Trump lays out timeline to end Ukraine conflict

The Republican firebrand claimed that if elected president in 2024, he would be able to get Moscow and Kiev to stop hostilities

Former US president Donald Trump has promised to put a swift end to the bloodshed in Ukraine should he be elected again in 2024. The Republican also trashed the incumbent Joe Biden’s foreign policy, claiming it has made the world a more dangerous place.

Speaking to his supporters in Fort Myers, Florida, on Friday, Trump said: “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled. I’ll get it settled very quickly.”

He explained that he “know[s] both” Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

Trump, who served as president from 2017 until 2021, claimed that he “got along” with the Russian head of state, and that Putin would not have launched his military campaign against Ukraine had Trump been in office.

“It’s still pretty easy for me to do,” the Republican insisted, referring to ending the conflict that has gone on for more than a year.

He went on to allege that other countries’ leaders have lost respect for the US under Biden’s leadership because of his allegedly poor handling of America’s foreign policy. To regain it, Trump argued, “you don’t need bullets, you don’t need tanks, you don’t need weapons of any kind, you just need some common sense.”

The former US president described himself as the “only candidate” who could promise to prevent the US from getting involved in World War III. If “these incompetent people” remain in office, however, there “will be a war like no other” with belligerent parties using nuclear weapons, Trump warned.

Last month, the Republican hopeful publicly asserted on at least two occasions that it would take him 24 hours to get Russia and Ukraine to end the fighting and negotiate if he were to be reelected.

Talks between Kiev and Moscow were suspended last April by the Ukrainian leadership. Kiev accused the retreating Russian military of committing atrocities in several Kiev suburbs, a claim Moscow has denied.

In October of last year, President Zelensky signed a decree, ruling out talks with his Russian counterpart. That order was given after Russia absorbed four Ukrainian regions following referendums.

The Kremlin maintains that it is open to peace negotiations in principle as long as Kiev relinquishes its claim to the territories and agrees to Russia’s terms.

Ukraine, in turn, says it is determined to resolve the issue by winning the conflict on the battlefield.

https://www.rt.com/news/575181-trump-to-end-ukraine-russia-conflict/

Pentagon leaker began sharing classified data earlier than thought – NYT

The paper says it discovered another online group where Jack Teixeira may have posted sensitive intelligence

Suspected Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira may have begun sharing sensitive data online earlier than previously believed and with a much larger group of people, the New York Times has reported.

The US Air National Guard serviceman was arrested last week and charged with unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified US national defense information. The case relates to documents on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and other issues that the 21-year-old published to a group of 50 people on the Discord social media platform.

But the NYT claimed on Friday that it had discovered another Discord group with some 600 members, in which Teixeira may have been sharing sensitive information since late February 2022, when Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine.

The person behind the posts used a nickname previously connected to Teixeira, claiming to have been working at a US Air Force intelligence unit. They uploaded pictures matching those posted by his other family members from their home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, the paper said.

The sensitive data that appeared on the Discord group related to Russian and Ukrainian casualties, the activities of Moscow’s spy agencies, and updates on Western military aid to Kiev. The user claimed that the information had come from the NSA, CIA and other intelligence agencies, the NYT said.

According to the report, the first leak apparently took place just 48 hours after the outbreak of the conflict, as the user wrote that he “saw a Pentagon report saying that one third of the force is being used to invade.” He then allegedly boasted that he had “a little more than open source info. Perks of being in a USAF intel unit.”

The paper said it didn’t find any actual classified documents being shared in the group, but suggested that they could have been deleted by the person who posted them.

The leaks continued until March 19, when the user in question reportedly wrote: “I’ve decided to stop with the updates.”

“The additional information raises questions about why authorities didn’t discover the leaks sooner, particularly since hundreds more people would have been able to see the posts,” the NYT wrote.

The paper said it contacted the FBI, the Department of Justice and Teixeira’s lawyers about their findings, but they all declined to comment.

https://www.rt.com/news/575174-pentagon-leaks-teixeira-discord/

White House Condemns Bud Light Boycott — Says ‘Dangerous Rhetoric’ and ‘Vitriolic Language and Violence’ Needs to Stop (VIDEO)

The White House has condemned the boycott of Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch over the company’s partnership with controversial transgender activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

The company has lost over $6 billion in market capitalization since the partnership with Mulvaney was announced.

During Thursday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the conservative boycott.

“The transgender actor and influencer Dylan Mulvaney has been the target of a barrage of attacks from anti-trans individuals online after she did an ad with Bud Light a couple of weeks ago,” asked CBS News reporter Nancy Cordes. “She’s someone who has been here to the White House. She interviewed the president last year and he had a lot of warm words for her. Has anyone here at the White House reached out to her since she became the target of these attacks?”

“So don’t have any calls to review at this time,” Jean-Pierre replied. “And I don’t have anything to say specifically about this report, but what I can say, when a transgender American posts a video about a brand of beer they enjoy, and it leads to bomb threats, it’s clear that that level of violence and vitriol against a transgender American has to stop.”

“And the president has been very clear. I just laid this out. The administration has, is going to do everything that they can to protect LGBTQI+ people who are under attack,” the press secretary continued. “And that’s what we’ve been seeing across the country, especially in statehouses. And so we’re going to fight alongside them to protect their rights.”

Jean-Pierre then began rambling about “dangerous rhetoric,” “vitriolic language,” and “violence.” It is unclear what alleged “violence” she is referring to — beyond mean words.

