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At least 14 killed in Italian cable car accident


Irish Times
Sun, 23 May 2021 11:42 UTC
Thirteen people have been killed and two children seriously injured after a cable car fell on a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

Thirteen people have been killed and two children seriously injured after a cable car fell on a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

At least 14 people died and a child was seriously injured on Sunday when a cable car linking Italy's Lake Maggiore with a nearby mountain plunged 20 metres to the ground, local officials and rescuers said.

The Stresa-Mottarone cable car takes tourists and locals from the town on Lake Maggiore, almost 1,400 metres above sea level to the top of the Mottarone mountain in 20 minutes.

"We are devastated, in pain," Marcella Severino, Stresa's mayor told broadcaster RAI, while Italian prime minister Mario Draghi voiced his condolences to the families of the victims.

The cable car was travelling up the mountain when the cabin fell some 20 metres to the ground and rolled several times down the steep slopes before it was stopped by trees, Ms Severino said.

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People 2

60 Minutes detransition story sparks major backlash from trans activists

Blaire White
The Post Millennial
Mon, 24 May 2021 21:20 UTC
60 minutes piece on detransitioning
Trans activists online are outraged at a recent 60 Minutes segment that dove into the world of "detransitioners", people who decide after transitioning that they've made a grave mistake and attempt to reverse what they've done to their bodies. In the episode, Leslie Stahl interviewed a woman by the name of Grace Lidinsky-Smith who underwent hormone replacement therapy and surgery including removal of her breasts. Her attempt to transition to a man was fueled, in her own words, partly by her desire to live an "easier" life.


Comment: Transitioning is a radical treatment that, in most cases, could be avoided with good mental health protocols. It is not something that should be rushed or undergone without a serious psychological assessment and certainly should not be open to children.

See also:

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Airplane

Belarus KGB believed to be on plane forced to land in Minsk, says Ryanair CEO

Andrew Roth and Daniel Boffey
The Guardian
Mon, 24 May 2021 12:46 UTC
roman protasevich
© Artur Widak/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
Roman Protasevich was taken into custody by Belarusian police.
Michael O'Leary made comments as EU, US and UK consider action against act of 'air piracy'.

Ryanair's chief executive has said he believes that agents of the Belarusian KGB were travelling on the plane that was diverted to Minsk on Sunday, as EU leaders prepared to meet to discuss what action to take against Belarus.

Belarusian police arrested opposition blogger Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, after forcing their Ryanair flight to land in the Belarusian capital, sparking outrage from European leaders, who have called the plane's grounding a hijacking and act of "air piracy". Belarus's ambassador to the EU, Aleksandr Mikhnevich, was summoned on Monday for a dressing down by senior officials in Brussels over "another blatant attempt to silence the opposition".

Comment: More from Euronews:
European Union leaders have agreed on a set of sanctions to be laid against Belarus, including banning its airlines from using the bloc's airspace and airports, after a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk and a Belarusian journalist on board was detained.

EU leaders also demanded the immediate release of the journalist, Raman Pratasevich, a key foe of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"We won't tolerate that one can try to play Russian roulette with the lives of innocent civilians,'' said EU Council chief Charles Michel, who presided over the EU meeting.

EU leaders came to the decision at an emergency summit held on Monday and are expected to enforce the sanctions as soon as legal proceedings will allow.
And in case you had to ask, Iran had nothing to do with it. From Sputnik:
Hamas Denies Making Fake Bomb Threat That Caused Ryanair Plane to Land in Minsk

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied on Monday the group's involvement in the Ryanair plane emergency landing in Minsk over a false bomb threat.

Earlier on Monday, the Belarusian foreign ministry claimed that the plane was diverted to Minsk after the National Minsk Airport received a letter with a bomb alert written in the name of the Palestinian-based militant group Hamas. Allegedly, the Hamas soldiers demanded that the EU stop supporting Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip and warned that they will otherwise detonate an explosive device over Vilnius.

