Daily Archives: 5. Juni 2019


05.06.2019 - 22:19 [ Global Research ]

Warring Against Sources: The Australian National Security State, Journalism and the Public Interest

The story supposedly linked to the AFP warrant had been published by Smethurst on April 29, 2018. More than a year had elapsed, with little in the way of public murmurings. Australians have, for the most part, fallen under the anaesthetist’s spell regarding intrusive, unnecessary and dangerous national security laws. Another set of them would hardly matter.

But since the story, titled “Let Us Spy on Aussies” broke last year, the security wallahs have been attempting to root out the source, mobilising the AFP in the process. The account detailed information on discussions between the Home Affairs and Defence departments on the possibility of granting the Australian Signals Directorate powers to monitor the emails, bank records and text messages of Australian citizens. Letters between Secretary of Home Affairs Mike Pezzullo and Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty featured.

05.06.2019 - 21:39 [ La Fleur Productions ‏ / Twitter ]

Such a shame the AU Press didn‘t recognise the same issues in the persecution of #JulianAssange and get started on defending #FreedomOfThePress much earlier – instead of being part of the problem.

05.06.2019 - 21:35 [ John Lyons / Twitter ]

Bravo to the country‘s media for taking on government over the new war on the media @australian @dailytelegraph @smh The Age, @GuardianAus @abcnews @SkyNewsAust all leading tonite with this story. I‘ve never seen such united front. Old rivalries put aside. Journalism matters.

05.06.2019 - 21:29 [ John Lyons / Twitter ]

“I‘ve never seen an assault on the media as savage as this… I‘ve never seen a warrant this comprehensive & I‘d say scary… The chilling message is not so much for the journalists, but it‘s also for the public,” head of ABC Investigations @TheLyonsDen tells @PatsKarvelas #auspol

05.06.2019 - 21:24 [ The Canberra Times ]

‚The AFP have just realised I‘m live tweeting‘: ABC journalist lays bare police raid

John Lyons live tweeted as AFP and ABC lawyers combed through documents to determine which documents were eligible to be handed over under the search warrant. Picture: John Lyons

05.06.2019 - 21:09 [ ABC News Australia / Youtube ]

ABC News‘ Sydney headquarters raided by AFP over Afghan Files stories | ABC News

Australian Federal Police officers are raiding the ABC‘s Sydney headquarters over a series of 2017 stories known as The Afghan Files. ABC Head of Investigations, John Lyons was in the room during the raid, and says the warrant gives the AFP powers to see, change and delete the data they find. Mr Lyons says he‘s „never seen an assault on the media as savage“ as this. The stories, by ABC investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan and were based off hundreds of pages of secret Defence documents leaked to the ABC.

05.06.2019 - 21:06 [ ABC Australia ]

ABC raid: AFP leave Ultimo building with files after hours-long raid over Afghan Files stories

Australian Federal Police officers have left the ABC‘s Sydney headquarters more than eight hours after a raid began over a series of 2017 stories known as the Afghan Files.

The stories, by ABC investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan and were based off hundreds of pages of secret Defence documents leaked to the ABC

05.06.2019 - 21:06 [ The Sydney Morning Herald ]

Police raid on ABC offices sparks firestorm over press freedom and national security

It‘s understood the ABC and the AFP have been in talks about the search warrant since September, when it was first brought to the attention of the public broadcaster.

05.06.2019 - 21:04 [ The Australian ]

Military lawyer on theft charge

28.2.2019 A prominent Sydney lawyer who served as legal adviser to Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan has been charged with theft over war crimes investigation files that were allegedly published in the media.

Australian Federal Police officer­s arrested retired major David William McBride, 55, at Sydney Airport as he sought to depart Australia to return to his new home in Europe in September last year.

05.06.2019 - 21:00 [ Ludwig Maximilian Universität München ]

Wenn ein Treibhausgas baden geht: Wie das Erdmagnetfeld unser Klima beeinflusst

(6. Oktober 2008)

Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass selbst kleine Veränderungen des Magnetfelds die Löslichkeit von Gasen im Wasser verändern. „Wenn das Magnetfeld schwächer war, löste sich 15 Prozent weniger Luft im Wasser als bei einem stärkeren Magnetfeld“, erläutert Winklhofer. „Für Kohlendioxid war der beobachtete Effekt sogar doppelt so stark.“

05.06.2019 - 20:56 [ Geophysical Research Letters 35(16) / researchgate.net ]

