Archived threads in /news/ - Current News - 15. page

File: 22DC-MNUCHIN-diptych-master675[1].jpg (98KB, 675x473px) Image search: [Google]

98KB, 675x473px

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/us/politics/mnuchin-louise-linton-treasury-instagram.html?ribbon-ad-idx=6&rref=politics&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Politics&pgtype=article

WASHINGTON — The wife of the Treasury secretary on Monday night took a page from President Trump’s social media playbook for punching down.

Louise Linton, the labels-loving wife of Steven Mnuchin, replied condescendingly to an Instagram poster about her lifestyle and belittled the woman, Jenni Miller, a mother of three from Portland, Ore., for having less money than she does.

The brouhaha began when Ms. Linton posted a photograph of herself disembarking a military jet emblazoned with official government markings. She had joined her husband on a quick trip to Kentucky with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.

“Great #daytrip to #Kentucky!” Ms. Linton, 36, wrote under the photograph. She then added hashtags for various pieces of her expensive wardrobe, listing #rolandmouret, #hermesscarf, #tomford and #valentino.

File: korean_fun.jpg (76KB, 740x462px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 740x462px

North Korea has released a statement saying that they will not fire missiles near the US Territory of Guam at this time, and instead will wait.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/15/543603140/north-korea-says-it-wont-fire-missiles-at-guam-after-all

File: 4958.jpg (273KB, 1920x1152px) Image search: [Google]

273KB, 1920x1152px

Digital security researchers say malware attack that spread from Ukraine appeared to be focused on damaging IT systems

A ransomware attack that affected at least 2,000 individuals and organisations worldwide on Tuesday appears to have been deliberately engineered to damage IT systems rather than extort funds, according to security researchers.

The attack began in Ukraine, and spread through a hacked Ukrainian accountancy software developer to companies in Russia, western Europe and the US. The software demanded payment of $300 (£230) to restore the user’s files and settings.

The malware’s advanced intrusion techniques were in stark contrast with its rudimentary payment infrastructure, according to a pseudonymous security researcher known as “the grugq”.

The researcher said the software was “definitely not designed to make money” but “to spread fast and cause damage, [using the] plausibly deniable cover of ‘ransomware’”.

This analysis was supported by UC Berkley academic Nicholas Weaver, who told the infosec blog Krebs on Security: “I’m willing to say with at least moderate confidence that this was a deliberate, malicious, destructive attack or perhaps a test disguised as ransomware.”

>The NotPetya malware is so-called because while it shares code with an earlier ransomware strain called Petya, it is “a new ransomware that has not been seen before”, according to security researchers at Kaspersky Lab. It requires infected users to send $300 in the cryptocurrency bitcoin to a payment address that appears hardcoded into the software.

>The address for sending the payment and a 60-character, case-sensitive “personal installation key”, are only presented in text on the ransom screen, and require a confirmation email to be sent to an address hosted by the German email provider Posteo.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/28/notpetya-ransomware-attack-ukraine-russia

File: 1480160519841.jpg (63KB, 800x570px) Image search: [Google]

63KB, 800x570px

http://www.trunews.com/article/scientist-kim-jong-un-could-trigger-volcanic-eruption

In North Korea, Mt. Paektu is a very big piece of the national mythology, but in reality, it’s a supervolcano capable of causing catastrophic damage to a very large area, according to a scientist who studies volcanoes. Such an eruption could lead to thousands of deaths, widespread agricultural collapse, and famine the likes of which the region has never seen—which, for North Korea, is saying something. In an op-ed for Forbes, volcanologist Robin Andrews wrote that all it could take to trigger such a calamity is a nuclear test detonation:

>According to a separate study conducted over the last couple of years, the country’s underground weapons tests are sending powerful pressure waves towards Paektu’s massive magma chamber. This pressure is essentially being transferred to the magma, and at a certain point, it could cause the rock surrounding the partly liquid doom to crack, and thereby trigger an eruption.

