“Woe
to them that call evil good, and good evil; who make darkness light,
and light darkness; who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter. Woe to
them that are wise in their own conceit, and knowing in their own
sight.”
(Isaiah 5:20-21)
Wise In Their Own Conceit
***
WND
Scottish anti-'hate' posters blasted for promoting hate
October 10, 2018
A Scottish government campaign of anti-“hate” posters that describes Christians and other religious believers as “bigots” is being condemned for generating hate
One pastor called the campaign’s anti-“hate” line to report the posters.
The international Christian ministry the Barnabas Fund has called on Scotland to withdraw the posters because they “promote anti-Christian prejudice.”
The posters by the One Scotland campaign are addressed “Dear Bigots.”
One message states: “Division seems to be what you believe in. We don’t want your religious hate on our buses, on our streets and in our communities. We don’t want you spreading your intolerance. Or making people’s lives a misery because of their religious dress. You may not have faith in respect and love, but we do. That’s why if we see or hear your hate, we’re reporting you. End of sermon.”
Another: “Do you think it’s right to harass people in the street? Right to push transgender people around in clubs? Right to humiliate, intimidate and threaten them online? Well, we don’t. That’s why if we see you doing harm, we’re reporting you. We believe people should be allowed to be themselves. Except if they’re spreading hate.”
Another: “Did you read about the girl with Down’s syndrome who was pushed to the ground? Or the man with a learning disability who as tormented so much he was driven to suicide? We did and it makes us sick. From now, if we see or hear your hate, we’re reporting you. We’re a caring nation, not a hating one. And we’re going to take away your ability to hurt people.”
One Scotland is run by the Scottish government.
Barnabas said the posters are a form of “state-sponsored hatred” that unfairly targets members of the Christian faith.
The Daily Mail of London reported Rev. David Robertson of St. Peter’s Free Church in Dundee said: “It is an absolute contradiction – a poster that is supposed to be against hatred that then encourages hatred. I showed my congregation the poster and they couldn’t believe it. It’s basically a poster that says if you are religious then you are a bigot.”
The campaign classifies people as bigots, racists, homophobes and transphobes, and threatens them with prosecutions and convictions.
The posters, which began appearing a few weeks ago, drew attention immediately.
Robertson said he reported the campaign’s posters for “fanning religious hatred.”
Police in Scotland say a hate crime is motivated by malice or ill will toward a social group based on race, sexual orientation, religion, disability or gender identity.
They also are on the prowl from hate “incidents,” which fall short of being crimes.
Barnabas Fund is asking Scottish police to remove the posters.
The ministry explained that using the word “sermon” seemed to target religious groups, including Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Barnabas’ CEO Hendrik Storm issued a statement saying he was “shocked” by the message on the posters.
The organization has supported Christians who face prejudice and discrimination globally since 1993 but has never before deemed it necessary to make a formal complaint in the United Kingdom.
“This form of state-sponsored prejudice is something that Barnabas is more used to encountering in countries where Christians are marginalized and persecuted minorities,” the group said.
***
BREITBART
Six-Year-Old School Children Instructed to Write Gay Love Letters to Make Them ‘Accepting of Diversity’
By Jack Montgomery
October 1, 2018
A video published by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) showing 6-year-old school children being instructed to write gay love letters has been causing a stir on social media.
The video, originally uploaded to BBC Radio Manchester’s Facebook page, shows young children at Bewsey Lodge Primary School being instructed to write love letters from “Prince Henry” to his manservant, “Thomas”, with the teacher instructing her pupils: “You’re going to tell Thomas why it’s a brilliant idea for him to marry you.”
“This school teaches children about LGBT relationships from an early age,” enthuses the BBC’s subtitled commentary.
The teacher, named as Sarah Hopson, tells the BBC that the children “are going to go out into that world and find this diversity around them, and they’ll find that at a young age as well”.
She explains that “the more they can be accepting at this age, you’re not going to face it further on, because the children will be accepting now and will be accepting this diversity around them.”
Many social media users were highly critical of Hopson and Bewsey Lodge, however, accusing them of pushing lessons which are not age-appropriate.
Responding to the BBC Facebook post, users left objecting remarks about sexualising children at such a young age, and forcing children to write love letters as school work.
One poster, claiming to be the headmistress of Bewsey school replied to some of the remarks, saying: “…so very proud of my school, the children and their families. I don’t normally comment on social media however I feel compelled to share some thoughts. It is interesting to read how many people have sexualised the content of our curriculum.”
“We also teach about racism, extremism and religion and the same philosophy filters through it all. I would challenge anyone who doubts the power of what we are trying to do around lgbt+ to come and talk to some of our little people. They could tell you about respect and how, if you want to wear a skirt for school and you’re a boy, it’s fine, if you have 2 mums or 2 dads as long as you’re loved it’s cool and there’s no such thing as boy’s and girl’s stuff it’s just – whatever!”
The school, which also operates a gender-neutral uniform system, appears to put a great deal of emphasis on cultural, ethnic, religious, and sexual differences, with its website advertising a video in which young pupils read from a script about equality, gender identity, and other social justice issues prominently.
***
PRESSTV
Netanyahu: World must recognize occupied Golan as Israel’s
October 9, 2018
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (second from left) is seen during a tour of the occupied side of Syria’s Golan Heights.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the international community should recognize as “Israeli territory” the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory which has been under the regime’s occupation for over five decades.
“Israel on the Golan Heights is a fact that the international community must recognize and as long as it depends on me, the Golan Heights will always remain under Israeli sovereignty,” Netanyahu said on Monday during a visit to the occupied territory.
The premier claimed that if Israel withdraws from the occupied Golan, the regime will find itself with Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah on the “shores of the Kinneret (sea of Galilee)” in the northern part of occupied territories.
Iran and Hezbollah are “trying constantly to establish a force opposite us that would operate against the Golan Heights and the Galilee,” he claimed.
