The UK is rolling out a test version of a “social credit” system in Wolverhampton, which will reward citizens who exercise, eat good food, and otherwise engage in healthy behavior. Meanwhile, thousands of people took to the streets in Oxford to protest a trial of the “15-minute city”.
In other news, Spain has decriminalized bestiality as long as the animal is uninjured after its intimate encounter with an amorous human being.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Daniel Greenfield, Dean, Dora, DV, JW, LP, McN, MM, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
5 ‘Dirtiest’ Cities in America Run by Democratic Mayors, Study Says
The top five dirtiest cities in the country are run by Democrat mayors, a new study has found.
Among 152 of the biggest cities across the United States, Houston won the No. 1 spot for dirtiest city, followed by Newark, New Jersey, San Bernardino, California, Detroit and Jersey City, New Jersey, according to a study released Thursday by LawnStarter.
LawnStarter measured each city across four categories: pollution, which measures things like air quality and greenhouse gas emissions; living conditions, like the percentage of homes containing mold or rats; infrastructure, which measures waste output and regulations; and consumer satisfaction, or the percentage of residents who find the city dirty.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Asbury Revival Sparks Movements at Other Christian Colleges: ‘Holy Spirit is at Work’’
The Asbury Revival in Kentucky has inspired similar movements at other Christian college campuses after the around-the-clock prayer service went viral on social media.
Similar revivals have emerged at schools like Cedarville University in Ohio; Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama; Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee; and Belmont University in Nashville, according to The Washington Post.
The movements come after thousands from around the world converged on Asbury in Wilmore to participate in services that have continued in the school’s chapel almost non-stop since students first refused to leave a worship service on Feb. 8. TikTok videos under the hashtag #AsburyRevival have racked up nearly 70 million views as of Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Some Austin City Council members are speaking out about the police department’s vacancies and ongoing problems at the 911 call center after a chaotic scene unfolded downtown on Saturday night.
Street racers took over an intersection at South Lamar Boulevard and Barton Springs Road, drifting in the middle of the street and setting off fireworks as throngs of people looked on at the mayhem.
One law enforcement officer was injured and several police cars were damaged in the fracas.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Beholding the Beholders: Hunter Biden’s Art Dealer Defies the House Over Business Records
Authored by Jonathan Turley
It appears that Hunter Biden’s art dealer believes that his art should be left entirely to the eye of the beholder — and not Congress. Georges Berge’s reportedly refused last week to provide the House Oversight Committee with the identities of the buyers of Biden high-priced art work. While counsel William Pittard insists that the list of purchasers must remain secret, it is hard to see the viable legal basis to refuse the demand of the House Oversight Committee, if made subject to a congressional subpoena.
The Biden sales have long been a subject of intense debate over whether it is another form of influence peddling or money laundering. Even President Barack Obama’s ethics head has raised objections.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
After Don Lemon made sexist remarks on Thursday about presidential candidate and former ambassador to the UN under Trump Nikki Haley, Don Lemon was out from his CNN morning show host chair on Friday. Now, sources say that Lemon will be removed from show on Monday, too.
Sources told Confinder that a new schedule is in place per CNN management, and Lemon is not on it. Instead, Poppy Harlow will be accompanied by Sara Sidner and Kaitlan Collins, who is in Poland, the Daily Beast reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Miles Pfeffer allegedly fired multiple rounds into Officer Christopher David Fitzgerald’s head when he fell to the ground after being hit by gunfire, according to local Fox reporter Steve Keeley.
The mother of 18-year-old Miles Pfeffer, the suspect arrested and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Temple University police officer in Philadelphia, allegedly picked him up after the incident.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: 18-Inch Pipe Bomb Discovered Near Train Tracks Behind Philadelphia Church
A pipe bomb was reportedly found near a church in Holmesburg, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
According to local Fox News, “an 18-inch pipe bomb was found Sunday behind St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, on Frankford Avenue, in Philadelphia’s Holmesburg section.” The device was discovered near Conrail train tracks behind the church.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic Bishop Shot to Death in LA Home, Murder Investigation Launched
David O’Connell, a Catholic auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California, was fatally shot on Saturday in what police have said is a “suspicious” circumstance.
