Migrant Caravan: Trump Suggests Immigrants Could be Shot if They Throw Rocks at Military
November 2nd, 2018Update: Trump Backtracks on Suggestion U.S. Troops Could Fire on Migrants
The U.S. could choose from a vast arsenal of nonlethal weaponry (including sonic and directed energy weapons) to use in this situation if necessary. I didn’t understand Trump’s decision to escalate to a lethal response right away.
In any event…
Via: Reuters:
President Donald Trump on Friday backtracked from his suggestion a day earlier that American troops sent to the U.S. border with Mexico would be free to fire on migrants who throw rocks at them, saying that rock-throwers would only be arrested.
“They won’t have to fire. What I don’t want is I don’t want these people throwing rocks,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “If they do that with us, they’re going to be arrested for a long time.”
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Via: USA Today:
President Donald Trump said members of the U.S. military sent to the southern border to keep out thousands in a migrant caravan would “fight back” if immigrants throw stones and suggested soldiers might open fire on the group because there’s “not much difference” between a rock or gun.
In an address from the White House Thursday, just days before the midterm elections, Trump announced his administration was preparing to change the country’s asylum practices and took on the thousands of migrants fleeing the dangers in Central America and heading toward the U.S. in hopes of claiming asylum.
He pointed to reports of a clash between authorities and the caravan as they moved across the Guatemalan border to Mexico. Mexico authorities said migrants attacked its agents with rocks, glass bottles and fireworks when they broke through a gate on the Mexican end but were pushed back, according to the Associated Press. It’s unclear whether any Mexican authorities were injured but Guatemalan officers were hurt.
Trump said the U.S. military wouldn’t accept bottles or stones being thrown at them.
“They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back,” the president told reporters. “I told them to consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like what they did to the Mexican military and police I say consider it a rifle.”
Japan Moving to Allow Foreign Blue-Collar Workers
November 1st, 2018I guess the nappy changing robots weren’t going to come fast enough.
Via: Reuters:
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet approved draft legislation on Friday to open the door to more overseas blue-collar workers in sectors grappling with labor shortages, a controversial policy shift in immigration-shy Japan.
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Immigration has long been taboo as many Japanese prize ethnic homogeneity, but the reality of an ageing, shrinking population is challenging such views.
Despite misgivings in Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), parliament is likely to adopt the revisions in the face of intense pressure from businesses battling the tightest labor market in decades, although opposition parties could delay.
New Migrant Caravan Departs El Salvador for U.S.
October 31st, 2018Via: Reuters:
About 2,000 migrants set off on foot from El Salvador’s capital on Wednesday, the latest of several groups of Central Americans heading to the United States, even as U.S. President Donald Trump increased pressure to halt their flow.
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Mexico’s Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete on Wednesday put the size of the first caravan at 2,800 to 3,000, below the government’s previous estimate of about 3,500. Participants in the caravan have put the number significantly higher.
Dozens of the men, women and children in that caravan told Reuters they were abandoning their homelands to seek asylum from a mixture of poverty, violence and corruption.
“We’re now in an unprecedented situation in the country,” Navarrete told reporters in Mexico City. “This is not merely a caravan … it’s a migratory exodus.”
Related: 15,000 troops Could be Sent to U.S. Border
Cummins and Hyundai Building All-Electric Excavator
October 31st, 2018Via: Electrek:
Electric propulsion is taking over almost every segment of transportation and now it’s even getting into heavy machinery.
Cummins and Hyundai partnered up to make a new small all-electric excavator. They unveiled the prototype this week.
D. S. Kim, Senior Executive Vice President & CTO at Hyundai Construction Equipment (HCE) announced the new product.
He expects small excavators are great candidates to be first heavy machinery to be electrified:
“As electric vehicles continue to expand their share in the automotive market, we are simultaneously seeing the electrification of commercial power systems being pursued by many as both an environmentally friendly and economically sustainable solution for construction equipment. HCE anticipates mini excavators, which operate in urban workplaces close to residential areas, will be a prime candidate to electrify to meet zero-emission and low noise requirements in the near future.”
