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ukrainenews · 2 years

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Daily Wrap Up September 30, 2022

Under the cut (the three main stories from today that could have each been their own post):

At least 30 people were killed and 88 were wounded, according to National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko. He said that among the killed were an 11-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, while another three-year-old girl was injured.Three Russian missiles struck a highway where a long convoy of civilian cars was waiting to cross into the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, reportedly to evacuate people from there. (The number of people dead and wounded continues to change as this story develops.)

Vladimir Putin has signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine, marking the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced a surprise bid for fast-track membership of the NATO military alliance on Friday and ruled out talks with President Vladimir Putin, striking back at Moscow after it said it had annexed four Ukrainian regions.

In the dirt car park of a sprawling car parts market just outside the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, the bodies told horrific stories of the moment a Russian missile struck a civilian convoy, killing 25 and injuring scores more.

At 7.15am on Friday, dozens of cars had gathered to wait for a routine convoy to set off for the Russian-occupied territory that begins 12 miles away. About 150 cars are allowed each day by the Russians to make the journey south heading for cities such as Mariupol and Melitopol.

The cars and minivans were full of items to bring to families still in the south – bedding and children’s toys, clothes and food. Some travellers would have hoped to pick up relatives to bring them back to Ukrainian-controlled territory amid fears that Russia’s annexation of four regions in Ukraine will leave many trapped.

At that moment, a Russian S-300 missile ploughed into the ground 10 metres from the cars as they waited for an escort for their journey. The blast tore through metal, shattered windscreens and blew out the windows of food kiosks and shops over a wide distance.

Volodymyr Marchuk, a spokesperson for the local governor’s office, told the Guardian what had happened. “[The car parts market] is a logistic hub to allow people go into the temporarily Russian-occupied territories. The Russians only accept 150 cars a day so that’s why we created a programme where people could go there to register and get their number in the line.

“At 7.15 this morning there were a large number of cars waiting for their turn to cross, mostly people who want to go to and drop off aid to relatives. Maybe pick up people who want to leave on the way back.

“That was the queue they hit with an S-300 missile. There’s no doubt it is a deliberate war crime. They always say they are aiming at a military object and hit something else. But there are no military objects near that site. That’s why there’s no doubt that it’s a terrorist act.”

With scores of injured removed to local hospitals, emergency workers carried on with the grim task of identification and removal of bodies.

Among the dead were eight people who were travelling with drivers from Help People, a Ukrainian NGO, including a three-month-old child. The group’s founder, Alex Voronin, said they had intended to travel to Melitopol to meet family members.

“We had a car and a minibus going to Melitopol. Out of that group, two survived, a nine-year-old boy and his mother, but we don’t know their condition. They were going to their family who live there. They were trying to get home and get stuff and help relatives get evacuated.”

He added: “Every day there are a lot of vans going to Melitopol and Mariupol, but the rules of the Russians have been becoming more strict. There’s only one road – the green corridor, we call it.”

-via The Guardian

Early on Sept. 30 before Putin’s speech, three Russian missiles struck a highway where a long convoy of civilian cars was waiting to cross into the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, reportedly to evacuate people from there, the Interior Ministry said. They were among the 16 missiles fired.

Russian forces used S-300 missiles for the attack. Their debris was scattered across a wide area after the attack, the ministry said.

The Sept. 30 strike comes more than two months after the last similar deadly attack in the usually quiet western city of Vinnytsia, killing at least 23 people, including three children, in what Zelensky called then “an open act of terrorism.”

“Only absolute terrorists can do this, who should have no place in the civilized world,” Zelensky said.

-via Kyiv Independent (Warning for graphic pictures at the link)

The signing ceremony, held in defiance of international law, took place in the Grand Kremlin Palace in the presence of the country’s political elites, and came on the heels of Kremlin-orchestrated fake referendums in the regions: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk.

Putin kicked off the ceremony with a lengthy, combative and angry speech in which the Russian leader issued new nuclear threats, promising to “protect” the newly annexed lands “with all the forces and means at our disposal”.

“The people have made their choice. An unequivocal choice … This is the will of millions of people,” Putin said, adding that the citizens of the four occupied regions would be part of Russia “forever”.

Shortly after, Putin signed the “accession treaties” on a podium alongside the Russian-installed heads of the four regions.

After signing the treaties, the leaders gathered around Putin, linking hands and joining chants of “Russia! Russia!” with the applauding audience.

Putin’s loaded address, in which he railed against a “satanic” west, was described by observers as his most anti-western speech to date.

In a firm response to Putin’s ceremony in Moscow, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced in a video address in Kyiv that his country was formally applying for fast-track membership of the Nato alliance, adding that Ukraine would not hold any peace talks with Russia as long as Putin was president.

Hours earlier, Russian forces launched a missile attack on people waiting in cars in Zaporizhzhia city to cross into Russian-occupied territory so they could bring family members back across the frontlines, killing dozens.

Ukraine has indicated it will fight to reclaim all its lands, while western allies have previously said they would never recognise Russia’s claims on Ukraine’s territory. On Thursday evening the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the annexation “has no legal value and deserves to be condemned”.

The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, described Putin’s land grab as the “most serious escalation” since the war began, while G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement that the annexation efforts “constitute a new low point in Russia’s blatant flouting of international law”.

At a session of the the United Nations Security Council, Russia vetoed a resolution condemning the supposed annexation, while China, Gabon, India and Brazil abstained from voting.

Meanwhile, the US imposed a fresh round of sanctions on hundreds of Russian individuals and companies in response to the annexation announcement.

-via The Guardian

Zelenskiy signed the NATO application papers in an online video clearly intended as a forceful rebuttal to the Kremlin after Putin held a ceremony in Moscow to proclaim the four partially occupied regions as annexed Russian land.

"We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine's application for accelerated accession to NATO," Zelenskiy said in the video on the Telegram app.

The video showed Zelenskiy in combat fatigues announcing the membership bid and signing a document flanked by his prime minister and the speaker of parliament.

The announcement was likely to touch a nerve in Moscow which casts the NATO bloc at home as a hostile military alliance bent on encroaching on Moscow's sphere of influence.

Before Russia sent its armed forces into Ukraine in February, Moscow was demanding legally binding guarantees that Ukraine would never be admitted to the U.S.-led transatlantic defence alliance.

Kyiv and the West say Moscow used this as a pretext, among others, to launch a pre-planned military campaign against Ukraine. By applying for fast-track membership of NATO, Zelenskiy appears intent on showing Putin is failing in one of his main war goals - preventing Ukraine joining NATO.

In his video speech, Zelenskiy accused Russia of rewriting history and redrawing borders "using murder, blackmail, mistreatment and lies," something he said Kyiv would not allow.

He said however that Kyiv remained committed to the idea of co-existence with Russia "on equal, honest, dignified and fair conditions".

"Clearly, with this Russian president (that) is impossible. He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia," Zelenskiy said.

Zelenskiy said that while Ukraine waits for consensus among NATO member states, it could be protected under draft security guarantees proposed by Kyiv and known as the Kyiv Security Compact, which Moscow has rejected as an idea. read more

"We understand that this requires the consensus of all the alliance's members… and therefore, while this is happening, we propose the realization of our proposals regarding security guarantees for Ukraine and all of Europe according to the Kyiv Security Compact," he said.

