China sanctions bosses of US weapons contractors

Beijing accused Boeing and Raytheon of involvement in a $1.1 billion arms deal with Taiwan

CEOs of two US weapons manufacturing giants over their involvement in arms sales to Taiwan. The news was confirmed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday. It comes two weeks after Washington announced a $1.1 billion arms package to the island, the largest US-Taiwan deal under the Joe Biden administration.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, explained that US arms sales to the island, which China considers its territory, “seriously violate” the so-called 'One China' policy and existing agreements between the US and China.

“To defend China’s sovereignty and security interests, the Chinese government has decided to sanction Gregory J. Hayes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Raytheon Technologies Corporation, and Theodore Colbert III, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, who were involved in the latest arms sale,” she said without elaborating on what kind of sanctions would be imposed.

According to Reuters, Boeing is the principal contractor for Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and Raytheon for Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and radar systems equipment included in the sale.

Raytheon, along with Lockheed Martin, has been subject to Chinese sanctions since February, when Washington announced the sale of $100 million worth of Patriot missile system upgrades to Taipei.

Mao Ning reiterated a call for Washington to stop all arms supplies to Taiwan and “to stop creating factors that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait.”

She stressed that her country would continue to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and security interests. The US insists that its massive arms packages are not in breach of the “One China” policy and would simply help Taiwan to maintain a proper self-defense capability.

Tensions between the US and China soared following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei in August. China responded by conducting large-scale military drills in proximity to the island. This, in turn, prompted Washington to send a fleet of cruisers to the Taiwan Strait.

Despite the strained relationship with China, the US Senate approved on Wednesday a bill that would allocate $4.5 billion in security assistance for Taipei over four years.

https://www.rt.com/news/562946-china-sanctions-bosses-us-weapons-contractors/

TikTok Executive Refuses to Answer When Asked Repeatedly About CCP Data Sharing

https://youtu.be/vQsvXa4dj34

Facebook Spied On Private Messages Of "Conservative Right-Wing Individuals", Then Reported To FBI For Domestic Terrorism

According to DOJ whistleblowers, Facebook has been spying on Americans' private messages and reporting them to the FBI if they express 'anti-government or anti-authority' statements - including questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 US election.

As the New York Post's Miranda Devine writes, "Under the FBI collaboration operation, somebody at Facebook red-flagged these supposedly subversive private messages over the past 19 months and transmitted them in redacted form to the domestic terrorism operational unit at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, without a subpoena."

"It was done outside the legal process and without probable cause," said one of the whistleblowers, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Facebook provides the FBI with private conversations which are protected by the First Amendment without any subpoena."

According to one Post source, "They [Facebook and the FBI] were looking for conservative right-wing individuals. None were Antifa types."

The Facebook users whose private communications Facebook had red-flagged as domestic terrorism for the FBI were all “conservative right-wing individuals.”

“They were gun-toting, red-blooded Americans [who were] angry after the election and shooting off their mouths and talking about staging protests. There was nothing criminal, nothing about violence or massacring or assassinating anyone.

…

Some of the targeted Americans had posted photos of themselves “shooting guns together and bitching about what’s happened [after the 2020 election]. A few were members of a militia but that was protected by the Second Amendment …-NY Post

Once flagged, the private messages were farmed out as "leads" to FBI field offices around the country, which would then reach out to that area's US Attorney's Office to legally obtain the private conversations they had already been shown.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/facebook-spied-private-messages-conservative-right-wing-individuals-then-reported-fbi

Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer Admits Deep State Exists – Insists They Are “Honoring The Constitution and the Laws of this Country”

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD):

"[Republicans] have made it quite clear they want to eliminate what they call the Deep State. The Deep State is a cadre of professionals dedicated to honoring the Constitution and the laws of this country."

One user commented, “Broke: “The Deep State is a right-wing conspiracy”, Woke: “The Deep State is real and a good thing”

Another user responded, “We’ve gone from the deep state is a conspiracy theory, to the deep state is made up of patriots, real fast.”

“There’s so many things wrong with the statement but I’ll just focus on one: the administrative state and the deep state actors that come out of it do not respect the constitution. Everything about them is the antithesis of the constitution as intended by the founders,” another user tweeted.

“You stand with the criminals of the deep state that is above the law? That is very telling as to your character sir. Disgusting when we see how it is destroying our country by ignoring real crimes and chasing after people they don’t like. That is not constitutional sir,” another user replied.