Andrews writes that past North Korean nuclear tests have been of yields around kilotons, or roughly half the size of the atomic bomb that destroyed Nagasaki at the end of World War II. However, should a test of a more complex hydrogen bomb be conducted at the Punggye-ri test site, the resulting pressure waves would be more than enough to trigger an eruption. He noted that Mt. Paektu’s last eruption in 1903 was relatively minor, but in 946, it unleashed an eruption that has not been observed by modern science:

>Known as the Millennium Eruption, it unleashed 100 cubic kilometres of volcanic debris, smothered the surrounding landscape in pyroclastic flows, and unleashed 1,000 times more energy than the famous 1980 eruption at Mount St. Helens.

While a repeat 946 eruption isn’t guaranteed, the distinct possibility is something all sides should consider, Andrews added.

File: 5-year-old-francisco-manosca-son.jpg (64KB, 768x432px) Image search: [Google]

64KB, 768x432px

A horrifying image of a schoolboy being dragged to a violent death in a dirty alleyway has galvanised the Philippines against a brutal state-led war on drugs that has killed over 12,500 people in the last year.

>For a nation now largely immune to the bloodied corpses of alleged small time drugs users and dealers dumped on the streets, the graphic reports of the final moments of Kian Delos Santos, 17, who was allegedly shot three times by undercover police officers, have been too much to bear.

>His killing last week has united the public, senior politicians and the Catholic Church into the most significant sweep of mass protests since President Rodrigo Duterte pushed for a savage crackdown on drugs after his election last June.

>Most of the 12,500 casualties have been killed by masked assassins. An estimated 3,500 have been killed in police shoot-outs, which officers often claim were self-defence.

>In the case of Delos Santos, the police initially claimed he had fired first.

>But their story was contradicted by witnesses and CCTV footage that showed the teenager being dragged down alleyways into a dead-end corner where he was asked to run with a gun, and shot when he did.

>He was heard screaming “Please can I go home, I have school tomorrow.”

>Delos Santos is one of 81 people killed last week during mass police raids in what was the bloodiest period of the drugs war so far. His bullet-ridden, semi-naked body was found in a foetal position with a gun in his hand.

>Speaking to Rappler news, his parents, Saldy and Lorenza, said he was a well-behaved teenager who loved watching YouTube and who helped with the family shop. His only vice was eating cheese-flavoured crisps.

>On the night he died, his father gave him a prescient warning to come home early. “You know how it is on our street, it could be dangerous,” Saldy said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/duterte-faces-nationwide-revolt-over-111435072.html

File: nintchdbpict0003450911271.jpg (93KB, 960x960px) Image search: [Google]

93KB, 960x960px

Rich Piana, a professional bodybuilder, is “alive and fighting for his life,” according to his fitness model girlfriend, Chanel Jansen. Piana was found unresponsive in his Florida home after falling and hitting his head, TMZ reported. Chanel attempted to give the 46-year-old bodybuilder CPR. When medical personnel arrived, they rushed Piana to the hospital. It was here that he was placed in a medically induced coma.

He revealed his fitness regime consists of a massive steroid cycle, nine meals a day, a series of workouts not fit for the average human being and, according to one profile, “protein shakes big enough to drown a toddler in”.

While there was no official report that Piana has overdosed, several publications have reported this as being the cause of his collapse, according to International Business Times. None have been officially verified.

Piana is open about his steroid use and once said it was necessary to compete in bodybuilding.

http://www.inquisitr.com/4426376/rich-piana-induced-coma-steroid-overdose-body-builder-chanel-jansen/

File: aetna.jpg (1MB, 3024x4032px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 3024x4032px

So there's a deep web link that lists celebrities linked to the Aetna HIV leak. Anyone have it? https://imgur.com/gallery/cSjJi

File: bernie2.jpg (688KB, 1200x800px) Image search: [Google]

