European Politics > Hungary's First Ever Female President; Navalny Jailed another 9 years; Navalny Missing

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Hungary elects its first female president

The National Assembly has appointed Katalin Novak,

 from Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party, to serve a five-year term

© Twitter / Katalin Novak

Katalin Novak, 44, was elected as the new president of Hungary on Thursday, becoming the youngest and first-ever female incumbent in the role in the country’s history.

The National Assembly appointed Novak, who had been serving as the vice president of the ruling Fidesz party, to a five-year term after she delivered a rousing speech calling for national unity.

Novak defeated economist Peter Rona in a vote that was split down party lines within the legislature. Her 137 votes to Rona’s 51 secured her success. She replaces Janos Ader, who was also a member of Fidesz. Ader was unable to run for president again due to constitutional limits that permit an individual to serve only two five-year terms.

Prior to her election, Novak had served as a member of the National Assembly since 2018 and the minister for family affairs within Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s fourth government from 2020 to 2021. While serving as the vice president of Fidesz, she was tasked with overseeing economic support for Hungary’s populace, including housing subsidies, state-backed home loans, and tax cuts.

Speaking prior to the vote, Novak pledged to defend the country’s constitution, which was drafted and approved by Fidesz, showing her support for the continued implementation of key elements of Orban’s agenda. Officially, the role of president is a non-partisan position, the duties of which are largely ceremonial, but the election marks a victory for the prime minister’s party.

The opposition United for Hungary party had condemned Novak’s nomination for president, accusing Fidesz of picking “a party soldier for the third time in a row for one of the most important public offices in Hungary.”

“Those saying that I would be just a puppet in this position degrade not me personally, but women in general. They cannot [imagine] that a woman can be a sovereign public [official] capable of making autonomous decisions," Novak was quoted by Hungarian media as having said.

Congratulations, Katalin. God bless you!

Russian court gives Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny

another 9 years in prison

By Clyde Hughes

   

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen in a glass cage before a hearing at the Babushkinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, February 20, 2021. Months earlier, Navalny was sickened by a Soviet-era nerve agent that ultimately caused him to commit a parole violation. File Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE 

March 22 (UPI) -- A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced opposition leader and high-profile Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine more years in prison on charges of fraud and contempt of court that critics say are intended to quash dissent.

The court's ruling means that Navalny, who was already in prison for a parole violation technicality, could now be behind bars for a total of 12 years, his legal team said.

Prosecutors charged Navalny with stealing more than $4.7 million in donations that were given to his political organizations for his own personal use.

The court's sentence says that Navalny must spend the time in a maximum security prison.

"The whole world knows that this trial has nothing to do with the law," Ruslan Shaveddinov, a Navalny supporter said, according to The Washington Post.

"We see that Alexei will be held in prison for many more years, they hope to do that. We can't turn a blind eye to this as we see that everything is headed toward a very sad end of our country."

The judge on Tuesday also fined Navalny about $11,000. Navalny can appeal the court's decision.

Navalny had been serving a 2½-year sentence for violating a 2014 suspended sentence for embezzlement while recovering from poisoning in Germany in 2020. Critics said the embezzlement conviction was also politically motivated.

The Russian government is suspected in his poisoning, which medical officials said was carried out with the Soviet-era nerve agent novichok.

After he fell ill on a flight, Navalny spent 32 days in the hospital, most of them in the intensive care unit. He was later taken to Germany for treatment, where doctors identified the novichok.

Democracy, in Eastern Europe, is very different than elsewhere. Instead of winners having the most financial backing, Eastern European winners are the ones who can avoid prison long enough to win. Myanmar also uses this model.

Lawyer says Russian critic Alexei Navalny missing after prison transfer

By Simon Druker

   

Russian opposition leader and Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny, pictured 2012, is missing and his whereabouts are unknown following a prison transfer, his lawyer and spokesperson said Tuesday. File Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo

June 14 (UPI) -- Alexei Navalny is missing and his whereabouts are unknown following a prison transfer, a spokesperson for the Russian opposition leader said Tuesday.

Navalny had been in custody, but his lawyers were told he was no longer at the prison when they attempted to meet with him Tuesday, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.

"Alexei Navalny @navalny was transported away from the penal colony No. 2. His lawyer, who came to see him, was kept at the checkpoint until 14.00, and was then told: 'There is no such convict here.' We do not know where Alexei is now and what colony they are taking him to," Yarmysh Tweeted.

"Of course, neither Alexei's attorneys nor his relatives were informed about his transfer in advance. There were rumors that he was going to be transferred to the high-security penal colony IK-6 'Melekhovo,' but it is impossible to know when (and if) he will actually arrive there."

The Kremlin critic is serving a 12-year prison sentence, after having nine additional years tacked on in March to an existing sentence.

His lawyers were also arrested at the same time, while Yarmysh said the sentence would make it "practically impossible" to keep in contact with Navalny.

"The problem with his transfer to another colony is not only that the high-security colony is much scarier. As long as we don't know where Alexei is, he remains one-on-one with the system that has already tried to kill him, so our main task now is to locate him as soon as possible," she wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

Navalny, who has been previously arrested by Russian authorities, survived being poisoned in August of 2020, an act that has been widely blamed on the Kremlin.

His anti-corruption organizations were also labeled "extremists" last year, effectively shutting them down. And then in late January, Navalny was added to Russia's terrorists and extremists list.

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Deep State > Pope Declares WWIII - Ukraine War Provoked by NATO; NATO pledges more heavy weapons for Ukraine; NATO's Man in Odessa; Lara Logan, Ukraine and the Globalists

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It's flattering when someone like the Pope confirms what I have been saying for years

World War III has been declared – Pope Francis

The pontiff has lamented military conflicts across the globe and said

the Russia-Ukraine crisis may have been “provoked”

FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis is shown speaking during a 2016 visit to Greece.

