September 7, 2021

Howard University cancels classes after ransomware attack (NBC)

Howard University cancels classes after ransomware attack (NBC)

Howard University, one of the largest historically Black schools in the United States, canceled classes Tuesday after a ransomware attack.

The attack shut down the campus Wi-Fi, and nonessential employees were instructed to not report to work, the university announced Monday. In-person classes will resume Wednesday, but online classes remain canceled until at least Thursday.

Ransomware attacks have become a scourge in recent years, and universities are common targets. Hackers have managed to infect at least 19 colleges and universities in 2021 alone, according to Allan Liska, an analyst at the cybersecurity company Recorded Future. In at least three other instances in the U.S. this year, schools had to cancel classes for at least one day.

Criminal hackers use ransomware to break into a victim's computer networks to lock up files on as many computers as possible and then ask for money for a code to restore them.

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September 7, 2021

Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion

Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion (NY Daily News)

Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that abortion is not a crime, declaring it unconstitutional to levy penalties around the medical procedure.

“This is a historic step for the rights of women,” Supreme Court Justice Luis Maria Aguilar told Reuters.

The ruling was in sharp contrast to neighboring Texas, whose law banning most abortions in the state went into effect last Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block it.

Texas law effectively outlaws abortions, sparking outrage from women and Democrats

Until now, in most of largely Catholic Mexico the only legal grounds for abortion was for pregnancy resulting from sexual violence, according to the Mexico City–based pro-choice advocacy group GIRE.

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Progress continues in the rest of the world.

September 5, 2021

Lithuanian president promises not to allow LGBT history to be taught in schools

Lithuanian president promises not to allow LGBT history to be taught in schools (Interfax)

Vilnius, September 2, Interfax/BNS - Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that he is against the demands of the organizers of the march of sexual minorities to allow homosexuals to adopt, as well as to teach the history of the LGBT community in schools.

"I'm against such requirements and I believe that they won't be implemented in Lithuania. As president, I will do everything in my power to ensure that such requirements are not implemented now," the head of state told reporters on Thursday.

He noted that for such changes it would be necessary to amend the Constitution.

Representatives of the LGBT community on Thursday handed to the chairman of the Seimas Victoria Chmilita-Nielsen a list of their demands of 14 points, including the requirement to ensure the right to marriage, partnership and adoption, regardless of gender; to give social guarantees and services to everyone, without discrimination based on family status; to legalize a "decent sex change"; to amend the Law on the Protection of Minors from the Negative Impact of the Media, on the basis of which information about sex minorities is censored.

The LGBT community demands to simplify the issuance of personal documents after a sex change, so that you do not need to go to court for this. The list also includes a requirement to ban conversion therapy, a practice aimed at changing sexual orientation.

More former Soviet homophobia.

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.

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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.