On Sunday, the police department said “This incident is being handled as a murder investigation. There is no additional information available at this time,” reported the Los Angeles Times.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Church of Scientology Leader Officially Served in Federal Human Trafficking Case
David Miscavige has been officially served in a federal human trafficking case after a judge accused the Church of Scientology leader of “actively concealing his whereabouts.”
Court officials attempted to serve Miscavige 27 times in connection with a federal lawsuit accusing him of human trafficking.
However, the Church of Scientology leader reportedly evaded being served.
U.S. Judge Julie Sneed recently ruled that Miscavige was “actively concealing his whereabouts” and that he was officially served in the trafficking case.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Discover to Begin Tracking Purchases at Gun Retailers Starting in April
One month ago, credit-card provider Discover Financial Services, issuer of the eponymous credit card, stunned markets when it unveiled in its latest forecast that it expects its 2023 charge off rate to more than double from the 2022 average, hitting a multi-year high and hinting that the US consumer was about to hit a brick wall
Last week, Discover decided to cement that not only would its charge off rate soar but it was about to lose millions of customers after it told Reuters that it would effectively oversee (i.e., spy on) its clients by allowing its network to track purchases at gun retailers come April, making it the first among its peers to publicly give a date for moving ahead with the initiative, which is aimed at helping authorities probe gun-related crimes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
On Tuesday, Platformer, a newsletter that covers Twitter closely, published a report entitled, “Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first.”
According to the article, Musk ordered changes to the Twitter algorithm after a tweet of his during the Super Bowl got less engagement than President Joe Biden’s. Musk quickly assembled dozens of Twitter employees following the game on Sunday night to fix the issue.
By Monday, the Platformer report states, Twitter’s algorithm “artificially boosted Musk’s tweets by a factor of 1,000—a constant score that ensured his tweets rank higher than anyone else’s in the feed.”
On Monday, many Twitter users reported seeing an unusually high number of Musk’s tweets in their timelines.
Musk tweeted early on Friday, “The ‘source’ of the bogus Platformer article is a disgruntled employee who had been on paid time off for months, had already accepted a job at Google and felt the need to poison the well on the way out. Twitter will be taking legal action against him.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Following the fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals along the Ohio-Pennsylvania line, renowned 9/11 attorney Michael Barasch, whose law firm represents over 25,000 members of the 9/11 community, said the EPA insisting the “air is safe” sent “shivers” up his spine, given that clients of his “are dying every single day from 9/11 toxic dust,” as he warned residents of the affected areas to “stay away and don’t believe the EPA.”
After the east Palestine disaster saw harmful pollutants released into the air, surface soils and water, attorney Michael Barasch told Breitbart News that news of the incident followed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) insisting the “air is safe” sent “shivers” up his spine, especially given that clients of his “are dying every single day from 9/11 toxic dust.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Florida Doctors Told to Warn Patients COVID Shots Can Cause Heart Attacks
The state of Florida has instructed doctors to warn their patients that Covid shots may cause them to suffer a heart attack or other adverse effects.
Florida issued the new guidance for medical professionals this week amid mounting concerns over the negative side effects of the mRNA vaccines.
The new guidance comes as Florida has just raised the alarm over a staggering 1,700 percent increase in reports of adverse events from vaccines since the Covid jab was rolled out, as Slay News reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
House GOP Launches Investigation Into Biden’s Botched Withdrawal From Afghanistan
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are launching an investigation into Democrat President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced the move in a statement in which he blasted the Biden administration’s handling of the operation.
Almost 200 people were killed during the evacuation, including 13 U.S. service members.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Submitted by Matt Rosenberg and Ted Dabrowski of Wirepoints
Cancel culture is alive and well in Chicago’s mayoral race. This time, it’s Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ turn to be “de-platformed.”
Mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is trying to cancel a meeting Monday in Elmhurst between Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed another challenger, Paul Vallas, and DeSantis. Garcia has demanded that Vallas “condemn” the FOP for hosting DeSantis, whom Garcia calls “a dangerous and xenophobic authoritarian.”
Governor J.B. Pritzker has joined in, stating of the FOP-DeSantis meet-up, “Every candidate hoping to hold public office in the Land of Lincoln should condemn this event.” That’s a rather hypocritical position for Pritzker who just two weeks ago, in a spat over school curriculums with DeSantis, appointed himself a champion of free speech.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A pro-Black Lives Matter Maryland teacher, who admitted to intentionally concealing students’ gender changes, has a history of extreme statements excusing property destruction and theft. The district told Fox News Monday they were looking into the matter.
