Reader’s Links on March 2, 2021

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

123 Replies to “Reader’s Links on March 2, 2021”

  1. “Arizona Has Gone Their Own Way! To The Extreme of Political Chronic Cronyism Not For We The People”
    Jovan Hutton Pulitzer – March 1, 2021

  2. https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6236046101001

    Sky News host Rowan Dean says the “halfwit” John Kerry is now “having a go” at Australia over climate change.

    President Joe Biden’s Special Envoy on Climate John Kerry slammed Australia’s action on climate change and took aim at Canberra’s involvement in the failure of the 2019 UN Climate Conference in Madrid.

    Mr Kerry told former US vice president and failed presidential candidate Al Gore Australia has “had some differences with us”.

    “We’ve not been able to get on the same page completely,” Mr Kerry said.

    “That was one of the problems in Madrid as you recall, together with Brazil.”

    Sky News host Rita Panahi said according to Mr Kerry, Australia “isn’t pulling its weight” despite the fact it has signed up to the Paris climate accord and is “meeting our obligations”.

    “I don’t know what more he wants.”
    M But we all do: the destruction of Oz’s economy.

  3. https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-continuing-crisis/

    This is an excerpt only:

    The single biggest loser of January 6 was Donald Trump himself. His entire presidency will now be forced and filtered through this one deliberately distorted lens. All the good he did will be demonized, denied, and then forgotten. But collectively, the biggest losers are his supporters. Trump’s sensible program—secure borders, fair trade, a modest foreign policy—will be branded (to the extent that it hasn’t been already) indistinguishable from fascism. And then abandoned—to their detriment.

    The vast majority of those who went to the Capitol did so without a plan, but they did have a goal: to be heard. Which was also the reason they voted for Donald Trump in the first place: they had not been heard in at least 30 years. But the actions of a few not only ensured that they would not be heard, but that instead they would get an earful of the same stuff most of them have been hearing their entire lives, only this time much louder: that everyone in the heartland, at least half the South, and anyone who voted for Trump is deplorable and irredeemable; that America itself is systemically racist; that most or all police are stormtroopers; that equal treatment under law is unjust; and that there are, fundamentally, two classes of people in the United States: the genetically deserving and the genetically guilty.

    And now, in addition to all that, calls from the wise and good to investigate and “hold accountable” and cleanse from industry and employment people who did not storm the Capitol but who simply supported a politician and his agenda, as if this were somehow criminal. The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson has proposed an effort to “deprogram” Trump voters. Prominent members of the Democratic Party such as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich have called for a “truth and reconciliation commission” like the kind that has followed the fall of shameful autocratic regimes. (And that, not coincidentally, uncovered little truth and produced even less reconciliation.) The Berggruen Institute’s Nils Gilman—a man who, perhaps not incidentally, recently called for my death—is having none of that. “These people need to be extirpated from politics,” he recently tweeted.

    In Gilman and company’s eyes, Trump’s voters have no moral, political, or intellectual standing and no legitimate interests—only obligations arising from their inborn moral culpability. There is no reason at all to address their concerns or listen to them. Indeed, it’s dangerous even to let them speak lest they lead others into error. Worst of all is to allow them to organize around what they perceive as their interests, which inevitably leads them to express and perpetuate racism and other sins.

    So that’s what Trump supporters hear; what do they see? Double standards and hypocrisy everywhere. Mike Flynn’s life ruined over a non-crime while the man who ruined it, James Comey, laughs about his handiwork on an Upper East Side stage. Four years of constant lies about Russian collusion and no reckoning, either for those who broke the law to get it going, or those who used their megaphone to keep it going. Changes to the voting system designed to help one party and marginalize theirs. A country flooded with immigration for more than half a century, padding the votes of the other party, driving down wages, and enriching oligarchs. A trade regime seemingly designed to ship their jobs overseas, close their factories, and empty out their towns. A media and intellectual class that no longer makes any pretense of fairness or objectivity but openly operates as the propaganda arm of the regime—to the extent it is not itself the regime. And now, an increasing tendency to demonize all dissent as terrorism and lock out of the political system—permanently—at least 47% of the population.

    What we now have, more and more, is a one-party oligarchy. This was the nemesis of the Trump presidency. Like all oligarchies, ours rules by coercion, not consent. It exerts its power primarily by constraining allowable, expressible opinion: it knows that the thing which cannot be said eventually becomes that which cannot be thought. And the chief thoughts it wishes to suppress are objections to its own misrule. When and where it cannot “persuade”—that is, propagandize—it punishes, with the defiant fired from their jobs, made unemployable, cut off from the financial system, even, in some cases, shunned by friends and family. This is not “death,” exactly. But how much less cruel is it, really, to cut people off from human contact and the means of making a living? And how much real misery—and desperation—does it produce?

    Against recalcitrant groups, organizations, even whole states, our ruling class uses its control of communications to wage demonization campaigns akin to two-minute hates, except lasting much longer. Witness, for example, corporate America’s united boycott of North Carolina over “transgender” bathrooms and the now-routine practice of Blue states issuing travel and other bans on their agencies or employees doing any business with Red states that don’t entirely toe the latest Blue line.

    • “All the good he did will be demonized…”

      Except, this period will be known as Trump Derangement Syndrome. To have exposed the unsanity of the American culture and how weak and rotten to the core the political class.

      • The core of every ruling class has been weak and rotten but they are always protected by hordes of well paid brainwashed minions so removing them requires dire actions and harsh measures of which the current west in its woke couch potato, apathetic state is no longer capable. Certainly there are many who post: “they wont take my guns”. But one by one they will.
        The west no longer has a backbone, as it has been lulled by excess food, excess freedoms and excess distractions and thus most will bend when the woke blizzard hits them and ANY organized attempt to resist will be pre-empted by harsh military efforts and all such freedom fighters will be labelled and shot as “terrorists” if only for fighting back. The West as we knew it is in its death throes.

  4. https://americanmind.org/salvo/bi-bi-miss-american-pie/

    M Just wait until the child surgical “transgenders” start suing.

    Bi, Bi, Miss American Pie
    Peachy Keenan

    Wither girls?
    My kids stopped watching Sesame Street when the original voice of Elmo got busted on a pedo beef, but I used to love this old-school expression of his. To describe playing pretend, Elmo would say, “We’re making believe!”

    Good news: Generation Z still loves playing making believe!

    Bad news: They’re all making believe they’re bisexual. And that game, friends, lasts forever.

