Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/15/2021

Rioting and looting continue in parts of South Africa, with the death toll passing 115. According to reports, the army is deploying 25,000 troops in an attempt to contain the unrest. Food and fuel shortages in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are becoming severe, and observers foresee starvation in some areas.

In other news, the education ministry in Ontario is implementing plans to decolonize the teaching of mathematics in the province’s schools.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Dean, DV, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.

USA
» 11 Anti-Mask Protesters Charged After Shutting Down Utah School Board Meeting
» 41 Percent of Baltimore High School Students Earn Below 1.0 GPA: Analysis
» ‘Anti-Critical Race Theory’ Bill Heads to Senate After Teachers Assail it as ‘Censorship’
» Arizona Election Audit: Maricopa County Stonewalling — Will Not Turn Over Routers, Chain of Custody, Ballot Images as Discrepancies Found
» Biden’s Pick for Land Management Leader Has a Record of Eco-Terrorism
» Biden Administration Calls for Big Tech Companies to Censor ‘Health Misinformation’
» Bill Clinton Flew With Epstein Associate Ghislaine Maxwell at Least Two Additional Times
» Breaking: Biden Admin ‘Flagging Problematic Posts’, Putting Pressure on Big Tech to Increase ‘Fact-Checking’ Efforts
» Breaking: Los Angeles County Reimposes Mask Mandate Starting Saturday, Regardless of Vaccination Status
» Brooklyn a Hotbed for Prostitution After ‘Walking While Trans’ Law Repealed: Report
» Chicago to Send Out Mental Health Professionals Instead of Police for Some 911 Calls: Report
» Florida Won’t Tolerate Anti-Cuban Government Protests That Shut Down Roadways, Governor Says
» GOP Senators Demand Answers After 60% of Phones Used by Mueller Probe Go Missing
» New York AG’s Office to Question Cuomo Saturday in Sexual Harassment Investigation
» NFL Plans to Include ‘Black National Anthem’ And Social Justice Agenda in 2021 Season: Report
» North Carolina Henderson County Board of Commissioners Look for New Platform After YouTube Censorship
» Shocking Poll Finds Many American Now Want to Secede From the United States
» ‘Stop CRT’ Bill, Votes in Congress Add to Political Drama Over Critical Race Theory
» The Freedom Phone Promises to Not Censor You or Spy on You
» The Macro Subjectivity of ‘Microagression’ Studies
» The St Nicholas Shrine NYC to be Ready for Sept 11th 2021
» Twitter Held Talks With Biden Administration on How to Suppress ‘Misinformation’
» Unvaccinated Michigan Hospital Workers Expected to Protest Mandates for COVID-19 Vaccine
» Videos: CNN Claims Fox News, Republicans “Killing People” With Anti-Vax “Bull***t”
» Watch: Tucker Carlson Says Mail-in Ballots Were Double Counted in Georgia
 
Canada
» Statistics Canada Says Excess Mortality of Pandemic Responses Are Higher Than COVID-19 Related Deaths
» The New Canadian Curriculum Seeks to ‘Decolonize’ The Way Mathematics is Taught
» Toronto Mayor John Tory Requests Vaccine Passport Development
 
Europe and the EU
» 2 Million French Scramble for Vax Appointments After Macron Pledges Crackdown on Freedoms
» Britons Should Eat Less Meat, Tax Sugar and Salt: UK Govt-Backed Review
» Dutch Crime Journalist Dies After Being Shot in Head in Amsterdam
» Family and Marriage Break Ups Reach Staggering Costs in Poland
» Five Times More Children Committed Suicide Than Died of COVID in First Year of UK Lockdown: Study
» Hungary Says EU Delayed RRF Approval Because of Child Protection Law
» Poland-EU: Legal Dispute Over Judiciary Reform
» ‘Religious Obligation’ UK Mosque Leader Abu Bakr Deghayes Charged With Encouraging Terrorism
» Spanish Populists Demand Government Condemn Cuban Dictatorship
» Survey: 65% of Czechs Today Consider the Epidemic to be Their Biggest Threat
» Sweden: Afghan Man Gets Life Sentence for Stabbing Seven People
» UK Police Force Brags About Arresting 12-Year-Old Boy for Offensive Social Media Messages
» UK: ‘Freedom Day’ Is a Joke
» UK: ‘It’s Not Freedom Day!’: Farage Says Govt Thinks it Owns ‘Our Freedom and Liberty’
» UK: ‘Infringing on Personal Rights’: Music Venue Chiefs Reject Boris’s Call for Vaccine Passports
» UK: Animal Rebellion Block ‘McDonald’s Patty Factory’ In Plant-Based Protest
» UK: Heathrow Passenger Numbers Remain Almost 90% Down From Pre-Pandemic Levels
» UK: Police in Riot Van Visit Home of 12-Year-Old Girl to Check She’s ‘Self-Isolating’
» Vandalism, Hate Crimes Against Christians High in Europe and North America
 
Middle East
» FBI Foils Iranian Intelligence Plot to Kidnap Dissident on American Soil
 
South Asia
» Bishops Demand Answers From Sri Lankan Government on 2019 Church Bombings
» Falsely Saying Hindus Have Pardoned, The Pak Govt to Withdraw Cases Against 350 Accused Muslims in Temple Burning Incident
» India: Blackmailed by a Muslim Youth, Hindu Karateka Girl Ended Her Life as a Victim of ‘Love Jihad’
 
Far East
» Hong Kong is Moving Towards Sharing Its Digital ID System With China
 
Australia — Pacific
» New South Wales Records 97 New COVID Cases Overnight With 29 Active in the Community as Hotspots Explode to More Than 400 — After Crisis Meeting Over Tightening Lockdown Restrictions
» Unmasked: Public Masturbator Who Ejaculated on Glamorous Young Revellers at Music Festivals is Revealed to be a High-Flying Finance Worker — But His Wife is Standing by Him
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» 25,000 Troops Deployed to Quell South Africa Riots, 117 Dead
» Counting the Costs: South Africa Businesses Wrecked by Unrest
» South Africa Violence Continues to Spiral, Causing Food and Fuel Shortages
» South Africa Looting: Government to Deploy 25,000 Troops After Unrest
 
