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Passenger

Passenger's Journal
Passenger's Journal
August 29, 2021

Taliban cut Afghan man's body into pieces to 'show what they do with gay people'

Taliban cut Afghan man’s body into pieces to ‘show what they do with gay people’ (Pink News)

A gay man in Afghanistan has described how the Taliban killed his boyfriend and “cut his body into pieces” to “show what they do with gay people”.

The 26-year-old, going by the pseudonym of “Gabir” to protect his identity, told the i that he and his boyfriend were sitting in a restaurant together in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, when the city was seized by the Taliban on 15 August.

They both rushed back to their respective homes, and soon Gabir was unable to get hold of his partner as his phone signal and internet connection began to fail.

He said: “At 5 or 6 o’clock, my brother told me something has happened, that ‘you should contact your friends’. When I call my friends, everyone’s phone is off.”

Tragically, Gabir finally discovered from a friend that his boyfriend, who was just 24 years old, had been tracked down by the Taliban and killed.

“Two cars came, with Taliban in it,” he said.

“They said, ‘Where is his home?’ and beat him so much. They took him away – nobody knows where – and then they kill him.

“Afterwards they said they brought the body [back] and cut his body into pieces to show the people that this is what we do with gay people.”

Gabir and his boyfriend had been together for eight months after meeting at university, and had been planning to leave Afghanistan to get married.

...
August 28, 2021

NYPD's largest police union vows to sue over possible COVID vaccine mandate

NYPD’s largest police union vows to sue over possible COVID vaccine mandate (NY Post)

The Big Apple’s largest police union told its members Wednesday that it would sue the city if cops are required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, The Post has learned.

“If the City attempts to impose a vaccine mandate on PBA members, we will take legal action to defend our members’ right to make such personal medical decisions,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch wrote in an email.

The announcement comes on the heels of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement requiring all New York City school staffers to get the jab.

“As of this writing, the City has not indicated whether it will attempt to impose vaccine mandates on other city workers, including police officers,” Lynch added.

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August 23, 2021

Vladimir Putin says he's not allowing Afghan refugees into Russia (NY Post)

Vladimir Putin says he’s not allowing Afghan refugees into Russia (NY Post)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday his country won’t accept Afghan refugees because he doesn’t want to deal with “militants” masquerading as asylum-seekers.

The Russian strongman slammed Western nations for placing Afghan refugees in countries even near his border while their US and European visas are being processed.

“Does that mean that they can be sent without visas to those countries, to our neighbors, while they themselves don’t want to take them without visas?” Putin raged to the Russian TASS news agency. “Why is there such a humiliating approach to solving the problem?’

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Just a bit of posturing from the RW's favorite foreigner.
August 21, 2021

FBI Finds Scant Evidence U.S. Capitol Attack Was Coordinated-Sources (Reuters)

FBI Finds Scant Evidence U.S. Capitol Attack Was Coordinated-Sources (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials.

Though federal officials have arrested more than 570 alleged participants, the FBI at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump, according to the sources, who have been either directly involved in or briefed regularly on the wide-ranging investigations.

"Ninety to ninety-five percent of these are one-off cases," said a former senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. "Then you have five percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages."

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Note: Unnamed sources of course.
August 20, 2021

Jamaicans demand removal of LGBTQ pride flag from US embassy in Jamaica

Jamaicans demand removal of LGBTQ pride flag from US embassy in Jamaica

Concerned Jamaicans protested and demanded that the US Embassyin Kingston Jamaica, remove the LGBTQ Pride flag hoisted on its grounds. The group says it is not only goes against articles in the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, but is a form of cultural imperialism.

“Cultural Imperialism,” was the phrase on most of the placards broadly refers to the exercise of domination in cultural relationships. In such cases, the values, practices; and meaning of a powerful foreign culture are imposed upon one or more native cultures.

Phillipa Davies, Advocacy Officer at the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society says the Pride flag represents; life practices that threaten the Jamaican culture and the teachings of the Bible. She says it also affects the health of the society.

According to Cmtv, Protesters say they’ve been peacefully protesting that the flag be taken down since the day it was raised; but are shocked it remains on the flagpole up to Emancipendence week.

Efforts by local news outlets to contact the US Consulate and a member of the LGBTQ group; on Friday, August 6, proved futile. However, the protesters say they will continue to stand against the flying of the LGBTQ Pride flag; describing it as a symbol of disrespect on Jamaican soil.



August 19, 2021

Shocking 'Kabul Airport' video is actually from 2019 Dallas Cowboys game

Shocking ‘Kabul Airport’ video is actually from 2019 Dallas Cowboys game (NY Post)

A shocking video making the rounds on social media claims to show a panicked crowd rush into the terminal at Kabul airport after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban — but the footage was shot in Texas.

The footage posted by several Twitter users, including by @Conflict_Zones, is actually a clip of anxious fans rushing into AT&T Stadium in Arlington for a 2019 game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks, Newsweek said in a report Thursday.

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August 19, 2021

Texas: US court upholds ban of common abortion procedure

Texas: US court upholds ban of common abortion procedure (Deutsche Welle)

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas law on Wednesday that bans the most common abortion procedure used during second-trimester pregnancies.

A majority of the 14 judges sided with the 2017 Texas law, overturning an earlier decision by the same court to block it.

The legislation would stop doctors from the standard dilation and evacuation method which employs forceps to remove the fetus without the use of an injection or suction. Abortion activists say it outlaws the safest method for women in the second trimester to terminate a pregnancy.

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Back when the slogan "safe legal and rare" was coined, this was the procedure they were talking about.
August 18, 2021

Vaccination fraud.

Right wingers in the comments are laughing up a storm over this.
Do an internet search if you're a glutton for punishment like me.


August 15, 2021

NASA says Russian media allegations US astronaut drilled hole in ISS 'not credible'

NASA says Russian media allegations US astronaut drilled hole in ISS 'not credible'
Space Daily

The claims made by Russian media that NASA Astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor had a nervous breakdown and damaged a Russian spacecraft to get home are not credible, Kathy Lueders, who is leading NASA's human spaceflight program, said at a press conference on Friday.

Russia's TASS recently published a story, citing an unnamed source in the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, that claimed Aunon-Chancellor had an emotional breakdown in space and she made a microfracture in the Russian spacecraft to return early during a mission in 2018.

"Absolutely," Lueders said when asked whether NASA will defend its astronaut. "Our NASA crews perform their missions with professionalism and integrity. She [Aunon-Chancellor] is a well-respected crew member who has served her country and made a valuable contribution. I stand behind her and her professional conduct and I did not find this accusation credible."

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