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Philippines
June 1, 2016 Philippine president-elect Duterte, who won last month's elections in a landslide after pledging to kill tens of thousands of criminals, told reporters there was justification for killing journalists who took bribes or engaged in other corrupt activities. "Just because you're a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you're a son of a bitch' - Duterte said when asked how he would address the problem of media killings in the Philippines after a reporter was shot dead in Manila last week. 176 journalists were murdered since a chaotic and corruption-plagued democracy replaced the dictatorship of Marcos three decades ago. "Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something. You won't be killed if you don't do anything wrong" - said Duterte. "He is against all illegal killings. He will pursue the criminals to the ends of the Earth in accordance with the law and in accordance with the constitution" - Duterte's spokesman Panelo said. One of the world's deadliest attacks against journalists took place in the Philippines in 2009, when 32 journalists were among 58 people killed by a warlord clan intent on stopping a rival's election challenge. More than 100 people are on trial for the massacre, including many members of the Ampatuan family accused of orchestrating it. Panelo was the Ampatuans' defence lawyer until last year. (Source: Yahoo)
Saudi Arabia
June 1, 2016 Uber, Silicon Valley’s most valuable private business has turned to the Middle East for its biggest infusion of cash from a single investor. Uber it had raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the kingdom’s main investment fund, in one of the largest-ever investments into a privately held start-up. The money was part of the ride-hailing giant’s most recent financing round and continued to value Uber at $62.5 billion. The investment further aligned the company with Saudi Arabia as the kingdom planned to transform its economy, reducing its dependence on oil and improving employment. Some members of its royal family have made some deals. Prince Talal, for instance, has invested in Lyft, a competitor of Uber. The investment came together after Plouffe, an Uber board member, traveled to the Middle East in March and was invited to the Saudi fund for a briefing. Saudi Arabia has looked for ways to expand its economy beyond oil, with the Public Investment Fund - which is expected to grow to $2 trillion under management after the country’s state-owned oil company goes public. Uber has drawn capital from a wide variety of investors, including traditional venture capital firms, mutual fund giants like BlackRock and wealthy clients of firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Uber's territory covers 460 cities in more than 69 countries. Now it has over 395,000 active riders in the Middle East, up fivefold from a year ago, and 19,000 drivers. (Source: TheNewYorkTimes)
Törökország
2016. VI. 1. Árthat a Törökországgal fenntartott jó kapcsolatnak az örmények elleni 1915-ös vérengzésről szóló holnapi német parlamenti szavazás, de nem jelenti a "világ végét" - jelentette ki Yildirim új török miniszterelnök. Külön is kiemelte: a kérdés nem érinti az Európai Unióval kötött menekültügyi megállapodást. Ugyanakkor a németországi török közösség több ezer fenyegető emailt küldött német parlamenti képviselőknek, amiatt, hogy a több mint száz éve történt eseményeket népirtásnak minősíthetik egy rendeletben. 1915-ben azt követően kezdődtek a támadások, hogy Isztambulban elfogtak 235 örmény értelmiségit és a vezetőjüket. Ezt követően Anatólia városaiban és falvaiban a török hatóságok elrendelték az örmény közösség kiűzését. A tartományokból kiutasítottak közül sokakat szuronnyal megöltek, lelőttek vagy a szíriai sivatag felé tereltek, ahol éhen vagy szomjan haltak. A több ezer éves örmény civilizációt Törökország keleti részén gyakorlatilag eltüntették; sok templomot leromboltak vagy gazdasági épületnek használnak, illetve némelyeket mecsetként állítottak helyre. (Forrás: ATV)
United States
June 10, 2016 US Deputy assistant secretary of defence for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia Carpenter told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that the West and NATO were currently not ideally prepared to deal with a Russian threat. It warned NATO cannot successfully defend the territory of its most exposed members, the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The warning over increasing Russian aggression comes just four months after non-profit global policy think tank RAND speculated Russian forces could reach those areas in 60 hours. It did however suggest it was possible to avoid a rapid overrun of the Baltic States with a force of seven brigades. This would include three heavy armoured brigades backed by airpower along with land-based support. Nineteen NATO member nations and five partner nations are taking part in a war games exercise in Poland and are contributing troops to the exercise that will train and test their swift joint reaction to threats on land, sea and in the air. (Source: NewsComAU): http://tinyurl.com/hj7tk25
