March 29, 2024

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Today's News: September 27, 2019

World News

China Unveils ‘Super Surveillance Camera’ That Can Link To Its Social Credit System
Device can identify individual faces out of crowds of tens of thousands; Will take mass surveillance to a new level
Infowars – A new camera with a resolution five times more detailed than the human eye, able to monitor thousands of people in real time and identify individual faces has been unveiled by Chinese scientists, prompting renewed fears about mass surveillance.
ABC News in Australia reports that the new 500 megapixel cloud camera AI system, dubbed a ‘super camera’, was revealed at China’s International Industry Fair last week.
The camera system, equipped with state of the art facial recognition utilities, was designed by Fudan University and Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The designers claim that the system can detect and identify thousands of human faces or other objects in real time and instantly locate specific targets in environments such as crowded stadiums.
Of course, it would work equally as well at protests.
The designers suggested that police could set up the camera system in the center of Shanghai and monitor the movement of crowds, while cross-checking the images with medical and criminal records.
Li Daguang, a professor at the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army in Beijing told the Global Times that the system could “very easily be applied to national defense, military and public security.”
Technology like this in the hands of Communist Chinese authorities, who already operate a citizen social credit system, does not bode well for privacy rights and freedom.
US Troops, Tanks Headed to Lithuania for ‘Extended Mission’ Meant to ‘Deter Russia’
Anti Media –  Lithuania’s Defense Ministry has announced a new deployment of US troops to their country. The deployment will include a number of US soldiers, tanks, and fighting vehicles, and will be an “extended mission.”
The deployment is being presented by Lithuanian officials as proof of a “larger, long-term US military involvement in Lithuania,” while others say it is meant to deter Russian aggression.
The deployment is part of the US Army’s Atlantic Resolve campaign, which has been ongoing since 2014, and has focused on sending more and more US military assets to Baltic states and other nations near the Russian frontier.
The new US troops will be stationed in Pabrade, a town along the border with Belarus. They sayover 500 troops, 30 Abrams tanks, 25 Bradleys, and 70 other vehicles will be involved.
Canada’s Green Party admits editing photo of leader holding disposable cup
Fox – Now you see it, now you don’t.
The Green Party in Canada has admitted to using an image on their website of leader Elizabeth May drinking out of a reusable cup with a metal straw that actually was doctored with Photoshop.
The image, which originally showed May using a disposable cup, was altered to use a different cup that displayed the Green Party logo, spokeswoman Rosie Emery told the National Post.
“All I know is that the original was photoshopped to put in a cup that had the Green Party logo,” Emery told the National Post.
The party spokesperson added that it’s not known why the straw was added but told the National Post it should not distract from the fact that May “walks her talk” regarding her stance on the environment.
In a statement on Tuesday, May said she as “completely shocked” to find out that the party had altered the image taken last year at the Sidney Street Market in Sidney, British Columbia.
“My personal daily practice is to avoid single-use plastic items 100% of the time. I never drink from plastic water bottles. I always carry my own reusable coffee cup. I carry my own bamboo utensils,” May said. “I walk the talk every day.”
CHINA is the world leader in plastic waste, carbon dioxide emissions, and heavy metals pollution, yet somehow emotionally wrecked Leftists blame America for everything
NaturalNews – If you listen to what the mainstream media is saying, you’ll be left with the impression that the United States is the filthiest country on the planet, generating far more plastic pollution and other waste – not to mention all that dreaded carbon dioxide (CO2) – than anybody else. But you’d be wrong if you believed this, because the world’s biggest polluter, by far, is actually China.
That’s right, the country that’s never mentioned by the leftist mob is the biggest destroyer of Earth by a long shot, contributing almost three times more plastic waste than the second place polluter, Indonesia, which also just so happens to be in Asia – and which also happens to be nowhere near North America.
