Indians jailed for spying on Qatar for Israel: Reports

The Indian nationals are accused of passing along information about a stealth-capable submarine.

Eight Indian nationals have been imprisoned in Qatar for months for spying on a submarine programme on behalf of Israel and could potentially face the death penalty, according to media reports.

The eight individuals are former officers in the Indian Navy and were arrested in late August, according to reports by Indian, Pakistani, Israeli and Arab media outlets.

New Delhi has had consular access to the eight prisoners and has tried to secure their release, but has been told by Doha that evidence suggests the former officers passed on intelligence to Israel, Indian news outlet ThePrint reported.

The Indian nationals had their first trial in late March, and another session is reportedly expected to be held this month.

Indian media reported that they were senior employees of Dahra Global Technologies and Consulting Services, a company advising on a Qatari programme aimed at obtaining high-tech Italian-made submarines that could evade radar detection.

Pakistani newspaper The News International reported last week that the company is now being shut down by Qatar, with as many as 75 Indian nationals, the majority of whom are former navy personnel, being told they were being let go by the end of May.

Qatar had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2020 with Italian-based shipbuilding firm Fincantieri SpA to build submarines as part of a larger project involving the construction of a naval base and maintenance of its military fleet. The MoU has reportedly not been implemented.

U212 Near Future Submarine

The submarines that Qatar is seeking are reportedly a smaller variety of the U212 Near Future Submarine, an ambitious submarine project in Italy built in cooperation with a German firm.

Israel has not officially commented on the issue, but it has stakes in preventing the development of military technologies across the Middle East, as it fears it could undercut its United States-backed military edge.

India and Pakistan are also interested in the submarine race as they seek to block each other from getting the upper hand.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/2/indians-jailed-for-spying-on-qatar-for-israel-reports

Days before a failed drone assassination targeting Putin, Ukrainian banking baron Volodymyr Yatsenko offered a $500,000 bounty to any weapons maker able to land a drone in Red Square during Moscow’s upcoming Victory Day parade.

On April 23, a Ukrainian drone laden with 30 Canadian-made C4 explosive blocks crashed near Rudnevo Industrial Park in Moscow. Ukraine-based operators deployed the 37 LB arsenal in a failed bid to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was scheduled to visit Rudnevo that day.

The drone ultimately failed to hit its target, crashing roughly 12 miles from its intended destination. Russian media reported authorities discovered three similar unmanned aircrafts in the surrounding area. By the time the Canadian-manufactured bombs arrived in Moscow, the government in Ottawa had provided Kiev with nearly 6 billion dollars worth of aid to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s military.

The Ukrainian UJ-22 drone’s flight originated in the country’s Kharkov region. Yuriy Romanenko, co-founder of a think tank with close ties to Kiev’s intelligence services, credited Ukraine’s Secret Service (SBU) with orchestrating the assassination attempt. Romanenko wrote on Twitter: “Last week, our intelligence officers received information about Putin’s trip to the industrial park in Rudnevo… Accordingly, ours launched a kamikaze drone, which flew through all the air defenses of the Russian Federation, and fell not far from the industrial park.”

“Putin, we are getting closer,” Romanenko warned.

The drone was carrying m112 explosive charges, which are used by several states including Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. According to Russian media, the explosives recovered from the botched attack were of Canadian origin.

The failed attempt on Putin’s life came amidst a wave of drone incursions into Russian airspace in recent months. A day after the unsuccessful April 23 offensive, the Russian outlet SHOT recorded 10 drone attacks in the Belgorod border region, some of which included French LU-213 fragmentation grenades and American-made Switchblade drones. The Switchblade has been used in previous air assaults on the region as well.

The uptick in drone attacks inside Russian territory followed Kiev’s July 2022 launch of an “Army of Drones” campaign, an official effort to raise funds, dubbed “dro-nations,” to assist Ukraine’s procurement of foreign-produced, unmanned aircrafts.

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/05/02/ukrainian-banker-cash-drone-terror-russia/

Pentagon-Funded Censorship Firm Graphika Began Monitoring Covid “Disinfo” On Dec. 16, 2019 – Two Weeks Before WHO Knew Covid Existed

Graphika, a company that monitors online communities for government agencies, began collecting data on social media users sharing "disinformation" about Covid-19 two weeks before the World Health Organization even knew of an outbreak.