Lane Cogdill works at Silver Spring International Middle School in the Montgomery County Public Schools District, according to its website. The teacher uses “ze/zir,” “they/them” and “he/him” pronouns. Fox News Digital repeatedly inquired from the district for comment about the remarks, but they did not respond.
“Hey, I got some thoughts about what’s going on in the world,” Cogdill said in 2020. “As a history teacher who cares about racial justice, I keep hearing people saying, like, ‘I understand protesting, but I don’t understand rioting and looting.’ Let me just remind y’all, this country was literally built by Black people.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Murder Probe Launched in Fatal Shooting of ‘Peacemaker’ Bishop in Los Angeles
Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell was a “man of deep prayer,” an official said.
A long-serving Catholic bishop known as a “peacemaker” was fatally shot in a Los Angeles home on Saturday, prompting police to launch a murder investigation, officials said.
Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, who had been a priest and then a bishop during his 45 years with the church, died “unexpectedly,” José H. Gomez, the archbishop of Los Angeles, said in a statement.
He’d been known as a “man of deep prayer,” Gomez said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators said they received a medical emergency call at 12:57 a.m. Sunday and deputies responded to a home in the unincorporated neighborhood of Hacienda Heights. There, they found the 69-year-old O’Connell unresponsive and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the upper torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Ohio Resident Shares ‘Really Bad’ Symptoms in Wake of Toxic Train Derailment, Issues Cleanup Warning
One East Palestine resident is giving the Norfolk Southern Railway CEO an important message after promising to clean up the toxic train derailment site.
“I hope they do,” Debbie Foster told “Fox News Live” co-host Arthel Neville on Sunday. “It’s something that they’re going to have to do long term. This town is going to need long-term testing. There’s a lot of people who don’t want to stay, and you really can’t blame them. They have young kids. I don’t know if I had young kids [whether] I would stay, because this is something that’s going to affect us long term. And that would be a main concern for me.”
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw met with officials in East Palestine on Saturday, telling reporters that he was there to “support the community” after the rail operator came under scrutiny for its response to the train derailment disaster on Feb. 3.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court to Weigh Google and Twitter Internet Free Speech Policies
Free speech access to the internet as we know it could soon be dramatically transformed, with the Supreme Court set to hear a high-stakes pair of oral arguments over holding social media companies liable for content posted by third-party providers.
At issue in one case is the scope of legal protections in a nearly 30-year-old federal law and whether they apply to the algorithms that digital service providers like Google and Twitter use to recommend what videos and websites to show their users.
Those two companies were separately sued by the families of terror victims. Oral arguments will be held over two days this week.
The family of Nohemi Gonzalez claims Google, the owner of YouTube, willingly allowed the Islamic State group to post hundreds of videos that helped incite violence and recruit potential supporters. The 23-year-old U.S. citizen studying abroad was one of 130 innocents killed in Paris during a series of IS-affiliated attacks in November 2015.
The platform’s software algorithms — or targeted digital calculations — allegedly steered extremist online material to viewers most likely to be interested in them.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Three Teens, 1 Man Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide in Texas Home
Three teenaged girls — 13, 14 and 19 — along with 37-year-old man found with gunshot wounds
Four people, including three teenage girls, were shot and killed in an apparent murder-suicide in Texas Saturday night.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told local media outlets deputies responded to a Galena Park home around 10:30 p.m. for multiple reports of a shooting.
When they arrived, they found three teenage girls — ages 13, 14 and 19 — along with a 37-year-old man unresponsive with gunshot wounds. All four were pronounced dead on the scene.
The man was believed to be in a relationship with the mother of two of the teens, according to KPRC. The mother was not home at the time of the shootings.
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Proposes ‘Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence’ Declaration
The U.S. government proposed a “Political Declaration on the Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy” that encourages countries to follow international law and ethically use AI in the context of defense.
The U.S. released the non-legally binding guidelines at the Summit on Responsible AI in the Military Domain in the Netherlands last week.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
VA, Medicare Make 425,000 Duplicate Payments Costing Taxpayers $307 Million: Watchdog Report
The Golden Horseshoe is a weekly designation from Just The News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the government. The award is named for the horseshoe-shaped toilet seats for military airplanes that cost the Pentagon a whopping $640 each back in the 1980s.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) paid for the same services for veterans leading to more than 425,000 duplicate payments, which cost taxpayers $307 million, according to a federal watchdog report in December.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch Live: ‘Rage Against the War Machine Rally’ In D.C.
