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Ivanka Trump may not return to the White House if Donald Trump wins in 2020 – CNBC

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Ivanka Trump, assistant to U.S. President, listens as her father U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while holding a video conference to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts, including Peggy Whitson, inside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, April 24, 2017.

Molly Riley | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Ivanka Trump suggested she might not return to the White House if her father, President Donald Trump, is reelected in 2020.

In an interview with the CBS program "Face the Nation" that aired Sunday, the first daughter said she will consider her kids before committing to a decision to stay at the White House if her father is elected to a second term in office.

"I am driven first and foremost by my kids and their happiness, so that's always going to be my top priority," Ivanka Trump said. "And my decisions will always be flexible enough to ensure that their needs are being considered first and foremost. So they will really drive that answer for me."

But she said, the work she and her family are doing in the White House is "always unfinished. We've done so much but it's not enough yet."

Trump was appointed as senior advisor to her father alongside her husband, Jared Kushner. While in her role, Trump has focused most of her time on women's economic issues and workforce development. In the interview, Trump touted a 12-week family leave plan she pushed in the White House.

Also in the interview, she dodged a question about whether she plans to run for office herself, saying her work is "really energizing and I'm deeply passionate but you know the day I walk into the West Wing and I don't feel a shiver up my spine is the day I've been here too long."

A spokesperson for the White House said reports about Ivanka Trump potentially leaving in 2020 took "her answer out of context."

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Ivanka Trump may not return to the White House if Donald Trump wins in 2020 - CNBC

Obama, Trump Tie as Most Admired Man in 2019 – Gallup

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Story Highlights

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Barack Obama and Donald Trump are tied this year as the most admired man. It is Obama's 12th time in the top spot versus the first for Trump. Michelle Obama is the most admired woman for the second year in a row.

Each year since 1948, Gallup has asked Americans to name, in an open-ended fashion, which man and woman living anywhere in the world they admire most. This year's results are based on a Dec. 2-15 poll.

Americans' choice for most admired man this year is sharply divided along party lines: 41% of Democrats name Obama, while 45% of Republicans choose Trump. Relatively few Democrats choose Trump and relatively few Republicans pick Obama, while independents' choices are divided about equally between the two men.

Most Admired Man, 2019, Overall and by Party

What man that you have heard or read about, living today in any part of the world, do you admire most?

After Obama and Trump, no other man was mentioned by more than 2% of respondents. The remainder of the top 10 for men this year includes former President Jimmy Carter, businessman Elon Musk, philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Pope Francis, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, California Rep. Adam Schiff, the Dalai Lama, and investor Warren Buffett.

Eleven percent of Americans named a relative or friend as the man they admire most; 18% named some other living man; and 25% did not name anyone.

The incumbent president has typically been Americans' choice as the most admired man, having earned the distinction in 58 of the 72 prior Gallup polls. When the incumbent president is not the choice, it is usually because he is unpopular politically, which was the case for Trump in 2017 (36% approval rating) and 2018 (40%).

Trump is more popular now than he was in the past two years, with a 45% job approval rating, among his best as president. Coincident with the rise in his job approval rating, the 18% of Americans currently naming Trump as the most admired man is also up, from 13% in 2018 and 14% in 2017. Increased mentions of Trump as the most admired man have come almost exclusively among his fellow Republicans -- 32% of Republicans named Trump in 2018 and 35% did so in 2017.

Obama's 18% mentions among U.S. adults as the most admired man are in line with his 2018 (19%) and 2017 (17%) figures, all of which are high for a former president. Dwight Eisenhower is the only other former president who received double-digit mentions at any point after leaving office.

The post-presidency popularity for Obama and Eisenhower allowed each to finish first a record 12 times. Each man was named most admired man in the year he was elected president and all eight years he was in office, plus three additional years. Obama has finished first during the first three years after he left office, while Eisenhower won once before he ran for president (1950) and twice after leaving office (1967 and 1968).

Historically, it has been more common for a former first lady to be named the most admired woman than for a former president to be named most admired man. Michelle Obama is the sixth former first lady to win, along with Eleanor Roosevelt (1948-1950 and 1952-1961), Jacqueline Kennedy (1963-1966), Mamie Eisenhower (1969-1970), Betty Ford (1978) and Hillary Clinton (2002-2017).

The 10% naming Obama this year is down from 15% last year. The 2018 poll was conducted shortly after she released her bestselling autobiography.

Current first lady Melania Trump finished second this year, mentioned by 5%, with former talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Clinton and teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg named by 3% of U.S. adults each. The remainder of the top 10 for women includes Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Queen Elizabeth finished in the top 10 for the 51st time, more than any other woman. Winfrey (32 times) and Clinton (28) have also made regular appearances in the top 10. The Rev. Billy Graham has the most top 10 finishes for either gender: a total of 61 between 1955 and 2017 before his death last year.

Most Top 10 Finishes, Gallup Most Admired Poll

Sixteen percent of U.S. adults said they admire a female relative or friend most, while 21% mentioned another woman (outside the top 10) and 27% did not have an opinion.

As with the most admired man list, there are party differences in choice of most admired woman, though not to the same extreme. Michelle Obama was the choice of 23% of Democrats, 7% of independents and 2% of Republicans. Melania Trump was the top vote-getter among Republicans, at 11%.

Trump's popularity grew enough this year to allow him to tie Barack Obama as the most admired man, but not to end Obama's streak of 12 first-place finishes. The results reflect the significant party divide in the U.S., with Republicans overwhelmingly naming Trump and Democrats Obama, and few other men garnering significant mention.

Meanwhile, Obama's wife Michelle has been named as the most admired woman the past two years after 25 years that saw Hillary Clinton finish first 22 times. In fact, Obama has had stronger finishes in the past two years than during her eight years as first lady, when no more than 8% of Americans named her.

View complete question responses and trends.

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.

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Obama, Trump Tie as Most Admired Man in 2019 - Gallup

NSO > Home – NATO School

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

By Ms. Liliana Serban, ROU-CIV,Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Course Director/ Liaison Officer

On 17 Oct 19, the NATO School Oberammergau (NSO), together with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey, USA, concluded the second cyber security course at the NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) Regional Centre in Kuwait.

The first course, Introduction to Network Security, held from 24 Mar to 04 Apr 19, was followed by an Introduction to Network Vulnerability Assessment & Risk Mitigation, from 06 to 17 Oct 19. The courses were organised under the auspices of the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme and brought together 40 IT specialists, network security administrators, technicians and engineers from different governmental agencies representing all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

These tailor-made courses are aimed at strengthening the ties between the countries in the Gulf region and NATO and at developing local cyber expertise by addressing the bits-in-transit aspect of network security and potential vulnerabilities and their mitigation in networked systems.

"The security and stability of the region heavily depend on reliable cyber infrastructure, and these courses represent a significant added value to NATOs efforts on projecting stability to the South of the Alliance", underlined Colonel Brian Hill, USA-AF, the NSO Dean of Academics, in his closing remarks.

Inaugurated in Jan 17, the NATO-ICI Regional Centre is the hub for education, training, and other cooperation activities between NATO and its ICI partners in the Gulf, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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NSO > Home - NATO School

Russia’s close ally Belarus explores working closer with NATO – Stars and Stripes

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

STUTTGART, Germany The top military official in Belarus says his country, a closely tied Russian ally, is open to conducting joint military exercises with NATO.

Belarus defense chief Oleg Belokonev recently told local media his country should be regarded in similar terms as Serbia a country with close ties to Russia but one with a military training connection to NATO.

Belarus is ready for joint exercises with NATO. There are talks on possible formats, Belokonev told Nasha Niva newspaper. But we will agree on this if NATO understands that Russia is our strategic ally.

Belokonev was responding to a question about whether Belarus relationship with NATO should resemble that of Serbia.

The idea of upgraded ties between Minsk and NATO comes amid signs of tension between Russia and Belarus, which serves as a Russian territorial buffer between NATO.

This week, Russia halted oil deliveries to Belarus over contract problems, Russian state media reported Friday. The two countries also have been at odds over payments for weapons systems.

In 2019, Belarus also angered Russia when it refused to play host to a Russian air base.

On Dec. 20, Belarus authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg to discuss deeper economic ties, The Associated Press reported. The meeting drew a rare protest of about 1,000 people in Minsk, who held up signs that said First Crimea, then Belarus and Stop Annexation!

Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014, which has led to continued conflict between the two nations and heightened tensions on NATOs eastern border.

The U.S. has begun to seek out closer ties with Belarus in the meantime. In August, former Secretary of State John Bolton made a visit to the former Soviet state the highest level American official to visit the country in years.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had planned to visit Belarus and other central Asian countries this month but canceled the trip after the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

While Belarus is a member of NATOs partnership for peace program, to date that has mainly involved smaller activities, such as military officials taking part in courses with NATO members.

Belarusian personnel are attending courses in NATO countries and practical cooperation is being developed in areas such as civil preparedness, crisis management, arms control and scientific cooperation, a NATO official said under customary condition of anonymity Thursday.

Meanwhile, Belokonev told Belarusian media that it also is considering taking part in international peacekeeping exercises that could involve training with Italian forces.

vandiver.john@stripes.comTwitter: @john_vandiver

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Russia's close ally Belarus explores working closer with NATO - Stars and Stripes

One Of NATO’s Greatest Fears: A Russian Invasion Of Iceland – Yahoo News

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Key Point:The Soviets couldve taken Iceland. Or at least caused a lot of chaos and disruption if the United States did not bolster the defenses beforehand.

Tom Clancys 1986 novel Red Storm Rising depicts a conventional war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Its one of Clancys best books and, interesting for a story about a Third World War, doesnt involve a nuclear apocalypse.

It does describe a ground war in Germany, naval and air battles in the North Atlantic and central to the plot an invasion of Iceland by a regiment of Soviet troops. Clancy, who died in 2013, was known for his realism and extreme attention to technical detail.

In Red Storm Rising, the Soviet troops overwhelm a U.S. Marine company in the Nordic island country after sneaking to shore inside the MV Yulius Fuchik, a civilian barge carrier loaded with hovercraft. Before the amphibious assault, Soviet missile target and destroy NATOs F-15 fighters based at Naval Air Station Keflavik.

