A few hours after Donald Trump announced that he would be visiting East Palestine, Ohio, FEMA changed its mind and said it would deploy assistance to the area where the train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals. Meanwhile, the city of Cincinnati cut off its intake of water from the Ohio River as the toxic plume from East Palestine came closer to the city. Also meanwhile, Ohio Senator Michael Rulli warned citizens in the area not to drink the water, saying that it was not safe.
In other news, the Turkish government has all but ended the search for survivors of last week’s earthquake, as the death toll in the disaster rose over 46,000.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, 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.
Earlier this week, the leader of a medical watchdog organization called out Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of North Carolina over a racist grant program which only applied to organizations run by non-whites.
“If ever there was a bad idea, the notion that we should start to separate our country along racial lines is amongst the worst,” said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a former associate dean for curriculum at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The $300,000 grant program, called “Advancing Healthy Food Equity” (AHFE), disqualified any organization with a white CEO from participating, while the community directly served by the program must also not be white.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“The Cover-Up Needs to End” Former White House Doctor Questions Biden’s Health Report
Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician to Trump and Barack Obama is questioning President Joe Biden’s recent health report. Biden had a physical last week that claimed he is healthy and fit to serve.
White House physician Kevin O’Connor said: “President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
But Jackson is not convinced. He went on Fox News and said: “The majority of Americans can see that Biden’s mental health is in total decline, yet there is no transparency from the White House on what’s going on, if anything, to address this issue and his inability to do his job.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Gets First Primary Challenger as Marianne Williamson’s Set to Launch Campaign This Weekend
Former 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is expected to launch a primary challenge against President Joe Biden this weekend.
The news is a significant blow for Biden as he would have hoped to run unchallenged in 2024.
Historically, when incumbent presidents face primary challenges, they tend to lose in the general election.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Cincinnati Cuts Off Drinking Water From Ohio River Due to East Palestine Derailment Contamination
The Ohio River’s water intake for the city of Cincinnati will close ahead of incoming pollutants from the East Palestine train derailment in a move that the local water utility service says is “out of an abundance of caution.”
According to Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW), a service provided by the city, Cincinnati’s drinking water intake in the river will be closed sometime before the contamination is expected to reach that area of the river by early Sunday morning, a local ABC affiliate reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Dem Lawmakers Push Ban on Gas-Powered Lawn Mowers, Chainsaws to Curb ‘Climate Pollution’
Two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers are proposing a pair of bills that would significantly impact the state’s backyards and neighborhood ice rinks in an effort to combat climate change.
State Reps. Jerry Newton and Heather Edelson, members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, introduced legislation on Monday that would block the sale of common landscaping appliances like lawnmowers and chainsaws as well ice-resurfacing machines such as Zambonis, requiring that only electric battery versions be sold in the state starting Jan. 1, 2025.
The ban on lawn and garden equipment would include any machine that uses “a spark ignition engine rated at or below 19 kilowatts or 25 gross horsepower.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DeSantis Book: How the Florida Blueprint Can Work for the Whole US
In November 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis made history in Florida: winning by nearly 1.5 million votes in a state known for its “razor thin” election margins.
His platform was equally historic and, contrary to what is going on in other parts of the United States, focused on freedom. By enacting policies to keep progressive politics and woke ideology out of the classroom, taking back Disney’s self-governance and tax breaks, and keeping his state open during the pandemic, the Yale-educated former Naval officer has gained national attention and hundreds of thousands of new residents to Florida.
In this exclusive excerpt from his new book, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Survival,” DeSantis explains how he’s preserving liberties in Florida — and just might save the US.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DeSantis: People Don’t Want ‘Agenda Being Shoved Down Their Throats’
DUNEDIN, Florida — Ron DeSantis is chasing the ghosts of his past — as a way to tell the story of his future.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EPA Issues ‘Shelter in Place’ Warning Amid Florida Industrial Plant Fire
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a “shelter in place” warning as emergency services battle a major fire at a Florida industrial energy plant.
The warning was issued Friday as the blaze continues to burn at a renewable energy plant in Doral.
Parks and schools have been ordered closed in the area after the EPA declared the air quality “unhealthy.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ohio Sen. Michael Rulli (R-Salem) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday that anyone living within ten miles of East Palestine should not drink or bathe in the water. “It is not safe,” Rulli affirmed.
“Anyone within ten miles, I am begging you not to drink the water. I am begging you not to bathe in the water. It is not safe,” Rulli told Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
FEMA Reverses Decision, Will Deploy ‘Assistance Teams’ to East Palestine Following Chemical Disaster
One day after the Biden administration rejected Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s request for federal assistance in the aftermath of a derailment of a train hauling toxic chemicals, the governor tweeted late Friday evening that the Feds have reversed course in their decision and will deploy resources to East Palestine as soon as Saturday.
“Following further discussions with FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] tonight, they will be deploying federal resources to East Palestine,” Gov. DeWine tweeted.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Full Timeline of Ohio Train Derailment and Government Response
February 3: A Norfolk Southern train traveling through East Palestine derailed. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the train was traveling eastbound when it derailed at around 8:54 pm.
