The Future Is Here Today

The Future Is Here Today
Where Business, Nature and Leisure Provide An Ideal Setting For Living

Advertise in Almere-Digest

Advertising Options

August 16, 2018

EU-Turkey Relations: Ankara Notes Normalization of Relations With EU Amid Rift With US

Relations between Turkey and the European Union have begun normalizing, and Ankara idetermined to step up the visa liberalization dialogue with the bloc, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said amid recently exacerbated Ankara-Washington tensions.

Read more: Ankara Notes Normalization of Relations With EU Amid Rift With US - Sputnik International

CATHOLIC CHURCH PA : Immoral behaviour by Pennsylvania Priests with more than 1000 children says report

More than 1,000 children abused by Pennsylvania priests, report says
For the complete go to: 
Shared via the CBC News Android App

August 14, 2018

EU under Attack: America’s Billionaires Battle Each Other for Political Control over Europe - by Eric Zuesse

Whereas Soros claims to represent the public’s interests, Bannon claims to represent the population’s interests — that’s the ‘populist’ side of America’s billionaires, versus the established ‘public-interest’ (Soros) side of them.

Two American brands of ‘philanthropists' will thus now be fighting for control over Europe's political markets (or institutions).

It’s a battle to serve either ’the public’ or else ’the people’, and each political brand will be struggling to keep Europe as an ally in American billionaires’ war against Russia (which all American billionaires want to defeat), but each team does this from a different ideological perspective, one being ‘liberal’, and the other being ‘conservative’. 

Just as there is liberal-conservative political polarization between billionaires domestically within a nation, there also is such political polarization between billionaires regarding their given nation’s foreign policies; and America’s billionaires are politically very highly polarized, both nationally and, increasingly, internationally as well. None of them is progressive, or left-populist. The only ‘populism’ that any billionaire currently promotes is right-‘populist', which is Bannon’s team. (Stalin was left-‘populist’; and Hitler was right-‘populist’; but neither dictator really was at all populist, which is simply democratic and against the aristocracy.) Both teams demonize each other within the United States for control over the US Government, but both are now competing against each other internationally for control over the entire world, by two different brands: liberal versus conservative. Both brands endorse ‘democracy’ or “the allies”; and both support spreading that ‘democracy’ by means of invading and occupying ‘dictatorships’ or “the enemies.” 

In Europe, this is called “imperialism”; in America, it is called “neo-conservatism” or “neoconservatism”; but no American billionaire actively opposes it (because to oppose it would be to oppose the aristocracy itself, the billionaires’ control over the Government — the very system that has been enormously successful for them, far more than the public itself recognizes)

Turkey - Economic Meltdown ?: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames lira crash on Donald Trump 'plot - by Chris Baynes

Turkey’s president has blamed the crash of the lira on the United States, claiming a “political, underhand plot” had sent the value of his country’s currency tumbling to record lows.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Donald Trump of waging “economic war against the entire world”, after the American leader escalated a diplomatic feud by doubling tariffs on steel and aluminium.

“The aim of the operation is to make Turkey surrender in all areas, from finance to politics,” the Turkish president told supporters in the Black Sea city of Trabzon.

The lira has lost more than 40 per cent of its value against dollar this year, amid worsening ties between Turkey and the US and concerns over Mr Erdogan’s influence over the economy.

The fall turned to meltdown on Friday, when the lira dropped 14 per cent, rattling global markets.

Speaking in Trabzon, Mr Erdogan dismissed suggestions that Turkey was facing a financial crisis like those seen in Asia two decades ago.

"What is the reason for all this storm in a tea cup? There is no economic reason,” he said. ”This is called carrying out an operation against Turkey.”

“We will give our answer, by shifting to new markets, new partnerships and new alliances, to the one who waged an economic war against the entire world and also included our country.

“Some close the doors and some others open new ones.”

Mr Trump announced additional sanctions on Turkish metals last week as relations between the two nations continued to sour over Ankara's detention of a US pastor.

"Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time," tweeted the US president, two days after talks between American and Turkish officials about pastor Andrew Brunson, 50, ended without any obvious progress.

Note EU-Digest: this whole confrontation between the US and Turkey has mainly to do with the mid-term US election and boosting the Evangelical support for the Republicans. Specially if Trump is able to bring Pastor Andrew Brunson back to the US, from Turkey, where he is under house arrest for supposedly collaborating with what the Erdogan government called "terrorists".

