Thousands of Austrians took to the streets today to protest the upcoming vaccine mandate. Meanwhile, undercover police were deployed in Austria to keep an eye on citizens and check their vax passports.
In other news, controversy is swirling around Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson after it became public that she was employing an illegal immigrant who was under a deportation order as a cleaner in her home.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, Fjordman, Insubria, LP, MC, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Real Wages Plummet as Inflation Hits US Recovery
The United States December jobs report shows that the labor market remains weak.
The headline 3.9% unemployment rate looks positive, but job creation fell significantly below consensus, at 199,000 in December versus a consensus estimate of 450,000.
The weak jobs figure should be viewed in the context of the largest stimulus plan in recent history. With massive monetary and fiscal support and a government deficit of $2.77 trillion, the second highest on record, job creation falls significantly short of previous recoveries and the employment situation is significantly worse than it was in 2019.
The most alarming datapoint is that real wages are plummeting. Average hourly earnings have risen 4.7% in 2021, but inflation is 6.8%, sending real wages to negative territory and the worst reading since 2011.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
16 Ivy League and Elite Universities Sued for Alleged Financial Aid Conspiracy
Sixteen Ivy League and elite U.S. universities were sued in federal court for allegedly illegally conspiring to eliminate competitive financial aid offers to students in a price fixing scheme.
The suit alleges the conspiracy artificially inflated the cost of attendance for all students receiving financial aid and resulted in the overcharging of “over 170,000 financial-aid recipients by at least hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The demand for a class action jury trial, filed on Sunday in an Illinois federal court by five former Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Duke University students, seeks to compensate people who received financial aid packages that did not fully cover the cost of tuition, room and board from one of the 16 self-described “need-blind” universities since 2003.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent a letter to Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, saying that quoting the Bible on social media was unconstitutional and demands the removal of the posts. The Republican governor quotes the scripture on his Twitter and Facebook accounts every Sunday.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a lobbying group that focuses on ensuring that religion is not a factor in public policy.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Andy Ngo’s Lawsuit Against Antifa Moves Forward in Legal Victory
The Oregon State Court of Appeals denied an Antifa member’s request to stop journalist Andy Ngo’s lawsuit against Rose City Antifa from being amended.
Defendant and appellant Benjamin Bolen, an Antifa extremist accused of assaulting Ngo at a Portland May Day riot in 2019, had appealed a limited judgement denying his special motion to strike and sought review of the trial court’s order granting motion for leave to amend his complaint.
“BOOM! Update on my lawsuit against #Antifa: Oregon Court of Appeals denied defendant Benjamin Bolen’s request to stop the lawsuit from being amended (stay tuned for updates). Bolen, an Antifa member who assaulted me, also recently pleaded guilty to assaulting a federal officer,” Ngo tweeted Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Battery Explodes, Causes Fire After Car Crashes Into House; 2 Injured
MIDDLE RIVER, Md. — A car crash into a home has caused a fire in Middle River Monday morning.
According to Cpt. Glen Stewart of Baltimore County Fire, around 8:46 a.m., Baltimore County Fire received a report of a car into a house at the end of a cul-de-sac as well as calls from people saying they heard explosions. Fire crews arrived to a heavy fire and within minutes were able to put water on the fire to get a good bulk of the fire knocked down.
A small, compact vehicle in the house. The explosions people heard were from the car exploding. It ignited the first and second floors of the house on fire. Gas cans in the garage also exploded. High winds made the fire worse. The fire melted the siding of the house to the left of the home as well.
“Once the car ignited, at some point it exploded. We believe it was the battery, because it’s a hybrid vehicle. Once that car exploded, it caught most of the house on fire,” Stewart said.
Initial reports were the car that hit the house at a high rate of speed, seen on one of the door cams and hit the front of the dwelling. No one inside house at the time. Two people in the vehicle were transported to area hospitals. One with serious injury went to Bayview the other with non-life threatening injuries was sent to Franklin Square…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Tucker Carlson Joins Alex Jones, Joe Rogan on GETTR
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has joined Infowars radio host Alex Jones and podcasting giant Joe Rogan on the growing alternative media platform GETTR.
Carlson’s move to GETTR comes amid Big Tech’s heightened censorship campaign against people with large followings who raise alarm on establishment-approved talking points regarding Covid lockdowns, vaccines and more.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Jim Jordan Will Not Comply With Jan 6 Committee Request
Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan has responded to Chairman Bennie Thompson of the Jan. 6 committee and declined to comply with their ask for him to cooperate with their investigation. “This request is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry,” Jordan told Thompson, “violates core Constitutional principles, and would further erode legislative norms.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Californians Fleeing for Texas, Florida So Quickly U-Haul Runs Out of Moving Trucks for Them
U-Haul recently released a report which showed that there is a severe shortage of vehicles available for customers moving out of California and fleeing for the free states of Texas and Florida due to sharply-increased demand.
The report, which found that migration to southern states continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, indicated that the majority of moves using the company’s services was to Texas, the top destination. California and Illinois ranked as the states with the greatest one-way net loss of U-Haul trucks, according to the report.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
CDC Says ‘Over 75 Percent’ of COVID Deaths Were in Those With ‘At Least 4 Comorbidities’
Speaking to Good Morning America, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky confirmed that “the overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities, so these are people who were unwell to begin with.”
