Police cracked down on illegal lockdown-violating gatherings in Alberta, Spain, and Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, the French Interior Ministry has banned outdoor Eid celebrations at the end of Ramadan.
In other news, a large bomb exploded near a girls’ school in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least thirty people and wounding dozens more.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, László, 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.
The opinion editor of the Northwestern University’s student newspaper recently published an article asserting that White people walk awkwardly on sidewalks because of their internalized racism.
“When I first got to Northwestern, I wondered why walking around on campus could be so frustrating. Even when sidewalks were relatively empty, I would often have to walk way around people to pass without bumping into them,” wrote Kenny Allen of The Daily Northwestern, “At first, I chalked it up to the geographic diversity of the school; maybe the people that came to this school were used to different ways of moving through a public place.”
However, after “talking to [his] Black friends about my experience,” Allen concluded that “people at this predominantly White school would not move out of our way on the sidewalk.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
California Reports First-Ever Population Drop
California’s population boom is over.
The state, whose population growth began with the Gold Rush of the 1840s and whose sun-splashed image inspired a mythic reputation of glamour around the world, reported a loss of 182,000 people in 2020.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic League: Joe Biden Nixing God in Prayer Address ‘Inexplicable’
Catholic League president Bill Donohue said Friday that President Joe Biden’s failure to even mention God in his National Day of Prayer address was “inexplicable at best and objectionable at worst.”
What President Biden did was “unprecedented,” Dr. Donohue wrote in a May 7 essay. “No previous president has failed to mention God since the day it was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Harry Truman.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Furious’ Melinda Gates Warned Bill Over Jeffrey Epstein Escapades: Report
Melinda Gates, whose ‘people’ are undoubtedly trying to distance her from Bill’s controversies, was reportedly ‘furious’ after the couple had an uncomfortable 2013 meeting with Jeffrey Epstein — who by then was a convicted pedophile.
People ‘familiar with the matter’ tell the Daily Beast, the previously unreported meeting was held at Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion in September, 2013, the same day the couple was awarded the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service award at the Pierre Hotel, where they were photographed with then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas-Linked CAIR Demands Amazon Drop ‘Islamophobic’ Briefs
I have to admit that Ibrahim “Honest Ibe” Hooper’s headline on this Hamas-linked CAIR press release gave me a start: “CAIR Calls on Amazon to Drop Seller’s Insulting Underwear.” Why, Ibe, someone might almost get the impression that you folks are demanding that Amazon act immodestly! But I know you wouldn’t do that, old pal.
Anyway, the briefs are not yet gone from Amazon, at least as of this writing. However, in the past Amazon has removed material CAIR demanded it remove. And at issue here is more than just underwear that offends Ibrahim Hooper. Hooper and his sinister team are trying to establish and reinforce the precedent that if Hamas-linked CAIR thinks something is “offensive” to Muslims, Amazon will remove it. How long will it be before Hamas-linked CAIR starts demanding that books that criticize jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others also be dropped by Amazon? How long before it will be nearly impossible to obtain material that is considered to contravene Islam’s blasphemy laws, including honest and accurate analysis of the motives and goals of jihad terrorists? Get it while you can.
Meanwhile, over at Amazon you can still get a t-shirt emblazoned “Not, today, Jesus,” with an upside-down cross. You can get a t-shirt mocking the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Friedrich Nietzsche’s God Is Dead. God Remains Dead. And We Have Killed Him. You can still get Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. You can get Christianity Disproved: The conclusive proof that Christianity is false. You can get God Needs To Go: Why Christian Beliefs Fail. You can get All That’s Wrong with the Bible: Contradictions, Absurdities, and More. You can get Four Disturbing Questions with One Simple Answer: Breaking the Spell of Christian Belief. And on and on and on. Material that Christians find insulting is not removed. Nor should it be. But Islamic supremacists, as always, demand special treatment for Islam.
“CAIR Calls on Amazon to Drop Seller’s Insulting Underwear Line Embossed with Islamic Testimony of Faith,” by Ibrahim “Honest Ibe” Hooper, Hamas-linked CAIR, May 7, 2021.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Clinton Backs Online Censorship, Calls for “Global Reckoning” On Big Tech
Hillary Clinton, once a US presidential hopeful whose understanding of technology has often been brought into question, appears to, nevertheless, be quite opinionated about it.
