Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/1/2023

Citizens of the UK may be hit with a fine of £300 if they burn wood to keep warm. Meanwhile, a growing number of young women in Canada are pledging not to have children, due to climate change.

In other news, an elementary school in Ontario has banned Valentine’s Day observances for the sake of inclusion.

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

Thanks to Daniel Greenfield, Dean, LP, McN, MM, Reader from Chicago, Roger, 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.

Financial Crisis
» ADP Says Jobs Growth in January Slowest in 2 Years, Blames Weather
» Federal Reserve Raises Rates by 25 Basis Points: ‘Disinflationary Process Has Started’
» High-Flying Austrian FPÖ Launches Full-on Assault on ‘Catastrophic’ Economic Policies From Government Wedded to Brussels
 
USA
» 1 Killed: 2 Injured in Pipeline Explosion in Pearsall
» After Surge in Auto Thefts, Seattle Sues Hyundai and KIA for Failing to Install Anti-Theft Technology
» America’s Most Racist Poet is Taught in Colleges Across America
» Biden, Feds Torched After Beach Home Search: ‘When Does the FBI Let a Suspect Spend a Weekend at Crime Scene?’
» Bob Woodward Defends Trump, Says Media ‘Cheated’ Public With Fake Russia Coverage
» ‘Boosted’ 6-Year-Old Girl Dies Suddenly
» CDC Aware of Reports of ‘Debilitating Illnesses’ After COVID-19 Vaccination: Official
» Chelsea Clinton Pushing for WHO to Censor ‘Disinformation’ Online
» Chinese Communist Party-Linked Companies Are Purchasing U.S. Military Academies, Congressman Warns
» DeSantis Proposes Sales Tax Holiday on Gas Stoves and Baby Formula
» Elon Musk Ignores Dems, Meets Only With Republicans in First Capitol Visit as Twitter CEO: Report
» Elon Musk Admits ‘Something is Wrong’ As Right-Wing Accounts Press Him on Twitter Engagement
» Exclusive: Seattle Firefighters Ordered to Remove ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag After Complaints
» Exclusive: Antifa Claims Responsibility for Attack on Far-Left Portland Bar in Retaliation for Them ‘Spreading COVID’ By Staying Open
» Exodus From Crime-Ridden, High-Cost Cities Like New York, San Francisco and Chicago Continues as People Continue to Flee to More Affordable States, Like Florida and Texas
» Fox News Humbles Chris Wallace, Calls Out CNN Host for Having ‘Lowest Rated Month Since Launch With Double-Digit Declines”
» GOP Senators Rally to Defend DeSantis From Trump Attacks
» GOP Senators Seek Answers on DirecTV Decision to Drop Newsmax
» Hunter Biden’s Ukraine Biolabs Received Millions in Tax Dollars From DoD
» Jesse Watters Shows Joe Behar and Whoopi Goldberg Who’s Boss, Has Two Shows That Beat the View in January
» Journalists Reject Objectivity as an ‘Outmoded, ‘ ‘Failed Concept: ‘ ‘World View of Middle-Aged White Men’
» Kyle Rittenhouse Shooting: Anthony Huber Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Permitted
» Legal Scholar Jonathan Turley Says Biden’s White House is in Free Fall: “Neither Legally Nor Practically Sustainable”
» Michigan County Spurns $1.5m in Private Election Funding Amid Growing ‘Zuckerbucks’ Backlash
» New York Waiter Gets Manslaughter Conviction for Stabbing Colleague Over $20 Tip Dispute
» Poll Shows More Americans Believe ‘Too Much’ Aid Going to Ukraine
» Potomac Avenue Metro Shooting: WMATA Employee Killed Trying to Stop Shooter
» Prestigious Liberal Watchdog Condemns New York Times’ Russiagate Coverage
» Republicans Push for Stricter Controls on Exports to China
» Star ABC News Producer Arrested on Child Porn Charges Months After FBI Raid
» Ted Cruz Calls for Biden’s AG Merrick Garland to be Impeached
» Video: Kamala Harris Lambasted for Weird Cringe Kindergarten Description of Astronauts’ Historic Mission
» Yale Epidemiologist Says That Pfizer Allegedly Mutating COVID-19 Virus Would be Domestic Terrorism
 
Canada
» Campus Watch: A Look Inside SFU’s “Climate Change Anxiety” Seminars
» Conservative MP Candice Bergen Resigns After 14 Years in Parliament
» Exclusive: Ottawa Considered Following Europe’s Riot-Causing Fertilizer Rules
» Legendary CBC Radio Producer Dies Following Random Assault in Toronto
» MP Tries to Get House of Commons to Condemn Tucker Carlson
» Peel School Board Adopts Racial Preferences Into Specialty Program Acceptance Criteria
» Women Pledging Not to Have Children Due to Climate Change is Subject of CBC Doc
 
Europe and the EU
» Artillery Regiments Run Out of… Artillery: British Army is ‘Stripped of Heavy Guns After Defence Chiefs Pledged to Give 30 Working AS90s to Ukraine’
» Austria’s FPÖ Calls for National Referendum on Sanctions on Russia and Weapon Transfers to Ukraine
» EU Corruption Scandal: Socialist MEP Had the ‘Lifestyle of a Movie Star’
» EU Warns Elon Musk Twitter Must Make Progress to Comply With Bloc’s New Rules Curbing Hate Speech
» French Unions Announce More Marches After Tuesday’s Success
» Germany: Woman Faked Own Death by Killing Lookalike She Found Online: Prosecutors
» Great Reset: Britons Face £300 Fine for Burning Wood to Keep Warm
» ‘Little to No Difference’: Massive Mask Meta-Study Undermines Remaining COVID Mandates
» Orban’s ‘No Man’s Land’ Remark Spark Diplomatic Row With Ukraine
» PM Orban: Sending European Tanks to Ukraine is a Very Bad Idea
» Poland’s Governing Party Leader Settles Libel Dispute With Polish MEP by Donating Funds to Ukrainian Army
» Poland Records Fewest Births Since 1945 as Population Continues to Decline
» Report: Italy is ‘Fastest-Shrinking Nation’ In the West
» Russia v NATO: Macron Won’t Rule Out Sending French Jets to Ukraine
» Swedish Imams Sacked Over Performing Temporary ‘Pleasure Marriages’ for Islamic Prostitution
» UK Government Rejects Boris Johnson’s Call to Send Jets to Ukraine
» UK Tribunal Rules MI5 Mass Surveillance Data Was Stored Unlawfully
» UK: Free Speech Union Says it Plans to Challenge PayPal Censorship With Regulator Appeal
 
Balkans
» Croatian President Breaks NATO Ranks: Crimea Will Never Return to Ukraine
 
Middle East
» Jordan Peterson Calls for Regime Change in Iran
 
Russia
» Former UK Defense Minister Says NATO May Need to Send Ground Forces to Ukraine
» German Tanks Have Extreme Tech Advantage Over Russian Tanks, Says Former Hungarian Intelligence Officer
» Russia Threatens to Bomb Polish, Romanian Airbases if Used by Jets Donated to Ukraine
» Stop ‘Protecting Wiltshire’ And Send Tanks to Ukraine, Says Boris Johnson
» Ukraine Scores 33/100 on Corruption in Annual Report, Near Bottom Third Out of 180 Countries
» Video: Belarusian Tennis Star Calls Out Sports Reporters for “Dragging Players Into” Ukraine Conflict Talk
 
Far East
» Ivermectin: Could Population-Wide Distribution Have Prevented China’s Recent Mass COVID Outbreak?
 