-via Reuters

#Daily Update #Ukraine #Russia #War in Ukraine #Zaporizhzhia #NATO #kherson #donetsk #luhansk

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Saturday, August 28, 2021

With wildfire threatening, Lake Tahoe prepares for emergency (AP) The decision to flee their home Thursday in the mountains above Lake Tahoe became clear when Johnny White and Lauren McCauley could see flames on the webcam at their local ski resort. Even as ash rained down under a cloud of heavy smoke, the couple wasn’t panicked because they had an early warning to leave their home near Echo Summit, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the lake, and wanted to avoid last-minute pandemonium if the wildfire continued its march toward the tourist destination on the California and Nevada border. Firefighters were facing changing weather conditions that could push the fire closer to the Tahoe Basin, a home to thousands and recreational playground for millions of tourists who visit the alpine lake in summer, ski at the many resorts in winter and gamble at its casinos year-round. Fires in California have destroyed around 2,000 structures and forced thousands to evacuate while also blanketing large swaths of the West in unhealthy smoke.

The Western air crisis (NYT) “We have had smoke in the sky literally since the third week of July,” Amy Ginder, a 47-year-old resident of Reno, said. “We have been inhaling toxins for five weeks now. You can’t be outside. You can’t breathe. You can’t see the sun.” In response, Ginder has stopped jogging outdoors. “If it were just this summer, you’d just suck it up and move on,” she said. “But it isn’t. It’s the realization that this is our future.” Smoke-clogged air has become a regular part of life in the American West. Climate change has increased the frequency of droughts, extreme heat and, by extension, large wildfires. The smoke then drifts across large parts of the Pacific Coast and Mountain West. Sometimes, it even reaches the East Coast. One measure of the problem: In several places yesterday—including Bend, Ore.; an area north of Sacramento; and Lake Tahoe—air pollution reached levels that can damage lungs when people spend time outdoors. Phil Abernathy, a Lake Tahoe resident who decided to flee the area in search of cleaner air, told The Times that simply inhaling can feel like a “sizable man is standing on my chest.”

Tropical Storm Ida Forms in Caribbean, Heading for Louisiana (Bloomberg) Tropical Storm Ida has formed in the Caribbean and is forecast to a grow into a powerful hurricane in the days ahead, wreaking havoc across the Gulf of Mexico and ultimately crashing into the U.S coast. Ida, the ninth storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, is swirling past Jamaica, with top winds of 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour. It’s forecast to strike Cuba Friday, reach hurricane strength over the gulf Saturday and make landfall in Louisiana or Mississippi late Sunday or Monday. “Sunday is the anniversary of Katrina—it seems like a particularly cruel date for a hurricane landfall in Louisiana,” said Ryan Truchelut, president of Weather Tiger LLC. said in an interview. The storm’s winds are forecast to peak at 110 miles per hour (177 kilometers per hour), which would put it just below Category 3 major hurricane status on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center said Thursday. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm.

Nowhere To Go (AP) The earthquake in Haiti killed and injured thousands, and wiped away thousands of homes. Now, a more grim reality is setting in for those who survived and were hospitalized—if released, they have nowhere to go. 25-year-old Jertha Ylet came to the hospital on August 14, unconscious and with a crushed leg. Her 5-year-old daughter survived unharmed, but her father and two other relatives were killed, her brother seriously injured and her house destroyed. A surgeon had put a metal rod in her lower left leg, but Ylet hadn’t been out of bed or tried to walk since she arrived. Ylet was discharged Thursday—the hospital needed her bed for other patients. “I said to the doctor, ‘I don’t have any place to go,’” Ylet said. Medical staff is sympathetic, but pragmatic. The beds are needed. “After someone gets well they have to go.” In the first days after the earthquake, the hospital was overwhelmed with patients. The injured lay on patios and breezeways awaiting care. Now there are still people in those areas, but they’re discharged patients or others never admitted at all but who are coming for the donations of food and water and clothing arriving at the hospital daily.

Biden: ‘We Will Hunt You Down’ (Foreign Policy) Hours after the Islamic State launched a coordinated suicide bomb attack among the desperate crowds gathered outside Kabul’s international airport on Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to continue evacuations—and to retaliate against the perpetrators. “Know this: We will not forgive, we will not forget,” he said in a speech from the White House. “We will hunt you down and make you pay.” The attack killed more than 70 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. troops in at least two blasts, leaving the area around the airport in chaos. Members of the Islamic State group’s local branch, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, detonated suicide vests at the airport’s Abbey Gate and outside the nearby Baron Hotel. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack, which underscores the security challenges the group faces as it formally establishes a government in Kabul. It remains unclear whether a military response to the bombings is already being undertaken, and if the United States has adequate capacity on the ground to carry it out. [Note: The death toll has been updated to as many as 169 Afghans.]

As NATO countries end their Kabul airlift, many interpreters, embassy staffers and drivers are left behind (Washington Post) Thousands of Afghans who put their lives at risk to work with America's NATO allies have been left behind as the military evacuations wrap up and they hunker down in fear over Taliban reprisals. Britain became the latest nation to announce an end to its airlifts on Friday, as Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC radio that evacuations would end in hours. The military has airlifted nearly 14,000 people out over the past two weeks, but “the sad fact is that not every single one will get out,” he said, with up to 1,100 eligible Afghans who “didn’t make it.” Other countries fell further short of their targets. Germany, whose last soldiers flew out of Afghanistan on Thursday evening, said it had rescued around 4,000 Afghans—far shy of the 10,000 people it had identified as at risk. From Berlin to Ottawa, questions have been raised as to why more was not done to save those who were vulnerable sooner. “I think humanity has fallen apart,” said one employee of a local nongovernmental organization contracted by the German government. He shared a photo of what he said was one of his colleagues, beheaded by the Taliban when they took over his neighborhood. “It feels as though I am so alone,” he said, his voice breaking as he spoke. European governments have said they were left with little choice but to end their military rescue operations as the United States pulls out.

Afghanistan’s Islamic State (AP) The Islamic State offshoot that Americans blame for Thursday’s deadly suicide attacks outside the Kabul airport coalesced in eastern Afghanistan six years ago, and rapidly grew into one of the more dangerous terror threats globally. The Islamic State’s Central Asia affiliate sprang up in the months after the group’s core fighters swept across Syria and Iraq, carving out a self-styled caliphate, or Islamic empire, in the summer of 2014. The group started as several hundred Pakistani Taliban fighters, who took refuge across the border in Afghanistan after military operations drove them out of their home country. Other, like-minded extremists joined them there, including disgruntled Afghan Taliban fighters unhappy with what they—unlike the West—saw as the Taliban’s overly moderate and peaceful ways. As the Taliban pursued peace talks with the United States in recent years, discontented Taliban increasingly moved to the more extremist Islamic State, swelling its numbers. Many were attracted to the Islamic State’s violent and extreme ideology, including promises of a caliphate to unite the Islamic world, a goal never espoused by the Taliban.

Afghanistan got just 5 minutes of coverage on the network newscasts last year, analysis says (The Week) The current chaos in Afghanistan may be dominating the headlines, but in 2020, the war reportedly received just a handful of minutes of network news coverage throughout the entire year. According to analysis from the Tyndall Report via the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, the national evening newscasts on CBS, ABC, and NBC in 2020 devoted just five minutes to Afghanistan coverage. The coverage came in February 2020, when the Trump administration announced the Doha agreement with the Taliban to end the war. "Five minutes!" Andrew Tyndall writes. "Such were the demands on the news agenda of the looming coronavirus pandemic in the early spring of 2020. Coverage of all other developments was eclipsed by COVID. The networks had long since given up covering the war as a war." [Since 2014] they "have treated the role of the military there as an afterthought," he said.

