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/pol/'s News Thread II Anonymous 06/24/2024 (Mon) 17:43:29 Id: ac4fe6 No. 20559
Previous thread >>10568 Archive: https://archive.ph/D1r26 This thread is for sharing news of all kinds that /pol/ users find relevant. The purpose of this is to encourage activity on the board by creating a source of constant topics that can be discussed and new threads created if they are "big" enough, as well as serving as a place where less "important" news can be shared without fear of "wasting" a thread on them. As with the rest of the board, it is a requirement to include an archive of the news article in question. Social media screenshots of "literal who" are discouraged unless they are a part of a major event. It is recommended that topics that have generated a lot of discussion in the thread have separate threads, in order to avoid derailing this thread.
>>21251 Two things First, where's the archives? Second, we already have a thread for this shit: >>>/pol/19382
https://cointelegraph()com/news/argentina-government-ministry-of-security-uiaas-artificial-intelligence-ai https://archive.ph/PNoJx 4 August 2024. Edited. >Argentina is set to develop a specialized task force using artificial intelligence to identify and deter future crimes within the nation. >The Ministry of Security of Argentina has announced the creation of the Applied Artificial Intelligence for Security Unit (UIAAS), led by the director of cybercrime and cyber affairs, along with members from the Argentine Federal Police and security forces. >One of the main tasks of the group will be to “use machine learning algorithms to analyze historical crime data to predict future crimes and help prevent them,” according to a recent statement by the Ministry of Security of Argentina. >The crimes of interest for the UIAAS range widely. >A major focus is identifying potential cyber threats by detecting “unusual patterns in computer networks,” including malware, phishing and other types of cyberattacks. >It will also handle more dangerous tasks, such as bomb disposal, and attempt to improve the speed of communication between the police and relevant security teams. >Monitoring social media activity was also mentioned as a method to detect any signs of communication about potential future crimes. >“Analyze social media activities to detect potential threats, identify criminal group movements, or foresee disturbances,” it stated. >Some have taken to social media to argue that it may not be beneficial in the long run. >Well-known American software engineer Grady Booch claimed it “will not end well” to his 165,500 X followers in an Aug. 2 post. >“Argentina is using AI to fight crime, but at what cost to privacy?” computer software engineer David Arnal commented. >“Once again, where are the Milei supporters on this one?” author Derrick Broze added. We don't need to go over how "artificial intelligence" is nothing of the sort, it's just a bunch of jews and leftists writing programs to give kosher answers. So what happens when an extreme philo-semite like Milei uses talmudic "AI" to detect pre-crime, to monitor social media, protests and "thought crime"? See also: "Palantir has secretly been using New Orleans to test its predictive policing technology" https://archive.is/375AB
https://www.msn()com/en-us/money/markets/the-mystery-of-argentina-s-gold-milei-admits-that-it-was-transferred-abroad-without-specifying-the-quantities-or-destination/ar-BB1qKA8L https://archive.is/yDVIX >Argentina’s reserves, held by its Central Bank, include almost two million troy ounces of gold, valued at about $4.5 billion. >But lately, there’s a question that’s on everybody’s lips: where is it? Was it taken out of the country? Did some of it remain within Argentina, while the rest was transferred abroad? >Well, the official information only offers partial answers. >The administration of President Javier Milei admitted to the recent transfer of gold abroad, but didn’t specify quantities, the destination, or the purpose for this measure. Nor did the Central Bank provide any details. >In a scenario of financial instability — and with the government facing the need to accumulate reserves — the decision generated suspicions and speculation. There are also fears that the gold could possibly be seized, due to long-standing legal cases that have been filed against Argentina by foreign creditors. >The news about the transfer of the gold was not officially announced by the government or the Central Bank. Rather, the information came from the bank workers’ union, known as La Bancaria. >Its leader — the left-wing legislator Sergio Palazzo — presented a request within the framework of the Law of Access to Public Information for the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), asking “if there [were any] operations to send gold bars abroad during the month of June.” >Specifically, he demanded to know if transfers of gold took place on June 7 and June 28 through Lumil — a private security firm that transports valuables — and British Airways. He also wanted to know the specific amounts, their destination, the administrative procedures taken, as well as the names of the officials involved. You can read the rest of the kosher back and forth in the original if you want; but some puppet of the jews comes to power in Argentina and starts shipping out their gold. You put two and two together. And the kikes have installed another of their own in Mexico, while lining up Trump in the USA. Another article on this: https://www.zerohedge()com/news/2024-08-02/liber-dud-milei-government-begins-shipping-gold-reserves-overseas
The Irish burning hotels for "asylum seekers". https://www.bitchute()com/video/WOeyWb4qH8QR
>G7 Ambassadors to Skip Atomic Bomb Ceremony in Nagasaki; Joint Letter Cites Decision to Not Invite Israel as Reason https://archive.ph/H6UjQ <The ambassadors from Japan’s fellow members of the Group of Seven will not attend the annual ceremony in Nagasaki on Friday marking the U.S. atomic bombing of the city, it has been learned. <Representatives of the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada told The Yomiuri Shimbun that the decision was prompted by the fact that Israel was not invited to the ceremony. Counselors and consuls from the six countries will attend instead.
https://wattsupwiththat()com/2024/08/13/anthropogenic-global-warming-is-political-not-physical-science/ https://archive.ph/d1esO Arvid Pasto. 14 August 2024. Edited. >By now, almost everyone knows that “the world is warming”, and has been told over and over by the mainstream media that it is due to man’s emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), principally but not limited to carbon dioxide (CO2). >This claim is largely due to the efforts of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). >A history of this institution is very instructive, as its roots trace back to the Club of Rome. >A MUST read is https://climatism()blog/2018/12/19/draconian-un-climate-agenda-exposed-global-warming-fears-are-a-tool-for-political-and-economic-change-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-actual-climate/ >I quote extensively from this reference below, in brackets […]: >[The Club of Rome was a group of mainly European scientists and academics, who used computer modelling to warn that the world would run out of finite resources if population growth were left unchecked. >The Club of Rome’s 1972 environmental best-seller “The Limits To Growth”, examined five variables in the original model: world population, industrialization, pollution, food production and resource depletion. >They noted that “In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that…the threat of global warming…would fit the bill…the real enemy, then, is humanity itself.” >Not surprisingly, their study predicted a dire future for mankind unless we ‘act now’: >“We are unanimously convinced that rapid, radical redressment [not a word] of the present unbalanced and dangerously deteriorating world situation is the primary task facing mankind…Concerted international measures and joint long-term planning will be necessary on a scale and scope without precedent…This supreme effort is…founded on a basic change of values and goals at individual, national, and world levels…” >Around the same time, influential anthropologist and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Margaret Mead, gathered together like-minded anti-population hoaxsters at her 1975, North Carolina conference, “The Atmosphere: Endangered and Endangering”. >Mead’s star recruits were climate scare artist Stephen Schneider, population-freak George Woodwell and former AAAS head, John Holdren (Obama’s Science and Technology Czar). >All three of them were disciples of Malthusian catastrophist Paul Ehrlich, author of “The Population Bomb”. >The conference concluded that human-produced carbon dioxide would fry the planet, melt the ice caps, and destroy human life. >The creator, fabricator and proponent of global warming alarmism, Maurice Strong, founded the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and its ‘science’ arm, the UN-IPCC, under the premise of studying only human (CO2) driven causes of climate change. >Strong’s, and the UN’s, ‘Climate Change’ agenda was clearly laid out before the ‘science’ of climate change was butchered and tortured to fit the Global Warming narrative… >“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” – Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) Earlier the author claimed one of the aims of the 'global warming' racket was to stop development in the third world, I cut that out because here one of the early promoters of GW, Strong, explicitly states that it's targetted at the "industrialized civilizations", i.e. White countries. That's a common lie they like to slip in so they can go for the angle that it's "nazis" doing all these things because they hate none-Whites, when in reality all these things are done to destroy Whites. >“Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class – involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, air-conditioning, and suburban housing – are not sustainable.” – Maurice Strong, Rio Earth Summit > “It is the responsibility of each human being today to choose between the force of darkness and the force of light. We must therefore transform our attitudes, and adopt a renewed respect for the superior laws of Divine Nature.“ – Maurice Strong, first Secretary General of UNEP >Why Did They Choose CO2 as the Villain? >Atmospheric physicist, MIT Professor of Meteorology and former IPCC lead author Richard S. Lindzen, examined the politics and ideology behind the CO2-centricity that drives the man-made climate change agenda. >His summary goes to the very heart of why carbon dioxide has become the center-piece of the ‘global’ climate debate: >“For a lot of people including the bureaucracy in Government and the environmental movement, the issue is power. It’s hard to imagine a better leverage point than carbon dioxide to assume control over a society. It’s essential to the production of energy, it’s essential to breathing. If you demonize it and gain control over it, you so-to-speak, control everything. That’s attractive to people. It’s been openly stated for over forty years that one should try to use this issue for a variety of purposes, ranging from North/South redistribution, to energy independence, to God knows what…” "North/South redistribution" is just another way of saying its aim is the destruction of White nations. >“CO2 for different people has different attractions. After all, what is it? – it’s not a pollutant, it’s a product of every living creature’s breathing, it’s the product of all plant respiration, it is essential for plant life and photosynthesis, it’s a product of all industrial burning, it’s a product of driving – I mean, if you ever wanted a leverage point to control everything from exhalation to driving, this would be a dream. So it has a kind of fundamental attractiveness to bureaucratic mentality.” >Energy rationing and the control of carbon dioxide, the direct by-product of cheap, reliable hydrocarbon energy, has always been key to the misanthropic agenda of depopulation and deindustrialization. A totalitarian ideology enforced through punitive emissions controls under the guise of “Saving the Planet”. >Stanford University and The Royal Society’s resident global warming alarmist and population freak Paul R. Ehrlich spelled out in 1976 the anti-energy agenda that still underpins the current ‘climate change’ scare: >“Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun.” >(end of cited article) Yes, Ehrlich was a jew >This introduction to the IPCC ought to set the reader up to expect nothing but political polemic from them. >However, to make their stand successful, they had to have some science behind the vilification of CO2. This “science” had long been prophesied, from Joseph Fourier in France in 1824, with evidence provided by Claude Pouillet in 1827 and 1838. >John Tyndall showed evidence in 1896. But the effect was more fully quantified by Svante Arrhenius in 1896, who made the first quantitative prediction of global warming due to a hypothetical doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
[Expand Post]>[Names/dates from Wikipedia, e.g.- https://en()wikipedia()org/wiki/History_of_climate_change_science ] >With this scientifically proposed mechanism as a means to vilify CO2, the IPCC was off to the races! The UN gave grants to study the topic, as did many national research institutions in various countries. >As academic, and non-governmental organization (NGO), scientists realized how much money there was to be had, the topic ballooned. >The UN constructed the UN-FCCC (Framework Convention on Climate Change), with almost all of the countries in the world as “parties” to it. You can see again here that White countries are targetted by this agreement: https://en()wikipedia()org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change#Membership_and_participation The industrialized or developed countries that are named as specifically targetted are green or blue in the third image attached. Israel is not listed in either group. >The IPCC convened yearly meetings, where up to 30,000+ government, academic, NGO, media, and other interested people appeared. >These were usually in very nice, expensive places, as their conferences were so large that only certain cities could host them. >A few noteworthy were the Conference of the Parties (COPs) numbered 3 (Kyoto, Japan 1997), 15 (Copenhagen, Denmark 2009), 16 (Cancun, Mexico), 21 (Paris, France 2015), and 24 (Katowice, Poland 2018). I call these five out because I will describe some of their outcomes, and some telling, typically off-camera, commentary from the attendees as to the REAL purpose of these meetings. >The COP official attendees (representatives of the governments, NOT the press or NGOs) developed plans, many of which became “treaties” to be signed by the countries. >For instance, at COP 3 in Kyoto, it was agreed that the world should reduce its GHG output. As WIKIPEDIA puts it: >“The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to reduce the onset of global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to “a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. The Kyoto Protocol applies to the six greenhouse gases listed in Annex A: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). >“The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities: it acknowledges that individual countries have different capabilities in combating climate change, owing to economic development, and therefore puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” https://en()wikipedia()org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol >So, you see immediately that the push is to blame the “developed nations”, and this mantra becomes the basis of later agreements on “climate reparations” >The US and other developed nations put all of these horrible GHGs into the atmosphere, and thus they should pay those who need the money and DID NOT add significant CO2 to the atmosphere. As stated above, look at the official map in the third attachment to see "developed nation" means White nation. >Bill Clinton was US President at this time, and he agreed to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, even though it had legally-binding requirements on the US, and would require Senate ratification. >George Bush became president in 2001, and the Senate refused to ratify the Protocol, so, for all intents and purposes, it was dead. >Not to be defeated, the IPCC kept pushing each year to get everyone on board. And each time, they ratcheted up their demands on the developed world. >The term “Loss and Damage” became the rallying call for the “developing” countries, wherein they could claim that the developed world caused the climate problems they face(d), and they could then sue (us). >At COP15 in Copenhagen, the “Parties”, emboldened by the election of Barack Obama to presidency of the US in 2008, agreed to an unbelievable (to me) wording. >If we signed on to this, the United States would agree to become subservient to a “government” consisting of over 100 other nations, including giving this “government” the ability to tax the U.S. to pay “reparations” for having burned fossil fuels; to give it permission to tax our GDP up to 2% annually; and other assorted insults!
>>21541 Cont. >I put the word government in quotations, because that is the word the proposed Copenhagen Treaty actually used. >Meanwhile at that COP, the press was able to capture some very candid commentary from the attendees: >According to Jacques Chirac, the (1997) Kyoto Treaty is “the first component of an authentic global government.” >In the words of Margaret Wallstrom, the EU’s commissioner for the environment, “This is about creating a level playing field for big businesses throughout the world.” >Canada’s environment minister Christine Stewart comments: “No matter if the science is all phony, there are still collateral environmental benefits” to global warming policies… >“Climate change provides the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world.” [Leo Johnson, Understanding the Global Warming Hoax, 2009, Red Anvil Press, Oakland, CA, Page 65] >How damning is that? Now we know exactly, that what we thought was true…the goal is NOT to “reduce global warming”…it is to control the world. >Further, at the later Cancun COP, in a candid interview with Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of the IPCC’s Working Group III, and Lead author of the IPCC’s Assessment Report #4, in 2007, he was quoted as saying: >“Climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection. >“...the world climate summit in Cancun is actually an economy summit, during which the distribution of the world’s resources will be negotiated.” http://www.cfact()org/a/1858/Do-you-believe-in-magic—-climate-numbers >And it gets worse. At COP 21 in Paris in 2015, the UN Climate Chief stated “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years…since the industrial revolution”. https://citatis()com/a34446/077687/ >My question would be: the “economic development model” has worked for 150 years…why change it now? It has been very successful. >However, at COP 24 in Poland in 2018, the UN doubled down, with the UN climate chief stating: >“Failure to act will be catastrophic...We require deep transformations of our economies and societies...The impacts of climate change are increasingly hard to ignore.” http://www.climatedepot()com/2018/12/03/un-climate-chief-has-solution-to-urgent-climate-threat-we-require-deep-transformations-of-our-economies-and-societies/ >While much of this international subterfuge was happening, the US was under President Obama’s regime. >He knew that there was NO CHANCE of getting any of these UN “treaties” ratified by the Congress. He also had seen that there was no chance of getting any carbon tax, or carbon “cap and trade” agreement passed. So, he unleashed the EPA to do the dirty work. >The EPA managed to get a court ruling that CO2 was “pollution”. Many lawsuits were brought against this “finding”, resulting in its going before the Supreme Court. >Without ANY scientific background, the SCOTUS allowed the finding against CO2. Now, under the Clean Air Act, the EPA could wreak havoc. >And they tried to, numerous times. For instance, in 2011, they promulgated new rules on carbon dioxide. >“Using their own figures: they said that the new regulations would cost the US $78 billion per year.” http://wattsupwiththat()com/2011/03/13/how-much-would-you-buy/ >And the EPA chief (Gina McCarthy) said that these regulations were estimated to lower global mean temperature by 0.006 to 0.015C by 2100. >(ARVID’s note…this is ABSOLUTELY INSIGNIFICANT compared to the 3+/- degrees of warming that the IPCC was claiming, by the year 2100.) >These EPA costs represented $1900 TRILLION PER DEGREE! >What the hell were they thinking? You will see later…. >In 2015, EPA released new regulations, designed to bankrupt America. These new regulations were cheaper than the 2011 versions, and would only cost us about $2.5 TRILLION. That is $125 trillion per degree of saved warming. >And then, under questioning, EPA’s chief (Gina McCarthy) said that the global cooling effect would be less than 0.02F, but that it was important that we do it to set an example to the world! >Really…the US will bankrupt itself to set an example to the world? Tikkun Olam, goy. >And then, in 2016, again under Senate questioning, the truth comes out: “…she says the rule is about “driving investment in renewables…,[and] advancing our ongoing clean energy revolution”. >McCarthy says, “That’s what… reinventing a global economy looks like.” https://www.climatedepot()com/2016/05/12/epa-chief-concedes-no-climate-impact-from-climate-rule-its-about-reinventing-a-global-economy/ >At this point, I don’t even need to get into the incredibly poor “science” used by the IPCC and then totally swallowed by the lamestream media. I can talk about it until the world ends, but surely to no avail. >Many people with access to world-class computers have shown the ridiculousness of the IPCC’s attempts to “control global warming”. Some examples follow: >‘If the U.S. delivers for the whole century on President Obama’s very ambitious rhetoric, it would postpone global warming by about eight months at the end of the century.