Australia — Pacific
» ABC is Called Out by Aboriginal Leaders and Alice Springs’ Mayor After the National Broadcaster Said a Crime Crisis Meeting Was Just a Gathering of White Supremacists: ‘They’Re Completely Disconnected’
» Chinese Money-Laundering Gang is Busted in Australia: Designer Clothes, Luxury Jewellery and Lavish Properties Worth Over $150million Seized
» Extraordinary Change Announced for Australia’s $5 Note With the Royal Family Disappearing From Currency as What Will Replace Them is Revealed: ‘Off With His Head!’:
» Man Stabbed and Locked in Burning Brisbane House While Children Also Inside
» Sweeping Booze Bans to Return to Alice Springs as Bombshell Report Urges Major Changes ‘Urgently’
» Tense Scenes Outside George Pell’s Funeral as Catholic Supporter Unleashes in Foul-Mouthed Rant at Protesters: ‘You’Re Aggravating a Lot of People’
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» South Africa: Doctors Without Borders Employee Caught in Looting Spree
 
Latin America
» David Beckham Adds Bugs to His Foodie Menu Delights
 
Immigration
» 10 Ways Denmark’s Leftwing Government Reduced Asylum Application by 82% and Dramatically Cut Immigration
» Aggressive Left-Wing Activists Put Up Wall of Umbrellas to ‘Protect’ Migrants Camped Outside $450-a-Night Manhattan Hotel — as They Feed Them and Protest City’s Decision to Move Them to Pop-Up Brooklyn Shelter
» Downtown Manhattan $190-a-Night Holiday Inn Wins Judge’s Approval to Become Migrant Shelter — Which Will Set Taxpayers Back Nearly $100,000 A DAY
» Germans Struggling to Find Housing Amid Migrant Surge, Mayors Claim
» Illegal Immigrants in UK Given Free Debit Cards
» Ireland: One Arrested After Car Driven Through Anti-Mass Migration Protest
» Migrant Crisis Becoming Key Election Issue, Polling Data Suggests
» UK: Iranian Migrant Killer Who Slit Throat of Woman Who Opened Her Home Sent to Mental Hospital
 
Culture Wars
» Diversity Professor Verbally Attacks Student After Being Triggered by Term ‘Terrorist Attack’: Complaint
» Finland Allows Citizens to Legally ‘Self-Identify’ as the Opposite Sex
» Ontario School Bans Valentine’s Day for Inclusion Reasons
» Trans Woman Faces Indecent Exposure Charge for Being Naked in Front of Young Girls at YMCA Ladies’ Locker Room
 

ADP Says Jobs Growth in January Slowest in 2 Years, Blames Weather

After rebounding in December, ADP’s employment report was expected to show slowing in January but the actual print was a major disappoint with only 106k jobs added (compared to 180k expected and an upwardly revised 253k in December).

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

Federal Reserve Raises Rates by 25 Basis Points: ‘Disinflationary Process Has Started’

WASHINGTON (TND) — The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 4.5% to 4.75%, a move firmly expected by economists and Wall Street. The 25 basis point is the smallest rate hike to come from the central bank since March of last year.

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

High-Flying Austrian FPÖ Launches Full-on Assault on ‘Catastrophic’ Economic Policies From Government Wedded to Brussels

The opposition Freedom Party (FPÖ) in Austria has upped its level of attack on the current administration, accusing the incumbent People’s Party (ÖVP) of being blindly led by the European Union and implementing policies that have had catastrophic consequences for the Austrian people.

In a debate in the National Council on Tuesday, FPÖ energy spokesman Axel Kassegger called for a radical change to the government’s energy policy, which he claimed has driven the Austrian “homeland into an economic war.”

Kassegger slammed ÖVP for its economy-destroying coronavirus rules and for blindly adopting Brussels’ anti-Russian energy sanctions — which he called a “knee-jerk” policy. He called for an end to the sanctions and for the government to “start peace talks.”

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

1 Killed: 2 Injured in Pipeline Explosion in Pearsall

OSHA is investigating the incident

PEARSALL, Texas — An explosion in Pearsall has left one person dead and two others injured, a federal official said.

According to an email from Juan J. Rodriguez of the US Department of Labor, the explosion happened around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday but didn’t indicate where.

The injured were employees of Nexus Integrity Management, Rodriguez said.

The San Antonio-area office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident and will release its findings when the probe is complete.

           — Hat tip: MM [Return to headlines]
 

After Surge in Auto Thefts, Seattle Sues Hyundai and KIA for Failing to Install Anti-Theft Technology

The “blame everyone but the criminals” strategy being employed in most major U.S. cities — and contributing to the increase in crime while emboldening future criminals — doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon.

Case in point? The auto thefts in Seattle have gotten so bad that city attorneys in the liberal-run utopia are hilariously suing the manufacturers of Hyundai and Kia for failing to install anti-theft technology on their vehicles.

Talk about missing the point.

As Axios pointed out, auto thefts across the country have been on a surge over the last few years. In Seattle, Hyundai and Kia thefts were 620% higher than other auto brands. Perhaps this is what has motivated Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison to sue the manufacturers.

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

America’s Most Racist Poet is Taught in Colleges Across America

by Daniel Greenfield

“We are all beautiful (except white people, they are full of, and made of s***),” Baraka wrote in ‘A School of Prayer’. This was about the nicest thing that he ever said about white people.

“Come up, black dada / nihilismus. Rape the white girls. Rape / their fathers. Cut the mothers’ throats,” the black nationalist raved in.another poem.

In a poem published by his own Jihad Press, Baraka fantasized about a race war, “cracker you may be wood and fire is what you need… n___r you might be fire and need to be burn some wood” and declared that, “Allah speaks in and thru me now.”

In his play, ‘A Black Mass’, Baraka dramatized the Nation of Islam’s myth of a black mad scientist creating white people with the emergence of “a beast” who is “white with a red, lizard-devil mask” and who “hops around, all the while screaming, ‘white, white, white’“.

The play concludes with the narrator warning, “There are beasts in our world. Let us find them and slay them. Let us lock them in their caves. Let us declare the Holy War. The Jihad.”

Amiri Baraka, arguably the country’s most racist poet, who frequently fantasized about the mass murder of white people and Jews, is widely taught in colleges across America. And he’s at the center of the controversy over Florida’s rejection of an AP Black Studies course…

           — Hat tip: Daniel Greenfield [Return to headlines]
 

Biden, Feds Torched After Beach Home Search: ‘When Does the FBI Let a Suspect Spend a Weekend at Crime Scene?’

President Biden, as well as the FBI and Justice Department, faced new scrutiny Wednesday for their handling of his classified documents scandal after agents searched his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

FBI agents conducted a “planned” search of Biden’s beach home for three-and-a-half hours but did not find additional classified documents, the president’s attorney Bob Bauer said. Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence have all discovered classified materials at their residences or offices, though Biden’s saga continues to expand.

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

Bob Woodward Defends Trump, Says Media ‘Cheated’ Public With Fake Russia Coverage

Bob Woodward has defended President Donald Trump and blasted the corporate media for cheating the public by running coverage of the fake “Russian collusion” narrative.

Mainstream media reporter Jeff Gerth just published a 4-part investigative series on the media’s serial failures on Russiagate.

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

‘Boosted’ 6-Year-Old Girl Dies Suddenly

A 6-year-old girl has tragically died suddenly in Ohio, according to reports.

Anastasia Weaver passed away unexpectedly in the Emergency Room of Akron Children’s Hospital in Boardman, Ohio, on January 25, at the age of 6.

The young child was surrounded by her family.

Anastasia’s mother, Jessica Day-Weaver, said that her husband, Andrew Weaver, found Anastasia unresponsive around 6 am on Wednesday when he got home.

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

CDC Aware of Reports of ‘Debilitating Illnesses’ After COVID-19 Vaccination: Official

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials are aware of reports of long-lasting problems following COVID-19 vaccination, an official recently disclosed.

