THE NEW YORK TIMES: China intensified its crackdown on cryptocurrency on Friday, calling all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies illegal and issuing a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency mining.
In a joint statement by 11 Chinese government entities, authorities vowed to work closely to punish “illegal” crypto mining activities to help prevent the “hidden risks caused by the blind and disorderly development” of the industry and to help the country achieve its carbon reduction goals.
China’s central bank announced that services offering trading, order matching, token issuance and derivatives for virtual currencies would be strictly prohibited. The bank also said that overseas crypto exchanges providing services in mainland China were also illegal.
Less than three hours after the notice was posted by China’s central bank, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, had dropped by about 7 percent, to around $41,100. » | Amy Qin | Friday, September 24, 2021
Friday, September 24, 2021
Marc Fromager, sur les pas d’Ismérie pour convertir… les musulmans
LE FIGARO : PORTRAIT - Chaque année, des musulmans se convertissent en France au christianisme. Lancée en 2020, Mission Ismérie, que dirige Marc Fromager, les accompagne dans leur parcours.
Pendant vingt et un ans, Marc Fromager a parcouru la planète alors qu’il dirigeait l’Aide à l’Église en détresse (AED) en France. On le retrouve aujourd’hui à la tête de Mission Ismérie, du nom de cette princesse musulmane, fille d’un sultan égyptien du Caire, devenue chrétienne au XIIe siècle. La structure n’a qu’un an d’existence mais, déjà, un objectif ambitieux que ce quinquagénaire à l’âme missionnaire poursuit avec conviction: il s’agit ni plus ni moins d’annoncer le Christ aux musulmans, en réponse à l’invitation du pape François d’aller porter l’Évangile aux périphéries. Mission impossible? Loin de là, estime Marc Fromager qui connaît trop bien le monde musulman, «sa soif de transcendance, son appétence métaphysique et spirituelle» pour se décourager. «Il est sans doute plus facile de discuter de Dieu avec un musulman qu’avec un athée», lance-t-il. Lors des missions d’évangélisation que nous menons dans la rue, les musulmans sont les premiers à s’arrêter pour discuter. Ils sont surpris de rencontrer des «Gaulois» qui croient en Dieu et se proposent de leur transmettre son message d’espérance, dans une attitude de respect mutuel, d’ouverture et de dialogue. Beaucoup de musulmans ont envie de connaître Dieu.» » | Par Ghislain de Montalembert | vendredi 24 septembre 2021
Réservé aux abonnés
‘Necessary for Security’: Veteran Taliban Enforcer Says Amputations Will Resume
THE GUARDIAN: Nooruddin Turabi, in charge of Afghan prisons, says executions and removal of hands will restart, but possibly not in public
Afghanistan’s Taliban leader Mullah Nooruddin Turabi. ‘No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam.’ Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP
The Taliban will resume executions and the amputation of hands for criminals they convict, in a return to their harsh version of Islamic justice.
According to a senior official – a veteran leader of the hardline Islamist group who was in charge of justice during its previous period in power – executions would not necessarily take place in public as they did before.
The Taliban’s first period ruling Afghanistan during the 1990s, before they were toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks, was marked by the grisly excesses of its perfunctory justice system, which included public executions in the football stadium in Kabul.
In an interview with Associated Press, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi – who was justice minister and head of the so-called ministry of propagation of virtue and prevention of vice during the Taliban’s previous rule – dismissed outrage over the Taliban’s executions in the past, and warned the world against interfering with Afghanistan’s new rulers.
Under the new Taliban government, Turabi is in charge of prisons. He is among a number of Taliban leaders, including members of the all-male interim cabinet, who are on a United Nations sanctions list.
“Everyone criticised us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Turabi said in Kabul. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Qur’an.”
“Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security,” Turabi added, saying it had a deterrent effect. He said the cabinet was studying whether to carry out punishments in public and would “develop a policy”. » | Peter Beaumont | Friday, September 24, 2021
Barbaric laws for people who live in darkness, for people who are shackled to a bygone age. – © Mark
Afghanistan: Executions will return, says senior Taliban official: The Taliban's notorious former head of religious police has said extreme punishments such as executions and amputations will resume in Afghanistan. »
The Taliban will resume executions and the amputation of hands for criminals they convict, in a return to their harsh version of Islamic justice.
According to a senior official – a veteran leader of the hardline Islamist group who was in charge of justice during its previous period in power – executions would not necessarily take place in public as they did before.
The Taliban’s first period ruling Afghanistan during the 1990s, before they were toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks, was marked by the grisly excesses of its perfunctory justice system, which included public executions in the football stadium in Kabul.
