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Australian ‘national treasure’ cartoonist loses job after comparing vaccine mandates to Tiananmen square crackdown

Daily Telegraph NZ
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Australian ‘national treasure’ cartoonist loses job after comparing vaccine mandates to Tiananmen square crackdown

A renowned Australian cartoonist has said he lost his prime spot at a Melbourne-based newspaper after he drew parallels between the Tiananmen square protests and Covid-19 vaccine mandates in a new cartoon.

Cartoonist Michael Leunig, sometimes referred to as Australia’s “living national treasure”, has revealed that he was forced out of his position at the editorial page of The Age daily newspaper after publishing a political cartoon criticizing the government’s push for mandatory vaccination.

Speaking to The Australian on Monday, Leunig said that while the editorial team has censored about a dozen of his works this year, the last straw appeared to be an anti-mandate cartoon which was a play on the iconic Tank Man photo. Leunig’s cartoon shows a man staring down a tank, with its main gun being replaced by a syringe.

The original photo depicts a lone Chinese protester standing before a line of tanks during the 1989 pro-democracy protests at the Tiananmen square.

While his cartoon was rejected by The Age, Leunig published the drawing on his Instagram, triggering backlash from the proponents of the vaccine mandates.

Shortly after the controversy erupted, Leuning, who worked for the newspaper for over twenty years, was told that his services as a political cartoonist were no longer needed. The Age’s editor, Gay Alcorn, reportedly told the artist that he was “out of touch” with the readers before notifying him of his demotion. While Alcorn praised Leuning as “brilliant” in a comment to The Australian, he confirmed that his works would no longer appear on the editorial page. The newspaper still plans to commision lifestyle cartoons from Leuning, however.

Leuning, for his part, accused the newspaper of “wokeism and humorlessness,” defending the cartoon as an accurate reflection of the times.

“The Tiananmen Square image is often used in cartoons around the world as a Charlie Chaplin-like metaphor for overwhelming force meeting the innocent powerless individual. In my view, it is a fair enough issue to raise in the most locked-down city in the world,” the cartoonist said, referring to Melbourne, which set a record for the longest cumulative Covid-19 lockdown after shutting down for 262 days.

Australia’s second-largest city began relaxing sweeping Covid-19 restrictions on Friday. The much-awaited move sparked celebrations across the city, with residents being seen cheering from their balconies as the clock struck midnight.

Putin & Xi give Boris’ PR summit a miss

Finian Cunningham
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Putin & Xi give Boris’ PR summit a miss

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are among several world leaders who will not be attending the big climate summit scheduled to begin next week in Britain.

And the absence of the Russian and Chinese presidents is being seen as a blow to the confab’s ambitions and in particular Britain’s international prestige.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was hoping that the United Nations COP26 conference to be held in Glasgow would give “Global Britain” a huge public relations boost.

Addressing the challenges of climate change, the summit would be widely seen as an opportunity to boost the image of post-Brexit Britain as a forward-looking nation ready to lead the rest of the world, now that it is supposedly independent and free from the European Union.

However, not having the Russian and Chinese leaders attending COP26 is a deflating blow to efforts for an international deal on climate change. Russia is a major producer of fossil fuels and China is reckoned to have overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest emitter of global warming gases.

It’s not that the Russian or Chinese leaderships are unaware of the urgency to mitigate climate change. Russia battled with record wildfires in Siberia this year from melting permafrost, while China was hit with devastating floods across large swathes of the country. Presidents Putin and Xi have also set targets for their nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

Given the Covid-19 pandemic, it is understandable that Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi would prefer to stay at home. Both leaders have cut back extensively on foreign travel over the past year. Putin’s only trip abroad is believed to be the summit he held with US President Joe Biden in Geneva in June. The personal health and safety of the Russian leader and his Chinese counterpart is sufficient grounds for caution over attending large gatherings abroad.

But there is another possible reason for the absence at COP26, which has not been officially stated.

Why should Putin and Xi bother to go to a PR exercise on climate change just to make Boris Johnson look like a relevant world leader?

America’s Biden has also invested a lot of political capital in trying to make himself look like a responsible leader alert to the challenges of climate change. The Democrat president will be attending COP26 in Glasgow in what is seen as commitment to a signature issue for his White House.

For Johnson and Biden, not having Putin and Xi present in a some cheesy family photo appearing to make some global commitment to tackling climate change will be a setback to pretensions of world leadership.

