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Hungary
April 11, 2019 In Hungary, spending on a total of 333 productions last year amounted to 110 billion forints ($1 = 285.6800 forints), with 84 percent of the investment coming from international productions including Hollywood blockbusters “Terminator: Dark Fate” and “Gemini Man.” This was up from 108 billion in 2017, when “Red Sparrow” and “Colette” were made in Hungary but Havas at Hungary’s Film Fund expects the new EU rules to accelerate the streaming-fueled production boom. The rise of streaming services has also shifted the types of productions in the region. Hungary attracts more blockbuster films these days while episodic series tend to gravitate towards the Czech Republic. A new European Union directive due to come in this year is also expected to spur investment as it will require video-on-demand platforms selling to European audiences to ensure at least 30 percent of their catalogs are European works. (Source: OneAmericaNewsNetwork)
Délvidék
2019. IV. 15. Az európai integráció területén nyújtott támogatásért, a Koszovó helyzetével kapcsolatos kiegyensúlyozott hozzáállásért, a gazdasági együttműködésért, valamint a magyarországi szerb kisebbség támogatásáért mondott köszönetet Brnabic Ana szerb kormányfő Szabadkán Orbán Viktor miniszterelnöknek és a magyar kormánynak a két kormány ötödik együttes ülését követően. (Forrás: Krónika/ MTI): http://tinyurl.com/yxvs4nah
Erdély
2019.04.11. Bergoglio érsek romániai látogatása. Sokan képtelenek felfogni, pedig oly nyilvánvaló, hogy Róma püspöke a liberálisok által lefizetett és irányított román elnök meghívására érkezik Romániába. A fő cél az ökumenizmus fejlesztése, az ortodoxokkal való kiegyezés és együttműködés, majd valamikor a későbbiekben az ortodoxok „Rómába terelése”. Ennek világos példája az ukrán szakadár ortodoxok azon szándéka, hogy Róma fennhatósága alá tartozzanak. Most Bergoglio ugyanezt készíti elő Daniel pátriárkával együttműködve, a más országokban élő keményvonalas ortodoxok felháborodása ellenére, amely felháborodásuknak hangot is adnak Oroszországtól Görögországig. Ez hát a fő oka a romániai látogatásnak, no meg egy kis „érzékenyítő” beszéd a migráció elfogadására, hiszen Románia megnyerése ez ügyben kiemelkedő teljesítmény volna. Bergoglio tehát nem Székelyföldön lesz, amikor Csíksomlyóra látogat, hanem Romániában! Nem a székely és magyar katolikus híveket látogatja, hanem a Romániában élő híveket! Nem magyar vértanúkat avat boldoggá, hanem román, görög-katolikus román vértanúkat, ráadásul a balázsfalvi helyszín sem véletlen, hiszen ott kiáltották ki a 'nagy egyesülést'! Mára már kiderült az, ami már az elején sejthető volt, hogy a csángók magyar nyelvű miséje is szemfényvesztés csupán, hiszen cserébe Csíksomlyón engedélyezik a román nyelvű miséket – állítják a román egyházi hatóságok. Az sem véletlen, hogy amíg Románia minden szegletéből Csíksomlyóra sereglenek a 'románok'(!), addig a csángókat arra kötelezik, hogy Jászvásárra menjenek „pápalátni”. Márton boldoggá avatása 2019 júniusában vatikáni érdeklődés miatt – elmarad. (Forrás: Andrea78BlogStar)
France
20 avril 2019 Attentat Notre Dame. Première preuve du bobard officiel. /First proof of canard official/ (Source: GloriaTv): https://tinyurl.com/y2jmseq2
17 April 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire timeline (Source: Yahoo): https://tinyurl.com/y5sorcrm
April 16, 2019 The cause of the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire is still being investigated and the Paris prosecutor Heitz has ruled out arson and says it was likely the result of an accident. The fire to the iconic church, however, may have raised awareness to a rash of vandalism to French churches. A total of 875 of France's 42,258 churches were vandalized in 2018, with a small fire set to the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris in March. In the same week that the fire broke out at the Saint-Sulpice church, another 11 churches were vandalized. According to the Ministry of the Interior, a total of 1,063 anti-Christian acts were recorded in 2018 alone. Other acts of vandalism to the churches include human feces spread on the walls of the Notre-Dame-des-Enfacts in Nimes and a damaged organ at the Saint-Denis basilica. Another 129 churches had thefts on their property with still another 59 cemeteries vandalized. (Source: International Business Times)
Apr 16, 2019 An alarm was raised at Notre Dame at 6:20 p.m. on Monday night - 23 minutes before the structure was engulfed in flames - but officials found no sign of a fire. (Source: TheDailyBeast): http://tinyurl.com/y3mwtecy
16 April 2019 The blaze started at 6.50pm after the cathedral had closed to the public, and spread to one of its landmark rectangular towers. (Source: DailyMail): http://tinyurl.com/y2nthmd7
April 16, 2019 Crews assess damage after fire ravages Notre Dame (Source: WashingtonPost): http://tinyurl.com/y2bketod