In an interview with Associated Press, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi – who was justice minister and head of the so-called ministry of propagation of virtue and prevention of vice during the Taliban’s previous rule – dismissed outrage over the Taliban’s executions in the past, and warned the world against interfering with Afghanistan’s new rulers.
Under the new Taliban government, Turabi is in charge of prisons. He is among a number of Taliban leaders, including members of the all-male interim cabinet, who are on a United Nations sanctions list.
“Everyone criticised us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Turabi said in Kabul. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Qur’an.”
“Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security,” Turabi added, saying it had a deterrent effect. He said the cabinet was studying whether to carry out punishments in public and would “develop a policy”. » | Peter Beaumont | Friday, September 24, 2021
Barbaric laws for people who live in darkness, for people who are shackled to a bygone age. – © Mark
Afghanistan: Executions will return, says senior Taliban official: The Taliban's notorious former head of religious police has said extreme punishments such as executions and amputations will resume in Afghanistan. »
Furious French Defence Contractor to Seek Compensation over Aukus Deal
THE GUARDIAN: Head of Naval Group attacks Australia’s ‘political’ decision to cancel €56bn contract with his firm
Australia has signed up to an empty promise by agreeing to a US nuclear powered submarine deal for which there is no clear delivery date or technology transfer agreement, the furious head of the French defence contractor Naval Group has warned.
Pierre Eric Pommellet also said his firm will be seeking compensation for Australia’s cancellation of a €56bn (£48bn) contract for 12 new Attack-class submarines, which he described as a purely political decision which came without warning.
His comments to Le Figaro were the latest allegations that Australia’s decision to replace the French contract with the Aukus deal with the UK and US was political rather than defence-based. Australia has implied that the contract cancellation followed a new assessment of the security threat posed by China.
Pommellet said the only tangible point of the proposed new contract “is the decision to acquire nuclear powered boats. When, how, with which partners, which technological transfer? No one knows. Australia, on the other hand, knows what it is losing and what we were committed to building.”
He added: “At Naval Group … we had no warning sign or the slightest information that we were becoming a plan B in favour of a plan A with the United States and the United Kingdom.
“Discussions between these two countries and Australia have undoubtedly been conducted in a very small circle at the highest political level for several months.
“This decision was announced to us without any notice, with incredible brutality.” » | Patrick Wintour | Thursday, September 23, 2021
Crise des sous-marins : le président de Naval Group rompt le silence »
Australia has signed up to an empty promise by agreeing to a US nuclear powered submarine deal for which there is no clear delivery date or technology transfer agreement, the furious head of the French defence contractor Naval Group has warned.
Pierre Eric Pommellet also said his firm will be seeking compensation for Australia’s cancellation of a €56bn (£48bn) contract for 12 new Attack-class submarines, which he described as a purely political decision which came without warning.
His comments to Le Figaro were the latest allegations that Australia’s decision to replace the French contract with the Aukus deal with the UK and US was political rather than defence-based. Australia has implied that the contract cancellation followed a new assessment of the security threat posed by China.
Pommellet said the only tangible point of the proposed new contract “is the decision to acquire nuclear powered boats. When, how, with which partners, which technological transfer? No one knows. Australia, on the other hand, knows what it is losing and what we were committed to building.”
He added: “At Naval Group … we had no warning sign or the slightest information that we were becoming a plan B in favour of a plan A with the United States and the United Kingdom.
“Discussions between these two countries and Australia have undoubtedly been conducted in a very small circle at the highest political level for several months.
“This decision was announced to us without any notice, with incredible brutality.” » | Patrick Wintour | Thursday, September 23, 2021
Crise des sous-marins : le président de Naval Group rompt le silence »
The AP Interview: Hungary Committed to Contentious LGBT Law
ASSOCIATED PRESS: UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The right-wing populist government in Hungary is attracting conservative thinkers from the United States who admire its approaches to migration, LGBT issues and national sovereignty — all matters that have put the country at odds with its European partners, who see not a conservative haven but a worrying erosion of democratic institutions on multiple fronts.
Hungary’s top diplomat has a few things to say about that.
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting of world leaders, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said his country would not cede ground on policies that have caused the European Union to impose financial penalties and start legal proceedings against it over violations of the bloc’s values.
“We do not compromise on these issues because we are a sovereign country, a sovereign nation. And no one, not even the European Commission, should blackmail us regarding these policies,” Szijjarto said.
Topping the list of contentious government policies: a controversial Hungarian law that the EU says violates the fundamental rights of LGBT people. That led the EU’s executive commission to delay billions in economic recovery funds earmarked for Hungary — a move Szijjarto called “a purely political decision” and “blackmail.” The law, he says, is meant to protect children from pedophiles and ”homosexual propaganda.”
“We will not make [make] compromises about the future of our children,” Szijjarto told the AP.
