A woman named Lauren Staab, who works at Staab’s Funeral Home in Normal, Illinois, was charged with criminal damage for stabbing a 20-foot inflatable rat on the sidewalk in front of the funeral home. The giant rat, which is named “Scabby”, was being used by union protesters in a demonstration against the business’s non-unionization policy.
In other news, a Swedish analyst has warned that a Russian natural gas cutoff could cause the European power grid to collapse.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, Fjordman, JF, LP, MM, Reader from Chicago, Roger, 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.
Bidenpression: U.S. GDP Shrinks 0.9 Percent in Second Quarter
The U.S. economy contracted in the second quarter of 2022 as the economy was battered by four-decade high inflation, record high fuel prices, soaring food costs, and tighter monetary policy.
The government reported Thursday that Gross Domestic Product shrank by 0.9 percent in the April through June period. Economists had expected the economy to grow by 0.3 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Orban: Hungary Can be a Local Exception at a Time of Global Recession
A decade of threats, uncertainty and wars is coming, but Hungary can be a local exception at a time of global recession, prime minister Viktor Orban stressed in Tusnadfurdo (Baile Tusnad) in his address delivered on the closing day of the 31st Balvanyos Summer Free University and Student Camp.
Before an audience of several thousand gathered before the open-air stage, the prime minister recalled that the Tusnadfürdo political forum could last be held in 2019, but since then the world “has changed much,” “we have entered an era of threats”; the supporting pillars of Western civilisation previously believed to be unshakeable have started to develop cracks.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
PM Orban’s 10 Points to Shield Hungary From Global Recession
Five days after his annual policy speech in Tusvanyos, Transylvania, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban formalized his 10-point plan to shield Hungary from what he describes as the inevitable global recession.
The Hungarian leader vowed to find a solution that will allow for Hungary to be a local exception to the global economic downturn — “An ambitious goal!” Orban declared last Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Reporter Exposes White House’s Blatant Redefining of ‘Recession’
Fox News’ White House corespondent Peter Doocy made Joe Biden’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre look like a total fool Wednesday by expertly exposing how she and other Biden minions are attempting to redefine what a recession is in order to claim America isn’t in one.
As we have highlighted throughout this week, Biden Administration officials are using semantics to avoid admitting how bad the economy is, with some suggesting ‘its not a recession, it’s a transition’.
Doocy outright asked Jean-Pierre “If things are going so great, then why is it that WH officials are trying to redefine recession?”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘2020 Rioters Destroyed Livelihoods’: Julio Rosas at the Student Action Summit
Rebel News traveled to Tampa, FL during the weekend to attend the Student Action Summit, an event hosted every year by Turning Point USA to help promote conservative values to college students and allow them to network with like-minded students and organizations.
Rebel reporters spoke to many key TPUSA figures, U.S. politicians, and high-profile journalists. Rebel had an exclusive interview with Julio Rosas, senior writer for Townhall Media.
Rosas talked about his experience reporting on the 2020 riots that devastated the U.S. and the accounts that he wrote in his recently published book Fiery But Mostly Peaceful: The 2020 Riots and the Gaslighting of America.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
911 Call: ‘A Lady Come Out and Stabbed a Rat’ At Staab Funeral Home During Union Protest
(The Center Square) — A funeral home employee could face criminal charges after police said she admitted to stabbing an inflatable rat used during a union protest.
Monday morning in Springfield outside of Staab Funeral Home, John Nicks called 911 saying they were protesting the private business for not using union labor and “a lady just came out and stabbed a rat,” confusing the dispatcher.
“What do you mean, like there’s just a rat out there and she came out and stabbed it,” the dispatcher said.
“Yeah,” Nicks said.
“Was it somebody’s pet rat, or was it just a loose rat,” the dispatcher asked.
“No, it was a job action,” Nicks said.
The inflatable rat, known as “Scabby,” is around 15 feet tall. In a separate 911 call, union member Randy Baxter also reported the disturbance.
“It’s the second time she come out, she come out with a knife or something and looked at us and just kind of poked it,” Baxter said. “We’re kind of protesting because there’s non union here and the lady come out of Staabs and poked a hole in one of our rat things, or whatever, and they’re getting kind of nasty. And, we have every right to be here.”
A police report said the inflatable rat is 20 feet tall…
| — Hat tip: Roger | [Return to headlines] |
Biden National Security Coordinator Says Idea That Saudis Infected POTUS With COVID Are “Ludicrous”
Joe Biden’s National Security Council Coordinator has dismissed the notion that Saudi Arabia could have purposefully exposed the U.S. president to COVID, calling the theories “ludicrous”.
John Kirby made the comments after being asked about the matter by New York Post reporter Steven Nelson.