Latin America
» Cuban Protesters Tell Their Stories as Demonstrations Continue in SWFL
» Gov. DeSantis, Florida Officials Say They Can Provide Internet Access to Cuba if White House Agrees
» ‘Horrible’: BLM Issues Statement Supporting Marxist Cuban Tyranny
» Jamaica’s Entertainment Sector Under Heavy Surveillance After 300 Illegal Parties
» Media Frets About Cuban Protesters Spreading COVID-19
» YouTuber Dina Stars Released After Being Accused of ‘Promoting Protests’ In Cuba
 
Immigration
» Almost a Million Migrants Have Apprehended at the Border Since January: Staggering Projections Show More Than the Population of San Francisco Has Already Crossed and There Could be 2m by End of 2021
» EU Commissioner Accuses Belarus of Using Migrants to Blackmail Europe
» Greece Offers Lithuania Support Over Sharp Rise in Migrant Numbers
» Iraq to Probe Migrant Smuggling to Lithuania Via Belarus
» James Kristoffer Miles: Kindness… or Madness? As Priti Patel Eyes Up Denmark’s Controversial New Scheme, Could Sending the UK’s and Europe’s Asylum Seekers to Camps in Africa Stop the Evil Traffickers?
» Lithuanian MPs Call for Tightening Europe’s ‘Too Liberal’ Migration Rules
» Lithuania Asks Greece, Iraq for Help on Migrant Surge From Belarus
» Migrants Try to Enter Spanish City in 2nd Clash in 3 Days
» Migration is Intensifying Again Warns Frontex
» Watch: Tucker Carlson Reveals That ICE is Using Military Resources to ‘Move Illegal Immigrants Secretly’ Around the US
 
Culture Wars
» Allegations of Racism, Transphobia Take Down Boston Pride Organization
» YouTube Censors Dr. Drew (Again) For “Medical Misinformation”
 

11 Anti-Mask Protesters Charged After Shutting Down Utah School Board Meeting

Eleven people were charged with disorderly conduct and disrupting a public meeting this week after they allegedly shut down a school board meeting by protesting mask wearing.

Utah’s Granite School District attempted to hold a school board meeting in May, but during the public comment portion of the meeting, a local woman voiced her disapproval of the district’s rule mandating students to wear masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Several others protesting mask wearing allegedly joined in, cheering her on and chanting, according to The Washington Post.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

41 Percent of Baltimore High School Students Earn Below 1.0 GPA: Analysis

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

An analysis found that a significant number of Baltimore high school students earned below a “D” grade point average during the first three quarters of the 2020—2021 school year.

WBFF’s Project Baltimore’s analysis found that during that time period, 41 percent earned a 1.0-grade point average (GPA) or below. That means more than 8,400 students out of Baltimore City Schools’ 20,500 total population are getting grades below a “D” overall.

The analysis found that 21 percent of city high school students obtained a 3.0 or better GPA—or a “B” average.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Anti-Critical Race Theory’ Bill Heads to Senate After Teachers Assail it as ‘Censorship’

Texas teachers and students denounced a more strict “anti-critical race theory” bill as censorship and anti-civics education at a Senate committee hearing.

The bill will likely reach the full Senate for a vote soon after gaining committee approval Thursday afternoon.

The special session proposal builds off of a bill Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law last month that seeks to ban critical race theory from the classroom. Abbott insisted more could be done to “abolish” the theory from being taught to Texas public school students.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Arizona Election Audit: Maricopa County Stonewalling — Will Not Turn Over Routers, Chain of Custody, Ballot Images as Discrepancies Found

Update (1515ET):

During Thursday’s Arizona Senate hearing, auditors revealed that Maricopa County has refused to turn over necessary items — including routers, chain-of-custody documentation, and images of mail-in ballots. What’s more, 11,326 voters mysteriously appeared on voter rolls after the election, and 74,000 ballots were reportedly received but have no records to back them up.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Biden’s Pick for Land Management Leader Has a Record of Eco-Terrorism

Tracy Stone-Manning, Joe Biden’s new nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management, was under investigation in the late 80s and early 90s for her role in a tree-spiking incident in Idaho.

She was awarded immunity from prosecution in 1993 when she agreed to testify and admit to her role in an eco-terrorist group responsible for what had happened in the 1989 incident where she had written and sent an anonymous letter telling the world a forest near where she lived in Idaho had been seeded with tree spikes.

According to the Daily Caller, Michael Merkley came forward to shed public light on past incidents, when he saw that Stone-Manning claim that she had never been investigated criminally.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Biden Administration Calls for Big Tech Companies to Censor ‘Health Misinformation’

Biden administration Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued an advisory on Thursday that urged big tech companies to “impose clear consequences for accounts that repeatedly violate platform policies.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Bill Clinton Flew With Epstein Associate Ghislaine Maxwell at Least Two Additional Times

A new report today sheds new light on the dealing of Ghislaine Maxwell and the Clinton family during the 2000s. Bill saw Maxwell as a middleman to Epstein, but in return she saw a chance to grow more independently from Jeffrey’s world.

What today’s news boils down to is that there were more than the 26 flights aboard Epstein’s “Lolita Express” jet that happened.

The Daily Mail explained it all, breaking down the newest details from the ‘Chasing Ghislaine’ broadcast by Vicky Ward.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Breaking: Biden Admin ‘Flagging Problematic Posts’, Putting Pressure on Big Tech to Increase ‘Fact-Checking’ Efforts

After Biden administration Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued an advisory urging big tech companies to “impose clear consequences for accounts that repeatedly violate platform policies,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki used it to call for big tech companies to crack down harder on social media users with “fact-checks” on “misinformation.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Breaking: Los Angeles County Reimposes Mask Mandate Starting Saturday, Regardless of Vaccination Status

Los Angeles County announced Thursday afternoon that they are reintroducing their indoor mask mandate for residents regardless of vaccination status.

“The requirement will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. on July 17,” according to Fox News.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Brooklyn a Hotbed for Prostitution After ‘Walking While Trans’ Law Repealed: Report

Over in East New York, Brooklyn it’s a red-light district of nighttime activity. The area’s lenient district attorney threw out warrants and got a judge to dismiss cases involving sex workers.

It signaled pimps they have freedom to work in the open.

In an exclusive for the NY Post, reporters discovered that prostitution is on the rise in the Big Apple. The opening of the piece describes the “cycle” of a sex worker: going from car to car to find a customer, hopping in and driving off to do deeds, and being dropped off back to the street corner to do it all over again.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Chicago to Send Out Mental Health Professionals Instead of Police for Some 911 Calls: Report

The city of Chicago is planning to launch a pilot program in the fall that will send a paramedic and a mental health professional out to respond to 911 calls instead of police.