“With respect to reports of people experiencing debilitating illnesses, we are aware of these reports of people experiencing long-lasting health problems following COVID vaccination,” Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, said on Jan. 26.

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

Chelsea Clinton Pushing for WHO to Censor ‘Disinformation’ Online

Chelsea Clinton is part of the radical pressure group that has been pushing for the World Health Organization (WHO) to be given more powers to censor so-called “disinformation” and “misinformation” online.

The group argues that the WHO needs more power so it can better handle future pandemics by quickly shutting down “disinformation” and “misinformation” on social media.

The group, which includes Clinton and nine other globalist public health advocates, made the recommendation in a 12-page article published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.

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

Chinese Communist Party-Linked Companies Are Purchasing U.S. Military Academies, Congressman Warns

Companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party are purchasing U.S. military academies with officer training programs across the country, warns Florida GOP Rep. Michael Waltz.

“It’s incredibly concerning that there are American private schools owned by companies with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party,” said Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a Green Beret.

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

DeSantis Proposes Sales Tax Holiday on Gas Stoves and Baby Formula

Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing a permanent sales tax holiday on gas stoves and baby formula.

DeSantis unveiled his $114.8 billion budget proposal on Wednesday.

It includes permanent sales tax exemptions on all baby necessities like strollers and formula, pet meds, and even the embattled gas stove.

The governor’s “Framework for Freedom” for the 2023 state budget proposes four permanent sales tax holidays totaling $1.5 billion.

The exceptions include baby and toddler necessities, cribs and strollers, over-the-counter pet medications, and gas stoves.

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

Elon Musk Ignores Dems, Meets Only With Republicans in First Capitol Visit as Twitter CEO: Report

Billionaire Elon Musk only scheduled meetings with Republicans for his first visit to the U.S. Capitol since becoming the CEO of Twitter last week.

Musk met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Ky., House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Jan. 26, but he didn’t schedule any meetings with Congressional Democrats. While Musk did tweet about meeting with Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., during the visit, their encounter was only a chance meeting while walking the halls of Congress, Jeffries’ staff told Politico.

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

Elon Musk Admits ‘Something is Wrong’ As Right-Wing Accounts Press Him on Twitter Engagement

Twitter boss Elon Musk made his account private on the platform and admitted “something is wrong” after complaints from right-wing users about engagement.

Mr Musk, who bought Twitter for $44bn then went on a firing frenzy at the San Francisco-based company, said he was running an experiment on his tweets.

The Tesla billionaire took action after users like right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong and the “Libs of TikTok” account complained about people seeing their content.

Mr Cheong said that his tweets received more engagement when his account was private than when it was publicly available.

The entrepreneur told Mr Cheong that his claims were “extremely concerning.”

And when “Libs of TikTok” tweeted they had done the same thing, Mr Musk replied, “Something is wrong.”

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

Exclusive: Seattle Firefighters Ordered to Remove ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag After Complaints

Firefighters in Seattle were instructed to take down a “Thin Blue Line” flag from the public area of one of the fire stations. The flag a symbol that shows support for police officers. A similar symbol, with a thin red line, represents firefighters. Merchandise with that symbol are sold by the local firefighters union. It was recently decided that proceeds from the sale of “Thin Red Line” apparel would be donated to BLM.

The Seattle Fire Department told The Post Millennial in a statement, “leadership made a management decision to have a Thin Blue Line flag removed from a public area in one of the fire stations. While the SFD fully supports our law enforcement partners, the flag’s original meaning of support for police has been coopted by its use at rallies for extremist groups.”

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

Exclusive: Antifa Claims Responsibility for Attack on Far-Left Portland Bar in Retaliation for Them ‘Spreading COVID’ By Staying Open

Members of Rose City Antifa have taken credit for vandalism that occurred at a worker-owned Portland Bar in the early hours of January 29.

In a “communique” posted to Rose City Counter-Info on January 31, the group stated that the vandalism, carried out by “disabled anarchists,” targeted the Worker’s Tap because of “how this bar inherently operates with unmitigated COVID spread.”

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

Exodus From Crime-Ridden, High-Cost Cities Like New York, San Francisco and Chicago Continues as People Continue to Flee to More Affordable States, Like Florida and Texas

After a year of rising crime and continued inflation, many Americans chose to exit the nation’s three biggest cities to head down south.

Despite universal requests to return to the office, many have decided to move from New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago to Sun Belt cities like Miami, Houston, and Atlanta.

Among big cities, Houston had the highest move-in rate, according to the National Association of Realtors, with 55.7 percent of moves happening within or into the city.

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

Fox News Humbles Chris Wallace, Calls Out CNN Host for Having ‘Lowest Rated Month Since Launch With Double-Digit Declines”

Fox News had another great month in the all-important ratings battle landing 99 of the Top 100 Cable News Telecasts in January. The proud network issued a statement congratulating all its stars and used the great news to take a swipe at CNN host Chris Wallace.

Fox easily beat CNN and MSNBC and it wasn’t even close. Fox finished with 54% of cable news viewers across primetime and 53% in total day, Fox continued to deliver over half the genre’s audience share.

According to Nielsen MRI-Simmons Fusion, Fox News was the most-watched network across the political spectrum with more Independents and Democrats choosing FNC as their preferred network than MSNBC and CNN in total day and primetime viewers in the A25-54 demo.

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

GOP Senators Rally to Defend DeSantis From Trump Attacks

Republican senators are rallying to defend Ron DeSantis from former President Trump’s attempt to keep the popular Florida governor out of the 2024 presidential race.

At the same time, Trump is picking up more formal endorsements within the Senate Republican Conference as his feud with DeSantis intensifies, an early signal that the 2024 Republican presidential primary will divide GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

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

GOP Senators Seek Answers on DirecTV Decision to Drop Newsmax

Senate Republican are investigating a recent decision from DirecTV to no longer carry conservative news outlet Newsmax, fearing the network made the decision in an act of political censorship.

DirecTV announced last week that it would remove the channel from its lineup as a “cost cutting” measure so as to avoid paying a license fee, which they say the network demanded. The network has denounced the decision as a “blatant act of political discrimination.” The cable provider removed conservative outlet One America News last year.

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

Hunter Biden’s Ukraine Biolabs Received Millions in Tax Dollars From DoD

Hunter Biden’s biolabs in Ukraine have received tens of millions in U.S. tax dollars from the Department of Defense (DOD) to carry out disturbing experiments, according to bombshell government spending data.

The U.S. federal government’s official spending database, USASpending.gov, shows that the DOD has awarded Hunter Biden’s Metabiota labs millions of dollars in lucrative contracts.

Metabiota, a San Francisco-based startup that compiles data from around the world to “predict” disease outbreaks, runs several labs in Ukraine that have been linked to dangerous bioweapons research.

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

Jesse Watters Shows Joe Behar and Whoopi Goldberg Who’s Boss, Has Two Shows That Beat the View in January

Fox News star Jesse Watters had a great January as did the entire Fox Network. Fox dominated the competition delivering 99 of the Top 100 Cable News Telecasts in January.

Fox finished January 2023 surpassing CNN and MSNBC with total day and primetime viewers and A25-54 for the 23rd consecutive month. The Five continued to make history, marking ten consecutive months as the most-watched program on cable news.

Tucker Carlson Tonight continued to dominate cable news in the younger advertiser coveted 25-54 demo. Gutfeld! continued to bring in huge numbers and beat ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

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

Journalists Reject Objectivity as an ‘Outmoded, ‘ ‘Failed Concept: ‘ ‘World View of Middle-Aged White Men’

A new report featured dozens of journalists and media experts who widely reject the concept of “objectivity,” which was once a longstanding principle in the news industry.

The lengthy piece, titled “Beyond Objectivity,” published last week by Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication put a spotlight on what it deems a “generational shift” when it comes to objectivity.