Iceland was an overlooked by highly strategic location in the Cold War. Were the Soviet Unions attack submarines to break out into the Atlantic and threaten NATO shipping, neutralizing Iceland and penetrating the GIUK gap would be of vital importance.

But that doesnt mean the Soviets really couldve invaded Iceland right?

For a possible answer, lets consult The Northwestern TVD in Soviet Operational-Strategic Planning, a 2014 report by Phillip Petersen an expert on the Soviet and now Russian militaries for the Potomac Foundation.

In December, the Pentagons Office of Net Assessment made the report public and available on its website.

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One Of NATO's Greatest Fears: A Russian Invasion Of Iceland - Yahoo News

US briefing: deadly bushfires, e-cigarettes and Russia in Nato – The Guardian

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Good morning, Im Mattha Busby with todays essential stories.

Two more lives have been claimed by Australias bushfire crisis and more people are missing after fires tore through several towns on the east coast as skies turned black, with homes and school buildings destroyed and thousands forced to take shelter on beaches. A father and son died when fire hit the New South Wales town of Cobargo on Tuesday, bringing the nationwide death toll to 11.

Worst bushfire season on record. The NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, warned the true scale of the damage would only become clear once the extraordinary fires were under control.

Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened democracy, civility, truth. As 2020 approaches, the need for a robust, independent press has never been greater. Were asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our rigorous journalism in the new year. Help us reach our goal! Contribute now.

The rise of e-cigarette use has been celebrated for contributing to reductions in smoking in the UK during an otherwise disappointing decade for healthcare developments. A recent review in the British Medical Journal said vaping had given tobacco cessation a boost at no cost to the public purse. There have been scare stories but the evidence remains consistent and studies published this year showed that e-cigarettes help smokers quit and can benefit cardiovascular health.

Next steps. Proportionate regulation of e-cigarettes and effective tobacco controls must be realised throughout the world or the public health opportunity presented by e-cigarettes to many smokers will be lost, say Prof Linda Bauld and Dr Suzi Gage.

Declassified government papers reveal the MoD had sought to end decades of east-west antagonism and allow Russia to become an associate member of the North Atlantic military alliance 25 years ago. The Downing Street files also provide insights into Boris Yeltsins drinking habits and illustrate concern over his health. He was described as a bad insurance risk and a message of condolence from the prime minister was prepared in case of sudden death.

Realpolitik. If Russian representatives were present at all Nato meetings, what effect would this have on Natos own decision-making? Foreign Office officials wondered. How much do we care about Ukraines or Belarus independence?

Former Renault-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has fled court-imposed bail in Japan before his trial for alleged financial misconduct, arriving in Lebanon where he said he would escape injustice at the hands of a rigged Japanese justice system.

The security team at a church in Fortworth, Texas, who killed a shooter who had shot dead two people, could not have responded as swiftly if it were not for further liberalisation of state gun laws in 2017, the NRA has claimed.

Liberal Jewish groups warned against communities being divided and criticised the police after the decision by the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, to increase patrols in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods to combat a rise in antisemitic hate crimes.

Authorities in Chile have been urged to investigate whether the murder of a young female photographer, Albertina Martnez, after she was seen going to a protest in Santiago was linked to her reporting of violent clashes between demonstrators and police.

The future family: artificial wombs, robot carers and single fathers by choice

Although predictions by the Guardian in 2004 that it would be very hard to talk about a typical family by now have fallen flat, technology and economics could transform our understanding of the family in the coming years.

Conquistador Hernan Corts still looms large on both sides of Atlantic

About 500 years after the Spanish began their conquest of Latin America, Cortss enduring legacy is being invoked in both Mexico and Spain by politicians seeking to use the divisive figure for their own purposes. How will he be remembered in another five centuries?

Furry, cute and drooling herpes: what to do with Floridas monkeys?

Hundreds of wild monkeys infected with herpes await visitors to Floridas beautiful Silver Springs state park. The troublesome non-native macaques also prey on birds nests. The state is in a lose-lose position, and has advised people not to feed them, as Adam Gabbatt reports.

How voter purging tactic could help Republicans win in 2020

Alarm over the way people are aggressively taken off voter rolls is growing after Wisconsin and Georgia dubiously removed hundreds of thousands of people and one of Trumps reelection advisers told of an aggressive suppression programme.

31 December comes through like a party guest who bursts in after everyone has left, demands that the music is turned back up, then throws up, writes Hamilton Nolan, who argues that we dot need another holiday after Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Mostly, New Years Eve is about getting wasted. Because I do not drink, I find this a boring pretext for a national holiday Tomorrow morning, I will wake up refreshed.

Inter Miami, David Beckhams new MLS team, has its first coach. Uruguayan Diego Alonso, twice-winner of the Concacaf Champions League, said he was excited to be part of a winning project before the season curtain-raiser on 1 March.

Megan Rapinhoe, the Guardians footballer of the year, has told of her responsibility to make the world a better place and dismantle white privilege as she recalled incurring the presidents wrath before the USAs World Cup triumph this year.

The US morning briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If youre not already signed up, subscribe now.

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US briefing: deadly bushfires, e-cigarettes and Russia in Nato - The Guardian

Nato suspends Isis operations in Iraq, as Iran vows revenge on Trump after killing of top commander – The Independent

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Iran and its allies continued to threatenrevenge yesterday as a rocket exploded near the US embassy in Baghdad following the killing of an Iranian leader by American forces.

Irans ambassador to the United Nations has warned the US has started a military war by an act of terror with the killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, as Donald Trump claimed he ordered the Quds Force generals death to prevent war rather than provoke it.

The countrys UN diplomat declared Iran has to act, and we will act, while UN secretary general Antonio Guterres joined global calls for de-escalation as he cautioned the world cannot afford another Gulf War.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo criticised allies, including the UK, for not backing the airstrike. But former UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt criticised the action, calling it extreme.

Natohas suspended ongoing efforts to fight Isis in Iraqamid demands by Iran and its allies for revenge against the US.

Thousands of supporters of Soleimani and Iraqi Shia militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes gathered in Tehran, Baghdad and other cities to mourn the two men, who were killed in a US airstrike outside the Iraqi capital on Friday and whose funerals took place in Baghdad yesterday.

Yesterday Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared three days of mourning, a move followed by the Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who declared three days of national mourning in Iraq.

A witness in Tehran described shops putting up portraits ofSoleimaniand funereal banners being hung in the citys neighbourhoods.

Hes seen as a guy who has fought terrorists and brought security for Iranians at home, saidAbas Aslani, a researcher at the Centre for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran, in a phone call from the Iranian capital.

Several Iranian officials reiterated longstanding warningson Saturday that Tehran could target US ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a significant chunk of the worlds energy reserves travel, with one noting that Irans missiles could reach Israel.

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This photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister Press Office shows a burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, early Friday 3 January

The wreckage of the car in which general Soleimani was travelling when a targeted US airstrike struck outside Baghdad International Airport on 3 January

Ahmad Al Mukhtar via Reuters

Demonstrators burn the US and British flags during a protest in Tehran after general Soleimani was killed in a targeted airstrike by American forces

Reuters

A burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike. The Pentagon said Thursday that the US military has killed general Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, at the direction of Donald Trump

Protesters burn Israeli and US flags as thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of general Soleimani at the hands of America

EPA

Supporters of Donald Trump pray at an 'Evangelicals for Trump' campaign event held on the day following the killing of general Soleimani. At the event, the president praised the "flawless strike that eliminated the terrorist ringleader"

AFP via Getty

A huge procession of mourners gather in Baghdad for the funeral of general Soleimani on 4 January

Thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of Soleimani during an anti-US demonstration to condemn the killing of Soleimani, after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran

EPA

Iraqis perform a mourning prayer for slain major general Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the Great Mosque of Kufa

AFP via Getty

A billboard reading 'Death to America and Israel', installed by Iran-backed shiite armed groups at a street in Jadriyah district in Baghdad, Iraq

EPA

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him visiting the family of Soleiman

KHAMENEI.IR/AFP via Getty

Thousands of Iranians take to the streets in Tehran

EPA

Pakistani Shiite Muslims burn a mock of a US flag as they hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, outside the US Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan

EPA

Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Jalal Feiruznia, looks to a portrait of Soleimani, as he receives condolences at the Iranian embassy, in Beirut, Lebanon

People make their way on the street while a screen on the wall of a cinema shows a portrait Soleimani in Tehran

Aziz Asmar, one of two Syrian painters who completed a mural following the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani poses next to his creation in the rebel-held Syrian town of Dana in the northwestern province of Idlib

AFP via Getty

A demonstration in Tehran

AFP via Getty

An anti-US demonstration to condemn the killing of Soleimani, after Friday prayers in Tehran

EPA

Mujtaba al-Husseini, the representative of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivers a speech in the holy shrine city of Najaf

AFP via Getty

Pakistani Shiite Muslims burn a mock of a US and Israeli flags as they hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, outside the US Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan

EPA

Protesters demonstrate in Tehran

Pakistani Shi'ite Muslims hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, in Peshawar, Pakistan

EPA

Protesters, holding a photograph of the leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran Massoud Rajavi, outside Downing Street in London

Protesters burn a US flag in Tehran

A Syrian man offers sweets to children to mark the killing

AFP via Getty

Iranian worshippers attend a mourning prayer for Soleimani in Iran's capital Tehran

AFP via Getty

Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout anti American and anti Israel slogans during a protest

Iranian worshipers chant slogans during Friday prayers

Reuters

A protest against the USA, in Islamabad, Pakistan

EPA

Iranians burn a US flag in Tehran

EPA

Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Germany (NWRI) protest outside Iran's embassy in Berlin, Germany

Reuters

Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Germany (NWRI) protest outside Iran's embassy in Berlin

Reuters

Iranian worshippers in Tehran

AFP via Getty

Vehicles of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol a road in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila near the border with Israel. Following morning's killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement called for the missile strike by Israel's closest ally, to be avenged

AFP via Getty

Iranian women take to the streets in Tehran

EPA

This photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister Press Office shows a burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, early Friday 3 January

The wreckage of the car in which general Soleimani was travelling when a targeted US airstrike struck outside Baghdad International Airport on 3 January

Ahmad Al Mukhtar via Reuters

Demonstrators burn the US and British flags during a protest in Tehran after general Soleimani was killed in a targeted airstrike by American forces

Reuters

Protesters burn Israeli and US flags as thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of general Soleimani at the hands of America

EPA

AFP via Getty

A huge procession of mourners gather in Baghdad for the funeral of general Soleimani on 4 January

Thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of Soleimani during an anti-US demonstration to condemn the killing of Soleimani, after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran

EPA

Iraqis perform a mourning prayer for slain major general Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the Great Mosque of Kufa

AFP via Getty

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Nato suspends Isis operations in Iraq, as Iran vows revenge on Trump after killing of top commander - The Independent

Poland takes charge of NATO high readiness force – NATO HQ

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

The Polish army will take the lead of NATOs Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) on Wednesday (1 January 2020), placing thousands of soldiers on standby and ready to deploy within days. Poland takes over from Germany, which provided the core of the VJTFs land forces in 2019.

