June 23rd, 2019

Pompeo told reporters on June 23 before leaving Washington: “We’ll be talking with them about how to make sure that we are all strategically aligned and how we can build out a global coalition, a coalition not only throughout the Gulf states but in Asia and in Europe that...is prepared to push back against the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.”...

It said that it would ban posts or content supporting Trump, but it would not delete project data, nor would it ban members who support Trump, as long as they don't talk about it. "We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy," a Ravelry blog post said. "Support of the Trump administration is undeniably [in] support [of] white supremacy."...

Last Monday evening, Ocasio-Cortez compared detention facilities for illegal aliens caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to “concentration camps,” adding the phrase “never again,” which commonly refers to the Nazi Holocaust.

Numerous Holocaust educational foundations, including Israel’s Yad Vashem, offered to educate Ocasio-Cortez... But Ocasio-Cortez refused the invitation, citing the fact that Rep. Steve King (R-IA) had been on a similar tour...

...all five officials who spoke with the Washington Examiner confirmed McAleenan's decision to go rogue and stymie the operation was what prompted the White House to call off the 10-city operation...

Two officials said the acting secretary, who was promoted internally in April, had fought for months during closed-door discussions with White House officials, the former acting ICE Director Ronald Vitiello, and the new acting ICE Director Mark Morgan against the plan, which they noted was similar to one the Obama administration carried out in 2015.

The account was compromised by a hacker who used a Raspberry Pi to gain unauthorized access to the JPL network. The attacker then took advantage of the weaknesses in the laboratory’s network to remain undetected for 10 months, stealing 23 files in the process. Two of these files contained information on International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which controls the transfer of military and space-related technology, related to the Mars Science Laboratory Mission...

Jacob Schwartz, 31, faces one to three years behind bars when he’s sentenced next month for downloading more than 3,000 child porn images and 89 videos from the internet, some with victims as young as 6 months old. Schwartz had worked for the city Department of Design and Construction for two years when he was arrested in May 2017. He claims he was often paid in “comp time” instead of time and a half when he clocked more than 40 hours a week, and is owed more than $18,000. Schwartz was fired after his arrest.

His attorneys argued that such allegations are an “improper expansion of the laws against human trafficking,” according to the filing. The sex trafficking act was is intended to criminalize slavery, involuntary servitude and human trafficking for commercial gain, they said.

“Attempting to apply the Act to this case is an utter perversion of the legislative intent behind the statute,” they wrote in the legal papers. “There are no allegations of slavery, involuntary servitude, or human trafficking in the instant case.”...

Healey said local, state and federal authorities executed warrants at 14 locations in Methuen and Lawrence on Wednesday, seizing 24 kilograms of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.

Healey said a dozen arrests were made at several levels of the distribution chain, and that "higher-ups" in the ring were involved from as far away as New Jersey...

Re: Floating objects (two small white spheres above the anvil shield). Others farther north may have a better view. pic.twitter.com/fFTYi59vGM

— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) June 21, 2019

Social media was ignited by this news (or lack thereof) with many speculating (and the NWS's vague tweet not helping) that an alien invasion was taking place. However, just hours later it was revealed that the mystery flying objects were a top-secret DARP (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) project, dubbed Adaptable Lighter Than Air (ALTA) program.

Last night, DARPA launched 3 balloons from Cumberland, Maryland, in a flight test for the Adaptable Lighter Than Air prgm. Over next few days, ALTA will demonstrate capability for wind-borne navigation of a lighter-than-air vehicle over extended ranges. https://t.co/Og8dWCvszc pic.twitter.com/NjUB6Got94

— DARPA (@DARPA) June 18, 2019

The real purpose of the mission is classified, as apparently is the reason why DARPA decided to make the balloons look like giant alien spaceships...

The news of alien-looking ballons over the Midwest comes at a time when the US government is officially starting to acknowledge reports of "unidentified aerial phenomenon" more seriously than ever before, and last week three senators received a detailed report of UFO sightings.

Prior to this, a source from the Syrian military in Damascus told Al-Masdar that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had placed their troops on high alert near the border city of Albukamal. The Iranian presence in the border city of Albukamal is incredibly close to the U.S. Armed Forces, who are currently deployed in eastern Deir Ezzor.

While the U.S. and Iran often avoid each other in eastern Syria, the American forces have attacked the Iranian-backed paramilitaries near the Tanf Zone in southeastern Syria...

While Iran’s downing of a U.S. drone near the Strait of Hormuz has made headlines across the world, this is not the first time that they have targeted American unmanned aerial vehicles.

In February, Iran allegedly hacked a U.S. drone in eastern Syria, reportedly forcing the American forces to destroy the UAV.

Citing a tax code that was “discriminatory” against non-heterosexual married couples, Warren tweeted Saturday, “It wasn’t until marriage equality became law that gay & lesbian couples could jointly file tax returns—so they paid more in taxes. Our government owes them more than $50M for the years our discriminatory tax code left them out. We must right these wrongs.”...

Critics had accused Erdogan of refusing to give up control of Istanbul, Turkey's economic powerhouse and a crucial source of patronage for Islamic conservatives since he won the mayorship himself a quarter of a century ago.

But the Turkish leader conceded defeat this time, writing on Twitter: "I congratulate Ekrem Imamoglu who has won the election based on preliminary results."...

The White House declined to confirm that Trump had sent a letter to Kim... Kim "said with satisfaction that the letter is of excellent content," Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency reported. "Appreciating the political judging faculty and extraordinary courage of President Trump, Kim Jong Un said that he would seriously contemplate the interesting content," the agency said, without elaborating.

Despite the postponement, Morgan insists ICE's aggressive removal tactics to remove any individual, criminal or not, who has a court-ordered deportation won't stop. "I've got the green light to anyone that's here in violation of federal immigration law, I have the authority and the support to go after them, apply consequences, and remove them." "It's just not about the numbers, Morgan said. "We need to continue to do interior enforcement against anyone who is here illegally including families because [if] we do that, I promise the American people, we start removing people that had final orders including families, the numbers will go down, this crisis will be positively impacted."

The prevalence of human trafficking is difficult to measure. However, a number of international organizations have estimated that traffickers exploit a majority of human trafficking victims without moving them from one country to another...

In the U.S., traffickers prey upon children in the foster care system. Recent reports have consistently indicated that a large number of victims of child sex trafficking were at one time in the foster care system...

Tier 3 designations – the lowest possible designation – were given once again to China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela, among others. A few countries were added to the Tier 3 list, including Cuba...

Deputies then carried out a search based on an obtained warrant and found 167 grams of methamphetamine, 100.2 grams of cocaine, 691 tablets of prescription drug cyclobenzaprine, 89 tablets of prescription drug tizanidine, 60 pills of MDMA, 1,960 grams of leaf cannabis, and 30.1 pounds of processed cannabis wax...

iberty Defense is developing Hexwave, a new disruptive technology that was exclusively licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) uses 3D radar imaging and artificial intelligence to detect concealed weapons in urban settings.
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Hexwave's real-time active 3D radar imaging can detect metallic and non-metallic objects (guns, knives, explosives) on individuals, in clothing and bags...

Hexwave could replace X-ray machines at airports...