The private firm, which has received millions in Pentagon grants and contracts, targeted “US right-wing” communities as the top disinfo threat, right at Covid's outset.

Graphika is staffed by former DOD, CIA and NSA officials, and played a key role in censoring the pandemic via the Virality Project, partnered with the federal government.

Graphika, Inc., a small but influential social media monitoring and censorship firm that has received nearly $7 million in grants and contracts from the US Department of Defense (DOD), began tracking online “conspiracy theories” about Covid-19 on December 16, 2019 – just four days after the first patients reported symptoms in Wuhan, China, and two weeks before the World Health Organization (WHO) was even informed about the virus outrbreak.

As revealed by Graphika’s 35-page public report released in April 2020, Graphika began “data collection” of “global conversations” containing “conspiracy theories” about Covid origins on December 16, 2019:

The official CDC.gov timeline shows the first cluster of patients in Wuhan, China began to experience an atypical pneumonia-like illness on December 12, 2019 — meaning Graphika’s social media “disinfo data collection” work began just four days later. WHO was not informed of Wuhan’s outbreak until December 31, 2019 – a full two weeks after Graphika had already being monitoring social media conspiracy theories about the atypical virus:

The WHO did not even name the virus “Covid-19” until February 11, 2020, and did not officially declare a pandemic until March 11, 2020. Yet predating all these events, Graphika was closely surveilling and working to neutralize what obscure Twitter and Facebook communities were saying online about the virus’s origins – all while categorizing citizen accounts by political affiliation, ostensibly to monitor their potential for political mobilization on the basis of shared beliefs.

The disinfo firm used the data they collected on US citizens and voices around the world to create a “network map” of “the global online conversation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.”

https://www.foundationforfreedomonline.com/?page_id=2328

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>>18791715

Lest there be any doubt about Graphika’s political bias, the report lists “U.S. Right Wing” as its own specific disinformation group, whereas the report mentions “left-wing media,” “Resist” and “anti-Trump” groups as predominately involved in driving “positive online communications.”

Graphika also takes special care to track how Bill Gates and George Soros contextualized by so-called “U.S. Right Wing” disinformation:

What exactly lands someone in the category of spreading “Covid disinformation,” according to Graphika? For prominent Chinese human rights activist Jennifer Zeng, it was “frequently shar[ing] Epoch Times articles.” For exiled Chinese billionaire and political activist Guo Wengui, it was questioning the Chinese Communist Party’s virus death toll figures. Both Zeng and Wengui land in Graphika’s “conspiracy community” of “anti-CCP activists.”

But the April 2020 report wasn’t nearly the end of Graphika’s Covid censorship work. As Twitter Files reporting from Matt Taibbi revealed, Graphika wrote a subsequent report sent to Twitter encouraging them to take action to throttle or ban the alleged misinformation and disinformation. There, the DOD-funded disinfo firm sought to shield Anthony Fauci from criticism in much the same way it had done earlier to shield Bill Gates and George Soros:

“This continual process of seeding doubt and uncertainty in authoritative voices,” Graphika wrote, “leads to a society that finds it too challenging to identify what’s true or false.”

In other words, much of the information cited by Graphika as misinformation and disinformation wasn’t actually false, but they believed it was “too challenging” for people to discern between true and untrue information – and so the self-appointed arbiters of truth should decide what content to allow and what to censor.

Indeed, Graphika’s Virality Project would explicitly tell Twitter to censor “true” information, if true information would lead people to lose faith in government Covid measures.

Here it should again be noted that Graphika has received nearly $7 million in government grants and contracts, straight from the very Pentagon that would go on to spearhead the Covid-19 response. That means millions of dollars in public funds were taken from conservative taxpayers, whom Graphika then turned around and targeted as “spreaders of misinformation.” It also means the DOD, which took the lead role in Operation Warp Speed’s vaccine development effort, ended up funding firms who censored online criticism or questions about the DOD’s vaccine development efforts.

Which is a disturbing coincidence, on its own.

