Even though it is not a member of the European Union, Norway has contributed €22 million to the EU for military support of the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, a U.S. report says that China is helping Russia evade sanctions and export controls.
In other news, the level of carbon emitted by the wildfires in Canada is more than double the emissions from all other sources combined.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, JW, 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.
15-Year-Old Arrested in Connection With Times Square Shooting
Three teens were hurt in the shooting that took place earlier this month
A 15-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the Times Square shooting that left three teens hurt earlier this month, police announced Thursday.
The 15-year-old, who has not been identified due to his age, is facing attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon: loaded firearm charges, police said.
The arrest and subsequent charges stem from a shooting that occured on July 17, just before midnight, on Seventh Avenue between 41st Street and 42nd Street, police said. Police were not sure at the time if the shooter was with the teens or not, but at some an argument broke out between the suspect and the trio.
Police initially said that during the dispute an unknown individual started shooting striking a 16-year-old boy in the thigh, a 15-year old boy in the thigh and a 17-year-old boy in the arm. The 16-year-old and the 15-year-old were taken to NYC Health and Hospitals/ Bellevue by EMS in stable condition. The 17-year-old later walked into Harlem Hospital with a graze wound to the arm that police believe was connected to the same shooting. All three were expected to recover.
The area where the shooting occurred is designated as a “gun free zone” by Mayor Eric Adams, meaning it is illegal to carry a gun between Sixth and Ninth avenues and between 40th and 53rd streets. The Adams administration said the move was to curb gun violence in the heart of the city and to create an environment where visitors felt safe.
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Biden’s DOJ Drops Campaign Finance Charge Against Democrat Donor FTX CEO Due to ‘Procedural Failing’
Federal prosecutors with Democrat President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) have dropped the campaign finance charge against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — the Democratic Party’s second-largest donor after George Soros.
In a stunning move on Thursday, Biden’s weaponized feds informed a New York City judge yet another charge was being dropped against the crypto scammer because of a “procedural failing.”
30-year-old Bankman-Fried spent more than $40 million to fund Democrats during the midterms.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bipartisan Coalition of Lawmakers Moves to Prevent Foreigners, Corporations From Buying US Farmland
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have moved to limit who can purchase American farmland, introducing and passing legislation making it difficult, if not impossible, for corporations and foreign nations to do so.
Concerns over enemy nations using farmland for nefarious purposes, and billionaires outbidding local farmers to buy up tracts and build monopolies have grown in recent years, prompting the government to take action.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Impeachment Enthusiast Adam Schiff Says GOP Has No Evidence to Back Biden Impeachment
Representative Adam Schiff said on Thursday that Republicans don’t have the evidence to back an impeachment of President Joe Biden.
“Democrats seem to not care when there’s a Democrat in the White House about possible corruption in the Oval Office,” a Fox News reporter asked Schiff.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: White House Press SEC Says Joe Biden Would Not Pardon Hunter Biden
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answered reporters questions about Hunter Biden on Thursday, after refusing to do so all week. The question was as to whether or not President Joe Biden would pardon his son Hunter.
“I know you said not alot has changed since yesterday and that it’s a personal matter,” the reporter began, “but from a presidential perspective, is there any possibility that the President would end up pardoning his son?”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Dianne Feinstein’s Aides Instruct Her to ‘Just Say Aye’ During Vote on Senate Floor
On Thursday, 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein joined her colleagues in the Senate to vote on the Defense Appropriations Bill.
While others simply said “aye” or “nay,” the nonagenarian launched into a speech and had to be reined in by her aides, one of whom told her to “just say aye.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Facebook Censored Americans Under Pressure From Biden Administration
It has been revealed that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram censored Americans and altered content moderation policies at the behest of the Biden administration amid a crackdown on Covid-19 “misinformation.”