Israel is deeply angered by Iran’s military advisory assistance to Syrian armed forces in their operations against the terrorist groups, which have the backing of Tel Aviv and its allies.
Iran’s presence in Syria comes at the request of the government in Damascus.
Hezbollah forces have also been assisting the Syrian government on the ground to clear areas bordering Lebanon from terrorist groups.
Israel has been on high alert in recent days as Syrian government forces have made significant gains against foreign-backed terrorists near the Golan Heights.
Tel Aviv has frequently attacked military targets inside Syria in an attempt to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces.
Tel Aviv has also carried out sporadic strikes against Syrian forces to blunt their advances against terrorists.
The Syrian army has also repeatedly seized huge quantities of Israeli-made weapons and advanced military equipment from the militant groups.
Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and has continued to occupy two-thirds of the strategically-important territory ever since, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.
The Tel Aviv regime has built tens of illegal settlements in the area since its occupation and has used the region to carry out a number of military operations against the Syrian government
Tel Aviv has also been pressing the US administration under Israel-friendly President Donald Trump to recognize its claim to sovereignty over the occupied territory in defiance of international law,
Syria has repeatedly reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, saying the territory must be completely restored to its control.
RT
‘Entire Middle East’ should look like Israel – Pompeo
October 12, 2018
Israel is everything the US wishes the Middle East would be, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared in a speech, while bashing the Obama administration’s approach to Iran as resembling a “Disney movie.”
Speaking at the annual Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) dinner in Washington on Wednesday, Pompeo argued that Israel “is democratic and prosperous, it desires peace, it is a home to a free press and a thriving economy,” calling it “everything we want the entire Middle East to look like going forward.”
Israel’s enemy number one Iran, meanwhile, has “corrupt leaders” who “assault the human rights of their own people and finance terrorism in every corner of the Middle East,” according to Pompeo.
He went on to habitually bash the Obama administration for trying to solve problems with Iran peacefully.
“President Obama thought that if he made dangerous concessions, removed economic sanctions and flew a plane full of cash to Tehran, he could somehow hug Iran’s leaders into behaving well… but those leaders aren’t from a Disney movie,” Pompeo said, then himself went on to paint Iranian leaders as movie villains: “They’re real. They are murderers and funders of terrorism who lead chants today, still, of ‘Death to America’.”
After decades of US presidents at least maintaining the facade of honest brokers between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the Trump administration went all-out onto Israel’s side. The US embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s claim to the city in violation of UN resolutions and to the outrage of most of the Muslim world.
Washington has also cut funding to UN agencies charged with helping the displaced Palestinians, as well as direct aid to the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed almost 200 and injured over 20,000 Palestinians who have been protesting along the Gaza border fence since March.
In addition to its unapologetic support for Israel, the US under Trump switched gears into open hostility with Iran. In March, Trump left the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration – and praised as effective by all other signatories – and re-imposed a wide range of sanctions on Tehran. US diplomats have gone so far as to threaten other countries daring to do business with Iran that they would be punished for doing so.
LIFE SITE
Catholic archbishop tweets he doesn’t ‘want or have’ Jesus as King
Archbishop Mark Coleridge
October 10, 2018
AUSTRALIA, October 10, 2018, (LifeSiteNews) – An Australian Archbishop indicated on social media on Sunday that he does not want or have Jesus as King in his life.
Responding to a tweet stating that “Most people want Jesus as a consultant rather than a King,” Archbishop Mark Coleridge remarked, “Not too sure I want (or have) him as either.”
The Brisbane Archbishop’s words sparked a backlash of tweets, some of which condemned the prelate’s words, while others sought to make sure that he meant his words to be taken at face value.
LifeSiteNews reached out to the Brisbane Chancery seeking clarification, but received no reply after more than 24 hours.
Cardinal Raymond Burke told Catholics at the Rome Life Forum in May that they must consciously place themselves under the “Kingship of Christ” in the face of enemies of the Church today who are attempting to “infiltrate the life of the Church herself and to corrupt the Bride of Christ by an apostasy from the Apostolic Faith.”
“The Kingship of Christ is, by nature, universal, that is, it extends to all men, to the whole world. It is not a kingship over only the faithful or over only the things of the Church, but over all men and all of their affairs,” he said.
Archbishop Coleridge has shown himself to be an ardent supporter of Pope Francis’ agenda for the Church. He stated in 2015 that the Catholic saying “love the sinner, hate the sin” with reference to homosexuality no longer holds since the distinction “no longer communicates” “in the real world” where sexuality is “part of [your] entire being.”
He has also argued that using the word “adultery” for remarried divorcees needs to end. He criticized the four dubia Cardinals in 2016 for searching for what he called “false clarity” amid “shades of gray.” In 2016 Coleridge’s archdiocese defended the staging of a sexually charged, explicitly anti-Christian ballet and fashion show in a Catholic church.
He recently made derisive comments against Archbishop Viganò, suggesting that the Vatican whistleblower thinks he’d make a better pope than Francis.
Reaction to Coleridge’s comment was swift on social media, with some even wondering if his account may have been hacked.
Is this Abp Coleridge's authentic Twitter page? asked Church Militant’s Christine Niles. “I find it unbelievable that an archbishop would make this statement. Please clarify.”
Others were also understandably incredulous: “Archbishop, if your statement is being misunderstood, please, please clarify.”
One person quickly countered Archbishop Coleridge’s words by quoting Pope Pius XI: “He must reign in our minds...in our wills...He must reign in our hearts which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone.”
Others interpreted the prelate’s words to be blasphemous:
“I had to come and see this blasphemy for myself...I didn’t think it could possibly be real,” said Michael Kramer. “Anyone with any doubt that there are two distinct religions claiming to be the Catholic Church...here is your proof…”
Some interpreted the Archbishop’s refusal to explain himself as scandalous:
“The heartbreak this causes is unspeakable. A bishop who does not want or seek the kingship of Christ? SHAME ON YOU. MAKE A PUBLIC ACT OF REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART NOW.”
