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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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British court rules against extradition of hacker Lauri Love to US

Laurie Love
© Tolga Akmen / Gloval Look Press
The UK's Lord Chief Justice says that British 'hacker' Lauri Love should not be extradited to the US to stand trial. He has been accused of hacking the secure networks of the Federal Reserve, NASA and the FBI.

An order to extradite him should be quashed, the Lord Chief Justice added. The court erupted in applause when the judgment was handed down.

Love, who suffers from Asperger syndrome, eczema, asthma, and depression, had his appeal case heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in November.

Chart Pie

China: America's excessive sorghum 'dumping' is ruining farmers' livelihoods

Taiwan farming
© Pichi Chuang / Reuters
A farmer sets off firecrackers to scare off birds in a sorghum field in Kinmen county, Taiwan
US President Donald Trump is not the only one unhappy about US-China trade. A Beijing investigation into US agricultural exports to China has found that America is dumping its produce.

Chinese authorities announced Sunday they would check US subsidies on the export of sorghum, a crop used to feed livestock and make a liquor known as maotai that is very popular with Chinese drinkers

According to China's Commerce Ministry, a preliminary investigation revealed "extensive dumping" of sorghum, causing "material injury" to Chinese farmers.

"The surging amount of imports from the US since 2013 has dragged down market prices, damaging China's grain sorghum sector," Wang Hejun, the head of the ministry's trade remedy and investigation bureau, said in a separate statement, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Heart - Black

Nomadland: Many older Americans are living a desperate life in RVs

Many older Americans are living a desperate, nomadic life
© Getty
In her powerful new book, "Nomadland," award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are - as the subtitle says - "surviving America in the twenty-first century." Not quite homeless, they are "houseless," living in secondhand RVs, trailers and vans and driving from one location to another to pick up seasonal low-wage jobs, if they can get them, with little or no benefits.

The "workamper" jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon's "CamperForce," seasonal employees who can walk the equivalent of 15 miles a day during Christmas season pulling items off warehouse shelves and then returning to frigid campgrounds at night. Living on less than $1,000 a month, in certain cases, some have no hot showers. As Bruder writes, these are "people who never imagined being nomads." Many saw their savings wiped out during the Great Recession or were foreclosure victims and, writes Bruder, "felt they'd spent too long losing a rigged game." Some were laid off from high-paying professional jobs. Few have chosen this life. Few think they can find a way out of it. They're downwardly mobile older Americans in mobile homes.

Comment: America's failing infrastructure: Three fatal AMTRAK crashes in 49 days


Take 2

'The Rope': Daredevil's spine-chilling tightrope stunt above violent waves hits dramatic snag (VIDEO)

The rope
Heartstopping, newly-released drone footage shows the moment a daredevil slackliner lost his footing on a highwire suspended above jagged rocks and crashing waves, at an infamous Portuguese surfing spot.

A group of highliners, known as Western Riders, connected a wire between two cliffs in Nazaré, Portugal - the location of the biggest wave ever surfed, according to the Guinness World Records.

Brazilian highliner Emerson Machado pulled off the elaborate stunt as monster waves crashed beneath him.

Laptop

'Truth about Tech': Former social media execs launch campaign against 'erosive' social networks

facebook
© Jaap Arriens / Global Look Press
Ex-Silicon Valley executives, who helped to build Google and Facebook into the tech giants they are today, are joining forces to challenge the companies' "erosive" effect on society and create a cultural awakening.

The Center for Humane Technology - co-founded by Tristan Harris - a former design ethicist at Google, is working with non-profit Common Sense Media to launch its Truth about Tech campaign.

The center's supporters also include Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook operations manager; Lynn Fox, a former Apple and Google communications executive; Dave Morin, a former Facebook executive; Justin Rosenstein, who created Facebook's Like button and Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook.

The group claims that "our society is being hijacked by technology" and the tech giants are profiting from the problem. "We can't expect attention-extraction companies like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter to change, because it's against their business model," the campaigners say, pointing out that "our attention is massively profitable."

