Climate Change - Hysteria is Damaging Young People for No Sustainable Reason

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The intentional hysteria created by governments, lobby groups, and left-wing mainstream media, has generated a whole new field of stress for today's youth. It's not like our kids need more stress in their lives, but it is a deliberate campaign that is another plague on our children.

I was so stressed about climate change that I took it out on my own body

Now I see that in my illness, I forgot to have compassion for myself

Andrea Johancsik · for CBC First Person · Posted: Jul 09, 2023 1:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: 12 hours ago

Andrea Johancsik, centre, at a climate march in New York in 2015. She says anxiety around climate change pushed her to a dark place, and it took work to find a healthier path. (Submitted by Andrea Johancsik)

This is a First Person column by Andrea Johancsik, who lives in Calgary. 

For more information about CBC's First Person stories, see the FAQ.

"It is up to you," our professor said to the dozen young faces in our university seminar.

She thumped her palm on the table, agitated. 

"No one else is going to fix the world's environmental problems. You're looking for the world's leaders? They're in this room." 

The room fell quiet except for the sound of a classmate's habitual pencil-twirling. But in my body, my heartbeat was a deafening whoosh. Hot shame crept up my chest.

In today's world, it's impossible to escape climate discussions and everyone reacts differently to stress in their life. But my reaction went to a really dark place and it took me years to find my way out.

As a first-year student, I tried to have a social life that measured up to the photos friends posted on social media, while also studying for hours in my dorm room alone, feeling like if I failed my next exam, it would mean failing at life. 

I didn't know how to cope, so I disconnected from others emotionally and ate bags of snacks and candy while studying. One afternoon, I was so disgusted with myself I made myself throw up. I felt ashamed but also some relief from the pressure I put myself under. 

During university, Johancsik committed to eating locally-grown fruits and vegetables. But the effort to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions ended up feeding into her anxiety and struggle for control. (Submitted by Andrea Johancsik)

When I returned for my second year, my courses were more challenging and so was the content. That's when the "eco" aspect of my anxiety added to the pressure.

For hours each day, I learned about the horrid state of our planet. I watched documentaries of self-serving CEOs running profit-hungry corporations at the expense of the world's poor. I listened to lectures on companies carelessly throwing toxic waste onto Indigenous lands. I read articles about the problem of poachers who caught and sold endangered species. 

Then I tried to shake it off but pre-drinking with friends on a Friday night felt strange and self-indulgent.

Pre-drinking with friends on a Friday night felt strange and self-indulgent.

- Andrea Johancsik

I started obsessing about food to cope — it felt purposeful, and a welcome distraction to the doom and gloom. At one point, I decided to only buy produce grown locally to make a point about the food system. Eating local apples and pears reduces harmful emissions from transportation — but this challenge turned into something that was more about a false sense of control for me in the face of uncertainty than eating right.

Sometimes I was so overwhelmed with what food choices were best for the planet, I hardly ate at all.

I kept this eating disorder a secret from family, friends and classmates. If they suspected, they never said anything. Perhaps it was their own fear of being outed — even in my small program, I can think of a handful of women whose sharp, thin bodies and dark circles under their eyes suggested anorexia.

Reaching out for professional help didn't solve the issue. I saw therapists through the school's counselling office. But even though an eating disorder can be life-threatening, it was several years before anyone recommended I see a doctor. After several blood tests and electrocardiograms, I was diagnosed with bulimia and learned I had heart arrhythmia, low iron stores and enzyme imbalances. 

A woman stands in a high altitude pass with hiking poles in her hands and a large backpack on her back.

After recovering from bulimia, Johancsik makes sure she takes time for things that bring her joy, such as backpacking in the mountains. (Submitted by Andrea Johancsik)

My path back to a healthier lifestyle has been as much about addressing loneliness as it was about treatment.

I attended a group therapy program at the local hospital. That helped, but I felt even better when I graduated and left behind the toxic pressures of university. 

I took a summer job giving tours in Alberta's badlands, living and working beside a close-knit group of peers, and then found work that felt positive and practical in the environmental field — helping community members reduce waste and their climate footprints. I think that did just as much as the therapy.

And my anxiety about the earth? It's still there. When I feel anxious, I still have the impulse to retreat. But I force myself to seek out friends and talk it through. I prioritize the activities that bring me joy, like backpacking in the mountains.

