Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/15/2021

A hitchhiker in Manitoba stabbed and wounded the driver who picked him up, and then fled from the car when the driver managed to pull over. The attacker was still carrying the knife when he was found a little while later by RCMP officers, who shot him dead. The driver he stabbed is in the hospital with non-life-threatening wounds.

In other news, migrants at the border between Poland and Belarus attacked Polish border guards with stones, logs, and metal poles.

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

Thanks to Dean, Insubria, LP, Reader from Chicago, 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.

Financial Crisis
» Federal Reserve to Cut Back on Pandemic Stimulus Amidst Rapid Inflation
» Hungarian Central Bank Increases Interest Rate to Fight Inflation
 
USA
» Bank of America Sues Portland City Commissioner Over Credit Card Debt
» Biden to Americans Concerned That Vaccine Mandates Strip Their Freedom: ‘What’s the Big Deal?’
» Biden Met With ‘Let’s Go, Brandon!’ Jeers in Kentucky
» Critical Race Theory Protesters Target Fort Worth School District’s Racial Equity Work
» DeSantis Pushes Bill That Allows Parent to Sue Schools Over Critical Race Theory
» ESPN Slammed for Rehash of FBI-Debunked ‘Hate Crime’ Involving ‘Noose’ At Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR Garage
» Ex-NYPD and LAPD Boss Bill Bratton: George Soros and Aligned Prosecutors ‘Destroying Criminal Justice System’
» FBI Agents Had Sex With Prostitutes While on Assignment, Lied About it on Polygraph Test
» GETTR to Introduce Video Format That Rivals TikTok
» Google Employees That Don’t Upload Their Vaccination Proof to Central Database Will Lose Their Jobs
» JFK Assassination: National Archives Releases Nearly 1,500 Confidential Documents
» Judge Holds Hospital in Contempt: Give Ivermectin to Dying Woman or Pay $10,000-a-Day Fine
» Packers President Talks About Team’s Nearly $300,000 Donation to Waukesha Parade Victims Following ‘Senseless Tragedy’
» Police Arrest 6 Men Suspected of Targeting Asian Women in Bay Area Robbery Spree
» Poll: Huge Majority of Americans Oppose New Omicron Mandates
» Revealed: The NFL is Funding Antifa-Affiliated ‘Defund the Police’ Group
» Salvation Army Faces Donation Shortage After Going Woke
» San Francisco Mayor Increases Police Funding, Demands Prosecutors Hold Criminals ‘Accountable’ After Arrest
» Shock as Leftists Who Support Deplatforming Actually Get Deplatformed
» The Only Black Juror Opens Up About Jussie Smollett’s Guilty Verdict
» Top Cardiologist Tells Joe Rogan of “Intentional Plot” To Suppress Early COVID Treatments
» Twitter Asks Judge to Dismiss Lawsuit From President Trump
» UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor ‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, Justice’ Earns $325k for ‘Battling Systemic Oppression’
 
Canada
» Hitchhiker Who Allegedly Stabbed Driver Fatally Shot by Manitoba RCMP
 
Europe and the EU
» Czechia Will Reach Climate Targets Only With Nuclear Power, Says MPs
» France: Video: Third Pro Football Player in a Week Experiences Severe Chest Pain During Game
» France Temporarily Closes Radical Hate Mosque After Anti-Christian, Anti-Jewish Sermons
» French Firefighters Attacked While Putting Out Car Blaze
» French Catholics Threatened With Death by Muslims During Procession
» German Leader Says He’s “Chancellor of the Unvaccinated” Despite Supporting Mandatory Vaccinations
» Italian Antitrust Fines Amazon Over 1 Bn Euros
» Italy: Thyssen Victims’ Families ‘Betrayed’ 14 Years After Fire
» Lukashenko Acts Like a Frightened Boy, Says Czech Foreign Minister
» PM Orban in Sopron: Then as Now, Hungary Celebrates ‘Most Loyal City’
» Poland Shows Solidarity With Political Prisoners’ Sentences in Belarus
» Pubs in England Could be Closed by Christmas With New Year Parties Banned, Say Reports
» The Lancet Scolds Those Claiming “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated”
» Two Insulate Britain Protesters Jailed Over M25 Protests as Bristol Vicar Walks Free
» UK Justice Secretary Proposes New Free Speech Law
» UK: Boris Again Reaches for WW2 Imagery to Push COVID Booster Campaign
» UK: Football Club Reduces Stadium Capacity to 9,999 to Avoid COVID Passports
» UK: Liberal Democrats Now Bookies’ Favourites to Win Tory Seat in Special Election: Report
» UK: Moderna Chief Warns Delta and Omicron Could Combine to Create ‘Monster’ Virus
» UK: MPs Told COVID Likely “Engineered” In Wuhan Lab
» Video: New German Chancellor Says There Will be “No Red Lines” As Regards COVID Restrictions
 
Middle East
» No Dogs Allowed? Iran Considers Nationwide Ban on ‘Dangerous, Harmful’ Pets
 
