Author: Jim

Singularity Hub – by Shelly Fan

Picture this: you’re sitting in a police interrogation room, struggling to describe the face of a criminal to a sketch artist. You pause, wrinkling your brow, trying to remember the distance between his eyes and the shape of his nose.

Suddenly, the detective offers you an easier way: would you like to have your brain scanned instead, so that machines can automatically reconstruct the face in your mind’s eye from reading your brain waves?   Continue reading “Forget Police Sketches: Researchers Perfectly Reconstruct Faces by Reading Brainwaves”

BBC

North Korea has accused the US authorities of “literally mugging” its diplomats at a New York airport.

A spokesman for the secretive state said its officials had been “robbed” of a diplomatic package at John F Kennedy Airport on Friday.

North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said the incident proved the US was a “lawless gangster state”.   Continue reading “North Korea says US ‘mugged’ its diplomats in New York”

CBC News

Russian-language propagandists are taking aim at Canada’s military mission to Latvia by linking the troops to the Armed Forces’ most-disgraced commander.

A website with the same name as a prominent Russian news program has re-published infamous photos of convicted killer Russell Williams, a former commander in Canada’s air force, posing in women’s underwear, suggesting the Canadian military is full of homosexuals and shouldn’t be counted on by Latvians.   Continue reading “Anti-Canada propaganda greets troops in Latvia”

CounterPunch – by Jonathan Cook

Nazareth.

Israeli and US officials are in the process of jointly pre-empting Donald Trump’s supposed “ultimate deal” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They hope to demote the Palestinian issue to a footnote in international diplomacy.

The conspiracy – a real one – was much in evidence last week during a visit to the region by Nikki Haley, Washington’s envoy to the United Nations. Her escort was Danny Danon, her Israeli counterpart and a fervent opponent of Palestinian statehood.   Continue reading “UN Last Hurdle Before Israel Can Rid Itself of the Palestinians”

CBC News – by Hilary Bird

Indigenous advocates from around the world are calling on a UN committee to make appropriating Indigenous cultures illegal — and to do it quickly.

Delegates from 189 countries, including Canada, are in Geneva this week as part of a specialized international committee within the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency.   Continue reading “Cultural appropriation: Make it illegal worldwide, Indigenous advocates say”

CBC News

A remote ​northern Quebec community is reeling after a fatal police shooting brought an end to a series of stabbings that left three residents dead and critically injured two others.

Kativik Regional Police responded to a call Saturday morning in Akulivik, a village of fewer than 1,000 people located on the shores of the Hudson Bay, 1,700 kilometres from Montreal.   Continue reading “Quebec Inuit village in shock after stabbings leave 4 dead, including suspect”

CBC News

Canada’s newest overseas military mission got underway Saturday as the first plane load of soldiers arrived at their new home near the Latvian capital of Riga.

For their commander, Canadian Lt-Col. Wade Rutland, success at his high-profile military assignment to deter Russian aggression in the region will be relatively straightforward to measure.   Continue reading “1st Canadian troops arrive to start mission in Latvia”

Idaho Statesman – by John Sowel

The family of a girl who was sexually abused last June are still not satisfied with the sentences recently given to the boys who abused her, the family’s attorney said.

Mark Guerry said he’s unable to comment more specifically on the sentences after 5th District Magistrate Thomas Borresen again sealed the case and ordered the attorneys involved “to not discuss anything that was said or done.”   Continue reading “Refugee boys sentenced in sexual abuse of Twin Falls girl; family upset with punishment”

The Guardian – by Jason Wilson

As tensions continue in Portland following the racially charged murder of two men on Friday, the top Republican in the city said he was considering using militia groups as security for public events.

Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Rick Best, 53, were stabbed to death and 21-year-old student Micah David-Cole Fletcher was injured when they came to the aid of two women being subjected to hate speech on public transport. The suspect, Jeremy Christian, 35, was found to hold white supremacist views and to have attended an “alt-right” rally in the city.   Continue reading “Portland Republican says party should use militia groups after racial attack”

BBC News

Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, has died aged 89.

Mr Brzezinski “passed away peacefully” in Virginia on Friday evening, his daughter Mika said on social media.

President Carter paid tribute to him as a “superb public servant”.   Continue reading “Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security adviser, dies at 89”

Global News

JERUSALEM (AP) — President Donald Trump got an abrupt Israeli welcome on his arrival in Tel Aviv on Monday, with ministers asking favors and snapping selfies as they sought to get a piece of the commander in chief’s attention.

Lawmaker Oren Hazan, a politician in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party with a reputation for inappropriate antics, gave Trump a version of his own characteristically aggressive handshake.   Continue reading “President Trump takes selfie with Israeli politician accused of selling drugs, prostitutes”

CBC News

U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs says there’s an almost one in three chance of Canada’s housing market going bust in the near future.

The warning comes with a fairly large proviso, however, in that the bank’s view a housing “bust” is based on the equivalent of a house price decline of as little as five per cent. A larger correction is on the table but in Goldman’s eyes, even a relatively minor drop of five per cent would qualify.   Continue reading “Canada’s housing boom has 30% chance of going bust, Goldman Sachs says”

BBC News

The government in Italy has ruled that children must be vaccinated against 12 common illnesses before they can enrol for state-run schools.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni blamed a decrease in vaccinations in part on a “spread of anti-scientific theories”.

Italy has recorded nearly three times as many measles cases so far this year than for all of 2016.   Continue reading “Italy makes 12 vaccinations compulsory for children”

CBC News

A jury on Wednesday acquitted of first-degree manslaughter a white Oklahoma police officer who says she fired out of fear last year when she killed an unarmed black man with his hands held above his head.

The family of Terence Crutcher burst into tears and reacted with outrage after jurors found Tulsa officer Betty Jo Shelby not guilty in the Sept. 16 shooting.   Continue reading “Jury acquits Tulsa cop in fatal shooting of unarmed man”