NETANYAHU ON GAZA-THE ATT OUTAGE.

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)

NETANYAHU ON GAZA-THE ATT OUTAGE.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

STRONGS CONCORDANCE FOR VIOLENCE IN THE BIBLE-SEE IT FOR YOURSELVES.
2554. chamas - Strong's Concordance - chamas: to treat violently or wrong - Part of Speech: Verb - Transliteration: chamas -Phonetic Spelling: (khaw-mas') - Definition: to treat violently or wrong - make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong -A primitive root; to be violent; by implication, to maltreat -- make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine wrongfully.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)

ISAIAH 14:12-14
12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14  I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)

SECOND ANGEL: The Middle East DR DOCTORIAN
Then Isawthat the second angel had a sickle in his hand,such asis used in harvesting. The second angelsaid, “Harvest time has come in Israel and the countries all the wayto Iran.” Isawthose countriesin a fewsplitseconds. “All of Turkey and those other countries that have refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one another.” I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the Middle East countries.I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of Georgia – Iraq, Syria,Lebanon,Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor – full of blood. Isaw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; nuclear weapons were used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere. Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these words, “Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come.”The angel said, “The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God.” I saw fires rising to heaven.The angel said, “This is the final judgment My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Watershall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries.” The angelshowed me that the United Nationsshall be broken in pieces because of the crisisin the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.

FALSE FLAGS (SET UP OR STAGED BY SOMEONE)
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3409375633223151728#docid=-6703838290529161821
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3409375633223151728#docid=8697248641166616573
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3409375633223151728#

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)

ISAIAH 54:3
03-King James Bible-For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

The right hand was a symbol of strength-Exodus 15:6, ” Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.”

EZEKIEL 17:15-24 (MUSLIM COUNTRIES HISTORY)
15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?
16 As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.
17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons:
18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape.
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.
20 And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.
21 And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it.
22 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:
23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
8 Assyria (SYRIA) also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. Selah
9 Deal with them as with Midian, As with Sisera, As with Jabin at the Brook Kishon,
10 Who perished at En Dor, Who became as refuse on the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 Who said, “Let us take for ourselves The pastures of God for a possession.”
13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the chaff before the wind!
14 As the fire burns the woods, And as the flame sets the mountains on fire,
15 So pursue them with Your tempest, And frighten them with Your storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be [e]confounded and dismayed forever; Yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
18 That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, Are the Most High over all the earth.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.

Israeli Navy carries out ‘extensive’ drills in preparation for potential war in north-Israel warns it won’t ‘be patient much longer’ for diplomatic solution on northern border after sending report to UN Security Council detailing Iran’s arming of Hezbollah
By Emanuel Fabian-Today, 1:02 pm-FEB 23,24

The Israeli Navy’s fleet of missile boats carried out “extensive” exercises over the past week, the IDF said on Friday, as the military prepares for potential war in the north while Israel warns that its patience for a diplomatic solution is running out.Israel and Hezbollah also continued to exchange cross-border fire on Friday, as the Iran-backed terror group claimed to target a regional council building while the IDF said it intercepted a “suspicious” drone that crossed into its airspace.The IDF said the Navy drills simulated fighting in the northern maritime theater, and some exercises were carried out alongside the Israeli Air Force, including the 193rd Squadron which operates the AS565 Panther helicopters, primarily used for missions at sea.Among the scenarios that were drilled included foiling drone attacks, aerial rescue operations from vessels, and refueling the missile boats at sea, the IDF said.The drill comes amid daily attacks by the Hezbollah terror group on northern Israel amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.Israel has warned it can no longer tolerate Hezbollah’s presence along its border following the October 7 atrocities and has warned that should a diplomatic solution not be reached, it will turn to military action to push Hezbollah northward.Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned Friday that Israel “will not be patient much longer for a diplomatic solution in the north.” Katz shared a clip on social media from a Channel 12 report Thursday evening which said Israel sent an official warning to the UN Security Council that Iran is continuing to send arms to Hezbollah in breach of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon.“If the dramatic intelligence information we revealed before the Security Council doesn’t lead to a change, we will not hesitate to act,” tweeted Katz, after the report claimed Israel’s letter to the UNSC details the types of weaponry Iran is supplying Hezbollah as well as via which routes and on what dates.Also Friday, Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the headquarters of the Upper Galilee Regional Council in Kiryat Shmona with two drones.The IDF said that a “suspicious aerial target” that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon was successfully intercepted by air defenses. Suspected drone infiltration alarms had sounded in several communities in the Galilee panhandle.Rockets sirens also sounded in Kiryat Shmona due to fears of falling shrapnel following the interception.Hezbollah said that the attack was a response to recent Israeli strikes on “southern villages and civilian homes” including a strike on Thursday on what it said was a civil defense center in Blida.The IDF said the strike on Blida targeted a building where Hezbollah operatives were gathered.Hezbollah on Friday announced the deaths of three members killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes.They were named as Hassan Tarraf, Hussein Khalil, and Muhammad Ismail, and were believed to have been killed in the strike on Blida. Khalil and Ismail were identified by Hezbollah as paramedics in the terror group’s Islamic Health Authority.Hezbollah announces the deaths of three members killed "on the road to Jerusalem," its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes.They are named as Hassan Tarraf, Hussein Khalil, and Muhammad Ismail.Khalil and Ismail are identified by Hezbollah as paramedics in the terror… pic.twitter.com/7Amo9bWavf— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) February 23, 2024-Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in six civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 10 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.Hezbollah has named 211 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 32 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.French, US and other officials have been attempting for weeks and months to tamp down the possibility of any escalation along Israel’s northern border as it continues to fight against Hamas in Gaza, but no breakthroughs appear to be on the horizon.

IDF says Jenin drone strike kills Islamic Jihad terrorist behind string of shootings-Yasser Hanoun struck in northern West Bank while ‘en route to carry out another attack,’ according to military; second operative also killed-By Emanuel Fabian Today, 9:42 amUpdated at 3:47 pm-FEB 23,24

The Israeli military carried out a drone strike against a vehicle in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday night targeting, according to security officials, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative on his way to carry out a terror attack.The target was identified by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency as Yasser Hanoun, a resident of Jenin, who was previously jailed by Israel for his involvement in Islamic Jihad activities.A local wing of Islamic Jihad in Jenin confirmed Hanoun was a member and was killed in the Thursday night strike. In a separate statement, Islamic Jihad said another member, Said Jaradat, was also killed in the strike.A joint statement from the IDF and Shin Bet said Hanoun was involved in a large number of shooting attacks in recent months — against IDF troops, army posts, Israeli settlements and towns over the Green Line.Recent attacks allegedly carried out by Hanoun included gunfire at the northern kibbutz of Meirav, the settlement of Mevo Dotan, as well as the Salem and Jalamah checkpoints.“The terrorist was eliminated while en route to carry out another shooting attack,” the IDF said.The Palestinian Authority health ministry said another 15 people were wounded in the strike on Hanoun’s vehicle in Jenin, including two in critical condition.The IDF has recently ramped up airstrikes in the West Bank, most of them amid counter-terrorism raids, carrying out more than 30 since the beginning of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.The Israeli military has also intensified its near-daily raids across the West Bank in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, in operations aimed at dismantling Palestinian terror groups such as Hamas.Since October 7, Israeli troops have arrested more than 3,200 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,350 affiliated with Hamas, according to security authorities.The Palestinian Authority health ministry says that more than 400 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that time.Based on military estimates, the vast majority of those killed since October 7 were shot during clashes amid arrest raids, and many of them, according to data seen by The Times of Israel, were armed with either a firearm or an explosive device.The IDF is aware of at least three cases of uninvolved Palestinians being killed by troops in recent months, and a handful of cases of settlers killing Palestinians, that are still under investigation.

Israel agrees to finally release American flour shipment for Gaza, says US official-Aid delivery expected to be distributed by World Food Program instead of UNRWA, after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blocked its transfer for more than a month-By Jacob Magid
Today, 9:14 am-FEB 23,24

Israel has agreed to a new arrangement that will allow for a massive American shipment of flour for Gazan civilians to move forward after far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blocked its transfer for over a month, a US official told The Times of Israel.Under the new arrangement, the flour, capable of feeding 1.5 million Gazans for five months, will be ferried into Gaza by the World Food Program rather than the UNRWA relief agency for Palestinian refugees, the official said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu privately informed the Biden administration that Israel approved the shipment in early January. The White House announced the development on January 19, as it came under increasing pressure to do more to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.But more than one month later, the flour has yet to enter Gaza.The shipment arrived at Israel’s Ashdod Port, but Smotrich blocked its transfer to UNRWA, which came under fire last month over allegations that 12 of its staffers participated in the October 7 terror onslaught.The delay has angered the Biden administration, which has repeatedly noted in recent weeks that Israel is violating the commitments it made to the president.With the new arrangement finalized, the shipment can move forward immediately, the US official said.However, even if the flour does make it to Gaza, it is unclear whether it will be distributed to civilians.Recent days have seen the distribution of humanitarian aid largely ground to a halt due to the refusal of Hamas police to secure the trucks delivering the assistance through Gaza because they have repeatedly come under Israeli fire.UN data and officials say the flow of aid entering Gaza from Egypt has almost dried up in the past two weeks, and a collapse in security has made it increasingly difficult to distribute the food that does get through. Israel meanwhile blamed the United Nations for the fall-off in deliveries and said it is prepared to speed up the clearance of aid.Inside Gaza, desperate residents have halted convoys to seize aid from trucks as footage has shown gunmen, believed to be members of Hamas, stealing trucks delivering aid from Egypt.After more than four months of a war that has demolished vast swaths of Gaza, displaced most of the territory’s population, and pushed people to the brink of starvation, Netanyahu has insisted the IDF must press ahead into Rafah for “complete victory” against Hamas.According to the UN, half of Gazans are at risk of starvation.The war erupted when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities on October 7, slaughtering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 253 hostages to the Strip, while committing brutal atrocities.More than 29,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in the ensuing Israeli offensive, according to figures by Hamas health authorities in the Strip. The figures cannot be independently verified, and Israel says they include at least 12,000 terror operatives, as well as those killed by failed rocket launches by terror groups.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Risking spat with US, Israel to advance thousands of settler homes after W. Bank attack-Smotrich says over 3,000 units will be green-lit in Ma’ale Adumim, Kedar, Efrat as ‘an appropriate Zionist response’ to deadly terror shooting, sure to anger US amid Gaza war
By Jacob Magid-Today, 1:15 am-FEB 23,24

Israel will advance plans for the construction of more than 3,000 settlement homes in response to a deadly terror shooting in the West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced late Thursday night.The move is almost certain to cause a rift with the Biden administration, which is already under massive domestic and international pressure over its support for Israel in the latter’s war against Hamas and has viewed Israeli settlement construction as a major impediment to an eventual two-state solution.Smotrich said in a statement that the decision to advance plans for 2,350 new housing units in Ma’ale Adumim, 300 in Kedar and 694 in Efrat was made during a meeting he held with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. It was the latest demonstration of the influence that the far-right minister holds in Netanyahu’s government, as the premier continues to rely on the support of his Orthodox coalition partners to remain in power.“May every terrorist planning to harm us know that lifting a finger against Israeli citizens will be met with a death blow and destruction in addition to the deepening of our eternal grip on the entire Land of Israel,” Smotrich said, calling the decision “an appropriate Zionist response.”An Israeli official said the High Planning Subcommittee — the Defense Ministry body under the auspices of Smotrich — will convene in the coming days to advance the settlement construction.Earlier Thursday, three Palestinian gunmen opened fire near a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement city of Ma’ale Adumim, killing an Israeli man and wounding 11 others.Far-right ministers reacted to a deadly West Bank terror attack with calls to impose increased restrictions on the Palestinians.They also pushed for new Israeli construction in the West Bank, as settler leaders often do in response to terror attacks. Some in the movement oppose the policy, though, arguing that it suggests that settlement construction is not as legitimate when it’s carried out irrespective of a terror attack.Netanyahu’s government has long infuriated the Biden administration over its policies in the West Bank. Last year’s approval of a record number of settlement homes and the expansion of Israel’s footprint in the West Bank led the US to summon Jerusalem’s ambassador in Washington for the first time in over a decade. Unchecked settler violence sparked first-of-their-kind sanctions against Israeli extremists, with additional such penalties slated to be announced in the coming weeks and months, US officials told The Times of Israel earlier this week.The officials said the Biden administration has also considered revoking the so-called Pompeo Doctrine, which deemed settlements “not per se inconsistent with international law.” The 2019 policy implemented by then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo overturned a 1978 memo by State Department legal adviser Herbert Hansell, which characterized settlements as illegal.One senior US official speculated on Tuesday — two days before Smotrich’s announcement — that the doctrine could be revoked if Israel takes a significant step to expand its footprint in the West Bank. Notably, Israel had avoided convening the High Planning Subcommittee since the war with Hamas broke out. It last met in June 2023, breaking a record in just six months for most homes advanced in a year — 12,349.In what may have been an attempt to soften the response from Washington, the three settlements that the top Israeli ministers earmarked for construction — Ma’ale Adumim, Efrat and Kedar — are all located west of the West Bank security barrier in areas perceived to enjoy more consensus Israeli support, as opposed to more isolated settlements dozens of kilometers east of the Green Line.