The platforms removed a number of posts, including memes, that went against the official narrative regarding public health measures and vaccines.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Attorneys for 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump are in Washington, DC this morning meeting with Special Counsel Jack Smith in anticipation of possible charges stemming from the events of January 6, 2021, and alleged 2020 election interference.
According to Fox News, the grand jury is also meeting today at a federal courthouse in the city.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“Multiple explosive devices” likely connected to an ongoing drug turf war were the cause of multiple explosions and a massive fire in a homeless encampment outside Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Friday morning, putting the hospital at risk as passerbys reported debris impacting the building.
According to a police report obtained by The Post Millennial, at the encampment located between Interstate-5 and the hospital in downtown Seattle, the explosion was a targeted attack on a fentanyl tent where 20 “customers” were inside using drugs.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jill Biden’s Ex-Husband Blows Whistle: ‘I Can’t Let Them Do What They Did to Me to President Trump’
The former husband of First Lady Jill Biden, Bill Stevenson, has come forward to blow the whistle on “the Biden crime family” while issuing a troubling warning to President Donald Trump.
Stevenson told Newsmax host Greg Kelly he received threats from the Bidens during the divorce from his ex-wife.
He claims that the Democrat president weaponized authorities against him to get Jill Biden what she wanted in their divorce.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jim Jordan Finds Proof Biden is Guilty: “These Documents Prove the Biden Admin Abused Its Powers”
President Joe Biden and the unconstitutional scolds in his administration just got busted by GOP Rep Jim Jordan abusing their power to censor Americans. Jordan said:
“Never-before-released internal documents subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee PROVE that Facebook and Instagram censored posts and changed their content moderation policies because of unconstitutional pressure from the Biden White House.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jim Jordan Closes in on the Bidens: ‘Was Hunter a Foreign Agent and Did President Biden Benefit?’
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is closing in on Democrat President Joe Biden and his family as evidence stacks up to support an illegal foreign influence-peddling scheme.
Jordan asked the million-dollar question after Hunter Biden’s gift of a cushy plea agreement fell apart over possible future FARA charges.
It seems DOJ and Hunter’s lawyers had a side deal, or Hunter’s lawyers thought they did, to give the Democrat president’s son blanket immunity for taking the plea agreement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Libs of Tiktok’s Chaya Raichik went to California Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell’s office to confront him over campaigning with Stacie Laughton, the first openly transgender lawmaker in the US, who is facing federal charges in connection with sexual exploitation at a daycare center.
Swalwell (D-CA) attended campaign events with the former New Hampshire state representative.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nude Black Woman Fires at Cars, Wanders Across Lanes of Traffic on Bay Area Bridge
A naked woman was found firing a gun near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plaza on Tuesday.
According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), police began receiving calls about a woman driving recklessly on eastbound Interstate 80 of the bridge at approximately 4:40 pm.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Seattle Loses Another Drug Store as Retailers Flee City Amid Rising Crime
Rite Aid is shuttering another downtown Seattle Bartell Drugs store, the fifth closure in the city for the chain this year.
Rite Aid is closing the location at 910 4th Avenue, across the street from the Central Library which has been plagued with crime. The library has been a focal point of homeless and drug activity for years.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Tech Startup to Launch AI Newsroom to Rival Human Networks
As technology rapidly advances in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a tech startup is in the process of creating an AI newsroom. Instead of human anchors, the news will be delivered to people using AI-generated correspondents and anchors.
This idea is currently in the works by a tech startup called Channel 1 News, which will provide a 30-minute weekly show through a FAST channel made entirely from artificial intelligence. The startup is founded by producer and director Scott Zabielski, most famously known for Tosh.0 and The Jim Jefferies Show, and tech entrepreneur Adam Mosam. The end goal is to produce 500 to 1,000 daily news segments, according to Hollywood Reporter.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Transgender Nashville school shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who was killed by police after entering the Covenant School in late March and fatally shooting three students and three staff members, has been revealed to have written messages on the inside of her clothing before the shooting, an autopsy report revealed.