© Getty Images / Milos Bicanski

Pope Francis has suggested that World War III is already in progress, as evidenced by “intertwined elements” at work in the Russia-Ukraine crisis and other conflicts across the globe.

“A few years ago, it occurred to me to say that we are experiencing a third world war fought piecemeal,” the head of the Catholic Church said in a May 19 interview with Jesuit media outlets that was published on Tuesday. “Today, for me, World War III has been declared.”

Francis noted that while the fighting in Ukraine “pricks our sensibilities more,” wars also are ongoing in such places as northern Nigeria and Myanmar, “and nobody cares.” He added, “The world is at war. This is something that should give us pause for thought.”

What is happening to humanity that has had three world wars in a century ... ? You have to think that in a century there have been three world wars, with all the arms trade behind it.

Acknowledging criticism for his failure to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin and his past comments suggesting that NATO expansion onto Russia’s doorstep might have provoked the crisis, the pontiff denied being “pro-Putin.” He said such a claim would be “simplistic and erroneous.”

“I am simply against turning a complex situation into a distinction between good guys and bad guys, without considering the roots and self-interests, which are very complex,” he said. “While we witness the ferocity and cruelty of Russian troops, we should not forget the problems and seek to solve them.”

Asked how the Jesuit editors should report on the Eastern European conflict in a way that contributes to a peaceful future, Francis replied, “We have to get away from the common mindset of Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood was good, and the wolf was the bad guy. Here, there are no metaphysical good guys and bad guys, in the abstract. Something global is emerging, with elements that are closely intertwined with each other.” 

He also cautioned against focusing only on the “brutality and ferocity” of the conflict. “The danger is that we only see this, which is monstrous, and miss the whole drama that is unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented. I also note the interest in testing and selling weapons. It is very sad, but at the end of the day, that is what is at stake.”

Francis praised the heroism of the Ukrainian people in defending their country, but he pointed to outside interests putting them in peril. “What is before our eyes is a situation of world war, global interests, arms sales, and geopolitical appropriation, which is martyring a heroic people,” he said.

The pontiff reiterated his concern, first made public in an interview last month, that NATO may have instigated Moscow’s military offensive against Kiev. He recalled a conversation with a head of state, whom he identified only as “a wise man,” a couple of months before the fighting began. “He told me that he was very concerned about the way NATO was acting. I asked him why, and he said, ‘They are barking at the gates of Russia, and they don't understand that the Russians are imperial and they will not allow any foreign power to approach them.’”

Francis also warned that after many of Ukraine's Western backers “opened their hearts” to the women and children fleeing the country in the early days of the conflict, support for its refugees is already “cooling down.” He added, “Who will take care of these women? We need to look beyond the concrete action of the moment and see how we will support them so that they don’t fall into human trafficking or end up being used, because the vultures are already circling.”

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NATO pledges more heavy weapons for Ukraine

The bloc is unwilling to fight Russia directly and treats Kiev as a proxy, Dutch PM admits

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (center) is welcomed by Dutch PM Mark Rutte and Danish PM Mette Frederiksen in The Hague, Netherlands, June 14, 2022. ©  AP Photo/Patrick Post

Ukraine must get more NATO heavy weapons, the military bloc’s head said on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting of the US-led ‘contact group’ to discuss the logistics of that undertaking. NATO is trying to adapt to the “constantly changing” demands from Kiev, according to the US envoy to the alliance. 

“Ukraine should have more heavy weapons and NATO allies and partners have provided heavy weapons ... and they are also stepping up,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday in The Hague, where he met with leaders of seven member countries ahead of the NATO summit scheduled for the end of June.

“In terms of weaponry, we stand united here that it is crucial for Russia to lose the war,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who hosted the meeting. “And as we cannot have a direct confrontation between NATO troops and Russia, what we need to do is make sure that Ukraine can fight that war, that it has access to all the necessary weaponry.”

That way, NATO countries get to make kazillions of Euros with none of the casualties. And Zelensky thinks they are doing him a favour. He must have shares in weapons manufacturers.

Romanian President Klaus Johannis, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Belgian PM Alexander De Croo, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki, Portuguese PM Antonio Costa, and Latvian PM Krisjanis Karins also attended the meeting in the Netherlands. Stoltenberg previously visited Sweden and Finland, which have applied to join NATO but will most likely not be formally invited to the June 29-30 summit in Madrid, due to Turkish objections.

Meanwhile, US Permanent Representative to NATO Julianne Smith was reported as saying that NATO countries are trying to adapt to Kiev’s demands for additional weapons, which are constantly changing.

According to the Pentagon, initial efforts to supply Ukraine focused on portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, but are now shifting to tanks and heavy artillery due to the nature of the current fighting in Donbass.

Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has said that Kiev urgently needs 1,000 howitzers, 300 multiple-launch rocket systems, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, and 1,000 drones. 

While the US has pledged only four HIMARS rocket launchers, the Pentagon’s policy chief, Colin Kahl, on Tuesday revealed that they would be supplied with heavy guided missiles, with a range of 70 kilometers. 

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Brussels, where he will chair the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group to discuss how to best supply Kiev. According to an unnamed US official quoted by the Pentagon’s news release, “Ukrainians know themselves best what they’re dealing with, and we actively seek their information on the battlefield conditions.”

“Generally, we take their assessment as reliable and valid,” the official added.

Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

The Kremlin has since 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.

Of course, to say this they have to ignore the 28 or more bio-labs working in the country, financed by the Pentagon. No other country has dozens of bio-labs.

Cheerleader of NATO wars spotted in Ukraine

Bernard-Henri Levy’s presence in Odessa should give pause to those

who still believe NATO is not involved in Ukraine

Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist, and host of independently produced talk-shows in French and English.