“What do you do on the Feast day of Christ the King?” asked Antonio Carrabino.
“The devil doesn’t want Jesus as a friend or king either…” declared Tyler Marie.
As of press time, no public explanations have been forthcoming from the Brisbane Chancery, leaving the public stunned at Archbishop Coleridge’s strange declaration.
***
***
STRANGE SOUNDS
666: 3 earthquakes larger than M6.0 (M6.0, M6.2, M6.5) and a M7.0 shake the Ring of Fire within 5 hours
October 11, 2018
Not 1, not 2, but three earthquakes with magnitudes larger than M6.0 and a M7.0 earthquake hit along the Ring of Fire in less than 5 hours on October 10, 2018. Amazing how much pressure has been released in such a short time period.
coindesk
Sweden Officially Backs a CryptoCurrency and Establishes it as their Official Coin.
Michael del Castillo
October 9, 2018
It’s finally happened. A major worldwide government has just bestowed a huge vote of confidence and legitimacy onto the world of cryptocurrencies. Sweden, in an unprecedented move, just announced that they are officially adopting a certain cryptocurrency as Sweden’s official coin!
The Swedish government just informed us that they have chosen a preferred firm for the purchase and marketing of their new coin -Kryptonex Research Group. The sales of Sweden's coin officially started October 9 of 2018October 6 of 2018 and currently these coins can be bought only from Kryptonex Research Group.
In fact, Sweden’s deputy minister of finance, Elias Karlsson, informed us that their new official coin starting price is just €0.30 cents! That’s right, their coin is incredibly inexpensive in comparison to most other coins out there. Bitcoin for example trades at €9,000 at the time of this writing, and Ethereum, trades at around €700.
***
Newsweek
DARPA is Making Insects That Can Deliver Bioweapons, Scientists Claim
By Hannah Osborne
The U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been accused of trying to create a new class of biological weapons that would be delivered via virus-infected insects.
The Insect Allies program was announced by DARPA in 2016. It is a research project that aims to protect the U.S. agricultural food supply by delivering protective genes to plants via insects, which are responsible for the transmission of most plant viruses. Scientists believe loading the bugs up with viruses that would offer plants protective benefits could be one way of ensuring food security in the event of a major threat.
In an editorial published in the journal Science, a group of researchers led by Richard Guy Reeves, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany, says Insect Allies isn't exactly what it says it is. Instead, they claim DARPA is potentially developing insects as a means of delivering a “new class of biological weapon.”
How Does Insect Allies Work?
There are many threats that could impact upon food security. This includes environmental disasters, natural pathogens and intentional attacks. Crop failure, for whichever of these reasons, has the potential to have devastating consequences—wheat and maize, for example, are relied upon by hundreds of millions across the globe for their basic nutritional needs.
Scientists with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are looking at introducing genetically modified viruses that can edit chromosomes directly, like using insects to transmit genetically modified material into plants.
Genetically altering a species to make it more resilient comes with problems. Introducing alterations directly into a species’ chromosome is slow, as the alteration must be passed down through generations before it takes hold.
Instead, scientists with DARPA are looking at introducing genetically modified viruses that can edit chromosomes directly in fields—these are known as horizontal environmental genetic alteration agents (HEGAAs).
The DARPA program is using the principles of HEGAAs but, unlike traditional methods of dispersal—like spraying fields with them—it wants to spread them through insects. At the moment, maize and tomato plants are being used in experiments and the insects being used for dispersal are leafhoppers, aphids and whiteflies.
"Insect Allies aims to develop scalable, readily deployable, and generalizable countermeasures against potential natural and engineered threats to mature crops,” Blake Bextine, DARPA Program Manager for Insect Allies, told Newsweek. “The program is devising technologies to engineer and deliver these targeted therapies on relevant timescales—that is, within a single growing season. To do so, Insect Allies researchers are building on natural, efficient, and highly specific plant virus and insect vector delivery systems to transfer modified, protective genes to plants.”
Why Biological Weapons?
Reeves and his colleagues offer a number of assertions about why Insect Allies could end up being a means of bioweapon dispersal. Firstly, they question the very nature of the project—the use of insects. Why, they say, are insects so integral? What is the problem with spraying HEGAAs?
The team says Insect Allies “appears very limited in its capacity to enhance U.S. agriculture or respond to national emergencies…. As a result, the program may be widely perceived as an effort to develop biological agents for hostile purposes and their means of delivery.”
Potentially, the viruses being introduced could do harm instead of good. The insects could be used to disperse agents that would prevent seeds from growing. “HEGAA weapons could be extremely transmissible to susceptible crop species, particularly where insects were used as the means of delivery,” they write. “Chromosomal editing would be targetable to particular crop varieties dependent on their genome sequence (presumably those varieties not grown by the deploying parties).”
Maize, one of the crops being tested by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is relied upon by millions of people for basic nutrition. Scientists believe loading the bugs up with viruses that would offer plants protective benefits could be one way of ensuring food security in the event of a major threat.
The development of an insect-based system, according to the authors, points to “an intention to develop a means of delivery of HEGAAs for offensive purposes.” The technology, they say, could quickly be simplified and used to develop a whole new class of biological weapons. “In our view, the program is primarily a bad idea because obvious simplifications of the work plan with already-existing technology can generate predictable and fast-acting weapons, along with their means of delivery, capable of threatening virtually any crop species,” they wrote.
The team calls for more transparency from DARPA as the Insect Allies progresses. However, it also says the potential to weaponize this technology is already out there. They say weapons programs are driven by the perceived activities of competitors—maybe the Insect Allies program is a response to intelligence about another nation’s capabilities.
Furthermore, “the mere announcement of the Insect Allies Program, with its presented justifications, may motivate other countries to develop their own capabilities in this arena—indeed, it may have already done so.... Reversal of funding for this DARPA project...would not in itself close the particular Pandora’s box that HEGAAs or their insect dispersal may represent.”
