In a surprise move, Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of Hamas, expressed his strong support for Turkey and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr. Mashaal said that Turkey’s help will guarantee the victory of the Palestinian people.

In other news, an AirAsia jet with 162 people on board disappeared during a flight from Java to Singapore.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Fjordman, Jerry Gordon, K, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Brandeis Students Rally Around Student Who Wrote: “I Have No Sympathy for the NYPD Officers Who Were Murdered”

Khadijah Lynch (apparently named for Muhammad’s first wife), who is public in her support for the murderous violence committed by the Islamic jihadist Ismaaiyl Abdullah-Muhammad in Brooklyn, is a new hero on the Brandeis University campus. Meanwhile, students are attacking the intrepid Daniel Mael, who exposed Khadijah Lynch’s hateful writings. This in a nutshell is what’s wrong with American universities today: hatred for America and Judeo-Christian civilization is taught and celebrated, and those who defend humane values are excoriated and threatened. Opposition to jihad terror is likewise stigmatized as “racism” and “bigotry.”

“Students Rally Around Peer With ‘No Sympathy’ For Dead Cops At $60,000-A-Year Brandeis,” by Eric Owens, Daily Caller, December 22, 2014…

— Hat tip: K [Return to headlines]



California Boy, 12, Killed While Riding Scooter He Got for Christmas

Roman Martinez, of Upland, was excited to play with his new present and rode it down his driveway and into the street. He collided with a vehicle and died from his injuries.

A 12-year-old California boy rode his new Christmas present into the street and lost his life.

Roman Martinez was using his new electric scooter that he just received for the holiday Friday when he rode down his driveway and into an incoming vehicle, reports TV Station KTLA.

The driver tried to hit the brakes in time but could not avoid the fatal collision, police said.

The 30-year-old driver stayed at the scene and tried to help. She has not been charged with the crash…

Is AI a Threat to Humanity?

This year, arguably the world’s greatest living scientific mind, Stephen Hawking, and its leading techno-industrialist, Elon Musk, voiced their fears about the potentially lethal rise of artificial intelligence (AI). They were joined by philosophers, physicists and computer scientists, all of whom spoke out about the serious risks posed by the development of greater-than-human machine intelligence.

In a widely cited op-ed co-written with MIT physicist Max Tegmark, Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, and computer scientist Stuart Russell, Hawking sounded the AI alarm. “One can imagine (AI) outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Archbishop : ‘Turkey’s Goal is the Occupation of Whole Cyprus’

Cypriot Archbishop Chrysostomos II called for “spiritual and national alertness”, noting in his Christmas message that the Turkish occupation of Cyprus poses a threat, not only to the country, but to faith as well.

Turkish occupation poses a danger to faith, he added.

He said furthermore on the danger of a permanent dechristianization of the Turkish-occupied areas and of all Cyprus.

“Turkey’s final and permanent goal is the occupation and turkification of the whole of Cyprus” the Archbishop says, noting that this is also evident by its continuous provocations in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany Warns Greece Over Reforms as Left Rises

Germany’s finance minister has warned Greece that any new government must respect commitments made by its predecessor, as the country moved closer to early elections that EU officials fear would be won by a radical leftist party.

Wolfgang Schäuble spoke after German lawmakers last week backed plans to give troubled Greece a two-month loan extension while international creditors finish an audit to determine the release of its next €7 billion ($8.7 billion).

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sweden Parties Reach Budget Deal to Avoid Snap Election

Sweden’s left-of-centre government has reached a deal with the main opposition resulting in a minority government and avoiding the need for snap elections.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called early polls after losing a budget vote about three months into his term.

Under the deal, Mr Lofven will follow the opposition’s budget next year, although he can make some changes.

The government failed to push through its budget when the far-right Sweden Democrats sided with the opposition.

The Sweden Democrats emerged as a power broker after September’s elections. The election — called for 22 March — would have been Sweden’s first early poll since 1958.

