Thursday Links

As another Thursday rolls around, here are some things going on:

From Free West Media, police in Cologne, Germany defend their temporary arrest of Muslims yelling "Allahu akbar" while running into the city's main railroad station.

From Deutsche Welle, death threats are sent to pro-refugee German politicians.

From the CPH Post, the Danish Parliament chooses it new speaker.

From the NL Times, the Dutch police present a plan against ethnic profiling.

From Dutch News, three men have been arrested in Amsterdam for sexually harassing undercover policewomen.

From France24, is France's baccalaureate the world's most difficult high school exam?  (I first learned about the French baccalaureate during French classes in high school, along with the slogan a bas le bac!, which means "down with the bac", the word "bac" being an abbreviation for "baccalaureate".)

From RFI, gay rights activists file a complaint with the European Commission over France's requirement that gay men abstain from sex for a year before giving blood.

From the Express, the contest for the Tory leadership (and with it the office of prime minister) is between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.

From the Evening Standard, climate protesters interrupt a speech by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond.

From the Independent, the U.K. freezes new arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

From the Irish Examiner, the Irish government is urged to investigate the Troubles-related killings.  ("The Troubles" refers to the conflict between the mostly Catholic nationalists and mostly Protestant unionists in northern Ireland.)

From Euractiv, the E.U. climate deal falls.

From CBC News, "could Canada be a safe haven for climate refugees?"  (The World Bank predicts that 143 million people could become climate refugees.  Such predictions have been made previously, and have failed dismally.)

From Global News, while visiting the U.S., Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau weighs in on Quebec's religious symbols bill.

From CTV News, five things to watch for as Trudeau meets U.S. President Trump.

From the Toronto Sun, a Toronto imam accused of sexual assault is arrested trying to board a plane.

From TeleSUR, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez deploys the military around his country.

From Morocco World News, 22 migrants die trying to cross the Mediterranean from Morocco to Spain.

From The Portugal News, the Portuguese parliament passes three laws on lobbying.

From El País, a tape allegedly records three Spaniards trying to extort money from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

From ANSA, Germany returns a Roman marble sculpture to Italy.

From Total Croatia News, the Jewish Community of Zagreb objects to a Holocaust monument because it allegedly downplays the crimes against Jews in Croatia.

From Independent Balkan News Agency, an Albanian opposition party calls for protests against the government.

From Ekathimerini, police in Piraeus, Greece dismantle a passport forgery operation.  (Piraeus is the port city for Athens.  I've sailed out of there twice.)

From the Greek Reporter, new evidence undermines the British Museum's claim to marble statues from the Parthenon.

From Novinite, Sofia will host the inaugural World Meeting of Child Cardiologists and Cardiothoracic Surgeons.

From the Sofia Globe, the U.S. proposes its price for eight F-16 fighter jets.

From Romania-Insider, several sites in a mineral spring resort will be refurbished with funds from the E.U.  (If you're a taxpayer in any E.U. country, you could say that this is your tax Euros at work.)

From the Hungary Journal, Prime Minister Orban marks the anniversary of troops from the Soviet Union leaving Hungary.

From Daily News Hungary, a court in Szeged, Hungary gives life sentences to three Bulgarians and one Afghan for the deaths of 71 migrants smuggled in a truck.

From Hungary Today, according to the Council of Europe, minority representation and participation in Hungary is "exemplary".

From About Hungary, according to Foreign Minister Szijjarto, the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Croatian island of Krk would be in Hungary's interest.

From The Slovak Spectator, could Slovak Prime Minister Pelligrini become president of the European Council?

From Radio Praha, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš wants an E.C. president who won't reintroduce migrant quotas.

From Radio Poland, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki goes to Brussels to discuss appointments to key E.U. posts.

From Russia Today, people should be free to criticize authority, says Russian President Putin.  (There was a time when I could never imagine myself agreeing with the leader of Russia.)

From Sputnik International, in his annual Q&A session, Putin denies being a space alien.