Bernard-Henri Lévy. © Getty Images / Franco Origlia

French intellectual and philosopher, Bernard-Henri Lévy (commonly referred to as “BHL”), has an odd propensity for appearing alongside western proxy fighters in war zones. And new reports now place him on the ground amid the conflict in Ukraine. 

The day after the February 24 launch of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, France 2, the main state-owned television network, hosted a debate featuring, on one side, former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, perhaps best known worldwide for his role during the run up to the Iraq war in 2003. Back then, he served as the foreign minister and represented France’s opposition to the American efforts under then president Jacques Chirac at the United Nations Security Council. 

After then US Secretary of State Colin Powell made his now infamous speech imploring the international community to back an invasion of Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein’s use of weapons of mass destruction, De Villepin argued in favor of inspections. 

“Given this context, the use of force is not justified at this time. There is an alternative to war: Disarming Iraq via inspections. Moreover, premature recourse to the military option would be fraught with risks,” he said. 

History has now proven him correct in his assessment. 

De Villepin’s call for prudence and avoidance of military escalation in Ukraine was loaded with historical lessons learned. “Military interventions never yield the expected results,” recalled the former French prime minister. “History has taught us this in Libya, Iraq and the Sahel.”

On the other side of the France 2 debate table was BHL, who has a rather interesting relationship to some of the conflicts evoked by De Villepin. “[Russian President Vladimir Putin] launched this crazy war, without reason, against a people who had done nothing to him,” replied the philosopher. 

It seems that in BHL’s world, wars start like magic with a need to protect completely innocent parties that just happen to be on NATO’s side, and not because of covert shenanigans that predate them — something that BHL should certainly know about. 

During the NATO-backed war in Yugoslavia — the war in Europe that those commenting on the current situation in Ukraine seem to forget — BHL, who just happened to be hanging out in the region, overtly backed the NATO proxy, then Bosnian president Alija Izetbegović, who, his opponents believed, was a Muslim fundmentalist. Izetbegović was allegedly used by western forces to helm Islamist fighters against Serbia and ultimately carve out a zone of influence and military control in the Balkans. Later, in a 2019 tweet, BHL referred to the al-Qaeda-linked Izetbegović as “one of the great, luminous figures of the 20th century.”

Then, in March 2011, ahead of the NATO invasion of Libya, which led to an overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi that October, BHL was spotted in Libya meeting with “Libyan rebels,” footage of which can be seen in BHL’s documentary, “The Oath of Tobruk.” It would be easy to chalk up Levy’s presence among the western-backed proxy fighters ahead of Gaddafi’s ultimate demise at their hands as just journalistic interest or intellectual curiosity. But that theory is betrayed by French reports of an activist role at the highest level of the French government. 

BHL succeeded in bringing three members of the future Libyan government in waiting to meet with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée Palace on March 10, 2011 — seven months before Gaddafi’s demise, according to Le Figaro. The newspaper also reported that BHL, who met with then US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, at a Paris hotel and noted an American disinterest in military intervention, subsequently took to French airwaves to pressure Sarkozy into having the French take the lead in the invasion by telling the French audience that, “If Gaddafi takes Benghazi, the huge French flag flying on the Corniche will literally be spattered with the blood of the massacred Libyans.” Four days after the media appearance, NATO began its military intervention in Libya. 

In 2012, as the NATO-led invasion of yet another country, Syria, raged in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad with “Syrian rebels” backed by CIA and Pentagon covert programs, BHL took to the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival with both Libyan and Syrian rebels, to symbolize “the passing of the torch of Liberty,” according to Le Point magazine. Just a few months later, BHL was calling for France to also send weapons to the western’s proxy “rebels” to fight the Syrian army, specifically, “cannons, anti-aircraft missiles, defensive weapons, for Aleppo, Homs and the rest of Free Syria.” 

Then, in February 2013, BHL wrote on his blog, “La Règle du Jeu,” praising then French president Francois Hollande for launching French military operations in Mali, which were ultimately an unsurprising result of the destabilization of Libya caused by the earlier French-led, NATO-backed invasion cheered by BHL himself. “For the first time, in Mali and Libya, force was put at the explicit service of freedom and justice; for the first time – since Valmy!  – there is a desired link … between the exercise by France of its power and the defense of values that go beyond it.” In defense of the “values” of leaving countries in tatters for years after hopelessly destabilizing them because their leaders refuse to kowtow to the agenda of Washington and its allies, apparently.

And now, BHL — symbolic of a certain caviar leftist that sells wars and invasions of benefit to the military industrial complex from the lofty perch of humanitarianism — wants action in Ukraine. And after calling for it prominently via French mainstream media, he is hanging out in Odessa — coincidentally, just in time for the launch of the new “Ukraine fighters”, once again doing NATO’s dirty work, but this time comprised of foreign and domestic western-armed warriors, both regular troops and irregular combatants, cheered from the sidelines by the west against Russian troops.

A regular and welcome fixture all over English and foreign western establishment media from America to Europe, BHL tends to show up wherever there’s armed conflict between interests of the western establishment intent on clinging to the current unipolar world order, against those more representative of a more competitive multipolar alternative. His very presence in Odessa should give pause to anyone who still honestly believes that NATO isn’t a directly involved player, using Ukraine as a platform for its ongoing fight against a new and emerging world order over which it risks losing control.

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Lara Logan Sheds Light on Ukraine and Its History

with Globalists (VIDEO)

Lara refers to another journalist who, unfortunately, is never named. But her brief summary of his work is worth listening to. I will attempt to find out who she referred to.

By Joe Hoft

Published March 20, 2022 at 7:30am

Lara Logan was on with Cowboy Logic and dropped some bombs on Ukraine in her assessment of all that was going on there. The Conservative Treehouse brought this video to our attention.