“[W]hen misunderstood, journalistic ‘objectivity’ or ‘balance’ can lead to so-called ‘bothsides-ism’ — a dangerous trap when covering issues like climate change or the intensifying assault on democracy,” co-authors Leonard Downie Jr. and Andrew Heyward wrote in the report’s introduction.

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

Kyle Rittenhouse Shooting: Anthony Huber Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Permitted

KENOSHA, Wis. — A federal judge in Wisconsin on Wednesday ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of Anthony Huber, shot and killed by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest in 2020, can proceed against Rittenhouse, police officers and others.

Anthony Huber was participating in an Aug. 25, 2020, protest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake two days earlier. The Black man was left partially paralyzed after he was shot in the back by police during a domestic disturbance call.

Huber died after he was shot by Rittenhouse. Anthony Huber’s father, John Huber, alleges that Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, conspired with law enforcement to cause harm to protestors. John Huber is seeking unspecified damages from city officials, officers and Rittenhouse.

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

Legal Scholar Jonathan Turley Says Biden’s White House is in Free Fall: “Neither Legally Nor Practically Sustainable”

Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley said President Joe Biden’s White House is in a state of “free fall” over the surprise search by the FBI of Biden’s Delaware beach house to look for more classified documents.

Biden and his team have not handled the issue well according to Turley who thinks their position of not answering questions about the scandal is not sustainable. Turley said:

“You don’t have to really go thumbing through the code to realize that storing classified material next to your corvette would be viewed as gross mishandling. This is still a very serious question.

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

Michigan County Spurns $1.5m in Private Election Funding Amid Growing ‘Zuckerbucks’ Backlash

A clerk in Ottawa County, Mich., has declined a $1.5 million election grant from a nonprofit linked to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, citing qualms about accepting private funds for public election administration, as a growing number of states and localities across the nation are moving to refuse, restrict or ban so-called “Zuckerbucks.”

Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck announced Tuesday that he was removing the elections division of his office from consideration for funding by the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, after reporting in November that the county was a finalist in the network’s “Centers for Election Excellence” program.

When Roebuck learned that his office was to receive a $1.5 million election grant from the alliance, he declined it and withdrew from the program.

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

New York Waiter Gets Manslaughter Conviction for Stabbing Colleague Over $20 Tip Dispute

A waiter at a New York restaurant was convicted of manslaughter for stabbing a co-worker with a broken bottle during an argument over $20 worth of tips, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

David Jimenez Salazar, 25, was convicted by a jury on Tuesday of fatally stabbing 37-year-old busser Elvin Padilla on July 16, 2020 at the Hicksville restaurant on Long Island where they both worked, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said.

The fatal dispute happened during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic when the owners of the restaurant, La Candela, had instituted a policy that waiters were to share 30% of their tips with bussers.

Padilla accused Salazar of withholding $20 in tips, and the two began arguing and shoving each other, the district attorney said in a news release.

According to prosecutors, Padilla exited the kitchen and headed to the bar, where Salazar was waiting for him.

Salazar picked up a vodka bottle and swung it at Padilla, striking him, prosecutors said. He then broke the bottle on the counter and swung it again at Padilla, stabbing him in the jugular with the jagged-edged bottleneck, they said. Padilla was pronounced dead at the scene.

           — Hat tip: McN [Return to headlines]
 

Poll Shows More Americans Believe ‘Too Much’ Aid Going to Ukraine

Earlier we quoted former UK Defense Minister Sir Gerald Howarth who posed in a recent television interview: “Are western citizens willing to fight and die for Ukraine? It’s highly unlikely…”

Opinion polls are continuing to show waning public support for the West’s deepening involvement in the Ukrainians’ fight against Russia, given the obvious fears of sliding toward nuclear confrontation. While the opening months of the invasion last year resulted in 24/7 headlines, and a frenzy of social media posts displaying the Ukrainian flag and pledges of support, this trend has waned, and what many have dubbed “Ukraine fatigue” has long set in.

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

Potomac Avenue Metro Shooting: WMATA Employee Killed Trying to Stop Shooter

WASHINGTON — A Metro transit employee was shot and killed Wednesday on a D.C. train station platform while trying to stop a gunman who had already shot and wounded several others.

At a press conference, Executive Assistant Chief of Police Ashan M. Benedict said the incident began as an altercation onboard a Metrobus near 14th Street and Potomac shortly after 9 a.m.

Benedict said a person with a gun was engaging random passengers on the bus and followed one of them off before opening fire and shooting them in the leg.

The gunman then entered the Potomac Avenue Metro station and took the escalator to the station platform where they approached a person who was trying to buy a Metro card. Benedict said the gunman shot that person and attempted to drag them over the faregate turnstile before the victim was able to break free.

The gunman then went further down the escalator and confronted a woman who was believed to be a customer. Benedict said a Metro transit employee who saw what was going on attempted to intervene and was shot and killed by the gunman.

A second Metro transit employee then approached the shooter — who entered and exited the train that was stopped at the platform — before being taken into custody by officers.

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

Prestigious Liberal Watchdog Condemns New York Times’ Russiagate Coverage

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) has issued a scathing indictment of the New York Times for yellow journalism during the Trump-Russia saga.

In short, the hyper-partisan ‘paper of record’ was operating in bad faith.

It’s wasn’t just the Times either. CJR’s findings accurately reflect what most objective thinkers have known this whole time — they were all operating in bad faith.

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

Republicans Push for Stricter Controls on Exports to China

Republicans are pushing for stricter controls on exports to China, citing lax enforcement of current measures.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warns that the Chinese military could easily access sensitive technologies without better protections.

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

Star ABC News Producer Arrested on Child Porn Charges Months After FBI Raid

Star ABC News producer James Gordon Meek has been arrested and charged with child porn offenses, months after he was raided by the FBI.

The Department of Justice announced today that Meek was arrested late Tuesday.

Meeks resigned from ABC in April 2022 after the FBI raided his home.

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

Ted Cruz Calls for Biden’s AG Merrick Garland to be Impeached

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz went off on the Democratic Party during an appearance on Charlie Kirk on Tuesday, where he called for the resignation of Biden’s Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and for Department of Justice’s head Merrick Garland.

During his appearance with Kirk, he spoke about how the party has been taken over by the extreme fringe that does not believe in a border, that doesn’t believe in gender and believe in performing life-changing surgeries on minors.

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

Video: Kamala Harris Lambasted for Weird Cringe Kindergarten Description of Astronauts’ Historic Mission

Kamala Harris, who is one health indicent away from being the President, put on a weird and disturbingly childish display Tuesday as she awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to two former astronauts.

Harris described the NASA SpaceX Demonstration Demo-2 mission of Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley from 2020 using extremely literal language that prompted some to wonder whether she is employing children to write her speeches.

Using a weird tone as if speaking to a room full of toddlers, Harris noted that the astronauts “suited up, waved to their families, rode an elevator… strapped into their seats… and then they launched.”

“Yeah they did,” she added before bursting into fits of giggles.

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

Yale Epidemiologist Says That Pfizer Allegedly Mutating COVID-19 Virus Would be Domestic Terrorism

Senior Research Scientist and Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, Dr. Harvey Risch, says that if Pfizer participated in experiments that involved mutating COVID-19 to do research for more vaccines, it could be a crime.

“If they were to do that, the vaccine would only be useful if the virus that they’re inventing actually got out into the population,” Dr. Risch said on Wednesday’s edition of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “That would be an act of domestic terrorism if that happened. So they’re probably not doing that. We hope they’re not doing that. But that’s the concern.”

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

Campus Watch: A Look Inside SFU’s “Climate Change Anxiety” Seminars

“Climate change anxiety and grief” seminars held at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University (SFU) recommend that students reduce caffeinated drinks and practice self-care to help deal with distress caused by changes in the weather and climate.