At least, Clinton knows that she wants more, not less online censorship, and is urging authorities around the world to impose regulation that would force Big Tech to become even more restrictive toward their users.
The former Secretary of State is justifying her support for such policy by claiming that the way the internet is policed today is insufficient, thus putting democracy in danger. That’s not a new argument among the proponents of tighter regulation and control of online content, and in her recent interview with The Guardian, Clinton also revealed more of the thinking behind what many will perceive as yet another round of the onslaught against free speech.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
How the New York Times Has Published Lies to Serve a Biased Narrative
April was the month the narratives died.
On April 15, the Biden administration acknowledged there was no evidence that Russia ever offered bounties on American troops in Afghanistan, walking back a report that wounded former President Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2020 election.
Four days later, the Washington, DC, medical examiner revealed that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick had not been murdered by rampaging Trump supporters during the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot, as reports had claimed, but had died of natural causes.
Both stories were based on anonymous, unidentifiable sources, but had become deeply enmeshed in the public consciousness. Both confirmed the assumptions of the nation’s left-leaning media and academic elite, while damaging their political enemies.
And both were driven by The New York Times, where malicious misreporting has been the practice for a century, argues journalist and media commentator Ashley Rindsberg.
“My research churned up not mere errors or inaccuracies but whole-cloth falsehoods,” Rindsberg writes in “The Gray Lady Winked” (Midnight Oil), out now, which examines how the nation’s premier media outlet manipulates what we think is the news.
The “fabrications and distortions” he found in the Times’ coverage of major stories from Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia to Vietnam and the Iraq War “were never the product of simple error,” Rindsberg contends.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Department Seized Phone Records of WaPo Journalists
The Washington Post says that phone records of three journalists working for the outlet in 2017 and reporting about the alleged role of Russia in the 2016 election had been obtained by the US Justice Department.
The phone details in question are toll records — metadata (that doesn’t include the actual content of communications) and can contain the time and duration of a call, source and destination phone numbers, and the like. The reporters were informed in letters sent to them by the Justice Department (DoJ) earlier this month that their toll records had been obtained, while a DoJ spokesperson explained that this happened in 2020.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Left is ‘Stroking Out’ After President Trump Announces Return of MAGA Rallies
The Left will have a real problem in the 2021 elections as the return of President Donald J. Trump’s signature ‘MAGA’ Rallies make a comeback, giving him a massive audience to talk about his endorsements that they can not censor him from.
Jason Miller, one of Trump’s long-time senior advisors, posted on Twitter on Saturday, confirming a story in MIC.Com that laid out the details of the popular campaign events that Trump used in 2016 to change the face of campaigning and politics.
In the article retweeted by Miller, the author Rafi Schwartz decries the power of Trump to mobilize large groups of voters who vote with pinpoint accuracy, assisting the candidates Trump chooses.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The alleged “Boogaloo” movement is portrayed in the media as “right-wing,” but Teeter “told CNN in June that his goal was to protect demonstrators from law enforcement and white supremacists, describing himself as an anarchist.” The Justice Department said: “These defendants sought to use violence against the police, other government officials and government property as part of their desire to overthrow the government. While planning these activities, the defendants met individuals whom they believed to be members of the foreign terrorist group Hamas.”
A man who says he intends to protect Leftist rioters from police and from “white supremacists,” who do exist but in vanishingly smaller numbers than the Left imagines and claims, is not “right-wing.” But the Leftist media establishment needs “right-wing” terrorists to maintain its narrative, so these clowns will do.
“‘Boogaloo Bois’ member pleads guilty in connection with attempt to supply material support to Hamas,” by Alex Nitzberg, Just the News, May 4, 2021.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Months of Mayor Durkan’s Text Messages Go Missing
Nearly 10 months worth of text messages from Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and other city officials have gone missing during the months Seattle experienced numerous demonstrations, the SPD East Precinct was vacated, and the CHOP was constructed.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
N.Y. Woman Threatened With Loss of Custody Over Rock Painted With the Confederate Battle Flag
A rock in a garden could cost a woman her child in a custody battle.
