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A senior White House foreign policy official has pushed a plan to partition Libya, and once drew a picture of how the country could be divided into three areas on a napkin in a meeting with a senior European diplomat, the Guardian has learned.
Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Donald Trump under pressure over his past ties with Hungarian far-right groups, suggested the idea of partition in the weeks leading up to the US president's inauguration, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. The European diplomat responded that this would be "the worst solution" for Libya.
Gorka is vying for the job of presidential special envoy to Libya in a White House that has so far spent little time thinking about the country and has yet to decide whether to create such a post.
Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, seems to have gotten away with all her crimes against the American people. Of course, it was not just the American people she betrayed There are many around the world whose suffering has been revived by Clinton. When she and Obama toppled Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, they invited in a new modern day slavery.
On Tuesday, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) wrote an email to The Hill, pushing back against criticism of her criticism of President Donald Trump's missile strike in Syria.
The Hill chopped the headline down to "We Need to Learn From Iraq," even though what Gabbard actually said was, "We need to learn from Iraq and Libya," questioning not only President George W. Bush's policy in Iraq but the Obama administration's intervention in Syria.
The main thrust of Gabbard's email to The Hill is an argument against military intervention. She evidently used the email to lay it out in a clean and simple fashion.
"We need to learn from Iraq and Libya – wars that were propagated as necessary to relieve human suffering, but actually increased human suffering many times over," she wrote.
The NSC intelligence dossier "proving " Assad guilt can be accessed by googling ;" White house declassifies crucial information" it appears to be a rather childish cut and paste job using the fake 2013 Obama dossier as a template
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has a message for the liberals attacking her criticism of President Trump's missile strikes on Syria, warning that a rush to aggression risks repeating the same mistakes that led the United States into the Iraq War.
"We need to learn from Iraq and Libya –– wars that were propagated as necessary to relieve human suffering, but actually increased human suffering many times over," she said in an email to The Hill.
African migrants trying to reach Europe are being sold into slavery in Libya, including for sex, for as little as $200, international monitors said Tuesday, citing testimony from victims.
Like Afghanistan and Ukraine, Libya has been turned into a hell-hole by US intervention.
During the Libyan intervention and the Syrian civil war, the Western mainstream media has invented a whole new lingo to serve the agenda of political establishments. Although a voluminous encyclopedia can be written on how the corporate media employs subtle deceptions and diversionary tactics to mislead public opinion but in this short essay, I will only expose the hidden meanings of three phrases that have been used ad nauseam by the news media in the last few years: that are, humanitarian intervention, moderate rebels and terrorism.
More than 1 million migrants are 'in the pipeline' in Libya hoping to cross to Europe, a senior diplomat has warned.
Joseph Walker-Cousins, former head of the British Embassy Office in Benghazi, said refugees were massing in the war-torn country having fled conflict and poverty.
Criminal human trafficking gangs are raking in billions of pounds charging migrants large sums to be smuggled across the Mediterranean in flimsy dinghies and boats.
When asked about Trump attitudes toward war, MIT professor and renowned linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky told MintPress News that the idea that he was an anti-war candidate "was based on his criticisms of the Iraq and Libya attacks (which, contrary to his lies, he supported) and his ambiguous statements about reducing tensions with Russia – a good thing, if he meant it. But his actual policies are extremely dangerous."
"[This includes] the sharp increase in the military budget, the weakening of restrictions on drone strikes, and the wild charges about Iran," Chomsky said, adding that what really worries those who pay attention to these issues "is his megalomania and unpredictability…we know how someone who goes berserk over minor slights might react in a moment of crisis."
In a press briefing at the Pentagon today, African Command leader Gen. Thomas Waldhauser announced that the US intends to keep ground troops in Libya for the foreseeable future to support "friendly forces," and to "degrade" the ISIS forces that remain in the country.
Waldhauser did not specify how many US troops are in Libya now, or how many will stay, but did estimate that there were less than 200 ISIS fighters left in Libya. The US had announced the end of the anti-ISIS campaign in Libya back in December, but never fully withdrew from the country.
The US forces were in Libya trying to help the "unity" government defeat ISIS in the city of Sirte. US officials repeatedly claimed the city was totally surrounded, and that no ISIS fighters would get away, though when the fighting finally ended, a substantial number of ISIS fighters did in fact get away.
Translation: this is "military-speak" for the reality that the US government is never leaving Libya because of the oil and the oil pipelines.
After B-2 bombers struck an Islamic State training camp in Libya in January, killing more than 80 militants, American officials privately gloated. On the heels of losing its coastal stronghold in Surt the month before, the Islamic State seemed to be reeling.
But Western and African counterterrorism officials now say that while the twin blows dealt a setback to the terrorist group in Libya — once feared as the Islamic State's most lethal branch outside Iraq and Syria — its leaders are already regrouping, exploiting the chaos and political vacuum gripping the country.
Oh look! We must invade Libya ... again!
Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB) has issued a statement reassuring that it is still holding firm onto the positions it has seized in the vicinity of the area it has located itself at after handing over the oil terminals to the Petroleum Facilities Guard of the UN-proposed government and after it had withdrawn to save the lives of its fighters as well as the oil depots at the terminals.
"We are now positioned at an area away from the ports, which were bombed by Egyptian aircraft that were sent to bomb Libyan resources in support of Haftar." The statement adds.
Artillery exchanges rocked the Libyan capital for a third day on Wednesday after forces loyal to the UN-backed government stormed the headquarters of a rival militia overnight, witnesses said.
"UN-backed government" = Puppet rulers.
By Brandon Turbeville
Emerging reports from Western mainstream outlets are now provoking a flurry of accusations and denials from Western, Russian, and African states regarding the allegation that Russia has deployed Special Forces troops to Western Egypt in support of one of the Libyan factions vying for control of the country.
The initial reports came on March 14 from Reuters, citing diplomatic sources from both the U.S. and Egypt. These alleged officials are claiming that any Russian deployment is likely part of an attempt to support Khalif Haftar, the Libyan militia commander who was dealt a blow by an attack on March 3 by the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB) on oil ports that his forces controlled...
Russia appears to have deployed special forces to an airbase in western Egypt near the border with Libya in recent days, U.S., Egyptian and diplomatic sources say, a move that would add to U.S. concerns about Moscow's deepening role in Libya.
The U.S. and diplomatic officials said any such Russian deployment might be part of a bid to support Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar, who suffered a setback with an attack on March 3 by the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB) on oil ports controlled by his forces.
The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States has observed what appeared to be Russian special operations forces and drones at Sidi Barrani, about 60 miles (100 km) from the Egypt-Libya border.
More demonization of Russia, I see; notice the weasel wording, and the absolute lack of validation that such a thing had actually happened.
But given its stellar success in driving the jihadis from Syria Russia has had, and the utter chaos in which the US left Libya after having had Qaddafi assassinated, I have to wonder if a Russian military presence in Libya might, possibly, have a calming effect on the country.
The best part, Hillary holds fast to her claim, even as new batches of emails are recovered. Emails, that were not included in her alleged "complete" batch, she'd originally turned over.
Now, 30 emails that had been previously wiped off the face of the earth, were recovered. Unfortunately for Hillary, they were related to Benghazi, but she knew that didn't she?
FBI investigators recovered 30 emails from Hillary Clinton's wiped server which discussed Benghazi, government lawyers said in federal court on Tuesday.
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, in his own words: "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." The quote comes from page 261 of the paperback edition of "The Audacity of Hope.
Change has come to the USA. Welcome to the Bizarre and Surreal World of fundamental change brought to you by the president
Libyan politicians have been frequenting Moscow. According to media reports, the Libyan Prime Minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, is supposed to hold a number of meetings in the Russian capital. The aim of the negotiations is attempting to, under the Kremlin's mediation, regulate the conflict between the Libyan government, army, and parliament which has split the country into two.
As the British newspaper The Times writes, the government of Italy appealed to Moscow to play the role of mediator. Rome is extremely interested in solving the migration crisis in Libya, from where a wave of refugees from North Africa goes through the Apennine Peninsula. In autumn of last year, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi even threatened to block the adoption of the EU budget if the refugee problem was not resolved.
In this analysis we examine Libya's recent history looking through the eyes of the Guardian, the flagship of liberal western outlets, and its reporting. As with most other western media, the Guardian was an enthusiastic supporter of the NATO intervention that overthrew Gaddafi and threw the country into the disaster that we are about to describe. Faithful to western interests then, the Guardian remains faithful afterwards as well. But imperial designs are laden with contradictions and sometimes drastically change course, but the Guardian dutifully follows. More interestingly, in light of the complex Libyan situation, the Guardian resorts to labels, adjectives, to distinguish the "good" (i.e. western-supported) actors from the "bad" ones. And as western powers stumble from one strategy to the next, these labels change accordingly.
