www.bbc.com

Robin Camp #sexist bbc.com

A Canadian judge who asked a sexual assault complainant why she could not "keep your knees together" is resigning.

Alberta Federal Court Justice Robin Camp's decision came after a scathing Canadian Judicial Council review called for his removal.

The review concluded he acted in a manner that seriously undermined public confidence in the judiciary.

The federal justice minister has accepted his resignation.

Mr Camp's comments made during a 2014 rape trial sparked outrage and drew sharp criticism from sexual assault victims and their advocates.

The judge had tried to hold on to his position and told the Council he had undergone education and had apologised for his comments.

The Council, which oversees the judiciary, found that Mr Camp's actions during the trial were "so manifestly and profoundly destructive of the concept of impartiality, integrity and independence of the judicial role that public confidence is sufficiently undermined to render the Judge incapable of executing the judicial office".

It also found he spoke to the complainant in a manner "that was at times condescending, humiliating and disrespectful".

Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said on Thursday she is confident Mr Camp received due process in his disciplinary review and accepts his decision to step down as of 10 March.

"Sexual assault and gender-based violence is in no form acceptable and we will continue to stand up for victims," she said.

In the 2014 case, he asked a 19-year-old woman: "Why couldn't you just keep your knees together?"

He also said, "pain and sex sometimes go together" and had referred to the complainant as "the accused," court records show.

Mark Christopher, Matthew Martin, Shiza Harper and Sean Harper #conspiracy #pratt #crackpot #dunning-kruger bbc.com

Cult leader Mark Christopher concludes his speeches and everyone is cheering[…]How did he end up persuading his followers to storm a court and attempt to kidnap a senior coroner?

Lincoln Brookes was driving to work on 20 April 2023 when he took a panicked call from his colleague

"Those people who are in that letter... they are coming to get you," he was told by area coroner Michelle Brown[…]
Had he turned up on time, the widely-respected senior coroner would have been handcuffed, bundled into a car and kidnapped from Chelmsford

Only Mark Christopher, 59, Sean Harper, 45, Shiza Harper, 38, and Matthew Martin, 47, know what would have happened to him next

They were all found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court of conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment in July

On Monday, Christopher was jailed for seven years and the other defendants imprisoned for 30 months

It was a plot masterminded by Christopher, the so-called chief judge of an online anti-establishment movement called the Federal Postal Court

"My jurisdiction runs over any language within governments, courts and corporations," the 59-year-old states on his website

Gaining his wisdom comes at a cost though. For £7,449, students can take part in his eight-part online university course that teaches people how to clear debts, win legal redress and pay their taxes

But the highlight of the webinars is the insight into what Singapore-born Christopher preaches to be the hidden meanings of words used in everyday language

Normal words such as person, nice and even smart meter all have covert, sinister meanings, the cult leader tells his followers[…]
In letters written to Mr Brookes, Christopher accuses him of being a "detrimental necromancer" and says the coronial process is illegal as "you can't be dead on paper"

Other accusations include Essex Coroner's Court "interfering with the dead" and warning Mr Brookes he would be subjected to corporal punishment

Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger #fundie #kinkshaming #homophobia bbc.com

Retired Pope Benedict XVI has published a letter which blames clerical sex abuse on the “all-out sexual freedom” of the 1960s.

He said that cultural and historical change had led to a “dissolution” of morality in Catholicism.

The sexual revolution in the 1960s had led to homosexuality and paedophilia in Catholic establishments, he claimed.

The letter sparked fierce criticism from theologians who claim it is “deeply flawed”.

Vatican expert Joshua McElwee said in the National Catholic Reporter: “It does not address structural issues that abetted abuse cover-up, or Benedict’s own contested 24-year role as head of the Vatican’s powerful doctrinal office.”

Some allegations of child sex abuse by priests that have emerged date back to decades before the 1960s, the decade that Pope Benedict claims sparked the abuse crisis.

Julie Rubio, a Catholic theologian, said in a tweet that the letter was “profoundly troubling”.

[..]

Published in the German Catholic magazine Klerusblatt, the 5,500-word letter is divided into three parts.

The first part presents the “wider social context of the question”, lamenting the 1960s as a time when “previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely”.

He blames sexual films, images of nudity and “the clothing of that time” leading to “mental collapse” and “violence”.

At the time of the sexual revolution, “Catholic moral theology suffered a collapse that rendered the Church defenceless against these changes in society”, he said.

The sexual revolution led to paedophilia being “diagnosed as allowed and appropriate”.

Next, the letter examines how this period affected the “dissolution of the Christian concept of morality”, particularly in Catholic educational institutions.

In some cases, bishops “sought to bring about a kind of new, modern” Catholicism and the sexual revolution led to “homosexual cliques” in seminaries.

[..]

“Why did paedophilia reach such proportions?” he questions. “Ultimately, the reason is the absence of God.”

He says “the death of God in a society” means “the end of freedom” and the solution is to “live by God and unto Him”.

Ellen Rachel Craig and Alexander Wilon #fundie bbc.com

A cult member who beat her two-year-old daughter to death over her failure to properly complete chores in Australia has been sentenced to nine years in jail

Tillie Craig disappeared from the Ministry of God farm in 1987, sparking a decades-long search by her father, who was told she'd been adopted

In reality, Tillie had been killed with a plastic pipe. Her remains were then allegedly burned by the sect's leader and scattered at the commune in regional New South Wales (NSW)

Ellen Rachel Craig, 62, was charged with her daughter's murder in 2022 after a tip-off to police. She later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter

When sentencing Craig on Wednesday, Justice Natalie Adams accepted that Craig had not intended to cause serious harm to Tillie, but said calling her death a tragedy would be "a gross understatement"

"She died at the hands of someone whose role it was to protect her"[…]
According to the agreed facts read in court, children at the commune were required to do chores, regardless of their age, and were often disciplined with a piece of black pipe

On 7 July, 1987, Tillie had been sweeping when her mother - "unhappy" with the quality of the work - beat her to death

Craig, who was 25 at the time, later brought her daughter inside and said, "She’s stopped breathing" and "Oh no, no she’s gone"

The court heard she laid Tillie in a bathtub and waited for the cult leader - known as Alexander Wilon or "Papa" - to return, at which point he prayed for the resurrection of the girl

Wilon is then accused of cremating Tillie before scattering her ashes and forbidding the cult members from speaking of what happened

He was charged with being an accessory to murder - and later over separate sexual assault allegations - but the terminally ill man has since been declared unfit to stand trial

Craig was expelled from the cult by November 1987 and travelled to her home country of New Zealand

Andrew Dymock, Oskar Koczorowski and other Sonnenkrieg Division members #racist bbc.com

A university student from Bath and a London teenager are among those involved with a UK version of a violent American neo-Nazi group linked to five murders, a BBC investigation has found.

A propaganda image placed online by the British group suggests Prince Harry is a "race traitor" and should be shot.

Private messages between members show the leader stating that police officers should be raped and killed.

Evidence suggests the leader is Andrew Dymock, 21. He denies wrongdoing.

The BBC has seen evidence he set up the new British group known as the Sonnenkrieg Division.

Mr Dymock, who is originally from Bath and whose father is a dentistry professor, has been studying at university in Wales.

A key propagandist - responsible for designing extremist material - is said to be Oskar Koczorowski from west London, who is only 17 years old.

He did not respond to a request for comment.

[...]

The chat logs include senior members of the Atomwaffen Division, a nihilistic American organisation that encourages terrorism and says civilisation needs to be smashed in order to build a national socialist state.

The group promotes a dystopian ideology it calls "universal order" which lionises Adolf Hitler, the murderous cult leader Charles Manson, and the veteran neo-Nazi ideologue James Mason, who provides regular diatribes for a website run by Atomwaffen members.

[...]

Messages from the gaming server include correspondence about the creation of the Sonnenkrieg Division.

"Blitzy" described Sonnenkrieg as "full on Universal Order" and "atomwaffen with less guns".