“Has the US government ruled out the possibility that the Saudi government deliberately exposed the president to the coronavirus?” Nelson asked.
Kirby responded, “I don’t know where this idea is coming from, I don’t know what prompted you to ask it that way.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Whoopi Goldberg Finally Apologizes for TPUSA ‘Nazi’ Smear
On Thursday morning, The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg issued an apology for comments suggesting that young attendees at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa were linked to neo-Nazis that were protesting outside the venue.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Country Star John Rich Bypasses Woke Labels, Releases Song on Truth Social and Soars to No. 1
If the earth shook beneath Nashville on Friday, it probably had something to do with maverick country star John Rich.
The iconic half of the Big and Rich country duo — unabashedly conservative and weary of woke record labels and group station owners — decided to bypass the traditional industry machinery and release his latest song “Progress” on Friday via two fledgling free-speech social media platforms, Truth Social owned by former President Donald Trump and the Rumble video community.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Farage: Trump Will Run Again, Will Fight on ‘Disaster Zone’ Cities Ruined by Biden and BLM
Brexit leader Nigel Farage has voiced his belief that Donald Trump will run for U.S. President again in 2024, and that his campaign will focus on law and order and the “disaster zone” cities “under Biden and under BLM”.
Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and Brexit Party, now Reform UK, was likely the most high-profile Briton to back Donald Trump in 2016 despite the fact that most of the country’s politicians including Boris Johnson were slating him — apparently in the belief that a Hillary Clinton victory was inevitable — because he saw the Trump campaign as a continuation of the Brexit uprising against the global establishment.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Court Temporarily Blocks Air Force COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
A federal court on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction to block the enforcement of the Air Force’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The United State District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled that the military branch may not force religious objectors to get vaccinated pending the resolution of the Doster v. Kendall case in a full trial, according to a press release from the Thomas More Society.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Freeport LNG Expansion Authorized by Regulators After Explosion
Freeport LNG, a natural gas export terminal that’s been shut down for almost two months following a plant explosion, was authorized Thursday by U.S. energy regulators who dismissed environmentalists’ objections to expand its production capacity by 11%.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the Texas facility’s request to increase maximum production capacity to 870 billion cubic feet per year, up from 782 billion cubic feet.
The commission also allowed Golden Pass LNG, an export terminal project under construction along the Gulf Coast in Texas, to increase its workforce, traffic volumes, and nighttime construction activities through Dec. 31, 2025…
| — Hat tip: MM | [Return to headlines] |
Google Delays Plans to End Invasive Cookie Tracking in Chrome
Google’s plan to get rid of third-party cookies from its Chrome browser has been postponed again, until at least the second half of 2024. The plan was announced in January 2020, the timeline being 2022. It was postponed for the first time in June 2021.
Both delays have been blamed on difficulties coming up with a new and “privacy-friendly” way to track users.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Google Hands Over Home Security Camera Footage to Police Without a Warrant
Google and Amazon are letting the police access data from smart home cameras without a warrant, if they are told this footage is needed because of an “emergency.”
Meanwhile others who sell similar devices and services, like Arlo, Apple, Wyze, Eufy, claim their policy is the opposite, CNET writes.
It was first reported that Amazon was cooperating with law enforcement in this way, and it has now emerged that Google is treating its customers’ privacy the same way.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Lawmaker Defends Pelosi’s Potential Taiwan Plans, Says ‘Weak’ Biden Shouldn’t Interfere
A top Republican lawmaker who was invited to join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a purportedly planned trip to Taiwan said he would accompany her if he could, adding President Biden should not try to interfere with the Californian’s prerogative.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News on Thursday he has other obligations to attend to, but pointed to former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s trip to Taipei two decades ago as precedent for such a delegation.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Joe Biden Met With at Least 14 of Hunter’s Business Partners While VP Under Obama
President Joe Biden repeatedly told the American public that he was neither engaged in nor had knowledge of his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings. Yet, reports keep emerging that this may very well have been a blatant and thorough untruth.
While Joe Biden was VP in the Obama administration, he met with at least 14 business associates of his son, who has become notorious for engaging in influence peddling on the Biden family name and his father’s powerful positions, along with his uncle Jim Biden.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Demands FBI Response to Whistleblower Allegation on ‘Padding’ Data on Domestic Extremists
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan is demand answers from FBI Director Chris Wray about whistleblower reports alleging the agency is “padding its domestic violent extremist data” by pressuring agents to classify more crimes as being terror-related.
