Germany ‘Urgently Seeking’ More Migrants From Outside European UnionChancellor Angela Merkel is meeting top German business and union officials on Monday to discuss how to attract skilled workers from outside the European Union as the country tries to tackle a shortfall of qualified labor.

Legislation is due to take effect March 1 making it easier for non-EU nationals to get visas to work and seek jobs in Germany. Arrangements currently applied to university graduates are being expanded to immigrants with professional qualifications and German language knowledge.

“Many companies in Germany are urgently seeking skilled workers, even in times of a weaker economy,” Eric Schweitzer, the head of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told the Funke newspaper group. “For more than half of companies, the shortage of skilled workers is currently the biggest risk to business.”

He called for “unbureaucratic and effective implementation” of the new legislation.

Sectors including information technology and nursing have complained of a shortage of workers.

Monday’s meeting will discuss which countries German business wants to focus on “and we will cut out the bureaucratic hurdles,” Labor Minister Hubertus Heil told RBB Inforadio. He named as examples the process of recognizing professional qualifications, language ability and visa procedures.

Like many other European countries, Germany is trying to strike a balance between the needs of its labor market, an aging native population and concern about immigration.

Heil said that the aim isn’t to undercut German wages and “our problem at the moment is rather that we are not being overrun, that we are not getting qualified workers.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/16/germany-urgently-seeking-more-migrants-from-outside-european-union/

Australian commando Kevin Frost, who raised Afghanistan war crime allegations, found dead

A "fearless" Australian commando who went public three years ago about his involvement in an alleged war crime in Afghanistan has died.

Sergeant Kevin Frost is among hundreds of former and serving Defence Force personnel who have taken their own lives in the past two decades.

Last week the 45-year-old went missing near his Busselton home, and over the weekend his family confirmed he had been found but had "tragically passed away".

Friends have paid tribute online to their mate "Frosty", who they say was a "fearless", "proud" and "witty" man.

His death comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison says his Government will consider calling a royal commission next year into veterans' suicides.

In 2016 Sergeant Frost told the ABC he had helped to cover up the alleged murder of an Afghan prisoner.

"The particular incident that I was involved in resulted in the POW that I had captured actually being executed, murdered," the commando recalled in a television interview.

"I can't remember if he cut the cuffs off first or if he cut the cuffs off after he shot him. That's the one point I can't remember there, cause I wasn't looking.

"I didn't want to look. I turned around and the guy was dead. He'd been shot through the forehead."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-16/australian-kevin-frost-who-raised-afghanistan-war-crimes-dead/11802068

Former Amazon Mexico Chief Hiding from Murder Investigation, Says Interpol

The man who once ran Amazon’s operations in Mexico is currently deemed an international fugitive for an investigation into his estranged wife’s murder, according to Interpol. The suspect supposedly crossed into California from Mexico in recent weeks.

At the request of Mexican authorities, Interpol issued a red notice for the arrest of Juan Carlos Garcia, the former chief of Amazon Mexico, who is the prime suspect in the murder of Abril Cecilia Perez Sagaon. According to Periodico ABC, the murder took place on November 25 in Mexico City when two gunmen on a motorcycle shot her en route to an airport. The victim was in town for the couple’s divorce hearing.

In the days after the untimely death, Garcia missed a court hearing and allegedly crossed into California from Tijuana. It is officially believed he is hiding in the San Diego area, Periodico ABC reported.

The case sparked outrage in Mexico after news outlets reported that Garcia tried to kill Perez with a baseball bat in January, but two judges released him after downgrading the charges from attempted murder to family violence, Animal Politico reported. Human rights activists and congressional leaders called for the removal of the judges and a review of the judicial process, Excelsior reported. Mexico City Mayor Claudio Sheinbaum stated that if the investigation finds Garcia behind the murder, Judges Carlos Trujillo Rodríguez and Federico Mosco González could face charges similar to manslaughter, El Sol de Mexico reported.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/12/16/former-amazon-mexico-chief-hiding-from-murder-investigation-says-interpol/

Watch: Julian Assange's dad details son's torture

Independent Australia together with QCCL hosted an event to raise awareness for the plight of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, featuring his father John Shipton.

DESPITE THE oppressive humidity in a Brisbane hall packed to twice its capacity, the attention of the crowd did not falter. All eyes were on John Shipton as he spoke quietly and eloquently, detailing his son’s torture. John’s son is Julian Assange, currently rotting in Belmarsh Prison in the UK, awaiting potential extradition to the U.S. and facing 175 years in prison.

