>Jean Paul Getty was probably the world's richest private citizen
I read his book he never came close to being one of the 7 sisters
The Latest: Aid group says 62 die fleeing IS in Syria
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters stand in an area recently taken by SDF as fight against Islamic State militants continue in the village of Baghouz, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019. Islamic State militants are preventing more than 1,000 civilians from leaving a tiny area still held by the extremist group in a village in eastern Syria, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian militia fighting the group said Sunday.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the Syria conflict (all times local):
4:45 p.m.
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The International Rescue Committee says more than 60 people have died in recent weeks after making their way out of the last area controlled by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria.
Spokesman Paul Donohoe says exhaustion and malnutrition are the principle causes of the deaths. He said Monday that at least 62 people died, two thirds of them children under the age of one. He says they either died along the way
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/The-Latest-Twin-bombings-rock-Syria-s-Idlib-13624718.php
5G, foldable smartphones to dominate Mobile World Congress 2019
The buzz around the first 5G-enabled smartphone and foldable devices will be the talk of the town as the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 opens in Barcelona next week.
According to Thomas Husson, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, a global market research firm, the sessions on 5G and foldable phones are likely to cast a shadow over MWC.
"There is no denying that 5G is the infrastructure of the connected world, and precisely the reason why it is at the centre of the economic and political war between the US and China," Husson told IANS.
"However, the reality is that it will take another five to seven years before it reaches critical mass among consumers in most countries.
"While we will hear a lot about the first 5G smartphones, the challenge is to simultaneously roll-out the infrastructure and it will take time, especially in Europe where spectrum allocation remains a mess at a country level," he added.
Several smartphone and telecom infrastructure players are set to showcase their technologies at the event that begins from February 24 through February 28.
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/technology/5g–foldable-smartphones-to-dominate-mobile-world-congress-2019.html
Watch the water
French Town Becomes a Focal Point in War over Water
A battle is brewing in Vittel over Nestlé. The groundwater is running low in the French spa town and the multinational conglomerate is fighting for its rights to the commodity – and for its reputation.
Monsieur Guy de la Motte-Bouloumié is sitting in his villa, located on a hill with a sweeping view. He has polite things to say about Swiss multinational Nestlé, which acquired his family inheritance, the Société générale des Eaux minerales de Vittel, almost 30 years ago. The bottled water, sold around the world under the Vittel brand, has been in the company's hands ever since, along with all the challenges that come along with the marketing of it.
In the times back when the Bouloumiés were in charge, locals weren't writing things like, "Stop, stop the drilling!" on hay bales on the road. They didn't wear yellow vests to protest the elites, and they didn't have the internet for putting together detailed protest pages. The times have indeed changed. People are feeling more anxious these days, and Vittel is starting to feel it too.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/vexed-in-vittel-a-1252370.html
Posting this because it makes me chuckle when Trump makes them cry
Interview with Obama Adviser Ben Rhodes 'Trump Is Just Tearing Things Down'
Ben Rhodes was a key adviser in the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. With his memoir now being published in German, DER SPIEGEL spoke with him about the Donald Trump presidency, America's diminished role in the world and Obama's Middle East policy.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-obama-adviser-ben-rhodes-a-1252674.html
Three Jaish terrorists and Army major killed in Pulwama attack
Three Jaish terrorists, including a Pakistani commander of the group linked to the February 14 CRPF bombing, and an Army major were among nine people killed in a 16-hour encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Monday, officials said.
At least nine security personnel, including a brigade commander and a lieutenant colonel and a deputy inspector general of the Jammu and Kashmir police, were injured in the gun battle in Pulwama's Pinglan area, about 12 km from where a suicide bomber belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed drove his explosives-laden vehicle into a CRPF bus last week, killing 40 jawans.
The Pinglan encounter claimed the lives four Army personnel, a policeman, three Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists and a civilian, the officials said.
Two of the slain terrorists were identified as Kamran, a Pakistani national and top commander of the Jaish, and Hilal Ahmad, a local recruited by the terror group, they said, adding the identity of the third is being ascertained.
"Kamran's role in the February 14 suicide bombing of a CRPF convoy was under the scanner of investigators," a senior police official said.
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/top-stories/india-loses-army-major–3-soldiers-in-pulwama-gunfight.html
‘Poroshenko should resign’ – Former Ukraine PM claims FBI is investigating IMF cash embezzlement
KIEV, Ukraine – Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov said that the FBI is investigating the embezzlement of credit funds in Ukraine.
“For the past year, for example, they pulled out three billion dollars from the country. Where did I get this information from? I figured it out? No, I didn’t think it out, I took information from the NBU (the National Bank of Ukraine – ed.), I looked at the current account and calmly calculated: it turns out Ukraine borrowed two billion of some credit resources from the IMF (International Monetary Fund – ed.) and a billion at the World Bank – three, and brought 3.5 billion. Where did it go? Offshore,” Azarov said in an interview with the TV channel “112 Ukraine” .
