#Eight prisoners were executed in Iran

[mkn314]

۸ زندانی در ایران به اعدام رسیدند

Eight prisoners were executed in Iran

Continue reading ۸ زندانی در ایران به اعدام رسیدند

[spacelazarwolf]

"it's 2024 antisemitism isn't a problem anymore you just want to be oppressed."

here's a non-exhaustive list of antisemitic incidents, attacks, and pogroms during my lifetime. if you're not jewish, i am guilting you into reading this entire list. i really do not care if it takes forever or makes you feel bad. read it.

1993

state farm settles a $30mil lawsuit after it was revealed that state farm kept a list of prominent jewish lawyers referred to within state farm as "the jewish lawyers list" where any claims made by those attorneys were automatically forwarded to state farm's fraud unit, purely on the basis of the attorney's jewish identity. state farm employees testified confirming the list had been used to discriminate against ethnic minorities.

1994

four days after the cave of patriarchs massacre, a man shot at a van full of jewish students, killing one and injuring three others. he is reported to have shouted "kill the jews" as revenge for the cave of patriarchs massacre.

a white supremacist fired ten rounds at a synagogue in eugene, oregon.

a jewish community center in buenos aires, argentina was bombed, killing 85 people and injuring 300.

1995

a japanese magazine ran an article that stated "the 'holocaust' is a fabrication. there were no execution gas chambers in auschwitz or in any other concentration camp. today, what are displaced as 'gas chambers' at the remaints of the auschwitz camp in poland are a post-war fabrication by the polish communist regime or by the soviet union, which controlled the country. not once, neither at auschwitz nor in any territory controlled by the germans during the second world war, was there 'mass murder of jews' in 'gas chambers'."

1996

in turkey, an islamic preacher distributed thousands of copies of a book called "the holocaust lie."

1997

jean-marie le pen was convicted and fined for remarks minimizing the holocaust, and then accused the president of france of being "on the payroll of jewish organizations, and particularly of b'nai b'rith."

1998

osama bin laden stated that israel's ultimate goal was to annex the arabian peninsula and the middle east and enslave its peoples. he claimed that the us state department and department of defense were controlled by jews for the sole purpose of serving israel's goals. he also claimed that israeli jews controlled the governments of the us and uk, directing them to kill as many muslims as they could.

1999

iran arrested 13 iranian jews, accusing them of being spies for israel, including a 16 year old boy. ten of them were sentenced to 4-13 years in prison, and eventually when they were freed they left iran for israel.

a man was arrested in paris for attacking a bartender because he "believed she was jewish."

several synagogues in sacramento were set on fire by a group of eight or nine men.

a man shot and killed one person and injured five at a jewish community center in los angeles.

2000

a man broke into a jewish woman's house, shot and killed her, then set her house on fire. he then drove to the synagogue where she was a member and fired into the windows of the synagogue, then exited his car and spray-painted two red swastikas on the building. he drove to another synagogue where he shot and shattered the synagogue's glass windows.

on yom kippur, two molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue.

a synagogue in syracuse, new york was set on fire by a man who reportedly yelled "i did this for you, god!"

a sukkah was destroyed at a synagogue in st. paul, minnesota.

a synagogue in harrisburg, pennsylvania was set on fire before yom kippur.

during the 2000 presidential election, lee alcorn, president of the dallas naacp branch, criticized al gore's selection of senator joe lieberman for his vice-presidential candidate because lieberman was jewish. alcorn said "if we get a jew person, then what i'm wondering is, i mean, what is this movement for, you know? does it have anything to do with the failed peace talks?" ... "so i think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the jews at that kind of level because we know that their interest primarily has to do with money and these kinds of things."

2001

in belgium, the vice president of one of the country's largest parties gave an interview on dutch tv where he cast doubt over the number of jews murdered by the nazis during the holocaust. in the same interview he questioned the scale of the nazis' use of gas chambers and the authenticity of anne frank's diary.

2002

osama bin laden stated in a letter that jews controlled the civilian media outlets, politics, and economic institutions of the united states.

a synagogue was set on fire in toronto, ontario, canada.

men rammed two cars through the courtyard gates of a synagogue in lyon, france, then rammed one of the cars into the prayer hall before setting the vehicles on fire. eyewitnesses reported seeing between 12 and 15 attackers. this was the first of a series of attacks on jewish targets in france in a single week - which coincided with passover - including at least five other synagogues.

a synagogue in marseille, france was burned to the ground.

a synagogue in strasbourg was set on fire.

a synagogue in paris was firebombed.

"richard nixon tapes" were declassified, which confirmed that billy graham, a famous evangelist and civil rights advocate, had agreed with nixon that jews controll the american media, calling it a "stranglehold."

a synagogue in tunisia was bombed, killing 20 and injuring 30.

a gunman opened fire at the airline ticket counter of el al, israel's national airline, at the la international airport. two people were killed and four were injured. federal investigators concluded that the gunman had hoped to influence us government policy in favor of palestinians and that the incident was a terror attack.

in an interview for a french magazine, a french actor, comedian, and activist dieudonne m'bala m'bala described "the jews" as "a sect, a fraud, which is the worst of all because it was the first."

white supremacists planned to bomb a series of institutions and people associated with the black and jewish communities. targets included the united states holocaust museum, the new england holocaust memorial, and steven spielberg.

2003

terrorists attempted to bomb a jewish cemetery, and succeeded in bombing a jewish community center and jewish-owned italian restaurant in morocco. 45 people in total were killed.

a molotov cocktail was thrown through the windows of a synagogue in los angeles, california.

the prime minister of malaysia drew a standing ovation for his speech. an excerpt: "[muslims] are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. the nazis killed 6 million jews out of 12 million. but today the jews rule this world by proxy. they get others to fight and die for them. they invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong so they may enjoy equal rights with others. with these they have now gained control over the most powerful countries. and they, this tiny community, have become a world power."

two synagogues in turkey were bombed, killing 55 and injuring over 750.

2004

romania officially denied the holocaust occurred on its territory up until 2004.

the film 'the passion of the christ' was released, causing backlash against the jewish community for protesting the antisemitic tones of the movie.

a jewish school library was firebombed in montreal, quebec, canada.

jewish cemeteries were defaced with swastikas and a funeral home set on fire in wellington new zealand.

2005

m'bala claimed during a press conference that the central council of french jews was a "mafia" that had "total control over french policy exercise", called the commemoration of the holocaust "memorial pornography" and claimed that the "zionists of the centre national de la cinematographie" which "control french cinema" prevented him from making a film about the slave trade.

the muslim brotherhood leader denounced what he called "the myth of the holocaust" in defending iranian president's denial of the holocaust.

a polish radio station during the polish election promoted antisemitic views, including denial of the jedwabne pogrom. their support of right-wing conservative law and justice party is considered a major factor in their electoral victory.

a group of 15 members of the state duma of russia demanded that judaism and jewish orgqanizations be banned from the country. 500 prominent russians demanded that the state prosecutor investigate ancient jewish texts as "anti-russian" and ban judaism.

islamic extremists planned to bomb a number of synagogues and an israeli consulate in california.

iranian president denied the holocaust during a speech in zahedan. "they have invented a myth that jews were massacred and palce this above god, religions and the prophets." he suggested that if the holocaust had occurred, that it was the responsibility of europeans to offer up territory to the jews.

2006

a man stabbed nine people at a synagogue in russia.

the iranian state-sponsored "international conference to review the global vision of the holocaust" opened, with its focus being to question the facts of the holocaust. the iranian foreign ministry spokesperson stated "the holocaust is not a sacred issue that one can't touch. i have visited the nazi camps in eastern europe. i think it is exaggerated."

mel gibson was arrested for a dui, and reportedly yelled at the police officer, "fucking jews... the jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. are you a jew?"

m'bala was fined for defamation after calling a prominent jewish tv presenter a "secret donor of the child-murdering israeli army."

ilan halimi, a french moroccan jew, was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. he was dumped on the side of the road, 80% of his body covered in burns, and died from his injuries on his way to the hospital. the kisnappers thought halimi was wealthy because he came from a jewish family, and the gang confessed that they believed all jews to be rich which motivated them to target several jews. the halimi family reports being told that if they could not raise the money for the ransom then they should get it from the jewish community.

a man targeted the jewish federation of seattle when the organization showed up in search results after he typed the phrase "something jewish" into a search engine. he forced his way through the building's security door with several guns, a knife, and ammunition, taking a 14 year old girl as a hostage. he is reported to have said "i'm only doing this for a statement" and "i'm a muslim american; i'm angry at israel" before the shooting spree began. he then took a pregnant woman hostage, saying "now since you don't know how to... listen, now you're the hostage, and i don't give a fuck if i kill you or your baby." the woman reported him stating "that he was a muslim, and this was his personal statement against jews and the bush administration for giving money to jews, and for us jews for giving money to israel, about hozbollah, the war in iraq, and he wanted to talk to cnn."

2007

holocaust survivor elie wiesel was attacked by a holocaust denier in san francisco.

jewish professor elizabeth midlarsky had a swastika spray painted on her office door.

2008 - gaza war

a leading member of hamas made a statement that israelis "have legitimized the murder of their own children by killing the children of palestine... they have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."

a belgian jewish magazine received a dozen death threats on its website, including a threat to carry out a suicide attack to "avenge the suffering of the palestinians."

protestors in indonesia shut down the country's only synagogue, threatening to drive out the country's jews. they stated that "if israel refuses to stop its attacks and oppression of the palestinian people, we don't need to defend [the synagogue's' presence here." the synagogue has been shuttered since.

a man sent a letter threatening to bo b the ida crown jewish academy in chicago. the letter said that explosives would be set off around the school unless violence in gaza stopped by january 15 2009.

south african deputy foreign minister was quoted saying "[jews] in fact control [america], no matter which government comes into power, whether republican or democratic, whether barack obama or george bush... the control of america, just like the control of most western countries, is in the hands of jewish money and if jewish money controls their country then you cannot expect anything else." she later claimed she "conflated zionist pressure with jewish influence."

antisemitic graffiti, including swastikas, appeared all over turkey. a sign was put up at the door of a civic group's office saying "jews cannot enter, dogs can." anti-jewish articles began appearing in turkish newspapers, and there were several hundred documented examples of antisemitic messages. as a result, turkish jewish immigration to israel increased.

in yemen, jews experienced verbal and physical harassment. jewish children were injured, one seriously, when muslim students threw stones at them. anti-israel protestors also attacked several jewish homes, smashing windows and pelting them with rocks, and injuring at least one jewish residence. a yemeni jewish family was extricated from yemen to israel after suffering continuous antisemitic attacks and death threats. a grenade was also thrown into the courtyard of the family's home in raydah.

a molotov cocktail was thrown. at a synagogue in brussels. rocks and other objects were thrown at a jewish school. a jewish home was the subject of arson. afterwards, hundreds of protestors tried to march toward the jewish neighborhood but were held off by police.

a man opened fire on three israeli cosmetics salesmen and two customers in a shopping mall. the shooting, which followed a period of harassment against the cosmetic stand, resulted in two israelis being hit by the shots. the perpatrator explained that he was motivated by the middle east situation.

sixty-six antisemitic incidents were reported in france, home to europe's largest muslim and jewish populations. numerous synagogues were attacked with petrol bombs and damaged in various towns. a car was rammed into the gates of a synagogue in toulouse and set on fire. a petrol bomb was thrown at a synagogue which set fire to an adjacent jewish restaurant. offensive graffiti was also sprayed on synagogues throughout the country. in paris, a rabbi's car was torched, a. jewish student was attacked and stabbed four times, and a 15-year old girl was assaulted by a gang.

a jewish community in germany was daubed and later stoned, and the central council of jews in german reported a significant increase in the number of hate mails and death threats during the conflict.

synagogues in multiple cities in greece were vandalized and suffered arson attacks. in athens, the walls of a jewish cemetery were sprayed with antisemitic graffiti "jews israelites murderers." neo-nazi slogans like "ax and fire to the jewish dogs" were used at anti-israel protests. a monument commemorating the murder of greek jews was vandalized with slogans like "greece - palestine no jew will remain." a seminar at the jewish museum of thessaloniki was cancelled after receiving threats, and the leftist parliamentary party of coalition of the radical left declined to attend the greek national day of remembrance of holocaust heroes and martyrs because of the attendance of the israeli ambassador. in ioannina the local jewish cemetery was vandalized with several tombs broken. the corfu synagogue was vandalized with graffiti such as "shit on israel" "jews nazis" and "murderers." the shoah memorial was also vandalized with graffiti regarding gaza. in larisa both grouns from the extreme right and extreme left targeted the local community. leftist and palestinian demonstrators attempted to vandalize the synagogue during a march, while later the same day groups linked to neo-nazi groups vandalized the shoah monyment and organized protests in front of the synagogue asking for the expulsion of jews from larisa. jews were attacked as "christ killers" and "smelling of blood" "they are the worst thing of the 20th century" and an eminent member of the greek orthodox church spoke of "zionist monsters with sharp claws" and "jews puhished for killing christ" and being "god killers."

italian trade union flaica-cub issued a call to boycott jewish-owned shops in rome in protest at the israeli offensive. it was condemned as antisemitic and reminiscent of the italian race laws under fascism in the 1930s.

a molotov cocktail was thrown at a jewish owned building in amsterdam following an attempted arson of a jewish institution in arnhem. a synagogue and jewish owned building were targeted by stoning. at an anti-israel demonstration in utrecht, some demonstrators shouted "hamass, hamas, jews to the gas."

during the 2009 oslo riots, the largest anti-jewish riots in norwegian history, muslim youth attacked the israeli embassy and yelled anti-jewish slogans in arabic, including "death to the jews" "kill the jews" and "slaughter the jews." in one incident, young men beat a 73 year old man who was carrying an israeli flag while shouting "bloody jew - get him!" they only stopped attacking him when they realized he was not jewish.

a jewish burial chapel in sweden was the target of an arson attack and a jewish centor was set on fire twice in three days.

there were approximately 225 recorded antisemitic incidents in the uk during the war. synagogues were firebombed, jews received verbal and digital abuse, and a gang tried to force their way into jewish restaurants and shops, specifically focusing on the london jewish family centre. a jewish motorist was also dragged from his car and assaulted. antisemitic graffiti with slogans including "kill jews" "jews are scumbags" and "jihad 4 israel" were sprayed in jewish areas across london and manchester.

a molotov cocktail was thrown at a tample in chicago, and in lincolnwood a synagogue's glass doors were shattered by a brick and "free palestine" and "death to israel" were spraypainted on the building. a jewish preschool in california was graffitied with swastikas and antisemitic messages.

argentinian jews wearing kippot were physically attacked on public buses and jewish cemetaries were defaced. a gang attacked argentinian jews near the israeli embassy in buenos aires.

in bolivia, vandals removed a star of david from a monument from the plaza israel and started spraypainting "plaza palestina" on jewish murals.

during shabbat, the caracas synagogue, venezuela's oldest synagogue, was defaced with "property of islam", and an armed gang of 15 unidentified people broke in and the security guards were bound and gagged while the gang destroyed the offices and the repository where the holy books were stored. they daubed the walls with antisemitic and anti-israel graffiti that called for jews to be expelled from the country, and also stole a database that listed jews who lived in venezuela.