"The reason so many are fleeing places such as Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq is that U.S. and European interventionist foreign policy has left these countries destabilized with no hopes of economic recovery,"explainedformer congressman and three-time presidential contender Ron Paul, a leading voice for a constitutional, non-interventionist U.S. foreign policy. "This mass migration from the Middle East and beyond is a direct result of the neocon foreign policy of regime change, invasion, and pushing 'democracy' at the barrel of a gun."
"Contrary to what one might expect, U.S. military aid doesn't produce willing, cooperative, or effective security partners. Instead, it incentivizes bad behavior and drives the sources of terrorism: corruption, violence, and poor governance. Unwittingly, this policy is creating its own enemies," writes Jeremy Ravinsky.
If this is to be the new NATO for the Middle East then the world is truly about to descend into barbarism on a scale not seen since the Second World War.
As US President Donald Trump hosts Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House this week on the agenda is the formation of a "NATO-style" alliance for the Middle East, according to reports.
As if one US-led warmongering alliance in Europe and the North Atlantic were not enough. Now the world will see a clone of NATO let loose on the already conflict-torn Middle East region, if the reported discussions materialize.
Full Video: Watch President Trump's First Solo Press Conference
The efforts to form parallel military forces in Libya that could hinder the implementation of the country's peace process are a cause of concern, Kobler said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Attempts to create parallel bodies and obstruct the implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) will generate further disorder and insecurity," Kobler stated.
Judicial Watch today released 54 pages of new State Department documents, including a transcript of a September 12 2012, telephone conference call with congressional staffers in which then-Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy admitted that the deadly terrorist assault on the Benghazi Consulate was not "under cover of protest," but was, in fact, "a direct breaching attack."
Patricia Smith has one hell of a defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton.
Much like Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS) is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter Iran's growing influence in the region.
The fact that the United States has a long and torrid history of backing terrorist groups will surprise only those who watch the news and ignore history.
According to four-star General Wesley Clark, shortly after the attacks of 9/11, the Pentagon adopted a plan to topple the governments of seven countries; Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.
According to Reuters, Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order that would include a temporary refugee ban and a suspension of visas for citizens of Syria and six other Middle Eastern and African countries.
The list is expected to include Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. If those countries are starting to sound familiar, there's a reason for that.
The more I look at the first actions of the Trump presidency, the more I am terrifyingly convinced that the real winner of last November's election was the power-hungry, money mad, and deeply psychotic, American Deep State.
The hard, inescapable reality here is that the American Deep State is all about expropriating resources from countries to which it has no moral right; insuring those countries are run by US/Western-centric governments; and insuring that those resources are only sold for the US dollar.
The blood and money spent is of no consequence to those people running the American deep state, as long as their financial/geopolitical objectives are obtained.
And those American military killed or maimed for life in the process of achieving their financial goals?!? Merely collateral damage, for the sake of private corporate profit.
Of course, politicians cannot possibly say that to grieving families and friends of those killed or maimed; they are assured with such nostrums as "They died to protect this country and the American way of life."
No; these military died and were maimed for life to protect and enrich private corporate profit.
That is simply the bottom line here.
LIBYA today laid down the gauntlet to Brussels chiefs by demanding a series of bumper aid payouts in return for helping to prevent a fresh migrant crisis which would severely damage the EU.
What? So there was a Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015 two years before Trump? There was a kind of "Muslim ban" before the Muslim ban? But almost no one critiqued it in 2015 because it was Obama's administration overseeing it.
So for more than a year it has been US policy to discriminate against, target and even begin to ban people from the seven countries that Trump is accused of banning immigrants and visitors from. CNN even hinted at this by noting "those countries were named in a 2016 law concerning immigration visas as 'countries of concern.'" But why didn't CNN note that the seven countries were not named and that in fact they are only on the list because of Obama's policy?
We are not dealing with "widgets" here, but with people
These Refugee/Immigration Executive Orders appear to be knee-jerk, fear-based, and xenophobic acts of reflexive anger and emotional "lashing out," rather than well-thought out policy and heavily researched executive action.
The last few Executive Orders pertaining to Refugees and Immigration appear to not have been very well thought through, and the etiology/genesis of the refugee crisis and immigration issues were either completely ignored, or Trump and his administration don't understand it very well.
"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none" - Thomas Jefferson
It is unfortunately incumbent upon the new administration to also pay the proverbial bill, and to fix and rectify the mistakes of the past.
It would be altogether grossly irresponsible and cruel to now leave the entire world in smoke and shambles, burning embers of once great civilizations that have often existed for thousands of years uninterrupted and unmolested.
Place your bets on who will be the major partner in the Trump, Kissinger and Ma law firm.
Kissinger has drafted a plan to officially recognize Crimea as part of Russia and lift the Obama administration's economic sanctions.
The plan fits into Kissinger's overall strategy — call it a traditional British Balance of Power, or Divide and Rule, approach — of breaking up the Eurasian front (Russia-China-Iran) that constitutes the real "threat" to what Mattis defines as the "established world order."
Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has broken free of the corporate media's narrative by accusing the United States of funding and arming terror groups al-Qaeda and ISIS.
"If you or I gave money, weapons or support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail," Gabbard tweeted on Saturday.
A self-declared prime minister sidelined by Libya's UN-backed government tried to seize the defense ministry and other state offices on Thursday, but a government spokesman said the attempt to capture the buildings by force had failed.
Note the spin here. The Prime Minister was not "self-declared" but was from the last government the people of Libya elected for themselves. The UN-backed government is an imposed puppet ruler, and nobody likes their country to be run by people they did not elect!
Self-declared liberal Americans consider Bush to be a warmongering disaster, yet somehow they hail Obama as some kind of progressive «peace president».
Eight straight years of warmongering come to an end as US President Barack Obama bows out with his «farewell to the nation» speech this week, as fawning American media dubbed his valediction.
In reality, Obama's outgoing address should have been billed as a «farewell to arms» made by arguably one of the most belligerent presidents to ever have occupied the White House.
Only in exceptionally delusional America could such a pernicious paradox be presented as something honorable and sentimental.
There you have it, over and over again: Divide and Rule, to counteract the unruly "threats".
That will be the key story to follow further on down the (New Silk) roads.
Yeats memorably wrote that, "mirror on mirror mirrored is all the show." Yet the show always must go on — dalangs East and West let loose in deep niskala.
Welcome to the 21st century Tournament of Shadows.
Back in the day, Britain and Italy appointed some chap named Idris as King of Libya. This Idiris fellow was rather reluctant about the whole 'King' thing. One day while King Idris was in Turkey, a 27 year old Colonel named Qaddafi called him on the phone and informed the King that he, Gathafi, was now Supreme "Grand Poobah" of Libya. King Idris was totally cool with that and wished Qadhafi good luck. That is how Qathafi came to power in Libya without anyone getting so much as a paper-cut.
Libya was the poorest Nation in Africa when Kadhafi took over.
Since then Kazzafi made a few changes.
Everyone in Libya was to own their own home, with no mortgage or taxes or payments of any kind.
The oil wealth was first Nationalized, profits used to benefit the overall Nation and people, then the oil was privatized in 2011 and each and every libyan was to get dividends amounting to about $22,000/year on the non transferable stock they owned.
Libya is ready to accept any Russian initiative to establish political dialogue in the country, since Moscow has contacts with each of the parties of the conflict, and has a balanced position on the situation, said Deputy Prime Minister of the national unity government Akhmed Maetig...
There is an arms embargo on Libya.
Russia and Egypt are preparing to break that embargo in support of Haftar and the Libyan government deposed by the US
While the west of course wants to back the installed puppet regime.
Russia and Egypt are preparing to break that embargo in support of Haftar and the Libyan government deposed by the US
While the west of course wants to back the installed puppet regime.
2016 has been a fantastic year for Russia. Putin's policy of slow, low-key and deliberate move and counter-move has proven to be extremely effective.
Just like European maps place Europe in the center of the planet, so do most western commentators look at the past year from a US/Europe-centered perspective. Which is fair enough. Furthermore, the AngloZionist Empire has just suffered two major disasters, the Brexit and the election of Trump.
The credit for the election of Donald Trump goes first and foremost to the American people to whom I sincerely believe the entire planet owe a heartfelt and loud "THANK YOU!!!!!".
Not only did the British people defy the Empire and vote for a Brexit, but now the Imperial Homeland has "backstabbed" them by electing a patriot who is not interested in maintaining the global empire (or so he says, at least for the time being).
Putin's stoic statesmanship speaks for itself.
Not for the first time, the contrast in character between Putin and Obama was illustrated in the latest diplomatic spat over alleged Russian hacking.
For one thing, Putin's gracious magnanimity always in the face of American provocations shows the Russian leader to be a fine statesman and human being; whereas Obama looks like a pathetic, cheap nonentity.
President Putin made a surprise attack:
He said that his government would not take retaliatory measures. Indeed, he went further by offering seasonal goodwill greetings to President Obama, his family and the people of America, as well as repeating invitations to the children of accredited US diplomats in Russia to festivities being held at the Kremlin.
