Children ‘Screaming and Coughing in the Mayhem’ as Trump Border Patrol Fires Tear Gas Into Mexico
n/t
Category: International Affairs,
Security cooperation with Europe is ‘imperative’, MI6 chief to warn as no-deal Brexit threat grows
In a rare public address, Alex Younger will outline how cooperation with European allies has prevented multiple attacks in the UK and the continent by Isis and other terrorist groups.
…Speaking at St Andrews University in Scotland, he will reiterate that: “Russia or any other state intent on subverting our way of life not to underestimate our determination and our capabilities, or those of our allies.”
hmmmm
How DNA Tests Make Native Americans Strangers In Their Own Land | HuffPost
In reality, such testing does not tell us much about our ancestors. That’s partly because of the way DNA is passed down through the generations and partly because there exists no database of ancestral DNA. Instead, the companies compare your DNA to that of other contemporary humans who have paid them to take the test. Then they compare your particular variations to patterns of geographical and ethnic distribution of such variations in today’s world ― and use secret algorithms to assign purportedly precise ancestral percentages to them.
…These three political developments downplay Native American identity, sovereignty, and rights, while denying, implicitly or explicitly, that history created today’s realities of racial inequality. The use of DNA tests to claim “Native American” genes or blood trivializes this same history.
How DNA Tests Make Native Americans Strangers In Their Own Land | HuffPost
hmmm
Google May Shutter Google News in EU Over ‘Link Tax’ Laws
This set of rules says that technology firms like Google and Facebook that profit from content on the internet by linking to it should have to pay a fee to those sites.
…Many traditional media companies in Europe blame Google for siphoning off ad revenue that kept newspapers afloat. Musicians and artists are also largely in favor of the Digital Single market rules. However, many smaller websites rely on the traffic Google News and similar services drive.
Google May Shutter Google News in EU Over ‘Link Tax’ Laws – ExtremeTech
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A remote Indian island, its fiercely isolationist inhabitants, and the death of an American missionary
It’s not the nicest thing to speak ill of the dead but seriously… What a fucking asswipe douchebag this guy was!
Trump Administration Temporarily Blocked From Banning Asylum Seekers
A federal judge barred the Trump administration on Monday from refusing asylum to immigrants who cross the southern border illegally.
…Trump issued a proclamation on Nov. 9 that said anyone who crossed the southern border would be ineligible for asylum.
…“Individuals are entitled to asylum if they cross between ports of entry,” said Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights. “It couldn’t be clearer.”
Trump Administration Temporarily Blocked From Banning Asylum Seekers | HuffPost
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Living in a cold, dark climate linked to heavy drinking. Or not.
One expert attending, Prof Jurgen Rehm from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, cast doubt on any link between temperature, light and alcohol consumption.
He told BBC Scotland that research in Europe had found the highest rates of alcohol consumption and harm in a central belt of countries such as Ireland, the UK, Germany and Poland.
Lower alcohol use was found in countries to the north – such as Norway, Sweden and Finland – and further south in places like Italy, Malta and Greece.
He said: “Basically, we have found within Europe that this correlation that has been found in another study globally, plays no role.”
Living in a cold, dark climate linked to heavy drinking – BBC News
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Archaeology: Treasure, animal skulls in 3,300-year-old Transylvania tomb
Transylvania perches on a plateau surrounded by the great arc of the Carpathian Mountains in central Romania. Richly endowed with medieval castles, cities, and ruins, Transylvania is the home of the real Count Dracula, portrayed in fiction as a vampire. In the Bronze Age, however, the province was famous for entirely different reasons. The area is rich in metal, and became a focal point in trade between the major cities in the eastern Mediterranean and northern Europe.
…Merchants and travelers alike followed the vast rivers – the Mures, the Danube and the Tisza – through flat floodplains and meadows nestled in the Carpathian Mountains.
Some of the smaller rivers were rich in gold, and in the mountains one could extract copper. Because of this the area became an important meeting point between peoples from North and South some 3,300 years ago.
…Not only did Cioclovina Cave have beads and glass originating from Mesopotamia and Egypt: the archaeologists also found 1,770 amber beads that came from Scandinavia.
