The Pakistani immigrant who committed last week’s meat cleaver jihad attack in Paris turns out to be 25 years old, and not an “unaccompanied minor” 18-year-old, as he had claimed. Meanwhile, in Italy well over 50% of migrants whose asylum claims are rejected continue to reside in the country illegally.
In other news, at least 29 people were killed in a second day of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, JD, 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.
Moody’s Lifts Hungary Sovereign Rating to Positive
Credit rating agency Moody’s Investor Service affirmed Hungary’s Baa3 sovereign ratings and changed the outlook on the ratings from stable to positive in its latest outlook on Friday, news portal Origo reports.
“The key drivers for the change in outlook to positive are the strong recent and prospective performance of the economy relative to Baa3— and Baa2-rated peers, with related improvements to the domestic and external debt position,” Moody’s wrote.
The agency justified the improvement in the Hungarian rating outlook saying that although the coronavirus epidemic is expected to have a significant negative impact on the Hungarian economy, the impact on economic and financial strength is unlikely to be as pronounced as elsewhere in the European Union.
According to Moody’s forecast on Friday, Hungary’s gross domestic product (GDP) will fall by 5.5 percent in real terms this year and grow at a rate of around 4 percent next year.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
According to new 2019 tax returns filed on Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife reported earning more than $16.5 million in total since leaving the White House.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bioweapon Labs Get More NIH Funding for Deadly ‘Research’
EcoHealth Alliance, a corporate-funded nonprofit organization that seeks to uncover novel viruses in the environment, has been working in China for decades, trapping bats and looking for previously unknown coronaviruses that could lead to a global pandemic.1
This may come as a surprise to many, but even more surprising is the fact that the research was carried out via a grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).2
While the grant was initially supposed to continue through 2024, it was cut off in April 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic gained steam, and U.S. intelligence agencies started to look into whether the coronavirus that started it all escaped from a biological laboratory in Wuhan, China.3
EcoHealth Alliance collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology for years, collecting coronavirus samples from bats and investigating whether they could jump to humans,4 and the NIH told the nonprofit that the project “no longer fit with NIH goals and priorities.”5
In August 2020, however, the NIH pivoted, granting a new $7.5 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance — part of an $82 million award being split among 11 research teams looking into the origins of viruses and how they infect people. The controversial move means that EcoHealth Alliance’s work will continue, this time targeting Southeast Asia instead of China.6
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bombshell: Hillary Clinton May Have Cooked Up a Trump-Russia Hoax Back in July 2016
Update below.
On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe briefed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on documents revealing an alleged Hillary Clinton plot to launch a scandal campaign attempting to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee. The Intelligence Community had discovered a Russian analysis about the plot and even briefed President Barack Obama about it. CIA Director John Brennan forwarded a referral to FBI Director James Comey and a certain deputy assistant director of counterintelligence named Peter Strzok.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Cleveland Businesses Boarding Up Storefronts in Preparation for Tuesday’s Presidential Debate
In preparation for Tuesday night’s first presidential debate in Cleveland between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, some of the city’s businesses are boarding up their storefronts and office windows.
“This is some concern based on all of the folks with all of the different ideologies that will be coming to town and if they will direct that energy toward themselves and/or if they will do toward personal property,” said City Councilman Blaine Griffin.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
CNBC Hires Former Fox Anchor to Bash Trump
CNBC has been a good source for stock market updates and “Shark Tank” programs about new products. Its daytime schedule is best known for the antics of Jim Cramer, a booster of pot stocks who also provides analysis of financial markets. On Wednesday, however, former Fox News gay anchor Shepard Smith begins hosting his own Trump-bashing program on CNBC. This marks a definite turn to the left for the business channel.
Dozens of ads have been appearing, trying to convince the CNBC audience that he will provide just the “facts,” even the “truth.” CNBC describes the program as the channel’s nightly newscast “providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories.”
But the commentator is best known for his disgust for those who reject his liberal opinions masquerading as news.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Communism’s Promotion and Collusion in America’s Race Wars
Antifa was founded in Germany in 1932;they promoted communism over fascism. The two organizations work diligently together fomenting anarchy, along with dozens of smaller communist and Islamic groups, under the guise of eliminating police brutality against black Americans, which national statistics have proven to be false. We are not experiencing a wave of social unrest generated by injustice or police brutality. We are watching an insurrection in progress, one which uses police violence as a pretext, but which has as its goal the destruction of the existing social, economic and political order in the United States.
Most Americans do not understand the demonic reality of Marxism and the communist infiltration of every facet of American society, peoples and culture. This is the story of one black man’s devotion to communism for ten years, and his exit and exposure of their true evil.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Purges Pro-Trump Groups
Despite the criticism it’s now getting even from some observers with no links to the conservative side of politics, the social media companies’ censorship rules rooted in the nebulous notion of something called “coordinated inauthentic behavior” are being fully implemented, and this is taking place very close to the next US presidential election.
