Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s attempt to intimidate the Syrian Army and force them to withdraw to the Sochi Agreement lines in Idlib utterly failed, resulting in the Turkish leader having to embarrassingly accept large swathes of liberated territory will remain under Syrian sovereignty despite his attempts to occupy it. This was especially embarrassing as Erdo?an’s end of February ultimatum came and went with no grand Turkish military offensive to push back the Syrian Army as he had promised. This embarrassment comes as Erdo?an’s approval has reached as low as 41.1% according to data published by the Ankara-based pollster MetroPoll last Friday. As Erdo?an’s foreign policy is largely driven by a desire for a neo-Ottoman ambitions and to serve as a distraction from Turkey’s currency nosedive, he was quick to create issues against the “Old Enemy,” Greece.

Five nationals from Chile have been arrested after securing tourist visas to travel to the United States with the intention to allegedly burglarize wealthy residents of California and New York.

Chilean nationals Amaro Rosas, Bayron Palta, Fabian Catalan, Juan Rosas, and William Perez were arrested by Nassau County, New York, law enforcement officials after they were tied to a series of burglaries in the wealthy neighborhoods of Sands Point, Locust Valley, Great Neck, and Glen Cove.

The Chilean nationals are part of a burglary ring that were able to legally arrive in the U.S. after securing B-2 tourist visas. Nassau County officials said the five men entered on their tourist visas through the U.S.-Mexico border and arrived in southern California before making their way to New York.

On Friday a video was shared on social media showing that Turkish security forces used an armored vehicle with a rope to pull down the fence at the Greek border and allow migrants to pass.

The vehicle, according to Greek media is one of the “HIZIR/ATES” type vehicles with daytime and nighttime border surveillance vehicles, which Turkey received from May to August 2019, financed by a program - ironically enough - mostly paid for by the EU.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials conducted raids on three residential buildings being used for an elaborate ‘birth tourism’ scheme in Southern California last week.

The buildings were being utilized by a birth tourism ring called You Win USA Vacation Resort. The entity charged pregnant foreign women around $50,000 in return for shepherding them through the US visa and immigration process, with the understanding that they would exploit America’s birthright citizenship laws to ensure their children would be US citizens.

Turkish police used drones to organise attacks against Greek security forces tasked with protecting the nation’s borders from thousands of migrants attempting to illegally cross into the country, according to reports.

On Friday, Greek security forces were bombarded with smoke bombs and tear gas fired from the Turkish side of the border at the Kastanies checkpoint on the Evros river. It is now alleged that Turkish police used drones to co-ordinate the onslaught upon Greek security forces.

During the attack, members of the Turkish police force were seen handing out wire cutters to migrants to help them cut through the border fence separating the two countries, according to the Greek Reporter.

People smugglers are now openly operating at the Greek-Turkish border, with the influx of migrants leading smugglers to drop prices to as little as €13 per head.

Despite the reduced price, the sheer number of migrants attempting to cross the border means business is booming.

“We had these migrants who arrived to cross Greece,” a human trafficker named Semih told Euronews. “It has become something allowed from our Turkish side. In the past, we used to get them across for $200 or $300 (€180 – 270) per person, and now we do it for $15 (€13).”

An estimated 130,000 migrants on the Balkans route are headed for the European Union, György Bakondi, national security advisor to the Prime Minister said on national radio Friday morning.

He added that by all accounts, Greece is now taking the crisis seriously and is making every effort to protect the European Union’s external borders.

“In a departure from its 2015 migration policy, Greece has decided to defend its borders against violent, aggressive and armed attacks,” Bakondi said.

Clashes erupted on the Greek-Turkish border Friday morning, with Greek authorities using tear gas and a water cannon to repulse an attempt by migrants to push through the frontier into Greece, while Turkish authorities fired volleys of tear gas onto the Greek side of the border.

A fire broke out at a refugee center on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece’s firefighting service said Sunday, causing considerable damage to a warehouse but no injuries.

It was the second fire at an installation built for migrants, after a reception center was burned down by unknown perpetrators last Monday. The warehouse, which contained furniture and electrical appliances, was completely destroyed, a firefighting spokesman told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, because an investigation into the fire is ongoing.