…Radiocarbon analysis carried out on animal bones found in the cave supports the timeline of between 1,428 to 1,263 B.C.E.
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Trump Confused the Baltics With Balkans—And Accused Confused Leaders of Starting Yugoslav Wars
Trump confused the Baltic states in Europe with the Balkans—and chastised leaders of the former for starting wars in the 1990s that lead to the break-up of Yugoslavia, French daily Le Monde reported.
…The Baltic states lie in northern Europe, on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.
Around 1,000 miles away sits the Balkan region in south-eastern Europe. It comprises states including Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.
…Trump’s mistake is perhaps more surprising given that his wife, Melania, was born in Slovenia, a state that was part of Yugoslavia until 1991.
Trump, according to the Le Monde report, remained “apparently uneducated in the matter by his wife, Melania, originally from the former Yugoslavia.”
Russia’s Cyberwar on Ukraine Is a Blueprint For What’s to Come
For the past 14 months, Yasinsky had found himself at the center of an enveloping crisis. A growing roster of Ukrainian companies and government agencies had come to him to analyze a plague of cyberattacks that were hitting them in rapid, remorseless succession.
…For decades they warned that hackers would soon make the leap beyond purely digital mayhem and start to cause real, physical damage to the world. In 2009, when the NSA’s Stuxnet malware silently accelerated a few hundred Iranian nuclear centrifuges until they destroyed themselves, it seemed to offer a preview of this new era.
…A hacker army has systematically undermined practically every sector of Ukraine: media, finance, transportation, military, politics, energy. Wave after wave of intrusions have deleted data, destroyed computers, and in some cases paralyzed organizations’ most basic functions.
…Russian troops promptly annexed the Crimean Peninsula in the south and invaded the Russian-speaking eastern region known as Donbass. Ukraine has since then been locked in an undeclared war with Russia, one that has displaced nearly 2 million internal refugees and killed close to 10,000 Ukrainians.
From the beginning, one of this war’s major fronts has been digital.
Russia’s Cyberwar on Ukraine Is a Blueprint For What’s to Come | WIRED
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Oldest known cave painting of animal found in Borneo, Indonesia, bolstering new theory on human ancestors
The sketch is at least 40,000 years old, slightly older than similar animal paintings found in famous caves in France and Spain. Until a few years ago, experts believed Europe was where our ancestors started drawing animals and other figures.
But the age of the drawing reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, along with previous discoveries in Southeast Asia, suggest that figurative drawing appeared in both continents about the same time.
…After large animal drawings and stencils, “It seems the focus shifted to showing the human world,” Aubert said.
Around 14,000 years ago, the cave-dwellers began to regularly sketch human figures doing things like dancing and hunting, often wearing large headdresses. A similar transition in rock art subjects happened in the caves of Europe.
…Whether new waves of people migrating from Africa brought the skills of figurative cave painting with them, or whether these arts emerged later, remains unclear. Scientists have only a partial record of global rock art. The earliest cave etchings have been found in Africa and include abstract designs, like crosshatches, dating to around 73,000 years ago.
cool
Venice Hit With Worst Flooding In A Decade As Tourists Wade Through Landmarks | HuffPost
The city has been working on an ambitious engineering project ― nicknamed “Project Moses” ― to protect Venice from future floodwaters, but the effort has been plagued by cost overruns and a corruption scandal since it began in 2003. When it’s finished, several massive retractable gates are meant to block the mouths of the city’s lagoons when extremely high tides come in, theoretically protecting Venice until the water retreats.
The project is expected to be completed by 2022 and has already cost some 6.5 billion. Minor flooding would still take place in certain areas when floodwater is below the level needed to activate the system of gates.
Venice Hit With Worst Flooding In A Decade As Tourists Wade Through Landmarks | HuffPost
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Protests continue for third day after Aasia Bibi’s acquittal
Some protesters appeared unsure of the nature of Aasia Bibi’s crime, but were certain that she should be put to death.
Protests continue for third day after Aasia Bibi’s acquittal | News | Al Jazeera
People are such assholes, and folks whose religion leads them hate, are just monsters.
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