Lara Logan is not the type of journalist who will pull punches when she shares insight and information.  Logan cuts to the chase and avoids pretending the issues are something other than what reality exists.

In this short interview segment, Lara Logan outlines her brutally honest perspective on why Ukraine is ultimately so important to people in power within the DC system.

Logan shares on Cowboy Logic the following:

I encourage everybody to look at the work of a journalist, an American journalist in Ukraine who has been there for years and years and years and has done extraordinary work trying to uncover how Ukraine is at the center of this cult of globalists.  How it is a center of money laundering for the oligarchs and their allies in the United States.  How it is at the center of Russia collusion and the whole false narrative.  How it was amazingly a Ukrainian dossier, right, that put Paul Manafort behind bars…

We’ve been reporting for years that some key US politicians were all making money in Ukraine.

Please go to The Gateway Pundit to watch the video.

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Military Madness > Biden wants Ukraine war to continue, apparently

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Macron reacts to Biden’s Putin 'butcher' comments

The French president made it clear that he himself “wouldn’t use such words.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden during a summit in Geneva 2021.

© AFP / Saul Loeb

The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine through words or actions should be avoided, French leader Emmanuel Macron has warned, after US President Joe Biden labeled his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “a butcher,” who “cannot remain in power.”

When asked to comment on the statements made by Biden on the final day of his visit to Poland on Saturday, Macron said that, personally speaking, he “wouldn’t use such words.”

The French leader told the broadcaster France 3 that he was planning to talk to Putin about the situation in Ukraine in the next two days. He said his goal was “achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of [Russian] troops by diplomatic means.”

“If we want to do that, we can’t escalate, either in words or actions,” Macron stressed.

Biden had earlier called Putin a “butcher” after visiting a stadium in Warsaw hosting Ukrainian refugees. In his speech later on that day, the US president proclaimed, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

US officials subsequently clarified that Biden hadn’t been calling for regime change. An unnamed White House official told the media the president had gone off script when he delivered the controversial line.

It's pretty hard to discern any other possible meaning for what Biden said. That he went 'off-script' is probably an indication that he wasn't supposed to say out loud what everyone in the White House was thinking.

The adolescent name-calling was clearly an attempt to prevent any meaningful peace negotiations. Biden has been a politician all his life and must know what his words mean and the effect they have. If not, he must be a moron. Between Biden's tongue and Stoltenberg's intransigence, it seems clear that the west wants this situation to continue for some time.

The inventory of war is moving!

“A national leader has to keep a cool head,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov remarked in response to Biden’s words. “Personal insults narrow the window” for cooperation between Moscow and Washington, he added.

Russia sent its troops into Ukraine, over a month ago, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. 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 had been planning to retake the two republics by force.

The Media is the Message > NY Times tentatively outing Hunter's laptop

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New York Times finally wakes up and admits Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop IS REAL, a YEAR after DailyMail.com authenticated its contents and broke dozens of stories about his shady dealings

The New York Times admitted the contents of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop are indeed authentic, in a report about his business dealings published this week

The Macbook Pro was recovered in October 2020 after the president's son left it at a repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware in April 2019 and never returned for it 

When files from the device were first published ahead of the 2020 election, the NYT cast doubt on its provenance and linked it to Russian disinformation 

On Wednesday, the paper changed its tune in an article referencing the files, which they confirmed 'were authenticated by people familiar with them'

Last March, DailyMail.com authenticated the laptop and was the first – and only – news organization to publicly verify its contents using expert analysis

DailyMail.com can also reveal that the Washington Post has had a copy of the laptop hard drive for over six months, but has failed to admit it or report on it

'They haven't done anything. They're not just late to the party, they didn't even show up,' said Jack Maxey, a political activist who gave DailyMail.com the laptop

By JOSH BOSWELL FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 18:27 EDT, 17 March 2022

The New York Times has finally admitted Hunter Biden's laptop is real – more than a year after DailyMail.com authenticated its contents with top experts.

When files from the laptop were published before the 2020 presidential election, the newspaper cast doubt on its provenance, linked it to Russian disinformation, and made no public attempt to obtain and verify it.

But buried 1,200 words into a story this week about a federal probe into the president's son, the Gray Lady admitted to an astonishing U-turn.

Reporters referenced emails 'obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop', adding that they 'were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.'

DailyMail.com authenticated the laptop a full year earlier, and was the first – and only – news organization to publicly verify its contents using expert analysis.

Last March, we hired top cyber forensics experts at Maryman & Associates to examine the hard drive to determine its authenticity.

DailyMail.com published dozens of a stories based on the scandalous contents of Hunter Biden's

abandoned laptop - including a cache of 103,000 text messages, 154,000 emails, more than

2,000 photos (pictured)- that were verified by top forensics experts

The firm's founder, Brad Maryman, was a 29-year veteran of the FBI, served as a Chief Information Security Officer and founded the bureau's cyber forensics unit. His partner, Dr. Joseph Greenfield, is an associate professor at the University of Southern California and helped write their degree program in intelligence and cyber operations.

After an extensive analysis of the hard drive, Greenfield and Maryman produced a report for DailyMail.com detailing their findings.

'The operating system timestamps appear to be authentic, and no evidence was found to suggest that the timestamps or data were altered or manufactured,' the report said. 

'No indications were found that would suggest the data was manufactured.'

Since then, DailyMail.com has revealed a series of troubling stories based on the scandalous material from the laptop that go to the heart of the FBI's probe into Hunter's alleged dodged taxes, foreign lobbying and suspected money laundering.

Over the past year we have published stories including: 

Please go to the Daily Mail for links to those stories and for much, much more on this story.

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Ozzone 6-16 > Our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of the heroic!