Since then, residents have been able to return home, but many are still worried about the health and safety of themselves and their families.
38 train cars derailed, with an additional 12 cars being damaged in a fire that broke out. The NTSB stated that 20 cars being pulled by the train carried hazardous materials, 11 of which derailed.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
FIRST ON FOX — The most populous county in Illinois is currently bringing “racial… equity” into its criminal justice system using a consulting agency which promulgates critical race theory, calling the move “unprecedented.”
Cook County’s Justice Advisory Council announced on Jan. 24 that it would be working with Chicago Regional Organizing for AntiRacism (Chicago ROAR) which seeks to redress U.S. power structures, “dismantle systemic racism” and end “white supremacy culture.”
The council implements Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s criminal and juvenile justice reform efforts and community safety policy development.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A woman who was held for a year against her will broke free of her alleged kidnapper earlier this month in New Jersey.
The woman, who has not been identified, desperately fled to a gas station and begged for help, leading to the arrest of her accused captor, who was held on multiple charges, police say.
James W. Parrillo, 57, allegedly held the woman captive in Burlington County, New Jersey and choked her multiple times and threatened to murder her family if she left him.
Parrillo may have engaged in similarly abhorrent ‘predatory conduct; in other states and has been known to go by multiple aliases, according to the state Attorney General’s office.
The suspect is currently being held in jail as charges pend.
| — Hat tip: Roger | [Return to headlines] |
New York Homeless Men Attacked Residents, Including a Baby and an Elderly Woman, Throughout 2022
Homeless men have been repeatedly accused of attacking New Yorkers over the past 12 months, with alleged victims including an infant and an elderly woman and some cases resulting in murder charges.
In one instance, a homeless man was accused of fatally pushing a woman in front of an oncoming subway train. Another faces allegations that he slashed a man’s neck, killing him. Prosecutors say a third raped a woman while she was jogging in the West Village. One woman said a homeless man killed her dog and, in a second encounter, maced her.
“This is becoming a daily story,” a Manhattan police officer told The New York Post in September. “A homeless person wandering the streets attacks innocent people. Only the neighborhood names change.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
When SMS (Short Message Service) text messaging was invented, it wasn’t designed to be used as a security method. However, that didn’t stop developers from using it as one, with platforms sending users security codes to access their most important accounts.
While the practice of using SMS 2-factor authentication is slowly being phased out, the news of Twitter starting to only make the feature available to those who subscribe to Twitter Blue has brought the vulnerable technology back into the public conversation.
Twitter users who “secure” their accounts using text message codes will lose the ability to do so after March 19 unless they subscribe to Twitter Blue. Twitter is likely making the change because the company is trying to cut costs and it actually costs the company money to send text messages and the feature is insecure anyway.
However, the more secure option of using an authenticator app will still be available to all users, meaning that the change should result in many more users switching away from the insecure feature of SMS 2-factor authentication.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Over 500,000 People Left California in Two Years: Report
Over 500,000 Californians left the state in the two years after the pandemic began due to rising housing costs and crowded, crime-filled cities, according to a report.
Between April 2020 and July 2022 the number of those leaving California surpassed the number of people moving in by more than 700,000, The Los Angeles Times reported.
According to The Times, unaffordable housing, long commute times, crowds, crime and pollution in urban areas —which have also been plagued by homelessness — were primary reasons people left.
The rise in remote employment, which allows people to not have to live near big cities for work, was also a factor in the population change, the newspaper reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pastors Say ChatGPT Has No Soul After Trying to Use it to Write Sermons
Pastors have been testing out ChatGPT as a tool to write their sermons, sussing out if the chatbot, which is capable of responding to prompts and queries with comprehensive data and in a conversational manner, can emulate the qualities necessary to impart theological meaning.
According to the New York Post, Managing Editor of the Christian website Mockingbird and New Testament scholar Todd Brewer asked ChatGPT to write a Christmas sermon in December and asked it to be “based upon Luke’s birth narrative, with quotations from Karl Barth, Martin Luther, Irenaeus of Lyon, and Barack Obama” and the result was “better than several Christmas sermons I’ve heard over the years.”
Brewer later added that the service did lack “any human warmth” and “the preaching of Artificial Intelligence can’t convincingly sympathize with the human plight.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pennsylvania Social Workers Must Now Ask if Babies ‘Identify’ as ‘Nonbinary’
A new rule in Pennsylvania means that the state’s social workers are now required to ask whether children, including newborn babies, “identify” as “nonbinary.”
When social workers are assigned to a new case, the new requirement states that they must first establish whether the child or infant “identifies” as male, female, or “nonbinary.”
A government form, that social workers in Pennsylvania are now required to complete, was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Around 3,500 patients will be pulled from the Phase III study due to violations of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) rules, which refer to ethical and scientific standards for clinical trials.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Police: Bystander Shot 16-Year-Old Accused of Fatally Shooting Teen at El Paso Mall
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX) — An El Paso man with a license-to-carry shot and injured a 16-year-old boy shortly after the teen used a stolen gun to kill a 17-year-old boy inside the Cielo Vista Mall Wednesday, El Paso police confirmed Friday.