Hostage deal talks begin in Paris amid optimism for breakthrough-By Reuters-FEB 23,24

Gaza truce talks are underway in Paris on Friday, in what appears to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the fighting in the battered Palestinian enclave and see Israeli and foreign hostages released.A source briefed on the ceasefire talks, who could not be identified by name or nationality, says talks had begun with Israel’s head of Mossad intelligence service meeting separately with each party — Qatar, Egypt and the United States.“There are budding signs of optimism about being able to move forward toward the start of a serious negotiation,” the source says. Egypt’s Al Qahera TV News also reports that the talks had begun.An official from Hamas says the terror group has wrapped up ceasefire talks in Cairo and is now waiting to see what mediators bring back from the weekend talks with Israel.Mediators have ramped up efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, in the hope of heading off an Israeli assault on the Gaza city of Rafah where more than a million displaced people are sheltering at the southern edge of the enclave.Israel says it will attack the city if no truce agreement is reached soon. Washington has called on its close ally not to do so, warning of vast civilian casualties if an assault on the city goes ahead.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Blinken overturns Trump policy, says settlements ‘inconsistent with international law’By ToI Staff, Reuters and Jacob Magid-FEB 23,24

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken overturns policy set by the previous administration, saying Washington views settlements as “inconsistent with international law,” following an Israeli announcement that it plans to build 3,000 new housing units in settlements in the West Bank.Blinken thus effectively revokes the so-called Pompeo Doctrine, which deemed settlements “not per se inconsistent with international law.” The 2019 policy implemented by then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo overturned a 1978 memo by State Department legal adviser Herbert Hansell, which characterized settlements as illegal.The Biden administration had so far avoided contradicting that position.“New settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace,” Blinken says during a news conference in Buenos Aires.“They’re also inconsistent with international law. Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion. In our judgement this only weakens, it doesn’t strengthen, Israel’s security.”Announcing the plans for new settlement building Thursday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the decision “an appropriate Zionist response” to a shooting attack in the West Bank that day.Settlements are viewed by much of the international community as illegal under international law and a major impediment to an eventual two-state solution, which envisions a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

UK says four suspicious vessels spotted near Omani gas terminal-By Reuters and ToI Staff-FEB 23,24

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says that a vessel reported a “suspicious” sighting of three small craft and another large one approximately 175 nautical miles east of Oman’s Qalhat LNG terminal.The notice comes after the US said it struck two Houthi UAVs and four anti-ship cruise missiles that posed a threat to vessels in the Red Sea.UKMTO ADVISORY – INCIDENT 038-SIGHTING-2024 (https://t.co/5An1YH0JyE)#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/FwBUctBIHR— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) February 23, 2024.

LONG EXPLANATION OF AMERICAS DESTRUCTION (NEW YORK POLITICAL BABYLON OF REVELATION CHAPTER 18)(REVELATION CHAPTER 17 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIOUS BABYLON THE VATICAN IN ROME)

JEREMIAH 51:29-32

29  And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (NEW YORK) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30  The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
31  One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32  And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)

LEVITICUS 26:30-34 (NY IS BUILT ON A GARBAGE DUMP)
30  And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my (GODS) soul shall abhor you.
31  And I will make your cities waste,(GARBAGE-DESTROYED) and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
32  And I will bring the land into desolation:(RUIN) and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33  And I will scatter you among the heathen,(ENEMY NATIONS) and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
34  Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.

2 KINGS 19:25
25  Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

ISAIAH 34:10
10  It (NEW YORK-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

EZEKIEL 39:21
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

ISAIAH 18:1-2
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!(AMERICA)

JEREMIAH 50:11,37,12
11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage,(ISRAEL) because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;(BACKSLIDERS)
37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.(A NATION OF MINGLED PEOPLE)
12 Your mother (england) shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed:(MOTHER ENGLAND) behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

JEREMIAH 51:13,7,53
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
53 Though Babylon (NEW YORK) should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.

REVELATION 18:3,5,7
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(NEW YORK) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK ATTACK ON NEW YORK)

REVELATION 18:9-11,15-21
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,(NUKE ATTACK I BELIEVE FROM RUSSIA)
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas that great city,  (NEW YORK) that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! (NEW YORK)
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.(1 HOUR NEW YORK IS GONE)
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon (NEW YORK) be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

I BELIEVE THAT AT&T PHONE BLACKOUT YESTERDAY WAS FROM CHINA.SOMETHING TO DO WITH CHINAS UNDERGROUND COLLIDER.

Putin rides nuclear-capable bomber as relations with West take nosedive-Flight on modernized Cold War-era plane likely to be seen as reminder of Moscow’s nukes as Kremlin calls foul over Biden ‘SOB’ jibe-By Reuters 22 February 2024, 7:30PM

MOSCOW, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin flew on a modernized Tu-160M nuclear-capable strategic bomber on Thursday in a move likely to be seen in the West as a pointed reminder of Moscow’s nuclear capabilities.The giant swing-wing plane, codenamed “Blackjacks” by the military alliance NATO, is a modernized version of a Cold War-era bomber that the former Soviet Union would have deployed in the event of nuclear war to deliver weapons at long distances.State TV showed Putin clambering down a ladder from the plane after the half-hour flight and telling reporters it was a reliable and modernized aircraft that could be accepted by the Russian Air Force.“It’s a new machine, a lot about it is new. It’s easier to control. It’s reliable,” said Putin.Putin, who is expected to easily win another six-year term next month, made the flight at a time when Moscow and the West are at bitter odds over Russia’s war in Ukraine and the death in prison of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.Some Russian and US diplomats say they do not remember a time of worse relations between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, including during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.State TV showed the giant plane taking off from a runway belonging to the factory in Kazan which makes the modernized supersonic aircraft, with correspondent Pavel Zarubin excitedly calling it “a unique event.”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the plane’s flight path was a military secret, TASS state news agency reported.UKRAINE WAR || ???????? Vladimir Putin climbs aboard the new variant Tu-160M ​​strategic missile carrier at the aircraft plant in Kazan, Tatarstan. pic.twitter.com/yApA9jJF1n— Bloomberg Whistleblower (@bloombergblower) February 21, 2024-The Tu-160M, which has a crew of four, is capable of carrying 12 cruise missiles or 12 short-range nuclear missiles and can fly 12,000 km (7,500 miles) nonstop without refueling.Russia’s nuclear doctrine sets out the conditions under which a Russian president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or to the use of conventional weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the state is put under threat”.Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, has repeatedly warned of the risk of a nuclear conflict with the West since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022.But Putin, who is commander-in-chief of Russia’s armed forces, said in October that the existence of the Russian state was not under threat and that “no person of sound mind and clear memory would think of using nuclear weapons against Russia.”Putin, 71, flew in an older version of the aircraft in 2005 during a training exercise.Under a contract signed in 2018, 10 of the modernized Tu-160M nuclear bombers are meant to be delivered to the Russian Air Force at a cost of 15 billion roubles ($163 million) each between now and 2027.Later Thursday, Putin said he believed US President Joe Biden had called him a “crazy SOB” in reaction to a comment last week saying he would rather have Biden as president than Donald Trump.Putin agreed in response to a TV reporter’s question that Biden’s remark was “rude.”The US president made the “crazy SOB” remark as part of a sentence about threats to the world — including “that guy Putin and others,” the risk of nuclear conflict and the existential threat to humanity from climate change.“The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin,” Peskov told Reuters. “But it debases those who use such vocabulary.”Peskov said the remark was “probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy. But honestly, I don’t think it’s possible.”“Has Mr. Putin ever used one crude word to address you? This has never happened. Therefore, I think that such vocabulary debases America itself,” Peskov said, adding that such language was a disgrace for the United States.Others were less restrained.Medvedev, who served as president from 2008-2012, said the existential threat to the world came from “useless old geezers, like Biden himself.” He said Biden was “senile” and “ready to start a war with Russia”.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the next time Biden used the phrase “crazy son of a bitch” he should “try to remember that Americans associate it best with his own offspring, Hunter Biden.”Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets said “Biden insulted Putin” while Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said the Biden remark shows that the West was intensifying its attempt to demonize Putin ahead of the March election.

 AT&T says service has been restored after massive, nationwide outage. Authorities are investigating-Catherine Thorbecke Melissa Alonso Brian Fung-By Catherine Thorbecke, Melissa Alonso and Brian Fung, CNN-Updated 8:50 PM EST, Thu February 22, 2024

CNN  — AT&T’s network went down for many of its customers across the United States Thursday morning, leaving customers unable to place calls, text or access the internet.By a little after 3 pm ET, roughly 11 hours after reports of the outage first emerged, the company said that it had restored service to all impacted customers.“We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers. We sincerely apologize to them,” AT&T said in a statement. The company added that it is “taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.”Later on Thursday, AT&T said an “initial review” of the outage found it may have been caused by an error within the company and not a cyberattack.The Federal Communications Commission confirmed Thursday afternoon that it is investigating the outage. The White House says federal agencies are in touch with AT&T about network outages but that it doesn’t have all the answers yet on what exactly led to the interruptions.Although Verizon and T-Mobile customers reported some network outages, too, they appeared far less widespread. T-Mobile and Verizon said their networks were unaffected by AT&T’s service outage and customers reporting outages may have been unable to reach customers who use AT&T.What can you do if you have no service? If you’re an AT&T customer without access to phone, text or the internet, you can turn on Wi-Fi calling. If you have access to Wi-Fi, you should be able to call and send texts.Thursday morning, more than 74,000 AT&T customers reported outages on digital-service tracking site DownDetector, with service disruptions beginning around 4 am ET. That’s not a comprehensive number: It tracks only self-reported outages. Reports had been rising steadily throughout the morning but leveled off in the 9 am ET hour. By 12:30 pm ET, the DownDetector data showed some 25,000 AT&T customers still reporting outages. By 2 pm ET, fewer than 5,000 customers were still reporting issues.Earlier Thursday, AT&T acknowledged that it had a widespread outage but did not provide a reason for the system failure.“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them,” AT&T said in a statement at 11:15 am ET. “We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”To set up Wi-Fi calling, users can go to their Settings app on their phone. iPhone users should tap “Cellular” and Android users should click “Connection” and then users will be prompted to turn on the Wi-Fi calling feature. AT&T says on its website that there is no extra cost for this feature. Once set up, Wi-Fi calling works automatically when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network that you choose.By late morning, AT&T said most of its network was back online, and it confirmed Thursday afternoon that service was fully restored.AT&T’s stock fell more than 2% Thursday, a an outlier on a day when the market was rocketing higher.A faulty software update? AT&T has encountered sporadic outages over the past few days, including a temporary 911 outage in some parts of the southeastern United States. Although outages happen from time to time, nationwide, prolonged outages are exceedingly rare.On Thursday, the company said it believed the massive outage was caused by an internal issue.“Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” AT&T said in a statement on its website. “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve.”According to an industry source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the root of the outage appeared to be related to how cellular services hand off calls from one network to the next, a process known as peering.Though AT&T said the issue does not appear to be a cyber attack, a US cyber official tracking the AT&T outage told CNN on Thursday that they were investigating it.The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is “working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts, and stand[s] ready to offer any assistance needed,” Eric Goldstein, the agency’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, said in a statement to CNN.Carriers are notoriously mum about why their networks go down. In the past, there have been construction accidents that have cut fiberoptic cables, incidents of sabotage or network updates filled with bugs that became difficult to roll back.Outages often happen for mundane reasons, several telecom experts told CNN.Common causes include construction-related digging that punctures fiber optic cables and software misconfigurations that can lead to interruptions, said TJ Kennedy, a public safety communications expert.“I can’t think of every incident in the last few years, but I can think of things related to routers, things related to backhaul, things related to software,” Kennedy said. “This has happened across all major carriers, multiple times in the past few years alone.”Thursday’s outage could have been caused by human errors in AT&T’s cloud-based networking system, said Lee McKnight, an associate professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies.“The dirty secret of telecom networks these days is they are just a bunch of wires and towers connected to the cloud,” McKnight said. “Someone making a mistake, and others on their team — and their automated tools — not catching it, is quite common in cloud computing.”The FCC is investigating-The Federal Communications Commission confirmed Thursday afternoon that it is investigating the incident.“We are aware of the reported wireless outages, and our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is actively investigating,” the FCC said in a statement Thursday afternoon that was posted on X. “We are in touch with AT&T and public safety authorities, including FirstNet, as well as other providers”The FCC requires carriers to report information linked to network disruptions.Ahead of the news that the FCC was probing the outage, a former FCC official told CNN: “The carriers are required to report their outage numbers over time, and the commission can track the number of consumers and cell sites down and things like that.”Fines may be possible in connection with 911 outages, although they aren’t a certainty, said Blair Levin, a telecom policy analyst and another former FCC official.“The FCC cares a lot more about the inability to connect with 911 [than other types of calls],” said Levin. “It’s a more serious problem from the FCC’s perspective.”Telecom carriers have every reason to fix any outages quickly, said the first former FCC official, “because it creates black eyes for the brand.”“Everybody’s incentives are aligned,” the former official said. “The FCC is going to want to know what caused it so that lessons can be learned. And if they find malfeasance or bad actions or, just poor quality of oversight of the network, they have the latitude to act.”Local governments report outages-Several local governments said AT&T’s outage was disrupting their services.San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management said in a statement on X Thursday morning that its 911 center remained operational, but many AT&T customers were unable to reach the emergency line because of the outage. It suggested people call from a landline or find someone with a rival’s service to dial 911.“We are aware of an issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including to 911),” the department said in its post. “We are actively engaged and monitoring this.”The Fire Department in Upper Arlington, Ohio, said the AT&T outage was affecting its fire alarms. St. Joseph County, Michigan, advised residents to use Wi-Fi to place 911 calls if they can’t reach 911 on AT&T’s network. Cobb County, Georgia, said its 911 operations remained unaffected by the outage but noted customers may want to find alternate methods of reaching emergency services. Cabel County, West Virginia, said customers that couldn’t reach 911 could text to 911 as a last resort.New York Police Department officials told CNN that they were not able to make calls or utilize emails on AT&T phones Thursday morning unless they were connected to Wi-Fi.The Massachusetts State Police warned people not to test their phone service by placing 911 calls.“Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this,” the state police said in a post on X. “If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work.”Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, meanwhile, said the city is “actively gathering information to determine how the City of Atlanta can assist in resolving this issue,” in a statement posted on X. Dickens said Atlanta’s “e-911 is able to receive inbound and make outbound calls” and encouraged AT&T customers to direct inquiries to restore service to the company.An AT&T spokesman said the company’s FirstNet network has remained operational. FirstNet provides coverage for first responders and is advertised as a more robust network than the AT&T commercial network. It uses a mix of its own infrastructure plus AT&T’s broader network. Its customers include police and fire departments, as well as first responders during natural disasters.Verizon and T-Mobile say they’re unaffected-There also have been about 1,000 outages reported by both Verizon and T-Mobile customers Thursday morning, the DownDetector website indicates.“We did not experience an outage,” T-Mobile said in a statement. “Our network is operating normally.”Verizon had a similar comment, saying it was unaffected by AT&T’s outage.“Verizon’s network is operating normally,” Verizon told CNN in a statement. “Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation.”User reports on Downdetector about a T-Mobile outage, the company added, are “likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”Downdetector offers “real-time status information for over 12,000 services across 47 websites representing 47 countries,” the website says.This story has been updated with additional developments and context.CNN’s Caroll Alvarado, Sean Lyngaas, John Miller, Kevin Liptak and Samantha Delouya contributed to this report.

