01a Apocalyptic

A New Mexico court is ordering Meta to pay $25 billion in a civil lawsuit for allowing Cambridge Analytica access to user data during the 2016 election. The company was working for the Trump campaign. It used that information to help the Trump campaign more effectively target potential voters.

Meta hit with $25 billion penalty over Cambridge Analytica data lawsuit– www.washingtonexaminer.com
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A New Mexico court ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to pay a $25 billion penalty over data privacy violations connected to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The whopping penalty comes more than eight years after the stories of the data-harvesting scandal first broke and sparked political uproar in the United States. Politicians and social media users have raised concerns since the 2018 reports first broke about the United Kingdom-based firm improperly scraping up Facebook profiles without user consent, leading to multiple lawsuits and legal battles.

Because the Republican-controlled national legislature failed to pass a measure to block them, California is set to be the definer of AI standards. Now, Anthropic is using California’s AI standards to push a national bill forward that could allow their AI agents to work without government intervention unless the high threshold of 50 lives in danger is met.

Do-Nothing Republicans Did Nothing So Now Gavin Newsom Controls Keys To Most Critical Rules– dailycaller.com
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Republicans might have accidentally given Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California legislature the keys that will end up shaping some of the most important rules involving artificial intelligence.

Politico reported Wednesday that Anthropic’s draft federal AI safety bill, which the company is pitching to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, was directly influenced by California law. The bill lays out the potential risk thresholds at which the government would be allowed to intervene and block an AI model. But unfortunately for Republicans, Newsom and the California legislature had the free opportunity to lay the groundwork and define the arbitrary risk thresholds that could end up triggering federal intervention.

58% of Americans are getting their “news” from far-left news aggregators that block non-progressive media from being seen. These four far-left news aggregators are run by progressive-controlled corporations aligned with the Democratic Party. The four aggregators are Apple News, Google News, Yahoo News, and Microsoft’s MSM.

Study: 58 percent of Americans Get Their News From Four Left-Leaning Aggregators › American Greatness– amgreatness.com
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A new study from a conservative media watchdog group has found that nearly 60 percent of Americans get their news from at least one of the Big Four news aggregators: Apple News, Google News, Yahoo News and Microsoft’s MSN.

Just the News reports that, according to MRC’s tracking and research data, these four applications sit on nearly every smartphone in America and serve as a dominant news window for an estimated 58 percent of Americans.

According to the MRC’s special report, released earlier this month, all four aggregators exhibit a heavy left-wing bias by overwhelmingly surfacing mainstream and left-leaning publications while filtering out conservative outlets.

MP Helen Haines has second leg amputated after left-wing activist ‘rammed her with car’ as husband reveals health update– www.thesun.co.uk
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AUSTRALIAN MP Helen Haines has had both her legs amputated after a left-wing climate activist allegedly rammed her with a car.

A suspect has been charged after the terrifying “targeted” ordeal saw the MP, 65, repeatedly hit by a Toyota Land Cruiser before being pinned underneath it.

Helen’s husband Phil confirmed the double amputation today saying: “We had been hoping that her right leg would be saved, but as of this afternoon or this morning, the surgeons had to also remove her right leg.”

“But the good news in all this is Helen is alive and she’s stable. That is the most important thing for our family.”

Antifa cells mobilize across France for National Rally protests in Orléans– www.foxnews.com
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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

FIRST ON FOX: Some 50 radical Antifa cells in a wider network of nearly 300 groups are mobilizing to ensure this weekend’s demonstrations in France devolve into chaos and mayhem, Fox News Digital has learned.

Self-described Antifa groups are working with a sprawling network of communist, socialist, far-left and anti-Israel groups to mobilize on two fronts this weekend: an “anti-fascist village” against conservative leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in the city of Orléans and nationwide protests called Acte II to replicate last week’s violent riots.

A Fox News Digital investigation has mapped 287 groups in France’s expanding protest ecosystem, including 50 explicitly Antifa organizations, 27 explicitly communist, socialist, Trotskyist or revolutionary-left organizations, 24 labor unions and an expanding coalition of far-left anti-Israel, migrant-rights, environmental, feminist, transgender and other activist organizations. The demonstrations, which claim to be about youth education, include just 27 student and youth organizations.

