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The Diplomatic Big Bang by Ahmed Charai

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12515/diplomatic-big-bang

Diplomacy is changing before our eyes.

“The unspoken objective is to constrain the U.S., and to transfer authority from national governments to international bodies. The specifics of each case differ, but the common theme is diminished American sovereignty, submitting the United States to authorities that ignore, outvote or frustrate its priorities…. By reasserting their sovereignty, the British are in the process of escaping, among other things, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.” — Ambassador John R. Bolton, Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2017.

The Singapore summit is indeed historic. First, it is so because just a few weeks ago we were closer to a nuclear war than to even the semblance of a peace process. The way we got here is surprising, because it did not obey the usual rules.

A few days ago, during the G7 summit held in Canada, US President Donald Trump upheld his decisions on tariffs and his positions on the trade deficit. These stances followed his decision to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement and the Iranian “nuclear deal”. It is clear that the new US administration challenged the alliances inherited from the Cold War. President Trump, a businessman, not a politician — one of the reasons he was elected — is asking America’s trading partners just to have “free, fair and reciprocal” agreements. It is probably not all that unusual to feel affronted when asked for money or to regard the person asking for it as mercenary or adversarial. It does not always mean that this feeling is justified.

In short, President Trump’s arguments, which sound like a leitmotif, go back to the economic aspect of things. NATO? Why should it be normal that, in order to defend Europe, the American taxpayer pays the heaviest part. Free trade? Why should America suffer a trade deficit with so many countries? Climate change? The results of the Paris Climate Change conference, COP 21, were apparently not only costly but questionable, and to critics, looked like a list of unenforceable promises that would not have come due until 2030 — if ever.

Augusto Zimmermann Universities and the Banishment of Truth

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/06/universities-banishment-truth/

ANU’s rejection of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation has made it, in the words of one commentator, ‘a laughingstock’. To that appraisal add a toxic and shameless hypocrisy which sees that university and others eagerly accept cash for ‘Islamic centres’ where Western ideals are actively opposed.

You may have heard of the decision by the Australian National University to buckle under pressure from some academics to pull out of negotiations with a wealthy private donor, the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, over funding for a scholarship and teaching program in studies of Western Civilisation. Vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt announced the ANU is withdrawing from negotiations on the grounds of academic freedom, despite no attempts to have such freedom limited by the Ramsay Centre.

Curiously, the university’s own website makes it clear that the Ramsay negotiators were not desiring an undue level of influence over delivery of the programs.[1] On April 30, 2018, the website of the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences was indicating the university would be in control in any deal with the Ramsay Centre. Apparently this was not nearly good enough for these university academics. As law professor and Quadrant contributor James Allan puts it, Australian academics, especially in the Arts and Social Sciences, ‘lean massively to the left side of politics’ and so they have developed a sort of anti-intellectual hatred for anything that can potentially contribute to a better understanding of Western culture and values. As Professor Allan explains,

The complaining academics to which [the ANU’s Vice Chancellor] succumbed were afraid they would not have autonomy when it came to appointments. But if the Ramsay Centre gave them full autonomy they would pick near on wall-to-wall lefties, and that would result in teaching students quite a different account of Western civilisation than the donor intended. Mr Ramsay, like me, saw Western civilisation (warts and all) as having created the best place for humans to live ever. That goes doubly for women and minorities. You don’t have to sacrifice academic scholarship in the slightest to prefer a degree program that overall was supportive of Western civilisation’s many virtues and on balance scored comparatively best in the field grades”.[2]

Refugees and the Arab States – Part Three by Denis MacEoin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12334/refugees-arab-states

Whereas refugees arriving under the UNHCR are entitled to be granted asylum and eventually citizenship, the UAE is clear from the start that it wants to send its refugees back home. Back home to what? To a half-ruined country still ruled by one of history’s most brutal dictators hand-in-hand with Iran, Russia, and Hizbullah?