Hackers for sale: what we've learned from China's massive cyber leak-Beijing, Feb 23 (AFP) Feb 23, 2024

A massive data leak from Chinese cybersecurity firm I-Soon has offered a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Beijing-linked hackers.I-Soon is yet to confirm the leak is genuine and has not responded to a request for comment from AFP.As of Friday, the leaked data was removed from the online software repository GitHub, where it had been posted.Analysts say the leak is a treasure-trove of intel into the day-to-day operations of China's hacking programme, which the FBI says is the biggest of any country.From staff complaints about pay and office gossip to claims of hacking foreign governments, here are some of the key insights from the leaks:- Who got hacked? -Every day, workers at I-Soon were targeting big fish.Government agencies from China's neighbours, including Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia and Vietnam, had websites or email servers compromised, the leak revealed.There are long lists of targets, from British government departments to Thai ministries.I-Soon staff also boasted in leaked chats that they secured access to telecom service providers in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Thailand and Malaysia, among others.They named the government of India - a geopolitical rival of Beijing's -- as a key target for "infiltration".And they claimed to have secured back-end access to higher education institutions in Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.But they also admitted to having lost access to some of their data seized from government agencies in Myanmar and South Korea.Other targets are domestic, from China's northwestern region of Xinjiang to Tibet and from illegal pornography to gambling rings.- Who was paying them? -Judging from the leaks, most of I-Soon's customers were provincial or local police departments -- as well as province-level state security agencies responsible for protecting the Communist Party from perceived threats to its rule.The firm also offered clients help protecting their devices from hacking and securing their communications -- with many of their contracts are listed as "non-secret".There were references to official corruption: in one chat, salesmen discussed selling the company's products to police -- and planned to give kickbacks to those involved in the sale.There were also references to a client in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of grave human rights.But workers complained about the challenges of doing business in the tense region."Everyone thinks of Xinjiang like a nice big cake... but we have suffered too much there," one said.- What techniques were for sale? -In their chats, I-Soon staffers told colleagues their main focuses were making "trojan horses" -- malware disguised as legitimate software that allows hackers access to private data -- and building databases of personal information."At the moment, the trojan horses are mainly customised for Beijing's state security department," one said.It also laid out how the firm's hackers could access and take over a person's computer remotely, allowing them to execute commands and monitor what they type, known as keylogging.Other services included ways to breach Apple's iPhone and other smartphone operating systems, as well as custom hardware -- including a powerbank that can extract data from a device and send it to the hackers.In one screenshot of a conversation, someone describes a client request for exclusive access to the "foreign secretary's office, foreign ministry's ASEAN office, prime minister's office national intelligence agency" and other government departments of an unnamed country.One service offered is a tool that allows clients to break into accounts on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, claiming to be able to obtain the phone number of a user and break into their private messages.They also have a technique to bypass two-step authentication -- a common login technique that offers an extra level of security to the account.- Who are the hackers? -The leak also paints a less-than-flattering picture of the day-to-day goings-on at a mid-level Chinese cybersecurity firm.Chats are full of complaints about office politics, lack of basic tech expertise, poor pay and management, and the challenges the company faced in securing clients.Other screenshots showed arguments between an employee and a supervisor over salaries.And in another leaked chat, a staffer complained to their colleague that their boss had recently bought a car worth over a million yuan ($139,000) instead of giving their team a pay rise."Does the boss dream about being an emperor?"bur-oho/je/dhw

In a doughnut in Japan, unlocking the power of the Sun-Naka, Japan, Feb 22 (AFP)

Feb 22, 2024-With its tangle of pipes and pumps leading to a metal pot the size of a five-storey building, Japan's JT-60SA machine looks to the untrained eye like a contraption from 1970s sci-fi.But inside it is a doughnut-shaped vessel where experiments done at millions of degrees could help unlock a carbon-free, inexhaustible and safe power source for the future: nuclear fusion."Fusion energy, the power behind the Sun and the stars, has been a great prize for energy research for decades, ever since it was first attempted in the 1950s and 60s to find some way to reproduce this power of the Sun here on Earth," project leader Sam Davis told AFP on a recent tour."Not only is (fusion) free from greenhouse gases and free from long-lived nuclear waste, but it's compact, doesn't cover the whole landscape, and can generate industrially useful quantities of power," the British-German engineer said.Unlike fission, the technique currently used in nuclear power plants, fusion involves combining two atomic nuclei instead of splitting one, generating vast amounts of energy.The process is safe and there are no nasty by-products like fissile material for a nuclear weapon or hazardous radioactive waste that takes thousands of years to degrade, its proponents say.- Swirling plasma -Taking 15 years to build in Naka, northeast of Tokyo, the JT-60SA is 15.5 metres (51 feet) tall and 13.7 metres (45 feet) wide, comprising a so-called tokamak vessel able to contain swirling plasma heated to millions of degrees.Inside the facility, which was inaugurated in December, the aim is to get nuclei of hydrogen isotopes to fuse into an atom of helium, releasing energy, and mimicking the process that takes place inside the Sun and stars."With only one gram (0.04 ounces) of a mixed fuel... we can obtain an energy equivalent to eight tonnes of oil," said Takahiro Suzuki, deputy project manager for the Japan side of the joint project with the European Union.But despite decades of efforts, the technology remains in its infancy and is very expensive.Currently the largest such facility in operation, the JT-60SA is the little brother and guinea pig of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) being built in France.According to media reports, ITER -- a project run by six countries and the European Union -- is years behind schedule and could end up costing as much as 40 billion euros ($42.3 billion), far more than first projected.The holy grail of both projects, as well as others around the world, is to develop technology that releases more energy than is needed to fuel it -- and at a large scale and for a sustained period.The feat of "net energy gain" was managed in December 2022 at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, home to the world's largest laser.- 'Flash in a can' -But the US facility uses a different method from ITER and the JT-60SA known as inertial confinement fusion, in which high-energy lasers are directed simultaneously into a thimble-sized cylinder containing hydrogen."Magnetic confinement, and in particular, tokamaks, of the kind that JT-60SA is, are much more applicable to running a steady state power plant, to steady energy production as we would need," Davis said."This is not just a flash in a can."But with the world record set by China for heating plasma to the required temperature -- 120 million degrees Celsius (216 million degrees Fahrenheit) -- currently just 101 seconds, there is still a long path ahead."Nuclear fusion can certainly contribute to a future energy mix. Exactly on what timescale is very hard to say. It will come down ultimately to how much is invested in the field (and) how much society wants to pursue this as a solution," Davis said.

