Trump Orders Creation of Wireless Spectrum Strategy as 5G Race Looms

WASHINGTON–President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a presidential memorandum directing the Commerce Department to develop a long-term comprehensive national spectrum strategy to prepare for the introduction of next-generation 5G wireless networks.

Trump is also creating a White House Spectrum Strategy Task Force and wants federal agencies to report on government spectrum needs and review how spectrum can be shared with private sector users.

The memorandum requires a series of reports over the next nine months and looking at ways and existing efforts on increasing spectrum and sharing existing spectrum. A long-term strategy is due by July.

The goal is to ensure there is enough spectrum to handle the growing amount of internet and wireless traffic and that future faster 5G networks have adequate spectrum.

The White House also said Trump is withdrawing presidential memorandums on spectrum signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2013.

AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc, Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc are working to acquire spectrum and beginning to develop and test 5G networks, which are expected to be at least 100 times faster than current 4G networks and cut latency, or delays, to less than one-thousandth of a second from one-hundredth of a second in 4G, the Federal Communications Commission has said.

Wireless industry trade group CTIA praised the administration for “recognizing the importance of establishing a national spectrum strategy. With the right approach based on licensed wireless spectrum, America’s wireless carriers will invest hundreds of billions of dollars and create millions of jobs.”

Trump’s order stemmed from a technology event with industry leaders at the White House in June last year that included a demonstration on how 5G technology can connect the country.

Last month, the White House held a 5G even where officials said they have high hopes for the technology, which has the potential to help create 3 million new jobs, $275 billion in private investment, and $500 billion in new economic growth.

“The lag time between a device’s request for data and the network’s response will be less than one-tenth of what it is today,”said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. “Wireless networks that today support 1,000 connected devices per square kilometer could instead support 1 million.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-orders-creation-of-wireless-spectrum-strategy-as-5g-race-looms_2699953.html

Europe’s Illegal Migrants ‘Need to Go Home’, Says Czech Prime Minister

Populist Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said that Europe’s illegal migrants “need to go home” and rejected European Union plans for increasing the size and power of its border force Frontex.

“There are 700,000 illegal migrants – they need to go home,” Prime Minister Babiš told The Guardian ahead of Brexit talks with Prime Minister Theresa May in London on Wednesday.

Babiš, the founder of the centre-right ANO party, was elected last year after running on a pro-sovereignty, anti-open borders platform and is closely aligned with fellow Visegrád members Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

Like the leaders of his fellow Central European allies, he has refused the EU’s forced reallocation of asylum seekers and warned that resettling was the “road to hell” and would exasperate illegal migration after nearly two million had arrived since the 2015 crisis.

The Slovakia-born populist also told the left-wing newspaper that he rejects the European Commission’s plans to expand the size of Frontex, saying the priority should be stopping the people smugglers who are bringing migrants from Africa and Asia across the Mediterranean to mainland Europe.

“Smugglers made €5.7bn in 2016 and we have to stop it,” the Czech premier said.

He added that the proposed 10 billion euro (£8.85bn/$11.4bn) Frontex expansion budget would be better spent on investing in African nations to stop the migrant flows at the source.

“These people should stay home and we should help them in Africa,” said.

“The people around Syria … they would like to return home,” he added.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has also warned against enlarging Frontex, saying it would put Eurocrats in charge of nations’ rights to control their own borders.

Noting that migrant issues are set to dominate European Parliament elections in May, Babiš told The Guardian that the EU is split between those that support a progressive, open borders agenda and those that want to retain their sovereignty — a division observed by Prime Minister Orbán who called globalist President of France Emmanuel Macron “the leader of pro-migration parties in Europe”.

Explaining that migrants from the Global South should not be allowed into Europe without a permit, the Czech leader said: “They have their culture, we have our culture.”

“They have their values, but we want to keep [our] values,” he added.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/10/25/europes-illegal-migrants-need-go-home-says-czech-prime-minister/

‘A Cruel Choice’: Why Israel Targets Palestinian Schools

Several Palestinian students, along with teachers and officials, were wounded in the Israeli army attack on a school south of Nablus in the West Bank on October 15. The students of Al- Sawiya Al-Lebban Mixed School were challenging an Israeli military order to shut down their school based on the ever-versatile accusation of the school being a "site of popular terror and rioting."

"Popular terror," is an Israeli army code for protests. The students, of course, have every right to protest, not just the Israeli military Occupation but also the encroaching colonization of the settlements of Alie and Ma’ale Levona. These two illegal Jewish settlements have unlawfully confiscated thousands of dunams of land belonging to the villages of As-Sawiya and Al-Lebban.

