Islam - Current Day > Girl's Schools closed on opening day - Afghanistan; Houthis hit Saudi Oil; Taliban blocks women from travelling alone; Muslim acid attack on converts

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Heartbreak as Afghan girls ordered home just hours

after schools reopen

AFP - Tuesday

The Taliban ordered girls' secondary schools in Afghanistan to shut on Wednesday just hours after they reopened, sparking heartbreak and confusion over the policy reversal by the hardline Islamist group -- and international condemnation.

The U-turn was announced after thousands of girls resumed lessons for the first time since August, when the Taliban seized control of the country and imposed harsh restrictions on women.

The education ministry offered no clear explanation for the shift, even as officials held a ceremony in the capital Kabul to mark the start of the academic year, saying it was a matter for the country's leadership.

Girls had to leave their schools following the Taliban's order to close them

© Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN

"In Afghanistan, especially in the villages, the mindsets are not ready," spokesman Aziz Ahmad Rayan told reporters.

Villagers operating in the 14th century will never be ready for education. It is education that would bring the villages closer to modern times. But then, educated women are less likely to remain invisible in Muslim society.

Chart showing girls' secondary school enrollment in Afghanistan,

in comparison with Iran, India and Pakistan

© Laurence CHU

Wednesday's date for girls to resume school had been announced weeks earlier by the ministry, with spokesman Rayan saying the Taliban had a "responsibility to provide education and other facilities to our students".

"We have some cultural restrictions... but the main spokesmen of the Islamic Emirate will offer better clarifications."

A Taliban source told AFP the decision came after a meeting late Tuesday by senior officials in the southern city of Kandahar, the movement's de facto power centre and conservative spiritual heartland.

IMAGES: Girls resumed classes across much of Afghanistan Wednesday after Taliban authorities announced

the reopening of their secondary schools, more than seven months after seizing power and imposing

harsh restrictions on the rights of women to be educated.

They insisted that pupils aged 12 to 19 would be segregated -- even though most Afghan schools are already same-sex -- and operate according to Islamic principles.

Saudi airstrikes hit Yemen's Houthis after attack on oil depot

7 killed as targets struck in rebel-held cities of Sanaa and Hodeida

The Associated Press · 

Posted: Mar 26, 2022 7:32 AM ET 

A cloud of smoke rises from a burning oil depot in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked

the facility on Friday — their highest-profile assault yet that threatened to disrupt the upcoming grand prix in the city.

(Hassan Ammar/The Associated Press)

A Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen unleashed a barrage of airstrikes on the capital and a strategic Red Sea city, officials said Saturday. At least seven people were killed.

The overnight airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeida — both held by the Houthis — came a day after the rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jeddah, their highest-profile assault yet on the kingdom.

Brig.-Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition, said the strikes targeted "sources of threat" to Saudi Arabia, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

He said the coalition intercepted and destroyed two explosives-laden drones early Saturday. He said the drones were launched from Houthi-held civilian oil facilities in Hodeida, urging civilians to stay away from oil facilities in the city.

Footage circulated online showed flames and plumes of smoke over Sanaa and Hodeida. Associated Press journalists in the Yemeni capital heard loud explosions that rattled residential buildings there.

Fuel supply station among targets

The Houthis said the coalition airstrikes hit a power plant, a fuel supply station and the state-run social insurance office in the capital.

A Houthi media office claimed an airstrike hit houses for guards of the social insurance office, killing at least seven people and wounding three others, including women and children.

Houthi rebels are seen in Sanaa, Yemen, in November 2021. (Hani Mohammed/The Associated Press)

The office shared images it said showed the aftermath of the airstrike. It showed wreckage in the courtyard of a social insurance office with the shattered windows of a nearby multiple-story building.

In Hodeida, the Houthi media office said the coalition hit oil facilities in violation of a 2018 cease-fire deal that ended months of fighting in Hodeida, which handles about 70% of Yemen's commercial and humanitarian imports. The strikes also hit the nearby Port Salif, also on the Red Sea.

Al-Malki, the coalition spokesperson, was not immediately available for comment on the Houthi claims.

The escalation is likely to complicate efforts by the UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to reach a humanitarian truce during the holy month of Ramadan" in early April.

Smoke billows from a fire at Saudi Aramco's petroleum storage facility after an attack in Jeddah on Friday. (Reuters)

It comes as the Gulf Cooperation Council plans to host the warring sides for talks late this month. The Houthis however have rejected Riyadh — the Saudi capital where the GCC is headquartered — as a venue for talks, which are expected to include an array of Yemeni factions.

The Houthis also announced Saturday a unilateral initiative that included a three-day suspension of cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia, as well as fighting inside Yemen. They demanded an end to the coalition air and sea blockade on their territories before engaging in negotiations.

Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group, doubted that ongoing efforts will succeed in bringing a peaceful settlement to the grinding war in the near future, given that international attention is now focusing on other crises including the war in Ukraine.

"I really wouldn't buy into any optimism we'll see diplomatic progress in 2022," he said. "It's pretty clear that all parties are still looking for ways to either win outright or cause significant damage to their rivals."

Yemen's brutal war erupted in 2014 after the Houthis seized Sanaa. Months later, Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a devastating air campaign to dislodge the Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government.

The conflict has in recent years become a regional proxy war that has killed more than 150,000 people, including over 14.500 civilians. It also created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

The Houthis' Friday attack came ahead of a Formula One race in the kingdom on Sunday, raising concerns about Saudi Arabia's ability to defend itself against the Iranian-backed rebels.

Jeddah hosting Formula One race

Friday's attack targeted the same fuel depot that the Houthis had attacked in recent days — the North Jeddah Bulk Plant that sits just southeast of the city's international airport and is a crucial hub for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca.

In Egypt, hundreds of passengers were stranded at Cairo International Airport after their Jeddah-bound flights were cancelled because of the Houthi attack, according to airport officials.