The victim, Angeles Zaragoza, was part of one group involved in a confrontation with another group near the food court area on the second level.
Police said the confrontation began around 5:05 p.m. — when they began to receive 911 calls — and escalated into a physical fight.
As the groups fought, the 16-year-old boy from El Paso County pulled out a gun, shot Zaragoza and seriously wounded a 17-year-old boy who was part of the first group, according to police.
Police said a 20-year-old man, who was part of the group the accused shooter belonged to, was also shot and injured.
The 16-year-old boy began to run and reportedly pointed the gun toward the direction of bystanders and 32-year-old Emanuel Duran.
Police said Duran, who is licensed to carry, pulled out his handgun and shot the teen at least two times because he felt “threatened.”
Video from inside the mall showed people running as gunshots rang out.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Reps. Abigail Spanberger, Chip Roy Make Bipartisan Push for Congress Stock Trade Ban
Congressional reformers feel “disgust” for colleagues who parlay privileged information into stock-market gains — and are making a bipartisan push to force hearings on a bill that would ban House and Senate members from making trades while in office.
“One day Chip Roy and I were talking on the House floor and we were both expressing our disgust,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, told NewsNation Friday, speaking of GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas.
“And we said, you know, this ought to not be legal.”
Spanberger cited multiple instances of elected officials who profited from their positions by making stock trades after receiving privileged information.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sheriff: Gunman Kills 6, Including Ex-Wife, In Mississippi
ARKABUTLA, Miss. (AP) — A lone gunman killed six people including his ex-wife and stepfather Friday at multiple locations in a tiny rural community in northern Mississippi, the sheriff said, leaving investigators searching for clues to what motivated the rampage.
Armed with a shotgun and two handguns, 52-year-old Richard Dale Crum opened fire at about 11 a.m. and killed a man in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck parked outside a convenience store in Arkabutla, near the Tennessee state line, Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance said.
Deputies were working the crime scene when a second 911 call alerted authorities to another shooting a few miles away. After arriving at a home, they found a woman, whom the sheriff identified as Crum’s ex-wife, shot dead and her current husband wounded.
Lance said deputies caught up with Crum outside his own home and arrested him. Behind the residence they found two handymen slain by gunfire — one in the road, another in an SUV. Inside a neighboring home, they discovered the bodies of Crum’s stepfather and his stepfather’s sister.
“Everybody has crime, and from time to time we have violent crime, but certainly nothing of this magnitude,” Lance said in an interview. He added: “Without being able to say what triggered this, that’s the scary part.”
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Taibbi: US Senator Wanted ZeroHedge Banned From Twitter
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he has continued to keep his promise of transparency with regard to the company’s past behavior
Thanks to the revelations in the so-called ‘Twitter Files’, we have seen clear evidence that the FBI and other three-letter agencies worked directly with various social media entities to suppress perfectly “lawful speech” for purely political reasons.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump to Visit Ohio Train Derailment Site Amid Cleanup Efforts
President Donald Trump has announced that he is visiting the site of the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Trump is traveling to the small town that is battling the damage caused by the derailing of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals.
According to Fox News, Trump will tour the damage next week and meet with those involved in the cleanup efforts.
“A source familiar confirms to Fox News that former President Trump will visit East Palestine, OH, on Wednesday to tour the damage of the Norfolk Southern derailment and cleanup efforts,” Fox News’s Garrett Tenney tweeted.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter Says it Will Charge Users to Verify Accounts Via Text Message
Twitter on Friday evening said that it will soon implement a policy in which users will have to subscribe to the company’s new “Blue” service in order to verify their accounts via text message.
Twitter has historically allowed users to securely verify their accounts by receiving a text message with a verification code. This form of security, known as “two-factor authentication” or 2FA, is regarded as reliably safe for protecting sensitive data from hackers.
Yet in a tweet on Friday night, Twitter Support said that “effective March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
University of Texas Sued for First Amendment Retaliation Against Faculty for Criticizing DEI
A finance professor who sued Texas A&M University for race— and gender-based criteria in hiring and salary is now going after his own institution for alleged First Amendment retaliation based on his criticism of its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Richard Lowery’s new lawsuit claims the University of Texas threatened sanctions to silence his repeated criticism of its “hijacking” of the Liberty Institute, a campus free-market think tank, and his calls for Republican lawmakers to intervene in UT’s DEI efforts, including ideological “filtering criteria” in hiring.
The right-leaning National Association of Scholars also called out UT’s DEI efforts last month in a report on the Austin flagship as a whole and an op-ed about the medical school specifically.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Near NYC Schools Surges With Shootings, Stabbings
Violence is exploding in and around city schools, with shootings, stabbings — and killings — on the rise.