Now as wildfire smoke clouds our skies, I worry more young people might also wrestle with climate anxiety. I hope they prioritize caring for themselves, too.

When I was writing essays in university, I argued the antidote to the problems in the environment is compassion and a better connection between people and the natural environment. But now I see that in my illness, I forgot to have compassion for myself. We can't ignore climate change nor can we burn out trying to fix it. But somewhere in the middle is compassion for ourselves, for one another and for the world.

I love Andrea's honesty and her genuine concern about leaving the planet better than when she found it.

Unfortunately, if every single Canadian adult and teen made a concerted effort to improve their environmental practices, it might make Canada a little cleaner, but would not make any measurable difference in our climate or in the temperature of the world. It certainly would have no effect on the number of forest fires burning each spring and summer.

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Bits and Bites from around the World > Ukrainian soldiers' pet something to crow about; Boring machine stuck under Toronto street

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From: Agence France Presse

Who said Toronto is boring?

Boring machine rescue nearly triples in price, according to new city report

Cost to remove trapped equipment from below Old Mill Drive now up to $25 million

Shawn Jeffords · CBC News · Posted: Jul 07, 2023 1:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: July 7

Aerial shots of boring holes on Old Mill Drive and construction. They're to be used to rescue a tunnel boring machine

that is stuck beneath the surface, wrapped in steel tiebacks from the condo buildings. (Patrick Morrell/CBC News)

The cost to rescue a multimillion-dollar boring machine trapped beneath a west end street has nearly tripled in just months, with city staff saying the work to unearth the device is more complicated than first anticipated.

The updated cost estimates and timeline come to Toronto's General Government committee next week. Documents show work to free a $3 million micro-tunnelling boring machine trapped under Old Mill Drive since last spring has jumped to $25 million — up from the approximately $9 million price tag in March. 

City staff say additional groundwater infiltration at the site and the need for more soil stabilization have contributed to the soaring price and delayed the project. The machine remains trapped and work has taken about six months longer than first anticipated.

The latest delay isn't sitting well with residents who say they've struggled with a steady stream of heavy-equipment, dirt and vibrations from construction for years. The price escalation is the latest unpleasant surprise, said Tanya Boswick who lives on the street.

"I think every taxpayer in this city should be furious about the amount of money being spent on this project," she said. "There are lots of other communities and causes and needs that our city has to contend with."

Boswick said the community has been dealing with dust, noise and a constant flow of construction vehicles now for years. They want the project done, she said.

"It's really just the constant noise, constant vibration," she said. "And not to mention all the dust and dirt that's going around on top of the poor air quality. It has made this summer truly a nightmare for the people in this community."

Pylons and gating block off a portion of Old Mill Drive where work continues to rescue a multi-million dollar boring machine trapped below the surface. (Patrick Morrell/CBC News)

Iain Downie lives in a condominium building next to the job site. His apartment looks out over the work.

"We can't sit outside on our balconies," he said. "We're cleaning everything constantly because of the dust. We're changing indoor air filters regularly because it's just coming right in."

"And we're just having to hear everyone in the neighbourhood be really miserable, that's really not fun."

The work to dig a new storm sewer on Old Mill Drive began in March 2022. The project was designed to address chronic basement flooding in the area. City staff opted to use a remote controlled micro-tunnelling boring machine, which is 1.5 metres wide and five metres long to create the new sewer tunnel.

The plan was for the machine to be placed 18 metres below ground and have it travel 282 metres to a pre-constructed exit shaft on Bloor Street West. Workers needed to place it deep underground to avoid coming into contact with the nearby Bloor-Danforth subway line.

But with just seven metres left to go on its route, the machine hit 14 underground steel tiebacks which had been part of the construction of a nearby condo building. It became ensnared in them, and is now twisted and turned off course.

Steel tiebacks hang from the face of a micro-tunnelling boring machine which was being used by the city to create a new storm sewer on Old Mill Drive. This picture was taken underground shortly after contractors working on the project discovered that the vehicle was struck. The operation to remove it has been complicated by mud and water. (City of Toronto)

Cost to rescue machine jumps by an additional $16 million

The initial work to dig the new sewer tunnel was budgeted at $7.2 million. In March, the city signed off on a sole-source deal to extract the machine for an estimated $9 million. 

The new report says costs have jumped by an additional $16 million to $25 million.

The city says the latest figures are based on estimates and represent "the possible costs required to complete the emergency work." 

"The final costs and actual payments will be based on substantiated and certified invoices," the city said in a statement. 

