Author: Blazingcatfur

‘The US was our El Dorado’: Africans on Trump’s travel bans and taxes

When Essi Farida Geraldo, a Lomé-based architect, heard about partial restrictions on travel to the US from Togo as part of the travel bans announced by Donald Trump on Thursday, she lamented losing access to what many young Togolese consider to be a land of better opportunities.

“The United States was the Togolese’s El Dorado,” Geraldo said. “Many people go to work in the US to save money and support their families or projects in Africa … This will force the country to really develop stronger partnerships that exclude the US.”

Trump’s order, which is to come into effect on Monday, prohibits people from seven African countries – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia and Sudan – from entering the US, making Africa the worst-affected continent. People from another three African countries – Burundi, Sierra Leone and Togo – will be subject to partial restrictions, meaning they will not be able to travel to the US on certain visas.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints

Canada-Europe defence ties can link ‘club of countries, with shitty armies and shitty governments’ says German envoy

If Canada decides to buy submarines from Germany, it would mean tightening ties with a “club of countries” in Europe as it looks to meet NATO defence spending goals and face an uncertain world, Germany’s ambassador says.

Matthias Lüttenberg, Germany’s ambassador to Canada, sat down with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson in an interview airing on Sunday and emphasized the value of working more closely together.

“It’s up to the Canadian government to decide which direction they want to go,” said Lüttenberg.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, Europe

How long will Mark Carney’s honeymoon last?

Susan Delacourt: Thanks to Doug Ford, I have had a song stuck in my head for days this week. “Love is in the Air,” a one-hit wonder from the 1970s, turned into the soundtrack of the first ministers’ meeting after the Ontario premier walked in singing it.

No question, there seems to be a lot of love in the air around Mark Carney right now. The premiers gushed about him after their meeting. He got his throne speech through the minority Commons. He’s having cosy phone chats with Donald Trump. This is a honeymoon. How long can it last?

So long as he keeps refilling the trough he’ll be fine.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Killer drones are changing war — and may soon think for themselves

Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web attack on Russian airbases caused shockwaves among strategists and military planners around the world. Analysts said more than 20 of Moscow’s hugely expensive long-range bombers, which it will struggle to replace quickly, were destroyed by drones developed from hobbyists’ craft supplies at a cost of just a few thousand pounds each.

The audacious strike has been described as Russia’s Pearl Harbor: an unforeseen sucker punch that has revealed deep vulnerabilities.

New technology, innovatively and daringly used, appears to be denying Russia its strategic advantages — from the size of the country, where bases deep in Siberia were assumed to be safe, to a population more than three times the size of Ukraine’s.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"AI - Artificial Intelligence"

Kilmar Abrego Garcia returns to the US — but not the way his supporters wanted

MS 13 Gang Member Kilmar Garcia

For two months, Democrats have agitated on behalf of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant, alleged gang member, and suspected human trafficker whom the Trump administration deported to El Salvador. Picked up by police in Maryland in 2019, Abrego Garcia was given a deportation order on the basis of his unlawful presence in the United States and gang activity. But the immigration judge specifically ordered that Abrego Garcia not be deported to his home country of El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia claimed he would be in danger.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints, USA

Colby Cosh: There’s no point to gatekeeping MAiD if doctors never say ‘no’

On Sunday the New York Times Magazine published a feature about Canada’s legal regime for assisted suicide, wrapping large volumes of reporting on law, ethics and medicine around the individual story of Paula Ritchie, an Ontario woman who sought and received “MAiD” after an unhappy life full of pain and misery.

