“I
will meditate on thy commandments, and consider thy ways. I will
meditate on thine ordinances: I will not forget thy words.” (Psalm
119:15-16) Not Forget Thy Words
***
***
SingularityHub
Nvidia’s Fake Faces Are a Masterpiece—But Have Deeper Implications
By Edd Gent
December 24, 2018
‘Don’t believe everything you see on the internet’ is pretty standard advice, but it’s getting harder than ever to distinguish the real from the fake. A new algorithm from Nvidia could muddy the waters further by generating completely made-up human faces that are almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
AI’s ability to synthesize, swap, and morph images, video, and even speech has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. That’s driving more powerful image editing software, more realistic voice assistants, and even opening the door to automatically generating entire digital worlds. But there’s also growing concern that as these kinds of tools become increasingly sophisticated and accessible, they’re eroding our ability to trust these mediums.
The problem was thrust into the public consciousness by the Deepfake scandalthat broke this time last year, when AI was used to superimpose celebrities’ faces onto porn videos. Since then, similar techniques have been used to put words into the mouths of politicians, and there has been widespread hand-wringing about the technology’s potential impact in an era of fake news and digital manipulation.
GANs
The class of algorithms at the heart of the most advanced of these solutions are called generative adversarial networks, or GANs, and they also form the core of the new Nvidia software. Essentially, GANs pit two neural networks against each other, one designed to spot synthesized images and the other designed to create fakes realistic enough to slip past undetected. This game of cat and mouse is repeated over and over again, with the synthesized images getting steadily more realistic.
The approach was only invented in 2014, but there’s been rapid progress since then, from grainy black and white passport photos to hi-res, full-color (if sometimes slightly wonky) head shots. But the latest advance from Nvidia has achieved an unprecedented level of realism—you’d be hard-pressed to tell the output apart from images pulled out of a stock photo catalog.
The researchers’ main innovation was to combine their GAN with methods from the field of style transfer—something you may be familiar with from apps that rework your photos into the style of Vincent van Gogh or some other artist. These approaches let neural networks learn to separate the content and the style of an image and then recombine them in interesting ways.
Leveling Up
Most neural networks designed to work with images “understand” them in terms of a hierarchy of features, starting with broad strokes like their pose, then things like the distance between their eyes and nose, and at the lowest level details like the tone of their skin. By adding the style transfer methods the new algorithm is essentially able to learn styles for each of these feature levels.
Researchers can then remix these various styles at different levels to create entirely new faces, or simply change the color of someone’s hair by tweaking the low-level style. The researchers also tested the approach on other image datasets, creating convincing forgeries of cars and bedrooms as well.
But as cool as conjuring new faces out of thin air is, that’s not the real motivation for the research. Despite the improvements in the technology, GANs—and neural networks more broadly—still operate as black boxes insofar as we don’t really understand what it is they’re focusing on in an image.
As Tiernan Ray notes in ZDNet, by forcing their network to separate what it is focusing on into high- and low-level features and then making it possible to swap them around, we’re able to get a much better sense of what the algorithm is looking at at each level of abstraction.
But while that might be of great interest to computer scientists, what’s likely to be a more pressing concern for the rest of us is what the practical side-effects of the approach are, something the authors conspicuously avoid discussing in their paper.
Admittedly the fake faces aren’t perfect yet—a blog post from artist-coder Kyle McDonald notes subtle aberrations, like phantom earrings and weird teeth that become clear on closer inspection—but they are good enough that they would fool most people most of the time.
Why It Matters
One potential application of that kind of trickery noted by The Register could be to create highly realistic profile photos for fake social media accounts used to manipulate online discourse. And with the authors planning to release the source code, that ability could soon be freely available.
Unlike the Deepfakes code, though, which allowed anyone with a relatively powerful graphics card to start creating their own videos, training this new model took nearly a week on eight of Nvidia’s cutting-edge Tesla GPU chips. That means the costs will likely outweigh the benefits for most conceivable applications.
But the promise and the danger of this approach is probably not so much in it’s direct application, but the discovery that incorporating style transfer methods can lead to GANs capable of much higher-fidelity output. That’s likely to inspire the development of a new generation of image and video-spoofing algorithms whose outputs are even harder to detect.