These comments come as questions are being raised about the data collected and parsed by the CDC, with concerns about the gap between those who died with COVID as opposed to those who died because of COVID. There have been concerns that those who died from other causes, but also had COVID at the time of death, have had their deaths attributed to COVID.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chicago Public Schools Cancels Class Monday as Impasse With CTU Reaches 2nd Week
CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago Public Schools has canceled classes again for Monday as the standoff with the Chicago Teachers Union over COVID protocols, with the head of CTU accusing Mayor Lori Lightfoot of being “relentlessly stubborn.”
“The mayor said she will be relentless and prosecuting a case, but the mayor is not a prosecutor and I’m not a criminal being prosecuted,” said CTU president Jesse Sharkey.
Monday marks the fourth straight day CPS students have been out of class. Mayor Lori Lightfoot spoke confidently all weekend about reaching a deal, but no agreement has been reached despite both sides negotiating overnight.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
An appeal filed by a Pennsylvania student who got expelled from school for a social media post made off campus has been accepted by the US state’s Commonwealth Court.
The court said unanimously that the school district’s 2018 decision violated the First Amendment rights of the student, “G.S.”
We obtained a copy of the ruling for you here.
G.S. was 16 and not only off campus but also out of state, in New Jersey for the Easter holiday, when he, using his own phone, cited a death metal band’s lyrics on his Snapchat account.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
At least 236 colleges or universities have some form of mandatory student training of coursework on ideas related to critical race theory (CRT), according to a database with information from more than 500 institutions.
Among those are 149 institutions that have some form of mandatory faculty or staff training, with 138 mandating school-wide curricular requirements. CriticalRace.org, which compiles the research, told Fox News that these programs focus on concepts like “anti-racism,” “equity,” “implicit bias” and CRT — all of which have fueled national debate over left-wing influences in education.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Dan Bongino Racks Up Over 2M Rumble Subscribers
The Dan Bongino Show’s Rumble channel has reached more than two million subscribers. The number is more than twice the number of subscribers the show has on YouTube as some big names are starting to pull viewers from YouTube to Rumble.
Bongino is the host of a nationally syndicated radio show and also has a show on Fox News.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) — When Florida lawmakers start the annual 60-day legislative session on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis will be pushing an agenda which includes cementing in law a prohibition on teaching critical race theory in Florida classrooms.
During a nationally televised interview on Fox News’ “Life, Liberty & Levin,” which aired Sunday night, DeSantis said those in favor of critical race theory “want kids to hate this country. They want them to reject our founding, our institutions, and they want to replace that with their leftist ideology, which would obviously be disastrous for this country’s future,” he told host Mark Levin.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook’s Former Public Policy Director for Elections Suggests More Censorship is Needed
Former Facebook public policy director for global elections Katie Harbath says social media and tech platforms might lead to future political violence.
“I still believe social media has done more good than harm in politics, but it’s close,” she said to the WSJ. “Maybe it’s 52-48—and trending south.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Joe Rogan Slams ‘Yellow Journalism’ Of CNN, Accuses Network of Altering Footage of Him
Joe Rogan has accused CNN of doctoring a video of himself from last year in which the podcast giant announced that he had COVID.
Rogan posted a side by side comparison of the original video where he stated that he had ‘thrown the kitchen sink’ at the virus by taking Ivermectin and having monoclonal antibody treatment.
The CNN footage has a completely different hue, and it makes Rogan look more sickly.
He posted the video with the caption “Yellow Journalism” and “#fakenews.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Massachusetts Officer Stabbed in Face, Shoots, Kills Suspect
Two Springfield officers responded to reports of a man with a knife who had threatened a victim at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday
A Massachusetts police officer shot and killed a man who had stabbed him in the face, officials said.
Two Springfield officers responded to reports of a man with a knife who had threatened a victim at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Springfield police said in a statement.
“The suspect, an adult male, then stabbed one of the two responding officers in the face,” police said. “The suspect then again charged towards the officers with his knife in hand and the officer who was stabbed in the face fired two shots from his service pistol striking the suspect.”
The man was “told multiple times to drop the weapon,” Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood said at a Sunday news conference.
The man was treated at the scene before being taken to Baystate Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, police said. The officer was taken to the same hospital with what were described as “serious, non-life threatening injuries.”
No names were made public, but the injured officer was described as a nine-year department veteran and a military veteran, a department spokesperson told Masslive.com…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Matt Gaetz Calls on DeSantis to Clamp Down on 30a Songwriters Festival Over Vaccine Passports
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis to inform him of a blatant violation of the state’s executive order against vaccine passports.
Under Florida’s Executive Order 21-81, entities such as private companies are allowed to engage in COVID-19 screening, generally, but it does not permit different treatment for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, such as requiring individuals to be vaccinated to attend venues or participate in activities.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Matt Drudge Confirms He Still Runs Drudge Report
Matt Drudge, reclusive godfather of internet news, issued a rare tweet Monday morning which seems to indicate that despite speculation, he still runs his news aggregator The Drudge Report — and never stopped.
[Comment: The news feed of Gates of Vienna is better than Drudge’s news aggregator.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Hampshire Bill HB1273 Makes the Case for Open Source Technology
The US state of New Hampshire has been at the forefront of legislating in favor of “people-friendly” technologies like cryptocurrencies/blockchain before, so it’s not surprising that it is expected to imminently start considering incorporating free and open source software, i.e., software freedom principles, into law.