"I thank Poland for leading NATOs high readiness forces this year, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, The Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, our Spearhead Force, is a substantial contribution to our collective defence and a strong display of Polands capabilities. This force is available to move immediately to defend any Ally against any threat. At a time of unprecedented security challenges, it is more important than ever, the Secretary General added.

The core of the VJTF in 2020 will be Polands 21st Podhale Rifles Brigade, supported by units from Polands 12th Mechanized Division, the 3rd Transport Aviation Wing, Military Police, as well as logistics experts and Counter-Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (C-CBRN) specialists. Around 6,000 soldiers will serve on the Spearhead Force, including around 3,000 from Poland. Units from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Kingdom will also serve on the force. The United States stands ready to support the VJTF with airpower and other combat support.

The VJTF is made up of land, air, maritime and special forces, and is part of the Alliances 40,000-strong NATO Response Force. Exercise Trident Jupiter 19, which took place in November 2019, certified the forces and commands for the 2020 NATO Response Force.NATOs Joint Force Command in Brunssum has command of the NRF in 2020. NATO heads of state and government agreed to create the VJTF at the Wales Summit in 2014 in response to a changed security environment, including Russias illegal annexation of Ukraines Crimea and turmoil in the Middle East. Turkey will lead the VJTFs land forces in 2021.

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Poland takes charge of NATO high readiness force - NATO HQ

Netflixs Messiah Is Not Worth Suffering Through In Order To Solve Its Mysteries – Forbes

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Messiah

While Ive written a few books so far, I always have a couple more bouncing around in my head at any given moment. One wild idea Ive had for a few years now was based on my Christian upbringing, where Jesus returns for the second coming and starts performing miracles to wow everyone.

Only, plot twist! Actually, the man is a time-traveler who arrives from the future and is using nanotech and advanced science to perform what looks like miracles in an effort to trick everyone and end up ruling the world.

I am spoiling my own idea for you here because now that Ive seen Messiah, I am definitely never going to write it. Though the idea is what hooked me into the concept of the show to begin with, as the Netflix drama asks the question, what would happen if a man claiming to be the second coming of Jesus arrived and started performing miracles? Would we believe him? Would he be exposed as a fraud? Could he be the real deal?

Its a question I found fundamentally interesting, given my own idea, and its what pushed me through to the end of the season to figure out the answer.

It was not worth it.

No, the Messiah isnt a time-traveler, that much Ill say up front, but the show and the answers it provides are not worth spending 10 episodes on it with so many better TV options out there.

The biggest problem with Messiah is that outside of the somewhat interesting question of whether the central figure is real or fake, there is quite literally nothing else of value in the series. I did appreciate Mehdi Dehbis performance as would-be Jesus, asking the question of what Christ might look like if he showed up on earth as an Iranian supermodel. And the best performance of the series is probably from the only cast member you know, Michelle Monaghan as a CIA officer determined to uncover the truth about Al-Masih (The Messiah).

Messiah

Every other character and storyline in the series is bad. You simply do not care about any of them. There are two boys who are initial followers of Al-Masih that end up having storylines so disconnected from the rest of the plot I have no idea why they exist in the first place. Theres a tormented Israeli spy who is half protagonist, half foil to Al-Masih, and always irritating. Theres a pastor and his family who serve as Al-Masihs American disciples/handlers and yet none of them ever become compelling characters in the least, not even after a tremendous amount of time is devoted to them for at least eight of the ten episodes. Even Monaghans spy is dull, and weirdly, is one of the least fleshed-out characters of the bunch.

So that leaves the only compelling thing about the show as its central mystery. Is Al-Masih for real?

Im going to just going ahead and spoil it now, because honestly, I dont think you should waste your time watching this series to find out. But if you dont want to know, turn back now.

The show really goes out of its way to do everything possible to make you believe that Al-Masih is a fraud. The show ends up coming up with this concept where Al-Masih studied in America under a man who turned out to be a Russian spy, and that he was raised as a child by his uncle who was a magician, hence his ability to perform miracles. His own brother testifies that he believes hes a fraud, and its revealed that he spent some time in a psychological facility for, what else, having a Messiah complex.

But as I watched the show, these breadcrumbs made no sense. They did not explain two of the biggest moments of the series, one where Al-Masih preaches through a sandstorm that buries an entire advancing army on Damascus, and then two episodes later where he shows up in Texas just as a tornado is hitting, and he saves the pastors daughter. If the idea is that hes some Russian psyop social disruption project, you cant plan moments like that. Nor that he knows detailed, personal background information on two random interrogators (the CIA agent and Israeli spy), like Russia could know exactly who would interview him if he was taken into custody. It doesnt make any sense. And they try to play up the magician angle, but theres a sequence where Al-Masih walks on water on the Washington DC mall, something that would be impossible to fake from that many angles without some very detailed and elaborate planning ahead of time, which we know he couldnt have done.

Messiah

So if it doesnt make sense that hes faking, it only leaves one answer, that he isnt. And in the closing moments of the show, thats whats revealed.

Al-Masih is snatched by the Israeli spy and is going to be taken to some deep dark prison somewhere. But the plane crashes, apparently sabotaged by the American government. Its revealed that Al-Masih not only survives the crash without a scratch (very Bruce Willis in Unbreakable of him), but he starts resurrecting people in the plane from the dead, including the spy. So, hes either the true Messiah or he sure has Messiah-like powers.

Its bad, its all just very bad. This reveal makes you think about so many other things in the show and how very little of it makes sense if he was telling the truth the whole time. And yet if he wasnt, that wouldnt have been very good either, as the show is justnot very good. And the series seems to misunderstand Jesus in general, as a pretty key component of his time on earth was that he was mercilessly beaten, bloodied and hung on a cross. He wasnt a superhero who walks out of the wreckage of a burning plane without so much as a cut, but honestly, whatever, I cant bring myself to care.

This is not a good show. It has a fundamentally interesting concept, at least to me, but honestly, I think my time traveler story is better. Maybe Ill still write it after all, just dont tell anyone the ending.

Follow meon Twitter,FacebookandInstagram. Pre-order my new sci-fi novelHerokiller, and read my first series,The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also onaudiobook.

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Netflixs Messiah Is Not Worth Suffering Through In Order To Solve Its Mysteries - Forbes

‘Firebreaker’ Launched on Kickstarter – Exclusively Games

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Canadian developer Moonlight 7 Studios have launched a Kickstarter for their virtual reality arcade shooter Firebreaker. Firebreaker takes place inside cyberspace where youll get to blast drones into pieces. The developers have managed to get $116 out of their targeted goal of $3,076, and there are 34 days left to back the project if youd like to.

Firebreaker is expected to come to Oculus Rift, and eventually to the Oculus Quest. Players get to enter into a futuristic, yet also retro, virtual reality world known as Bitscape. The developers have designed the world to be inspired by computer-generated imagery of the 1980s, which means players can see a world created out of simple geometry. Stand on top of your hacking station, and wield hacking blasters to infiltrate NanoTech Corps systems. Hack your way through firewalls, and fight against anti-hacker drones.

As you fire upon enemies, youll start to build up your score. Eventually, youll get to cause even more chaos as you upgrade your blasters. Firebreaker will also have a leaderboard system; this will allow you to compare your scores against others. Players will need to physically duck, dodge, and take out enemies to achieve their mission to destroy the core. You must protect the free world. The developers have referred to the combat as a thrilling dance between life and death. For those who love VR games, how do you feel about this title? Moonlight 7 Studios has said the following about Firebreaker:

We are raising funds because we are near the end of our production and in need of marketing and publishing funds. We want as many gamers to experience this thrilling arcade shooter as possible with trailers, screenshots and an early playable demo!

We are Moonlight 7 Studios. Seven sleepy college graduates finishing our first game together as a team. We would love for everyone to be a part of this exciting adventure as we finalize production and prepare for release!

Based on whats been shown and explained by the talented team behind the title, it looks great. Unfortunately, I dont play VR games. They just havent won me over yet. However, to those who love VR, what are some good titles? Also, will you be picking up Firebreaker should it reach its goal? To stay up to date on Firebreaker, make sure to follow the developers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and their official website.

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'Firebreaker' Launched on Kickstarter - Exclusively Games

Rats on DMT hint at the benefits of psychedelic microdosing – Inverse

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Devotees of microdosing dont view the practice as simply doing drugs. Instead, they claim that taking a very small dose of a psychedelic drug can [hold unexpected health benefits]((https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395919301161?via%3Dihub). Microdosing may reduce anxiety, decrease symptoms of depression, or boosting ones creativity. But the problem with all of these purported benefits is that theres not enough research to back them up.

In March 2019, scientists took a step closer to unraveling the science behind the anecdotes, when a team led by University of California, Davis assistant professor David Olson tested how psychedelic microdosing affects behavior in animals. They gave male and female rats very small doses of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the principal psychoactive component in the hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca. Their results suggest DMT microdosing can promote neural plasticity in key brain circuits related to anxiety and depression. But they also hint at potential downsides that are worth investigating further.

This is #2 on Inverses list of the 25 biggest science stories of human potential of 2019.

I think the most pressing question to answer right now is the issue of safety, Olson told Inverse at the time. Its very possible that while microdosing might have beneficial effects for healthy adults, it could come with severe side effects in other populations.