He also discussed his plans to travel to the US to meet Atomwaffen members in person.

In one exchange, he stated "kill all police officers" and said they should be "raped to death".

The BBC has obtained evidence that "Blitzy" is Mr Dymock, and that he and Mr Koczorowski, who uses a separate pseudonym, both placed Sonnenkrieg propaganda into the chats.

Violent images posted by the group on social media state "fill your heart with hate" and glorify the Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer Anders Breivik.

One image suggests that Prince Harry should be shot for marrying someone of mixed race and exclaims "see ya later race traitor".

A further image, showing a female hanging from a noose, states that white women who date non-white men should be killed.

Mr Koczorowski posted images of himself wearing an Atomwaffen top near Parliament and a video of a British flag being burnt.

It is thought Sonnenkrieg has no more than 10-15 members in the UK and some European countries.

[...]

Other private messages show some neo-Nazis claiming they have encouraged young women to engage in acts of self-harm along with pictures of the mutilation and criticism of the women concerned.

It is understood that Mr Dymock has been questioned by police over alleged sexual offences against a teenage girl.

Images, allegedly shared by Mr Dymock with his associates and later placed online, show a swastika and runic symbols cut into a girl's naked body and - in another image - Mr Dymock appears to brandish a book by James Mason in the air as she lies on the floor.

The bed seen in the images is consistent with the background in a picture posted by "Blitzy" and another of Mr Dymock himself.

It is understood that both Mr Dymock and Mr Koczorowski were previously involved with the neo-Nazi group System Resistance Network, which can be linked to acts of racist vandalism in as many as 10 UK cities.

The BBC has been told that Mr Koczorowski was a pre-ban member of National Action, which became the first extreme-right organisation to be outlawed in the UK since the war when it was proscribed under terrorism legislation in December 2016.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Public Schools #fundie #wingnut bbc.com

Oklahoma orders schools to teach Bible 'immediately'

Oklahoma's top education official has ordered schools in the state to begin incorporating the Bible into lessons, in the latest US cultural flashpoint over religion in the classroom.

A directive sent by Republican state Superintendent Ryan Walters said the rule was compulsory, requiring "immediate and strict compliance".

The rule will apply to lessons for all public school students aged from around 11-18.

It comes a week after Louisiana's governor signed a law directing all public schools in that state to display the Ten Commandments.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr Walters described the Bible as "an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone".

"Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation, which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction," he added.

Mr Walters, a former public school history teacher, was elected to his post in 2022 after campaigning on a platform of combating "woke ideology" and eliminating "radical leftists" from Oklahoma's education system.

Maximilian Krah #wingnut bbc.com

A top far-right German politician says he will pull back from campaigning for the upcoming EU elections - although he will remain his party's lead candidate

The latest controversy comes after the Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s Maximilian Krah told journalists that SS members weren’t automatically "criminals"

"It depends. You have to assess blame individually. At the end of the war there were almost a million SS. Günter Grass was also in the Waffen SS," he told La Repubblica and the Financial Times, referring to the German novelist who wrote The Tin Drum

"Before I declare someone a criminal, I want to know what he did"[…]
In response to the remarks, France’s far-right National Rally (RN) announced it would no longer sit with the AfD in the European Parliament

RN leader Marine Le Pen told French radio that "it was urgent to establish a cordon sanitaire"[…]
The RN had distanced itself from the AfD following revelations about the German party holding a secret meeting in a villa on a lake outside of Berlin where mass deportations of non-ethnic Germans - including German citizens - were allegedly discussed[…]
Mr Krah has been under pressure in the lead-up to this year's EU elections, which will take place between 6 and 9 June

In April, one of his staffers was arrested by German police on suspicion of spying for China[…]
The AfD has slipped in the polls this year. But the party is still polling second or third nationwide, and first in some states due to vote in local elections later this year

Henry Okello Oryem #elitist bbc.com

Many have deemed Henry Okello Oryem's comments tone-deaf

In 2022, more than 2,200 people died of starvation and related illnesses in north-east Uganda, a report by an official human rights body said

But Mr Oryem argued that given Uganda's favourable climate and fertile land, people should be able to grow food for themselves

"It's only an idiot, a real idiot, that can die of hunger in Uganda," the state minister for foreign affairs told the NTV Uganda television channel

"If you work hard, there is land in Uganda. The climate is right in spite [of] climate change. If you make a double effort to make sure that you go out in the morning, you till your land, you plant the seeds, you maintain your plantation, surely, how do you fail then to get food?"

As well as killing many people, the food shortage in the north-east left nearly half-a-million people in "acute hunger", said the report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission, which was established by the constitution

The minister's comments have sparked outrage

Moses Aleper, a legislator for Chekwii county, which is part of the affected Karamoja region, told the BBC that Mr Oryem's views were "not right" and "unfortunate coming from a minister who knows what goes on in this country"

"I'm from one of the most productive parts of Karamoja where there is adequate rain and we produce food. But in situations where weather fails us, the weather vagaries set in, we definitely fail to get food. And normally people definitely get famine and eventually hunger strikes"

Mr Aleper also said that hunger in the region is often caused by "other issues beyond even human control"

Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, Prabodhanand Giri, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati and unnamed Hindu clerics and BJP leaders #fundie #psycho bbc.com

Videos from a meeting of Hindu religious leaders showing provocative speeches went viral earlier this week, sparking outrage

The event took place in the holy town of Haridwar between 17 and 19 December

Police said they had not opened a case until Thursday because there had been no official complaints before that

There have been no arrests and the police case names only one man - Waseem Rizvi, a Muslim who says he has converted to Hinduism and is now known as Jitendra Narayan Tyagi

Police said a case had been registered against Mr Tyagi and unnamed "others" under charges of "promoting hatred between religious groups". Social media users, however, have identified many of the speakers in the videos who are important religious leaders often seen in the company of ministers and members from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
[…]
One organiser of the Haridwar event, Prabodhanand Giri, has often been photographed with party leaders, reported NDTV. In one photo, Uttarakhand's Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami, a BJP politician, is seen touching his feet

At the event, Mr Giri was seen asking India's army, politicians and Hindus to do what was done in Myanmar - referring to the deadly violence against Rohingya Muslims that led to their exodus

He told NDTV he wasn't afraid of the police and stood by his statement

Another speaker, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, has made several anti-Muslim statements in the past

At Haridwar, he, like many others, asked Hindus to pick up weapons to "protect" their religion from Muslims

Nicolas Maduro, Aristobulo Isturiz, Delcy Rodriguez #conspiracy bbc.com

The head of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, has accused the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of being "a traitor".

In a series of Twitter posts addressed directly to Mr Maduro, Mr Almagro also called him a "petty dictator".

Mr Maduro accused the OAS chief earlier this week of being a CIA agent and a traitor himself.

The Venezuelan president has blamed his country's economic crisis on an axis of enemy forces co-ordinated from the US.

During a three-hour long news conference on Tuesday, Mr Maduro had justified his declaration of a state of emergency by saying Venezuela was under attack from imperialist forces led by the CIA.

He then told journalists: "Almagro, just give up. He has been a traitor for a long time... At some point I will tell his story, I know his secrets. The Americans, the CIA, have played a master move using Almagro as their agent."

[...]

Opposition politicians have handed in a petition with 1.85 million signatures to the electoral authorities requesting a referendum be held to recall Mr Maduro from office.

But Mr Maduro's deputy, Vice-President Aristobulo Isturiz, on Sunday ruled out such a referendum, saying the signatures were "fraudulent".

Mr Almagro said that not letting the referendum go ahead made Mr Maduro "another petty dictator".

While President Maduro did not answer Mr Almagro's tweets directly, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez did.

She wrote, "Mr Almagro, every time you make a statement you express your hatred against Venezuela and its legitimate authorities. You are part of the imperialist detritus."

"You only repeat the scripted words which your imperialist masters dictate to you".