The coordination comes amid a wider transnational campaign of mayhem organized by communist, socialist and leftist groups in Greece, Italy, Spain, India and elsewhere.

Fox News Digital has compiled a running who’s who of organizations in what has been dubbed “Chaos Inc.” and will keep updating the directory.

The size of the mobilization represents a huge expansion from the original 54 organizations identified in last weekend’s riots. The number of Acte II actions has also increased to 649 planned protests, as of early Friday morning in Paris, including at 21 train stations, three ports, two oil depots and one refinery.

Teen Plotted To Assassinate Texas GOP Rep On Behalf Of ISIS– thefederalist.com
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A teenager plotted to assassinate a Republican congressman from Texas on behalf of ISIS, according to federal agents.

A local ABC affiliate reported on Wednesday that the FBI had arrested a 17-year-old resident of McKinney for planning to kill Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, at an event earlier this month. The Texas congressman is a member of the House Freedom Caucus and co-founder of the Sharia-Free America Caucus, which seeks to bring “attention to concerns surrounding Sharia [law] and its incompatibility with the principles enshrined in the United States Constitution.”

Federal law enforcement sources who purportedly spoke with the outlet said the suspect was detained on Oct. 5 “after acquiring a firearm.” They further disclosed that the individual “had been radicalized recently and was being monitored by federal agents.”

“I am grateful to the FBI and law enforcement for stopping this threat. My family and I are safe, and I remain focused on serving the people of Texas’ 3rd District,” Self wrote in a Wednesday X post responding to the news. “Preserving our constitutional republic from radical Islam means accepting the costs that come with it — name-calling, threats, and worse.”

Self told CBS News Texas that law enforcement notified him of the attempt on his life after they had the suspect in custody. The Texas Republican “said law enforcement informed him that the McKinney teenager had planned to make waves, ‘perhaps try to shoot at me,’ and carry out a terrorist attack,” according to the outlet.

DC Police and Secret Service investigate suspicious package near Georgetown– www.washingtonexaminer.com
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The Metropolitan Police Department and the Secret Service have closed the Francis Scott Key Bridge between Washington and Arlington, Virginia, after a suspicious package was found in Georgetown.

The shutdown happened Friday at approximately 8:42 a.m., according to authorities.

At least 16 people killed by powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Tibet, officials say– www.cbsnews.com
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More than a dozen people were killed and hundreds of homes destroyed when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit China’s Tibet region on Thursday evening local time, according to local officials.

The United States Geological Survey said the quake occurred at 10:33 p.m. local time, with its epicenter 119 miles east-northeast of Nagqu, in a sparsely populated, high-altitude area of northern Tibet.

At least 16 people were killed and 54 people were injured in the earthquake, Chinese state media said.

Search and rescue efforts continued following the collapse of at least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds, the Nagqu media office said, citing city government officials. Among the injured, 11 people were in serious condition and the other 35 sustained minor injuries, the media office said.

 

Iran says 7 oil tankers attacked in the Strait of Hormuz as conflict flares – National– globalnews.ca
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Seven oil tankers caught fire or were damaged in the Strait of Hormuz overnight after being hit by Iran or striking naval mines, Tehran said Thursday, a markedly high number as tensions rise over concerns about a return to all-out war.

With days before a close election in Israel in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could lose power, and before next month’s U.S. midterm election in which war-linked high prices have sparked voter anger, there are concerns that U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran could resume.

“Netanyahu wants to attack Iran, that’s not even a question,” Danny Citrinowicz, a researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a former Iran specialist in Israel’s military and intelligence services, told The Associated Press.

He accused Israel of rushing into another round with Iran without revamping its strategy. A clear Netanyahu victory in the Oct. 27 election means an attack is almost guaranteed, he said.

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Main opposition candidates are likely to focus on domestic issues first, but Citrinowicz said he believed the region is on the way toward “another kinetic escalation.”