Magnetic effect on CO 2 solubility in seawater: A possible link between geomagnetic field variations and climate

(August 2008)

Correlations between geomagnetic-field and climate parameters have been suggested repeatedly, but possible links are controversially discussed. Here we test if weak (Earth-strength) magnetic fields can affect climatically relevant properties of seawater. We found the solubility of air in seawater to be by 15% lower under reduced magneticfield (20 mT) compared to normal field conditions (50 mT). The magnetic-field effect on CO2 solubility is twice as large, from which we surmise that geomagnetic field variations modulate the carbon exchange between atmosphere and ocean. A 1% reduction in magnetic dipole moment may release up to ten times more CO2 from the surface ocean than is emitted by subaerial volcanism.

05.06.2019 - 20:29 [ University College London ]

Magnetic Rope observed for the first time between Saturn and the Sun

(06.07.2016)

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004, and after many years analyzing the data collected, Cassini has observed the first FTE at Saturn.

05.06.2019 - 20:27 [ ScienceMag.org ]

Magnetic Reconnection in the Near Venusian Magnetotail

(04.05.2012)

Observations with the Venus Express magnetometer and low-energy particle detector revealed magnetic field and plasma behavior in the near-Venus wake that is symptomatic of magnetic reconnection, a process that occurs in Earth’s magnetotail but is not expected in the magnetotail of a nonmagnetized planet such as Venus.

05.06.2019 - 20:13 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Magnetic Portals Connect Earth to the Sun

(30.10.2008)

„It‘s called a flux transfer event or ‚FTE,'“ says space physicist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. „Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn‘t exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible.“

Indeed, today Sibeck is telling an international assembly of space physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama, that FTEs are not just common, but possibly twice as common as anyone had ever imagined.

05.06.2019 - 20:00 [ Phys.org ]

Earth‘s magnetic poles could start to flip. What happens then?

(07.12.2018)

‚The geomagnetic field has been decaying for the last 3,000 years,‘ said Dr. Nicolas Thouveny from the European Centre for Research and Teaching of Environmental Geosciences (CEREGE) in Aix-en-Provence, France. ‚If it continues to fall down at this rate, in less than one millennium we will be in a critical (period).‘

05.06.2019 - 19:41 [ Metro.co.uk ]

The sun has ‘reached solar minimum’ and its surface is ominously calm

But Nasa images have revealed that the face of our star is looking ominously calm right now, prompting claims it’s reached a stage of its cycle called the solar minimum.

During the minimum, there are significantly fewer sunspots and its magnetic field weakens, allowing cosmic rays from outside our solar system to rain down on Earth.

05.06.2019 - 19:28 [ MIT Technology Review i ]

Space weather affects your daily life. It’s time to start paying attention.

“Why can I reach halfway across the world some days, and I can‘t get more than 50 miles away other days. Well, our magnetosphere is a living, breathing thing, and it‘s driven by the sun.”

05.06.2019 - 19:04 [ Junge Welt ]

Totstellen fürs Klima

Lorenz Gösta Beutin, Abgeordneter der Linksfraktion, solidarisierte sich mit den jungen Leuten und warf in diesem Zusammenhang der Regierungskoalition vor, ihr sei »Machterhalt und der Schutz von Konzerninteressen ganz offensichtlich heiliger als die Bewahrung der natürlichen Lebensgrundlagen und des Klimas«. Seine Partei fordere »die Anerkennung des Klimanotstandes, …..

05.06.2019 - 18:57 [ Huffington Post ]

Brexit Party Storms Ahead In Peterborough By-Election As Voters Tire Of Two-Party Rule

Estimating around 70% of his support is coming from Conservative voters angry at Theresa May’s failure to deliver Brexit, however, Greene says: “They are standing up and saying ‘I support Brexit’ and it’s a bit of an ‘I Am Spartacus’ moment. The fears that have been pushed on them by the media and institutions are dropping away and it’s like ‘I Am Spartacus, I vote Brexit’.”

05.06.2019 - 18:26 [ Sueddeutsche ]

Innenminister wollen offenbar an Daten von Alexa und Co.

Solchen Spuren komme „eine immer größere Bedeutung“ bei der Aufklärung von Kapitalverbrechen und terroristischen Bedrohungslagen zu, heißt es demnach in der Beschlussvorlage des schleswig-holsteinischen Innenministers und IMK-Vorsitzenden Hans-Joachim Grote (CDU). Das Bundesinnenministerium bestätigte außerdem, dass derzeit die rechtlichen Möglichkeiten geprüft werden. Die Rechtsgrundlagen reichten im Moment nicht aus, um digitale Spuren auf die Art verwertbar zu machen, wie Ermittlungsbehörden sie benötigten.