At the heart of the criticism against blocking and removal of content on those grounds is that what’s all of a sudden interpreted as unacceptable “coordinated inauthentic behavior” is just plain old (offline) campaigning, using the usual techniques to spread and at times automate getting the message out — including things like scripts to carry out various forms of campaign outreach such as phone banking, texting, and canvassing.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook is ready to launch its much-anticipated Oversight Board, which features 18 of 20 members which have ties to progressive billionaire George Soros and his Open Society Foundation, raising fears from conservatives that mass censorship could be on the horizon.
According to a report published by the Financial Times, Facebook’s new Oversight Board should start operating before the US presidential elections on Nov. 3.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hawaii Republican Congressional Candidate Nick Ochs Banned From Facebook
All eyes are currently on the US presidential election that is set to take place in early November, and on a slew of controversial decisions pertaining to censorship and free speech taken by giant social media platforms related to that event; however, controversies of the type are not confined to the top race alone.
Nick Ochs, the Republican candidate for Hawaii’s state House District 22, has been removed by Facebook.
The decision came just over a month before the November 3 vote in Hawaii as Ochs faced Facebook’s censorship wrath for his membership in the “Proud Boys” group.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Creep Who Plotted to Behead ‘Draw Mohammed’ Blogger Gets Even More Jail Time
An Isis plotter who planned to behead a blogger behind a ‘Draw the Prophet Mohammed’ event has been re-sentenced to even more time bars after an appeal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
There have now been 48,299 coronavirus cases reported at 37 universities in the United States.
Of those cases there have been ONLY 2 hospitalizations.
And there have been ZERO DEATHS!
They couldn’t even sneak in a cancer victim into their counts because no one died!
If you are college age you are more likely to be killed by lightning or a dog than COVID-19.
Face it. You have been lied to.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Like Biden, Harris Declines to Comment on Idea of Adding More Justices to Supreme Court
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), the Democratic nominee for vice president, declined to give her opinion Monday on the suggestion of increasing the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court when asked about it during an appearance on MSNBC.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 3,100 People Have Been Shot in Chicago So Far This Year
Chicago’s epidemic of gun violence continues, with 3,132 people shot in the city from the start of the year through September 28, The Chicago Tribune reports.
The number of shootings in 2019 was a little more than 2,000.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Neo-Con Never Trumper Bill Kristol Too Afraid to Watch Biden-Trump Debate
Neo-con Never Trumper Bill Kristol suggested that he was too afraid to watch tonight’s presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, indicating a total lack of confidence in Biden’s ability to last the course of the 3 hour event.
“If it’s too nerve-wracking to watch tonight’s presidential debate, what do you recommend watching instead? #AskingForAFriend,” tweeted Kristol.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Portland Ex-Paralegal Indicted by Federal Grand Jury for Violent Rioting
A federal grand jury has indicted a former Portland paralegal for felony civil disorder after he allegedly assaulted a cop during a Black Lives Matter-Antifa riot.
31-year-old Phillip John Wenzel, of Beaverton, Ore., was charged with one count of civil disorder, US Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy J. Williams, announced Monday. Wenzel was arrested by the US Marshals Service on Sunday. The affidavit of his case is sealed but the indictment says Wenzel “knowingly committed a violent act for the intended purpose of obstructing, impeding and interfering with a law enforcement officer” engaging in lawful performance of their duties.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A new video released by Project Veritas shows a ballot harvester in Minnesota give $200 in exchange for a promise to surrender an absentee ballot. It also features interviews describing vast election fraud, including so-called translators who vote for people in the voting booth and a Palestinian donor’s role in funding votes for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) so she can work to undo U.S. funding to Israel.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Biden Campaign Requested Debate Break Every 30 Minutes
According to Fox News, the Biden campaign requested a break after every 30 minutes of tonight’s upcoming debate, but Team Trump rejected the proposal.
The Trump campaign also reportedly asked for ear pieces to be inspected to ensure Biden wasn’t being fed lines by his staffers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Joe Biden Has Been Given Tonight’s Debate Questions in Advance
Presidential candidate Joe Biden has been given tonight’s debate questions in advance, according to radio host Todd Starnes.
“Word on the street is that @JoeBiden got tonight’s debate questions in advance” tweeted Starnes, citing radio station KXEL 1540’s interview with political operative Jerome Corsi.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Researchers Are Genetically Modifying Anthrax and Combining it With SARS-Cov-2
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents reveal that a BSL-3 lab is conducting research at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center that combines SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, with deadly anthrax.
Genetically engineered, the hybrid virus “can [be] used as a host strain to make SARS-CoV-2 recombinant S protein vaccine,” The Last American Vagabond reports. The use of anthrax as a component of various research projects is not new — some have even suggested using “disarmed” anthrax as an adjuvant in vaccines. However, the idea that it’s now being used in combination with SARS-CoV-2 has some biotech critics questioning the motives and safety of the project.
