October 6th, 2022 • 2h 59m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
Climate Change
Ed Ryan BOTG Ft Meyers
Adam:
We live in Fort Myers.
My weekly podcast was broadcast live on Fort Myers Beach at a restaurant called Pete's Time Out. A picture attached is where Pete's used to stand. The storm wiped out every building in Times Square. Every advertiser I had on the show and newsletter was destroyed.
Thank God I didn't quit Radio Ink to Make Real Money Podcasting.
I heard John mention over a thousand deaths. There has been no official confirmation on a tally yet locally. It's going to be ugly. They are STILL searching for bodies on Fort Myers Beach. And, after an entire week they are still not allowing residents back on the island to see if they have any property left. People are getting pissed. And, the Mayor hasn't held a single press conference. Both the Mayor and The Town Manager have basically been hiding, other than the photo opp with Biden.
Thepictures you see don't do the carnage justice. I rode my bike through the area the day after. It looks like the place was nuked.
Kim and I are now broadcasting live from home every night at 6PM with local officials and survivors of the storm, on FB and YT. We've raised $140,000 for residents on the beach since last Thursday.
Ed Ryan
Editor
Radio Ink Magazine
Podcast Business Journal
-----------------------------DeSantis---------------------------------------------------------
He's a rock star.
The problem is the local government. They are not letting anyone on the beach because of the body search.
They are finding bodies everywhere on FMB. The count is going to be high. I speak to the Fire Chief every night at 5:30. He won't give out any numbers.
The national media is trying to gin up that people weren't given enough warning.
This thing wasn't even supposed to hit us. It wobbled at the last minute.
I was on the beach just as the storm started. There were no lines to get off the island. There was no traffic at all.
People that wanted to leave, left. Shit, three town council members decided not to leave the island. The reason is they told us about storm surge during Irma and nothing happened. This time, it fucking happened big-time.
I rode my bike down the main Boulevard on Fort Myers Beach the day after.
I just haven't been able to get it off my phone.
As soon as I can, I will share it with you.
The video attached is where the restaurants were where we did the weekly show.
Take a look at Mitch's video here.
https://www.facebook.com/mitch.pacyna/videos/578303570710720
This was as the storm got started. It overtook his house and he drowned.
EV's in Florida
There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale. #HurricaneIan
Energy & Inflation
BOTG Christina. 17.1% bakeries closing etc family businesses - Looting
Crashes by the numbers
5 --> 1931, 1941, 1969, 2018, 2022
# Years in which both S&P 500 and 10-Year Treasury Bond were down more than 10%?
1 --> 2022 https://t.co/5g2kUPBxA9
Ukraine & Russia
Are they being led into Putin's trap?
Great Reset
Food Intelligence
The FDA issues new guidelines on what foods can be labeled 'healthy' - The Washington Post
The Food and Drug Administration announced new rules Wednesday for nutrition labels that can go on the front of food packages to indicate that they are “healthy.”
Under the proposal, manufacturers can label their products “healthy” if they contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups (such as fruit, vegetable or dairy) recommended by the dietary guidelines. They must also adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. For example, a cereal would need to contain three-quarters of an ounce of whole grains and no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of added sugars per serving for a food manufacturer to use the word “healthy” on the label.
The labels are aimed at helping consumers more easily navigate nutrition labels and make better choices at the grocery store. The proposed rule would align the definition of the “healthy” claim with current nutrition science, the updated Nutrition Facts label and the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the FDA said.
The agency also is developing a symbol that companies can voluntarily use to label food products that meet federal guidelines.
Don Layman PhD interview
Don bio
Don Layman is a Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has spent the past 40 years investigating the role of dietary protein in muscle protein synthesis. In this episode, Don describes how his decades of research have shaped his thinking around protein, muscle, anabolic factors, metabolism, and more. He explains the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein: what it is, how it came about, and how it should serve only as a guide for the minimum protein necessary for survival rather than as an optimal level of protein intake. "
Big Ag and Big Pharma basically deconstructed the cow and is providing all thge separate bits to us like B12 and amino acids as separate modules. Most synthetic or processed. Now get rid of the cow all together.
Build the Wall
Ministry of Truthiness
U.S. podcasters spread Kremlin narratives on Nord Stream sabotage
Eighteen episodes in our dataset referenced the theory that the United States was responsible for the Nord Stream incident, with 14 sharing content about the explosions that was conspiratorial in nature, including 7 episodes wholly endorsing the United States as the most likely culprit. Only 4 episodes sought to refute the claim.
CBDC
BLM LGBBTQQIAAPK+ Noodle Boy
Prime Time Purge
Big Tech
Iran Op
Iran protests BOT Saeid
About the protest in Iran,
* The morality police can be translated from Persian to morality police, because their existence is to tell people this is not up to the dress code and arrest people and take them to jail. So because they're there to make people more moral to go to heaven. The department behind morality police is named “moral-security police”.
People have had up to here with the regime, we can't do anything to be free and seemingly every government in the world supports the regime when it comes to it.
This time the whole society was waiting for an opportunity to protest, it happened all of a sudden (the killing of Mahsa) and everyone was upset because she looked like she could be anyone’s sister or daughter.
We didn't have any coverage of the protest from the global media, and even Persian-speaking media took their time to cover it.
People were super brave with the strikes I participated in, but unfortunately, they've gotten my arrest warrant.
This series of protests feel a bit organic, I've seen so many protest movements but this one captures the mind, “woman, life, freedom”. It's really captures what we're fighting for.
Regards
Saeid
STORIES
The FDA issues new guidelines on what foods can be labeled 'healthy' - The Washington Post
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:15
The Food and Drug Administration announced new rules Wednesday for nutrition labels that can go on the front of food packages to indicate that they are ''healthy.''
Under the proposal, manufacturers can label their products ''healthy'' if they contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups (such as fruit, vegetable or dairy) recommended by the dietary guidelines. They must also adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. For example, a cereal would need to contain three-quarters of an ounce of whole grains and no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of added sugars per serving for a food manufacturer to use the word ''healthy'' on the label.
The labels are aimed at helping consumers more easily navigate nutrition labels and make better choices at the grocery store. The proposed rule would align the definition of the ''healthy'' claim with current nutrition science, the updated Nutrition Facts label and the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the FDA said.
The agency also is developing a symbol that companies can voluntarily use to label food products that meet federal guidelines for the term ''healthy.''
The announcement came ahead of Wednesday's White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The conference was the first of its kind since 1969, when a summit hosted by the administration of President Richard M. Nixon led to major expansions of food stamps, school lunches and other programs that have been credited with reducing hunger nationally and providing a critical safety net during the pandemic.
Once finalized, the FDA's new system will ''quickly and easily communicate nutrition information'' through tools such as ''star ratings or traffic light schemes to promote equitable access to nutrition information and healthier choices,'' the White House said in a statement this week. The system ''can also prompt industry to reformulate their products to be healthier,'' it said, by adding more vegetables or whole grains or developing new products to meet the updated definition.
Obesity among children ages 5 to 11 rises during the pandemic
The stakes are high.
Six in 10 American adults have chronic lifestyle-related diseases, often stemming from obesity and poor diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says these diseases are the leading cause of death and disability and a leading driver in the nation's $4.1 trillion of annual health-care costs.
And the obesity epidemic is not moving in the right direction: Studies show that obesity, especially among children, rose significantly during the pandemic, with the greatest change among children ages 5 to 11, who gained an average of more than five pounds. Before the pandemic, about 36 percent of 5- to 11-year-olds were considered overweight or obese; during the pandemic, that increased to 45.7 percent.
In some Latin American countries, governments have instituted stricter food labeling laws, pushing back against sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods in an effort to escape the obesity epidemic that has overtaken the United States. In Chile, for instance, foods high in added sugar, saturated fats, calories and added sodium must display black stop signs on the front of their packages. Nothing with black stop signs can be sold or promoted in schools or included in child-targeted television ads.
Latin America's war on obesity could be a model for U.S.
Groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest have long petitioned the FDA to adopt mandatory, standardized and evidence-based front-of-package labeling. Front-of-package nutrition labeling, they say, will reach more consumers than the ''Nutrition Facts'' on the backs of packages, helping them quickly choose more-beneficial foods and spurring companies to reformulate products in a more healthful direction. According to nutrition experts, Americans generally consume too much sodium, added sugars and saturated fat in their packaged foods, so to be able to quickly identify foods that are high or low in those nutrients would be a significant public health benefit.
The Biden administration has endorsed the FDA's efforts to crack down on sodium intake, strengthening the agency's announcement last year that it would have food companies and restaurants reduce sodium in the foods they make by about 12 percent over the next 2½ years. In a parallel effort, the administration suggests the FDA reduce Americans' sugar consumption by ''including potential voluntary targets'' for food manufacturers' sugar content.
New labeling language is sure to be controversial among food manufacturers that have sought to capitalize on Americans' interest in more-healthful food.
''The FDA's 'healthy' definition can succeed only if it is clear and consistent for manufacturers and understood by consumers,'' Roberta Wagner, a spokeswoman for the industry organization Consumer Brands Association, said Tuesday.
But what constitutes ''healthy'' food is a thorny topic among nutrition experts. Would foods high in what many nutrition scientists call ''good fats,'' such as those that contain almonds or avocados, be deemed ''unhealthy,'' whereas artificially sweetened fruit snacks or reduced-fat sugary yogurts might be considered ''healthy''?
The proposal is far from final and likely to be met with some resistance from food manufacturers, which have sought in recent years to capitalize on the increasing desire among consumers to eat healthier.
''In reality, FDA's proposed rule will need to undergo significant review and revision to ensure it does not place the politics of food above science and fact,'' said Sean McBride, founder of DSM Strategic Communications and former executive at the Grocery Manufacturers Association. ''The details are critical because the final rule goes well beyond a simple definition by creating a de facto nutrition profile regulatory scheme that will dictate how food can be made for decades to come.''
Peter Lurie, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said that front-of-package labeling shows real promise but that it must be mandatory, simple, nutrient-specific and include calories. He said that such labeling does change consumer purchasing behaviors and forces companies to reformulate their products to attain more favorable ratings. He said that unless a healthy definition and label is very specific, some companies will try to game the system by ''health-washing'' their less healthy products to appear healthy.
How the Trump administration limited the scope of the USDA's 2020 dietary guidelines
The FDA started a public process to update the ''healthy'' nutrient content claim for food labeling in 2016. But critics have said the dietary guidelines have often failed to focus on the right things. During the Trump administration, for instance, the 2020 dietary guidelines committee was forbidden to consider the health effects of consuming red meat, ultra-processed foods and sodium.
Federal nutrition guidance has experienced some significant pendulum swings. For many years, recommendations were based on intuitive, but incorrect, thinking: Eating fat makes us fat. Consuming large quantities of cholesterol gives us high cholesterol.
First defined by the FDA in 1994, ''healthy'' was initially focused on fat content. In 2015, the agency sent a warning letter to snack bar maker Kind about the company's ''healthy'' label. At issue? The bars, mostly nuts, were too high in saturated fat. Nutrition experts and Kind submitted a formal petition to the FDA ''to update its regulations around the term healthy when used as a nutrient content claim in food labeling,'' to reflect current science.
In 2016, the FDA reversed its position, allowing Kind to use the term ''healthy'' and announcing that the agency would reconsider the definition of the word.
The new FDA guidance announced this week would automatically allow whole fruits and vegetables to bear the claim of ''healthy,'' and prepared food products would have to meet criteria for nutrient requirements and percentage limits for added sugars, sodium and saturated fats.
''Seven years after filing our Citizen Petition, Kind is celebrating that the FDA has proposed an updated regulatory definition of 'healthy,' '' Kind chief executive Russell Stokes said Wednesday. ''A rule that reflects current nutrition science and Dietary Guidelines for Americans is a win for public health '-- and that's a win for all of us.''
Recent dietary guidelines put an emphasis on eating a plant-based diet, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. They maintain a hard line about limiting your intake of salt and saturated fat, but they state simply that cholesterol is ''not a nutrient of concern,'' doing away with the long-standing 300-milligram-per-day limit.
Hurricane Ian: Florida death toll rises as criticism mounts - BBC News
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:12
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Rescue personnel in Florida's Lee County on 30 September
By Bernd Debusmann Jr and Sam Cabral
BBC News
The death toll from Hurricane Ian has reportedly risen to nearly 100 in Florida as rescue personnel continue to search for survivors.
Officials in the US state have come under fire as critics allege residents in some hard-hit areas did not receive enough advance warning to evacuate.
More than half of the deaths recorded are in Lee County, where Ian made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.
President Joe Biden is expected to visit Florida on Wednesday.
On Monday, Mr Biden visited Puerto Rico - which was struck by Hurricane Fiona just days before Ian struck Florida - where he promised $60m (£53m) in aid to help the US territory.
"We're going to make sure you get every single dollar promised," he said in the municipality of Ponce, parts of which were still without power.
According to the BBC's US partner network CBS, the hurricane's death toll in Florida climbed to at least 99 on Monday night. Another four deaths have been confirmed in North Carolina.
Florida officials said the latest death toll is at least 68. The figures differ as while local officials may report additional storm-related deaths, the medical examiner's officer is only attributing a death to the hurricane after an autopsy is performed.
The majority of the deaths - 55 - have been reported in Lee County, which includes the hard-hit areas Fort Myers, Sanibel and Pine Island, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said at a news conference.
Mr Marceno said access to Fort Myers Beach was being restricted to allow authorities to investigate deaths and to preserve potential crime scenes. He added that four arrests had been made after looting incidents were reported.
On Friday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis described the county as "ground zero" for the hurricane.
Confusion over death tolls is common in the wake of hurricanes. In 2020, for example, fewer than 20 deaths were reported from Hurricane Laura days after it made landfall in Louisiana - a figure which the National Hurricane Center later revised to 47.
While the death toll from Hurricane Ian already makes it one of the deadliest hurricanes in recent memory, it still pales in comparison to 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people, and 2017's Hurricane Maria, which killed nearly 3,000.
In the wake of the storm, officials in Lee County have faced questions about the timing of their evacuation order, which was issued on 27 September, less than 24 hours before Ian made landfall. Several other counties in the path of the incoming hurricane issued their own evacuation orders a day before.
Local officials, as well as Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis, have defended Lee County's preparations for the hurricane.
"Everyone wants to focus on a plan that might have been done differently," Mr Marceno said on Sunday. "I stand 100% with my county commissioners, my county manager. We did what we had to do at the exact same time. I wouldn't have changed anything."
A 2015 planning document on the official website of Lee County's government notes that "due to our large population and limited system, Southwest Florida is the hardest place in the country to evacuate in a disaster." The document adds that evacuation decision-making procedures consider "evacuation risks, the disruption to both the lives of our residents/visitors, businesses and the potential magnitude of the impending threat".
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption, An aerial view of Fort Myers Beach on 2 October
The death toll cited by Florida officials does not include at least 16 Cuban migrants who remain missing after their boat capsized off the state's coastline during the hurricane. Of the 27 people on board, nine were rescued by the US Coast Guard and two managed to swim ashore at Stock Island, near Key West, The bodies of two more who died have been recovered. The Coast Guard has suspended the search for those still missing.
Approximately 430,000 homes and businesses remain without power across the state, according to data from poweroutage.us.
The utility company with the largest number of outages, Florida Power & Light Co, said that the majority of customers will have their power restored by 7 October, but that storm damage has made some properties "unable to safely accept power".
While officials are still assessing the damage caused by the hurricane across the state, experts have warned that the economic cost could ultimately rise to tens of billions of dollars. So far, insurers have reported about $1.44bn (£1.28bn) in preliminary claims.
A preliminary forecast from data firm Enki Research published on 1 October estimated that total damages will amount to at least $66bn, but could rise as high as $75bn.
Media caption, US Coast Guard airlifts residents out of Sanibel Island
Merkel wins award for Germany's open door policy to refugees | Euronews
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:11
By Chris Harris with AP, AFP ' Updated: 04/10/2022
In this Sept. 9, 2015 file photo German chancellor Angela Merkel poses for a selfie with a refugee in a facility for arriving refugees in Berlin. -
Copyright
Credit: AP PhotoGermany's former chancellor Angela Merkel has been hailed for her "great moral and political courage" in supporting asylum seekers.
The 68-year-old received the praise as she was awarded the Nansen Prize from the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) on Tuesday.
During Merkel's tenure, Germany welcomed more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers at the height of the 2015-16 migrant crisis.
At the time, Merkel said the influx was "a test for our European values ''as rarely before", pointing to "a humanitarian imperative".
Commenting on the award, UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi praised Merkel's determination to uphold human rights and humanitarian principles.
"By helping more than one million refugees to survive and rebuild, Angela Merkel has shown great moral and political courage," he said. "It was real leadership calling on the compassion of all of us, standing firm against those who preached fear and discrimination. She showed what can be achieved when politicians follow the right course and work to find solutions to challenges rather than simply shifting the responsibility to others."
Merkel's decision to let in so many migrants boosted the far-right Alternative for Germany party and resulted in protests by a vocal minority.
She was also blasted by some governments for being too friendly to refugees when some European Union partner states were closing borders to refugees and asylum-seekers.
The Nansen Prize, awarded annually, was created in 1954 in honour of the first UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the explorer Norwegian arctic and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), to reward outstanding achievements in humanitarianism.
Merkel will receive her award -- which comes with a '¬151,000 prize -- during a ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland on 10 October.
Federal Reserve Board - Federal Reserve Board announces that six of the nation's largest banks will participate in a pilot climate scenario analysis exercise designed to enhance the ability of supervisors and firms to measure and manage climate-related
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:11
September 29, 2022
Federal Reserve Board announces that six of the nation's largest banks will participate in a pilot climate scenario analysis exercise designed to enhance the ability of supervisors and firms to measure and manage climate-related financial risksFor release at 10:00 a.m. EDT
The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced that six of the nation's largest banks will participate in a pilot climate scenario analysis exercise designed to enhance the ability of supervisors and firms to measure and manage climate-related financial risks. Scenario analysis'--in which the resilience of financial institutions is assessed under different hypothetical climate scenarios'--is an emerging tool to assess climate-related financial risks, and there will be no capital or supervisory implications from the pilot.
The pilot exercise will be launched in early 2023 and is expected to conclude around the end of the year. At the beginning of the exercise, the Board will publish details of the climate, economic, and financial variables that make up the climate scenario narratives.