2008 - cont

the harvard crimson school paper ran a paid holocaust denial ad.

a chabad house in mumbai was taken over by two attackers and several residents were held hostage. a rabbi and his wife, who was six months pregnant, were murdered with four other hostages in the house by the attackers. according to radio transmissions, the attackers "would be told by their handlers in pakistan that the lives of jews were worth 50 times those of non jews." injuries on some of the bodies indicated that they may have been tortured.

2009

hamas refused to allow palestinian children to learn about the holocaust, which it called "a lie invented by the zionists" and referred to holocaust education as a "war crime."

an irish journalist claimed "there was no holocaust... and six million jews were not murdered by the third reich. these two statements of mine are irrefutable truths."

tapes were released in which billy graham is heard in conversation with richard nixon referring to jews as "the synagogue of satan."

four men were arrested in new york in connection with a plot to blow up two synagogues in the bronx.

a neo nazi entered the united states holocaust memorial museum in washington dc and shot and fatally wounded a security officer.

2010

the last surviving romaniote synagogue in greece was targeted for an arson attack.

a synagogue in cairo, egypt was bombed.

a synagogue in sweden was attacked with explosives.

2011

six jewish institutions were attacked by vandals in montreal, including four synagogues and a school.

j.z. knight stated "fuck god's chosen people! i think they have earned enough cash to have paid their way out of the goddamned gas chambers by now."

the manhattan terrorism plot to bomb various targets in manhattan, including a synagogue.

2012

a man killed four jews, including three children, outside a school in toulouse, france.

a synagogue in sweden was attacked with an explosive decide, shattering a window.

2013

alice walker expressed appreciation for the works of antisemitic conspiracy theorist david icke. she said that icke's book "human race get off your knees" would be her choice if she could have only one book. the book promotes the theory that the earth is ruled by shapeshifting reptilian humanoids and "rothschild zionists."

louis farrakhan delivered an antisemitic speech, referring to jews as "satanic jews" and "the synagogue of satan", controlling america's government and other sectors, reportedly saying that president obama "surrounded himself with satan... members of the jewish community." farrakhan also said that the jewish people "have mastered the civilization now, but they've mastered it in evil... who's the owner of hollywood that creates images and makes the people think that what is created on screen is the way we should live? that's satan... satan has devoured so much of humanity. ... the people that own hollywood are the same people that control your press, the same people that control your media, the same people who are the publishers, the same people who are the distributors, the same synagogue of satan, and they put you before the world in this disgraceful manner. ... jesus was the last hope for the jewish people but they rejected him. they are now in control of the media and the airwaves, gaining access to the 'sacred territory' which is in the minds of the people."

the supreme leader of iran grand ayatollah ali khamenei questioned the validity of the holocaust, saying "the holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and if it has happened, it's uncertain how it has happened."

2014

kkk leader killed three non jewish people at a jewish community center and jewish retirement home in kansas, the day before passover.

residents of a village in spain called "castrillo matajudios" ("jew-killer camp") since 1627 voted to change the name of the village.

2015

four jews were killed when a gunman attacked a kosher supermarket in paris where the gunman held 15 other hostages and demanded that the kouachi brothers not be harmed.

iran organized the international holocaust cartoon competition, a competition in which artists were encouraged to submit cartoons on the theme of holocaust denial.

louis farrakhan accused jews of involvement in sept 11 attacks.

swastikas were spraypainted on a jewish fraternity at uc davis on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz.

a french settlement named "la mort aux juifs" or "death to jews" finally changed its name after a denied attempt in 1992.

a synagogue in copenhagen was taken by a gunman during a bat mitzvah celebration where one jewish man on security duty was killed.

stanford university student senate candidate molly horwitz was asked by a student group how being jewish would affect her decision-making.

two synagogues and a jewish neighborhood in san antonio, texas were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.

2016

natasha waldorf of alameda was subjected to two boys sending her text messages that included antisemitic slurs, two other students joked about the holocaust and when she confronted them they told her that "hitler should have finished the job."

the campus chapter of students for justice in palestine at the university of california irvine was sanctioned because they disrupted a program hosted by a jewish campus group and intimidated jewish students.

2017

alice walker published a poem on her blog titled "it is our (frightful) duty to study the talmud", recommending that the reader should start with youtube to learn about the evils of the talmud.

a huge wave of threats, including bomb threats, were made against jewish community centers and other institutions in the united states around the high holy days.

sarah halimi was murdered in paris.

the chicago dyke march organizers singled out and approached a group of women carrying jewish pride flags and began to question them on their political stance in regards to zionism and israel, and then expelled them from the event. the organizers attributed the reasoning to the star of david on the flag as a "zionist expression." the organization's twitter account also used the phrase "zio tears" in a now deleted tweet. "zio" is a slur originated by david duke.

the new england holocaust memorial was smashed with a rock.

in ukraine, the space of synagogues holocaust memorial display was vandalized by neo nazis.

the chairpersons of the chicago slutwalk wrote, "we still stand behind dyke march chicago's decision to remove the zionist contingent from their event, and we won't allow zionist displays at ours." the organizers made the following declaration about the star of david: "its connections to the oppression enacted by israel is too strong for it to be neutral."

a jewish cemetery in missouri was vandalized.

the unite the right rally took place in charlottesville, virginia, where white nationalists chanted slogans like "blood and soil" "jews will not replace us" "the goyim know" "the jewish media is going down."

a synagogue in sweden was firebombed.

2018

trayon white, an american politician, posted a video to his official facebook page showing snow flurries following, and alluding to the rothschild family conspiring to manipulate the weather.

an israeli man wearing a yarmulke was attacked in berlin; the attacker reportedly beat him with a belt and shouted "yehudi" ("jew")

tamika mallory, an american activist and one of the organizers of the womens march, attended an antisemitic speech by louis farrakhan, a figure she had previously refused to denounce. during the three hour speech, farrakhan claimed that "the powerful jews are my enemy" "the jews have control over agencies of those angencies of government" like the fbi, thta jews are "the mother and father of apartheid" and that jews are responsible for "degenerate behavior in hollywood turning men into women and women into men."

a republican candidate for senate in california openly called for a united states "free from jews."

11 people were murdered at the tree of life synagogue. on social media, several people made the claim that they "should not be mourned if they were zionists."

2019

belgium outlawed kosher slaughter.

rep ilhan omar tweeted an allegation that american support for israel was rooted in money spent by pro israel lobbying organizations.

several mps quit the labor party under jeremy corbyn citing "culture of extreme antisemitism and intolerance."

a subway poster in brooklyn with a picture of ruth bader ginsburg was valdalized with the writing "die jew bitch" and a swastika.

multiple violent attacks occured in brooklyn.

a synagogue in turkey is attacked with a molotov cocktail.

one person was killed and three were injured during a shooting at a passover seder in california.

a synagogue was attacked by a lone shooter in germany.

a kosher grocery store in jersey city, new jersey was attacked and five people were killed.

jersey city mayor steve fullop said a trustee of the jersey city board of education should resign in the wake of her comment after the above shooting about "jew brutes" that according to her have "threatened, intimidated, and harassed" black residents. the trustee asked whether the public is "brave enough" to listen to the shooters' message, and said the local rabbis were selling body parts. she remained on the board until 2022.

a jewish elder was killed and four others were injured at the home of a hasidic rabbi during hanukkah in new york.

2020

the tomb of esther and mordechai in iran was subjected to an arson attack.

the jewish center at the unitersity of delaware was subjected to an arson attack.

six igbo synagogues in nigeria were razed by soldiers, and at least 50 people were killed.

a synagogue in portland was subjected to an arson attack.

2021

george washington university's chapter of tau kappa epsilon fraternity reported that their house was broken into and vandalized, and their sefer torah destroyed.

2022

four hostages were taken at a synagogue in colleyville, texas. the attacker believed that the rabbi could call another rabbi in new york and secure the release of aafia siddiqui, a pakistani operative imprisoned for attempted murder and other crimes. siddiqui tried to dismiss her lawyers on the grounds that they were jewish. she said the case against her was a jewish conspiracy theory, demanded that no jews be allowed on the jury, and that all prospective jurors be dna tested and excluded from the jury at her trial if they had "zionist or israeli" dna. she wrote a letter to president obama, asserting, "study the history of the jews. they have always back-stabbed everyone who has taken pity on them and make the fatal error of giving them shelter... and it is this cruel, ungrateful back-stabbing of the jews that has caused them to be mercilessly expelled from wherever they gain strength. this is why 'holocausts' keep happening to them repeatedly! if they would only learn to be grateful and change their behavior!"

kanye west states that he "likes hitler" and is a "nazi." he still occasionally goes on an antisemitic twitter bender.

2023-2024 - current war

in october, an egyptian police officer shot and killed two israeli tourists and an egyptial tour guide in alexandria.

a jewish man walking to synagogue in johannesburg was accosted by a male jogger screaming antisemitic insults at him. the jogger then assaulted the man, knocked him over, and kicked and punched him while he lay on the ground.

a jewish cricket player was stripped of the captaincy by cricket south africa, claimed to have been a measure to reduce protests at the world cup.

a synagogue in tunisia was severely damaged during anti-israel riots with hundreds of people filmed setting fire to the building.

in armenia, unknown assailants set fire to a synagogue in yerevan and disseminated the arson attack on social media.

the associated press noted a rise in antisemitism on chinese social media. an israeli employee of the israeli embasee in beijing was stabbed and injured on october 13.

a 16 year old in australia was arrested after planning to attack a synagogue in vienna.

gravestones in belgium were damaged and many stars of david were stolen from a cemetery. only the jewish section was vandalized.

danish police arrested at least four operatives who were planning attacks on jewish or israeli targets in denmark.

in paris, stars of david were painted on multipe spots on several building fronts in a southern district. similar tags appeared over the weekend in other suburbs. antisemitic chants were filmed on the paris metro, "fuck the jews and fuck your mother, long live palestine. we are nazis and proud of it." a woman in lyon was stabbed and a swastika was graffitied on her home.

overall, french jews have noted a huge increase in antisemitism, with a surge of 1200% since october 7.

in berlin, the houses of several jews were marked with a star of david. two molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue.

israeli students in riga, latvia reported receiving hate texts and threats from other students.

lectures on the holocaust at utrecht university of applied sciences in the netherlands were postponed indefinitely.

a norwegian medical student at a rally in warsaw was pictured holding a poster of the flag of israel in a trash can alongside the text "keep the world clean." far right polish lawmaker grzegorz braun used a fire extinguisher on a lit menorah and removed it from the wall during a hanukkah celebration, saying "there can be no pace for the acts of this racist, tribal, wild talmudic cult."

residents of dagestan gathered near the flamingo hotel after reports that refugees from israel were being accomodated there. the protesters demanded that all hotel residents come to the windows to look at them. when the guests did not do this, stones were thrown into the building. the residents demanded to check the basements and let them into the hotel. police arrived and allowed protestors to check the hotel to make sure it was "jew free", and after this a message was posted outside the hotel that jews were prohibited from entering.

an antisemitic ralley was held in cherkessk, demanding the "eviction of ethnic jews."

a local jewish religious national-cultural community center under construction was set on fire in nalchik with the attackers writing "death to the yahuds" on the wall.

a mob stormed the uytash airport in dagestan after the arrival of a red wings flight from tel aviv. messages spread on telegram that a direct flight from israel was arriving, with calls to come to the airport and prevent the plane from landing. dozens of protestors stormed the airport and reached the runway, some of whom managed to climb up onto the plane's wings. 20 people were injured, two of whom were seriously injured. there are reports from passengers of rioters checking cars going to and from the airport for jews.

a synagogue in melillah, a spanish enclave in north africa, was attacked by a mob chanting "murderous israel" while waving palestinian flags.

pro palestinian demonstrators burned an israeli flag and chanted "bomb israel" outside a synagogue in. sweden.

i have to break up the sections because tumblr apparently has a character limit.

multiple cases of antisemitism were reported by students at concordia university with jewish students facing verbal and physical threats from both other students and faculty members. footage of a professor yanise arab shouting at jewish concordia students to "go back to poland, sharmuta (whore)" went viral alongside another video of a student using the slur "kike."

two jewish schools in montreal were targeted with gunfire overnight, and one was struck with gunfire a second time a few days later.

a jewish community center in montreal was attacked with a molotov cocktail.

jewish students and teachers of the peel district school board reported antisemitism and violent threats, including a teacher posting "jews are the problem" in a private facebook group.

a sukkah at caltech was vandalized with anti-israel graffiti. a man threw rocks through the glass doors of a synagogue and cafe in fresno, the second with a note reading "all jewish businesses will be targeted."

at columbia university, a woman assaulted an israeli man with a stick after he confronted her for ripping down posters with pictures and information abuot kidnapped israelis.

a man was arrested for sending threatening emails to a. synagogue in charlotte, north carolina.

a man in new york's grand central terminal punched a woman in the face and told her it was because she was jewish.

seven members of "white lives matter" california held a demonstration, holding up signs reading "no more wars for i$rael."

professor russell rickford spoke at a rally, saying he had found hamas's attack "exhilarating."

the illinois comptroller's office fired one of its lawyers, sarah chowdhurt, over antisemitic remarks she made on the instagram of another lawyer who is jewish.

a building next to a jewish fraternity at upenn was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti reading "the jews r nazis."

a man broke into a jewish family's home in los angeles, yelling "free palestine" and "kill jews."

threats against the jewish community at cornell university were posted online, threatening to shoot rape, and murder jewish students and encouraging violence against them.

paul kessler, an elderly jewish man, was killed at a rally after being struck in the head by a megaphone by a pro palestine protester, causing him to fall.

a woman was arrested after ramming her car into a black hebrew israelite school in indiana, mistakenly believing it to be an "israel school."

a man fired two rounds from a shotgun into the air outside a synagogue in albany and made threatening statements. he is alleged to have said "free palestine" at some point during the attack.

a game between the girls' varsity teams from the leffell school and roosevelt high school early college studies in yonkers was stopped when roosevelt students began to hurl antisemitic slurs at leffell students, with one yelling "i support hamas, you fucking jew", and during the third quarter became aggressive and violent during the play resulting in injuries of leffell's players.

participants in a pro-palestine rally in sydney changed "gas the jews", and several individuals in melbourne made death threats against jews, one group harassing a rabbi and his son, and another asking where to find jews, saying they were "hunting for jews."

a man in new south wales threatened to kill four jewish teenagers in a car with an israeli flag draped on it.

neo nazis marched in melbourne, displaying a banner reading "expose jewish power" and distributing neo nazi literature.

a sydney jewish man was verbally abused for wearing a kippah.

pro palestine graffiti was spray painted on the fence of a synagogue in auckland, and an unsuccessful attempt was made to set the property on fire. google maps had mistakenly listed the property as the local israeli consulate.

new zealand jews report a surge in antisemitic threats.

in new zealand, one child was physically assaulted and another had a swastika and a star of david drawn side by side on their school shirt. children were greeted by their peers with nazi salutes, being called "dirty jews", being told "jews control the world", and jokes about jews being gassed, and the blood libel claim that jews "chop off babies heads."

the us and israeli embassies in buenos aires received bomb threats via email, including one which said "jews we are going. tokill you all."

three people were arrested under suspicion of planning an attack on the maccabiah games.

brazilian authorities arrested two suspects in a. hezbollah backed terror plot to attack synagogues and other jewish targets in the country.

a column on the israeli embassy on colombia was vandalized with a swastika, start of david, and the word "terror" in hebrew.

if you made it to the bottom of this list and actually read everything, reblog with the tag "heard." that's really it. i just want to know that people hear us begging for people to speak up.