According to Libreboot — a free software project whose main goal is to “liberate” computer firmware contained in a machine’s BIOS — considers the planned January 11 reading of New Hampshire’s bill HB1273 a major event in the history of the free software movement, and, from the legislative point of view, one of global importance as far as official adoption of software freedom policies and philosophies goes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Professor: COVID Survival Rate for Under 20s is 99.9987%
Top epidemiologist Professor John Ioannidis has published a new study which concludes that the survival rate of people under the age of 20 who catch COVID is 99.9987%.
The data used from the study was taken before the advent of mass vaccination programs, meaning the numbers apply to unvaccinated people.
Ioannidis previously published an analysis of seroprevalence (antibody) studies from 2020, which resulted in him being able to reveal that the infection fatality rate for COVID globally was around 0.15%. In Europe, the number stood at 0.3%-0.4% , while in Africa and Asia it went down to 0.05%.
Now the professor has published new information that breaks down infection fatality rates by age.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Ro Khanna Wants to Hold Social Media Platforms Accountable on Climate “Misinformation”
Online censorship supported by certain politicians, lawmakers, and media outlets in the US has set both moving and expanding targets before itself, as evidenced in a Washington Post op-ed published last week.
Quick to pick up on the article and share it was Congressman Ro Khanna, who was recently in the news himself because, despite his ardent criticism of major social platforms like Facebook, members of his family at the same time hold stock in it.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sheriff: 2 Children Among 3 Dead in Boone County Stabbing
WALTON, Ky. — Two children are among the three people dead in a Boone County stabbing.
Katie Farrell-Pena, 3, Nikki Romero-Pena, 12, and Monique Pena, 31, are dead following a Sunday night stabbing in Northern Kentucky.
A fourth person, 36-year-old Matthew Farrell, was also wounded in the stabbing.
It happened around 9 p.m. Sunday in the 100 block of Overland Ridge in Walton, Kentucky.
According to investigators, deputies arriving on the scene found four peopled with multiple stab wounds.
Katie Farrell-Pena, Nikki Romero-Pena and Monique Pena were pronounced dead at the scene.
Matthew Farrell was taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center with stab wounds to the torso, neck and upper body, investigators said. He has since been discharged and is expected to survive. Authorities say he is cooperating with the investigation…
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter Bans Assange Support Account @Unity4J
Twitter has banned another account set up to back journalist Julian Assange in his plight as a political prisoner.
Following a familiar pattern when it comes to censorship of political topics, Twitter has not yet given any explanation for the move.
Redacted Tonight head writer and host Lee Camp tweeted about this, interpreting it to mean that the social media platform is trying to slow down support for Assange, who he said is one of the most famous political prisoners in the world.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter Pushes “Fact-Check” Claiming That There is “No Evidence” of “Mass Formation Psychosis”
After permanently banning mRNA vaccine technology pioneer Dr. Robert Malone from its platform, Twitter is now promoting a “fact-check” that claims “mass formation psychosis,” a phrase Malone used during a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, is “an unfounded theory.”
Malone used the phrase to describe how a “very intelligent, highly-educated population” in 1920s and 1930s Germany went “barking mad” and argued that the same phenomena is playing out amid the coronavirus pandemic.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
University Cancels Plan to Pay Professors to Create CRT Curricula
The University of Memphis has scrapped plans for a social-justice program that would have paid some professors $3,000 to add critical race theory principles to their curricula, according to a new report.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told the Washington Free Beacon that he contacted the public university after reading reports about the program, which would have encouraged the addition of “diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice” teachings to curricula at the school by offering 15 to 20 faculty members $3,000 each beginning in the spring of 2022 and ending one year later, according to an email from university officials.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Alec Baldwin Goes on Unhinged Rant Blaming ‘The Right’ For His Shooting and Killing of Woman
Actor Alec Baldwin posted Saturday on Instagram in what has been called a “bizarre rant” where he appears to deny any personal agency in an on-set accident which resulted in his shooting a cinematographer to death on Oct 21, 2021.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Joe Rogan Rips Into Kamala for Comparing Jan 6 to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor
Podcast legend Joe Rogan slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for her speech commemorating the one year anniversary of the Capitol riot, in which she claimed that the date January 6 would go down in American history along side Pearl Harbor Day and September 11, two days that collectively saw thousands of lives lost. One woman died on Jan. 6, a Trump supporter named Ashli Babbitt who was shot to death by Capitol Police.
Rogan and guest Adam Curry, tried to make sense of what Rogan calls Kamala’s “insane” speech. “This is complete insanity,” Rogan said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Protestors Plan to Block Traffic on Trans-Canada Highway in Vancouver and Across B.C.
A group of environmental activists plan to practice their “civil resistance” this week and disrupt traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway at multiple locations in British Columbia, including in Vancouver.
The group, called Save Old Growth, describes itself as “an offshoot” of Extinction Rebellion, the group behind multiple protests in Metro Vancouver and Victoria that routinely blocks traffic on major roads, off— and on-ramps, and bridges in order to draw attention to the issue of climate change and what they believe is government inaction.
