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Overwhelming majority of asylum seekers live on benefits and endanger welfare states

Asylum seekers Germany
© Jazzmany / Shutterstock.comAsylum seekers in Passau, Germany
Do Migrants Find Jobs?

It is often argued that migrants cause economic growth. It is said that they benefit the economy and that overall a nation becomes stronger. A Dutch article published by Elsevierin 2017 shows something completely different: Migrants are highly over-represented among the unemployed. At least, when we are talking about asylum seekers, or refugees.

The Data - The Netherlands

The Netherlands is a rich European country with around 17 million citizens. Around half a million of those survive on welfare. In 2013, around 2% of the native Dutch citizens relied on such welfare.

What about the migrants? Out of those that had been granted asylum in the Netherlands between 2000 and 2010, less than half had a job in 2013. Moreover, those with jobs mostly held simple part-time jobs. Those that arrived in the Netherlands by requesting asylum relied heavily on welfare, with 39% of their group receiving welfare payments.

More shocking; 70% of the Somalians in the country rely on welfare. Non-western immigrants form around 10% of the Dutch population. However, they make up 50% of the welfare recipients.

Clipboard

Refugees demanded name-brand goods and a house in Vienna, says former coordinator

migrants asylum seekers
© punghi / Shutterstock.comMigrants on their way to Western Europe
The retired Austrian teacher Franz Schmalwieser wanted to do something good at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015. He was interviewed by Wochenblick about his work with refugees and he now sharply criticises the "asylum industry".

Schmalwieser took care of four asylum-seeker families at the mayor's request. He was their coordinator, fundraiser, German teacher and he also gave cycling lessons to the families.

His eyes were opened one day as the family was searching through free clothes they had received from the Austrian people. While they browsed through them, Schmalwieser heard often: "Franz, that's nothing, let's go shopping. It should be name-brand."

These sorts of situations changed a lot Schmalwieser said: Volunteers stayed away and finally the donations stopped. The people felt exploited.

Chalkboard

Celebrating the open-minded curiosity of brilliant physicist Richard Feynman on his 100th birthday

Richard Feynman
© U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, WIKICOMMONSRichard Feynman was never satisfied to simply know the answer to a problem; he had to puzzle the problem out for himself.
Richard Feynman was a curious character.

He advertised as much in the subtitle of his autobiography, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character. Everybody knew that, in many respects, Feynman was an oddball.

But he was curious in every other sense of the word as well. His curiosity about nature, about how the world works, led to a Nobel Prize in physics and a legendary reputation, both among physicists and the public at large.

Feynman was born 100 years ago May 11. It's an anniversary inspiring much celebration in the physics world. Feynman was one of the last great physicist celebrities, universally acknowledged as a genius who stood out even from other geniuses.

Sheriff

Raging cop attacks woman for being 'too close' while filming him

cop assaults woman
Disturbing video from an Ohio high school has been shared with the Free Thought Project this week showing a police officer allegedly begin attacking a young woman for filming.

The incident happened Tuesday and, although there were seven arrests, very few details about what actually happened at Northwest Passage School have been released. According to police, who have only released a single sentence in regard to the incident, the school officer asked for assistance which set off the mass chaos.

"On May 8, 2018, officers responded to Northwest Passage School for an officer needs assistance call from a Hamilton County Deputy who was on duty in the school," the incident report reads.

Police responded to the call by sending 19 officers to the school which apparently transformed an incident with one student into a "mass arrest" incident.

Handcuffs

Autistic 5th-grader handcuffed & arrested for playing with 'imaginary gun' at school

David Sims
After the shooting in a Parkland, Florida high school earlier this year, the entire nation is on edge and is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. Because authorities ignored the shooter's threats, and essentially allowed the massacre to take place, police are being extra cautious now to ensure this does not happen again.

Since that fateful day, school children across the country have been arrested for threatening behavior. Now, however, a case out of Texas has many wondering if this reaction to fear is going to far as a 5th grade autistic student was arrested for "brandishing an imaginary rifle."