The seminars are led by clinical counsellor and psychologist Dr. Shona Adams, and are part of a research study “on understanding different interventions that people with different levels of climate change distress find helpful,” as previously reported by True North.

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

Conservative MP Candice Bergen Resigns After 14 Years in Parliament

On Wednesday, Conservative Member of Parliament Candice Bergen announced her resignation after serving the Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar for fourteen years.

During her time in politics, Bergen held numerous positions including Minister of State for Social Development, Critic for the Natural Resources Portfolio, and, perhaps most notably, Conservative Party leader.

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

Exclusive: Ottawa Considered Following Europe’s Riot-Causing Fertilizer Rules

This is the final part of the Fertilizer Files, a 3-part series on what internal government documents show about the Trudeau Liberals’ push to reduce fertilizer emissions. Read part 1 here and part 2 here.

While modeling its agriculture emissions reduction plan, Ottawa considered following in the footsteps of the European Union — which has asked member states to introduce policies to reduce fertilizer use altogether. The controversial policy, when applied in countries like the Netherlands, has led to widespread protests, tractor convoys and clashes with authorities.

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

Legendary CBC Radio Producer Dies Following Random Assault in Toronto

The increasingly dangerous streets of Toronto claimed yet another life on Tuesday when legendary CBC Radio producer Michael Finlay succumbed to injuries he sustained during a random attack days earlier.

Finlay, who worked with the CBC for thirty-one years, has been described by former colleagues and listeners alike as an “exceptional storyteller, documentary maker, and editor.”

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

MP Tries to Get House of Commons to Condemn Tucker Carlson

On Tuesday, a Member of Parliament tried to get the House of Commons to condemn Fox News host Tucker Carlson, but it wasn’t successful.

NDP MP Matthew Green asked for unanimous consent from MPs on the matter, saying leaders needed to set an example to stop what he claimed was a rise of far-right extremism and violence.

The motion did not pass.

Media personality Tucker Carlson made comments about liberating Canada last week on his popular Fox News program.

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

Peel School Board Adopts Racial Preferences Into Specialty Program Acceptance Criteria

In an effort to address “historic disproportionalities,” the Peel District School Board (PDSB) in Ontario will give students preferential treatment in the admission process into specialty programs based on their skin colour and ethnic background.

As part of the PDSB’s WeRiseTogether initiative, Regional Learning Choice Programs — specialty programs that allow students to develop skills in a particular area of interest — will allow self-identifying African, Afro-Caribbean, Black, First Nations, Inuit and Métis students to bypass the program’s random selection process and by automatically accepted.

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

Women Pledging Not to Have Children Due to Climate Change is Subject of CBC Doc

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has released a documentary that features young women who have pledged not to have children due to anxieties surrounding climate change. This comes at the same time as a new think-tank study reveals nearly half of Canadian women anticipate having fewer children than they were originally planning.

“The Climate Baby Dilemma” follows Dr. Britt Wray, a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, as she interviews women in their early to late 20s about the mental health impacts of climate change.

The documentary features Emma Lim, the founder of the #NoFutureNoChildren pledge in 2019. The pledge quickly collected more than 10,000 signatures from women who declared they would not have children until governments enacted significant climate policies.

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

Artillery Regiments Run Out of… Artillery: British Army is ‘Stripped of Heavy Guns After Defence Chiefs Pledged to Give 30 Working AS90s to Ukraine’

Defence chiefs have pledged all 30 working AS90s to Kyiv and are now urgently seeking K9 Thunders and Archer guns to replenish their stocks.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Austria’s FPÖ Calls for National Referendum on Sanctions on Russia and Weapon Transfers to Ukraine

The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), currently the most popular party in the country, is calling for a national referendum on sanctions on Russia and arm shipments to the embattled nation.

“We want to ask the population how they feel about the current sanctions policy against Russia and arms exports to Ukraine,” said MEP Harald Vilimsky, head of the Liberal delegation in the European Parliament on Monday. According to him, Europeans are not united behind the current arms exports, such as the recently agreed delivery of tanks to Ukraine, with some countries especially opposed to such a step.

He pointed to a survey from Euromedia which found that 60 percent of Italians spoke out against heavy weapons for Kyiv.

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

EU Corruption Scandal: Socialist MEP Had the ‘Lifestyle of a Movie Star’

The Qatargate corruption scandal that has sent shockwaves through Brussels has also revealed that the key suspect, a “socialist” politician, enjoyed the “lifestyle of a movie star,” according to Hungarian newspaper Origo.

Caribbean holidays, glamorous parties in the clubs of Athens with supermodels, and luxury apartments. MEP Eva Kaili, the current star of the Brussels corruption scandal, appeared to have it all. Kaili turned out to not just be a socialist, but also a socialite who enjoyed a level of luxury quite out of place with the working-class principles that were once typically associated with the left.

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

EU Warns Elon Musk Twitter Must Make Progress to Comply With Bloc’s New Rules Curbing Hate Speech

The European Union on Tuesday warned Elon Musk that Twitter needs to prepare for the bloc’s new rules curbing hate speech, misinformation, and other harmful content.

Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for digital policy, held a video call with Musk Tuesday to discuss the platform’s readiness to comply with Europe’s Digital Services Act, set to take effect later this year.

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

French Unions Announce More Marches After Tuesday’s Success

Following the second day of mass mobilisation against the Macron administration’s pension reform, the unions have announced new social movements on 7 and 11 February.

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

Germany: Woman Faked Own Death by Killing Lookalike She Found Online: Prosecutors

A beauty blogger was left unrecognisable after being stabbed 50 times in a bizarre and gruesome case dubbed the “Doppelganger Murder”.

A German woman is accused of murdering a lookalike she found on Instagram in an elaborate attempt to fake her own death.

The alleged perpetrator — identified only as 23-year-old Sharaban K — killed beauty blogger Khadidja O, also 23, in Ingolstadt, Germany last August, according to investigators.

Khadidja O had been brutally stabbed more than 50 times, with her body left on the back seat of Sharaban K’s Mercedes. Sharaban K and an accomplice — identified as her boyfriend Sheqir K — subsequently went into hiding.

When the body was found, police traced the car’s registration to Sharaban K’s family. Given the corpse had been disfigured, investigators assumed that she was the victim.

However, a subsequent autopsy report uncovered that the actual victim was Khadidja O, prompting an investigation into the bizarre case dubbed “the doppelganger murder” by German media.

This week, police charged Sharaban K with murder, with prosecutors saying she trawled Instagram in a bid to find a victim who matched her physical appearance.

“It has been confirmed that the accused had contacted several women via Instagram before the act who seemed to look similar to her,” Attorney-General Veronika Grieser told local publication Bild.

“It can be assumed that the suspect wanted to go into hiding, due to internal disputes with her family, and fake her own death.”

According to investigators, Sharaban K connected with beauty blogger Khadidja O via Instagram sometime last year, sending her messages about cosmetics.

She purportedly enticed the victim into meeting up by offering her a set of beauty products.

On the day of the crime, Sharaban K told her parents that she was going to visit her ex-husband in Munich. Instead, she and her boyfriend Sheqir K allegedly picked up Khadidja O in a Mercedes.

At some point, investigators believe they turned off into a forest where Khadidja O was stabbed more than 50 times. The injuries to her face were so severe that she was rendered unrecognisable.

Sharaban K and Sheqir K then allegedly parked the Mercedes in a place where it would be easily discoverable, leaving the body in the back seat.

Police were baffled after learning that the victim was not Sharaban K as initially suspected. They subsequently looked into her social media correspondences, finding that she had connected with multiple look-a-likes. They formed the theory that she had murdered one of the women in a wild bid to fake her own death.

Sharaban K was subsequently tracked down and arrested. This week, she was officially charged with murder and faces life in prison if found guilty of the gruesome crime.

