John Lennon - Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
EU Failed to Spread Its Political Clout in Arab Spring Countries – Report
The Arab Spring began with anti-government protests in Tunisia in late 2010, which then spread to other Middle Eastern and North Africa (MENA) countries, including Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, where either regime change or social unrest took place.
The European Parliament (EP) has expressed concern over the EU's failure to gain political clout in Arab Spring countries despite hefty financial injections, according to a report by the parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.
https://sputniknews.com/world/201812251070993062-arab-spring-european-parliament-influence/
Iraqi Christians celebrate hopeful Christmas after defeat of ISIS
Across the region, Christmas appeared to come and go without the terrorism of previous years.
Iraq’s Christian community has faced difficulties in recent years, with waves of Islamist extremist terror and kidnappings, especially after 2003. Many emigrated. When ISIS attacked in 2014, the Christian towns of Nineveh were destroyed and their residents forced to flee to the Kurdish autonomous region, where many then decided to search for a life elsewhere. However, a glimmer of hope appeared in October 2016 when ISIS was driven out of Nineveh plains and Christian cities like Qaraqosh, once home to some 50,000 people, and smaller towns nearby, were retaken. Last year, some Christians returned to Qaraqosh to conduct holiday services. Qaraqosh is an important symbol because it was the largest Christian majority urban area in Iraq. In other cities, such as Baghdad, Christians are a small minority, but Qaraqosh is a bellwether for the possibility that Christian communities in Iraq can rebuild and thrive.
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iraqi-Christians-celebrate-hopeful-Christmas-after-defeat-of-ISIS-575391
CNC Talk: China's Imports to Hit Record High
China's imports are expected to surpass 2 trillion U.S. dollars, inspiring for world economy amid protectionist headwinds.
https://www.unz.com/video/newchinatv_cnc-talk-chinas-imports-to-hit-record-high/
Nigerian Businessman Femi Otedola Sells Controlling Stake In Forte Oil
Nigerian multi-millionaire businessman Femi Otedola is selling his 75% stake in oil marketing company, Forte Oil, to Prudent Energy, a local oil trading firm.
Publicly traded Forte Oil made the announcement on Monday in a press release signed by the company’s General Counsel, Akinleye Olagbende.
“Forte Oil Plc hereby notifies the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Securities and Exchange Commission, shareholders and the investing community that its majority shareholder, Mr Femi Otedola, has reached an agreement with the Prudent Energy team, investing through Ignite Investments and Commodities Limited, to divest of his full 75 per cent direct and indirect shareholding in the company’s downstream business,” the release said. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2018/12/25/nigerian-businessman-femi-otedola-sells-controlling-stake-in-forte-oil/#21bbe10972c3
Oh my friends it's been a long hard year
Oh my friends we've lived in troubled days
Oh my friend we have the strangest ways
All my friends on this one day of days
Thank God it's Christmas
Queen Thank God it's Christmas
Japan court OKs bail for US executive detained with Ghosn in Nissan case
TOKYO — A Japanese court approved a bail request Tuesday for Nissan Motor Co. executive Greg Kelly, who was detained and charged with underreporting the income of his boss, former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn.
The Tokyo District Court said Kelly, who is American, would be released on 70 million yen ($635,600) bail. The money was paid by cash, and his release could come before the end of the day, after 37 days in custody.
The court later rejected prosecutors’ challenge to the bail approval, clearing the last hurdle for Kelly’s release. He may be allowed to go straight to a hospital for treatment of a neck problem, according to Japanese media.
Kelly and Ghosn have been detained in Tokyo since their Nov. 19 arrest. They are charged with underreporting Ghosn’s pay by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) in 2011-2015.
Kelly’s Japanese lawyer sought bail after the court dismissed prosecutors’ request for more detention for the two to investigate their second allegation of underreporting Ghosn’s 4 billion yen ($36 million) pay.
https://www.dispatch.com/business/20181225/japan-court-oks-bail-for-us-executive-detained-with-ghosn-in-nissan-case
Islamist Christmas Eve Bombing and Firefight Leaves 43 Dead in Kabul, Afghanistan
43 people were killed in a terrorist bombing at a government building in Kabul, Afghanistan on Christmas Eve.
