“…“Weather is completely changed in Iran now. Massive rains, snow, and temperatures have dropped significantly. Why? Because there’s no more weather engineering after American radars were destroyed in the region,” one such post claimed.

However, a fact-check by X’s AI system Grok labelled these claims as false.

“The heavy rains, snow, and cooler temperatures in Iran right now are real — multiple reports confirm unusual late-April snowfall and flooding after years of drought. But the claim that this is due to ‘weather engineering’ stopping after Iran destroyed U.S. radars is a conspiracy theory,” Grok said…”

~ Full article…

“…A Paris court on Monday began hearings in a major trial involving 22 suspects accused of murder and other serious crimes on behalf of a mafia network inside the Athanor Masonic Lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux. The accused include police officers, former French intelligence agents and businessmen.
(…)
Those in the dock include four military personnel from France’s foreign intelligence service (DGSE), two police officers, a retired domestic intelligence officer, a security guard and two business executives.

They are accused of the murder of a racing driver, the attempted murders of a business coach and a trade unionist, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy – all on behalf of a mafia network inside the former Athanor Masonic Lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux.

Several freemasons from the 20 or so members of the lodge are in the dock.

Most of the accused, aged between 30 and 73, have no previous criminal records.

Five of the suspects are in custody and 16 are under judicial supervision, while one woman is appearing in court as a free person.

The alleged ringleaders are Athanor Freemasons Jean-Luc Bagur, Frédéric Vaglio and Daniel Beaulieu. They face life in jail if convicted.

So does Beaulieu’s right-hand man Sébastien Leroy, who is accused of carrying out the trio’s dirty work himself or through a hit-man network.

The case was triggered by a botched contract killing in July 2020, when two members of France’s parachute regiment were arrested in possession of weapons near the home of business coach Marie-Hélène Dini.

Under questioning, they said they thought they had been asked to murder Dini on behalf of the French state on the grounds that she worked for Israeli spy agency Mossad…”

~ Full article…

“…Crassus wanted military glory to match his wealth and political influence, so in 53 BC he led a Roman invasion of the Parthian Empire, which then ruled much of what is now modern-day Iran.

The campaign was a disaster, one of Rome’s worst military defeats.

Crassus ignored better advice and pushed deep into hostile territory.

Roman infantry was formidable in close combat, but the Parthians refused to fight on Roman terms. They stayed mobile, kept their distance, and rained arrows onto the legions until the Romans were exhausted and collapsing.

Crassus hoped the enemy would eventually run out of arrows. They never did.

He paid for that mistake with his life. His death became famous partly because of the story that the Parthians poured molten gold into his mouth, turning his demise into a lasting warning about arrogance, overreach, and the fatal habit of confusing wealth and status with strategic wisdom.

And yet Rome did not fully absorb the lesson.

More than a century later, Emperor Trajan marched east towards the Parthians, conquering Armenia and Mesopotamia and pushing Roman power to its greatest territorial extent. But Trajan’s victories revealed the same truth Crassus had discovered in blood: invading the region was one thing, holding it was another…”

~ Full article…

“…Is this what war looks like now? Our world has changed over the past two and half years. In the weeks after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel set in motion a machinery of genocide – largely enabled by unwavering US support and powered by impunity and denial – against Gaza, unleashing one of the most destructive military campaigns targeting civilians in modern times. Israel has repeated the Gaza playbook in its war on Lebanon: intense aerial bombardment and illegal mass evacuation orders that lead to the large-scale displacement of civilians; the destruction of civilian infrastructure and border towns to make way for so-called “buffer zones” occupied by Israeli troops; the targeting of hospitals and healthcare workers; and the killing of journalists. And, as it did with Gaza, the west largely looks on with indifference.

Gaza represents a new pinnacle for this type of wholesale destruction as a military strategy, of using overwhelming and disproportionate force against civilians and infrastructure. But the seed of this strategy was planted two decades ago – in a previous Israeli war on Lebanon. That war resulted in Israel’s Dahiyeh doctrine, which calls for the deliberate targeting of civilians and infrastructure as a means of collective punishment that seeks to turn local populations against armed militias. That doctrine played out in full force in Lebanon – and also has made multiple rhetorical appearances in Donald Trump’s threats to destroy societies and civilizations on a large scale.
A peace dove holding an olive branch tries to fly but is weighed down by a heavy metal ball chained to its leg.
A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it
Read more

As long as this impunity continues, this playbook will repeat itself, constituting a new normal where the eradication of infrastructure, agriculture, cities and towns fit for habitation and entire cultures, is acceptable to much of the world as a method of war. The west’s dehumanization of Palestinians – and Lebanese, Iranians and others – has also made it possible for the aggressors to keep committing more abhorrent acts of violence…”

~ Full article…

“…The medical data comes from participants of UK Biobank, the world’s most comprehensive dataset of biological, health, and lifestyle information, compiled from volunteers and used by scientists across the world for research.

Murray said that on Monday, 20 April, the organisation informed the government that they had identified its data being advertised for sale by several sellers on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms in China.

“Biobank told us that three listings that appear to sell UK Biobank participant data had been identified. At least one of these three datasets appears to contain data from all 500,000 UK Biobank volunteers,” Murray added…”

~ Full article…

(Reuters) – “…Meta is installing new tracking software on U.S.-based employees’ computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes for use in training its artificial intelligence models, part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform work tasks autonomously, the company told staffers in internal memos seen ‌by Reuters.