According to the New York Post, the report noted that Hale’s clothing was covered in handwritten notes, drawings, and numbers. It is unclear what was written in the messages.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
By comparison, the Dutch team sang loudly along to their anthem before the World Cup game began in Wellington, New Zealand.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Mitt Romney Argues That it Shouldn’t be Illegal for Government to Use Big Tech for Censorship
During a Senate hearing Wednesday, Mitt Romney argued against an amendment proposed by Rand Paul to make it illegal for government to use social media and big tech companies to censor the views of Americans.
Paul put forth the case that “the First Amendment really isn’t about protecting the speech of government workers the First Amendment says Congress shall make no law it’s about limitations on government involvement with speech.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Wildfire Emissions More Than Double All Other Sectors Combined
The wildfires ravaging Canada are releasing unprecedented rates of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, scientists said, more than doubling the combined emissions from all other sectors in the country.
So far this summer, wildfires burning in Canada’s forests have released roughly 1,420 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere, according to preliminary data from Natural Resources Canada, or the government body tasked with measuring such emissions.
That more than doubles combined emissions from oil and gas, transportation, buildings, and agricultural sectors combined, which emitted a combined total of 670 million metric tons of emissions during the same period, said Werner Kurz, a senior research scientist with Natural Resources Canada.
The emissions data also shows how much climate change and extreme weather conditions have intensified wildfires in the last decade, Kurz said.
| — Hat tip: MM | [Return to headlines] |
25,000 Poles Will Participate in World Youth Day in Lisbon
Thousands of young Poles will descend on Lisbon next week to take part in World Youth Day, the Catholic festival being held in the Portuguese capital on Aug. 1-6 under the slogan, “Mary rose and went in haste.”
Meetings with Pope Francis will be preceded by special days in the dioceses, which began on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
70% of French Don’t Trust Emmanuel Macron to Keep Them Safe, Poll Finds
An overwhelming majority of French citizens do not trust President Macron to preserve law and order in the country, a new poll has found.
The results of the CSA survey conducted for CNEWS come shortly after the French president promised to restore order in the country following weeks of mass rioting sparked by the fatal shooting of an uncooperative teenager by police following a traffic stop.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Albanians Are the Kingpins of the UK Drug Market
The use of cocaine is increasing across much of the West, and much of its wholesale distribution is operated by Albanian groups, according to a United Nations report released earlier this year.
In the organisation’s 2023 global report on cocaine, Albanian gangs are described as being “very active” in receiving drug shipments across Western Europe. It adds that they now “exert considerable control” across the UK drug market.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Czechia Receives Six US Military Helicopters
The Czech military has taken delivery of the first two Bell AH-1Z Viper combat helicopters ordered from the United States, the CTK news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the Czech Defense Ministry.
The helicopters were delivered to the Namest nad Oslavou military airfield, located 30 kilometers west of the city of Brno. Two more helicopters of the same type and two Bell UH-1Y Venom multi-role helicopters are expected to follow by mid-September.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU and NATO at Odds Over Quran Burnings
The EU and NATO have outlined differing attitudes towards the desecration of the Quran following months of international tumult with the Islamic world over the burning of the Islamic holy book in Sweden and Denmark.
On Wednesday the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the Commission Josep Borrell outlined his and the EU’s “determined rejection” of the desecration of the Quran, labelling it as a form of religious incitement and intolerance.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The number of German recipients of welfare benefits has halved since 2010, while the number of foreign nationals receiving social assistance payments has doubled, government data has revealed.
The data emerged from a response by Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Anette Kramme to a request made by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP René Springer.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Birth Rate Sinks to Ten-Year Low in 2022
Only a few months after government figures revealed that the number of births in Italy in 2022, for the third consecutive year, dropped to the lowest level ever recorded, the number of births registered across Germany last year sank to its lowest level in a decade.