The city says the machine must be removed from the ground to finish the basement flood protection work. 

"Attempting to complete the basement flooding protection work around the machine would be cost-prohibitive, as the sewer would need to be re-designed and re-constructed," the city said in a statement.

Contractors had hoped to rescue the machine by early April. The rest of the sewer work is estimated to be completed by the fall.

It's believed that workers will be able to pull the machine from the ground by late August.

The trapped boring machine is 1.5 metres in diameter and five metres in length. City contractors will attempt to remove it in pieces from the tunnel below Old Mill Drive in the coming weeks. (City of Toronto)

The city says that as contractors were hand-digging to rescue the boring machine they encountered more water than anticipated. 

"In order to safely proceed with the removal of the machine, the water needed to be removed and the surrounding ground area stabilized," the city said in a statement. "This required an expert in ground improvement and stabilization." 

Coun. Gord Perks said the water infiltration has been a problem and wet weather hasn't helped matters. 

"When there's a big rainstorm the work that they're doing to try to get the tunnel boring machine out gets compromised," he said.

Perks said he understands residents' frustration with the project. He's arranged more frequent city meetings with the neighbourhood to keep people apprised of the situation.

"It is entirely fair for people to be upset that a project that was supposed to be over in six or eight months drags on and on and on," he said. "That's completely understandable. But there is no magic, cheap solution here. This is going to cost some money."

Coun. James Pasternak is the chair of the city's general government committee. Councillors will be asking pointed questions of city staff on Monday, he said.

"This is a shocking amount of money," he said. "Now, I do realize that the work that has to be done is extremely risky and sophisticated."

Pasternak said the work is urgent and must continue to ensure that the roadway around the site doesn't collapse. But he's hopeful lessons can be learned from this situation. 

"We're going to be asking some tough questions about why sole source, why it's so much money, and what the options are for recovering these funds through litigation," he said.

Military Madness > Proxy War - Wealth Transfer Pogrom; Another Escalation by America in Proxy War with Russia

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Ukrainian proxy war - a wealth-transfer pogrom for America and Europe

The first 5 countries on the list border onto Russia and the first 7 countries have all been occupied by the USSR in the last century. Skip Britain and the USA and you are right back into formerly occupied countries. NATO is using the fear of being occupied again to squeeze money out of Europe to continue the war in Ukraine.

If you had a similar graphic for the other side, it would probably be limited to one donor - Russia. If you "follow the money" you will easily see that this is a proxy war between the US and Russia. 

71.28 billion Euros works out to almost $500 USD for every taxpayer in America. The next gift that Biden sends to American military manufacturers on behalf of Ukraine will put the total over $500. When you consider that middle-class Americans pay the vast majority of taxes, it becomes obvious that they will be paying much more than $500 each in this wealth-transfer pogrom.

United States to send controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine

By Doug Cunningham

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tells reporters at the White House that the Pentagon

will make a formal announcement about the arms package for Ukraine later Friday. 

Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

July 7 (UPI) -- The Biden administration Friday said cluster munitions will be sent to Ukraine.

National Security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed the decision as he told reporters at the White House that the Pentagon would make a formal announcement concerning it, which it did late Friday.

"Ukraine would not be using these munitions in some foreign land," Sullivan said. "This is their country they're defending. These are their citizens they're protecting and they are motivated to use any weapon system they have in a way that minimizes risks to those citizens."

Cluster munitions contain multiple small explosives that are showered over a large area as the munition explodes in the air over targets. Several countries have signed on to ban the use and production of the weapon due to the hazards to civilians when unexploded bomblets are left behind.

On Twitter, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said he supported the decision.

"For Ukrainian forces to defeat Putin's invasion, Ukraine needs at least equal access to the weapons Russia already uses against them, like cluster munitions," he tweeted. "Providing this new capability is the right decision -- even if it took too long -- and is one I've supported."

Later Friday, the Pentagon announced the forty-second drawdown of equipment to be sent to Ukraine for its defense against Russia's military invasion. In a Defense Department statement, officials said the drawdown would include "highly effective and reliable dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM), on which the administration conducted extensive consultations with Congress and our allies and partners."

DPICMs are the cluster munitions.

The drawdown also includes Patriot air-defense systems, Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 155mm howitzers and artillery, as well as personnel carriers and mine-clearing equipment. It also includes more than 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades.