Published: 19 August 2016-China, Japan, CERN: Who will host the next LHC? Elizabeth Gibney-Nature volume 536, pages 383–384 (2016)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 06 September 2016-This article has been updated-Labs are vying to build ever-bigger colliders against a backdrop of uncertainty about how particle physicists will make the next big discoveries.It was a triumph for particle physics — and many were keen for a piece of the action. The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 using the world’s largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), prompted a pitch from Japanese scientists to host its successor. The machine would build on the LHC’s success by measuring the properties of the Higgs boson and other known, or soon-to-be-discovered, particles in exquisite detail.But the next steps for particle physics now seem less certain, as discussions at the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP) in Chicago on 8 August suggest. Much hinges on whether the LHC unearths phenomena that fall outside the standard model of particle physics — something that it has not yet done but on which physicists are still counting — and whether China’s plans to build an LHC successor move forward.When Japanese scientists proposed hosting the International Linear Collider (ILC), a group of international scientists had already drafted its design. The ILC would collide electrons and positrons along a 31-kilometre-long track, in contrast to the 27-kilometre-long LHC, which collides protons in a circular track that is based at Europe’s particle-physics laboratory, CERN (See 'World of colliders').Because protons are composite particles made of quarks, collisions create a mess of debris. The ILC's particles, by contrast, are fundamental and so provide the cleaner collisions more suited to precision measurements, which could reveal deviations from expected behaviour that point to physics beyond the standard model.Higgs study-For physicists, the opportunity to carry out detailed study of the Higgs boson and the heaviest, ‘top’ quark, the second most recently discovered particle, is reason enough to build the facility. Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) was expected to make a call on whether to host the project — which could begin experiments around 2030 — in 2016. But the Japanese panel advising MEXT indicated last year that opportunities to study the Higgs boson and the top quark would not on their own justify building the ILC, and that it would wait until the end of the LHC's first maximum-energy run – scheduled for 2018 – before making a decision.That means the panel is not yet convinced by the argument that the ILC should be built irrespective of what the LHC finds, says Masanori Yamauchi, director-general of Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba who sat on an ICHEP panel at a session on future facilities. “That’s the statement hidden under their statement,” he says.If the LHC discovers new phenomena, these would be further fodder for ILC study — and would strengthen the case for building the high precision machine.US physicists have long backed building a linear collider. And a joint MEXT and US Department of Energy group is discussing ways to reduce the ILC’s costs, says Yamauchi, which are now estimated at US$10 billion. A reduction of around 15% is feasible — but Japan will need funding commitments from other countries before it formally agrees to host, he added.Chinese competitor-Snapping at Japan’s heels is a Chinese team. In the months after the Higgs discovery, a team of physicists led by Wang Yifang, director of the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing, floated a plan to host a collider in the 2030s, also partially funded by the international community and focused on precision measurements of the Higgs and other particles.Circular rather than linear, this 50–100-kilometre-long electron–positron smasher would not reach the energies of the ILC. But it would require the creation of a tunnel that could allow a proton–proton collider — similar to the LHC, but much bigger — to be built at a hugely reduced cost.Wang and his team this year secured around 35 million yuan (US$5 million) in funding from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology to continue research and development for the project, Wang told the ICHEP session. Last month, China’s National Development and Reform Commission turned down a further request from the team for 800 million yuan, but other funding routes remain open, Wang said, and the team now plans to focus on raising international interest in the project.By affirming worldwide interest in Higgs physics, the Chinese proposal bolsters Japan’s case for building the ILC, says Yamauchi. But if it goes ahead, it could drain international funding from the ILC and put its future on shakier ground. “It may have a negative impact,” he says.Super-LHC-In the future, the option to use China's electron–positron collider as the basis for a giant proton–proton collider could interfere with CERN’s own plans for a 100-kilometre-circumference circular machine that would smash protons together at more than 7 times the energy of the LHC. Until the mid-2030s, CERN will be busy with an upgrade that will raise the intensity — but not the energy — of the LHC’s proton beam. And by that time, China might have a suitable tunnel that could make it harder to get backing for this ‘super-LHC’.At ICHEP, Fabiola Gianotti, CERN’s director-general, floated an interim idea: souping up the energy of the LHC beyond its current design by installing a new generation of superconducting magnets by around 2035. This would provide a relatively modest boost in energy — from 14 teraelectronvolts (TeV) to 28 TeV — that would have a strong science case if the LHC finds new physics at 14 TeV, said Gianotti. Its $5-billion price tag could be paid for out of CERN’s regular budget.For decades, successive facilities have found particles predicted by the standard model, and neither the LHC nor any of its proposed successors is guaranteed to find new physics. Questions asked at the ICHEP session revealed some soul-searching among attendees, including a plea to reassure young high-energy physicists about the future of the field and contemplation of whether money would be better spent on other approaches rather than ever-bigger accelerators.Indeed, the US is betting on neutrinos, fundamental particles that could reveal physics beyond the standard model, not colliders. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, hopes to become the world capital of neutrino physics by hosting the $1-billion Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, which will beam neutrinos to a range of detectors starting in 2026. Funding will require approval from US Congress in 2017. But at the ICHEP session, Fermilab director Nigel Lockyer was confident: “We are beyond the point of no return. It is happening.” Change history-02 September 2016-This story should have said that souping up the current LHC would take it to an energy of 28 TeV, not 20 TeV. The text has now been corrected.

China plans super collider-Elizabeth Gibney-Nature volume 511, pages 394–395 (2014)Cite this article-JULY 22,14

Proposals for two accelerators could see country become collider capital of the world.The 27-kilometre Large Hadron Collider at CERN could soon be overtaken as the world’s largest particle smasher by a proposed Chinese machine. Credit: Martial Trezzini/epa/Corbis
For decades, Europe and the United States have led the way when it comes to high-energy particle colliders. But a proposal by China that is quietly gathering momentum has raised the possibility that the country could soon position itself at the forefront of particle physics.Social sciences suffer from severe publication bias Ebola virus mutating rapidly as it spreads Scientific advice: Crisis counsellors-Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing, working with international collaborators, are planning to build a ‘Higgs factory’ by 2028 — a 52-kilometre underground ring that would smash together electrons and positrons. Collisions of these fundamental particles would allow the Higgs boson to be studied with greater precision than at the much smaller Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.Physicists say that the proposed US$3-billion machine is within technological grasp and is considered conservative in scope and cost. But China hopes that it would also be a stepping stone to a next-generation collider — a super proton–proton collider — in the same tunnel.European and US teams have both shown interest in building their own super collider (see Nature 503, 177; 2013), but the huge amount of research needed before such a machine could be built means that the earliest date either can aim for is 2035. China would like to build its electron–positron collider in the meantime, unaided by international funding if needs be, and follow it up as fast as technologically possible with the super proton collider. Because only one super collider is likely to be built, China’s momentum puts it firmly in the driving seat.Speaking this month at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Valencia, Spain, IHEP director Yifang Wang said that, to secure government support, China wanted to work towards a more immediate goal than a super collider by 2035. “You can’t just talk about a project which is 20 years from now,” he said.Electron–positron colliders and hadron colliders such as the LHC complement each other. Hadron colliders are sledgehammers, smashing together protons (a kind of hadron that comprises three fundamental particles called quarks) at high energies to see what emerges. Lower-energy electron–positron machines produce cleaner collisions that are easier to analyse, because they are already smashing together fundamental particles. By examining in detail the interactions of the Higgs boson with other particles, the proposed Chinese collider should, for example, be able to detect whether the Higgs is a simple particle or something more exotic. This would help physicists to work out whether the particle fits with predictions made by the standard model of particle physics, or whether, for example, multiple types of Higgs boson exist.The machine would be a big leap for China. The country’s biggest current collider is just 240 metres in circumference. Ten years ago, Chinese particle physicists would have doubted their ability to host a 52-kilometre machine, says Ian Shipsey an experimental physicist at the University of Oxford, UK. But after several successes in collider and neutrino experiments, including showing in 2012 how neutrinos change from one form to another, China now has “the confidence, for the first time, to propose an ambitious new machine”, says Shipsey.The Chinese government is yet to agree on any funding, but growing economic confidence in the country has led its scientists to believe that the political climate is ripe, says Nick Walker, an accelerator physicist at DESY, Germany’s high-energy physics laboratory in Hamburg. Although some technical issues remain, such as keeping down the power demands of an energy-hungry ring, none are major, he adds.But China is still a long way from collider dominance. Its main weakness is that its high-energy-physics community is small, says Guido Tonelli, a particle physicist and former head of one of the two major experiments at CERN. If China is to eventually host a super collider, the project will have to be international, he adds. “Nobody would be able to do that alone.”Wang says that China would welcome international funding contributions for both projects, and that if there is a lot of support the ring size could be expanded to 80 kilometres, increasing the scientific scope (see ‘Collision course’). But he adds that the country will not wait for collaborators before pressing ahead. The next two years will be spent sketching out a design and establishing what technical difficulties need to be ironed out. Detailed design, budget and location plans will follow, and construction could begin in as little as five years, adds Wang.But because, realistically, only one super collider will ever be built, says Shipsey, “the world will have to work together to locate it in the best place” for it to happen as quickly as possible. He believes that, in the next five years, the Chinese plans will produce positive competition between China, the United States and Europe, maximizing the chances of a single contender emerging.There is a final complication. Plans are well under way for an International Linear Collider (ILC), an electron–positron linear accelerator that could operate at much higher energies than China’s proposed 52-kilometre electron–positron ring. Physicists are strongly behind the project, but it is yet to secure funding or a host country, says Brian Foster, who leads the European ILC design team. He fears that the Chinese plans could dampen support for the project.Japan has shown a strong interest in hosting the ILC, but has not “got a stranglehold” on the project, says Foster. He suggests that China could step in, and argues that because the ILC has a wider energy range than a ring collider, the linear accelerator could do more than study the Higgs: it could explore other poorly understood particles, such as the top quark, and any other phenomena that the LHC might discover.

Israel’s GPS warfare aims to keep its own drones flying and enemies baffled-Local start-up has been supplying the military with means to handle Hamas GPS jamming; the country has also apparently been working to confuse opponents’ navigation systems
By AFP and ToI Staff Today, 5:46 pm-FEB 23,24

Omer Sharar had just received the first delivery of his new GPS anti-jamming technology when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7.Since then, he and his team at InfiniDome, a start-up based in Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, have been working around the clock to prevent the army’s mini-drones from being intercepted by cheap and simple jamming in Gaza.Israel — one of the world’s main exporters of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — has for years waged a drone war along its borders, allowing it to monitor or target its enemies remotely with large, sophisticated airborne platforms.During the war in Gaza, however, much smaller and cheaper drones, operated in far higher numbers, have come to the fore.In recent years, Hamas has developed its own arsenal of low-cost mini-drones equipped with explosive charges.On October 7, the terror group put these devices to use, evading detection and interception to drop bomblets on military observation posts along the security barrier around the Gaza Strip as part of its unprecedented attack that triggered the war with Israel.The attack saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and take 253 hostages of all ages.Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a massive airstrike and ground campaign on the Gaza Strip, destroying about half of its residences and displacing over a million people.According to the Strip’s Hamas-controlled health ministry, the offensive has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians. The figure, which cannot be independently verified, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, of whom the terror group claims to have lost some 6,000. Israel says it has killed at least 12,000 terror operatives.While Israel continues to use larger UAVs to observe the Palestinian territory — with artificial intelligence suggesting targets to soldiers on the ground — its troops have also been supplied with mini surveillance drones.These fly at very low altitude and are capable of entering buildings and tunnels to determine whether they are safe for soldiers.Devices that use satellite navigation systems, such as the US-government owned Global Positioning System (GPS), function by receiving signals from multiple satellites orbiting the Earth and using them to calculate a precise location.But the signal is weaker the closer it is to the ground, making it easy and cheap to jam with more powerful signals, leaving any GPS-reliant drones helpless.Hamas operatives have been doing just that, prompting Israeli soldiers to secure their mini-UAVs with InfiniDome’s GPSdome2 technology, which first came out in March 2023.“We started delivering it to a couple of customers, but actually our first real production batch came more or less in September,” Sharar told AFP.In one sense, it was “perfect timing,” with employees deployed as part of Israel’s response to the October 7 attack, he said.“A third of us got drafted immediately to reserve forces because we have UAV operators here. We have officers working in the company,” he said.Chief executive Sharar and the company’s chief technical officer were not among them, but set themselves to work as part of the war effort.“We started doing final testing and packing up GPSdome2 and we started distributing them,” he added.As well as defending its own GPS use, Israel has taken measures to disrupt the GPS of Hamas and other opponents.The specialist site gpsjam.org, which compiles geolocation signal disruption data based on aircraft data reports, reported a low level of disruption around Gaza on October 7.But the next day, disturbances increased around the coastal enclave and also along the border between Israel and Lebanon in the north.The Israeli army said in the following days that it disrupted GPS “in a proactive manner for various operational needs.” It warned of “various and temporary effects on location-based applications.”One AFP journalist on Abraham Lincoln Street in Jerusalem, for example, appeared as being in Nasr City, Cairo, on Google Maps. Another, in the West Bank city of Jenin, was listed as being at Beirut Airport on the navigation app Waze.Todd E. Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas in Austin track GPS signals in the Middle East and discovered an odd trend after October 7: the brief disappearance on screens of planes approaching Israel.That was attributed to spoofing, whereby GPS data is manipulated to deliberately mislead a GPS receiver about its actual location.“Our data are taken from satellites in low Earth orbit. Israel appears to be engaging in GPS spoofing as a defensive measure,” Humphreys told AFP.“The false GPS signals fool receivers in the area around northern Israel into thinking that they are at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport.”The war in Gaza has reignited tensions along Israel’s border with Lebanon. There have been near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire between the army and Hezbollah terrorists backed by Israel’s number one enemy, Iran.Hezbollah has superior military capabilities to Hamas, including more sophisticated drones and precision missiles that can reach as far as the southern tip of Israel, its leader Hassan Nasrallah has said.Sharar and his team have been learning every day from the war in Gaza, but they have their eyes firmly fixed on Lebanon, which, he said, “potentially might be a lot more explosive.”