The Western logic betrays incredible arrogance and insincerity. If the United States, Britain and the rest of Europe really want to engage with Russia and China on a matter of existential climate crisis, then the West should at least show a bit of respect in all other regards.

Seriously, Britain sends warships to mess with Russia’s territorial integrity in the Black Sea, it is planning to sell missiles to an anti-Russia regime in Kiev, and it continues to issue slanderous claims about the Kremlin carrying out an alleged assassination plot on its soil with nerve agent.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s “Global Britain” has dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group to conduct provocative war maneuvers in the South China Sea.

For its part, the United States has ramped up rhetoric accusing Russia and China of being national security threats. Biden has increased military supplies to both Ukraine and Taiwan which greatly risks fueling an all-out war with Russia and China.

Under Biden, more US warships have conducted transits through the Taiwan Strait in blatant flouting of China’s territorial sovereignty.

In short, the United States and its British bulldog and European NATO lapdogs have plunged relations with Russia and China back to the Cold War.

Despite weasel words to the contrary, Washington and London have greatly gone out of their way to insult, smear and antagonize Moscow and Beijing. The Anglo-Americans are jeopardizing world security, and yet they are posing as climate saviors.

Boris Johnson is a clown and a buffoon with as much sincerity as a snot-covered hankie. He wants to bask in the glory of having world leaders turning up for his hot air conference, all nodding and chortling like good old pals.

Well, the next time Johnson, Biden and other Western leaders want something from Russia and China they should remember to have some manners in the first place.

Image Credit: Sputnik News
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of dailytelegraph.co.nz.

Watch: Syrian troops block US military convoy and force it to turn around

Daily Telegraph NZ
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Watch: Syrian troops block US military convoy and force it to turn around

Syrian forces and local civilian residents loyal to Damascus regularly confront US forces illegally operating in the country’s oil and food-rich eastern territories. The tension-filled incidents have occasionally led to bloodshed.

Syrian forces operating a checkpoint along the strategic M4 Motorway in the country’s Hasakah province have forced a US convoy traveling along the road to turn around and go back where it came from, sources on the ground have told Sputnik.

Sources said the incident took place at the al-Kazia checkpoint, situated southwest of the city of Qamishli, with a convoy of five US Mine Resistant Armoured Vehicles, or MRAPs, prevented from passing through.

Sputnik Arabic published footage of the incident, which was said to have taken place on 21 October, showing Syrian troops at the checkpoint allowing a bus and an ambulance to pass through, but blocking US machine gun turret-equipped MRAP vehicles flying large American flags.

At several points in the video, US and Syrian troops could be seen conferring with one another through a translator, with the lead vehicle of the convoy parking in the center of the road for a few moments. A Syrian and American officer could be seen shaking hands, after which the Americans getting back into the vehicle and the MRAP setting a course back in the direction it came from. Other vehicles in the convoy then pulled three-point turns and similarly drove away from the checkpoint.

The incident took place two days after an occurrence in Hamo village in Qamishli’s eastern countryside on 19 October in which a group of local residents intercepted a US convoy attempting to pass near the village, and similarly forced it to turn around. That incident reportedly involved three MRAPs and a Humvee.

US forces and their Syrian Kurdish allies seized control over wide swathes of Syrian territory in the country’s east, including as much of 90 percent the Arab Republic’s oil and gas producing regions and much of its breadbasket, in 2017. Washington has justified its illegal presence by citing the alleged threat posed by Daesh (ISIS)* remnants. Damascus has denounced the US presence, and demanded that the Americans and all other foreign forces not explicitly invited in to assist in the fight against terror vacate the country.

Residents of northeastern Syria regularly try to block the passage of US forces and their Kurdish allies through their villages and towns, accusing them of engaging in the pillaging of oil, gas and wheat resources, spreading chaos and looting.

When Syrian army troops are involved in the standoffs with US forces, deadly clashes have occasionally taken place. In August 2020, a firefight between a US convoy and Syrian forces left one Syrian soldier dead and two others injured.

For over a year, the Pentagon blamed the Syrian army for the deadly incident. However, last month, Task & Purpose published excerpts from a redacted report by the military which revealed that US army platoon sergeant Robert Nicoson was facing court-martial for alleged misconduct before and after the gun battle. The soldier was charged with violating orders, reckless endangerment, making unlawful threats against Syrian soldiers, and obstruction of justice.

According to the report, the sergeant ordered his convoy to head through the Syrian army checkpoint despite knowledge that he “did not have permission to do so.” After the shootout, apparently aware of the possible consequences of his actions, the officer ordered his comrades to delete video of his interaction at the checkpoint, and allegedly ordered one soldier to “falsely claim” that they’d been given permission to drive through.

* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

 

Max Verstappen Wins US Formula One Grand Prix

Daily Telegraph NZ
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Max Verstappen Wins US Formula One Grand Prix

Belgian-Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen held off British competitor Lewis Hamilton to claim a crucial US Grand Prix victory in Austin, Texas, on Sunday.

Verstappen was crowned victorious as the Red Bull driver crossed the line approximately 1.333 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Hamilton.

The victory, viewed by an estimated 160,000 attendees, extends Verstappen’s lead over Hamilton to 12 points amid the Formula One Championship fight.

Spanish driver Fernando Alonso, of Alpine, was six miles from the finish line when a broken rear wing triggered his retirement.

This came shortly after Esteban Ocon, another Alpine driver, was forced into the garage and secured ninth place.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was also forced to retire from the race after he experienced suspension failure after just 14 laps into the Formula One world championship race.

The Circuit of the Americas in Travis County, Texas, has hosted an estimated 400,000 individuals at its race facility over the past three days.

Jamie Lynn Spears Says Parents Pressured Her to Get an Abortion to Maintain Her Career

Daily Telegraph NZ
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Jamie Lynn Spears Says Parents Pressured Her to Get an Abortion to Maintain Her Career

Jamie Lynn Spears, 30, received negative media attention in 2007 after it was revealed that she was pregnant and planned on having the child.

Although Nickelodeon’s “Zoey 101” was not canceled because its star was pregnant, related parental outrage accompanied the teen-based comedy throughout its final season in 2008.

As if the Spears family did not have enough speculation about their private lives, Jamie Lynn Spears, the sister of musical pop icon Britney Spears, has readdressed issues surrounding her controversial teen pregnancy in a new memoir, “Things I Should Have Said” (Due for release on Amazon.com 18 January 2022).

Spears asserted in excerpts obtained by TMZ that, in 2007, after she told parents Jamie and Lynn Spears about her pregnancy, they “came to my room trying to convince me that having a baby at this point in my life was a terrible idea.”

“It will kill your career. You are just too young. You don’t know what you’re doing. There are pills you can take. We can help you take care of this problem … I know a doctor,”

Spears said her parents told her, according to the excerpt. She successfully gave birth to a healthy daughter in 2008.

Spears added that “everyone around me just wanted to make this ‘issue’ disappear … everyone was certain that termination would be the best course of action.”

She also claimed that she was told not to reveal the pregnancy to her sister, Britney.

“I needed her more than ever and she wasn’t able to help me in my most vulnerable time,” Spears wrote, speaking of Britney. “To this day, the hurt of not being able to tell my sister myself still lingers.”

Jamie Lynn Spears has recently been the target of a Change.com petition to get her removed from “Sweet Magnolias,” the Netflix drama series in which she portrays Noreen Fitzgibbons. The petition appears to be predominantly signed by fans of her pop star sister.

“Jamie Lynn Spears has been apart [sic] of the disgusting dehumanizing conservatorship of her sister Britney Spears,” wrote Makalah Mcnatt, who launched the petition four months ago. “We’ve learned the truth & how Jamie Lynn is just as corrupt & responsible as the people who put her sister in that conservatorship.”
As of this article’s publication, the petition has over 28,000 signatures.

Britney has criticized her family in recent months concerning allegations that they were complicit in her conservatorship, which began in 2008. Jamie Spears, Britney and Jamie Lynn’s father, was suspended from the conservatorship on September 28.

Britney recently blasted her family in an Instagram post, stating “Lord have mercy on my family’s souls if I ever do an interview.” She previously told a court that her family did “not do a goddamn thing” to help her while she was under her father’s control.

Police appeal for information on the unexplained death of Hamilton man

Daily Telegraph NZ
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Police appeal for information on the unexplained death of Hamilton man

On 1 December 2019, 33-year-old father Joshua Terrey was found dead in a garden at the Western Community Centre in Nawton, Hamilton.

The death has been treated as unexplained, and there is an ongoing investigation to determined what happened, named Operation Holyoake.

Police seek info on Joshua Terrey news

CCTV footage from the night shows a light coloured sedan, with horizontal trim runnng across the doors and a sunroof, driving near the area where Terrey’s body was found.

The car was seen at the community centre in the early hours of 1 December and police believe the occupants may be able to assist with the investigation.

If you were an occupant of the vehicle, or know someone who was, please contact police.

