1642: Million Morons

Exclusive: Trump launched CIA covert influence operation against China | Reuters

WASHINGTON, March 14 - Two years into office, President Donald Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation.

Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets. The effort, which began in 2019, has not been previously reported.

During the past decade, China has rapidly expanded its global footprint, forging military pacts, trade deals, and business partnerships with developing nations.

The CIA team promoted allegations that members of the ruling Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten money overseas and slammed as corrupt and wasteful China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which provides financing for infrastructure projects in the developing world, the sources told Reuters.

Although the U.S. officials declined to provide specific details of these operations, they said the disparaging narratives were based in fact despite being secretly released by intelligence operatives under false cover. The efforts within China were intended to foment paranoia among top leaders there, forcing its government to expend resources chasing intrusions into Beijing’s tightly controlled internet, two former officials said. “We wanted them chasing ghosts,” one of these former officials said.

Chelsea Robinson, a CIA spokesperson, declined to comment on the existence of the influence program, its goals or impacts.

A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said news of the CIA initiative shows the U.S. government uses the “public opinion space and media platforms as weapons to spread false information and manipulate international public opinion.”

The CIA operation came in response to years of aggressive covert efforts by China aimed at increasing its global influence, the sources said. During his presidency, Trump pushed a tougher response to China than had his predecessors. The CIA’s campaign signaled a return to methods that marked Washington’s struggle with the former Soviet Union. “The Cold War is back,” said Tim Weiner, author of a book on the history of political warfare.

Reuters was unable to determine the impact of the secret operations or whether the administration of President Joe Biden has maintained the CIA program. Kate Waters, a spokesperson for the Biden administration’s National Security Council, declined to comment on the program’s existence or whether it remains active. Two intelligence historians told Reuters that when the White House grants the CIA covert action authority, through an order known as a presidential finding, it often remains in place across administrations.

Trump, now the Republican frontrunner for president, has suggested he will take an even tougher approach toward China if re-elected president in November. Spokespeople for Trump and his former national security advisers, John Bolton and Robert O’Brien, who both served the year the covert action order was signed, declined to comment.

The operation against Beijing came with significant risk of escalating tensions with the United States, given the power of China's economy and its ability to retaliate through trade, said Paul Heer, a former senior CIA analyst on East Asia who learned of the presidential authorization from Reuters. For example, after Australia called for an investigation inside China probing the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Beijing blocked billions of dollars in Australian trade through agricultural tariffs.

Trump’s 2019 order came after years of warnings from the U.S. intelligence community, and media reports, about how China was using bribery and threats to obtain support from developing countries in geopolitical disputes as it attempted to sow division in the United States through front groups.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing follows a “principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and does not interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States.”

A year earlier, Trump gave the CIA greater powers to launch offensive cyber operations against U.S. adversaries after numerous Russian and Chinese cyber attacks against American organizations, [Yahoo News reported, opens new tab](https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fsecret-trump-order-gives-cia-more-powers-to-launch-cyberattacks-090015219.html&data=05%7C02%7CMichael.J.Williams%40thomsonreuters.com%7C481021eb2d6c471b81ed08dc3d1fffae%7C62ccb8646a1a4b5d8e1c397dec1a8258%7C0%7C0%7C638452454847852902%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qhz%2Fr%2FQYi3ybP8bpTZOWWhzFEZGzTXJNALtnqWpzj3Q%3D&reserved=0). Reuters could not independently confirm the existence of the earlier order.

Sources described the 2019 authorization uncovered by Reuters as a more ambitious operation. It enabled the CIA to take action not only in China but also in countries around the world where the United States and China are competing for influence. Four former officials said the operation targeted public opinion in Southeast Asia, Africa and the South Pacific.

“The feeling was China was coming at us with steel baseball bats and we were fighting back with wooden ones,” said a former national security official with direct knowledge of the finding.

Matt Pottinger, a senior National Security Council official at the time, crafted the authorization, three former officials said. It cited Beijing’s alleged use of malign influence, allegations of intellectual property theft and military expansion as threats to U.S. national security, one of those former officials said.

Pottinger told Reuters he would not comment on the “accuracy or inaccuracy of allegations about U.S. intelligence activities,” adding that “it would be incorrect to assume that I would have had knowledge of specific U.S. intelligence operations.”

Covert messaging allows the United States to implant ideas in countries where censorship might prevent that information from coming to light, or in areas where audiences wouldn’t give much credence to U.S. government statements, said Loch Johnson, a University of Georgia political scientist who studies the use of such tactics.

Covert propaganda campaigns were common during the Cold War, when the CIA planted 80 to 90 articles a day in an effort to undermine the Soviet Union, Johnson said. In the 1950s, for example, the CIA created an astrological magazine in East Germany to publish foreboding predictions about communist leaders, according to declassified records.

The covert propaganda campaign against Beijing could backfire, said Heer, the former CIA analyst. China could use evidence of a CIA influence program to bolster its decades-old accusations of shadowy Western subversion, helping Beijing “proselytize” in a developing world already deeply suspicious of Washington.

The message would be: “‘Look at the United States intervening in the internal affairs of other countries and rejecting the principles of peaceful coexistence,’” Heer said. “And there are places in the world where that is going to be a resonant message.”

U.S. influence operations also risk endangering dissidents, opposition groups critical of China and independent journalists, who could be falsely painted as CIA assets, said Thomas Rid, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who wrote a book on the history of political warfare.

Link

Katie Britt BOTG

FYI on Katie Britt: She was hand picked by Richard Shelby (she was his aide), the long time (1986-2022) Alabama senator. He was the head of the Senate Appropriations committee, so he was one of the most powerful Senators, directing millions to the MIC through North Alabama (NASA, Air Force, etc) military/aerospace. She's married to a former University of Alabama offensive lineman from Saban's national championship teams which, in Alabama, is like being married to the Pope. We elect people here based on MIC money, football and abortion. She ticks every box.

There is zero chance Katie Britt leaves the Senate for the executive branch. She will make millions of dollars as a Senate lifer.

Trump bond Jean E Carroll BOTG

Adam—Not newsworthy at all, but still worth sharing just for informational/background purposes.

Recall that Trump has until March 24 to file his appeal (or “supersedeas”) bond in the civil fraud case in NY. He has a similar issue in the Jean Carroll case, albeit in a lower amount.

As you can see from the attached Law360 article (very short), Trump posted a bond in the Carrol case on Friday. But like we were discussing, he didn’t put up his own money—he got a _surety_ to do it. That surety was a Chubb operation called Federal Insurance. FI looked at the amount of the judgment, the likelihood that it will survive appeal, and the collateral that Trump can provide, and said yes.

Trump will pay a negotiated premium, which the surety will keep no matter what happens. He has also put up some form of collateral. If the judgment is reversed, Trump and FI will shake hands and walk away. If the judgment survives, Trump will still have to pay it. To the extent he doesn’t, the surety will have to cover the difference. At that point, it will start grabbing collateral (and will likely sell it off).

You’ll notice that the bond is not for 100% of the judgment, but rather for _110%_. That’s how it works in federal court; the extra 10% covers additional postjudgment interest and other costs that will continue to accrue. From what I can gather, the bond in the NY state fraud case only has to cover 100%. The rules differ in different jurisdictions.

2105 - The effect of gum chewing on blood GLP-1 concentration in fasted, healthy, non-obese men - PMC

Among healthy men in a fasting state, chewing sugarless gum can increase satiety with no effect on blood glucose and can decrease the decline of GLP-1 concentration. Chewing gum has no significant effect on blood insulin and GIP concentration. The present study suggests that chewing sugarless gum may be an economical and effective method to help obesity patients control their energy intake and decrease weight with no changes in calorie intake. Although there are different opinions about this benefit of gum chewing, our study showed positive results, and it is worth conducting a large-scale clinical research study to verify the effectiveness of this method.

Link

Gamergate 2

Steam user makes list of woke games that had consulting from Sweet Baby inc

Sweet baby inc. tries to get user de-platformed

It's all Trump supporters!

The Couples Embracing the DINK Label - WSJ

The lexicon has ballooned to include DINKWADs (DINKs with a dog), SINKs (single-income, no kids). Some DINKs prefer “DINO,” for dual-income, no offspring.

There is even DINKY—for dual income, no kids, yet.

Link

IBEW Car Chargers BOTG

ITM Adam and John,

During your analysis of Blow Jiden’s SotU speech there was mention of the car chargers being installed. I’m an apprentice with one of IBEW’s local unions in Arizona and have personally installed car chargers in and around the Phoenix metro area.

Many are being “upgraded” but feel lighter and flimsier than the previous charger, which seems counterintuitive in the areas where junkies have knocked them over and stolen the wire. Many are going into new construction of luxury apartments and rental homes, also ritzy businesses looking to write of green initiatives in downtown. As the boys would say “it’s a bonanza”. My personal opinion: this is pointless, our grid can’t handle the strain the greenies want to put on it, even if it could the rise in population in AZ will make water and power an issue if we’re insistent on “clean energy”, I’m going to be paid too dollar to rip out all the work I said was frivolous in the first place.

I’m sure there’s some corruption going on, but I’m not attacking that angle yet.

Sincerely,

An anonymous knight to-be

What's behind the record number of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Canada border? - CBS Boston

Link

The questions are - why here and why now? Lavallee said one of the reasons is Canadian foreign policy. Up until recently, Canada did not require Mexicans and some other foreign nationals to have travel visas to fly to the country, only requiring an electronic authorization form.

"For a very minimal fee, they would be able to enter the country as a tourist," Lavallee said. "Some folks, utilizing the ETA program, were being arrested here in the United States for illegal entry within 24 hours of their landing in Canada."

Canada reversed course at the end of February, announcing new requirements for electronic travel authorization and a visa requirement for Mexican citizens. Lavallee also said some of the migrants he is encountering have a different strategy for entering the country than those coming to the southern border.

"Here, we're not seeing the same prevalence of individuals requesting either asylum or wanting to be caught. The people here that we're seeing for the most part, they're trying to find that seam. They're trying to find that vulnerability and come into the United States without detection," Lavallee said.

Bitcoin Bobby VP Odds

| | | |

| --------------------------------------------------- | --- | ----- |

| Aaron Rodgers | | 1/1 |

| Jesse Ventura | | 2/1 |

| Marianne Williamson | | 14/1 |

| Andrew Yang | | 25/1 |

| Kanye West | | 33/1 |

| Matthew McConaughey | | 40/1 |

| Tulsi Gabbard | | 40/1 |

| Jerome Corsi | | 50/1 |

| Jessica Biel | | 75/1 |

| Rob Schneider | | 100/1 |

| Rand Paul | | 125/1 |

| Alex Jones | | 150/1 |

| Alicia Silverstone | | 200/1 |

| Charlie Sheen | | 200/1 |

| Nicki Minaj | | 200/1 |

| **Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Vice Presidential Nominee** | | |

Ukraine IPO's

SEC filing 34-99580 was filed on 2/21/24. This filing is NASDAQs official request to the SEC to waive listing fees for Ukrainian companies until 12/31/2028. These are usually six figure sums that companies pay as part of the process to get traded on an exchange.

This filing isn't a secret, but no one really pays attention to this stuff, and the reasoning cited in the filing is plausible enough.

But it fits the "disaster capitalism" model nicely. They are greasing the skids to get as much investor capital as possible into the country they just destroyed. If you're doing a segment on the rubble-ization of Ukraine anytime soon, this might be interesting to add

Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies - The New York Times

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Archived Version

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 17:05

Kenn Dahl says he has always been a careful driver. The owner of a software company near Seattle, he drives a leased Chevrolet Bolt. He's never been responsible for an accident.

So Mr. Dahl, 65, was surprised in 2022 when the cost of his car insurance jumped by 21 percent. Quotes from other insurance companies were also high. One insurance agent told him his LexisNexis report was a factor.

LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a ''Risk Solutions'' division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets. Upon Mr. Dahl's request, LexisNexis sent him a 258-page ''consumer disclosure report,'' which it must provide per the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn't have is where they had driven the car.

On a Thursday morning in June for example, the car had been driven 7.33 miles in 18 minutes; there had been two rapid accelerations and two incidents of hard braking.

According to the report, the trip details had been provided by General Motors '-- the manufacturer of the Chevy Bolt. LexisNexis analyzed that driving data to create a risk score ''for insurers to use as one factor of many to create more personalized insurance coverage,'' according to a LexisNexis spokesman, Dean Carney. Eight insurance companies had requested information about Mr. Dahl from LexisNexis over the previous month.

''It felt like a betrayal,'' Mr. Dahl said. ''They're taking information that I didn't realize was going to be shared and screwing with our insurance.''

Image General Motors is among the automakers and data brokers that have partnered to collect detailed driving data from millions of Americans. Credit... Brendan McDermid/Reuters In recent years, insurance companies have offered incentives to people who install dongles in their cars or download smartphone apps that monitor their driving, including how much they drive, how fast they take corners, how hard they hit the brakes and whether they speed. But ''drivers are historically reluctant to participate in these programs,'' as Ford Motor put it in a patent application that describes what is happening instead: Car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry.

Sometimes this is happening with a driver's awareness and consent. Car companies have established relationships with insurance companies, so that if drivers want to sign up for what's called usage-based insurance '-- where rates are set based on monitoring of their driving habits '-- it's easy to collect that data wirelessly from their cars.

But in other instances, something much sneakier has happened. Modern cars are internet-enabled, allowing access to services like navigation, roadside assistance and car apps that drivers can connect to their vehicles to locate them or unlock them remotely. In recent years, automakers, including G.M., Honda, Kia and Hyundai, have started offering optional features in their connected-car apps that rate people's driving. Some drivers may not realize that, if they turn on these features, the car companies then give information about how they drive to data brokers like LexisNexis.

Automakers and data brokers that have partnered to collect detailed driving data from millions of Americans say they have drivers' permission to do so. But the existence of these partnerships is nearly invisible to drivers, whose consent is obtained in fine print and murky privacy policies that few read.

Especially troubling is that some drivers with vehicles made by G.M. say they were tracked even when they did not turn on the feature '-- called OnStar Smart Driver '-- and that their insurance rates went up as a result.

''GM's OnStar Smart Driver service is optional to customers,'' a G.M. spokeswoman, Malorie Lucich, said. ''Customer benefits include learning more about their safe driving behaviors or vehicle performance that, with their consent, may be used to obtain insurance quotes. Customers can also unenroll from Smart Driver at any time.''

Even for those who opt in, the risks are far from clear. I have a G.M. car, a Chevrolet. I went through the enrollment process for Smart Driver; there was no warning or prominent disclosure that any third party would get access to my driving data.

Image What this reporter saw when she went through the process of signing up for OnStar Smart Driver: no mentions of the data being shared with third parties. Credit... The New York Times ''I am surprised,'' said Frank Pasquale, a law professor at Cornell University. ''Because it's not within the reasonable expectation of the average consumer, it should certainly be an industry practice to prominently disclose that is happening.''

Policymakers have expressed concern about the collection of sensitive information from consumers' cars. California's privacy regulator is currently investigating automakers' data collection practices. Last month, Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts also urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.

''The 'internet of things' is really intruding into the lives of all Americans,'' Senator Markey said in an interview. ''If there is now a collusion between automakers and insurance companies using data collected from an unknowing car owner that then raises their insurance rates, that's, from my perspective, a potential per se violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.''

That is the federal law that prohibits unfair and deceptive business practices that harm consumers.

'Smart Driver' Image One expert said insurance programs that monitor driving habits can improve driving, but only if people are aware they've signed up for them. Credit... The New York Times Mr. Dahl shared his experience on an online forum for Chevy Bolt enthusiasts, on a thread where other people expressed shock to find that LexisNexis had their driving data. Warnings about the tracking are scattered across online discussion boards dedicated to vehicles manufactured by G.M. '-- including Corvettes, a sports car designed for racking up ''acceleration events.'' (One driver lamented having data collected during a ''track day,'' while testing out the Corvette's limits on a professional racetrack.)

Numerous people on the forums complained about spiking premiums as a result. A Cadillac driver in Palm Beach County, Fla., who asked not to be named because he is considering a lawsuit against G.M., said he was denied auto insurance by seven companies in December. When he asked an agent why, she advised him to pull his LexisNexis report. He discovered six months of his driving activity, including many instances of hard braking and hard accelerating, as well as some speeding.

''I don't know the definition of hard brake. My passenger's head isn't hitting the dash,'' he said. ''Same with acceleration. I'm not peeling out. I'm not sure how the car defines that. I don't feel I'm driving aggressively or dangerously.''

When he finally obtained car insurance, through a private broker, it was double what he had previously been paying.

The Cadillac owner, Mr. Dahl and the drivers on the forums had all been enrolled in OnStar Smart Driver. OnStar is G.M.'s Internet-connected service for its cars and Smart Driver is a free, gamified feature within G.M.'s connected car apps (all part of OnStar, but branded MyChevrolet, MyBuick, MyGMC and MyCadillac).

Smart Driver can ''help you become a better driver,'' according to a corporate website, by tracking and rating seatbelt use and driving habits. In a recent promotional campaign, an Instagram influencer used Smart Driver in a competition with her husband to find out who could collect the most digital badges, such as ''brake genius'' and ''limit hero.''

In response to questions from The New York Times, G.M. confirmed that it shares ''select insights'' about hard braking, hard accelerating, speeding over 80 miles an hour and drive time of Smart Driver enrollees with LexisNexis and another data broker that works with the insurance industry called Verisk.

Customers turn on Smart Driver, said Ms. Lucich, the G.M. spokeswoman, ''at the time of purchase or through their vehicle mobile app.'' It is possible that G.M. drivers who insisted they didn't opt in were unknowingly signed up at the dealership, where salespeople can receive bonuses for successful enrollment of customers in OnStar services, including Smart Driver, according to a company manual.

The Cadillac owner in Florida said he had not heard of Smart Driver and never noticed it in the MyCadillac app. He reviewed the paperwork he signed at the dealership when he bought his Cadillac in the fall of 2021 and found no mention of signing up for it.