In fact, the top ten worst polluting countries in the world are all in Asia, with the exception of two of them that are in Africa. In other words, not a single Western country, including America, creates a substantial enough amount of plastic pollution to even be ranked, and yet the U.S. is ground zero for the climate warriors to spread their propaganda.
Greta Thunberg, our officially dubbed Climate Nazi, has yet to even visit Asia despite it being the largest contributor to the global warming, at least according to what her handlers believe constitutes a contribution. Instead, Thunberg is spending most of her time galavanting around the U.S. lecturing politicians and chatting it up with Barack Obama; that is, when she isn’t having meltdowns at the United Nations
‘I Said No’: Trump Rebuffs Rouhani’s Claim that US Offered to Lift All Sanctions on Iran for Talks
Sputnik – Over the last year, Washington has imposed several rounds of various restrictions on Tehran amid a row over the Iranian nuclear deal and rising tensions in the Middle East.
President Hassan Rouhani announced on Friday that the United States has offered to drop all sanctions against Iran in exchange for negotiations.
“The German chancellor, the prime minister of England (Britain) and the president of France were in New York and all insisted that this meeting take place. And America says that it will lift the sanctions”, he said. “It was up for debate what sanctions will be lifted and they had said clearly ‘we will lift all sanctions'”.
“But this action wasn’t in a manner that was acceptable, meaning that in the atmosphere of sanctions and the existence of sanctions and the toxic atmosphere of maximum pressure, even if we want to negotiate with the Americans in the 5+1 framework [which also includes Russia, China, Germany, France, and the UK], no one can predict what the end and result of this negotiation will be”, the president added.
However, US President Donald Trump claimed it was the Iranian side asking for restrictions to be cancelled, but that he refused to do so.
Rouhani’s statement comes mere days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Washington won’t change its policy and continue slapping sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
During the last year, the White House has repeatedly announced that it is ready to start talks with Iran without preconditions, while Iranian officials have stressed that the US has to change its policies and lift restrictions before any talks are possible.
Rouhani’s statement comes mere days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington wouldn’t change its policy and would continue to slap sanctions on the Islamic Republic in order to change Tehran’s stance.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Understanding The Impeachment Charade
The Daily Caller – Washington scandals are moving at a record pace. It was only a week ago that The New York Times launched its unfair hit piece on Brett Kavanaugh. This is the Trump-era news cycle. Scandals that used to go on for months now seem to end in hours. Nothing illustrates this better than the bizarre Ukraine story we’re all living through. A week ago, no one had even heard of it. Then we were on the brink of impeachment because of it, and now it seems it may be over already.
The same angry news anchors who brought you Stormy Daniels and the Russia hoax now want you to know Big Orange’s days in the White House are over. Why? Because Donald Trump, they say, threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless Ukraine did something bad to Joe Biden and his family. Supposedly, Trump was finished.
Once again, the mob turned out to be wrong. The administration released a transcript of the president’s phone call with the Ukrainian head of state, and it says none of the things the news anchors claimed it would. Read it for yourself. It’s online. Try to find the extortion in there. There isn’t any. Trump never even mentions military aid. There’s certainly something unseemly about a president asking a foreign government to investigate an American citizen, but it’s not illegal, and it’s not all that different from three Democratic senators’ writing a letter to Ukraine just last year demanding investigations into Trump.
Now that the call turns out to be nothing like what the media told us it would be, some on the left have started a conspiracy theory that the transcript can’t be real; it must be doctored. These conspiracies aren’t confined to weird corners of the internet. Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff have already questioned the trustworthiness of the transcript, despite the fact that there’s no evidence of wrongdoing. Numerous career national security officials — many not fans of our president — have access to the original call and would have to be in on any conspiracy.
What’s driving all this insanity? Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, has been more honest about it than most. Green admitted it straight up: “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get reelected.”
