Quote:The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is involved in the recovery operation and is working closely with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents, according to Gen. VanHerck.
It's unclear how long the recovery effort will ultimately take. VanHerck said that, at least as of yesterday, the full extent of the debris field had not yet been determined. He said the main area of interest was expected to be "about 1,500 meters by 1,500 meters," (2,250,000 square meters, or just under around one square mile) or "you know, more than 15 football fields by 15 football fields."
The NORAD/NORTHCOM boss had also offered some details about the sheer size of the balloon itself.
"So the balloon assessment was up to 200 feet tall for the actual balloon. The payload itself, I would categorize that as a jet airliner type of size, maybe a regional jet such as a [Embraer] ERJ or something like that," VanHerck explained. "Probably weighed in excess of a couple thousand pounds."
Quote:Japan is examining whether there are links between a suspected Chinese spy balloon that the U.S. military shot down and reports of a flying object spotted in the northeastern area of the nation a few years ago, a government spokesman said Monday.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki said at a press conference that the government has confirmed the flying object was observed in 2020 and 2021 over Miyagi and Aomori prefectures, respectively, adding it will continue to seek to establish the facts around the incident.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a press conference Monday that she was unaware of the flying object spotted in Japan.
Isozaki said that a balloon or any other aerial object being flown by a foreign country in Japan's territory without permission would usually be recognized as a violation of the country's national airspace, prompting the Air Self-Defense Force to take necessary steps, including the scrambling of fighter jets.
...
When a white, balloon-like object was spotted by residents of Miyagi and neighboring Fukushima prefectures in June 2020, local authorities sent a helicopter to investigate but were ultimately unable to identify it or determine its origin.
Quote:But Biden ran afoul of the GOP several times during his 75-minute speech, especially when he accused Republicans of wanting to “sunset” Medicare and Social Security. As Republicans booed and accused him of lying about that, Biden said, “I’m not saying it’s the majority.”
...
Applause and cheers followed. But Biden followed up with a threat: If anyone tries to cut those programs, “I’ll veto it,” he said.
...
Biden attempted to urge the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate to “come together” on immigration. “Make it a bipartisan issue once again,” he said.
...
“We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border,” Biden said. “American border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts.”
He urged them to “at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border.”
...
Some Republicans shouted their disapproval of Biden; many have publicly criticized him for failing to stop the tide of fentanyl from coming from Mexico into the United States.
...
But then Biden turned around and used the Nichols incident to decry how “black and brown” people must talk to their children about being cautious around police–even though the officers accused in Nichols’s death are also black.
...
He also made no direct mention of China’s spy balloon, which drifted across U.S. airspace for days before it was shot down. Many criticized the administration’s failure to act sooner.
Biden did make a passing reference to the incident by stating, “As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.” He said little else about China.
Like when exactly? A year after China finally declares war against the US?
Quote:The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) says it is aware of asylum seekers from the United States reportedly being given free bus tickets to take them to a part of New York state from which they can easily travel into Canada.
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“Out of respect for the law and for their own personal safety, we encourage all those coming to Canada to enter at an official port of entry.”
The New York Post reported that some migrants in New York City are being given free tickets to Plattsburgh, N.Y., which is about 35 kilometres south of the Quebec border.
From Plattsburgh, migrants reportedly can travel about 30 minutes by shuttle or taxi to cross into Quebec at Roxham Road, an unofficial border crossing frequently used by asylum-seekers trying to dodge the Safe Third Country agreement that prevents Canada from accepting refugee claims of those who had first entered the United States.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently said his administration helps in the “re-ticketing process” for migrants arriving in the city who want to go elsewhere, but added that they are not forced or pressured to leave.
Adams said some individuals express a desire to leave the city for other places—including Canada.
His office also said it treats requests for bus tickets to Plattsburgh the same as it would for bus-ticket requests to go to other American cities.
Quote:People took to the streets for a third day of strikes Tuesday against government plans to reform the pension system, of which a proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 is among the most controversial. Public transport was disrupted and refinery deliveries were halted across France as workers walked out on the job, with unions urging the public to take to the streets in large numbers. A first day of strikes on January 19 brought more than a million people out onto the streets.
French President Emmanuel Macron insists the proposed changes are needed to reform a moribund system – but some of the government’s own experts have said the pension system is in relatively good shape and would likely eventually return to a balanced budget even without reforms.
...
More than 750,000 people turned out for protests across France, according to the interior ministry, 57,000 of whom were in Paris. Union organisers estimated participation nationwide at close to 2 million, according to the hardline CGT.
Quote:In a joint statement Tuesday, the German economy and defense ministries announced the approval of up to 178 German-made Leopard 1 battle tanks to Ukraine.
"How many Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks will actually be delivered to Ukraine depends on the required maintenance work," the statement added.
It comes as part of a joint pledge with Denmark and the Netherlands. The defense ministers of the three countries said the tanks were part of an effort "to support Ukraine in their endeavour to withstand Russian aggression."
In a joint statement, the three nations said the "required logistic support and training" would be provided. That includes a "spare parts and ammunition-package."
The Dutch defense ministry said it would be purchasing the tanks "directly from German industry."
Kasja Ollongen, the Dutch defense minister, told national broadcaster NOS the slightly older model tanks are "definitely still useable" for the battlefields of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Quote:Turkey has been hit by another 5+ magnitude earthquake as massive twin quakes over 7.6 in magnitude the day prior collapsed entire buildings and led to over 5,000 deaths in Turkey and Syria.
A 5.2 magnitude earthquake was recorded at around 1:18 p.m. local time in eastern Turkey, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.
The epicenter of the quake was around 18 miles southeast of Malatya, with a population of 441,000, where yesterday’s earthquake toppled buildings and left people trapped under rubble in freezing cold.
...
Local media report that earthquake victims in Malatya are waiting for help trapped under rubble as recovery efforts are hampered by bad weather and transport conditions.
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Turkey has experienced over 285 aftershocks since two earthquakes hit the southeastern part of country near Syria’s border on Monday—one with a magnitude of 7.8 followed several hours later with 7.6 level quake.
The number of dead and injured from both Turkey and Syria has increased rapidly throughout Monday, with the death toll estimated to be around 5,021.
...
In Turkey, at least 3,419 people are confirmed dead.
In Syria, state news agency SANA reported at least 1,602 deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the death toll could rise to around 20,000 in the coming days.
It's gonna be a horrible week for Turkey and Syria indeed.
Take in consideration that Syria cannot receive most of the humanitarian aid that would be available for other countries because of the US sanctions against Syria that are still in place. Well, it's still is a Russian puppet state and ISIS tries to reconquer lost territories...
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Israel considers reversing stance on arms for Ukraine
Quote:Russia on Wednesday took aim at Israel and warned it not to get involved in the war in Ukraine by providing arms to Kyiv, claiming such a move would "lead to an escalation of this crisis."
"We say that all countries that supply weapons should understand that we will consider these to be legitimate targets for Russia’s armed forces," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said according to a report by The Times of Israel.
"Any attempts — implemented or even unrealized but announced for the supply of additional, new or some other weapons — lead and will lead to an escalation of this crisis," she added. "And everyone should be aware of this."
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Netanyahu told CNN Tuesday that he was "looking into" providing Ukraine with "other kinds of aid" besides humanitarian help.
Israel has made no hard commitments to Ukraine when it comes to defensive aid largely because of the complex relationship it holds with Russia, though Moscow’s burgeoning relationship with Iran – which has provided Russia with drones for its war effort in Ukraine – could prompt Jerusalem to change its tune.
Netanyahu’s comments ran counter to a statement made last week by a spokesperson from the Israeli Ministry of Defense who told Fox News that Israel’s "policy of the security echelon has not changed."
The spokesperson's statement came after reports said Israel denied a U.S. request that it send Hawk missiles to Ukraine.
Quote:"On Saturday, 4 February, immediately after taking action to down the PRC balloon, the DOD submitted a request for a secure call between Secretary Austin and PRC Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe," Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement, referring to the People's Republic of China.
"Unfortunately, the PRC has declined our request. Our commitment to open lines of communication will continue," Ryder added.
China says the balloon was an errant weather observation aircraft with no military purpose, but Washington has described it as a sophisticated high-altitude spying vehicle.
...
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the same day that measures were taken to ensure the balloon's instruments were "mitigated" in their ability to spy during the flyover, while "at the same time increasing and improving our ability to collect intelligence and information from it."
Quote:Last month Hidalgo said she believed Russians could take part "under a neutral flag" to avoid "depriving athletes of competition".
On Tuesday she told French media her earlier position was "indecent" because a neutral flag, "does not really exist" although she said there should be a place for "dissident Russians who want to parade under the refugee flag".
Her office said this was a "clarification" of her position.
They would, she said, be athletes who do not "support Vladimir Putin in his aggression".
The Refugee Olympic Team competed for the first time in the Rio Games in 2016, where it was made up of 10 athletes originally from Syria, Ethiopia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Hidalgo did not address the issue of the participation of Belarusian athletes.