Anti-war activists will gather in Washington, DC, Sunday just ahead of the one-year anniversary of war in Ukraine for a “Rage Against the War Machine Rally.”
Hosted by the Libertarian Party and the People’s Party, the rally is slated to begin at 12:30 p.m. Eastern outside the Lincoln Memorial. Tulsi Gabbard and Ron Paul will be among the speakers.
According to their event website, their demands include the following:
1. Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine
2. Negotiate Peace
3. Stop the War Inflation
4. Disband NATO
5. Global Nuclear De-Escalation
6. Slash the Pentagon Budget
7. Abolish the CIA and Military-Industrial Deep State
8. Abolish War and Empire
9. Restore Civil Liberties
10. Free Julian Assange
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Barry Cooper, Marco Navarro-Genie Discuss New Book ‘Canada’s COVID’ On Pandemic Moral Panic
On Friday’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, guest host Sheila Gunn Reid was joined by Barry Cooper and Marco Navarro-Genie to discuss the new expanded version of their book, Canada’s COVID: The Story of a Pandemic Moral Panic.
Cooper and Navarro-Genie discussed how they came to write the first edition of the book during the initial panic over the coronavirus pandemic. Fears of the virus were at such a high that the pandemic was being compared to the Spanish Flu of 1918, with the implication that people would be dying in the streets as they were one hundred years ago. “It pretty quickly became evident that the story that was being peddled through the media and the actual reality were completely different,” says Navarro-Genie.
Cooper and Navarro-Genie also discuss the competing interests behind stoking fear of the virus and why hugely controversial issues in public health were ignored in order to sell the narrative that everyone was in terrible danger.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Full: Pierre Poilievre Slams PM ‘This Was an Emergency That Justin Trudeau Created’
Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada Pierre Poilievre slammed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the news today that he was justified in his use of the Emergencies Act by Justice Rouleau, Commissioner of the Public Order Inquiry.
“This was an emergency that Justin Trudeau created by attacking his own population, by driving up their cost of living, by making it impossible for people to pay their bills and live their lives in peace. He caused the emergency that unfolded, and then when he caused it, he piled on. He poured more gasoline on the fire with nasty insults, jabbing his finger in the faces of his own citizens, something that even today’s report acknowledged contributed to the length and the intensity of the protest.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Legacy Media Amplified Fake News About Freedom Convoy: Commissioner
Legacy media outlets amplified disinformation about Freedom Convoy protesters last year, according to Public Order Emergency Commissioner (POEC) Paul Rouleau’s report assessing the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act.
Rouleau’s report found that the news media’s portrayal of the demonstrations was an attempt to discredit the movement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Smith Reminds Trudeau of Her Request to Drop “Just Transition” Legislation
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to follow up on her request for the federal government to halt its “Just Transition” legislation, which has not yet been tabled but is currently in the works.
In a letter to Trudeau on Thursday, Smith referenced her February 7 meeting with the prime minister in Ottawa in which she also requested the federal Emissions Reduction Plan must be halted.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Escalation: UK to Become First State to Hand Ukraine ‘Longer Range Weapons’ Says PM Sunak
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged that the United Kingdom will become the first state to supply Ukraine with “longer-range weapons” to use in its war with Russia.
In comments made on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Rishi Sunak said that the West must “help Ukraine to shield its cities from Russian bombs and Iranian drones and that’s why the United Kingdom will be the first country to provide Ukraine with longer-range weapons.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French President Macron Totally Opposed to Regime Change in Russia Against Putin
French President Emmanuel Macron said that he does not support the policy of trying to force regime change in Russia against Vladimir Putin.
Appearing at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron rejected the idea of trying to dethrone Vladimir Putin from his perch in the Kremlin.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine Associated With Heart Inflammation: Study
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
A higher than expected number of heart inflammation cases have occurred in people who received Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, researchers reported in a new study.
Sixty-one cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or both following a Novavax vaccination were reported in the World Health Organization’s vaccine safety database through Aug. 23, 2022, Spanish researchers found.