The whistleblowers have told House Republicans that “FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’ even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification,” Jordan said in a letter Wednesday to Wray.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Clarence Thomas Pushed Out of Law School Teaching Post Over Decision to Overturn Roe
After a petition circulated on change.org to remove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from his teaching post at George Washington University, Thomas has decided to leave the position. Thomas taught a Constitutional Law Seminar along with Judge Gregory Maggs. The petition called the employment of a Supreme Court justice to teach a constitutional law class “unacceptable.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Climate protesters were arrested during the Congressional Baseball Game on Thursday evening after blocking one of the entrances to Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department told Fox News Digital that three people were arrested for unlawful entry.
Multiple left-wing groups were protesting the event and holding signs reading, “This is a climate emergency.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Los Angeles County Drops Plan to Reimpose Mask Mandate, Citing Decrease in COVID Cases
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced her agency will not reinstate an indoor mask mandate aimed at combating COVID-19, citing a recent drop in cases over the past few weeks.
On July 14, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said that a new universal indoor mask mandate could be implemented if the county remains within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high” level of COVID-19 transmission — when new COVID-19 related hospital admissions reach more than 10 per 100,000 residents. according to FOX 11.
During a press conference on Thursday, Ferrer said her office will be “pausing” the plan to implement a universal masking policy, stating that the county COVID-19 transmission levels are headed in the direction of “medium,” as defined by the CDC.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Loud Music Blamed for Attempted Murder in Pompano Beach: Report
Ana Maria Ortiz Davila, 56, is accused of stabbing her husband in the chest for playing music too loud
He was playing the music too loud, so a Pompano Beach woman got physical with a man identified as her husband and then stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
Ana Maria Ortiz Davila, 56, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and tampering with evidence for the Sunday attack, records show.
According to the arrest report, a 911 caller told the operator the wife “touched the husband with a knife” and he was lying on the ground bleeding and unconscious.
Pompano Beach Fire Rescue took the man — whose name was redacted from the report — to Broward Health North medical center with a large gash in the middle of his chest.
A doctor later confirmed the knife punctured the pericardial sac that surrounds the heart.
Deputies found the man’s cousin sitting on the ground outside the apartment building at 521 N.W. 35th Ct. and asked him what happened.
Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, he explained he was in their apartment when Ortiz Davila and her husband had an argument that escalated into a physical fight. When he tried to separate them, he noticed the man’s shirt became red with blood, the report stated.
Ortiz Davila was found inside the apartment wearing a blood-stained white shirt. When questioned, she admitted to stabbing her husband during an argument over loud music and then washing the blood off a knife in the bathroom sink, investigators said.
While in custody, Ortiz Davila pulled three-inch metal hairpins from her hair and started scratching her face and arms deep enough to draw some blood, the report stated.
She remains in the Broward County Jail without bond, records show.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Moms of Liberty Says PayPal Froze Their Account, Supports DeSantis’s Move Against Biased Companies
Conservative group Moms of Liberty is supporting Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis push to ban state investments from using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings. The group says PayPal froze its account and some of its members’ accounts.
ESG policies involve considering political and societal issues like a company’s product safety, privacy and data security, carbon emissions, and climate change vulnerabilities.
DeSantis wants the State Board of Administration (SBA), which has oversight over state investments, to direct pension-fund managers not to use “political factors when investing the state’s money.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ABC News’ “The View” co-host Sara Haines apologized to Turning Point USA on Wednesday after inaccurately tying the conservative group to neo-Nazis, but a key witness to the ordeal believes Whoopi Goldberg should have been the one to speak up.
Fox News Digital first reported a letter sent from Turning Point USA that gave “The View” until Wednesday to retract comments made by Goldberg and colleague Joy Behar tying neo-Nazi demonstrators at the TPUSA Student Action Summit last weekend in Tampa, Florida, to the conservative group, or face legal action. ABC News obliged, but conservative talk radio host Jason Rantz — who was a speaker at the TPUSA event and witnessed the protest — does not think “The View” went far enough with its attempt to make peace.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New York City Prosecutor Defends Going Easy on Teen Who Brutally Attacked Cop
New York City prosecutor Alvin Bragg defended his office’s decision to go easy on a 16-year-old caught on video viciously assaulting a cop who confronted him for not paying the subway fare — the teen’s third felony arrest in less than four months.
The teen, whose name is being withheld due to his age, was charged with second-degree assault Saturday after he was captured on a 54-second clip throwing more than 20 punches at an NYPD officer, slamming him into a metal gate and putting him in a chokehold at a subway station in Harlem.
At his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, prosecutors recommended the teen’s release without bail and diversion to family court — where he’ll be tried as a child and face rehabilitation rather than prison.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New York Judge Strikes Down State Rule Allowing Involuntary Detention in Quarantine Camps
A New York judge on Thursday voided a state rule that allowed the government to create quarantine camps and to detain healthy people within them for indeterminate periods without review.