The study was published in March in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

The team used DMT because they wanted to experiment with a drug thats the most applicable to the broadest range of psychedelic compounds. Olson explained that when other psychedelics like magic mushrooms or LSD are broken down to the molecular level, they are essentially the same as DMT. Because of this shared pharmacology, tests on DMT may be translated to other psychedelic drugs.

Because theres no well-established definition of how big a dose a microdose actually is, the team gave the rats the equivalent of what humans typically use: one-tenth of a hallucinogenic dose. The rats were dosed at an age equivalent to a young adult, since young adults seem most likely to microdose.

The rats received the dose every three days for two months, and, after two weeks, the team evaluated their behavior on the days the rats were not given drugs. When they tested the rats to see if any aspects of their sociability or cognitive functioning had altered, they didnt observe any changes. But they did find that microdosing appeared to alter the rats anxiety and fear responses.

When rats are put into water, the ones who are most anxious and afraid are expected to resort to floating over swimming the earliest. In this study, the rats on DMT had the same reaction as rats on antidepressants who undergo this test they kept on swimming. This suggests microdosing made them less anxious when they encountered a challenge.

In a fear extinction test, microdosing appeared to help the rats overcome fear triggers at a quicker rate than normal, without also impacting their working memory.

But the researchers also noticed two strange, ill effects. Male rats treated with DMT gained a significant amount of body weight, while neurons in the female rats appeared to be breaking down. These results are a little concerning, Olsen said and the team dont know why they happened.

The study highlights just how much scientists dont know about microdosing and the potential hazards it could hold.

As 2019 draws to a close, Inverse is revisiting 25 striking lessons for humans to help maximize our potential. This is #2. Some are awe-inspiring, some offer practical tips, and some give a glimpse of the future. Read the original article here.

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Rats on DMT hint at the benefits of psychedelic microdosing - Inverse

Psychedelic Drugs: Researchers experimenting with active agent in magic mushrooms to treat addiction, depression and anxiety – 60 Minutes – CBS News

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

For most, psychedelic drugs conjure up images of the 1960's, hippies tripping out on LSD or magic mushrooms. But, as Anderson Cooper reported earlier this year, these powerful, mind-altering substances are now being studied seriously by scientists inside some of the country's foremost medical research centers. They're being used to treat depression, anxiety and addiction.

The early results are impressive, as are the experiences of the studies' volunteers who go on a six-hour, sometimes terrifying, but often life-changing psychedelic journey deep into their own minds.

Carine McLaughlin: (LAUGH) People ask me, "Do you wanna do it again?" I say, "Hell no. I don't wanna go do that again."

Anderson Cooper: It was really that bad?

Carine McLaughlin: Oh, it was awful. The entire time, other than the very end and the very beginning, I was crying.

Carine McLaughlin is talking about the hallucinogenic experience she had here at Johns Hopkins University, after being given a large dose of psilocybin, the psychedelic agent in magic mushrooms, as part of an ongoing clinical trial.

Roland Griffiths: We tell people that their experiences may vary from very positive to transcendent and lovely to literally hell realm experiences.

Anderson Cooper: Hell realm?

Roland Griffiths: As frightening an experience as you have ever had in your life.

That's scientist Roland Griffiths. For nearly two decades now, he and his colleague Matthew Johnson have been giving what they call "heroic doses" of psilocybin to more than 350 volunteers, many struggling with addiction, depression and anxiety.

Anderson Cooper: Can you tell who is going to have a bad experience, who's gonna have a transcendent experience?

Roland Griffiths: Our ability to predict that is almost none at all.

Anderson Cooper: Really?

Matthew Johnson: About a third will-- at our-- at a high dose say that they have something like that, what folks would call a bad trip. But most of those folks will actually say that that was key to the experience.

Carine McLaughlin was a smoker for 46 years and said she tried everything to quit before being given psilocybin at Johns Hopkins last year. Psilocybin itself is non-addictive.

Anderson Cooper: Do you remember what, like, specifically what you were seeing or?

Carine McLaughlin: Yes. The ceiling of this room were clouds, like, heavy rain clouds. And gradually they were lowering. And I thought I was gonna suffocate from the clouds.

That was more than a year ago; she says she hasn't smoked since. The study she took part in is still ongoing, but in an earlier, small study of just 15 long-term smokers, 80% had quit six months after taking psilocybin. That's double the rate of any over-the-counter smoking cessation product.

Roland Griffiths: They come to a profound shift of world view. And essentially, a shift in sense of self that I think--

Anderson Cooper: They-- they see their life in a different way?

Roland Griffiths: Their world view changes and-- and they are less identified with that self-narrative. People might use the term "ego." And that creates this sense of freedom.

And not just with smokers.

Jon Kostakopoulos: Beer usually, cocktails, usually vodka sodas, tequila sodas, scotch and sodas.

Jon Kostakopoulos was drinking a staggering 20 cocktails a night and had been warned he was slowly killing himself when he decided to enroll in another psilocybin trial at New York University. During one psilocybin session, he was flooded with powerful feelings and images from his past.

Jon Kostakopoulos: Stuff would come up that I haven't thought of since they happened.

Anderson Cooper: So old memories that you hadn't even remembered came back to you?

Jon Kostakopoulos: I felt, you know, a lot of shame and embarrassment throughout one of the sessions about my drinking and how bad I felt for my parents to put up with all this.

He took psilocybin in 2016. He says he hasn't had a drink since.

Anderson Cooper: Do you ever have a day where you wake up and you're like, man, I wish I could have a vodka right now or beer?

Jon Kostakopoulos: Never.

Anderson Cooper: Not at all?

Jon Kostakopoulos: Not at all, which is the craziest thing because that was my favorite thing to do.

Using psychedelic drugs in therapy is not new. There were hundreds of scientific studies done on a similar compound - LSD - in the 1950's and 60's. It was tested on more than 40,000 people, some in controlled therapeutic settings like this one. But there were also abuses. The U.S. military and CIA experimented with LSD sometimes without patients knowledge.

Fear over rampant drug use and the spread of the counterculture movement, not to mention Harvard professor Timothy Leary urging people to turn on, tune in and drop out, led to a clamp down.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the controlled substances act and nearly all scientific research in the U.S. Into the effects of psychedelics on people stopped. It wasn't until 2000 that scientist Roland Griffiths won FDA approval to study psilocybin.

Roland Griffiths: This whole area of research has been in the deep freeze for 25 or 30 years. And so as a scientist, sometimes I feel like Rip Van Winkle.

Anderson Cooper: And once you saw the results

Roland Griffiths: Yeah. The red light started flashing. This is extraordinarily interesting. It's unprecedented and the capacity of the human organism to change. It just was astounding.

Anderson Cooper: It sounds like you are endorsing this for everybody.

Roland Griffiths: Yeah, let's be really clear on that. We are very aware of the risks, and would not recommend that people simply go out and do this.

Griffiths and Johnson screen out people with psychotic disorders or with close relatives who have had schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Study volunteers at Johns Hopkins are given weeks of intensive counseling before and after the six-hour psilocybin experience; the psilocybin is given in a carefully controlled setting one to three times. To date, they say there's not been a single serious adverse outcome.

We were told we couldn't record anyone participating in the study while they were on psilocybin because it might impact their experience, but we were shown how it begins without the psilocybin.You lay on a couch, with a blindfold to shut out distractions and headphones playing a mix of choral and classical music a psychedelic soundtrack with a trained guide, mary cosimano, watching over you.

Everything is done the same way it was for the LSD experiments scientists conducted in the 1950s and 60s. Some of the most dramatic results have been with terminal cancer patients struggling with anxiety and paralyzing depression.

Kerry Pappas: I start seeing the colors and the geometric designs and it's like 'oh this is so cool, and how lovely' and, and then, boom. Visions began.

Kerry Pappas was diagnosed with stage III lung cancer in 2013. During her psilocybin session, she found herself trapped in a nightmare her mind created.

Kerry Pappas: An ancient, prehistoric, barren land. And there's these men with pickaxes, just slamming on the rocks. So

Anderson Cooper: And this felt absolutely real to you?

Kerry Pappas: Absolutely real. I was being shown the truth of reality. Life is meaningless, we have no purpose. And then I look and I'm still like a witness, a beautiful, shimmering, bright jewel. And then it was sound, and it was booming, booming, booming. Right here right now.

Anderson Cooper: That was being said?

Kerry Pappas: Yes. "You are alive. Right here right now, because that's all you have." And that is my mantra to this day.

Michael Pollan: It seemed so implausible to me that a single experience caused by a molecule, right, ingested in your body could transform your outlook on something as profound as death. That's-- that's kind of amazing.

Author Michael Pollan wrote about the psilocybin studies in a bestselling book called "How to Change Your Mind." As part of his research, he tried psilocybin himself with the help of an underground guide.

Anderson Cooper: The kind of things that cancer patients were saying, like, "I touched the face of God." You were skeptical about when you hear phrases like that?

Michael Pollan: Yeah. Or, "Love is the most important thing in the universe." When someone tells me that I'm just like, "yeah, okay."

Anderson Cooper: So you don't go for some of the phrases that are used?

Michael Pollan: No. It gives me the willies as a writer. And I really struggled with that cause during one of my experiences I came to the earth-shattering conclusion that love is the most important thing in the universe. But it's, that's Hallmark card stuff, right? And um, so

Anderson Cooper: And yet while you were on it and afterward

Michael Pollan: It was profoundly true. And it is profoundly true. Guess what? Um

Anderson Cooper: There's a reason it's on a Hallmark card.

Michael Pollan: There is a reason. And one of the things psychedelics do is they peel away all those essentially protective levels of irony and, and cynicism that we, that we acquire as we get older and you're back to those kind of "Oh, my God. I forgot all about love." (Laugh)

Pollan said he also experienced what the researchers describe as ego loss, or identity loss - the quieting of the constant voice we all have in our heads.

Michael Pollan: I did have this experience of seeing my ego-- burst into-- a little cloud of Post-It notes. I know it sounds crazy.

Anderson Cooper: And what are you are without an ego?

Michael Pollan: You're, uh (Laugh) You had to be there.

