Today’s News 27th May 2024

• AI Vs America: Deepfakes, Disinformation, Social Engineering, & The 2024 Election
  AI Vs America: Deepfakes, Disinformation, Social Engineering, & The 2024 Election

  Authored by Julio Rivera via American Greatness,

  Artificial intelligence (AI) and its integration within various sectors is moving at a speed that couldn’t have been imagined just a few years ago. As a result, the United States now stands on the brink of a new era of cybersecurity challenges. With AI technologies becoming increasingly sophisticated, the potential for their exploitation by malicious actors grows exponentially.

  

  Because of this evolving threat, government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), alongside private sector entities, must urgently work to harden America’s defenses to account for any soft spots that may be exploited. Failure to do so could have dire consequences on a multitude of levels, especially as we approach the upcoming U.S. presidential election, which is likely to be the first to contend with the profound implications of AI-driven cyber warfare.

  AI’s transformative potential is undeniable, revolutionizing industries from healthcare to finance. However, this same potential poses a significant threat when harnessed by cybercriminals. According to a report by the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the rise of AI is expected to lead to a marked increase in cyberattacks in the coming years. AI can automate and enhance the scale, speed, and sophistication of these attacks, making them more difficult to detect and counteract.

  The nature of AI-driven cyber threats is multifaceted. AI can be used to create highly convincing phishing attacks, automate vulnerability discovery by foreign adversaries in software systems to identify backdoors, and launch large-scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

  Moreover, AI algorithms can be employed to develop malware or trojans that adapt and evolve to evade detection. The GCHQ report warns of the growing use of AI by cyber adversaries to improve the effectiveness of their attacks, posing a significant challenge for traditional cybersecurity protocols.

  The stakes are particularly high as the United States prepares for the November election. DHS has already issued warnings about the threats posed by AI to the election process. Among the potential threats posed by AI are deepfakes, automated disinformation campaigns, and targeted social engineering attacks. These tactics could undermine the integrity of the election, erode public trust in democratic institutions, and sow discord among the electorate.

  The potential for disruptions in trust and accuracy in the election process is not exactly an unprecedented threat. In the 2020 election, there were already instances of misinformation and foreign interference. With AI’s capabilities advancing rapidly, the 2024 election could see these efforts become more sophisticated and harder to counter.

  It seems that every day, more and more AI-generated deepfakes are being disseminated on social media. Many of these are intended to be humorous, or they are being used in digital marketing campaigns to sell products, but in an election scenario, disrupters could create realistic but fake videos of candidates, potentially influencing voter perceptions and decisions.

  One of the most significant challenges in addressing AI-driven cyber threats is the pervasive underestimation of their potential impact. Many in both the public and private sectors fail to grasp the severity and immediacy of these threats. This complacency is partly due to the abstract nature of AI and a lack of understanding of how it can be weaponized. However, as AI continues to integrate into critical infrastructure and various sectors of the economy, the risks become more tangible and immediate.

  In response to funding proposals from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a bipartisan group of senators just unveiled a $32 billion spending proposal. This investment is not merely in developing AI for civilian or commercial use but explicitly in enhancing offensive cyber capabilities. The potential for AI to augment cyberwarfare necessitates a reevaluation of our current cybersecurity strategies.

  Addressing the AI-driven cyber threat landscape requires a concerted effort from both government agencies and the private sector. Government agencies like DHS and CISA must update and expand existing cybersecurity frameworks to address AI-specific threats. This includes developing guidelines for detecting and mitigating AI-driven malware attacks and ensuring that these guidelines are disseminated across all levels of government and critical infrastructure sectors.

  Beyond the scope of just the public sector, we must realize that effective cybersecurity is a collaborative effort. The government must foster stronger partnerships with the private sector, leveraging the expertise and resources of technology companies, cybersecurity firms, and other stakeholders. These kinds of joint initiatives and information-sharing platforms can help in the rapid identification and response to AI-driven threats. CISA has previously attempted to strengthen these relationships, but much more must be done.

  Additionally, raising public awareness about the risks posed by AI-driven cyber threats is essential. Educational campaigns can help individuals recognize and respond to phishing attempts, data collection efforts, disinformation, and other cyber threats, while fostering a culture of cybersecurity awareness in organizations can reduce the risk of successful attacks.

  Lastly, policymakers must consider new regulations and legislative measures to address the unique challenges posed by AI in cybersecurity. This includes updating cybersecurity laws to incorporate AI-specific considerations and ensuring that regulatory frameworks keep pace with technological advancements.

  America, as a nation, stands on the precipice of an increasingly AI-driven future. The potential for AI-based cyber attacks represents one of the most pressing security challenges of our time, and November’s election underscores the urgency of addressing these threats as the integrity of our democratic process hangs in the balance.

  The time for complacency has passed. The United States must act decisively to protect its digital infrastructure and democratic institutions from the evolving threats posed by AI-driven cyber attacks. Our national security, economic and global stability, and the very fabric of our democracy depend on it.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 23:55

• Trust The "Science"…That Just Retracted 11,000 "Peer Reviewed" Papers
  Trust The “Science”…That Just Retracted 11,000 “Peer Reviewed” Papers

  It’s yet another reminder of why blindly ‘trusting the science’ may not always be the best go-to move in the future.

  217 year old Wiley science publisher has reportedly “peer reviewed” more than 11,000 papers that were determined to be fake without ever noticing. The papers were referred to as “naked gobbledygook sandwiches”,  Australian blogger Jo Nova wrote on her blog last week. 

  “It’s not just a scam, it’s an industry,” she said. “Who knew, academic journals were a $30 billion dollar industry?”

  According to Nova‘s post, professional cheating services are employing AI to craft seemingly “original” academic papers by shuffling around words. For instance, terms like “breast cancer” morphed into “bosom peril,” and a “naïve Bayes” classifier turns into “gullible Bayes.”

  Similarly, in one paper, an ant colony was bizarrely rebranded as an “underground creepy crawly state.” 

  The misuse of terminology extends to machine learning, where a ‘random forest’ is whimsically translated to ‘irregular backwoods’ or ‘arbitrary timberland’.

  Nova writes that shockingly, these papers undergo peer review without any rigorous human oversight, allowing egregious errors, like converting ‘local average energy’ to ‘territorial normal vitality’, to slip through.

  

  The publisher Wiley has confessed that fraudulent activities have rendered 19 of its journals so compromised that they must be shuttered. In response, the industry is developing AI tools to detect these fakes, a necessary yet disheartening development. Nova writes:

  The rot at Wiley started decades ago, but it got caught when it spent US $298 million on an Egyptian publishing house called Hindawi. We could say we hope no babies were hurt by fake papers but we know bad science already kills people. What we need are not “peer reviewed” papers but actual live face to face debate. Only when the best of both sides have to answer questions, with the data will we get real science:

  In March, it revealed to the NYSE a $US9 million ($13.5 million) plunge in research revenue after being forced to “pause” the publication of so-called “special issue” journals by its Hindawi imprint, which it had acquired in 2021 for US$298 million ($450 million).

  Its statement noted the Hindawi program, which comprised some 250 journals, had been “suspended temporarily due to the presence in certain special issues of compromised articles”.

  Many of these suspect papers purported to be serious medical studies, including examinations of drug resistance in newborns with pneumonia and the value of MRI scans in the diagnosis of early liver disease. The journals involved included Disease Markers, BioMed Research International and Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience.

  The problem is only becoming more urgent. The recent explosion of artificial intelligence raises the stakes even further. A researcher at University College London recently found more than 1 per cent of all scientific articles published last year, some 60,000 papers, were likely written by a computer.

  In some sectors, it’s worse. Almost one out of every five computer science papers published in the past four years may not have been written by humans.

  In Australia, ABC has reported on this issue, reflecting concerns over diminishing public trust in universities, which are increasingly seen as businesses rather than educational institutions. This perception is fueled by incidents where universities, driven by financial incentives, overlook academic fraud.

  The core of the scientific community is corroded, exacerbated by entities like the ABC Science Unit, which rather than scrutinizing dubious research, often shields it.

  This ongoing degradation calls for a shift from traditional peer review to rigorous live debates, ensuring accountability by having people argue their cases in real time.

  In December 2023, Nature posted that more than 10,000 papers were retracted in 2023 — a new record.

  You can read Nova’s full blog post here. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 23:20

• The Endgame, Part II: How The Conflict In Ukraine Ends
  The Endgame, Part II: How The Conflict In Ukraine Ends

  By Tuomas Malinen

  In this piece I present four scenarios for the ‘endgame’ to the Russo-Ukrainian war. They are:

  1. The overruling majority (peace).
  2. The immovable majority (wider war).
  3. Regime change in Russia (risky conflict).
  4. World War III (nuclear holocaust).

  Scenarios concentrate on the drivers of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, or NATO. More precisely, they deal with whether NATO is being driven by simply erratic decisions, or whether it’s an aggressor. I went through these basic scenarios in length in my last entry.

  I have not visited Russia since 2011. I made this decision after the annexation of Crimea. I don’t think that wars of invasion should be allowed in modern Europe. Yet, I’ve visited Russia, and even the Soviet Union, many times. My relatives were working at the Finnish embassies in Russia, which led me and my mother to visit the Soviet Union two times, when I was just a kid. The visions of a chaotic Soviet Moscow have been burned into my memory for the rest of my life.

  In 2009, we went to Moscow with a group of family and friends. The theme of the few day trip became nje rabotaet, which essentially means “it does not work”. This was because nothing seemed to work, and everyone kept telling us that phrase (in metro stations, bars, cafeterias, etc.). Russia is a chaotic, but funny place. Slavic people are not actually known for their exuberant niceness, but you do get help in Russia, when you ask for it.

  The leadership of a country naturally often tends to mimic the culture and national characteristics. The spontaneous actions of the current Russian leader President Putin are not anomalies in their history. Many Russian leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Char Peter I and further to Stalin and other leaders of the Soviet Union have fought invasive wars and acted very reactively.

  In my view, the demonization of Russia arises mainly from two sources:

  1. People do not understand Russia, and thus fear it, and

  2. War propaganda.

  This piece essentially deals with both. First, I go through the Finnish experience with Russia, which should act as a comforting lesson for the rest of the world, and how it applies to the current situation in Europe. Then, I will present four scenarios for the endgame of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

  The Finnish experience

  Finns fought two wars against Russia, more precisely against the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was, or it became a military behemoth during WWII. It has been said that before Operation Barbarossa, for example, the air force of the Soviet Union was larger than that of the rest of world. The purge of the Red Amy, by then-dictator of Russia Josif Stalin in 1937, reduced the morale and efficiency of Soviet military right before the onset of WWII. This was visible in the Winter War fought between Finland and the Soviet Union between 30th November 1939 and 13th March 1940. The Finnish seriously unequipped military inflicted devastating losses on the Red Army almost solely with ‘Sisu’. After the Finnish troops had stopped all progress of an over-whelming Russian invasion force at the end of December, Soviet high command went into re-thinking and re-grouping mode. On February 1st 1940, the Red Army started its crushing attack against an already stretched Finnish defenders. Heroic resistance of the Finnish soldiers and growing international pressure saved Finland, while she lost some 12% of her landmass.