“They should be allowed to be who they are, who they want to be, and they should be able to speak out against, and we should be able to speak out and others should be able to speak out, against hate and discrimination. But look, that type of dangerous rhetoric, that type of vitriolic language and violence? That needs to stop,” KJP said.

Mulvaney, an adult biological male, has become controversial over his “Days of Girlhood” series on TikTok and meeting with President Joe Biden on “Day 222 of being a girl” to advocate for allowing minors to transition.

The activist-influencer said at the time, “I’m ready to step up and show that trans people are not going anywhere and that trans kids deserve a fighting chance to be their true selves.”

Mulvaney has been silent on social media for over two weeks — since the scandal broke.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/white-house-condemns-bud-light-boycott-says-dangerous-rhetoric-and-vitriolic-language-and-violence-needs-to-stop-video/

Explorers Discover Torpedoed WWII Ship That Claimed over 1,000 Lives

SYDNEY (AP) – A team of explorers announced it found a sunken Japanese ship that was transporting Allied prisoners of war when it was torpedoed off the coast of the Philippines in 1942, resulting in Australia’s largest maritime wartime loss with a total of 1,080 lives.

The wreck of the Montevideo Maru was located after a 12-day search at a depth of over 4000 meter (13,120 feet) – deeper than the Titanic – off Luzon island in the South China Sea, using an autonomous underwater vehicle with in-built sonar.

There will be no efforts to remove artifacts or human remains out of respect for the families of those who died, said a statement Saturday from the Sydney-based Silentworld Foundation, a not-for-profit dedicated to maritime archaeology and history. It took part in the mission together with Dutch deep-sea survey specialists Fugro and Australia’s Defense Department.

“The extraordinary effort behind this discovery speaks for the enduring truth of Australia´s solemn national promise to always remember and honour those who served our country,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “This is the heart and the spirit of Lest We Forget.”

The Montevideo Maru was transporting prisoners and civilians who were captured after the fall of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. The ship was not marked as carrying POWs, and on July 1, 1942, the American submarine Sturgeon, after stalking the ship through the night, fired four torpedoes, which found their target, sinking the vessel in less than 10 minutes.

Those killed included 1,080 people from 14 nations, including 979 Australians.

“Families waited years for news of their missing loved ones, before learning of the tragic outcome of the sinking,” said Silentworld director John Mullen. “Some never fully came to accept that their loved ones were among the victims. Today, by finding the vessel, we hope to bring closure to the many families devastated by this terrible disaster.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/04/22/explorers-discover-torpedoed-wwii-ship-that-claimed-over-1000-lives/

Kremlin spokesman’s son has served in Wagner – PMC group boss

Dmitry Peskov’s scion has been a “regular artilleryman,” Yevgeny Prigozhin says

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner Group, has claimed that one of the sons of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has served in the private Russian military company. The PMC boss made the revelation in a frontline interview published on Friday.

“One person I know is [Kremlin spokesman] Dmitry Peskov, who at one time used to be considered a complete liberal,” Prigozhin said.

“His son lived part of his life in America, if I’m not mistaken, or in England … [Peskov] came to me and said, ‘Take him as a regular artilleryman’. By the way, he worked out fine, as a regular gunner, knee-deep in mud, sh*t, on an Uragan,” he added, referring to Russian BM-27 Uragan self-propelled 220-mm multiple rocket launcher system.

Prigozhin did not provide any further details, neither specifying which conflict Peskov’s son took part in or even naming him explicitly. So far, Dmitry Peskov has made no public remarks on Prigozhin’s revelations.

However, the eldest son of the Kremlin official, Nikolay, appears to match the description provided by the PMC boss.

Early into the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Nikolay Peskov was slammed with personal sanctions by the US, with multiple allies of Washington following suit later on.

https://www.rt.com/russia/575160-kremlin-spokesman-son-wagner/

MEP Exclusive: ‘The EU is Rolling Out a Total Financial Surveillance State’ with Crypto Regulation

The European Parliament and the Council have reached an agreement on the new regulatory framework for crypto assets. The agreement clearly enhances consumer protection and provides legal certainty, but could deter start-ups from setting up shop and doing business in the European Union (EU), and raises serious privacy concerns.

First, new crypto licencing rules called MiCA — Markets in Crypto-Assets — applies very strict and extensive compliance requirements to obtain a license to offer crypto asset services on the EU internal market. Crypto asset service providers (CASPs) need to inform the public about pricing processes and trading volumes in real-time.

This requires a lot of technical expertise, and may be too costly for small enterprises. It doesn’t come as a surprise that big financial institutions and institutional investors have welcomed this political agreement: their compliance departments and IT staff have the manpower and the resources to comply with the new rules.

By bringing crypto asset transfers within the scope of the Transfer of Funds Regulation, CASPs providing custody services, i.e. which only store transactions in transit, are currently exempt under the national rules, but will now also be subject to the licensing requirements. This means that not only the sender and the receiver need to be registered, but also the entire route of the transaction. This seems to go beyond a mere anti-money laundering measure. In fact, the Commission never came forward with compelling evidence that the collection of Personal Identification Data helps in the fight against money laundering. Is this a tool to tackle money laundering or to survey the financial transactions of all, mostly law-abiding citizens?

