RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/italys-salvini-rises-with-fiery-words-and-pragmatic-decisions-11550066401

Far-right lnterior Minister Matteo Salvini strolled through a crowd of supporters in the main square of this southern Abruzzo town. Leaping on stage to campaign for regional elections, Mr. Salvini took aim at prosecutors who have charged him with kidnapping 177 African migrants last year after he refused to let them disembark from a rescue ship.

“They will have to put me on trial for the next 20 years, because I’ll go on blocking the migrants ships,” Mr. Salvini told the cheering crowd last week. “If they think they are scaring somebody, they chose the wrong person.”

In practice, though, Mr. Salvini is working to preserve his immunity against prosecution as a member of Italy’s Senate. His electioneering effort worked. On Sunday, a far-right candidate for governor backed by Mr. Salvini’s League party won the Abruzzo election.

Mr. Salvini is one of the fastest-rising politicians in a major European Union country. He has turned the League, a moribund regional movement in Italy’s north, into the nation’s most popular political force. His combative anti-immigration rhetoric and down-to-earth persona on social media have tapped anger at Italy’s aloof, ineffectual political establishment in swaths of Italian society.
A look at Mr. Salvini’s decisions in power suggests he is more of a pragmatist than his rhetoric implies.

Next, he says, he wants to take the EU by storm in this May’s European Parliament elections. He has become the central figure in efforts to build a pan-European alliance of nationalists and nativists, including politicians such as France’s Marine Le Pen and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban. It’s unclear, though, whether Europe’s disparate far-right parties can unite, and what their aims would be.

Mr. Salvini, a bearded 45-year-old former journalist, has built his rise on the image of a revolutionary chief, or “the Captain,” as his devoted fans call him. In recent years he has promised to overthrow Rome’s rotten political class, to split Italy’s richer north from the rest of the country, and to take Italy out of the euro.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/13/heroin-addict-convicted-killing-100-year-old-holocaust-survivor/

A heroin addict has been convicted of killing a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor when he broke her neck while trying to steal a handbag. Artur Waszkiewicz, 40, was found guilty of killing widow Zofija Kaczan in the street robbery on May 28 last year.

Jurors took just over two hours to convict Waszkiewicz of both manslaughter and robbery.

Wearing a black velvet jacket and velvet slipper shoes, the defendant showed no emotion and looked straight ahead as the verdicts were delivered.

Judge Nicholas Dean QC adjourned sentence until Thursday morning at the same court.

Addressing the jury, the judge said: “The sentence will inevitably be one of lengthy imprisonment. Mr Waszkiewicz knows that.”

Polish-born Ms Kaczan, who survived a Nazi camp during the Second World War, suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured neck and cheekbone.

She died from pneumonia in hospital on June 6 – a condition brought on by the injuries she sustained in the attack.

A jury of seven men and five women at Derby Crown Court found Waszkiewicz guilty of killing her close to the junction of St Chads Road and Empress Road in Normanton, Derby.

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2019/01-02/emmanuel-

Why no mention in the French president’s Armistice Day address of the British and Americans whose bones rest in French soil? Perhaps because neither the British nor the Americans are currently on-message with the project for a morally transformative European imperium.

NOVEMBER saw the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, commemorating the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front in 1918. While the British Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition remained in the UK to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph, sixty heads of state or heads of government gathered in Paris for the commemoration. In attendance were Trump, Putin, Merkel and Trudeau. The focal point of the event was an address by the French President, Emmanuel Macron.

Based on much of the mainstream media coverage of Macron’s speech, one could be forgiven for thinking that Macron’s main purpose in inviting the leaders of Russia and the United States to France had been to reprimand them. The Independent ran the headline, “Emmanuel Macron warns of ‘dangers’ of nationalism in Armistice speech aimed at Trump and Putin”, while the Washington Post claimed, “Macron denounces nationalism as a ‘betrayal of patriotism’ in rebuke to Trump at WWI remembrance”. A report on the CNN website observed that “it was impossible to view his remarks as anything less than a rebuke of Trump, who has proudly espoused an ‘America First’ foreign policy”.

Had this been the case, it would have been an instance of appalling manners on the part of the French President (this fact was apparently lost on the media). The President of the USA was present in his role as head of state, not as Make America Great Again demagogue. Thousands of Americans lie buried in French soil, having fallen fighting for, among other things, the cause of France. To directly rebuke their representative on this occasion would have represented an extraordinary lapse of both manners and judgment.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13711/germany-immigrants-prisons

North Rhine-Westphalia once had 114 prison imams, but now has only 25. The drop occurred after German authorities carried out security checks on prison imams and discovered that 97 imams were Turkish civil servants whose salaries were paid for by the Turkish government. Turkey refused to allow the imams to be interviewed by German officials.

In an article entitled, “German Becomes a Foreign Language in Many Prisons,” the Berliner Morgenpost reported on the growing number of conflicts between German prison officers and foreign inmates because of communication barriers

German authorities are also reporting an increase in inmate attacks on prison staff. In North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, since 2016, the number of assaults on prison staff have more than doubled.