Over the course of the pilot, participating firms will analyze the impact of the scenarios on specific portfolios and business strategies. The Board will then review firm analysis and engage with those firms to build capacity to manage climate-related financial risks. The Board anticipates publishing insights gained from the pilot at an aggregate level, reflecting what has been learned about climate risk management practices and how insights from scenario analysis will help identify potential risks and promote risk management practices. No firm-specific information will be released.
Climate scenario analysis is distinct and separate from bank stress tests. The Board's stress tests are designed to assess whether large banks have enough capital to continue lending to households and businesses during a severe recession. The climate scenario analysis exercise, on the other hand, is exploratory in nature and does not have capital consequences. By considering a range of possible future climate pathways and associated economic and financial developments, scenario analysis can assist firms and supervisors in understanding how climate-related financial risks may manifest and differ from historical experience.
The banks in the pilot exercise are Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. In coming months, the Board will provide additional details on how the exercise will be conducted and the scenarios that will be used in the pilot.
For media inquiries, please email [email protected] or call 202-452-2955.
Last Update: September 29, 2022
UN Envoy to Yemen Pushing for Peace Deal After Truce Expires - News From Antiwar.com
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:10
The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, is still pushing the warring parties to reach a broader peace deal after a six-month ceasefire expired on Sunday, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Grundberg warned that now that the truce between the Houthis and the US-backed Saudi-led coalition collapsed, there is a risk of a significant escalation in the war. ''Any small incident could spark something that could have devastating consequences,'' he told Reuters in Amman.
Grundberg said the two sides failed to reach a deal because they were far apart on a peace deal that he put forward. ''So I would urge all sides to exercise restraint and allow discussions that we have ongoing to bear fruit and'... move Yemen out of the violence we have seen for the last seven years,'' he said.
Under the ceasefire, the Saudis allowed a limited number of flights in and out of the Sanaa airport and allowed more fuel ships to dock in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. But the Houthis have long maintained that they want a full lifting of the blockade as a precondition for political talks.
For their part, the Saudis and the Riyadh-based Yemeni government wanted the Houthis to open more roads around the city of Taiz. The Houthis opened some under the ceasefire but refused to open the main access road until Saudi-backed militias leave the area. The Houthis were also calling for the payment of civil servants, but a deal wasn't reached on that issue.
While there was fighting on the ground, the six-month ceasefire brought the longest period of calm since the US-backed coalition intervened in Yemen back in 2015. During that time, no Saudi airstrikes were reported in Yemen. Since the ceasefire collapsed, there's been more fighting on the ground, but as of Tuesday night, there have been no reports of airstrikes.
War powers resolutions have been introduced in Congress to end US involvement in the war, which would effectively ground the Saudi air force since it relies on US maintenance. Resolutions have been introduced in both the House and the Senate and have over 100 bipartisan cosponsors. Call 1-833-Stop-War to tell your representative in Congress to support the legislation.
The UN estimates that the US-backed war on Yemen and the conditions it has caused have killed at least 377,000 people, more than half of which are children under the age of five. The US-backed coalition regularly bombed civilian targets in Yemen, and civilian casualties spiked earlier this year right before the ceasefire was reached in March.
Mayor Adams Close to Deal for Norwegian Cruise Ship to House Migrants in NYC Waters - American Renaissance
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:10
Posted on October 4, 2022
Bernadette Hogan et al., New York Post, September 30, 2022
Mayor Eric Adams is finalizing a deal with the Norwegian Cruise Line to house migrants on one of its massive cruise ships and dock it at Staten Island's Homeport, The Post has learned.
Adams wants to lease the luxury liner for at least six months and use it to house and process migrants before they enter the city's shelter system, a source familiar with the matter said Friday.
The migrants would be allowed to come and go while staying on the ship, the source said.
Preliminary estimates show the plan will be ''cheaper'' than erecting another tent city similar to the one the city plans to open in the Bronx at the Orchard Beach parking lot, the source said.
The tent city, now under construction, is expected to cost $15 million a month to operate, The Post exclusively reported last week.
In addition to the Norwegian Cruise Line deal, the source said City Hall was negotiating the possible use of another ship owned by the Estonian company Tallink, which was hired by the Estonian government to house Ukrainian refugees who fled their country following Russia's invasion.
About 15,500 migrants have flooded into the Big Apple since May amid a surge tied to President Biden's southern border crisis, according to the latest City Hall estimate.
Adams '-- who's said the influx is straining the shelter system to near its ''breaking point'' '-- predicted last week that the number could soon swell to 75,000.
Meanwhile, the mayor has been pleading with the White House for at least $500 million in emergency funding to pay for just one year of migrant services.
{snip}
{snip} US Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) also fumed: ''This is a ludicrous idea that could only come out of an incompetent administration.''
''Both Biden and Adams refuse to address the root of the problem and, instead, continue to incentivize illegal immigration,'' she said.
{snip}
Original Article
Europe braces for mobile network blackouts - sources
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:09
Once unthinkable, mobile phones could go dark around Europe this winter if power cuts or energy rationing knocks out parts of the mobile networks across the region.
Russia's decision to halt gas supplies via Europe's key supply route in the wake of the Ukraine conflict has increased the chances of power shortages. In France, the situation is made worse by several nuclear power plants shutting down for maintenance.
Telecoms industry officials say they fear a severe winter will put Europe's telecoms infrastructure to the test, forcing companies and governments to try to mitigate the impact.
Currently there are not enough back-up systems in many European countries to handle widespread power cuts, four telecoms executives said, raising the prospect of mobile phone outages.
European Union countries, including France, Sweden and Germany, are trying to ensure communications can continue even if power cuts end up exhausting back-up batteries installed on the thousands of cellular antennas spread across their territory.
Europe has nearly half a million telecom towers and most of them have battery backups that last around 30 minutes to run the mobile antennas.
FRANCE
In France, a plan put forward by electricity distributor Enedis, includes potential power cuts of up to two hours in a worst case scenario, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The general black-outs would affect only parts of the country on a rotating basis. Essential services such as hospitals, police and government will not be impacted, the sources said.
The French government, telecoms operators and Enedis, a unit of state-controlled utility EDF, have held talks on the issue over the summer, the French government and the sources said.
The French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), a lobby group representing Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Altice's SFR, put the spotlight on Enedis for being unable to exempt antennas from the power cuts.
Enedis declined to comment on the content of the talks held with the government on the matter.
Enedis said in a statement to Reuters all regular customers were treated on an equal footing in the event of exceptional outages.
It said it was able to isolate sections of the network to supply priority customers, such as hospitals, key industrial installations and the military and that it was up to local authorities to add telecoms operators infrastructure to the list of priority customers.
"Maybe we'll improve our knowledge on the matter by this winter, but it's not easy to isolate a mobile antenna (from the rest of the network)," said a French finance ministry official with knowledge of the talks.
A French finance ministry spokesperson declined to comment on the talks with Enedis, the telecoms groups and the government.
SWEDEN, GERMANY & ITALY
Telcos in Sweden and Germany have also raised concerns over potential electricity shortages with their governments, several sources familiar with the matter said.
Swedish telecom regulator PTS is working with telecom operators and other government agencies to find solutions, it said. That includes talks about what will happen if electricity is rationed.
PTS is financing the purchase of transportable fuel stations and mobile base stations that connect to mobile phones to handle longer power outages, a PTS spokesperson said.
The Italian telecoms lobby told Reuters it wants the mobile network to be excluded from any power cut or energy saving stoppage and will raise this with Italy's new government.
The power outages increase the probability of electronic components failing if subjected to abrupt interruptions, telecoms lobby chief Massimo Sarmi said in an interview.
TRAFFIC FLOW
Telecom gear makers Nokia and Ericsson are working with mobile operators to mitigate the impact of a power shortage, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Both companies declined to comment.
The European telecom operators must review their networks to reduce extra power usage and modernise their equipment by using more power efficient radio designs, the four telecom executives said.
To save power, telecom companies are using software to optimise traffic flow, make towers "sleep" when not in use and switch off different spectrum bands, the sources familiar with the matter said.
The telecom operators are also working with national governments to check if plans are in place to maintain critical services.
In Germany, Deutsche Telekom has 33,000 mobile radio sites (towers) and its mobile emergency power systems can only support a small number of them at the same time, a company spokesperson said.
Deutsche Telekom will use mobile emergency power systems which mainly rely on diesel in the event of prolonged power failures, it said.
France has about 62,000 mobile towers, and the industry will not be able to equip all antennas with new batteries, the FFT's president Liza Bellulo said.
Accustomed to uninterrupted power supply for decades, European countries usually do not have generators backing up power for longer durations.
"We are a bit spoiled maybe in large parts of Europe where electricity is pretty stable and good," a telecom industry executive said. "The investments in the energy storage area have maybe been less than in some other countries." (Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris, Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Elvira Pollina in Milan; Additional reporting by Inti Landauro in Madrid; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Jane Merriman)
EU infrastructure a 'target' for first time in recent history, says von der Leyen | Euronews
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:09
By Euronews ' Updated: 05/10/2022 - 10:37
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks to MEPs in at the European Parliament, Oct. 5, 2022, in Strasbourg, eastern France. -
Copyright
AP Photo/Jean-Francois BadiasThe European Union's energy infrastructure has become a target for the first time in recent history, Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, adding that the bloc must carry out stress tests of critical infrastructure and make better use of its surveillance satellites to prevent acts of sabotage.
"The acts of sabotage against Nordstream pipelines have shown how vulnerable our energy infrastructure is. For the first time in recent history, it has become a target," the Commission chief told the plenary of the EU parliament in Strasbourg.
Four leaks were last week detected on the two Nord Stream pipelines that connect Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. An investigation is now underwater but Western countries say they are most likely the result of deliberate action with Sweden and Denmark writing in a letter to the United Nations Security Council that "at least two detonations" were recorded by seismological institutes.
Von der Leyen described pipelines and underwater cables as "the lifelines of data and energy" for European citizens and businesses and that it is therefore "in the interest of all Europeans to better protect this critical infrastructure."
The bloc is currently in the process of updating its critical infrastructure directive that first came into force in 2008 to have it cover 11 risk areas including natural hazards, terrorist attacks, insider threats, and sabotage, but also public health emergencies like the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
The new law, which still needs to be approved by MEPs, is expected to come into force in 2024 but von der Leyen argued on Wednesday that "we can and should already now be working on this basis."
She also said that the bloc needs to "stress test" its infrastructure, first those related to energy supply but also "other high-risk sectors" including offshore digital and electricity infrastructure.
"We don't have to wait till something happens but we need to make sure that we're prepared and therefore we need those stress tests.
"We need to identify whether we have weak points and where these weak points are and, of course, we have to prepare our reaction to sudden disruptions. What are we doing then? Are all the information chains in place? Is everybody informed? Does this emergency scenario really work then in our Single Market?," she told MEPs.
Finally, she called for the bloc to "make best use of our satellite surveillance capacity".
"We have these satellites in place, we have the capacity to do the surveillance to detect potential threats so this is also a matter of prevention and awareness," she said.
During her address to parliament, the European Commission president also expanded on her proposals to impose a cap on the price of gas used for electricity generation in order to reduce energy bills for citizens. She said such a measure, which needs to be agreed upon by member states, "would also be a first step on the way to a structural reform, an overall reform of our electricity market."
She also reiterated her stance that the EU roll out a cap on the price of Russian gas imported by pipelines.
She closed her speech by addressing the situation in Ukraine, praising the recent "impressive successes" of the Ukrainian army.
"Now is the time to keep track, to help the Ukrainians to face down the invader. A strong and steadfast Europe that will be the only way to stop Putin. This is the moment to stay the course and to signal again we stay by your side as long as it takes," she said.
EU strikes deal to force tech giants to tackle disinformation | Euronews
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:09
European institutions on Saturday morning reached a landmark agreement on the Digital Service Act (DSA) to impose rules on large tech companies.
Brussels hopes the new piece of legislation, which aims to hold large tech multinationals accountable for what is published on their platforms will set a global benchmark on how to regulate big tech.
It now needs to be formally approved by both the parliament and the council later this year.
The law primarily targets those collectively known as GAFAM '-- Google, Apple, Facebook (now Meta), Amazon and Microsoft '-- although it would also likely impact a handful of other groups such as social network TikTok.
It forces platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to moderate the content they host, either in the field of e-commerce or disinformation.
It also forces them to create or improve mechanisms for users to flag problems, challenge content moderation decision and provide greater transparency including on "the algorithms used for recommending content of products to users."
The legislation also includes "mechanisms to adapt swiftly and efficiently" during critical moments such as pandemics or a war, as well as new safeguards to protect children from targeted advertising.
"With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are 'too big to care' is coming to an end," Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said in a statement. "The DSA is setting clear, harmonised obligations for platforms '' proportionate to size, impact and risk."
Failure to adhere to the legislation opens company to fines of up to 6% of their global turnover or "even a ban on operating in the EU single market in case of repeated serious breaches," Breton stressed.
DSA 'needs teeth'Hillary Clinton, a former US Secretary of State and presidential candidate, had, as negotiators were convening on Friday to finetune the final points, praised the EU for its work on the DSA, writing on Twitter: "For too long, tech platforms have amplified disinformation and extremism with no accountability. The EU is poised to do something about it."
"I urge our transatlantic allies to push the Digital Services Act across the finish line and bolster global democracy before it's too late," she also said.
Alexandra Geese, a Green MEP and shadow rapporteur in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, stressed ahead of the negotiations that the DSA "needs teeth, it needs to put surveillance advertising and manipulative practices of online platforms in their place."
"The chances are good that the Digital Services Act will become a constitution for the internet, curbing hate, polarisation and disinformation, strengthening the rights of users and holding online platforms to account as never before. We are starting the big tech revolution with a strong law on digital services in the EU," she added.
"Sensitive personal data such as religion, skin colour or sexual orientation, as well as data of children and young people, should no longer be allowed to be tracked and used for advertising purposes. The Digital Services Act can be the beginning of a digital spring and the first, decisive step towards more democracy and freedom on the internet," she argued.
But some fear the DSA could have negative impacts.
Concerns over freedom of expression"In negotiating the Digital Services Act, EU law-makers balanced tackling disinformation with protecting free speech. The Commission's last-minute proposal for stricter regulation of tech platforms during crises undermines this balance," said Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER) think tank.
Platforms have up to now been able to come up with their own strategies to fight disinformation, with varying degrees of success, with the debate centred mostly on how to mitigate the spread of "lawful but awful" content such as Russian propaganda. Most have started to flag whether the information comes from a verified source of information or whether the author is linked in any way to governments.
But now, Meyers explained, "the Commission argues it must be able to direct how platforms respond to crises like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Commission wants the power to determine whether there is such a 'crisis' itself."
If it had these powers, the commission would undoubtedly feel pressured to force large platforms to simply remove pro-Russian 'fake news' '' similarly to how it banned Russia Today and Sputnik.
However, requiring systemic removal of such information would inevitably have to rely on machine-learning tools, which are notoriously inaccurate, fail to have regard to context, and therefore often impact important, genuine content '' such as parody and legitimate reporting.
"An emphasis on large-scale removal of harmful material is also likely to prompt users to flee to smaller and less scrupulous platforms. This explains why some online platforms are selective about the types of harmful content they disallow," he added.
Now That Twitter Belongs To Elon, Here Is What He Will Do To The Platform In His Own Words | ZeroHedge
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:08
Now that the dramatic, if pointless and expensive, interlude of Musk trying to sabotage his own (extremely overpriced) purchase of Twitter is finally over with Musk conceding to buy the social network at the original proposed price of $54.20.
So what's next? Will Musk keep Twitter as is, or will he burn it down, fire all its employees,and rebuild it from the ground up? Conveniently, Musk's Twitter-linked text messages, publicly released as part of the Twitter lawsuit legal disclosure, provide enough information for what Musk really wants in terms of a final product.
Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app
'-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2022First, as stated in the following exchange with Valor CEO Antonio Gracias, Musk believes in free speech. So much so that he finds Russia Today "quite entertaining" with "lots of bullshit but some good points too."
Musk expressed similar sentiment in the following exchange with ex-wife Talulah Jane (TJ) Riley, who was dismayed at the Babylon Bee's suspension and who proposed to "buy Twitter and make it radically free speech"... or "delete it."
Musk then speaks to VC entrepreneur Jon Lonsdale, where they discuss Musk's desire to make Twitter an open source algo because it's important to "reign in big tech" and "our public square needs to not have arbitrary sketch censorship." Musk's response: "what we have right now is hidden corruption!"
As an aside, a few weeks later, after it emerged that Musk had purchased a sizable stake in Twitter, Jon Lonsdale made an interesting observation: "I bet you the board doesn't even get full reporting or see any report of the censorship decisions and little cabals going on there but they should - the lefties on the board likely want plausible deniability!"
Things get more interesting in this exchange with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, in which Jack echoed not only that Twitter must be an "open source protocol" but that it "can't have an advertising model. Otherwise you have surface area that governments and advertisers will try to influence and control. If it has a centralized entity behind it, it will be attacked." Jack's conclusion: "this isn't complicated work, it just has to be done right so it's resilient to what has happened to twitter." After a lengthy back and forth, Musk tells Jack that "it's worth both trying to move Twitter in a better direction and doing something new that's decentralized."
A quick tangent, in which we learn that it wasn't just Elon seeking to buy Twitter, so was the J.P. Morgan of crypto, Sam-Bankman Fried: look for SBF to have a prominent role in the company going forward.
And a second tangent: what is SBF's net worth and how much money could he put into twitter: short answer to both: a lot.
Another interesting exchange, this time with Mathias Dopfner, CEO of German media conglomerate Axel Springer, which owns a bunch of tabloids such as Bild, in which he says that if Musk buys it, Alex Springer would be willing to run twitter.
An especially interesting exchange took place minutes after Musk revealed his Twitter stake with a person who, unlike everyone else in the disclosure, demanded to be unnamed. Due to the "sensitive" nature of his proposal "navigating how to let right-wingers back on Twitter... especially the boss himself")we can only assume it is due to fear of being canceled by the radical left mob.