[Expand Post]>‘The cost of the UN Paris climate pact is likely to run 1 to 2 trillion dollars every year.’ https://www.climatedepot()com/2017/01/17/danish-statistician-un-climate-treaty-will-cost-100-trillion-to-postpone-global-warming-by-less-than-four-year-by-2100/ >An analysis in 2013 showed that: >“…if the US as a whole stopped emitting all carbon dioxide emissions immediately, the ultimate impact on projected global temperature rise would be a reduction, or a 'savings', of approximately 0.08C by the year 2050, and 0.17C by the year 2100…amounts that are, for all intents and purposes, negligible.” >I hope you got that…if the US “completely disappeared”, it would NOT stop global warming. >The UNIPCC Conference(s) of the Parties have continued, with gatherings in major world sites, from COP-22 in Morocco through COP-28 in Dubai. For complete listing, see https://unfccc()int/process/bodies/supreme-bodies/conference-of-the-parties-cop >At each of these, the world’s leaders convened, and wrangled over thorny issues, trying to push to a “FINAL” agreement. >Two major issues were (1) trying to end production and use of fossil fuels, and (2) implementing a means of “loss and damage”, whereby those countries deemed to have produced the most global warming via fossil fuels would compensate those countries most affected by “climate change”. >In Dubai in 2023, the participants came close to agreeing to stop fossil fuels. The closest they could come to “stopping” fossil fuels was to agree to “phase down” their production and use. This was most unsatisfactory to the strongest climate alarmists. >“However, many countries walked away from the talks frustrated at the lack of a clear call for a fossil-fuel “phase-out” this decade – and at a “litany of loopholes” in the text that might enable the production and consumption of coal, oil and gas to continue.” https://www.carbonbrief()org/cop28-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-climate-talks-in-dubai/ >Regarding the second topic: >“Despite an early breakthrough on launching a fund to pay for 'loss and damage' from climate change, developing countries were left disappointed by a lack of new financial commitments for transitioning away from fossil fuels and adapting to climate impacts.” https://www.carbonbrief()org/cop28-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-climate-talks-in-dubai/ >Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions, principally CO2 and methane, have been inexorably increasing, even as thousands of megawatts of renewable energy have been brought on line. And global temperature has been slowly increasing. And the alarmists and media continue their shrill voices demanding “change”.
>>21543 See also Climate Meltdown: Ivy League Scientists Expose Climate Fraud. 16 minutes https://rumble()com/v5b8db9-climate-meltdown-ivy-league-scientists-expose-climate-fraud()html
https://www.cnbc()com/2024/08/17/new-privacy-battle-is-underway-as-tech-gadgets-capture-our-brain-waves.html https://archive.ph/nmUSS 17 August 2024. >Like anything else measurable, our thoughts are subject to increasingly technical answers, with data captured by tracking brainwaves. >That breakthrough also means the data is commodifiable, and captured brain data is already being bought and sold by companies in the wearable consumer technologies space, with few protections in place for users. >In response, Colorado recently passed a first-in-the-nation privacy act aimed at protecting these rights. The act falls under the existing “Colorado Consumer Protection Act,” which aims to protect “the privacy of individuals’ personal data by establishing certain requirements for entities that process personal data [and] includes additional protections for sensitive data.” >The key language in the Colorado act is the expansion of the term “sensitive data” to include “biological data” — inclusive of numerous biological, genetic, biochemical, physiological, and neural properties. >Elon Musk’s Neuralink is the most famous example of how technology is being embedded with the human mind, though it isn’t alone in the space, with Paradromics emerging as a close competitor, alongside devices that have returned speech to stroke victims and helped amputees move prosthetic limbs with their minds. Do you trust crypto-heeb Musk with your brainwave data, goy? >All of these products are medical devices that require implantation, and are protected under HIPAA’s strict privacy requirements. The Colorado law is focused on the rapidly growing consumer technology sphere and devices that don’t require medical procedures, have no analogous protections, and can be bought and used without medical oversight of any kind. >There are dozens of companies making products that are wearable technologies capturing brain waves (aka neura data). >On Amazon alone, there are pages of products, from sleep masks designed to optimize deep sleep or promote lucid dreaming, to headbands promising to promote focus, and biofeedback headsets that will take your meditation session to the next level. >These products, by design and necessity, capture neural data through use of small electrodes that produce readings of brain activity, with some deploying electric impulses to impact brain activity. No doubt the devices are primarily for recording and modifying your brain activity, the stuff like promoting "meditation" is advertising guff to convince the cattle to buy and use these tracking devices; just like how your "smart phone" is primarily there to spy on you. Mega-kike Yuval Harari talks about these kinds of things. https://www.bitchute()com/video/VDEpNEakxXeF Just a cohencidence his fellow heeb and pretend-White man Musk is working on exactly these devices. >The laws in place for the handling all of that brain data are virtually non-existent. >“We have entered the world of sci-fi here,” said lead sponsor of the Colorado bill, Representative Cathy Kipp. “As with any advances in science, there must be guardrails.” How are all the "privacy laws" working on all your other "smart" devices? You talk about needing a new fridge in your car, and back home your "smart tv" starts showing you adverts for fridges, even if you've opted out of everything >A recent study by The NeuroRights Foundation found that of thirty companies examined who are making wearable technology that is capable of capturing brainwaves, twenty-nine “provide no meaningful limitations to this access.” >“This revolution in consumer neuro-technology has been centred on the increasing ability to capture and interpret brainwaves,” said Dr. Sean Pauzauskie, medical director at The NeuroRights Foundation. >Devices using electroencephalography, a tech readily available to consumers, is “a multibillion-dollar market that is set to double over the next five or so years,” he said. “Over the next two to five years it is not implausible that neuro-technology might see a ChatGPT-moment.” >Pauzauskie said the value to companies comes in the interpretation or decoding of the brain signals collected by wearable technologies. >As a hypothetical example, he said, “if you were wearing brain-sensing earbuds, not only would Nike know that you browsed for runners’ shoes from your browsing history, but could now know how interested you were as you browsed.” "We just want to make your life more convenient, goy". Let's hear again from slithering sheenie Harari: https://www.bitchute()com/video/oOFpXhhim4Lk >How much data can be collected depends upon several factors, but the technology is rapidly advancing, and could lead to an exponential increase in applications, with the tech increasingly incorporating AI. >Apple has already filed patents for brain-sensing Air Pods. >“Brain data are too important to be left unregulated. They reflect the inner workings of our minds,” said Rafael Yuste, professor of biological sciences and director, NeuroTechnology Center, Columbia University, as well as Chairman of the NeuroRights Foundation and leading figure in the neutotech ethics organization Morningside Group. >“The brain is not just another organ of the body,” he added. “We need to engage private actors to ensure they adopt a responsible innovation framework, as the brain is the sanctuary of our minds.” >The concern targeted by the Colorado law may lead to a wave of similar legislation, with heightened attention to the mingling of rapidly-advancing technologies and the commodification of user data. In the past, consumer rights and protections have lagged behind innovation. >“The best and most recent tech/privacy analogies might be the internet and consumer genetic revolutions, which largely went unchecked,” Pauzauskie said. >A similar arc could follow unchecked advancements in the collection and commodification of consumer brain data. Hacking, corporate profit motives, ever-changing privacy agreements for users, and narrow to no laws covering the data, are all major risks, Pauzauskie said. Under the Colorado Privacy Act, brain data is extended the same privacy rights as fingerprints. >According to Professor Farinaz Koushanfar and Associate Professor Duygu Kuzum of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego, it is still too early to understand the limitations of the technology, as well as the depths of the potentially intrusive data collection. >Tracking neural data could mean tracking a broad range of cognitive processes and functions, including thoughts, intentions, and memories, they wrote in a joint statement sent via email. At one extreme, tracking neural data might mean accessing medical information directly. >The broad range of possibilities is itself an issue. “There are too many unknowns still in this field and that’s worrisome,” they wrote.
[Expand Post]>If these laws become widespread, companies may have no choice but to overhaul their current organizational structure, according to Koushanfar and Kuzum. >There may be a need for establishing new compliance officers, and implementing methods such as risk assessment, third-party auditing and anonymization as mechanisms for establishing requirements for the entities involved.
https://arthurfirstenberg()substack()com/p/nophone https://archive.ph/eb192 27 June 2024. Edited. >The most important, and most ignored, medical study in the world was published in 2004 by Olle Johansson, a scientist at the Karolinska Institute, the institution that awards the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Its other author was Örjan Hallberg and its title was “1997 – A curious year in Sweden”. http://r()mail()cellphonetaskforce()org/mk/cl/f/sh/7nVU1aA2nfsTSzBnMIe7uDXWvpQTIkk/jZClhMokwi4U https://archive.ph/DDAtX >In the autumn of 1997, in every one of the 21 counties in that country, the number of sick people stopped declining and abruptly began increasing. >The number of people registered as sick for more than a year had been declining and reached a record low of 43,256 in July 1997. The following month that trend suddenly reversed direction and began rising steeply. In December 2003 the number of long-term sick was 135,318. >The number of people absent from work due to illness, which had been declining steeply for years, also suddenly began increasing. It rose from a low of 118,530 in August 1997 to 309,124 in February 2003. >The number of people registered with load injury (pain in the neck, shoulders, back, etc.) doubled between 1997 and 2001. >The number of suicide attempts by young people increased by 30% between 1998 and 2001. >The yearly incidence of prostate cancer began rising sharply and increased by 32% between 1997 and 2004. In Stockholm, in men aged 50–59, new cases of prostate cancer increased nine-fold. >The number of people seriously injured in traffic accidents, which had been steadily declining, increased from 400 in 1996 to 1,200 in 2004. The number of traffic accidents involving bus drivers increased from less than 150 in 1997 to 250 in 2003. >The recovery time after breast or heart surgery operations began increasing in 1997. >Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease began to increase in 1997, and deaths due to other neurological diseases began to increase drastically. >What changed in Sweden in the fall of 1997? Digital cell phones (GSM 900 and 1800) were introduced to the whole population. >Hallberg and Johansson wrote: >“In 1997 many large companies introduced wireless office phone systems. One such is called GSM-in-Office and operates at 900 MHz... The employees had to use the mobile phone for all calls, in many cases for long calls. So, from 1997 many employees became exposed to microwave radiation during all work hours from small base stations, in addition to stronger radiation from their handsets during all their calls.” >The authors concluded that according to their data, it was the mobile phones, and not the mobile phone towers, that were responsible for the drastic decline in the health of the Swedish population. >Prior to 1997, the number of sick days registered per person was greater in densely populated areas than in sparsely populated areas. After 1997, it was the reverse: rural residents were suddenly sicker than city residents. This was true for all the data they looked at: short- and long-term sicknesses; accidents, murders, and suicides; workplace-related injuries and sicknesses; breast and heart surgery recovery times; and diseases of the nervous system. >They noted that in less populated areas, there is less radiation from cell towers but more radiation from a cell phone: the cell phone has to increase its power in order to maintain a connection. >The only disease that did not follow this pattern was prostate cancer: it spiked equally in both city and rural dwellers. The authors concluded that mobile phones were not the cause of prostate cancer, but they were incorrect. >The brain, breast, heart, and nervous system are exposed to a mobile phone at close range when it is on and in use. The prostate, by contrast, is exposed at close range when the phone is in a person’s pocket and on standby, airplane mode, or turned off; it still emits radiation at those times but the radiation does not depend on distance to a base station and is therefore the same in the city and in the country. http://r()mail()cellphonetaskforce()org/mk/cl/f/sh/7nVU1aA2nfwFS2CPJR71ywB9GYQ2mdm/E76vGTbARi64 https://archive.ph//2vdtS >In 2009, the health situation in Sweden was still getting worse. Hallberg and Johansson explored the same ground in even more depth, in an article titled “Apparent decreases in Swedish public health indicators after 1997 – Are they due to improved diagnostics or to environmental factors?” >They found that all the trends in their earlier article had continued. In addition, they found: >-The percentage of newborns with heart problems began to increase after 1998, and almost doubled by 2007. >-Between 1997 and 2005, lung cancer incidence doubled among elderly men and women. >-The incidence of melanoma of the face in younger people increased by 40% between 2000 and 2006. >-The age-standardized incidence of Alzheimer’s mortality increased by almost 300% between 1998 and 2008. And it increased by about 8,000% since 1979, two years after Apple invented the personal computer and everyone started being exposed to a computer screen for hours every day. The increase became steeper after the population acquired mobile phones. Before the personal computer, the incidence of Alzheimer’s mortality had been about 0.1 per 100,000 people throughout the 1970s and earlier. >When I knocked on Pelda Levey’s door on 17 July, 1996 and said “We have work to do,” no one I knew owned a cell phone, and Wi-Fi had not yet been invented. >Trees were the tallest structures outside of cities, and they teemed with birds, insects and wildlife. Even the trees in my Brooklyn neighborhood were frequented by wild parrots. >It is now 28 years later. In three decades of activism by the Cellular Phone Task Force and hundreds of other organizations, the world has gone from almost no mobile devices to 17 billion of them. >The radiation that they produce, together with the radiation that they force all the cell towers and satellites to produce, has eradicated most of the insects, birds and wildlife on this planet and sickened the majority of its human inhabitants. >Who among us sleeps well, thinks clearly, and does not suffer from one or more respiratory, neurological, cardiac, digestive, metabolic, arthritic, or psychological ailments, or from cancer or diabetes? >Rates of stroke in China have more than doubled since the advent of cell phones. >The global rate of diabetes has quadrupled. One billion people are obese. The fantastic rise in diabetes and obesity are purely a result of the slowing of metabolism due to interference with electron flow in everyone’s mitochondria. >60% of all Americans today have one or more chronic illnesses. >One-third of the world’s people have more than five ailments, and less than 5% of people worldwide have no health problems. >The number of drug prescriptions dispensed annually in the U.S. has increased from 1.5 billion in the 1990s to 4 billion in 2009 to 7 billion in 2022. 42% of older adults in the U.S. take five or more prescription drugs, more than triple the rate before there were cell phones. 70% of all American adults take one or more prescription drugs daily.
[Expand Post]>When there are 17 billion mobile devices on Earth in the hands of people traveling around the planet in airplanes and automobiles and “needing” them wherever they go, no amount of organizing, protesting, litigating or legislating is going to change anything. Neither is using your cell phone less. >If you want to be able to make even a one-minute call in an emergency even once a year, all the cell towers on Earth have to be there at your beck and call, irradiating the hell out of all of living creation 24/7. >As long as it is socially acceptable to use a cell phone at all, whether in public or in your own home, hundreds of millions of people who have been severely injured by them, including me, are condemned to lonely lives of perpetual torture, unable to socialize, make a living, go to the movies, stand next to you in line at the grocery store, travel, live next door to you, or even have a home at all, until they die or commit suicide -- which too many of my friends and contacts have already done. >Even people who know what is killing them don’t really understand it. Cell phones have become so normalized that even people who call themselves “EHS” are using them. They are helping to kill our world and themselves. >The majority of phone calls and emails I receive now come from cell phones. >A woman called who had just purchased a plug-in device to protect her from cell tower radiation. She was calling from a cell phone. >A woman who said she has EHS called looking for a doctor who can diagnose her so she can avoid jury duty. She called from her cell phone. >A woman emailed me from her iPhone asking for information on cell tower dangers to bring to a city council meeting. >A filmmaker called who wants to do a movie about my work. He called me from his cell phone. He has had knee replacements and has cancer. “Where are the dragonflies, chameleons, lizards and birds that I grew up with?” he asked me. >People do not understand that a cell phone emits the same radiation as a cell tower, and that the radiation travels just as far. >That if you put your cell phone 20 feet away from you it exposes you to as much radiation as any cell towers. >That cell towers only emit enough radiation to enable the cell phones that are in use at that time to work. >That when you make a call or send a text, the nearest tower (or satellite) turns on frequencies just for you and irradiates your entire neighborhood or city and everyone and everything alive in it just so you can make your call or send your text. >That simply owning a cell phone, no matter how little you use it, requires all the cell towers and satellites on Earth to be there so that your phone will work when you need it. >That a single cell phone call causes permanent damage to your brain cells. >That a two-minute call can take your body hours or days to recover from, if ever. That distance does not protect you. >That you cannot “neutralize” radiation. That there are no “safe frequencies”. >That your phone was manufactured with rare earth minerals that were mined by child slaves in the Congo. >That the willingness to use cell phones ensures the demise of landlines -- and of birds, insects and wildlife. >That a cell phone emits radiation even when it is off. >That the only difference between “electrosensitive” people and other people is that “sensitive” people know what is sickening them and other people do not know what is sickening them. >As I told an audience in Taos, New Mexico six years ago, we are like the monkey who cannot not get his hand out of the jar unless he lets go of the peanut. We are grasping it more tightly than ever. >We must let go of our cell phones now. Not after you figure out how, which may be never. First throw it away, then figure out how to live without it. >You won’t be able to do everything you are doing now, but you will be living as if the world will be here tomorrow. >Throw it away, tell everyone you know that you are doing it and why, and tell them to do likewise. It is the only way we and our children and the animals and plants around us -- the ones who are still here -- will survive.
