IDF brags of waging 'first AI war,' lending credence to view that Gaza serves as testing ground for Israel's fighting techniques

The 11-day flare-up between Israel and Hamas was dubbed the "first AI war" by Israel's military, which bragged about using advanced computing technologies to sift through the staggering amount of intelligence it collects on Gaza.

"For the first time, artificial intelligence (AI) was a key component and power multiplier in fighting the enemy," a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Intelligence Corps said, as cited by Israeli media.

1st "AI War"? The fact that this piece does not mention even 1 incident where AI-enabled decision-support systems or other systems using machine learning algorithms were wrong/made mistakes makes me very skeptical of overall claims in this piece. https://t.co/0pjSJFDBym

— Franz-Stefan Gady (@HoansSolo) May 27, 2021

The elite intelligence Unit 8200 used programs called "Alchemist," "Gospel" and "Depth of Wisdom," to further boost an already overwhelming superiority that IDF has over militants in the blockaded Gaza enclave. AI-powered analysis was applied to vast amounts of data collected through satellite imaging, surveillance cameras, interception of communications and human intelligence, according to the Israeli military.

The volume of intelligence was staggering. The IDF said, for example, that any given point in Gaza was imaged at least 10 times each day during the conflict. The military appears to be happy with what it got out of the algorithms.

The "Gospel" program, for example, flagged in real time hundreds of targets for the Israeli Air Force to strike, while the "Alchemist" system warned Israeli troops of possible attacks on their positions, according to the reports.

Israeli intelligence also claimed its technology allowed mapping with great precision the network of tunnels under Gaza, which were used by Palestinian militants. They said this data had helped secure the killing of senior Hamas commander Bassem Issa, the highest-profile officer killed by the IDF since the 2014 Israeli operation in Gaza, and of several other operatives.

"Years of work, out-of-the-box thinking and the fusion of all the power of the intelligence division together with elements in the field led to the breakthrough solution of the underground," the senior officer said about the purported map.

Critics of Israel will likely not share the IDF's enthusiasm for its AI application milestone, perceiving it as more of a sales pitch. The seemingly-irresolvable conflict with Hamas and the control that Israel has over access to Gaza makes the territory a convenient place to field-test military and security technologies.

https://www.rt.com/news/525058-israel-first-ai-war/

EU, UK, and US join dozens of states in demanding answers over sexual abuse allegations against WHO staff

A joint statement from 53 countries has called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to address “deep concerns” about allegations of sexual abuse, exploitation, and harassment by staff at the agency.

The statement delivered to the WHO’s annual assembly by Canadian Ambassador Leslie Norton called on the UN agency to provide “credible outcomes” to address concerns about sexual abuse allegations made against its staff, and the failure of others to report their actions.

“Since January 2018, we have been raising deep concerns about allegations relating to matters of sexual exploitation and abuse, and sexual harassment, as well as abuse of authority, in regard to WHO activities,” Norton said on Friday.

We expressed alarm at the suggestions in the media that WHO management knew of reported cases of sexual exploitation and abuse, and sexual harassment and had failed to report them.

The remarks on behalf of the 53 signatories come after a media report earlier in May highlighted internal emails from the WHO that suggested the organization’s management was aware of claims made against staff working in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019.

The group statement said that the request for the concerns about abuse to be investigated in a “robust and transparent manner” had been discussed at a meeting of the WHO executive board’s program, budget, and administration committee last week. It also urged the WHO to make cultural changes throughout its organization so as to adequately tackle the problem.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus responded to the joint statement, stating that the organization was “greatly disturbed by these allegations” and making clear that “any form of abusive behavior is totally incompatible with WHO’s mission.”

https://www.rt.com/news/525095-joint-statement-who-sexual-abuse-allegations/

"Defending Trump's Election Lies" - Schumer Slams Senate Republicans For Blocking Jan 6 Commission

As was largely expected, The Senate failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to advance a bill creating a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, voting 54-35 as Republicans invoked the first legislative filibuster of the Biden presidency.

Schumer asked Republicans in a speech on Friday, moments before the vote:

"What are you afraid of, the truth? Are you afraid that Donald Trump’s Big Lie will be dispelled?"