Three students have been slain so far in the 2022-23 school year, and at least 18 have been either stabbed or shot as gang beefs and ever-younger gun-toting kids take advantage of the state’s juvenile justice reforms, experts said.
In the previous school year, one child was killed and eight were shot or stabbed, according to reports.
Dissmissal can mean death for New York City schoolkids, with most of the stabbings and shootings unfolding after the afternoon bell rings.
“We’ve really seen sort of this cavalcade of chaos that has been raining down on us because of bad laws and young people who are disconnected from responsible behavior,” said Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon.
| — Hat tip: MM | [Return to headlines] |
Viral 24/7 Kentucky Prayer ‘Revival’ Begins Second Week
A routine prayer service at a small Christian college in Kentucky has blossomed into a nonstop revival, garnering millions of viewers on social media as it begins its second week.
Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, held a morning chapel service in Hughes Auditorium on February 8, after which a couple dozen students hung around instead of going home. Gradually, other students returned to the gathering, which has been running nonstop ever since.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“A Dark Day for Canada”: Tamara Lich Responds to Emergencies Act Report
One of the chief Freedom Convoy organizers has called the findings of the Public Order Emergency Commission, a “dark day” for the nation.
In an exclusive interview with True North’s Andrew Lawton, Tamara Lich expressed disappointment at Commissioner Paul Rouleau’s decision to uphold Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
After Canceling Booze, Canada is Now Coming for Your Coffee
Now Canada is putting coffee on ice.
After the country’s health officials released new guidance that having over two drinks a week can be a health detriment, new research from the University of Toronto says heavy coffee consumption is cause for concern as well.
“These findings suggest that heavy coffee intake is associated with increases in the risk of kidney dysfunction among slow metabolizers of caffeine, who genetically comprise approximately half of the population,” an excerpt from the data read, adding that illnesses like hypertension could emerge.
“We made a discovery back in 2006 with a case-control study, where we showed that coffee increases the risk of a heart attack, but only in those who have a particular version of a gene that makes them effectively slow metabolizers of caffeine,” Ahmed El-Sohemy, a professor of nutritional sciences at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, told the Toronto Star.
“Slow metabolizers are less able to get rid of caffeine efficiently from the body, so, it’s more likely to have adverse effects in the people who can’t get rid of it,” he added.
| — Hat tip: McN | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Launches ‘Black Justice Strategy’ To Fight ‘Systemic Racism’
The federal government of Canada announced a “Black Justice Strategy” on Wednesday with a press release describing the operation as a countermeasure against “systemic racism” and “anti-black racism.”
The government’s statement says the “Black Justice Strategy” is necessary because of black residents’ “overrepresentation” both as victims of crime and as suspects targeted by police and prosecutors.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Military Orders Podcaster to Delete Episodes With Sniper Who Criticized Vaccine Mandates
The Canadian military has demanded that a US podcaster delete episodes of his podcast in which a former Canadian sniper reveals sensitive information and speaks out against the country’s COVID vaccine mandate.
Shawn Ryan, an ex-Navy SEAL, was sent a cease and desist letter last week after airing an interview with former Canadian counterterrorism sniper Dallas Alexander disclosing that he made the 2.2-mile record-breaking shot that killed an ISIS fighter in 2017.
The podcaster also published a classified video of the killing, which the military said was never authorized for public release.
The Canadian military demanded that the two-episode interview be taken down across all social media platforms in the interest of national security.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canada’s Pandemic Panic: A Retrospect (ft. Barry Cooper)
In early 2020, a newly-landed virus took the country by storm — causing mass panic and a complete shutdown of society. Three years later, and Canadians are still feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Canada’s Covid: The Story of a Pandemic Moral Panic” co-author Barry Cooper joined True North’s Andrew Lawton to discuss the events which inspired the newly expanded book. Also, what can Canadians learn from the past three years, and how can we avoid making similar mistakes again?
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Committee Urges Govt to Extend Assisted Suicide to ‘Mature Minors’
A Canadian parliamentary committee has recommended the government expand its assisted suicide policies to allow “mature minors” to seek medical assistance to end their lives.
The parliamentary committee put out a report with 23 recommendations for the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among them a call to allow “mature minors” to seek Medical Assistance in Dying, known as MAiD in Canada.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Commission Says Justin Trudeau’s Government Was “Justified” In Freezing Protesters’ Bank Accounts
The Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) inquiry into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act to stop the Freedom Convoy protests concluded that invoking the law was “unnecessary,” but “justified” the Prime Minister’s actions nonetheless.
Reading the POEC inquiry report, Commissioner Paul Rouleau said invoking the Emergencies Act was a “significant event.” He noted that dozens of experts, protest organizers, witnesses, cabinet ministers, and even Trudeau himself testified during the inquiry. Cabinet privilege was lifted to disclose 28,000 documents, 9,000 of them entering into evidence.
Rouleau said that the protests happened because of people’s “loss of faith in government” and the “economic hardships” caused by the government’s COVID-19 response.