To rework a famous saying, a fake picture is worth a thousand fake words, and with the increasing democratization of this kind of technology its going to become harder and harder to trust what we see on the web. As Joshua Rothman notes in the New Yorker, that presents a double-edge sword—not only will people be able to create forgeries to twist the public discourse, public figures will also have plausible deniability for anything they’re caught doing on camera.
‘Don’t believe everything you see on the internet’ could soon shift to ‘don’t believe anything you see on the internet.’
***
MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE
Seeking Immortality in 2019 Thru Teen Blood, Plastic Surgery and Cash
Paul Seaburn
December 30, 2018
It’s the start of a new year and most of the talk is about new beginnings. However, a small group of people is instead discussing ways to have no ending. In other words … immortality. Most people are familiar with expensive plastic surgery and may have heard rumors of billionaires drinking the blood of younger people for life-extending and other as-of-yet-unproven health benefits, but these two practices have suddenly gotten mainstream media’s attention and 2019 may be the year they become acceptable … but will they become reliable paths to immortality?
“Their brains are younger, their hearts. Their hair, if it was gray, it turns dark again.”
Let’s start with the blood drinkers. That quote comes from a CBS Philly interview with Dr. Jesse Karmazin, the founder ofAmbrosia, a clinic which claims to have conducted clinical tests on its so-called “young plasma treatments” where people over 30 pay $8000 per liter ($12,000 for 2 liters) of plasma from donors aged 16 to 25. Unfortunately, the quote about younger brains and darker hair refers to results from experiments on mice, not the human treatments. That’s not stopping Karmazin (not a medical doctor) from looking for places to open new clinics (currently he has two in California and Florida) for anyone with a lot of cash and the desire for immortality. The prime example of this is Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal who is a proponent of young blood transfusions and has been fighting rumors that he’s hoarding it.
“It’s all very exciting that there can be components in blood that can be healing.”
The CBS report interviewed people like Dr. Sharon Shaw, an Alzheimer’s researcher at Stanford, who have seen positive results in Alzheimer’s patients using platelet-rich plasma treatments – but made from a patient’s own blood, not from young donors. That’s the same technique used in the “vampire facials” made famous by another group of rich people seeking immortality – the Kardashians (what a surprise). While the immortality benefit of young blood from others is still unproven, it’s getting more coverage and as long as there are rich people, there will be those seeking to stay with their money for as long as they can.
Speaking of rich celebrities, Hollywood has long been the testing ground for high-end plastic surgery to keep actors and actresses looking young. A quick Google search on “bad celebrity plastic surgery” shows it’s still a long way from perfect, but transhumanist and futurist Dr. Ian Pearson predicts that the field will change within 30 years by moving beyond the skin to go right to DNA itself – specifically the telomeres or junk code at the ends of chromosomes that are believed to cause aging when they break off during replication. Pearson believes the rich will be getting telomeres treatments by 2050 and the price will soon drop to an affordable level because:
“You wouldn’t want to live in a world where there are millions of Kardashians walking around, where they can afford to do it and nobody else can.”
This type of treatment has been reported on by everyone from the Daily Star to PBS and is often in the conversation when discussing future applications for CRISPR DNA editing. Pearson believes the 2050s will also be when uploading consciousness to robots is perfected for those who would rather get a new mechanical body instead of constantly upgrading the old skin-and-bones one. You can’t get away from new advances in humanoid robots and it will be nice to see them do something besides giving directions, singing or having sex
Yes, extending life beyond the 90s and 100s in a younger or mechanical body is not immortality … yet. But it’s getting more publicity and the rich are getting richer. Will it happen before the money runs out? Comedian and accidental philosopher Steven Wright may have the best outlook:
“I intend to live forever. So far, so good”
*
RT
‘God crucified? Fk, how unimpressive!’ Duterte says his Jesus would’ve burned all non-believers
The Philippines’ eccentric leader has shared his views on the cornerstone tenets of the Christian faith, calling the Holy Trinity doctrine “silly” and claiming that it was “unimpressive” for a true god to get himself crucified.