One of Graphika’s primary benefactors – according to its own website – has been the Defense Department’s Minerva Initiative. The Minerva Initiative is a controversial Pentagon research program dedicated, in effect, to the study of psychological warfare and the science of modifying the behavior of social and political groups overseas. Minerva Initiative cohorts provide guidance to DOD, for example, about how to stop citizen opposition to crisis governance measures – not unlike opposition government pandemic policies – and how to secure “citizen buy-in” so the state’s “accepted authority” is unchallenged.

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NYPD Officer Convicted of Possession and Attempted Receipt of Child Pornography and Sexual Exploitation of Minors

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/nypd-officer-convicted-possession-and-attempted-receipt-child-pornography-and-sexual

Biden Admin. Sending $300 Million in Additional Aid to Ukraine

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1653842398194151429

Kiev's Terrorist Attack on Kremlin Sets Dangerous Global Precedent

Two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) approached Moscow's Kremlin, the official residence of the Russian president, and were downed through the use of electronic warfare equipment on May 3. The Russian leadership denounced the incident as a "terrorist act" and an attempt on the life of Vladimir Putin.

"This story is related to international terrorism," Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, told Sputnik.

"The fact is that Ukraine is already openly positioning itself as a terrorist state, which is covered up by the collective West, primarily by Washington and Brussels. And with such support, [the Kiev regime] calmly arranges such terrorist acts of sabotage, using the simplest and most modern method for this, that is, buying these products in the West and equipping them with the necessary amount of explosive, and then sending them on a particular course."

According to Mikhailov, the incident appears to be a Kiev PR stunt aimed at galvanizing the domestic audience in the absence of any achievements at the front line: Ukrainian authorities need a "nice picture" to generate some hype on social media.

"Most importantly, they are trying to show the collective West that this counteroffensive, funded by the West, is underway. It's just a multi-layered one. One of its stages is an attack on the Kremlin. But we are well aware that from a military point of view, everyone is safe and sound and no damage has been inflicted. And all this [fuss] is just a propaganda stunt," he said.

The Kiev regime has failed to produce any meaningful effect by this action, as per Lieutenant-General (ret.) Yevgeny Buzhinsky, chairman of PIR-Center think tank executive board and professor of economics who served as the Russian military’s top arms control negotiator from 2001 to 2009. There is no real effect because the drones were simply downed and that's it, Buzhinsky remarked.

"Today is May 3. Soon we will celebrate Victory Day [on May 9]. It's a significant event. Ukraine has shown by this that they can try to spoil this holiday for us. Is it possible," echoed Dmitry Kornev, a military expert and founder of the Military Russia portal.

However, "an information war is one thing, but, in fact, attacks on infrastructure are a completely different thing," stressed Buzhinsky.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230503/kievs-terrorist-attack-on-kremlin-sets-dangerous-global-precedent-1110065710.html

School of Darkness

https://ia800905.us.archive.org/13/items/SchoolOfDarknessBellaDodd/SchoolOfDarkness_Bella_Dodd.pdf

“There Should Be Consequences” – Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell Releases Statement on SHAM Maricopa County Midterm Election and “Cover-Up” by Officials

The America First Policy Institute has released a statement by former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell calling for consequences for the stolen Maricopa County Midterm Election.

Blackwell previously served as Ohio State Treasurer, Secretary of State, and US Ambassador to the UN and is now Chair of the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute.

In his new statement, Blackwell criticized a recent report on an “independent investigation” into 2022 Election Day tabulator failures at 60% of voting locations across Maricopa County, led by former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ruth McGregor.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, one concerning factor of this report states that Oki B432 printers “showed speckling at the edge of the ballot” during pre-election stress testing, which could have interfered with the timing marks on ballots. Despite this discovery being made in September 2022, Maricopa County moved forward anyway. They knew there were issues but did not address them.

Maricopa County Election Director Scott Jarrett also confirmed in December testimony that a fit-to-paper or “fit to page” printing issue “happened in the August 2020 primary election, the November 2020 general election, and the August 2022 primary election.” However, the new report claims that the printers “had been used during the August 2022 primary election, as well as in prior elections, without experiencing similar problems.” This sham “investigation” was a blatant cover-up of the truth about Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh’s elections.