 

Ozzone 6-25 > At the very point of my obedience, the whole superb grace of God is mine

 

Islam - Current Day > Girl Kicked out of Bahrain restaurant for wearing hijab; 6 Boko Haram fundraisers jailed and sanctioned; Egyptian Mom murders children; April's Toll of Muslim Atrocities

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Indian restaurant in Bahrain shut for not allowing

woman in hijab to enter

Bahrain: "We reject all actions that discriminate against people"

Except for the wearing of Hijabs

Published:  March 27, 2022 13:06

Tawfiq Nasrallah, Senior News Editor

Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority (BTEA) said it has launched an investigation into the incident, which hogged the limelight after a video showing one of the staff blocking a veiled woman from entering the facility went viral on all social media platforms, where users expressed their anger at this behaviour. Image Credit: Shutterstock

Dubai: A famous Indian restaurant in Adliya, a bohemian neighbourhood in Manama, Bahrain, has been closed by authorities after a woman wearing hijab was allegedly prevented from entering the facility, making it the first of its kind in the Gulf country, local media reported.

Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority (BTEA) said it has launched an investigation into the incident, which hogged the limelight after a video showing one of the staff blocking a veiled woman from entering the facility went viral on all social media platforms, where users expressed their anger at this behaviour.

In the video, the girl is heard saying that she went with her friend to the restaurant but was surprised that her friend was not allowed to enter because she was wearing hijab.

The ministry has asked all tourism outlets to comply with regulations and avoid enforcing policies that violate the laws of the Kingdom.

“We reject all actions that discriminate against people, especially regarding their national identity,” the ministry said, adding that the closure has been taken adhering to Decree Law No 15 of 1986, which regulates the tourism outlets including restaurants and hotels.

The ministry added that it is pursuing legal actions, calling on the public to report such incidents to the authority through National Complaints and Suggestion system Tawasul or by calling the Consumer Protection Centre on 17007003.

Meanwhile, in a statement posted on social media, the restaurant management apologised for the "mistake" committed by one of the staff, which brought disgrace to the organisation. “We have suspended the duty manager based on our investigation,” the restaurant said.

“We have been serving our customers from all nationalities living in this beautiful Kingdom for over 35 years now. Ours is a place for everyone to come and enjoy with their families and feel at home.

“In this instance, a mistake has been made by a manager who has been suspended and this doesn’t represent who we are,” the restaurant said.

U.S. sanctions six Nigerian nationals for connections to Boko Haram

By Calley Hair

A man walks past an advertisement for the fight against terrorist group Boko Haram on the back of a public bus in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2015. The United States announced sanctions on six individuals over their connections to the group on Friday. File Photo by Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA

March 26 (UPI) -- The United States sanctioned six people connected to the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram.

The Treasury Department added the people to its list of "specially designated nationals and blocked persons," the department announced on Friday. The group of Nigerian nationals includes Abdurrahman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad.

Last year, the men were found guilty by a federal court in Abu Dhabi of setting up a Boko Haram cell in the United Arab Emirates to raise funds for armed fighters in Nigeria. They were also convicted of attempting to send $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria.

Adamu and Muhammad were sentenced to life in prison for violating UAE anti-terrorism laws while Musa, Yusuf, Isa and Alhassan were sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by deportation.

Under the terms of Friday's sanction, any property or interests within the United States owned by the individuals must be blocked and reported to the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The sanction also bans people in the United States from engaging in certain financial interactions with the men on the list.

"With this action, the United States joins the UAE in targeting terrorist financing networks of mutual concern," Under Secretary of the Treasury Brian Nelson said in a press release.

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Egypt: Mother slits throat of her 3 kids, tries to commit suicide

Sends note to husband saying: 'I sent your children to paradise'

Published:  June 01, 2022 13:08

Khitam Al Amir, Chief News Editor, Gulf News

  

Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt

Dubai: An Egyptian mother killed her three children by slitting their throats before trying to commit suicide by throwing herself before a truck, local media reported.

The gruesome crime shocked the village of Mit Tomama in Dakahlia Governorate, northeast of Cairo.

The three children, two boys and a female infant, were found dead by neighbours who called police after they saw the mother throwing herself in front of the truck.

The woman was admitted to hospital under police custody.

The police confiscated a sharp weapon that the mother used to slit the throats of her three children. They also found a handwritten note addressed by the mother to her husband which read: “I sent your children to paradise, and you will also go to paradise.”

The case is being investigated by the Public Prosecution; the mental condition of the woman is also being examined.

Hundreds of residents of the village participated in the funeral of the kids amid a state of shock and sorrow.

Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt

'I Had Read the Koran and My Heart Was Inflamed, So I Killed Him'

The atrocities Muslims committed against Christians during just one month.

Thu Jun 2, 2022

Raymond Ibrahim11

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.  This report was first published by the Gatestone Institute.

The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of April, 2022:

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Egypt: On Apr. 7, a Muslim man wielding a long knife lunged at and repeatedly stabbed a Coptic Christian priest, killing him.  The incident occurred in a crowded street in Alexandria.  Fr. Arsenius Wadid, 56, was leading his church’s youth group on a field trip.  He was stabbed in the throat three times.  Passersby apprehended the assassin and handed him over to police.  Although Egyptian media tried to present this tragic incident as an aberration, it is not the first time Muslims slaughter Christian clergymen in Egypt.  In one especially notable —because very similar—incident, security camera footage (formerly viewable here) captured a Muslim man with a large butcher knife chasing and stabbing Fr. Samaan Shehata—including in the head, neck, and torso—in the streets of Cairo on October 12, 2017.  He then drew a cross on the priest’s forehead with his own blood.  Concerning the murderer’s motive, one report said “he had decided to kill any Coptic priest, purchased a dagger, and lay in wait for one to pass by, in a street leading to the local church.”  Similarly, in 2013, Coptic priest Mina Cheroubim was shot dead as he left his church in al-Arish.