The blaze at the refugee center came amid a tense standoff between Turkey and the European Union over who is responsible for the millions of migrants and refugees on Turkish territory and the thousands who have massed recently at the Greek border.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) urged illegal immigrants to fill out the 2020 census on Thursday night during an interview with late night television host Seth Myers.

While appearing on Myers’ NBC show, Ocasio-Cortez said that “every single person, no matter your documentation status” should participate in filling out the once-in-a-decade record of those living in the United States.

“We’re all going to get mailed a prompt to fill out the census in the next two weeks or so,” the radical Democrat said. “Every single person, no matter your documentation status, no matter your housing status, income, etc., is to be counted.”

Swedes should no longer keep their migration problem under the rug as the society is growing increasingly polarised over ethnic, religious, and cultural differences, says Luai Ahmed, a Yemeni-Swedish author and journalist.

A Saturday discussion concerning a hijab ban in the southern Swedish town of Skurup, aired by the country's national broadcaster Sveriges Television AB (SVT), triggered a firestorm of criticism on Twitter after an immigrant Muslim teacher who opposed the measure told her opponent to "move away from Sweden", accusing her of racism.

Several pro-migrant NGOs will be suspending their activities on the Greek island of Lesbos after attacks from locals they have deemed to be far-right extremists.

One of those halting operations is Douglas Herman, the co-founder of the NGO Refocus, who said that many of the organisations on Lesbos have told volunteers and staff to leave the island due to safety concerns after a rising number of attacks by locals.

Finland’s millennial feminist-led government faces a vote of no confidence after pledging to send personnel to the Greek border — to help migrants claim asylum.

34-year-old Green League politician Maria Ohisalo, who serves as Minister of the Interior under 34-year-old Social Democratic party leader Sanna Marin in a red-green left-wing coalition government, said Finland was following the common European Union line to “reject Turkey’s attempts to use people as political pawns” — but also said that the Greek government’s decision to suspend asylum applications was “wrong”.

The Greeks have been faced with huge pressure at their land border with Turkey, where thousands of migrants have massed, facilitated by transport provided by the Turkish authorities.

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said Friday he was opposed to deploying troops to the border, arguing that the migrant surge on the EU’s frontier did not threaten the nation.

"[Sending] the army to the border is not relevant to the present situation", the president said after the Balkan nation’s security council met to discuss the migrant buildup on the Turkish border with Greece.
Croatia sent troops to guard one of the EU’s longest external borders amid the 2015 migrant influx. Milanovic said military presence was not needed this time because migrants did not threaten Croatia’s sovereignty.

Thousands of protesters marched in Germany calling for open borders and for the European Union to allow thousands of migrants to flow into the bloc from Turkey.

Outside German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s official residence in Berlin, approximately 3,000 protesters gathered on Tuesday evening, with matching protests being held in Hamburg and Potsdam, calling for the EU to “open the border in Greece”.

The protesters chanted “we have space!” and called the 2016 agreement between the EU and Turkey to halt the flow of migration as “toxic”, according to DW.

Friedrich Merz wants to offer Turkey “every support” it needs to deal with the refugee situation in the country. His competitor for the CDU head office also has ideas to solve the crisis on the Turkish-Greek border.
In view of the influx of migrants at the Turkish-Greek border, the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz demands that Turkey be given all the necessary support to accommodate refugees. At the same time, a loss of control as in 2015 must be avoided.

“First of all, this is a major humanitarian catastrophe, which is currently taking place on the Greek islands and also between Greece and Turkey,” Merz told MDR Aktuell on Monday. “The Federal Republic should help and maybe help more than it has done so far.” Germany had to be ready “to give every support, every help also to Turkey, to enable a reasonably decent accommodation”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was right when he warned about the migration crisis in 2015, and the manner in which handled it, which included building a fence and rejecting migration, is now being seen as the right choice in hindsight by other European powers, guest columnist Christian Ortner writes in conservative Austrian broadsheet Die Presse.

“Had the European Union handled 2015 [the migration crisis]as it now does in Greece, it would have spared Europe from the rise of extreme nationalism, dozens of Islamist attacks and a great deal of associated costs,” Ortner writes.

