News Round-Up: Support for Free Speech as a Hate Crime, Presence of Toxins in Face Masks and the Trans-Ideological Cancellation of Alice Cooper
Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:
British Conservative councillor arrested for social media posts supporting freedom of expression
Covid panic messages in UK media
Cosmetics company cancels rock legend due to trans ideology
Study: Toxins in face masks can cause cancer
Musk vows to sue George Soros Open Society Foundation linked NGOs in Ireland
British Conservative councillor arrested for social media posts supporting freedom of expression
Anthony Stevens, a Conservative member of Wellingborough Town Council in Northamptonshire, was recently arrested on hate crime charges for making posts on X in support of free speech, reports The Telegraph.
In one of his posts, Stevens shared a video from 2019, with his 79 followers, of police dealing with Christian preacher Oluwole Ilesanmi at Southgate tube station in London. The police turned up after someone accused the preacher of Islamophobia and ordered the man to leave or face arrest. Ilesanmi refused to leave and was arrested. In the video, a policeman is seen forcibly grabbing the preacher's Bible despite his protests. As a result of the unlawful arrest, Ilesanmi was later paid £2,500 (€2,921) in compensation.
In a video posted by Stevens, the Ilesanmi incident was followed by another situation from London where a police officer says a Muslim preacher can preach on the street.
According to Stevens, he was accused by the police that the same video was also shared by a member of Britain First, a far-right, anti-immigration party. Mr Stevens said he was unaware of this fact and did not know what Britain First was. He said he posted the video only because it was "disturbing evidence of religious discrimination in law enforcement".
Stevens was also accused of expressing support on his X account for fellow councillor King Lawal who was being cancelled because of his Christian views. Notably, Lawal, Northamptonshire's only black councillor, was suspended by his local Conservative group in July after he spoke out against LGBTQ so-called Pride parades. Lawal wrote that he did not understand since when pride was a thing to celebrate. According to him, Satan fell from his angelic throne precisely because of pride. "Pride is not a virtue but a sin. Those who have pride should repent of their sins and return to Jesus Christ. He can save you," Lawal said.
Stevens shared a petition against Lawal's cancelling on his account in July accompanied with the message: If you value free speech, please sign and share.
The police asked Stevens if he agreed with Lawal's post about pride being a sin. Stevens replied that it didn't matter because he believed in freedom of speech, that is, that a person has the right to express his or her views without being cancelled for doing so.
Stevens was also asked about his post which featured a video of a man burning the Quran. On this, too, Stevens said that people should have the right to express themselves freely, including, for example, by burning a scripture.
The complaint against Stevens was made to the police by a member of the Labour Party. In summary, the police informed Stevens that he was suspected of distributing written material to stir up racial hatred. This is all the more bizarre because, in fact, Stevens had spoken out in defence of a black colleague and his freedom of speech. He was released on bail, but criminal proceedings against him are ongoing.
Covid panic messages are back in UK media
In last week's news review, we noted that Covid is back in the news in a big way in the US and a number of authorities and companies have started to demand face masks and impose restrictions. There were signs that the issue was coming back strongly on this side of the Atlantic, too. In the UK, this has clearly happened. "Biggest surge in Covid deaths this year: Number dying due to virus jumps 57% in a week – with experts already calling call for return of masks," reported The Daily Mail.
According to the UK's Office for National Statistics, 74 people died from Covid in England and Wales in a week. The week before that, there were 47 Covid deaths. According to the researchers cited in the article, the increase in deaths is due to new strains of the virus in circulation, which have been given the names Eris and Pirola.
However, the peak number of Covid deaths recorded in January this year was 654. Although it is not mentioned in the article, the average number of deaths in England and Wales is 11 000 per week.
The British government has now moved quickly to organise a vaccination campaign, citing the threat of the virus. Previously scheduled to begin in October, vaccinations against the coronavirus and influenza in care homes and among adults at risk will now start on September 11. The messages issued are specifically fearing the Pirola strain, described as the "real deal" and "the most striking" the world has seen since Omicron first appeared. "It is absolutely vital the most vulnerable groups receive a vaccine to strengthen their immunity over winter to protect themselves and reduce pressure on the NHS," said Health Minister Maria Caulfield.
