I’ll bet you a box of donuts that you didn’t see that headline coming, did you? And yet this isn’t some piece of satire, but actual news from the United States Congress. For quite a while now, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has been stalled in the Senate as some of the members battled over various pet amendments they wanted to see included or rejected.
Toronto Mayor John Tory is defending a series of tweets in which he described a judge’s decision to grant bail to the man charged in the death of a plainclothes police constable earlier this year as “questionable,” amid a complaint filed against him at the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.
On Monday, the Law Union of Ontario’s policing committee announced it had filed a complaint with the quasi-judicial oversight agency over Tory’s comments on the decision by Superior Court Justice Jill Copeland to grant bail to Umar Zameer. The union is a voluntary organization of approximately 200 lawyers, legal workers and law students, whose policing committee monitors decisions about policing and oversight, as well as advocates for reforms.
This case keeps getting weirder.
To show support for the BIPOC community, white people shouldn’t have babies. Totally normal stuff pic.twitter.com/sBQRST5pqe
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) December 7, 2021
The terrible twins of the French far right vilify each other in public. But they need one another.
PARIS — The proposal of far-right nuptials came unprompted, as Marine Le Pen was touring a fair in the town of Vesoul, near National Rally heartlands in eastern France.
“If you could marry Eric …” a supporter cheekily suggested.
Le Pen laughed, then grimaced at the idea of tying the knot with far-right TV pundit-turned-candidate Eric Zemmour.
The National Rally leader has little immediate appetite for such an arranged marriage, but it’s a political match that would trigger alarm among the other runners in April’s presidential election. Together, she and Zemmour would win a third of the electorate, according to POLITICO’s poll of polls.
If they don’t join forces, they could scupper each other’s hopes. In the French political system, the two candidates with the most votes in the first round of voting face off in a run-off. Both Zemmour and Le Pen run the risk of splitting the far-right vote and canceling each other out.
Protecting Prince Harry and his family during visits to Canada cost Canadian taxpayers more than $334,000 over a period of less than four years, CBC News has learned.
Records obtained by CBC News from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under the Access to Information Act show that security related to Harry’s visits between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018 cost taxpayers $182,430. That sum covered things like overtime and travel costs but not the salaries of police officers.
“Western hegemony is over,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently. “It lasted centuries, but it is over”.
At the same time, the mosques of Cologne, the fourth-largest city in Germany, have obtained permission to broadcast the call to prayer every Friday over minaret loudspeakers.
“Many residents of Cologne are Muslims,” said Mayor Henriette Reker, “and in my opinion it is a sign of respect to allow the call of the muezzin.”
The mayor of a Spanish village whose former name was an ugly reminder of the country’s medieval persecution of its Jewish population has vowed to carry on with plans for a Sephardic memory centre despite an antisemitic graffiti attack this week.
Seven years ago, the 52 eligible residents of Castrillo Matajudíos – Camp Kill Jews in English, voted in a referendum to change the village’s name back to Castrillo Mota de Judíos, which means Jews’ Hill Camp.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi authorities have conducted their biggest-ever crackdown on camel beauty contestants that received Botox injections and other artificial touch-ups, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday, with over 40 camels disqualified from the annual pageant.
Saudi Arabia’s popular King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which kicked off earlier this month, invites the breeders of the most beautiful camels to compete for some $66 million in prize money. Botox injections, face lifts and other cosmetic alterations to make the camels more attractive are strictly prohibited. Jurors decide the winner based on the shape of the camels’ heads, necks, humps, dress and postures.
People will probably need coronavirus booster jabs “for a number of years to come”, a Pfizer boss has said.
Ben Osborn, country manager for the pharmaceutical firm in the UK, said it is still unknown whether they will be required every six months or annually.
Speaking after a day of swirling controversy over an allegedly lockdown-busting Christmas party at Downing Street, UK PM Boris Johnson has introduced vaccine passports for England and has extended a number of other measures, potentially pointing to an imperilled Christmas for the second year in a row.
Antifa’s fortunes have faded.
After beating up reporters covering their riots, attacking police officers who try to stop them from rioting throughout the United States, assassinating a Trump supporter, looting, and firebombing, Antifa thugs are finally being charged for their hate crimes by one city. One.
Not since Rumpelstiltskin has a mischievous troll spent so much time and energy spinning as Jussie Smollett did on the stand the last couple of days. But instead of spinning straw into gold, Smollett spent eight hours trying to churn what the New York Times used to call a barnyard epithet into a Frappuccino. We’ll see if the jury is interested in drinking what Smollett is putting out.
It is a country where so-called “dead churches”, can be viewed and purchased on the Internet, Even a synagogue became a mosque.
The Catholic Church in the Netherlands has entered such an unstoppable spiral, according to research by the Trouw newspaper, that eight out of ten parishes are in the red and will have to be closed.
From 1970 to 2008, 400 Catholic churches were demolished or converted. Since then, the rate has accelerated dramatically. Two churches, on average, close every week. One fifth of all the churches in Holland have already been converted.
Holland still has six thousand churches. Up to 80 percent of these will lose their religious function in the coming years. There is a shortage of money and faithful and demolition is looming.
US President Joe Biden has said that putting American troops on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion is “not on the table”.
But Mr Biden warned of severe consequences if Russia did invade.
He was speaking a day after two hours of talks by video link with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
‘Speak Loudly And Carry A Small Stick’: Republicans Blast Biden’s Response To Putin’s Escalation In Ukraine
Republicans blasted President Joe Biden’s efforts to prevent a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine as “weak” and “embarrassing” hours after Biden held a call Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Republicans from all corners of the party criticized Biden after he only threatened an economic response should Russia move forward with an invasion of Ukraine. Both White House press secretary Jen Psaki and national security adviser Jake Sullivan refused to state whether the U.S. or NATO would be willing to take direct military action to defend Ukraine.
“If you find what you are reading difficult to believe—that is because it is dystopian for the government to give Pfizer billions, mandate Americans to take its product, prohibit Americans from suing for harms, but yet refuse to let Americans see the data underlying its licensure,” Siri said.