The FOIA documents were obtained by Edward Hammond, former director of the Sunshine Project, which opposes chemical and biological weapons.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Despite having called for the Federal Aviation Administration to adopt “mandatory” mask mandates at airports, on airplanes, and on public transportation, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) was spotted not wearing a mask at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
People who refuse to wear masks — or wear them improperly, or “who don’t wear it over their nose” — should be “in stocks, in prison, or hanging in the streets,” according to Star Trek Discover star Jason Isaacs.
“I am less annoyed by the people who don’t wear masks, who should be in the stocks or prison, but the people who don’t wear it over their nose,” Isaacs said doing an interviewwith talk show host Lorraine Kelly. “Or the people who pull it down to have a chat and then pull it back up, they should be hanging in the streets!”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Canadian man who was the subject of a New York Times podcast called “Caliphate” was arrested last week for allegedly faking his past involvement with ISIS, putting the validity of the award-winning audio documentary in question.
“The charge stems from numerous media interviews where the accused, Shehroze Chaudhry, a 25-year-old from Burlington, Ontario, claimed he travelled to Syria in 2016 to join the terrorist group ISIS and committed acts of terrorism,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced on Friday.
“The interviews were published in multiple media outlets, aired on podcasts and featured on a television documentary, raising public safety concerns amongst Canadians,” the RCMP continued. “Chaudhry was charged with Hoax-Terrorist activity.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The CIA Has Never Worked for the American People, Part 3
Initially, the CIA was structurally divided into four different directorates: Intelligence, Support, Administration, and Plans, each one headed by a Deputy Director. Eventually the Directorate of Administration disappeared, and the Directorate of Science and technology was created. As everything related to the CIA, however, the name Directorate of Plans was intentionally highly misleading. It actually had to do with the armed branch of the CIA, the one devoted to covert military operations of sabotage, subversion, terrorism, and psychological warfare.
After the end of World War II, Allen Dulles served as a government consultant in matters of intelligence. In 1948, after the CIA’s “failure” to forecast Colombia’s Bogotazo riots of April 9, 1948, Dulles was appointed to chair a three-man commission responsible for assessing the U.S. intelligence system and the CIA’s failure to predict the Bogotazo.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Rich People Who Rent U-Hauls for Riots in Louisville Where Cops Get Killed
Spoiler Alert: Gates Foundation, Twitter’s @Jack Dorsey and a lot more…
Yesterday video footage of a U-Haul truck filled with signs and gear for rioters in Louisville attracted significant attention online. In fact, one of the Twitter accounts that reported on this initially had its account temporarily suspended. Several Twitter feeds captured scenes of apparent Black Lives Matter personnel unloading the truck with the assistance of a blond-haired white woman inside the bed of the vehicle. Follow-up investigation showed that the woman in question was almost certainly Holly Zoller who admitted to having rented the vehicle during a recorded phone conversation.
[Comment: Article dated September 24, 2020.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Announces Distribution of 150 Million Rapid COVID-19 Tests
President Trump announced Monday plans to distribute 150 million rapid-response coronavirus tests. The tests, produced by Abbott Laboratories, offers results in just 15 minutes.
The government will first target the most vulnerable communities, sending 18 million tests to nursing homes, 15 million to assisted living centers, 10 million to hospice organizations, and 1 million to historically black colleges and tribal nations. The nearly 100 million remaining tests will be sent to states focusing on economic and educational reopening.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Reacts to Biden Drug Test Refusal: “Gee, I Wonder Why?”
Ahead of Tuesday’s debate, Joe Biden’s campaign has refused President Trump’s invitation for both candidates to take a drug test, prompting Trump to comment “Gee, I wonder why?”
Trump had repeatedly suggested that Biden uses performance enhancing drugs just to stay awake, announcing Sunday that he will be strongly suggesting drug tests are taken.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Could Ask Joe Biden About the N-Word During Tonight’s Debate
The Trump campaign has published a list of questions for Joe Biden that will serve as talking points for Trump during tonight’s debate — one of which includes a question about Biden’s use of the n-word.
The list of 17 questions includes the following;
“You said the N-word 13 times during a 1985 Senate nomination fight, when you were quoting something attributed to someone else. Do you think that was appropriate to do? Is that the only time you’ve said the N-word?”
While it seems unlikely that Trump will raise the issue, he may reference it if Biden deploys the usual trope of demonizing Trump as a racist.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Clinches Third Nomination for 2021 Nobel Peace Prize
A group of Australian legal scholars has handed U.S. President Trump his third nomination for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, citing his “Trump Doctrine” that aims to sharply cut American involvement in foreign wars.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter Locks User’s Account Over Tweet Questioning Joe Biden’s Health
With just a few hours to go until the first 2020 US presidential debate, Twitter has locked the account of Leinad (@inversedaniel) for tweeting about the health of 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden — a move that will prevent Leinad from tweeting until after the debate.