    LGBBBBBBTQ

    The big news last week was the new Gallup poll that claims 11.5%, or 1 in 6 Generation Z adults (they polled ages 18 to 23), now identify as LGBTQ. The most popular letter is the B.

    “72% who identify as LGBTQ say they are bisexual,” according to Gallup. For millennials, “half of those aged 24 to 39 in 2020 who identify as LGBT say they are bisexual.”

    Another fascinating data point: “Women are more likely than men to identify as LGBT and more likely to identify as bisexual.”

    What’s going on? Only one answer is allowed: society is finally open enough for millions of bisexual women to come out of their closets. And okay, for some of them, sure, I take you at your word. But this much bi-ness feels like a frenzy. A craze. It’s a cliché so common even my 13-year-old knows the “eat hot chip and lie” meme. It’s all these girls know how to do!

    If you are truly bisexual, aren’t you kinda straight half the time? I guess that’s my inner boomer talking, sorry. But there is a tangled logic tree to explore here (we all love exploring, don’t we folx?). Yes, you can be gay and in a straight relationship and not be bi, like this guy in college who had a hot girlfriend and then came out—and stayed way the hell out. You can be straight and in a gay relationship, like a female friend of mine was, and that doesn’t make you bi. Or gay, since she’s engaged to a man now.

    Is bisexuality the state of being in either a straight or gay relationship but still feeling attraction for other people at the same time, or are you reserving an option in the future to feel attraction to other people? Is bisexuality transitory and fleeting, like they tell me gender is? As Carrie Bradshaw might ask, can one be bisexually fluid?

    Of course, the answers to these questions don’t matter. No one cares, least of all me, whom you “choose to love” as Michelle Obama likes to say. But the phenomenon of young women flooding into LGBTQIA+ world, clogging the highways and bi-ways of society, bodes ill for us all.

    Why So Bi?

    I’m no expert, and I know we shouldn’t trust people unless they’re experts, but the fact that so many more Generation Zs chose “bisexual” over gay or straight in the Gallup poll indicates that some likely chose it on the spot, under duress. Declaring yourself bisexual gives you newly elevated status as a protected class; you win extra social points. You get attention and praise. It signifies to straight men in a competitive and gross dating market that you are sexually open to new experiences.

    If you happen to be white, “becoming” (as Michelle Obama likes to say) bisexual instantly distances you from your straight white—i.e., white supremacist and super racist—peers. You get to be in the popular group with the media darlings, the ones everyone is always hanging special flags for and sticking those signs in their lawns to celebrate. It’s the ultimate sexuality of convenience for straight women who may not ever (shhh!) be willing to have a real lesbian relationship. You get all the credit with none of the hard work, girl!

    Bi is big because it’s a sexuality of status for a certain stratum of young females. It is also a sexuality of refuge—if you’re cowering from woke Einsatzgruppen on campus patrol. It’s the mark on your doorframe so the angel of cancellation passes over your dorm room and harasses some hateful heteros instead.

    Imagine admitting—in public!—to a person on the phone that you’re NOT part of the special people’s club. Imagine being forced to admit that you are so hopelessly square, so hidebound in your hegemonic traditions of oppressive patriarchal bourgeois culture that you…still find just the opposite sex attractive!

    How can any woke young person do that? These strong “Girl Power” women are terrified by tweets; traumatized by words. How can we expect them to stand firm against the slightest shift in the cultural tides?

    This is the magic of bisexuality: you can claim the prize, and you don’t need to do anything different. You can continue on in your happy straight relationship, no questions asked. You can write your college acceptance essay about “coming out” as bisexual and gather extra social credit points without ever having a single bisexual experience. Fake and gay? Women really can have it all!

    The Old Normal

    Of course, there’s also the tragic feminization of men. Maybe some of these girls really are just forced to date amongst themselves since so many of their male peers have forgotten what it actually means to be a man. Forget “straight”—“man” is the final boss trigger word. Manliness is distasteful and unfashionable. Is it any wonder women must take solace with each other?

    In a few years, being a bisexual woman will mean you’re attracted to actual men, and also to neutered, estrogen-infused receipt-eaters with soy for brains, peach fuzz for beards, and testes the size of dehydrated lima beans. Don’t drink the tap water, boys! (Infowars and the New York Times finally agreed on that one.)

    We must build off-ramps from this chaos, and a pathway back to healthy heterosexuality for children assigned straight at birth.

    Making believe they are bi, or making believe they are men trapped in women’s bodies, will end up making Generation Z girls the most medicated, dysfunctional, childless, self-sterilized generation ever. A lost cause lost in their cause. But there is still hope for the youngest Americans. Your kids. My kids. As Doc says about getting back to the future, “it’s your kids, Marty! Something has gotta be done about your kids!”

    Perhaps in the future straight girls and boys will finally be able to stop hiding, emerge from the closet, and declare at long last to the world: “We’re great, we’re straight, get used to it

    • There used to be a joke about bisexuals that they only existed because the individuals who saw themselves as such could not handle “missing out” on Saturday night and by becoming bisexual the thus doubled their chances. As I never belonged to that scene I cannot really comment by the thought of ‘sleeping” with a confused or greedy fool does not appeal.

    • As the need for real affection for a child increases when over-loved or under-loved, the school award for being Diverse or the isolation room for being too bright, then bi-sexuality serves the narcissists and religious-yearners alike.

  5. Iraq says paid $50 bln in war reparations to Kuwait (aa, Mar 2, 2021)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/iraq-says-paid-50-bln-in-war-reparations-to-kuwait/2161854

    “Iraq has so far paid $49.5 billion in war reparations to Kuwait, an Iraqi official said on Tuesday.

    “Iraq’s dues now amount to only $2.5 billion,” Mazhar Salih, an adviser to the prime minister, told Al-Sabaah newspaper.

    In 1991, the UN obliged Baghdad to pay $52.4 billion in compensation to individuals, companies, governmental organizations, and others who incurred losses resulting from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

    Salih said the Iraqi government is deducting 3% of oil revenues to pay the remaining compensation to Kuwait following the 1991 Iraqi invasion of its Gulf neighbor.

    “The remaining war reparations are expected to be paid within a year or so,” he said.

    In May 2020, Iraqi lawmaker Hanin Qaddo told Anadolu Agency that Baghdad had asked Kuwait to postpone the payment of $3.7 billion in war reparations to the Gulf state.

    *Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara.”

    • The issue is, would the world’s masses work better under this ‘fuzzy logic,’ a pheromone so to speak (literally), and control them at whim?

