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Father God, thank you for the love of the truth you have given me. Please bless me with the wisdom, knowledge and discernment needed to always present the truth in an attitude of grace and love. Use this blog and Northwoods Ministries for your glory. Help us all to read and to study Your Word without preconceived notions, but rather, let scripture interpret scripture in the presence of the Holy Spirit. All praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

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Showing posts with label costs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label costs. Show all posts

Sunday, May 31, 2026

Islam in Germany > The extraordinary costs of Merkel's madness

 

How Much Are Migrants Costing German Taxpayers?


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The alarming figures have just been released, and it turns out that those migrants, a great many of them Muslims from the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey, now cost German taxpayers 43 billion dollars a year.

Syrian and Iraqi refugees arrive from Turkey to Skala Sykamias, Lesbos island, Greece by Ggia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0


More on this vertiginous cost can be found here:

$43 Billion Per Year Burden: Migration Costs Hammer German Taxpayers

by Robert Semonsen, Gateway Pundit, May 27, 2026:

Germany is facing a staggering migration bill exceeding €40 billion (approximately $43 billion) a year, with critics warning that the true cost of mass immigration is now placing unsustainable pressure on the country’s economy and social systems.

While official figures often highlight federal spending, the full picture is far more alarming. Once regional and municipal costs are included, the total burden rises well beyond €40 billion ($43 billion)—and may approach €50 billion (around $54 billion) annually.

According to a report from Remix News, citing government data and regional reports, the headline federal figure of €24.8 billion ($26.8 billion) significantly understates the real cost borne by taxpayers.

That €24.8 billion ($26.8 billion) represents only federal expenditures. It does not account for the massive additional spending required at the state and local levels.

German states and municipalities are shouldering a large share of the burden. Their combined costs add tens of billions more to the total.

The result is a financial strain that extends across the entire system. Public budgets are being stretched at every level of government.

But the official totals still fail to capture the full impact. Many of the most visible consequences are not included in the headline figures.

Housing markets, for example, are under intense pressure. Rent prices have surged, and affordable housing has become increasingly scarce. Public infrastructure, too, is feeling the strain. Roads are more congested, and local transport systems are facing growing demand.

Healthcare is another major pressure point. Hospitals continue to be overcrowded, and waiting times for treatment are rising.

The financial imbalance within the health system is becoming increasingly evident. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds has warned of a growing deficit.

A key issue is the gap between contributions and costs. Many recipients of benefits have not paid into the system at the same level….

Let us not forget the increased costs of policing, the justice system and the prison system, all of which have increased substantially since 2015. 

Many of these economic migrants receive every sort of benefit that the German state lavishes on welfare recipients, including free or greatly subsidized housing, free medical care, free education including language tuition, family allowances, unemployment benefits without having been employed in Germany, and more.

Support is growing for policies that prioritize economic sustainability and national interests. The issue is reshaping the political landscape.

The mass migration — almost entirely Muslim — that has been going on since 2015, when then-Chancellor Angela Merkel threw open her country’s gates to more than a million mostly Muslim migrants and confidently declared “Wir schaffen das!” — “We Can Do This!” — have harmed both German “economic sustainability” and the country’s “national interests.” Little more than a decade later, it has been conclusively shown that no, the Germans cannot “do this.” They cannot assimilate the millions of Muslims now in their midst. The federal and state governments in Germany are running out of money; the annual bill for immigrant support now comes to the staggering sum of 43 billion dollars. This is unsustainable.

The only immigration policies that make sense are those of the Alternative für Deutschland, the anti-Muslim immigrant party that the redoubtable Alice Weidel leads. The AfD wants to call a complete halt to Muslim immigration, to deport Muslims already in Germany if they have been convicted of committing crimes, and to severely restrict the distribution of welfare benefits, including imposing a mandatory work requirement on welfare recipients.

The AfD party is now leading in all the polls and could win the next election that must be held no later than March 25, 2029. In fact, the election is likely to be held as early as next year, given all the alarm nationwide over Muslim immigration, and how the colossal cost of the cornucopia of benefits it provides those Muslim migrants is eating into the amounts that elderly Germans once could, but can no longer, count on.

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Aside from the staggering cost of supporting Muslims in Germany, the government found lots of money to give to Islamic terror organizations in the Middle East, with no strings attached.


Germany supported organization linked to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood for years without tracking funds


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“It is he who has caused those among the people of the book who disbelieved to go forth from their homes to the first exile. You did not think that they would go forth, while they thought that their strongholds would protect them from Allah. But Allah reached them from a place they did not expect, and cast terror in their hearts so that they ruined their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers. So learn a lesson, O you who have eyes.” (Qur’an 59:2)

Infostand von Islamic Relief Deutschland in Sony-Center in Berlin. Gemeinsame Veranstaltung mit Aktion Deutschland hilft, IslamicReliefDE, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0


Germany supported Hamas-linked organization for years without tracking funds,

audit finds

by Mathilda Heller, Jerusalem Post, May 25, 2026:

Until 2019, the German foreign office supported an aid organization with close ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood without knowing how the funds were actually being used.

