Month: October 2024

It’s fairly insignificant in the scheme of things, and there’s no hardware as yet for us to look at, but there it is. Tucked away in a device tree file, the first mention of a Raspberry Pi 500. We take this to mean that the chances of an upgrade to the Pi 400 all-in-one giving it the heart of a Pi 5 are now quite high.
We’ve remarked before that one of the problems facing the Raspberry Pi folks is that a new revision of the regular Pi no longer carries the novelty it might once have done, and certainly in hardware terms (if not necessarily software) it could be said that the competition have very much caught up. It’s in the Compute Module and the wildcard products such as the all-in-one computers that they still shine then, because even after several years of the 400 it’s not really seen an effective competitor.
So we welcome the chance of an all-in-one with a Pi 5 heart, and if we had a wish list for it then it should include that mini PCI-E slot on board for SSDs and other peripherals. Such a machine would we think become a must-have for any space-constrained bench. […]

If you’re thinking about bringing a Raspberry Pi on a road trip, your first thought might be to bring along a RetroPie rig (here’s how to install RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 4 if you want to see how quick it is to set up). However, maker and developer ImJustWhelmed, as they’re known over at Reddit, has put together a really awesome road trip Pi setup that lets you stream movies and TV shows easily—and locally—while on the go.The setup is a little complex but the idea behind it is simple. The Raspberry Pi is hosting a Plex media server which lets you stream movies, TV shows or whatever else you’ve got stored locally. You don’t need an internet connection to make it work, you just need enough storage space to host all your data.Because an internet connection isn’t necessary, this makes it ideal for taking on the road where a network connection isn’t guaranteed. It also helps that there’s a lot of versatility in using a Raspberry Pi. You can add additional features to your build, like RetroPie for retro gaming while on your trip.ImJustWhelmed has opted to use a Raspberry Pi 4 to power the operation but you could get away with using a Raspberry Pi 5 in its place. The Pi is connected to a 2TB SSD that connects via USB for storing the Plex media. A portable TP-Link travel router is thrown in, as well, so the Pi can be assigned a static IP and work as part of a mobile LAN. ImJustWhelmed also included a Roku 4K Stick in case there is an internet connection so streaming even more content is possible.The main operating system used for this project is just Raspberry Pi OS which serves as a platform for the Plex server to run on. This also makes for a handy mini desktop, so you could browse the internet, emulate games and do pretty much anything else you can think of. However, there’s no screen so you’d have to remote in like with any other headless setup.If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, you can check it out over at Reddit where ImJustWhelmed has shared plenty of details about its construction.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. […]

Here is my most surprising interview to date with Mr. Wang of Lude Media:

JRN: You revealed information months ago about a Chinese special forces unit operating in the United States. Is that unit still slated for activation in October 2024.

LUDE: To my knowledge there has been no change to the unit’s orders. They have been infiltrated into America. Within the CCP dictator regime the final decision to activate this unit rests with Xi Jinping. We do not know if Xi will follow through and activate the unit or not, but they are in position. There is a new sign, a new indication, that they are getting close to activation. October First is National Day for the CCP. Right now this Chinese unit is in position around U.S. military bases. From all appearances, President Xi is getting ready for a sneak attack.

JRN: Will this sneak attack signal the beginning of a larger war?

LUDE: Yes. It will be a prelude to a bigger attack.

JRN: How long after this sneak attack by special forces troops will we see the larger attack?

LUDE: We should redefine what is a bigger attack. It will involve some kind of military action against Taiwan, or in the South China Sea, or in the Arctic.

JRN: A rumor has been going around lately about Beijing’s desire to provoke a war. The rumor says that CCP leaders in China are plotting various provocations so that the U.S. can be blamed for any military altercations that arise. Is it true that CCP leaders are fishing around for a conflict in which they can blame the U.S. in order to justify a major war? In other words, are the CCP leaders spoiling for a fight? Are they needing to sell this war to the Chinese people as justified?

LUDE: The simple answer is yes. Xi’s idea, for example, is if Israel launches a full attack on Lebanon and America moves a carrier into the Middle East, then America’s position in East Asia will weaken. In that case, President Xi would like to widen the zone of conflict, stretch U.S. naval resources so that the United States will not have enough carriers to defend against all threats. In that case, the Arctic could be a place to start trouble as well. Now that China has launched a ballistic missile in the Pacific, we see that they can hit the U.S.

