latest

www.theguardian.com

Mehri Talebi Darestani #fundie #sexist #quack theguardian.com

The Iranian state has said that it plans to open a treatment clinic for women who defy the mandatory hijab laws that require women to cover their heads in public

The opening of a “hijab removal treatment clinic” was announced by Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. She said the clinic will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal”

Iranian women and human rights groups have expressed outrage at the announcement

Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist who was a target of an Iranian assassination attempt last year, said the move is “shameful”, adding that: “The idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology”

Tucker Carlson #fundie #crackpot theguardian.com

Carlson made the claim on the War Room podcast hosted by his fellow rightwing extremist Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser in the Trump administration who was released from prison last week after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

“Nuclear weapons are demonic, there’s no upside to them at all, and anyone who claims otherwise is either ignorant or doing the bidding of the forces that created nuclear technology in the first place, which were not human forces obviously,” Carlson said during a discussion on the perceived “spirituality” involved in the US development of atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan in August 1945, hastening the end of the second world war.

“Let me ask you this,” he continued. “What was the moment we can point to that nuclear technology was invented? I’ve never met a person who can isolate the moment where nuclear technology became known to man. German scientists in the 1930s? Really? Name the date? It’s very clear to me that these [nuclear weapons] are demonic.”

Tucker Carlson #crackpot #fundie #magick theguardian.com

Tucker Carlson, the former CNN and Fox News political chat host, has said he was “physically mauled” by a demon a year and a half ago, in an assault that he says left him bleeding and with scars from “claw marks”.

Carlson made the claim while speaking in an upcoming documentary, Christianities? In a preview clip on YouTube, Carlson is asked by John Heers of the non-profit First Things Foundation if he believed that “the presence of evil is kickstarting people to wonder about the good”.

“That’s what happened to me. I had a direct experience with it,” said Carlson.
Asked if he was referring to journalism, Carlson responded: “No, in my bed at night. I got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs and mauled, physically mauled.”

Carlson, who said he still bears the scars, said his assailant was a “demon”. He added: “Or by something unseen that left claw marks on my sides.”

He said at the time of the attack, he was asleep in bed. I was “totally confused, I woke up, and I couldn’t breathe, and I thought I was going to suffocate”, he said.

“I walked around outside and then I walked in and my wife and dogs had not woken up. And they’re very light sleepers. And then I had these terrible pains on my rib cage and on my shoulder, and I was just in my boxer shorts and I went and flipped on the light in the bathroom, and I had four claw marks on either side underneath my arms and on my left shoulder. And they’re bleeding.”

He added that he explained the encounter to an assistant, an evangelical Christian, who told him: “That happens, people are attacked in their bed by demons.”

Narconon UK #fundie #quack theguardian.com

Narconon UK was ordered by the watchdog to address a “range of shortfalls” after an investigation identified breaches of charity law and issues with management

The charity, which runs a private rehab facility in rural East Sussex, must also be more transparent about its treatment approach and links to the Church of Scientology, the Charity Commission said

The regulatory action comes after a nine-month investigation by the Observer revealed how people seeking help for drug and alcohol issues at Narconon’s Heathfield facility were subjected to psychological drills akin to those used in Scientology’s “auditing” process. Some people would suffer extreme reactions – breakdowns, paranoia or going into “trance-like states” – according to ex-patients and staff, who were also expected to complete the programme. Independent experts said the drills were reminiscent of a military boot camp or “obedience training” and did not appear to be therapeutic

The Observer investigation uncovered evidence of the charity downplaying its links to Scientology[…]
Sheila Maclean, Narconon’s UK manager, said the issues the Charity Commission flagged had been “successfully resolved”, adding: “We appreciate and welcome their guidance and look forward to our continued relationship with the commission in the future”

She said Narconon was “proud of its record of transparency as to the source of its programme and the success of its methods” and that, while it was developed by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, “it does not require any religious belief and a person does not become a Scientologist by doing the programme”[…]
The exercises closely resemble ‘training routines’ used in ‘auditing’[…]
Prof Tim Millar, professor of substance use and addictions at Manchester University, said he was astonished by the allegations. During 30 years researching drug treatment in England he said he had never seen such techniques

Donald Trump #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

In what was seen as an extreme display of demagoguery even by his standards, Trump drew cheers from an audience in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a picture of an out-of-control crime spree that he said could be ended “immediately” with one “real rough, nasty day”, or “one rough hour”

“You see these guys walking out with air conditioners with refrigerators on their back, the craziest thing,” Trump said. “And the police aren’t allowed to do their job. They’re told, if you do anything, you’re gonna lose your pension

“They’re not allowed to do it because the liberal left won’t let them do it. The liberal left wants to destroy them, and they want to destroy our country”

In a passage that provoked a storm on social media, the former president and Republican nominee then said: “If you had one day, like one real rough, nasty day with the drug stores as an example, where, when they start walking out with …”

He then trailed off in a digression to falsely accuse Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, of introducing a practice in California when she was attorney general that exonerated thieves from prosecution of items worth less than $950

Politico said the remark appeared to be a reference to proposition 47[…]
Trump continued: “You saw kids walk in with calculators. They didn’t want to go over the $950. They’re standing with calculators adding it up. You know, these are smart, smart people. They’re not so stupid, but they have to be taught

“Now, if you had one really violent day … one rough hour, and I mean real rough. The word will get out and it will end immediately”

The comments triggered a stream of comparisons to The Purge, a 2013 film that depicts the election of a radical new party called The New Founding Fathers of America following an economic collapse, which then enacts drastic policies to end crime and unemployment

Donald Trump #racist #conspiracy #wingnut theguardian.com

[Title: Trump repeats lies and attacks Kamala Harris’s racial identity at panel of Black journalists. (31 Jul 2024)]

[...]
Donald Trump parroted disinformation about immigration and abortion, questioned Kamala Harris’s race and accused a panel moderator, Rachel Scott – the senior congressional correspondent for ABC News – of being “rude” and presenting a “nasty question” when she asked him: “Why should Black voters trust you?”
[...]
Trump arrived more than an hour late to the panel[...]
The conversation opened with Scott asking why Black voters should trust Trump given his repeated inflammatory comments about Black people.

“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump said, before asking whether Scott was with “fake news network” ABC News.
[...]
Trump added: “I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country. I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country … I think it’s a very rude introduction.”

He continued, “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln,”
[...]
He repeated the unsubstantiated claim that undocumented immigrants were planning on taking “Black jobs”,[...]“Anybody that has a job – that’s what it is. They’re taking the employment away from Black people.”
[...]
Trump claimed that Harris suddenly “became a Black woman” and had previously only been identifying with her Indian heritage. “Is she Indian or is she Black?”[...]“I respect either one but she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way and then all of sudden she became a Black woman.”
[...]
At least two Black attendees sporting Trump hats frequently cheered for the former president, especially as he reiterated that he faced “political persecution” after being convicted of 34 felonies.
[...]

Hongchi Xiao #quack #conspiracy theguardian.com

An alternative healer who promoted a “slapping therapy” taken up by millions of people across the world has been found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of a British woman who died at one of his workshops

Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, who had type 1 diabetes, fell fatally ill in 2016 after she stopped taking her insulin and fasted during a paida lajin therapy retreat run by Hongchi Xiao at a country house in Wiltshire

The prosecution claimed Xiao, 61, who is addressed as “master” by his followers, was in charge of the workshop and had a duty of care towards Carr-Gomm

They said he was grossly negligent by failing to take reasonable steps to encourage her to take insulin and to summon medical help when it was clearly required. When she became seriously ill, crying in pain and weakening, Xiao blamed her decline on a “healing crisis”[…]
The prosecution said Xiao should have been fully aware of the danger Carr-Gomm was in because the year before a six-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes had died at a workshop he ran in Australia after Xiao had told his mother to stop giving him insulin. Xiao was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter over the boy’s death in 2019 and jailed[…]
Xiao, who was born in China, said he had quit a lucrative career in finance to focus on paida lajin and was not in it to make money. He said the technique, which involves slapping and stretching, was easy to learn, helped tackle every disease known to humans, and reduced the need for patients to take “western” medicine with “poisonous” side-effects[…]
Xiao said the deaths of the boy in Australia and Carr-Gomm had led to paida lajin being “demonised” and he suggested it had deliberately been discredited by “western doctors” and alternative practitioners because it put them out of work

Haibatullah Akhundzada #fundie #psycho #sexist theguardian.com

Afghan supreme leader orders full implementation of sharia law

Public executions and amputations some of the punishments for crimes including adultery and theft

Afghanistan’s supreme leader has ordered judges to fully enforce aspects of Islamic law that include public executions, stonings, floggings and the amputation of limbs for thieves, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson said.

Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted on Sunday that the “obligatory” command by Haibatullah Akhundzada came after the secretive leader met with a group of judges.

Akhundzada, who has not been filmed or photographed in public since the Taliban returned to power in August last year, rules by decree from Kandahar, the movement’s birthplace and spiritual heartland.

“Carefully examine the files of thieves, kidnappers and seditionists,” Mujahid quoted Akhundzada as saying. Those files in which all the sharia [Islamic law] conditions of hudud and qisas have been fulfilled, you are obliged to implement. This is the ruling of sharia, and my command, which is obligatory.”

Mujahid was not available on Monday to expand on his tweet.

Hudud refers to offences for which, under Islamic law, certain types of punishment are mandated, while qisas translates as “retaliation in kind” – effectively an eye for an eye.

Hudud crimes include adultery – and falsely accusing someone of it – drinking alcohol, theft, kidnapping and highway robbery, apostasy and rebellion.

Qisas covers murder and deliberate injury, among other things, but also allows for the families of victims to accept compensation in lieu of punishment.

Islamic scholars say crimes leading to hudud punishment require a very high degree of proof, including – in the case of adultery – confession, or being witnessed by four adult male Muslims.

Since last year’s takeover, videos and pictures of Taliban fighters meting out summary floggings to people accused of various offences have appeared frequently on social media.

The hard-won rights of women in particular have evaporated in the past 15 months, and they are increasingly being squeezed out of public life.

In the past week, the Taliban also banned women from entering parks, funfairs, gyms and public baths.

Jason Struhs #fundie theguardian.com

Elizabeth Struhs’ father, Jason, told a coronial counsellor he “wouldn’t bury a bag of bones” and said he didn’t believe in funerals, after his eight-year-old daughter died, a Queensland court heard on Monday

Later, the father of one of the members of the Toowoomba religious group now on trial for the death of Elizabeth told the court he had warned his son he’d joined a “cult”

All 14 adult members of the religious sect, known as the “Saints”, are now on trial for the death of Elizabeth. The type 1 diabetic died on 7 January 2022, allegedly of diabetic ketoacidosis due to being denied insulin

Coronial counsellor Julie Baker called Jason and Zachary Struhs that month to tell them her body could be released to the family for a funeral and burial, she told the Brisbane supreme court

“He said to me he didn’t believe in funerals, Elizabeth was with God, and that he would not be burying a bag of bones,” she said. She then informed him the body would be dealt with by a government-appointed funeral director

Coronial prosecutor Caroline Marco also called three family members of defendants on Monday to testify about how defendants came to join the sect

Schoenfisch took every opportunity he could to warn his son about the group, which he called a “cult”. He recalled a specific meeting in 2021, where he said he told his son “this is going to end badly” and “you can always come home to our family”

Nigel Farage, MP (Reform-Clacton) #sexist #conspiracy theguardian.com

Nigel Farage has said he is part of a “similar phenomenon” to the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, as he claimed that there were forces in society trying to “stop young men from being young men”

The Reform UK leader used the last day of campaigning before the general election to appear alongside Derek Chisora, the controversial boxer and Reform UK supporter, in a boxing gym in Clacton, where Farage is making his eighth bid to be elected as an MP

Farage used the visit to speak about what he described as the feelings of “emasculation” among young men, saying: “Look at the football. You know, they’re told: Go to Germany. Please don’t drink more than two pints of beer. You what? Don’t chant at the football matches. You what? Oh, and don’t tell jokes that might offend the Germans. I mean, come on. We are trying to stop young men being young men

“That’s why Tate got the following he got. So maybe I’m part of a similar phenomenon,” he said[…]
Farage defended his appearance alongside Chisora, who was given a 12-week suspended prison sentence in 2010 after being found guilty of assaulting his then girlfriend

Asked if Chisora was a good role model, he replied: “You show me someone who has lived a perfect life and never been in trouble. For these young kids he’s a fantastic role model. He’s got a huge following in the country. And yeah, he is a good role model. Imperfect as we all are”

Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa, aka Peixão ("Big Fish") #fundie theguardian.com

Reports that a powerful Rio drug lord known for his extremist religious beliefs ordered Catholic churches near his stronghold to close have spooked worshipers and security experts and exposed the advent of a “narco-pentecostal”[…]
Claims emerged in the Brazilian press over the weekend that Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa – a notorious gang boss known as Peixão (Big Fish) – had determined that three places of worship should shut down in and around the agglomeration of favelas that he controls[…]
Since Peixão – whose nickname comes from the ichthys “Jesus” fish – took power in 2016 of five favelas that have become known as the Complexo de Israel, an allusion to the evangelical belief that the return of Jews to the Holy Land is a step towards the second coming of Christ and Armageddon[…]
In the past, Peixão’s troops have been accused of ransacking Afro-Brazilian temples and banning Afro-Brazilian celebrations in the Complex of Israel, where more than 100,000 people live. But this week’s reports were the first relating to Catholic places of worship

The first inkling that something was amiss came on Saturday when staff at the Our Lady of Conception and Saint Justin Martyr parish told parishioners that meetings and mass were suspended “until further notice”. The social media post was later deleted but, according to local newspapers, word quickly spread among churchgoers that the order had come from Peixão

The broadsheet O Globo said there were subsequent reports that armed men on motorbikes had visited two other local churches, Saint Hedwig and Saint Cecilia, and decreed that weddings or christenings should not take place. Those churches also published messages announcing their temporary closure

The Archdiocese of Rio denied the media reports, insisting their churches were operating as normal[…]
But the civil police’s anti-intolerance and racism unit is reportedly investigating. On Monday morning, military police launched an operation to remove barricades

Marjorie Taylor Greene #wingnut #dunning-kruger #pratt theguardian.com

[Article Title: "Marjorie Taylor Greene compares Trump to Jesus at Las Vegas rally"]

[...]
“The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about ‘President Trump is a convicted felon’,” she told a crowd that waited in soaring early-summer temperatures. “Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.”
[...]
It is not the first time Greene has drawn parallels between Trump and Christ – whom Christians consider to be the messiah and son of God – as well as other historical martyr figures.
[...]
“Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government,” she told the Right Side Broadcast Network.

“There have been many people throughout history that have been arrested and persecuted by radical, corrupt governments … I just can’t believe it’s happening, but I’ll always support him. He’s done nothing wrong.”
[...]

Iran court #fundie #sexist #conspiracy theguardian.com

[Title: Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging]

The Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, a fine and the confiscation of property, his lawyer has confirmed.
[...]
He continued by saying the chief reasons given for the punishment were Rasoulof’s public statements, as well as his continued involvement in making films and documentaries which the court described as “examples of collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the country’s security”.
[...]
Producers on the film reported harassment by the state police, Paknia has previously reported on X, and actors were summoned for questioning and banned from leaving the country.

Paknia confirmed the latest developments in an email, adding: “He is accused of making [The Seed of the Sacred Fig] without obtaining a license from the related authorities, alongside accusations that the actresses were not applying hijab properly and were filmed without hijab. All key members of the film are banned from leaving the country and have been investigated by the security forces of the Ministry of Intelligence.”
[...]

[Note: more mentions of state-persecuted artists follow in the article.]

Steve Christou #homophobia theguardian.com

The ban on same-sex parenting books at libraries in a western Sydney council area could be rescinded after widespread backlash and a warning from the premier, Chris Minns, that LGBTQ+ people were being used as a “political football”.

Four Labor councillors on Cumberland city council have lodged a rescission motion to overturn the ban, which they expect will be debated at the next council meeting on 15 May. The vote is expected to be tight.

The 23-page book explores the experience of having two mothers or two fathers in a way that is designed to be understood by young children. Its contents include quotes such as “having same-sex parents is no different to having opposite-sex parents”.

The book notes that “people might make assumptions” and “people might be unkind” and contains advice such as: “All loving families are good. Remember, as long as you are happy, it doesn’t matter what other people think.”