After the vote he whined that Republicans had chosen to defend Trump's election lie.

Sen. Majority Leader Schumer on proposed Jan. 6th commission failing: "This vote has made it official. Donald Trump's big lie has now fully enveloped the Republican Party. Trump's big lie is now the defining principle of what was once the party of Lincoln." pic.twitter.com/i6qV0NnGfX

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 28, 2021

"The Department of Justice is deep into a massive criminal investigation," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) countered.

"I do not believe the additional, extraneous 'commission' that Democratic leaders want would uncover crucial new facts or promote healing. Frankly, I do not believe it is even designed to."

The bill needed 60 votes to advance in the evenly divided Senate, thanks to the chamber’s longstanding filibuster rule.

That means 10 Republicans would have had to vote with all 50 Democrats to allow the bill to proceed.

Only six did: Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), and Ben Sasse (Neb.).

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bovard-bogus-january-6-commission-poses-real-threat-freedom

Effort to Open Debate on Bill to Create January 6 Commission Fails in the Senate – Here are the Republicans Who Voted with Democrats

The GOP finally successfully blocked the Democrats in its first filibuster of the Biden Administration.

The effort to open debate on a bill to create a commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot failed in the senate on Friday in a 54-35 vote.

60 votes were needed to move the bill forward.

Here are the 6 Republican senators who voted with the Democrats in favor of a January 6 commission:

Collins

Murkowski

Romney

Cassidy

Sasse

Portman

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was triggered and feared Friday’s filibuster may be the beginning of a trend of Republicans blocking other bills.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/breaking-effort-open-debate-bill-create-january-6-commission-fails-senate-republicans-voted-democrats/

Revealed: Dr. Fauci Previously Argued For Risky Viral Experiments – Even if The Work Could Lead to a Deadly Pandemic

Dr. Fauci previously argued that conducting risky experiments and manipulating contagious viruses was worth the work, even if a lab accident could lead to a deadly pandemic.

The Australian reported on the newly unearthed comments Fauci made in the American Society for Microbiology in October 2012.

“In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?” Fauci wrote, according to The Australian.

“Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario – however remote – should the initial experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision?

“Scientists working in this field might say – as indeed I have said – that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks.”

Dr. Fauci was grilled by Senator Rand Paul for supporting and funding gain-of-function experiments being conducted in the Wuhan lab

It is clear workers at the Wuhan lab successfully isolated the coronavirus and were actively experimenting with species-to-species transmission.

Fauci lied under oath and claimed the NIH never funded gain-of-function research in the Wuhan institute.

Dr. Fauci not only funded gain-of-function research, we now know that he supported these risky experiments even if the work could lead to deadly zoonotic pandemic.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/revealed-dr-fauci-previously-argued-risky-viral-experiments-even-work-lead-deadly-pandemic/

NEW EVIDENCE Proves Dr. Fauci and CDC Prevented Use of Proven Drug on COVID-19 and HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS DIED — When Will Americans Wake Up?

On December 15th my dear friend Eric found out he had contracted coronavirus at his nursing home. Eric was kept in isolation in his assisted living apartment since March when the pandemic made its way to the US despite the historic efforts by the American president. But after nine months there was an outbreak at his nursing home and Eric caught the virus.

Eric was 81-years-old, he was overweight, diabetic, and was suspected of having Parkinson’s Disease. Eric was in poor health and declining before the virus, he was the exact type of person you would want to protect from this virus that is lethal for seniors and less lethal than the seasonal flu with children and young adults.

When I spoke with Eric he said he felt fine. I asked him what medications he was on since his diagnosis with the coronavirus. I asked him if he was on any prophylactics to assist his recovery from the virus. Eric said their plan was to wait and see. The nursing home did not give ANY medications for coronavirus unless the patient starts to experience symptoms.

This shocked me. How could it be that after nine months and over 300,000 related deaths (at that time) that the medical community had NOTHING for seniors and the obese to help them before the disease could advance and take their life?

Two weeks later when I returned from a trip I heard Eric’s condition had worsened. A day later they put Eric in the hospital. And two days later, on December 31, my dear friend Eric Junger died. He was 81.

