Corona may have meant a different New Year’s Eve for most people, but one thing did not fundamentally change for the police and fire brigade in Essen: once again, they were pelted with firecrackers during their operations. The police reported two major incidents in the Südostviertel and Altenessen districts.

Shortly after midnight (0.16 am), however, the officers were called to the street Steeler Straße/corner Kurfürstenstraße. There, witnesses had reported about 30 youths who were setting fire to rubbish bins and apparently using accelerants to do so.

When the fire brigade and police arrived at the scene, the hooligans did not hesitate: “Immediately, our colleagues were attacked from within the group with fireworks,” Wickhorst said. According to the fire brigade, emergency vehicles were also fired upon with firecrackers and rockets. According to current information, the fireworks that were thrown were “category 4 fireworks”, which are sold for professional use.Fortunately, no one was injured. However, what could have happened is shown by the damage caused by a single firecracker in the attack. The firecracker had fallen a few metres away from a parked vehicle. “But the force of the explosion was enough to trigger a side airbag and tear off the interior mirror,” police spokesman Christoph Wickhorst describes in vivid detail.

The police arrested a youth after receiving hints from witnesses. The 16-year-old allegedly threw the fireworks. After the measures were completed, his legal guardians were able to pick him up at the police station.

A short time later, the police were able to identify another 16-year-old, both of whom (of Syrian and Syrian-Turkish origin) were questioned, fingerprints were taken and photos were taken.

Only a little later, the police were dealing with a larger group in the Altenessen district. Around 0.40 am, residents had called the police and reported that about 50 people were rioting and vandalising the Altenessen market.

“Smashed bus stops, smashed advertising boards and kicked or burning rubbish bins,” Christoph Wickhorst lists the damage. When the police arrived, the group fled.

https://www.waz.de/staedte/essen/essen-junge-maenner-werfen-boeller-auf-einsatzkraefte-id231247648.html

A court in the Italian city of Milan ruled that the coronavirus situation in a migrant’s country of origin will be taken into account when deciding which migrant can stay in the country. According to the ruling, migrants could be endangered by a lack of medical staff, equipment, or intensive care beds if they are returned to their country of origin.

As the Italian ANSA news agency branch focused on the Mediterranean area reported, a court in Milan ruled that the risk of COVID-19 infection could be used as a reason for granting humanitarian protection.

This so-called humanitarian protection status is given to those who do not obtain refugee status but would be at risk if they would return to their country of origin. However, each case would be reportedly assessed individually and migrants will not receive automatic protection.

In the decision process, authorities will take into account whether COVID-19 negatively affects the health care and economy of the migrant’s country of origin, i.e. whether he or she would be at risk of lack of health care or hunger as a result of the pandemic.

The Italian media reported that the court’s decision concerns applications submitted before the changes introduced by the then Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini in 2018.

According to Italian judges, the pandemic must be considered a risk factor in deciding whether a migrant is entitled to humanitarian protection as he or she could face issues in the country of origin due to the lack of intensive care beds, the lack of lung ventilators, or the lack of hospital staff.

With Italy’s left-wing government relaxing rules at the border, the country has seen a massive surge in migrants entering the country in the last year. 

https://rmx.news/article/article/coronavirus-to-become-a-factor-in-accepting-migrants-in-italy

In 2021, scenes of urban violence were witnessed throughout France despite the Corona curfew. There were 662 arrests, with 25 police officers and gendarmes injured.

The French Ministry of the Interior did not give a quantified assessment for material damage suffered by the state or persons.

In total, 45 400 police checks were carried out and 6 650 tickets for non-compliance with the curfew were handed out by the internal security forces.

Even if the incidents were less numerous than in previous years, some individuals targeted, sometimes in a very violent way, the police with the use of fireworks. These attacks led the police and gendarmes to carry out 662 arrests and to place 407 individuals in police custody.

The police and gendarmerie enforced curfew measures throughout the country, the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.

In Angers, 41 vehicles were set on fire during the night of December 31 to January 1 and mobile gendarmes, police officers and firefighters were targeted by fireworks.