"You will never give orders to Venezuela!"

Various commenters #wingnut #conspiracy bbc.com

(propaganda buster)
Ermm check again.. they're not buying in dollars but their own currency.. usa are finished and become a 3rd country very soon as others are following suit
(...)
Look at your own country and see what state it in... then you will realise who is history.
(...)
Stick to facts.. not western media propaganda.

(Ivotedleave)
So Ukraine should have talked to them and would probably have had this war ended quickly without having to give away much (maybe just an undertaking not to join NATO). Instead Zelensky refused to even talk and constantly moans that Ukrainians are still dying and his country getting destroyed. Your choice mate.

(OP)
No. He's a businessman. More likely to tell Putin to get out, and start working on the vast fiscal opportunities in rebuilding Ukraine. The left's obsession with Trump is just that, obsessive. A bad day for Ukraine is the Democrats being re-elected, a party dedicated to destroying the US.

(COYQs)
Diplomacy must begin asap. It is clear that Ukraine will never regain everything it lost. Losses need to be cut and peace talks resumed without preconditions.

(whythelongface)
Can't defeat Ukraine - 😆 🤣 take a look around - take a look at ukraines casualties - Russia is fighting up to 20 nations and still winning
(...)
Desperate for putin 😄 🤣 witb 80% of the world behind him - & Ukraine with its failed offensive and winter approaching - do tell me more of your wisdom sir
(...)
You were told the same about Saddam - before we wiped out a million in Iraq- putins not coming for Poland - never was - - time we stop funding a questionable puppet regime in Ukraine before our own poor citizens - Ukraine has lost - winter is approaching - the Ukrainian counter offensive is over - Russia - China and the rest are moving forward
How many uk citizens did saddam kill = zero

Kathy Dettwyler #fundie bbc.com

A Delaware college has severed ties with a professor who said a student who was held by North Korea and later died "got exactly what he deserved".

Kathy Dettwyler sparked a backlash on Facebook when she wrote Otto Warmbier was "typical of a mindset of a lot of young, white, rich, clueless males".

Mr Warmbier, 22, died a week after he was freed by North Korea, where he was serving 15 years hard labour.

He was medically evacuated earlier this month and died in a coma.

Ms Dettwyler, an anthropology professor at the University of Delaware, criticised Mr Warmbier in a post on her Facebook page, blaming his parents for what happened to him.

"These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn't think they'd really have to read and study the material to get a good grade," she wrote.

"His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted."

"Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women," she continued.

"Not so much in North Korea. And of course, it's Otto's parents who will pay the price for the rest of their lives."

Sergey Andreyev #conspiracy bbc.com

Poland is to summon the Russian ambassador over remarks which appeared to suggest he said Poland was partly to blame for the start of World War Two.

Sergey Andreyev said Poland had blocked a coalition against Nazi Germany several times in the run-up to war.

He also said the USSR's invasion of Poland in 1939 was not an aggression.

[...]

In an interview with a private Polish TV station aired on Friday evening, Mr Andreyev said that Poland had stood in the way of an alliance against the Nazis.

"Therefore Poland partly bears responsibility for the catastrophe that ensued in September 1939," he said, referring to the Nazi invasion of Poland.

He appeared to be referring to Poland's refusal to allow the transit of Soviet troops through its territory.

Mr Andreyev also said that the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland later that month was not an aggression but "to ensure the safety of the USSR" when the outcome of the German invasion of Poland was already clear.

The ambassador added that relations between Poland and Russia were at their lowest ebb since 1945, because Poland had frozen political, cultural and humanitarian contacts.

Shadow Warrior #moonbat #conspiracy bbc.com

This concerns the west because Russia has advanced missile technology

America has and is destabilising Asia, there would be no war looming in South China Sea if not for Americas presence and it’s using Taiwan as a platform to spy and have missile silos near to China

America is the problem who are obsessed with war games and world domination
(...)
Have you lived in these areas I lived in these parts of Asia for 22 years

Russias army is so ineffective that the counter offensive is being seen as a failure and made little grounds with all the help from western weapons and intelligence

I’m not pro or against anyone but American is obsessed with wars and causing them around the world, it’s just the truth
(...)
China is not claiming all of South China Sea, this is more complicated than you know, why is American so concerned with Japan , South Korea , Philippines and Taiwan , why are they even there in the first place

Before Second World War china has no interest in securing areas in South China Sea but it’s forced to compete with america to protect its own way of life

Oklahoma Republicans #sexist bbc.com

Oklahoma passes bill banning most abortions after conception

Oklahoma legislators have passed a law banning abortion after conception, which critics say is the most restrictive such measure in the US.

The Republican-led bill would prohibit all abortions, except to save the life of the woman or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

It comes after a leak suggested the US Supreme Court may quash the 1973 ruling that legalised abortion nationwide.

Republican-led US states are ramping up bills to limit abortion access.

On the other side, US Senate Democrats last week tried to pass a bill that critics said would allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. It was stopped by Republicans.

Opinion polls find most Americans are in favour of abortion access, though surveys also show public support for allowing the procedure drops sharply after the first trimester of pregnancy.

Abortion is generally legal in US states that do not restrict it up to about 24 weeks of pregnancy, which is near the end of the second trimester.

Oklahoma has recently passed several laws aimed at setting it apart as the most "pro-life" state in the US.

The bill, which passed overwhelmingly on Thursday, is modelled on a Texas anti-abortion law that allows anyone to sue abortion providers.

But the Oklahoma bill bans abortion even earlier than Texas, where it is not legal after six weeks. This is around the time cardiac activity can be detected in the embryo, and before many women realise they are pregnant.

The Oklahoma measure defines fertilisation as the "fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum". Banning abortion after conception has been a long-held goal of national anti-abortion groups.

The bill still needs to be signed into law by the state's Republican governor, who has vowed to approve any anti-abortion legislation that comes to his desk.

The Oklahoma measure allows exemptions in cases of rape and incest, but only if reported to the police. It does not ban contraception or morning-after pills.

In the past three months, Oklahoma has passed two other anti-abortion bills, which have already caused most abortion providers in the state to close.

[…]

Rev. Paul Mackenzie #fundie #homophobia #transphobia #conspiracy #psycho bbc.com

Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has said he closed down his Good News International Church four years ago[…]
Hundreds of his sermons still available online, some of which appear to have been recorded after this date[…]
Others culminate in exorcisms in which followers - often women - writhe around on the ground while he "torments" the demonic forces within[…]
There is no direct evidence in the dozens videos we've seen of Pastor Mackenzie directly ordering people to fast, but there are many references to followers sacrificing what they hold dear, including their lives

"There are people who don't even want to preach [about] Jesus. They say their children are crying because they are hungry, let them die. Is there a problem there?"[…]
"They know education is evil. But they use it for their own gains" he says in one sermon. "Those who sell uniforms, write books…those who make pens… all kinds of rubbish. They use your money to enrich themselves while you become poor"

In 2017 and again in 2018, he was arrested for encouraging children not to go to school as he claimed education was "not recognised in the Bible"[…]
"I told people education is evil…. Children are taught gayism and lesbianism,'' he told the Nation newspaper[…]
A woman narrates how she helped to deliver a baby through prayer and without the need for a caesarean section[…]
Pastor then echoes her sentiments that vaccines are not necessary, claiming that doctors "serve a different God"[…]
Frequent warnings of an omnipotent satanic force that has supposedly infiltrated the highest echelons of power around the world

He repeatedly references "New World Order"[…]falsely claiming the Catholic Church, the UN and the US are behind it

He is also highly sceptical of modern technology, previously claiming a plan by the Kenyan government to establish a unique identity number for citizens to access government services was the 'mark of the beast'

Vladimir Putin #wingnut #god-complex bbc.com

Vladimir Putin's admiration for Peter the Great is well known but he now seems to have ideas of "Great"-ness himself

He has openly compared himself to the Russian tsar, equating Russia's invasion of Ukraine today with Peter's expansionist wars some three centuries ago, and making his strongest acknowledgment yet that his own war is a land grab[…]
Russia's president was meeting young scientists and entrepreneurs when he made the remarks. Before talking IT and tech development he talked politics and power: the new battle he sees for geopolitical dominance. In that, he told his select audience that Peter the Great was a role model

"You might think he was fighting with Sweden, seizing their lands," Mr Putin said, referring to the Northern Wars which Peter launched at the turn of the 18th Century as he forged a new Russian Empire

"But he seized nothing; he reclaimed it!" he said, arguing that Slavs had lived in the area for centuries

"It seems it has fallen to us, too, to reclaim and strengthen," Mr Putin concluded, with a near-smirk that left no doubt he was referring to Ukraine and his aims there

Peter's rule, he suggested, was proof that expanding Russia had strengthened it

commerce ministry of saudi arabia #homophobia #fundie bbc.com

Saudi authorities seize rainbow toys for promoting homosexuality

Authorities in Saudi Arabia have been seizing rainbow-coloured toys and children's clothing, which they claim encourage homosexuality, state TV says.

