Send a photo within 15 minutes or the police are sent out.
The government of South Australia is running a trial for a system that could eventually force citizens to take a photo of themselves via a government app to report their location on demand within 15 minutes of authorities requesting it, or face a police investigation.
Yes, really.
The revelation was highlighted in an Atlantic piece by Conor Friedersdorf which questions whether Australia can still call itself a liberal democracy in light of the crippling restrictions it has placed on its own population.
With no end in sight for the lifting of the country’s brutal lockdown, Aussies could face even more invasive state intrusion into their private lives under the justification of stopping the spread of the virus.
The South Australian government is preparing to roll out an app that “will contact people at random asking them to provide proof of their location within 15 minutes,” according to reports.
If people refuse to report their location or are unable to do so, police are then dispatched to hunt them down.
“We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” said Premier Steven Marshall.
This is barely much different from literally fitting people with electronic ankle bracelets that track their every movement like prisoners under home arrest, a policy that was actually considered by Australian authorities earlier this year.
No matter your views of COVID, what's happening in Australia is alarming, extreme and dangerous. https://t.co/Ep7fOqiHUJ
“No matter your views of COVID, what’s happening in Australia is alarming, extreme and dangerous,” remarked journalist Glenn Greenwald.
As we have exhaustively highlighted, Australia has enforced one of the most draconian lockdowns in the world in an effort to pursue a disastrous ‘zero COVID’ strategy.
Last month, the Premier of Victoria asserted that authorities “won’t hesitate” to go “door-to-door” to carry out mandatory COVID tests on Australians.
Aussies were also ordered not to talk to each other, even while wearing masks, while people who merely post anti-lockdown information online could also face fines of up to $11,000 dollars under an absurdly authoritarian new law.
NPR said Chinese broadcasters were told to “resolutely put an end to sissy men” — an insulting slang term for effeminate men (niang pao, or literally, “girlie guns”) — as well as “other abnormal esthetics.”
There is concern that Chinese pop stars who are “influenced by the sleek, girlish look of some South Korean and Japanese singers and actors, are failing to encourage China’s young men to be masculine enough,” the outlet added.
It’s all part of an eight-point plan introduced Thursday by China’s National Radio and Television Administration that calls for “further regulation of arts and entertainment shows and related personnel,” Variety reported.
More from the magazine:
Announcing the measures, the Communist Party of China‘s propaganda department accused some in the entertainment industry of bad influence on the young and of “severely polluting the social atmosphere.”
One of the eight sections to one one “boycotting being overly entertaining” explained a need to put more emphasis on “traditional Chinese culture, revolution culture and socialist culture.” It said that authorities will establish a “correct beauty standard,” and boycott vulgar internet celebrities.
It also called for Chinese media to spread more positive values, and for trade associations in the television and internet entertainment sectors to provide more training and self-discipline.
NPR added that President Xi Jinping wants a “national rejuvenation” that includes tighter Communist Party control of business, education, culture, and religion.
What else is out?
The outlet noted that Chinese broadcasters have been instructed to avoid promoting “vulgar internet celebrities” as well as admiration of wealth and celebrity.
Performers who “violate public order” or have “lost morality” also are on the outs, as well as programs about the children of celebrities and “idol audition shows,” Variety said.
More from the magazine:
China’s LGBTQ community may also feel deeply uneasy. While homosexuality is no longer classified as a mental illness in China and was decriminalized in 1997, same sex relations remain mostly taboo.
Gay entertainment content has remained in a gray zone, and foreign films with gay themes such as “Call Me By Your Name,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” have been heavily censored or removed from screens.
Earlier this year the dominant messaging app Weixin/WeChat erased all past content of the accounts for the campus LGBTQ groups of China’s top universities.
The producers of The Riot and the Dance have teamed up with Angel Studios for the distribution of its multi-part nature documentary series intended to show God’s hand in the beauty that surrounds us.
The faith-based series showcases the vast and beautifully intricate planet while explaining to viewers that it was intentionally designed by the Divine Creator.
The show’s host, Dr. Gordon Wilson, who’s also a scientist and devout Christian, told The Christian Post (CP) that working on the project was a “dream come true.”
“For a scientist and animal lover, there’s nothing like adventuring in the field. And now, thanks to our fantastic production crew, I can bring millions of families along for the ride, celebrating creation and the Artist behind every fantastic critter,” he told CP in a statement.
