This 2 May 2017 video shows barn swallows in the wind in the Ouderkerkerpolder in the Netherlands.
Johannes Buitenwerf made this video.
Barn swallows in the wind
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Daily Archives: May 8, 2017
Ukrainian neonazi death threats against anti-Hitler veterans
This video from Ukraine says about itself:
“Banderaers, get out of here!” – In Vinnitsa and Kherson there were mass fights on May 1
1 May 2017
While throughout Europe there are demonstrations dedicated to the International Day of Workers, in Ukraine, savage neo-Nazis attack those who dared to take to the streets.
In Vinnitsa, the radicals of the neo-Nazi organization “C14” attacked the May Day procession, trying to disperse it. The Nazis pulled out red flags with the inscriptions “Socialists” and “Union of Left Forces.” As a result, a fight broke out …
Similar attacks took place in Kharkov … where nationalists also beat people. Kherson was no exception: neo-Nazis from the “Right Sector” and “National Corps” (“Azov“) staged a fight with the inhabitants of Kherson.
Residents of the city from among the Union of Left Forces and the All-Ukrainian Union of Women “For the Future of the Children of Ukraine” tried to hold a May Day demonstration. But we came across opposition from the Ukrainian neo-Nazis.
It is noteworthy that the Kherson people took to the streets with calls for the need to end the war in the Donbass. With the same appeal the people of Kiev came out.
From daily The Morning Star in Britain:
Ukraine: Neonazis threaten to stab WWII veterans
Monday 8th May 2017
SECOND world war veterans planning to march on what may be Ukraine’s last Victory Day public holiday have been threatened with attack by fascist paramilitaries.
Street fighters of the C14 group, a Transcarpathian Cossack outfit linked to the neonazi Right Sector party, attacked veterans on May Day with cries of “Ukraine is free” and “Commies to the gibbet,” according to witnesses.
The group’s name … is derived from the resemblance of the Cyrillic form of “sich,” a Cossack word for a command group, to C14 in Western script.
In the C14 name, the C also alludes to C18, the (originally English, later international) neonazi terror gang Combat 18. In which 18, the first and eighth letters in the alphabet, stands for ‘AH’=Adolf Hitler. The 14 in the C14 name stands for the ’14 words’, a racist neonazi slogan.
Police held the attackers back, but the group’s website congratulated them and posted comments including: “Just wait for May 9! Send the reddish spawn to hell!” and “Knife the veterans!”
Ukraine’s government since the EU-backed coup of 2014 associates itself with the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, which fought alongside the nazis in the second world war and helped carry out the Holocaust, and legislation removing May 9 — the anniversary of the nazi surrender to the Soviet Union — as a public holiday is going through parliament.
[Ukrainian] Nazi collaborator Jakiw Palij is deported from U.S. to Germany. “I would never have received my visa if I told the truth. Everyone lied”, the SS-trained [concentration camp] guard told Justice Department investigators in 1993: here.
On Monday, November 5, Ukrainian activist and politician Kateryna Handziuk died from injuries suffered during a horrific acid attack carried out by members of the fascist Right Sector Volunteer Corps last July in the city of Kherson. Handziuk, 33, suffered burns on 40 percent of her body and had been hospitalized since the attack. She had undergone numerous surgeries in an attempt to save her life prior to her death: here.
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Northern lapwing babies, video
This 2 May 2017 video shows northern lapwing babies with a parent, in a meadow in the Netherlands.
Bas van der Linde made this video.
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Czech anti-fascist girl threatened by nazis
Translated from Dutch NOS TV:
Girl scout was eye to eye with neonazi and is now threatened
Today, 18:32
A black-haired man with a skinhead and sunglasses is eye-catching with a girl. She wears a scouting uniform and has a determined look. And that resulted in this image.
The above picture was taken on May 1 at a demonstration of right-wing extremists in the Czech city of Brno. 16-year-old Lucie Myslikova also took to the street and was one of 300 counter-demonstrators.
The World Scouting Organization (WOSM) shared the picture on Facebook last week. Since then, the photo has been shared more than 4000 times and been liked more than 9500 times. “I wasn’t afraid,” said Lucie about the picture.
But now, according to the Czech Ministry of Internal Affairs, she is threatened and has been provided with security.
“I went to the counter-demonstration as someone who was determined to change things. To me it makes sense to try and change the world around me,” says Lucie in an interview with the BBC.
The extreme rightist demonstrators took to the street to protest against … the arrival of migrants. Lucie spoke with the neonazi about their country and borders. In their confrontation, the neonazi told Lucie she would be raped by refugees.
