The Virginia Beach City Council will hold a special session next week to vote on whether to declare the city a “Second Amendment Constitutional City”. Both the mayor and the vice mayor support the proposed resolution.
In other news, dissidents in Hong Kong are planning a renewed series of protests on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Insubria, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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. I 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.
Biden Tells Crowd That Oil Execs Should be Jailed, Must End Fossil-Fuel Use
Former vice president and presidential candidate Joe Biden told a crowd in Peterborough, New Hampshire, over the weekend that if fossil fuel executives don’t take accountability for helping to doom the environment, we should throw them in jail. [See videos after the jump]
In order to curb the rate of pollution, Biden explained, we need to hold fossil fuel executives “liable for what they have done, particularly in those cases where there are underserved neighborhoods.”
When they don’t deliver, Biden offered, “put them in jail.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Cardinal Dolan Condemns ‘Sickening’ Attacks on Jews
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan condemned the recent string of attacks against Jewish people in New York, following a machete stabbing spree that left five people injured during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home on Saturday night.
“The news of last night’s attack at the home of a Jewish family in Monsey, New York, is the latest in a series of sickening acts of violence against our Jewish brothers and sisters,” Cardinal Dolan said in a statement.
“Such acts must be condemned completely and without reservation as totally contrary to everything that people of faith stand for,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Fox Crushes Cable News With Record High Viewership as CNN Implodes
Fox News dominated the basic cable news industry in 2019, according to a new report, which specifies the network has hit record high viewership.
Nielsen Media Research said Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers during primetime in 2019, far outpacing any other news network. The network’s viewership hit a 23-year high this year, blowing out its competitors, CNN and MSNBC, by a long shot.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Heckler Tells Biden “Don’t Touch Kids, You Pervert!”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was confronted by a heckler last night who accused him of sexually assaulting children.
The exchange occurred during a campaign stop in Milford, NH.
The former Vice President first tried to shut down the heckler by asserting, “This is not a Trump rally.”
However, he remained undeterred, telling Biden, “Don’t touch kids, you pervert!”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Southern Poverty Law Center Silent on Domestic Terror Attack Against Jews
The Southern Poverty Law Center has remained completely silent about the domestic terror attack against Hasidic Jews, presumably because it was carried out by a non-white person.
Grafton E. Thomas entered a a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community in New York City on Saturday night.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo quickly announced that the stabbings were an act of domestic terrorism “spurred by hate.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Pastor Thanks God for ‘Good Guys With Guns’ That Saved His Congregation
While the left remains stuck on the scapegoating and finger-pointing, scoring political points wherever they dare — no matter the cost to their credibility — one man has spoken out in finding a silver lining for the terrible events that occurred in a Texas church this weekend.
“We lost two great men today, but it could have been a lot worse. I’m thankful our government has allowed us the opportunity to protect ourselves,” exclaimed West Freeway Church of Christ Senior Minister Britt Farmer following the terrible shooting in his Texas church.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Continues as Baltimore City Reaches Record Number of Murders
Baltimore City slides further into chaos and just broke its highest ever per-capita homicide rate after recording its 342nd murder on Friday, reported AP News.
With about 602,000 residents, Baltimore City’s homicide rate breached 57 per 100,000 residents after eight people were murdered since last Friday, pushing the total amount of homicides to the all-time high of 342.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia Beach to Hold Special Session to Consider “Second Amendment Constitutional City” Resolution
The Virginia Beach City Council will hold a pair of special sessions next week to discuss — and vote on — becoming a “Second Amendment Constitutional City.”
“The City Council hereby expresses its strong support for the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms and urges the members of the General Assembly and the Governor to take no action which would violate the freedoms guaranteed by either the Virginia Bill of Rights or the federal Bills or Rights,” reads a draft of a resolution requested by Mayor Bobby Dyer, Vice Mayor James Wood and Council members Jessica Abbott, John Moss and Rosemary Wilson.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Liberal Minister Says Government Will Boost CBC Funding
The Trudeau government intends to help the CBC expand its local journalism footprint, alongside extra funding to meet its new mandates.
According to iPolitics, Heritage minister Steven Guilbeault “plans to work with the CBC, per his mandate letter, to see if they can produce more regional content through hiring more people, opening more offices, or partner with existing media.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trudeau Government to Regulate “Illegal Content” Off Social Media
Before re-election, Blacklock’s Reporter published an article detailing the Liberal party’s plan to regulate social media should they win.
The party appears to be moving forward full steam.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Macron Yellow Vests Protests Still Going Strong in France
Although it’s not exactly considered frontpage news by the leftist mainstream media, the so-called Yellow Vests continue to protest every single weekend against President Macron’s horrendous policies.