An Al-Ekhbariya report showed commerce ministry officials removing a range of items from shops in the capital Riyadh.

They included hair clips, pop-its, t-shirts, hats and pencil cases.

One official said the items "contradict the Islamic faith and public morals, and promote homosexual colours targeting the younger generation".

The commerce ministry tweeted separately that its teams were confiscating "products that contain symbols and signs calling for deviation and contradicting common sense".

Shops found to be selling them would face legal penalties, it added.

In December, authorities in neighbouring Qatar announced that they had confiscated rainbow-coloured pop-its and other toys from shops for "bearing slogans that go against Islamic values".

Although Sunni Muslim-ruled Saudi Arabia has no laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity, sexual relations outside marriage, including homosexual sex, are strictly prohibited.

Under the country's interpretation of Islamic law, consensual same-sex sexual conduct is punishable by death or flogging, depending on the perceived seriousness of the case.

It is also illegal for men to "behave like women" or to wear women's clothes, and vice versa, and for anyone to carry out online activity impinging on "public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy".

In April, cinemas in the kingdom did not screen the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness after Disney refused a request from Saudi authorities to cut what they called "LGBTQ references".

A source close to Disney told AFP news agency on Tuesday that its new animated film Lightyear, which features a same-sex kiss, had also been banned in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials have not yet confirmed such a move, but the kingdom's two main cinema chains are not advertising screenings.

[...]

unnamed patient #quack #pratt bbc.com

A young adult in New York has become the first US resident in nearly a decade to contract polio, state health officials say.

The unnamed patient in Rockland County is said no longer to be contagious, but has developed paralysis from the virus.

Officials say the person was unvaccinated, and was probably exposed to an individual who received a vaccine that contains the weakened live virus.

The last known US case of the highly contagious virus was recorded in 2013.

Once feared across the nation, the disease was largely eradicated by a national vaccination campaign that began in 1955.

Annual cases quickly fell from fewer than 100 in the 1960s to fewer than 10 in the 1970s - and the US was declared polio-free by 1979.

Court in eastern Guangsou, children’s parents #fundie #wingnut bbc.com

The makers of a Chinese cartoon series have been held partly responsible for injuries incurred by two children who were imitating a scene from the show.

The brothers were badly burned in April when another boy tied them to a tree and set them on fire, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency.

The 10-year-old said he was copying a scene from Xi Yangyang and Hui Tailang (Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf).

A court said the show's producers and the boy's guardians were both to blame.

It ordered the guardians to pay 60% of the injured brothers' medical bills and Creative Power Entertaining, a Chinese animation company based in Guangzhou, to pay 15%.

The court in the eastern Jiangsu province said there was "a cause-and-effect relationship between the case and the violent scenarios in the cartoon" and that the show should carry warnings in future, the Hollywood Reporter said.

The show, popular with both children and adults, features a wolf whose relentless pursuit of a group of goats sees both parties suffer degrees of physical punishment.

Kamau Bobb #pratt #racist bbc.com

Google has removed its head of diversity over a 2007 blog post that said Jewish people had "an insatiable appetite for war and killing".

In a post about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that resurfaced this week, Kamau Bobb also claimed Jewish people had an "insensitivity" to suffering.

The post has now been deleted.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Google told the BBC that Mr Bobb would "no longer be part of our diversity team going forward".

"We unequivocally condemn the past writings by a member of our diversity team that are causing deep offence and pain to members of our Jewish community," they said.

"These writings are unquestionably hurtful. The author acknowledges this and has apologised. He will no longer be part of our diversity team... and will focus on his Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] work.

"This has come at at a time where we've seen an alarming increase in anti-Semitic attacks," the spokesperson added. "Anti-Semitism... has no place in society and we stand with our Jewish community in condemning it."

Mr Bobb - who joined Google in 2018 - has apologised to staff for the blog post.

The Government Of Turkey #homophobia #sexist #wingnut bbc.com

Domestic violence: US condemns Turkey for quitting treaty

US President Joe Biden has condemned Turkey for withdrawing from an international accord designed to protect women from violence.

He said the move was "disappointing" and a "disheartening step backward" for efforts to end attacks on women.

But Turkey said the Istanbul Convention - which seeks to prevent, prosecute and eliminate domestic violence - was incompatible with its family values.

It had been "hijacked" by people trying to "normalise homosexuality", it said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government unilaterally quit the convention on Saturday, nearly 10 years after it became the first signatory to the landmark agreement.

The move sparked large protests led by women in the country.

Women's rights activists say the Istanbul Convention was crucial to combating domestic violence in Turkey.

In a statement, the president's office explained its decision.

"The Istanbul Convention, originally intended to promote women's rights, was hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalise homosexuality - which is incompatible with Turkey's social and family values. Hence the decision to withdraw," the statement said, without giving further details.

It said Turkey was not the only country that had "serious concerns" about the Istanbul Convention.

Despite quitting the convention, the Turkish government "will not give up on its fight against domestic violence", the statement added.

Calogero Pisano #wingnut bbc.com

The far-right Italian party Brothers of Italy, tipped to win Sunday's election, has suspended one of its candidates for praising Adolf Hitler on social media

In a 2014 Facebook post, Calogero Pisano, a party co-ordinator in Agrigento in Sicily, compared party leader Giorgia Meloni to "a great statesman of 70 years ago"

He added that he was referring to a "German" and not Benito Mussolini[…]
Ms Meloni has been trying to distance the Brothers of Italy from its neo-fascist roots[…]
Mr Pisano also expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Italian news agency Ansa

Ruth Dureghello, the president of Rome's Jewish Community, criticised the comments, saying "the idea that someone who hails Hitler could sit in the next parliament is unacceptable", Ansa reported

Founded in 2012, Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d'Italia) has its political roots in the Italian Social Movement (MSI), which emerged from the wartime dictator Benito Mussolini's fascism. The party maintains the logo of post-war far-right parties: the tricolour flame, often perceived as the fire burning on Mussolini's tomb

Unnamed Sanaa Houthi rebels #fundie #sexist #racist bbc.com

A Yemeni actress and model has been jailed for five years by rebel authorities after being convicted of "indecency"

Intisar al-Hammadi, 20, alleged that she was physically and verbally abused after being detained by Houthi forces in Sanaa in February, and that she had to sign documents while blindfolded

Three other women arrested alongside her were also handed prison terms

Human Rights Watch said the case was "marred with irregularities and abuse"
[…]
Houthi-run news agency Saba reported that a court in Sanaa found Ms Hammadi guilty of charges including committing an indecent act and possessing drugs