Wow! Military industrial olicarchs in America just got a whole lot richer, while American middle-class taxpayers just got a little poorer. Their tax bill for drawdowns to support the war in Ukraine just passed $500 per taxpayer, (see article above), if taxes were equal, but since the rich and the poor pay little in taxes, middle-class Americans probably pay twice that amount, if not more. 

America's proxy war with Russia is Bidenomics method of wealth distribution - from middle class to wealthy.

German defense minister Boris Pistorius said Berlin, a signatory to the ban on cluster munitions, would not provide Ukraine with such weapons.

"Germany has signed the convention, so it is no option for us," Pistorius told reporters, adding "those countries that have not signed the convention -- China, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. -- it is not up to me to comment on their actions."

A 2021 report by the Cluster Munition Coalition found that thousands of cluster bombs around the world killed and injured civilians in 2020 long after fighting stopped.

So, the practice using of land mines, which Princess Diana fought to get rid of, has been replaced by something even more brutal and dangerous.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday said both Russia and Ukraine are using cluster munitions and urged the United States not to provide Ukraine with the weapons.

"Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will continue to do so for many years," said HRW acting arms director Mary Wareham in a statement. "Both sides should immediately stop using them and not try to get more of these indiscriminate weapons."

HRW said that if the United States decided to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine it would "inevitably cause long-term suffering for civilians and undermine international opprobrium of their use."

As if that matters to the Pentagon. By the time this proxy war is over, there will be nothing left of Ukraine anyway. It will be bombed back into the middle ages. But the arms manufacturers and the politicians they support will get filthy rich and laugh all the way to the bank. Do I sound a little bitter?

Islam - Current Day > French Rioters all from Immigrant backgrounds; "I'm going to slit their throats" - Grandma; Paris must Burn

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French Politician States the Obvious:

All the Rioters Had Immigrant Backgrounds

JUL 6, 2023 10:00 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD

In an appearance at the French National Assembly, Minister of the Interior Gerard Darmanin insisted that “only 10%” of the rioters were “foreign,” while 90% were “French citizens.” That may be true, but those 90% were French citizens only on their identity cards. By their mental makeup, they were still the Muslim migrants whom their fathers and grandfathers had been. They still refused, as citizens, to integrate into French society, still tried to milk the French welfare state of every conceivable benefit – free housing, free medical care, free education, unemployment benefits, family allowances, and more – that it offered. They still saw the world through the lens of Islam. French citizenship did not change their view that, as Muslims, they were the “best of peoples” and the French non-Muslims who had welcomed them into their midst and provided such largesse remained, as Infidels, “the most vile of created beings.”

More on the response to Darmanin’s claim can be found here: 

French riots: Top politician says ‘of course there is a link between immigration’

and devastating riots across France

by John Cody, Remix News, July 5, 2023:

In a video that has garnered over 1.5 million views on Twitter alone, the leader of the Les Republicans senate group, Bruno Retailleau, said that it is clear that immigrants, including second- and third-generation people with an immigration background, were responsible for the rioting that caused widespread destruction across the country.

“I heard that (French Interior Minister) Gerard Darmanin, yesterday at the National Assembly, said there is no link between these events and immigration. Of course there is… I’ve asked many mayors. They all tell you that it’s precisely in the neighborhoods where there are migratory [migrant] ghettos. Certainly, they are French, but they are French in their official identity, and, unfortunately, for the second, third generation (of immigrants), there’s a kind of regression back towards their ethnic origins,” said Bruno Retailleau in an interview with FranceInfo.

The first generation of Muslim immigrants are actually more willing to try to fit in, so grateful are they for what the French state provides, than those who come after. It is the second and third generations of Muslim migrants, secure in their French citizenship, who become more hostile to the French, religiously more devout, less willing to try to integrate with non-Muslims. Bruno Retailleau was simply pointing out what everyone knows but few dare say: that the rioters were almost entirely Muslims, and having been granted French citizenship made no difference in their behavior.

The remark came after French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin stated on Monday that there was no connection between immigration and the riots in France, saying that 90 percent of those arrested were French citizens.

However, Retailleau countered the French interior minister’s claim, saying that these rioters may be French citizens, but they are also second- and third-generation migrants who have not integrated into French society, and they have presented a serious security problem.

Retailleau said he feared that politics will fail to address the root problems following the week-long riot that caused over €1 billion in damage.