DARPA Launches BLUE Program to Power Ocean Sensors with Marine Biomass-by Clarence Oxford-Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 16, 2024

In a groundbreaking initiative that could redefine how marine sensors are powered, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has introduced the BioLogical Underwater Energy (BLUE) program. This ambitious project explores the potential of marine biomass-ranging from dissolved organic matter and phytoplankton to zooplankton and even microplastics-as a sustainable energy source for ocean-deployed sensors.Ocean-deployed sensors, including seabed-mounted profiling systems, play a pivotal role in national security, the study of marine environments, and climate monitoring. These devices measure critical data such as water temperature, salinity, and flow patterns. Traditionally powered by batteries, these systems face limitations due to the finite energy densities of batteries, leading to operational constraints and the need for periodic maintenance.Dr. Leonard Tender, the program manager for BLUE, highlighted the innovative approach of the initiative. "It is our hypothesis that the energy requirements of many ocean-deployed systems can be met by developing an onboard device that converts marine biomass into simple fuels, which are then converted into operational power," said Tender. This approach seeks to provide a persistent, sustainable, and environmentally friendly power supply to remote sensor systems, potentially offering ultralong endurance and high payload capacity.The 30-month BLUE program will kick off with performers focusing on the characterization of microscopic marine biomass that can be utilized to generate electrical power. The initiative will also delve into identifying key environmental features to best meet program goals and leveraging biology to develop the process for converting the input materials to electrical power. Strategies for the capture and mass transport of biomass through conversion to enable up to one year of continuous power generation will be developed. A comprehensive ecological and environmental impact analysis will be conducted to ensure the system's safety.Ensuring the project aligns with ethical, legal, and societal implications is also a priority for DARPA. BLUE performers will engage with U.S. government and defense stakeholders, as well as appropriate regulatory authorities, to ensure safety and efficacy. "Achieving battery-level power persistently and while fully submerged would be a game changer," Tender added, emphasizing the program's potential impact.A Broad Agency Announcement solicitation with all program details and instructions for submitting proposals is currently available on SAM.gov. This announcement invites interested parties to contribute to a program that stands to revolutionize energy solutions for marine applications, highlighting DARPA's commitment to innovation and environmental sustainability.The BLUE program's success could significantly enhance the capabilities and endurance of ocean-deployed sensors, marking a significant advancement in the fields of national security, marine science, and environmental monitoring. By harnessing the power of marine biomass, DARPA is not only addressing the energy limitations of current marine sensors but also paving the way for a future where sustainable energy sources are integral to technological advancement and environmental stewardship.

Op-edA Rubicon may just have been crossed-Who rules the UK, parliament or the mob? Intimidation over Gaza threatens British democracy-There were a number of troubling things about Wednesday night’s debate on a Gaza ceasefire in the House of Commons – but most alarming is the fear for MPs’ safety-By Robert Philpot-Today, 4:55 pm-FEB 23,24

LONDON — Wednesday night’s debate on Gaza in Britain’s House of Commons did not show the “mother of parliaments” at its best.Parliament is often at its best in moments of crisis and war. Foreign policy debates, where domestic politics stop at the water’s edge, are usually freer of partisan rancor and political point-scoring.But something went very wrong on Wednesday. Amid unprecedented chaos and uproar, MPs wrangled bitterly over arcane matters of parliamentary procedure. As the vote neared, the famous green benches emptied and MPs from the governing Conservative Party and the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) — for once, allies against the main opposition Labour Party — walked out of the chamber in protest.The domestic fallout is continuing with the position of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, apparently under threat.While radio phone-in programs provided an opportunity for members of the public to vent their fury at MPs’ “playground politics,” the reality is potentially far worse: that all the noise and fury was a reflection of the intimidation that parliamentarians are coming under from Islamist and far-left elements of the pro-Palestinian movement.It’s undeniable that party politics played heavily into Wednesday’s proceedings.In November, the left-wing, anti-Israel SNP caused Labour leader Keir Starmer a political headache by putting forth a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Starmer, who has adopted a pro-Israel line and avoided such calls, suffered a parliamentary revolt as more than 50 of his MPs rebelled — some losing their shadow ministerial roles — and, defying the party whip, backed the SNP.Using one of its allotted parliamentary days, the SNP was determined to repeat the gambit this week.Rather than attempting to seek consensus, its motion appeared designed to cause division and maximum discomfort for Labour. With the briefest of nods to the need for Hamas to release the Israelis it seized on October 7, the motion called for an immediate ceasefire and lambasted the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”As the SNP well knew, there was no way Starmer — who, polls show, is likely to become Britain’s prime minister at a general election expected this autumn — would authorize his MPs to back such a one-sided call. Many Labour MPs — some reports suggest up to 100 — would have rebelled to back the motion, so desperate are they to show they support a ceasefire. For the SNP, this was a potential win-win. It wouldn’t just have provoked a nasty split in Labour’s ranks — it would also have allowed the SNP to tell left-leaning Scottish voters that the Labour leadership are pseudo-Tories who oppose a ceasefire.The SNP, which runs the devolved Scottish government and holds most of Scotland’s seats in the Westminster parliament, is engaged in a political dogfight north of the border. Labour, which ruled the roost in Scotland before the failed 2014 independence referendum, is determined to rebuild its once-impregnable bastion and is making steady progress. If the polls tighten, it’ll need Scottish seats to form the next UK government. The SNP is thus happy to reach for any issue — including matters of life and death thousands of miles from Britain — with which to batter Starmer and present him as hopelessly right-wing.Cacophony of voices-Things got so messy on Wednesday because both Labour and the Conservative-led government opted to raise their own amendments to the SNP motion. Substantively, there was barely a hair’s breadth between the two amendments.Labour’s amendment spoke of an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and an “immediate stop to the fighting,” but it carefully caveated that. Not only must Hamas release the hostages, but any ceasefire must be “observed by all sides,” Labour said. “Israel cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence,” and Israelis have “the right to the assurance that the horror of October 7 cannot happen again.”The government’s amendment, which condemned the “slaughter, abuse and gender-based violence” of October 7 and backed “Israel’s right to self-defense,” spoke of “an immediate humanitarian pause” and “moves towards a permanent sustainable ceasefire.”As the House of Commons’ top officials warned Hoyle, “long-established conventions” mandate that the Speaker should only have selected the SNP and government motions for a debate and vote — not Labour’s. But Hoyle broke that convention and opted to allow all three motions to come before the House.Unusually, Hoyle — a Labour MP before he was elected by MPs to the non-partisan role — met with Starmer shortly before making his decision.There have been allegations — strenuously denied by the Labour leader — that he put undue pressure on Hoyle, even threatening that the party wouldn’t support him remaining as Speaker if it wins the next election. Instead, Starmer says, he simply asked Hoyle to ensure that “the broadest possible debate” took place.Whatever happened, Hoyle’s decision to allow the Labour motion to come up for a vote infuriated both the government and the SNP. Ministers announced they were pulling their amendment and sitting out the vote; the SNP and Tory MPs staged walkouts and demanded the Speaker appear before the House to explain himself.Ironically, the upshot was that, amid all the chaos, the Labour motion went through on a nod. Such votes aren’t binding on the government and are largely symbolic. Moreover, the government will be well aware that if they hadn’t pulled their amendment in protest, the Tories’ majority would likely have enabled it to pass.Safety first? Starmer undoubtedly had a strong political interest in ensuring his MPs got the chance to vote for the Labour amendment.But what appears to have swayed the Speaker’s decision were warnings from Labour that its MPs feared for their safety and that of their families if they couldn’t register publicly that they had voted for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”Indeed, when he apologized to the House on Thursday for making a decision which, he admitted, had been a “mistake,” Hoyle explicitly referenced this. “I won’t share the details, but the details of the things that have been brought to me are absolutely frightening on all members of this House, on all sides,” he said. “I have a duty of care… and if my mistake is looking after members, I am guilty.”Hoyle is a straight arrow; fundamentally decent and well-regarded on all sides of the House. As one senior Conservative MP — who disagreed with Hoyle’s decision — said, the Speaker is “obsessed” with the safety of MPs and their staff.He is right to be. For all the public’s gripes about politicians in general, many hold their own MP in high regard. That has much to do with their accessibility. Only the most senior members of the government have police protection. That accessibility has come with a heavy price tag. Twice in the past eight years, MPs have been brutally murdered as they went about their constituency duties. A young female Labour MP, Jo Cox, was shot dead by a right-wing extremist in 2016, while the much-liked Tory MP David Amess was stabbed to death by an Islamist terrorist in 2021 as he met constituents at an advice surgery.The political strife over Brexit increased concerns around MPs’ security. Female MPs appear to have been a particular target for misogynists, especially on social media. And the antisemitism scandal in the Labour Party under its former hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn left a number of his critics, including Jewish Labour MPs Ruth Smeeth and Luciana Berger, in need of extra security.Ramped up potential for violence-But the war between Israel and Hamas has heightened the risk to MPs to new levels. From the outset, part of the pro-Palestinian movement has been aggressive, uncompromising and vitriolic towards those who fail to toe its line.As if to prove the point, demonstrators outside parliament on Wednesday night called for intifada, praised the Houthis, and projected the words “From the river to the sea” onto Big Ben.HAPPENING NOW-Chaos inside and outside Parliament. While Parliament debates outside demonstrators make it clear that there's is a movement of war not peace.Screams for "Intifada" and support for Yemen attacking unarmed vessels at sea pic.twitter.com/whhqd0mgy1— Harry's Place (@hurryupharry) February 21, 2024-Referencing his visit last week to the country, one Jewish Tory MP, Andrew Percy, told the House of Commons on Thursday that he “felt safer in Israel than I do in this country at this moment in time.”“For months I’ve been standing up here talking about the people on our streets demanding death to Jews, demanding Jihad, demanding intifadas as the police stand by and allow that to happen,” he said. “This is going to continue happening because we’re not dealing with it.”Over recent weeks, MPs who have failed to support a ceasefire have been subjected to what one termed “vile abuse”; their offices have been attacked; and their family homes have been surrounded by demonstrators. Even as MPs were debating Gaza on Wednesday, protesters “stormed” the constituency office of Labour members of the Scottish parliament in Glasgow following a demonstration called by the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee.Some MPs, understandably, are calling it a day. Mike Freer, the pro-Israel Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green in North London, announced last month he was standing down at the next election. His constituency office was set alight in an arson attack in December, and he’s been subject to “serious threats” for several years.Sadly, as one target leaves the scene, another emerges. Within hours of his victory in a special election last week, pro-Palestinian activists began to focus on Labour MP Damien Egan. Egan, who converted to Judaism in 2018, is married to Yossi Felberbaum, an Israeli who has served in the IDF.Whatever their differences, senior Labour and the Conservatives MPs are deeply concerned about the threats and intimidation.They also agree that a Rubicon may have been crossed on Wednesday.“Members of Parliament now feel that they have to vote in a certain way in order to safeguard their safety and that of their family,” Tory MP Sir Charles Walker said during the debate. “That is a far bigger issue than the debate we are having tonight because if people are changing their votes or their behavior in this place because they are frightened of what may happen to them or their family out there, we have a real problem.”Gaza may be the flashpoint, but for Britons of all parties, a wider question — one which goes to the heart of the country’s centuries-old constitution — is at stake.As David Wolfson, a Conservative member of the House of Lords, suggested in response to Wednesday night’s debate: “So the Speaker took his exceptional decision because of real threats to the safety of MPs, their families and staff. The old rule is proved yet again: what starts with the Jews, never ends with the Jews. Perhaps we can now, finally, stand up to those who threaten our democracy.”

Michigan Arab leaders warn Biden campaign in trouble over handling of Gaza war-Democrats hope to avoid embarrassment of ‘uncommitted’ vote in party’s primary next week, as American Arabs demand pressure for a ceasefire in the Strip
By AP and ToI Staff Today, 6:37 pm-FEB 23,24