[beardedmrbean]

May 20 (UPI) -- Canada announced that it is prohibiting products and services made by China's Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE from use on its 5G cellular networks.

"Our government will always ensure the long-term safety and security of Canadians by taking all actions necessary to safeguard our critical telecommunications infrastructure," Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Thursday in a statement that was posted on Twitter.

He said that the decision "follows a thorough review by our independent security agencies and in consultations with our closest allies. As a result, telecommunications companies that operate in Canada would no longer be permitted to make use of designated equipment or services provided by Huawei and ZTE. "

The minister added that companies that already use such equipment in their networks "would be required to cease its use and remove it."

Firms that already have technology from Huawei or ZTE installed will have until the end of 2027 to remove it, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The action by Canada drew a response from Huawei.

"We're disappointed but not surprised. We're surprised it took the government so long to make a decision," Huawei spokesman Alykhan Velshi said, according to a report in The Guardian. "We see this as a political decision, one born of political pressure primarily from the United States."

Thursday's decision by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government came eight months after a Canadian diplomat and entrepreneur accused of spying were set free to return home from China after nearly three years in prison.

Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor were hit with espionage charges just two days after Canada said it was proceeding with a hearing to extradite Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, to the United States. In that case, the U.S. accused the Huawei executive of selling technology equipment to Iran.

In August 2020, the Commerce Department under former President Donald Trump, expanded restrictions on Huawei after alleging the company was a surveillance arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

Huawei, founded in 1987, is a leading global provider of information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices. according to its website. The company says it has approximately 195,000 employees and operates in over 170 countries and regions.

Its first contract with a Canadian company came in 2008.

[aion-rsa]

Black Widow Timeline Explained

https://ift.tt/3yH3sEi

This article contains Black Widow spoilers. Read our spoiler-free review here.

Who is Natasha Romanoff? It’s a question Marvel Studios coyly teased for years and then… failed to answer as a full decade and the entire “Infinity Saga” passed us by. Yes, the long overdue Black Widow movie is finally reaching theaters this weekend, but Nat was killed off years ago in the sacred timeline of Marvel Cinematic Universe canon.

Nevertheless, we are happy that the character and Scarlett Johansson received some much deserved closure, and in a film which fills in many of the blindspots in the Black Widow mythos, not least of which includes what she got up to between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

With her narrative being seemingly closed for good, it’s time to unpack the oft-obscured life story of Natasha and consider whether she at last balanced out all that red in her ledger.

1984

The child who would become Natasha Romanoff is born in Stalingrad to a mother who is forced to give her over to the Soviet government. Despite the mother’s best efforts, she is unable to free Nat from the system. (Fury’s Big Week, Black Widow)

1992

After years of indoctrination and training in the Widow program, which is run out of Soviet Col. Dreykov’s Red Room, eight-year-old Natasha is selected alongside three-year-old Yelena to be part of KGB agents Alexi Shostakov and Melina Vostokoff’s cover story. The quartet of sleeper agents move to Ohio, posing as an all-American family while gathering American state secrets. (Black Widow)

1995

Alexi and Melina succeed in obtaining critical information and escape U.S. soil. Eleven-year-old Natasha and six-year-old Yelena, who’ve become increasingly Americanized and attached to the family identities they assumed, are traumatized. (Black Widow)

2002

Natasha completes her Widow training and graduates from the Red Room, which includes a “ceremony” where she is asked to execute a man bound to a chair. She is then sterilized on an operating table. Dreykov believes robbing “widows” of the chance to have children makes them more ruthless killers. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

2002 – 2007

Natasha is involved in multiple mysterious and apparently bloody Widow operations, which include incidents of murder in São Paulo and a separate “hospital fire” atrocity she is still haunted by. (The Avengers)

2007 – 2008

Clint Barton recruits Natasha into the West’s international SHIELD organization. Part of her defection comes at the price of assassinating Dreykov in Budapest. However, it is merely Dreykov’s young daughter Antonia who feels the fire of Nat’s explosives. (The Avengers, Black Widow)

2009

Natasha has her first run in with the Winter Soldier when she attempts to extract a defecting nuclear engineer out of Iran. A brainwashed Bucky Barnes steals her prize by running her car off a cliff in Ukraine and then shooting a bullet through Nat’s stomach and into her asset—killing him instantly. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Around this time, Natasha becomes an unofficial member of Clint Barton’s secret family, who live on an idyllic farmhouse. She’s known there as Auntie Nat. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

2010

Natasha infiltrates Stark Industries under the alias of Natalie Rushman, working as a legal assistant who moonlights as a model in order to catch Tony Stark’s lascivious eye. (Iron Man 2)

Natalie becomes Tony’s assistant but is actually spying on him for SHIELD, which has come to realize Tony’s arc reactor—which saved his life in Afghanistan—is now poisoning him. Nat eventually reveals she’s a SHIELD agent and helps prevent an assassination attempt on Stark’s life by rival forces. (Iron Man 2)

Read more

Movies

The Black Widow Movie You Never Saw

By Don Kaye

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Florence Pugh’s Best Roles: What to Watch After Black Widow

By Kayti Burt

2012

Nat abandons her infiltration of the Russian underworld to recruit Bruce Banner to SHIELD after Loki arrives on Earth, brainwashing Clint Barton and planning world domination. She later successfully interrogates and manipulates the supposed God of Mischief. (The Avengers)

Natasha becomes one of the founding members of the Avengers after saving the world from an alien invasion alongside Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk in the Battle of New York. (The Avengers)

2014

Still working for SHIELD, Natasha infiltrates a pirate-commandeered SHIELD vessel to protect/steal precious SHIELD secrets while Captain America naively thinks they’re there to save hostages. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Black Widow goes rogue alongside Cap after an assassination attempt on her mentor, Col. Nick Fury. Fury of course survived and forms an underground operation with Nat and Rogers to root out HYDRA sleeper cells who’ve slowly taken over SHIELD leadership during the past 70 years. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

After saving the world from HYDRA’s latest attempt at world domination, Natasha publicly reprimands the American government at a baffling Capitol Hill hearing where she is being questioned by Pentagon brass. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

… MEANWHILE the Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton from circa 2023—nearly a decade older and sadder—time travel to 2014 in order to undo the damage Thanos caused when he snapped half of life in the universe out of existence with the Infinity Stones. They journey to the planet Vormir where they’re told one will have to die in order to obtain the Soul Stone. Black Widow and Hawkeye fight over who will have the right to sacrifice themselves for the other—Natasha wins and falls to her death, thus ending her tragic timeline in the past. (Avengers: Endgame)

2015

Black Widow becomes a full-time Avenger, joining the team as they dismantle the last HYDRA base in Sokovia. They regain Loki’s powerful scepter with an infinity stone inside. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Black Widow strikes up an intimate and unrequited connection with Bruce Banner. She is the only Avenger able to talk the Hulk down from his rages. The pair consider running off together, but their burgeoning romance is thwarted by the arrival of Ultron—an artificial intelligence that wants to… destroy the world. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Nat and the Avengers prevent Ultron from killing all organic life on Earth—which involved lifting Sokovia’s capital city into the sky and then dropping it like an asteroid—but in the carnage, Banner/Hulk chooses not to pursue a relationship with Nat, disappearing to parts unknown as she accepts her role as a leader of the growing Avengers roster. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

2016

Black Widow is part of an Avengers operation in Lagos, Nigeria, which goes horribly wrong when in an attempt to stop terrorist Brock Rumlow from stealing a biological weapon, an entire office floor of civilians is killed. (Captain America: Civil War)

Shortly after the Lagos incident, the Sokovia Accords are signed by the UN, requiring Avengers and other superpowered individuals to register themselves under the jurisdiction of the UN Security Council. Natasha at first accepts this as a reasonable path forward. She changes her mind when pro-Accords Avenger Tony Stark comes to blows with the resident skeptic, Steve Rogers, in Berlin. Romanoff helps Rogers escape and then also goes to ground. (Captain America: Civil War)

As a rogue agent, Natasha is invited back to Budapest and reunites with her faux-little sister Yelena, who reveals Dreykov is still alive and now is literally controlling the minds of the other young women he’s trained to be widows via mind-altering drugs. (Black Widow)

Nat and Yelena decide to track Dreykov down and kill him for real, and do so by freeing their “father” Alexi from Siberia and reconnecting with their “mother” Melina, who is still loyal to the Widow program. Melina nonetheless takes her girls to the Red Room, the hidden air fortress where they were trained as children. Yelena kills Dreykov and Natasha frees all the women under Dreykov’s control, including his daughter who did not actually die in Budapest. (Black Widow)

Natasha reconnects with Steve Rogers and helps him free Wanda Maximoff, Scott Lang, Sam Wilson, and Clint Barton from the government’s “the Raft” prison vessel. (Captain America: Civil War, Black Widow)

2018

As Thanos’ alien forces invade Earth, Rogers, Romanoff, and other renegade Avengers come out of hiding to save the universe. Natasha is reunited with Banner, and all of them converge in an epic battle against the armies of Thanos in Wakanda. (Avengers: Infinity War)

After the Avengers fail to stop Thanos from collecting all the Infinity Stones, Nat watches many of her friends turn to dust, along with half the living creatures in existence. (Avengers: Infinity War)

Black Widow and the Avengers track Thanos down to an uninhabited planet, only to discover he’s destroyed the Infinity Stones they planned to use to resurrect the universe. Thor decapitates Thanos in a pyrrhic attempt at revenge. (Avengers: Endgame)

2023

Natasha has become the top leader of the Avengers, organizing their superheroism throughout the cosmos via intergalactic Zoom sessions with Captain Marvel, Rocket, and others. Yet she and Rogers quietly cling to the hope of reversing Thanos’ victory. (Avengers: Endgame)

When Scott Lang returns from the Quantum Realm, revealing he’s inadvertently discovered time travel, Nat and Steve get the original Avengers lineup back together to travel into the past in order to steal the Infinity Stones. Return to the 2014 section to find out how that ended for Black Widow… (Avengers: Endgame)

2024

After Natasha traveled to her destiny in the past, Yelena visits her grave in Ohio… and is recruited for a new kind of team. (Black Widow)

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[giftofshewbread]

Growing Worse by the Day (Prophecy Update)

 By Daymond Duck     Published on: September 5, 2021

Things seem to be growing worse by the day, and many students of Bible prophecy believe that is exactly what will happen at the end of the age.

It is bittersweet: Bitter because it signifies that the world is approaching the Tribulation Period, and sweet because it signifies that Jesus is coming soon to straighten things out.

Here are some of the events that recently got this writer’s attention:

One, when the U.S. started withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. turned over some of its military bases to the Afghan government, the Afghan government collapsed, the Taliban took over the nation, and the Taliban freed thousands of captured ISIS troops from Afghan prisons (confirmed by the Pentagon on Aug. 27, 2021).

On Aug. 25, 2021, a group of Islamic State terrorists (called ISIS-K) exploded bombs at the airport in Kabul that killed 12 U.S. Marines, 1 U.S. Navy officer, 169 Afghan citizens, and injured more than 200 other people (U.S. troops, women, children, etc.).

On Aug. 26, prophecy teacher Amir Tsarfati said the U.S. and U.K. were warned several hours before the attack that one was coming.

Tsarfati said Biden sent the CIA to strike a deal with the Taliban to pay tens of millions of dollars (they would call it international aid or something like that instead of a ransom) to allow U.S. citizens passage to the airport.

According to Tsarfati, some officials believe the Taliban then started obstructing those trying to get to the airport because the Taliban would get more international aid/ransom for many hostages than they would get for a few hostages.

The Biden administration then said it had credible information that there would be more terrorist attacks, and it started warning U.S. citizens not to go to the airport (even though they had just 3 days to get there before the Aug. 31 deadline).

Think about this: the Biden administration was relying on a terrorist organization called the Taliban (that released thousands of ISIS terrorists from prison) to protect our troops and citizens from a terrorist attack.

When a U.S. Marine battalion commander created and posted a video criticizing our leaders and demanding accountability for the death of the Marines and Navy officer, he was relieved of his command.

Our leaders (under the influence of the shadow government) are:

The ones that gave the names, addresses and biometric I.D. information on U.S. citizens and our Afghan allies to the Taliban terrorists.

The ones that abandoned billions of dollars of weapons to the terrorist Taliban and won’t protect our border with Mexico.

The ones that turned hundreds of thousands of guns over to the terrorist Taliban and want to take guns away from U.S. citizens (don’t forget that former Pres. Obama also gave guns to the Mexican drug cartels).

The ones that are bussing and flying unvaccinated immigrants with Covid-19 into our nation and want to force U.S. citizens to be vaccinated or lose their job.

The ones that we are trusting to defend our homeland from terrorists, a North Korea EMP attack, a sneak attack by China, etc.

Who will protect America from the Shadow government and their Antichrist?

If the Biden administration would give the names, addresses and biometric I.D. information of U.S. citizens to Taliban terrorists, why wouldn’t they give that, or vaccination records, or any other information to the head of a world government?

Two, concerning deceit: Biden said, “It is unlikely the Taliban will take over Afghanistan.” (The Taliban took over Afghanistan.)

Biden said, “No Americans will be left behind.” (Americans have been left behind). On Aug. 30, 2021, Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of the U.S. Central Command, said hundreds (perhaps in the low hundreds) of Americans have been left behind, but others said it could be thousands.

Biden’s campaign slogan was “Build Back Better.” (Afghanistan has been destroyed, and the women in a nation of 35 million people have been enslaved).

Biden also said the election was fair, the vaccinations work, etc.?

This reminds me of the king that wore no clothes and no one would tell him.

Update One: On Aug. 31, 2021, it was reported that the Taliban is already going from house to house and executing people.

Update Two: On Aug. 31, 2021, a video was posted of the Taliban flying a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter over Kandahar with a body hanging below it.

Update Three: On Aug. 31, 2021, it was reported that 90 U.S. Generals and Admirals have signed a letter calling for the resignation of Sec. of State Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley for botching the Afghanistan pull out. (Biden calls it a great success.)

Three, it is being reported that the shadow government and their Democrat puppets are between a rock and a hard place with Pres. Biden.

With 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, the U.S. Senate is split, and Vice-Pres. Kamala Harris can break ties by casting the deciding vote.

If Biden dies or is removed, Harris will replace Biden, and the power to break tie votes (including a vote on anyone that is nominated to replace Harris) will switch from Harris to Mitch McConnell (and control of the U.S. Senate will switch from Harris and the Democrats to McConnell and the Republicans).

This could threaten the Democrats’ entire agenda, so the shadow government must keep Biden in office if they can.

Four, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog, on Aug. 25, 2021, the head of Israel’s Defense Forces said Israel has speeded up its plans to deal with Iran’s nuclear program, and money has been budgeted to address the issue.

He added that a team has been assembled to prepare for a strike should one be ordered by the Israeli government.

Five, also concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: on Aug. 27, 2021, Israeli Prime Min. Naftali Bennett met with Pres. Biden at the White House.

Advance reporting indicated that Biden would ask Bennett for two things: 1) A freeze on all settlement construction, and 2) A promise not to attack Iran without U.S. permission.

