Tag: police state

Israeli military uproots thousands of Palestinian olive trees in West Bank

The Israeli military has destroyed about 3,000 olive trees in a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the head of the local council says, as Palestinians face a continued wave of violence across the territory in the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Israeli military issued an order to uproot olive trees in a 0.27sq-km (0.1sq-mile) area in al-Mughayyir, a village of about 4,000 residents northeast of Ramallah.

The army justified the measure by saying the trees posed a “security threat” to a main Israeli settlement road that runs through the village’s lands.

The destruction was carried out as al-Mughayyir has been under lockdown since Thursday after an Israeli settler said he was shot at in the area.

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Sequins, feathers… and a groundbreaking arrest using facial recognition cameras: The Daily Mail sees police deploy slick new technology at Notting Hill Carnival

Even the harshest critics of the Metropolitan Police admit the force has its work cut out with the Notting Hill Carnival.

Describing Europe’s biggest street party as a policing challenge would be a bit like referring to the Second World War as an unfortunate diplomatic incident.

Of course, it is not just the crowds of more than two million that put a strain on police resources every year on the August bank holiday. In recent years, it has also been the criminality – drugs, violence, knife crime, sexual offences, even murder – that all too frequently overshadows the celebrations.

So even with around 7,000 officers on duty, it is perhaps unsurprising that Met chiefs have introduced the use of live facial recognition (LFR) – previously deployed at the King’s coronation as well as Premier League matches – for the 2025 carnival.

Festivities officially began yesterday morning with the Children’s Day Parade. Thousands of revellers – many wearing ornate costumes of sequins and feathers – danced through the west London streets as drummers pounded unrelenting rhythms. Elsewhere, more than 30 sound systems blared out Caribbean and electronic dance music.

Meanwhile, officers were putting in place the final touches to their LFR system, which records images of people via sophisticated cameras. It uses biometric software to assess head size and other facial features, then converts these details into digital data. According to experts, any individual whose image scores 0.64 or higher (on a scale of zero to one) is highly likely to be a match for someone whose photo is on file.

At 6.23am yesterday, several hours before the parade got underway, specialists at the Met finalised a ‘watchlist’ of 16,231 individuals of interest to them. They included people wanted by the courts or being sought for alleged criminal activity that would merit jail time of ‘a year or more’.

Others on the list included those who have been freed under certain restrictions – including former prisoners released on licence from life sentences – to ensure they are sticking to the conditions imposed on them by the authorities.

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South Dakota Medical Marijuana Industry Cheers Sting Operations On Hemp Product Sellers

South Dakota’s medical cannabis industry voiced its support for sting operations targeting sellers of hemp products that create a marijuana-like high.

The comments from Jeremiah Murphy, a lobbyist for the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota, came during Tuesday’s meeting of the state’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee.

Murphy’s association represents the state’s 116 licensed medical cannabis cultivators, manufacturers and dispensaries.

The industry “commends the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office” for its sting operation targeting hemp-based THC products at eight Rapid City-area smoke shops and convenience stores, Murphy said.

Law enforcement bought samples of gummies, THC drinks and other products with “hemp-derived” ingredients. Strains of THC is a family of high-inducing molecules found in large concentrations in the cannabis plant.

The hemp plant is a cousin to cannabis that contains tiny quantities of THC. Hemp-derived intoxicants often get their THC from chemically modified or distilled CBD. CBD is a different, nonintoxicating molecule found in cannabis and hemp.

Hemp is legal to cultivate under the 2018 farm bill, and hemp-derived products are legal under federal law. Since mid-2024, however, South Dakota has barred the sale–but not the possession–of products made with chemically synthesized versions of THC.

The Rapid City compliance check followed a July 10 letter from Pennington County State’s Attorney Lara Roetzel to businesses suspected of unlawful hemp sales.

Katy Urban, spokeswoman for Roetzel’s office, says the agencies are waiting for testing results to determine if any laws were broken.

Sioux Falls Police Department spokesman Aaron Benson said the SFPD has performed one compliance check, and is waiting on results from a lab test to determine how to proceed with one case. Benson declined to say how many businesses were visited, citing the open investigation.

Committee hears support for compliance

At Tuesday’s medical marijuana committee meeting, Murphy repeated an assertion he’s used for nearly two years now:  The availability of hemp-derived alternatives to medical cannabis puts the state’s highly regulated medical marijuana industry at a disadvantage.