  Wars between Russia and Finland did not end with the Winter War, because Finland took part to Operation Barbarossa as an unofficial ally to Nazi Germany. An excerpt from my Finland and NATO piece in the Epoch Times:

  The Winter War was largely bilateral, caused by territorial claims of the then-leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, and the secret amendment of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact placing Finland under the Soviet “sphere of influence.” The Continuation War was fought alongside Nazi Germany in an effort to reclaim territories lost in the Winter War. Finland actually had very little choice under the constraints created by the ongoing European war. There was a constant threat of a Soviet invasion, and Finland held the largest known nickel deposit in Europe in Petsamo, the northern “arm” of Finland, which both Hitler and Stalin sought to command. It thus had to either join forces with Germany or face a possible new Soviet invasion. The wars resulted in the loss of around 12 percent of Finland’s territory, including Petsamo.

  After the wars, Presidents Juho Paasikivi and Urho Kekkonen formulated a policy line of passive neutrality called the Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine. It was based on the “fear factor” Finland acquired during the two wars and friendly co-existence. While Finland lost 12% of her landmass, we earned our right to co-exist, independent, during the Cold War right next to the most formidable military power the world had ever seen.

  Finns also understood that you should not poke the Russian bear. While she may seem vulnerable and weak, she’s not, and will become much more dangerous if wounded. I don’t think we will ever know for sure, why Stalin spared Finland after the Moscow Armistice after the Continuation War, but we know why the relationship with Russia (Soviet Union) later became so prosperous and friendly, which brings us to the current problem Europe faces.

  The problem of Europe

  The Russian mindset is not so complex or chaotic as many in the West make it to be. Like I explained in my previous entry, Russian leadership seeks to increase its influence in the neighboring regions driven by bezopasnost. They also follow strength instead of diplomacy. Finland cemented her position beside the Soviet Union by not making herself a threat and making herself strong both economically and militarily (that is, a very ‘bitter pill’ for Russia to swallow). So, the success of Finland to coexist and prosper alongside Russia (Soviet Union) was based on strength and keeping friendly relations with Moscow. Easy recipe.

  The problem Europe now faces is two-fold. First, after Finland became a full member of the NATO, Russia has been cornered from every side in Europe by a force it does not consider peaceful, which is something we really cannot blame the Russian leadership from. Previous Finnish leaders knew that if Finland makes herself a threat to Russia, consequences will be dire. Ukrainian leadership must have known this too, but they were clearly manipulated by western leaders. Secondly, we can now conclude that NATO is not what it says it is.

  The future of Europe now basically hangs in the balance between two dangerous scenarios of what is actually driving NATO, which can be categorized as:

  1. NATO, the erratic, and

  2. NATO, the aggressor.

  These characterizations draw from utterly irresponsible or deliberately aggressive actions taken by NATO leadership over the past three decades and especially during the past year. You can simplify this by stating that either NATO leadership massively underestimated Russian resources and the devotion of her leadership to bezopasnost or then they deliberately over-stepped the red lines of Moscow in an effort to create a military conflict that would engulf Europe.

  In what follows, I sketch future scenarios based on the two assumptions of the motives of NATO. They show that the underlying assumptions (erratic or aggressive NATO), dominates the future paths of Europe, and the world, while three of the four scenarios may end up in the same terrifying end-result, that is, a nuclear holocaust. Scenarios are behind a paywall, but you can read them through the 7-day free trial.

  NATO, the erratic

  Here I assume that the leadership of NATO has (is) simply making cataclysmic mistakes and is currently engaged in a desperate effort to ‘save face’ with the collapse of Ukraine looming. I will concentrate on the political response of the ordinary populace of how the future will play out through overruling majority and immovable minority.1

  Scenario I: The overruling majority

  On March 4, our Minister of Defense, Antti Häkkänen, said in a speech he held at the opening of the National Defense Course that “It’s time to recognize the facts. Russia is a threat to the whole democratic world”. Coming from a Finnish Minister of Defense, this is as close as we can get to a declaration of war without actually declaring it.

  I consider that this speech was a marker, signaling that Finland is committed to a war against Russia. I naturally sincerely hope that I am wrong about this. However, this is so exceptional coming from a Finnish Minister of Defense that I am having difficulties explaining it by any other motive (I don’t, for example, buy the extreme stupidity argument).

  If we assume that the leaders of NATO, and member countries, are simply making mistakes, then this speech can be seen as a cataclysmic one, because Moscow is likely to take it as a sign, or a “marker” of aggressive future plans by leaders of Finland and NATO. This means that Russia will most likely start to gear up for a war at her north-western border, again. The Finnish-Russian border, and especially the Karelian Isthmus (peninsula) has been one of the main ‘hotspots’ of Europe for centuries. It was the main battleground for Swedish and Russian empires from the Russo-Swedish war in 1475, till the Finnish war in 1809, when Sweden finally lost Finland to Russia, effectively ending the Swedish Empire. The isthmus was also the main battleground in the Winter and Continuation Wars.

  It’s obvious that neither the vast majority of Finns nor Europeans want a war, but could they be manipulated into one?

  The people naturally have the final say in every system, because if they start to revolt, no dictator can hold that force at bay. Could there be an actual rebellion against the erratic, or even aggressive, NATO leadership? Of course there could, but I am not seeing such signs yet, which does not mean they could not appear, if (when) the war starts to look imminent.2

  There’s also the possibility that NATO leadership is looking for a way out of the conflict in Ukraine. If this would be the case, public opinion turning against the war, even in smaller portions, could provide support for the leadership of NATO to retreat from their prior erratic decisions and enact the process of de-escalation, while saving face.

  Taking everything that is going on into account, there are too many errors made for them to be random, imho. And if the errors are not random, then they are systemic (deliberate), which implies that NATO is the aggressor. However, before diving into that, let’s consider one more scenario.

  Scenario II: The immovable minority

  Worryingly many European political leaders seem to support, if not an outright war, but a confrontation with Russia. There’s also a very vocal minority of Europeans demanding harsher measures against Russia, while some are even advocating for a wider war.

  In this second scenario, of NATO the erratic, these minority forces prevail and control the public narrative and thus the conflict, pushing it into a wider European war. This scenario coincidences with the World War III scenario below. The difference is that in this scenario the world drifts into a WWIII and nuclear annihilation that would likely follow, while in the scenario presented below, a deliberate escalation by NATO ignites the conflict. In this scenario, escalation comes in the form of toughening rhetoric towards Russia and re-armament, fueling the conflict, while in the deliberate escalation scenario nuclear war ignites from pushing the envelope too far or through an intentional act. I will not speculate on the possible military developments that could lead to this scenario in any detail, but mention, that at some point, escalation (naturally) leads to a broadening of the conflict.

  NATO, the aggressor

  In the next two scenarios that follow, I assume that the aim of NATO is to either force a regime change in Russia or destroy the nation in a war. The motivation for these aims can rise from three sources, which can intertwine. So, the endgame for NATO the aggressor can be to:

  1. Gain control of vast Russian mineral resources,

  2. Destroy the Eurasian alliance (and keep it that way), and/or

  3. Ignite a world war, for the global elite to gain widespread control over societies.

  It’s my current thinking that all of these motives can act as drivers, while the last one is highly speculative.

  Scenario III: Regime change in Russia

  It is obvious that a nuclear holocaust would not serve the aim of this scenario, as it would evaporate most of the populace, machinery and infrastructure from the world. Major cities and areas would be uninhabitable for years, including, most likely, mineral deposits in Russia, Europe and in the U.S. This is why we can assume that in this scenario the escalation of the conflict to a wider war in Europe is not the aim of NATO, but there is a high likelihood it will lead to that.

  The likelihood of this scenario can be considered to be relatively high, considering everything that has happened in Ukraine. It looks like NATO tried to slowly increase the pressure and to cause heavy losses to Russian forces. The ‘Prigozhing incident’, also fits with this narrative, as the “mutiny” started during the (failed) Ukrainian counter-offensive, which makes it looks pre-planned. Often, when such plans for a coup have been laid, one has to go through with them regardless, because there’s no actual way to retreat. In this case, the likely plan assumed that Prigozhin would have started his march to Moscow after devastating Russian losses, which would have angered the Russian populace and de-moralized the troops. None of this happened, because the counter-offensive of the AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) failed. Moreover, it’s likely that Yevgeni Prigozhin were supported by, at least some western intelligence offices. These plans would have most certainly been revealed at some point, if Prigozhin would have failed to act as planned. Thus, while there’s no certainty that a coup was part of a western plan that is how it looked, and Prigozhin was forced to follow it through with the most extreme personal cost.

  The question we now face is, what would be the next steps for NATO to accomplish a regime change? Two scenarios rise above others:

  1. A re-armament race that eats through Russian economic resources, leading the country to collapse from inside out, similarly to what happened to the Soviet Union in the late-1980s.

  2. Major conflicts in the neighbouring regions (Abkhazia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, etc.), destabilizing large parts of Russia.

  The first would essential bring back the darkest times of the Cold War, while the latter could create a highly unstable Russia. Both of these can, naturally, lead to the extreme scenario of nuclear holocaust. The former would take us there through some escalation, during which a nuclear detonation occurs (through a mistake or deliberately) enacting a nuclear war. In the latter, the risk of a nuclear confrontation arises from some extreme faction taking power in Kremlin after  Putin’s regime fails, and/or some nuclear arms fall into the possession of such a group after such an event. This latter was essentially the main fear, after the collapse of the Soviet Union pushed Russian military forces into a state of near-anarchy.

  Scenario IV: World War III (nuclear holocaust)

  A nuclear holocaust is naturally something the vast majority of the populace would not want to see, but could there be some who would? Such ‘crazies’ naturally exist among us humans, but the question is, could they hold key places in our supra-national organizations, like NATO?

  If we assume that such people do not exist in the leadership of NATO nor in the leadership of those countries running it (essentially the U.S.), the aggressive actions of NATO could still lead us into nuclear confrontation. NATO leadership could be, very aggressively, seeking one of the two first-mentioned scenarios, that is, to:

  1. Gain control of vast Russian mineral resources,

  2. Destroy the Eurasian alliance (and keep it that way).

  The first one could be achieved with the regime change scenario described above. The latter would require that there will be no peace in Ukraine, which in this situation (Ukraine has effectively lost) requires that the war spreads. This would mean that some of the ‘frontline countries’, i.e. Finland, the Baltics or Poland, escalates (note that a ‘false flag’ blaming Russians is also possible), igniting a direct conflict between NATO and Russia. If that occurs, there’s a high likelihood that nuclear weapons will be used at some point, leading to a nuclear holocaust. Nuclear conflict would probably arise from a failure to understand the red lines of the other side and/or from a miscalculation. Russia has drawn a red line by incorporating the eastern regions of Ukraine it has annexed into Russian ‘motherland’. Crossing of it would most likely lead to a nuclear confrontation. Cyberattacks to ICT or power systems leading to a wide spread devastation could also trigger a response with nuclear arms. Moreover, in a sitution, where war propaganda is dominating, like it is now, the risk of over-reacting grows.

  But, what if there are factions in key places in NATO leadership actually pushing for a nuclear confrontation?

  This would naturally be the most dangerous scenario for us all, because it would imply that, if escalation through “traditional means” (war propaganda and luring Russia to respond militarily) does not succeed, there will, most likely, be a major false flag blamed on Russia. If, for example, the general populace cannot be turned to support a wider war using propaganda, a major false flag operation could be enacted. In practice, any escalation, in this scenario, needs to be on the scale of a nuclear detonation. In the worst case, the deranged background power players of NATO decide that an actual nuclear detonation in some populous area, like in a major European or Russian city, is required.

