Forum: Smoky Backroom
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WARNING: GRAPHIC A recent festival in southern Nigeria has sparked outrage after multiple videos surfaced online showing women being chased through the streets, stripped and sexually assaulted by groups of men in broad daylight. The footage, recorded during the annual Alue-Do fertility festival in Ozoro, Delta State, has prompted a police investigation and resulted in several arrests, with authorities confirming that multiple suspects were in custody. The videos have sparked global outcry, with many online describing the event as a “rape festival,” a term that highlights the scale and brutality of what was captured on camera.
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A report by the Hope and Courage Collective, which works to build resilience in communities against rising far-right hate and disinformation, has found a widening gap between public attitudes and political discourse. The report, “Ireland in Focus 2025, Mind the Gap”, shows that a relatively small number of far-right actors disproportionately influence public debate through online amplification, visible protests, and repeated narratives. It says public attitudes are becoming steadily more inclusive, but that political rhetoric risks legitimizing scapegoating and that the far-right had not secured broad public support, but “is shaping the conversation”. The report found that multiple communities in...
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An upcoming international math conference should be moved outside of the United States of America due to Trump’s “unbridled hatred of immigrants” and because the “country [is] on the verge of martial law,” professors say. A petition, which reportedly has more than 2,300 signatures from more than 75 countries, demands the International Congress of Mathematicians relocate its planned July conference in Philadelphia. The petition says there is precedent for the action, since the 2022 conference in Russia was relocated due to the war. […] The mathematicians continue on to cite grievances they have, including “aiding and abetting the ongoing genocide...
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A villager in India carried his sister's corpse to a bank after digging up her remains to prove she had died, having been repeatedly told he could not withdraw money without her being present. The incident took place at the Maliposi branch of the Odisha Grameen Bank in the Keonjhar district, in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. Television networks broadcast footage of the man carrying what appeared to be a corpse partially wrapped in plastic, with skeletal legs visible and slung over his shoulder. 'This created a highly distressing situation at the premises,' the bank said. The man, identified...
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Mullally will meet the head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics during a four-day visit starting Saturday, her first abroad since being enthroned last month as the Church of England's top cleric. The audience comes 60 years after a historic meeting in 1966 between then archbishop Michael Ramsey and pope Paul VI, the first at that level since the Church of England was created in the 16th century, when king Henry VIII broke with Rome. Relations have been steadily improving since although in 2016 their successors noted "new disagreements", particularly on the ordination of the women – making Mullally's visit...
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French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested that Europe needs to strengthen its defence posture, claiming that China, Russia, and the United States are all opposed to the interests of the old continent. On a visit with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Friday, President Macron continued his push for Europe to re-arm itself in light of the supposed unreliability of the United States under President Trump, who has himself long called for Europe to pay more for its own defence. Nevertheless, Macron yet again attempted to cast such a rearmament as being contrary to the interests of the...
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James Giovansanti lives and works on Staten Island. Since 2022, traffic cameras have caught his pickup truck blasting through school zones or running red lights more than 547 times in that one borough. He received 187 camera-issued tickets in 2025 alone — an average of one every other day. That record makes Giovansanti the second-most-reckless driver in the city. Because he pilots a 4,800-pound RAM 1500 truck at more than 41 mph across the island, he poses a unique danger to himself and his neighbors. Ticket data show a pattern of dangerous driving in a wide arc from Pleasant Plains...
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I asked my friend in Ireland what was going on as the media is downplaying stuff as usual. Here's her response: People are raging and worse it is getting. It’s been a slowly building … Our cost of living has gone unbearable for many. Gas is around 13 or 14 dollars a gallon if you were to put it in dollars 65 % of that is government tax then there is home heating oil - that has doubled. Then there is a housing crisis for Irish but immigrants get immediately given government housing while our homeless and violent crime skyrocket...
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Bone-chilling new video captures the moment a former Mexican beauty queen is gunned down in front of her baby — allegedly by her jealous mother-in-law. SNIP “Nothing,” Herrera answered. “She made me angry.” “What’s wrong with you? She’s my family,” the son responds. “You’re mine and she stole you,” his mother said. SNIP The dead woman’s mother, Reyna Gomez Molina, told Univision News that Gomez delayed reporting the incident due to concern over the couple’s young baby.
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A patriotic poster girl of the MAGA movement, now famous for her love of Coors Light, firearms and sub-zero bikini shoots, has been revealed as a total digital fabrication. This viral influencer babe is not an American patriot at all, but rather a 22-year-old male medical student from India. The aspiring orthopedic surgeon admitted that the blonde bombshell was nothing more than his AI-generated goldmine designed to fund his way through med school and, ironically, finance his eventual move to the United States. Leveraging demographic data from Google's Gemini AI, the creator engineered Emily Hart, a digital persona tailored to...