Using pre-pandemic rates of heart inflammation in the population, the researchers calculated that the number of post-vaccination cases was higher than expected.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Ruling Coalition Continues to Lead in Polls
Poland’s governing United Right coalition could count on 37 percent of the vote, outstripping its main rival by 9 percentage points, according to a new opinion poll.
In a Social Changes survey run for the right-wing news website wpolityce.pl, the centrist Civic Platform would get 28 percent of the vote, if a parliamentary election was held on February 19.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Submits to Turkey: Stockholm Police Place Indefinite Ban on Qur’an Burning Protests
Police in the Swedish city of Stockholm have imposed an indefinite ban on granting permission for protests involving the burnings of the Islamic Qur’an, supposedly due to concerns over threats to Swedish security.
Police in Stockholm have announced that going forward they will likely not grant any permissions for protests that involve the burning of the Islamic Qur’an.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Protest Against World Economic Forum-Backed ‘15-Minute Cities’ In UK
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Oxford on Saturday against the World Economic Forum-backed idea of so-called 15-minute cities as the local government announced that it would be trialling such a scheme.
Last year, the Oxfordshire County and City Councils in England proposed a “traffic filter system” trial scheme that would see licence plate-reading cameras installed for the purpose of fining citizens who drive their cars to other areas of the city without exemptions or resident permits during certain times of day.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Tests Tracking Citizens’ Habits, Rewarding Them for Good Behavior
Edging closer towards a social credit style system, the UK is using the city of Wolverhampton to pilot a new app that will offer rewards to people who exercise and eat healthy. The idea is to motivate people to make healthier choices.
Participants of the pilot will be given a wrist device and an app that will provide personalized health recommendations like eating vegetables and walking more. Users will get points that they can cash-in for consumer rewards like food vouchers, theme park tickets, and movie theater discounts.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Finsbury Park Mosque Attacker ‘Stabbed to Death in Prison Revenge Attack’
A detained terrorist was attacked behind bars by an inmate in “revenge” for his crimes.
Darren Osborne, 53, was jailed in 2018 for killing a man and injuring 12 others near Finsbury Park Mosque in north London last summer.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and now it has been reported by The Sun that he was slashed open at HMP Frankland Prison.
Prison authorities believe Osborne was attacked by another inmate with an “improvised knife.”
| — Hat tip: MM | [Return to headlines] |
Viktor Orban Holds State of the Nation Address
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has given his annual state of the nation address in Budapest on Saturday afternoon. He mostly focused on Hungary’s stance towards the war in Ukraine and the economic downturn that he attributes to EU sanctions. However, he also addressed the issue of a recent scandal, calling for the toughest child-protection legislation possible.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Mail on Sunday Comment: Defeat for Ukraine Would be to Britain’s Eternal Ignominy
MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: We must continue to fulfil our obligations to Ukraine, whose defeat would be a disgrace and an eternal ignominy if we let it happen.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Sanctions Fail: Just 8.5 Per Cent of Western Companies Have Actually Left Russia
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, just 8.5 per cent of Western businesses operating in Russia have actually left, despite many announcing their departure from the country.
While Western companies like McDonald’s, Ikea, and other high-profile brands have sold off or are in the process of selling off their operations in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions enacted against Moscow, such companies are in a minority.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Russian pro-Kremlin channels published a video showing the roof of the Donetsk’s prosecutor’s office on fire.
Firemen are also seen attempting to extinguish the fire on video.
Russian sources talked of “a direct hit.” They accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of shelling the Russian-held Ukrainian city.
“The center of Donetsk. A roof on fire. Here was a hit. That’s how the center was shelled with Grad rocket clusters today,” a man is heard saying on video.
| — Hat tip: JW | [Return to headlines] |
Will the War in Ukraine End This Year?
Amid preparations for a Russian offensive and a Ukrainian counteroffensive, various scenarios for how the war will unfold appear likely.
It has been almost a year now since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sowing death and destruction across the country. The toll of the war is grim: thousands of Ukrainian civilians dead, tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides killed, millions displaced, whole Ukrainian towns and villages razed to the ground.
As we move into the second year, both sides are preparing large-scale offensives, with tens of thousands of new recruits and new sophisticated hardware being sent to the front line. A wide range of scenarios that are viable to a different extent may unfold this year. The only thing we can predict with a high degree of confidence is that we are going to see a bloodbath on a larger scale than last year.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Secretary of State Antony Blinken bat down the idea that the United States is in a “Cold War” with China, claiming that relations between Washington and Beijing can’t be reduced to a “bumper sticker.”