It can be recalled that the FBI was scouring the comments at The Gateway Pundit, other conservative websites, and social media.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/09/democrat-rep-steny-hoyer-admits-deep-state-exists-says-cadre-professionals-dedicated-honoring-constitution-laws-country-video/

Customs and Border Protection: “Massive Database Can Be Accessed By 2,700 CBP Officers Without Warrant”

During a congressional hearing this summer, the leader of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed that 2,700 of its officers have access to travelers’ seized electronic devices without a warrant. Laptops, phones, tablets and other electronic devices are seized as part of the screening process for entry to the US and as many as 10,000 devices are seized each year from travelers.

In the letter, Wyden writes”Innocent Americans should not be tricked into unlocking their phones and laptops. CBP should not dump data obtained through thousands of warrantless phone searches into a central database, retain the data for fifteen years, and allow thousands of DHS employees to search through Americans’ personal data whenever they want.”

The Daily Mail reports:

Thousands of US government officials have unlimited access to as many as 10,000 devices which are seized from travelers moving across the country.

Electronic devices such as cellphones, iPads and laptops taken from those going through airports, seaports and border crossings are being mined for data.

The leader of the Customs and Border Protection told congressional staff that the massive database can be accessed by 2,700 CBP officers without a warrant.

During a briefing, which took place in the summer, officials also said that the data is maintained for 15 years.

It has raised alarms in Congress about what the government is using the information or, with many of the devices taken from people not suspected of any criminal activity.

Details of the database were revealed on Thursday in a letter from Senator Ron Wyden to CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.

He criticised the agency for ‘allowing indiscriminate rifling through Americans’ private records’ and called for stronger privacy protections.

Currently the CBP have the authority to conduct a ‘basic search’, which includes looking and scrolling through the device.

Anyone who refuses to unlock their phone for the process can have it confiscated for up to five days.

On Thursday, CBP spokesman Lawrence “Rusty” Payne said that the agency conducts “border searches of electronic devices in accordance with statutory and regulatory authorities” and has imposed rules to ensure the searches are “exercised judiciously, responsibly, and consistent with the public trust.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/09/customs-border-protection-massive-database-can-accessed-2700-cbp-officers-without-warrant/

Germany Seizes Control Of Russian-Owned Oil Refineries

German officials said Friday that Berlin has taken control of three Russian-owned refineries located in Germany in a scramble to shore up energy security before the planned embargo on oil imports from Russia kicks in and further squeezes energy supplies.

Germany’s Economy Ministry said in a statement on Sept. 16 that Rosneft Deutschland GmbH and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH will be put under the administration of Germany’s Federal Network Agency.

With the move, German authorities will also assume control of Rosneft’s shares in three refineries—PCK Schwedt, MiRo (Karlsruhe), and Bayernoil (Vohburg), the ministry said.

Rosneft Deutschland is one of the biggest oil-processing companies in Germany, holding a total of around 12 percent of German oil refining capacity.

The takeover “counters the impending risk to the security of the energy supply, and lays a key foundation stone for the maintenance and future of the Schwedt operation,” the ministry said. Schwedt supplies some 90 percent of Berlin’s fuel.

European Scramble to Bolster Energy Security

The decision to seize control of Rosneft Deutschland is Germany’s latest attempt to stabilize the energy market, which has been rocked by disruptions stemming from Western sanctions on Russian energy and Moscow’s retaliation by curbing flows.

Russian energy firm Gazprom’s move to suspend gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline at the end of August highlighted the prospect of gas shortages to generate electricity and heat households as winter approaches.

The German government said this week it would boost lending to companies at risk of being impacted by soaring gas prices.

‘In It for the Long Haul’

Governments across Europe have been racing to secure fuel deliveries and bolster their power providers and as they intensify sanctions on the continent’s major energy supplier, Russia, over its invasion of Ukraine.

The European Union has declared it would ban Russian oil imports by the end of 2022, even without an alternative source of cheap energy.

“We are in it for the long haul,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sept. 14.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/germany-seizes-control-russian-owned-oil-refineries

Former Nevada deputy attorney general charged with 1972 fatal stabbing of teen girl

On Wednesday, a former Nevada deputy attorney general was arrested and charged in the 1972 cold-case murder of a teenage girl.