This information appears in a newly released confidential audit by Germany’s Federal Court of Auditors, which the Institute for Secular Law (Institut für Weltanschauungsrecht or IFW) has been trying to obtain for five years.
Until now, unsuccessfully.

The audit concerns state funding for the organization Islamic Relief, purported to have ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The now-public documents reveal, according to ifw advisory board member Seyran Ateş, “a shocking naivety on the part of the Foreign Office.”

Islamic Relief Germany (IRD) had long been regarded in Germany as a respected Muslim charity organization. Several consecutive German governments, including former chancellor Angela Merkel’s second, third, and fourth cabinets, provided IRD with millions of euros in funding.

IRD was a member of the German aid alliance Aktion Deutschland Hilft, and gained prominent supporters for its “Meals for Orphans” campaign, including former President Christian Wulff and his successor Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

However, in 2019, the Foreign Ministry stopped funding the organization, and, in 2020, IRD’s membership in Aktion Deutschland Hilft was suspended.

On April 15, 2019, the German government noted that both Islamic Relief Germany and its parent organization, Islamic Relief Worldwide, had “significant personnel connections to the Muslim Brotherhood or organizations close to it.”

The government also admitted that since 2014 it had known that “Islamic Relief Worldwide,” including its German branch IRD, was banned in Israel, regarded as “part of the financial system of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood movement,” and therefore classified as a “terrorist organization.”…                                                                                     

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Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Environment > China's Solar Program - some good news, and some bad news

 

China sets new solar record – data

May installations jumped fourfold year-on-year amid looming policy and trade pressures, according to official data
China sets new solar record – data











China set a new record for monthly installed solar power capacity in May, according to official data.

The National Energy Administration reported on Monday that China installed 93 gigawatts of solar panels in May – more than any other country did over the whole of 2024, according to Bloomberg. The figure is more than quadruple the capacity added during the same month last year and surpasses the previous monthly high of 71 gigawatts set last December.

The surge comes as developers rush to complete projects ahead of new regulatory changes that are expected to significantly reduce renewable energy prices.

May’s record followed strong installations in April, bringing China’s total solar additions for the first five months of the year to 198 gigawatts (GW) – averaging more than 1GW per day.

China typically sees a spike in solar installations in December, but developers accelerated activity this year ahead of anticipated policy changes. A regulation that took effect on May 1 made it more difficult to connect rooftop solar systems to the grid, while another policy starting June 1 removed pricing protections that had previously ensured profits for solar projects.

Analysts expect the new policies to moderate the pace of installations over the summer which would increase pressure on Chinese solar manufacturers, who have been grappling with overcapacity and falling prices for more than a year.

All major Chinese solar equipment firms posted losses in the first quarter of 2025, citing weak prices and rising trade tensions following the return of US President Donald Trump to the White House.

Trump imposed broad tariffs on imports from over 90 countries, including China, in early April. Beijing retaliated, leading Trump to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, while China responded with duties of up to 125% on US products.

The two sides reached a tentative truce in Geneva on May 12, agreeing to a 90-day pause on further hikes and to maintain a 10% baseline tariff. However, tensions resurfaced earlier this month amid mutual accusations of violating the deal.

Earlier, the China Photovoltaic Industry Association called for urgent consolidation in the sector, warning that unchecked expansion and price wars were driving the industry into a “race to the bottom.”

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Monday, October 7, 2024

Migrants on the Move > Skyrocketing illegal migrants entering the USA from Canada; UK Migrants 'stuck' in hotels costing millions of dollars per day


Illegal migrant crossings skyrocket 50-fold

under Biden-Harris admin at northern border

 stretch that includes New York


The number of migrants caught crossing a stretch of the US-Canada border that includes northern New York has skyrocketed — increasing more than 50-fold under the Biden-Harris administration.

This year, illegal crossings surpassed the number for the last 17 years combined.

The Border Patrol agents in the Swanton sector — which includes more than 200 miles of land border between Maine and the St. Lawrence River in New York — apprehended more than 19,000 illegal migrants from 97 different countries in fiscal year 2024, the Border Patrol chief for the sector, Robert Garcia, said this week.

Border Patrol agents in the Swanton sector of the northern border apprehend a group of 19 adults near Champlain, New York.
X/USBPChiefSWB
Mike Guillen/NY Post

And among them have been at least 321 terror suspects as of the end of August – with the numbers for September still not logged into Customs and Border Protection’s data. 

In the year prior, there were 484 suspected terrorists apprehended. 

The threat of terror suspects coming from Canada is very real. 

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a 20-year-old Pakistani legally living in Canada on a student visa who was allegedly on his way to the US border to carry out a massacre of NYC jews, that he hoped would be “the largest US attack since 9/11.”

Authorities said Khan was planning to smuggle himself into the US, but was caught in September at the last moment by undercover FBI agents masquerading as co-conspirators.

Though the number of crossings from Canada is smaller compared to the southern border — where 54,000 illegal border crossings were recorded in September alone — they have been increasing at incredible pace.