DARPA Making Weaponized Insects?
The U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been accused of trying to create a new class of biological weapons that would be delivered via virus-infected insects. Aphids are one of the insects being used in the DARPA program.
DARPA denies the assertions made by Reeves and his colleagues. “DARPA is producing neither biological weapons nor the means for their delivery,” a spokesman told Newsweek. “We do accept and agree with concerns about potential dual use of technology, an issue that comes up with virtually every new powerful technology.” He said these concerns are the reason Insect Allies has been structured in the way it is—supposedly as a transparent and university-led research project that encourages communication. “We also have numerous, layered safeguards in place to maintain biosecurity and ensure the systems we're developing function only as intended,” the DARPA spokesperson added.
Bextine reiterated this point. Researchers working with DARPA are allowed to publish their results and work with different agencies. The experiments they carry out are done so in biosecure greenhouses. “At no point in the program is DARPA funding open release of Insect Allies systems,” Bextine said.
He said he disagrees with the conclusion of the editorial in Science, saying technology and research that deals with food security and gene editing “have a higher bar than most for transparency”—and Insect Allies, he says, meets these high standards.
Responding to the queries relating to delivery—why spraying technology cannot be used—Bextine said these are just not up to the challenge, especially when it comes to responding at a large scale to the most severe threats.
“Many existing methods for protecting crops are inefficient, expensive, imprecise, or destructive to plants, may require significant infrastructure, and often provide only limited efficacy,” he said. “Sprayed treatments are impractical for introducing genetic modifications on a large scale and potentially infeasible if the spraying technology does not access the necessary tissues with specificity. Meanwhile, traditional selective breeding methods for introducing protective traits into plants require years to propagate, nowhere near the speed required to prevent a fast-moving threat from developing into a crisis.”
He added that DARPA would never receive funding for the next generation of aerial spraying technology. The development of this new technology is dependent on industry and other research funders. “Instead, we reach for fundamentally new ways of delivering more precise, efficacious treatments through systems that can be readily adapted to confront a range of potential threats.
“Emerging biotechnologies—and especially the cutting-edge research being performed on Insect Allies—are pushing science into new territories. DARPA is proud to be taking a proactive role in working with stakeholders to inform a new framework for considering how the benefits of these technologies can be most safely realized.”
***
NEW YORK POST
Facebooks creepy new speakers are freaking people out
By Kevin Dugan
October 8, 2018
Facebook is rolling out its first-ever tech gadget — and it’s every bit as creepy as you’d expect.
The social-networking giant on Monday unveiled a new line of voice-activated home speakers with screens that enable video chats with friends and family — but critics said they sound more like Big Brother spy devices.
In addition to collecting data on users’ commands with Alexa-powered artificial intelligence software, the Portal and Portal+ speakers are equipped with cameras that can follow users around a room and enhance the sound of their voices when they talk.
“Facebook’s like … look at this cool new gadget that eavesdrops on you and does creepy stuff with the info it collects,’” tweeted Ido Kolovaty, a professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law.
Indeed, CEO Mark Zuckerberg this spring reportedly pushed back the Portal’s launch date by nearly half a year after the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal blew up.
Anticipating the privacy concerns, Facebook said Monday it is equipping the Portals with a cover to block the camera lens when users want privacy.
Users can likewise deactivate the microphone by pressing a button on the device — although critics noted that it’s not clear if there’s a way to turn it off with a voice command.
In a Monday blog post, Facebook noted that it “doesn’t listen to, view, or keep the contents of your Portal video calls.”
The social network added that Portal’s camera “doesn’t use facial recognition and doesn’t identify who you are,” and that “You can delete your Portal’s voice history in your Facebook Activity Log at any time.”
But that didn’t stop a slew of skepticism engulfing the launch on Monday.
“Why, yes, please record and analyze the way I move, what I eat, what I listen to, how many guests are in my home, how many of my guests are Facebook friends,” Twitter user Eric J. Schulze sarcastically tweeted.
The products are landing after a year of scandals over the company’s handling of private data that has sent shares down nearly 25 percent from their peak.
Last month, the company experienced its biggest known hack when 50 million users’ profiles — and possibly millions more accounts that use Facebook logins — were compromised.
MailOnline
It is believed Moscow's main priority is to take control in the North African country, which is the biggest Putin 'is planting troops and missiles in eastern Libya in bid to seize control of the biggest illegal immigration route to Europe', UK intelligence fears
Theresa May warned that Russia is seeking to establish stronghold against West
Fears surge of immigrants to Europe would be 'like a tap' had been turned on
'Dozens' of GRU secret service and Spetznatz special forces 'training' in Libya
Kremlin backs country's most powerful warlord since dictator Gadaffi toppled
By SEBASTIAN MURPHY-BATES FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 02:17, 9 October 2018 | UPDATED: 08:12, 9 October 2018
Russian president Vladimir Putin is planting troops and weapons in Libya to establish a strategic stronghold against the west, intelligence chiefs say.
Prime Minister Theresa May has been warned that the country will become Putin's 'new Syria' by using it as a base for missiles.
Two military bases have been set up in the towns of Benghazi and Tobruk under the cover of Wagner Group, a private military firm.
It is believed Moscow's main priority is to take control in the North African country, which is the biggest illegal immigration route to Europe, The Sun Online reports, with fears the influx would be 'like a tap' being turned on.
Kalibr missiles as well as S300 air defence systems are also thought to be on Libyan ground.
Haftar has established himself as the military ruler of swathes of the country's eastern regions.
A senior Whitehall source said that if Russia controls Libya's coastline, migrants could seek to cross the Mediterranean as though a tap had been turned on.
The source said Putin was attempting to take ungoverned space in order to 'exact maximum influence over the West'.