It’s been over a year since the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic after originally downplaying the viral threat. It is no secret that both the disease and the response to combat it following this SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in late 2019 have turned our world upside-down. Mandates, lockdowns, and guidelines seem to change every time Dr. Fauci opens his mouth. All of these unprecedented rules were put into place, we were told, to stop the spread of a disease that today is linked to the death of over half a million Americans in just over a year.

You would think that a disease that is a death sentence for the elderly, the obese, those with preexisting conditions, and that has forced children to avoid school, mask up, and get vaccinated would have certainly been faced with ramped-up research into prophylactic and therapeutic solutions since its arrival to the United States. One would think that after all this time there would be a consensus in the hospitals, in the nursing homes, and in other treatment centers on how to treat a Covid positive patient or resident. This is not the case.

There still is no agreed upon treatment plan for elderly patients who catch coronavirus to assist in their recovery.

The CDC and Dr. Fauci have ignored the treatment of the coronavirus unless a patient is under severe stress.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/new-evidence-proves-dr-fauci-cdc-prevented-use-proven-drug-covid-19-hundreds-thousands-died-will-americans-wake/

Pope Francis sending team to investigate whether German diocese mishandled sexual abuse allegations, amid public anger

Pope Francis will dispatch a team to investigate if the Archbishop of Cologne mishandled sexual abuse claims in the Catholic Church. Parishioners have been protesting against the diocese and demanding accountability.

Investigators from the Vatican will visit the Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany in the first half of June to check whether its leader, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, had made “mistakes” in the addressing of the sexual abuse cases, the archdiocese said in a statement on Friday. They will also look at possible failings by Stefan Hesse, the archbishop of Hamburg, who was the former head of personnel in Cologne.

Woelki has been slammed by parishioners for not releasing a report detailing abuse allegations and failing to inform the Vatican about a particular case involving a priest. The cardinal himself had requested an investigation last year and had promised to support the probe. He said he welcomed the fact the Pope wanted “to get his own picture” of the affairs in the archdiocese.

https://www.rt.com/news/525077-vatican-investigation-germany-abuse/

Dishonest MI SOS Warns County Boards They Have NO Authority To Conduct Election Audits…Dominion Warns: Do NOT Transfer Voting Machines To “Unaccredited” Auditors

MI Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is unlikable and untrustworthy.

100 Percent Fed Up – We’ve reported on numerous occasions about the lies that Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has told the media since the November election. Yet, Michigan’s far-left media continues to treat Benson as a public leader with integrity and/or character. Meanwhile, nothing could be further from the truth.

On March 16, Michigan’s crooked Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was again exposed for attempting to affect the outcome of the election when a Michigan judge ruled that Benson did, in fact, direct city clerks to ignore signature matching law on absentee ballots in the 2020 election.

The Democrat SOS was added to the Antrim County, MI voter fraud court case as a defendant by Michigan’s lawless Democrat Attorney General Dana Nessel. Instead of offering help to do a proper audit in Antrim County and thereby alleviating everyone’s fears about a possible rigged election, Benson’s attorney fought tooth and nail to ensure that judge would dismiss Bill Bailey’s case. Matt DePerno, Bill Bailey’s lawyer, has questioned Benson’s pushback on their discovery into what went wrong with the voting machines in the November election since the start of the case.

In December, MI Democrat Secretary of State Benson refused to testify about the election in front of the House Oversight Committee.

“I have concerns that the hearing could further the lies about the election that continues to undermine Michigan voters’ faith in the outcome and are now the rationale to legislatively restrict their voting rights,” Benson said.

Benson appeared on Detroit’s WJR radio one week after the election, where she was asked by conservative host Frank Beckmann why Republican poll challengers were locked out of the process? Instead of answering the host honestly, Benson did what she does best, she lied. Benson lied about how “Detroit Police” had to put “paper” over the windows because the “windows were being broken” by GOP poll challengers who were locked out of the process.

“We welcome transparency,” Benson said while ignoring the blatant attempt to hide the count of military ballots from GOP poll challengers. Benson then accused GOP workers of crossing the line and interfering in the vote-counting process, accusing them of trying to stop voters from casting their ballots simply because they were reacting to being locked out of the process. “But it does cross the line when people get destructive or try to interfere or stop the count, or in other words, stop the process from happening—stop voters from casting their ballots,” she told Beckmann.

