Tag: ESTONIA

GUILTY: Top Advisor to Pope Convicted of Child Sex Abuse

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Cardinal George Pell is the highest level Catholic official ever to be convicted of sex abuse.

The highest-level Catholic official ever to be charged with child sex crimes was convicted on Monday in Melbourne, Australia.

“Cardinal George Pell is Pope Francis’ top financial adviser and the Vatican’s economy minister. He bowed his head as a jury delivered unanimous verdicts in the Victoria state County Court on Dec. 11 after more than two days of deliberation,” according to AP.

Pell molested two choirboys.

The convicted Cardinal is 77-years-old and faces up to 50 years in prison, the report said. He is expected to appeal the ruling.

“The jury convicted Pell of abusing two 13-year-old boys whom he had caught swigging sacramental wine in a rear room of Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996 when he was archbishop,” according to the report.

The Catholic Church has long been embroiled in child sex abuse scandals, which have intensified over the past year. Fourteen states attorneys general have demanded internal documents pertaining to child sex abuse from all of the Catholic dioceses within their states. In December, the attorney general of Illinois found that 500 priests had been accused of sex abuse, but never reported.

In a summit held by Pope Francis over the weekend, he vowed to confront abuserswith “the wrath of God,” and called sex abuse a “brazen, aggressive and destructive evil.”

“If in the Church there should emerge even a single case of abuse – which already in itself represents an atrocity – that case will be faced with the utmost seriousness,” he said. “Indeed, in people’s justified anger, the church sees the reflection of the wrath of God, betrayed and insulted by these deceitful consecrated persons.”

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GAY MUSLIM MIGRANT WHO TRIVIALIZED TERROR ATTACKS TO REPRESENT FRANCE AT EUROVISION

Gay Muslim Migrant Who Trivialized Terror Attacks to Represent France at Eurovision

Another stunning victory for “diversity”

 | Infowars.com – FEBRUARY 25, 2019

A gender-bending gay Muslim migrant who trivialized terror attacks that killed 300 people over the last few years is to represent France at this year’s Eurovision song contest.

The choice of 19-year-old Bilal Hassani to perform his song “Roi” at the annual music competition is being hailed as a victory for “diversity” because Hassani wears feminine wigs, is homosexual, a Muslim and has Moroccan migrant parents.

However, he has come under scrutiny due to previous tweets and videos in which he supported anti-Semitism and joked about jihadist terror attacks on France.

In a 2014 tweet Hassani defended comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bal, a convicted anti-Semite. He has also repeatedly accused Israel of war crimes, a factor that might not help him as Eurovision is being held in Tel Aviv this year.

According to the Times of Israel, a video also “surfaced in which Hassani and two friends declare “France suffered a lot, attacks here, attacks there. Oooh!” to hoots of laughter.”

130 people were killed during the Paris massacre in November 2015, while a further 86 were killed in Nice the following July when a 19-tonne cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds of people by an Islamic terrorist.

A Republican senator wrote a letter to Eurovision organizers demanding they withdraw Hassani’s nomination for “trivializing” the jihadist attacks.

However, Hassani claims that the criticism all stems from his sexuality and his migrant background.

“It bothers some people a lot that my parents were born in Morocco and that I’m gay. There’s no denying that,” he told Le Parisien, adding that the insults made him “even more determined to respond to the haters.”

What Hassani thinks about the fact that gay people are still routinely incarcerated, tortured and in some cases executed in some Muslim countries and how this is compatible with his faith is not known.

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MALE RUNNERS CONTINUE DOMINATING GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL TRACK IN CONNECTICUT

By Peter Hasson

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Two male runners are continuing to dominate high school girls’ track in Connecticut.

High school juniors Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood took first and second place in the state open indoor track championships Feb. 16, The Associated Press noted in a report Sunday. Both Miller and Yearwood are biological males who identify as transgender girls.

One of their competitors, high school junior Selina Soule, told the AP it was unfair to force female runners to compete against male runners.

“We all know the outcome of the race before it even starts; it’s demoralizing,” said Soule. “I fully support and am happy for these athletes for being true to themselves. They should have the right to express themselves in school, but athletics have always had extra rules to keep the competition fair.”

Miller is the third-fastest runner in the country in the girls’ 55-meter dash. Yearwood is close behind, tied for seventh nationally.

Miller and Yearwood’s success is just the latest instance of male athletes, who identify as transgender, excelling in women’s sports. (RELATED: Democratic Congresswoman Calls It A ‘Myth’ That Transgender Athletes Have ‘Direct Competitive Advantage’ In Women’s Sports)

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Miller and Yearwood easily outpaced female runners in the state in 2018 as well, when both were sophomores.