Similarly, Save Old Growth gave the provincial government a deadline of Jan. 9 to stop all old-growth logging in B.C., calling it an “ultimatum.”
Starting Jan. 10, the group says it “will enter into a civil resistance campaign, disrupting the Trans-Canada Highway multiple times per week until they pass legislative change to immediately end all old growth logging.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bombshell: Nearly 75% of UK COVID Deaths Were Vaxxed, Govt Data Shows
The vaccinated population in the UK account for nearly 75% of alleged Covid-19 deaths, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
Out of the over 3700 deaths reported from Dec. 6 to Jan. 2, over 2600 of them were fully vaccinated — over 70%, according to the data, and an additional 130 deaths attributed to the “partly vaccinated” brings the total up to nearly 75%.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
COVID Pass Protesters Attack French MP Stéphane Claireaux With Seaweed
A French MP has been attacked by a crowd of Covid-19 pass protesters outside his home in the overseas territory of St Pierre and Miquelon.
Video showed Stéphane Claireaux being pelted with seaweed and other missiles in the North American territory.
He likened the attack to a “stoning” and said he would file criminal charges against those responsible.
The MP is from the ruling party of French President Emmanuel Macron, who said the incident was “intolerable”.
The attack came a few days before the introduction of France’s health pass in St Pierre and Miquelon, two islands near Canada’s Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
COVID: Super Green Pass Protests on Italy’s Islands
Unvaccinated residents of smaller Italian islands claim they are prisoners of the Super Green Pass.
Italy’s latest covid restrictions, which came into force on 10 January, have sparked demonstrations on several Italian islands including Elba and Ischia.
The government has expanded the scope of the Super Green Pass — which can only be obtained by vaccination or recovery from covid-19 — making it a requirement for all forms of public transport in Italy
The new rules primarily affect commuters on buses, trains and subways but they also include ferries — a vital link to the mainland for those living on Italy’s smaller islands.
Under the banner “Islanders yes, Isolated never”, island inhabitants protested in their ports on Monday, reports news agency ANSA, claiming the Super Green Pass rules are restricting the movement of those who are not vaccinated.
Protests were held on Elba, Giglio, San Pietro, Ischia, La Maddalena and the Aeolian Islands, calling on the government to make an exception for islanders by reverting to the “basic” Green Pass (which can also be obtained by a negative covid test result) for public transport.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Czechia: Prague Protest Draws Thousands Against Vaccine Mandate
Thousands turned out in the Czech capital of Prague on Sunday for protests against the government’s vaccine mandate, The Associated Press reported.
Many demonstrators who gathered at Wenceslas Square chanted, “Freedom,” challenged the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines in general and rejected the idea of vaccinated children, according to the AP.
The large demonstration followed several smaller ones in cities across the Czech Republic on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Czechs Could Go to Work Even if They Test Positive for COVID-19
Due to the growing wave of the Omicron variant, the Czech government is preparing to amend some measures. One of them is the so-called work quarantine. If necessary, some people who enter a quarantine after a positive antigen test could go to work, which includes workers in social services, education, public transportation, and healthcare.
Minister of Health Vlastimil Valek expects a significant onset of the Omicron wave from Jan. 16. According to him, the variant will let up in the second half of February.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
European Leaders Double Down on Demonizing Non-Injected But Jabs Fail to Stop Transmission
As more Americans and Europeans grow to doubt the credibility of their government’s response to omicron, several European leaders are embracing notably harsh rhetoric that might risk alienating more members of the public as they try to demonize those who have refused to take the vaccines.
We have already written about how French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced “anti-vaxxers” as “non-citizens” while vowing to “piss them off.” But he’s not alone, which begs the question: are leaders lashing out at a new boogeyman as they grow more desperate to double down and push vaccines, even as the omicron wave has demonstrated their myriad shortcomings. Just ask all the boosted celebrities who have tested positive, or even been hospitalized, with COVID.
In the UK, PM Boris Johnson dismissed their concerns as “nonsense”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French police have thanked social media users who reported disturbing footage of assaults on a number of elderly citizens, including one reportedly homeless man, confirming that an active investigation into the incident was now underway.
Amateur cellphone footage unearthed on Sunday showed a group of individuals driving a vehicle through an unconfirmed French city, grabbing the arms of elderly pedestrians and proceeding to drive off at speed, causing their victims to run alongside the vehicle and exert themselves before they were released by their attackers and thrown to the pavement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France’s presidential election candidates are stepping up their rhetoric with less than a hundred days remaining until the first round of the election.
First, French President Emmanuel Macron who last week told Le Parisien newspaper that he wished to “piss off” France’s unvaccinated population; now his right-wing rival, Valérie Pécresse, who during a recent visit to the south of the country, spoke of the need to “clean up some neighborhoods,” threatening criminals with the loss of their citizenship.
In the election campaign, Pécresse maneuvers between the political center represented by Macron and the far right, where two more prominent candidates, Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, are fighting.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A UK Employment Tribunal has ruled that nurse Mary Onuoha was harassed and discriminated by her National Health Service hospital for wearing a cross, according to the British paper Catholic Herald.
Mary Onuoha worked at the surgery department at Croydon University Hospital in London. She told a court that once a member of the hospital’s board had stopped a patient’s surgery to reprimand her for wearing a cross. At the same time, an anesthesiologist was wearing a necklace and earrings. The hospital had also permitted for other employees to wear jewelry or other religious symbols (turbans or hijabs) or simply keychains.
