Ireland is hoping to bring in health warnings on alcoholic drinks, including wine bottles, similar to those on cigarette packets within two or three months after getting the all-clear from the European Commission for its controversial plan, an Irish government official has said. Italy and other wine-making countries such as France and Spain are staunchly opposed to the labels, which warn of links to cancer and harm for the liver due to excessive consumption. Claire Gordon, manager of the tobacco and alcohol control unit at the Irish Department of Health, told Euractiv that Dublin was “very grateful and indeed somewhat surprised” that the EU had given the green light to the plan. “Clearly what we’re doing is a breach of the single market in some way, in the sense that we’re looking for extra changes to a product compared to the way it’s sold in other countries,” she said. “Hopefully within two to three months, we’ll be able to kick off this law and then the next thing is for everybody else to follow”. Gordon said notifying the World Trade Organisation (WTO) about the label plan would be among the next steps.
Although a Democrat is currently calling the shots in the White House, resistance to gender madness and other “woke” oddities is growing in the US. In Arkansas, Republican Representative Mary Bentley introduced a bill that would require transgender students in public schools to use bathrooms, locker rooms, or showers that strictly match their biological sex.
“Each child in our schools has a right to privacy and to feel safe and to feel comfortable in the bathroom they need to go to,” Bentley said. The Arkansas House approved legislation last week preventing transgender people at public schools from using bathrooms that match their “gender identity”, while a legislative panel endorsed a measure restricting drag queen appearances in public spaces.
The bill will now go to the majority-Republican Senate. Similar laws have been voted in Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Their bill stated that gender meant the physical condition of being male or female “based on genetics and physiology”. Public education should rely on a student’s sex “as recorded on their original birth certificate issued at the time of their birth or shortly after their birth”.
Some 15 percent of school principals who defy the proposed orders, could see pay cuts.
The US state of Arkansas is firmly in Republican hands. Former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been governor since January 2023.
Scotland’s green-obsessed left-separatist government has been left with egg on its face by revelations that dozens of gigantic onshore wind turbines are having to be hooked up to diesel generators, leaking thousands of litres of hydraulic oil into the countryside.
Scottish Power — led by a Spaniard, Ignacio Galan, and actually a subsidiary of Spanish firm Iberdrola — conceded that some 71 of its turbines had to be hooked up to diesel generators to keep them warm in December, according to the Sunday Mail, with a whistleblower telling the left-leaning newspaper that problems with the turbines are deep-seated.
“During December 60 turbines at Arecleoch and 11 at Glenn App were de-energised due to a cabling fault… In order to get these turbines re-energised diesel generators were running for upwards of six hours a day,” they revealed.
“Turbines are regularly offline due to faults where they are taking energy from the grid rather than producing it, and also left operating on half power for long periods due to parts which haven’t been replaced,” they continued.
“Dirty hydraulic oil is also regularly being sprayed out across the Scottish countryside due to cracks in mechanisms. Safety standards have not improved since a worker was killed in 2017 at Kilgallioch wind farm.”
Indeed, the Record went on to say that some 4,000 litres (over 1,000 U.S. gallons) of leaking hydraulic oil was “sprayed over the countryside” by the turbines — a less than environmentally-friendly impact.
“The Scottish Government wants to make our country attractive to foreign investors as 40 per cent of the wind that blows across Europe blows across Scotland. However, that should not mean we put up with our waterways and nature being polluted with carbon from diesel generators and hydraulic oil,” the whistleblower complained to the Mail, evidently a true believer in the climate change agenda.
“People should be aware that, while their energy costs continue to rise, our windfarms are not operating as efficiently as they could be due to corporate greed,” they added — possibly a reference to things like the reported £11 million Scottish Power’s Spanish chairman raked in in 2021, as regular Scots were being crushed beneath sharply rising energy bills.
Indeed, Richard Tice, the leader of the Reform Party — formerly the Brexit Party — recently complained that some 83 per cent of Britain’s offshore wind turbines are foreign-owned, with the largest single owner being the government of EU-members-state Denmark.