Rule 2.13 gave the New York commissioner of public health the power to enforce quarantine regulations. Under this rule, court documents assert, “[t]he commissioner has unfettered discretion to issue a quarantine or isolation for anyone, even if there is no evidence that person is infected or a carrier of the disease. Further, the commissioner sets the terms, duration, and location of the detention, not an independent magistrate.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Principal of Texas School Where Shooting Happened Reinstated
Harrell suspended Gutierrez with pay on Monday pending a performance review pertaining to school security
The principal of the Texas school where the nation’s deadliest classroom shooting in a decade happened was reinstated Thursday, three days after she was suspended with pay in the wake of security criticisms leveled by a legislative committee.
Mandy Gutierrez, who Uvalde school district officials suspended with pay Monday as Robb Elementary School principal, was reinstated Thursday in a brief letter from Superintendent Hal Harrell.
The reinstatement came after Gutierrez, in a letter to the committee members, disputed the key findings that a “culture of complacency” had developed at the school that allowed a gunman to enter the school and kill 19 children and two teachers. She also said the lock on the door to the fourth-grade classroom where the May 24 shooting happened worked when a custodian checked it the night before…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Rebel Exclusive: Ron DeSantis on the State of Free Speech
Rebel News traveled to Tallahassee, the Florida state capital, on July 19 and spoke to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in an exclusive interview.
One of the topics discussed during the interview was the state of free speech in Florida and nationwide. The governor began by condemning the Disinformation Bureau planned by the Biden administration by stating, “This is an Orwellian contraption, basically, that is trying to convince the American people that North is South and East is West, and it’s all about trying to impose a narrative on the country into suffocating dissenters who are speaking the truth.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Austin Scott Sounds Alarm on China Buying U.S. Farmland
Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott on Thursday warned about Chinese state-backed efforts to purchase farmland in the United States amid rising tensions with the oriental superpower over its economic practices and territorial claims in in the Pacific Rim.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Eric Swalwell Defends Apple and Google’s Ability to Decide What’s on People’s Phones
Big Tech and its allies continue to pull out all the lobbying stops in an effort to build a credible narrative that says bills aimed at curbing various forms of antitrust behavior are bad for national security.
But Big Tech critics say that a more level playing field, once again allowing true competition and innovation into the US tech market, could only harm existing giants’ controversial business models.
Congressman Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, is one of those who disagree with that, as he is now particularly vocal in his opposition to proposed bipartisan laws like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICO) and the Open App Markets Act (OAMA), that would result in stripping Apple and Google of their ability to strictly control (including through censorship) their super-lucrative app stores and give preferential treatment to their products.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Revealed: Hunter Biden’s Business Partner Referenced Joe Biden as the ‘Big Guy’ in Text Messages
In a series of panicked text messages obtained by New York Post, a former business partner to Hunter Biden referenced Joe Biden as the “Big Guy” on the same day The New York Post broke the story about Hunter Biden’s “Laptop from Hell.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Revealed: Documents Show Collusion Between the CDC and Big Tech
A number of documents described as “the tip of the iceberg” have been made public, revealing communications between private tech giants and the US administration bodies, aimed at closely coordinating censorship of Covid topics on social media.
This was announced on Wednesday by America First Legal (AFL) nonprofit, which obtained the documents thanks to a lawsuit filed against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The legal action came after a failed attempt to, through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, learn about the level of the involvement of the White House in this type of censorship.
The communications are interpreted as providing yet another piece of evidence of coordination, or even collusion, between US authorities and Google, Twitter, and Facebook.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
San Bernardino County Supervisors Are Urged to Secede From California, Form New State Named ‘Empire’
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) — A local real estate developer and two mayors are urging San Bernardino County to secede from California.
If successful, the improbable plan would establish the first new state since Hawaii was granted statehood in 1959.
On Tuesday night, Rancho Cucamonga businessman Jeff Burum asked the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to put an advisory measure on the November ballot.
“It’s time for our citizens to stand up and say enough is enough,” he said.
Burum wants the county to be turned into a new state, possibly named “Empire.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter Accounts Suspended for “COVID-19 Misinformation” Have Increased Over 70%
Twitter suspended a record 4,466 accounts for violating its “COVID-19 misinformation” rules in H1 2022, according to the latest stats in its COVID-19 Misinformation Transparency Report. This represents a more than 70% increase from its previous record of suspending 2,614 accounts for violating the COVID-19 misinformation rules in H2 2021.
The report also revealed that Twitter removed 13,803 pieces of content and challenged (forced the account owner to verify their account with an email or phone number) 7,025 accounts for violating its COVID-19 misinformation rules in H2 2021.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
B.C. Man Paralyzed From COVID Vaccine Eagerly Waiting Government Support
Julian Scholefield experienced paralysis from the waist down just 12 days after receiving his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
According to Castanet, it’s been over a year since Scholefield was paralyzed and he has yet to receive any support from the government’s Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP).