Abe Hamadeh’s race was initially called by just 511 votes before a shady recount in Pinal County found hundreds of wrongfully tossed votes heavily favoring Hamadeh. This brought the margin of “victory” down to just 280 votes.

However, Hobbs’ and her lawyers previously delayed these recount results from being presented before Abe’s case against Hobbs and Kris Mayes was dismissed. They knew the recount results were flawed and hid it from the judge. Blackwell concluded this was “either gross incompetence or a cover-up.”

Additionally, a newly released video of an Election Day failure in Maricopa County confirms that thousands of Election Day voters were disenfranchised with canceled voter registrations and forced to cast provisional ballots that were never counted. Abe is fighting to get all legal votes counted.

The statement reads,

STATEMENT: KEN BLACKWELL ON ISSUES WITH MARICOPA COUNTY ELECTIONS

Washington, D.C. – Maricopa County, Arizona, recently released a report and statement about their performance in the 2022 midterm election. In part, the report stated, “All legal ballots were counted and included in the official results, but the printer issues caused frustration for many Election Day voters, something the Board has vowed to remedy.”

Today, the America First Policy Institute released the following statement from Ken Blackwell, Chair of the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute, regarding the recent discoveries about the 2022 midterm elections in Maricopa County, Arizona:

“First, Maricopa County election officials blame printers and say they will do better. Common sense and basic competence would dictate election officials assess the capability of the printers BEFORE Election Day. They didn’t.

Second, it now appears that not all legal ballots were counted and included in the official results. There is testimonial evidence of people who did not have their votes counted. And in a legal case brought by Arizona Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh, evidence shows that then Secretary of State Katie Hobbs knew that the recount showed discrepancies and failed to disclose those relevant facts to the court in a timely manner before the court made its ruling. This failure to do so is either gross incompetence or a cover-up.

Maricopa County failed its voters in 2022, and there should be consequences for that failure.”

Abe Hamadeh and Kari Lake were both leading in the polls, with Kari holding a double-digit lead, coming into the 2022 Election when machines failed at 60% of polling locations and other law violations tainted the legal votes. No Honest person believes this election was fair or that their opponents legitimately won.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/new-there-should-be-consequences-america-first-policy-institute-center-for-election-integrity-chair-ken-blackwell-releases-statement-on-sham-maricopa-county-midterm-election-and-cover-up-by/

US Senators Accuse Tony Blinken of Perjury Charges on Contacts with Hunter Biden – Subpoena All Relevant Documents from Corrupt Biden Official by May 15th

Senator Ron Johnson joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures over the weekend.

Johnson told Maria Bartiromo that current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken lied to his US Senate committee under oath about contacting Hunter Biden. Blinken told Johnson’s committee he did not email Hunter Biden. Johnson now has possession of emails that prove Blinken committed perjury and lied under oath to the US Senate.

Senator Ron Johnson: What is interesting, Marie, and here’s a little news for you. Anthony Blinken finally did come in and sit down for a voluntary transcribed interview in December of 2020 because he wanted to be secretary of state. And now, because of more information that’s come out, we know that he lied bold face to Congress about never emailing Hunter Biden. My guess is he told a bunch of other lies that hopefully we’ll be able to bring him and his wife back in, tell them to preserve their records. You cannot trust Joe Biden. You cannot trust Hunter Biden. You can’t trust the Biden family. You can’t trust so many of the people that they have surrounded themselves with these made men. I basically agree with that statement…

…What do you do when you have, in effect, co conspirators of the Biden family inside the agencies, inside our intelligence agencies, the Department of Justice, the FBI. And you have the political party, the Democrats, who couldn’t care less, have no interest whatsoever in the corruption that is being uncovered bit by bit as we pull back the layers of the onion here… He must preserve his emails. We must get to the bottom of this. We need to show how corrupt these individuals are.

Senators Johnson and Grassley informed Blinken to preserve his records. The Senators asked Blinken to turnover relevant emails and communications with Hunter Biden by May 15th.

It seems highly unlikely that you had no idea of Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma while your wife was apparently coordinating with Hunter Biden to potentially connect you with Burisma’s U.S. representatives.

