How U.S. Firms Helped Africa’s Richest Woman Exploit Her Country’s Wealth

Jan. 19, 2020

Updated 3:13 p.m. ET

LISBON — It was the party to be seen at during the Cannes Film Festival, where being seen was the whole point. A Swiss jewelry company had rented out the opulent Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, drawing celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Campbell and Antonio Banderas. The theme: “Love on the Rocks.”

Posing for photos at the May 2017 event was Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and the daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, then Angola’s president. Her husband controls the jeweler, De Grisogono, through a dizzying array of shell companies in Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands.

But the lavish party was possible only because of the Angolan government. The country is rich in oil and diamonds but hobbled by corruption, with grinding poverty, widespread illiteracy and a high infant mortality rate. A state agency had sunk more than $120 million into the jewelry company. Today, it faces a total loss.

https://archive.is/QSszZ

The Secret History of Facial Recognition

Sixty years ago, a sharecropper’s son invented a technology to identify faces. Then the record of his role all but vanished. Who was Woody Bledsoe, and who was he working for?

But early in his career, Woody had been consumed with an attempt to give machines one particular, relatively unsung, but dangerously powerful human capacity: the ability to recognize faces. Lance knew that his father’s work in this area—the earliest research on facial-­recognition technology—had attracted the interest of the US government’s most secretive agencies. Woody’s chief funders, in fact, seem to have been front companies for the CIA. Had Lance just incinerated the evidence of Washington’s first efforts to identify individual people on a mass, automated scale?

Today, facial recognition has become a security feature of choice for phones, laptops, passports, and payment apps. It promises to revolutionize the business of targeted advertising and speed the diagnosis of certain illnesses. It makes tagging friends on Instagram a breeze. Yet it is also, increasingly, a tool of state oppression and corporate surveillance. In China, the government uses facial recognition to identify and track members of the Uighur ethnic minority, hundreds of thousands of whom have been interned in “reeducation camps.” In the US, according to The Washington Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI have deployed the technology as a digital dragnet, searching for suspects among millions of faces in state driver’s license databases, sometimes without first seeking a court order

https://www.wired.com/story/secret-history-facial-recognition/

>>7913466

Is that a joke or you auditioning for a job for the MSM kek

Most advanced Russian ‘intelligence plane’ flying towards Syria

BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:45 P.M.) – Russia’s most advanced “intelligence plane” is reportedly flying over Turkey and heading towards Syria, maritime observer and photographer Yoruk Isik tweeted on Saturday.

According to Isik, the Russian Air Force’s Tu-214R aircraft flew from Moscow’s Chkalovsky Airport and will likely land at the Hmeimim Airbase in western Syria.

Eyes & Ears on the Mediterranean: Russia's most advanced 'intelligence plane', Russian Air Force Special Mission Tu214R RF64514 SIGINT / ELINT intelligence gathering platform, is flying from Moscow Chkalovsky likely to RuAFB Humaymim in #Latakia #Syria through Turkish airspace. pic.twitter.com/cWCAWnWx0U

— Yörük Işık (@YorukIsik) January 25, 2020

The aircraft was previously deployed to Syria in February 2016, when the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was launching several military operations across the country.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/most-advanced-russian-intelligence-plane-flying-towards-syria/

Trump Impeachment Trial: Senators Stunned at Half-Empty Spectator Gallery

The Senate spectator gallery has remained half-empty during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, and some senators are stunned that more people are not taking note of the historic moments that are taking place in the chamber.

“I’m really surprised at that because this is kind of historic and I would think this would be an opportunity for people to get in there regardless of whose side you are on,” Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) told the New York Post Friday.

Reporters are prohibited from bringing cellphones or cameras into the gallery, so the noticeably small audience in the chamber is known to only a few people that are able to witness it in person.

The spectator gallery offers a view of the Senate in a compact chamber as senators debate whether Trump should be removed from office.

It is almost assured that Trump has the votes to be acquitted of all charges because there would need to be two-thirds of votes or 20 Republicans who defected for Trump to be convicted of the two charges against him.

Some Republicans blamed the Democrats’ lackluster opening arguments for the low attendance.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/25/trump-impeachment-trial-senators-stunned-at-half-empty-spectator-gallery/

>>7913693

>>7913627

Think…Maybe the point is even after almost 4 years of the MSM LYing to the country even the Liberal/Progressive/Communist FKwits don't believe them anymore and they have no base left..The Great Awakening ..The country will be united again…Hopefully

Operational Fires Program Advances to Phase 3, Targets System Development and Integration

OpFires will develop, demonstrate novel ground-launched system for precision engagement of time-sensitive targets

The joint DARPA/U.S. Army Operational Fires (OpFires) program is moving into Phase 3 to further develop and integrate ongoing propulsion system designs into a missile system, including the launcher, electronics, and payload. OpFires aims to develop and demonstrate a novel ground-launched system, enabling hypersonic boost glide weapons to penetrate modern enemy air defenses and rapidly and precisely engage critical time-sensitive targets from a highly mobile launch platform.

The OpFires program will conduct a series of subsystem tests designed to evaluate component design and system compatibility, and culminate in integrated end-to-end flight tests. DARPA has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control to lead the integration effort.

“We made excellent progress in the first two phases, which focused on the propulsion technologies required to deliver diverse payloads, and I am confident in our approach in the next phase of the OpFires program,” said Maj. Amber Walker (USA), program manager for OpFires in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. “This award furthers our ability to integrate new technologies and deliver enhanced capabilities in a highly mobile, robust ground-launched platform to overwhelm adversary positions.”

https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2020-01-14

Who Is Iran’s New Deputy IRGC Quds Force commander: Mohammad Hejazi

Iran has appointed a new deputy commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force in the wake of the killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani. Esmail Ghaani was appointed the successor of Soleimani while his deputy will be Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi. Hejazi, whose full title is sometimes written as Mohammad Hosseinzadeh Hejazi or Seyyed Mohammad Hejazi ( ‌ ).

From well known commander to suppressing dissidents

First, Hejazi is well known for Iran observers. He has been sanctioned by the European Union. He was added to the EU sanctions list in 2012. This was due to his role in suppressing dissent in Iran, including during the 2009 protests. He was the head of the IRGC’s Sarollah Corps (Sarallah Base) in Tehran, where he “played a significant role in the bloody post-election crackdown.” He was involved in sending a letter to the Ministry of Health in June 2009 that covered up the injuries related to the protests…

https://tsarizm.com/news/middle-east/2020/01/25/who-is-irans-new-deputy-irgc-quds-force-commander-mohammad-hejazi/