      A surplus or shortage of stock, could have supply and demand licked, fashion and taste altered, and the stock market controlled.

      Pride, and the kingdom is yours.

  6. Ontario woman sexually assaulted at home by government COVID quarantine officer
    ‘The accused informed the victim that they were in violation of the quarantine order and demanded that a fine be paid in cash. When the victim declined to pay, she was sexually assaulted by the accused.’
    Mon Mar 1, 2021 – 11:39 am EST

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ontario-woman-sexually-assaulted-at-home-by-government-covid-quarantine-officer?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com&utm_campaign=9fafd15235-Daily%2520Headlines%2520-%2520U.S._COPY_746&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_12387f0e3e-9fafd15235-411489962

    • The moral of this story is the government can lock a person who is not sick away and hire a sick bastard to abuse the not sick person. Maybe she should have been allowed to stay home and stay safe.

      Meanwhile, prison sentences are being shortened so the criminals can come out and be safe from COVID.

      NEXT TIME YOU VOTE, I do hope you will speak to the person you are thinking of voting for and make sure they are mentally stable and not a fluffy, dramatic, fragile moron. don’t forget to ask them what 2 + 2 equals.

  7. Policing ‘reform’ bill could lead to gender-based police stops and racial profiling of Asians or whites – Liberty Unyielding
    Hans Bader
    6-7 minutes

    Policing ‘reform’ bill could lead to gender-based police stops and racial profiling of Asians or whites

    Image: LU Staff

    Joe Biden backs a police reform bill that could lead to more racial and sexual profiling, such as gender-based stops of female motorists. NBC News reports that the “Biden administration on Monday threw its support behind” the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The administration says this bill is needed to tackle “systemic racism – in police departments.”

    But the bill could actually cause systematic racism and sexism. The Justice in Policing Act encourages police departments to adopt quotas based on gender and race for “traffic stops,” “pedestrian stops,” and “interviews.” The practical effect would be to encourage police departments to stop innocent women, Asians, and whites, just to meet quotas based on gender and race. If police departments don’t meet these quotas, they could be sued by the Justice Department or individuals they stop.

    Section 311 of the Act forbids what it calls “racial profiling.” This is defined to include not just race, but also “gender” in Section 302(a)(6) of the bill. But it defines “profiling” in such a crudely-mechanical way that itactually encourages profiling, rather than outlawing it.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/03/01/policing-reform-bill-could-lead-to-gender-based-police-stops-and-racial-profiling-of-asians-or-whites/

  8. (Richard: The Dems are trying to shame the Republicans and others on the right into shutting up, they are doing this by projecting their sins on to the Right.(

    Former CIA Director John Brennan: ‘I’m increasingly embarrassed to be a white male these days’ – Liberty Unyielding
    Daily Caller News Foundation
    3 minutes

    Former CIA Director John Brennan: ‘I’m increasingly embarrassed to be a white male these days’

    John Brennan (Image via Twitter)

    By Mary Rose Corkery

    Former CIA Director John Brennan said Monday that he’s “increasingly embarrassed to be a white male these days.”

    MSNBC analyst and former Sen. Claire McCaskill said during a panel segment on “Deadline: White House” Monday that she’s “never seen so many whiny white men calling themselves victims” until the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). McCaskill said lying is now acceptable “for the new Republican Party.”

    “Well I must say, to Claire’s point, I’m increasingly embarrassed to be a white male these days … in light of what I see of my other white males saying,” Brennan said in the segment.

    Trending: Tina Fey breaks promise of politics-free Golden Globes in first few minutes of broadcast

    “But it just shows that with very few exceptions, like [Sen.] Mitt Romney, [Sen.] Liz Cheney, [and Rep.] Adam Kinzinger, there are so few Republicans in Congress who value truth, honesty and integrity,” Brennan said. (RELATED: Kevin McCarthy And Liz Cheney Disagree On Trump During Press Conference)

    “And so they’ll continue to gaslight the country the way that Donald Trump did,” Brennan said.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/03/02/former-cia-director-john-brennan-im-increasingly-embarrassed-to-be-a-white-male-these-days/

    • He so wants to be accepted by the muslims. As a convert it will take a couple of generations before they cease the behind the back insults.
      I find it rather funny that “white males” never seems to include the Arab muslims but I bet it includes Arab Christians.

    • As a child there was an outbreak of ??? some disease on a farm up the road.
      We all heard that the local vet had “cured” it all and fixed the outbreak.
      Apparently he and the owner shot some 400 animals between them.
      Well, it did not spread to anywhere else.

  9. American Media’s Trump problem and why they will help him win the 2024 election

  10. Myanmar military uses force as dissent grows | Military Junta | Latest English News | World New

    • I wonder how much of this “dissent” is initiated, organized and paid for by Soros type western groups.
      If it is mostly the 35-15 age group rioting then this fits in with western antifa.

      Correct me if I am wrong but IIRC the Myanmar economy was suffering severely from the sanctions and the civilian government was going to reverse its policy WRT the muslim invaders and this was too much for the Buddhists and the armed forces.

  11. TAIWAN IS PREPARING FOR WORST SCENARIO! Taiwan stages live-fire drill on island in South China Sea.

  12. France is flexing its muscles in the contested waters sending a message to china.

  13. Chinese Aircraft Carry Out Exercises, Pressure Taiwan in South China Sea Region.

  14. Conservative Reporter Detained At Government Quarantine Facility, Aussies Propose Using MINING CAMPS

    • They already see being conservative as a dangerous infectious disease so I wonder when we will hit the fan?

  15. Priti Patel to Introduce Life Sentences for People Smugglers: Report (breitbart, Mar 2, 2021)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/03/02/people-smugglers-will-face-life-sentences-promises-priti-patel/

    “Home Secretary Priti Patel is reportedly set to announce that people smugglers will face life sentences, in the latest attempt to deal with the ongoing Channel migrant crisis.

    Under current law, people smugglers only face a maximum sentence of fourteen years. However, as with most criminals jailed in the UK, they are unlikely to serve their full term, with most typically serving less than five years behind bars.

    Patel is looking to increase the penalty to a maximum sentence of life, which would prohibit the smugglers from being able to qualify for automatic early release, according to The Times.

    The move, which is expected to be introduced legislatively later this year, would primarily target low-end traffickers, including those who actually steer the migrant boats.

    A Home Office source told the paper: “At the moment the 14-year maximum sentence does constrain obviously what judges can do because that narrows the range of sentences available.