Fifty years ago, 19-year-old Nancy Anderson had recently graduated from high school and moved to Hawaii, the New York Post reported.

On January 7, 1972, police discovered Anderson dead inside her apartment. The young woman had been gruesomely attacked and suffered more than 60 stab wounds.

Police questioned knife salesmen who had been to Anderson’s apartment hours before her death. The men provided their fingerprints to detectives and agreed to polygraph tests. The police also questioned Anderson’s former boyfriends and the apartment’s property manager.

The cold case was reopened multiple times over the decades. Many suspects were investigated, but despite law enforcement’s best efforts to close the case, they could not identify the murderer.

It was not until December 2021 that authorities received a new tip recommending an investigation into Tudor Chirila Jr., a former Nevada deputy attorney general.

Chirila’s background

Chirila was a successful attorney in Reno, Carson City, and the Lake Tahoe area. He became Nevada’s deputy attorney in the late 1970s.

In 1998, Chirila was indicted for his role in defrauding the government in bankruptcy proceedings involving the Mustang Ranch, a brothel in Nevada.

Joe Conforte, the boss of the brothel, had his business seized by the IRS. Conforte was accused of attempting to defraud the government and regain ownership of the business by purchasing it back under the hidden ownership of another company.

Chirila acted as the president of the company A.G.E. Corp., and Conforte was allegedly the hidden owner of the company. In 1990, Chirila and the company illegally bought the brothel from the IRS. In court, the attorney testified that he knew Conforte owned A.G.E. Corp.

Chirila’s suspected involvement in Anderson’s murder

Following the tip to investigate Tudor Chirila Jr. for the 1972 murder, police collected a DNA sample from his son, John Chirila, in March 2022. Authorities confirmed that John’s DNA matched that of the biological child of the person whose DNA was found in Anderson’s apartment.

With that new evidence, authorities secured a search warrant and collected a DNA sample from Tudor Chirila Jr. on September 6.

The now 77-year-old man attempted suicide two days after police collected the sample. On Wednesday, he was arrested in Reno and charged with second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of Nancy Anderson.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/former-nevada-deputy-ag-charged-murder

Child Sentenced for Killing Her Rapist Trafficker Crowdsources $450K to Pay Restitution

It is more than enough to pay the child rapist's family and help her start a new life.

Des Moines, IA — As TFTP recently reported, Pieper Lewis, 17, does not deny grabbing a knife and stabbing Zachary Brooks 30 times in June of 2020. She has admitted as much. Lewis does, however, deny that her actions on that fateful night were illegal. Brooks' death, according to Lewis, was entirely just as he was a rapist child trafficking pedophile and Lewis was his child victim.

Lewis was facing down more than a decade in a cage for acting in self-defense against her child trafficker but on Tuesday, she was sentenced to probation — escaping the horrid fate of spending the end of her adolescence in a concrete cell for defending herself. Though she escaped prison time, the court somehow deemed it just to require her to pay restitution to the family of the man who brutally raped and trafficked her when she was a child.

When her high school teacher, Leland Schipper saw Lewis on the news, he was shocked. He described Lewis as a well-liked "extremely kind, sweet and very funny" 15-year-old he taught freshman math to at Des Moines Lincoln High School.

Schipper, according to the Des Moines Register, said he was "flabbergasted and outraged" that she was charged while no action has been taken against the men involved, noting that, but for their actions, the "anger and trauma" her violent act belied wouldn't have taken place. We agree.

This travesty of justice motivated Schipper, who then took action after Lewis was run through the court.

The Iowa teen was sentenced Tuesday to pay $150,000 in restitution to Brooks' family, so her Schipper, her former math teacher launched a GoFundMe Campaign to help Lewis out. The campaign exceeded all expectations and as of the writing of this article, it has surpassed $450,000 — more than enough to pay the child rapist's family and help Lewis start a new life.

As we reported at the time, on the night she killed Brooks, who was 37, Lewis was just 15 years old. He had just raped her and it was one of many rapes she'd endured as the teen had been trafficked for months prior.

Despite the facts of the case, Brooks was charged with first-degree murder. Even prosecutors have admitted it and do not dispute claims that Lewis was raped and trafficked by Brooks and others. Yet they still sought to lock her up.