The report states that invoking the Emergencies Act was “appropriate” and “effective” since the federal government had “reasonable grounds” to take “special temporary measures” because of “threats to national security.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Authored by Andrew Chen via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has responded to a news report about leaked Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents detailing how China used a strategy to interfere in the 2021 federal election in order to return the Liberals to office.
The Feb. 17 Globe and Mail article cited top-secret CSIS documents covering the period before and after the September 2021 election campaign which resulted in a minority Liberal government. That result was one of the goals of the interference, while Beijing also sought the defeat of Conservative MPs it deemed critical of the regime, the Globe reported.
Beijing’s desire for a second Liberal minority in Parliament was to ensure that Trudeau’s power would be kept curtailed, according to the CSIS documents.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian authorities will not extradite German citizens who belong to a far-left Antifa group back to Germany after they attacked a man in his 40s in Budapest last Friday.
European Union member states can only extradite criminals to another member state on the basis of an arrest warrant, but in this case, Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet wrote that so far there is no information that Germany has requested any such warrant.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Andrew Tate Threatens $300M Lawsuit Against Rape, Trafficking Accuser
Controversial influencer Andrew Tate, who is being held with his brother in Romania, has threatened legal action against at least one woman who accused him of rape and human trafficking.
A US law firm representing Tate and his brother Tristan sent a “cease and desist” letter to the unnamed woman’s American lawyer in December, the BBC reported Saturday.
The letter included a threat to sue the woman and her family for $300 million if she didn’t take back her accusations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Populist Finns Party Most Popular With Young First-Time Voters
A poll released this week has revealed that the most popular party among young people getting ready to vote for the first time in Finland’s forthcoming national elections this spring is the populist Finns Party.
The poll, which was released this week, states that 28 per cent of the upcoming new voters support the populist Finns Party, far ahead of the Social Democratic Party headed by Prime Minister Sanna Marin, which received just 13 per cent of the vote.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Gang Used Drug Addicts to Sell Fake Vaccination Certificates
One drug addict received at least three doses of the Covid “vaccine” in less than a month. The gang is accused of, among other things, robbery, kidnapping and manufacturing illegal weapons.
The massive restrictions on fundamental rights during the manufactured pandemic have led citizens to look for ways to still work and participate in social life without having to take the shots. Vaccination certificates were coveted, which meant, for example, that criminal gangs expanded their business and offered jab certificates.
One such example emerged from an investigation by the public prosecutor’s office in Catania, Sicily, into the Carabinieri’s investigation into a gang of alleged kidnappers. Carabinieri military officers executed a court order for preliminary investigations against 17 suspects. According to TGCOM24, five people were detained and four were placed under house arrest.
Jabs for drugs
As it turns out, the gang sold “real” vaccination cards. Drug addicts, equipped with false papers, had themselves vaccinated several times for a few euros or drugs in order to obtain the “Green Pass” for those who were not vaccinated. As reported by Il Messaggero, one of the drug addicts was found to have received three doses of the vaccine in less than a month, posing a further serious risk to his own health.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Shoots Down Resignation Rumors, Papacy is ‘For Life’
ROME, Italy — Pope Francis has sought to squelch rumors of a possible papal resignation, insisting that he does not have this on his “agenda.”
Pope Benedict XVI “had the courage to do it because he did not feel up to continuing due to his health,” the pontiff told members of the Jesuit order in a Q&A session published Thursday, but this “does not at all mean that resigning popes should become, let’s say, a ‘fashion,’ a normal thing.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Sudanese Hackers’ Target Swedish Rail Over Qur’an Burnings
A group of hackers linked to Sudan took credit for denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the websites of Swedish rail companies in revenge for burnings of the Islamic Qur’an.
Several rail operators in Sweden reported problems with other websites on Thursday morning including Inlandsbanan and Norrtåg, claiming that access to their websites was not available periodically.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Joins NATO’s Space Alliance
Even though Sweden is currently stopped from joining the defense alliance NATO after Turkey’s obstruction, Sweden has nevertheless continued to tie itself politically and militarily to NATO. Sweden has now joined the space defense alliance APSS, which is run by NATO — a sign that NATO sees Sweden’s entry into the alliance as a given.
It was on Wednesday, during NATO’s ongoing defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels, where Sweden, despite not being an official member, had nevertheless been granted access to the organisation. Sweden chose to join the space defense alliance APSS (Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space). The space defense alliance is run by NATO and only NATO members — and now Sweden and Finland — may join the alliance.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Top UK Cop: Andrew Tate ‘Toxicity’ A ‘Concern to Counter-Terrorism Policing’ — Report
Britain’s top counter-terrorism policeman has revealed multiple advanced terrorist plots and even potential school shootings have been stopped recently, and reportedly said influencer Andrew Tate’s alleged advocacy of “violent misogyny” is a “concern”.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, described as Britain’s head of counter-terrorism policing by the press, has revealed that eight “late stage” terror plots were thwarted in 2022 — the first year since 2022 to see no terrorist killing in the country — describing several “close calls” as “goal-line saves” in comments quoted by The Telegraph.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Two More Socialist Politicians Linked to Massive EU Bribery Scandal
Two more socialist politicians sitting in the European Parliament have been linked to the bloc’s ongoing bribery scandal, a report on Thursday has claimed.
