Trump to Designate Mexican Drug Cartels as Terrorist Groups
December 1st, 2019Wikipedia plot summary from Tom Clancy’s Clear and Present Danger, 1988:
The President of the United States, who is running for reelection, finds a fierce opponent in Ohio Governor J. Robert Fowler, who has rallied the American public behind his administration’s failures in the War on Drugs. This provides National Security Advisor James Cutter with an opportunity to help him initiate covert operations within Colombia with intent to disrupt the illegal drug trade there. Aided by CIA Deputy Director (Operations) Robert Ritter and CIA director Arthur Moore, the plan involves inserting light infantry troops of Hispanic descent into the country to stake out airstrips used by the cartel (SHOWBOAT), which then allows F-15 Eagles to intercept drug flights (EAGLE EYE). In addition, mobile phone communications between cartel management are intercepted through CAPER, which is also the communications arm for SHOWBOAT.
Via: AP:
President Donald Trump put the Mexican government on the defensive when he said he “absolutely” will move ahead with plans to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
Trump said in a radio interview this week that tens of thousands of Americans are killed every year because of drug trafficking and other activity by the cartels. But Mexico is pushing back, worried that such a step would allow its neighbor to the north to violate its sovereignty by operating unilaterally inside Mexico.
“I’ve been working on that for the last 90 days,” Trump said in a radio interview with Bill O’Reilly, who asked whether such a designation would be forthcoming.
O’Reilly had asked Trump if he would designate the cartels “and start hitting them with drones and things like that?”
Trump replied: “I don’t want to say what I’m going to do, but they will be designated.”
The Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser
November 30th, 2019Bacteria in Contaminated Walmart Pork Resistant to Multiple Antibiotics
November 30th, 2019Via: Newsweek:
Testing has revealed the presence of bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics in pork products sold at Walmart stores in the eastern U.S., according to a report.
Research conducted by non-profit World Animal Protection (WAP) identified several strains of bacteria in the meat, 80 percent of which were resistant to at least one antibiotic. Furthermore, the report found that 37 percent of the bacteria in the Walmart samples were resistant to three or more classes of antibiotics—and nearly 10 percent were resistant to six classes.
Worryingly, the report found that 27 percent of the resistant bacteria in the Walmart samples would be unaffected by antibiotics categorized as “Highest Priority Critically Important Antimicrobials” (HPCIAs) by the World Health Organization (WHO). HPCIAs are antibiotics used when there are few or no alternatives to treat people with serious bacterial infections.
Trump Is the First President to Use Patriot Act to Detain a U.S. Resident Forever Without Charge
November 30th, 2019Via: Daily Mail:
Donald Trump has become the first president to invoke the Patriot Act in order to detain a man behind bars indefinitely – despite the fact he completed the duration of his criminal sentence and should’ve been released nearly three-years-ago.
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ICE officials wanted to deport Hassoun from the country after his criminal sentence concluded in 2017, however his statelessness as a Palestinian prevent such a motion. Neither his birth-country of Lebanon nor Israel that occupies the West Bank and Gaza were willing to supply him refuge.
Backed by a team of attorneys from the University of Buffalo Law School, in January Hassoun won a legal battle that should have led to his freedom, on the grounds that his deportation was unlikely.
However, the Trump administration instead declared him as a threat to national security, first using an obscure immigration regulation designed to circumvent a 2001 Supreme Court ruling allowing for no more than six months detention.
Germany Plans Rapid State Intervention to Protect Key Industries – From China
November 29th, 2019Via: Reuters:
German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier wants to set up a new government body with powers to decide quickly whether to take stakes in key domestic companies to prevent foreign takeovers.
Altmaier presented his new industrial strategy on Friday, including plans to set up a standing committee which, as a last resort, could decide to take stakes in German companies that produce sensitive or security relevant technologies.
The stakes, which would be acquired by Germany’s KfW state development bank, would be held temporarily. This can already be done in some cases under German law, but Altmaier said the process was too slow.
“Structures have to be created to take the necessary decisions faster and more efficiently than has been the case thus far,” he said in his “Industry Strategy 2030”.
Under the plans, Germany also aims to step up screening of non-European investors that want to buy into firms in key sectors, in a move widely seen as targeting Chinese state-backed investors.
The plans come at a time when the European Union as a whole is reconsidering its industrial strategy and relations to China in the face of increased investment in critical sectors by Chinese state-owned enterprises.
Northland New Zealand Housing Crisis: People Living in Trees, Car Ports, Old Cars
November 28th, 2019The commentary I wrote back in 2018 describes why this is happening. Of course, the situation has only gotten worse since then.
Via: Radio New Zealand:
New Zealand government MPs have heard that the housing situation in Northland has become so desperate some families are living in the woods, in huts built in the forks of trees.
Northland is one of the most deprived regions of the country, with a median income of NZ$23,400. The population is also 32% M?ori – double that of the rest of the country.
At a housing hui (meeting) held in Whangarei on Thursday, the M?ori affairs minister, Nanaia Mahuta, who is also associate minister of housing, was told by local housing advocates that the shortage of affordable housing had become “desperate” in the north island region, with families forced to live in trees, self-built huts, old vehicles, lean-tos, derelict houses and carports.
Polio Outbreaks in Africa Caused by Mutation of Strain in Vaccine
November 28th, 2019Via: Guardian:
New cases of polio linked to the oral vaccine have been reported in four African countries and more children are now being paralysed by vaccine-derived viruses than those infected by viruses in the wild, according to global health numbers.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners identified nine new cases caused by the vaccine in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Angola last week. Along with seven other African countries with outbreaks, cases have also been reported in Asia. In Afghanistan and Pakistan polio remains endemic, and in Pakistan officials have been accused of covering up vaccine-related cases.
Research Credit: Jb
New Zealand Startup Extracts Lithium from Fluid Used in Geothermal Powerplants
November 28th, 2019Via: Driven:
Taupo company Geo40 says it has cracked a chemical process to produce lithium at “near battery grade” from geothermal fluid discharged from central North Island power stations.
Scientists Turn Undersea Fiber Optic Cables Into Seismographs
November 28th, 2019Via: TechCrunch:
These cables carry data over long distances, sometimes as part of the internet’s backbones, and sometimes as part of private networks. But one thing they all have in common is that they use light to do so — light that gets scattered and distorted if the cable shifts or changes orientation.
By carefully monitoring this “backscatter” phenomenon it can be seen exactly where the cable bends and to what extent — sometimes to within a few nanometers. That means that researchers can observe a cable to find out the source of seismic activity with an extraordinary level of precision.
The technique is called Distributed Acoustic Sensing, and it essentially treats the cable as if it were a series of thousands of individual motion sensors. The cable the team tested on is 20 kilometers worth of of Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s underwater data infrastructure — which divided up into some ten thousand segments that can detect the slightest movement of the surface to which they’re attached.
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Of course most major undersea cables don’t just have a big exposed end for random researchers to connect to. And the signals that the technology uses to measure backscatter could conceivably interfere with others, though of course there is work underway to test that and prevent it if possible.
Trump Approves Legislation Backing Hong Kong Protesters
November 27th, 2019Via: Reuters:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law congressional legislation backing protesters in Hong Kong despite angry objections from Beijing, with which he is seeking a deal to end a damaging trade war.
More: China Warns U.S. of Retaliation for Law Backing Hong Kong Protesters