''When a customer accepts the user terms and privacy statement (which are separately reviewed in the enrollment flow), they consent to sharing their data with third parties,'' Ms. Lucich wrote in an email, pointing to OnStar's privacy statement.

But that statement's section on ''third-party business relationships'' does not mention Smart Driver. It names SiriusXM as a company G.M. might share data with, not LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which G.M. has partnered with since 2019.

Image A driver who was surprised to discover that he was enrolled in Smart Driver posted a screenshot of his low score to an online forum for Corvette drivers in 2022. Credit... The New York Times Jen Caltrider, a researcher at Mozilla who reviewed the privacy policies for more than 25 car brands last year, said that drivers have little idea about what they are consenting to when it comes to data collection. She said it is ''impossible for consumers to try and understand'' the legalese-filled policies for car companies, their connected services and their apps. She called cars ''a privacy nightmare.''

''The car companies are really good at trying to link these features to safety and say they are all about safety,'' Ms. Caltrider said. ''They're about making money.''

Neither the car companies nor the data brokers deny that they are engaged in this practice, though automakers say the main purpose of their driver feedback programs is to help people develop safer driving habits.

After LexisNexis and Verisk get data from consumers' cars, they sell information about how people are driving to insurance companies. To access it, the insurance companies must get consent from the drivers '-- say, when they go out shopping for car insurance and sign off on boilerplate language that gives insurance companies the right to pull third-party reports. (Insurance companies commonly ask for access to a consumer's credit or risk reports, though they are barred from doing so in California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Hawaii.)

An employee familiar with G.M.'s Smart Driver said the company's annual revenue from the program is in the low millions of dollars.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which retains consumers' driving data for six months, has ''strict privacy and security policies designed to ensure that data is not accessed or used impermissibly,'' the company said in a statement.

Verisk provides insurers with trip data and a risk score ''approved by insurance regulators in 46 states and the District of Columbia,'' said a spokeswoman, Amy Ebenstein. Automakers that Verisk gets data from ''provide their customers notice and obtain appropriate consents,'' she said.

Image Mitsubishi has an optional feature in its app, ''Driving Score,'' that, when turned on, collects information about people's driving. Credit... The New York Times Some drivers who had Smart Driver turned on, though, said they did not even realize they were enrolled until they saw warnings on online forums and then checked their app. They quickly unenrolled themselves by turning off Smart Driver in their car app.

Omri Ben-Shahar, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said he was in favor of usage-based insurance '-- where insurers monitor mileage and driving habits to determine premiums '-- because people who are knowingly monitored are better drivers. ''People drive differently,'' he said. ''The impact on safety is enormous.''

But he was troubled, he said, by ''stealth enrollment'' in programs with ''surprising and potentially injurious'' data collection. There is no public safety benefit if people don't know that how they drive will affect how much they pay for insurance.

'Real-World Driving Behavior' Image Subaru, Kia and Mitsubishi also contribute driver data to LexisNexis. Credit... Ross Mantle for The New York Times General Motors is not the only automaker sharing driving behavior. Kia, Subaru and Mitsubishi also contribute to the LexisNexis ''Telematics Exchange,'' a ''portal for sharing consumer-approved connected car data with insurers.'' As of 2022, the exchange, according to a LexisNexis news release, has ''real-world driving behavior'' collected ''from over 10 million vehicles.''

Verisk also claims to have access to data from millions of vehicles and partnerships with major automakers, including Ford, Honda and Hyundai.

Two of these automakers said they were not sharing data or only limited data. Subaru shares odometer data with LexisNexis for Subaru customers who turn on Starlink and authorize that data be shared ''when shopping for auto insurance,'' said a spokesman, Dominick Infante.

Ford ''does not transmit any connected vehicle data to either partner,'' said a spokesman, Alan Hall, but partnered with them ''to explore ways to support customers'' who want to take part in usage-based insurance programs. Ford will share driving behavior from a car directly with an insurance company, he said, when a customer gives explicit consent via an in-vehicle touch screen.

The other automakers all have optional driver-coaching features in their apps '-- Kia, Mitsubishi and Hyundai have ''Driving Score,'' while Honda and Acura have ''Driver Feedback'' '-- that, when turned on, collect information about people's mileage, speed, braking and acceleration that is then shared with LexisNexis or Verisk, the companies said in response to questions from The New York Times.

Image Honda says driver data will not be shared without consent, but the user needs to read through a 2,000-word ''terms and conditions'' screen to see that the company is sharing data with Verisk. Credit... Honda But that would not be evident or obvious to drivers using these features. In fact, before a Honda owner activates Driver Feedback, a screen titled ''Respect for your Privacy'' assures drivers that ''your data will never be shared without your consent.'' But it is shared '-- with Verisk, a fact disclosed in a more than 2,000-word ''terms and conditions'' screen that a driver needs to click ''accept'' on. (Honda does mention Verisk in an FAQ on its website and Kia highlights its relationship with LexisNexis Risk Solutions on its website. A Kia spokesman said LexisNexis can't share driving score data of Kia participants with insurers without additional consent.)

Drivers who have realized what is happening are not happy. The Palm Beach Cadillac owner said he would never buy another car from G.M. He is planning to sell his Cadillac.

How to Find Out What Your Car Is Doing

See the data your car is capable of collecting with this tool: https://vehicleprivacyreport.com/.

Check your connected car app, if you use one, to see if you are enrolled in one of these programs.

Do an online search for ''privacy request form'' alongside the name of your vehicle's manufacturer. There should be instructions on how to request information your car company has about you.

Request your LexisNexis report: https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer

Request your Verisk report: https://fcra.verisk.com/#/

Find something interesting, or know more about this? Contact me at kashmir.hill@nytimes.com.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

A correction was made onMarch 13, 2024

:

An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to Honda's disclosure of its relationship with Verisk, the data broker. That relationship is described in an FAQ on Honda's website.

How we handle corrections

Kashmir Hill writes about technology and how it is changing people's everyday lives with a particular focus on privacy. She has been covering technology for more than a decade. More about Kashmir Hill

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Microsoft uses compute units to charge customers for security Copilot

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Archived Version

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:56

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at the company's Ignite Spotlight event in Seoul on Nov. 15, 2022. Nadella gave a keynote speech at an event hosted by the company's Korean unit.

SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Microsoft is rolling out an unorthodox pricing model for its new security chatbot that becomes available to the public on April 1.

As part of a swarm of generative artificial intelligence announcements last year, Microsoft introduced a preview last March of Copilot for Security, which taps large language models to help cybersecurity professionals understand critical issues.

On Wednesday, Microsoft said it will use a consumption-based model, charging $4 per "security compute unit." Andrew Conway, vice president of security marketing at Microsoft, said the types of prompts and summaries will vary dramatically in size, depending on the customer and type of workload.

"Customers can buy what they need, and that can easily be changed over time without friction," Conway said in a statement.

Security is a significant business for Microsoft, accounting for more than $20 billion in revenue in 2022, making it larger than gaming or search advertising at the time. Gaming is now bigger with the acquisition late last year of Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft has broadly been working to add generative AI from OpenAI into Windows, Dynamics business applications and other products. Wall Street has been eager to see how Microsoft will be able to make money from AI after investing billions of dollars in OpenAI and AI-related data center equipment.

The pricing for Copilot for Security is designed to keep expenses low for organizations that experiment with the tool while scaling for power users. Microsoft considered input from early customers as well as the costs of tapping OpenAI's LLMs that process users' prompts, Vasu Jakkal, a corporate vice president at Microsoft, told CNBC.

Microsoft charges for use of its Azure OpenAI Service based on the number of tokens a client uses. Each token is equal to about four English characters.

It's a much more convoluted pricing model than other Microsoft tools released of late, such as customer service and general productivity assistants. The Copilot for Microsoft 365 costs $30 per person per month for companies.

BP is an early customer of the new security service. Chip Calhoun, the company's vice president of cyber defense, said in an email that, "Copilot has made us more efficient and helped us to find attack patterns that could easily be missed without specific use cases."

Copilot for Security can answer questions by drawing on information from Microsoft's own security products and third-party providers. It can explain security vulnerabilities, analyze scripts, answer questions about devices and summarize incidents.

Other security software companies dabbling in generative AI include CrowdStrike , which has a chatbot called Charlotte that costs $20 a year per device.

Cyberattacks are becoming a bigger threat by the day. Microsoft said in January that a Russian intelligence group had accessed some of its executives' email accounts. Roku and UnitedHealth also said they were hit by attacks this year.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on the company's most recent earnings call that the latest spate of cyberattacks "highlighted the urgent need for organizations to move even faster to protect themselves from cyberthreats."

Don't miss these stories from CNBC PRO:WATCH: Former CISA Dir. Krebs on cyber threats

Historic US women's group provokes anger by allowing trans members

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Thursday March 14 2024The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), an organisation deeply rooted in traditional values, has found itself at the centre of a political storm for welcoming transgender women.

After hundreds of resignations and the intervention of at least one Republican senator, the organisation for women who can trace their lineage back to a participant in the American Revolution has become an unlikely voice in the culture wars.

Pamela Rouse Wright, president general of the DAR, said: ''We are all descended from an American patriot, and we all are working for the common cause of the United States. But today, you can find so much more about your family and so that opens the avenues for diversity.''

Chelsea and Hillary Clinton met members of the Daughters of the American Revolution on the campaign trail

CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

Historically, DAR members tended to be in their advancing

Oprah Winfrey To Address Ozempic And Other Weight Loss Aids In New TV Special | News | BET

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:28

Media mogul, bread-lover, and weight-loss warrior Oprah Winfrey is releasing a new TV special on March 18 on ABC (and streaming on Hulu March 19) called An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution. This special will be exploring the controversial, growing trend of people using alternative methods to lose weight. It will feature a signature sit-down conversation with Oprah with medical experts and everyday people who have used Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy, and other prescription diabetes and weight loss medications.

In a press statement, Winfrey said, ''It is a very personal topic for me and for the hundreds of millions of people impacted around the globe who have for years struggled with weight and obesity.''

The billionaire will talk to her guests about health equity and obesity, intending to ultimately release the shame, judgment, and stigma surrounding weight.

Oprah doesn't do anything without intention. And it's obvious that from the start of her stance in the spotlight, Winfrey has dealt with weight loss issues and has been transparent about her struggle. She's been scrutinized, judged, and ultimately shamed through the years for her weight loss journey.

Winfrey decided to rid herself of any shame attached to getting assistance with her weight loss. She told PEOPLE, ''The fact that there's a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for. I'm absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.'' And now, she also wants the public to rid themselves of the shame with her special.

''I had an awareness of [weight-loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way,'' Winfrey said as she moderated a The State of Weight panel alongside obesity specialists Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford and Dr. Melanie Jay, psychologist Dr. Rachel Goldman and Sima Sistani, the CEO of WeightWatchers in 2023. A very svelte Winfrey shared how she overcame her own ''shame'' related to taking medication to slim down, though avoiding details on what medication she took.

Winfrey said, ''Even when I first started hearing about the weight loss drugs, at the same time I was going through knee surgery, and I felt, 'I've got to do this on my own.' Because if I take the drug, that's the easy way out.'' She continued, ''It should be yours to own and not to be shamed about it. As a person who's been shamed for so many years, I'm just sick of it. I'm just sick of it. I'm just sick of it.''

Winfrey was also a spokesperson and board member for Weight Watchers, a weight loss lifestyle brand. She has since stepped down and proposed donating her 10% share in the company to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

Chewing gum for 30 minutes has similar appetite-curbing effects to OZEMPIC, according to top dietitian | Daily Mail Online

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:26

Dietitian Abbey Sharp says gum triggers release of appetite-suppressant GLP-1 ...this is the same hormone responsible for weight loss in Ozempic READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mounjaro - the new OzempicBy Emma Nelson For Dailymail.Com

Published: 11:14 EDT, 11 March 2024 | Updated: 11:24 EDT, 11 March 2024

It is the holy grail of weight loss: a remedy that is as effective as drugs like Ozempic, without any of the dreaded side effects.

And according TikTok videos shared by experts, such a golden ticket might actually exist.

Responding to claims that chewing gum leads to the release of the same appetite-suppressing hormone as the medicine, top dietitian Abbey Sharp told TikTok followers: 'Early small studies suggest that, yes, chewing gum can help to stimulate GLP-1 in the gut, which is responsible for the appetite reduction seen on drugs like Ozempic.'

Ms Sharp added that another study showed fullness levels were 'significantly greater' and hunger levels were lower in people who chewed gum for half an hour, compared to those who didn't chew.

And also the studies are small, Sharp - who has almost 800,000 followers on TikTok - says these results are consistent with other research that shows gum chewing can help curb cravings.

However, she says the difference in perceived hunger between participants who chewed gum and those who didn't only reached a height of 20 percent.

'So this study is not suggesting that chewing a stick of gum will fill you up,' says Sharp.

'Like, you're still going to be hungry because you've eaten nothing at all.'

She also caveats that the experiments have only monitored hunger over the course of 30 minutes and it is likely that hunger would peak after another half hour, leading to snacking.

Dr Sharp details research that shows how chewing gum can increase feelings of fullness.

The research in this area should not be interpreted as an 'invitation' to chew gum all day, instead of actually eat.

This behavior would be classified as disordered, and could indicate a serious eating disorder, Sharp says.

'But rather, if you like gum and you are on a weight loss journey, it might help you stay on track to maintain a healthy, modest calorie deficit.

'And more importantly, what I hope you get out of this, is to chew your damn food.'

If you're expecting to get exactly the same effects of Ozempic from chewing gum, you'll likely end up disappointed.

A 2006 British study found that participants who chewed gum for a prolonged period of time before a meal ate about 40 fewer calories than those who didn't chew.

In comparison, the trials of Ozempic have shown that people injecting the drug eat roughly 25 percent fewer calories compared to controls.

Roughly nine million prescriptions for the blockbuster weight loss drug are written every three months in the US.

Canada wants to put people who may commit hate crimes under house arrest

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:23

Justin Trudeau's government has proposed a law giving judges the power to put someone under house arrest if they fear they could commit a hate crime.

Critics have warned the ''draconian'' bill is an overreach of power and could stifle free speech and difficult discussions.

But Canada's justice minister defended the measure, claiming it would be an ''important'' tool to help protect potential victims.

An online harms bill introduced by the Liberals last week proposed a string of laws to protect children and prosecute hate crimes.

One of the suggested measures would give judges the ability to put people under house arrest who they worry could commit a hate crime in the future. The person could also be made to wear an electronic tag if the attorney-general requested it.

Arif Virani, the justice minister, said the measures could prove ''very important'' in restraining the behaviour of someone who might be targeting minority groups.

''[If] there's a genuine fear of an escalation, then an individual or group could come forward and seek a peace bond against them and to prevent them from doing certain things,'' Mr Virani said.

Preventative measures could include banning the person from being near a synagogue or a mosque or restrictions on internet use.

He said: ''That would help to de-radicalise people who are learning things online and acting out in the real world violently '' sometimes fatally.''

Mr Virani said content that is ''awful but lawful'' would remain online and a high threshold would have to be met to use the powers.

''What's really critical is that it gives the judge a wonderful range of sentences. This is not a mandatory minimum of a life sentence, this is just a larger range, including what would be the maximum sentence,'' he said.

Measures proposed in Bill C-63, which was unveiled on 26 February, include a new hate crime offence which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for the most serious cases.

The bill would also make online platforms swiftly take down child sexual abuse material, as well as sexual content posted without consent.

Following the publication of the proposed bill, Pierre Poilievre, the opposition leader, said his party did not believe in ''censoring opinions''.

''We do not believe that the government should be banning opinions that contradict the prime minister's radical ideology,'' he said.

Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, criticised the ''draconian penalties'' proposed by the Bill.

She warned it could lead to ''violations of expressive freedom, privacy, protest rights, and liberty'' and a new offence introduced ''risks misuse or overuse by police, and unfairness to accused persons in court''.

One aspect of the bill would allow people to file complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission over what is perceived as hate speech online. Those found guilty could have to pay victims up to C$20,000 in compensation.

Critics have warned the measure risked silencing those such as comedians and commentators who could be slapped with huge fines.

''We're very concerned that comedians, and even people just trying to have difficult conversations about things like gender or immigration or religion, are going to be faced with complaints,'' Josh Dehaas, a lawyer with the Canadian Constitution Foundation, told the Globe and Mail.

''Even if the complaints don't go anywhere, they'll be able to be threatened '' 'if you don't take that tweet down, or if you don't stop with that comedy routine, I'm going to take you to the Human Rights Tribunal' '' and that threat alone is going to cause a lot of damage.''

Haiti crisis: A 'cannibal' gang and its 'Barbecue' leader push country into chaos - India Today

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:23

Haiti has descended into chaos and its Prime Minister has resigned. A gang leader, Jimmy Cherizier, who projects himself as a revolutionary, has become the most powerful person in Haiti. Cherizier is known as 'Barbecue' for burning people alive.

Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, infamous as 'Barbecue', in Port-au-Prince. (Image: AP)

Haiti, a Caribbean country, has plunged into chaos due to gang warfare. The US has airlifted non-essential staff from its embassy and the country has declared a state of emergency. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, stranded outside the country, resigned.

This comes after gangs attacked airports, police stations and prisons. Thousands of jail inmates have fled too.

Jimmy Cherizier, popular as 'Babekyou' or 'Barbecue', is the leader of the notorious 'G9 and Family' gang and is now the most powerful man in Haiti, reports the New York Post.

It is said that Cherizier began being called 'Barbecue' because of his penchant of burning people alive.

Amid the rise of 'Barbecue', a video has emerged that shows a member of a 'cannibal' gang eating human body parts.

The video on X shows a Haitian man tearing flesh from the leg of a burning corpse and eating it.

Some of the videos uploaded on X have been removed now. There are reports that the videos are two-year old.

