If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The European Union (EU) is planning to implement a new set of draconian mass surveillance rules shortly after Sunday’s EU Parliament election, a member of the EP has warned after the plans surfaced on the internet. The conclusion that radical surveillance measures are in the works proceeds from documents detailing the meetings of working groups, dubbed “high level group(s) on access to data for effective law enforcement.” The documents originate from the EU Commission, and contain a number of recommendations, including reintroducing indiscriminate retention of communications data in the bloc, creation of encryption backdoors, as well as forcing hardware manufacturers to give access to anything from phones to cars to law enforcement through what is known as “access by design.” MEP Patrick Breyer announced that the plan contains 42 points produced by the EU Commission and governments of member-countries. The purpose of being able to access phones, IoT (such as “smart home”) devices, and cars is to make sure they can be monitored around the clock. Meanwhile, the return of controversial data retention is planned despite a previous ruling of the EU Court of Justice, and could even be extended to include over-the-top services such as messengers (this is defined as retaining IP information data “at the very least”). That, Breyer explains, means that all internet activities will become trackable. A favorite target of authorities actively undermining their image as democracies has for a while been end-to-end encryption. Here, the EU intends to ban secure encryption of metadata and subscriber data, as well as force messaging services who implement encryption to allow interception. The EU further plans to “tackle” the use of encryption devices that it declares are “proven to be used solely” by criminals. In reality, the right to install encryption backdoors in phones and computers can be abused to spy on anyone, dissidents and critics included. Technology providers will, if so ordered by judicial authorities, have to break encryption in order to “facilitate access to data at rest in user’s devices.” And there will be “mechanisms for robust cooperation with communication and technology providers” – meaning they will have to share data with governments and law enforcement. If these agencies demand, service providers must activate GPS location tracking, according to these recommended “solutions for effective law enforcement.” Representatives of providers who refuse could end up in jail. “This extreme surveillance plan must not become a reality, if only because it has been cooked up by a completely one-sided secret group of surveillance fanatics working without any real transparency or democratic legitimacy,” Breyer stated. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post EU Plans Major Expansion of Mass Surveillance: Indiscriminate Data Collection, Device Monitoring, Encryption Backdoors, and Mandatory Data Sharing appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Desperate DNC's Billboard Campaign Against Trump Unveiled in Arizona

CNN Analyst: Let's Face It -- Fani's Case Is Dead

Anthropologists recently identified two fossilized teeth and a single kneecap that appear to belong to a never-before-seen species of great ape: Buronius manfredschmi.With an estimated weight of just 10 kilograms (22 pounds) – about the weight of an extremely chonky cat – the new-found species is the smallest great ape to be identified. The remains were unearthed at the Hammerschmiede clay pit in southeast Germany at a layer dated to the late Miocene Epoch, around 11.6 million years ago. The tiny ape wasn’t the only hominid (great ape) to live here during this period. Between 2015 and 2018, researchers digging at the Hammerschmiede fossil site discovered the remains of Danuvius guggenmosi, another species of great ape that walked on two legs.Judging by their size difference, the researchers believe these two apes led very different lifestyles. The kneecap and teeth of Buronius suggest they were skilled tree climbers that ate a diet of soft foods such as leaves, while Danuvius had a surprisingly upright posture, suggesting it spent most of its time on the ground.The fossilized teeth of Buronius manfredschmidi suggest it was a very small guy.Böhme et al., PLoS ONE 2024 (CC-BY 4.0)By occupying different niches, the two species were able to share a habitat without directly competing for resources, much like the relationship between the modern gibbons and orangutans that share habitats in Borneo and Sumatra.The discovery of Buronius makes Hammerschmiede the only Miocene site in Europe that’s known to have more than one species of extinct ape. The researchers believe their new study should encourage others to re-examine fossils from other European sites and potentially reveal more examples of dual-ape cohabiting behavior.Today, great apes only live in tropical forests in Central Africa and Southeast Asia (not including Homo sapiens, which inhabit every continent on Earth). Europe was once home to several species of great ape, but they all drifted into extinction during the Late Miocene, a period between 11.63 million to 5.33 million years ago.Local climate change was likely to be the deathblow. Around 9 million years ago, Europe’s forests receded and became replaced with grasslands, drastically changing the habitat and food supply of the region’s great apes. Very little is known about the new species Buronius – after all, two teeth and a kneecap are all we have left of them – but it’s possible to speculate that they fell victim to this climatic change along with Europe’s other great apes. The new study is published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Selina never imagined that a regular day would turn into a heartwarming rescue mission. It all began when she spotted a hairless dog, seemingly abandoned and dodging cars on a busy street. Desperate to help, Selina tried to attract the dog using the only thing she had on hand—a can of Pringles. Despite the dog’s... The post Kindhearted woman races to find tiny rescue dog’s missing puppies appeared first on Animal Channel.