Another exchange after Musk announced he was seeking a board seat is with the abovementioned Matthias Dopfner, head of Germany's Axel Springer, who does everything in his power to make his personal media outlets painstakingly, boringly, crushingly woke and politically correct, who we learn is really just another hypocrite and closet "anti-woke", suggesting to Musk that he create a marketplace for algos, "e.g., if you're a snowflake and don't want content that offends you pick another algorithm." If only Dofpner would do the same with his empire of snowflake-catering tabloids. Amusingly, Dopfner has some other "actionable" recos, such as "solve free speech." Oh ok. Here is the rest of what the CEO of one of the world's biggest tabloid empires (and recent acquiror of Politico) wants to do:
Status Quo: it is the de facto public town square, but It is a problem that it does not adhere to free speech principles. => so the core product is pretty good, but (i) it does not serve democracy, and (ii) the current business model is a dead end as reflected by flat share price.
Goal: Make Twitter the global backbone of free speech, an open market place of ideas that truly complies with the spirit of the first amendment and shift the business model to a combination of ad-supported and paid to support quality
Game Plan:
1.) "Solve Free Speech"
1-a) Step 1" Make it censorship-FREE by radically reducing Terms of Services (now hundreds of pages) to the following: Twitter users agree to:(1) Use our service to send spam or scam users,(2) Promote violence,(3) Post illegal pornography.1-b) Step 2: Make Twitter censorship-RESISTANTEnsure censorship resistance by implementing measures that warrant that Twitter can't be censored long term, regardless of which government and managementHow? Keep pushing projects at Twitter that have been working on developing a decentralized social network protocol (e.g., BlueSky). It's not easy, but the back-end must run on decentralized infrastructure, APIs should become open (back to the roots! Twitter started and became big with open APIs).Twitter would be one of many clients to post and consume content.Then create a marketplace for algorithms, e.g., if you're a snowflake and don't want content that offends you pick another algorithm.2.) "Solve Share Price" - Current state of the business:
Twitter's ad revenues grow steadily and for the time being, are sufficient to fund operations.MAUs are flat, no structural growthShare price is flat, no confidence in the existing business model
But while a lot of these ideas were inbounds to Musk, where things get really "insightful" is when Elon chats with his brother Kimbal, about his vision. We will publish these without commentary because, well, it's well beyond our pay grade to comment on Musk's "vision" - some peculiar cross between a social media, blockchain, a direct messaging app which stores messages forever, and all of it using some token (why not dogecoin).
Here Jason Calacanis also chimes in with some ideas. His comments on De Sasntis are amusing.
It continues a few days later, where Calacanis reveals he may be the next Twitter CEO, and Musk is receptive:
And some more ideas from Calacanis:
Finally, some good news for the liberals out there:
While those were some of the key exchanges, there is much more in the full Musk text message discovery below:
SWIFT Says It's Proved It Can Be the Way Forward for Global CBDCs
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:05
Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.
SWIFT, a key part of the conventional financial system that helps make cross-border payments between banks, has presented a framework for a global central bank digital currency (CBDC) system, claiming to have solved the challenge of interoperability between different networks.
Following experiments involving the central banks of France and Germany as well as HSBC, NatWest, Standard Chartered, UBS and Wells Fargo, SWIFT said it has carried out transactions between different blockchain networks, using both CBDCs and fiat currencies.
CBDCs aren't exactly cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), but they are cousins that share similar underpinnings: the distributed ledger system known as a blockchain that bitcoin pioneered. Central banks have for years toyed with the idea of digitizing fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar as CBDCs.
Amid those central bank experiments, attention has turned to how the CBDCs of different countries could interact when using different networks.
"Blockchain networks could be interlinked for cross-border payments through a single gateway," SWIFT said Wednesday. "SWIFT's new transaction management capabilities could orchestrate all inter-network communication."
SWIFT is a messaging system that supports international bank transactions. Its network is used in more than 200 countries by more than 11,000 financial institutions.
There have been suggestions, however, that digital currencies in the form of crypto, stablecoins or CBDCs could turn SWIFT into an also-ran. SWIFT therefore embarked on a series of experiments in December 2021 to demonstrate that it was ahead of the digital currency curve.
Alongside its work on CBDCs, SWIFT also explored tokenized assets, whereby assets like stocks and bonds are transformed into tokens that can be issued and traded in real time.
SWIFT said that it can serve as a single access point to different blockchains and that its infrastructure could be used to create and trade tokens across tokenization platforms.
CoinDesk recently reported that SWIFT was working with Chainlink, a provider of price feeds and other data to blockchains, on a cross-chain interoperability protocol to facilitate token transfers across all blockchain networks.
Sign up for Market Wrap, our daily newsletter explaining what happened today in crypto markets '' and why.
DISCLOSURE
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.
Jamie Crawley
Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.
Jamie Crawley
Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.
TikTok-video toont leven op 'asielboot' in Velsen-Noord
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:02
Het schip Silja Europa ligt aangemeerd aan de VOB-kade. Hier worden 1000 asielzoekers en statushouders opgevangen. Foto: ANP/Ramon van FlymenOp TikTok gaat een video rond van een Syrische vluchteling, die zijn leven op de asielboot in Velsen-Noord filmt. Het cruiseschip wordt getoond als een luxe verblijf met goed eten. Maar de maker van de video heeft het duidelijk niet altijd goed gehad. Zo vertoont hij op hetzelfde account video's van de situatie bij het aanmeldcentrum in Ter Apel, waar tijdelijke tenten in de buitenlucht zijn opgebouwd.
Volgens het Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers (COA) krijgen vluchtelingen een basic opvang. Ze hebben een hut, er wordt drie keer per dag door de crew van het schip voor eten gezorgd en er zijn activiteiten aan boord, zoals taallessen en sport. Veel faciliteiten op het schip, zoals het casino, zwembad, winkels en sauna, zijn gesloten. Wel is er een speelkamer en is er een huisarts en verpleegkundige voor medische hulp. Dat alles zo goed geregeld is, schiet niet bij iedereen in het juiste keelgat.
Asielboot Velsen-Noord op TikTokOnder de video van de Syrische vluchteling staan veel negatieve reacties. 'Wist je dat er Nederlanders in hun auto slapen omdat de huizen naar asielzoekers gaan?'', reageert een Nederlandse TikTokker in het Engels. 'Ik wacht al 5 jaar op een huis hier in IJmuiden/Velsen-Noord. Het is allemaal dezelfde buurt'', reageert een ander. Velen vinden dat de video een vertekend beeld kan geven aan andere vluchtelingen. 'Google alsjeblieft Ter Apel'', klinkt het op sociale media. Het filmpje heeft veel aandacht gekregen, nadat PVV-leider Geert Wilders het deelde op zijn Twitter-account.
@bassam5432#باخرØ(C)_Ø"ÙÙجا_اÙرÙبا #ÙÙÙØ"Ù #ÙÙÙÙداð"ð± #اÙ
Ø"ترداÙ
#fypã· #fyp
'¬ MaÅallah '' DoÄu Swag
De maker van het filmpje is duidelijk niet bang om het gesprek aan te gaan. 'We kwamen vanwege de oorlog, net als de Oekra¯ners'', vertelt de Syrische vluchteling. 'We hebben alleen om een toevluchtsoord voor ons gevraagd. Ik respecteer uw mening, en ik wens u een goed leven.'' Naast alle negatieve reacties, zijn er ook een aantal positieve geluiden te bespeuren.
De komst van het schip leidde tot protest bij inwoners van Velsen-Noord, maar burgemeester Frank Dales zei vorige week dat hij verwacht voldoende maatregelen te hebben genomen om alle zorgen weg te nemen. Het cruiseschip in Velsen-Noord, dat voor het komende halfjaar dient als noodopvang, biedt op het schip onderdak aan in totaal duizend mensen. Die zullen aankomende dagen gespreid binnenkomen.
Binnenkort opent andere asielboot in AmsterdamOok in Amsterdam worden binnenkort duizend asielzoekers opgevangen op een cruiseschip, voor in elk geval zes maanden. Volgens verantwoordelijk wethouder Rutger Groot Wassink is de enorme boot en de ligging ervan, nogal afgelegen in het Westelijk Havengebied, niet ideaal als opvanglocatie. 'Maar gezien de situatie in Ter Apel hebben we ons als gemeente toch maar weer moeten stretchen'', zegt Groot Wassink tijdens een rondleiding op het schip. Ondanks de afgelegen ligging van het schip is de opvang op een 'humane manier'' geregeld, vindt de wethouder.
Het industriegebied ter hoogte van de Coentunnel was de enige plek in de hoofdstad waar het schip kon aanmeren. Om de opvangplek voor de bewoners bereikbaar te maken, worden er fietspaden en voetpaden aangelegd en komt er een pendelbus. Ook komen er extra hekken langs de kades, zegt locatiemanager van het COA Pieter Deinum.
De MS Galaxy vaart normaal gesproken als veerboot tussen Zweden en Finland. Het schip, van 212 meter lang, met tien verdiepingen en plek voor ruim 2800 reizigers, is te groot om gebruik te kunnen maken van de walstroom, en gaat daarom draaien op de eigen generatoren. In eerste instantie is er op het schip zes maanden lang plek voor duizend mensen. Na een evaluatie zou dat eenmalig verlengd kunnen worden met drie maanden en kan het aantal oplopen tot 1500. De groep bestaat waarschijnlijk uit asielzoekers, statushouders, kinderen en een klein percentage asielzoekers uit veilige landen.
'Falen van kabinet wordt nu beetje opgelost'Met de opvangplek voor duizend mensen wordt 'het falen van het kabinet een beetje opgelost'', beaamt de wethouder. 'Het aantal opvanglocaties is door rijksbeleid snel teruggebracht. Onverstandig, want nu moet je met relatief dure oplossingen komen, zoals een boot of hotels. Ik heb nooit begrepen waarom er niet een soort mee-ademende, flexibele schil aan opvangplekken is, waardoor je een plotselinge instroom makkelijker op kunt vangen.''
In Amsterdam worden momenteel 2100 vluchtelingen en statushouders opgevangen, los van zo'n 4000 gevluchte Oekra¯ners die onderdak hebben in gemeentelijke en particuliere opvang.
Gratis lunch voor kinderen: dit vinden scholen zelf van het kabinetsplan
Foutje gezien? Mail ons. Wij zijn je dankbaar.
Reageer op artikel:
TikTok-video toont leven op 'asielboot' Velsen-Noord en levert boze reacties op
EU's USB-C mandate approval puts pressure on Apple to replace Lightning port | Ars Technica
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:48
Phones, e-readers, keyboards, & more '-- Parliament approves USB-C rule for 2024, mulls wireless charging interoperability. Scharon Harding - Oct 4, 2022 5:15 pm UTC
Enlarge / EU's USB-C charging mandate is moving forward across 13 device cateogories
The European Union is moving forward with legislation requiring USB-C charging on a variety of consumer electronics. Today, the EU Parliament formally approved the agreement that it and the EU Council agreed upon in September. The EU Council has to formally approve the agreement next, and it will then be published in the EU's Official Journal.
The Parliament's announcement confirmed a timeline and additional affected device categories. The legislation requires a USB-C port on all phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, headsets, earbuds, portable speakers, handheld video game consoles, e-readers, keyboards, mice, and navigation systems that are sold in the EU, use wired charging, and support power delivery of up to 100 W "by the end of 2024," the Parliament said.
Laptops will have to have USB-C charging "from spring 2026," the announcement said.
The legislation also requires all fast-charging devices to use the same charging speed. This rule will be enforced with "dedicated labels" describing charging capabilities.
After the rule is published, EU member states will have one year to transpose the rules, followed by another year to adhere. The law only applies to products released after this time period.
Parliament said the vote passed with 602 votes in favor, 13 against, and eight abstentions.
Wireless charging regulations could followWhen the EU announced plans to require USB-C charging in September 2021, some critics, including Apple, said such a regulation could hinder innovation. The European Commission has said that it would work with vendors to adapt its regulation to new technologies, should it deem the technology worthy. The EU's universal charging mandate could one day require a different type of charging than USB-C, for example.
Advertisement Showing some forward thinking, the EU Parliament's announcement briefly mentioned wireless charging, though it didn't specify how the EU government might attempt to regulate it.
"... The European Commission will have to harmonize interoperability requirements by the end of 2024, to avoid having a negative impact on consumers and the environment," the Parliament's announcement said. "This will also get rid of the so-called technological 'lock-in'' effect, whereby a consumer becomes dependent on a single manufacturer."
Wireless charging is one potential route around the EU's USB-C requirement for companies staunchly against using the technology in its products, like Apple and its iPhones. Although there have been rumors of Apple making a USB-C iPhone, the company prefers its Lightning connector, and while the EU's legislation wouldn't ban the proprietary connector, it would require USB-C alongside it. An iPhone solely dependent on wireless charging, however, would be impractical due to cost, data transfer concerns, and chassis durability. Further, it seems that the EU government may eventually regulate wireless charging as well.
For what it's worth, the current iPad Air, iPad Mini, and iPad Pro all charge over USB-C instead of Lightning, so Apple has already shown willingness to embrace the oval-shaped connector.
''Sustainable choices''The Parliament's announcement reiterated the goals of the EU government to reduce e-waste and "empower consumers to make more sustainable choices" with the USB-C mandate.
The governing body believes the legislation will "lead to more re-use of chargers and will help consumers save up to 250 million euros a year on unnecessary charger purchases."
"Disposed of and unused chargers account for about 11,000 tonnes of e-waste annually (PDF) in the EU," the announcement said.
Following the EU's lead, other parts of the world have started looking at how they regulate electronics charging. Brazil is considering a USB-C policy for phones, and it banned selling iPhones without a charger while encouraging Apple to implement USB-C charging. US lawmakers have pushed for a universal charger policy, too.
Nord Stream leaks: where will Europe get its gas from now?
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:48
Nord Stream leaks: where will Europe get its gas from now? [GGP]Accusations continue to fly about the cause of major leaks from the two Nord Stream pipelines transporting gas through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Europe.
Until this latest development, Russia had maintained that western sanctions were behind disruptions to supply from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, as maintenance and repair of essential equipment could not proceed. The German company Siemens that supplied the equipment maintains that this isn't the case. Politicians across Europe have accused Russia of blackmail and of weaponising the supply of natural gas.
Whatever the truth, most of Europe will now have to face winter 2022, and likely beyond, without any Russian pipeline gas. The EU is determined to end its reliance on Russian gas as soon as possible, a process that might be accelerated by current events.
The next two winters are going to be very challenging for all of Europe's gas consumers: households, businesses and industry. But moves are in play that will fundamentally change the continent's position in global gas markets.
In the past, Europe played a balancing role: a place where liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes were sent, normally in the summer months, when demand was low in Asia. As such, LNG was marginal in European gas security relative to Russian pipeline gas.
If, by 2027, Europe no longer imports Russian gas of any kind, then it will have to compete with Asia as a centre of demand. How long it will take for the LNG market to increase supply to meet Europe's new demand is unclear, but the global market will rebalance as a result.
A bleak winter ahead?Russia supplied around 40% of all the gas consumed in the EU in 2021. Germany is especially reliant on this supply of cheap gas. Gas only generates about 15% of the country's electricity but many rely on it for heating and it is vital to heavy industries such as petrochemicals that use a lot of energy.
Drastic measures are now necessary to secure alternative supplies, reduce gas demand and prepare for the possibility of shortages this winter. The EU's Save Gas for a Safe Winter programme aims to reduce overall gas demand by 15% across the bloc this winter by asking people to turn down thermostats in homes and offices, for example. Further measures are expected in the coming days.
The good news for supply to Europe is that its other sources of pipeline gas '' Norway, North Africa and Azerbaijan '' are all flowing normally. Winter storage is over 80% full, which is well ahead of the EU's deadline to hit this milestone by the end of October. Europe's ability to get through the winter without a gas supply crisis will depend in large part on the weather: not just how cold it is, but also how sunny and windy, as gas backs up renewable power generation in many countries.
Otherwise, Europe needs to attract flexible LNG cargoes to Europe (that is, supplies that are not tied into long-term contracts which dominate in Asia). EU member states and members of the European Economic Area are expected to import 41 billion cubic metres more LNG than in 2021, covering 67% of the expected drop in Russian imports.
This remarkable progress was aided by China's LNG demand falling almost 25% this year compared to last due to its zero-COVID policy and the slowdown in its economy. Nevertheless, this still leaves a significant supply gap and there are warning signs of growing competition from other parts of Asia for winter LNG supplies.
All hands on deckTo ensure this gas can be imported, however, Europe needs better LNG infrastructure (the terminals that unload LNG from ships, store it and then convert it to a gas that is injected into pipelines that carry it to consumers). It is currently running beyond full capacity due to congestion everywhere: gas is held up by full pipelines, which causes short-term fluctuations in local gas prices.
Global LNG shipping capacity is also stretched, and rates for hiring an LNG tanker to ship gas to Europe are topping US$100,000 (£90,173) a day '' a 60% rise in the last month.
All around Europe's coasts new LNG import terminal projects are being planned. One industry analysis suggests that the EU total import capacity could increase by 42% by 2025. But it takes time to build these permanent LNG terminals. In the meantime, Europe has been busy leasing floating regasification and storage units '' large ships that are moored and unload the LNG from specialist carriers and convert it into gas for pipelines.
The same industry analysis suggests that Europe's import capacity will grow faster than additional LNG supplies, resulting in increased competition and a tight market for the next few years. Certainly, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been on a whistlestop tour of LNG-exporting countries like the United Arab Emirates to fill his new terminals.
Fortunately, by 2026-27, there will be a wave of new LNG supply to fill these terminals as production expands in Qatar and new projects come onstream in the US. The current crisis is also prompting new investments, particularly in the US, and the industry is even talking about a danger of oversupply by the end of the decade.
But the EU doesn't just want to pivot away from Russian gas, it is seeking to drive down gas demand by accelerating its deployment of renewable power, improving the energy efficiency of its building stock, electrifying domestic heating and finding alternatives to gas use in industry, such as hydrogen. This means that Europe's LNG needs may well peak by the end of the decade, contributing to global oversupply.
The natural gas industry hopes that Asia will then pick up the slack, but that is by no means certain. Europe's response to the current gas crisis may mean that by 2030 it is consuming far less gas than might otherwise have been the case and that it is further down the road to meeting its climate change targets, as well as improving its energy security.
The author is Michael Bradshaw, a professor of global energy, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.
The statements, opinions and data contained in the content published in Global Gas Perspectives are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s) of Natural Gas World.