"We don't resort to these methods, which could be the doing of some suspicious parties that aim to demonise Hamas and foil the state of world sympathy with our Palestinian people and their legitimate resistance," the Hamas spokesman was cited as saying by Reuters.


It's not surprising that Western nations would be condemning the actions of Lukashenko as he was likely bringing in "one of the key regime change operatives in the Belarusian color revolution of 2020"; in other words, one of their agents. For some background on Protasevich, check out this article from FOIA Research. A couple of highlights:
  • He was a journalist for the Polish-Lithuanian-funded Euroradio, as well as Radio Liberty.
  • Protasevich was part of the Maidan protests in Kiev 2013/2014, as a picture on Facebook shows, where, clad in a Belarusian People's State flag, he is taking part in the destruction of a Lenin statue.
  • Protasevich has a neo-Nazi and anti-communist background. He is a sympathizer of the Pahonia Detachment, a Belarusian militia that has fought alongside the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine's post-Maidan civil war.
  • In February and March 2017, Belarus was swept by a series of demonstrations throughout the country, which Protasevich eagerly "documented," always just a step away from the neo-Nazi black block.
  • On March 4 he took part at the installment of a temporary nationalist memorial, going along with a symbolic book burning.
  • He posted a picture of himself inside the US State Department, stating "Never had so many important and interesting encounters in my life. Tired but very pleased." In DC he met with fellow regime change swamp creature, the Ukrainian-American Gleb Zhavoronkov.


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Fire

BBC reporter comes under fire for 2014 tweet that 'Hitler was right'

Arty Katkov
Sputnik
Mon, 24 May 2021 10:11 UTC
BBC sign
© AFP 2021 / CARL COURT
The journalist was reportedly hired by the BBC almost three years after she posted her anti-Semitic comments.

A BBC journalist is in hot water after her anti-Semitic tweets have been unearthed by a pro-Israel Twitter user.

A Twitter user with the nickname GnasherJew, self-described as "investigating & exposing antisemites from the left/right & religious extremes", uncovered BBC News correspondent Tala Halawa's tweets from seven years ago that contained anti-Semitic content.
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Bullseye

"Fact-checking" takes another beating

Matt Taibbi
taibbi.substack.com
Mon, 24 May 2021 22:15 UTC
Fauci

The soul of rectitude testifies in the Senate
The news business just can't stop clowning itself. The latest indignity is an international fact-checking debacle originating, of all places, at a "festival of fact-checking."

The Poynter Institute is perhaps the most respected think tank in our business, an organization seeking to "fortify journalism's role in a free society," among other things through its sponsorship of the fact-checking outlet PolitiFact. A few weeks back, it held a virtual convention called the "United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking."

The three-day event featured special guests Christiane Amanpour, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Brian Stelter, and Senator Mark Warner — a lineup of fact "stars" whose ironic energy recalled the USO's telethon-execution of Terrance and Phillip before the invasion of Canada in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Tickets were $50, but if you wanted a "private virtual happy hour" with Stelter, you needed to pay $100 for the "VIP Experience."

During the confab, PolitiFact's Katie Sanders asked Fauci, "Are you still confident that [Covid-19] developed naturally?" To which the convivial doctor answered, "No, I'm not convinced of that," going on to say "we" should continue to investigate all hypotheses about how the pandemic began:


Comment: See also:

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Pistol

Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson 'shot at party as rival gangs clashed', says friend

Izzy Lyons and Gareth Davies
The Telegraph
Mon, 24 May 2021 12:38 UTC
Sasha Johnson 1
© PA
Sasha Johnson speaking during the Million People March in London
A Black Lives Matter activist was shot in the head after being caught up in a drive-by shooting between "rival gangs", friends have said, which has left her fighting for her life in hospital.

Sasha Johnson, a mother of "two beautiful sons" and an anti-racism activist, was shot at 3am on Sunday in Peckham, south east London, near a house party.

Ms Johnson, who was on Monday in a critical condition, is a leading figure of the UK arm of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and once likened the police to the Klu Klux Klan (KKK).

The incident is suspected to be the result of "gang violence ... or some type of dispute between two different groups," Ms Johnson's friends said on Monday.

