Amazon’s Alexa device is back in the spotlight after people began taking notice of the response they got when asking about chemtrails. The actual response, however, is freaking out the “we buy the official narrative about everything and believe everything the government says” crowd.
But check out what happens when simply asking Alexa “what are chemtrails?”
Of course, that’s not the response the sheeple in the population were hoping for. They wanted a quick validation that all of their faith in the government has been well-founded and they would never be lied to. Most are actually so physically uncomfortable with response (because there’s no way the government would ever lie to them) to the point that they immediately go to the “conspiracy theory” comments.
It turns out that Alexa might not be the best source of information if you want to learn about chemtrails. If you ask Alexa about “chemtrails”, it appears it will go full Alexa Jones on you, and give you a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory that takes you to the very heart of government.
But all Alexa did was give the actual definition of a chemtrail. So why all the scary conspiracy nonsense? That is by design. When asked, the Amazon Echo Dot Alexa gave the very accurate response:
“Chemtrails. Trails left by aircraft are actually chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for a purpose undisclosed to the general public in clandestine programs directed by government officials.”
Since the flaw in the Echo Dot’s reasoning was found, Amazon has updated the response. The device will now explain to you what contrails are, rather than give you a conspiracy theory response that will send you down a rabbit hole that leads you to believe the Deep State is hiding the truth about the Earth being flat. –IFL Science
Could this 13,000-mile long contrail have been formed in a matter of seconds?
(INTELLIHUB) — Tyler from Secure Team recently posted a video to YouTube which reveals a 13,000-mile long contrail spanning from Antarctica to the north pole.
Interestingly enough, the contrail shows little to no side to side distortion from either and wind which begs the question: Was the trail formed in a matter of seconds or minutes?
According to local TV, a Syrian army"s military aircraft has been downed by insurgents in the Hama province. The pilot of the jet has reportedly been killed as a result of the downing, according to Al Arabiya.
The report was confirmed by SANA, the Syrian state media organization.
"The military aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Hama after it was shot by terrorists; the pilot was killed," a source told the Syrian state-run SANA news agency.
According to local media reports translated by Sputnik, it wasn"t clear which group was responsible for shooting down the jet. Several unconfirmed reports said the pilot survived the crash, but was later killed by his militant captors. The plane was reportedly identified as a L-39 Albatros. Still, conflicting reports have surfaced about what happened to the jet: Some local outlets reported that the jet suffered technical difficulties, while others said it was downed by anti-aircraft guns.
Apparently, the chartered flights scandal that enmeshed four Trump cabinet secretaries - eventually leading to the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price - has spread to Paris.
As France 24 reports, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has become entangled in a controversy over his use of a chartered flight to travel from Tokyo to Paris earlier this month. Philippe chartered a private aircraft at a cost of 350,000 euros ($415,000) to bring him and a delegation back from Tokyo earlier this month when a French military transport was flying essentially the same route at roughly the same time.
Philippe on Wednesday defended his decision to charter the Airbus A340 with first-class seats, explaining that he needed to be back in Paris urgently because President Emmanuel Macron was leaving the country, and that the air force plane would’ve been “too uncomfortable” for a nighttime trip.
"It"s complicated to move the prime minister around and it"s expensive," Philippe told RTL radio on Wednesday. "I understand both the surprise and the questions that French people are asking themselves."
Asked by a reporter if his trip had been a mistake, Philippe angrily responded: "I take responsibility for this decision completely, I take responsibility to such an extent that I want to explain it."
Edouard Philippe
Philippe was returning from the far-flung French Pacific territory of New Caledonia on December 5 along with a 60-strong delegation of officials and ministers. For the first leg of the journey from Noumea to Tokyo, they used the air force plane. But instead of continuing on to Paris, Philippe’s office hired the private A340 to complete their journey and arrived home two hours before the army plane which landed in Paris almost empty.
"We knew that there wasn"t a commercial flight at that time and that we needed to get back. We knew we needed to get back for something vital which is that the president was leaving on the Wednesday morning of our return," Philippe added.
The prime minister explained that the requirements of his job made travel expensive, but that he has done everything possible to keep a lid on costs - within reason. As Philippe explained, his travel requirements as prime minister are much more intense compared with those of a private citizen.
"If you had invited Edouard Philippe, I would have come in the metro which would have cost me 1.90 or 2 euros. But... I arrived with four vehicles, motorbikes, 15 people, and a doctor and a transmitter, who stay with me because these are the resources given to a prime minister to enable him to work at all times," he added.
Philippe’s office also pointed out that the trip cost 30% less than the similar trip taken by Prime Minister Manuel Valls in 2016.
Unfortunately for Philippe, his explanation did little to quiet the criticisms. Ex-minister of agriculture Stéphane Le Foll - a member of the Socialist Party - tweeted that "nothing can explain spending 350,000 euros... The Republic"s planes are very good. There"s no need to take private planes just so that you can sleep better."
Rien n"explique la dépense de 350 000 euros par @EPhilippePM pour un voyage ! Les avions de la République sont très bien pas besoin de prendre des avions privés pour mieux dormir! ?? #le79inter@franceinter
During his campaign, President Emmanuel Macron committed to running a frugal administration should he win the office. The president inadvertently created a spending-related controversy of his own last weekend by celebrating his 40th birthday at an opulent chateau in France"s Loire Valley.
While the Elysee Palace confirmed that the affair was paid for with private funds, Macron’s critics said the over-the-top party was yet another sign of how France’s youngest president is “cut off from the people.”