April 15 2019 A fire has broken out at the world-famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. According to French newspaper Le Monde, the fire broke out in the attic of the historic monument before spreading to engulf a large section of the roof. A spokesperson for the cathedral said the blaze was first reported at 5.50pm GMT and the building was evacuated soon after. Officials in Paris said the fire could be linked to renovation works being carried out at the cathedral. (Source: DailyMail)
April 2019 Dame de Paris un chantier monumental (video) /Source: TF1/: http://tinyurl.com/yyq2p2h8
April 15 2019 'Nothing will remain'. Notre Dame fire ‘can’t be stopped’ as chiefs say. The 850-year-old cathedral will be gutted in hours after spire collapses. Dramatic video and pictures show the savage blaze raging and thick, black smoke billowing from the top of the famous Parisian landmark. (Source: TheSun): http://tinyurl.com/y66xsczb
Great Britain
April 17, 2019 Assange, jailed last week after being forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, was awarded the 2019 GUE/NGL Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers & Defenders of the Right to Information. It is sponsored by European parliamentarians after being established in 2018 in honour of assassinated Maltese journalist Galizia. (Source: News.Com.AU)
April 12, 2019 We are lions led by donkeys. Addressing more than 100 supporters at a metalworking factory in the pro-Brexit city of Coventry, England, Farage slammed the political establishment as incompetent and said he’d placed a $1,300 bet on his party coming top in the elections. According to Farage, it has received 750,000 pounds in small donations online since it launched 10 days ago. A party spokesman said a single large donor had contributed 200,000 pounds. While officials are preparing for the elections to be held, May’s office insists she could cancel the vote as late as the day before - if her deal is ratified. (Source: Yahoo)
11th April 2019 The key dates involving Wikileaks boss Assange: July 2010: Wikileaks releases 720,000 classified files on Afghanistan and Iraq wars August 2010: Arrest warrant issued for Assange over rape and molestation allegations in Sweden, which he denies. December 2010: Assange presents himself to London cops and appears at an extradition hearing. December 2010: He is later granted conditional bail at the High Court in London after supporters pay L240,000 in cash and sureties. February 2011: Brit courts rule Assange should be extradited to Sweden. June 2012: The Wikileaks chief enters Ecuadorian embassy in London requesting political asylum. June 2012: Just 24 hours later Scotland Yard says he’ll be arrested for breaching bail conditions. August 2012: Ecuador grants asylum, allowing him to stay in the embassy - where he will remain for the next six and a half years. May 2017: Swedish prosecutors close 7-year sex assault investigation, but Brit cops say they’ll still arrest Assange for breaching bail... (Source: TheSun)
Democratic Republic of Congo
12 April 2019 Congo’s health ministry yesterday reported 1,206 confirmed and probable Ebola cases, including 764 deaths. The outbreak is occurring close to the borders of Uganda and Rwanda, with South Sudan not far away. Global emergencies have been declared for the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the emergence of Zika virus in the Americas and the international attempt to eradicate polio. WHO was criticized for not declaring the 2014 Ebola outbreak an international emergency until nearly 1,000 people had died and the disease had spilled across borders. Emergency declarations almost always boost global attention and donor funding. In recent weeks, WHO has noted it is woefully short of the $148 million it says is needed to fight Ebola for the next six months. It had received only $74 million as of mid-March. (Source: NBCNews)
China
April 11, 2019 Scientists put human gene into monkeys to make them smarter, human-like. By the end, the monkeys, rhesus macaques, got smarter and had superior memories as compared to the unaltered monkeys. Researchers edited the human version of a gene known as ‘MCPH1’ into the macaques. (Source: BusinessRecorder)
Iraq
April 19, 2019 isis resurgence. isis lost its last zone of territorial control in Syria on March 23, 2019, but its resurgent campaign continues to gain momentum across Iraq and Syria. isis is expanding its support zones and scaling up its attack campaign in key cities including Raqqa City, Mosul, and Fallujah as well as rear areas in Northern Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan. /map/ (Source: ISWBlog): https://tinyurl.com/y3km8mpd
United States
April 19, 2019 The system may lead to lifelike self-reproducing machines. Scientists from Cornell University have successfully constructed DNA-based machines with incredibly life-like capabilities. These human-engineered organic machines are capable of locomotion, consuming resources for energy, growing and decaying, and evolving. Eventually they die. (Source: TheNextWeb)