'Democracy dies in book deals': Maggie Haberman ripped for withholding Donald Trump bombshell - Alternet.org
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:47
Image via Gage Skidmore.
The New York Times' Maggie Haberman reported on Donald Trump's presidency extensively during his four years in the White House, and she does some more Trump-related reporting in her forthcoming book, ''Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.'' According to CNN, one of revelations in the book (which has an October 4 release date on Amazon) is that after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, he declared, ''I'm just not going to leave.'' And some Trump critics are wondering why Haberman didn't report that statement earlier.
Before the 2020 election, MAGA Republicans accused ''Real Time'' host Bill Maher of having ''Trump derangement syndrome'' when he warned repeatedly that Trump would refuse to admit defeat and try to stay in the White House if he lost the election. But sure enough, Trump lost the election and did exactly what Maher feared he would do. And Haberman, in ''Confidence Man,'' cites an example of the type of behavior that Maher and other Trump critics predicted.
CNN's Jeremy Herb reports, ''Trump's insistence that he would not be leaving the White House, which has not been previously reported, adds new detail to the chaotic post-election period in which Trump's refusal to accept his defeat and numerous efforts to overturn the election result led to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters.''
READ MORE: 'A necessary first step': New York Times Editorial Board calls for Donald Trump to be prosecuted
CNN's reporting on ''Confidence Man'' is receiving a lot of discussion on Twitter.
Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was vehemently critical of Haberman, posting, ''Oh good, another fact, vital to the safety and continuation of the nation, that @maggieNYT withheld from the public for many months if not a year-and-a-half so she could put it in her f*****g book.''
Similarly, Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, tweeted, ''If the NYT was a serious paper, Haberman would be fired on the spot for this. She did not do her job: full stop. This would be like a cop watching someone shoot a person right in front of them, and then just walking away and doing nothing.''
Author John Pavlovitz wrote, ''Maggie Haberman is another in a long line of people who were willing to let democracy die on the altar of a book deal.''
READ MORE: 'Nonsensical defense': MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan tears apart Republican 'lies' about Mar-a-Lago search
@DenaePFA posted, ''She's not really a reporter if she's not reporting on it at the time. She's an access novelist.'' And @Concerned4410 tweeted, ''Yes we know this. He said when asked by reporters would he peacefully transfer power as all other presidents have . . .his reply. . We will see. . 'If I lose it will only be because of FRAUD'. . . You see. . He admitted his crime before it happened.''
@HogsRUs, responding to Olbermann and Baker's tweets, wrote, ''Spot On. @maggieNYT is employed as a reporter by the NYT. The information that she gathers on topics the newspaper pays her to cover belongs to the NYT. If not, then the NYT may as well just let her sit in her office at the paper and work on her books all day.''
@Jkornack made a scathing analogy and tweeted, ''To sustain the analogy, the cop would witness the murder, walk away, and then '-- rather than doing nothing '-- would sell the story to a publisher and would be invited by cable news outlets to promote the publication to maximize personal profit at the expense of society.''
READ MORE: 'Indict him. Try him. Convict him. Lock him up': Experts demand that Donald Trump be prosecuted
Hurricane Ian hero: Maryland firefighter uses his ham radio to send rescuers to Florida's Sanibel Island | Fox News
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:46
Dale Klonin, a firefighter at Baltimore/Washington International Airport in Baltimore, was off duty and busy running errands last Wednesday when he stumbled upon a chance to save lives.
Klonin, 46, lives in Hampstead, Maryland. As an amateur ham radio operator with an interest in "any news or weather event," he was keeping an eye and ear on Hurricane Ian.
"Of course, the hurricane was pretty big news," Klonin told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.
HURRICANE IAN IN FLORIDA SPURS FRANTIC MESSAGES ABOUT MISSING LOVED ONES AND WRECKED HOMES
Thinking about family members who live outside Sarasota, Florida, Klonin and his wife "were pretty concerned" about the storm, he said.
Klonin has only been involved with ham radio '-- also called amateur radio '-- for about a year, he said.
Ham radio is a popular hobby and service that people all over the world use "to talk across town, around the world or even into space, all without the Internet or cell phones," according to The American Radio Relay League website.
Dale Klonin is shown at his ham radio set-up. Klonin was able to lead rescuers to 10 people and a dog who were all stranded on Sanibel Island, Florida, during Hurricane Ian. (Dale Klonin)
"It's fun, social, educational and can be a lifeline during times of need," they note.
Klonin was tuned into several networks, or "nets," on his ham radio system that morning.
"I had the Florida Emergency and the National Hurricane Center Emergency nets monitored," he said.
"A net is basically a frequency," he said. "A bunch of people are just listening in to see if there's anything going on, and one person acts as a controller. Every 10 minutes, someone comes on, and they're asking for emergency messages, damage reports and that kind of thing."
HURRICANE IAN VICTIMS AND THOSE STILL IN ITS PATH RECEIVE BLESSINGS, PRAYERS AND HELP
Klonin said that after monitoring the nets for most of the morning, he and his wife went to drop off her car for a tune-up at their regular shop in Hanover, Pennylvania, about 20 minutes away from his home.
"I said, 'Aly, I don't think they know how much danger there really is.'"
That afternoon, he went to retrieve the car.
As Klonin was settling the bill, he and Aly Ruiz, a service adviser, made small talk, he said.
"I said something like, 'How about this hurricane?'" he said.
HURRICANE IAN DISASTER RELIEF: WAYS TO DONATE AS THE DEATH TOLL MOUNTS
Ruiz shared with Klonin that her sister Kelsey, as well as Kelsey's boyfriend, were on Sanibel Island. "And she said, 'I haven't heard from her in four hours,'" Klonin said.
"She showed me pictures [from their texts] '-- Kelsey's boyfriend's truck was completely submerged," said Klonin, adding that other photos revealed the floodwaters were coming up to the second floor of Kelsey's boyfriend's home.
Dale Klonin's screens are shown as he monitors the weather. Klonin is interested in monitoring any news or weather event, he said. (Dale Klonin)
Klonin said that Ruiz told him, "My sister is really stubborn. She wasn't taking this whole thing seriously. I'm really worried about her."
Klonin said he answered, "You know what? I'm an amateur radio operator. I've been listening to these networks all morning. Some of the emergency operation centers are listening. Let me try and get a message through, or at least let them know that these people might need help."
Ruiz readily supplied all pertinent numbers for the stranded group, Klonin said, including the number for their Garmin inReach, a satellite communicator.
"I have someone here in Maryland and they are receiving messages from their loved ones on Sanibel Island '-- the island is destroyed, their house is battered '..."
"I initially just thought, 'If something bad were to happen or even something good, you know, if someone picks them up, they would know that they were being looked for and get back in touch with us [through ham radio communication]," Ruiz told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.
FLORIDA WEATHER BLOGGER TALKS HURRICANE IAN AND HOW STORMS UNITE PEOPLE: 'NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS'
"But it was a much bigger deal," she continued. "He [Klonin] was in contact with people. I don't think I realized how much he could really help in this situation."
Klonin, who has an inReach himself for hiking trips, said he uses his when cell phone communication may not be possible.
"Hardly anybody I know has one," said Klonin, marveling that the group on Sanibel Island did have one.
Dale Klonin sits outside with his ham radio gear. Ham radio operators everywhere "do so much behind the scenes, and they never get any credit," he said. (Dale Klonin)
Klonin began his 20-minute drive home '-- and during the ride Ruiz texted him, saying her sister had reached out via the inReach. They were "safe, but stranded," explained Klonin.
"Aly texted me again saying, 'By the way, there's eight other people there [in their group on Sanibel] and a dog,'" Klonin said.
"I've been a firefighter for 20 some years, and I teach emergency preparedness," said Klonin.
"And I said, 'Aly, I don't think they know how much danger there really is.'"
"How do you think the Cajun Navy gets their locations in order to rescue people? Often, it is someone communicating on a ham radio."
Asking for a "better idea of where they are," and knowing that the inReach could supply critical location coordinates, Klonin said he knew his job was not over.
"So, she sent me those, I get on the radio and I call out to the Florida emergency net '-- and that controller comes back and acknowledges me," he said.
HURRICANE IAN SLAMS FLORIDA AS SCHOOLS ACT AS SHELTERS: 'READY TO ACCEPT ANYONE WITH OPEN ARMS,' TEACHER SAYS
"And I said, 'Hey, I have someone here in Maryland, and they are receiving messages from their loved ones on Sanibel Island '-- the island is destroyed, their house is battered, and it's flooding. They may need possible rescue,'" Klonin continued.
The Florida emergency net took all the information, said Klonin, and they in turn "brought up another station who took all the information, too,'" he added.
He continued, "Florida State Emergency Operation Center called back and asked for more information" '-- and Klonin was soon emailing all the needed information over to them.
"Before I was even done talking on the radio, the authorities knew exactly where they were," he said.
"We continued offline, and I sent screenshots of all the text messages, and then Aly texted me."
"He's taken a lot of time to be helping these people so far away, you know? And he's doing this out of his own kindness."
He continued, "She said, 'They're OK. The authorities are texting with them.'"
Klonin said people should know that ham radio operators are out there listening '-- and that they care.
FLORIDA WIFE OF VETERAN, THEIR HOME WITHOUT POWER DUE TO HURRICANE IAN, SAYS 'AMERICA WILL REBUILD'
"You know, ham radio operators do so much behind the scenes, and they never get any credit," he said.
"How do you think the Cajun Navy gets their locations, in order to rescue people? Often, it is someone communicating on a ham radio."
"He just jumped into action, which is obviously in his character," Aly Ruiz said of Dale Klonin after the latter coordinated the rescue via his ham radio. (iStock/Dale Klonin)
He added, "Usually the ham radio operators after a disaster are the ones that are getting in there and, through their networks, getting all the information until the authorities can get there. They do this out of the kindness of their hearts," he said.
Ruiz said that before she knew her sister was safe, the situation had her "wildly upset and scared."
She said, "I think that Dale could feel that, with him being a paramedic and a firefighter for so long '-- and he just turned to action."
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
She added, "I didn't ask him to do any of that. He offered. And he was in direct contact with me all night on Wednesday, back and forth, between not only just my family, but friends of my sisters who needed help and were looking for family and friends that had been on the island."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Klonin's wife has also been "wonderful," said Ruiz.
"He's taken a lot of time to be helping these people so far away, you know? And he's doing this out of his own kindness."
"He just jumped into action, which is obviously in his character."
Deirdre Reilly is a senior editor in Lifestyle with Fox News Digital.
U.S. podcasters spread Kremlin narratives on Nord Stream sabotage
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:44
Footage shared by the Swedish Coast Guard shows methane gas leaking from the Nord Stream gas pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm. (Swedish Coast Guard/Cover Images)One week ago, powerful explosions ruptured a pair of underwater natural gas pipelines'--Nord Stream 1 and 2'--that run between Russia and Germany. The pipelines represent an important source of natural gas to Germany, and against the background of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Nord Stream 1 and 2 provide a key tool for the Kremlin to exert leverage over Europe. While exactly who is responsible for the attack, which European officials say was a deliberate act of sabotage, remains unclear, experts broadly agree that Russia is the key suspect.
As is typical following an event like this, conspiracy theories about who was responsible quickly proliferated online, with the Kremlin promoting a familiar trope: that the United States was responsible for a nefarious, clandestine plot. In official statements, state-backed media, and tweets, Kremlin messengers promoted the idea that the United States carried out the attack.
To track their spread and understand the role of state propaganda in such information, researchers typically examine posts on Twitter. But this only provides a partial view. In this case, as elsewhere, popular political podcasts served as an important, understudied, means through which Kremlin narratives reach American audiences. Following the explosions, 12 popular political podcasts have devoted 18 episodes to the theory. Less than one quarter of these episodes refuted the baseless theory, and nearly 40% fully blamed the United States.
Political podcasts in the United States are instrumental in shaping public opinion on a wide range of consequential subjects and frame the contours of contentious, often polarized debates. Until recently, research on that space has been limited. Using a new Brookings dashboard and database, we are able to more systematically study how popular political podcasts shape the information environment. By spreading the idea that the United States was in fact responsible for the explosions, several leading U.S. podcasters have advanced the Kremlin's preferred narrative while staying under the radar of researchers'--until now.
The 'U.S. did it' conspiracy on popular American podcasts
Eighteen episodes in our dataset referenced the theory that the United States was responsible for the Nord Stream incident, with 14 sharing content about the explosions that was conspiratorial in nature, including 7 episodes wholly endorsing the United States as the most likely culprit. Only 4 episodes sought to refute the claim.
The explosions occurred on Monday Sept. 26, and the same day only two episodes linked the United States to the incident. But after a Tuesday Sept. 27 episode of Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News, in which the television host laid the blame on Washington, podcasters picked up the narrative. The remaining 16 episodes in our data set that discussed the role of the United States in the incident all aired after the Tucker Carlson segment, suggesting that some leading political podcasters may be taking cues about which stories to cover from the Fox News pundit.
On his Wednesday show, the podcast host Dan Bongino mused, ''Is the Biden Administration crazy enough to do this to light a spark that might cause World War III? The answer is, 'I wouldn't be surprised, and I bet neither would you.''' He continued, adding that ''the motivations of the Biden Administration and the green agenda I think are far greater than the motivations of Russia.''
The most prolific disseminator of Nord Stream content between September 26 and October 3 was Charlie Kirk, who devoted four segments to furthering the unfounded theory linking the U.S. to the explosion. In one of these four episodes, Kirk directly implicated the U.S. government as the culprit, asking. ''So who did it?'' Kirk asked. ''I know this sounds cynical, but'...the American Washington, DC war machine stands to benefit from this.'' Kirk has previously been a disseminator of Russian propaganda. In March 2022, we documented five episodes in which he shared the conspiratorial claim that the U.S. had provided funding to Ukraine for bioweapons research. Kirk has nearly 8 million followers across popular social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Rumble, and Twitter.
Amplifying Kremlin narratives
The theories pushed by these podcast hosts align with Kremlin messaging. Over the past week, Russian state media and diplomats have argued that the pipeline leaks were the result of a U.S.-led terror attack, citing as evidence President Biden's criticism of the pipelines and a vow to ''bring an end to'' them, as well as the fact that the CIA warned Berlin about the possibility of such an attack earlier this year. Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has repeated the claim.
More than 35 times, Kremlin-backed accounts amplified a tweet by Radek Sikorski, a member of the European Parliament and a former defense and foreign minister of Poland. The tweet in question featured a picture of gas rising to the surface of the Baltic and the text, ''Thank you USA.'' Kremlin-linked tweets collectively received more than 69,000 engagements, or around 2,000 per post. By contrast, tweets by Russian accounts that referenced ''Nord Stream'' generated only 375 engagements per post, demonstrating the benefits of amplifying the European politician. The original tweet has since been deleted, but screenshots still routinely surface in Russian state-backed content.
The spread of this narrative'--on Twitter and elsewhere'--follows a familiar script. Conspiracists in both Russia and the United States, each for their own purposes, seize on a news development ripe for spin. Both set to work and their ideas reverberate. What follows is more akin to a game of mutual improv than formal coordination. That is in part because the Kremlin has a second order interest in amplifying the Western influencers'--or ''fellow travelers'''--that make these kinds of conspiratorial claims, since their voices are likely to appear more legitimate and credible to audiences within the societies that Moscow targets and therefore may earn wider reach. For this reason, Kremlin-backed media and diplomats have boosted Carlson's segment on the explosion multiple times.
This dynamic can be observed in other conspiracy theories that have spread virally online. One recent example is the biolabs conspiracy theory, which falsely suggests that the United States has been supporting a biological and chemical weapons program in Ukraine. That theory, which first appeared on a fringe message board in the United States, was picked up by alternative U.S. thinkers as well as Russian state-backed accounts. It jumped from these darker corners of the web onto Fox News in a Tucker Carlson segment. From there, it too spread quickly to popular political podcasts in the United States.
What are Russia's goals?
In promoting the idea that the United States was responsible for the Nord Stream explosions the Kremlin is advancing several aims. One is to dent the prestige and soft power of the United States by casting it as violent and hypocritical. Another possibility is to deflect blame ahead of the outcome of an ongoing investigation. European officials have described the attack as a ''deliberate act,'' but until an investigation is concluded, it is impossible to say definitively who was responsible.
Moscow likely also aims to exacerbate splits within the transatlantic relationship. Over the past several days, the Kremlin has claimed, variously, that the United States carried out the attack in order to increase its access to the European energy market, to destroy the European market, and to ''render obsolete'' German demands to open Nord Stream 2, which would increase the flow of natural gas from Russia to Germany. This too is a long-running goal.
Finally, the Kremlin's messaging comes against the backdrop of broader narratives that it is pushing ahead of U.S. midterm elections, in what may be bid to politically undermine President Biden as a means of ratcheting up partisan division within the United States. Just in recent weeks, Moscow has promoted a variety of narratives attacking the president'--questioning his mental fitness for office, suggesting he paid for prostitutes for his son, calling him a ''totalitarian dictator,'' and suggesting that he worked with Facebook to censor online content, while amplifying former President Trump's election conspiracies and calls for a new vote.
Against the backdrop of this propaganda, U.S. podcasters spreading the theory that Washington was responsible for the sabotage of Nord Stream 1 and 2 play a useful role in advancing Kremlin messaging.
Podcasts play an important yet understudied role in spreading harmful and false narratives, including conspiracy theories related to the outcome of the 2020 election leading up to the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, misinformation related to COVID-19, and, now, Kremlin messaging around the Nord Stream explosions. In building Brookings's new dashboard and database that allows researchers to examine the topics covered by popular political podcasters, we have created a tool that we hope researchers will utilize in understanding how podcasting fits into the information ecosystem and the role it plays in spreading unsubstantiated and false information.
In looking at how podcasters spread the Nord Stream narrative, we see that they pick up on ideas in one medium and extend them to another. Research on this type of activity is essential to building a coherent understanding of how conspiracy theories spread. With this dashboard and database, we seek to contribute to that work and make it easier for researchers to examine how narratives'--like the one purporting U.S. involvement in the Nord Stream incident'--are transmitted from one medium to another and reach large audiences. What the database shows in this case is the ease and speed with which a misleading narrative was transmitted from one medium to another, substantially growing its audience'--and spreading the Kremlin's preferred narrative of the Nord Stream attacks among the American public.