The bad losers Democrats are STILL shell shocked about the fact that they lost and are throwing a temper tantrum, trying to cloud President-elect Trump's incoming policies.
The Truth is that the US as a nation need to now move past the NeoCon era, the warmonger era...
Until Trump relegates 'the neocons' to the ideological backwaters, Russia and China had best hold on to their strategic alliance.
Kissinger, an old cold warrior, is working to use Trump's commitment to better relations with Russia in order to separate Russia from its strategic alliance with China.
China's military buildup is a response to US provocations against China and US claims to the South China Sea as an area of US national interests. China does not intend to attack the US and certainly not Russia.
Get ready, because the thick of the action starts now.
The 2008 casino capitalism-provoked financial crisis, plus the American "resolve" to remake the so-called Greater Middle East through wars of choice, regime change and covert ops miserably failed.
As we wait for the dawn of the Trump era – an almost intergalactic geopolitical question mark – what's certain is that the War Party US deep state won't admit defeat. And the key geopolitical riddle to be answered is how strident internal American tensions will deal with the hub of progressive Eurasia integration: Russia, China and Iran.
These acts, carried out in secret two-thirds of the time, include funding the election campaigns of specific parties, disseminating misinformation and propaganda...
The CIA has accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election (with absolutely zero evidence) by hacking into Democratic and Republican computer networks and selectively releasing emails.
But critics might point out the U.S. has done similar things.
Syrians in the liberated city of Aleppo are celebrating Christmas…
'We had 4 years of pain, of war & blood'
Christians in Syria have largely rallied behind the secular government, seeing it as their protector.
This year, many people in the liberated city of Aleppo are celebrating for the first time since the war began. RT's Lizzie Phelan talked with residents of the war-ravaged city now recovering from its wounds.
Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the head of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), has had a long list of allies. Starting as a participant in Gadhafi's 1969 military coup, he rose steadily through the ranks before being captured by Chad during the 1987 war. He was disavowed by Gadhafi, but by 1988 was a top figure in the CIA-backed rebels.
The rebel force was short-lived, however, and Hifter was brought to the US as a CIA supported "refugee" in 1990. He participated in at least one other failed rebellion before the 2011 Arab Spring, when he claimed to be the head of the post-Gadhafi military. Power struggles led to him announcing a military coup in 2014 before finally being named the head of the LNA, a faction allied with the Tobruk government.
How deliciously ironic that the greatest "winner" in US-backed destabilisation in both Syria and Libya has proven to be....Russia!!!!!
The timing of the large-scale attacks on Donbas comes just as the US and its NATO allies incur a strategic setback in their covert war for regime change in Syria.
A surge in military attacks this week by NATO-backed Kiev regime forces on the breakaway eastern Ukraine regions is no mere coincidence.
It is the reaction to events in Syria by the US-led military alliance in its hybrid warfare against Russia.
Written before the presidential election, the co-authors could not have anticipated a Donald Trump victory, but they might be hoping that the report would serve as a guideline for the new administration.
Hopefully they will be wrong in that expectation, but it is difficult at this point to see where the next White House will be going with its Middle Eastern policy.
There are a number of things wrong with the report from my perspective. Most significant, it assigns to the United States the responsibility to set and enforce standards of governance in parts of the world where the American people have little in the way of actual interests.
The US military has formally announced the end of operations in the Libyan city of Sirte following the recent capturing of the coastal city from the clutches of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group (ISIL).
15 years ago Weapons of Mass Destruction was American's Threat today National Security. Today it is Fake News.
Palestine/Israel will be transformed into a democratic state, where Jews and Palestinians will live happily ever after, as equals.
The nomination of David Friedman horrified liberal Israelis, cheered Palestinian activists, befogged the Israeli and Palestinian officials, and created a great rift among US Jews. With one brilliant stroke Donald Trump made more mischief than one would think possible. If you have no time for details, I'll tell you: it is a good, even very good development for Palestine and Palestinians, and it is likely to save Trump's skin back home.
Isn't it ironic how the mainstream media has the nerve to lecture everyone else about "fake news" when they are the primary source of fake news on a consistent basis stretching back years?
Fake news stories and fake narratives put out by the mainstream media have resulted in deaths, destruction and people's lives being ruined.
The most harmful fake news is routinely published by the mainstream media.
They are the main progenitors of fake news.
wolf! wolf! wolf! Why doesn't anyone believe me!?
Lawyers for twice-failed Oval Office aspirant Hillary Clinton have asked a federal court in Washington, D.C., to dismiss a lawsuit over her statements as secretary of state about the Benghazi terror attack that left four Americans dead.
They allege that she told them one story about the attack, then told the media another story, and ended up calling the family members liars.
"Plaintiffs respectfully request that the court rule on defendant Clinton's motion in a politically neutral fashion, as defendant Clinton, like everyone else before the court, is not above the law," the filing states.
"To treat her differently than others would be treated would create and perpetuate a terrible precedent, as the American people have come to believe that, in effect, there are two systems of justice; one for the political elite establishment, and one for the rest of the citizens of our nation."
And herein lies the problem; Clinton does, absolutely and completely, believe she totally above the rule of law, courtesy of her status as one of the "Washington Elites".
That two-tier system of American "justice", alluded to by the Plaintiff's complaint, is already enshrined in the judicial system already; however, a successful prosecution of Clinton in this case may well to start to overturn these practices.
It appears that the battle of Aleppo is about to end and the Syrian Army is on the "verge of total victory."
Syrian Army helicopters dropped leaflets on parts of eastern Aleppo on Sunday warning anti-government fighters to surrender while they still had the chance. Hundreds of jihadists have already laid down their weapons and surrendered while a hardline corps of deadenders continue to fend off the rapidly advancing army.
NATO's desperate search for a purpose after the fall of the Soviet Union has left a swath of destruction through places like Libya, which it "liberated" nearly six years ago. Now NATO wants to take in tiny Montenegro, a corrupt, poor, Balkan statelet with a total of 2,000 troops. The reason? To further provoke Russia and to open the door to more NATO expansion perhaps to Georgia, Moldova, and even Ukraine.
President-elect Donald Trump formally introduced his pick to lead the defense department Tuesday, as he brought his "thank you" tour to Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Will the mad dog be leashed? Ron Paul Liberty Report weighs in:
When it comes to foreign policy, the incoming Trump administration displays a split personality.
Mattis exemplifies the dual nature of the new administration.
This was readily apparent during the campaign, when, on the one hand, Donald Trump told us we were lied into the Iraq war, that NATO is "obsolete," and that we have no business supporting regime change in Syria – and, on the other hand, he declared that he would crush ISIS, that it was a mistake to leave Iraq, and that we have to "rebuild our military," as if we don't already spend as much as the top ten defense spenders.
Twice in November 2016, the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council, or BRSC?—?a group with ties to Al Qaeda?—?published photos of United Arab Emirates Air Force AT-802 and Reaper-style drones in the sky over the Ganfouda area of Benghazi in eastern Libya.
On Nov. 2, 2016, an S-100 Camcopter drone performed a reconnaissance mission over this district two hours before a Reaper or similar unmanned aerial vehicle carried out an air strike on a residential area.
Ten days later, an Air Tractor belonging to the UAEAF struck the same area, killing at least four civilians including two children?—?and injuring another child.
Drones launched four others air strikes in Ganfouda later the same day.
Evidence is mounting that the UAE is indiscriminately bombing militant strongholds in Libya. And civilians are caught in the crossfire.
This is going to stop abruptly, and for the following reason:
With a foothold military base in Libya, Russia will make short work of any country's bombing raids against Libya
Will Iran be the target of the Trump regime?
Hopefully someone will convince Donald Trump that the real answer to eliminating the "Iranian threat" is not war.
One of the most discouraging aspects of the filling out of the Donald Trump cabinet is the array of Iran haters that seem to be lining up in the foreign policy and national security areas.Trump has been personally advocating sensible policies relating to Russia and Syria but he appears to have gone off the rails regarding Iran, which just might be attributed to those who are giving him advice.
Awesome after Election rally.
Keep it up, Trump supporters! NO to Lobbyists! No to Regime Change Wars! No to the Neocons! We want a foreign policy that puts #AmericaFirst
Thank you Ohio! Together, we made history – and now, the real work begins. America will start winning again! #AmericaFirst
Full Speech: President-Elect Donald Trump 'VICTORY' Rally in Cincinnati, OH 12/1/16
Heavy fighting has been reported in the Libyan capital city of Tripoli over the past two days, with a pair of competing militias engaged in what locals are reporting were the worst round of fighting the city has seen in the past two years, since the time the now Tobruk-based parliament fled the city.
The fighting this time centered in the southeast, with the UN claiming to have brokered a ceasefire agreement, but which doesn't appear to be doing anything, with locals saying they believed for months that such fighting was going to explode at any moment, as it ultimately did.
Armored vehicles and trucks with guns mounted on them are reported in the area, with snipers and fighters with rocket launchers on rooftops, as the militias linked to two of the many rival factions that all see themselves as the real government of Libya.
Welcome to Hillary Clinton's true "legacy" in Libya, after "selling" President Obama on working in concert with NATO to invade Libya,and assassinate Gaddafi in 2011.
And why?!?
Gaddafi was about to introduce a gold backed dinar, which would have absolutely destroyed the US petrodollar, and the euro.