The latest round of chaos led by 'Barbecue' is an attempt to overthrow Prime Minister Ariel Henry and intensified after he left for a summit last week. He had gone to Kenya to secure the leadership of a UN-backed international security mission to help police fight armed gangs in Haiti.

The prime minister attempted to fly back but couldn't land there amid gunbattles as government soldiers tried to foil the gang member's bid to take over the international airport.

PM Henry could not land in the Haitian capital because its international airport was closed as soldiers repelled attempts by gunmen to seize it.

VIOLENCE AND CANNIBALISM ON HAITI STREETS?Cannibalism has been witnessed on the streets as the violence in Haiti reaches unprecedented levels, The Daily Express US quoted a journalist on the ground as saying.

"We have seen images of gang leaders eating people they have killed. We have seen images of people being tortured when they are kidnapped," the journalist said from Haiti on condition of anonymity. The journalist said the violence and gore were "to paralyze people mentally".

After the interview, the journalist sent a message to The Daily Express US and said, "Cannibalism is not widespread, but definitely an indication of the worsening situation. It definitely happens on a few occasions."

Multiple videos have emerged showing the chaos in Haiti. In one people are screaming and running for their lives as gunfire from automatic rifles are heard nearby.

"Here is disturbing footage of the Haitian cannibal gang eating body parts of one of their victims as he cooks in the fire. The Haiti Cannibal Gang leader is named 'Barbecue' and is now the most powerful man in Haiti after their Prime Minster Ariel Henry fled," a post on X said. The video accompanying it had been deleted.

Reacting to the video and post, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said that similar visuals were seen in his country and the gangs in Haiti needed to be eradicated.

"We saw similar images in El Salvador a few years ago. Gangs bathing with the skulls of their victims. All the 'experts' said they couldn't be defeated, because they were an 'intrinsic part of our society'. They were wrong. We obliterated them. The same must be done in Haiti," El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted.

WHO IS HAITI GANG LEADER 'BARBECUE'Jimmy Cherizier, popular as 'Barbecue', is a 47-year-old rifle-toting former police officer.

He was sacked from Haiti's police force in 2018 because of his role in slum murders and rapes.

Cherizier was removed from the police force for his alleged ties to a number of horrific crimes, including the slaughter in the La Saline slums where 71 people were killed, seven women were raped, and 400 homes were burned down, The New York Post reported, citing official reports.

Cherizier denied any wrongdoing and started his active gang journey. He took over the 'G9 and Family', which controls the slums and streets of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

A section of the people see him as a Robinhood and revolutionary.

Cherizier enjoys his ganglord status and has welcomed the international press regularly to apprise the world of his growing clout.

''I'm not a thief. I'm not involved in the kidnapping. I'm not a rapist. I'm just carrying out a social fight,'' Cherizier told news agency Associated Press earlier.

The gang leader said that it was his mother's occupation of selling fried chicken that earned him the 'Barbecue' moniker. Though, not many believe this version.

Amid the resignation of PM Henry, regional leaders met in Jamaica to discuss the framework for a political transition.

Cherizier, who is known as 'Barbecue' for setting people on fire, might go on to capture power in Haiti.

(This report has been updated with the news of the resignation of Haiti's Prime Minister)

Published By:

Girish Kumar Anshul

Published On:

Mar 11, 2024

RFK Jr.'s VP prospect Aaron Rodgers has shared false Sandy Hook conspiracy theories in private conversations | CNN Politics

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:22

CNN '--

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has confirmed that among his potential vice-presidential prospects is New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who in private conversations shared deranged conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting not being real.

CNN knows of two people with whom Rodgers has enthusiastically shared these stories, including with Pamela Brown, one of the journalists writing this piece.

Brown was covering the Kentucky Derby for CNN in 2013 when she was introduced to Rodgers, then with the Green Bay Packers, at a post-Derby party. Hearing that she was a journalist with CNN, Rodgers immediately began attacking the news media for covering up important stories. Rodgers brought up the tragic killing of 20 children and 6 adults by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School, claiming it was actually a government inside job and the media was intentionally ignoring it.

When Brown questioned him on the evidence to show this very real shooting was staged, Rodgers began sharing various theories that have been disproven numerous times. Such conspiracy theories were also later at the center of lawsuits brought by victims' families when they sued conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the matter.

Jones baselessly repeating lies that the 2012 mass shooting was staged, and that the families and first responders were ''crisis actors,'' spawned multiple lawsuits and a trial was held in 2022 over lawsuits that were filed in Connecticut.

Family members throughout that trial described in poignant terms how the lies had prompted unrelenting harassment against them and compounded the emotional agony of losing their loved ones.

Brown recalls Rodgers asking her if she thought it was off that there were men in black in the woods by the school, falsely claiming those men were actually government operatives. Brown found the encounter disturbing.

Rodgers, through one of his agents, declined to comment to CNN.

CNN has spoken to another person with a similar story. This person, to whom CNN has granted anonymity so as to avoid harassment, recalled that several years ago, Rodgers claimed, ''Sandy Hook never happened'...All those children never existed. They were all actors.''

When asked about the grieving parents, the source recalled Rodgers saying, ''They're all making it up. They're all actors.''

Rodgers went on to delve into some of the darker caverns of the false conspiracy theory. This person found the encounter disturbing.

Kennedy's campaign announced Wednesday that the candidate will name his running mate on March 26 in Oakland, California. Kennedy told CNN in an interview on Tuesday that he had recently met with Rodgers, as well as former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, about the possibility of joining his campaign.

What's behind the record number of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Canada border? - CBS Boston

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:03

What's behind the record number of illegal crossings at the northern border?

What's behind the record number of illegal crossings at the northern border? 04:56 BEECHER FALLS, Vt. - At the crossroads of Vermont, New Hampshire and the Canadian border lies rolling fields soaked with melted snow, streams, and forests. It is remote. But, in the last year, U.S. Border Patrol agents said they have arrested record numbers of migrants trying to cross the northern border of the United States .

"It was a flood we had never seen before. It was an exponential shift, something we were not expecting and it just hit us hard," said Erik Lavallee, the Border Patrol Agent in Charge of the U.S. Border Patrol Beecher Falls Station in Vermont.

Map of the Swanton Sector in the northeast. CBS Boston Lavallee works in what the Border Patrol calls the Swanton Sector, 295 miles of tough and varying border terrain across the five eastern counties of New York, all of Vermont, and all of New Hampshire. In his nearly two decades in the sector, he said he has never experienced this kind of surge.

"Startling" number of northern border crossingsIn fiscal year 2023, Swanton Sector agents arrested roughly 7,000 migrants trying to cross the border illegally. That is more than the previous 12 years combined.

The number still pales compared to the thousands who cross the southern border daily but Lavallee said it is startling.

"We understand completely that the northern border issues versus the southern border issues are apples and oranges. However, that being said, having been up in this sector for almost 20 years, I have never seen anything like it," Lavallee said.

Who is crossing the northern border?Border Patrol said they have arrested individuals from 66 different countries, including India, Bangladesh, Haiti, and Venezuela. Roughly 49 percent of those arrested came from Mexico.

During a WBZ-TV tour of the northern border, we saw Lavallee and Border Patrol agents arrest a Lithuanian national who tried to cross through the woods abutting a pond that straddles the border between Vermont and Canada.

Lavallee said most of the migrants they are seeing are men traveling without families, although the Border Patrol does still see family units. He said many are involved in human smuggling.

"We know there are multiple organizations that are utilizing Canada to smuggle individuals into the United States," Lavallee said.

Terror watchlist apprehensionsThe Border Patrol covering the northern border is also seeing people on the terror watchlist. In fiscal year 2023, Border Patrol apprehended 564 people on the terror watchlist. Of them, 484 were encountered on the northern border. Another 103 were found crossing through the north in fiscal year 2024.

Why the surge in numbers?The questions are - why here and why now? Lavallee said one of the reasons is Canadian foreign policy. Up until recently, Canada did not require Mexicans and some other foreign nationals to have travel visas to fly to the country, only requiring an electronic authorization form.

"For a very minimal fee, they would be able to enter the country as a tourist," Lavallee said. "Some folks, utilizing the ETA program, were being arrested here in the United States for illegal entry within 24 hours of their landing in Canada."

Canada reversed course at the end of February, announcing new requirements for electronic travel authorization and a visa requirement for Mexican citizens. Lavallee also said some of the migrants he is encountering have a different strategy for entering the country than those coming to the southern border.

"Here, we're not seeing the same prevalence of individuals requesting either asylum or wanting to be caught. The people here that we're seeing for the most part, they're trying to find that seam. They're trying to find that vulnerability and come into the United States without detection," Lavallee said.

Challenges at the northern borderThe northern border, itself, presents unique challenges. During WBZ's visit to the border, we saw no physical barriers on the border. At one point, the border was marked by a stream, easily wadable at some points during the year.

The Border Patrol covers the vast expanse with ground sensors, drones, and patrols. They also rely on calls from locals.

"Whether or not we see absolutely everything, I think it's hard to say any agency is a hundred percent effective," Lavallee said. "I can't know what I don't know."

What happens to those captured at the border?Once migrants are in custody, Lavallee said they are fingerprinted and a background check is done. Then, the Border Patrol may set up a court date for them and transport them to U.S. Enforcement and Removal Operations or ERO. ERO detains some in detention centers like the Plymouth County Jail in Massachusetts or the Strafford County Jail in New Hampshire.

The ERO office for New England does not have data breaking out whether the people in its custody entered through the southern or northern border. In fiscal year 2023, ERO detained 1,423 people and removed 600 from the country. That is far less than the 7,000 arrested to the North.

Increased risks for migrantsWith increased border crossings comes increased risks for migrants. In the last fiscal year, 10 migrants died while attempting to cross through the Swanton Sector.

"They included drownings , hypothermia, and just ill-preparedness for the weather," Lavallee said.

The Border Patrol has begun putting up signs in Spanish and French directing people to call 911 if they are in trouble. Lavallee said agents have also had dangerous interactions with people crossing the border illegally.

"We have seen some of the smugglers, when they're attempting to run, they're ramming Border Patrol vehicles or other law enforcement vehicles as well as actual combative and assaultive individuals," Lavallee said. "It may just be a matter of time before we face some serious repercussions and serious issues."

If you have a question you'd like us to look into, please email questioneverything@cbsboston.com.

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In: United States Border Patrol Migrants Canada Question Everything Louisa Moller Louisa Moller is a general assignment reporter for WBZ-TV.

EV euphoria is dead. Automakers trumpet consumer choice in U.S.

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:50

Although consumer demand for EVs hasn't shown up in the way executives had expected, sales of the vehicles are still predicted to increase in the years to come.

Andrew Merry | Moment | Getty Images

DETROIT '-- The buzz around electric vehicles is wearing off.

For years, the automotive industry has been in a state of EV euphoria. Automakers trotted out optimistic sales forecasts for electric models and announced ambitious targets for EV growth. Wall Street boosted valuations for legacy automakers and startup entrants alike, based in part on their visions for an EV future.

Now the hype is dwindling, and companies are again cheering consumer choice. Automakers from Ford Motor and General Motors to Mercedes-Benz , Volkswagen , Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans.

Even U.S. EV leader Tesla , which is estimated to have accounted for 55% of EV sales in the country in 2023, is bracing for what "may be a notably lower" rate of growth, CEO Elon Musk said in late January.

The broad return to a more mixed offering of vehicles '-- with lineups of gas-powered vehicles alongside hybrids and fully-electric options '-- still assumes an all-electric future, eventually, but at a much slower pace of adoption than previously expected.

"What we saw in '21 and '22 was a temporary market spike where the demand for EVs really took off," said Marin Gjaja, chief operating officer for Ford's EV unit, during a recent interview with CNBC. "It's still growing but not nearly at the rate we thought it might have in '21, '22."

Ford is significantly increasing its production and sales of hybrid models, which can help ease the transition to electrified vehicles for drivers who may not be ready for fully electric models. They can also help companies meet tighter federal standards for carbon emissions.

GM, which was the first traditional automaker to go all in on EVs, plans to roll out plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for consumers alongside EVs and gas cars. Others, such as Hyundai Motor, Kia, Toyota Motor and, potentially, Volkswagen, plan to offer different levels of electrification across their lineups.

"I think the balanced approach is the best way," VW of America CEO Pablo Di Si told CNBC last month, adding he is in discussions to bring hybrid vehicles to the U.S. The automaker currently sells hybrid vehicles in Europe, but none stateside.

A VW ID.BUZZ EV vehicle

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

"These technologies exist within the VW group, whether it's hybrids or plug-in hybrids," he said. "I think it's just a matter of time until we bring it here."

To be clear, although consumer demand for EVs hasn't shown up in the way executives had expected, sales of the vehicles are still predicted to increase in the years to come.

U.S. EV sales were a record 1.2 million units last year, representing 7.6% of the overall national market, Cox Automotive estimates. That share is expected to increase to between 30% and 39% by the end of the decade, according to analyst forecasts.

"The market was never going to make a smooth transition to EVs, and we expected a slowdown in this shift as early adopters were satisfied," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions. "Moving on to less tech-savvy buyers will slow the EV market share growth over the next few years."

EV targetsAs ESG investing '-- or investing geared toward environmental, social and governance principles '-- emerged in recent years and as Tesla rose from niche EV player to the most valued automaker by market cap globally in 2020, the automotive industry largely took note and began plotting its path forward in EVs.

Automakers wanted to emulate Tesla's success, with some promising to exclusively offer EVs in the not-too-distant future.

Stock Chart IconStock chart iconFive-year stock comparison between Tesla,and the "Big Three" automakers.

Among those targets: Stellantis -owned Alfa Romeo said its vehicle lineup would be all-electric by 2027. Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo said the same but by 2030. GM said it would offer only electric consumer vehicles by 2035, with its brands Buick and Cadillac aiming to exclusively offer EVs five years sooner. Honda Motor set its target to exclusively sell EVs and fuel-cell-powered vehicles in North America by 2040. Other, more specialized brands such as Lotus and Bentley have also announced EV-exclusive targets.

While none of those automakers has officially announced changes to its long-term goals, there's been a notable shift in tone and messaging around their goals. Companies are monitoring consumer adoption, global emissions regulations and EV charging infrastructure to determine future plans, officials have said.

Since first adopting an all-electric deadline, of sorts, in January 2021, GM CEO Mary Barra and other executives have more recently said customer demand will steer its efforts. They maintain that the 2035 goal remains its guiding plan. Cadillac now says it will offer a full lineup of EVs, but not necessarily end production of all gas-powered models by 2030.

"We have the best of both worlds right now," Cadillac Vice President John Roth said last month during an interview. "We'll see where it heads here in the future, but we are still committed to offering a full EV portfolio by the end of the decade."

Ford, for its part, has never stated plans to exclusively offer EVs globally, but it did set targets to be all-electric in Europe by 2030, for 50% of its sales in North America to be electric by that same year and to achieve an 8% EV profit margin by 2026. It has since backed off many targets and is cranking out hybrids '-- specifically trucks '-- along with EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for the U.S.

"We've always had a freedom-of-choice kind of approach," Gjaja said. "Some of that was to protect ourselves against going too far in one direction, because the market right now, as we've seen, is very uncertain."

Ford Motor Co., CEO Jim Farley gives the thumbs up sign before announcing Ford Motor will partner with Chinese-based, Amperex Technology, to build an all-electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, during a press conference in Romulus, Michigan February 13, 2023.

Rebecca Cook | Reuters

CEO Oliver Blume during Porsche's annual media event Tuesday said the German sports carmaker is "in a flexible position" regarding its vehicle manufacturing. He said the company is monitoring EV adoption and regulations but still has a goal of EVs making up 80% of its global sales by 2030.

"We have to keep tabs on it ... although the ramp-up is slower than planned last year, we are always in a position to respond flexibly," he said, adding the company will "have to see in 2026 and 2027" regarding its plans to significantly reduce spending on gas-powered vehicles.

The widespread shift in sentiment brings more automakers closer to the ethos of Toyota. Led by Chairman and former CEO Akio Toyoda, the world's top-selling automaker has argued for years that a diversified lineup was the right strategy to meet all customer needs and reach its goal of being carbon-neutral by 2050.

The Japanese automaker is now expected to reap the benefits of its strategy, which includes hybrids, plug-in hybrids, EVs and hydrogen fuel cells.

"Toyota is almost completely absent from the [battery electric vehicle] market yet will gain more U.S. market share than any other car company this year. Let that sink in," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in an investor note last week. "EVs may be 'the future' but are struggling in the present. Hybrid sales are growing 5x faster than EVs in the US."

What happened?After significant interest from early EV adopters '-- bolstered by low interest rates and Tesla's rise '-- interest rates skyrocketed, raw materials costs surged and the vehicles became much more expensive compared with their traditional counterparts.

It's also become clear that the automotive industry and the Biden administration, which set its own target for half of new U.S. vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, overestimated the willingness of consumers to adopt a new technology without a reliable and prevalent charging infrastructure.

U.S. President Joe Biden gestures after driving a Hummer EV during a tour at the General Motors 'Factory ZERO' electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan, November 17, 2021.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

The adoption curve of EVs rapidly went through first adopters and some "EV curious" consumers, but has been a tougher sell with mainstream buyers.

"The expectations for EV growth in the U.S. market have shifted from 'rosy to reality' as sales increase, but customer acceptance of EVs isn't keeping pace," Cox Automotive said in its 2024 forecast report.

The available inventory of EVs in the U.S., measured in days' supply, has ballooned to 136 days, according to Cox. That compares to the overall U.S. industry at a 78 days' supply of new vehicles. The data excludes Tesla, Rivian and other automakers that sell directly to consumers rather than through franchised dealers.

"A few years ago, there were wildly ambitious ideas of how EV sales would go and it seemed like nobody was thinking about bumps in this road," said Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst at Cox. "Now they're here, and so reality has set in."

The slower adoption of EVs has led to price cuts or discounts on several models such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model Y and, most recently, the Nissan Ariya.

