Schengen: Romania blasts Austria for ‘inexplicable’ move to block access to EU’s passport-free zone | Euronews

In a high-stakes meeting of interior ministers, Austria was the only country that opposed Romania’s accession into Schengen.

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The reasoning behind Austria’s decision is greater than the blocking of Rommania’s accession into Schengen, as it shows and brings to a head the problems with Schengen. If there was no Schengen then the current illegal immigration into France and then into the UK would have been mitigated, as currently once into the EU area, Schengen allows free travel through to France until they come to the North coast of France and the last travel of illegal entry in boats that are very unsafe for the journey across the English Channel. Also it encourages the criminal gangs to enter into these ventures.

Source: Schengen: Romania blasts Austria for ‘inexplicable’ move to block access to EU’s passport-free zone | Euronews

Explainer: Europe’s coronavirus smartphone contact tracing apps – Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) – More than 20 countries and territories in Europe have launched or plan smartphone apps that seek to break the chain of coronavirus infection by tracking encounters between people and issuing a warning should one of them test positive.

 

Source: Explainer: Europe’s coronavirus smartphone contact tracing apps – Reuters

How many Muslim women actually wear the burka in the UK? It’s probably less than a few thousand – The i – Weekend Reads #55

Given the reaction of some parts of the media, one could be forgiven for assuming that Europe and the rest of the Western world has become besieged by burqa-clad women. The “fear” is now so rife that empty bus seats in Norway were mistaken for a group of women wearing the burqa.

Meanwhile, in a much derided stunt in Australia, far right leader Pauline Hanson wore a full-face covering burqa into the senate chamber. Hanson’s aim was to prohibit Muslim women from covering their faces and to get the burqa banned in the country.

To look at it, the burqa is simply a veil which covers the body and face – and yet it is also sometimes associated with oppression, terrorism, and extreme religious beliefs. Some burqas only have a mesh screen for the wearer to see through. The niqab, on the other hand, is a face veil worn with a headscarf which leaves the eyes uncovered, while the hijab is a scarf which covers the head and neck. In Europe, the term “burqa” is used to refer to women who wear robes to cover the body and face, but their eyes may be left uncovered, as seen in the main image of this article.

Source: How many Muslim women actually wear the burka in the UK? It’s probably less than a few thousand – The i – Weekend Reads #55

The American Court Ruling against Holocaust Denial

Beastrabban\'s Weblog

In my article on Saturday reviewing the book Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review, edited by Israel W. Charny (London: Mansell Publishing 1991) I mentioned that amongst its contents, the chapter on Holocaust Denial has a passage describing how a Neo-Nazi rag in America was successfully sued over the issue of the existence of the Holocaust. The rag stated it never happened, and challenged people to prove that it had. One man did, and when the magazine refused to pay out the sum it had promised to pay, took them to court. The judge ruled in his favour, and stated that it was more than adequately demonstrated that the Shoah was historical fact. Here’s the passage:

Verdict of an American Judge on the Offer to pay $50,000 for Proof that the Nazis Gassed Jews

In the United States, the Institute for Historical Review offered to pay fifty thousand dollars to…

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Austrian Presidential Election Result Overturned and Must be Held Again

Stop Making Sense

Philip Oltermann reports for The Guardian:

Austria’s Freedom party will get another go at providing the first far-right president in the European Union, after the country’s constitutional court annulled the result of May’s presidential election.

The court president, Gerhart Holzinger, announced on Friday that the run-off vote, in which Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party (FPÖ) narrowly lost to Green-backed Alexander Van der Bellen, would have to be repeated across the whole country after an investigation revealed irregularities in the count of the vote in several constituencies.

The unprecedented ruling comes a week before Van der Bellen was due to be sworn into office. Hofer had lost out to his rival in a knife-edge election on 22 May by only 30,863 votes.

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