In addition to this, crypto transfers above 1,000 euros between exchanges and unhosted wallets owned by a private individual are now automatically reported to national authorities, regardless of any money laundering or terrorist financing suspicions. In a way, it criminalizes decentralised finance, and therefore attacks the raison d’etre of crypto: to emancipate buyers and sellers of goods and services from central banks and the power of established large financial institutions. In other words: crypto has become decrypto within the EU single market.

The EU has chosen to be a legislative trailblazer when it comes to crypto regulation. However, this is not without risk. Switzerland and the Gulf states will now become increasingly attractive for SMEs and start-ups. This is especially problematic for countries like Portugal, which are desperately in need of foreign investment, and therefore adopted for themselves a very permissive regulatory framework for the crypto industry to attract business.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/04/22/mep-exclusive-the-eu-is-rolling-out-a-total-financial-surveillance-state-with-crypto-regulation/

~~Facebook partially backtracks on Hersh Nord Stream warning==

The social media platform modified its “fact check” of the Pulitzer-winning reporter's claims

Facebook has changed its position on a report implicating the US in the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, and is now warning readers that the story is “partly false” rather than “false information.” The platform was heavily criticized for labeling the report in the first place.

On Thursday, Facebook users attempting to share Seymour Hersh’s account of the Nord Stream bombings, which finds the US responsible for bombing the pipelines, discovered that their posts were hidden behind a semi-opaque black box with a message informing readers that the article contained “false information.” Facebook directed readers to a different article – in Norwegian – supposedly compiled by trustworthy “fact checkers” via a link below the box.

Hersh argued that US naval divers and their Norwegian counterparts planted explosives on the Russia-Germany gas lines in an operation organized by the CIA on behalf of the White House. He based his conclusion on a US source with “direct knowledge of the operational planning.”

As of Friday, the black box has been removed, and links to Hersh’s article now receive a smaller tab below informing readers that “this information has some factual inaccuracies” and is “partly false.”

Choosing to click through to the “fact-check” directs readers to the same Norwegian article, which claims that Norwegian military vessels were not near the blast site when Hersh said they ferried the American demolition team to their target. The article was compiled by ‘Faktisk’, an outlet funded by Facebook, the Norwegian government, and several Norwegian media outlets.

It is unclear why Facebook did not stand by its initial label. One possible explanation is that the company was looking to dispel controversy, as the labeling was fiercely condemned by independent journalists and commentators. “Facebook has decided that a Norwegian journalist is right and Hersh is wrong,” journalist Michael Shellenberger wrote on Thursday. “Maybe the Norwegian journalist is right. Whatever the case, it should not be up to Facebook to decide.”

Facebook has not applied similar labels to the reporting of the New York Times or Washington Post, both of which cited American spies who claimed the bombings were carried out by a “pro-Ukrainian group” in a rented yacht. Subsequent reporting has since cast doubt on that theory, while Moscow has dismissed earlier claims that it blew up its own pipelines as “stupid.”

https://www.rt.com/news/575155-facebook-hersh-false-information/

Here We Go: First Death Linked to New COVID Subvariant ‘Arcturus’ Confirmed

Experts in infectious diseases and public health officials are on high alert following the announcement of a new COVID-19 variant XBB.1.16, also known as Arcturus, by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO is keeping an eye on the new omicron subvariant, which has been found in over 20 countries (including the United States) and is believed to be responsible for the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in India.

Health officials have now confirmed the first death linked to the new COVID subvariant.

According to Dr. Supakit Sirilak, director-general of Thailand’s Medical Sciences Department, an old man who was not identified recently passed away in Thailand. He stated that the deceased was “an elderly foreigner” with preexisting medical conditions.

“His death, therefore, may not directly reflect the severity of this subvariant but rather its impact on other risk factors,” Sirilak said.

Dublin Live reported:

Arcturus, which is a subvariant of Omicron, was first seen in India and has been on the World Health Organisation’s watchlist since the end of March. Prof Dr. Yong Poovorawan, who heads the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine, said to PBS it will inevitably become Thailand’s dominant subvariant soon.

Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor announced on Tuesday that it detected its first of several cases and said it may have “greater contagiousness.”

Rospotrebnadzor’s statement continued: “But is not characterised by high pathogenicity. That is, the disease caused by it proceeds in a mild form”.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (in the US), said Arcturus is causing 7% of coronavirus cases in the country. Meaning it is now in second place behind its cousin Omicron. Indonesia has reported five new cases of Arcturus subvariant.

The new variant is reportedly 1.2 times more infectious than the Omicron variant, according to a study by the University of Tokyo published on the biology research website bioRxiv. Dr Vipin Vashishtha, the former head of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Immunisation, tweeted that pediatric cases of Covid were on the increase for the first time in six months.

Conjunctivitis – an eye infection causing redness, itchiness and swelling in the eyes – has also been present in paediatric cases. Mayo Clinic viral disease expert Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., told The Seattle Times: “One new feature of cases caused by this variant is that it seems to be causing conjunctivitis, or red and itchy eyes, in young patients.

“This is not something that we’ve seen with prior strains of the virus”.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/here-we-go-first-death-linked-to-new-covid-subvariant-arcturus-confirmed/

Guantanamo inmates face ‘accelerated aging’ – Red Cross

The US is accused of failing to address the mounting needs of detainees at the prison, which two presidents have promised to close

The few dozen detainees still incarcerated at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are suffering rapid deterioration of body and mind, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ head of delegation for the US and Canada has claimed.