“I told him that I think that countries have a duty to help those fleeing war and conflict, and that in such cases borders do not exist,” says Lucie. She also finds it important that young people make their voices heard. “I think young people should get involved in such things. They should be aware of what’s going on. You ask me if standing up to skinheads should be left to older people – well us, younger people, are going to be living here a lot longer than the older generation.”
And so she took to the street. …
“The main thing that struck me is that some people are now calling me an ‘extremist’, that being anti-fascist is somehow ‘extremist’,” she told the BBC.
“That seems to be me the height of absurdity.”
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Ospreys feed their chick, video
This video from Georgia in the USA says about itself:
Female Osprey Feeds Chick on Savannah Cam – May 8, 2017
Watch the female Osprey feed her chick by tearing small pieces from a fish that the male delivers to the nest.
Watch live at www.allaboutbirds.org/savannahospreys.
During the fall of 2014, a pair of Great Horned Owls began frequenting this recently abandoned Bald Eagle nest adjacent to a protected, nutrient-rich salt marsh along the Georgia coast. The nest sits nearly 80′ above one of the six Audubon International Certified golf courses at The Landings, on Skidaway Island, near Savannah, Georgia. Over the course of 2015 and 2016, a pair of owls successfully fledged four owlets from the site, but they did not return to breed in 2017.
Instead, a pair of Ospreys began renovating the nest and committed to breeding in the same site for 2017.
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Donald Trump selling St Martin island estate
This video says about itself:
Donald Trump Beach House – St Martin, French West Indies
23 January 2016
DONALD TRUMP BOUGHT LE CHATEAU DES PALMIERS, ST MARTIN beach in Baie aux Prunes.
Translated from Dutch NOS TV:
Trump puts estate on St Martin for sale
Today, 09:44
Donald Trump once called it his Caribbean gem, but now he puts it on sale: the Chateau des Palmiers estate on the French-Dutch island of St Martin.
The 2 hectare estate is located on the Baie aux Prunes, on the French part of the island. It contains two villas with five and four bedrooms and a house for a supervisor.
Trump bought the property in 2013, reportedly for about $ 20 million. He used it mainly for rental: for a minimum of $ 6000 a night, guests can enjoy “the best of both worlds: attractive French flair and the lively Dutch excitement”
Of course, the resort is equipped with all conveniences, such as a fitness center, tennis court, bar and large heated swimming pool. The main bedroom has its own hot tub and balcony with sea view. There is also a 2.5 meter high wall to ensure privacy.
Sotheby‘s luxury broker does not report what the US president wants for the complex, but according to international media, the asking price is $ 28 million.
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New butterfly species discovery in Israel
From ScienceDaily:
New butterfly species discovered in Israel for the first time in 109 years
May 5, 2017
Summary: Little does a scientist expect to discover a new species of easy-to-see and well-studied animal, especially if it inhabits thoroughly explored areas. However, a biologist has now made a startling discovery: a new, beautiful butterfly named Acentria’s fritillary, which was spotted as it flew over the slopes of the popular Mount Hermon ski resort in northern Israel.
Vladimir Lukhtanov, entomologist and evolutionary biologist at the Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, made a startling discovery: what people had thought was a population of a common species, turned out to be a whole new organism and, moreover — one with an interesting evolutionary history. This new species is named Acentria’s fritillary (Melitaea acentria) and was found flying right over the slopes of the popular Mount Hermon ski resort in northern Israel. It is described in the open access journal Comparative Cytogenetics.
“To me, it was a surprise that no one had already discovered it,” says Vladimir Lukhtanov.
“Thousands of people had observed and many had even photographed this beautifully coloured butterfly, yet no one recognised it as a separate species. The lepidopterists (experts in butterflies and moths) had been sure that the Hermon samples belonged to the common species called Persian fritillary (Melitaea persea), because of their similar appearance, but nobody made the effort to study their internal anatomy and DNA.”
In 2012, Vladimir Lukhtanov, together with his students, initiated an exhaustive study of Israeli butterflies using an array of modern and traditional research techniques. In 2013, Asya Novikova (until 2012, a master’s student at St. Petersburg University and, from 2013, a PhD student at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem) sampled a few fritillaries from Mt. Hermon.
It was at that time when the researchers noticed that the specimens “didn’t look right” — their genitalia appeared different from those of the typical Persian fritillary. Over the next few years, Lukhtanov and his students studied this population in-depth. They carried out sequencing DNA from the specimens and found that they had a unique molecular signature — very different from the DNA of any other fritillary.
The Acentria’s fritillary seems to be endemic in northern Israel and the neighbouring territories of Syria and Lebanon. Its evolutionary history is likely to prove interesting.