  What could be the aim of such a suicidal power faction? They could foster an omnipotent view that they can control even a nuclear confrontation so that it could serve their aims of, e.g., establishing world-wide control systems. Also, there simply are men that “want to see the world burn”, albeit I highly doubt such persons could be in ruling positions in NATO or in our governments.

  This last part of the nuclear holocaust scenario is naturally extremely speculative, and I really have not thought it through thoroughly yet. However, I don’t think we should be ruling out any scenario, considering the madness that seems to have taken over our political leaders. In that note, we should also acknowledge the possibility of a “lone wolf scenario”, where some small group of individuals is able to produce some cataclysmic false flag event leading to a retaliation from one side of the conflict with nuclear weapons.

  Conclusions

  Talking with ordinary people on the current situation in the world usually yields an answer: “this makes no sense”. I fully concur, but this only applies if we fully believe on the prevailing western narrative, which is that global elite and most of our political leaders are benevolent and Russia/Putin is “bad”.

  I have speculated on the drivers behind recent developments in several entries (see, e.g, the Apocalypse Scenario -series). I think we should not shy away even on the most preposterous explanations, like some extremely secretive group ‘pulling the strings’. What we do know, however, is the the perilous direction we are currently heading into.

  The scenarios presented here concentrated on NATO because it holds the definite role in the current crisis. Currently, NATO is escalating by, e.g., building military bases right next to Russian border in Finland and with its leadership giving comments of NATO-membership of Ukraine. These can be just extremely grave mistakes or deliberate actions of escalation.

  In this piece, I have mapped the scenarios we are likely to face based on the actions by NATO. They are not the ones I would like to champion for, but I find them to be the ones we are facing.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 22:45

• Gallant In Rafah Vows To Advance Deeper Despite World Court Demand For Ceasefire
  Gallant In Rafah Vows To Advance Deeper Despite World Court Demand For Ceasefire

  Rockets sent from Gaza rained down on Tel Aviv for the first time in months on Sunday, with Israeli media saying they were launched all the way from Rafah.

  It also came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited IDF frontline positions on the outskirts of Rafah and vowed the military will forge ahead deeper into the southern city despite the Friday UN World Court order (ICJ) to implement an immediate ceasefire and to halt the Rafah offensive.

  

  “Our goals in Gaza are emphasized here in Rafah: to destroy Hamas, return the hostages and maintain freedom of operation,” Gallant told the troops. “Regarding the hostage issue—we are making tremendous efforts and will continue to do so, via both physical activities and by reaching agreements.”

  He then vowed to carry out Netanyahu’s order to not stop until Hamas is eradicated. “Remember, your job is to eliminate Hamas, to win this war. Our job is to take it [your achievement] and take it to the next level in Gaza and across the Middle East,” he said. “These issues are connected.”

  The timing of the Hamas rocket attacks out of Tel Aviv are no doubt intent on sending a message of defiance. At least three rockets were intercepted but one home in a Tel Aviv suburb was damaged, and possibly more.

  Times of Israel writes, “The Hamas terror group fired eight rockets at central Israel on Sunday afternoon, marking the most significant attack out of the Gaza Strip in some four months and underscoring some of the challenges remaining for the Israeli military as it seeks to oust the Palestinian group from its last major stronghold.”

  This likely further confirms for Israeli leadership the need to take Rafah, despite international condemnation including from UN agencies.

  Israel believes that not only have Hamas leaders found refuge in Rafah, but that it’s among the last locations where major rocket stockpiles exist, and there remains the possibility even of rocket manufacturing capabilities, but the IDF believes it has eradicated all the weapons-making factories at this point.

  Heavy urban fighting has continued to be intense…

  🚨🟢🔻new hamas video

  Watch a Mirkva tank being targeted with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell, and enemy concentrations being destroyed northeast of the city of Jabalia with mortar shells pic.twitter.com/aCoAwJYoW6

  — adam7867862 (@adam7867862) May 16, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Later on Sunday one of Hamas armed wings, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, posted on Telegram it targeted Tel Aviv “with a large rocket barrage in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 22:10

• Judge Approves Class-Action Lawsuit Against American Airlines Over ESG Pension Investments
  Judge Approves Class-Action Lawsuit Against American Airlines Over ESG Pension Investments

  Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),A district judge has granted a pilot’s request for a class-action lawsuit against American Airlines for allegedly investing pension funds into environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds.

  

  The case revolves around the allegation that American Airlines—headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas—violated its fiduciary obligation to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) “by investing millions of dollars of American Airlines employees’ retirement savings with investment managers and investment funds that pursue political agendas” through ESG initiatives. 

  “By pursuing ESG goals, Defendants gave Plan assets to fund managers, such as BlackRock, who allegedly ignored financial returns as the exclusive purpose and lowered the value of Plan participants’ investments,” the order states.

  In addition to being disloyal to the employees, the plaintiff, Bryan Spence, argues that American Airlines’ investments were “imprudent because it is well known that ESG funds are associated with poor performance given the detrimental effects of such activism on stock prices.”

  “To remedy these alleged ERISA violations, Plaintiff filed this lawsuit individually and on behalf of a proposed class of Plan participants and beneficiaries,” the order says. “ERISA authorized participants in a qualifying plan to bring an action on behalf of other participants to enforce the statute’s fiduciary obligations and remedial provisions, as well as recover all losses to a plan caused by a breach of a fiduciary duty.”

  Texas District Judge Reed O’Conner—a George W. Bush appointee—writes in his order that the case is eligible for class action because of the similarities of ERISA violations.

  “Even if the damages are diverse, finding in favor of Plaintiff on his ERISA claims would also resolve the ERISA claims of this class,” he writes.

  The remedy for damages would be the same for all plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, he says.

  ‘Underperforms Financially’

  According to the complaint, ESG funds are usually more expensive for pension enrollees than non-ESG funds.

  They also “underperform financially,” and instead of maximizing “risk-adjusted financial returns” for enrollees, they “engage in shareholder activism to achieve ESG policy agendas.”

  “Defendants have also selected and included as investment options funds that are managed by investment companies that pursue ESG policy agendas through proxy voting and shareholding activism,” the complaint says. “Many of these funds are not branded or marketed as ESG funds; however, the actions of their investment advisors and managers give rise to the same ERISA violations as those funds that do market themselves as ESG funds.”

  The complaint states that Mr. Spence, an American Airlines pilot and Lt. Col. in the U.S. Air Force, “has suffered specific financial damages” as a result of American Airlines’ “unlawful conduct.”

  The pension plan itself “has suffered millions of dollars in losses because of the Defendants’ fiduciary breaches and the Plan remains vulnerable to continuing harm.”

  The complaint defines ESG as an investment strategy “aimed at influencing societal changes.”

  “Generally, three criteria are used to evaluate companies for ESG investing,” the complaint says.

  ‘Aggressive Climate Goals’

  Among the criteria are environmental commitments to reduce a company’s carbon footprint and a pledge to support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agendas.

  “American Airlines is fully committed to ESG strategy as a company,” the complaint says. “According to its annual ESG Report, American Airlines views its ESG efforts as a ‘key part of American’s success,’ and ‘an important part of American’s long-term strategy,’’ the complaint says. “It sets DEI goals and strives to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.”

  On its ESG webpage, American Airlines declares its commitment to “aggressive climate goals.”

  American Airlines states on its DEI webpage that it strives for diversity in hiring and that its employees “work to make American a place where people of all generations, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, gender identity, disabilities, religious affiliations and backgrounds feel welcome and valued.”

  The Human Rights Campaign awarded American Airlines a “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality” in 2021, according to the webpage.

  The Epoch Times contacted American Airlines for comment.

  Sacrificing Safety for Ideology

  Currently, the airline industry is under scrutiny for what critics say is sacrificing safety and performance for DEI ideology.

  The airline has faced several complications this year, including an “anomaly” in the braking system on one of its aircraft to run past the end of a runway, The Associated Press reported, and another mechanical issue in one of its planes while in flight.

  In January, one of its flights landed hard, putting five flight attendants and one passenger in the hospital.

  In January, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized the airline industry’s emphasis on DEI initiatives in a post on X.

  “Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 21:35

• Biden Marketing Team To Create Trump Mega-Martyr With 'Guilty' Verdict Campaign Strategy
  Biden Marketing Team To Create Trump Mega-Martyr With ‘Guilty’ Verdict Campaign Strategy

  Joe Biden’s galaxy brain handlers plan to use any ‘guilty’ verdicts in Donald Trump’s criminal trials to campaign on, unaware that most of the country views them as political lawfare by the permanent ruling class hatched in coordination with Biden’s own DOJ.

  

  According to Politico, citing four people familiar with internal deliberations;

  Biden intends to initially address the verdict in a White House setting — not a campaign one — to show his statement isn’t political, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

  If the jury convicts Trump, Biden’s team will then argue that the result shows Trump is ill-suited for office and that it demonstrates the extremes to which the former president would go to win again. The campaign’s social media team is considering leveraging the line of attack further, with discussions underway about referring to the ex-president online as “Convicted Felon Donald Trump.”

  The report comes as closing arguments are set for Tuesday in Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial, which saw the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, implode on the stand. Of course, a Manhattan jury won’t care – so a Trump ‘guilty’ verdict wouldn’t come as a surprise.

  “This is an important moment and the president first and foremost needs to stress that the American system works, even and especially in an election year,” said one of Politico‘s anonymous sources. “And in a measured way, it becomes part of his argument against Trump too: Do Americans really want this?“

  Do voters want a president being transparently pursued for partisan reasons by a behemoth government that fewer than two-in-ten Americans trust?

  

  This goes hand-in-hand with why the left can’t meme and are desperate to find someone who can.

  At least one Democrat sees how stupid this is.

  “I don’t think it’s important to rub it in,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) told Politico. “I don’t think anybody on our side should be reacting with glee. It just should be a tragedy that an American president has been convicted of real crimes.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 21:00

• Obnoxious Weeds Team Up To Fight Cancer–New Review
  Obnoxious Weeds Team Up To Fight Cancer–New Review

  Authored by Alexandra Roach via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Recently, I gave a presentation about edible plants at my local library. Kitchen herbs, in fact, that double as medicinals, which people can easily grow in their gardens or on window sills. While preparing my presentation, I was reminded that this topic is immense in its breadth and depth. One number especially stood out and even stopped me in my tracks.

  

  There are 50,000 – 80,000 plants used medicinally worldwide, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. What a number! I feel a bit inadequate with my limited knowledge of several hundred of them.

  The millennia-old knowledge of herbal medicine is practiced in all regions of the world and backed up by much international research—the Near East, Russia, East Africa, North East India, and even Transylvania. The list clearly goes on.

  New Review Reapproves Plants’ Anti-Cancer Qualities

  In recent years, scientists have re-discovered their urge to learn more about our floral companions. This rekindling of passed-down wisdom is possibly driven by the need to find remedies for diseases that otherwise modern medicine seems unable to prevail over.

  A 2024 review, published in the journal Pharmaceuticals, appears to follow this direction. The new release highlights 15 medicinal plants with potential anti-tumorigenic qualities, meaning these plants have active compounds that fight abnormal cell growth.

  Interesting to me was the selection of plants featured in the review. Some of them, we are familiar with—much having been written about them—for instance, dandelion, nettles, or Curcuma longa, better known as turmeric.

