From the Trenches World Report

Anti-War – by Jason Ditz

President Trump has signed an executive order that is intended to reverse President Obama’s intentions to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Details are still emerging, but a leaked cable suggests this plan was in the offing for awhile.

Trump has been clear time and again that he wants to keep Guantanamo Bay open, and that he’d like to fill it up with new detainees. The cable told diplomats to assure worried nations that there are as yet no specific plans to add to detainees yet, though President Trump insisted during the State of the Union that he intended to put terrorists there.   Continue reading “Trump Just Signed an Executive Order to Keep Guantanamo Bay Open”

Activist Post – by Nicholas West

In October of last year, I reported on the network of autonomous police vehicles being deployed in Dubai that included hoverbikes and fleets of mini police surveillance vehicles that look like electric cars. The vehicles are part of a citywide initiative of embedding artificial intelligence to patrol with biometric and conventional surveillance tools. I commented at the time that these measures were fairly easy to dismiss by readers accustomed to a constitutional republic, since Dubai is ruled by an absolute monarchy under Sharia Law that has free rein to rapidly implement new forms of governance. Nevertheless, I warned that Dubai was playing host to the World Expo 2020 where they would be featured as a model for any large city of the future.   Continue reading “Robots Will Soon Be Punishing Humans: Ford Files Patent For Robotic Police Cars”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In a report that raises further questions about the US’s ability to respond to a ballistic missile attack from North Korea or one of its other adversaries, CNN said the US conducted an unsuccessful missile defense test on Wednesday.

The missile, which was launched from land in Hawaii, failed to intercept an incoming target. The Pentagon is not publicly acknowledging the failure of what’s supposed to be a crucial missile defense system. CNN’s anonymous sources blamed the Pentagon’s reticence on the upcoming Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which are slated to begin Feb. 9.   Continue reading “Second Test Of Costly US Missile-Defense System Fails”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

The drama of a murder-suicide in a sleepy, Swiss town reached the main financial street in Zurich, after it emerged that the man who shot top lawyer and media man, Martin Wagner, in cold blood on Sunday, was a risk manager for the Swiss National Bank.

This is what happened: according to barfi.ch, on Sunday, the village of Rünenberg in Baselland was in shock following news of the tragic murder of media lawyer Martin Wagner, 57. Wagner was fatally wounded in a dispute with his neighbour.   Continue reading “Swiss Central Banker Goes On Murder-Suicide Rampage: Kills Top Lawyer, Self”

Dallas News

Union Pacific is building a new $550 million rail yard in Texas to help sort the growing number of freight cars it is hauling into trains.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad says the new Brazos rail yard will be able to switch up to 1,300 rail cars per day. The 1,875-acre facility is being built in Robertson County, about 125 miles south of Dallas.   Continue reading “Union Pacific to spend $550 million on massive new rail yard in Texas”

WTVR 9 News

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Police have arrested a Virginia Tech freshman who they say was illegally in possession of multiple assault rifles.

Yungsong Zhao, 19, was arrested Monday and charged with possessing an assault rifle firearm while not being a lawfully admitted U.S. citizen, which is a class 6 felony, according to arrest warrants obtained by WDBJ7.

Zhao is a Chinese immigrant in the U.S. under a VISA.   Continue reading “Virginia Tech freshman arrested for illegally possessing assault rifles”

9 News Au

A second group of refugees accepted for resettlement in the United States has departed Australia’s offshore detention centres.

Fifty eight refugees will fly from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea to New York on Tuesday, joining 54 who have already arrived in the US from Manus Island and Nauru.

“I am very happy to be free of the hell that the Australian government made for us on Manus. But we are sad for those who are still waiting so long,” one refugee said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.   Continue reading “Second group of refugees departs for US”

Grand Forks Herald

Continue reading “ND man charged with assault for kicking child, putting hand in hot gravy”

FAIR – by Adam Johnson

The linguistic gymnastics needed to report on police violence without calling up images of police violence is a thing of semantic wonder. Officers don’t shoot, they are merely “involved” in shootings; victims are not victims, but “suspects” “fleeing”; human beings become premortem cadavers as bullets “enter the torso” rather than the chest of a person; guns and bullets act on their own as they “discharge” or “enter the right femur,” rather than being fired by autonomous individuals with agency and purpose. Headlines become 14-word, jargon-heavy tangles where a simple five-word description would suffice.   Continue reading “6 Elements of Police Spin: An Object Lesson in Copspeak”

ABC Au

An Israeli legal rights group has said it is suing two New Zealanders for allegedly convincing the pop singer Lorde to cancel her performance in Israel, in what appears to be the first lawsuit filed under a contentious Israeli anti-boycott law.

The 2011 law opens the door to civil lawsuits against anyone calling for a boycott against Israel, including of lands it has occupied, if that call could knowingly lead to a boycott.  Continue reading “Israeli rights group sues New Zealanders who urged Lorde to boycott concert”

NJ.com – by Ted Sherman

In a shocking turnaround, the U.S. Justice Department has dropped its case against Sen. Robert Menendez.

In a court in Newark on Wednesday, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the corruption indictment against the New Jersey Democrat after a federal judge last week acquitted Menendez and his co-defendant, Salomon Melgen, of seven of the 18 counts against them.  Continue reading “In shocking move, feds drop all charges against Sen. Bob Menendez”

NBC News

An Amtrak train carrying Republican members of Congress and their spouses to a party retreat in West Virginia was involved in a collision, Wednesday, according to members who were on the train.

Most people are unhurt, according to House members and senators who are communicating from the train. NBC News reported that a person who was standing at the time of the incident, which took place near Charlottesville, Virginia, was taken off the train to be treated.   Continue reading “Train carrying congressional Republicans to GOP retreat hits garbage truck in Virginia”

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw federal protections from millions of acres of Utah wilderness will reopen much of the iconic terrain to gold, silver, copper, and uranium land claims under a Wild West-era mining law, according to federal officials.

Starting at 6 a.m. on Feb. 2 – the moment Trump’s proclamation reducing the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments takes effect – private citizens and companies will be allowed to stake claims for hard rock mining in a process governed by the General Mining Law of 1872, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.   Continue reading “A modern land run? Trump move opens Utah to mining claims under 1872 law”