According to a statement posted to the organization’s website on Friday, Patrick Hamilton was “struck by how those who are still detained today are experiencing the symptoms of accelerated aging, worsened by the cumulative effects of their experience and years spent in detention” upon visiting the prison for the first time in 20 years. About a third of Guantanamo’s inmates have been locked up on the island for that entire time.

Steps must be taken to address the “physical and mental health needs” of the aging detainee population, requirements which are increasing in severity as they would for any superannuated population and compounded by the austerity of the living environment. Existing conditions are only making their health worse, contributing to a cycle of deterioration, Hamilton suggested.

The Red Cross representative recommended access to “adequate health care,” including emergency care, and increased contact with families as basic steps that would go a long way toward providing for the basic human needs of prisoners who may never leave the island alive.

A total of 780 detainees have passed through the notorious facility, of whom 31 remain. Despite the promises of former and current US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to shut down the prison, it has been all but forgotten by many of the activists who once demanded its closure.

At least three men are currently being held at Guantanamo in “indefinite law-of-war detention” and are not recommended for transfer, including two who have been there since 2006. All three of those were previously tortured in the CIA’s “black sites” program, according to the New York Times.

Another 17 prisoners are held in law-of-war detention but could theoretically be transferred if certain security conditions are met. Just 10 have been charged in the military commissions system and one convicted; the rest remain uncharged. Ten men have been imprisoned on the island since 2002, and seven more sent there that year have died at the site.

While a 2008 US Supreme Court ruling found detainees had the right to challenge their detention on the basis of habeas corpus, only one detainee has won such a case. The prison remains a reminder of the judicial excesses of the War on Terror.

https://www.rt.com/news/575187-red-cross-guantanamo-aging-inmates/

US state abolishes death penalty

Washington Governor Jay Inslee said capital punishment had been applied “unequally” and in a “racially insensitive manner”

Washington state has passed a bill to abolish the death penalty, formally codifying a previous court ruling against the practice. The legislation also contained other criminal justice reforms, including a ban on the use of sterilization as a punishment for crimes.

Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signed the bill into law on Thursday, making Washington the 23rd US state to do away with capital punishment. The legislation removed language pertaining to the death penalty from the state’s criminal code, after the Washington Supreme court ruled that it contained “defects.”

“I initiated a moratorium against the death penalty in Washington State in 2014, and our rationale for that decision was affirmed by our [state] Supreme Court decision in 2018, when they invalidated the death penalty statute,” Inslee said during the bill’s signing. “They made clear… that the penalty has been applied unequally and in a racially insensitive manner.”

Passing the state legislature earlier this month, the bill faced opposition from Republicans. State Rep. Jim Walsh said the measure was “rushed” and merely a “collection of narrow, technical corrections” rather than a “fundamental change” to the state’s death penalty laws.

While the Washington Supreme Court ruled against capital punishment in 2018 – finding the penalty was unequally applied and disproportionately used against black Americans – Walsh argued the court “did not find the death penalty per se unconstitutional” and challenged the legitimacy of the recently passed bill.

Opponents of the death penalty, including the Washington chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), praised the new legal changes, with the group’s legislative director, M. Lorena Gonzalez, telling CNN that the state’s criminal justice system is plagued by “racial bias.”

“We are pleased that the Washington state Legislature has finally finished the work of ending this arbitrary and discriminatory practice,” she added.

Washington has carried out five executions since capital punishment was reinstated by the US Supreme Court in 1978, with the most recent in 2010, according to data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

Capital punishment remains legal in 27 states, DPIC says, noting that just over 2,400 people are currently on death row in the US.

https://www.rt.com/news/575161-washington-abolish-death-penalty/

White House planning for 6G rollout

Despite the preparations, the next generation of telecom technology is still years away from implementation

The US government is drawing up plans for the eventual use of 6G networks, hoping to give Washington a technological edge in the future amid concerns over Beijing’s rapid advances in the telecommunications sector.

The White House met with corporate leaders, technology officials and academic experts to develop strategies for upcoming 6G networks on Friday, senior US officials confirmed to multiple news outlets.

The administration seeks to “take the lessons learned from 5G about the importance of early involvement and resilience” and use them to develop a 6G network which “optimizes performance, accessibility, and security,” one government staffer added.

“It’s imperative that we start to look at these issues early,” a security official said on a press call on Thursday night.

While 6G technology is still in its infancy and is likely years away from use by the general public, it is expected to be significantly faster than the current 5G networks, and to dramatically expand high-speed internet access across the globe.

In late 2020, China successfully launched an experimental satellite carrying candidates for possible 6G technology, hoping to verify the performance of the 6G frequency band in space.

Another administration official noted China’s technological gains in recent years, namely in the rollout of its own 5G network, saying Beijing had used the tech to advance national security goals and grow its global market share in the telecoms industry.

“China really prioritized its telecom sector…and I think we may not have,” they said, pointing to the Shenzhen-based company Huawei as an example of Beijing’s success.

Washington has targeted Huawei with sanctions, claiming it poses threats to US privacy and national security. On Wednesday, the Department of Commerce slapped a US computer parts manufacturer, Seagate, with a $300 million penalty for doing business with the Chinese firm. The fine was the largest-ever penalty imposed by the agency outside a criminal case.

Beijing has denounced the US efforts against Huawei as a way to sideline a capable foreign competitor in American markets, also accusing Washington of seeking “technological hegemony” and violating “the principles of market economy.”