JRN: If I understand you correctly, you are describing Beijing’s plan as encouraging the development of threats everywhere to so that America’s military capabilities are overextended

LUDE: This is an over-simplification. They are looking for a loophole, yes; but their final goal is to disrupt the international order. They want to destroy the dollar system used to facilitate international trade. If they do this, then they will have real success.

JRN: Of course, this is an old game. China and Russia have been scheming to do this for decades.

LUDE: Yes, yes.

JRN: So, we are looking at a series of escalations; first, in Europe and the Near East, then in the Far East, which Beijing hopes will lead to the collapse of the U.S. dollar should it happen that the U.S. cannot defend its allies.  

LUDE: Yes, yes.

JRN: How does the CCP prevent counter-attack against their own shipping assets? How do they keep all this from backfiring on their own access to resources? The People’s Republic of China has ships trafficking all over the world. How will their ships be protected from the U.S. Navy if they continue down this road of provocation?

LUDE: The CCP has its Silk Road Initiative, or “one belt, one road.” They have three silk roads. One is on the sea, the other is to Russia, and then there is one to Southeast Asia. They believe the United States can only interfere with China’s overseas shipping. The United States cannot stop China from trading with Russia and the rest of Asia overland.

JRN: China anticipates a future situation where the U.S. might cut off its overseas shipping routes?

LUDE:  Even if the U.S. officially cuts of China’s overseas trade China will find a way to trade nonetheless, because China’s productive power is too great to resist. The markets in Europe and America need Chinese goods and cannot do without China’s cheap products.

JRN: If Chinese strategy causes the U.S. dollar to collapse the U.S. will not be able to purchase any Chinese goods. How is this supposed to work?

LUDE: What they really want, in terms of trading, is the control the stock of high-tech U.S. companies. Currently the U.S. won’t sell that stock to them. If the U.S. does not have money to trade with, they will be forced to sell the tech stocks.

JRN: Won’t U.S authorities act to prevent this?

LUDE: China can use cut-outs and front companies to gain control of the stock without creating any alarm in the United States. There are many ways to do this, and they are determined.

JRN: It sounds like China has developed a sophisticated system for colonizing the United States and getting control of American technology.

LUDE: Yes, you might say it is a colonizing strategy.

JRN: I attended an event in Canada where I met U.S. General Glen VanHerck, former commander of NORAD and NORTHCOM, and he told me of the severity of the Russian threat to North America. He also told me that China was going to have the same strike capacity as Russia in six to eight years. Do you have any comments on this?

LUDE: The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) wants to assure itself that it can annihilate the United States, as in Mutual Assured Destruction. Nonetheless, the PLA has a significant strike capacity even now. The recent ICBM launch test in the Pacific shows that China has re-entry glide technology. This technology is very potent, and can be used from high earth orbiting satellites.

JRN: What about China’s nuclear submarine that supposedly sank in Wuhan?

LUDE: I doubt this story, even though I have no specific information. Wuhan is not where nuclear submarines are built in China. The nuclear fuel is given to submarines in a different port. And the missiles for such submarines are loaded in coastal base areas. Furthermore, Wuhan is far inland, along the Yangtze River, hundreds of kilometers from the sea. There are shallow stretches along that river of only five meters. How can a large submarine reach the sea along this river? I doubt this is a good place to build a nuclear submarine.

JRN: Let me change the subject for a moment. Is Chinese support for Russian forces in Ukraine increasing?

LUDE: Chinese support for Russia is increasing dramatically.

JRN: Has there been any PLA combat or logistical units sent to Ukraine?

LUDE: The People’s Liberation Army sends units to Russia without legally designating the units as Chinese. This has been happening for some time.

JRN: So, Chinese military units are in Ukraine with the Russian Army, only they are not flying the Chinese flag?

LUDE: President Xi Jinping is closely connected with the 11th and 81st Armies. The 11th Army is in Xinjiang, the 18th is in Shandong. Both have sent army divisions directly to Ukraine. This is based on Xi’s dictum that you must practice warfare on a real battlefield to acquire the necessary skill. These troops also help the Russian Army with drone attacks. The Tiger Regiment, one of the elite Chinese troop formations, usually stationed in Beijing, was also sent to Ukraine. Another famous unit is the 127th Combined Arms Brigade, which has also been sent to Ukraine.