From The Moscow Times, tens of thousands of Georgians protest over the visit of a delegation from Russia.  (This happened in Tbilisi, not Atlanta.)

From Hürriyet Daily News, 415,000 Syrian babies have been born in Turkey since 2011.

From Turkish Minute, in İzmir, Turkey, police detain 33 alleged followers of the Gülen movement.  (That is indeed a dot over a capital "I".)

From Rûdaw, a Yezidi journalist is rescued from ISIS.

From Arutz Sheva, dozens of people protest against a gay pride parade in Be'er Sheva, Israel.

From The Times Of Israel, Israel claims to have captured a Jordanian man spying for Iran.

From The Jerusalem Post, how Jerusalem remembers 9/11.

From the Egypt Independent, Egyptian President Abdel El Sisi allocates almost 110 acres for Coptic cemeteries.

From Egypt Today, Egypt and the U.N. sign a cooperation document to combat extremism.

From Radio Farda, while U.S. House Speaker calls for caution, President Trump says that Iran "made a big mistake".

From IranWire, 10 prisoners in Iran write an open letter calling for basic human rights for political prisoners.

From Dawn, a court sentences a man to death for blasphemy.

From The Express Tribune, Pakistan will partially rescind the death penalty.

From Pakistan Today, Pakistan and Japan agree to enhance their defense ties.

From Khaama Press, Afghan security forces kill four Taliban terrorists, seize 50,000 kilos of opium, and confiscate 4,400 rounds of ammo.  (Seems like a very productive day.)

From the Hindustan Times, India's National Investigative Agency raids a man's house in Coimbatore, over suspicion of ISIS links.

From ANI, the Indian Air Force recovers the bodies of 13 personnel from a crashed AN-32 airplane.

From India Today, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo will visit India.

From the Daily Mirror, ISIS reportedly shifts its strategy to threaten India and Sri Lanka.

From the Colombo Page, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena orders the investigations of people arrested for minor offenses in the Easter Sunday attacks to be expedited.

From the Daily Mail, a group of Iranian villagers are filmed stoning a bear cub to death.

From Gatestone Institute, there will be no peace as long as Iran's mullahs are in charge.

From StepFeed, a Saudi woman becomes the first-ever female chairperson of a publicly-listed local bank.

From The Jakarta Post, a U.N. expert publishes a report about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

From the Borneo Post, the Malaysian government is not happy with the latest report on Flight MH17.

From The Conservative Woman, the U.K. Home Office claims to consult organizations on immigration, but only gets "a rubber stamp".

From National Review, the U.S. "holds all the cards" against Iran.

From Townhall, what the Catholic Church teaches about immigration is not what Alyssa Milano might think.

From FrontpageMag, "a legal immigrant weighs in" on the current "madness".  (If you support open borders and/or oppose the wall, the author is one of the millions of people you regard with bird-flipping contempt.)

From The Washington Free Beacon, the SCOTUS rules against an attempt to remove Blandensburg, Maryland's WWI cross memorial.  (The article refers to the court as the "Supremes", a title that in my opinion belongs to Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and Cindy Birdsong, not to that group of nine lawyers appointed by politicians.)

From the Washington Examiner, prominent Republicans oppose Roy Moore's latest Senate run.

From The Federalist, if the media don't want to be accused of publishing propaganda, they should stop publishing propaganda.

From American Thinker, Senator Kamala Harris (D-Cal) calls border jumpers an "ethnic group", even though they come from many ethnic groups.

From CNS News, according to Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), "everyone has the constitutional duty to enforce immigration laws".

From NewsBusters, Trump is defended on race relations by a former employee of President George Bush the Younger.  (She has a PhD and is a classically trained pianist.)

From the New York Post, a veteran Navy SEAL wins his fight to join the FDNY.

And from The Babylon Bee, congresscritter Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is "getting excited" hearing about concentration camps.  (I wonder what she thinks about these camps.)