The 27-year-old, who friends say had recently relocated to London from Oxford, was highly involved in the BLM movement last summer, which swept through the UK after the police killing of an unarmed blackman, George Floyd, in the US, exactly a year ago tomorrow, May 25.

Comment: See also: The 'Oxford Black Panther' behind Britain's first black-led political party vows to make white men 'our slaves'

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Eye 1

Michigan governor apologizes for social distancing blunder


My Northwest
Sun, 23 May 2021 23:34 UTC
Gretchen Whitmer
© AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
In this Oct. 16, 2020 file photo, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at Beech Woods Recreation Center, in Southfield, Mich. Whitmer and six other people who risked their own health and safety to help and protect others during the coronavirus pandemic will receive special Profile in Courage awards next month, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced Tuesday, May 4, 2021.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer apologized Sunday after apparently violating state-mandated social distancing guidelines at an East Lansing bar and grill.

It was the latest pandemic-related misstep for the Democratic governor, who waited weeks to disclose partial details of a private jet trip she took to visit her father in Florida after two of her top aides headed south as coronavirus cases surged in Michigan and residents were cautioned against traveling south for spring break.

A photo circulated on social media of Whitmer with a large group of unmasked people at an East Lansing bar-restaurant, The Landshark Bar & Grill, the Detroit Free Pres s reported Sunday. The Free Press reported that photo, which shows Whitmer seated with about a dozen, was posted on social media by one of the attendees, but later deleted.

"Throughout the pandemic, I've been committed to following public health protocols," Whitmer said in a statement Sunday. "Yesterday, I went with friends to a local restaurant. As more people arrived, the tables were pushed together. Because we were all vaccinated, we didn't stop to think about it. In retrospect, I should have thought about it. I am human. I made a mistake, and I apologize."

Comment: As has been demonstrated over and over again, the 'rules' don't apply to them. And when caught, they only need to pretend to be sorry while others take the fall (see story below).

-via Fox News:
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is facing a new round of questions about a much-criticized trip to Florida after revelations that the air travel company she chartered for the flight wasn't actually authorized to perform charter flights.

Whitmer has previously faced scrutiny over the March trip, which she initially lied about taking, and which came after she had cautioned Michigan residents against traveling out of state due to coronavirus concerns.

The Detroit Free Press raised new questions for Whitmer on Monday when the outlet published a report revealing Air Eagle, LLP - the air travel company that Whitmer chartered to visit her father in Florida - was not authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to give charter flights.

[...]

Retired FAA Inspector Larry Williams told the paper that aircraft owners are allowed to bus them and their friends around for free under a Part 91 certificate but that any other passenger required the Part 135 certification.

Williams also said the flight would be considered a charter and that the revelation was "pretty serious" - carrying with it civil penalties for the plane owners and the pilot - and that the FAA made putting down unauthorized charter flights one of their priorities.


How about some civil penalties for Whitmer?


[...]

Michigan Republican Party communications director Ted Goodman told Fox News on Monday that the report was "concerning," but "not surprising."

"This new bombshell that Whitmer's plane was not authorized to fly is concerning, yet not surprising," Goodman said in a statement. "For Whitmer, it's always been, rules for thee, but not for me."

In a Monday statement to Fox News, Republican Governors Association spokesperson Chris Gustafson argued that the governor's "appalling lack of transparency surrounding her secret unvaccinated vacation to Florida is inexcusable."


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Family

New York rescinds requirement for children to wear masks

Brendan J. Lyons
Times Union
Mon, 24 May 2021 19:25 UTC
Andrew Cuomo
© Timothy A. Clary/AP
Andrew Cuomo
Following days of protests, state officials say children over 2 will be 'encouraged' to wear masks

New York will "encourage" but not require children aged 2 and older to wear masks in child care settings such as summer camps following days of protests about the directive, including from county officials who pledged they would not enforce the mandate.

