RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/gun-battles-rapids-man-eating-crocodiles-team-british-explorers/

In 1966 Captain John Blashford-Snell was leading an expedition of British Army cadets in Ethiopia when he received a summons from emperor Haile Selassie. As he entered the throne room, he was instructed to bow three times, and keep an eye out for the pet lions. After exchanging greetings, Selassie fixed him with his piercing gaze: ‘I should like you to explore my Great Abbai’.

The infamous river, otherwise known as the Blue Nile, cuts a 5,000ft gorge through the highlands of Ethiopia, running from its source near Lake Tana for some 500 miles towards Sudan. Blashford-Snell had previously seen the river but knew it had never been fully explored and was filled with crocodile, hippo, horrendous rapids and murderous tribesman; no European explorer had ever succeeded navigating its full length, and some had lost their lives trying.

The colonel, now 81, recalls his immediate response to the emperor’s request: “It was rather like asking an average hill walker to climb Everest.”

Despite his reservations, when he returned to Britain and reported the conversation, the idea was quickly seized upon as just the thing for Army morale in an era of waning British global influence. A committee was established and Blashford-Snell ordered to amass a 70-strong team of soldiers and scientists. On 2 August, 1968, they embarked on what would become one of the greatest expeditions of the 20th century.

Colonel Blashford-Snell is one of the most prolific explorers this country has ever produced. He has crossed the Darién Gap in Central America, navigated the Congo River and transported a grand piano to a chief in the Amazon jungle on a mahogany sledge. But the Blue Nile expedition fired the public imagination like no other.

Prior to departure his team’s specially adapted Avon Redshank inflatable boats were inspected by the Queen and Prince Philip at the Royal School of Military Engineering. While the Duke of Edinburgh advised upgrades, the Queen cautioned Blashford-Snell: ‘you will have to be very careful’.

The Daily Telegraph was among the chief sponsors. The newspaper dispatched the then 34-year-old climber and budding photojournalist Chris Bonington as our man in Africa (now a knight of the realm). He was tasked with sending news reports every three days via morse code, as well as writing a series for the Telegraph Magazine, in which he described the Blue Nile as “the last unconquered hell on earth”.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12973/germany-anti-immigration-party

The AfD’s opponents, who often brand the party as “far right” or “extremist,” claim that the party’s alleged ties to neo-Nazi groups pose an existential threat to Germany’s constitutional order. The AfD’s supporters counter that Germany’s politically correct establishment, afraid of losing its power and influence, is attempting to outlaw a legitimate party that has pledged to put the interests of German citizens first.

“Migration is the mother of all problems.” — German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.

“Extremism cannot be combated with exclusion, but with looking at the facts. Those who want to reach concerned citizens must themselves get out of the ideological trenches.” — Oswald Metzger in Tichys Einblick, a prominent German blog.

The murder of a German citizen by two failed asylum seekers in Chemnitz, and the attempted cover-up by German police, has contributed to a surge in support for the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which, according to a new poll, has overtaken the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to become the second-strongest political force in Germany.

Support for the AfD has increased to 17%, while backing for the SPD has fallen to 16%. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) alliance is at 28.5%, according to an Insa Institute poll published by the newspaper Bild on September 3.

The rise of the AfD — which has been fueled by widespread anger over Merkel’s decision to allow into the country more than a million mostly Muslim migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and the subsequent increase in violent crime — reflects an ongoing realignment in German politics, in which voters increasingly are rejecting the multicultural orthodoxy of the mainstream parties.

When federal elections were held on September 24, 2017, the CDU/CSU won 32.9% of the vote, its worst electoral result in nearly 70 years. The SPD won 20.5%, its worst-ever showing. The AfD won 12.6%, to become the country’s third-largest party in the German parliament.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/09/sundays_vote_could_snap_swedes_out_of_their_stockholm_syndrome.html

Swedes are set to vote Sunday, and soon the world may view another example of citizens frustrated by arrogant politicians and bureaucrats upending the status quo and changing the landscape of a rich country whose leaders manifestly have failed the working class. For in truth, Sweden is burning, physically and figuratively. This reality is known better outside that country, because pro-globalist elites in Sweden work so hard to obscure brutal crimes and dislocations that occur as too many unvetted immigrants sweep into their generous nation.

But it is not simply burning cars, and savage assaults that capture the concern of Swedish citizens and international observers. An expensive, thirty year experiment in Sweden promoting global governance and attacking world problems has certainly helped Swedish elites, but many voters see more financial harm than benefit for themselves.

So, in mere days, the Swedish electorate will speak, and rumblings emanating various ways suggest that parties and politicians long in control of the government will suffer erosion in their influence. How much power will a right-leaning party – Sweden Democrats – win at the ballot box, and what roles might candidates in this party play either supporting or obstructing the coalition government destined to emerge after September 9, 2018?

How closely will voters examine the qualifications and backgrounds of candidates for office, including their criminal records, if any, and the stated goals of their political parties concerning Sweden and regarding the wider world?