05.06.2019 - 18:14 [ BBC ]

D-Day: 10 things you might not know about the Normandy invasion

2. Phantom army

The Allies put a lot of effort into trying to convince the Germans that the invasion was going to be near Calais, not Normandy.

They invented phantom field armies based in Kent as part of their D-Day deception plan, named Operation Fortitude.

They built dummy equipment – including inflatable tanks – parachuted dummies, used double agents and released controlled leaks of misinformation which led the Germans to believe the Allies were going to invade via the Pas-de-Calais and Norway.

05.06.2019 - 18:09 [ NewStatesman.com ]

The month of two D-Days

The worst month was November 1942, when 721,700 tons were sunk by U-boats. At that point, the Kriegsmarine had more than 100 submarines operating in the Atlantic and, for most of the year, British code-breakers had been unable to decrypt key enemy signals because the Germans had added a fourth wheel to their Enigma machines. No wonder that the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff stated after their Casablanca conference in January 1943, “Defeat of the U-boat must remain a first charge on the resources of [the] United Nations.”

During the course of that year, however, the situation gradually improved. The fourth wheel was cracked.

05.06.2019 - 18:07 [ Telegraph ]

D-Day commemorations: Queen pays tribute to ‚resilience of wartime generation – my generation‘ – latest news

The Queen delivered a poignant speech, paying tribute to the resilience of „the wartime generation – my generation“ as part of the D-Day commemorations in Portsmouth.

An emotionally-charged performance was watched by world leaders, royalty and hundreds of veterans in Portsmouth to mark the 75th anniversary of the landing

05.06.2019 - 11:06 [ hdb / Twitter ]

#spd #SeeheimerKreis, „die Prätorianergarde des Kanzlers“ #Schröder. Damals Regierungssprecher Steg „Auf die #Seeheimer konnte sich der Kanzler noch immer verlassen“. #Seeheimer sind Agenda2010 pur und #GroKo-Verfechter. Weshalb Verstecken sie jetzt ihre Mitglieder-Liste?

05.06.2019 - 09:28 [ theHill.com ]

Report: Christopher Steele agrees to be questioned by US officials over his relationship with FBI

A source close to Steele told The Times he will meet with investigators in London in the coming weeks. Republicans have long alleged it was Steele’s dossier that improperly led to an FBI inquiry, which ultimately morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump and campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.

05.06.2019 - 09:24 [ DailyMail..co.uk ]

Golden showers dossier author Christopher Steele WILL speak to U.S. authorities investigating how claims Trump colluded with Russia began

– The former British intelligence officer authored what became known as the golden showers dossier
– Congressional investigators sought to interview him without success
– He will meet with unidentified U.S. investigators, a source close to him told the Times of London
– Attorney General Bill Barr ordered a new investigation of the origins of the Russia probe
– The Mueller report did not confirm salacious claims from the dossier
– The report did include a footnote about a Georgian businessman who told Michael Cohen he had ‚stopped flow‘ of ‚some tapes‘

05.06.2019 - 06:04 [ Haaretz ]

Democracy in Netanyahu‘s Israel Under Greater Threat Than in Trump‘s America, Warns Lawfare Editor

Wittes attributes this dramatic possibility to Israel’s anomalous constitutional regime, which he characterizes as “super-weird.”

Asked to elaborate, he explains in a follow-up email that, beyond the fact that Israel lacks a written constitution (which is not in itself unique), it also has “the combination, on the one hand, of a system of parliamentary supremacy, and, on the other hand, a highly aggressive court that asserts broad authority of judicial review.” Ironically, however, anything the High Court does can be reversed by the legislature, “given that the court’s authority itself is a creature of the Knesset.”

05.06.2019 - 06:00 [ Times of Israel ]

Lapid says Netanyahu turning Israel into Iran by agreeing to gender segregation

TV report uncovers draft agreement between Likud and ultra-Orthodox parties to change law barring discriminatory separation between men and women in public

05.06.2019 - 05:47 [ Welt.de ]

Der Fall „Curveball“: Wie ein BND-Informant den Irak-Krieg auslöste

(28.8.2011)

Diese bis heute verbreitete Darstellung ist unangenehm für die Bundesrepublik. Deutschland steht da als ein Land, das ein Doppelspiel betrieben hat: nach außen den Pazifisten geben – und hintenherum über seinen Geheimdienst einen entscheidenden Grund für die militärische Intervention liefern. Der Bundesnachrichtendienst nahm die Vorwürfe schweigend hin.

