Today's News: October 10, 2018

World News

German Police File Assault Charges Against Father Who Defended Daughter from Migrant Sex Attack
Breitbart – Police in the German city of Munich have filed charges against a 42-year-old man after he punched a migrant in the face who sexually assaulted his daughter.
The incident occurred at the Hackerbrücke train station and saw an intoxicated 28-year-old man from Eritrea reach under the skirt of a 21-year-old young woman and grab her buttocks. After becoming aware of the sex attack, the young woman’s father punched the Eritrean in the face, Merkur reports.
While police have filed sexual harassment charges against the Eritrean migrant, they have also filed charges of bodily injury against the 42-year-old.
Many online were outraged that police would bring charges against the father, with some asking why he should sit by and do nothing as the man sexually assaulted his daughter. Munich federal police spokeswoman Petra Wiedmann said that it was up to police to investigate both crimes.
“It is up to the judiciary to assess the case. There is a suspicion that there were two crimes, one sexual harassment and the other a physical injury. The police are required by law to bring up both,” she said.

What’s Really Going On Behind the “Secret” Saudi-Russia Oil Deal
On Wednesday, Reuters reported the details of a private and “secret” deal reached between Russia and Saudi Arabia, a deal that was aimed at increasing oil output in order to offset the coming shock to oil prices that will follow U.S. efforts to starve Iran of its oil revenues. Notably, Reuters also noted that the deal was struck with cooperation from the United States, even though Russia had publicly attacked the U.S.’ targeting of Iran via sanctions and had pledged to help protect Iranian trade to help keep the country’s economy afloat.
The private deal was reached in September between Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih and his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak, along with coordination from U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry. One of the sources that spoke to Reuters asserted that “the Russians and the Saudis agreed to add barrels to the market quietly with a view not to look like they are acting on Trump’s order to pump more.” The deal was struck as oil prices began to climb towards $80 per barrel. The oil price currently stands at just over $84.
Russia’s involvement in the deal may seem surprising given that Russia publicly vowed in August to do “everything necessary” to protect its shared economic interests with Tehran — including the estimated $50 billion in Russian investments in Iran’s oil sector that Russia has said will continue despite U.S. plans to sanction the Iranian oil and gas sectors beginning on November 4.

Russian troops ON THE MOVE as Putin in fresh plot to unleash CHAOS in West
Daily Star – Intelligence chiefs have told PM Theresa May that Vladimir Putin is looking to make war-torn Libya into a “new Syria” with massive troop movements.
Two Russian bases are already in place in the Libyan coastal towns of Tobruk and Benghazi, under the control of controversial Russian private military company the Wagner Group.
Libya is the largest illegal immigration route to Europe, and Britain’s top security officials have claimed seizing these routes is Russia‘s primary goal.
Speaking to The Sun, a senior Whitehall source claimed dozens of officers from Russia’s GRU military spy service and its Spetznaz special forces wing are in place on the ground in Syria, carrying out training and liaison missions.

Ashers ‘gay cake’ row: Bakers win Supreme Court appeal
BBC – The Christian owners of a Northern Ireland bakery have won their appeal in the so-called “gay cake” discrimination case.
The UK’s highest court ruled that Ashers bakery’s refusal to make a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage was not discriminatory.
The five justices on the Supreme Court were unanimous in their judgement.
The high-profile dispute began in 2014 when the bakery refused to make a cake with the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”.

United Nations Pushes Geoengineering As Last Ditch Effort to Save Humanity
Activist Post – In their new report the United Nations is sounding alarm bells about the need for controversial climate engineering technology.
On October 8 the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new report which makes several calls for further investigating climate engineering technology known as geoengineering. The IPCC report, titled “Global Warming of 1.5 °C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways”, warns that without investment into geoengineering technology the Earth’s temperature will continue to increase.

As relations warm, South Korea considers lifting North Korea sanctions
The Christian Science Monitor – South Korea’s foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, believes that a lifting of sanctions against North Korea could be the next step in a series of negotiations between the two countries. However, many South Koreans still harbor resentment against their neighbor to the north.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