New Zealand extends virus lockdown (AP) New Zealand’s government has extended a strict nationwide lockdown through Tuesday as it tries to quash its first outbreak of the coronavirus in six months. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Friday the government expects to keep Auckland, where most of the cases have been found, in full lockdown for at least two more weeks. But she expects most other parts of the country can ease restrictions slightly from Wednesday. The announcement came as health authorities reported 70 new daily cases, the most yet in the outbreak, which has grown to nearly 350 cases in total. Ardern said there was evidence the lockdown was working and new case numbers were beginning to level off. She said she remained committed to the strategy of eliminating the virus entirely.

Gunmen release students in northern Nigeria 3 months later (AP) Gunmen have released some of the children kidnapped from a school in northern Nigeria back in May, some of whom were as young as 5 years old, the school’s head teacher said late Thursday. He could not confirm the exact number freed. Authorities have said that 136 children were abducted along with several teachers when gunmen on motorcycles attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in Niger state. Other preschoolers were left behind as they could not keep pace when the gunmen hurriedly moved those abducted into the forest. The release came a day after local media quoted one parent as saying six of the children had died in captivity. The government has been unable to halt the spate of abductions for ransom. As a result, many schools have been forced to close due to the concerns about the kidnapping risk.

Gig apps for a pandemic economy (AP) For months, Gabrielle Walker had been looking for a part-time job. Then one day, Walker, a 19-year-old student at University College London, was scrolling through TikTok and stumbled on a video about an app called Stint, which helps students earn money by working brief temporary stints at places like restaurants and bars that require little training or experience. Walker downloaded the app, took a 15-minute intro course and days later snagged a job polishing cutlery at a Michelin-star restaurant in London—for one day. Between May and June, she took on several other gigs, squeezing them into her class schedule where she could. Stint, in use across the U.K., has grown in popularity, alongside similar apps in the United States like Instawork and Gigpro, as one response to the peculiar ways in which economies have been rebounding from the pandemic recession. In contrast to Stint, Instawork and Gigpro are suited more for skilled or experienced workers who want or need short-term shifts. Collectively, the newer apps represent a variation on the many gig apps that sprang up in recent years—from Uber and DoorDash to TaskRabbit and Thumbtack—that typically serve households in need of a one-time service. What distinguishes the latest apps is that they link workers with employers that have a steady need for labor but don’t necessarily want to commit to permanent hires given the uncertainties from the pandemic.

#headlines #news

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hermits-that-craft · 4 years

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hey so i realised i didnt post the au behind a rumour in lmanburg so here we go! Character Bio’s and basic au below the cut! The character bios will be for the rebellion, with Schlatt, George, Quackity, Sapnap, Bad and Skeppy being in a different post :D!!!!

Basics: After the election, Schlatt banned Wilbur and his allies from Manburg, but told his soldiers to ‘spare the children’. Eret and Nikki hid Tubbo and Fundy from the soldiers, who looked trigger happy, but Wilbur grabbed Tommy and ran. Schlatt found out that Tommy was taken, and decided to charge Wilbur with kidnapping as well. In the mean while, he went and executed Wilbur’s cabinet, searching for Fundy, Tommy and Tubbo so that he could ‘unteach’ them what Wilbur had taught them. The government soon gave up on trying to find them, and declared that they had been killed by loyalist traitors. Respawn is on in this world, but Schlatt can turn it on and off in Manburg. Manburg and DreamSMP are both large cities with a large population (to warrant no one recognising each other)

Tubbo: Tubbo was 10 when the election was held and, along with Tommy, he was the face of the revolution, though he never saw a battle. During the ensuing chaos of the election, he was taken by Eret and Nikki as the fled into the slums of L’Manburg. A few weeks after the election, the safe house he was hiding in was raided while Nikki and Eret were out, and he was hit over the head with the but of a gun. He woke up in an alleyway, alone and with Fundy. Fundy told him his name, and where he was, but didn’t tell him his past so that he could live his life without fear/being at risk of being arrested for being Wilbur’s adopted son. He learnt how to pick pockets, barter and steal to survive, and is a conman at age sixteen to make ends meet while Fundy works to get them both out of the city.

Fundy: Fundy is Wilbur’s son in this au, and he was 14 when the election was held. Six years later, he holds two jobs to keep Tubbo in school and fed. He spends most of his free time forging papers for other people and searching for Eret and Nikki. He keeps a small locket with a picture of himself, Wilbur, Tommy and Tubbo in it, and he never lets it out of his sight. He doesn’t give his name to anyone, and he spends most of his time hoping that any of his family survived, though he believes its only himself and Tubbo left. He is a fox hybrid in this au, so he has a mostly human appearance, though he has fox ears and a tale that he has to hide so no one recognises him.

Tommy: Tommy was 10 when the election was held and, along with Tubbo, he was the face of the revolution. After the election, while Wilbur and Tommy were trying to flee from Manburg, the two men were separated from each other. Tommy fell into a pit, hitting his head against the rock. When he woke up, he had no memories of his life before hand. He didn’t have a name, or a point of reference for where he should go. He foraged for food and learnt how to fight mobs alone for two years when one day he was seriously injured by an enderman, and Jack found him. He was taken back to Manburg and healed up, and he was named ‘Tom’ by Alyssa. From there, he worked odd jobs in the city as there was very few fulltime jobs left open for him.

Wilbur: President Wilbur Soot was executed on Thursday the eighth of October, one year after the election. He was tried in front of a closed court and found guilty of treason, kidnapping and manslaughter. The court saw that his kidnapping and subsequent losing of TommyInnit as the reason that the boy was missing, presumed dead. It was expected that he would have a public execution, but he was executed privately to an audience of President J.Schlatt and Vice President Quackity. George was the one who beheaded him. His sons were not in attendance. His execution was ‘swift and painless’, as told by President J.Schlatt in the following day, showing his mercy for the traitor. Reportedly dead. Reportedly painless. There is no body in his grave.

Eret: King Eret died a week after Wilbur was executed, faking a heart attack and slinking into the background, telling Dream to take care of his country as he promised to help the new rebellion to bring down Schlatt. He spent the next five years adapting to life as a commoner, aiding in Nikki’s bakery and doing odd jobs to help the neighbourhood he lives in. His neighbours say that he is kind, and he often tells stories and fables to the neighbourhood children. There is a rumour that he and Nikki had two children, once, and that they were lost during a riot, killed or kidnapped by traitors or rebels. Eret doesn’t deny if when he is asked, just getting a sad look on his face, though he denies any questions about if he and Nikki are together.

Nikki: Nikki is an integral part of the rebellion, an ear in the bakery that no one ever truely imagines is listening. She’s liked by many, known by nearly all in the city, and is a kind face among the crowd. A good and loyal citizen, who hangs the new flag of Manburg by her door. Not many know of her old loyalties, how she designed the L’Manburg flag, and was in every political meeting, ensuring freedom without fighting and peace without bloodshed. Only Schlatt, Quackity and George know about who she was, and they visit her occasionally, at least once every two months, to make sure that she isn’t harbouring any outlaws. None of them trust her, hiking the taxes for her and making it nearly impossible for her to leave the city. A bird in a cage, thats how her neighbours would describe her on the off occasion that they see her, moving about the city with a longing gaze towards the sky.

#a rumour in l'manburg #tubbo #tommyinnit #fundylive #Wilbur Soot #eret #niachu #lmanburg #manburg #dreamsmp #au

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creepingsharia · 4 years

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“Kidnapped, Raped, Humiliated, and Forced to Convert to Islam”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, December 2019

Martyred on Christmas Day: Islamic State in Nigeria videotaped the slaughter of 11 Christians

by Raymond Ibrahim

The following are some of the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of December, 2019; they are categorized by theme:

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: The Islamic State in West Africa Province released a video of the execution of 11 Christian aid workers on the day after Christmas. The brief video shows one Christian being shot followed by 10 others being beheaded by masked jihadis standing behind the tied hostages. “This message is to the Christians in the world,” a man’s voice narrates over the footage. “Those who you see in front of us are Christians, and we will shed their blood as revenge for the two dignified sheikhs, the caliph of the Muslims, and the spokesman for the Islamic State [who were killed by the U.S.]” Before being slaughtered, the captives reportedly made pleas, including to Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari, to save them. Buhari, who has himself been accused of turning a blind eye to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria—and even abetting it—condemned the executions, adding that “these barbaric killers don’t represent Islam.”