JRN: Isn’t the Tiger Regiment the best regiment in the People’s Liberation Army?

LUDE: One of the best.

JRN: I am not familiar with the 127th Combined Arms Brigade. Is that another elite unit?

LUDE: The 127th is the best unit in PLA history. It is a very high-level unit.

JRN: I take it to be a mechanized unit with tanks, APCs, and artillery?

LUDE: Yes.

JRN: Are Chinese pilots going to Russia to perform air missions?

LUDE: I do not know the answer.

JRN: I was told by Gen. Glen VanHerck that Chinese strategic bombers are operating in the Arctic and are conducting joint operations from Russian bases. I am told they are flying, along with Russian aircraft, close to Alaska and Canada. Do you know anything about this?

LUDE: Yes, I can confirm this. Not only can Chinese bombers use Russian bases against Alaska, but bomber units from Russia can use Chinese bases.

JRN: One of the other things VanHerck told me is that Russian submarines are very quiet. A military contractor told me the Russian submarines have the best undersea technology. Have the Russians shared this technology with China?

LUDE: First point, Russia will never share this kind of knowledge with the CCP. Second point, China’s technology is based on 1996 technology sold to China by Ukraine. Then, they stole a lot of submarine technology from the United Kingdom (UK). So they have blueprints from Ukraine and the UK, but based on that they are developing their own submarines technology. According to my information, they are developing a shaftless pump-jet propulsion system for building quiet submarines. Currently the weak point in China’s submarines is their nuclear propulsion systems. The Chinese system creates a lot of noise. So, China turned to Russia for help on this, and the Russians are helping them to make quieter nuclear propulsion systems. You can see that all CCP submarines have an extra part on the back side, because their missiles are too long. This is not good and is something they must overcome.

JRN: I was recently told from a source in Europe that one of China’s aircraft carriers cannot be used because the propeller shaft was not made correctly, so that vibrations from the propeller shaft have damaged the ship’s deck and hull. Have you heard about this?

LUDE: I did not hear about this.

JRN: Is there any new information about CCP drone development?

LUDE: I want to emphasize that AI-controlled drone swarm attacks are a serious threat. The U.S. needs to pay close attention. If you overlook this, you will pay a big price.

JRN: Is China producing 150,000 military drones now?

LUDE: The total number of drones is more than 150,000. The key is the AI capability for a mass coordinated attack.

JRN: They have over 150,000 drones?

LUDE: Yes, and more than that. Some of these drones are big, some are small.

JRN: And those special supersonic heavy drones, are they anywhere near being deployed?

LUDE: I cannot provide details, but if you knew what their capabilities are you would be astonished.

JRN: Can the People’s Liberation Army [PLA] sink an aircraft carrier today and cause the dollar to collapse?

LUDE: The CCP’s own words have clearly said they will use a tactical nuclear weapon to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier.

JRN: Will they try to do this in the near future?

LUDE: Why do you suppose they conducted this missile test in the pacific? They are planning to use this kind of missile against a U.S. aircraft carrier. The key thing is to find out whether they hit specific coordinates during the test. If they did so, then they can sink a carrier.

JRN: Lara Logan has broken a story, claiming that nine heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles [SAMs] have been smuggled into the United States to assassinate Trump. Can you confirm this?

LUDE: I can verify this, The Chinese Communist Party has delivered SAMs to the United States for the purpose of shooting down Trump’s plane. Once Trump’s flight is shot down, Russia’s military will spread disinformation to set up Democrats or non-MAGA forces as responsible for Trump’s death. From this they hope to incite a civil war. Regardless of what happens, if anyone tries to blame the CCP the CCP will threaten to launch a nuclear war.

JRN: We have heard rumors and stories about an ongoing purge in China. Is such a thing happening?

LUDE: No. It is fake news deliberately released by Xi Jinping.  

 JRN: This is all very interesting and disturbing. Thank you for this interview

LUDE: Thank you.

