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European Union Tag

Four U.S. female tourists were attacked with acid in France's Marseille main train station on Sunday. Authorities arrested a woman afterwards. From The Associated Press:
Two of the tourists were injured in the face in the attack in the city’s main Saint Charles train station and one of them has a possible eye injury, a spokeswoman for the Marseille prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press in a phone call.

In a drastic move that would further exacerbate the European Union’s east-west divide, the European Commission, the EU executive arm, has given a month’s notice to the Polish government to roll back its national judicial reform. Poland risks forfeiting its voting rights within the EU if it does not back down in the current dispute with Brussels. The EU officials oppose the legal reform undertaken by Warsaw, arguing that it weakens the judiciary and gives more power to the country’s elected government. Polish government dismissed these allegations and insists that is acting within the purview of the national constitution.

Following an EU court decision ordering some eastern European countries to accept the migrant quotas, Hungary and Poland have vowed to fight on against the large-scale resettlement plan being pushed by the EU. The top EU court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), ruled yesterday that all member states must take in a share of refugees who cross over into Europe. The EU court's ruling "jeopardizes the security and future of all of Europe," said Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Following last week's terrorist attacks in Europe, Poland has reiterated its position not to take anymore Muslim migrants into the country. “We are convinced, looking at the recent attacks that where a large number of poorly integrated Muslims live, it is [also] a natural base for terrorism,” said Pawel Soloch, the head of Poland’s National Security Bureau (BBN).

On Monday morning, the Catalan police identified 22-year-old Moroccan Younes Abouyaaquoub as the terrorist who plowed a truck through a crowd in Barcelona on Thursday. The attack killed 13 people and injured over 100. He escaped, but went on to stab "another driver and mowed down a policewoman." Hours after the press conference, reports emerged that the authorities shot him dead as he wore a suicide belt.

Spanish authorities killed several in Cambrils in an anti-terror operation to stop a second deadly attack only hours after terrorists killed 13 people in Barcelona. From Fox News:
State-owned broadcaster RTVE reported police killed four people and injured another, after police suspected they were planning a second terror attack.

Despite Europe's politicians and the mainstream media continuing to downplay the migrant inflow that overwhelms the continent, the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate by the day. On Wednesday, beachgoers on a southern Spanish beach watched in horror as dozens of migrants stormed the shore, abandoned their boat, and fled into the countryside.

While the Liberal media has been busy trashing the Trump presidency, President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity in France has been in a free fall. Just three months into the presidency, Macron’s poll numbers have hit a historic low, plummeting 50 percent since he took office in May. France’s Ifop polling agency writes, “Apart from Jacques Chirac in July 1995, a newly elected president has never seen his popularity rate falling as quickly during the summer after the election." As the Washington Examiner correctly pointed out, "Trump is more popular than French favourite Macron." “The thing about Emmanuel Macron is that, in the end, everyone gives way to the charm,” wrote the BBC in the run-up to the French election. "The guy could seduce an office chair," claimed the broadcaster, quoting some 'anonymous source' -- perhaps an office chair. As it, however, turns out, that “irresistible charm”, as BBC like to put it, isn’t working on the French public anymore.

The Merkel government is apparently covering up the extent of the ongoing migrant influx ahead of the country's general elections, a leaked police document published in German newspapers suggests. According to the document, Germany’s Federal Police, the agency responsible for immigration and border controls, is observing “high number of immigrants” entering illegally into Germany along the country's southern border with Austria. The Federal Police is urging the government to reinstate border controls to stem the flow of illegal migrants into the country, the document reveals.

Eleven-month-old Charlie Gard, who suffered from mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, passed away on Friday, just a week before his first birthday. His mother announced that "Our beautiful little boy has gone, we are so proud of you Charlie."

EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), may be set to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Hungary and Slovakia to challenge the EU’s migrant quota scheme, European media reports suggest.

The Advocate General for the European Court of Justice, Yves Bot, who is advising the judges on the case, proposed to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Hungary and Slovakia. His recommendations are not binding, but the top EU court usually follows the opinion presented by the advocate general. Earlier this year, Hungary and Slovakia approached the top EU court to challenge the Brussels’ decision to impose a continent-wide migrant relocation scheme. “Europe's top court looks set to throw out Eastern European objections to enforced migrant quotas,” reported the UK’s Daily Express. “EU strikes double blow against Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic over refugee quotas,” wrote the London-based Financial Times.

Terminally ill baby Charlie Gard has captured the hearts of everyone across the world as his parents have fought tooth and nail against bureaucracy to do what they can to save their child. But now the parents have decided to end the legal fight. From Fox News:
"As Charlie's devoted and loving parents we have decided that it's no longer in Charlie's best interests to pursue treatment and we will let our son go and bewith the angels," Yates said in court.

As I noted in Morning Insurrection last week, I will be spending 18 days touring Central Europe and the Balkans. During our stop in Budapest, Hungary, motorcades are rolling down our street continuously and Israeli flags are flying high. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in town, and he is now making news with a rather stark assessment about his country's relationship with the European Union.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a blistering attack against the European Union during a closed-session meeting Wednesday morning in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, telling the premiers of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia that the EU's behavior toward Israel is crazy.

President Donald Trump began his second overseas trip in Poland, a country that has been battered and torn throughout history. But Poland has taken a stance against the European Union when it comes to migrants and those they fear can damage the country. Trump addressed Poles in Warsaw's Krasinski Square, stating that "nations must have the will to protect borders and preserve civilization from those who would destroy it."

Last week, the European Court of Human Rights caused international outrage when the judges decided to side with British courts to remove life support for 10-month-old Charlie Gard, refusing to allow his parents to take him to America for trial therapy, even though they raised more than $1 million for it. Gard suffers from a rare genetic condition, which has caused brain damage, and he cannot breathe on his own. The Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life also decided to side with the UK courts instead of taking a stand for Gard's life. After immense criticism, Pope Francis released a statement urging Gard's parents to do everything they can to save their child's life.

Despite the risk of litigation, the German newspaper Bild Zeitung has gone ahead with the streaming of an investigative documentary that exposed the extent of Antisemitism in Europe. The French-German broadcaster ARTE had previously shelved the 90-minute documentary that uncovered the complicity of the European Union and Germany government in financing antisemitic groups posing as charities and NGOs. On Tuesday, the German language documentary was streamed for 24 hours on the newspaper’s website. French-German ARTE and German broadcaster WDR, both funded by German taxpayers, commissioned the documentary "Chosen and Ostracised -- The hatred of Jews in Europe," but got cold feet after seeing the finished work. The broadcasters confined the documentary to the archives, hoping to dodge a bitter public reception.

With the Greek debt crisis still unresolved and Brexit yet to be negotiated, European Union is rolling out plans to tie up the remaining 27 member states tighter together. In a policy paper released yesterday, the European Commission, the EU's political arm, lays out the roadmap for “completing a genuine financial union” by 2025. The 40-page policy paper calls for "further political integration" as well as a banking union," and a "more integrated Economic and Fiscal Union". Furthermore, the document calls for a unified "Euro Area Treasury" to be headed by a powerful "EU Finance Minister," "who would also be Chair of the Eurogroup." The EU policy paper does not see the need for any national ratification or referenda over this irreversible political-economic union paraded as "reform" -- making it perhaps the biggest ever power garb by an unelected bureaucracy.