Said reporting indicated that Bennett would tell Biden the U.S. must immediately deal with Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons, or Israel will.

It is obvious that Israel is preparing to strike Iran in the coming weeks if the U.S. and others fail to act.

It is also obvious that Biden hasn’t been told what the Bible says about this, or he doesn’t remember it, or he doesn’t believe it.

This doesn’t bode well for the U.S.

Update One: Following the meeting, it was reported that Bennett told reporters:

“These very days (a reference to what is happening in Afghanistan) illustrate what the world would look like if a radical Islamic regime acquired a nuclear weapon; that marriage would be a nuclear nightmare for the entire world.”

“We (Israel) will never outsource our security” (never turn control of Israel’s security over to the U.S.).”

Update Two: On Aug. 30, 2021, Israel 365News reported that Biden nodded off to sleep while Bennett was talking during their meeting (it is on video).

These are perilous times, and anyone that says Pres. Biden is qualified to lead the U.S./free world is lying or uninformed.

It is likely that the calls to revise or reset global governance (replace Biden with leaders from a handful of nations; ten) will soon grow louder.

Update Three: On Aug. 30, prophecy teacher Amir Tsarfati reported that Iran has decided that America is weak and will now go “full-blown nuclear.”

He added that Iran is now “openly enriching uranium to 90%.”

Six, concerning war between Israel and her neighbors: on Aug. 29, 2021, the head of Israel’s Defense Forces said, “The IDF is preparing, with a concerted effort, for the possibility of another operation (war) in Gaza.”

His statement followed the launching of several incendiary balloons and rockets into Israel and two weeks of violent protests.

Another war in Gaza could lead to several prophesied wars.

Seven, concerning perilous times (also the Kings of the East): on Aug. 30, 2021, prophecy teacher Amir Tsarfati noted that “China just announced that any vessel, whether it is above the water or under the water, that is entering into Chinese territorial waters or the disputed waters in the South China Sea with Japan and the Philippines must report to the Chinese.”

Many officials believe the disputed waters that China is claiming are international waters, meaning China’s claim is illegal.

Tsarfati added, “While everybody is watching the incompetence of America, (Russia, Turkey, Iran, China and No. Korea) are willing to make a move.”

Eight, concerning the Mark of the Beast and a global tracking system, on Aug. 30, 2021, it was reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging its member nations to “roll out a global digital information system to check if people are vaccinated against Covid-19.”

The WHO wants its member nations to force this system on all other nations, and it wants people that have been vaccinated (and are in this global system) to have benefits that others that are not in it won’t have.

This would be a major step toward a global medical dictatorship.

Nine, concerning a falling away in the Church: Harvard University was founded under Church sponsorship in 1636 to train Puritan pastors. On Aug. 26, 2021, it was reported that the president of Harvard’s organization of Chaplains is an atheist, meaning Harvard has a Chaplain that doesn’t believe in the existence of God.

If the elite that control a prestigious, once-Christian university are willing to allow a Chaplain that doesn’t believe in the existence of God, why is it so difficult to believe that other elite want to establish a godless world government and religion?

If their Chaplain doesn’t believe what the Bible says about God, why should he believe what the Bible says about Satan, the Antichrist, or anything else, and why should any true Church want a pastor that was educated at that institution?

By the way, it is being reported that, as things now stand, universities cannot force student organizations on campus to have pro-LGBTQ officers, pro-abortion officers, etc., but the Biden administration is considering ways to change that.

Ten, on Aug. 27, 2021, LifeSiteNews reported that the head of the Tokyo Medical Association announced that Ivermectin “seems to be effective at stopping COVID-19 and publicly recommended that all doctors in Japan immediately begin using Ivermectin to treat COVID.”

Currently, America’s shadow government, in collusion with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), big pharma, the social media, and others, is suppressing the use of Ivermectin.

Why would these groups suppress the use of an inexpensive, effective drug that will stop Covid and save lives?

Could the belief that Covid is a created crisis that has been designed to reduce the population of the earth, control people, bring in a world government, make the rich richer, etc., be true?

Eleven, on Aug. 21, 2021, it was reported that less than one-third of the people that have died from the Delta variant in the U.K. (Feb. 1, 2021, to Aug. 2021) have been people that were unvaccinated. (Two-thirds of the people that have died from the Delta Variant in the U.K. are people that have been vaccinated).

Put another way, the U.K. data is showing that vaccinated people are more likely to die from the Delta Variant than unvaccinated people.

Twelve, concerning deceit: on Aug. 30, 2021, it was reported that about two dozen nurses told people at a town hall meeting in Minnesota that adverse reactions to the Covid-19 vaccination are being underreported, and one nurse said her friends at other hospitals are saying the same thing.

Thirteen, according to the Bible, the Euphrates River will dry up during the Tribulation Period to prepare the way for the Kings of the East (Rev. 16:12).

On Aug. 31, 2021, it was reported that the Euphrates River is drying up fast and barely running for a distance of about 1,700 miles.

Different officials are blaming Climate Change, drought, and Turkey for building dams on the river and holding back too much water.

Finally, are you Rapture Ready?

If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.

[humanrightsupdates]

Amnesty International Urgent Action: German-Iranian dissident arbitrarily jailed

Jamshid Sharmahd, a 66-year-old German-Iranian political dissident, is at risk of being convicted in a grossly unfair trial and sentenced to death. He has been arbitrarily detained in Iran for over eight months, at times in circumstances akin to enforced disappearance, without trial and access to an independent lawyer of his choosing and consular assistance. State TV broadcast his forced “confessions”, in breach of his right to a fair trial. There are fears that he is not receiving adequate health care for his serious medical conditions.  

Jamshid Sharmahd, a resident of the USA, was the spokesperson of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran (also known as Anjoman-e Padeshahi-ye Iran), an Iranian opposition group based in the USA that advocates for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic system, including through violence, and a return to a pre-Islamic Iran. He also created and managed the group’s website, Tondar, and hosted its radio and video broadcasts. The website includes statements from the Kingdom Assembly of Iran claiming responsibility for explosions inside Iran. Jamshid Sharmahd’s family has denied his involvement in the violent acts attributed to him by the authorities. 

Amnesty International is concerned that Jamshid Sharmahd is at risk of the death penalty as two men, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were executed in Iran in January 2010 after being convicted in grossly unfair trials of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) in relation to their real or perceived membership of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran.

In a late November 2020 telephone call, Jamshid Sharmahd told his family he was being held in Tehran’s Evin prison; but in subsequent calls, he said he was no longer there, though was unable to say where he was being held. He also reported during a 23 March 2021 phone call that he had lost nearly 20kg in weight and that some of his teeth had been pulled while in detention without elaborating further.

While every government has a duty to bring to justice those responsible for violent criminal acts, anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge, including those related to “terrorism”, must be treated in full compliance with Iran’s human rights obligations including rights to a fair trial. These include the rights to choose one’s own lawyer; to access effective legal assistance from the time of arrest and throughout the pre-trial and trial proceedings; to be brought promptly before a judge; to challenge the lawfulness of detention before an independent, impartial tribunal; to be presumed innocent; to remain silent and not to be compelled incriminate oneself or to confess guilt; to obtain full access to relevant evidence; to not be detained on vague charges; to examine and cross-examine witnesses; to receive a fair, public hearing before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal; and to be provided with a public, reasoned judgement. Amnesty International has documented a pattern of systematic violations of the rights to a fair trial in Iran from the time of arrest and throughout the investigation, trial and appeal proceedings.

Take action now - write to the Iranian authorities

[newstfionline]

Saturday, February 20, 2021

One of Ten in U.S. May Have to Switch Occupations Post Pandemic (Bloomberg) One out of every ten U.S. workers—about 17 million, all told—will likely be forced to leave their jobs and take up new occupations by 2030 as Covid-19’s after-effects destroy huge swathes of low-paying positions in a labor market that was primed for disruption before the pandemic. “Covid is a big disruptor,” Susan Lund, a Washington-based partner at McKinsey Global Institute, the consultant’s research arm, said in an interview. The 17 million Americans are part of the more than 100 million people worldwide that the institute forecast will need to leave their jobs and enter new lines of work by the end of the decade. That will amount to about one in 16 workers in the eight leading economies covered by the study, which includes China, Japan, Germany and the U.K., as well as the U.S. In a more-than-130-page paper, the institute sees the pandemic accelerating three trends that will continue to upend the labor market in the years ahead: more remote work and working from home; increased e-commerce and a bigger “delivery economy;” and stepped-up business use of artificial intelligence and robots. The forces Covid-19 unleashed mean there could be a lot less demand for front line workers in food service, retail, hospitality, and entertainment.

Politics Is Seeping Into Our Daily Life and Ruining Everything (Reason) Is there anything that politics can’t ruin? The answer, it appears, is a resounding “no” as partisan conflict creeps into all areas of American life. Our political affiliations, researchers say, obstruct friendships, influence our purchases, affect the positions we take on seemingly apolitical matters, and limit our job choices. As a result, many people are poorer, lonelier, and less healthy than they would otherwise be. “Political polarization is having far-reaching impacts on American life, harming consumer welfare and creating challenges for people ranging from elected officials and policymakers to corporate executives and marketers,” according to a new paper in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing by researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Wyoming, and four other U.S. universities. People’s partisan identities influence the range of people with whom they are willing to have relationships, the brands they purchase, and the jobs they take. The finding that everything is becoming politicized builds on a growing mountain of data. Even before political tensions hit their current fever pitch, a 2018 survey found that “Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of consumers around the world will buy or boycott a brand solely because of its position on a social or political issue” (the number for the U.S. was 59 percent). In 2020, a separate survey reported that “83% of Millennials find it important for the companies they buy from to align with their values.”

Cracked Pipes, Frozen Wells, Offline Treatment Plants: A Texan Water Crisis (NYT) Power began to flicker back on across much of Texas on Thursday, but millions across the state confronted another dire crisis: a shortage of drinkable water as pipes cracked, wells froze and water treatment plants were knocked offline. The problems were especially acute at hospitals. One, in Austin, was forced to move some of its most critically ill patients to another building when its faucets ran nearly dry. Another in Houston had to haul in water on trucks to flush toilets. But for many of the state’s residents stuck at home, the emergency meant boiling the tap water that trickled through their faucets, scouring stores for bottled water or boiling icicles and dirty snow on their stoves. Major disruptions to the Texas power grid left more than four million households without power this week, but by Thursday evening, only about 347,000 lacked electricity. Much of the statewide concern had turned to water woes. More than 800 public water systems serving 162 of the state’s 254 counties had been disrupted as of Thursday, affecting 13.1 million people, according to a spokeswoman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Texas Good Samaritans Are Helping Out Those in Need Amid Deep Freeze (Newsweek) From owners turning their stores into warming centers, to a mystery man handing out $20 bills to shoppers in Houston, when faced with a crisis that has left 24 in the state dead, and millions without water and electricity, Texans have instinctively turned to helping others. One such figure is Raymond Garcia of Houston, Texas, who, upon realizing he had no power at home, decided to use his time helping others. He has been visiting people in his local community, helping with tasks such as fixing burst water pipes. "I'm just trying to help the Houston community," he told ABC13. "If I can help anyone else in my close range I will.” Garcia said he was inspired by the teaching of his mother, who died recently from COVID-19. "My mom always taught me, if you help and you give to people, God will always bless you," he said. "And you know what, I've been blessed." On Thursday, Jason Spenser, the Public Affairs Director for the Harris County Sheriff's Office tweeted about another remarkable character, a man dubbed a food 'angel'. When electricity outages meant the Foodarama near 18th Street and Ella Boulevard could no longer accept credit and debit card payments, the unidentified man began handing out $20 bills to people waiting in the line. Spenser estimated the man, who did not want to be photographed, handed out a total of $500. In Elgin, Texas, Monica Nava, owner of the Chemn Cafe, put in a big order just before the storm hit. Rather than see perishable items go to waste, she boxed them up with shelf-stable good into care packages estimated to have a value of $25 each. She gave the packages out to in-need members of the community and asked for those who could afford it to pay a donation.

Biden repudiates Trump on Iran, ready for talks on nuke deal (AP) The Biden administration said Thursday it’s ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, in a sharp repudiation of former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign” that sought to isolate the Islamic Republic. The administration also took two steps at the United Nations aimed at restoring policy to what it was before Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. The combined actions were immediately criticized by Iran hawks and are likely to draw concern from Israel and Gulf Arab states. The State Department announced the moves following discussions between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British, French and German counterparts, and as Biden prepares to participate, albeit virtually, in his first major international events with world leaders.

The Cuba bet (Foreign Policy) Cuba may still become Latin America’s first country to design a successful COVID-19 vaccine, with Phase 3 trials on one of its four vaccine candidates set to begin next month. If the shot performs well, it is expected to be exported to other Latin American nations. Cuba and Iran are partnering on Phase 3 trials of the Soberana 02 vaccine, and Mexico is exploring carrying out a Phase 3 trial as well.

It’s mud, mud everywhere in UK’s 3rd lockdown (AP) It’s apparently not enough for Britons to endure almost 120,000 COVID-19 deaths and face a new variant of the virus that scientists say is more contagious and more deadly. Not enough to struggle through a third lockdown in less than a year, a shutdown now in its ninth week in London with no end in sight. No, all of this has to come smack in the middle of Britain’s mud season, the time formally known as winter. While everyone in the U.K. is already lacking Vitamin D, the sun chooses to take a months-long work stoppage and named winter storms kept sweeping eastward across the Atlantic. Storm Bella marched in right after Christmas, bringing gusts up to 106 mph (92 kph) and rains that dumped 3.2 inches (80.2 mm) on a village in Scotland. A sodden, freezing version of a hurricane. Storm Darcy roared in last week from the opposite side, bringing an icy Arctic blast and the U.K.’s coldest temperature in 25 years. Unlike the southeastern U.S., which floods during the summer-fall hurricane season, Britain floods in the dead of winter, bringing hypothermia alongside germ-laden waters. Rivers across England and Scotland are bursting: 73 flood alerts were in effect on Friday alone. And this year, few gyms or schools are available for emergency housing for fear they will turn into COVID-19 factories. It’s a Dickensian time.

Spain arrests 80 in 3 nights of riots over rapper’s jailing (AP) Protests over the imprisonment of a rapper convicted of insulting the Spanish monarchy and praising terrorist violence were marred by rioting for the third night in a row Thursday. The plight of Pablo Hasél, who began this week to serve a 9-month sentence in a northeastern prison, has triggered a heated debate over the limits of free speech in Spain and a political storm over the use of violence by both the rapper’s supporters and the police. The rapper and his supporters say Hasél’s nine-month sentence for writing a critical song about former King Juan Carlos I, and for dozens of tweets that judges said glorified some of Spain’s defunct terrorist groups, violates free speech rights. Besides that case, the rapper has previously faced other charges or has pending trials for assault, praising armed extremist groups, breaking into private premises and insulting the monarchy.