The Austrian columnist believes that Orbán deserves an apology from former Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, who back in 2015 when Hungary began to build a fence on its southern border with Serbia, likened the Hungarian government to Hitler’s regime because of its handling of the migrant crisis.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Friday that roughly 160 active duty soldiers will be deployed at two ports of entry along the southern border to assist the agency. Around 80 personnel will be sent to El Paso, while another 80 will be sent to California.

The leader of the anti-immigration Swedish Democrats is determined to discourage migrants right from the off, telling them that they shouldn’t be counting on Sweden’s famed benefits, as the Nordic country is already “full.”

Jimmie Akesson traveled to the Turkish border city of Edirne along with his top aide, having in their sights people set to cross into neighboring Greece. Over 12,000 migrants amassed there shortly after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a power move in proclaiming they are free to continue their journey westward.

While at the border, Akesson and his entourage handed out leaflets discouraging migrants from making it into Sweden. “Don’t come to us. Sweden is full. We can’t give you more money or provide any housing. Sorry for this message,” the flyers read.

“Idlib is mine”

So there is a link between the turcophone tribes of Central Asia from the 5th and 6thcenturies and the current Turkish nation. From the 6th to the 11th centuries they were set up as a confederation of big tribes. Then, going southwest, they founded states. Chinese sources document the first turkut (Turkish empires) as eastern Turks in Mongolia and western Turks in Turkestan.

They were followed by more or less ephemeral empires of the steppes such as the Uighurs in the 8th century (who, by the way, were originally Buddhists). It’s interesting that this original past of the Turks in Central Asia, before Islam, was somewhat elevated to mythic status by the Kemalists.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night exposed how companies like AT&T are reportedly forcing American workers to train their foreign replacements brought in from India through H-1B visas.

Though candidate Trump said he would end the program when he was running for president, after getting elected president he kept the program and has floated expanding it and even giving a "path to citizenship" to H-1B visa holders.

Marine Le Pen has called for a national referendum in order to stop what she called the “submersion” of France via a “globalist” program of mass immigration.

A 16-year-old Scottish boy was left in serious condition and had to be hospitalized after a gang of “Asian boys” assaulted him, dragged him to the ground, and stamped on his head in the city center of Glasgow.

Following the brutal attack, the teenager was left with serious injuries and had to be immediately transported to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital where he “remains in a stable condition”, according to a report by the Scottish Police.

In their report, the Glasgow Police have appealed for information from the public on the suspects who they’ve described as “Asian boys aged 15-18 years old”, all of whom had slim builds.

Greek authorities fired tear gas and stun grenades Wednesday morning to repulse a push by migrants to cross its land border from Turkey, as pressure continued along its frontier after Turkey said its own border with Europe was open to whoever wanted to cross.

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia pledged to help Greece to deal with pressure along its border.

Speaking after meeting his counterparts from the other three countries, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the situation was serious and the EU must protect its borders.

“We’re ready to help,” Babis said.

Greek authorities report that the Turkish police used tear gas against Greece police located on the other side of the border, in order to get what are referred to as ‘Syrian refugees’, though already in Turkey for a number of years, into the EU.

Greek law enforcement officials are said to have used tear gas and stun grenades against migrants from Turkey to Greece, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. Skirmishes occurred near the border town of Kastanis.

Russia on Tuesday said that Turkey was trying to push 130,000 refugees from Syria into Greece, the Interfax news agency cited the Defence Ministry as saying.

The two thirds of these refugees - that Turkey is pushing from temporary camps in Syria - are Afghans, Iraqis and Africans, not Syrians, it added.

A poorly-considered fix to prevent Syrian refugees flooding Europe has come undone for the EU as Erdogan opens Turkey’s border to the west, with only Austrian Chancellor Kurz exposing Brussels’ migration policy failure.
If the EU had not been so distracted with the whole prolonged Brexit fiasco or its inability to staff up its Commission with acceptable new faces, then it might have noticed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had weaponised thousands of Syrian refugees.

While Brussels has taken its eye off the ball, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was paying attention and rightly accused Erdogan’s opening of Turkey’s border with western Europe as “an attack on the EU.”

