October 8, 2021

This is a North Carolina State representative, Jeff McNeely at a news conference on Thurs

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He claimed at a Thursday news conference that they are acting on behalf of constituents who believe fraud and “machine tampering” took place in the 2020 election. McNeely said the group plans to conduct their inspections by “randomly pick[ing]” counties from across the state and then examining voting machines used in the presidential election to see if they have a modem that can connect to the internet.

I hear that there are constituents that want an investigation on how he gets dressed in the morning. Looking at that jacket, the only thing I can think is the 60s are looking for him to get that nightclub singer jacket back

October 7, 2021

Brazil police find 3 mln euro Nazi haul at home of suspected pedophile

Police in Rio de Janeiro said on Wednesday they had found a haul of Nazi memorabilia and weapons worth an estimated 3 million euros at the home of a Brazilian man suspected of raping a minor.

Rio's civil police said they found more than 1,000 items at the home of the 58-year-old unnamed suspect, including Nazi uniforms, periodicals, paintings, Nazi insignia, images of Adolf Hitler, flags and medals of the Third Reich. They also found guns and ammunition from the era.

The haul was discovered after police went to the man's home to serve an arrest warrant on suspicions he had raped a minor and abused other children in his condominium in the west of the city. The suspect was also charged with illegal possession of a weapon and racial discrimination.

"He is a smart guy and articulate, but he's a Holocaust denier, he's homophobic, he's a pedophile and he says he hunts homosexuals," Luis Armond, the lead detective on the case, told Reuters. "I'm no doctor, but he seems to me an insane psychopath."

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-police-find-3-mln-euro-nazi-haul-home-suspected-pedophile-2021-10-06/

October 7, 2021

An Autocrat, a Tyrant and a Fool walk into a bar

Everyone says, "Hi, Donald Trump."

wasn't sure whether this could be posted in GD, so I'm playing it safe

October 4, 2021

Fumio Kishida is set to call snap election for October 31

Our new PM is wasting no time. According to NHK, he is expected to dissolve the Diet (Parliament) on Oct 14
Barring something catastrophic happening, he will officially be elected PM on the 31st -- he is Japan's 100th PM
His new cabinet will have only 3 women in it, which is not good.
But, while he did make room for one of the women that challenged him, he left the horrid Sanae Takaichi out of his cabinet.
Sanae Takaichi is an extreme right wing politician. she has ties to the Japanese Neo-Fascists.
Motegi will remain Foreign Minister and Kishi will remain Defense Chief which will make the U.S. happy
About 30% of all cabinet posts went to people who have never held a cabinet position

October 3, 2021

Girl, 15, dies of Covid on day she was due to get vaccine

A 15-year-old girl who tested positive for Covid-19 has died on the day she was due to have her vaccine, her family said.

Jorja Halliday, from Portsmouth, died at the Queen Alexandra hospital on Tuesday, having tested positive for the virus four days earlier.

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She said that Jorja, who did not have any underlying health conditions, had developed flu-like symptoms before she took the PCR test that gave a positive result, leading to her isolating at their home.

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“I was with her the whole time. They tried to put her on a ventilator to give her body a chance to recover. Her heart rate didn’t stabilise. Her heart couldn’t take the strain. They worked as well as I think they could medically, but were unable to save her.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/02/portsmouth-teenager-dies-of-covid-on-day-she-was-due-to-get-vaccine

October 3, 2021

The Other Babyn Yars: Remembering Where Else Ukraine's Jews Were Massacred

Seven months after 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were shot, their bodies dumped into a ravine known as Babyn Yar, a group of 20 people marched to the outskirts of a village southwest of the capital, Kyiv. Nazi soldiers ordered them to widen two dug-out silos.

The following day, one of those villagers, Tikhon Lysak, later recalled, police drove more than 700 men, women, and children to the pits on the outskirts of Lypovets. They were ordered to undress and enter the pit and lie down in groups of 20 to 30, Lysak said, according to a typewritten record of his account that has faded with the decades. Then the "German executioners shot them in bursts with machine guns.

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The map of modern Ukraine is littered with hundreds of sites of lesser-known but no-less-deadly contributions to the Nazi Holocaust. Like Lypovets, where, Lysak remembers, a second group of Jews was driven to the pit containing the bodies of the dead as well as the still living. Then it was covered with dirt, he said, according to the record of his account..

"The earth above the grave shook for several hours," Lysak said. Those buried alive were still moving.

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In the central city of Vinnitsya, 15,000 Jews were killed, among them a man whose impending death at the edge of a mass grave was infamously documented in July 1941 with a photograph bearing the hand-scribbled message "the last Jew in Vinnitsya." In the nearby town of Khmilnyk, 8,000 were killed, and in Proskurov (today Khmelniktskyy), 7,000.


https://www.rferl.org/a/babyn-yars-ukrainian-jews/31486189.html

October 2, 2021

Five Stories from Europe You May Have Missed

1. Georgians Await Results After Tense Local Elections

TBILISI -- Tensions are high in Georgia as ballots cast for mayors and local councils across the deeply polarized South Caucasus country are being counted, amid early claims of victory by both the ruling party and the main opposition force, as well as allegations of electoral fraud.

