Last card laid on German deployment into Turkey: Basically, the German Foreign Minister met over the weekend with the Turks and laid down the last insistence that political folks must have the right to enter Turkey and visit German troops deployed there. If the Turks can't honor that....the Germans have plan B ready to go. How messy will this get when the 250-odd Germans prepare to leave Incirlik? That might be worth asking. One might figure that the Turks just want this to end, and get some normal conditions into place. New location? Jordan. And this will happen very quickly.
Afghan attack on Russian kid in asylum center: So page two unfolds on this story from over the weekend. Knife attack on the young kid....the kid is dead. Cops arrive, tell the Afghan guy to cooperate....he doesn't listen....German cops shoot the guy (fatally). So, now the news folks explain that the Afghan had on a security device (tracker) on his leg. Why? Well....he had been in Germany in 2009 and got into some kind of legal trouble (arson, but to what extent is unknown).....but got five years and ten months on a prison sentence. Typically anything over two years is for something significant but we are left to wonder about the extent of this episode. The authorities decided that when he got out in 2015....he was to be put into some kind of refugee center. It's not clear what they were going to do with him long-term, after the jail-period. Maybe he was on a deportee list. Maybe the paperwork business needed to be cleared up on a passport. Maybe Afghanistan had a problem in taking him back. This might end up as another episode where you need a truth-commission to determine who did what and why things unfolded the way they did.
Qatar and the 2022 FIFA Cup: Focus pointed this out this morning. Major break in relations between Qatar, and five neighbors (Egypt and Saudi Arabia among them). There is evidence to show relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar, along with financial backing for ISIS. A fair amount of criticism already exist for the choice of Qatar for the 2022 FIFA games, but this simply adds another layer onto that.
Voting un-Islamic?: Article from the Brit Daily Mail. One of the guys from last night's attack in London....stood up in a sermon by the local Imam a while back when the topic of voting in the English election came up. The Imam made a speech that all members should participate and be part of the decision process. Oddly, this guy stood up and said that voting was a a un-Islamic thing and violated the religion. As the Mail told the story....the Imam basically kicked the guy out of the Mosque. Then the Imam noted that he felt the guy really didn't know anything much about the religion.
Hoax-vests?: The Daily Mail puts out one single curious thing from the London attack. These vests that the three guys had on? All fake or bogus bomb-vest. All three...same way. Did they even know this? One might sit and wait for some truth-commission episode to develop over this. I might be willing to believe that they were led around to this mission or purpose in life, and some joker gave them the fake vests.
BBC bias: In recent days, the BBC ran a show called 'Question-Time' where you could pose questions from the audience toward the parties running in the general election. So this guy went to the internet site and tried on six occasions to apply and be accepted in the audience to ask questions. He admitted truth statements....he was a right-wing conservative type guy. Each time.....turned down. So on the 7th time (so he says).....he said he was a left-wing guy.....unionist....and anti-fracking type. Then he got accepted for the audience. The odds that the questions and the audience were stacked against the Tory government guys? It just makes you wonder.
Berlin Sunday shopping, every Sunday?: In virtually every German state (all sixteen), there's a general limit of three Sundays a year when stores can open (12-to-4 usually). In Berlin, there is commercial pressure to make this a 52 week thing. Trade unions are against it, and general employee resistance is persistent. Very doubtful that politicians will find agreement to this. You might see two or three Sundays added to the current list. It's a German thing about keeping Sundays 'special'.
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