In his latest tirade against the Catholic Church, Duterte started off by mocking the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or three expressions of one divine essence.
There’s only one God, period. You cannot divide God into three, that’s silly.
“You’re already praying at one God, then you’re going to pray at these cursed saints. There’s only one God,” the Philippines’ president said Saturday in Kidapawan City.
The 73-year-old leader cranked up his rhetoric when it came to Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, using extremely vulgar language to attack what billions around the world consider to be God’s divine plan of salvation of humankind through the sacrifice of his Son.
“Your God was nailed on the cross. Fk! How unimpressive,” Duterte said, speaking in Tagalog.
I’m God and you will crucify me?! Motherfker. I’d tell them: ‘Lightning, finish all of them. Burn all the non-believers’.
Duterte did not stop there, continuing his speech with an attack against veneration of the saints and the belief in their divine intervention. “Saint Catalina, Saint Anne, Saint Thomas, Saint Sebastian, Saint Rodrigo, they’re nothing… I don’t know them. Look, those documents were written –if at all– 3,000 years ago. Why would they care about our lives now.”
Duterte, who revealed in 2015 that he was molested by a priest when he was young, has frequently slammed the institution of the Catholic Church, which remains critical of his leadership and his iron-fisted anti-drug policies. His harsh remarks against the Vatican have provoked repeated condemnation from the Christian community worldwide.
***
***
RT
China probe ‘lands on dark side of the MOON’ in space exploration BREAKTHROUGH
The Chinese robotic probe Chang'e 4 has landed on the dark side of the Moon, becoming the first manmade craft to alight on the unexplored surface, according to reports from Chinese state media.
The probe reportedly landed in the South Pole-Aitken basin, the oldest, largest, and deepest crater on the Moon's surface. The Moon's dark side remains largely unexplored because its position shields it from radio frequencies, preventing direct contact with the Earth. To solve that problem, China launched the relay satellite Queqiao earlier this year to transmit signals from the dark side.
Chang'e 4 will perform several experiments while on the Moon, including testing whether plants will grow in the low gravity environment, exploring the poles to find water or other resources, observing the interaction between solar winds and the lunar surface, and conducting the first lunar low-frequency radio astronomy experiment.
"Since the far side of the Moon is shielded from electromagnetic interference from the Earth, it's an ideal place to research the space environment and solar bursts, and the probe can 'listen' to the deeper reaches of the cosmos," said Tongjie Liu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center at China's National Space Administration.
The Chinese probe had been circling the Moon in an elliptical orbit in preparation for landing since Sunday. The mission left Xichang Satellite Launch Center on December 8 and was reported to have reached lunar orbit four days later.
China is a relative newcomer to space travel compared to the US and Russia, but has been making up for lost time at a rapid rate. The country's last lunar rover, Yutu, had spent 972 days on the lunar surface by the time its mission ended in 2016.
China plans to launch a Mars probe in 2020 to collect samples from the surface of the planet and seeks to have its own permanent space station in orbit by 2022. Meanwhile, the US, threatened by China's incursions into space, is planning a buildup of its military there – the so-called "Space Force" – and forbids NASA from collaborating with China.
***
Global Research
Global Economy Teeters on the Brink of a Recession That Will Transform Geo-Politics
By Dr. Leon Tressell
Global Research, December 28, 2018
As we approach 2019 the global economy teeters on the brink of yet another recession which will plunge geo-political relations into a period of great upheaval and rapid change. In 2019 global stock markets will continue to face unprecedented volatility and gigantic losses as the Ponzi scheme pumped up by the cartel of central banks comes crashing down.
The central bank cartel of the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, and Bank of England together with the Bank of China have flooded their national economies with astronomical sums of money since 2008 in an attempt to stave off collapse of the global financial system.
Their money printing experiment has driven global debt from $177 trillion to over $277 trillion oday while interest rates have been artificially suppressed enabling a wealth transfer to the 1% of historic proportions.
During this period global stock markets surged to new historic heights pumped up as they were by the financial heroin provided by the central bank cartel. The chart below clearly illustrates the correlation between the tremendous growth of the S&P 500 and the money printing by the central bank cartel.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost as the global economy slows down and the central bank cartel tries to end their money printing colloquially known as Quantitative Tightening.