  Others, like the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), the tropical soursop, and even a houseplant with the name of Kalanchoe blossfeldiana, we find less familiar.

  However, all these plants have one common characteristic —they work “against the Majority of Common Types of Cancer,” reads the review’s headline.

  Efficient Treatment for Immediate Development

  The International Agency for Research on Cancer describes the worldwide cancer situation as dire. Their 2022 report states that globally most people died from lung cancer (18.7 percent), followed by colorectal cancer (9.3 percent), and liver cancer (7.8 percent). A total of 3,480,213 individuals.

  Therefore, researchers of the current review call for an immediate development of “more targeted and efficient treatment plans.” In their eyes, “Plants and products derived from them have promising potential as a source of less toxic anticancer drugs.”

  Blending Traditional Wisdom and Novel Nanotechnologies

  To accomplish this goal, herbs are employed to keep the immune system strong, kill off carcinogens, and improve antioxidant levels in our bodies. Scientists see new nanomedicines and bioengineering techniques for immune cell therapies as innovative approaches to treating the disease.

  As a community herbalist, I view things with the eyes of longevity. What traditional wisdom about these herbs has been passed on for centuries? How can the two worlds of novel research and ancient knowledge be combined for the benefit of the patient?

  Anti-Cancer Plants: Research and Application

  There are several herbs the recently released review mentions, which might grow abundantly in our gardens—often, we might even see them as annoying weeds that need to be fended off. Such is frequently the case for dandelions.

  In the back of my head, I hear my herbal teacher repeat over and over, “Often, the herbs show up where we need them.” This holds true for one of the most robust herbaceous perennials that is native to Europe but grows all over the world in gardens and lawns, along roads and fields, and even waste areas.

  Common Dandelion

  

  Taraxacum officinale, commonly known as dandelion, is not only a medicinal herb but an edible vegetable. Especially young leaves are tender and round out the taste in any salad, gifting it a slightly bitter flavor—which is a sign of assisting digestion.

  The Taraxacum genus includes over three hundred species. These have been discovered and utilized in traditional and folk medicines for centuries. German botanist Leonhart Fuchs, for example, featured the healthy properties of the plant in the 16th century in his herbal compendium, “De Historia Stirpium.”

  Dandelion was also known as a drug in Arabian medicine. There, physicians recorded its utilization as early as the 10th century. Indian and Chinese medicine treated liver and digestive diseases with the common dandelion, states an article about the plant published in the National Library of Medicine.

  Dandelion is a true all-rounder. Featuring among others, vitamins A, C, B, and D, the minerals potassium and calcium, and traces of iron, magnesium, manganese, and zinc.

  A 2023 review carefully examined the dandelion and remarked upon its bioactive compounds. “Sesquiterpenoids, phenolic compounds, essential oils, saccharides, flavonoids, sphingolipids, triterpenoids, sterols, [and] coumarins” are sources for “therapeutic potential, including anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, and anti-rheumatic activities.”

  Korean research showed that the amount of phenols and flavonoids in the plant drives its anticancer and antioxidant activities. This varies in different taraxacum species but exists in the common dandelion.

  Researchers investigated a dandelion extract combination in a 2023 study. The results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, highlight the importance of inhibiting the “rapid proliferation of cancer cells and its invasion into healthy tissues” specific to breast cancer. This is exactly what dandelion extract does—it inhibits their spread and “induce death in them.”

  Photodynamic Therapy is another method to target cancerous tissue. In it, a photosensitizing agent is stimulated by light, for instance by a laser. In a 2023 article in Nanomedicine, this process was tested with dandelion for “synergistic chemotherapy and photo-dynamic cancer therapy.” This transportation method succeeded in the delivery of the active compound to the cancer cells and disrupted their homeostasis, thus portraying anti-cancer and anti-tumor effects.

  Stinging Nettle

  

  Runner-up in the title of highly medicinal weeds is Urtica dioica. In many temperate places, nettles grow like a pest and are unwanted wildflowers by many.

  Contrary to popular reason, I recently transplanted some nettles into my garden and even spread nettle seeds in my best effort to establish them there. Nettles are delicious plant nutrition and are a great addition to soups and salad dressings, as the hairy stingers lose their power when processed.

  Full of provitamin beta-carotene, vitamins A, B, and C, minerals iron, magnesium, potassium, and calcium, this protein-rich perennial herb is loaded with health benefits. But the loaded weed can do more.

  A 2020 research article features the potentially anticancer properties of nettles. When evaluated, the extract of Urtica dioica showed promising effects on the proliferation rate of “hepatocarcinoma and colon-cancer cell lines at specific doses.”

  In a 2022 study published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, plant medicine proved its anticancer qualities against three different types of cancer cell lines. Testing of urtica dioica’s cytotoxicity was performed in vitro (via mycoplasma testing) and in vivo (in a living organism, in this case, rats). Findings were positive and showed that nettles may work against breast cancer through their anti-tumoral properties.

  According to another study, directed to research the herb’s potential healing qualities in regards to human colon and gastric cancer, nettles also induced apoptosis and “inhibited proliferation of gastric and colorectal cancer cells,” while not having any toxic side effects on normal cells.

  Greater Burdock

  

  Continuing to feature weedy wildflowers that grow in many disturbed areas around the United States, and are surely to be found in an empty parking lot, pasture, or along fields and roads in your area, is burdock.

  Like Dandelion, burdock is a member of the Asteraceae family (the Aster family) and grows seemingly everywhere. Similarly, the medicinal parts of burdock include roots and leaves, with the addition of seeds.

  Arcticum lappa is likewise high in minerals and vitamins, including the B vitamins thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. However, it also features lignans in roots and seeds, amino acids in the roots, phenols, sterols, and fatty acids in the seeds, and a “plethora of biological activities and pharmacological functions.”

  One of burdock’s compounds, lappaol F (a natural lignan), is an anticancer agent that “inhibits tumour cell growth by inducing cell cycle arrest,” states a 2021 study while noting that the underlying processes of burdock’s anticancer qualities remain unclear.

  Nevertheless, the plant is effective and researchers suggest that a potential anticancer drug could be developed from the medicinal herb.

  A review published in Inflammopharmacology, emphasizes the century-old traditional medicinal uses of burdock in Europe, North America, and Asia. It highlights the plant’s anti-inflammatory qualities and detoxifying effects, as well as anti-tumor properties, especially its “potent inhibitory effects on the growth of tumors such as pancreatic carcinoma.”

  Burdock has even proven effective against “multi-drug resistant cancer cells.” A study investigated six lignans present in the burdock seed and combined them as non-toxic chemotherapeutic agents. Results showed that they “possess promising MDR [multidrug resistant] reversal activities.” The study also tested and verified this effect in combination with a chemotherapy drug named doxorubicin.

  Remaining 12 Anti-Cancer Plants

  The remaining 12 plants examined in the recent review are soursop (Annona muricata), black calla (Arum palaestinum), hemp (Cannabis sativa), Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), turmeric (Curcuma longa), licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), moringa (Moringa oleifera), hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), milk thistle (Silybum marianum ), oleander (Nerium oleander), kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana ), and ashwagandha (Withania somnifera L).

  Turmeric, licorice, hibiscus, hemp, ashwagandha, and milk thistle are well known—beyond the ears of an herbalist. Soursop might fall into this category for some, especially those living in tropical regions.

  Then, some might make us pause, as we see the plants more as blooming decoratives in the garden or house plants, like oleander, the black calla, Madagascar periwinkle, or kalanchoe. Being native to the Indian subcontinent, and being used mostly in Southern Asia, moringa may be the most foreign of them all.

  Yet, in total, they are acclaimed plant medicines.

  Ongoing Phytopharmaceutical Research

  A 2022 review, for instance, hails the healing qualities of soursop. Its “pharmacological effects of anti-cancer, anti-microbial, antioxidant, anti-ulcer, anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, and wound healing” are impressive.

  Another review features a study in which patients were given 300 milligrams of soursop extract (leaf water) in capsules after breakfast. This restrained colorectal cancer cell growth.

  A phytotherapeutic that likewise targets colorectal cancer is ashwagandha. A 2023 study found that the herb and its bioactive compounds “kill cancer cells via at least five separate routes.”

  It has even been named “a wonder drug” in the alternative field and has shown remarkable bioactive compounds that function as “anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, apoptotic, immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, anti-diabetic, hepatoprotective, hypoglycaemic, hypolipidemic, cardio-protective and spermatogenic agents,” as outlined in a comprehensive review.

  Numerous studies and reviews, however, stress the unfortunate fact that further research is needed due to “the lack of established quantities and concentration measurements,” or simply the lack of wide-ranging medical research about our floral surroundings.

  Contraindications and Side-Effects

  In general, phytopharmaceuticals are powerful medicine.

  Although many of the plants do not have any side effects and often naturally target cancer cells without affecting healthy cells, a mechanism not quite understood by science yet (as mentioned above). At the same time, ingesting the wrong plant or the wrong dosage can harm or even kill.

  As for dandelions, nettles, and burdock—there are some guiding principles:

  • Nettles should not be eaten raw. The fresh leaves will sting.
  • Dandelions can make your stomach upset if too many leaves are ingested or after prolonged use, as it can increase the hydrochloric acid production (HCl) in the stomach and lead to loose stool.
  • Dandelion root should be taken with caution if the individual suffers from excess HCl, gastritis, ulcers, or heartburn.
  • During the first trimester of pregnancy, burdock should only be prescribed in mild doses. Also, take with caution if suffering from hypoglycemia.

  Tips:

  When gathering herbs or plants in the wild or public spaces, please collect your specimens wisely. This means, pick plant matter only away from dirty or polluted areas and wash before eating or processing. Also, never take the whole plant (you want it to continue to live and come back the next year).

  Note:

  For all individualized herbal recommendations and dosages, please consult with your local herbalist. If you are on any medications consult with a physician before taking herbal supplements. The author is writing for informational purposes only and is not acting in the capacity of a doctor or licensed dietitian-nutritionist.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 20:25

• Regular Cannabis Users Exceeds Drinkers For First Time Ever 
  Regular Cannabis Users Exceeds Drinkers For First Time Ever 

  For the first time, a nationwide study providing current data on tobacco, alcohol, and drug use, mental health, and other health-related issues has found that the number of people smoking cannabis daily has surpassed those drinking beer or vodka daily. This development coincides with the Biden administration’s efforts to reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous substance.

  The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) has been conducted annually since 1990 and four times before (1979, 1982, 1985, and 1988). Data shows an explosive amount of daily cannabis use a few years after the Great Financial Crisis. The trend has become parabolic in the last ten years due to “a period of federal non-interference with the legalization of supply,” according to the study’s authors. 

  Figure 1 shows sharp declines during the Reagan-Bush era to a nadir in 1992, a partial recovery between then and 2008, and substantial increases since 2008. Increases are greater, proportionally, for measures of more intense use. For example, between 2008 and 2022, the per capita rate of reporting past-year use increased by 120%, and days of use reported per capita increased by 218% (in absolute terms from the annual equivalent of 2.3 to 8.1 billion days per year). Since the 2022 NSDUH-estimated population 12 and older is 282.0 million, that is, 29 days per person per year, on average.

