In the run-up to the election, Erdogan repeatedly accused Kilicdaroglu and his allies of being pro-LGBT, and voiced similar charges in his victory speech in front of a jubilant crowd in Istanbul. Listing off the factions in his rival’s six-party National Alliance bloc, and a pro-Kurdish political party, he asked supporters if they agreed that CHP, HDP, IYI, and “some little guys next to them” are all “LGBT,” to the rousing cheers of the crowd.

“But can LGBT infiltrate the AK Party? Can it infiltrate the MHP? Can it infiltrate other members of the People's Alliance?” Erdogan asked rhetorically – proclaiming that his ruling coalition and its allies will always stand in defense of traditional Turkish values. “Every election is a rebirth for us. Family is sacred to us. No one can speak out against the family. Violence against women is forbidden, it is haram,” he said.

The death penalty is the law’s sentence for anyone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” which means "same-sex relations with children or disabled people, those carried out under threat or while someone is unconscious,” according to the Times. “Attempted aggravated homosexuality” includes a prison sentence of up to 14 years. On Monday, Biden called the law “a tragic violation of universal human rights,” later adding that his administration would “evaluate the implications of this law on all aspects of US engagement with Uganda.”

The Times tweeted its article on the law, titled, “Ugandan President Signs Anti-Gay Law That Includes Death Penalty as a Punishment,” with the caption, “The president of Uganda signed a punitive anti-gay bill on Monday that includes the death penalty." What the @nytimes neglects to mention in this viral tweet — a fact that it does mention in the article that few will ever read — is that the death penalty is for raping children.

In tandem, LGBTQIA+ communities slammed the retailer, as did governor Gavin Newsom, who accused Target of 'systematically attacking' the gay community. He wrote on Twitter on May 24: 'CEO of Target Brian Cornell selling out the LGBTQIA+ community to extremists is a real profile in courage.'This isn’t just a couple stores in the South. There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. Wake up America. This doesn’t stop here. You’re black? You’re Asian? You’re Jewish? You’re a woman? You’re next.'

In retaliation, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote: 'No one is attacking the gay community Gavin. They don’t want their children forcefully exposed to the radical side of pride with “tuck it” and “binding” children’s clothes and messaging while simply shopping at Target. We don’t support your California child genital mutilation industry. As a matter of fact, I want to end it.'

I left behind my native city of Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg), my friends, my brother, the tombs of my parents and grandparents. It was risky to apply for emigration since one would almost always lose employment and find oneself socially ostracized while remaining uncertain if Soviet authorities would grant the exit visa. I was lucky. Within a few months, in May 1973 I was stripped of Soviet citizenship and allowed to purchase a one-way ticket to Vienna. My dream of freedom was fulfilled. The first thing I bought in Vienna was a copy of The International Herald Tribune.

What impressed me most was the variety of opinions that found their way into newspaper pages and TV screens. Today, this freedom is being eroded with respect to several foreign policy issues. One is Israel. Journalists and politicians think twice before criticizing it. They fear to be accused of antisemitism. This strategy has since triumphed: today, qualifying Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as apartheid, or even peaceful boycott of Israeli products in the supermarket, are officially banned as antisemitic in many Western countries. This makes Israel exceptional and shields it from rational debate.

Another even more important issue that has disappeared from rational public debate is Western policy towards Russia. This issue is more important not only because Russia is bigger, but because it involves a potential nuclear annihilation of life on Earth.

Just as Soviet authorities justified jamming of Western radio broadcasts as a measure against “imperialist subversion”, a panoply of NATO and national agencies now protect citizens in Europe and North America from “Russian disinformation”. The current climate of unfreedom not only undermines our core values. It poses an existential threat for humankind.

To repress criticism of their dicta and diktats, they stamp criticism as “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Those stamps are Orwellian tools that anti-liberals wield in the hope of stamping out Wrongthink — for example, on climate, election integrity, the origins of the Covid virus, therapeutics such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, the effectiveness of masking, the effectiveness of the Covid injections, the safety of the Covid injections, and the effectiveness of lock-downs.

“Anti-misinformation” could be deployed in keeping with whatever next THE CURRENT THING might be, with associated slogans against, say, China, Putin, Nord Stream, racists, white supremacists, MAGA Republicans, “deniers,” et cetera. And then, of course, there’s all that “misinformation” disseminated by “conspiracy theorists”.

The “anti-misinformation” projects are obvious miscarriages of civility, decency, and the rule of law. We must rediscover the norms of openness, tolerance, and free speech that dignify humankind. Science depends on confidence, and confidence depends on those liberal norms. Those norms are the parents of good science, healthy sense-making, and civil tranquility. There are two roads here, namely:

Freedom —> openness —> confidence —> truth-tracking —> dignity;

Despotism —> concealment —> diffidence —> bad science —> serfdom and servility.

Let’s get back to the right road.