As the years pass, as more and more countries struggle with poverty, conflict, religious extremism, terrorism, ethnic divisions, governmental incapacity, corruption, and declining levels of education, huge sections of the world’s rapidly growing population will look in vain for safe places… The Western states who support the UNHCR cannot possibly handle this without suffering internal decline.

In the first part of this series, as many surveys have shown, we saw how difficult it has been, and apparently remains, for many Muslims to be assimilated into non-Muslim societies.

In Part Two, we examined how difficult it remains to allow Syrian and other refugees even to settle into other Muslim and Arab countries, including places such as Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan, which have taken in millions.

In this final part, we shall look at the remaining Muslim countries, which have taken in few or no refugees from the Syrian civil war. These are the richest countries in the Arab world, and the least troubled by disintegration. Many are generous in their funding for humanitarian aid, but that money is donated on the understanding that the refugees are looked after by the UNHCR and the countries they have already reached. Seeing why may be a help.

In 2014, Amnesty International published a short article, “Facts and Figures: Syria refugee crisis & international resettlement”, in which it stated that “The six Gulf countries – Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain – have offered zero resettlement places to Syrian refugees”.

Tommy Robinson Receiving Death Threats in New UK Prison – Imam Orders Hit on Tommy Robinson

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/06/update-tommy-robinson-receiving-death-threats-in-new-uk-prison-imam-places-hit-on-tommy-robinson-

As TGP’s Cassandra Fairbanks previously reported, UK activist Tommy Robinson was arrested on May 25th for suspicion of breaching the peace while livestreaming to report on the trial of a child grooming gang and will now have to serve a prior 13 month suspended sentence.

Friends and supporters of Robinson, 35, are asserting that his notoriety and stance on Islam places his life in great danger in prison.

Articles about the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Tommy Robinson were rapidly scrubbed from the internet after the British government put restrictions in place banning any reporting on the matter.
Now this…

Paul Joseph Watson reported earlier today that Tommy Robinson has been moved to a maximum security prison with a 71% Muslim population.

The Ultimate Démarche: France Wants to Oust English From the EU Prompted by Brexit, French President Emmanuel Macron wants to restore his language, the way it was before Britain joined by Valentina Pop

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ultimate-demarche-france-want-to-oust-english-from-the-eu-1528986165?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=0&cx_tag=pop&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

BRUSSELS—As if the European Union didn’t have enough to worry about, now it’s at odds over what should be its dominant language.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, wants to make French grand again and replace English as the default language in EU institutions, the way it was before Britain joined the bloc in 1973. With the U.K. negotiating to leave the EU next spring, he is eager to restore the linguistic ancien regime.

“English has probably never been so present in Brussels as when we’re talking about Brexit,” Mr. Macron said in March on the Day of Francophonie—a celebration of French language and culture observed in more than 70 countries. “This domination is not inevitable,” he declared.

Dethroning the Queen’s English looks nearly impossible for the soon-to-be 27-country bloc. Its 24 official languages produce 552 translating combinations—an impractically large number that demands a shortcut.

English is by far the leading foreign language taught in the EU, according to official statistics. Over 80% of primary-school children and over 95% of secondary-school students across the bloc learn English before any other foreign language.

Still, Brexit means a downgrading for English. Today it’s the official language for 12.8% of the EU’s 511 million people but after Britain leaves it will be just the second official language in just two countries: Ireland and Malta. Combined they represent 1.2% of the EU’s post-Brexit population.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, known for her pithy tweets during EU leaders’ meetings, said any decision regarding the bloc’s linguistic regime “cannot be divorced from reality.” CONTINUE AT SITE

U.S. Protectionist Stance Spooks Germany’s Economy Uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and trade threats contribute to cooling of country’s export-driven growth By Nina Adam

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-protectionist-stance-spooks-germanys-economy-1528977600

FRANKFURT—President Donald Trump’s trade threats aren’t only hurting feelings in Germany. They are beginning to weigh on the country’s economy.