“Treating someone unfairly because of who they love is a type of discrimination and it is never OK,” the book says.

Christou this week publicly confirmed he had not read the book.

Once a Labor party member, Christou defected to Our Local Community in 2019. He ran as an independent for the federal seat of Parramatta at the 2022 election, garnering 2,982 votes.

In 2021, while he was the Cumberland mayor, Christou used his casting vote to defeat a motion that would have installed street signs in the area that said “Racism Not Welcome”.

Christou is known for his outspoken views and has previously advocated passionately for the right to free speech.

On 28 April, just four days before he put forward the amendment to enact the book ban, Christou posted a video on his X account railing against Australia’s eSafety commissioner as a form of “censorship” and an “attack on people’s free speech”.

“Freedom of speech is very important, but this country is being run down the toilet by this government and their communist regime. It’s not on,” he said.

Hibatullah Akhundzada #fundie #god-complex #sexist theguardian.com

Taliban edict to resume stoning women to death met with horror

The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced at the weekend that the group would begin enforcing its interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan, including reintroducing the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery.

In an audio broadcast on the Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan last Saturday, Akhundzada said: “We will flog the women … we will stone them to death in public [for adultery].

“You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles,” he said, adding: “[But] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan.”

He justified the move as a continuation of the Taliban’s struggle against western influences. “The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun,” he said.

In the past year alone, Taliban-appointed judges ordered 417 public floggings and executions, according to Afghan Witness, a research group monitoring human rights in Afghanistan. Of these, 57 were women.

Most recently, in February, the Taliban executed people in public at stadiums in Jawzjan and Ghazni provinces. The militant group has urged people to attend executions and punishments as a “lesson” but banned filming or photography.

Kristi Noem #psycho theguardian.com

Conservative pundits have condemned the South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate Kristi Noem, amid widespread horror over her admission in a new book that she killed both an “untrainable” dog and an unruly goat during a single day in hunting season.

[...]

“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, saying Cricket was “untrainable … dangerous” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.

“At that moment,” Noem says, “I realised I had to put her down.”

Noem describes taking Cricket to a gravel pit on her farm and shooting her. Remarkably, Noem then describes how she also chose to kill an unruly, unnamed, un-castrated goat, first botching the job then finishing the animal off with a third shotgun shell.

Iraqi parliament and MP Raed al-Maliki #homophobia #transphobia theguardian.com

Iraq’s parliament has passed a bill making same-sex relations punishable by up to 15 years in prison[…]
Transgender people will also be sentenced to three years in jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 out of 329 lawmakers on Saturday

A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people to between 10 and 15 years in prison, according to the document seen by AFP, in a country where gay and transgender people already face frequent attacks and discrimination

They also set a minimum seven-year prison term for “promoting” same-sex relations and a sentence ranging from one to three years for men who “intentionally” act like women

The amended law makes “biological sex change based on personal desire and inclination” a crime and punishes trans people and doctors who perform gender reassignment surgery with up to three years in prison[…]
The amendments also ban organisations that “promote” homosexuality and punish “wife swapping” with a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years

Lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who advanced the amendments, told AFP that “the law serves as a preventive measure to protect society from such acts”

He said passing the new amendment had been postponed until after the visit of the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, to the US[…]
The US and the EU oppose the law and “we didn’t want to impact the visit,” he said

“It is an internal matter and we do not accept any interference in Iraqi affairs”[…]
Human Rights Watch’s Iraq researcher Sarah Sanbar said the new law change “is a horrific development and an attack on human rights”

“Rather than focusing on enacting laws that would benefit Iraqis – like passing the draft domestic violence law or draft child protection law – Iraq is choosing to codify discrimination against LGBT people”

Unnamed Male Vigilantes #magick #psycho #sexist theguardian.com

(NOTE: This is from April of 2021)

Two women tortured in latest sorcery-related attack in Papua New Guinea

Two women have been brutally attacked in Port Moresby by up to 20 men after being accused of witchcraft, in the latest instance of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea.

The women were tortured and burnt with hot irons for hours on Sunday in a settlement at 5 Mile in the capital.

One woman managed to escape and ran down a hill before she was rescued by police. She said she was being interrogated by the male perpetrators and pressured to admit to the killing of another woman who died earlier in the week.

Police found the second woman badly wounded and bound with ropes, lying in a garden. Both had very severe injuries.

National Capital District (NCD) Metropolitan Supt Gideon Ikumu said up to 20 men fled before police arrived at the scene, but that the identities of the men were known to them.

“I strongly condemn these crimes and request the families and relatives of the two victims to come forward and provide their statements,” he said.

Sorcery violence – known as Sorcery Accusation Related Violence, or SARV – is persistent in PNG. This latest attack prompted outrage among senior police officers and politicians.

“People must change their mindset as we are living in a modern growing city. Police will ensure those responsible are brought to justice,” said Anthony Wagambie Jr, divisional commander NCD and central assistant commissioner.

NCD governor, Powes Parkop said: “I am totally disgusted and disappointed by the actions of the men who tortured the two women in the nation’s capital. I am appalled that men continue to believe and practice such barbaric practices in this day and age. The fact that it could still happen in the capital city shows we are a long way away from ending gender-based violence, and sorcery accusatory violence in particular.”

Liz Mitten Ryan #crackpot #mammon #quack theguardian.com

The Equinisity ranch in British Columbia promises a “full immersion” experience with horses that will “change your life forever” because “clearing old energies, opening hearts, and connecting us to one consciousness and higher guidance is what the horses do best”. It’s a new-age utopia of equine “spirit lodges” and “liberty play”. The trouble is, there’s no place for Covid protocols or consumer law. The owner, Liz Mitten Ryan, reckons the vaccine is a “bioweapon designed to reduce the population of the unaware and compliant”. She is, she says, awaiting the “great awakening” when “good will overtake evil”. In the meantime, she is unrepentant about pocketing the cash of the customers she’s banned. “My business has been illegally shut down for two years by government mandates,” she told me. “We definitely don’t accept people who have succumbed to the bioweapon depopulation tool and can shed on our sacred land and animals.”

Frank Hester #racist #sexist #psycho theguardian.com

West Yorkshire police are investigating “racist comments which were allegedly made at a meeting” by the Conservative [biggest ever] donor Frank Hester in 2019.

The investigation was triggered after the Guardian reported that Hester, a businessman based in Leeds, told colleagues that looking at Diane Abbott made you “want to hate all black women” and said the MP “should be shot”.

Hester, who has given £10m to the Tories in the past year, said in the meeting that he did not hate all black women. But he did say that seeing Abbott, who is Britain’s longest-serving black MP, on TV meant “you just want to hate all black women because she’s there”.

After the publication of the remarks, a statement from TPP said Hester “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. The statement said Hester abhorred racism, “not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”.

Unnamed Killers #fundie #sexist #psycho theguardian.com

Pakistan: teenage girls shot dead by relatives over online footage

Father of one victim and brother of the other arrested in connection with the murders

Two female teenagers in Pakistan have been murdered by family members after a video emerged online of them associating with a man.

The pair, said to be aged 16 and 18, were shot dead by male relatives in their remote village in Pakistan’s North Waziristan province this week after footage was posted online of them in the company of a young man in a secluded area.

After they were shot, the pair were then buried in the village by their family members.

Local police confirmed they had arrested the father of one of the victims, and the brother of the other victim, in connection with arranging and carrying out the murders, and they were now being held in custody.

The police are searching for two other family members believed to have been involved in the killings.

The footage of the women, which is less than a minute long, was said to have been filmed last year but only appeared on social media a few weeks ago. The police said they were still searching for a third young woman who also featured in the video to ensure she did not suffer the same fate.

The tribal areas in North and South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, are known for the strict “honour code” imposed on women, whose movements are heavily restricted and who are often not allowed out of the house unaccompanied.

So called “honour” killings remain common in Pakistan’s tribal areas, mainly against women who are believed to have brought shame on a family, and activists say up to 1,000 such killings are still carried out every year.

The issue was brought to the fore in Pakistan in September after three men were found guilty and sentenced to life behind bars for the killing of three women in Kohistan who had been caught on video singing and clapping at a wedding in 2011. The women’s bodies were never found.