Far East
» China’s Weibo Fined for Not Censoring Fast Enough
» Documents Show Huawei’s Link to China’s Spying in Xinjiang
» NFL Simps for Communist China by Erasing Taiwan From World Map
 
Australia — Pacific
» New Zealand: Vaccine Mandate Protesters March to Parliament
 
Latin America
» Haiti Fuel Tanker Blast Kills Dozens in Cap-Haïtien
 
Immigration
» EU Migration Deal With African Countries is ‘Madness’, Says Hungary’s Foreign Minister
» Italy: 4 Arrested in 1st Case of ‘Urban Gangmastering’
» Latvian Police Arrest People Smuggler Linked to Migrant Deaths in Austria
» Migrant Flashes ‘V for Victory’ Sign as He is Among Another 30 Would-be Refugees Delivered to UK Shore by Border Force Vessel in First Channel Crossings for 10 Days
» Poland: Migrants Attacking Border With ‘Full Aggression’ Using ‘Stones, Logs, Metal Poles as Weapons’
» UK Receives Nearly 90,000 Resettlement Requests From Hong Kong
 

Federal Reserve to Cut Back on Pandemic Stimulus Amidst Rapid Inflation

Federal Reserve policymakers said on Wednesday that they will begin to slow the bond buying it had been using to keep money flowing through the pandemic.

The Fed announced in a Tuesday statement following the conclusion of their two-day meeting that they will be slashing their monthly purchases by twice as much as they had announced last month, according to The New York Times.

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

Hungarian Central Bank Increases Interest Rate to Fight Inflation

The Monetary Council of the Hungarian Central Bank (MNB) further increased its key interest rate by 30 points to 2.4 percent on Tuesday in what it said was an ongoing set of measures to combat rampant inflation.

Central Bank Vice-President Barnabas Virag said protracted inflationary pressures justifies a long series of base rate hikes, with those continuing in 2022.

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

Bank of America Sues Portland City Commissioner Over Credit Card Debt

Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty has been sued by Bank of America over unpaid debt incurred on two of her credit cards.

On Tuesday, news broke that Bank of America had filed a lawsuit against Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. According to KATU2, Hardesty is on the hook for $16,000 for allegedly failing to pay off her credit cards, despite making over $100,000 per year.

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

Biden to Americans Concerned That Vaccine Mandates Strip Their Freedom: ‘What’s the Big Deal?’

President Joe Biden dismissed concerns from Americans on Tuesday that vaccine mandates chip away at their freedoms in an interview with WHIO TV.

WHIO TV 7 reporter John Bedell asked Biden whether he would continue to push forward with vaccine mandates despite an uphill battle in court.

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

Biden Met With ‘Let’s Go, Brandon!’ Jeers in Kentucky

President Biden was met with “Let’s go, Brandon!” jeers while surveying the tornado damage in Kentucky on Wednesday.

Biden was greeted with a Trump flag and someone yelled, “Let’s go, Brandon!” twice after the president stepped out of his motorcade in Mayfield, BBC News correspondent Tara McKelvey reported.

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

Critical Race Theory Protesters Target Fort Worth School District’s Racial Equity Work

Residents packed the Fort Worth school board meeting on Tuesday over critical race theory, targeting the district’s racial equity work.

The meeting’s public comment section included more than 30 speakers and about 100 attendees, with the majority speaking against critical race theory and demanding that Superintendent Kent Scribner resign.

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

DeSantis Pushes Bill That Allows Parent to Sue Schools Over Critical Race Theory

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday escalated his ongoing crusade against “wokeness” and “elites” by pushing a bill that would allow parents to sue school districts if they teach “critical race theory” in classrooms.

The state’s Republican governor — who gained a national following amid his battles over Covid restrictions — also wants the GOP-controlled Legislature to help employees at private corporations that are subjected to what he called “harassment” by being forced to undergo sensitivity and racial awareness training.

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

ESPN Slammed for Rehash of FBI-Debunked ‘Hate Crime’ Involving ‘Noose’ At Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR Garage

ESPN posted a video Tuesday pushing an FBI-debunked “noose” hate crime incident against NASCAR star Bubba Wallace, drawing criticism online of the media outlet’s reframing of the story.

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

Ex-NYPD and LAPD Boss Bill Bratton: George Soros and Aligned Prosecutors ‘Destroying Criminal Justice System’

Left-wing billionaire George Soros and his Open Society foundation are “destroying the criminal justice system in America,” William Bratton — the former top cop in Boston, Los Angeles and New York City — told Fox News on Wednesday, amid an exponential spike in crime in cities nationwide.

However, Bratton said, he is heartened by incoming New York Democratic Mayor-elect Eric Adams and Keechant Sewell, the current Nassau County, N.Y., chief of detectives Adams named to replace current NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea.

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

FBI Agents Had Sex With Prostitutes While on Assignment, Lied About it on Polygraph Test

An investigation conducted by the Department of Justice has found that four FBI agents had sex with prostitutes while on assignment overseas while a fifth attempted to but failed. One of the agents lied about the incidents on a polygraph test.