https://odsllc()substack()com/p/artificial-lighting-health-impacts https://archive.ph/McUqP 6 Feb. 2024. By Shane Reilly. >Light is more than just a way to keep working after dusk. It impacts every cell in your body. The scientific community increasingly agrees that not only the type of light we see, but also the time of day we see it, have big implications for our health. >Sunlight is the gold standard, the vital source under which all life on Earth developed. “Fun in the sun” is more than just a saying; it’s how we're wired! Your body depends on the sun’s complex symphony of colors and frequencies to regulate energy levels and recovery. >No matter what diet you follow, everything you eat starts with sunlight, and it’s the essential catalyst for our biological cycles and hormones. >The further we get away from this natural source, the more problems we run into. >For about 130 years, artificial light has dominated our homes, cities, and skylines. While convenient, LEDs and fluorescents pose three noteworthy challenges: >FLICKER >Flicker is the rapid, repetitive change in brightness. At slower rates, flicker is a distraction, while intense flicker promotes headaches and even epileptic seizures. >If you think your indoor lighting is flicker-free, try taking a slo-mo video inside and you’ll see the flickering effect that your naked eye doesn't pick up. Guess what doesn’t flicker: the sun. >COLOR >Screens and light bulbs emit unnatural color patterns that stress the eye over time. >These sources typically have isolated spikes of blue and green that suppress melatonin, the night-time cancer-scavenging hormone, and some studies have linked them to diabetes. https://www.optimaldwellingspaces()com/alan-diabetes-infographic https://archive.ph/W4JpK >Many manufacturers now make glasses to block excess blue light “blue blockers” to combat computer eye strain. Hint- blue blockers with clear lenses aren’t effective in protecting you. >Sunlight, on the other hand, provides all the colors of the rainbow, plus infrared and ultraviolet at set times of day. >BRIGHTNESS >Artificial light operates at brightness levels and intervals that warp our internal software. >The human eye evolved to take information from the brightness, or lux, of natural light sources at specific times of day. Starlight is very dim, topping out at 0.002 lux, and sunlight reaches 100,000 lux. >This wide range is where we thrive. Mother Nature gradually tapers brightness levels throughout the day from twilight pitch to high noon blaze. >Modern life isn’t so kind. Indoor environments hover between 50 and 500 lux. If you spend a majority of your time inside (like most people these days), your days are drastically dimmer than optimal health requires, and your nights are roughly a thousand times brighter. This can chronically disrupt circadian rhythm, leading to trouble sleeping, inconsistent energy, immune system suppression, mood and cognition issues, and more. >COOPERATE WITH YOUR CLIMATE >The image below [3rd attached] shows that the sunlight where you live varies throughout the year, based on your latitude. >Live above the 37th north in winter, or the equivalent in the southern hemisphere, and you won’t be able to get full spectrum sunlight. This has huge implications for health. >Additionally, sunlight changes throughout the day, so similar to eating a balanced diet of local, seasonal foods, we also need to take in a balance of sunlight varieties through the day. >During summertime, prior to about 9:30 a.m. UV levels are quite low, and infrared levels are dominant. >After 10 a.m. UV A and B wavelengths reach the surface, bringing healthy full spectrum sunlight to your body. >Listen to your body and slowly build up your tolerance. If you want to achieve optimal health, the goal is to be able to absorb as much sunlight as possible without burning. [See 4th pic] >Solar noon is when the sun is directly overhead, with the most intense energy levels being emitted. >Then in the afternoon, around 4, the UV will drop out again, leaving mostly infrared and visible light. >While your standard SPF might keep you from burning, building biology experts encourage blocking UV rays with apparel instead, as sunscreen filters light into a spectrum not made anywhere in nature. >Consuming fish, seaweed, and algae builds your body’s DHA stores. When the sun hits your skin, this omega-3 fatty acid actually turns the light into usable electric energy and reduces risk of future burns. How’s that for solar powered?! >Additionally, exposing skin during low UV, high infrared times of day can inoculate your skin to be more resilient. >If you’re in an area with little sunshine during winter, a bit of ingenuity goes a long way. Ten to 20 minutes per day with a tanning lamp paired with an infrared lamp is a powerful bio hack. https://soleilwell()com/ >But the best way to cope with chronic clouds is to jet-set somewhere sunnier, so take that vacation — your health depends on it! >BRIGHT IDEAS FOR OPTIMAL LIGHT EXPOSURE:
[Expand Post]>--Spend 15-30 minutes outside at sunrise, midday, and sunset. Leave sunglasses inside and remove prescription glasses so that your eyes can absorb light. >Set your gaze about 20 degrees off of the sun. If you can, go barefoot for added anti-inflammation benefits from grounding to the soil or grass. >Your skin is equivalent to a solar panel, so reduce clothing to maximize absorption when outside. >--Leave the window open, as glass blocks the colors, frequencies, and brightness of sunlight. >Install Iris software on your computers and configure phone settings for healthier light output. https://iristech.co/?ap_id=ODSLLC >For iPhone and Android. https://www.optimaldwellingspaces()com/product-page/the-ultimate-iphone-emf-hack https://gumroad()com/a/250069203/rkemzr >--Look for incandescent bulbs or low-flicker LEDs. https://www.1000bulbs()com/fil/categories/incandescent-light-bulbs https://www.waveformlighting()com/support?query=flicker%20free >Increase the brightness with multiple bulbs of a warmer color temperature, 4000K or less. >--After dark, rely on warm light (<2000K) as much as possible, such as candles and orange or red bulbs. https://store()waveformlighting()com/collections/a19-bulbs/products/superwarm-1700k-flicker-free-a19-10w-led-bulb >Consider red-tinted, blue-blocking glasses, and a red-tinted TV overlay. https://www.optimaldwellingspaces()com/product-page/after-dark-blue-blockers https://shopwakn()com/ >--For those midnight trips to the bathroom use battery powered orange/red lights such as headlamps or flashlights https://amzn()to/3wesTBb >--Resist the urge to binge-watch until bedtime. Avoiding tech and TV for two hours before snoozing (even if you follow the tips above) helps protect melatonin release and quality sleep patterns. The author's LinkTree https://linktr()ee/ODSLLC
>"Can't Take It Anymore": Residents Of Springfield Ohio Beg For Help After 20,000 Haitians Overwhelm City, Eat Local Wildlife https://archive.ph/aAZeq <The city of Springfield, Ohio - population 60,000, has been overwhelmed by roughly 20,000 Haitian illegal migrants, who flocked to the city - exacerbating a 'significant housing crisis' according to city officials, and eating pets and wildlife according to locals. <During an Aug. 27 City Commission meeting, one local resident said that Haitians were "in the park grabbing ducks, cutting the heads off, and eating them." <Another local resident posted to a Facebook group that their neighbor had a cat go missing - only to see it "hanging from a branch, like you'd do a deer for butchering, & they [the Haitians] were carving it up to eat." <While the cat claim has been refuted by as racist fear-mongering, others have provided receipts showing that cats are indeed part of Haitian cuisine. <Another local told the city that she "can't take it anymore," as Haitian migrants are littering on her yard and harassing she and her husband. <Resident Glenda Bailey told the city "They have become the occupiers. What they've done is they've replaced the population in Springfield." >Leaked US Army Documents: Thousands Of Violent Venezuelan Prison Gang Members Run Amok Across America https://archive.ph/tsJyO <Investigative reporter James O'Keefe published unclassified information from the US Army North Division on X, revealing that the Venezuelan prison gang wreaking havoc across the northern Denver suburb of Aurora has become a nationwide crisis. Law-abiding Americans will soon feel the growing consequences of the Biden-Harris administration's failed open southern border policies (recall what's happening in Springfield, Ohio) of importing the third world into the first world. >Professor Warns Of "European Christian Imperialism" In Outer Space https://archive.ph/AtHWH <Now, Wesleyan University Dean of Social Sciences Mary-Jane Rubenstein, a “philosopher of science and religion” (who’s also affiliated with the school’s Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program), says she’s noticed how “many of the factors that drove European Christian imperialism” have been put to use in “high-speed, high-tech forms.” <Rubenstein wonders if “colonial practices” like “exploitation of environmental resources and the destruction of landscapes,” all “in the name of ideals such as destiny, civilization and the salvation of humanity,” will be part of man’s expansion into space. >Opposition Candidate Burst into Venezuelan Politics Just Months before Being Chased into Exile https://archive.ph/LNv6M <For millions of Venezuelans and dozens of foreign governments, Edmundo González was the undisputed winner of the country’s July 28 presidential election. <But on Sunday, he joined the swelling ranks of once-prominent government opponents who have fled into exile, leaving his political future uncertain and tightening Nicolás Maduro’s grip on power. <The former presidential candidate arrived at a military airport outside Madrid after being granted safe passage by Maduro’s government so he could take up asylum in Spain. His surprise departure came just days after Maduro’s government ordered his arrest. >NYC Hands Out Free Money to Illegal Aliens https://archive.ph/fgZ1s <The city’s Department of Homeless Services announced that it will give illegal aliens up to $4,000 in grants to 150 migrant families to help alleviate the burden of the migrant shelters and move them to more permanent housing. <Even those arrested and accused of crimes are still eligible for the money.
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>>21733 >>"Can't Take It Anymore": Residents Of Springfield Ohio Beg For Help After 20,000 Haitians Overwhelm City, Eat Local Wildlife
>Professor: People's "Street Race" Should Be Included In U.S. Census https://archive.md/SUGaq <A sociology professor at the University of New Mexico believes “how you believe others see you” should be included in the United States Census. <Nancy López, whose research interests include race, ethnicity, gender, inequality, and Latino/a Studies, refers to this as a person’s “street race,” according to the UNM Newsroom. <Aspects such as hair, facial features, and skin color can lead people to believe a person is an ethnicity/race the person actually is not, López said. <Latinos, in particular, can be the victims of anti-Asian hate or anti-blackness based on how they look to others. <López (pictured) said adding “street race” to the Census can “make visible discrimination and equity that happens based on race as a visual status.” >The Blair Witch Project: Former UK PM Calls For Global Censorship https://archive.md/aSfXJ <In the 1999 cult classic The Blair Witch Project, one character tells his friends “I could help you, but I’d rather stand here and record.” For free speech advocates, we often feel that other citizens have become passive observers as an anti-free speech movement grows around us, threatening our “indispensable right.” <One of the most infamous figures in this movement has been former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has long been the smiling face of censorship. As the head of the Labour Party, Blair pushed through some of the early crackdowns on free speech in the United Kingdom. He is now calling for global censorship to expand these efforts. <In an interview on LBC Radio, Blair declared: <“The world is going to have to come together and agree on some rules around social media platforms. It’s not just how people can provoke hostility and hatred but I think… the impact on young people particularly when they’ve got access to mobile phones very young and they are reading a whole lot of stuff and receiving a whole lot of stuff that I think is really messing with their minds in a big way.”
>Science's favourite theory about the Moon may be totally wrong https://archive.md/FMTVJ <We’ve long been told that the Moon was created when a Mars-sized object named Theia smashed into Earth, hurling material into space which eventually became our beloved celestial companion. <This idea, known as the giant impact hypothesis, helps explain why our planet and the Moon share a number of key properties, for example, identical minerals. <And yet, a new study has poked a massive hole in this widely accepted theory because of one glaring fact: we have zero clear-cut evidence that such a massive impact ever took place.
>>21766 >made-up shit can be wrong mind = blown
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>46% Of Americans Didn't Read A Book In 2023 https://archive.md/JRRBy <Of the 1,500 polled adults, 46 percent said they had not listened to or read a book in the past year, while 27 percent said that they had read between 1-5 books and nine percent said they had read 6-10. <Eleven percent of Americans are particularly voracious readers, having read 20 books or more in that time frame. >Pokémon GO was an intelligence tool, claims Belarus military official https://archive.md/oxE2B <A defense ministry official from Belarus has claimed augmented reality game Pokémon GO was a tool of Western intelligence agencies. <Alexander Ilanov, head of the department of ideological work at Belarus's defense department, this week appeared on a local TV talk show and was reportedly asked about the most likely targets for spies. <Ilanov responded that at the peak of Pokémon GO's popularity, the location where most of the digital monsters could be found was on the grounds of a military runway. At the peak of the game's popularity the virtual creatures could of course be found just about everywhere.
>Why's Russia Re-Engaging With The IMF? https://archive.ph/D5Ffu <The relationship between Russia, the IMF, and BRICS isn’t what most folks have been led to believe... <IMF Communications Director Julie Kozack confirmed during a press briefing on Thursday that the first Article IV consultations with Russia since 2021 will take place next week. She also praised BRICS expansion. Both of these caught multipolar enthusiasts off guard since they assumed that Russia wouldn’t ever re-engage with the IMF, which they consider to be BRICS’ rival. >The US Is As Close As Ever To Saudi Arabia, 23 Years After 9-11 https://archive.ph/FwAko <The legacy of 9-11 is full of misinformation and misguided policy initiatives. Rather than taking seriously the motives of the hijackers and their supporters, American politicians went head first into creating a massive surveillance state and growing the American presence overseas. What is worse is that not all of the masterminds are identified by Washington. While we know firmly that actors with connection to the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) were at least aware of the incoming attacks on 9-11, politicians in Washington have rarely attempted to hold the Saudis responsible, and have been quick to strengthen ties between the Gulf monarchy and the United States. <Osama bin Laden, in his Letter to the American people, laid out the reasons behind 9-11 and other instances of terror and military opposition. It is easy to condemn terrorism and to look at those who hate America as simply barbarians who don’t understand freedom, but terrorists and barbarians will exist in the world for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately for George Bush and presidents after him, the War on Terror was a complete failure, with each campaign against terror simply creating new rebel groups ready to oppose American imperialism. This game of whack-a-mole was predicted by bin Laden in his letter, saying “...then be aware that you will lose this Crusade Bush began, just like the other previous Crusades in which you were humiliated by the hands of the Mujahideen, fleeing to your home in great silence and disgrace.” <Rather than learning lessons from the Soviets in Afghanistan, politicians in Washington jumped into Afghanistan with full force, ready to occupy and radically change the cultural makeup of the central Asian country. The goal of the United States was to go after Al Qaeda and defeat the Taliban, whom Bush asserted was responsible for harboring Al Qaeda. While the Taliban may have been powerless to stop some Al-Qaeda operatives from operating in Afghanistan, regime change in Afghanistan should have been seen as foolish and utopian from the start. The 2021 pull out of the country ended the 20 year occupation, and the following collapse of the American-supported government proved that it was an utter waste. <Meanwhile, America is consistently a strong ally of Saudi Arabia, a nation which has funded the Taliban for years. The United States has regularly intervened on behalf of the Saudis, including the Gulf War in 1991 where we turned on our then-ally, Saddam Hussein, when he threatened Saudi oil profits. In 2015, then-President Obama, agreed to allow the United States to assist Saudi Arabia in its campaign against the Shia Houthis in Yemen. This relationship was continued by Trump, and resulted in what is widely regarded as genocide towards the Houthi people. Fast-forward to recent years, President Trump worked tirelessly to undermine Iran, Saudi Arabia’s chief enemy, while also having significant business dealings with the Saudi royal family. <Present day, the United States is addicted to selling arms to Saudi Arabia, with President Biden announcing a $500 billion arms sale in 2023. Despite human rights abuses, ties to 9-11, and regular support for America’s enemies, Riyadh continues to enjoy high levels of support from the United States. It is likely that President Trump will renew talks surrounding his Abraham Accords with Saudi Arabia if he is re-elected in 2024. The Abraham Accords are a series of agreements made between the United States, Israel, and willing Muslim-majority nations. The agreements always involve normalizing relations with Israel, millions of dollars in aid from the United States, as well as other tantalizing items. Normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel would have implications of enormous magnitude, as the Saudis carry high levels of influence not just in the Middle East, but also around the world. >Netanyahu's Popularity Surges Despite Large Protests In Tel Aviv: Poll https://archive.ph/nbSZT <An opinion poll published on Friday showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party would win the largest number seats in the parliament if an election were held now. <The poll, published in the Hebrew language Maariv newspaper, showed Likud winning 24 Knesset seats, against the 32 the party now holds. The National Unity Party led by former general Benny Gantz would receive 21 seats. <Though Likud would win the most seats, Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, which includes nationalist-religious and ultra-Orthodox parties, would lose any election held now, with 53 seats in the 120-seat parliament. The main opposition bloc would win 58-seats, according to the poll. <Earlier opinion polls taken after the start of the war in Gaza regularly showed Likud gaining only 16 to18 seats. <Netanyahu and Likud’s popularity fell drastically, as many Israeli voters blamed the Prime Minister for the alleged security failures of the military and intelligence apparatus on 7 October. >SEC "Regrets Any Confusion" From Dubbing Crypto Tokens As Securities; New Filing Shows https://archive.ph/HL9Cv <According to a footnote in a Sept. 12 court filing, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has retracted its longstanding characterization of cryptocurrencies as “securities” and intends to use more careful language in the future. <Specifically, as CoinTelegraph's Alex O'Donnell reports, the retraction arose from the SEC’s ongoing lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance for allegedly offering and selling unregistered securities. In a 2023 complaint, the SEC identified 10 crypto assets on the Binance platform as “securities,” including the native tokens of Solana, Cardano (ADA) and Polygon.
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>Venezuela Arrests Navy SEAL Among Several Foreigners Behind Alleged Maduro Assassination Plot https://archive.ph/8Z62J <Venezuela has announced the arrest of three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen, accusing them of plotting to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro. The arrests were first announced Saturday by the country's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who said that one of the Americans is Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez - a Navy SEAL - who state television said served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Colombia. <Cabello alleged this was all part of another CIA plot to overthrow the Maduro government, which comes after Washington has contested the official results July 28 election which ensured the longtime strongman another six-year term as leader. >International Day of Democracy 2024: Safeguarding Freedoms in an AI-Driven Era https://archive.ph/uaNau <On September 15th, the world marks the International Day of Democracy, a United Nations initiative aimed at promoting democratic governance and fundamental freedoms. Established in 2007, this annual observance underscores the global importance of democracy. With over 50 countries—representing half of the world’s population—holding elections in 2024, this year’s theme is particularly timely and critical. <The Role of AI in 2024: Balancing Risks and Opportunities for Democracy <A key focus for 2024 is the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in governance. As AI continues to evolve, concerns have emerged about its potential to undermine democracy. The United Nations Secretary-General has warned of the dangers AI poses, including the spread of disinformation, the rise of deepfakes, and the intensification of political polarization. These risks could erode democratic institutions if not properly regulated. <Despite these challenges, AI also offers valuable opportunities to strengthen democratic processes. The United Nations highlights AI’s ability to enhance public participation, promote equality, and foster human development. By improving education about democracy and creating more inclusive civic spaces, AI can help citizens hold institutions accountable. <UN Calls for Global AI Governance to Safeguard Democracy and Civil Liberties <To maximize these benefits while minimizing risks, the UN’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence has called for effective governance of AI at both national and international levels. Their recommendations emphasize the need for AI to serve humanity equitably and responsibly, ensuring it strengthens rather than weakens democratic principles. <As the world faces growing threats to civil liberties and democratic freedoms, the International Day of Democracy is a reminder of the urgent need for global cooperation. Looking ahead to the upcoming Summit of the Future, the UN calls for renewed efforts to protect these values and build a more inclusive, just, and equal world for future generations. >Are New-World-Order Elites Plotting To Use AI To 'Deprogram' So-Called Conspiracy Theorists? https://archive.ph/Ya0W0 <Might the New World Order use biased, pre-manipulated artificial intelligence programs to try to “deprogram” those with unpopular opinions by persuading them that their logic does not compute? <A recent study on that subject underwritten by the John Templeton Foundation might give so-called conspiracy theorists one more thing to be paranoid about, according to Popular Science. <Critics have already sounded the alarm that leftist radicals in Silicon Valley and elsewhere were manipulating the algorithms used to train AI so that it automatically defaulted to anti-conservative biases. <The next step may be programming any verboten viewpoints into the realm of “conspiracy theory,” then having powerful computers challenge human users to a battle of logic that inevitably is stacked against them with cherrypicked data. <The study, titled “Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI,” attempted to counter the common view that some people will not change their minds, even when presented with facts and evidence. <Addressing the problem of “widespread belief in unsubstantiated conspiracy theories,” researchers postulated that conspiracy theories can, contrary to the scientific narrative, be countered by way of systematic fact-checking. <Among those theories tested were more traditional conspiracies such as those involving the assassination of John F. Kennedy or the possibility of alien landings that were known to the United States government. <But others included more immediately politicized claims, such as the lawfulness of COVID lockdowns or the validity of the 2020 presidential election, both of which are a “major source of public concern.” <The study was conducted by having conspiratorial participants engage in brief conversations with AI, with the aim of “curing” the participants of their ostensibly false opinions. <Researchers concluded that “the treatment reduced participants’ belief in their chosen conspiracy theory by 20% on average,” suggesting that “treating” people with certain facts can indeed alter their opinions, particularly when those facts come from AI bots. <The “treatment” received also reportedly “persisted undiminshed for at least 2 months,” meaning that such conditioning could eventuate in regular treatment for those deemed conspiracy theorists. <Ultimately, then, AI conditioning was determined to be a potentially useful tool in addressing the “psychological needs and motivations” of such people. Researchers speculated that the technology could be implemented online in the coming years, particularly in online forums or on social media. >The SEC's Risky Plan To Decarbonize The U.S. Financial Markets https://archive.ph/bYzDC <Reports of the impending death of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement have been greatly exaggerated. <While several sustainability-minded companies and Wall Street firms have recently adopted a lower ESG profile due to the public backlash, this is largely a tactical retreat until the government provides air cover. Financial regulators are now riding to the rescue, passing rules that make the entire climate-focused ESG system compulsory and prescriptive. <In March 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued final climate disclosure rules that require every large U.S. corporation to report in detail all the climate-related physical and transition risks faced by their businesses, along with the size of their carbon footprints. <The new SEC rules will force the management of all reporting companies to act as meteorologists and disclose every conceivable weather impact to their businesses over exceedingly long investment horizons, thereby reinforcing the climate change narrative. They will also discourage investment in the traditional energy sector by highlighting the outsize regulatory, litigation, contingent liability, and reputational risks now facing the industry due to government climate policies. <However, rather than de-risking the financial markets by improving disclosure for investors as promised by the SEC, the agency’s new rules will have the opposite effect. By imposing a climate test on all issuing and investing companies—basically, every financial market participant in the U.S.—the SEC’s goal is to help force the clean energy transition by stigmatizing carbon-emitting industries in general and specifically redirecting capital flows away from fossil fuel producers.