Though against the law, “honour” killing cases were previously difficult to convict owing to a loophole in the law that allowed perpetrators to walk free if they were given a pardon by the victim’s family member.

However, the crimes now come with a mandated life sentence.

Communist Party of China #homophobia theguardian.com

China bans depictions of gay people on television

The Chinese government has banned all depictions of gay people on television, as part of a cultural crackdown on “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content”.

Chinese censors have released new regulations for content that “exaggerates the dark side of society” and now deem homosexuality, extramarital affairs, one night stands and underage relationships as illegal on screen.

Last week the Chinese government pulled a popular drama, Addicted, from being streamed on Chinese websites as it follows two men in gay relationships, causing uproar among the show’s millions of viewers.

The government said the show contravened the new guidelines, which state that “No television drama shall show abnormal sexual relationships and behaviours, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on.”

The ban also extends to smoking, drinking, adultery, sexually suggestive clothing, even reincarnation. China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television told television producers it would constantly monitor TV channels to ensure the new rules were strictly adhered to.

The clampdown follows an increase in cultural censorship in China since Xi Jinping came to power in November 2012. In December 2014, censors stopped a TV show, The Empress of China, from being broadcast because the actors showed too much cleavage. The show only returned to screens once the breasts had been blurred out.

In September 2015, a documentary about young gay Chinese called Mama Rainbow was taken down from all Chinese websites.

The new regulations have angered gay activists in China, who have fought for two decades to overcome the substantial stigma in their country against homosexuality. It was only decriminalised in 1997 and was only taken off the official list of mental illnesses in 2001.

In November, one Chinese campaigner took the government to court over its description of homosexuality as a “psychological disorder” in textbooks.

Mostafa Gavahi & other hardliners #fundie #homophobia theguardian.com

“Homosexual” and “devil worshipping” hairstyles have been banned in Iran, alongside tattoos, sunbed treatments and plucked eyebrows for men, which are all deemed un-Islamic.

The move – aimed at spiky cuts – follows a trend where, each summer, Iranian authorities Iranian authorities get tough on men and women sporting clothing or hairdos seen as imitations of western lifestyles.

In 2010, Iran banned ponytails, mullets and long, gelled hair for men, but allowed 1980s-style floppy fringes or quiffs.

Iran’s moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, has spoken against such crackdowns, stating that the police’s duty is to implement the law and not enforce Islam. But hardliners have remained defiant.

Mostafa Govahi, the head of Iran’s barbers’ union, told the semi-official Isna news agency on Monday that fancifully spiked hairstyles were banned and those who styled them risked having their shops closed.

He said: “Devil-worshipping hairstyles are forbidden. Any shop that cuts hair in the devil worshipping style will be harshly dealt with and their licence revoked. Tattoos, solarium treatments and plucking eyebrows [for men] are also forbidden.”

Govahi said shops who imitate such “western hairstyles” or violate “the Islamic establishment’s regulations” would be shut down if they failed to take an initial warning seriously. “Usually the barber shops who do this do not have a licence. They have been identified and will be dealt with,” he said.

In a separate interview broadcast by the exiled Iranian opposition television channel, Manoto, Govahi said barbers across Iran had been given a list of appropriate hairstyles for men. He said hairstyles adopted by homosexuals were also banned but did not provide further details on what sort of haircut that would be.

“Haircuts that show symbols or signs of devil worshippers or those adopted by homosexuals are banned,” he said. “I won’t allow such wrongful western styles as long as I’m in this position.” He said the policy was in line with the cultural norms outlined by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Recently, a group of hardliners in the city of Qazvin wrote to the authorities asking them to ban full-body waxing for women in beauty salons. Women receiving hair removal treatments to their private parts was of particular concern.

Shop mannequins have not been immune from such measures either, with those displaying sizeable breasts or hips not tolerated.

Religious police and plainclothes basij militia are often deployed on the streets or in public buildings such as big shopping malls where they crack down on men and women who fail to stick to their forced Islamic dress code.

Rouhani has repeatedly made clear he stands opposed to such practices, but Iran’s police and similar forces operate under the direct control of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In controversial remarks last week, Rouhani told a group of senior Iranian officers: “Police do not have a duty to enforce Islam. No police officer can do something and say he did it because God commanded it, or the prophet had said so. It has nothing to do with the police.”

He added: “The police only have one duty: to implement the law. That’s it.”

This week, he reiterated his position once more but it has been met with sharp criticism from hardliners, among them many influential clerics. Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi responded by saying: “All individuals, including the police, are required to enforce rules of Islam.”

Eli Regalado #fundie #mammon theguardian.com

‘The Lord told us to’: US pastor says he stole $1m from Christians to remodel home

A Colorado pastor who is charged with stealing more than $1m from his Christian community in a cryptocurrency scheme has admitted to the fraud but argued that God instructed him to carry it out.

Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, are charged with creating and selling their cryptocurrency, known as “INDXcoin”, to Christians based in their home town of Denver, Colorado, allegedly telling would-be investors that the Lord had told him people would become rich if they invested, the state’s division of securities announced in a press release on Thursday.

But INDXcoin was “practically worthless” in reality, prosecutors said in the statement. Investors lost millions of dollars while the Regalados used their investments for lavish living.

In a video statement about the charges, Eli admitted that the couple had squandered $1.3m that was raised through cryptocurrency.

“The charges are that me and Kaitlyn pocketed $1.3m,” Regalado said in the video published to INDXcoin’s website on Friday. “I just wanted to come out and say those charges are true.”

Regalado added: “A few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do.”

Martin Sellner, Gerrit Huy, Roland Hartwig and unnamed Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and Identitarian Movement members #racist #wingnut theguardian.com

Politicians from[…]AfD[…]met the head of the[…]Identitarian Movement and neo-Nazi activists[…]
It is likely to feed a fraught debate over whether the AfD should be banned[…]
The meeting was attended not only by two state and municipal-level AfD politicians but also one active member of the Bundestag, Gerrit Huy, as well as Roland Hartwig, a former MP who has acted as a personal aide to Weidel since September 2022. One party branch of the AfD’s has described Hartwig as being tasked with the party’s “strategic positioning”

The AfD figures were meeting with Martin Sellner, who was tasked with introducing the “masterplan” and is a key figure in the pan-European “New Right”[…]
The Identitarian Movement is on a list of organisations whose membership the AfD considers incompatible with party membership[…]
One key idea that Sellner has been trying to nudge into the political mainstream is “re-migration”[…]Target not only asylum seekers but, as Sellner elaborated[…]also citizens holding German passports who, he claims, “form aggressive, rapidly growing parallel societies”[…]
The explosive subject of “re-migration” apparently dominated the discussions[…]Sellner allegedly presenting the forcible extradition of “non-assimilated” German citizens as the biggest “challenge” if the AfD were to gain power

Ideas discussed at the meeting[…]included that of deportations to an unnamed state in northern Africa that would provide space for up to 2 million people. People who lobby on behalf of refugees in Germany could also go there, Sellner is reported to have suggested[…]
During the meeting, Sellner said, he had made it “unmistakably clear that no distinction can be made between different types of [German] citizens[…]all re-migration measures have to be legal”[…]
Huy[…]is reported to have claimed that she developed her own “re-migration” concept, and appeared to suggest her party no longer opposed the government’s plan to lift a ban on dual citizenship for that reason

Father Ramon Guidetti #fundie #conspiracy theguardian.com

An Italian priest has been struck off after calling Pope Francis an “anti-pope usurper” in his New Year’s Eve homily

Father Ramon Guidetti’s speech to the congregation at St Ranieri church in Guasticce, a hamlet in the Tuscan province of Livorno, was a tribute marking the first anniversary of the death of Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI

In a video of the homily, which lasted more than 20 minutes and was shared online, Guidetti refers to the Argentinian pontiff – whose former name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio – as simply “Mr Bergoglio”, before describing him as “a Jesuit Freemason linked to world powers, an anti-pope usurper”[…]
He was reportedly applauded by some of his flock. His excommunication, however, came swiftly. Simone Giusti, the bishop of Livorno, issued a decree saying Guidetti had “publicly committed an act of a schismatic nature” and ordered him to be “removed from the office of parish priest of St Ranieri in Guasticce”. The bishop warned other priests “not to participate in any of his celebrations or other cult practices” as that would incur “the very serious penalty of excommunication”

Guidetti, who was known locally to have made previous anti-Francis remarks, said he was proud to have been excommunicated, adding it was “a mark of pride to be out of this church, which is a tyranny”

“I am calm,” he told Radio Domina Nostra, a radio show hosted by Alessandro Minutella, another priest who was excommunicated after attacking Pope Francis. “But astonished at the speed at which the guillotine came down. I will frame the decree and hang it on the wall – it will be something I will boast about”

Philip Manshaus #wingnut #racist #psycho theguardian.com

The suspected gunman in an attack on a mosque in Norway on Saturday was inspired by recent white extremist attacks in New Zealand and the US, online posts suggest.