Thursday’s decision by the Fourth Judicial District of the New York Supreme Court (an appellate court) has ruled that a woman in Tompkins County, in upstate New York, risks having her seven-year-old daughter taken from her, euphemistically termed a “change of circumstances,” in a custody battle with the child’s father, if she does not remove a rock from her garden — a rock painted with the Confederate battle flag.
Neither the mother nor the father were fully identified in the court’s ruling, but apparently the mother is white and the father is black, as the child is identified as “multiracial.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nolte: Democrat-Run Chicago’s Police Staffing Crisis Has Detectives Sitting on Street Corners
The police department in the Democrat-run city of Chicago is so under-staffed detectives are being told to put on a uniform and go sit on a salt truck.
Yes, you read that correctly, plain-clothes detectives who are trained and paid to investigate crimes like homicide are being ordered to put on a uniform and “sit in a fixed position or on a street corner, sometimes with a ‘city asset’ such as a salt truck[…]”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
NY Supreme Court Judge Overturns Suspension of Syracuse Fraternity, Says They ‘Did Nothing Wrong’
A New York State Supreme Court judge has reversed Syracuse University’s suspension of a fraternity who was initially punished because a guest yelled a racial slur after being at the fraternity house.
According to Syracuse.com, when the fraternity, Alpha Chi Rho, was suspended in 2019, the chancellor for Syracuse University, Kent Syverud said that “substantial evidence” existed which proved that members and guests of the fraternity engaged in racist activities.
Initially, the Syracuse University Appeals Board reversed the decision to suspend the fraternity, but their ruling was invalidated by E. Dolan Evanovich, SU’s senior vice president of enrollment and the student experience
However, New York Supreme Court Judge Scott DelConte said in his opinion that Syverud was wrong, and Alpha Chi Rho “did nothing wrong.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ohio Republicans censured Rep. Anthony Gonzales this week after he voted in January to impeach President Trump.
Gonzalez is the final representative to be censured in his state.
Then the state Republicans went a step further and called for him to resign!
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi Shares Photo of Wrong Black Player in Botched Attempt to Honor Willie Mays
Say what?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to honor baseball legend Willie Mays for his 90th birthday Thursday, but those plans were initially fouled up after the 81-year-old pol tweeted out a smiling photo of herself — and Willie McCovey.
McCovey, another black Hall of Famer from the San Francisco Giants, also played around the same era as the Say Hey Kid. Pelosi apparently has smiling images of herself with both men and the mistaken photo was swiftly swapped out for a one of her with Mays.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Portland Man Recovering From Beating After Armed Standoff Amid Protest
A Portland handyman remains hospitalized from injuries sustained when he was beaten by a crowd of demonstrators amid an armed standoff with the protest’s self-appointed “security.”
Portland Police are trying to sort out exactly what happened Thursday afternoon that ended up sending Joseph Hall, 53, to the hospital.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
An Iowa State University professor is under fire for a tweet in which she said she tries to limit her interactions with white people “as much as possible.”
The racist comment has made many question whether or not Iowa State University Professor Rita Mookerjee is grading or teaching white students fairly.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ransomware Cyberattack Shuts Down Major US Pipeline, Company Says
A cyberattack has forced the shutdown of a major gas pipeline in the U.S. that supplies 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast.
The cyberattack against Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Houston to Linden, New Jersey, began 7 p.m. on Friday night, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency report reviewed by ABC News.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists Believe These Photos Show Mushrooms on Mars — and Proof of Life
Could there be mushrooms on Mars? In a new paper, an international team of scientists from countries including the U.S., France, and China have gathered and compared photographic evidence they claim shows fungus-like objects growing on the Red Planet.
In their paper, which appears in Scientific Research Publishing’s Advances in Microbiology, the scientists analyze images taken by NASA’s Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, plus the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera. The objects in question show “chalky-white colored spherical shaped specimens,” which the Mars Opportunity team initially said was a mineral called hematite.
Later studies refuted the hematite claim. Soon, some scientists coined the term “Martian mushrooms” to describe the mysterious objects, because of how they resemble lichens and mushrooms, while in another study, fungi and lichen experts classified the spheres as “puffballs” — a white, spherical fungus belonging to the phylum Basidiomycota found on Earth.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Security Cameras Show Protesters Using Dumpster to Damage East Precinct
SEATTLE — Just days after the concrete walls came down, protesters launched a new attack against the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct.