Sheqir K has also been charged as an accomplice and is similarly facing jail time.

           — Hat tip: Roger [Return to headlines]
 

Great Reset: Britons Face £300 Fine for Burning Wood to Keep Warm

The UK government has told local authorities to crack down on people using wood-burning stoves to keep warm with fines of £300 or potentially criminal prosecutions for those who continually refuse to abide by state climate diktats.

Amid the energy crisis in Britain, which came to fruition in large part as a result of the Conservative Party-led governments over the past ten years obsession with implementing globalist green agenda policies while refusing to tap the nation’s more reliable natural resources such as natural gas, the use of wood-burning stoves have soared.

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

‘Little to No Difference’: Massive Mask Meta-Study Undermines Remaining COVID Mandates

An international research collaboration that reviewed several dozen rigorous studies of “physical interventions” against influenza and COVID-19 through last year failed to find even a modest effect on infection or illness rates from masks of all qualities.

Published in the peer-reviewed Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, run by the British evidence-based medicine charity Cochrane, the study raises new doubts about ongoing mask mandates and public health recommendations worldwide.

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

Orban’s ‘No Man’s Land’ Remark Spark Diplomatic Row With Ukraine

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has summoned the Hungarian ambassador in Kyiv and accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of deliberately damaging Hungarian-Ukrainian relations after he recently compared Ukraine to Afghanistan and called it “no man’s land.”

Ambassador Istvan Ijgyartó received a strong rebuke from Ukrainian officials over Orban’s recent disparaging statements, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Last week, at a briefing with journalists, the Hungarian prime minister told reporters that Russia’s goal was to turn Ukraine into an ungovernable shipwreck, claiming Ukraine “is now like Afghanistan. A no man’s land.”

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

PM Orban: Sending European Tanks to Ukraine is a Very Bad Idea

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned that Germany’s decision to send advanced tanks to Ukraine could have dire consequences, and follows a pattern of escalation that leads towards Europe’s deeper involvement in the war.

“How did it start? It started with the Germans saying they were willing to send helmets because they wouldn’t send lethal tools into the war since that would mean participation in it,” said Orban during an appearance on Hungary’s Kossuth Radió. “This is where we started, Now, we’re at battle tanks, and they’re already talking about planes.”

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

Poland’s Governing Party Leader Settles Libel Dispute With Polish MEP by Donating Funds to Ukrainian Army

The leader of Poland’s governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has settled the libel case brought against him by former liberal Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski by donating 50,000 zloty (€11,000) to the Ukrainian army.

In a statement issued by the leader of the ruling conservatives, Kaczynski expressed his satisfaction that his donation to Ukraine’s war effort closes his dispute with Sikorski.

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

Poland Records Fewest Births Since 1945 as Population Continues to Decline

Poland’s population continued to decline last year as the country maintained a negative net migration rate and recorded the lowest number of births since 1945, the country’s statistical office (GUS) announced on Monday.

The country’s population fell last year by about 141,000 compared to the previous year, continuing a downward trend visible for the past decade.

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

Report: Italy is ‘Fastest-Shrinking Nation’ In the West

ROME — Italy’s plummeting and aging population has put the country at the forefront of a global demographic trend dubbed the “silver tsunami,” the New York Times reported Tuesday.

While the overall Italian population is shrinking at the fastest rate in the West, it is also experiencing an “exploding population of old people,” writes Jason Horowitz, and without more young people joining the work force and paying into pension and welfare systems, “the whole system is imperiled.”

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

Russia v NATO: Macron Won’t Rule Out Sending French Jets to Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that he will not rule out sending fighter jets to Ukraine, reports have claimed.

The possibility of France shipping off fighter jets for use in Ukraine is not off the table, President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly said amid calls that Western nations hand over F-16 fighters to the country to help it fend off Russia.

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

Swedish Imams Sacked Over Performing Temporary ‘Pleasure Marriages’ for Islamic Prostitution

Imams who granted temporary marriages to Muslims hiring prostitutes have been sacked from their roles after Swedish media exposed their activities last year.

The imams, who are members of the Shia Islamic community, were found to have been paid to grant fixed-term marriages, or “pleasure marriages” to those wishing to hire prostitutes or engage in casual sex as a means of circumventing Islamic rules on sex within a marriage.

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

UK Government Rejects Boris Johnson’s Call to Send Jets to Ukraine

The U.K. government has distanced itself from comments made by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has criticized Western allies for not providing Ukraine with fighter jets over fears of a Russian reprisal.

In an address to the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Johnson urged the West to give “Ukrainians the tools to finish the job.”

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

UK Tribunal Rules MI5 Mass Surveillance Data Was Stored Unlawfully

Liberty and Privacy International have announced victory in a case they brought against an important cog in the UK’s security and spying machine, the domestic agency MI5.

The two human rights organizations said the cases revolved around MI5 mishandling data belonging to millions of people in an unlawful manner, and despite being aware of the facts, continuing with the practice.

On Monday, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal issued a ruling in the case, filed three years ago, that stated “very serious failings” had been discovered at top MI5 levels, when it comes to compliance with privacy safeguards.

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

UK: Free Speech Union Says it Plans to Challenge PayPal Censorship With Regulator Appeal

The Free Speech Union (FSU) has announced that its battle with PayPal over the reasons the organization got banned without a warning continues.

The now “lengthy legal correspondence” over the attempted demonetization of the FSU started last year when the incident took place. And the British free speech group seeks to, through that correspondence, discover not only why its account suddenly got suspended.

PayPal also failed to offer “meaningful” explanation for this action or proper recourse such as an appeals process, the FSU said, casting doubt over PayPal’s “openness to all” moniker, given the lack of transparency here, dubbed “a policy of non-engagement.”

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

Croatian President Breaks NATO Ranks: Crimea Will Never Return to Ukraine

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic has criticised his county’s military aid to Ukraine and claimed that Crimea will never return to Kyiv, likening the region to the situation in Kosovo.

The Croatian president, who heads a NATO member state, commented on his country’s military aid to Ukraine this week, countering Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who has been supportive of Kyiv in its continuing fight against Russia.

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

Jordan Peterson Calls for Regime Change in Iran

Jordan Peterson has called on the west to embark on regime change in Iran to fight “misogyny”.

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

Former UK Defense Minister Says NATO May Need to Send Ground Forces to Ukraine

The “domino theory” was once used to great effect in order to manipulate the American public into supporting the Vietnam War, but will the same narrative work to get the west to support World War III with Russia?

Former UK Defense Minister Sir Gerald Howarth seems to think so as he uses this exact claim to justify NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine.

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

German Tanks Have Extreme Tech Advantage Over Russian Tanks, Says Former Hungarian Intelligence Officer

The provision of heavy-armored Western tanks to Kyiv will see Ukraine acquire a considerable tech advantage over Russian units, which could help change the outcome of the conflict, former Hungarian military intelligence officer József Kis-Benedek has claimed.

“With the help of the advanced military equipment sent to Ukraine, the country is able to maintain its defensive lines. The difference between German and Russian tanks is as huge as putting a Mercedes up against a Lada,” he said.

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

Russia Threatens to Bomb Polish, Romanian Airbases if Used by Jets Donated to Ukraine

Russian General Yevgeny Buzhinsky said NATO air bases would become a justified target of an attack if used by Ukrainian forces; he listed bases in Poland and Romania.

Recently, a coalition of countries including Poland, the U.K., Germany, and the U.S. decided to donate Western-made tanks to Ukraine. Signals are appearing that Kyiv’s next goal could be acquiring Western fighter jets and long-range weapons.

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

Stop ‘Protecting Wiltshire’ And Send Tanks to Ukraine, Says Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, has criticised Ukraine’s Western allies who are concerned about sending weaponry to Ukraine out of fear of depleting their own stocks.