    “We’re not naive enough to imagine that every trial judge is going to be handing down a life sentence for anyone who’s convicted of people smuggling but by having that option available then hopefully we’ll see [life sentences] used in the worst cases, and then in other cases we will start seeing the 12, 15, 20-year sentences that these people aren’t getting at the moment.

    “We need the starting point for all of these serious sentences to be much higher and that means the top end has to be at the very highest and that means a life sentence.”

    The upcoming legislation will also focus on preventing migrants from filing last-minute asylum claims after they have already been rejected. Last year, little over one hundred failed asylum seekers who crossed the Channel by boat or tunnel were returned back to Europe…”

  16. Nigerian Criminal Evades Deportation After Claiming to be Bisexual (breitbart, Mar 2, 2021)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/03/02/nigerian-criminal-evades-deportation-from-the-uk-after-claiming-to-be-bisexual/

    “A convicted Nigerian criminal successfully evaded deportation from the UK after claiming that he is bisexual just hours before he was set to be kicked out of the country.

    The unnamed man was convicted of fraud in 2015 and was sentenced to five and a half years in prison after arriving in the country as a student in 2006.

    The Home Office began deportation proceedings against him in 2016, which were delayed by the migrant launching human rights claims in two judicial reviews.

    His initial asylum claims were shot down by a judge, however, The Sun reported on Sunday that in January of 2019 — just hours before his scheduled deportation — the migrant claimed that he was bisexual and could not live openly without repercussions in Nigeria.

    The criminal claimed that he had been subject to abuse at university and later in prison as a result of his sexuality. The Nigerian said that he was convinced to disclose his sexuality after discussions with a welfare officer and other detainees.

    The Home Office claimed that he was lying, as he had never mentioned his sexuality in the years of court appeals, yet an immigration judge granted the Nigerian criminal asylum.

    Commenting on the case, Conservative MP Nigel Mills said: “It’s the most ridiculous case I have ever heard.”

    “Every convicted criminal will be trying this now,” Mills warned.

    Judges in the UK have often blocked the deportation of foreign criminals on the grounds that they may receive harsh treatment if returned to their homeland…”

  17. What’s Behind The Ammo Shortage In The US? – President of Major Ammo Company Nosler Explains

    • I wonder how long before the Biden Bandits start to target such companies using ANY excuse as a way of dodging a direct 2nd amendment repeal?

      For those here who are already armed make certain that you have self loading setup. You do not have to use it but you should know how to. Just in case.

  18. Report: Hackers target Indian vaccine makers SII, Bharat Biotech | China | COVID-19 Vaccine | WION

  19. Funeral for 23-year-old software engineer killed on Feb 28 during Myanmar protests

  20. Singapore PM urges Myanmar’s military to release Aung San Suu Kyi, end lethal force

    • Singapore is doing heavy lifting on this one.
      Why?

      Not related but interesting:
      The Israeli ship hit by Iran in the Gulf of Oman was bound for Singapore. The two are the most quiet BFF in the world. Unnerving that this particular ship was the target. Maybe coincidence.

  21. Declassified footage shows Iran rain down missiles on US airbase

    The Pentagon has declassified drone footage showing an American airbase in Iraq taking a missile pounding after the Iranian military decided to enact revenge for the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.

    The footage was captured on January 8, 2020 by an American drone buzzing over the base, some five days after Soleimani was killed in a US air raid near Baghdad Airport that was ordered by then-president Donald Trump.

    In total, at least 11 Qaim missiles were fired at Ayn al-Asad airbase in the Iranian counterattack, according to the defense secretary at the time, Mark Esper. While no US troops were killed in the strikes, 110 service personnel were ultimately diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries due to their proximity to the blasts.

  22. Sky News australia – Vaccination apps may be the key to normality

    Vaccination apps on phones may be the key to normality as New South Wales residents are set to use their phones to prove COVID-19 vaccination status.

    The Daily Telegraph is reporting officials are closing in on a passport-style plan which could prohibit entry to those who refuse to get the vaccine.


    • COVID-tracking bracelets given out at Tel Aviv airport

      Israel has launched a pilot program to test electronic bracelets designed to monitor incoming travelers during their COVID quarantine as an alternative to a mandatory stay at a state-administered hotel.

      The move has already sparked privacy concerns as a top court moved to curb the Shin Bet spy agency’s role in contact tracing.

    • EU ‘to introduce COVID-19 vaccine passports’ allowing Brits to travel this summer

      The European Union is preparing a vaccine passport scheme which would allow British tourists to enter Europe this Summer. <b<In a move which will bring joy to millions of holidaymakers the European Commission will propose legislation for a digital green pass allowing for nations to open their borders later this year.

      Brussels plans to have a scheme in place for the end of June, which could mean Brits who have been vaccinated will be able to freely travel to European countries as either tourists or for work. The digital passports will also include data regarding your latest coronavirus test results and your level of antibodies for the virus, as well as whether you have received a COVID jab. This means you may not have to have a vaccine to enter Europe, if for example you can prove you have built up immunity via antibodies and test negative before travelling.

      The UK has confirmed it is working with international partners on vaccine passport schemes, which will likely be introduced by nations around the world as borders begin to reopen. Spanish ministers have said if the EU scheme cannot be agreed, they will look to negotiate bilateral agreements with countries such as the UK to open up the Spanish tourism industry in time for the summer.

    • A cartoon for children – California’s COVID-19 Testing Program (Daily Pass)

      Los Angeles Unified has launched a one-stop shop web app built specifically for the District to ensure that we get students, faculty and administrators back to schools and district offices as safely as possible.

      In addition to completing a daily health check through the app, users will be able to book COVID-19 tests and receive test results and messages.

      This innovative tool was developed in partnership with Microsoft to bring our students back into the classrooms.

    • Deutsche Pravda – High on lockdown: Substance abuse during the pandemic

      Actor Seth Rogen, is not alone.

      Celebrity or not – pandemic pot smokers are on the rise, according to a global survey of 55,000 respondents.

      Boredom and loneliness are the most frequently cited reasons.

      The same for consuming more alcohol. Take Australia – before the coronavirus arrived, six percent of respondents drank alcohol on a daily basis.

      That’s surged to over 30 percent during the pandemic.

    • World won’t vanquish coronavirus this year, says WHO

      The World Health Organization’s emergencies director says it is unrealistic to think that the world will be done with the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of the year, adding that it might be possible to take the sting of tragedy out of the coronavirus crisis by reducing hospitalisations and deaths.

    • the rebel – Keean Bexte is in a Canadian COVID jail

      Keean Bexte returned from covering CPAC in Florida, only to wind up in one of Justin Trudeau’s COVID jails.

