Berlin police deploy in force, face calmer New Year’s Eve

Berlin police said on Monday that they detained around 390 people overnight on New Year’s Eve in the German capital and have so far tallied just over 700 potential criminal investigations.

Police spokeswoman Anja Dierschke said that 54 officers were injured, 30 of them by fireworks, after 4,500 police from the capital and other states deployed in a major operation launched because of more widespread unrest than usual last year. Only eight of them were unable to finish their shifts though, she said.

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Michael Bonner: The hope for defeating antisemitism and politicized Islam? Young and expat Iranians

Death To Israel Missile Iran

Canadians are right to be concerned about a rising tide of antisemitism at home and an increasingly assertive political Islam abroad. Both are being promoted aggressively by the Islamic Republic of Iran as it pulls the strings on its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah.

But if Iranian policy can produce chaos, tension and hatred, it can also do the opposite. Unlike the clerics who now run Iran, most Iranians including expatriate and young Iranians would prefer things to be different.

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Rahim Mohamed: How pro-Palestinian protesters stole Christmas

It’s fair to say that, for many of us, Christmas felt a bit different this year.

Playing out amidst a national affordability crisis, with war still raging in the Holy Land, a time of year that’s usually marked by festive cheer instead took on a foreboding air, a mood that certainly wasn’t lifted by a federal government whose idea of spreading cheer to all was posting food bank photo ops to social media — as if wanting to remind Canadians of the immiseration created by eight years of Liberal economic policies.

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Media Blames Christmas Massacre of Nigerian Christians on ‘Climate Crisis’

An attack on Christians in Nigeria over Christmas has left nearly 200 people dead. While Muslim herders are thought to be behind the violence, some major media outlets have blamed climate change for the killings, appearing to downplay existing religious conflicts.

The massacre took place on Christmas Eve in 26 different villages across the central Plateau state in the country’s interior. Locals said that bands of men armed with guns and machetes attacked villagers, killing 198 and wounding a further 300 in some of the worst anti-Christian violence seen in Nigeria in years, according to the Catholic News Agency.

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Iranian national with alleged terrorism ties deported from U.S. to Canada

A fugitive with ties to terrorism has been deported from New York back to Canada, where he is wanted on assault charges.

The Iranian national, who is also a permanent resident of Canada, was deported on Dec. 21. The fugitive, who was not named in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) release, is described as a “national security priority,” a designation often used for individuals who are believed to be involved in activities that could endanger national security.

I’m sure Justin will write him a nice big cheque soon as he’s back from Vacay. Whatever his name is.

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France warns of ‘very high’ terrorism threat on New Year’s Eve

A total of 90,000 police officers and gendarmes will be deployed throughout the country this weekend

French authorities warned of a “very high” terror threat on New Year’s Eve due to the war in Gaza as Germany also braced itself for violence.

Gérard Darmanin, the French interior minister, said on Friday that 90,000 police officers and gendarmes will be deployed throughout the country during the upcoming festivities.

“I’ve requested a very strong mobilisation of police forces and the gendarmerie under the context of a very high terrorist threat, of course due to what’s happening in Israel and Palestine,” Mr Darmanin said.

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In Canada, What Kind of Screening Will Be Done of New Arrivals From Gaza?

Meet your new neighbors.

What kind of screening of these Gazans will be done? Will those applying for visas to be admitted to Canada be asked, for example, about their view of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7? Of course, they will claim to be just as horrified as anyone else. But we have the results of a Palestinian opinion poll conducted in December, in which 82% of Gazans expressed their support for the October 7 attacks (the percentage was even higher in the West Bank, where 85% of the Palestinians supported those attacks).

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The Dublin Riot: A Harbinger of Things to Come?

Because it spotlights the current state of affairs in the West — and all the key players — the recent uprising in Dublin should not be so quickly forgotten.

Background: On Nov. 23, 2023, a Muslim man of Algerian origin, with a known criminal record, knifed a group of preschool children attending Saint Mary’s, a Catholic school in Dublin. Three children — two girls and a boy aged between 5 and 6 — and a care assistant who tried to defend them were stabbed in the assault. Knifed near the heart, a 5-year-old girl was critically injured and, as of the last report from December, remains hospitalized in critical condition.

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The Fall of France Any guesses why?

The 18th-century epigrammatist and aphorist Nicolas Chamfort famously described his country, France, as “the perfected civilization.” Nowadays, the nearly six million Muslim economic migrants and their children in France have contributed much to the undoing of that civilization, spreading fear and insecurity. From the annals of Muslim mayhem, carried out against French people, here is one recent story: “‘Dirty White’ – Thugs stab young French father 9 times, leave him with 40 stitches,” by John Cody, Remix News, December 15, 2023

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Moroccan man charged with making bomb threats in Ontario, Belgium

Provincial police have charged a Moroccan man after a series of bomb threats were made across the province and linked to similar incidents in Europe.

The charges stem from threatening phone calls made on Nov. 1, 2023, to schools and other public facilities, said Brooklyn Harker, a spokesperson for the Ontario Provincial Police.

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Warning of ‘increased risk’ of ISIS terror attacks across Europe on New Year’s Eve

Security services across Europe have uncovered an ISIS plot to use explosives to target churches.

Counter-terrorism experts say the group remains a “serious threat” and is taking advantage of the conflict in Gaza to motivate its supporters.

Over the Christmas period, police have made several arrests in Spain, Austria, France and Germany.

In Germany, police fear terrorists are plotting an attack on Cologne Catherdral and have increased security.

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Oscar Clarke: Hamas’s fellow travellers are deluded if they think they’re marching for peace

Deep down, everyone who has not been driven mad by religious obscurantism or some other ideology understands the value of peace. Ordinary people want to meet partners, secure fulfilling jobs, live in comfort and find good schools for their children. In their spare time, they like to meet with friends, play sports, go to the cinema or practice obscure hobbies. They want — like Candide — to cultivate their gardens, and they recognize that this modest wish would be imperilled by war.

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KLEIN: Proper vetting of refugees is common sense for Manitoba

Recently, I wrote about the planned Polo Park protest by pro-Palestinian activists. Many of these protesters disrupt the lives of ordinary people, families, and Canadian Businesses. It seems like we already have many people in Canada inclined to justify terrorism and take the side of Hamas.

I can’t imagine why we would want to import more people who might be inclined to make lives miserable for normal families.

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