The public recently learned through congressional testimony from former CIA official Michael Morell, that you allegedly were the catalyst of an October 2020 information operation aimed to deceive Americans about the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop.21 It is now evident that your apparent willingness to deceive the public continued through December 2020 when you failed to tell the whole truth to congressional investigators about your contacts with Hunter Biden.

Because your testimony is inaccurate, Congress and the public must rely on your records as the source for information about your dealings with Hunter Biden. As such, you must preserve and provide all records, referring or relating to Hunter Biden, his business dealings, or his family’s business dealings, including but not limited to correspondence sent or received from your personal email accounts and phones, to include those of Ms. Ryan.22 These records will help provide the public a complete picture and understanding of the extent of your apparent deceptions. We request you and Ms. Ryan produce these records no later than May 15, 2023.

Here is a copy of the letter sent to Secretary of State Tony Blinken after he was caught lying under oath to the US Senate.

When will this man face consequences?

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/us-senators-accuse-tony-blinken-of-perjury-charges-on-contacts-with-hunter-biden-subpoena-all-relevant-documents-from-corrupt-biden-official-by-may-15th/

O’Keefe: DOJ Prison Official Says Merrick Garland “Rolling Over” On Trans Men Impregnating Women in Prison – Paying Transgender Rapists Millions in Lawsuit Settlements

James O’Keefe on Wednesday released video of a DOJ official telling an undercover journalist with O’Keefe Media Group that US Attorney General Merrick Garland is allowing trans men to rape women in prison.

The DOJ official, Linda Noelle, said Merrick Garland is “rolling over” on trans men impregnating women in prison.

“If they want to have all the transitional surgeries, they go through the ACLU,” she said.

James O’Keefe stood outside of the Washington Women’s Prison in Gig Harbor, Washington as a follow up to his previous story on women being raped by trans men.

The trans men then play victim and sue the US government for a million dollars – people inside the prison are calling this “the million dollar baby.”

The DOJ is just settling without the courts involved and paying out huge sums of money.

“And the DOJ, unfortunately under Merrick Garland, it rolls over. It doesn’t want to go through the court so they just pay people off,” Linda Noelle said.

James O’Keefe spoke with a prison source who told him about a convicted pedophile and sex offender who is sexually assaulting women in the Washington Women’s Prison after being transferred from a men’s prison in New Hampshire.

“He is actively trying to make one of these million dollar babies,” the source told James O’Keefe.

The trans men who rape female inmates and impregnate them, then “play the victim” and sue for millions.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/okeefe-doj-prison-official-says-merrick-garland-rolling-over-on-trans-men-impregnating-women-in-prison-paying-transgender-rapists-millions-in-lawsuit-settlements-video/

Buying silence?

Child sexual abuse survivors promised less traumatic route to compensation

The federal government has released its response to a review of the National Redress Scheme for people who experienced institutional child sexual abuse, wholly or partially supporting 34 of 38 recommendations to improve the way it operates.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-03/child-sexual-abuse-survivors-offered-easier-way-of-compensation/102298104

Police accuse Sydney plastic surgeon Dr Richard Sackelariou of sexually abusing eight girls

A New South Wales plastic surgeon has been accused of procuring and abusing eight underage girls, who were not his patients, in Sydney and Newcastle.

Key points:

Richard Sackelariou is accused of sexually abusing eight girls as young as 13

The plastic surgeon allegedly offered to pay one girl $1,500 for sex

Police did not allege that any of the girls were his patients

Double Bay plastic surgeon Richard Sackelariou, 69, was initially charged in November with abusing two underage girls he allegedly met online.

In Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday, crown prosecutor Kristy Mulley said there were Commonwealth and state charges and the number of child complainants was now eight.

Police documents tendered in court alleged the offending happened during 2021 and 2022.

Dr Sackelariou has been charged with 32 offences, including multiple counts of having sexual intercourse with a child, with the youngest being 13.

He was also charged with multiple counts of intentionally sexually touching a child between 10 and 16 years of age.

Doctor allegedly offered cash for sex

In police charge sheets tendered in court on Wedesday, the Hunter child abuse unit alleged a 15-year-old girl was offered $1,500 to have sex with the doctor.

That resulted in a charge of allegedly inducing her to participate in an act of child prostitution at a location in Sydney.

The charge sheet said a second alleged victim, aged 13, was paid $200 to participate in an act of child prostitution at a location in Newcastle.