The state health department and the Office of Children and Family Services issued a joint statement late Monday saying they had agreed to "revise guidance allowing child care providers to continue the practices and protocols that have been in place since the start of the pandemic by encouraging, not requiring, children aged 2-5 to wear masks, effective immediately."

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin is among a multitude of county leaders who have issued public statements in recent days indicating they would buck the directive and urging the state to reconsider.

"Children have not been required to wear a mask during the first year of the pandemic, a move rooted and common sense and recognition of research showing children are less susceptible to COVID-19," McLaughlin wrote in a letter to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo earlier Monday. He added that children experience less severe symptoms of the infectious disease and that requiring them to wear masks, sometimes for up to nine hours per day, would be a hardship.
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Whistle

Project Veritas exposé: Facebook whistleblowers expose LEAKED INTERNAL DOCS detailing new effort to secretly censor vaccine concerns on a global scale


Project Veritas
Mon, 24 May 2021 00:48 UTC
Project Veritas vaccine Facebook
© Project Veritas
  • Two Facebook Insiders have come forward with internal company documents detailing a plan to curb "vaccine hesitancy" (VH) on a global scale.
  • The stated goal of this feature is to "drastically reduce user exposure" to VH comments. Another aim of the program is to force a "decrease in other engagement of VH comments including create, likes, reports [and] replies."
  • It was such a shocking revelation, that it moved not just one -- but two whistleblowers to come forward to Project Veritas, so the public could be made aware of this plan to stifle free speech.
  • One Facebook whistleblower said the company uses a tier system to determine how a comment should be censored or buried.
  • Comments that include "shocking stories" describing potentially or actually true events, or facts that can raise safety concerns" -- are demoted.
  • "True events or facts" that raise concern about Covid vaccinations are fair game to be demoted and hidden -- according to our source -- despite their authenticity or capacity to contribute to the public good.
  • "I have to do something," one of the Facebook insiders said.
  • Project Veritas reached out to a top Facebook Spokesperson about these documents and received only a brief and broad statement in reply, that failed to address our biggest questions regarding transparency.
  • "They're trying to control this content before it even makes it onto your page before you even see it," the other Facebook insider added. "If I lose my job, it's like, what do I do? But that's less of a concern to me."
Two Facebook Insiders have come forward to Project Veritas with leaked internal documents, showing the Big Tech giant's plan to police "Vaccine Hesitancy" (VH) through surreptitious "comment demotion."

The company has set up a tier system to rank comments on various scales, based on how much the statement questions or cautions against the Covid-19 vaccination.

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Light Saber

Cork, Ireland granny who refuses to wear mask in shops jailed for weekend after appearing in court unmasked (Update)

Ann Mooney
The Irish Sun
Fri, 21 May 2021 07:34 UTC
Margaret Buttimer
© The Irish Sun
Margaret Buttimer, of The Cottage, St Fintan's Road, Bandon, outside court.
A granny who refuses to wear a mask in shops has been jailed for the weekend.

Margaret Buttimer has appeared in court for a second time unmasked and was held in contempt by the judge who sent her to jail until Monday.

Despite efforts by her concerned family, her partner who wore a mask, the judge and her solicitor to persuade her to obey the law, Buttimer continues to ignore everyone and claimed she only answers to God.

The 66-year-old granny of The Cottage, St Fintan's Road, Bandon appeared before Bandon District Court after attending Clonakilty District Court earlier this week, charged with refusing to wear a mask at Dunnes Stores in the town on February 12 last. She was found guilty of the offence of not wearing a mask in breach of Covid-19 regulations.

Judge Colm Roberts was told that Buttimer abused the store manager when he asked her if there was a medical reason why she wasn't wearing a face covering.

She refused to answer the manager's questions before eventually telling him that she only answered to God.

Comment: Update:

Ms. Buttimer was fined for what she said to the store manager and was given a 3-week prison sentence which was suspended by the judge for two years.
Taking her lack of previous convictions and her age in to account, Judge Roberts imposed a three week prison sentence, which he suspended for a period of two years, and fined Buttimer €350 for verbally abusing the store manager, who she has apologised to.


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