A new “Alien” television series, based on the classic extraterrestrial horror movie franchise, will be a “story about inequality,” according to its creator Noah Hawley, even though the movie series is mostly about humans dodging the carnivorous alien from Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic.
A Swedish police officer was shot and killed on Wednesday night while on duty in Sweden in what is a rare occurrence in Nordic countries.
The rookie police officer, 33, was shot during a patrol of the Gothenburg suburb Biskopsgarden, which has been plagued by gang violence in recent years.
Caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Lofven today expressed outrage at the murder, calling it an ‘attack on our open society’.
He was on patrol in a very vibrant neighborhood.
After three days of unrelenting heat, the people in the British Columbia village of Lytton were hoping for a modest respite.
Temperatures which had shattered longstanding national records – at one point reaching a blistering 49.6C (121.28F) – eased slightly on Wednesday, raising hopes that the worst was over.
But that same day, a wildfire tore through the settlement 153km (95 miles) north-east of Vancouver. It was moving so fast that officials didn’t even have time to issue evacuation orders.
BOOM: 17 injured after 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks causes explosion
Planned detonation of illegal fireworks goes wrong as it explodes inside a bomb squad truck leaving 17 injured pic.twitter.com/5osXTiWdaM
— The Sun (@TheSun) July 1, 2021
As Reuters reports, the city of Victoria, capital of British Columbia, has canceled the July 1 Canada Day celebration “after the discovery of unmarked graves of children at a now-defunct indigenous boarding school.” This “discovery” of more than 200 remains, reportedly by ground-penetrating radar, is the latest edition of a conspiracy theory charging a deliberate campaign of “genocide,” by Canada and its churches, with participants including the Queen of England.
Not happening in schools at all. https://t.co/8Klb2D1L2N
— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) July 1, 2021
Five years ago while on assignment, I was riding with a police officer in Philadelphia’s Kensington section when we saw a large all-terrain vehicle (ATV) drive onto the sidewalk. A crowd watched as the rider performed a series of wheelies and tricks. The carnival atmosphere of the scene attracted an additional ATV rider intent on outperforming the first performer. The officer stepped out of the squad car and quietly told the drivers not to block the sidewalk. As the officer left the scene, I saw both ATVs merge with traffic, presumably to restart their wheelies and tricks.
The scene prompted more questions than answers: ATVs are illegal for street use, so why did the officer chide them only for driving onto the sidewalk? The officer told me that the Philadelphia Police Department had instructed its officers to go easy on ATV and dirt-bike riders because it was “a culturally sensitive issue.” The underlying message: officers should not take direct action because that might be deemed “racist.”
Crazed ATV rider attacks SUV driver, throws concrete blocks at the window and pulls out a GUN after car bumped his mob of illegal bikers in Philadelphia- pic.twitter.com/IMfkL90IiC
— Blanche Victoria (@tammytabby) March 13, 2021
China will not allow itself to be bullied and those who try face ‘broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people’, President Xi Jinping said today in a thinly veiled swipe at the U.S.
Speaking at a mass gathering to mark the centenary of the ruling Communist Party, President Xi emphasised the party’s role in bringing China to global prominence and saying it would never be divided from the people.
Wearing a grey buttoned-up suit of the type worn by Mao Zedong, Xi spoke from the balcony of Tiananmen Gate as he bragged that China had restored ‘order’ in Hong Kong following anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous city in 2019.
Mmmm
Damage in the flight deck of #China's brand new #Shandong aircraft carrier#madeinchina products don't seem to last very long, particularly when they cut corners to speed up construction
China puts out navy ships like from a sausage machine, but they are unlikely to last long pic.twitter.com/uH6wAOIQZn
— Indo-Pacific News – Watching the CCP-China Threat (@IndoPac_Info) July 1, 2021
h/t Mauser
A monthly record number of reports of anti-Semitic incidents were recorded following the 11-day conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in May, a charity says. So how does it feel to be Jewish in the UK?
Rabbi Nicky Liss had been preparing to give a midnight talk at a north London synagogue last month, when he began to feel nervous.
A rabbi of 13 years, he was used to giving speeches. This one, to mark the start of the Jewish festival of Shavuot on 16 May, should not, on the face of it, have been any different.
But that afternoon, events built to what he describes as a “crescendo”.
“The Biden administration should understand that Ebrahim Raisi is an extremely dangerous man partially because, from his perspective, anyone who criticizes the Islamic Republic or protests against it is rising against God and his representatives on earth. Whatever his regime does is presumed to be fully justified and rewarded by God because the Islamic Republic is a divine political establishment and all its actions are enforcing God’s will on earth.”
The US learned that lesson in WW II fighting the emperor worshipping Japanese. Death in the “God’s” service was considered an honour by his soldiers. They have forgotten that.
Russia and China are coordinating military exercises to threaten not only Taiwan but also Hawaii, according to a senior Japanese defense official who warned the United States to beware of a Pearl Harbor-style surprise attack.
“We have to show the deterrence towards China, and not just China but also the Russians, because, as I told you, that they are doing their exercises together,” Japanese deputy Yasuhide Nakayama told the Hudson Institute this week.
Joe is OK with this so long as he gets his 10%.
h/t HJ
US woman charged with hate crime after wrongly accusing black teenager
Time magazine has taken more than $700,000 from China Daily for sponsored content
Time magazine failed to disclose Chinese government funding for content published in its most recent print edition.
The magazine’s June 21-28 double issue included an insert from China Daily, a media outlet controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Disclosures on the insert label it as an advertisement from China Daily in Beijing and note that additional “information is on file with the DOJ, Washington DC.” Chinese government funding for China Daily is not mentioned. China Daily registers with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law aimed at tracking foreign government influence.
Brand new Tesla Model S Plaid ‘drives up hill while ablaze’ just weeks after model with new battery went on market as two fire trucks take 3 hours to extinguish the flames
Fire fighters battled a burning Tesla Model S Plaid for three hours Wednesday night in a Philadelphia suburb.
The Gladwyne Fire Department responded to a call just before 9pm ET in Haverford, Pennsylvania, according to Electrek, which first reported on the incident.
‘Due to prior training classes on Tesla Vehicle Fire emergencies, Engine 24 laid a 5 inch supply line into the scene so that we could keep a continual water stream on the fire to extinguish the fire and cool the batteries down to ensure complete extinguishment,’ the Gladwyne Volunteer Fire Company shared in a Facebook post.
The Church of England’s first-ever transwoman priest has declared that “God is non-binary” and questioned whether He is “just genuinely like a guy?”