There are actually two programs slated to launch in the coming months. One will send a mental health expert along with a paramedic for “behavioral health calls.” The other will send a paramedic and a “recovery specialist” for calls related to substance abuse.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chicago municipal government is considering this program — dubbed the “Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement” program — to be a “public health approach” to the 911 system.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Florida Won’t Tolerate Anti-Cuban Government Protests That Shut Down Roadways, Governor Says

MIAMI — Florida won’t tolerate anti-Cuban government protests that shut down major roadways in the Sunshine State, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.

The state’s newly passed “anti-riot law” — known more formally as House Bill 1 — punishes demonstrators who “willfully obstruct the free, convenient, and normal use of a public street, highway or road” by “impeding, hindering, stifling, retarding, or restraining traffic.”

It goes on to say that a pedestrian “endangering the safe movement of vehicles” shall be cited and face punishment.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

GOP Senators Demand Answers After 60% of Phones Used by Mueller Probe Go Missing

Two GOP Senators are demanding answers after 59 out of 96 phones assigned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team appear to have gone missing following their ill-fated investigation into Russian collusion.

Senators Ron Johnson (WI) and Chuck Grassley (IA) fired off a Wednesday letter to the Justice Department after discovering that the DOJ “could not locate 59 of the 96 phones used by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team,” according to a press release on Grassley’s website.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

New York AG’s Office to Question Cuomo Saturday in Sexual Harassment Investigation

New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office is expected to question Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Saturday as part of the probe into sexual harassment allegations against the governor, according to multiple reports.

The New York Times first reported that Joon H. Kim and Anne Lin Clark, the attorneys hired to oversee the investigation, are expected to interview Cuomo, citing people familiar with the probe.

The attorneys in recent weeks have interviewed senior officials in preparation for the questioning, the Times reported. Investigators have also interviewed the women who have accused Cuomo of sexual harassment.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

NFL Plans to Include ‘Black National Anthem’ And Social Justice Agenda in 2021 Season: Report

The National Football League is planning to increase social justice messages and play the Black National Anthem before every game.

The NFL previously played the Black National Anthem, titled “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, before week 1 games in 2020, as BLM was at the forefront of American news, Fox Newsreports.

A report from Front Office Sports shows that they plan to make the black anthem a “prominent part of big league events.” The NFL also plan to increase its social justice messaging during the 2021 season.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

North Carolina Henderson County Board of Commissioners Look for New Platform After YouTube Censorship

Once again YouTube has decided that it has the right to silence elected officials in the US in a bid to prevent them from making their policies and decisions known, particularly concerning COVID.

When North Carolina’ Henderson County Board of Commissioners met to discuss whether to spend taxpayer money to promote Covid vaccination, and decided against the idea, passing a relevant resolution, YouTube was quick to delete the video taken during the meeting.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Shocking Poll Finds Many American Now Want to Secede From the United States

Support for secession is growing among every partisan group in the months following the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol but particularly among southern Republicans, a new poll found.

Bright Line Watch, in conjunction with YouGov, found that citizen support for their state or region to secede from the U.S. is greatest in the South “where support was already highest (and has the greatest historical precedent).” Overall, 37 percent of respondents indicated a “willingness to secede.”

Support among southern Republicans grew from polling conducted in January, which showed 50 percent were in favor of secession. But the number leapt to 66 percent in June.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Stop CRT’ Bill, Votes in Congress Add to Political Drama Over Critical Race Theory

You can now add legislation from a potential 2024 presidential candidate to the growing stack of proposals on Capitol Hill that Republicans are using to signal their opposition to critical race theory.

The “Stop CRT Act” from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., which the senator unveiled Wednesday and is a companion bill to House legislation filed in May, would prohibit federal funds from going to schools that teach students that one race is inherently inferior or superior to another, that someone is inherently oppressive or racist because of his or her racial identity, that America is a fundamentally racist country, or that promote critical race theory in general.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The Freedom Phone Promises to Not Censor You or Spy on You

The Freedom Phone is a newly-announced censorship-free alternative to iOS and Android phones. The phone, which is marketed as a “free speech and privacy first” device, was launched by an early conservative Bitcoin investor Erik Finman and will be available in August.

Political commentator Candace Owens has endorsed the phone that has come as a solution to much censorship on social media and in app stores in recent times.

“I just did a live on Instagram taking everyone through the new FREEDOM PHONE which is now trending,” Candace Owens wrote on Twitter on Wednesday night.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The Macro Subjectivity of ‘Microagression’ Studies

Ever since the most blatant forms of racism and discrimination in America faded, what are called microaggressions have, in the view of leftist academics and social justice activists, taken their place. These are “a form of racism,” the slights and insults that, though subtle and small and typically unconscious, are insulting and harmful to their targets.

As noted by Edward Cantu and Lee Jussim — respectively, a law professor at the University of Missouri and a professor of social psychology at Rutgers — microaggressions are a hot topic, as universities, diversity trainers, and others are “operationalizing” the microaggression idea “as if it were the product of rigorous science.”

But in an exhaustive analysis of the research supporting the “current microaggression construct,” or CMC, Cantu and Jussim find that a microaggression is basically what a microaggression researcher subjectively believes it to be, with almost nothing in the way of scientific evidence that racism is embedded in it or that its alleged victims even see it as racist or harmful.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The St Nicholas Shrine NYC to be Ready for Sept 11th 2021

A CHURCH that was destroyed in the attack of the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001 is to rise from the ashes after a huge fund-raising campaign.

The Greek Orthodox St Nicholas’s was the only church destroyed in the terrorist attack, in which 2606 people were killed and 6000 were injured. No one was in the church at the time.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter Held Talks With Biden Administration on How to Suppress ‘Misinformation’

Twitter officials met on Monday with the US Surgeon General’s Office in order to have a discussion on how to suppress information that goes against the official narrative on topics such as vaccination.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Unvaccinated Michigan Hospital Workers Expected to Protest Mandates for COVID-19 Vaccine

ANN ARBOR (WXYZ) — Over the next two weekends, some Michigan workers in the health care industry are expected to protest mandates by the health systems they work for to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

While public health and medical experts have repeatedly said that COVID-19 vaccines protect against infection and help save lives, some are still saying no to the shots.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Videos: CNN Claims Fox News, Republicans “Killing People” With Anti-Vax “Bull***t”

Fake news channel CNN has claimed that its competition is literally killing people by broadcasting dangerous ‘anti-vax bull***t’ and that both Fox News and Republicans are purposefully trying to increase COVID death statistics in order to make the Biden administration look bad.