Boeing’s IR team had been working around the clock for today’s unveiling of the ‘Batmobile’ style unmanned refueling tanker drone. For days, the internet had been in suspense, trying to guess what Boeing’s big surprise would be. To boost the suspense, the company"s twitter account released a statement last week saying the new aircraft is set to "change the future of air power."
And judging by the hype generated by Boeing, the marketing campaign paid off. Boeing’s MQ-25 unmanned aircraft is currently in engine trials before heading to the flight deck of an aircraft carrier in 2018. The MQ-25 was specifically made for the Navy to extend the combat range of deployed Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler, and Lockheed Martin F-35C fighters.
Don ‘BD’ Gaddis, a retired admiral who leads the refueling system program for Boeing’s MQ-25 said, “Boeing has been delivering carrier aircraft to the Navy for almost 90 years. Our expertise gives us confidence in our approach. We will be ready for flight testing when the engineering and manufacturing development contract is awarded.”
Boeing unveils the U.S. Navy"s MQ-25 unmanned tanker.
In the first half of 2017, Boeing was selected by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to complete the design work for the agency’s new Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1). And so far, Boeing has released one photo of the aircraft facing head-on to the camera, proving that the company has fabricated a prototype and that — as expected — it has moved away from the flying wing design it considered putting forward to the precursor of the MQ-25 program, when the Navy prioritized strike and ISR capabilities for its first carrier-based drone.
“It’s an aircraft with the mission in mind, and we felt confident that the wing-body-tail design was the best for the refueling mission,” said Boeing spokeswoman Didi VanNierop, who added that the company incorporated lessons from its Phantom Ray unmanned demonstrator and other Boeing unmanned aerial systems.
Jess Sponable, DARPA program manager said, “the XS-1 would be neither a traditional airplane nor a conventional launch vehicle but rather a combination of the two, with the goal of lowering launch costs by a factor of ten and replacing today’s frustratingly long wait time with launch on demand.”
During the deck handling demonstrations, the company will take the aircraft to the ramp, which will be marked to the measurements of an aircraft carrier’s flight deck, VanNierop said. There, operators will taxi the aircraft via remote control and move it within the confines of the deck. They will also validate that the aircraft will engage the launch bar of a catapult.
However, the aircraft will not fly during those demonstrations, and Boeing has not set a date for first flight, she noted.
“Boeing has been delivering carrier aircraft to the Navy for almost 90 years,” Don Gaddis, who leads the refueling system program for Boeing’s Phantom Works, said in a statement. “Our expertise gives us confidence in our approach. We will be ready for flight testing when the engineering and manufacturing development contract is awarded.”
“We’re very pleased with Boeing’s progress on the XS-1 through Phase 1 of the program and look forward to continuing our close collaboration in this newly funded progression to Phases 2 and 3—fabrication and flight.”
Boeing has stoked conversation about its “mystery aircraft” for about a week. On Dec. 14, the company posted a short video of a stationary aircraft draped in a drop cloth on its Twitter account.
“Robust? Check. Ready? Check. Changing future air power? Check it out!” read the caption, which then implored viewers to come back on Dec. 19 to see the plane’s reveal.
Robust? Check Ready? Check Changing future air power? Check it out!
As a result, the internet had speculated these additional prototypes from Boeing could have been released.
Some aviation enthusiasts correctly guessed that Boeing would debut its MQ-25 offering, but others speculated that the new Phantom Works aircraft could be a new version of the Bird of Prey subsonic stealth aircraft, its Phantom Ray unmanned combat drone or even a new collaboration with Aurora Flight Sciences, which the company acquired this year. The XV-24A LightningStrike VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) plane was acquired last year by Boeing from Aurora Flight Sciences. Applications for the plane include commercial and military purposes.
Aurora Flight Sciences successfully tested the Subscale X-Plane Aircraft for vertical take-off and landing.
The Phantom Swift, a Boeing prototype initially built in less than 30-days, has been accepted into the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) X-plane program. The aircraft has two large fans in the fuselage and two wingtip fans for stabilization.
“Proving these capabilities in a single aircraft has been the holy grail for tactical military aviation,” said Dan Newman, Boeing Phantom Works Advanced Vertical Lift capture team lead. “We’re confident that Phantom Swift could be the solution.”
And while much the internet guessed wrong about today’s MQ-25 unmanned refueling drone release by Boeing, it signals that the military-industrial complex shows no signs of slowing, as President Trump will soon be able to attack even more targets, at an even further dustance by extending the combat range of some of the Navy’s aircraft. There is one final question: how dangerous is it to fly an unmanned gas tank over hostile territory?
On Monday, Vladimir Putin unexpectedly interrupted his journey to Egypt, stopping off at Russia’s Hmeymim airbase in Syria and announcing the windup of Russia’s most successful military campaign abroad.
Thousands of combat sorties have been flown, tens of thousands of terrorists and their infrastructure have been destroyed, and hundreds of Syrian cities and towns have been liberated. We have previously published accounts of how Russian pilots, special ops, marines, doctors, and diplomats spent two years helping the lawful president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, hold his country together and rid it of terrorists.
Russia enters the conflict
By the fall of 2015, the war in Syria had already dragged on for four long years. The mass anti-government demonstrations that began in March 2011 had quickly escalated into skirmishes with the military. And terrorist factions immediately “hijacked” these popular protests. Soon, the leading role in the battle against the ruling regime was being played by extremists from the Islamic State, Jabhat Al Nusra, Al-Qaeda, and many factions within what has been called the “moderate opposition” – mainly in the Free Syrian Army that has been so championed by the West.