September Anti-Communist Conference with Jean Robin and Dr. Li-Meng Yan

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Ever want a seriously powerful PCB for charging a Li-Ion pack? Whatever you want it for, [Redherring32] has got it — it’s a board bearing the TPS25750D and BQ25713 chips, that lets you push up to 100 W into your 1S Li-Ion pack through the magic of USB Power Delivery (USB-PD).
Why do you need so much power? Well, when you put together a large amount of Li-Ion cells, this is how you charge it all at once – an average laptop might charge the internal battery at 30 W, and it’s not uncommon for laptop batteries to be dwarfed by hackers’-built packs.
A 4-layer creation peppered with vias, this board’s a hefty one — it’s not often that you see a Li-Ion charger designed to push as much current as possible into a cell, and the chips are smart enough for that. As far as the onboard chips’ capabilities go, the board could handle pack configurations from 1S to 4S, and even act as a USB-PD source — check the IC configuration before you expect to use it for any specific purpose.
Want a simpler charger, even if it’s less powerful? Remember, you can use PPS-capable PD chargers for topping up Li-Ion packs, with barely any extra hardware required. […]

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,As of today, the UK’s “Chicken License” is in full effect. October 1st marked the deadline for registering your chickens with the proper authority.Moving forward anyone caught with an unlicensed chicken will be in breach of the law and subject to fines and poultry reclamation.I am entirely serious.Back in March the UK govt’s “Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs” (DEFRA) announced changes to the poultry registration laws, essentially redefining a “flock” from “50 birds or more” to 1.So, from now on, everybody in the country who keeps even a single bird – not just chickens, all outdoor birds – has to register as a poultry keeper.You understand, this is all about protecting birds and the public from avian influenza, not at all about increasing government monitoring with the final aim of stamping down on self-sufficiency.Banish that cynical thought from your head.Fortunately, the people of the UK have a tried-and-tested method of dealing with absurdity—more absurdity.In the run-up to the deadline thousands of people took to the DEFRA website to register their “chickens” – frozen, nuggets, unhatched and even rubber:Just about to register my bird 🐔🤔 pic.twitter.com/zkrzWBkaq4
— 𝘽𝙀𝙇 (@Bel_B30) September 29, 2024Just completed my #chicken registration.Suprised they didn’t ask for photos… pic.twitter.com/1aPBgdtxLL
— Richard David On 𝕏 (@Trying_Very) September 29, 2024The result is that the online service strained……and then broke:That’s all poisoned data flooding the system rendering the register all but useless. A display of the power of malicious compliance.pic.twitter.com/bDHLJZ20CD
— I Support Farmers Markets (@SupportMarkets) October 1, 2024Good work.Loading… […]

Though “Diversity is Our Strength” is a cornerstone mantra of woke leftist ideology, it’s been steadily crumbling as people across the West observe the many real-world downsides of uncontrolled migration. Health officials in the United Kingdom have just hit that cornerstone with another sledgehammer, reporting that HIV cases in the UK soared by 51% last year to a 15-year high. African migrants at sea in the Mediterranean; migrants from the continent account for a large majority of HIV cases in the UK that were first diagnosed abroad According to a new report from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the UK counted just over 6,000 new cases in 2023. Notably, for the first time, more than half of them (53%) were attributed to people who were originally diagnosed outside the UK. Of that set, 75% of the carriers are African. The migrants are also spreading the disease amongst each other after arriving — 253 diagnoses were attributed to people who’d been in England less than two years.”The rise in HIV testing together with a higher and sustained positivity in black African heterosexuals may be suggestive of ongoing transmission. However, this number could also be affected by changing patterns of migration with a recent rise in people diagnosed with HIV abroad arriving in England.” – UKHSAThe sudden surge in HIV cases may have doomed health agencies’ goal to achieve zero HIV transmission in the UK by 2030.via The TelegraphHowever, rather than reasonably calling for the government to pump the brakes on immigration, public health types are instead reflexively spouting Marxist blather — such as National Aids Trust chief executive Robbie Currie, who told the Telegraph that “the latest published HIV data in England shows clearly that a continuing lack of equity and equality is standing in the way of people being able to live well with HIV.”  Similarly, Terrence Higgins Trust chief Richard Angell said “Today’s new figures show people from ethnic minorities face an increasing burden of HIV, with rising diagnoses and worse health outcomes than the population as a whole.” Africa is far and away the world’s largest cauldron of HIV: A whopping two thirds of the world’s HIV-diagnosed population live in the continent. Meanwhile, 23% of the work and study visas issued by the UK last year were given to Africans. In addition to compounding the peril of the disease, the surge in the UK’s HIV-positive population also represents a public financial burden in a country with a socialized medicine scheme that’s already under stress. The lifetime cost of managing an HIV patient in the UK has been varyingly estimated to be between £73,000 and £404,000.Loading… […]