Researchers believe that sensation of identity loss occurs because psilocybin quiets these two areas of the brain that normally communicate with each other. They're part of a region called the default mode network and it's especially active when we're thinking about ourselves and our lives.

Michael Pollan: And it's where you connect what happens in your life to the story of who you are.

Anderson Cooper: We all develop a story over time about what our past was like and who we are.

Michael Pollan: Right. Yeah, what kind of person we are. How we react. And the fact is that interesting things happen when the self goes quiet in the brain, including this rewiring that happens.

To see that rewiring, Johns Hopkins scientist Matthew Johnson showed us this representational chart of brain activity. The circle on the left shows normal communication between parts of the brain, on the right, what happens on psilocybin. There's an explosion of connections or crosstalk between areas of the brain that don't normally communicate.

Anderson Cooper: The difference is just startling.

Matthew Johnson: Right.

Anderson Cooper: Is that why people are having experiences of-- seeing you know, repressed memories, or past memories, or people who have died or?

Matthew Johnson: That's what we think. And even the perceptual effect, sometimes the synesthesia, like, the-- the seeing sound.

Anderson Cooper: People see sound?

Matthew Johnson: Yeah, sometimes.

Anderson Cooper: I-- I don't even know what that means.

Matthew Johnson: Right, yeah. (LAUGH) It's-- it's--

Michael Pollan: Maybe the ego is one character among many in your mind. And you don't necessarily have to listen to that voice that's chattering at you and criticizing you and telling you what to do. And that's very freeing.

It was certainly freeing for Kerry Pappas. Though her cancer has now spread to her brain, her crippling anxiety about death is gone.

Kerry Pappas: Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, I feel like death doesn't frighten me. Living doesn't frighten me. I don't frighten me. This frightens me.

Anderson Cooper: This interview frightens you, but death doesn't?

Kerry Pappas: No.

It turns out most of the 51 cancer patients in the Johns Hopkins study experienced "significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety" after trying psilocybin. Two-thirds of them rated their psilocybin sessions as among the most meaningful experiences of their lives. For some, it was on par with the birth of their children.

Kerry Pappas: To this day, it evolves in me.

Anderson Cooper: It's still alive in you--

Kerry Pappas: It's still absolutely alive in me.

Anderson Cooper: Does it make you happier?

Kerry Pappas: Yeah. And-- and I don't necessarily use the word happy.

Kerry Pappas: Comfortable. Like, comfortable. I mean, I've suffered from anxiety my whole life. I'm comfortable. That, to me, okay. I can die. I'm comfortable. (LAUGH) I mean, it's huge. It's huge.

Produced by Sarah Koch. Associate producer, Chrissy Jones

Original post:

Psychedelic Drugs: Researchers experimenting with active agent in magic mushrooms to treat addiction, depression and anxiety - 60 Minutes - CBS News

Study: Blame The War On Drugs (And Not Prescriptions) For America’s Opioid Crisis – Yahoo News

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Key point: As prescription volume precipitously drops, the overdose rate continues apace.

A new study reported in the November 1, 2019Annals of Emergency Medicinepours morecold water on the false but persistent narrative that the opioid overdose crisis wascaused by doctors prescribing opioids to patients in pain.

This prospective cohort study by researchers in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine followed 484 opioid nave patients prescribed opioids for acute pain upon release from the emergency department during a six month period. The statewide prescription drug monitoring program was employed in addition to regular follow up telephone interviews. One percent (five patients) met the criteria for persistent opioid use by the end of the follow up period. Four of the five patients still had moderate or severe pain in the affected body part six months after release from the emergency department.

The study comes after a much larger retrospective cohort studyreported in theBMJof more than 568,000 opioid nave patients prescribed opioids for acute postoperative pain between 2008 and 2016. Investigators found a totalmisuserate of 0.6 percent.The researchersdefined misuse as follows:

The primary outcome was an ICD-9 (international classification of diseases, ninth revision) diagnosis code of opioid dependence, abuse, or overdoseOpioid misuse was defined as the presence of at least one of these ICD codes after discharge and encompasses a composite of a wide range of forms of misuse. We included only diagnosis codes related specifically to prescription opioids.

Read the original article.

Study: Blame The War On Drugs (And Not Prescriptions) For America's Opioid Crisis - Yahoo News

The War On Drugs Guitarist Anthony LaMarca On The Building Record, ‘PETRA’ : World Cafe – NPR

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

Who doesn't love a good dog? Here at World Cafe, we are pro-doggo, and so is our next guest, Anthony LaMarca, who fronts a band called The Building (that is, when he isn't busy playing guitar in the Grammy award-winning band, The War on Drugs). After moving back to his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, a few years ago, LaMarca adopted a dog because his wife wanted one which is a pretty good reason, I might add.

The dog's name is Petra, and Petra was by LaMarca's side as he battled cancer. PETRA is also the title of The Building's latest album, in which the name takes on a new meaning as an acronym: Peace's Eternal Truth Renews All. Anthony will explain what that means, and we'll hear a performance from the band, starting with "Warning." That and more in the audio player above.

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The War On Drugs Guitarist Anthony LaMarca On The Building Record, 'PETRA' : World Cafe - NPR

Watch The War On Drugs Cover Neil Young, Patti Smith, And The Pretenders At First Shows In A Year – Stereogum

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

After releasing their heavily anticipated album A Deeper Understanding in 2017, subsequently touring behind it through 2018, and along the way becoming bigger than plausibly expected even following the success of Lost In The Dream, the War On Drugs have kept pretty quiet through 2019. Maybe that means somethings on the horizon for 2020? In the meantime, the band has returned for some hometown shows to close out the decade that saw their ascension, and theyve brought some nice surprises along with them.

Last year, the War On Drugs capped off 2018 with a three-night run of shows called A Drug-Cember To Remember, starting at the tiny Philly club Johnny Brendas and working their way up to the Tower Theater. Its been just over a year since those performances which makes it just over a year since the band played onstage, period and this time around they returned for a two-night stand at Union Transfer and the Fillmore. (Though the Fillmore is a pretty big club, these would still qualify as intimate shows by TWOD standards these days.)

The setlists marked the occasion well. On one hand, they were gesturing toward career-spanning, with the great Slave Ambient getting more love than it did through much of the tour behind A Deeper Understanding. (That tour found the Drugs as a much stronger live band than in the past, so the absence of The Animator and Come To The City was a bummer.) And they also unveiled some new covers.

The War On Drugs are no strangers to incorporating covers into their live shows, including stuff from John Lennon, George Harrison, and the Waterboys over the years. This time, they dug into Neil Youngs Look Out For My Love (after previously covering Like A Hurricane). And on each night, Philadelphia-based songwriter Rosali joined them for some bigger surprises: the Pretenders Birds Of Paradise and Patti Smiths Because The Night. (Though when you consider Bruce Springsteen wrote the latter, maybe its not too surprising a cover option for the Drugs.) In addition, they revisited their version of Warren Zevons Accidentally Like A Martyr, which they performed a bunch through 2017 and 2018. Check out videos of the new covers below.

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Watch The War On Drugs Cover Neil Young, Patti Smith, And The Pretenders At First Shows In A Year - Stereogum

The Golden Globes used to be a joke now it is one of the most prestigious awards shows on the planet – The Independent

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

A giggling Bette Midler tells a dirty joke and simulates performing a lewd act upon the gold-lacquered gong she has just accepted. Oliver Stone, his hair spooling madly down towards his shoulders, rants about Americas war on drugs as boos ring out and host Chevy Chase tells him to just say thank you and leave the stage.

And lets not forget Emma Thompson flinging her shoes over her shoulder and handing her martini to an assistant, or noted chuckle champion Cate Blanchett joking about that time Judy Garland was force-fed barbiturates. Renee Zellweger almost misses her big moment entirely because she has gone to the loo. Hugh Grant is up at the podium accepting a gleaming accolade on her behalf when she bursts back into the room, pegging it through the crowd in her couture gown.

We could be talking about the Oscars, but obviously we arent. All the above incidents occurred at the Golden Globes, the awards show where Hollywood allows its crazy side off the leash, which returns on Sunday night with impish Ricky Gervais as host. And though this junior sibling of the Academy Awards has calmed down significantly in the past several years, the annual Hollywood Foreign Press Association gong-giving ceremony is still far more riotous than the Oscars, or most other awards, would dare to be.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The zaniness isnt just confined to tipsy A-listers briefly setting down their vodkas (which is what Blanchett says shed been drinking when she dropped her Garland wisecrack in 2014) in order to lurch to the podium to receive their gleaming mementoes. In its 77 years, the Globes has defied received wisdom and industry convention with gusto. And yet, here it is in 2020, the second most prestigious awards show on the planet after the Oscars.

The Globes litany of head-scratching gestures includes giving the Best New Star award in 1982 to the unknown lead in a bizarre incest movie (more on which later), honouring Ridley Scott sci-fi drama The Martian as Best Musical or Comedyin 2016, and applauding Lady Gaga for her stilted turn in American Horror Story. This year, meanwhile, there is every possibility the Globes will name opinion-splitting Joker as Best Drama, and hand the Best Musical or Comedy prize to Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantinos often brutal deconstruction of the Manson murders. At the Globes, anything goes.

After hosting the Golden Globes from 2010 to 2012, Gervais returned to the ceremony in 2016 and chose to devote part of his opening monologue to joking about Caitlyn Jenner, who had recently come out as transgender and was documenting her transition publicly. Hey @RickyGervais. Its 2016. Jokes at the expense of trans people are so tired. Catch up, GLAAD tweeted at the time. Gervais has since doubled down on this line of comedy in a Netflix special. In September 2019, he tweeted: You can joke about whatever the f*** you like. And some people won't like it and they will tell you they don't like it. And then it's up to you whether you give a f*** or not. And so on. It's a good system. Hence, the bottom spot in this ranking.

YouTube / NBC

Fresh off a particularly biting 2011 hosting set, was Gervais struggling to figure out just the right amount of meanness for the ceremony? The comedian didnt seem quite like himself that time around. He delivered some good lines, among them: For any of you who dont know, the Golden Globes are just like the Oscars, but without all that esteem and The Hollywood Foreign Press have warned me that if I insult any of you, or any of them, or offend any viewers, or cause any controversy whatsoever, theyll definitely invite me back next year. Still, this year doesnt stand out in Gervaiss Golden Globes history.