The discovery goes against the policies on how FBI agents should conduct themselves while on assignment, and policies from the Department of Justice banning employees or agents from paying for sex at any time, according to the Daily Mail.

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

GETTR to Introduce Video Format That Rivals TikTok

GETTR, the new social media platform from President Trump’s former advisor Jason Miller, is working on a feature to compete with TikTok and Instagram Reels in the short-form video space.

GETTR was launched this year in July, as an alternative to Big Tech platforms. The platform is seen as an alternative and competitor to Twitter and Facebook. It is popular among conservatives because of its commitment to free speech.

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

Google Employees That Don’t Upload Their Vaccination Proof to Central Database Will Lose Their Jobs

Google told employees that they will lose pay and eventually get fired if they do not comply with the company’s vaccine rules and upload their vaccination proof to a central database.

Earlier, a group of employees signed a manifesto opposing the rule.

According to a memo to employees, Google’s leadership told employees they had until December 3 to upload documentation showing proof of vaccination to the database.

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

JFK Assassination: National Archives Releases Nearly 1,500 Confidential Documents

The National Archives and Records Administration on Wednesday released nearly 1,500 confidential documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The government agency released the files via their website. Historians, political scholars and believers in a wide range of theories about Kennedy’s assassination immediately began poring over the documents.

Many of the documents relate to Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Many files also reference tensions between the United States and Cuba, evaluating statements from leader Fidel Castro that allude to the possibility of Kennedy being in danger due to escalating aggression between the two nations.

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

Judge Holds Hospital in Contempt: Give Ivermectin to Dying Woman or Pay $10,000-a-Day Fine

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times

After a judge found Virginia’s Fauquier Hospital in contempt of court in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a COVID-19 patient who was denied being prescribed Ivermectin, the hospital said Tuesday that it is complying with the court order.

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

Packers President Talks About Team’s Nearly $300,000 Donation to Waukesha Parade Victims Following ‘Senseless Tragedy’

Packers President Mark Murphy talked about the team’s donation of nearly $300,000 to the Waukesha Christmas parade victims following the “senseless tragedy.”

“We were all heartbroken after the senseless tragedy in Waukesha and we worked with our players to help determine the best way to have an impact as an organization,” Murphy shared in a statement posted Tuesday on Twitter.

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

Police Arrest 6 Men Suspected of Targeting Asian Women in Bay Area Robbery Spree

An organized robbery group has finally been apprehended by authorities in San José. Beyond the standard charges of burglary, officials have designated their actions as hate crimes given the minority community the suspects targeted.

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

Poll: Huge Majority of Americans Oppose New Omicron Mandates

A huge majority of Americans oppose the idea of imposing new restrictions and mandates to address the Omicron variant of COVID-19, according to a Wednesday poll from the Trafalgar Group and Convention of States.

Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed for the poll stated that no new mandates or restrictions are necessary to address the Omicron variant, with 31.1% saying the variant is not a serious health risk and 38.3% saying that restrictions should not be imposed regardless of the variant’s risk. Just over 30% of respondents stated that Omicron is a serious health risk that warrants renewed restrictions, Trafalgar found.

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

Revealed: The NFL is Funding Antifa-Affiliated ‘Defund the Police’ Group

The NFL funds groups that openly advocate for defunding the police. Through the Inspire Change program, funded by the League, the NFL backs the Vera Institute of Justice, the Oregon Justice Resource Center, and the Community Justice Exchange. Each of these support defunding or even abolishing police.

Fox Business uncovered that the NFL gave $300,000 to the Oregon Justice Resource Center, which has called for police defunding as well as other social justice measures. The OJRC has ties to Antifa, with one of their prominent lawyers, Juan Chavez, representing violent Rise City Antifa member Luis Marquez. The organization also represents Cider Riot, the now-closed Portland pub that hosted Antifa events and was the site of a riot in 2019.

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

Salvation Army Faces Donation Shortage After Going Woke

The Salvation Army is facing a shortage of donations and support due to the group’s recent foray into ideological dogma.

On Monday, a local Fox News outlet in Seattle reported that the charitable organization is facing twice as many as families in need, but even fewer volunteers and people are donating.

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

San Francisco Mayor Increases Police Funding, Demands Prosecutors Hold Criminals ‘Accountable’ After Arrest

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on Tuesday that she would no longer allow her city to fall into ruin simply for the sake of the supposedly compassionate policies that governed the city into its decline.

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

Shock as Leftists Who Support Deplatforming Actually Get Deplatformed

Widespread shock as a major social media platform actually enforces its rules against leftists without giving them unfair exemptions.

Amazon-owned Twitch has permanently banned Vaush and given Hasan Piker a one week suspension for repeatedly using the C-word slur.

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

The Only Black Juror Opens Up About Jussie Smollett’s Guilty Verdict

The only black juror in the Jussie Smollett case said he found the case “sad” and said that the actor staged an attack on himself, ABC 7 reported.