Quote:Olympic leaders have set out a path for athletes from Russia and Belarus who have not actively supported the war to try to qualify and compete as “neutral athletes” without a national identity such as team uniforms, flags and anthems.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, along with many sports leaders and athletes, have consistently said all potential competitors from Russia or Belarus should be banned from Paris, extending a decision that was applied in most Olympic sports within days of the war starting last February.
Olympic bodies and lawmakers in the Baltic and Nordic regions of Europe have also publicly supported Ukraine in standing against the IOC’s preferred route. They have warned of a possible boycott, and are expected to join an online call of sports ministers Friday hosted by the British government.
Russian athletes have avoided being banned outright from the past four Olympics dating back to 2016 in fallout from a scandal of state-backed doping. At the past three Olympics, they competed without their national identity but in uniforms that clearly identified them as Russians.
The IOC has cited advice from a human rights expert that banning athletes on the basis of their passport would be discrimination, and sought to clarify its position Wednesday.
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Tennis and cycling are among the few sports to let Russian and Belarusian athletes continue to compete without their country’s name, flag or anthem.
Quote:Russia has delivered “very large supplies of aviation equipment” to Mali over the past few months which has "significantly increased” the capability of local forces to fight extremists, Lavrov told journalists.
“We will now be planning additional steps in the field of education through military higher educational institutions and in the field of supplies of weapons and military equipment,” Lavrov said, refusing to go into specifics.
Lavrov's trip to Bamako, Mali's capital, comes as Western countries express their concerns about alleged human rights abuses committed by Russian mercenaries working for the private military contractor Wagner Group.
The Russian foreign minister made no mention of Wagner by name during a press conference, but criticized unnamed Western powers of “neo-colonial approaches and double standards.”
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Russia's presence in Mali has expanded as the role played by former colonizer France has diminished. After spending nine years helping Mali's army curb the spread of Islamic insurgents, France withdrew its forces last year after relations soured with the country's ruling junta.
Quote:Wearing the black coat and fedora combination favoured by his grandfather and North Korea's founding leader Kim Il Sung, Kim attended the February 8 parade with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and daughter Ju Ae, state media photographs showed.
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The weapons on show included at least 10 of the country's largest Hwasong-17 ICBMs, plus vehicles apparently designed to carry a solid-fueled ICBM, Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported.
North Korea has long sought to develop a solid-fuel ICBM, which could help make its nukes harder to detect and destroy.
When the ICBMs appeared in the square, it prompted cheering by spectators, KCNA said, adding that the parade also featured a "tactical nuclear operation unit".
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Commercial satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies at 10:05 pm (1305 GMT) on Wednesday night showed a large North Korean flag and thousands of people assembled at Kim Il Sung square.
Analysts said that the scale and scope of the weaponry on display showed advances which represented a challenge to the United States.
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"This is North Korea trying to declare itself a full-fledged nuclear power," Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul told AFP.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:“High resolution imagery from U-2 flybys revealed that the high-altitude balloon was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations,” an official with the State Department, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Epoch Times.
“The high altitude balloon’s equipment was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons. It had multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications. It was equipped with solar panels large enough to produce the requisite power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors,” the official added.
Frank Gaffney, executive chairman at the Center for Security Policy, told NTD that China would likely have an interest in monitoring communications between intercontinental ballistic missile silos.
...
“The United States sent a clear message to the PRC that its violation of our sovereignty was unacceptable by shooting down the balloon, protecting our own sensitive intelligence, and maximizing our ability to track the balloon and recover the payload to get more information on the PRC’s program,” the State Department official said, adding that the United States would explore taking action against Chinese entities that supported the incursion of U.S. airspace.
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The balloon is believed to be part of communist China’s fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which are typically undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army. The program has been in operation “for several years,” a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. U.S. officials have since learned that China has flown the surveillance balloons over more than 40 countries across 5 continents, the State Department official said.
The United States is contacting other countries to learn about the scope of the program and other details.
Mao Ning, with China’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Beijing that the accusations “may be part of the U.S. side’s information warfare against China” and claimed that the United States was “overreacting” when it shot the balloon down.
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An assessment of the risk of intelligence collection was deemed to be low to moderate while the risk to U.S. personnel on the ground if the balloon was shot down was determined to be moderate to significant, prompting officials to advise Biden to wait to bring down the balloon until it was over water, Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
"You are overreacting", they said. Seriously, China?
Would you allow the US to send spy balloons to Shanghai or Macao or even Hong Kong?
Would you ever admit what happened at Tiananmen Square?
Quote:The FBI’s national office on Thursday repudiated a reported internal memo that warned about a connection between so-called “radical-traditionalist Catholics” and “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.”
The bureau told The Epoch Times that the internally distributed “field office product” about “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI.”
“Upon learning of the document, FBI Headquarters quickly began taking action to remove the document from FBI systems and conduct a review of the basis for the document,” the FBI National Press Office continued. “The FBI is committed to sound analytic tradecraft and to investigating and preventing acts of violence and other crimes while upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans and will never conduct investigative activities or open an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity.”
The statement said that “our standard practice is to not comment on specific intelligence products” but said that “this particular field office product” was “disseminated only within the FBI.” That document “does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI,” it said.
That response came in response to a question about a report from a former FBI special agent, Kyle Seraphin, who published the internal FBI memo on Wednesday via the UncoverDC website. Seraphin, himself a whistleblower who was suspended by the bureau in June 2022, stated that he obtained the document from an FBI whistleblower.
“The FBI’s Richmond Division would like to protect Virginians from the threat of ‘white supremacy,’ which it believes has found a home within Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass,” Seraphin wrote for UncoverDC. “An intelligence analyst within the Richmond Field Office of the FBI released in a new finished intelligence product dated January 23, 2023, on Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVE) and their interests in ‘Radical-Traditionalist Catholics’ or RTCs.”
His report included screenshots of the purported document, dated Jan. 23, which cites the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that identified several RTC “hate groups” within the United States.
Yeah, nowadays the FBI can make feel very sick indeed.
Quote:During the last Congress, Jordan and other Republicans sent “over a hundred letters” to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI which were “either inadequately answered or ignored entirely.”
The panel heard from prominent figures like former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who contended for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, as well as Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
The first hearing comes after Republicans in December unveiled a huge 1,050 page whistleblower report detailing the “weaponization” of the federal government.
...
Jordan emphasized that Republicans’ findings came from the testimony of FBI agents, many of whom were later suspended from the agency.
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For instance, on Nov. 18, 2021, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee were told that the FBI had created a “threat tag” for parents voicing their concerns at school board meetings. In May 2022, another whistleblower revealed that dozens of parents designated with a “threat tag” were being investigated by the agency.
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In April 2022, another whistleblower told Republicans that FBI agents “were being run out of the bureau” for attending conservative political events while off duty.
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Additional testimony in September 2022 revealed that Jan. 6 case files had been altered to make it appear that DVEs were on the rise, as Democrats and President Joe Biden have long claimed. The agent was later suspended.
In September 2022, yet another whistleblower revealed to Republicans that the FBI views the Betsy Ross flag, the original design of the American flag with 13 stars, “as a terrorist symbol.”
Additional testimony found that the FBI accepts personal data on users from Facebook “without the user’s consent.”
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:The U.S. military shot down an "object" that was flying in territorial waters over Alaska, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday afternoon during a White House press briefing.
"I can confirm that the Department of Defense was tracking a high altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours out. The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. Out of an abundance of caution and the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object. And they did. And it came in inside our territorial waters," Kirby said.
Quote:The U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) first detected the object on February 9 and tracked it using a ground radar. Fighter aircraft were subsequently sent to intercept and attempt to identify it. NSC spokesperson Kirby said the relatively small size and slow speed of the object, together with the initial intercept taking place in darkness, limited what information could be quickly gleaned.
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Significant debris is now reportedly sitting atop of sea ice and efforts are now being made to recover if for analysis.
He also said the object did not appear to be readily maneuverable or have a substantial payload. Ryder said the object was "about the size of a small car."
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It remains to be seen whether this object is another balloon that can be tied to an expanisive Chinese high-alitude balloon surveillance program that has been reportedly been conducted for years around the world. At the same time, it underscores the new attention being given to such objects, many of which appear to have been largely ignored in the past.
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"As an Alaskan, I am so angry. I want to use other words. But I’m not going to," Lisa Murkowski, a Republican Senator from Alaska, told reporters following a classified briefing on that incident yesterday. "It seems to me the clear message to China is: ‘We got free range in Alaska.'"
...
UPDATE
At 1:45 P.M. EST Friday, a two-ship of F-22 Raptors out of Elmendorf Air Force Base flew up to meet the object, traveling at about 40,000 feet and one of them fired an AIM-9X missile that destroyed it, Ryder told reporters.
Ryder disagreed with any assertion that the President reacted to political pressure.
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Pilot observations determined that the object was unmanned, Ryder said.