Deal until 2022

Speaking during a press conference in Stockholm on Saturday, PM Lofven said that he was pleased to have reached a deal.

“Sweden has a tradition of solving difficult problems,” he told reporters.

“I am happy that… Sweden can be governed.”

The deal was reached between Mr Lofven’s centre-left Social Democrats and Greens Alliance, and the four-party centre-right group known as Alliance.

Mr Lofven said the document, called “The December Agreement” will remain in force until 2022…

Sweden Democrats Call for No-Confidence in PM

The Sweden Democrats have responded to being left out of a cross-bloc deal by calling for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.

Sweden Democrat temporary leader Mattias Karlsson says to news agency TT they will hand in the motion for a vote when parliament opens in January 2015.

“We have a prime minister who says lots of things and then changes his mind at the last minute. This is just the latest in a strong of them,” says Sweden Democrat press spokesperson Martin Kinninen to Swedish Radio News.

He says the agreement between the centre-right and centre-left blocs breaks basic political principles and means his party is now the only real opposition in Sweden.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Swedes Rally Against Mosque Arson Attack

Hundreds of Swedes took to the streets on Friday to denounce an arson attack on a mosque that injured five people, with Prime Minister Stefan Löfven branding the attack as “hateful violence.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sweden to Scrap New Election: Confirmed

Sweden’s government has scrapped plans to run a snap election in 2015 after crisis talks between Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and the Alliance parties, which has been dubbed the ‘December agreement.’

He added that the arrangement has been called the ‘December agreement’ and its goal is to ensure that a minority government can govern.

The ‘December agreement’ which will last until 2022 means that the the biggest coalition in government will be able to able to get their budget passed and rule, even if they have a narrow majority.

Earlier this month Löfven had called early elections after the Sweden Democrats torpedoed his fledgeling government’s budget by opposing it in parliament.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Cross-Party Deal: No Snap Election

The government and opposition Alliance parties have made a “December deal” which will allow the weak red-green partnership to rule Sweden.

At a press conference on Saturday the 27th Prime Minister Stefan Löfven announced that from now on the party that has the single biggest coalition in the parliament will be allowed to get its budget passed.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Thousands Sign Online Petition Against German Anti-Islam PEGIDA Movement

An online petition protesting the German right-wing movement PEGIDA has received thousands of signatures. It follows the group’s regular protests against Islam and immigration, which are growing in numbers.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Hamas Leader Mashaal Endorses Turkish Leaders in Surprise Speech

Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, has made a surprise appearance at an event of Turkey’s ruling party, endorsing the Turkish leaders and voicing his hope to “liberate Palestine and Jerusalem” together with them in the future.

“A strong Turkey means a strong Palestine … Inshallah, God is with us and with you on the road to victory,” Mashaal said in his address to the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) annual congress in the Konya province on Dec. 27.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose hometown is Konya, personally presented Mashaal to the audience. “Konya, the city of heroes! You give birth to your leaders,” Mashaal said, congratulating the Turkish people “for having Davutoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Singapore-Bound AirAsia Plane With 162 on Board Missing

BREAKING: AirAsia confirmed that it had lost contact with a plane flying from Indonesia to Singapore Sunday morning.

Officials said the Airbus 320-200 with 162 people on board lost contact with Surabaya airport 42 minutes after takeoff at 5:35 a.m. local time (5:35 p.m. Eastern Time Saturday). The aircraft was carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members.

Sky News, citing an official with Indonesia’s Transport Ministry, reported that the aircraft had requested an unusual route before losing contact. That official, Hadi Mustofa told reports that the plane was believed to have been over the Java Sea between Kalimantan and Java islands.

The airline said that search and rescue operations were underway.

According to the website FlightAware.com, Flight QZ8501 was scheduled to depart from Juanda International Airport on the Indonesian island of East Java at 5:30 a.m. local time, with arrival in Singapore scheduled for 8:20 a.m. (7:20 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday). It had last flown the route on Dec. 26.