'The fact is we are extremely vulnerable to both immigration flows and oil shock from Libya,' they said, adding that the consequences for Western democracy could be 'catastrophic'.
Establishing a Russian presence could allow Putin to conduct operations in the western Med.
Last night MPs called on the government to take action against the new threat from Putin.
Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, called the revelations 'alarming' and said Russia would 'no doubt try to exploit migration routes'.
He added that destabilising sub-Saharan countries is 'intimately' linked the Britain's national security.
Since the brutal dictator of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, was toppled in 2011 the country has been in chaos after a failed Anglo-French intervention.
Despite the United Nations backing a government in the capital, Tripoli, its influence barely extends beyond the city.
Last night MPs called on the government to take action against the new threat from Putin.
Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, called the revelations 'alarming' and said Russia would 'no doubt try to exploit migration routes'.
He added that destabilising sub-Saharan countries is 'intimately' linked the Britain's national security.
Since the brutal dictator of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, was toppled in 2011 the country has been in chaos after a failed Anglo-French intervention.
Despite the United Nations backing a government in the capital, Tripoli, its influence barely extends beyond the city.
FARS
ISIL Asks for Surrender Terms as Gov't Forces Advances in Sweida Desert
October 6, 2018
TEHRAN (FNA)- ISIL has been calling on Damascus to pave the ground for their surrender as the Syrian Army troops are on the verge of final victory in the Eastern deserts of Sweida, a Russian media outlet reported on Saturday.
The Arabic-language website of Russia's state news agency, Sputnik, reported that ISIL has called several times on the government forces in the last two days to lay the ground for the terrorists to surrender in Toloul al-Safa rugged terrain in the Eastern desert of Sweida.
It further said that the ISIL's move came after the army men continued capturing of key regions in Toloul al-Safa and the imminent collapse of the terrorist front in the region, specially after army dispatched more men and military equipment to the battlefield.
Relevant officials said the ISIL terrorists, whose total number stands at 3,000, are likely to surrender soon.
The army forces have advanced rapidly towards the last stronghold of ISIL and the terrorists' main water reservoir in Toloul al-Safa rugged terrain.
On Friday, the army units engaged in fierce clashes with ISIL in the depth of the rocks in Tolou al-Safa in the Eastern deserts of Sweida, seizing control over several positions and heights in Qabr Sheikh Hossein flank.
Other units of the army managed to capture Qa'a al-Banat region Northwest of Sweida desert.
In the meantime, local sources said that large areas in Western and Southwestern directions of Qabr Sheikh Hossein have come under the army's control, adding that the army is advancing in the depth of ISIL-held regions, and imposed military control over several key areas.
***
The Guardian
China planted chips in Apple and Amazon servers, report claims
Both firms deny report they found chips giving backdoor access to computers and data
Samual Gibbs
October 5, 2018
A Chinese military unit has been inserting tiny microchips into computer servers used by companies including Apple and Amazon that give China unprecedented backdoor access to computers and data, according to a new Bloomberg report.
The tiny chips, as small as the tip of a sharpened pencil and designed to be undetectable without specialist equipment, were implanted on to the motherboards of servers on the production line in China, the report in Bloomberg Businessweek said.
Technology shares in Hong Kong fell sharply on Friday led by Lenovo, which lost 23% in morning trade. The Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp lost more than 14%.
The chips were reportedly developed by a specialised computer hardware attack unit in the People’s Liberation Army, and gave hackers unfettered access to anything the server did, allowing them to potentially manipulate the server to steal data, contact other servers and alter operations.
“Having a well-done, nation-state-level hardware implant surface would be like witnessing a unicorn jumping over a rainbow,” Joe Grand, a hardware hacker and the founder of Grand Idea Studio, told Bloomberg.
The allegedly compromised hardware, sold by Super Micro Computer, which is based in San Jose, California and described as “the Microsoft of the hardware world”, found its way into the data centres and operations of 30 companies, including Apple and Amazon as well as banks, hedge funds and government contractors, according to the report.
The attack was reportedly discovered in 2015 by the US intelligence services, as well as by Apple and Amazon as the companies purchased servers made by Super Micro Computer. The report claims Amazon became aware of the attack during movesby its subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS) to purchase streaming video compression firm Elemental Technologies in 2015. Apple had reportedly bought around 7,000 Super Micro servers when its security teams discovered the chips.
The report cited 17 unnamed intelligence and company sources as saying that Chinese spies had placed computer chips inside equipment used by around 30 companies, as well as multiple US government agencies, which would give Beijing secret access to internal networks.
Amazon, Apple and Super Micro have all denied Bloomberg’s report. Amazon said: “It’s untrue that AWSknew about a supply chain compromise, an issue with malicious chips, or hardware modifications when acquiring Elemental.”
AWS said: “As we shared with Bloomberg BusinessWeek multiple times over the last couple months, at no time, past or present, have we ever found any issues relating to modified hardware or malicious chips in SuperMicro motherboards in any Elemental or Amazon systems.”
Apple said: “On this we can be very clear: Apple has never found malicious chips, ‘hardware manipulations’ or vulnerabilities purposely planted in any server.”
“We remain unaware of any such investigation,” said Super Micro.
Super Micro Computer engineers its equipment in San Jose, but, like the majority of electronics firms, it outsources manufacturing, including to contractors in China.
The Chinese government has also denied the report. A spokesperson said: “China is a resolute defender of cybersecurity. We hope parties make less gratuitous accusations and suspicions but conduct more constructive talk and collaboration so that we can work together in building a peaceful, safe, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace.”
There have been increased concerns about foreign intelligence agencies infiltrating US and other companies via so-called “supply chain attacks”, particularly from China where multiple global tech firms outsource their manufacturing.