CNN’s New Day co-hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar, along with CNN “media analyst” Bill Carter, specifically pointed to Tucker Carlson.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Tucker Carlson Says Mail-in Ballots Were Double Counted in Georgia

Tucker Carlson on Wednesday said that there was possible evidence of voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia.

The first piece of the puzzle was that a warehouse that holds over 140,000 absentee ballots was broken into. “Depending on who you ask, the building contains evidence that either confirms or refutes the claim that voter fraud affected the outcome of the 202o election in the state of Georgia.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Statistics Canada Says Excess Mortality of Pandemic Responses Are Higher Than COVID-19 Related Deaths

Statistics Canada data revealed that more Canadians under 65 died from the “indirect consequences” of pandemic responses than COVID-19.

From the end of March 2020 to the beginning of April 2021, an estimated 62,203 deaths were reported among Canadians aged 0 to 64. This represents 5,535 more deaths than expected in the absence of COVID-19, and after accounting for changes in the population such as ageing. During the same span, there were 1,380 COVID-19-related deaths.

The report, titled Provisional death counts and excess mortality, January 2020 to April 2021, suggests that “the excess mortality is, in large part, related to other factors such as increases in the number deaths attributed to causes associated with substance use and misuse, including unintentional (accidental) poisonings and diseases and conditions related to alcohol consumption.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The New Canadian Curriculum Seeks to ‘Decolonize’ The Way Mathematics is Taught

“Woke” culture in the Canadian province of Ontario influences the way even mathematics is taught. The new curriculum for the ninth-graders wants to “decolonize” mathematics and implement an individualistic approach to the subject. Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announced plans to change the curriculum last year. In a report explaining the changes, the government said that “mathematics has so far served to normalize racism and marginalize non-Eurocentric mathematical knowledge.” However, this passage, along with similar ones, was later deleted.

“Mathematics is often positioned as an objective and pure discipline. However, the content and the context in which it is taught, the mathematicians who are celebrated, and the importance that is placed upon mathematics by society are subjective,” said another deleted paragraph in the report that stated the “vision and goals” of the updated curriculum.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Toronto Mayor John Tory Requests Vaccine Passport Development

Most countries, at least on paper, guarantee equality to all citizens, which is what makes discriminating against those who have not received the Covid vaccine by denying them entry into some venues or preventing them from engaging in certain activities without showing an app such a contentious and divisive move.

Beside the potential to introduce discrimination, other controversial topics around the subject of vaccine “passports” or certificates have to do with confidentiality of medical data, and in Canada, privacy commissioners on both federal and provincial level have already made their concerns known, as have a number of rights groups, like Amnesty International.

But Toronto Mayor John Tory, who floated the idea during a TV appearance on Wednesday, later went on to say that he had “absolutely no idea whatsoever what the controversy is about here.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

2 Million French Scramble for Vax Appointments After Macron Pledges Crackdown on Freedoms

More than two million French people made an appointment for vaccination against the Chinese coronavirus after President Emmanuel Macron threatened to crack down on freedoms for the unvaccinated.

On Monday, Macron promised that in the coming months, Frenchmen will have to use vaccine passports to prove vaccination or natural immunity for everyday activities such as using public transport or going to restaurants as well as going to leisure venues like amusement parks or concerts. Healthcare workers must also be vaccinated.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Britons Should Eat Less Meat, Tax Sugar and Salt: UK Govt-Backed Review

Britons should eat one-third less meat, and salt and sugar must be taxed, according to a review commissioned by the government, which also recommends subsidies from the taxpayer to promote the development of “alternative proteins”, which could include lab-grown meat.

The National Food Strategy also recommended that fruits and vegetables be prescribed like a medication by the National Health Service (NHS) for low-income households with perceived poor diets.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Crime Journalist Dies After Being Shot in Head in Amsterdam

Peter R. de Vries, one of the Netherlands’ best known crime reporters, was shot in the head last week in downtown Amsterdam.

As de Vries was left fighting for his life in a hospital, police detained three suspects, “including a possible shooter”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Family and Marriage Break Ups Reach Staggering Costs in Poland

Doctor Filip Furman spoke on the latest “Cost of marriage and family break ups in Poland” report, which analyzed the consequences of the high cost of families falling apart.

Furman pointed out that the most important conclusion to be drawn from the report in terms what it indicates about the state’s system is that family as an institution has massive intrinsic and economic value. For politicians responsible for family, financial and development policies, such information is incredibly valuable, just as it is for investors and other economic subjects planning long-term development.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Five Times More Children Committed Suicide Than Died of COVID in First Year of UK Lockdown: Study

Nearly five times as many children died of suicide during the first year of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic in the UK than died of the virus itself, research from top British universities has found.

Studies conducted by researchers at University College London, the University of York, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Bristol appeared to confirm the widely held belief that the Wuhan virus does not present an overwhelming risk of death to children.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Says EU Delayed RRF Approval Because of Child Protection Law

Varga wrote that after Hungary adopted the new law — construed by the mainstream media as homophobic — the head of the European Commission unexpectedly delayed the approval of payments to Hungary from the recovery fund.

“Let the facts speak for themselves: as our professional negotiations on the recovery package progressed constructively, Ursula Von der Leyen informally asked for an appointment back in June to visit Hungary to sign the RRF agreement with the government this July. The date had already been set when the Hungarian Parliament voted on the Child Protection Act”, Varga wrote.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Poland-EU: Legal Dispute Over Judiciary Reform

The Polish Constitutional Tribunal has decreed that the provision of the EU Treaty, based on which the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has obliged members to apply interim measures concerning their judiciary, is incompatible with the constitution.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Religious Obligation’ UK Mosque Leader Abu Bakr Deghayes Charged With Encouraging Terrorism

A British mosque leader whose two sons have waged jihad in Syria has been charged with suspicion of encouraging the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Abu Bakr Deghayes, 53, appeared before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, pleading not guilty after being charged by the Counter-Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) and Sussex Police on Monday.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Spanish Populists Demand Government Condemn Cuban Dictatorship

Populist party VOX has demanded the Spanish government condemn the Cuban regime as anti-government protests sweep through the Latin American country.