The law, passed in June, makes it illegal to promote or portray sex reassignment or homosexuality to minors under 18 in media content. It also contains provisions that provide harsher penalties for pedophilia. Critics say it conflates pedophilia with homosexuality and stigmatizes sexual minorities. » | Justin Spike | Friday, September 24, 2021
Does Hungary really belong in the European Union? The EU is progressive; Hungary, under this regime, is regressive. It is an outrage that the Hungarian government should be conflating being gay with paedophilia! An absolute outrage! It shows these people's ignorance and bigotry. – © Mark
Poland Loses ‘LGBT-free Zone’ as Region Renounces Hate and ‘Guarantees Equality for All’
PINK NEWS: A rural region in southern Poland scrapped a motion opposing “LGBT ideology” after the European Union (EU) threatened to cut funding.
Several Polish regions, towns and cities have adopted hostile resolutions that declare the areas “free from LGBT ideology”. The EU has harshly rebuked the so-called ‘LGBT-free zones’ since they began popping up across Poland in 2019.
On Wednesday (22 September), the regional assembly of Swietokrzyskie voted in a special session to abolish the anti-LGBT+ resolution, Euronews reported.
At the special regional assembly, 25 councillors in Swietokrzyskie passed a new resolution stating that Poland’s constitution guarantees parents the right to raise their children consistent with their beliefs and views. But it stated the constitution also ensures a “guarantee of equality and fair treatment for all”.
LGBT+ activist Bart Staszewski said it was a “great day for Poland and great success of activists and civil society”, the Associated Press reported. » | Maggie Baska | Thursday, September 23, 2021
Verwandter Artikel hier.
Several Polish regions, towns and cities have adopted hostile resolutions that declare the areas “free from LGBT ideology”. The EU has harshly rebuked the so-called ‘LGBT-free zones’ since they began popping up across Poland in 2019.
On Wednesday (22 September), the regional assembly of Swietokrzyskie voted in a special session to abolish the anti-LGBT+ resolution, Euronews reported.
At the special regional assembly, 25 councillors in Swietokrzyskie passed a new resolution stating that Poland’s constitution guarantees parents the right to raise their children consistent with their beliefs and views. But it stated the constitution also ensures a “guarantee of equality and fair treatment for all”.
LGBT+ activist Bart Staszewski said it was a “great day for Poland and great success of activists and civil society”, the Associated Press reported. » | Maggie Baska | Thursday, September 23, 2021
Verwandter Artikel hier.
Southern Baptist Father's Reaction to His Gay Son
A Huge Jain Gay Wedding
Matt and Clay | Cape Cod Wedding | Wequassett Resort and Golf Club
Sailing to the End of Love!
Gay Shock Therapy Still in Use in China | Unreported World
A Man Fights Gay Conversion Clinics in China
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Le pape à contre-courant des peurs européennes
LE MONDE : En défendant le multiculturalisme et la diversité religieuse, lors de sa visite à Budapest et en Slovaquie, du 12 au 15 septembre, le pape François a martelé un message d’audace et de créativité auprès des dirigeants de l’Europe.
Editorial du « Monde ». Le célèbre mot d’ordre de Jean Paul II, « N’ayez pas peur ! », est resté gravé dans les mémoires. Lancé lors de la messe inaugurale de son pontificat, en octobre 1978, il ne s’adressait pas seulement aux catholiques européens. Mais ceux qui vivaient derrière le rideau de fer, dont ses compatriotes polonais, l’ont pris comme un encouragement à braver le glacis soviétique.
Le pape François n’a pas repris la formule telle quelle lors de sa visite à Budapest et en Slovaquie, du 12 au 15 septembre. Mais toutes les paroles qu’il y a prononcées revenaient à renouveler à tous les Européens, et pas seulement à ceux d’Europe centrale ni aux seuls catholiques, les encouragements de son prédécesseur polonais. Face aux défis contemporains qui taraudent le continent, ne vous laissez pas dominer par la peur, leur a-t-il dit en substance. Non seulement elle vous rendrait infidèles à vous-mêmes, mais encore elle vous fermerait à « une société fraternelle ». » | Éditorial | jeudi 16 septembre 2021
Editorial du « Monde ». Le célèbre mot d’ordre de Jean Paul II, « N’ayez pas peur ! », est resté gravé dans les mémoires. Lancé lors de la messe inaugurale de son pontificat, en octobre 1978, il ne s’adressait pas seulement aux catholiques européens. Mais ceux qui vivaient derrière le rideau de fer, dont ses compatriotes polonais, l’ont pris comme un encouragement à braver le glacis soviétique.