A sympathetic segment on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in June 2018 described the two runners as “dominating the competition” at the outdoor state championships earlier that month.

In that interview, Miller argued that female runners should work harder, rather than complaining about unfairness, when forced to compete against male athletes who identify as transgender.

WATCH: 

Yearwood acknowledged being stronger than female runners to the AP, but compared it to advantages other athletes might have from perfecting their form or doing extra training sessions.

“One high jumper could be taller and have longer legs than another, but the other could have perfect form, and then do better,” Yearwood told the AP. “One sprinter could have parents who spend so much money on personal training for their child, which in turn, would cause that child to run faster.”

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Rage and puzzlement over Muslim woman in hijab chosen for Swedish municipality’s welcome sign

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A Swedish municipality is facing backlash after selecting a local Muslim woman wearing a headscarf to be the ‘poster girl’ for its roadside ‘welcome’ sign. Her past ties to a controversial local imam were also discovered.

The municipality said it was a gesture celebrating the diversity of its community, which counts over 100,000 people of various origins and cultures. But some saw it as a signal of support for suppressing women’s freedoms.

“One should think what this is signaling. Some indeed use this garment, the hijab, voluntarily. But not everyone. This a garment that for millions of women around the world represents a lack of freedom,” said Sweden Democrats MP Roger Hedlund, a member of the municipality council, as quoted by the news website Nyheter Idag.

The Sweden Democrats party has an anti-immigration platform and currently holds 62 seats in the 349-seat Swedish parliament. Samhallsnytt, an online publication reportedly close to the party, was quick to dig Hindi’s past ties to a controversial local imam, who was accused of preaching radical ideas and collecting money for terrorists in Iraq and Syria.

Indeed, in 2009 the woman, who called herself Nizam Hindi at the time, was featured in a story by the left-leaning tabloid Arbetarbladet about the opening of a mosque in Gavle. She explained how having their own prayer house was good for the Swedish municipality’s Muslim community, how aid from Saudi Arabia and Qatar helped to buy and furnish the building, and how listening to the imam is important during the prayer.

The Al-rashideen mosque and its imam, Abu Raad, were involved in a scandal a few years ago, after the leading local newspaper Gefle Dagblad accused him of spreading radical Salafist ideas and collecting money for terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq.

The editor-in-chef received death threats over the criticism. The man who issued the threats was sentenced to two months in jail.

It was not immediately clear whether Hindi is still associated with the mosque.

Gavle itself was the scene of a national scandal in Sweden two years ago, when six people were tried for the abduction and murder of 23-year-old Afghan man Ramin Sherzaj over an extramarital affair. Five received life sentences for the crime, while one got a 14-year jail term.

The woman involved in the affair, who was a relative of the defendants, left her husband for a brief relationship with Sherzaj. It apparently ended badly, since the man then sent photos of him kissing the woman to her husband’s family members. This led to them banding together to carry out the honor killing.

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Iran Navy Begins “Massive Drill” Stretching Across World’s Key Oil Chokepoints

By Tyler Durden

Iran’s navy has begun a three day war game exercise on Friday in the Persian Gulf, in an expansive area encompassing Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, to the Sea of Oman and even stretching to northern parts of the Indian Ocean, state media reports. Some reports indicate the games could go on for as much as a week, but all emphasized the “large-scale” nature of the drills in which Iran’s navy will showcase the Fateh-class submarine — a domestically built sub carrying cruise missiles and torpedoes, as well as its Sahand destroyer.

The cruise missile-firing capable Fateh, or “Conqueror”, was launched for the first time at the start of this week and has been touted as “state-of-the-art” and with the ability to stay underwater for five weeks at a time. Crucially, the large exercises come after last week’s US-sponsored Warsaw conference in which both Israeli and US officials made threats of war with Tehran. Indeed during the conference Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu openly stated that he was attending the summit with an aim to “advance the common interest of war with Iran.”

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The games also come at a time when even foreign policy establishment insiders, such as the Council on Foreign Relation’s Steven Cook, increasingly acknowledge that the White House’s “march to war against Iran” is now “echoing the drumbeats” of the lead up to the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Writing in Foreign Policy, Cook warns:

Taken together—the Warsaw conference, Pence’s bullying of the Europeans, Bolton’s threatening video, and the broader background noise in Washington—the events of the past week were familiar in a foreboding way. The chatter about Iran has not become the war fever that gripped Washington in 2002 over Iraq, but the echoes of that year are not hard to miss in the Trump administration’s effort to shape the domestic and international debate about Iran.

Iran’s drills in the coming days will further involve battleship exercises and amphibious and anti-amphibious warfare maneuvers, according to Iranian military statements.

