US$1 billion in jewels, no insurance: German police under pressure to catch thieves who carried out the ‘biggest art heist in modern history’

Police in Germany hunt robbers who snatched priceless 18th-century jewellery from a state museum in Dresden

Two days after robbers made off with priceless jewels from a German museum, pressure is growing on police to find the culprits. One big reason: the diamond-encrusted dagger, pearl necklace, and dozens of other glittering artefacts – estimated to be worth more than US$1 billion by the local press – were uninsured.

The German state of Saxony, the owner of the Green Vault museum in the eastern city of Dresden, carried no insurance on the jewels, standard practice because the premiums typically exceed potential damages in the long-term, the state Finance Ministry said.

While public museums usually insure works of art that are loaned to other institutions, they often don’t take out policies on their permanent collections, according to Julia Ries, head of fine art and jewellery at insurer Ergo Group AG.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3039540/us1-billion-jewels-no-insurance-german-police-under-pressure

Outcry from Mexico at Trump plan to designate its drug cartels as terrorists

US President Donald Trump claims Mexican drug cartels are to blame for 100,000 American deaths a year

The US Foreign Terror Organisation list includes Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram in Nigeria

Mexico’s government expressed alarm after US President Donald Trump said he was planning to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organisations, a move that officials here fear could complicate security cooperation and trade between the neighbours.

“Mexico will never accept any action that violates our national sovereignty,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeted.

“We will act firmly. I have sent our position to the US as well as our resolution on combating transnational organised crime.”

The Foreign Ministry said Ebrard would contact Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to set up an urgent meeting to discuss “this theme of high relevance for the bilateral agenda”.

Trump told former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in a radio interview broadcast Tuesday that Mexican cartels “will be designated” as terror groups because “we are losing 100,000 people a year to what is happening and what is coming through Mexico”.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3039550/outcry-mexico-trump-plan-designate-its-drug-cartels

Explosion, fire at Texas oil refinery injures 3; residents evacuated

Nov. 27 (UPI) – A powerful explosion shook a petroleum processing plant near Houston early Wednesday and injured at least three people, authorities said.

TPC Group, which processes crude oil into products for the petroleum and chemical industry, said the blast occurred around 1 a.m. at a "processing unit" at its plant in Port Neches, Texas, about 85 miles northeast of downtown Houston.

KHOU-TV reported "multiple" explosions at the plant.

"The event is ongoing but will be brought under control as quickly and safely as possible," the company said in a statement. "At this time, personnel at the site have been evacuated.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/11/27/Explosion-fire-at-Texas-oil-refinery-injures-3-residents-evacuated/5561574852478/?sl=7

Taiwan probes senior staff at Hong Kong-listed China Innovation after Chinese ‘spy’ William Wang claimed it was a front for Beijing espionage operations

Xiang Xin, the firm’s chief executive, and his wife Kung Ching, an alternate director, are cooperating with Taiwanese authorities, China Innovation said

The company has denied any wrongdoing and says self-proclaimed spy Wang, who is seeking asylum in Australia, was not one of its employees

China Innovation Investment, a little-known Hong Kong firm dragged into spying allegations it denies, says Taipei has waded into the matter by initiating an investigation into two of its senior staff.

The Taiwanese authorities have asked Xiang Xin, China Innovations’ chairman and chief executive, and his wife Kung Ching, an alternate director, to cooperate with an investigation it is carrying out into “the matter of the news reports”, the company said.

It was referring to recent media reports that a man claiming to be a Chinese spy seeking asylum in Australia alleged he undertook undercover espionage work in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.

He claims he was embedded as part of a spying apparatus within China Innovation Investment. Beijing has been using the company as a front to interfere with Hong Kong politics by infiltrating universities, political groups and media companies, he has said.

https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3039284/taiwan-probes-senior-staff-hong-kong-listed-china-innovation

China Cables exposes horrors of Artificial Intelligence usage by China to put millions in detention

The cybernetic tools pull out the most intimate details of the people's life into a huge database and that becomes the basis for local authorities to believe that they can predict who may commit a crime in the future.

The China Cables, obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, reveal about the camps in which more than a million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are understood to be detained. This is for the first time a document outlining the camps has been leaked.

In an exclusive Skype interview with Fergus Shiel, Project manager of China Cables, Saurabh Bose of WION asks about the classified intelligence briefings that reveal about the scope and ambition of Chines govt's AI-based policing platform. Excerpts:

https://zeenews.india.com/world/china-cables-exposes-horrors-of-artificial-intelligence-usage-by-china-to-put-millions-in-detention-2248564.html

>>7383317

>the mind is uniquely equipped to navigate in time

Time is linear you can move forward and look back in time …But NOBODY CAN REMEMBER TOMORROW…….There's no escaping the 2nd law of thermodynamics.. Time is what man uses to measure deterioration… In math and physics its speed and motion

HUGE DEVELOPMENT: DOJ Requests Delay in General Flynn Sentencing Until After the IG Report Is Released

Earlier this month Attorney Sidney Powell joined Lou Dobbs to discuss the latest updates on US Government’s court case against General Michael Flynn.