In fiscal year 2021, just 365 illegal crossers were caught in the sector. The numbers climbed to more than 1,000 in 2022, and then nearly 7,000 last fiscal year.

Across the whole northern border, crossings have increased massively in recent years — with nearly 190,000 illegal migrants caught crossing from Canada in fiscal year 2023.

That’s more than six times as many illegal crossers as in 2021.

Figures for fiscal year 2024 crossings look likely to be close to 2023 levels.

The Border Patrol agents in the Swanton sector apprehended more than 19,000 illegal migrants from 97 different countries in fiscal year 2024, officials said.
X/USBPChiefSWB

One reason the northern border has seen a recent surge while crossings on the southern border are falling is that the 5,500-mile stretch is not affected by the new Biden-Harris administration’s asylum restrictions.

The rules — similar to a Trump administration policy — restrict illegal border crossers from accessing the years-long asylum process.

The policy remains in effect at the southern border, where it bars asylum access until illegal crossings fall below an average of 1,500 per day for a month.

“The executive order doesn’t affect us,” a Border Patrol source at the northern border previously told The Post.

“Family units are getting released and singles are sent to detention for adjudication.”

Earlier this year, residents in rural Swanton, Vermont, showed The Post the migrant smuggling taking place on their properties.

A group of 19 adult males were apprehended near Champlain, NY, following an illegal entry into the country.
X/USBPChiefSWB

“Now I’ve got the Border Patrol guys on speed dial,” local Chris Feeley, 52, said in February.

Feeley has seen the illegal crossings firsthand take place over the last three years from the vantage point of his hunting tree stand.

He recalled one morning when he was up in the tree watching startled deer run by before seeing two men “of Mexican descent” wearing backpacks and carrying walking sticks.

Seven Mexican citizens are apprehended by border agents near Mooers, New York.
X/USBPChiefSWB

“He stopped right underneath me and was looking at his iPhone and was following a trail, so obviously somebody gave him a route of which way to go,” Feeley said.

“I was just stunned, I didn’t know what to do. I just let them walk off, I gave them 10 minutes before I went back to the barn to call Border Patrol.”

Feeley said border agents in the area advised him to start carrying a gun to protect himself.

The northern border offers fewer barriers for migrants trying to sneak across, with no border wall and limited law enforcement manpower patrolling huge swaths of land, according to Border Patrol sources who have spoken to The Post.

While experiencing record border crossings from Mexico, agents were pulled from north to south to help their counterparts process the thousands of migrants crossing each day.

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UK: 30,000 migrants to continue living in hotels

at cost of $5,800,000 per day for 3 more years


It would be unbelievably foolish for any British citizen actually to believe that a far-left government such as that of Prime Minister Keir Starmer would abide by his election promise to curb Britain’s ongoing illegal migrant problem.

The latest news brings a sense of déjà vu, that tens of thousands of illegal migrants are being housed in hotels, paid for by taxpayers, while so many British citizens can barely make ends meet. Yet in a predictable leftist spin, illegals are made out to be the suffering partiesstuck in hotels for three years…” How many British citizens could afford to be “stuck” in a hotel for three years? Yet they’re paying for illegals to be housed there. The UK government has dismissed the plight of its own taxpayers,  economically as well as in terms of national security.

Nothing has significantly changed since we reported this last year on Jihad Watch:

It keeps getting worse by the day as more illegals flow into Britain via the English Channel. While many UK military families have no heat or hot water, the government continues to host illegal migrants in plush hotels, at the cost to taxpayers of $8.5 million USD a day and rising. And now, homelessness is up over 25% in Britain. So while illegal, mostly Muslim migrants from the Middle East and Africa, are royally served in plush hotels, poverty stricken Britons are shivering on the streets.

Note that the reported cost last year was $8,500,000 USD, while it is now being reported in the Times of London at $5,800,000 USD. According to the UK government’s website:

There were more than 46,000 asylum seekers in hotels as of the end of December 2023, costing £8 million a day.

£8 is $10,600,000 USD.

When British citizens were protesting in the streets over illegal migration, the Starmer government and the media made them out to be “far right,” “violent” thugs.

The Labour government has no intention of stopping illegals, as it strings along British citizens with promises to the contrary. The general policy of the British government is the same as that of leftist governments everywhere: putting British citizens last in a slow, agonizing process of a great global reset that rejects Judeo-Christian values, traditions and rule of law.



Migrants will be stuck in hotels for three years because of asylum backlog

by Matt Dathan and Steven Swinford, The Times of London, September 30, 2024:

Migrants will continue to be housed in hotels for up to three years because the asylum backlog will take significantly longer to clear than Labour expected, The Times has been told.

There are nearly 30,000 migrants living in more than 250 hotels at a cost of £4.2 million per day.

Sir Keir Starmer pledged in Labour’s election manifesto to “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds”. The party did not set a timeframe on closing hotels but Home Office officials had been expected to close the last hotel within a year.

However, since entering power, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, and other ministers have privately conceded that it will take significantly longer to clear the overall asylum backlog than they had hoped….

Another case of flat-out lying on the campaign trail. Such is the way of godless politicians. 


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