MICHIGAN — As Thursday dawned in Dearborn, Michigan, Arab American leaders entered a local coffee shop and greeted Rep. Ro Khanna of California before pulling up chairs at a table.Over the next two hours, the leaders spoke about how they were personally affected by the war in Gaza and criticized US President Joe Biden over the growing number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli offensive after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. Khanna, a Biden campaign surrogate who organized the meeting independently, listened intently.It was a rare unfiltered conversation between two sides that have grown further apart. And after a day of meetings, it seemed unlikely that the two sides could come back together unless the administration changes course on a ceasefire in Gaza, which both the White House and Israel oppose.While Biden is expected to cruise to victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, the president’s allies are also looking to stave off potential embarrassment from a statewide push for Michigan Democrats to vote “uncommitted.” Michigan’s Arab American community has largely refused to meet with anyone connected to Biden in recent weeks, and many leaders — including Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib — have pushed for an “uncommitted” to send a message about Biden’s handling of the war.Khanna, who has also called for a ceasefire, was not visiting Michigan on behalf of the campaign.He argues Democrats don’t need to wait until Tuesday’s primary to see that Biden’s reelection campaign is in trouble in a battleground state he almost certainly can’t afford to lose in November.“I’ll feel the same way on Monday that I do Wednesday,” Khanna said. “We need to change course, and we need to do it quickly.”Biden has backed Israel since the October 7 attack, in which Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 253. He has pushed Congress to fund additional weapons and aid for Israel as it mounts an offensive to capture Hamas operatives and rescue Israeli hostages.The White House has also publicly signaled its disagreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on issues such as a two-state solution, which Biden supports even as Netanyahu and many in his far-right governing coalition oppose it, and on the number of civilians killed in Gaza.The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza claims that more than close to 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the war, but the number cannot be independently verified, and it is believed to include both Hamas terrorists and civilians, some of whom were killed as a consequence of the terror group’s own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 12,000 terror operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 who were killed inside Israel on and immediately following October 7.In a statement, Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said that Biden “is working closely and proudly with leaders in the” Muslim and Arab American communities “to listen to them about a wide range of issues.”“He has urged Israel to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties,” Moussa said. “He has also successfully pressed for humanitarian aid to be delivered in Gaza.”Khanna invited an Associated Press reporter to join some of his meetings in Michigan.First was a breakfast with former Rep. Andy Levin, who joked Thursday that his new job title is “local activist.” Levin is a self-proclaimed Zionist and former synagogue president who has called for a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians. Levin lost a Democratic primary two years ago to fellow Rep. Haley Stevens, with over $4 million spent by pro-Israel groups against him.Levin relayed that he doesn’t see how Biden “can win Michigan without changing course.”“What do you think would happen if the election was tomorrow?” asked Khanna.“It would be a disaster for Democrats,” Levin responded.The former Democratic congressman supports Michigan Democrats voting “uncommitted” in the upcoming primary, saying that “if everyone just sat home, we’d have no way to measure it.” Many leaders in the “uncommitted” push have been clear that they want to send a message, but that they don’t plan to support Trump’s reelection bid.Leaders from the Arab-American community soon arrived to join Levin and Khanna. Among them were leaders from the Muslim advocacy group Emgage Action and Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad I. Turfe.When asked by Khanna what policy changes they’d like to see, Turfe — a prominent local leader — said that a ceasefire in the war is only a start and that humanitarian aid and the rebuilding of Gaza must follow. Resuming funding to the main United Nations agency supporting people in Gaza, known as UNRWA, is also a requirement of the communities. Multiple countries, including the US, froze their funding for the organization after Israel accused certain UNRWA members of taking part in the October 7 attacks. Following the accusation, the organization announced that it had fired several members.Michigan’s Arab American leaders depict an unprecedented unity within their community. In the past divided by issues like book bans and LGBTQ rights, the Gaza conflict has brought solidarity among Palestinians, Lebanese, Yemenis and others in a state that holds the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation.“We’re in an emotional state, which drives this passion,” said Turfe. “But address the changes we want, and those emotions will come down.”Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, is joined at left by Rep. Nydia Velazquez as she speaks at an event to call for a ceasefire by Israel in Gaza, at the Capitol in Washington, December 14, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)During a drive from Dearborn to an event in Ann Arbor, Khanna told The Associated Press that he was struck by how “deeply personal” the issue was to the community and how “raw the anger is.”“This is not electoral for this community. It’s emotional and personal,” said Khanna. “No shift in campaign language can fix this, only policy change.”Khanna hosted a ceasefire town hall with Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell and University of Michigan students Thursday afternoon. Students spent close to an hour questioning Khanna’s stance on the war, his support of Biden and how to address voter apathy, especially among young voters on campus.Later on Thursday, Khanna sat next to Tlaib at a UAW hall in Dearborn filled with residents from across Detroit’s Wayne County. While the “Take Back Our Power” event focused on decreasing the political influence of utility companies, Tlaib’s speech shared distinct similarities to her push for voters to send a message to Democrats on Tuesday.“Transformative change doesn’t come with who’s in Congress, who’s in the establishments, organizations and institutions,” Tlaib said. “It comes from the streets.”

WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week:(7 YEARS) and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

 1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
 
ISAIAH 33:8
8  The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)

JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20  And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22  And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went
to enquire of the LORD.
23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24  And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)

Knesset votes resoundingly against unilateral Palestinian state recognition-99 MKs back adoption of symbolic declaration championed by PM; despite voting in favor, Lapid calls measure a distraction, says unilateral recognition not a threat
By Reuters, Sam Sokol-and ToI Staff 22 February 2024, 1:08 am

The Knesset voted on Wednesday to back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration opposing any “unilateral” recognition of a Palestinian state, as international calls grow for the revival of efforts to reach a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict.Issued amid the war in Gaza between Israel and the Hamas terror group, the symbolic declaration also received backing from members of the opposition, with 99 of 120 lawmakers voting in support, the Knesset spokesperson said.The Israeli position says that any permanent accord with the Palestinians must be reached through direct negotiations between the sides and not by international dictates.“The Knesset came together in an overwhelming majority against the attempt to impose on us the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would not only fail to bring peace but would endanger the State of Israel,” said Netanyahu.Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, who voted for the resolution, told lawmakers that despite his support he does not believe that there was any intent on the American side to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.“As you know, my connections with the Americans are better than yours, so I checked. There’s no such thing. You invented a threat that doesn’t exist. What are we talking about? There is not one official in the world that suggested unilateral recognition of the Palestinians,” he said.Lapid characterized the debate as a distraction so the Knesset would not discuss contentious legislation backed by the government.The vote drew condemnation from the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry, which accused Israel of holding the rights of the Palestinian people hostage by controlling territories where Palestinians seek to establish a state.“The ministry reaffirms that the State of Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations and its recognition by other nations does not require permission from Netanyahu,” it said in a statement.Netanyahu brought the vote to the Knesset in the wake of reports that the US and several Arab partners were preparing a detailed plan for a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians that includes a “firm timeline” for a Palestinian state.A cabinet motion Sunday characterized such a move as a “reward to terrorism” in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 massacre of southern communities, which sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew later downplayed talk of such a move by the Biden administration, instead calling for an “over-the-horizon process that includes a vision for a demilitarized Palestinian state.“Now is a moment in time when there is a real possibility that by engaging in normalization and negotiations with Saudi Arabia” along with reforms in the Palestinian Authority, “there can be a demilitarized Palestinian state. But Israel will have to make that choice,” Lew said.Netanyahu has in the past spoken out against the creation of a Palestinian state and others have also pushed back against comments from Washington and elsewhere suggesting that talks on ending fighting in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s brutal rampage through southern Israel on October 7 be used to jumpstart long-moribund efforts to reach a two-state solution.While some international actors believe the violence only underlines the need for a peace deal, Israeli leaders argue the attack highlighted the extreme danger of an autonomous Palestinian entity near its population centers. And amid soaring support for Hamas among Palestinians in the wake of the atrocities, there appears to be little appetite in the Israeli public for peace efforts.

PM: IDF to indefinitely maintain freedom to operate in Gaza-Netanyahu presents post-war plan to cabinet, aims for ‘local officials’ to govern Gaza-‘Day after Hamas’ paper sees Egypt cooperation to end smuggling; Arab countries funding reconstruction; no unilateral Palestinian state; no UNRWA; Gaza ‘de-radicalized,’ demilitarized-By Jacob Magid-Today, 4:59 am-FEB 23,24

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the security cabinet with a document of principles regarding the management of Gaza after the war on Thursday night, aiming to install “local officials” unaffiliated with terrorism to administer services in the Strip instead of Hamas.The subsequently publicized document, a one-pager entitled “The Day After Hamas” released overnight in Israel, is largely a collection of principles the premier has been vocalizing since the beginning of the war, but it is the first time they have formally been presented to the cabinet for approval.For over four months, Netanyahu has held off holding security cabinet discussions regarding the so-called “day after” the war, fearing this could lead to fractures in his mainly right-wing coalition. Some of his far-right ministers aim to use such meetings to push for the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza and the permanent Israeli control of the Strip — policies the premier says he opposes and would surely lead to the dissipation of Israel’s remaining support in the West.Netanyahu has sufficed with saying that he will not allow the Palestinian Authority to return to govern Gaza. He has sometimes qualified this assertion by saying that Israel won’t allow the PA in its current form to return to the Palestinian enclave, indicating that Israel could live with a reformed PA of the kind that the Biden administration has been pushing. Other times, though, Netanyahu has given a more blanket rejection of allowing Gaza to become “Fatahstan” — referring to the political party headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.Notably, the document of principles Netanyahu presented to security cabinet ministers at Thursday night’s meeting does not specifically name the PA or rule out its participation in the post-war governance of Gaza.Instead, it says that civil affairs in Gaza will be run by “local officials” who have “administrative experience” and who are not tied to “countries or entities that support terrorism.”The language is vague, but it could rule out groups that receive funding from Qatar and Iran — as Hamas does — or possibly the PA, whose welfare program includes payments to convicted terrorists and their families.A statement from Netanyahu’s office said the document is based on principles broadly accepted by the public and that it will serve as the basis for future discussions regarding the post-war management of Gaza.The plan begins by stipulating a principle for the immediate term: The IDF will continue the war until achieving its goals, which are the destruction of the military capabilities and governmental infrastructure of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the return of the hostages abducted on October 7, and the removal of any security threat from Gaza Strip long-term.The IDF will maintain an indefinite freedom to operate throughout the entire Strip to prevent the resurgence of terror activity, the document says, describing this as an intermediate-term principle.The plan states that Israel will move forward with its already-in-motion project to establish a security buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Strip’s border, adding that it will remain in place “as long as there is a security need for it.”This plan is directly at odds with one of the Biden administration’s own principles for post-war Gaza, which states that there will be no reduction in the enclave’s territory.The document presented by Netanyahu also offers the most concrete details to date regarding Israel’s plans for the Egyptian-Gaza border, which has been plagued by smuggling both above and below ground. It states that Israel will enforce a “southern closure” on the border to prevent the revival of terror activity.The closure will be upheld with assistance from the US and in cooperation with Egypt “as much as possible,” the document states, in an apparent acknowledgment of Cairo’s disapproval of the plan due to the ostensible violation of its sovereignty.Cairo has pushed back against Israeli calls to take over control over the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border but privately has indicated more flexibility, US and Arab diplomats have told The Times of Israel. Both the US and Egypt, however, are less likely to cooperate with such plans that are not part of a broader initiative aimed at creating a pathway toward an eventual Palestinian state — something Netanyahu rejects.The document added that the “southern closure will be made up of measures aimed at preventing smuggling from Egypt — both underground and above ground, including at the Rafah crossing.”Also in the intermediate stage, Israel will maintain security control “over the entire area west of Jordan,” from the land, air and sea “to prevent the strengthening of terrorist elements in the [West Bank] and the Gaza Strip and to thwart threats from them towards Israel,” the document states.Netanyahu’s plan envisions Gaza’s “complete demilitarization… beyond what is required for the needs of maintaining public order.” It adds that Israel will be responsible for realizing this goal for the foreseeable future, potentially leaving the door open for other forces to finish the job down the line.In addition to the “local officials” whom Netanyahu envisions being responsible for public order and for providing civil services, the document adds that Israel will also promote a “de-radicalization plan… in all religious, educational and welfare institutions in Gaza.”This too will be advanced “as much as possible with the involvement and assistance of Arab countries that have experience in promoting de-radicalization.”This line appears to be a nod at Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but both have repeatedly made clear that they will not play any role in the rehabilitation of Gaza unless it is part of a framework aimed at an eventual two-state solution.Analysts have also expressed heavy skepticism of Netanyahu’s goal to anoint unaffiliated Palestinian clan leaders, noting the likelihood that any Palestinian community leaders seen openly and unilaterally cooperating with Israel will quickly be delegitimized and possibly find their lives at risk. They say a similar effort was advanced by the United States after it invaded Iraq two decades ago only to backfire.Accordingly, the international community is pushing for the PA to eventually govern Gaza, given that it already has some of the infrastructure in place to do so. Its legitimacy among Palestinians is lacking, but the stakeholders are hoping that this will change after it institutes a series of reforms.An Israeli official revealed earlier Thursday that this aspect of the plan is already being advanced, and argued that the PA should not be included in post-war governance, noting its failure to condemn the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists went on a murderous rampage across southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking 253 hostages.Another key aspect of Netanyahu’s document of principles is the shuttering of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. The document notes the alleged involvement of 12 UNRWA staffers in the October 7 onslaught and says Israel will work to replace the agency with “responsible international aid organizations.In the short term, however, a senior Israeli official briefing The Times of Israel last month said that Jerusalem opposes UNRWA’s immediate dissolution. The official explained that UNRWA currently is the main aid distribution organization on the ground and that its shuttering risks a humanitarian catastrophe that could force Israel to cease its fighting against Hamas.Notably, the document clarified that Israel will only allow the reconstruction of Gaza to begin after the completion of the Strip’s de-militarization and the commencement of the “de-radicalization process.”“The rehabilitation plan will be financed and led by countries acceptable to Israel,” the document states, again coming at odds with many of the countries seen as potential donors, who demand that Gaza’s reconstruction be in tandem to a political horizon for the Palestinians.Netanyahu’s plan concludes by reiterating a pair of principles adopted earlier this week by both the cabinet and the Knesset: that Israel outright rejects any international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians, which should only be reached through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions; and that Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, which it views as a “reward for terror.”

US CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/money-and-payments-20220120.pdf

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.(IN 1 HR THE STOCK MARKETS WORLDWIDE WILL CRASH)
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed:(CONFISCATED) their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

MARK OF THE BEAST (engraved microchip in your hand or forehead)

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, (SLAVE) to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

REVELATION 16:1-2
1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

I KNOW THIS MARK WILL BE A MICROCHIP IMPLANT UNDER THE SKIN. LETS LOOK UP WHAT THE WORD MARK SAYS IN REVELATION 13:16-18, 14:9,11, 15:2, 16:2, 19:20, 20:4-ALL THESE VERSES FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION SPEAK OF THIS DICTATORS MARK. NOW LETS SEE WHAT IT MEANS FROM STRONGS EXAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE OF THE BIBLE. UNDER MARK PAGE 684.MARK UNDER MARK. THE OLD TESTAMENT IS UNDER HEBREW AND THE NEW TESTAMENT IS UNDER GREEK. SO WHEN WE LOOK UNDER REVELATION 13:16-17 WE SEE IT IS UNDER GREEK, SO WE GO TO GREEK IN THE BACK SECTION AND GO TO 5480 TO SEE WHAT IT SAYS THIS MARK WOULD BE. SO LETS GET TO IT.MARK IN STRONGS GREEK 5480 XAPAYUA CHARAGMA, KHAR-AG-MAH: FROM THE SAME AS 5482: A SCRATCH OR ETCHING, I.E STAMP (AS A BADGE OF SERVITUDE), OR SCULPTURED FIGURE-(STATUE):-GRAVEN, MARK FROM 5482 XAPAE CHARAX, KHAR-AX; FROM XAPAOOW CHARASSO (TO SHARPEN TO A POINT; AKIN TO 1125 THROUGH THE IDEA OF SCRATCHING); A STAKE, I.E (BYIMPL.) A PALISADE OR RAMPART (MILITARY MOUND FOR CIRCUMVALLATION IN A SIEGE): - TRENCH FROM 1125 YPAPOE GRAPHO, GRAF-0; A PRIM. VERB; TO "GRAVE", ESPEC. TO WRITE; FIG. TO DESCRIBE:-DESCRIBE, WRITE (-ING, -TEN).G5516-GO TO G4742-666 - STRONGS NT 4742: στίγμα - στίγμα, στιγματος, τό (from στίζω to prick; (cf. Latinstimulus, etc.; German stechen, English stick, sting, etc.; Curtius, § 226)), a mark pricked in or branded upon the body. According to ancient oriental usage, slaves and soldiers bore the name or stamp of their master or commander branded or pricked (cut) into their bodies to indicate what master or general they belonged to, and there were even some devotees who stamped themselves in this way with the token of their gods (cf. Deyling, Observations, iii., p. 423ff); hence, τά στίγματα τοῦ (κυρίου so Rec.) Ἰησοῦ, the marks of (the Lord) Jesus, which Paul in Galatians 6:17 says he bears branded on his body, are the traces left there by the perils, hardships, imprisonments, scourgings, endured by him for the cause of Christ, and which mark him as Christ's faithful and approved votary, servant, soldier (see Lightfoots Commentary on Galatians, the passage cited). (Herodotus 7, 233; Aristotle, Aelian, Plutarch, Lcian, others.)

THE INVENTOR OF THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT-CARL SANDERS MICROCHIP ENGINEER LEADER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgH9D6n4ZWo

THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT IN YOUR RIGHT HAND OR FOREHEAD.

LEVETICUS 19.28
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

Biometric payment cards launching in Japan, Turkey-Idex and Kona plan Japanese market entry-Feb 22, 2024, 1:48 pm EST-| Chris Burt

Biometric payment cards and access cards from Idex Biometrics and South Korean-headquartered Kona I are coming to Japan.Credit card fraud is spiking in Japan, with a 30 percent year-over-year increase, leading to greater interest from banks in biometric cards as well as metal cards, according to the announcement. Kona I and Idex will also work together on biometric access control and payment cards for government, public and private sector entities.The partners say their fingerprint smart card platform provides end-to-end authentication compatible with the FIDO2 protocol.Kona I has an annual production capacity of more than 60 million cards, and the Japanese market is expected to make up 30 percent of its business by 2025. Japan has a high penetration rate for contactless payments, and credit cards are the leading cashless payment method in the country. The cashless payment market in Japan is growing at an 8 percent CAGR towards an expected $870 billion value by 2028.The biometric cards from Kona I are expected to become available during the second half of 2024.“The partnership with IDEX Biometrics enables us to react to the fast-growing demand for biometric smart cards in Japan,” says Koichiro Sasai, head of KONA Japan LLC as a subsidiary of KONA I. “We are proud to offer bank customers in Japan the most innovative access and payment solutions. There is a very strong demand from affluent customer who seek the highest security and unparalleled value and user experiences, as offered by biometric metal cards.”Idex and Kona struck a deal to provide the former’s Pay platform for recycled PVC and metal cards in October.Turkish bank issuing biometric payment cards ‘shortly’Biometric payment cards are also being introduced in Turkey by Garanti BBVA, which has announced the Bonus Platinum Biometric Card.Garanti’s Turkish customers can apply for a biometric payment card through online and mobile channels, the BonusFlaş app, brank branches or by phone.The bank has a long-standing partnership to issue Mastercards, and says its new biometric cards “will be available shortly.”“We have adopted biometric payment authentication as one of the cornerstones of our security infrastructure, as it is considered the global standard for secure verification,” Mastercard General Manager for Türkiye and Azerbaijan Avşar Gürdal says. “By investing in biometric solutions, we are not only addressing the evolving security challenges of the digital age, but also improving the payment experience, making it safer, faster and more convenient for everyone.”Garanti established its bona fides as an early biometrics adopter when it introduced iris biometrics for mobile authentication in 2019.Idex signed a deal last year to provide biometric payment cards to a Turkish regional bank during the first half of 2023.

World Bank reportedly considering $321M DPI project for Jordan-Feb 22, 2024, 2:26 pm EST-| Ayang Macdonald

The World Bank is reported to be working on a project to support the development of Jordan’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) ecosystem as the country looks forward to digitizing all government services by 2025.Jordan News reports, citing Al-Mamlaka TV, that the project, designed on three principal pilers, seeks to build on the country’s digital ID program by supporting its digital transformation efforts through the digitization of government services.The pillars are service delivery, government efficiency and transparency and accountability.The project, those familiar with it say, also intends to digitize and simplify service delivery in other important domains including healthcare, education and the financial industry.The outlet mentions the World Bank plan is still in the works, and the amount to be disbursed is likely to total $549 million.Once the project is implemented – reportedly over a period of four years — it is expected that it will also create a scenario in which data sharing among government institutions and agencies, and even with private sector verifying entities, will be facilitated. Jordan also has a partnership with Japan on the development of DPI.The awaited project is in line with Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision (EMV), through the National Strategy for Digital Transformation and its Implementation Plan, which aims to enliven the country’s economy through a digital transformation drive that includes the building of digital identity, digital payments and data sharing platforms.Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Jordan, Bisher Khasawneh, and World Bank Group President Ajay Banga recently held discussions related to the Bretton Woods institution’s support for the country in this regard.Among other issues, they discussed support for reforms on a wide range of issues including boosting government efficiency and transparency and accountability as outlined in the EMV, Aran News reports.Jordan had planned to issue one million digital IDs by the end of 2023, as part of a goal to issue 3.5 million by 2025. IrisGuard’s biometric technology is used in the activation of digital IDs in the country.

Scientists recreate fingerprints from the sound of swiping on a touchscreen-Feb 23, 2024, 11:44 am EST-| Masha Borak

Hackers may have a new way of obtaining your biometric data – by secretly listening in to the sound of your finger swiping on your smartphone.A team of scientists from China and the United States say they have devised a side-channel attack on minutiae-based automatic fingerprint identification systems (AFISs) which allows them to extract fingerprint patterns from the sound of friction produced by swiping on a touchscreen. Side channel attacks exploit information that is inadvertently leaked by a system.The researchers have named the new attack PrintListener. They claim that the new attack method could increase the efficiency of MasterPrints, ringing alarm bells for the security of fingerprint authentication.MasterPrints are synthetic fingerprints designed to be generic enough to match a large number of fingerprints and fool a biometric system. PatternMasterPrints works similarly but it also adds information from the patterns of an individual user swiping a screen, increasing the chance of matching with a real fingerprint.PrintListener uses algorithms to process the audio signal of the sound of friction of a finger swiping through a screen, which has unique biometric characteristics. This is then used to synthesize PatternMasterPrints.Attackers could potentially obtain these audio signals with the help of malware while users engage with social apps, such as gaming through Discord or making calls through Apple FaceTime or Skype.“After eavesdropping on the user’s finger friction sound through a social network, PrintListener generates a specialized PatternMasterprint sequence specifically designed for the user’s fingerprint,” the team writes in their paper.The team has also performed real-world experiments showing that PrintListener can attack up to 26.5 percent of partial fingerprints and 9.3 percent of complete fingerprints within five attempts at the highest security FAR setting of 0.01 percent. This far exceeds the attack potency of MasterPrint, they note.The paper was authored by researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, Beijing’s Tsinghua University and the University of Colorado Denver. The research will be presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) 2024, taking place from 26 February to 1 March 2024 in San Diego, California.

UK updates guidelines for Right to Work digital identity checks-Biometrics best for background checks says US study-Feb 19, 2024, 5:00 pm EST-| Masha Borak

The UK government has updated guidelines for employers for Right to Work digital identity checks, clarifying details on using digital identity service providers (IDSPs).Since April 2022, IDSPs have been allowed to offer additional checks aside from the standard checks for passports and some ID cards held by British and Irish workers. One of the main difficulties of this arrangement, however, was that employers had no protection, explains Shara Pledger, senior associate at Pinsent Masons law firm.The new guidelines, issued last Friday, reiterated that employers can encounter risks if using IDSPs for other documents.“The most recent Home Office guidance reiterates earlier clarification that other than where IDSPs are used expressly for right-to-work checks of British or Irish citizens with a valid passport or Irish passport card, it is not possible to establish a statutory excuse against liability for a civil penalty if the manual document-based check, or online service right to work check, is performed by an IDSP,” says Pledger.-Right to Work is part of an identity check program under the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) which also includes Right to Rent and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) initiatives. Employers have been using digital identity service providers (IDSPs) for pre-employment checks and to help minimize fraud.The guidelines also bring increased penalties for hiring illegal workers and introduce additional new steps when checking different worker categories, including when hiring sponsored workers for so-called “supplementary work.”Biometric data best for background checks-Background check services used by employers and landlords are full of inaccuracies and mistakes and may unfairly limit access to employment and housing, a new study has shown. Its authors say that the best solution may be using biometric data.The study was authored by researchers from the University of Maryland and Rutgers University and published in the Criminology journal in February.The researchers enrolled 101 study participants in New Jersey to examine the accuracy of both commercial and public-use background check services. The researchers ordered background checks from both unregulated and regulated providers, such as “people search” websites. They then compared the data to official records linked to the study participant’s names and fingerprints.The results showed that the vast majority of the study participants, about 90 percent had at least one false-negative error, meaning that criminal records or case depositions were not recorded or incomplete. More than half of the study participants had at least one false positive error with the background check resulting in incorrect data, explains University of Maryland Assistant Professor Robert Stewart.“There’s a common, taken-for-granted assumption that background checks are an accurate reflection of a person’s criminal record, but our findings show that’s not necessarily the case,” says Stewart. “My co-author and I found that there are lots of inaccuracies and mistakes in background checks caused, in part, by imperfect data aggregation techniques that rely on names and birth dates rather than unique identifiers like fingerprints.”Alongside Associate Professor Sarah Lageson of Rutgers University, Stewart examined the reasons behind such a large number of mistakes in commercial background check services. Among them were mismatched, incorrect and incomplete criminal records but also misspelled names, wrong birth dates or confused aliases.Stewart says that the results could violate fairness in access to employment and housing, noting that the industry may be ripe for reform.“It may be better for background checks to be done through the state, or the FBI, or through other ways that use biometric data,” he says. “It’s important for people to realize that there’s a lot at stake.”