The DSA Plans To Incite Violence Ahead Of 2028 Election– thefederalist.com
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Over on X, DataRepublican’s reporting on documents and recordings from the Democratic Socialists of America and allied networks lays out a calculated strategy for the run-up to the 2028 elections. The goal is sustained mass violence and street clashes designed to push President Donald Trump into invoking the Insurrection Act. Once invoked, Democratic governors and progressive organizations would treat the order itself as evidence of “fascism” and a reason to undermine federal authority.

Groups including the United Democracy Alliance, invoking Erica Chenoweth’s 3.5 percent rule, appear ready to coordinate the street actions, legal support, and media framing. Neville Roy Singham, operating from Shanghai and connected to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, is positioned to amplify the disruption from abroad.

The plan assumes Trump will choose immediate order over patience, and hand his opponents the optics they have prepared. Whether that assumption holds depends on the costs of each path.

Policing power in America is overwhelmingly local. The FBI fields about 13,700 special agents nationwide. The New York Police Department alone has more than 34,700 sworn officers. A president can protect federal property, personnel, and functions without becoming the default response for every city whose leaders have weakened policing and tolerated disorder. Broader federal action is also available. Both options carry consequences, and progressive networks are organized to contest either one.

Iwo Jima Statue’s Beheader Is an Illegal Alien – PJ Media– pjmedia.com
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Just as predicted, the man caught taking a sledgehammer to the Iwo Jima Memorial statue outside the Marine basic at Quantico, Va., is an illegal alien.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin shared the update about the Wednesday monument attack late on the evening of October 22. I reported yesterday that Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano was quite possibly an illegal alien, and had more than one criminal charge already on his record. Virginia is not only a sanctuary state for illegal aliens, but under Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), it has released numerous incredibly dangerous killers or sexual criminals.

Germany plans to force social media platforms to fill 20% of algorithmic recommendations with ‘state-approved’ content– rmx.news
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Germany’s federal states are proposing that social media platforms reserve at least 20 percent of algorithmic recommendations for content from a pool of approved media outlets deemed important for opinion diversity, according to a draft under public consultation. The proposed measure is already being slammed as a state-mandated propaganda effort that would force German citizens to view content friendly to the ruling establishment parties.

The measure is part of the second stage of a planned Digital Media State Treaty developed by the Broadcasting Commission of the Federal States. Under the draft, public broadcasters such as ARD, ZDF and Deutschland Radio would automatically qualify for certain offerings.

Meanwhile, private outlets would generally need to apply and demonstrate that they meet criteria including news and political reporting, information and educational content, documentaries, local or regional coverage, original journalistic production, editorial staffing and accessibility standards. Approvals would be decided by the 14 state media authorities.

In other words, the state wants to control what people are seeing in their feeds.

Deranged Mob of Leftists Protest Turning Point USA Event at Illinois State U.– legalinsurrection.com
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When the left holds an event on a college campus, they are allowed to do so in peace. No one bothers them.

When anyone to the right of Bernie Sanders shows up on pretty much any American college campus, the left mobilizes a mob to show up, interrupt, and protest. We see it happen again and again.

Look at this video. It’s completely crazy.

Deadly shooting near Paris investigated as ‘crime of terrorism’, minister says– www.bbc.co.uk
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One person has been killed and five others wounded – three seriously – in a gun attack in a Parisian suburb which authorities are investigating as “terrorism”.

Several drive-by shootings took place on Friday – first in Trappes to the south-west of Paris, and then in nearby La Verrière. The rampage lasted almost 15 minutes, said Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. A12-year-old girl is among the wounded.

The suspected attacker has been arrested. The motive remains unclear, but the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said the incident appeared to be “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.

Nuñez told reporters in Trappes: “It’s clearly a terrorist crime, that’s what [the prosecutor] has said.”

The Mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, said that “an individual fired shots from his vehicle at several people he encountered” on Friday morning.

Pentagon ready to use HEAT RAY weapon at the border to prevent migrants from crossing into US | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com
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The military says this “tingling effect” fades after 10 to 15 minutes, but the weapon also triggers “an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gotten approval from the Pentagon to test out a military heat-ray weapon along the US-Mexico border, according to a memo that was obtained by CNN.