Le pape François n’a pas repris la formule telle quelle lors de sa visite à Budapest et en Slovaquie, du 12 au 15 septembre. Mais toutes les paroles qu’il y a prononcées revenaient à renouveler à tous les Européens, et pas seulement à ceux d’Europe centrale ni aux seuls catholiques, les encouragements de son prédécesseur polonais. Face aux défis contemporains qui taraudent le continent, ne vous laissez pas dominer par la peur, leur a-t-il dit en substance. Non seulement elle vous rendrait infidèles à vous-mêmes, mais encore elle vous fermerait à « une société fraternelle ». » | Éditorial | jeudi 16 septembre 2021
Richard Buckley, rédacteur mode et mari "bien-aimé" de Tom Ford, est mort à 72 ans
MADAME FIGARO : Le journaliste de mode partageait la vie du créateur américain depuis trente-cinq ans. Tom Ford a annoncé sa disparition par voie de communiqué.
Un physique fin, des yeux perçants, un sourire discret. Dans les soirées mondaines, la silhouette de Richard Buckley n'était jamais loin de celle de Tom Ford, qui était son compagnon depuis 35 ans. Le créateur américain a révélé sa disparition lundi soir. «C'est avec une grande tristesse que Tom Ford annonce le décès de son mari bien-aimé depuis 35 ans. Richard est décédé paisiblement à leur domicile à Los Angeles la nuit dernière, avec Tom et leur fils Jack à ses côtés. Il est décédé de causes naturelles après une longue maladie». » | Par Sabrina Pons | mardi 21 septembre 2021
À LIRE AUSSI :
Plusieurs liens vers des articles ici.
Et une vidéo en anglais : Tom Ford on Finding 'Love at First Sight' & His Relationship Lasting »
Sous-marins australiens : la sortie de crise prendra du «temps» et requiert des «actes», estime Le Drian
LE FIGARO : Après un entretien avec son homologue américain, Antony Blinken, le ministre français des Affaires étrangères a «rappelé qu'une première étape avait été franchie lors de l'appel des deux présidents», Emmanuel Macron et Joe Biden, mercredi.
La sortie de crise entre la France et les États-Unis va prendre du «temps» et demander des «actes», a affirmé jeudi le chef de la diplomatie française Jean-Yves Le Drian à son homologue américain Antony Blinken, lors d'un entretien bilatéral à New York. Le ministre français a «rappelé qu'une première étape avait été franchie lors de l'appel des deux présidents (Joe Biden et Emmanuel Macron mercredi) mais a constaté que la sortie de crise entre nos deux pays prendrait du temps et requerrait des actes», indique un communiqué de son ministère publié après la rencontre tenue dans les locaux de la mission diplomatique française auprès de l'ONU. » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | jeudi 23 septembre 2021
Marvin Gaye : I Heard It Through The Grapevine
French Cooking Academy: Rice Pudding
Get the recipe here.
The French Cooking Academy »
Pierre Hermé, Paris
Pierre Hermé, UK
Crise des sous-marins: Macron et Biden désamorcent la crise diplomatique
LE FIGARO : Les présidents français et américain ont promis mercredi de rétablir la confiance entre Paris et Washington, après six jours de tensions autour des sous-marins australiens.
L'ambassadeur français Philippe Étienne retourne aux États-Unis la semaine prochaine. Et des « consultations approfondies » vont être mises en place pour permettre le retour de la confiance entre les deux pays.
Après une semaine d'une crise diplomatique intense, Joe Biden et Emmanuel Macron ont fait baisser la tension mercredi. Ils se sont entretenus au téléphone, à la demande du président américain, « pour examiner les conséquences », selon le communiqué conjoint de l'Élysée et de la Maison-Blanche, de l'annonce faite le 15 septembre.
Suite à la constitution d'une nouvelle alliance entre les États-Unis, l'Australie et le Royaume-Uni et la rupture du partenariat stratégique noué autour du contrat des « sous-marins australiens », la France avait, dans un geste rare et fort, rappelé pour consultation ses ambassadeurs à Washington et à Canberra.
Les deux chefs d'État, constatant « que des consultations ouvertes entre alliés sur les questions d'intérêt stratégique pour la France et les partenaires européens auraient permis d'éviter cette situation », ont décidé de lancer un processus de consultations « approfondies ». » | Par Isabelle Lasserre | Publié : mercredi 22 sptembre 2021 ; mis à jour : jeudi 23 septembre 2021
Crise des sous-marins : le président de Naval Group rompt le silence : EXCLUSIF - Dans un entretien au Figaro, Pierre Éric Pommellet, assure que le matin même du jour de la dénonciation du contrat, le gouvernement australien «avait accepté l'offre de Naval Group qui aurait permis d'engager une nouvelle phase du programme». »
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)