Lots of Democrats, including many of today’s party leaders, stood up when Bill Clinton was impeached to give impassioned speeches about the perils of taking away the American people’s choice. Here’s today’s impeachment ringleader, Rep. Jerry Nadler, in 1998:
“The impeachment of a president is an undoing of a national election. And one of the reasons we all feel so angry about what they are doing is that they are ripping asunder our votes. They are telling us that our votes don’t count.”
And here’s Nancy Pelosi in 1998 on the hatred behind the Clinton impeachment push:
“Today, the Republican majority is not judging the president with fairness but impeaching him with a vengeance … We are here today because the Republicans in the House are paralyzed with hatred of President Clinton. And until the Republicans free themselves of this hatred, our country will suffer.”
Sadly, Nadler and Pelosi were right in 1998. Republicans should not have impeached Clinton, and they paid the price. Democrats today hate Trump. It’s not about justice or truth. What they care about is winning the 2020 presidential election. Democratic leaders have decided that impeaching Trump is essential if they’re going to win next year. So they’re staking everything on this bizarre, flimsy scandal that the rest of us can barely understand.
Personal attacks on Trump have proven ineffective. If calling him a racist or a traitor actually worked, Hillary Clinton would be running for reelection right about now. That’s not going to work. If you want to beat Trump, make a case on the issues. He won on the issues. So make a countercase. But the geniuses can’t figure that out.
In the end, the loser in this impeachment nonsense is likely to be Biden, who, you will recall, is the apparent front-runner. He’s supposed to be the safe choice, the guy who’s going to reenergize the Obama coalition and win back the White House. Yet Democrats have now in effect demanded that we spend the next six months talking about Biden and his son’s alleged corruption. That’s what’s at the core of this Ukraine story.
Trump Says Schiff “Must Resign and Be Investigated”
Infowars – President Trump unloaded on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) over the congressman’s ‘fraudulent’ recital of a non-existent conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Rep. Adam Schiff fraudulently read to Congress, with millions of people watching, a version of my conversation with the President of Ukraine that doesn’t exist,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “He was supposedly reading the exact transcribed version of the call, but he completely changed the words to make it sound horrible, and me sound guilty. HE WAS DESPERATE AND HE GOT CAUGHT.
“Adam Schiff therefore lied to Congress and attempted to defraud the American Public. He has been doing this for two years. I am calling for him to immediately resign from Congress based on this fraud!”
“Rep. Adam Schiff totally made up my conversation with Ukraine President and read it to Congress and Millions. He must resign and be investigated. He has been doing this for two years. He is a sick man!”
On Thursday, Schiff shocked observers and fellow lawmakers by reading off a supposed transcript of the Trump-Zelensky phone call, which he said was “at least part in parody,” but ultimately defended as the “essence of what the president communicates.”
“It’s a shame that we started off this hearing with fictional remarks,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said following Schiff’s “desperate” manipulation of reality. “Unfortunately today, many innocent Americans are going to turn on their TV and the media is only going to show that section of what the chairman had to say.”
Report: Hundreds of Documents Conflict with Joe Biden’s Account of Why Ukrainian Prosecutor Was Fired
Breitbart – Hundreds of pages of never-released memos and documents conflict with a story that former Vice President Joe Biden has been telling about him pressuring Ukraine to fire its chief prosecutor because he was corrupt, and not because the prosecutor was investigating a company that hired his son, according to a report.
The Hill‘s John Solomon is reporting that the documents — many from the American legal team that helped the company, Burisma Holdings, try to stave off its legal troubles — raise the “troubling prospect” that U.S. officials  may have “painted a false picture in Ukraine that helped “ease Burisma’s legal troubles and stop prosecutors’ plans to interview” Biden’s son Hunter during the 2016 presidential elections.
Solomon reported that, for instance, an official Ukrainian government memo shows that Burisma’s American legal representatives met with Ukrainian officials just days after Biden forced the firing of the chief prosecutor and offered “an apology for dissemination of false information by U.S. representatives and public figures” about Ukrainian prosecutors.