Also in Egypt, a few days after the slaughter of Fr. Arsenius, three masked men pulled up near the workshop of Rani Ra’fat, a 28-year-old Coptic engineer.  Once the Christian appeared, a hail of fire was opened on him; he died on the spot; 22 bullets were found in his body.  His killers then fled the scene.  Then, on May 13, a man claiming to be the murderer, made a brief video, in which he beams a great smile and congratulates himself for his deed. He identified himself as Faisal Abdul Nasser, said that he did not know his victim, but that he was moved to the act after reading the Koran and because he is “loyal to Allah”:

I am the one who killed that Christian of al-Daba, and—by Allah, by Allah, by Allah—I am delighted that I killed him!  I killed him on behalf of Muhammad’s umma [i.e., the Muslim world], because he is a polytheist who associates another [Christ] with Allah, and his own Bible confirms this….  No Christian polytheist, who doesn’t believe in our lord, Muhammad, can just come and profane our women!  He is a polytheist and my heart was inflamed.  I had read the Koran and my heart was inflamed with fire, so I killed him.  He is not permitted to touch someone [a woman] who believes in Muhammad the messenger of Allah…  I neither knew him [personally] nor the women he was reportedly involved with.  However, when I read the Koran, my heart was set afire.  I am zealous over and sacrifice for Islam.  I have no problem surrendering myself [to the police].  This is a state issue: It is not permissible for a Christian who associates others with Allah to be involved with a Muslim woman…No one incited me to do this, only my heart—because I am loyal to Allah.

Since last reported, and despite the fact that police have supposedly been “investigating” this case for over three weeks, the confessed murderer has yet to be apprehended.

Syria:  On Apr. 6, a Christian priest was found dead inside the St. George Greek Orthodox cathedral in Lattakia.  According to a statement from Syria’s Ministry of Interior, Fr. George Rafiq Housh, 65, “had shot himself with his own 7.5 mm pistol due to psychological and social pressures…”  Many, however, question this claim that he had committed suicide.  One report notes that it was “murder, not a suicide,” as well as a “message of intimidation.” Another report asserts that he was “found sitting in a chair with multiple gunshot wounds,” which would seem impossible for a suicide.  Syrian researcher and academic Dr. Samira Moubayed said that “promoting the story of Father George shooting himself is naive and adopting the regime’s lies, which were repeated during the numerous assassinations it carried out…  It is linked to a security agency and has a clear goal, which is to intimidate the Christians in the region and displace them or push them to despair and apprehension.”

Nigeria: Muslim Fulani terrorists continued their jihad on Christian communities throughout April; some of the accounts of slaughter follow:

Apr. 10: The Muslim terrorists raided about ten Christian-majority villages throughout Central Plateau State; 142 people were slaughtered, about 70—mostly women and girls—were abducted, and three thousand displaced.  Responding to these attacks, a local Christian said, “The government has turned a blind eye to these atrocities.”

Apr. 26: The Fulani terrorists slaughtered 21 Christians in four different villages of Kaduna State.  They also torched a church and at least 92 Christian homes.

Apr. 11: The Muslim terrorists attacked Tior-Tyu in Benue State; they butchered at least 17 Christians.  A local said:

This attack was not envisaged at all because we live as a peaceful Christian community and have never expected any attack from anyone most especially from the Fulanis. We were not prepared for such at all. Many people ran leaving their farms and means of livelihood…Women and children were also brutally killed and a fast a [sic] burial arrangement was made for them because of how gory it was.

Apr. 11: The Muslims raided the central Nigerian village of Semaka; they killed 5 Christians.

Apr. 1: The Fulani attacked Christian villages in Plateau State; they killed at least two, displaced over a thousand, and torched their churches and at least 90 homes.

Apr. 4:  The Muslim terrorists attacked Christian villages in Miango District; they killed three and torched 65 properties, including the community church, which was burned to the ground.

Apr. 15: On Good Friday, Fulani kidnapped eight Christians. Four were released after paying a hefty ransom.  One of the women released said that she was “raped several times by two leaders of the Fulani Militants.”  Moreover, a “militant told us, after receiving the ransom money, that they got money to kill more Christians.”

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

France: On Friday, Apr. 8, an unknown man entered the Saint-Etienne Cathedral in Toulouse during the 8 am mass, shortly after communion, and left a package near the altar.  He also shouted something at the church worshippers, which they could not understand.  Police and explosive experts were quickly deployed to the cathedral.  The package turned out to be a homemade explosive device that contained acid.  The suspect, a Muslim man from North Africa, was eventually found and arrested.  According to the French language news report, his “motive remains unknown.”

Greece: During Holy Week, “an unprecedented event took place” in a church in Athens during liturgy, says an Apr. 20 report: “A foreigner of Arab descent broke into the church, turned to the microphone, and started shouting Quranic verses in front of a shocked congregation. In seconds, two men in the choir ran towards him and dragged him out of the Church. By the time police arrived, the man had disappeared from the scene.”

Sudan: On Apr. 10, a church “long harassed by Islamic extremists,” was attacked.  According to the report, three Muslim men barged into it during worship.  One of the Muslims, “punched the pastor, tore his shirt and assaulted two women… The other two assailants tore Bibles and broke chairs.”  One of the women suffered cuts to her mouth, and the other sustained hand injuries. Both required medical treatment. One of them, aged over 50, was also pushed onto her back and continues to suffer from back pain. When the pastor, Stephanou Adil Kujo,  later went to police, they responded by charging him with “disturbing the peace and [being a] public disturbance.” “It is surprisingly strange that the pastor is accused and charged,” responded his lawyer.  Then, on Apr. 25, a Muslim judge actually sentenced the pastor to a month imprisonment for “disturbing the peace,” as well as Ibrahim Kodi, the leader of the three Muslims who assaulted the church.  According to one report,

The jailed Christian leader’s church has long been harassed by Muslim extremists. Leaders of the church were detained and questioned in February after Muslim extremists upset about the presence of their worship building locked it shut on Feb. 21….  [T]he Muslims accused church members of hostility toward Islam by holding gatherings on Fridays, the Muslim day of mosque prayer.