The weapon, formally called the Active Denial System, is nonlethal and fires an unseen beam of electromagnetic energy with a range of just over half a mile.

When the beam hits a person’s skin, it produces an intense burning sensation, similar to when a person opens an oven. The military says this “tingling effect” fades after 10 to 15 minutes, but the weapon also triggers “an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect.”

DHS has not said how the weapon will be used yet. However, current and former Customs and Border Protection officials say the agency has talked internally for years about using it to break up crowds at the southern border, per the report.

Sleepy Republican District in Georgia Attracting Floods of Out-of-State Cash for Social Media Candidate– www.dailysignal.com
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A district in Georgia that covers parts of Milton, Roswell, and Alpharetta hasn’t had a significant Democrat challenger in more than 20 years, but the entry of a social media-savvy candidate who has attracted floods of out-of-state funding has suddenly made the race peculiar and one to watch.

Georgia House District 47 is currently led by state Rep. Jan Jones, a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives who has served as speaker pro tempore since 2010. She has held the district seat since 2013 but announced in February she would not seek reelection.

The Democrat candidate seeking to replace her, Lindsay DeFranco, is garnering lots of attention, and out-of-state funds, in what would otherwise be a sleepy district and a shoo-in for any Republican candidate.

DeFranco, who moved to Georgia with her husband in 2024, has a large social media following. She boasts 187,000 followers on Instagram, about 14,000 followers on her campaign Instagram account, and nearly 7,000 subscribers on her Lindsay DeFranco for Georgia YouTube channel.

She told the Daily Signal that her campaign is built around “a pretty simple idea [of] lower costs and higher standards.” The Democrat said she thinks she can win because “the issues we’re talking about aren’t exclusively Democratic or Republican issues.”

Watch: Pro-Katie Hobbs Canvassers Are Willing to Let Noncitizens, Felons Vote – PJ Media– pjmedia.com
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Undercover video captured canvassers aligned with Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.) saying they don’t believe in asking about immigration status or actively encouraging self-identified noncitizens and felons to register and vote. All of that, of course, is completely illegal.

Everyone knows that Arizona elections are incredibly corrupt. There is still a very significant Republican population in the state, and it voted for Donald Trump both in 2016 and 2024, and yet for some reason Democrats keep winning state and local offices. At a certain point we have to ask: is Democrat control of Arizona dependent entirely upon fraud? Would Katie Hobbs ever have become governor if it were not for fraud?

Muckraker’s team caught the Democrat activists on video and subsequently confronted them about their support of illegal voting. In the compilation of clips below, you will notice one man who specifically talks about supporting Hobbs, and who says he never gets into asking about immigration status. He seems to imply that noncitizens are included in the Democrat voting base.

When one of the undercover journalists claimed he was a convicted felon, a canvasser waved that off as if it were not an issue and encouraged him to register anyway. Yet another woman told the undercover journalist that he should share the QR code for registering to vote online with Canadian friends.

Muckraker identified the canvassers as being from the AFL-CIO union, Hobbs-aligned Worker Power and Stand Indivisible Arizona, and the Democratic National Committee’s When We Count.

MS NOW’s Johnson Gushes Over el-Sayed’s Response to Muslim Question– www.newsbusters.org
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On Tuesday afternoon, MS NOW host Alicia Menendez and contributor Jason Johnson marveled over Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el-Sayed’s response to a question about whether he has sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood. Menendez set up the segment:

Abdul el-Sayed is no stranger to confrontation on the campaign trail. As he stumps across Michigan, the Democratic Senate candidate is met almost regularly with critics hoping to catch him off balance for a viral moment. His Saturday town hall in Michigan, just northeast of Flint, was no different until it was because this time el-Sayed turned a heckler into a campaign highlight.

The show played a clip of an audience member, whom Menendez later identified as a former employee of Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), asking el-Sayed if he would “disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood, followed by the Michigan Democrat challenging the questioner on why he does not ask the same question of non-Muslims.

Bringing aboard MS NOW contributors Jason Johnson and Paola Ramos, Menendez noted that the video clip had gone viral with millions of views, and then posed: “A moment like this, I get what Tommy was going for, but I wonder if it actually ends up becoming a gift for el-Sayed?”