The Des Moines register reports that Lewis, who graduated from high school in July while in juvenile detention, agreed to plead guilty in adult court in June 2021 to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury. As stated above, she was facing a 10 year sentence and fortunately received probation.

As a young teenager, Lewis life began to fall apart when her abusive parents got divorced. Her mother verbally and physically abused Lewis, leading to the teen running away. According to court documents, when she ran away the first time, Lewis was raped and when she returned home to tell her mother about it, her mother blamed her.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/be-the-change/child-sentenced-for-killing-her-rapist-trafficker-crowdsources-450k-to-pay-restitution

NBC News Asks Twitter, TikTok to Censor Videos of John Fetterman Speaking

NBC News falsely claimed that footage of John Fetterman struggling to speak during a recent rally was “doctored” and urged social media companies to censor. Fetterman, who suffered a stroke earlier this year, has struggled with public speaking while recovering, something the senate hopeful has himself admitted to. The outlet flagged videos of Fetterman speaking to Twitter and TikTok, baselessly claiming that they were in violation of their political misinformation policies. TikTok complied and removed the videos.

NBC News took issue with highlight reels of a recent Montgomery County rally in which Fetterman struggled through parts of his speech. The outlet accused one prominent conservative social media account of deceptively editing video of speeches to “create the perception that what he was saying was nonsensical.”

In case you were wondering why John Fetterman’s handlers won’t let him debate… pic.twitter.com/YXTkoweNBz

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 12, 2022

The report accused social media platforms of ignoring their own policies “against political misinformation” in allowing the videos to stay up.

NBC News Deputy Editor of technology Benjamin Goggin wrote, “Deceptively edited videos that have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter and TikTok exaggerate the speech issues that have plagued John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat, after he had a stroke in May.”

Explaining the alleged edits, Goggin claimed they consisted of “cutting out the sound of the audience to make it appear as if he had abruptly stopped speaking (some of the stops occurred when he was pausing during moments of applause and crowd reaction, according to unedited videos seen by NBC News).”

The NBC News reporter singled out popular digital strategist Greg Price, whose supercut of Fetterman’s speech had been 600,000 times when the report was published.

Goggin claimed that the videos violate Twitter and TikTok’s policies “against political misinformation,” and the outlet flagged these videos for the platforms itself. TikTok ultimately removed the videos from its platform.

“So NBC News decided to accuse me of doctoring videos of John Fetterman that I posted. (I didn’t doctor anything),” Price wrote in a tweet. “They also reached out to Twitter to try and get them censored.”

So NBC News decided to accuse me of doctoring videos of John Fetterman that I posted. (I didn't doctor anything)

They also reached out to Twitter to try and get them censored.

And the bastards didn't even include my full comment! pic.twitter.com/Sq1LtxNa1R

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 14, 2022

“Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment. TikTok removed the videos that NBC News flagged to it, citing its ‘integrity and authenticity’ policy, which includes rules about misinformation,” Goggin reported.

Fetterman himself has admitted that he sometimes struggles with speaking while recovering from his stroke. “As I recover from this stroke and improve my auditory processing and speech, I look forward to continuing to meet with the people of Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said when he declined a debate with Dr. Mehmet Oz last month.

Fetterman’s team dodged debate challenges from the Oz campaign for weeks, though Fetterman has finally agreed to a debate in late October, deep into Pennsylvania’s early voting period.

https://nationalfile.com/nbc-news-asks-twitter-tiktok-to-censor-videos-of-john-fetterman-speaking/

https://nationalfile.com/nbc-news-asks-twitter-tiktok-to-censor-videos-of-john-fetterman-speaking/

Massachusetts Gov. Activates National Guard, Sends Martha’s Vineyard Illegal Immigrants to Military Base

The Massachusetts governor’s office announced Friday that dozens of illegal immigrants who were transported to Martha’s Vineyard will be taken to a military base in Cape Cod, while some members of the National Guard will be activated.

The move comes as video footage and photos show the illegal aliens—of mostly Venezuelan descent—being transported on several buses from the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Martha’s Vineyard, a Massachusetts island that is popular among the rich and powerful Democrats.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s office announced Friday that it is going to mobilize 125 members of the National Guard and said that families and individuals will be housed at the Joint Base Cape Cod.

