Chinese Still Executing Prisoners for Their Organs, Human Rights Lawyers Say

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China has been harvesting organs from prisoners, including prisoners of conscience (those jailed for nothing more than practicing a religion that is not state-sponsored), for years, and despite saying they have reformed the practice in 2015, China is still doing it, according to human rights workers David Matas and Ethan Gutmann.

According to the lawyer and investigator, China “obviously has got a lot of people sitting around waiting to be killed for a transplant, and they’re just picking the right person to be killed depending on who the patient is.”

Chinese businesses profit from transplant tourism — people coming from other countries to get quick organ transplants — as well as meeting local needs. There aren’t enough organs volunteered to meet demand, so China takes them from prisoners. Prison officials coordinate with doctors in China to make this happen.

According to authorities around the world who keep track of people going to China for transplants, the numbers have markedly reduced, indicating that China has made serious efforts, but it has not stopped.

China executes thousands of people per year — around 3 times the amount of the rest of the world combined, although stats are hard to get because China blocks publication of them (it’s currently a state crime), even though Amnesty International and other groups keep track of all executions in all countries.

Many of those executed come from populations China doesn’t like very much, like religious and ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

UK: After Telling People There Are 3,000 Terrorists, Actually 23,000

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20,000 “subjects of interest” posing “residual risk” plus 3,000 judged to be a threat and currently under investigation or active monitoring. That’s the most recent piece of information given by UK’s security services.

Authorities had previously reported to the public a figure of 3,000.

The new information was released following the Manchester bombing, which security services said they were expecting and were just not able to prevent because “you can’t stop them all.”

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.

Trump Calls Killers of Christians in Egypt “Organizations”

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Trump continues to not use the term he frequently challenged others to use during his campaign, “radical Islamic terrorism,” when commenting this week on the attack on Christians in Egypt that killed 25 and wounded as many others.

Attacks on Christians by Muslims are common in Egypt and other Muslim-majority countries in the area.

Trump called those responsible for the attacks “evil organizations of terror with a thuggish ideology.”

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.

Trump at NATO Meeting

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The president met with other world leaders in Brussels this week — a meeting for an organization he last year called “obsolete” in the city he last year called a “hell hole.”

Analysts noted that world leaders seemed somewhat dismayed about Trump’s continued insistence they pay more money. Trump reminded them many nations owe large amounts for their defense.

Trump also met with the two leaders of the EU, another institution previously heavily criticized by Trump, and with France’s new leader Macron.

Moody’s Lowers China’s Credit Rating

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China protested when the investors service lowered its credit rating 1 notch because of China’s rising debt load (which could be difficult to service) and slowing growth.

It is the first time in the 30 years since the end of the devastation caused by Mao and the Cultural Revolution that China’s credit rating has been downgraded at all.

However, when the average of the three big ratings is made (the usual practice), the Moody’s rating means less.

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.