Many fireworks were set off during the evening, despite the prohibition on sale decided by the prefect, reported Ouest-France.

The police intervened many times on New Year’s Eve in Bordeaux and its metropolis for urban violence and non-compliance with the curfew. Fireworks mortar fire was observed, as well as about thirty burned cars. Building were also set on fire even before the New Year started, according to regional daily Sud-Ouest.

Several dozen vehicles were reportedly set on fire overnight in the heart of Lyon  as in the Minguettes district in Vaulx-en-Velin, Vénissieux, Bron and Rillieux-la-Pape. These districts are all immigrant areas.

Fireworks were also fired in several places in the metropolitan area of Lyon, in particular in Bron, just a few hundred meters from the checkpoint organized by the Prefecture and in the presence of the Prefect Pascal Mailhos shortly after 8 pm on Thursday, December 31, Actu.fr reported.

Three cars burned in Mantes-la-Jolie between in the Val-Fourré district. In the last case, the police were targeted.

In Nantes, the police and firefighters were targeted by fireworks in several neighborhoods. Vehicles and garbage cans were set on fire in several districts: Malakoff, Bottière, northern and southern districts, reported le Parisien.

For the city of Nice, nearly 45 trash fires were identified and 17 cars burned. Four vehicles of firefighters from the Bon Voyage barracks were targeted by stone throwing, fortunately without causing any injuries. Police and gendarmerie crews were also targeted, in particular in the Ariane district in Nice, in Drap in that of Condamine and in the Vignasses district in La Trinité, all immigrant areas.

The New Year’s Eve was also punctuated by the fire of some sixty vehicles in Strasbourg, Schiltigheim, Ostwald and Mutzig.

In Toulouse, twenty vehicles were set on fire during New Year’s Eve. Targeted by fireworks on rue Paul-Gauguin, police officers from the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) were targeted during the night.

The Real Estate Agency of the City of Paris (RiVP) did not want to take any risks. On the eve of New Year’s Eve, as for Christmas, it had asked all its Parisian employees not to take out the trash. The order was issued via a document posted in the 110 buildings it takes care of: “For safety reasons, the containers in the trash cans will not be taken out on December 24 and 31. We wish you happy end of year celebrations.”

For the boss of the RiVP questioned by the le Parisien, this decision was the result of a year which had been “a little special”. “We had to be educational and effective,” he said. Parisian homeowners are in fact afraid that the rubbish bins will be burned as is the case every year in the capital, and this despite the curfew this year. Thus, according to our colleagues, the other lessor, Paris Habitat, asked the same thing of its caretakers.

Their decision was based on the recommendations from local police stations as a “security measure” and  was a relief for the firefighters for whom the fires of rubbish and cars “represent 75 to 80 percent” of their interventions, indicated their spokesperson. Trash fires most often take place … next to homes and cars in Paris.

The mayor of Paris has always refused to communicate on the number of green bins destroyed during New Year’s Eve, but also wants to avoid at all costs that it does not increase, especially at 150 euros per unit.

In Germany, after several Bundeswehr vehicles in Leipzig were burned out on New Year’s Eve, the State Criminal Police Office has started investigations. Arson is assumed, said a police spokeswoman speaking to the Bild newspaper.

The fire brigade was called out on Thursday night. The flames had destroyed a total of seven armed forces jeeps. Other cars were also damaged by the heat. The damage amounts to tens of thousands of euros.

Meanwhile, a letter of allegiance appeared on the left-wing extremist scene portal Indymedia. The perpetrators justified the arson attack, among other things with the rejection of the state and its institutions. “The repressive organizations such as cops, the armed forces, justice or job centers deserve our attacks in particular.”