05.06.2019 - 05:42 [ Benjamin Weinthal / Fox News ]

Iran seeking to expand military program to weapons of mass destruction: German intelligence

(28.05.2019)

Fox News obtained a May 2019 intelligence document from the state of Bavaria detailing Iran‘s nefarious weapons activities in the southern German state during the previous year.

Iran is a „risk country“ that is „making efforts to expand its conventional arsenal of weapons with weapons of mass destruction,“ wrote the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution in its intelligence report.

The Bavarian agency is the rough equivalent of the FBI without arrest powers.

05.06.2019 - 05:39 [ mena-watch.com ]

Bayerischer Verfassungsschutz: Iran möchte Massenvernichtungswaffen

(03.06.2019)

FoxNews.com berichtete erstmals am Dienstag, dass der bayerische Geheimdienst einen Bericht herausgegeben habe, der ‚die Islamische Republik beschuldigt, Massenvernichtungswaffen herstellen zu wollen.‘ Obwohl der Bericht im Mai veröffentlicht wurde, befasst er sich mit den im Jahr 2018 gesammelten Erkenntnissen.

05.06.2019 - 05:33 [ commondreams.org ]

Sanders Hands Over His Social Media Accounts to Walmart Workers Ahead of Attending Annual Meeting to Advocate for Employees

Sen. Bernie Sanders turned over his social media accounts to Walmart workers on Tuesday—one day before the Democratic presidential candidate is set to attend the retail giant‘s annual meeting, at the invitation of some employees, to advocate for higher wages and introduce a shareholder‘s proposal that aims to ensure hourly workers are represented on the company‘s board.

Sanders is a longtime supporter of expanding labor rights and critic of Walmart.

05.06.2019 - 05:25 [ BBC Newsnight ‏/ Twitter ]

Philip Hammond: „I reject the idea that there are vast numbers of people facing dire poverty in this country“ Emily Maitlis: „14 million according to the UN rapporteur“ Philip Hammond: „I don’t accept the UN rapporteur’s report at all“ MORE 22:30 #newsnight | @maitlis

05.06.2019 - 05:22 [ PoliticsHome.com ]

WATCH: Donald Trump faces backlash after claiming NHS ‘on the table’ in any future UK-US trade deal

Donald Trump has insisted that the National Health Service must be „on the table“ in negotiations over a future UK-US trade agreement.

05.06.2019 - 05:16 [ Guido Fawkes ]

Five Candidates Don’t Meet New ’22 Threshold

UPDATE: Official Statement:

Following meetings of the 1922 Executive Committee and the Conservative Party Board today, the rules on how the Conservative Party leadership contest will proceed have been agreed.

05.06.2019 - 05:02 [ theSun.co.uk ]

Boris Johnson warns Tories will be wiped out if they don’t take Britain out of EU on time

The frontrunner told „One Nation“ moderate Tory MPs the party had to realise the “depth of problems we face”.
And in the first hustings of the contest, the former Foreign Secretary said: “Unless we get on and do this thing, we will be punished for a very long time.

“There is a very real choice between getting Brexit done – and the potential extinction of this great party.”

05.06.2019 - 05:00 [ NewStatesman.com ]

Boris Johnson passes his first leadership test

Out of view of the press – who were barred on the decidedly flimsy grounds that „job interviews aren‘t usually made public“ – Sajid Javid, Rory Stewart, Boris Johnson and Andrea Leadsom made their cases to a sizeable chunk of the parliamentary party in conversation with the Spectator‘s Katy Balls. Barring any further drop-outs, or, indeed, new entrants, four more will follow on Wednesday evening, with the remainder taking the mic next Monday.

05.06.2019 - 04:38 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

Big Data bei der Polizei: Hessen sucht mit Palantir-Software nach Gefährdern

Aus Sicht der Grundrechte steht »Hessen-Data« im Konflikt mit dem Recht auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung als Bestandteil des Allgemeinen Persönlichkeitsrechts aus Artikel 2 Absatz 1 in Verbindung mit Artikel 1 Absatz 1 des Grundgesetzes. Im Besonderen stellen Massendatenauswertungen, wie sie mit »Hessen-Data« möglich sind, den im Datenschutzrecht zentralen Zweckbindungsgrundsatz in Frage.