Police said other alleged victims were also offered cash, but the amounts were not included in the documents.

Dr Sackelariou has operated from his Double Bay practice for 20 years but police did not claim that the alleged victims were his patients.

Prosecutor Ms Mulley said the crown was in a position to certify the NSW charges against the doctor, but there were delays with the alleged Commonwealth offences.

Defence lawyer Drew Hamilton on Wednesday told the court Dr Sackelariou had previously been refused bail.

Both the prosecution and defence asked for a one-week adjournment to allow for the Commonwealth charge certification process to be finalised.

The matter is due back in court on May 10.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-03/sydney-plastic-surgeon-accused-of-sexually-abusing-girls-court/102292536

The Banking Collapse Of 2023 Is Now Officially Bigger Than The Banking Collapse Of 2008 Was

Yes, you read the headline correctly. Collectively, the three big banks that have collapsed in 2023 had more assets than all 25 banks that collapsed in 2008 did. Unfortunately, the banking collapse of 2023 is far from over. We still have eight more months to go before this year is done, and many more banks are currently teetering on the brink of disaster. Executives at those banks are telling us not to worry, but of course executives at First Republic were issuing similar assurances just last week. Personally, I had heard that First Republic supposedly had enough reserves to keep going for months. But that was a lie, and now First Republic is toast. The following comes from the official statement that the FDIC issued when it took over the bank…

First Republic Bank, San Francisco, California, was closed today by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect depositors, the FDIC is entering into a purchase and assumption agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, Columbus, Ohio, to assume all of the deposits and substantially all of the assets of First Republic Bank.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association submitted a bid for all of First Republic Bank’s deposits. As part of the transaction, First Republic Bank’s 84 offices in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, today during normal business hours. All depositors of First Republic Bank will become depositors of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, and will have full access to all of their deposits.

The government was not going to allow just anyone to snap up the assets of First Republic.

JPMorgan Chase was one of the institutions that was invited to make a bid, and they came out of this process as the big winners…

JPMorgan is getting about $92 billion in deposits in the deal, which includes the $30 billion that it and other large banks put into First Republic last month. The bank is taking on $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities as well.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation agreed to absorb most of the losses on mortgages and commercial loans that JPMorgan is getting, and also provided it with a $50 billion credit line.

In addition to providing JPMorgan Chase with a 50 billion dollar credit line, the FDIC will also take a loss on this deal of approximately 13 billion dollars. So they are definitely one of the big losers in this deal…

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be about $13 billion. This is an estimate and the final cost will be determined when the FDIC terminates the receivership.

Needless to say, the biggest losers of all are the shareholders of First Republic.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/the-banking-collapse-of-2023-is-now-officially-bigger-than-the-banking-collapse-of-2008-was/

FTC Says "Facebook Repeatedly Violated Its Privacy Promises," Puts "Young Users At Risk"

Meta, the parent company of the Facebook platform, has failed to comply with the Federal Trade Commission's 2020 privacy order that bars the social media company from profiting off data it collects from young users. Shares of Meta slid as much as 2% on the news.

"Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises," said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. He said Meta's "recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures."

As part of the proposed changes, Meta, which changed its name from Facebook in 2021, would be prohibited from profiting from data it collects, including through its virtual reality products, from users under the age of 18. It would also be subject to other expanded limitations, including in its use of facial recognition technology, and required to provide additional protections for users.

Wednesday's action by the FTC signifies an unwelcome reemergence of controversy for Meta and its platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Following previous FTC investigations into its privacy practices, the company paid a $5 billion civil penalty in 2019.

This marks the third time the FTC has pursued action against Meta for allegedly failing to protect users' privacy. The agency explains the timeline of events:

The Commission first filed a complaint against Facebook in 2011, and secured an order in 2012 barring the company from misrepresenting its privacy practices. But according to a subsequent complaint filed by the Commission, Facebook violated the first FTC order within months of it being finalized – engaging in misrepresentations that helped fuel the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In 2019, Facebook agreed to a second order—which took effect in 2020—resolving claims that it violated the FTC's first order. Today's action alleges that Facebook has violated the 2020 order, as well as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule).