‘THE GOOD CENSOR’: Leaked Google Briefing Admits Abandonment of Free Speech for ‘Safety And Civility’
Google has repeatedly denied that the political bias of its employees filter into its products
An internal company briefing produced by Google and leaked exclusively to Breitbart News argues that due to a variety of factors, including the election of President Trump, the “American tradition” of free speech on the internet is no longer viable.
Despite leaked video footage showing top executives declaring their intention to ensure that the rise of Trump and the populist movement is just a “blip” in history, Google has repeatedly denied that the political bias of its employees filter into its products.
But the 85-page briefing, titled “The Good Censor,” admits that Google and other tech platforms now “control the majority of online conversations” and have undertaken a “shift towards censorship” in response to unwelcome political events around the world.
Examples cited in the document include the 2016 election and the rise of Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) in Germany.
Responding to the leak, an official Google source said the document should be considered internal research, and not an official company position.
The briefing labels the ideal of unfettered free speech on the internet a “utopian narrative” that has been “undermined” by recent global events as well as “bad behavior” on the part of users. It can be read in full below.
It acknowledges that major tech platforms, including Google, Facebook and Twitter initially promised free speech to consumers. “This free speech ideal was instilled in the DNA of the Silicon Valley startups that now control the majority of our online conversations,” says the document.

Where’s the outrage over Hillary’s call for a ‘civil’ war?
NY Post – Which brings me to the second event of note: Hillary Clinton’s statement Tuesday that Democrats “cannot be civil” as long as Republicans hold the White House and Congress.
“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” Clinton told CNN. “That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again. But until then, the only thing that the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength.”
There you have it — a declaration of war and a license for violence. Where is the media outrage?

‘F***. YOU. ALL. TO. HELL’: Google Lead Designer Attacks GOP, Conservatives, Christians Over Kavanaugh Vote
Does big tech have a political bias problem? Companies like Facebook and Google have sworn up and down that they’re apolitical … but a growing amount of evidence is raising hard questions about the corporate culture within these brands.
On Saturday, one of Google’s top people single-handedly brought those questions to the surface again. After Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice, the tech company’s design lead went on a hateful rant on Twitter.
You are finished, @GOP,” posted Dave Hogue, whose bio states that he holds a design lead position at Google. “You polished the final nail for your own coffins.”
“F–K. YOU. ALL. TO. HELL,” the unhinged Google leader continued, according to screenshots of his angry tweets captured by Jim Hoft.
He didn’t stop there. Hogue went even darker, calling Republicans “evil” and wishing conservatives to be burned.
“I hope the last images burned into your slimy, evil, treasonous retinas are millions of women laughing and clapping and celebrating as your souls descend into the flames,” he posted.
Numerous sources including LinkedIn and Crunchbase confirm that Hogue is a senior user experience designer at Google, and that he has a Ph.D.
Sometime after posting the inflammatory messages, the high-ranking Google leader deleted them and then posted a follow-up message admitting that he had written them.
“Yes, I deleted that tweet,” he stated. “Yes, those opinions are mine personally, and I am responsible for them. Yes, I should have been more eloquent and less condemning.” Gee, you think?

GOOGLE hid data breach from public
Wall Street Journal – Google opted not to disclose to users its discovery of a bug that gave outside developers access to private data. It found no evidence of misuse.
Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social network and then opted not to disclose the issue this past spring, in part because of fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage, according to people briefed on the incident and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
FACEBOOK CAMERA FOLLOWS YOU AROUND ROOM
Infowars – Facebook has announced the rollout of its new ‘Portal’ smart speakers, which it brags have a camera that can automatically follow users around the room.
Becoming the latest company to enter the smart-speaker market after Amazon Alexa and Google Home, Facebook rolled out a pair of voice-controlled devices that are optimized for video calling.
“Portal’s smart camera follows the action, keeping you in frame and everyone in view,” states the promo for the product.
The technology led some people to draw comparisons to George Orwell’s 1984, and a quote from the book illustrates creepy similarities.
“The telescreen recieved and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.”
Undoubtedly wary about fears the technology could be exploited to spy on its users following the company’s data abuse scandals, Facebook has even included a camera cover that can be slipped over the lens.

Government watchdog says US weapons systems are vulnerable to hacks, but the Pentagon is slow to act
Tech Crunch – A government watchdog has said the Department of Defense has not done enough to protect critical weapons systems from cyberattacks.
The new report out of the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday said that the Pentagon has “not made weapon cybersecurity a priority,” and, although there have been some improvements over the years, the department’s “nascent understanding” of how to secure weapons systems has left officials scrambling on “how best to address weapon systems cybersecurity.”
The GAO was asked to review the Pentagon’s weapons systems cybersecurity and found a litany of vulnerabilities — which it didn’t disclose in detail as the contents were classified — but that the department “likely does not know the full extent of the problems.”
“A successful attack on one of the systems the weapon depends on can potentially limit the weapon’s effectiveness, prevent it from achieving its mission, or even cause physical damage and loss of life,” the report said.
According to its findings, the watchdog’s testers used relatively simple tools and techniques to take control of systems and operate almost undetected — because of poor password management and unencrypted communications.
“They could see, in real-time, what the operators were seeing on their screens and could manipulate the system,” the report read, and observe how operators responded to requests.