Jessica Brandt is policy director for the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative at the Brookings Institution and a fellow in the Foreign Policy program's Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology.Valerie Wirtschafter is a senior data analyst in the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Brookings Institution.
The Housing Revolution Is Coming - The Atlantic
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:42
Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET on October 6, 2022
P ull up to any intersection in Los Angeles, and you will see a column of illegally posted signs forming a kind of capitalist totem pole. Most advertise services catering to the darker side of life: ''Cheap Divorce!'' ''Fix Your Credit!'' ''Liquidation Sale!'' Even the now-ubiquitous ''Sell Your House Fast'' calls to mind desperate families collapsing under the weight of a mortgage. Yet over the past couple of years, a more hopeful sign has joined the mix: ''Free ADU Consultation.''
The abbreviation needs no explanation in California, where accessory dwelling units have graduated from wonky planning jargon to popular parlance. Variously known as granny flats, mother-in-law units, or casitas, ADUs are small, additional rental units that share a lot with another structure'--typically a single-family home.
Annie Lowrey: Four years among the NIMBYs
ADUs can now be found in backyards across the Golden State, providing homeowners with a new source of income and renters with new housing options. Something like 60,000 ADUs have been permitted since 2016, the year they were legalized. It's a startling figure, but it's only the beginning. As more states legalize them in response to the ever-deepening housing crisis, ADUs could soon be coming to a backyard near you. This hyperlocal building boom might just spell the end of the American suburb as we know it'--in the best possible way.
D espite their reputation as a novel solution to the nationwide housing shortage, ADUs were common before the rise of zoning. Take a walk around your local pre-zoning residential neighborhood, and you'll see what I mean: In places such as Brooklyn, many brownstones were built with a basement accessory unit that could be rented out. On sleepy inner suburban alleys across the Midwest, small apartments still regularly sit atop garages. My grandmother grew up in a unit carved out of the second floor of an aging mansion in Old Louisville. (Historic-preservation rules would make it tricky to subdivide that same mansion today.)
These extra little homes made homeownership more attainable and cities more accessible to people of little means. Homeowners could collect rent that could in turn be used to pay down a mortgage, while renters gained access to shelter in a neighborhood that they might otherwise not have been able to afford.
Like most states, California went all in on zoning in the 20th century, prohibiting the construction of apartments'--including ADUs'--in most residential neighborhoods. Indeed, the first single-family zoning district in the United States was adopted in Berkeley in 1916, specifically and explicitly to segregate the suburb. Following the Supreme Court's seal of approval in Euclid v. Ambler in 1926'--a decision that infamously derided apartments as ''mere parasites'''--single-family zoning districts spread nationwide, producing the homogeneous and segregated suburban landscape we have today.
Such prohibitions play no small role in the California housing crisis. By one estimate, the state faces a shortfall of nearly 1 million units. Until recently, apartments were technically illegal to build in 75 to 94 percent of residential areas in cities such as Los Angeles and San Jose. Worse yet, in numerous California suburbs and smaller towns'--including many in the heart of Silicon Valley'--apartments were completely prohibited. That is, until the state legalized ADUs.
F or nearly four decades beginning in 1982, across five separate bills, state policymakers in Sacramento nudged local governments to adopt workable ordinances to allow backyard and basement apartments of their own accord. Yet at the local level, NIMBY politics prevailed. Local planners eagerly exploited loopholes in the state bills, setting standards that made ADU production practically infeasible. Not surprisingly, few were built.
Jerusalem Demsas: The next generation of NIMBYs
That changed in 2016 with the passage of S.B. 1069 and A.B. 2299. Where previous attempts at legalization retained the deference to local control typical of U.S. planning, these bills set clear, statewide standards for how local governments could and could not regulate ADUs. Unworkable design standards and onerous parking mandates were out. Prompt and affordable permitting processes were in. And a funny thing happened: It worked. Almost as soon as the new laws went into effect, ADU-permit applications skyrocketed across the state.
Unsurprisingly, those suburbs most committed to exclusion continued to find ways to subvert the law. In a kind of reform whack-a-mole, seven more bills were needed to address creative new forms of exclusion. Setbacks were rightsized, owner-occupancy mandates were dropped, and the state's housing authority was granted the power to call out misbehaving towns. The work continues: Just this year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed yet another bill streamlining state ADU laws.
The pro-housing forces are winning. Building a home in your backyard in California has never been easier. And sure enough, the market has responded.
The number of ADUs permitted increased by 1,421 percent from 2016 to 2021. Other than 2020'--a year racked by the COVID-19 pandemic'--ADU permitting has increased by 42 to 76 percent every year since 2016, and this permitting growth is unlikely to slow down anytime soon. As of last year, ADUs constituted roughly one in seven homes permitted in California.
In cities such as Los Angeles'--where home prices are high and the city's large lots are well suited to host ADUs'--the boom has been even more pronounced. The number of ADU permits issued in L.A. jumped from 80 in 2016 to 5,064 in 2021'--a startling 6,230 percent increase. One in every four homes built last year in the city was an ADU.
The ADU building boom has even penetrated many of California's most exclusionary suburbs. Consider those jurisdictions with the highest median household incomes and home prices, most in and around the Bay Area: Few'--if any'--apartments were built in most of the suburbs sampled below over the past 40 years. Nine didn't permit a single ADU in 2016. Yet five years later, permits have grown exponentially, such that ADUs now constitute most of the housing being built in these suburbs.
According to a survey conducted by researchers at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, these new ADUs are overwhelmingly used for housing'--only 8 percent are used as short-term rentals. Better yet, data collected by the state's housing authority suggest that most of the new ADUs built in the exclusive suburbs surveyed above qualify as affordable to households earning 80 percent or less than the area median income. The Southern California Association of Governments puts that figure at about 66 percent. In short, merely legalizing ADUs triggered a boom in affordable housing at no cost to the taxpayer.
A s a test case for the growing YIMBY (''Yes in My Backyard'') movement'--a diverse band of activists committed to removing barriers to housing'--ADUs are almost too perfect. Besides the fact that many of them go in literal backyards, the success of their legalization reveals the extent to which we've locked our cities in a straitjacket'--and the benefits of unshackling them. As soon as we granted homeowners the right to add an extra home on their lot, they eagerly lined up to do so, making neighborhoods across California ever-so-slightly more affordable and integrated.
Read: From 'not in my backyard' to 'yes in my backyard'
Backyard cottages and basement apartments alone won't solve the California housing shortage. But help is on the way. In 2021, YIMBYs and coalition partners passed S.B. 9, allowing duplexes and fourplexes statewide. Last week, Governor Newsom signed A.B. 2011 into law, allowing mixed-income multifamily homes to be built in commercial zones statewide. By one estimate, the bill could legalize up to 2.4 million homes on sites currently hosting dilapidated strip malls and half-empty offices.
Legalization of the humble ADU seems like a pilot study for a fundamental rethink of the way our largest state plans itself. After a century of cities stagnating under myopic local control, a more liberalizing oversight is in order. If there's a future for the American suburb on the other side of this housing crisis, it will have to be a denser, more diverse place.
This article originally misidentified the year that California passed the S.B. 9 bill.
#224 '' Dietary protein: amount needed, ideal timing, quality, and more | Don Layman, Ph.D. - Peter Attia
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:02
Don Layman is a Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has spent the past 40 years investigating the role of dietary protein in muscle protein synthesis. In this episode, Don describes how his decades of research have shaped his thinking around protein, muscle, anabolic factors, metabolism, and more. He explains the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein: what it is, how it came about, and how it should serve only as a guide for the minimum protein necessary for survival rather than as an optimal level of protein intake. He provides an overview of the essential amino acids, explains the nuances of animal versus plant protein, and provides insights for determining protein quality, absorption rates, and how to best track your intake. He discusses the ideal timing of protein intake in relation to resistance exercise, how protein should be distributed among meals, and how limitations in protein utilization per sitting can impact those practicing time-restricted eating. Additionally, Don shares results from his clinical trials, including how a high-protein diet fared in terms of fat loss, and explains the differences in protein utilization between adolescents and adults and how the problem of reduced efficiency of protein utilization in older adults can be overcome.
Subscribe on: APPLE PODCASTS | RSS | GOOGLE | OVERCAST | STITCHER
We discuss: Don's background: from growing up on a farm to studying nutritional biochemistry [2:30]; Don's philosophy on nutrition, muscle, and metabolism [6:30]; The controversial relationship between saturated fat and atherosclerosis [18:15]; The basics of protein and amino acids [25:45]; Origin and limitations of the current recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein intake [32:15]; Protein sources: determining quality, absorption rates, and how to track intake [41:15]; Leucine, lysine, and methionine: three important essential amino acids [48:00]; The vital role of ruminant animals in the production of quality protein [53:15]; The differing needs and impacts of dietary protein for a 16-year old compared to a 65-year old [59:30]; Consequences of protein deficiency in childhood [1:06:30]; Muscle protein synthesis: ideal timing, small meals vs. big meals, and more [1:12:45]; Protein needs of children [1:19:45]; How important is timing protein intake around training? [1:24:15]; The role of leucine in fatty acid oxidation by muscle [1:28:15]; High protein diets for fat loss: Results from Don's clinical trials [1:31:30]; Influence of industry funding on nutrition studies [1:43:45]; Don's thoughts on plant-based and synthetic ''meats'' [1:48:45]; Problems with epidemiological studies of dietary protein [1:56:30]; More. §
Sign up to receive Peter's expertise in your inboxSign up to receive the 5 tactics in my Longevity Toolkit, followed by non-lame, weekly emails on the latest strategies and tactics for increasing your lifespan, healthspan, and well-being (plus new podcast announcements). Don's background: from growing up on a farm to studying nutritional biochemistry [2:30] Peter has heard a lot about Don over the past couple of years from their mutual friend Layne Norton , who suggested they get together and go deeper down this nutritional pathway Nutrition is Peter's least favorite subject only because he's so tired of the religious aspect of nutrition He enjoys talking about nutrition through the lens of biochemistry Don was interested in biochemistry first Studying organic chemistry just seemed so boring and esoteric With nutrition, he could actually apply biochemistry to things people were interested in What was it like growing up on a farm in Illinois?
His dad lived to 97 and his mom to 102 It was great, he was born in the '50s This was a time when agriculture was very poor in the US He learned about animal growth and reproduction He leaned about growing corn and soybeans He was very interested in food, he always had an interest in science, and this evolved to be a natural marriage He grew up in a small town; his school had about 400 people in it In college Don first studied biochemistry and organic chemistry
This was the serendipity of how he got into nutrition; he didn't know anything about it He first went to Illinois State University to study chemistry He realized quickly he had no aptitude for inorganic chemistry, but he understood biochemistry pretty well This was during the Vietnam War and he was scheduled to go into the military He was totally unemployable So when the university offered him a graduate assistantship, he took it and got a master's in biochemistry His mentor at the time said, ''Y ou really have a knack for this nutrition part of it. Why don't you do a PhD? '' He ended up at University of Minnesota doing a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and fell in love with all of it There was no grand plan, but it fit his background of agriculture, foods, sports nutrition He fell into a group that was doing muscle metabolism and it just all fell together for him Was Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota at that time?
No, he had left, but his legacy was there with Henry Blackburn , Ivan Frantz , and some of those individuals Don got that background while he was there and it certainly invested a lot of his early thinking of nutrition Layne Norton , who you've talked with before, has talked about how our thinking of nutrition evolves; '' mine certainly has evolved '' Don's philosophy on nutrition, muscle, and metabolism [6:30] What was your underlying philosophy of nutrition circa 1975, when you were doing your Ph.D?
His earliest thinking about nutrition involves his interest in animal growth and sports nutrition Very early he developed the philosophy that nutrition was really about two tissues, the brain and skeletal muscle If those two tissues were healthy, you were going to live a pretty good life Everything else is regulatory'' the liver, the heart, the kidney, the gut Everything else adapts to your environment, but you have to focus on those first two Don says that '' if you tailor your nutritional requirements around that thinking you end up with a much more sensible approach '' He coined the concept that his colleague, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon and he always use'' muscle centric nutrition If you keep muscle healthy, you've got a good shot at avoiding obesity, avoiding diabetes, avoiding cancer, etc. ''If you keep muscle healthy, you've got a good shot at avoiding obesity, avoiding diabetes, avoiding cancer, etc.'' '--Don Layman
Details about muscle
Peter notes that muscle is our largest sink for glucose 75-80% of our glucose storage capacity exists within skeletal muscle Muscle is also an early depot for excess adipose tissue Once we start to let little droplets of fat accumulate within muscle cells, it leads to this process of insulin resistance This creates a problem in that it makes it harder for muscle to accept carbohydrates This leads to hyperglycemia and ultimately diabetes How Don formulated his thinking about muscle
{end of show notes preview}
Would you like access to extensive show notes and references for this podcast (and more)?Check out this post to see an example of what the substantial show notes look like. Become a member today to get access.
Become a Member
Don Layman, Ph.D. Donald Layman is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in the department of Food Science & Human Nutrition. Don earned his B.S. in Chemistry and M.S. in Biochemistry at Illinois State University and his Ph.D. in Human Nutrition and Biochemistry at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. His research focuses on understanding the protein and amino acid requirements and interrelationship between dietary protein and carbohydrates needed for adult health. In particular, his research seeks to understand the impact of diet and exercise on obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome in adults. His work has helped to define the role of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) in skeletal muscle metabolism. BCAA provide an important energy source for muscle during exercise and also serve as a critical regulator of muscle protein synthesis during recovery. During exercise, oxidation of BCAA increases, resulting in production of the amino acid alanine and a rapid decline in plasma levels of BCAA. Amino acid supplements prevent this decline in plasma amino acids, enhance recovery of muscle protein synthesis and interact with insulin to help stabilize blood glucose. His research continues to define mechanisms for control of muscle protein synthesis and differences in dietary protein needs for men versus women and for adults with sedentary versus active lifestyles. Don currently consults for many food industry companies including Kraft, Nestle, Hershey, the Dairy Council, the Egg Board, and the Beef Board. [ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ]
Twitter: @donlayman
Maneuver Warfare - by William Schryver - imetatronink
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 14:36
German Field Marshal Erich von MansteinLately I've been reading one of the most fascinating war-related books I've ever come across:
A New Conception of War '' John Boyd, The U.S. Marines, and Maneuver Warfare, by Ian T. Brown .
(The book has been out of print for some time, but is available in pdf format from Marine Corps University at the following link: A New Conception of War .)
John Boyd was one of the most brilliant and celebrated modern military theorists, and his concepts were extremely influential among many in the post-Vietnam officer cadre of the United States Marine Corps.
John Boyd In particular, the highly regarded USMC General Paul K. Van Riper became a zealous disciple of Boyd's conceptions of war. I have previously written of Van Riper's legendary exploits , and most recently his observations of the ongoing war in Ukraine .
USMC Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper Also, in a recent article I published, I described how, during the Second World War, the Red Army had frequently employed deception to lure the Wehrmacht into situations where they could then be cut off and destroyed in detail.
Of course, the German commanders were brilliant in their own right, and they frequently turned the tables on the Soviets in the same fashion. A New Conception of War makes specific reference to such a case '' one I believe is particularly apropos to ongoing events in Ukraine:
One example Boyd provided of using terrain as a medium for mentally unhinging an enemy, and not simply as a military objective in itself, came from Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's ''Donetz counterstroke'' against the Soviet Red Army in World War II. Manstein deliberately took a ''long step backward,'' giving up large swathes of territory to make the Soviets overconfident and overextended. When Manstein finally counterattacked, the surprise caused complete mental and moral disorientation on the part of the Russians, netting Manstein all the territory he had voluntarily surrendered and, more important, large numbers of Russian prisoners.
(A New Conception of War, p. 108, emphasis added)
Manstein's ''long step backward'' had the effect of drawing the Soviets out of well-prepared defensive positions, and into the open field of battle, where the Germans repeatedly resisted, then withdrew even further, until Soviet supply lines had been stretched dangerously thin, and their forces were extremely diluted in the large ''bulge'' their advance had created.
This is precisely the scenario we have seen play out in the Kharkov region over the past month.
For weeks now, the vastly outnumbered Russian forces have been executing a fighting retreat '' ceding territory to the advancing Ukrainians, briefly occupying strong prepared defensive positions from which they inflict severe losses on the Ukrainian attackers, and then retreating yet again to another line of prepared positions.
As is always the case during an ongoing battle, reliable casualty numbers are difficult to ascertain. But the nature of the terrain, the strength of the prepared Russian defenses, and the Russians' overwhelming superiority in terms of air power and artillery have afforded them a huge battlefield advantage.
Contributing to this advantage has been the frequently displayed rashness of almost suicidal banzai-like Ukrainian assaults on hardened Russian positions which, although their significant numerical superiority ultimately permitted them to compel another Russian retreat, hugely disproportionate losses of manpower and military equipment have been inflicted on the Ukrainian attackers.
Late last week, in my article entitled Turning Point , I described how the Ukrainians had expended thousands of troops and hundreds of vehicles in their quasi-fanatical attempts to take both Kupyansk and Liman.
Nevertheless, those two towns were taken, and the Ukrainians have continued to make modest advances since then while the Russians prepare yet another hardened defensive line several kilometers further east.
I've also been reporting for weeks now regarding the never-ending trains of Russian equipment and troops streaming into the region from various directions '' and yet few if any of these major reinforcements have found their way to the front lines, much to the chagrin of those cheering on the Russian cause, and who have been devastated by what appear to be repeated Russian defeats.
However, in just the last few hours, reports have been leaking out that western intelligence has detected a major buildup of Russian forces in and around Belgorod, just across the border of the Kharkov Oblast, and immediately north of the current line of contact.
The reliability of this intelligence is not yet determined, and even if true, its significance remains as yet unknown, but I will share two of the reports I've seen on Telegram in the past couple hours '' reports that are circulating among both Russian- and Ukrainian-friendly sources with a reasonable degree of established credibility.
First from a Ukrainian-friendly channel that has long exhibited connections to a source within the Ukrainian government:
''Our source reports that the Office of the President received a warning that the risk of a Russian strike and counter-offensive behind Ukrainian lines remains.