Hundreds of employees were trapped inside the building during the bombing and attack. Many people reportedly jumped to safety.
The attack went on for eight hours.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/islamist-christmas-eve-bombing-and-firefight-leaves-43-dead-in-kabul-afghanistan/
John 4:24
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
SDF captures key town from ISIS in east Deir Ezzor
BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:40 P.M.) – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have captured a key town in the Euphrates River Valley region of the Deir Ezzor Governorate after a fierce battle with the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
Backed by U.S airstrikes, the Syrian Democratic Forces were able to overpower the last Islamic State fighters inside the town of Abu Khater after several days of intense clashes.
The Islamic State was ultimately forced to give up Abu Khater once the Syrian Democratic Forces reached the town-center and began surrounding the remaining terrorists in the area.
With Abu Khater under their control, the Syrian Democratic Forces have officially secure the key town of Hajin, which was a former stronghold for the Islamic State along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/sdf-captures-key-town-from-isis-in-east-deir-ezzor-map/
Heavy clashes breakout between Turkish-backed rebels, Kurdish forces near border-town
BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:20 P.M.) – A fierce battle broke out between the Turkish-backed rebels and Kurdish-led forces in the northern countryside of the Aleppo Governorate this afternoon.
The clashes reportedly erupted this afternoon after the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) attacked Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) positions near the border-town of ‘Azaz.
No casualties or advances have been reported by either side.
This is the second time in the last week that the Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed rebels have clashed at this front in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/heavy-clashes-breakout-between-turkish-backed-rebels-kurdish-forces-near-border-town/
Take up a collection and get bail money for toots
The famous Fibonacci sequence has captivated mathematicians, artists, designers, and scientists for centuries. Also known as the Golden Ratio, its ubiquity and astounding functionality in nature suggests its importance as a fundamental characteristic of the Universe.
this is JR high math
15 Uncanny Examples of the Golden Ratio in Nature
https://io9.gizmodo.com/5985588/15-uncanny-examples-of-the-golden-ratio-in-nature
Vatican orders probe into allegations against Austrian bishop
The archbishop of Salzburg said in a statement on Thursday that the Vatican has tasked him with leading an investigation into allegations of financial and personal misconduct against another Austrian bishop.
The allegations concern Alois Schwarz, the current bishop of St. Poelten, but relate to his time as bishop of Gurk-Klagenfurt, in southern Austria, a post he held from 2001 until earlier this year.
On Tuesday high-ranking church officials in the Gurk-Klagenfurt diocese called a press conference where they laid out a series of allegations against Schwarz, principally of overseeing financial mismanagement that left the diocese with millions of euros in losses
https://www.thelocal.at/20181221/vatican-orders-probe-into-allegations-against-austrian-bishop
FK U and your Wiki nigger bullshit
Can feds use secret court filings to send terror suspect back to Iraq?
The case of the suspected terrorist who federal officials want to extradite back to Iraq has taken a secret turn, with prosecutors filing documents that the defense says even they are not being allowed to see.
The documents were filed under seal in federal court in Sacramento last week, and federal defenders are objecting to the secrecy, saying their client, Omar Ameen, faces the possibility of execution if he is returned to his homeland.
Prosecutors filed two documents Dec. 13 — one a five-page motion, the other a proposed order granting whatever the government is seeking in its motion — but did so under seal “due to a national security interest in keeping the documents nonpublic,” according to a filing by Assistant U.S. Attorney Audrey Hemesath.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento declined to comment further, but federal defenders trying to keep Ameen from being sent back to Iraq say they need access to the documents to have a fair chance of halting his extradition.
“We object to the government’s secret filing,” Chief Assistant Federal Defender Ben Galloway wrote in an emailed response to questions from The Sacramento Bee. “How can we fight what we can’t even see? It violates the court’s procedural rules, and it violates Mr. Ameen’s due process rights.”