The October 2 vote is viewed by the opposition as a referendum on the ruling Georgian Dream party. It was already set to be contentious before exiled former President Mikheil Saakashvili returned on the eve of the election to rally the opposition party he founded, the United National Movement (ENM), and other opposition groups -- only to be arrested within hours.

The Central Election Commission has yet to release preliminary results, but three exit polls commissioned by television stations showed Georgian Dream leading nationwide with 38.6 percent, 41 percent, and 47.6 percent of the vote.

In the capital, Tbilisi, one survey pointed to a first-round victory for incumbent Kakha Kaladze of Georgian Dream, while two other exit polls showed Kaladze and ENM leader Nika Melia heading into runoffs, with one of them giving the lead to the opposition candidate.

https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-election-saakashvili/31488832.html


2. Tensions rise at Kosovo border as number plate row escalates

At an abandoned petrol station, half a mile from Kosovo’s Jarinje border checkpoint with Serbia, a giant Serbian flag had been laid out on the roof. In the former forecourt, a group of young people sat on upturned beer crates, sharing bottles of water and homemade rakija in small plastic cups. “This is our squad, our special forces,” one joked, as four tall, muscular men walked over to join them.

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A minor protest, at first glance, made no less exotic by the fact that it was the result of a new motoring regulation. The blockade was being conducted by Serbs angered that vehicles carrying Serbian licence plates and entering Kosovo – which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following the bloody 1998-99 civil war – were being told they had to replace them with temporary “RKS” Republic of Kosovo plates or turn round.

Yet for all that the scenes near the village of Jarinje may seem arcane to the wider world, this, for 12 days, has been the frontline of a tense standoff between Serbia and Kosovo over identity and sovereignty that offers a reminder to the wider world of the dangerous potential in this region’s unresolved tensions.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/02/tensions-rise-at-kosovo-serbia-border-as-number-plate-row-escalates


3. ‘In Rome, nothing works’: citizens despair in run-up to mayoral elections

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Sleepless nights have become the norm for many in Trastevere, a neighbourhood in central Rome once treasured for its charm and old-world feel, but now known for its rowdy nightlife, petty crime, piles of rubbish and graffiti-scarred walls.

The district’s problems are considered emblematic of what Romans repeatedly decry as the Italian capital’s degrado (decay), and as residents prepare to vote in mayoral elections on Sunday and Monday, they are asking themselves once again if anyone is capable of getting a grip on the city.

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Raggi, a politician with the Five Star Movement, became Rome’s first female mayor in June 2016, winning a landslide victory after promising “winds of change”. But it didn’t take long for disappointment to set in as rubbish piled up, ageing buses spontaneously exploded, parks became scrappier and wild boar sightings more frequent.

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Enrico Michetti, a candidate from the far-right Brothers of Italy competing in a coalition backed by Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, was leading in polls before the blackout period began. Michetti, a lawyer and radio host, glorified ancient Rome during his campaign, saying its role as “Caput Mundi” (capital of the world) needed to be restored. He also said that the stiff-armed Roman salute, which has fascist connotations, ought to be revived as it was more hygienic during times of Covid-19.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/01/in-rome-nothing-works-citizens-despair-in-run-up-to-mayoral-elections


4. German airport closed after live mortar shell found in tourist's backpack

Munich airport was briefly evacuated on Friday after authorities discovered a live mortar shell in a traveller's rucksack.

The explosive device was only found during a security check as the man tried to catch a flight.

The discovery prompted an immediate lockdown of parts of the airport before specialists were able to safely remove the live ammunition and destroy it.

The 28-year-old man told police that he had found the shell during a hiking trip in Switzerland and forgotten it was in his bag.

He is now likely to face criminal charges for breaching aviation safety and explosives laws and will have to pay for the cost of the police operation.

https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/01/german-airport-closed-after-live-mortar-shell-found-in-tourist-s-backpack


5. Swedish fuel retailers required to display eco-labels at pumps

Fuel retailers in Sweden are now required to display eco-labels at pumps in what is thought to be the first initiative of its kind in the world.

From today, it will be compulsory for dispensers of fluid and gas transportation fuels to be labelled with its climate intensity, renewable share and origin.

Retailers will also be required to display the information at electric vehicle charging points and on their websites.

Campaigners said the Scandinavian country was the first in the world to mandate such an initiative after a nearly decade-long push to introduce them.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/01/swedish-fuel-retailers-required-to-display-eco-labels-at-pumps