''The only thing is that no one can say exactly when, how, and where it will happen. The movement can abruptly begin along the entire border of Ukraine. The Russians know that Zelensky instructed everyone to remove reserves from the border regions and send them to the front line for an offensive (blitzkrieg).
''That is, once again entering the Sumy region, the RF Armed Forces can easily take hundreds of kilometers under them, not to mention an attack on the northern part of the Kharkov region, or Belarus joining the game.''
A Russian-friendly source (presumably also relying on a Ukraine-friendly source) reports as follows:
''MI6 has passed intelligence to the Office of the President (Zelensky) and the General Staff (Zaluzhny) that Russia continues to amass forces in the Belgorod region and appear to be in no rush to use them as a reserve.
''British intelligence has warned the General Staff that these forces may be concentrating for a Russian counter-attack along the border of the Oskol River to cut off the increasingly stretched Ukrainian forces grouping that has only a few supply routes available to it.''
In my estimation, there is good reason to lend credence to these reports. And although the timing and location of a Russian counter-attack cannot yet be confidently predicted, I continue to be persuaded that ''something big'' is afoot, and that the Ukrainian army and its large numbers of NATO-affiliated ''volunteers'' are going to suffer the biggest catastrophe so far in this war as a result of their militarily imprudent last-gasp September ''counter-offensives''.
Tip Jar
De Ondernemer | Dit is waarom de Russen de Brabantse groenten van HAK'...
Election Software Executive Arrested on Suspicion of Theft - The New York Times
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 14:06
Technology | Election Software Executive Arrested on Suspicion of Theft https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/technology/election-software-arrested.htmlThe executive, Eugene Yu, and his firm, Konnech, have been a focus of attention among election deniers.
Send any friend a story
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
Eugene Yu was taken into custody on the suspicion of the theft of poll workers' personal information, the Los Angeles County district attorney said. Credit... Emily Elconin for The New York Times Oct. 4, 2022
The top executive of an elections technology company that has been the focus of attention among election deniers was arrested by Los Angeles County officials in connection with an investigation into the possible theft of personal information about poll workers, the county said on Tuesday.
Eugene Yu, the founder and chief executive of Konnech, the technology company, was taken into custody on suspicion of theft, the Los Angeles County district attorney, George Gasc"n, said in a statement.
Konnech, which is based in Michigan, develops software to manage election logistics, like scheduling poll workers. Los Angeles County is among its customers.
The company has been accused by groups challenging the validity of the 2020 presidential election with storing information about poll workers on servers in China. The company has repeatedly denied keeping data outside the United States, including in recent statements to The New York Times.
Mr. Gasc"n's office said its investigators had found data stored in China. Holding the data there would violate Konnech's contract with the county.
The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsWith the primaries over, both parties are shifting their focus to the general election on Nov. 8. Standing by Herschel Walker: After a report that the G.O.P. Senate candidate in Georgia paid for a girlfriend's abortion in 2009, Republicans rallied behind him, fearing that a break with the former football star could hurt the party's chances to take the Senate. Democrats' Closing Argument: Buoyed by polls that show the end of Roe v. Wade has moved independent voters their way, vulnerable House Democrats have reoriented their campaigns around abortion rights in the final weeks before the election. G.O.P. Senate Gains: After signs emerged that Republicans were making gains in the race for the Senate, the polling shift is now clear, writes Nate Cohn, The Times's chief political analyst. Trouble for Nevada Democrats: The state has long been vital to the party's hold on the West. Now, Democrats are facing potential losses up and down the ballot. The county released few other details about its investigation. But it said in its statement that the charges related only to data about poll workers '-- and that ''the alleged conduct had no impact on the tabulation of votes and did not alter election results.''
''Data breaches are an ongoing threat to our digital way of life,'' the district attorney's office said in the statement. ''When we entrust a company to hold our confidential data, they must be willing and able to protect our personal identifying information from theft. Otherwise, we are all victims.''
In a statement, a spokesman for Konnech said that the company was trying to learn the details ''of what we believe to be Mr. Yu's wrongful detention,'' and that it stood by statements it made in a lawsuit against election deniers who had accused the company of wrongdoing.
''Any L.A. County poll worker data that Konnech may have possessed was provided to it by L.A. County and therefore could not have been 'stolen' as suggested,'' the spokesman said.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in an emailed statement that it had cause to believe that personal information on election workers was ''criminally mishandled.'' It was seeking to extradite Mr. Yu, who lives in Michigan, to Los Angeles.
Konnech came under scrutiny this year by several election deniers, including a founder of True the Vote, a nonprofit that says it is devoted to uncovering election fraud. True the Vote said its team had downloaded personal information on 1.8 million American poll workers from a server owned by Konnech and hosted in China. It said it obtained the data by using the server's default password, which it said was ''password,'' according to online accounts from people who attended a conference about voter fraud where the claims were made. The group provided no evidence that it had downloaded the data, saying that it had given the information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The claims quickly spread online, with some advocates raising concerns about China's influence on America's election system.
Claims about Konnech reached Dekalb County in Georgia, which was close to signing a contract with the company. The county's Republican Party chairwoman, Marci McCarthy, raised concerns during a public comment period at the county's elections board meeting on Sept. 8, questioning where the company stored and secured its data.
Konnech rebutted the claims, telling The New York Times that it had records on fewer than 240,000 workers at the time and that it had detected no data breach. Konnech owned a subsidiary in China that developed and tested software. The company said programmers there always used ''dummy'' test data. The subsidiary was closed in 2021.
Last month, Konnech sued True the Vote and Catherine Engelbrecht, its founder, as well as Gregg Phillips, an election denier who often works with the group. Konnech claimed the group had engaged in defamation, theft and a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act '-- which made it illegal to access a computer without authorization '-- among other charges.
The judge in the case granted Konnech's request for an emergency restraining order, which required True the Vote to disclose who had allegedly gained access to Konnech's data. True the Vote released the name in a sealed court filing.
''The organization is profoundly grateful to the Los Angeles district attorney's office for their thorough work and rapid action in this matter,'' the group said in a statement.
The Los Angeles district attorney's office said it was unaware of True the Vote's investigation and said it had no input on the county's investigation.
dies suddenly - Google Search
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 14:05
Tragedy as dad, 46, who 'always looked to help others' dies suddenly in sleep
Manchester Evening News
The heartbroken family of a dad who 'always had a smile on his face' have paid tribute to him after he suddenly died in his sleep. 2 days ago
Medical Groups Ask DOJ to Investigate People Against Child Trans Surgeries
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:49
Three of the nation's leading medical associations asked President Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate and prosecute journalists and parents who are concerned with hospitals and physicians who provide transgender surgeries to minors.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and Children's Hospital Association sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to ''take swift action to investigate and prosecute'' those who allegedly threaten or target hospitals and physicians who provide transgender surgery to minors.
''We cannot stand by as threats of violence against our members and their patients proliferate with little consequence,'' American Academy of Pediatrics president Moira Szilagyi said. ''We call on the Department of Justice to investigate these attacks and social media platforms to reduce the spread of the misinformation enabling them.''
The letter noted that children's hospitals and their staff have faced ''increased threats via social media,'' along with ''harassing emails, phone calls, and protestors at health care sites.''
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland explains to reporters that he will not take questions after he delivered a statement at the U.S. Department of Justice August 11, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
''These coordinated attacks threaten federally protected rights to health care for patients and their families,'' the letter read.
The letter comes after online activists, including Twitter accounts like Libs of TikTok, have raised awareness about children's hospitals providing transgender surgeries for minors.
In August, Libs of TikTok reported that Children's National Hospital staff performs transgender surgeries on minors, including children younger than 16.
The medical associations also called on big tech social media giants ''to do more to prevent this practice on digital platforms.''
''We stand with the physicians, nurses, mental health specialists, and other health care professionals providing evidence-based health care, including gender-affirming care, to children and adolescents,'' the letter added.
Although Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, a University of Alabama pediatrics professor who provides ''gender-affirming care'' to trans children, claims pediatricians do not perform genital surgery on children, she admitted that mastectomies are included in the list of operations for transgender children.
Other transgender health care given to children includes hormone therapy or puberty blockers.
Investigative reporter Christopher Rufo noted that the medical associations' letter is part of the ''Left's playbook,'' and cited last year's example of the National School Boards Association's letter to the DOJ asking them to investigate parents who were opposed to critical race theory.
''This is now the Left's playbook: last year, the National School Board Association, Department of Justice, and F.B.I. worked together to label parents who opposed critical race theory' domestic terrorists,''' Rufo tweeted. ''They want to stifle dissent, suppress speech, and criminalize opposition.''
This is now the Left's playbook: last year, the National School Board Association, Department of Justice, and F.B.I. worked together to label parents who opposed critical race theory "domestic terrorists." They want to stifle dissent, suppress speech, and criminalize opposition.
'-- Christopher F. Rufo '--¸ (@realchrisrufo) October 3, 2022
Explosive-Laden Drone Found Near Nord Stream Pipeline | Pipeline Technology Journal
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:48
Ruling out sabotage, the Swedish military has successfully cleared a remote operated vehicle (drone) rigged with explosives found near Line 2 of the Nord Stream Natural Gas offshore pipeline system.
The vehicle was discovered during a routine survey operation as part of the annual integrity assessment of the Nord Stream pipeline. Since it was within the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) approximately 120 km away from the island of Gotland, the Swedes called on their armed forces to remove and ultimately disarm the object.
''We don't consider it to be dangerous to merchant vessels or the pipeline at this point,'' Jesper Stolpe, Swedish Armed Forces spokesman, told Radio Sweden. According to Stolpe, the cable used to control the drone and to set off the explosive was cut off, so at the moment the vehicle is relatively harmless.
The national identity of the drone has not been verified so far, as many countries use Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) of a similar construction, Stolpe said
Comments When the world went crazyThe situation in the world is like before two world wars, only now they use proxies and local terrorism and sabotage. But everything will end badly for everyone, no matter how all parties avoid open conflict, and yes, I'm talking about the third world war.
Reply Nordstream explosive storyBefore everyone gets overly sensitive please NOTE THE DATE OF THIS STORY - its 2015; seven years ago and has no bearing on current events!
Reply Ofcourse it has a bearing on'...Ofcourse it has a bearing on the current story.The fact that an explosive drone was found previously near the pipelines, in light of the expert opinion that the current sabotage could have been laid down years ago to be used when needed, is a very relevant point. Pretty unconvincing that Russia would mine its own money-making pipeline in 2015. The fact that the nationality of the drone was not disclosed is revealing.
Reply No bearing Of course it has a bearing on today's events, the collective west is trying to imply that Russia blew its own pipeline up, failing to mention that attempts have already been made on it (spoiler alert, but it was the USA).
Reply Wow!America has been planning to blow up the pipe since at least 2015 and you say that isn't relevant?
Reply Kidding right?No relevance??? year after the annexation of Crim and overthrow of the elected government. I'd say there is a massive connection.
Reply AgreeI agree. It's looking very bad.
Reply Awesome StoryExcellent write-up about Drone Found Near Nord Stream Pipeline. Thank you so much for providing this cool stuff here.
Reply Relevance to todayThis story is of absolute relevance to the destruction of the pipelines in 2022. This makes it clear that this has been planned and probably devices planted well in advance of the explosions to enable a clear escape. But probably not so long in advance to enable the devices to be discovered during inspections. Say, just a few days before. Also, this shows the devices (even if parts are found) will never be identified because so many nations use similar vehicles. And I quote your own article.
Reply This story is relevant. US hostility towards this pipeline existed even before construction began. Thus, this drone and explosives are extremely relevant to the present situation.
I wonder how much they paid the Swedes to prevent them from reporting who made the drone and explosives package. And I wonder where the control wires lead.
Reply PertinentA previous commentator wrote: "... its 2015; seven years ago and has no bearing on current events!"On the contrary, this story has exceptional bearing on current events. A drone with an explosive was found near line 2 of Nord Stream, the very same pipeline which has been sabotaged through explosives, most probably delivered by drones.It should be of exceptional interest if it could be determined what origin this drone had. Sweden should share its findings. Drone technology might be very common and have many shared components, but the explosives technology used IS VERY PARTICULAR TO THE LOCALE OF MANUFACTURE.
Reply Drone So after 7 years of investigation I assume they are close to identifying the owner of the drone. Many countries may own them but this would seem an important point to clarify.
Also your conference in 2023 should be pretty interesting might be a few more participants turning up.
Reply And what did the'...And what did the investigation bring to light, ...seven years later?
Reply
KLM could drop 30 destinations if Schiphol contraction plan moves forward | NL Times
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:41
Wednesday, 5 October 2022 - 08:41
The government's plans to reduce Schiphol's flight movements will likely mean KLM has to significantly reduce its destination network. The airline thinks it'll have to scrap about 25 European destinations and at least five long-haul destinations. That would shrink its network by roughly a fifth.
The Cabinet wants to reduce the number of flight movements at the airport from a maximum of 500,000 to 440,000 per year. The goal is to limit noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. As the largest user of Schiphol, the measure will hit KLM hard.
In June, the company already said it feared for the survival of its network as we know it today. KLM also indicated that the reduction would severely undermine Schiphol's hub function. But at the time, KLM had not concretely figured out the impact of the Cabinet's decision. The airline did so now and sent its expectation to members of parliament.
A possible scenario is KLM scrapping approximately 25 European destinations. That includes cities like Kyiv, Porto, and Belgrade. Montreal, Boston, Taipei, and Osaka, for example, could be dropped from the long-haul destinations.
The airline spoke of ''significant damage'' to its network, all the more so because the company has to cope with the many transfer passengers who fly from, for example, Asia via Schiphol to another destination in Europe. ''In recent years, we have added unique connections to make the Europe operation profitable and to make KLM financially healthy.''
According to KLM, this shrinkage is unnecessary because fleet renewal leads to better outcomes for noise and emission reduction. Replacing old aircraft with more fuel-efficient planes could cut noise by half by 2030. The newer aircraft would also reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 15 percent.
The airline also insisted that the entire Dutch business community would suffer if the Cabinet continued with its contraction plan. ''The queues at Schiphol show that people want to continue to travel. And if it is not possible from Schiphol, people will leave from neighboring countries.''KLM hopes its presentation will change politicians' minds.
According to EenVandaag, the three experts the Cabinet asked to evaluate its plans for the flight movement reduction were very critical of the method the Cabinet used to determine the maximum number of flights. They called the method "arbitrary," "one-sided," and poorly substantiated.
Chess scandal: Out with anal beads, in with cheating accusations | Euronews
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:38
After weeks of anal bead jokes, conspiracy theories and cheating rumours that have rocked the chess world, the gloves are now truly off.
World Champion Magnus Carlsen has finally released a statement following his surprising defeat on 4 September at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis to 19-year-old Hans Niemann, who has been accused of cheating online and using anal beads to'... stimulate his chances of winning IRL.
We here at Euronews Culture are still trying to figure out quite how cheating-by-sex-toy works, but we're trying out several vibrating configurations and will get back to you.
But back to Carlsen.
Last week, he quit an online game in the Julius Baer Generation Cup after playing only one move, leaving announcers shocked and escalating the controversy.
He has stated on Twitter on 26 September that he thinks Niemann is a cheater, over board and online. Furthermore, he now refuses to ever compete against him ever again.
''I believe that Niemann has cheated more - and more recently - than he has publicly admitted,'' Carlsen wrote. ''His over-the-board progress has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn't tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do.''
The full statement in text:
Dear Chess World,
At the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, I made the unprecedented professional decision to withdraw from the tournament after my round three game against Hans Niemann. A week later during the Champions Chess Tour, I resigned against Hans Niemann after playing only one move.
I know that my actions have frustrated many in the chess community. I'm frustrated. I want to play chess. I want to continue to play chess at the highest level in the best events.
I believe that cheating in chess is a big deal and an existential threat to the game. I also believe that chess organizers and all those who care about the sanctity of the game we love should seriously consider increasing security measures and methods of cheat detection for over the board chess. When Niemann was invited last minute to the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, I strongly considered withdrawing prior to the event. I ultimately chose to play.
I believe that Niemann has cheated more '-- and more recently '-- than he has publicly admitted. His over the board progress has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn't tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do. This game contributed to changing my perspective.
We must do something about cheating, and for my part going forward, I don't want to play against people that have cheated repeatedly in the past, because I don't know what they are capable of doing in the future.
There is more that I would like to say. Unfortunately, at this time I am limited in what I can say without explicit permission from Niemann to speak openly. So far I have only been able to speak with my actions, and those actions have stated clearly that I am not willing to play chess with Niemann. I hope that the truth on this matter comes out, whatever it may be.
Sincerely,
Magnus Carlsen '' World Chess Champion
Carlsen has yet to provide any actual evidence for the claims and he seems Carlsen to suggest that he is restricted for legal reasons. We'll keep you updated on further developments.
Read the background to this ongoing case in our original article published on 16 September:
Chess grandmaster denies cheating by using anal beadsIf you thought that chess was boring, the Netflix show The Queen's Gambit soon sorted that out.
However, some recent cheating accusations have just made the discipline a hell of a lot kinkier.
Indeed, 19-year old chess grandmaster Hans Niemann is currently at the heart of a scandal that is rocking the chess world. Or should that be, making the chess world vibrate.
Niemann has been hit with accusations on social media which state that the only reason he won against the world's top grandmaster Magnus Carlsen earlier this month is that the young player cheated using wireless vibrating anal beads.
You read that right.
What happened (before anal beads got involved)?The 4 September win at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis represented something of a meteoric rise for Niemann and was unexpected, as Magnus had not been beaten in 53 sittings. Niemann was the lowest ranking of the 10 players in Saint Louis, and had become the first chess player to beat Carlsen in more than two years.
Carlsen decided to withdraw from the event following his loss.
''I've withdrawn from the tournament. I've always enjoyed playing in the Saint Louis Chess Club, and hope to be back in the future,'' he tweeted.
The five-time World Chess champion also added a video of football coach Jose Mourinho's 2020 news conference speech held after a game in which his team may have lost due to questionable officiating: ''I prefer not to speak. If I speak I am in big trouble'... and I don't want to be in big trouble.''
No further explanation was provided, but many interpreted Carlsen's post as insinuating that Niemann cheated during the game.
To further spice things up, the same day Carlsen withdrew (5 September), the World Chess Hall of Fame suspiciously decided to beef up its anti-cheating security measures. This included scanning Niemann before his next match.