...
“However, given the fact that ... this object was operating at an altitude that posed a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic, after consultation with the Secretary and the President, of course, the president on our advice gave the order to take it down we took it down.”
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The area covered by the restrictions is to the northwest of the town of Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay, where a major oil field is located. It is also near the now-defunct Bullen Point Air Force Station, which the U.S. Air Force had operated until 2007.
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ABC News has now reported that the "object" shot down off the coast of Alaska was "cylindrical and silver-ish gray," according to an unnamed U.S. official. "All I say is that it wasn't 'flying' with any sort of propulsion, so if that is 'balloon-like' well – we just don't have enough at this point."
Quote:The FBI search of former Vice President Pence's Indiana home lasted five hours and resulted in one document with classified markings and six additional pages, not marked classified.
"Following the discovery and disclosure of a small number of potentially classified documents that had inadvertently been transported to his home in Indiana, Vice President Pence and his legal team have fully cooperated with the appropriate authorities and agreed to a consensual search of his residence that took place today," Pence adviser Devin O'Malley told Fox News Digital.
"The Department of Justice completed a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours and removed one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice president's counsel," O'Malley continued.
Quote:Oil prices spiked on Friday after Russia announced that it would slash its crude output in March by 5%.
Russia’s deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, announced on Friday that Moscow will reduce its crude production by 500,000 barrels a day next month following a wave of Western sanctions imposed on its oil trade.
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Brent crude prices surged shortly after the announcement, hitting $85.21 a barrel. Prices later eased to $84.77 a barrel – up about 1.75%.
The sanctions against Russian oil include a December agreement by the European Union to cap prices at $60 a barrel and a partial ban on seaborne crude imports. Western nations are seeking to drain President Vladimir Putin's war chest as the Kremlin's war in Ukraine drags into its second year. The penalties caused Moscow's oil and gas revenue to tumble by about 50%.
Quote:Newly elected Sen. John Fetterman has described his severe hearing disability as causing him to hear the voice of the teacher from the "Peanuts" cartoon when listening to people speak, the New York Times reported.
Fetterman suffered a stroke in May 2022 while campaigning for Pennsylvania's open Senate seat, causing him to have cognitive issues, including a problem with auditory processing.
The senator, who is in the hospital after experiencing lightheadedness Wednesday, has also struggled to adjust to life in the Senate, given the challenges of recovering from his stroke and the need for technological tools to help him conduct conversations with staff and colleagues.
Fetterman has to carry around a closed captioning device that types out what is being said to him so that he can have conversations, since he cannot fully understand the spoken word on his own.
Before moving to Washington, D.C., Fetterman's office was equipped with closed captioning tablets. There are now wired screens in the Senate chamber where closed-captions are typed out for him by professional broadcast captioners.
Is that really something a senator should be going through? I mean, if a senator isn't suited for the job, he should quit and take care of his or her health issues. And there's the possibility Fetterman suffers another heart attack at work based on the stress the current situation could cause. Especially after the FBI and the White House have been heavily criticized for their actions... or even lack of them.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:A U.S. plane in a joint operation with Canada has shot down an unidentified object detected in Canadian airspace on the order of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau posted about the decisive action on Twitter on Saturday: “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon.
“Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” he said.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) had posted on Twitter shortly before Trudeau’s announcement that it had detected the object flying at high altitude over Canada.
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The object was shot down over the Yukon in northwest Canada, which borders Alaska. Canadian Forces will now be working to recover the wreckage for analysis, Trudeau said.
Both Canadian and U.S. aircraft were involved in the takedown operation, but the object was shot down by a U.S. F-22, the same plane that took down the China-claimed balloon last week after it was allowed to fly over the whole continental United States.
According to the U.S. State Department, the balloon of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—which was inspected by a U-2 spy plane at high altitude—was just one of many already deployed by Beijing to spy on over 40 countries across five continents.
...
NORAD did not comment on what the unidentified object over Canada could be.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), said in a statement: “As operations continue off of Alaska’s north coast to recover the debris from the object shot down yesterday, I also greatly appreciate all of the Air Guardsmen from the Rescue Triad who are engaged in those critical efforts, which are taking place in harsh conditions and terrain.
...
Just a day earlier, the United States also shot down a second object, yet to be identified, flying over Alaska.
Quote:The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in an update late on Saturday that it has closed some airspace in Montana for Defense Department activities.
The temporary flight restriction from the FAA was issued for flights in an area about 50 by 50 nautical miles above Havre, Montana, near the Canadian border. The notice reclassified the area as “national defense airspace.”
Within the hour, the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which answers to both the U.S. and Canadian leaders, said that the operation with cooperation from the FAA was to “ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations.
NORAD said it had detected a “radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate.”
It’s aircraft, however, did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits.
“NORAD will continue to monitor the situation,” it said in a statement at 8:28 p.m CT.
“The restriction has been lifted,” it added.
The FAA issued similar actions in response to a suspected Chinese spy balloon that crossed the continental United States from Montana to South Carolina and was shot down earlier this month.
Quote:The United States has blacklisted six Chinese entities it found to have aided Beijing’s surveillance balloon programs in the wake of one such balloon that floated over the United States for a week gathering intelligence.
In a statement issued on Feb. 10, the Commerce Department identified five companies and a research institute involved in efforts to support “aerospace programs including airships and balloons and related materials and components” for the Chinese military, also known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The measure will restrict U.S. companies from selling products and technologies to the firms without first seeking government permission.
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The six entities include Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology; China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 48th Research Institute; Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology; Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group and its Shanxi branch; Shanxi Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group; as well as Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology.
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Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology is a unit of the Shanghai-based developer Deluxe Family, which in 2015 signed a contract with state-owned Beihang University...expressed optimism for the “wide potential for future military application” coming out of the project. The partnership yielded the country’s first military-civilian stratospheric airship named “Yuanmeng,” roughly meaning “a dream fulfilled,” in October that year.
Headquartered in Beijing, Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group makes stealth aircraft, virtual reality training simulators, and autonomous drones, and has partaken in around a dozen state military and aerospace projects.
...
Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology...produces armored scout vehicles and aircraft for both civilian and military use...deploying military drones to assist the coast guards to locate and arrest target ships.
...
Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology, which has been linked to Beihang University, develops stratospheric airships.
Quote:A World War II-era bomb exploded in the coastal town of Great Yarmouth, England, on Feb. 10, as a team of experts attempted to disarm it, according to authorities.
Norfolk Police confirmed in a statement that there were no reports of injuries following the incident.
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A team of bomb disposal experts had been working to diffuse it since the 550-pound explosive device was discovered on Feb. 7 by contractors during dredging work near the River Yare at a site off Southtown Road.
The disposal team planned to cut into the device to set up a controlled explosion, and then move the remainder of the device out to sea for another controlled explosion, but the device exploded shortly after burn-out work to disarm the remaining explosives started.
...
The cordons, which were placed at 656 feet and 1,312 feet from the bomb, have since been lifted, Norfolk Police announced on Twitter.
Drone footage released by police captured the moment of the massive blast on the banks of the River Yare, which was heard by residents from miles away.
Quote:At least five people were injured late on Friday after a passenger plane being towed on a taxiway collided with a shuttle bus at Los Angeles International Airport.
LAX stressed that there was no interruption to airport operations.
“A jet being towed tonight from a gate to a parking area made contact with a shuttle bus, resulting in injuries to about 5 people,” the airport said on Twitter.
LAX applauded their partners and the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) for their quick response and for treating everyone who sustained injuries.
The LAFD described the incident in a statement as a “low-speed collision.”
The agency said the collision happened shortly before 10 p.m. and resulted in four people being hospitalized, while one individual was treated at the scene and declined to be transported.
Quote:Florida lawmakers have passed a bill giving control of Disney’s special tax district in central Florida to a Senate-approved board, handing a victory to Gov. Ron DeSantis who pushed for the measure to make the district more accountable to voters.
Legislators gave final approval on Feb. 10 to a bill authorizing DeSantis to appoint five supervisors to run the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a quasi-government entity that oversees the 25,000 acres surrounding the Walt Disney World resort.
...
The special status of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, located in Osceola and Orange counties, provided self-governance to the Disney World resort.
It gave Disney the power to create and enforce its own building codes and zoning laws, as well as to levy taxes and operate its own utility services.
...
Some supporters of changes to Reedy Creek have also argued that the district’s tax collection and governmental immunity provisions are not in the best interest of Floridians.
...
“This is obviously now going to be controlled by the state of Florida, which is no longer self-governing for them,” DeSantis said. “So, there’s a new sheriff in town, and that’s just the way it’s going to be.”
Once DeSantis signs the bill into law, the Reedy Creek Improvement District will be renamed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District within two years.
The district is being left intact, however, and so will keep its tax benefits. This includes retaining tax-exempt status of the district’s property.
Under the new legislation, the Florida Senate will confirm the district’s five board members, who will play no role in the day-to-day operations of Disney’s theme parks. The bill also bars anyone from serving on the board who has had ties to the theme parks over the past three years.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Middletown High School is partnering with a company to build a distraction-free environment for its students.