Shares of Meta slid 2% on the news but have rebounded since…

… and calls FTC's move a "political stunt."

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/ftc-says-facebook-repeatedly-violated-its-privacy-promises-puts-young-users-risk

45 Minneapolis Gang Members and Associates Indicted on Federal Charges

https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/45-minneapolis-gang-members-and-associates-indicted-federal-charges

Nashville shooter's manifesto release to be DELAYED 'pending litigation': police

Hale's manifesto was reportedly "a blueprint on total destruction."

The manifesto left behind by Audrey Hale, the trans-identified female who shot up the Christian Covenant School in Nashville, will not be released due to "pending litigation."

"Covenant investigation update: Due to pending litigation filed this week, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has been advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records related to the shooting at The Covenant School pending orders or direction of the court," the Nashville police said.

It was only a week ago that the Metro Nashville Police Department’s Public Information Office said "The investigation has advanced to the point that writings from the Covenant shooter are now being reviewed for public release. That process is underway and will take a little time."

Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston said that per her sources, Hale's manifesto was "a blueprint on total destruction," adding that "it was so, so detailed at the level of what [Hale] had planned." For these reasons, Johnston cautioned against releasing it in full, saying that redactions were necessary because "in the wrong person's hands would be astronomically dangerous."

Hale, who killed 3 children and 3 adults after driving to the school, which she had attended, in March, had left behind extensive documentation as to the reasons for her actions. In the hours leading up to the shooting, Hale had contacted a friend and told her that the reasons for her pending actions would be made known. She did not specifiy what those actions were.

There was much speculation after Hale's massacre as to why she had undertaken such a bloody crime, which led to her own death. There has been speculation that Hale's intention was to push back against Christians, who she may have seen as a threat to her trans ideology.

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-nashville-shooters-manifesto-release-to-be-delayed-pending-litigation-police

Portland elementary school to host BIPOC drag show to help students 'explore gender'

The event is set to include a drag show, drag queen story time, makeup and nail polish stations, as well as a self-defense demo presentation.

An elementary school counselor in the Portland Public School district is hosting a drag show for students featuring BIPOC drag queens with activities centered around the “exploration of gender.”

The event, organized by counselor Madi Bourdon, will take place at Atkinson Elementary School on May 19th. It is set to include a drag show, drag queen story time, makeup and nail polish stations, as well as a self-defense demo presentation. For parents, there will be a “gender-affirming Q & A.”

Earlier this year, Bourdon put out a call for sponsors for the drag show, which she advertised as “featuring BIPOC Drag Queens and a King” with “activities centered around the exploration of gender.” Bourdon hoped the event would be “empowering” to those “within and outside the Queer community to value their identity and build a safer more inclusive world.”

The gender-affirming Q & A session for parents will be held by “Miss Madi” and Elliott Hinkle of Unicorn Solutions. Hinkle, who goes by they/them pronouns, holds a degree in Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Queer studies, and boasts of having over a decade of experience working on “LGBTQI2S+” community projects.

In 2021, Bourdon set up a GoFundMe page for Atkinson’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA). She described herself as the leader of the GSA, which “is one of the most loud and proud, queer-affirming groups I have ever known, and has even paved the way to help other GSA's establish!”

“Atkinson's GSA started in October of 2021 and has quickly become one of the coolest and most incredible things to be a part of and help lead in my lifetime,” said Atkinson.

GSAs are common in middle and high schools, but less so in elementary schools. Initially, GSA stood for Gay Straight Alliance, but over time the meaning has shifted to Gender and Sexuality Alliance, as gender ideology has become more widespread in American schools.

Atkinson describes the elementary school students who are members of her Gender and Sexuality club as being not only “socially aware,” but also “empathetic, supportive, loving, and all-round wild advocates for themselves and their community."

In 2022, Bourdon set up a second fundraiser, this time for the GSA she had set up at Glencoe Elementary, where she also works as a counselor.

“I am a school counselor at two elementary schools in Portland, OR,” she explains on the GoFundMe page. “Last year, I created a GSA at my other home site, but this year I could not wait to get Glencoe on the inclusion train too!”

https://thepostmillennial.com/portland-elementary-school-to-host-bipoc-drag-show-to-help-students-explore-gender