Is Niemann guilty?Though no concrete evidence has yet been brought forward to back accusations of cheating, a recent interview in which Niemann acknowledged that he had violated the rules in the past by using computer assistance in online games made the rounds.
In response, Chess.com stated that it had ''privately removed'' Niemann's account from its website and the Global Championship in Toronto decided to uninvite Niemann.
Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura said on his Twitch stream that ''there was a period of over six months where Hans did not play any prize-money tournaments on Chess.com. That is the one thing that I'm going to say and that is the only thing I'm going to say on this topic.''
Except he didn't limit it to that, saying that it was ''a known fact'' that Niemann had previously cheated on Chess.com, referring to the aforementioned interview.
As for grandmaster Eric Hansen, he added that he had removed Niemann from chess events he had hosted due to cheating suspicions.
When does the sex toy come into play?The issue was already proving to be one of the biggest chess scandals in years, especially because it concerns Niemann, who is notorious in the chess community for his difficult behaviour.
Then, somewhat predictably when it comes to rumour mongering and drama stirring, Tesla CEO Elon Musk waded in.
Musk shared a video on Twitter of an influencer discussing the rumour that Niemann used a vibrating sex toy during the competition in order to cheat.
In a now deleted tweet, Musk even posted a Musk-version of a quote by philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, writing: "Talent hits a target no one else can hit, genius hits a target no one can see (cause it's in ur butt)."
Charming.
Eventually, Niemann addressed the cheating allegations, admitting he had cheated during virtual Chess.com tournaments when he was younger. However, Niemann said, he never cheated IRL.
''I have never cheated in an over-the-board game. If they want me to strip fully naked, I will do it,'' Niemann offered. ''I don't care. Because I know I am clean. You want me to play in a closed box with zero electronic transmission, I don't care.''
Still, social media couldn't get enough of it:
So, a statistical anomaly? A targeted attack spread because Niemann's abrasive personality is not to the community's liking? Simply another case of social media being the bin juice of humanity? Or has Niemann elevated the dark art of cheating to a new elaborate level after watching Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels one too many times?
Whatever the case may be, if the Chess Federation want to strip players bare for the games just to avoid any cheating allegations, their viewing figures may well spike.
Let's just hope that the second season of The Queen's Gambit don't take any ideas from this cheating saga '' although Netflix are now greenlighting NC-17 rated content, no one needs to see squirming players climaxing before a checkmate.
HHS purchases drug for use in radiological and nuclear emergencies
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:35
As part of long-standing, on'going efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is purchasing a supply of the drug Nplate from Amgen USA Inc; Nplate is approved to treat blood cell injuries that accompany acute radiation syndrome in adult and pediatric patients (ARS).
Amgen, based in Thousands Oaks, California, developed Nplate for ARS with support from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), as well as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.
BARDA is using its authority provided under the 2004 Project Bioshield Act and $290 million in Project BioShield designated funding to purchase this supply of the drug. Amgen will maintain this supply in vendor-managed inventory. This approach decreases life-cycle management costs for taxpayers because doses that near expiration can be rotated into the commercial market for rapid use prior to expiry and new doses can be added to the government supply.
ARS, also known as radiation sickness, occurs when a person's entire body is exposed to a high dose of penetrating radiation, reaching internal organs in a matter of seconds. Symptoms of ARS injuries include impaired blood clotting as a result of low platelet counts, which can lead to uncontrolled and life-threatening bleeding.
To reduce radiation-induced bleeding, Nplate stimulates the body's production of platelets. The drug can be used to treat adults and children.
Nplate is also approved for adult and pediatric patients with immune thrombocytopenia, a blood disorder resulting in low platelet counts. Repurposing drugs for acute radiation syndrome that also are approved for a commercial indication helps to sustain availability of the product and improves healthcare provider familiarity with the drug.
About HHS, ASPR, and BARDA: HHS works to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans, providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services. ASPR leads HHS in preparing the nation to respond to and recover from adverse health effects of emergencies, supporting communities' ability to withstand adversity, strengthening health and response systems, and enhancing national health security. Within ASPR, BARDA invests in the innovation, advanced research and development, acquisition, and manufacturing of medical countermeasures '' vaccines, drugs, therapeutics, diagnostic tools, and non-pharmaceutical products '' needed to combat health security threats. To learn more, visit medicalcountermeasures.gov.
# # #
Outsourced censorship: Feds used private entity to target millions of social posts in 2020 | Just The News
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:34
A consortium of four private groups worked with the departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and State to censor massive numbers of social media posts they considered misinformation during the 2020 election, and its members then got rewarded with millions of federal dollars from the Biden administration afterwards, according to interviews and documents obtained by Just the News.
The Election Integrity Partnership is back in action again for the 2022 midterm elections, raising concerns among civil libertarians that a chilling new form of public-private partnership to evade the First Amendment's prohibition of government censorship may be expanding.
The consortium is comprised of four member organizations: Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public, the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, and social media analytics firm Graphika. It set up a concierge-like service in 2020 that allowed federal agencies like Homeland's Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and State's Global Engagement Center to file "tickets" requesting that online story links and social media posts be censored or flagged by Big Tech.
Three liberal groups '-- the Democratic National Committee, Common Cause and the NAACP '-- were also empowered like the federal agencies to file tickets seeking censorship of content. A Homeland-funded collaboration, the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, also had access.
In its own after-action report on the 2020 election, the consortium boasted it flagged more than 4,800 URLs '-- shared nearly 22 million times on Twitter alone '-- for social media platforms. Their staff worked 12-20 hour shifts from September through mid-November 2020, with "monitoring intensif[ying] significantly" the week before and after Election Day.
The tickets sought removal, throttling and labeling of content that raised questions about mail-in ballot integrity, Arizona's "Sharpiegate," and other election integrity issues of concern to conservatives.
The consortium achieved a success rate in 2020 that would be enviable for baseball batters: Platforms took action on 35% of flagged URLs, with 21% labeled, 13% removed and 1% soft-blocked, meaning users had to reject a warning to see them. The partnership couldn't determine how many were downranked.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits Congress from passing any laws that abridge free speech, and courts have ruled that prohibition extends to federal agencies funded by the legislative branch. Participants were acutely aware that federal agencies' role in the effort strayed into uncharted legal territory.
For instance, SIO's Renee DiResta said in a CISA Cybersecurity Summit video in 2021 that the operation faced "unclear legal authorities" and "very real First Amendment questions." She joined SIO from a firm exposed by The New York Times for creating "a 'false flag' operation" against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Mike Benz, an ex-State Department official who was slated to be the department's first-ever digital freedom ambassador if President Donald Trump had won a second term, discovered much of the consortium's work in research for his new Foundation for Freedom Online, a nonprofit which advocates for free speech globally while monitoring growing U.S. censorship.
He told Just the News the consortium was the largest federally-sanctioned censorship operation he had ever seen, a precursor to the now-scrapped Disinformation Governance Board and one that is likely to grow in future elections.
"If you trace the chronology, you find that there was actually 18 months' worth of institutional work to create this very apparatus that we now know played a significant role in the censorship of millions of posts for the 2020 election and has ambitious sights for 2022 and 2024," he said.
"Amazingly, there are now so many Ministry of Truth functionaries within the Department of Homeland Security," he added. "There are so many Ministry of Truth tasks, so many Ministry of Truth points of contact, so many different Ministry of Truth, policies for whether to remove something, reduce it, slap a fact checking label on it."
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, called the revelations "stunning" and said the 2020 operation amounted to the federal government sanctioning and outsourcing censorship.
"The government knows that they cannot do it by themselves because of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits it," Clyde told the "Just the News, Not Noise" television show. "And then they decide to partner with another entity, a private entity. a social media platform or university.
"And then they say, 'Hey, we're going to feed you information that we think is disinformation, or we want to be disinformation. And then you go ahead and you do the de-platforming. You label it as misinformation, or disinformation.'"
Clyde said he expects Republicans to investigate the consortium next year if they gain control of Congress and that he is drafting legislation called the Free Speech Defense Act to address censorship issues.
"This bill would prevent the federal government from labeling anything through a proxy entity, like a social media company, as disinformation, labeling it as misinformation or labeling it as true," he explained. "And then it would also give an opportunity for those people who have been injured by it to take legal action."
Homeland Security, CISA, EIP and the Stanford and UW projects did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from Just the News.
It wasn't just blogs and individual social media users whose content was targeted for removal and throttling as "repeat spreaders" of misinformation. News and opinion organizations, including the New York Post, Fox News, Just the News and SeanHannity.com were also targeted.
The partnership's members published the 292-page public report in March 2021, though the most recent version is dated June 15, 2021. The launch webinar featured former CISA Director Christopher Krebs, "who led the effort to secure electoral infrastructure and the response to mis- and disinformation during the election period."
"I think we were pretty effective in getting [platforms] to act on things they haven't acted on before," both by pressuring them to adopt specific censorship policies and then reporting violations, SIO founder and former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos told the launch webinar. (He and Krebs started their own consultancy after the election.)
"Platform interventions" in response to "delegitimization of election results," for example, went from uniformly "non-comprehensive" in August 2020 to "comprehensive" by Election Day, the report says.
The partnership has not drawn widespread attention, however. Congressional testimony has approvingly cited the report, which was also filed as evidence in a lawsuit against Massachusetts officials for allegedly deplatforming a Twitter user.
Benz's Foundation for Freedom Online brought new scrutiny on the partnership in August and shared its own summary of the report with Just the News, with links to primary documents and background on CISA and its private partners.
FFO spent "16 weeks mapping virtually every element of DHS partnerships and operations connected to Internet censorship," including the partnership's report, Benz wrote, pledging to dribble out "revelations" from FFO's research over several months. It has already published assorted video evidence.
"DHS's Ministry Of Truth has evaded public attention for so long [because] it acts like a coordinator of a censorship network, rather [than] an implementer of specific censorship acts," similar to how the CIA and Pentagon "outsource" wars to private military contractors, he said.
SIO officially launched the partnership 100 days before the election, "in consultation with CISA and other stakeholders," the partnership report says. It attributes the idea to SIO-funded interns at CISA, noting that censorship by that agency and domestic social media monitoring by intelligence agencies would likely be illegal.
"This limited federal role reveals a critical gap for non-governmental entities to fill," the executive summary says. "Increasingly pervasive mis- and disinformation, both foreign and domestic, creates an urgent need for collaboration across government, civil society, media, and social media platforms."
The partnership said it limited itself to flagging social media content "intended to suppress voting, reduce participation, confuse voters as to election processes, or delegitimize election results without evidence," the latter cited in 72% of all tickets.
It wasn't enough to be provably false, however. Simply "exaggerating [the] impact" of factual information was enough to be reported. The flagged content most likely to draw action by tech platforms was "misleading statistics."
A graphic on "cross-platform participatory misinformation" suggests the purpose was to stop content from reaching a "virality threshold" where it could lead to "IRL [in real life] actions": protests, legal action and "mainstream coverage."
"IRL actions" graphic
Election Integrity Partnership
During the launch webinar, the Atlantic Council's Emerson Brooking said they wanted to stop the "amplification and legitimation" of "far-right influencers [who] would be doing all they could to try to catch the eye of a Fox News producer," making it likely that President Trump, "the social media death star," would see their content.
Government entities were involved in real-time chats with the partnership and social media platforms over specific content under review.
A chat screenshot in the report shows an unidentified government partner rejecting the Sharpiegate claim that "sharpies aren't read at all" by ballot-counting machines, and a platform provider responding that it was now reviewing those claims.
The partners all received federal grants from the Biden administration in the next two years.
The National Science Foundation awarded the Stanford and UW projects $3 million in August 2021 "to study ways to apply collaborative, rapid-response research to mitigate online disinformation."
UW's press release about the award noted their earlier work on the partnership and praise for the report from ex-CISA director Krebs, who called it "the seminal report on what happened in 2020, not just the election but also through January 6."
Graphika, also known as Octant Data, received its first listed federal grant several weeks after the 2020 election: nearly $3 million from the Department of Defense for unspecified "research on cross-platform detection to counter malign influence." Nearly $2 million more followed in fall 2021 for "research on co-citation network mapping," which tracks sources that are cited together.
The Atlantic Council, which hosted then-Vice President Joe Biden for a keynote address at its 2011 awards dinner, has received $4.7 million in grants since 2021, all but one from the State Department. That far exceeds the think tank's federal haul in previous years, which hadn't approached $1 million in a single year since 2011.
Those figures don't include the federal contracts for each partnership member. Graphika/Octant, for example, received nearly $100,000 in 2021 for its "Contagion Monitor" surveillance and services that use "advanced network science to analyze PRC [Chinese] influence."
UW's project, SIO and Graphika also collaborated on the Virality Project, which tracks and analyzes purported "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and social media narratives related to vaccine hesitancy."
The government "consultation" on censorship stands in stark contrast to recent media coverage of SIO and Graphika.
The Washington Post said an August report by the two organizations exposed years of "covert campaigns" to promote American interests abroad by fake social media accounts, which Facebook and Twitter had repeatedly taken down for alleged U.S. military ties. The Pentagon is reportedly auditing its "internet information operation" in response.
Graphika and its cadre of former U.S. intelligence agents was the subject of a critical profile in February by The Washington Standard, which dubbed it "The Deep State's Beard for Controlling the Information Age."
The report also noted Graphika's work on the election partnership with the other organizations, and that SIO's founder Stamos is an adviser to NATO's Collective Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.
The Department of Homeland Security, CISA, Election Integrity Partnership and its two leaders, the Stanford Internet Observatory and UW's Center for an Informed Public, didn't respond to queries about the new scrutiny.
Spotify Continues to Ramp Up Platform Safety Efforts with Acquisition of Kinzen '-- Spotify
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:01
Listen to this story read aloud in 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
https://storage.googleapis.com/pr-newsroom-wp/1/2022/10/Apollo-Article.mp3 Today, Spotify is excited to share that we have acquired Dublin, Ireland-based Kinzen, a global leader in protecting online communities from harmful content. Kinzen's advanced technology and deep expertise will help us more effectively deliver a safe, enjoyable experience on our platform around the world.
Spotify's current partnership with Kinzen, which began in 2020, has been critical to enhancing our approach to platform safety. The company's unique technology is particularly suited for podcasting and audio formats, making its value to Spotify clear and unmatched. The technology the Kinzen team brings to Spotify combines machine learning and human expertise'--backed by analysis from leading local academics and journalists'--to analyze potential harmful content and hate speech in multiple languages and countries.
''We've long had an impactful and collaborative partnership with Kinzen and its exceptional team. Now, working together as one, we'll be able to even further improve our ability to detect and address harmful content, and importantly, in a way that better considers local context,'' said Dustee Jenkins , Spotify's Global Head of Public Affairs. ''This investment expands Spotify's approach to platform safety, and underscores how seriously we take our commitment to creating a safe and enjoyable experience for creators and users.''
Given the complexity of analyzing audio content in hundreds of languages and dialects, and the challenges in effectively evaluating the nuance and intent of that content, the acquisition of Kinzen will help Spotify better understand the abuse landscape and identify emerging threats on the platform.
''The combination of tools and expert insights is Kinzen's unique strength that we see as essential to identifying emerging abuse trends in markets and moderating potentially dangerous content at scale,'' said Sarah Hoyle , Spotify's Head of Trust and Safety. ''This expansion of our team, combined with the launch of our Safety Advisory Council , demonstrates the proactive approach we're taking in this important space.''
Elon Musk and Twitter at Odds Over Terms of Agreement to Close Deal - WSJ
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 11:03
Billionaire and social-media platform are hashing out conditions tied to financing and dropping litigation over stalled takeover
Updated Oct. 6, 2022 12:01 am ETRepresentatives of Elon Musk and Twitter Inc. are still grappling with terms of an agreement that would enable his purchase of the social-media company to proceed, continuing a monthslong drama surrounding the fate of the blockbuster deal.
The discussions are the latest the two sides have held as a courtroom clash draws nearer. They quietly held unsuccessful talks about a possible cut to the price of $44 billion for the social-media platform before Mr. Musk reversed course Monday and said he would return to the original agreement's...
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
Representatives of Elon Musk and Twitter Inc. are still grappling with terms of an agreement that would enable his purchase of the social-media company to proceed, continuing a monthslong drama surrounding the fate of the blockbuster deal.
The discussions are the latest the two sides have held as a courtroom clash draws nearer. They quietly held unsuccessful talks about a possible cut to the price of $44 billion for the social-media platform before Mr. Musk reversed course Monday and said he would return to the original agreement's terms, people familiar with the matter said.
As of late Wednesday, representatives of Mr. Musk and Twitter were trying to hash out the details of his proposal this week to stick to that original agreement, the people familiar with the matter said. Sticking points include what would be required from both sides for litigation over the stalled deal to be dropped and whether the deal's closing would be contingent on Mr. Musk's receiving the necessary debt financing, some of the people said.
There was initially hope a deal could be reached Tuesday or Wednesday, averting a trial scheduled to start Oct. 17, the people said. The two sides have agreed to delay Mr. Musk's deposition, which was scheduled to begin Thursday in Texas, some of the people said, to continue efforts to reach agreement on how to move forward.
The informal discussions about a cut in the $44 billion purchase price happened in a series of conference calls in recent weeks between lawyers and ended after the two sides failed to agree on terms of a potential deal, the people said.
The price-cut talks had broken off before Mr. Musk caught Twitter off guard by sending its lawyers a two-sentence letter proposing to move forward on the original terms.
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
Mr. Musk's apparent change of heart Monday surprised many observers. The Tesla Inc. chief executive had spent the past several months trying to back out of the deal after alleging that Twitter had misled him about key elements of its business, including the amount of spam on its platform.
In July, Mr. Musk formally moved to walk away from the deal, prompting Twitter to sue him to follow through with the transaction on the agreed-upon terms. Mr. Musk countersued, alleging that Twitter had misrepresented the condition of its business and key metrics about the users on its platform, which Twitter has denied.
For now, the Delaware Chancery Court judge presiding over the legal battle is pressing ahead with trial preparations.
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ordered Mr. Musk's team Wednesday to search for any more possible electronic messages requested by Twitter as the two sides prepare for a five-day, nonjury trial in Wilmington, Del. She said neither party had moved to stop the litigation.
''The parties have not filed a stipulation to stay this action, nor has any party moved for a stay,'' the judge wrote Wednesday. ''I, therefore, continue to press on toward our trial set to begin on October 17.''
