Greece reacts angrily after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to question a 1923 treaty that set borders between the two countries.
Greek anger at Turkey border treaty remarks – BBC News
hmmmm
What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Greece reacts angrily after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to question a 1923 treaty that set borders between the two countries.
Greek anger at Turkey border treaty remarks – BBC News
hmmmm
An air raid on the rebel-held eastern half of the Syrian city of Aleppo hits the area’s largest hospital for the second time in a matter of days.
: Syria conflict: Aleppo hospital ‘hit by barrel bombs’ – BBC News
Aggggghhhh! Stop fucking killing people and blowing things up, already!
Syrian and Russian assault on key city described as a “war crime” by U.N. chief; activists say just 7 doctors left for 250,000 people
Jeezus…
Shimon Peres, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of Israel’s founding fathers, has died. He was 93.
Shimon Peres, former prime minister of Israel, dead at 93 – World – CBC News
hmmm
Iranian women have taken to their bicycles to oppose a religious ruling banning them from riding in public places. The unexpected “fatwa,” or religious ruling, by the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, says a woman riding a bicycle not only attracts the attention of men, but also “exposes the society to sedition.”
Women in Iran Mount Protest Against Bicycling Ban [Video]
Jeezum, when are those hateful old men going to die off? What a bunch of perverted assholes they come off as. If you are that threatened by someone on a bicycle? The problem isn’t the person riding the bike, the problem -and sedition to society- is 100% you.
French President Francois Hollande says he intends to close the “Jungle” camp in Calais and move 9,000 migrants to reception centres across France.
Calais migrants: Hollande sets out plan to close Jungle camp – BBC News
Sigh…
With demolition of ‘the Jungle’ only weeks away, the fate of some of its most vulnerable residents hangs in the balance: unaccompanied minors
Panic sweeps Calais camp as refugees await the bulldozers | World news | The Guardian
Jeezus
More than a million registered refugees have been given six months to leave.
Sigh… Shit’s so fucked up.
Officials say at least 148 bodies recovered from doomed boat, including many women and children, but hundreds still missing
Mother of Gawd….
SVANGSTA, Sweden (Reuters) – Mustafa Ansari’s journey ended one April morning in his bedroom in a quiet Swedish village. At around 7 a.m., staff at the young asylum-seekers’ center where Ansari was staying found him dead.
…An autopsy found Ansari, who had no papers but was described in the autopsy as 17, had committed suicide. During nine months in Sweden, the authorities had not managed to carry out a single interview for his asylum application.
The young Afghan was a new kind of casualty in Europe’s migration crisis. While thousands have died on the journey to Europe, Ansari made it, only to become caught up in an overloaded system. His story highlights the limits on capacity even in a country like Sweden, which has one of the most open policies towards migrants and refugees. It also underlines the anxieties and risks faced by the more than 100,000 unaccompanied young asylum-seekers who have reached Europe since 2015.
…Processing times for asylum-seekers in the country have nearly tripled over five years to a median of longer than nine months, from just over three months in 2011. Care-workers have lost track of more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors, a third of whom are Afghan males, since 2014.
…Asylum-seekers are generally more likely to attempt suicide than the general population, studies have shown. They suffer high rates of depression, psychosis and other mental health conditions, largely because of the trauma they have fled. In Sweden, government and other groups have estimated that around a quarter of asylum-seekers suffer from mental illnesses like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Ansari had traveled alone. His autopsy report says he was suffering from depression and bipolar disorder. Friends say he desperately missed his family. He waited months for a meeting to process his claim, but the agency canceled one meeting and messed up the venue for the other. “He used to speak about his frustration,” said his fellow asylum-seeker, 18-year-old Afghan Mohsen Naghawi. “He saw himself as unlucky.”
…Like many Afghans, Ansari planned to bring over his family from Iran once he had won asylum.
…”You have to remember that it is a very big responsibility for these boys,” said Ansari’s 18-year old friend, Naghawi. “Their families have sold everything and this is on their shoulders.”
That sense of responsibility intensifies the moment the boys touch Swedish soil.
…As winter approached and the days darkened, extremist attackers in Paris were found to have entered Europe with refugees traveling through Greece. This was a provincial, conservative part of Sweden. Some of Ansari’s friends said they feared the Swedish authorities might be delaying their applications as a tactic to make it easier to deport them.
As spring neared, according to the migrant center staffer Kullberg, Ansari started to adopt European ways. He was accepting handshakes, even hugs, from female staff.
But he had yet to meet anyone from the Migration Agency.
He began to spend hours in his room. His smile disappeared, he stopped going to school and he lost weight, his friends said.