Trisha Jung, senior director of Nissan U.S. EV strategy and transformation, said the cuts of up to $6,000 will "improve the model's competitiveness and ensure we are delivering maximum value to our customers."

What's next?Industry strategy with regard to EVs may shift even more drastically in the months ahead, depending on political pressures, including the finalization of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fuel economy and emissions standards.

A driving force behind the rollout of EVs by traditional automakers, particularly the so-called Detroit Three, was the need to meet federal vehicle emissions and fuel economy requirements to avoid costly penalties.

Proposals currently under review by the Biden administration to hike fuel economy standards through 2032 could cost automakers more than $14 billion in fines based on the fuel efficiencies of their current fleets, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents the largest automakers operating in the U.S.

Cars make their way in traffic on a Los Angeles freeway on January 25, 2024.

Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

A separate letter to federal regulators last year by the American Automotive Policy Council estimated such regulations would cost GM $6.5 billion in fines and Jeep parent Stellantis $3 billion. The council, which represents the Detroit automakers, said Ford's penalties would total about $1 billion.

Shifting strategy comes with its own costs: Automakers that invested heavily in EV infrastructure and have since changed course could face write-downs or higher capital needs to shore up different production lines. But without consumer sales, they're left with little option.

It's unclear how much hybrids and plug-in hybrids would help automakers to meet the potential regulations, given the standards were crafted with a fast EV adoption in mind. But the automakers' product mix will need to satisfy federal guidelines to remain a viable path forward.

Automakers' fuel economies are based on a fleetwide mix of vehicles sold. The better fuel economy and fewer emissions a vehicle produces, the better it is for the automaker's overall score.

"It all depends on what the final regulation looks like," said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council.

Blunt said the trade group hopes the Biden administration listens to the industry's concerns and "understands that a part of transitioning to electric vehicles is having a reasonable fuel economy regulation in place."

Biden is reportedly expected to dial back certain targets amid the slower-than-expected pace of EV adoption, which was a major piece of his plans to combat climate change.

Looming in the distance, too, is the U.S. presidential election in November. If former President Donald Trump is reelected, he's expected to scale back or remove the fuel economy mandates, as he did during his first term in office.

A reversal of those standards come January could pave the way for an even longer era of gas-powered and hybrid models.

Automakers operating in Europe face stricter governmental EV regulations, which currently aim to ban sales of traditional, fossil-fuel vehicles by 2035. However, changes have already been made to the regulations and conservative groups such as the European People's Party have called for dropping the ban.

Nearly 30% of Gen Z women identify as LGBTQ, Gallup survey finds

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:49

The percentage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer adults in the U.S. continues to increase, reaching an all-time high of 7.6% in 2023, according to a new Gallup report. Broken down by gender, the survey of 12,000 people 18 and older across the country found that women were nearly twice as likely as men to identify as LGBTQ.

''Almost 30% of Gen Z women identify as LGBTQ+, most as bisexual,'' Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor at Gallup, told NBC News. ''That's where a lot of the growth seems to be happening.''

This is the first year Gallup has laid out its annual LGBTQ identification report in a way that breaks down each generation by gender. Looking at all generations, 8.5% of women and 4.7% of men identified as LGBTQ, the survey found. The survey reported margins of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points among LGBTQ respondents.

Parsing each generation, the gender story gets more interesting. In the three younger generations surveyed '-- Generation Z, millennials and Generation X '-- women are more likely than men to identify as LGBTQ. However, in the two oldest generations '-- baby boomers and the Silent Generation '-- it is reversed. (The gender breakdown does not account for nonbinary respondents, who represented about 1% of those surveyed.)

The group most likely to identify as LGBTQ, by far, was Generation Z women (ages 18 to 26), 28.5% of whom identified as LGBTQ in the survey. The lion's share of them, of all Gen Z women surveyed, 20.7%, identified as bisexual, followed by 5.4% who identified as lesbians. Gen Z women were nearly three times more likely than Gen Z men to identify as LGBTQ.

Bisexuals made up the highest percentage of LGBTQ respondents, at 57.3% '-- or 4.4% of all adults surveyed. Gay men represented 18.1% of LGBTQ respondents, lesbians 15.1% and transgender people 11.8%, the survey found.

''It's important how much the LGBTQ community is bisexual, and that's definitely something we see among the younger generations,'' Jones said.

Jones also noted that the survey allows respondents to write in their identities if they are not among the provided options, and he said more people are writing in ''pansexual'' and ''asexual,'' though they are still a small proportion of respondents '-- 3% of LGBTQ respondents and 0.2% of total respondents.

As Gallup has noted in its previous annual surveys, younger generations are far more likely to identify as LGBTQ than their older counterparts.

''Overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+,'' says the report, which was published Wednesday. ''More than one in five Gen Z adults, ranging in age from 18 to 26 in 2023, identify as LGBTQ+, as do nearly one in 10 millennials (aged 27 to 42).''

Only 1% of those in the Silent Generation, the youngest of whom are in their late 70s, identified as LGBTQ.

Since Gallup started measuring the U.S. LGBTQ population in 2012, when 3.5% of respondents identified as part of the community, there has been a consistent increase. Jones expects the trend to continue.

''Sometime in the next 10 to 30 years, we'll hit 10%,'' he said.

How soon that happens, he added, depends partly on the life span of those in the Silent Generation, who are the least likely to identify as LGBTQ, at just over 1%.

Brooke Sopelsa Brooke Sopelsa is the editorial director of NBC Out, NBC News' LGBTQ digital destination.

Trans Women's Suicide Rate Doubled After Vaginoplasty, New Study Finds | The Daily Caller

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The suicide rate for men identifying as transgender women in California doubled among those who receive vaginoplasty, a new study found.

More than twice as many men who identify as transgender women had attempted suicide after receiving the surgery when compared to those who had not undergone the procedure, according to AUA Journals.

Study finds that the attempted-suicide rate among transgender women who received a vaginoplasty in California was twice as high during the period after the surgery compared with the period before the surgery.

The investigaotrs analyzed data on all 868 people who received a'... pic.twitter.com/RO6zKC7Xt3

'-- Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) March 11, 2024

Data analysts assessed 869 patients who received a vaginoplasty and 357 people who received a phalloplasty in California between 2012 and 2018, according to the study. The attempted-suicide rate among post-vaginoplasty patients was 3.3%, more than double the pre-surgery rate of 1.5%. The data on patients originated from the state's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. (RELATED: Red State Walks Back Gender-Bending ID Policy)

Vaginoplasty ''involves the removal of a man's penis, testicles and scrotum'' to sculpt a ''feminine-appearing'' vaginal canal and vulva, according to John Hopkins Medicine. Phalloplasty is a surgery in which skin is taken and used to create a male-appearing penis on a woman, according to UCSF Transgender Care. Both surgeries are conducted on people identifying as transgender to give them the appearance of the opposite sex.

At least one ER or in-patient psych encounter was reported in 22.2% of vaginoplasty patients before the surgery, the study said. After the procedure, 33.9% of vaginoplasty patients who had a reported psych encounter beforehand experienced another.

At least one ER or in-patient psych encounter was reported in 20.7% of phalloplasty patients before the surgery, according to the study. After the procedure, 26.5% of phalloplasty patients who had a reported psych encounter beforehand experienced another.

''Rates of psychiatric emergencies are high both before and after [surgery]. Although both the phalloplasty and vaginoplasty patients have similar overall rates of psychiatric encounters, suicide attempts are more common in the [latter]. In fact, our observed rate of suicide attempts in the phalloplasty group is actually similar to the general population, while the vaginoplasty group's rate is more than double that of the general population. Patients undergoing [vaginoplasty] with a history of prior psychiatric emergencies or feminizing transition are at a higher risk and should be counseled appropriately,'' study authors concluded.

Joe Biden Has New Shoes, and People Are Asking Questions '' RedState

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:47

Joe Biden has new shoes, and people are asking questions.

The president was filmed walking (and "jogging") across the White House lawn to board Marine One on Wednesday, and while there were several things to note about his appearance, what was on his feet took top billing.

Did they turn his shoes into hovercrafts?

'-- Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 13, 2024If America were led by a normal president who wasn't in steep physical and mental decline, this probably wouldn't have even been noticed. Perhaps the fashion section of some newspaper would have commented on it, but no one would have cared otherwise. Biden is not a normal president, though, and this has actually been an ongoing saga for him.

Over the last few years, the president has faceplanted multiple times, including boarding Air Force One. The remedy was to have him start using the "short stairs" to limit his exposure. His most infamous fall came later, during a commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

READ: Biden Takes a Massive Fall at Air Force Commencement, as Concerns Over His Health Rage

Sometime around that same time, Biden's handlers made the move to "dress sneakers" with softer soles that are easier to walk in. Comments abounded, noting that he was wearing them even when meeting with world leaders, a time when decorum is usually valued.

Which brings us back to this latest video. Has he made the move to wearing full-blown old-man tennis shoes with suits now? It sure looks like it. Have another look.

VIGOR: Biden shuffles across the White House lawn without taking questions pic.twitter.com/HfMQXrf0p1

'-- RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 13, 2024If those aren't my grandfather's all-black New Balances or similar, they sure look like them. At this current rate of progression, they are going to be driving him out to the helicopter in a golf cart by the end of the year.

It wasn't just the shoes, though. Early in the video, he actually has to get a running start to make it over the towering transition that is concrete to grass. Perhaps he was just trying to show off his supposed "vigor," but it looked really awkward, as did his gait in general. Biden doesn't just talk like a very old man; he walks like one. The short, choppy steps and off-balance look, coupled with the appearance of constantly stumbling, have become more commonplace since he took office. This is a man who is aging very quickly.

And yet, he's running for re-election anyway. That's the kind of shameless thirst for power that many American politicians have. A sane person would retire and go spend time with their grandkids. Not Biden. He's going to stay in office until extenuating circumstances force him out.

TikTok Parent Spends Record on Lobbying as U.S. Pressure Rises - Caixin Global

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:45

(Bloomberg) '-- The Chinese owner of the popular TikTok video app spent a company record on federal lobbying in the second quarter as it fought allegations that it's funneling Americans' data to Beijing, according to lobbying disclosures filed with U.S. Congress.

Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. spent $500,000 in the three months ended June 30, up from its previous record of $300,000 in the first quarter, according to the company's lobbying disclosure Monday.

TikTok is responding to an onslaught of pressure from U.S. politicians over its Chinese roots '-- tension that has escalated in third quarter, including calls by President Donald Trump to consider banning the app entirely and proposed legislation to disallow downloads on government-issued mobile devices.

TikTok also faces a national security investigation into the 2017 purchase of Musical.ly, a lip-syncing app it later merged with TikTok, as well as a parallel probe by the administration, which could culminate within weeks, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters last week. The company has also attracted inquiries by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department over its data-collection practices, according to a consumer advocate who said he spoke to the enforcers about the company.

ByteDance, which was founded in China and is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, has repeatedly denied accusations that TikTok harvests data for the Chinese government and says it stores Americans' data in the U.S. and Singapore, not in China.

More popular than ever with hundreds of millions of people stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, teens have used the app to organize efforts to disrupt Trump's re-election campaign. TikTok also has become a political pawn in the fight between Washington and Beijing: Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo have said a ban on TikTok could be one form of retaliation over China's handling of the coronavirus.

The TikTok app has been downloaded 2 billion times globally, including 165 million times in the U.S., according to data provider Sensor Tower. That makes TikTok even more politically important as users weigh in on issues like race and the upcoming presidential election.

ByteDance, which only began lobbying last year, said in the filing that it worked on ''issues related to internet technology and learning-enabled content platforms'' and lobbied Congress and the executive office of the president, which includes key White House offices focused on economics and security.

It also lobbied on privacy and content moderation, according to a disclosure from Monument Advocacy, one of the company's outside firms.

TikTok has been building up its lobbying muscle as it attempts to distance itself from its Chinese ties and convince American politicians that it's just a fun-loving consumer app. Former Walt Disney Co. executive Kevin Mayer became TikTok's first American chief executive officer in June, and the company earlier this month discussed plans to create a new global TikTok headquarters outside of China, in addition to potential changes to its management structure.

TikTok's Washington lobbying blitz started last year with efforts to broker meetings between company executives and high-profile senators. Since then, it's amassed a 35-person Washington operation and hired longtime policy hands to make its case to American politicians. It named Michael Beckerman, the former president of the Internet Association trade group, to run its policy shop, and hired David Urban, a senior adviser to Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, as an outside lobbyist. Both are registered as working for ByteDance.

ByteDance has also hired former top staff to Republican and Democratic House leaders and has brought on four outside lobbying firms in the last year.

In one meeting last year with staffers for Republican Senator Marco Rubio, TikTok staff provided conflicting information, including about where data was stored and how TikTok creates its algorithms, a Rubio spokesman said. ''Given established connections to China and the inability of the company to answer basic questions from staff about TikTok's ties to China and how it treats Americans' user data, our office declined to have the Senator personally meet with them,'' the spokesman said.

''There is a huge amount of misinformation on TikTok out there,'' the company said in a statement last week, pointing to its American executives and board seats. ''TikTok U.S. user data is stored in the U.S. and Singapore, with strict controls on employee access,'' TikTok said in that statement. ''These are the facts.''

Since April, TikTok reached out to the offices of more than 50 key lawmakers to emphasize its independent American leadership, a person familiar with the company's Washington operation told Bloomberg.

Contact editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)

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Proposal: implement custom TLV records for spontaneous payments by rdmitr · Pull Request #273 · lightningdevkit/ldk-node · GitHub

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The Seven Funniest Moments From The Biden-Hur Transcripts | The Daily Caller

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Wed, 13 Mar 2024 21:13

The transcripts of the two-day interview between Special Counsel Robert Hur and President Joe Biden were released Tuesday. The interview was a part of Hur's investigation into the president's handling of classified materials, and there are some truly laughable moments in there.

We at the Daily Caller thought it would be useful to compile some of the hilarity for the public's enjoyment, so without further ado, here are the seven funniest moments from the Biden-Hur transcripts.

1. VROOMWhile explaining why classified documents may have possibly been in his garage, Biden got sidetracked talking about his prized Corvette. He described how much he loves test driving electric cars and began making car noises.

''You know, think about this. You had one of those big four by fours, the '-- I think it's a Ford Bronco, whatever it is. Zero to sixty in four six.''

''That's fast,'' Hur replied.

''Yeah. By the way, you know how it works?'' Biden asked, laughing, as the transcript notes.

Hur, trying to keep him on track, said ''Sir, I'd love '-- I would love to hear much more about this, but I do have a few more questions to get through.''

''You can take 30 seconds, but you put your foot on the brake, you hit, you hit a button that's in the '-- and it says 'launch.' You step your foot on the accelerator all the way down'...''

''Woah,'' Hur chimed in.

'''...until it gets to about six, seven grand,'' Biden continued. ''Then all of a sudden, it will say 'launch.' All you do is take your foot off the brake,'' Biden joked, before the transcript noted that he ''Makes car sound.''

2. Private Parts On Fire StoryAt one point during the first day of the two-day interview process, Biden unravels a long tale of a man he represented early in his legal career who lost his penis in a fire.

''This poor kid is down a hundred-foot vessel, chimney, scraping the hydrogen bubbles off of the inside. They were made to shut the plant down once every '-- whatever, about eight months or six months or a year, whatever it is. And he was wearing the wrong pants, wrong jeans, and he '-- a spark caught fire and got caught in the containment vessel and he lost part of his penis and one of his testicles and he was 23 years old,'' Biden recalled.

What question, you may be asking, could have prompted this anecdote? One would have to scroll up a few pages to get to the last time someone besides Biden uttered a word before this soliloquy to find out he began this rant after Hur asked him, ''Within the Naval Observatory? You mentioned a couple of work spaces earlier.''

How Biden got to a story about a guy's penis blowing up is anybody's guess.

3. Biden Doesn't Know What A Fax Machine Is Called '... TwiceThis one is pretty self-explanatory. On two separate occasions, Biden struggled to find the word for fax machine. Both times Hur had to remind our Commander-in-Chief of the word to jog his memory.

''I have a library, and the library has a '-- two filing cabinets in it, and it has built into the walls '-- when I built that home, built into the walls, a space for a copy machine, for a '-- what do you call it, when they send these'...''

''Fax machine,'' one lawyer interrupted him.

''Fax machine,'' Biden concurred.

BREAKING: Just 15 minutes after his lawyer reminded him, Biden forgot again what a ''fax machine'' is called during his Oct. 8 special counsel interview. On page 40 of transcript, Biden asks ''What do you call it?'' and then on page 95, Biden forgets again: ''What do they call it?''

'-- Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) March 12, 2024

Biden would forget the word again just hours later. Again, talking about his filing cabinets, Biden stumbled, ''So the bottom '-- so when you open this up, the first '-- the door on the '-- the first door there on the left, you see where there's a printer and there's a '-- what do they call it, the machine that'...''

''Fax machine,'' a lawyer again had to remind him.

''A fax machine,'' Biden again concurred.

4. Biden Calls Africa A CountrySpeaking about what drove him to run for the presidency in the first place, Biden seemed to call the entire continent of Africa a country. (RELATED: 'I Did Not Exonerate Him': Robert Hur Sets Dem Rep Straight On Conclusion From Biden Report)

''We have a chance to fundamentally change and make different and more secure that part of the world. Which China's influence is seeking to be profound. Same way in Africa. I mean, we have plenty of people in Africa, but guess what, we're going to build the first trans-continental railroad across that country.''

5. Biden References ''Cock Robin,'' A Nursery Rhyme From The 1500sThis one is hilarious for multiple reasons. First of all, the title of the nursery rhyme. Enough said. But also, at a time when his age, health and mental acuity are under scrutiny, he decided to pull out this old ditty from *checks notes* the 1500s?!