Last Friday, at the start of Memorial Day weekend, researchers at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released an analysis of where they think the US economy is headed and the headwinds (read gale force winds) that can, potentially, be expected along the way. Folks on Wall Street who were hoping that the Fed was at the end of its rate-hiking cycle, with a more dovish Fed juicing stock market returns later this year, likely had their holiday weekend ruined with this projection from the IMF.

Between March 10 and May 1 of this year, the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in US history occurred: First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank, respectively. (Washington Mutual was the largest bank failure in 2008.)

Liquidity is vanishing. Interest rates are increasing with no end in sight. Unwanted dollars are returning to the US with a vengeance, unleashing inflation. This process is increasing, both in volume and velocity. The world is de-dollarizing at a stunning speed. The world is beginning to trade in their own currencies. The demand for dollars is decreasing at increasing speeds.

The foreign ministers of Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Comoros, Gabon, Argentina, Bangladesh and Egypt are all due to address the meeting by video. Who to admit as new members will be one of the main agenda items at the foreign ministers’ meeting and the summit. But the foreign ministers are also likely to discuss what to do about Putin.

In March this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Putin for his alleged complicity in the war crime of abducting Ukrainian children and deporting them to Russia. As an ICC member, South Africa would be obliged to arrest Putin if he sets foot in the country and surrender him to the court in The Hague if the ICC asks South Africa to do so. Legal sources say they believe the ICC has already issued this request to Pretoria.

A decade ago, South Africa was still a land of immense hope. The ANC had just passed the National Development Plan (NDP) by acclamation at its conference in Mangaung. Key to the NDP were its proposals to strengthen the state. These had been agreed to by the governing party and were even welcomed by the main opposition. Now, 10 years later, our state is probably weaker than it has been at any time since the 1980s.

Crime is rising while the police appear to stand idle, vigilantism is increasing, power cuts hobble our businesses and incomes, unemployment is growing all the time, infrastructure is under attack and cholera stalks the land. So severe are these crises that ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina felt compelled to spend part of her speech in Parliament on Wednesday arguing against the notion that South Africa is a failed state. Most of these crises are the result of a failure of governance.

The Epoch Times reported: “South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) has drafted amendments to its recently-passed Employment Equity Act that labor experts and opposition parties say will ban “non-black Africans” from employment across most of the economy. Dirk Hermann, of the Solidarity trade union, told The Epoch Times: “Our research shows that it’s not only skilled white South Africans leaving the country but also Indian, colored [mixed race] and black citizens.

Despite a 20-minute delay, the weary but unflappable 51-year-old academic, author, lesbian feminist and mother-of-two finished her talk as planned, above a chorus of abusive chanting in the street outside. Amid so much heat and noise, Professor Stock's central thesis could be summed as follows: sorry, folks but biological reality trumps one's inner feelings.

Turning to the (male) president of the Oxford Union, she added: 'I can think of myself as a man all I like but ultimately I'm not going to arm wrestle you very successfully'. It will certainly not go down as one of the oratorical high points in Oxford Union history. Nor will it win many points for entertainment value. However, it established an important point in an important seat of learning: Free speech – for now, at least – is not to be silenced.

Lately, Disney’s “coming-of-age” films have been out of touch with what parents want their kids to watch. They often push content with themes around witchcraft, sex, and violence. Last year, the company lost over $100 million each for their animated movies, “Light Year” and “Strange World,” which depicted same-sex relationships on screen.

Movieguide chairman and founder Ted Baehr, is calling on parents to petition Disney+ to stop the release of “Pauline” on the platform. “Let me be clear. Pauline is not just another piece of entertainment,” Baehr added. “Horrifically, this series even portrays Satan as a romantic partner! By normalizing and promoting such a relationship, Pauline sends a dangerous message to young viewers that associating with demons, Satan, and evil is acceptable and even desirable!”

Indeed, the League’s rapprochement with Assad should be seen as a repudiation of US policy, and especially as a sign of how Washington’s influence among Leage members—the most powerful of which are Saudi Arabia and Egypt—has waned. Moreover, this is just the latest bad news for Washington’s influence in the region coming mere weeks after Iran and Saudi Arabia reestablished diplomatic relations.

In both cases, we find regimes that Washington had sought to isolate and sanction, but both states have instead been expanding their relations with other states in the region with the help of China. Meanwhile, both Beijing and Riyadh have increased their ties with Russia. These developments help illustrate how growing US attempts to impose—or threaten to impose—hard line sanctions against a growing number of regimes has only accelerated a global movement away from the US dollar and away from Washington’s orbit.

The US Dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency and the Petrodollar have enabled us to accumulate a massive national debt without crumbling under the weight of it because the vast majority of other nations would crumble along with us. But if China, Russia, or a globalist coalition pulls the financial rug out from under us, we will fail.

Central banks know this, which is why they’re moving as much as they can as quickly as possible to precious metals. According to London-based Financial Times writer Daria Mosolova: “Central bankers who manage trillions in foreign exchange reserves are loading up on gold as geopolitical tensions including the war in Ukraine force them to rethink their investment strategies”.