Leftist politicians Maria Arena and Alessandra Moretti have become the latest representatives within the European Parliament to be linked to the bloc’s ongoing bribery scandal, with the pair allegedly being named in an arrest warrant seen by a news outlet in Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Useful Idiot’ — Top Tory Philip Hammond Calls for Return to ‘Business as Usual’ With China
In an article for a propaganda mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, senior Tory life peer and former finance chief Philip Hammond argued that the UK-Sino economic ties should return to “business as usual”.
Writing for the state-run China Daily newspaper on Wednesday, Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond argued that relations between the United Kingdom and the so-called Middle Kingdom should be mended for the sake of the alleged prosperity of global free trade.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Just Stop Oil Protestors Slow Norwich Traffic With March
Traffic around the city was brought to a crawl this lunchtime as Just Stop Oil protestors went on a “go slow” march through Norwich.
Some drivers honked their horns in frustration as around 25 members of the environmental group took to the streets with banners while chanting.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A far-left Extinction Rebellion activist who has a string of criminal convictions is masterminding anti-monarchy protests to disrupt the King’s Coronation, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Climate change agitator Eleanor Bujak, 30, has started a new role as the protest organiser at anti-Royal pressure group Republic, which interrupted King Charles’s visit to Milton Keynes last week with placards reading ‘Not My King’.
The group claims it will have ‘hundreds of thousands of people’ out protesting against the Coronation on May 6.
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During a trip to Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the leader of the left-wing Labour Party in Britain, Sir Keir Starmer vowed that the UK’s military backing of the war against Russia will remain the same should there be a change in government in Westminster next year.
The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that the British government’s position on Ukraine, which to date has been the most hawkish outside of Washington, will continue down the same path if he is put into Downing Street after the next general election — which he is currently heavily favoured to win.
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UK’s Counterterrorism Program Says Interest in Great Literature is a Sign of Far-Right Extremism
The UK’s counter-terror program Prevent flagged some of the best works of fiction, including books, films, and television shows, as signs of far-right extremism. It said that comedies like The Thick Of It and Yes Minister and even The Complete Works of William Shakespeare are “key texts” for “white nationalists/supremacists.”
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) said that far-right extremists promoted “reading lists” online. It referenced an image of a list of “important texts” that was being shared in the far-right corners of the internet.
Other works of fiction that were flagged include The Lord of the Rings by JR Tolkien, George Orwell’s 1984, and Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, The Daily Mail reported.
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Turkish Officials to Largely End Search for Victims From Earthquake as Death Toll Tops 46k
Even though a handful of victims were still being pulled from buildings that collapsed during the massive earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria two weeks ago, Turkish officials said search and rescue operations will largely end Sunday night. The announcement came as the death toll topped 46,000.
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The scene beneath a grey sky near Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine highlights the human cost of the country’s stubborn resistance to Vladimir Putin’s bloody invasion.
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A Special Polish Unit is Being Formed in Ukraine
The first Polish special unit under the command of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD) began forming in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The formation meeting was attended by the Polish founder of the unit, the commander and chief of staff of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), and a representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
The unit will be tasked with reconnaissance and sabotage and will only accept the most experienced soldiers, including volunteers who fought against Russia. The Polish unit will cooperate with a similar one formed with Russian soldiers.
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Balloons Over Kyiv Before Dozens of Missiles Strike Ukraine
Balloons were seen over the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv (Kiev) before the country was struck by dozens of missiles, officials say.
The Ukrainian army said six “apparently radar-reflecting balloons” were seen over Kyiv a day before 36 cruise missiles were launched at targets across the country on Thursday, according to a report co-authored by BBC weapons analyst Chris Partridge.
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Forever War? German Chancellor Says West Must Prepare for ‘Long War’ Against Russia
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the West must strap in for a “long” war against Russia and that allies should pour weapons and tanks into the conflict.
Speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference, Chancellor Scholz rejected the idea of trying to put a time frame for the end of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, saying that it would be “wise to prepare for a long war” and that the West should send the message to Vladimir Putin that NATO is prepared to support Ukraine for as long as necessary.
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NATO Official Calls for More Partnership With Big Tech in Ukraine War
NATO’s assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges David van Weel said that NATO should cooperate with technology companies because of the unique work they have been doing in Ukraine.
“The work that companies like Microsoft and Google have been doing in Ukraine is really unique,” he said, according to The Record.
Google and Microsoft’s cloud services have been used to host the Ukrainian government’s IT infrastructure. They have also been involved in threat intelligence together with other cybersecurity companies to identify anti-Ukraine campaigns.
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Neither Side Can Win the War in Ukraine, Warns Top US General
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are likely to achieve their military objectives, and so the war will probably end at the negotiating table, United States Army General Mark Milley, currently serving as the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told the Financial Times newspaper.