134 tables were getting ready to count military ballots. Of that number, only an estimated 40 poll workers were able to watch the ballots being processed. In contrast, over 100 GOP poll challengers were locked outside and unable to participate in the absentee counting process.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/dishonest-mi-sos-warns-county-boards-no-authority-conduct-election-audits-dominion-warns-not-transfer-voting-machines-unaccredited-auditors/

Bill Gates Linked Org. Sends Pretty French Honeypot to US in Effort to Take Down Gateway Pundit — But She Failed Miserably and Flew Back Home

The Gateway Pundit is a top threat to the globalist left.

TGP is one of the fastest-growing news organizations online today.

The Gateway Pundit currently averages over 2.5 million readers a day and is consistently a top 200 US website in total traffic volume thanks to you, The Gateway Pundit readers!

Because of this, we are constantly under assault by the American left, the tech giants, the fake news media and others.

But this was not enough.

The globalist left this week tried a new tactic and sent a pretty French honeypot to America in an attempt to smear and take down The Gateway Pundit.

In April French independent reporter “Paul de Boissieu” wrote a lengthy email to The Gateway Pundit begging for an interview for French independent media. When we did not respond the mysterious “Paul de Boissieu” wrote again a few weeks later to request an interview with The Gateway Pundit. “Paul” said he wanted to speak to The Gateway Pundit to understand how his French audience could learn how to build a successful online platform.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/bill-gates-linked-org-sends-pretty-french-honeypot-us-effort-take-gateway-pundit-failed-miserably-flew-back-home/

Unvaccinated people made to pay $999.99 for Florida concert, while vaccinated pay $18

An upcoming punk concert in St. Petersburg, Florida, is charging attendees who are not vaccinated 55 times more for tickets than those who can prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

The concert, featuring bands Teenage Bottlerocket, MakeWar, and Rutterkin will cost $999.99 for those who have either chosen not to be vaccinated or who cannot get vaccinated, while those who provide proof of vaccination will receive a 98.2% "discount" that reduces tickets prices to just $18.

Posters for the concert feature an image of 'Nightmare on Elm Street' killer Freddy Krueger with needles for fingers and the Leadfoot Promotions booking page advises attendees to bring their "COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card" showing they have had two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

"If you buy one of these advance tickets and show up without your vaccination card or government issued photo id, you won't be let in at this price, you will need to pay the remaining $981.99 to enter or go back and get your card," organizers warn.

The decision was made by concert promoter Paul Williams, who told ABC News that he wanted "to get the fence-sitters off the fence" and to "get their shots."

Critics, however, have argued that the pricing structure is unfair, with one punk fan telling ABC Action News that she was unable to get vaccinated because she had contracted Covid-19 too recently.

"I think it's terrible because not everyone can get the vaccine," she said.

Despite complaints, Teenage Bottlerocket member Ray Carlisle expressed no sympathy for the fan or others in a similar situation, telling them to "put together a Go-Fund-Me" so "all the other weirdo anti-vaxers can help support you going to Teenage Bottlerocket for a thousand dollars."

Though it is illegal for a Florida business to require proof of vaccination from customers and guests, after Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order prohibiting the practice, Williams is attempting to skirt the law by arguing that unvaccinated people will still be allowed in, just at the "full-price" of $999.99.

https://www.rt.com/usa/525076-unvaccinated-concert-made-pay/

Beijing Doubles Down On Claims COVID Leaked From Maryland Military Base

President Biden's decision to give intelligence agencies 90 days to determine the origins of the coronavirus, along with last night's revelation that US intelligence agencies have been sitting on a massive pile of evidence suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has prompted the CCP to fire up its propaganda machine.

In comments made Thursday, a top spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry revived one of the CCP's favorite false narratives from the early days of the outbreak: the notion that the virus was created in the US (not China), and was purposefully deployed by the American military to undermine Chinese society.

Speaking on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian asked the White House to reflect on its own role in the pandemic and not "dump" responsibility on Beijing. He also demanded that Washington provide "an explanation" for a respiratory disease outbreak in northern Virginia, along with the outbreak of the "vaping disease", which occurred shortly before the pandemic began, and has been used in Chinese media to spread uncertainty about the virus's origins.