Police in Norway have so far only said the attack in Baerum, a town 20km from Oslo, the capital, will be investigated as a possible act of terrorism.

In messages posted on the day of the attack, Philip Manshaus, a 21-year-old man who has been named by local media as the main suspect, described himself as “chosen” by “Saint [Brenton] Tarrant”, the gunman who killed 51 people at mosques in New Zealand in March.

“My time is up, I was chosen by Saint Tarrant after all … We can’t let this continue, you gotta bump the race war threat in real life … it’s been fun,” one post reads.

In a meme also posted by Manshaus, three rightwing extremists suspected of being responsible for other attacks this year are depicted and praised as heroes of the white nationalist movement.

Tarrant is described as having “addressed the Muslim problem” while Patrick Crusius, who has been charged with the attack in El Paso, Texas, in which 22 people died, is praised for “fighting to reclaim his country”.

A third attacker suspected of killing a woman during a Passover celebration at a synagogue in California in April is also praised, alongside antisemitic abuse.

Fraser Anning #racist theguardian.com

An Australian crossbench senator has invoked the term “the final solution” in an inflammatory speech calling for a plebiscite asking voters whether they want to end all immigration by Muslims and non-English speaking people “from the third world”.

Fraser Anning, formerly of the far-right Pauline Hanson One Nation party, and now a member of the Katter’s Australia party, used his maiden speech in the Senate to call for “a plebiscite to allow the Australian people to decide whether they want wholesale non-English speaking immigrants from the third world, and particularly whether they want any Muslims”.

His comments were widely condemned on Wednesday. Malcolm Turnbull said he condemned “racism” and said Australia was the most successful multicultural society in the world. Cabinet minister Mitch Fifield said the speech was deeply regrettable, telling Nine Network: “I thought we had moved beyond this in the parliament. Australia is a warm and open nation.”

Anning also invoked the white Australia policy, suggesting Australians may want “to return to the predominately European immigration policy of the pre-Whitlam consensus”. The white Australia policy, which restricted non-European immigration, ran from 1901 until it began to be dismantled in the late 1960s.

He said neither the former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam, nor any subsequent government, had asked Australians what kind of immigration they wanted. “What we do need a plebiscite for is to decide who comes here.”

Anning declared on Tuesday the reasons “for ending all further Muslim immigration are both compelling and self-evident”.

“The record of Muslims who have already come to this country in terms of rates of crime, welfare dependency and terrorism are the worst of any migrant and vastly exceed another immigrant group,” he said.

“The majority of Muslims in Australia of working age do not work and exist on welfare. Muslims in New South Wales and Victoria are three times more likely than other groups to be convicted of crimes.”

“We have black African Muslim gangs terrorising Melbourne, we have Isis-sympathising Muslims trying to go overseas to try and fight for Isis and while all Muslims are not terrorists, certainly all terrorists these days are Muslims.

“So why would anyone want to bring more of them here?”

Raye Johnson #psycho theguardian.com

Experience: I paid to have my daughter kidnapped

That first day I grieved. I knew deep down I was right, but I didn’t know if my daughter would forgive me.
It was 3am. I went into my daughter’s room, woke her, told her I loved her and that she was going on a trip. She was drowsy from the sleeping pills I’d slipped in her drink a few hours earlier. Then the two strangers I’d hired to take her away went into her room. She tried to get her bag and makeup. “Where you’re going, you don’t need anything,” they told her. I stood outside the door, shaking. Had I just created a situation in which I would lose my 17-year-old for ever?

I’d quit a successful financial career and moved across the country to bring up my daughter and son in Florida, so we’d have time as a family after their father and I divorced. I loved them fiercely and we were close. They knew I had high hopes for them. But at 17, my daughter started hanging around with different people; her straight-A grades dropped and her attitude changed. We started to fight about her going to school. “Even if you drive me there, you can’t make me go inside,” she would say. Then she told me she had decided to quit school to become a high-end hairdresser and wanted me to pay for her to go to beauty school. I was distraught. There is nothing wrong with hairdressing, but I wanted her to get a proper education first, so she would have choices.

Around the same time, police twice caught her 14-year-old brother with drugs. I wasn’t having it a third time, so I sent him away to a strict boarding school in another state. On a weekend visit, it struck me how much he’d changed and how my daughter would benefit from the same intensive treatment.

But I had to act fast. Her beauty school fees were due the coming Saturday. And, legally, I had control over her only while she was still under 18. I found a boot camp for troubled children in Utah and hired a private service to escort her there, whether she wanted to go or not. That Friday night we went to dinner on the pretence that it was to celebrate her new school. It was actually to stop her seeing friends and ensure she’d be home for the escorts.

After their appearance in the middle of the night, the security service flew with her to the Utah desert. That first day I grieved. I knew deep down I was right, but I didn’t know if my daughter would forgive me: I had to be prepared to lose her in order to help her. Her friends called and I said she’d gone on a trip. “Where did she go? When will she be back?” they asked. I told them I didn’t know.

I had paid $16,000 (£11,380) for seven weeks of gruelling physical and mental challenges. The other kids were in desperate situations: young offenders, drug addicts, some were suicidal. I was aware my daughter didn’t share their circumstances. They lived like cavemen: they didn’t see a roof the whole time, took care of their sanitary waste, learned survival skills and did physical labour; some cut off their hair because they couldn’t bathe.

They had daily therapy and wrote letters to their parents. My daughter’s were full of apology: how she had made mistakes, wanted to be forgiven, how she loved me. Sure, she was angry at first when she didn’t know what was going on, but she soon understood why I’d sent her there and was embarrassed.
Experience: my plane was hijacked
Read more

At the end, parents were taken into the desert to be reunited with their kids. We could see them walking towards us from a mile away. I was scared. I didn’t know how my daughter would react. Then I spotted her; she was muscular and dirty. We hugged and cried. She was back to the daughter I knew, the one without the attitude.

She finished high school with straight As, went to college, then did a master’s. She works in the legal system now. Both my kids joke that I’m a psycho mom, but they forgave me and we remain close. It’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. Could they have got where they are today without such drastic action? Perhaps, but it wasn’t a chance I was willing to take. I believe the more we suffer in life, the more we grow. I have two strong, amazing kids, and I’d do it again.

• As told to Candice Pires. Raye Johnson is a pseudonym.

Elgeyo Marakwet mob #sexist #psycho theguardian.com

Efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation in Kenya have suffered a setback after a police officer was killed in a confrontation with a gang of youths

Activists and local leaders condemned the murder, calling it a backward step in the fight to eradicate the practice in the country. Police in Elgeyo Marakwet county, in the Rift Valley region, had taken a group of girls who had been forced to undergo the illegal procedure to hospital when a mob of young men stormed a police station and stoned Cpl Mushote Boma to death

“Angry youth raided the police post in a bid to get the girls, who had been rescued by police after they were genitally mutilated, where they overpowered the officer who was on duty and stoned him to death before burning his body using a mattress,” reported the government-owned Kenya news agency

The six girls are recuperating at a local hospital, according to county police commander, Peter Mulinge[…]
Mwebia, whose organisation has since trained nearly 500 male champions in counties where FGM exists, says men cringe when they are shown videos of the cut, a rite they traditionally believe is undertaken for their benefit

“They are told the cut makes women more mature and avoid promiscuity. They are also told that they will lose any respect within the community by marrying an uncut woman. That is why they will kill anyone, including a policeman, who interferes with the cut,” Mwebia said

Mwebia was attacked by another group of men in Kuria in December 2016 after he and a colleague were suspected of filming a street parade of girls undergoing the cut

David N. Anderson and Francine Graham #racist #psycho theguardian.com

Authorities in New Jersey on Thursday announced they are investigating Tuesday’s killing of a police officer and an attack on a kosher supermarket, with three gunned down by a man and woman on a rampage, as an antisemitic hate crime.

