Europe

Europe’s passport-free travel system in the Schengen area is about to collapse, according to Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner.  Mikl-Leitner told EU interior ministers that she thinks the temporary national border controls in the Schengen zone are likely to become permanent as a result of the migrant crisis currently engulfing Europe. Presstv.com reports: In a bid to curb the influx of asylum seekers, several EU states, including Germany and Austria, have introduced a border checking system due to expire in May.

Submitted by Justin Raimondo via AntiWar.com,

German supermarket chain Aldi Süd  has become the first major retailer in Europe to ban pesticides toxic to bees. The ban will include neonicotinoids imidacloprid, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam, from all produce sold in their stores with the retailer expecting fruit and vegetable suppliers to comply with their new policy as soon as possible Beyond pesticides report: Aldi has requested suppliers comply at the earliest possible time. In light of the growing pollinator crisis and due to public pressure, retailers in Europe and the U.S.

“Welcome to Europe. Now gimmie that watch.”

That’s the greeting asylum seekers will get when they enter Denmark from now on thanks to a new law that will allow police to search refugees on arrival and confiscate anything worth more than 10,000 kroner.

The idea, apparently, is to help offset the cost of taking the migrants in by robbing them.

To judge by the early returns, the presidential race of 2016 is shaping up as the most disheartening in recent memory. Other than as a form of low entertainment, the speeches, debates, campaign events, and slick TV ads already inundating the public sphere offer little of value. Rather than exhibiting the vitality of American democracy, they testify to its hollowness.