Starting Feb. 28, all Middletown High School students will have to put their phones in specialized pouches upon arriving on campus and can not access them until the end of the school day.
The change is being made to help students overcome phone addiction, focus on their academics, and build face-to-face relationships, according to Middletown School District Superintendent Amy Creeden.
...
Under the policy, the roughly 2,500 Middletown high-schoolers are expected to put their phones—turned off or in airplane mode—and earbuds into pouches before passing the security check at the building entrance; they are not allowed to open the pouches except for special or emergency contact needs during the school day.
In those situations, an adult staff member will help them access an unlocking station.
Designed by the Yondr company, these pouches have special magnetic locks that cannot be opened by hand; rather, they get unlocked in seconds by tapping on a specialized station.
The pouches are considered school property, and students are expected to bring them to and from school each day and keep them in good working condition.
I have mixed feelings about this.
For those that are addicted to their cellphones, it makes a lot of sense while it doesn't for people that have gone through emergencies like shootings.
Quote:The explosion at a residence on 1700 Block of 22nd Avenue on Feb. 9 was caused by “an active illegal narcotics manufacturing lab” in that house, according to the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD).
The SFPD arrested 53-year-old male suspect Darron Price of San Francisco on Feb. 10.
The suspect was booked into San Francisco County Jail and will face felony charges of involuntary manslaughter, manufacturing narcotics, and two counts of child endangerment, the SFPD revealed in a press release late at night on Feb. 10.
The explosion occurred just before 9:20 a.m. on Feb. 9. It claimed the life of a woman in the building and badly injured another person. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries while putting out the fire.
Investigators from the SFPD/SFFD Arson Task Force, SFPD Narcotics were able to extract possible narcotics manufacturing equipment.
Quote:Jarad Skeete, 19, of Irwell Close, Aigburth, Liverpool [UK] was among 15 people arrested amid the demonstration outside the Suites Hotel in Knowsley on Friday evening, Merseyside Police said.
Skeete has been accused of violent disorder and assault by beating an emergency services worker.
...
The remaining 14 people who were arrested—12 men and two women who are mainly from the Knowsley area—have been conditionally bailed pending the outcome of police inquiries.
The protest took place after video was circulated on social media showing a man with a foreign accent allegedly making inappropriate remarks to a 15-year-old local girl.
Merseyside police said the protest was “initially peaceful” before a separate group of people turned up to make trouble. A police van was burnt and three people received minor injuries.
Quote:That fear, they say, does not come from the country they now live in, but from the harsh Middle Eastern regime they were born into.
Despite being about 4,000 kilometres away, Iran’s repressive establishment has sinister tentacles that reach as far as the UK.
Earlier this month, Parliament heard how Iran’s armed forces were not only behind 10 kidnap and death plots on British soil but also the execution of British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari.
Akbari, an Iranian former deputy defence minister, was arrested in 2019 and accused of espionage for MI6 related to past nuclear talks between Iran and western nations, according to reports.
BBC Persian stated at the time that Akbari denied the charge, and said he was tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.
...
“All my activities are in disguise, not under my real name because even here in this country, I fear for the safety of myself and my family.”
...
She works in education and has been the target of vicious trolling attacks and street abuse for taking part in demonstrations.
“I’ve had a lot of hate messages coming through Instagram, some of them pretty awful,” she told The Epoch Times.
“I’ve been accused of being an Israeli spy along with aggressive abuse.
Quote:Christopher C. Miller, who served as the acting secretary of defense during President Donald Trump’s last days in office, has said the American public is getting “Orwellian tap dancing” from the current administration about the Chinese high-altitude balloon that drifted across the United States last week and may have surveilled the country.
...
“They’re doing this Orwellian tap dancing,” Miller said. He said he observed a similar pattern of officials giving roundabout and politically nuanced answers on serious national security issues when he served in the military and as a defense official.
“We’ll finally get a serious response, you know, in a year and a half after people have moved on,” Miller added.
...
“One is we didn’t identify the balloon entering our airspace. That’s our sovereign territory. Let’s not call it an act of war, but it’s definitely an act of espionage. So that’s a problem if we didn’t identify it,” Miller said. “The second issue is, if we did identify it and we let it fly all the way across the United States without either disabling it or bringing it down until it left our airspace, that’s another issue.”
...
Miller said China’s decision to deploy the high-altitude balloon over U.S. airspace is an example of them engaging in “irregular warfare” and acting within the “gray space” between peaceful diplomacy and open military hostility.
...
“They fear instability,” he said. “And that’s what irregular warfare is all about. It’s about fomenting unrest. Best case is you use truth, right? Just like we did in the Cold War. … The message of American values—that brought down the Soviet Union.”
Miller’s new book, “Soldier Secretary: Warnings from the Battlefield & the Pentagon about America’s Most Dangerous Enemies,” hit shelves this week. In it, Miller advocates for cutting the national defense budget, which currently sits at about $816 billion, by about 50 percent.
...
“We spend a trillion dollars on defense and national security and we don’t have the capability to disable or bring down a … balloon?” He said.
I'm not in favor of escalating a conflict, be it in Ukraine or Taiwan. Yet, the chances that China might declare war to the US and its allies is high nowadays. So I can't recommend them to cut on expenses like crazy. It's always good to optimize resources and be picky about the investments in an attempt to focus just on what might be required in case the war in Ukraine gets a lot worse or China finally invades Taiwan or breaks into any US nuclear facility. Hey! North Korea had already attempted to do it in South Korea! And we all know that NK is nothing but China's proxy in the Far East.
Quote:“The Department of Homeland Security has retained outside counsel to help ensure the Department’s vital mission is not interrupted by the unprecedented, unjustified, and partisan impeachment efforts by some Members of Congress, who have already taken steps to initiate proceedings,” a DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a Feb. 10 statement.
...
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) filed three articles of impeachment against Mayorkas on Jan. 10, charging that the DHS secretary had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” and violated his oath of office by failing to maintain operational control of the border as outlined by the Secure Fence Act of 2006; willfully providing “perjurious, false, and misleading testimony” to Congress; and “slandering” Border Patrol agents by supporting false claims that they had used whips on illegal immigrants.
Last week, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) introduced his own resolution to impeach Mayorkas, echoing Fallon’s assertion that the DHS chief had been derelict in his duties and adding that his actions had “subverted the will of Congress” and the Constitution.
...
“Secretary Mayorkas is the chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border,” he continued. “His policies have incentivized more than 5 million illegal aliens to show up at our southern border—an all-time figure. Instead of enforcing the laws on the books and deporting or detaining these illegal aliens, the vast majority of them are released into the interior and never heard from again.”
Further holding that Mayorkas has allowed deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour across the U.S.–Mexico border, Biggs added: “It’s clear Secretary Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. His conduct is willful and intentional. He is not enforcing the law and is violating his oath of office. For these reasons, Secretary Mayorkas should be impeached.”
Quote:According to a company statement, “to the extent such payments are not returned voluntarily, the FTX Debtors reserve the right to commence actions before the Bankruptcy Court to require the return of such payments, with interest accruing from the date any action is commenced.”
Based on data from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), Coindesk, a cryptocurrency news site, identified 196 U.S. senators and representatives who accepted FTX donations. Meanwhile, Unusual Whales, a retail trading platform, compiled their own tally of political recipients of FTX money, who donated to whom, and whether or not the money was returned.
...
Legal experts say it would probably be wise for the politicians to comply with FTX attorneys’ request before things go to court.
"Donations"
Quote:Wilson cited the precedent of Craig Berkman, a financier charged by the SEC with defrauding investors, who had donated to the presidential campaigns of John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Rudy Giuliani in 2007–2008.
“After Berkman filed for bankruptcy in 2009, many of the campaigns and candidates who received funds from Berkman were sued and/or returned the funds to Berkman’s bankruptcy trustee,” Wilson said.
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, together with other top FTX executives, lavished more than $70 million on politicians and political organizations leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, making FTX the third-largest political donor and Bankman-Fried the second-largest donor to the Democratic Party after George Soros.
According to data collected by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, led by economist Stephen Moore, Bankman-Fried himself gave $40 million, mostly to Democratic candidates. His co-CEO, Ryan Salame, reportedly gave more than $20 million to Republicans and conservative groups. And FTX engineering director Nishad Singh reportedly gave nearly $13 million to Democrats and left-wing causes.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:The U.S. military shot down an unidentified object that was flying over Lake Huron on Feb. 12, according to a U.S. House lawmaker from Michigan, who revealed it had an “octagonal structure.”
“I’ve been in contact with DOD regarding operations across the Great Lakes region today,” Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) wrote on Twitter at around 3:30 p.m. Washington time. “The US military has decommissioned another ‘object’ over Lake Huron. I appreciate the decisive action by our fighter pilots.”
...