Biden’s health has become a primary concern for many people due to his age and frequent gaffes during interviews. Over the last few days alone, Biden has claimed that he got to the Senate 180 years ago and had to be helped by MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle after losing his train of thought during an interview.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Students Shocked by Footage of Biden’s Alleged Cognitive Decline
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will square off Tuesday night for the first presidential debate.
Ahead of the showdown, Trump and his campaign have ramped up their claims that Biden is suffering from “cognitive decline,” using television ads and tweets to highlight some of Biden’s more recent gaffes, suggesting his advanced age has led to diminished mental capabilities.
Wanting to know what college students thought of the topic, Campus Reform interviewed students at the University of Florida.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Lockdown Protest Takes Over Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square
Approximately 1,000 anti-lockdown and anti-mandatory mask protesters took to Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto recently to reject what they see as government overreach in regards to COVID-19 measures.
Among the array of speakers, included a pastor, and of course, well-known activist from the Toronto area, Chris Sky. Sky has gained a lot of popularity as of late for his resistance to many, if not all of the coronavirus, municipal, provincial and even federal guidelines.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
We Got Him! Ottawa Eco-Attacker Identified by Rebel Viewers
A group of environmental extremists were protesting on the steps of Parliament Hill this week, so I stopped by to interview them. They started swearing at me but I kept my cool — if that was the most eloquent thing they had to say, so be it.
But then the organizer of the protest — a hard-core leftist named “John” — just punched the microphone right out of my hand, smashing it on the sidewalk.
His name is John O’Brien. We put out a bounty to ID the violent extremist, and the generous fan declined the reward. Instead, that money is now going towards funding the lawyers that are now pushing the Ottawa police to arrest this scoundrel.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
29 Arrested in Connection to Syrian Terrorist Financing Scheme in France
(AFP) — French police on Tuesday arrested 29 people in a sting operation targeting a network of terror financing for jihadists in Syria, prosecutors said.
The network, active since 2019, mostly operated via the purchase of crypto-currency coupons whose references were given to jihadist contacts in Syria and then credited to bitcoin accounts, the anti-terror prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: An Extinction Rebellion Protestor Just Gatecrashed the Dior Runway
Dior, under current creative director Maria Grazia Churi, is no stranger to bold messaging on the runway. Last season, the runway backdrop included signs that said things like “Patriarchy = CO2” in neon lights — so no one seemed to bat an eye when the Spring 2021 show, which debuted in Paris on Tuesday, closed out with a woman holding a sign that said “We are all fashion victims.”
But they probably should have. Because the woman wasn’t a model, and her messaging wasn’t officially sanctioned by Dior. Instead, she was a gatecrasher, a protestor bearing the telltale symbol of climate activist group Extinction Rebellion.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Presidency Tries to End EU’s Rule-of-Law Battle
The German EU presidency on Monday (28 September) put forward a compromise draft proposal on linking EU funds to respect for the rule of law, in an effort to break the ongoing institutional deadlock on the issue.
The presidency and the European Parliament have been at an impasse on both the EU budget and the Covid-19 recovery package, with the rule-of-law conditionality (or perceived lack of it) becoming the most politically-controversial issue in negotiations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Google has long faced criticism and even regulatory action, especially from the European Union, for having grown too big and dominant for anybody’s except its own good.
Another term for this is “monopolistic behavior,” and in one of its many “middle of the road” decisions — appearing forceful, but in reality bringing little to no real pressure to bear — in 2018, the EU decided to force Google to present Android users in Europe setting up their new devices with a screen giving them an opportunity to pick a search engine other than Google, as their system default.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Let’s Stop Apologizing for Being French, The Main Enemy is Islamism, Says Former French PM Valls
Former French Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls urges people to stop apologizing for being French, pointing out that the state and society have to identify the main enemy, which is Islamism, he said in an interview for the Sunday edition of Le Parisien.
“It’s the whole of French society that jihadists consider a priority target, especially those that embody the struggle against political Islam. It’s intolerable and requires resistance,” said Valls, adding that “we must identify Islamism as an enemy and a great challenge of the beginning of the century.”
While serving as prime minister, Valis faced a number of attacks by jihadists, which have only escalated in France over the past five years, including the second terrorist attack against the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine last week.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
PM Orban Calls for Resignation of EU Commissioner Jourova After Anti-Hungarian Remarks
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is calling for the immediate resignation of Vera Jourova, the vice-president of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, after her recent interview with German magazine Der Spiegel in which she aggressively attacked Hungary in a statement that Orban says contradicts fundamental European values.
“The vice-chairman of the committee publicly called Hungary a ‘sick democracy’ and insulted the Hungarian citizens of the European Union by claiming they are ‘not in a position to form an independent opinion’,” Orban wrote in a letter addressed to European Commission President Urusla von der Leyen. “These statements are not only a direct political attack against the democratically elected Government of Hungary that have become commonplace, but also a humiliation to Hungary and the Hungarian people. The former is inappropriate, the latter is unacceptable.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Deports 3 Tajiks on Charges of Conducting Terrorist Activities for ISIS
Polish special services have deported three Tajiks after conducting a months-long investigation into a Tajik terrorist group with ties to ISIS who had been operating in the country for several months.