Declassified emails reveal NATO killed Gaddafi to stop Libyan creation of gold-backed currency
And we can see, now, "just how splendidly" that intervention has worked out for the Libyan people!!
Apparently, the ensuing civil war in Libya, after Gaddafi's assassination, was a "perfectly acceptable outcome" to both Clinton and NATO, in their drive to see the gold-backed dinar never come to fruition.
If Trump can defeat the oligarchy and save America, he can go down in history as Trump the Great.
What we don't know is why groups that allegedly are liberal-progressive-leftwing are such fervent supporters of Hillary.
To the extent any of the Trump protesters are sincere and not merely paid tools of oligarchs, such as George Soros, military and financial interests, and global capitalists, they should consider that false claims and unjustified criticism can cause Trump and his supporters to close their ears to all criticism and make it easier for neoconservatives to influence Trump by offering support.
Audio Transcripts reveal the New York Times Lied, Donald Trump said he is not taking Hillary Clinton email and foundation investigations off the table.
Claim: Donald Trump will not investigate Hillary Clinton for crimes involving the Benghazi emails and foundation scandals.
Citing The New York Times reporting on their exclusive interview with Donald Trump, the corporate media widely reported yesterday that Donald Trump will not investigate Hillary Clinton regarding her email and foundation scandals.
Further perpetuating the false reports, Trump transitions team members defended Trump's position not knowing Trump never stated he was dropping the investigations.
In the wake of the latest terrorist outrage in Benghazi – a car bomb targeting schoolchildren – Nureddin Sabir notes the West's duplicitous policy of supporting Islamist terrorists in Libya while maintaining an arms embargo against the army fighting the terrorists.
"This is the largest breach of security, perhaps, in the history of the State Department," Chaffetz said of Clinton's alleged mishandling of state secrets.
Hillary Clinton and her legal team aren't exactly kicking their feet back and relaxing post-election. Instead, they've taken their focus to battling a lawsuit brought against them by the families of victims in Benghazi.
Pat Smith, mother of Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, father of Tyrone Woods, sued Clinton for defamation, wrongful death, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Her lawyers have now filed a motion to dismiss the case, with Clinton contending that she never called the parents "liars."
But she did.
During an interview with the editorial board of the Conway Daily Sun, Clinton was presented with two choices – either the families of the Benghazi victims were lying when they claimed they were told the attack was caused by a YouTube video, or Clinton was lying when she said that she had not made those statements.
According to a new report from Fox News correspondents Adam Housley and Malia Zimmerman, guards hired through a contractor by the State Department to protect the U.S. consulate in Benghazi were unvetted, local militia members who belonged to terrorist groups Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia.
I envy you, American citizens. I do not care about your military might, nor for your supreme currency, the US dollar. I envy your chance to deal on 11/8 a decisive blow to the rule of the Masters of Discourse.
Yes, the onslaught of the media upon Trump has been exceedingly unfair, but he survived it.
What is even more important, you survived it, it does not matter what the polls say: they say what the newspapers tell them to say. Even people answer the polls according to the media prognoses: they are shy of saying they would vote for a man who … But at the moment of actual vote, they do what they know is right for them. You have a very good chance to win, and to defeat the witch and her supporters.
Trump's final pitch is an anti-NWO/Fed 2 minute ad to air in battleground states.
Hillary Clinton is having the worst week of any Presidential candidate in history. The FBI is closing in on her criminal use of a private email server to transmit classified material. We now know – without a doubt – that foreign governments had easy access to the server.
But what's an even bigger deal is Hillary's actions which directly lead to the deaths of four Americans – Including a U.S. Ambassador – in Benghazi, Lybia. The terrorist attack was easily avoided, but Hillary refused to proved the security they needed at the embassy.
Today, in a new batch of emails, WikiLeaks reaffirmed exactly how Hillary caused the foreign policy disaster in Benghazi.
The legal watchdogs at Judicial Watch just helped find a massive break in the Hillary Clinton criminal case. Hillary Clinton-insider Huma Abedin's estranged husband Anthony Weiner has a perverted past, and his laptop had more than 650,000 emails which involve Team Clinton.
But what you didn't know is that – according to a FOIA request from Judicial Watch – the 323 pages from Department of State documents show there are email exchanges which included classified information… at least three, and probably more!
Each one of these email messages is a highly illegal crime!
'Particularly Vulnerable To Pay To Play Practices'
Despite an anti-corruption rule that was designed to reduce the financial industry's political power, top officials from the investment firm BlackRock hosted Hillary Clinton at campaign fundraisers earlier this year.
The cash — which poured in through a loophole in the law — came in as BlackRock's federal contracts to manage billions of dollars of retiree assets will be up for renewal during the next president's term.
The single biggest beneficiary was Citigroup, which was given $45 billion in cash in the form of a government stock purchase, plus a $306 billion government guarantee to back up its worthless mortgage-related assets.
One month before the presidential election of 2008, the giant Wall Street bank Citigroup submitted to the Obama campaign a list of its preferred candidates for cabinet positions in an Obama administration. This list corresponds almost exactly to the eventual composition of Barack Obama's cabinet.
The memorandum, revealed by WikiLeaks in a recent document release from the email account of John Podesta, who currently serves as Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, was written by Michael Froman, who was then an executive with Citigroup and currently serves as US trade representative. The email is dated Oct. 6, 2008 and bears the subject line "Lists." It went to Podesta a month before he was named chairman of President-Elect Obama's transition team.
On Sunday the FBI's reopened investigation into Hillary Clinton's controversial private server took another step when it obtained a warrant to read thousands of newly discovered emails.
Those emails, apparently sent to and from Clinton's right-hand woman, Huma Abedin, have reignited questions about whether classified documents may have been put at risk of leaks by the use of a private server.
They were part of 650,000 missives found on a laptop belonging to Abedin's husband, perverted politician Anthony Weiner.
As the specter of Clinton's server rises to haunt her campaign once more, questions have emerged about what this could mean for the future of the Democratic candidate - and for America itself.
This article is about the culpability and criminality as in War Crimes of the US MSM. Pilgers' take on why the establishment hates Donald Trump too!
In 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal prosecutor said of the German media: "Before every major aggression, they initiated a press campaign calculated to weaken their victims and to prepare the German people psychologically for the attack. In the propaganda system, it was the daily press and the radio that were the most important weapons."
The political pressure on FBI director James Comey intensified on Saturday night as four powerful Democratic senators demanded immediate answers about the bureau's announcement it is examining new material as part of its investigation about Hillary Clinton's email server.
Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dianne Feinstein of California, Thomas Carper of Delaware and Benjamin Cardin of Maryland wrote to Comey and the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, to insist on a thorough briefing by Monday about Comey's decision to tell congressional officials about new material from an "unrelated case" – a decision that shook the campaigns with only 10 days to go.
Amb. Stevens was sent to Benghazi post haste in order to retrieve US-made Stinger missiles supplied to Ansar al Sharia without Congressional oversight or permission. Hillary brokered the deal through Stevens and a private arms dealer named Marc Turi. Then some of the shoulder fired missiles ended up in Afghanistan used against our own military. It was July 25th, 2012 when a Chinook helicopter was taken down by one of our own Stingers, but the idiot Taliban didn't arm the missile and the Chinook didn't explode, but had to land anyway. An ordnance team recovered the serial number off the missile which led back to a cache of Stingers being kept in Qatar by the CIA.
Let us start with an historical fact. Treason and betrayal by the highest levels is a common feature of history, whether it is Judas vs Jesus, Brutus vs Julius Caesar, Benedict Arnold, the Rosenbergs, Jonathan Pollard, Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen. It is just a fact of life. It does happen.
Easy means of delivering secrets using the weak private email server. Easy means of accepting payment through a "charitable" foundation!
This is a perfect setup to repeat the 1996 selling of secrets for cash. In other words, a perfect espionage operation, running out the US State Department, with the weak email server providing the secrets and a charitable foundation to accept and launder the payments! Hillary doesn't have to physically steal the files, the way Jonathan Pollard did. Hillary doesn't have to scratch an X on a mailbox, the way Aldrich Ames did. Hillary doesn't have to tape bundles of stolen documents underneath a park bridge, like Robert Hannsen did!
Reposted in light of the FBI reopening the investigation into Hillary's emails.
A new released Podesta Email reveals Clinton's staffer's worked directly with the State Department and the Associated press to spin findings that investigators found several emails that Hillary deleted or never turned over.
The collusion was so bad that Hillary staffer's not only wrote the State Department's press release but they worked with Associated Press ahead of the release to the public to cover up emails investigators findings that emails were missing.
The United States has begun using a Tunisian air base to conduct surveillance drone operations inside Libya, the latest expansion of its campaign against Islamic State militants in North Africa, U.S. government sources said on Wednesday.
The unarmed drones have been flying out of Tunisia since late June and are now part of a U.S. air defense in support of Libyan pro-government forces fighting to push Islamic State fighters out of their stronghold in the Libyan city of Sirte, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The use of the Tunisian base, which was first reported by The Washington Post, extends the U.S. military's ability to gather intelligence on Islamic State in Libya, the U.S. sources said. Other locations in Africa where U.S. drones are launched, including Niger and Djibouti, are farther away.
