Decreases in the birthrate and natural population growth rate in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in 2018 resulted from the eradication of religious extremism, a report released on Thursday said.

The report on population change in Xinjiang published by the Xinjiang Development Research Center said extremism had incited people to resist family planning and its eradication had given Uygur women more autonomy when deciding whether to have children.

The changes were not caused by "forced sterilization" of the Uygur population, as repeatedly claimed by some Western scholars and politicians, it said.

In a research report released last year, Adrian Zenz, a German scholar, said there had been a significant drop in the natural population growth rate in southern Xinjiang in 2018 and claimed that proved China was trying to control the size of the Uygur population.

Cases are soaring, with a record 60,916 new cases reported yesterday. Hospital admissions for Covid are going up and up. Deaths are in the hundreds per day and increasing. Only an idiot would doubt we're in the midst of a serious pandemic, right?

Except all these figures that show there's a deadly pandemic raging are based on mass testing using PCR and more recently lateral flow tests. Cases are just positive tests. Hospital admissions are just people in hospital who test positive (and all patients are tested). Deaths are just people who die of any cause within 28 days of a positive test.

To get a true picture of what's going on you have to look at data that are independent of PCR tests. So overall hospital and ICU occupancy, excess deaths, emergency calls for flu-like symptoms and so on. Strikingly, these data all speak in unison and tell a very different story.

Look at the graph below of A&E attendances in England for acute respiratory infections (which include COVID-19). It's trending well below baseline and, save for a September spike leading into elevated winter levels, been almost flat since the spring.

In a recent long-form essay on New Discourses, James Lindsay explained the origins of totalitarianism in a single word: psychopathy. There, he explained that totalitarianism arises from people who cannot cope with reality as it is, and yet who are content to manipulate others, constructing a "pseudo-reality" in service to a vision of the world that serves their needs. That pseudo-reality holds as its North Star a Utopian vision that aligns with artificial resolutions to their inability to cope with reality as it is, and it thereby attracts others who have similar issues. By constructing a false logic (a paralogic) and a false morality (a paramorality) to define and enforce the pseudo-reality, they can gather supporters in a cult-like fashion. In the end, those ensnared lose the ability to distinguish reality and pseudo-reality almost entirely and become functionally psychopathic, and if they gain enough social, cultural, economic, and political power, they can hold hostage entire societies that are, in effect, on the march to totalitarianism and, eventually, total catastrophic collapse.

The essay is an important read, but it is also a difficult one. In this episode of the New Discourses podcast, James seeks to explain the essay in easier language and to flesh out its ideas one by one. He sees this process of unpacking the essay as his next major work, and in this podcast, he begins the process of linking the concept of "ideological pseudo-reality" to more familiar examples, not least Wokeness. Critical Race Theory, for example, is a pseudo-reality that positions racism as the ordinary state of affairs in society, not an immoral aberration from them. Queer Theory is a pseudo-reality in which being normal with regard to sex, gender, and sexuality is a problem while being in some way deviant (which is not the same as being gay or even trans) is elevated as normal. Communism is a pseudo-reality that deems socially engineered command economies as effective and efficient ways to maximize human flourishing. Covid-19 is a pseudo-reality built to enact control around a genuine and serious virus called SARS-CoV-2. These topics and more are presented in this episode of the New Discourses podcast to help people understand and, hopefully, able to see reality for itself again.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told federal law enforcement to stand down just one day before a mob of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, smashing windows, entering the chambers, and forcing lawmakers and congressional staff inside into lockdown.

"To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway," Bowser wrote in a letter to acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, and Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy.

According to Bowser, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department in coordination with the U.S. Park Police, Capitol Police, and Secret Sevice were well-equipped to handle whatever problems could come up during the Trump rallies planned for Wednesday.

If there's one thing I'm NOT afraid of, it's being 'cancelled'.

​If being cancelled means me living in integrity as a human being who thinks for themselves, CANCEL ME TODAY!​

I repeat; I am not afraid.​What I'm truly afraid of is existing in a world that forces me to submit to an ideology without question, otherwise I'm to be shamed (or pressured to shame myself) and cast out of the community.​

A world that tells me that because I inhabit a black body; I will forever be oppressed and at the mercy of some omnipresent monster called 'whiteness'.​

That because of the colour of my skin; I am a victim of an inherently racist system by default - and me rejecting the narrative of oppression means that I am in fact, in denial.​

How empowering!​

Having spent four years insisting Russia 'hacked' the US election for President Donald Trump, some prominent Democrats are now blaming Moscow for Americans who stormed the US Capitol protesting the 2020 results.

As thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington, DC on Wednesday for a 'Stop the Steal' rally and Congress met to certify the Electoral College votes that would make Democrat Joe Biden the next US president, a group of protesters stormed the Capitol and interrupted the lawmakers.

So naturally, former President Barack Obama's adviser Ben Rhodes declared it was a day "Putin had waited for" since the Cold War. Other blue-checkmark activists echoed the sentiment.

Police say 53 Hong Kong democrats and activists were arrested on Wednesday morning for alleged violations of the national security law. According to media reports and social media posts, the opposition figures were arrested over their organisation and participation in the primaries for the postponed 2020 Legislative Council Election last year.

NowTV cited sources as saying that the arrests for alleged subversion came after candidates made an election pledge to veto government budgets.

Former lawmakers Alvin Yeung, Andrew Wan, Au Nok-hin, Claudia Mo, Eddie Chu, Gary Fan, Helena Wong, James To, Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki, Lam Cheuk Ting, Raymond Chan, Roy Kwong and Wu Chi-wai were among those arrested, according to social media posts.

Ryanair has hit out at the UK and Irish governments for their handling of coronavirus vaccine roll-outs while slashing flights and its passenger forecasts.

The no-frills carrier said it was to "significantly cut" services from Thursday 21st January which would result in "few, if any, flights being operated to/from Ireland or the UK from the end of Jan".

The company blamed renewed COVID-19 lockdowns for the decision and said its cutbacks would remain in place until "such time as these draconian travel restrictions are removed".

President Trump posted a message to Democrats and RINO Republicans on Twitter Tuesday evening, urging them to pay attention to the "thousands of people pouring into D.C." to protest the "stolen" presidential election results up for certification by Congress on Wednesday. Trump singled out the Republican leaders in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), Majority Whip John Thune (SD) and John Cornyn (TX), by name.

Over 140 Republican Congressmen and over a dozen GOP senators have announced they will mount challenges to the vote on Wednesday.

During the last year, multiple air attacks have been launched at Syrian territory, which Damascus has claimed are Israeli military operations aimed at countering the Iranian military presence in the neighboring Arab republic. Damascus has condemned such actions and considers them to be violations of Syria's national sovereignty.

The Air Defenses of Syria responded to an attack near the city of Damascus, the government's SANA agency reported Wednesday.

According to the report, Israeli forces are behind the attack in the southern area of the city.