Centipede Nation

Curated Daily News

Trump signing order to wipe out student loan debt for veterans who are 100% disabled…
August 21, 2019
Mr. Trump is taking the action in a speech to the 75th annual American Veterans convention in Louisville, Kentucky. He said the memorandum directs the Education Department to eliminate “every penny” of student loan debt for those disabled veterans. There are more than 40,000 veterans nationwide who qualify for debt forgiveness under action taken by the Departments of Education and Veterans Affairs last year. But only a fraction of those eligible has taken advantage of the program by applying for help. Bipartisan legislation was introduced in June in Congress that would dismiss all federal student loan debt for eligible veterans, whether or not they applied for the program.
Fires In Amazon Rainforest Sets New Record…
August 21, 2019
Forest fires in the Amazon are generating smoke that can be seen from space and may have caused a daytime blackout more than 1,700 miles away in the country's largest city... the country's space agency The National Institute for Space Research said its satellite data detected more than 72,000 fires since January, an 83% increase over the same period of 2018...
Brazil’s Bolsonaro says NGOs may be setting fire to Amazon forest…
August 21, 2019
Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday accused non-governmental organizations of setting wildfires in the Amazon rainforest to damage his government’s image after he cut their funding. Bolsonaro, who has shocked environmentalists with plans to open the Amazon to business interests, said NGOs could be behind the record number of wildfires this year... Bolsonaro said “everything indicates” that NGOs are going to the Amazon to “set fire” to the forest. When asked if he had evidence to back up his claims, he said he had “no written plan,” adding “that’s not how it’s done.”
Yemen Rebel Group Claims It Shot Down U.S. Drone With a Missile…
August 21, 2019
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed they shot down a U.S. drone over the country’s north, as a leading rights group said Wednesday... Yahia Sarie, a military spokesman for the Iran-backed Houthis, said in a statement their air defenses downed a U.S. MQ-9 drone on Tuesday over the northern city of Dhamar. He said the drone was hit by a missile. The U.S. military’s Central Command said it was aware of claims that an American MQ-9 Reaper drone had been shot down over Yemen, but declined to elaborate.
President Trump Delivers Remarks at the American Veterans 75th National Convention
August 21, 2019
Trump: “I am the Chosen One”. Full presser from this morning. It was a spicy one. Guns/Greenland/China/Fake News and more…
August 21, 2019
Rush Translation of Japanese News Says North Korea Has Achieved Nuclear Warheads…
August 21, 2019
The draft of the government's 2019 "Defense White Paper" was revealed on the 20th. For the first time, North Korea's nuclear weapons development is clearly stated as “It seems that miniaturization and warheads have already been realized”...
Republicans start to sour on gun control laws after Trump’s reversal
August 21, 2019
The Wisconsin Republican said that a background checks measure based on the bill written by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and a national "red flag" bill are both unlikely to pass. He was open to GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bill that would establish a red flag grant program, but said the Senate would need to “attach to those grants very strict guidelines in terms of due process.” “I really don’t see the dynamic having really changed there much,” Johnson said of an effort to strengthen background checks during gun sales, which generally polls at around 90 percent. “I don’t anticipate we’re going to pass a federal red flag law...

"A lot of the people that put me where I am, are strong believers in the Second Amendment, and I am also. And we have to be very careful about that. You know, they call it the slippery slope. All of a sudden everything gets taken away," Trump told reporters. "We're not going to let that happen."
Epstein’s Former Cellmate Begs Judge For Transfer To Another Jail…
August 21, 2019
Hulking ex-cop Nicholas Tartaglione — who briefly bunked with Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center — has been told by various guards there to “shut up,” “stop talking” and “stop complaining,” as questions swirled about how the accused sex trafficker was able to commit suicide in federal custody, Tartaglione attorney Bruce Barket says in a letter to White Plains federal Judge Kenneth Karas.