Huawei is preparing for its own rollout of 6G technology, and says it hopes to launch the ultra-fast networks by 2030. The company released a book-length paper on the subject in 2021 entitled ‘6G: The Next Horizon,’ stating that it “expressed our preliminary 6G vision.”

https://www.rt.com/news/575163-white-house-6g-planning/

VIDEOS: Reckless Human Smuggling Pursuits Continue in Texas Border County

Police pursuits in Kinney County, Texas, continue at an alarming rate as human smugglers attempt to avoid arrest. Texas Department of Public Safety officials tweeted dashcam video from two such pursuits from this week.

Texas DPS spokesman Lt. Chris Oliavarez tweeted a video this week from an April 18 vehicle pursuit in Kinney County. The pursuit led to the arrest of two women from Waco, Texas, for allegedly smuggling six migrants.

A search of the vehicle following the pursuit led to the discovery of marijuana, methamphetamine, and a stolen 9 mm pistol. The two women now face charges of smuggling, drug possession, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

On April 15, troopers assigned to Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star engaged in another vehicle pursuit in Kinney County. Police eventually arrested the driver, a Galveston, Texas, resident, on felony charges of evading and smuggling of persons, Olivarez tweeted.

Earlier this week, Breitbart Texas reported on yet another alleged human smuggling pursuit where a female trooper grabbed multiple migrants who attempted to flee from a pickup truck and hide in the brush in Kinney County.

Olivarez identified the driver as a California man who said he was in Texas to visit family. He now faces criminal smuggling charges, Olivares stated.

In addition to the three migrants stopped by the trooper from fleeing, Border Patrol agents from the Del Rio Sector apprehended seven more migrants found hiding in the brush.

On April 10, DPS troopers arrested a couple from Gonzalez, Texas, after they allegedly attempted to smuggle a group of migrants in Kinney County.

Breitbart Texas reported on yet another Kinney County human smuggling incident where sheriff’s deputies arrested a Houston ISD school teacher for allegedly smuggling a group of four migrants.

County Sheriff Brad Coe told Fox26 Houston that approximately 40 percent of the human smugglers arrested in his county come from the Houston area. He blamed social media recruiting ads.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/04/22/videos-reckless-human-smuggling-pursuits-continue-in-texas-border-county/

California Will Use National Guard to Combat Fentanyl Crisis.

Governor Gavin Newsom of California announced the California Highway Patrol and the California National Guard will now be used to combat the ongoing fentanyl crisis in San Francisco.

In recent years, overdose death in the city of San Francisco has skyrocketed due to Democrat elected officials such as Newsom being soft on drug-related crime.

Newsom in his announcement stated the new partnerships between the National Guard and law enforcement agencies will “crack down on crime linked to the fentanyl crisis and hold the poison peddlers accountable.”

The California governor refused to address the homeless crisis in San Francisco which is one of the main root causes of overdose deaths.

The University of California San Francisco reported that 82% of homeless deaths in San Francisco are due to drug overdoses.

Per the Office of Gavin Newsom:

Today Governor Gavin Newsom announced an agreement between the California Highway Patrol (CHP), California National Guard (CalGuard), San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office (SFDA) to assist the city in its ongoing efforts to address the fentanyl crisis.

This agreement will lead to the formation of a new collaborative operation between all four agencies focused on dismantling fentanyl trafficking and disrupting the supply of the deadly drug in the city by holding the operators of large-scale drug trafficking operations accountable.

“We’re taking action. Through this new collaborative partnership, we are providing more law enforcement resources and personnel to crack down on crime linked to the fentanyl crisis, holding the poison peddlers accountable, and increasing law enforcement presence to improve public safety and public confidence in San Francisco.”

Earlier in the month a woman gave birth on a San Francisco sidewalk just hours after doing drugs.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/california-will-use-national-guard-to-combat-fentanyl-crisis/

Japan gets ready to shoot down N. Korea spy satellite debris

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s defense chief on Saturday ordered troops to activate missile interceptors and get ready to shoot down fragments from a North Korean satellite that may fall on the Japanese territory.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un said earlier this week that its first military spy satellite that will be launched at an unspecified date.

North Korea has test-fired about 100 missiles since early last year, saying it was responding to joint U.S.-South Korean military drills that it calls an invasion rehearsal. Several of the missiles flew over Japan or landed off the northern Japanese coast.

Last week, North Korea test-launched a solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.

Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada on Saturday instructed troops to ready PAC-3 surface-to-air missiles in southwestern Japan, including Okinawa and nearby islands, in an area believed to be under a flight path of a North Korean rocket that will carry the satellite.

He also ordered the deployment of destroyers equipped with SM-3 ship-to-air missiles to coastal waters, according to a ministry statement.

“We are making the necessary preparation because of a possibility of issuing an order to destroy ballistic missiles and other objects,” the ministry said.

An order to fire missiles has to be approved by the prime minister.

North Korea is expected to carry out more weapons tests as the United States and South Korea continue their joint air exercise into next week.

https://apnews.com/article/japan-missile-defense-north-korea-satellite-ad139364701e81892420d7da069d91f7

Google’s conversation AI tool Bard joins programming realm

Google's AI chatbot has been upgraded to include programming skills such as coding and debugging.

Software developers who require assistance in programming can now seek Google's conversation AI tool Bard.

Following an increased user demand, Google upgraded Bard to include a new set of skills such as generating code, debugging, and code explanation.

A blog post by Paige Bailey, Google Research product lead, explained that one of the top requests that Google had received from its users has been adding coding abilities to Bard.