June 9th 2016 A pro-isis group has released a hit list with the names of more than 8,000 people mostly Americans; civilians who don't have the security necessary to protect themselves. The "United Cyber Caliphate" that hacked U.S. Central Command, 54,000 Twitter accounts and threatened President Obama is the same pro-isis group that's reportedly created a "kill list" with the names, addresses and emails of thousands. More than 600-people live in Florida, many of those targeted live in Palm Beach County and on the Treasure Coast. The list came to light online when Vocativ reported the list was shared via the encrypted app, Telegram. It's going to create some hysteria. (Source: News3LasVegas)
June 7, 2016 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an advisory warning pilots that global positioning systems (GPS) could be unreliable during six different days this month, primarily in the Southwestern United States. On June 7, 9, 21, 23, 28, and 30th the GPS interference testing will be taking place between 9:30 am and 3:30 pm Pacific time. The testing will be centered on China Lake, California home to the Navy’s 1.1 million acre Naval Air Weapons Center in the Mojave Desert. The potentially lost signals will stretch hundreds of miles in each direction and will affect various types of GPS, reaching the furthest at higher altitudes. But the jamming will only affect aircraft above 50 feet. These tests are naturally going to fuel plenty of conspiracy theories about mind control, weather modification, and aliens - especially with China Lake’s proximity to both large population centers like LA and Las Vegas, and the fact that Area 51 is practically just down the road. But it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to tell us we’re fucked if terrorists or shitty teenagers make it a habit of jamming GPS signals for everybody. (Source: Gizmodo): http://tinyurl.com/he8ahan
6 June 2016 'Just call me sir!' 'I lost my virginity twice': Transgender man who was born a girl says his sex life is amazing after having a penis made out of skin from his forearm. Murray, 41, from Bournemouth was born a girl. She realised at 19 he was transgender but didn't transition until the age of 33. Had a hysterectomy, double mastectomy and a fake penis made. For a complete penile reconstruction, a procedure called a free flap phalloplasty is performed. 'This involves taking a chunk of tissue still intact (in terms of nerves, veins, arteries) from another part of the body. This is then rolled into a tube like a sausage roll with a pipe inside it for the urethra.’ Parts of the body where skin may be taken from are the arm or the thigh. The tissue is then transplanted onto the groin area and the nerves, arteries and veins are connected. Cosmetic surgery is then performed to give the transplanted penis the appearance of one that has been circumcised. If the patient wishes to be sexually active, he can undergo surgery to have a ‘penis pump’ device implanted. Here, two cylinders are placed either side in the tissue and these are connected to a pump in the scrotum. Squeezing the pump fills the cylinders with fluid kept in a reservoir in the abdomen. (Source: Mail)
Jun 6, 2016 Scientists trying to grow our body parts inside pigs to end the shortage of organs needed for transplants could inadvertently make animals with human brains. Scientisist in the US have injected human stem cells into pig embryos to produce human-pig embryos known as chimeras. There are fears that mixing pig and human genes in this way coud see the animals develop looking like animals but with human brains or boosted intelligence. The human cells might migrate to the developing pig's brain and make it, in some way, more human. Ross, a reproductive biologist is leading the research, with a team from University of California. Low, professor in the department of neurosurgery, University of Minnesota, said pigs were an ideal 'biological incubator' for growing human organs, and could potentially be used to create not just a pancreas but hearts, livers, kidneys, lungs and corneas. His team is also trying to create dopamine-producing human neurons from chimeric embryos to treat patients with Parkinson's disease. These embryos have been allowed to develop for up to 62 days - the normal gestation period is around 114 days. Creating the chimeric embryos takes two stages. First, a technique known as CRISPR gene editing is used to remove DNA from a newly fertilised pig embryo that would enable the resulting foetus to grow a pancreas. This creates a genetic "niche" or void. Then, human induced pluripotent (iPS) stem cells are injected into the embryo. The iPS cells were derived from adult cells and "dialled back" to become stem cells capable of developing into any tissue in the body. In the mid-90s clinical trials stalled because of fears that humans might be infected with animal viruses. (Source: Express)