From the very beginning, Russia provided diplomatic support to Syria. Back in the spring of 2011, Vitaly Churkin, the late Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, vetoed the draft Security Council resolutions being proposed by some Western and Arab countries that were anti-Syrian in nature.
In addition, Russia backed the government of Bashar al-Assad by supplying arms, military equipment, and ammunition, in addition to training officers and providing military advisers.
But as the terrorist organizations and forces of the “moderate opposition” continued to make territorial gains, it became clear that this support was not enough. The Syrian Arab Army was running out of steam. Huge losses, shortages of the most essential materials, plus low morale forced those soldiers loyal to Assad to cede more and more territory, retreating as far as the coastal province of Latakia and the city of Damascus. By September 2015, it looked like Syria’s leader had only a few weeks left in power.
Areas of control in Syria in September 2015
So that month, at the request of President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s Federation Council approved Vladimir Putin’s decision to move Russian troops into Syria. On Sept. 30, a Russian military operation began in that country.
The composition of the Russian air fleet
The composition of the air fleet often changed in accordance with the tasks assigned to it. Based on the data at hand, at various times it included:
Up to ten multi-role Su-35S fighter jets
Up to four Su-27SMs
From 12-16 two-seater Su-30SM fighter jets
Up to 12 Su-34 fighter-bombers
Up to 30 Su-24M front-line bombers
Up to 12 Su-25SM close-support aircraft
Up to 15 multipurpose Mi-8 helicopters in various modifications
Up to 15 Mi-24 and Mi-35 attack helicopters
Up to five Ka-52 attack helicopters
Strikes were even launched against the terrorists’ base camps from inside the Russian Federation.
Six supersonic Tu-160 missile carriers
Five Tu-95MS strategic bombers
From 12-14 Tu-22M3 long-range bombers-missile carriers
The A-50 early warning and control aircraft, the Tu-214R, and the Il-20M1 radio reconnaissance plane coordinated air operations, carried out reconnaissance missions, and pinpointed targets for the strike formations.
Russian forces in Syria
Air and naval activities
Russian aviation really ran the show in Syria. Militant training camps, command posts, weapons and ammunition depots, oil fields, and convoys of gasoline tankers found themselves decimated by massive attacks launched from the Hmeymim airbase, the staging bases for air strikes, and the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. Bombers, close-support aircraft, and fighter planes, taking advantage of their total mastery of the air, managed to destroy more than 100,000 different terrorist facilities. The first wave of the massive air strikes against IS came at the end of 2015. That was when Russian planes pulverized a buried IS command post, underground bunkers, and warehouses in the province of Hama.
During their high-profile mission to “seek and destroy” gasoline tankers, Su-34 fighter-bombers managed to sniff out approximately 500 tanker trucks carrying petroleum products, plus dozens of oil refineries, grinding them into the sand. That was a punch to the gut of the IS war chest, as its main source of income was the illegal sale of black gold.
In late 2015, the Syrian desert was rattled by the most powerful blow yet – strategic Tu-160 bombers, Tu-95MSs, and long-range Tu-22M3s dropped more than three dozen missiles and a multitude of bombs, destroying the command posts of IS detachments in the Idlib and Aleppo provinces, as well as training camps for suicide bombers. In the summer of 2016, long-range Tu-22M3 bombers took off from Hamadan Airbase in Iran and blew out their bomb bays over militant targets in Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, and Idlib. Regular air sorties supported the Syrian operation from beginning to end.
In addition to aircraft, Russia also put its combat ships, submarines, and coastal missile systems to effective use in Syria. Some types of weapons got their first test under battle conditions. In November 2016, to be exact, the Russian military employed its Bastion coastal-defense missile systems to spectacularly obliterate a large warehouse belonging to the militants with the help of its Onyx anti-ship missiles.
In October 2015, the Russian Navy was responsible for a widely reported cruise-missile attack from the Caspian Sea that annihilated militant positions with an unprecedented show of strength. The Dagestan, a missile-armed frigate, and the Grad Sviyazhsk and Veliky Ustyug small missile patrol ships released an enormous swarm of Kalibr cruise missiles that flew over several countries to blow up more than a dozen targets in militant-controlled territory. In June 2017, the Russian Navy’s Admiral Essen and Admiral Grigorovich frigates, as well as its Krasnodar submarine, used Kalibr cruise missiles to inflict a powerful blow from the Mediterranean Sea against terrorist command posts and ammunition depots in Hama province.
The capture of Aleppo marked the final turning point for the government forces in Syria, after which it was possible to withdraw about half of the air formations from the Hmeymim airbase in May 2017 and send them home.
The makings of victory
Russian aircraft were able to administer continuous, nonstop strikes against targets belonging to terrorist groups in Syria. From the onset of the military operation until September 2017, over 30,000 sorties were flown and about 92,000 attacks on terrorists were carried out.
Russian planes bashed terrorists with the active support of the most elite force in the Russian military, the soldiers from the Special Operations Forces, who conducted reconnaissance missions, corrected the moves of aircraft and artillery, trained Syrian soldiers and officers, conducted raids deep into enemy territory, set up countless ambushes along the routes of terrorist convoys, and neutralized the leaders of outlaw gangs. The ships and airplanes of the Syrian Express had an important role to play, supplying weapons, armored vehicles, and ammunition to the embattled country. Russian doctors were responsible for true acts of heroism, treating the civilians and servicemen who had suffered injuries in the war.