In other words — the company that employed Biden’s son apologized to the Ukrainian government after the firing of the chief prosecutor for the “U.S. representatives and public figures” actions or remarks.
Solomon also reported that Burisma’s American team offered to introduce Ukrainian prosecutors to Obama administration officials to make amends, according to the Ukrainian government memo and Burisma’s American legal team’s internal memos.
According to Solomon, the memos raise the following “troubling questions”:
1) If the Ukraine prosecutor’s firing involved only his alleged corruption and ineptitude, why did Burisma’s American legal team refer to those allegations as “false information?”
2) If the firing had nothing to do with the Burisma case, as Biden has adamantly claimed, why would Burisma’s American lawyers contact the replacement prosecutor within hours of the termination and urgently seek a meeting in Ukraine to discuss the case?
Solomon reported that in a “newly sworn affidavit prepared for a European court,” Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin testified that when he was fired in March 2016, he was told the reason was that Biden was unhappy about the Burisma investigation.
“The truth is that I was forced out because I was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas firm active in Ukraine and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was a member of the Board of Directors,” Shokin testified, according to Solomon.
“On several occasions President Poroshenko asked me to have a look at the case against Burisma and consider the possibility of winding down the investigative actions in respect of this company but I refused to close this investigation,” Shokin reportedly said.
Solomon said other documents show that as Biden’s efforts to fire Shokin picked up steam, Burisma’s American legal team “appeared to be moving into Ukraine with intensity.”
Burisma’s accounting records “show that it paid tens of thousands of dollars while Hunter Biden served on the board of an American lobbying and public relations firm, Blue Star Strategies, run by Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, who both served in President Bill Clinton’s administration.”
Senate passes stopgap spending bill, delays potential shutdown
Fox – The Senate Thursday overwhelmingly approved a stopgap spending bill, avoiding a government shutdown.
The continuing resolution, which passed with a vote of 82 to 15, would maintain congressional spending authorization until Nov. 21, and reauthorize programs that would otherwise have lapsed at the end of September. Congress will be able to use the extra time to try and work out appropriations bills for 2020.
The measure already passed in the House with a 301-123 vote. Three Democratic representatives opposed the bill, and 76 Republicans voted in favor.
President Trump still has to sign the bill into law, but a White House official indicated Monday that he plans on doing so, according to RollCall.
House votes again to end Trump’s border emergency declaration
Reuters – A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday backed for a second time legislation that would terminate a national emergency on the southern border that President Donald Trump declared in February, sending the measure to the White House for Trump’s expected veto.
The Senate approved the measure earlier this week, but Trump used the very first veto of his presidency this March to strike down a similar measure that had cleared the House and Senate. Congress was unable to muster the votes to override that veto.
Doctors took newborn baby from parents after they refused vitamin K shot. Now they’re suing
Chicago Tribune – In the moments after Angela Bougher gave birth last winter, she and her husband, a suburban Chicago pastor, were eager to hold their new baby girl.
But as Bougher was being treated in the delivery room, the couple contends, a nurse picked up the infant to administer a vitamin K shot, a common practice in maternity wards across the country to help a baby’s blood-clotting ability in case of emergency.
The Boughers said they are not “anti-vaxxers” or against any procedure they believe to be medically necessary, but they didn’t think the shot was in that category. They had agreed to sign a waiver confirming their wishes that the new baby — their fifth child — not receive vitamin K, based on their beliefs that God’s creation isn’t automatically deficient or flawed at birth.
But instead of offering them a form, the Boughers allege, the nurse announced she was reporting the couple to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and left the room with the newborn. It would be about 12 hours before they got the child back, the couple said.
“I honestly could not understand what was going on,” Angela Bougher said through tears in a recent interview. “I was in total shock. I’ve never not had my baby right away.”
The episode was the result of a controversial DCFS policy that classified parents’ refusal of their newborn’s vitamin K shot as medical neglect, a move that thrust the agency into a contentious debate over the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s care. The policy was rescinded a year ago as agency leaders sought to ensure that DCFS wasn’t “overstepping the boundaries” of state law and determined the shots should not be classified as medically necessary.