That Libya has been engulfed in a monstrous civil war since the US assassination of Qaddafi can be laid nearly solely at the feet of Hillary Clinton, who was advocating for his assassination, using the RPT (responsibility to protect) excuse.
President Obama listened to her, and ordered the strike; now look where the US is in Libya, thanks to Clinton's horrific error in judgement here.
IF she got Libya and Qaddafi so wrong as Secretary of State, it scares the crap out of me to even contemplate what else she will get so wrong, geopolitically, as potentially the next President of the United States.
The penultimate goal is total militarization of the western world, to prevent and suppress protests and revolts .
Obama might just stay on for another term. He has all the experience it needs to create more chaos and more division to conquer than any of his predecessors. He is also an obedient servant to those that pull the strings and watch through the eye on top of the pyramid, so clearly depicted in the US dollar bill, the symbol for Zionist-Freemason total hegemony. But importantly, he, like Hillary, would most likely not hesitate to push the Red Bottom, when asked to do so by their masters.
"There is just no good answer," Clinton aide Philippe Reines tells Podesta in a panicked mail from March 2015 in which they discuss Clinton's reasoning for using a private email server.
The mail is sent to Podesta after New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman mailed Clinton aide Anne-Marie slaughter saying, "I have to say I am troubled by what I have read about what Hillary did."
Slaughter then forwards the mail to Clinton's team to tip them off as to what to expect from the press.
Back in 1996, when Bill Clinton was running for re-election, he authorized the transfer of highly sensitive technology to China. This technology had military applications and allowed China to close the gap in missile performance with the United States. The transfers were opposed and severely criticized by the Defense Department.
At the same time Bill Clinton was transferring this technology to China, huge donations began to pour into his re-election campaign from the US companies allowed to sell the technology to China, and from American citizens of Chinese descent. The fact that they were US citizens allowed them to donate to political campaigns, but it later emerged that they were acting as conduits for cash coming in from Asian sources, including Chinese Intelligence Agencies! The scandal became known as China-gate!
This establishes a history of the Clintons treating US secrets as their own personal property, selling them to raise money for campaigns.
Now then, let us consider a private email server with weak security, at least one known totally open access point, no encryption, and outside the control and monitoring systems of the US government, on which are parked many of the nation's most closely guarded secrets! Security experts agree that Hillary's server had worse security than the Ashley Madison website!
Now, consider a charitable foundation owned by the Clintons (which actually does very little charitable work). Being a charitable foundation, it is allowed to accept "donations" from foreign sources, and roughly 40% of the cash that has poured into the Clinton Foundation has come from foreign sources. Many of those foreign sources received preferential treatment from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sufficient for attorney Larry Klayman to file a RICO lawsuit against the foundation (which as of last report was thrown out of court by a Clinton-appointed judge who refused to recuse himself over the obvious conflict of interest)!
Easy means of delivering secrets. Easy means of accepting payment! And now there is confirmation that Hillary did have a private "off the books" spy network, centered on Sidney Blumenthal, while she was secretary of state!
This is a perfect setup to repeat the 1996 selling of secrets for cash. In other words, a perfect espionage operation, running out the US State Department, with the weak email server providing the secrets and a charitable foundation to accept and launder the payments! Hillary doesn't have to physically steal the files, the way Jonathan Pollard did. Hillary doesn't have to scratch an X on a mailbox, the way Aldrich Ames did. Hillary doesn't have to tape bundles of stolen documents underneath a park bridge, like Robert Hannsen did!
It is time to look past the small scandal of the private email server at what may be a far larger spy scandal hidden behind it!
And the longer the government and corporate media avoids this question, the more complicit they look!
More at http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/hillarythespy.php
At the same time Bill Clinton was transferring this technology to China, huge donations began to pour into his re-election campaign from the US companies allowed to sell the technology to China, and from American citizens of Chinese descent. The fact that they were US citizens allowed them to donate to political campaigns, but it later emerged that they were acting as conduits for cash coming in from Asian sources, including Chinese Intelligence Agencies! The scandal became known as China-gate!
This establishes a history of the Clintons treating US secrets as their own personal property, selling them to raise money for campaigns.
Now then, let us consider a private email server with weak security, at least one known totally open access point, no encryption, and outside the control and monitoring systems of the US government, on which are parked many of the nation's most closely guarded secrets! Security experts agree that Hillary's server had worse security than the Ashley Madison website!
Now, consider a charitable foundation owned by the Clintons (which actually does very little charitable work). Being a charitable foundation, it is allowed to accept "donations" from foreign sources, and roughly 40% of the cash that has poured into the Clinton Foundation has come from foreign sources. Many of those foreign sources received preferential treatment from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sufficient for attorney Larry Klayman to file a RICO lawsuit against the foundation (which as of last report was thrown out of court by a Clinton-appointed judge who refused to recuse himself over the obvious conflict of interest)!
Easy means of delivering secrets. Easy means of accepting payment! And now there is confirmation that Hillary did have a private "off the books" spy network, centered on Sidney Blumenthal, while she was secretary of state!
This is a perfect setup to repeat the 1996 selling of secrets for cash. In other words, a perfect espionage operation, running out the US State Department, with the weak email server providing the secrets and a charitable foundation to accept and launder the payments! Hillary doesn't have to physically steal the files, the way Jonathan Pollard did. Hillary doesn't have to scratch an X on a mailbox, the way Aldrich Ames did. Hillary doesn't have to tape bundles of stolen documents underneath a park bridge, like Robert Hannsen did!
It is time to look past the small scandal of the private email server at what may be a far larger spy scandal hidden behind it!
And the longer the government and corporate media avoids this question, the more complicit they look!
More at http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/hillarythespy.php
The State Department and the Associated Press worked with Hillary to coverup and spin Benghazi investigation findings, according to a WikiLeaks Podesta email just released.
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Magecart hacker group was responsible for Ticketmaster data breach
Magecart – a cybercriminal group that used digital skimmer to steal data of millions of users
At the end of last month, Ticketmaster UK, an online ticket company, published a report[1] about a serious data breach that affected the external third-party payment supplier Inbenta Technologies. According to the company, less than 5% of firm's global customers were affected and had their credit card and other personal information stolen.
However, security researchers at RiskIQ discovered[2] that is not a one-off attack and was performed by a hacker group called Magecart, which is also responsible for breaches of more than 800 e-commerce sites around the globe.
Initially, card skimmers[3] are devices used in ATMs and other machines to steal credit card information from. Although this method can be very useful, it might not be as effective as operating the digital skimmers, which are capable of stealing information of more than 10,000 victims instantly. And that is precisely what Magecart hacker group started doing from 2016.[4]
Magecart injected complicated JavaScripts that were capable of reading and sending off the information entered into payment forms on e-commerce sites. The stolen credentials can then be used for personal use or be sold on Dark Web for profit.
Magecart is affecting a variety of companies while harvesting credit card details
According to RiskIQ, it was not only the UK's Ticketmaster site that was affected by the breach but also Ireland's, Turkey's and New Zealand's websites. Research also showed that Ticketmaster's branches in Germany, Australia, and International were also jeopardized via a different third-party company called SociaPlus.
Additionally, researchers discovered that other suppliers were compromised by Magecart as well, including CMS Clarity Connect, Annex Cloud, PushAssist, and others, making this hacker-group prominent in the credit card information stealing business.
A threat researcher at RiskIQ said the following:
The Ticketmaster incident received quite a lot of publicity and attention, but the Magecart problem extends to e-commerce sites well beyond Ticketmaster, and we believe it's cause for far greater concern. Magecart is bigger than any other credit card breach to date and isn't stopping any day soon
It was also determined that the Command & Control server[5] all the credentials are sent to has been operating since December 2016. It is unclear how much data hackers managed to steal in the meantime, but it is evident that many victims got their private data compromised while expecting it the least. Users who only enter their credentials into reputable sites should not suffer any data loss, although hacking attacks like these prove that nobody is safe.
The hacker group is expanding their operation and are not likely to stop
Is it possible to stop Magecard? Maybe, but at the moment seems highly unlikely. Bad actors are continuing their malicious activities and get better at hacking techniques, as well as manage to select their targets carefully so it would bring them the most profit.
At first, the hacker group targeted individual websites and soon realized that they could abuse the data readers much more efficiently by modifying script of third-party suppliers that handle payment information of millions of users.
Researchers reported that the breaches that are publicly announced nowadays as separate occurrences are actually connected and are a part of much bigger operation created by Magecard.
About the author
- ^ INFORMATION ABOUT DATA SECURITY INCIDENT BY THIRD-PARTY SUPPLIER. Ticketmaster. Security blog.
- ^ Yonathan Klijnsma. Inside and Beyond Ticketmaster: The Many Breaches of Magecart. RiskIQ. Security researchers.
- ^ Latoya irby. How Credit Card Skimming Works. The Balance. Money advice.
- ^ Magecart – a malicious infrastructure for stealing payment details from online shops. Clear Sky. Cyber Security.
- ^ Adam Rice and James Ringold. Command-and-control servers: The puppet masters that govern malware. SearchSecurity. Information about security technologies.