Milley has been one of the most prominent U.S. supporters of a negotiated settlement between Kyiv and Moscow, and he still believes the war will end at the negotiating table without either side truly getting what it wants on the battlefield.
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A bipartisan group of House members wrote to President Biden this week to urge him to send fighter jets to Ukraine in a move that would escalate U.S. involvement in the nation’s war with Ukraine.
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Rishi Sunak (pictured) will today call on Western allies to hold their nerve against Russia and Vladimir Putin’s aggression and ‘double down’ on military support for Ukraine.
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Ukraine Must Use Guns and Ammo Sparingly or Risk Running Out, Minister Warns
Britain’s defence minister has warned that Ukraine must learn to fight while using weapons and ammunition more sparingly, or face the possibility of running out.
Ben Wallace, the UK’s Secretary of Defence, has warned that Ukraine must learn to fight like a “Western” nation, saying that the country risks running out of weapons and ammunition in its fight against Russia if it continues to fail to use its resources sparingly.
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Ukraine: Belgian Man Who Bought 50 Old Tanks Cheap Now Wants €1m Per Vehicle
A Belgian man who bought 50 Leopard I tanks in poor condition at rock-bottom prices is asking as much as a million euros per vehicle as Belgium and other countries look to supply Ukraine.
Belgian businessman Freddy Versluys, who serves as CEO of defence company OIP Land Systems, owns the 50 tanks — more armour than the entire Belgian army currently fields.
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What Happens if Elon Musk Cuts Starlink to Ukraine?
Elon Musk recently announced that his Starlink satellite network, currently being made available for Ukraine, will severely restrict access to the Ukrainian military after a breach of its terms of service, but what does that mean in practice?
The Starlink terminals ensure Ukrainian soldiers have a stable and fast Internet connection, even in places like Chassiv Yar, where large parts of the infrastructure have been bombed by Russian troops.
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India: Wife Refuses to Return Home, Man Stabs Her With Scissors
Ghaziabad: A 32-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stabbing his estranged wife to death with a pair of scissors after she refused to return home with him. The autopsy report suggested she was stabbed eight to 10 times in the neck and chest, leaving her with fatal injuries.
Naresh and Vanshika, police said, had tied the knot in 2020, but they had been living separately for the past year and a half.Vanshikasuspected Naresh of having an illicit affair, and moved back to her parents’ house. Naresh, according to the cops, had been trying to convince her to return and live with him.
On Friday evening, he had gone to visit Vanshika at her paternal home in the Arya Nagar area of the city to plead with her again to come back. When she refused, the accused allegedly picked up a pair of scissors he found on a table in the room on the house’s first floor and struck her eight to 10 times on different parts of her body. Naresh managed to escape as the woman’s family members rushed in from the ground floor on hearing her screams and got busy to take her to hospital.
A complaint lodged by Vanshika’s mother said they had found the 22-year-old woman lying on the floor and blood oozing out of her neck and chest. She was declared dead on arrival by doctors at a nearby hospital where her family members took her.
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British Political Elites Have Been ‘Bought’ by Beijing, Warns Brexit’s Nigel Farage
Modern-day Chinese communism aims to “take over the world” but the threat is being swept under the rug because large swaths of the political establishment have been “bought” by Beijing, Brexit leader Nigel Farage warned.
The champion of the Brexit movement, Nigel Farage said this week that while people are rightfully concerned about the threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, a far greater threat comes in the form of the communist regime in China, which he noted has “broken every promise they made over Hong Kong”, allegedly deployed a spy to operate within Britain’s parliament, and is currently threatening a potential invasion of Taiwan — and thereby threatening the critical global supply of microchip semiconductors.
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Ex-UK PM Truss Calls for ‘Pacific Defence Alliance’ And ‘Economic NATO’ To Contain Communist China
Former British prime minister Liz Truss has warned that the rise of Communist China is a “threat” to the “free world”, and urged more military alliances and economic solidarity to contain it.
“The free world is in danger,” Truss told her audience — legislators from the relatively obscure Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China — in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, in comments quoted by The Times.
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Security guards at the site on Wentworth Street, Greenacre were alerted to the man when he stumbled into their booth bleeding from his injuries about 8.30pm Friday night.
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The footage was taken in Nimbin, an hour’s drive from Byron Bay, as a driver was stopped by the man trying to wrangle the carpet python from the middle of a road while eating an ice block.
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Demand for EVs has never been higher, with 4000 brand new Teslas arriving in Australia from Shanghai on Boxing Day — but critics warn the infrastructure support is not here for them.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Syrian Appeals Conviction for Raping and Impregnating Eight-Year-Old
A Syrian asylum seeker appeared in an appeals court in Belgium this week after being convicted of raping an eight-year-old and getting her pregnant, forcing the girl to have an abortion.
The 27-year-old Syrian, who was indicted for raping his eight-year-old step-daughter and getting her pregnant last June, appeared at the Court of Appeal, where prosecutors have demanded his sentence be increased from eight years to ten years in prison.
