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Egyptian Street Children’s Help Group Founders Released from Prison

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In the wake of the events of the Egyptian Arab Spring, a couple who founded an organization to work with street children found themselves charged with sex crimes and human trafficking and thrown in prison for 3 years.

According to the couple, one day a father came to them looking for a child they said they had not seen, and after the father became abusive, they went to file a report at the police station, but found themselves charged with human trafficking.

American politicians, including Obama, Ted Cruz, and most recently Trump (who met with the Egyptian president 6 weeks ago) lobbied to try to get them out of prison. Half of the couple, the woman Aya Hijazi, is American.

The acquittal came as a total surprise to the couple who heard about it from the judge as they attended a court hearing in the cage. Shortly thereafter, Hijazi met Trump in the White House.

Gotland Remilitarized

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Sweden is fortifying its island against potential incursion by Russia. They are conducting military exercises on the island.

The island was demilitarized 12 years ago, assuming then that Russia had become weak or non-threatening. But in light of recent Russian military activity in Crimea and Ukraine, Sweden has stepped up defenses.

Gotland has a strategic location, near to Russian Kaliningrad and also Latvia. From the island, both air and sea can be affected by military forces.

Sweden, one of the non-NATO European countries, is going to re-introduce conscription and will increase military spending 11% over the next 5 years.

Islamist Militants Seize Philippines City

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After a siege that began yesterday, the militants gained control of Marawi, a city of 200,000 in the south of the country.

President Duterte spoke publicly of how anyone who fought against the government would fare, saying, “You will die.”

Duterte declared martial law in the south yesterday. He said he will extend martial law to the rest of the country if the militants expand.

Islamist militant communities have long been a problem for the Philippines, although mostly confined to the south.

Manchester Bombing Aftermath: Police and Special Forces Hunt Terrorist Group Active in Manchester

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The man who blew himself up and killed and injured dozens of others at the Ariana Grande concert this week was a 22-year-old British-born man of Libyan descent. He had recently returned from Libya.

Libyan authorities arrested family members of the man in that country, and UK police and special forces forced their way into residences in Manchester, making multiple arrests of family members and other relations.

Authorities have commented that the man was from Moss Side, Manchester, where they have thwarted a large number of recent attempts from the largely Muslim immigrant population (34% Muslim VS 36% Christian VS smaller numbers of other religious affiliations).

Authorities are of the opinion that the man was not alone, and may not have made the weapon himself. They consider another attack “imminent.”

The army was brought in to protect key landmarks like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, and Piccadilly Circus — a very rare occurrence.

British citizens expressed fear and a sense that Manchester “feels like a different place,” testimony to the success of the Islamic extremists involved, whose goal includes just that.

Theresa May’s ‘War on Terror’

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British media are referring to the UK PM’s recently toughened stance as her “war on terror,” using the same term used previously by President Bush and PM Blair.

The UK’s terrorist threat level has been “severe” for a long time now, but after the Manchester bombing May raised it to “critical,” concerned about another attack.

Although the UK is not as dangerous as mainland Europe due to residents having lesser connections to Islamic militant groups, UK security officials’ comments on Manchester were about only-a-matter-of-times and can’t-stop-them-alls. Security forces there prevents dozens of attacks per year, reportedly.

The change in tone comes at a time when May was being criticized for being too “weak and unstable.”

Explosions at Ariana Grande Concert in Manchester

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Manchester Police Chief Ian Hopkins identified the suspected suicide bomber suspect as 22-year-old Salman Abed. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, although they do that with almost every attack.

Authorities have reported multiple fatalities and injuries.

Concert-goers were evacuated.

British authorities issued a serious threat level warning across the country, suspecting a possible second attack.