And a huge role in the resolution of the Syrian crisis was played by the Russian diplomats who set in motion the negotiations in Astana. Those made it possible to establish the de-escalation zones in Syria that are still operating effectively today.
Syrian peace talks in Astana
But of course it was the Syrian people who won the real victory – the Russian military just helped to remind them that the enemy can be defeated even if it enjoys the unconditional support of the West.
What comes next
It was revealed in late November that the Russian forces currently stationed at the Hmeymim airbase near Latakia and the naval base in Tartus would remain there. Their presence will clear the path for Russia to fend off any threat in the Eastern Mediterranean and to thus ensure the strategic parity that guarantees long-term peace in this volatile region. While the Syrian peace process is under its way the situation in the country and around is very fragile. The key game players and war profiteers are still on the ground and they are not to leave the Syrian territory. So the primary goal is to prevent anybody from the “defeated party” to undermine the talks and to secure desperately needed reconstruction programs, renovation and stabilization of normal social, economic and political life in Syria.
Most of the remaining Russian forces operating in Syria, including the Tu-22M3 long-range bombers and Beriev A-50 AWACSs are returning to home just days after President Vladimir Putin surprised the world by announcing that Russian military forces would swiftly withdraw from Syria – a promise that elicited accusations of insincerity from the West.
The first contingent of Russian aircraft left on Tuesday, according to Russia Today.
A Russian military police battalion of the Southern Military District arrived aboard two cargo aircraft in the city of Makhachkala, in the North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan, according to the Defense Ministry.
The ministry published a video of warplanes departing Syria at dawn followed by military accompanied by footage of soldiers’ relatives greeting them in Russia.
A Russian military police battalion was deployed to Syria in December 2016 to maintain security in de-escalation zones. The officers escorted more than 1,700 humanitarian convoys and ensured civilians’ security.
The first military aircraft to arrive back in Russia were the Tu-22M3 bombers and the Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft. The long-range bombers landed at their home airbase in Russia’s Kaluga region after a brief interlude in North Ossetia.
“Flight crews successfully accomplished tasks on delivering strikes on terrorists’ objects in the Syrian Arab Republic,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It did not elaborate on how many Tu-22M3 aircraft arrived at the base.
The A-50 arrived in Russia’s Ivanovo. The pilots were greeted with accolades for a “successful task performance."
A total of 25 aircraft, as well as Russian special forces, military police and sapper teams are preparing to leave Syria, where they have assisted Syrian government forces in the battle against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists since September 2015. The terrorists have been more or less vanquished – no longer holding any significant territory in Syria. On December 6, the Russian General Staff declared the liberation of Syria from IS, saying that “all terrorist units of ISIS” in the country had been destroyed.
After the withdrawal, Russia will continue to use Khmeimim Airbase and the Syrian port of Tartus, which provides technical support for the Russian Navy, and the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria will keep working.
In a first for not just China, but the entire world, Alibaba"s online auction website, Taobao, has successfully auctioned off two Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets for a combined $49 million. The jets were bought by Chinese cargo airline SF Airlines after they were seized by courts during Jade Cargo"s bankruptcy proceedings in 2013. According to the South China Morning Post, the successful online auction was conducted after six failed private auctions.
Two Boeing 747-400 Freighters were sold on Tuesday on Taobao, the online shopping platform owned by Alibaba, for a combined 322.8 million yuan (US$49 million), reflecting the first time such jets were sold via online auction in China, and possibly the first-ever globally at online auction.
The sale was concluded after six failed attempts at offline private auctions organised by the seller – a state court – in the past few years.
SF Express, China’s largest private courier, bought the jets from the Intermediate People’s Court in the southern city of Shenzhen, which seized them after Jade Cargo International filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
Three Boeing 747-400s had been put up for sale on Taobao’s judicial auction arm from Monday to Tuesday. One of the jets parked at the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport went unsold, with a starting bid of 122.6 million yuan.
According to rules on Taobao’s auction site, bidders were required to make security deposits of 6.1 million yuan, 6.7 million yuan, and 6.8 million yuan for the respective jets before the auction. The winning bidder now has 15 days to send payment in full according to Taobao auction rules.
Last year, Concord Aerospace, a Florida-based aerospace company, tried to sell a Boeing 747 jumbo jet on eBay, with a starting bid of US$300,000. The aircraft’s four jet engines had been removed and its electrical components had been stripped...needless to say, the plane didn’t sell.
And, for our next item, this entire Chinese Ghost City, complete with dueling horse statues, can be yours for an opening bid of just $10...any takers?
About a week ago, we warned about the infamous bearish stock market pattern developing in US equities coined by some as the ‘Hindenburg Omen’. The pattern is known for its bearish tendencies developed after the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. The key understanding is breadth deterioration, when more stocks hit 52-week lows than 52-highs. Since the warning, a liquidity gap has developed in stocks thwarting any attempt at new all time highs.
Fast forward to this morning and a very ironic situation has unfolded in the skies 50-miles north of London. And no – it’s not a giant penis drawn by US-Navy pilots in F-18s - it’s a true ‘Hindenburg Omen’ as the world’s longest airship crashed early this morning. The £25m airship called ‘Airlander 10’ appeared to “break in two,” a witness told the BBC. Reports suggest the airship broke free from mooring less than 24-hours after a successful test. At the time, no-one was on board of the aircraft, but Bedfordshire police, paramedics and fire crews were alerted and treated a women who suffered minor injuries.
The roads around the airfield were closed amid concerns that aviation fuel and helium could escape from the airship. However, police said they believed the helium would soon dissipate.
Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), the company that developed the airship confirmed there had been an incident. It said the craft was not on a flight at the time and had since been deflated.
An investigation has been launched to find out what happened.
Local residents took to social media and snapped shocking pictures of the crashed airship appearing to be more deflated than Tom Brady’s footballs.
The Airlander 10 is/was the world’s largest aircraft produced by Hybrid Air Vehicles. The airship is classified as a helium airship powered by four diesel engines driving large propellers on each side of the craft. Hybrid Air Vehicles originally built this aircraft for the United States Army’s Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) program in 2012, but was cancelled one-year later.
To give perspective of the Airlander’s size, a Boeing 747 can pretty much fit inside the craft.
Perhaps the United States Army made the right decision in 2013, as it appears the Airlander 10 has many kinks that still need to be worked out. In late 2016, the Airlander 10 had a slow motion crash during a landing approach where damage to the cockpit was heavily sustained, but the crew of two was untouched.
Bottomline: Back to back ‘Hidenburg Omens’ for US-stocks and now the largest aircraft in the world crashing this morning is an ominous sign and we hope it’s not a redux of 1937 where markets crashed in excessive around 50%.
While North Korea hasn"t fired a ballistic missile since mid-September over alleged concerns of further retaliation from China, Russia has no such qualms, and on Thursday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in strategic nuclear forces command and control drills, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. "The exercise practiced interaction of the Strategic Missile Force, nuclear-powered submarines of the Northern and Pacific Fleets and long-range aviation of Russia’s."
According to Tass, Putin then personally launched four ballistic missiles: "The supreme commander-in-chief made launches of four ballistic missiles," Peskov said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday that a planned training exercise was held on that day to practice command and control of the Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces.
During the exercise, three intercontinental ballistic missiles were launched from the nuclear-powered submarines while one missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north Russia.
All the practice targets were successfully destroyed.
In addition to the ICBM test launches, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the exercise involved strategic Tupolev Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers, which took off from their airbases Ukrainka, Engels and Shaikovka, and launched airborne cruise missiles against ground targets at the practice ranges Kura (Kamchatka), Pemboi (the Republic of Komi) and Terekta (Kazakhstan).
"The training assignments were accomplished in full and all the practice targets were successfully destroyed," the Defense Ministry said.
The exercise was held in accordance with the training plan of the Russian Armed Forces, the ministry said.
There’s something deeply wrong at Creech Air Force Base, the notorious home of America’s drone program, where pilots remotely order US Reaper and Predator drones to unleash destructive missile strikes on unsuspectingvillagers in Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other war zones.
Less than a week after the Department of Homeland Security advised all federal agencies using anti-virus software created by Kaspersky Labs to remove the programs from their systems immediately, Ars Technica reports that two weeks ago the Defense Information Systems Agency detected mysterious spyware embedded in the drone “cockpits” – the control stations that pilots use to control the deadly machines.
Investigators have been unable to determine the virus’s provenance, or even if it was intentionally introduced to the drone systems, or the result of an accidental infection. But perhaps the virus’s most perplexing feature is its passivity. Instead of hastening away reams of classified information, it has simply logged keystrokes.
More curious still, the virus has resisted all attempts to remove it from the Air Force’s systems.
The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the US military’s most important weapons system.
“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”
Military network security specialists aren’t sure whether the virus and its so-called “keylogger” payload were introduced intentionally or by accident; it may be a common piece of malware that just happened to make its way into these sensitive networks. The specialists don’t know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they’re sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech.That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command.
As Ars notes, drones have become America’s weapon of choice for waging stealth warfare across the Middle East and Africa, a fact that was underlined by the killing of four US green berets in Niger earlier this week. The military advisers were serving at a waystation for American drones that were used to carry out attacks on nearby Al Qaeda affiliates.
Drones have become America’s tool of choice in both its conventional and shadow wars, allowing US forces to attack targets and spy on its foes without risking American lives. Since President Obama assumed office, a fleet of approximately 30 CIA-directed drones have hit targets in Pakistan more than 230 times; all told, these drones have killed more than 2,000 suspected militants and civilians, according to the Washington Post. More than 150 additional Predator and Reaper drones, under US Air Force control, watch over the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. American military drones struck 92 times in Libya between mid-April and late August. And late last month, an American drone killed top terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki — part of an escalating unmanned air assault in the Horn of Africa and southern Arabian peninsula.
And while they represent America’s most sophisticated weaponry in the never-ending war on terror, the drone program has well-known security flaws. Last fall, the US Air Force investigated a secure network outage in early September at Creech. Around the time of the outage, there were three incidences of drones striking three unintended targets. The Air Force said it was just a coincidence.
But despite their widespread use, the drone systems are known to have security flaws. Many Reapers and Predators don’t encrypt the video they transmit to American troops on the ground. In the summer of 2009, US forces discovered “days and days and hours and hours” of the drone footage on the laptops of Iraqi insurgents. A $26 piece of software allowed the militants to capture the video.
Authorities believe the virus was spread by the use of remote drives used by technicians to upload maps and other data to the drone piloting systems, which are “air gapped” from the rest of the Air Force’s systems.
Use of the drives is now severely restricted throughout the military. But the base at Creech was one of the exceptions, until the virus hit. Predator and Reaper crews use removable hard drives to load map updates and transport mission videos from one computer to another. The virus is believed to have spread through these removable drives. Drone units at other Air Force bases worldwide have now been ordered to stop their use.
But given the hysteria surrounding Kaspersky’s software allegedly being used as a tool for espionage by the Russian government, how long until this breach is connected with a broader narrative about Russian hackers trying to destabilize American society?