Via Remix News,The number of people who are illiterate in Sweden is expected to exceed 800,000 in winter of this year, with researchers expecting the number to soon reach 1 million, in large part due to mass immigration.The most recent survey by Statistics Sweden shows there are currently around 780,000 people between the ages of 16 and 65 who are illiterate in Sweden, but this number is soaring.“Each month, eight to ten illiterate students arrive,” said Rita Sommarkrans, SFI teacher in Västerås, to SVT. She added that if someone can’t read or write, it’s hard for them to find a place, pay their bills, or even book a doctor’s appointment. “If this trend continues, we risk having an entire generation of young people who are effectively functionally illiterate,” wrote Minister of Education Johan Pehrson and Minister of School Affairs Lotta Edholm in an introductory article.However, Swedish publication Fria Tider notes that the ministers are failing to explain what the main cause behind the massive illiteracy problem is in the country, which is mass immigration of illiterate adults from the Third World, which the allegedly conservative ruling government is failing to stop.Sweden: Majority of Malmö children are immigrants; researcher says Swedish is now a ‘minority language’ and calls for Arabic schools. https://t.co/3HcxLQt0tn
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 9, 2023However, many of these foreigners are bringing children or giving birth to children who are entering the Swedish school system. In some cities, Swedish children are already the minority in the school system, such as Mälmo. In fact, the situation has gotten so extreme in that city that city officials are proposing to teach in Arabic instead of Swedish, as Remix News reported in the past. However, such a move will only accelerate the problem of illiteracy and result in even deeper divisions in society.Due to the falling literacy rates, Sweden is transforming its entire school system, making compulsory schooling 10 years instead of nine. In 2024, the number of students who were able to successfully complete the compulsory nine-year primary school continued to decrease.Out of the slightly more than 120,000 Swedish students in primary school, 20,000 finished compulsory school in 2024 without graduating to upper secondary school. This segment of students will have little chance of getting a job or career, and as Swedish news portal Samnytt writes, many of them will turn to crime or welfare to get by.“It is worrying that the results of 9th graders are decreasing. More students should complete primary school, not fewer. Failure to complete primary school is one of the main risk factors for unemployment and social exclusion,” said Anna Castberg, a department head at the Swedish Education Agency, in an official press release.🇸🇪‼️ A 15-year-old boy from Syria who came to Sweden as a refugee has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following a school shooting last week.The suspect arrived in Sweden during the peak of the migrant crisis in November 2015 accompanied by his parents and three… pic.twitter.com/LIs3ZMtH6f
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 10, 2024The Swedish National Education Office notes that the education level of the parents greatly influences the grades of the children. The lowest level of education is found among non-Western migrants, and consequently students of this group dominate among the worst performers. In addition, the education gap between Swedes and migrants is increasing instead of decreasing. Most new citizens come from non-EU Muslim countriesIn fact, a new report from the Swedish Migration Agency now shows that Sweden has granted 660,362 migrants Swedish citizenship since 2015, with the vast majority coming from non-EU Muslim countries.One of the top recipients of Swedish citizenship is Somalia, which is a country with one of the lowest levels of education in the world and an official illiteracy rate of 62.2 percent. In many cases, the people arriving from this country do not even know how to read and write in their own language, let alone Swedish. Data shows that 53,543 Somalians received citizenship since 2015, the second most of any country.In first place was Syria, with 147,579 Syrians receiving citizenship since 2015, or 22 percent of the total.Sweden’s performance in the PISA test has also drastically fallen, which will have dramatic results for Sweden’s economy over the coming years, as the country relies on a highly trained and high-tech workforce delivering high-value goods to the world market. In fact, the government was embroiled in a scandal in 2020 when its high PISA scores turned out to be a fraud.While many migrants may not like Swedes, most have no interest in ever leaving Sweden. Over half say they would never leave for any amount of money. https://t.co/eM7SrRTKrS
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 20, 2024At the time, Sweden’s Expressen wrote, “The latest PISA results showed an increase for Swedish students. Expressen can now reveal how a large number of foreign-born students were wrongly removed from the PISA selection, and that Sweden thereby violated the OECD’s official regulations. The figures also suggest that Swedish-born students with weak language skills were also removed.”The paper further wrote that “If the rules had been followed, the Swedish results would have been significantly worse and Sweden would probably have gone backwards in all three subjects compared to the last exam.”Swedish schools are now dangerous for teachers and studentsSwedish schools are also becoming more dangerous. The Swedish Teachers’ Union (Sveriges Lärare) issued a warning about the increased threats and violence facing teachers in Stockholm.The number of serious incidents increased 36 percent to 159 cases in 2023 compared to 2022.“There are threats ranging from ‘I’ll kill you’ and ‘I’ll shoot you’ to direct acts of violence,” said Simon Sandström, the union’s security officer, in an interview with Swedish Radio.Read more here…Loading… […]