Folder

USA Gymnastics pedophile doctor Nassar receives additional 125yr prison sentence on top of his previous 175yr sentence

Larry Nassar
© Rebecca Cook / Reuters
Larry Nassar
Former USA Gymnastics doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar has been sentenced to an additional 40 to 125 years in prison, following on from his earlier sentence of up to 175 years.

Nassar has been accused of sexually abusing 265 women throughout his career. Some 140 of the accusations stem from his 20-year career as the doctor for the US gymnastics team.

Comment: See also:


Attention

"Cycle mob" ride wrong way down NYC street attack drivers who confront them (VIDEO)

cycle mob us police
A roving mob of bicyclists rode the wrong way down Manhattan streets and attacked drivers who confronted them. Dashcam video shows them surrounding one Uber driver's car. Wale Aliyu reports.

A mob of dozens of bicyclists roamed through the streets of Manhattan against traffic and attacked drivers who confronted them, witnesses say, and police say an officer was injured after being hit by a driver trying to chase down the unruly group.

Arrow Down

America's failing infrastructure: Three fatal AMTRAK crashes in 49 days

Crash scene via Lexington Sheriff
© Lexington Sheriff
Crash scene
Horrible news from South Carolina this morning. If America is going to have a passenger rail system, we have to do much better than this. Via The State:
A crash involving an Amtrak passenger train and a freight train in Cayce, South Carolina, left at least two people dead and more than 50 injured.

Pine Ridge train incident update: @CountyLex confirms two fatalities, more than 50 injured transported to the hospital. Shelter for passengers open at Pine Ridge Middle School. Media update @SCEMD at 6:30 a.m. #alert

- SCEMD (@SCEMD) February 4, 2018

Comment: See: Also check out SOTT radio's : Behind the Headlines: Babylon, Ancient Rome and the American Empire


Eye 1

Selling off a nation: Britain's first 'no win no fee' "private police force"

Britain's first 'private police force' has 100 per cent conviction rate
© Georgie Gillard/Daily Mail
A PRIVATE police force probing hundreds of crimes including murder and rape has a 100 per cent conviction rate.

The firm - Britain's first - has successfully prosecuted more than 400 criminals and is led by former Scotland Yard senior officers.

TM Eye is now believed to bring more private convictions than any other organisation except for the RSPCA, Daily Mail reports.

The company has a service called "My Local Bobby", which costs wealthy homeowners around £200 a month and involves a guard patrolling their streets.

Comment: For the most part, this was never necessary before, so why now? If the police were receiving adequate funding and were run by an honest, sane, government, there'd be no need for private policing. However, as with the NHS, the UK pathocrats are looking to privatise every social service in order to reap the benefits for themselves and their industry friends. Though their catastrophic track record when privatising public services paints a bleak picture for Britain:


Pistol

Florida Sheriff: Robbers should 'keep in mind' number of gun owning residents

gun pistol
A Florida Sheriff has warned would-be robbers in Vero Beach that there is a decent chance that they will be breaking into somebody's home who happens to have a gun, after one burglar suspect was shot in the head and thigh by a law-abiding citizen. Indian River County Florida Sheriff Deryl Loar said that he hoped the incident would serve as a warning to future criminals.

Indian River County Florida Sheriff Deryl Loar announced Friday afternoon that a 25-year old man who shot an intruder in his home will not be charged, reports ABC 25 West Palm Beach Florida. Sheriff Loar noted the high number of Indian River County residents who legally own firearms in his county and warned potential criminals to remember that statistic the next time they want to rob a house. "Just shy of ten percent are lawfully possessing firearms," Sheriff Loar told the media. "That's something (robbers should) keep in mind."

As for the incident itself, authorities say that 25-year old Taylor Reese heard a man breaking down his door on Thursday night. Reese then grabbed his gun and was suddenly face to face with two men robbing his home. One of those men fired several shots at Reese, but missed. Reese then returned fire and hit one of the suspects twice, once in the head and once in the thigh.

After investigating, police determined that Reese was well within his rights of self-defense to shoot at the suspects. One of the suspects is actually a juvenile who ran from the scene Thursday night, but turned himself in on Friday. The man who was shot is still recovering in the hospital, but injuries do not appear fatal.