Or, worse – how much longer until a malicious actor manages to seize control of America’s drone program and harness its destructive capabilities for its own ends?
Still, accurate or fabricated, here is the breakdown of the seasonally-adjusted job gains and losses that took place in the hurricane-impacted month.
As SouthBay Research points out, the biggest sign of Hurricane drag was found in Leisure and Hospitality which plunged by -111K, a drop due to a loss of 105K waiter and bartender jobs: the one category that for the past 7 years was the "plough hourse" of the so-called US recovery; this was the worst monthly drop in history for this category.
And while we find it delightfully ironic that in the one month in which waiters/bartenders lost the most jobs on record is when average wages (allegedly) soared, the September drop will be revised in the coming days and should move higher next month. After all, many people fleeing Florida and Houston had to stay in hotels and motels, for example. And certainly eat out more.
Some other September jobs highlights:
Goods Production +9K (as expected): Not Hurricane impacted. The reflation trade has ended and factories are now coasting.
Trade, Transportation: +26K (as expected): Slightly hurricane impacted. Building supplies up (+5K), for example. Also trucking up +9K as suppliers raced to ensure shipments were not impacted.
Professional Services: +12K (Slightly below expectations): Softer consulting and management payrolls brought the figure down
Education: +14K (as expected)
Healthcare: +13K (much lower than expected) Social Assistance (emergency care, childcare, etc) was 30K below my data. Given the level of emergency support, this is unusual...
Government: +7K. No hurricane impact and in line with expectations.
Information: -9K. A surprising drop in what has traditionally been one of the best paying job sectors.
Leisure/Hospitality: -111K (much lower than expected) Very hurricane impacted. This will likely be revised up
Below is a breakdown of the monthly changes across the main job categories in September:
And from Bloomberg, here are the industries with the highest and lowest rates of employment growth for the most recent month. Additionally, monthly growth rates are shown for the prior year. The latest month’s figures are highlighted. Wage data are shown when available
It appears the Commerce Department"s preliminary ruling, issued late last night, to slap a 220% tariff on Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier could trigger an all-out trade war between the UK and Canada (on one side) and the US (on the other) as public officials in the UK and Canada blasted the ruling and threatened retaliation should the sanctions, which still need to be approved by the US International Trade Commission, become permanent.
Earlier today, the Commerce Department ruled that Bombardier"s jets should face the levy because the company received anticompetitive government subsidies. The ruling comes after Boeing said the Bombardier C-Series jet would not exist without hundreds of millions of dollars in launch funding from the governments of Canada and Britain, or a $2.5 billion equity infusion from the province of Quebec and its largest pension fund in 2015. Boeing brought the complaint after Delta Air Lines agreed in April 2016 to purchase 75 C-Series jets, an order worth some $5 billion.
The preliminary ruling - which comes as the US, Canada and Mexico are holding their fourth meeting to renegotiate Nafta - has met with praise from Boeing, and criticism from virtually everybody else involved.
The UK, which does a brisk business with Boeing, is threatening to cut ties with the company if the decision against Bombardier is finalized. The reason? Bombardier has a large plant in Belfast, employing some 4,200 people in Northern Ireland, a region that the UK"s ruling conservative party relies on heavily for support. If Bombardier, which is already struggling, takes another hit, those people could lose their jobs, potentially threatening the conservatives" tenuous grip on power after losing their majority in snap elections over the summer, according to Reuters.
UK Defense Minister Michael Fallon said in a TV interview today that the ruling could jeapordize Boeing"s business relationship with the UK government.
“This is not the behavior we expect from Boeing and it could indeed jeopardize our future relationship with them,” British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told reporters in Belfast at a briefing in the historic Harland & Wolff shipyard, a few hundred yards from the Bombardier plant.
“Boeing has significant defense contracts with us and still expects to win further contracts. Boeing wants and we want a long term partnership but that has to be two way.”
“Boeing is an important investor in the United Kingdom and an important employer in the United Kingdom but we would prefer this kind of issue to be settled on a negotiated basis,” Fallon said.
“This is not the kind of behavior that we expect from a long-term partner and I’ve made that very clear to Boeing,” Fallon told reporters.
Britain recently ordered the Boeing P-8 maritime surveillance plane and a new fleet of Apache attack helicopters. Its armed forces have deployed Chinook helicopters, the C-17 transport plane and the E-3 Sentry airborne early warning and command post.
Meanwhile, British Business Secretary Greg Clark said on Wednesday he was confident he would be able to have the U.S. anti-subsidy complaint against Bombardier dismissed.
“We’ve been working very closely with the Canadian government to make it clear that this is a complaint that is unjustified,” Clark told Sky TV.
“What needs to happen now by the trade commission is that they look to see whether there has been any detriment to Boeing,” he added.
“There hasn’t been because this aircraft does not compete with Boeing so we’re confident that we will be able to demonstrate that and have this case dismissed.”
Threatening language aside, the Gaurdian points out that Boeing has substantial leverage should the UK act to curtail its business relationship with the defense contractor. Boeing employs or supports more than 10,000 jobs in the UK; any tit-for-tat retaliation could affect them.
Even the labor party, which isn"t politically dependent on Northern Ireland and thus has less of an incentive to care about the potential closure of a Bombardier plant there, has joined in the Boeing bashing. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has just told his party conference in Brighton that the tariffs imposed on Bombardier planes threaten “thousands of jobs”. He called on Prime Minister Theresa May to leverage her "special relationship" with the US to try and protect workers in Northern Ireland.