Though there’s general agreement that Iran’s navy poses no match of US superiority on the sea and in the skies, Iran seeks to be a significant disruptor of American Persian Gulf capabilities.

Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, commander of Iran’s navy, reflected this in comments announcing the inauguration of the games: “For the first time, these weapons will be tested seriously and we can make the maritime region unsafe for the enemy in any way possible,” he said. He said the games, formally called “Velayat 97,” will begin 2km from the Strait of Hormuz and extend 10 degrees north of the Indian Ocean, in an extended zone some analysts worry may indicate broader intentions regarding Oman and Yemen. 

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As the Jerusalem Post summarizes of this concern, “In Yemen Iran has supported the Houthi rebels who have used Iranian technology to target Saudi Arabia with ballistic missiles.” And recently, “In addition Oman enjoys decent relations with Iran but Oman also hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year and has sought to play a role in the Israel-Palestinian peace efforts.”

In the past, Iranian war games have resulted in close encounters with US warships traversing parts of the Persian Gulf. But this somewhat “routine” occurrence could potentially spark a major incident considering the high level of aggressive rhetoric coming out of Washington at this time.
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DRUGS MADE HIM DO IT? SEASON FINALE CLIFFHANGER

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By Don Babwin

CHICAGO (AP) — Actor Jussie Smollett‘s character on “Empire” will be removed from the final two episodes of this season in the wake of his arrest on charges that he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself last month in downtown Chicago, producers of the Fox TV show announced Friday.

In this courtroom sketch,
This Feb. 21, 2019 photo released by the Chicago Police Department shows Jussie Smollett. Police say the
FILE - In this May 14, 2018 file photo, Jussie Smollett, a cast member in the TV series

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The announcement came a day after Smollett turned himself in to police, appeared in court on a felony charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report, and left jail after posting bond.

“While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays,” ”Empire” executive producers Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer said in a written statement. “We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”

“Empire” has nine episodes left to air in its fifth season; the last two episodes are still being worked on.

Smollett, who is black and gay, plays a gay character on the show that follows a black family as they navigate the ups and downs of the recording industry.

Police said Smollett planned the hoax because he was unhappy with his salary and wanted to promote his career. Before the attack, he also sent a letter that threatened him to the Chicago studio where “Empire” is shot, police said.

As authorities laid out their case against Smollett, the narrative that emerged Thursday sounded like that of a filmmaker who wrote, cast, directed and starred in a short movie.

Prosecutors said Smollett gave detailed instructions to the accomplices who helped him stage the attack in January, including telling them specific slurs to yell, urging them to shout “MAGA country” and even pointing out a surveillance camera that he thought would record the beating.

“I believe Mr. Smollett wanted it on camera,” police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters at a Thursday morning news conference. “But unfortunately that particular camera wasn’t pointed in that direction.”

Smollett’s legal team issued a statement Thursday night, calling the actor a “man of impeccable character and integrity who fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence.” The statement called Johnson’s news conference “an organized law enforcement spectacle.”

“The presumption of innocence, a bedrock in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr. Smollett,” the statement read.

Smollett is earning more than $100,000 per episode, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because salary details were involved. The studio declined to comment on the actor’s salary.

As is customary with a successful TV series, regular cast members on “Empire” received a boost in pay as part of contract extensions that followed the drama’s renewal for a second season, the person said.

Smollett is counted among the series regulars.

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AP Television Writer Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Opinion: It’s 2019, And Gay People Are Still Being Forced To Attack Themselves In The Streets

By The Babylon Bee

The year is 2019. You’d think we’d be living in a progressive paradise by now, with energy-efficient trains crisscrossing the idyllic countryside, everyone being accepted for who they are—gay, bi, straight, or polygamous—and all people having equal access to free government breadlines.

But no. In the actual year 2019 that Trump has created, gay people are still being forced to attack themselves in the streets. Gay people, especially black gay people, have been so brainwashed by the messaging of Trump’s America that they are now hiring people to oppress them right out in the open.

This isn’t some third-world country where this is happening. This isn’t in some dystopian young adult fiction, where I get most of my political ideas. It’s here. It’s now. Every day, a gay person somewhere in this country hires a couple of Nigerian guys to make it look like he’s hated and oppressed.

We need to take a good, hard look in the mirror, America, and ask ourselves if this is who we want to be. We have allowed an evil movement of Trump supporters to take over our nation so effectively that we’re now paying people to dress up like them and beat us up. This won’t stand any longer. The time has come to say, “No more!”

May we look back a year from now and be able to declare proudly that the year is 2020 and the LGBT community is no longer compelled to pay people to oppress them. We owe it to our future, more progressive selves.