The kingdom's flagship carrier Saudia announced the cancelation of two flights on its website. The two had 456 passengers booked. A third cancelled flight with 146 passengers was operated by the low-cost Saudi airline Flynas.

Some passengers found seats on other Saudi Arabia-bound flights and others were booked into hotels close to the Cairo airport, according to Egyptian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because there were not authorized to brief media.

Taliban blocks dozens of women from taking flights out of Afghanistan

Women, including some bound for Canada, denied boarding

because they were travelling without male guardians

The Associated Press · 

Posted: Mar 26, 2022 10:12 AM ET

A photo from last November shows planes parked at the Kabul airport. Dozens of women were denied boarding on flights out of Kabul International Airport on Friday, because they were travelling without male guardians, two Afghan airline officials told The Associated Press. (Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some bound for Canada, because they were travelling without male guardians, two Afghan airline officials said Saturday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions from the Taliban, said dozens of women who arrived at Kabul's international airport Friday to board domestic and international flights were told they couldn't do so without a male guardian.

Some of the women were dual nationals returning to their homes overseas, including some from Canada, according to one of the officials. Women were denied boarding on flights to Islamabad, Dubai and Turkey on Kam Air and the state-owned Ariana Airline, said the officials.

The order came from the Taliban leadership, said one official.

By Saturday, some women travelling alone were given permission to board an Ariana Airlines flight to western Herat province, the official said. However, by the time the permission was granted they had missed their flight, he said.

The airport's president and police chief, both from the Taliban movement and both Islamic clerics, were meeting Saturday with airline officials.

"They are trying to solve it," the official said.

Women already faced travel restrictions

It was still unclear whether the Taliban would exempt air travel from an order issued months ago requiring women travelling more than 72 kilometres to be accompanied by a male relative.

Taliban officials contacted by The Associated Press did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Since taking power last August, the Taliban leadership have been squabbling among themselves as they struggle to transition from war to governing. It has pit hard-liners — like acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund, who is deeply rooted in the old guard — against the more pragmatic among them, like Sirajuddin Haqqani. He took over leadership of the powerful Haqqani network from his father Jalaluddin Haqanni. The elder Haqqani, who died several years ago, is from Akhund's generation, who ruled Afghanistan under the strict and unchallenged leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Infuriating many Afghans is the knowledge that many of the Taliban of the younger generation, like Sirajuddin Haqqani, are educating their girls in Pakistan, while in Afghanistan women and girls have been targeted by their repressive edicts since taking power.

This latest assault on women's rights in Taliban-run Afghanistan denying women air travel, comes just days after the all-male religiously driven government broke its promise to allow girls to return to school after the sixth grade.

The move enraged the international community, which has been reluctant to recognize the Taliban-run government since the Taliban swept into power last August, fearing they would revert to their harsh rule of the 1990s. The Taliban's refusal to open up education to all Afghan children also infuriated large swaths of the Afghan population. On Saturday, dozens of girls demonstrated in the Afghan capital demanding the right to go to school.

What a shame that Afghanistan is reverting more and more to strict Sharia. Girls, as usual, pay the price for Afghan men's madness.

Muslims spray acid on family for accepting Jesus:

‘You deserve death’

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor| 

Sunday, March 27, 2022

A church bell hangs from a tree branch outside a Catholic church and a school in Odek village, Uganda. |

REUTERS/JAMES AKENA

Radical Muslims in eastern Uganda sprayed acid on their family members during an argument over their conversion from Islam to Christianity and were told, “You deserve death.” The family survived but remain in the hospital where they're being treated for burns. 

Reports surfaced last week that Muslim relatives had sprayed acid on three new converts — Juma Waiswa, 38, his 32-year-old wife, Nasimu Naigaga, and their 13-year-old daughter, Amina Nagudi — in Intonko village of Namutumba District, to punish them for putting their faith in Christ, according to Morning Star News.

One of the victims, Waiswa, said they converted to Christianity when a pastor visited their home and shared the Gospel on Feb. 17. When the relatives came to know about their conversion, they called them for a meeting with other clan members on March 8, he said.

“During the meeting, we were asked about our salvation, and we affirmed to them that we had believed in Jesus and converted to Christianity,” Waiswa was quoted as saying. “They told us to renounce Jesus, but we stood by the newly founded faith in Jesus.”

He continued: “When we refused to recant our faith in Jesus, my father, Arajabu, recited some Quranic verses, and after that they forcefully started beating us with sticks as prescribed in the Quran, claiming that we were apostates. As this was not enough, my father went inside the room and picked up a bottle of acid and began spraying it on us while the group started shouting, ‘Allah Akbar [Allah is greater], you deserve death,’ and then disowned us.”

Amina Nagudi, 13, was sprayed with acid in Namutumba District, Uganda, on March 8, 2022. | Morning Star News

This girl needs a lot of prayer!

Please take a moment and pray for her right now.

The three victims didn’t realize initially that they had been sprayed with acid. “But as we were fleeing for our lives, we started feeling some serious itching that continued until the pain intensified,” Waiswa said. “A nearby Christian neighbor called the pastor, who arrived immediately and took us to hospital in Mbale, but our daughter was seriously affected and was referred to a hospital in Jinja.”

On March 9, their home was burned to the ground.

Four days later, in a separate incident, radical Muslim villagers attacked a former mosque leader, identified as Swaleh Mulongo of Bugobi village, for putting his faith in Christ after being evangelized by a pastor in January. 

“It was around 8 a.m. when four Muslims stopped me and began asking me so many questions regarding Christianity, but I did not respond,” Mulongo was quoted as saying. “Then the men started beating me up with blows and sticks, but thank God when they saw some people approaching, they fled away.”

Mulongo suffered deep head wounds and his wrist was broken.

The radical Muslims then killed goats and chickens that were owned by the pastor who had led Mulongo to Christ.

Acid can disfigure a victim for life and has been used in revenge attacks mostly by men and particularly in Pakistan, India, the United Kingdom and Uganda, for various reasons, from disloyalty to saying “no” to a romantic relationship, according to the London-based Acid Survivors Trust International.