Associated Press contributed to this report
***
The Guardian
China 'legalises' internment camps for million Uighurs
Laws revised in Xinjiang region to permit ‘education centres’ for ‘people influenced by extremism’
By Lily Kuo
October 11, 2018
A truck carrying paramilitary policemen passes a Uighur man during an anti-terrorism oath-taking rally in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Photograph: China Stringer Network/Reuters
China’s far north-western region of Xinjiang has retroactively legitimised the use of internment camps where up to one million Muslims are being held.
Amid sustained international criticism, Chinese authorities have revised legislation to allow the regional government to officially permit the use of “education and training centres” to incarcerate “people influenced by extremism”.
Chinese authorities deny that the internment camps exist but say petty criminals are sent to vocational “training centres”. Former detainees say they were forced to denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the Communist party in what they describe as political indoctrination camps.
“It’s a retrospective justification for the mass detainment of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang,” said James Leibold, a scholar of Chinese ethnic policies at Melbourne’s La Trobe University. “It’s a new form of re-education that’s unprecedented and doesn’t really have a legal basis, and I see them scrambling to try to create a legal basis for this policy.”
The revisions, published on Tuesday, say government agencies at the county level and above “may establish occupational skills education and training centres, education transformation organisations and management departments to transform people influenced by extremism through education”.
A new clause directs the centres to teach the Mandarin language and provide occupational and legal education, as well as “ideological education, psychological rehabilitation and behaviour correction”. Another new clause bars “refusing public goods like radio and television.” Chinese state media often feature programs hailing development in Xinjiang and promoting the government’s vision of stability in the territory.
The revised rules include a ban on behaviour “undermining the implementation” of China’s family planning policies which restrict family size. Last year, authorities ended an exception that had allowed Uighur and other ethnic minorities to have more children than their Han Chinese counterparts.
“Overall, this clearly strengthens the legal basis for the type of re-education that has essentially been admitted by the state … indicating that the state is determined to proceed with the current campaign,” said Adrian Zenz, a researcher who focuses on Xinjiang.
The original legislation announced in 2017 banned the wearing of veils, “extreme speech and behaviour” and the refusal to listen to public radio and television broadcasts.
Beijing has spent decades trying to suppress pro-independence sentiment in Xinjiang fuelled in part by frustration about an influx of migrants from China’s Han majority. Authorities say extremists there have ties to foreign terror groups but have given little evidence to support the claim.
Members of Uighur, Kazakh and other Muslim minorities who live abroad say they have not been able to contact relatives in China, while authorities are placing children separated from their detained or exiled parents into dozens of state-run orphanages across Xinjiang.
Leibold said the revisions were an attempt to deflect international criticism. China has come under increasing pressure from the US and the European Union after a United Nations panel confronted Chinese diplomats in August over reports of arbitrary mass detentions and harsh security measures aimed at Muslims. China is up for review by the UN’s human rights council in November.
“Regardless of these revisions I still believe the practice of coercively detaining Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang in ‘education through transformation centres’ not only violates Chinese law but also international legal norms against the extrajudicial deprivation of liberty,” Leibold said.
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Natural Blaze
5G Network Uses Same EMF Waves As Pentagon Crowd Control System
By Terrence Newton
POSTED ON October 7, 2018
The global rollout of 5G is well underway, and we soon may see new small cell towers near all schools, on every residential street, dispersed throughout the natural environment, and pretty much everywhere. But the safety of this technology is in serious question, and there is a raging battle to stop the taxpayer funded implementation of 5G.
The new cell network uses high-band radio frequency millimeter waves to deliver high bandwidth data to any device within line of sight.
Today’s cellular and Wi-Fi networks rely on microwaves – a type of electromagnetic radiation utilizing frequencies up to 6 gigahertz (GHz) in order to wirelessly transmit voice or data. However, 5G applications will require unlocking of new spectrum bands in higher frequency ranges above 6 GHz to 100 GHz and beyond, utilizing submillimeter and millimeter waves – to allow ultra-high rates of data to be transmitted in the same amount of time as compared with previous deployments of microwave radiation.
One of the ways 5G will enable this is by tapping into new, unused bands at the top of the radio spectrum. These high bands are known as millimeter waves (mmwaves), and have been recently been opened up by regulators for licensing. They’ve largely been untouched by the public, since the equipment required to use them effectively has typically been expensive and inaccessible.
Among the many potential problems with exposure to 5G radio waves are issues with the skin, which is interesting when you consider that this technology is already being used in the military for crowd control purposes.
This kind of technology, which is in many of our homes, actually interacts with human skin and eyes. The shocking finding was made public via Israeli research studies that were presented at an international conference on the subject last year. Below you can find a lecture from Dr. Ben-Ishai of the Department of Physics at Hebrew University. He goes through how human sweat ducts act like a number of helical antennas when exposed to these wavelengths that are put out by the devices that employ 5G technology.
The U.S. military developed a non-lethal crowd control weapon system called the Active Denial System (ADS). It uses radio frequency millimeter waves in the 95GHz range to penetrate the top 1/64 of an inch layer of skin on the targeted individual, instantly producing an intolerable heating sensation that causes them to flee.
This technology is becoming ubiquitous in top world militaries, demonstrating how genuinely effective this radio frequency energy can be at causing harm to humans and anything else.
U.S., Russian, and Chinese defense agencieshave been active in developing weapons that rely on the capability of this electromagnetic technology to create burning sensations on the skin, for crowd control. The waves are Millimetre waves, also used by the U.S. Army in crowd dispersal guns called Active Denial Systems.
The fight over 5G is heating up at the community level, and awareness of this important issue is spreading fast. For more background on 5G, watch this video from Take Back Your Power, featuring Tom Wheeler, Former FCC Chairman and corporate lobbyist, who delivers a rather intimidating and presumptuous speech praising this new technology. The fight over 5G is heating up at the community level, though, and now is the time to speak out against it.