Andre Hope was the only black juror in the Jussie Smollett case where Smollett was found guilty for lying to Chicago police after he staged an allegedly racist, homophobic attack on himself, ABC 7 reported. Hope said he has two sons around Smollett’s age and took no pleasure in finding the former “Empire” actor guilty despite overwhelming evidence against him.

“I still have not figured out a motive for why he did, why this had to even happen,” Hope said. “He was a star.”

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

Top Cardiologist Tells Joe Rogan of “Intentional Plot” To Suppress Early COVID Treatments

In a recent appearance with Joe Rogan, Dr. Peter McCullough explained that from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a concerted effort to instill fear and conceal a protocol for early treatment of the disease in order to justify lockdowns and vaccines.

McCullough, former vice chief of internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center and professor at Texas A&M University is one of the most widely cited authors of research in his field — and testified before the US Senate in Nov. 2020. Since coming out against the official pandemic response, McCullough has come under intense scrutiny from the left for spreading ‘medical misinformation’ about the pandemic.

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

Twitter Asks Judge to Dismiss Lawsuit From President Trump

Twitter asked a federal judge to dismiss Trump’s lawsuit over his permanent suspension from the platform for “inciting” the protest at the US Capitol on January 6. Twitter argued that, as a private entity, it did not have host speech it didn’t agree with.

A few months ago, Trump launched lawsuits against the platforms that suspended him following the January 6 protest, including Twitter, which was his favorite platform. He accused Twitter of violating his First Amendment free speech rights and silencing conservative voices.

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

UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor ‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, Justice’ Earns $325k for ‘Battling Systemic Oppression’

The new vice chancellor of “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Injustice” (DEIBJ) at University of California (UC) Berkeley earns a salary of $325,000 to perform duties such as “battling injustices, systemic oppression, racism, sexism — all those things,” she said recently.

In an interview at theSkimm in late September, Dania Matos discussed her new role, explaining she prefers not to “think of it as a career,” but, rather, as “who I am and how I show up”.

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

Hitchhiker Who Allegedly Stabbed Driver Fatally Shot by Manitoba RCMP

Driver who was stabbed taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, RCMP say

A hitchhiker who allegedly stabbed the driver who picked him up was shot and killed by police officers on Wednesday, Manitoba RCMP say.

Mounties were called around 9 a.m. with a report of a stabbing off of Highway 16 in Westbourne, about 100 kilometres west of Winnipeg, police said in a news release.

Investigators believe the man who was driving and a female passenger picked up the hitchhiker, who was walking on the highway.

The hitchhiker then reportedly attacked the driver without provocation, stabbing him. The driver was able to pull over to the side of the road, and the hitchhiker ran away.

The driver is currently in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Several officers from the detachments in Portage la Prairie, Amaranth and Neepawa immediately responded, along with police dog services, the RCMP release said.

Shortly after, police got a tip about a suspicious man attempting to enter vehicles a short distance down the highway, at the junction of Highway 50.

Police found the man and saw he was carrying a knife, RCMP say.

A confrontation ensued and one of the officers shot the man, police said. The release did not provide any other details on the nature of the confrontation prior to the shooting.

Officers provided first aid until local paramedics arrived, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Czechia Will Reach Climate Targets Only With Nuclear Power, Says MPs

Due to geographical conditions, Czechia can meet its climate obligations only with the further use and development of nuclear energy sectors, the Czech lower house of parliament, known as the Chamber of Deputies, stated on Tuesday.

In the approved resolution, the Chamber of Deputies called on the European Union to recognize gas as a transitional energy source and nuclear power as an “enabling” source by the end of this year. According to the candidate for the finance minister post, Zbynek Stanjura, the Czech Senate will also approve this resolution.

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

France: Video: Third Pro Football Player in a Week Experiences Severe Chest Pain During Game

A French professional football (soccer) player had to leave the field of play after just 30 minutes Tuesday night, becoming the third in the space of one week to experience severe chest pains and shortness of breath.

Martin Terrier of Ligue 1 club Rennes was seen clutching his chest, unable to carry on playing after only half an hour of the match against Nice, prompting yet more suggestions that the spate of players suffering such bouts may be linked to them taking COVID vaccines.

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

France Temporarily Closes Radical Hate Mosque After Anti-Christian, Anti-Jewish Sermons

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed on Tuesday that the state would be temporarily closing a mosque in Beauvais following reports that its imam had made hate comments, specifically inciting hatred against Christians, Jews, and gay people.

Interior Minister Darmanin confirm on Tuesday that the prefecture of Oise, just north of Paris, had been notified that the Bilal Mosque in Beauvais would be closed for six months.

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

French Firefighters Attacked While Putting Out Car Blaze

French firefighters were ambushed by a group of assailants while responding to an automobile blaze this weekend, according to reports.

The ambush unfolded at around 4:45 a.m. on Sunday morning in the 12th arrondissement of Marseille.

Emergency responders arrived on the scene of a car fire that had been set intentionally.

While tending to the conflagration, the fire crew was confronted by at least four suspects.

