GERMANY - Like Ivanka Trump visiting on Tuesday, everyone who goes to Berlin has to see Germany’s Holocaust museum, titled Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It’s an impressive and ambitious monument, 2,711 big concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. When the Memorial was finished and dedicated in 2005 it was applauded for its power. But in recent years opinion has shifted. Many Germans think it may be altogether too powerful.
USA - US President Donald Trump on Sunday stepped up outreach to allies in Asia to secure their cooperation to pressure North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs. Trump spoke to the prime ministers of Thailand and Singapore in separate phone calls about the North Korean threat and invited both of them to Washington, US officials said. "They discussed ways to maintain diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea," one US official said of the calls, speaking on condition of anonymity.
HUNGARY - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delivered a stinging speech in the European Parliament Wednesday, asserting Hungary’s right to self-governance and defending its actions regarding immigration and against American financial speculator George Soros.
USA - While Russian political tampering concerns dominate news headlines, one area of concern that has been overlooked for many decades is Germany’s mounting influential power over media, academia, and/or book publishing, something which Dr Robert E Kaplan of Jerusalem calls “soft power” in his illuminating book titled The Soros Connection, where he demonstrates the very real possibility that George Soros is a political and economic wrecking ball working as a foreign agent for the German state.
UK - A Tory MP has stood down after being accused of telling a class of A-level students that "homosexuality is wrong and a danger to society". Andrew Turner has quit as Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight after making the comments during a visit to Christ the King College in Newport on the island. A Conservative source said: "There's no place in the party for such views."
UK - Suppression of freedom of speech in universities is "one of the greatest problems of our time", a former chancellor has warned. Lord Lawson, who led a Conservative campaign for Brexit, said that political correctness is a “great blight of our age”, adding students often have their way because of "totally supine" university authorities.
UK - Students who whoop, cheer and clap should face “consequences” because they are excluding deaf people, delegates at the National Union of Students conference said. Audience members were repeatedly warned that they must cease whooping to express support for a speaker, because it has a “serious impact” on the accessibility of the conference. Delegates at the NUS annual conference in Brighton were encouraged to use “jazz hands” instead of clapping - where students wave their hands in the air - as this is deemed a more inclusive form of expression.
USA - US President Donald Trump will reverse longstanding US policy by officially recognizing the entire city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but will not implement his election campaign pledge to relocate the American embassy from Tel Aviv, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Thursday. There was no confirmation of the report.
EUROPE - The EU is undermining the status of Jerusalem, the world city that is central to Christianity and Judaism. As such it lies at the heart of European civilization and Universal values of Human Rights. For more than three thousand years, as artifacts prove, this identity and history were unquestioned.
CHINA - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a tough position on the North Korea issue on Wednesday, saying that war on the Korean Peninsula is absolutely unacceptable. Wang made the remarks in a press conference after a Sino-German dialogue on cooperation with Sigmar Gabriel, the German vice-chancellor and foreign minister in Germany. China has drawn a red line for the US, North Korea, and South Korea, that war on the Korean Peninsula is not allowed and that all consequences would be borne by the relevant countries should war break out. “The Korean Peninsula is not the Middle East. If war breaks out, the consequences would be unimaginable.”
EGYPT - In his sternest address to date on the issue of violence perpetrated in the name of God, Pope Francis condemned all attempts to justify violence that “masquerades” as holiness. Without mentioning radical Islam by name, Francis began his speech at the Al-Azhar Conference Centre in Cairo with the Arabic greeting “As-salamu alaykum!” and his words had evident overtones for his mostly Muslim audience.
VATICAN - Pope Francis has intervened in the Korean crisis, urging Washington and Pyongyang to come to a peaceful solution for the sake of humanity. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump warned that he “would not be happy” if North Korea conducts another nuclear test. Noting that the “situation has become too hot” in the Korean peninsula, Pope Francis said that the world is on the brink of war, which can only be averted through diplomacy.
CHINA - Chinese President Xi Jinping sends personal message of friendship to Russian President Putin on China's behalf, scotching attempt by US to make trouble between them. Russia’s President Putin has met in the Oval Hall of the Kremlin with Li Zhanshu, Director of the General Office of the Communist Party of China, and chief of staff of Chinese President Xi Jinping. …The likely reason for his visit, which is the ongoing attempt by the Trump administration to cause trouble between China and Russia, and China’s and Russia’s concern to squelch any mistaken impressions which might be caused by that attempt.
SOUTH KOREA - With its disgraced former leader ousted from office, South Korea’s attention is shifting to a presidential election that could reshape the nation’s policy on North Korea and its relationship to the United States. Last week’s removal of the country’s conservative president, Park Geun-hye, amid a corruption scandal that has upended the political order could create an opening for liberal parties for the first time in nearly a decade, analysts say. The conservatives generally favor a tougher stance concerning their neighbor, with principled engagement and pressure on the communist regime. Liberals might seek to revive cross-border ties and seek increased engagement, with fewer or no preconditions. The polls suggest that support for conservatives has collapsed
USA - More video has just been released which proves that Planned Parenthood has been selling off aborted baby parts to the highest bidder. The crimes against humanity that Planned Parenthood is committing are off the charts, and yet nobody ever goes to jail, and the federal government keeps on giving them about half a billion dollars a year.
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