A separate report cited by Fox News found that more than 6,000 Christians have been slaughtered by Islamic terrorists since 2015—a thousand of them in just 2019. According to the report,

They attack rural villages, force villagers off their lands and settle in their place — a strategy that is epitomized by the phrase: “Your land or your blood.” In every village, the message from local people is the same: “Please, please help us! The Fulani are coming. We are not safe in our own homes.”

The nomadic Fulani herdsmen “seek to replace diversity and difference with an Islamist ideology which is imposed with violence on those who refuse to comply,” Baroness Caroline Cox commented. “It is—according to the Nigerian House of Representatives—genocide. Something has to change—urgently. For the longer we tolerate these massacres, the more we embolden the perpetrators. We give them a ‘green light’ to carry on killing.”

Kenya: After armed Muslim militants stopped and stormed a passenger bus near the Somali border on December 6, they proceeded to separate the 56 passengers into Muslim and Christian groups—reportedly by asking them to recite the Islamic shahada (creed); 11 of those who would or could not due to their Christian faith, were paraded out of the bus. “They were told to lie on the ground face down and were shot at close range,” one report said. “The militants then ordered the bus to leave with the rest of the passengers.” The attackers apparently also relied on whether a passenger appeared to be local (meaning likely Muslim) or not (meaning likely Christian). “The majority of the population in this region is Muslim,” Rev. Nicholas Mutua, a Catholic priest, explained. “The non-locals had come from other parts of the country and they would definitely have been Christians.” “One of the Muslim men gave me Somali attire, and when the separation was being done I went to the side of the Muslims, and immediately we were told to get [back] into the bus,” a survivor recalled. “As the locals were getting back into the bus, the non-locals who were left behind were fired upon with gunshots.” Separating Muslims from Christians before slaughtering the latter has long been the modus operandi of Islamic terror groups. In the Garissa University College massacre of 2015, when militants slaughtered nearly 150 people, a survivor explained how the Islamic terrorists burst into a Christian service, seized worshippers, and then “proceeded to the hostels, shooting anybody they came across except their fellows, the Muslims.” Another witness said the gunmen were opening doors and inquiring if the people inside were Muslims or Christians: “If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot. With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die.”

Burkina Faso: On Sunday, December 1, Islamic terrorists stormed a church during service and opened fire; 14 worshippers were killed and many injured. The gunmen fled on motorbikes following the massacre. Discussing this incident, a separate report offers statistics:

Burkina Faso’s Christian minority used to live in relative peace. Now the violence and persecution of Christians has quadrupled in the last two years and is expected to increase by [another] 60%… Radical Islamic groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and other local insurgents have pushed nearly half a million people from their homes. Sunday’s attack comes after a Catholic priest was executed in February, five Christians were killed during an attack on a Church service in April, and 13 Christians were killed in a Church arson attack and procession in May. Most recently was on October 26 when unknown gunmen stormed a Christian village and reportedly killed 12 and abducted several others.

Cameroon: In just the first half of December, Islamic militants “began an onslaught of attacks on Cameroonian Christians that left 7 dead and 21 captive to the terrorist group.” According to the report:

On December 1, gunmen opened fire at a funeral in Mayo Sava district, in the far north of Cameroon. Four were killed and three were wounded. In another attack on the same day, militants ransacked homes and looted them of food and basic necessities. The next night, three more people were murdered and another was injured in another looting of Zangola village. A few days later on December 5, militants methodically searched for children and young adults and kidnapped them. In the middle of the night they came and stole nine girls and twelve boys from their homes, ranging from 12 to 21 years old. Four of the captives managed to escape. While en-route to their base, the Boko Haram militants attacked Tahert village where one girl was injured and a motorbike was stolen. Nearly 300 people have been killed in Cameroon in 2019 by Islamic militants, with 80% being civilians.

Pakistan: Naveed Masih, a 24-year-old Christian man was found hanging from a tree, dead, because he had earlier prevented Muslim men from harassing and pressuring a married Christian mother to convert to Islam. Due to this, “a mob of 20 individuals attacked Naveed’s house,” the report says. “The mob beat Naveed and damaged many of the family’s belongings. The mob further threatened Naveed to not interfere with their efforts to convert the Christian woman.” Two months later, he was lured to a supposed parley. When he arrived at the meeting point, “he was brutally tortured and he was hanged from a tree as a result of protecting a Christian woman’s faith,” his father, Herbert, recalled: “Carrying your son’s dead body in your arms is heartbreaking and unbearable. It almost ended my life when I had to shoulder my son’s funeral…. My family is still under threats to withdraw the case against the culprits. However, I have nothing to lose now.”

In a separate but similar incident in Pakistan, after sexually abusing him, two Muslim men killed Daud (“David”) Masih, a Christian teenager, on December 14 in a factory. According to a local Christian activist, “Daud and his elder brother started working at the embroidery factory during the night shift about three months ago. They were additional breadwinners for the family as the mother is sick and their father is a day laborer.” Weeks before the murder, Masih had complained about the “unethical behavior from his Muslim co-workers.” Because the owner of the factory did not seem to care or intervene, Masih stopped going to work, until the owner assured him of protection. He was abused and killed on the same day he returned to work; one of his murderers is allegedly the brother of the owner. Last reported, the individuals accused of the crime have not been arrested and were pressuring and trying to bribe the victim’s family to drop the case: “Although I am a poor Christian woman, I want justice for my son and punishment for those who killed Daud,” his mother said. “I will never go for compensation or reconciliation, as my son was killed brutally.”

Attacks on Churches

Philippines: During Sunday Mass on the evening of December 22, Islamic terrorists detonated a bomb just outside Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cotabato, a city on the island of Mindanao. Twenty-two people were injured in the explosion, 12 of whom were soldiers patrolling the church as part of security measures adopted during the Christmas holidays. Parish priest Zaldy Robles, who called it “a cowardly act on the eve of the Christmas celebrations,” said “casualties would have been unimaginable” had the bomb reached the inside of the church. In 2009, a similar bomb attack on the same cathedral in Mindanao killed five people and injured 34. Most of the Philippines’ Muslim minority live in Mindanao, which has been a hotbed of terrorism in recent years. Among other attacks, “Islamic State-affiliated terrorists were blamed for twin suicide bombings at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu Province on Jan. 27 [2019], which killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 100. Jolo is a small island off the coast of Mindanao.”

Iraq: The Catholic Church of Divine Wisdom in Baghdad, built in 1929, was invaded on the day after Christmas in what was described by one report as a “hostile takeover attempt”: “Details remain scarce. Security footage of the invasion show that an Islamic leader was present amongst the invaders, who attempted to open the gate and remove the cross.” Later reports revealed that the church had been “marked for demolition by the authorities, together with some surrounding buildings, as part of a redevelopment programme in the city,” but that “local residents say the project is driven by commercial and political forces, and does not take into account the significance of the church for the community.”