See also: April 10 abstract (Source: RoboticScience): https://tinyurl.com/y6o2qop6
Apr 20, 2019 In the middle of the night on April 16, United Constitutional Patriots, an armed civilian group patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border in the Sunland Park area, detained more than 300 migrants who illegally crossed the border. The group, who claim they are at the border to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America,” is patrolling the desert near Sunland Park searching for migrants. (Source: USAToday)
April 19, 2019 The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency believes space-based robots offer the best bet for inspecting and repairing high-altitude satellites. The program is scheduled to last roughly five year. Today the U.S. has more than 400 military, government and commercial satellites circling the globe in geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO, a celestial path about 22,000 miles above the ground. (Source: NextGov)
Apr 19th 2019 Chomsky believes focusing too heavily on Russia may cost Democrats dearly next November. “The Democrats invested everything in this issue,” Chomsky said. “Well, turned out there was nothing much there. They gave Trump a huge gift. In fact, they may have handed him the next election. That’s a matter of being so unwilling to deal with fundamental issues, that they’re looking for something on the side that will somehow give political success.” (Source: Mediaite)
April 18 2019 The Mueller Report. A look at a redacted version (Source: AP): https://tinyurl.com/y5f6t7lu
April 18. 2019 Mueller’s 448-page investigative report into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election includes 23 unredacted pages of Mueller’s written questions and Trump’s written responses, the only direct exchange between the special counsel’s office and the president in November 2018. Full text of Mueller's questions and Trump's answers ( (Source: AP): https://tinyurl.com/y5pj9ffp
April 18, 2019 Mueller's roadmap for impeachment. Should he want to pursue impeachment, Mr. Mueller drew him a roadmap for further investigation, tracking a number of different episodes where the president’s conduct could be seen as an attempt to thwart a valid probe. Those include his attempts to shape former FBI Director Comey’s initial inquiries, ordering his top White House lawyer to fire Mr. Mueller, trying to hide details about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his family members and a Russian-backed operative, dangling pardons and ordering an intermediary to ask then-Attorney General Sessions to curtail the probe - even though Mr. Sessions had recused himself from involvement. (Source. TheWashingtonTimes)
April 18, 2019 Special counsel Mueller referred 14 cases of potential criminal activity to outside offices because the cases were “outside the scope of the special counsel’s jurisdiction,” according to the Mueller report. We know about two of them: Cohen’s alleged wire fraud and Federal Employees’ Compensation Act violations case and ex-Obama administration official Craig’s alleged FARA violations. Both were referred to the Southern District of New York. The other 12 referrals of potentially criminal evidence were all redacted for reasons of “harm to ongoing matter” (Source: TalkingPointsMemo)
April 17, 2019 Pentagon alone expected to spend $2 billion on cloud in the coming year. Microsoft will compete head-to-head with Amazon Web Services for the JEDI contract, which will essentially become the Pentagon’s war cloud, processing, storing and analyzing swaths of classified military data around the world. The Defense Department will assess the capabilities of Microsoft and AWS in the coming weeks, with an award expected by mid-July. (Source: NextGov)
4/15/2019 The Bureau of Counterterrorism in the State Department (CT) continually monitors the activities of terrorist groups active around the world to identify potential targets for designation. When reviewing potential targets, CT looks not only at the actual terrorist attacks that a group has carried out, but also at whether the group has engaged in planning and preparations for possible future acts of terrorism or retains the capability and intent to carry out such acts. The organization’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States. (Source: State): https://tinyurl.com/hutjwk4