What is with all the wasted space on keyboards? There’s a whole back side just sitting there doing nothing. But how can you use the back at the same time as the front?
All the board sandwiches must be wired together like this, natch.
Just when we think Google Japan can’t possibly produce another weird, amazing keyboard that actually works and comes with full documentation, they go and outdo themselves with this ortholinear Mobius thing that wastes (almost) no space. (Japanese, translated) Be sure to check out the video after the break where hilarity ensues.
This crazy thing is made up of 26 modules, each with 8 key switches, four on a side. Do the math — that’s a total of 208 keys! More than enough to stretch out around the table and do some group programming without rubbing elbows. All the switches are hot-swappable, and there’s even RGB backlighting. The controller here is the STM32F042F4P6.
So what are all the extra keys for? Well, the keyboard is half in Japanese and half QWERTY, and has a set of emoji keys as well for the full programming experience. You can also make a paper version if you want to test out the topology.
Be sure to check out the documentation, because it’s pretty interesting how this keyboard is put together. And no, we’re not sure how to set it down and use it without accidental key presses. Suppose that’s part of the charm?
Have you ever wondered what happened to all the Japanese computers of yore? We did.

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Thanks for the tip, [CityZen]! […]

The Atlanta Falcons can never play a normal football game, but somehow that worked to their advantage during an instant classic Thursday Night Football matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to begin Week 5.
Atlanta beat the Bucs, 36-30, in overtime in one of the better Thursday night games in recent memory. Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins was electric, finishing 42-for-58 (!) for 509 yards (!!) and four touchdowns, including the walk-off in OT.
The Falcons marched down the field on their final drive of regulation to get into field goal range for Younghoe Koo. Then they took a delay of game penalty, because they’re the Falcons. Koo booted a 52-yarder to force OT anyway, and that’s when Cousins was ready to put the finishing touches on his career day.
In overtime, Cousins found KhaDarel Hodge, who took a short pass all the way to the house for a 45-yard game-winning score.
The fans in Atlanta erupted. Cousins responded by doing the only logical thing for a 36-year-old dork like himself: he tried his best to dance to “Swag Surfin’.”

Cool moves, Kirk!
Here’s a look at the game-winning touchdown pass. What a strike.

Cousins went viral earlier in the week for sounding like the world’s lamest dad when talking about discovering the Atlanta anthem:

Amazon’s Taylor Rooks even taught him the dance at the end of a segment that ran just before the game.