According to Azarov, according to his data, foreign creditors are concerned about this and are checking.
“Foreign partners have repeatedly made a remark to the Kiev regime and warned: guys, be careful with the money that we give you. And I know that the investigation is underway, now the Federal Bureau of Investigation is doing this …” – said Azarov.
Azarov has called on Poroshenko to resign. Additionally, he has commented that Yanukovich dealt with Maidan protesters ‘too lightly’ resulting in the inability to use the Berkut security forces to safeguard the Ukrainian state from the U.S backed coup in 2014.
https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/02/poroshenko-should-resign-former-ukraine-pm-claims-fbi-is-investigating-imf-cash-embezzlement/
Enslaved migrants sold in Libya return home in Somalia, explain their ordeal on video
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Eleven migrants who had been subjected to slavery and auctioned in Libya arrived home on Saturday after being repatriated by the Somali government and the UN refugee agency.
Somali citizen Liban Ali was studying in Sudan in 2015 when he decided to illegally migrate to Europe passing through Libya. Once there, he was kidnapped by smugglers.
“Like an animal, I have been sold four times in a Libyan market, with the last one buying me for $10,000. There was a daily torture. I was two years in a Libyan prison and I spent $15,000 and did not reach the place I was dreaming [Europe],” he explained.
“Now I am happy to come back to my country and to a reunion with my family,” he continued.
Meanwhile, a Somali official explained the actions the Somalian government is taking.
“The government of Somalia is committed to repatriating its people who are in prisons around the globe. Today, we have been able to repatriate some Somali youth who were in a Libyan prison. A month ago, we released prisoners from Indian and Ethiopia prisons and brought them back to the country and we will continue doing so,” said Somali deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Guled Mohamed.
https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/02/enslaved-migrants-sold-in-libya-return/
The Article 50 deadline for the UK to leave the European Union is set for March 29. With the clock ticking and British and European lawmakers deadlocked, there are still a number of possible outcomes, including a worst-case – at least in the short term – ‘no-transition-period, no-deal’, or ‘hard’, Brexit.
A hard Brexit is the default position of the UK’s embattled prime minister, Theresa May, should EU and UK negotiators fail to come up with a revised version of a previous long-brokered
Janis Joplin - Piece Of My Heart
Muslim parents in school protest against lessons on British equality values
More than 300 parents and children gathered outside Parkfield Community School, Birmingham, to protest against lessons on equality at the school including issues of homosexuality and gender.
Some Muslim demonstrators said they would rather leave the UK than allow their children to continue attending the school.
Pupils at the school have five of these lessons a year, covering areas outlined in the Act: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Parents’ anger is aimed at the school’s assistant head Andrew Moffat, who is behind the ‘No Outsiders’ lessons. He created the scheme to teach children about the Equality Act and British values.
The programme was first piloted at the school in 2014 and is now also taught at dozens of other schools in the country.
https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/02/muslim-parents-in-school-protest-against-lessons-on-british-equality-values/
Janis Joplin - Cry Baby (Live)
Ebay Founder Pierre Omidyar is Funding a Global Media Information War
A select group of national news “stakeholders” gathered at an undisclosed location for what was described as a “semi-secret” workshop somewhere in Canada on January 26. The meeting had been convened to determine how and to whom a “news industry bailout” of $645 million in Canadian government subsidies to private and supposedly independent media outlets would be disbursed. It was a striking event that signaled both the crisis of legitimacy faced by mainstream media and the desperate measures that are being proposed to answer it.
Jesse Brown, a Canadian journalist who participated in the meeting, complained that the first thing he noticed about it “was that one major public ‘stakeholder’ wasn’t represented: the public.” Inside what amounted to a smoke filled room that was off limits to most Canadian citizens, Ben Scott — a former Obama administration official who also served in Hillary Clinton’s State Department — presided over the discussions. Today, as the director of policy and advocacy for the Omidyar Network, Scott works for one of the most quietly influential billionaires in helping to shape the media landscape and define the craft of journalism itself.
His boss is Pierre Omidyar, the ebay founder best known for his sponsorship of The Intercept, a flashy progressive publication that possesses the classified documents exfiltrated by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Unlike rival Silicon Valley billionaires Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, and Eric Schmidt, Omidyar has mostly managed to keep his influential role in media below the radar. And while he directs his fortune into many of the same politically strategic NGOs and media outlets that George Soros does in hotspots around the globe, he has never been subjected to the public scrutiny and often ugly attacks that dog Soros. And yet Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the UN and liberal interventionist guru, has explicitly praised Omidyar as someone who is following in the footsteps of Soros
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/71118/ebay-founder-pierre-omidyar-is-funding-a-global-media-information.html
hopefully that will change if/when we get our government back .. as America goes so goes the world