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>Personal Carbon Footprint Of The Rich Is Vastly Underestimated By Rich And Poor Alike, Study Finds https://archive.ph/tGCOK <Although it is well-known that there is a large gap between the carbon footprint of the richest and poorest in society, it’s been unclear whether individuals were aware of this inequality. The four countries chosen for the survey are all different in terms of wealth, lifestyle and culture. Survey participants also differed in their personal income, with half of participants belonging to the top 10% of income in their country. <The vast majority of participants across the four countries overestimated the average personal carbon footprint of the poorest 50% and underestimated those of the richest 10% and 1%. <However, participants from the top 10% were more likely to support certain climate policies, such as increasing the price of electricity during peak periods, taxing red meat consumption or subsidising carbon dioxide removal technologies such as carbon capture and storage. <The researchers say that this may reflect generally higher education levels among high earners, a greater ability to absorb price-based policies or a stronger preference for technological solutions to the climate crisis. The results are reported in the journal Nature Climate Change. >Republicans drive efforts to block civil rights protections against pollution https://archive.ph/nYzW6 <In short: <A federal court ruled that Louisiana is no longer required to address racial disparities when issuing pollution permits, undermining Black communities' civil rights complaints. <The ruling stems from a case involving pollution in Cancer Alley, where residents face some of the highest cancer risks in the U.S. due to industrial emissions. <Advocates fear this decision will embolden similar efforts nationwide, as Republican attorneys general push to remove racial justice considerations in pollution regulations. >Teens are losing faith in college, giving rise to interest in the skilled trades https://archive.ph/DCu7v <Concerns over rising college costs and student loan debt are causing some high schoolers to choose more career-connected pathways over a four-year degree. <Increasing opportunities in the skilled trades with a secure job track and high earnings potential are helping transform Generation Z into the so-called “toolbelt generation.” >Manager Admits She’s ‘Biased’ Against Hiring Workers Who Attended Women-Only Colleges https://archive.ph/M0sdK <A female manager admitted that one of her biases against certain employees could pose a real issue in the workplace. <The manager says that she holds an unfavorable view of applicants who attended women-only colleges to obtain their degrees. She worries that their education and college environment may hinder their abilities to be a part of a team that includes men.
>"All Been Hoaxes" - Ohio Governor Debunks Claims Of Bomb Threats Against Haitians https://archive.ph/aP6CH <Update (1330ET): Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is refusing to identify the 'foreign actors' who called in the majority of the hoaxes... <As Luis Cornelio detailed earlier, via HeadlineUSA(Please use archive.today), remember the claims that Haitian nationals in Springfield, Ohio were facing bomb threats due to national scrutiny over rampant illegal immigration? It turns out it was all a hoax. <Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday that the state has received zero credible bomb threats against schools in Springfield—the same community affected by 20,000 Haitian nationals paroled into the U.S. by the Biden-Harris administration. <“These threats have all been hoaxes, none of them have panned out,” DeWine said during a press conference with law enforcement officials on Monday. <“We have people unfortunately overseas, who are taking these actions,” the Republican governor added. <“Some of them are coming from one particular country. We think that this is one more opportunity to mess with the United States and they’re continuing to do that.” <DeWine said that state law enforcement officials will continue to patrol schools to ensure parents feel safe even in the light of non-credible threats. <DeWine’s comments debunked conspiracy theories spread by the legacy media in the aftermath of national criticism over the arrival of foreign nationals under the current administration. >US Industrial Production Is Flat YoY In August, Despite Surge In Auto Production https://archive.ph/OkLfq <After a significant decline in July, US Industrial Production rebounded dramatically in August, rising 0.8% MoM (as July was revised down from -0.6% to -0.9% MoM). That lifted Industrial Production back up to unchanged on a YoY basis... >US Retail Sales Better-Than-Expected Thanks To Non-Store Retailers https://archive.ph/c0gye <After August's upside surprise (+1.0% MoM, thanks to some shenanigans in the used car sales segment of the economy), US Retail Sales was expected to decline MoM (-0.2% MoM) in August (with BofA suggesting a 0.3% MoM decline). <But.... just like in July, the headline retail sales print for August beat expectations, rising 0.1% MoM (with July revised up to +1.1% MoM) thanks to non-store retailers... >Claudia Sahm's Recession-Denial-Theory Flunks A Simple Data Test https://archive.ph/jboIf <Claudia Sahm claims to have invented a recession indicator created by Ed McKelvey. Now she says the indicator is wrong. Let’s investigate. <What is the McKelvey Recession Indicator? <Take the current value of the 3-month unemployment rate average, subtract the 12-month low, and if the difference is 0.30 percentage point or more, then a recession has started. <Edward McKelvey, a senior economist at Goldman Sachs, created the indicator. <Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve and White House Economist, modified the indicator from 0.3 to 0.5. <The rule triggered in August but Sahm is in denial. <Sahm Denial <Marketplace discusses Sahm’s Recession Denial. <When the monthly jobs report from the Labor Department was released in August at 8:30 a.m., it packed a punch. Something called the Sahm Rule had been triggered — it was like an economic fire alarm was going off. <“I was live on the radio, and they read the numbers out loud. I said, ‘OK, so the Sahm Rule says we would be in a recession, but Sahm says we’re not,’” said Claudia Sahm. <Sahm discovered the rule when she was studying previous recessions as part of a project to help policymakers prepare for the next one. <So why is Sahm, the economist, discounting Sahm, the rule, now? <The unemployment rate, Sahm explained, has an Achilles’ heel: It doesn’t only go up when people lose their jobs, it can also go up when the number of people looking for jobs goes up. <“When you have people enter the workforce, it can take longer to find a job, even in the best of times,” she said. “That will push up the unemployment rate.” <Sahm certainly did not discover the rule. She modified Ed McKelvey’s rule with no credit given to McKelvey. <And it might behoove Sahm to actually investigate her explanation. <In 7 of 10 recessions, the labor force was higher in the third month of recession than the start of it. <In isolation, that would tend to raise the unemployment rate as Sahm says. But it is also normal behavior. <The Covid recession only lasted 2 months and was so unusual in many other ways that it’s best to remove it for comparison purposes. But if you insist, then call the score 7 of 11. >The EU Retreats Further Into A World Of Self-Delusion https://archive.ph/URTLA <Draghi has spent time at Goldman Sachs, the European Central Bank (ECB) during the sovereign debt crisis, and as unelected prime minister of Italy during the early days of the Covid pandemic and runup to Project Ukraine. Depending on where you sit, he could be an odd choice to chart a path forward; while Draghi knows his way around a crisis control center, he’s also plenty experienced at creating them. <He was one of the chief architects of the EU’s disastrous economic war against Russia and he’s always been a grim reaper for working class citizens of his native country of Italy. No wonder that for months the neoliberal, war-loving spreadsheet crowd in Brussels has eagerly awaited the report as if it is manna from heaven that will help deliver them from the corner they have backed themselves into. <Curiously, his report was delayed by months, which only increased the anticipation, and it finally dropped last week, conveniently timed at another crisis point. Project Ukraine is quickly unraveling and pressure is coming from all directions for Berlin to give the go ahead for joint EU debt in order to make the EU “competitive” again and buy a bunch of weapons to do something (nobody is too sure of what exactly) about Russia. Indeed, Draghi’s report doesn’t say, nor does it ever consider making nice with Moscow. <That’s because the report, “EU Competitiveness: Looking Ahead” is a political document more than economic one intended to not only give cover to the bloc’s disastrous Russia policies, but continue to double down. And it is already being used as more ammunition for those in the Baltics, Poland, the media, US-funded think tanks in Europe, and more who are calling on Germany to support debt for an extended Cold War. Specifically, they wanted Super Mario to tell them how to get out of the predicament of their own making without changing course on Russia and a host of other issues, and Draghi delivered — as long as you don’t let reality get in the way. His answer? More money. Lots of it.
[Expand Post]<He calls for massive infusions of cash into multiple sectors: green, tech, energy, and of course defense. According to Draghi, the price tag is a minimum of 800 billion euros annually until 2030. <Asked if his message was “implement your report, or die?” he replied that “It’s ‘Do this, or it’s a slow agony.’” >Japan Survey: More Than 60% Do Not Read Any Books In a Month; Almost 70% Read Fewer Books Than Before https://archive.ph/zzfOZ <Excluding manga and magazines, respondents were asked how many books in paper or electrical form they read per month, to which 62.6% said they do not read any books. The figure increased by 15.3 percentage points from the previous fiscal 2018 survey, which was conducted in person. <Although a simple comparison cannot be made due to differences in the surveys’ methodologies, this year’s result is the highest since the survey started. <For the first time, people who do not read books were asked how often they read other types of texts, such as social media posts and internet articles, and 75.3% responded “almost daily.” <Of the respondents, 36.9% said they do read at least one books a month, which was 15.7 percentage points lower than the previous survey. The proportion of respondents who read 1 to 2 books a month was 27.6%, while 6.0% read 3 to 4 books, and 3.3% read 5 books or more. <Asked to say why they read fewer books, with multiple answers allowed, the most popular reason at 43.6% was because they spend their time on devices such as smartphones and tablets. That percentage has tripled since fiscal 2008. >Associated Press: A Key Employee who Called the Titan Unsafe will Testify before the Coast Guard https://archive.ph/t9V1H <A key employee who labeled an experimental submersible unsafe prior to its last, fatal voyage was set to testify Tuesday before U.S. Coast Guard investigators. <David Lochridge is one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission trying to determine what caused the Titan to implode en route to the wreckage of the Titanic last year, killing all five on board. <Lochridge is former operations director for OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan and brought it on several dives to the Titanic going back to 2021. <His testimony will come a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration. >Reuters: Central Europe Braces for Further Flooding ‘Apocalypse’ as Death Toll Rises https://archive.ph/xhU3M <Residents of several areas of Poland and the Czech Republic rushed to evacuate on Monday as others in central Europe began cleaning up after the worst flooding in over two decades left a trail of destruction and a rising number of deaths. <Border areas between the Czech Republic and Poland were hit hard over the weekend as heavy rain that has fallen s(Hello, I just arrived from Leddit, please bully me)ast week and surging water levels collapsed some bridges, forced evacuations and damaged cars and houses. >Sunlight And Clouds - Not CO2 - Drive Earth's Climate; 'Shocking' New Study Finds https://archive.ph/gOTa1 <“Climate is controlled by the amount of sunlight absorbed by Earth and the amount of infrared energy emitted to space. These quantities—together with their differences—define Earth’s radiation budget,” NASA’s Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) website states. <Since March of 2000, the NASA team has been collecting satellite data to examine the energy exchange between the Earth and space. <Using those measurements and a “novel climate-sensitivity model derived from independent NASA planetary data,” Nikolov and Zeller evaluated how Earth’s decreasing albedo impacted global temperature during the 21st century. <“CO2 is an invisible trace gas that does not interfere with sunlight. It’s believed to trap thermal radiation coming from the surface, but that’s a misconception because the absorption of longwave radiation by CO2 and heat-trapping are completely different physical processes. According to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, heat-trapping is impossible in an open system such as the atmosphere,” Nikolov said. <He added that while water vapor is also a greenhouse gas, it becomes visible when it condenses and forms clouds. And because clouds “reflect solar radiation back to space,” their impact on the climate is “measurable and significant.” <“Cloud formation is partially controlled by cosmic forces. When clouds decrease, the planetary albedo drops and more radiation reaches the surface, causing warmer temperatures.” <“In our paper, we show, using the best available observations from the [Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System] platform, that the warming of the last 24 years was entirely caused by the observed decrease of Earth’s albedo and not by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations as claimed by the IPCC.” >Big Lots is closing stores in 2024, joins growing list of retailers at risk of bankruptcy https://archive.ph/46ihX <Discount retail chain Big Lots is planning to close at least 35 stores this year amid falling sales and speculations that it may declare bankruptcy.
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>Small Town Alabama Residents Silenced For Questioning Sudden Flood Of Haitian Migrants https://archive.ph/9egVb <This week U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released its latest statistics showing at least 530,000 migrants flew into the U.S. and were paroled into the country as part of the Biden administration’s controversial mass parole program for those migrating from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (the CHNV program). The program essentially expedites the transfer of migrants from these countries with minimal vetting under refugee laws and allows them to stay in the US for at least two years with a work visa. <The CBP also notes that at least 800,000 more migrants have applied for the program at US ports of entry, meaning they are likely already in the country. The numbers are not counted as illegal border crossings. The CBP has warned that once the two-year work period ends they do not have the manpower to track down those migrants that refuse to leave voluntarily. <Concerns over this immigration agenda are being raised after presidential candidate Donald Trump highlighted the flood of 20,000 Haitians into Springfield, Ohio (a city of only 60,000 people) during his recent debate with Kamala Harris. Reports are mounting and suggest this issue is not limited to Ohio; small towns across the US are being inundated with third-world immigrants. Native-born residents feel powerless as their communities are trampled by decisions made at the federal level. <One such town is Sylacauga in Alabama with a tiny population of 12,236 people southeast of Birmingham. Reports indicate at least 2000 Haitian migrants have been dumped into the area with little or no communication with the locals. <Sylacauga city council member Laura Barlow Heath says she's worried Sylacauga will become the next Springfield. She criticized her colleagues after they abruptly shut down a council meeting when residents raised concerns over the overwhelming influx of migrants and worries 'civil unrest' may be the result. <Citizens continued to approach council members after the meeting, and many of the exchanges became heated. <Mayor Jim Heigl confirms that the immigrants were brought in "legally" for employment. He said they have been "model citizens," and there are no issues with the current number of immigrants living in the city. However, this is the same rhetoric from the leadership in Springfield, Ohio, and reports from native resident conflict dramatically with the claims made by local politicians. They say crime is on the rise, and of course, pets are disappearing. >Meanwhile In Germany... https://archive.ph/4kLjs <On Wednesday morning, another explosion rocked the city center of Cologne, this time destroying a clothing store and slightly injuring one person. This follows a similar explosive attack on a dance club on Monday, just a few hundred meters away, according to Mandiner. <The attack is just one of a wave of bombings in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), where Cologne is located, in recent months. Police are investigating a link with the notorious Mocro Mafia, which is based out of the Netherlands. >Cops across the world arrest 51 in orchestrated takedown of Ghost crime platform https://archive.ph/1cqJw <Hours after confirming they had pwned the supposedly uncrackable encrypted messaging platform used for all manner of organized crime, Ghost, cops have now named the suspect they cuffed last night, who is charged with being the alleged mastermind. <Australian national Jay Je Yoon Jung, 32, of Narwee, New South Wales, was arrested by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and faced five charges in a Sydney court today in relation to the development and administration of Ghost. <The platform operated in a similar fashion to EncroChat, although it was much smaller in scale. EncroChat was infiltrated and taken down in 2020, and the analysis of its users' communications continues to yield convictions. <Like the analysis of EncroChat's users, the AFP said today that 38 additional Ghost users are currently facing "serious charges" for their various activities on the platform, including "significant prison sentences." <The arrests took place over the course of two days of action on September 17-18 which involved 700 AFP members executing search warrants across four Australian states. <Additional arrests across Australia and international territories are expected in the coming days, the AFP said. <Ghost was used by different types of criminals and transnational organized crime groups (OCGs), although it was mainly relied upon by drug traffickers, money launderers, and those who wished to arrange violent attacks on individuals. >Lazard CEO Says Junior Bankers Are Fine With 80-90 Hour Weeks As Long As The Work Is "Interesting" And "Important" https://archive.ph/LZIq6 <Lazard Chief Executive Officer Peter Orszag doesn't seem to be bothered by recent complaints of junior bankers being overworked on Wall Street. As a matter of fact, he took to Bloomberg yesterday to proclaim his young bankers are actually asking for longer hours, providing the work is interesting. <Whether its just PR spin aside, Orszag's comments come days after we reported that JPMorgan is now capping junior bankers' hours at 80 per week, while Bank of America is rolling out a tool requiring detailed time tracking. <Those moves come years after the infamous Goldman Sachs slide deck, wherein junior bankers complained about working long hours on...of all places, Wall Street. Despite this, we wrote back in July that junior bankers were working 100 hour weeks again <Orszag said in an interview this week: “There are many, many people who would rather work whatever number of hours per week on interesting, important things rather than fewer hours on things that are not that interesting. And that’s what we’re looking for. That’s the trade-off.” >Biden's Department Of Energy Short On Cash To Refill SPR At Low Prices https://archive.ph/0THFa <The price of the U.S. WTI crude oil has finally stayed in the low $70s per barrel for a sustainable period of time, allowing the Biden Administration to ramp up the refill of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which it had said would do at prices of $79 a barrel or below. <WTI Crude is now at $70 per barrel as of Tuesday morning, after spending days below that threshold. <But the Energy Department has just $841 million left to buy crude for the SPR, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing an estimate by ClearView Energy Partners, a consulting firm. That money would be enough to buy only around 12 million barrels of crude at today’s prices, per Bloomberg’s calculations. <This would be a drop in the ocean, considering that the SPR is only just over half full compared to its capacity of 700 million barrels. >Companies Are 'Ghosting' Job Applicants In The Middle Of The Hiring Process https://archive.ph/EomhT <Ghosting isn't just for dating apps anymore. It's also happening in the world of hiring... <"Ghost jobs" are defined as job listings for roles with no hiring activity. And a new Bloomberg report says that those types of listings have hit a two year high, citing data from Greenhouse. <In the world of consulting, these 'ghost' listings rose to 31% in Q2, up from 26% two years ago, the report says. These jobs are seen as "a bellwether for the white-collar economy", the report says. <Consultants have also reported being "ghosted," where recruiters abruptly stop communication during the hiring process without explanation, according to Bloomberg. The shift has left many jobseekers frustrated. <One job seeker told Bloomberg: “It can be so awful. I don’t care for automated rejection letters, but would prefer that, just to have closure.” <Declining demand for traditional consulting services has led to job cuts and slower hiring at firms like Accenture, Ernst & Young, and McKinsey. <Growth in the U.S. consulting market slowed to 5.2% last year, down from 14%, with many firms scaling back or canceling projects. This year's growth is projected at around 6%, according to Source Global Research.