Afghan boy’s hope of new life in Europe ends in suicide
sigh…
Human beings suck!
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders Thursday stood poles apart at the UN General Assembly Thursday, clashing over the cause of their decades-old conflict and Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Source: Israel, Palestinians clash over settlements at UN
Israel needs to knock it off, before they get everyone on the region killed. Go back within the ’67 borders you evil, inhuman, assholes!!!
Britain should apologize for its 1917 declaration endorsing the founding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and should recognize Palestine as a state, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday.
Palestinians’ Abbas seeks British apology for 1917 Jewish homeland declaration
hmmmm
Warplanes targeted rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo on Friday in a second day of heavy bombardment hours after the army announced the start of a military operation there, rescue workers and activists said. The Syrian military, which is backed by the Russian air force, said late on Thursday it was starting a new operation against the rebel-held east, which is home to at least 250,000 people and was also targeted in heavy air strikes on Thursday.
A fresh wave of bombing had started at from 6 a.m. (11:00 p.m. EDT), after heavy overnight attacks, he said. “What’s happening now is annihilation,” he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least 30 air strikes had targeted different areas of Aleppo from midnight.
Source: Jets pound rebel-held Aleppo after army offensive declared: rescue worker, monitor
What a fucking inhuman shit show.
“Benghazi is a stupid witch hunt. Basic fault falls on a courageous ambassador who thoughts Libyans now love me and I am ok in this very vulnerable place,” Powell wrote in a December 2015 email to former Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, according to BuzzFeed.
Colin Powell Called Benghazi ‘Stupid Witch Hunt’ In Email To Condi Rice
hmmm
The boat, said to be carrying 600 people, was carrying migrants from several African countries, the Egyptian authorities said.
Migrant Boat Capsizes Off Egypt, Killing at Least 29 – The New York Times
Sigh….
How the fighter dubbed the Kurdish “Angelina Jolie” was devalued by media hype.
Kurdish ‘Angelina Jolie’ devalued by media hype – BBC News
Sigh…
But the fresh tension in the relationship of the two states practically means that this year Iranians wouldn’t be able to perform Haj, which is one of the fundamental elements and institutions of Islam. The row started with a strong statement by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei with severe criticism of “incompetence of Saudi royal family” in the administration of Haj. The response to his statement came from the Saudi grand mufti who declared the Iranians to be out of Islam. As if this was not enough he also labeled Iranian leadership to be “enemies of Islam”. The gulf between the two countries was never wider than it stands today as both sides are using religion to promote their own hegemony.
hmmmm
“You may get shoved out of the way by a burly Turkish woman,” my brother continued. “A man might think it is his God-given right to pee in front of you. Just be patient and know why you are there in the first place.”
He called a few days later: “Listen, I forgot to tell you something.”“Do your business before you go anywhere,” my brother said, describing how he once had to wait two or three hours to move perhaps 50 yards to a hotel. “Toilets, toilets, be very conscious of where they are and how you can get there.” Diarrhea is an ever-present threat. “You might need to find a quick escape route to a bathroom.”
My father chimed in: “Buy your dates in Taif,” a Saudi city near the holy sites. There, he said, “they only cost a couple of dollars a kilo. If you buy them in Mecca or Medina, it’s around $35 a kilo. Everything is more expensive there.”
And then, Arwa, who made the journey in 2004, refocused me.“The spiritual feeling overtakes” these earthly issues, “the people that rip you off, the men that are sexually assaulting people in front of you,” she wrote on WhatsApp. “It takes over all of that. It’s beautiful and unforgettable.”
Hajj Prep: Search Soul, Buy Sturdy Shoes, Pay the Dentist – The New York Times
Wild.
Diaa Hadid, a Times correspondent in Mecca for the hajj, found that frozen desserts and the power of prayer brought pilgrims together.
After Prayer at Hajj, a Universal Treat: Ice Cream – The New York Times
hmmm
The Palestinian Supreme Court indefinitely postponed municipal elections scheduled for Oct. 8, a surprise move that reflects infighting in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, tension between Fatah and Islamic militants from Hamas and rising instability in Palestinian cities.
The state-run WAFA news agency on Thursday reported that the high court delayed the vote indefinitely because of unspecified complaints about voting preparations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Court postpones Palestinian elections indefinitely, a sign of growing tension with Hamas – LA Times
hmmm
A British woman murdered in a suspected “honor killing” incident in Pakistan was raped before her death, Pakistani police say.
Pakistan ‘honor killing’: UK woman raped before death – CNN.com
sigh…
An expected visit by ICC delegation could increase the risk of Israeli officials being tried for war crimes.
Will Israel be put on trial for war crimes? – News from Al Jazeera
hmmmm