Indonesia: Several reports appearing around Christmas indicated the difficulties churches experience during the holiday season. In “Aceh Christians forced to celebrate Christmas in a tent,” the BBC reported on December 23 that:

Christians in the Indonesian province of Aceh are preparing to celebrate Christmas in makeshift tents in the jungle. Their churches were destroyed four years ago by Islamic vigilante groups and the police. Indonesia – the world’s largest Muslim population – has a pluralist constitution that is meant to protect the rights of followers of all the major faiths. But Church leaders in Singkil Aceh say the local authorities are stopping them from rebuilding….

Separately, authorities on the Indonesian island of Sumatra banned Christians from celebrating Christmas in private homes. According to Sudarto, the director of an intercommunity initiative, “They did not get permission from the local government since the Christmas celebration and worship were held at the house of one of the Christians who had been involved. The local government argued that the situation was not conducive.” He added that the ban on Christians to celebrate Christmas and the New Year “has been going on for a long time [since 1985], so far they have been quietly worshiping at the home of one of the worshipers, but they have applied for permission several times. Yet the permit to celebrate Christmas was never granted. The house where they performed worship services was once burned down in early 2000 due to resistance from residents.”

Discussing yet another incident, the Jakarta Post reported on Christmas Day that “Christians in Jambi city, Jambi, still struggle to find joy on the eve of the holy day since the authorities sealed a number of local churches in the city…. Several Christians in the region were aghast when they were welcomed by a notice plastered on the closed front doors of the Assemblies of God Church (GSJA) informing them the church was sealed on Dec. 24, instead of the customary Christmas prayers and services.” This church is among three churches in the area to be closed down by the Jambi city administration following protests by local Muslim residents who cited the lack of building permits. “This is the second Christmas celebration to feel depressing for us,” said its pastor Jonathan Klaise on Christmas Eve. “It’s a difficult situation. We have no other choice but to cope with it… We can only hope that we will soon be able to pray in our church.”

Attacks on Muslim Converts (“Apostates”) to Christianity

Uganda: A Muslim man with three wives abandoned one of them and their three children on learning that she had converted to Christianity. Problems began for Florence Namuyiga, 27, when she took her eldest son, aged 7, to the church that she had been secretly attending following her conversion last May. “That evening, while back at home, my son began singing some of the Christian songs that were sung in the church,” she explained. “My husband began questioning me where the son picked such kinds of songs, but I kept quiet. He then turned to our son, who narrated what he saw in church of both men and women worshipping together in one big hall. Thereafter we went to bed with no communication with my husband.” Then, on November 29, her husband, Abudalah Nsubuga, 34, insisted she to go to Friday mosque prayers. “I refused,” she said. “He started beating me up with sticks, blows and kicks.

When I fell down, he left me and went to the mosque. I began bleeding with serious injury on my left arm. That evening he did not come to the house but slept in the house of one of my co-wives.” On the next day,

He arrived [home] and pronounced [ritual Islamic] words of divorce and threatened to kill me if I remained in the homestead… There and then I left the homestead, leaving all my belongings behind…. I have been supporting my three children by washing peoples’ clothing around the village. Indeed life is quite difficult for me and the children. I have realized that following Jesus is not easy. Sometimes I spend sleepless nights thinking on my future and that of my small kids, especially their school fees.

Iran: On December 20, Mohammad Moghiseh, the head of Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced nine Muslim apostates to a total of 45 years in prison. “These Christian converts have objected to the verdict issued by the Tehran Revolutionary Court and are awaiting final appeal,” the report states. The day before sentencing, on December 19, the US Treasury Department accused Mohammad Moghiseh and another Revolutionary judge of violating justice and abusing the rights of religious minorities and others.

General Abuse of and Discrimination against Christians

Tajikistan: A Christian pastor who was sentenced to three years in prison on the charge of “singing extremist songs in church and so inciting religious hatred,” was released on December 18, 2020, after serving two-and-a-half years. In 2017, authorities had raided the Good News of Grace Protestant Church in Khujand. Many of the congregation were beat, lost their jobs, and faced other forms of repercussions in the wake of the raid on their church. Pastor Bakhrom Kholmatov, a 43-year-old married father of three, was then sentenced on the aforementioned charges. According to the report,

Officials claimed that Christian songs found on his computer and the book More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell are “extremist materials.” They alleged that religious “experts” recognised the songs Praise God, O Unbelieving Country, Army of Christ and Our Battle is Not Against Blood and Flesh as “extremist and calling people to overthrow the government.”

“I’d like to express my huge gratitude to all the people who supported and prayed for me, my family and my church,” Kholmatov said in a statement. “All these three years I felt your prayers, they helped me to stand, they helped my precious wife and children, they helped the members of my church who were left without a pastor, then kicked by the authorities out of our building.”

Iran: “The Iranian regime has begun cracking down on evangelical Christians in Iran in the run-up to Christmas,” Al Arabiya reported on December 15. “Security officials routinely arrest Christian citizens during the Christmas season, according to the 2019 US Commission for International Religious Freedom report, which found the regime arrested 114 Christians during the first week of December in 2018.” Dabrina Tamraz, who experienced persecution as a Christian before she managed to flee the Islamic republic nine years ago, shed light on the plight of Christians by recounting her own experiences: “Christmas celebrations make it easier for Iranian authorities to arrest a group of Christians at one time,” said the escapee who currently resides in Europe. During a family Christmas gathering in Tehran in 2014, “My brother opened the door only to be confronted with about 30 plain clothes officers who pushed their way in. They separated men from women and conducted strip body searches. Three people, including my father, were arrested and charged with acting against national security and conducting evangelism.” The report adds that “The Iranian government considers evangelism—the sharing of the Christian faith—a criminal act.”

As another example of the persecution and discrimination Christians routinely experience around Christmas, the annual Armenian Christian market at Tehran’s Ararat Club, which was supposed to be held between Christmas Eve and the New Year, was canceled by officials. According to that report,

In a situation where the economy is declining and the business market is sluggish due to the policies of the Islamic Republic … this cancellation for preventing ‘Christian propaganda’ is an irrational decision. The cancellation of the market, which is a clear sign of discrimination and inequality, has received widespread criticism in the Armenian community… Every year on the eve of Christmas, pressure on the Iranian Christian community by various government agencies is increasing, including arresting Christian activists, obstructing the business of Christian sellers, even those who sell Christmas decorations!… Christian compatriots are subject to double discrimination, whether in the labor market, employment, job position or in violating their right to run private businesses.

Pakistan: “A 14-year-old Christian girl from Zia Colony, Karachi, was kidnapped, forcibly converted and married off to a Muslim man,” Asia Times reported on December 3. “Our daughters are insecure and abused in this country,” the mother of Huma Younus, explained. “They are not safe anywhere. We leave them at schools or home but they are kidnapped, raped, humiliated, and forced to convert to Islam.” The eighth grade student was seen by neighbors being forcefully dragged into a car by three armed men. “She was kidnapped by Abdul Jabar, a Muslim,” her father said. After the girl’s family went to police, Jabar sent documents to the family over WhatsApp: “He asked us not to be worried for Huma as she is now his wife and has entered into Islam”; however, “the religious conversion documents are fake,” said the mother, noting that the date of the document of the 14-year-old’s alleged conversion is the same date of her abduction. “My daughter’s life is in danger. She could be tortured or killed. I beg the authorities to recover my daughter as soon as possible.” “Christian girls are being abused and forcefully converted,” Fr. Saleh Diego, Director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Karachi, said while discussing this latest incident:

The kidnappers are misusing religion for their motives and spoiling the lives of hundreds of young girls from the marginalized Christian community….Huma must be recovered with no further delay. This unethical and illegal practice must also be stopped and the kidnappers of Huma and other girls must be brought to justice and punished for their crimes.

To date, police and courts have largely been unresponsive. “Abducting for the purpose of forced conversion and marriage is a major issue in Pakistan,” Asia Times concludes. “Most of the victims are Christian and Hindu girls and young women, forced to wed against their will to much older Muslim men.”