“This is obviously among the most consequential but also complex relationships that we have and probably the same can be said by many other countries around the world, and of course, we’re in a vigorous competition with China and that’s something we’re not at all shy about,” Blinken told NBC host Chuck Todd during an interview aired on “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Todd, noting how the U.S. is expanding its military presence in Guam, the Philippines and Australia, helping Japan change its national security posture and continuing to arm Taiwan, challenged Blinken, “If it’s not a Cold War, what is it?”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Drunk Driver Stabs 3 Police to Death in Southern China
BEIJING (AP) — Authorities in southern China said a man stopped for drunk driving and not having a license stabbed to death three police officers after apparently obtaining a knife and returning to the police station.
The statement from Shangli County in Jiangxi province said the suspect, identified only by his surname, Huang, had been detained after the incident on Friday night and would be “rigorously prosecuted under the law.”
The statement gave no details on why Huang had not been put in custody earlier and how he was able to return to the police station with a knife.
| — Hat tip: McN | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Warns China Not to Supply Russia With Weapons for Ukraine War
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence suggests China is considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia, an involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort that would be a “serious problem,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Blinken said the United States long has been concerned that China would provide weapons to Russia. He pointed to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s promise to Russian President Vladimir Putin of a partnership with “no limits” when they met just weeks before Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Since then, ties between the two countries have only grown stronger.
“We’ve been watching this very, very closely. And, for the most part, China has been engaged in providing rhetorical, political, diplomatic support to Russia, but we have information that gives us concern that they are considering providing lethal support to Russia in the war against Ukraine,” Blinken said in an interview that aired Sunday, a day after his meeting at a security conference in Munich with Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official.
“It was important for me to share very clearly with Wang Yi that this would be a serious problem,” Blinken said.
With Putin determined to show some progress on the battlefield as the war nears the one-year mark, Russian forces have been on the offensive in eastern Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians are holding very strong, the Russians are suffering horrific losses in this effort,” Blinken said. He estimated that Russia has 97 percent of its ground troops in Ukraine.
The Russians also are eager to capture more territory before Ukraine receives the more advanced weapons recently pledged by the U.S. and its European allies.
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Unless We Abandon Globalism, China Will Win
by Daniel Greenfield
Chinese spy balloons have briefly captured the nation’s imagination, but they’re just another in a series of surveillance layers that begins with satellites and ends with phone apps. The spy balloons seem odd, but they reveal the thoroughness and dedication of Beijing’s data hounds who are not satisfied with hacking us, embedding thousands of spies in our universities and tech firms, but want that added edge with slow-motion spying on our bases and defenses.
The balloon may seem silly but it reveals a rigorous mindset that ought to be frightening.
China’s economic warfare hollowed out our economy in the same dedicated fashion, aiming low to aim high, capturing our industries from the bottom so that we laughed at all the ‘Made in China’ junk and we went on laughing until it became impossible to find anything else. No aspect of our economy was too unimportant to outsource and no angle was overlooked. Our retail sector now consists of buying American brands that are made in China from Chinese third party sellers on Amazon. Soon we’ll be buying Chinese brands on Chinese platforms like Alibaba.
The same obsessive attention to detail that served China so well in its economic war is at play in its war plans. Having lost an economic war to China, we’re sleepwalking into a military defeat.
Even on our end, we’ve lost war games against China over and over again.
“The trend in our war games was not just that we were losing, but we were losing faster,” Air Force Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote stated. We’re losing because we have no serious plan to win and that’s because we don’t really believe that there will be a war and so we don’t need to.
China is serious. We’re not. Xi lives in a zero-sum world. So does the rest of the Communist regime. They believe that for them to win, we have to lose. They’d rather not fight a war and they would prefer that we decline into oblivion while selling our souls for consumer gadgets, but they are seriously preparing to fight and win a battle that will establish them as the world power…
| — Hat tip: Daniel Greenfield | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Hides Information on Child Deaths
According to the Daily Sceptic, documents obtained by doctor Dr. Melissa McCann as part of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request were shared at a conference on Covid gene drugs held in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
McCann reported on her extraordinary efforts to obtain these documents from the TGA which took six months. The doctor made the application after noticing an unexpectedly high number of patients with adverse events after a Covid injection at her clinic. She also noted a high number of reports of serious side effects in the official DEAN database, including the reported death of a 14-year-old in October 2021.