On Thursday night, a dumpster was pushed down a steep ramp to crash into a garage door used by patrol vehicles. The impact caused enough damage to disable the door.
Surveillance cameras show a group of 15 or so demonstrators, dressed entirely in black, gathered on the street outside the precinct. A few can be seen wheeling the dumpster down the street and then launching it at the bay door.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Solidarity’ Priest Jerzy Popieluszko’s Statue Vandalized in New York
The New York statue of father Jerzy Popieluszko, who was the symbol of adamant struggle against communism, has been attacked in an apparent hate crime. The statue, located in the traditionally Polish neighborhood of Greenpoint in New York City, was vandalized by unknown culprits who added a Hitler mustache to the statue, covered it with a black bag and added several anti-Polish slogans and symbols, such as the words “No Polish”.
The incident sparked outrage among the Polish-American community. The Consul General of Poland in New York, Adrian Kubicki, expressed hopes that New York’s authorities will draw proper conclusions from the attack and will ensure that the statue is better protected in the future.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EXCLUSIVE: The St. Louis man who went viral last summer after he and his wife stood an armed vigil on their front lawn as Black Lives Matter protesters marched through their gated community is praising the Kentucky diner seen holding a pistol as shouting demonstrators surrounded him outside a restaurant Saturday.
“He’s got my tremendous respect,” Mark McCloskey told Fox News Wednesday afternoon. “I’ve been saying for 10 months now that that’s what everybody needs to do. They’ve got to stand up for their rights and not get bullied — and that’s what the Second Amendment is there for.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is warning Black Lives Matter and Antifa to stay away from the state or “there will be consequences.”
DeSantis explained that he supports the First Amendment and peaceful protests — but will not tolerate rioters the way liberal states have.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Lockdown Protesters Gather Near Sadlon Arena
BARRIE, ONT. — Barrie’s weekly anti-lockdown protest took on a funfair atmosphere and drew a bigger crowd as it shifted from the downtown core to the parking lot of Sadlon Arena.
“We want to cooperate as much as we can with the Barrie police department,” said organizer Tyler Nicholson. “They suggested that this would be a good place for all parties. Safer for the kids; it’s easier for them to do crowd control.”
In a video statement released Friday, police chief Kimberley Greenwood called the rally “unlawful and irresponsible and…definitely not supported by the Barrie Police Service, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and the City of Barrie.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Calgary Police Arrest Street Preacher, Brother for Violating Public Health Orders
Calgary police have arrested two organizers of a church service who have been defying public health restrictions throughout the pandemic.
On Saturday, Artur and Dawid Pawlowski were charged with organizing an illegal in-person gathering, inciting or inviting others to attend an illegal gathering, as well as promoting and attending the gathering.
Earlier this week, Alberta Health Services obtained a Court of Queen’s Bench Order that applied to gatherings such as protests, demonstrations and rallies.
AHS officials already took action using the order against the Whistle Stop Café in Mirror, Alta., physically closing the restaurant on Wednesday in advance of a planned anti-mask protest. On Saturday, that protest went ahead, and RCMP officers ticketed those leaving the event.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Police Hand Out Tickets to Dozens Leaving Anti-Lockdown Protest in Alberta
MIRROR, Alta. — RCMP ticketed protesters leaving an anti-lockdown rally outside a central Alberta café Saturday, after the establishment was closed by health officials earlier in the week.
Despite pouring rain and a pre-emptive court injunction, hundreds gathered outside the Whistle Stop Café in the hamlet of Mirror, Alta., for the “Save Alberta Campout Protest.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
British Teens to be Taught How to Treat Knife Wounds in Labour-Run Cities
Teenagers as young as 14 will be given field training courses on how to properly treat knife crime victims in three left-leaning cities in Britain.
The Young Responders programme, launched by St John Ambulance, will see teens taught “lifesaving first aid skills” in the Labour Party-run cities of London, Manchester, and Leeds over the next two years.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Activists Block Roads in Switzerland
“I am terrified by the state’s inaction in the ecological disaster,” said a student in the Plainpalais district of Geneva, before his sign was confiscated by police.