The VOX parliamentary group produced a motion urging the government to make a “public and resounding denunciation of the repression of peaceful demonstrations, the limitation of freedom of expression, and the violation of human rights in Cuba”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Survey: 65% of Czechs Today Consider the Epidemic to be Their Biggest Threat

In November 2019, four months before the first cases of COVID-19 appeared in the country, 31 percent of people thought the same. For 48 percent of citizens, the biggest real threat today is the global economic crisis, while two years ago the same was stated by 39 percent of people. This is the result from a survey conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CVVM), according to which three other negative events, such as the raw material of the crisis, war, and natural disaster are perceived as major threats by significantly fewer Czechs, about a quarter. Respondents could have marked more than one option.

In terms of security threats, terrorist groups or individuals are at the forefront. However, the number of people who identify them as a major threat to the security of the Czech Republic has fallen since 2019 by five percentage points to 53 percent. More than half of the respondents think the same about international organized crime, but their number has dropped by six percentage points.

Refugees were identified as a major security threat by 47 percent of people. About two-fifths of respondents view radical religious movements and foreign intelligence services as a serious threat.

[Comment: Disappointing. I consider migrants and the European Union as bigger threats.]

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Afghan Man Gets Life Sentence for Stabbing Seven People

Afghan Tamim Sultani was sentenced to life in prison in Sweden on Wednesday for attacking and injuring seven people with a knife in the southern part of the country in March.

The 22-year-old Afghan arrived in Sweden in 2018. During the trial, Tamim Sultani said that he felt bad at the time, that he was angry with one person who “harassed” him. So he went home, took a knife, went to the station in Vetland, and attacked two men at random. He does not remember why he attacked them or how he got to the station at all.

“It was as if my brain had stopped working. I felt very bad mentally,” Sultani said in court.

The attack lasted 18 minutes, during which he managed to stab seven people, three of whom suffered severe injuries. Police arrived after people reported several wounded, according to public television SVT. During the arrest, the attacker was shot in the leg and taken to hospital.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK Police Force Brags About Arresting 12-Year-Old Boy for Offensive Social Media Messages

A police force in the UK faced criticism after it bragged on Twitter about arresting a 12-year-old boy for sending offensive messages on social media.

Following a media-contrived moral panic over racist messages sent to black England footballers after the national team’s Euros defeat to Italy, West Midlands Police jumped at the chance to broadcast that it had taken swift action.

“#ARRESTED| We were alerted to a series of racist messages sent to a footballer today and after looking into them and conducting checks, we have arrested a boy,” stated the tweet. “The 12-year-old from #Solihull has been taken to custody. Thanks to everyone who raised it. Racism won’t be tolerated.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Freedom Day’ Is a Joke

Freedom day!

De facto mask mandates, tracking apps, checkpoints, medical apartheid, police home visits.

Wow, I feel so free!

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘It’s Not Freedom Day!’: Farage Says Govt Thinks it Owns ‘Our Freedom and Liberty’

Brexit leader Nigel Farage has criticised the British government for acting as if it owned Britons’ liberty and warned that Monday will not be the so-called ‘Freedom Day’ as restrictions will certainly return in the autumn.

Recent events in the days since Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the lifting of most restrictions for Monday have dampened the notion that the 19th is a ‘Freedom Day’, with the House of Commons on Tuesday night voting for mandatory vaccinations for care home staff, a move that privacy campaigners have warned could usher in demands from other employers that staff be vaccinated.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Infringing on Personal Rights’: Music Venue Chiefs Reject Boris’s Call for Vaccine Passports

Music and nightclub operators have said that they will not be following Boris Johnson’s advice to introduce the vaccine passport scheme, with one saying the move could be construed as an infringement on peoples’ personal rights.

In Monday night’s announcement that the end of legal restrictions would come on Monday, July 19th, Prime Minister Johnson called on nightclubs and other venues catering to large crowds “to make use of the NHS Covid Pass — which shows proof of vaccination, a recent negative test or natural immunity — as a means of entry” — in other words, domestic vaccine passports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Animal Rebellion Block ‘McDonald’s Patty Factory’ In Plant-Based Protest

Activists have organised a blockade of what they say is McDonald’s only burger-producing factory in the UK.

Around 50 protestors from Animal Rebellion, linked to Extinction Rebellion, are urging people to join them at the camp outside the OSI Food Solutions site in Scunthorpe.

Activists climbed huge bamboo structures in a bid to prevent lorries leaving the site, while others mounted the factory roof and lit flares with one chained to a giant Happy Meal box with a sad face painted on the side.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Heathrow Passenger Numbers Remain Almost 90% Down From Pre-Pandemic Levels

Authored by PA via The Epoch Times

Heathrow passenger numbers remain almost 90 percent down on pre-pandemic levels and significantly lower than EU rival airports, new figures show.

Airport bosses revealed just 957,000 passengers passed through its terminals in June compared with 7,246,157 who used the west London airport in June 2019.

The number of passengers travelling through the airport covers the month where Portugal was moved from the green list of countries to amber and led to widespread fury in the travel sector over the speed of rule changes for travellers.

Following the latest data, Heathrow bosses urged the government to do more to support the sector.

[Comment: The UK had one of the most draconian lockdowns in the West. Why would anyone visit a place with draconian lockdowns, there’s nothing for a tourist to do.]

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Police in Riot Van Visit Home of 12-Year-Old Girl to Check She’s ‘Self-Isolating’

Police in Manchester arrived at a 12-year-old girl’s home in a riot van to check that she was ‘self-isolating’, an action that led the girl to fear she was about to be arrested.

“Officers visited the home of Kathryn Crook in Middleton, Greater Manchester, to check that Charlotte, 12, was adhering to Covid guidance after catching the virus,” reports the Daily Mail.

“Ms Crook, 45, says her daughter was terrified by the experience, alleging the behaviour of Rochdale Public Health Officers and Greater Manchester Police was “inappropriate and heavy-handed.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Vandalism, Hate Crimes Against Christians High in Europe and North America

Located in southwest France, the village of Tasque (pop. 211) boasts a single Catholic church, Eglise Saint-Pierre de Tasque, which until mid-May was closed for restoration. Just days after it reopened, however, vandals ransacked it.

According to a report published by the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe, the vandals desecrated the altar “through inscriptions,” and damaged chandeliers, furniture, and several statues.