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ASIA TIMES
Unemployed men line up outside a soup kitchen in Chicago during the Great Depression in 1931. Photo: US National Archives and Records Administration
‘Great Depression’ ahead? IMF sounds dire warning
Massive government debts and eroded fiscal buffers since 2008 suggest global dominos await a single market crash
By William Pesek
October 9, 2018
Is another “Great Depression” on the horizon? It would be easier to dismiss these words from Nouriel Roubini, Marc Faber or other doom-and-gloom prognosticators. Coming from Christine Lagarde’s team, though, they take on a new dimension of scary.
The International Monetary Fund head isn’t known for breathlessness on the world stage. And yet the IMF sounded downright alarmist in its latest Global Financial Stability report, stating that “large challenges loom for the global economy to prevent a second Great Depression.”
Even some market bears were taken aback. “Why,” asks Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse Blog would the IMF use this phrase “in a report that they know the entire world will read?”
Perhaps because, unfortunately, the findings of other referees of global risks – including the Bank for International Settlements – hint at similar dislocations.
Ten years after the Lehman Brothers crisis, these worrisome warnings that will be explored in depth at this week’s annual IMF meeting in Bali. The tranquil setting, though, will offer few respites from cracks appearing in markets everywhere – from Italy to China to Southeast Asia, where currencies are cratering like it’s 1998 again.
Potential flashpoints and a long line of dominos
Italy is the current flashpoint – and the latest target of “domino effect” chatter in frothy world markets. China’s shadow-banking bubble, and the extreme opacity and regulations that enable it, also came in for criticism. And, of course, the 800-pound beast in any room where global investors gather these days: Donald Trump’s assault on world trade.
But the real worry is the health of foundations underpinning these and other risks.
As the BIS warned on Sept. 23, the global economy faces a potential “relapse” of the “Lehman shock” of 2008. “Things look rather fragile,” says BIS chief economist Claudio Borio. Equally worrying, he adds: “There’s little left in the medicine chest to nurse the patient back to health or care for him in case of a relapse.”
A similar connection of dangerous dots runs through the IMF’s latest report. The big problem, says Malhar Nabar, deputy chief of IMF research, is the one that investors tend to ignore or explain away: how much of the Lehman fallout is still with us.
“There are many countries, even today, that are operating below pre-crisis trends,” Nabar says. “And what’s interesting is not just countries that suffered banking crises in 2007-2008 but also other countries outside of that epicenter that were affected through trade links or through financial links.”
Increased inequality is one troubling side-effect. Yet Nabar highlights, “possible long-lasting effects of the crisis on potential growth” that might seem tangential to Wall Street’s crash – lower birth rates, lower fertility and even “some evidence of slower technology adoption.” All this, he says, “can affect productivity growth and potential growth going forward.”
There is no doubt that many of the official policy actions taken since 2008 “seemed to have helped limit the harm.” But the costs of those efforts are only beginning to get calculated.
2008 crisis measures cast long, dark shadow
Excessively loose monetary policies have exacerbated the widening inequality trends unfolding pre-Lehman crackup. At the same time, there’s been, in the words of the IMF, a “large accumulation of public debt and the erosion of fiscal buffers in many economies following the crisis point to the urgency of rebuilding defenses to prepare for the next downturn.”
Yet all the diplomatic speak in the world can’t sugarcoat the roughly $250 trillion crisis unfolding in slow motion. That’s the level to which the world’s debt burden ballooned since the Lehman crash. That’s 18 times China’s annual gross domestic product.
And with official rates from Washington to Tokyo still at ultra-low levels historically, there’s little ammunition to battle the next reckoning.
Italy’s debt woes are an obvious weak link. One reason: just as with US officials after 2008, Europe did more to treat the symptoms of its woes than address underlying causes.
So is China’s unbalanced economy, one being trolled by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs arms race. This year’s 6.4% drop in the yuan is raising eyebrows for good reason. For one thing, it coincides with a marked slowdown in exports, industrial production, fixed-asset investment and an 18% plunge in Shanghai stocks this year. For another, it raised the specter of sizable defaults on dollar debt, which would reverberate through the global economy.
And therein lies Asia’s problem.
Asia’s exposure
In general, the region has journeyed a long way since the darkest days of 1997 and 1998. Financial systems are stronger and governments are more transparent. Currencies are more flexible. Foreign-exchange reserves have been rebuilt. That leaves advanced economies from South Korea to Singapore reasonably well equipped to withstand fresh turmoil.
But there are cracks in the region’s developing markets, as the ferocity of currency plunges in India, Indonesia and the Philippines show. Investors may argue they’ve learned from past misstates, but still fall prey to herd mentalities.
It’s an urgent wakeup call for India’s Narendra Modi, Indonesia’s Joko Widodo and Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines to narrow current-account and budget deficits. Leaders also need to devise macroprudential firewalls against global contagion.
The problem for Asia: contagion could come as much from the West and its own backyard.
Trump’s fiscal incompetence – including a $1.5 trillion tax cut America didn’t need – could roil global rates and the dollar. A recent spike in 10-year yields to 3.2%, the highest in seven years, could be a bad omen. Trump, too, is publicly dueling with his hand-picked Federal Reserve chairman. And given Trump’s legal woes, the odds of new tariffs or even military action to distract voters can’t be ruled out.
Any new assault on China could devastate Japan’s reflation effort. True, epic Bank of Japan easing and a weaker yen boosted exports. It pushed Nikkei 225 index stocks to 27-year highs. Yet Asia’s No. 2 economy is in harm’s way if the US-China brawl trumps the region’s key growth engine.
Even before most policy makers and financiers arrive in Bali this week, the IMF is signaling that global growth has plateaued. It downgraded output to 3.7% from 3.9%.
That not the end of the world, per se. But with trade battles intensifying and dormant old devils re-emerging, all bets could soon be off.
That is a lot more than depressing: it’s terrifying.
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RT
Italy’s deputy PM predicts ‘political earthquake’ for European Union
October 7, 2018
© Global Look
The bloc may expect a “political earthquake” after the 2019 European Parliament election, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio warned.