Heating Up Culture Wars, France to Scour Universities for Ideas That ‘Corrupt Society’ (NYT) Stepping up its attacks on social science theories that it says threaten France, the French government announced this week that it would launch an investigation into academic research that it says feeds “Islamo-leftist” tendencies that “corrupt society.” While President Emmanuel Macron and some of his top ministers have spoken out forcefully against what they see as a destabilizing influence from American campuses in recent months, the announcement marked the first time that the government has moved to take action. It came as France’s lower house of Parliament passed a draft law against Islamism, an ideology it views as encouraging terrorist attacks, and as Mr. Macron tilts further to the right, anticipating nationalist challenges ahead of elections next year. Frédérique Vidal, the minister of higher education, said in Parliament on Tuesday that the state-run National Center for Scientific Research would oversee an investigation into the “totality of research underway in our country,” singling out post-colonialism. In an earlier television interview, Ms. Vidal said the investigation would focus on “Islamo-leftism”—a controversial term embraced by some of Mr. Macron’s leading ministers to accuse left-leaning intellectuals of justifying Islamism and even terrorism.

Myanmar protests stall fuel imports, drive up costs (Reuters) Myanmar’s refined fuel imports have stalled as protests over the Feb. 1 coup have shut the banks and government offices necessary for trade, while depreciation in the nation’s currency has driven up costs, four industry sources said. The economy of the Southeast Asian nation has been pulled up short by the biggest demonstrations since the “Saffron Revolution” of 2007, with protesters taking to the streets to denounce the military takeover and the unseating of a democratically elected government. Myanmar relies heavily on gasoline and diesel imports as its refineries are too small and old to meet its fuel needs. One of the sources said imports may make up as much as 98% of Myanmar’s fuel consumption. The “economy is almost at a standstill. Almost all government ministries are closed,” the source said. “Fuel supply is running low. (The country) might run out of oil in two months.”

Jakarta’s poor fear landslides from overflowing waste mountains (Nikkei Asia) The stench is overpowering, and it only gets worse as you approach the biggest landfill site in Southeast Asia. The green grass on the embankments of the road leading into the Bantar Gebang landfill on the outskirts of Jakarta quickly gives way to trash—stacked in piles as far as the eye can see, reaching the height of a 15-story building in places. Plastic bags, food packages, rubber wheels, cardboard, drink cans, and everything else that Jakartans consume and throw away can be found here—much of which turn to sludge when it rains. The site that constantly threatens landslides is also home to thousands of impoverished families. Around 20,000 people, according to an estimate by locals, make a living from collecting trash in Southeast Asia’s largest dump. More than 100,000 live in the landfill and its surroundings. Authorities are struggling to dispose of the massive amount of waste created by the 35 million people estimated by Statistics Indonesia to live the Jakarta metropolitan area. Landslides often occur at such sites. In February 2005, heavy rains triggered a slide at the Leuwigajah landfill, which serves the cities of Cimahi and Bandung in West Java, killing 157 people and swallowing two villages, Greenpeace Indonesia said. The Bantar Gebang landfill has also taken lives.

Israel expands its nuclear facility (The Guardian) Israel is carrying out a major expansion of its Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert, where it has historically made the fissile material for its nuclear arsenal. Construction work is evident in new satellite images published on Thursday by the International Panel on Fissile Material (IPFM), an independent expert group. The area being worked on is a few hundred meters across to the south and west of the domed reactor and reprocessing point at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, near the desert town of Dimona. Pavel Podvig, a researcher with the program on science and global security at Princeton University, said: “It appears that the construction started quite early in 2019, or late 2018, so it’s been under way for about two years, but that’s all we can say at this point.”

[creepingsharia]

“Convert, Marry Me, or Die”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, July 2019

by Raymond Ibrahim

Slaughter of Christians

Syria: Islamic jihadis gang-raped a 60-year-old Christian woman before stoning her to death.  When no one in Yaqoubiya, a small Christian village in Idlib governorate, saw Susan Grigor (or “Gregory”) on July 9, the worried priest sent parishioners to search for her.  They eventually found her mangled and bloodied corpse on the ground of a field adjacent to her home.  The autopsy revealed that Susan had been repeatedly raped and tortured over the course of nine hours before finally being murdered by stoning.   The men responsible are believed to be members of the al-Qaeda-linked jihadi group, al-Nusra.  Described as a pious Christian, Susan had never married and lived her entire life as a virgin (suggesting that violent gang-rape was her first—and last—sexual experience).  Although she never had any of her own, Susan reportedly loved children and, after retiring, volunteered much of her time helping educate the youth of her local church and developing their skills.  Before that she was an Arabic language school teacher for over 30 years.  According to one Arabic report, some of her murderers “are from the area.  In other words, those who raped and stoned her are themselves from among her former students and neighbors, whom she taught Arabic in school over the course of 30 years….  Surely she never dreamt to see such depraved savagery in the eyes of her former students…. Nonetheless, they preyed on her like wild beasts—even though wild beasts do not rape their mothers.”

Burkina Faso: Lethal Islamic terrorist attacks targeting Christians in the West African nation that began in earnest in February, 2019, continued throughout July.  In one instance, the slain were identified and killed for wearing crucifixes.  According to the report,

unidentified armed individuals entered the village of Bani (about six miles from the town of Bourzanga), looking for Christians…  [T]he militants told everyone to lie down and proceeded to look for Christians by asking for first names or looking for anyone wearing Christian insignia (like crosses).  The deadly search yielded four men….  They were all wearing crosses….  [W]hen they saw crosses, the assailants singled them out. All four were taken aside and executed.

Before leaving the village, the terrorists torched a shop that belonged to one of their victims.  They then moved on to another village, Pougrenoma, where “They also told Christians to convert or risk execution.”  Between February and July 27 Christians have been killed under similar circumstances, including instances when “the armed terrorists challenged Christians to convert or die.”

Nigeria: The jihad on Christians, which has widely been described as a genocide, continued to claim more lives.  A pregnant woman of two children was among those slain during a Muslim Fulani herdsmen raid on a Christian village in the early hours of July 15.  They also torched 75 Christian homes and two churches.  On the same day the jihadis raided another Christian village; among those slain were a father (46) and his young son (7).  They were returning home from church; the father was beheaded.   “We have been experiencing daily attacks by these Fulani herdsmen in our communities, most especially on Sundays during worship hours or Thursdays when church activities are held,” a local Christian said.

Attacks on Churches

Syria: On July 11, the Islamic State detonated a car bomb just outside the Virgin Mary Church in the city of Qamishli.  More than ten people, including an 8-year-old child, were injured in the blast.  A communication that was intercepted indicated that the terrorists were targeting a gathering of “belligerent Christians.”  Photos and videos of the explosion and its aftermath show substantial damage, including from the fire caused, which spread throughout the street.   Another terror attack on the same day in neighboring Afrin claimed thirteen lives.

Pakistan: A Muslim mob attacked Internal Salvation Church in Bhiki village, Punjab district, on July 23.   The mob barged in the midst of prayer services and began beating members of the congregation.  A local human rights organization described the incident:  “There were over a hundred of individuals praying in the church when Muhammad Azam, Muhammad Ijaz, Muhammad Amjad and Muhammad Zafar, along with other armed Muslim men, intruded into the church. They forcefully seized the prayer service and reportedly thrashed both men and women.”  During the beating, the Muslim men used abusive language, disparaged Christians and Christianity, and demanded that the church “stop this circus.”  The church submitted a complaint to local police; it was rejected.  The human rights group continues:

There has been a sharp rise in the number of incidents violating the religious freedom rights of Christians in Pakistan.  Their churches are being attacked, properties are being grabbed, forced to stop their prayer services and other church activities, and are forced to convert to Islam. This is alarming for Christians in this country.

Indonesia:  Following protests from Muslim locals, the Bantul regency government revoked and canceled the building permit of a Pentecostal Christian Church in Sedayu district on July 26.  The congregation was subsequently banned from meeting and performing worship service in the building.  Although authorities said the church had failed to meet building codes, “the administration seems to have created a made-up reason to stop the church operation,” said the commissioner of the National Commission on Human Rights.

In a separate case, Muslim protests caused a Protestant church to stop holding services, even though it had the required governmental permit.   Protesters claimed that the church was in a predominantly Muslim region, and in close proximity to an Islamic boarding school and a mosque.  Church administrators rejected the claim and said there was no mosque or school nearby.  Pastor Halim said the same Muslim protesters—particularly the Islamic Defenders Front—had hounded them out of their last church building in West Jakarta: “We have moved here, and have met similar opposition….  I will fight and not give up because we have a legal permit and have fulfilled all requirements from the government.”  Indonesian law states that, in order to build a place of worship, a religious community must have at least 90 congregation members, as well as the approval of at least 60 people from other religious communities (namely Muslims) living in the vicinity.  Halim said he and his 150-strong congregation were eagerly looking forward to their first prayer meeting in the church on July 7, when Muslim threats began.  “How ready is the government to go up against certain groups that try to impose their own will on others,” he asked.

Egypt:  On July 17, a Christian community was again forced to hold its fourth funeral in the street since police shuttered its church off in December 2018.  The funeral was rushed in part due to the extreme heat of the summer day (110 degrees Fahrenheit).  Although the village has about 2,500 Christians, repeated requests to build a church have been turned down; when Christians began to use a home, Muslims rioted, prompting officials to shut down the unregistered building.

Attacks on Apostates

Iran: On July 1, “Eight converts to Christianity, including five members of one family, were arrested in the southwestern city of Bushehr,” according to a report:

The arresting officers introduced themselves as agents from the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS). They stormed the Christians’ homes in a coordinated operation at around 9am, confiscating Bibles, Christian literature, wooden crosses and pictures carrying Christian symbols, along with laptops, phones, all forms of identity cards, bank cards and other personal belongings….  The officers are reported to have treated the Christians harshly, even though small children were present during the arrests.

Later that same day one of the arrested women “whose arrest came after six cars carrying security officials turned up outside her home, was released the same day due to her age.”  The rest of the “Christians remain detained, with no access to lawyers, and are being held in solitary confinement…” 

From the start of 2019 to July, the total number of Christians arrested in similar circumstances reached at least 34.  “Reporting suggests that Christianity is on the rise in Iran, along with other non-Islamic religions,” a human rights organization, explained. “This is a threat to the Islamic republic, a regime based on a narrow and totalitarian view of Islam. As the regime faces more internal unrest, the more it’ll crack down on religious minorities it views as threatening its stranglehold on religion.” A month before this latest incident, Iran’s Intelligence Minister, Mahmoud Alavi, openly admitted to apprehending and questioning apostates because mass conversions to Christianity were “happening right before our eyes.”

Separately, on July 27, another Christian woman Mahrokh (Roksare) Kanbari (65) was sentenced by the Karaj Islamic Revolutionary Court to one year in prison, on the charge of “propaganda against the system.”  Friends who were present at her sentencing said that the “judge was very rude and tried to humiliate” the apostate woman.  She was initially arrested just before Christmas, 2018, when three agents raided her home and hauled her off for ten days of extensive interrogation, before releasing her on bail.

Finally, Fatemeh Azad, a 58-year-old Muslim woman who had converted to Christianity against her Muslim husband’s will and fled to Germany, was denied asylum and deported back to Iran.  There she was immediately arrested by authorities waiting for her plane to land.   She has since been released on bail and awaits her trial.  According to the report, “When Fatemeh made her asylum appeal, her lawyers argued that apostasy (conversion away from Islam) is punishable by the death penalty in Iran.”  This, however, was insufficient for Germany—which has taken in millions of Muslims who are not being persecuted in their homelands—to provide her with asylum.

Uganda: Muslims harassed, threatened, and displaced a former Muslim woman who embraced Christianity to return to Islam or face the consequences.  Sharifa Nakamate began receiving threatening text messages after she had a Christian pastor bury her husband, 65, who died on June 15.  “It is now clear to the clan that you and your deceased husband abandoned Islam, since Hajji was buried by Christians,” read one text. “We are giving you a few days to recant the Christian faith or face the wrath of being an apostate.”  Her 29-year-old son was among those threatening her. Finally, on July 11 she fled her home. “I realized my life was now in danger, so I sought refuge at the church,” said Sharifa. Although she has since relocated to another undisclosed location, last reported she was preparing to flee again.  “Two days ago a Muslim from my home village came and bought items from me,” she explained.  “I am afraid that she will go back and spread news of my new place of residence. This new place is not safe for me….  I never expected such thing to happen to me.  I have lost everything that I did in developing the homestead for more than 30 years of our married life, only to lose everything just like that because of following Jesus.”  The church that helped her has since also been targeted; a member received an anonymous text message that read, “Please let Nakamate return to her religion to avoid any negative repercussion of your church.”

Another Muslim apostate in Uganda, a 20-year-old man, was beaten and disowned by his family after they learned he had embraced Christianity.  Asuman Kaire’s stepfather, who called him a “disgrace to the family,” nearly beat him to death; when local Christians rushed to the youth’s cries for help, the stepfather and other Muslims fled, leaving him unconscious.   “After recovering, I feared going back home because I knew they were going to kill me,” said Kaire, so he lived in the streets. When a church took him in, and local Muslims learned of it, they turned their attention to it; in mid-June, when Kaire was in the church building, a mob crying out “Allahu Akbar” and that the apostate must die tried to storm it.  Kaire has since moved again, lives in hiding, and is unable to finish his last year in high school: “I fear my classmates who are Muslims, as they might plan something bad for my life,” he said.

Abduction, Rape, and Murder in Pakistan

On July 10, a Muslim man shot and killed a Christian woman because she refused to convert to Islam and marry him.  Problems began a few months earlier when Muhammad Waseem began accosting Saima Sardar, 30, particularly on her way to and from a hospital in Faisalabad, where she worked as a nurse.  The harassment got so bad that she asked her brother to walk her to work.  According to another family member,  “Saima was in [a] healthy and friendly relationship with Waseem. However, when he continuously insisted Saima convert [to Islam], she decided to keep distance from him and prove her loyalty to her Christian faith. Therefore, Saima very boldly refused his proposal even though she was threatened with consequences.” When Muhammad learned that she was set to marry a Christian man in November, he got more aggressive and threatened that “if you do not convert and marry me, you will die.”  Finally, on July 10, the Muhammad managed to get into the hospital, even though Saima had warned guards about him, and shot her dead, before taking his own life.  “Converting to another religion or marrying someone is a personal choice,” said a local human rights organization concerning this incident. “Unfortunately, in Pakistani society Muslim men who like minority girls think that the latter should obey them and that their offer cannot be refused.”

Separately, a Muslim parliamentarian, his wife, and two sons repeatedly beat and raped their domestic worker, a 15-year-old Christian girl. According to Riaz Masih, the girl’s father,

I am a poor person living in a rented house with my children whereas, my daughter Saima who is 14-15 years old, was working at the MPA’s house for the last six months. A couple of days ago, she told me that the MPA raped her twice and his sons have been harassing her while his wife beats her over petty issues besides making her work day and night. They had warned my daughter of beating her up more if she ever dared to tell me anything….  They pressurised me to not go to the police but I need justice because my underage daughter has been tortured and raped several times. 

A medical facility “confirmed that she had been raped many times.” The First Information Report which was lodged against Mian Tahir Jamil, the parliamentarian, offers more insights:

Tahir Jamil had forcefully raped his daughter after threatening her to remain silent or risk losing her life. Samia also reported that Tahir’s sons also sexually abused her.  In fact, a week before the incident, Tahir had made sexual advances at her but she locked herself in the restroom to protect herself. When the family was finally able to retrieve her, Tahir’s wife, Bano Bibi, beat her mercilessly and cut her hair as a punishment for hiding.  Thankfully, Samia was able to run away from the family to her home this week. She recounted the story of her abuse to her father, highlighting that besides the rape incident on June 19, 2019, Tahir’s sons consistently molested her while his wife, Bano Bibi verbally abused her.