The destruction was typical of scores of such incidents that take place every year in Europe, a continent whose record of anti-Christian, anti-Catholic attacks, and hate crimes point to a troubling worldwide rise of the sort of anti-Church intolerance, vandalism, and arson recorded this summer in Canada.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

FBI Foils Iranian Intelligence Plot to Kidnap Dissident on American Soil

During the same week it’s being widely reported that the US and Iran are engaging in prisoner swap negotiations related to the stalled nuclear deal talks in Vienna, it’s been revealed Wednesday that the feds have charged four alleged Iranian intelligence agents for attempting to kidnap a dissident on US soil.

The Associated Press reports that “An Iranian intelligence officer and three alleged members of an Iranian intelligence network have been charged in Manhattan with plotting to kidnap a prominent Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile and take her back to Tehran, authorities said Tuesday.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Bishops Demand Answers From Sri Lankan Government on 2019 Church Bombings

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNS) — Catholic bishops have given Sri Lanka’s government a one-month deadline to answer their letter sent on behalf of victims of the Easter 2019 church bombings, warning that they will begin organizing the faithful to action if their demands for an official explanation are not met.

Declining to say what any “alternative actions” they might take, the bishops and the National Catholic Committee for Justice to Easter Sunday Attack Victims called on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to provide a credible answer to its letter, reported ucanews.com.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Falsely Saying Hindus Have Pardoned, The Pak Govt to Withdraw Cases Against 350 Accused Muslims in Temple Burning Incident

A new trick of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party for artificial communal Harmony. Pakistan govt to withdraw cases against 350 Muslim accused in a temple burning incident, saying Hindus pardoned them. But, …

           — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari [Return to headlines]
 

India: Blackmailed by a Muslim Youth, Hindu Karateka Girl Ended Her Life as a Victim of ‘Love Jihad’

Police arrested Pamela Adhikari’s boyfriend Sheikh Taruf alias Sunny Khan from Galsi, Burdwan, West Bengal.

14-year-old National level karate player Pamela committed suicide as Sunny Khan made her her victim of ‘love jihad’ through blackmailing with the pics of sexual intimacy.

           — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari [Return to headlines]
 

Hong Kong is Moving Towards Sharing Its Digital ID System With China

The Hong Kong government is exploring the use of its digital identification system in mainland China, according to the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO). The plan might affect the adoption of the digital identification system considering Beijing’s ever tightening grip on Hong Kong, decreasing its autonomous status.

Hong Kong’s secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit said that the OGCIO is exploring with relevant authorities in the Mainland and Macao the collaboration opportunities between their identity authentication system and iAM Smart.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

New South Wales Records 97 New COVID Cases Overnight With 29 Active in the Community as Hotspots Explode to More Than 400 — After Crisis Meeting Over Tightening Lockdown Restrictions

The new locally-acquired cases mean the state’s outbreak of the highly-contagious Delta Covid-19 variant that began on June 16 in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has now surged to 1,026 infections.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Unmasked: Public Masturbator Who Ejaculated on Glamorous Young Revellers at Music Festivals is Revealed to be a High-Flying Finance Worker — But His Wife is Standing by Him

Muhammad Khan, 40, pleading guilty to a litany of public masturbation offences including ejaculating on a young woman at St Kilda music festival in Melbourne.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

25,000 Troops Deployed to Quell South Africa Riots, 117 Dead

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — In one of the largest deployments of soldiers since the end of white minority rule, 25,000 South African troops began taking up positions Thursday to help quell weeklong riots sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma. At least 117 people have been killed in the violence, authorities said.

The government said 10,000 soldiers were on the streets by Thursday morning patrolling alongside police, and the South African National Defence Force had also called up all of its reserve force of 12,000 troops.

In a show of strength, a convoy of more than a dozen armored personnel carriers brought soldiers into Gauteng province, South Africa’s most populous, which includes the largest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria.

Buses, trucks, airplanes and helicopters were also being used to move the large deployment of troops to trouble spots in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal province that have seen violence in mainly poor areas…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Counting the Costs: South Africa Businesses Wrecked by Unrest

JOHANNESBURG, July 14 (Reuters) — After losing 53 cars during xenophobic attacks in South Africa in 2019, Johannesburg car dealership owner Okey Uchendu never thought he would see his business destroyed again by civil unrest in less than two years.

Already dealing with the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, Uchendu received a call at midnight on Sunday that his dealership was engulfed in flames as looting and violence, the worst in South Africa for years, escalated, wrecking hundreds of businesses.

“I’m speechless,” the 45-year old told Reuters on Wednesday standing next to 58 burnt cars. “I feel like committing suicide because my livelihood has been taken away from me. I was sitting crying, helpless because I can’t do anything.”

[Comment: The article further down gives the number of businesses destroyed.]

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

South Africa Violence Continues to Spiral, Causing Food and Fuel Shortages

Food and fuel shortages in South Africa have grown so severe amid deadly rioting and looting that some on the front lines are considering cannibalism, according to a report.

“We are on the verge of eating each other,” community leader Nhlanhla Lux told the Financial Times as he and a group of other armed men dug in to defend the Maponya Mall in Soweto from looters.

“The biggest mall that employs the biggest number of people is the one left standing,” the 33-year-old, clad in camouflage and carrying a pistol, told the outlet of the mall. “If it falls, it’s the last elephant.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

South Africa Looting: Government to Deploy 25,000 Troops After Unrest

The South African government plans to deploy 25,000 troops after days of widespread looting and violence.

The military deployment — to counter riots sparked by the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma — would be the biggest since the end of apartheid.

At least 117 people have died and more than 2,000 have been arrested in South Africa’s worst unrest in years.

Hundreds of shops and businesses have been looted and the government says it is acting to prevent food shortages.

Citizens are arming themselves and forming vigilante groups to protect their property from the rampage.

More than 200 incidents of looting and vandalism were recorded on Wednesday, the government said, as the number of troops deployed doubled to 5,000.

But Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said she had submitted a request for the deployment of 25,000 soldiers to the two provinces hit by violence — KwaZulu-Natal, where Durban is located, and Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg…

           — Hat tip: DV [Return to headlines]
 

Cuban Protesters Tell Their Stories as Demonstrations Continue in SWFL

Demonstrators took to the streets across Southwest Florida on Wednesday, speaking out against the injustice in Cuba.

“Liberty. Freedom,” said Maria Davila, who organized both protests. “Human rights. That’s all we’re asking for is human rights for Cuba.”