    • sky news UK – COVID: EU vaccine skepticism slows rollout

      The European Union has defended its vaccine procurement strategy, saying it is “not unravelling”.

      Some EU countries who are frustrated with the pace of the vaccine rollout are buying doses of jabs from China and Russia which are not currently approved for use in Europe.

    • CBC – Trust in vaccines needs open discussion, says specialist

      Honest communication about evolving decisions around COVID-19 vaccinations is very important to keep public trust, says Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a member of Ontario’s COVID-19 task force.

    • CBC – People of colour disportionately affected by COVID-19 in Manitoba

      Slightly more than half of the people in Manitoba who tested positive for COVID-19 who reported their racial or ethnic identity to case investigators identified as Black, Indigenous, or a person of colour, despite making up roughly 35 per cent of the population.

    • Twitter will label COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and enforce a strike system

      Repeatedly sharing misleading information can lead to your account being locked

      […]Twitter has specific criteria for labeling in its COVID-19 misleading information policy, but generally, the company targets five categories of false or misleading information:

      – Misinformation about the nature of the virus
      – Misinformation about the efficacy of treatments and preventive measures
      – Misinformation about regulations, restrictions, and exemptions in association with health advisories-
      – Misinformation about the prevalence of the virus and the risk of infection or death
      – Misleading affiliations (for example, claiming to be a doctor or public health official)

      […]

      https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/1/22307919/twitter-covid-19-vaccine-labels-five-strike-system

    • SYRIA – Rebel-held region prepares to receive vaccines

      A health official in Syria’s Idlib says vaccines will soon arrive to the area through the United Nations-backed COVAX initiative.

      Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region is gearing up to receive the first batch of coronavirus vaccines.

      A health official in Idlib said 136,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive as early as next month through the United Nations-backed COVAX initiative.
      “A quantity of (coronavirus) vaccines, sufficient for 20% of the population (in Idlib), will be received,” said Dr. Rifaat Farhat, the head of the vaccination department in Idlib.
      He said the first groups to receive the vaccine will include health care workers and civil defence personnel.
      The World Health Organization has said war-ravaged Syria is eligible to receive vaccines for free through the global COVAX effort aimed at helping lower-income countries obtain the shots.
      It said that the vaccine rollout depends on the availability and distribution, and may initially cover only 3% of the population.
      The pandemic, which has severely tested even developed countries, is the biggest challenge yet for Syria’s health sector, already depleted by years of conflict.

    • channel 4 – Some parents in England are not consenting to their children being tested for Covid in school

      The guidance from government is that every pupil should be tested three times in the first two weeks, when schools return in England next Monday.

      It’s supposed to reassure parents, staff and pupils that schools are safe.

      But while teachers wrestle with the huge logistical challenges, there are signs that many parents are withholding consent.

      In one academy in Nottingham, as many as 50 per cent of parents are trying to stop their children being tested. We have been to find out why.

    • Conservative MP on AstraZeneca vaccine, quarantine facilities

      At a press conference on Parliament Hill, Conservative health critic Michelle Rempel Garner discusses the federal government’s decision to administer AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to people over 65.

      Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization released new guidelines on March 1, that advise against vaccinating seniors with this vaccine because of a lack of information about efficacy.

      Rempel Garner also discusses ongoing concerns about the safety of federal quarantine facilities for returning international travellers.

    • city news Montreal – Montreal doctor says mass vaccination will help the healthcare system

      Dr. Huang Duong, President of the Association of Internal Medicine Specialists of Quebec, says the healthcare system is slowly starting to breathe again and along with the mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign underway now – it’s giving people hope.

    • Democratic Republic of the Congo: Parents panic over rumours children will be forcibly vaccinated for Covid-19

      Terrified by rumours that children would be forcibly vaccinated against Covid-19, distressed parents rushed to pick up their children from school in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the morning of February 25. Though the authorities quickly denied any such plan, our Observers say this is just one example of the deep mistrust of the Covid-19 vaccine in the DRC.

      Disinformation led to complete chaos at several schools in Bukavu. A video, shared with the FRANCE 24 Observers team and posted on Facebook on February 25 shows students and parents running down the hall of the Institute Kasali primary school earlier that same morning:

      The same chaotic scenes took place in several schools around town, including the Institute Kasali.

      Both the schools and local health officials immediately addressed the rumours, stating that there was no forced vaccination campaign under way, according to Congolese fact-checking website Congo Check. The same day, Doctor Claude Bahizire, who is in charge of communications for the provincial health division, or DPS, said on Mama radio that there were no Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in South Kivu.

      https://observers.france24.com/en/africa/20210302-democratic-republic-congo-drc-vaccination-children-covid-19-bukavu

    • sky news australia – Berejiklian: NSW ‘can’t move forward’ until majority of residents vaccinated

      Premier Gladys Berejiklian has voiced her interest in a possible COVID-19 vaccine passport for New South Wales residents – sayingit may not be possible for the state to move forward until the majority of the population is vaccinated.

      Discussions are underway for a vaccine passport-style plan for NSW citizens which may prohibit a person from entering a venue if they have refused a COVID-19 jab.

      Asked today about the possible move, Ms Berejiklian said “what we are doing is planning ahead”.

      “We’re trying to be a few steps ahead so NSW and Australia don’t fall behind the rest of the world when it comes to opening up.

      “We’re preparing what we can do here in NSW to really provide those opportunities for our citizens, whether it’s international travel, whether it’s moving around more freely without restrictions.

      “I’m all supportive of a national scheme to give people that passport if that’s the case but if we’re able to enhance what’s offered or enhance what’s available.

      “I do want our citizens in NSW to start thinking optimistically about the opportunities that might come down the track once the vast majority of our population has been vaccinated.

      “We can’t move forward to thinking about those opportunities, thinking about the things we’ve been denied for the last 12 months … unless the vast majority of our population has been vaccinated.

      “We’re always open toconsidering incentives that our state might offer which other states might choose not to offer.

      “We’ve tried to not burden our citizens unless we’ve absolutely had to when it comes to restrictions.”

    • sky news australia – NSW authorities considering vaccine passport

      Discussions are underway for a vaccine passport-style plan for New South Wales residents which may prohibit a person from entering a venue if they have refused a COVID-19 jab.

      Certificates would become readily accessible on the Service NSW app, and data sharing arrangements between the federal government and Service NSW are underway.

      The government predicts airlines, clubs and entertainment venues may mandate the vaccine.

