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Over 700 migrants caught crossing in El Paso
U.S. Border Patrol says agents took more than 700 migrants into custody at the El Paso border early Wednesday.
El Paso Border Patrol Supervisor Ramiro Cordero said those detained include two convicted sex offenders who had been deported after serving jail time in the states and an escaped convict.
As for the other migrants, who came in several large groups, Cordero did not yet know if they were all seeking asylum.
“We won’t know that until they are all processed,” he said. “This is just 700 today; we’re still not done with the ones from yesterday and the day before. It will be awhile.”
Border Patrol officials announced Tuesday that more than 76,000 migrants crossed the Southwestern border in February and more than 70 large groups of 100 or more migrants have crossed the border since October, with 29 in New Mexico alone.
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2019/03/over-700-migrants-caught-crossing-in-el-paso/
Netizen Report: Activists Reject EU Plans to Pre-censor Copyright Violations, “Terrorist” Content
An estimated 5,000 people braved freezing temperatures in Berlin on March 2 to protest a proposed EU copyright rule that could radically shift the dynamics of posting and sharing content online.
The latest draft of the EU Copyright Directive would require internet platforms like YouTube to install “upload filters” — a technical mechanism that would block users from uploading copyright-protected content, effectively imposing a system of “prior censorship” on major internet and social media platforms.
Demonstrators carried colorful signs reading “We are not bots,” “Diesel filter instead of upload filter,” “Save the Internet” and chanted the lyrics of the song “Wir sind keine bots” (We are not bots) made by YouTuber Willboy specifically in opposition to the provision. The song was released on Friday, a day before the demonstration, and became a viral hit with over half a million views in just a few days.
Whether or not the Copyright Directive is approved, digital rights advocates will have more battles to fight in the near term, when it comes to policy proposals seeking automated technical solutions to online content challenges.
https://www.activistpost.com/2019/03/netizen-report-activists-reject-eu-plans-to-pre-censor-copyright-violations-terrorist-content.html
Blood Money: Meet the Top 20 Companies Profiting From Endless War
Military spending is growing around the world and in 2017 it increased by 1.1 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
U.S. arms expenditures rose by $9.6 billion, driving the global rise and further consolidating the status of the United States as the world’s top spender on the military–by far.
The U.S. spending on war is rooted in post-World War II “new Pentagon capitalism” that eventually became known as the military-industrial complex.
The model, revolutionized by then-Army Chief of Staff and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower, ensured that the United States’ scientific research, technological and industrial capacity would become “organic parts of our military structure” in conditions of national emergency, effectively giving the civilian economy a dual-use purpose. The model eventually gave birth to the sprawling military-civilian economic base, or “military-industrial complex,” that Eisenhower famously criticized in his 1961 farewell address to the nation.
Civilian industry, science, and academia were used alongside an exorbitant and perpetually-expanding war budget to underwrite the Defense Department’s never-ending state of conflict with Cold War enemies, making the world safe for the unchallenged reign of the United States while “pump-priming” the U.S. economy whenever additional surges of “military Keynesian” spending by Washington was required
https://www.activistpost.com/2019/03/blood-money-meet-the-top-20-companies-profiting-from-endless-war.html
Former Border Patrol Agent Sentenced to More Than Nine Years in Prison for Accepting Bribes to Facilitate the Trafficking of Illegal Drugs
A former U.S. Border Patrol Agent (BPA) was sentenced to 114 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for accepting bribes in return for helping to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick for the Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Perrye Turner of the FBI’s Houston Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Juan Benavides of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) made the announcement.
Robert Hall, 45, of La Feria, Texas, a former BPA, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. of the Southern District of Texas, who also ordered Hall to pay a fine in the amount of $20,000. Hall pleaded guilty to one count of bribery on Sept. 14, 2018, which was unsealed today.
According to the plea documents, between 2004 and 2014, Hall, working with others including Daniel Hernandez, 46, of Roseville, California, facilitated the trafficking of illegal drugs, including marijuana, into the United States from Mexico on behalf of a drug trafficking organization (DTO). In exchange for cash payments, he provided an individual in the DTO with CBP sensor locations, the locations of unpatrolled roads at or near the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of BPAs working in a certain area, keys to unlock CBP locks located on gates to ranch fences along the border and CBP radios. In total, Hall accepted over $50,000 in cash from the DTO in exchange for using his position as a BPA to enable the DTO’s drug shipments to cross the border into Texas without law enforcement detection.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-border-patrol-agent-sentenced-more-nine-years-prison-accepting-bribes-facilitate
Gold Flips To Premium For First Time In More Than Three Months: Report
Gold futures in the country fell to Rs. 31,777 per 10 grams on Thursday, the lowest level since January 9.
https://www.ndtv.com/business/gold-flips-to-premium-for-first-time-in-more-than-three-months-report-2004822