“What is the point in deploying those tanks and planes in North Carolina or North Rhine-Westphalia or Alsace, when the Ukrainians could be using them now, exactly where they are needed to help assure our collective security for decades?” he asked in an address to the Atlantic Council in Washington DC.

He went on to emphatically stress that “patrolling the beautiful villages of Wiltshire” when Ukrainians could be using the same weaponry “to bring this war to an end” was redundant.

“Give them the fire artillery systems, give them the tanks… because they have a plan. They know what they need to do,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Scores 33/100 on Corruption in Annual Report, Near Bottom Third Out of 180 Countries

Ukraine scored 33 out of 100 on corruption in 2022, which puts the country near the bottom third out of 180 countries scored, according to the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published this week by non-profit Transparency International.

Out of 180 countries scored, Ukraine was the 116th most corrupt, according to the yearly ranking published on Tuesday.

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

Video: Belarusian Tennis Star Calls Out Sports Reporters for “Dragging Players Into” Ukraine Conflict Talk

Belarusian tennis star Victoria Azarenka has called out sports reporters for continually asking players questions about the Russia/Ukraine conflict, noting “I don’t know what you guys want us to do about it.”

Azarenka was speaking during a press conference after a recent match at the Australian open, when she lost patience with journalists asking question after question about pro-Russia protests by some at the event, and accused the reporters of continuously “dragging players into” political issues.

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

Ivermectin: Could Population-Wide Distribution Have Prevented China’s Recent Mass COVID Outbreak?

Authored by Dr. Sean Lin and Mingjia Jacky Guan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

China’s state-run medicare program recently failed to reach an agreement with Pfizer to import more Paxlovid, claiming the COVID-19 treatment drug is too expensive. This is despite the drug being offered to the state at a reduced rate in comparison with that offered to other developed countries. Lack of Paxlovid will leave only Azvudine, an anti-HIV drug the Chinese communist regime rushed through development and re-branded as an anti-COVID drug, as a treatment option.

Given the recent explosive spread of COVID and the resulting skyrocketing rates of hospitalization, finding viable treatment options is paramount.

Ivermectin in India and Peru

When the Delta variant broke out in 2021 across India, many states offered ivermectin population-wide. The efficacy of ivermectin in treating early and mild COVID-19 infections was confirmed in large states such as Uttar Pradesh—home to 241 million residents—where the use of the prophylactic dramatically reduced both the infection rate and the death toll.

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

ABC is Called Out by Aboriginal Leaders and Alice Springs’ Mayor After the National Broadcaster Said a Crime Crisis Meeting Was Just a Gathering of White Supremacists: ‘They’Re Completely Disconnected’

ABC’s flagship radio show AM was accused of biased coverage in its reporting of the Save Alice Springs meeting — and has now been blasted by local and indigenous leaders who branded it ‘disgraceful’.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Money-Laundering Gang is Busted in Australia: Designer Clothes, Luxury Jewellery and Lavish Properties Worth Over $150million Seized

The alleged head of the criminal syndicate, a 43-year-old man was taken away from his Vaucluse home in handcuffs, in Sydney’s exclusive eastern suburbs, on Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Extraordinary Change Announced for Australia’s $5 Note With the Royal Family Disappearing From Currency as What Will Replace Them is Revealed: ‘Off With His Head!’:

The Reserve Bank has decided to update the $5 banknote to feature a new design.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Man Stabbed and Locked in Burning Brisbane House While Children Also Inside

A man ?is fighting for life after he was allegedly stabbed in the chest and locked on the balcony of his Brisbane home, which was then set alight while two children were also inside.

Neighbours and a jogger who was passing the house on Inglis ?Street in Grange about 5.20am managed to rescue the children and tried to pull the man from the balcony before emergency services arrived.

A woman was arrested at the scene but has not been charged.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said police believe the 44-year-old woman stabbed the 42-year-old man in the chest with a 20cm serrated kitchen knife as he was having a cup of coffee on the balcony.

The stab wound just missed the man’s heart, he said.

?Police allege the woman then locked the man on the balcony and set ?fire to items inside the house, including books and clothing.

Massingham said two children, aged 11 and nine, woke to smoke alarms and were “quite distressed” as the front door was locked.

He said it was ?”extremely lucky” the jogger was passing the house at the time, and that neighbours also heard screams and called triple-zero.

Witnesses were able to free the children before they sustained any injuries and used a ladder to get the man down from the balcony.

Firefighters arrived to find a curtain of fire inside the brick home.

The woman was found barricaded inside a bathroom. She was not injured. ?

The man was rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, where he is undergoing surgery.

           — Hat tip: Roger [Return to headlines]
 

Sweeping Booze Bans to Return to Alice Springs as Bombshell Report Urges Major Changes ‘Urgently’

The Northern Territory government has been told to ‘urgently’ legislate amendments to its liquor act to impose alcohol restrictions in Central Australia

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Tense Scenes Outside George Pell’s Funeral as Catholic Supporter Unleashes in Foul-Mouthed Rant at Protesters: ‘You’Re Aggravating a Lot of People’

Tensions are rising outside the funeral of Cardinal George Pell as Catholic supporters confront and clash with protesters.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

South Africa: Doctors Without Borders Employee Caught in Looting Spree

Videos of South Africans in the province of KwaZulu Natal looting a broken-down truck that was delivering meat went viral on Twitter. A member of the French NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors without Borders, a medical humanitarian organisation, was also caught on camera stealing. The “doctor” appeared impervious to being admonished for theft.

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

David Beckham Adds Bugs to His Foodie Menu Delights

Former England football captain David Beckham is nothing if not adventurous. Currently touring Mexico, he took to social media on Monday to reveal a new fascination for something rarely if ever found in the high end restaurants he has been known to enjoy. Bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.

The former Manchester United and England midfielder made his move in Mexico City as he embraced one of the city’s long-standing culinary traditions at a local food stall.

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

10 Ways Denmark’s Leftwing Government Reduced Asylum Application by 82% and Dramatically Cut Immigration

The Danish left-wing government’s continued push against mass immigration is producing tangible results, including a dramatic reduction in asylum applications as well as a sharp reduction in overall immigration. The government continues to be unique in all of Europe, featuring the only ruling left-wing bloc seriously opposed to mass immigration.

The numbers speak for themselves, with an 82 percent drop in asylum applications recorded and overall immigration falling 28 percent, according to a new in-depth report from the Foundation for Political Innovation (Fondapol).

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

Aggressive Left-Wing Activists Put Up Wall of Umbrellas to ‘Protect’ Migrants Camped Outside $450-a-Night Manhattan Hotel — as They Feed Them and Protest City’s Decision to Move Them to Pop-Up Brooklyn Shelter

Migrants who have landed in New York City are protesting the decision to send them from a midtown hotel to a ferry cruise terminal in Brooklyn by camping outside of their affluent lodgings.

On Wednesday, DailyMail.com witnessed activists serving the migrants food including pizza, donuts, coffee, avocados and fruit while protecting them from the media with black umbrellas as bread was thrown at reporters.

Sergio Tupac Uzurin, an anti-NYPD and pro-migrant activist who attended Manhattan’s exclusive Stuyvesant High School, earlier told a group of reporters and residents of the area around West 57th Street this week that the reason for the protest was that the ‘cold’ shelter was ‘not meant to be inhabited’ and that the beds are made of ‘hard materials.’

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

Downtown Manhattan $190-a-Night Holiday Inn Wins Judge’s Approval to Become Migrant Shelter — Which Will Set Taxpayers Back Nearly $100,000 A DAY

A bankrupt Holiday Inn in Manhattan’s Financial District has won the right in court to house migrants to the tune of $190-a night, a fee that will total $100,000 a day for taxpayers.