109 community cases of COVID-19 today

Daily Telegraph NZ
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109 community cases of COVID-19 today

There are 109 new community cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand today.

As at 10am, 47 of these cases are linked – including 30 household contacts – and 62 remain unlinked, with investigations continuing to help determine their connection to the outbreak.

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:

  • Number of new community cases: 109
  • Number of new cases identified at the border: Two
  • Location of new community cases: Auckland (103), Waikato (4)*, Northland (2)
  • Location of community cases (total): Auckland 2,569 (1,423 of whom have recovered); Waikato 87 (16 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered); Northland 7 (active cases); Blenheim 1 (active case)
  • Number of community cases (total): 2,681 (in current community outbreak)
  • Cases infectious in the community: 25 of yesterday’s cases have exposure events
    Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious **: 54 of yesterday’s cases
  • Cases epidemiologically linked: 47 of today’s 109 cases
  • Cases to be epidemiologically linked: 62 of today’s 109 cases
  • Cases epidemiologically linked (total): 2,314 (in the current cluster) (307 unlinked from the past 14 days)
  • Cases in hospital: 35 (total, down from 50 yesterday): North Shore (7); Middlemore (13); Auckland (14); Waikato (1)
  • Average age of current hospitalisations: 42 years old
  • Cases in ICU or HDU: Five
  • Confirmed cases (total): 5,389 since pandemic began
  • Historical cases: 174 out of 3,576 since 1 Jan 2021

Colombia getting ready to extradite Most Wanted drug dealer Otoniel to US

Daily Telegraph NZ
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Colombia getting ready to extradite Most Wanted drug dealer Otoniel to US

The Colombian government is planning to extradite the captured drug lord Dairo Antonio Usuga, also known as Otoniel, who is the head of the “Gulf Clan” (Clan del Golfo), to the United States, Defense Minister Diego Molano says.

Molano told the El Tiempo newspaper that the next step following the capture of the most-wanted drug trafficker in Colombia is to comply with the request for extradition by the US authorities.

Otoniel has more than 100 lawsuits filed against him in Colombia and he was also on the Interpol red list and on the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s most wanted list. The United States had reportedly placed a $5 million bounty on his head.

Colombian President Ivan Duque said in a public address broadcast on Twitter on Saturday that the capture of Otoniel was a major blow to drug trafficking and was comparable to the fall of drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.

Otoniel was captured in Necocli, Antioquia Department, as part of special operation Osiris conducted jointly by the police and the military with the support of agencies in the US and the United Kingdom, according to Duque. The drug lord was then transferred by plane to Colombia’s capital, Bogota.

The president called on the remaining members of the Gulf Clan to turn themselves in or face the same fate as that of Otoniel.

According to Molano, the capture of the Gulf Clan’s leader means that the government has achieved victory over drug trafficking in the country, since the clan had been responsible for most of Colombia’s exports and distribution of cocaine.

Last year, Colombia had 143,000 hectares of illegal coca plantations and the country remains the world’s top producer of coca, according to the United Nations.

Image Credit: Sputnik News

Watch: Biden CNN town hall disaster

Daily Telegraph NZ
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Watch: Biden CNN town hall disaster

Joe Biden’s appearance on CNN in a ‘Town Hall’ with Anderson Cooper has drawn a variety of reactions.

In this video YouTube geopolitical analyst Alex Cristoforou of The Duran analyses Joe Biden’s performance, which has left many scratching their heads as to who’s really in charge in the White House.

 

Liz Gunn: ‘When the media are only giving you one side of the story, you know it’s not the truth’

Daily Telegraph NZ
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Liz Gunn: ‘When the media are only giving you one side of the story, you know it’s not the truth’

Former TVNZ broadcaster Liz Gunn has a message for New Zealanders: when the media are only giving you one side of the story, you know it’s not the truth.

In a video on alternative video platform Bitchute, which has attracted a lot of attention in the legacy mainstream media, Liz Gunn’s delivered a heartfelt message to New Zealanders to stand up to what she considers the evil of Jacinda Ardern and her government, with particular reference to the vaccine roll-out programme, mandates and passports.

In a story today in the NZ Herald, under the headline: ‘Ex-TV host’s bizarre anti-vax rant – says quake was nature’s response to PM’s plan’, the legacy mainstream media outlet proceeded to attack Gunn’s message by focussing on comments she made regarding an earthquake which happened at the time Ardern was making her public statement on COVID restrictions on 22 October.