Katie Engelhart’s story plays pretty fair with an explosive social issue that is of increasing global concern. She knows the NYT’s world audience is aware of Canada’s avant-garde experiment with the facilitation of medical suicide for patients who don’t have terminal illnesses, and she doesn’t stack the deck either way.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inMAiD Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Britain’s blasphemy laws were made by multiculturalism

Many had warned that Britain would soon have ‘blasphemy laws by the back door’. And so it came to pass on Monday, when Hamit Coskun was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public-order offence for setting fire to the Koran. Yet while there has been justified outrage at the decision, there remains a failure to grasp the true meaning of this landmark verdict. It represents not merely the return of blasphemy law by the back door, but also the advancement of ‘hard multiculturalism’ through the front door.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", "Multiculturalism", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

Canada won’t become the 51st US state – but could it join the EU?

Carney, Macron – Neither has an ideal domestic life from the look of it

Joachim Streit has never stepped foot in Canada. But that hasn’t stopped the German politician from launching a tenacious, one-man campaign that he readily describes as “aspirational”: to have the North American country join the EU.

“We have to strengthen the European Union,” said Streit, who last year was elected as a member of the European parliament. “And I think Canada – as its prime minister says – is the most European country outside of Europe.”

Streit had long imagined Canada as a sort of paradise, home to dense forests that course with wide, rushing rivers. But after Donald Trump returned to power, launching much of the world into a trade war and turning his back on America’s traditional allies, Streit began to cast the northern country in a new light.

Oh yea, let’s hitch our wagon to Communism’s zombie offspring.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, European Union, USA, WTF?

Iran expands dog-walking ban

Iranian officials have expanded a ban on dog walking to a swathe of cities across the country, citing public order and health and safety concerns.

The ban – which mirrors a 2019 police order that barred dog walking in the capital, Tehran – has been extended to at least 18 other cities in the past week. Transporting dogs in vehicles has also been outlawed.

Dog ownership has been frowned upon in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with dogs viewed as “unclean” by authorities and a legacy of Western cultural influence.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Iran, Islam, Islam and violence, WTF?

While the West Cries Islamophobia, Sexual Slavery Continues Unchecked

The uncomfortable truth is that the practice of sexual abuse and enslavement is condoned by Islamic scriptures.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel. They murdered 1,200 people, burned families alive, and wounded over 5,000. They tortured and raped women, and abducted roughly 250 hostages, including babies, children and women, many of whom were later killed.

The world watched in horror, shocked by the astonishing brutality. But this was not the first instance of jihadists kidnapping and enslaving Jewish women and families. In fact, the first victims of Islamic sexual slavery were Jewish women and girls in Arabia during the seventh century.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIslam, Islam and Child Marriage, Islam and pedophilia, Islam and slavery, Islam and violence

Ben Woodfinden: Canada needs a change agent in charge. The same Liberal playbook won’t fix anything

While it is only a few weeks into the Carney era, it’s clear that the new prime minister sees himself as a transformative leader. He came in during a “moment of crisis” and has signalled he wants to move boldly and aggressively to fix many of the problems facing the country. But there are plenty of reasons to think that Carney is going to be unable to deliver this change.

It’s the same Trudeau crew.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Keir Starmer to visit Canada for security talks after Trump threats

Sir Keir Starmer will travel to Canada next week to discuss security and economic co-operation after President Trump’s threats to its independence, The Times has learned.

He will meet Mark Carney, the prime minister, on June 14, against a backdrop of growing tensions between Ottawa and Washington.

Carney attempted to repair relations on a visit to the White House last month, but was rebuffed last week when Trump doubled tariffs on steel imports to 50 per cent, sparking Canadian warnings of “catastrophic” job losses, factory closures and disruption to supply chains. The UK is the only country that has avoided the 50 per cent tariff after Trump and Starmer struck a deal.

I bet this strikes fear into Washington.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, UK, USA

Latest government scandal reveals Quebec’s recurring “kinship” problem

Fifteen years ago, Maclean’s magazine ignited a firestorm with a cover story that branded Quebec as “the most corrupt province in Canada.” The cover featured Bonhomme Carnaval clutching a briefcase overflowing with cash.

Many Quebecers and politicians dismissed the article as an unfair attack on the province’s reputation. Yet we now have fresh evidence suggesting that Maclean’s might have been onto something all along.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Quebec