VW and Ford in Talks on Self-Driving and Electric Vehicles
October 31st, 2018Via: Reuters:
Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co are in “exploratory talks” to jointly develop self-driving and electric vehicles in a far-reaching strategic alliance meant to save the companies billions of dollars, according to a person familiar with the matter.
1949 Mercury Coupe Goes Electric with a Tesla Battery Pack
October 31st, 2018Via: Electrek:
ICON, a restomod company based in Los Angeles, and Stealth EV, a company specializing in electric car conversions, unveiled a new EV conversion at SEMA today: a 1949 Mercury coupe with a Tesla battery pack.
They say that the 1949 Mercury EV Derelict was commissioned by a longtime client, who gave ICON the “go-ahead to push the boundaries of design and engineering.”
The concept of “resto-modding” involves restoring older vehicles while adding new technology to make them safer and more convenient.
In this case, ICON said that it “forensically disassembled the body, replaced all rubber, added insulation and sound-deadening products everywhere. It then reassembled the vehicle in a manner that tried to make it look like nothing had been touched. A robust 4-wheel-independent chassis was developed with Art Morrison Enterprises alongside Brembo brakes.”
They released several images of the result…
Nearly $6 Billion Belonging To Dead Libyan Dictator Gaddafi Has Gone Missing
October 31st, 2018Via: ZeroHedge:
Nearly nine months after Politico first reported that interest payments stemming from nearly $70 billion in frozen assets formerly belonging to the regime of deceased Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi had been paid to opaque accounts belonging to the Libyan Investment Authority, UN investigators are finally looking into where the money went. At last count, RT reported that interest payments generated by the assets had reached $5.7 billion. According to public broadcaster RTBF, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the money flows, the money may have gone to accounts controlled by Libyan militia groups that have been accused of human rights abuses.
U.S. Intel Budget Soars Under Trump
October 31st, 2018Draining the swamp?
Via: AFP:
US spending on intelligence has soared under President Donald Trump, figures released on Tuesday showed, as the government stepped up cyber warfare activities and boosted spying on North Korea, China and Russia.
Spending on civilian and military intelligence jumped by 11.6 percent to $81.5 billion in fiscal 2018, which ended on September 30, according to the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Spending for the National Intelligence Program, which spans some 16 agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, some defense operations and reconnaissance from space, rose to $59.4 billion from $54.6 billion in fiscal 2017.
The Military Intelligence Budget came in at $22.1 billion, up from $18.4 billion in fiscal 2017.
The Trump administration has sharply increased both military and intelligence outlays, spending more on personnel, equipment and operations.
Under Trump, the CIA has resumed paramilitary actions like drone strikes in conflict zones, and also expanded investments into human intelligence.
More Robots to Hit the Aisles at Schnucks Grocery Stores in St. Louis Area
October 30th, 2018Via: St. Louis Post Dispatch:
In at least 15 Schnuck Markets stores, the future is now.
Aisle-scanning retail inventory robots, known as Tally, will soon be wheeling around in a growing number of locations as the St. Louis area’s leading grocer expands its partnership with San Francisco firm Simbe Robotics.
The robot, which moves around on a Roomba-looking base, uses cameras and sensors to perform inventory checks and alert employees when an item needs restocking or if price tags don’t match advertisements.
Waymo Autonomous Cars Coming to California
October 30th, 2018Via: Wired:
The driverless cars cometh. Waymo just became the first company allowed to test fully self-driving cars—the kind with no carbon-based beings behind the wheel—in the state of California.
The outfit that started life as Google’s self-driving car project has been running driver-free cars in Arizona for almost a year, where the state testing rules are far more lax than in California, and where it plans to launch a commercial robo-taxi service by the end of the year. But securing the right to do the same in its home state is still a milestone, and evidence it can win over even comparatively wary regulators to the way of the robot.
To begin, the truly driverless cars will test only at up to 65 mph in the southern Bay Area, in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and Palo Alto. (Waymo and its parent company Alphabet are headquartered in Mountain View.) The company said it will inform local governments before expanding its tests any further. And though Waymo has clearly stated its intention to run its own driverless taxi service, the company’s first driver-free passengers will only be employees. Waymo did not say when it will open its cars to the wider California public.