Calling their demonstration a ‘‘Rebellion Of One,’’ activists set up single-person roadblocks in about a dozen cities including Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, and Bern.
The demonstrations come one month before citizens go to the polls to decide on a revised national CO2 law.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Macron Accuses ‘The Anglo-Saxons’ In UK and U.S. of Hoarding Vaccines
President Emmanuel Macron turned to rhetoric fit for the Napoleonic era in his latest attempt to deflect blame for French and EU inoculation programme failures, accusing “the Anglo-Saxons” of hoarding vaccines and vaccine ingredients.
“Today, the Anglo-Saxons block many of these ingredients and vaccines,” alleged the staunch European Union loyalist as he arrived in Porto, Portugal, for a meeting of the head of the unelected European Commission with the heads of state and government of the EU member-states to discuss bloc-wide social policy.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French Interior Ministry Bans Outdoor Gatherings for End of Ramadan
The Interior Ministry has ordered prefects across France to ban outdoor gatherings for the Eid celebration that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Chief of Staff to the Minister of the Interior Pierre de Bousquet de Florian ordered the prefects, who act as representatives of the French state to the nation’s counties, to enforce the Wuhan coronavirus lockdown measures and ensure no outdoor gatherings are permitted.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: In Tapolca You Can Rent an Immunized Granny if You Go to the Library!
[Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)]
Doesn’t mum have an immunity certificate? In Tapolca you can get a vaccinated and protected granny to read with!
The Library of Tapolca has come up with a daring idea. From now on, members of the Tapolca Women’s Club with a certificate of immunity can accompany children whose parents have not yet been vaccinated.
The service is available from Tuesday to Friday from 14.00 to 18.00. People under 18 must be accompanied by a person with a certificate of immunity to enter the library.
| — Hat tip: László | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Republic of Iran Envoy Found Guilty of Bomb Plot at Dissident Rally in France Drops Appeal
Assadolah Assadi was found guilty of “attempted terrorism” for “a foiled plot to bomb a 2018 rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a French-based dissident group.”
The NCRI coalition is made up of Iranian dissident groups; the main member is the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), a controversial group that is committed to the overthrow of the regime.
This case further highlights Iran’s readiness and ability to run jihad terror operations inside Western countries. Of course Iran denied involvement, but the Belgian court originally determined that “Assadi ran a state intelligence network and had brought explosives for the Paris plot with him on a commercial flight to Austria from Iran.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Yes, while the Batley Grammar School controversy rages on, another school in Britain has violated Sharia blasphemy laws and shown an image of Muhammad, this time by “mistake.” No one involved in this case seems to be at all concerned about the fact that Britain is not actually under Sharia, and that there might be negative consequences from enforcing one aspect of it, including but not limited to the possibility that there will begin to be calls for the enforcement of other elements of it as well. The British are busy throwing away their freedom with both hands. If there are any free people among historians of the future, they’ll see Tony Blair and David Cameron and Theresa May and Boris Johnson and the rest as the criminals they are, leading their country to ruin for their short-term political gain.
Also, how does an image of Muhammad get “mistakenly” shown? Was this a set-up?
“Muslim parent refuses to send children to school after teacher showed Prophet Mohammed image in assembly,” by Ellen Manning, Yahoo News, May 6, 2021 (thanks to The Religion of Peace).
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Illegal Party in Benahavis With 30 Guests Not Following COVID Measures
Local Police were called to an illegal party last weekend on the Costa del Sol, specifically, a villa in the residential area of Benahavis reports SUR.
The party included a DJ, guests drinking and dancing whilst not wearing masks or following sanitary measures to stop the spread of coronavirus. Neighbours alerted the Local Police upon being disturbed by the noise from the party. Officers saw a large group of people who were, supposedly, not complying with coronavirus regulations, including the capacity allowed, the party was stopped and guests were identified upon leaving the property.
The incident occurred on April 30 and was the second illegal party officers attended that night. Sources from the Professional Union of Municipal Police of Spain, the majority in Benahavis, said of the party “a patrol with two agents” had to intervene and that they found “more than 50 people”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: 13 Charged Over Malmö Riot Following Quran Burning
A Swedish prosecutor has brought charges against 12 men and one woman connected to rioting in August after a copy of the Islamic Quran was burned in Malmö.