Tartaglione was sharing a cell with Epstein during what’s believed to have been the 66-year-old’s first suicide attempt, on July 23. The two were separated before Epstein hanged himself on Aug. 10...

DNA study deepens mystery of lake full of skeletons…
August 20, 2019
Situated at over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Roopkund Lake is home to the scattered skeletal remains of several hundred individuals of unknown origin. We report genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 skeletons from Roopkund Lake, and find that they cluster into three distinct groups. A group of 23 individuals have ancestry that falls within the range of variation of present-day South Asians. A further 14 have ancestry typical of the eastern Mediterranean. We also identify one individual with Southeast Asian-related ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these remains were not deposited simultaneously. Instead, all of the individuals with South Asian-related ancestry date to ~800 CE (but with evidence of being deposited in more than one event), while all other individuals date to ~1800 CE...

Individuals assigned to the Roopkund_A and RoopQkund_C groups cluster towards the top right of the PCA plot, close to present-day groups with Iranian ancestry, consistent with where populations with South Asian or East Asian ancestry cluster when projected onto such a plot13. Individuals belonging to the Roopkund_B group cluster toward the center of the plot, close to present-day people from mainland Greece and Crete
A couple from Florida is fighting to regain custody of their son after they chose alternative methods to treat his cancer…
August 20, 2019
Noah McAdams was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia earlier this year. The 4-year-old's parents, Joshua McAdams and Taylor Bland-Ball, stopped chemotherapy two days into treatment. Instead, McAdams and Bland-Ball turned to medical marijuana and CBD oil... McAdams and Bland-Ball took Noah to Kentucky where they sought a second opinion. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office had asked for the public's help to locate the family after McAdams and Bland-Ball failed to bring Noah to the hospital for a medically necessary procedure on April 22. "The parents have further refused to follow up with the life saving medical care the child needs," the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office wrote on Facebook. "The parents have possible criminal child neglect charges pending"... The parents were found one week later and the state of Florida placed Noah in the custody of his grandparents, who were ordered in May to resume chemotherapy... Now, McAdams and Bland-Ball are back in court fighting to get their son back.
Hackers use fake NordVPN website to deliver banking trojan…
August 20, 2019
... they are actively distributing the bank Win32.Bolik.2 banking Trojan via the nord-vpn[.]club website, an almost perfect clone of the official nordvpn.com site used by the popular NordVPN VPN service. The cloned website also has a valid SSL certificate issued by open certificate authority Let’s Encrypt on August 3, with an expiration date of November 1.

"Win32.Bolik.2 trojan is an improved version of Win32.Bolik.1 and has qualities of a multicomponent polymorphic file virus," state the Doctor Web researchers who spotted the campaign. "Using this malware, hackers can perform web injections, traffic intercepts, keylogging and steal information from different bank-client systems."

The operators behind this malicious campaign have launched their attacks on August 8, they are focusing on English-speaking targets and, according to the researchers, thousands have already visited the nord-vpn[.]club website in search of a download link for the NordVPN clie...
Oregon officials want local reporters investigated for contacting government workers on their personal emails and phone numbers after hours…
August 20, 2019
Les Zaitz, publisher and editor of the Malheur Enterprise, denied any wrongdoing from his staff, after an attorney for Malheur County went to Sheriff Brian Wolfe with the allegations that reporters may have broken the law by using officials’ personal contact information to call and email them outside of business hours. “Suggesting that professional journalists are behaving as criminals in gathering vital information for the community appears to be an effort to silence and intimidate the Enterprise,” Zaitz said. The Enterprise had been investigating Greg Smith -- a Republican state legislator and director of the Malheur County Economic Development Department -- over potential conflicts of interest concerning government contracts.
Vice President Pence Delivers Remarks at the 6th Meeting of the National Space Council…
August 20, 2019
CNN journalist April Ryan’s bodyguard charged with assault for forcibly removing reporter from N.J. event…
August 20, 2019
Joel Morris, 30, was charged Monday with harassment, assault, and theft, according to NJ.com. Morris allegedly took New Brunswick Today editor Charlie Kratovil’s camera and then twisted his arm behind his back. Kratovil alleges his forearm and shoulder were injured in the incident. The journalist said he was invited to the Aug. 3 event at The Heldrich Hotel where Ryan was appearing by a public relations firm. He said he checked in at the event and recorded other speakers for a couple of hours without incident. But after Ryan took the stage, the guard began to question why he was there.