Under Ugandan law, the assailant in an acid attack can be sentenced up to seven years in prison, but “perpetrators are rarely charged,” said Linnet Kirungi, founder and director of the nonprofit Hope Care Rescue Mission, according to Chimp Reports.

"Of the over 200 acid attack survivors with whom I have worked in Uganda, only 20 percent of their perpetrators were charged or had any legal consequences for perpetrating the attack,” she told the outlet.

While most people in Uganda are Christian, some Eastern and Central regions in the country have higher concentrations of Muslims.

The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project estimates that about 11.5% of Uganda’s population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Armed attacks and murders of converts are not uncommon in the region.

“Radical Islam’s influence has grown steadily, and many Christians within the majority-Muslim border regions are facing severe persecution, especially those who convert from Islam,” a Voice of the Martyrs factsheet notes.

“Despite the risks, Evangelical churches in Uganda have responded by reaching out to their neighbors; many churches are training leaders how to share the Gospel with Muslims and care for those who are persecuted after they become Christians.”

Military Madness > EU plan to create European Defence Force; Was Hunter involved in Ukraine's secretive biolabs? Pentagon's illegal bio-research carried out offshore; Yes! Hunter was involved, as was the Pentagon

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This is the first step in creating an EU military force. It may also be the first step in abandoning NATO. We can always hope! In the meantime, it will mean another military player to confuse dangerous situations in Europe. It also means reduced American influence, as well as more money for the Military Industrial Complex, and, hence, less money for worthwhile projects.

EU approves security plan with rapid response force

By Darryl Coote

   

March 22 (UPI) -- As Russia wages war in Europe, lawmakers of the European Union approved an ambitious plan to bolster the bloc's security and defense policy that includes establishing a rapid troop deployment capability.

The 27-member bloc's defense and foreign affairs ministers approved the so-called Strategic Compass during a joint session on Monday to establish a force of up to 5,000 troops that can be rapidly deployed to combat various military crises nations in the union may face.

The security plan, which sets out goals to be achieved over the next five to 10 years, also ensures 200 fully equipped Common Defense and Security Policy mission experts can be deployed into "complex environments" within 30 days, that regular live exercises on land and sea are conducted and that military mobility is enhanced.

It also instructs the EU to boost intelligence analysis capacities, develop teams to detect and respond to hybrid threats, create a foreign information manipulation and interference toolbox, strengthen its maritime military, increase defense spending and reinforce relationships with NATO, the United Nations, and regional partners.

"I don't want to abuse the word 'historic' that we use a lot in Brussels, but it is certainly a turning point for the European Union as a security provider and much important step for the European Common Security and Defense Policy," Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security, said during a press conference after the policy was adopted.

"I think that the adoption of this document sends a strong signal of unity and resolve, and it comes at a very, very, very important moment because we certainly need to increase our capacities on security and defense."

The policy was approved following two years of work but comes at a time of heightened worries of military conflict in Europe as Russia continues its attack on Ukraine.

Borrell said that the new policy will not be an answer to the Ukraine war, but that conflict has shown that Europea is in danger.

"We started working two years ago but it is very timely, very timely that we approved this Strategic Compass in a moment in which every citizen in Europe can understand the purpose of the document who wants to increase the strength of the European Union as a security provider," he said.

Edgars Rinkevics, Latvia's minister of foreign affairs, said the policy will arm the EU with the tools to become "a real geopolitical defense and security player" with NATO.

"It's only the beginning of the journey," he tweeted. "Much will depend on how successfully we support Ukraine against Russia's aggression."

Russia makes Hunter Biden biolab claim

Russia has revealed details behind the sponsorship of the secretive research

FILE PHOTO. A test tube pictured placed on hundred-dollar bills. © Getty Images / photovs

A sprawling network of Ukrainian biological laboratories has received funding from US government agencies and companies closely affiliated with top American elites, the Russian military claimed on Thursday.

The fresh allegations were presented by Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, commander of the Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, during a press briefing.

“The available materials make it possible to trace the scheme of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological objects,” Kirillov said, presenting an elaborate scheme purporting to show the flow of funding.

Pay attention to the involvement in the financing of such activities by structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the investment fund Rosemont Seneca, which is headed by Hunter Biden. The Fund has significant financial resources of at least $2.4 billion.

It was not immediately clear which company Kirillov was specifically referring to because Rosemont Seneca is a decentralized investment fund, comprised of several entities sharing similar names. President Joe Biden’s youngest son Hunter headed the now-defunct DC-based Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, but his legal team has denied his involvement with other branches of the fund, namely the Delaware-based Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC.

The Rosemont Seneca fund is closely affiliated with top Pentagon contractors, Kirillov explained, explicitly naming Metabiota, as well as the Black and Veach companies he described as “the main supplier of equipment for Pentagon biolaboratories around the world.”

Surely, it is absolute madness for militaries to have anything to do with biolabs! Establishing several on the border of Russia has to be seen as hostile activity.

The latter concern has been named as a contractor in a 2015 deal between the US government and Ukraine, publicized by the Russian military during the briefing.

According to the document, a nearly $32-million program was aimed at “organizing work of the laboratories, built and modernized with the help of the donor [the US government],” as well as “monitoring infectious diseases” and conducting work to “react rapidly” to outbreaks. The program also listed the “safe collection, processing, temporary storage and transportation of clinical samples” as its goals.

The Ukrainian biolaboratories network has been funded by other US agencies as well, Kirillov said, describing the scale of the biolabs program as an “impressive” one.

“Apart from the military, the US Agency for International Development, the George Soros Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are directly involved in its implementation. Scientific supervision is carried out by leading research organizations, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which develops nuclear weapons,” the official said.

Moscow sounds the alarm about questionable US-sponsored pharmaceutical and biological research taking place in secretive laboratories scattered across Ukraine after it attacked its neighbor, last month. The military offensive came following a seven-year standoff over Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

I am reminded of the American invasion of Iraq on the pretense of weapons of mass destruction. They were never found, of course, because they never existed. But, here, the Russians have found these biolabs capable of making weapons of mass destruction. But you won't read this in the western press.