Bizzarely, the NZ Herald story did not include a link to Gunn’s FULL video, but instead included derogatory Twitter embeds from random people about it.

At the end of the 13 minute video, Gunn spent a few moments pointing out the earthquake coincidence, and stated that it was her belief our ‘Mother Earth’ was sending a message to us.

Gunn’s video contained many important statements, which we have summarised below. You can watch the full video at the end of the statement:

They print them, they deride me and they put me down, I don’t care anymore, because this country matters more to me, and the future for my children and my grandchildren matters more to me, and it needs to matter more to all of you, whether you’re jabbed or unjabbed.

It is utter errant nonsense what she said today in the press conference. If you are vaccinated, you’ve done it to be protected, that is what they sold you, that’s fine. If you’re not vaccinated, you therefore cannot threaten those who are vaccinated, because they did it to be safe, didn’t you?

I can’t be jabbed, because I had the most severe case of perocardytis and I was 24 hours from my heart, my right ventricle, from completely shutting down. So if she comes to my door and does her smarmy talk, or vicious talk, or her persuasive talk, or her threatening talk to me, I will say ‘You jab me, Ardern, you jab me, my public servant, and I will die.’ And that blood, like so much other kiwi blood, will be added to what is on your hands.

Why do you never tell us stories, of the victims of this jab, those who die, those who are injured, the tragedy of the enormous suicide numbers? I could go on. You know it, if you’re awake and you’re doing research, we all know it now. This country is being ‘jab raped.’ And I went through that as well; a man once tried to rape me.

I say the same to you Ardern: You will never succeed, if I am the last kiwi woman standing, if you persecute me, the media, where I used to work, and I’m so ashamed of your betrayal. Simon Dallow, I used to sit next to you on the news, and you never do anything but spout government propaganda now. Tell the other side of the story!

We will build a new New Zealand from this and we will do it together. I want to start a political party and I want to call it ‘Free New Zealand’, cos it’s a cry to the world, ‘free us, help us.’

We’re being absolutely traumatised here, and bullied and manipulated and ruined – our spirit has been broken. Mandela once said ‘They could take everything from me in that prison on Robben Island, even my eyesight. except one thing: they couldn’t take my soul. I wouldn’t give that to them.’ And that’s where I’m speaking from to you, and that’s where you need to stand up with me if you want to. I’m not connected with the World Economic Forum or UN, or any of these people CLark and Ardern are linked to. I have no agenda except to serve, I don’t even particularly want to do this, but like my father, I will stand up.

There’s not going to be a country after this next election, led by National, because they’re doing the same thing Ardern’s doing, or ACT, they’ve crumpled, and the Greens have been utterly weak and submissive, and Labour, is lost. They just look evil and so many people are saying that. We need a new party, and I say we build it together.

My dream from my broadcasting background is to build an absolutely inviolate, free, totally protected broadcasting channel, perhaps take TV One back, make it ad free. And everyday on that channel we have discussions about government policy, we have politicians answerable to the people, and we have views from all of you, wise, educated, uneducated, whatever you are, people who care about this country, and creating again a free New Zealand. And we will build that place when we get into power. And that is the key – a free media is a crucial arm to have a free democracy. Our media at the moment is simply government propaganda, we might as well be living in Communist China. It doesn’t work, they’re not telling the other side.

When in media you’re only getting one side of the story, you can know it’s not the truth. It’s not the truth you are being told.

I mentioned two events that happened today, the first was Ardern’s evil, it’s the only way I can put it, but the second was our Mother Earth creating an earthquake around Taumaranui, just after she made her announcement. Our mother, this jewel, this beautiful country, said ‘enough, enough, I need other mothers to stand, and with them the men who love their strength and their power’. Because it is the mothers who know what is going on, the poisoning of our children, the poisoning of our air, the poisoning of our waters, the poisoning of New Zealand with these terrible ideas, these completely misguided lies that Ardern is telling us, the poisoning with arrogant, tyranical leaders. All of this stops with this earthquake, that’s what our Mother was saying to us. We must listen to her, even those of you who think Ardern is amazing, stop and think what will this country be like in a generation or two generations is allowed to jab-rape, because it is rape to force something into someone’s body, because they know they won’t be able to survive, they won’t be able to get money, if someone is so poor that they’re in government housing or need government funding, and they can’t get it unless they give in to something they don’t want in their body, that is rape. That’s like a man saying ‘unless you do this, you won’t get the job, and you can’t survive.’ That is rape Ardern, and you don’t get away with rape, not on my watch, and not on the watch of all those who will contact me.

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