Google announced on Friday the availability of these software development tools in over 20 programming languages, including C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript. Google Colab users can export Python code. Additionally, Bard can assist with Google Sheets' functions writing.

Developers may instruct Bard, "This code didn't work, please fix it," and the AI program will be able to complete the task according to Google. For people who are new to programming, it can also translate code across languages and explain code snippets.

However, Bailey maintained that Bard remains in the early experimental phase wherein it “may sometimes provide inaccurate, misleading or false information while presenting it confidently.”

Moreover, the product lead announced that despite challenges, "Bard’s new capabilities can help you by offering new ways to write code, create test cases, or update APIs," adding that "if Bard quotes at length from an existing open source project, it will cite the source.”

It is worth noting that Bard has not been a match for ChatGPT and other chatbots with which it was initially it was created to compete. The new upgrade would allow Bard to, at the very least, keep up with other AI chatbots even if only on paper.

Homeland Security confirms plans to use AI for national protection

In contrast, ChatGPT has been able to take the lead in user trust in chatbots. At the Council of Foreign Relations, US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed on Friday, April 21, that artificial intelligence (AI) will be applied to a task force being set up in an attempt to protect US critical infrastructure and interests.

"I am directing the creation of our Department’s first Artificial Intelligence Task Force that will drive specific applications of AI to advance our critical homeland security missions," Mayorkas stated, adding that the DHS intends to advance the stability of supply chains and trade in the US.

"We will seek to deploy AI to more ably screen cargo, identify the importation of goods produced with forced labor, and manage risks," he said.

One of the task force's objectives is to block and prevent the flow of fentanyl into the US, as Mayorkas claims AI will "better detect fentanyl shipments, identify and interdict the flow of precursor chemicals around the world, and target for disruption key nodes in the criminal networks."

AI is not new to US law enforcement systems, as Assistant Chief of Miami's Police force, Armando Aguilar, confirmed last month that his unit used Clearview AI (which allows police to identify suspects through face photo searches) to identify suspects of various crimes, adding that it was used nearly 450 times a year.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/technology/googles-conversation-ai-tool-bard-joins-programming-realm

Two key Republicans call for Secretary of State Blinken to resign over Hunter Biden revelations

Two high-profile Republicans who have probed the Biden family scandal are calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resign or face impeachment over allegations he helped trigger an intelligence community letter during the 2020 election that falsely portrayed Hunter Biden's laptop contents as Russian disinformation.

The rebukes of Blinken by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) came after the release Thursday night of testimony from former CIA chief Michael Morell that Blinken had spurred him to organize the now-infamous October 2020 letter to benefit the Biden campaign. Morell testified he agreed to do so because Blinken reached out to him and he wanted to influence the election in Joe Biden's favor.

"This, in my opinion, probably disqualifies him to serve as the Secretary of State," Biggs told Just the News in a wide-ranging interview Friday on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "And I know people keep saying, 'Andy, you want to impeach everybody?' Well, you know, Tony Blinken probably should be impeached, just like [Homeland Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas should be impeached.

Biggs, a member of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees that are currently probing the Biden family influence peddling allegations, said the revelation that Blinken allegedly was willing to accuse a nuclear superpower, Russia, of interfering in the U.S. election without evidence just to create a presidential debate talking point for Joe Biden made it impossible for him to deal credibly with foreign countries as America's chief diplomat.

"Let's talk about our allies who now don't trust us at all," he said. "And why would they? They think we're weak, untrustworthy. How in the world can he remain our spokesperson to the world? … I just don't see how he can, and he should go. I think he's irreparably harmed the United States."

Asked whether he was formally asking Blinken to resign, Biggs answered: "Yeah, in fact, I'll break it on your show. Tony Blinken, you should resign."

Johnson, who led a 2020 Senate probe that concluded Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings while his father was vice president harmed U.S. national security, also called for Blinken to resign if Morell's allegations prove true.

"And if he doesn't resign, he should be impeached," he said during an interview Friday with the Star News Network. "Again, so many members of the Biden administration have this level of deceit, dishonesty and corruption. This is a lawless administration."

The State Department declined to address Morell's allegations about Blinken, saying it would not comment on matters currently under investigation.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who conducted the bombshell interview with Morell that uncovered Blinken's role, has demanded the secretary of state answer questions about his role in the letter and whether others, including the president, were involved.

"Based on Morell's testimony, it is apparent that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origins of the public statement, which had the effect of helping to suppress the Hunter Biden story and preventing American citizens from making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election," Jordan wrote Blinken in demanding he turn over evidence about the letter.

"This concerted effort to minimize and suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about the Biden family was a grave disservice to all American citizens' informed participation in our democracy," he added.

Jordan released an excerpt of Morell’s interview in which the former CIA officer said that a call with Blinken, then an adviser to the Biden campaign, “triggered” his effort to get intelligence experts to sign the letter.

Democrats rejected the Republican portrayal of Morell’s interview.

“Jim Jordan has released cherry-picked excerpts of a transcribed interview,” a Democratic House Judiciary committee spokesman said in a statement. “To be clear, no part of that interview demonstrates that Tony Blinken or any other Biden campaign official asked Mike Morell to write a letter about Hunter Biden’s laptop.”

The Democrats released a different part of the transcript in which Morell said he did not recall Blinken specifically asking him to write the letter. “My memory is that he did not, right. My memory is that he asked what I thought.”