The law is not keeping up with AI deepfake fraud, and it will only get worse-Onfido reports huge spike in deepfake attacks, as governments race against new potential threats-Feb 23, 2024, 12:37 pm EST-| Joel R. McConvey

Joe Biden deepfake robocalls, Taylor Swift deepfake porn, the launch of Sora: the past few weeks have seen progressively disruptive spikes in the prevalence of the generative algorithmic tools collectively known as AI. With rapid acceleration comes agitation, and anxious regulators are cobbling together policy as fast as they can. In the EU and the UK some laws are already in place, or close. And North American legislators are on a fast break toward regulation. Still, given the speed at which things are progressing, it may not be fast enough.Discussions about the societal impact of AI deepfakes have always been laced with alarm, but recent weeks have seen the discourse enter firmly into “don’t say we didn’t warn you” territory. Biometrics and digital ID providers, lawmakers and hundreds of experts from diverse fields are waving a big flag that says deepfake tech is outpacing efforts to regulate it and control its use for malicious purposes, and the time to address the problem was yesterday.Onfido sees 3000% rise in deepfakes for fraudulent onboarding-In a blog for Onfido, Aled Owen, the digital identity firm’s director of global policy, says that while deepfake pornographic images of celebrities have raised alarm bells, existing and developing legislation needs to cast a wider net.“While many politicians and regulators are considering their next steps to tackle deepfakes, legislation must go a step further than only addressing explicit images,” Owen writes. His list of threats that need legislative consideration includes the spread of misinformation, especially in the context of elections; and the larger erosion of trust in reality.“Some experts predict that up to 90 percent of online content could be synthetically generated within a few years,” he says, warning against a tiered reality in which uncertified information becomes a fire that feeds itself. ​​Even certification, he argues, won’t help to parse the difference between a real video of a politician making an offensive comment, which they want to keep under wraps, and a deepfake doing the same. Or if grandma calls asking for $500, how do you juggle distrust sown by audio deepfakes with the chance that she really needs help? Digital identity fraud and scams are the third major issue Owen encourages lawmakers to pay attention to. Biometric deepfakes are being used to open illegitimate bank accounts, scam employees and let fraudsters pose as family members, friends or colleagues in need. “At Onfido, we’ve seen a 3,000 percent increase in deepfakes as part of fraudulent account onboarding attempts,” Owen says.This is a problem that is going to affect everyone.States push laws to address porn-Governments know this, even if the mechanisms of policy are not fluid enough to adapt to such rapid evolution of the technology. Lawmakers in Minnesota, Kentucky and Georgia are pushing laws that target deepfakes and generative AI. There are the expected objections from privacy rights groups. But with the lag in action to combat a threat that grows by the day, legislators largely agree with Minnestoa State Representative Zack Stephenson, who told the state legislature that “deepfakes are here, people are doing them, and we need to be very real about how we address them.”Under Minnesota’s bill HF3625, candidates convicted of deepfake crimes would have to forfeit their nomination or office. Kentucky’s Senate Bill 131 is a scramble aimed at deepfakes, but applied only to political parties, campaigns, and candidates; in a report from NPR affiliate WUKY, dissenting Senator Gex Williams says “it will absolutely, positively, not keep any of us at any time from being subject to deepfakes in our campaigns.” Georgia’s Senate Bill 392 makes it a felony, classed as election interference, to create deepfake audiovisual content intended to influence the outcome of an election; the penalty includes steep fines and prison time. The panicked sponsor of the bill, Senator John Albers, warns that “this is real-time. This is going to happen in this election cycle as we have never seen it before.”Per an article in Atlanta Civic Circle, which cites Axios, “as of Feb. 7, there were 407 total AI-related bills before more than 40 state legislatures, up from 67 bills a year ago.”Open letter calls deepfakes “huge threat to human society”In each of the states listed above, the deepfake Biden robocall incident in New Hampshire was a prompt to consider exactly what is at stake in controlling this technology. But the aftershocks have resonated far beyond the halls of government. Verdict reports on an open letter signed by more than 300 experts from technology, artificial intelligence, digital ethics, child safety, entertainment, and academia, among other fields, which voices support for ongoing legislative efforts and “provides key recommendations to hold the entire deepfake supply chain accountable.”“The need for biometric rights becomes ever more apparent as we see how easily your likeness can be taken and transformed for nefarious uses,” says Dr. Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, and a signatory to the letter. Andrew Critch, a UC Berkeley researcher and lead author of the letter, is even more urgent: “Deepfakes are a huge threat to human society and are already causing growing harm to individuals, communities, and the functioning of democracy. We need immediate action to combat the proliferation of deepfakes.”“We’re in the midst of a technological arms race between deepfake creators and deepfake detectors,” says Onfido’s Aled Owen. “Robust deepfake detection technology will be crucial to implementing effective legislation. To this end, regulation not only needs to protect victims, but must allow for innovation and the right data flows, aligned with data protection law, to allow for the development of cutting-edge AI deepfake detection solutions.”

Kuwaitis urged to complete mandatory biometrics registration by June-Feb 23, 2024, 12:26 pm EST- Masha Borak

Kuwaitis have been given three months to complete mandatory fingerprinting for the country’s central biometric database.The final countdown for registering the biometric data starts on March 1st and will continue until June 1st. After that deadline, citizens and residents who fail to complete the registration will face a suspension of all transactions with Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior, the agency warned in a statement on Twitter.The initiative is a part of Kuwait’s efforts to modernize security and improve access to public services with the help of a planned digital identity. Authorities have been rushing to complete the fingerprinting by installing biometric scanners at malls and opening new registration centers.The country reached a milestone in August 2023, with over one million residents submitting their biometrics. Biometric data collection has also been made mandatory for all people entering the country.To complete the task by June, fingerprinting centers have been opened on all border crossings, Kuwait International Airport, and designated commercial complexes, according to Khaleej Times. Kuwaitis can also book an appointment through Sahel, an application that provides services from government agencies.

US pols want a voluntary patient-record matching standard-Feb 23, 2024, 12:30 pm EST- Jim Nash

A toothless bill that would create a minimum rate for digital patient records has been proposed in the lower house of the U.S. Congress.If passed, the White House would have to define what patient record matching means and set a standard of 99.9 percent. Matching patients with their digital records to such a high degree of accuracy would likely mean issuing digital identities. The regulation would cover health care providers, software developers and health care IT organizations.The legislation is called the Patient Matching and Transparency in Certified Health IT Act, or Match IT. But it would be a voluntary standard and results would be confidential.It also would not require anyone covered by the act to actually meet the 99.9 percent minimum.Bill sponsors wrote the document focused on demographic data, which, when mismatched reportedly can have serious health repercussions for patients. In drafting a definition (in collaboration with the private sector), it would seem likely that biometrics would be considered for a standard dataset.The finished product would be entered into the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability.The government would have up to 245 months after a standard is set to “incorporate and adopt” it.Reps. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Bill Foster, an Illinois Democrat, introduced the bill.“This bipartisan legislation works to improve interoperability between health care systems and decrease these fixable matching errors,” Kelly said in a statement.Foster has long been one of the most outspoken advocates for digital ID in Congress.

ID-Pal makes headway in U.S. IDV market with partnerships and plaudits-Feb 23, 2024, 10:53 am EST- Joel R. McConvey

ID-Pal’s 2023 launch in the U.S. market has led to several significant deals for the compliance-focused ID verification company, as it continues to expand its transatlantic operations. A report in the Irish Examiner says ID-Pal’s success is based on its novel combination of biometric, document and database checks to verify identities in real-time, with built-in data protection compliance.The Dublin-headquartered SaaS firm has secured partnerships with financial service providers including Spirit of Alaska Credit Union and the lending and the CreditSnap lending and deposit account platform. Its developing network of financial partners is testament to the challenge financial companies face in balancing compliance, fraud prevention and user experience. ID-Pal promises minimal friction in its identity verification process for AML and KYC compliance, while providing “a robust audit trail.”It has been less than a year since ID-Pal launched in the U.S. and secured a Series A funding round for its off-the-shelf KYB, KYC and AML digital identity software based on selfie biometrics. But it has gained solid traction in that time, working with the support of Enterprise Ireland to develop a network of strategic partners that includes Salesforce, Corporate One and Melissa, and mining a market stream that now represents 15 percent of ID-Pal’s revenue – fully half of the 30 percent generated in the UK.The firm has also received industry accolades for its services, nabbing the award for best KYC tool at the RegTech Insight Awards USA 2023 for its cloud-based biometrics platform’s nimble navigation of U.S. compliance regulations in the financial services industry.“ID-Pal is committed to driving innovation in the RegTech sector, particularly in KYC compliance, and helping businesses succeed in an ever-changing regulatory landscape,” says ID-Pal Chief Business Officer James O’Toole. “We are grateful to our clients and partners for their trust in us.”“The standard of security, fast deployment and digital transformation we provide sets us apart,” says ID-Pal CEO Colum Lyons. “We work with industry leaders from across 30 sectors, which is evidence that our technology-first approach to identity verification makes it simple, secure, and convenient for any organization.”ID-Pal claims to handle 6,000 identity documents and 200 verified address data sources in 200 countries and jurisdictions. In 2023, ID-Pal made Fintech Global’s CyberTech100, following its inclusion on the RegTech100 for 2023 and AIFinTech 100 in 2022.

Biometric sensors that can be papered on a wall? It would seem so-Feb 23, 2024, 9:58 am EST- Jim Nash

Metamaterials are being applied to biometrics and the results are likely to include surveillance and ID verification systems that are cheaper, more efficient and stealthier than anything on the market.Metamaterials are those devised to operate in ways that seem to mock physical laws. Assembled into devices, they typically deal with waves – such as seismic, acoustic and electromagnetic.Electromagnetic waves are being experimented with in Taiwanese labs to create surveillance systems that are startling in how they operate and what they can do.First, a metamaterials do not need lenses. In this experiment, a so-called metasurface was used to scan the face of a polished stone bust in three dimensions.The researchers projected 45,700 infrared dots from a metasurface that measured 297 µm. That is 1.43 times more lens-projected dots than an iPhone can create. It’s also 233 times smaller than an iPhone sensor.And the device used five to 10 times less electrical power than the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays used in high-speed networking.The biometric surveillance boom was made possible by better chip design and cheaper manufacturing. It is likely to become an almost unrecognizable industry if virtually any solid surface can be a sensor with a small investment.

Passport and digital ID card scandal unravels in Pakistan-Feb 22, 2024, 2:04 pm EST-| Ghulam Shabir Arain

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has conducted a secret operation that involved giving Afghan individuals fake passports from Pakistan, in a revelation reported by ARY News. The high-ranking officials of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and the Passport Immigration Office are involved in the scandal, which has shocked the country.The FIA registered two cases against 98 individuals, and 16 of the offenders who issued false passports and Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) were taken into custody. The complex network of betrayal and corruption at the center of this scandal is being investigated by the FIA.The Pakistani government declared in October 2023 that it would detain and remove hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrant nationals, including Rohingya people from Myanmar, Uyghurs from China, and Afghan refugees. This decision, which was scheduled to go into effect on November 1, 2023, had a particular impact on the 1.7 million or so Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, many of whom had escaped persecution and violence in their own country. These refugees, some of whom had spent decades living in Pakistan, were in danger of being forcibly evacuated, which would have left them homeless and without a means of support. Additionally, there are worries about the safety of marginalized communities in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, including the Hazara Shia community and religious minorities.Arrests unveil network of corruption and collusion-Following major advancements in its investigation, the FIA has managed to arrest sixteen individuals, including seven officers from Passport Immigration and NADRA. The fact that four NADRA personnel and three Assistant Directors from Passport Immigration are among the detainees exposes the corruption of these organizations. Five employees illegally issued Pakistani national ID cards to non-natives, according to an investigation conducted in conjunction with the FIA and NADRA. Under Sections 28 and 29 of the NADRA Ordinance 2000, the results have been sent to the FIA’s Anti-Corruption Circle for potential legal action.Uncovering the operational tactics-Operating on a global scale, the criminal group was responsible for providing Afghan citizens with fake passports from Pakistan. Illicit activities commenced in 2019 or 2020, beginning in the NADRA Mega Center Blue Area of Islamabad. The accused registered Afghan people in their family trees and obtained biometric information from Ehsaas program workers illegally. The integrity of Pakistan’s passport system has been damaged by this misuse of official channels for private benefit, which also poses a serious risk to national security. Travel agencies and politicians were implicated in a fraud that made it possible for people to pay to travel with the Pakistani contingent.The collateral damage and path to justice-Beyond the boundaries of bureaucratic corruption, this scandal has far-reaching effects. The illegitimate purchase of Pakistani passports and CNICs by non-citizens has resulted in the accumulation of money and property, leading to significant inflation and destabilizing the real estate market.The FIA says it is not stopping at any obstacles in its pursuit of justice as the inquiry progresses. The stakes are higher than ever because this controversy involves prominent members of the administration and the political elite. Restoring trust in Pakistan’s institutions depends critically on the government’s commitment to eliminating corruption and punishing those responsible for their actions.Pakistan’s government is working towards the issuance of biometric passports with embedded computer chips later this year.