major war.

In recent times, nothing has exemplified the double standards of the international community more than its laid-back response to the illicit activities and recklessness of Iran in international waterways during the last few months.

Bizarrely, the international community and its ever-so-willing apologists cronies in the mainstream media seem more interested in chasing shadows with their constant criticism of Israel, while slyly ignoring the main culprit, Iran, which continues to jeopardize safety, peace and security in the region and worldwide.

In May 2019, for instance, four tankers were attacked close to the port of Fujairah off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, in what was a violation of their territorial space. Within a month, on the June 13, two ships – the Japanese Kokuka Courageous and the Norwegian Front Altair — crossing the Gulf of Oman were sabotaged with explosives. One went up in flames; the other was left to be towed away.

A few weeks later, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a video showing commandos in black ski masks and military fatigues descending from a helicopter to seize a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians would on go to shoot down an American drone over International waters. All of these provocations have somehow seemed to be slipped under the radar by the UN and other powers that be.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/boy-8-dies-after-he-and-mother-pushed-on-train-tracks-in-germany-1.3970820

An eight-year-old boy has died after he and his mother were deliberately pushed on to train tracks at Frankfurt’s main railway station, German police have said.

The boy was hit by a high-speed ICE train and killed instantly. His mother was able to roll into a safe gap between two platforms and escaped injury.

The suspect was chased through the station by passengers who managed to tackle him to the ground. Police later confirmed a 40-year-old man of African origin had been arrested.

The incident happened at about 10am on Monday on platform seven of the station, which is one of Germany’s busiest. The boy’s mother was being treated for shock, according to a police spokeswoman.
“Passengers witnessed the disaster, and ran after the fleeing man. It was possible to arrest him while he was still in the station,” the spokeswoman said. She added that the man had intended to push a third person on to the track, “but she was able to defend herself”.

The suspect is believed to be from Eritrea, according to police. He was being held in police custody on Monday but his possible motive remained unclear. The alleged perpetrator and the victims are not believed to have known each other.

Six platforms remained closed for several hours.
The incident follows the death of a 34-year-old woman nine days ago, who was pushed in front of a regional train in Voerde in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia in what is also believed to have been an unprovoked attack.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274429/swedens-impending-moral-and-economic-collapse-joseph-puder

The “Nordic Paradise” that was Sweden until a few decades ago, has become a virtual nightmare with the influx of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, most of them unwilling to assimilate. The homogeneous society that was once Sweden, with low crime, and strong work ethics, has turned into a multicultural society, replete with crime, social instability, and declining productivity.

For the many believers in the workability of social democracy, Sweden was a model of success and admiration. While personal taxes were high, the state provided its citizens with a lavish social welfare system and cradle-to-grave social services. Then came the flood of immigrants from the Balkans, and with it, changing economic circumstances. Swedish historian Johan Norberg explained, “Our economy was in a crisis, inflation reached 10%, and interest rates soared to 500%. At that point, the Swedish population just said enough, we can’t do that.” As Sweden approached the 1990’s, its economy encountered a serious fiscal and budgetary crisis. It required the almost endemic rule of the Social-Democratic government to enact drastic reforms, including extensive privatization, cuts in government spending, reduction of social services, and opening itself to a free market economy. It meant that the socialist experiment had to come to an end. The above moves created prosperity and economic progress for a while, albeit, individual taxes remained high.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants changed Sweden’s cultural scene, and adversely impacted on its economic wellbeing. The Danish historian and social commentator, Lars Hedegaard, observed in his 2014 book “Dangerous Words” that, “If there is any lesson to be drawn from history, it is that what you do not think will happen, does. Time and again. The final consequence of the West and, above all, Sweden’s immigration policy is that the economy will collapse — because who is going to pay for it all? And economic breakdowns once they happen, always happen very fast.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274476/palestinians-assault-mohamed-saud-embracing-two-caroline-glick

Israeli and Arab audiences alike were recently shocked to see footage of Palestinian teenagers in Jerusalem’s Old City assaulting, cursing, and spitting on Saudi blogger Mohamed Saud as he came to pray at Islam’s third holiest site, the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and as he toured the Arab market in the Old City.

There was no reason for them to be surprised.

As independent Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh noted in an article for the Gatestone Institute, the assault on Saud was the predictable result of a campaign of incitement spearheaded by the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PJS). The PJS is affiliated with Fatah, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) faction that rules the Palestinian Authority (PA) under Fatah leader and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Saud was the only member of a delegation of six Arab bloggers visiting Israel at the invitation of Israel’s Foreign Ministry who was willing to be identified by name. His willingness to visit the Jewish state openly made Saud a target for personal incitement by the PJS.