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/01/02/urban-violence-ushers-in-new-year-in-france-germany/

The blaze of a supermarket in the Berlin district of Buckow triggered a large-scale operation by the Berlin fire brigade on New Year’s Eve. The building, which covers about 800 square metres, went up in flames and collapsed, a fire brigade spokesman said early this morning. Apparently fireworks stored in the back of the market exploded during the extinguishing work and flew through the area, so that the 110 firemen had to take care of their self-protection.According to the spokesperson, the fire brigade was initially alerted to burning rubbish containers in the loading zone. When the fire brigade arrived at the supermarket, the flames had already spread to the roof. The interior quickly caught fire as well. The firefighters were only able to extinguish the fire from the outside.

https://www.morgenpost.de/berlin/polizeibericht/article231247538/Supermarkt-in-Buckow-brennt-in-der-Silvesternacht-komplett-aus.html

In 2020, fundamental rights and freedoms were taken away, after all, it all served the higher purpose of saving human lives. At least that was the narrative of those in power. In the meantime, countless false assumptions and claims about Covid-19 and SARS-CoV-2 have been scientifically refuted. More and more people are also refraining from the vaccination that was presented as the ultimate rescue: the risks are too high, the benefits too unclear.The divide between those who govern and those who are governed was probably what German government television wanted to illustrate last night.The broadcaster ZDF really made a big splash in front of the Brandenburg Gate at the annual New Year’s Eve countdown. Of course, there was no obligation for those attending to wear a mask – just as there was no audience, because the undeserving German citizen had to stay at home and refrain from celebrating. To ensure that no onlookers approached the party of the privileged instead of sitting in front of the TV at home, 500 police officers secured the venue.But it is probably not only politicians and their henchmen who will be exempt from such restrictions. As every year, the “event and party scene” was extremely active last night: while 500 police officers guarded the ZDF party in Berlin, migrant mobs marched through the streets of the Neukölln district, for example, chanting “Allahu akbar”.

Considering that the sale of sparklers and firecrackers was even banned in Berlin, the explosive power of the “firecrackers” in the video above makes one think. Shouldn’t the citizens do without their little firecrackers so that no one injured by firecrackers fills the hospitals? Where is the outcry from the authorities? Of course – there is none.

https://www.wochenblick.at/silvester-2020-freiheit-nur-fuer-regierungshandlanger-und-migranten-mobs/

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Vienna’s head of the Freedom Party (FPÖ), city councillor Dominik Nepp, was shocked today by the riots committed by criminal Islamist migrant mobs on New Year’s Eve in Vienna’s Favoriten district. According to media reports, the window panes of a jeweller were smashed while shouting Allah. “ÖVP Interior Minister Nehammer has remained completely passive since the outbreak of the riots in June 2020. Instead of spying on good citizens who might be visiting their grandparents, the Minister of the Interior should rather take charge to arrest and deport such migrant gangs,” Nepp said.

The migrant riots are the result of the uncontrolled mass immigration of the last decades. “The Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Greens have allowed these criminals to come to Austria and are supporting them with social benefits. The Viennese must now pay for the consequences of this fatal welcome policy,” criticises Nepp.

“If the dead loss Nehammer does not act immediately and put an end to the unrest in our beautiful Vienna, he must immediately resign. The incompetence of the ÖVP Minister of the Interior must no longer be tolerated,” emphasises the Viennese FPÖ party leader.

https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20210101_OTS0012/nepp-nehammer-soll-endlich-gegen-islamistische-migrantenmobs-vorgehen

Germany’s two-year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ended on December 31, 2020. The German Foreign Ministry, in a self-congratulatory compilation of its supposed achievements to “strengthen the international order,” declared that Germany now deserves to obtain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

A closer examination of Germany’s voting patterns at the UN over the past several years, however, reveals a troubling double standard on a range of issues, especially on human rights, which the German government claims to be “a cornerstone” of its foreign policy.

The record shows that during its stint on the UN Security Council, Germany voted for dozens of resolutions — many of which smack of anti-Semitism — that singled out Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.

The anti-Israel resolutions supported by Germany were sponsored by mostly non-democratic Muslim countries including Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, as well as by dictatorships such as Cuba, North Korea Venezuela — and by Thailand on behalf of China.

Moreover, Germany remained silent as multiple serial human rights abusers, including China, Cuba, Libya, Mauritania, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia and Venezuela, among others, were elected to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN’s highest human rights body.

Germany also voted for resolutions condemning the United States, which guarantees not only German but European security, stability and prosperity.

