Saturday Stories

As the first weekend in August comes upon us, here are some things going on:

From Free West Media, New York's Mr. Bill decides that the city's museums are "too white".  (While I go to this site mainly for news from Europe, its one relevant story for today is from the U.S.)

From CBC News, Canadian LGBTQ advocates call for Health Canada to ease its restrictions on blood donations by gays and transgenders.

From Global News, two men are arrested for allegedly trying to rob an ATM at a Montreal Metro station.  (These guys are amateurs compared to some other thieves, who have used explosives and fork lifts against ATMs.)

From CTV News, smoke from forest fires in Siberia is detected in Canada.

From the Express, why the E.U. believes that Prime Minister Boris Johnson "will blink first" on Brexit.

From BBC News, as storms possibly close in, repair work on the Whaley Bridge dam continues.

From the Evening Standard, the Royal Navy tracks a Chinese warship through the English Channel.

From the (U.K.) Independent, protesters demand that electric scooters are legalized for U.K. roads.

From the (Irish) Independent, a car runs into three pedestrians at a funeral in Belfast.

From the Irish Examiner, Ireland's Taoiseach attends Belfast's Pride parade.

From France24, the French inventor of a jet-powered hoverboard plans his second attempt to cross the English Channel.  (I hope that he doesn't run into - or fly into - the above-mentioned Chinese ship or the U.K. personnel monitoring it.  As I have said before, the line between "badass" and "stupid people" can be pretty thin.)

From RFI, Nantes, France prepares for protests over the death of Portuguese citizen Steve Maia Caniço.

From VRT NWS, archaeologists digs into the center of Aarschot, Belgium.

From the NL Times, the Pride parade in Amsterdam goes on without any incidents.

From Deutsche Welle, on a road near the town of Hirschberg, a truly German tragedy occurs.

From Voice Of Europe, U.S. rapper ASAP Rocky and his friends, now back on American soil, were tried and convicted of violence by the Swedish media.

From Polskie Radio, Polish President Andrzej Duda calls for general elections in October.

From Radio Praha, the pros and cons for the Czech Republic's UNESCO sites.

From Daily News Hungary, where do Hungarians go when they emigrate from Hungary?

From Russia Today, as the U.S. leaves the INF treaty, it reportedly seeks to deploy missiles in the Indo-Pacific region.

From Sputnik International, about 600 people are arrested at an unauthorized rally in Moscow.

From The Moscow Times, the Russian government "turns up the pressure" on Moscow protesters.

From Morocco World News, the upper house of Morocco's legislature passes a controversial education bill.

From SwissInfo, Switzerland's foreign minister supports Romansh cultural celebrations.  (The article includes a picture from the town of Zuoz, which I visited in 2015.)

From the Malta Independent, the NGO-Sea Eye asks Malta to offer a safe port for a ship carrying 40 migrants.

From EuroNews, Italy denies entry to 120 migrants from a Spanish NGO ship, except for a pregnant woman.

From Total Croatia News, a U.S. general visits Croatian Air Force units.

From Ekathimerini, narcotics police in Thessaloniki, Greece seize 52 kilos of cocaine.

From the Greek Reporter, an ethnic Albanian rapper enjoys success and endures controversy in Greece.  (He was born in Athens to Albanian parents.)

From Novinite, Bulgarian pig farmers demand a national state of emergency over swine flu.

From The Sofia Globe, Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva is nominate to be the managing director of the IMF.

From Radio Bulgaria, bagpipers meet for a festival in Gela, Bulgaria.

From Hürriyet Daily News, according to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, Turkey has granted citizenship to over 92,000 Syrians.

From Rûdaw, construction begins in Istanbul on Turkey's first modern church.

From Arutz Sheva, according to a poll, no politicians in Israel can form a government.

From The Times Of Israel, according to a poll, Palestinians want a "wait and see" approach to U.S. President Trump's peace plan.

From The Jerusalem Post, the Israeli cabinet plans to meet in Eilat to discuss a development plan.

From YNetNews, a former nurse recalls the 1944 Polish uprising against the occupying Germans.

From Egypt Today, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Iraq meet in Baghdad.

From StepFeed, eight Arabic TV shows based on foreign shows.

From Radio Farda, an Iranian-Swedish man held in Iran has been forced to admit new charges and make confessions.

From IranWire, a Baha'i man in Iran is held in "digital shackles".

From Dawn, thousands of tourists and students leave the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir due to a terror warning.

From The Express Tribune, 90 percent of the work on the Kartarput Corridor has been completed.

From Pakistan Today, India has allegedly used cluster ammunition along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

From The Hans India, painting inspired by the Indian epic poem Ramayana are exhibited in an American museum.

From the Hindustan Times, security forces kill seven alleged Maoists in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

From ANI, the Indian Army "ensures" that it only targets Pakistani military and terrorists.

From India Today, India enforces its law against "triple talaq" - against a man who phones it in from Saudi Arabia, and the Indian Army denies using cluster ammunition.  (Regarding the latter story, it's no surprise that my Indian and Pakistani sources differ on this matter.)

From the Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka and Russia consider enhancing their naval cooperation.

From the Colombo Page, the E.U. expresses its readiness to help Sri Lanka deal with violent extremism.

From The Defense Post, a pregnant Indonesian woman is beaten to death in a Syrian refugee camp, possibly by other women.

From Allah's Willing Executioners, an Islamic website in Germany recommends wife-beating, with no objection from German courts.  (I realize that the name Allah's Willing Executioners is rather unpleasant, but I do not censor website names unless they contain an obvious cuss word or slur.)

From Snouts in the Trough, Germany appears to have had a lively week of cultural enrichment.  (The last three links were found at The Religion Of Peace.)

From Gatestone Institute, France slowly sinks into chaos.

From The Straits Times, police and protesters clash in Hong Kong's Mongkok and Tsim Sha Tsui districts.

From the Borneo Post, Malaysia's Ministry of Finance endorses a tax on sugary drinks.

From Free Malaysia Today, according to park authorities, there are only 23 tigers left in the Royal Belum and Temenggor forest reserves.

From The Mainichi, a graduate student at Hitotsubashi University files a human rights complaint against an American professor for alleged classroom "hate speech" against Koreans.

From The Conservative Woman, money might not buy happiness, but it helps make life easier.

From National Review, the DOJ will not prosecute former FBI Director James Comey for his memos about Trump.

From Townhall, police in El Paso respond to a shooting at a Walmart.

From the Washington Examiner, according to Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), former Vice President Joe Biden (D-Del) is more responsible for the incarceration of drug users than Senator Kamala Harris (D-Cal).  (All three are presidential candidates.)

From American Thinker, American natural gas "will soon run the world".

From LifeZette, conservative activist Laura Loomer decides to run for Congress in Florida.  (I'll have to start referring to her, should she appear in any linked stories, as "would-be congresscritter Laura Loomer", and drop the "would-be" if she wins.)

From NewsBusters, three stories that the media won't touch.

From Fox News, two opinion columnists recommend dealing with ProFa using laws against organized crime.

From the New York Post, recently acquired New York Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman is also a rapper.

And from Twitchy, cowboys track down a bovine fugitive in Colorado Springs.  (It's a good thing that their mamas let them grow up to be cowboys.  If you're offended by the term "cowboy" for allegedly being sexist, you may substitute "people on horseback".)