“We British taxpayers are paying huge inflation-linked subsidies to create ever larger profits for the Danish taxpayer. What’s the advantage of that?” Tice demanded.
Colin Smyth, a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the leftist Scottish Labour Party in the region, conceded that “having to use diesel generators to de-ice faulty turbines is environmental madness,” attacking Scotland’s devolved government — also led by two other leftist parties, namely the separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) in coalition with the Scottish Greens — for the fact that their “rhetoric on net zero is very different from the reality” and accusing them of “dishonesty”.
However, the Labour Party is itself far from free of wind-related fiascos in Wales, where it runs the devolved government, with a 300-foot behemoth of a wind turbine costing millions of pounds toppling over in the country last year and terrifying local villagers, for instance — apparently due to high winds.
Wind turbines having issues with wind — the resource they are supposed to be able to tap for renewable energy — was far from unheard of prior to this, with other Welsh turbines lighting up like “giant Catherine wheels” after gales caused them to burst into flames in a 2014 incident, for example.
Amazon removed book from its platform saying it was “Hindutva themed literature” and it triggered its customers (Image: File/Saurav Dutt/Twitter) via www.opindia.com
In a shocking development, the book ‘Modi & Me: A Political Reawakening’ by analyst & author Saurav Dutt has been banned by Amazon and removed from its platform, with the American MNC stating such ‘Hindutva themed literature’ is not permissible.
The author shared a tweet today with a snapshot of the message he has received from Amazon –
The message sent by Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) to Saurav Dutt states –
“During a review, we’ve found that your account is related to a KDP account that we previously terminated for selling the book “Modi and Me: A Political Reawakening” which was the subject of complaints for allegedly spreading communal dissension and triggering customers because of Hindutva themed literature. Amazon KDP takes the customer experience seriously and titles such as this are subject to action if several complaints are raised about content that can upset or antagonise, which yours was seen to fall within.
As stated in our Terms and Conditions, if we terminate an account after complaints of this nature, you are not allowed to establish a new KDP account. As a result, we are terminating this account effective immediately and you may not open any new KDP accounts. …You’re no longer eligible to receive any outstanding royalties for the book ‘Modi and Me: A Political Reawakening’….All of your published titles will be removed from sale on Amazon”.
Going by the above, it seems that a concerted campaign to raise complaints against the book was all it took for Amazon to remove it from their platform. And if this is going to be their stance on ‘Hindutva themed literature’, many other books are now at risk of being de-platformed. The very ideology of Hindutva has been declared as unacceptable by this powerful American MNC which dominates the e-book industry.
This is yet another aspect of digital colonisation, something HinduPost has been warning about for long.
Ironically, the American billionaire Jeff Bezos who owns Amazon also owns the liberal newspaper Washington Post, which whitewashed the ISIS terrorist chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar.”
About the book
As HinduPost had reported previously, the book ‘Modi & Me: A Political Reawakening’ by TIME magazine featured author and political commentator Saurav Dutt explores the growing global movement of Hinduphobia and makes a compelling case for a reassertion of Dharmic and Indic values by the global Hindu diaspora to combat attacks on Hindu culture, religion and civilization.
In the book, the Bharatiya-born British author describes how he was relatively nonchalant about Bharatiya politics and Hindu culture prior to Modi’s rise but became incredibly troubled by the rising wave of Hinduphobia that possessed the liberal left across both the Bharatiya subcontinent and the West, both working hand in glove to paint Bharat as a rising Hindu fascist nation and that Modi had seemingly emboldened cow vigilante groups, demonized Muslims, rewrote the nation’s texts to glorify Hindus at the expense of Abrahamic faiths.