In a press release published last week, Germany’s Federal Statistical Office revealed that a total of 738,819 babies were born in 2022, dropping 8% from 2021 to 1.46 children per woman, the lowest rate registered since 2013 when the average was 1.42 children per woman, Die Welt reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary to Receive Israeli High-Tech Radars
The Hungarian armed forces will replace its Soviet radars this year with EL-2084 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars manufactured by Israel’s ELTA Systems Ltd., daily Magyar Hirlap reports.
Hungary signed a contract for the delivery of 11 ELM-2084 radars at an undisclosed value; the radars have been produced by ELTA in Israel since 2010. One EL-2084 unit — consisting of a radar unit, a control module, a cooling unit and a power generator — costs between $12 million and $15 million, depending on the size of the order.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Contributes €22 Million to EU Military War Chest for Ukraine
In a continuation of Oslo’s defence relationship with Brussels, the Norwegian government has voluntarily sent €22 million worth of aid to the EU’s military war chest for Ukraine despite not being an EU member.
The European Council confirmed Tuesday, July 25th that Norway will make the financial contribution to the European Peace Facility primarily to fund ammunition and spare parts for German-made Leopard II tanks currently seeing combat on the Eastern front.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland to Receive Additional Seat in the European Parliament
An agreement has been reached in Brussels at a meeting of ambassadors of EU member states on the allocation of seats in the European Parliament for the next term for individual countries.
It has been decided that Poland will receive an additional seat in the parliament for the next term, increasing the number of Polish MEPs to 53.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Complains to European Commission Over 35,000 Tons of Illegal German Garbage
Poland has lodged an official complaint with the European Commission against Germany for the alleged dumping of 35,000 tons of waste on Polish territory.
Polish Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa told reporters that the formal complaint marks the initial step on the road to legal proceedings that will be pursued in the European Court of Justice.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Putin is Trying to Blackmail Poland Over Its Unwavering Support for Ukraine, Says Polish Minister
Russian President Vladimir Putin is attempting to blackmail Poland “by implying that if Poland is not subservient to Russia and Germany, it may sooner or later be dismembered by both,” the country’s deputy culture minister has claimed.
Jaroslaw Sellin accused the Russian leader of intentionally calling into question Poland’s existing borders and claiming that they are the subject of a Russian-German agreement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: 1,500 Tech Developers Target Apple With $1 Billion Lawsuit
Apple is levelling “abusive pricing” against app developers, according to a new class action lawsuit worth £785 million ($1 billion or €915 million). The tech giant has long faced criticism over the 15-30% commissions that it charges some app makers for an in-app payment system.
Sean Ennis, who has brought forward the UK lawsuit at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, described Apple’s charges as “excessive and only possible due to its monopoly on the distribution of apps onto iPhones and iPads.” He is a professor at the Centre for Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia as well as a former OECD economist.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The nomination of a former communist judge, Robert Fremr, for the position of Czech constitutional judge is causing more and more dissatisfaction.
Fremr’s nomination was proposed by President Petr Pavel to the Senate for approval in June, alongside Veronika Krestanova and civil law professor Katerina Ronovska. However, Fremr is facing criticism for having participated in a politicized trial under the former communist regime. Several dissidents and activists are now reminding him of this and calling on the head of state to reconsider Fremr’s nomination.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Blast Kills Six Ahead of Ashura: Ministry
A bomb killed six people and wounded scores on Thursday when it exploded near the Sayeda Zeinab mausoleum in Damascus, Syria’s most visited Shiite pilgrimage site, the authorities said.
The deadly blast south of the capital came ahead of the annual commemoration of Ashura, when Shiites remember the death of the Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in a seventh century battle.
The interior ministry gave a death toll of six, state news agency SANA reported, revising an earlier death toll of five.
More than 20 people were wounded in the attack which the interior ministry said was caused when a motorcycle exploded near a taxi, calling it a “terrorist bombing”.
| — Hat tip: McN | [Return to headlines] |
China Helps Russia Evade Sanctions and Likely Supplies Tech Used in Ukraine, U.S. Report Says
Chinese state-owned defense firms have shipped navigation equipment, fighter jet parts and other dual-use technology to Russian defense companies, a U.S. intelligence report said.
