BBC News - Imran Khan: Pakistan ex-PM given three-year jail sentence
A deranged pro-Putin MP is calling for Barbie dolls to be banned in Russia.
Maria Butina wants children in the country to have Russian-made dolls promoting the tyrant’s war in Ukraine and took aim at the abnormal body features of the toys.
She said: “A doll that has a female breast and a male sexual organ at the same time is NOT normal.”
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Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar blockbuster was running into censorship issues in certain territories, including in the region’s top market of Saudi Arabia, so it looked increasingly like the film would be banned. But those matters appear to have been resolved, as the movie is set to release on Thursday.
“Barbie” was originally scheduled to debut in the Middle East on July 19, two days before landing in the rest of the world’s multiplexes. However, the release date was pushed back to Aug. 31 (before it was moved ahead to Aug. 10) after local censors suggested edits allegedly related to LGBTQ-related narration and dialogue in “Barbie.”
Dear Saudi Arabia…
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/08/china/chinese-political-slogan-brick-lane-london-intl-hnk/index.html
In Brick Lane, a cultural thoroughfare in London’s East End famed for its curry houses and a vibrant art scene, the backlash was swift.
By Sunday, the slogans had been overlaid with a flurry of new graffiti that was deeply critical of both Xi and the Chinese Communist Party.
Above the word “equality,” someone had written “But some are more equal than others,” using a famous line from George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm.” Others added “no” in front of the characters for “democracy” and “freedom.”
Other messages decried the Chinese government’s recent crackdown in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as the 1989 Tiananmen square massacre, an event that is highly censored inside China.
Made me think of the 1980 bombing of Bologna central station.
BBC News - Candidate in Ecuador’s presidential election Fernando Villavicencio shot dead
Those weren’t anarchists though, those were US backed fascists.
I don’t know a lot about Finnish politics, but I do know that if you didn’t see the Finns party were racist, you had to be wilfully ignorant.
This is why having a cordon sanitaire with far right parties is so important. Once it is broken even once, it is too late.
Funny how often Enlightened Centrist types pick fascists over the Left in situations like this isn’t it? 