Russia claims US tested experimental drugs on Ukrainian soldiers

The Russian military has raised new allegations of US-sponsored

secretive research in Ukraine

© Getty Images / Adam Gault

The US has been involved in testing experimental drugs on “volunteers” from the ranks of the Ukrainian military, the commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov alleged during a media briefing on Thursday.

The experimental drug testing came within the so-called UP-8 project, exposed by the Russian military earlier this month.

Such work is prohibited in the United States

and is carried out by the military outside of the country

“We continue to publish information about the research with the participation of Ukrainian military personnel. I would like to note that such work is prohibited in the United States and is carried out by the military outside of the country,” the official stated.

“According to data published in the Bulgarian media, about 20 Ukrainian soldiers died during the experiments in the Kharkov laboratory alone, and another 200 were hospitalized,” Kirillov added, while claiming that “more than four thousand people” were involved in the testing in Ukraine.

The official presented a document, purportedly sent by a Ukrainian military attaché in the US to the country’s defense ministry in April last year. The document highlights a meeting between the attaché and representatives of the US-Canadian company Skymount, which is involved in AI-related research.

According to the document, the company demonstrated to the Ukrainian officials its solutions in long-range observation, as well as the Deep Drug AI, a system used for screening and developing drugs. The system “performs the work of 60-person years per day, greatly reducing the manual labor hours to generate new target molecules from existing, pre-approved drugs,” according to its developers.

“The received documents confirm an attempt to test previously untested drugs on [the Ukrainian soldiers]. We are talking about the screening system for pharmaceuticals ‘Deep Drug’, which have not passed the licensing procedure in the US and Canada,” Kirillov stated.

The particular cynicism of American sponsors lies in the fact that the developer, the Skymount company, offered to purchase the system on a commercial basis, despite the fact that employees of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine were involved as volunteers.

Ukraine is not the first country to be used for US military-backed pharmaceutical research, Kirillov noted. In 2010, for instance, Indonesia shut down the US Navy Medical Center in Jakarta, which was apparently involved in a similar project, over “numerous violations,” he added.

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Hunter Biden DID help secure millions in funding for US contractor in 

Ukraine specializing in deadly pathogen research, laptop emails reveal

The Russian government held a press conference Thursday claiming that Hunter Biden helped finance a US military bioweapons research program in Ukraine. But emails and correspondence obtained by DailyMail.com from Hunter's abandoned laptop show the claims may well be true

Moscow’s claim that Hunter Biden helped finance a US military 'bioweapons' research program in Ukraine is at least partially true, according to new emails obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.

The commander of the Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, claimed there was a 'scheme of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological objects' and pointed to the 'financing of such activities by structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the investment fund Rosemont Seneca, which is headed by Hunter Biden.'

Intelligence experts say the Russian military leader's allegations were a brazen propaganda ploy to justify president Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and sow discord in the US.

But emails from Hunter's abandoned laptop show he helped secure millions of dollars of funding for Metabiota, a Department of Defense contractor specializing in research on pandemic-causing diseases that could be used as bioweapons.

He also introduced Metabiota to an allegedly corrupt Ukrainian gas firm, Burisma, for a 'science project' involving high biosecurity level labs in Ukraine.

And although Metabiota is ostensibly a medical data company, its vice president emailed Hunter in 2014 describing how they could 'assert Ukraine's cultural and economic independence from Russia' – an unusual goal for a biotech firm.

In April 2014, Metabiota vice president Mary Guttieri wrote a memo to Hunter outlining how they could 'assert Ukraine's cultural and economic independence from Russia'. 'Thanks so much for taking time out of your intense schedule to meet with Kathy [Dimeo, Metabiota executive] and I on Tuesday. We very much enjoyed our discussion,' Guttieri wrote

The above email, and the ones below, make it clear that the Pentagon was already interfering in Ukraine as early as April 2014, in an attempt to draw it to the west in violation of agreements with Russia.

Four days after Guttieri's April 2014 email, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi wrote to Hunter revealing that the then-Vice President's son had pitched a 'science project' involving Burisma and Metabiota in Ukraine. 'Please find few initial points to be discussed for the purposes of analyzing the potential of this as you called, 'Science Ukraine' project,' Pozharskyi wrote

Government spending records show the Department of Defense awarded an $18.4million contract to Metabiota between February 2014 and November 2016, with $307,091 earmarked for 'Ukraine research projects'

There is so much more at the Daily Mail.

Ozzone 6-13 > > There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself.

 

Many years ago, I gave up my right to be angry when circumstances got in my way. I realized that God has vetted those circumstances; He has proofread the script beforehand and allowed the situation to happen. So, if I am angry, then I must be angry at God. I was very uncomfortable with the idea of being angry at God, as we all should be.

Islam - Current Day > Israeli Arab kills 4; Egyptian kills wife, flees Kuwait with 2 of 3 children; Tunisian Dad tossed kids from housetop

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There is lots of criminal activity in the western world, but some stuff that happens in Islam is just sheer madness. And, of course, it is almost always children that pay the price.

Israeli Arab attacker kills 4 in Israel and is shot to death by civilian

Published:  March 22, 2022 19:34

Reuters, Gulf News

  

Beersheba; At least four people were killed by an Arab attacker in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Tuesday and the assailant was shot to death, police and emergency services said.

"It appeared to be a single terrorist who went on a stabbing spree," police spokesman Eli Levy said on Channel 13 TV. "A civilian took the initiative and shot and killed him." The Magen David Adom ambulance service said three people - a man and two women - were killed by the assailant and that at least three others were wounded, one critically.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Israeli media reports said the assailant was an Arab citizen of Israel, but police did not immediately publicly identify him.