The European Union’s largest economy, whose export-oriented vigor has kept the continent afloat for more than a decade, is cooling more rapidly than expected in what economists see as the early fallout from protectionist moves by the U.S.

The slowdown comes just as Europe has been gradually emerging from the economic hangover caused by the continent’s debt crisis in 2010.

After years of robust growth fueled by foreign demand for premium cars and engineering goods, Germany saw its annualized growth rate roughly fall by half in the first quarter of 2018. Exports have fallen in three of the first four months of the year, manufacturing orders are down and sentiment indicators are in free fall.

The weakness can’t be blamed on the U.S. president’s “America First” policies alone. A cold winter and a bad flu epidemic appear to have slackened growth earlier this year. But the bad news has been so persistent since then that economists are now looking for other explanations.

“It’s clear that concerns over protectionism and the more assertive foreign-policy stance of the U.S. have begun to have real economic implications,” said Oliver Rakau, a Frankfurt-based economist with Oxford Economics. CONTINUE AT SITE

Peter Smith Dim, Dimmer, Dhimmitude

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/06/dim-dimmer-dhimmitude/

Overwhelmingly, in my view, only those whose self-esteem, character or, perhaps, intellectual capacity is well below par convert to Islam. It can’t be explained any other way. Human nature has its dark side and, for folks such these, Islam’s dogma of innate superiority has a chilling appeal.

“Death is the sentence…There’s nothing to be embarrassed about…Out of compassion, let’s get rid of them [homosexuals] now.” – Islamic scholar Sheikh Farrokh Sekaleshfar in April 2017 in Orlando

“Oh, Allah, count them [Jews] one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one.”
— Imam Ammar Shahin in July 2017 in California

Two examples, of many, of (real) hate speech inspired by the religion of peace.

__________________________________

No peace for these English white girls in Oxford (an estimated fifty-plus of them), ages from 11 to 15 years when the abuse started. As reported in The Guardian on January 16, 2013,

“They were subjected to humiliating and degrading conduct, including biting, suffocation, burning and scratching. Weapons, including knives, baseball bats, and meat cleavers were used during the torture, the court heard. The jury was told that sometimes men [all told, five Muslims of Pakistani and two of East African heritage] had urinated on the girls, who were raped vaginally, orally and anally.”

And this is just one, just one, of many Muslim grooming horrors staining the green and pleasant land.

It isn’t just Muslim men who are in the tank for a vengeful Allah. Safaa Boular, 18 years old and of Moroccan descent, sister Rizlaine, 22, and their mother, Mina Dich, 44, were found guilty earlier this month of plotting a deadly terrorist offence in London. “All three women were filled with hate and toxic ideology,” according to Britain’s top counter-terrorism cop. Toxic is the word. Please note, it is no accident: it comes instructionally and authentically from Islamic scripture.

Sweden: “It’s Fun to Build a Mosque” by Judith Bergman

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12495/sweden-mosques-islam

The desire of Swedish authorities that the content of the Muslim call to prayer, also known as the Adhan, can be ignored and that the issue is only of noise levels is symptomatic of the way Swedish authorities in general approach the increasing Islamization of Sweden: that is continually to deny or ignore the scope of the problem.

In 1993, when the Catholic Church wanted to build a tower for ringing church bells in Växjö, the municipality advised the church to refrain, as the neighbors had complained that they would be bothered by church bells.

Rinkeby subway station was recently categorized as too dangerous for subway personnel to work there, unless escorted by the police, due to the security risk created by stone-throwing and hostile gangs.

Some Muslims in Sweden want to be able to broadcast public calls to prayer throughout the country. They have already succeeded in obtaining permission for this in three cities — Botkyrka, Karlskrona and Växjö. “We want to have calls to prayer in more places. There are many Muslims who are Swedish citizens, who have the same rights as everyone else” said Avdi Islami, Press Officer of the Växjö Muslim Foundation, after the police recently gave permission for the Växjö mosque to make a roughly 4-minute-long prayer call every Friday around noon.