April 14, 2019 Bending intelligence in a manner that conforms with policy objectives? The FTO designation is a continued drum beat trying to create a narrative of a nexus between Iran and al Qaeda, priming the public for an argument that the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF) covers Iran and could help build the case for military action. Trump administration may be laying legal groundwork for military action against Iran by the foreign terrorist organization designation, for strikes on Iranian forces, especially in Iraq or Syria where they may encounter U.S. troops. While the designation doesn’t provide legal authority itself, it could be part of the administration’s argument. The administration is drawing a clearer line between Iran and the terror group al Qaeda. The State Department said one reason for the designation is that “Iran continues to allow al Qaeda operatives to reside in Iran, where they have been able to move money and fighters to South Asia and Syria. The AUMF provides the executive branch with broad authority to use force “against those nations, organizations, or persons” that it determines “planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks” on 9/11 “or harbored such organizations or persons. "They have hosted al Qaeda, they have permitted al Qaeda to transit their country. No doubt, there is a connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and al Qaeda." - Pompeo told. He also said this week that the U.S. will pursue Soleimani, the leader of the IRGC, just as it does the leadership of isis. "Soleimani has the blood of Americans on his hands, as does the force that he leads" - he told. A U.N. Security Council report published last July found al Qaeda leaders based in Iran “have grown more prominent” in projecting authority and dictating orders to groups in other countries. Since 2012, the State Department’s country terrorism report has also said Iran has allowed al Qaeda “facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline” through the country. But the terror group, which is Sunni Muslim, has also conducted attacks on majority-Shia Iran. There have been numerous attacks by al Qaeda or its affiliates on Iran or its affiliates in Iraq and Syria. (Source: ABCNews)
April 13, 2019 Stratolaunch first flight /video/ (Source: YouTube): http://tinyurl.com/y3xq9kbc
April 11, 2019 Assange, 47, the founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested today in the United Kingdom pursuant to the U.S./UK Extradition Treaty, in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer. According to court documents unsealed today, the charge relates to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States. The indictment alleges that in March 2010, Assange engaged in a conspiracy with Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. The extradition will be handled by the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs. (Source: Justice.Gov)
11/04/2019 Journalists do not assist sources in cracking passwords. Washington has investigated Australian-born Assange, 47, since at least 2010 when he published hundreds of thousands of US military and diplomatic files obtained from a US Army intelligence official, Manning. Those files exposed controversial US military war actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, including evidence of torture, a video of a US Army helicopter attack that killed two journalists in Baghdad in 2007, and the huge numbers of civilian deaths that resulted from the US invasions. WikiLeaks revealed secret files on the US Guantanamo prison, published highly sensitive National Security Agency intercepts, internal US trade negotiation documents, and files from the CIA's ultra-secret Vault 7 hacking program. In 2016, the organization played a central role in Russian meddling during the presidential election battle between Trump and his Democratic rival Clinton. In 2017, Secretary of State Pompeo, then director of the Central Intelligence Agency, called WikiLeaks a "non-state hostile intelligence service" abetted by Moscow. Assange has maintained that he is a journalist protected by the US constitution's free speech guarantee, and that WikiLeaks' activities are no different from those of other media organizations. (Source: France24)
Globalization
April 16, 2019 Historic tragedies happened during the week of April 15: The Lincoln Assassination: April 15, 1865; The Sinking of the Titanic: April 15, 1912; The Ludlow Massacre: April 20, 1914; The Hillsborough Disaster: April 15, 1989; The Waco Siege ends: April 19, 1993; The Oklahoma City Bombing: April 19, 1995; The Columbine High School Massacre: April 20, 1999; The Virginia Tech Shooting: April 16, 2007; The Deepwater Horizon Disaster: April 20, 2010; The Boston Marathon Bombing: April 15, 2013; The West Fertilizer Company Explosion: April 17, 2013; The Notre Dame Cathedral Fire: April 15, 2019. (source: FloridaToday)
April 15, 2019 A YouTube feature designed to combat misinformation offered some of its own during a major news event: it linked the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The company blamed the mixup on its algorithms. It removed the links on all Notre Dame fire posts after the issue was flagged. (Source: CNN)
