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Afghanistan's Taliban rulers order NGOs to prevent women from working at their jobs as protests spread


RFE/RL
Sat, 24 Dec 2022 19:01 UTC
women
© EPA/EFEAfghani Women
In the latest assault on women's rights, Afghanistan's Taliban rulers ordered all domestic and international NGOs to prevent female employees from working at their jobs, claiming that many were not observing dress codes in the conservative Muslim nation.

"There have been serious complaints regarding the nonobservance of the Islamic hijab and other rules and regulations pertaining to the work of females in national and international organizations," the Islamist group's economy ministry said on December 24 in a note sent to NGOs and seen by AFP and other Western news agencies.

AP reported that the note said that any organization which did not comply with the order would have its license to operate in the country revoked.

Full details of the order were not immediately available, and it was not clear how it would affect the various United Nations agencies operating in Afghanistan.
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Arrow Up

Amish farmer Amos Miller wins battle in war for food freedom in US Appeals Court

Sara Burrows
Return to Now
Tue, 20 Dec 2022 01:08 UTC
M's farm
© millersorganicfarm.comMiller's Organic Farm
U.S. Appeals Court says Amos Miller won't be spending Christmas in jail after all, drops $300,000 fine, and allows him to sell meat again, so he doesn't go bankrupt while a long-term solution is negotiated!

In what feels like a Christmas Miracle, a major food freedom case took a turn for the best.

The Amish typically shy away from publicity, as a part of their humble religion, but Pennsylvania farmer Amos Miller decided the USDA's war against him and other small, organic farmers is the hill he will die on and is prepared to take his battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

The USDA (aka Big Ag) has been harassing Miller for years - first for his sale of raw milk, and now for his sale of truly raw meat.

Many of us have become aware of the difference between raw, grass-fed milk straight from the farm, and the pasteurized garbage approved by the FDA... but not many of us realize that the expensive, grass-fed, "raw" beef we are buying at the grocery store isn't really raw. If it's USDA-approved, it's been treated with antibiotic chemicals, which are not accurately labeled as such.

Comment: See also:
Amish farmer faces $250K fine, jail time and losing his sustainable farm for processing his own meat

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Mr. Potato

Sunak asks homeless man if he 'works in business'


RT
Sat, 24 Dec 2022 21:04 UTC
Rishi Sunak
© Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesUK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has drawn ridicule for asking a homeless man whether he "works in business" before giving him a free hot meal. Sunak, a multi-millionaire former hedge fund manager, made the remark on Friday during a visit to a shelter in London.

The PM was filmed at the counter of a soup kitchen run by a charity for vulnerable people in the UK. At one point a young man, reportedly named Dean, asked Sunak whether he was "sorting the economy out."

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do," the prime minister said, before asking: "do you work in business?"

"No, I'm homeless, I'm actually a homeless person but I am interested in business," the man replied.
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Handcuffs

Woman arrested while silently standing and 'praying' near abortion clinic


RT
Sat, 24 Dec 2022 20:48 UTC
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, West Midlands police
© Twitter
British police have arrested a woman who was silently standing across the street from an abortion clinic, and admitted upon questioning that she might have been praying in her head.

Footage of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce's encounter with police in Birmingham, England, went viral on social media this week, stirring online outrage over her detention. One video posted Thursday on Twitter had garnered 3.8 million views as of Friday afternoon.

The incident reportedly occurred on December 6, when Vaughan-Spruce was confronted by West Midlands police as she stood on a sidewalk. An officer asked what she was doing, to which she replied that she was just standing. Queried as to whether she was protesting, the 45-year-old woman said no.

Comment: Not enough resources to solve actual crimes which might stop actual anti-social behaviors but more than enough to harass those who commit thought crimes.

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Bullseye

Notes from the Digital Gulag

Michael Rectenwald
Mises Institute
Fri, 23 Dec 2022 19:42 UTC
forget smartphone
As the author of Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom, I guess I should not be surprised to find myself squarely in the digital gulag — banished, perhaps permanently, from Twitter and Facebook. Twitter permanently suspended my account several weeks ago, mere days before Elon Musk took over the helm. Although I cannot be sure, I may have been banned because I suggested that the transgender movement is part of a multipronged neo-Malthusian depopulation campaign. (Note that I said nothing to or about any transgender individuals and thus broke no "Twitter rules," whatever they may be. I may have been mistaken, but surely being "correct" is not a condition for major social media use. Or is it? Of course it is.)

Now Facebook has demanded proof that I am who I say I am, and has completely barred me from my account, which has been, at least temporarily, utterly erased from the site. I submitted a picture of my driver's license, which Facebook rejected, and then a picture of my passport along with my license. I await Facebook's response, which I read could take anywhere from forty-eight hours to forty-five days to arrive.

Comment:

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Red Pill

Major Israeli health insurer records huge spikes in neonatal deaths following vaccine rollout

Dr Josh Guetzkow
DailySceptic
Sat, 24 Dec 2022 19:28 UTC
pregnancy cdc vaccine
A fearless, selfless Israeli researcher named David Shuldman has worked tirelessly to get data released from the clutches of Government agencies. He recently obtained data via FOIA request on neonatal deaths from the Israeli health insurance fund Maccabi, which covers about 25% of Israelis.