Here's the video which shows the guard confronting the journalist:

War Drums: US Navy “Ready” For Venezuela Conflict, Says Top Commander…
August 21, 2019
Adm. Craig Faller, who oversees the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said Tuesday that the Navy must be ready to "do what needs to be done" on Venezuela."I won't speak to details of what we're planning and what we're doing, but we remain ready to implement policy decisions, and we remain on the balls of our feet," Faller told reporters. He added: "The United States Navy is the most powerful Navy in the world. If a policy decision is made to deploy the Navy, I'm convinced that we'll be able to do what needs to be done." Faller made the remarks in Rio de Janeiro, a large seaside city in Brazil, as the US launched UNITAS 2019, a multinational war exercise that is conducted annually in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Chicago Tribune tested popular cellphones for radiofrequency radiation. Now the FCC is investigating…
August 21, 2019
The Apple iPhone 7 was set to operate at full power and secured below a tub of clear liquid, specially formulated to simulate human tissue... For 18 minutes, it repeatedly measured the amount of radiofrequency radiation the liquid was absorbing from the cellphone. This test, which was paid for by the Tribune and conducted according to federal guidelines at an accredited lab, produced a surprising result: Radiofrequency radiation exposure from the iPhone 7 — one of the most popular smartphones ever sold — measured over the legal safety limit and more than double what Apple reported to federal regulators from its own testing... The Tribune tested three more brand-new iPhone 7s at full power, and these phones also measured over the exposure limit. In all, 11 models from four companies were tested, with varying results... After reviewing the lab reports from the Tribune’s tests, the FCC said it would take the rare step of conducting its own testing over the next couple of months.
White House expected to replace illegal-immigrant family ‘loophole’…
August 21, 2019
The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services will issue a new rule Friday to withdraw from the Flores Settlement Agreement... The new rule would eliminate a 20-day cap for detaining migrant children and create a new licensing regime that would make it easier for federal officials to expand family detention nationwide. Although the rule is set to take effect 60 days after it is published, officials expect the implementation to last longer...

But officials said they hoped the threat of longer detention would deter the crush of Central American migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and complement existing enforcement measures. Border apprehensions have slumped more than 40 percent since May, a major drop officials have attributed to increased enforcement in Mexico, but officials worry about a resurgence in the fall.
Iran tanker row: Greece closes out ship after US warnings…
August 21, 2019
Greece has refused to help the Iranian tanker recently detained in Gibraltar on suspicion of shipping oil to Syria. Deputy foreign minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told broadcaster ANT1 his country was "not willing to facilitate the course of this ship to Syria". The move comes after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened sanctions on any country that helps the tanker...
Iranian Oil Tanker Breaks Down in Red Sea off Saudi Arabia’s Coast…
August 21, 2019
According to National Iranian Tanker Company spokesman Jabal Ameli, the crew are trying to fix the problem.