[Expand Post] >Washington Post: China Shut Down Foreign Adoptions. This Family Doesn’t Want to Give Up. https://archive.ph/esiOb <On Sept. 5, China’s Foreign Ministry suddenly, and with little explanation, announced an end to the country’s three-decade-old foreign adoption program, which has sent more than 82,000 children to the United States, more than any other country. <Chinese civil affairs officials “will not continue to process cases at any stage,” the State Department said. That will stop hundreds of families who have been matched with children by Chinese authorities from completing their adoptions, even those in the final stage of what can be a years-long process, adoption advocates said. >The Media Is Exaggerating The Impact Of Anti-Proxy War Posters In Italy https://archive.ph/2OMpP <CNN headlined an article last week about how “Pro-Russian posters appear on billboards across Italy” as part of their ongoing campaign fearmongering about alleged Russian influence in the West. <The posters themselves are innocuous though and simply call for an end to the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine. Some municipalities like Rome ordered them taken down for using the city’s name and official symbol, but others let them stay up. <Ukraine protested these posters and predictably demanded censorship. <It turns out that all this is organized by a local activist who’s connected to groups formed during the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns, thus meaning that they represent Italians with heterodox views. >Not Just 'Russia, Russia, Russia': Hillary Demands Criminal Charges For Americans "Engaged" In "Propaganda" https://archive.ph/EX2Xv <Amid claims that Trump is a "danger to this country and the world," Hillary Clinton - the original sinner of 'Russia, Russia, Russia'-propaganda - has called for anyone spreading "misinformation" to be criminally charged as a "better deterrence" ahead of the election. <Specifically, the former Secretary of State told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Monday that Americans "engaged" in "propaganda" - similar to the type that led to the Russians "boosting Trump" in 2016 - should face criminal prosecution. <"I think it's important to indict the Russians, just as Mueller indicted a lot of Russians who were engaged in direct election interference and boosting Trump back in 2016. <"But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda. And whether they should be civilly or even in some cases criminally charged is something that would be a better deterrence, because the Russians are unlikely, except in a very few cases, to ever stand trial in the United States," Clinton told Maddow. >"It Changes The Math": Biden's Tariff Crackdown Throws Amazon And Walmart's Sneaky China Plans Into Chaos https://archive.ph/I8G0h <For months, these U.S. retailers have been quietly plotting to overhaul their business models, aiming to ship more goods directly from Chinese factories straight to your doorstep. By doing so, they'd cut out pricey U.S. warehouses and stores, all while skirting hefty tariffs using a little-known loophole in a century-old trade law. <This loophole, known as "de minimis," lets importers bypass U.S. taxes and tariffs on shipments valued under $800. The result? Chinese platforms like Shein and Temu have been flooding the market with dirt-cheap products, leaving American companies scrambling to keep up. <But on Friday, the Biden administration threw a wrench in the works. In a surprise announcement, officials declared plans to slam the door on many Chinese imports exploiting the de minimis rule—especially clothing items. The crackdown aims to curb the tsunami of duty-free packages pouring into the country, predominantly from China.
>>21808 >Interest payments on the national debt top $1 trillion as deficit swells https://archive.ph/3rDH4 <With the Federal Reserve holding benchmark rates at their highest in 23 years, the government has laid out $1.049 trillion on debt service, up 30% from the same period a year ago. <The jump in debt service costs came as the U.S. budget deficit surged in August, edging closer to $2 trillion for the full year. >Objections to datacenter builds may be overruled now they are 'Critical National Infrastructure' https://archive.ph/gW4es <The UK government's decision to designate datacenters as critical national infrastructure (CNI) may do more than just offer protection against critical incidents; it may also allow developers to override any local objections to such facilities being built. <Last week, the country's Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, announced that datacenters in Britain are now classed as CNI, putting them on the same footing as water, power grid and emergency services systems. This means they can expect greater government support in preparing for and recovering from critical incidents. <But The Register understands that there may be a side effect to this policy move, which is that classing these facilities as CNI means they are no longer subject to the same planning restrictions as before, and so more of them are likely to get approval. <This may not go down well in some parts of the country, especially areas close to London where much of the UK's datacenter infrastructure tends to cluster and which are likely targets for future development. >'I was virtually hibernating last winter due to the cost of heating - it'll be the same this year' https://archive.ph/sHiXl <The Government faces calls to provide urgent targeted help to hard-up households as debt charities revealed they are encountering “heartbreaking life or death situations”. <A group of 17 organisations have signed a joint letter to the Department for Work and Pensions demanding support for those on “chronically low incomes”. While inflation has fallen sharply, they warn that for many people there is no let-up in the daily cost of living crisis. <The letter, whose signatories includes grass roots bodies across the UK, say people are “skipping meals, limiting utility usage, borrowing informally, and even selling possessions”. Among those involved is the charity Christians Against Poverty which says its debt advisors are reporting “heartbreaking life or death situations as many don’t feel able to carry on living on shockingly low incomes”. <Campaigners fear a new wave of misery when energy bills jump from October. Recent polling by YouGov found almost half (48%) of UK adults limit their electricity or gas use in the house at least once a month because of the cost.
>Dutch watchdog wants more powers after EU drops Microsoft Inflection probe https://archive.ph/QoLCS <The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has declared it needs fresh powers after the European Commission elected not to investigate Microsoft's acquihire of AI startup Inflection. <The UK's regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), itself decided the deal was too small to bother with earlier this month. And yesterday the Commission said it would not open an investigation into the affair after member states withdrew their referral requests in light of the European Court of Justice's judgment in the Illumina/GRAIL case. >Plunge In Jobless Claims Exposes Apolitical Fed-Cut 'Policy Error' Further https://archive.ph/KN8bt <Does that really look like an economy that needs a 50bps rate-cut? <As one market veteran pointed out to us this morning, "either The Fed is a bunch of idiots, or this data is total bullshit." Fact of the matter is, Powell even admitted - after bringing up the massive revision to the payrolls data - that it is more likely the latter (bullshit data) than the former (idiots); though we suspect it's a bit of both (blending with some political pressure). >"Bitcoin - A Unique Diversifier" - BlackRock Releases New Pro-Crypto Report https://archive.ph/p9Y4O <Asset management giant BlackRock, with over $10 trillion in assets under management, has published a new report touting Bitcoin as a unique portfolio diversifier. <This marks the latest embrace of Bitcoin from the world's largest asset manager. >Japanese Govt to Create Framework to Use Startups’ Advanced Technologies for Development of Defense Equipment https://archive.ph/BDgcr <The Defense Ministry and the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry announced on Wednesday that they will create a new framework in which advanced technologies of startups can be utilized for the development of defense equipment as dual-use projects. <As combat has become increasingly high-tech worldwide, it is essential for defense equipment to utilize advanced technologies developed by the private sector, such as satellites and drones. <By encouraging startups to participate in the nation’s defense industry, the government aims to strengthen Japan’s defense capabilities and help related industries grow. <The ministries had earlier agreed to set up the new framework, named the “dual-use startup ecosystem.” >UN General Assembly Passes Resolution Demanding Israel Pull Out Of Palestinian Areas Within 12 Months https://archive.ph/zpKrD <Despite intense US lobbying efforts in the other direction, the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to demand an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, approving a resolution demanding a total withdrawal within 12 months. <It passed with a final tally of 124 member states in favor, 14 against, and with 43 nations abstaining. The "no" votes include a handful of tiny island-nations which typically vote on the side of the United States. They are: United States, Hungary, Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, and Tuvalu. <The resolution calls for all UN member states to "implement sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against natural and legal persons engaged in the maintenance of Israel's unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in relation to settler violence." <It further asks nations to "take steps towards ceasing the importation of any products originating in the Israeli settlements, as well as the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel… where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." <The resolution further calls on Israel to completely end its military operations, in line with the recent ruling of the International Court of Justice. >Study: U.S. Bat Decline Triggered at Least 1,300 Infant Deaths https://archive.ph/Mcl60 <A collapse in North America’s bat population led to a surge in pesticide use by farmers as an alternative way to protect crops from insects — in turn triggering a rise in infant mortality, a study revealed recently. <The paper, published in Science, provides concrete evidence supporting predictions that global biodiversity decline will have severe consequences for humans. <“Ecologists have been warning us that we’re losing species left and right … and that will potentially have catastrophic impacts on humanity,” author Eyal Frank, of the University of Chicago, told AFP. <“However, there was not a whole lot of empirical validation to those predictions because it is very hard to go and manipulate an ecosystem at a very large spatial scale,” added the environmental economist. >"A Symbol Of Imperial Violence And Colonialism": Activists At UPenn Deface Statue Of Benjamin Franklin https://archive.ph/yaMCU <Benjamin Franklin once wrote “Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.” <Yet, Franklin might be a bit confused by his critics at the University of Pennsylvania. <Anti-Israel activists vandalized his statue as a symbol of colonialism. >Lebanon now hit with deadly walkie-talkie blasts as Israel declares ‘new phase’ of war https://archive.ph/91j6e <First it was pagers, now Lebanon is being rocked by Hezbollah's walkie-talkies detonating across the country, leaving more than a dozen dead. <The Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported multiple people were taken to hospital in the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon today after their "wireless communications" equipment suddenly and unexpectedly blew up. This is in addition to yesterday's simultaneous pager bombings. <Reports of exploding walkie-talkies in Lebanon have been numerous, with blasts also being witnessed in the cities of Tyre and Beirut.
[Expand Post]<Lebanon's health ministry said at least 14 people were killed in the latest round of violence, in addition to the 12 fatalities and 2,800 injuries from yesterday's pager attack. Two children were allegedly among yesterday's dead. <The ministry also said more than 100 people were wounded in today's attacks, and the Lebanese Red Cross said it was deploying more than 30 ambulances in response to Wednesday's attacks, with an additional 50 on standby. In both yesterday's and today's incidents, many of the reported wounds were suffered to victims' hands and faces. <While no one has come forward and claimed responsibility for the pager or walkie-talkie attacks, the Lebanese government has blamed Israel, and several news agencies have reported the attack was a joint operation between Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, and its Defense Force. <American officials were reportedly briefed on the pager bomb supply-chain attack, with unnamed insiders telling the New York Times that as many as 5,000 Gold Apollo AR924 pagers ordered by Hezbollah from a company in Taiwan were intercepted and modified by Israeli operatives to include explosives before being sent on their way. <The devices were then blown up once in the hands of members of the Iran-backed terror collective Hezbollah, which holds significant power in Lebanon. Hezbollah and Hamas had been working together in attacks on neighboring Israel. <It's not disclosed what sort of walkie-talkies were involved in today's incident, or if US officials are aware of a wider campaign of Israeli officials compromising hardware bound for its enemies. It wouldn't be the first time, of course: Israel used a similar tactic to assassinate a Hamas bomb maker in 1996, planting a bomb in his cellphone and detonating it during a call.
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>Threats of violence in Springfield are taking a toll in the city’s finances https://archive.ph/HDwxv <Springfield Mayor Ron Rue has spent over a week scrambling to respond to a wave of bomb threats while subtly noting how the tab to keep people safe is growing daily. <“This is costing the city. We’re definitely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in expense. We haven’t calculated the overtime, the contracts that need to be secured to be able to secure and communicate… take care of our city,” Rue told CNN’s Boris Sanchez earlier this week. <City officials had already asked for state and federal funding to address the challenges of a growing population – largely driven by the arrival of Haitian immigrants. Then, the small Midwestern city was thrust into the national spotlight, as Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance amplified debunked conspiracy theories claiming Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating pet cats and dogs. <The false claims triggered a weeklong string of bomb threats. They have shut down schools, government offices and grocery stores. The chaos has put more law enforcement on the streets, including tower cameras and state troopers stationed at public schools — all, at a cost to the city that has faced budget shortfalls. In the past decade, the city made significant cuts to its police and fire departments. >All The Manual Pickup Trucks In America Are Dying - This Is Why https://archive.ph/vPKSq <Manuals Don't Work Well In EVs Or Hybrids <It's More Affordable To Build Cars With Automatic Transmissions >Young women are starting to leave men behind https://archive.ph/Pbc3p <The problem with this framing is that in an increasing number of countries, we have moved beyond a narrowing gap in socio-economic outcomes, and there is now a new and growing gap in the opposite direction. <Much less appreciated than the widening tertiary education gap is the fact that in several rich countries young women are now more likely to be in work than young men. The UK joined this group in 2020, and the female employment rate lead among 20-24s has since widened to three percentage points. The crossover is yet to happen in the US, but young women’s employment rate deficit has shrunk from almost 10 percentage points in 2006 to a single point last year. <Put another way, the UK is part of a growing list of countries where the answers to “who is doing most of the legwork raising children?”, “who is focused on getting a good education?” and “OK, but who is out working to bring home a good income?” are all: “Women.” <If this were simply a case of women making strides, it would be something to celebrate — and that side of the story certainly is — but a substantial minority of young men are actively moving backwards, with growing numbers increasingly disengaged from society. <Across the developed world, the portion of young men who are neither in education, in work nor looking for a job has been climbing steadily for decades. In countries including the UK, France, Spain and Canada there are now more young men than women in effect outside the economy for the first time in history. Unlike young women, these men are generally not occupied by caring for other family members either. They are adrift and likely to be the ones in need of care themselves. More than 80 per cent of this group in the UK report long-term health problems. <... <But while discourse and policy remain focused on other things, the repercussions of these tectonic shifts are quietly playing out everywhere you look. <With socio-economic trajectories heading in different directions, a growing minority of young men and women do not see eye to eye. Young male support for populist rightwing parties is on the rise, particularly among those without jobs and degrees. Violent unrest is more likely with a growing pool of young men with little stake in society or their future. <And relationship formation itself is being affected, as growing numbers of female graduates discover a shortage of male socio-economic counterparts, and simultaneously have less need than ever to pair up with a man for financial support. >Visualizing US Population Racial Breakdown Since 1990 https://archive.ph/lMOHh <The U.S. population has seen significant demographic shifts over the last few decades, with notable increases in non-white populations, particularly among Hispanics and Asians. <This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, breaks down the American population by race and/or ethnicity between 1990 and 2023. >EU Leadership Urges Europe To Be Ready To Fight Russia In 6-8 Years https://archive.ph/1mNlo <NATO's tiny Baltic states have continued to be among the most hawkish within the alliance when it comes to 'confronting Russia' and making war plans. <One Lithuanian official is making headlines for saying that eventual NATO war with Russia is inevitable, and that Europe must begin preparing now. Andrius Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister and the EU's new defense commissioner, has told Reuters that Europe must prepare to go to war with Russia withing the next six to eight years. >Bitcoin Mining Shutdown Caused 20% Surge In Norwegian Electricity Bills https://archive.ph/UN6cS <The mine was shut down after the municipality declined to renew its permit due to noise complaints. <Kryptovault operated the mining facility for 20% of local power company Noranett's revenue. <With the loss of its largest customer, Noranett is raising prices for households to compensate. <Locals had complained for years about noise from the mine's cooling fans. However, due to the closure, residents are now faced with paying several hundred dollars more per year for electricity. <"When such a large individual customer switches off overnight, it has an impact," said a Noranett manager. <The company estimates bills could rise by up to $300 monthly. <While unhappy about the price hikes, Hadsel's mayor said the municipality must deal with the consequences of losing a major power consumer under the regulations. He said the town will now seek new projects to utilize the excess energy capacity. >MSM Journos Inadvertently Reveal Shocking Truth About Global Warming https://archive.ph/KTQF6 <To wit... a funny thing happened when the Washington Post tried to map out half a billion years of global temperatures and the "disaster of global warming" ... <WaPo journalists cited a new study about Earth's global surface temperatures over the last 485 million years. In 2023, Earth's average temperature reached 58.96 F (14.98 C), well below the average 96.8 degrees F (36 degrees Celsius) the study showed around 100 million years ago. The trend shows Earth's temperatures have been sliding for 50 million years.