The withdrawal of this financial heroin is behind the collapse of global stock markets during 2018 that has wiped trillions off the values of a range of inflated assets.
There is a very clear correlation between the shrinking balance sheets of global central banks and the continuing crash of stock markets. The collapse of the stock values of globally systemic banks poses great dangers to the global economy.
The central bank cartel policies of quantitative tightening, as they attempt to wean financial markets off their monetary heroin, are taking us towards a period of stagflation, reminiscent of the 1970s, which will usher in a period of depressed economic growth and rising inflation. Geo-political relations, as in the 1970s period of stagflation, will become even more unstable and volatile intensifying many current conflicts and threatening new wars between nations and military blocs.
The next world recession will pose severe challenges for the great powers as they jostle to maintain control over strategic raw materials, trade relationships and economic resources. Meanwhile,
The great powers will struggle to cope with the devastating consequences of the collapse of inflated assets from bank failures to the return of mass unemployment. They will all face unprecedented social and political upheaval from their own citizens suffering from the effects of economic collapse.
One thing we can be sure of is that 2019 will be very different to 2018 and the years that have gone before as nations struggle to redefine their political and economic relations with one another.
The original source of this article is Global Research
***
Angela Merkel: Nation States Must Be Willing to “Give Up Their Sovereignty”
German Chancellor says people who complain about immigration should be ignored
Paul Joseph Watson | Infowars.com - DECEMBER 28, 2018
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told an audience in Berlin that “nation states should be willing to give up their sovereignty” and that governments shouldn’t listen to their own citizens on matters of immigration.
During an event aimed at combating populism entitled Parliamentarism in the Tension of Globalization and National Sovereignty, Merkel brazenly said that “nation-states should be willing to give up their sovereignty today” and this should be done via an “orderly process”.
Responding to critcism of the UN Migration Pact, which greases the skids for mass migration to be treated as a human right, Merkel said that international agreements took precedence over the will of the people within individual countries.
“There were [politicians] who believed that they could decide when these agreements are no longer valid because they are representing The People,” she said.
“[But] the people are individuals who are living in a country, they are not a group who define themselves as the [German] people,” she stressed.
Merkel’s forthright denunciation of sovereignty and her continued support for mass immigration comes despite both issues leading to a massive collapse in her own approval numbers.
Earlier this year, a YouGov survey also found that almost half of Germans want to leave their own country “for a more stable political situation”.
***
VOICE OF EUROPE
“There’s no democracy in the European Parliament, it’s a joke!” – Former Czech President
December 28, 2018
Václav Klaus, former President of the Czech Republic talks with Echo TV about the Central European Visegrad Group and the future of Europe.
Klaus fears democracy “is gone” in Europe and he lashes out at the European Union and the gap between elitist governments and their citizens.
Around 6 minutes into the interview Klaus is asked: Do you think that there is a chance to talk frankly about the very serious issues that determine the future of Europe, which were also the subject of the conference?
The former President answers:
“Mass migration co-organized by the European political elite based on multiculturalism, is, in my opinion, the main threat to Europe, to European societies, and to European culture” and says after another question
“The main problem is that the opinions of men of the street are quite different from the opinions of the political elite. There is a big gap between the two, and the lack of democracy in Europe and the European Union is striking.
“I know that very often people talk about a democratic deficit in Europe. I don’t agree. In my opinion, it is not a democratic deficit, but the lack of democracy. The deficit means that there is some democracy, but there are just some problems with it.
“I’m afraid that we live in a world where there is no democracy. The European Parliament is a good example of that, as it is not a parliament at all. There is no real dialogue between the government and the opposition. There is no freedom of speech. So, the European Parliament is just a joke. So, I do not agree that it is a democratic deficit.”