    • Toronto Sun – PASSPORT TO THE NEW NORMAL Gunter: It’s complicated but vaccine docs are necessary

  23. https://www.opindia.com/2021/02/australian-media-slam-justin-trudeau-for-abstaining-vote-against-china/

    On February 22, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet abstained from voting in Canada’s House of Commons to declare China is committing genocide against Uyghurs. His move is being criticized across the world. Sky News Australia host Cory Bernardi during a news show called Canadian government the “most pathetic government in the history of the Five Eyes” for his alleged ‘spineless’ step.

    The Five Eyes is an alliance of five countries comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was formed for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.

    On February 25, Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin discussed with other Sky News host Cory Bernardi and Outsiders host James Morrow. While addressing Canadian PM as ‘Left-Wing Premier’ and ‘Prince of Woke’, Credlin said that when she saw the headline in the papers that Canada has voted, she thought finally the Uyghur issue is finally getting some attention. However, Justin Trudeau did not turn up for voting.

    Sky News host Cory Bernardi said that it was Justin and his entire cabinet that abstained from voting. He said, perhaps the “most pathetic government in the history of the Five Eyes nation.” He added that what is happening in China with Uyghurs is an absolute disgrace, and it is a blight on the rest of the world that no one is talking about it because “we are too afraid to offend China.”

    He further added that the debate on whether the Winter Olympics should take place in China or not is still ongoing. Canada has voted against China but not because of the sitting government under Trudeau but because of the rest of the Canadian Parliament that showed some “spirit and some spine in these matters.”

    Credlin, while calling Erin O’Toole’s statement in which he pointed out that what is happening in China is real suffering and Canada’s values and not for sale, a gusty statement, she pointed out that United States President Joe Biden also excused Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs by calling it “sort of different cultural norm.” She raised questions over the Western leaders’ weak-kneed attitude when it comes to calling out China’s human rights abuses.

    ‘The issue is money’ – James Morrow
    Morrow said that there was a time when the left was all vocal for free Tibet, and they were not afraid of calling out China. However, in today’s time, it seems like the real issue is money. He said that China had become such a huge market for Hollywood and another source of industries. It also pumps money into left-wing politicians’ campaigns. He alleged that an “awful lot of people had been bought by China.” He added that he does not know the situation with Trudeau but the left now has a blind spot when it comes to the treatment of Uyghurs in the hands of China.

  24. sky news australia – Biden Administration ‘destroying democracy at warp speed’

    The Biden Administration has – within a month – “terrifyingly” restricted liberties, according to American author Naomi Wolf.

    “When I look at closing democracies throughout history … fascist and totalitarian communist governments do the same thing, they always take the same ten steps to destroy democracies,” Ms Wolf told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

    “We’re seeing those ten steps taken at warp speed right now.

    “What’s so depressing is to see people so scared by propaganda which is designed to terrify people into not daring to say we deserve to have our rights back.”

    • sky news australia -Lockdowns are an ‘invention of Xi Jinping’: Naomi Wolf

      American author Naomi Wolf says lockdowns are an “invention of Xi Jinping” as they have never existed throughout history in a free society.

      In an exclusive interview with Sky News host Chris Kenny, Ms Wolf said lockdowns “violate basic human rights”.

      “Every human right in law is being violated,” she said.

      “Australia has a very central place in my heart, I fell in love with the country year ago, it’s a beautiful country full of amazing, diverse, incredible creative people”.

      “It’s a democracy – or it was”.

      “It’s been painful for me to watch the people of Australia being lied to over and over and tortured there psychologically.”

      Ms Wolf said Australia’s democracy has been “put on hold” for “illegal reasons”.

      “Nowhere does it say in a sound and healthy society that you get to suspend civil liberties if there’s a disease around. That is not how it works in a democracy.”

  25. PM Modi inaugurates ‘Maritime India Summit 2021’ | Blue Economy | Port-led development |English news

  26. Deutsche Pravda – Khashoggi’s widow: ‘They will regret what they did to my husband’

  27. The Biden Administration using the US military to illegally occupy NE Syria

    I’m glad that some of my former colleagues in Congress are speaking out against the recent unconstitutional airstrikes in Syria – but they’re ignoring the bigger issue: the regime change war the US continues to wage in Syria using al-Qaeda/al-Nusra/HTS terrorists as our proxy ground force, who now occupy and control the city of Idlib, imposing Sharia Law and “cleansing” the area of most Christians and religious minorities.

    The Biden Administration continues to use the US military to illegally occupy NE Syria to “take the oil” as Trump so crassly but honestly put it, violating international law.

    A modern-day siege of draconian embargo/sanctions similar to what the Saudi-US alliance employed in Yemen is causing death & suffering for millions of innocent Syrians, depriving them of food, medicine, clean water, energy & warmth, and making it impossible for the Syrian people to try to rebuild their war-torn country.

    • She’s a ringer.
      Too much WRONG here to dismiss as ignorance, a ~ her heart is in the right place ~ pitch.

      Industrial-strength disinformation.
      At this moment she’ll have confused, unhappy Americans lapping it up.
      Scary. Putin’s timing is flawless.

  28. China Continues Crushing Hong Kong
    Judith Bergman
    10-13 minutes

    Since China adopted its National Security Law in June 2020, Hong Kong’s government and China have sought to extinguish all opposition to Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party, and to eradicate Hong Kong’s core values. Pictured: Detained pro-democracy activists are brought onto a prison transport on March 2, 2021 in Hong Kong. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

    Since China adopted its National Security Law in June 2020, Hong Kong’s government, under Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and China have sought to extinguish all opposition to Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and to eradicate Hong Kong’s core values. These include free speech, a free market economy, freedom of assembly and freedom of religious belief, all guaranteed in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, a UN-registered treaty. China publicly voiced its contempt for that treaty in 2017, when it said that it was a mere “historical document” without any significance.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17112/china-crushing-hong-kong

  29. YouTube Suspends Rudy Giuliani Over ‘Election Integrity Policy,’ Nicotine Use
    By Jack Phillips
    March 1, 2021 Updated: March 1, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    Google-owned YouTube suspended former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s channel for a second time, claiming that he violated the platform’s policies surrounding the election.

    YouTube confirmed to news outlets that the ban isn’t permanent. Giuliani won’t be able to upload videos for two weeks.

    “We removed content from the Rudy W. Giuliani channel for violating our sale of regulated goods policy, which prohibits content facilitating the use of nicotine, and our presidential election integrity policy,” a YouTube spokeswoman said in a statement to Bloomberg and other outlets.