“It has become open season against Hindus,” Dutt said on the release of the book “since 2014 it has become a sin to be proud of one’s Hindu faith and India’s place in the world. Indian left-wing ecosystems, well-funded ‘toolkits’, Western supremacist narratives, have all been deployed to depict Narendra Modi as ‘the brown Hitler’ and all his followers as ‘Bhakts’ or crazy religious zealots. It is time to embrace the fact that Hindus can be proud of who they are and where they’ve come from and that Modi’s rise to power is a major part in imbuing that sense of self and worth to a previously rudderless and confused Indian whose mind had been colonised.”
Dutt was aware the book may upset many but felt compelled to write it after speaking to Hindu NRIs, thought leaders, think tanks, NGOs, lobby groups, politicians, and Hindus like himself who have felt increasingly isolated by a tidal wave of hatred directed against Hindu polity, practice, worship, culture, religion, and which has depicted them all as Hindu supremacists.
Outpouring of support
Saurav Dutt has received an outpouring of support, ever since he posted about his book being deplatformed.
“This is unbelievable. I’m genuinely speechless. Hindutva is indigenous people of India decolonising and resisting ethnocide at the hands of violent colonisers. To deny an indigenous voice chronicling this is everything wrong thats with @amazon. @EHRCChair“tweeted author Pt. Satish K Sharma.
“Can’t believe that ideologies claiming supremacism & right to conquer the world can sell but not the ones that call for respect for all!! Amazon has gone bonkers,” tweetedauthor Ratan Sharda.
“Their conditions are so vague – what the hell do they mean by “Hindutva themed literature” & how many complaints qualify as “several complaints”!! Please sue them in India and US“, tweeted Megha G
“ईस्ट इंडिया कंपनी -२ ?” tweeted Gopal Goswami, wondering if this marked the advent of a new wave of colonisation via East India Company 2.0.
“I interviewed @sd_saurav on my show. We talked about the upcoming book ! However ‘Mein Kampf’ by Lord Voldemort is selling in several languages! The ‘tool kit’ is real – everyday a new one shows up!”tweeted Vibhuti Jha.
“Shame on Amazon … stop dealing with this company which maligns Hinduism #BoycottAmazon“tweeted Amit Saxena.
“Access to the Indian Market is a privilege for a foreign company, and it is not proper for the foreign company to introduce its foreign biases onto the Indian market and unduly influence and impact the Indian customer negatively,”tweeted another user.
“We need more Desi apps to address this monopoly of such companies,”tweetedPramod Gupta.
“Daily dose of #hinduphobia from @amazon. This decision had to be reversed. Hindutva means Hindu + Tatva (a way of life). Living In harmony with everybody else. Shame on #amazon,”tweeted Prakash.
“@amazon has an axe to grind. They are having a court case against Reliance in Supreme Court. Billionaire also owns @washingtonpost Outcome is not unexpected.”tweeted Dr. Jagdish Pathak.
“That’s unacceptable. I have a personal experience with Amazon. After writing a review on Wendy Doniger’s book, my review was removed and I’ve been barred from writing a review on anything I buy. There’s little to no due process to look in and correct the muzzling of free speech,”said Dr. Murthy Badiga
“If @amazon has s problem on a book on #Hindutva then they are free to leave the land of #Hindutva. @RajivMessage prophecy of big tech controlling the narrative is coming true. Don’t leave them without the fight.” said one twitter user.
Tanya Hemanth, an Indian badminton player, was ‘forced’ to wear a hijab at the medal ceremony of a badminton tournament held in Iran (source: TOI)
On Sunday, February, 6, a young budding Indian badminton player Tanya Hemanth of Karnataka clinched the women’s singles title at the Iran Fajr International Challenge badminton tournament in Tehran. During the award ceremony, however, the 19-year-old player was pictured wearing a hijab. According to TOI, the organisers of the event had in Iran, reportedly forced the Indian player to wear a hijab before collecting her award.
Bengaluru shuttler Tanya Hemanth asked to wear headscarf for medal ceremony in Tehran
According to the TOI report, organisers directed players that hijabs were mandatory, despite the fact that no such requirement for the podium dress code was mentioned in the badminton tournament prospectus.