“I can confirm we are investigating this matter as potential acts of domestic terrorism, fueled by antisemitism and anti law enforcement beliefs,” New Jersey’s attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, said.

The two killers who shot dead a detective in Jersey City, then stormed a kosher supermarket and killed three bystanders, had apparently been followers of the Black Hebrew Israelites, a fringe group whose members have been known to rail against white people and Jews.

One of the suspects had made antisemitic posts online, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, but who was not able to disclose their name, said on Thursday.

[...]

The FBI on Wednesday searched the Harlem headquarters of the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, which is the formal name of the Black Hebrew Israelites group, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The why and the ideology and the motivation that’s what we’re investigating,” Grewal said, adding that authorities are trying to determine whether anyone other groups were involved in planning the attack.

Others, including Jersey City’s mayor, Steve Fulop, pronounced the bloodshed a hate crime against Jews, with Fulop saying surveillance video made it clear that the attackers targeted the Jewish market, slowly and deliberately driving up to the grocery in a stolen rental van and immediately opening fire.

The attackers were identified as David N Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, both of them also prime suspects in the slaying of a Uber driver found dead in a car trunk in nearby Bayonne over the weekend, who was Jewish.

Anderson used a rifle in the grocery attack. Grewal wouldn’t confirm if Graham also had a weapon when she followed Anderson into the market. Several weapons were recovered from the store.

Nicolás Maduro #wingnut #moonbat theguardian.com

The foreign minister of[…]Guyana has said that neighbouring Venezuela is “on the wrong side of history”[…]
Tensions between the two countries have reached unprecedented heights ahead of a referendum on Sunday intended to rubber-stamp Venezuela’s claim on the region of Essequibo

Among the five questions President Nicolás Maduro is asking his citizens is whether they should convert the 160,000 sq km area into a new Venezuelan state

It remains unclear what the legal or practical implications of a yes vote would be, and the referendum is widely seen as a way for the deeply unpopular dictator to drum up public support ahead of presidential elections[…]But there are growing concerns that Maduro could push the country into war as he uses the century-old dispute to whip up patriotic fervour[…]
Venezuela has laid claim to the Essequibo ever since it gained independence[…]in 1811. Inhabited by 120,000 of Guyana’s 800,000 people, the region is largely impenetrable jungle but has large reserves of oil, gold and copper[…]
Past Venezuelan leaders have dredged up the dispute in times of domestic turmoil but perhaps none have campaigned as hard on the issue as Nicolás Maduro. The 61-year-old’s TikTok output has become increasingly prolific and his rhetoric more bellicose since 2015, when massive oil deposits were discovered in the contested region

Maduro has presented history lessons on state television, interrupted school classes to get young children to cheer on the country’s territorial claim and handed out revised maps depicting an engorged Venezuela straddling a Guyana a fraction of its internationally recognised size

The socialist government has also released a series of highly polished campaign videos of Venezuelan children playing in the lush forests and cascading waterfalls and an official song, The Essequibo is Ours

“It’s in your hands, compatriots,” Maduro pleads in one video, to the upbeat drumming of the catchy pop tune. “Vote five times yes!”

Eclipso #moonbat theguardian.com

[Comment on article describing daily life in North Korea]

To be honest ... apart from the food shortages, I'm not sure how it's any worse than life in the UK. Where are the slums and the ghettos? Judging by those photos, I'd guess that working class people in the UK have it worse. At least the North Koreans have solidarity and they all feel part of society. Over here, some people are just left to fend for themselves. They're sufficiently embittered by being spat on and treated like dirt that they take out their anger on even their own families. And that leads the one the highest rates of family breakdown in the whole world. Most people would rather have friends, family and community than a few fancy gadgets which probably take the richness out of life anyway.

Unnamed Daghestani rioters #racist #psycho theguardian.com

A mob in Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Dagestan has stormed the airport in Makhachkala in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel

In the past day, local people have besieged a hotel in search of Jewish guests and stormed the airport after reports emerged that a flight from Tel Aviv was arriving in the city. Passengers were forced to take refuge in planes or hide in the airport for fear of being attacked

Local health authorities said that 20 people had been injured, including two who were critical. The RIA news agency said nine police officers had received injuries in the incident, two of whom were being treated in hospital. The passengers on the plane were safe, security forces told Reuters

Sixty people were later detained, RIA reported on Monday, adding that 150 of the protesters had been identified[…]
“This is your captain,” one announcement said. “There’s an angry mob outside that doesn’t know where we’ve come from and why [we are here]. It’s possible we’ll also come under attack.”

The riots appear to have been inspired by a number of posts on the social media platform Telegram, where followers were told that a flight from Tel Aviv would be arriving that evening with refugees from Israel

Some of the signs held by the rioters read, “We are against Jewish refugees”. Police stood by as hundreds of protesters surged into the airport’s main terminal, entering restricted areas and demanding that customs officials direct them toward the arriving passengers[…]
Reports of anti-Jewish acts were not confined to Makhachkala. In Nalchik, another city in the neighbouring Kabardino-Balkaria region, a planned Jewish centre was set on fire earlier on Sunday. Earlier on Sunday, protesters also besieged a hotel in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt, searching rooms for “Jewish refugees”

Operation Dudula, Philani Gumede and Isaac Lesole #racist theguardian.com

An anti-migrant vigilante organisation in South Africa has registered as a political party and plans to contest seats in next year’s general elections

Operation Dudula, whose name means “to force out” in Zulu, wants all foreign nationals who are in the country unofficially to be deported

The party, which first emerged in Johannesburg’s Soweto township after riots in 2021, claims to have widespread support, with a formal presence in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. It claims to be planning to stand candidates in 1,500 of the country’s 4,468 voting districts

Many Operation Dudula followers have faced allegations of hate speech and physical violence. They have staged protests outside embassies, turned people away outside hospitals to prevent foreign nationals from accessing state medical services, and conducted door-to-door searches of businesses in poorer areas demanding to see identity documents

In August, Philani Gumede, a 36-year-old from Durban, was convicted of hate speech after sending a voice-note to members calling on them to evict foreigners from businesses[…]
In 2022, Operation Dudula followers camped outside Kalafong hospital in Atteridgeville, a suburb of South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria, preventing people, including pregnant women, from entering the hospital

“People were turned away by the protesters based on their appearance and accent,” said Sibusiso Ndlovu, a health promotion supervisor for Médecins Sans Frontières. “They have even demanded that critically ill patients who are migrants must be ‘unplugged’ and taken out”[…]
The Operation Dudula party’s spokesperson, Isaac Lesole, said the transition from civil movement to political party would mean a tempering of tactics

“We want to demilitarise Operation Dudula. We know the military angle did not appeal to a lot of people”[…]
But its core ideology would not change, he said. “We view illegal immigrants as criminals, and they must go back to their countries”

War on Women Award

Ohio Republicans #fundie #sexist theguardian.com

Ohio bill orders doctors to ‘reimplant ectopic pregnancy’ or face 'abortion murder' charges

Ohio introduces one of the most extreme bills to date for a procedure that does not exist in medical science

A bill to ban abortion introduced in the Ohio state legislature requires doctors to “reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” into a woman’s uterus – a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of “abortion murder”.

This is the second time practising obstetricians and gynecologists have tried to tell the Ohio legislators that the idea is currently medically impossible.

The move comes amid a wave of increasingly severe anti-abortion bills introduced across much of the country as conservative Republican politicians seek to ban abortion and force a legal showdown on abortion with the supreme court.

Ohio’s move on ectopic pregnancies – where an embryo implants on the mother’s fallopian tube rather than her uterus rendering the pregnancy unviable – is one of the most extreme bills to date.

“I don’t believe I’m typing this again but, that’s impossible,” wrote Ohio obstetrician and gynecologist Dr David Hackney on Twitter. “We’ll all be going to jail,” he said.

An ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening condition, which can kill a woman if the embryonic tissue grows unchecked.

In addition to ordering doctors to do the impossible or face criminal charges, House Bill 413 bans abortion outright and defines a fertilized egg as an “unborn child”.