YouTube / NBC

In 2011, Gervaiss jokes were so incisive, so daring and lets just say it, mean that they elicited occasional gasps from the audience. Over the course of the evening, the comedian took aim at the 2010 film The Tourist starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie (It seems like everything this year was three-dimensional, except the characters in The Tourist, he quipped), Robert Downey Jr, and the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organises the Golden Globes. Gervaiss set was so controversial that some wondered whether it would prove to be his last but the comedian has now been invited back three more times.

YouTube / NBC

Gervaiss first turn as host was also his best. Almost 10 years ago, the comedian proved to be a delightfully sarcastic emcee, capable of the most ferocious take-downs. His best lines of the night were delivered with fake enthusiasm, such as when Gervais the creator of the original version of The Office in the UK, tore into the US version starring Steve Carell (Where does he get his ideas from? Gervais mused). The 2010 ceremony also included this brilliant bit about writers in Hollywood: This next category is a bit of a downer, to be honest: its for writing. We all know writers get way too much credit in Hollywood, and thats due to the generosity of actors sometimes mentioning them. And lets not forget what is perhaps Gervaiss most celebrated Golden Globes quip, through which he introduced Mel Gibson to the stage: I like a drink as much as the next man, Gervais said, glass in hand. Unless the next man is Mel Gibson.

YouTube / NBC

The real question, of course, is how an event organised by an obscure club of expat journalists (which today has a membership of around 90) has come to be one of Hollywoods most important bellwethers. Success at the Globes can bring real momentum, transforming a dark horse into a genuine contender.

That was certainly the case last year when the journey of Bohemian Rhapsody from troubled production (director Bryan Singer was fired halfway through the shoot) to awards season challenger began in earnest with Rami Maleks Best Actor win at the Globes. When he went on to repeat that feat at the Oscars, it was understood that the HFPAs endorsement had boosted his chances enormously. It helps that the deadline for Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences members to submit their Oscar nominations is early January, when the Golden Globes are still fresh in the memory.

The Globes arent necessarily taken seriously in Hollywood. Coverage tends to focus on the riotous atmosphere as stars let down their hair to an extent unimaginable at the Oscars. But they are taken seriously enough that all the nominees turn up. And success at the Golden Globes carries far more clout than winning at the SAGs or Baftas. Against all logic, the Globes have become hugely important.

Brian May, RamiMalek and Roger Taylor during the 76th Golden Globes(Getty)

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has made some head-scratching decisions with their nominees in recent years, says Rebecca Daniel, who writes about cinema and award ceremonies at the website Show Me The Movies. Take, for instance, Vice or Get Out nominated in Best Picture Musical or Comedy. Both films tackled pretty serious issues without being particularly comedic or musically inclined.

Just six awards were handed out at the first Golden Globes, held at the 20th Century Fox studio in West LA in January 1944 (Best Picture went to The Song of Bernadette). And the winners didnt even receive one of the iconic Globes: instead, they were awarded certificates, which were sent to their homes the following day. The Globes, depicting the world wreathed in a dramatic swirl of celluloid and plated in 24-carat gold, would not make an appearance until the following year.

But not even the arrival of the titular gongs could do much to raise the Globes credibility in those early years. They did distinguish themselves from the Oscars in 1957, though, when award categories for television were announced. To this day, it is in TV where the Globes reputation is arguably strongest. The Golden Globes were, for instance, the first awards ceremony to take streaming seriously by naming Amazons Mozart in the Jungle Best Comedy Television Series in 2016. At the time, the Emmys still looked on Netflix and its rivals as though they were a novelty that might sink back to irrelevance.

The Globes had, by then, travelled a long way from what was perceived as their lowest moment: the awarding in 1982 of Best New Star to the unheard-of Pia Zadora, over Kathleen Turner and Elizabeth McGovern. The New York Times had likened her to Brigitte Bardot recycled through a kitchen compactor after her screen debut in incest drama Butterfly, an independent movie bankrolled by her billionaire husband, 30 years her senior.

An air of quiet shock fell upon the room when her name was read aloud by Timothy Hutton, Zadora herself would later recall. All sides denied it, but the suspicion was that her award had been paid for. Her husband, Meshulam Riklis, a self-proclaimed bad boy of Wall Street, flew HFPA members to Las Vegas for a screening of Butterfly, which also starred Orson Welles and Ed McMahon (it would not be released until a month after the Globes and died a quick and painful death).

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has mostly cleaned up its reputation for being bought off over the years, says Susan Wloszczyna, a senior editor at awards prediction website Gold Derby, ever since the great Pia Zadora controversy. And, yes, they still play with the category designations, allowing Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born to vie as dramas and not as a musical or comedy. They do like to ensure that the most popular and glamorous stars are in attendance and get plenty of camera time on TV.

Which brings us back to that original question: why does Hollywood give so much credence to the Golden Globes? The stars may drink their way through the night in a way they wouldnt dare at the Oscars, but theyll still all be at the Beverly Hilton at 5pm local time, as Ricky Gervais steps up to the mic and proceeds to spray the room with insults.

Ricky Gervais hosts the 73rd Golden Globes(Getty)

The biggest shift Ive noticed is that all movie stars attend the Golden Globes, says Sasha Stone, the founder of Awards Daily. Ive been covering the awards race for 20 years and when I started it wasnt something all of the stars did, certainly not those who wanted to be taken seriously.

The attraction of the Golden Globes, she explains, is that they are an opportunity for actors to burnish their A-lister status. They get to be seen as movie stars, moving among other movie stars. In an industry where perception counts for so much, the Globes are an invaluable shop window. This is distinct from, and perhaps even more important than, whatever role they play in anointing Oscar winners. In an era where franchises such as Marvel and Star Wars count for more than individual star power, an event with the prominence of the Globes is not to be sniffed at.

The pendulum began to shift at the same time that movie stars began to lose power. Now there is a sense that every career, every movie, requires going to battle because nominations can mean higher box office, better jobs, more name recognition, says Stone.

Ive still never gotten used to not only every star showing up at the Globes, but now all of them showing up even at the Critics Choice awards, never mind the SAG and the Bafta awards. They turn up to be seen, to be known, to hold onto power that they need to survive in a fast-shifting climate. It isnt even so much that its all done to get to the Oscars, although certainly, thats part of it: the Oscars are still the top of the heap. But the Globes are in themselves a great career boost, publicity-wise. While they arent quite at the level of the number one thing people mention when you die, they are certainly more respectable today than theyve ever been.

She concludes: Think of them like the Kardashians, I suppose, or, God help us, Donald Trump. Their empires were mostly built on hate but in the end it hardly matters. Power is power, no matter how it has been attained Fame is fame. Awards are awards.

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The Golden Globes used to be a joke now it is one of the most prestigious awards shows on the planet - The Independent

Interview: Alexander Mora on Finding the Right Lens to Tell of the Terror in the Philippines in The Nightcrawlers – The Moveable Fest

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Alexander Mora had his work cut out for him in making The Nightcrawlers, tracking the fearless photojournalists in the Philippines that have spent their evenings chasing down scenes of the countless murders that have taken place following the election of President Rodrigo Duterte and restoring the humanity to those that have been killed under the campaign promise of ridding the country of drug users and dealers. While the barrage of brutal imagery could be overwhelming, it isnt in the hands of Mora, who captures the chaos of the moment by sticking to the side of the photojournalists such as Raffy Lerma, but creates an unusually dynamic and panoramic view of the tragic situation in Manila by widened the frame to show the impact of the killings on everyone from those who have lost loved ones to the vigilantes who have been emboldened by the presidents mandate to become enforcers.

Remarkably, The Nightcrawlers is Moras first film and while he had no prior experience behind the camera, his unique qualifications to take on such a daunting production reveal themselves when a background in human rights shines through in the compassion he shows to everyone caught in the vicious cycle of violence and his decision to never tie the narrative to a particular set of subjects, instead allowing the audience to get a feel for the Philippines in all its complexities that can seemingly be ascribed as much to cinematic instincts as the considerations he gave thought to in his studies to initially be an architect. Recently, The Nightcrawlers, which can be seen below, was shortlisted as one of 10 finalists for the Best Documentary Short Award at this years Oscars and the director spoke about his crash course in filmmaking and being thrust into the dangerous war on drugs in the Philippines.

How did this come about?

I graduated from architecture school and I was starting law school as well and Doireann [Maddock], my first producer on the film had spent some time in the Philippines, so when the drug war broke out, she was following it closely online. She came across this story of Rowena Tiamson, a young lady who had been murdered with a sign that had been left on her saying, I Am a Drug User. Do Not Copy Me. She was innocent and my producer was so moved by the injustice of that one story and thought that wasnt getting over to the west about the drug war, so she recruited me to come along and direct this film because she knew I had experience working for the U.N. and human rights. I was hesitant at first because I had never directed anything before, but she was quite persistent, and with a background in architecture, she thought creatively I could be able to execute something, so eventually when I had a bit of time on my hands, so I figured I would try. The ambition [initially] was just to make a short, a 15-minute short about this very tragic story about this one girl using an iPhone, but things spiraled on from there.

Was that story what led you to the photojournalists?

Absolutely. For us, the access certainly preceded the intention in this film. The first person we reached out to was Raffy Lerma, who had a public profile because hed taken this picture, the Pieta, which became the growing symbol of the anti-Duterte movement, and the president attacked Raffy in his State of the Union address, so Doireann reached out to him and we sat with him in Manila the first night we went there, just to get some orientation as to what was going on on the ground. He was very generous with his time in that first meeting, and because it was difficult to get a sense of what he was talking about [without seeing it], being on the front line as a photojournalist, he invited me to come along on a night shift with him [where he was] a star photojournalist for the main broadsheet at the time.

My mind was completely blown by the experience. Scores of people were murdered in the most harrowing ways, like high speed chases, and everything would be quiet until 9:30 pm and then all of a sudden, the calls would be coming in. It was just the most harrowing experience of my life, not only realizing the horrors that would be happening in the city, but also the danger these photojournalists were putting themselves in. So I realized very much that these journalists were at the forefront of the drug war as it was developing and changing, and that was an inflection point in our focus from wanting to tell this story to something of a broader scope.