***
NEON NETTLE
World’s Youngest Leader Closes Mosques, Deports Imams From Austria Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz plans to guide his country out of the globalist EU By: Jay Greenberg
30th December 2018 @ 8.00pm
Sebastian Kurz vows that those who preach 'radical' or 'political Islam' will be expelled from Austria
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the world's youngest leader, has ordered the closing of seven mosques and has begun deporting “radical” imams back to their homelands due to violations of a recent law in Austria that bans “political Islam”.“Parallel societies, politicized Islam or radical tendencies have no place in our country,” Mr. Kurz said at a press conference announcing the measures in Vienna, while railing against the disastrous results of multiculturalism in Western Europe.Chancellor Kurz believes Muslims must be loyal to Austria and willing to integrate into society if they are to stay in the country.If they form a “parallel society” and start preaching “political Islam“, identity politics and divisiveness, they will be expelled.
Since taking office last year, Sebastian Kurz’s government has been investigating Muslim organizations suspected of violating the country’s 2015 Islam law.The law aims to prevent any conflict between “thinking of oneself as a pious Muslim and proud Austrian citizen at the same time,” by regulating operations of the Islamic community.
Two imams have already received deportation orders, and another 60 are under investigation and could face expulsion along with their entire family, Herbert Kickl, the Austrian interior minister, said.
A number of mosques were shut down over suspicions of links to Islamic extremism after images emerged of children as young as four being forced to wear Turkish army uniforms and salute the Turkish flag inside the mosque in Vienna’s Favoriten district.31-year-old Sebastian Kurz, who claimed victory in Austria’s general election last year while vowing to destroy the New World Order, is making good on his promise to ignore the European Union’s globalist directives regarding Muslim immigration. Ultimately, Kurz plans to reclaim Austrian sovereignty by leading the nation out of the European Union.The UN official called the coalition a “dangerous development in the political life of Europe,” and said he was particularly concerned with the new hardline migrant policies endorsed by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Predictably, Kurz’ popular nationalist and anti-globalist policies are proving deeply worrying to the United Nations, which is currently pushing for open borders around the globe.
<
p>UN’s Human Right High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein slammed the new Austrian anti-globalist government, claiming their libertarian policies are “dangerous to democracy.”“We have to be very careful about whether there is an imitation effect for other politicians in Europe,” Al Hussein said.Hussein also warned, “the extreme right should think very carefully about where it leads its countries and the continent in general.”The Socialist faction in the European Parliament has also come out against the new coalition saying they would not rule out similar sanctions against Austria that were threatened in 2000 when the FPÖ last formed part of a coalition government.
PRESSTV
UAE officially reopens embassy in Syria: Damascus
December 27, 2018
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has officially reopened its embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Thursday, the Syrian Information Ministry has announced.
The ministry on Thursday announced the development in a note distributed among journalists to invite them to the reopening event.
The UAE, an Arab country like Syria, closed its embassy soon after the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, and Abu Dhabi was long considered a sponsor of the many militant groups that poured into Syria from across the region and beyond to fight to bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
As that conflict winds down, with the Syrian government and military regaining control over almost all major areas previously overtaken by militants, Damascus’ former adversaries seem to be changing their calculations.
That change of heart is in all likelihood also affected by a United States decision to withdraw all of its forces from Syria — where they had been illegally positioned. The US had long been prodded by President Assad’s regional foes to militarily intervene against his government.
On December 16, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Damascus in the first such visit by an Arab leader since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
In November, Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta had reported that the UAE was negotiating the reopening of its embassy in Syria and return of its envoy to Damascus.
A source in Damascus said Emirati officials had been meeting with the Syrian government over the issue.
With the planned departure of the US — which is yet to take place — the Syrian province of Idlib remains the last main area not yet under government control. Damascus has itself bused pockets of armed militants from various locations in Syria under negotiated deals to Idlib to better contain them.
All along the conflict in Syria, the Syrian government and military have received advisory military help from allies Iran and Russia. Moscow has also conducted an aerial military campaign on Syria’s behalf.
PRESSTV
Following UAE, Bahrain set to reopen diplomatic mission in Syria
December 27, 2018
In this file picture, a Syrian flag flutters in central Damascus, Syria. (Photo by Reuters)
Arab states are preparing to restore their presence in Syria after years of absence following the outbreak of a foreign-sponsored conflict more than seven years ago, with Bahrain being the next in the line of countries to reopen its embassy in Damascus.
Diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency that Bahrain’s mission in the Syrian capital would resume its activities next week.