China is providing crucial support for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine by helping the Kremlin evade Western sanctions and is likely supplying Moscow with key technology, according to a new U.S intelligence report.
China has dramatically expanded its purchase of Russian oil, gas and other energy exports since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February last year and used its financial system to allow Russia “to conduct transactions unfettered of Western interdiction,” said the assessment released Thursday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
China is an increasingly critical economic partner for Russia and is “pursuing a variety of economic support mechanisms for Russia that mitigate both the impact of Western sanctions and export controls,” according to the ODNI report, which was mandated by Congress.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
NATO-Ukraine Council Condemns Russia for Terminating Black Sea Grain Deal
Following recent Russian attacks against Odessa and Danube grain ports, the NATO-Ukraine council condemned Russia at an emergency meeting for ending the shipping agreement on the Black Sea. The meeting was convened at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Russia continues to show utter disrespect for international law and for the people worldwide who depend on Ukrainian grain,” said Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana. “Russia is threatening civilian ships, terrorizing peaceful cities, and destroying parts of the world’s cultural heritage with its brutal strikes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Commonwealth Bank Rules That Will Stop You From Accessing Your Money
Many Australians are unaware that the can be denied the use of their money if they break rules buried in the fine print of opening an account.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Construct Homes Pty Ltd Goes Into Receivership as Customers Wait in Limbo With Half-Built Homes
Another construction company has collapsed amid an industry crisis that has left many Australians left with unfinished homes.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Details of a 2019 phone call between lobbyist Phil Staindl and his property developer client John Woodman were revealed in a report handed down on Thursday from Victori’a corruption watchdog.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
The former AFL star pleaded guilty to a string of offences after police saw him driving his ute on a footpath near a shopping centre on February 21, just weeks after crashing his car into a pole.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Hiking Coal Tax Likely Won’t Lift Power Bills, NSW Says
Lifting coal royalties to generate billions of dollars in extra revenue won’t do much to ease household power bills, the NSW government has been advised.NSW…
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Karl Stefanovic has weighed in on a dispute which saw 600 farmers unite to oppose Western Australia’s controversial new cultural heritage laws.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Victoria to Ban All New Homes From Having a Gas Connection
The government announced the huge changes to energy supply on Friday morning, with the policy set to be introduced in 2024.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Breakout World Cup star Linda Caicedo may not feature again in the tournament after the Colombian collapsed at training
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
EU Raw Material Strategy in Tatters as MEPs Visit Congolese Cobalt Mines
A delegation of MEPs met with senior Congolese officials this week regarding the supply of critical raw materials into Europe, as the EU’s overall raw material strategy comes under fire for lacking ambition and for being implemented far too late to properly safeguard the resources needed for the EU’s green transition.
Members of the European Parliament’s Development Committee, tasked with helping to dole out the EU’s € 50 billion a year aid budget, toured mining facilities in the southern Congolese town of Lubumbashi on a two-day visit, July 24-25.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Niger Coup Blows Holes in EU and U.S. Sahel Strategy
EU and American foreign policy in the Sahel region was turned upside down Wednesday, July 27th, after disgruntled members of the Nigerien military detained the country’s pro-western president Mohamed Bazoum in what appears to be an ongoing coup attempt.
Members of the Presidential Guard arrested President Bazoum and his family inside his palace in the capital Niamey in what is the latest military overthrow of a civilian government in a coup-prone region of West Africa.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Silo Blast in Southern Brazil Kills Eight, Dozen Hurt, One Missing
At least eight people were killed and nearly a dozen were injured after a grain silo explosion on Wednesday at an agricultural co-operative in southern Brazil, the government of Parana state where the incident occurred and the company involved said on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: JW | [Return to headlines] |
Biden’s Border Crisis Blamed for Spike in Child Labor in the US
The United States has seen a spike in cases of child labor as of late as more unaccompanied minors than ever make their way into the country as a result of Biden’s border crisis.