“The ship’s crew are fixing the defect and the vessel is in a stable condition from a safety standpoint. Fortunately, the ship’s crew are in a safe condition,” Akbar Jabal-Ameli, said as quoted by the media outlet IRNA...
US fencer punished for kneeling on podium at Pan Am Games, other athletes warned
August 21, 2019
Two U.S. athletes were given a year of probation by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) for staging protests while on the podium at the Pan American Games earlier this month, letters sent Tuesday revealed. Hammer thrower Gwen Berry raised her fist and fencer Race Imboden took a knee while on the medal stand last week in Lima, Peru. All athletes at the Pan American Games and the Olympics agree to rules forbidding political protest. The committee also warned other athletes that future protests could face more serious consequences.
Migrants exit rescue ship in Italy after 19-day standoff…
August 21, 2019
Nevada officials have issued an emergency declaration ahead of “Storm Area 51” raid that’s supposed to happen next month…Nevada county won’t permit the festival that would coincide with “Storm Area 51” event...
August 21, 2019
“Oh, we’re taking this seriously,” Lincoln County Commission Chairman Varlin Higbee told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “With the possibility of 35,000 to 40,000 people showing up, yeah, this is serious.” The County Commission reportedly approved a declaration of emergency on Monday in preparation for the possible surge. More than 2 million people have RSVP’d on Facebook and said they are “interested” in going.
Walmart sues Tesla after solar panels catch fire at stores…
August 20, 2019
So much for Tesla's renewed solar power efforts getting off to a good start. Walmart has sued Tesla after rooftop solar panels on seven of the retailer's stores caught fire, allegedly due to poor safety practices. Tesla supposedly didn't ground its electrical and solar systems properly, according to Walmart, and regularly sent inspectors who "lacked basic solar training and knowledge." Walmart also asserted that Tesla's panels were rife with visible defects.

Lindsey Graham to advise Barr on rollout of Russia investigation and FISA documents…
August 21, 2019
Trump cancels Denmark visit after PM refuses to sell Greenland…
August 21, 2019
President Trump on Tuesday abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, saying there was no point to the trip after Frederiksen called the idea that the U.S. might buy Greenland from Denmark "absurd" -- and insisted there would be no Copen-haggling about it. Trump had been expected to visit Denmark on Sept. 2-3 as part of his trip to Europe, but until his tweets Tuesday, there were no solid indications the visit to Denmark was centered on buying Greenland.

....The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019
Trump signs off on plan to launch nuclear spacecraft…
August 20, 2019
Trump directed the Department of Transportation to issue public guidelines within a year for commercial companies seeking a license to launch spacecraft with nuclear systems.
The memorandum also gives NASA 180 days to create an Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Board to ensure the safety of launching radioisotope power systems, fission reactors used for power and propulsion and more...
George Pell appeal fails, Cardinal to serve out full jail term…
August 20, 2019
Convicted Australian paedophile George Pell will serve out his prison term after the state of Victoria's highest court rejected his appeal on Wednesday, in a 2-1 ruling. The Court of Appeal upheld the verdicts of the County Court jury that found Pell guilty on five child sex abuse charges last December.

However, Pell may continue his fight to walk from prison a free man. His lawyers could now take his appeal to the High Court in a final bid to have the cardinal's convictions quashed...
Why Charging Jeffrey Epstein’s Alleged Accomplice Is Going to Be Difficult…
August 20, 2019
Unfortunately, the answer is likely that law enforcement simply does not yet have sufficient evidence to ensure a conviction of Maxwell. The bottom line is that prosecutors would need to prove that Maxwell knew Epstein abused the girls and that he used force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion to do so.

That isn’t as easy as it sounds, particularly if Epstein’s estate pays for Maxwell to have a top-flight legal team. Unlike Epstein, Maxwell does not have a prior conviction, which could have been used against Epstein at trial... Ultimately it will come down to Giuffre’s word against Maxwell’s...
Trump Says Russia Belongs Back in Exclusive G7…
August 20, 2019
“I could certainly” support that he told reporters at the White House. “It’s much more appropriate to have Russia in. It should be the G8, because a lot of the things we talk about have to do with Russia.”

Trump said “if somebody would make that motion, I would certainly be disposed to think about it very favorably,” regarding including Russia in the group.

Russia was expelled from the old G8 format in 2014 after invading and then annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Moscow of interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election...