Some of the victims were as young as 7 years old. However, the TGA only published the case of a 21-year-old woman in the safety reports. The reported deaths are listed in DAEN, but the assessment of causality is not visible to the public.
Australians have been falsely and misleadingly informed by the TGA that out of 973 reported deaths, only 14 have been linked as causally linked to the Covid shots. The causality assessment reports released as part of FOI prove this statement to be incorrect.
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For months now, peaceful demonstrations have been growing around the country and publicised using the hashtag #IrelandIsFull. The protests have been countered by opposition groups using the hashtag #IrelandForAll.
2022 alone saw a 415.5% increase from 2021 in those seeking international protection in Ireland. In 2023, according to the Irish Civil Service, they anticipate 180,000 migrants will be seeking refuge in Ireland.
So far in 2023, there have been over 4,500 so-called refugees and asylum seekers entering Ireland.
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Poles’ Acceptance of Ukrainian Refugees Still Strong, But Declining
Most Poles are still in favour of accepting Ukrainian refugees in the country, but the support level has been going down, a survey has found.
In a periodic Openfield survey, carried out on 1,677 respondents on Tuesday, 67 percent of Poles have supported accepting Ukrainian refugees, but the figure is significantly lower than those in previous editions.
On February 24, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, the support was running at 72 percent and shot up to 88 percent after one week, on March 4, and then declined to 79 percent on May 24 and 71 percent on October 24, 2022.
A growing percentage of Poles, 60.4 percent, believe that the aid offered by the Polish government to Ukrainian refugees is better than that received by themselves, which compares to 55.7 percent in the October Survey.
Also a falling percentage of respondents, 40.5 percent, want the refugees to be allowed to stay in Poland after the war in Ukraine ends. In October, the figure was 41.7 percent.
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Polish-Belarus Border Barrier Now 181 km Long
An electronic fence on Poland’s border with Ukraine is now 181 kilometres long after a new 54-kilometre section became operational on Friday, a spokesman for the Polish Border Guard has said.
In 2021, Poland experienced heightened migratory pressure on its border with Belarus with thousands of migrants trying to get into the country. Warsaw blamed the crisis on the Belarusian government, saying it was flying in Middle Eastern and African migrants on the false promise of easy access to the EU.
As a result of the crisis, Poland erected a fence along its border with Belarus and later decided to upgrade it with electronic surveillance equipment, including CCTV cameras and night vision.
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Ukrainian Refugee Girl Finds San Francisco Schools So Violent She Wants to Go Back
A Ukrainian refugee girl who settled in San Francisco with her mother is finding public school in the city so violent that she longs to return to her war-torn country, where she feels children are less cruel to one another.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday:
It didn’t take Yana long to realize that real life in her eighth grade classes at Marina Middle School was nothing like the scenes that played out on her [television] screen…
Students interrupted classes, jumped on desks, cursed at teachers. At first, Yana wondered what was going on, but then, “nothing happened.” Students were not disciplined or prevented from repeat behavior…
Yana just wants to go back to her hometown in central Ukraine, back to the only school she knew before the war, even as her mom and aunt have started to research camps and other programs in San Francisco to occupy the summer months.
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Abp. Viganò: The Globalist New World Order Has the Marks of the ‘Antichurch of Satan’
(LifeSiteNews) — The following is an essay written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on the rising influence of globalists groups.
The State Religion
Some observations on the globalist cult
It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hand or forehead.
No one could buy or sell except for those who had the stamped image, that is, the name of the beast or the number that corresponds to his name.
— Rev 13:16-17
In an interesting interview on Fox News titled The Church of Environmentalism, journalist Tucker Carlson has brought to light a contradiction that may have escaped the notice of many people but which I consider extremely revealing.
Carlson recalls that the American Constitution prohibits any state religion, but for some time the governing Democratic Party has imposed on the American people the globalist cult, with its green agenda, its woke dogmas, its condemnations and cancel culture, its priests of the World Health Organization, and its prophets of the World Economic Forum. A religion in all respects, all-encompassing not only for the life of the individuals who practice it, but also in the life of the nation that publicly confesses it, adapts laws and sentences to it, and inspires education and every governmental action around it.