 

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Major advertisers jump ship as YouTube hit with ‘softcore child porn’ scandal

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YouTube is in damage-control mode after several large companies, including Disney, Nestlé, McDonalds and Epic Games, pulled ads in response to a report accusing the platform of harboring a pedophile ring hiding in plain sight.

Multiple major corporations have temporarily suspended all YouTube advertising after learning their ads were playing before videos featuring minors as young as five performing sexualized versions of everyday activities. The advertisers were informed by Wired on Wednesday that their ads were playing before videos similar to the clips highlighted in blogger Matt Watson’s video exposé, posted earlier this week. Most responded with shock.

“We’re absolutely horrified and have reached out to YouTube to rectify this immediately,” a spokesperson from advertiser Grammarly told Wired, while a World Business Forum spokesperson declared it “repulsive that pedophiles are using YouTube for their criminal activities.”

Watson’s report, which has been viewed nearly two million times, revealed comment sections packed with hundreds, even thousands of users sharing time-stamps of their favorite moments – usually catching the girls in especially compromising positions – and their contacts on encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, which recently endured its own child porn scandal. Watch one video, Watson claimed, and YouTube’s recommendation algorithm leads you down a pedophilic rabbit-hole. Some of the clips have millions of views.

“We took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to authorities and disabling violative comments,” YouTube told Bloomberg in an email after several major advertisers had already “paused” their ad campaigns upon learning their videos were associated with the offending content. A YouTube spokesperson claimed less than $8,000 had been spent on the videos in the last 60 days and promised to refund the money.

YouTube also released an updated “Community Guidelines” policy on Tuesday, promising “consistent penalties” for breaking the platform’s rules and a detailed explanation of what kind of content actually breaks those rules.

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Jussie Smollett Offered Job At CNN After Fabricating News Story Out Of Thin Air

By The Babylon Bee

ATLANTA, GA—While Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been having a tough week so far, there appears to be a silver lining: cable news channel CNN has offered Smollett a job as an investigative reporter and on-air anchor after witnessing his skills at fabricating a story entirely out of thin air.

CNN producers were reportedly impressed throughout the ongoing saga of Smollett’s apparent hoax attack on himself. They realized early on the facts didn’t add up but were fascinated with how well the actor kept the narrative going. An HR rep quickly reached out to Smollett to see if he’d be interested in taking on a position at the news organization after news broke that the entire thing was probably fabricated.

“Smollett has exactly the kind of skills we look for at our fine organization,” said CNN correspondent Brian Stelter. “He picked a narrative, made up all the relevant facts and details, and stuck with his story in spite of glaring holes in the plot. It’s hard to find people who understand our core values here at CNN, but Smollett seems to be just the guy for us.”

The actor has accepted the offer and is now undergoing training to learn how to weave even more intricate narratives ex nihilo, according to insiders.

 

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Ooops! Google admits it forgot to tell users about its hidden spy microphone

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All-powerful tech giant Google has apologized for forgetting to tell users that it’s Nest Secure home security system had a built-in microphone. Nothing to see here, guys!

Google’s Nest Secure system allows users to connect dozens of motion detectors, magnetic door alarms and security cameras to a centralized control unit. The unit monitors the user’s home, sending alerts if anything is amiss. Its initial tech specifications mentioned nothing about the potential spy devices hidden inside.

Naturally, Google caused a stir when it announced earlier this month that owners could use their Nest Secure hub to ask Google Assistant questions like “activate my alarm,” “do I need an umbrella today?,” or “are you spying on my every move?”

Even after announcing the Google Assistant integration, the company didn’t mention the hidden microphone. Only after an outcry from suspicious users and privacy advocates did Google admit that, yes, Nest Secure had a built-in microphone all along, and no, it’s not a big deal.

“The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs. That was an error on our part. The microphone has never been on and is only activated when users specifically enable the option,”Google said.

The tech giant has since amended the device’s tech specs to include the mic. However, privacy advocates and those afraid of inviting Big Brother into their bedrooms weren’t buying Google’s explanation.

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Even if neglecting to tell users about the microphone before enabling it with an online update were somehow totally cool, who would trust Google with that kind of access to their homes?

After all, this is the same Google whose Street View cars “accidentally” stored data from WiFi networks they drove past between 2007 and 2010. It’s also the same Google whose sister company installed thousands of free WiFi kiosks throughout New York City that potentially tracked users’ movements; and the same Google that uses facial recognitiontech on users without consent.

Perhaps most terrifying is an internal video leaked from Google last year, describing a future in which Google hoards user data and uses it to push those users towards behavior that “reflects Google’s values.”

Google claimed the video –which the public was never intended to see– was designed to “provoke discussion and debate,” and was “not related to any current or future products.”  

But they were totally going to tell you about the microphone some day, swear.

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