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Brexit-Backing ‘Red Wall’ Areas of England Housing Vastly Disproportionate Number of Migrants
Areas of England with traditional allegiances to the left-wing Labour Party, dubbed the ‘Red Wall’, have seen seven times as many asylum seekers housed in their midst per person, according to an analysis of Home Office data.
Red Wall constituencies in the North of England are reportedly vastly overrepresented in accommodating migrants claiming asylum status, with analysis from The Telegraph newspaper finding that such areas are averaging 15.2 asylum seekers per 10,000 local residents, compared to just 2.1 per 10,000 in the traditionally Conservative base in the South East of the country.
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The abandoned truck in Bulgaria was reported to have been carrying around 40 migrants, with 18 found dead while the survivors taken to nearby hospitals for emergency treatment.
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GUY ADAMS: Yet this summer, any visitors to Lismore will face a problem — there will be nowhere to stay.
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Children’s Author Roald Dahl’s Beloved Books Scrubbed by ‘Sensitivity Experts’
Roald Dahl’s famed children’s books are being scrubbed by so-called sensitivity experts to remove language they deem offensive, including “fat” or “ugly” characters — and making the beloved Oompa Loompas of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” gender neutral.
Publisher Puffin tapped sensitivity readers to rewrite hundreds of sections of the late author’s texts to ensure his work can continue to be enjoyed — and not offend — today’s more woke audience, The Telegraph reported.
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Gretchen Felker-Martin on February 12 tweeted that she wanted to slit the throats of J.K. Rowling and several other authors. One of those she threatened asked how she was able to remain on Twitter.
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Dawkins Vows to Continue Using ‘Prohibited Words’ Like ‘Male’ And ‘Female’
Scientist and social commentator Richard Dawkins has spoken out against woke efforts to scrap “binary” terms like “female” in favour of “inclusive” terms like “egg producing” in science.
Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist who first made his mark as a public figure with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene but is better known today as a scathing critic of religion, made his views known after the EEB (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) Language Project was launched in the Trends in Ecology and Evolution journal, with the goal of eradicating “problematic” words “emphasising hetero-normative views”.
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North Dakota House Passes Bill Banning Transgender Treatment for Minors
(The Center Square) — The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that bans medical professionals from gender reassignment for minors.
Medical professionals who perform gender reassignment surgeries could be found guilty of a Class B felony, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Prescribing puberty blockers or hormones would constitute a Class A misdemeanor, according to the bill.
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Scottish Nationalists Preparing to Rip-Up Pro-Transgenderism Bill After Sturgeon Resignation
Pro-independence politicians within the Scottish National Party are preparing to rip up their former leader’s pro-transgenderism bill after her resignation.
Officials within the Scottish National Party are reportedly keen to drop a controversial pro-transgenderism bill after their progressive leader, Nicola Sturgeon, announced her resignation.
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Trans Teacher With Z-Size Prosthetic Breasts Dresses as Man Outside of School, Neighbor Says
A Canadian teacher who made international headlines for wearing gigantic prosthetic breasts rarely wears them outside of school — raising questions about whether the vulgar costume is just an act.
While parents have raged about transgender teacher Kayla Lemieux being allowed to wear Z-cup prosthetics in front of students, the shop teacher was spotted ditching the controversial fetishistic fashion after work and stepping out in public dressed as a man.
“He wears prosthetic breasts extremely infrequently,” a resident of Lemieux’s apartment complex told The Post.
“He puts the breasts on to teach, occasionally when he goes for a walk or when the cops visit.”
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Transgender Author Who Signed New York Times Protest Letter Threatened to Slit J.K. Rowling’s Throat
A transgender author who signed the recent petition protesting the New York Times‘ reporting on the debate over transgender children recently threatened to slit the throat of Harry Potter novelist J.K. Rowling.
Gretchen Felker-Martin — who is identifies as a “trans dyke” and writes horror fiction — lashed out at J.K. Rowling as well as journalists Helen Joyce and Jesse Singal in a since-deleted series of tweets blaming them for the stabbing death of a 16-year-old transgender person in Britain.
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May I say that all those experts from EPA and the railroadcomapny should be forced to live in East Palestine and be forced to drink the water from the streams and eat the products of the fields around the burned chemicals?
After all, they said that everything is within the non-lethal limits.
Funny information:
On https://westernrifleshooters.us/2023/02/17/saturday-am-edition/ someone found out, that the CDC changed its definition of lethality of vinyl chloride from 100PPM to 100.000 PPM- And that just a few weeks ago. What a coincidence…
Well that would be after they get boosted to protect the community.
The disaster in Turkey is corruption in the building sector. The key is non-corrupt builders and building inspectors. Turkey is missing that service, and 46,000 died.
This was predicted in The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters by Robert Muir-Wood (2016). There is an entire chapter on how concrete buildings need to be constructed to not fall down. Included are plenty of comparisons, like between Chile and Haiti.
Ohio train wreck shows the people are 100% on their own.
A major disaster / storm / enemy attack will be handled the same way – not at all.
YOU are the response. Prepare.