Holiday Related Attacks on Christians: Easter and Ramadan

Spain: On Sunday, Apr. 10, Muslims physically tried to block an Easter procession in Tarragona (video here).  When police arrived to intervene and allow passage for the procession, the Muslims began to riot, prompting police to call for reinforcements.  In the end, two men of North African background were arrested, and an investigation was opened concerning the rest.

Similarly, on Apr. 14, during another Easter procession in Granada, a large number of objects began to rain down on the Christians.  They came from the Bermúdez de Castro refugee center.  Discussing the violent Muslim migrants, the leader of Vox Granada, Onofre Miralles, said, “They are against our culture and against our tradition. I demand measures from the Junta de Andalucía.”

Italy: On Apr. 18, Muslim migrants beat and kicked two Coptic Christian brothers, aged 62 and 71, for wearing crosses and because one of them was smoking during Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast.  The incident took place in an open street in Turin.  The Christian brothers had been living in Italy for over 40 years. According to the 23-year-old daughter of one of the brothers, who was born and raised in Italy, “It is not the first time that we ourselves have been attacked in Italy because we are Christians.”  She suggested that the main reason they were attacked is because “Both wear quite obvious Christian crosses.”  After noting that Coptic Christians are persecuted in their Egyptian homeland, she said, “It makes me angry to think that this discrimination also exists here”:

We have had problems before. It happened to me in the city centre when I was out with my friends and we were approached by a man with a small child who started calling us unclean and said we were dressed like prostitutes because we were wearing western clothes. This always happened during Ramadan. The husband of one of my mother’s friends was attacked because he ate during the fasting month, which he obviously does not comply with because he belongs to a different religion [Christianity].

Another Coptic businessman in Turin who has been similarly harassed by Muslim migrants, said, “They want to apply Sharia law because they consider us inferior and want to rule us.”

Egypt: In late April, a Muslim man berated and beat a Coptic Christian woman because she entered his establishment with her head uncovered during Ramadan. Nevin Sobhi, a 30-year-old married mother, went to her local drugstore to pick up some medication for her young son, who accompanied her.  On entering, she noticed that the head pharmacist, Dr. Ali Abu Sa‘da, was giving her “the evil eye.”  He eventually launched into a loud and “hate-filled tirade” against her for daring to enter his store during Ramadan without any head covering and while wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt. Ali was aware that Nevin was Christian and, therefore, not obligated to observe Ramadan’s rules.  When the Copt told him as much, he responded with a violent slap to her face.   When the startled woman responded with shock and anger, he slapped her again—all while her scared, young son cried.  She ran out “in a state of collapse, crying and incapable of absorbing the shock.”  She contacted her family, and they went to the local police station to report the incident.  There, Nevin received what she called her “third slap.”  According to the Christian woman:

Inside the police station, I was surprised by attempts and pressure to conciliate. The perpetrator’s lawyer steered the writing of the report [in a manner] that contradicted reality, and they forced me to sign the report which contained statements from the pharmacist’s lawyer without taking my statements. […]  We were especially shocked to see the report said that ‘the pharmacist is a friend of the family, who was just bantering and joking around with Mrs. Nevin, because he is close to the family.’

Continued the woman: “I was so shocked; it was as a third slap to me—that such a radical character could emerge victorious, even as I lose my rights as an Egyptian woman!”

Turkey:  In the days leading to Easter as well as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (Apr. 24), the front gate of an Armenian Christian school in Istanbul was vandalized with a swastika.  According to the Apr. 14 report,

The same school in Istanbul faced anti-Armenian persecution in November 2016 when graffiti was written on the walls stating ‘One night, we suddenly will be in Karabagh.’ Also in 2016, walls of Uskudar Surp Khach Seminary and Uskudar Kalfayan School were vandalized with anti-Armenian graffiti. The graffiti read ‘May the Turkish race live!’ and ‘Torment Armenians.’

Armenian Christians and churches have faced vandalism and discrimination in Turkey annually around the time of the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide anniversary. Recently this included the acquittal of those who danced on the gate of an Armenian church in 2021.

The Muslim Abduction of Christian Women

Burkina Faso: On Apr. 5, masked militants abducted an 83-year-old nun living at a parish.  Originally from New Orleans, Marianite Sister Suellen Tennyson had been stationed there, helping the sick and needy, since 2014.  “There were about 10 men who came during the night while the sisters were sleeping,” Marianite Sister Ann Lacour, congregational leader, said. “They destroyed almost everything in the house, shot holes in the new truck and tried to burn it. The house itself is OK, but its contents are ruined.” They seized Sister Suellen from her bed in her nightclothes, with “no glasses, shoes, phone, medicine, etc.” She has not been heard from since.

Egypt: On Apr.5, a married Coptic Christian mother of three and her one-year-old daughter disappeared off the streets of Beni-Sweif, where she worked as a teacher at the American College. Mary Wahib Joseph, 36, had left home to take her toddler daughter to a nearby clinic. Her husband immediately contacted police and anyone else who could help recover her.  One week later, on Apr. 12, Mary appeared in a video, wrapped under a hijab, and saying that she had willingly and without any coercion converted to Islam; that her name was now Mary Ahmed Muhammad;  and that her husband, children, and parents should stop looking for her, because this is her choice.  While making these claims Mary’s baby daughter can be heard crying in the background. Responding to this video, her husband said that he knows his wife’s mannerisms and could clearly tell that she was frightened and speaking under duress.  He also pointed out that, if she had really run away to convert to Islam and abandon him and their two other young children, why did she not take any of her belongings—no clothes, suitcases, etc.—with her.  Instead, she was in the midst of preparing their home for Easter festivities, so “are these the actions of a woman intending to escape?” he asked.   The disappearance of Christian women, who then reappear in a video dressed in hijab and say that they had run off and freely embraced Islam, only for the truth to later emerge—that they were abducted and forced to make such videos—is common in Egypt.  A virtually identical case from 2020 is documented here.

