A group of martial arts experts volunteer to accompany Jews on their way to the synagogue on Shabbat in Los Angeles. Disgusting how commonplace violent anti-Semitism has become.

Homophobes go nuts today after a front-page advertisement showing Swedish soldiers carrying a Pride flag was published in Svenska Dagbladet. I love the image and wish this tolerance was present when I was younger.

“The Taliban have made rapid rural gains since it was announced almost all foreign troops would go by September,” BBC reports.

It’s only a matter of time before they control the whole country. This is devastating and upsetting.

“A total of 113 instances were obtained by UN Watch solely from viewing the public social media pages of the UNWRA employees, many of which celebrated and promoted violence,” Jerusalem Post reports.

“If there is one great tragic outcome of the decline of religion in the Western world, it is the silencing of religion’s most important message: that every human being is of infinite value,” Simone Biles writes in the Jerusalem Post.

Adrian Horton of the Guardian writes about the new documentary Pray Away, which is now available on Netflix. This “therapy” is one of the most violent forms of homophobia, leading to numerous suicides.

Vanity Fair: “How Rudy Giuliani Went From 9/11’s Hallowed Mayor to 2021’s Haunted Ghoul”

Michael Lavers of Washington Blade seems surprised. I’m not. Fascism is in right now. Unfortunately. 😢

“‘Ex-Husbands’ tells the story of gay married couple Daniel and Conner who, after becoming the first gay couple to be legally married in New York City in over-the-top fashion, now find themselves ready to call it quits in similar superfluous fashion,” Brian Bell writes.

Nope.

In practice, it doesn’t mean much, at least not for me. Bars and restaurant have been forced to close at midnight for quite some time now. The only big difference that I can see is that children’s playground will close on Monday. The rest is just some adjustment in the number of attendants at various events.

More at Canary News.

This is really good news, reported by Euronews.

Magda Gad reports for Swedish newspaper Expressen. The images of tortured people are horrific.

“Little had prepared any of us on the Athens-bound flight for the sight of the great fire-induced clouds that swept either side of the plane as it made its descent,” Helena Smith writes in the Guardian.

The Taliban have captured Kunduz and been able to break into two other regional capitals, the New York Times reports. This is bad.

IPCC paints a grim picture of the future. But perhaps we can now focus more on how to handle climate change instead of deluding ourselves into believing we can stop it. +1.5°C will happen.

Lukashenko says that the Belarusian sprinter who defected at the Olympic Games had been manipulated by outside forces and wouldn’t have fled abroad otherwise. Yeah, right!

The most sought after marijuana being trafficked across the border is now the weed entering Mexico, not the weed leaving it, Chron reports.

“An eight-year-old Hindu boy is being held in protective police custody in east Pakistan after becoming the youngest person ever to be charged with blasphemy in the country,” the Guardian writes.

Tests like this one are always done according to the American political landscape, so one must not make too much of them. That I’m leaning libertarian is hardly a surprise, though.

“The carbon dating tests and other analysis have all suggested that the wooden pieces and other artefacts date from the 12th or 11th centuries BC,” Professor Morris of Boston University says.

In a new study published in Nature, Niklas Boers finds that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation may have evolved from relatively stable conditions to a point close to a critical transition.

“The Taliban seized two more provinces on Saturday and approached the outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital,” AP reports.

Following the Afghan disaster live via the Guardian is heartbreaking. How can we allow this to happen?

Reports are coming in from all over. It seems inevitable now. 😢

While the world is worrying about the people of Afghanistan, a spokesperson of the far-right Sweden Democrats worry that some Afghan refugees might come to Sweden.

Saddening images in the Guardian. It’s hard to comprehend what big a failure this is.

It’s ugly to blame the failure in Afghanistan on liberalism, but it’s even uglier to gloat. These men’s socialism is a corrupt and immoral ideology.

Some manage to cling on for a few minutes after take-off only to fall to their death soon after. Horrible images that remind me of how people jumped from the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001.

Nabih Bulos writes about it in the Los Angeles Times.

The jokester is gone.

Right now, hundreds of children are at risk from murder because their families believe they are witches. I’m writing parts of a book about it. A fascinating topic to research. I’m used to studying religious violence, but at times it makes me feel frustrated. And the ongoing Talibanisation of Afghanistan doesn’t make me feel less so. Bear with me.

“Afghanistan’s last remaining Jew, Zabulon Simantov, has decided to remain in the country despite the Taliban’s takeover,” Jerusalem Post reports. Stupid or stubborn?

When will Sweden do the same?

Not much information from the police so far. A 45-year-old teacher has been stabbed and taken to hospital for emergency surgery, and a 15-year-old boy has been arrested.

A court has ordered the release of an ultra-Orthodox teenager after he was forcibly hospitalised for being homosexual, Jerusalem Post reports.

Homophobia really is an illness, though.

שבת שלום

I have lost counts on how many times the Swedish prime minister has left office in the past six month, but not it seems set to happen in November. This time for good.

My diary has been quiet for a few days. But don’t worry, I’m not dead, just busy with some programming.

It’s Friday night. Yes!

If what the Guardian writes is true, it’s a worrying sign of a communist crackdown on gay people. We’ve seen it many times before in other communist countries.

Up to three cups of coffee per day is associated with a lower risk of stroke and fatal heart disease, according to research presented by the European Society of Cardiology. ☕️