“We know the causes. And I want to reiterate them. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the government is tempted by the politics of failure. Once more, the French, the silent majority do not understand that there is a cold anger that is rising in the country. Because it is a double punishment for the French, because they paid into the neighborhoods, and now they have to rebuild because the savages burned them down.”

Everyone — except the demented politicians on the far-left, in the party La France Insoumise, led by the quasi-communist Jean-Luc Melenchon – knows that the Muslims alone were responsible for the riots. And the French, knowing how much their government has spent – tens of billions of euros – on the Muslims, whether citizens or not – are now enraged that after more than one billion euros worth of destruction by the Muslims, it is they, the indigenous French, who will have to rebuild the very structures, replace the cars and businesses, restock the shops, that the Muslims vandalized, pillaged, and burned down.

He points out that there are also issues in the schools, and the justice system’s response to these perpetrators, especially those who are arrested as minors, is “inadequate.”

Retailleau knows that the insubordination of Muslim students in the schools continues unpunished. The teachers are afraid of them; they don’t dare touch on certain subjects, such as freedom of expression, or any discussion of Islam, lest they end up like Samuel Paty. The Muslim students refuse, for example, to study certain subjects, such as the French monarchy, the Crusades, and the two world wars, for they are indifferent to French history – it has nothing to do with them, even if they are French citizens – and are especially unwilling to learn about subjects, such as the Dreyfus Affair and, above all, about the Holocaust, that would naturally cause sympathy for the hated Jews.

Retailleau also noted that the idea to hate France came from the French themselves, stating: “I think we share some of the responsibility. We simply don’t believe in France ourselves, and we’ve often presented France as an anti-model, a counter-example. How can you make young people from immigrant backgrounds love France if you say that France is detestable?”

It is certainly true that all over the Western world, there is a failure of self-confidence, a crazed belief that we in the advanced world have done great historical wrongs – slavery, colonialism, imperialism – and thus owe “the others” something, and at the head of the list of those “others” are the Muslims.

The left was quick to accuse Retailleau of racism after his remarks.

“This is a racist remark,” stated Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of the far-left party La France Insoumise.

One more time: Islam is not a race. Muslims are not a race. Islam is an ideology, one that is murderously hostile to non-Muslims. We see the dismal results everywhere that Muslims rule, and make life hell for Infidels who live in their countries. Consider the treatment of the Copts in Egypt, the Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq, the Christians in Nigeria, and the Christians and Hindus in Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Communist Party MP Elsa Faucillon wrote on Twitter: that this is a “racialist thesis par excellence. The right is slipping a little more every day.”

The week-long riot produced 3,000 arrests, hundreds of wounded police officers, thousands of arson attacks, and historic landmarks, including the famed Alcazar Library [in Maraseille], nearly burned to the ground. In one case, a flaming vehicle was even sent into a mayor’s home, nearly killing his family.

Right-leaning and conservative parties have pointed out that very few ethnic French people have participated in the riots, and for the most part, those who have are migrants or the children or grandchildren of foreigners.

It is not the presence or absence of citizenship that defines the rioters, but the presence or absence of Islam. Retailleau dares to suggest this, and for that, the leftists of both La France Insoumise, and of the Communist Party, choose to condemn him, preposterously, as a “racist” spreading a “racialist thesis.” More and more of the French, recently mugged nation-wide by the reality of Muslim mobs, are listening to Retailleau and the Republicans – the party of Marine Le Pen — with greater approval than they ever have before. More of the French are at last coming to their senses. Not a moment too soon.

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France: Slain teen’s grandmother said cops ‘won’t escape.

I’m going to slit the throats of those who shot my son.’

Death of Nahel: what Florian M., the policeman who killed the shot, told IGPN investigators

Translated from “Mort de Nahel : ce qu’a dit Florian M., le policier auteur du tir mortel, aux enquêteurs de l’IGPN,” 

by Jean-Michel Décugis, Jérémie Pham-Lê and Vincent Gautronneau, Le Parisien, July 5, 2023

Premises of the Paris delegation of the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), on June 27. After having undergone a psychiatric examination at the Max-Fourestier hospital (Nanterre) and having been separated from his colleague to avoid any consultation, Florian M., a 38-year-old police brigadier, is heard in free hearing then quickly under the regime of police custody by investigators from the “police of police.”…

The autopsy revealed that the fatal shot hit Nahel in the chest after penetrating the teenager’s front windscreen and wrist. 

That doesn't make any sense to me. He was supposed to have been shot by the cop standing at the driver's side window.