US Bankruptcy Judge Philip Bentley approved the 50-story hotel’s application to sign a contract which could last until April 2024 with the city which will bring in around $10.5 million into the Holiday Inn’s coffers over the next 14 months, reports Bloomberg.

If migrants are still in the hotel after the contract expires, the city will be required to pay Holiday Inn a whopping $750 per night.

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

Germans Struggling to Find Housing Amid Migrant Surge, Mayors Claim

An influx of migrants into a region of Germany has left many locals struggling to find adequate housing, a number of area-mayors have claimed.

Senior officials from the Main-Taunus district in Germany, including mayors, district council heads and the region’s District Administrator, Michael Cyriax, have claimed that an influx of migrants has made it very difficult for local people to acquire adequate housing.

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

Illegal Immigrants in UK Given Free Debit Cards

Illegal immigrants arriving in the UK on boats get:

  • Free transport
  • Free pre-paid debit cards
  • Free healthcare
  • Free dental care
  • Free 4 star hotel accommodation
  • Free education for their kids

Tory party as a political entity needs to be destroyed and replaced.

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

Ireland: One Arrested After Car Driven Through Anti-Mass Migration Protest

Police have arrested one individual after a car is said to have driven through an anti-mass migration protest in Ireland on Tuesday.

Police in Ireland have confirmed the arrest of one man after an incident involving a car driving through an anti-mass migration protest in the country’s capital, Dublin, on Tuesday.

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

Migrant Crisis Becoming Key Election Issue, Polling Data Suggests

The building migrant crisis in Ireland is becoming a key election issue within the country’s politics, research from a major polling company has claimed.

Data gathered by Ireland’s Red C Research polling group appears to indicate that public disquiet over the country’s ongoing migrant crisis is becoming a key election issue, with just under half of those surveyed saying that the Irish government is doing a poor job at handling the crisis.

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

UK: Iranian Migrant Killer Who Slit Throat of Woman Who Opened Her Home Sent to Mental Hospital

An Iranian migrant whose right to live in the UK expired in 2015 has been sent to a mental health hospital “indefinitely” over the killing of an elderly woman who housed and fed him.

Shahin Darvish-Narenjbon, an Iranian migrant, admitted to killing the woman the last year. The court heard he smashed her head on the floor, stabbed her, and finally cut her throat.

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

Diversity Professor Verbally Attacks Student After Being Triggered by Term ‘Terrorist Attack’: Complaint

A clinical psychologist and professor who teaches a mandatory diversity class at George Washington University allegedly created a hostile environment that promoted violence against civilians, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

Dr. Lara Sheehi sits on the board of the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network and practices clinically from “a trans-inclusive feminist and liberation theory model.” She “works on race and white supremacy,[and] decolonial struggles.”

In one instance raised in the civil rights complaint — Dr. Lara Sheehi — while teaching a course about “diversity awareness” and to “sensitize future therapists to biases” — allegedly verbally attacked a student as they spoke about terrorist attacks in Israel which have killed civilians, including American citizens.

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

Finland Allows Citizens to Legally ‘Self-Identify’ as the Opposite Sex

Finland’s parliament voted 113-69 on Wednesday in favor of allowing transgender individuals to change their legal sex by self-declaration.

The new law removes the need for a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria prior to gaining legal recognition of a self-declared gender identity and also takes out the requirement for transgender people to be sterilized in order to be recognized as members of the opposite sex. Instead, recognition will be granted following a written application and a 30-day reflection period, according to ABC News.

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

Ontario School Bans Valentine’s Day for Inclusion Reasons

At least one elementary school in one of the wokest school boards in Ontario has decided to engage in some tough love this Valentine’s Day.

According to a social media post from early this week, provided to True North, Kitchener’s Jean Steckle Public School has informed parents that their kids will not be permitted to hand out Valentines on Feb. 14.

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

Trans Woman Faces Indecent Exposure Charge for Being Naked in Front of Young Girls at YMCA Ladies’ Locker Room

A transgender woman is facing complaints of indecent exposure after allegedly being naked in the presence of minor girls in the women’s locker room of a YMCA in Ohio.

Darren Glines, 31, was charged with three counts of indecent exposure related to incidents dating back to 2021 and 2022, according to Xenia Municipal Court documents reported by local station WHIO.

The outlet noted that Glines identifies as a woman and uses the name Rachel, but has not undergone transgender surgery.

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

15 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/1/2023

  1. Stupid females who pledge not to have children due to climate change or whatever the current fad is should be encouraged to the max. Those are exactly the kinds of people that shouldn’t be reproducing.

    • Well that addressed my questions about what happened before 2014 but I am only left with more.

  2. In other news, an elementary school in Ontario has banned Valentine’s Day observances for the sake of inclusion.

    How long did it take the world to change from St Valentine’s Day to Valentine’s Day?

    I am surprised you have gone along with this!

    • I don’t. Dymphna was a stickler for “St. Valentine’s Day”, and I have always agreed with her. But this is the news feed, where deadpan reportage is the order of the day. That’s what the news media call it, so I mimick it.

    • While most people in Florida have called the holiday “Valetine’s Day” I have since my birth in 1957, heard and seen in print people use the entire title.
      I have also read and heard Arizona being referred to as “The Valentine State” because it had become a Confederate territory, then a United States territory and a U.S. State on Saint Valentine’s Day.

  3. .
    .
    THANK YOU Erdogan – FOR BEING AN IDIOT.

    It is becoming increasingly clear that Turkey will not
    accept Sweden’s membership of NATO.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Turkey’s demand: ban blasphemy – Sweden: “No”

    Published 1 February 2023 in Fria Tider

    Turkey is making a concrete demand of Sweden that risks making its NATO membership impossible. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken out about the burning of the Quran in Sweden and is now demanding that legislation be changed.

    Erdogan has made it clear that he will not support Sweden’s NATO membership until the blasphemy ban is reinstated in Sweden.

    However, Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) says Sweden is not compromising on freedom of expression and says Sweden has shown results on all aspects of the agreement it has with Turkey.

    – Religion is not part of the agreement, Billström tells Aftonbladet.

    Finland, which together with Sweden is applying for NATO membership, has different legislation regarding the burning of the Koran. It is illegal to burn the Koran in Finland, as the country still has its age-old ban on blasphemy.

    Erdogan has said that Turkey has a positive view of Finland but not of Sweden.

    Just a few days ago, Erdogan said that Sweden will be “shocked” by Turkey’s announcement about Finland. Talks between Sweden and Turkey have been suspended following recent demonstrations and protests in Sweden.

  4. I’m the guy who started the Boycott American Women blog, and i admit i was quite a woman hater but i went thru a spiritual awakening and now I’m trying to heal women instead of hurt them. Anyway if you wanna ask me questions or do an interview, just DM me on instagram at tantrahealermaster

  5. I don’t know about climate change, but not having kids to be bullied by all the [epithets] makes a lot of sense. Seeing how comprachicos turn your children into freaks is unbearable.

    • Of course not.

      Whether they can fly them or not is irrelevant as long as the money keeps flowing to the MIC and the Big Guy gets his ten percent.

      You don’t seriously think that any of the western warmongers really cares about the lives of Ukrainian soldiers or airmen?

  6. I guess it was wrong of me in the past to suggest people save their bills to burn when it is cold rather than tear them up in protest. I didn’t know it was illegal. Perhaps they can stay warm with their bills in a compost pile. Isn’t that green?

    In all seriousness, why can these people be lighting all of the polluting fireworks but burning wood to stay alive results in a fine?

  7. “Kyle Rittenhouse Shooting: Anthony Huber Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Permitted”

    A law should be passed in the US stating the following:

    “If someone is found not guilty in a criminal trial, no civil charges against that person are allowed for anything related to the situation that lead to the criminal charges.”

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