FBI took Rosenstein’s suggestion to wiretap Trump & invoke 25th amdt seriously – reports
RT – Top FBI officials reportedly consulted with a senior lawyer if they could act on a suggestion by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to secretly wiretap President Donald Trump, apparently taking it seriously and not in jest.
The New York Times reported last month that in 2017 Rosenstein had quipped about secretly recording the president’s communications and later using the tapes to oust Trump from office by invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows the cabinet to declare a president unfit for duty. The scoop was quickly shot down, as people involved in discussion assured that the remark was sarcastic and not an invitation for a palace coup. Speculation that Trump would retaliate against Rosenstein by firing him likewise never materialized.
The story made a surprise comeback in the US media on Tuesday, after some outlets – including The Hill, Fox News and the Washington Post – reported that the wiretapping suggestion may have been done in earnest. At least that was the impression of FBI’s top legal counsel James Baker, who was approached about the suggestion by the bureau’s then-acting director Andrew McCabe and ‘Russiagate’ investigation lawyer Lisa Page.
Baker spoke about the 2017 discussions to a closed congressional hearing last week. According to Baker, the proposal to record Trump was not “an official one” and was dismissed by senior FBI and DOJ officials “within a couple of days,” the Post reported. Rosenstein was expected to be interviewed by the lawmakers on Thursday, but that hearing is still up in the air.

China represents biggest, long-term threat to US interests – FBI director
RT – China is waging an unprecedented influence campaign against the American public and Beijing represents the “broadest, most complicated, most long-term” threat to US interests, said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Questioned by senators on the Homeland Security Committee about US President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that China is trying to interfere in the upcoming November midterm elections, Wray said that China presents the greatest long-term counterintelligence threat to the US.
Beijing appears to have totally eclipsed Moscow in the eye of the principal US counter-intelligence agency, with condemnations of China edging out the Russophobic rhetoric often heard on Capitol Hill over the past several years.
China is trying to “to get secret information about our trade, our ideas, and innovations,” Wray said, using “an expanding set of unconventional methods each time to achieve their goals.” He warned that the threat of economic espionage from China “affects companies in all regions and in all sectors of the US economy.”

California Elections Official Does Not Know if Non-Citizens Have Voted
Breitbart – California Secretary of State Alex Padilla does not know if any of the 1,500 people who were improperly registered to vote by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) this year voted in the June primary elections, the Associated Press reports.

U.S. Marshals Service conducts massive sweep to recover missing children
Fox – More than 120 children in Michigan were recovered in a one-day sweep in September, the U.S. Marshals Service announced last week.
Out of 301 files of missing children, 123 were recovered during the operation on Sept. 26., the U.S. Marshals Service said in a release.
Michigan police told The Detroit News Wednesday that of the 123, only four were missing.
The large majority of the children were listed as missing in police computers, Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw told the paper. Most of the kids listed had been reported as missing in the past, but their parents never alerted police after they returned home, Shaw said.
Many were homeschooled, while some were runaways, Shaw told The Detroit News.
MISafeKid, the name of the sweep, is the first operation of its kind in Wayne County, Mich., about 22 miles east of Detroit, Fox 2 Detroit reported.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, both state and federal, participated in the operation that had an emphasis on locating victims of sex trafficking, the U.S. Marshals Service release said

Economy & Business

DOJ gives preliminary approval to CVS merger with Aetna, potentially changing how consumers access health care
CNBC – The Department of Justice gave preliminary approval Wednesday for CVS Health‘s acquisition of insurer Aetna, cementing a deal that could transform how U.S. consumers access health care.
The two companies cleared their path to merge when Aetna announced Sept. 27 that it reached an agreement to sell its Medicare Part D drug plan business to WellCare Health Plans for an undisclosed amount. Regulators were concerned about the overlap between CVS’ and Aetna’s Medicare Part D plans. The Justice Department said that the divestiture was a condition to winning final approval.
“The divestitures required here allow for the creation of an integrated pharmacy and health benefits company that has the potential to generate benefits by improving the quality and lowering the costs of the healthcare services that American consumers can obtain,” Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said in a statement.