"Thousands of jobs are now at stake...a Prime minister is betting our economic future on a deregulated trade deal with the US might want to take a moment to explain how 220% tarifsf are going to boost our exports from this country."
Of course, once the ITC issues its ruling, the Trump administration will have the final say on tariffs. Will May"s relationship with the president be enough to save Bombardier? Or will Trump side with Boeing and spin the tariffs as a bid to protect US workers - throwing red meat to his base in the process?
It’s becoming apparent that the United States is getting frustrated with the continued nuclear tests done by North Korea. And to prove it, they dropped live bombs on the Korean Peninsula.
The Pentagon deployed a formation of 14 bombers and fighters over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday. This blatant show of force also included South Korean and Japanese aircraft. This most recent deployment of jets was in response to a missile launched over Japan on Thursday. The missile was the cause for much concern in Japan, and warnings were sent out to those who live on the island.
The warplanes were dispatched after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over northern Japan on Thursday, triggering a widespread emergency alert for those who call the region home. Two Air Force B-1B bombers from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and four Marine Corps F-35B fighters from Iwakuni, Japan, combined with four South Korean F-15K fighters and four F-2 Japanese fighters, U.S. defense officials said. –Washington Post
The U.S. and Japanese jets flew in formation over waters near Kyushu, Japan, a southern portion of the country that is the closest major island to the Korean Peninsula. The aircraft used live bombs to carry out a simulated attack on the Pilsung training range in South Korea, a few dozen miles from the demilitarized zone separating the North and South.
“If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behavior, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday. “And we all know that, and none of us want that.” Haley also commented that should the U.S. thoroughly exhaust diplomatic options, then all military options are on the table.
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Author: Mac Slavo Views: Read by 2,149 people Date: September 19th, 2017 Website:www.SHTFplan.com
Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.
It’s becoming apparent that the United States is getting frustrated with the continued nuclear tests done by North Korea. And to prove it, they dropped live bombs on the Korean Peninsula.
The Pentagon deployed a formation of 14 bombers and fighters over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday. This blatant show of force also included South Korean and Japanese aircraft. This most recent deployment of jets was in response to a missile launched over Japan on Thursday. The missile was the cause for much concern in Japan, and warnings were sent out to those who live on the island.
The warplanes were dispatched after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over northern Japan on Thursday, triggering a widespread emergency alert for those who call the region home. Two Air Force B-1B bombers from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and four Marine Corps F-35B fighters from Iwakuni, Japan, combined with four South Korean F-15K fighters and four F-2 Japanese fighters, U.S. defense officials said. –Washington Post
The U.S. and Japanese jets flew in formation over waters near Kyushu, Japan, a southern portion of the country that is the closest major island to the Korean Peninsula. The aircraft used live bombs to carry out a simulated attack on the Pilsung training range in South Korea, a few dozen miles from the demilitarized zone separating the North and South.
“If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behavior, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday. “And we all know that, and none of us want that.” Haley also commented that should the U.S. thoroughly exhaust diplomatic options, then all military options are on the table.
Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.
Please Spread The Word And Share This Post
Author: Mac Slavo Views: Read by 338 people Date: September 19th, 2017 Website:www.SHTFplan.com
Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.
As the following "before and after" photos taken from the French Keraunos satellite show, the catastrophic damage on Barbuda can be seen from space with the entire island stripped of tropical foliage and left brown.
And here is a similar photo from space showing the mostly destroyed island of St. Marten
Next, a video of what Hurricane Jose looked like when the Intl. Space Station flew over it at 10:10am EDT this morning, and then over Hurricane Irma 90 minutes later.
The space station flew over Hurricane Jose at 10:10 a.m. EDT today and over Hurricane Irma at 11:40 a.m. EDT today. pic.twitter.com/QdWMySTfyH
As residents from Anguilla to Florida batten down the hatches for what promises to be a major storm, hurricane hunters from the Weather Reconnaissance Squadron of the Air Force Reserve, based out of Biloxi, MS, flew right into the eye of Irma and it was all recorded on an epic video. Per WKRG:
For the first time since Hurricane Irma formed in the Atlantic Ocean, we are getting our first look at the tropical system. On Sunday, Hurricane Hunters, which is the Weather Reconnaissance Squadron of the Air Force Reserve, flew into the storm for the first time.
They posted the video of the flight to their Twitter page and the crew, which is based out of Biloxi, Miss., said that additional flights will continue Monday.
The video shows a smooth flight until things get bumpy when they near the storm. The video then goes completely white as they go through the eye of the storm.
For penetrating the eye of Irma, the Hurricane Hunters used a WP-3D Orion aircraft. The squadron has two WP-3D that are known as ‘Kermit’ and ‘Miss Piggy’.
Just hours after Trump made his famously heated vow to unleash "fire and fury" on North Korea if provocations by the Kim regime continued, the US Air Force issued a very clear statement in which it explicitly said that it was "ready to fight tonight", launching an attack of B-1 bombers if so ordered:
“How we train is how we fight and the more we interface with our allies, the better prepared we are to fight tonight,” said a 37th EBS B-1 pilot. “The B-1 is a long-range bomber that is well-suited for the maritime domain and can meet the unique challenges of the Pacific.”
Now, according to an NBC report, it appears that the B-1 pilot was dead serious, as the Pentagon has unveiled a plan for a preemptive strike on North Korean missile sites with bombers stationed in Guam, once Donald Trump gives the order to strike. Echoing what we said yesterday that war "under any analysis, is insanity", the preemptive strike plan is viewed as the "best option available" out of all the bad ones:
"There is no good option," a senior intelligence official involved in North Korean planning told NBC News, but a unilateral American bomber strike not supported by any assets in the South constitutes "the best of a lot of bad options."