It also appears to punish doctors, women and children as young as 13 with “abortion murder” if they “perform or have an abortion”. This crime is punishable by life in prison. Another new crime, “aggravated abortion murder”, is punishable by death, according to the bill.

The bill is sponsored by representatives Candice Keller and Ron Hood, and co-sponsored by 19 members of Ohio’s 99-member House.

Mike Gonidakis, the president of the anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life, declined to comment on the bill, and said he was still reading the legislation because, it’s “approximately 700 pages long”. He said his office is “taking off the rest of the week for Thanksgiving”.

The Guardian also contacted the Susan B Anthony List, a national anti-abortion organization. The organization did not reply to a request for comment.

Keller, Hood and eight of the bill’s 19 co-sponsors did not reply to requests for comment. The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association also did not reply to a request for comment.

Ohio passed a six-week abortion ban last summer. The “heartbeat bill”, as supporters called it, banned abortion before most women know they are pregnant. Reproductive rights groups immediately sued, and the bill never went into effect. Abortion is legal in all 50 US states.

In May, researcher Dr David Grossman argued reimplanting a fertilized egg or embryo is “pure science fiction” in a Twitter thread that went viral in May, when the bill was first introduced.

“There is no procedure to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy,” said Dr Chris Zahn, vice-president of practice activities at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. “It is not possible to move an ectopic pregnancy from a fallopian tube, or anywhere else it might have implanted, to the uterus,” he said.

“Reimplantation is not physiologically possible. Women with ectopic pregnancies are at risk for catastrophic hemorrhage and death in the setting of an ectopic pregnancy, and treating the ectopic pregnancy can certainly save a mom’s life,” said Zahn.

Elon Musk #conspiracy #racist theguardian.com

Elon Musk has accused George Soros’s foundation of wanting to destroy western civilisation, as the tech tycoon prepares to meet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in California

Musk made the comment in reply to a post by a user sharing footage of people arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa from north Africa that referred to a “George Soros led invasion” of Europe

“The Soros organization appears to want nothing less than the destruction of western civilization,” X’s owner posted[…]
Civil rights groups, including the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the ADL, have issued findings that the volume of hate speech on X has grown under the stewardship of Musk

Travis Ikeguchi #homophobia #psycho theguardian.com

A 27-year-old man who fatally shot a store owner in California had torn down her Pride flag and shouted homophobic slurs, officials said on Monday.

Laura Ann Carleton, 66, who went by “Lauri”, died at the scene of the shooting on Friday outside her Mag.Pi clothing store in Cedar Glen, an unincorporated community in the mountains roughly 60 miles (100km) east of Los Angeles.

San Bernardino’s county sheriff, Shannon Dicus, identified the shooter as Travis Ikeguchi in a Monday press conference. Ikeguchi fled on foot, and when he was confronted by officers, he opened fire on them and hit multiple squad cars, Dicus said. Sheriff’s deputies fired back and fatally shot Ikeguchi a mile from the store.

Ikeguchi, who lived in Cedar Glen, had a history of posting hateful content online, the sheriff said, adding that his family had reported him missing the day prior. He shot Carleton with a semiautomatic handgun, which was not registered to him, and he did not have a concealed carry license, according to Dicus.

Demonstrators and the Minute newspaper #racist #wingnut theguardian.com

A formal investigation has been launched over a racist slur made by a French far-right magazine against the country's justice minister.

On the cover of this week's edition, Minute magazine taunted Christiane Taubira with the headline: "Crafty as a monkey, Taubira gets her banana back". It is the third racist attack on Taubira in as many weeks and has provoked outrage and soul searching in France across political divides.

A member of the far-right National Front was suspended after comparing Taubira to a monkey in a recent television interview, and during a visit to the city of Angers, the minister faced children waving bananas. One 11-year-old girl shouted: "Monkey, eat your banana".

[...]

The headline is a play on words: banana can also be used as slang for a broad smile.

NB:bolding added

Florida State Board of Education #dunning-kruger #racist theguardian.com

Kamala Harris went to Florida on Friday to address the state board of education’s controversial new standards for Black history, which include the contention that some Black people benefited from being enslaved[…]
On Wednesday, the Florida board of education approved new standards for how public schools should teach Black history.

According to a 216-page document, public school students will now be taught that some Black people received “personal benefit” from slavery – because it taught them useful skills

“Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” one curriculum benchmark said

The new curriculum also says Black people perpetrated violence during some race massacres, including the 1906 Atlanta race riot and the 1921 Tulsa massacre

On Thursday, at a conference for the Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta, Harris condemned the updated education standards as “revisionist history”[…]
The Florida Education Association, a union representing more than 150,000 educators, called the new curriculum a “disservice to Florida students” and a “big step backwards”

Stephanie Messenger #quack #conspiracy #dunning-kruger #psycho theguardian.com

An anti-vaccination children’s picture book written to “educate children on the benefits of having measles” has been bombarded with hundreds of scathing reviews in the past few days in the wake of the disease’s current outbreak in the US.

Australian author Stephanie Messenger, who writes that she has raised three children “vaccine-free and childhood disease-free”, first self-published Melanie’s Marvelous Measles two years ago. But since the measles outbreak in California’s Disneyland last month spread to more than 100 people, it has received more than 800 one-star reviews on Amazon.com as readers laid into the title.

...

The book sets out to take children on a “journey to learn about the ineffectiveness of vaccinations and to know they don’t have to be scared of childhood illnesses, like measles and chicken pox”. With a cover showing a rash-covered girl playing in the garden, Messenger’s story sees Tina worrying about her friend Melanie, who is away from school with measles. Her mother tells her not to be concerned. “Many wise people believe measles make the body stronger and more mature for the future,” she tells her daughter, who then asks if she can visit Melanie and catch measles herself. “That sounds like a great idea,” laughs her mother. “Let’s take her some carrot juice and melon to help her get strong and recover from the measles.”

...

Messenger, in her book, claims that “often today, we are being bombarded with messages from vested interests to fear all diseases in order for someone to sell some potion or vaccine, when, in fact, history shows that in industrialised countries, these diseases are quite benign and, according to natural health sources, beneficial to the body”.

answerthis #wingnut theguardian.com

The left have become so puritan and uptight they lost the hearts and minds battle that was once their stock in trade. They have one joke with one punchline that even they don't laugh at any more.

The fact is the right, alt-right and even the far right is a far more welcoming place than the angry, moralising, doxing left. They need a new act.

Kari Lake #wingnut #psycho theguardian.com

The Arizona Republican Kari Lake’s vow of armed resistance over Donald Trump’s indictment for retaining classified records “threatens the very core of our democracy”, an Arizonan Democratic congressman said[…]
Lake, a TV news anchor turned far-right firebrand, lost the election for Arizona governor last year. She continues to insist without evidence her defeat was the result of fraud

Speaking to Georgia Republicans on Friday, she said: “I have a message tonight for [US attorney general] Merrick Garland, and Jack Smith, and Joe Biden. And the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one’s for you

“If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me

“And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA [National Rifle Association]. That’s not a threat – that’s a public service announcement

“We will not let you lay a finger on President Trump. Frankly, now is the time to cling to our guns and our religion”

Lake was speaking in place of Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-president who escaped the mob Trump sent to the Capitol on January 6[…]
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lake’s remarks in Columbus on Friday met with a standing ovation

Responding to a reporter, Lake tweeted: “I meant what I said”

Yoweri Museveni, Anita Annet Among & Martin Ssempa #fundie #homophobia #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

Ugandan president signs anti-LGBTQ+ law with death penalty for same-sex acts

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts.

The move immediately drew condemnation from many Ugandans as well as widespread international outrage.

Early on Monday, the speaker of the Ugandan parliament, Anita Annet Among, released a statement on social media confirming Museveni had assented to the law first passed by MPs in March. It imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in prison for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, and anyone convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” faces a 14-year sentence.

Among tweeted on Monday morning: “The president … has assented to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. As the parliament of Uganda, we have answered the cries of our people. We have legislated to protect the sanctity of [the] family.

“We have stood strong to defend our culture and [the] aspirations of our people,” she said, thanking Museveni for his “steadfast action in the interest of Uganda”.

Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of the bill, presented it as a victory against the US and Europe and suggested Uganda needed to push back against groups working to tackle HIV. He said: “The president has shown great courage to defy bullying of the Americans and Europeans. That bullying we shall not give you money. They intimidate and threaten you.”