June 3, 2016 In an isis video made public May 21 the islamic state is urging jihadists in the United States and Europe to carry out terror attacks during what a group spokesman promised would be 'the month of conquest and jihad.' In the video was stated that 'the smallest action in their heartland is better and more', and also urged jihadists to conduct lone-wolf attacks and said doing so would produce 'the great reward of martyrdom.' Islam’s month of Ramadan begins June 5. According to Islamic practice, sacrifice during Ramadan can be considered more valuable than that made at other times, so a call to martyrdom during the month may hold a special allure to some. The terrorism risk at the moment is generally high. The Department of Homeland Security updated a travel warning to those visiting Europe. Terror attacks could be carried out at the European soccer championship scheduled to begin June 10, and a Catholic World Youth Day in Poland July 26. The group has lost territory as a result of international counterterrorism operations, but isis is expanding in Libya and other parts of the world. In Africa, the Islamist terror group Boko Haram inflicted heavy casualties during 2015 attacks during Ramadan in northeastern Nigeria. The Somalia-based al-Shabaab also conducted attacks in the past during the religious month. In Afghanistan, the Taliban also is expected to step up attacks in the coming month, notably to demonstrate that the killing of its leader Mansour in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan has not diminished its capabilities. isis also could use the Ramadan period to announce new affiliates in Bangladesh and elsewhere.(Source: TheWashingtonFreeBeacon):
2 Jun 2016 Clinton posted and shared the highly classified names of concealed hidden intelligence officials on her email count that was vulnerable to attack and was breached repeatedly by Russia-linked hacker attempts - Federal records reveal. These revelations could give FBI investigators the evidence they need to make a case that Clinton violated the Espionage Act by mishandling national defense information through “gross negligence.” Numerous names cited in Clinton’s emails have been redacted in State Department email releases with the classification code “B3 CIA PERS/ORG,” a highly specialized classification that means the information, if released, would violate the Central Intelligence Act of 1949. Here are some examples of (b)(3) redactions; (Source: Breitbart): http://tinyurl.com/j2udxw3
June 2, 2016 The tuberculosis disease - a potentially fatal infectious disease affecting the lungs - may be making a comeback in the United States. It was rare in the US with just 9,421 active TB cases reported in 2014. But for example Arizona’s 222 active TB cases among resettled refugees over the past two decades were caused by latent TB infections that advanced to active TB disease after years or even decades of lying dormant. In Vermont more than one-third of refugees test positive for tuberculosis, data from the Vermont Department of Health shows. Since 2013, about 900 refugees admitted to the Green Mountain State have been tested for tuberculosis. Of that number, 318 refugees, or 35.4 percent, tested positive. A single active TB case for a teacher at Charlotte Central School in 2015 in Vermont led the Health Department to test about 500 students and coworkers. Test results found that 19 children and two adults had become infected with latent TB. But many people who have latent TB infection never develop TB disease. In these people, the TB bacteria remain inactive for a lifetime without causing disease. Refugees brought to the United States undergo TB tests as part of comprehensive health screenings. Tuberculosis is common worldwide, with one out of every three people carrying the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In 2014, about 9.6 million people had active TB and 1.5 million people died from the disease. Active TB is fatal in half of cases that go untreated. Refugees may be entitled to multiple years of taxpayer-funded medical, cash and social assistance. Assistance benefits range from Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to job preparation and placement. (Source: VermontWatchdog): https://tinyurl.com/hjum3lj
June 1, 2016 Scientists can use Crispr (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) to manipulate the genes of any living creature with astonishing ease. The number of U.S. patent applications citing Crispr technology jumped from four to more than 230 between 2012 and 2015. This year is already on track to double that figure. Almost every genetics lab in the world is converting to Crispr because it's cheap, precise, and easy to use. (Source: Bloomberg)
Globalization
7 Jun 2016 Online hackers are spamming isis supporters on Twitter by following them with thousands of graphic porn accounts, tide of naked bodies known as 'pornbots', feature nothing but graphic sexual images and are automatically generated, but almost never tweet and therefore cannot be deleted as spam. Hacking group Anonymous has declared cyber war on the murderous terror group. (Source: MIrror)
2016 Bilderberg meeting patricipants /Dresden, Germany 9-12 June ( Source: BilderbergMeetings): http://tinyurl.com/ocwf2o5
Space
June 4, 2016 This is the first spotless day of the 24-25 solar minimum. Cloud droplet nucleation initiated by galactic cosmic rays has been getting a favourable press again. A strong rise in the neutron flux has its source in the constant flux of galactic cosmic rays entering the solar system. The count is now higher than that during the downramp of Solar Cycle 20 of the 1970s cooling period – very promising. Solar wind flow [pressure] is one of the factors that modulates that constant flux. It appears to have peaked for this solar cycle. Polar magnetic field strength is translated into sunspot number and sunspot area. Unfortunately NASA hasn’t updated hemispheric sunspot area since December 2015 with that data. They may be too busy on Muslim outreach to do basic science. (Source: WattSUpWithThat): http://tinyurl.com/hfgc5ld
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