Agonizing, Lonely Search for Missing Kids in China

As many as 70,000 children are estimated to be kidnapped every year in China for illegal adoption, forced labor or sex trafficking, making it one of the world’s biggest markets for abducted children, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily. By comparison, in the U.S., about 100 children are abducted annually by people who are strangers to them, said the Polly Klaas Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing crimes against children and assisting in the recovery of missing ones.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Michael Weiser: Pyongyang and Pushovers

We’ve seen this movie before. In October 2004, the satirical comedy-action movie Team America: World Police was released in theaters. The film, acted out through marionettes, pokes fun at Islamist terrorists and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Il, among others. Nearly all of these characters meet very violent ends in the film, including Kim Jong-Il. Yet at the time of its release, the movie was criticized for its prolific use of vulgar language and explicit depictions of sexual acts, not its slights against some of the most evil people on the planet. In fact, Kim Jong-Il, known for his love of foreign films, made no public pronouncement about his depiction in the movie. The sole complaint by North Korea was a request directed at the Czech Republic to ban the film. According to the World Tribune, the Czech Foreign Ministry refused, saying that the North Koreans had been rebuffed in their effort to undermine the Czech Republic’s post-Communist-era freedom.

So how did it come to pass that over the last week, a film starring Seth Rogan and James Franco called, The Interview, provoked such an aggressive response from North Korea? How could a comedy, which depicts the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, draw a serious cyber-attack against Sony and terroristic threats of violence on the scale of 9/11 if the movie is screened at theaters? What has changed so dramatically since October 2004?

The movies haven’t changed. Both Team America and The Interview are comedies which take aim at the North Korean regime. As if to drive this point home, Team America was to be screened in selected theaters in place of The Interview, at the request of fans. But then, Paramount Pictures pulled Team America from theaters as well.

North Korea hasn’t changed. Yes, Kim Jung-Un has replaced his father as the “Dear Leader,” but North Korea remains the same belligerent actor it has always been. It still acts provocatively towards its neighbors—particularly Japan and South Korea—by conducting nuclear tests, cutting off disarmament talks, and test firing missiles. In addition, it continues to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear payload and reaching the United States.

The one variable that has changed is America—under Barack Obama. By every metric, America is perceived as being weaker by its enemies and its allies. Just this week a Military Times Annual Survey found that only a scant fifteen percent of the U.S. Military support the president. This hardly comes as surprise given Obama’s string of recent, and not so recent blunders.

Terror Arrests Revealed ‘Vision to Turn Blue Mountains Into Killing Ground’: Reports

One of two men arrested on terror offences on Christmas Eve may have envisioned the NSW Blue Mountains as a playground for guerrilla warfare, according to reports.

On Christmas Eve, Sulayman Khalid, 20, and another man aged 21, were arrested as part of an ongoing counterterrorism investigation.

Mr Khalid, from Regents Park, has been charged with being in possession of documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack.

The 21-year-old man from Marsfield was charged with breaching a control order.

Details of the terrorist activity of Sydney jihadists in the wake of the Martin Place siege was reportedly presented to the National Security Committee just hours before federal police were given the go ahead for the raids that nabbed the two men.

A police source reportedly told News Corp part of the alleged terror plot related to the killing of random people in bushland in the NSW Blue Mountains west of Sydney…

GOP Lawmakers Preparing Change to Immigration System

Interest in reforming the immigration law remains high as Republican lawmakers prepare bills that would make changes to the current system.

President Obama received harsh criticism after proposing an executive action steering clear from congressional approval to halt deportation for nearly four million immigrants. However, Republicans remain up to the task to enact their own proposals into the bill.

GOP lawmakers want to tighten security on the Southwest border, but are still noncommittal when it comes to backing any of the new proposed immigration legislation. It is also unclear if Congress would insist a bill to include a reversal of the illegal immigrant action.