“Making that kind of determination falls outside the confines of our statutory and professional mission and judgment,” Beverly “BJ” Walker, then DCFS’ acting director, wrote in an August 2018 memo rescinding the policy. Of 138 families investigated because of vitamin K refusals, officials found evidence of medical neglect in just seven cases, the memo said.
On Monday, the Boughers and several other parents filed a sweeping federal lawsuit accusing the agency, its current and former leaders, a number of doctors and three hospitals of violating their constitutional rights just after the births of their children. Hours that should have been filled with happiness and family photos were instead filled with uncertainty, they said, as children were temporarily taken into protective custody, DCFS caseworkers were called and the parents were made to feel like criminals.
The lawsuit contends DCFS and medical staff broke state and federal law by improperly seizing newborns or threatening to do so, said Richard Dvorak a lawyer for the families. It alleges that doctors continued to coerce parents, citing the inevitability of DCFS intervention, even though they knew the policy had been rescinded. The families said they were traumatized by their experiences and are seeking monetary damages and a stop to the practice once and for all.
The hospitals listed in the lawsuit are University of Chicago Medical Center, Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. The hospitals each declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Tennessee high school students defend prayer before football games after atheist group complains
Fox – Tenessee students at Rockvale High School called an audible to save a longstanding team prayer tradition after an atheist group tried to shut it down.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a complaint with Rutherford County Board of Education on Aug. 30 against Coach Rick Rice, who admitted to the school principal that he had led two prayers since starting his coaching job this fall, FOX 17 reports.

Economy & Business

PUMP:  Fed Adds $110.1 Billion to Financial System in Latest Transaction
WSJ – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York added $110.1 billion to the financial system Thursday, using the market for repurchase agreements, or repo, to relieve funding pressure in money markets.
In the repo market, borrowers seeking cash offer lenders collateral in the form of safe securities—frequently Treasury bonds—in exchange for a short-term loan. The term of these loans can be as short as overnight.
Shares slip as U.S. political concerns temper trade optimism
Reuters – World shares erased losses on Friday, buoyed by a wave of optimism that U.S.-China trade tensions might be easing as markets largely brushed off concerns about possible impeachment moves against U.S. President Donald Trump.
There’s No End In Sight For The “Retail Apocalypse”
SHFTPlan – The massive wave of store closures and layoffs in the retail sector has gotten so bad this year, it’s been dubbed the “retail apocalypse.” But not only is it causing problems in the economy, Goldman Sachs thinks it is still likely to get much worse.
“Our REITs team does not expect a near-term reversal of store closures from retail tenants, which should continue to result in eCommerce share gains, in our view,” says Goldman Sachs analyst Heath Terry in a new research note to clients on Tuesday, according to a report by Yahoo Finance.
This information for investors was buried on page 10 of Terry’s report, however, several analysts feel that it should be a top concern because store closures are no longer doing the trick to shore up the retail space’s profitability as in years’ past. Instead, the argument could be made store closures are only pushing more people to shopping on desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones —which is usually a less profitable transaction for retailers due to free shipping costs and investments in building out digital capabilities.
But the retail apocalypse cannot be blamed solely on the rise of digital shopping.  Companies are going bankrupt at breakneck speeds because they are unable to pay back the massive amount of debt they’ve taken on.
There are already 11,000 store closures this year, exceeding the annual number of the past several years, according to Terry. CoreSight Research, which is cited by Terry, projects the retail store closure number to reach 12,000 by year-end.
“We believe eCommerce growth will likely accelerate over the course of the second half as a record number of retail store closures, initiatives around fulfillment such as Amazon’s $800 million investment in same-day delivery and Etsy’s move to free shipping, and easing comps, drive more consumers to shift purchases online,” Terry writes.