She and one of the other three women were given five-year prison terms, it said. The others were jailed for three years and one year respectively
[…]
Ms Hammadi, who has a Yemeni father and an Ethiopian mother, has worked as a model for several years and acted in two Yemeni TV series. She sometimes appeared in photographs posted online without a headscarf, defying strict societal norms in the conservative Muslim country
[…]
In March, Ms Hammadi was transferred to the Central Prison in Sanaa, where guards called her a "whore" and "slave", because of her dark skin and Ethiopian descent, her lawyer said

Whole Bible Believers Church, Rev. Josiah Peter Asumosa and Rev. David Anifowoshe #fundie bbc.com

Police in Nigeria have rescued 77 people, including children, from a church where they were confined in the south-western state of Ondo

Some of them are believed to have been there for months

A police spokesperson said many of them had been told to expect the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in April and had abandoned school to witness the event

The raid came after a mother complained her children were missing and she thought they were in the church

Police say they are investigating suspected mass abduction after the raid on the Whole Bible Believers Church in the Valentino area of Ondo Town

The pastor of the Pentecostal church, David Anifowoshe, and his deputy have been arrested, while the victims have been taken into the care of the authorities

"Preliminary investigation revealed that one Pastor Josiah Peter Asumosa, an assistant pastor in the church, was the one who told the members that Rapture will take place in April, but later said it has been changed to September 2022 and told the young members to obey only their parents in the Lord," said police press officer Funmilayo Odunlami

In all, police rescued 26 children, eight teenagers and 43 adults, she added

Italian Anti-vaxxer #quack bbc.com

An Italian man who wanted a Covid vaccination certificate without getting the jab turned up for his vaccine with a fake arm, officials say.
The man, in his 50s, arrived for his shot with a silicone mould covering his real arm, hoping it would go unnoticed.
The nurse told local media that when she had rolled up his sleeve, she found the skin "rubbery and cold" and the pigment "too light".
After being discovered, the man tried to persuade the nurse to turn a blind eye, la Repubblica reported. But instead she reported him to the police for fraud.
La Repubblica suggests the incident may not have been a one-off, pointing to a message on social media that may have been written by the man.
The Twitter post quoted by the paper featured a silicone male chest half-body suit, complete with fake arms and neck, that was on sale on Amazon for €488 (£416).
"If I go with this, will they notice? Maybe beneath the silicone I'll even put on some extra clothes to avoid the needle reaching my real arm," the Twitter user reportedly wrote.

Dr Olaleye Kayode, Jude Akanbi & unnamed cultits #dunning-kruger #magick bbc.com

The hunt for Nigerians who can change into cats

Gbenga Adewoyin could have passed for a medieval witch hunter as he walked around a market in the south-western Nigerian city of Ibadan.

"Anyone that can provide any evidence for the existence of the supernatural, be it juju or voodoo magic, will be offered 2.5m naira ($6,000, £4,650)," he announced repeatedly. "The knife is for anyone that claims their juju makes them blade-proof."

The 24-year-old atheist has recently emerged as a rebel publicly contesting the powers of the supernatural in this deeply religious country.

Many Nigerians believe that magic charms can allow humans to morph into cats, protect bare skins from sharp blades and make money appear in a clay pot.

Dr Olaleye Kayode, a senior lecturer in African Indigenous Religions at the University of Ibadan, told the BBC that money-making juju rituals - where human body parts mixed with charms makes money spew out of a pot - really work. The naira notes that supposedly appear "are gotten by spirits from existing banks."

Jude Akanbi, a lecturer at the Crowther Graduate Theological Seminary, is also unequivocal about juju.

"This ability to be able to transform yourself to [a] cat, to disappear and reappear, these things are possible within the dynamics of traditional African religion. It sounds illogical, however from what we have seen and heard, these things are possible," he said.

Such beliefs, especially that human body parts and charms can produce money from a clay pot, have led to a recent wave of gruesome murders in the country, with single women often the victims. Hardly a day passes without reports of a missing person and pictures of mutilated corpses linked to juju.

There was widespread outrage last month after three men killed a 17-year-old girl in Ogun state to use her body parts in a ritual they believed would make them rich.

Yishai Schlissel #fundie bbc.com

A teenage girl who was stabbed at a Gay Pride march in Jerusalem has died from her wounds, doctors say.

Shira Banki, 16, was one of six people attacked at the event on Thursday.

Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, who carried out a similar attack in 2005, was arrested at the scene.

[...]

Dramatic images of Thursday's attack in Jerusalem showed the suspect reaching inside his coat and raising a knife above his head.

He then began stabbing marchers while screaming, before being tackled by a police officer.

[...]

Schlissel was released from prison just three weeks ago after serving 10 years for the 2005 attack

Nabih al-Wahsh #racist #sexist #psycho bbc.com

An Egyptian lawyer has been sentenced to three years in prison for saying that women who wear ripped jeans should be raped in punishment.

Nabih al-Wahsh, a prominent conservative, was also fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds (£839; $1,130).

The lawyer made the remarks on a TV panel show in October, during a debate on a draft law on prostitution.

"Are you happy when you see a girl walking down the street with half of her behind showing?" he said.

He added: "I say that when a girl walks about like that, it is a patriotic duty to sexually harass her and a national duty to rape her."

Mr Wahsh said that women who wore revealing clothing were "inviting men to harass them", and said "protecting morals is more important than protecting borders".

The prosecutor brought charges against Mr Wahsh after a public outcry.

The National Council for Women's Rights condemned the remarks, saying they were a "flagrant call" for rape, in violation of "everything in the Egyptian constitution".

The council has now filed a complaint about the statement to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation about the broadcast which aired on 19 October.

Mr Wahsh has previously called the Holocaust "imaginary" and declared himself a proud anti-Semite.

"If I see any Israeli, I will kill him," he said during a separate TV panel show.

In October last year, Mr Wahsh was involved in a TV studio brawl with a cleric, after the cleric suggested women should not necessarily have to wear a headscarf.

Mnaouar Ouertani #fundie bbc.com

A nightclub in Tunisia has been shut down after footage emerged of a DJ playing a dance remix of the Muslim call to prayer, officials say.

Video shared on Sunday from the Orbit Festival in the north-eastern town of Nabeul sparked outrage on social media sites.

The governor of Nabeul, Mnaouar Ouertani, said that the club would "remain closed" until further notice.

An investigation has begun into the incident.

The footage shows clubbers at a party on Friday dancing to music played by two European DJs near the popular seaside resort of Hammamet.

The music included a dance version of the call to prayer, the religious act that Muslims perform five times a day.

"After confirming the facts, we decided to close this nightclub," Mr Ouertani said.

He said that the club's manager had been detained "for violation against good morals and public outrage against modesty," adding that an investigation was under way.

"We will not allow attacks against religious feelings and the sacred," Mr Ouertani said.

Nicolas Maduro #conspiracy bbc.com

About 500 Venezuelan women in search of food have broken through border controls separating the western state of Tachira from neighbouring Colombia.

The women said their families were going hungry because of severe food shortages in Venezuela.

Hours later, they crossed back into Venezuela carrying basic goods and singing the Venezuelan anthem.

Venezuela is going through an economic crisis and many Venezuelans say they struggle to feed their families.

[...]

Venezuela closed large parts of its border with Colombia in August 2015 to prevent subsidised good from being smuggled from Venezuela into Colombia.

Venezuelans who want to cross into Colombia in states where the border has been closed need a special permit to do so.

But as the scarcity of food gets worse in Venezuela, many have crossed the porous border illegally.

Colombian officials said a similar incident had happened in Puerto Santander, 60km north of Cucuta, in June, when 400 Venezuelans crossed into Colombia to buy essential goods.

Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin is due to travel to Cucuta on Wednesday to speak to the local authorities about a possible plan of action, officials said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has blamed the shortages on an "economic war" being waged against his government.

At a military parade to mark independence day on Tuesday, he said that Venezuela's military power had to keep growing to counter the "unconventional war" he was facing.

Turkish nationalists, Melih Gokcek #fundie bbc.com

A fashion designer has been charged with inciting hatred on social media and imprisoned - a day after he came under attack at Istanbul's main airport.