Polish law enforcement initially detained four men in April 2020 in operation conducted by the Polish Border Guard and the Internal Security Agency (ABW).
A fifth member of the group was detained in June 2020, as he had escaped Poland and had to be apprehended with the help of international counter-terrorism services. He had left Poland in December 2019 to travel to Syria to fight as a jihadist. He was also in contact with a member of a terrorist organizations associated with Al-Qaeda.
According to evidence, the group was conscripting Islamic converts to conduct terrorist attacks in Poland. Officers have confirmed that the Tajiks were associated with ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Polish MEP to US Ambassador: ‘We Are Waiting for the Letter in Defense of Murdered Christians’
On Sunday, the website of the US Embassy in Warsaw and some other foreign embassies websites posted an open letter written in solidarity with LGBT activists in Poland.
It was supported by ambassadors from 50 different countries including Belgium, which initiated the letter, along with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Lithuania ,and also Venezuela and Albania. From the Visegrad Four, only the Czech Ambassador signed the letter. No ambassador representing an Arab or Muslim country put their signature to the letter.
US ambassador Georgette Mosbacher was one of the leading figures in representing the letter.
“We would like to express our support for attempts to raise public awareness concerning issues which affect the environments of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, and in intersexual people, as well as other minorities in Poland who faces similar challenges,” the letter reads.
PiS MEP Joachim Brudzinski strongly reacted against the letter. Through social media, he emphasized that people in Poland also do not permit the persecution of minorities.
“This is why we eagerly await another letter, this time in defense of murdered Christians, incarcerated pro-life activists, persecuted and fire people who quote the Bible, and people euthanized against their own will,” he wrote on Twitter in response to Mosbacher.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Court Defenestrates Catalan Leader
Spain’s Supreme Court has barred the regional president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, from holding office because he displayed separatist banners from a government building during Spain’s general election last year. He “repeatedly and stubbornly disobeyed the orders of the Central Electoral Board to remove certain symbols,” the court said. Torra said the ruling violated his “free speech”. His predecessor in the post, Carles Puigdemont, lives in self-exile in Belgium.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Members of Parliament (MPs) will vote on whether to renew the controversial UK Coronavirus Act for another six months.
The vote takes place Wednesday September 30 and, if renewed, it would extend the UK government’s far-reaching digital surveillance powers granted under the Act until 2021.
Under the Coronavirus Act, the UK government can appoint new “temporary Judicial Commissioners” (senior judges that authorize surveillance warrants) and these warrants now only have to be reviewed after 12 days instead of the usual three-day renewal requirement.
UK civil liberties organization Liberty has blasted the UK government for “prioritising secret surveillance during the pandemic, making it even easier to spy on us all.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Police Told Not to Download NHS COVID Tracing App
The UK’s attempt to produce a functional and widely adopted, not to mention efficient app that would track and trace people with coronavirus and alert others of being near them, has had a less than stellar development and launch, to put it mildly.
The app, Test and Trace, churned out by the National Health Service (NHS) initially raised eyebrows when it was announced over its very nature as potentially a privacy and civil liberties-violating tool. It was then delayed, redesigned — incorporating Apple and Google technology, apparently as a way to assuage privacy concerns.
The delay took four months, only to finally be launched recently in what many have reported to be a bug-ridden, half-baked experience.
At this point, you might just be tempted to call it a failure with no further proof needed — but that’s not all the trouble Test and Trace is facing.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Joe Biden was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday by a British anti-Brexit campaigner and Labour MP who claimed the Democrat is a “calming influence” in U.S. politics.
While many Democrat-controlled cities have seen protests, riots, and widespread violence in recent months, Democrat challenger for the presidency Joe Biden has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a left-wing UK politician, Chris Bryant.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Pub Demands “No Extended Eye Contact” As Part of Corona Rules
A pub in London has issued a set of coronavirus rules for social distancing that demands customers do not engage in “extended eye contact” with people sat on other tables.
Yes, really.
An information sheet for the London Fields pub tells customers they must wear a face mask when entering, exiting or moving around the room, along with other standard COVID-19 regulations.
However, the advisory also tells drinkers, “No handshaking, high fiving or extended eye contact with anyone not on your table.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New Normal: MP Urges Mandatory Corona Vaccination to be Allowed to Travel
A Conservative MP has called for mandatory coronavirus vaccination certificates distributed by the Army that will determine whether people will be allowed to travel internationally.
During a debate in the British Parliament last night, MP Tobias Ellwood urged the Prime Minister to have the British Armed Forces oversee that COVID-19 vaccination roll out process.