Read more: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames lira crash on Donald Trump 'plot' | The Independent

August 12, 2018

Middle East - Iran: US demands Britain back Trump with Iran sanctions

Ambassador Woody Johnson has challenged the UK to abandon its European neighbours who back the 2015 international deal to constrain Iran's development of nuclear capabilities in return for  trade with Iran. Johnson said on Sunday that Britain should join forces with America to enforce the US president's hard-hitting sanctions. He also delivered an explicit ultimatum to British companies, telling then to stop doing business with Iran or face "serious consequences" for their trade with the US.

The comments are a direct challenge to Prime Minister Theresa May's minority Conservative government, days after a minister point-blank refused to go along with Trump's sanctions on Tehran and keep the nuclear agreement alive.

They also come six days after Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, signed a joint statement with the EU which promised to push ahead with blocking the impact of the sanctions on European businesses. Johnson's comments escalate the tensions over what is the first test of the so-called special relationship between the US and UK since Trump's visit to the UK last month.

Britain negotiated the original Iran deal in 2015 with France, Germany, China, Russia and the US in a process coordinated by the European Union. The Tehran regime agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

But Trump pulled out of the deal, which was struck by his predecessor Barack Obama, three months ago because Trump believes it is not stopping Iran from meddling the Middle East. Hard-hitting economic sanctions were reimposed last week with more to come in November.

Note EU-Digest: Hopefully Britain will not cave in to the bullying tactics of Trump, instead reurn to the welcoming arms of the EU in a new Brexit referendum.Like was said before, getting out of the EU for any member will mean losing your EU "security blanket" in standing up against the "big powers".

Read more: US demands Britain back Trump with Iran sanctions

August 11, 2018

Middle East: Global powers condemn US sanctions against Iran and encourage businesses to ignore the Trump administration

Several global powers have decried President Donald Trump's administration for reinstating tough economic sanctions against Iran, while actively calling on businesses to ignore the White House over the coming months.

Despite pleas from key members of the international community, the U.S. re-imposed sanctions targeting the Iranian government's purchase of U.S. dollars on Tuesday. The measures also impact Tehran's trade in gold and other precious metals, as well as its automotive industry.

In a tweet posted earlier this week, Trump said: "These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!"

Read more: Global powers condemn US sanctions against Iran and encourage businesses to ignore the Trump administration

August 10, 2018

The Netherlands - Islam: Dutch Children from Turkish descent Forced to Submit to Islam

Parents in the Netherlands can't stop their children from being indoctrinated with Islam against their wishes.

A new report from Cultuur onder Vuur (Culture Under Fire) documents evidence from hundreds of cases where children in Dutch schools are instructed by an imam on how to pray and how schools are taking measures to hide these trips from parents.

Church Militant spoke with Hugo Bos, the campaign leader for Culture Under Fire, who said they started investigating Islamic indoctrination in Dutch schools after they found one video of a school trip to a mosque.

"We found it very shocking," he said. "We found proof of 19 cases where children took part in Islamic rites."

Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, told Bos that when children pray at these mosque excursions, it is "exercise in Islamic dawah" — a form of proselytism. From the Muslim perspective, these children are "purposefully prepared for converting to Islam."

One of the cases from 2014 involves elementary school children who were taken to a mosque in Zwolle. That mosque hosted the hate-preaching Pakistani imam, Mohammed Anas Noorani Siddiqui. Siddiqui reportedly said, "Non-Muslim Dutch people live like dogs and b*****s."

They found other mosques children had visited had allegations of extremism and anti-Semitism and ties to the Turkish nationalist movement and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party.

Last year, Erdogan called on Muslim Turks to have five children and "educate your children at better schools."

Bos noted a survey found three-quarters of Catholic and Protestant schools visited a non-Christian place of worship. In 41 percent of those cases, it was a mosque.

Additionally, parents are often not informed of the field trips and schools take steps to hide the information from the public. Oftentimes, Bos found that the school would take down the information from their website after parents complained or they were contacted by him.

"The government has made goals for education that include respect for other religions," Bos said. The curriculum includes spiritual direction, yoga, meditation and visiting a church. In practice, Bos found little to no efforts being made to take Muslim students to non-Islamic places of worship.

Read more: Dutch Children Forced to Submit to Islam