  Growth is most striking for DND use, defined here as reporting use on 21 or more days in the past month. 2 From 1992 to 2022, there was a 15-fold increase in the per capita rate of reporting DND marijuana use (in absolute terms, from 0.9 million to 17.7 million DND users). That was because of a fivefold increase in the number of PM users (from 7.9 to 41.9 million) and a fourfold increase in the proportion of PM users who report DND use (from 11% to 42%).

  

  Given the increased marijuana usage nationwide and legalization trends, with the Drug Enforcement Administration moving closer to reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, the gap between the number of daily drinkers and marijuana has officially closed in the multi-decade dataset. In fact, there are now more regular marijuana users than alcohol users for the first time. 

  Figure 2 compares growth in DND marijuana use to contemporaneous changes in DND alcohol use. In 1992, the household survey recorded 10 times as many DND alcohol as DND marijuana users (8.9 vs 0.9 million). Back then, a conversation about DND use of a dependence-inducing intoxicant was essentially a conversation about alcohol use. In the most recent survey, for the first time, NSDUH recorded more DND marijuana than DND alcohol users (17.7 vs 14.7 million).

  That change reflects both growth in the number of PM marijuana users and changes in patterns of marijuana use. In 2022, the median drinker reported alcohol use on 4 to 5 days in the PM, whereas the median marijuana user reported use on 15 to 16 days in the PM.

  

  This increased access has allowed the general population to consume more and more cannabis. A map from think-tank Pew Research shows that 74% of Americans reside in states that have legalized marijuana for either recreational or medical purposes, with 54% living in states where pot is only permitted for recreational use. 

  

  Here’s a map of America’s 15,000 cannabis dispensaries. 

  

  A separate study from Gallup found regular cannabis usage differs by education and income, with the highest rates seen among the working poor. 

  

  In markets, the top exchange-traded funds that buy marijuana companies have been rounding a multi-year bottom after the speculation craze during Covid. 

  

  The next market driver could be the DEA’s approval of an opinion by the Department of Health and Human Services that states marijuana should be reclassified from the strictest Schedule I to the less stringent Schedule III. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 19:50

• Hamas Says It Captured Members Of Israeli Force In Ambush
  Hamas Says It Captured Members Of Israeli Force In Ambush

  Via Middle East Eye

  Hamas said Palestinian fighters captured members of an Israeli force in an ambush inside the Gaza Strip on Saturday, a claim denied by the Israeli military. 

  Abu Obaida, spokesman for the group’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, said fighters killed, wounded or captured members of the Israeli force during fighting in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

  

  He did not say how many had been abducted and provided no further information about their identities. He said more details would follow soon. 

  “Our fighters lured a Zionist force into an ambush inside a tunnel … The fighters withdrew after they left all members of the force dead, wounded, and captured,” Abu Obaida said in a recorded message broadcast by Al Jazeera early on Sunday.

  The Israeli military was quick to deny the claim. “The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) clarifies that there is no incident in which a soldier was abducted,” a military spokesperson said in a statement.

  Abu Obaida’s message was followed by a video released [warning: graphic] by al-Qassam Brigades showing fighters pulling inside a tunnel a man who appeared to be unconscious. He was pulled alongside military gear. 

  The video separately showed three semi-automatic rifles and other military gear that Hamas said were taken from the captured Israelis. Middle East Eye could not independently verify when or where the video was filmed.  

  The comments by Abu Obaida came after weeks of renewed intense close-quarter combat across the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, according to Israeli and Palestinian media. 

  The Israeli military sent tanks and troops to Rafah and north Gaza in fresh attacks early in May. The advances have been met by some of the fiercest resistance by Hamas and other Palestinian groups, especially in the Jabalia refugee camp.

  The heavy fighting has coincided with an increase in carpet bombing by Israeli jets, flattening neighborhoods in Jabalia and Rafah. 

  Meanwhile on Sunday rockets were launched from Gaza on Tel Aviv, a first in months:

  ⚡️Impact in northern Tel Aviv pic.twitter.com/8nuxT17Xr5

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) May 26, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Israeli forces have reportedly killed more than 36,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since 7 October, the majority of them children and women according to Gaza Health Ministry figures.

  Palestinians have killed more than 1,500 Israelis in the same period, the majority of them during the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on 7 October. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 19:15

• Exposing The CIA's Secret Effort To Seize Control Of Social Media
  Exposing The CIA’s Secret Effort To Seize Control Of Social Media

  While the CIA is strictly prohibited from spying on or running clandestine operations against American citizens on US soil, a bombshell new “Twitter Files” report reveals that a member of the Board of Trustees of InQtel – the CIA’s mission-driving venture capital firm, along with “former” intelligence community (IC) and CIA analysts, were involved in a massive effort in 2021-2022 to take over Twitter’s content management system, as Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag report over at Shellenberger’s Public (subscribers can check out the extensive 6,800 word report here).

  

  According to “thousands of pages of Twitter Files and documents,” these efforts were part of a broader strategy to manage how information is disseminated and consumed on social media under the guise of combating ‘misinformation’ and foreign propaganda efforts – as this complex of government-linked individuals and organizations has gone to great lengths to suggest that narrative control is a national security issue.

  According to the report, the effort also involved;

  • a long-time IC contractor and senior Department of Defense R&D official who spent years developing technologies to detect whistleblowers (“insider threats”) like Edward Snowden and Wikileaks’ leakers;

  • the proposed head of the DHS’ aborted Disinformation Governance Board, Nina Jankowicz, who aided US military and NATO “hybrid war” operations in Europe;

  • Jim Baker, who, as FBI General Counsel, helped start the Russiagate hoax, and, as Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, urged Twitter executives to censor The New York Post story about Hunter Biden.

  

  Jankowicz (aka ‘Scary Poppins’), previously tipped to lead the DHS’s now-aborted Disinformation Governance Board, has been a vocal advocate for more stringent regulation of online speech to counteract ‘rampant disinformation.’ Jim Baker, in his capacity as FBI General Counsel and later as Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, advocated for and implemented policies that would restrict certain types of speech on the platform, including decisions that affected the visibility of politically sensitive content.

  Furthermore, companies like PayPal, Amazon Web Services, and GoDaddy were mentioned as part of a concerted effort to de-platform and financially de-incentivize individuals and organizations deemed threats by the IC. This approach represents a significant escalation in the use of corporate cooperation to achieve what might essentially be considered censorship under the guise of national security.

  Nina Jankowicz And The Alethea Group

  Remember Nina? A huge fan of Christopher Steele – architect of the infamous Clinton-funded Dossier which underpinned the Trump-Russia hoax, and who joined the chorus of disinformation agents that downplayed the Hunter Biden laptop bombshell, Jankowicz previously served as a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, and advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as part of the Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship. She also oversaw the Russia and Belarus programs at the National Democratic Institute.

  Jankowicz compares the lack of regulation of speech on social media to the lack of government regulation of automobiles in the 1960s. She calls for a “cross-platform” and public-private approach, so whatever actions are taken are taken by Google, Facebook, and Twitter, simultaneously.

  Jankowicz points to Europe as the model for regulating speech. “Germany’s NetzDG law requires social media companies and other content hosts to remove ‘obviously illegal’ speech within twenty-four hours,” she says, “or face a fine of up to $50 million.”

  By contrast, in the US, she laments, “Congress has yet to pass a bill imposing even the most basic of regulations related to social media and election advertising.” -Public

  In a 2020 book, How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict, Jankowicz praises a NATO cyber security expert for having created a “Center of Excellence,” a concept promoted by Renée Diresta of the Stanford Internet Observatory, in which she made the case for the (now failed) Disinformation Governance Board that Jankowicz would briefly head up.

  One year later, Jankowicz began working with ‘anti-disinformation’ consulting firm, Althea Group, staffed by “former” IC analysts.

  Althea notably came after ZeroHedge at one point, shopping a ‘dossier’ around which suggested we were allegedly contributing to “increased online panic” amid the monumental collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

  The outlets they peddled said dossier to included Bloomberg – which elected to exclude ZeroHedge from their report following a brief email exchange. Eventually, one of their operatives dropped the dossier on Twitter, only to be mocked as a propagandist.

  You mean a financial newsblog published a number of stories about a significant bank failure? How dare they!!

  — Reason and analytics in Dallas (@DallasAnalytics) March 17, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Their SVB thesis was debunked by a Federal Reserve report which admitted that its own regulatory failures contributed to the bank’s collapse. We can only imagine what else they’ve cooked up about us behind closed doors.

  Alethea notably secured $20 million in Series B financing led by Google Ventures.

  Google directly funding censorship orgs https://t.co/DNfWjUowYR

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 9, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Another Alethea Group operative until July 2021 was former CIA analyst, Cindy Otis, who wrote a book called “True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News” – in which she thanks Pieter “Mudge” Zatko – a notorious hacker who was hired by Twitter to “tackle everything from engineering missteps to misinformation,” Reuters wrote at the time.

  

  According to Jankowicz, “My full time employment with Alethea began September 13, 2021. Ms. Otis left Alethea prior to that period. To my knowledge, she has not been employed with Alethea since that time.”

  “My work with Alethea Group as a consultant (summer 2021) was narrowly focused on my subject matter expertise related to Russia,” she continued. “I conducted Russian language translation and provided cultural analysis. When I joined Alethea as an employee (fall 2021) my work was entirely focused on public products: Changes to Alethea’s website, editing public reports, liaising with media, etc.”

  Is Nina lying?

  According to Shellenberger et. al, “that claim contradicts Alethea’s Statement of Work contract with Twitter, which lists her as “Technical Research Director” for work relating to Twitter’s management of misinformation during the 2020 election, and specifically a “retrospective analysis of how then President Trump or other key figures may have violated Twitters [sic] policies, or otherwise leveraged the platform in a way that may have contributed to key events…”

  Alethea Group founder, Lisa Kaplan, told us that Jankowicz “was never given the title Technical Research Director, that is a reference to a labor category for a contract.” Added Kaplan, “We respect client confidentiality and do not discuss relationships with our customers. In reviewing Nina’s timesheets she did provide support to one client that I cannot disclose, however I can confirm that while she was employed as the Director for External Affairs, Nina never conducted work at Alethea on behalf of Twitter.”

  When shown the Statement of Work listing her as “Supplier Personnel,”  Jankowicz said, “I have never seen this document before. A statement of work is generally a speculative document that informs clients of potential staffing and work plans. They are usually crafted to allow contractors a degree of flexibility in implementation by listing staff even if they are not assigned to a particular project in case they might do future work for that project. I assume this is what happened in this case.”

  In fact, the Statement of Work between Alethea and Twitter was a formal contract between the two firms, signed by Alethea’s Founder and CEO and Twitter’s Senior Director and Associate General Counsel, and the contract specifies, “Any changes to the above listed Personnel must be approved by Twitter in writing.” There is no record in the Twitter Files of any change to the project’s personnel. -Public

  Jankowicz defended herself, telling Public: “Ms. Otis and I were friends and colleagues prior to my short stint there and remain friends and colleagues. Yes, I knew Ms. Otis had worked — emphasis on the past tense — at the CIA. That does not constitute a ‘relationship’ with the intelligence community.“

  Mudge

  

  Following a phishing attack on Twitter employees in July of 2020 which resulted in Joe Biden’s account tweeting “I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000,” along with a crypto wallet address (similar fake tweets were sent from the accouints of Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg and Elon Musk,” 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark was arrested. 