Citing the 33 million COVID-19 cases in the US and 600K deaths, Zhao asked "How safe is your conscience?"

But mostly, the comments focused on the "unexplained" disease in northern Virginia, and an unsubstantiated claim about a biolab at Maryland's Fort Detrick, which has become a hot topic on China's twitter-like Weibo. The wild claims are based on startling little evidence: the CDC issued a "cease and desist" order to halt operations at the lab over safety concerns. But that hasn't stopped speculation (bolstered by government agents) from festering that the lab might have had something to do with the outbreak.

"I also want to emphasize that the Fort Detrick base is full of suspicions. There are more than 200 biological laboratories in the United States spreading around the world. How many secrets are there?"

Zhao’s comment comes after US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he was giving intelligence agencies 90 days to pinpoint the origins of Covid-19. Biden said his administration would continue to push China to “participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence.”

Reinforcing a statement from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC on Wednesday evening, Zhao called on the US to stop “ignoring facts and science” and refrain from “repeatedly clamoring to reinvestigate China.”

While there's no evidence to substantiate any of these theories, a report by WHO scientists that claimed the "lab leak" theory was possible but unlikely has been discredited in recent weeks, with the WHO promising to undertake another investigation of the virus's origins.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/beijing-doubles-down-claims-covid-leaked-maryland-military-base

Microsoft Claims It Has Found Evidence Of Another Russian-Backed Government Hack

Hackers have made some serious strides in their ability to circumvent corporate system protections in recent years, which is one reason we have seen so many high-profile incidents, including the Colonial Pipeline hack (which further emboldened shadowy criminal groups around the world after the company paid a nearly $5 million ransom). But while the world waits for the US government to hold the shadowy group, known as Darkside, accountable, Microsoft warned in a blog post published Friday morning that it has discovered evidence of another massive government hack that's already underway.

In a blog post published Friday, Microsoft Vice President Tom Burt said this past week’s attack (which is still ongoing) has granted access to about 3K email accounts at more than 150 organizations by infiltrating a digital marketing service used by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) called Constant Contact.

The hackers distributed phishing emails, among them “Special Alerts,” declaring that former President Trump had published new documents on election fraud, and inviting users to view them.

The hackers that infiltrated software vendor Solarwinds succeeded in what Microsoft described as one of the worst data breaches ever to hit the US government. Now, this new cyberattack has infiltrated more than 150 government agencies, think tanks and other organizations. And according to Microsoft, it was carried out by the same people.

This group, which Microsoft calls "Nobelium" is believed to be linked to the same Russian government agency that backed the Solarwinds attack, though Microsoft didn't say much about their reasons for arriving at this conclusion.

While there was no ransomware component to the Solarwinds hack, Microsoft said that at least 25% of the targets of this week's attacks were involved in international development, humanitarian, and human rights work, across at least 24 countries. This suggests the group is more interested in "intelligence gathering efforts" than corporate sabotage.

"These attacks appear to be a continuation of multiple efforts by Nobelium to target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts," the company said.

The US government said last month that SolarWinds was the work of SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service, and said it also went by the names of APT29, which UK intelligence says spent much of last year hacking foreign governments for vaccine research, and Cozy Bear, which was allegedly involved in the 2016 hack of the DNC.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/microsoft-claims-it-has-found-evidence-another-russian-backed-government-hack

WATCH: ‘Pedo Hunter’ Catches Police Officer in the Act of Luring a Child for Sex

Avon, IN — Across the country brave individuals provide a much needed service to society by launching undercover stings to ensnare child predators. These vigilante groups pose as children online and allow the predators to do all the talking as not to entrap them before scheduling a meeting and exposing the pedophiles.

The template for these encounters usually involves the alleged pedophile showing up to meet who they think is a child, and meeting the pedophile hunter instead. This is the same method employed by the highly popular show To Catch a Predator.

In Avon, Indiana one of these groups takes the vigilante approach a step further and has actual undercover models posing as children. PCI: Predator Catchers Incorporated has dozens of videos on their Facebook page in which they ensnare would be child rapists. On May 14, one of these child predators was caught in the act who happens to be a police officer in a neighboring town.