Speaking about his Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB), Biden used the term as a hypothetical to describe his routine around the PDB. ''I'd sit with my national security team, and say we should follow up on this, find out more about whether or not, you know, who killed Cock Robin, you know, and find out,'' Biden told Hur. (RELATED: Turley Says Democrats Appeared 'Delusional' During Hur Hearing)

6. Jill's Bathing SuitThis is one that shows that Biden can be funny on purpose, too.

Biden joked with Hur that he hopes, when the special counsel's team searched his Wilmington lake house, they didn't discover ''risqu(C)'' photos of his wife Jill. (RELATED: 'Particularly Egregious': CNN Commentator Blasts Democrats For 'Attacks' On Robert Hur)

''You left everything in place. I just hope you didn't find any risqu(C) pictures of my wife in a bathing suit. Which you probably did. She's beautiful.''

I'm sorry, WHAT? I'm sure he was joking. If not, that would be incredibly awkward. Imagine you're a trained professional, a career officer of the law, tasked with finding extremely sensitive and classified documents that may have been improperly commandeered by the President. And instead, you find a photo of his wife's boobs.

7. Biden Only Knew Staff By First NamesHur, at one point, tried to nail down a specific definition of the titles of some of the staffers who may have handled some of Biden's classified documents on his behalf. Biden, for whatever reason, was unable or unwilling to produce a title.

''So I wanted to ask some questions relating to duties that those '-- I guess I'll call them front-office staff. Is that an accurate description of them?'' Hur asks.

''I never did, but sure,'' Biden replies.

''Okay. Well, what did you call them?'' Hur asks again.

''By their first names,'' Biden replied.

''Okay,'' Hur answered.

''I'm not being facetious,'' Biden assured him.

My biggest takeaway from the Robert Hur transcript is that Biden is pretty funny pic.twitter.com/lG6YMF8G1E

'-- Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) March 12, 2024

Passenger Threw Coins Into Engine, Delayed Flight 4 Hours

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Wed, 13 Mar 2024 20:25

A major Chinese airline has warned passengers not to throw coins into its planes' engines after an incident last week.

China Southern Airlines posted a five-minute video on Weibo explaining how actions like "throwing coins at the plane" can delay flights and threaten safety.

"If they pose a threat to aviation safety, they will also face varying degrees of penalties," it said in a post on the social network.

On Wednesday, March 6, the airline's domestic flight from the southern region of Hainan to the capital, Beijing, was delayed by four hours, data from Flightradar24 shows.

According to the Liberty Times, a video posted online shows a flight attendant saying that a passenger threw "three to five coins" into the Airbus A350's engine.

Visuals of a confused cabin from a parked China Southern Airlines aircraft operating flight CZ8805 from Sanya (ZJSY) to Beijing (ZBAA) Daxing because a passenger took the opportunity to throw six coins into the engine on March 6, 2024.ðŸ'¹äºè…å†'药#aircraft #travel pic.twitter.com/Vuj6sPh33N

'-- FL360aero (@fl360aero) March 10, 2024"The aircraft maintenance staff conducted a comprehensive safety inspection and determined that there were no safety issues before takeoff," the airline's customer service told state media, per CNN.

This isn't the first time a passenger has thrown coins into a plane's engine.

CNN reported that it happened on another Chinese Southern Airlines flight in 2017, when an elderly passenger said it was "a prayer for a safe flight."

In 2019, Chinese airline Lucky Air sued a passenger for $21,000 for throwing two coins into a plane's engine, which he said was for good luck, per Simple Flying.

The 'Devil comet' will be visible during the 2024 solar eclipse

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Wed, 13 Mar 2024 20:04

It's not often a bright comet is near the Sun during a total solar eclipse. On April 8, 2024, catch Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks' visit to the solar system.

ByAlison Klesman | Published: April 8, 2023 | Last updated on March 8, 2024 Weixelman used SkySafari to create this simulated view looking south from southern Texas during totality on April 8. 2024. The image also shows the predicted orientation of Comet Pons-Brooks' tail, at an angle of 68° from celestial north.Dave Weixelman (highsierraimaging.com)

On April 8, 2024, all eyes will be on the eclipsed Sun during totality. After all, it's the main attraction.

But as the Sun is blotted out, darkness will fall during the day, rendering more than just the solar corona visible in the sky. Stars and planets will appear, lighting up amid the false twilight that occurs during a total eclipse. Several of the brightest stars and planets will come into view '-- and one special visitor: Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

That's right. Bring your binoculars along during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, and you might be able to catch a comet hovering in the sky near the eclipsed Sun.

The discovery of Comet Pons-Brooks Amateur astronomer, astrophotographer, and longtime comet-lover Dave Weixelman from Nevada City, California, discovered that Comet Pons-Brooks would be near the eclipsed Sun during totality of the 2024 total solar eclipse.

Related: The so-called 'Devil comet' is headed our way '-- and that's OK

Weixelman tells Astronomy he knew that Pons-Brooks would be reaching perihelion in 2024 as a possible naked-eye comet. So one day, he plotted the comet's location at the date and time of the eclipse using the SkySafari software, setting the viewing location inside the path of totality in southern Texas.

That's when he saw that Comet Pons-Brooks will be located near Jupiter and some 24.5° from the eclipsed Sun. This means the comet will be potentially visible at mid-eclipse to those searching with binoculars or a telescope, or capturing the scene with a camera.

12P/Pons-Brooks has a period just over 70 years. April 8, the date of the 2024 eclipse, is just two weeks before the comet reaches perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in its orbit. On April 8, Comet Pons-Brooks will sit about 1.61 astronomical units from Earth, or nearly 150 million miles (240 million kilometers), on the opposite side of the Sun from our planet. (1 astronomical unit is the average Earth-Sun distance.) This will be near the time it reaches peak brightness, as it won't come much closer to Earth even after it approaches and rounds the Sun.

How to see Comet Pons-BrooksSix planets will be in the sky during totality of the 2024 solar eclipse. Venus will be the brightest at magnitude ''3.9, located about 15° southwest of the Sun. On the opposite side of our star some 30° northeast of the Sun will be the second brightest planet, magnitude ''2 Jupiter.

Jupiter will serve as a convenient guidepost to find Comet Pons-Brooks, says Weixelman, as the comet will lie just 6° west of Jupiter and about 24.5° northeast of the Sun. That puts Pons-Brooks in roughly the same binocular field of view as the gas giant, upping the ease with which searchers might find it.

Although the viewing geometry between Earth and the comet isn't ideal during its eclipse apparition, current predictions suggest that Pons-Brooks will appear around 5th magnitude. However, comets are fickle creatures and predictions can fall far from the mark in either direction. But assuming Pons-Brooks behaves as expected, ''depending on the actual brightness of the comet during the eclipse, the comet may or may not be visible in binoculars,'' says Weixelman.

An experienced astroimager himself, Weixelman notes that photographers will naturally be excited for the unique opportunity to capture both the solar corona and the comet during totality of the 2024 solar eclipse. After all, it's rare (though not unheard of) for comets to peek out of the daytime darkness that only a solar eclipse can bring.

For now, stay tuned '-- as the event approaches, we'll publish additional updates, tips for finding the comet in binoculars, and pointers on photographing the scene.

Responding to GamerGate2 - Take This

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Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:48

If you're reading this, you've probably been hearing about what's now being called ''Gamergate2.'' It's the latest targeted harassment campaign within the game industry and it's aimed at Sweet Baby Inc, a Montreal-based narrative development studio. The campaign also has been impacting entities and games associated with Sweet Baby, journalists covering the issue, and others associated in various ways with the targets. You also may be at a loss to know how to talk about this issue, and what, if anything, you can do about it. That's where we come in.

Discord, Steam, and X have been the predominant platforms where the abuse and harassment has been taking place. In these spaces, lists of game studios, companies, and associated organizations are being circulated for targeting by members of the mob.

Large-scale harassment campaigns like this fuel '' and are fueled by '' political events. As political rhetoric heats up ahead of the US presidential election later this year, this kind of online activity is going to ramp up and it's important to understand that these phenomena are interrelated.

As scholars and journalists have noted, the targeted harassment, hate, and cultural norms that were at the heart of Gamergate in the mid 2010's never went away. People in game spaces, especially marginalized developers and content creators, face hate and harassment daily. In fact, research conducted by Take This has outlined an entire spectrum and typology of extremism and dark participation in games that is bigger than any one movement but underlies all of them. It can be scary or uncomfortable to think about, to talk about, and to understand. In overwhelming situations, it's not unusual to feel at a loss or to have thoughts of helplessness, but there are things we can do to mitigate the harm.

FOR EVERYONE: It's extremely important to speak out and step up for folks who are being harmed. This kind of support can take on many different forms. This could be an email or quick check-in with the people in your orbit who are targets of the harassment, or are close to those targets (family members, colleagues, and friends of those targeted also experience different types of harm in these situations). During organized harassment campaigns, people sometimes are forced to leave social media and online activity for a time, and they often need help filtering messages, dealing with threats, and maintaining their mental well-being. People of marginalized identities often already have some of these tools in place out of historical necessity, but the volume of large campaigns like this can quickly become overwhelming. The still-relevant Games Hotline website hosts a Digital Safety Guide that can support people experiencing or at risk of experiencing targeted harassment.

FOR INDUSTRY LEADERS: You may be inclined to be quiet or cautious, but that's actually not helpful. As noted in our resource ''Empowering the Game Industry,'' a major lesson learned from Gamergate was the importance of taking a loud, public stance. At the time, many studios were hesitant to address the hate and abuse from Gamergate in any meaningful way. The reasons varied, but usually this hesitation was born out of fear of losing profits or concern that taking a stance would attract the attention of the Gamergate mob.

''[The thinking went,] we want to protect our community from Gamergate. So by being silent, we will avoid inviting the pro Gamergate crowd to our forums [and] into our community.''

However, the failure to take a stand and clearly communicate with the community backfired.

''Without an explicit statement from the studio that toxic, misogynistic behavior was not welcome, the studio found that pro Gamergate individuals assumed the studio's game was a safe space for them to build community.''

In other words, failure to clearly and unequivocally denounce Gamergate and the harassment and abuse done in its name created a space for that hate and abuse to flourish, spread, and become normalized.

Hate, harassment, and toxic behavior have no place in games. By taking direct, targeted action in a timely manner, we can mitigate further harm to talented, dedicated folks in games, and help prevent additional recurrences of these harmful events.

It's 10 years since Gamergate '' the industry must now stand up to far-right trolls | Games | The Guardian

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Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:47

T en years ago, a game developer's aggrieved ex-boyfriend published a vindictive screed accusing her of trading sex for favourable reviews of her indie game. This was leapt upon by the least savoury corner of the 2014 internet, 4chan, and kicked off a harassment campaign that broadened to include all women working in video game development or the gaming press, as well as the industry's LGBTQ+ community. Sensing blood in the water, ''alt-right'' agitators on YouTube and Steve Bannon's Breitbart jumped on the bandwagon, and soon began to steer it '' and Gamergate, as this manufactured outrage became known, mutated into one of the first fronts of the modern culture wars, driven by social media, misogyny and the weaponised disaffection of young men. Many of its tactics became part of the Trump election playbook.

This week, a 16-person narrative design studio has found itself at the centre of a conspiracy theory that holds it responsible for the insidious prevalence of ''wokery'' in modern video games. A group with more than 200,000 followers on PC games storefront Steam, as well as thousands in a Discord chat channel, believes that Sweet Baby Inc is secretly forcing game developers to change the bodies, ethnicities and sexualities of video game characters to conform to ''woke'' ideology. They think that Sweet Baby has written and controlled almost every popular video game of the past five years, shutting straight white men out. As Trump once again heads out on the campaign trail, this is part of a broader far right panic about diversity and inclusion that has already resulted in proposed regressive anti-women and anti-woke legislation in the US and elsewhere.

Pride support '... Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Photograph: Sony Computer EntertainmentThe agency in question has of course done nothing of the sort. It is simply a narrative development studio, the video game equivalent of script doctors, that works with game developers to ensure their plots make sense and their characters aren't embarrassingly out of touch. The consultancy's mission statement is to ''make games more engaging, more fun, more meaningful and more inclusive''. It cannot dictate that developers feature, for example, black female leads in their games. It does not have the power to dictate anything. But its employees are nonetheless bearing the brunt of an online mob's ire. They are being doxed, threatened and abused online.

There may always be those who believe that the mere presence of women and minorities in their video games is an affrontTen years ago, it was female games journalists and critics in the firing line. This time, it's narrative designers. But the conspiracists' message is the same: diversity has no place in games. If you are a woman, queer or a person of colour working in this industry, you should expect the worst.

Nathan Grayson of Aftermath and Alyssa Mercante of Kotaku have both investigated the origins and sprawling nature of the Sweet Baby conspiracy theory. Its proponents draw preposterous connections between the consultancy and BlackRock, and the funding crisis affecting the wider games industry. This is far from the first time since Gamergate that such harassment has spilled over: depressingly, coordinated abuse against game developers is now somewhat routine, especially if they do something so audacious as to include pride flags in Spider-Man's Manhattan, or take their time implementing mod support for Baldur's Gate 3. A full 91% of devs surveyed by the Game Developers Conference last year said that harassment from players was an issue, 42% calling it a ''very serious'' issue.

When Gamergate was going on, the silence from much of the video games industry was deafening. Instead of standing up for the people that were being targeted, almost everyone who wasn't being directly attacked by Gamergate's mob stuck their fingers in their ears and tried to pretend it wasn't happening. Media outlets, game developers and publishers alike, perhaps motivated by a fear of making things worse or of alienating what they feared was a sizeable part of their audience, failed to speak out in defence of women until it was too late, if they spoke out at all. IGN, then the most popular games website in the world, published a stunningly weak exercise in both-sidesism about ''recent unpleasantness'' that failed to even call the movement by name.

The games industry's failure to speak out decisively did not calm the situation. Doing nothing did not dissuade the mob. It merely left people, who were in some cases being harassed out of their homes and workplaces, feeling alone, furious and often afraid. Back then the main targets were female developers, journalists and critics. This time, it's a group of narrative consultants.

In the 10 years since Gamergate, the culture wars that were fermented in gamer forums have spread out to poison almost all aspects of our lives. The last decade has taught us that these people will not simply go away: there may always be those who believe that the mere presence of women and minorities in their video games, or their Star Wars, or their halls of cultural or political power, is an affront, a symptom of the ''woke mind virus''.

Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy Entertainment has denied accusations that narrative agency Sweet Baby Inc ensured the lead character was a black woman. Photograph: Remedy EntertainmentBut we have also learned that ignoring them does not help. It only makes things worse. The people working at Sweet Baby should not be left to suffer on behalf of the studios that employ them. Individual developers are braver these days about speaking out on social media: the director of Alan Wake 2 posted that conspiracy theories claiming Sweet Baby forced the developer to change a character's ethnicity were ''absolutely not true''; and Mary Kenney, associate narrative director at Marvel's Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games, has also Tweeted strong denials. But companies themselves need to follow suit. Publishers and developers that have worked with Sweet Baby Inc include Warner Bros Games and PlayStation's Santa Monica Studio. Where are their statements of support? Are they going to publicly defend the people they worked with on multimillion-dollar games from false accusations, or let the trolls control the narrative?

Nobody is forcing diversity into video games. It is happening naturally, as players and developers themselves diversify. Gamergate didn't intimidate women out of video games 10 years ago, and we won't be intimidated now. The games industry knows that a greater breadth of content, featuring a greater breadth of characters, made with the contributions of a greater breadth of people, is good for creativity and for business, no matter what some aggrieved gamers may think. This time, it must make its support perfectly and unequivocally clear.

Digital ID Part of Social Contract Between Govt, Citizens: World Bank, Verizon Chiefs - Activist Post

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Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:40

By Ayang Macdonald

The President of the World Bank Group, Ajay Banga, and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Verizon, Hans Vestberg, have emphasized the need to close the yawning digital divide which remains one of the biggest setbacks to digital inclusion efforts globally.

The two officials shared their thoughts in a panel during the inaugural edition of the Global Digital Summit, organized by the World Bank, which took place from March 4-7 in Washington, DC under the theme ''Accelerating Digital for Development.'' Digital identity, they underlined, is foundational in the digital transformation journey and governments must own them as part of their social contract with citizens.

The summit, anchored on the three pillars of ''Connect, Innovate and Transform,'' aimed at discussing advancements in global digital transformation efforts and examine and proffer possible solutions to some barriers such as privacy and security risks brought about by generative artificial intelligence.

The event rallied representatives from governments, the private sector, partner organizations and thought leaders from various domains of life.

In the panel, Banga and Vestberg agree that connectivity is one of the primary drivers of digital transformation, but weak internet coverage remains a stumbling block especially in Africa where about 600 million people are said not to have electricity in the first place.

''That's absolutely unacceptable and it's an issue of human rights. I consider that as important as the right to breathe. So, we have to give them access to electricity. But at the same time, you have to remember that 1/3 of people in the world don't have access to the internet. And there are more than two billion people involved. That gets exacerbated when you talk gender and age,'' says Banga about the connectivity problem.

They also note that with the appropriate policies and investments, countries will significantly advance their digital transformation endeavours, and quicken the pace of their socio-economic development drive.

''The reality is we have to get those 600 million people connected to electricity. The Bank has made a commitment to reach 100 million by 2030. We are seeking to expand that ambition to another 100 million. We can do that, with renewable energy by the way. We have tried it out in Rwanda and Tanzania, and we know it can work.''

Banga says there is also a segment of the world's population that has electricity but no access to the internet, while another category of people in the world has access to internet but it is not being fully used and exploited for the capabilities that it is possible to support. ''So, there are different shades of work to be done with different target audiences,'' he notes.

Govts must make digital a priorityWhile reiterating the World Bank's commitment and that of its partners to supporting digital transformation, Banga believes governments and the private sector must both rise to the occasion by embracing aspects like digital identity and make it a part of the social contract with their citizens.

''I think that if governments embrace digital, they would create transparency, clean governance, and citizen engagement,'' says the World Bank chief.