United Nations: According to a December 4 CBN News report, “Christian Syrian refugees … have been blocked from getting help from the United Nations Refugee Agency … by Muslim UN officials in Jordan.” One of the refugees, Hasan, a Syrian convert to Christianity, explained that Muslim UN camp officials “knew that we were Muslims and became Christians and they dealt with us with persecution and mockery. They didn’t let us into the office. They ignored our request.” “Hasan and his family are now in hiding,” the report adds, “afraid that they will be arrested by Jordanian police, or even killed. Converting to Christianity is a serious crime in Jordan.” Timothy, another Jordanian Muslim convert to Christianity, confirmed: “All of the United Nations officials [apparently in Jordan], most of them, 99 percent, they are Muslims, and they were treating us as enemies.” Addressing this issue, Paul Diamond, a British human rights lawyer, elaborated:

You have this absurd situation where the scheme is set up to help Syrian refugees and the people most in need, Christians who have been “genocided,” they can’t even get into the U.N. camps to get the food. If you enter and say I am a Christian or convert, the Muslim U.N. guards will block you [from] getting in and laugh at you and mock you and even threaten you…. [saying] “You shouldn’t have converted. You’re an idiot for converting. You get what you get,” words to that effect.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:

1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

#Islam #Muslim #Religion #Sharia #Jihad #Legal #News #Politics #Media #Mosque #Travel #Persecution

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violetsystems · 4 years

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The coronavirus pandemic seems to have given us a reprieve from worrying about the daily shootings and killings in Chicago. With so much sickness and death around us, it is hard to think of anything else.

But we must not forget the violence.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, the murderous underbelly of our city remains as much a part of our societal fabric as it always has been. We should not be fooled by the apparent hiatus. The violence is anxiously awaiting the right moment to rise again.

Last week, we were introduced to Chicago’s new police superintendent, who will attempt to lead us on yet another journey toward peace and reconciliation. He will answer to a mayor who believes in reform, but he will serve the ranks of a Police Department that does not. It is an arduous task.

An outsider, David Brown comes to us from Dallas unknown and untested.

He does not yet know our city well enough to fully understand the cultural roots of the violence here. He cannot possibly understand how total disregard for another person’s life became so ingrained in the minds of young black men who are standing at the ready to strike each other down.

There is no way he could know these things about us, because we don’t understand them either.

On the same day Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced the retired Texas police chief, details surrounding 18-year-old Treja Kelley’s 2019 killing unfolded in a Cook County courtroom. The underbelly put a $5,000 bounty on her head because she’d had the guts to testify against the killer of her 17-year-old cousin, prosecutors say.

We’ve also learned how far-reaching the underbelly is. Late last month, 10 members of a South Side street gang were indicted on federal racketeering charges in connection with more than a decade of violence.

One of the innocent victims was an Urban Prep High School senior, Deonte Hoard, a promising college athlete, who was fatally shot while walking to a pickup basketball game.

The problems in our city run deep, and we are tired. We have seen police chiefs come and go for decades, unable to penetrate the thick wall of distrust that separates communities of color from the police officers sworn to serve them.

We are reluctant to put our faith in anyone, regardless of their credentials, because we have been disappointed too many times to count. Still, we are forever hopeful.

Brown brings experience to the job, as well as passion. There is sadness in his history that sets him apart from others who sought the job. He knows the excruciating pain of violence. He has felt it from both sides of the wall.

He lost a brother to violence in 1991, and his son in 2010. Brown had not been chief in Dallas two months when his 27-year-old son killed a suburban police officer and another man before officers responded with more than a dozen shots.

In the aftermath, Brown reached out to his son’s victims, not as a police officer but rather as a grieving father. He reportedly hugged them, and told them he was sorry.

As a police officer in 1998, Brown’s former partner was killed in the line of duty. The mass shooting of police officers in Dallas in 2016 catapulted the chief into the national spotlight.

Five officers were killed and nine others were injured when a sniper, angry over a series of police shootings across the country involving black men, targeted the officers during an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protest.

Brown emerged as a strong leader during the crisis, bringing the city together and garnering a standing ovation at the memorial service.

He brought about sweeping reforms in Dallas, including redirecting how officers respond to incidents that require the use of force. But there were critics, too, particularly within the Police Department. Several police officers quit the force under his tenure, and police union groups called for his ouster.

Reform is never popular among those who need to be reformed. But Brown brings to Chicago a wealth of knowledge. His life experiences likely have also taught him something about compassion too.

Pain and fear of the unknown run deep in Chicago’s communities. The same is true of our Police Department. But we will take hope, in whatever form it comes — even in a pandemic.

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covid19updater · 3 years

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COVID19 Updates: 09/08/2021

RUMINT (US): A friend of mine posted tonight on social media about a friend of hers who had died. The woman was very young, and no cause of death was listed, so my first thought was that it was some sort of tragic accident. I went to the Go Fund Me that was linked, and it turned out she died of Covid. The woman was young (under 30, I think), wore masks, and was fully vaxxed. She left behind two young kids. She was a fit, healthy-looking young woman. I don't know anything about whether there were underlying conditions or not, but her family and friends all seemed quite shocked by her passing. The Go Fund Me was to provide something for her children. Every time I listen to someone like Chris Martenson, or others like him, who say that Delta is actually not as bad as the media makes it sound, I almost become convinced ... until I hear something like this, and it reminds me that this variant is infecting and sometimes killing young, cautious, vaxxed people.

World: Study: Mu variant is more vaccine evading "Mu variant is highly resistant to sera from..[Pfizer]-vaccinated individuals. Direct comparison of different spike proteins revealed that Mu spike is more resistant ..than all other currently recognized variants LINK

World: Op/Ed: Remember: the desensitization to death and suffering that the 1918 flu brought paved the way for fascism in the 1920s and 1930s.

Europe: Notices of Liability for COVID-19 Vaccine Harms and Deaths Served on All Members of the European Parliament LINK

India: New "Pandemic Potential" Brain-Destroying-Virus With 75% Death Rate Spreading In India LINK

US: U.S. COVID update: Many states reporting holiday weekend backlogs - New cases: 303,843 - Average: 154,645 (+19,837) - In hospital: 100,700 (+434) - In ICU: 26,094 (+84) - New deaths: 2,265

Australia: #Australia's 1,721 new #Covid19 cases is the second worst ever total, almost 500 up on last Weds. 1,480 infections in #NSW, 221 in #Victoria while #ACT has the other 20. Today was also 2nd highest daily death toll for 364 days as another 10 fall victim to #Coronavirus

World: Some people have 'superhuman' ability to fight off COVID-19, study finds LINK

Germany: TOP GERMAN PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIAL SAYS IF WE DO NOT VACCINATE MORE PEOPLE, THE FOURTH WAVE OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC COULD HAVE A MASSIVE MOMENTUM THIS FALL

Japan: THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT IS SOLIDIFYING ITS PLANS TO PROLONG THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN MOST PLACES UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER - NHK

Czech Republic: The Czech Republic on Wednesday recorded 588 new cases of COVID-19, the highest daily tally since May 25, as government officials predict a continued rise in cases;

Europe: EMA: ASTRAZENECA COVID-19 VACCINE PRODUCT INFORMATION WILL BE UPDATED WITH GUILLAIN-BARRÉ SYNDROME (GBS) AS A SIDE EFFECT

Germany: The head of Germany’s CDC, Lothar Wieler, warned of a drastic 4th coronavirus wave this fall as the number of Covid ICU patients, many of them younger, has nearly doubled in the past two weeks. Wieler, who leads the Robert Koch-Institute, urged Germans to get vaccinated.