That officer was Portland Police Officer Joshua Clark who was caught on camera meeting a person who he thought was a 14-year-old girl in order to have sex. The encounter was captured on video and streamed live on Facebook.

As the video shows, once he realizes he’s busted, Clark claims he thought the child he was meeting was supposed to be 18-years-old. But Predator Catchers Incorporated had a burner phone with all the officer’s texts on it clearly indicating he knew he was meeting a child.

The incident unfolded on May 13 and after he was exposed, Clark reportedly went into hiding. On May 20, police acknowledged they had been notified about the video and released a statement saying Clark had resigned from the police department.

Police Chief Josh Stevenson noted in the statement that the Avon police department was investigating the incident but they were not “actively seeking” Clark. According to WTHR, Avon officials said they were notified on May 13 that a law enforcement officer from the Portland Police Department had reportedly “attempted to meet up with an underage child to potentially engage in sexual conduct” in Avon.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/pedo-hunter-catches-cop-in-the-act/

New York Times exposes Biden's plan to raise taxes on low- and middle-income Americans to pay for massive $6 trillion budget, breaking his repeated promises

President Joe Biden has repeatedly promised not to raise taxes on people making less than $400,000. It was a staple of his presidential campaign, and he continued to say it after being sworn in.

Most conservatives and honest observers didn't believe him at the time. They saw his agenda, understood the price tag would be huge, and figured higher taxes for everyone would be inevitable.

The New York Times revealed this week that skeptics were right to give his "no taxes" vow the side eye after it obtained Biden administration documents showing the president's actual tax-and-spend plans.

What is the administration planning?

Less than two months into his first term, the president's team already began changing the terms of Biden's promise. No longer would his promise to not raise taxes apply to individuals making less than $400,000 — instead, the threshold would apply to families, CNBC reported.

Now, as the White House prepares to officially present its new budget, it appears that Biden's promise is getting another revision.

The Times reported Thursday that the president's massive new budget, which he will unveil Friday, "would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II."

Biden's budget, which starts with a $6 trillion spending plan for this year, would increase total annual spending to $8.2 trillion by 2031.

A spending plan that large will naturally require higher taxes — a fact the Times acknowledged, saying that the plan includes raising taxes on corporations and high earners.

But everyone knows that won't be enough to cover all the new spending, particularly since the administration has said the "jobs and families plan would be fully offset by tax increases over the course of 15 years," the Times noted.

So, where will those extra tax dollars come from?

The Times exposed what the text of the documents it obtained: tax hikes for all income levels.

"The documents forecast that Mr. Biden and Congress will allow tax cuts for low- and middle-income Americans, signed into law by President Donald J. Trump in 2017, to expire as scheduled in 2025," the Times reported. "Mr. Biden has said he will not raise taxes on people earning less than $400,000 a year. It is possible that he could propose to extend the Trump tax cuts for those earners in a future budget, potentially coupled with additional tax increases on high earners or businesses."

But there are zero reports of any such proposal even being discussed by this White House.

Republicans blasted the massive budget plan and the coming tax hikes for middle and lower incomes.

"President Biden's budget blunder sets us up for an even worse economic recovery than the Obama-Biden record of the slowest in history," House Ways and Means ranking Republican Kevin Brady (Texas) said, according to the Times. "Lower- and middle-income families are already suffering under the stealth tax of higher prices. Now the president wants their income taxes to go up as well."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/times-biden-tax-hikes-budget

Hackers Behind SolarWinds Attack Target 150 Organizations in New Cyber Campaign

Microsoft said the hackers behind the SolarWinds cyberattack have launched a fresh campaign targeting over 150 government agencies, think tanks, and non-governmental organizations.

The Russian-based hacking group, which goes by various names including Nobelium, launched the new attack after gaining access to an email marketing service used by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Microsoft said in a Thursday blog post.

After accessing USAID’s email marketing account, the hackers distributed phishing emails that contained a link to a malicious file that enabled data theft and infection of other computers, according to Tom Burt, Microsoft vice president of customer security and trust.