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Job Vacancies Reach Record High: Report
On Thursday, Statistics Canada released a report showcasing the latest data regarding job vacancies.
The report found that as of May, there were 1,005,700 open positions across Canada, the highest number on record.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chaos in Canada’s Airports (Ft. Duncan Dee)
Some of Canada’s airports have seen the worst delays in the world in recent weeks. A number of airlines have put the blame on the government’s Covid measures, meanwhile the government has pointed the finger at “out of practice travellers.” Who’s actually to blame for the chaos in Canada’s airports?
On this episode of the Rupa Subramanya Show, the former Chief Operating Officer of Air Canada Duncan Dee joins the show to discuss what’s plaguing Canada’s airports and what can be done to help alleviate the delays.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Fully-Vaccinated Woman Ordered to Quarantine for Not Using ArriveCAN Visited by Authorities
A fully-vaccinated woman who was ordered into quarantine for not using the Trudeau government’s ArriveCAN app says she was visited by authorities checking-in on her compliance.
As exclusively reported by True North, 71-year-old Burlington resident Joanne Walsh was told to isolate for 14 days when she came back from Niagara Falls, New York last week because she refused to use the government’s ArriveCan app.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘This Was Politically Motivated’: Pastor Artur’s Son on His Big Legal Win
Over the weekend at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit, we bumped into Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s son, Nathaniel, and spoke about his father’s recent victory in the Alberta Court of Appeal.
Upon appeal, the court threw out most of Pastor Art’s charges, including the compelled speech clause that required Artur denounce himself. every time he spoke against the government’s COVID policies.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 70% of Poles Plan to Pay Closer Attention to Energy Consumption
As many as 69 percent of Poles plan to pay closer attention to their energy consumption during this summer’s vacation season compared to previous years, according to latest polling.
A survey by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (IBRiS) shows that only one in three respondents unplugs unused electrical equipment when leaving home for one or two days. This issue seems the most important for inhabitants of small towns. The study also revealed that the awareness of devices’ energy consumption in so-called sleep mode is still very low. The fact that diodes are lit on routers, TVs, or laptops is still not a clear sign for everyone that the equipment is constantly drawing energy in order to stay ready for a quick start.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Religion Above the Law?
In view of the fact that the number of foreigners in Belgian prisons remains disproportionately high, mainstream parties have tried to minimize the political impact of the facts.
Non-European newcomers place their faith above the law in Flanders, according to the results of the Living Together Barometer (Samenleven). This proportion is even higher in Brussels.
In Flanders, 9 percent of second-generation citizens of non-European origin believe that the law can be broken in the event of a conflict between law and religion, De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad reported on Tuesday. This observation is based on the results of the study published by the Flemish government at the request of the Flemish Minister for Cohabitation, Bart Somers (Open VLD).
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
British YouTuber Sanctioned by UK for Spreading Lies About Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
The UK has sanctioned a British video blogger after he was accused of spreading disinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Pro-Kremlin YouTuber Graham Philipps is the first Briton to be added to the sanctions list since the beginning of the war on 24 February and faces having his assets frozen.
The UK accused him of producing and publishing “media content that supports and promotes actions and policies which destabilise Ukraine.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Cars Hit Tires Dumped on Dutch Highway Amid Farmer Protests
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Cars crashed into tires and other garbage piled on a highway in the northern Netherlands in the early hours of Thursday, police said, as protests by radical farmers against government plans to rein in nitrogen emissions continued.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte branded the protests “unacceptable.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Expert: Russian Gas Cutoff Could Collapse European Power Grids
A Swedish expert commodities analyst has warned that a Russian shut-off of gas to Europe could not only lead to higher prices for electricity but could collapse electrical grids as well.
Commodities analyst Christian Kopfer stated that if the Russians were to cut off gas supplies to Europe it could put a strain on electrical grids stating, “You have to maintain the voltage in the grid because when it falls too low, it can collapse. There is a risk that this could happen in Europe when consumption is reduced.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Muslim Man Storms Church During Mass Attacking Parishioner
A Muslim man interrupted mass in a French church in the suburbs of Paris over the weekend, attacking a parishioner and screaming during the liturgy.
The incident took place on Sunday at the Church of Saint-Germain, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Paris suburbs of Yvelines at around 6:50 pm and saw the man enter the church in the middle of the mass just prior to the second reading.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Grandfather Killer Jailed in First TV Sentencing in England and Wales
A “very damaged man” has been jailed for killing his bedbound grandfather in a knife attack, in the first filmed sentencing in England and Wales.
Ben Oliver, 25, stabbed his 74-year-old grandfather to death in Mottingham, south east London, in January 2021.
He admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. He was cleared of murder at the Old Bailey.
Judge Sarah Munro QC made legal history as she handed him a life sentence with a minimum of 10 years and eight months.
The arrival of TV cameras at the Old Bailey and other crown courts comes nine years after the move was first promised.
The major change in the law, announced on Wednesday, allows broadcasters to film judges sentencing serious criminals. Broadcasting an entire trial will not be permitted…
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Renewables, Not the War in Ukraine, Are the Root Cause of Europe’s Energy Crisis
In an interview published on July 22 on the website of the daily Le Figaro, French energy policy expert Fabien Bouglé, author of the books “Wind Turbines, the Dark Side of the Ecological Transition” (Éoliennes, la face noire de la transition écologique) and “Nuclear Power, the Hidden Truths” (Nucléaire, les vérite’s cachées), explains the real reasons for the energy crisis that France and Europe are experiencing today.
Bouglé was heard in 2019 by the French National Assembly’s investigative committee on renewable energy, and his books have been broadly commented on in his home country. For him, it is clear that “this gas and electricity shock that we are experiencing is not due to the war in Ukraine, it is rooted in the growing deployment in Europe of intermittent renewable energy.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Romanian Football Club Owner Threatens to ‘Smack Orban in the Head’
The Romanian millionaire owner of Romania’s prestigious Steaua Bucharest (FCSB) football club has vowed not to let his team be rolled over by their Transylvanian competitor, Sepsi OSK.
Ired by the recent success of Sepsi, owned and mostly staffed by ethnic Hungarians, George “Gigi” Becali vowed to hit back with significant investment in his own club, and bizarrely attacked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a recent press conference.
“If Orban dares to do something, I will hit him in the head. Smack, down with Sepsi,” Becali said in an interview recently published on YouTube.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Shock Video: Gang Forces Struggling Man Into Car Trunk in France
A brutal kidnapping was caught on video in France this week, according to reports.
The disturbing scene unfolded on Tuesday afternoon in Marseille.
A witness filmed from a vantage point above as four suspects forced a struggling victim into the trunk of a car on the street in the Bricarde district of the city.
The footage was posted on social media where it garnered widespread attention.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Place is on Fire’ — Dutch Farmer Road Blockades, Hay Fires Continue Over Night
Major highways were once again shut down throughout The Netherlands on Thursday as the direct action taken by farmers to blockade roads with manure and burning bales of hay continued Wednesday evening and into the morning.
Dutch motorways, including the A7 between Groningen and Drachten and the A1 near Poorest experienced closures again on Thursday, according to the Rijkswaterstaat, the public works branch of the government responsible for maintaining roads.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Animal Rebellion: Vegan Activists Pour Milk Onto Floor of Harrods in Anti-Dairy Protest
A group of vegan activists who disrupted the Queen’s Jubilee have staged a protest by pouring milk on the floor of Harrods.
Animal Rebellion, a group of animal rights activists linked to Extinction Rebellion, staged the protest on Wednesday afternoon to call for an end to the dairy industry.
The activists said they also targeted the milk aisles of M&S and Waitrose on Oxford Street by removing bottles off the shelves, with activists claiming they “occupied” Waitrose’s cheese room.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Extinction Rebellion Block Main Road in Protest Against Shell and BP
Extinction Rebellion protesters blocked a main Leicester road and walked up it carrying a coffin in a bid to call for the public to boycott of Shell and BP. The environmentalist group says that the companies’ business models are “fundamentally incompatible” with the future of the planet, and decided to take part in a number of protests outside of the company’s petrol stations in Leicester on this afternoon, Thursday July 28.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Energy Crisis: Officials Promise No Blackouts, But Admit Energy Prices Will be ‘Very High’
Officials from the UK’s National Grid have sworn to the public that the country will avoid blackouts this winter, though they have admitted that prices will end up being “very high”.
Britons will be able to light their home this winter, so long as they are willing to pay an arm and a leg, officials from the country’s National Grid have said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Wear a Face Mask, ‘ Czech Hospitals Ask Due to a Rise in COVID-19 Cases
Czech hospitals are requesting that patients and guests wear face masks again due to a rapid increase in the number of positive coronavirus cases at the premises.
Official data on those who tested positive show only a minor part of the actual epidemic situation in the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, these numbers signal a worrying rise in the virus among the population, which is now also reflected in the hospitals. Almost 1,000 patients with Covid-19 were already hospitalized on Monday alone.
By contrast, one month ago there were 139 hospitalized patients in the Czech Republic.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Woman Arrested for “Immoral” TikTok Video
A popular Egyptian social media influencer was arrested by Saudi police for posting sexually provocative content online. The arrest came after Tala Safwan posted a live video chat.