The tribunal rejected the hospital’s claims that the cross’s ban was due to hygiene requirements. It accepted the opinion of a theologist, who pointed out that wearing a cross was a centuries’ long expression of faith and public expression of faith was an element of the Bible’s teachings.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Polish President Duda Diagnosed With COVID-19 for a Second Time
Polish President Andrzej Duda has tested positive for coronavirus for a second time and has been self-isolating, according to an announcement made by his chief of staff on Wednesday.
The head of the Polish president’s cabinet Pawel Szrot informed media about the infection on Wednesday, posting on social media that the president was not showing any severe symptoms and had been under constant medical care.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis: Identity is Being Erased in the Name of Protecting Diversity
Pope Francis made some unusually anti-woke remarks during a speech to diplomats when he said that “identity” was being erased in the name of protecting “diversity,” and that “cancel culture” is a form of “ideological colonisation.”
Cancel culture “leaves no space for freedom of expression,” the Supreme Pontiff told a gathering of ambassadors at the Vatican.
“The cultural roots that constitute the identity of many peoples,” are also under threat from historical revisionism driven by “ideological colonisation,” he warned.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis: No One is ‘Exempt’ From Fighting Climate Change
ROME — Pope Francis once again appealed for a concerted international effort to battle climate change Monday, insisting that no one is exempt from this task.
In recent years there has been “a growing collective awareness of the urgent need to care for our common home, which is suffering from the constant and indiscriminate exploitation of its resources,” the pope asserted in his yearly address Monday to members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis: Vaccines Are the ‘Most Reasonable Solution’ To the Coronavirus
ROME — Pope Francis said Monday that people who opt not to get vaccinated against the coronavirus are acting on “baseless information or poorly documented facts.”
In his yearly address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, the pontiff reiterated his belief in the effectiveness of the vaccines, stating that “in those places where an effective vaccination campaign has taken place, the risk of severe repercussions of the disease has decreased.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Reiner Füllmich and 50 Lawyers: ‘The Vaccines Are Designed to Kill and Depopulate the Planet’
Swedish journalist Jesper Johansson from Perspektiv speaks to Dr Reiner Füllmich on the coming court case against the architects of the plandemic.
After hearing the witness statements to the German Corona Investigative Committee by former vice president of Pfizer Dr Mike Yeadon who has been a scientist for 36 years, lawyers with Reiner Füllmich draw the same conclusion: The injections normally called Corona vaccines are designed to experiment on the human race and to find out what dosage of a yet unknown toxin is needed in order to kill people. The mortality rate linked to the vaccines, according to Yeadon, is traceable in terms of lot numbers of the different batches, as some batches appear to be more lethal than others. When taking a look at the evidence available, the main goal with the injections all over the world is global depopulation, according to the lawyers involved. Dr Füllmich told Perspektiv that the lawyers preparing an international law suit were no longer in doubt: Poisoning and mass murder through so called Corona vaccines is intentionally being perpetrated on the peoples of the world.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Students Stand Up to Political Censorship in France’s Most Elite Universities
In an open letter published on the website of the newspaper Le Figaro, one of the most visited French-language news sites, political science students are speaking out against the growing censorship and the lack of room for free debate in the Instituts d’Études Politiques (IEP), or Institutes of Political Studies, and in French universities.
In France, those Institutes of Political Studies, also commonly called “Sciences Po,” have been particularly affected by the cancel culture and woke wave coming from across the Atlantic. They are schools of higher education where many of the country’s political and media elites, as well as a part of the economic elites, are trained. This makes the presence of a growing woke-style culture within those IEPs particularly concerning for the future of a French democracy, as these students and much of the faculty increasingly take a negative view towards freedom of expression and freedom of association.
However, some students are taking a stand against this trend.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Olympic Runner Develops Heart Problems After Taking COVID Jab
An Olympic athlete was diagnosed with a potentially career-ending illness after taking a Covid-19 booster shot.
Doctors told Swiss runner Fabienne Schlumpf that she had myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, which caused her heart rate to skyrocket after a recent run.
“When the 31-year-old felt very tired before Christmas in everyday life and even after a casual endurance run, including a violent heartbeat, she had herself exampled,” a Swiss paper reported, translated from German.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Number of Forced Marriages in Spain Has Increased by 60% in the Last Few Years
Spanish news outlet El Mundo published the story of 47-year-old Hannan Serroukh, who was born in Morocco but lives in Spain, and whose strict Muslim stepfather tried to force her into a marriage at the age of 15. Despite her long-running efforts to fight the practice of forced marriages in Spain, since 2015, the number of forced marriages in the country has increased by 60 percent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘They Are Afraid of Us’ Thousands March for a Second Day in Austria
Thousands again took the streets in Austria again on Sunday, marking the second day of large protests against the nation’s COVID restrictions.
A number of demonstrations took place again in Austria on Sunday, with thousands taking to the streets for the second day in order to protest the nation’s COVID restrictions.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Christian Nurse Wins Tribunal After Being Sacked for Wearing Cross
A Catholic nurse has won a tribunal following an unfair dismissal from an NHS hospital after she wore a Christian cross to work.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Karma? Gove Declares ‘Outstanding’ Blair Deserves Knighthood, Gets Stuck in Elevator
Senior government minister Michael Gove became trapped in a lift en route to a BBC interview shortly after praising Iraq War architect Tony Blair as an “outstanding” prime minister deserving of a knighthood.