Davila’s godson is still in Cuba. They’re going on a week without speaking to each other.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Gov. DeSantis, Florida Officials Say They Can Provide Internet Access to Cuba if White House Agrees

MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed the press in Miami Thursday at Congresswoman Maria Salazar’s office.

He was joined by Salazar and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.

The officials said that they have the power to send internet access to Cuba if the White House gives them the green light.

This would allow the people of Cuba to post pictures and updates of what is going on during their fight for freedom.

The officials said at this time, they have made a request and they are waiting on the federal government for the next steps.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Horrible’: BLM Issues Statement Supporting Marxist Cuban Tyranny

The Black Lives Matter organisation has issued a statement clearly aligning itself with the Marxist government’s brutal oppression of the Cuban people throughout the country, prompting widespread backlash but little surprise given that BLM itself was founded by avid Marxists.

Rather than condemning the Cuban regime, the BLM statement blames the U.S. government under president Trump for “inhumane treatment” of the Cuban people.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Jamaica’s Entertainment Sector Under Heavy Surveillance After 300 Illegal Parties

After 300 illegal parties held in less than one month in Jamaica. Jamaica’s Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie said that the entertainment sector should be kept under heavy surveillance to avoid such illegal parties in Jamaica in future.

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie, while speaking in a special meeting of Trelawny Municipal Corporation, said that there had been widespread breaches of the Disaster Risk Management Act by industry organisers since Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced special measures for the reopening of the entertainment sector at the end of June.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Media Frets About Cuban Protesters Spreading COVID-19

Media outlets are fretting about protests in Cuba exacerbating the spread of COVID-19, concerns that were strangely absent during months of violent Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Reuters and other outlets amplified a warning by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which said that Cubans and tourists visiting the Caribbean nation should avoid protest crowds, wear masks and wash their hands regularly.

“The gathering of individuals for protests… increases the risk of transmission, in particular in cases such as Cuba where you have active transmission in many areas over the last week and 34,244 new cases reported,” said Dr. Ciro Ugarte, PAHO’s director of health emergencies.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

YouTuber Dina Stars Released After Being Accused of ‘Promoting Protests’ In Cuba

“I’ve just come in through my front door. I’m fine,” begins a message posted on Instagram on July 14 by Cuban YouTuber Dina Stars, who was arrested a day earlier during a live television interview with a news outlet from Spain.

The Cuban authorities detained Stars, a popular online presence and influencer, for allegedly promoting the protests that swept through the country on Sunday. The protest resulted in dozens of arrests, one confirmed fatality and three days of disruption to Cuba’s internet service, which had been used to organize rallies and to disseminate footage across the globe in an unprecedented challenge to the ruling Communist Party of Cuba and President Manuel Diaz-Canel.

“They arrested me for instigation to commit a crime, for promoting the protests. They didn’t torture me. I am on the side of truth. I am being honest with you. Thank you to everyone who was concerned for me,” Stars said on Wednesday after she had been released.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Almost a Million Migrants Have Apprehended at the Border Since January: Staggering Projections Show More Than the Population of San Francisco Has Already Crossed and There Could be 2m by End of 2021

From January to May, 711,784 migrants were encountered by Customs and Border Protection at the southern border — five times the amount during the same period in 2020 — and the Biden administration is on track to encounter 1 million by the end of July.

CBP’s latest data, released in June, show that there were 180,034 encounters with illegal crossers in May, the highest of any month in the last 20 years. The spike in migration under President Joe Biden’s administration continues to grow with no signs of it coming to a stop any time soon.

The numbers for June have not yet been updated on CBP’s webpage, but pictures emerge at least weekly of groups of hundreds of migrants turning themselves over to U.S. immigration authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border.

[Comment: The start of the migrant rush coincided with the installation of Beijing Biden as President.]

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

EU Commissioner Accuses Belarus of Using Migrants to Blackmail Europe

European Commissioner Ylva Johansson has accused the Belarusian government of blackmailing the European Union and orchestrating mass migration across its border with the bloc.

EU Home Affairs and Migration Commissioner Ylva Johansson made the comments after the recent surge of migrants flowing into Lithuania from Belarus, a number which has reached over 1,600 in the last two months.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Offers Lithuania Support Over Sharp Rise in Migrant Numbers

ATHENS, July 15 (Reuters) — Greece has offered to share its experiences on migrant issues with Lithuania as it handles a sharp rise in the number of people crossing its border, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday, after what he called an “orchestrated effort” by Belarus to pressure its neighbour.

The comments, following a meeting with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte in Athens, come as Lithuanian and EU officials have accused Minsk of using illegal migrants to pressure the European Union because of the bloc’s sanctions.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq to Probe Migrant Smuggling to Lithuania Via Belarus

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein vowed Thursday to investigate the alleged smuggling of Iraqi migrants into EU member Lithuania via Belarus.

At a joint news conference in Baghdad with his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis, Hussein said his government will launch a probe into “the plan to smuggle Iraqis into Europe”.

“We will not accept smugglers in our society,” he said. “It’s our duty to protect our citizens, whether they be inside or outside the country.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

James Kristoffer Miles: Kindness… or Madness? As Priti Patel Eyes Up Denmark’s Controversial New Scheme, Could Sending the UK’s and Europe’s Asylum Seekers to Camps in Africa Stop the Evil Traffickers?

Driving through the African bushland, 40 miles south of the Rwandan capital Kigali, I came across an unexpected feature in the scorched and dusty landscape.

At the top of a hill just outside the tiny village of Gashora — little more than a collection of market stalls, a scattering of shops and a bar — there was a Danish flag on the sign outside a local refugee camp

It was an incongruous sight at the heart of this landlocked, central African country: enough to make me look twice when I spotted it, because that single flag is loaded with symbolism.

It marks the place where Denmark could potentially house and process the applications of refugees and asylum seekers hoping for a new life in our Scandinavian country.

For last year, the Danish ministry for international development contributed 21.6 million Danish kroner (£2.5 million) to an international aid budget to fund the evacuation of 1,500 refugees from war-torn Libya to Rwandan camps, including the one at Gashora.

The refugees had reached Libya from other parts of Africa but were at risk of being caught up in clashes or hit by air strikes, so they were evacuated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), supported by Denmark, in order to be given food and medical treatment in a place of safety.