Barbaros Sansal is an outspoken critic of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party.

On New Year's Eve, he posted a video on his Twitter account angrily denouncing those out celebrating "while there is so much filth, vileness and poverty" in the country.

He also spoke of "scores of journalists" jailed in Turkey as well as abused children, corruption and bribery.

[...]

As he was leaving the plane in Istanbul, he was attacked by passengers on the same Turkish Airlines flight along with baggage handlers shouting "traitor!"

Mr Sansal was rushed away from the scene by what are believed to have been plainclothes policemen, who had come to arrest him as he landed.

Video footage of the attack on Mr Sansal was shared thousands of times on social media.

How such an attack took place at an international airport has prompted concerns about security failure.

There are also questions about whether it was an organised attack.

Local reports suggested that 20 people identified as airport employees were questioned by police.

"We could not resist our national feelings. We shouted. But due to a police cordon we could not do anything," one of them reportedly said. However, other workers acknowledged that the fashion designer was subjected to physical violence.

And it is Barbaros Sansal who has been detained, in one of the biggest prisons in Turkey, where many imprisoned journalists are being held.

He is accused of "inciting hatred among the public" for his outspoken comments.

Some have praised the treatment he was given. Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek posted footage of the incident calling it "the nation's response".

One tweet read: "The man swears at the country and they defend him. Whoever defends him is also a traitor."

"Whoever you are, if you are not happy about being a Turk or living in this country, no-one forces you to stay here. Just go," read another.

Turkey has a poor record on free speech, with at least 81 journalists behind bars, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and more than 130 media outlets have been shut since the failed coup last July.

Myanmar government #fundie bbc.com

The government's purpose in bringing us was to balance the overwhelmingly negative narrative coming from the Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh, who have almost all spoken of a deliberate campaign of destruction by the Myanmar military and Rakhine mobs, and appalling human rights abuses.

But right away these efforts faltered.

We were first taken to a small school in Maungdaw, now crowded with displaced Hindu families. They all had the same story to tell of Muslims attacking, of fleeing in fear. Oddly, Hindus who have fled to Bangladesh all say they were attacked by local Rakhine Buddhists, because they resemble Rohingyas.

In the school we were accompanied by armed police and officials. Could they speak freely? One man started to tell me how soldiers had been firing at his village, and he was quickly corrected by a neighbour.

A woman in an orange, lacy blouse and distinctive grey and mauve longyi was especially animated about the abuses by Muslims.

We were then taken to a Buddhist temple, where a monk described Muslims burning down their own homes, nearby. We were given photographs catching them in the act. They looked strange.

Men in white haji caps posed as they set light to the palm-thatch roof. Women wearing what appeared to be lacy tablecloths on their heads melodramatically waved swords and machetes. Later I found that one of the women was in fact the animated Hindu woman from the school, and I saw that one of the men had also been present in among the displaced Hindu.

They had faked the photos to make it look as though Muslims were doing the burning.

[...]

We spotted black smoke billowing out of some trees, over the rice fields. It was another village going up, right by the road. And the fires had only just started. We all shouted at our police escort to stop the van. When they did, we just ran, leaving our bewildered government minder behind. The police came with us, but then declared it was unsafe to enter the village. So we went ahead of them.

The sound of burning and crackling was everywhere. Women's clothing, clearly Muslim, was strewn on the muddy path. And there were muscular young men, holding swords and machetes, standing on the path, baffled by the sight of 18 sweaty journalists rushing towards them. They tried to avoid being filmed, and two of them dashed further into the village, bringing out the last of their group and making a hasty exit.

They said they were Rakhine Buddhists. One of my colleagues managed a quick conversation with one of them, who admitted they had set the houses on fire, with the help of the police.

As we walked in, we could see the roof of the madrassa has just been set alight. School texts with Arabic script had been thrown outside. An empty plastic jug, reeking of petrol, had been left on the path.

The village was called Gawdu Thar Ya. It was a Muslim village. There was no sign of the inhabitants. The Rakhine men who had torched the village walked out, past our police escort, some carrying household items they had looted.

The burning took place close to a number of large police barracks. No-one did anything to stop it.

Scott Johansen #fundie bbc.com

A judge in the US state of Utah has ordered that a foster child be removed from the care of a lesbian couple and placed with a heterosexual family.

The Utah Division of Child and Family Services is searching for ways to challenge Tuesday's decision.

[...]

The decision, made by Judge Scott Johansen in the town of Price, has been criticised by gay rights groups.

In an interview with a local television news station, the couple said that the judge referred to research that children are better off when they are raised by heterosexual parents.

[...]

This is not the first time that Judge Johansen's decision have come under scrutiny.

In 1997, he was reprimanded for slapping a 16-year-old in the face at a courthouse in Price.

And in 2012, he drew attention for ordering a 13-year-old girl's hair cut in exchange for a lighter sentence. The girl was being prosecuted for cutting the hair of another, younger girl.

That same year, he was criticised for sending a teenage boy on probation to jail after he received a poor school report. The boy was on probation for shoplifting a pack of gum.

James Harris Jackson #racist bbc.com

A white US Army veteran with a hatred for black people travelled to New York City and confronted a black man before killing him with a sword, police say.

James Harris Jackson, 28, is said to have taken a bus from Baltimore to New York with the intention of targeting black men.

When he came across Timothy Caughman, 66, he allegedly stabbed him in the chest and back.

Mr Caughman was pronounced dead in hospital.

His alleged assailant walked into a Times Square police station about 24 hours later and was arrested on suspicion of murder.

He is said to have told officers that he had harboured feelings of hatred towards black men for at least 10 years.

The ex-serviceman is believed to have travelled to New York on 17 March, and booked himself into a Manhattan hotel.

Assistant Chief of Police William Aubry said he had walked the streets in a long coat, which hid the 26in (66cm) sword, and came across Mr Caughman while the victim was collecting bottles for recycling from rubbish bins.

"The reason he picked New York is because it's the media capital of the world and he wanted to make a statement," Mr Aubry said.

Investigators said they believed the suspect was considering other attacks, but surrendered after noticing his photo in media reports. He had been captured on CCTV footage near the crime scene.

[...]

James Harris Jackson served in the US Army from March 2009 to August 2012 and worked as a military intelligence analyst, the army said. He was deployed in Afghanistan from December 2010 to November 2011.

Brian Bates #fundie bbc.com

A woman in Oklahoma has pleaded guilty to a lewdness charge after being caught on camera by a local "drone vigilante".

Brian Bates used a drone to film Amanda Zolicoffer during a liaison with a man last August.

Mr Bates says this was the only occasion on which he has used a drone to film such an encounter.

A civil liberties campaigner pointed out that filming with drones could raise privacy concerns.

According to court documents seen by the BBC, Zolicoffer was sentenced to a year in state prison for the misdemeanour.

[...]

"I'm sort of known in the Oklahoma City area," Mr Bates told the BBC.

"For the last 20 years I've used a video camera to document street-level and forced prostitution, and human trafficking."

Mr Bates added that on this occasion he felt safer filming the incident via drone and said that it was able to get "very good footage".

Mr Bates runs a website where he publishes videos of alleged sex workers and their clients.

"I am openly referred to as a video vigilante, I don't really shy away from that," he said.

However, Mr Bates also said that he was reluctant to use his drone in many cases because of safety concerns.

In this instance, said Mr Bates, the two individuals were inside a vehicle and the incident occurred away from other members of the public.

Pegida #fundie bbc.com

Right wing protesters in the German city of Dresden have taken to the streets against an anti-war sculpture consisting of three passenger buses placed vertically in the air.

The upturned vehicles are meant to resemble a sniper barricade in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

They are being put into place ahead of the annual memorial of the allied bombing of Dresden in World War Two.

Dresden mayor Dirk Hilbert was booed as he formally inaugurated the sculpture.

Police are investigating anonymous death threats against supporters of the scheme, including Mr Hilbert who has been allocated a police guard.