Blair, widely despised by left-wing, right-wing, and unaligned British voters for sending British forces into questionable, futile military interventions in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq with inadequate equipment and little long-term planing, as well as opening the floodgates to mass immigration and a host of other domestic policies, is currently the subject of a viral petition to strip him of a prestigious knighthood.
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UK: Oncology Professor: Obsessive COVID Testing ‘Hysteria’ Is Like ‘Self Harm’
A renowned oncology professor has warned that Britain has become obsessed with using COVID rapid lateral flow tests despite the fact that most people don’t have any symptoms, and that it is doing severe harm to the economy and hampering “life-saving work” in hospitals.
Describing the mass use of the tests as a “mania” and a “hysteria,” Professor Angus Dalgleish of St George’s Hospital, University of London writes in the Daily Mail that “it is tantamount to national self-harm.”
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UK: T-Cells From Common Colds Can Help Protect Against COVID-19: Study
A study by Imperial College London published on Monday has found that high levels of T-cells from common cold coronaviruses can help protect against COVID-19, which is believed it could inform approaches for second-generation vaccines.
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Undercover Police are being deployed in Austria to assist in the intensification of COVID restrictions in the country.
Austrian police are to considerably ramp up checks regarding COVID restrictions. The crackdown will even go as far as deploying plainclothes police to the streets to catch out those who might attempt to go about their daily business while avoiding officers, top Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports.
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Will the CIA Intervene to Defeat Viktor Orban? Hungary’s Opposition Prays for Foreign Intervention
Nothing describes the pre-election despair of the Hungarian anti-Orban camp better than a recent interview on Hungarian Klub Radió, the flagship mouthpiece of the liberal opposition, that was previously taken off air by the Hungarian media council for violating broadcasting rules.
The guest of the morning show, Gabor Bruck — long-term campaign advisor for a succession of socialist prime ministers, such as Péter Medgyessy or Ferenc Gyurcsany, or that of former opposition prime ministerial candidate Klara Dobrev, and currently an MEP for the left-wing Democratic Coalition — offered some welcome insight into the anti-Orban camp’s state-of-mind.
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Balkans Are Emptying: Population Decline Across the Region
Recent censuses and surveys confirm a sharp drop
(by Stefano Giantin) (ANSA) — BELGRADE, JAN 8 — For years, significant and continuing losses have undermined every effort aimed at lasting economic and social development. The neighboring Balkans risk becoming a “desert” due to unemployment and, above all, emigration, especially of the young. This scenario emerges from different pieces of a complex puzzle being put together in recent weeks. These pieces include the fundamental one posed by the census in Bulgaria, which has certified an 11% drop in population over the last ten years. Another census, the one in neighboring North Macedonia, the first to be conducted in the country since 2002, confirmed that the problem is widespread, with provisional results that have worried the authorities in Skopje. According to the first data processed by the National Statistical Office, Macedonia would now have about 1.8 m inhabitants, about 10% less than twenty years ago, with 600,000 Macedonians now living abroad. Perhaps even lower than the real ones, these numbers speak of a demographic catastrophe. Those who leave the country are predominantly young people, whereas the cradles remain empty at home, and the number of older people is growing. And Macedonia is far from being an exception. Even in neighboring Romania, which is already a member of the EU, the consequences due to migration to more prosperous countries now appear uncontrollable.
Adevarul, a daily newspaper, cited “dramatic figures” and UN estimates that show Romania with just under 12 m inhabitants in 2100, which is 7 million lower than today and most of them over 60. Estimates mirror those of neighboring Bulgaria, which in 2100 could have only 3.5 m inhabitants. And then, returning to the non-EU Balkans, there is Albania, land of emigration par excellence, which could find itself with only 1.1 m inhabitants in eighty years. About 50,000 Albanians obtained a residence permit in Germany alone as of 2018, with Berlin now about to overtake Rome and Athens as an emigration destination, local media have reported. And since 2008, about 800,000 Albanians have emigrated to EU countries. The situation is even worse in Bosnia-Herzegovina. According to Sarajevo-based media, about 500,000 people have left the country in the last ten years. No “policy” to stop the exodus, said demographer Aleksandar Cavic, who warned that the negative trend is accelerating, with more and more young people leaving and more and more old people and pensioners remaining alone at home. This situation occurs in all countries, including Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Croatia.
“Emigration, headed by young people,” will not stop, warned even a recent survey conducted by researchers Tado Juric and Faruk Hadzic, who predicted and depicted the consequences. In the Balkans, economic development will decline due to depopulation, undermining the social structure in the medium to long term. But even the EU cannot smile, given that in the decades to come, it will have to deal with an emptied, impoverished, and unstable region in its backyard.
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Feiglin on COVID Crisis: Decide That it’s Over — And it Will Be
Former MK laments destructive societal impact of COVID policies in Israel, and offers his suggestions for exiting the crisis.