[Expand Post] >Woke Panic: Civil Rights Groups Demand That Corporations Stop Cutting DEI Programs https://archive.ph/R2XjL <There's a good reason why the corporate media loses their minds every time there's a successful boycott of a product like Bud Light or a progressive series like Star Wars: The Acolyte - Each time this happens the event stands as proof that the political left is a paper tiger, a tiny minority with no power or influence beyond their ties to corporations and governments. They are an astroturf movement created by psychopathic billionaires and politicians. <Consumers and the free market have spoken - They don't like DEI and will not buy DEI products. But leftists insist the public is being "misled" by the right wing. The only way they can keep the farce going is to continue to maintain DEI programs across the board despite public refusal to participate. If corporate programs start to shut down then the entire facade is shattered. DEI finally dies. <This is probably the motivation behind a recent push by the NAACP, the National Organization for Woman and other "civil rights" activist organizations to pressure companies to keep DEI departments in place. At least 19 of these groups penned and published an open letter to corporate leaders of Fortune 1000 companies demanding that they stop cutting woke programs. <The groups claim that "companies that abandon their DEI programs are shirking their fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers and shareholders." <Their statement reads: <“Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies, and practices make business-sense and they’re broadly popular among the public, consumers, and employees...But a small, well-funded, and extreme group of right-wing activists is attempting to pressure companies into abandoning their DEI programs...”
>Caterpillar Pulls Back On DEI, Joining John Deere, Ford, and Others https://archive.ph/7jCDI <Caterpillar Inc. has introduced new guidelines that refocus the company’s various employee programs on core business goals as part a broader review of its Code of Conduct and other underpinnings of corporate culture. <With the move, the company joins a growing number of U.S(Please use archive.today)panies that are rethinking policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as such initiatives come under pressure from conservative activists. <The updated guidelines, laid out in a Sept. 19 internal memo from the company’s executive office to employees that was viewed by The Epoch Times, include mandating senior management approval for external speakers at company events, concentrating employee training programs on promoting “high performance,” and establishing new rules for employee resource groups. >US Navy Directed To Prepare For War With China By 2027 https://archive.ph/gCCSw <The U.S. Navy on Sept. 19 released a new strategic document centered on countering communist China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific. <It directs the Navy to develop “readiness for the possibility of war with the People’s Republic of China by 2027,” pointing to China’s preparations for a possible invasion of Taiwan in the same year. <“The Navy emphatically acknowledges the need for a larger, more lethal force,” the document, titled “Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy,” states. <“By 2027, the Navy will be more ready for sustained combat as part of a Joint and Combined force, prioritizing the People’s Republic of China as the pacing challenge and focusing on enabling the joint warfighting ecosystem.” >4 Japanese Banks Participate in Int’l Digital Currency Project https://archive.ph/nHtKs <Four Japanese banks are among over 40 commercial financial institutions participating in an international demonstration test for cross-border payments using digital currencies led by the Bank for International Settlements. <Project Agora, as the international public-private project is called, is aimed at expediting international money transfers, cutting costs and enhancing transparency. <In April, the BIS announced the launch of the project, involving seven central banks, including the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the British, French and South Korean central banks. <Last week, the BIS announced the participation of private financial institutions, saying that those involved “will now begin the design phase of the project.” <From Japan, MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Mizuho Bank and SBI Shinsei Bank participate. <Other participants include U.S. giants JPMorgan Chase Bank and Citigroup Inc., as well as Deutsche Bank, France’s BNP Paribas SA and Britain’s HSBC Holdings PLC. U.S. credit card companies Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are also members. >Washington Post: Travel Can Slow the Aging Process, New Study Says https://archive.ph/dH4vv <On your next trip, you can leave behind the anti-aging serums and books of brain teasers. According to a new published study by researchers at Edith Cowan University in Australia, travel itself can keep you young. <The positive experiences associated with trips – the social interactions, mental stimulation, physical activity and healthy cuisines – can delay the aging process, the scientists say. <In the Edith Cowan study, which Science Daily published earlier this month, the experts wanted to find out how positive travel experiences help maintain the human body’s “low entropy,” or gradual decline. <“Tourism isn’t just about leisure and recreation,” Fangli Hu, the study’s principal researcher, told The Washington Post on a Zoom call from Australia. “It also plays an important role in individual health and public health.” >Reuters: US to Propose Ban on Chinese Software, Hardware in Connected Vehicles, Sources Say https://archive.ph/Wp2bH <The U.S. Commerce Department is expected on Monday to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns, two sources told Reuters. <The Biden administration has raised serious concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on U.S. drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the internet and navigation systems. <The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the decision had not been publicly disclosed. >Reuters: Israeli Forces Storm Al Jazeera Bureau in West Bank with Closure Order https://archive.ph/RWE4z <Qatari Al Jazeera TV said on Sunday morning that Israeli forces stormed its bureau in the West Bank’s Ramallah city with a military order to close it for 45 days. <The Qatar-based channel aired live footage of the Israeli troops storming the channel’s office and handing over a military closure order to one of the Al Jazeera TV staff before the broadcast was disrupted. <In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the Israeli move, saying “this arbitrary military decision is considered a new violation against journalistic and media works, which has been exposing the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people.” >NYPD Faces Uncertain Future Amid New York's Growing Political Crisis https://archive.ph/Jq7Ii <With the resignation of New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Edward Caban amid a federal probe of Mayor Eric Adams’s administration, city officials are facing a public trust crisis. <Add to that an incident last weekend in which officers in a Brooklyn subway station opened fire on an alleged turnstile jumper armed with a knife and accidentally shot a fellow officer and a bystander. <The police force and mayoral administration are both scrambling to regain credibility, according to Michael Alcazar, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan and a retired NYPD detective. >"Who's Running The Country..." - Why Is Jill Biden Chairing A Cabinet Meeting?
[Expand Post]https://archive.ph/WzLtD <The Biden White House held its first cabinet meeting in a year, and for some bizarre reason that no one can fathom, Joe Biden’s wife was chairing it. <Biden introduced Jill, mumbling “This is the first time that Jill has joined us and that goes to show how important the issue is she is about to speak to with us.” <“And Jill is going to give an update on the White House initiative to fundamentally change how we approach women’s health services,” he continued, adding “So, I’d like to turn it over to Jill for any comment that she has. It’s all yours kid.” <The media acted like it was completely normal for Biden’s wife to be running the meeting. <Her name is also on legislation folders bearing the presidential seal. <Did everyone miss the point when Jill Biden was elected to office? <Kamala Harris, the supposed vice president wasn’t even at the meeting, because she was too busy speaking to a paltry amount of people at a campaign stop. <What’s the motive here? <Leftists are all like, “what’s the big deal?” but imagine the armageddon that would ensue if president Trump had allowed his wife to do anything like this. <Who is in charge? <“This is nuts,” commented Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk on X. “Who is running the country?! Absolutely NO ONE elected Jill Biden.” >"No Americans": Insider Of Alleged Trafficking Network Reveals How Migrants Ended Up At Charleroi, PA Factory https://archive.ph/lcOdD <The story in Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania, should not be about goat sacrifices and migrants eating cats and dogs. It's more sinister than that. It's about a much darker reality of an alleged large-scale human trafficking and labor exploitation network operated by mysterious staffing companies with dozens and dozens of passenger vans in what some have called "modern-day slavery." These migrants are shuttled around to factories, displacing native-born workers. <Let's start with a chronological recap of our coverage of Charleroi, which began just over a week ago (before Trump even mentioned the tiny manufacturing town). <Since then, the developments have been nothing short of explosive: <Migrant Population In Charleroi, Pennsylvania Explodes 2,000% As Crisis Unfolds <Watch: Resident Of PA Manufacturing Town Exposes Reality Of Haitian 'Great Job Replacement' <"Blow Your Mind": Ex-WSJ Journo Uncovers Hub Of An Alleged Migrant Trafficking Network In Springfield, Ohio <"He's Taking My People": Alleged Murder-For-Hire Plot In Charleroi Reveals Migrant Labor Mules
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>Union Makes Shock Claim: Colorado Meat Factory Involved In "Mgmt-Led Human Trafficking" Of Haitians https://archive.ph/WFnoP <The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) has urged federal, state, and local authorities to investigate JBS SA's meat processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, for alleged human trafficking violations involving Haitian migrants. Similar accusations have been made regarding human trafficking networks exploiting migrants at factories in Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania. <UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova said these Haitians and other foreigners came into the country legally and were quickly exploited for cheap labor in a possible human migrant trafficking scheme. >BlackRock Sees AI Driving A 50% Jump In Asian Energy Demand https://archive.ph/Fnk41 <BlackRock expects the AI boom and data centers to drive a 50% jump in energy consumption in the Asia Pacific region over the next decade, a senior executive at the world’s largest asset manager said on Wednesday. <“The need for data centers over the next five years is going to be double what is currently in the markets,” Brad Kim, BlackRock’s Asia Pacific managing director for global infrastructure funds, told a media briefing, as carried by Bloomberg. <“[O]verall energy consumption will increase by about 50% in the next 10 years across Asia Pacific,” the executive added. >USA Remains The World's Strongest Superpower https://archive.ph/L4v1a <The global economic order is stitched together by trade and economic collaboration, but these show signs of fraying. <With nationalism on the rise and cross-border trade flows stagnating, economies are growing more protectionist. At the same time, demographic shifts are driving economic growth and productivity in India and Asia, which could shift the global power balance. >Visualizing The Extreme Cost Of Training AI Models https://archive.ph/NQ6Yc <The cost of training AI models has exploded in just the past year, according to data released by the research firm Epoch AI. <This development aptly shows how much more complex and capable AI models have gotten in a short time span. <Last year saw the release of ChatGPT-4 in March by OpenAI, which kickstarted the global AI hype. Google followed suit with its advanced AI model, Gemini, in December. <As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, both systems have been much more expensive to train than previous AI models and their development has potentially cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Epoch AI release. >UK's National Grid Admits It Doesn't Have A Clue How To Reach Net Zero https://archive.ph/gCqpD <The letter starts off with warm words announcing the formation of a “cross-cutting delivery unit” that will report back to Government by the end of Autumn 2024, less than three months away. It says its plan will be: <A whole systems spatial view of what is required to deliver a clean, secure, operable electricity system by 2030. The plan will consider possible clean energy generation mixes and their associated network, market and operability requirements, referred to as pathways. <That sounds good as far as it goes. <However, the letter then goes on to say that all pathways will “meet clean power in 2030 against a definition to be agreed with U.K. Government.” <In other words, there is no agreed definition of what a zero-carbon grid by 2030 actually means. It does not know what the target is. It seems that Miliband and Labour have set the country on a journey without properly defining the destination. And the initial request from Miliband and Stark reveals they don’t know how to get there. It’s the blind leading the blind to an unknown destination. >4 In 10 US Teens Admit Problems With Their Smartphone Usage https://archive.ph/3u18B <A recent Pew Research Center survey shows that most U.S. teens between 13 and 17 think they spend just the right amount or too little time on their smartphones and social media. <Conversely, as Statista's Florian Zandt details below, 38 percent of all teenagers say they spend too much time on their smartphones and 27 percent claim that social media takes up too much of their time. However, the study also shows that even though this awareness exists, only a minority of respondents have cut back on using said devices and services. <The survey conducted in the fall of 2023 among 1,453 parent-teen-dyads or pairs also highlights significant differences in usage awareness between teenage boys and girls. A third of all surveyed boys and 44 percent of all surveyed girls said their smartphone use is too intense. Girls are also more likely to cut down on their screen time, with 41 percent saying they use their smartphone less, contrasted with 32 percent of all male teens participating in the survey. >AI PCs will dominate shipments by 2026, but not because of demand https://archive.ph/1ybUQ <At the recent Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology conference, HP CEO Enrique Lores told analysts that he expects AI PCs to represent approximately 50 percent of shipments in 2027 and drive an average selling price increase across the sector of between 5 and 10 percent. <Jitesh Ubrani, research manager, Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers at IDC, said this week: "Businesses certainly recognize the importance of AI though many struggle to (Hello, I just arrived from Cuckchan, please bully me) immediate use case and instead are opting for AI PCs as a means to futureproofing." <According to analysts at IDC: "The long term trend undoubtedly points towards an onslaught of AI PCs as the inclusion of an NPU propagates down to lower-tier PCs and supply eventually finds itself in a position where producing processors without an NPU becomes cost prohibitive." <The eventual dominance of the AI PC appears inevitable, even if the hardware currently surpasses the software applications, yet it is coming at a terrible time for some vendors. Atwal noted that for Intel, "it's almost the worst time for it to happen." >Climate Change Will Escalate Child Health Crisis Due to Malnutrition, Says Gates https://archive.ph/1GFIt <Malnutrition is the world’s worst child health crisis, and climate change will only make things more severe, according to Microsoft-cofounder-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates. <Between now and 2050, 40 million more children will have stunted growth and 28 million more will suffer from wasting, the most extreme and irreversible forms of malnutrition, as a result of climate change, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said in a report on Sept. 17.
[Expand Post] >Who’s watching you the closest online? Google, duh https://archive.ph/qfzD2 <Using this data, the Russia-based biz put together a list of 25 services that the anti-tracker detected more often across nine regions and certain individual countries. <"Eight tracking systems appeared in almost all of the TOP 25 lists for the regions we studied," report authors Anna Larkina and Flavio Negrini said. "Four of these belong to Google." <The four are: Google Display & Video 360, which monitors advertising-related activities like clicks and ad metrics; Google Analytics, which is a more general user behavior and keyword tracker; another ad-tracking system called Google AdSense; and YouTube Analytics, which hoovers up data about video views and audience engagement. >Texas Sues Biden HHS Over Rule Impacting Parental Consent For Minors’ Medical Care https://archive.ph/qE02V <Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Secretary Xavier Becerra, and other members of the Biden Administration, challenging a new rule that he argues overrides parents’ state-law rights to consent to their children’s medical care. >Researchers develop revolutionary method for transforming plastic waste into food — here's how it could change the world https://archive.ph/WPg7H <Plastic waste is a huge problem for our planet and, despite the efforts of many scientists to create viable alternatives for packaging and other uses, it is not going away overnight. <We produce 440 million tons of plastic waste every year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, with much of it ending up in the oceans where it poses an immediate threat to marine life. <But researchers at Michigan Technological University may have discovered one way to solve two problems at once — by turning plastic into food, as Undark reported.
>Iran's Supreme Leader Transferred To Secure Location As Region Braces For What's Next https://archive.ph/b8txW <Events are moving fast in the Middle East region following the massive Israeli airstrikes which killed Hezbollah's longtime leader, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah belatedly confirmed his death on Saturday. <Overnight, Iran held an emergency meeting of its national security council, at the home of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But immediately after the meeting, which was likely disclosing to Iran's leadership and miliary the death of Nasrallah, the Ayatollah was reportedly transferred to a secret and secure location. >GOP Lawmakers Sound Alarm On EU's New "Debilitating" Green Policy On US Firms https://archive.ph/2rNnl <A group led by more than 60 US House and Senate Republicans urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to postpone the implementation of the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive ("CSDDD"). The new EU requirement would force companies to better track environmental impacts across supply chains, which the group claims would "hinder business growth and raise consumer costs." <"Now, the EU is attempting to impose its debilitating regulatory agenda on American companies through its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (also known as "CSDDD" or "CS3D")," the group of US lawmakers wrote in a letter to Yellen, adding CSDDD is "neither practical nor realistic — nor does it genuinely constitute 'due diligence,' which is generally defined as review and analysis prior to actions being taken." <The lawmakers continued, "American companies will be required to comply with [Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive] even though the US has not ratified many of the international conventions underlying the directive." <"We are deeply concerned that the Administration is surrendering its regulatory responsibilities to European officials, allowing them to dictate draconian social and climate policies to American companies," they cautioned. >British Government Warns Of Weak Military - Says Civilians Must Be 'Ready To Fight' https://archive.ph/wfLPt <The British House of Lords has published a report claiming that military recruitment is dangerously low and the country's combat readiness is at risk. They say the civilian population 'must be ready to fight' (a clear reference to military conscription) should war with Russia be triggered. <The paper, titled 'Ukraine: A Wake-Up Call', admits to weaknesses in NATO's assumptions on "deterrence", though it seems to pretend as if Ukraine is part of NATO when it's not. Chaired by Lord de Mauley, the committee launched the inquiry in February 2024, two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the goal of assessing the conflict’s implications for UK defence policy. <"...We identified two key lessons. First, our deterrence strategy towards Russia clearly failed. If we are to restore the credibility of NATO’s nuclear and conventional deterrence posture towards Putin, we must develop a clearer understanding of the reasons for this failure." <"Secondly, the invasion exposed significant weaknesses in both the UK’s and NATO’s military strength, and the UK's ability to sustain large-scale warfare. Successive governments have attempted to maintain the notion of the UK as a global power, but the war in Ukraine has been a wake-up call, laying bare the gap between that ambition and reality." >The 'Chemical War' Killing 70,000 Americans Each Year https://archive.ph/hMZto <The United States needs to ramp up enforcement against every step of the manufacturing and trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly synthetic drugs if it hopes to stem the crisis, several experts told The Epoch Times. With every passing day, however, the path to success gets narrower as the criminal organizations involved get more sophisticated. <More than 100,000 Americans died of an overdose last year; of which more than 70,000 overdosed on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). <The United States government has poured billions into addiction treatment, but the drugs are too broadly available for the treatment to stick, some experts said, arguing the supply needs to be drastically curbed. <Illicit fentanyl usually comes across the southern border from Mexico where it’s manufactured from chemicals made in China and pressed into pills that often look like prescription drugs such as Xanax, Adderall, or oxycodone. <Steps by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to regulate export of illicit chemicals have been dismissed by the experts as cosmetic. Instead, they say, the regime is using drugs as a strategic weapon against the United States. <“This is a chemical war that we’re facing, and no one’s treating it as a war,” said Derek Maltz, former head of special operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). >'Conspiracy' Confirmed? Fluoride In Drinking Water May Lower Kids' IQs, Judge Rules https://archive.ph/crQem <A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children. <The ruling, which came with little fanfare, appeared to validate one of the longest-running so-called conspiracy theories in America’s alt-right subculture—that the government’s use of fluoridation, especially in specific communities, might be part of a deliberate attempt to lower intelligence in order to create a more compliant and subservient population for the New World Order. >Family Businesses Display Admirable Strengths, Awful Weaknesses https://archive.ph/BiPCd <Several scandals have involved family-owned companies, including sexual assaults by the founder of the former Johnny & Associates talent agency and fraudulent insurance claims by the former Bigmotor Co., primarily a dealer in used cars. The health problems caused by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.’s supplements containing benikoji red rice mold led to a review of the government’s deregulation system and the end of six generations of family-led management. Are family-owned businesses hotbeds of corruption? <Family-owned businesses run by founders and relatives are the most basic form of corporate management. In many cases, certain relatives, including founders, hold most of the shares and capital invested in a company. <In contrast, the basis of the joint-stock company system is the separation of ownership and management. However, there is a possibility that the interests of the two parties will conflict. <On the other hand, family-owned businesses, in which significant shareholders and managers are monolithic and share a common vision, can eliminate such conflicts of purpose and make it easier to implement consistent strategies. >Americans & Britons Already Stuck In Lebanon As Embassies Plead 'Leave Now' https://archive.ph/gSOgk <The UK Foreign Ministry has issued an urgent appeal for all all British nationals still in Lebanon to exit the country as soon as possible and by any means due to the rapidly deteriorating situation with Hezbollah-Israeli fighting. <"British nationals in Lebanon should leave now. You should take the next available flight," the new Friday alert said. >Structural Supports Of North Carolina Dam "Compromised" As Officials Warn "Imminent Failure" https://archive.ph/toKoE <The remnants of Hurricane Helene have dumped torrential rains across the southeastern US, particularly in Florida's Big Bend region and up the coast into the Carolinas. In western North Carolina, officials have issued urgent evacuation orders, warning residents to move to higher ground as a dam collapse could occur.