Bahrain decided to shut down its embassy in Damascus and to withdraw all diplomats and staff on March 15, 2012.
On Thursday, the United Arab Emirates officially reopened its embassy in Damascus.
The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said the reopening of its embassy “reaffirms the keenness of the United Arab Emirates to restore relations between the two friendly countries to their normal course.”
The move “will strengthen and activate the Arab role in supporting the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and to prevent the dangers of regional interference in Syrian Arab affairs,” the ministry pointed out.
UAE's charge d'affaires Abdul Hakim Naimi visited the embassy in the afternoon, and witnessed his country's flag being raised on the compound in central Damascus.
The development is another sign that the incumbent Damascus government is being admitted back into the Arab world.
On December 18, an Iraqi diplomatic source, requesting not to be named, said President Barham Salih was going to pay an official visit to Damascus.
The report came only two days after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir became the first Arab League leader to visit Damascus.
Syria's official news agency SANA said Bashir was greeted by his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad upon arrival at Damascus International Airport, before they both headed to the presidential palace.
The two leaders discussed bilateral ties and the "situations and crises faced by many Arab countries," the Syrian presidency said in a statement.
SANA quoted the Sudanese leader as saying during the meeting that he hoped Syria will recover its important role in the region as soon as possible.
He also affirmed Khartoum’s readiness to provide all it can to support Syria's territorial integrity.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.
***
Zero Hedge
Arab League Set To Readmit Syria After Eight Years As UAE Embassy Reopens In Damascus
By Tyler Durden
December 27, 2018
Assad's "normalization" with both Arab and increasingly international countries who were a short time ago enemies is moving fast. First the embassy of the United Arab Emirates has formally reopened Thursday in Damascus, which is the first time a Gulf country has re-established official relations with the Assad government since all GCC states first shuttered their embassies there in 2012. Related to this and more significant, Gulf nations are now reportedly leading efforts to readmit Syria into the Arab League after the organization expelled Damascus eight years ago when the conflict first began.
At the time the Arab League cited "brutal repression" of protests against President Bashar al-Assad — deeply ironic and hypocritical at the time — given that Damascus pointed out both Bahrain and ally Saudi Arabia violently snuffed out protests that rocked Bahrain's monarchy in 2011 as part of the "Arab Spring" movement. But the significance of likely rapprochement with Arab states is huge, coming after eight years of war driven by an official policy of Syrian regime change by these very GCC governments, foremost among them Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. Restoration of ties also means countries like the UAE could be major sources of financing reconstruction projects at a key moment when the United States has long blocked all western aid that could benefit the Syrian government.
During the final weeks of the UAE embassy's rapid remodel in preparations for Thursday's reopening, another first happened: Sudan's President Omar Bashir became first Arab League leader to meet Bashar al-Assad since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011. Bashir flew to Damascus on Dec. 16 to discuss with the Syrian president "situations and crises faced by many Arab countries," according to an official press release. No doubt they also discussed Syria's impending re-entry into the Arab League.
Notably, The Guardian paints the most optimistic picture in terms of Damascus' full diplomatic rehabilitation in the region after years of Arab heads of state and international leaders echoing "Assad must go":
At some point in the next year it is likely Assad will be welcomed on to a stage to once again take his place among the Arab world’s leaders, sources say. Shoulder to shoulder with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and Egypt’s latest autocrat, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the moment will mark the definitive death of the Arab spring, the hopes of the region’s popular revolutions crushed by the newest generation of Middle Eastern strongmen.
Such a speedy turn around signals Arab leaders are ready to acknowledge Assad as the legitimate leader of Syria after emerging victorious as the international proxy war continues to wind down, but also at a tense and sensitive moment as both Israel has vowed to expand its "anti-Iran" military action in Syria and as the United States is current withdrawing troops from Syria's northeast.
Prominent Syria analyst Joshua Landis noted last month there's currently a monumental realignment underway as regional powers hasten to restore ties with Damascus:
Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan are reopening relations with the Syrian government. This suggests that they are not fighting "Sunnis," but extremists that they seem to consider common enemies. No longer Sunni vs Shia - but Conservative vs Radical. Or Governments vs insurgents.