SOURCE: THE INTERCEPT
IN 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly began using a software tool to recommend whether people arrested over immigration violations should be let go after 48 hours or detained. The software’s algorithm supposedly pored over a variety of risk factors before outputting a decision.

A new lawsuit, however, filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defenders, alleges that the algorithm doesn’t really make a decision, at least not one that can result in a detainee being released. Instead, the groups said, it’s an unconstitutional cudgel that’s been rigged to detain virtually everyone ICE’s New York Field Office brings in, even when the government itself believes they present a minimal threat to public safety.

“The federal government’s sweeping detention dragnet means that people who pose no flight or safety risk are being jailed as a matter of course — in an unlawful trend that is getting worse.”

As the coronavirus spreads and migrant invaders make their way out of Turkey and head northwest toward continental Europe, it’s only a matter of time before thousands upon thousands of military-aged men are amassed at the Hungarian border – the gates of Europe’s Schengen Zone.

To protect the Hungarian people from both scourges, Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian government are taking preemptive action. During his weekly interview with Kossuth Radio, the Hungarian prime minister warned that given the fact that the virus had already spread throughout Italy and countries in the western Balkans, “it must be said that the virus will also appear in Hungary, and we are preparing for that eventuality.”

Hungary will protect its borders “under all circumstances” and will not let in any illegal migrants, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after talks with Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic in Belgrade on Monday. Meanwhile, Austria sends police units to the Hungarian-Serbian border and Hungary sends police units to North Macedonia and Serbia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Monday that "millions" of migrants would soon head for Europe, drawing accusations from EU leaders that he is trying to pressure them into backing his incursions into Syria.

Turkey gave the green light to refugees and migrants on Friday to leave for the European Union and thousands have since massed at the Greek border, triggering fears of an influx like that which poisoned European politics in 2015.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Turkey's move as "unacceptable" and EU migration commissioner Margaritis Schinas said nobody could "blackmail or intimidate the EU".

But Turkey, which hosts roughly four million refugees, is trying to hold off another mass influx from Syria – where government forces backed by Russian air power are advancing into the last rebel stronghold of Idlib.

Turks were telling migrants the way into EU is clear when it was really not. Merkel and the EU saying what Erdogan is doing is unacceptable and that they’ll never give in, but of course they’re already starting to

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Europe it will have to accept the 'burden' of 'millions' of incoming migrants as Greece today tried to fend off an 'invasion' of people after Turkey threw open its borders.

More than 13,000 migrants have gathered on the Turkish side of the river which runs 125 miles along the frontier and separates them from Greece, and therefore the EU.

Greek police were today firing tear gas at the crowds, as migrants tried to swim across the river or squeeze through fences at one of the few land crossings, although only dozens have succeeded so far.

The UN refugee agency says around 1,200 people have arrived on Greek islands in the last two days. One child died when a dinghy boat capsized during a sea crossing, the Greek coast guard said today.

The UN’s refugee agency said on Monday that Greece had no right to stop accepting asylum applications as Athens struggles with a sudden increase in arrivals of Middle East refugees and migrants from Turkey at its border.

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday his country would not be accepting any new asylum requests for a month after two days of clashes between border police and thousands of people seeking to enter the EU from Turkey, Reuters reported.

“It is important that the authorities refrain from any measures that might increase the suffering of vulnerable people,” the UNHCR said in a statement. “All states have a right to control their borders and manage irregular movements, but at the same time should refrain from the use of excessive or disproportionate force and maintain systems for handling asylum requests in an orderly manner.”

SOURCE: FOX NEWS
President Trump authorized new travel restrictions and warnings Saturday – and said he’s even looking at closing the southern border – in response to the coronavirus outbreak that has claimed the first American life, while assuring the nation at an all-hands-on-deck press conference there’s “no reason to panic.”

Trump announced new strict travel "edicts" affecting Iran, Italy and South Korea and Trump confirmed he's looking to potentially tighten the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Yes, we are thinking about [the] southern border, we have received a lot of power on the southern border over the last couple of years from the courts but we are looking at that very strongly," Trump said at a press conference.

The rare appearance in the White House press briefing room came shortly after news of the first death in the United States from the new virus and a terrible week on the stock market over fears of the outbreak.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to keep borders open for Syrian refugees headed for Europe as the first 18,000 cross the Greek border and migrants clash for the second day with guards.