In a similar incident, a Muslim family accused their 14-year-old Christian domestic worker of robbing the household as a way to cover up the fact that she was raped there. According to the mother of the teenaged victim, “Razia, a Muslim woman, hired us for a week to clean her house and to take care of guests during the wedding ceremony of her daughter. Suneha [the daughter] stayed at the employer’s house for a night due to late-night parties and the load of work….  During the wedding week, on July 6, one of the men of the family sexually assaulted Suneha.  When Suneha resisted and threatened to make a complain[t] to the elders of the family, she was locked up in a room and beaten frequently.”  Her rapist subsequently accused the girl and her mother of stealing jewelry, gold, and other valuables to the Muslim household, who joined in the thrashing.  “It was unbearable torture and a heartbreaking situation,” Suneha explained. “They abused us stating ‘you Christians – Chooras, you are thieves’. We resisted and assured that we have done nothing, however after four days of ‘in house’ investigation and torture, the Muslim family reported us to the police.”  Responding to this incident a human rights activist said “Christian women face double vulnerability as of a woman and as a segment of the Christian community. They are the softest target for rape. The Christian domestic workers are often threatened to keep their mouth shut after rape attempts otherwise are alleged for steeling valuables or committing blasphemy against Islam.”

Finally, a 14-year-old Christian girl was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, forced to marry a Muslim man, and then taken before a Muslim judge to sign a statement saying she had acted on her own free will. According to the report,

The girl, Benish Imran, went missing from home on 2 July, after she was kidnapped by Waheed Ahmed, who then forced her to deny her Christian faith and marry him. The following day, Imran Masih, the father of the 14-year-old, went to the police station and filed a complaint against people unknown, unaware of what had happened to his daughter.  A few days later, the police informed him that they had received Benish’s conversion and marriage certificates, and that the latter was going to go before the district magistrate in Lahore on 12 July to register her statement.

Her father got a lawyer involved, who pointed out to the judge that, whatever the case may be, the girl is, according to Pakistani law, under age, and therefore could not be legally married, even if she wanted to of her own free will.  The judge refused to relent and had the girl’s statement recorded. According to the lawyer, the entire fiasco “is a normal practice,” as “girls often give such statements because they are already living with their kidnappers,” and “death threats are made towards their family, and therefore the victims have no choice but to say what their kidnapper wants them to say in court….. [W]e have seen in the past that many girls flee whenever they get a chance.”

General Abuse of and Hate for Christians

Turkey: A number of successive fires broke out in as many as eight Christian villages, nearly turning them to ash, near the nation’s southern border towards the end of July.  “Local activists,” says one report, “claim that the fires were intentionally started to eliminate the Christian heritage in the region”:

This part of Turkey borders both Iraq and Syria. In these two countries, arson has become a recognized insurgent tactic which targets the agricultural resources of villages. In Turkey’s case, these fires also targeted agriculture, as an estimated 7-800 olive trees were damaged. It is these kinds of similarities between this situation and the fires in Iraq / Syria that have caused concern that these fires were also started by arson.

An investigation was said to be underway.

Separately, two Muslim men beat a Christian teenager in the street after they noticed he was wearing a crucifix around his neck.  They initially stopped him and pulled on his cross necklace while asking him if he “knows what this means?”  When the youth responded, “Yes, I know.  I’m a Christian,” they beat him and fled.  The Protestant Association of Churches said in response that “This attack is a result of the growing hatred against Christians in Turkey. We invite government officials to take action against hate speech.”

Sri Lanka:  Before the Islamic suicide bombing of churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019, which claimed more than 250 lives, Sri Lanka, a Buddhist majority nation, with Muslim and Christian minorities (9.7 percent and 7.4 percent of the total population, respectively), was not seen as a nation where Muslims persecute Christians.  Since the spotlight has been placed on it, more information is appearing.  According to July 11 report, “Many Tamil Christians and Hindus in Sri Lanka are being ordered by Muslim extremists to convert to Islam or leave the villages where their families have lived for generations.”

Egypt: Sarah Atef, a Christian college student was kidnapped while standing near her church. “When her mother knew that her daughter was kidnapped,” a family neighbor said, “she got out to the balcony and screamed to [sic] loudly. She was hitting her face. All of the neighbors got out of their houses to monitor.”  After the family contacted police, Islamic websites, including some with affiliations to the Islamic State, claimed that the girl had called her mother and informed her that she had willingly converted to Islam and married a Muslim man.   The local Coptic bishop, who met with the family, confirmed that no such phone call ever transpired, nor has anyone from the Christian community heard from the girl.  “This is a trap for Christian girls,” elaborated one of her teachers. “This girl is very religious and believes in Jesus. It is hard (for her) to convert to Islam.” 

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.1

475 BC – Roman consul Publius Valerius Poplicola celebrates a Roman triumph for his victory over Veii and the Sabines. 305 – Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor. 524 – King Sigismund of Burgundy is executed at Orléans after an 8-year reign and is succeeded by his brother Godomar. 880 – The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches. 1169 – Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, marking the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland. 1328 – Wars of Scottish Independence end: By the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, England recognises Scotland as an independent state. 1455 – Battle of Arkinholm, Royal forces end the Black Douglas hegemony in Scotland. 1576 – Stephen Báthory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they become co-rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. 1707 – The Act of Union joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain takes effect. 1753 – Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. 1759 – Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain. 1776 – Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt, Upper Bavaria, by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt. 1778 – American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. 1786 – In Vienna, Austria, Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro is performed for the first time. 1794 – War of the Pyrenees: The Battle of Boulou ends, in which French forces defeat the Spanish and regain nearly all the land they lost to Spain in 1793. 1820 – Execution of the Cato Street Conspirators, who plotted to kill the British Cabinet and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool. 1840 – The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom. 1844 – Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second modern police force and Asia's first, is established. 1846 – The few remaining Mormons left in Nauvoo, Illinois, formally dedicate the Nauvoo Temple. 1851 – Queen Victoria opens The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London. 1856 – The Province of Isabela was created in the Philippines in honor of Queen Isabela II. 1862 – American Civil War: The Union Army completes its capture of New Orleans. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins. 1865 – The Empire of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance. 1866 – The Memphis Race Riots begin. In three days time, 46 blacks and two whites were killed. Reports of the atrocities influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. 1869 – The Folies Bergère opens in Paris. 1875 – Alexandra Palace reopens after being burned down in a fire in 1873. 1884 – The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions demands the eight-hour work day in the United States. 1884 – Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States. 1885 – The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opens for business. 1886 – Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day in many countries. 1893 – The World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago. 1894 – Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C. 1898 – Spanish–American War: Battle of Manila Bay: The Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy destroys the Pacific Squadron of the Spanish Navy after a seven-hour battle. Spain loses all seven of its ships, and 381 Spanish sailors die. There are no American vessel losses or combat deaths. 1900 – The Scofield Mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history. 1915 – The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her 202nd, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives. 1919 – German troops enter Munich to suppress the Bavarian Soviet Republic. 1925 – The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members. 1927 – The Union Labor Life Insurance Company is founded by the American Federation of Labor. 1929 – The 7.2 Mw  Kopet Dag earthquake shakes the Iran–Turkmenistan border region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing up to 3,800 and injuring 1,121. 1930 – "Pluto" is officially proposed for the name of the newly-discovered dwarf planet Pluto by Vesto Slipher in the Lowell Observatory Observation Circular. The name quickly catches on. 1931 – The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City. 1941 – World War II: German forces launch a major attack during the siege of Tobruk. 1944 – World War II: Two hundred Communist prisoners are shot by the Germans at Kaisariani, Athens in reprisal for the killing of General Franz Krech by partisans at Molaoi. 1945 – World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin. 1945 – World War II: Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide in the Reich Garden outside the Führerbunker. Their children are also killed by having cyanide pills inserted into their mouths by their mother, Magda. 1945 – World War II: Forces of the Soviet Red Army liberate Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at Stalag Luft I near Barth, Germany. 1945 – World War II: Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army. 1945 – World War II: Yugoslav Partisans liberate Trieste. 1946 – Start of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians. 1946 – The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy. 1947 – Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano where 11 persons are killed and 33 wounded. 1956 – The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public. 1956 – A doctor in Japan reports an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata disease. 1957 – Thirty-four people are killed when a Vickers Viking airliner crashes in Hampshire, England. 1960 – Formation of the western Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra; also known as "Maharashtra Day". 1960 – Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis. 1961 – The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections. 1965 – Cross-Strait relations: Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China, takes place. 1967 – Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu are married in Las Vegas. 1970 – Vietnam War: Protests erupt following the announcement by Richard Nixon that the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces would attack Vietnamese communists in a Cambodian Campaign. 1971 – Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service. 1974 – The Argentine terrorist organization Montoneros is expelled from Plaza de Mayo by president Juan Perón. 1977 – Thirty-six people are killed in Taksim Square, Istanbul, during the Labour Day celebrations. 1978 – Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone. 1982 – Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War. 1983 – The Sydney Entertainment Centre is opened. 1987 – Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. 1989 – Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States. 1990 – The former Philippine Episcopal Church (supervised by the Episcopal Church of the United States of America) is granted full autonomy and raised to the status of an Autocephalous Anglican Province and renamed the Episcopal Church in the Philippines. 1993 – Dingiri Banda Wijetunga became president of Sri Lanka automatically after killing of R Premadasa in LTTE bomb explosion. 1994 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident whilst leading the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. 1995 – Croatian War of Independence: Croatian forces launch Operation Flash. 1999 – The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924. 1999 – SpongeBob SquarePants premieres on Nickelodeon. 2001 – Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares the existence of "a state of rebellion", hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion. 2002 – OpenOffice.org released version 1.0, the first stable version of the software. 2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended". 2004 – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin. 2009 – Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden. 2011 – Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. 2019 – Naxalite attack in Gadchiroli district: Sixteen army soldiers, including a driver, killed in an IED blast. Naxals targeted an anti-Naxal operations team.

[fuck-the-ccp]

The U.S. said China coercively prevents U.S. citizens, including dual U.S.-Chinese nationals, from exiting the country in an updated travel advisory.

The U.S. State Department’s Jan. 3 warning follows China’s actions in recent months to prohibit visitors with U.S. passports from leaving the country for a variety of reasons. This includes effectively banning members of a family from China to lure a relative back to the country.

China’s relations with the U.S. and with Canada deteriorated following the arrest in Vancouver, British Columbia, of a top executive with Huawei, (HUAWEI) a leading Chinese electronics and telecom firm, on a U.S. warrant. American officials claim that Meng Wanzhou violated U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran by misleading American financial institutions into facilitating the deals. China has no prohibition on commerce with Iran.

In November, The New York Times reported that Liu Changming’s two children were barred from leaving, and his wife allegedly held in a secret prison. All three are American citizens, as China doesn’t recognize dual citizenship. The government has treated them as Chinese citizens, however. Liu has been accused of massive fraud by Chinese officials.

The state department also said that China might force a U.S. citizen or U.S.-Chinese dual citizen to remain in order to gain cooperation with a government investigation, or to tamper with the outcome of a civil dispute towards Chinese parties.

China has detained 13 Canadian citizens since the arrest, according to The Globe and Mail with eight or more subsequently released. A spokesperson for the Canadian foreign ministry told The New York Times that it didn’t believe the arrests were retaliatory. Canada has not issued a travel advisory. China is Canada’s third-biggest trading partner, though dwarfed by the U.S., which trades eight times that amount, and comprises 50% of all Canadian imports and exports.

[cyanideginger]

The forgotten massacre of Iran

Iran, the land of pistachios, saffron and one of the most hospitable Islamic regions in the world has a dark secret whose stain still haunts the authorities of Iran after more than three decades. Those were the days of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the final days of the subsequent Iran-Iraq War when the massacre happened.

It was 1979 when the Iranian Government was overthrown by the Islamic Revolutionaries and a Shiite known as Khomeini was made the supreme leader of the country. Iran was not a part of the Arab world but was a nascent state ruled by Islamic Fundamentalists led by “Ayatollah Khomeini”. As Iran was at the embryonic stage as a nation, Saddam Hussein launched an offensive against it in 1980. This was followed by eight long years of conflict until a cease-fire was mediated by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in August of 1988 through UN Resolution 598.

When the UNSC was pushing for a ceasefire between Iraq and Iran, in July 1988, the National Liberation Army (NLA), a faction under the affiliation of PMOI (People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran) launched an armed invasion into the western fronts of Iran. These armed incursions were efficiently repulsed by the Iranian Military and political prisoners were taken into detention. What followed next was a massive human rights violation in the West Asian Region.

These political prisoners were eliminated in two waves. At re-trials, the political prisoners were asked about their political affiliations. If they showed any affiliations towards PMOI, they were executed. On the other hand, they were inquired about their religious faith, if they showed any deviation they were executed as well. Human Rights organisations estimate the death toll to be 4,000-5,000 men and women including children, killed in the summer of 1988.

"Whoever at any stage continues to belong to the PMOI must be executed. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately!”-Ayatollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran on July 1988.

No data on actual casualties of the massacre ever came to lights. Even today, the Iranian government denies their involvement in the massacre. The incident was neither mentioned nor investigated in these three decades. Bodies of the terminated prisoners were buried in mass graves without any epitaph or inscription. The mass graves can still be found in Khavaran Cemetery in Southern Iran. Authorities still persecute and harass the families of the victims by detaining as well as dispersing them on Commemoration Day held on the last Friday before September 1 in Khavaran Cemetery.

It is believed that some of the officials who were responsible for the prison massacre still holds some of the highest positions in the Iranian bureaucracy. The newly elected president of Iran which is one of the top bureaucratic positions in the country, Ebrahim Raisi (an ultra-conservative) is believed to have significant involvement in the massive political assassinations during this period. The former president of Iran, a moderate, Hassan Rouhani, was the Deputy Commander in Chief of the Iranian Army during the executions of 1988 and was a member of the Supreme Defence Council of Iran since 1982, hence was completely aware of the crime but did nothing to stop it.

Iran, a country with dual characteristics in the political structure having democracy on one hand and religious ideology on the other, still denies its involvement and tries to suppress it from international recognition. With the country struggling between strengthening democracy while giving primacy to a religious ideology, which in turn ruins democratic institutions, it is extremely important to see how long these conservatives can carry on with their hegemonic ambitions in the West Asian region. Even if they attain what they seek, it’ll be achieved on a stack of dead bodies which will haunt the regime for eternity and beyond.

[implexis]

1977

Jan 1  In what is called the Bush War, rebels fighting the white regime in Rhodesia are operating from bases inside Zambia and Botswana. The white regime, led by Ian Smith, is forcing people to relocate to villages controlled by the government. The white regime is recruiting volunteers from overseas, including some military veterans from Australia and the United States.

Jan 18  Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the "Legionnaires' disease."

Jan 19  US President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino, known in the United States as "Tokyo Rose".

Jan 19  Jimmy Carter succeeds Gerald Ford as the 39th President of the United States. He speaks of "a new beginning, a new dedication within our Government, and a new spirit among us all."