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

French Catholics Threatened With Death by Muslims During Procession

A group of French Catholics in Nanterre faced death threats from a group of Muslims as they engaged in a torchlight procession to celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception last week.

Around 30 or so Roman Catholics took part in the procession on December 8th in honour of the Virgin Mary and were verbally attacked by a group of around a dozen people who threatened to kill the parishioners and the clergy.

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

German Leader Says He’s “Chancellor of the Unvaccinated” Despite Supporting Mandatory Vaccinations

Germany’s new left-wing leader Olaf Scholz has declared himself to be the “chancellor of the unvaccinated,” despite arguing for mandatory vaccinations and calling anti-vaccine passport protesters “disgusting.”

That’s quite the reach.

During an interview with Bild, Scholz asserted that Germany was not divided between the jabbed and the unjabbed, while proclaiming himself to also represent those who have chosen not to be vaccinated.

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

Italian Antitrust Fines Amazon Over 1 Bn Euros

Internet giant allegedly abused dominant position in logistics

(ANSA) — ROME, DEC 9 — The Italian antitrust authority said Thursday that it has issued fines to a series of Amazon companies — Amazon Europe Core S.à r.l., Amazon Services Europe S.à r.l., Amazon EU S.à r.l., Amazon Italia Services S.r.l.and Amazon Italia Logistica S.r.l.- totalling 1.12 billion euros.

The authority said the Internet giant had broken European law by abusing its dominant position to the detriment of competitors in the sector of logistical services for e-commerce.

Amazon said in a statement that it “profoundly” disagreed with a “unjustified and disproportionate” penalty and would appeal.

It said that over half of the annual sales on Amazon in Italy were “generated by small and medium-sized enterprises”.

In a separate case last month, the Italian antitrust authority imposed a fine of 68.7 million euros on Amazon and 134.5 million euros on Apple over restrictions on sellers of Apple and Beats products.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Thyssen Victims’ Families ‘Betrayed’ 14 Years After Fire

‘State must intervene to hold those who fled accountable’

ROME, DEC 6 — The families of victims of a fire at the Thyssenkrupp steelworks in Turin feel betrayed, Rosina Pilati, the mother of Giuseppe Demasi, one of the seven victims, said Monday on the 14th anniversary of the tragedy.

Two German managers are serving five-year terms over the disaster but the families say they should have got longer sentences, and other managers should have been punished too.

“We feel mocked, betrayed by a State we don’t trust anymore”, said Pilati. “Our tragedy has been forgotten, but we can’t forget: the State must intervene so that the horrible people that never asked for forgiveness and fled their responsibility can be punished, the woman said during a ceremony at the Mounmental Cemetery of Turin, at a memorial built to commemorate the seven victims.

The seven workers died in a fire in the night between December 5 and 6, 2007. Two Thyssenjrupp managers, Harald Espenhahn and Gerald Priegnitz, were found guilty of manslaughter charges by a German court and sentenced to five years in prison.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Lukashenko Acts Like a Frightened Boy, Says Czech Foreign Minister

Jakub Kulhanek, the Czech foreign minister, disagrees with the harsh prison sentences for Belarusian opposition activists and politicians. He said it was despicable that the husband of the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. According to Kulhanek, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko acts like a “little frightened boy.”

“Let’s face it, the sentencing of Tsikhanouskaya’s husband to 18 years in prison makes Lukashenko look like a little frightened boy. That and other harsh prison sentences are despicable. The EU should start working on further sanctions,” Kulhanek wrote on Twitter.

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

PM Orban in Sopron: Then as Now, Hungary Celebrates ‘Most Loyal City’

The example of the western Hungarian town that chose to remain in Hungary after the end of World War I remains a shining beacon of patriotism, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday.

“Even after a hundred years, we will come to Sopron to draw strength, as the situation is still difficult today. There is danger in our neighborhood, people are migrating from one continent to another, the country is being hit by a pandemic, and the Goliaths are abusing their power again,” Orban said.

“They want us to forget our millennial history, our culture, and cut ourselves off from our Christian roots. What was once called the Clemenceau Plan, today it is the Soros Plan, which was once the peace around Paris, is now the United States of Europe,” he added.

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

Poland Shows Solidarity With Political Prisoners’ Sentences in Belarus

Polish President Andrzej Duda says he opposes the methods and sentences being meted out against Alexander Lukashenko’s political opposition and protesters.

“I express solidarity with all of the Lukashenko regime’s political prisoners, including those sentenced with Sergei Tikhanovsky during today’s sham trial. I am in awe of the courage of Belarusians whose struggle reminds of our own struggle against the communist regime,” Duda wrote on Twitter.

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

Pubs in England Could be Closed by Christmas With New Year Parties Banned, Say Reports

The Government is reported to be considering closing pubs in England, or restricting numbers allowed in, by Christmas day and putting a stop to New Year parties.

Plan B rules to prevent the spread of Omicron variant Covid are to be voted into law in Parliament on Tuesday.

But the Government is already looking to go further before December 25, according to The Sun.