Underscoring the need for digital identity in digital transformation, Banga mentioned: ''Private companies shouldn't own that. It is the social contract of a citizen with their country to have an identity, a currency and safety. They should have digital identity and that digital identity should guarantee the privacy of that citizen.''

Banga says that the Bank has made digital one of its five verticals because it enables all the others, and the pace of change in digital is amazing. He said with digital, tasks can be accomplished faster.

''I think the way digital is growing right now under AI, it will require a shorter time frame [to complete tasks] and the Bank needs to be focussed on that. I think of digital as the breakthrough technology that takes out the arbitrage of the incumbent, and enables new ways to reach populations without the traditional challenge of the expense of reaching them for healthcare, education, and everything.''

In his intervention, Vestberg states: ''I've often said that digital inclusion is extremely important. I think the 21st century's infrastructure is mobility, broader than cloud. I don't think it should matter where you are born, where you come from or who you are. You should be part of our society, and to be part of our society, you actually need to be digitally included.''

''My work at Verizon, and also globally, has been trying to see that we find the opportunities to take down the barriers [of digital inclusion] because there are very different barriers in different ways.''

Mentioning some of those barriers, the Verizon CEO notes: ''Access to technology is one barrier. There are about 400 million people who are outside the telecom grid. Affordability is one of the biggest barriers of all. Affording a device or service plan is sometimes a staggering challenge. Usability is another problem. This means having applications that actually support the society either through digital education, digital healthcare, or financial inclusion, and also being part of the societal opportunities that the government gives you.''

In order to deal with these challenges, Vestberg holds that there is need for concerted action as no government, NGO, or private company can do it all alone. ''I have actually rallied a lot of people around, to see how we can get more people connected. I called Ajay Banga to work with me, and ultimately, I started the EDISON Alliance with one target '-- to connect one billion people in five years. Today, we have had 784 million people connected in less than two and a half years,'' he says.

''We are close to reaching one billion people. That's a community of work. Verizon is doing its part. We have dedicated three billion dollars to digital inclusion in the U.S., but ultimately, everyone can do something, but we need to come together as a community. Governments need to be much more active, use the infrastructure to get all their citizens to be part of the system.''

The EDISON Alliance, early this year, released a new impact report which highlights how the lives of almost 800 million people have been positively changed through digital transformation.

Low-income countries need support for digitalization effortsMeanwhile, in a blog article before the Washington DC summit, World Bank Senior Managing Director Axel van Trotsenburg acknowledged the huge benefits that come with digital transformation, but regrets the existing connectivity inequalities between low and high-income countries

Trotsenburg urges support for developing countries to make the most of the available opportunity for digitalization, while ensuring that the associated risks and challenges are sufficiently contained.

Digital divide notwithstanding, he highlights the unavoidable nature of digitalization, noting that ''a new digital era that is accessible to all holds the potential to shape a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable world for generations to come.''

He also calls on stakeholders to ready themselves for the better management of the risks of digitalization, and to increase investments in aspects like connectivity which is one of the key drivers of digital.

Digital sector enhances economic growthRelatedly, the World Bank also recently released its new ''Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023,'' last month.

The report, which reviews the progress of digitalization and technology market trends, mentions the need to support countries whose digital transformation efforts are lagging. It highlights key policy opportunities, challenges, and debates related to digitalization.

According to the report, digital divide continues to widen and exacerbate poverty despite global digital transformation efforts, the digital sector enhances growth and job creation, and growth in data and analytical capabilities is advancing digitalization efforts.

Source: Biometric Update

Ayang Macdonald is a freelance journalist based in Yaounde, Cameroon. He boasts 10 years of professional experience in journalism in which he has a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Buea in South western Cameroon. He is a versatile reporter with interest in ICTs, innovation, digital entrepreneurship, defense and military, politics, economy, health and environment, humanitarian issues and sports.

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Bird flu virus found in king penguins as scientists fear global spread | The Independent

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Wed, 13 Mar 2024 10:37

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The Bird flu virus has been found in king penguins near Antarctica.

The UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) has tested for the H5N1 virus on the island of South Georgia since several brown skuas were found dead there in October.

Earlier this year experts found the virus in elephant and fur seals, and it spread to Antarctic terns and wandering albatrosses.

It has now been discovered in five king penguins on the southern coast of South Georgia and five gentoo penguins from nearby Bird Island.

The cases were confirmed in samples sent back to the UK to the International Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza at the Apha laboratories in Weybridge, Surrey.

Scientists say while cases are localised, there are concerns the virus could spread in winter, when penguins huddle together to breed.

H5N1 is most likely to have been introduced in the region through birds migrating from South America, it is believed.

While the risk to human health remains very low, the virus endangers the delicate and unique ecosystems of the Antarctic, experts say.

Professor Ash Banyard, of Apha, said: ''South Georgia is home to some of our most unique and special wildlife and is of great importance to international biodiversity, so it is sad to witness the effects of avian influenza on these populations.

''However, these cases remain fairly isolated, and we are not seeing a rapid spread through penguin colonies.''

Bird flu has previously been found in seals around Europe and the Americas as well as in mink in northern Spain and foxes and otters in England.

Positive samples have been found as far north as the Arctic, in Alaskan polar bears.

HR7521 - The TikTok Ban Law (as written) is NOT About Banning TikTok, It's About Information Control - pdf Included - The Last Refuge

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Wed, 13 Mar 2024 03:57

I swear by all that I know to be righteous and accurate, the combined willpower of the UniParty in Washington DC is not targeting TikTok from the perspective of concern over data collection. Instead, the DC system -which is to say the USIC- is using the auspices of TikTok to expand the reach of government censorship and control information.

This is a domestic information space battle, using the guise of TikTok as a baseline for justification. How do we know? You only need to look at the mechanism of the law as it is written, the compliance section, and the definitions they are using to see they are not targeting data collection. [pdf of HR7521 HERE]

If TikTok data collection was the issue, the law would be structured to ban foreign data collection. That's not what this is. This is a law written to give the Executive Branch the power to define any platform as ''foreign owned'' by the service provider (even if domestic) and the substance of the content contained and/or distributed. This has to be stopped.

[Source pdf, Page 8 '' HR7521]

Read the law as written through the prism of ''Information Control,'' not the prism of data collection. The law is designed to control information, not data collection.

As readers are well aware, the USIC is in alignment (I would say control) with almost all U.S-based social media platforms. This is why/how DHS is operating in synergy with those same systems. This is also the motive behind the mis-dis-mal-information definitions. Ultimately, if you stand back and look at what is being done, you see the concern of the U.S. government is not data collection, its information control.

The TikTok ban, authorized by a duplicious Legislative branch, is expanding the ability of the Executive branch to control information. Just as The Patriot Act was not about targeting terrorism, but really about domestic surveillance; so too is the TikTok ban not about foreign data collection, it's about information control.

Again, read the law as written and you can clearly see this is a law created to authorize the agencies of the government to control information. Silence is the same as consent in the face of oppression. Do not be silent.

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United flight bound for SFO turns around midflight due to mechanical issue '' NBC Bay Area

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Tue, 12 Mar 2024 21:23

An investigation is underway after another United Airlines jet, bound for SFO, had to turn around midflight because of a mechanical issue.

Just 10 seconds after flight 830 from Sydney to San Francisco took the air, video by plane spotter New York Aviation got clear images of fluid spewing from the plane -- it looks like it was coming from the rear right landing gear.

The crew of the Boeing 777-300 jet continued over the ocean for a while before turning around.

Video from a passenger shows the crew dumping fuel before landing.

The plane landed safely back at the airport in Sydney, with no injuries, but a lot of questions.

An investigation is underway after another United Airlines jet, bound for SFO, had to turn around midflight because of a mechanical issue.

United Airlines has been dealing with a series of issues with its flights over the last couple of weeks. But this incident in Sydney is now the third involving a technical issue with one of its planes in just the last few days.

Last Thursday, a wheel fell off a rear landing gear just as a United 777-200 took off from San Francisco headed to Japan. That wheel smashed onto two cars in an employee parking lot.

And on Friday, a United Airbus 320 heading from SFO to Mexico City had to re-route to Los Angeles because of a hydraulic issue.

"Why are these things happening? Considering all of them seem to be tied to San Francisco. The airbus hydraulic issue, the wheel issue on the 777 and now this one,'' said Douglas Rice, retired airline pilot. ''All three aircraft either originate or terminate in San Francisco."

A statement from a United spokesperson says each incident will be investigated individually, along with federal regulators.

"Each of these events is distinct and unrelated to one another. Safety is our top priority, and we'll continue to do everything we can to keep our customers and employees safe,'' read the statement in part.

But Rice raised another concern about the way the Sydney incident was handled -- pointing out that video shows the rear landing gear had smoke coming off of it when it landed.

Fire crews inspected it before the plane taxied to the terminal on its own power.

Either it's some real bad luck for United Airlines, or there's some real problems with its fleet, and staff. There was another emergency on a United flight from Australia to SFO. NBC Bay Area's Raj Mathai spoke to retired pilot, Doug Rice, about the latest incident.

"The crew should have stopped the airplane on the runway, had a tug come out, and been pulled to the gate with the fire department following it,'' said Rice.

According to a passenger on board, they exited safely, and were given hotel rooms to stay overnight and are boarding a return flight Monday.

Read United Airlines' full statement bellow:

"We maintain all of our aircraft in accordance with United's FAA-approved maintenance program. We take every safety event seriously and will investigate each incident to understand what happened and learn from it. Much of this work is conducted together with the manufacturers, the FAA, and the NTSB, as well as with the manufacturers of individual components. While this work is ongoing, each of these events is distinct and unrelated to one another. Safety is our top priority, and we'll continue to do everything we can to keep our customers and employees safe."

Four Years Ago This Week, Freedom Was Torched 'ܠ Brownstone Institute

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Tue, 12 Mar 2024 12:49

''Beware the Ides of March,'' Shakespeare quotes the soothsayer's warning Julius Caesar about what turned out to be an impending assassination on March 15. The death of American liberty happened around the same time four years ago, when the orders went out from all levels of government to close all indoor and outdoor venues where people gather.

It was not quite a law and it was never voted on by anyone. Seemingly out of nowhere, people who the public had largely ignored, the public health bureaucrats, all united to tell the executives in charge '' mayors, governors, and the president '' that the only way to deal with a respiratory virus was to scrap freedom and the Bill of Rights.

And they did, not only in the US but all over the world.

The forced closures in the US began on March 6 when the mayor of Austin, Texas, announced the shutdown of the technology and arts festival South by Southwest. Hundreds of thousands of contracts, of attendees and vendors, were instantly scrapped. The mayor said he was acting on the advice of his health experts and they in turn pointed to the CDC, which in turn pointed to the World Health Organization, which in turn pointed to member states and so on.

There was no record of Covid in Austin, Texas, that day but they were sure they were doing their part to stop the spread. It was the first deployment of the ''Zero Covid'' strategy that became, for a time, official US policy, just as in China.

It was never clear precisely who to blame or who would take responsibility, legal or otherwise.

This Friday evening press conference in Austin was just the beginning. By the next Thursday evening, the lockdown mania reached a full crescendo. Donald Trump went on nationwide television to announce that everything was under control but that he was stopping all travel in and out of US borders, from Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. American citizens would need to return by Monday or be stuck.

Americans abroad panicked while spending on tickets home and crowded into international airports with waits up to 8 hours standing shoulder to shoulder. It was the first clear sign: there would be no consistency in the deployment of these edicts.

There is no historical record of any American president ever issuing global travel restrictions like this without a declaration of war. Until then, and since the age of travel began, every American had taken it for granted that he could buy a ticket and board a plane. That was no longer possible. Very quickly it became even difficult to travel state to state, as most states eventually implemented a two-week quarantine rule.

The next day, Friday March 13, Broadway closed and New York City began to empty out as any residents who could went to summer homes or out of state.

On that day, the Trump administration declared the national emergency by invoking the Stafford Act which triggers new powers and resources to the Federal Emergency Management Administration.

In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a classified document, only to be released to the public months later. The document initiated the lockdowns. It still does not exist on any government website.

The White House Coronavirus Response Task Force, led by the Vice President, will coordinate a whole-of-government approach, including governors, state and local officials, and members of Congress, to develop the best options for the safety, well-being, and health of the American people. HHS is the LFA [Lead Federal Agency] for coordinating the federal response to COVID-19.

Closures were guaranteed:

Recommend significantly limiting public gatherings and cancellation of almost all sporting events, performances, and public and private meetings that cannot be convened by phone. Consider school closures. Issue widespread 'stay at home' directives for public and private organizations, with nearly 100% telework for some, although critical public services and infrastructure may need to retain skeleton crews. Law enforcement could shift to focus more on crime prevention, as routine monitoring of storefronts could be important.

In this vision of turnkey totalitarian control of society, the vaccine was pre-approved: ''Partner with pharmaceutical industry to produce anti-virals and vaccine.''

The National Security Council was put in charge of policy making. The CDC was just the marketing operation. That's why it felt like martial law. Without using those words, that's what was being declared. It even urged information management, with censorship strongly implied.

The timing here is fascinating. This document came out on a Friday. But according to every autobiographical account '' from Mike Pence and Scott Gottlieb to Deborah Birx and Jared Kushner '' the gathered team did not meet with Trump himself until the weekend of the 14th and 15th, Saturday and Sunday.

According to their account, this was his first real encounter with the urge that he lock down the whole country. He reluctantly agreed to 15 days to flatten the curve. He announced this on Monday the 16th with the famous line: ''All public and private venues where people gather should be closed.''

This makes no sense. The decision had already been made and all enabling documents were already in circulation.

There are only two possibilities.

One: the Department of Homeland Security issued this March 13 HHS document without Trump's knowledge or authority. That seems unlikely.

Two: Kushner, Birx, Pence, and Gottlieb are lying. They decided on a story and they are sticking to it.

Trump himself has never explained the timeline or precisely when he decided to greenlight the lockdowns. To this day, he avoids the issue beyond his constant claim that he doesn't get enough credit for his handling of the pandemic.

With Nixon, the famous question was always what did he know and when did he know it? When it comes to Trump and insofar as concerns Covid lockdowns '' unlike the fake allegations of collusion with Russia '' we have no investigations. To this day, no one in the corporate media seems even slightly interested in why, how, or when human rights got abolished by bureaucratic edict.

As part of the lockdowns, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which was and is part of the Department of Homeland Security, as set up in 2018, broke the entire American labor force into essential and nonessential. They also set up and enforced censorship protocols, which is why it seemed like so few objected. In addition, CISA was tasked with overseeing mail-in ballots.

Only 8 days into the 15, Trump announced that he wanted to open the country by Easter, which was on April 12. His announcement on March 24 was treated as outrageous and irresponsible by the national press but keep in mind: Easter would already take us beyond the initial two-week lockdown. What seemed to be an opening was an extension of closing.

This announcement by Trump encouraged Birx and Fauci to ask for an additional 30 days of lockdown, which Trump granted. Even on April 23, Trump told Georgia and Florida, which had made noises about reopening, that ''It's too soon.'' He publicly fought with the governor of Georgia, who was first to open his state.

Before the 15 days was over, Congress passed and the president signed the 880-page CARES Act, which authorized the distribution of $2 trillion to states, businesses, and individuals, thus guaranteeing that lockdowns would continue for the duration.

There was never a stated exit plan beyond Birx's public statements that she wanted zero cases of Covid in the country. That was never going to happen. It is very likely that the virus had already been circulating in the US and Canada from October 2019. A famous seroprevalence study by Jay Bhattacharya came out in May 2020 discerning that infections and immunity were already widespread in the California county they examined.

What that implied was two crucial points: there was zero hope for the Zero Covid mission and this pandemic would end as they all did, through endemicity via exposure, not from a vaccine as such. That was certainly not the message that was being broadcast from Washington. The growing sense at the time was that we all had to sit tight and just wait for the inoculation on which pharmaceutical companies were working.

By summer 2020, you recall what happened. A restless generation of kids fed up with this stay-at-home nonsense seized on the opportunity to protest racial injustice in the killing of George Floyd. Public health officials approved of these gatherings '' unlike protests against lockdowns '' on grounds that racism was a virus even more serious than Covid. Some of these protests got out of hand and became violent and destructive.

Meanwhile, substance abuse rage '' the liquor and weed stores never closed '' and immune systems were being degraded by lack of normal exposure, exactly as the Bakersfield doctors had predicted. Millions of small businesses had closed. The learning losses from school closures were mounting, as it turned out that Zoom school was near worthless.

It was about this time that Trump seemed to figure out '' thanks to the wise council of Dr. Scott Atlas '' that he had been played and started urging states to reopen. But it was strange: he seemed to be less in the position of being a president in charge and more of a public pundit, Tweeting out his wishes until his account was banned. He was unable to put the worms back in the can that he had approved opening.

By that time, and by all accounts, Trump was convinced that the whole effort was a mistake, that he had been trolled into wrecking the country he promised to make great. It was too late. Mail-in ballots had been widely approved, the country was in shambles, the media and public health bureaucrats were ruling the airwaves, and his final months of the campaign failed even to come to grips with the reality on the ground.

At the time, many people had predicted that once Biden took office and the vaccine was released, Covid would be declared to have been beaten. But that didn't happen and mainly for one reason: resistance to the vaccine was more intense than anyone had predicted. The Biden administration attempted to impose mandates on the entire US workforce. Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, that effort was thwarted but not before HR departments around the country had already implemented them.

As the months rolled on '' and four major cities closed all public accommodations to the unvaccinated, who were being demonized for prolonging the pandemic '' it became clear that the vaccine could not and would not stop infection or transmission, which means that this shot could not be classified as a public health benefit. Even as a private benefit, the evidence was mixed. Any protection it provided was short-lived and reports of vaccine injury began to mount. Even now, we cannot gain full clarity on the scale of the problem because essential data and documentation remains classified.