“The prospectus talked about the clothing rules in the Badminton World Federation’s competition regulations, which is mostly common in tournaments around the world. While we knew that headscarves were a must when women stepped out in Tehran, there was no particular mention about their use during the tournament,” TOI quoted a source as saying.
Interestingly, the report also stated that male spectators were not permitted during women’s games, regardless of whether the male member was the player’s father or coach.
In fact, a board with ‘no men allowed’ written was hung at the entrance.
The tournament, however, featured mixed doubles matches for the first time in its history. “The women’s schedule was in the morning and the men’s in the afternoon. Only female spectators were allowed to watch the women’s matches. Also, match officials were all women in women’s matches. Male parents who accompanied their daughters to this meet didn’t get to watch a single match. It was only during mixed doubles that men and women players were seen together on the court,” the source was further quoted as saying by TOI.
It is worth emphasising that women in Iran are forced to wear a hijab, which covers the head and neck and hides the hair, under Islamic law, which has been in place since the 1979 revolution. While Iranian women battle to be emancipated from the restrictions of headscarves, the hijab is used to further the Islamic agenda across the world.
Notably, the Iranian authorities, in June 2022, detained several teenage girls and others for not donning hijabs at a skateboarding competition in Shiraz, a city in southern Iran.
Last year, Iran witnessed severe nationwide anti-hijab protests which were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Tehran’s Morality Police.
Mahsa Amini, 22, was detained by the ‘morality police’ in Tehran for failing to comply with the country’s required hijab requirements. Amini, who was on a pleasure trip to Tehran, had not ‘properly covered’ her hair in the hijab. She was detained by police and then assaulted in the police vehicle while being driven to a detention centre for a “re-education class” for failing to wear the country’s mandated head covering.
Post her death, many women including schoolgirls, took to the streets and burnt their hijabs. Women everywhere chopped their hair in protest. Women postedimages of themselves removing their hijabs to protest Islamic laws that forbid them from exposing their hair in public.
In retaliation, the so-called “morality police” arrested several women, with allegations that certain authorities have asked that public transportation personnel, as well as staff in government offices, and banks overlook so-called “bad-hijab” ladies. “Morality police” have been observing medical facilities and educational institutions in numerous Iranian cities to make sure women are covering their heads.
Another poll highlights the growing frustration of German citizens over a huge influx of migrants, which could spell trouble for Germany’s left-wing, pro-immigration government.
According to a survey conducted by the INSA opinion research institute for the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, the majority of German citizens, 51 percent, believe their country is taking in too many refugees. Another 33 percent think the number is appropriate, and only 11 percent of respondents believe Germany should take in more people.
Germany has been struggling with an ongoing migration crisis, with over 1.2 million people arriving in the country last year. While the majority are from Ukraine, an increase in asylum seekers from non-European countries was also recorded. The government has resorted to emergency measures across the country, including building tent cities in airports and converting supermarkets and boats into migrant accommodations.
In many cases, residents in small towns and villages are learning that hundreds and sometimes even thousands of migrants will be housed in the area with little warning. For example, in the village of Bach in the Upper Palatinate, which has just 1,100 inhabitants, migrants will now be housed on the MS Rossini ship, with residents now protesting the move.
Ukrainians are under no obligation to apply for asylum, but other migrants are. In Germany last year, more people applied for asylum than at any time since 2016, with just under 218,000 people filing asylum claims according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. That amounted to a 47 percent increase over 2021.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has long favored a lax immigration policy that has seen 2 million non-European migrants arrive in the country, is now backtracking to some extent on its pro-immigration stance. The party is now calling for a summit over the matter to address growing problems in the federal states, including a lack of housing and school spots due to rising immigration numbers.
The CDU’s parliamentary manager, Thorston Frei, told Tagesspiegel am Sonntag that a “limit on asylum migration and a solution for distribution, care, and accommodation” must be addressed at the summit.
The institute asked 1,003 people on behalf of the newspaper on Friday for their opinion. “But such a summit cannot be solely about sharing the costs of reception and accommodation,” he said. “We must finally talk about effective measures to limit asylum migration.”