The other problem retail is facing is the lack of disposable income in most households in the United States.  With 25% of Americans putting necessities, such as food, on credit cards, there’s little left over for the luxury of “retail therapy.” Another glaring statistic is that 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck as well and as the costs of goods and services continue to rise, the incomes of most households do not.

Energy & Environment

Hurricane Lorenzo Is The Strongest Hurricane On Record In The Eastern Atlantic Ocean
Forbes – Hurricane Lorenzo is a powerful category four storm this evening, packing maximum winds of 145 MPH far out in the Atlantic Ocean. Lorenzo joins the heap of storms we’ve seen in the last couple of years to break some sort of a record—this time, it’s the most intense hurricane ever recorded so far east in the Atlantic. While it’s no immediate threat to land, the hurricane may pose a threat to the Azores Islands by next week.
Lorenzo is darn impressive on satellite imagery tonight. The storm has a thick core surrounding a big, clear eye. The latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center indicates that the hurricane is at or near its peak intensity, and Lorenzo should soon start to lose atmospheric support and begin to slowly weaken over the next five days.
Meteorologists have never recorded such a strong hurricane so far east in the Atlantic Ocean. Lorenzo’s minimum central pressure of 939 mb is the lowest on record this far east, according to hurricane expert Philip Klotzbach. The hurricane’s maximum winds, which clocked in at 145 MPH on Thursday night, were also a record for so far east in the Atlantic. The last storm to reach 145 MPH in this vicinity was 1988’s Hurricane Helene, which didn’t achieve its peak intensity until it was 400 miles to the west of Lorenzo’s current position.

Science & Technology

Amazon to Install Microphones Into Rings and Glasses — They Aren’t Even The First
Activist Post  – Wearable tech has become very common and oh so fashionable.  But like all wireless “smart” devices, these products also collect personal data on owners 24/7.  Many companies analyze this personal data so they can try to sell more products to these customers.  Sometimes they sell the data to 3rd parties to do God knows what with.  This is referred to as “Surveillance Capitalism.”
Even if you don’t care about your privacy, these devices seem to be fairly easy to hack and that has led to some pretty scary situations being reported in the news.  Do you ever wonder how many people who wear this stuff realize they are being spied on – let alone fried by all the Electromagnetic Radiation being emitted them.
Now there are even more products available for them to buy.  From TechCrunch:
The first of these new products is Echo Frames. These are Alexa-enabled glasses, though, unlike Google Glass, there’s no camera and no display, just microphones and a speaker.
The second is the Echo Loop, a rather large Alexa-enabled ring with two built-in microphones and, of course, a tiny speaker. Both of these will be available on an invite-only basis and in limited volumes later this year.
The frames will retail for $179.99 and the Loop will cost $129.99 for the introduction period.
The glasses, which will sell without any prescription lenses (though you can add those if you want), weigh in at 31 grams. They aren’t especially stylish, though they look pretty acceptable.
The ring is maybe the oddest product Amazon demoed at its event today. It’s pretty large and I can’t quite see people talking into their rings and then listening to what Alexa has to say in response, but I could be wrong. Maybe it’s the next big thing.
“Paired with your phone, this ring lets you access information throughout the day,” Amazon writes. “It’s super easy to connect with Alexa without breaking stride or digging out your phone, for those simple things like turning on the lights or calculating the tip on your lunch bill. Simply press a button, talk softly to Alexa, and then the answer comes discretely through a small speaker built into the ring.”
With all things wireless, there’s also the potential for fires and explosions which has happened with some wearable devices already.
Researchers Uncover Privacy Flaw in E-Passports
Eureka ALert – Researchers at the University of Luxembourg have discovered a flaw in the security standard used in biometric passports (e-passports) worldwide since 2004. This standard, ICAO 9303, allows e-passport readers at airports to scan the chip inside a passport and identify the holder.
Most passports today use the standard ICAO 9303, which is issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The standard is designed to ensure that the privacy and unlinkability of the passport holder is protected to the highest degree. Unlinkability ensures that an attacker could not distinguish if two elements are closely related.