“Faith-based nature docs have never had space in the industry,” he added. “I’m still amazed that such a shake-up is really happening, and I’m beyond blessed to be a part of it.”
The Riot and the Dance is crowdfunded like the hit series The Chosen. At the time of publication, the producers had raised more than $117,000 toward the goal of $1 million for production costs.
The series is supported by several celebrities who are Christians, including Kirk Cameron, Kanye West, and The Chosen creator, Dallas Jenkins.
In a video promoting the series, Jenkins said, “What I love about this series is both what it isn’t and what it is. So what it isn’t, is some sort of conspiracy theory or an ‘us versus them’ thing or a sermon series, but what it is, is twofold.”
“Number one, it’s a look what God did, like, check out what God did,” he added. “Let’s learn about it. Let’s engage with it. Let’s teach our kids to love it more and to nurture it more. But then, also, it becomes a celebration. It’s like a worship experience. I feel like I love God more and want to worship Him more because of all the amazing things that this documentary series is showing me.”
Cameron called the nature series “amazing.”
“Wilson and Angel Studios are bringing together an incredible TV series that is going to thrill you, inspire you, and get you so excited,” Cameron pointed out on the series website. “Your family is going to love it!”
Jon Erwin, director of the film “I Can Only Imagine,” described the nature series as family-friendly entertainment.
“It shows that God’s fingerprints are all over the world. I think it is something your whole family will enjoy,” he said. “I’m backing it and I think you should back it too.”
Rapper Kanye West allowed the show creators to use his song “Selah” for its trailer.
The Defender’s Big Brother NewsWatch brings you the latest headlines related to governments’ abuse of power, including attacks on democracy, civil liberties and use of mass surveillance.
Professor Sues Over CA School’s Vaccine Mandate, Says He’s ‘Naturally Immune’ to COVID
A California professor is suing his school’s officials over a COVID-19 mandate, saying that he already contracted the virus and is “naturally immune.”
Aaron Kheriaty, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California, Irvine, filed a lawsuit Aug. 18, saying he got sick with COVID-19 in July 2020.
The University of California said in July 2021 that all faculty, staff and students will be required to be vaccinated against COVID two weeks before they’re expected to be on campus for the fall semester.
Reddit Bans COVID Misinformation Forum After ‘Go Dark’ Protest
Reddit has banned a discussion forum that spreads misinformation about coronavirus and vaccines after a user rebellion over the site’s failure to tackle COVID sceptics.
The online discussion site acted after 135 Reddit communities, or subreddits, announced they had “gone dark”, a move that blocks non-members from reading or joining the page, in protest at the site’s refusal to limit discussions that propagate misleading theories about the pandemic.
Reddit initially refused to ban subreddits identified as spreading misinformation. But it bowed to pressure on Wednesday, announcing that it had kicked out r/NoNewNormal – which has 124,000 subscribers and contains posts warning against taking COVID vaccines – for breaking rules related to interfering with or harassing other subreddits. The site said r/NoNewNormal was guilty of a practice known as “brigading,” where members of one subreddit are incited to target a rival discussion group.
Majority of Companies Plan to Have COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate, Survey Finds
The number of companies requiring workers to get the shot is expected to surge over the next several months, according to data released by Wednesday by Willis Towers Watson, a multinational advisory and insurance firm.
Over half of the employers surveyed (52%) said that by the fourth quarter of 2021, they could have one or more vaccine mandate requirements in the workplace.
The Push for Vaccine Passports Ignores the Arguments Raging Around Them
Vaccinations are the high point of human reason. Devised under clinical conditions by scientists interested only in what works, they represent the mastery of the rational world over chaotic nature; and also, of course, they save lives. Vaccine passports, then, should in theory be no more than the rubber stamp of reason. So why does the policy, not to mention the discussion surrounding it, look so irrational?
In late July, shortly after nightclubs had reopened for the first time in over a year, Boris Johnson appeared to go against his previous approach – let’s call it, for brevity, “loosey goosey” – and announced a plan to make “full vaccination the condition of entry” to nightclubs and other crowded indoor events. The prime minister didn’t have the experience of Boardmasters, the Cornish festival in mid-August, which seeded so many COVID infections that the county, had it been abroad, would have been placed on the red list. Yet he did have that data by this week, when he restated this intention.
Washington Nationals VP Bob Boone Resigns Over Team’s COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement, Source Says
Washington Nationals vice president Bob Boone has informed the team that he will resign instead of complying with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all non-uniformed employees, a source confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.