MF warns of broad ‘market correction’ from global trade tensions
South China Morning Post – An escalation in global trade tensions, together with rising geopolitical risks and policy uncertainty in major economies, could trigger a broad-based correction in global capital markets and cause a sharp tightening of global financial conditions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Wednesday.
“Should market participants start pricing in the possibility of protracted trade tensions, financial conditions could tighten significantly, increasing the tail risk to global growth and financial stability,” according to Global Financial Stability Report issued by the IMF at its annual meetings in Bali.
Based on the trade tariffs already in place, the organisation revised down its estimates of world growth this year and next by 0.2 of a percentage point to a still healthy 3.7 per cent. But growth could weaken significantly further if additional trade protectionist measures are put in place, it said.
It warned Chinese organisations with significant exposure to proposed US tariffs, including those engaged in machinery, capital goods, and automotive, have been disproportionately affected by the trade war. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has already plunged 17.7 per cent this year, making the Chinese equity market the second worst stock market worldwide, only next to the Greek market, which has fallen 18.4 per cent.

Sears gears up to file bankruptcy
CNBC – Sears Holdings has contacted banks in recent days to arrange the financing necessary to file for bankruptcy after 125 years in business, people familiar with the situation told CNBC.
The stock plummeted 32 percent, to 40 cents a share, in Wednesday’s premarket trading after the report.

New Data Shows Federal Reserve Is Causing More Inequality
Activist Post – Back in August, Bloomberg interviewed Karen Petrou about her research on quantitative easing and the Fed’s policies since the 2008 financial crisis. What she has discovered has not been encouraging for people who aren’t already high-income, and in recent research presented to the New York Fed, she concluded “Post-crisis monetary and regulatory policy had an unintended but nonetheless dramatic impact on the income and wealth divides.”
This assessment is based on her own work, but also on a 2018 report released by the Minneapolis Fed.1 The report showed that both income and wealth growth in the US have been much better for higher-income households in recent decades.
Indeed, the report concludes: “…half of all American households have less wealth today in real terms than the median household had in 1970.”
A closer look at income data also suggests that income growth has been especially anemic since 2007. Using data from the Census Bureau’s 2017 report on income and poverty, we find that incomes for the 90th percentile are increasingly pulling away from both the median (50th percentile) income and from the 20th-percentile income.2

Energy & Environment

Gov. Rick Scott Warns: Hurricane Michael ‘Worst Storm’ Panhandle Has Seen in 100 Years
Breitbart – Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday warned Hurricane Michael is the “worst storm” that the Florida Panhandle has seen in 100 years.

Health

Here’s Why You Should Drink Chai Tea
Mercola – If you love Indian cuisine or are familiar with it, chances are you’ve heard about chai or masala chai, a spiced tea sweetened and mixed with milk. Although there are many theories surrounding chai’s origin, most information traces the drink’s roots to India.
What Is Chai Tea?
A fragrant and sweet tea, chai, or masala chai as it’s called in India, is made of a combination of black tea, milk, fresh ginger and other spices such as:
Green cardamom, Cinnamon, Fennel seeds, Black peppercorns, Whole cloves, Star anise, Coriander seeds.
Benefits of Drinking Chai Tea:
Helps boost heart health — Animal studies showed that cinnamon may help reduce blood pressure levels and decrease amounts of total cholesterol, bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides by up to 30 percent. Meanwhile, black tea can help lower blood cholesterol levels.
Contributes to better blood sugar control — Cinnamon may help reduce insulin resistance and fasting blood sugar levels.
Possesses anti-nausea effects — Ginger, another spice in chai tea, may aid in reducing nausea during pregnancy.
Delivers antibacterial properties — Cinnamon, cloves and cardamom are known to have antibacterial properties that may help prevent digestive issues triggered by bacterial infections. However, black pepper possesses antibacterial properties too.
Helps deter weight gain and promote fat loss — Studies showed compounds in black tea can help promote fat breakdown and lower the number of calories the body absorbs from foods.26 Taking three cups of black tea daily was also said to assist with preventing unwanted weight gain or gain of belly fat.
Possesses anti-inflammatory properties — A main component in cloves called eugenol is noted for its ability to help relieve gum pain and general inflammation. Cinnamon is known to deliver anti-inflammatory action too.
Delivers antioxidant capabilities — Antioxidants called polyphenols in black tea may help prevent DNA damage in the body. Cardamom may also help reduce blood pressure levels and other cardiovascular disease risks.

The Amazing Benefits Of Turmeric And Why It’s The Single Most Important Supplement You Can Take
Off The Grid News – You may be familiar with turmeric as the bright orange spice which gives Indian curries their distinctive and vibrant color. But did you know that this popular spice also brings with it a host of health benefits, both mental and physical?
Here are some of the benefits of Turmeric:
Memory Boost
Soothes Irritations
Calms Digestion
Balances Sugar Levels
Eases Osteoarthritis