April 12, 2019 Into a truly global society - a reality before the turn of the century? Writing in Frontiers in Neuroscience, an international collaboration led by researchers at UC Berkeley and the US Institute for Molecular Manufacturing predicts that exponential progress in nanotechnology, nanomedicine, AI, and computation will lead this century to the development of a "Human Brain/Cloud Interface" (B/CI), that connects brain cells to vast cloud-computing networks in real time. The B/CI concept was initially proposed by futurist-author-inventor Kurzweil, who suggested that neural nanorobots – brainchild of Freitas, Jr., senior author of the research – could be used to connect the neocortex of the human brain to a "synthetic neocortex" in the cloud. Our wrinkled neocortex is the newest, smartest, 'conscious' part of the brain. Freitas' proposed neural nanorobots would provide direct, real-time monitoring and control of signals to and from brain cells. "These devices would navigate the human vasculature, cross the blood-brain barrier, and precisely autoposition themselves among, or even within brain cells," explains Freitas. "They would then wirelessly transmit encoded information to and from a cloud-based supercomputer network for real-time brain-state monitoring and data extraction." "A human B/CI system mediated by neuralnanorobotics could empower individuals with instantaneous access to all cumulative human knowledge available in the cloud, while significantly improving human learning capacities and intelligence," says lead author Dr. Martins. B/CI technology might also allow us to create a future "global superbrain" that would connect networks of individual human brains and AIs to enable collective thought. "While not yet particularly sophisticated, an experimental human 'BrainNet' system has already been tested, enabling thought-driven information exchange via the cloud between individual brains," explains Martins. "It used electrical signals recorded through the skull of 'senders' and magnetic stimulation through the skull of 'receivers,' allowing for performing cooperative tasks. (Source: MedicalXPress)
12 April 2019 Concern as Congo Ebola outbreak gathers pace. A World Health Organisation (WHO) committee met today and decided against declaring a public health emergency of international concern. Health experts warn that suspicion and rumours – such as that Ebola is being exploited by agencies for financial reasons – are rife. The response to the outbreak, which coincided with long-delayed elections, has also been politicised after voting was suspended in Ebola-affected areas. More than a quarter of people surveyed in such areas said they do not believe Ebola exists. The reluctance of private facilities or traditional healers to refer patients to specialist Ebola treatment centres has also contributed to case numbers. In February, clinics run by Médecins Sans Frontières in Katwa and Butembo were attacked, forcing the agency to suspend work in both areas. (Source: TheGuardian)
Mars
16 04 2019 A second Martian meteorite which shows 'signs of microbial life' has been found, Hungarian researchers from the Hungarian Academy of Science (HAS) Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences say in their report on the latest study, published in Open Astronomy, reigniting 'bacterial' fossils claims made 20 years ago by NASA. The meteorite, officially known as ALH-77005, is claimed to contain 'biosignatures', which researchers describe as textures and features left behind by organisms. The studies led them to conclude that the microscopic filaments inside could point to the presence of bacteria which survive by eating iron rust. (Source: SputnikNews)
Space
16 April 2019 The STEVE (strong thermal emission velocity enhancement) is a purple/mauve arc and picket fence. Both types of STEVE emissions are associated with subauroral ion drifts (SAID), electron heating, and plasma waves. The magnetosphere observations show structured electrons and flows and waves just outside the plasmasphere. Interestingly, the event with the picket fence had a >~1 keV electron structure detached from the electron plasma sheet, upward field‐aligned currents (FACs), and ultraviolet emissions in the conjugate hemisphere, while the event with only the mauve arc did not have precipitation or ultraviolet emission. Does the electron precipitation drive the picket fence, and heating drives the mauve as thermal emission? What is the energy source of the STEVE purple or mauve colored arc and green picket fence up in space? Does STEVE occur in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the same time? STEVE is connected to fast plasma flows, sharp plasma boundaries, and intense waves 25,000 km up in space. Plasma heating due to the fast flows and waves is suggested to drive the mauve colored arc. The picket fence is found to occur in both hemispheres at the same time, supporting that the energy source far up in space feeds energy to both hemispheres. (Source: AGUPubs)
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