“We are grateful to the providers, volunteers, and local officials that stepped up on Martha’s Vineyard over the past few days to provide immediate services to these individuals,” Baker said in a statement. “Our administration has been working across state government to develop a plan to ensure these individuals will have access to the services they need going forward, and Joint Base Cape Cod is well equipped to serve these needs.”

The move by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, sparked outrage among left-wing commentators and pundits on social media. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, claimed the Department of Justice should investigate DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on human trafficking charges busing illegal immigrants.

But DeSantis argued Thursday that the Biden administration has failed in its duty to secure the border, while Abbott said that New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are suitable locations for illegal immigrants due to their “sanctuary city” status. After the Martha’s Vineyard deployment, few Democrats made mention of the crisis that’s emerged along the U.S.–Mexico border or the White House’s immigration policies.

https://www.ntd.com/massachusetts-gov-activates-national-guard-sends-marthas-vineyard-illegals-to-military-base_841831.html

The EU is Speeding Towards Digital ID, Currency, and Biometric Systems for Tracking Citizens.

A consortium of six European nations is pushing for a new, digital, cross-border payment system which ultimately aims to combine the EU Digital Identification program with a digital euro.

The NOBID (Nordic-Baltic eID) project – which is comprised of the governments of Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia and Norway – is being supported by multinational banks, large technology firms, and other government agencies from across Europe.

NOBID’s website describes the project – which sounds eerily similar the kinds of social credit system used by countries like Communist China – as the brainchild of the unelected European Commission.

“The payment use case is recognized as a key use case based on several rationales, one being the potential extension to the Digital Euro,” they claim. In its current stage, the project will likely link national bank accounts to the centralized application, and will act as intermediary between banks and merchants.

Since the Digital Euro has not yet been deployed and is slowly looking to enable its application in a peer-to-peer framework, and such projects can drastically help to advance final implementation. A prototype phase for the ECB issued Digital Euro currency might be utilized by the end of 2023.

Tor Alvik, project manager of the consortium said, “We are hugely excited to turn the EU vision into a reality and make smoother, more readily available ID services possible for all,” effectively confirming the link between both the EU DigitalID System and the Digital Euro.

The European Digital Identity, in development since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, integrates various aspects of personal identifiers including birth certificates, medical documents, bank accounts, tax returns, education status, and prescriptions. As The National Pulse has previously reported, the goal for the EUiD is to act as the central authority for identification for both physical and digital world.

Various consortiums and companies across Europe are already developing numerous projects as a second layer to the EU Digital ID system and expanding its capabilities. One company for example, iProov, is focused on biometric authentication systems which patented important biometric ID tools used by various governments and corporates. The company specializes in deepfake threat detection, passwordless authentication, facial recognition, vaccine status verification, and more. iProov is also part of the NOBID consortium.

With more services integrated on top of the EUiD, concerns are growing about threats to privacy and individual liberty. Given the developments that took place during COVID, people across Europe have experienced major violations of their personal freedoms – which were dictated by technocratic leadership on both national and supranational levels.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/09/16/the-eu-is-speeding-towards-digital-id-currency-and-biometric-systems-for-tracking-citizens/

anyone else having image posting issues?

Hillary Clinton: Sending Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, NYC, D.C. Is ‘Literally Human Trafficking’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Republican governors flying and bussing migrants to Washington, D.C., New York and Martha’s Vineyard was “literally human trafficking.”

Co-host Joe Scarborough said, “Let’s talk about the news of the day first and a place that you know and love very, very much, Martha’s Vineyard, what I’ve been calling political human trafficking, taking advantage of migrants who are already suffering, who are trying to figure out the best way forward, who are fleeing terrible situations being used as political props to own the libs and being treated horribly. They wind up actually in a place like Martha’s Vineyard. What happens? The doors of the churches fly open, the doors of the community halls fly open, and the people of Martha’s Vineyard are so grateful to be able to lend a helping hand. What does that mean for you personally?”

Clinton said, “Well, I think, Joe, you have laid out the craziness of the time in which we are living, where some politicians would rather not only have an issue but exacerbate it to the extent of literally human trafficking.”

She continued, “So many other Americans, I happen to believe still the majority of Americans are good-hearted and generous, and when people end up on their doorstep in need, they’re going to respond. They’ll feed them and house them, and the kids in the AP Spanish class will be let out of high school so they can go and translate.”

