News Burst - 9 October 2024
>> The super-powerful Hurricane Milton, approaching the American state of Florida, may reach the strength of the not yet existing category six, which experts insist on the need to introduce, Newsweek reports, citing a study by climatologists.
>> The only way out is through. “Only on the brink do people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve.” The tribulation represents our last chance to awaken spiritually before we Shift. Pleiadians say it will be darkest just before everything changes instantly. ~ Kabamur Taygeta
>> Emmanuel Macron had worked as an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque between 2008 and 2012. Recruited at the end of 2008, Macron was promoted to a partner with the bank in 2010. Macron earned about €2.9 million while working for the Rothschilds, according to Financial Times. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been nicknamed a “president of the rich,” has given a nod to tax increases on wealthy individuals and big companies. The New York Times says the president “has vociferously opposed tax increases,” but French PM Michel Barnier said there is no other choice for solving France’s widening budget deficit problem. During his 2017 presidential campaign Macron was castigated as the “candidate of finance”. He ran as an independent candidate with a newly assembled party, but managed to quickly raise €13 million. The funds were primarily sourced from a powerful network of bankers, financiers and businessmen, according to Mediapart, an independent French investigative media. French laws allowed the Macron campaign to keep the list of his donors on the hush.
>> As part of the renewed interest, 10x Research has published a report revisiting two leading theories: one pointing to cryptographer Nick Szabo and the other suggesting involvement by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). Both theories are part of a larger debate that has attracted renewed interest with the upcoming documentary investigating the origins of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
>> The Brookings Institution believes it has found a way to solve the problem faced by those who would like to censor memes. The trouble is that memes are a form of satire and to censor them while claiming to be a democracy would be hypocritical at best. Political satire has been protected in the English speaking world long before the founding of the United States. InfoWars reports: But now, senior Brookings Institution fellow Nicol Turner Lee and Isabella Panico Hernandez, a project assistant, have revealed their thinking: AI memes should be treated as election disinformation “manifested” through satire. One could use a similar form of mental gymnastics to say that this kind of argument represents a call for censorship manifested through supposed concern about disinformation.
>> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un once again reiterated the threat to use nuclear weapons against South Korea and the United States, if attacked, state news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday. Speaking at a defense university named after him on Monday, Kim also announced plans to accelerate North Korea’s military growth, including its nuclear capabilities. This comes just days after the North Korean leader vowed to use nuclear weapons against South Korea “without hesitation” if his country’s sovereignty were threatened.
>> American Water Works Co. Inc, which is the largest supplier of drinking water in the United States, has said that its computer system has been hacked. The New Jersey based in New Jersey which supplies drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people, said hackers had breached its computer networks and systems. TGP reports: American Water Works is also on 18 US military installations. In an effort to protect our customers’ data and to prevent any further harm to our environment, we disconnected or deactivated certain systems. There will be no late charges for customers while these systems are unavailable,” an American Water spokesperson told CBS News. The company is “working around the clock to investigate the nature and scope of the incident,” the spokesperson added.
>> The story of Carmelo Miano, the italian hacker arrested in recent days who was able to penetrate prosecutors’ offices and companies, is still shrouded in mystery. They hunted him for years before they managed to stop him, while he continued to appear and disappear from one site to another, from an access door, from the login page of a portal. He had always managed to disappear, taking the stolen goods with him: millions of files, sensitive data and confidential information. Now Carmelo Miano is in prison. Yet his story continues to present dark sides. One above all: why did the hacker steal all that information? Is it possible that he acted, in addition to himself in obstructing the investigation concerning him, also on behalf of others? A “magician”, as the chief prosecutor of Naples Nicola Gratteri defined him, certainly. But he also embarrassed entire institutional and industrial apparatuses.
>> Russian authorities are compiling lists of names of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine, an unenviable fate awaits them, Yulia Zhdanova, acting head of the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, said in an interview. “Russian competent authorities are keeping the issue of foreign fighters’ participation in the terrorist attack [in the Kursk region] under close control, including compiling lists of names of fighters and recording their crimes. An unenviable fate awaits them. Many are being destroyed by Russian troops as legitimate military targets,” Zhdanova said. Since the beginning of the special operation, at least 785 mercenaries who took part in the fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had been brought to criminal responsibility, she added.
>> Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a cyber attack that targeted Russia state media company VGTRK and disrupted its operations, according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters. The incident took place on the night of October 7, VGTRK confirmed, describing it as an “unprecedented hacker attack.” However, it said “no significant damage” was caused and that everything was working normally despite attempts to interrupt radio and TV broadcasts. That said, Russian media outlet Gazeta.ru reported that the hackers wiped “everything” from the company’s servers, including backups, citing an anonymous source. The attack is believed to be the work of a pro-Ukrainian hacker group called Sudo rm-RF. The Russian government has since said an investigation into the attack is ongoing and that it “aligns with the anti-Russian agenda of the West.”
>> The Financial Times editorial board said in an op-ed published on Monday that there are secret talks allegedly mulling the idea of Ukraine giving up land that Russia gained in the conflict in exchange for Kiev being allowed to have certain NATO-like security guarantees. “There is talk behind closed doors of a deal in which Moscow retains de facto control over the roughly one-fifth of Ukraine it has occupied – though Russia’s sovereignty is not recognized – while the rest of the country is allowed to join NATO or given equivalent security guarantees,” the board said. Ukrainian officials have reportedly acknowledged in private that they lack the manpower, weapons and Western support to recover all territory seized by Russia in the conflict.
>> Pentagon/Department of Energy has control of hurricane Milton, one of the most powerful storms in history set to devastate Florida on Wednesday. Alex Jones has presented government documents proving that the U.S. government has had the power to completely control hurricanes since 1967.
>> This year’s World Space Week, which runs from October 4-10, celebrates what space and technology can offer us as we expand into space to harness the energy and worlds out there. Four technologies they might materialized. The time estimates aren’t necessarily a prediction of when they might happen, but are intended to give a rough idea of how much work still needs to be done on them: Space solar farms; Second half of the 21st century: Space elevators; Nuclear power on the Moon; Interstellar travel.
>> A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket snapped a pretty special in-space selfie on Monday (Oct. 7). The shot, captured during the launch of the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid-inspecting mission, shows a gorgeous blue Earth hanging in space beside the nozzle of the Falcon 9’s upper-stage Merlin engine. Earth looks smaller than it typically does in such launch photos.