Noting that a coronavirus vaccine was potentially six months away, Ellwood said, “Mass vaccine roll out is an enormous responsibility and we need to get it right.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teen ‘Developed Extreme ISIS Views and Attempted to Make Homemade Bombs’ In Lockdown
A teenager developed extreme ISIS views and attempted to make homemade bombs during lockdown, a court heard.
The 14-year-old defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly filmed homemade videos telling viewers how he would “carry out Jihad” and “become a martyr”.
He is also accused of creating notes on his iPhone which said “women are tools, an object to be used… a sex slave”.
Leicester Crown Court heard he allegedly researched rudimentary homemade items to make basic bombs and added some to his mother’s Amazon wish-list.
Prosecutors allege the Hampshire teenager made bottle bombs in his wardrobe — adding that notes on his phone had been found with the words: “The extinction of the western race and ethnic cleansing of the colonised land stolen by the western plague.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Videos: Madrid Explodes as Police Violently Crack Down on Anti-Lockdown Protesters
Anti-lockdown protesters in Madrid were met with violence at the hands of police this past weekend, after the local government enacted restrictions in more areas of the capital city.
Restrictions on movement, gatherings of more than six people, and 10pm curfews have been mandated, mostly targeting poorer neighbourhoods where, it is argued, sanitary conditions are worse.
In affected areas, residents are allowed to leave their homes only for work, medical or educational purposes and must carry papers proving that they have been granted permission to do so by the government.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
WHO Failed in Its Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic, Says PM Babis in His UN Speech
In his speech in front of the UN General Assembly, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis called for reform of the UN and other institutions.
According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic showed weaknesses in the cooperation between countries. He mainly criticized the World Health Organization (WHO), which he said failed to give clear recommendations to help countries fight coronavirus.
“Since the founding of the United Nations in 1945, the world has changed. Today, we are facing an extraordinary pandemic situation, which has become a stress test of our ability to coordinate multilateral cooperation. We should not pretend that everything works perfectly. The global system has weaknesses. It is clear that fundamental reform is needed. That is why I see the current health crisis as an opportunity to push through ambitious reforms,” said Babis.
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Turkish Imam Demands Invasion of Cyprus for the Sake of Islam and Mohammed’s Aunty
Ihsan Senocak, one of the leading Turkish imams, promotes the aggressive foreign policy agenda of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging Turkey to occupy the rest of Cyprus as it is the burial site of Islam’s founder, Mohammed.
“The Ottoman navy greeted the Prophet Muhammad’s aunt, Umm Haram (known as Hala Sultan), with gunfire as they passed near Cyprus.
The tomb of Hala Sultan, who participated in the first Muslim expedition to the sea, is under Greek occupation,” said Senocak.
“Let us greet Hala Sultan again and tell her we will be coming soon,” the imam wrote on Twitter, showing a video of Turkish sailors forming the words “Mavi Vatan” (Blue Homeland) on a Turkish frigate.
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Imperial College Model Predicted 68,000 COVID Deaths in Non-Lockdown Belarus. Real Tally: 813
The Daily Mail grapples with the inconvenient fact that free Belarus suffered far less COVID death than COVID-Rouge-occupied Britain
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At Least 29 Killed in Second Day of Heavy Fighting Between Armenia and Azerbaijan
The border clash between Armenia and Azerbaijan continued on Monday, with at least 29 more deaths reported as both sides exchanged rocket and artillery fire.
Observers worried the conflict could escalate into a regional war that brings in larger powers like Russia and Turkey, the latter of which made a public commitment to give Azerbaijan all the help it needs to win.
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Turkish Footprint in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: From Drones to Boots on the Ground
by Alex Kassidiaris
As the decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh is on the verge of a full-scale confrontation, Turkey is seeking to take advantage of the current developments. The problem bequeathed from the early years of the Soviet era — and utterly engineered by Joseph Stalin — has now become another opportunity for the Turkish foreign policy to expand its strategic reach abroad.
Azeri-Turkish Ties and Mutual Interests
Ankara and Baku have traditionally been quite close. Directly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey rushed to establish strong ties with Azerbaijan. It is not only the common ethnic origins between the two countries — considering that the vast majority of Azerbaijani population is of Turkic descent — but also a thriving partnership has been built over the years in the fields of foreign policy, military affairs, energy and finance.
Armenia has historically been a common enemy for both Azerbaijan and Turkey; partly for this reason Ankara crucially stepped in to aid in the military build-up of post-Soviet Azerbaijan. Since the mid-1990s, through military consultants sent to Baku and training abroad facilitated by Ankara, Turkish governments have significantly contributed to the current defense status quo of the country. In 2010 the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and his then Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gül signed a strategic defense pact for mutual support in case of an actof aggression from a third country.
[…]
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China State Media Uses Propaganda on Twitter to Sow Division in the US
China is taking to Twitter to boost the Black Lives Matter movement, using the opportunity to criticize the US.