The post 45 Cats Who Absolutely Nailed the Funniest Photobombs Ever appeared first on Animal Channel.

Let's be blunt: pro-Biden media outlets really don't care at all about what we think or what evidence we bring of their bias. Instead, Democrat journalists care most about how Democrats tell them how to report on things.  Our former colleague Jason Cohen at the Daily Caller reports that the cartoonish Cajun James Carville blasted the "professional center" in the news media and proclaimed "F**k objectivity" as this year's motto -- well, any year's motto since 2015.  Carville's "Politics War Room" podcast is co-hosted by Al Hunt, former Washington Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal and spouse of longtime PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff. Hunt told Carville that listeners wanted to know if the press should describe Donald Trump as the "disgraced former president." Another asked how Walter Cronkite or Peter Jennings would have handled the verdict.  Hunt spoke first, saying hey, I spent almost 20 years running Washington bureaus, and it's an “outright lie” that the prosecution of Trump was orchestrated by Biden! Then Carville spoke:  CARVILLE: So this is the basic question. People say, you know, Trump is going to be the Republican nominee and we got to cover it, and Biden’s the Democratic nominee and we cover this. And if there’s something bad about Biden, of course, we’ve gotta print it. But if something comes up that is, can’t say good about Trump, but more favorable to him, like the Elie Honigs and the Fareed Zakarias of the world [!], that’s one way to look at it. We just tell the truth and let the people decide. Or, at times when the country is in great peril or the moral imperative is so significant, you don’t do that. He compared the current era to World War II, somehow comparing Trump to Japanese war commander Hideki Tojo. Then he cited the civil rights movement, where "one side was correct and one side was God-awful wrong." Let's forget that the wrong side were Southern Democrats, James!  Carville laid into New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn, who recently claimed it's not his newspaper's job to defeat Trump, it's Joe Biden's job. Uh-oh!  CARVILLE: Now you have Joe Kahn, the new editor or publisher, whatever he is at The New York Times, saying, ‘We’re just going to cover this down the middle. We’re going to cover what it is.’ I don’t think that’s the role of the news media at a time when the entire Constitution is in peril. I don’t have anything against slanted coverage. I really don’t … I would have something against it at most other times in American history, but not right now. Fuck your objectivity! The real objectivity in this country right now is we’re either going to have a Constitution or we’re not.” And everything else, from Hunter Biden’s gun application to Judge Merchan’s, I don’t know, $35 contribution, to all of the bulls--t that the professional center feels like they got to put out. I can’t tell you that these are bad people. They’re extremely naive people who have no idea what’s at stake here in this election. As usual, the "stakes" require the most blatant partisanship that can be mustered by the press. "So I think we need slanted coverage, more slanted coverage and I think we got to recognize the threat that this guy and the MAGA, not just him, the entire MAGA movement, from [Justice] Alito and Trump on down is a serious, it's a clear, serious and present danger to the existence of the Constitution in the United States. And I mean that," he continued. Al Hunt  pushed back on Carville's use of the term "slanted," arguing, "we need fair coverage, and not false equivalency." Carville cast the two candidates as "A guy who’s lost a step against a career criminal who would end the Constitution."