    “Additionally, in accordance with our long standing strikes system, we issued a strike against the Rudy W. Giuliani channel, which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming.”

    The “nicotine use” portion could be in reference to Giuliani’s promotion of cigars and cigar companies during his YouTube videos.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/youtube-suspends-rudy-giuliani-over-election-integrity-policy-nicotine-use_3716388.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-03-02

  30. Associated Press- Wray calls Jan. 6 ‘domestic terrorism’

    Wray condemned the January riot at the U.S. Capitol as “domestic terrorism” Tuesday as he defended the bureau’s handling of intelligence indicating the prospect for violence.

  31. Gunmen Kill 3 Afghan Women Media Workers (voanews, Mar 2, 2021)
    https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/gunmen-kill-3-afghan-women-media-workers

    “Officials in Afghanistan said Tuesday gunmen killed three women employees of a local television channel in separate attacks in eastern Nangarhar province.

    Witnesses and police said the victims were on their way home from work when assailants targeted them in different parts of Jalalabad, capital of the Afghan province, and managed to flee.

    The slain women were associated with private Enikass TV, which operates in the city. The station called it a “sad day” and noted that it has “been targeted many times but this is the second time we lost our dear colleagues.”…”

  32. US sanctions Houthi commanders in Yemen for ‘worsening humanitarian crisis’ (mee, Mar 2, 2021)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yemen-us-imposes-sanctions-houthi-leaders

    “The Biden administration imposed sanctions on two Houthi commanders on Tuesday, accusing the Yemeni rebels of prolonging the conflict and carrying attacks against civilians and neighbouring countries “to advance the Iranian regime’s destabilizing agenda”.

    The US Treasury Department announced the sanctions against Mansur al-Saadi, the Houthi naval forces chief of staff, and Ahmad Ali Ahsan al-Hamzi, commander of the Yemeni air force and air defence forces, on Tuesday.

    The measures, which come weeks after the new US administration removed the Houthis from the US list of foreign terrorist organisations, would freeze the Houthi officials’ assets and bar US citizens from doing business with them…”

  33. Gravitas: Myanmar’s military deploys ‘digital weapons’ against opponents

  34. Biden Returns to Obama’s Feckless Foreign Policy – Frontpagemag
    Bruce Thornton
    10-12 minutes

    No worse friend, no better enemy.

    Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

    It was said of the Roman generalissimo Sulla that there was no better friend or worse enemy than he. This maxim of foreign policy––support and help your loyal allies, and damage and punish your enemies––was proven common sense for millennia. Then came the age of moralizing internationalism, the belief that a “new world order” had made that realist truth anachronistic and primitive, a reflection of our benighted past. Now diplomatic engagement, democracy promotion, foreign aid, and multinational institution see to global security, peace, and prosperity.

    As a result, today there is no worse friend, and no better enemy than the West’s foreign policy and national security agencies.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/joe-biden-returns-obamas-feckless-foreign-policy-bruce-thornton/

  35. Biden Appoints Another Israel-Hater: Uzra Zeya – Frontpagemag
    Hugh Fitzgerald
    8-10 minutes

    And to the very worst place to put her.

    First, there was Maher Bitar, a Palestinian-American and anti-Israel BDS activist, whom Biden has appointed to be the senior director of intelligence programs at the National Security Council. In this key intelligence role, Maher Bitar will be ideally situated to learn, for example, about American collaboration with Israel on moves to stop Iran’s nuclear program. Why should we assume Bitar would not try to limit that collaboration, or to alert others about these moves, or to try to influence policy by focusing on international criticism of Israel’s “settlement building,” in an attempt to manufacture an unnecessary crisis between the allies, and to fan its flames thereby turning that crisis into a reason for America to threaten to cut back on military aid to Israel unless it stops enlarging existing, or building new, settlements? Even without knowing Maher Bitar, a Palestinian and a Muslim, shouldn’t we assume from his lengthy BDS activism that he still harbors a deep anti-Israel animus, and while his outward demeanor may suggest a lack of bias and parti-pris, he may merely be a dab hand at assuming a sober mien of objectivity, while being a master of deception? “War is deceit,” said Muhammad. About Bitar, see here.

    A second alarming appointment by the Biden Administration is that of Reema Dodin, a Palestinian-American, who will now be deputy director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. In 2002 Dodin expressed her deep understanding of, and sympathy for, all those “desperate people” who became suicide bombers. Addressing a church audience in Loma, California, spreading the gospel of Palestinianism in her interfaith outreach, she said that the Palestinian “suicide bombers were the last resort of a desperate people.” Not a word of sympathy, not in 2002 and not in the 18 years since, for the Israeli victims of those suicide bombers whose “desperation” she finds so understandable. About Reema Dodin, see here and here.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/biden-appoints-another-israel-hater-uzra-zeya-hugh-fitzgerald/

  36. Georgia House Passes Omnibus Election Reform Bill
    By Mimi Nguyen Ly
    March 1, 2021 Updated: March 2, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    Georgia’s House of Representatives passed an omnibus bill that would reform a range of election rules, including over absentee voting, voter ID for absentee voting, time limits for voting, and more.

    The 66-page bill, HB 531 (pdf) passed the Republican majority chamber on a party line vote of 97-72 and is headed to the state Senate for further debate.

    State Rep. Barry Fleming, a Republican, the main sponsor of the HB 531 bill, said that the proposal was designed to restore voters’ confidence in Georgia’s election system following the 2020 presidential election, which saw numerous allegations of voting irregularities and allegations of election fraud.

    Separately, the GOP-majority Senate on Feb. 23 introduced its own version of an omnibus election reform bill, SB 241 (pdf) that has some overlap with HB 531. One difference is that the Senate bill would eliminate no-excuse absentee voting, something that has been allowed in Georgia since 2005, whereas the House bill would still allow no-excuse absentee voting.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/georgia-house-passes-omnibus-election-reform-bill_3716434.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-03-02-1

  37. Biden’s Courting Trouble With Policy on Saudis
    Humiliating Prince Could Bring Unintended Consequences
    By KAREN ELLIOTT HOUSE, Special to the Sun | March 1, 2021

    President Biden is seeking to burnish his human rights credentials — and once again distinguish himself from Donald Trump — by putting a bullseye on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Playing politics with an ally in such a dangerous part of the world risks unanticipated and unfortunate consequences for the United States.

    https://www.nysun.com/foreign/bidens-courting-trouble-with-policy-on-saudis/91434/

    • The return of American anti-anti-Islamism
      Biden’s recalibration of Saudi Arabian ties betokens disaster for the US and the west

      …This is all astonishingly stupid. The King is old and barely functioning. MBS is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, MBS is a reformer trying to drag his country out of the dark ages. Saudi women now work, drive and travel abroad without permission of a male guardian.…

      [A]t least MBS is pushing his country a little in the right direction. By damaging him in this way, the Biden administration has empowered his Muslim Brotherhood enemies who want to bring him down and return Saudi Arabia to an even more repressive ethos – as well as enmity against the west. What perversity is this?