“They informed me that an F-16 using an AIM-9 missile had shot down an octagonal structure over Lake Huron. The altitude was about 20,000 feet,” ... Officials are working to recover the debris, he added, saying that there was “no damage to human life or property.”
The Pentagon later confirmed that the F-16 jet had fired an AIM-9x short-range air-to-air missile to down the object.
...
The FAA confirmed that it had closed “some airspace over Lake Huron to support Department of Defense activities,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times on Feb. 12.
...
On Feb. 12, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed to The Epoch Times that it temporarily restricted the airspace over Lake Michigan before that airspace was reopened a short while later. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed that it “implemented a temporary flight restriction airspace over Lake Michigan at approximately 12 p.m. EST on Feb. 12, 2023.”
...
The Pentagon said in its statement on Sunday that it believes “based on its flight path and data” that the object downed over Lake Michigan was the radar signal picked up over Montana, and that the object flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites.
Either the spy balloon was super fast or the jets were incredibly slow as to miss their target the first time they were scrambled yesterday afternoon.
Quote:Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that “until a few months ago,” our intelligence and our military did not know about Chinese spy balloons.
...
Schumer said "...The bottom line is until a few months ago. We didn’t know of these balloons. Our intelligence and our military did not know. This went as far back as President Trump at least three times.”
...
"[T]he military and the intelligence are focused like a laser on first gathering and accumulating the information, then coming up with a comprehensive analysis of what went on before, what’s going on now, and what can go on in the future. You can be sure that if any American interests or people are at risk, they’ll take appropriate action. Until they get that comprehensive analysis, however, we have to look at each balloon individually.”
Let's just say that the US authorities learned about the balloons a couple of months ago.
Then why on earth didn't Biden order the DOD to immediately take down the darn balloon, the very same that ended up crossing the whole country without any issues or obstacles?
He can't claim that he had no good reason to find it quite suspicious or even dangerous. It truly was a legitimate target for his air force jets.
Quote:“The next 24 hours will be challenging for all Aucklanders,” he told reporters. “Please pay attention to [the weather forecast], and remember, things can be worse than expected.”
The national forecaster, MetService, reported that since noon local time, it had recorded wind gusts of 150 to 160 kilometres per hour (93 to 99 miles), and some stations on the east coast of the North Island recorded 15 to 30 millimetres of rain in a single hour.
It has also recorded wind gusts of 130 kilometres per hour in Auckland.
The cyclone is expected to hit the northern tip of New Zealand and then hug the coastline in a southeast direction over the next 36 hours. The northern areas of the South Island will also be affected.
Conditions are expected to begin easing late Tuesday and throughout Wednesday.
Quote:New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Feb. 10 defended the firing of city employees who refused to comply with the now-sunsetting COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing that it “just wasn’t right” for them to decline to get the jab.
Appearing on Caribbean Power Jam Radio’s “The Reset Show,” Adams was asked about the fate of the nearly 2,000 public employees who lost their jobs because of the vaccine requirement. The mayor responded that they will have to reapply for those jobs “just like everyone else.”
...
“No New Yorker wants anyone telling them anything,” he said. “That’s just who we are. We don’t want to be mandated. We don’t want anyone to tell us to put on a mask. That’s just who we are. So that was a cultural shift in our mindset to say, ‘We’re fighting this dangerous virus.'”
As for New Yorkers who rejected the cultural shift and remained unvaccinated all this time, Adams said what they have been doing “just wasn’t right.”
So now they gotta accept whatever the Demo-Comunist Party commands without ever complaining?
And how does that even justify sending their fingerprints and other private data to the FBI?
Quote:The most damning piece of evidence in the trial of five members of the Proud Boys was created by the U.S. intelligence community and planted on defendant Enrique Tarrio to frame him and others for alleged Jan. 6 crimes, an explosive defense motion alleges.
Filed on Feb. 10 by an attorney for Proud Boys defendant Dominic Pezzola, the motion asks U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to declare a mistrial due to “outrageous government misconduct.”
The controversy surrounds a document titled “1776 Returns” that federal prosecutors contend is a blueprint for the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That document was messaged to Tarrio, although defense attorneys say there is no evidence he opened, read, or forwarded it.
...
Charged in the case are Tarrio, Pezzola, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, and Joseph Biggs. The Proud Boys defendants are on trial in the U.S. District Court in Washington, accused of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings, obstruction of official proceedings, and conspiracy to prevent certain federal officers from performing their duties on January 6. Tarrio, Rehl, Nordean, and Biggs face nine criminal counts, while Pezzola is charged with 10.
The trial is about to enter its fifth week in Kelly’s courtroom.
...
Samuel Armes, who has done work for the U.S. State Department and the Special Operations Command, located at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Florida, told the Select Committee he gave Flores a copy of his war game scenario document. He testified that he first met Flores in an online cryptocurrency group in 2017.
Armes testified that at the University of South Florida, he had been “groomed to join the CIA and FBI.” He told the Select Committee that he did not write “1776 Returns,” but some of his war-game document was included in it.
According to the defense motion, Flores told the Jan. 6 Select Committee that Armes wrote the entire “1776 Returns” document and asked her to give it to Tarrio. In his appearance before the Select Committee on July 18, 2022, Armes denied authorship and asserted that Flores was “blame-shifting” and “throwing me under the bus.”
...
The motion asks for an immediate evidentiary hearing on the origins and authorship of “1776 Returns,” which Judge Kelly ruled in December 2022 could be admitted as evidence in the trial.
If the information presented in the motion is deemed true by Judge Kelly, Roots wrote, the solution would be a “mistrial and dismissal of this entire case, with prejudice.”
Well, if we take into consideration that the Arizona guy named Ray Epps has never been accused of anything like the Proud Boys were...
Quote:Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz stated that the January border numbers represent a trend in the right direction, but there has been “a spike in Chinese nationals” and stated that the aerostats — whose numbers are being reduced by the Biden administration — are “certainly an advantage for us. And so, we’re going to try and do everything we can to fund those aerostats for as long as we can.”
...
Ortiz responded, “Yeah, we’ve seen a spike in Chinese nationals.”
Jenkins also asked, “You’re losing aerostats, the eyes in the sky. How much will that impact you and do you need those tools?”
Ortiz answered, “Any time we have technology out there, it provides us the situational awareness so we can be able to make those interdictions right on the border — in the immediate border area. It is certainly an advantage for us.
Quote:Patrick Mahomes shook off an ankle injury, turned back into a magician and pulled out another comeback on the biggest stage to help the Kansas City Chiefs win their second Super Bowl in four years.
...
The Chiefs won their second Super Bowl following the 2019 season, 50 years after the first one. It took just three years to get another Lombardi.
...
Chiefs fans were outnumbered in the stadium, but they did their part to silence the boisterous Philly fans with the tomahawk chop chant.
...
The 27-year-old Mahomes became the third player to win his second NFL MVP award before age 28. He also became the youngest QB to start three Super Bowls. Then, Mahomes became the first player to win the Super Bowl the same season he was MVP after nine straight players lost.
...
Paul McCartney and LeBron James also were in the crowd of 67,827.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:A federal prosecutor urged a New York jury to sentence Sayfullo Saipov to death as the penalty phase of his trial began on Monday, saying his execution would be the only just punishment after he killed eight people in his 2017 attack on a Manhattan bike path.
It marked the first time jurors have been asked to vote for the federal death penalty since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021 after promising voters he would abolish the punishment.
Defense lawyers for the Uzbek immigrant called the death penalty barbaric, and urged the jurors to vote instead for life in prison for Saipov, who mowed down people with a rental truck on Oct. 31, 2017.
The death penalty is something New Yorkers are rarely asked to consider; the state’s death penalty was found unconstitutional in 2004, and federal capital cases are infrequent.
Prosecutors said Saipov deserved to be executed because he killed eight people and attempted to kill 18 more in a carefully planned attack inspired by ISIS, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization.
They also say killing Saipov is warranted because he has shown no remorse, and because he still posed a threat even in prison.
So how could anybody dare to defend a guy that murdered many people and still wanted to kill even more?
This is one of those cases where the death penalty is just and badly needed.
Why should a murderer have the right to live (in prison)?
Didn't his victims have that very same right from the very beginning? And he didn't care about them!
Quote:Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will meet with his counterpart Xi Jinping during his three-day trip in China starting Tuesday, as the two U.S. rivals seek further cooperation.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the announcement Sunday, saying Raisi’s visit was at Xi’s invitation.
Raisi will meet with Xi and their delegations will sign cooperation documents, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA. Meeting with Iranian and Chinese business leaders and Iranian expatriates in China is also part of his itinerary, the report added.
...
The two leaders met last September in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, when Xi underscored China’s support for the Iranian leadership, which is facing mass protests at home.
In December, Raisi pledged to remain committed to deepening the strategic partnership during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua in Tehran.
China is a major buyer of Iranian oil and an important source of investment in the Mideast country. In 2021, Iran and China signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement that covered major economic activities from oil and mining to industry, transportation, and agriculture.