BREAKING: Alabama ‘masc lesbian’ charged with threatening to shoot Trump at college football game: ‘I’ll put a bullet through him’ | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com
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“He’s not allowed in my stadium! I’ll put a bullet through him if he dares.”

An Alabama woman, who describes herself as a “masc lesbian,” faces federal charges after allegedly threatening to shoot President Donald Trump if he attended an Alabama–Georgia football game in Tuscaloosa, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Northern District of Alabama.

Megan Lorraine Utz allegedly shared a news story about Trump’s planned appearance and wrote: “He’s not allowed in my stadium! I’ll put a bullet through him if he dares.”

The October 8 complaint obtained by The Post Millennial charges Utz with threats against the president and threatening communications. An accompanying FBI affidavit details how investigators connected the Facebook account to Utz and located her after she allegedly fled a residence as officers arrived.

Texas Christian University seeks ‘trans rhetoric’ professor– www.thecollegefix.com
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‘Antiracist’ and ‘queer’ scholarship also encouraged

Texas Christian University wants to hire a new composition professor who is particularly versed in “trans rhetoric,” “Black studies,” or “antiracist rhetoric.”

Applicants for this new rhetoric and composition professor job, starting in August 2027, will also be considered if they have interests in “disability studies,” “global/transnational rhetorics,” or feminism and “queer rhetorics.”

The Department of English will host this new hire, which will also give them an opportunity to teach in the gender studies and ethnic studies programs. These programs were collapsed last year into the English department due to budget issues and low enrollment.

“Candidates with relevant expertise may also contribute to our department’s programs in Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies and Women and Gender Studies as well as the program in Digital Culture/Digital Analytics and other interdisciplinary initiatives,” the posting states.

The College Fix reached out to Texas Christian University for a comment regarding how the job listing fits into the department’s learning goals and with the school’s mission as a private, Christian institution.

The Love Life Details That Would Destroy a Male Politician — But Haven’t Touched Maura Healey – RedState– redstate.com
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Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is up for reelection next month. Some details of her personal life have drawn far less scrutiny than they likely would have for a male politician in the same position.

Critics argue the media coverage has been noticeably softer, if not outright absent, due to the fact that she is a woman and has been celebrated as the first openly lesbian governor in the United States. As if that is some sort of qualification for the job.

Healey spent roughly a dozen years in a relationship with Massachusetts Appeals Court Judge Gabrielle Wolohojian that ended in 2019, while Healey was still attorney general. A few years later, she nominated Wolohojian to the Supreme Judicial Court, a move the Boston Globe’s editorial board at the time called dreadful on optics grounds and one that raised obvious questions about recusal.

“Surely a smart politician like Governor Maura Healey knows that optics count. And surely she also had to know that the optics around nominating her former longtime partner to the state’s highest court are just dreadful,” the board wrote, though it contends Wolohojian had the qualifications.

Rumors have circulated about the reasons for Healey and Wolohojian’s 2019 split, though none have been confirmed. Regardless of that background, the Globe contends that it’d be nearly impossible for bias not to creep into Wolohojian’s work.

MIT scientists build a tiny robot that swims using living muscle cells– www.sciencedaily.com
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A swimming robot does not necessarily need a bulky motor or powerful mechanical parts to move through water. MIT researchers have demonstrated that a single, carefully engineered layer of living muscle cells can generate enough force to propel a tiny robot forward.

The engineers developed an extremely thin swimming robot that uses living muscle tissue to move its fins. Described in a new study published in Advanced Functional Materials, the device has a flexible gel framework roughly the length and width of a stick of gum. The gel forms two fins, each coated with a layer of muscle cells far thinner than a human hair. These cells have been genetically modified to contract when exposed to light.

By directing light onto either fin, the researchers can trigger muscle contractions that make the fin flap and push the robot through water. Adjusting which fin receives light and how frequently it is illuminated allows the team to control both its speed and direction.