The inspiration for the imposing monument came from barricades used by rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo, made out of upturned buses which shielded people against the snipers of President Bashar al-Assad.

Thirty-two-year-old Syrian-German artist Manaf Halbouni told the DPA news agency that the monument is intended to represent "peace, freedom and humanity".

"There is no other political message," he said. "It's a peace memorial, a modern Statue of Liberty."

He said the point of the sculpture was to inspire hope - in Dresden and Aleppo - while making the point that "life goes on, despite all the destruction".

But Dresden's far-right anti-Islamic Pegida movement has described the project as idiotic, an abuse of artistic freedom and an attack on their identity.

Protesters from the group jeered and booed Mayor Hilbert, branding him a "traitor" while yelling "shame, shame" during the ceremony. They called for the sculpture to be melted down into scrap metal.

Luigi Brugnaro #fundie bbc.com

[Hyperlink removed.]

The mayor of Venice has been quoted as saying that he will try to ban Gay Pride parades in the city, provoking fury from gay rights activists.

"There will be no gay pride in my Venice," Luigi Brugnaro told La Repubblica newspaper, describing the event as farcical and kitsch.

However, he said he was not homophobic, insisting he had friends who were gay.

[...]

In the interview with La Repubblica newspaper (in Italian), Mr Brugnaro said he firmly opposed hosting the parade in Venice.

"Let them go and do it in Milan, or in front of their own homes," he was quoted as saying.

Mr Brugnaro earlier provoked controversy by withdrawing books that depicted same-sex families from Venice's nurseries and primary schools.

Marlene Malahoo Forte #fundie bbc.com

Jamaica's attorney general has sparked criticism after saying it was "disrespectful" to Jamaican law for the US embassy to fly a rainbow flag following the Orlando shooting.

In response, the US embassy in the capital Kingston asked Marlene Malahoo Forte to explain her legal reasoning.

Forty-nine people died when a gunman opened fire in a gay club in Florida.

Jamaica has laws criminalising gay sex and rights groups have warned LGBT face frequent discrimination.

[...]

In a post that now appears to have been deleted, Ms Malahoo Forte said: "I strongly condemn #OrlandoNightClubShooting but find it disrespectful of Jamaica's laws to have #RainbowFlag flown here. #MyPersonalView."

The US embassy replied: "We're listening. Explain the legal reasoning? It was an attack of terror !!and!! hate, targeting the LGBT community".

She faced a backlash on social media where she was accused of ignorance and bigotry.

Others though defended her right to speak out. "This is her country, not America," said one comment on Facebook.

Supreme Court of India #fundie bbc.com

A 10-year-old girl who is pregnant and has been refused an abortion is at the centre of a media storm in India. The BBC's Geeta Pandey travelled to the northern city of Chandigarh to piece together her story.

[...]

But on 28 July, India's Supreme Court rejected a petition - filed on her behalf - to allow her to abort, on the grounds that at 32 weeks, she is too far into her pregnancy. A doctors' panel had advised the court that a termination at this stage would be "too risky" for the girl, and that the foetus was "doing well".

The court order was a huge disappointment for the girl's family.

[...]

Medical tests so far show that her health is "good" though she suffers from "mild anaemia".

But there are other concerns. The girl was born with a hole in her heart, which was plugged in 2013. Although doctors say it's unlikely to interfere with her pregnancy, the fact remains that she is way too young to give birth.

Every year, 45,000 adult women die during childbirth in India. The risk of pregnant girls under the age of 15 years dying is two-and-a-half times higher than that for women above 20. Doctors say the risk is even higher for someone who is only 10.

It's a concern the Supreme Court took on board, but the judges still ruled that the pregnancy could continue.

Russian government #fundie bbc.com

Russia has listed transsexual and transgender people among those who will no longer qualify for driving licences.

Fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism are also included as "mental disorders" now barring people from driving.

The government says it is tightening medical controls for drivers because Russia has too many road accidents.

"Pathological" gambling and compulsive stealing are also on the list. Russian psychiatrists and human rights lawyers have condemned the move.

The announcement follows international complaints about Russian harassment of gay-rights activists.

In 2013 Russia made "promoting non-traditional lifestyles" illegal.

Nawaz Sharif, Abdul Wali Khan University students #fundie bbc.com

A university student in Pakistan accused of blasphemy against Islam has been killed by a mob of fellow students on campus, police say.

Many students have been arrested after the brutal attack in the northern city of Mardan, and the campus has been closed.

Reports suggest that two young men were accused of posting offensive content on Facebook. One survived with injuries.

[...]

The murdered student has been identified as Mashal Khan, who studied journalism. Some reports say he was shot, while others say he was beaten to death with planks.

"He was badly tortured after being shot at a close range... He was beaten with sticks, bricks and hands," senior police official Niaz Saeed told the AFP news agency.

Hundreds of people were involved, the officer said. Graphic video footage of the incident has emerged online.

Police had not been investigating the two accused men, nor had any case been filed against them, and the mob appeared to have acted on rumours, the Dawn newspaper reports.

Last month Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif voiced his support for a wide-ranging crackdown on blasphemous content on social media.

In a statement on his party's official Twitter account, he described blasphemy as an "unpardonable offence".

An official at Abdul Wali Khan University who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr Khan was disliked by other students for his liberal and secular views.

At least 65 people have been murdered in Pakistan after being accused of blasphemy since 1990, a recent think tank report said.

Donald Trump #fundie bbc.com

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said he would "cancel" the Paris climate deal in his first major speech on energy policy.

More than 195 countries pledged to reduce carbon emissions in a landmark agreement last year.

The billionaire businessman has said before there is no evidence that humans are responsible for climate change.

He called for more drilling, fewer regulations and the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.

"Any regulation that's outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped and scrapped completely," Mr Trump said.

"We're going to do all this while taking proper regard for rational environmental concerns."

Donald Trump's desire to see the end of US participation in the Paris climate agreement is increasing the pressure for a rapid ratification around the world.

But that's not easy as the process can often get bogged down in national parliaments. The Obama administration and others believe they are well on the way to securing that level of support which they feel would then make a US withdrawal, in the face of global condemnation, much less likely. But they could be dead wrong about that.

Mr Trump though doesn't have to go to such lengths to end US involvement. He could choose to ignore or reverse or delay Obama's initiatives on climate including the Clean Power Plan. The real strength of the Paris agreement is that it comes from the bottom up, countries decide for themselves what their emissions cutting commitments will be. But this could also be a huge weakness.

If a President Trump doesn't put emissions cutting regulations into place, no one could force him to. Would China or India and others continue to cut their carbon while the US did not? Unlikely.

Before this speech, he had said he would "renegotiate" the global agreement involving nearly all countries, but this time he went further and said the US would pull out.

The climate change deal is "bad for US business" and said the pact allows "foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use".

Under the deal, countries set emission limits themselves, not an outside panel.

Mr Trump has called climate change "a hoax" devised by the Chinese government.

It is uncertain whether Mr Trump, if elected, could actually make any changes to the deal.

The accord will have legal force once it is ratified by 55 countries that contribute 55% of global emissions.

If the deal is ratified by January, a new American president would have to wait four years to withdraw from the deal.

While the US is the second-largest greenhouse gas polluter, it has been instrumental in helping other countries such as India reduce emissions.

Mr Trump said on Friday that the US would stop funding these efforts.

Environmental advocates called Mr Trump's proposals "frightening".

"Trump's energy policies would accelerate climate change, protect corporate polluters who profit from poisoning our air and water, and block the transition to clean energy that is necessary to strengthen our economy and protect our climate and health," Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmental activist, told Reuters.

On Thursday, he officially became the presidential nominee for his party, surpassing the 1,238 delegates required.

Benjamin Netanyahu #conspiracy bbc.com

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a UN call to end illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land is "shameful".