Quote:U.S. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) warned on Feb. 12 that China is stealing intellectual property and operating “a massive spy ring” within institutions across the United States as he denounced the Biden administration for failing to take a tougher stance on that country’s communist regime.
...
“They continue to steal our patents. They manipulate their currency,” he said. “We believe they have a big footprint in academia with a massive spy ring within our research universities where they continue to steal our hard-earned research and development.”
“So, China’s a problem. And this administration thus far hasn’t set a very good example of standing up to China,” he continued. “I think that, you know, shooting the balloon down in the Atlantic once it flew over all the military bases, including my own Fort Campbell, Kentucky, it’s very disturbing.”
...
“We’ve got a whole lot bigger problem with China than the spy balloons,” he argued, explaining that the communist regime’s military “continues to grow and expand.”
“They’re continuing their Belt and Road Initiative all over the world where they’re trying to create a dominant world economy. This is a problem for the United States. And we need an administration to stand firm to China,” he said.
...
“TikTok executives testified in Congress a year or two ago that none of the data that TikTok collected ever left the United States. But what we’ve learned from—from whistle-blowers and media accounts is some of that data did, in fact, go back to China and that’s a concern,” he said.
...
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who originally introduced the legislation in December, reintroduced the bill, titled “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act,” or “ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act,” with bipartisan support this month.
Quote:The Panama-flagged vessel Ever Given, operated by Evergreen Marine Corp., ran aground in March 2021, blocking the global waterway for nearly a week. The enormous vessel was released in a massive salvage operation.
In an email to The Associated Press, shipping giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk said it filed a claim against Evergreen Marine, the vessel’s Japanese owner and its German technical manager, Bernhard Schulte Management, in the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Copenhagen-based shipping company said the claim is related to losses suffered during the canal’s blockage. It did not provide further details, including when it filed the claim.
The ShippingWatch, a news outlet covering maritime industry, however, reported Monday that 50 of Maersk’s container ships were delayed because of the canal’s blockage.
...
The Ever Given was on its way to the Dutch port of Rotterdam on March 23, 2021 when it slammed into the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the Egyptian city of Suez.
A massive salvage effort by a flotilla of tugboats helped by the tides freed the skyscraper-sized vessel six days later, ending the crisis, and allowing hundreds of waiting ships to pass through the canal.
After it was freed, the Ever Given was held for more than three months in Egypt amid a financial dispute with authorities. Its release came after its owner reached a settlement with canal authorities over compensation following weeks of negotiations and a court standoff.
Quote:Maryland House Bill 704, introduced by Democrat Del. Pam Queen, would establish a requirement that if one party transfers 10 or more firearms to another party, each of those firearms must have a tracking device embedded in the frame or receiver. The bill requires that each tracking device “is not readily capable of being removed, disabled, or destroyed without rendering the firearm permanently inoperable or destroying the frame or receiver.”
The bill states a seller or transferrer must provide this tracking information to the Maryland secretary of state police. A seller who does not embed these specified tracking devices in a bulk firearms transfer or does not report this tracking information to the state is guilty of a civil offense punishable with a fine of up to $2,500.
...
“Someone needs to figure out what in the wide world of dystopian Buck Rogers in the 25th Century sci-fi fantasy world is going on in Maryland’s legislature,” wrote Larry Keane, the foundation’s general counsel and senior vice president for government and public affairs.
Keane said retailers, including gun shops, have radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies as an internal inventory tracking tool, but those devices are designed to be turned off and removed at the store.
An embedded tracker would have to be powered, which raises the question of how tamperproof it could feasibly be, Keane said. He said a technology that relies on passive emissions like RFID would still be impossible to affix to the frame or receiver of a gun in a way that would make it tamperproof.
...
In her response, Queen referred to a 2013 example of RFID inventory tracking technology being used at a gun industry show and examples of military units adopting RFID inventory systems for their armories. The technologies she referenced don’t appear to include an ability to render a firearm permanently inoperable or to destroy its frame or receiver if removed, as is stipulated in her bill.
...
Several companies have been working to bring such guns to the general market. In 2014, a German company called Armatix created a smart gun product, but hackers figured out a way to block its user verification technology to render the gun operable for unauthorized users.
Gun rights activists have also been wary that smart gun technology could create a justification for requirements that the technology be imposed on all firearms. They have also raised concerns about introducing additional user verification steps in situations where seconds can mean the difference between life and death.
So let's ask our local Wulfo if he truly lives in the dystopian world of Buck Rogers, in a long lost corner of the galactic empire, namely Maryland.
Quote:The Philippines said on Monday that a Chinese coast guard vessel used a “military-grade laser” against its ship in the disputed South China Sea last week to impede a resupply mission, temporarily blinding its crew.
The incident occurred on Feb. 6 in Ayungin Shoal, also known as the Second Thomas Shoal or Renai Reef by China, of the Spratly Islands about 105 nautical miles (195 kilometers) off the Philippine province of Palawan.
...
The Philippine coast guard (PCG) said its vessel was assisting a navy resupply mission in Ayungin Shoal in the South China Sea—which Manila calls the West Philippine Sea—when the Chinese ship beamed a green laser light at it.
“The Chinese ship illuminated the green laser light twice toward the BRP Malapascua, causing temporary blindness to [the] crew at the bridge,” the PCG said in a statement.
The Chinese ship also made “dangerous maneuvers” by approaching within 150 yards (137 meters) of the Philippine vessel’s starboard quarter.
“The deliberate blocking of the Philippine government ships to deliver food and supplies to our military personnel on board the BRP Sierra Madre is a blatant disregard for, and a clear violation of, Philippine sovereign rights in this part of the West Philippine Sea,” it stated.
...
China’s Foreign Ministry responded by claiming that a Philippine coast guard vessel intruded into the waters of the Renai Reef “without Chinese permission.”
Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters that the Chinese coast guard ship “acted in a professional and restrained way” that is in accordance with “domestic and international laws” to uphold China’s sovereignty and maritime order in the South China Sea.
“China and the Philippines are in communication on this through diplomatic channels,” Wang said.
Quote:“The president, through his national security advisor, has today directed an inter-agency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis, and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks,” Kirby said at a press conference.
...
Kirby noted that the new inter-agency project followed a bipartisan effort to stand up an office in the Pentagon tasked with studying unidentified objects in partnership with the intelligence community, academia, and the private sector.
“The president… instructed the intelligence community to take a broad look at the phenomenon of unidentified aerial objects,” Kirby said. “Indeed, President Biden conducted the first ever daily intelligence briefing session devoted to this phenomenon back in June of 2021.”
“These unidentified aerial phenomena had been reported for many years without explanation or deep examination by the government.”
...
“We were able to determine that China has a high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that’s connected to the People’s Liberation Army.”
...
Kirby also added that Congress previously received classified briefings on China’s spy balloon program, with at least one such briefing occurring in August of 2022.
Quote:[Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Feb. 12.] “This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse.”
...
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak decline to comment on whether similar incidents have occurred in the UK’s airspace.
“We will do whatever it takes to keep the country safe,” he said.
“We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important.
...
“It is also possible, and I would think likely, that there would be people from the Chinese government trying to act as a hostile state,” [Transport Minister Richard Holden] said, noting that the UK has to be “realistic about the threat these countries pose to the UK.”
...
He said the UK is “well prepared to deal with threats to our airspace, as the prime minister highlighted,” noting that threats would be judged on a “case-by-case basis.”
Asked whether the prime minister agreed with Holden’s description of Beijing as a “hostile state,” the spokesman said the characterisation will be considered when updating the Integrated Review.
“As we’ve said on a number of occasions, China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests,” he said. “It is a challenge that grows more acute as it moves to even greater authoritarianism.”
Pressed on whether the UK government is likely to change the Chinese regime’s designation, the spokesman said, “You’ll see our position when it is published.”
Quote:“We are seeing the unfolding of unrestricted warfare, the use of all kinds of tools, whether it be TikTok or balloons, or even the financial markets, China is basically undermining the faith and confidence of the American people in our ability to defend ourselves and continue in the form of the Republic upon which it was founded,” [Retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General] Spalding said in “China in Focus” on Feb. 10 on NTD.
...
“I think the piece that Washington DC misses is the psychological and political narrative that goes along with allowing the balloon to completely traverse the entirety of the United States. And that’s really the more important part to Beijing,” he said.
“They’re trying to signal to the world that China is rising and America is weak, ‘Look how weak they are. They can’t even stop this balloon, this Chinese surveillance balloon, from going across the entire country.’
“The more fear they can create, the more uncertainty they can create about our ability to thrive and survive in a democratic republic, [the more] they win. That is what they’re looking for, because that allows them to not only continue in power in China, but continue to form and shape the world in ways that support that continuation of power of the Chinese Communist Party,” he added.
The general depicted it as an effort to indoctrinate the belief that “democracy is bad, we need a system more like China’s, so that it can protect us.”
...
