A lengthy report issued by the U.K. Ministry of Defence late last year outlined multiple scenarios for the future of the planet, with a globalist angle.
Puppet Masters
A lengthy report issued by the U.K. Ministry of Defence late last year outlined multiple scenarios for the future of the planet, with a globalist angle.
© David McNew/AFP/Getty
Critics of facial recognition technology have described it as a ‘dangerously intrusive and discriminatory’.
Critics of facial recognition technology have described it as a ‘dangerously intrusive and discriminatory’.
The Neoface system used by the Metropolitan police and South Wales police is supplied by the Japanese company NEC, which markets the same technology to retailers and casinos to spot regular customers, and to stadium and concert operators to scan crowds for "potential troublemakers".
The technology and its use by police has met considerable criticism. Its use by South Wales police is under judicial review, while the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, has criticised "a lack of transparency about its use". Tony Porter, the surveillance camera commissioner, last year intervened to stop Greater Manchester police using facial recognition at the Trafford shopping centre.
This month, University of Essex researchers who were given access to six live trials by the Met found matches were correct in only a fifth of cases and the system was likely to break human rights laws.
© REUTERS / Ammar Abdullah
According to the Russian envoy to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Alexander Shulgin, a new chemical weapons provocation is being planned by militants in Syria's Idlib province.
"They repeatedly have said that Syrians have hidden stocks of chemical weapons and they access them when needed. But nobody seems to think about the military significance of chemical weapons use. We have noted that talk about chemical weapons begins whenever Syrian troops are successful. Why should they resort to chemical weapons use if they are practically in control in Douma or in other places already?" - Mr Shulgin told the media.
© AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
This photo shows the Manhattan residence of Jeffrey Epstein, Monday July 8, 2019, in New York. Prosecutors said Monday, federal agents investigating wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein found "nude photographs of what appeared to be underage girls" while searching his Manhattan mansion.
This photo shows the Manhattan residence of Jeffrey Epstein, Monday July 8, 2019, in New York. Prosecutors said Monday, federal agents investigating wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein found "nude photographs of what appeared to be underage girls" while searching his Manhattan mansion.
Over the years, the opulent Manhattan home of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier at the center of a still-unfolding sex-trafficking scandal, has transformed from an unoccupied private residence to a K-12 school, and finally to an alleged house of horrors.
The Upper East Side home, essentially gifted to Epstein by wealthy retail magnate Leslie Wexner, stands seven stories tall and is considered one of the largest townhomes in New York City. It's estimated to be valued around $56 million. Epstein, who has flitted between his Manhattan home and residences in Paris, Palm Beach, Florida, and New Mexico, is accused of abusing a number of girls across his properties.
A recent indictment filed in the Southern District of New York outlined a system of recruitment, coercion and — ultimately — sexual abuse and rape that Epstein developed to lure young women and girls into his orbit. The document centers on Epstein's alleged conduct in New York and Palm Beach.
© Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero/The Daily Beast/Getty
Epstein has been in jail since he was arrested by authorities at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on his way home from Paris this weekend. His indictment, unsealed Monday, alleges that he "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations" between 2002 and 2005, according to a 14-page federal indictment. Epstein, a registered sex offender, pleaded not guilty to the new charges Monday.
During a lengthy court filing Thursday arguing that Epstein should be allowed to be kept essentially under house arrest at his Manhattan mansion instead of being held behind bars, Epstein's attorneys requested that the court allow Epstein's finances be provided as "sealed supplemental disclosure" and be kept secret from the public. Epstein's attorneys also said that they would provide a "sealed list of his philanthropic donations."
Jamie Fly is supposed to take over at RFE/RL in Prague on August 1, having reportedly been handpicked by board chair Kenneth Weinstein and endorsed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He reportedly received unanimous support from the board, composed of Democrats and Republicans appointed under the Obama administration.
© REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
FILE PHOTO: Ursula von der Leyen
FILE PHOTO: Ursula von der Leyen
The European Parliament is due to vote next Tuesday on whether von der Leyen, Germany's defense minister and a conservative ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, should succeed Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the EU executive.
Von der Leyen's nomination by EU leaders has infuriated the Social Democrats (SPD), Merkel's coalition partners, who feel aggrieved that the leaders ignored the lead candidates from the main parliamentary blocs in their horse-trading over top posts.
Merkel said on Thursday the coalition's situation "is not easy". She was the only EU leader to abstain in a vote last week on an EU top jobs package after she consulted the SPD, which rejected the deal.