He stressed that Israel would not abide by Friday's vote at the 15-member UN Security Council.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman said the resolution was a "big blow to Israeli policy".

The document was passed after the US refused to veto it, breaking with long-standing American practice.

Washington has traditionally sheltered Israel from condemnatory resolutions.

The Egyptian-drafted resolution had been withdrawn after Israel has asked US President-elect Donald Trump to intervene, but it was proposed again by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela.

It was adopted by 14 votes to zero, with one abstention.

The issue of Jewish settlements is one of the most contentious between Israel and the Palestinians, who see them as an obstacle to peace.

About 500,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Mr Netanyahu said: "Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms.

"At a time when the Security Council does nothing to stop the slaughter of half-a-million people in Syria, it disgracefully gangs up on the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and calls the Western Wall 'occupied territory'."

Mr Netanyahu said the administration of US President Barack Obama "not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes", and added that he looked forward to working with Mr Trump.

Adel Salman, Islamic Council of Victoria #fundie bbc.com

A proposal by an Australian Islamic group to allow "safe spaces" for young Muslims to discuss "inflammatory" issues has sparked a row.

The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) said such forums enabled young people's opinions to be "respectfully and intelligently debated and challenged".

But State Premier Daniel Andrews said he was "very troubled" by the idea of a space where people "could be radical".

Victoria was rocked by a suspected terror attack earlier this week.

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The ICV, which says it represents some 200,000 Muslims in Victoria, says the community is suffering mental health and other problems because of the widespread suspicion it faces.

It recommends, to a parliamentary inquiry into freedom of religion, funding a number of community-led initiatives - saying financial resources at the moment are concentrated mainly on national efforts to counter violent extremism.

ICV spokesman Adel Salman said they did not consider the "safe space" proposal controversial, because it is a practice that is already used to help young people in countries around the world.

"This is about good practice because the youth require an avenue to express their views in a safe environment... where they feel their views are valued, where they can be respectfully challenged and counter views presented," he said.

He said such spaces would be "conducted with experts who are familiar with the methodology, and understand the way the conversation can be guided".

And he criticised headlines which called the proposal "rage space" and "hate space", saying the media had misconstrued what they were asking for.

But Premier Andrews ruled out any possibility of funding such an initiative.

"I am very troubled by the suggestion that we might have a space where people could be radical as part of a de-radicalisation programme. That makes no sense to me whatsoever".

Unidentified vegan activist #fundie bbc.com

A vegan activist in France who posted a Facebook message saying the killing of a butcher by an Islamist militant was "justice" has received a suspended prison sentence, court sources say.

She reportedly wrote that she had "zero compassion" for the victim of the supermarket attack in Trèbes last week.

Her seven-month sentence was issued as punishment for condoning terrorism.

The victim, butcher Christian Medvès, was one of four people killed by gunman Radouane Lakdim on 23 March.

The animal rights activist was prosecuted under France's tough anti-terror laws by a judge at a court in Saint-Gaudens, not far from Toulouse, in the south-west of the country.

Condoning terrorism carries a maximum seven-year jail sentence and a fine of up to €100,000 (£88,000).

Police said they were alerted to her Facebook post on Monday evening.

"So does it shock you that a murderer gets killed by a terrorist? Not me, I have zero compassion for him, there is justice in it," she is said to have posted, according to a judicial source quoted by the French news agency AFP.

France's butchers federation said it had filed a legal complaint over the post, which has since been removed.

The woman's appearance in court came two days after a left-wing activist received a one-year suspended sentence for celebrating the death of another victim of the same attack, gendarme Arnaud Beltrame.

Lt-Col Beltrame, 44, was killed after offering himself in exchange for a hostage being held by Lakdim after he attacked the Super U grocery in Trèbes on Friday.

Col Beltrame was honoured as a national hero at a ceremony in Paris on Wednesday.

Sixteen people were injured, two seriously, in what was the worst jihadist attack under Mr Macron's presidency. The gunman was shot dead by police.

Ryamizard Ryacudu, Burhanaddin ZR #fundie bbc.com

Indonesia has decided to investigate one of the darkest chapters of its own history. In 1965 at least 500,000 people died in organised killings of suspected communist sympathisers. But, as BBC Indonesian's Rebecca Henschke reports, the new investigation into that bloody time is re-opening old wounds.

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In central Java where most of the killings took place anti-communist banners have been erected. Vigilante groups have shut down discussions about Marxism at universities. Soldiers even briefly detained some students for wearing red T-shirts with a picture of a hammer and sickle inside a coffee cup.

It's also creating divisions in the government.

Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu has met with Islamic vigilante groups and resists these moves to dig up the past.

"I am responsible for security in this country. I need to make sure there are no more conflicts. ...if we keep looking back we are not going to go forward," he told the BBC.

He is worried that those responsible for the massacre could be indicted for crimes against humanity.

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It is easy to find someone who will proudly tell you how many they killed in 1965 and how they did it.

Burhanaddin ZR says he killed more people than he could count and shows no remorse.

"There is no need for reconciliation."

"The only path is they need to let go of their angry feelings," he says of those that lost relatives. "They just want revenge because their family members were victims in our raids."

In the Oscar-nominated documentary The Act of Killing a group of men acted out the murders in horrific detail. In many areas killers live close to the families of the dead. Land and property that was illegally confiscated has never been returned.

Until recently they have always thought of themselves as heroes because they were supported by the government and mainstream media. Many of the executions were directly committed by the security forces. The largest Muslim organisations are also accused of taking part.

Alexei Mozgovoi #fundie bbc.com

One of the top rebel commanders in eastern Ukraine, Alexei Mozgovoi, has been killed in an attack on his car, Russian and Ukrainian media report.

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Last November Mozgovoi was seen at the head of a summary court system.

He is heard issuing a warning to residents: "Too many women go to restaurants. What kind of example do they show to their children? From now on, we will arrest all women we find in restaurants and cafes."

Rizieq Shihab, Islamic Defenders Front, Indonesia #fundie bbc.com

Indonesian police have named a controversial hardline Muslim preacher as a suspect in a pornography case.

Rizieq Shihab is accused of exchanging graphic messages and nude pictures in text conversations with a woman.

The cleric, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, has denied the accusations.

Mr Rizieq heads the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which led mass protests against Jakarta's former governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama who was jailed for blasphemy last month.

Known for his fiery rhetoric, Mr Rizieq has been jailed twice for violence and disrupting public order.

In this latest case, Mr Rizieq is accused of violating Indonesia's strict anti-pornography laws by transmitting pornography to activist Firza Husein, who has also been named as a suspect.

Screenshots of what appeared to be text and picture messages between the two of them began circulating online earlier this year.

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Mr Rizieq's lawyer has also said the allegations were fabricated by supporters of Mr Purnama, also known as Ahok.

Mr Rizieq is known to be a vocal opponent of Mr Purnama.

He and the FPI campaigned for months last year against Mr Purnama, a Christian and ethnic Chinese, claiming that he could not lead Muslims.

When Mr Purnama addressed these claims in a speech while campaigning for Jakarta's mayoral election, he was accused of insulting Islam, prompting even larger protests.

He was subsequently tried and found guilty of blasphemy.

Catholic Church #fundie bbc.com

Bread used to celebrate the Eucharist during Roman Catholic Mass must not be gluten-free - although it may be made from genetically modified organisms, the Vatican has ruled.

In a letter to bishops, Cardinal Robert Sarah said the bread can be low-gluten.

But he said there must be enough protein in the wheat to make it without additives.

The new rules are needed because the bread is now sold in supermarkets and on the internet, the cardinal said.

Roman Catholics believe bread and wine served at the Eucharist are converted into the body and blood of Christ through a process known as transubstantiation.

The wine used must also be "natural, from the fruit of the grape, pure and incorrupt, not mixed with other substances", said Cardinal Robert Sarah of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The ruling was issued at the request of Pope Francis, the letter said.

There are about 1.2 billion Roman Catholics around the world.