China Xinhua News, a state-run media outlet that, last year, ran hundreds of ad campaigns on Twitter to promote Hong Kong protestersin a bad light, posted a cartoon image which has three white police officers and a dog chasing a black man, with a policeman yelling “HUNT THAT BLACKIE!” What’s more, the policemen in the cartoon are armed with matchsticks and pitchforks.
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Chinese State Media Argues World Has Been Deceived by ‘American Values’ Of Freedom and Democracy
In an openly tyrannical propaganda attempt, Chinese state media attempted to argue Monday that the world has rejected ‘American values’ of freedom and democracy because they don’t work any more.
Citing nothing more than a few polls out of context, and some leftist opinion columns, communist China’s state-run Global Times argued that the US and other western allies have handled the pandemic badly, and therefore people in those countries are abandoning the idea of freedom.
“Some American people have been proud to promote the American values of democracy and freedom to the world. But now, they find this does not work anymore because the world has changed,” the CCP run paper suggested.
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Growing Coalition Questions Vatican Silence on China’s Human Rights Abuses
ROME — A growing number of human rights advocates and observers are vocally expressing their bewilderment at the Vatican’s silence over the egregious human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Pope Francis and other key Vatican figures have avoided criticizing ongoing violations of religious liberty in China, despite the Holy See’s constant appeals to end such abuses elsewhere.
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Lawyers said Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles should have told the premier federal officials offered Australian Defence Force support in an April 8 exchange.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she’s undaunted by campaigning for tax hikes as the opposition pledges tax cuts as voting begins in New Zealand’s election.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Olivia Muranga attended Cowch Bar in Brisbane’s Southbank the day after having a coronavirus test in June after falling sick following her trip to Melbourne.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A Victorian police officer demanded they throw the sign away despite complying with all the lockdown rules, claiming protesting was banned and their ‘free Melbourne’ sign was illegal.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Welfare recipients will soon have to use facial recognition technology (pictured) to access government benefits like JobSeeker as $250 million is set to be spent to upgrade online systems.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Sex on the Beach is an hour-long documentary which sees reporter Seyi Rhodes travel to the Gambia to investigate the country’s reputation as a destination for British sex tourists.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Ombudsman on Muslim Migrants: ‘We Do Not Want to Have Such Czechs’
In a Facebook post, Czech Ombudsman Stanislav Krecek commented on the matter of Muslim immigrants, who, according to him, are heavily involved in violence against women in France.
“I don’t think we want to have such Czechs,” he wrote, according to Czech news outlet Seznam Zpravy.
Krecek was commenting on an article written by Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) member Ivan David entitled “Men in France attack women for inappropriate clothing”, which was published on the New Republic website. David reported on the case of a 22-year-old student attacked by three men and brutally punched in the face for wearing a short skirt in the French city of Strasbourg.
However, according to David, it is not the French who are insulted by short skirts, but immigrants, specifically Muslims, who are behind the violence against women.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Pakistani Migrant Paris Attacker Revealed to be 25 Not 18
Paris investigators have revealed that the Pakistani migrant who attacked and injured two people outside of the former office of magazine Charlie Hebdo is actually 25 and not 18 as he had previously claimed.
Originally identified as 18-year-old “Hassan Ali,” the man’s true name has been revealed as Zaheer Hassan Mehmood and is 25-years-old. French media have also revealed social media posts prior to the attack showing the 25-year-old calling France a “land of disbelievers”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French police today began destroying an illegal camp full of around 800 migrants hoping to get to Britain on boats costing up to £6,500 a voyage in ‘smooth sea conditions’.
The operation in Calais on Tuesday was the biggest of its kind since the dismantling of the so-called ‘Jungle’ four years ago, and led to 21 arrests.
‘Police accompanied by council staff entered the camp by Calais hospital at around 7am,’ said an eye-witness working for a local refugee charity.
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Italy: Majority of Migrants Rejected for Asylum But Stay in Country Anyway
Italian asylum case figures show an overwhelming majority of migrants coming into the country are not approved for asylum but nearly none of the rejected asylum seekers are actually deported.
Data from the Italian National Asylum Law Commission claims that each month a majority of asylum seekers claims are rejected, such as in July when 73 per cent were rejected and the month before which saw 81 per cent of migrants rejected for asylum status.
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Jobless Migrants Cost Germany Over €6 Billion a Year
Unemployed refugees and their family members cost the German state over €6 billion ($7 billion) annually, according to data obtained from the German Ministry of Labor
The data emerged from the Ministry of Labor in response to an information request from Harald Weyel, the Bundestag representative of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and made available to Junge Freiheit.
Weyel originally asked the federal government what the average monthly costs for the accommodation, care and support of an asylum seeker are. According to the Ministry of Labor, however, this cannot be answered using the data from the regular asylum seeker statistics alone. More precise information could only be given here in relation to the basic social security statistics for job seekers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Over 30 NGO Workers Implicated in Facilitating Illegal Migration by Greek Police
A total of 35 people, 33 of them workers from four separate Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), have been implicated by Greek police in helping to smuggle illegal migrants to the Aegean island of Lesbos.