      The risks are that, with such cold winds once again blowing from the White House, Saudi Arabia will cosy up to Russia and China, thus destabilising the region and damaging western defences. And America will again shockingly become what it became under President Obama – anti-anti-Islamist.

      Which, whether the Biden administration wants this to happen or not, will put it on the side of the Islamic fanatics, whether the Sunni Muslim Brothers or the Shia “Twelvers” who are all at war with the west – and also intent upon repressing freedom-seeking Muslims everywhere…

      https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/the-return-of-american-anti-anti

  38. “Marieke Lucas Rijneveld was picked by Dutch publisher Meulenhoff to translate Amanda Gorman’s work

    The writer, who uses the non-binary pronouns, handed back the job last week

    It came after uproar in the Netherlands over the fact that a black translator wasn’t tapped for the job”
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9316885/Amanda-Gormans-white-Dutch-translator-quits-uproar.html

    Jordan Peterson explains to tangled nerve-endings why competency has kept Civilisation intact.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yZYQpge1W5s

  39. Switzerland Set to Vote in National Referendum on ‘Burqa Ban’ (sputniknews, Mar 2, 2021)
    https://sputniknews.com/society/202103021082235037-switzerland-set-to-vote-in-national-referendum-on-burqa-ban/

    “The legislative initiative, which is currently up for a vote, doesn’t explicitly state that Muslim women residing in Switzerland are targeted, but will usher in a ban on facial coverings, such as niqabs, in public.

    On Sunday, 7 March, the Swiss are set to vote on whether they want to ban full facial coverings in public places. The text of the ban doesn’t specifically mention Muslim veils, stating only that “no one shall cover their face in public, nor in areas accessible to the public or in areas where services are ordinarily accessible to all”.

    The proposed initiative, however, is largely seen as targeting minority Muslim women living in Switzerland and wearing niqabs (a veil over the lower half of the face), burqas (covering both body and face) and other face-covering garments.

    The initiative envisages a few exceptions to the ban, which is believed to have security concerns underlying it, with the prohibition not applicable to “places of worship” and where there are “health reasons” for that.

    The so-dubbed “burqa ban” comes almost 12 years after the Swiss approved a ban on the construction of new minarets that was supported by nearly 60% of voters back in 2009 amid spiralling concerns over Islamist militants’ activities in Europe and the Middle East.

    If the new ban is voted for by the majority of citizens, the country will join several others that have already introduced respective legislation – the Netherlands, France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark.

    In Switzerland, the ban has already been introduced on a local level by two cantons, St. Gallen and Ticino, but the government, which has so far opposed the initiative, has warned that a further spread of the ban would “undermine the sovereignty of the cantons, damage tourism, and be unhelpful for certain groups of women”.

    In St. Gallen, no woman has been fined for covering her face since the law was introduced in 2019.

    In Ticino, at least 60 violations have been registered since the law took effect in 2016, but the majority happened to be masked sports fans, and not women wearing typically Muslim face-covering items.

    The “burqa ban” was spearheaded by the Egerkinger Komitee, an activist group that’s comprised of politicians from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) whose motto is “resistance against the claims to power of political Islam in Switzerland”, according to Al Jazeera.

    The group’s key argument is that “free people show their face” and that “the burqa and niqab are not normal clothes”, as they allegedly symbolise the oppression of the fair sex.
    In 2017, the group went ahead and collected the required 100,000 signatures to put the issue to national polls, now due to take place next Sunday.”

  40. March 2 2021 Doctors Without Borders staffer killed in north Syria camp
    https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Doctors-Without-Borders-staffer-killed-in-north-15993970.php
    The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday a staff member was killed and three were injured in separate incidents last month in a camp for displaced people in northeast Syria.
    The al-Hol camp houses families of members of the Islamic State group and has witnessed a sharp increase in crime in recent weeks.
    In a statement, Doctors Without Borders said it is extremely concerned about the lack of security facing camp residents, two-thirds of whom are children. The group added that it was “shocked and saddened” after a staff member was killed and three injured in incidents on Feb. 24 and Feb. 27.
    “Our colleague was off-duty with their family when they were killed” on Feb. 27, said Will Turner, the group’s emergency manager for Syria. “People are being killed with a brutal frequency, often in the tents where they live.”
    Turner said the agency was still trying to understand the circumstances of the killing and did not provide details.
    He said on Feb. 24 the child of a staff member died and three staff members were injured in a fire at a wedding in the camp. The fire spread to adjoining tents after a child accidentally knocked over a diesel heater. At least seven people were killed in the blaze, including the 4-year-old daughter of a staff member.
    Al-Hol houses the wives, widows, children and other family members of IS militants. More than 80% of its 62,000 residents are women and children. The majority are Iraqis and Syrians, but it includes some 10,000 people from 57 other countries. They are housed in a highly secured separate area known as the Annex. Many of them remain die-hard IS supporters.
    Hundreds of other teenagers are held in prisons for former membership in IS, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq. It lost its last sliver of territory, in eastern Syria, in March 2019.
    Doctors Without Borders said more than 30 people have been killed since January in the camp. Most of those killed were targeted by gun violence, with some caught in crossfires. Others were killed in knife attacks or died in avoidable accidents.

  41. 2 Mar 2021 Turkish occupation, mercenaries target villages in countryside of Bab
    The Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries this evening re-targeted the villages of the eastern countryside of Al-Bab city with medium weapons.
    https://hawarnews.com/en/haber/turkish-occupation-mercenaries-target-villages-in-countryside-of-bab-h23245.html
    The Media Center of the Manbij Military Council stated that: “The Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries stationed in Sheikh Nasser base and the village of Jib al-Sad are targeting, in the meantime, the villages of“ Al-Kawakli and Korhyuk ”in the eastern countryside of Al-Bab city with light and medium weapons.

    • And Tulsi Gabbard is blaming the USA.
      Confusing our trivial strikes in the Syrian desert with Turkish bombing of civilian villages.
      Cute timing.