One MP told The Guardian: “These restrictions are the gateway drug to more serious restrictions down the line. I think we’ll be on Plan X, Y or Z by Christmas.”

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

The Lancet Scolds Those Claiming “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated”

Long before the vast majority of Omicron cases were among the vaccinated, and before CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admitted in early October that the Covid-19 vaccine does not prevent transmission, public officials, MSM pundits, and coffee shop doctors across the land were spouting insidious propaganda designed to shame people into taking the jab.

That this is a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated.’

The phrase implies that the vaccine was a panacea against Covid-19, and anyone who refused to take it wasn’t just part of the problem… but an irresponsible idiot who doesn’t follow the science.

In a late November note, The Lancet published a letter from Günter Kampf, a prolific researcher at the University of Griefswald in Germany.

In it, Kampf absolutely excoriates those calling this a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” amid “increasing evidence that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission.”

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

Two Insulate Britain Protesters Jailed Over M25 Protests as Bristol Vicar Walks Free

Two Insulate Britain protesters have been jailed following protests on the M25.

But Bristol’s now-famous 79-year-old vicar, who has been at the centre of a number of climate demonstrations, walked free from court.

Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Johnson handed down sentences at a High Court hearing in London on Wednesday after National Highways took legal action against protesters.

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

UK Justice Secretary Proposes New Free Speech Law

The UK’s Justice Secretary Dominic Raab is set to introduce a bill that will protect free speech against cancel culture, political correctness, “wokery” and some European-style privacy laws.

In recent times, the courts have been accused of prioritizing privacy over freedom of expression.

Raab described freedom of expression as a “quintessentially British” human right that should be given “extra weight.” He feels that it is being overshadowed by privacy concerns and the rise in wokery and cancel culture.

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

UK: Boris Again Reaches for WW2 Imagery to Push COVID Booster Campaign

The United Kingdom received yet another direct address from the Prime Minister Wednesday evening, with Boris Johnson making a return to wartime metaphors that were so common in the early part of the pandemic, while his top scientist appealed to the public to stop socialising now to enjoy Christmas.

Boasting of the speed at which the United Kingdom was giving third doses, Boris Johnson said from Downing Street on Wednesday that, per capita, British people were thrice-jabbed at a rate twice of that seen in the European Union, and over twice that in the United States. Yet this was still not enough, he said, as “the wave of Omicron continues to roll over our whole of our United Kingdom”.

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

UK: Football Club Reduces Stadium Capacity to 9,999 to Avoid COVID Passports

Carlisle United Football Club has announced it will be reducing its stadium capacity to 9,999 in order to avoid forcing fans to show COVID passports before entry.

Based.

The club made the decision following yesterday’s vote in the House of Commons on vaccine passports, which passed despite a massive Tory rebellion thanks to the “opposition” Labour Party supporting the government.

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

UK: Liberal Democrats Now Bookies’ Favourites to Win Tory Seat in Special Election: Report

The Liberal Democrats are now the bookies’ favourite to win in the Conservative stronghold of North Shropshire in Thursday’s by-election, according to reports, following weeks of allegations that Boris Johnson’s government had broken lockdown rules last winter while the rest of Britain was forced to cancel Christmas gatherings.

The North Shropshire seat, left empty after the resignation of Conservative Brexiteer Owen Paterson over alleged lobbying, had been in the hands of the Tories for all but two of the last 190 years. While having gained close to a 23,000 seat majority in the December 2019 General Election, the Liberal Democrats, which two years ago had finished third with just 10 per cent of the vote, is now the bookmakers’ favourite to claim the seat this week.

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

UK: Moderna Chief Warns Delta and Omicron Could Combine to Create ‘Monster’ Virus

Moderna’s chief medical officer has warned that the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19 could combine to create a ‘monster’ virus.

Here we go again.

Paul Burton made the comments while addressing the House of Commons Technologies and Science Committee members on Tuesday.

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

UK: MPs Told COVID Likely “Engineered” In Wuhan Lab

MPs have been told by experts that a Wuhan lab leak is now “the most likely” origin of COVID-19 and that there’s also a high risk it “was an engineered virus.”

The Telegraph reports on the comments of Dr Alina Chan, a specialist in gene therapy and cell engineering at MIT and Harvard, who was speaking to the Science and Technology Select Committee.

“I think the lab origin is more likely than not. Right now it’s not safe for people who know about the origin of the pandemic to come forward. But we live in an era where there is so much information being stored that it will eventually come out,” said Dr. Chan.

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

Video: New German Chancellor Says There Will be “No Red Lines” As Regards COVID Restrictions

Angela Merkel’s successor in Germany has declared that there is nothing he won’t do to battle COVID, a stark statement given previous pledges to make compulsory vaccinations legal.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz used his first address to the nation in Germany to push vaccinations, declaring that they are the only way Germany can overcome the pandemic.

Scholz added that there would be “no red lines” in the battle against the current wave of COVID, which he declared to be fueled by unvaccinated citizens.