During the investigation at the scene, the police officers stated that they heard the victim’s grandmother say threatening words, “The two policemen will not escape from my hands. I will wait for them (…) Tomorrow is mutton day, I will cut the throats of those who shot my son. There is a terrorist who will catch them all.” 

Since then, the grieving woman has called for calm….

Paris must burn

Translated from “Paris muss brennen,“ 

by Sebastian Geisler, Bild, July 5, 2023 

In the article “Youth protests in France: You have no choice,” author Mohamed Amjahid (35) puts forward remarkable thesis about the serious riots in the neighboring country.

Amjahid writes, for example: “The images of the burning cars, the firecrackers being fired at the state power, act like a fragile life insurance for the racialized youth of France.”

Violence, riots and arson as “life insurance” for the perpetrators? Amjahid obviously means this completely seriously!

He writes: “In other countries, too, police stations have had to go up in flames in recent years to give the weakest a chance of survival. Very few understand this connection between mobilization and self-protection.”

In fact, only very few are likely to “understand” why the burning (!) of police stations and attacking police officers serves the “self-protection” and “survival” of the violent perpetrators.

The "very few" who are likely to understand are those who are criminally insane - In my humble opinion.

But Amjahid adds: “Purely analytically and from the perspective of the demonstrators: Paris must burn so that something can be done about police violence in the country, at least in the short term.”

So, what should be done about the Muslim violence in the country, in most EU countries? What shall we burn?

“Paris must burn”? An incredible statement.

Amjahid adds a justification: “The price for the murders committed by police officers and made possible by politics in the first place must be pushed up.” The author claims without any evidence that the Paris police would commit “murders” made possible by politics. The victims: residents of the hotspot suburbs (banlieues).

Background: In Paris, violent criminals had committed serious riots in the past few days after a police officer shot Nahel M. (17), who was trying to evade a traffic check. M. succumbed to his injuries. Since M.’s death, residents of the hotspot areas of the Parisian suburbs have been rioting. Demonstrations during the day, riots at night. Paris descends into chaos, destruction and violence.

The situation in the hotspot suburbs has been difficult for a long time. These are characterized by unemployment and crime, a large proportion of the residents come from abroad, many are Arab and African immigrants who have hardly made contact with French society. Violent riots broke out in 2005. Since then, France has been trying to improve the situation in the banlieues with a lot of money for infrastructure and modernization.

The opinion piece obviously also shocked “taz” readers: Under the comment, a user writes: “The comment is stunned. Looting, destroying everything to be heard? May I ask how you spend your life as an author of such theses!”

Another user writes: “So looting the shops of bystanders is the only way for young people to be heard?”

Another commented, “I have a hard time believing this article is serious.”

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Islam - Current Day > "An inhumane... bloody night that makes you tremble"; Heroic martyr or Insane Lunatic? Terror in Tel Aviv; New Islamic Terror Group in Mali; Boko Haram kills 6; Mosque tunnels

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Tunisian mobs target African migrants in Sfax to 'avenge' deadly stabbing

Racial tensions in the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax flared into violence targeting migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, dozens of whom were forcibly evicted from the city, witnesses said Wednesday.

Issued on: 05/07/2023 - 14:39

Migrants wait at Sfax port, after being stopped by Tunisian coast guard at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy,

Tunisia April 26, 2023. © Jihed Abidellaoui, Reuters, Video (1:24) by: Gavin LEE

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Amid the disturbances late Tuesday, police detained some and deported them as far away as the Libyan border more than 300 kilometres (over 200 miles), according to a local rights group.

The latest unrest started after the funeral of a 41-year-old Tunisian man who was stabbed to death Monday in an altercation with migrants, which led to the arrests of three suspects from Cameroon.

"We are going to avenge his death!" young people chanted at the victim's funeral, according to video footage published online.

Sfax, the North African country's second-largest city, is a departure point for many migrants hoping to reach EU member Italy by sea, usually the island of Lampedusa about 130 kilometres (80 miles) away.

Hundreds of residents massed in the streets late Tuesday demanding the eviction of all illegal migrants, said an AFP correspondent. Some blockaded streets and set tyres ablaze.

Videos shared on social media showed police chasing dozens of migrants from their homes to the cheers of city residents, before loading them into police cars.

On the Facebook page of non-government group Sayeb Trottoir, the medic Lazhar Neji, working in the emergency room of a hospital, deplored "an inhumane... bloody night that makes you tremble".