Jan 21  President Jimmy Carter gives a full pardon to those who evaded the draft during the war in Vietnam. The pardon does not extend to those who were in the military and refused to finish their tour of duty or received a less than honorable discharge.

Jan 23  Alex Haley's historical novel Roots begins as a series on ABC television.

Jan 24  Spain is in a transition to democracy. A few Spanish and Italian rightists belonging to an anti-Communist "black international" kill five and injure four leftists at an office in Madrid – to be known as the Massacre of Atocha.

Feb 2  Wearing a cardigan sweater, President Carter speaks to the nation via television about the need to conserve energy.

Feb 10  Soviet authorities are disturbed by the activities of "dissidents." They arrest Yuri Orlov, chairman of a group in the Soviet Union that is monitoring compliance with the Helsinki accords.

Feb 25  In Russia, a leading scientist and dissident, Andrei Sakharav, who has been harassed by authorities, has been photographed with a letter of support from President Carter. General Secretary Brezhnev is angered and sends Carter a message telling him that Sakharov is a "renegade who proclaimed himself an enemy of the Soviet state."

Dictator: Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Feb 1-28 The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, responds to President Carter's concern for human rights by releasing 357 political prisoners and allowing the Red Cross to visit prisons.

Mar 1 In Nicaragua, Roman Catholic bishops have accused the Somoza dictatorship of torture, rape and summary executions of civilians during the dictatorship's battle against leftist guerrillas.

Mar 15  Italian Tenor Luciano Pavarotti debuts in the United States in a PBS production of Puccini's La Boheme.

Mar 27  The worst air disaster ever. Passenger jets in the Canary Islands collide, killing 574. A seasoned and celebrated Dutch pilot tried to take off without having received clearance from the tower. Less importance given to rank in the cockpit might have saved the day.

Apr 10  In Spain, indignation over the Massacre of Atocha results in legalization of Spain's Communist party.

Apr 12  President Carter commutes the 20-year prison term of G. Gordon Liddy to eight years, 4 1/2 years of which he has already served.

Apr 12  Afghanistan's self-proclaimed president, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is on a neighborly visit to the Soviet Union. The Russians are unhappy with him for having purged leftists from his government and soviet advisors from his military. He is criticized for the anti-Communists he has appointed to his cabinet, for his criticism of Cuba, his friendliness with Iran and Saudi Arabia and his scheduled visit to Washington in 1978.

Apr 14  In Pakistan's major cities, people are demonstrating their displeasure at what they believe was wholesale fraud in last month's parliamentary elections. They demand the resignation of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Apr 18  President Carter describes his program for conservation. It is, he says. a problem that "is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century." He proposes to reduce energy demand, to increase coal production, insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings and to use solar energy in more than 2.5 million houses.

May 25 In the US a movie called Star Wars opens and is destined to become a worldwide cultural phenomenon.

Jun 1 The US Defense Department is organizing deployment of a warhead capable of destroying Soviet missiles in their silos. White House Press Secretary Jody Powell announces administration willingness to undertake "serious negotiations" with the Soviet Union concerning deployment of the new warheads.

Ali Shariati, Iran's leading dissident

Jun 5  The first Apple II computers go on sale.

Jun ?  Dr. Ali Shariati, a popular Iranian sociologist with a doctorate from France's Sorbonne University, is Iran's leading opponent to the regime of the Shah of Iran. Shariati has spent 18 months in an Iranian prison for his opinions. He is released from prison but his activities are restricted and he is monitored by the secret police: SAVAK. Shariati moves to England. In three weeks he is dead, at the age of 44. His followers believe he was murdered by SAVAK. Shariati's death leaves the Ayatolah Khomeini as the most popular opposition leader against the Shah's rule – not as popular as he will be in 1979, the year of the Iranian revolution. Khomeini's education has been in religious schools only.

Jun 15  In Sweden, an international research body declares that an arms race is increasing the probability of nuclear war.

Jun 15  After 41 years of rule by Franco, Spain has its first democratic elections.

Jun 15  The Central Committee of Spain's Communist Party rejects Moscow's criticism of their secretary general, Santiago Carrillo, and vows to continue its independence.

Jun 19  In the Soviet Union, the Communist Party newspaper, Pravda, claims that US support for human rights is a cover for an arms buildup.

Jun 30  President Carter believes the program to build the B-1 bomber wastes taxpayer dollars. Affected communities defend the program, describing it as a social welfare issue: that jobs are at stake. Carter follows the advice of Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, who is supported by ranking military men. In the B1 Bomber's place, secret work is being done on a new stealth system that cannot be discussed, and there are plans for a fleet of modernized B-52s armed with air-launched Cruise missiles.

Jul 3   Opinion on the B-1 bomber has split roughly along party lines, with former President Gerald Ford calling it a mistake and Congressman Robert Dornan of California describing Moscow as jubilant over the decision.

Jul 5   Responding to civil disorder, Pakistan's General Zia-ul-Haq overthrows Prime Minister Bhutto and imposes Martial Law.

Jul 22  Deng Xiaoping, General Secretary of China's Communist Party until he was purged during the Cultural Revolution, returns as the Communist Party's most influential member, but without an official office.

Jul 30  In West Germany, leftist terrorists assassinate Jürgen Ponto, chairman of the Dresdner Bank.

Aug 4  In the US, the Department of Energy is formed, the result of President Carter having influenced Congress.

Aug 16  Elvis Presley's "fiancee," Ginger Allen, finds him unconscious on his bathroom floor. At a hospital he is pronounced dead, a victim of heart failure. He was 42.

Aug 18  In South Africa, police arrest Steve Biko at one of their roadblocks. Biko is a former medical student, a well known anti-apartheid activist and a writer.

Sep 7  President Carter and Panamanian president, Omar Torrijos Herrera, sign a treaty that provides for control of the Panama Canal to be given to Panama in 1999. Under the treaty the US retains the right to defend the canal from any threat that might interfere with its continued neutral service to ships of all nations. Some in the US are disturbed by what they perceive as Carter giving away the canal. Senate ratification of the treaty is pending. Senator Jesse Helms, the former governor of California, Ronald Reagan, Richard Viguerie and many other conservatives are opposed to the treaty. So too are student leftists in Panama. William F. Buckley will favor the treaty.

Sep 12  While in police custody, Steve Biko has been beaten to death.

Sep 1-31 Riots erupt in Kabul as students and government workers protest against the government of Mohammed Daoud Khan. The police crush the protests and several members of Afghanistan's Communist Party are arrested.

Andreas Baader, another failed revolutionary

October 13-17  Despite recent hijackings, poor airline security remains common, except for Israel's El Al airline. Four Palestinians hijack Lufthansa Airlines flight 181 from Mallorca to Frankfurt. The hijackers demand 15 million US dollars and the release from prison of 11 of Germany's Red Army Faction members. Members of the Red Army Faction kidnap a German, Hanns-Martin Schleyer. The plane refuels in Rome and in various countries is denied permission to land. It ends up in Somalia. The hijackers kill the pilot and throw his body onto the ground. Nine German commandos storm the plane. Three of the four hijackers are killed. A flight attendant is injured and the 86 passengers are successfully rescued. The Red Army Faction murders its hostage, Hanns-Martin Schleyer.

Oct 18 In the wake of failing to be released from prison, Red Army Faction members, Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Gudrun Ensslin commit suicide. Irmgard Möller tries but merely wounds herself. Years later Möller will take up the claims of faction followers that the deaths were extrajudicial killings – murders – without explaining why she would have been spared to tell about it.

Oct 26  Smallpox is considered eradicated – a success of vaccination.

Oct 31 In Iran late this month, the son of Ayatollah Khomeini has been found dead in his bed. Islam does not allow autopsy, and many suspect that SAVAK has murdered him.

Nov 4 A journalist asks the Shah of Iran what "scenarios" he fears most in the years to come. He replies: "Growing terrorism, permissive societies, democracies collapsing through lack of law and order."

Nov 9 Sadat tells Egypt's parliament that he is ready to go to Israel's "Knesset and discuss peace with them if need be."

Nov 11 Israel's prime minister, Menachem Begin, broadcasts to Egypt an invitation to Sadat. He says: "Let us say to one another, and let it be a silent oath by the peoples of Egypt and Israel: no more wars, no more bloodshed and no more threats."

Nov 15 The Shah of Iran visits President Carter. Tear gas envelopes the welcoming ceremony blown in from the nearby anti-Shah demonstration. President Carter believes that the Shah still has 2,500 political prisoners in his jails. Carter asks the Shah if there is anything he can do to alleviate the damage to Iran's reputation regarding human rights. The Shah says no, that he "must reinforce the Iranian laws, which are designed to combat Communism."

Nov 19-20  Anwar Sadat of Egypt visits Israel, the first Arab leader to do so in an official capacity. A 21-gun salute is fired in his honor. To Israel's Knesset he speaks of God, the blessings of peace and of a permanent peace settlement. Much of the Arab world is outraged by his visit.

Dec 4  The captain of Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 radios that an unidentified hijacker is aboard. The plane crashes without explanation, killing all 100 passengers and crew.

Dec 25  Charlie Chaplin dies. He was thought by many to be Jewish. My father (1907-62) despised him believing that he was. He was not, but Chaplin was too good of a man to deny it publicly.

Dec 31  In Teheran, President Carter visits the Shah of Iran and toasts him, describing Iran as "an island of stability." Carter tells the Shah of "the respect and the admiration and the love" that the Iranians had for him and says that "There is no leader whith whom I have a deeper sense of personal gratitude and personal friendship."

to 1976 | to 1978

[automatismoateo]

TIL 19yo Leyla Mafi (mental age of 8) was sentenced to death (later reduced to 99 lashes & prison) in 2004 Iran for "acts contrary to chastity" after her mom repeatedly prostituted her starting at age 8 (Leyla birthed a child when she was 9 and was twice punished w/ 100 lashes for being raped). via /r/atheism

TIL 19yo Leyla Mafi (mental age of 8) was sentenced to death (later reduced to 99 lashes & prison) in 2004 Iran for "acts contrary to chastity" after her mom repeatedly prostituted her starting at age 8 (Leyla birthed a child when she was 9 and was twice punished w/ 100 lashes for being raped).

Behold the morality and justice of religion. You misguided immoral atheists lack this morality because you selfishly chose to reject god and his clear, perfect, immutable, eternal word/commands that have taken every possible situation that could ever happen into consideration. /S

Source: https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/iran-the-last-executioner-of-children/

Leyla Mafi was arrested during a raid on a brothel when she was 17. During interrogation she reportedly confessed to having worked as a prostitute since she was a child. In around May 2004, she was sentenced to death by a court in Arak for "acts contrary to chastity" - for running a brothel, prostitution, incest and giving birth to an illegitimate child. She had a court-appointed lawyer. She was also sentenced to flogging before execution.

An E'temad journalist who interviewed Leyla Mafi in prison uncovered a tale of a childhood of forced prostitution, rape and abuse, interspersed with arrests and sentences of flogging.

Leyla Mafi was forced into prostitution by her mother when she was eight and gave birth when she was nine. At around that time, she was sentenced to 100 lashes for prostitution. When she was 12, her family sold her to an Afghan man to become his "temporary wife". Her mother-in-law forced her into prostitution and when she was 14 she was prosecuted and again sentenced to flogging- 100 lashes. She later gave birth to twins. Her family then sold her to a married 55-year-old man with two children, who also forced Leyla Mafi into prostitution in his home.

According to the E'temad report, social workers tested Leyla Mafi's mental capacities on several occasions and each time found her to have the mental age of an eight-year-old. She had never been examined by a court-appointed doctor and was sentenced to death on the basis of her confessions, without consideration of her background or mental health.

[...]

On 27 March 2005, the Supreme Court rejected the death sentence and five-year prison sentence, but upheld the sentence of flogging. The case was sent back to a lower court in Arak for retrial. Branch 103 of the General Court in Arak subsequently acquitted Leyla Mafi of incest (which carries the death penalty), and of controlling a brothel. However, she was convicted of "an unchaste act with a next of kin (other than fornication)" and was sentenced to 99 lashes. She was also sentenced to three and a half years in prison for "providing the facilities for corruption and prostitution by being available for sexual acts". The judge ordered that following the completion of her prison sentence, she should live in a women's rehabilitation centre for eight months.

The 99 lashes were carried out in February 2006 at the headquarters of the Justice Department in Arak. Leyla Mafi was then taken to a women's rehabilitation centre in Tehran.

Submitted October 31, 2021 at 10:04PM by Diagoras_1 (From Reddit https://ift.tt/3bssYUl)

[marcjampole]

Will Catholics follow Pope Francis and clamor against the death penalty? And will the Church now campaign against state execution like it has against abortion?

By making the opposition to capital punishment part of church law, Pope Francis cited a moral reason to oppose the death penalty: because “it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” Of course, morality is the first victim when people feel threatened. Fear stokes a certain American blood-thirstiness that made a majority of Americans approve the mass incarceration laws of the 1990s and the Bush II torture regime. Fear-induced bloodthirstiness has swayed large numbers of Americans to support the current administration’s mean-hearted treatment of immigrants and refugees.

Pew studies show that currently 54% of all Americans and 53% of Catholics favor the state killing people convicted of certain crimes. Only 39% of all Americans and 42% of Catholics oppose the death penalty. Will the Pope’s announcement change minds? Past experience suggest the answer is, “not many,” unless the Catholic Church engages in an aggressive campaign to promote the new position. Even that might not work, considering how many rightwing politicians depend on fear-mongering about crime, drugs, immigrants and terrorism to get elected.

Catholics in westernized nations, like their Jewish and Muslim cousins, find it an easy matter to reject religious teachings when it’s convenient for them to do so. A year ago, the Gutmacher Institute reported that 98% of all Catholic women will use birth control methods banned by the Church sometime in their lives. Another Gutmacher study showed that about 24% of all women who have abortions are Catholic. An older Gutmacher survey found that about 2.2% of Catholic women have an abortion each year, compared to 1.8% of Protestant women. About eight years ago, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that 61% of all American women will live in a sexual relationship with someone without the benefit of marriage sometime in their life; based on how Catholics compare to others when it comes to capital punishment, birth control and abortion, we can safely assume that the percentage among Catholics who cohabitate is about the same as the overall population. Thus, Catholics are used to using a “just say no” approach to the teachings of their religion.

We can only hope that the Catholic Church throws at least as many resources behind advocating against capital punishment as it has to oppose a woman’s right to control her own body.

Morality is just one of several reasons to oppose capital punishment. Here are some of the others:

 ·        It doesn’t work as a deterrent. The preponderance of the evidence from the studies done on the deterrent effect of capital punishment show that the fear of being executed does not stop murders. And it turns out that, as with a lot of research supporting rightwing positions, many studies claiming to show that capital punishment does deter people from taking the lives of others have severe methodological and mathematical errors. One researcher reran the numbers used in a survey supposedly proving that capital punishment works as a deterrent and found that it actually increased the murder rate!

 ·         Capital punishment is irrevocable: Juries make mistakes all the time. When the mistake is uncovered, the wrongly convicted person usually eventually gets out of jail. But society can’t reverse an execution.

 ·         Our adversarial legal system makes executing someone an expensive process. Executing an inmate on death row costs much more than sending an inmate to prison for life without the possibility of parole. Those sentenced to death are guaranteed by the Constitution to a very long, thorough and expensive judicial process before taking the needle. It costs states millions of dollars for each execution.