After four years, we find ourselves in a strange position. We still do not know precisely what unfolded in mid-March 2020: who made what decisions, when, and why. There has been no serious attempt at any high level to provide a clear accounting much less assign blame.

Not even Tucker Carlson, who reportedly played a crucial role in getting Trump to panic over the virus, will tell us the source of his own information or what his source told him. There have been a series of valuable hearings in the House and Senate but they have received little to no press attention, and none have focus on the lockdown orders themselves.

The prevailing attitude in public life is just to forget the whole thing. And yet we live now in a country very different from the one we inhabited five years ago. Our media is captured. Social media is widely censored in violation of the First Amendment, a problem being taken up by the Supreme Court this month with no certainty of the outcome. The administrative state that seized control has not given up power. Crime has been normalized. Art and music institutions are on the rocks. Public trust in all official institutions is at rock bottom. We don't even know if we can trust the elections anymore.

In the early days of lockdown, Henry Kissinger warned that if the mitigation plan does not go well, the world will find itself set ''on fire.'' He died in 2023. Meanwhile, the world is indeed on fire. The essential struggle in every country on earth today concerns the battle between the authority and power of permanent administration apparatus of the state '' the very one that took total control in lockdowns '' and the enlightenment ideal of a government that is responsible to the will of the people and the moral demand for freedom and rights.

How this struggle turns out is the essential story of our times.

CODA: I'm embedding a copy of PanCAP Adapted, as annotated by Debbie Lerman. You might need to download the whole thing to see the annotations. If you can help with research, please do.

PanCAP-A-annotated-by-Debbie-Lerman2 Jeffrey Tucker is Founder, Author, and President at Brownstone Institute. He is also Senior Economics Columnist for Epoch Times, author of 10 books, including Life After Lockdown, and many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

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Gain-of-function experiments on H7N9 | Nature 2013

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Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:31

Since the end of March 2013, avian influenza A viruses of the H7N9 subtype have caused more than 130 human cases of infection in China, many of which were severe, resulting in 43 fatalities. Although this A(H7N9) outbreak is now under control, the virus (or one with similar properties) could re-emerge as winter approaches.

To better assess the pandemic threat posed by A(H7N9) viruses, investigators from the NIAID Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance and other expert laboratories in China and elsewhere have characterized the wild-type avian A(H7N9) viruses in terms of host range, virulence and transmission, and are evaluating the effectiveness of antiviral drugs and vaccine candidates. However, to fully assess the potential risk associated with these novel viruses, there is a need for further research, including experiments that may be classified as 'gain of function' (GOF).

Here we outline the aspects of the current situation that most urgently require additional research, our proposed studies, and risk-mitigation strategies.

The A(H7N9) virus haemagglutinin protein has several motifs that are characteristic of mammalian-adapted and human influenza viruses, including mutations that confer human-type receptor binding and enhanced virus replication in mammals. The pandemic risk rises exponentially should these viruses acquire the ability to transmit readily among humans.

Reports indicate that several A(H7N9) viruses from patients who were undergoing antiviral treatment acquired resistance to the primary medical countermeasure '-- neuraminidase inhibitors (such as oseltamivir, peramivir and zanamivir). Acquisition of resistance to these inhibitors by A(H7N9) viruses could increase the risk of serious outcomes of A(H7N9) virus infections.

The haemagglutinin proteins of A(H7N9) viruses have a cleavage site that is consistent with a low-pathogenic phenotype in birds. In the past, highly pathogenic H7 variants (with basic amino-acid insertions at the cleavage site that enable the spread of the virus to internal organs) have emerged from populations of low-pathogenic strains circulating in domestic gallinaceous poultry.

Normally, epidemiological studies and characterization of viruses from field isolates are used to inform policy decisions regarding public-health responses to a potential pandemic. However, classical epidemiological tracking does not give public-health authorities the time they need to mount an effective response to mitigate the effects of a pandemic virus. To provide information that can assist surveillance activities '-- thus enabling appropriate public-health preparations to be initiated before a pandemic '-- experiments that may result in GOF are critical.

Therefore, after review and approval, we propose to perform experiments that may result in GOF (see 'Proposed gain-of-function experiments').

All experiments proposed by influenza investigators are subject to review by institutional biosafety committees. The committees include experts in the fields of infectious disease, immunology, biosafety, molecular biology and public health; also, members of the public represent views from outside the research community. Risk-mitigation plans for working with potentially dangerous influenza viruses, including the 1918 virus and highly pathogenic avian H5N1 viruses, will be applied to conduct GOF experiments with A(H7N9) viruses (see Supplementary Information). Additional reviews may be required by the funding agencies for proposed studies of A(H7N9) viruses.

The recent H5N1 virus-transmission controversy focused on the balance of risks and benefits of conducting research that proved the ability of the H5N1 virus to become transmissible in mammals (see www.nature.com/mutantflu). These findings demonstrated the pandemic potential of H5N1 viruses and reinforced the need for continued optimization of pandemic-preparedness measures. Key mutations associated with adaptation to mammals, included in an annotated inventory for mutations in H5N1 viruses developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were identified in human isolates of A(H7N9) viruses. Scientific evidence of the pandemic threat posed by A(H7N9) viruses, based on H5N1 GOF studies, factored in risk assessments by public-health officials in China, the United States and other countries.

Since the H5 transmission papers were published, follow-up scientific studies have contributed to our understanding of host adaptation by influenza viruses, the development of vaccines and therapeutics, and improved surveillance.

Finally, a benefit of the H5N1 controversy has been the increased dialogue regarding laboratory biosafety and dual-use research. The World Health Organization issued laboratory biosafety guidelines for conducting research on H5N1 transmission and, in the United States, additional oversight policies and risk-mitigation practices have been put in place or proposed. Some journals now encourage authors to include biosafety and biosecurity descriptions in their papers, thereby raising the awareness of researchers intending to replicate experiments.

The risk of a pandemic caused by an avian influenza virus exists in nature. As members of the influenza research community, we believe that the avian A(H7N9) virus outbreak requires focused fundamental and applied research conducted by responsible investigators with appropriate facilities and risk-mitigation plans in place. To answer key questions important to public health, research that may result in GOF is necessary and should be done.

Box 1: Proposed gain-of-function experiments Immunogenicity. To develop more effective vaccines and determine whether genetic changes that confer altered virulence, host range or transmissibility also change antigenicity.

Adaptation. To assist with risk assessment of the pandemic potential of field strains and evaluate the potential of A(H7N9) viruses to become better adapted to mammals, including determining the ability of these viruses to reassort with other circulating influenza strains.

Drug resistance. To assess the potential for drug resistance to emerge in circulating viruses, evaluate the genetic stability of mutations conferring drug resistance, and evaluate the efficacy of combination therapy with antiviral therapeutics. Also, to determine whether A(H7N9) viruses could become resistant to available antiviral drugs, and to identify potential resistance mutations that should be monitored during antiviral treatment.

Transmission. To assess the pandemic potential of circulating strains and perform transmission studies to identify mutations and gene combinations that confer enhanced transmissibility in mammalian models (such as ferrets and guinea pigs).

Pathogenicity. To aid risk assessment and identify mechanisms, including reassortment and changes to the haemagglutinin cleavage site, that would enable circulating A(H7N9) viruses to become more pathogenic.

The Air Force Might Have To Protect Money Laundering in Space - Defense One

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Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:04

If you're looking for the ultimate in physical security for your future assets, look up, way up. Growing fears about cybersecurity and the rapidly decreasing cost to access space has given birth to a new class of startups offering satellite-based data centers impervious to all physical hacking. What sort of information is so valuable that the average person needs to protect them in space? One answer: money. Even space vaults need guards, and in this case the brunt of that job will go to U.S. Air Force.

But putting digital money into space-based data centers not only puts it out of reach from thieves, it's also out of jurisdiction from law enforcement. In other words, the Air Force could one day soon be on the hook to protect a hive of money laundering in space.

Bitcoin data servers in space sounds like a random mashup of tech buzzwords. In fact, it's a real business model. Bitcoins are encrypted digital currency tokens. Jeff Garzik, one of only five people on the planet responsible for maintaining the core bitcoin codebase and founder of the space startup Dunvegan Space Systems, or DSS, announced this month that his company had partnered with Deep Space Industries to acquire craft to ferry 24 small satellites into space.

''Our company is pursing the financial side of things so you can store some of your Bitcoin encryption keys, some of your key backups, in space on our satellites,'' Garzik said at the South by Southwest Interactive, or SXSW, technology conference in Austin, Texas, last week. ''The legal and jurisdictional issues of space are really where the excitement is,'' he said. ''We can create new and interesting environments while not being bound to some of the earthly laws that we have constraining development '... exploring new legal jurisdictions is also one reason why we need to go to space.''

These orbital safety deposit boxes would be beyond the jurisdiction (or easy capture) of any law enforcement agency, regulator or tax collector. And bitcoins have already been implicated in possible ISIS funding operations online.

''We have two revenue streams: First, selling satellites to customers in government, business and high net-worth individuals looking for the ultimate in data security or worldwide data broadcast '... This is a turnkey, soup-to-nuts package,'' he said. So, any individual with enough money can own their own digital safe in space.

Our company is pursing the financial side of things so you can store some of your bitcoin encryption keys, some of your key backups, in space on our satellites.

Jeff Garzik, founder of Dunvegan Space Systems

DSS's second revenue stream will be derived from the continuous operation of a 24-satellite constellation related to data processing and storage.

Approximately $1 million buys one 10 cm CubeSat satellite '' the discount rate offers 24 CubeSats for $19 million '' and that covers launch, mission operations and direct access from a satellite transceiver or mobile phone.

The cost of getting CubeSats into space is about $300,000 per launch by some estimates. But the price is rapidly coming down. A company called Trisept, that runs a sort of ride-share program for satellites, is offering to get your CubeSat to space for $200,000. Small rockets from companies like Generation Orbit may drive the cost down further. Or, you could take a layover approach. A company called Nanoracks, which claims to be ''the first company to own and market their own hardware on the space station,'' is promising to send your payload into orbit from the ISS.

But do space banks really represent the ultimate in security for data? In a 2007 missile test, China destroyed a weather satellite to much international condemnation. Over the last few years, a sense of urgency about future threats to space infrastructure has risen among many experts.

''The capability to materially harm satellites in space is well within the abilities of multiple countries, including the United States, Japan, the countries of Europe, China, Russia and India,'' said John C. Mankins, president of the space systems technology group Artemis Innovation.

Paul Szymanski, principal consultant at the Space Strategies Center, told Defense One, ''I would estimate that China and Russia have at least rudimentary satellite attack capabilities currently, and [will have] more complete 'warfighting' capabilities in the next 3-5 years.''

Last year, the Council on Foreign Relations, in a special report on rising space incidents, highlighted space terrorism as a growing concern.

Garzik said the outsized role that the United States plays in space is the reason he chose to locate his business here. He needs protection.

''Although we target an international market, DSS operates within the United States, protected by U.S. laws. Air Force Space Command has a strong presence in space, providing a sort of protective umbrella that reduces the risk of physical harm to DSS satellites,'' he told Defense One.

In particular he'll be looking to the Air Force to provide protection for his business from emerging Chinese or Russian anti-satellite capabilities.

The capability to materially harm satellites in space is well within the abilities of multiple countries, including the United States, Japan, the countries of Europe, China, Russia and India.

John C. Mankins, president of the space systems technology group Artemis Innovation.

''DSS's mission also mirrors Space Command's mission, albeit in the private sector: Provide resilient and affordable space and cyberspace-in-space capabilities for commercial customers,'' he said.

Is the U.S. specially obligated to protect the property of every startup that wants to do off-planet business? The U.S. is party to various international agreements that govern the uses of space, the most famous of which is the Outer Space Treaty, but there are also international conventions on rescuing astronauts, liability, registering objects and the use of the moon and other celestial objects.

Those agreements do not state that the United States has a special duty to protect all space junk.

One watchdog body for policing private activity or protecting private property in space is the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its secretariat, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Theoretically, at least, the UN would take the lead in keeping commercial satellites safe from Chinese or Russian rockets.

But the UN doesn't have its own military.

The United States is still, by far, the biggest player in space. Despite the U.S. abdication of manned space flight, worries about Russian engines and Americans hitching rides to the International Space Station on Soyuz rockets, some 75 percent of the global funding that goes toward space activity comes from the United States and 43 percent of the satellites currently active in space are U.S. owned.

''Should a private U.S. satellite be damaged by actions taken by some other state or non-governmental organization in violation of the treaties or understandings associated with the peaceful use of space, I believe the results would be similar to those we see today in the international response to piracy. The United States would work with other nations to identify the bad actor and collectively bring the weight of world opinion and collective action on them to eliminate the threat,'' an official with the Pentagon's Joint Staff told Defense One.

"Air Force Space Command is committed to fostering the continued responsibility of space by both nations and commercial entities. Any action that would limit that use would be of specific concern," said Air Force technical sergeant Mike Slater.

The United States, in other words, would play a role in prosecuting space crimes along with other nations and would do so under a UN framework. But the U.S. would likely be the only country that would bring any muscle to the fight. The Air Force has already launched two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, satellites, and will launch another two in 2016 in order to monitor potential ground-based rockets launched against space objects.

The fiscal 2016 budget allocates $243 million to a program called the Space Fence from Lockheed Martin. It uses a network of more than 400 ground based, S-band radars to hunt, detect and track objects in low earth orbit. The System is expected to be operational in 2017.

Like it or not, burgeoning U.S. space-monitoring capabilities could one day be used to protect orbiting money laundering satellites from Chinese rockets.

On the charge that he's looking to run an off-planet tax dodge, Garzik says that he depends too much on the United States government to protect his assets to break any of our laws. ''DSS and our satellites are bound by U.S. laws, and that includes a wide variety of anti-money laundering laws and regulations,'' he told Defense One.

That doesn't mean that every operator of commercial off-planet data centers will consider themselves beholden to U.S. tax codes and regulations, especially as the skies become more crowded.

''In the long term, when you look at settling humans into space stations, the moon and Mars, it is likely that -- just like in American colonial history -- settlers will create their own legal jurisdictions and laws,'' Garzik said.

iOS 18 to include new 'hearing aid mode' for AirPods Pro, report says - 9to5Mac

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Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:37

AirPods today offer a handful of different features related to hearing health and Accessibility. A new report today, however, says Apple has big plans for iOS 18: a new ''hearing aid mode'' for AirPods Pro.

AirPods Pro with iOS 18 In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman writes that AirPods Pro aren't set to see any hardware changes in 2024. Instead, he says that the ''big news will be a major new hearing aid mode, coming alongside iOS 18.''

AirPods already offer a feature called Live Listen, which launched as part of iOS 12 in 2018. This feature essentially turns an iPhone into a directional microphone, transmitting the audio captured by that iPhone to AirPods in real time. A handful of testimonials over the years have shown how useful this feature can be.

Apple also introduced a Conversation Boost capability to AirPods Pro in 2021, which boosts mic pickup from directly in front of you, to better hear someone talking to you. A study in 2022 showed that some of these existing AirPods Pro features already compare well to much more expensive dedicated devices.

Also notable: in 2022, the FDA established new guidelines to allow for a category of hearing aids that can be purchased over-the-counter. Hearing aids within this category can be sold directly to consumers in stores or online without a medical exam or a fitting by an audiologist.

More details on this new iOS 18 feature for AirPods Pro users are unclear. This isn't the first time Gurman has written about Apple's plans to bring new hearing health features to AirPods, though. Last year, he reported that Apple is also working on a hearing test feature for future AirPods as well.

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GRAND SUMO: Day 1 of the March 2024 Tournament - GRAND SUMO Highlights - YouTube

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VIDEO - Former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is putting together an investor group to buy TikTok

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:52

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is building an investor group to acquire ByteDance's TikTok, as a bipartisan piece of legislation winding its way through Congress threatens its continued existence in the U.S.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that if signed into law would force ByteDance to either divest its flagship global app or face an effective ban on TikTok within the U.S.

"I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold," Mnuchin, who leads Liberty Strategic Capital, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday. "It's a great business and I'm going to put together a group to buy TikTok."

There is common ground between Liberty and ByteDance. Masa Son's SoftBank Vision Fund invested in ByteDance in 2018, and is also a limited partner in Mnuchin's Liberty Strategic.

The bill is now headed to the Senate, where its future is uncertain, though President Joe Biden has said that he will sign the legislation if reaches his desk.

"This should be owned by U.S. businesses. There's no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China," Mnuchin said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have highlighted TikTok's reach in the U.S. '-- by its own estimates, 170 million Americans use the app '-- as providing the Chinese government with ready access and influence over the U.S.

Major tech investors, including Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla and Keith Rabois, have publicly or privately decried the social media platform as a pernicious influence.

Still, it remains unclear if the Chinese government would permit ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer. TikTok has lobbied furiously against the bill, including a concerted pitch to its user base and through videos on its platform.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has implied that a sale is not an option. China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin described the bipartisan push as indicative of "robber's logic" toward TikTok, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

ByteDance was valued at $220 billion at its last funding round in 2023, according to PitchBook data. While a discrete valuation for TikTok was not immediately clear, any sale price for the U.S. division would likely be less.

TikTok's most valuable asset and, to lawmakers, its most worrying weapon, is its algorithm, which delivers tailored content to users and was developed in China. Any sale of TikTok without the algorithm would be significantly less attractive to potential buyers.

Mnuchin did not specify who the other investors would be in such a deal or the potential valuation for the social media site.

There are other interested buyers. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was shopping a potential deal to prospective partners.

Last week, Mnuchin's Liberty Strategic Capital was a lead investor in a $1 billion capital raise to stabilize New York Community Bancorp.

Mnuchin served as Treasury secretary under former President Donald Trump. That administration also took an antagonistic stance toward TikTok, which ultimately resulted in ByteDance striking a data partnership with Oracle . Trump has since reversed course and come out against a TikTok ban.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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VIDEO - John Barnett: A former Boeing manager who raised safety concerns is found dead. Coroner suspects he killed himself - ABC7 New York

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A former Boeing manager who raised safety questions about the aircraft maker has been found dead outside a hotel in South Carolina, according to local authorities.