He said the hospital had received between 30 and 40 injured migrants, including women and children, and said "some were thrown from terraces, others attacked with swords".

Other footage showed migrants lying on the ground, their hands on their heads, surrounded by residents armed with sticks who waited for police to arrive to hand them over.

Police took some migrants to the site of the Sfax International Fair, from where they were to be transferred elsewhere, said Romdane Ben Amor, head of the non-government group Forum for Economic and Social Rights.

He told AFP that some migrants were taken to an area near the Libyan border, without being able to give precise numbers.

Tunisia has seen a rise in racially motivated attacks following President Kais Saied's comments in February accusing "hordes" of illegal migrants of bringing violence and alleging a "criminal plot" to change the country's demographic make-up.

With a population of 12 million, Tunisia hosts an estimated 21,000 migrants from other parts of Africa, representing 0.2 percent of the population.

Most EU countries have a lot higher ratio of migrants. Even Muslim countries don't want Muslim migrants for the violence and criminal activities they bring. But the EU hasn't realized the epic danger they are facing yet.

(AFP)

Suspected car ramming ‘terror attack’ wounds 9, Israeli police say

by Timothy H.J. Nerozzi, 

Fox News, July 4, 2023:

Multiple people were wounded in what is being described as a vehicular terror attack in Israel on Tuesday.

A 23-year-old Palestinian man in Tel Aviv, Israel, drove his vehicle onto the sidewalk to strike bystanders. The assailant then exited the vehicle and brandished a knife, stabbing the victims, according to police.

“We understand that he was alone, and we have no doubt that this was an attack,” said Tel Aviv Police District Commander Ami Eshed, according to Haaretz….

Officials identified the assailant as Abed Khalila, reportedly from the Palestinian village of As-Samu, near Hebron, according to Israel’s Shin Bet security services. He was reportedly shot and killed by a civilian bystander at the scene of the attack.

Nine individuals suffered injuries, including one 46-year-old woman who was evacuated to a nearby hospital with severe stab wounds, according to the Guardian.

A Hamas statement praised the attack, calling it “Heroic,” noting that it mourns one of its own, calling him a “Martyr fighter”.

Instead of the insane lunatic that he was.

An earlier Hamas statement called the attack the “first response” to Israeli military operations in the West Bank.

“The heroic action in Tel Aviv is the first response to Israel’s crimes against our people in the Jenin refugee camp. As the [Palestinian] resistance has already put it – Israel will pay the price for its crimes,” Hamas spokesperson Hazem Kassem said, according to a report from Haaretz….

Daesh/ISIS-affiliated terrorists kill at least 17 civilians in northern Mali

by Sidonie Aurore Bonny, 

Anadolu Agency, June 29, 2023

At least 17 people were killed and several others were wounded in two simultaneous attacks in the Gao region of northern Mali, a local mayor said Wednesday.

The villages of Gaena and Boya were the targets of the attacks late Tuesday perpetrated by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), a terrorist group affiliated with Daesh/ISIS.

The information was provided by Hamido Mohamed Bello, the first deputy mayor of Gabero, the commune where the victims’ villages are located.

Armed men belonging to the ISGS attacked Boya with random gunfire, killing 14 people “around sunset,” said Bello.

The second attack, in Gaena, left three people dead and several wounded and up to six people were also abducted, he added….

The tragedy is said to be linked to a clash between the ISGS and the al-Qaeda affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), one of whose wounded traveled to Boya, where he succumbed to his injuries, he added.

ISGS is a new group of assassins to me. But, not unexpectedly, they not only murder civilians, but other Islamic terror groups. As long as they are killing someone, they seem to be happy. Islamic insanity!

Boko Haram Kills Six Persons, Injures Others After

Shooting Mortar Bomb Into Borno Community

Sahara Reporters, July 1, 2023:

According to Daily Trust, it was gathered that the group of terrorists stormed Damboa town at 8:30pm, Friday night and attacked a civilian JTF location.

No fewer than six residents, including women were reportedly dead and several others were injured when Boko Haram terrorists shot a mortar bomb into Damboa town in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.

According to Daily Trust, it was gathered that the group of terrorists stormed Damboa town at 8:30pm, Friday night and attacked a civilian JTF location.

A source privy to the incident claimed that after they could not gain access into the town, the attackers fired a mortar bomb into the town.