Di Maio said he believes that what happened in Italy after the general election in March 4, when the popular vote brought an unlikely coalition of two anti-establishment parties to power, will happen in the whole Europe. The pro-EU centrist parties shrank significantly as a result of the latest Italian parliamentary elections.
With the plebiscite that is scheduled for May next year “there will be a political earthquake at the European level,” Di Maio, who is also the Minister of Economic Development and the head of the Five Star Movement (M5S), stated. “All the rules will change,” the Italian high-ranking politician promised.
The Italian government and the EU authorities are at loggerheads over Rome’s targeted budget deficit at 2.4 percent of the GDP that exceeds the limits set by the EU.
Rome believes that the forthcoming elections would favor the opponents of austerity.
“The Europe of bankers, founded on mass immigration and economic insecurity, keeps on threatening and insulting Italians and their government? Relax, in six months 500 million voters will fire them. We keep going,” Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said.
Europe is scheduled to elect a new parliament in May 2019. Just as in 2014, the European political parties that will be present in the parliament will also field their candidate for the post of the European Commission head, who will be later elected by a qualified majority of the European Council as well as a simple majority in the new parliament.
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RT
South Africa’s Zulu nation joins white farmers in fight against government land seizures
October 9, 2018
© Reuters/Rogan Ward
The largest ethnic group in South Africa, Zulu, has spoken out against the expropriation of land without compensation in the country. Zulu is ready to cooperate with the country's white farmers, known as Afrikaners or Boers.
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has said the group will cooperate with South African minority rights group AfriForum.
“The Zulu nation I’m talking about will not exist if we don’t have food. That’s why I say farmers must come closer so that we discuss what we can do when we talk about agriculture and the availability of enough food in the land. That’s why I’m asking AfriForum of the Boers to come and help us,” Zwelithini said, as quoted by eNews Channel Africa.
“Because when government started talking about the appropriation of land, expropriation without compensation, Boers downed tools. There is no food in South Africa,” he added.
Zulu people are the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with an estimated 10-12 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The group accounts for more than a fifth of the country’s population and its opinion is important in the context of the general elections next year.
“Anyone who wants to be voted for and elected by us, I’m going to talk now, anyone who wants to be elected by us must come and kneel here and commit that I will never touch your land,”the Zulu King said.
While kings have no official power in modern South Africa, they still have the loyalty of millions of people and are recognized in the constitution as traditional leaders.
The land expropriation program run by President Cyril Ramaphosa is designed to redistribute land to poor black people to tackle severe inequality 24 years after the end of apartheid. It mostly involves lands owned by Boers, whites primarily of Dutch descent. However, the program has aroused discontent among the Zulus, too.
The Zulu King said he is waiting for a meeting with the president. “He (Ramaphosa) must come here... and say it, write it down in an agreement and sign off that the land of the Zulus will not be touched,” Zwelithini said.
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Natural News
High doses of vitamin C aggressively kill cancer cells, research confirms
October 7, 2018
(Natural News) If you’ve heard that high doses of vitamin C can kill cancer, there’s a good chance you’ve also heard some official-sounding organizations claiming that there is no science to back this up. However, new research shows that high doses of vitamin C can indeed fight cancer, underscoring the findings of countless other studies like it that are widely ignored by the medical industry.
Detractors choose to focus on those studies that showed it didn’t work, conveniently ignoring the fact that many of the studies that were inconclusive in this regard simply weren’t testing big enough doses to unlock its effectiveness.
Research carried out at the University of Iowa confirms that vitamin C does kill cancer cells selectively without damaging normal cells. One study showed that the vitamins can reduce mutations that cause cancer in mice, while another study showed it can kill as much as 50 percent of human lymphoma cells.
Another study, this one from the Perlmutter Cancer Center, found that injecting mice with high doses of vitamin C stopped leukemia cancer stem cells from humans from growing, probably by telling the faulty stem cells in bone marrow to die. A different study found that adding vitamin C via IV to typical chemotherapy drugs extended the average survival times of pancreatic cancer patients from 5.65 months to 12 months.
Then there’s the University of Kansas study that injected high doses of vitamin C into ovarian cells from humans. They found that the vitamin targeted the ovarian cancer cells without harming healthy cells, and they went on to repeat the study on mice and human subjects.
These findings wouldn’t be surprising to the researchers who worked on a review that was published in the Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal in 2008. After looking at studies that used extremely higher amounts of vitamin C intravenously, they concluded that it can be effective against tumors, although they said that its efficacy could not be judged when it was administered orally.
Even though the authors called for further research into vitamin C’s cancer-fighting power, nothing was done about it at the time. After all, chemotherapy has been so profitable for the medical and pharmaceutical industries, and it would be hard to profit off of something as cheap, widely available, and unpatentable as vitamin C
IV may not be the only way to deliver high doses of vitamin C
Some people have been getting these treatments on their own at alternative cancer clinics, but it’s not widely accepted. In addition, those who are wary of IVs find it extremely difficult to get the high blood concentration needed for this treatment to work its magic when they take it orally.
Now, however, there is a new form of vitamin C that could change everything. Liposomal vitamin C can create vitamin C levels in the blood that are 100 to 500 times greater than those normally achieved by oral ingestion, making it easier for people to fight cancer.
Liposomal vitamin C is encapsulated in lecithin, which shields it from digestive enzymes that would normally break it down. It makes its way through the digestive system with ease and is absorbed by the intestines before being transported into the liver, where it is released into the bloodstream.
This approach does away with the waste and gastric upset seen with conventional vitamin C tablets while maintaining high blood concentrations. Whether it will one day make its way into the mainstream and give riskier treatments like chemotherapy a run for their money remains to be seen, however.
Sources for this article include:
NaturalHealth365.com
NaturalNews.com
NaturalNews.com
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Until
next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions
“In
the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was
there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner] of fruits, [and]
yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for
the healing of the nations.”
(Revelation 22:2)