Dr. Ross Horne, Prof. Sjouke Mauw, PhD candidate Zach Smith and Master student Ihor Filimonov tested the standard. They discovered a flaw which allows specific non-authorised equipment to access passport data. “With the right device, you can scan passports in close vicinity and reidentify previously observed passport holders, keeping track of their movements”, Dr. Horne explains. “Thus, passport holders are not protected against having their movements traced by an unauthorized observer.”
Limits and implications of the flaw
An unauthorised device scanning a passport within several meters can identify and keep track of that passport, even though it cannot read the passport. Thus, the privacy of the passport holder are vulnerable to potential attacks, even though the flaw does not allow attackers to read all information from a given passport or to compromise biometric information stored in a chip inside the passport.
“As most passports today use the same standard, this security flaw potentially has global impact,” continues Dr Horne. In Europe, such a security breach likely violates requirements from the EU data protection framework. Governments have the responsibility to protect individual privacy and to ensure that official documents are bulletproof against such attacks.
The team of researchers shared their test results with ICAO in June 2019. They also outlined several approaches for restoring privacy protection, based on the assumption that the manufacturers of e-passport readers must take responsibility for ensuring privacy protection of passport holders.
NASA’s planet hunter has found a ‘star-shredding’ black hole
Fox – A ‘star-shredding’ black hole has been spotted for the first time by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
“TESS data let us see exactly when this destructive event, named ASASSN-19bt, started to get brighter, which we’ve never been able to do before,” said Thomas Holoien, a Carnegie Fellow at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement.
The black hole that generated ASASSN-19bt is at the center of a galaxy located 375-million light-years away. A light-year, which measures distance in space, equals 6 trillion miles.
The research is published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Health

Now in Effect: Ohio Law Legalizes CBD Despite Ongoing Federal Prohibition
NaturalBlaze – A law legalizing the sale of CBD in the state is now in full effect. This will not only open up markets in Ohio; it also takes a crucial step given the FDA’s continued regulation and prohibition of CBD.
A large bipartisan coalition of senators and representatives sponsored House Bill 57 (SB57). The new law creates a licensing program for the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp. It also legalizes the possession and sale of hemp products, including cannabidiol and food products containing CBD. Under the law, “the addition of hemp or a hemp product to any other product does not adulterate that other product.”
Last summer, Ohio Pharmacy Board guidance classified CBD as a banned substance in Ohio and held that the sale of CBD products was only allowed through the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries. Some stores in the state pulled CBD products from their shelves, although many defied the board’s ruling and continued sales. Enactment of SB57 paves the way for legal over-the-counter retail sales of CBD and cannabidiol-infused products.
The Senate passed SB57 30-0. The House approved an amended version 89-3. The Senate concurred with the amendments on July 17. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill into law on July 30. Many provisions went into immediate effect and other provisions went into effect on Sept. 20.
The explicit legalization of CBD and cannabidiol was crucial, not only to overturn the Ohio Pharmacy Board’s ruling, but also because despite removing the plant from the list of controlled substances late last year, the federal government still prohibits the sale of CBD products under FDA rules.
Beware of ‘Microplastics’ in Your Tea
Newsmax – A new study warns that even your soothing cup of tea might serve up some invisible health hazards.
Some tea companies are replacing traditional paper teabags with plastic ones, but the new bags may be adding billions of tiny bits of plastic to your beverage, a team from Canada reports.
“We show that steeping a single plastic teabag at brewing temperature (205 F) releases approximately 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics into a single cup of the beverage,” concluded a team led by Nathalie Tufenkji, professor of chemical engineering at McGill University in Montreal.
In the new study, the Montreal team noted that the heat of brewed tea can cause plastic tea bags to break down into bits of plastic that are thousands of times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. That means you can’t see, taste, or feel them in your mouth.

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