The suspects have been charged with various crimes, with three accused of instigating the rioting and 10 others accused of taking part in violent rioting. Three were minors when the incidents took place last year.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Trendy Metropolitan Labour’ Lost Working Class Who Will ‘Will Never Return’, Says Farage
Nigel Farage has said that the “trendy metropolitan” Labour Party has permanently lost the working classes after the Conservatives took Hartlepool from Labour in a by-election.
For the first time since the constituency was formed in 1974, the Brexit-backing, working-class town of Hartlepool in the north of England went from Labour red to Tory blue. The remarkable upset for the Labour Party echoed the outcome of the December 2019 election when vast swathes of the ‘Red Wall’ — areas of industrial England that traditionally vote Labour — voted Tory because Boris Johnson promised to deliver Brexit and Labour pledged a second referendum.
In Hartlepool, the Conservatives won 51.9 per cent of the vote — far more than Labour, which as runner up gained just 28.7 per cent. Labour did not learn its lesson from the last general election, however, because despite the Brexit-backing makeup of the constituency, it chose as its candidate Paul Williams, who campaigned to remain in the EU.
The Tories also had a good night in local elections, with even bellwether constituency Nuneaton seeing a crushing defeat of Labour in its local council.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Labour’s shadow defence secretary said the party had been captured by “a London-based bourgeoisie, with the support of brigades of woke social media warriors” as he quit his post after the historic Hartlepool by-election defeat on Friday.
Labour’s woes intensified on Friday night in the wake of losing another once-safe seat to Boris Johnson’s Conservatives, when Shadow Defence Secretary Khalid Mahmood resigned from party leader Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet, firing a caustic broadside as he did.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Facebook Suspended Anti-Lockdown London Mayoral Candidate David Kurten on Election Day
Facebook suspended London’s mayoral candidate David Kurten on the day of election, for allegedly violating community standards. Kurten and his Heritage Party have been strong opponents of lockdown measures, and have challenged the idea of vaccine passports.
On Thursday morning, the day of the mayoral and assembly elections in London, Facebook suspended Kurten for seven days. The social media network cited five posts dating back to October 2020, which “didn’t follow our Community Standards.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
When citizens of the Sharia-adherent Islamic Emirate of Britain look back at how Sharia came to the sceptered isle, some may recall small incidents like this one.
“Fears over sale of alcohol at ‘intimidated’ shop in crime-hit Alum Rock,” by Tom Dare, BirminghamLive, May 6, 2021.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Abu Dhabi Issues 4,210 Fines, 786 Warnings for Violation of COVID-19 Rules
UAE — A total of 5,067 violations of precautionary measures were detected last week by The Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Committee in Abu Dhabi following intensive inspection campaigns.
The violations included 786 warnings to commercial and food establishments, and the temporary closure of 71 commercial establishments for 14 days, including tailor shops, car garages and accessories shops, barbershops, restaurants and grocery shops.
About 4,210 fines were issued for the violations, including 72 fines for illegal gatherings and 786 warnings to food establishments.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
YouTube is censoring Alexei Navalny’s SmartVote initiative, a project designed to consolidate the votes of those who oppose Russia’s ruling party, United Russia.
Alexei Navalny is Russia’s opposition leader. He has unsuccessfully tried for the seat of president because of inflated criminal charges imposed by the government. He’s currently in prison for violating parole conditions for a 2014 conviction.
In 2018, he launched the Smart Voting project, an effort to steal seats from the ruling United Russia, by consolidating the votes of those who oppose it. Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor (RKN) quickly blacklisted the project’s main website, claiming it violated Russia’s privacy laws.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Engineers Documented How to Make Life-Saving Oxygen. YouTube Deleted the Videos.
India is facing a devastating wave of COVID-19, with millions of new cases over the past two weeks. The spike in cases has overwhelmed hospitals, causing a severe shortage of oxygen.