As previously reported by Remix News, a number of polls as of late have shown growing German apprehension over mass immigration. For example, a poll from December last year found that 68 percent of Germans were concerned about growing immigration numbers. Another earlier poll also showed that the majority of Germans were “very worried” about how many migrants were arriving in the country.
The overwhelmingly negative poll comes at a time when Germany’s population reaches 84 million, making it one of the most densely populated countries on Earth. Recent high-profile murders, such as the stabbing murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl by an Eritrean migrant in the town of Illerkirchberg as well as mass riots on New Year’s Eve involving predominately migrant men have also reignited a debate about the security risks of continued mass immigration.
Earlier, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister President Hendrik Wüst (CDU), along with other states, warned that critical services are being overloaded due to growing migration numbers. Wüst demanded the government release funds promised by the federal government in a letter to Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD).
Danes protesting against the abolition of Great Prayer Day at the seat of government in Christiansborg, Slotsholmen, Copenhagen. Facebook
It is a “significant intervention in the tradition of the national church” to want to abolish Great Prayer Day in Denmark. This is the opinion of the country’s 11 bishops , who have sent a joint statement to the Minister of the Church, Louise Schack-Elholm.
The government wants to abolish a public holiday in Denmark to finance new resources for NATO participation. The Great Prayer Day, is a Christian holiday that has been observed since 1686 and falls on the fourth Friday after Easter.
“The bishops find public holidays essential for both Christian preaching and the cohesion of our society. […] The bishops therefore find it regrettable that the government wants to abolish a public holiday. Furthermore, the link between the abolition of a public holiday and increased defense budgets is puzzling,” the statement noted.
The Danish government intends to meet the NATO defense spending target of 2 percent of GDP by 2030.
“On the other hand, it is up to the Folketing and the social partners to decide which days off should apply in Denmark. We naturally hope that the provision on the folk church in the Constitution (§4) will continue to cause the state to respect that the folk church’s holidays are associated with days off,” the statement continued.
The biggest protest in a decade
On Sunday, February 5, thousands of people in Copenhagen took to the streets to protest against the bill to abolish a public holiday in order to finance increased defense spending. It was the largest demonstration in Denmark in more than a decade.
The proposal to abolish the holiday was tabled in response to the Ukrainian war, as a means of raising tax revenues to support higher defense spending. The extra 4.5 billion Danish crowns needed for the country’s war aims could come from higher tax revenues if the holiday is abolished.
Economists countered the proposal however by pointing out that workers would simply adjust their working hours. Danish workers generally rely on collective agreements between themselves and employer groups without state intervention.
Despite the opposition, the government, which holds a small majority in parliament, plans to pass the bill.
Protesters came from countryside
Busloads full of angry Danes confronted the government’s plan to fund NATO. Facebook
The large demonstration at Christiansborg saw hundreds of angry Danes from as far as North Jutland attending.
“They sit over there and are elected and think they can just decide everything, but they just forget the population,” said the chairman of FH Nordjylland, Anna Kirsten Olesen, She said she was furious that the government wanted to replace the holiday Store Bededag with a normal working day.
That is why she and 578 others on Sunday from North Jutland took the long trip through Jutland, Funen and all the way to Copenhagen. Busses from Frederikshavn, Brønderslev, Hjallerup, Aalborg, Haverslev and Hobro also transported protesters to Copenhagen.
Beyond the actual physical protests, some 460 000 Danes had also signed a petition on Saturday to preserve the Great Day of Prayer. The chairman of FH Nordjylland pointed to the total lack of dialogue on the part of the government. “They forget to respect us and include us for advice and negotiations about these things,” she added.
“There must be some politicians who notice that there is so much unrest and a lack of support for their proposal to abolish Great Prayer Day,” Anna Kirsten Olesen noted.
FH North Jutland represents more than 45 trade unions in North Jutland, where there are over 110 000 members in total.