“There was an attack by ISWAP last night in Damboa town, we lost six people including women and more than 20 people were rushed to the hospital, the situation is calm now,” the source told Daily Trust.

It was further gathered that Civilian members were shot in the attack….

Israeli forces uncover underground terrorist route in Jenin mosque

i24NEWS, July 4, 2023:

Israeli forces on Tuesday revealed details about an underground terrorist route that was uncovered in a mosque, during an ongoing counterterror operation in the West Bank city of Jenin.

“During the anti-terrorist activity in the Jenin refugee camp, the fighters of the Yahalom unit, Egoz and Oketz, and under the direction of the Shin Bet, investigated and neutralized an underground terrorist route in the city’s Al Ansari mosque,” a joint statement said.

“During the night and after an activity by the fighters of the Egoz unit and Yahalom, on the basis of accurate intelligence information from the Shin Bet, to confiscate ammunition and neutralize the shafts in the Al Ansari mosque in the refugee camp, the fighters of the Yalam unit investigated the route of the mosque using advanced technological tools,” it added.

According to the commander of the Egoz unit, the excavations carried out in the mosque “turned it into a fortified target.”

Destroy the mosque! You have every good reason to. Blow up the tunnels with enough force to weaken the foundations of the mosque.

Ozzone 8-13 > The voice of the Spirit of God is so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it.

 

European Politics > Germany's far-right AfD scores another first; EU Summit on migration fails - thank you Poland and Hungary

..

German far-right AfD party wins mayor's office amid record-high polling

Germany’s far-right AfD notched up another first Sunday when its candidate was

elected a full-time town mayor, in a further boost for the anti-immigration party.

Issued on: 03/07/2023 - 08:36

AfD supporters pictured at a rally in Schwerin in northern Germany on August 10, 2021

© John Macdougall, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has surged to record highs in opinion polls, and the latest result comes just a week after they won their first district election.

Hannes Loth was elected mayor of the small town of Raguhn-Jessnitz, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, in a run-off against independent candidate Nils Naumann, according to results on the town’s Facebook page.

Loth, reportedly a 42-year-old farmer who was already a member of the local parliament, won 51.1 percent of the vote against 48.9 percent for Naumann in the town of about 9,000 inhabitants. 

It marks the first time the party has won an election race for a full-time mayor’s position, German media reported.

AfD members have held positions as voluntary, or part-time, mayors in smaller places. An AfD member was a full-time mayor of a town in southwest Germany from 2018 to 2020 but was not elected under the party’s banner – he joined the outfit during his term.

Loth thanked his supporters for the “wonderful result. I will be mayor for everyone in Raguhn-Jessnitz,” he wrote on social media.

In last week’s election, Robert Sesselmann, a lawyer and regional lawmaker, won a runoff for district administrator in Sonneberg in the central state of Thuringia, near the border with Bavaria.

Recent surveys have put support for the AfD at a record 18 to 20 percent, neck-and-neck with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and behind only the conservative CDU/CSU bloc.

Thomas Krueger, head of the federal agency for civic education, warned this weekend the party should not be dismissed as a “mere protest movement”.

“Voters want this party... the situation is serious,” he told the RND media group.

EU summit ends with a whimper as Poland and Hungary 

resist migration reform

by Jorge Liboreiro, Euronews, June 30, 2023:

Poland and Hungary made good on their promise to prevent the European Council from adopting joint conclusions on migration.

The two countries, which have long held hard-line views on the reception and relocation of asylum seekers, put their foot down after long and intense discussions among the 27 heads of state and government.

The blockage, which began on Thursday and continued all through Friday, forced leaders to delete the migration section from the summit’s conclusions, wiping out several paragraphs that had been widely anticipated.

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, issued instead a separate statement on his behalf, recycling wording from the rejected draft.

“There wasn’t unanimity, but there was a great deal of convergence, which was not at all there just a few years ago,” Michel said in a press conference.

“We got 25 out of 27 countries.”

The Polish-Hungarian opposition stems from a major deal struck earlier this month in Luxembourg, where home affairs ministers agreed to move forward with a proposed reform of the EU’s migration policy.

The overhaul, which stills need to be negotiated with the European Parliament, is based on a new system of “mandatory solidarity” and offers member states three options to collectively deal with migration flows:

Accept a number of relocated asylum seekers.

Pay €20,000 for each rejected applicant….

Astonishing! Only two sensible countries in the whole EU.