In response to the shortage, engineers began posting videos on YouTube on how to make oxygen. YouTube has been removing most of those videos, citing safety concerns. However, according to experts, the risks involved are very minimal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Infamous for its unabashed appeasement of Muslims, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) helmed by Mamata Banerjee registered a hat-trick by retaining power for the third time in India’s West Bengal state. As dusk descended on the state — metaphorically and literally — victory became evident for the TMC, as it inched toward the magic numbers. TMC is a party supported by the Muslim voting bloc that had placed Muslim candidates in some major constituencies. These candidates emerged victorious, as the brotherhood is known to vote for their brethren, while the Hindus struggle to overcome the farce called secularism even in such desperate times.
The main opposition party to the TMC, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is often mocked as the party of the Hindus, as the few supporters it depends upon in West Bengal are all Hindus. It was only a matter of time before Bengali Hindus became targets for the cheering and celebrating mobs of TMC cadres, all smeared in green. As the live polling news on satellite channels projected their victory, workers of the TMC, flouting Covid advisories from the Election Commission, held huge rallies in the capital city of Kolkata, right under the nose of the ineffectual city police. Hordes of TMC members headed for a BJP office in the state and allegedly set it ablaze. On May 2, social media was brimming with disturbing images of these arson attacks.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Kabul Attack: Blast Near School Leaves at Least 30 Dead
A blast close to a secondary school in the Afghan capital Kabul has left at least 30 people dead and dozens more injured, officials have said.
The explosion took place as students were leaving the building on Saturday, with pictures on social media showing abandoned school bags in the street.
Most of those hurt were girls, a ministry of education spokeswoman said.
No-one has admitted carrying out the attack in Dasht-e-Barchi — an area often hit by Sunni Islamist militants.
The neighbourhood is home to many from the Hazara minority community, who are of Mongolian and Central Asian descent and are mainly Shia Muslims.
Almost exactly a year ago, a maternity unit at the local hospital was attacked, leaving 24 women, children and babies dead.
The exact target for Saturday’s attack is unclear…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
“And never will the Jews or the Christians approve of you until you follow their religion” (Qur’an 2:120)
What does that say about the prospects for “interfaith dialogue”?
More comments below.
“Malaysia: ‘Christians Are Enemies of Islam,’“ by Jules Gomes, Church Militant, May 5, 2021.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Muslim Rapist Demands Custody of Hindu Minor Who ‘Converted to Islam’ During Rape
Abduction of girls from religious minorities, putting them through cycles of mass rapes and forcing them to embrace Islam is not a new spectacle in Pakistan. What changes is the intensity of the violence and institutionalized deception minorities are made to endure, often with the state’s acknowledgement, in the Islamic country.
The latest victim of Pakistan’s time-tested practice of abduct-rape-convert is Leylan Kohli, a minor Hindu girl. In a video shared widely on social media, the rescued victim alleges that she was abducted and mass-raped for four days by a Muslim named Mohammad Tanveer and his accomplices. The ghastly incident took place in the Sindh province of Pakistan, allegedly in Kot Ghulam Muhammad. Appallingly, the police have neither filed a case nor taken any action against the miscreants.
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Chinese scientists have been preparing for a Third World War fought with biological and genetic weapons including coronavirus for the last six years, according to a document obtained by US investigators.
The bombshell paper, accessed by the US State Department, insists they will be ‘the core weapon for victory’ in such a conflict, even outlining the perfect conditions to release a bioweapon, and documenting the impact it would have on ‘the enemy’s medical system’.
This latest evidence that Beijing considered the military potential of SARS coronaviruses from as early as 2015 has also raised fresh fears over the cause of Covid-19, with some officials still believing the virus could have escaped from a Chinese lab.
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Communist China: World’s Biggest Climate Polluter Keeps Polluting
Communist China, in 2020, built over three times as much new coal power capacity as all other countries in the world combined — the equivalent of more than one large coal plant per week, according to a report released in April by Global Energy Monitor.
Also in 2020, China’s CO2 emissions rose by 1.5% while those of most other countries fell. Although, in 2020, the world retreated from coal, these retirements were eclipsed by China’s new coal plants.
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Basketball superstar Liz Cambage has slammed a lack of diversity in Australia’s Olympic promotional photos and threatened to sit out the Tokyo 2021 Games.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Maureen DeBoick was taken to the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth around two weeks ago by worried family members having recently received her first dose of the jab.