05.06.2019 - 04:27 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

Vorratsdatenspeicherung in Europa: Wo sie in Kraft ist und was die EU plant

Angedachte Änderungen, die bisher verlautet wurden, sind eher kosmetisch. Auf eine Informationsfreiheitsanfrage von Digitalcourage wurde bekannt, dass die europäische Polizeiagentur Europol vorschlägt, lediglich einige technische Daten wie die Antennenlänge des benutzten Telekom-Geräts nicht zu erfassen. Sensible Metadaten wie Verbindungsteilnehmer, Nummern und anderes sollen jedoch weiterhin gespeichert werden. Ob die VDS überhaupt dazu beiträgt, Straftaten besser aufzuklären, ist bis heute nicht bewiesen. Studien und Gutachten legen das Gegenteil nahe.

05.06.2019 - 04:04 [ junge Welt ]

Twitter sperrt Accounts „Satire und Ironie sind ausdrücklich kein Sperrgrund“

Ihr Account beim Kurznachrichtendienst Twitter ist kürzlich gesperrt worden. Ähnlich erging es zuletzt auch vielen anderen Nutzern, darunter Juristen, Politiker und Publizisten. Grund waren oft harmlose Scherze, war zu hören. Worum ging es bei Ihnen?

Ich bin wegen eines alten Tweets mit dem schwachen Witz gesperrt worden: AfD-Wähler sollten nicht vergessen, ihren Wahlzettel zu unterschreiben. Ähnlich erging es anderen Juristen.

05.06.2019 - 03:24 [ Informationsstelle Militarisierung (IMI) ]

IMI lädt ein: Kein Tag der Bundeswehr!

Das Verteidigungsministerium versucht damit, einerseits die Rekrut*innenzahl anzukurbeln und andererseits durch persönliche Gespräche in „Volksfestatmosphäre“ den bislang schwachen Rückhalt für Auslandseinsätze an der Heimatfront zu stärken. Die geringe Bereitschaft des Großteils der Bevölkerung, immer höhere Rüstungshaushalte zu befürworten, Rüstungsexporte zu akzeptieren und generell dem immer offener zutage tretenden militärischen Großmachtstreben den nötigen Rückenwind zu verschaffen, machen aus Sicht der Bundeswehr verstärkte PR-Maßnahmen notwendig – und der Tag der Bundeswehr steht im Zentrum dieser Bemühungen, weshalb es wichtig ist, dagegen Flagge zu zeigen!

05.06.2019 - 03:01 [ German Foreign Policy ]

„Tag der Bundeswehr“ Fest verankert

Mit dem diesjährigen „Tag der Bundeswehr“ wollen die deutschen Streitkräfte erklärtermaßen die soziale Militarisierung weiter vorantreiben. Es gehe darum zu demonstrieren, dass die Truppe „aus der Gesellschaft heraus für die Gesellschaft da ist“, heißt es in den zugehörigen Propagandapublikationen. Dabei kann sich die Armee insbesondere auf willfährige Landes- und Kommunalpolitiker stützen. Mehrere Regional- und Gemeindefeste wurden eigens auf den „Tag der Bundeswehr“ verlegt; neben Waffen und Kriegsgerät werden flächendeckend Einsatzfahrzeuge von Polizeibehörden, Technischem Hilfswerk (THW) und Rettungsdiensten zu sehen sein. Das hierin zum Ausdruck kommende Vorgehen korrespondiert mit einer deutlichen Zunahme sogenannter freilaufender Übungen der deutschen Streitkräfte. Dabei trainieren Kampfeinheiten inmitten der Zivilbevölkerung unter anderem Operationen zur Aufstandsbekämpfung in Afghanistan. Die betroffenen Bürger werden schon im Vorfeld auf die entsprechenden Manöver eingestimmt – und erhalten zugleich Informationen über den „Arbeitgeber Bundeswehr“.

05.06.2019 - 02:37 [ Portal amerika21.de ]

Massenproteste gegen Kürzungspläne von Bolsonaro in Brasilien

Die Mittelkürzungen betreffen den Bau und Betrieb von Kindergärten und Schulen, technische Ausbildungen, Alphabetisierungsprogramme, Forschungsstipendien, Lehrmaterialien, Schultransport und Verwaltungsmittel der Bundesuniversitäten sowie die Deckung des Strom- und Wasserverbrauchs bis hin zum Wohngeld für Studierende.