"The Israeli citizens", that the Occupation army is set to protect by shutting down the school, are, in fact, the very armed Jewish settlers who have been terrorizing this West Bank region for years.

According to a 2016 study commissioned by the United Nations, at least 2,500 Palestinian students from 35 West Bank communities must cross through Israeli military checkpoints to reach their schools every day. About half of these students have reported army harassment and violence for merely attempting to get to their classes or back home.

However, this is only half of the story, as violent Jewish settlers are always on the lookout for Palestinian kids. These settlers, who "also set up their own checkpoints", engage in regular violence as well, by "throwing stones" at children, or "physically pushing (Palestinian children) around."

"UNICEF’s protective presence teams have reported that their volunteers have been subjected to physical attacks, harassment, arrest and detention, and death threats," according to the same UN report.

In other words, even the "protectors" themselves often fall victim to the army and Jewish settler terror tactics.

Add to this that Area C – a major part of the West Bank that is under full Israeli military control – represents the pinnacle of Palestinian suffering. An estimated 50,000 children face numerous hurdles, including the lack of facilities, access, violence, closure and unjustified demolition orders.

The school of Al Sawiya Al Lebban located in Area C is, therefore, under the total mercy of the Israeli military, which has no tolerance for any form of resistance, including nonviolent popular protests by school children.

What is truly uplifting, however, is that, despite the Israeli military Occupation and ongoing restrictions on Palestinian freedom, the Palestinian population remains one of the most educated in the Middle East.

https://original.antiwar.com/ramzy-baroud/2018/10/24/a-cruel-choice-why-israel-targets-palestinian-schools/

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé found to be worst plastic polluters worldwide in global cleanups and brand audits

Plastic retail container trash that nobody wants anyway but the international manufacturing corporations foist on us because of cheap convenience.

My favorite thing I love to hate – plastic fishing net, pure evil. If you don’t believe me, go to a beach somewhere.

Flip flops, styrofoam anything, flimsy grocery bags, throwaway consumer appliances that die, clamshell packaging, water bottles, electronics. Corporations are producing this garbage which the end consumer pays for but didn’t want to begin with.

It doesn’t have to be this way. This plastic junk garbage can be reduced and it doesn’t require more money.

Manila, Philippines – Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé were the most frequent companies identified in 239 cleanups and brand audits spanning 42 countries and six continents, the Break Free From Plastic movement announced today. Over 187,000 pieces of plastic trash were audited, identifying thousands of brands whose packaging relies on the single-use plastics that pollute our oceans and waterways globally. Coca-Cola was the top polluter in the global audit, with Coke-branded plastic pollution found in 40 of the 42 participating countries. This brand audit effort is the most comprehensive snapshot of the worst plastic polluting companies around the world.

“These brand audits offer undeniable proof of the role that corporations play in perpetuating the global plastic pollution crisis,” said Global Coordinator of Break Free From Plastic Von Hernandez. “By continuing to churn out problematic and unrecyclable throwaway plastic packaging for their products, these companies are guilty of trashing the planet on a massive scale. It’s time they own up and stop shifting the blame to citizens for their wasteful and polluting products.”

The audits, led by Break Free From Plastic member organizations[1], found that Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Danone, Mondelez International, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Perfetti van Melle, Mars Incorporated, and Colgate-Palmolive were the most frequent multinational brands collected in cleanups, in that order. This ranking of multinational companies included only brands that were found in at least ten of the 42 participating countries. Overall, polystyrene, which is not recyclable in most locations, was the most common type of plastic found, followed closely by PET, a material used in bottles, containers, and other packaging.

The top polluters in Asia, according to the analysis, were Coca-Cola, Perfetti van Melle, and Mondelez International brands. These brands accounted for 30 percent of all branded plastic pollution counted by volunteers across Asia. This year’s brand audits throughout Asia build upon a week-long cleanup and audit at the Philippines’ Freedom Island in 2017, which found Nestlé and Unilever to be the top polluters.

“We pay the price for multinational companies’ reliance on cheap throwaway plastic,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia – Philippines Campaigner Abigail Aguilar. “We are the ones forced to clean up their plastic pollution in our streets and waterways. In the Philippines, we can clean entire beaches and the next day they are just as polluted with plastics. Through brand audits, we can name some of the worst polluters and demand that they stop producing plastic to begin with.”

http://www.investmentwatchblog.com/coca-cola-pepsico-and-nestle-found-to-be-worst-plastic-polluters-worldwide-in-global-cleanups-and-brand-audits/

THE PLAN IS AWESOME