Assange’s Sex Charges Dropped

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Julian Assange has been holed up in a room in London for years after being given refuge by Equador in their London embassy building. In 2010, he was charged with sex crimes in Sweden — a couple of women he was involved with at the time made complaints not long after Wikileaks published video and other documents of American military activities in the Middle East — and Assange fled to England. British courts in 2012 ruled Assange should be given up to Sweden, and Assange violated his bail to flee to the embassy.

He has lived indoors since then, only making public appearances from a balcony or via the internet.

The case has been repeatedly reviewed by Swedish courts, and now they have found that in the interests of proportionality it is not worth continuing. Essentially, authorities made the decision because all legal options had been exhausted and because the prosecutor wasn’t working harder to pursue the matter.

The Swedish public prosecutor wrote in a statement, “In view of this, and that to continue with legal proceedings would require Julian Assange’s personal appearance in court, there is no longer any reason to continue with the investigation.”

The validity of the charges have always been questioned. There have been claims the charges were politically motivated because the U.S. government was very upset with the recent leaks.

The women in question are ones who each met Assange at conferences he was a speaker at and had consensual sex. Later on, the two women discussed Assange, and afterwards laid charges for forms of non-consensual sex (alleged to have happened in addition to the consensual sex). One of the charges was molestation, one was for unlawful coercion, and one was rape, according to Swedish law (the alleged acts had to do with not wearing condoms although the woman said he must and sex while the partner was sleeping). Originally, Swedish prosecutors didn’t think there was evidence of rape and that the molestation charge would still go forward but it wasn’t serious enough for a warrant. The lawyer for the 2 women made an appeal to a special department and after police interviewed Assange, the director of prosecution reopened the case for rape.

Over time, the molestation and unlawful coersion charge was dropped because Swedish authorities ran out of time to question Assange, and the UN found Assange was being arbitrarily detained and should be compensated for “deprivation of liberty.” The rape charge was the only one remaining until now, although Assange may still be found in contempt of court for violating his bail and fleeing.

British authorities have said Assange will be arrested if he leaves the embassy. The expectation is that he would then be extradited to the U.S.

Putin Vows Support for Islamic World

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He sent a message to the third meeting of the Russia – Islamic World strategic world group in Grozny, Chechnya (held there for the first time), which was later published by the Kremlin website. The message included the following statement:

“Today, many Muslim countries are facing serious challenges, including terrorism and violent extremism, growing ethnic and religious contradictions, economic and social difficulties. I would like to stress that the Islamic World can fully count on Russia’s support and cooperation.”

He also said Russia would help search for peaceful means of resolving crises. “I am confident that by joining our efforts, we can do much to strengthen global security and stability, as well as to build a fair and democratic world order, free of any kind of intolerance, discrimination and military dictate,” he stated.

Did You Know … French Election Media Blackouts

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Two days before the French Election, there is a media blackout for anything political.

This is supposed to provide a few days of uninterrupted consideration of the candidates, without the distraction of big news headlines, scandalous revelations, or campaigning last minute.

Similar things are done in other countries.

In the UK, for example, on the day of an election news can’t be about anything that could potentially favor a particular party. The parliament, as soon as it is dissolved before an election, enters a state of “purdah” (a Persian word for “curtain”) and can’t announce any controversial or contentious legislation.

Spain, although it does not have a media blackout, does have a “reflection” period after official campaigning ends the day before the election, and no more electoral acts are performed. They also forbid news to publish polls in the week leading up to an election.

French Candidate Macron Email Hack

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Many parties are concerned about hacking having an effect on the election, and there are questions about whether false material is mixed in with the email leaks, which are purported to be from four top-level members of the Macron campaign.

Macron is the front-runner in the the election, which is itself a runoff (with Macron and Le Pen combined receiving less than 50% of the vote in the first stage of the election.

In France, the media is not allowed to report on political topics 24 hours before the election begins.

Some are alleging that the hacks stem from the Russian government, which has been active in trying to influence other elections around the world. There is no hard evidence to support this, though, and no evidence is likely to be found, given the nature of the type of activity (cyber).