To deal with the massive influx in underage newcomers brought on by the president’s lack of action, the Department of Health and Human Services under Sec. Xavier Becerra has relaxed safeguards put in place to ensure migrants are not exploited by their sponsors. The move has, in turn, made it easier for the adults tasked with taking care of children to instead put them to work.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
NYTimes Celebrates Biden’s Cheap Migrant Labor in Elite’s Hotels
Wealthy New Yorkers get cheap weekend getaways as Biden’s migration flood drops wages for Americans, says the NY Times.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Over 1,000 People Smugglers and Traffickers Arrested in Interpol Operation
People smuggling is a big business around the world, with smugglers and human traffickers making millions of dollars per year in what the International Labour Organization (ILO) says is generating as much as $150 billion per year in ill-gotten profits through forced labour or prostitution.
This week, the International police agency Interpol announced a major operation against human trafficking that had taken place in partnership with several African countries and the African policing agency Afripol.
Over the span of two months, May and June, operation “FLASH-WEKA” was able to secure the arrests of 1,062 suspected people smugglers and human traffickers, according to a press release from Interpol released on July 25th.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Surge in Illegal Immigration to Italy Through the Balkans Overwhelms Authorities
The Western Balkan migration route saw a huge surge of activity last year, increasing by 136% compared to 2021 according to the European Union border agency Frontex, which recorded 145,600 individual crossings, the largest share of any migration route to the European Union in 2022.
So far this year, numbers across the Western Balkan route have shrunk by around 29% but in the first six months, nearly 40,000 migrants had crossed the land route to other parts of Europe.
Some migrants travel across the Western Balkans to Italy, where they often end up in the city of Trieste, which lies just across the border from Slovenia.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In a Thursday hearing before Congress, detransitioner Chloe Cole told the mother of an 18-year-old trans-identifying female on the witness panel that she doesn’t hate her, and believes that “every parent deserves the utmost grace and guidance with how to help their child,” but that she doesn’t wish anyone to go through what she did.
In her testimony, licensed professional counselor Miriam Reynolds described the process her trans-identified child went through in receiving “gender-affirming treatment,” starting at 11 years old. She advocated that the “Decision should be made with parents the child and the child’s medical providers without government interference.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Paula Scanlan, a spokeswoman and advisor for the Independent Women’s Forum, offered testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, speaking about her experience swimming against male athlete Lia Thomas while she was a student athlete at the University of Pennsylvania.
Scanlan, who holds the New England Independent School League record in the 400-yard freestyle relay, discussed what it was like to be on the UPenn women’s swim team when a male athlete came onto the team, claiming to be a woman after having begun to take estrogen.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bud Light Disaster Hits Hard as Anheuser-Busch Lays Off Hundreds of Corporate Workers Amid Boycotts
The boycotts against Bud Light are continuing to hit hard as partner company Anheuser-Busch moves to lay off nearly 400 workers at its corporate offices.
The layoffs are a direct result of plummeting sales of Bud Light, the former best-selling beer in America.
Anheuser-Busch has been imploding since launching the April 1 Bud Light campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DailyMail.com uncovered several AI influencers who are aspiring virtual models, online girlfriends and are asking for tips. Some of the digital designs offer plans to purchase their nudes.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
While we are on the subject of totalitarianism
27/7 2023
By Lars Hedegaard / snaphanen.dk
To truly be able to control the population, it must be deprived of its historical consciousness.
People must not know or believe that they are part of a chain of generations and events from the past to the future. We should preferably be led to believe that we live in a unique time, free from all historical legacy – all links between the past and the current situation. Rootless and floating in the air, we are easy prey for all kinds of world-enhancing ideologies and fantasies that those in power know how to exploit.