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2018/12/can-feds-use-secret-court-filings-to-send-terror-suspect-back-to-iraq/
Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad (Original) HQ 1970
Before and After: What We Learned About the “Hemisphere” Program After Suing the DEA
As the year draws to a close, so has EFF’s long-running Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency about the mass phone surveillance program infamously known as “Hemisphere.”
We won our case and freed up tons of records. (So did the Electronic Privacy Information Center.) The government, on the other hand, only succeeded in dragging out the fake secrecy.
In late 2013, right as the world was already reeling from the Snowden revelations, The New York Times revealed that AT&T gives federal and local drug enforcement investigators access to a phone records surveillance system that dwarfs the NSA’s. Through this program, code-named Hemisphere, police tap into trillions of of phone records going back decades.
It’s been five long years of privacy scandals, and Hemisphere has faded somewhat from the headlines since it was first revealed. That was long enough for officials to rebrand the program “Data Analytical Services,” making it even less likely to draw scrutiny or stick in the memory. Nevertheless Hemisphere remains a prime example of how private corporations and the government team up to help themselves to our digital lives, and the lengths they will go to to cover their tracks.
https://www.activistpost.com/2018/12/before-and-after-what-we-learned-about-the-hemisphere-program-after-suing-the-dea.html
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer
HOV Lane Discounts to be Replaced With a Customer Rewards Spying Program
Corporations will go to incredible lengths to dream up new ways to convince the public to accept government spying.
Take the Arlington Texas Department of Transportation’s (DOT) latest idea for example.
The Texas DOT is getting rid of HOV lane discounts and replacing them with customer rewards. Motorists are being forced to download an intrusive new “VeriRide” app that takes government snooping to a whole new level.
A recent article in the Dallas News titled “HOV rewards to replace discounts on Dallas Fort-Wort tolled lanes” is basically a rewards program for government spying.
https://www.activistpost.com/2018/12/hov-lane-discounts-to-be-replaced-with-a-customer-rewards-spying-program.html
The Misuses of History: The Christmas First World War 1914 Truce
All memorialised events, when passing into mythology, must be seen critically. In some cases, there should be more than a hint of suspicion. The Christmas Truce of 1914 remains one sentimentalised occasion, remembered less to scold the mad mechanised forces of death led by regressive castes than to reflect upon common humanity.
Common humanity, left to be butchered before the next grand stratagem, is the first casualty of the war room and, in many cases, parliaments. These are places where commemoration ceremonies are drafted and encouraged; they are also the places where the common soldier is left for ruin.
The Christmas Truce of the First World War arose out of a blood-bathed irony: the troops from both sides, Allies and German, were not meant to be slaughtering each other at that point. They should have been home to celebrate their respective victories or lick respective wounds. The diplomats and politicians could then celebrate what was meant to be a puerile skirmish waged in conditions more reminiscent of an old cavalry charge than mud-soaked death.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-misuses-of-history-the-christmas-world-war-i-1914-truce/5663800
History of the Bible - Who wrote the Bible?
The Bible was written over a span of 1500 years, by 40 writers. Unlike other religious writings, the Bible reads as a factual news account of real events, places, people, and dialogue. Historians and archaeologists have repeatedly confirmed its authenticity.
Using the writers' own writing styles and personalities, God shows us who he is and what it's like to know him.
There is one central message consistently carried by all 40 writers of the Bible: God, who created us all, desires a relationship with us. He calls us to know him and trust him.
The Bible not only inspires us, it explains life and God to us. It does not answer all the questions we might have, but enough of them. It shows us how to live with purpose and compassion. How to relate to others. It encourages us to rely on God for strength, direction, and enjoy his love for us. The Bible also tells us how we can have eternal life.
Sudanese police fire tear gas to halt protest march
Riot police in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, have used live ammunition and tear gas in an attempt to disperse protesters marching towards the presidential palace.
Video clips posted online appeared to show large crowds of several hundred people heading to the palace, located on the bank of the river Blue Nile in the heart of Khartoum.
The demonstrators could be heard singing patriotic songs and chanting, "Peaceful, peaceful against the thieves" and "The people want to bring down the regime".
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/sudanese-police-fire-tear-gas-halt-protest-march-181225141659255.html