Ukraine: Ukraine could tighten lockdown restrictions as COVID-19 picture worsens LINK

Idaho: Idaho hospitals begin rationing health care amid COVID-19 surge LINK

Missouri: St. Louis children's hospitals near capacity, and not just from COVID LINK

South Korea: S.Korea planning to live 'more normally' with COVID-19 after October LINK

California: California’s Central Valley overwhelmed by COVID-19 Delta surge LINK

US: Just Say It: The Health Care System Has Collapsed LINK

World: Bad news on #MuVariant—Japanese scientists: "Mu variant is highly resistant to sera from convalescent & [Pfizer]-vaccinated people. Direct comparison of different spike proteins revealed that Mu spike is more resistant…than all other current variants”

Canada: Alberta nurses say government is scaling back its pay cut proposal amid fourth wave of COVID-19 LINK

Kansas: Kansas data doesn’t reflect reality as COVID-19 rips through schools LINK

Vermont: FBI opens criminal probe into 3 troopers over fake Covid-19 vaccination cards LINK

Texas: Texas Hospital Reports 50 Mu COVID Cases As Delta's Dominance Continues LINK

Indiana: Union Hospital emergency rooms are filling up with patients LINK

Mississippi: Nurse walkouts possible statewide as COVID-19 takes a toll on healthcare professionals LINK

US: From Alaska To Idaho And Beyond, Covid Surges Stress Hospital Systems LINK

Hawaii: DOH, HAH COVID efforts give hospitals a couple weeks before reaching “crisis point” DOH Director Elizabeth Char, MD, and HAH President and CEO Hilton Raethel shared a joint presentation to the Committee, noting that Hawaii exceeded its ICU bed capacity as of Friday. LINK

US: COVID Now Leading Cause of Death Among Law Enforcement LINK

Wisconsin: Wisconsin reports more than 1,000 COVID-19 hospital patients for the first time since January LINK

Colorado: Nursing homes face staffing shortages, financial problems as they serve growing need LINK

West Virginia: No ICU beds available: PCH at capacity with COVID-19 patients LINK

Florida: At West Boca Medical Center, 32 Kids Admitted Over Seven Days For COVID LINK

US: 252,000 children test positive for COVID-19 in past week as classes resume LINK

Washington: A Washington county has approved an emergency declaration to bring in a refrigeration trailer for the bodies of COVID-19 victims that have overwhelmed the morgue LINK

World: Why are we seeing more COVID cases in fully vaccinated people? LINK

World: Is Covid here to stay? A survey of more than 100 scientists found a vast majority expect the coronavirus will become endemic LINK

Jamaica: GRIEF, HORROR AND DEATH “They say we are low on oxygen, I am telling you, we are running out of medication too. What we have to be doing is writing prescriptions and giving it to the family to fill because there is this great demand for these products” LINK

RUMINT (US): OK. So now a first for me. TBH, previously I've known no one directly who has died either of the covid19 or the trial vaccination. Now that has changed. 26 year old mum, has child of 9 months, died three days after trial vaccination. Foremost it's a tradgedy for her & close ones.

World: COVID-19 created lots of supply chain problems — and they're nowhere close to being solved LINK

US: Supply chain issues impacting ports in Pacific Northwest LINK

World: Op/Ed: The only thing I seem to recall re. Mu, is all the same people playing that down played Delta down for quite a while too. Perhaps Mu won't succeed. But, it seems very sensible to have the attitude, one will soon.

US: NEW: White House signals new COVID-19 measures coming for unvaccinated Americans LINK

Canada: 814 new cases of #COVID19 announced in B.C., as the rolling average rises slightly as we continue to be in this bumpy short-term plateau. Active cases rise to 5,550, hospitalizations rise to 261, but no new deaths.

Iowa: Iowa DPH confirms 18 cases of COVID-19 mu variant LINK

Macedonia: 15 people have reportedly been killed and more than 20 others injured in a fire at a Covid hospital in North Macedonia - #Covid #hospital #Fire

UK: More than 50 cases of the Mu variant have been detected in the UK LINK

World: Ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, study finds LINK

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thechasefiles · 4 years

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 8/6/2020

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is your daily news cap Monday 8th June, 2020. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

BID TO STAGE PROTEST MARCH SATURDAY - THE TWO MEN who organised a picket outside the United States Embassy on Saturday to protest racism and injustice against black people, but which was cut short by police over a numbers violation, will be going at it again this weekend. This time, says president of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, David Denny, who organised the event with attorney Lalu Hanuman, they will be applying for a permit to conduct a march, instead of just a picket, near the embassy in Wildey, St Michael, on Saturday. Denny said on June 7 that he would be seeking to be allowed 200 protesters, with the march starting from the old Banks Breweries building and ending just in front the embassy. He said all interested people should wear masks, be prepared to practise physical distancing and follow other protocols the Commissioner of Police might point out. (DN)

ONE DEAD, TWO INJURED IN SUNDAY SHOOTING - One man is dead, another is in stable condition and a third is undergoing surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after two separate shooting incidents on Sunday. Police spokesman acting station sergeant Michael Blackman appealed to members of the public for information on the incidents which occurred at Pioneer Road, Bush Hall and Country Road, both in St Michael. The body of an adult male, who has not been named, was discovered at Pioneer Road after police responded to reports of shots being fired. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Meanwhile, one man is said to be in stable condition and another is undergoing surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in a separate incident at Country Road. Police say they were among a group of men who were liming outside of a residence there when they were reportedly attacked by a group of men wearing masks. The two injured men were transported to the QEH by private motor vehicles. Anyone who may have information that can assist with these investigations is asked to contact Police Emergency at 211 Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIPS (8477) District ‘A’ Police Station at 430-7242 or any Police Station. (PR/SAT)

GUN AND AMMO MATTER RESUMES –The prosecution will respond tomorrow when the gun and ammunition matter against David Wayne Harper continues in the No. 2 Supreme Court. Harper, 49, a painter, of Bibby’s Lane, St Michael, was back in court last Friday before Justice Randall Worrell after he had pleaded guilty, in May, to having a 9mm semi-automatic firearm and seven bullets on May 26, 2017. “I apologise for the offence,” said Harper, who has spent 1 094 days on remand. Attorney Sian Lange told the court her client made a bad decision in taking up the gun. However, she contended the offences showed no sophistication, that Harper had no previous convictions and had apologised for his actions. “Mr Harper went above and beyond to get his matters before the High Court. He cooperated with police and he was assessed as having a low risk of re-offending,” Lange said. (DN)

PRAISES IN CHURCH AGAIN –While most denominations did not open their doors on June 7, at least two churches welcomed their members back. New Dimensions Ministries in Barbarees Hill, and Covenant Life Teaching Centre in Green Hill, both in St Michael, held in-person services. However, neither was taking any chances as there was strict enforcement of temperature checks, physical distancing, hand sanitising, mask wearing and information gathering on each member and visitor. Government recently issued a list of restrictions as part of the Emergency Management (COVID-19) Churches Directive 2020, some of which rubbed church leaders the wrong way, especially as it came to communion. After meetings and consultations some adjustments were made, but most churches opted to remain closed for now and only have online streaming services as they said they still needed time before they could reopen fully. (DN)

CHANGES IN PETROLEUM PRICES TO TAKE EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT - The retail prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene will decrease, effective midnight, tonight. Gasoline will be adjusted from $3.09 per litre to $2.80 per litre, which represents a decrease of 29 cents; the price of diesel will drop by 23 cents, from $2.52 per litre to $2.29 per litre, and kerosene will go from 73 cents per litre to 63 cents per litre, a reduction of 10 cents. These price adjustments are in keeping with Government’s policy of allowing retail prices to be reflective of those on the international market. (BGIS)