Egyptian kills Filipino wife, flees Kuwait with two kids

leaving infant in nursery

Published:  March 22, 2022 12:59

Tawfiq Nasrallah, Senior News Editor

  

Dubai: A 46-year-old Egyptian expat as allegedly killed his Filipino wife in Kuwait, and fled to Egypt with two children, leaving behind the third - an infant - in a nursery, local media reported.

The crime took place in Mahboula area, 36km south of Kuwait City.

He strangled his Filipino wife and left Kuwait on Sunday evening accompanied by his 16-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter. The third son was left in the nursery so no one would suspect anything.

An expat working as a security guard contacted the Ministry of Interior saying that he had received an audio message from an Egyptian expat in which he stated that his wife was dead and was inside the apartment and he had to notify the police.

As soon as the report was received, the Ahmadi police accompanied by Director of Investigation Col. Omar Al Rasheed went to the apartment in the Mahboula area, where the body of the Filipina expat was found. There were traces of suffocation on her neck, and the body was referred to the forensics department to know the exact cause of death.

While investigating the residents of the building, it was clear that the relationship between the two was good and no one used to hear any sound of quarrel. Investigations are underway to find the circumstances for the murder.

Meanwhile, Kuwait authorities are working with the Egyptian counterparts to arrest and extradite the accused so that legal measures can be taken against him. The security agreement between Kuwait and Egypt allows for the extradition of criminals.

Tunisia: Dad tosses kids from housetop to avoid arrest

Police were hunting the man over illegal alcohol sale

Published:  March 21, 2022 17:32

Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent

Gulf News

  

Cairo: A Tunisian alcohol vendor, wanted by police, had thrown his two little children from the top of his house in an attempt to escape arrest, according to media reports.

Police headed to the man, wanted along with his 20-year-old son, in connection with selling alcohol without a licence and involvement in violent acts.

But security forces were surprised to find the man ascending to the roof of his house in the Tunisian governorate of Monastir and throwing solid objects at them, injuring three of them, reported Tunisian radio Jawhara FM.

Afterwards, the man threw his two children aged eight and four from a height of eight metres, causing one child to sustain severe injuries and a skull fracture, the radio added, quoting a legal official.

There was no news about the health condition of the second victim.

Police eventually arrested the father while his 20-year-old son is still at large.

The father, now in police custody, faces multiple charges including attempted premeditated murder, assaulting public employees, and illegal trade in alcohol.

Islam - Current Day > Angry Husband Beheads Wife in Switzerland; Muslim Mob Murders Hindu in India; US Accuses Myanmar of Genocide

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Switzerland: Muslim migrant beheads his wife because

a car mechanic wanted to repair her car for free

MAR 19, 2022 2:00 PM 

BY ROBERT SPENCER

This migrant is a product of a culture of violence that mandates the beating of disobedient women (cf. Qur’an 4:34). If she was unfaithful to him, as he suspected, she was disobeying the order mandated by Allah, and consequently was an unbeliever, to be beheaded (cf. Qur’an 47:4).

Did Swiss authorities really think that he would leave at the door the attitudes and assumptions that he had imbibed for years?

“Qerim B. (62) beheaded his stepdaughter with a cleaver,” 

translated from “Qerim B. (62) enthauptete Stieftochter mit Küchenbeil,” 

Blick, March 16, 2022:

The indictment for the murder in Oey reads like a gruesome thriller: Qerim B.* (62) allegedly beat the mother of his four children to death with a hammer in a scrap yard in March 2020 and then “almost completely decapitated” her with a 35 cm long kitchen cleaver. He allegedly hit the head of Vana V.* (†31) with the two tools a total of 14 times and her neck four times.

Since then, B. has been in prison: At first he was in pre-trial detention, but in the meantime he has been transferred to prison. On Wednesday, he will now be tried at the Regional Court Oberland in Thun.

The trial at the regional court in Thun starts this morning with the questioning of the perpetrator. The suspected murderer willingly gives information to the judges in his mother tongue, the translator mediates because he does not speak German. The 62-year-old confessed, but he said he could not remember the exact course of events due to his diabetes – he had had blackouts: “When I grabbed it, I was not aware that it was a hammer. I forgot myself, no longer felt anything, no longer saw anything”.

The argument that preceded the crime was about the separation that he did not accept and a possible other man in Vana V.*’s (†31) life. “She told me that she had found a car mechanic in Biel who would replace a sensor, the front and rear brakes completely and even the control unit if necessary, and all for free. I’ve always been jealous anyway, and who changes all these things for you for free?” he testified. In addition, he had seen a hickey on her neck. In earlier interrogations, he is said to have said: “The moment she told me about the mechanic, she broke me.

In her plea, the prosecutor stated that Qerim B. did not seem to regret his crime and only felt sorry for himself. The “patriarch” had been hurt in his pride when Vana V. had fled to the women’s shelter with the children. His attitude had been very old-fashioned, for example, he had regarded his wife as a “possession”: “His wife is not allowed to work, does not have to put on make-up and should run the household at home.

She then quoted entries from the diary of the woman who was killed: “I have no air left and feel totally exploited, as if I were a slave.” And to her stepsister she allegedly said: “During the day I am his cleaning lady, in the evening his slut.” But Qerim B. apparently saw things differently. During his questioning in court on Wednesday, he said: “We loved each other. If she hadn’t loved me, she wouldn’t have come to my workplace.” During the trial, the Bosnian is said to have said that Vana V. destroyed his life with the separation. Therefore, according to the prosecutor, the motive for the cruel act was revenge.

He had also plotted the killing of the 31-year-old woman: He had insidiously lured her to his isolated place of work at the scrapyard instead of meeting her at a well-frequented rest stop, as she had suggested. He had always planned to kill and behead her unless she chose to return to him. “He literally executed her,” the prosecutor said. She demands a guilty verdict for murder and the maximum penalty: Qerim B. should remain in prison for life! In addition, a 15-year ban on entering the country should be imposed, a fine of 2,800 Swiss francs and he should pay the costs of the proceedings.