I was once a high school history teacher, but I don’t know what young people are learning today. In the vanguard of the West, the United States, they apparently learn nothing.
A recent survey of American high school students’ historical knowledge produced the following disappointing results:
72% did not know that the United States was at war with Hitler during World War II.
World War II:
87% did not know that the United States entered World War II because of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
60% did not know which countries the US was at war with between 1941 and 1945.
13% thought that Dwight D. Eisenhower was a general from the American Civil War.
But, on the other hand, most of them are probably aware that the world is about to collapse due to human carbondioxid emissions and that the right is fascist.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps they also know that Islam is essentially a political,
ãnd a most ill-tempered and destructive ideology, that any reasonable,
sane reacting individual with IQ >92 should find reprehensible.
If this gentleman had been allowed to appear on state public service TV
a few times…
https://swebbtube.se/w/1gUNUdAwF4zm1gkuGFHjEU
…as a result the majority of Muslims would have been
forced to move home to the country of origin.
It may be just a question of KNOW and KNOW NOT!
photo
https://swebbtube.se/static/thumbnails/29d710e8-5e74-40b3-90bb-fdc047eb2797.jpg
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10 RICHEST Families That Make BEZOS LOOK BROKE
https://youtu.be/gjKeCI2pDc8
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Elon Musk, X, and the Epitome of a Front Man
https://swebbtube.se/w/qquZiNbsSAvdsu5WNT6fd9
**************************************************************
.
The Jews in Germany demand “firewall” against AFD
28 July 2023 / Fria Tider
The other parties’ “firewall” against Alternative for Germany must remain. According to the Jewish Central Council in Germany, there must be no collusion whatsoever with the anti-immigration party.
Germany is getting tired
AFD at 22 percent – the growing panic of the German rulers
Elected German politician to be “democratically tested”
AFD takes over its first region
Germany’s spy chief: Do not vote for AFD
AFD now as big as German S
Alternative for Germany, AFD, has surged in public opinion recently and is now the second largest party in the polls. Or even the largest party if you separate the two Christian Democratic parties.
The reason is believed to be that the Germans have grown tired of Third World immigration, inflation and arms deliveries to Ukraine.
The party’s shock success has caused panic within the German establishment, which does not quite know how to deal with the development.
The Christian Democratic opposition party CDU has previously sworn never to cooperate with AFD in any way. But in an interview with ZDF on Sunday, party leader Friedrich Merz nevertheless opened up for such cooperation at the municipal level. He also underlined that democratic election results must be respected – referring to the recent attempts to depose elected representatives from AFD.
Merz’s play caused quite the earthquake. The left accused the CDU of being Nazis, and several other party leaders within the CDU launched furious attacks against the party leader.
Already on Monday, Friedrich Merz had to take back his statement and promised that no collaboration with AFD would take place even at the municipal level.
However, the incident has raised concerns that the Christian Democrats’ so-called “firewall” against the right may be about to crack.
Josef Schuster, chairman of Germany’s Jewish Central Council, told Die Welt that he was “shaken” by Friedrich Merz’s comment.
– The firewall must stand firm, he says.
According to Josef Schuster, it must not happen that other parties cooperate with AFD or approach the party’s politics.
He describes AFD as a party whose rhetoric is “racist, contemptuous of people and sometimes even anti-Semitic”. After the interview with Merz, according to Schuster, the question arises “if the firewall is full of holes and no longer does what it originally promised”.
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Finnish minister calls Arabs ‘desert monkeys’
28 July 2023 / Fria Tider
Another scandal hits the Finnish government. Minister of Business Wille Rydman is said to have used “gross racist language” in private messages to an ex-girlfriend, reports Yle.
Earlier in July, Wille Rydman’s predecessor in the post as minister of economy, Vilhelm Junnila, was forced to resign after a couple of weeks after he was accused of links to neo-Nazis.
Now there is also a storm around Wille Rydman. The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat has published messages from 2016 that Rydman is said to have sent to his then-girlfriend.