The circus came to California a long time ago, and there are no signs it’s packing up any time soon. Some recent examples: California lawmakers set up a reparations panel for “black descendants of slaves” even though California was never a slave state. California has a budget deficit of close to $50 billion, and some put the price tag of the panel’s reparations recommendations at $800 billion. A former soap opera actor recently was shot and killed in downtown Los Angeles. He interrupted thieves attempting to steal the catalytic converter from his car. In response, a Democrat Los Angeles City Council member -- there are no Republicans -- blamed the automaker for failing to make the catalytic converters harder to steal. Councilwoman Nithya Raman said: “In this case, I think one of the things that infuriates me, is that we have a company -- whatever, Toyota -- who makes the Prius, that essentially has a device on their cars which is super easy to remove. It’s the value of a MacBook, right?” At a gay pride parade in West Hollywood, some “indigenous queer people” marched waving a Mexican flag with a Palestinian flag on the bumper of their truck. A gay man in Gaza told i24News: “If you are gay, you should be hiding. It’s so hard. I was so scared. Scared of everything you know? Scared of getting hit, of getting kidnapped. I was so afraid. I was afraid Hamas would find out I was gay.” California voters in 1996 banned the use of race and gender in government hiring, government contracts, and admission to state colleges and universities. Yet, the University of California, Los Angeles medical school dean of admissions, Jennifer Lucero, a proponent of “diversity, equity and inclusion,” ignores the law and lowers standards to admit “underrepresented” students. According to The Washington Free Beacon: “Within three years of Lucero’s hiring in 2020, UCLA dropped from 6th the 18th place in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings for medical research. And ... more than 50 percent of students failed standardized tests on emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics.” In 2018, California lawmakers passed and the governor, a Democrat -- there are no Republicans holding any statewide office -- signed a law requiring publicly traded corporations headquartered in California to have at least one woman on their boards of directors. In 2020, lawmakers passed a law requiring publicly traded corporations headquartered in California to have one member from an “underrepresented community,” defined as “individuals who self-identify as Black, African-American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, or who self-identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.” California courts struck down both laws as violations of the equal protection clause of the California Constitution. In April, California’s $20 hourly minimum wage went into effect for fast-food workers. UCLA economist Lee Ohanian estimates the law, so far, has cost the state 10,000 fast-food jobs. The law also incentivizes the use of automation. California last year had the lowest job growth of any state. As of April 2024, California, at 5.3%, had the highest rate of unemployment of any state. When the governor signed the fast-food law, two major California Pizza Hut franchisees promptly let go more than 1,200 delivery workers. Rubio’s Coastal Grill, a fish taco chain, just closed all 48 California locations. The company said: “The closings were brought about by the rising cost of doing business in California.” Note that most franchise operators are “mom-and-pop” owners, with just one location running on thin profit margins. So, this 25% hike in the minimum wage bites hard. As for the law’s sticker shock, Wendy’s increased its prices 8%, Chipotle 7.5% and Starbucks 7%. But things could have been worse. Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Barbara Lee advocates a $50 hourly minimum wage.

Aside from a zero Thursday on ABC’s Good Morning America, the “Big Three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC have had segments on every newscast this week about Hunter Biden’s gun trial, but like we’ve seen, the flavor skewed heavily toward seeking sympathy for the First Son as he’s had to endure “dramatic”, “heartbreaking”, and “painful” details about his life being made public. Between Thursday night and Friday morning, the broadcast network coverage total clicked over an hour to 60 minutes and 55 seconds (excluding teases). As usual, that paled in comparison to where they stood through four and a half days of the Trump trial, which clocked in at 96 minutes (96:13).     ABC’s Good Morning America was back with its predictable tract of seeking sympathy. Senior national correspondent Terry Moran bemoaned the trial’s focus on Hunter’s life of debauchery: Prosecutors say this trial is a simple case about a man who lied about his drug use when he bought a gun. But, in court, it feels different. They’re telling a story of Hunter Biden’s downfall into drug addiction often using the words of the women who have been closest to him. This morning, prosecutors are expected to rest their case against Hunter Biden after days of dramatic and potentially damaging testimony.  Moran walked viewers through the testimony of Hunter’s ex/late brother Beau’s widow Hallie Biden, explaining their ties as “a romantic relationship”. If anyone reads the texts on Hunter Biden’s laptop or recognizes the fact that it was an affair — something only mentioned once between Thursday night and Friday morning — it was anything but love. “Jurors leaned in as Hallie recounted seeing Hunter for the first time just over a week after the purchase looking, ‘tired exhausted and like he hadn’t slept,’” Moran said in another sympathy play. Along with relaying Hallie’s admission she too did cocaine with Hunter, Moran also played a short exchange about the trial between President Biden and ABC anchor David Muir, which aired on Thursday’s World News Tonight (and was the extent of the newscast’s Hunter coverage): MUIR: I know that you cannot speak about an ongoing federal prosecution but let me ask you, will you accept the jury’s outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is? JOE BIDEN: Yes. MUIR: And have you ruled out a pardon for your son? BIDEN: Yes. CBS Mornings featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers was the lone voice to accurately describe the relationship: “The jury in his gun trial yesterday heard from Hallie Biden, the defendant’s sister-in-law. Hunter Biden had an affair with her after his brother died in 2015.” Correspondent Scott MacFarlane summarized Thursday as filled with “dramatic testimony” with Hallie Biden having “described the moment she found and then discarded the gun, which is at the heart of this case”, adding (click “expand”): MACFARLANE: On Thursday, she told the jury she discovered a revolver and ammunition along with drug residue and drug paraphernalia while searching her brother-in-law Hunter Biden’s car on October 23, 2018. Hallie testified this is video of her throwing away the gun that same day in a Delaware grocery store parking lot, just 11 days after Hunter bought the firearm. Hallie said she thought at first of hiding the gun, then decided to toss it, saying, “I didn’t want him to hurt himself, or I didn’t want my kids to find it and hurt themselves, and I just panicked.” Prosecutors are trying to prove Hunter Biden was addicted and using drugs at the time he bought the gun and lied about those things on this federal application. TOM DUPREE: This is about as powerful physical evidence as you can get, linking his possession of that gun to his use of illegal drugs. MACFARLANE: Hunter has pleaded not guilty and, during cross-examination, the defense pressed Hallie, “You don’t know if he was drinking, using, or either of the above the week the gun was found?” Hallie answered, “I don’t know.” Earlier, Hallie Biden also detailed taking up a romantic relationship with her brother-in-law–months after her late husband, Beau Biden’s, 2015 death–telling the Delaware jury, it was Hunter who introduced her to using crack cocaine, calling her drug use “a terrible experience…I’m embarrassed and I’m ashamed, and I regret that period of my life.” In an interview Thursday, the President closed the door on a pardon if his son is convicted.  [ABC CLIP] MACFARLANE: Prosecutors are likely to wrap their case by midday today. Then we hear from the defense, which has not ruled out calling Hunter Biden as a witness[.] NBC’s Ryan Nobles fell in with Moran on Today: “Hallie Biden’s testimony was heartbreaking at times. She accused the President’s son of introducing her to crack and said that she thought he was meeting drug dealers and using drugs at the time he bought the gun.” “Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter Biden’s late brother, Beau, who was in a romantic relationship with him for a time, testifying Thursday that Hunter Biden’s crack use was at one point a constant presence in her life. It led to her abusing the drug as well,” he added. For added affect, Nobles pointed out Hallie was so familiar with Hunter’s cocaine addiction she saw piles “the size of ping-pong balls”. Nobles, however, was the only network reporter Friday morning to make known that First Lady Jill Biden had flown back to the U.S. from D-Day ceremonies (presumably on the taxpayer’s dime) to be with Hunter for Friday’s trial before...yes, flying back to France where the President will be through the weekend. Rewinding to late Thursday, MacFarlane described Hallie Biden on the CBS Evening News as “a star witness” and passed off their fling as “a romantic relationship with her brother-in-law”. And, on NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt described Thursday’s trial happenings as filled with “dramatic testimony” while Nobles said Hallie’s “romantic relationship with” Hunter took center stage. Many thanks to NewsBusters interns Sarah Butler and Michael Wnek for their assistance in compiling the transcripts. To see the relevant transcripts from June 6, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC). To see the relevant transcripts from June 7, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).