In experiments, the remarkably thin robot successfully swam and turned through a simple underwater maze. At maximum speed, it covered approximately four times its body length per minute. Although that is much slower than an Olympic swimmer, who can travel up to 65 body lengths per minute, it is comparable to the swimming pace of a cow shark moving leisurely through the ocean.

“It takes a lot of force to move through water versus air,” says study author Ritu Raman, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “The robot’s quite strong, given its size. ”

James Talarico Wants To Win Texas In Republican Drag– thefederalist.com
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Democrat Senate hopeful James Talarico doesn’t want you to change his mind. He wants you to change yours, and he’s betting Texas Republicans are gullible enough to fall for the packaging.

Conservative commentator Steven Crowder has filed a lawsuit against CNN and Jubilee over their use of “Change My Mind,” the slogan Crowder made famous through his political debate videos.

According to Newsweek, Crowder says his trademark brand and format are being used to help Talarico ingratiate himself with conservative voters. Crowder initially threatened legal action against Talarico, CNN, and Jubilee, but the reported lawsuit names the two media companies as defendants. The Louder with Crowder host also argued in an episode of his show last week that CNN is peddling the falsehood that the format, which he created in 2017, is a “unique” concept that will “change town halls” in the future.

 

Whether Crowder’s lawsuit succeeds is for the courts to decide. From the trademark to the iconography of the “Change My Mind” meme, which features a photo of Crowder sitting at a folding table outside Texas Christian University in February 2018, the conservative commentator certainly has a trail of evidence to support his claims. Still, owning a trademark does not automatically establish that every similar phrase or debate format infringes it. The court will have to consider the scope of Crowder’s rights and the specific use by CNN and Jubilee.

Not Helping His Case: Muslim Brotherhood Backers Have Donated Thousands to El-Sayed’s Campaign, Records Reveal– www.westernjournal.com
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It’s getting more difficult by the day to pretend that Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed never had any association with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Oh, sure, he gets really huffy on stage or during interviews when anyone confronts him about it. He mocks his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, for even bringing up his ties to the organization, calling it Islamophobic: “We had a little debate. Or I had a debate and he just pointed at me and said, ‘He’s Muslim,’” he told a crowd on Thursday.

However, we have statements by El-Sayed in support of the terrorist organization, including his remarks during his college years and an essay for HuffPost in 2011 that said Muslim Brotherhood rule of Egypt would be perfectly fine.

Blurb:

Michael Byers teaches at the University of British Columbia. His book International Law and the Arctic won the 2014 Donner Prize.

On the north shore of Burrard Inlet, at the Vancouver shipyards, the mighty CCGS Imnaryuaq is finally taking shape. On Oct. 14, a “keel laying” ceremony was held as the first module of the 158-metre-long polar icebreaker was set in place. Over the next few years, the rest of the ship will be assembled around that section.

Defence Minister David McGuinty marked the milestone by asserting that “Canada’s Arctic sovereignty depends on our ability to be present, to operate, and to respond.”

Most people – and Mr. McGuinty might be among them – think that the greatest threats to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty come from Russia and China. That’s not actually the case. The greatest threat has always been the United States, and while we could never match the world’s most powerful military, we can, by demonstrating our will to secure the Canadian Arctic against all threats, deny them any excuse to deploy there.

At a keel laying ceremony in North Vancouver on Oct. 16, a member of the Squamish Nation performed a traditional cedar brushing on a section of the keel of the CCGS Imnaryuaq polar icebreaker.

Finns Are Seething After Google Illegally Toppled 250,000 Trees for a Data Center – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com
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In the northern Finnish town of Muhos, the forest has already been cut down on land acquired by Google.Alessandro Rampazzo/Getty

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter-million trees occupied the 815 acres of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone.

After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a data center— taking even the topsoil with it—all that remains is a vast expanse of mud indented with the trail marks of machinery; puddles; and mounds of earth, roots, and branches. Residents say that brown water flowing off the site is going into a stream that feeds the Oulujoki River. “It doesn’t end. It goes on and on,” says Mari Annala, an ecologist from the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (SLL), looking at drone footage of the former forest from the perimeter

“I couldn’t believe it. I have never heard that any company has done anything like this in Finland.”