In a joint statement, the heads of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNAids and the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) reacted with “deep concern” and said progress on tackling Aids and HIV was “now in grave jeopardy”.

Museveni claimed in March that his government was attempting to resist western efforts to “normalise” what he called “deviations”.

“The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” he said.

Kerrie and Jason Struhs, and The Saints #fundie #psycho theguardian.com

Twelve members of a religious group in Toowoomba have been arrested after the death of an eight-year-old girl, who Queensland police say was allegedly denied life-saving medication in the belief she would be healed by God.

Elizabeth Rose Struhs had type 1 diabetes and died in her family’s Rangeville home, west of Brisbane, on 7 January. Police allege her parents, who have previously been charged with murder, began withholding insulin six days earlier.

Police allege paramedics were not called to the scene until 5.30pm the next day, with the Courier Mail reporting members of the church group believed she would be resurrected.

The girl’s parents, Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs and Jason Richard Struhs, were charged with murder and torture offences earlier this year. They have not yet entered pleas, and will remain in custody until their next hearing at the Toowoomba magistrates court, due later this month. They are also charged with failing to provide the necessities of life.
Police allege others bear culpability in Elizabeth’s death.

Tuesday’s arrests were of other members of their small and tightly-knit religious group who were allegedly present when the eight-year-old died, reportedly singing and praying to God to heal her.

Detective Acting Supt Garry Watts alleged all 12 were aware of Elizabeth’s condition, were present during the course of those fateful six days and did not take any steps to provide medical assistance. He said the religious group comprised three families and that those arrested included seven women and five men.

Two were in their 60s, a man and a woman, one was a 19-year-old man and the rest were in their 20s and 30s. All were arrested in a Harristown home.

Elizabeth’s sister Jayde Struhs, the eldest of eight siblings, told Nine’s A Current Affair earlier this year that the group referred to themselves as The Saints.

Struhs, 23, said the group formed as a breakaway from a more mainstream church which they believed to be corrupt and had become stricter over the years.

They did not celebrate Christmas, rejected medical intervention and believed their one purpose was to serve God.

“They’re extreme. They’re small. Controlled,” she said.

Iranian judiciary #fundie theguardian.com

Iran has hanged two men convicted of blasphemy, according to authorities, carrying out rare death sentences for the crime as the number of executions soars across the Islamic Republic after months of unrest[…]
The pair executed, Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, died at Arak prison in central Iran. They had been arrested in May 2020, accused of being involved in a channel on the Telegram message app called Critique of Superstition and Religion, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Both men spent months in solitary confinement and could not contact their families, the commission said

The Mizan news agency of Iran’s judiciary confirmed the executions, describing the two men as having insulted the prophet Muhammad and promoted atheism. Mizan also accused them of burning a copy of the Qur’an, though it was not clear whether it was claimed the men did that or such imagery was shared via the Telegram channel[…]
In 2022, Iran executed at least 582 people, up from 333 in 2021, according to Iran Human Rights. Amnesty International’s most recent report on executions put Iran as the world’s second-largest executioner, behind China, where thousands of people are believed to be put to death a year

Ted Cruz #fundie theguardian.com

[Article title: ‘Spare us your prayers’: Ted Cruz faces backlash after Texas mall shooting kills eight]

Texas US senator Ted Cruz’s comment that he was “praying” for families of the eight victims killed in a shooting at a shopping mall in his state has sparked outrage as many critics say the Republican should advocate for meaningful gun control rather than repeatedly invoke prayer after mass, deadly violence.
[...]
Criticism of Cruz grew several hours after the shooting when he tweeted: “Heidi and I are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific mall shooting in Allen, Texas. We pray also for the broader Collin county community that’s in shock from this tragedy.”
[...]
After a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on 24 May 2022, Cruz commented: “Heidi and I are lifting up in prayer the entire … community during this devastating time and we mourn the lives that were taken by this act of evil. None of us can imagine the anguish the parents in Uvalde are going through. Our hearts go out to them.”
[...]
After authorities said that a Mexican national who had previously been deported shot five neighbors to death last month, Cruz tweeted: “Thank you to the brave men and women of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to apprehend this mass murdering illegal alien who killed 5 innocent people. The victims deserve justice. And this monster when convicted deserves the death penalty.”
[...]

Vladimir Putin #fundie #conspiracy #psycho theguardian.com

[Article title: Putin recycles old grievances on Victory Day as Russian army battered in Ukraine]

[...]
But the Russian leader’s Victory Day message to the nation on Tuesday was nearly identical to that of last year as he cast the war in Ukraine as an existential battle against an aggressive, Russophobic and woke west.

“Today, civilisation is again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said as he delivered an angry yet somewhat routine speech in which he drew false parallels between today’s fight with Ukraine’s “criminal regime” and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Putin also recycled some of his other go-to grievances, blaming “western globalist elites” for “destroying the family” and “traditional values”.
[...]

The Government of India #wingnut theguardian.com

Indian government accused of rewriting history after edits to schoolbooks

References to Muslim rulers, deadly riots connected to PM and Gandhi’s dislike of Hindu nationalism removed

The Indian government has been accused of rewriting history to fit its Hindu nationalist agenda after school textbooks were edited to remove references to Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition to Hindu nationalism, as well as mention of a controversial religious riot in which the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was implicated.

Textbooks were also revised to remove chapters on the history of the Mughals, the Muslim rulers who controlled much of India between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which has pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda that has moved India away from its secular foundations, has been open about its desire to rewrite the country’s history and break away from what it describes as the “slave mentality” of colonial oppressors. “It is our responsibility to write our history,” said the home affairs minister, Amit Shah, in a 2019 speech.

In recent years, references to the Mughals, whom Hindu nationalists consider to be Muslim oppressors, have been repeatedly removed or amended, while references to the hardline Hindu nationalist ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as a “most celebrated freedom fighter” and a “great patriot” have been added.

According to scrutiny of the textbooks by the Indian Express newspaper, which revealed the amendments, multiple references to the Gujarat riots have also been purged from textbooks by NCERT.

The riots, which took place in 2002, are a particularly sensitive topic for Modi, who was chief minister of Gujarat at the time and was accused of being complicit in the violence, which involved brutal attacks on Muslim families and the deaths of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. A BBC documentary exploring Modi’s role in the riots was recently banned by the government.

After the recent revisions, references to the riots have now gone from all social science textbooks for those aged between 11 and 18.

Yoweri Museveni & George Peter Kaluma #homophobia #pratt #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

Ugandan president calls on Africa to ‘save the world from homosexuality’

Museveni says homosexuality is ‘danger to procreation of human race’ at Entebbe conference hosted by US anti-LGBTQ+ hate group

The Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, has called on African leaders to reject “the promotion of homosexuality”, suggesting he will sign into law a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which was passed by parliament last month.

The bill, which imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and life imprisonment for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, has been widely criticised internationally, with the UN high commissioner for human rights urging the president not to sign it.

Speaking on Sunday, Museveni said homosexuality was “a big threat and danger to the procreation of human race [sic]”.

He said: “Africa should provide the lead to save the world from this degeneration and decadence, which is really very dangerous for humanity. If people of opposite sex [sic] stop appreciating one another then how will the human race be propagated?”

His comments followed a two-day inter-parliamentary conference held at State House in Entebbe on “family values and sovereignty”, attended by MPs and delegates from 22 African countries, including Zambia, Kenya and Sierra Leone.

Museveni praised Ugandan MPs for passing the anti-gay bill and vowed “never to allow the promotion and publicisation of homosexuality in Uganda, stressing that it will never be tolerated”.

A Ugandan LGBTQ+ activist, who asked to remain anonymous for their own safety, attended the conference via Zoom under a pseudonym. “They are drawing up an African strategy to fight homosexuality. They want their government heads to commit to what they called ‘the African position’,” the activist said.

The Uganda government tweeted quotes from a Kenyan MP, George Peter Kaluma, stating that “a person proposing that there should be same-sex marriages or same-sex relationships is a person seeking to wipe out the entire humanity out of the face of this earth [sic]”.

The government also tweeted that Kaluma, who attended the conference, had said many African states were drafting laws similar to the one in Uganda, including Kenya, Ghana and Malawi.