Don’t believe me? Well, just watch this rather inspiring video.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Arch-Remainer Tony Blair Bid for EU Cash While Campaigning Against Brexit
Former British Prime Minister and key mover of the anti-Brexit remain movement Tony Blair held talks with the European Commission about receiving funding for his personal institute while campaigning to frustrate the Brexit process at home.
Iraq war architect Tony Blair had talks with senior EU officials this year over funding for The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) and even discussed moving the body to a European nation to prevent it being cut off from Brussels cash after Brexit, British newspaper the Daily Telegraph has reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
BBC Admits Flying to Meet Greta Thunberg Despite ‘Flight Shame’
The BBC has spoken about its decision to fly a journalist to Sweden to meet climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
Thunberg, who recently became the youngest ever recipient of TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year accolade, has helped to spread awareness of “flygskam” — or flight shame — by giving up air travel in favor of more environmentally-friendly forms of transport.
In August of this year, Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth to attend climate change conferences in New York and Chile. She is also well known for taking trains when traveling within Europe.
However, the BBC decided that eschewing air travel wasn’t an option when presenter Mishal Husain was dispatched to Sweden to interview Thunberg for Radio 4’s Today program.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Doomsday Cult Targets British News Media
Extinction Rebellion activists plan to unleash an unprecedented attack on the British media, sparking accusations that they want to infringe free speech.
The Mail on Sunday has obtained a copy of a document entitled The Great March For Truth & Blockade, which details how six key print and broadcast media sites would be targeted by environmental protesters next spring.
They include a print works in Hertfordshire where millions of national and regional newspapers are produced; Broadcasting House, which is home to the BBC; and the offices of newspaper groups including News UK, which publishes The Times, and DMG Media, publishers of The Mail on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France Waits on Macron as Pension Strike Stretches on
Paris (AFP) — French union leaders upped their calls on Monday for President Emmanuel Macron to give ground on a planned pension overhaul, amid signs that support is flagging for a gruelling transport strike now in its 26th day.
Macron will address the nation Tuesday in his annual New Year’s Eve speech, having largely left it to his government to defend one of the most contested reforms of his term.
The president will reaffirm his “determined ambition (for) a project of social progress that corrects a number of inequalities,” an official at the Elysee Palace told AFP on condition of anonymity.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Brainwashed Schoolgirls Taught Vile Eco-Song About ‘Scumbag’ Seniors
Child abuse by German WDR 2 public broadcasting? Young schoolgirls taught to hate, made to sing “My grandma is an old environmental scumbag” because she drives an SUV, eats meat and takes cruises.
We all recall how at the UN, green wunderkind Greta Thunberg lambasted the older generations for allegedly ruining the planet, climate, and even her future.
She also threateningly warned that her generation “will be watching” us.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greta Claims Trump, Bolsonaro ‘Terrified of Young People Bringing Change’
Climate wunderkind Greta Thunberg has said Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro [pictured] criticize her and environmental alarmism because they are “terrified of young people bringing change”.
The 16-year-old Swedish activist and high-profile leader of the school strike movement is the latest in a line of liberal-progressive guests to have curated BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland Fast-Tracks Law Banning Gas Vehicles in 10 Years
Ireland is fast-tracking legislation that will effectively ban all gas-powered vehicles within a decade, leaving customers who are buying cars in January confused about what to do next, local reports show.
The country’s Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton plans to publish the Climate Action (Amendment) Bill 2019 enforcing such a ban, the Independent.ie reported Monday.
The ban was officially announced in June, according to the report. One of Ireland’s political parties is pushing back.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Go on Vacation Less Than Other Europeans — ISTAT
One holiday a year on average
(ANSA) — Rome, December 30 — Italians on average take fewer vacations than their European counterparts, ISTAT said in a survey published on Monday.
In its annual survey, the statistical bureau said that Italian residents on average take a vacation a year compared to a European average of 2.6%.
The most recent data, which concerns 2017, is “well under the average of neighboring countries like Spain (3.7 vacations pro capita), France (3.6) and Germany (2.8)”, ISTAT found.
Finland ranked at the top with 7.4 trips per resident and Greece at the bottom with 0.6, it said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Priest Arrested for Allegedly Abusing Disabled Woman
Alleged abuse when vice director of congregation in Ercolano
(ANSA) — Naples, December 20 — A priest from the Don Orione Congregation in Ercolano, near Naples, was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a disabled woman while he was vice director of the institution, which works for the rehabilitation of seriously disabled people, investigative sources said Friday.
The priest, identified as Roberto Gerolamo Filippini, is accused of committing sexual violence, taking advantage of the victim’s psychiatric disability.
He was the administrator charged with supporting the victim when the alleged violence took place, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Vegan Parents Who Nearly Starved Toddler Avoid Prison
The vegan parents of a two-year-old girl who were accused of harming the child into a state of malnourishment due to their diet, have managed to avoid prison time despite being convicted for gross bodily harm.