subset: commoncrawl


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Spread of Ebola to large city in Democratic Republic of Congo a 'very concerning' turn, health officials say
iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread from rural areas to a city of nearly 1.2 million people, the country's health ministry said Wednesday.
Situated along the Congo River, Mbandaka is a densely populated transit hub at the crossroads of Equateur province, the health ministry said, raising fears that the Ebola virus will be easily passed on. Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people.
Downstream from Mbandaka is the country's capital, Kinshasa, which is home to roughly 10 million people.
"The arrival of Ebola in an urban area is very concerning and WHO and partners are working together to rapidly scale up the search for all contacts of the confirmed case in the Mbandaka area," said Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization's regional director for Africa.
A new suspected case of Ebola was recorded this week in Wangata, one of the three health zones of Mbandaka, the capital of the northwestern Equateur province. Laboratory tests on two samples from Wangata confirmed one specimen as positive for Ebola, while the other was negative.
It's the first time in the region's ongoing outbreak that a case has been detected in an urban health zone, with all other cases reported in remote, rural areas of Equateur province. And until now, all the confirmed cases of Ebola were in Bikoro health zone, some 90 miles south of Mbandaka.
"We are entering a new phase of the Ebola outbreak that is now affecting three health zones, including an urban health zone," the Democratic Republic of Congo's Minister of Health Oly Ilunga Kalenga said in a statement in French late Wednesday. "Since the announcement of the alert in Mbandaka, our epidemiologists are working in the field with community relays to identify people who have been in contact with suspected cases."
As of Thursday, a total of 45 cases of hemorrhagic fever had been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the outbreak was announced on May 8. That number includes 14 confirmed cases of Ebola, 21 probable cases and 10 suspected cases. Health care workers have been among those infected, according to the country's health ministry.
There have been 25 deaths among these cases, including one person who died from a confirmed case of Ebola.
There are several types of hemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the health ministry noted; thus, not all suspected cases are necessarily Ebola.
It's the Central African nation's ninth Ebola outbreak since 1976 when scientists first identified the deadly virus.
The health ministry said it had received 5,400 doses of Ebola vaccine Wednesday morning. Thousands more were expected to arrive in the coming days.
The World Health Organization (WHO), which is working with the Democratic Republic of Congo's health ministry and its partners, announced Thursday that it has deployed 30 experts to conduct surveillance in Mbandaka, following news of the confirmed case there.
Doctors Without Borders, or MSF as its often called by its French acronym, said it too is stepping up its response to stop the spread of the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"With the new case confirmed in Mbandaka, the scenario has changed, and it has become more serious and worrying, since the disease is now affecting an urban area," said Henry Gray, MSF emergency coordinator in Mbandaka. "It is paramount to trace the suspect case in order to have a clearer view on how it reached the city."
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which is also assisting the country amid the current outbreak, said communities across Equateur province must be alerted of the rising risk of Ebola to stop the virus from spreading further.
"Local volunteers and health workers are the community's alarm system," said Ben Adinoyi, who heads the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' health unit for Africa. "They are our eyes and ears on the ground. They are critical to the early identification and containment of new cases."
"They need to be activated across the province and even beyond," he added. "If we don't, then the virus may spread too far and too quickly."
The latest Ebola case in the Democratic Republic of Congo comes amid an outbreak of violence that has spread rapidly in the country's restive Kasai region. The violence was sparked by existing tensions between customary chiefs in Kasai-Central Province and the government in 2016, but the widening conflict has since pulled in militias, armed groups and security forces across an area the size of Germany.
The violence has forced families to flee their homes. About 3.8 million people in the Kasai region, including 2.3 million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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Although technological advancement has affected many businesses over the past decade leading to the rise and fall of many companies, the business of moving large amounts of goods from one location to another has remained relatively unchanged.
Despite the availability of air freight, over 90 percent of world trade continues to be carried by sea due to the lower freight costs. While the shipping industry is a resilient one, it is in itself a highly competitive industry. With over 50,000 merchant ships trading internationally, shipping companies are often embroiled in price wars and they fight for a greater market share.
The performance of COSCO Shipping International (Singapore)'s (COSCO) share price over the past few years have not been too impressive. On an overall downward trend for the past five years, the group's shares are currently trading at $0.365 per share, down by about 37 percent from its 52-week high.
The Business
COSCO is a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned shipping and logistics services supplier company, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, one of the largest shipping companies in the world.
Originally engaged in the business of dry bulk shipping, ship repair and marine engineering, the group's vision is to become a leading integrated logistics management service provider in Southeast Asia. As part of the group's plan to expand its logistics network, COSCO completed the acquisition of Cogent Holdings (Cogent) for $490 million in March 2018.
Improved Financial Performance
COSCO suffered massive losses amounting to over a billion dollars in FY15 and FY16. The losses were mainly due to the depressed state of crude oil prices which resulted in an adverse impact on the global offshore marine industry. In addition, the slump in the shipbuilding market negatively impacted the group's shipyards, while the aggressive price war in the shipping industry placed significant pressures to the group's dry bulk fleet operations.
The worst is likely over for COSCO following the disposal of its loss-making shipyard business. Having disposed of 51 percent equity interest in COSCO Shipyard Group, 50 percent equity interest in COSCO (Nantong) Shipyard and 39.1 percent equity interest in COSCO (Dalian) Shipyard the group's funds received a much needed boost of Rmb1.4 billion.
For 1H18, the improved performance was largely due to the newly acquired logistics businesses, which contributed revenue of $64.4 million. Meanwhile, the group managed to turnaround with a net profit of $5.3 million in the absence of loss from discontinued operations amounting to $157.3 million in 1H17.
Going forward, it is likely that Cogent would be the key growth catalyst as the group's fleet has been reduced to three bulk carriers with a total tonnage of 163,000 tons.
Cogent Holdings
With a broad based clientele, ranging from local small and medium-sized enterprises to multinational companies, Cogent operated through four main business segments – warehousing and property management services (WPM), automotive logistic management services (ALM), transportation management services and container depot management services.
Cogent owns one of Singapore's largest one-stop integrated centres and the world's first and only rooftop container depot, Cogent One-Stop Logistics Hub (C1.LH). C1.LH is a patented design that allows for the consolidation of warehousing and container depot management in a single location, maximising the use of land space while providing cost savings.
The patent for C1.LH innovative design in countries including but not limited to the United States, Europe, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, provides opportunities for strategic expansion overseas.
Avoiding Turbulent Waters
We view COSCO's move towards building its Southeast Asia logistics network while scaling down on the shipping business positively.
Although the international dry bulk shipping market displayed a sign of improvement in the second quarter of 2018, we remain cautious on this sector due to the ongoing trade war between China and the United States (US).
Currently, the US has imposed tariffs on US$50 billion of Chinese goods, prompting China to retaliate in kind. On top of that, US President Donald Trump is prepared to impose tariffs on another US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports, which will significantly escalate the already high trade tensions.
Peer Comparison
Comparing the valuations of COSCO against some of its peers would show that the group's valuations are rather attractive. However, it is notable that the lower trailing 12 months price-to-earnings (TTM P/E) is partly due to profit from discontinued operations.
Having said that, Vibrant Group, which is valued at the lowest TTM P/E of one time, had also recognised a significant amount of negative goodwill arising from the acquisition of a subsidiary.
Currently, one missing factor that would shift COSCO to a more favourable position with investors would be a stable dividend payout. The group had indicated that there would be no dividend payout for FY17 as it was evaluating various strategic moves for its business. In the future, we believe that COSCO could benefit from the region's growing logistics industry as well as potential opportunities that may arise as China's One Belt, One Road Vision brings China and Southeast Asia closer.


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Hollywood actress Reese Witherspoon turned 40 last year. By Hollywood's typical ageist standards, Witherspoon would eventually be resigned to roles of a mum to a younger starlet.
But the Oscar winner is not going to wait around for Hollywood to put her in a corner. "Things have to change. We have to start seeing women as they really are on film. We have to, and not just in movie on a tiny budget. We need to see real women's experience. Whether it involves domestic violence, motherhood, romance, infidelity or divorce," Witherspoon shared during a Television Critics Association event in Los Angeles, California recently. She had enough of seeing "women of incredible talent playing wives and girlfriends with thankless parts".
As a producer, Witherspoon is making it her own initiative to flesh out better and more diverse roles for herself and other women in Hollywood. The Louisiana-born actress was one of the producers of the critically-acclaimed film Gone Girl, where a seemingly-bored housewife (played by Rosamund Pike) punishes her husband for deceiving her. She makes use of the media narrative assigned to her as "the victim" and emerged a true winner at the end ... albeit in cold-blooded style.
Witherspoon also produced and starred in Wild, a survival drama about a divorcee going on a solo hiking trip along the Pacific Crest Trail in the US. In 2015, she earned her second Best Actress Oscar nomination for the role.
"The constant sort of question for me now is how am I discovering something about woman on film that I've never seen before? And how am I creating something that hasn't been done before?"
The answer to her question is Big Little Lies, a best-selling novel by Liane Moriarty about women in a scenic small town, which has been adapted into a seven-part miniseries for HBO.
As one the executive producers, Witherspoon eagerly explained why Big Little Lies deserves such treatment.
"It wasn't about them (women) being good or bad. It's just that they showed every spectrum, every colour of women's lives. And I thought that was a really unique opportunity to have so many incredible parts for women in one piece of material."
Big Little Lies stars Witherspoon as Madeline, a mum who has to watch her ex-husband and his new wife (Zoe Kravitz) take their kids to the same pre-school as her daughter.
Witherspoon brought in A-list pal Nicole Kidman (credited as one of the executive producers) to play a woman married to an abusive husband. It also stars Shailene Woodley as a young single mum with a mysterious past.
Then there's Laura Dern (who also co-starred with Witherspoon in Wild) as a no-nonsense mum who starts a feud with Madeline. If anything, these women are not your typical desperate housewives-type of ladies.
The intriguing series opens with a murder and the identity of the deceased is not revealed until the end.
Witherspoon said when she read the novel for the first time, she saw herself through its many characters on personal levels.
Witherspoon was 21 when she married actor Ryan Phillippe (her co-star in teen drama Cruel Intentions). Their eight-year marriage ended in 2007. They have two chidren together, Ava and Deacon. In 2011, Witherspoon married talent agent Jim Toth and they have a son, Tennessee James.
"I saw myself in different stages of motherhood all through my life. I was a mum when I was 22, like Jane (Woodley's character) and then I had a child when I was 40, like Madeline. I've been divorced, I've been remarried."
She admitted to having different approaches to motherhood during the different stages of her life. As a younger mother, she remembered being more nonchalant. Her stance changed from, "Oh, they're going to be fine. I don't worry about it at all" to, "Oh, am I taking them to the ballet?".
Realising things about herself seems to be a common thread throughout the process of making Big Little Lies.
Having a cast of mostly women on set was something special for Witherspoon.
"Nicole and I were reflecting about this during the shooting. For 25 years, I've been the only woman on set so I had no other women to talk to. They call it the Smurfette Syndrome and she's got 100 Smurfs around but she's the only girl. Who gave birth to all these Smurfs anyway? (laughs)," she pondered.
Witherspoon said it's "refreshing" to have more women on set as they help each other to prep for their roles.
"We just nurtured each other's performances. We would send each other articles and bring books. It was really a collective performance of all of us," she offered.
The blonde beauty felt strongly enough to call Big Little Lies the "greatest ensemble experience" she's ever had. It also definitely fit the bill of what she wanted at this phase in her career. "That's what I'm always looking for – something new, and something challenging."
Big Little Lies premieres Feb 20 at 10am on HBO (Astro Ch 411).