The attack would consist of B-1 Lancer heavy bombers located on Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, a senior acting and retired military officials told NBC news.
“Of all the military options … [President Donald Trump] could consider, this would be one of the two or three that would at least have the possibility of not escalating the situation,” retired Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe and an NBC News analyst, said.
Why the B-1?
Military sources told NBC News that the internal justification for centering a strike on the B-1 is both practical and intricate. The B-1 has the largest internal payload of any current bomber in the U.S. arsenal. A pair of bombers can carry a mix of weapons in three separate bomb bays — as many as 168 500-pound bombs — or more likely, according to military sources, the new Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile — Extended Range (JASSM-ER), a highly accurate missile with a range of 500 nautical miles, allowing the missile to be fired from well outside North Korean territory.
There is another important consideration: according to one senior military officer, "the B-1 has also been selected because it has the added benefit of not being able to carry nuclear weapons. Military planners think that will signal China, Russia, and Pyongyang that the U.S. is not trying to escalate an already bad situation any further."
The plan explains why in recent weeks pairs of B-1s have conducted 11 practice runs of a similar mission since the end of May, the last taking place on Monday, around the time Trump and Kim were exchanging unpleasantries in the media, with the training has accelerated since May, according to officials. In an actual mission, NBC notes that the non-nuclear bombers would be supported by satellites and drones and surrounded by fighter jets as well as aerial refueling and electronic warfare planes.
There are currently at least six B-1 bombers on Andersen Air Force base, which is located some 3,200km from North Korea. If given the command, these strategic bombers would target around two dozen North Korean "missile-launch sites, testing grounds and support facilities" according to sources cited by NBC.
Asked about the B-1 bomber plan, two U.S. officials told NBC News that the bombers were among the options under consideration but not the only option. NBC points out that "action would come from air, land and sea — and cyber."
Of course, as we elaborated yesterday, striking North Korea is certain to prompt an immediate and deadly response that could involve targets as near as Seoul, just 40 miles from the border, or as far away as Andersen AFB, according to Adm. Stavridis.
"The use of the B-1 bombers to actually drop bombs and destroy Korean infrastructure and kill North Koreans would cause an escalation," said Stavridis. "Kim Jong Un would be compelled to respond. He would lash out militarily, at a minimum against South Korea, and potentially at long-range targets, perhaps including Guam. … That"s a bad set of outcomes from where we sit now."
"Diplomacy remains the lead," said Gen. Terrence J. O"Shaughnessy, the U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander, after the B-1 bombers" late May training run. "However, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario. If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."
* * *
Finally, should the worst-case scenario be put in play, and conventional war is launched, here is what Capital Economics predicted would be the drastic economic consequences from even a contained, non-nuclear war.
North Korea’s conventional forces, which include 700,000 men under arms and tens of thousands of artillery pieces, would be able to cause immense damage to the South Korean economy. If the North was able to set off a nuclear bomb in South Korea, the consequences would be even greater. Many of the main targets in South Korea are located close to the border with the North. The capital, Seoul, which accounts for roughly a fifth of the country’s population and economy, is located just 35 miles from the North Korean border, and would be a prime target.
The experience of past military conflicts shows how big an impact wars can have on the economy. The war in Syria has led to a 60% fall in the country’s GDP. The most devastating military conflict since World War Two, however, has been the Korean War (1950-53), which led to 1.2m South Korean deaths, and saw the value of its GDP fall by over 80%.
South Korea accounts for around 2% of global economic output. A 50% fall in South Korean GDP would directly knock 1% off global GDP. But there would also be indirect effects to consider. The main one is the disruption it would cause to global supply chains, which have been made more vulnerable by the introduction of just-in-time delivery systems. Months after the Thai floods had receded in 2011 electronics and automotive factories across the world were still reporting shortages.
The impact of a war in Korea would be much bigger. South Korea exports three times as many intermediate products as Thailand. In particular, South Korea is the biggest producer of liquid crystal displays in the world (40% of the global total) and the second biggest of semiconductors (17% market share). It is also a key automotive manufacturer and home to the world’s three biggest shipbuilders. If South Korean production was badly damaged by a war there would be shortages across the world. The disruption would last for some time – it takes around two years to build a semi-conductor factory from scratch.
The impact of the war on the US economy would likely be significant. At its peak in 1952, the US government was spending the equivalent of 4.2% of its GDP fighting the Korean War. The total cost of the second Gulf War (2003) and its aftermath has been estimated at US$1trn (5% of one year’s US GDP). A prolonged war in Korea would significantly push up US federal debt, which at 75% of GDP is already uncomfortably high.
Reconstruction after the war would be costly. Infrastructure, including electricity, water, buildings, roads and ports, would need to be rebuilt. Massive spare capacity in China’s steel, aluminium and cement industries mean reconstruction would unlikely be inflationary, and should instead provide a boost to global demand. The US, a key ally of South Korea, would likely shoulder a large share of the costs. The US spent around US$170bn on reconstruction after the most recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. South Korea’s economy is roughly 30 times larger than these two economies combined. If the US were to spend proportionally the same amount on reconstruction in Korea as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would add another 30% of GDP to its national debt.
Naturally, should North Korea manage to successfully launch a nuke, the devastation, economic and otherwise, would be orders of magnitude greater.