  Three months later, Jack Dorsey wrote in an email: “Mudge signed.“

  

  Less than three months later, Zatko made his first big recommendation to Twitter execs: “hire the Alethea Group.“

  “I feel an external investigation may be quite valuable,” he said over the company’s Slack channel. “I’d recommend Alethea group for the disinformation angle.”

  

  Twitter authorized the move. Several weeks later, Zatko suggested that Twitter’s legal team hire Alethea for a report focusing on Jan. 6.

  “We can draw a straight line… between the initial ‘Stop the Steal’ narratives and organizing to what ended up happening on the 6th.”

  Alethea’s assessment of Twitter reflects the view of its CEO, Kaplan, that online misinformation leads to violence.

  On March 11, 2021, the same… pic.twitter.com/h0UunuhUGX

  — Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 23, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “As folks can understand,” he wrote on Feb. 4, 2021, “there’s a lot still going on around Jan 6th and the 2020 election in general. Alethea is a boutique consultancy that specializes on disinformation and counter-messaging operations. They have been working with myself and Yoel [Roth].“

  Meanwhile, on March 24, 2021, Zatko emailed a 12-page report pushing for more government-linked censorship – suggesting that “The organizations and people behind this recommendation have the connection [sic] to get this in front of the right people in the administration.“

  

  The report is co-authored by Aspen Institute’s Vivian Schiller, who led the “pre-bunking” of the Hunter Biden laptop story, and Hamilton68 hoax author Clint Watts, and is published by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center at the Harvard Kennedy School and NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. -Public

  Then it came out that Zatko, who pushed Alethea, “had engaged with members of US intelligence agencies…” As Public notes, “Attitudes toward Zatko would be quite different two years later.”

  Zatko turned whistleblower, sued the company, and settled for $7.75 million. He then filed a complaint with the Justice Department, SEC, and FTC, alleging Twitter executives had misled the government, been negligent in protecting user data, and had violated a 2011 consent decree with the FTC.

  Somebody leaked Zatko’s complaint to the Washington Post, which reached out to Twitter for comment on August 19, 2022.

  In a shared Google Doc, dated August 21, 2022, called “Comms Statements/Tracking,” Twitter executives fine-tuned the language for responding to the news media about Zatko’s allegations.

  Buried deep within that discussion was this revelatory sentence:

  “Without the knowledge or support of management or the Board, Twitter learned that Zatko had engaged with members of US intelligence agencies and sought to enter a formal agreement that would allow him to work with them and provide information to them.”

  

  CIA, In-Q-Tel, And Alethea

  In late 2022, Alethea received $10 million from Ballistic Ventures, whose general partner is Ted Schlein. Ted “provides counsel to the U.S. intelligence community, serves on the Board of Trustees at InQTel [the CIA’s mission-driven venture capital firm] and was recently named as a board member of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee.”

  

  Is this the same Alethea whose board member Ted Schlein “provides counsel to the US intelligence community” and serves on the Board of CIA’s Venture Capital firm InQTel?https://t.co/JbmnsW3F9jhttps://t.co/DVUip7QEWs https://t.co/hW1qUH4IK1

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 17, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  In 2022, IQT published a report describing its “Disinformation Workshop,” which recommended several activities similar to those Alethea has offered, including “Track the confluence of bad narratives.”

  

  Schlein can neither confirm nor deny…

  According to the Wall Street Journal, a full one-third of IQT investments were secret as of 2016. The Journal also reported that Schlein had at least one connection to a firm in which IQT invested, and that was over seven years ago.

  “I do not know Zatko, Jankowicz or Otis. Lisa is the CEO of Alethea and I serve on her board of directors,” Schlein told us. He added that he is not aware of any relationship between Alethea and the IC and that he has no operational role in the firm.

  “I get the feeling that Alethea is a byproduct of Ted Schlein,” a high-tech entrepreneur told us, “and the CEO is merely a titular head….Without meaningful experience, it’s not clear to me how [Lisa Kaplan] received $10m in a series A round.”

  In March 2022, the Department of Homeland Security made Schlein a member of its advisory council. -Public

  Here’s Kaplan on promoting aggressive censorship:

  “We have to trust the rules and the systems that are governing us.”

  On February 21, 2022, at Colby College, Alethea’s Kaplan again promotes an aggressive censorship vision, including punishments for people who spread misinformation, and says “we have to trust” election rules.… pic.twitter.com/F3JaQNU5vG

  — Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 23, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://substack.com/embedjs/embed.js

  We are now approximately halfway hrough Public‘s report. As X user Sean Michael Murray accurately observes: “It’s such a well sourced report… and there’s so much context to summarize in this post, it’s best to read it..” 

  So, click here and subscribe to Public if you haven’t already to read the rest – including:

  • The effort to infiltrate PayPal, GoDaddy and Amazon Web Services
  • Zatko’s engagement with the CIA
  • Who is Zatko, really?
  • Althea in, Zatko out
  • Kaplan’s “aggressive censorship vision”
  • “The Big Boss”
  • First Amendment vs. “Information War”
  • CODA 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 18:44

• Sam Altman-Backed Oklo Signs Deal To Power Another Data Center
  Sam Altman-Backed Oklo Signs Deal To Power Another Data Center

  Sam Altman backed nuclear startup Oklo inked a deal to supply 100MW of nuclear power to data center company Wyoming Hyperscale, it was announced last week.

  The news sent shares of NYSE-listed Oklo up more than 30% in trading on Friday. 

  The companies signed a “non-binding letter of intent outlining plans for the PPA, which will last for 10 years,” according to industry publication Data Center Dynamics. This comes on top of the revelation that, last month, Oklo signed to supply up to 500MW of power to another data center, Equinix. 

  “Wyoming Hyperscale is building a data center campus on 58 acres of land,” the report says. 

  Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and CEO of Oklo, commented: “As the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence increases, Oklo remains dedicated to providing clean, reliable, and affordable energy solutions to meet the needs of our data center partners.”

  

  “Our partnership with Wyoming Hyperscale underscores our commitment to advancing sustainable energy practices and supporting high-efficiency operations within the data center industry.”

  Trenton Thornock, founder of Wyoming Hyperscale, added: “Our goal is to create data centers with minimal environmental impact. This collaboration with Oklo perfectly aligns with our vision for sustainable, efficient operations. By merging sustainability with advanced technology, we are setting a new standard for the future of accelerated computing.”

  As we wrote earlier this month, Oklo won shareholder approval on May 8 for its NYSE listing. The company’s mission is “to provide clean, reliable, affordable energy on a global scale through the design and deployment of next-generation fast reactor technology”.

  Backed by investors like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Peter Thiel, the who’s who of the AI revolution, nuclear fusion startups are gaining traction. Sam Altman, who invested in Oklo in 2015, believes the company is “best positioned to commercialize advanced fission energy solutions,” per a July press release.

  Last month, we published a lengthy report discussing why even as the AI trade may be fizzling, the “electrification” trade, aka the “Power-Up America” trade – so urgently needed to run all those electricity-gobbling data centers needed to run AI – is just getting started and has in fact outperformed substantially both the broader AI and Data-Center Equipment baskets over the past two months…

  

  … and Altman – who teamed up with another power company, Exowatt, earlier this year to focus on clean energy for AI power -agrees: “Fundamentally today in the world, the two limiting commodities you see everywhere are intelligence, which we’re trying to work on with AI, and energy,” Altman told CNBC in 2021. 

  For those who missed it, in “The Next AI Trade,” we outlined various investment opportunities for powering up America, most of which have dramatically outperformed the market. In the next iteration, we will likely add Oklo to the list of beneficiaries certainly ahead of the inevitable cascade of Buy ratings sure flood the name over the next month.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 18:40

• "The Laptop Is Real": Justice Department Denounces Claims Of Russian Disinformation As A Biden "Conspiracy Theory"
  “The Laptop Is Real”: Justice Department Denounces Claims Of Russian Disinformation As A Biden “Conspiracy Theory”

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  “The defendant’s laptop is real.”

  With those words and pictures like this one of Biden using crack, the Justice Department introduced the Hunter Biden laptop as evidence in his upcoming trial over federal gun violations. 

  The federal prosecutors went on to denounce suggestions of Russian disinformation, long peddled by the Bidens, the media and former intelligence officials, as nothing more than a “conspiracy theory.”

  

  The media eagerly spread the claim of Russian disinformation before the presidential election. Twitter and others suppressed the story. This was done through one of the most skillful disinformation campaigns in history.

  It later came out that associates of the Biden campaign (including now Secretary of State Antony Blinken) pushed a long effort to get former intelligence officials to sign a letter making the claim, knowing that an ever-accommodating media would accept the claim without question or further inquiry.

  At the time, some of us wrote that the laptop was “self-authenticating” since many of the emails were confirmed by third parties and other evidence. The Justice Department last week made the same claim of “self-authentication” as well as independent confirmation by federal investigators.

  In the now-debunked letter of former intelligence officials just before the election, figures such as Leon Panetta, former CIA Director in the Obama Administration, claimed that the letter had all of the markings of a Russian disinformation effort by intelligence services. (Panetta continued to make the assertion late last year in pushing what the federal government is now calling a “conspiracy theory.”).

  The Washington Post’s Phillip Bump and others also continued to push the conspiracy theory. Indeed, in 2021, when media organizations were finally admitting that the laptop was authentic, Bump was still declaring that it was a “conspiracy theory.” Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Bump continued to suggest that “the laptop was seeded by Russian intelligence.”

  What is equally astonishing is that in 2023 the Post expressly stood by Bump’s reporting on the laptop and other debunked claims. Even after the government has declared this reporting as part of a “conspiracy theory,” the Post continues to support the reporting by Bump and others.

  The laptop includes not just pictures of Hunter using drugs but brandishing a handgun. The court clearly agrees with the government on the authenticity of the laptop. It has ruled against the defense and will allow it to be introduced into evidence.

  Despite the conclusions of American intelligence and others, the Biden team continued to push the disinformation.

  That led the Justice Department to tell the court that:

  “The defendant’s theory about the laptop is a conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence.” 

  It added that Hunter’s “laptop is real (it will be introduced as a trial exhibit) and it contains significant evidence of the defendant’s guilt.”

  

   

  The response from the media has been a collective shrug.

  Worse yet, many of these same political and media figures continue to support censorship and government regulations of “disinformation” while the government is now acknowledging that they carried off one of the most successful disinformation campaigns in history.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 18:05

• Could Ticket-Splitters Hurt Biden In 2024?
  Could Ticket-Splitters Hurt Biden In 2024?

  Authored by Emel Akan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  President Joe Biden is struggling to win over key Democratic voting blocs in battleground states, according to recent polls. Yet, it’s becoming increasingly evident that this challenge is largely unique to the incumbent president himself, rather than indicative of a broader issue within the Democratic Party.

  

  According to a recent poll by the New York Times and Siena College, the president trailed former President Donald Trump among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup in five out of six key swing states: Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Wisconsin was the only state where the president had the advantage.

  Among likely voters, which are considered a more accurate reflection, the race was tighter, with President Trump holding his advantage in five states and President Biden edging ahead in Michigan.

  Meanwhile, the Senate races are showing a very different picture.

  In four battleground states, Democratic Senate candidates outperformed President Biden, according to the New York Times/Siena College survey.

  In Nevada, for example, where President Biden is facing his biggest challenge, President Trump holds a 12-point lead. However, in the Senate race, polls indicate that Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) is heading off her Republican opponent, Sam Brown, by 40 percent to 38 percent among registered voters.