“The species is probably one of a handful of butterflies known to have arisen through hybridisation between two other species in the past,” says Lukhtanov. “This process is known to be common in plants, but scientists have only recently realised it might also be present in butterflies.”
This is the first new butterfly species discovered and described from the territory of Israel in 109 years.
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Macron’s Pyrrhic French election victory
This 29 March 2017 French video, with English subtitles, about leftist French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, says about itself:
MÉLENCHON – “ANIMALS ARE NOT THINGS“
Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:
It’s a dark spot on Emmanuel Macron‘s big victory: the low turnout in the second round of the French presidential election. Just over a quarter of all voters stayed at home and that happened last in 1969.
Additionally, 4.2 million French, of the 47 million voters, voted blank. A clear protest of people who think the social-liberal [rather: pro-Big Business neoliberal, or neoconservative] Macron (of the En Marche! party) and the right-populist [racists like Le Pen should not be called ‘populists’] Marine Le Pen (Front National) are both terrible.
The remarkable statistics speak for themselves, says correspondent Frank Renout. “If you were to count the blank voters and absentees, then Macron gets just 43% of all votes,” he says. Quite different from the 66 percent that the future president achieved at the official results.
In addition, more than four out of ten Macron voters chose purely for him to prevent Le Pen from becoming president, as emerges from a survey of polling places by Ipsos research organisation.
These are all indicators of the big dissatisfaction in France. People are disgusted with politics and the quivering economy. The traditional parties ([President Hollande’s] socialists, conservatives) were trounced in the first round of the elections in late April. …
En Marche! – the movement was established a year ago – has no seat in parliament yet. Macron has to get at least 280 for a majority in next month’s parliamentary elections. …
But first, Macron will become president. He will be inaugurated on Sunday.
This video from France says about itself:
27 April 2017
High school students in Paris used bins and metal parts to barricade the entrance of their school early Thursday morning, in protest at the choice of final candidates in the upcoming presidential elections.
Protesters sprayed graffiti messages against both presidential candidates – Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. Student Marie explained the discontent: “The results of the first round don’t suit us. We want neither Macron nor Le Pen.”
By Alex Lantier in France:
Macron wins French presidency
8 May 2017
Emmanuel Macron, the former Rothschild banker and economy minister of France’s outgoing Socialist Party (PS) government, was elected president on Sunday. He received 65 percent of the vote against Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the neo-fascist National Front (FN).
Both candidates were deeply unpopular. Abstention in Sunday’s second-round run-off election reached 26 percent, the highest in a French presidential election since 1969. Fully 12 percent of voters, a record 4.2 million people, cast blank or spoiled ballots to express their hostility to both candidates presented by the French political establishment. Thirty-four percent of voters aged 18 to 24, 32 percent of voters aged 25 to 34, 35 percent of the unemployed, and 32 percent of manual workers abstained.
Macron voters overwhelmingly selected their candidate not on the basis of support for his program of austerity, militarism and law-and-order policies, but in order to keep the FN out of power. One Ipsos poll found that 61 percent of the French people so mistrust Macron’s agenda of social cuts and war that they do not want him to have a majority in the National Assembly after the upcoming legislative elections in June.
As for the FN, its broad unpopularity was underscored by the fact that the combined number of voters who abstained or cast a blank or spoiled ballot was larger than the number of people who voted for Le Pen.
Nonetheless, in a brief and perfunctory victory speech, Macron appealed to Le Pen’s party and to her voters, ignoring the vast majority of the French electorate that had supported him or abstained. Macron addressed a “Republican salute” to Le Pen, promising to pay attention to the “anger, anxiety and doubts” that had driven millions of people to cast ballots for the neo-fascist candidate.
Macron, a supporter of the PS government’s state of emergency, which suspends basic democratic rights, pledged to step up the French state’s law-and-order policies. Making clear that he would build on the vast police and military deployments the PS has ordered since the imposition of the state of emergency two years ago, Macron promised to “ensure in an implacable and resolute manner your security, and the unity of the nation.”
Macron struck a militaristic tone, declaring that he would focus on the “war on terror” and the defense of the European Union, as well as on “morally uplifting our public life.”
This BBC video says about itself:
27 April 2017
France: Election: Teenagers Protest At Candidates Macron And Le Pen
Teenagers in Rennes and other French cities have held rallies or blocked schools in a protest against both presidential candidates.
In a campaign tagged “We deserve better”, about 1,000 people came out in the western city to chant “neither Le Pen nor Macron”.
From daily The Morning Star in Britain today:
Following the failure of France Unbowed candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon to get into the second round, some on the left saw neither candidate as worthy of their vote yesterday.
