Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently

Google engineers have proposed changes to the open-source Chromium browser that will break content-blocking extensions, including various ad blockers.

Adblock Plus will most likely not be affected, though similar third-party plugins will, for reasons we will explain. The drafted changes will also limit the capabilities available to extension developers, ostensibly for the sake of speed and safety. Chromium forms the central core of Google Chrome, and, soon, Microsoft Edge.

In a note posted Tuesday to the Chromium bug tracker, Raymond Hill, the developer behind uBlock Origin and uMatrix, said the changes contemplated by the Manifest v3 proposal will ruin his ad and content blocking extensions, and take control of content away from users.

Content blockers may be used to hide or black-hole ads, but they have broader applications. They're predicated on the notion that users, rather than anyone else, should be able to control how their browser presents and interacts with remote resources.

Manifest v3 refers to the specification for browser extension manifest files, which enumerate the resources and capabilities available to browser extensions. Google's stated rationale for making the proposed changes, cutting off blocking plugins, is to improve security, privacy and performance, and supposedly to enhance user control.

"Users should have increased control over their extensions," the design document says. "A user should be able to determine what information is available to an extension, and be able to control that privilege."

But one way Google would like to achieve these goals involves replacing the webRequest API with a new one, declarativeNetRequest.

The webRequest API allows browser extensions, like uBlock Origin, to intercept network requests, so they can be blocked, modified, or redirected. This can cause delays in web page loading because Chrome has to wait for the extension. In the future, webRequest will only be able to read network requests, not modify them.

The declarativeNetRequest allows Chrome (rather than the extension itself) to decide how to handle network requests, thereby removing a possible source of bottlenecks and a potentially useful mechanism for changing browser behavior.

"The declarativeNetRequest API provides better privacy to users because extensions can't actually read the network requests made on the user's behalf," Google's API documentation explains.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/22/google_chrome_browser_ad_content_block_change/

US confirms its envoy held talks with Taliban in Qatar

The United States has confirmed that its envoy met the Taliban in Qatar as Washington seeks to negotiate an end to the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan.

Zalmay Khalilzad, US special representative on Afghan reconciliation, on Tuesday met Taliban representatives in the Qatari capital Doha, the US State Department said.

"We can confirm that Special Representative Khalilzad and an inter-agency team are in Doha today talking with representatives of the Taliban," a State Department spokeswoman said, adding that the talks were taking place over two days.

The Taliban and the US envoys have officially met four times since July, in an attempt to find a negotiated settlement to the war in the embattled country.

However, Wednesdays comments mark the first time the US State Department has confirmed his meetings directly.

The meeting came even though the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on Tuesday against an Afghan intelligence base in central Wardak province.

A local official said at least 65 people were killed in the latest high-casualty attack in Afghanistan.

Longest war involving US

Taliban officials who were privy to the peace talks said US officials taking part were concerned about deteriorating security and feared that a US troop withdrawal could lead to "terrorist groups" taking control in Afghanistan.

A Taliban spokesman announced the meeting with Khalilzad on Monday, saying that the US accepted an agenda of "ending the occupation of Afghanistan and preventing Afghanistan from being used against other countries in the future."

"The message from the Taliban spokesperson was that the talks are specifically aimed at extracting a deadline for the American pullout from Afghanistan," Imtiyaz Gul, from the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad told Al Jazeera.

President Donald Trump has ordered a halving of the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan as he voices eagerness to end the US's longest-ever war, launched in 2001 after the September 11 attacks.

The Afghan-born Khalilzad, a key US policymaker under former president George W Bush, met the Taliban after talks in Afghanistan as well as stops in key regional players China, India and Pakistan.

In Kabul, Khalilzad spoke with President Ashraf Ghani and vowed that the US would maintain security support to Afghan forces.

"We agreed military pressure is essential while we prepare to engage in negotiations for peace," he tweeted.

He elaborated later: "To achieve peace, we are ready to address legitimate concerns of all Afghan sides in a process that ensures Afghan independence and sovereignty, and accounts for legitimate interests of regional states."

"Urgent that fighting end. But pursuing peace still means we fight as needed," he tweeted.

Khalilzad is last known to have met the Taliban last month in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, which has jockeyed for influence versus Gulf rival Qatar on spearheading diplomacy with the Taliban.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/70488/us-confirms-its-envoy-held-talks-with-taliban-in.html

>>4876081

5G still rolling out

Elite can now buy kid blood in 5 states

Wars still going.

Pedo arrests down from last year.

Criminals still running governments.

Food still poisoned.

Water still poisoned.

Drugs still everywhere.

Chemtrails still being sprayed.

MAGA = Witch many languages

Hierarchy in the Church of Satan

Registered Member (no degree)

Active Member—Satanist (First Degree)

Witch/Warlock (Second Degree)

Priestess/Priest (Third Degree)

Magistra/Magister (Fourth Degree)

Maga/Magus (Fifth Degree)