The body of John Barnett, 62, was found Saturday in a car outside a Holiday Inn, suffering from what the Charleston County Coroner's Office said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Louisiana resident was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police in Charleston said detectives were waiting for a formal determination of the cause of death and "any additional findings that might shed further light on the circumstances surrounding" the end of Barnett's life. Police noted "the global attention this case has garnered."

Barnett was a longtime Boeing employee and worked as a quality-control manager before he retired in 2017. In the years after that, he shared his concerns with journalists.

"John was deeply concerned about the safety of the aircraft and flying public, and had identified some serious defects that he felt were not adequately addressed," Barnett's brother, Rodney, said in a family statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday. "He said that Boeing had a culture of concealment and was putting profits over safety."

Rodney Barnett said working at Boeing created stress for John.

"He was suffering from PTSD and anxiety attacks as a result of being subjected to the hostile work environment at Boeing, which we believe led to his death," the brother said.

Boeing, in a one-sentence statement, said, "We are saddened by Mr. Barnett's passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends."

Experts say the reasons people take their own lives are complicated, and that recent increases in suicides could be driven by several factors, including higher rates of depression and limited access to mental-health services.

In 2019, Barnett told The New York Times about quality issues at Boeing's factory in South Carolina, where the 787 jetliner is assembled.

Barnett said he found discarded metal shavings near wiring for the flight controls. He said it could have been "catastrophic" if the sharp pieces had pierced the wiring. He said after he complained to superiors, they moved him to another part of the plant.

Barnett told the BBC that same year that up to a quarter of the oxygen systems on the 787 - a two-aisle plane that airlines use mostly for international flights - might not work because of faulty parts installed at the Boeing plant. Boeing denied the claim.

Barnett filed a whistleblower complaint with the government, which is still pending. A hearing on the case was scheduled for June.

Boeing's production practices have been questioned both on the 787, a model called the Dreamliner, and the company's best-selling plane, the 737 Max. The company has come under increased scrutiny since a panel blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE - This story includes discussion of suicide. The national suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

Copyright (C) 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

VIDEO - Shaking event injures 50 on Boeing 787 flight - YouTube

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VIDEO - Dolton trustee accused of sexual misconduct on taxpayer-funded trip to Las Vegas

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:58

DOLTON, Ill. '-- A trustee of a south suburb is accused of sexual misconduct with a village employee while on a taxpayer-funded trip to Las Vegas, according to a pair of complaints filed with the Illinois Department of Human Rights.

The trustee vehemently denies the allegations.

The employee worked for Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard who was also on the trip along with her security detail and other village officials.

The complaint filed by the woman, who WGN is not naming because she said she was a victim of a crime, said she began to feel ''extremely light-headed'' and ''disoriented'' after a dinner with village officials.

''She blacked out and did not recall anything else,'' the complaint states. She said she woke-up the next morning feeling physical discomfort. ''She found she was inside the trustee's hotel room fully dressed.''

The woman states right after returning to Dolton a member of Henyard's security detail who was on the trip told her ''the trustee told him the trustee had unprotected sex [with her],'' the complaint states. She said she immediately sought medical treatment.

In his own complaint filed with the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Dolton police officer said the trustee called and then FaceTimed him the night of the alleged assault from the hotel room and boasted of sexual exploits on the trip.

''There was some suggestion that the employee may not have had the ability to consent,'' the complaint submitted by the officer states. He said he then requested the trustee switch to a video call so he could see the situation for himself in his capacity as a law enforcement officer who had been informed of a possible crime.

The trustee ''panned the camera toward a bed where [he] could see a woman who was partially undressed,'' the officer's complaint states. ''The trustee then moved the camera to various private areas of the woman's body displaying them on screen at times moving or removing articles of clothing.''

The complaint says a portion of either the audio or video call may have been recorded by the officer.

WGN Investigates is not identifying the trustee because he has not been charged with a crime. ''It is a total and complete fabrication,'' the trustee told WGN Investigates by phone. He insists he had only attempted to help his female colleague who he believed was intoxicated and on drugs.

''This is what you get for trying to help people,'' the trustee said.

Both complaints were filed with the Illinois Department of Human Rights by the same attorney on the same day. They claim Henyard initially appeared ''shocked'' when told of the sexual assault allegations in a meeting with the employee and member of her security detail soon after their return from Las Vegas.

''Henyard indicated she would take care of it and the female employee should trust her,'' the complaint states.

Mayor Henyard's administration denies it retaliated against either employee for coming forward as they claim.

''This is nothing more than two disgruntled Village employees who are trying to make off with the taxpayers hard earned dollars,'' read a statement released by Henyard's publicist. Henyard's team says an unidentified third-party company was brought in to investigate the allegations and reported the police officer denied knowledge of the incident and the female employee would not cooperate.

''The Village looks forward to defending these allegations and pursuing all other available remedies to the village,'' read the statement.

The woman said she was initially put on unpaid leave and then told a doctor would need to authorize her return to work. She said village officials then refused to respond to her inquiries about returning to work so she was essentially terminated, the complaint claims.

The Illinois Department of Human Rights has accepted the complaints but only just begun its own investigation to determine their credibility.

WGN Investigates previously reported on the Las Vegas trip, other first class travel and lavish meals paid for by taxpayers in Dolton and Thornton Township, where Henyard is the supervisor.

VIDEO - Hundreds of people mostly children kidnapped in Nigeria in recent weeks - YouTube

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VIDEO - Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

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VIDEO - Investigation into 30 explicit AI generated photos of suburban high school students underway - YouTube

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VIDEO - Zepbound weight loss treatment may be available on Amazon - YouTube

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VIDEO - TikTok ban heads to the Senate - YouTube

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VIDEO - Cyberattack: Feds to probe whether patient data was protected - YouTube

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VIDEO - TikTok CEO voices disappointment in House passage of ban | Fox Business

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:40

TikTok's CEO Shou Chew reacted to the "disappointing vote" by the House of Representatives that passed on Wednesday that could pave the way for the social media platform to be banned in U.S. app stores.

"This legislation, if signed into law, will lead to a ban of TikTok in the United States," Chew said in a video posted on the TikTok Policy's X platform. "Even the bill sponsors admit that that's their goal. This bill gives more power to a handful of other social media companies,"

The CEO argued that banning the Chinese-owned app would negatively impact small businesses and put "more than 300,000 American jobs at risk."

"You will also take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators in small businesses. You will put more than 300,000 American jobs at risk, and it will take away your TikTok, and we know how important TikTok is to all of you," Shou said.

HOUSE PASSES BILL THAT COULD SEE TIKTOK BANNED IN US

A split of the U.S. Capitol Dome and an illustration of the TikTok app. (Capitol: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images | TikTok: Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Along with impacting small businesses and American jobs, the TikTok CEO said that the social media app "empowers" people to "freely express themselves."

"It has given our 170 million users a platform to freely express themselves and it empowered more than 7 million businesses in the United States," Shou said. "Our platform matters to the small business owners who rely on TikTok to make ends meet and to the teachers who inspire millions of students to learn and to everyone who discovers and finds joy on TikTok."

(L-R) Jason Citron, CEO of Discord, Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta look on as they testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Buildin (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Shou concluded his video by insinuating that TikTok will exercise their "legal rights" to stop the ban.

"We will not stop fighting and advocating for you. We will continue to do all we can including exercising our legal rights to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you. We believe we can overcome this together," he said.

KEVIN O'LEARY OFFERS TO BUY TIKTOK AND TURN IT INTO A 'NEW AMERICAN COMPANY' IF PROPOSED BAN ADVANCES

He encouraged users to continue contacting senators and make their "voices heard."

"I encourage you to keep sharing your stories, share them with your friends, share them with a family, share them with the senators, protect your constitutional rights, make your voices heard," Shou said. "Love you all."

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on "TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy and Protect Children from Online Harms," on Capitol Hill, March 23, 2023, in Washington, DC. (OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP / Getty Images)

The TikTok CEO's comments came after the House of Representatives passed the bill 352-65, with one abstention.

Both Democrats and Republicans supported the measure, which advanced out of committee in a unanimous 50-0 bipartisan vote.

GOP LAWMAKERS PRESS TIKTOK CEO ON 'DELUGE OF PRO-HAMAS CONTENT' ON PLATFORM

The bill, led by House China Select Committee Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., would block TikTok in the U.S. if its parent company, Bytedance, does not divest from it within 165 days of passage.

It would also require it to be bought by a country that is not a U.S. adversary.

The TikTok logo is seen on a mobile phone screen in this photo illustration on 23 March, 2023 in Warsaw, Poland. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)

It's not immediately clear if the Senate will take up the legislation.

TikTok's critics have long called it a national security threat. They have cited concerns about the Chinese government's ability to leverage its power over Bytedance to access sensitive user data, even in the U.S., something the company has repeatedly denied.

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China hawks have also warned that the app's popularity among young Americans gives the ruling Chinese Communist Party a platform for a mass influence campaign.

At the same time, lawmakers who are wary of the push to curb TikTok have cited First Amendment concerns and potential harm to small businesses who rely on it.

FOX Business has reached out to TikTok for comment.

Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

VIDEO - Will TikTok be banned in the US? Here's what to know. | AP News

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:38

WASHINGTON (AP) '-- TikTok once again finds itself in a precarious position as lawmakers in Washington move forward with a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban on the platform.

The House on Wednesday passed legislation that would ban TikTok if its China-based owner ByteDance doesn't sell its stakes in the popular social media platform within six months of the bill's enactment.

Here's what you need to know:

What's in the House bill?The legislation essentially gives ByteDance two options: sell TikTok or face a ban.

If ByteDance chooses to divest its stakes, TikTok would continue to operate in the U.S. if the President determines ''through an inter-agency process'' that the platform is ''no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary.'' The bill would also require ByteDance to give up control of TikTok's well-known algorithm, which feeds users content based off their preferences.

Experts have said it will be challenging for ByteDance to sell TikTok in a few months.

If the company chooses not to sell, TikTok would be prohibited from app stores '' such as those offered by Apple and Google - as well as web-hosting services until a divesture occurs, according to the bill.

Why are lawmakers concerned about TikTok?Lawmakers from both parties - as well as law enforcement and intelligence officials - have long expressed concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over data on the 170 million Americans who use TikTok. The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering - which ByteDance would likely be subject to '' and other far-reaching ways the country's authoritarian government exercises control.

TikTok has denied assertions that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. The company has said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities and won't do so if its asked. To date, U.S. government also has not provided any evidence that shows TikTok shared such information with Chinese authorities.

Apart from security concerns, some lawmakers, researchers and critics of TikTok posit the app suppresses content unfavorable to Beijing , which TikTok denies. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also warned in a report released Monday that the Chinese government has used TikTok to influence recent U.S. elections.

''TikTok accounts run by a PRC propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022,'' the report said.

Will TikTok shut down now?No. The Senate would also need to pass the measure for it to become law. But it's unclear what will happen in that chamber, where several bills aimed at banning TikTok have stalled. Senate lawmakers have indicated this bill would undergo a thorough review.

President Joe Biden has said he will sign the bill if lawmakers pass it. If that happens, ByteDance would have 180 days to sell TikTok to a qualified buyer.

The proposal could also be challenged in the courts by TikTok, which has sued to counter other attempts to ban the platform both nationally and at the state level .

What happened to the previous attempts made to ban TikTok?In 2020, former President Donald Trump attempted to ban the social media platform through an executive order. This was later blocked by the courts after TikTok sued.

The Trump administration also brokered a deal in 2020 that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in TikTok on national security grounds. But the sale never went through for a number of reasons, one being China, which imposed stricter export controls on its technology providers.

The Biden administration revoked Trump's executive order but continued a review of the platform by the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., an intra-agency committee that reportedly threatened to ban TikTok last year if its Chinese owners don't divest their stakes. The White House acknowledged last month that review remains ongoing.

Other efforts from federal lawmakers to enact nationwide bans were stalled last year amid lobbying from TikTok as well as influencers and small businesses who use the platform. The American Civil Liberties Union and some digital rights groups have opposed a TikTok ban on free speech grounds and argued the latest House bill would violate the rights of Americans who rely on the app for information, advocacy and entertainment.

How are TikTok content creators reacting to the latest bill?If the House bill becomes law, it would be bad news for small businesses who rely on the platform for marketing or sell products on TikTok Shop '-- the company's e-commerce arm. It would also impact the lives of social media influencers who have spent years cultivating their following on the platform, and rely on it to acquire brand deals or other types of income.

Many TikTok influencers were flown into into Washington this week by the company to participate in a lobbying blitz against the bill. Some said a ban on the app would disrupt their lives and businesses.

What about TikTok users?TikTok sent a notification to some users last week urging them to call their representatives about the measure, which it characterized as a ''TikTok shutdown.''

The company told users Congress was planning ''total ban'' on the platform that could ''damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country and deny artists an audience.''

On Thursday, many users responded by inundating congressional offices with calls, leading some to shut off their phones.

Can I access TikTok if it gets banned?Experts say users can likely find ways to get around a ban.

App users can try to use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to disguise their location and bypass such restrictions, said Roger Entner, a telecom analyst and the founder of Recon Analytics. It will be challenging for the government to crack down on that behavior because there are many foreign VPN services that don't need to abide by U.S. laws, Entner said.

But the use of VPNs also raises additional security questions, especially for users who go with a free or cheap VPN provider they haven't carefully vetted.

_AP journalist Matt O'Brien contributed to this report.

Haleluya covers Amazon, retail and technology.

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VIDEO - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. considering Jets' quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura for running mate, ABC News says - ABC7 New York

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The independent candidate is expected to select his No. 2 in the coming weeks

By Will McDuffie Wednesday, March 13, 2024 10:27AM

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura top the list of Robert F. Kennedy's potential running mates.

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura top the list of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s potential running mates, though the independent candidate says he hasn't yet made a formal offer to either.

Via text message, Kennedy confirmed his intentions, which were first reported by The New York Times.

Kennedy is expected to select his running mate in the coming weeks, his campaign manager has told ABC News, due mostly to the requirement that he have one to apply for ballot access as an independent in certain states.

Kennedy has publicly displayed his relationships with both Rodgers and Ventura: He recently posted a photo on social media of him and Rodgers hiking while Ventura appeared at his Arizona rally last month.

RELATED: Biden and Trump clinch nominations, setting the stage for a grueling general election rematch

Both men also share Kennedy's affinity for embracing some debunked claims: Rodgers, like Kennedy, has spoken misleadingly about the harmful effects of the COVID-19 vaccines, while Ventura has peddled conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks.

ABC has reached out to a Rodgers representative for comment and has been unable to reach Ventura.

Kennedy is not assured the ability of being on the ballot anywhere because he's running outside the auspices of an established party. So volunteers have fanned out across the country and performed the painstaking work of gathering tens of thousands of signatures from everyday citizens.

So far, Kennedy is only on one state's ballot, Utah, but the campaign claims it has hit the signature threshold in Hawaii, Nevada and New Hampshire.

A pro-Kennedy super PAC, meanwhile, says it has gathered enough signatures to place him on the ballot in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, though the Democratic National Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission claiming the efforts amount to coordination with the campaign, which is illegal.

The political action committee denies the accusation.

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VIDEO - Trump says TikTok ban would empower Meta, slams Facebook

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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday raised concerns about efforts to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok in the U.S., saying it would only serve to empower Meta 's Facebook platform.

"Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people," Trump, who was formerly U.S. president between 2017 and 2021, said in an interview Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Acknowledging his concerns around national security and data privacy over TikTok, Trump said, "there's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad" with the platform.

"There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it," Trump said.

CNBC has reached out to Meta for comment.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has exploded in popularity over the last few years, becoming an international sensation with its short videos.

It has also led regulators to fear that the software's Chinese ownership would mean that it could share private user data at the request of the Beijing government.

ByteDance, like other Chinese companies, would be forced to disclose such information if asked to do so, experts say. China's National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires organizations and citizens to "support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work."

In 2020, the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to have TikTok removed from app stores in the U.S. due to these concerns. Trump subsequently ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok within 90 days. This effort, which at one point saw Microsoft put a bid in for TikTok's U.S. business, also never came to fruition.

More on the TikTok ban billOngoing concernsNow, U.S. lawmakers are once again stepping up efforts to tackle concerns surrounding TikTok, with separate pieces of legislation proposing either a divestiture of TikTok by ByteDance, or a full ban. Incumbent President Joe Biden, who has expressed national security concerns over TikTok, has also said he would sign a bill to ban the app, if Congress passes it.

Trump has recently softened his tone, saying he fears a TikTok ban would only serve to make Facebook more powerful.

In Monday's interview, Trump said that he feels TikTok remains a national security risk, given its Chinese ownership '-- but he also deflected attention to Facebook, noting that the platform has similar issues concerning privacy and security.

"If China wants anything from [TikTo], they will give it, so that's a national security risk [that] goes up," Trump acknowledged. "But when I look at it, I'm not looking to make Facebook double the size. And if you ban TikTok, Facebook and others '-- but mostly Facebook '-- will be a big beneficiary, and I think Facebook has been very busy."

"I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections," Trump added.

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Donald Trump suggested Monday that if he were elected president again, his administration would not crack down on the use of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies using regulatory authority.

"I have seen there has been a lot of use of that," Trump said, referring to the digital currency, during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"And I'm not sure that I'd want to take it away at this point," he added.

Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, described himself a traditionalist in terms of currency who, "used to say, 'I want one currency, I want the dollar, I don't want people leaving the dollar.'"

But he added that when he recently launched a line of expensive Trump-branded sneakers, "I noticed that so many of them were paid for with this with a new currency ... you know, cryptocurrency and I couldn't believe the amount."

Asked if he had himself had bought bitcoin, Trump replied, "No, no, no, but I sometimes will let people pay through bitcoin."

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.

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