The Taliban appear to have shut down the women’s affairs ministry and replaced it with a department that once enforced strict religious doctrines.
On Friday, the sign at the ministry was removed, and a sign for the ministry of virtue and vice put in its place.
Videos on social media showed women employees outside the offices, urging the Taliban to let them return to work.
During the Taliban rule in the 1990s, the ministry forced strict Islamic rules and harsh restrictions on women.
Justin Trudeau is facing harsh criticism from political rivals after Canada was excluded from a new international defence pact, days before the country votes in a federal election.
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United State on Wednesday announced a new intelligence sharing agreement meant to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Tories Accuse Trudeau of Calling Election to Cover Up Winnipeg Lab Collaboration With Chinese Military Scientist
The Conservatives are accusing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau of calling the election to cover up details of what happened at Canada’s only level 4 laboratory, where a Canadian government scientist reportedly collaborated with a high-ranking Chinese military officer.
“We now know why Justin Trudeau called this early $600-million election, risking the health of Canadians in the middle of a fourth wave of the pandemic: to prevent the release of the Winnipeg lab documents to Parliament, and cover up what happened at the Winnipeg lab,” said Conservative candidate Michael Chong, who is seeking re-election in Wellington-Halton Hills.
LONDON, ONT. — With three days left in the 2021 federal election campaign and polling suggesting a Liberal win maybe the most likely outcome, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole was laser-focused on one message Friday: a vote for any party other than his is a vote for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.
“There’s a lot at stake in this election. Justin Trudeau wants you to stay at home on election day. He wants you to vote for smaller parties,” O’Toole said at a London, Ont. campaign stop on Friday afternoon.
More… A vote for the People’s Party is like a vote for the Liberals, O’Toole says
There are 821 new cases of #COVID19. 621 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 200 are in fully vaccinated individuals.
Today’s numbers will be available at 10:30 a.m. at https://t.co/ypmgZbVRvn.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) September 18, 2021
U.S. FDA advisers recommend COVID-19 boosters for older adults after rejecting broad approval
A panel of expert outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted on Friday to recommend COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for Americans 65 and older and those at high risk of severe illness, after overwhelmingly rejecting a call for broader approval.
The panel also recommended that the FDA include healthcare workers and others at high risk of occupational exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19, such as teachers.
Douglas MacArthur was one the nation’s greatest generals. In his time, there was no more revered, lauded, and beloved military figure. He graduated first in his class at West Point, where, after service in WWI, he served as its superintendent. During WWII, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army in 1944 and given command of all Army forces in the Pacific. On September 2, 1945, it was MacArthur who accepted Japan’s unconditional surrender, ending the war. Following the surrender, he served as the military governor of Japan, helping to usher in a modern government and economy. When North Korea invaded South Korea, in June 1950, it was MacArthur whom Truman put in command of the U.N. forces to repel the invasion and prevent South Korea from falling to communism. It was a no-brainer.
If only our “experts” had listened to his prophetic warnings.
Many Western observers “have ignored the very real accomplishments and popular acceptance of the Taliban government in Afghanistan,” then-CIA analyst Michael Scheuer wrote anonymously in 2002. His previously-analyzed book, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, contains sobering analysis, which foresaw the failure of American-led nation-building efforts in Afghanistan 20 years later.
Scheuer had focused on Afghanistan while tracking Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as head of the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit in the years before and after September 11, 2001. Although since his 2004 retirement from the CIA he has exposed himself as an anti-Israel, conspiracy-mongering crank, his 2002 writings about attempts to liberalize Afghanistan were highly thought-provoking. Already at the time he had criticized that the “Afghan war, then, is an opportunity for social work of international scope, not an opportunity to destroy al Qaeda.”
An absolute crank but he read Afghanistan right.
When I think about the West’s project to liberate Afghan women, my mind conjures a line from T.S. Eliot: “The last temptation is the greatest treason/to do the right deed for the wrong reason.” In Afghanistan, we engaged in a twenty-year, deliciously self-righteous, tragically ill-designed mission best expressed by flipping that sentence.
We did the wrong thing, perhaps for the right reason. We wanted to develop that country and rescue Afghan women. Their lives were hellish, girls banned from school, women forbidden to leave their homes except in the company of a male guardian, vigilantes beating them with sticks if their burqa was too short. We wanted them to enjoy the pleasures of modernity and live full, happy lives.
Start rubbing the Malala Totem that’ll fix it!
Tensions were already building in the Indo-Pacific.
The Indo-Pacific region has emerged as the global hub for wealth creation and innovation since China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001. Since then, there have been plenty of geopolitical disputes in the area. Yet even in this tense context, we were all taken by surprise on Wednesday with the launch of Aukus, a new security pact linking Australia, the UK and US.
A Wall Street Journal story earlier this month explained how a generation of young men is abandoning college.
America’s universities now enroll roughly three women for every two men, the largest gender gap in the history of higher education, and it’s getting even wider.
In 2019, the Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) division of Stanford University’s Student Affairs department launched a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training program with a mandate to instruct students about institutional racism. Instead, the program provided a case study of how radicalized forms of social-justice indoctrination can fuel antisemitism.
Earlier this year, Dr Ron Albucher, a Stanford psychiatrist and a former CAPS director, along with his colleague Sheila Levin, an eating-disorder specialist in the same department, filed complaints with federal and state civil-rights agencies regarding what they alleged to be “severe and persistent anti-Jewish harassment.” “Unfortunately, what we found was that the very program meant to help build an inclusive environment for all members of the Stanford community was, in fact, perpetrating the invidious discrimination it sought to eliminate,” wrote the complainants in an open letter published by the Stanford Daily last month.
Out in Santa Cruz County, California, the Board of Supervisors has passed a new municipal ordinance involving 911 calls. They want residents to know that they are free to call the emergency services line if they see something suspicious, but if it involves a person of color, the caller may wind up getting hit with a fine of up to $1,000.
If he doesn’t believe in his platform, why believe in him?
Want to know why Stephen Harper won three elections (even though two were just won minorities) and Erin O’Toole likely will not win this one?
It’s because, when the liberal establishment — political and media — squawked about some right-of-centre Conservative policy, Harper stood his ground. He ignored the liberal carping and whinging and paid voters the respect of explaining why his ideas would work.
The “We let the CBC tell us how to be the good conservatives party”
Beijing’s Money and Technology Is Fueling Repression Worldwide
… China’s international efforts to subvert democracy fall into three broad categories. The first includes its attempts to shape the narrative about China in developed countries. In nations ranging from Canada and Germany to Australia and Japan, Beijing aims to silence critics of China and amplify the voices of individuals and institutions that promote closer ties with Beijing or a more positive portrayal of China. Beijing wields both threats and inducements to this end, rewarding positive portrayals and punishing criticism. As the Chinese ambassador to Sweden admitted in 2019, “We treat our friends with fine wine, but for our enemies we have shotguns.”
OTTAWA—The Conservative campaign is making a last-minute appeal for more volunteers as the federal election heads into a crucial weekend for mobilizing supporters and getting out the vote.
But senior party sources are concerned about an “enthusiasm gap” among the party faithful, particularly in the GTA, that could cost the Conservatives in tight riding contests.
“I certainly see a lack of enthusiasm amongst the people I talk to,” said one Tory source, discussing the situation on the condition they not be identified.
It is the Star so take it with a grain or three of Salt.