[Expand Post]<In a Facebook post, Rutherford County Emergency Management told residents that Lake Lure Dam's "structural supports" have been compromised but are currently holding. >Mystery Of Upward GDP Revision Solved: You Are All $500 Billion Richer Now According To A Revised Biden Admin Spreadsheet https://archive.ph/GATmm <To summarize: disposable personal income (after tax) was revised 3.8% higher to $21.8 trillion, while personal spending was revised higher by about half that, or 1.7%, to $20.7 trillion. <And since the difference between how much you make and how much you spend is also called savings, we can finally get to the bottom of how the US economy magically grew in the past several years instead of shrinking more: it turns out that, when some bureaucrat in Gina Raimondo's Bureau of Economic Analysis decided to click on a mouse button in recent weeks perhaps in (political) response to the dramatic plunge in revised jobs, Americans suddenly became much wealthier... if only in some Dept of Commerce spreadsheet. <You see, when subtracting the revised personal spending from the revised personal income, what you get is the revised savings of US consumers, which as of today's deus ex revision has almost doubled, rising from $600 billion in July to $1.1 trillion in August! <Yes, dear Americans, rejoice for a spreadsheet revision means you are all now half a trillion bucks richer! >David Stockman On Why The Biden-Harris "Strong" Economy Claim Is A Big Lie https://archive.ph/FUGwY <There is only one way to rescue America’s faltering economy and that’s the wholesale abandonment of Washington’s reckless spending, borrowing and printing policies of the last quarter century. These policies did not remotely attain their ostensible goals of more growth, more jobs and more purchasing power in worker pay envelopes. What they did do, of course, was to freight down the main street economy with crushing debts, dangerous financial bubbles, chronic inflation and stagnating living standards. <For want of doubt, go straight to the most basic economic metric we have - real compensation per labor hour. The latter metric not only deletes the inflation from the pay figures, but also measures the totality of worker compensation, including benefits for health care, retirement, vacation, disability, sick leave and other fringes. <... <It doesn’t get any cleaner than this. No matter how the White House, the Fed and the fawning financial press cherry pick the “incoming data” you flat-out can’t say the US economy is “strong” when the growth of the inflation-adjusted pay envelope of 161 million workers has deflated to the vanishing point. Indeed, it has literally been dead in the water for the last 52 months running. >Elon Musk blasts Britain for 'releasing paedophiles' - but Starmer STILL wants his money in the UK https://archive.ph/eagC8 <Social media tycoon Elon Musk has blasted Britain for "releasing convicted paedophiles" online - but Sir Keir Starmer has admitted he would "encourage" his investment in the UK. <Musk had failed to secure an invitation to an investment summit in the UK - with a BBC report blaming his online comments during the summer's unrest for his snub. <... <But now, the PM has insisted that he would "encourage investment from anywhere" in response to the BBC report. >The Last Day Of Life On Earth Has Been Calculated By NASA, This Is How Long We Have Left https://archive.ph/Db8TM <According to NASA’s calculations, life on Earth has about 1.5 billion years left. This may seem like a long time, but it is a blink of an eye in cosmic terms. Once the moist runaway greenhouse effect takes hold, Earth’s surface will become too hot to support life as we know it. The oceans will boil away, the atmosphere will be stripped of its moisture, and the last remnants of life will perish in the searing heat.
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>EU is taking Hungary to court. It says a law targeting foreign influence really targets basic rights https://archive.ph/K1z5P <The European Commission is taking Hungary’s right-wing government to court over laws that could allow the authorities to investigate and prosecute people accused of undermining the country’s sovereignty. The “sovereignty protection act″ took effect in December. It created a government authority with the power to gather information on any groups or individuals that benefit from foreign funding and could influence public debate. Hungary’s secret services can assist in its investigations. Opponents have compared it to Russia’s “foreign agent” law. The commission says it referred Hungary to the Court of Justice because it had failed to address EU concerns about likely breaches of several basic rights, including privacy and freedom of expression and association. >More Americans file for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain historically low https://archive.ph/gB9uZ <The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose modestly last week but remains at healthy levels. <The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims rose by 6,000 to 225,000 for the week of Sept. 28. It was slightly more than the 221,000 analysts were expecting. >Solar boom in China turns electricity prices negative https://archive.ph/aNoiO <Electricity prices have gone negative in parts of China as renewable energy overwhelms the grid. <The country is building twice as much wind and solar as the rest of the world combined, and grid officials have had to resort to reducing output, while the industry tries to build battery storage to smooth the flow of energy, OilPrice reported, which is itself shaping up to become a major market. >NYC hotel owners do about-face and support bill that critics call ‘nuclear bomb’ on industry https://archive.ph/IG3Wh <The Hotel Association of New York City has signed off on a proposal that would create new licensing requirements for lodging businesses after some modifications — though some smaller hotels are still holding out on the controversial plan. <The association’s president has previously called the bill a “nuclear bomb” and some owners united in an effort to raise $20 million to lobby against the plan. <“We listened to stakeholders, prioritized their feedback and now look forward to a hearing on this vital legislation which protects hotel guests, workers and the broader community,” said Councilwoman Julie Menin, the bill’s sponsor. <The Hotel Trade Union, a union for the city’s hotel workers, has supported the legislation, which would ban establishments from contracting out most services — meaning they’d have to directly employ many workers. <The latest version of the bill clarifies that the Department of Consumer Affairs commissioner cannot rescind a license for a temporary service disruption, such as a leak. >Putin Asks Russian Government To Consider Limiting Nickel, Uranium Exports, Potentially Impacting Commodity Prices https://archive.ph/Y9RUs <Political risk is an ever-present but often understated risk that investors face, as its occurrence can reshape the entire investment landscape. One asset class that is among the most susceptible to political risk is commodities. As Bloomberg reported recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked his government to consider limiting exports of some commodities like nickel, titanium and uranium in retaliation for Western sanctions. Against the backdrop of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War, the U.S. and other developed economies have placed numerous sanctions on Russia, intending to weaken the nation's economy. >Judge Finds Newsom's New California Deepfake Ban Unconstitutional https://archive.ph/G58bd <The law — AB 2839 — allowed any person to sue for damages over AI deepfakes within 120 days of an election and up to 60 days after if the perpetrator’s post resembled a political candidate. <Judge John A. Mendez said artificial intelligence and deepfakes pose significant risks but ruled that the law was “unconstitutional” as it likely violated the First Amendment. <“The Court finds that AB 2839 is also unconstitutional under California’s free speech provision.” >Jobless Claims Remain Low Despite 50%-Plus Surge In Job Cuts https://archive.ph/aT6Dl <On the heels of a 53.4% YoY rise in job cut announcements (released by Challenger, Gray, & Christmas), initial jobless claims remain in a world of their own, rising very modestly to 225k from 219k... >Industrial-Size Staffing Firms Reportedly Support Biden-Harris' Mysterious Nationwide Migrant Network https://archive.ph/WJ3lC <Large staffing companies that thrived during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars under the Bush-Obama years retooled their business models as the US involvement and war funding in the Middle East wound down. Now, these staffing firms seem to be profiting off the Biden-Harris administration's open-border migrant invasion by providing essential services, such as private security, transportation, and many other services, to ensure the fed's migrant network nationwide operates smoothly. <These companies are likely awarded handsome federal contracts, paid for by the US taxpayer. <Bussing and housing millions of illegal and legal aliens is big business for staffing companies and non-profits. Americans have to realize their tax dollars are paying for all of this while the migrants displace and replace blue-collar workers in small-town factories nationwide. The folks in Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania, know firsthand just how devastating globalist open border policies can be for them. <Real America's Voice host Ben Bergquam posted on X, "More breaking footage of the Democrats harboring illegals in Chicago. Now using unmarked brand new hotels like this Holiday Inn at [XXXXXXX] to disguise Kamala and Biden's illegal invasion operations." >Accelerating Middle East Crisis: Bring A Stop to The Fighting That Has Spread beyond Gaza https://archive.ph/KkPxP <While the fighting in Gaza continues, Israel has also carried out operations in Iran and Lebanon under the guise of self-defense and started new fights, which have undoubtedly aggravated the situation. <First of all, it is imperative to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the root of the crisis. In particular, the United States, which continues to provide military support to Israel, bears a heavy responsibility. <Although the Gaza conflict began with Hamas’ cross-border attacks, Israel’s counteroffensives have gone far beyond the scope of self-defense. In one year, more than 41,000 people, including women and children, have been killed.
[Expand Post]<The Gaza conflict and the spread of fighting to neighboring areas have had a negative impact, not only on the Middle East, but also on the world as a whole. <The Houthis, an armed rebel group in Yemen that collaborates with Hamas, have been attacking ships and other vessels associated with Israel in the Red Sea, an international logistics route. They have also seized a merchant ship operated by Nippon Yusen Kaisha. <On top of that, if the confrontation between Iran and Israel intensifies and develops into a war between the nations, the situation will become critical. This would affect the navigation in the Persian Gulf, the main artery for crude oil transportation to countries around the world, and also would deliver a major blow to the global economy. >Student Wearing Black Paint On Face Isn't Protected By First Amendment: Judge https://archive.ph/mbm09 <A middle school student who wore black paint on his face during a California football game is not protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, according to a federal judge. <The student, dubbed J.A. in court papers, his parents, and his lawyers have not shown that wearing the black paint is expressive conduct shielded by the First Amendment, U.S. District Judge Linda Lopez said in a Sept. 30 ruling. >Get ready: US port strike likely to snarl tech supply chains https://archive.ph/GiFiG <Dockworkers at American ports from Maine to Texas have gone on strike, and experts are warning it won't be long before the tech sector feels a supply chain pinch that could easily stretch into the beginning of next year. <The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) went on strike at midnight on October 1, leading to tens of thousands of people responsible for loading and unloading cargo at US ports on the east and gulf coasts walking off the job. <... <"Looking back to 2002 when the last US west coast strike occurred, it took a full six months to recover from an 11 day strike," Whitlock told The Register in an emailed statement. "A strike that drags on for two weeks or more will have a devastating effect on supply chains that will drag on for months – well into 1Q25." <Ships will likely be rerouted to the west coast, taking weeks to arrive. The delays will ripple across global shipping, as containers stuck on ships won't return to ports, leaving origin locations unable to send out new goods. <US ports on the west coast don't have much in the way of space either, Whitlock noted. They're already operating at between 60 and 71 percent capacity, meaning many of the ships redirected from the east and gulf coasts will be stuck waiting for an open port as goods languish and perishables expire. <"Waiting time of ships waiting to berth at the west coast will increase substantially from days to weeks [and] overall capacity will begin to shrink causing disruptions across global trades," Whitlock told us. "Spot market pricing will quickly escalate as capacity becomes stranded or delayed in transit." >Media Uses Hurricane Helene To Promote "Global Warming" Agenda https://archive.ph/nXXYb <Even as the death toll from Hurricane Helene continues to rise, pundits in the mainstream media are rushing to use the disaster as an excuse to promote their narrative that “global warming” is real. <As reported by Just The News, a number of prominent anchors, commentators, and other television personalities have used the occasion of the hurricane to spread lies about so-called “global warming,” also referred to as “climate change.”
>>21871 >US Closes $1.5 Billion Loan To Resurrect Shuttered Michigan Nuclear Power Plant https://archive.ph/tbg1E <The world was abuzz two weeks ago when we learned that the notorious Three Mile Island nuclear power plant - site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history - would restart to power Microsoft data centers. As we said at the time, that was only the beginning, as the staggering electricity needs of the coming AI revolution - which we dubbed "the next AI trade" earlier in the year, meant that much more nuclear capacity will have to be either built from scratch or reopened. <Sure enough, the US said on Monday that it closed a $1.52 billion loan to resurrect Holtec's Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, and a senior Biden administration official said it could take two years to reopen the plant (longer than the company predicted). The Biden administration has called for a tripling of U.S. nuclear power capacity as U.S. power demand surges and worries about climate change mount. The Trump administration, should it take over in November, will be even more aggressive about the coming US nuclear renaissance. >Georgia Judge Says State Election Certification Rule "Vague" In Hearing https://archive.ph/zre5O <One of the rules at issue in Tuesday’s trial provides a definition of certification that includes requiring county officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying results, but it does not specify what that means. <The other includes language allowing county election officials “to examine all election-related documentation created during the conduct of elections.” <Supporters of the rules say they are necessary to ensure the accuracy of the vote totals before county election officials sign off on them. <However, critics worry that supporters of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump could use the rules to delay or deny certification if the former president loses the state to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, causing confusion and casting doubt on the results. >Warren Buffett, Dave Ramsey, & John Maynard Keynes Are Wrong! https://archive.ph/kewNo <John Maynard Keynes, the Godfather of Keynesian economics, famously called gold the “barbarous relic,” a term he used to denigrate the gold standard and to disparage the use of gold as money. <Specifically, he hated the constraint the gold standard placed on government spending. If the government prints too much currency that can’t be redeemed in gold, then it must cut back its spending, bringing on a recession or depression, or face runaway price inflation in the economy. <Following in Keynes footsteps, investment whiz kid Warren Buffett, son of the great investor and Congressman, Howard Buffett, has famously disparaged gold as an investment, saying it has “no yield.” He otherwise has voiced no coherent political philosophy, like his father. <Hotshot Radio voice, Dave Ramsey, has likewise sharply disparaged gold as an investment, saying it’s just a “shiny, shiny rock,” with no yield, and is a terrible investment. <... <I will show here how wrong all three men are on all the investment points and even how contradictory their views on gold are, but I must emphasize that I am not offering any kind of investment advice here! This is just analysis and commentary on the current scene. <This hatred and disparagement of gold as money and the gold standard has become standard dogma of and a pillar of the modern state. >Coffee Set to Become a Luxury Good in 2024 https://archive.ph/3Y9uh <Starting in 2024, coffee could become a luxury item in the European Union (EU) due to new regulations to combat deforestation. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which took effect on June 29, 2023, is designed to prevent the import of coffee beans, along with other products such as palm oil, cocoa, and beef, from deforested or degraded lands. Companies that fail to comply it by the end of 2024 will face steep fines. <The regulation requires that all coffee producers exporting to the EU provide detailed data on the land where their crops are grown, ensuring that no deforestation occured after December 31, 2020. This rule has already led to record-high prices for robusta and arabica coffee, with the International Coffee Organization (ICO) warning that Europe could face coffee shortages next year. <The move has sparked concerns across multiple sectors, with smaller farmers in Asia, South America, and Africa expected to bear the brunt of the changes. Experts also point to potential disruptions in supply chains, affecting industries beyond coffee. Despite calls to delay implementation, the European Commission has no plans to postpone the deforestation rules, intensifying uncertainty for both businesses and consumers as the deadline approaches.
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>>21871 >More Americans file for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain historically low >Jobless Claims Remain Low Despite 50%-Plus Surge In Job Cuts
>>21873 It goes to show that, depending on the media that you listen to, people live in entirely seperate worlds.