The 33 NGO workers are said to come from a variety of countries including Austria, Germany, Norway, France, Switzerland and Spain, while two non-NGO workers are said to be migrants from Iran and Pakistan.
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Priti Patel considered building an asylum processing centre on a remote volcanic island in the south Atlantic, it was claimed last night.
Under an extraordinary scheme, the Home Office would ship migrants 4,000 miles from the UK to Ascension Island, a British overseas protectorate.
Ms. Patel abandoned the plan after instructing her officials to drill down into the practicalities of such a project, according to the Financial Times.
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Brexit leader Nigel Farage released footage of illegal migrants “landing under the cover of darkness” at Shakespeare Beach in Dover, England.
The footage appears to show over a dozen mostly male migrants being escorted by local police after they, Mr Farage claimed, had landed on British shores in the early hours of Tuesday.
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Dozens of migrants made it across the English Channel today in small boats for the first time in a week, while asylum seekers claim that the army Kent barracks they are being housed in are overcrowded.
Around 40 people are understood to have been detained as they took advantage of a change in weather conditions to arrive in the UK today.
One boat with 13 people — 11 men and two teenage boys — landed on Shakespeare’s Beach at Dover in Kent with a second understood to have landed further down the coast at Kingsdown near Deal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Adult Swim Censors Episodes That Don’t Pass Today’s “Cultural Filters”
TV network Adult Swim revealed that it removed episodes from series such as The Boondocks, The Shivering Truth, and Hunger Force due to “cultural insensitivities.”
This revelation came to light when Reddit users pointed out the fact that Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s “Shake Like Me” episode was taken down from HBO Max back in June. The episode originally belongs to Season 6 and is an homage to the seminal race text “Black Like Me” by John Howard Griffin.
In the episode, a Black man is turned “stereotypically” Black in terms of his appearance and manner when he gets irradiated by the toxic waste bites Shake. Though the episode was found to be deleted in June, it was available for a short period during August, before it was taken down again.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Social media giant Instagram is promoting images of obese people in the name of ‘body positivity’ while refusing to accept healthy eating ads which include photos that show people with well toned bodies.
Fitness guru Alex Feinberg tweeted about the issue, noting that an ad campaign for weight loss that showed images of his successful dieting program was blocked by Instagram.
The reason given was that the promotional material, “uses images that excessively focus on a person’s body or any given body part,” and that this “can make users feel bad about themselves, and goes against our core value of fostering a positive global community.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Melinda Gates Slams Social Media for Spreading ‘Disinfo’
In a September 2020 interview, Melinda Gates said “It may be time for a reckoning” with social media’s role in spreading disinformation, yet the Gates Foundation has a history of funding disreputable science
What the Gates call “disinformation” and “conspiracy theories” are often information exposing the Gates Foundation’s own disinformation campaigns
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Navy Seals Changes Creed to be Gender-Neutral, Removes “Brotherhood, “ Other Gendered Language
U.S. Navy SEALs and the Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) have recently changed their ethos and creed to be gender-neutral, removing gendered words like “brotherhood.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Polish President Joins Country’s March for Life for the First Time Ever
President Andrzej Duda of Poland became the first president of the Polish Republic to take part in the country’s annual March for Life and Family, which happened last week.
“We are honored that President Andrzej Duda accepted our invitation and took part in the March for Life and Family,” said one of the event organizers, Pawel Ozdoba. “We are happy that Polish families have the most important person in the country as an ally.”
The march drew around 5,000 people and included not only Duda, but also his recent presidential challenger, Krzystof Bosak.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Newspaper Self-Censors After Publishing Article Criticizing LGBT Movement
One of Poland’s leading liberal newspapers removed its own article which strongly criticized LGBT activist Bart Staszewski for his misinformation operation that led foreign media outlets and politicians to believe there were actual “LGBT-free zones” in Poland.
These zones do not in fact exist. Staszewski put up his own “LGBT-free zone” signs in certain Polish municipalities in a campaign that has helped smear Poland’s image internationally.
The newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, has since removed the article written by Piotr Gluchowski from the paper’s website at Wyborcza.pl, which now only displays a “page not found” error.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Progress in France.
Former French PM Manuel Valls, “we must identify Islamism as an enemy”.
Indeed. This backs up the Interior Minister’s identification of the machete attack outside the former Charlie Hebdo offices as “Islamist terrorism”.
The next step: acknowledge that “Islamism” is identical to Islam.
“Czech Ombudsman on Muslim Migrants: ‘We Do Not Want to Have Such Czechs’” This is a refreshing breeze after our previous ombudsman, who was anti-patriotic at all costs.
The problems in Madrid weren’t about anti-lockdown. There were a bunch of crazy commies (not even a thousand) wanting voilence against the conservative local government.
Merkel , Macron favourite “ puppy pets” it’s absolutely disgusting what they did to their own countries and Europe, heartbreaking..