The tool, called Model Capability Initiative (MCI), will run on work-related apps and websites and will also take occasional snapshots of the content on employees’ screens, according to one of the ‌memos, posted by a staff AI research scientist on Tuesday in a channel for the company’s model-building Meta SuperIntelligence Labs team.

The purpose, according to the memo, was to improve the company’s AI models in areas where they struggle to replicate how humans interact ​with computers, like choosing from dropdown menus and using keyboard shortcuts…”

Full article…

“…On November 22, 1963, the same day as the JFK assassination, Mehdi Ben Barka, an anti-colonial politician and head of the left-wing Union of Popular Forces (UNFP) of Morocco, was sentenced to death in absentia for conspiracy to overthrow King Hassan II.

The sentence was carried out two years later in Paris, France, with the assistance of French gangsters and police, the Mossad and its Moroccan affiliate, and probable financing by the CIA.

The Ben Barka assassination, like many political assassinations, had its roots long before Ben Barka was actually abducted and killed in France in 1965.

It began at the end of World War II when the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed relationships with Zionist terrorists and the Kingdom of Morocco.

As FDR informed a favorably impressed Sultan Mohammed V at a dinner party with Winston Churchill in 1943, Morocco had desirable resources, and they would go to the U.S. after the war.
(…)
Just as anti-Castro Cubans and all but the top members of the National Crime Syndicate believed Kennedy was going to be the victim of a “failed” assassination attempt in Dallas, it is possible, even probable, that Lemarchand and the Attia gang did not know in the beginning that they were luring Ben Barka to his death. Most people, including Ben Barka’s student, believed he was negotiating with King Hassan on conditions for return to political life in Morocco.

By1965, when Ben Barka was abducted, Skorzeny had “retired” from the assassination business, whether for the OAS, the CIA or Mossad. After November 22, 1963, he naturally had to stay out of the limelight and was not involved with the Ben Barka assassination. An international conspiracy of Morocco, Israel and their French agents, with funding by the CIA, killed Ben Barka.

As recently as 2015, many believed that Oufkir acted independently of Hassan II when he killed Ben Barka, but the Mossad’s Amit admitted the deed was ordered by the Moroccan king.

Similarly, many in the U.S. today believe—falsely—that rogue CIA elements, the Italian Mafia, and a domestic military clique acted independently of the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and National Crime Syndicate CEO Meyer Lansky in the assassination of President Kennedy.

The assassination of Mehdi Ben Barka in 1965 by reactionary forces, including the colonialist vassal kingdom of Morocco and its Israeli and U.S. allies, is important for the real damage it caused the Trilateral and Non-Aligned movements with lessons for today’s BRICS countries.

The same forces that killed Ben Barka, set back the movement for peace and justice, by striking John Kennedy, Enrico Mattei, Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba and others. De Gaulle and Castro barely escaped…”

~ Full article…

“…Jones, for his part, has responded with hostility. On social media and in recent broadcasts, he accused The Onion of trying to “misrepresent him in an attempt to confuse people and defame him.” In a video posted online, he even claimed that the satirical company is trying to steal his identity: “Just because you’re wearing my shirt doesn’t mean you’re me.” The founder of Infowars has vowed to fight the move in court and continue with his regular program, which could lead to further litigation if the deal gets the green light.

Meanwhile, in The Onion, the message blends irony with a fairly concrete plan. In a message signed by the fictional executive Bryce Tetraeder, the company described its vision of Infowars transformed into a deliberately chaotic space, saturated with “ads,” “scams,” and “free radical misinformation” — an exaggeration that seeks to reflect, through absurdity, the current dynamics of the internet. “The InfoWars of old was only the prototype for the hell I know we can build together,” the message states.

The project also includes a creative twist. Comedian Tim Heidecker has been announced as creative director, with the goal of turning the site into a laboratory for experimental comedy. “I just thought it would be just a beautiful joke if we could take this pretty toxic, negative, destructive force of Infowars and rebrand it as this beautiful place for our creativity,” he explained to The New York Times…”

~ Full article…

“…Ukraine is taking steps to boost its rapidly growing arsenal of war robots, including buying thousands of new ones and pushing to turn over 100% of front-line logistics to robotic systems.

Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced changes to boost the production of ground robots, also known as unmanned ground vehicles, which already help Ukrainian troops carry gear, lay mines, evacuate the wounded, and attack Russian positions.

He said that due to increased demand, Ukraine will contract 25,000 new robots in the first half of this year, double last year’s total…”

~ Full article…

“…The U.S. is Singapore’s largest foreign investor with around 6,000 American companies based in the city-state. Singapore also runs a goods trade deficit with Washington to the tune of about $3.6 billion, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Meanwhile, China has been Singapore’s largest trading partner, and Singapore has been China’s largest foreign investor.

Singapore will “refuse to choose” one over the other, he added. “The way we conduct our affairs is we assess what is in Singapore’s long term national interests, and if I have to say no to Washington or Beijing or anyone else, we don’t flinch from that.”

“We are acting in our own long term national interest. We will be useful, but we will not be made use of,” he added.
‘Choke points matter’

Separately, Balakrishnan also said that said the conflict in the Middle East had shown that “chokepoints matter,” pointing out that Singapore also sits astride one of the world’s critical trade arteries in the form of the Strait of Malacca.

At its narrowest point, the Strait of Malacca is two nautical miles, compared to 21 nautical miles for the Strait of Hormuz.

The minister was also asked if the actions of Iran in trying to extract tolls from ships passing the Strait of Hormuz would be have other countries thinking of also collecting tolls through chokepoints such as the Strait of Malacca…”

~ Full article…