688KB, 1200x800px

Riffing off a recent Elizabeth Warren speech, David Atkins says that Democrats can easily stop their internal bickering. There is, he says, “no contradiction between winning back some of the white working class that defected to Trump, and achieving social justice on the issues of importance to Black Lives Matter activists.” We just have to take everyone’s concerns seriously:
The war within the left is based on false choices and straw men. There is no need for conflict if both sides are acting in good faith. Leftists who dismiss “identity politics” as an irrelevant distraction need to be sidelined, as they are not dependable allies of the Democratic Party’s true base. Center-leftists who eschew economic populism and worker empowerment in defense of the Wall Street-dependent donor class in the dream of an identity-blind faux meritocracy of oppression must also be sidelined.
….If Democrats listen to Warren, they can quickly and easily bury the hatchet, advance in unity toward common goals, and win back power at the state and federal level. Hopefully her advice didn’t go entirely unnoticed.
If it were really that easy, I think this whole problem would have been solved a long time ago. Unfortunately, there are still moderate lefties out there who Democrats need to win—not to mention moderate moderates who they also need. These are the kind of people who are OK with increased regulation of banks, but not with a full-bore Bernie assault on the entire financial system. Likewise, there are moderates who support social justice campaigns, but think that Black Lives Matter goes too far. If the answer is to boot everyone like this out of the Democratic Party, it’s going to be a pretty small party that’s left over.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/08/theres-no-simple-way-to-unite-the-democratic-party/

File: 1486227966163.jpg (140KB, 1024x764px) Image search: [Google]

140KB, 1024x764px

Amonument in Baltimore to Christopher Columbus — believed to be the first one erected to the Italian explorer in America — was vandalized.
Baltimore Police said they were looking into the incident, but couldn’t say when the damage took place.
A video posted to YouTube on Monday by a user named “Popular Resistance” shows a man striking the base of the monument near Herring Run Park repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Another person holds a sign that reads: “Racism, tear it down.” Another sign is taped to the monument reading: “The future is racial and economic justice.”
Police are searching for information about the men in the video, as well as whoever filmed it.
“We want to inform people it is a crime to destroy property. And if the person is identified who is responsible for this, they will be prosecuted,” said police spokesman T.J. Smith.
The narrator of the video, who says his name is Ty, calls Christopher Columbus a “genocidal terrorist.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-columbus-monument-20170821-story.html

File: Columbus-Monument-1280x720.jpg (39KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 1280x720px

http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/21/vandals-smash-up-oldest-christopher-columbus-monument-in-nation-video/
KERRY PICKET
08/21/2017

Vandals Smash Up Oldest Christopher Columbus Monument In Nation [VIDEO]

Vandals smashed a 225-year old monument to Christopher Columbus in Baltimore
early Monday morning. The edifice is documented as the oldeststill standing in the
nation dedicated to the explorer, the Baltimore Brew first reported.

The monument is located directly across the street from Herring Run Park, northeast
ofLake Montebello. It was built by Frenchman Chevalier d’Anemours, or d’Anmour,
at Belmont, his 50-acre estate near Harford Road and North Avenue.

According to Baltimore Brew, an online video shows an individual smashing the base,
which contained the inscription: Sacred to the Memory of Chris. Columbus Oct. XII
MDCC VIIIC. The vandals destroyed nearly all the text on the base of the 44-foot-tall
obelisk.

The vandal left a sign by the destruction, saying “Racism: Tear it down,” and another
sign saying “The future is racial and economic justice.”

The vandalism comes in the wake of Baltimore authorities tearing down monuments
of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee last week after violent events, focused on
the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia occurred.

File: 1496343804026.jpg (220KB, 1117x760px) Image search: [Google]

220KB, 1117x760px

Speaking at a press event at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., President Trump offered a stern warning to the rogue dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, saying that he "best not make any more threats to the United States" or they "will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."

"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."
"He has been very threatening beyond a normal statement. And, as I said, they will be met with fire, fury, and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/trump-vows-fire-and-fury-if-north-korea-keeps-threatening-u-s

File: DGaoMZMUMAAQqod.jpg (83KB, 749x902px) Image search: [Google]

83KB, 749x902px

There are men who wish to become eunuchs in the classical definition. For them, removing the entire penis and testicles can be a remarkably fulfilling, relieving experience, even though they may still identify as male and use male pronouns. In their online enclaves, such people sometimes identify as "eunuchs," "nullos," or "smoothies." In the medical literature, they are referred to as male-to-eunuchs, suffering from their own unique form of gender dysphoria.

