SWEDEN - The Sweden Democrats have demanded soldiers should be sent to Malmo to reestablish law and order as violent thugs have turned the city into a ‘no-go zone’. Launching a seething attack on the red-green parties in Malmo, Magnus Olsson said it was time to call in the military to end the surge in violent crimes that have been sweeping the city. Painting a bleak picture of Sweden’s third largest city, the opposition politician blasted Malmo has lost enough of its citizens to shootouts, grenade attacks and murders. Speaking to Expressen, Mr Olsson also said there was a great lack of police officers in Sweden, which means officers could benefit from the armed forces’ resources. He said: “There is a great lack of police officers in Sweden and Malmö. For this reason, it is perhaps time to let the military and police to stand together to reestablish order in the country."
USA - President-elect Donald Trump may take four or five executive actions on Friday, the day he is sworn into office, spokesman Sean Spicer said. "He's got a few of them probably in the area of four or five that we're looking at for Friday," some of them logistical, Spicer said Wednesday at a news briefing. "Then there are some other ones that I expect him to sign with respect to a couple of issues that have been high on his priority list." Spicer did not elaborate. Trump had promised to take executive actions immediately after taking office to counter some of the policies of Democratic President Barack Obama.
GERMANY - The parliamentary leader of Germany's largest opposition party has urged the dissolution of the NATO alliance. Her remarks come after US president-elect Donald Trump described it as "obsolete." German opposition leader Sahra Wagenknecht on Tuesday added her voice to calls to dissolve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the wake of US President-elect Donald Trump's controversial remarks concerning the military alliance. "NATO must be dissolved and replaced by a collective security system including Russia," Wagenknecht told Germany's "Funke" media group. Wagenknecht, who leads the opposition Left Party in parliament, added that comments made by the future US president "mercilessly reveal the mistakes and failures of the [German] federal government."
MIDDLE EAST - Palestinian and European officials on Monday slammed the UK’s apparent readiness to defy international consensus and stand up for Israel, accusing London of aligning with Jerusalem to garner favor with the incoming Trump administration.
USA - US civics education, if it exists at all, is being transformed into a political machine to push left-wing causes, undermine American government, and incite civil unrest, finds a 525-page report from the National Association of Scholars.
USA - Guidelines at two top US divinity schools have recommended professors use “inclusive” gender-neutral language — including for God, according to documents from both Duke and Vanderbilt.
USA - The Germans are angry. The Chinese are downright furious. Leaders of NATO are nervous, while their counterparts at the European Union are alarmed. Just days before he is sworn into office, President-elect Donald J Trump has again focused his penchant for unpredictable disruption on the rest of the world.
USA - The stage is set for a potentially very ugly confrontation between radical leftist protesters on one side and law enforcement authorities and Trump supporters on the other side. It is being estimated that hundreds of thousands of supporters will be arriving in DC to celebrate the inauguration of Donald Trump, but it is also being estimated that hundreds of thousands of people will be coming to DC to specifically protest the inauguration of Trump.
USA - Every American who looks at the CIA objectively or in a balanced way and judges it by any number of criteria, such as moral, legal and pragmatic, should reach the conclusion that the CIA should be abolished. JFK wanted to break it into a million pieces. Trump is right to dismiss its intelligence reports about DNC hacking. The CIA war on Trump shows us immediately that the CIA is a rogue organization within the US government and a severe threat to America.
CHINA - With enormous economic clout and a powerful military and a strongman president, the image that China projects to the outside world is one of strength and confidence. At home, however, some believe the nation's over-protected young boys are becoming physically and emotionally weak - leaving China facing what is being called a "crisis of masculinity."
USA - President-elect Donald Trump called NATO obsolete, according to a Bloomberg Politics report about an interview the president-elect gave to Germany’s Bild newspaper. “It’s obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago,” Trump was quoted as saying about NATO. “Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should” and NATO “didn’t deal with terrorism.” During the campaign, Trump made waves by saying he would look at whether NATO allies have “fulfilled their obligations to us” before deciding whether to defend them if they are attacked. He also repeatedly called NATO obsolete over the course of the campaign, saying it should do more to fight terrorism.
EUROPE - It's not often in Brussels that a leading EU official passes judgment on a minister from an EU member state, even in private gatherings. Nor is it normal for such an official to dare to invoke the German chancellor when doing so. But when it comes to Martin Selmayr, 46, the shock isn't quite as great. The German is the most powerful bureaucrat in Brussels, with some even going so far as to say that he is the true leader of the European Union. As head of Juncker's cabinet, he plays a significant role in determining which laws the EU passes and who is granted an audience with the Commission president. More than anything, though, Selmayr isn't satisfied with the duties typically performed by a top bureaucrat. He is determined to play a greater policymaking role.
VATICAN - Church attendance must be accompanied by good Christian deeds otherwise the parishioner becomes a “parrot” who only indulges in prayer but does no virtuous deeds in service to God, Pope Francis said. “If I say I'm Catholic and every Sunday I go to mass but then I don't talk to my parents, I don't help my grandparents, the poor, I don't visit the sick, then there's no point,” Francis told the faithful in Guidonia Montecelio on Sunday. “In that way, we’re nothing but a Christian parrot: words, words, words.” “I wonder if you remember that song?,” Pope asked, adding that bearing witness to the faith requires “word, heart and hands” to do God's work, such as spent time with family.
INDIA - Catholic and Protestant leaders from India and abroad have resolved to share resources and cooperate in evangelization work in a bid to foster ecumenism and counter anti-Christian harassment in the country. Some 3,600 leaders from India and another 260 from abroad on Sunday concluded a 4-day meeting in Damoh, a town in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, ahead of the worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18-25. The annual gathering, 19th in a series, was jointly organized by a collection of groups called the International Conference on Missions and Global Gathering. Over the last several years Christian leaders across India have been reporting their churches being attacked, pastors beaten up and Christian villages threatened with social boycott to force them to abandon their faith.
USA - There have been two recent congressional investigations into the Planned Parenthood selling baby parts scandal. Both were prompted by the Centre For Medical Progress (CMP) undercover investigation, which caught Planned Parenthood officials discussing how to illegally profit from selling baby parts. The first report in December was by the Senate Judiciary Committee and now House of Representatives Select Investigative Panel has published its report.
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