The family relationships are so bizarre that they almost sound made-up. The Bosnian got the young woman pregnant for the first time when she was only 16 years old – secretly, three more children were to follow. At that time, she was actually his stepdaughter and he was still officially together with her mother. They were all living together in Zweisimmen at the time.

Oey-Diemtigen, Swtz

The baby was born, the identity of the father remained a secret at first. But one person knew about the affair: Ladina B.* (38), the killer’s biological daughter from a previous relationship. Shortly after the crime, she told the daily Blick: “I always called the baby my stepsister had at 16 my brother, because I knew exactly who the father was: my own father.”

He was compulsively jealous, his biological daughter reported after the family tragedy: “He saw every contact she had as a possible affair. He even photographed the mileage on her speedometer to check how far she had driven.” According to the indictment, the young woman fled to a women’s shelter with her children on March 2, 2020. But this pissed off the family tyrant – he had told various relatives and also Vana V. himself that he wanted to kill her.

Almost two weeks later, Qerim B. phoned his former stepdaughter at the women’s shelter and claimed, according to the indictment, that he would now accept the separation. The two then allegedly arranged to meet the next day to discuss a few more details. He lured the mother of his four children to his workplace in Oey under the pretext that his vehicle was overloaded and he could therefore not drive on the motorway.

At about 9.40 a.m., Vana V. arrived there with the two younger children and the 62-year-old tried to win his ex-partner back. Then the two went to the office container, according to the indictment. The unreasonable family man then tried to kiss and touch Vana V. – but she pushed him away and said: “Go away, you ugly old man! Then, according to the indictment, Qerim B. committed his crime.

The children, who had apparently heard the mother’s screams, alerted the landlord of the place. According to the prosecution, the Bosnian assured him after th
e alleged murder that “everything was fine with his wife”. Shortly before 11 a.m., he put the children into the car and drove off.

He handed the children over to relatives and then drove to the Alpach pasture in Wimmis. There, according to the indictment, he doused himself and his vehicle with petrol in order to set himself on fire. But before doing so, he informed his relatives about the crime, the indictment continues. He then refrained from committing suicide and drove to his victim’s workplace. There he bought something to drink and was finally arrested.

After the crime, Ladina B. had only anger and harsh words for her father. “He is a bastard! He simply killed her. I hope he will be punished severely,” she told Blick in spring 2020.

India: Muslim mob murders Hindu for swimming in a well

MAR 19, 2022 12:00 PM 

BY ROBERT SPENCER

Why would these Muslims get so angry about swimming in a well? Because they consider Hindus to be idolaters, and the Qur’an says: “O you who believe, the idolaters only are unclean.” (9:28)

“Maharashtra: A mob of Islamists lynches a youth Rameshwar Kharat,

over a minor dispute in Ambad town,” 

OpIndia, 

March 17, 2022:

A 20-year-old Hindu youth named Rameshwar Ankush Kharat was killed by a mob of Islamists in Ambad town in the Jalna district of Maharashtra. The violence is said to have erupted over a reason as minor as swimming in a well. Rameshwar Kharat was beaten with iron rods and wooden sticks by the mob in the Pathan Mohalla area of Ambad at around 4:30 PM on 12th March 2022. He died in a hospital at Jalna on 13th March 2022 at 6 PM. The people protested at Ambad police station till 12 at the night to arrest the accused in connection with the incident.

Sudarshan News journalist Jitendra Pratap Singh has tweeted a video of the family members mourning the loss of Rameshwar Kharat who was the only son of his parents. He has written in his tweet, “In Ambad town of Maharashtra, the bloodshed of jihadis continues, there is an uproar everywhere. The lone minor Hindu youth was brutally murdered by a total of 15 jihadis. The helpless mother is screaming and crying for justice, but no one is going to listen.”

According to a report by Pudhari, on 13th March, an FIR was lodged in the Ambad police station in connection with the case. On the 12th of March, deceased Rameshwar Ankush Kharat, a resident of Holkar Nagar in Ambad, had gone with Prasad Pralhad Kharat to the well owned by a person named Fulare. He had gone there for swimming at around 1 PM. The well is situated on the Bhagwan Mahadev Mandir road.

There erupted a dispute among the youths there over getting into the well for swimming. The culprits abused and threatened Rameshwar Kharat saying ‘if you are seen in the mohalla, you will be killed’. Rameshwar Kharat called his brother Ganesh Kharat and informed him about the abuse and threats.

Rameshwar Kharat was stopped by the mob of Islamists in front of Khalil Maulana’s shop while he was going to the farm from Holkar Nagar around 4:30 PM through Pathan Mohalla. They asked him, ‘why did you quarrel with us while swimming in the well’ and started abusing him again. Meanwhile, Rameshwar was seriously injured when Shoeb Sulani Shafiq Sulani hit him with an iron rod in his hands.

Avez Siraj Sheikh, Shohel Shah Mohammad Pathan, Anis Gaffar Sheikh, Wajed Ismail Sheikh, Amir Chand Pathan beat Rameshwar Kharat with wooden sticks on his feet, back, and head. The other accused in the crime kicked and punched him. As a result, Rameshwar Kharat was seriously injured.

Sunil Diwte and Balu Datta Kharat brought Rameshwar Kharat to the Seva Hospital in Ambad. Due to severe injuries, Rameshwar Kharat was moved to a private hospital in Jalna. At 6 PM on 13th March, he passed away.

Baburao Kharat is the uncle of the deceased youth Rameshwar Ankush Kharat. He has lodged a complaint in the Ambad police station against the 15 accused in this case. A crime has been registered in response to his complaint. API Somnath Narke is doing further investigations.

The accused in this case are 1) Ibrahim Siraj Sheikh 2) Adnan Sulani Shafiq Sulani, 3) Shoeb Sulani Shafiq Sulani, 4) Azhar Ijaz Ali Sheikh, 5) Faizan Amjad Pathan, 6) Arbaaz Shah Mohammad Pathan, 7) Muradi Mehra Sheikh, 8) Awez Siraj Sheikh, 9) Shohel Shahmohammed Pathan, 10) Anis Ghapfar Sheikh, 11) Wajed Ismail Sheikh, 12) Amir Chand Pathan, 13) Abhay Babasaheb Kharat 14) Arshad Khurshid Jilani, and 15) Sheikh Nasser Sheikh Ismail. All of them live in Ambad….