Sidney Powell filed a motion in October revealing that General Michael Flynn was indeed set up by the FBI with a political ambush, damaging leaks and altered 302 reports.

Powell revealed that former FBI lawyer Lisa Page EDITED General Mike Flynn’s 302 report, then lied to the DOJ about the edits.

Sidney Powell told Lou Dobbs she is asking for all of the evidence they asked for in their original motion to be produced… “And then we will seek to move to dismiss for egregious government conduct. I’m sure the evidence is going to support that. Frankly, we probably have enough already.”

On Tuesday the DOJ requested a delay in the Flynn case until the release of the Inspector General report on December 9th.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/11/huge-devlopment-doj-requests-delay-in-general-flynn-sentencing-until-after-the-ig-report-is-released/

DEEP DIVE: EFF to DHS: Stop Mass Collection of Social Media Information

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently released a proposed rule expanding the agency’s collection of social media information on key visa forms and immigration applications. Earlier this month, EFF joined over 40 civil society organizations that signed on to comments drafted by the Brennan Center for Justice. These comments identify the free speech and privacy risks the proposed rule poses to U.S. persons both directly, if they are required to fill out these forms, and indirectly, if they are connected via social media to friends, family, or associates required to fill out these forms.

DHS’s Proposed Rule

In the proposed rule, “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Social Media Information on Immigration and Foreign Travel Forms,” DHS claims that it has “identified the collection of social media user identifications . . . as important for identity verification, immigration and national security vetting.” The proposed rule identifies 12 forms adjudicated by DHS agencies U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that will now collect social media handles and associated social media platforms for the last five years. The applications will not collect passwords. DHS will be able to only view information that the user publicly shares.

https://www.activistpost.com/2019/11/deep-dive-eff-to-dhs-stop-mass-collection-of-social-media-information.html

Migrant Crisis 2.0: 1000+ migrants land in Italy and Greece in few days

Greece and Italy have seen a new flood of migrants in the past few days, with more than 700 new migrants arriving in Greece within 24 hours.

Last weekend, 643 migrants landed on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos in a period of just 24 hours, while the Greek coastguard picked up 60 migrants at sea, making for a total of 703 newly arrived migrants, Euronews reports.

The report comes just one week after 1,350 migrants arrived in Greece last weekend. The new arrivals will only add to the growing problems of the already vastly overcrowded migrant camps. Estimates suggest that 37,000 migrants are now living across several Greek islands at camps meant to house just a few thousand.

Amid what’s beginning to looking like a second migrant crisis, Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that his conservative government would be increasing sea patrols and deploying additional border guards to “shut the door” to illegal migrants.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/11/migrant-crisis-2-0-1000-migrants-land-in-italy-and-greece-in-few-days/

New report warns Chinese long-range anti-ship missiles outclass US radars

In naval warfare, awareness and range are key. Fleets are by their nature projections of power that contest a given area of the sea, and their commanders must be aware of everything that comes into and goes out of that zone.

A new report by the conservative Hudson Institute think tank warns the US Navy doesn’t have the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets to provide the information US fleet commanders need in today’s oceanic battlefields, much less in the expanded naval ops envisioned by the Trump administration.

“Among the most important is the ability to out-range an adversary, for which the range of weapons is as critical as the ability to target the adversary effectively,” the report notes. “The ability to target a potential adversary’s naval power deserves far more attention than it has received.”

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/new-report-warns-chinese-long-range-anti-ship-missiles-outclass-us-radars/

Soviet spy who helped stop attack on WWII allied leaders dies at 93

Goar Vartanian, a former Soviet spy who with her husband helped prevent a Nazi assassination of Allied leaders in Tehran during World War II, has died in Moscow at age 93.

A spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) told AFP on November 26 that Vartanian will be buried at Moscow’s prestigious Troyekurovskoe cemetery, possible on November 29.

Vartanian and husband Gevork worked as secret agents on numerous missions abroad for the Soviet Union.

In 1943, the Vartanians helped thwart Operation Long Jump — a plot by Nazi Germany to kill Soviet leader Josef Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt during a 1943 summit in the Iranian capital.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2019/11/soviet-spy-who-helped-stop-attack-on-wwii-allied-leaders-dies-at-93/

Thanksgiving: The Forgotten History of America's Thanksgiving and What It Commemorates

Thanksgiving is the oldest national holiday in the United States. However, it’s observation is not a continuous presence in American history. While the celebration of Thanksgiving predates even the founding of the nation, it was proclaimed by George Washington, then ignored by Thomas Jefferson. From then on, it was sporadically observed until Abraham Lincoln, who once again introduced a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving to the United States.

Indeed, it was Lincoln who set the day as the last Thursday in November. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed the day between 1939 and 1941, which was highly controversial. The days were called “Franksgiving.” Roosevelt changed the date because retailers communicated to him through the Retail Dry Goods Association and the Secretary of Commerce, that the late date of Thanksgiving that year (the last day of November) might negatively impact retail sales. It was considered bad form to put up Christmas decorations or put on Christmas sales before Thanksgiving.

If only we still lived in such times.

In 1942, Congress set Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of the month, and here it has stood since then.

https://ammo.com/articles/thanksgiving-forgotten-history-america-franksgiving-commemorates