The cameras obviously arent iPhones were you in the photojournalists influential as far as the look of the film was concerned?

In terms of the aesthetic of it, it wasnt so straight-forward. I had doggedly held onto this idea of an iPhone documentary for quite a long time and on reflection, I think that was primarily because I never made a film before. My final thesis at Yale was examining the confluence of architecture and film, so I used Maya to do parametric [design] and exploring how film could be used to explore architectural spaces, but I certainly never really held a proper film camera before, and the iPhone was something of a safety blanket. As long as we said we were making it with an iPhone, the ambition was quite modest.

I didnt want to admit that if this was anything we were going to do on such a scale, having to use proper equipment and everything else, it would be such a heavy undertaking, and philosophically as well, it begs various questions of are we the right people to be telling this story? Who are you to be telling a story like this at this scale when you havent done anything like this before? So it was easy to say we were making an iPhone documentary and I think I held onto that even after it was quite clear it wasnt a tenable thing to be doing. But we had to honor the access wed gotten and Raffy specifically kept [saying], You should really upgrade your equipment because a lot of these killings would happen at night in these incredibly dimly lit, winding alleys through the back streets of Manila, and it was impossible to get the kind of light you needed anyway [for an iPhone], so technologically, it became clear very quickly that the equipment we had was subpar..At first, we faced a very steep learning curve in terms of okay, what is the look of the film and what do we want to convey, so we had to do a lot of research into that, but also simultaneously I had to figure out how to shoot because I immediately had a sense of Manila was and the feeling that was there, so the question was how do you honestly portray that immediacy to someone who doesnt know what Manila is like? It became quite clear very quickly that the urban fabric and the landscape of the city was very much a character in and of itself and it has almost a neo-noir lighting, just because of the gritty infrastructure in Manila that lends itself to these very directional lights and I felt in many ways, it really created an atmosphere that was somewhat akin to a cyberpunk film.

Was there any point the story changed direction on you?

That was what defined the project at every juncture. Obviously, when youre shooting a film like this, control was something that had to be given up in a way because youre shooting and at the same time trying to figure out what story you have and trying to figure out the narrative structure of what youve captured. It was incredibly difficult because we started making a story that was on a very small scope we wanted to look at the tragedy of this one girls life and we ended up looking at the broader landscape of the drug war and questioning these bigger issues in and around the drug war by looking at both sides.

At what point did you realize you wanted to engage the vigilantes or have that side of it in the film?

No one knew where the killings were coming from at the beginning of the drug war, but there was a sense that there were everyday people that had taken up arms and, on the presidents mandate, decided to kill drug users and drug dealers. The president had at the time, and still has, north of a 75 percent approval rating for his policies and his administration, so it was clear that so many people supported these killings. Something I guess I was rather presumptuous in imagining was that obviously it was a self-evident truth that killing people who are drug users or drug dealers is probably not the best way for a democracy to act itself out. Due process is the cornerstone of any democracy and the Philippines, of course, calls itself a democracy, so we had to question ourselves and once we had access to the photojournalists that were very much at the epicenter of these killings on one side of it because they were firmly against it, it felt that a story about the drug war would be incomplete without looking at the other side of something thats clearly a very complex issue in the Philippines and it felt that structuring that way would emulate that struggle that was and still continues to go on.

When it seems like you had a number of careers available to you to achieve social justice goals, was it fulfilling for you to make a film?

Yeah, obviously, Ive had a longstanding interest in the law for various reasons and rights-based advocacy is something that Ive done, working for the Human Rights Journal at Yale and in the U.N. for the Office of the High Commissioner, so I was very much passionate about it. At the same time, I was also really interested in the creative arts and have been ever since I was young, so I was trying to find a symbiosis of those two worlds and as you might imagine, theres not too many avenues that allow you to synthesize both of those desires, so in some ways, this film coming along was quite fortuitous and [I worked with] a fantastic team. Obviously weve had fantastic support from NatGeo, from Carolyn Bernstein and Ryan Harrington, and everyone else who believed in the project, so its been a real communal effort.

And its an incredibly humbling experience, being able to tell such an important story and having these people entrust you to tell their stories. We were concerned if we were doing the right thing or telling it as honestly as we could, but in terms of what it has fulfilled, my hope is it could raise the profile of the work the Nightcrawlers are doing and continue to do because this is such an urgent story that continues. A few days ago, the presidents office asked about our project and questioned the veracity of the facts in the film and with the continuing support for the drug war in the Philippines, its quite clear this is an issue thats still ongoing. Were in touch with the Nightcrawlers on a regular basis and the killings are still happening, so to be able to tell this story to the world is something that Ive found profound satisfaction in and I would really consider it an honor to be able to tell other original stories in the future.

The Nightcrawlers is now streaming on National Geographic here.

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Interview: Alexander Mora on Finding the Right Lens to Tell of the Terror in the Philippines in The Nightcrawlers - The Moveable Fest

WATCH: Patrolling the US Southern border in the Caribbean – Sharyl Attkisson

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

The following is a transcript of my cover story investigation on Full Measure. Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

We begin with an examination of a U.S. border that you might not have given much thought to. Like our Southern border with Mexico, its the target of nonstop efforts by drug traffickers, human smugglers and possibly even terrorists. But this U.S. border is in the Caribbean. And the job of guarding it is arguably even more complicated.

Our Caribbean journey begins at the San Juan, Puerto Rico seaport with a ferry that comes in three times a week from the Dominican Republic. It carries up to a thousand passengers and cargo including vehiclesall getting their last look before entering the U.S.

Sharyl: How does that make it easier for smugglers, the fact that Puerto Rico is out here but it is a US territory?

Roberto Vaquero: Mainly because containerized cargo coming in or leaving Puerto Rico to the US mainland doesnt see customs anymore. They dont see CBP anymore. SHARYL: After this? Vaquero: After this. So we are the last line of defense.

Roberto Vaquero is a top Border Security official here.

Sharyl: So, if they make it through Puerto Rico, theyre home free?

Vaquero: Well, basically, yes.

The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico about the size of Connecticut is about 1000 miles from the mainland U.S.. Its only about 80 miles from the Dominican Republic and Haiti across whats called the Mona Passage. Its also a straight shot from Venezuela and Colombia. That positioning makes it prime territory for drug runners and human smugglers moving illegal products into the U.S.

Sharyl: I dont think most Americans think of Puerto Rico as a place that is on the front lines of the war on drugs.

Vaquero: It is. It is. And its very unique. Were in a unique strategic location. Its an easy route for smugglers to actually move their narcotics or any other type of contraband to any secluded beach, maybe to some of the mangroves, maybe to other outer ports, other out sister islands that we have here in Puerto Rico. So, it is strategic. And also, its considered domestic if youre flying in anything from actually Puerto Rico into the US mainland. So thats a smugglers dream.

This is where U.S. border agents recently seized 311 pounds of cocaine shaped into 122 bricks and hidden in a tank. Drug sniffing border dogs in Puerto Rico have found boxes from Colombia labelled red roses but containing cocaine valued at more than $700 thousand dollars. Cocaine has been hidden in shampoo bottles. And found inside books and drugs found inside dry erase markers.

And while were here at the San Juan seaportone of the K-9s seems to be onto something. For the bad guys, moving people and drugs carries great risks as were about to see. If you think patrolling the southern U.S.-Mexico border is challenging, imagine patrolling a border thats nothing more than an invisible line in the ocean 12 nautical miles out to sea.

Schneeberger: Theres thousands of square miles of ocean to cover, all the way coming up from Venezuela, Columbia, all the way here to Puerto Rico.

Jeffrey Schneeberger is a marine agent with Customs and Border Protection.

Sharyl: Anything else you want to say about the job or what people ought to know about what happens over here?

Schneeberger: Yeah. I mean, its still the Wild West out here, I think. On the water its a needle in the haystack at that point. Its not a land border, a line in the water, or a line in the sand that you cross A plane can only do so much with a needle in the haystack, and a boat can only do so much.

Read more about Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI here.

When boats containing drugs or illegal immigrants are spotted agents coordinate with their partners in the air. Here, air units are watching as agents intercept a Colombian fast boat racing through the Caribbean Sea toward Puerto Rico. Here, theyre onto a drug boat from Venezuela. This video shows border agents chasing down a boat carrying three smugglers and 220 pounds of cocaine.

Were on a Customs and Border Protection Blackhawk helicopter. Agents show us a more than 1000-foot high antenna on the western side of Puerto Rico that smugglers use as a beacon. Then we fly out over the turquoise, blue waters to Desecheo Island, a deserted National Wildlife Refuge. Christopher Columbus landed here on his second voyage to the New World. Today, smugglers charge immigrants three to six thousand dollars each for a boat ride to get dropped off on one of these treacherous remote islands, hoping to get picked up by U.S. patrols. Officials tell us a lot of illegal cash transfers happen here, too.

In the past year throughout Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, more than 1,400 illegal immigrants were picked up. About one-third of them already had criminal histories. In September, a makeshift boat overloaded with 38 illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic capsized. Three of them drowned.

A Blackhawk crew like the one were with provided surveillance and cover when two men from the Dominican Republic were intercepted in a boat carrying more than 4000 pounds of cocaine worth $47 million. A U.S. Border air team spotted this boat carrying illegal immigrants and tracked it until it was intercepted by the Coast Guard.

We wait until dark and head out on a different aircraft a Dash 8 Turboprop plane. Our assignment: to patrol the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Before long, we spot a suspected drug boat.

Sharyl: And theres a boat off the Dominican Republic?

CBP agent: There is a vessel coming off the Dominican Republic.

In November, a plane like ours spotted a boat full of 28 of illegal immigrants. It could have capsized and had no real lifesaving equipment on board. Boat agents rescued them and learned five of the immigrants had snuck in before. Tonight, our airplane crew that spotted the suspicious boat quickly becomes distracted by immediate concerns. Theres a mechanical malfunction with our plane.

We end up having to burn off fuel so we can land.

Sharyl: So normally if you saw a boat like that and we werent having a maintenance issue, what would we do?

Unidentified: We would definitely go and see if we could a visual on that.

Sharyl: And Tonight, we just have to let it go?