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Moose are in trouble in Ontario. The Environmental Commissioner recently reported that their numbers have dropped by 20% over the last 10 years, with a rapid decline in the last three. They are facing many threats that are made worse by climate change, but there are factors that could be addressed immediately.
What are the issues?
- Ontario permits calves to be killed by licensed hunters. Calf hunting can have serious negative impacts on moose populations.
- Poaching is a problem. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry does not know how many moose are taken illegally. They don't even have the capacity to know, let alone stop it.
- Moose need roadless space. Logging roads are constantly expanding, with the support of a subsidy from the Ontario government. Moose need a place of respite from hunters and poachers who use the roads.
Why does this matter?
Moose are important components of a healthy forest, essential country food for Indigenous people and a driver of the tourism economy of northern Ontario. They are part of Canadian identity.
What can you do?
Make a donation to support this work. With more money we can reach more people and demonstrate to the government that people care about moose and their future. We'll work to end the calf hunt, increase funding for science, monitoring and enforcement and create moose refuge areas.


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DJ Sneak is an important part of Chicago's second wave of house music. Do you remember "You Can't Hide From Your Bud?" That song basically laid the groundwork for the unrelenting wave of French filter-house that came out afterwards. While Paul Johnson's "Get Get Down" was also instrumental, Sneak ushered in the era of Armand Van Helden and Daft Punk that dominated the mid-to-late-nineties sound. Although he now lives in Toronto, he continues to play internationally to parties brimming with the cool and the beautiful. Don't take his Chicago appearance for granted! (Jarrett Spiegel)
August 18 at Zentra.


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Great Barrier Reef islands with lighthouses played a fundamental role in the nation's development. Safe sea passage was vital for Australia's emerging colonial economy entirely dependent on the sea for trade, communication and supplies.
Lighthouses were initially built and managed by the respective colonial governments. The need for a national approach to marine navigation policy was apparent, particularly when navigation lighting was required in parts of the colony with comparatively low population numbers, and consequently insufficient funds for appropriate navigation aids.
On 1 July 1915, when the Lighthouses Act 1911 came into effect, the Commonwealth officially accepted responsibility for the nation's lighthouses.
Prior to 1988, management of the Commonwealth Islands was the responsibility of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
In 1988, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority increased involvement in the management of the Commonwealth Islands, eventually taking ownership of the lighthouse islands in 2003. AMSA now lease back from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority the relevant portion of land it uses for navigational aids.
Private lease arrangements are in place over some islands, usually either for tourism related purposes such as Lady Elliot Island, or research field work such as with the University of Queensland on Low Isles.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority works in partnerships with lessees and other stakeholders for the long-term conservation of these islands.


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Since cutting plastic out of my life I don't really have to deal with too much wasted food packaging. However, I am English which means there is some packaging that will never be truly banished from my world: the humble aluminium casing that temporarily houses my baked beans! Due to my jacket-tatty-with-beans addiction I have accumulated quite a few of these cans and while they are recyclable I much prefer to reuse where I can. Then while I was cruising the interwebs I spied the below picture and got all inspired…
What a sweet and clever idea! So I decided to expand on that and instead cover my cans with pretty paper – because my cans would not look as gorgeously rustic as those pictured… it would literally just be a big collection of Heinz beans cans! Either way I think the results are gorgeous and this would make a gorgeous eco solution for a wedding centerpieces which would hardly break the budget (the whole project cost me $12). Best thing about this project – it was unbelievably quick and simple.
What You'll Need
- Washed tin cans
- Pretty paper (a standard can will get use half a sheet)
- Ruler (Steel ruler would be best for accuracy)
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Glue gun
Wash all your tin cans thoroughly and remove labels. Having little remnants of paper is fine – they may even help with the adhesion of the paper.
Without glue, wrap a sheet of paper around the width of the can (to see the amount you will need). I always allow for a 2cm overlap.
Fold the excess amount back over itself. You can then cut along the crease line.
Then measure the length of the can as accurately as possible. If you want to have a little leeway make sure you cut the paper a little thinner rather than leaving it a little too wide – you don't want the paper taller than the can as it will fray and get messy.
Now you are ready to roll (literally). Apply a stripe of glue along one end of the paper (the shorter end that will go across the height of the can).
Carefully place and stick the paper onto the can keeping it as straight as possible.
Once the paper is stuck to the can, flip it over so that you can see the underside of the paper and apply 4 lines of glue – along the top, middle, bottom and side of the paper. Carefully (and as quickly as possible so the glue doesn't dry) roll the paper around the can.
If the edge of the paper is not completely stuck down apply small blobs of glue to the corners. You don't want the blobs to be too big as they may squish out and look untidy.
And Voila!!! Repeat this for each of your cans until you have a beautiful assortment of colours and patterns.
Once you have your assortment of cans fill them with flowers and/or tea lights and use them as a centre-piece for a table or a beautiful feature on a side table or shelf.
If filling them with flowers here are two things to consider;
- You will have to be very careful with water as the new coating is paper and will ruin if it is wet
- Try to avoid cut flowers from stores! As I explained in this post they are often imported and wrapped in plastic. The ones I have used in this picture are a mixture of weeds from the verge-side in my suburb or a few flowers from my own garden. I can't wait until my lavender bushes really kick off for this very purpose!
Anyway… here are a few more pictures. Happy crafting!
Since completing this project I have seen that loads of people have done similar with their old tin cans. You can follow me on Pinterest here but for the moment here are some special mentions of some other gorgeous tin can upcycling projects…


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Robin's Dance Studio is celebrating 40 years of providing quality dance education in Missouri City! Classes for ages 3-adult include ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical and leaps and turns.
RDS provides a family atmosphere where each student is given the opportunity to grow not only as dancers, but as individuals with self-confidence, discipline, grace and poise.
We offer a talented, caring staff that provide age appropriate instruction and choreography and instill a love of dance to last a lifetime.
Our RDS family includes many 2nd generation dancers! Our annual recital held at the Stafford Centre is a Broadway style production showcasing all of our dancers in beautiful costumes, and is a highly anticipated and entertaining event.
For more information, contact Robin's Dance Studio at 281-499-3921, or visit our website www.robinsdancestudio.com.


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Greeting Card - The World's a Sweeter Place
$3.95 $5.95
Deer Daisy greeting cards are printed using vegetable based inks derived from renewable vegetable oils, Green Electricity and without using toxic chemicals. Deer Daisy's mission is to create beautiful products that are as carbon neutral as possible.
Hand illustrated in Byron Bay by artist and founder Sophie who draws inspiration from simple living and nature. This flows into the earthy and simplistic designs of Deer Daisy stationery.
This sweet card reads "The World's a Sweeter Place because you're in it!" and features an illustration of the earth on top of an ice-cream cone.
Printed on 100% recycled paper.
A6 card and envelope.
Made in Australia.


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"If we destroy Creation,
Creation will destroy us."- Pope Francis
"Everything in excess is opposed to nature." - Hippocrates
"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people." – Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Nothing lasts." - Ken Kesey
Signs Posted - 7,100


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Dear Cyber-Friends,
I've talked before a little bit about my own dealings with depression, but I don't think I ever really touched on one of the causes that kicks off the endless up-and-down cycles I go through with no end in sight. It comes down to simple biology. Not a genetic presupposition for depression, although it's possible that's a factor too. I'm talking about the basic biology be being female-bodied.
Being female-bodied in society has a lot of baggage already attached to it. Things are pretty messed up, to understate the state of things. Everyday in the news there's new reasons and examples of how much life sucks for the female-bodied and female-passing, and it's hard to ignore just how little we're valued as equal people. The issue I'm talking about today is one of the first basic taboo subjects we're all taught to avoid and ridicule from adolescence: our periods. The time of month we cry and bleed and hurt and rage, and around expected to either hide it or be teased about it.
For at least a quarter of every single month of the majority of my life, I can expect my own body to put me through a personal hell of physiological and psychological warfare. Every female-bodied person experiences this time of the month a little differently. For me, starting a little over a week from when the blood comes, I start feeling overwhelmed and helpless and stressed out. I get depressed, I can't focus mentally, I cry at the slightest frustration or emotional response to anything, I just want to stay curled up in bed so I don't have to face anyone while I feel raw and vulnerable and flayed open by my own mind. It's impossible to my usual optimistic and cheerful self. It's like Jekyll and Hyde; I become dark and cynical and sometimes suicidal, feeling hopeless and distracted and unable to cope with any kind of interactions.
This is every month, for one week out of every four. No matter what I do or try.
Recovering from this kind of mental flogging is bad enough, difficult and painful and slow. Usually I have about one good week a month, because I'm beat down by my own body and worn out trying to recover for that long every single month. On top of this, I also get beat up and worn down by the things which are usually called 'cramps', which in my opinion doesn't even come close to describing the endless twisting aching stabbing pain which, lucky me, isn't effected by any pain relief, over-the-counter or prescription. This is the kind of pain that makes me feel like I'm going to throw up all day because it runs so deep in my body, that makes life unbearable while it lasts, that leaves me faint and ill and pale and hunched over if I have to stand up or walk anywhere. This is the kind of pain I'm expected to work through without showing it, because it's the pain of being female-bodied and comes every month and "everyone has to deal with it" so I shouldn't expect special treatment. This is the kind of pain that usually lasts about 24-48 hours, and leaves me weak and shaky for a day or two more after it leaves. Every. Single. Month.
This is considered within the realms of "normal". Oh sure, having some kind of weird immunity to painkillers isn't typical, but that's just a bit of random trivia to other people, a point on which to show a little extra sympathy while still telling me to tough it out and keep working, don't slow down, we all go through this so why are you so weak as to ask for a day off?
There's a lot of messed up expectations in society. Despite people not admitting it, the fact of that matter is that having a menstrual cycle is a lot like having a mental illness with physical symptoms, complete with a lot of the same stigmas, belittling jokes, and daily struggles. The difference is, there's a lot of fight happening right now to increase awareness and understanding about a lot of mental illnesses, and effective or not, there's at least some forms of support networks for a lot of them, too. Not so much so for the things I've been facing and fighting on my own, and I bet that a lot of other female-bodied people are, too. It's a conversation that just isn't happening, and I don't think a lot of people are even aware it's something that should be addressed, because it's so deeply ingrained that periods are normal (yes, they are), and that there's nothing to do about it except put up with it (wrong wrong wrong).
In a perfect world, female-bodied people who suffered through their cycles like I do would be given the support and help they need to take care of themselves during this time. They wouldn't be forced to try and hide the impossible battles they faced. Instead, they would be encouraged to do whatever helped them survive it, up to and including simply not going to work when necessary, or being given options of different tasks they could actually perform during the times they were unable to fully cope with their normal duties. I don't think of this as "special treatment"; I think of it as basic human compassion. If people with physical differences and people with mental differences are worth fighting for to get equal treatment, then so is over half the world population who happens to have both a quarter of their lives because of their biology.
Society has conditioned us all to accept that we don't deserve consideration for the acts of our biology simply because it's something we all experience to various degrees, and that giving in to it is weakness and we must hide it to be considered 'equal' to male-bodied people.
That's utter nonsense.
Hopefully by now you can see how utterly nonsensical it is, and how very far from any kind of real equality it is. I don't have answers on how to fight this battle, or advice on creating awareness and change, or channels for building support. All I have is this blog and my words and my outrage. All I have is the hope this is message will resonate and spread, and that somehow, eventually, the world might become a place where I don't feel like life isn't worth living because of having been born into this body that I mostly try to love.
Keep fighting. Maybe someday a real equality for everyone will be achieved. Until then, we can keep whispering the dream of it into the darkness, a prayer and a wish to attract the sun and a new day into this endless night terror.