  In Arizona, the former president leads 49 percent to 42 percent. Meanwhile, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is ahead of his Republican rival for Senate, Kari Lake, by 4 points. And a most recent CBS News poll indicates an even wider margin, with Mr. Gallego holding a 13-point lead.

  A study by the Center for Politics, since World War II, shows 196 instances of ticket-splitting, which means that states voted for a president from one party and a Senate candidate from another party.

  However, that trend has become a lot less common in recent years.

  In 2020, nearly 90 percent of candidate Biden and President Trump voters also opted for a congressional candidate from the same party. However, in the 1970s and ‘80s, that ratio was roughly 70 percent, according to the American National Election Studies.

  “Split ticket voting at the Senate level is not as prevalent as it used to be,” Ford O’Connell, a political analyst and Republican strategist, told The Epoch Times.

  Maine was the only state in 2020 where voters split their tickets, electing Democrat Mr. Biden for president and Republican Susan Collins for Senate.

  

  Is 2024 Ripe for Ticket-Splitting?

  Some observers are wondering if ticket splitters will return in 2024, given the large gaps in the survey results of presidential and Senate races.

  Aside from Nevada and Arizona, President Biden is underperforming in Pennsylvania, where Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) leads by 5 points, and in Wisconsin, where Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) leads by 9 points, according to the New York Times/Siena College poll.

  

  Even in red states like Ohio and Montana, where President Trump enjoys overwhelming popularity, Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) lead their Republican opponents in polls.

  This is the opposite of what happened in 2020 when congressional Republicans outperformed President Trump and President Biden outperformed congressional Democrats.

  Mitchell Brown, pollster and director of political strategy at Cygnal, said the large gaps are driven by President Biden’s historically low approval ratings.

  This creates the possibility that President Trump could win several battleground states in 2024, while Democratic incumbent senators retain their seats in those races, Mr. Brown told The Epoch Times.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 16:55

• Injuries Reported After Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Hits Turbulence
  Injuries Reported After Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Hits Turbulence

  Just days after a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER experienced ‘severe turbulence‘ on a flight from London to Singapore, injuring dozens, another Boeing aircraft, this time operated by Qatar Airways, encountered severe turbulence, resulting in passenger injuries.

  AP News reported that Qatar Airways flight QR017, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, was hit with turbulence on Sunday on a flight from Doha to Dublin. The plane has since landed in Dublin, and local officials say eight passengers were injured. 

  

  Here’s more from AP: 

  It said that upon landing the aircraft was met by emergency services, including airport police and the fire and rescue department, “due to six passengers and six crew … reporting injuries after the aircraft experienced turbulence while airborne over Turkey.”

  The airport said all passengers were assessed for injuries aboard the plane, and eight were then taken to hospital.

  Qatar Airways said in a statement that “a small number of passengers and crew sustained minor injuries in flight and are now receiving medical attention.”

  QR017’s flight data from Flightrader24 shows the incident may have occurred in the Black Sea. 

  

  However, Flightrader24 cautions the data might be fraught with errors because of high “GPS jamming” in the region due to the war in Eastern Europe. 

  We’re aware of reports of severe turbulence over Turkey aboard today’s #QR17 from Doha to Dublin. Per @DublinAirport 6 passengers and 6 crew sought medical attention upon landing. https://t.co/GyWEmFMWtn

  ⚠️ A note of caution with data from this flight: GPS jamming in the region… pic.twitter.com/9d06JKD62V

  — Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) May 26, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  On Tuesday, the other severe turbulence incident occurred on a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER. The plane was flying from London to Singapore when an abrupt drop in altitude injured dozens. 

  One X user asked: “Two extreme turbulence flights in one week?” 

  Two extreme turbulence flights in one week? 😩

  — 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓸𝓽𝓽𝓮 (@charlotteukcity) May 26, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 16:20

• Cocaine, Meth Found In Tractor-Trailers During California Border Searches
  Cocaine, Meth Found In Tractor-Trailers During California Border Searches

  By Trucker News

  U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at a California commercial facility made two major drug seizures recently. The interceptions of illegal drugs found in tractor-trailers included:

  • 400 pounds of cocaine 

  • 11,469 pounds of methamphetamine

  

  Cocaine found in fuel tank

  U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Port Commercial Facility discovered over 400 pounds of cocaine concealed in a tractor-trailer’s fuel tanks on Friday, May 17.

  At approximately 9 p.m., CBP officers encountered a 35-year-old man driving a commercial tractor-trailer and empty trailer applying for entry from Mexico at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility. The driver, a valid border crossing card holder, was referred for further examination by CBP officers along with the tractor and empty trailer.

  In the secondary inspection area, a CBP canine unit screened the tractor-trailer and alerted officers to examine the fuel tanks.

  After an intensive examination, CBP officers discovered packages hidden in a non-factory compartment inside both fuel tanks of the semi-truck. The contents of the packages were tested and identified as cocaine, with a total of 160 packages extracted weighing 412.26 pounds.

  CBP officers seized the narcotics and commercial tractor-trailer while the driver was turned over to the custody of Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation

  “The continued success of OFO canine teams in the detection of narcotics is a team effort,” stated Rosa E. Hernandez, Port Director for the Area Ports of Otay Mesa. “We will continue to conduct operations, including Operation Apollo, while leveraging intelligence and investigative information to target drug traffickers’ supply chains.”

  Over $18 million in meth found in squash

  CBP officers working at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility discovered $18 million dollars’ worth of methamphetamine hidden within a shipment of squash.

  On Monday, May 20, at about 6:47 a.m., CBP officers encountered a 44-year-old male driving a commercial tractor-trailer with a shipment manifested for squash. The driver, a valid border crossing card holder, was referred for further examination by CBP officers along with the tractor-trailer and shipment.  

  Non-intrusive scanning technology was utilized to conduct a full scan of the tractor-trailer. After examination, irregularities were observed and CBP officers requested a CBP human and narcotics detection canine. The canine team responded and alerted officers to the presence of narcotics. 

  CBP officers discovered and extracted a total of 1,419 packages concealed within the shipment of squash. The narcotics were tested and identified as methamphetamine with a total weight of 11,469 pounds with an estimated street value of $18,350,400.

  “Our officers’ commitment to duty, excellence, and the safety of our nation is truly commendable. These results serve as an outstanding display of effectiveness in thwarting the illegal importation of narcotics,” stated Rosa E. Hernandez, Otay Mesa Area Port Director. “Their exceptional efforts truly embody the highest standards of service.”

  CBP officers seized the narcotics, commercial tractor, and trailer while the driver was turned over to the custody of Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) for further investigation.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 15:45

• Vivek Ramaswamy Calls For 'Libertarian-Nationalist Alliance'
  Vivek Ramaswamy Calls For ‘Libertarian-Nationalist Alliance’

  Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  In remarks at the Libertarian National Convention, Trump surrogate and former Libertarian Party voter Vivek Ramaswamy called for the men and women in attendance to ally with the “America First” wing of the Republican Party.

  “I believe the future of this country depends on a libertarian-nationalist alliance,” the entrepreneur said. The crowd mostly booed in response.

  The call for tactical cooperation came after Mr. Ramaswamy outlined his skepticism with both Democrats and what he characterized as “the establishment wing of the Republican Party,” criticizing Republican support for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), among other policies.

  

  He also said that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spoke earlier that day to the convention, was “in no sense a libertarian,” citing his past support for “punish[ing]” skeptics of the mainstream scientific narrative on climate change.

  In his opening comments and a subsequent debate with the Libertarians’ vice presidential nominee, Clint Russell, Mr. Ramaswamy suggested that the current political moment offered an opportunity for libertarian ideals to influence the future of former President Donald J. Trump’s “America First” movement.

  “I have had extensive conversations with Donald Trump about libertarian objectives,” the entrepreneur said.

  In New Hampshire, after Mr. Ramaswamy left the race, President Trump stressed his opposition to central-bank digital currencies, adding that “Vivek [also] wanted this.”

  Yet, President Trump’s warm response to new support from another past presidential hopeful, Nikki Haley, has some wondering whether Ms. Haley’s more neoconservative politics would significantly influence a future Trump administration.

  “You know, we had a nasty campaign, it was pretty nasty, but she’s a very capable person, and I’m sure she’s going to be on our team in some form absolutely,” President Trump said in an interview after his rally in the Bronx on May 22.

  President Trump will also be speaking at the Libertarian National Convention.

  In his remarks in D.C., Mr. Ramaswamy also criticized what he described as two other possible future paths for “America First,” aside from a more libertarian or constitutionalist vision.

  One was neoconservatism, “the way of Dick Cheney.” The other, he said, was “what they would call industrial policy, but what increasingly looks and smells like a right-wing version of the nanny state.”

  He reiterated his criticism of industrial policy during his debate with Mr. Russell, which was moderated by comedian Dave Smith.

  Yet, when defending his views on China—an area of meaningful disagreement between many Republicans and many libertarians—the businessman and investor leaned on concerns about Chinese domination of America’s defense-industrial base while indicating that some would disagree that such a sector is necessary at all.

  When asked about legislators’ intensified worries about TikTok, Mr. Ramaswamy also hewed to the GOP-friendly view.

  “Why do you think there was this push to ban TikTok? Do you think it’s really because, as they say, it’s partially owned by a Chinese subsidiary. Or is it because of, let’s say, a different foreign nation?” Mr. Smith asked.

  It was a clear reference to Israel and the Israel lobby, the frequent target of Mr. Smith and many other libertarian commentators as the nation’s war with Hamas rages.

  The Wall Street Journal’s Georgia Wells wrote that pro-Palestine content on the app “helped galvanize lawmakers to want to take action” after years of comparative indifference.

  Mr. Ramaswamy, known for his comments on the U.S.-Israel relationship while on the campaign trail, laughed before reframing the question.

  “I think you’re talking about a foreign nation beginning in Silicon Valley, actually. It’s Facebook lobbying is the reason we passed that bill,” he said.

  “He’s not entirely wrong,” Mr. Smith interjected as the former candidate kept talking.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 14:35

• Even CNN (!) Debunks Trump 'Reich' Ad Hysteria
  Even CNN (!) Debunks Trump ‘Reich’ Ad Hysteria

  While CNN remains an undisputed propaganda arm of the ruling class (see: Ted Cruz’s recent ‘will you accept the results’ purity test interview), the network committed two recent acts of journalism we felt warranted recognition in the hope they’ll change their ways (don’t hold your breath).

  

  First, they debunked the absurd “unified Reich” hoax – in which the Trump campaign ‘reTruth’d’ a video which used a stock video template that anyone can buy online, called “Newspaper Vintage History Headlines Promo,” and which flashed the image of a headline from 1871 which reads “”German Industrial Strength After 1871 Driven By The Creation Of A Unified Reich.””

  The leftist media complex, which unrepentantly helped the US intelligence community frame Trump as a Russian asset, flipped out – with networks including CNN going into literal shakes to whip up their goldfish-brained viewers.

  • Newsweek: Donald Trump ‘Unified Reich’ Video Leaves People Stunned
  • MSNBC: Trump’s Online Account Promotes ‘Unified Reich’ Video, Adding To Alarming Pattern
  • The Hill: White House Slams ‘Sickening’ Video Shared By Trump Referencing ‘Unified Reich’
  • CNN: Trump Posts Video Referencing ‘Unified Reich’ If Reelected

  Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden amplified the hysteria to his 345,000 followers.