Some of them journal their experiences in online forums, asking others around the world where they can go to have their penis and testicles totally removed, or plaintively debating historical research about the iconic eunuchs of China who inhabited the Forbidden City and served the Emperor with great influence and esteem.

http://archive.is/nWR52

A study by Thomas W. Johnson and Michael S. Irwig explored "the hidden world of self-castration and testicular self-injury," shedding light on the methods that people seeking castration resort to when they don't have access to professional surgical care. Though Johnson and Irwig wrote exclusively on castration, and not penectomy, their analysis of medical data on eunuchs is relevant to the broader group of men who seek these procedures.

The researchers define eunuchs as "biological males who have undergone voluntary castration for reasons other than male-to-female transsexualism," explaining that the taboo nature of these procedures lead "eunuch–wannabes" to "resort to self castration, castration by non-medical professionals, or self-inflicted testicular damage via injections of toxic substances." Because there are so few physicians willing to perform elective penectomies, "eunuch-wannabes" are forced to do it themselves, sometimes using cattle clamps and rings to aid their excision, or to try and find someone else will will perform the procedure for them.

File: NO_FILE_GIVEN (0B, 0x0pxpx)

0B, 0x0pxpx

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41036551

The UK is infamous for the most intrusive privacy laws, how will this effect both entities?... lol titties, discuss

File: whoa.jpg (77KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

77KB, 1920x1080px

The National Infrastructure Advisory Council is made up of presidential appointees from the private sector, academia and government, and was originally founded in 2001 under then-President George W. Bush. It advises the president on security, including cybersecurity, for critical infrastructure like water systems. There are now only 20 members listed on the council’s website, down from 27 earlier today.

The Trump administration has not shown itself to be “adequately attentive to the pressing national security matters within the NIAC’s purview, or responsive to sound advice,” the resigning council members wrote.

They also said the president has “given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend, including those impacting the systems supporting our democratic election process.”

This is only the latest White House council to lose members in the wake of Trump’s Charlottesville response. Multiple high-profile business leaders on two White House advisory boards resigned to protest his remarks, prompting Trump to officially disband the councils. Every member of the White House arts committee resigned. Trump ended plans for another advisory council on infrastructure last week.

A science envoy for the State Department also sent a resignation letter to Trump on Wednesday that contained a not-so-subtle secret message: “IMPEACH.”

http://us.pressfrom.com/news/politics/-77511-infrastructure-advisers-quit-say-trump-s-actions-threaten-homeland-security/

File: NO_FILE_GIVEN (0B, 0x0pxpx)

0B, 0x0pxpx

After Trump's response to Charlottesville, UN says US leadership must 'unequivocally' condemn racist speech and crimes.

UN human rights experts have called on the United States and its leadership to "unequivocally and unconditionally" condemn racist speech and crimes, warning that a failure to do so could fuel further violent incidents.
THE LISTENING POST - Charlottesville, Trump and the media

The rare "early warning and urgent action" statement, which is reserved for serious situations, was issued by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Wednesday.

It stopped short of criticising US President Donald Trump by name.

The US president has been under constant condemnation after he blamed "both sides" for violence that broke out at a rally, organised by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month.

At the rally, 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed after James Alex Fields, a man linked to white supremacists, rammed his car into a group of anti-racist protesters.

CERD said it was "disturbed by the failure at the highest political level" of the US to reject racist demonstrations.

That failure could lead to "fuelling the proliferation of racist discourse and incidents" in the United States, the statement said.

"We are alarmed by the racist demonstrations, with overtly racist slogans, chants and salutes by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan, promoting white supremacy and inciting racial discrimination and hatred," Anastasia Crickley, who chairs the UN panel, added.

The UN experts said the alleged perpetrators of the violence should be prosecuted and, if convicted, punished with sanctions commensurate with the gravity of the crime.

continued on http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/issues-rare-warning-alarming-racism-170823225952827.html