Boone, 73, has been with the organization since 2005 and serves as a senior adviser to general manager Mike Rizzo. Boone was assistant GM and vice president of player development from 2006 to 2013.
UK Children’s Digital Privacy Code Comes Into Effect
A sweeping set of regulations governing how online services should treat children’s data have been welcomed by campaigners as they come into effect.
The Age Appropriate Design Code — which was written into law as part of the 2018 Data Protection Act, which also implemented GDPR in the UK — mandates websites and apps from Thursday to take the “best interests” of their child users into account, or face fines of up to 4% of annual global turnover.
Candace Owens Says She Was Refused COVID Test Because of Her Anti-Vaccination Stance
However, in an Instagram Live on Wednesday, she said as an unvaccinated person, she was still prepared to be tested for COVID if an event she attended required it, although she opposed showing documentation to enter businesses.
During her video, she said that she was in Aspen, Colorado and had had “50 plus COVID tests” since the start of the pandemic and that her travel schedule meant that she had to be tested at least once every two weeks.
In a pro-life victory, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5-4 on Wednesday not to block the new Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy while legal challenges to that law proceed in lower courts.
A narrow majority of justices held that the abortion-provider plaintiffs had failed to meet the high standard required for the Supreme Court to issue an injunction blocking a law before it goes into effect.
Signed in May by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Senate Bill 8 effectively bans abortions in the Lone Star State the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected, which often occurs after six weeks of pregnancy. Since women do not often detect pregnancy prior to the sixth week, the law effectively bans abortions in the state. Multiple states have tried to implement similar measures only to be blocked by the courts.
The five-justice majority of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, and Trump-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett did not issue a published opinion with their decision, so the precise reasoning of the Court remains unclear, including whether the Texas law would survive a constitutional challenge on the merits when that question is squarely before the Supreme Court.
“The applicants now before us have raised serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law at issue,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in dissent. “But their application also presents complex and novel antecedent procedural questions on which they have not carried their burden.”
Roberts explained that he was dissenting because an injunction would freeze the status quo while the courts work through whether Texas’s law violates a constitutional right to abortion, narrowly leaving open the possibility that he could vote in favor of the law down the road.
The three liberal justices, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan issued strongly worded dissents against the Lone Star State’s law.
Legal proceedings in the lower courts might not move forward until a citizen attempts to enforce it against an abortion provider, leaving the pro-life measure in effect indefinitely. The Supreme Court will also hear a major abortion case this term, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, and it’s possible that this case and other abortion cases will be held in abeyance until the Supreme Court renders a decision in that case.
The case is Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, No. 21A24 in the Supreme Court of the United States.
President Joe Biden’s approval rating is sinking in the wake of the chaotic and deadly Afghanistan pullout, a new poll showed Thursday.
The Marist poll found Biden’s approval slid to 43% — down 6 percentage points from a July survey and the lowest mark for Biden since he took office, NPR reported.
The news outlet said the drop was fueled largely by independents; just 36% approve of the job Biden’s doing, a 10-point drop; 85% of Democrats approve, a 5-point drop, and 5% of Republicans approve, a 1-point dip.
The poll found 41% of adults strongly disapprove of the job Biden’s doing, similar to the number who disapproved of former President Donald Trump.
In a breakdown, the poll also found:
61% disapprove of Biden’s handling of the Afghan withdrawal.
71% think the war in Afghanistan was a failure, with 38% believing the United States should have withdrawn but left some troops, 37% thinking it should have been a complete pullout, and 10% saying no troops should be withdrawn.
29% of respondents think the U.S. has a duty to continue its involvement in Afghanistan; 61% think it needs to be up to Afghans to determine their future without U.S. involvement.
73% say they support allowing refugees to come to the United States, with 49% of Republicans approving of refugees coming to the United States, while 44% do not.
44% think the nation is less safe than it was before 9/11 — including two-thirds of Republicans; 30% say it’s safer and 25% say it’s about the same.
The telephone survey’s margin of error of the full sample was plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
The approval slide comes just days after a Morning Consult poll that found Biden’s approval rating sank to 48% in the wake of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
A graph from the polling indicates that this is the first time in Biden’s presidency when more voters disapprove, at 49%, than approve of him, at 48%, due in part, to the Afghan withdrawal, that survey showed.