In the video, Safwan was chatting with a woman — asking her to go where she was staying in Riyadh because she was lonely. The friend refused, claiming it was late, 3.30 am.
Safwan responded: “Even better because everyone will be asleep and they won’t hear what I’ll do to you. They won’t hear your screams … from how much fun we’ll be having.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Attacks Kyiv Area for the First Time in Weeks
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched a missile attack on the Kyiv area for the first time in weeks Thursday and pounded the northern Chernihiv region as well, in what Ukraine said was revenge for standing up to the Kremlin.
Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, announced a counteroffensive to take back the occupied Kherson region in the country’s south, territory seized by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces early in the war.
Russia attacked the Kyiv region with six missiles launched from the Black Sea, hitting a military unit in the village of Liutizh on the outskirts of the capital, according to Oleksii Hromov, a senior official with Ukraine’s General Staff.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Social Media Mocks Ukraine’s Zelensky Over Vogue Cover Shoot
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was eviscerated by social media users over his Vogue photoshoot with his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, which transpired while their country continues to be invaded by Russia.
Social media memesters immediately took to Twitter to mock Zelensky’s Vogue photoshoot. Many memes took the approach of changing just who posed for the glamor shots.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Arrested for Stabbing Spree in Le Mans With Kitchen Knife Acquired From Nearby Supermarket
An Afghan national has been arrested by French authorities after attacking several passers-by on the streets of Le Mans on Wednesday, leaving two injured.
The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon at around 2 p.m. local time, when the assailant, believed to be in his thirties, accosted several pedestrians near to Pont du Greffier.
According to French newspaper Le Figaro, the alleged attacker is originally from Afghanistan and obtained the bladed weapon from a nearby supermarket on Avenue de la Liberation minutes before the attack.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DC Mayor Wants National Guard Activated to Address Wave of Migrants Bused From GOP-Led Border States
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser on Thursday requested the indefinite activation of the district’s National Guard forces to handle the mass arrival of migrants from GOP-led border states.
Amid record migration at the Mexico border, the Republican-leaders of the adjacent U.S. states are loading migrants onto buses and sending them to the nation’s capital.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Guatemalan Illegal Immigrant Accused of Raping Ohio Girl Held Without Bond
Gerson Fuentes, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala accused of raping a 10-year-old Ohio girl who traveled Indiana for an abortion, was ordered held without bond on Thursday.
The 27-year-old faces two counts of raping the girl, who turned 10 before having the abortion. He has pleaded not guilty.
Franklin County Judge Julie Lynch cited that evidence, the violence of the crime and the fact that Fuentes had been living in the same home with the girl and her mother while in the country illegally.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ICE Finds Stash Houses Packed With Illegal Migrants in Tony DC Neighborhood
On Wednesday, authorities discovered more than 70 illegal migrants stashed in various homes operated by human smugglers across the Washington, DC area.
Internal documents obtained by the NBC News reveal that US Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement (ICE) agents found 73 illegal migrants living inside of six residential homes believed to be operated by human smugglers. Of those 73 migrants, there were 60 adults and 13 children.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poles Spent €2 Billion From Their Own Pockets in Three Months to Help Ukrainian Refugees
More than three-quarters of Polish adults have been involved in supporting and spending €2 billion to help Ukrainian refugees since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, according to data provided by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE).
A report from the organization showed that 77 percent of adult Poles had spent between €1.9-€2 billion — which amounts to 0.34-0.38 percent of Poland’s GDP in 2021 — on providing assistance for neighboring Ukrainians, which was more than what was spent on charitable causes in the country in the entirety of 2021.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘There Will be Problems’ Open Borders-Loving EU States Running Out of Places to Put Migrants
Open borders loving states within the European Union have been forced to set up tent cities after running out of places to put migrants.
Having invited in tens of thousands of migrants from outside the bloc, the open borders-loving EU member states of Ireland and Germany are running out of places to put their newly acquired asylum seekers, and have now both been forced to open up tents to house would-be asylum seekers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Viktor Orbán: “I am an Anti-Immigration Politician”
Viktor Orbán called himself an “anti-immigration” politician in Vienna and stressed that this should be understood in a cultural and civilizational context, not a biological one.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wurzburg Migrant Killer Who Stabbed 3 Women to Death Avoids Prison on Mental Health Grounds
A Somali national who launched into an indiscriminate stabbing frenzy in the Bavarian city of Würzburg last June, killing three women and injuring seven others, has been found not guilty of murder and will instead receive institutional mental health treatment rather than serve time in prison.
In a judgment handed down on Tuesday, the German court accepted the evidence of two independent reports that stated the assailant, Abdirahman Jibril A., was mentally ill and therefore not guilty of the heinous crime on June 25, 2021.
