Closer Everyday

China expanding pilot testing of digital yuan to have it ready by 2022

China’s Commerce Ministry announced plans on Friday to expand the pilot program for its sovereign digital currency to include several large cities across the country.

The pilot program will be broadened to cover much of China’s most prosperous regions, such as the capital Beijing and nearby Tianjin municipality and Hebei province in the north; the Yangtze Delta to the south; and along China’s wealthy southern coast, and in Guangdong province and the neighboring cities of Hong Kong and Macau.

Cities in the country’s poorer central and western regions that meet certain requirements will also roll out trials of the digital currency, the ministry said. Internal tests will be conducted in all the cities to improve the currency’s functionality.

In May, the People’s Bank of China revealed plans to have its sovereign digital currency ready in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics. It said that the new currency, which doesn’t have an official name but is known by its internal shorthand DC/EP, or digital currency/electronic payment, will share some features with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra. The digital currency is projected to replace cash in circulation.

https://www.rt.com/business/498012-china-digital-currency-tests/

British govt removes 1.3 MILLION covid-19 tests from official England figures due to alleged ‘double counting’

The British government has once again revised down figures relating to the coronavirus crisis, this time removing some 1.3m coronavirus tests from official data citing apparent “double-counting.”

In a coronavirus update issued on Wednesday, the UK government not only lowered the "tests made available" figure but discontinued the metric altogether, adding further confusion to an already questionable testing system. It marks the latest in a long line of high profile and embarrassing gaffes throughout the country’s coronavirus response.

“An adjustment of -1,308,071 has been made to the historic data for the ‘tests made available’ metric," the report reads, highlighting instances of "double-counting" of test kits issued between May 14 and August 12.

The problem was first acknowledged on July 6 but the incorrect data was only removed on August 12 and comes in parallel to recent downward revisions of covid-19 death tolls recorded in England and Wales.

https://www.rt.com/uk/498004-govt-removes-13mn-covid-tests/

Anybody Remember

The best that could see

He was the executioner, a hangman just like me

I geuss he'd seen loopholes from working with his rope

He'd hung the wrong man many times, so now he turned to hope

But the people only walked away, he couldn't understand

The marshals name was "Uncle Sam", he said he'd right this wrong

He'd make the hangman shut his mouth, if it took him all day long

He finally arrested Freak, and then he sent for me

To hang a fellow hangman, from a fellow hangmans tree

It didn't take them long to try him in their court of law

He was guilty then of "Thinking", a crime much worse than all

They sentenced him to die, so his seed of thought can't spread

And infect the little children, that's what the law had said

So the hangin' day came 'round, and he walked up to the noose

I pulled the lever, but before he fell I cut him lose

They called it a conspiracy, and that I had to die

So to close our mouths and kill our minds, they hung us side-by-side

And now we're two hangmen, hangin' from a tree

Two Hangmen ~ Mason Proffit

Russian Su-27 Fighter Intercepts US Reconnaissance Aircraft Over Black Sea

The incident is the third time Russian jets have intercepted US drones and planes near the border, with three separate cases also reported last week.

The Russian military on Friday announced it had detected foreign aircraft over the Black Sea, approaching the country's borders.

"To identify the targets, a Su-27 fighter from the air defence forces of the Southern Military District was dispatched. The crew of the Russian fighter approached the air targets to a safe distance and identified them as US Air Force RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft and US Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft", the National Defence Centre said.

https://sputniknews.com/military/202008141080170332-russian-su-27-fighter-intercepts-us-reconnaissance-aircraft-over-black-sea/

Russian military aircraft crashes during training flight, crew survives: MoD

BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:40 P.M.) – The Russian Defense Ministry announced that an L-39 training plane had an accident in the southwestern Krasnodar region, and that its two crew members escaped injury.

“An L-39 training plane had an accident while carrying out a training sortie, and the two-person crew were able to leave the plane by parachute, and were not injured,” the Russian Defense Ministry statement said.

The statement indicated that the plane fell over an uninhabited area. The cause of the accident is yet to be determined by the Aviation Safety Committee of the Russian Armed Forces.

It is reported that a plane of the same model L-39 had crashed during a training flight without ammunition in the same Russian province Krasnodar in 2018.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/russian-military-aircraft-crashes-during-training-flight-crew-survives-mod/

CA fire explodes as firefighters battle to save communities

An army of firefighters toiled Thursday morning to prevent a massive fire from consuming communities in the Lake Hughes area after the blaze exploded to more than 10,000 acres in just a few hours Wednesday.

The Lake fire started in the Angeles National Forest near the 5 Freeway and rapidly roared through stands of pine trees. It then moved toward several small communities on the Antelope Valley floor west of Lancaster. On Wednesday night, it burned rapidly to the northeast, toward Highway 138.

The combination of thick vegetation that hasn’t burned in several decades and hot, dry and windy conditions is fueling the fire, according to Seneca Smith, a public information officer with the Angeles National Forest.

By sunrise Thursday, the blaze had chewed through 10,500 acres and destroyed three structures. More than 5,000 buildings remain threatened, according to officials with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

“Current objectives include keeping the fire north of Castaic Lake, south of Highway 138, east of Red Rock Mountain and west of Tule Ridge,” officials wrote in an incident update Thursday morning.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/08/ca-fire-explodes-as-firefighters-battle-to-save-communities/

US suspends private charter flights to Cuba; some flights to Havana are authorized

In the middle of a pandemic, the United States suspended private charter flights to Cuba as a measure to increase pressure and cut off funds going to the Cuban government, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday.

“I requested that the Department of Transportation suspend private charter flights to all Cuban airports, including Havana,” Pompeo said in a statement.

“This action will suspend all charter flights between the United States and Cuba over which the Department of Transportation exercises jurisdiction, except for authorized public charter flights to and from Havana and other authorized private charter flights for emergency medical purposes, search and rescue, and other travel deemed in the interest of the United States,” the statement said.

The measure will take effect Oct. 13, according to a document from the Department of Transportation.

Family travel to Cuba has been severely limited under the current administration.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/08/us-suspends-private-charter-flights-to-cuba-some-flights-to-havana-are-authorized/

>>10285128

Obviously you NEVER read the bible ..An are just talking BULLSHIT..As per usual ….OR..You would know…kekeke

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

US sailor at nuke HQ charged with leaking classified info to Russian

A U.S. Navy IT Chief is facing charges for sharing classified information with a Russian national while he worked at the U.S. military command overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Navy Chief Information Systems Technician Charles T. Briggs has been accused of obtaining an email that contained classified information from a government computer in January of 2019 at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. and sending the information to a Russian national he knew, according to charging documents obtained and reported by Navy Times.

Offutt Air Force Base is the home of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), which oversees the U.S. Military’s arsenal of nuclear weapons. STRATCOM is also responsible for the cybersecurity of the Department of Defense’s Global Information Grid (GIG), which encompasses the military’s communications systems and personnel.

It is not known what type of classified information Briggs shared, but the charges state he shared it “with reason to believe the information could be used to injure the United States or benefit a foreign nation.”

Briggs was stationed Offutt Air Force Base between April of 2018 and July of 2019. The charges say Briggs transmitted U.S. national defense information to at least one Russian national as far back as October of 2018 before also obtaining and sending the classified email in January of 2019. Names for Russian nationals listed in charging documents for Briggs are redacted, so it is not clear how many Russian individuals with which he is alleged to have interacted.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/08/us-sailor-at-nuke-hq-charged-with-leaking-classified-info-to-russian/