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

No Dogs Allowed? Iran Considers Nationwide Ban on ‘Dangerous, Harmful’ Pets

Iran’s parliament is floating legislation that would ban most household pets in the name of protecting the country from the dangerous influence of “unclean” animals.

Under the bill on the “protection of public rights against dangerous and harmful animals,” prepared by hard-line conservative lawmakers on November 17, Iranians would be barred from owning, breeding, and transporting dogs, cats, rabbits, and other common pets.

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

China’s Weibo Fined for Not Censoring Fast Enough

Twitter-like Chinese social media platform Weibo was hit with a half-million-dollar fine by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). The internet regulator did not specify the content that led to the fine.

Through 2021, the Chinese government has aggressively cracked down on tech companies. The intense crack down followed Alibaba CEO Jack Ma criticizing the government. He has disappeared from the public since.

Tech companies in China have been penalized for allowing “fun culture” to get out of control, anti-competitive practices, promoting excessive consumerism, allowing too much “vulgar” content on their platforms, and getting the youth addicted to video games.

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

Documents Show Huawei’s Link to China’s Spying in Xinjiang

According to leaked documents obtained by The Washington Post, Huawei was involved in building surveillance systems used in the Xinjiang region (where the minority Uighur Muslims live) and technology used for reeducation and labor camps. The documents suggest that the Chinese tech giant is involved in the persecution of ethnic minorities.

The Post said that it got the documents, Powerpoint presentations, from a public Huawei website. The documents have since been removed.

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

NFL Simps for Communist China by Erasing Taiwan From World Map

The USA football organization posted a map in which Taiwan is a part of China in sharing news about international market access.

As for the actual announcement by the American football sports group, the NFL unveiled their international arrangement for 18 teams to 26 international markets in 8 different countries for “at least” the next five years.

An occasion that was interrupted by the political climate of modern times.

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

New Zealand: Vaccine Mandate Protesters March to Parliament

More than 2000 protesters have converged in Wellington to protest vaccine mandates and the traffic light system.

Police and the Wellington City Council will be monitoring the large anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown group as it marches through the capital this morning.

A large number of protesters from the Freedom and Rights Coalition have gathered in Wellington’s Civic Square on Thursday preparing to march to Parliament to protest the traffic light system, vaccine mandates the Government’s plan to vaccinate under-12s from next year.

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

Haiti Fuel Tanker Blast Kills Dozens in Cap-Haïtien

More than 60 people have been killed after a fuel tanker exploded in northern Haiti, officials say.

Reports say the vehicle was involved in an accident in the city of Cap-Haïtien, and the victims had been trying to gather leaking fuel when it ignited.

Local hospitals have been overwhelmed by those injured in the blast.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said the entire Caribbean nation was grieving after the accident, as he declared three days of mourning.

“I learned, with desolation and emotion, the sad news of the explosion last night in Cap-Haïtien,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Pictures posted on social media show an intense blaze at the scene of the accident in Haiti’s second-largest city. One witness described the blast site as “hell”…

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

EU Migration Deal With African Countries is ‘Madness’, Says Hungary’s Foreign Minister

After a session of the EU Foreign Council in Brussels, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjartó remarked while speaking to journalists that the European Union should not make agreements with Africa about how to transfer their citizens to Europe, but about how they can stay in Africa. The minister stated that according to the Hungarian position, Europe should help African countries to create the right conditions for their people to stay in their homelands.

Szijjartó pointed out that, in contrast, the European Commission was negotiating with 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries on “a pro-migration agreement” under the so-called post-Cotonou agreement.

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

Italy: 4 Arrested in 1st Case of ‘Urban Gangmastering’

Pakistanis forced to work 17 hrs straight for a pittance

(ANSA) — ROME, DEC 15 — Italian police on Wednesday arrested four people in Novara in what they called the first Italian probe into urban gangmastering.

Three Pakistani citizens and an Italian were taken into custody on charges of recruiting foreigners abroad, mostly Pakistanis, and forcing them to sleep in small, overcrowded rooms and work for a pittance distributing leaflets in Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria and Val d’Aosta, working for as long as 17 hours straight.

Police seized the old, rusting vans used to transport the men to the cities here they carried out what police called “slave labour”.

Gangmastering is rife among crop pickers and other farm labourers, mostly in southern Italy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Latvian Police Arrest People Smuggler Linked to Migrant Deaths in Austria

A 19-year-old Latvian national has been arrested in Latvia this week as part of an investigation into a people-smuggling gang linked to the deaths of two Syrian migrants in Austria in October.

The 19-year-old is believed to have been the driver of a van that was found along the Austrian-Hungarian border in Burgenland in October, in which police found two dead Syrian migrants. The Latvian is believed to be part of a gang that smuggled primarily Syrians and Afghans to Austria.

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

Migrant Flashes ‘V for Victory’ Sign as He is Among Another 30 Would-be Refugees Delivered to UK Shore by Border Force Vessel in First Channel Crossings for 10 Days

A migrant was pictured flashing the V for victory sign as he was among a group of men detained by Border Force and delivered to UK shores after making the perilous crossing across the English Channel.