In 2020, Germany voted 13 times to condemn Israel, but failed to introduce a single resolution on the human rights situation in China, Cuba, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Venezuela — or on 175 other countries, according to UN Watch, a Geneva-based, independent non-governmental watchdog group.

One of the resolutions approved by Germany referred to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount solely by its Muslim name of Haram al-Sharif. The executive director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, said:

“The UN today showed contempt for both Judaism and Christianity by passing a resolution that makes no mention of the name Temple Mount, which is Judaism’s holiest site, and which is sacred to all who venerate the Bible, in which the ancient Temple was of central importance.”

In a press release, UN Watch added:

“While nearly all EU countries backed 13 out of 17 UNGA resolutions singling out Israel this year, they failed to introduce even one resolution for women’s right activists jailed and tortured in Saudi Arabia, dissident artists arrested in Cuba, journalists thrown behind bars in Turkey, religious minorities attacked in Pakistan, and opposition members persecuted in Venezuela, where more than five million people have fled government repression, hunger and economic collapse.”

In 2019, Germany voted 15 times to condemn Israel, but introduced zero condemnations of human rights abusers such as China, Cuba, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Venezuela, according to UN Watch. One of the texts approved by Germany portray Israel as “occupying” the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem and the holiest sites of Judaism.

On November 15 — on just one day — Germany voted for seven anti-Israel resolutions and abstained but did not reject another. There were no condemnations of any other country in the rest of the world on that day. The texts condemned Israel for “repressive measures” against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, renewed the mandate of the corrupt UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and renewed the mandate of a UN special committee to investigate “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people.” None of resolutions mentioned Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Neuer, provided context:

“The UN’s assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal. Days after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group assaulted Israeli civilians with a barrage of 200 rockets — while the UN’s General Assembly and Human Rights Council stayed silent — the world body now adds insult to injury by adopting eight lopsided condemnations, whose only purpose is to demonize the Jewish state.

“While France, Germany, Sweden and other EU states are expected to support 15 out of a total of 20 resolutions to be adopted against Israel by December, the same European nations have failed to introduce a single UNGA resolution on the human rights situation in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, Algeria, or on 175 other countries.

“Four of today’s resolutions concern UNRWA — yet none mentions that the agency chief was just fired after top management engaged in what the UN’s own internal probe described as ‘sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain.’ All EU states are complicit in this conspiracy of silence.

“One of today’s resolutions — drafted and co-sponsored by Syria — falsely condemns Israel for ‘repressive measures’ against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights. It’s obscene. The resolution condemns Israel for holding on to the Golan Heights, and demands Israel hand the land and its people to Syria.

“It’s astonishing. After the Syrian regime has killed half a million of its own people, how can the UN call for more people to be handed over to Assad’s rule? The text is morally galling, and logically absurd.

“Today’s resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the UN is oblivious to more than 3,000 Palestinians who have been slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad’s forces.

“Today’s farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the UN’s automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone’s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations is to scapegoat Israel.

“The UN’s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity harm its founding mission, eroding the UN Charter’s promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small.”

The vote came after German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted his supposedly unwavering support for Israel:

“FM @HeikoMaas on 70th anniversary of Israel’s admission to the UN: We would like to reiterate once again today that Germany stands, also in the UN, shoulder to shoulder with Israel, whose security and right to exist must never be called into question by anyone anywhere.”

Germany pursued a similar policy of approving anti-Israel resolutions at the UN in 2018, 2017 and 2016, when Germany voted for an especially disgraceful UN resolution, co-sponsored by the Arab group of states and the Palestinian delegation, that singled out Israel as the world’s only violator of “mental, physical and environmental health.”

Germany’s anti-Israel voting record at the UN appears to have broad support among the German political establishment. In March 2019, the German Bundestag overwhelmingly opposed a resolution by the Free Democratic Party (FDP) to urge Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to reverse its anti-Israel voting record at the United Nations.

By a vote of 408 to 155 with 65 abstentions, the Bundestag rejected the FPD’s call for the government to “clearly distance itself from unilateral, primarily politically motivated initiatives and alliances of anti-Israeli UN member states and to protect Israel and Israel’s legitimate interests from unilateral condemnation.”