[…]
Use of a mask in the public sphere would be forbidden because it aids in nothing but instilling terror and fear. I would immediately destroy the entire Israeli reserve of injections. I would make sure that efficient medicines like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were within arm’s reach of every citizen…
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Demography Still Plays a Critical Role in the Middle East
For the first time in a thousand years, the Fertile Crescent is no longer Sunni. This, of course, serves the hegemonic interests of Iran. Opinion…
Demography plays a critical role in this fight, and when the need arises, the Iranians and their allies don’t shy from “engineering” the demographics to serve their hegemonic regional interests.
In Syria, where Sunnis represented some 60% of the general population on the eve of the country’s civil war, compared to President Bash Assad’s Alawite sect, which comprised just 12% of the population, a deep transformation has occurred…
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Kazakhstan’s President Says Order Restored After Crackdown on Protests
Kazakhstan’s president said Monday “constitutional order” has been restored in the country and that his government is in control following assistance from Russian-led troops to quell the mass protests that erupted against his regime last week.
Security forces have been re-establishing the government’s grip across the country since late last week, conducting what it calls an “anti-terrorist operation” to end the unrest. Last week troops used live fire in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city, to clear the streets amid the anti-government protests in which authorities say over 160 people were killed.
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DR. ROBERT MALONE, THE INVENTOR OF MRNA VACCINES, MADE AN APPEARANCE ON STEVE BANNON’S WAR ROOM WHERE HE WARNED ABOUT AN “EBOLA-LIKE HEMORRHAGIC FEVER” SUPER VIRUS COMING OUT OF COMMUNIST CHINA THAT HE BELIEVES COULD BE CAUSED BY MUTATIONS ARISING FROM MASS VACCINATION.
The inventor of modern mRNA vaccines, Dr. Robert Malone, went on Steve Bannon’s War Room where he warned of a new disease spreading across Communist China that appears to be an “Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever” super virus.
Dr. Malone explained that “vaccinating into a pandemic will drive the development of escape mutants that are resistant to vaccination,” adding that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mass vaccination campaign “has mirrored that of the western world, and has resulted in a perfect storm of environment for developing a super virus.”
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The former Australian and Davis Cup champion unleashed on his own Australian government as he leapt to defence of Novak Djokovic to contest the Australian Open in Melbourne.
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Judge Says Djokovic Can Stay in Australia But Saga Not Over
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic returned to the tennis court Monday for training, having won a legal battle to stay in Australia to play in the Australian Open after his exemption from strict coronavirus vaccine rules was questioned. But the government is still threatening to cancel his visa and deport him.
The unvaccinated tennis star was released after being confined to an immigration hotel for four nights — a drama that has gripped many in Australia and beyond.
Federal Circuit Court Judge Anthony Kelly reinstated Djokovic’s visa, which was pulled after his arrival last week because officials said he didn’t qualify for an exemption to a rule that all non-citizens be fully vaccinated. Djokovic’s lawyers say that since he recently recovered from COVID-19, he didn’t need to be inoculated.
The judge ruled the No. 1 player had not been given enough time to speak to his lawyers before the decision was made and ordered the government to release him from the Melbourne quarantine hotel where he was held.
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MARTIN SAMUEL: If he does not wish to be vaccinated, contracts covid, then leaves home knowingly with a highly-contagious virus he stops being a freedom fighter and becomes a menace.
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Brothers 4 Life gangster Ghassan Amoun was ambushed and shot dead after exiting Lady Laser salon in South Wentworthville, in Sydney’s west, last Thursday.
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Three Players Drop Out of Australian Open With Chest Issues While Djokovic Awaits His Fate
Several fully vaccinated tennis players participating in the Australian Open qualifying rounds have complained about tiredness and breathing problems.
The stakes are high for the organizers who have been keeping tennis star Novak Djokovic as a prisoner according to his parents. The player has won the tournament nine times, including the past three years and is currently tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for most major victories of all time, namely 20.
Djokovic has been confined to a small room in a Melbourne hotel since the Australian authorities denied him entrance to the country, overriding his medical exemption. Australia has been living up to its history as a penitentiary with its farcical zero-Covid policy and skyrocketing number of infections.
Djokovic’s visa was cancelled on arrival and 34-year-old Serb is now languishing in a Melbourne immigration detention facility in a bid to prevent his deportation.
Three players drop out
All the tennis players currently participating in the professional tennis tournament have been fully vaccinated. The world number 22 was however seen leaving the court and abandoning his match while clutching his chest with respiratory difficulties in an ATP match. Nikoloz Basilashvili told his team that “every shot I’m out of breath”.
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Video: Australian Tennis Officials Order Group to Hand Over Novak Djokovic Signs in Arena or Leave
Video has emerged of tennis fans at the Australian Open tournament being harassed by an official ordering them to hand over all their homemade Novak Djokovic signs or be thrown out.
In the wake of the Australian authorities revoking the tennis star’s visa and holding him hostage for days, it appears that fans are now not even allowed to express any support for their favourite player.
The footage shows a fan at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne being approached by an official who eventually admits that he has been tasked by Tennis Australia to confiscate the group’s signs because they are “inappropriate”.
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Cleaner Working Illegally in Sweden Seized at PM’s Home
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Saturday night claimed to have been deceived by “a dodgy operator”, after a cleaning lady was seized for working illegally during a police visit to her home.
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Germany: Hamburg Plans to Accommodate 100 Migrants in Retirement Home
Officials in the city of Hamburg have revealed their intention to accommodate approximately 100 refugees in a local senior citizens’ home, local media reports.