Clinton added, “What we should have been doing is to come together to reform change and better fund the system by which we deal with these issues. But some people, like the governor of Texas, would rather have an issue than be part of a solution.”

http://www.yourdestinationnow.com/2022/09/hillary-clinton-sending-migrants-to.html

Twitter could face billions in fines over not protecting minors from porn: ex-FTC officials

Twitter has reportedly failed to adequately police underage pornography across its social network — a mess posing the risk of a federal investigation that could cost the company billions of dollars in fines, The Post has learned.

The embattled social media site — which is in the middle of a court battle with Elon Musk to enforce an agreement to sell him the company for $44 billion — may have broken a so-called consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission when the company reportedly found in an internal study this year that it doesn’t adequately stop underage users from viewing and uploading porn, two former FTC officials told The Post.

Specifically, Twitter executives reportedly found in an internal study the company lacked adequate controls to prevent underage users from both accessing and uploading pornography, according to an Aug. 30 story in the Verge, which cited an internal Twitter team’s findings. Unlike other major social media companies, Twitter allows porn on its site.

The internal researchers reportedly said the site also is unable to consistently detect banned content such as child porn, revenge porn and non-consensual “upskirt” photos once it’s uploaded to the site.

“Twitter cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale,” the researchers wrote in April, according to the Verge.

While regulators haven’t publicly reacted to the report thus far, Twitter’s failures could run afoul of its commitments under a consent decree signed in 2011, which requires that Twitter “shall not misrepresent” the extent to which it protects the security and privacy of users, former FTC officials said. The alleged problems with porn moderation could qualify as undisclosed user privacy and security problems, according to the officials.

Spokespeople for Twitter and Musk declined to comment. The FTC did not respond to a request for comment.

In response to the Verge story, Twitter said that it has “zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation.”

“We aggressively fight online child sexual abuse and have invested significantly in technology and tools to enforce our policy” the company added. “Our dedicated teams work to stay ahead of bad-faith actors and to help ensure we’re protecting minors from harm — both on and offline.”

‘No hesitation’

In an exclusive interview with The Post, former FTC Chairman William Kovacic called for the FTC, which he noted has a mission to protect consumers, to immediately investigate the allegations. He said Twitter could be hit with a fine in the range of $5 billion if it is found to have violated the consent decree by failing to protect underage users.

“There should be no hesitation,” Kovacic said of a potential FTC investigation.

Kovacic was one of five FTC commissioners who inked the 2011 consent decree — which followed a pair of major hacks that the FTC blamed on “serious lapses in the company’s data security” — requiring Twitter to not mislead consumers about safety and privacy. It remains in effect until 2031.

Another former FTC official, who asked not to be named, also told The Post that Twitter’s alleged underage porn problem should immediately be probed by the agency, which is currently led by anti-Big Tech hardliner Lina Khan.

Underage users’ access to porn had been a priority for the FTC when it drafted the 2011 consent decree, but it appears the company hasn’t done enough to live up to its commitments, the ex-FTC official said.

If Twitter can’t “control” which users view or upload porn, the ex-FTC official added, “then it’s reasonable to conclude that they would be in violation of the 2011 prohibition not to misrepresent security and privacy of users.”

Kovacic said the FTC fines a company based partly on how long it hasn’t complied with a consent decree. If the agency determines that Twitter has been out of compliance for more than 10 years, he said the fine could be in the $5 billion range — roughly equal to Twitter’s entire 2021 revenue.

https://nypost.com/2022/09/15/twitter-could-face-billions-in-fines-over-not-protecting-minors-from-porn-ex-ftc-officials/

Multiple whistleblowers come forward about Jan. 6 intel failures at Capitol, congressman reveals

Rep. Rodney Davis says whistleblowers raised "red flags" about security failures and faced retaliation.

Multiple whistleblowers have come forward to Congress alleging the Capitol Police had significant intelligence warnings about violence on Jan. 6 and the department failed to create the proper security plan, a key lawmaker tells Just the News.

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, which oversees Capitol security, confirmed the whistleblowers after a Just the News report on Tuesday revealed that former Capitol Police intelligence analyst Eric Hoar wrote a stinging email to his leadership three days after the Jan. 6 riots alleging widespread failures to react to the pre-riot intelligence warnings.

Davis said several of those raising concerns have faced reprisal and retaliation, something he hopes Republicans will expose if they take control of Congress next year.