According to the FDD, with the increase of adoption of cryptocurrencies around the world, efforts are underway to build new systems for transferring value that work outside of conventional banking infrastructure.
Governments in Russia, China, Iran, and Venezuela are experimenting with the technology that underpins the crypto market, said the report. They are prioritizing blockchain technology as a "key component of their efforts to counter US financial power."
© Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler
On a party-line vote, the committee empowered Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to issue subpoenas to current and former Trump administration officials who were central figures in former special counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month investigation of Russian contacts with the Trump campaign.
The subpoena list also includes Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, in addition to some of Mueller's key witnesses: former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter.
The panel also authorized subpoenas for executives of American Media Inc., which was involved in hush-money payments to women who alleged that they had affairs with Trump. Nadler has not indicated when or whether he'll issue the subpoenas.
"We will not rest until we obtain their testimony and documents so this committee and Congress can do the work that the Constitution and the American people expect of us," Nadler said.
Trump ripped the Judiciary Committee's move early Thursday on Twitter, erroneously stating that Mueller concluded there was "no collusion, no obstruction." He also accused Democrats of wasting time. "Enough already, go back to work!" he said.
Comment: See also:
© Reuters/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump speaks to social media summit attendees
President Donald Trump speaks to social media summit attendees
"I am not speaking for 'our side.' You could be some of the most liberal people in the world in this audience, and I don't care," Trump told the assembled guests in the East Room on Thursday.
For most of the speech, however, he pointed to social media companies repeatedly deplatforming, suspending, shadowbanning or otherwise suppressing his supporters. "Big Tech should not be silencing the voices of the American people. In all fairness, some of you I could almost understand," he joked, looking at the crowd. "Some of you guys are out there! But even you should have a voice!"
Calling free speech "the bedrock of American life," Trump said he would be summoning the heads of social media platforms to the White House within a month or so, presumably to give them an earful about censorship going into the 2020 election. "They have to be here," he added, making clear that the invitation was not optional.
Comment: More from RT: Trump: 'Fake news less important than social media'
The summit will host a number of social media stars, many of them in the pro-Trump orbit, on Thursday afternoon, and will address the "tremendous dishonesty, bias, discrimination and suppression" practiced by social media companies, according to the president.In addition from RT: Twitter is twittering (after global crash during Trump's 'bias and free speech tirade')
"We will not let them get away with it much longer," President Trump tweeted Thursday morning. "The Fake News Media will also be there, but for a limited period. The Fake News is not as important, or as powerful, as Social Media. They have lost tremendous credibility."
While no guest list has been published, some of the invitees are known, among them Twitter memesmith 'Carpe Donktum', prominent pro-Trumper Bill Mitchell, right-wing journalist Jim Hoft, as well as other conservative organizations such as Turning Point USA and PragerU.
The summit has its conservative detractors as well, however, who argue that the White House didn't invite anybody who was actually booted off a social media platform for their views.
No social media executives were invited to the event.
Social media firms have come under increasing pressure since the 2016 presidential election to crack down on controversial voices and figures deemed "hateful" or "trolls," but the platforms' efforts to control content has prompted calls of censorship. Facebook has implemented a number of "purges," scrubbing the platform of millions of accounts, including high-profile conservative personas like Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer. Other platforms, like Twitter and YouTube, have followed suit, where perma-bans are becoming increasingly common.
It's been a hard day for Twitter. First the platform's executives were not invited to the White House social media summit, then it experienced technical difficulties and a global outage, provoking whispers of a conspiracy.
Twitter says the worldwide outages were caused by "an internal configuration change," but many of its users soon smelled a rat, claiming foul play was afoot:
"Ironic this occurs as @POTUS holds his #SocialMediaSummit here -- without inviting #Twitter," noted Voice of America journalist Steve Herman, to which one person replied "It's only ironic if it's coincidence."
"Was this a [demonstration] for Trump or demo by DT hackers?" another user asked.
"I wonder if ... Twitter experienced alleged 'technical difficulties' to sabotage Trump & his fellow patriots?" one Trump supporter inquired.
"Let's play connect the dots," one person tweeted. "Few days ago Facebook and Instagram had outages. Today, Twitter had outages. So on the day of the White House social media summit, might we consider that Trump's Russian buddies are flexing their cyber-muscles? 2 bad Trump doesn't care."
"Can't wait to hear about how the deep state did the Twitter outage to combat Trump's social media summit or something," one person commented incredulously.
Comment: See also: The new leaders of the EU - A more incompetent and corrupt bunch we've never seen