The proportion of foreign-born inmates in German prisons is now at a record high, according to a new survey of the justice ministries in Germany’s 16 federal states. In Berlin and Hamburg, for example, more than 50% of inmates are now from abroad, according to the report, which also revealed a spike in the number of Islamists in the German prison system.

The data, compiled by the newspaper Rheinische Post, shows that the surge of foreign-born inmates began in 2015, when Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed into Germany more than a million mostly unvetted migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

All of Germany’s federal states reported a “very strong increase” of foreign and stateless prisoners in the last three to five years, according to the paper, although a definitive nationwide total is difficult to calculate because of differences in the way federal states compile statistics.

Since 2016, for example, in the western federal states the proportion of foreign inmates increased to 61% from 55% in Hamburg; to 51% from 43% in Berlin; to 48% from 44% in Baden-Württemberg; to 41% from 35% in Bremen; to 36% from 33% in North Rhine-Westphalia; to 34% from 28% in Schleswig-Holstein; to 33% from 29% in Lower Saxony; to 30% from 26% in Rhineland-Palatinate; to 27% from 24% in Saarland. In Hesse, the proportion increased to 44.6%, up slightly from 44.1% three years ago. In Bavaria, the proportion rose to 45% from 31% since 2012.

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/429600-40-years-later-iran-needs-another-revolution
Iran’s threats to America’s global interests are mounting as the Islamic Republic celebrates its 40th anniversary, and these threats mock repeated U.S. efforts over the years to appease a dangerous regime.

Tehran is developing longer range and more sophisticated missiles that can reach U.S. and Israeli targets; building weapons factories in Syria in hopes of establishing a permanent military presence near Israel; investing growing sums to fund, train, and direct terrorist operations; and cracking down ever more harshly at home as opposition to the odious regime continues on multiple fronts.

These developments remind us (if, alas, anyone needs reminding) that a regime that was born from the fires of a theocratic revolution in 1979 maintains its foundational fervor; that its ambitions extend far beyond its borders; that the United States and its allies would be better advised to ramp up the political and economic pressure on the regime rather than launch more misguided efforts to coax it to moderation; and that the West should put its moral voice behind the long-suffering Iranian people.

“[T]he hardliners are still very much in control of Iran,” former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Arab TV network Al Arabiya, “and I think we in the West tend to view this sometimes very naively. We think of Iran as a state with an ideology, but actually Iran really is an ideology with a state.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/02/12/britain-now-spends-less

Britain now ranks seventh in a league table of the world’s biggest defence spenders, below India and France, after budget cuts.

Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, said in a speech on Monday that the UK was a “nation with the world’s fifth biggest defence budget”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/02/12/britain-now-spends-less-defence-france-india-ranks-seventh-global/

Data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) showed that while the UK ranked fifth in 2015, spending $55 billion, it has subsequently fallen to seventh in 2016 and 2017.

In 2017 the UK’s military expenditure stood at just over $47 billion.

Defence sources said there were a number of different league tables for defence spending which used different criteria and methodology which meant there was not one definitive ranking.

The United States remained top of the SIPRI league table for military spending in 2017, with its $610 billion outlay almost three times the $228 billion spent by second-placed China.

US military spending represented more than a third of the world’s total spend on defence in 2017.

Saudi Arabia ranked third with Russia in fourth, India in fifth, France in sixth and the UK in seventh.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/massive_oil_and_gas_reserves_found_off_south_african_coast_a_game_changer.html

But will the radical-Left government allow for the full development of the find?

While many of the world’s industrial powers are looking for ways to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels, a fabulous oil discovery off the coast of South Africa promises to alter the energy future of the continent.

French state oil company Total led a consortium of companies that had been exploring off the coast of South Africa for several years. Their find has excited the entire oil industry and promises to further reduce the influence of OPEC and other big energy-producers.

ZeroHedge:

“With this discovery, Total has opened a new world-class gas and oil play and is well positioned to test several follow-on prospects on the same block,” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at Total.

According to Total’s chief executive Patrick Pouyanne, the discovery could hold 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent of gas and condensate resources.

South Africa still imports much of its oil and gas, which makes this one find a potential game-changer for them.

South Africa is currently working on new legislation that would separate the conditions for exploring and exploiting oil and gas resources from those for traditional minerals.

Commenting on Total’s discovery, Andrew Latham, vice president, global exploration at natural resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said:

“Even though the well isn’t an oil discovery, if Brulpadda proves to be anywhere near as big as the estimates of up to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources, it will still be a game-changer for South Africa.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-holds-talks-with-venezuelan-opposition-on-debt-oil-projects-11549993261

China has been holding talks with Venezuela’s political opposition to safeguard its investments in the troubled Latin American nation, hedging its bets as pressure builds on Nicolás Maduro, the embattled leader for whom Beijing has been a vital ally.

Chinese diplomats, worried over the future of its oil projects in Venezuela and nearly $20 billion that Caracas owes Beijing, have held debt negotiations in Washington in recent weeks with representatives of Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader heading the U.S.-backed efforts to oust Mr. Maduro, according to people familiar with the talks.

“China recognizes the increasing risk of a regime change and does not want to be on the bad side of a new regime,” said R. Evan Ellis, an expert on Chinese relations in Latin America at the U.S. Army War College. “While they prefer stability, they realize they have to put eggs in the other basket.”