Unidentified: Unfortunately.

Mechanical malfunctions arent all that uncommon, they tell us, making their job all the more difficult.

Back at San Juan seaport it turns out the drug sniffing dog was onto something big. In the rear brake drums of the Ford van, Customs and Border Protection found six pounds of heroin valued at $162-thousand dollars. Another big find at this lesser known US border hotspot.

Vasquero: So Puerto Rico is a hot point. They dont have to go through customs anymore. So this is their last point This is actually the last line of defense for anything coming into the US.

A US border that lies in the Caribbean sea where there is no chance to build a fence.

Officials report a spike in drug seizures in the Caribbean sector they say when security tightens up on the Mexican border.. things become more active there.

Watch the video investigation by clicking the link below:

http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/the-caribbean-border

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WATCH: Patrolling the US Southern border in the Caribbean - Sharyl Attkisson

Tell it to SunStar: My take on Dutertes drug war – Yahoo Philippines News

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

THE Duterte administrations war on drugs has caused controversies in its execution and human rights activists cry foul every time they believe that due process is not followed when drug lords, drug pushers and drug addicts are killed. They averred that human life is sacred and only God has the right to terminate it. They said extrajudicial killings are obnoxious and anathema to the Divine. However, lets look at this point of view in another perspective and travel down in time in biblical history.

In Noahs time, the sins of the people against the Almighty are comparable to what todays people are doing like corruption, sodomy, infidelity, etc. so that God caused the Great Flood that killed all the sinners except the family of Noah who God saw worthy. What can we say of the present generation? How many broken families, crimes committed, myriad of our youths future destroyed because of drugs? Also, did God not say in the scripture that: If you cause my little ones to sin, better for you to tie a stone around your neck and cast yourself into the sea?

Our youth are very dear, very much loved by the Lord so that He said, Suffer the little ones to me, for unless a man becomes like one of these, they cannot enter the kingdom of God. Lets consider whats happening in our country today. What would have happened had not President Rodrigo Duterte been elected to the presidency. Perhaps, many of our youth, even our own siblings would be roaming around dazed and doomed.

God is said to be the same yesterday and today. It might be that President Duterte is only made an instrument by the Almighty so that the havoc that drugs has made in our society and His little ones can be stopped. Thats my take. (Jose Hortelano, Balamban, Cebu)

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Tell it to SunStar: My take on Dutertes drug war - Yahoo Philippines News

From nightclubs to crack – the evolution of a Cornwall town’s biggest crime scourge – Cornwall Live

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Danzig

A decade ago, the biggest issue for police in one Cornwall town was dealing with raucous teenagers fighting and being sick in the streets after a boozy night out.

Now, theres a different kind of battle facing cops on the streets of Newquay the scourge of heroin and crack cocaine.

Inspector Dave Meredith, Newquays most senior police officer, has retired after 26 years of service in the force.

And in his final interview with Cornwall Live, Inspector Meredith revealed that his proudest achievement is his role in the transformation of Newquay from a Wild West party destination to a more tranquil and responsible town .

Within the space of eight days in the summer of 2009, two teenagers plummeted to their deaths off the resorts cliffs, while a third was lucky to survive after suffering a broken neck and fractured skull.

The deaths of 19-year-old Andrew Curwell and Paddy Higgins, 16, put the town in the spotlight both nationally and abroad, exposing its so-called seedy underbelly and furthering its reputation as the hard-core party capital of the UK.

If you were young and looking for fun, the 'coast of dreams' was the place to be.

In June 2009 alone, 12,000 students descended on Newquay to celebrate the end of their exams. Teens were encouraged to visit Newquay in unsupervised groups to party in a town with lax rules, packed with an array of clubs, pubs and lap-dancing bars.

Shocked by the booze fuelled behaviour of revellers fighting and being sick in the streets, many visiting families were leaving their accommodation after just a single night.

The media glare left locals feeling disillusioned and sharpened the focus of campaigners, who vowed to take back the town and demanded answers from the council and police.

Residents protested outside County Hall in Truro, before later marching through the streets of Newquay to demand an end to the drunken, antisocial behaviour by thousands of young people.

Placards reading Stop the Rot, New Newquay, More Police for Newquays Streets and Keep Stags and Hens on the Farm were brandished by indignant mothers, fathers, elderly residents and children.

Cornwalls most senior police chief, Chf Supt Elaine Marshall, called for an end to the promotion of Newquay as a party capital and urged community leaders to pull together to reestablish the town as a premier family resort.

And pull together they did.

On Friday August 7, 2009, Cornwall Council launched Newquay Safe, a multi-agency partnership designed to tackle the resorts big problem.

Newquay Safe united the towns police, healthcare, tourism and council bodies, which worked together to create a safer, more family-orientated resort with less antisocial behaviour and crime and disorder.

A number of police strategies were presented, including asking nightclubs to go glass-free, and crackdowns on false IDs, obscene fancy dress and street drinking.

Newquay Safe began with a short-term campaign which lasted throughout August 2009, before the authorities developed a long-term strategy.

In 2009, it was accepted that it would take ten years to turn the town around.

Now, a decade on, Newquay Safe has repaired the towns reputation, reduced crime and made it a family-friendly resort once again.

The town was in a crisis, Inspector Meredith said. The night-time economy was causing the police, residents and local councils big problems, and something had to be done.

There was a culture of Newquay accepting the unacceptable. It was almost people saying, thats the price you pay for having a big night-time economy. And thats wrong, the culture of acceptance was wrong. You can have a good night-time economy, but with responsible behaviour.

Media coverage was very negative, but now we are getting really good coverage of the new Newquay which has evolved.

Residents and visitors seem very happy with Newquay as a family resort. You can come out of a restaurant as a family at 10pm, and there arent people fighting and being sick in the streets."

Nowadays the police work closely with pub and club owners, with most issues ironed out over a cup of tea at the monthly pub watch meeting.

If pub and club owners dont act responsibility, police have increased powers to take action.

Its testimony to the good work of the police and our partners that we didnt give up a year after it was set up," Inspector Meredith added.

We got our heads down, and worked relentlessly year and year out.

While Newquay Safe has been a roaring success, Inspector Meredith says the partners mustnt get complacent.

If we are, we will quickly move backwards and get problem premises again acting in an irresponsible manor, and be back to square one, he said. And we cant afford to do that.

Now, officers in Newquay are faced with a different kind of problem, but one which is far less visible.

Big city dealers are expanding their turf and flooding rural towns with drugs, in the hellish rise of the county lines menace which virtually appeared in Newquay overnight in the summer of 2017.

Its an ongoing battle with no end in sight.

The National Crime Agency estimates that half the communities targeted by county lines dealers are coastal towns, where theres less resistance from other dealers and a lower risk of being known by police.

In Newquay , the problem has escalated to the point that disrupting heroin and crack cocaine dealers is now the number one priority for police, having elevated itself above policing the town centre nightlife.

Its like a supermarket descending on a town and pushing the corner shop out, Inspector Meredith said. They come in, crash bang wallop, sell at low price and to anyone, bang bang bang. Drugs are far more freely available in Newquay, and thats a real concern.

And trying to stop the gangs in their tracks is far from easy. Before, officers were generally aware of who the local homegrown dealers were, and where they lived.

But county lines dealers will often have been operating in Newquay for several weeks, or even months, before police become aware of them.

They travel down from the cities under the radar, and are usually set up in a bedsit within 24 hours.

They keep an extremely low profile in an attempt to evade detection. You wont see them in the town at night, fighting or dealing drugs and bringing attention to themselves.

The dealers will establish themselves inside the home of a drug user or vulnerable person, in a practice known as 'cuckooing'.

They target and then exploit the person's vulnerability and use the home as their base of operations. Once in situ, they seek out the local drug addicts on the streets before selling drugs to them via dedicated mobile phone numbers, or lines.

Customers are given an untraceable mobile phone number with its own brand name, and sent texts offering special deals and fire sales.

There are many reasons why police take drug dealing so seriously. But county lines drug dealers are of particular concern, because of their violent behaviour.

In the cities, these gangs work in a culture that is far more severe than here, with knives and guns, whereas our local dealers its probably just fisticuffs and nothing too serious, Inspector Meredith said.

But youve got people coming from a culture where extreme violence is quite normal, and that is some concern to us.

The secret to successfully stopping the dealers has switched from serving warrants on houses to vehicle stop checks.

While building surveillance on a property can take weeks, finding drugs in a car gives officers the automatic power to search a dealers home.

Inspector Meredith admits there's no end in sight for Newquays war on drugs, which he believes will be the town station's priority for many years to come.

Community intelligence is the key to stopping the drug gangs in their tracks, he said. Police are desperate to hear from anyone who has suspicions over drug dealing.

Were always hearing people complaining about issues in their community. Theyve told a neighbour, they have a good chat about it on social media, but they dont want to tell the police.

"Crimestoppers is a way you can get straight through very quickly with the intelligence, and anonymously.

If anybody comes up on the radar, well do everything we can to take action. If the community doesnt tell us whats going on, it makes it very challenging to take action against drug dealers."

Tell us exactly what is going on. People can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, email 101 or use a police intelligence form to report anything suspicious.

Inspector Merediths final day in the job was on Christmas Eve, and he believes the time is right to hand in his badge.

Newquay is probably the best station in the force, its close knit with a one team ethos and a family atmosphere," Inspector Meredith said.

I feel Newquay is in very good shape, the station is in good shape, and I feel like Im leaving at the crest of a wave.

Im happy with it, and thats probably the best time to leave a job.

Mike's work focuses mainly on crime and longread features.

Follow Mike on Twitter, here, or tweet him @mikesmallcombe1.

He's also on Instagram, here.

You can call Mike on 01872-309681 or email him at mike.smallcombe@reachplc.com

You can read more of Mike's stories, here.

We've set up a dedicated Facebook group for Newquay news, run by reporter Mike Smallcombe.

It's the place to find news and content about Newquay, and you, the community, can also use it as a platform to get in touch or to share something that youd like us to follow up.

To join the group click here and select 'join'.

Follow Mike Smallcombe on Twitter or email him mike.smallcombe@reachplc.com

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From nightclubs to crack - the evolution of a Cornwall town's biggest crime scourge - Cornwall Live

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