Similarly, on April 11, Simone Adel Isaac, a 15-year-old Coptic Christian girl, disappeared.  Her parents immediately carried out an extensive investigation and discovered that the elder brother of one of her Muslim schoolmates was behind the girl’s disappearance.  The parents provided police with the Muslim man’s name, home address, and phone number, and anxiously awaited the return of their daughter. To their dismay, police did nothing.  The distraught parents responded by sharing their experiences in a video.  Being so abandoned by police, the mother, in tears, appealed to anyone and everyone, including the Egyptian president, al-Sisi, and Coptic pope, to intervene: “Any person with a merciful heart who can return her to me, please do so, because my girl is a minor, my girl doesn’t understand anything, she was deceived by that guy, his sister, and even his mother.” As the girl’s father added, “The government knows exactly where the [Muslim] fellow is. They should be the ones to go and get him, not us.”  Both Mary Joseph and Simone Adel were eventually found and returned home.

Muslim Attacks on Freedom: Apostates and Evangelists

Uganda: On Apr. 2, Muslim relatives poisoned and nearly killed a Muslim convert to Christianity.  A few days earlier, on Mar. 27, Hiire Sadiki, 56, formerly an Islamic sheikh and teacher, had put his faith in Christ after several months of debating with a Christian pastor. On noticing that he was no longer observing Ramadan, his wife closely followed him and noticed that he was praying in the name of Christ. “She questioned me because of the mode of my praying,” said Sadiki.  “I told her that I had believed in Issa [Jesus].”  His wife, who “knew verses about punishment for apostasy,” left the room and made a few calls to Islamic leaders; she then returned and started to prepare dinner.  “After 30 minutes,” continues Sadiki, “a lady who is a neighbor arrived and went to the kitchen, and after a short while, she left.”  After the unsuspecting former Muslim had his meal, he began to vomit and convulse violently.  He phoned his pastor friend who quickly came and transported him to a local hospital.   According to that pastor, “As we arrived at the hospital, his conditioned [sic] worsened.  He started having diarrhea with blood, nausea, vomiting and severe abdominal pain.” Tests revealed that his food was laced with a poison used to kill rats and vermin.  His pastor friend continues:

He had lost some amount of blood.  I then rang his wife. As I began asking about the sheikh and introducing myself, she was so annoyed and started abusing me for converting her husband. She said she did not want to be identified with him because he had become an infidel, and that she was leaving him and going back to her people, that her husband deserved death for forsaking Islam, and that she didn’t want to relate with an infidel.

She then slammed the phone in his face.  The pastor called Sadiki’s sister-in-law, who responded in a similar manner.  Since then, his wife took their three children, 6, 10, and 16, and left him.

Also in Uganda, on Easter Sunday, a Muslim man stabbed his wife on learning that she had converted to Christianity.  Two weeks earlier, Zaina Gimbo, 26, had put her faith in Christ from her hospital bed.  Then, on Sunday, Apr. 17, while her husband was away on a fishing trip, she attended a local church for Easter worship:  “It was a wonderful celebration,” Gimbo said. “At about 1 p.m., I went home not knowing that he had come back. I came back with a lot of joy, singing Christian songs that I had learned in the church.” On reaching her home, “immediately the door opened, and there and then my husband came out very furious.”  He grabbed and began interrogating her about her newfound faith:  “My husband beat and cut me with a long knife.  I made an alarm that brought many people who came and disarmed him. I fell down bleeding seriously and lost my conscious[ness].” Christian friends took her to a local hospital, where she was treated for deep wounds to her face, head, and back, and bruises on her hand.

Finally in Uganda, Muslims attacked, burned, and then fired the head of an Islamic private school, after learning of his recent conversion to Christianity.  On Apr. 1, Yusufu awoke at 3 am to pray in Christ’s name; unbeknownst to him, a Muslim colleague and neighbor secretly recorded the entire prayer and shared it with other school workers.  On the following day, he performed the same early morning prayers, but this time, several of his Muslim colleagues had surrounded his house to eavesdrop.  According to Yusufu,

As I finished the prayers at 4:45 a.m. and began preparing to go to the mosque to pray, I heard a knock at the door.  As I opened the door, there were people outside my door. They began shouting, ‘Allah akbar [the jihadist slogan, ‘God is greater’]! Allah akbar! Allah akbar! This is a kafir [infidel], this is kafir…They grabbed me and took me inside the mosque and started beating me badly and accusing me of heading a Muslim school yet I had converted to Christianity. Others shouted, ‘A liar, a liar, a liar…He deserves the death penalty.

During his beating, two Muslim staffers “brought two old jerry cans and lit it with fire and started burning me with it. It was too painful. I fainted.”  Before long, an elderly teacher intervened, saying to leave him to Allah, who “would kill him.”  Some of his Christian friends found and took him to a hospital, where he was treated for second and third degree burns. He was then fired, and not even allowed to return to collect his belongings.

Austria: On Apr. 12, a Muslim man chased and kicked a man who was distributing Bibles in the streets of Vienna-Meidling.  The Christian tried to defend himself but was overwhelmed and fled. According to eyewitnesses, the Muslim man “was angry about the Bible distributor’s sweater, which said ‘Christ is God’ in Arabic script. Obviously, this provoked the rabid man in such a way that he completely lost his composure and literally chased him. And that’s exactly what outraged a colleague of the victim: in his opinion, the attack had a radically religious background.”

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