As a result, Rwanda is seen as the most obvious potential partner as Denmark pursues its strategy of transporting asylum seekers to ‘offshore hubs’ while their applications are considered.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Lithuanian MPs Call for Tightening Europe’s ‘Too Liberal’ Migration Rules

Two Lithuanian parliamentary committees have suggested pushing for tighter EU immigration policies, calling on Lithuania’s foreign ministry to draft proposals and initiate discussions in Brussels, BNS reported.

The initiative comes in reaction to a recent spike in irregular migration to Lithuania.

Vilnius officials have accused the Belarusian government of facilitating migrant smuggling in retaliation to the EU’s sanctions. They have called it a “hybrid attack” on the EU.

The Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK) and the Committee on Foreign Affairs (URK) held a joint sitting on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Lithuania Asks Greece, Iraq for Help on Migrant Surge From Belarus

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has warned that the Baltic nation may continue to experience a “sudden” surge of migrants due to efforts by Belarus to flood it with people from third countries.

Vilnius and the EU have accused Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka of organizing migrant smuggling to punish the Baltic nation for its vocal support of Belarus’s democratic opposition.

On a visit to Athens on July 15, Simonyte said there were “20 times” more people who crossed the border so far this year when compared with 2020 or 2019.

So far this year, Lithuania has detained more than 1,700 migrants arriving from Belarus, compared with 81 for all of 2020. In July alone, 1,100 migrants crossed from Belarus into Lithuania.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Migrants Try to Enter Spanish City in 2nd Clash in 3 Days

MADRID (AP) — More than 100 African men have used grapples and thrown stones at police as they tried to scale a high border fence and enter a tiny Spanish territory in North Africa in the middle of the night. Two Spanish police officers were injured in the incident, which was the second attempt in three days by migrants from Sub-Saharan African countries to enter Melilla illegally. Officials said the large group also used poles and sticks in their concerted effort early Wednesday to reach Spanish soil. They said Moroccan security units also helped fend of the assault. Around 20 migrants made it into Melilla.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Migration is Intensifying Again Warns Frontex

Last year, coronavirus froze not only ordinary travel in Europe but illegal migration as well. Migration is now on the rise again as the measures ease. This was stated by the European Frontex agency, which sees growing numbers of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea, but also in the Balkans. On the contrary, the eastern route through Turkey and Greece is not so widely used.

In June alone, Frontex recorded 11,150 illegal crossings of the European Union’s external border. This is a 69 percent increase compared to the same period last year. A total of 61,000 refugees tried to get into the EU in the first six months of this year. Compared to 2020, this is an increase of 59 percent.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Tucker Carlson Reveals That ICE is Using Military Resources to ‘Move Illegal Immigrants Secretly’ Around the US

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reached out to Tucker Carlson during his Wednesday night broadcast to confirm his report that the US military has been moving illegal immigrants secretly around the country.

At the top of the hour, Carlson reported that “the Biden administration has enlisted the US military to move illegal immigrants secretly around our country. That is happening at Laughlin Air Force base in Texas.”

He said that Lt. Col. Matthew Burrows explained all this to subordinates, and instructed them not to say anything about it. The email, Carlson revealed, reads “Over the next few days, weeks or months, you may see passenger aircraft on our ramp transporting undocumented non-citizens.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Allegations of Racism, Transphobia Take Down Boston Pride Organization

Boston Pride has announced that it will dissolve following multiple allegations of racism, and claims that they ignored transgender people.

In a statement, the organization’s board, which was made up of only white people, apologized for the lack of intersectionality. They also said more work needed to be done, and that they are making way for new leaders who are more attentive to progressive demands.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

YouTube Censors Dr. Drew (Again) For “Medical Misinformation”

US physician and media personality Dr. Drew Pinsky is once again in trouble on YouTube, after one of his videos was removed for allegedly containing medical misinformation.

The video was an episode of one of Pinsky’s podcasts that featured Dr. Ram Yogendra, an anesthesiologist, and following this, he announced that YouTube handed his channel a “two week penalty.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

13 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/15/2021

  1. “Survey: 65% of Czechs Today Consider the Epidemic to be Their Biggest Threat”

    I’m ashamed for my fellow citizens that have been manipulated so hard by the media.

    • No , the biggest threat is EU. And importing this parasites terrorist to Europe!!, that’s the biggest threat ever for our children, grandchildren, it’s so evil what are they doing to Europeans, all this knives stabbing, reaps , murdering, and on and on , and they still coming!!, via Libya, Greece, and now vie Lithuania where another freaking horrific dictator Lukaschenko importing them from Iraq and else where !!, for me that’s the biggest threat..

      • Biggest treat to Europe is German IV EU Reich..and new Commie-Nazi Merkel-Putin pakt..

      • Lukashenko is paying back for the color revolution. Would you rather he let the west loot it, like so many nearby countries? 70% of their economy is state/coop owned. Ripe pickings. Leave them alone. Karma.

        • I think that Lukashenko is doing it partially wrong.
          So he sends Orcs to Europe.
          While our politicians may be OFFICIALLY angry, they are all supporters of the Great Replacement.
          While they may say not so nice things, they are really overjoyed. Now they can import even more Orcs into Europe.
          I wouldnt be surprised if they would send some “donations” to Lukashenkos swiss bank account.

          If he really wanted to hurt Europe (but not the people of Europes countries!) he would do other things.
          Or, as an intelligent Nazi once told a stupid Nazi (long time ago):
          “Yes, you can burn down that asylum seeker hostel – and all the others in Germany. And then again and again. Wont change a thing. Because Rita Sussmuth (was a few years ago the greatest supporter of immigration in the CDU = Merkel party) will call for more immigration.

      • What’s the matter Mark? Your socialist utopia not quite working out for you as you see with your own two eyes that all is collapsing all around you and yet still live in denial? Is that diversity shoved up your backside not quite working out as planned?

        • If the story turns out to be true, I’ll apologise. If it doesn’t, you should.

  2. Survey: 65% of Czechs Today Consider the Epidemic to be Their Biggest Threat
    [Comment: Disappointing. I consider migrants and the European Union as bigger threats.]

    – to be honest, here in the Czech Republic we do not fear the migrants, we don’t want them and they don’t want us, most immigrants are from Slovakia and Ukraine anyway 🙂

    As for the EU and “Russia stance”, Czech Republic is clearly divided, and the division is fueled by our media owned by our prime minister…

    And as far as Covid goes – I probably know only two people who are afraid of it. The remaining 1000 people “just wear masks because they would get fined if they wouldn’t”. 65% of Czechs considering Covid the biggest threat? I call BS on that one.

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