As Germany accepts ever more migrants, local governments are struggling to find locations to house them. In some cases, they have even evicted elderly citizens to make room for migrants.
The Hamburger Morgenpost suggested a currently unused wing of the DRK nursing home in Eichenhöhe in the Eißendorf district of the city could be repurposed to house the refugees, with interior authorities having written to the Hamburg district office with the proposal.
The facility could provide 108 places in 38 rooms at short notice.
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Gov. Newsom Proposes Universal Health Care for Illegal Immigrants
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) proposed Monday providing universal health care for all low-income residents in California, including illegal immigrants.
During a Monday press conference announcing the 2022-23 state budget, Newsom unveiled a massive California Blueprint plan that includes a measure, if approved by state lawmakers, that will allow illegal immigrants to obtain state-funded abortions under the state’s Medi-Cal system, Fox News reported.
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Polish Border Guard Officer Sustains Head Injury After Migrants Attempt to Storm Border
A Polish border guard officer was hospitalized with a head injury after migrants attempted to storm the Belarusian-Polish border yesterday, the Polish Border Guard Service reported on Twitter.
Foreigners reportedly stormed the border near Cheremcha and Szudzialowo, throwing firecrackers and rocks in the direction of Polish border guards. As a result, a Polish officer suffered a head injury and was hospitalized.
All in all, before 7 a.m., on January 9, Polish border guards detained 33 migrants, who had illegally tried to cross the border. On Saturday, January 8, there were 10 of them.
Poland imposed a state of emergency along the Belarusian border on September 2 because of the migration crisis. It is still in effect.
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Pope Francis: We Cannot Hide From Migrants ‘Behind Walls and Barbed Wires’
ROME — Pope Francis railed against the “dehumanization” of migrants Monday, calling for a shared responsibility among European nations in welcoming migrants.
In the face of increasing movements of migration, “we cannot be indifferent or hide behind walls and barbed wires under the pretext of defending security or a style of life,” the pope told members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See in Monday’s annual address.
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) sued New York City on Monday after Mayor Eric Adams (D) declined to block a bill allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections.
Adams allowed the bill to become law on Sunday, granting more than 800,000 noncitizens living in New York City the right to vote in local elections. Both Adams and former Mayor Bill de Blasio declined to use their veto power, which times out 30 days after a bill’s passage, to strike down the bill after the City Council approved it last month.
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Swedish PM Under Fire for Illegal Immigrant Cleaner
Sweden’s prime minister has come under fire after a cleaner was detained for working illegally at her home.
The police arrived at Magdalena Andersson’s house after the burglar alarm was accidentally set off at the property in Nacka, near Stockholm.
On arrival, the police discovered that one of the two workers there had been issued with a deportation order.
Magdalena Andersson, who is leader of the Social Democratic Party and Sweden’s first female prime minister, has made cracking down on the illegal economy a focus of her leadership.
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UK May Deport Afghan Who Raped and Murdered Austrian Child, Fled to UK by Boat
An Afghan illegal migrant managed to escape Austria to Britain by posing as a refugee following gang rape and child murder accusations.
Raculi Zubaidullah, 23, has been accused — along with three other suspects — of gang-raping and killing 13-year-old Austrian girl Leonie Walner on the 26th of June 2021, a British extradition court heard on Thursday 6th of January 2022.
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At least 100 migrants including a child wearing a dinosaur snowsuit arrived in Dover after crossing the English Channel by small boat today.
More than 60 people are believed to have made the journey into the UK overnight after the Border Force boat Speedwell carried around 35 into the Port of Dover at 4.40am, and an RNLI lifeboat brought in another 30 or so less than an hour later.
Several members of the group of arrivals, which included a baby, appeared to be suffering from cramp after the long journey.
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Watch: African Migrants Injures Spanish Cops During Rampage
Multiple Spanish police officers were injured trying to arrest a violent African migrant who had been arrested and released after a similar rampage a day earlier, according to reports.
The incident unfolded at around 8 p.m. on Saturday night in Córdoba, a city in Andalusia.
Authorities were alerted about a man who was throwing tables and chairs outside a cafe on a busy street near the city center.
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Nolte: ‘The 355’ Is Another Woketard Box Office Flop
“Registering one of the worst-ever openings for a film its size… [the] globe-trotting spy movie The 355 is expected to make $4.3 million in its debut weekend,” reports Collider.
“Conservative estimates had put the film’s opening at between $5 million and $7 million, but this is a terrible result for a film playing in over 3,000 theaters and featuring the sort of cast that it does.”
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YouTuber iDubbbz sneakily tried to do a Louis Theroux-style hit piece on comedy icon Sam Hyde, but only ended up embarrassing himself and then refused to release the footage.
Grifters gonna grift.
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Matt Drudge turned to the Dark Side, the Baron stays the course, principled.
“Czechs Could Go to Work Even if They Test Positive for COVID-19” I’ve spoken to a bunch of people about this and nobody understands wjy these proffesions have to continue to be tested, since it would only open the door to potentional bullying of tje positive worker.
Re: Nearly 75% of UK Covid deaths were vaxxed.
Ok, but more than 75% have had the jab, so a slightly higher percentage of the unvaxxed are dying; not much in it, though.