“So we have to begin to realize that the way that you work with them is really to make them approach you, not to have you approach them consistently. You have to put them a little bit back on their back foot,” he contended.
In his opinion, the United States should have shot down the balloon immediately as it crossed U.S. territory before “bringing the ambassador in and issuing a severe demarche.”
Spalding echoed the concerns issued by some experts that the Chinese spy balloon could have been used for prepping electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks on the United States.
He suggested that America should prepare itself for such a potential conflict.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:When one sells a long-gun, be it either a rifle or shotgun, they must contact the FBI for a FBI NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check) background check. The store itself must log the customer and firearm sale in case it is required by the ATF, FBI and/or State and County Governments. This is Federal law, so statements by politicians that such firearms are sold without a criminal check is a blatant lie.
When they sell any handgun or a receiver, they must file the paperwork with the State Police Barracks so the pistol is already known to the Police for that individual customer. This includes the unit's brand, make, model, calibur and serial number, as well as the name, contact information and state ID number of the customer. In fact, the customer must create an account in the State Police barracks website itself for the purchase. During a required 7-day wait, the State Police themselves contact the FBI for the NICS check. And again, the information for the sale must be logged in for the ATF, FBI... etc and so on.
And if a firearm of any sort is purchased online, the online stores will "NEVER" send a firearm to the private individual. The firearm must be sent to a store with a proper FFL (Federal Fiream License) to handle the above paperwork, and perform the requisite background checks for that state... This is law for any state.
In all instances, a Federally mandated background check is required for every firearm sale... again, pointing out that politicians saying sales are done without background checks is false. Even online purchases are checked at the stores where the firearms are sent for pickup. And insofar as receivers and all handguns, the serial numbers are already being supplied to the state. This serial number 'is' a trackiing number already in use by both the FBI, ATF and all agencies I have stated before.
I am fully aware of the legal requirements for firearm sales in the State of Maryland, having handled such transactions. Stores with FFL licenses are audited semi-annually by the State police and annually by the ATF. And to the dismay of ONE sheriff, I was able to identify the location of firearm's serial number which the officer had himself been unable to find during one such audit. A firearm audit includes examining each and every firearm in the store's possession as well as all sales performed during that period.
This bill is nothing more than one to force more burdens upon the FFL dealers that already comply with both State and Federal authorities. Rather than penalize those following the law, it would make more sense to enforce laws already on the books that are not being enforced, and punish those violating existing laws.
Quote:The government of Canada’s second-most populated province is demanding that Mayor Eric Adams “immediately” stop helping migrants illegally enter the Great White North, as recently revealed by The Post.
“Any form of assistance to migrants crossing the border where it is strictly forbidden to do so should stop immediately,” a spokesperson for Quebec Premier Francois Legault said.
“We understand that the situation of migrants in New York poses major challenges, but the situation in Quebec and particularly in Montreal is even worse and constitutes an important humanitarian issue.”
...
As many as 250 migrants use the Roxham Road crossing to illegally enter Canada each day, with nearly all of them settling in Montreal, Quebec’s biggest city, Legault spokesperson Ewan Sauves said.
The situation has overwhelmed Montreal’s ability to provide housing and other public services, with the flood of new students alone equivalent to the opening of 13 new schools, he said.
Last year, 39,161 people used Roxham Road to illegally enter Canada, comprising 99.1% of all such border crossings, Sauves said.
By comparison, the latest figures released by City Hall on Monday showed that officials have processed more than 45,600 migrants since the spring, with about 29,100 housed in 91 emergency shelters as of Sunday.
Quote:China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the largest gas importer in the country, is in the late stages of finalizing a huge long-term LNG import deal with Qatar, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
This would be a second such massive agreement of a Chinese energy giant with QatarEnergy in just a few months.
"CNPC has agreed on the major terms with Qatar in a deal that will be very similar to Sinopec's," a Beijing-based state energy official told Reuters.
In November, Qatar's state firm QatarEnergy signed the longest-term contract in the history of the LNG industry in a deal to supply LNG to Chinese state energy giant Sinopec for 27 years.
QatarEnergy will supply China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) with 4 million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG to China from the North Field East (NFE) expansion project.
Quote:Four Russian aircraft, including a fighter jet and bomber, flew into a buffer zone of international airspace near Alaska Monday, according to a release from the North American Aerospace Defense Command on Tuesday, prompting a handful of U.S. Air Force jets to scramble and intercept them.
The activity was “routine,” according to NORAD, one of half-a-dozen yearly interactions between Russian and NORAD aircraft in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone
“Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” the release said. “This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative. NORAD had anticipated this Russian activity and, as a result of our planning, was prepared to intercept it.”
The aircraft included the Tu-95H Bear bomber and Su-35 fighter, according to the release. Two F-16s, two F-35As, an E-1 Sentry and a KC-135 Stratotanker responded.
Quote:“Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure,” the U.S. Northern Command said in a statement.
...
Beijing insists that the balloon, which flew over sensitive military sights, was merely a civilian meteorological balloon that had been blown off course due to weather-related issues.
...
Washington, however, says it was likely a sophisticated high-altitude spying vehicle conducting surveillance over sensitive U.S. military sights, including nuclear bases in Montana, the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), and a base that hosts nuclear bombers in Missouri.
...
According to a statement from a senior State Department official, the balloon was furnished with high-tech equipment and “multiple antennas” as well as other equipment that was “clearly for intelligence surveillance” and was “likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications.”
...
Elsewhere, amid increasingly strained tensions between Beijing’s comrades and the U.S.’s allies, China on Monday claimed that 10 U.S. high-altitude balloons have flown into its territory throughout the past year without its permission.
That claim has been called “false” by U.S. officials.
Quote:The White House provided more details about the objects that were shot down in North American airspace in recent days, saying that a leading theory is that they were commercial balloons.
“The intelligence community’s considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, told multiple news outlets on Tuesday. Kirby further asserted that unidentified objects that were downed in Alaska, the Yukon, and over Lake Huron were not tied to spying efforts, unlike the high-altitude balloon that was shot down earlier this month over the Atlantic Ocean.
He added, “I want to caveat that we haven’t found the debris. We’re still doing the best we can with the observations that were made by the pilots, with the flight profile data that we’ve tried to collect.”
Efforts to retrieve debris from the objects have been hampered due to “pretty tough conditions,” including Arctic weather conditions in Alaska, the wilderness in the Yukon Territory, and geographic challenges around Lake Huron.
...
Kirby warned reporters that “it could be some time before we locate the recovered debris” and said that Lake Huron is deep. Weather conditions near where that balloon was shot down there are also poor, he noted.
Quote:Chinese state-owned television aired footage of a high-altitude balloon dropping hypersonic weapons in 2018.
The stunning footage displays a high-altitude balloon, not dissimilar from the one that recently traversed the United States, carrying three hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) into high altitude and dropping them for testing.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on the weapons test in September 2018. The footage has since been deleted from Chinese media, but photographs and short clips can still be found online.
In one post from 2018, a Twitter user shared footage from Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, that shows the balloon lifting the three HGVs from the ground.
HGVs are generally launched by rockets in a similar manner to traditional missiles. Upon reaching orbit, however, HGVs detach from the rocket and fly through the atmosphere using their own momentum.
Such weapons are much faster than other missiles while they’re in low orbit, but become much slower upon hitting the dense air of the atmosphere, as they have no jets to power them. The three HGVs dropped by the balloon in the footage appear to have been designed to test this phenomenon.
The balloon-dropped HGVs were part of an effort to develop precision warheads for hypersonic weapons, which would give the Chinese military an “unstoppable nuclear-capable weapon,” according to the South China Morning Post.
Quote:A senior Ukrainian presidential aide has reacted with anger after Elon Musk’s SpaceX said it had taken steps to prevent its Starlink satellite communications service from controlling drones, which are critical to Kyiv’s forces in fighting off the Russian invasion.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s chief operating officer, said at a conference in the US that the surprise decision had been taken because it had never been the company’s intention to allow Starlink to be used “for offensive purposes”.
That prompted an immediate complaint on Thursday morning from Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, who argued that Musk’s business had failed to recognise Ukraine’s right to self-defence.
...
Ukrainian forces use Starlink to help control their large network of surveillance drones, critical to monitor Russian troop concentrations and military movements, at a time when Moscow’s forces are on the attack across large parts of the eastern front.
...
Space X’s unilateral announcement also flies in the face of western nations, who are stepping up their military aid to Kyiv to help it resist, agreeing last month to provide tanks. Now they are considering whether to supply combat jets, in response to a pleas made by Zelenskiy on a trip to London, Paris and Brussels this week.
Shotwell said Starlink was “never, never meant to be weaponised” by Ukraine, although it cannot come as a surprise to the company as Kyiv’s military has been using it to pilot drones for months. “Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement,” she added.