Meanwhile both Syrian and international estimates attempting to evaluate to reconstruction costs for the war-ravaged country commonly put the figure at $400bn.
According to The Guardian:
The full sum will probably never materialize and much of Syria is likely to remain in ruins – but Riyadh’s pockets are much deeper than Tehran and Moscow’s. Any forthcoming Gulf reconstruction money will be directed to areas that stayed loyal to the government throughout the war as a reward.
This also touches on President Trump's Monday tweet, wherein he announced that Saudi Arabia "has now agreed to spend the necessary money" for Syria's reconstruction, which also raised the question for potential full Syrian-Saudi rapprochement.
It turns out the president was likely referencing prior commitments, and not newly pledged funds, while under fire from Congressional leaders for announcing a full US draw down from Syria.
According to CNBC, the Saudis have denied the content of the tweet, or that it presents new information:
An official at the Saudi embassy in Washington told CNBC that the kingdom has not made any major new financial pledge to Syria since August. That is when the State Department announced that Saudi Arabia had committed $100 million to a fund to stabilize areas of Syria liberated from ISIS militants by a U.S.-led coalition.
Of course this is a paltry sum out of the $400bn needed, but likely there will be more to come, especially as Russia and Saudi Arabia are bettering relations after Saudi crown prince MbS has essentially been declared persona non grata by the United States and international leaders.
Already we're set for an interesting start to 2019 considering that in international relations terms, Assad could be on his way "in" at a moment that MbS is on his way out.
***
Natural News
AT&T to deliberately HOAX its own customers by falsely labeling 4G phones with “5G” icon
Friday, December 28, 2018 by: Lance D Johnson
Natural News) AT&T wants to win over new and existing customers by advertising its 4G phones with a 5G icon. In 2019, AT&T plans to deceive customers by displaying a 5G logo in the corner of their Smartphone. None of the phones will be connected to a 5G network; AT&T will pretend that their most advanced 4G LTE tech is using the new 5G network.
AT&T is incorporating new speed boosting technologies into their phones, but these upgrades do not qualify as 5G technologies. The new 5G E icon is practically a hoax. AT&T justifies the marketing ploy by including a small “E” after the 5G.
According to Fierce Wireless, “potentially millions” of people could see the new icon at the top of their smart phone screen by Spring 2019. By the end of 2018, the “latest Android devices” will have access to AT&T’s 5G Evolution network, available in over 400 markets.
This isn’t the first time that AT&T deceived the public with faulty advertisement. The company showed a 4G logo on Apple phones long before 4G was officially rolled out. The phones used 3G technologies that incorporated speed boosting HSPA+, but they were deceptively marketed as 4G.
These marketing ploys have allowed AT&T to get a jump on the rest of the competition. This time AT&T will deceive customers by making them think they are accessing a 5G network months before everyone else. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray called out AT&T in a recent blog post. AT&T is “duping customers into thinking they’re getting something they’re not,” said Ray.
This deception is important, because it allows the industry a chance to undermine the health risks of 5G. If 5G is supposedly already in use and health effects aren’t observed, then the industry can advance new 5G technology as safe long before the towers are built and its true safety is assessed in the population.
5G marketing deception gives the industry time to make the technology appear safe
Real 5G networks won’t be available for another year or so. AT&T’s marketing trick causes great misunderstanding around a wireless technology that is already fraught with controversy. Fifth generation technology for mobile networks brings about faster internet speeds, but the new technology is also connected to health risks.
Research shows that the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones causes cancer. People who live closer to cell towers are at greater risk of brain cancer. With 5G, there will be more of these towers and they will be closer together. 5G waves do not travel as far as 4G; therefore, new base towers will need to be installed for every twelve homes. As more cell towers go up, people will receive internet speeds 100 times faster than before, but they will not be able to escape the constant barrage of non-ionizing radiation. California firefighters who worked close to newly-installed 5G equipment quickly began to report confusion and memory problems. When the firefighters re-located, the confusion went away. The health consequences of 5G are yet to be unleashed.
AT&T’s deceptive marketing practice could be an attempt by the government and the industry to make 5G technology appear safe before the technology truly is unleashed en masse across the country.