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/sattwo-key-republicans-call-secretary-state-blinken-resign-over

US Supreme Court temporarily freezes abortion pill restrictions

The US Supreme Court froze restrictions imposed by an appeals court on a widely used and FDA-approved abortion pill, Mifepristone, and thus temporarily preserved access to the drug.

Since the Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure about 10 months ago, two conservative justices disagreed with the verdict on the most significant abortion issue to be decided.

Earlier, a US District Court judge in Texas ruled in favor of banning mifepristone, which allegedly accounts for a large number of abortions across the US.

Later, an appeals court blocked the ban on one end and imposed strict restrictions, thus limiting access to the pill. This decision drove the case to the Supreme Court where conservatives hold the majority of seats.

Opposition spearheaded by Justice Department

The US Justice Department, which has spearheaded the opposition calling for access to the pill to be preserved, stressed that the judge's initial ruling was grounded in a "deeply misguided assessment."

According to the FDA, about 5.6 million citizens had used Mifepristone, which can be used through the first 10 weeks of pregnancy in order to "safely" terminate it without having to go to surgery.

Last June, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a law that gives American women the right to abortion. The ruling does not make abortion illegal but rather returns the United States to the pre-Roe v. Wade era when each state was free on whether or not to disallow it. Since then, 13 states have banned abortion while several others have imposed tough restrictions on the process.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-supreme-court-temporarily-freezes-abortion-pill-restricti

Deagel Population Forecast of Nearly 70 Percent Fewer Americans by 2025 is Starting to Look Prophetic

Deagel population forecast of nearly 70 percent fewer Americans by 2025 is starting to look prophetic

Guest post by Leo Hohmann

All of the globalist policies over the last three years are driving toward one thing, mass depopulation. Yes, they want to kill us. Until you understand that, you will never understand what’s going on. You will never make sense of it.

I know it’s a hard pill to swallow, but reject it at your own risk. Those who live in denial will get duped, again. Many of those duped the first time lost their lives, or ended up with life-long health issues. Some even offered their children to the military-biomedical-security complex.

I like to revert back to the analysis done by Deagel Corp. in 2014, forecasting massive global population declines out to the year 2025, especially in Western countries.

Deagel’s founder was a military contractor who had sources well positioned in the deep state. The Deagel Corporation is an offshoot of US military intelligence which collects data for high-level decision-makers and prepares confidential briefing documents for agencies like the National Security Agency, the United Nations and the World Bank.

As Americans Scramble to Protect Retirement Accounts With Physical Gold and Silver, A Faith-Based Company Shows Them How

According to the Deagel forecast, America’s population would plummet from just over 310 million in 2017 down to just 99 million by the end of 2025. Western European nations, especially the U.K. and Germany, were forecast to see similarly drastic decreases in population, as were Canada and Australia.

If the Deagel calculations turn out to be even close to accurate, the most unsafe places to live over the next three years will be the United States, Canada and the U.K., followed by Germany, Australia and the rest of the E.U. nations. This population forecast was so controversial, showing population reductions of 68.5 percent in the United States (from 2017 levels) and between 25 and 70 percent for almost every Western European country, that the study mysteriously disappeared from Deagel’s website in March 2021.

But not all areas of the world will continue to decline. Some will actually have larger populations by 2025, according to the Deagel forecast. The safest places to be living would appear to be Central and South America, China and Africa. Interestingly, Russia came in as neutral, not gaining or losing population.

Is this Deagel forecast map a prediction of who will win World War III?

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/deagel-population-forecast-of-nearly-70-percent-fewer-americans-by-2025-is-starting-to-look-prophetic/

Hijacked tweets and the clashes in Sudan

As politics in Sudan take a drastic shift after the emergence of a major divide within the country's armed forces that led to intense military clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), social media emerged as a powerful tool via which adversaries are fighting through narratives, disinformation, and bots.

Social Media: A Major Player

At least 900 potentially hijacked Twitter accounts are retweeting and liking articles published by the Rapid Support Force (RSF) of Sudan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF's commander and vice-president of the ruling council of Sudan. The accounts have carried on amplifying RSF information from the start of the violent clashes, which erupted on 15 April 2023, as per a data analysis made by the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) at the Atlantic Council.

The findings made public on Tuesday unmasked that an online battle is being waged for the narrative alongside a battle that is being fought with live fire and tanks.

After harvesting the user data for any account that liked recent tweets posted by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo the head of the RSF and deputy leader of Sudan’s ruling council, dubbed Hemedti, and by the RSF, the Digital Forensic Research Lab was able to identify the accounts. Since neither the SAF nor its head Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan had active Twitter accounts at the time of data collection, the DFRLab was unable to undertake a study of a comparable nature on them.

The accounts all followed a similar pattern: many were reactivated in December 2022 after going dormant for years, tweeting a string of words plagiarized from Wikipedia pages, before boosting tweets from Hemedti and the RSF. In an effort to appear more authentic, the accounts also tweeted motivational sayings in Arabic.

Many of the accounts included indications that they had once been used by actual users, such as links to their own Instagram profiles and tweets with personal information. Nearly none of the 900 discovered accounts followed either the RSF or Hemedti on Twitter, despite their efforts to promote the RSF and Hemedti.

As soon as the accounts began liking posts about the RSF and Hemedti published by journalists, news organizations, and other accounts with a few thousand followers, the behavior pattern altered as of March 30.