'What did we do yesterday (Friday)? We opened the doors,' Erdogan said in Istanbul in his first comments since 33 Turkish troops were killed in northern Syria on Thursday. 'We will not close those doors ...Why? Because the European Union should keep its promises.'

The Turkish leader also said 18,000 migrants have amassed on the Turkish borders with Europe since Friday, adding that the number could reach as many as 30,000 on Saturday.

True to Erdogan's prior threat that Europe would see 18,000 to as many as 30,000 refugees pour across European Union borders on Saturday after Turkey 'opened the gates,' it's being reported that the number of migrants at Evros — a key land border between Turkey and Greece — has now reached 15,000.

Throughout Saturday the area became a war zone as thousands of refugees, urged on by Turkish authorities, attempted to cross into Greece en masse.

In places like the now completely closed Kastanies crossing (sealed by the Greek side as Turkish guards stood down and let migrants pass freely), thousands are stuck in 'no man's land' between the borders, with the situation fast descending into chaos.

On 29 February, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country had opened its borders to Europe to Syrian refugees, citing a lack of promised assistance as the reason.

Hundreds of migrants have gathered at the border between Turkey and Greece in attempt to travel towards Greece.

On Sunday, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said that the situation with migrants on the country's northeastern border with Turkey presented a threat to the national security. The spokesman added that Greece would stop accepting asylum requests for a month and expedite repatriations of migrants coming to the country illegally.

On Saturday, hundreds of migrants gathered near the Kastanies crossing point at the border between Turkey and Greece.

Live from the Turkish town of Edirne near the border with Greece as refugees attempt to travel west into Europe.

Despite a 2016 agreement with the EU to stop refugee flows out of Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that 18,000 refugees stood ready along Turkish borders with Europe to pour into the continent.

In his first public comments since Thursday's deaths of 33 Turkish troops in Idlib, likely by a Russian airstrike (though Ankara has preferred to blame Syrian forces), Erdogan said this number will likely climb to as many as 30,000 on Saturday.

A major fire occurred outside the iconic Gare de Lyon station in Paris. Reports say it was started by a crowd protesting against a concert by a Congolese star nearby, who tried to prevent firefighters from putting out the blaze.

The fire erupted near the station late on Friday. Footage from the scene shows open flames in the street outside the landmark, as well as a large plume of black smoke billowing over the area.

Europe is on the brink of a new migrant crisis as Greece locked down its land and sea routes while Turkey pulled out of a long-standing deal to stop the country's 3.6 million refugees from travelling beyond its borders.

Hundreds of asylum seekers immediately began making their way towards Greece and Bulgaria – and, if they successfully cross the border, could carry on deeper into Europe.

Turkey’s neighbours responded by reinforcing their frontiers. Greece said it was locking down land and sea routes ‘to the maximum level possible’, while Bulgaria deployed 1,000 troops and military hardware to its 190-mile border with Turkey.

Migrants continue to arrive to the Greek islands, although authorities remain reluctant to relocate them to the mainland, despite promises to do so.

Ankara has linked a new refugee crisis with renewed hostilities in Syria’s Idlib Province, where the Syrian Army has been repelling militant attacks, some of which began under the cover of Turkish artillery fire, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.

Hundreds of refugees coming from Syria, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq are currently moving towards Turkey’s borders with Europe following reports that Ankara will no longer prevent migrants from crossing them, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported. According to the media outlet, these refugees have been moving in large groups on foot and using vehicles via the cities of Istanbul, Edirne, Izmir, and Aydin.

A massive fire has broken out in southeastern Paris near the Gare de Lyon train station. The fire has prompted police to evacuate the area.

PM Breaking News
@PMBreakingNews
Breaking: Massive fire at Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, France. A protest against a Congolese singer who supports the current Congo President was taking place in the area.

French police said the train station was evacuated and advised people to avoid the area. They didn't elaborate on the cause of the fire.

Préfecture de Police
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@prefpolice
#GareDeLyon | Les @PompiersParis ont maîtrisé le feu qui est en cours d'extinction.
Évitez le secteur. Intervention des secours toujours en cours.