The Musk team has been aggressive in pushing for broad information from Twitter, including a range of employee communications and data related to spam and fake accounts. Those requests at times prompted frustration from Chancellor McCormick. She granted some requests but denied others, and once called Mr. Musk's data requests absurdly broad.
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
Legal experts have maintained from the beginning that Twitter appeared to have the stronger case, in part because Mr. Musk waived due diligence before agreeing to the deal and the merger agreement gave Twitter the right to sue him to follow through with it under a concept called ''specific performance.''
Still, even a small risk of Mr. Musk's prevailing in a trial could be too much for a company the size of Twitter to bear. For this reason, the majority of broken deal cases end in negotiated settlements, often with a small price cut. Such was the case with litigation between LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE and Tiffany & Co. in 2020. Those parties agreed to a nearly 3% price cut to avert a trial.
While Twitter's stock price has held up because of Mr. Musk's potential acquisition, its performance has declined. The company reported a drop in revenue in the second quarter that it blamed on weakness in the advertising industry and uncertainty related to Mr. Musk's acquisition.
Mr. Musk has given few specific details about his plans for Twitter, but he has said he wants to transform Twitter as a private company and unlock what he called its extraordinary potential as a platform for free speech.
Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com and Alexa Corse at alexa.corse@wsj.com
Dutch PM Mark 'Teflon' Rutte rebuked over text message archives
Tue, 04 Oct 2022 04:25
By Euronews with AFP ' Updated: 03/10/2022 - 22:47
FILE: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte -
Copyright
AP PhotoDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte failed to properly archive messages on his old mobile phone, an official report said on Monday.
Nicknamed "Teflon" by the Dutch media for his ability to survive scandals, Rutte said in May that he had archived all important messages, but deleted others to free up space on his old Nokia.
"The Prime Minister's chat messages are (...) insufficiently archived," the Dutch government's information and heritage inspectorate concluded in its report.
Many messages "have been deleted", the inspectorate noted, without being able to specify how many of them should have been kept according to Dutch archive law.
And the officials who archived the messages did so according to "a government instruction (...) which does not seem to comply with the archive law", the report also found.
Rutte, who has been head of government for 13 years, almost always sent his incoming messages to an official for archiving, but the report found this wasn't always the case with outgoing messages.
The report also found the way Rutte's messages were archived led to a loss of data because they forwarded messages didn't show the time they were originally received.
"Good archiving is important to know how things happened," the inspectorate said.
The Dutch daily de Volkskrant revealed Rutte's method of archiving text messages back in May, after they sought access to government communications covering the COVID pandemic period.
Rutte's devotion to an old Nokia phone has helped burnish his image with the public of someone who lives a simple and frugal lifestyle.
After the controversy, Rutte - who is also known for cycling around The Hague - swapped his old phone for a new smartphone.
On Monday, Rutte said his office would look into a possible change in government instructions on archiving messages.
North Korea fires ballistic missile over Japan, Tokyo says - The Washington Post
Tue, 04 Oct 2022 03:59
TOKYO '-- North Korea on Tuesday launched a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan, Japanese and South Korean officials said. The missile, which was the first North Korean projectile to pass through Japanese airspace since 2017, landed in the Pacific Ocean.
The Japanese government issued a rare evacuation order Tuesday morning, urging residents in the Aomori and Hokkaido prefectures in the northern region to take shelter. Japanese officials said the missile flew outside of the country's exclusive economic zone but warned about falling debris.
North Korea has tested an unprecedented number of missiles this year as it diversifies and expands its weapons arsenal as part of leader Kim Jong Un's five-year plan. North Korea has conducted five rounds of ballistic missile tests since Sept. 24, ahead of Vice President Harris's visit to the region.
In recent weeks, the U.S., Japanese and South Korean governments have all conducted military exercises designed to demonstrate the allies' readiness to work together in the event of a conflict. The latest launch came as the United States and South Korea wrap up their joint military exercises involving the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.
Why has North Korea stopped boasting about its missile tests?
While the allied countries say the drills are defensive in nature, Kim's regime has long viewed them as hostile acts and used them to justify its weapons development and nuclear program. Tuesday's launch is the seventh time since 1998 that North Korea has launched a missile over Japan.
There are signs that a new cycle of escalation is already taking shape, with North Korea rejecting overtures and possibly preparing for a seventh nuclear test amid a diplomatic deadlock with Washington and shifting security dynamics in the region.
On Tuesday morning, residents in the Aomori prefecture woke up to the noise of blaring sirens warning them of the missile launch. Fishermen who work off the coast of Aomori in the waters where the missile fell told Japanese news outlets that the launch was a serious threat to their safety.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida convened a meeting of the National Security Council in response and condemned the launch. Japanese officials said they sent the strongest words of condemnation possible through diplomatic channels.
''The recent repeated launch of missiles is outrageous and we strongly condemn this,'' Kishida said.
South Korea, U.S. begin military drills likely to draw North's ire
The intermediate-range ballistic missile may be similar to, or could be, the Hwasong-12, according to missile experts. The missile's reach includes Japan and Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean located to the east of Japan.
North Korea launched the missile from Chagang province in the northern part of the country, South Korean military officials said. The missile was launched at 7:22 a.m. and it flew 4,600 kilometers (2,858 miles) for 22 minutes over Aomori prefecture before landing in the Pacific Ocean, Japanese officials said. Its maximum height was 1,000 km (621 miles).
From the North Korean perspective, there are not many flight-path options for a missile with a range of 4,000 km or higher other than the route above Hokkaido and toward the Pacific Ocean, said Masashi Murano, a Japan Chair Fellow at the Hudson Institute in D.C. The other options would be seen as an effort to strike the U.S. homeland or to reach Guam.
While it is not yet clear whether North Korea fired a new missile or one it previously tested, Murano said, Pyongyang may perceive this moment as an opportune time to test its weapons capabilities.
''The fact that the U.S. has hardly reacted to the daily launch of short-range missiles may have some bearing on this,'' Murano said. ''In addition, the Biden administration has been focused on ongoing issues '-- dealing with the Russian invasion of Ukraine may also have played a role. As a result, [Kim] may have thought it could now conduct the test without strong U.S. punishment.''
Min Joo Kim in Seoul and Julia Mio Inuma in Tokyo contributed to this report.
ALL VIDEOS
VIDEO - Harry Styles endorses Beto O'Rourke for Texas governor at Austin show
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:13
The musician rocked a 'Beto for Texas' sticker on his guitar as the former congressman cheered along with the crowd.Oct. 3, 2022Updated: Oct. 3, 2022 8:57 a.m.
Harry Styles endorsed Beto O'Rourke for Texas governor during his Sunday concert in Austin.
GettyBritish pop star Harry Styles continued to dip his toes into Texas politics Sunday while performing his mini residency in the Lone Star State's capitol. During his concert at Austin's Moody Center, the "As it Was" singer endorsed Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke from the stage, even rocking a "Beto for Texas" sticker on his guitar as he played. When the venue's big screen showed Styles motioning to the sticker, the view quickly switched to reveal O'Rourke among the audience, just hours after the Democrat was similarly endorsed by country legend Willie Nelson during a "Vote 'Em Out" campaign rally. O'Rourke applauded and flashed a peace sign in response to Styles' shoutout.
HARRY SAID BETO FOR TEXAS pic.twitter.com/J8XfRX2QzW
'-- chana ð BAILEY DAY!!! (@oatmiIkrry) October 3, 2022The crowd at the Moody Center went absolutely wild, fans whooping and cheering along with Styles. "Harry Styles is rocking a 'Beto for Texas' sticker on his guitar tonight and the crowd is absolutely loving it," tweeted NBC News reporter Stephen Sanchez.
Harry Styles is rocking a ''Beto for Texas'' sticker on his guitar tonight and the crowd is absolutely loving it. #TXGOV pic.twitter.com/AUsTwGOgW1
'-- Stephen Sanchez (@SSanchezTV) October 3, 2022Other footage shared online shows O'Rourke handing out high-fives and posing for photos with fans in the crowd.
The cross over we needed. .@BetoORourke x @Harry_StylesBeto getting a warm reception at Harry's concert in Austin tonight. pic.twitter.com/6EPfk3imrk
'-- Wesley Powers-Sabugo ð¹ (@mtrlguy) October 3, 2022 BETO 4 TEXAS @ HARRYS HOUSE LMAO pic.twitter.com/PNFeAjHahQ
'-- em (@selftitled) October 3, 2022Fans took to social media to praise Styles for the endorsement. "@Harry_Styles will turn Texas blue," tweeted Houston activist Olivia Julianna. Twitter user @AMLarryMoments tweeted: "This is So important!! SOO PROUD OF YOU HARRY!!Thank you for Taking a Stand for Texas!!
Radio DJ Zach Sang was also moved by the moment, tweeting: "honestly, @Harry_Styles supporting @BetoORourke tonight in Texas brought me to tears." The endorsement comes just a month before O'Rourke faces off with Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott during Election Day on Nov. 8.
It's not the first time Styles has used his Austin concert series to mobilize voters. During previous nights of "Love on Tour 2022" at the Moody Center, the musician also voiced his support for abortion rights, telling fans "no one can tell you what to do with your own body"'--a jab at the Lone Star State's near-total abortion ban. "It is yours," Styles added. Screens at the venue also displayed information on how fans could get registered to vote as well as information about gun violence prevention organization Everytown.
VIDEO - (20) The Recount on Twitter: "President Biden compliments Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R-FL) handling of the Hurricane Ian recovery: "What the governor has done is pretty remarkable so far. ... The biggest thing the governor has done ... [is] recognized th
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:07
The Recount : President Biden compliments Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R-FL) handling of the Hurricane Ian recovery:"What the governor h'... https://t.co/He098sKTZW
Wed Oct 05 19:20:34 +0000 2022
VIDEO - (67) "We are on a path of escalation to nuclear war, nothing less" - Jeffrey D. Sachs - YouTube
VIDEO - (19) Jack Posobiec ðºð¸ on Twitter: "BREAKING: Fmr CIA Director John Brennan announces''Russia is the most likely suspect'' in the Nord Stream pipeline attacks, says Russia will attack the other Russian pipelines to Europe soon https://t.co/
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:37
Jack Posobiec ðºð¸ : BREAKING: Fmr CIA Director John Brennan announces''Russia is the most likely suspect'' in the Nord Stream pipeline at'... https://t.co/PP4WTVTkZG
Mon Oct 03 01:04:13 +0000 2022
VIDEO - The 70 Seconds that Shook the World ' Brownstone Institute
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:35
On March 16, 2020, following a long weekend of negotiations and deals about the coronavirus, Donald Trump, Deborah Birx, and Anthony Fauci spoke at a White House press conference for the first time about nationwide lockdowns.
They handed out a sheet of paper '' it mostly consisted of conventional health advice '' that said in tiny print: ''bars, restaurants, food courts, gyms, and other indoor and outdoor venues where groups of people congregate should be closed.''
Shut it all down. Everything. Everyone. As if the whole economy were a nightclub closing early.
This amounted to a full repudiation of not only the Constitution but also freedom itself. At the very least, it was a fundamental attack on the First Amendment guarantees of the freedom of religion because it attacked the rights of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and everyone.
All evidence suggests that Trump did not know that the tiny text was in there.
The reading of the text was left to the question and answer session.
Even when it was read by Fauci from the podium, Trump seemed distracted by something else, almost as if he did not hear or did not want to hear it. Later he bragged that the whole thing was his doing, but looking back at the history of that day, it is not so clear.
Let's take this apart frame by frame to understand what happened in these 70 seconds as part of the Q&A session. A reporter starts by asking whether the federal government is telling people to ''avoid restaurants and bars'' or if the government is saying that ''bars and restaurants should shut down over the next 15 days.''
Both Fauci and Birx knew for sure that the guidelines were calling for them to shut down.
After a long and tedious press conference about not much, following a very precise question, Trump turns to Fauci to have him answer. This might be because he wasn't listening carefully and did not know how to respond. Fauci then motions to Birx, who rises to the podium. Fauci probably believed that she would be the one to do the dirty work of announcing the lockdowns. Fauci is clearly egging her on: now is your time.
Birx begins her answer with a strategic deflection, speaking tendentiously about how long the virus lives on surfaces. It was nothing but smokescreen, and there is every reason to believe that she knew it. She pointedly was not answering the question. She chickened out at the last moment.
A possibly frustrated Fauci interrupts here with a hand signal from the side. Birx immediately realizes what he was going to do: he was going to read the order that Trump did not know was there. So she decides to pass the buck. She gets giddy and silly with excitement, adrenaline flowing. She starts stumbling around with her words, and says in a faux-girlish way that she will let Fauci speak because he is her mentor.
This was her way of saying that she would gladly pass this hot potato onto him.
She likely knew that this was the great moment they had all been waiting for. She was mad with excitement. Oddly, Trump was smiling too but possibly because of her antics, not because of what was about to happen.
Fauci steps up to the microphone. He does not personally call for lockdowns. Instead he reads the guidance word for word.
Dr. Fauci: The small print here. It's really small print. ''In states with evidence of community transmission, bars, restaurants, food courts, gyms and other indoor and outdoor venues where groups of people congregate should be closed.''
As he reads, Birx herself is smiling from ear to ear, as if the words were poetry to her. It was not an unfamiliar text. She had been working on these words the entire weekend. Finally all her work had come to fruition.
Even better, she didn't have to read it. Fauci did.
What was Donald Trump doing during this time? He got distracted by someone in the audience who got his attention. He smiles and points a finger. One wonders who and why. Here is a screenshot.
Was someone assigned to do the job of distracting him? One cannot rule it out. This was the most significant moment of all. The big reveal had come. And Trump's attention was clearly elsewhere. To whom was he pointing and smiling?
Was he just pretending not to hear?
Who can say?
Fauci reads the text and then he steps away from the microphone. He had just read what is in fact the most totalitarian instruction ever given by any government in the history of the world '' I can't think of another case of such a thing '' that all human interaction must stop from sea to shining sea. After all, all congregate places include homes too. Then Fauci steps away from the microphone.
Trump then comes back to the podium. He briefly rolls his eyes, as if to say ''There he goes again'' but without a conception of what was just read or what it meant.
At this point, what happens? Birx is gleaming, internally cheering. The deed has been done. It's over. They worked for many weeks to pull off this caper and in an instant it was done.
Notice here that Fauci catches Birx's eye and gives a little nod. She smiles back. They were giving visual affirmations to each other.
It was then that Trump clarified that he is not telling anyone or anything to shut down, but this statement contradicts what was just read a few seconds ago.
The exchange went as follows:
Reporter: So Mr. President, are you telling governors in those states then to close all their restaurants and their bars?Trump: Well we haven't said that yet.Reporter: Why not?Trump: We're recommending but-Reporter: But if you think this would work.Trump: '... we're recommending things. No, we haven't gone to that step yet. That could happen, but we haven't gone there yet.
This was another strange moment because Trump explicitly contradicted the words that were just read. The paper reporters were looking at were clearly a lockdown order. Any astute reporter would have seen the huge chasm separating the edict from Trump's own words or understanding.
Here you can watch the full 70 seconds. Deconstruct it yourself. See what you think. It was momentous, probably the most significant in American history, the culmination of weeks of persuasion and planning.
Everything followed from that brief moment: lockdown chaos, the closed schools and churches, the end of basic rights, the wrecking of business, and then began the spending, inflating, mad welfare checks, and the demoralization of the population that continues to this day.
The population now subjected to shock and awe, the mask and vaccine mandates seemed minor by comparison.
All of it unfolded in 70 seconds on March 16, 2020. So far as I know, this is the first and only article written so far to reconstruct this brief moment in time.
Jeffrey A. Tucker, Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute, is an economist and author. He has written 10 books, including Liberty or Lockdown, and thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press. He writes a daily column on economics at The Epoch Times, and speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.
READ MORE
Subscribe to Brownstone for More News
VIDEO - John Kirby Accidentally Proves Brian Kilmeade's Point on Military's COVID-19 Vaccination Policy
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:25
"Fox & Friends" host Brian Kilmeade confronted John Kirby, the coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, about the negative effects the U.S. military's COVID-19 vaccination policy is having on recruiting and retention.
Kilmeade noted almost 20,000 service members have been forced out of the various military branches for not wanting to get a shot that does not prevent COVID-19 infection.
"You, as an admiral who knows what it takes and the sacrifice you make to join the military, to get kicked out like this, can you possibly talk some sense into this White House to reverse policy?" asked Kilmeade.
"The vaccines are a valid military requirement. You want your troops to be ready part of being ready is being healthy and not having the ability to infect your unit and make their unit readiness any worse than it is," Kirby replied.
Kirby admitted during the interview that while he is vaccinated and double boosted, he is recovering at home after being infected with COVID-19.
"Every one of your branches can't recruit their threshold yet you are kicking out good men and women. How do you explain that?" Kilmeade asked.
"Well, look, Brian, first of all the Navy did make their recruiting goals for enlisted personnel this year. Yes, it's a tough recruiting environment. We recognize that but it's also you have a requirement to be healthy to be able to serve and this is a valid military requirement," Kirby said, adding that while the vaccine does not prevent infection, it makes the symptoms less severe.
"We would rather not lose anybody, of course, to the vaccine. We would rather not lose anybody from a retention perspective to have them leave the service earlier than they wanted or we wanted them to. But it's a valid military requirement," Kirby reiterated.
VIDEO - (67) The UK Government is funding insect-eating projects in Africa: Natalie Winters reacts - YouTube
VIDEO - (67) Is OPEC+ using energy as a weapon? Saudi Arabia's energy minister responds - YouTube
VIDEO - (67) Kamala Harris roasted with satirical video comparing her to 'Veep' character - YouTube
VIDEO - (67) Dr Sunita Satyapal, U.S. DOE invitation to the Hydrogen Americas Summit - YouTube
VIDEO - (67) Hon. Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy, U.S. DOE invitation to Hydrogen Americas Summit - YouTube
VIDEO - (67) SITREP 10.3.22 - The HAAWC Missile System - If it looks like a duck! - YouTube
VIDEO - Vaccinated populations suffering strange new illness, doctors report foreign compounds found in vaccines '' One America News Network
Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:45
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Functional Always active The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences Preferences The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics Statistics The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing Marketing The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