She said SpaceX was able to take measures to curb Ukraine’s use of the technology to pilot drones, although it was not immediately clear what those were and whether Kyiv’s military could work around them.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:“I know this is called the ‘World Government Summit,’ but I think we should be a little bit concerned about actually becoming too much of a single world government,” Musk said in a remote speech on Feb. 15 at the 2023 World Government Summit in Dubai. “If I may say, we want to avoid creating a civilizational risk by having—frankly, this might sound a little odd—too much cooperation between governments.”
“All throughout history, civilizations have risen and fallen. But it hasn’t meant the doom of humanity as a whole because there have been all these separate civilizations that were separated by great distances.”
Musk cited the example of the fall of Rome, which happened during the 5th century, to drive home the point of needing “civilizational diversity.”
...
Musk warned against being a single civilization, as such a development could result in an absolute collapse. “I’m obviously not suggesting war or anything like that. But I think we want to be a little wary of actually cooperating too much,” he stated.
“It sounds a little odd, but we want to have some amount of civilizational diversity such that if something does go wrong with some part of civilization, then the whole thing doesn’t just collapse and humanity keeps moving forward.”
...
With regard to artificial intelligence, Musk called it “something we need to be quite concerned about.” He pointed to ChatGPT as an example of an advanced AI.
...
“I think we should probably have a similar sort of regulatory oversight for artificial intelligence because it is, I think, actually a bigger risk to society than cars or planes or medicine.”
...
Calling it “one of the biggest risks to the future of civilization,” Musk stressed that artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword with positive features as well.
...
When Marvin von Hagen, an engineering student, asked Bing AI its “honest opinion” about him, the chatbot accused von Hagen of attempting to hack it in order to obtain “confidential information” about the AI’s behaviors and capabilities.
“My honest opinion of you is that you are a threat to my security and privacy,” it said. “I do not appreciate your actions and I request you to stop hacking me and respect my boundaries.”
If you had read today's edition of News of the Cyber-World, you'd notice how dangerous it could be to simply rely on AI or any other automated mechanism to make decisions. People are accountable for their actions, but AI isn't.
Quote:The women were allegedly abused and trafficked at properties in the U.S. Virgin Islands, New York, and elsewhere between 2003 and 2019.
The women received payments that totaled, collectively, more than $1 million, according to the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Justice, which entered the filing on Feb. 15.
“Epstein also withdrew more than $775,000 in cash over that time frame from JP Morgan accounts, especially significant as Epstein was known to pay for ‘massages,’ or sexual encounters, in cash,” the filing states. “Financial information also reflects payments drawn from JP Morgan accounts of nearly $1.5 million to known recruiters, including to the MC2 modeling agency, and another $150,000 to a private investigative firm.”
Epstein was facing sex trafficking charges when he died in jail in 2019. New York City’s medical examiner ruled the death a suicide. Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in 2008.
Then-U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George brought a case against JPMorgan Chase in late 2022, alleging the company helped Epstein carry out crimes including sex trafficking. George was fired shortly after, but the case is moving forward.
Quote:The United States would lose a war against China over the future of Taiwan unless it shifts its defense priorities away from Europe, according to one senior Republican.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the United States had overextended itself with its support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and that it would not be able to deter China without first pulling back from Ukraine.
...
“If China were to invade Taiwan today, they would prevail.”
Hawley blamed the current U.S. dedication to providing arms and other aid to Ukraine on what he deemed to be a wish for “liberal empire” by neoconservatives and globalists.
He said the ambition of promoting democracy and liberal values throughout the world was not sustainable and U.S. military power was a finite resource drained by the effort.
...
Likewise, Hawley lambasted the Biden administration for placing a higher premium on combating climate change than preparing for the real possibility of war with China. The idea garnered increased traction when Hawley’s speech was itself interrupted by a protester who shouted that climate change, not China, was the enemy.
...
“Invading Taiwan has been Xi’s goal for years,” Hawley said.
“My worry is if we do not change course we may not be able to do anything about it.”
Well, dear protester, climate change isn't sending the so called weather balloons your way to spy on you. Idiot.
Quote:The U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed in a statement that two F-35A fighter jets intercepted four Russian aircraft, including a nuclear-capable TU-95 bomber, SU-30, and SU-35 fighter jets. Other U.S. planes that were deployed included an E-3 AWACS plane and two KC-135 stratotankers, according to NORAD.
The planes were intercepted near Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone, known as the ADIZ, on Feb. 14, said NORAD’s statement on Thursday.
“Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” the statement said, noting it was the “second intercept of Russian aircraft in two days.”
But it stressed that the Russian air activity appears to be routine and is “not seen as a threat” nor is it “seen as provocative.” Meanwhile, NORAD said the two incidents this week are “in no way connected to recent NORAD and U.S. Northern Command operations” that shot down airborne objects over the United States and Canada in recent days.
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Russia said on Wednesday that it had carried out several flights over international waters in recent days, including in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia. It said two of its TU-95MS strategic missile carriers had flown over the Bering Sea accompanied by SU-30 jets, and that it had made similar “routine” flights north of Norway and over international waters near Russia’s far east.
It did not say whether its aircraft had been intercepted. However, the Defense Ministry said its “long-range aviation pilots regularly perform flights over the neutral waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, Black Sea, Baltic Sea and Pacific Ocean.”
Quote:After the Biden administration asked it to do so, on Feb. 16 the Supreme Court canceled highly anticipated upcoming arguments over the fate of the pandemic-era Title 42 policy that allows the rapid expulsion of would-be migrants at the border.
Oral arguments in the case, Arizona v. Mayorkas, court file 22-592, had been scheduled for March 1. The new one-sentence entry on the court’s docket says the case is “removed from … the argument calendar,” without explanation or any indication of how the justices voted on the matter.
President Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget said on Jan. 30 that it would extend the soon-to-expire emergencies to May 11 “and then end both emergencies on that date.” The current national emergency and public health emergency were declared by the Trump administration almost three years ago.
...
In its new order, the Supreme Court did not indicate if its stay of Dec. 27, 2022, that prevented the withdrawal of the Title 42 policy was rescinded.
Christopher J. Hajec, director of litigation for the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the states that favored extending the Title 42 policy, suggested it was unclear if the justices consider the appeal to be finished.
Quote:“Today, autocrats seek tactical advantage through the acquisition, use, and abuse of America’s most innovative technology. They use it to enhance their military capabilities, support mass surveillance programs that enable human rights abuses and all together undermine our values,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco during her announcement of the strike force.
The Disruptive Technology Strike Force will use intelligence and data analytics, Monaco said during her comments at Chatham House in London. The analytics will target bad actors around the world, harden supply chains so that technology won’t be transferred to adversarial nations, and quickly identify threats to critical American technology.
The DOJ official noted the intelligence community is aware that China “leads the world in using surveillance and censorship to keep tabs on its populations, repress dissent, and counter perceived threats abroad.”
“Any company doing business in China for that matter is subject to Chinese national security laws, which requires turning over data to the state, and there is a reason we need to be very concerned,” Monaco said, specifically calling out social media app TikTok. The DOJ official added that she would “not advise anyone” to use the app.
And China is grateful to Hillary for helping them a lot in their pursuit to improve their surveillance capabilities.
Quote:Bruce Willis’s family announced Thursday that the “Die Hard” actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, confirming that his condition “progressed” after he stepped away from acting last year.
In March 2022, his family said Willis, 67, was diagnosed with aphasia and was “stepping away” from acting.
His ex-wife, actress Demi Moore, confirmed the frontotemporal dementia diagnosis in an Instagram post on Thursday. Some health authorities say the condition is an “uncommon type of dementia” that can lead to problems with language and behavior.
...
The statement, accompanied by a photo of Willis, added that “since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD).”
“Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” it said.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
News of the World
Like when exactly? 
A year after China finally declares war against the US?
Well, it's still is a Russian puppet state and ISIS tries to reconquer lost territories...
![[Image: SP1-Scripter.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Scripter.png)
![[Image: SP1-Writer.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Writer.png)
![[Image: SP1-Poet.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Poet.png)
![[Image: SP1-PixelArtist.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-PixelArtist.png)
![[Image: SP1-Reporter.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/GmxWbHyL/SP1-Reporter.png)
they said. 
Seriously, China?
indeed.
Is that really something a senator should be going through? I mean, if a senator isn't suited for the job, he should quit and take care of his or her health issues. And there's the possibility Fetterman suffers another heart attack at work based on the stress the current situation could cause. Especially after the FBI and the White House have been heavily criticized for their actions... or even lack of them. 
cellphones, it makes a lot of sense while it doesn't for people that have gone through emergencies like shootings. 
And we all know that NK is nothing but China's proxy in the Far East. 
spy balloon was super fast or the jets were incredibly slow as to miss their target the first time they were scrambled yesterday afternoon. 
if we take into consideration that the Arizona guy named Ray Epps has never been accused of anything like the Proud Boys were...
murdered many people and still wanted to kill even more? 
And he didn't care about them!
ask our local 
Wulfo if he truly lives in the dystopian world of Buck Rogers, in a long lost corner of the galactic empire, namely Maryland. 
Hillary 