Cosmetics company cancels a rock legend due to trans ideology
75-year-old rock legend Alice Cooper signed a partnership agreement with cosmetics company Vampyre Cosmetics just weeks ago. As the company markets horror-themed make-up, lip colours, artificial eyelashes and the like, Cooper, who wears horror-themed make-up at his gigs, would seem to be the perfect cover star for them.
However, Cooper's publicity partnership with the company actually ended before it even began, according to The New York Post. In a recent interview, Cooper, whose real name is Vincent Damon Furnier, voiced his opposition to underage sex change surgeries and hormones given to children in relation to that. "I’m understanding that there are cases of transgender, but I’m afraid that it’s also a fad, and I’m afraid there’s a lot of people claiming to be this just because they want to be that,” he said.
Cooper added that he thinks it is wrong to confuse a 6-year-old boy, for example, who just wants to play, with the idea that “you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be”. Similarly, he said, teenagers are being confused by this talk. "You’re still trying to find your identity, and yet here’s this thing going on, saying, ‘Yeah, but you can be anything you want. You can be a cat if you want to be’," he said. Cooper added that for him the whole thing is absurd. "Who’s making the rules? Is there a building somewhere in New York where people sit down every day and say, ‘Okay, we can’t say “mother” now. We have to say “birthing person,”" he reasoned.
Vampyre Cosmetics announced that it is ending its partnership with the star because of the comments. "We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare," they said. "Access to health care", which the company says it supports, in this context means access to sex change surgeries and hormones for minors.
Study: toxic compounds in face masks can cause cancer
Researchers at South Korea's Jeonbuk National University published a study in April that found that the so-called “gold standard” N95 masks recommended to combat the spread of the coronavirus contain dangerous chemical compounds, reports The Daily Mail. The study found that the chemicals released by these masks had eight times the recommended safety limit of toxic volatile organic compounds. Understandably, inhalation of such toxic compounds causes different types of health problems. Short-term inhalation includes headaches and nausea, while long-term and repeated inhalation has been linked to organ damage and cancer.
According to the study, cloth masks contained these toxic compounds 14 times less and posed no risk to human health. According to the researchers, it is also possible to reduce the risk from N95 masks by allowing the mask to stand in the air for at least half an hour after opening the packaging. This suggests that the packaging also plays a role in the high proportion of toxic chemicals.
This study also has shortcomings. For example, it did not look at the real situation, i.e. how the masks actually affected the people wearing them.
Musk vows to sue George Soros fund-linked NGOs in Ireland
Elon Musk, CEO of X, a major entrepreneur and champion of free speech, announced on Wednesday that the company will sue George Soros' Open Society Foundations' partners in Ireland for spreading false information about hate crimes in order to justify an unprecedented crackdown on free speech, reports The European Conservative.
Musk responded on his X account to an article by Irish-Jamaican journalist and commentator Ben Scallan, who claims that left-wing non-profit organisations backed by Open Society linked left-wing NGOs are manipulating statistics to show a sharp rise in hate crime in Ireland and using this information to justify the need for a new hate speech law. Government figures do not actually show any such thing about hate crime.
"Ireland is not only a tolerant society, but it was even a victim of British colonialism and ethnic bias historically itself,” Scallan wrote. “Why is such a seemingly friendly nation undergoing such an unprecedented assault on its freedom?”
The article was shared on X by journalist and author Michael Shellenberger, a well-known defender of free speech. Shellenberger noted that "the reason [politicians and Soros-funded NGOs] are spreading hate misinformation is to justify a draconian crackdown on free speech".
Notably, Ireland is in the process of adopting a particularly harsh hate speech law that would make it illegal to possess material in your home that could be considered hateful. The law will allow police to raid homes and confiscate equipment, with possible penalties of up to a year in prison and a €5,000 fine for simply refusing to hand over passwords. Possession of hateful material is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Commenting on the same article, Musk announced that X would be taking legal action against NGOs linked to the Soros' Open Society Foundation for sharing such misinformation about hate crimes in Ireland.