Upcoming CNN debate moderator and Inside Politics host Dana Bash marveled to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday during a ten-minute interview that President Joe Biden’s speech at Pointe du Hoc in France “was quite a contrast” with recent statements from former President Donald Trump. Bash led Pelosi by introducing a clip of Trump on Dr. Phil, “And what you have described and what we saw from President Biden on this trip clearly intentionally, not just sending a message to the world that is first and foremost, his goal, but also back here in the us, cautioning about the fragility of democracy and it was quite a contrast from what we heard from the former president, his rival, to take the White House again, Donald Trump, I want you to listen to what he said yesterday.”     In the clip, Trump declared that “The word revenge is a very strong word, but maybe we have revenge through success [jump cut] revenge does take time, I will say that and sometimes revenge can be justified, for I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.” Trump clearly said that one form of revenge could simply be winning, but nevertheless, Bash asked, “What's your response?” Pelosi, who was also in France in Paris, danced around the question, “Well, I don't respond,” and proceeded to give a recap of her meetings with French officials and the history of Franco-American relations as they related to the Revolutionary War and World War II. As for Bash, her recent commentaries on Trump are raising serious doubts about her ability to fairly moderate the June 27 debate. Here is a transcript for the June 7 show: CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash 6/7/2024 12:39 PM ET DANA BASH: And what you have described and what we saw from President Biden on this trip clearly intentionally, not just sending a message to the world that is first and foremost, his goal, but also back here in the us, cautioning about the fragility of democracy and it was quite a contrast from what we heard from the former president, his rival, to take the White House again, Donald Trump, I want you to listen to what he said yesterday. DONALD TRUMP: The word revenge is a very strong word, but maybe we have revenge through success [jump cut] revenge does take time, I will say that— PHIL MCGRAW: It does. TRUMP: -- and sometimes revenge can be justified for I have to be honest. Sometimes it can. BASH: What's your response? NANCY PELOSI: Well, I don't respond. Let me just say this: we came here and we thanked the French for their help and our own revolution and that was part of our conversation with the Chamber of Deputies today, with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the speaker of the House, a woman, with the members of the chamber, with all along the way, we've been thanking the French.