While a victory for Ms Le Pen would lead to a clampdown on immigrants and France’s large Muslim population, Mr Macron, despite posing as a breath of fresh air by launching his non-party En Marche! movement, is a former government minister whose programme of EU-backed spending cuts and attacks on workers’ rights represents a continuation of policies that have impoverished millions of people and fed the rise of far-right nationalism across Europe.
Neither of the two parties which have dominated French politics since the 1980s, the Republicans and the Socialists, are represented in the second round as voters overwhelmingly rejected the status quo in round one.
Mr Mélenchon himself has declined to endorse either “the candidate of the extreme right or the candidate of extreme finance” — Mr Macron is a former investment banker and friend of former Tory chancellor George Osborne — although he has confirmed that he will vote and it will not be for Ms Le Pen.
The French Communist Party, the largest component of France Unbowed, has been more explicit, warning working-class voters who might be tempted by Ms Le Pen’s anti-Establishment rhetoric that a victory for her would mean “disappointment and bitterness tomorrow.”
Party leader Pierre Laurent warned that, just as happened with Donald Trump in the United States, pro-worker slogans would give way to “measures that primarily benefit shareholders.”
He has called on the French people to vote for Mr Macron to stop Le Pen, while adding that he expects “nothing” good to come of a Macron presidency and vowing to step up the fight against neoliberal policies in the national assembly and beyond.
Translated from Dutch NOS TV:
‘It’s better than Le Pen, but I don’t trust him’
Today, 11:09
Stacks of trash bags and a container of rubbish pollute the view of the Palais du Louvre in Paris. In the drizzly rain a group of cleaners works hard to clean up the square after the Emmanuel Macron victory party.
“Fortunately, it’s not nice wather,” laughs one of the cleaners, Zammouri. “Otherwise, the people would have been here until the early hours to celebrate and we would have been busy for longer.”
He throws his trolley full of flattened Macron posters and European Union flags. “At six o’clock we started and that was necessary, it was everywhere!” …
Between the front pages full of Macron portraits, the newspaper saleswoman rolls her eyes. … “People think he will bring renewal because of his age, but I think everything will stay the same.” … She voted blank, like many other French, in protest. …
In the cafés in the fourth district people are at their breakfast. An older couple at the bar reads the newspaper while shaking their heads. “It’s better than Le Pen, but I don’t trust him.” …
“Did I celebrate yesterday? No, why should I!” asks Gilles, looking upset.
On the very day of the presidential election, 69 activists – including Alain Pojolat, leading member of the NPA, Palestinian solidarity and anti-fascist activist – have been banned from certain districts of Paris, thus preventing them from participating in the first demonstration against the announced anti-worker policies of newly-elected president Emmanuel Macron: here.
Le Pen Family Feud Deteriorates Into Night of Long Knives After Crushing Loss in French Election. Father and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, banished by his daughter, calls election result her ‘disgraceful failure’: here.
Related articles
Roe deer in Dutch Veluwe
Trump not welcome in England
This video from London, England says about itself:
(10 Nov 2016) Several hundred protesters gathered outside the US embassy in London on Wednesday to show their opposition to US President-elect Donald Trump.
Stand up to Racism founder Weyman Bennett, who organised the protest, said: “We respect that he’s been elected but we respect nothing about the man.”
Some members of far-right groups including the English Defence League (EDL) held a counter-protest.
By Peter Lazenby in Britain:
Trump not welcome in northern England
Monday 8th May 2017
NORTHERN workers will mobilise to keep “bastard” Donald Trump out of Britain, trade unionists declared on Saturday.
Martin Levy moved a motion at Northern TUC warning the conference of the dangers posed by the shift to the right in world politics.
“In France this weekend the second round in the elections for president takes place. The choice is between a former investment banker and a fascist,” he said.
“Trump supports torture. He is a misogynist, a racist, Islamaphobic. He bombed Syria. He uses far-right rhetoric, supporting capitalist greed and attacking trade unions.
“Why should we be bothered about that? Because Theresa May went to Washington to talk about trade deals,” he said, warning that the US president would certainly attach anti-union conditions to any deals.
“He has been invited on a state visit to Britain. His values are not wanted here,” Mr Levy added.
Fellow delegate Pat Buttle seconded the motion, saying: “I’m not having my taxes spent on that bastard! We should resist this visit.”
She said she is in support of “the most widespread and massive protests against Mr Trump to show Prime Minister Theresa May that his policies are not welcome here.”
Ms Buttle said that through Darlington TUC links with a local sixth form college that had an exchange trip with US students, she had learned how young people in the US were mobilising against Trump and his damaging policies.
The 140 delegates voted unanimously to support campaigns opposing Mr Trump’s visit.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 