Neonatal deaths are defined as deaths in the first four weeks of life, from the moment after birth until 28 days later. Recently, he obtained data on the quarterly number of neonatal deaths beginning the first quarter of 2019. Here is what that looks like:

neonatal deaths israel insurance company report
© MaccabiData on the quarterly number of neonatal deaths in Israel beginning the first quarter of 2019.
The quarterly number of neonatal deaths is very low, hovering between 4-8 for 2019 and 2020. Then in the second quarter of 2021, it suddenly jumps three-fold to 17, dips again in the third quarter and then jumps again to 18 in the last quarter of the year.
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People 2

Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care

Robin Respaut, Chad Terhune and Michelle Conlin
Reuters
Thu, 22 Dec 2022 12:00 UTC
Kinnon MacKinnon
© REUTERS/Chris HelgrenKinnon MacKinnon, an assistant professor of social work at Toronto’s York University, used to think regret among detransitioners was a nonissue. Then he started interviewing detransitioners, and what he heard changed his mind.
For years, Dr Kinnon MacKinnon, like many people in the transgender community, considered the word "regret" to be taboo.

MacKinnon, a 37-year-old transgender man and assistant professor of social work at York University here, thought it was offensive to talk about people who transitioned, later regretted their decision, and detransitioned. They were too few in number, he figured, and any attention they got reinforced to the public the false impression that transgender people were incapable of making sound decisions about their treatment.

"This doesn't even really happen," MacKinnon recalled thinking as he listened to an academic presentation on detransitioners in 2017. "We're not supposed to be talking about this."

Comment: Absolutely heartbreaking.

See also:

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X

Twitter suspends Palestinian journalist Arikat, and media response — silence

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:01 UTC
said arikat
Said Arikat at Dec. 16 State Department briefing. Screenshot from State Department video.
In yet another demonstration of anti-Palestinianism in the U.S. mainstream, there is no outcry over Twitter's arbitrary suspension of Said Arikat, longtime D.C. correspondent for Al-Quds newspaper.

It was big news when Elon Musk suspended the Twitter accounts of at least nine tech journalists last week (over alleged dox-ing) and then reinstated them this week after Twitter users demanded as much.

But in yet another demonstration of anti-Palestinianism in the U.S. mainstream, there has been scarcely any attention given to the arbitrary suspension of Said Arikat, a fixture at the State Department briefings as the longtime Washington correspondent for Al-Quds newspaper, a Palestinian publication.

Comment: It would be interesting to know who at Twitter pushed the button on this suspension. Is Elon aware, or are there still rogue elements in the upper eschalons of Twitter who care little for 'freedom of speech' and just want to erase Israeli war crimes from the platform?

See also:

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Handcuffs

FTX's Gary Wang, Alameda's Caroline Ellison plead guilty to federal charges, cooperating with prosecutors; SBF out on $250M bail

MacKenzie Sigalos, Rohan Goswami
CNBC
Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:45 UTC
sbf escorted
© Joe Raedle | Getty ImagesFTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted out of the Magistrate’s Court on December 21, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas.
FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research co-CEO Caroline Ellison have both pleaded guilty to federal charges, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said Wednesday.

Wang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The charges were released the same night that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was en route from the Bahamas to New York, where he faces eight federal criminal charges from the same prosecutors who accepted plea deals from Ellison and Wang. The duo's plea agreements were signed Monday, the day Bankman-Fried was originally supposed to return to the U.S. before a court hearing in the Bahamas devolved into chaos.

Comment: From RT, SBF is out on bail:
Sam Bankman-Fried, the man accused of defrauding cryptocurrency investors out of nearly $2 billion, will be awaiting trial at his parents' house in California, rather than in a New York jail cell, after a Manhattan judge agreed to release the FTX founder on a $250 million bond.

The shaggy-haired Bankman-Fried, who ranked as the second-largest donor to Democratic Party political campaigns in 2022, walked out of the US District Courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, flanked by US marshals, lawyers and his parents. The bond, which matched the highest in federal court history, was reportedly secured by the 30-year-old entrepreneur's parents, who pledged the equity in their home, and two wealthy individuals.

Bankman-Fried is accused by prosecutors of perpetrating "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history." He was extradited from the Bahamas on Wednesday night and made his first court appearance on Thursday. He faces eight felony charges, including wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to as many as 115 years in prison.

Assistant US Attorney Nick Roos argued that Bankman-Fried committed a fraud of "epic proportions," but given that he voluntarily consented to extradition and lost most of his assets, the risk of letting him out on bail was a "marginal consideration."

The bond was 25 times larger than that offered to Bernie Madoff, author of perhaps the most infamous Ponzi scheme in US history, in 2008. It matched the $250 million offered to Michael Milken, the "junk bond king" who pleaded guilty to stock manipulation and other charges in 1990.

Under his bail terms, Bankman-Fried was required to surrender his passport and remain in confinement at the home of his parents, who are both Stanford University law professors. He also must undergo mental health treatment and evaluation. He's reportedly allowed to leave house arrest only for exercise and mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Bankman-Fried is scheduled to return to New York on January 3 for a pre-trial hearing in which he will enter his plea to the charges. Two of his top FTX associates, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation of the company's collapse.
See also:

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Camcorder

TikTok parent company acknowledges spying on journalists

Christopher Hutton
Washington Examiner
Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:50 UTC
tiktok spying
Employees from TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, spied on at least two journalists using data from the social media app.

At least four employees involved in monitoring employee conduct used data gathered from apps in the United States to track journalists in an attempt to determine the identity of specific leakers, according to the results of an internal investigation released on Thursday.

The revelations come as TikTok already faces additional scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. over the possibility that it presents a national security threat because of its ties to the Chinese government.

Comment: See also:

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