In one conversation, Rydman compares lilies of the valley to Somalis:
“But once that damn lily of the valley has been planted here on the plot, it’s suddenly everywhere and multiplies like Somalis. So if you want Somali lilies in the flower bed, there are enough here, and they can be moved.”
He also reportedly calls people from the Middle East “incomprehensible monkeys” and “desert monkeys”. Speaking of a news story about banning headscarves, he is said to have written: “I would still rather ban those who use headscarves than the headscarf itself”.
“We Nazis don’t really like that Jewish stuff,” Wille Rydman is reported to have written when the girlfriend tells him that she “secretly likes Hebrew names” and would like to name a future son Immanuel by other names.
Yaron Nadbornik, chairman of the Central Council of Jewish Congregations in Finland, however, denies that Rydman would be anti-Semitic.
“It pays to look elsewhere for anti-Semitism. Rydman has been our friend for years and, in my view, he still is,” he writes on Twitter.
Wille Rydman himself states that he is considering reporting Helsingin Sanomat to the police for the publication. He writes on Twitter that he does not intend to try to explain away messages that he may have written several years ago, as he believes that would legitimize the publication.
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Swedish armed forces lowers requirements for conscripts
Published July 27, 2023
As fewer and fewer pass the conscription, the Swedish Armed Forces are now changing their requirements, P4 Värmland reports.
– We are lowering from a too high level that actually excludes young people, says Michael Cherinet, head of the implementation unit at the Armed Forces, to P4 Värmland.
However, he assures that the requirements will not be lowered for “those who have to carry heavy loads and go far, such as fighter soldiers”.
– “If you have to move mainly indoors, in a limited area or on board a ship, the requirements will be set based on that task and that environment,” says Michael Cherinet.
Previously, the same requirements were set for different types of tasks. But fewer and fewer people pass the conscription, neither mentally nor physically, and to reach the goal of a thousand more conscripts by 2025, the requirements must be lowered, reports P4 Värmland.
@ FreeSweden
The historical illiteracy of which you speak is very real, especially among the younger generations here in the ‘States. I am a historian and teacher myself, and know whereof I speak in that regard.
About fifteen years ago, I traveled to New Orleans to the then-new National D-Day Museum, which is now called the National World War Two Museum, to see this new historical attraction.
The night before visiting, I dined in the French Quarter, and to pass the time, decided to conduct a little test just for fun. I put together a list of five basic questions about the Second World War and D-Day, and asked them to the various staff members, the young people working in in the establishment.
You can probably guess where this is going. Those young people scored very poorly; I cannot recall anyone answering enough correct to earn a passing grade if it had been a quiz. The questions were very basic: Things like “Who was the prime minister of Britain at the time of D-Day?” Who was the U.S. President, who was the overall commander of Allied forces in Europe? Where did the D-Day lands take place, and when?
Granted, these young people had other things on their minds, but never the less, it was dispiriting to this old historian to learn how utterly ignorant of 20th century history these people actually were.
And that was fifteen years ago. It may be worse today….
I find it extremely irritating how these fools with Ukraine stickers on their cars or businesses with tip jars for donations for the poor Ukrainians know so little about what they are supporting.
Historical illiteracy has probably always been present in the West to some extent but I can’t imagine it has ever been as bad as it is now, along with geographical illiteracy, political knowledge, and even basic literacy.
We don’t live in Idiocracy yet but we aren’t that far off from it.
“We don’t live in Idiocracy yet but we aren’t that far off from it.”
Most live within DISTRACTION, which I believe perpetuates the idiocracy. Few—with careers, kids, soccer practice, bills, personal issues and whatnot—have the time and/or inclination to ACTIVELY seek out not just what’s going on in the world, but to filter the wheat from the chaff—often a full-time job in itself….and with no guarantee of success.
I believe this’s the salient issue that’s often missed by many of us when considering the pickle we’re in.