On Monday, 12-year-old David Sims, a 5th grader in Conroe Independent School District's Bozman Intermediate school, was handcuffed, hauled away and charged with a crime for motioning his hands like he had a gun.

The boy's actions apparently threatened his art teacher who then called the police.

"She (CISD Police Officer) just put handcuffs on me and told me I need to go with her," David told Fox 26.

"They just said, 'We don't tolerate that. We take it as a threat.' A threat? He didn't threaten anyone. He didn't do anything but play," said Amy Sims, David's mother.

Bad Guys

Israel expels high-ranking HRW official over past BDS activism

People take part in an anti-Israeli demonstration in Paris
© Matthieu Alexandre / AFPPeople take part in an anti-Israeli demonstration in Paris
Human Rights Watch (HRW) director for Israel and Palestine Omar Shakir is being deported by Israeli authorities. They accuse him of supporting the boycott movement as HRW decries the move as an attempt to shun criticism.

Shakir's work permit has been revoked and he has to leave Israel within the next 14 days, the Interior Ministry informed HRW in a letter earlier this week. The ruling was based on an Israeli dossier compiled against Shakir, which claimed that the US citizen of Iraqi origin, "has actively and consistently supported strategies calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS), since his early days as a student and into the present. He often retweets and shares content on BDS against Israel."


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Dollar

Royal Bank of Scotland agrees to $5bln settlement with US for shady loan sales

royal bank scotland
© Andrew Winning / Reuters
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to end a long-running probe into its actions in the lead-up to the 2007-2008 global financial crisis.

Under the agreement, the bank will pay a penalty of $4.9 billion. RBS boss Ross McEwan called the settlement "a milestone moment."

"Reaching this settlement in principle with the US Department of Justice will, when finalized, allow us to deal with this significant remaining legacy issue and is the price we have to pay for the global ambitions pursued by this bank before the crisis," he said.

Heart - Black

Assange forced to comply with new rules banning him from taking visitors and phone calls at Ecuadorian embassy

assange
© Peter Nicholls / Reuters
Julian Assange has been hit with new rules limiting his communications by officials at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The new measures include bans on using the phone and having visitors, according to WikiLeaks.

The founder of the whistleblowing website has reportedly found himself isolated within the embassy recently. In March, he had his internet access curtailed after taking to Twitter to criticize Britain's response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, as well as repeated comments about Spain's dispute with Catalonia. At the time, the Ecuadorian government said Assange had breached a written commitment "not to issue messages that might interfere with other states."

Speaking with the foreign press Wednesday, Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa confirmed that Assange was still being denied internet access while talks between the UK and Ecuador to decide on his fate are still ongoing.

Newspaper

$325k Iron Man suit disappears from Hollywood warehouse

Robert Downey Jr with the Iron Man suit in 2008
© Patrick RiviereRobert Downey Jr with the Iron Man suit in 2008
The original Iron Man suit from the first Marvel franchise movie has gone missing from a warehouse in Hollywood. The iconic red and gold costume is valued at a jaw-dropping $325,000.

Investigators might count themselves unlucky that they can't call on Tony Stark, the billionaire tech playboy who built the tank-busting super-suit in the film series. All they have to go on is that it could have gone missing sometime between February and late April, according to the LA Times.

Attention

Iran-Contra antagonist Oliver North projects his corrupt character, says all Iranians are liars

Oliver North mug shot
Retired Marine Colonel Oliver North, who gained notoriety for his involvement in the Iran-Contra gunrunning scandal and lying to Congress about it, took to Fox News on Wednesday to accuse the Iranians of lying.

"Never believe an Iranian - because if their lips are moving, they're lying," North told Fox host Sean Hannity on Wednesday. The new president of the National Rifle Association and Hannity were discussing the airstrikes on what Israel said were Iranian forces in Syria that had fired on Israeli positions earlier in the day.

North made a similar statement the day before, accusing Tehran of lying about its adherence to the Iran nuclear deal and calling for renewed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

"The Iranians have been lying. Every time their lips move, they're lying," he said on Fox & Friends. Hours after North's statement, President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Iran deal.