Kirk Cousins told me his teammates are learning that his swag is having no swag. But Kirk also doesn’t know how to swag surf – and we had to change that. pic.twitter.com/wDNwNXOfOX— Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) October 4, 2024

Cousins had the last laugh on this night. It sets a new record as the highest passing yards total in franchise history. It’s also the highest passing total for an NFL QB this season.
What a night for Kirk Cousins. Please never show us your Dirty Bird. […]

Authored by Alex Newman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),The United Nations and its member governments, with strong support from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), adopted a landmark agreement last week to bestow the U.N. with more power and influence in global affairs.The symbol of the United Nations at U.N. headquarters on Feb. 28, 2022. AP Photo/John Minchillo, FileThe controversial agreement, known as the Pact for the Future, outlines 56 actions for governments and international institutions to take over the coming years.Among the key provisions is “transforming global governance” and further empowering international institutions across a range of issues, including “sustainable development and financing for development,” as well as “science, technology and innovation, and digital cooperation.”The pact includes a Global Digital Compact to restrict “misinformation” and “disinformation” and a Declaration on Future Generations that encompasses the 2030 Agenda climate goals that include the phase-out of fossil fuels.It is also part of transforming the U.N. into what the organization is touting in promotional materials as “U.N. 2.0.”U.N. leaders and top officials from the CCP celebrated the pact as a historic effort to create a better future for humanity and increase global cooperation on international problems.“We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said.Despite opposition from various quarters, the 193-member body adopted the pact by consensus on Sept. 22 at the Summit of the Future during the U.N. General Assembly after about nine months of negotiations.In the days before the pact was adopted, a coalition of U.S. lawmakers and grassroots leaders held a press conference on Capitol Hill criticizing the agreement as an effort to undermine national sovereignty and freedom.“We can’t give up any more of our sovereignty, any more of our geopolitical integrity, or any more of our economic integrity to foreign actors who have no concerns for the United States of America other than to take our power and money away,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), former leader of the House Freedom Caucus.House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times that the pact ignores the “malign influence of the CCP” within the global organization.McCaul said that although the pact isn’t legally binding, “this 66-page pact is limitless in scope.”“It calls for dramatically increased public spending and vague action on countless left-wing priorities,” he said.“The pact also completely ignores the most urgent issues facing the U.N. today, like reforming UNRWA and combating malign CCP influence. It does nothing to advance U.S. interests.”Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) walks past reporters with Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) as they depart a House Republican Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 24, 2024. Kent Nishimura/Getty ImagesThe CCP, which plays an increasingly powerful role within the U.N., boasted about its significant role in developing the pact.Speaking at U.N. headquarters, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the pact as an effort to “galvanize” the U.N.’s “collective efforts for world peace and development and to map out the future of humanity.”Wang talked about advancing “global governance.”On the other side, the Argentine government officially distanced itself from the pact and the U.N. in general.“Argentina wants the freedom to develop itself, without being subjected to the undue weight of decisions that are alien to our goals,” said Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, noting that Argentinian authorities are pursuing a policy of freedom.President Javier Milei, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, called the organization a “multi-tentacled Leviathan that seeks to decide what each nation state should do and how the citizens of the world should live.”Argentine President Javier Milei is surrounded by media after delivering a speech at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 17, 2024. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty ImagesMilei also criticized the global organization’s central role in prescribing what he called “crimes against humanity” in responding to the China-originated coronavirus.He called the U.N. 2030 Agenda, which features prominently in the pact, a “supranational program of a socialist nature.”The new pact makes repeated commitments to expedite the implementation of the U.N. 2030 Agenda, also known as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.“We will urgently accelerate progress towards achieving the Goals, including through concrete political steps and mobilizing significant additional financing from all sources for sustainable development,” the pact reads.The Sustainable Development Goals, which U.N. leaders described as the “master plan for humanity” when they were adopted in 2015, encompass everything from education and agriculture to health care and the environment.After they were adopted, CCP-owned propaganda outlets around the world boasted that Beijing played a “crucial role” in creating the 2030 Agenda.The U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission has been sounding the alarm for years.“Since the U.S.–China Commission began tracking officials from the People’s Republic of China serving in leadership positions in international organizations, Beijing’s influence has only grown over key U.N. agencies responsible for funding and policymaking on a wide range of important issues,” the Commission told The Epoch Times.