"On April 1, some of the accounts in the network liked a tweet that read, Our enemy in the first place is the Kizan army, not the rapid support, our enemy in the first place is the Kizan, not the Janjaweed….” Kizan refers to individuals from former President Omar Al-Bashir’s National Congress Party and those supportive of the former regime, while Janjaweed is a reference to the Arab militia that grew into the RSF," the report noted.

On April 13, two days after the civilian-led transitional administration was supposed to take effect, there was yet another mention of Kizan. The hashtag ___# was tweeted by a subset of users, and it approximately translates to "Every Koz, we will trample over them." In this context, the single form of Kizan is Koz. Just after three in the morning, Central African Time, the accounts tweeted the hashtag. The subgroup has not liked or tweeted any further stuff since then.

Several accounts concentrated on retweeting one specific RSF tweet regarding an RSF general's visit to a children's hospital, in addition to liking RSF and Hemedti content. A total of 105 people retweeted the post, with 81 of those tweets coming from the identified accounts. Separately, two accounts responded to the RSF's tweets about Hemedti's most recent trip to Eritrea. The same wording appeared in both of them and said, "Sudan's next president, God willing."

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hijacked-tweets-and-the-clashes-in-sudan

Reuters Posts Interview with Ukrainian ‘SS’ Soldier ‘Adolf’

News agency Reuters has posted an interview with a soldier nicknamed “Adolf” who serves in the Ukrainian “SS” brigade.

A Reuters interview with a Ukrainian soldier nicknamed “Adolf” has drawn the interest of social media users, with a number of people speculating that the battlefield pseudonym could be a reference to the infamous leader of Nazi Germany.

Such speculation has only been fueled by the rather unfortunate name of the soldier’s “Spartan Storm” brigade, which many have pointed out would be abbreviated to SS, which is reminiscent of Hitler’s Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary organisation that was tasked with carrying out the so-called “final solution” of exterminating Jewish people in concentration camps.

Posted early on April 21 — only a few hours after Adolf Hitler’s birthday — the interview discussed the training of newly recruited Ukrainian soldiers who are being readied for a planned counteroffensive against the invading Russian army.

Central to the agency’s report is a serviceman with the nom-de-guerre, or war nickname, “Adolf”, who detailed exactly what was involved in preparing the soldiers to fight off forces sent by Moscow.

“Training is very complex, it includes first aid, tactics, firing drills,” Adolf remarked. “We understand that in order to win, we must be strong, know how to fire and provide first aid in order to avoid losses which we had in the past.”

Social media pundits, however, largely ignored the finer details of the report, instead querying the solider’s highly questionable alias, as well as the name of his brigade.

“‘Adolf’ from the SS Brigade,” a number of netizens remarked, with many others drawing comparisons between elements depicted in the Reuters report and the Nazi regime.

Others mocked the similarities, with some suggesting that the name “Adolf” was actually a reference to other people.

“I think it’s absolutely shameful that people hear this brave soldiers nickname and automatically assume he is paying tribute to Adolf Hitler (sic),” one individual quipped. “Our sources tell us he is actually doing an homage to Adolf Eichmann (sic).”

While no doubt an embarrassing turn of events for Reuters, the report is likely to fuel more attention to the Ukraine military’s contested links with Nazism and Neo-Nazism.

Although the prevalence and nature of the ideology are now hotly debated, what remains clear is that numerous elements of the country’s military — such as the Azov Batallion — have at least in the past had intimate links with Nazism.

Such links have been used by Vladimir Putin’s Russia as casus belli for the current conflict, with the Kremlin often referring to the ongoing conflict as a programme of “denazification” for the country.

Things are only made more complicated by the associations Nazism has in Russia and some of the regions it used to occupy, with the ideology often being associated with general anti-Russian sentiment rather than any specific elements of antisemitism or hardline authoritarianism. Others have also noted that current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is of Jewish heritage and had relatives die during the Holocaust.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/04/22/reuters-posts-interview-with-ukrainian-ss-soldier-adolf/

Judge Napolitano and Larry Johnson Discuss the U.S. Government’s Double Standard for Handling Leak Investigations, Including Hillary Clinton

I should have mentioned Hillary Clinton’s egregious mishandling classified intelligence, especially Top Secret, in my previous piece on the most favored criminal treatment that David Petraeus and Sandy Berger received for their criminal acts with classified material. I have decided to re-post a piece I did in October 2020, that goes into great detail about her crimes and the FBI’s negligence in holding her accountable.

The key thing to understand about Hillary Clinton’s guilt — and I explain this during my chat with the Judge — is that there is no way to “accidentally” or “unintentionally” move intelligence from a Top Secret server to an unclassified server. The mere presence of Top Secret documents on Hillary Clinton’s computer was concrete evidence of a purposeful act. Sandy Berger and David Petraeus are novices in breaking the law compared to Queen Hillary.

One year before Jim Comey was immersed in his plot to overthrow Donald Trump, the duly elected President of the United States, a brave Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State came forward with firsthand information of Hillary Clinton’s rampant abuse of Classified material. The man, a senior State Department diplomat who had served as the acting Ambassador (Chargé d’Affaires) in the Asia Pacific region under President Clinton, also was a veteran of the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

The letter from this whistleblower is stunning and I am going to present it in total. It is dated 10 January 2016. You can read it for yourself here starting at page 121. I became aware of this letter thanks to the assiduous research and writings of Charles Ortel (he wrote about this recently at the American Thinker).

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/judge-napolitano-and-i-discuss-the-u-s-governments-double-standard-for-handling-leak-investigations-including-hillary-clinton/

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