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The 75-year-old, who now goes by the name ‘Regina’, has been living in temporary housing in Yagoona, Sydney’s west.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Group Lodges ‘Hate Speech’ Complaint Against Facebook
All over the West, the Sharia police have a stranglehold on Facebook. Islamic supremacist organizations have worked assiduously to impose Sharia tenets upon the West, enabling the cancel culture to keep on escalating.
“The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network has alleged the social media giant is responsible for direct and indirect discrimination and liable for hate speech under the Racial Discrimination Act.” Aside from the fact that Islam is not a race but a set of beliefs, this group expects to be the arbiter of what constitutes discrimination, and in Islam, anything that offends Islam, Muslims or Muhammad is considered “Islamophobia“ and “hate.”
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A teenager has been fatally stabbed at a youth basketball venue in Melbourne on Friday night with another teenager arrested over the incident.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
General Stephen Townsend, America’s top brass in Africa, warned this week of a new Chinese naval base in Africa that he said would allow it to project power across the Atlantic.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Seychelles Sees Rise in Coronavirus Cases After Widespread Use of Chinese Vaccine
Seychelles reimposes coronavirus emergency procedures as cases rise despite vaccinating much of the populace with China’s Sinopharm.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Uganda’s New Data Tax is Its New Attempt to Curb “Online Gossip”
Uganda late last month introduced excise duty on internet data in a bid to prevent internet users in the African country from bypassing a previous attempt to tax their access to social media.
The Over the Top (OTT) tax was introduced three years ago, with top Ugandan officials saying that the reason was either to bring more money to the state coffers — the explanation offered by the finance minister — or, as the country’s president put it, make what he referred to as “online gossip” more difficult.
But Ugandans started finding a way around the tax by using virtual private networks (VPNs), and eventually in that way brought the scheme down: revenue collected via the tax kept dropping from year to year, as the government kept reducing its expectations — from nearly $78 million in the beginning, to $16.5 million in the tax’s final year.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France Rejects Woke Push to Radically Feminise the French Language in Schools
France’s education ministry rejected leftist demands to radically feminise the French language in schools, which supporters claimed would have fostered a more gender-inclusive society.
Leftists in France have increasingly targetted the grammatical structures of the language itself, with many adding the feminine “e” to the end of words that would not normally have it. The activists claim that by feminising the words, they are making women more “visible”.
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Political commentator, writer, journalist and computer programmer John Derbyshire adapted a poem by Rudyard Kipling. It appears that people here like poetry so I’m going to share it:
The Wokester’s Burden
Take up the wokester’s burden —
Go forth and teach the rules
Of Critical Race Theory
In colleges and schools;
To corporate employees
Whose bosses fear the fate
Of being sued if workers show
They harbor thoughts of hate.
Take up the wokester’s burden —
Armed with the sacred books:
DiAngelo and Kendi.
Fear not the scornful looks.
Make white folk beg forgiveness
For centuries of sin —
Oppression and supremacy
O’er those of darker skin.
Take up the wokester’s burden —
You won’t lack for supports.
The White House is behind you,
And Congress and the courts;
The bureaucrats, the billionaires,
The media and—it’s true —
The FBI, the CIA,
The military too!
Take up the wokester’s burden —
Let not your heart be weak.
When jeering racists mock you
Just turn the other cheek.
History is on your side:
There’s no way you can fail.
Deplorables don’t stand a chance —
We’ll put them all in jail.
“Abduction of girls from religious minorities, putting them through cycles of mass rapes and forcing them to embrace Islam is not a new spectacle in Pakistan” Thus we are witness to the ageis of islam in the Indian subcontinent. Formation of the future pureland for saracens, predicated on “pure” rape. Most likely when saracens no longer have 1st cousins to “marry”
“The opinion editor of the Northwestern University’s student newspaper recently published an article asserting that White people walk awkwardly on sidewalks because of their internalized racism.”—Jesse Jackson must also have internalized his racism, where is that quote of his about, turning around to see white people behind him, causing him to feel relaxed (paraphrased).– There are racists in academia (bluest of blue)? Racists in (bluest) Chicago? Racists in (bluest) Illinois? Who knew? Maybe Asians know/knew?