  UNIFIED REICH, My God. https://t.co/mfE6L37gJJ

  — Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) May 21, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  CNN does journalism!

  What’s amazing here is that CNN then devoted resources to actual journalism to track down the origin of the video (no doubt in the hopes of finding a tiki-torch aficionado at the bottom of it) – only to discover, and report, that a 30-year-old Turkish graphic designer made it, and that “All signs point to it’s inclusion being an oversight, not a fascist dog whistle.“

  

  He made the template to mimic a vintage newsreel and copy and pasted random phrases that he assumed people would replace. “United Reich” appeared in the Wikipedia entry on WW1. pic.twitter.com/UuozlxeWWB

  — Jon Sarlin (@jonsarlin) May 24, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “I’m really actually in my soul…I’m sad, because this is just for the text.” pic.twitter.com/mTH8pgQUtF

  — Jon Sarlin (@jonsarlin) May 25, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  How did this slip past the editors!?

  Of course, this moment of journalistic integrity is likely an outlier, as the same CNN journalist, Jon Sarlin, was pushing ‘it’s not the economy, you’re just stupid‘ propaganda earlier this year.

  Except…

  

  While underlying costs have similarly risen – including forced wage hikes, ruining the ‘greedflation’ narrative. Even James Carville is willing to tell the truth.

  James Carville: “We keep wondering why these young people are not coming home to the Democrats. Why are blacks not coming home to the Democrats? Because Democrat messaging is full of shit, that’s why.”

  Democrats went from “It’s the economy, stupid!” to “You’re stupid if you… pic.twitter.com/9q2Rpipu7f

  — Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) May 25, 2024

  CNN’s second act of journalism in the course of two weeks was when Manu Raju ambushed Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and badgered him over his bribery case.

  New — Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, walked into my live shot so I asked him about his three associates pleading guilty in his bribery case and whether he would resign from Congress amid his federal indictment. pic.twitter.com/TFtApNdpsr

  — Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 15, 2024

  What’s going on here?

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 14:00

• Why Are They Drugging The Students?
  Why Are They Drugging The Students?

  Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The last few years have blown wide open a scandal that has long existed but is not that well known aside from specialists. The problem is the collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, government regulators, and the medical industry. The problem is so vast that it is hardly describable in a short article.

  

  It turns out that the ineffective COVID shots were just the beginning. As far as we know and have discovered in the course of investigations, the shot was developed quickly as a countermeasure to distract from the problem of a lab leak. The world’s population was held hostage for a year and more while the inoculation was rolled out. But once deployed, it became obvious that it could not actually block infection or stop the spread. So everyone got the bug anyway, and we are left with tremendous damage caused by the shots themselves.

  I described this short history to Dr. Drew Pinsky, the famed addiction doctor who now has a popular video podcast. He found no fault with my scenario as mapped above. He immediately added that this has many parallels with the opioid crisis that led him into public advocacy. The pharma companies advertised some miracle drugs to fix pain with no risk of addiction.

  The frenzy to prescribe was so intense that some doctors even feared penalties for not prescribing. The result of course was a disastrous addiction crisis that continues to this day. Unlike vaccine companies, the producers were not indemnified against payouts for harms, and as much as $50 billion ended up going to victims just last year. The numbers are mind-boggling.

  Just when you think you have reached the bottom of this problem, new information comes along. Last night I was privileged to attend a talk by Sheila Matthews-Gallo who founded AbleChild, an organization that advocates for child rights against forced medicalization. Why would such a thing be needed? As it turns out, many if not most kids in public schools today face this threat daily. They can be identified as having ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

  It turns out that there is nothing proven chemically to constitute ADHD. It is entirely a diagnosis applied based on behavior as identified throughout a checklist questionnaire. The checklist is about fidgeting, forgetting, boredom, finishing tasks, various acting up, expressions of frustrations, and so on. In other words, what we have here is a list of all the signs you might expect when boys in particular are told to sit perfectly still at a desk for months and years and complete tasks assigned to them by some authority figure.

  With this kind of diagnosis, you are likely to rope in a vast number of kids, particularly the exceptional ones and those once considered to be “gifted and talented.” As it turns out, there is a vast industry working today to pathologize perfectly normal behavioral traits. It hits boys in particular very hard because, in general, they mature more slowly than girls and tend toward behavioral resistance to environmental adaptivity relative to girls.

  For more on this amazing reality, see “The ADHD Fraud,” an eye-opening book.

  What could be the purpose of such a diagnosis? You guessed it: there are drugs for this supposed problem. They have various names: Ritalin (methylphenidate), Adderall (amphetamine), Dexmethylphenidate, Lisdexamfetamine, Clonidine, and Atomoxetine. Not even one of them has been proven to be a chemical fix for any biological abnormality. They are all behavioral-adjustment drugs; that is, psychotropic drugs; that is, narcotics for kids.

  Millions of kids take them, as many as 13 percent of teens. The rate grows higher in the college population. Some one in three adults are taking psychiatric meds. It’s getting worse. It starts in school.

  Listening to all of this, I found myself astounded. And yet, in some ways, it fits with everything else we know. We have an industry here that is in a tight working relationship with government institutions like public schools, plus regulators, plus medical authorities that are throwing drugs at people with the promise of miracles but with results that actually ruin lives.

  Think of how different your school years would have been if you had developed a drug addiction and lived off psychotropic meds from the age of 7. I was fortunately spared such a fate. But millions of kids today cannot say the same. It’s utterly astonishing. It strikes me that this is a scandal just waiting to be blown wide open.

  Among the related factors, as RFK, Jr. has been pointing out in public lately, is the odd relationship between school shootings and the wide distribution of these drugs. Many cases we know about already but the medical records of others are being withheld, even though the public is more and more understanding that the real problem is not guns but pharmacological products. And yet the activists themselves are entirely focused on taking away guns rather than looking more deeply.

  I have had personal experience with young adults who are addicted to Adderall. In many ways, when you are a college student, it seems like a miracle drug. In college, discipline over the use of time recedes into a low priority. Instead the demand is to turn in long papers on deadline, memorize vast material you can spit out on a test and forget the next day, and otherwise stay intensely focused sporadically. For many students, this drug is exactly what the doctor ordered: it permits hyper-focused all-nighters followed by a day or two of feeling like a zombie but no one notices.

  I’ve known many people who develop addictions, not only physical ones but psychological ones: life without the drug seems dull by comparison and who wants that? These students carry this over into professional life and attempt the same pattern. They can work all day and stay up all night and achieve something that seems mind-blowing but not quite what you asked for. You ask for fixes and they don’t happen. In fact, you don’t hear from them for days after until they reemerge with no memory of the work they did. This pattern repeats itself.

  I gradually came to learn that the real problem was the drugs. I concluded that I would rather have a moderately productive employee who at least had a steady pattern of labor and a mild recall of skills that could be built up over time. The issue is that when hiring someone, it’s not quite kosher to ask such questions as: what drugs do you take? You end up guessing, and sometimes guessing wrong.

  I’m telling you from long experience that these drugs are a catastrophe for professional life. No one should ever take them. That’s my considered opinion in any case, and I frequently warn college students against them. And what’s true for college kids is thousands of times more so for high school and grade school. It’s a complete scandal that these drugs are given out like candy to school kids. Parents have every right and obligation to resist.

  It’s all the more astonishing to learn, as I did last night, that there never was any science to the diagnosis of ADHD, any more than there was any science behind social distancing. It’s all made up to service the state and its adjacent players in the private sector who benefit from various mandates that somehow always end in drugging the population. The whole thing astounds me.

  Think about the bigger picture. We’ve created these public schools, force the kids to attend them, ban them from any remunerative work, shove boys and girls together, impose uniform curricula as if every student learns at the same pace, take away discretion from teachers, and saddle the institutions with massive bureaucracies. When the kids don’t take well to the environment, we call them mentally ill and drug them up in ways from which state-connected pharma companies can profit.

  This level of cruelty is really baked into the system. It’s a wonder any civilized society could ever accept it. And once you discover the fullness of the scandal about what’s going on, you have to start asking other questions about weight-loss drugs, other vaccines and miracle cures, and the entire machinery of allopathic medicine itself. Yes, the rabbit hole is very deep.

  Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 13:25

• Sinaloa's Top Assassin Extradited To US For Flooding Nation With Fentanyl
  Sinaloa’s Top Assassin Extradited To US For Flooding Nation With Fentanyl

  The US Justice Department announced on Saturday the extradition of a top assassin for the Sinaloa drug cartel to the US who was recently arrested by Mexican authorities. The cartel has been responsible for flooding America with fentanyl via the Biden administration’s open southern borders, sparking the worst overdose drug crisis this nation has ever seen. 

  Illegals in Santa Teresa, New Mexico were just caught by Border Patrol agents trying to climb the fence using ladders.

  BP was attacked by illegals using random simple weapons like rocks and dirt.

  This is Biden’s border crisis and it’s getting worse.pic.twitter.com/qJP1qXLeMP

  — Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) May 23, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, also known as “El Nini,” one of America’s most-wanted criminals, was extradited to the US for his role in “illicit fentanyl trafficking.” 

  

  Attorney General Merrick B. Garland released this statement: 

  “This morning, Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, also known as ‘El Nini,’ was extradited to the United States. We allege El Nini was one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s lead sicarios, or assassins, and was responsible for the murder, torture, and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the cartel’s criminal drug trafficking enterprise.

  “We also allege El Nini was a part of the Sinaloa Cartel’s production and sale of fentanyl, including in the United States. I am grateful to our Mexican government counterparts for their extraordinary efforts in apprehending and extraditing El Nini. 

  “With this enforcement action, El Nini joins the growing list of cartel leaders and associates indicted in, and extradited to, the United States. The Justice Department will continue to go after the cartels responsible for flooding our communities with fentanyl and other drugs.”

  The majority of Americans will never forget the disastrous open southern borders, flooding the nation with ten million unvetted illegal aliens and fentanyl, that has caused chaos and death from coast to coast. The US drug death catastrophe has now exceeded the entire Vietnam War every six months. Most of this is linked to fentanyl-laced narcotics pushed by Mexican cartels. 

  News from Baltimore this week, just north of the White House, shows the imploding metro area run by radical Democrats (half-century of Democratic control) has been crowned the overdose capital of America. 

  

  Remember, Nancy Pelosi got her political start in Baltimore – yet she’s too focused on trading stocks than actually caring about issues plaguing the working poor and black community. The very fact that federal, state, and local progressive lawmakers care very little about enforcing common sense law and order, not just at the southern border but in metro areas, has sparked monumental failures and led to surges in the drug death catastrophe nationwide. 

  Americans must demand accountability at the polls this November for the chaos radical leftists who pushed failed open southern borders, embraced Soros-backed DAs and mayors, and failed criminal and social justice reforms that have only ignited crime and chaos nationwide. 

  Don’t worry. Americans will never get accountability from the radical left because as they try to install a socialist hellhole, they will flee to their second, third, and or fourth homes on liberal elite islands, such as Martha’s Vineyard. 

  You know, if Trump wins in November – it’s game over for the cartels. It’s time to get serious – also, potentially hitting Mexican banks with sanctions. Follow the money. Why can’t the Biden team do that? 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/26/2024 – 12:50

Digest powered by RSS Digest