 ·         It is unfair, or at least will remain unfair as long as racism and poverty exist. The racial bias to capital verdicts in the United States has existed since record-keeping of such matters began. Wealthy people can afford expensive attorneys, whereas poor people often have to settle for overworked public defenders. The unfairness of capital verdicts reflects and magnifies the unequal treatment of minorities and the poor throughout the judicial system.

 ·         Virtually all other countries have abolished the death penalty: About 140 nations worldwide, including the vast majority of countries in Western Europe and the Americas, have abandoned capital punishment. The United States remains in the bad company of Iraq, Iran, China and other human rights abusers as countries still engaging in state execution. In the 21st century global village, capital punishment may have become “cruel and unusual punishment” and therefore inherently unconstitutional.

 ·         It demeans society. Capital punishment reduces society to the level of the murderer. As a society, we are supposed to be better than our worst elements.  Sparing the killer’s life makes us more human and more humane than the killer, and increases the value that our society puts on human life. Sparing the killer is an affirmation of our social contract to live in peace. Sparing the killer tells him or her, and the world, that when we say that human life is holy we mean it.

Of course, what the Pope is saying supersedes all these reasons. Even if capital punishment served as a deterrent, it would still be immoral. Even if it were no longer expensive for society or biased against racial minorities and the poor, it would still be immoral. Even if every country in the world allowed state executions, it would still be immoral.

[opedguy]

Amnesty International Discredits Itself

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), June 19, 2021.--Waiting until 60-year-old former Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential elections, London-based Amnesty International calls for an immediate U.N. investigation into war crimes, claiming Raisi presided in 1988 over executions of Iranian prisoners, something preposterous if you do the math, since Raisi was only 27-years-of-age. But whatever the reasons Amnesty objects to Raisi as Iran’s new president replacing 72-year-old Hassan Rouhani, they should have published their findings months ago, not call on the U.N. to intervene with a new investigation, bound only to antagonize the Islamic Republic.  Raisi was picked by Iran’s 81-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei the founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  Khamenei threw his weight behind Raisi, thinking he’s the logical successor to his 32-year rule.    

         If Amnesty felt Raisi was a war criminal with a history of genocide or extra-judicial assassinations, they should have made their case before Iran finished its vote for president.  When Mahmoud Ahmaminejad became Iran’s president Aug. 3, 2005 it prompted Amnesty to call for an investigation for his role in the 1979 hijacking of the U.S. embassy and hostage-taking in Tehran.  Amnesty’s good a headlines but has little clout other than U.N.-style commentary about various human rights abuses around the globe.  Amnesty has been especially fixated on 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, whose Novichok poisoning nearly killed him in Aug. 2020, before recovering in a Berlin hospital.  Amnesty has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Navalny from the Russian penal colony where her currently serves out a two-and-a-half years prison sentence on bogus charges.      

       Whether Amnesty or any other human rights group likes it or not, Raisi has served as the Chief Justice of Iran, Prosecutor-General of Iran, Member of the Assembly of Experts, etc., the most qualified in Khamenei’s mind to serve as his successor.  When Khamenei decides to retire, Raisi is the heir apparent to become Iran’s next Ayatollah or Supreme Leader.  According the Amnesty, Raisi presided of executions of Iranian prisoners at the end of the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War. Amnesty thinks Raisi’s involvement in the commission presiding over untold numbers of executions makes him a war criminal. U.N. officials aren’t likely to follow-up with Amnesty’s request because the charges against Raisi are so vague, buried by 33-years of history.  Amnesty doesn’t know whether the executions took place under Raisi’s authority or whether they were authorized by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomenei.      

                        Amnesty likes to create headlines but only after the fact or without any real legal consequences.  “That Ebrahim Rais has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran,” as Amnesty’s Agnes Callamard.  Casting aspersions on Iranian officials doesn’t mean Amnesty or any other human rights group has a case against Raisi in any international tribunal.  Amnesty doesn’t pick its battles wisely, fingering Raisi now that he’s Iran’s President-elect.  Starting a U.N. investigation is preposterous over a 33-year-old allegations, when Amnesty can’t say with any certainty that whatever executions allegedly took place that they weren’t sanctioned by an Iran court or Ayatollah’s Supreme authority on matters of life-and-death.     

        Judging by recent Amnesty complaints for the treatment of Navalny and 26-year-old  Belarus blogger Roman Protasevich, they like the high profile cases, appearing on the nightly news.  Amnesty called Protasevich’s arrest a hijacking because a Belarus fighter jet forced down Protasevich’s commercial flight from Athenst-to-Vilnius to Minsk for force his arrest.  When the U.S. executes arrests of drug dealers on commercial flights, Amnesty doesn’t say the U.S. government engages in hijacking. Yet when Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko forces down Ryanair jet to arrest Protasevich it’s an illegal act of hijacking.  “The circumstances surrounding the fate of the victims and the whereabouts of their bodies are, to this day, systematically concealed by the Iranian authorities, amounting to ongoing crimes against humanity,” said Amnesty, offering no proof, only sensational accusations.  If Amnesty wants to save its credibility, it needs to show more proof.  

           President Joe Biden found out it’s not easy dealing with the Persian regime.  While he’s like a new Iranian nuke deal, he knows the verifying Iran’s coverty nuclear enrichment activities isn’t easy.  If Amnesty wants to be helpful, it would press Iran to verify its nuclear enrichment activities, currently occurring under the radar.  Biden finds himself caught between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place trying negotiate in new nuke deal with an increasingly hard-line regime. Raisi will rubber-stamp all of the Ayatollah’s wishes, including not giving U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] inspectors access  to Iran’s secret nuclear enrichment cites.  If Amnesty wanted to be helpful with Iran, they’d apply pressure on Iran to comply with IAEA inspectors to spare the world another dangerous nuclear power.  Dredging up old news about Raisi does nothing than create sensational headlines.

 About the Author

 John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[newstfionline]

Sunday, September 26, 2021

Huawei executive returning as China releases Canadians (AP) China’s government was eagerly anticipating the return of a top executive from global communications giant Huawei Technologies on Saturday following what amounted to a high-stakes prisoner swap with Canada and the U.S. Meng Wanzhou, 49, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of the company’s founder, reached an agreement with U.S. federal prosecutors that called for fraud charges against her to be dismissed next year. As part of the deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, she accepted responsibility for misrepresenting the company’s business dealings in Iran. The same day, two Canadian citizens held by Beijing were freed and flown back to Canada. Meng was expected to arrive late Saturday in the southern technology hub of Shenzhen, where Huawei is based.

US police departments clamoring for de-escalation training (AP) Angry over being fired, a former employee slashed the tires of his boss’ vehicle and still held the knife when police officers arrived. Three officers positioned themselves at a safe distance as the man yelled and ranted. One officer had a stun gun, another a handgun. The third used the most important tool—a willingness to talk. Here in a school parking lot in Maine, the emergency was fake, but the strategies were very real. The officers were going through a training course offered by the Police Executive Research Forum that thousands of police officers around the country are receiving this year. Officers are taught: keep a safe distance, slow things down. Police officers are asked to do a lot. They’re asked to be roadside psychologists, family counselors, mental health workers—and even soldiers in an active-shooter event, said Saco Police Chief Jack Clements, whose agency hosted the event in New England. That’s why it’s important to rehearse.

Texas migrant camp empty (AP) No migrants are left at a Texas border encampment, about a week after nearly 15,000 people—most of them Haitians—huddled in makeshift shelters hoping for the chance to seek asylum. Some will get that chance, while the others will be expelled to their homeland. The Department of Homeland Security planned to continue flights to Haiti throughout the weekend, ignoring criticism from Democratic lawmakers and human rights groups who say Haitian migrants are being sent back to a troubled country that some left more than a decade ago. Meanwhile, Bruno Lozano, the mayor of Del Rio, Texas, where the camp was located, said officials would search the brush along the Rio Grande to ensure nobody was hiding and finish cleaning the site before reopening the international bridge. Lozano said there were no deaths during the time the camp was occupied and that 10 babies were born to migrant mothers, either at the camp or in Del Rio’s hospital.

In South America, the climate future has arrived (Washington Post) Sergio Koci’s sunflower farm in the lowlands of northern Argentina has survived decades of political upheaval, runaway inflation and the coronavirus outbreak. But as a series of historic droughts deadens vast expanses of South America, he fears a worsening water crisis could do what other calamities couldn’t: Bust his third-generation agribusiness. From the frigid peaks of Patagonia to the tropical wetlands of Brazil, worsening droughts this year are slamming farmers, shutting down ski slopes, upending transit and spiking prices for everything from coffee to electricity. So low are levels of the Paraná running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina that some ranchers are herding cattle across dried-up riverbeds typically lined with cargo-toting barges. Raging wildfires in Paraguay have brought acrid smoke to the limits of the capital. Earlier this year, the rushing cascades of Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian-Argentine frontier reduced to a relative drip. The droughts this year are extensions of multiyear water shortages, with causes that vary from country to country. Yet for much of the region, the droughts are moving up the calendar on climate change—offering a taste of the challenges ahead in securing an increasingly precious commodity: water.

UK scrambles for truckers amid supply woe (AP) British energy firms are rationing supplies of gasoline and closing some petrol pumps—the latest in a string of shortages that have seen McDonald’s take milkshakes off the menu, KFC run short of chicken and gaps appear on supermarket shelves. A big factor behind the problems is a lack of truck drivers. The U.K. is short tens of thousands of hauliers, as factors including Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic converge to create a supply-chain crunch. Officials urged motorists not to panic-buy petrol after BP and Esso shut a handful of stations because there were not enough trucks to get gas to the pumps. As concern over the disruption mounts, the haulage industry is pressing the government to loosen immigration rules and recruit more drivers from Europe to avert Christmas shortages. The government is resisting that move, and scrambling to lure more British people into truck driving, long viewed as an underpaid and underappreciated job.

Red hot lava spews from La Palma volcano as eruption intensifies (Reuters) Rivers of lava raced down the volcano and exploded high into the air overnight on the Spanish island of La Palma and the airport was closed as an eruption intensified and entered its most explosive phase so far. Since it began erupting on Sunday on the small island in the Atlantic, the Cumbre Vieja volcano has spewed out thousands of tons of lava, destroyed hundreds of houses and forced the evacuation of nearly 6,000 people. Experts said the volcano had entered a new explosive phase. Videos shared on social media showed a massive shockwave emanating from the eruption site on Friday.

Situation becoming 'dire' at US airbase in Germany housing Afghan refugees (CNN) The task of accommodating 10,000 Afghan refugees, including approximately 2,000 pregnant women, is putting facilities at Ramstein airbase in Germany under tremendous strain as nighttime temperatures drop toward freezing and what was meant to be a 10-day temporary stay is stretching into weeks, with one US source familiar with the situation describing it as becoming "dire." Already 22 babies have been born to Afghan mothers at Ramstein, and that number will rise very soon with roughly two thirds of the 3,000 women being housed there pregnant, requiring the time and effort of medical personnel from Ramstein and other bases, two US sources familiar with the situation at the base told CNN. Even though it's one of the largest US bases in Europe, Ramstein was never designed to handle such a large transient population especially when there are better equipped and larger facilities in the US. One of the sources called the Afghans at Ramstein "the forgotten 10," as the focus has shifted away from the almost 10,000 who remain stuck in limbo in Germany towards some 53,000 Afghan evacuees already housed at eight military bases across the US.

Some in Hungary and Poland talk of EU pullout (AP) When Hungary and Poland joined the European Union in 2004, after decades of Communist domination, their citizens thirsted for Western democratic standards and prosperity. Yet 17 years later, as the EU ramps up efforts to rein in democratic backsliding in both countries, some of the governing right-wing populists in Hungary and Poland are comparing the bloc to their former Soviet oppressors—and flirting with the prospect of exiting the trade bloc. “Brussels sends us overlords who are supposed to bring Poland to order, on our knees,” a leading member of Poland’s governing Law and Justice party, Marek Suski, said this month, adding that Poland “will fight the Brussels occupier” as it fought past Nazi and Soviet occupiers. It’s unclear to what extent this kind of talk represents a real desire to leave the 27-member bloc or a negotiating tactic to counter arm-twisting from Brussels. The two countries are the largest net beneficiaries of EU money, and the vast majority of their citizens want to stay in the bloc.

Refugees in fear as sentiment turns against them in Turkey (AP) Fatima Alzahra Shon thinks neighbors attacked her and her son in their Istanbul apartment building because she is Syrian. The 32-year-old refugee from Aleppo was confronted on Sept. 1 by a Turkish woman who asked her what she was doing in “our” country. Shon replied, “Who are you to say that to me?” The situation quickly escalated. A man came out of the Turkish woman’s apartment half-dressed, threatening to cut Shon and her family “into pieces,” she recalled. Another neighbor, a woman, joined in, shouting and hitting Shon. The group then pushed her down a flight of stairs. Shon said that when her 10-year-old son, Amr, tried to intervene, he was beaten as well. Refugees fleeing the long conflict in Syria once were welcomed in neighboring Turkey with open arms, sympathy and compassion for fellow Muslims. But attitudes gradually hardened as the number of newcomers swelled over the past decade. Anti-immigrant sentiment is now nearing a boiling point, fueled by Turkey’s economic woes. With unemployment high and the prices of food and housing skyrocketing, many Turks have turned their frustration toward the country’s roughly 5 million foreign residents, particularly the 3.7 million who fled the civil war in Syria.

For India’s Military, a Juggling Act on Two Hostile Fronts (NYT) After the deadliest clashes in half a century with China, India’s military has taken emergency measures to reinforce a 500-mile stretch of the border high in the Himalayas. In the past year, it has tripled the number of troops in the contentious eastern Ladakh region to more than 50,000. It has raced to stock up on food and gear for freezing temperatures and 15,000-foot altitudes before the region is largely cut off for much of the winter. It has announced that an entire strike corps, an offensive force of tens of thousands more soldiers, would be reoriented to the increasingly contentious frontier with China from the long, volatile border with Pakistan. India’s military is now grappling with a reality that the country has feared for nearly two decades: It is stuck in a two-front conflict with hostile neighbors—and all three are nuclear armed.

China says all crypto transactions illegal (AP) China’s central bank on Friday declared all transactions involving Bitcoin and other virtual currencies illegal, stepping up a campaign to block use of unofficial digital money. Friday’s notice complained Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies disrupt the financial system and are used in money-laundering and other crimes. The price of Bitcoin fell more than 9%, to $41,085, in the hours after the announcement, as did most other crypto tokens. Promoters of cryptocurrencies say they allow anonymity and flexibility, but Chinese regulators worry they might weaken the ruling Communist Party’s control over the financial system and say they might help to conceal criminal activity. The People’s Bank of China is developing an electronic version of the country’s yuan for cashless transactions that can be tracked and controlled by Beijing.

8 dead as al-Shabab claims blast in Somalia’s capital (AP) A vehicle laden with explosives rammed into cars and trucks at a checkpoint leading to the entrance of the Presidential Palace in Somalia, killing at least eight people, police said Saturday. The checkpoint is the one used by Somalia’s president and prime minister on their way to and from the airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Nine other people were wounded in the bombing, police spokesman Abdifatah Adam Hassan said. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group has claimed responsibility.