The group of around 30 men were brought into the harbour at the Port of Dover in Kent this morning on board the Border Force vessel Hurricane — the first to make it UK waters in more than a week due to bad weather at sea.

They were led up a gangway from the pontoon to the immigration processing facility Tug Haven.

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

Poland: Migrants Attacking Border With ‘Full Aggression’ Using ‘Stones, Logs, Metal Poles as Weapons’

The Polish government says migrants are attacking their border patrol with “full aggression” on the Belarusian frontier, arming themselves with a variety of makeshift weapons.

“Although the numbers [attempting to cross] change, the methods remain the same — migrants, always in groups, encouraged and directly aided by Belarusian services — storm the Polish border with full aggression,” said Stanislaw Zaryn, Director of the National Security Department, in an update on the border crisis received by Breitbart London.

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

UK Receives Nearly 90,000 Resettlement Requests From Hong Kong

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Tuesday announced that the UK Foreign Office had received nearly 90,000 requests for resettlement from Hong Kong residents with British National (Overseas) passports.

The UK, which held control of Hong Kong until 1997, extended the offer of resettlement and eventual full citizenship to BN(O) passport holders and their dependents in January in response to a sweeping national security law that most observers say facilitates harsh crackdowns by Beijing on dissenting voices.

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

21 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/15/2021

  1. Wow, so much in this news feed. Almost too much for my usual sarcastic comments.
    Kudos Baron!
    1) Don’t pick up hitch-hikers. Your mother should have told you that already!
    2) Iran needs dogs! Lets airlift some from the SPCA!
    3) The Visegrad group should buy some nukes! Or make their own!

  2. “Due to geographical conditions, Czechia can meet its climate obligations only with the further use and development of nuclear energy sectors, the Czech lower house of parliament, known as the Chamber of Deputies, stated on Tuesday.”
    Actually, we have many small local historical water power plants and there’s a project to renew this idea and have many smaller sources, rather than a few huge ones. They most don’t influence the environment, as they don’t block the flow of the river fully, and the infrastructure is already established. Another option are solar panels on rooftops, albeit those need strong batteries in our climate. But, you know, it’s harder to relocate money from small and cheap projects, so of course politians promote large scale operation, where a missing million or two (or twenty) won’t be a problem.
    That said, I believe the most reasonable option for us for the next 30-50 years would be coal power plants with a superior filtering system that I’m sure could be established. A current study on ex-excavation sites showed a great number of endangered species, so there are positives the greens don’t want to talk about.

  3. We have transitioned from a high trust society to a low trust society. From the top down, and throughout government.

    We need different architecture, but a different set of leaders is probably easier.

    • We ain’t voting our way out of this mess, that time has come and is long gone, the politicians(spit) are corrupt as the day is long, there hasn’t been any consequences for corruption for over 40 years and is progressively getting worse. What is coming is extreme nationalism on steroids where we of the west are going to go very tribal in very short order.

  4. https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/16/german-man-given-life-sentence-for-driving-into-carnival-crowd

    I’d like to submit this article for the news thread but am not sure where to send it.

    It’s a bit sketchy on details, is about a “German man”, which would, possibly, be like describing me as a “Chinese man” on the grounds that I’d acquired a Chinese passport.

    Who knows? More to the point, it’s not *intended* that we know. Why should the man’s name be secret?

  5. It seems pretty clear that the ‘migrants’ (aka invading barbarians) are trying to provoke a lethal response from the Poles.
    All honors to the Poles for their courage and restraint.

    • Restraint? That is the bloody problem right there, they don’t fear any consequences, therefore those bloody 3rd world savages will push until the response they get will give them nightmares on how it is not nice to make the European man angry, especially those of Slavic origin. Always be in a position where these bloody savages are on their knees licking your boots ,otherwise they will slice your throat. This is from years of experience in 3rd world islamic cesspools. When they fear you, they will respect you.

      • Don’t you worry..
        Do you think that wasn’t ” strong attempts ” from our side before we use ” individual pushbacks” to make them understand that , crossing illegal borders at night, trowing stones , metal objects , wood and insulting words is NOT a good idea when you accounted Polish people ?? Please have a common sense or learn who we are….
        Who you think we Poles are ?..Some Anglo-Saxon ” vaginas” or other multi-culti schmucks ?
        We have our Man Honor supported by heavy fists..

        • Well my good man Mahoooey, if you gave those bloody savages the kissing of your boot and the bitter taste of your mailed fist or the kiss of the butt of your rifle, I’ll hoist a good bourbon in your honor. I know exactly who you Poles are ole boy.

  6. Well done Mathoney.

    I am sure many of us would like to feel proud by serving our country, its just that our countries are not worth saving for invaders.

    • Your country is what you Love..Starting from your wife, children, family friend etc..
      They are Worthy of everything ! including last drop of your blood in the process defending them..
      This is a Duty of real Man..Take care and protect a defenceless, vunerable, sick , abandoned ..
      Than your Life have real meaning ! and you are Worthy of living..

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