The Gothenburg district court found both of the vegan parents guilty of gross negligence for bodily harm and handed them down a three months conditional sentence along with a fine of 60,000 Swedish krona in May, but an appeal in the High Court on Friday reduced the fine to 50,000 krona, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
China Convicts Researchers Who Created Gene-Edited HIV Resistant Babies
A researcher who helped create the world’s first HIV resistant gene-edited babies has been sentenced to three years in prison.
He Jiankui, the scientist who created twin girls in 2018 with modified DNA which made them resistant to HIV, was sentenced to three years in prison alongside a 3 million yuan fine on Monday, according to China’s state news agency.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
China May be Behind Theft of Bio Samples by Harvard-Sponsored Chinese Student, Feds Say
The feds say they believe the Chinese government may be behind the theft of biological research specimens from a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center lab involving a Harvard University-sponsored Chinese student.
Zaosong Zheng, 29, is accused of stealing vials of biological material used in cancer research from Beth Israel’s Wenyi Wei lab and lying to federal agents earlier this month about the vials they found packed in his luggage for flight to Beijing.
Zheng, here on a Harvard University-sponsored J-1 visa, had earlier posted $15,000 cash bail, but was deemed a significant flight risk by Magistrate Judge David Hennessy Monday, and ordered held without bail. Hennessy chided the defendant during his detention hearing at U.S. District Court.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong to End Year With Multiple Protests, Kick Off 2020 With Big March
HONG KONG (Reuters) — Hong Kong will end 2019 with multiple protests planned for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day aimed at disrupting festivities and shopping in the Asian financial hub, which has seen a rise in clashes between police and protesters since Christmas.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A woman has been charged after she falsely claimed to be a bushfire victim to claim $300 in donations from an Adelaide Hills church, police say.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
International tradespeople are flocking to Queensland amid Australia’s apprenticeship crisis as figures reveal the number of people taking up trades has declined over the past six years.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Husseim Dennaoui and Fadl Rahal had fallen out in 2006 after he labelled him a ‘dog’ but 11 years later tried to patch up their rocky relationship when their reunion took a bloody turn.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Lives and homes are under threat from an out-of-control bushfire in suburban Melbourne, amid 10 emergency warnings across the state.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Labour Reform in Brazil Has Impacted Clocking-in
New law has changed company-worker relations
(ANSA) — Sao Paulo, December 27 — Two years after it came into force, labour reform in Brazil has brought a series of changes in the routines of Brazilian companies and the relations between employer and employee, with a direct impact on the management of the work day.
“In effect, one of the most complex changes has been making the work schedule more flexible: the update to the accords on monitoring working hours, on the basis of the new possibilities of the working day, added to the updating of systems, ensures a greater security in the control and verification of work days”, Fabio Gonçalves, human resources chief of Luandre, one of the main consultancy firms for staff management in the city of Sao Paulo, told ANSA.
The labour market reform, launched during the administration of President Michel Temer at the end of 2017, via law 13,467, has made sector legislation more flexible. One of the main changes introduced has been the possibility of negotiating with every employee their working day and compensation for overtime, as well as the regulation of home-office work. Currently, firms use manual clocking-in, the electronic monitoring of work schedules — with the possibility of using passwords, badges or biometric controls, as well as the registration of the schedules of computers, tablets or cellphones, with facial recognition and geolocation.
“All these changes introduced by the labour reform and subsequent legislation have enabled the adoption of the electronic register. On the basis of law 13,874, firms which have more than 20 employees can use electronic mechanisms, like cellular phones, to clock in,” explained Ivandick Cruzelles, legal consultant and professor of labour rights at Mackenzie University.
Nevertheless, with the change in the law, it is also possible to establish, on the basis of collective bargaining, other forms of controlling working time, such as for example monitoring by exception: in this case, you presume that the employee is carrying out their normal schedule, and only has to clock in for overtime. For the Mackenzie legal expert, there exists in Brazil the need to invest in the control of the working day above all because “the big problem of working-day justice in Brazil, is often not that the employer does not compensate the work done by the employee, but that he does not even register that which he is entitled to”, via the monitoring of the work day.
On the basis of the so-called Consolidation of Labour Laws (CLT), firms with more than 10 employees must guarantee the control of the work day, with a manual or electronic system. Furthermore, as is highlighted by the human resources chief of Luandre, the new technologies help to prevent clock-in fraud.
“The assertiveness of the data and the shortening of the time needed to determine the information make the difference in the final process”, stressed Goncalves, adding that among the advantages of having an effective control of working time are also clarity in payments and employee satisfaction.