But as Abu Toameh noted, the PJS’s incitement, which involved young people calling Saud a “traitor,” a “dirty Zionist,” a “dog,” and a “normalizer” (that is, an Arab would seeks to normalize the Arab world’s relations with Israel), was part of a much larger campaign to block all relations with Israel.

Abu Toameh explained that the PJS calls for a boycott of Israeli journalists. Palestinian journalists who interview Israelis or work with Israeli journalists are similarly targets for boycott.

Arab regimes that permit Israeli journalists to cover events in their countries – as Bahrain permitted Israelis to cover its economic peace conference last month – are condemned.

When word got out that the delegation of Arab bloggers would be visiting Israel, Abu Toameh wrote, the PJS not only called for the delegation members to be attacked on the ground, but it also called for them to be boycotted and blackballed by their audiences in their home countries, and in the Arab world as a whole.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14625/turkey-adopts-eurasianism

Few observers back then warned that Erdoğan’s pro-West façade was fake and his deep adherence to political Islam, an enemy of the Western civilization, would one day urge him to seek non-Western alliances.

Turkey’s choice of a Russian-made air defense system that is primarily designated to hit NATO aerial assets is a reflection of its anticipation of an aerial military conflict with a NATO member in the future.

No doubt, the S-400 is also a sign of Erdogan’s disregard for Turkey’s increasingly problematic place in the Western alliance. Erdoğan’s ideologues keep on portraying the U.S. as an “enemy country,” and many Turks increasingly buy that line. Seven out of 10 Turks now report feeling threatened by U.S. power….

Ironically, it was an anti-Islamist, Kemalist Turkish general who first suggested that Turkey should align its foreign policy with the rising powers of Eurasia — all of Europe plus Asia. It was just eight months before President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) first came to power, and since then, has remained undefeated. The U.S. at the time was busy with the final touches on the military operation that would oust Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, in March 2003.

General Tuncay Kılınç, the powerful secretary general of Turkey’s National Security Council, said that Turkey should seek an alternative alliance with Russia and Iran. In November 2002, Erdoğan’s AKP came to power, pledging to pursue pro-EU, pro-West, liberal governance, and wrongly accusing Kemalist ideology of being an obstacle against liberal democracy — an incredible political story, to judge it 17 years later. Few observers back then warned that Erdoğan’s pro-West façade was fake and his deep adherence to political Islam, an enemy of the Western civilization, would one day urge him to seek non-Western alliances.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-russia-and-china-are-joining-forces-11564441072

Russian and Chinese military aircraft probed South Korean and Japanese air defenses last week, leading the South Koreans to fire more than 300 warning shots before the intruders departed.

This was just the latest manifestation of a deepening alliance between Russia and China. James Dobbins, Howard Shatz and Ali Wyne described the emerging alignment in an April essay in the Diplomat. In 2016, Russia displaced Saudi Arabia as China’s largest source of imported oil. In 2017, the two countries held their first joint naval exercise in the Baltic Sea. In June 2018, Xi Jinping called Vladimir Putin “my best, most intimate friend,” and later that year Chinese forces participated in the largest military exercise on Russian soil since 1981.

The departing director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, says the two Eurasian supergiants are as close as they were in the 1950s. From Venezuela to Syria to Serbia, they are working to frustrate the West. They are also increasingly cooperating in sub-Saharan Africa and have found ways to reduce their competition in Central Asia.

Many analysts discounted the prospects for deep Sino-Russian coordination. Mr. Putin’s overarching foreign policy objective has long been to build up Russia as an independent great power between Europe and China; a close alliance with a rising China works against this goal. Tensions along their lengthy border, commercial rivalries, and Russian suspicion of Chinese designs on its Far Eastern territories tend to drive the two countries apart. Given Russia’s slow decline and China’s rapid rise, some expected Russia would support Western efforts to balance China rather than undermine them.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/islamic-terrorists-boko-haram-kill-at-least-23-funeral-mourners/

Boko Haram — aka “The Deadliest Islamic Terrorist Group That Almost No One Talks About” — is at it again, this time opening fire on a crowd of funeral mourners in Nigeria’s Borno state.

The number of casualties is unclear, but this is from one of the first reports:

That number could be much higher, according to the BBC:

Eyewitnesses say militants on motorbikes and in vans opened fire on mourners in a village on the outskirts of the state capital, Maiduguri.

The death toll could be as high as 65, AFP news agency reports.

There has been an increase in attacks by Boko Haram and other Islamist groups in Nigeria and across the region.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and more than two million displaced over the past decade of conflict.

Despite being perhaps the most frightening and murderous Islamic terror faction in the past several years, Boko Haram almost flies under the media radar relative to how prolifically evil it is.

They prey on the most vulnerable, so slaughtering funeral-goers is really nothing out of the ordinary for these monsters. When they are not kidnapping children, they are burning them alive.

The BBC also notes that the group “has splintered into competing factions” in the past few years yet still remains very active.