The court had heard how the migrant, who had lied about his age upon entry to Germany in 2015, had shouted “Allahu Akbar” before the stabbing spree with a kitchen knife, which killed women aged 24, 49, and 82 and injured two girls aged 11 and 16.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Gays Against Groomers Suspended From Twitter
Twitter is cracking down on the use of the word “groomer” after pressure from activists who claim the term is “anti-LGBT.” Gays Against Groomers, who describe themselves as “A coalition of gays against the sexualization and indoctrination of children,” is the latest to be suspended on Thursday during Twitter’s banning spree.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Court Upholds Right of Catholic School Not to Employ LGBT Teacher in Same-Sex Union
A Federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that a Catholic high school has the right to end its employment of a teacher who entered into a same-sex union in violation of church teachings.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Starkey v. Roncalli High School and Archdiocese of Indianapolis that religious schools have a constitutional right to choose who teaches their faith to the next generation.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Library Hosts Back-to-School Dance, ‘Drag Show’, and ‘Gender Support Plans’ For Middle Schoolers
The Fayetteville Public Library in Arkansas is hosting a “back to school” dance for middle and high school students, where students will get to enjoy a drag show, pick out clothing from “The Transition Closet,” and will be equipped with gender support systems.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Some activist moms around the county are angry about the term “birthing people” being used by left-wing entities such as George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
“This is all part of an ideology that is truly totalitarian and authoritarian in nature,” said a Rhode Island mom named Nicole Solas. “And that is exactly what we’re seeing with these radical gender identity cultists.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter Resumes Purge of Scientists, Critics of Gender Ideology After Musk Pullout
The free-speech wing of the internet cheered when billionaire Elon Musk, a vocal critic of social media censorship, said he would purchase Twitter for $44 billion.
But by backing out of the deal earlier this month over Twitter’s alleged undercounting of spam accounts, the Tesla CEO may have emboldened the social media platform to resume or expand its aggressive moderation of tweets that offend elite opinion.
Since the Musk deal fell through, Twitter has imposed a raft of suspensions and lockouts against medical experts and critics of gender ideology, including one it recently reinstated.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
U.K. Gov’t Orders Shut Down of Infamous Tavistock Gender Clinic
Britain’s Tavistock gender clinic will be closed for good after a lengthy government review found that it failed vulnerable minors.
The review, led by pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, found that the NHS mistreated young people who were questioning their gender identity and issued a series of recommendations for a radical overhaul of the service.
The doctor found that Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust was “not a safe or viable long-term option” and that mental health issues presenting in children who were “overshadowed” when the issue of gender was raised by kids who were referred to the facility.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bristol Drag Queen Children’s Story Hour Disrupted by Protests
An event where a drag queen was due to read to children in Bristol has been postponed after protests outside.
The event at Henleaze Library, Bristol, went ahead without the host and a librarian read to children instead.
Bristol City Council said the group “needed lessons in tolerance and difference,” and said it would not tolerate discrimination.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The police in Wiltshire, UK, have admitted in a statement posted on Twitter — reacting to what they call widespread commentary online — that their response to Kellie-Jay Keen’s YouTube video was “not wholly proportionate.”
Two police officers showed up at feminist YouTuber’s home on Sunday because of her comments made online about transgender issues, informing Keen they were acting on a complaint received by a viewer unhappy about her content.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Petition: Stop the War on Farmers!
Unlike so many journalists in the mainstream media, I am a farmer, So I know a thing or two.
There is a war on farming, and it is a global war. It’s a war on human health, human development, and society, and the people waging this war see neolithic, pre-farming humanity, filled with violence, suffering, short lives, scarcity, and illness, as the low carbon net-zero goal, the ideal and not just a stepping stone to who and what we are now.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sadly, charging Western leaders with incompetence has become a “dog bites man” story. Nevertheless, the consequences of all these screw-ups is so high that we feel compelled to chronicle them.
| — Hat tip: JF | [Return to headlines] |
Social Media Mocks Ukraine’s Zelensky Over Vogue Cover Shoot
https://sickipedia-cdn.sickipedia.net/memes/61812-c47ab10a-ec94-45da-a7be-b3c6e9933d24.jpg
Sweden: the gun violence capital of Europe
Full Episode – SBS Dateline
https://youtu.be/WjZrY44T0rI
It’s the same all over western Europe Not just Sweden. As in Sweden it just does not get reported.
It will take at least some of what it takes to bend it. Imagine overrunning your continent with overwhelm-ing numbers of hostiles. Maybe the Russian Ukraine wartimes will speed things up or slow things down.
A Staab in the unionization efforts back?
OK, pun intended.
Baron, you served that one up on a silver platter.