Germany’s anti-Israel crusade has been led by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who claims that he entered politics because of Auschwitz, the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps. At his inauguration as foreign minister, he said:

“For me, German-Israeli history does not only entail a historic responsibility. For me personally, it is a deep motivation of my political activity. With all due respect, I did not enter politics because of [former chancellor] Willy Brandt. I also didn’t go into politics because of the peace movement or ecological issues. I entered politics because of Auschwitz. And that’s also why this part of our work is especially important to me.”

Maas had been aided and abetted by Germany’s Ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen, who was named by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 2019 as one of the world’s top ten anti-Semites.

Germany’s largest-circulation newspaper Bild, asked, “Why does Germany repeatedly vote against Israel at the United Nations?” It answered:

“It is a shameful ritual: every year authoritarian states like Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia introduce numerous resolutions at the UN that are directed against one country — Israel. But the bitter thing is: The UN General Assembly is taking part and adopting almost all anti-Israeli resolutions.

“The Federal Republic also mostly votes FOR the resolutions — and thus AGAINST Israel. And this despite the fact that the federal government repeatedly emphasizes that it is on the side of Israel.

“Heusgen is considered a bitter critic of Israeli settlement policy — a legitimate position which, in Heusgen’s case, seems to lead to complete lack of criticism towards the Palestinians, and to comparisons that cast doubt on his moral compass.

“Heusgen caused a scandal in March 2019 when he equated the rockets of the Islamist terrorist group Hamas with Israeli bulldozers, with which Israel tore down Palestinian and Israeli illegal houses. He did so in the very week that Hamas carried out massive rocket attacks on Israel and injured seven Israeli civilians.

“No criticism of anti-Semitic statements by Palestinian politicians, no criticism of pension payments for Palestinian terrorists — for Heusgen, the guilty parties for the messed-up situation are solely in Washington and Jerusalem.”

The left-wing politician, Volker Beck, said about Heusgen:

“I am always careful with the label ‘anti-Semite.’ But one thing is certain: Anyone who bears responsibility for Germany’s condemnation of Israel tens of times more often than all rogue states in the world at the United Nations applies double standards to the Jewish and democratic state and thus participates in an anti-Semitic campaign. With practical politics, Heusgen counteracts the unambiguous statements of the Chancellor to Israel’s existence and security.”

Frankfurt Mayor Uwe Becker added:

“The inclusion of Mr. Heusgen on the Wiesenthal Center’s list is more than a yellow card for Germany’s voting behavior at the United Nations. Germany must show more solidarity with Israel at the UN and consistently refuse anti-Israeli resolutions in future.

“The years of theater of political smear against Israel can only be countered with a consequent ‘NO.’ The comparison made by Heusgen between the actions of Israel and the terrorism of Hamas has damaged solidarity with Israel and is unfortunately suitable for promoting Israel-related anti-Semitism. Germany must not also be the keyword for Israel-related anti-Semitism.”

In its most recent statement, the German Foreign Ministry declared:

“Germany wants to continue playing its part in preserving global peace — as a permanent member of the Security Council. ‘We have shown over the past two years that we are capable of filling a seat on the UN Security Council in the long term,’ said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. ‘We therefore want not only to stand for a non-permanent seat again in eight years’ time, but also seek to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council before that date.'”

In a sign that German appeasement has failed to achieve its objectives, Russia and China have both questioned Germany’s suitability for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Russian Vice Ambassador Dmitri Polyansky bluntly said: “We will not miss you.” The Chinese representative Yao Shaojun added that the German path to permanent membership “will be difficult.”

Heusgen, who plans to retire after more than 40 years as a German diplomat, appealed to China to free two detained Canadians for Christmas:

“Let me end my tenure on the Security Council by appealing to my Chinese colleagues to ask Beijing for the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Christmas is the right moment for such a gesture.”

China’s deputy UN Ambassador, Geng Shuang, accused Heusgen of abusing the Security Council to launch “malicious” attacks on other members “in an attempt to poison the working atmosphere.” He added: “I wish to say something out of the bottom of my heart: Good riddance.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16907/germany-un-security-council