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Employment Application
Gill Security is a drug free workplace. Random drug testing is practiced. A pre-hire background check is performed by Gill Security Systems, Inc. At this time Gill Security is accepting applications for technicians and sales reps.
As our company grows, it is important to define the Gill Team core values from which we develop our culture, our brand and our business strategies.
We have six core values that we want to be reflected in everything we do:
- How we interact with our customers
- How we interact with each other
- How we interact with our vendors and business partnersOur Six Core Values
- We honor an old fashion work ethic
- The customer is our priority
- God First – Team Second – Me Last
- Can Do Attitude
- Work and Life Balance
- Continuous Improvement


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Developing World Scholarships
Deadline for application: 17:00 14 February 2020
The purpose of the scheme is to assist citizens of Developing World countries to visit the UK or Ireland to acquire new analytical science knowledge, or experience of analytical science teaching, learning or training methods, which would be applied on return to their Home Country.
The emphasis would be very much on achieving a practical and beneficial impact in their Home Country, rather than on purely academic research.
Downloadable Files
Developing World Scholarships Application Form
Application Form
Word (163k)
Developing World Scholarships
Regulations and further details
PDF (137k)
PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader
Contact and Further Information
Dr Ruth Hearn
Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund Secretary
Tel: +44 (0)1276 489982


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By Kari Paul, MarketWatch
When I decided to travel to Cuba last month, I was fully prepared for a week without the internet. But after losing my phone on the trip, I found out what it's really like to be "off the grid."
Cuba introduced public internet connections a little more than a year ago , and logging on still requires trekking to a fairly unreliable outdoor hot spot and buying an hour-long internet pass (ranging from $1 to $4 an hour depending on how good a deal you get). The couple of times I shelled out cash to connect, I used my precious, slow internet minutes to check in with family and friends on WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook /zigman2/quotes/205064656/composite FB -0.02% and to Instagram some photos of my trip.
I wasn't about to complain about dealing with a week of limited internet access that is somewhat of a luxury for many people in Cuba, and was content to spend my time on the trip off the grid with my best friends and enjoy the incredible cities of Havana and Cienfuegos. When I wanted to contact Cuban friends there, I had to call them with a landline or simply drop by their house to find them — a common practice I grew to appreciate. What I didn't anticipate was that my five-day internet detox would extend to 10 when I lost my phone on the streets of Havana toward the end of my trip.
Being relatively paranoid about my online privacy, I use a series of measures to keep my accounts secure, including a password manager and two-step authentication on many of my accounts. For me, this includes a one-time use code sent to my phone by SMS to verify the person logging into my account is actually me. I have this set up for several of my major accounts, and most importantly both of my personal Gmail accounts. While the practice makes my information more secure, it obviously only works when I have access to my phone, which was difficult to replace through my company's insurance plan while I had no access to internet in a foreign country. Thus, when I returned from my trip I embarked on a four-day adventure in filling out insurance claims and living offline in New York City.
Going to Cuba? Bring lots of cash
Flying to Havana, Cuba anytime soon? Bring lots of cash.Tips for travelers planning a visit to Havana and surrounding cities.
It didn't have to be this difficult: the passwords for my Gmail /zigman2/quotes/205453964/composite GOOG -0.71% accounts were stored on Lastpass, a password manager I use that would allow me to log into accounts on any device — that is, if I hadn't forgotten my master password. Having recently changed it to a longer, more secure code, I was working on memorizing the new password and had unwisely saved it to my MacBook desktop on a digital stickie note. This is both dangerous if my computer were compromised and stupid if something drastic were to happen to the device, which occurred days before I left for my trip in the form of an overturned glass of water directly onto my keyboard. Lastpass does offer an account recovery option, which it sends it to your email — you know, the one I was unable to access without Lastpass.
Gmail also offers ways to avoid predicaments like mine, with alternative second steps to verify an account, like a security key, authenticator app, backup code, or phone call to a different device. I have now discovered that perhaps the most consequential annoying pop-up I have ignored in recent memory is Gmail's prompt to "add a backup phone number so Google has another way to send you verification codes in case your main phone is unavailable." For days I remained in a flimsy security trap of my own making, locked out of Lastpass and all the accounts I had saved to it, and unable to reset any of my passwords without access to my emails.
The effects on my life were immediate and surprisingly sweeping. I entered a lifestyle that, in contrast with my frenetic habits of coping with the usual daily deluge of information, was actually relaxing, and maybe even preferable. Without my phone, I focused on reading books on the subway rather than mindlessly playing Sudoku or flipping through texts and emails. I had more time to go to the gym when I didn't spend 30 minutes falling down a social media wormhole upon arriving home after work. I watched a full movie at my apartment without checking my phone and was able to better appreciate it without the distraction of constant iMessage notifications. I could only access my work email from my desktop computer at the office, so I truly had to leave work at work and could tune out stressful emails while away.
Without access to my personal email or most social media during the day, I had laser focus on my immediate work tasks, free from the distraction of Gchats and personal emails. Luckily, I was able to turn on an old iPad I had planned to sell and recover my iCloud password through a series of security questions, so I wasn't completely cut off from the world, though iMessage seemed to only work if I texted friends first. I also was able to remember my Facebook /zigman2/quotes/205064656/composite FB -0.02% password, so I could contact people there — unusual for me as I tend to avoid Facebook Messenger altogether. Between these changes and the awkward, difficult keyboard on my iPad Air, my group chat habit slowed down pretty significantly and I was forced to reach out directly to friends to catch up on their past week in a one-on-one, more meaningful way.
I quickly realized approximately 99% the emails I had missed were completely useless.
But my internet break wasn't all unplugged bliss. Beyond those two lifelines to the outside world, I still lacked access to countless other services I usually use on a daily basis like Amazon /zigman2/quotes/210331248/composite AMZN -0.41% payment app Venmo, messaging app Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, my virtual bank account, and of course my email.
Having freelanced before recently starting my current position, I still receive a number of news releases, pitches, and Google news alerts for story ideas on my personal email, and I was convinced I was missing loads of important messages. When my phone finally came in the mail and I could reach my main accounts, I had nearly a couple thousand emails, including 1,035 in my main account and 676 in the other. However, I quickly realized approximately 99% of these were completely useless. How many hours have I wasted in my perpetual quest to reach Inbox Zero on all three of my accounts? Surely I could "select all" and delete at the end of most weeks without the false sense of accomplishment that comes with deleting various alerts and newsletters. Having so little access to the internet made me realize just how many of my daily internet habits were unnecessary (and likely saved me a few bucks on Amazon impulse buys).
My slowed-down week offline allowed me to live more deliberately and completely re-evaluate how I use the internet, if only for a few days. Although I have my phone back, I've now deleted most of my social media apps from it, including Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter /zigman2/quotes/203180645/composite TWTR +0.21% and I've muted all of my text and WhatsApp notifications so I can check my phone only when I remember to. The most immediate lessons I've gleaned from my phone debacle are, of course, to keep your master password memorized, or at least in a safe place, and use the backup authentication options suggested by email providers. The other lessons are still sinking in.


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Comentario destacado
Third time we stayed in a Cool Jazz appartement and again it was great! - Habitat apartments reply: Dear Jeroen, Thank you for sharing your feedback regarding your stay. We are all pleased that you have enjoyed it and we look forward to welcoming you back to our apartment in the future.9.0 Jeroen -


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'Mating Habits of Passing Ships' is 11 x 14 inches, print on 'Lustre, Super Type' an archival matte finish with a slight sheen.
Prints are signed and matted.
This is one of five 'Mating Habit' pieces Each painting attempts to depict a different a human connection. In this piece Alex Feliciano is looking at the idealized partner and the story of that search. With manufactured body parts, wind ups, and television you are introduced to characters who ride on paper boats on a sea of light.