BCF’s Labour Day Fundraiser Is Underway!

BCF’s Labour Day Fundraiser Is Underway!

Hey Everyone!

I appreciate your support and I know readers have a good idea of the effort it takes to roll this blog out everyday.  I could not do it without your donations.

Keep us flying! – Donations can be made via the PayPal Kitty on the sidebar or by interac transfer to blazingcatfur@gmail.com.

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Banning cousin marriage won’t make it disappear

Banning cousin marriage won’t make it disappear

Reports today suggest Andy Burnham has been invited to send ministers to cross-party talks on a private member’s bill which would make marriage and sexual intercourse between first cousins illegal. The bill, tabled by Conservative MP Luke Evans in June, follows a similar piece of legislation by fellow Tory MP Richard Holden which received widespread attention last year. But the Evans bill is the first to address not just marriage but sex between first cousins.

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Pickering mayoral candidates urged to withdraw for ‘person of colour’

Pickering mayoral candidates urged to withdraw for ‘person of colour’

TORONTO — A private email sent to all five candidates for mayor of Pickering has sparked widespread backlash after urging them to withdraw from the race to make way for a “qualified PoC.”

The message, dated Tuesday and signed by Jessica Davis, was shared publicly by candidate Shaun Rickard.


Be smart Pickering don’t elect a Chow or Mamdani.

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Sudanese asylum seeker who arrived in UK after claim was rejected in France lay in wait on high street for lone woman before slashing her 30 times with a broken bottle

Sudanese asylum seeker who arrived in UK after claim was rejected in France lay in wait on high street for lone woman before slashing her 30 times with a broken bottle

A mentally ill asylum seeker lay in wait for a lone woman before slashing her 30 times with a broken bottle.

Ibrahim Albashir, 34, launched the frenzied attack on his victim, now 32, as she walked home from a meal with friends in March 2024.

On Tuesday, as he was jailed for 25 years, Leeds Crown Court heard of the shocking failures on both sides of the Channel that left Albashir able to travel to Britain.

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Trade Compliance Word of the Day: ‘Transshipment’

Trade Compliance Word of the Day: ‘Transshipment’

Among the reasons for the most recent blowup in the trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada is the issue of rampant transshipment, or, the transfer of goods or containers from one transport mode to another at a middle location on their way to a final destination, which Canada is allegedly not only tolerating, but encouraging, at the expense of not just the U.S. but the free world.

This is a challenge, not only because it’s the kind of industry jargon that makes a political issue difficult to discuss, but also because the word has multiple meanings, and not all are bad.

h/t patthedog

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Vatican–China Contentious Accord: How the Holy See Is Appeasing a Communist Regime

Vatican–China Contentious Accord: How the Holy See Is Appeasing a Communist Regime

Lord David Alton of Liverpool, a prominent member of the House of Lords in the UK, recently condemned the 2018 provisional agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a “deal with the devil,” highlighting its complicity in “gross violations” of religious freedom and its resultant betrayal of the underground Church in the nation.

“In the case of the Chinese Communist regime, it is making a deal with the devil—a regime that has committed genocide against Uyghur Muslims and persecutes Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and Chinese Christians,” Alton said.

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Carney’s defiance of Trump could destroy the Canadian economy

Carney’s defiance of Trump could destroy the Canadian economy

Canada and the US were once great friends, allies and trading partners. They had disagreements on various domestic and international matters, wars and military conflicts. They didn’t always see eye-to-eye on trade negotiations related to the auto sector, acid rain, softwood lumber and more. Nevertheless, the two countries always found a way to return to the same page.

Yet this historic and economic relationship has now been torn apart. Canada and the US are engulfed in a full-fledged trade war, and there’s no end in sight.

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UK Rape Gangs: Could It Happen Here?

UK Rape Gangs: Could It Happen Here?

This article discusses the conclusions of Britain’s Rape Gang Inquiry as to what it called the decades-long “systematic targeting of vulnerable girls” for sexual violence in the UK “by predominantly Muslim Pakistani gangs” and the factors that enabled such violence, including the culpability of the British government. This article also considers whether the United States is at risk for such mass sexual violence.

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Trump’s top trade negotiator disputes Canadian assertion that U.S. made last-minute demands

Trump’s top trade negotiator disputes Canadian assertion that U.S. made last-minute demands

The Trump administration’s top trade negotiator on Wednesday disputed Ottawa’s assertion that last-minute demands from the U.S. derailed a trade deal between the two countries, saying Canadian negotiators’ concerns about the deal’s “implementation” led Ottawa to pull the plug.

In an interview with CBC News, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Canadian side had new requests when his counterpart, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, returned from Ottawa after the tentative deal was struck on Aug. 18.

“We had agreed to, as I’ve shared before in the press, really the best deal available to any country on the planet with respect to Canada,” Greer told CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton in his first one-on-one interview with a Canadian news outlet since trade talks broke down on Friday.

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Republicans were already nervous about November. Then Trump restarted his trade war.

Republicans were already nervous about November. Then Trump restarted his trade war.

Republicans were already struggling to defuse simmering voter frustrations over the cost of living ahead of the midterms. Then President Donald Trump rekindled his trade wars.

Trump’s latest actions — especially his decision to impose 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, inviting retaliatory duties from America’s No. 2 trading partner — has sparked new pushback from GOP lawmakers and candidates.

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US issues sanctions against UK-based direct action group Palestine Action

US issues sanctions against UK-based direct action group Palestine Action

The US ⁠has ​issued sanctions against ⁠the UK-based direct action organisation Palestine ⁠Action, describing it as a “transnational terror group”.

The US Department of the Treasury labelled Palestine Action a specially designated global terrorist on Wednesday, which allows the US to freeze the assets of foreign individuals and entities.

Palestine Action became the first direct action group to be proscribed under the UK’s Terrorism Act in July last year, placing it alongside the likes of Islamic State and Boko Haram. The UK ban is the subject of a legal challenge that will be heard by the UK supreme court in November.

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