ID Control, which produces control mechanisms such as revolving doors, turnstiles, as well as biometric solutions, is one of the firms that has launched new ideas to improve the management of the working day. Recently, the company created two new products: iDAccess Pro and iDAccess Nano, which are biometric systems for monitoring access, using proximity and passwords.
According to Diego Rodrigues, head of Control ID’s access control products, “the advantage of this system is the quantity of digital fingerprints. Today we have a product that guarantees the identification of up to 100,000 fingerprints, with a differentiated processor of 1.2 GHz, or a quad-core. This produces huge speed in identification”.
The system, created to monitor and control the entry and exit of people into company premises, like many other novelties, may be discovered next year, from 14-16 April, at the 23rd edition of Exposec, the largest electronic security fair in Latin America, in Sao Paulo. Organized by Cipa Fiera Milano, the event brings together the latest technologies, products and services in the sector.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
German Welfare Payments to Foreigners Double in 12 Years
According to figures released as a response to a parliamentary inquiry submitted by Germany’s far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), German daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reported on Friday that the amount in welfare that foreigners receive in Germany has almost doubled from 2007 to 2019.
In 2007, some €6.6 billion ($7.3 billion) were disbursed to non-Germans.
That figure rose to €12.62 by 2019, but it was slightly lower than the €12.9 billion registered in 2018.
As DW.com reports, Germany’s social welfare program for the long-term unemployed, known as Hartz IV, was introduced in 2005 and dispenses aid to recipients while requiring them to regularly engage with a job-center advisor and show they’re actively looking for work or enrolled in approved work-preparatory skills-training programs.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Tucker Carlson: Conservative Institutions Doing “Absolutely Nothing” To Protect Dissident Thinkers
Tucker Carlson has slammed conservative institutions for having done “absolutely nothing” to protect dissident thinkers on both the left and right.
During a recent radio show guest appearance, Carlson highlighted how life is being made intolerable for anyone who questions the status quo.
“If you are not with the program, if you dissent even a little bit…they can’t increasingly live freely in our society and my question is who is standing up for them? Who is protecting them?” asked Tucker.
Carlson said that this applied to both the right and people on the “sincere left” who “actually care about the society and where it’s going.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“Climate wunderkind Greta Thunberg has said Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro [pictured] criticize her and environmental alarmism because they are “terrified of young people bringing change”.” I’m afraid of mentally ill militant teenagers that can’t be reasoned with too. Or rather, I’m afraid of the fact that such people get political and media attention. The only attention they should be getting is a medical one.
Saint Greta is worried about how tired she will be after having to walk across the ocean to meet the diabolical TrumpHitlerSatan.
All of her Apple gadgets are solar powered and not made by Chinese slave labor.
Her Nikes were made personally by Colon Krapernick at a unicorn fart powered plant in Albania.
Her parents pick her up on a magic carpet from school because she is just too precious to ride on the bus with the Kulak Untermenschen children.
“Swedish Vegan Parents Who Nearly Starved Toddler Avoid Prison”
“Linn Augustson, the lawyer for the father in the case, said that neither of the parents acted out of any malicious intent, …”
How can ignorance be considered something positive?! In context of a helpless child nonetheless!
I love the 2A sanctuary movement. Using the commies rules against them is so delicious.
Protecting yourself is a human right and no police or government agent will be there for you when the brown stuff strikes the roto-oscillator.
Today’s news from Russia.
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“It will become easier for me if you scream in pain”: the “acid maniac” who deformed young beauties was condemned
Medical student Shamil Chaparov (Muslim Dagestan name) doused the girls with acid, guided by burning hatred of people. Shamil lives in the city of Budennovsk (mostly populated by Russians) – the Stavropol Territory on the border with the Caucasus.
https://www.crimea.kp.ru/daily/27074.1/4145300/
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“They pulled out knives and started cutting policemen”: two militants attacked a traffic police post in Ingushetia
One criminal destroyed by return fire, another injured
https://www.crimea.kp.ru/daily/27074.1/4145442/
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In Moscow, during a fight in a bus, a man was stabbed 13 times (video). The article writes that these are immigrants from the Caucasus. But more like Tajiks.
https://www.kp.ru/online/news/3722387/
In the Elbrus region of Kabardino-Balkaria (North Caucasus), the local education department asked schools to list children who refused to attend New Year’s events for religious reasons.
The letter sent to educational organizations contains a reference to the recommendations of the antiterrorist committee.
“We have children who, from the age of 12, stop going to drawing, to music,” says Murachaeva. “One girl of Santa Claus painted without eyes, explains: because the genie lives there! And we need these lists so that teachers involve these children in additional education so that they do not remain alone with their fanatical parents.
Cultural workers say it’s now impossible for boys over 12 to be lured into dance groups…
https://www.kavkazr.com/a/30351220.html
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oXkY8rBiPPo
Funny and cute video!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g1FadMzIQmw