“Nobelium, originating from Russia, is the same actor behind the attacks on SolarWinds customers in 2020. These attacks appear to be a continuation of multiple efforts by Nobelium to target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts,” Burt wrote in the post.

The campaign targeted some 3,000 email accounts across over 150 organizations, Burt wrote. While most of the targets were in the United States, the attack spanned at least 24 countries, he added.

Cybersecurity firm Volexity, which also tracked the attacks, wrote in a post that it believes the operation was likely launched by APT29, a so-called “advanced persistent threat” Russian hacker group believed to be associated with Russian intelligence services. The group has various nicknames, including Cozy Bear, Nobelium, and Dark Halo.

“While Volexity cannot say with certainty who is behind these attacks, it does believe it has the earmarks of a known threat actor it has dealt with on several previous occasions,” the cybersecurity firm wrote, noting a number of attack attributes used in this campaign that were consistent with previous tactics used by APT29.

“After a relatively long hiatus with no publicly detailed spear phishing activity, APT29 appears to have returned,” Volexity wrote, adding that the files used in the attack have “relatively low static detection rates,” which “suggests the attacker is likely having some success in breaching targets.”

A previous hack of information technology company SolarWinds, which was identified in December, has been attributed with a high degree of confidence to the Russian intelligence-linked APT29 group.

The United States and Britain have blamed Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, successor to the foreign spying operations of the KGB, for the SolarWinds hack, which compromised nine U.S. federal agencies and hundreds of private sector companies.

This month, Russia’s spy chief denied responsibility for the SolarWinds cyber attack but said he was “flattered” by the accusations that Russian foreign intelligence was behind such a sophisticated hack.

News of the fresh wave of cyberattacks attributed to APT29 comes weeks after a May 7 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline shut the United States’ largest fuel pipeline network for days, disrupting supply, sending gasoline prices soaring, and driving panic buying at the pumps.

https://www.ntd.com/hackers-behind-solarwinds-attack-target-150-organizations-in-new-cyber-campaign_619937.html

Blacklisted Chinese Surveillance Equipment Companies Secure Regional US Governments as Customers

More than 300 different U.S. government organizations—among them city, county, and town governments, as well as school—have purchased cameras and surveillance systems from two blacklisted Chinese tech companies since August 2019, according to government contract data.

The two companies are Hikvision and Dahua Technology, and their recent business deals with U.S. local governments were reviewed by IPVM, a Pennsylvania-based video surveillance research firm, based on government contracts obtained through GovSpend, a technology company based in Florida. On May 24, IPVM published its findings in partnership with TechCrunch.

Buying equipment and services from Hikvision and Dahua is an issue due to cybersecurity and human rights concerns associated with the two tech companies. In fact, federal agencies are prohibited from buying from the two companies due to significant national security risks outlined under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2019. The prohibition went into effect in August 2019.

Hikvision and Dahua were also among a group of China-based companies added to the U.S. Commerce Department’s blacklist in October 2019 over their roles in supporting the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses in China’s far-western Xinjiang region. U.S. companies are required to apply for a special government license before they can do business with blacklisted companies.

The Chinese regime’s crackdown on ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang—subjecting them to abuses including torture, sterilizations, political indoctrination, and forced labor—has been denounced as “genocide” by Canada, the Netherlands, the UK, and the United States.

Most recently in March, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated Hikvision and Dahua as companies posing a threat to U.S. national security. Three other Chinese companies receiving the same designation were Huawei, ZTE, and Hytera Communications.

Despite the NDAA ban and federal warnings, Hikvision and Dahua have continued to make inroads into the U.S. market at the state and local level. Regional governments are only prohibited to use federal funds to buy from the two companies.

According to IPVM, one of the biggest spenders was Baldwin County school district in Alabama, which spent over $1 million to buy 144 Hikvision thermal cameras from a local supplier in July 2020. These cameras were to be installed at 48 local schools to screen people for fever.

In August last year, the Fayette County Public Schools in Georgia paid $494,000 for 70 thermal cameras. In the following month, the school district confirmed to IPVM that all purchased cameras were operational at all of its schools.

https://www.ntd.com/blacklisted-chinese-surveillance-equipment-companies-secure-regional-us-governments-as-customers_619872.html