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>CNN’s Elie Honig Calls Out Hillary Clinton For Getting ‘Her Facts Wrong’ on ‘Cheap Shot’ Against Trump In January 6 Case https://archive.md/XSsYC <“”Well, all to respect Secretary Clinton, she’s the one who suffer the consequences for James Comey’s, I believe, outrageous conduct in 2016; DOJ found later that it was outrageous. The problem, though, with Secretary Clinton’s analysis of the Jack Smith case is, respectfully, she’s got her facts wrong,” he began after listening to her comments. “First of all, she’s confusing the judges here. I think she’s thinking of Judge [Aileen] Cannon, who, yes, has ruled almost entirely for Donald Trump. But that’s the judge in the other case. The judge here is Judge Chutkan. I get it, similar names — Judge Chutkan has ruled almost entirely against Donald Trump.” <“More to the point, the last thing we just heard Secretary Clinton say was, quote, ‘There is nothing out of the ordinary.’ But as I described before, the way they flip this procedure is the opposite of the ordinary,” he continued. “They reversed the actual way that motions are done. You can talk to 100 former federal prosecutors who’ve collectively handled 100,000 cases. They will all tell you they never filed their motions first. And I think it begs the question, what was the rush here? Why did Jack Smith have to ask for this, to quote Judge Chutkan, ‘procedurally irregular approach?’ So I respectfully disagree with the secretary there.” >Texas Ghost Gun Machine Manufacturer To Face Lawsuit In California After Case Transfer Denied https://archive.md/HJNZ2 <A Texas-based company that manufactures machines that allow individuals to build untraceable firearms will have to face a lawsuit brought by the State of California in that state, following a federal judge’s decision to deny the firm’s request to transfer the case to Texas. <In a ruling issued on Oct. 4, U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia remanded the case back to San Diego Superior Court, rejecting a bid by Austin-based Defense Distributed, along with affiliates Coast Runner Industries and Ghost Gunner, to move the case to Texas. <The judge ruled that California is the real party in interest and there are no grounds for federal jurisdiction based on the companies’ argument of diversity of citizenship, which is a legal concept allowing federal courts to preside over cases involving parties from different states. >Musk PAC Offers $47 Bounty For Every Swing-State Voter Referred To Sign Petition https://archive.md/o6nBb <In a head-turning move as we head down the stretch of the 2024 presidential election, the Elon Musk-financed America PAC announced it will start paying $47 to anyone who refers a registered, swing-state voter to sign a petition embracing free speech and gun rights. With no limit on the number of referrals, the program seemingly offers individuals the chance to rack up hundreds of dollars in bounties with little effort. <"Our goal is to get 1 million registered voters in swing states to sign in support of the Constitution, especially freedom of speech and the right to bear arms," America PAC states on the petition page. "This program is exclusively open to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina." >Hurricane Helene Exposes A Deep Betrayal Of America https://archive.md/1Qnr2 <Americans across several states are suffering and attempting to survive under unimaginably harsh conditions, without food and water, in that aftermath of Hurricane Helene which tore across ten states in the Southeast last week, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. And a week later, these people have found that they are largely on their own, as all the real help that has arrived has come through the efforts of individuals and nonprofit groups such as Samaritan Purse, Mountain Mule Packers Ranch, Save Our Allies and Aerial Recovery, which has exposed the fact — to anyone who didn’t already know — that the Biden regime doesn’t give a good damn about them, as Biden and his minions have engaged in not just dereliction of duty but the worst betrayal of the American people ever witnessed, since the birth of the nation. <Joe Biden, the placeholder-in-chief, showed up in Georgia [10-3-24] to give lip-service to the disaster and made promises of money to come, some twenty million dollars, and a recovery that will supposedly be totally undertaken by the federal government. No one should hold their breath waiting on that help to arrive, but if it does, they can bet the farm it will come with the intent of helping Biden special interest groups and supporters first. <Americans should note: $20 million for the victims of Helene and well over $640 million for illegal aliens and approximately $180 BILLION for Ukraine. When does THIS Damned MADNESS Stop!?! >As Israel Marks Year Since Oct.7 Slaughter, Hamas Unleashes Largest Missile Barrage In Months https://archive.md/lFFuK <As Israelis mourn October 7, Hamas chose to launch its heaviest missile barrage on Israel in months, which Israel's military says it was mostly able to thwart through its missile defenses. <The terror group even timed its rockets to the coincide precisely with the start of memorial events across the country. Regular rocket attacks had previously largely ceased amid the ongoing ground war in the central and south parts of the Gaza Strip, but for now they've resumed. <"Starting at 6:29 a.m., ceremonies, rallies and ad hoc memorials held across Israel marked the moment a year ago that Gazan terror groups began lobbing massive volleys of rockets, providing air cover for thousands of terrorists speeding across the suddenly pregnable border by land, air and sea and kicking off the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust," Israeli media describes. >CCP Targets US Shipping Infrastructure https://archive.md/QdzTd <A congressional investigation uncovered concerns about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in cranes at U.S. ports, pointing to the discovery of surveillance equipment and ties to China’s military, which poses a national security threat to U.S. shipping infrastructure. <The House Homeland Security Committee and the Select Committee on the CCP recently released a report highlighting the growing threat to U.S. security from China’s dominance in the global maritime industry. <The report focuses on Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC), a Chinese state-owned company that manufactures about 80 percent of the ship-to-shore (STS) cranes used at U.S. ports. The investigation found that these cranes pose cybersecurity and national security risks due to embedded technology that could allow the CCP to access or disrupt U.S. port operations. Additionally, ZPMC has pressured some U.S. port operators to grant remote access for maintenance and diagnostics, raising concerns about potential espionage and sabotage. >Tren De Aragua Gang Members Nabbed In Huge Raid On San Antonio Apartment Complex https://archive.md/3Ma2e <A combined city-state-federal raid on a San Antonio apartment complex said to be under the "control" of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang yielded 20 arrests and detentions on Saturday, including "confirmed" members of the Venezuelan gang, police said. <The pre-dawn raid was a joint operation carried out by more than 150 officers of the San Antonio Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, ATF, and the Texas Anti Gang Unit. Officers swept through some 300 vacant units at the Palatia Apartments, a complex on the city's north side, about a mile west of the airport and just east of the Harmony Hills residential subdivision. >Children's Diets Are Now "Over 70%" Ultra-Processed Foods; Dietitian Warns https://archive.md/H0LBi <It looks like the "Make America Healthy Again" movement could be showing up right on time... <At least according to one registered dietitian nutritionist in Los Angeles, who recently took to Fox News to lay out the risks from ultra-processed foods in the American diet. <Ilana Muhlstein said on Fox news that America’s diet is 60% ultra-processed, but that kids consume even more than that. <"With children, it’s actually over 70%. That is really wild when you think about it," she said. "What we eat defines how our cells work, how our organs work, and we're seeing a strong decline in mental health and well-being." >Top EU Court Rules Against Meta, Limits Use Of Personal Data For Targeted Ads https://archive.md/uTnkg
[Expand Post]<In a landmark decision, the top court in the European Union (EU) has ruled that Facebook parent company Meta cannot use personal data gathered from its own platforms or from external sources for targeted advertising without adhering to strict limits and restrictions under the bloc’s privacy laws. <The ruling, hailed as a victory by privacy advocates, was issued on Oct. 4 by the Court of Justice of the European Union, in response to a lawsuit brought by Austrian activist Max Schrems, who has long campaigned for stricter enforcement of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). >Washington Post: Police Seldom Disclose Use of Facial Recognition Despite False Arrests https://archive.md/5HfMT <Hundreds of Americans have been arrested after being connected to a crime by facial recognition software, a Washington Post investigation has found, but many never know it because police seldom disclose their use of the controversial technology. <Police departments in 15 states provided The Post with rarely seen records documenting their use of facial recognition in more than 1,000 criminal investigations over the past four years. According to the arrest reports in those cases and interviews with people who were arrested, authorities routinely failed to inform defendants about their use of the software – denying them the opportunity to contest the results of an emerging technology that is prone to error, especially when identifying people of color. <In fact, the records show that officers often obscured their reliance on the software in public-facing reports, saying that they identified suspects “through investigative means” or that a human source such as a witness or police officer made the initial identification.
>Insurance companies exit US state after severe storms — here's how it will impact thousands of homeowners https://archive.ph/KBOMe <Bad weather is causing more than just storms in Texas. ABC affiliate KVUE reported that Progressive is just one of several home insurance companies that have exited the market, or significantly limited the coverage they are offering, in the Lone Star State because of fear of storm-related damage. <According to Cassie Brown, commissioner of the Texas Department of Insurance, these departures will impact 11,000 homeowners. "Several companies are making some decisions to not grow as fast in Texas as they have been in the past," she said. "It could be that they are … increasing their deductibles. They may say this is a particular area of the state where we've seen a lot of losses. So we're not going to grow as fast." <While it's concerning for homeowners, insurers are sustaining losses from storms. KVUE cited Progressive's quarterly reports, which stated that 40% of all recent storm losses occurred in Texas. <"The carriers just can't provide the capacity that they need to write everywhere," risk consultant Frank Barbella explained. >Owners of once-prized real estate assets are facing a major problem: 'This ... has exposed the people that know what they're doing and those that don't' https://archive.ph/TZLSt <Homeowners across the United States are experiencing difficulties with obtaining insurance policies or keeping up with rising premium costs as extreme weather events alter the shape of the market. But business owners, landlords, and property developers are starting to feel the strain, too. <As The New York Times reported, insurance premiums are rising for homeowners as the threat of extreme weather events including deadly storms, wildfires, and flooding — all made more likely, stronger, and longer lasting because of human-caused global heating — increases, but commercial building owners are also in increasingly difficult positions. <While it's not easy to quantify how many buildings have gone into foreclosure because of this issue, those in the industry attest that deals are falling apart with insurance costs rising to unreasonable levels. <According to insurance brokerage Marsh McLennan, as the Times detailed, insurance costs for commercial properties in storm-vulnerable areas such as Florida and California have risen as much as 50%. >Musk and JD Vance want to colonize the universe. It’s a horrible idea https://archive.ph/FwZwo <Earlier this week, Vice President Nominee JD Vance announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he wants the United States to “conquer the stars.” It’s a reference to his support of Elon Musk, who, at a Trump rally a few weeks ago, declared that he wants to “make science fiction real.” The rhetoric is part of Musk’s effort to establish a human population on Mars and make humanity “sustainably multiplanetary.” But Musk’s dream is my nightmare, and despite what JD Vance says, it shouldn’t “inspire all of us.” <For context, JD Vance and Musk aren’t alone in such an aspiration. Jeff Bezos, who has his own space exploration company, Blue Origin, remarked last year that he’d “love to see a trillion humans living in the solar system.” Richard Branson, who founded space tourism company Virgin Galactic, once noted that he too is “determined to being a part of starting a population on Mars.” <Forget luxury real estate and financial tech — space, and specifically the expansion of human civilization beyond Earth, has become the latest obsession of the ultra-wealthy. >"Consumers Running Out Of Money": Former Target Exec Offers Dire Warning Ahead Of Christmas https://archive.ph/uaqJi <"It's very clear that consumers are running out of money. They're increasingly stressed by inflation and the exhaustion of their pandemic-era savings. When you take a look over the last several years, what you see month after month, everyone talks about, the consumer's still spending. They might be, but they're spending less than the growth of inflation," Storch Advisors CEO Gerald Storch told Fox Bussiness' Maria Bartiromo on Thursday during an interview. <Bartiromo then asked Storch about his forecast on the upcoming spending season between Black Friday and Christmas. The former Target executive said, "[I don't expect] too much, frankly ... and think that [if] we can get growth in [the] 2.5% range, that'd be doing pretty well, and that's not very good. In the heydays there, we'd really want to see something that's more like 4% type of growth. You have, by the way, the shortest holiday season you can even imagine, so that's against retailers." <Besides Target, Storch was also the former CEO at Toys "R" Us. He noted, "Now and the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is very, very short, so that's going to be bad. The election's going to weigh on things and the geopolitical situation as well, so I think it's going to be a pretty weak Christmas." >"I'm With Elon": Gavin Newsom Unexpectedly Backs SpaceX In California Lawsuit Against Rogue Democrats https://archive.ph/juy0y <California's far-left governor, Gavin Newsom, has unexpectedly backed Elon Musk and SpaceX. The private spaceflight company, which handles the majority of US space launches and leads the space race in this solar system, filed a lawsuit against a California state commission early last week, accusing it of political bias. The suit alleges that Democrats are hindering SpaceX launches off the Pacific coast. <"I'm with Elon," Gov. Newsom said in an interview Thursday after campaigning for VP Kamala Harris in the swing state of North Carolina, which Politico quoted. He continued, "I didn't like that." <On Tuesday, SpaceX filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles against the California Coastal Commission for alleged political discrimination. <The lawsuit stems from the California Coastal Commission's (CCC) decision to halt SpaceX's plans to increase the number of rocket launches from the Space Force base in Santa Barbara County.
>OPEC+ Delays Production Hike (Again) https://archive.ph/rrKYi <OPEC+ agreed to push back its December production increase by one month, the second delay to its plans to revive supply as faltering demand in China and swelling supplies from the Americas pressure prices. <"Market conditions won out," said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of oil research at Onyx Commodities Ltd. <"OPEC+ showed it couldn’t ignore the current macroeconomic economic realities centered on China and Europe, which point to weaker oil demand growth." >Iranians Frustrated By China, Russia For Meager Response To Israeli Strikes https://archive.ph/DXG6C <China and Russia's response to Israel's attacks on Iran has drawn widespread criticism, with many deeming the reactions insufficient and delayed. <The Tehran-based Ham-Mihan daily newspaper emphasized that given the extensive promotion of strategic relations between Tehran, Moscow and Beijing in recent years, there was an expectation that Russia and China would officially condemn the attacks on Iran. <The newspaper wrote: "Three days passed after the Israeli military attack on sites in three Iranian provinces before China’s foreign ministry responded. The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson also commented on the attack only hours afterwards. In the end, neither Beijing nor Moscow condemned Israel's actions." >Visualizing 'Law and (Dis)Order' Around The World In 2024 https://archive.ph/w6gTK <Many prosperous countries are among the safest globally, highlighting the link between economic stability and physical security. <Despite global conflicts reaching their highest levels since World War II—currently at 56—the public’s sense of safety has improved over the past decade. This rise in perceived safety is largely attributed to greater trust in law enforcement, which remains a key factor in how secure people feel, regardless of a country’s economic standing. <This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows Law and Order Index scores by country, based on data from Gallup’s Global Safety Report 2024. >Models Show Caribbean Disturbance Threatens US Gulf Energy Complex https://archive.ph/J80ny <Norcross said, "A dense plume of tropical moisture is forecast to rotate north with the potential storm. This will enhance the flooding threat on the Caribbean islands west of Puerto Rico beginning Monday. Some of the moisture could reach South Florida by midweek." <The potential impact area is home to major offshore oil/gas platforms across the Gulf Coast and about 60% of the US refining capacity. >"RIP My Best Friend": Outrage Ensues After Beloved Rescue Squirrel Seized By NY, Euthanized https://archive.ph/alowr <The internet is ablaze with rage after the state of New York seized a beloved rescue squirrel Peanut from its owner's home Wednesday and euthanized it. <The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation staged a five-hour, no-warrant raid on the home of Mark Luongo after an anonymous complaint was lodged against the P'nuts Freedom Farm, where internet sensation Peanut the squirrel was taken into custody before the state euthanized it along with a raccoon 'in order to test for rabies.' >UK Foreign Secretary Blames Civil Unrest In Europe On "Russian Disinformation" https://archive.ph/T2O80 <In the UK and Europe, protests have erupted over a number of problems, most importantly the threat of mass immigration from third world countries and the deliberate agenda to erase traditional European culture. Some of the unrest has also been related to the Ukraine war and ongoing discussions about "conscription" among government officials. <The UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is one of many bureaucrats that are trying to lump all civil actions together, labeling them a "threat to democracy." The narrative also seeks to tie these events to "Russian disinformation." In other words, according to David Lammy the public is being brainwashed by Vladimir Putin into protesting and this is a strategy by the Kremlin to sow discord within Europe. >The Internet Is Getting Flushed Down Orwell's Memory Hole https://archive.ph/ohxXY <When the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine was hacked in early October, it looked at first like just another email-and-password smash-and-grab. But that was followed up by repeated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that crippled the service. The Internet Archive was hit again on Oct. 20, "this time with the threat actors gaining access to their Zendesk support email system." <The Wayback Machine came back but as a read-only service. <What that means is, while you can search archived webpages from before the attacks, "you can’t currently capture an existing web page into the archive." <That matters bigly. When the New York Times, Washington Post, or anyone else stealth-edits a news report to hide the truth, you could still find the original on the Wayback Machine. That's no longer true. "For the first time in 30 years, we have gone a long swath of time – since October 8-10 – since this service has chronicled the life of the Internet in real time," the Brownstone Institute reported this week. <As of this writing, fully three weeks of web content have not been archived. What we are missing and what has changed is anyone’s guess. And we have no idea when the service will come back. It is entirely possible that it will not come back, that the only real history to which we can take recourse will be pre-October 8, 2024, the date on which everything changed. <But it gets worse. <Google killed off its cache feature — similar to the Wayback Machine — right around the time the Internet Archive got hacked. Coincidence? Probably. But I'm making a tinfoil hat, just in case. >South Korean Parliament Warns President Sending Arms To Ukraine Risks War With Kim Jong Un https://archive.ph/RAMBV <Yoon has vowed not to “sit idle” in response to the North Korean deployment. His office confirmed this week that Seoul intended to send a delegation to Ukraine to monitor the North Korean forces, following a call on Tuesday between Yoon and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy. <But this has been consistently opposed by South Korea's left opposition, which maintains a parliamentary majority. <Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the Democratic party, declared days ago that "[Arming Ukraine] is an incredibly dangerous idea that treats people’s lives like pawns in a game of chess."
[Expand Post]<Yoon "shouldn’t engage South Korea in a proxy war with North Korea . . . in a faraway land," continued Park. He warned that escalating Seoul's involvement in any way would "risk starting a military conflict on the Korean peninsula." >That position you just applied for might be a 'ghost job' that'll never be filled https://archive.ph/OmxKs <This is no fringe phenomenon either, as Silicon Valley-adjacent news outlet SFGate discovered by chatting with some recruiters and looking at research from career and resume websites. To make matters worse, it's becoming increasingly prevalent in the tech industry as it slides into an era of perpetual layoffs, the publication concluded. <According to research published in August by MyPerfectResume, 81 percent of recruiters admitted to posting ghost jobs, with 41 percent saying half or more of the jobs they post are straight-up fake. Resume Builder similarly found by speaking to more than a thousand hiring managers that 40 percent of companies posted fake jobs in the past year, and that three in ten had active fake openings posted as of June, when it published its report. >Reuters: TGI Friday’s Operator Files for Bankruptcy amid Financial Woes https://archive.ph/IQvCD <TGI Fridays, an American casual dining chain, said on Saturday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after grappling with prolonged financial challenges and a collapsed deal with UK-based Hostmore. <In a filing with the U.S. bankruptcy court for the Northern District of Texas, the company listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million. <Privately owned by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, TGI Fridays has been a beloved dining destination since its inaugural bar opened in Manhattan, New York, over five decades ago, in 1965. <TGI Fridays, owner and operator of 39 domestic “Thank God it’s Friday!” restaurants, said it maintains operations across its corporate-owned ‘happy hour’ dining places in the U.S., adding that it has secured a financing commitment to support operations.


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