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Ashley St Clair's post on Benny Johnson was taken by many as an implication of him being gay as the former MAGA influencer warned she has evidence against him.Former MAGA influencer Ashley St Clair has taken to Instagram to publicly threaten pro-Trump commentator Benny Johnson, seemingly implying that he is gay after warning that she is ready to reveal damaging information about him. Ashley posted Instagram story with Benny's photo and multicolor flag with the song ‘gay’ playing. Many took it to be an implication of Johnson's sexuality. “Former MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair just posted this moments ago...
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Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in a dissent released on Monday that she “cannot fathom” the court’s decision in a case related to reasonable suspicion in a police encounter. The case stems from an early morning police encounter in Washington, D.C., in which a Metropolitan Police officer responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle and saw two people immediately flee from a car. The officer ordered the driver, identified only as R.W., to put his hands up, and the officer drew his service weapon. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals (DCCA) ruled that the officer, by...
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Former President Barack Obama said in a YouTube interview posted Feb. 14 he wants to meet Pope Leo XIV. Left-leaning political YouTuber and podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen asked who the former president most wanted to meet at the end of a wide-ranging Q&A that began with the topic of a controversial racist social media post that portrayed him and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, as apes. Obama answered that he wanted to meet the pope, “and I hope I get an opportunity sometime in the future.” Obama, whose second term ended in 2017 when President Donald Trump entered...
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Maren Morris took to social media to label her first relationship with a woman as “f–ked up.” The songstress opened up to fans about her “bisexual journey” in a TikTok on Wednesday, which she described as “pretty short.” SNIP “I’m not kidding, within like, three weeks of this completely falling apart, it was lies, threats to my reputation and borderline extortion,” the Grammy winner recalled. “It was pretty -–--- up. And for that to be my first experience, it was just so depressing,” the songstress lamented, concluding that she’s “just really cool being alone” after the fling. Morris shared that...
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Massive Fire Breaks Out At BYD Factory In China's Shenzhen: Video Videos of the massive fire in BYD's factory in Shenzhen have been circulating on social media, showing clouds of smoke rising from the parking facility. A massive fire broke out at a multi-level parking garage within BYD's manufacturing complex in Shenzhen's Pingshan district. The fire engulfed the building, sending thick pillars of black smoke into the sky and prompting a large scale emergency response. The blaze in the "three-dimensional" parking structure located in the Ma Luan subdistrict was contained by local fire and rescue teams, with no casualties reported...
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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is handing out $500 vouchers to migrants so they can enjoy haircuts, massages and other self-care benefits, despite the city's budget plunging nearly $50 million short. Applicants who are 'low-income, isolated queer and trans migrants, asylum seekers and refugees' are prioritized for the 'wellness allowance.' The initiative, called 'Boston Matters', was created by OUTnewcomers, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ migrants in Boston alongside the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement, Mass Daily News reported. Applicants get $250 to $500 toward 'non-clinical care' completely funded by the city agency, which is run by the Democrat's administration. They...
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Finnish President Alexander Stubb says he exchanges messages with Prime Minister Mark Carney almost every day. Stubb is in Ottawa for his first official bilateral meetings with Canada's prime minister. The pair are working to develop trade and defence ties, according to Carney's office. "With shared interests, values and a commitment to international security, I look forward to hosting President Stubb to deepen our partnership to create stability, security and prosperity for both our peoples," Carney wrote in a statement. "With shared interests, values and a commitment to international security, I look forward to hosting President Stubb to deepen our...
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A Chinese tanker under US sanctions passed though the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, defying Washington's naval blockade that began on Monday. After circling the area late on Monday and initially turning back, the 600ft long vessel passed through the waterway on Tuesday. Oil tanker Rich Starry is owned by Shanghai Xuanrun Shipping Co Ltd. and became a target for US sanctions because it was used to transport Iranian crude. Rich Starry is a medium-range tanker that is carrying about 250,000 barrels of methanol, according to the data. It loaded the cargo at its last port of call, the UAE's...
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Hours after Leo XIV became pope in May, Trump confidant and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer posted a brief message on social media. It said: “WOKE MARXIST POPE.” She was not the only member of the American right to immediately cast Leo as a culture war villain. Steve Bannon, a Catholic and former altar boy, called him the “worst pick for Maga Catholics” and described his election as a victory for “the globalists that run the Curia”. You might expect Donald Trump’s Maga base to embrace the first American pope. His administration is stacked with officials who speak proudly of their...
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A federal spending watchdog has found the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faced "challenges" in understanding the correct number of licenses it should hold for the top five vendors in its $985 million annual software expenditure. In a report [PDF] published last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that "while the VA identified its five most widely used software vendors with the highest quantity of licenses installed, it faced challenges in determining whether it was purchasing too many or too few of these software licenses." The GAO said that for fiscal 2025, the VA planned to spend about $985...
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