A March poll of 1,000 Swedes showed that a majority of Swedes — 60 percent — are against public Muslim calls to prayer.

“We do not consider the contents of the loudspeaker broadcast, but [only] the potential noise that it makes,” said Magnus Rothoff, unit commander of the southern Swedish police region, in explaining the decision-making process of the police.

“Therefore, we chose to refer it to the municipality’s environmental management, where there is expertise on the [noise] level that should apply. Then we came to the conclusion that we are not disturbed to the extent that one can make a different decision than to approve.”

The municipality also did not consider the content of the call to prayer.

Who Sanctions Russia? Not Germany. by Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12512/germany-russia-sanctions

While claiming to be appalled by Russia’s behavior in Syria, Germany continues to push trade not only with Russia, but with Russia’s partner in the Syrian genocide, Iran.

A 2018 German intelligence report confirms that Iran is currently seeking nuclear technology in Germany.

Perhaps it would be better to leave the hypocritical Germany out in the hallway.

President Trump is taking flak for having introduced a subject to the G-7 meeting that our European friends wanted to keep under the table. Russia. The allies expressed horror when Mr. Trump said, “Why are we having a meeting without Russia? We have a world to run… We should have Russia at the negotiating table.”

Aside from the hyperbole over who actually runs the world, his comment and the allied response are only shocking if one thinks the Europeans have been boycotting Russia. There are sanctions on Moscow since it illegally invaded and seized Ukraine and Crimea, but sanctions are one thing and trade is another. Germany leads the pack in trade with Russia.

This may have something to do with the fact that Germany, in particular but not only, stays warm in the winter with Russian natural gas meeting about 40% of its requirements.

This is an old story. The Reagan administration objected to Russian-European plans to build the natural gas Yamal Pipeline from Siberia to Germany from which gas would be distributed to much of Western Europe. The American position was that, In the middle of the Cold War, having the USSR control a majority of the supply of natural gas to Germany’s industrial heartland would make it difficult for Germany to resist Russian political and military demands. But the Europeans wanted to sell Russia the machinery for the pipeline, making money as they mortgaged their energy future to Moscow.

Hey, Liz! An open letter to Queen Elizabeth II.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270408/hey-liz-bruce-bawer

To Your Most Royal, Majestic and Imperial Personage, by the Grace of God Sovereign of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and (last but not least) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines:

Your Multifariously Magnificent Queenship, I must begin by confessing that I am not exactly a monarchist. In fact I’m not a monarchist at all. Some of my best friends are monarchists, but I’m not one of them. The problem here is that I’m an American, and some of my ancestors, as it happened, fought a Revolution to liberate us from your screwy, drooling, and, let’s face it, essentially ga-ga great-great-great grandfather, George III. As a result, we norteamericanos kind of have anti-monarchism in our genes. Sorry about that. Nothing personal.

Another problem is that I’ve lived in a couple of monarchies – although not any of yours (and boy, what a list! What’s it like to be Queen of Saint Lucia?) – and I’ve seen European kings and queens whose lives are supposed to be consecrated to the welfare of their people but who routinely say and do things that amount to a cruel betrayal of those very people.

You want me to be specific? Okay, one example: in 2004, when a jihadi terrorist slaughtered Theo van Gogh, a celebrated writer and filmmaker and an outspoken critic of Islam (and a collateral descendant of the famous painter) in the streets of Amsterdam – in broad daylight, mind you – the now-retired Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands not only didn’t do anything to honor his memory; she rushed to the nearest Muslim community center to show solidarity with her nation’s Islamic minority. It was, in a word, despicable. She might as well have spit on van Gogh’s grave.

Beatrix is a coward. Her son, the current Dutch king, is no better. Maybe worse, in fact. Yes, probably worse. Ditto the horrific royals in Sweden and Belgium. That Queen Margrethe in Denmark isn’t so bad – sometimes, in fact, she’s quite impressive – but her record in these matters is uneven.