These major questions and looming answers must be seen in context.

Sparks Igniting Political Changes

In February 2017, when newly inaugurated President Trump drew attention to Tucker Carlson’s Fox News special on Sweden’s mounting problems with immigration policies, most critics around the world scoffed.

So, who was correct?

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/consequences-will-be-dire-if-assad-russia-iran-attack-idlib-haley-warns/

“When Russia and the Assad regime say they want to counter terrorism, they actually mean they want to bomb schools, hospitals, and homes.”

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley warned today at a UN Security Council briefing on Syria that an impending regime offensive “will only leave Syria weaker and more broken and create generations of Syrians who will never forget the heinous and senseless brutality of the Assad regime and its allies.”

About three million people live in northwestern Idlib province, one of the last strongholds of opposition forces who have been battling dictator Bashar al-Assad for years. Airstrikes were reported in the province today as the international community is trying to stop a major regime-Russia offensive that could be especially bloody and include more chemical weapons use by Assad.

“Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation. There is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared,” said Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, America’s newly appointed special representative to Syria.

Jeffrey said the U.S. is “not in a hurry to pull out” of Syria because ISIS, which the non-regime Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting, is not defeated.

Haley said today that the “Assad regime and its enablers, Russia and Iran, have a playbook for this war.”

“First, they surround a civilian area. Next, they make the preposterous claim that everyone in the area is a terrorist, so every man, woman, and child becomes a target. Then comes the ‘starve and surrender’ campaign, where they keep attacking until the people no longer have food, clean water, or shelter. It’s a playbook of death. The Assad regime has spent the last seven years refining it with Russia and Iran’s help,” she said.

“The atrocities committed by Assad will be a permanent stain on history and a black mark for this council – which was blocked over and over by Russia from taking action to help,” she added. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-u-s-envoy-for-north-korea-stephen-biegun-to-travel-to-asia-1536247887

The former Ford Motor Co. executive recently tapped to pursue negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program will travel to Asia next week, the State Department said on Thursday.

Stephen Biegun, named Special Representative for North Korea last month by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, will travel to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing between Sept. 10 and Sept. 15. The State Department didn’t announce any travel by Mr. Biegun to North Korea.

During the visit to Asia, Mr. Biegun will meet with counterparts and “continue diplomatic efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea,” under an agreement between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, according to the department.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is scheduled to meet Mr. Kim the following week in Pyongyang.

Mr. Biegun’s trip follows the abrupt cancellation of a planned visit to North Korea by the envoy and Mr. Pompeo. Mr. Trump announced that decision via Twitter , citing frustration with the lack of “sufficient progress” in talks.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271259/why-two-americans-were-stabbed-amsterdam-daniel-greenfield

Two million people arrived in Germany in 2015 and 1.8 million people next year in 2016.

Jawed came to Germany in 2015, while Abdul had arrived the year after in 2016. Both Jawed and Abdul were Afghan Muslim migrants. Both applied for asylum and had their asylum applications rejected.

Abdul Mobin Dawodzai was recently sentenced to eight years in prison for stabbing to death Mia Valentin, a 15-year-old girl, to death. Jawed went to Amsterdam and stabbed two American tourists at the central station.

Abdul was angry that Mia broke up with him. Jawed was angry about insults to Islam and Mohammed.

Jawed’s German residence permit enabled him to carry out a terrorist attack in Amsterdam. He mentioned Geert Wilders, the pioneering Dutch leader who was recently forced to cancel a Mohammed cartoon contest due to violent Islamic threats, and so the media has chosen to blame the terrorist attack on Islamic cartoons rather than Islamic terrorists. But Jawed is part of a larger trend of Afghan violence.

Both Jawed and Abdul carried out their stabbing attacks in public. The victims, a 15-year-old girl and American tourists, also brought more attention to a type of ordinary terror that has overtaken Europe.

In March, Hussein Khavari, an Afghan refugee who had fled to Germany in 2015, was sent to prison for raping and murdering Maria Ladenburger, a 19-year-old German student. But Hussein wasn’t fleeing Afghanistan; he was fleeing Greece, where he had thrown a 20-year-old female student off a cliff after robbing her. The Greeks sentenced him to a decade in prison, but Hussein fled to Germany instead.

Like Abdul, Hussein claimed to be a minor when he was actually in his twenties. (He may not have even actually been from Afghanistan.)

“A tweet by Wales-based international relations academic and UK-Israel relations specialist James Vaughan (“Would talk less about antisemitism if there were less of it about”):
Inter alia:

‘,,,,The Met tweeted to say police in Lambeth were investigating reports of fly-posting and that “offensive material will be removed”.
The posters shocked Londoners making their way home from work, with many describing them as “vile” and “terrifying”. Others claimed the adverts were a “hate crime”.
A TfL[Transport for London’ spokesperson said: “These adverts are absolutely not authorised by TfL or our advertising partner JCDecaux.
“It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously. We have instructed our contractors to remove any of these posters found on our network immediately.”….’