"There were many more Eric Hoars," Davis told the "Just the News, Not Noise" television show Wednesday night. "There are many more whistleblowers that we're protecting, because we don't want to see them retaliated against. They have said similar things to us about a retaliatory environment within the Capitol Police Intelligence Division. That is wrong.

"We need to do a better job of making sure that we care less about punishing our officers who are just trying to make sure a Jan. 6 never happens again than we are about fixing the problems that led to the security failures before and on Jan. 6."

Davis confirmed that Hoar is one of the whistleblowers who have given testimony to his investigators. He said others came forward after the congressman set up a website for whistleblowers to come forward.

"So many people within the Capitol Police in the security structure wanted to have their story heard,” he said, sharply criticizing the Democrat-led House committee on the Jan. 6 tragedy for spending all its time on Donald Trump while failing to focus on the security failures inside the Capitol.

"Now the world knows," he said. "They know that analysts like Eric, who have been been retaliated against and fired, were the ones that raised the red flags, even after January 6. These are the questions the select committee is not asking. And these are the questions the select committee needs to answer."

Davis said the whistleblowers have a consistent story that department leaders had intelligence in their hands. "They didn't act," he said. "They put their brave men and women in danger. We could have made better decisions on the front end."

Department leaders must do a better job of looking ahead, urges Davis. "What we're seeing from the emails that you put up from Eric, it's a failure in leadership," he said. "It was a failure to plan for a security operation that needed much more preparation, much more equipment, much more training."

The Capitol Police and the House Jan. 6 committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/multiple-whistleblowers-come-forward-about-jan-6-intel-failures-capitol?utm_source=sf

Impressive. Ukrainian troops speak fluent English with an American accent.

Kremlin spokesman refutes media reports of alleged assassination attempt on Putin

Such claims were first published by a Telegram channel on September 14, and were later reproduced by a UK tabloid, The Sun

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday refuted media reports about an alleged assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Claims of an earlier attack on the head of state’s car convoy en route to the presidential residence were first published by a Telegram channel on September 14, and were later reproduced by a UK tabloid, The Sun.

When asked whether those reports had any factual basis, Putin’s press secretary replied to TASS: ‘No.’.

https://tass.com/politics/1508247

Pelosi going to Armenia amid renewed clashes with Azerbaijan

The speaker's trip aims to demonstrate support for Yerevan in a spiraling conflict.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi will travel to Armenia this weekend in a show of support for the country, which has been locked in a deadly fight with Azerbaijan, two people familiar with the visit told POLITICO.

Pelosi will make the journey accompanied by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) after a stop in Berlin for the G-7 Speakers’ Summit. She’s expected to meet with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan, the capital, as well as other government officials.

It will be the speaker’s latest dramatic foreign trip following her contentious arrival in Taiwan last month. With the midterms approaching — and the possibility that she will lose the gavel if Republicans return to the majority — the belief in Washington is that Pelosi wants to cement her legacy as a champion of human rights, not only in the United States but around the world.

Speier, meanwhile, is one of a handful of Armenian-American lawmakers in Congress.

When asked about the upcoming trip, Drew Hammill, the speaker’s deputy chief of staff, said, “We don’t confirm or deny international travel in advance due to longstanding security protocols.” Speier’s office did not immediately return requests for comment.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bloody, decadeslong feud over Nagorno-Karabakh, the territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated with ethnic Armenians. Two years ago, both nations fought their second big war over the contested land, leading to thousands dead and more regional power for Baku.

Violence erupted again last weekend, with officials in both capitals blaming the other for attacking first. Armenia claimed Azerbaijan’s military used drones, artillery, mortars and small-arms fire to target a number of border towns. Azerbaijan, however, said Armenian forces were moving into position for a long-term escalation of fighting.

More than 170 soldiers on both sides have been killed in skirmishes over the past few days, officials in Yerevan and Baku claim.

Russia said it had brokered a cease-fire Tuesday, but it was short-lived and violence continued into Wednesday.

Pelosi’s visit will mean a lot to the Armenian-American community, which has called for more political focus on the crisis. “Armenia has not received the kind of attention Ukraine has received, and this will shine a light on a country crossing an international border in violation of international law,” said Anthony Barsamian, co-chair of the Armenian Assembly of America.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/15/nancy-pelosi-is-going-to-armenia-00056947