UPDATE: BWA COMPLETES REPAIRS TO BELLE GULLY BURST MAIN - The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) has completed repairs to the burst nine-inch main in Belle Gully, St Michael. BWA has reminded customers in the affected areas in St Michael and Christ Church that “even though the repairs are complete, it will take some time for the water pressure within the distribution network to return to normal”. “The Authority’s personnel will also be monitoring this particular main (an older main) closely should another rupture occur,” according to a statement from the BWA.Water tankers will continue to assist residents in the affected areas. BWA also said customers in parts of St Michael, St James and St Thomas who are supplied by the Shop Hill, St Thomas section of the network may experience low water pressure or outages. This is a result of BWA having been forced to stop pumping from its station at Lodge Hill, St Michael due to low reservoir levels. (DN)

RESCUED DOG RECOVERING - A dog that was rescued on Bush Hall Main Road, St Michael, a week ago, after being involved in an accident is recovering at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). The small brown canine had been rescued by a police officer and Nation photographer Sandy Pitt from the middle of the street last Sunday. It was taken in by the RSPCA’s Chief Inspector Wayne Norville.During the week, Barbadians were active on the Nation’s social media platforms trying to ascertain the dog’s condition after its rescue was posted. The Sunday Sun visited the RSPCA on June 6, where clinic manager Charmaine Hatcher said X-rays on the dog’s shoulder and leg showed there were no broken bones. Though limping and keeping her right front leg lifted, the dog is expected to make a full recovery, the veterinary nurse said. “It’s doing really well, and very nervous to the point she just wets herself every time we try to have physical contact with her. She is still favouring her right leg. There are no breaks, but she definitely will not use it at this time. Whether she was abused prior to the accident, we have no idea, but she is very nervous when it comes to human contact, which is changing rapidly,” the clinic manager said. Hatcher said that for the first two days, the dog wouldn’t allow people to pick her up, but that changed as last week progressed. “No one has come forward for her, but if no one does, we would love to find her a beautiful home,” Hatcher said. (DN)

REUTERS: COVID-19 DEATHS GLOBALLY TOP 400 000 – Global deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic topped 400 000 on Sunday, as case numbers surge in Brazil and India, according to a Reuters tally. The United States is responsible for about one-quarter of all fatalities but deaths in South America are rapidly rising. The number of deaths linked to COVID-19 in just five months is now equal to the number of people who die annually from malaria, one of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases. Global cases are approaching seven million, with about two million, or 30 per cent, of those cases in the United States. Latin America has the second-largest outbreak with over 15 per cent of cases, according to a Reuters tally. The first COVID-19 death was reported on January 10 in Wuhan, China but it was early April before the death toll passed 100 000, according to the Reuters tally of official reports from governments. It took 24 days to go from 300 000 to 400 000 deaths. The United States has the highest death toll in the world at almost 110 000. Fatalities in Brazil are rising rapidly and the country may overtake the United Kingdom to have the second-largest number of deaths in the world. The total number of deaths is believed to be higher than the officially reported 400 000 as many countries lack supplies to test all victims and some countries do not count deaths outside of a hospital. (Reuters)

The world is facing the rapid spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic. As we continue to do our part in Barbados please remember to stay home but on the days you have to go out wear your masks, practice social distancing (stand 6-10 feet away from each other), practice good daily hygiene, eat healthy, exercise and keep your mind active. There are 207 days left in the year Shalom! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell #coronavirusinbarbados #nationalresponse #dailynews #thechasefilesblog

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presssorg · 5 years

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Sri Lanka has partially lifted an overnight curfew after an upsurge in anti-Muslim violence

Sri Lanka vows 'maximum force' against anti-Muslim rioters Sri Lanka has partially lifted an overnight curfew imposed nationwide after an upsurge in anti-Muslim violence, three weeks after the deadly Easter Sunday bombings. The curfew in the North-Western province will remain until further notice, police said. Mosques and Muslim-owned shops have been vandalised or set on fire, and one Muslim man has been slashed to death. In several towns, police fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse mobs. Tensions have been high since Islamist militants attacked churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, killing more than 250 people. In a televised address, Police Chief Chandana Wickramaratne warned that officers would respond to rioters with maximum force. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also appealed for calm in the early hours of Monday, saying the current unrest was hampering the investigation into last month's attacks. Muslims make up nearly 10% of Sri Lanka's 22 million people, who are predominantly Sinhalese Buddhists.

How did the violence unfold?

The unrest was centred on three districts north of the capital, Colombo. In the north-western town of Kiniyama, windows and doors to a mosque were smashed and copies of the Koran thrown on the floor. The attack was triggered by a group of people demanding a search of the building after soldiers inspected a lake nearby looking for weapons, Reuters news agency reports. In the Catholic-majority town of Chilaw, Muslim-owned shops and mosques were attacked after a dispute that started on Facebook, police said. A 38-year-old Muslim businessman identified as the author of the post that sparked the violence was arrested. A man died from stab wounds after a mob attacked his business in Puttalam District, also in Sri Lanka's north-west. "Mobs had attacked him with sharp weapons at his carpentry workshop," a police official told AFP news agency. "This is the first death from the riots." Incidents were also reported in the town of Hettipola, where at least three shops were reportedly torched.

How has the government responded?

NEGOMBO, SRI LANKA - APRIL 23: Coffins are carried to a grave during a mass funeral at St Sebastian Church on April 23, 2019 in Negombo, Sri Lanka. At least 311 people were killed with hundreds more injured after coordinated attacks on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday rocked three churches and three luxury hotels in and around Colombo as well as at Batticaloa in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities declared a state of emergency on Monday as police arrested 24 people so far in connection with the suicide bombs, which injured at least 500 people as the blasts took place at churches in Colombo city as well as neighboring towns and hotels, including the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) The government says that security forces have restored calm to streets in the areas affected by violence and insist officers are preventing revenge attacks on Muslims. "What we want to say is that the government is very determined to control this and from tonight onwards it shall be completely controlled," Shiral Lakthilaka, an adviser to the president, told the BBC. Leaders from across the political spectrum have been pleading for calm and urging people not to share rumours via social media. Officials have blocked some social media platforms and messaging apps, including Facebook and Whatsapp, in an attempt to curb outbreaks of unrest. "I appeal to all citizens to remain calm and not be swayed by false information. Security forces are working tirelessly to apprehend terrorists and ensure the security of the country," the prime minister tweeted on Monday. Nevertheless, there is concern among some Muslims that their fears about retaliatory violence were not acted on soon enough. One Muslim businessman, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC he feared for his safety. "We can see many places where the curfew has been announced. The army is on the streets with guns, but they don't take any action against the violence," he said.

What happened on Easter Sunday?

On Sunday 21 April six near-simultaneous suicide bombs exploded at hotels and churches across the country. Hours later, two more bombs were detonated, with fewer casualties, as police closed in on those behind the bombings. On Sunday 21 April six near-simultaneous suicide bombs exploded at hotels and churches across the country. Hours later, two more bombs were detonated, with fewer casualties, as police closed in on those behind the bombings. More than 250 people were killed in the wave of the attacks which stunned the world and the country - Sri Lanka was weeks away from marking 10 years of relative peace since the end of its brutal civil war. Police have blamed two local Islamist groups for the Easter Sunday bombings and dozens of arrests have been made in the weeks since. The Islamic State group has said it was involved but has given no details. Published at Tue, 14 May 2019 03:19:31 +0000 Read the full article

#attacks #isis #muslim #srilanka #terrorism

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