Elderly woman unable to pay Dh200,000 blood money

gets Sharjah Ruler’s help

A man under her sponsorship had died in an electrocution incident in Kalba

Published:  March 22, 2022 17:29

Aghaddir Ali, Senior Reporter

  

His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah

Sharjah: His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, has helped an elderly Emirati woman pay Dh200,000 ($54,454 USD) in legal blood money.

He responded to a call of an Emirati man from Umm Al Quwain who sought a solution for his 59-year-old wife who was facing jail as she was unable to pay blood money. Sheikh Sultan’s intervention came through the popular ‘Direct Line’ programme on Sharjah TV and radio.

Sheikh Sultan paid the legal blood money to the family of an Arab national who was under the sponsorship of the woman. The man died after being electrocuted in a short circuit in Kalba. She was unable to pay the blood money and was arrested a few days ago.

Kalba court ordered to jail the woman and to pay Dh200,000 blood money.

Sheikh Sultan directed Sharjah Police to immediately release the woman so she could return to her home and family, after the citizen’s husband contacted the Direct Line programme asking for a solution to his wife’s problem.

It appears that 'blood money' is paid to the victim's family upon an untimely death, or to a victim after injury or loss. It is part of Sharia Law. Why the sponsor is responsible is a question I can't answer.

U.S. designates killings against Rohingya in Myanmar 'genocide'

By Clyde Hughes & Daniel Uria

   

Rohingya people are seen near a makeshift house in Maungdaw, Rakhine State in western Myanmar. According to the United Nations, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar since the army launched a military offensive in August 2017. File Photo by Nyunt Win/EPA-EFE

March 21 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday announced the United States has determined that the Myanmar military has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against its minority Rohingya population for the last five years.

Blinken made the announcement in remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., as he noted Monday's designation marked the eighth time since the Holocaust that the United States has determined that genocide has been committed.

During the remarks, Blinken said the designation represented a step on the path out of genocide.

"It tells Rohingya, and victims in particular, that the United States government recognizes the gravity of the atrocities committed against them," he said. "And it affirms Rohingyas' human rights and dignities, something the Burmese military has tried to destroy."

Experts have long called on the U.S. government to make the designation to put more pressure on Myanmar's military government, which overthrew the civilian regime a year ago in a coup. The junta government is already facing accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands.

Camps for Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are seen in UKhiya, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on February 12, 2018. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since the beginning of what many call a genocide began in 2017. File Photo by Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE

Violence against Rohingya in Myanmar has forced more than a million to flee to other countries, mostly Bangladesh, where many are now living in the world's largest refugee camp, Kutupalong.

Blinken on Monday said the decision to designate the violence against the Rohingya as genocide was made based on a review of factual assessment and legal analysis by the State Department, including a survey of 1,000 Rohingya refugees who were displaced by violence in 2016 and 2017.

He noted that more than half of the Rohingya surveyed reported witnessing sexual violence, and one in five witnessed the killing or injuring of more than 100 people in a single incident, demonstrating that "these abuses were not isolated cases."

"The evidence also points to clear intent behind these mass atrocities -- the intent to destroy Rohingya in whole or in part," Blinken said. "That intent has been corroborated by the accounts of soldiers who took part in the operation and later defected, such as one who said he was told by his commanding officer to, and I quote, 'shoot at every sight of a person,' end quote -- burn villages, rape and kill women, orders that he and his unit carried out."

Persecution against Myanmar's Rohingya population goes back as far as the 1970s, mostly committed by the Myanmar government and Buddhist nationalists in the country. Almost 90% of Myanmar's population are Buddhist and only about 4% are Muslim, which is the primary factor behind the religious persecution.

"The U.S. genocide declaration is a welcome and profoundly meaningful step," Daniel Sullivan, Refugees International deputy director for Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, said in a statement. "It is also a solid sign of commitment to justice for all the people who continue to face abuses by the military junta to this very today.

"The United States must now use the momentum of this genocide determination to spur concrete actions."

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom applauded the designation Monday, noting that it has been calling for the determination since 2017.

"The Rohingya have been targeted for decades by Burmese authorities -- the Tatmadaw in particular. This determination provides recognition to the Rohingya and acknowledges the severity of the atrocities that occurred, which is an important step toward achieving justice," USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza said in a statement.

"I'll never forget the painful stories I heard in 2017 from members of the Rohingya community in Burma and Bangladesh -- stories of violence and crimes against humanity," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said in a tweet.

"Good to see the [administration] take this overdue step to hold this brutal regime accountable, which I've pushed for years."

In a 2018 State Department report, U.S. officials said that military actions in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State against the Muslim population was "extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents."

It is an attempt to keep Myanmar (Burma) Buddhist. Islam is not compatible with Buddhism, and Islam tends to grow much more quickly than other religions because of the tendancy to have large families. The violence and genocide is an example of just how far Buddhists are willing to go to protect their religion. Will Europe's pseudo-Christians reach that point one day?

Ozzone 6-12 > God writes our new name only on those places in our lives where He has erased our pride, self-sufficiency, and self-interest

 

And we can add ‘self-love’ to that list of characteristics that need to be removed. Self-love is not mentioned at all in “My Utmost for His Highest’. It simply never occurred to Chambers more than 100 years ago that such an attitude could exist. Either that or he called it by another name – pride! 

Self-love is the very opposite of Christian love. Christian love is about giving; self-love is about getting.

Economics > Inflation will be devastating for poor Americans; Berlin gas price spike; Expect Shortages next Winter in Germany

..