“Contrary to the International Civil Servant Standards of Conduct, they [Chinese officials] use those positions [in the U.N.] to pursue China’s foreign policy goals,” the Commission said.When asked about the concerns of U.S. policymakers and other critics, Guterres’s spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, defended the pact.“The Pact for the Future is not about world government,” he said at a press conference. “It is about making an organization of independent, sovereign member states work better.“It’s not as if anyone is granting the secretary-general authority over governments—clearly not.”Still, according to Dujarric, it is important to increase global cooperation because “not one country can deal with the rising seas, not one country can deal with global pandemics, not one country can deal with international terrorism.”“This is about bringing sovereign, independent countries, and working together,” he said, urging people to read original documents to become well informed and “make up their own minds.”The strengthening of the U.N. and, in particular, efforts to have the U.N. secretary-general lead the response to emergencies, received special attention from opponents.As The Epoch Times reported in April 2023, empowering the U.N. as the central force in dealing with international emergencies and “complex global shocks” was a key goal heading into the Summit of the Future.In his original policy brief on the issue, Guterres argued that all nations, businesses, governments, and other stakeholders must recognize the “primary role” of intergovernmental organs such as the U.N. and its agencies in “decision-making,” the document states.António Guterres, U.N. secretary-general, speaks during the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 10, 2024. AP Photo/Yuki IwamuraFormer U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Kevin Moley, who oversaw U.S. relations with the U.N. during the previous administration, warned of the dangers.“Allowing the U.N. to deal with this is the equivalent of putting the CCP in charge of global emergencies,” Moley told The Epoch Times.He warned that the CCP takeover of international organizations represents a potentially mortal threat to the West.Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, told The Epoch Times that Americans must resist what he described as a “power grab” of historic proportions.“The U.N. secretary-general has arrogated to himself dictatorial powers … upon his mere proclamation of an ‘emergency,’ as defined by himself,” he said.Boyle, who wrote the implementing U.S. legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention and serves on the board of Amnesty International, said that because of the involvement of heads of state and government in the process, the new U.N. pact could constitute a “treaty” with “legal obligations” under both domestic and international law.“This totalitarian arrangement constitutes a grave and immediate threat to the sovereignty and independence of all United Nations member states,” he said.Free Speech, Free PressOne of the major components of the U.N. deal, adopted as an annex to the pact, focuses on U.N. governance of artificial intelligence (AI). Wang said that the CCP “supports the U.N. in serving as the main channel in AI governance.”Another major concern for critics is the targeting of free speech in the Global Digital Compact, approved as an annex to the Pact for the Future.Stating that it is protecting “information integrity,” the U.N. deal calls for drastically scaling up efforts to combat “hate speech,” “discrimination,” “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and more.Global censorship about the COVID-19 pandemic, with YouTube removing content that went against the World Health Organization’s pronouncements, has been cited by opponents of the plan as an example of the threat.The U.N. has also become more aggressive on this front. In 2022, at a World Economic Forum sustainability event, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Communications Melissa Fleming announced a partnership with Google.“We started this partnership when we were shocked to see that when we Googled ‘climate change,’ we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top,“ she said. ”We’re becoming much more proactive. We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do.”Fleming has also highlighted working with CCP-linked TikTok and recruiting “influencers” to promote U.N. messaging.Asked about the U.N. partnership with Google, Fleming declined to comment.The compact calls for “Internet governance” to be “global and multi-stakeholder in nature.”“We will strengthen international cooperation to address the challenge of misinformation and disinformation and hate speech online and mitigate the risks of information manipulation in a manner consistent with international law,” the Global Digital Compact reads.The mobile phone apps for Facebook (L), Instagram (C) and WhatsApp on a device in New York. Richard Drew/AP PhotoThe repeated emphasis on the alleged “risks” of misinformation is one of the most concerning elements of the agreement, said Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and co-chair of the Sovereignty Coalition.“We need only look back to the pandemic to see that these terms will be defined as anything that is counter-narrative to the U.N., the WHO, and their collaborators,” she told The Epoch Times, referring to the World Health Organization.“Controlling the narrative by suppressing dissenting voices is an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech. It is, moreover, a hallmark of totalitarianism, which begins with and relies upon censorship.“Further, censorship deprives both individuals and nations of their sovereignty.”Littlejohn has been working with U.S. lawmakers to protect U.S. independence from international organizations.“Sovereign persons and nations make decisions concerning how they will govern themselves,” she said. “They are deprived of this decision-making process if they are denied access to the true facts upon which their decisions will be made.”Littlejohn also said the pact should be understood as a treaty under the traditional definition. As such, treaties are required to be ratified by the U.S. Senate—something she said would be unlikely to happen.Loading… […]