In the name of the globalist religion, its adherents demand that all citizens behave in accordance with the morality of the New World Order, accepting uncritically — and with an attitude of devout submission to religious authority — the doctrine defined ex cathedra by the Davos Sanhedrin.
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Australian reality TV star Dean Wells has been dropped by his management over a post criticizing a “drag queen story time” event. He received backlash over the post, which was deemed harmful to the “LGBTQIA+” community.
Wells’ agency, Stage Addiction, dropped him because the “hurtful comments” he made “do not align with our values.”
Wells re-posted an image that drag performer Charisma Belle had himself posted on his Instagram account.
The image of the drag queen who would be reading at the event, Charisma Belle, legs spread, and a taco in the crotch.
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Boys and Trans Minors Sexually Active With Men Offered Monkeypox Vax
The Public Health Agency of Sweden has announced it will be expanding its monkeypox vaccine programme to male and transgender minors under 17 who engage in sexual relations with males.
The Public Health Agency of Sweden states that certain groups are recommended to receive the monkeypox vaccine despite a fall in overall cases since the country was able to gain access to the vaccine in the summer of 2022.
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A California school district being sued for allegedly violating parental rights by transitioning an 11-year-old’s gender in secret is facing the wrath of local parents, who this week demanded transparency and for school officials not to keep them in the dark on matters of importance to their children’s’ lives.
Seats were full at this week’s Board of Education meeting of the Chico Unified School District in northern California, where a major point of debate was what critics have named the district’s so-called “Parental Secret Policy.”
Under the policy, which is based on guidance from the California Department of Education, the district’s 23 schools only inform parents of their child pursuing or considering a gender transition with the student’s prior written consent, except for extraordinary situations. Proponents argue the policy is meant to protect students’ privacy.
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Socialist Spain: Children as Young as 12 Can Change Gender Under New Law
The Spanish parliament has approved a new transgender law that could allow children as young as 12 to change their gender legally. Conservatives have vowed to repeal the law.
The Spanish congress approved the controversial Trans Law supported by Minister of Equality Irene Montero this week, which affords anyone over the age of 16 the ability to change their gender legally by a simple request.
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Spain Decriminalizes Sex Acts With Animals as Long as No Physical Injury Occurs
On Thursday, the Spanish Parliament approved a new Animal Welfare Law that decriminalizes bestiality so long as the creature does not receive “an injury that requires veterinary treatment.”
According to Mundotoro, “Bestiality will no longer be considered a criminal offense if there are no injuries to the animal. This is established by the new Penal Code through the new Animal Welfare Law promoted by Minister Ione Belarra that was approved in Congress on February 9.”
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College students are pushing back against a “woke” California university for encouraging students to tell on professors for racism if they aren’t called on “consistently” during class.
Campus Reform correspondents Courtney McLain, Emily Sturge, and Darryl Boyer joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” to discuss the broader issues at hand with the far-left infusion of the “woke” agenda in college classrooms.
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Here in South Africa the Medical Aid Discovery has implemented a healthy living and safe driving reward program for many years. I guess a great way of herding people to social credit idea.
Beastiality is an Islamic normality. What is Spain doing??
They are trying to provoke fights because they are going to get called pig f***ers. Is that a protected class now? lgbqlmnoPF?
Not pigs, goats. Pigs are haram. They’re unclean.
Herd the people so you can take out the “trouble makers” the unhealthy the “useless eaters ” keep the compliant ones and the ones that can be made into ‘toys” for the elite.
How could this possibly work in America, unless People of Color were exempt? You know, because, equity.
Once the general system of western laws ,customs, rights are destroyed by the equity monster the elites will happily exterminate all people of every race ,sexually alinement ,gender that are not useful to them or just to much bother to care for. The general old ,fat, weak, and rebellious people will go first. The complainers, people who have an opinion different then the official government opinion .I am sure many “people of color” will share the same “equity” as anyone the government considers a useless eater or a trouble maker. The use of “BLM” the Nazi green movers , the assorted cross dressing idiotic child groomer , that take glee in taking the system down to replace it with a NWO will be richly rewarded .
As the great Mike Tyson once said, Everybody has a plan until they are punched in the face.