Huge gas price hikes will hurt poor Americans

– ex-Pentagon spokesman

A former US security official said the sacrifice of Americans pales in comparison

to that of Ukrainians

High gas prices at stations on the corner of Beach Boulevard and Lampson Avenue in Stanton, CA,

March 7, 2022. © Getty Images / Jeff Gritchen

Dave Lapan, a former spokesperson for the US Department of Defense as well as the Department of Homeland Security, has opined that while the latest increase in gas prices is bound to adversely affect some sections of American society, the sacrifice is necessary, and negligible compared to that of Ukrainians.

Responding to an op-ed in the Washington Post on Wednesday, Lapan tweeted that the “increase in gas prices will definitely hurt many low income, working Americans.” However, according to the retired Pentagon official, for the rest of American society, “it’s an inconvenience we can handle.” He went on to urge people stateside to weigh their gripes over the rising gas prices against “what the people of #Ukraine are enduring, and sacrificing, and overcoming.”

The article that Lapan was commenting on and agreed with is titled “$4 gas is here. It’s worth it.”

The opening line announces that “U.S. gas prices hit a record high on Tuesday of $4.17 a gallon, surpassing the prior all-time high set in the summer of 2008.”

And while admitting that Americans have already begun venting their frustration and concerns on the internet, the article advises them to realize that “paying $4 – or even $4.50 – for gas is a price worth paying to defend democracy and international order and stop funding Putin’s war.” Moreover, the op-ed in the Post states that prices for some other natural resources and raw materials are also going through the roof thanks to the sanctions the US and its allies have imposed on Russia, as well as general uncertainty. And yet, the author calls on Western leaders to keep putting the heat on the Kremlin.

Deep State has taken to writing editorials! It's not worth it, it's madness! It has nothing to do with democracy - Zelenski has jailed opposition leaders and shut down TV networks that criticized him. Is that democracy? How much are you willing to pay to maintain that kind of democracy? 

Understand that as gas prices rise so does the cost of everything that moves, which is almost everything. Inflation is the result and it will be hard on everyone. 

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US in light of Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine. The president acknowledged that the decision would likely lead to higher costs for Americans.

Earlier that day, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, too, pledged to stop importing Russian oil by the end of the year, describing the move as “another economic blow to the Putin regime.”

And neglecting to say that it's another economic blow to the UK.

Mainland Europe, which is far more dependent on Russian energy than either the UK or the US, has stopped short of phasing out natural gas and oil imports from Russia so far.

Germany’s top diplomat, Annalena Baerbock, for instance, acknowledged on Tuesday that if Berlin was to take its cue from Washington on the issue, the country would grind to a halt the next day, as a third of all Germany’s oil imports come from Russia.

Following the start of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine and the sweeping sanctions that the West imposed on Moscow, natural gas prices have soared in the EU, with officials warning that the trend is likely to remain for the long haul.

The EU as a whole, as well as individual member states, have, however, vowed to switch to alternative energy sources over time, with liquefied natural gas from Middle Eastern suppliers and renewables named among the possible options.

Middle East suppliers - none of which are democratic states.

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Berlin households facing huge spike in gas prices

Tariffs rise as EU seeks to move away from Russian energy

An average family in Berlin will see its gas bill increase by a whopping 26% starting in May, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday, citing Berlin-based energy provider GASAG. Rising gas prices are expected across Germany and the rest of Europe as the EU prepares plans to phase out Russian energy supplies.

“Current developments and events ensure a steady increase in procurement prices. We will therefore increase our gas prices from 05/01/2022,” reads the statement on the company’s website.

GASAG has also suspended any new electricity and gas contracts, citing rising procurement prices and inability to offer fair rates to new clients, Thursday’s Berliner Zeitung quoted the provider as having said.

Does this mean new projects will grind to a halt?

The developments come as the EU plans to phase out Russian energy supplies, including gas, due to the war in Ukraine. The EU and the US imposed four rounds of unprecedented sanctions against Moscow, with Washington banning all imports of Russian energy products earlier this week. The EU has pledged to be entirely free of its dependence on Russian gas before 2030. Currently, Moscow meets 40% of the EU’s natural gas needs and accounts for 25% of its crude-oil imports.

Hungary spoke out against sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, which, according to Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, will place a disproportionate burden on citizens. The EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell asked citizens to turn down the heating in their homes, as a way of reducing dependence on Russian gas.

Gas prices in Europe have been hit hard by the current crisis, soaring to an all-time high of $3,900 per 1,000 cubic meters on Monday. A year ago the prices fluctuated around $250-300 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, RIA Novosti writes. Russia’s energy giant Gazprom insists it is meeting its contract obligations by keeping the gas flow to Europe at the maximum level and is not responsible for price hikes.

Obviously, a 26% rise in prices is not going to cover the cost increases. Next winter is likely to be a very difficult time in Europe if they don't stop the madness.

Germany raises concerns over gas suppliers

Berlin is predicting challenges next winter in keeping German houses warm

and businesses operating

© Getty Images / imantsu

Germany’s vice chancellor has said that next winter’s gas supplies to his country have not so far been secured. Robert Habeck, who also serves as the economy and climate minister, hasn’t ruled out there being a so-called domino effect, with a setback in the gas supply chain causing a knock-on shortage in other facilities.

“If we don’t receive further gas supplies … and the deliveries from Russia are capped or stopped, we wouldn’t have enough to keep all our houses warm and to keep all our industry running,” Habeck said, in an interview with the German radio station Deutschlandfunk.

The warning comes ahead of his visit to the Persian Gulf, which begins on Saturday. In Qatar, one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, Habeck is scheduled to meet with the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and other government officials. On Monday, he is expected to participate in talks with United Arab Emirates ministers.

The visit is part of Germany’s efforts to diversify its gas imports as it seeks to reduce its dependency on Russia in the wake of the latest escalation in the conflict with Ukraine. Earlier this week, Habeck traveled to Norway on a similar mission.

Meanwhile, they have a brand new gas pipeline ending in Germany that is empty. Will Germans forgive the government if it is still empty next winter?

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