The conditions under which Assange is being held are worse than those of mass murderers and child sex offenders. Essentially in solitary confinement, he is not permitted internet usage. His visiting rights are limited to two half-hour visits per week. He cannot contact family or friends and his ability to prepare his own defence has been severely thwarted.

This, according to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer, is

"prolonged exposure to psychological torture … and abuse [which] may soon end up costing his life.”

The event, co-hosted by Independent Australia and the Council of Civil Liberties (QCCL) was intended to mobilise support for the journalist and WikiLeaks founder. Managing editor David Donovan and executive editor Michelle Pini interviewed Mr Shipton, along with anti-war activist Ciaron O’Reilly.

John Shipton spoke of his son's commitment to truth-telling and said of his son:

"Not once has Julian complained. Not once did he complain or moan about his situation. I don’t know if he thinks it’s worth it, but as far as I can see from the outside, his resolve is undiminished… I’ve never found any bitterness in Julian."

Ciaron O'Reilly described Assange's popularity thus:

Where Julian is popular Is at the extremities of empire – he’s really big in Bangladesh… and the Congo – where he’s not popular is at the centre of empire. There's a lot of hostility in the UK and there was quite a lot of general sympathy with the liberal Left in the U.S. until Clinton blamed her election loss on WikiLeaks. There's a lot of scepticism in Australia.

Mr Shipton said the allegations against his son amounted to a distraction tactic to divert the limelight from the war crimes WikiLeaks exposed, and that this was the reason Assange is not receiving diplomatic assistance:

"Julian has had 100 consular "assistances" in one form or another, which is a testament to failure because he’s there still…

You, and us together, hold Julian up. Not the politicians or the big wigs. It’s us – we hold him up."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52710.htm

Democrat PA State Rep Johnson-Harrell Charged With Theft, Perjury, Resigns In Disgrace

It frequently appears that Democrats find themselves caught in a new scandal daily and so often it involves shady ways to get paid.

As the Party has spent three years working to find some type of scandal on President Donald Trump that does not exist, they keep burying the skeletons in their own closet.

And the reason they want to stop the president is because they are rightfully frightened that he is going to uncover the corruption they have been involved in for decades.

In one of the most recent examples of their rampant corruption, Pennsylvania State Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell has resigned after allegedly being caught stealing $500,000 from, what prosecutors say was, her phony charity.

Designed to give funds to drug addicts who needed financial help and people with mental disabilities, it is alleged that the charity funds got routed to her own coffers.

The first Muslim woman elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, she was charged with eight crimes last week including theft, records tampering and perjury, CNN reported.

“I am saddened and dismayed by the nature of the allegations brought against me,” the representative said to Philadelphia Magazine.

“I vigorously dispute most of these allegations. I intend to accept responsibility for any wrongdoings that I have done before I took office. I have always fought for the people of West Philadelphia to the best of my ability,” she said.

“I have been proud to represent the 190th District,” she said. “I cannot become a distraction for my friends and neighbors who need so much. I thus will be stepping aside as representative later this month.”

The state said that rather than spend her charities funds where they were intended, she spent them on furs, vacations and her campaign for the House.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that the representative has turned herself in and intends to plead guilty.

“I’ve said time and time again as Attorney General that no one is above the law, no matter their position of power. And today is no different,” he said.

According to the 11-page criminal complaint, Johnson-Harrell designed an elaborate scheme to illegally transfer money from her non-profit and then cover up the transfers and her spending by misrepresenting her finances on official documents. Prosecutors laid out a litany of examples of how she did so, saying her scheme took place between 2015 and 2019.

In one example from 2017, Johnson-Harrell allegedly “made out a MECA check to ‘Cash’ for $3,150 and deposited it into her personal bank account,” which at the time had only $67 in it.

Less than two days later, prosecutors say she “spent $840.06 at a designer clothing website she frequented and bought an airline ticket for $292.40.”

In another case, the transfer of $5,000 of MECA funds was allegedly used by Johnson-Harrell to pay for nearly $4,000 in tuition for her grandchildren’s private school and nearly $3,000 to make purchases from “Tradesy, another designer woman’s clothing and accessories website, as well as Ralph Lauren and Macy’s.”

The Democrats, if they want to stop corruption, should stop looking to desperately find a crime to prosecute President Trump for and start looking at their own Party.

http://www.hideoutnow.com/2019/12/democrat-pa-state-rep-johnson-harrell.html