“Why do I go to a doctor and pay him, and why go pay the state to pay even more money, when I can go to the vape shop, or I can go to the hemp store and they’re selling exactly what I need?” Murphy said.

The number of medical marijuana cards issued in the state stands at around 14,000, but changes slightly every day, Whitney Brunner of the Department of Health told the medical marijuana committee Tuesday.

“Any data point presented on patient cards is representative of a snapshot in time,” Brunner said.

Cards issuance has picked up slightly since voters rejected a ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis last fall, but remained at about 14,000 as of this week. A little more than 70 percent of the cards have been issued to people for the management of chronic pain, Brunner told the committee.

Medical cannabis purveyors supported the law banning the sale of synthetically altered hemp products, but the law hasn’t led to a crush of cases against sellers. Around 100 charges had been filed as of last month, between juvenile and adult cases, according to the Unified Judicial System. Several of those charges were attached to individual defendants.

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The Cost of Disclosure: How Intimidation Keeps UFO Witnesses Quiet

The first thing, Mike Herrera says, is the pressure. 

It arrives as a feeling before it becomes a fact: the sense that people asking the wrong questions are being watched, leaned on, or shut down.

Politicians, congressional staffers, and whistleblowers are facing threats and intimidation from Intelligence Community operatives and government contractors as they investigate covert Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) programs, according to the Marine veteran, who says he has briefed the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and the Senate’s Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.

“Absolutely – it happens quite a bit,” Herrera told Liberation Times.

“Many feel the heat [investigating UAP allegations from whistleblowers and witnesses], and I personally know some, though I won’t name them. It’s a very common trend among staffers and even politicians to be threatened or intimidated in an effort to make them back off.”

The intimidation, he says, is meant to be unmistakable – more than whispers in corridors, closer to a performance of power. 

“They use surveillance to make people feel uncomfortable – helicopters are the big one. They’ll fly over someone’s residence or circle them, just as a reminder: ‘You’re on our radar.’ It’s happened to me personally, and it’s happened to many whistleblowers I know. Even staffers and some politicians have experienced it, over and over again.”

From pressure tactics, Herrera moves to structural allegations: efforts inside Congress that steer inquiries away from sensitive lanes, especially around alleged crash retrievals and reverse engineering. 

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Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics shuts down illegal marijuana farms

Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics agents, with assistance from multiple sheriff’s departments and county commissioners, served search warrants at three marijuana farms in southwestern Oklahoma, seizing over 40,000 plants and more than 1,000 pounds of processed marijuana.

The farms, located near Tipton, Frederick, and Grandfield, were targeted as part of an ongoing investigation into black market marijuana trafficking and fraud. Five people are currently in ICE custody, and investigators expect more arrests.

“We were at the height of this 8,400 grows, seen as the wild west of weed,” said Mark Woodward, with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. “We’ve really flipped the script, OBN is going to put your business under a microscope, if you’re a criminal you’re going to go to fail.”

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Brazil Uses Child Safety as Cover for Online Digital ID Surge

Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies has advanced a bill marketed as a child protection measure, drawing sharp condemnation from lawmakers who say the process ignored legislative rules and opens the door to broad censorship of online content.

Bill PL 2628/2022, which outlines mandatory rules for digital platforms operating in Brazil, moved forward at an unusually fast pace after Chamber President Hugo Motta approved an urgency request on August 19.

That decision cut off critical steps in the legislative process, including committee review and broader debate, allowing the proposal to reach the full floor for a vote just one day later.

The urgency motion, Requerimento de Urgência REQ 1785/2025, passed without a roll-call vote. Instead, Motta used a symbolic vote, a method that records no individual positions and relies on the presiding officer’s perception of consensus. Requests for a formal, recorded vote were rejected outright.

Congressman Marcel van Hattem (NOVO-RS) accused the Chamber’s leadership of bypassing democratic norms. He said Motta approved the urgency request to expand the “censorship” of the Lula government.

Other deputies joined the protest, calling the process arbitrary and abusive.

Under the bill, digital platforms must verify users’ ages, take down material labeled offensive to minors, and comply with orders from a newly created federal oversight authority.

That body would hold sweeping powers to enforce regulations, issue sanctions, and even suspend platforms for up to 30 days in some circumstances, potentially without a full court decision.

Although the urgent request had been filed back in May, it gained renewed traction after social media influencer Felca released a series of videos exposing what he called the “adultization” of children online. His content prompted widespread media coverage and pushed the topic of online child safety to the forefront. In response, Motta committed to fast-tracking related legislation.

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California Content Law Design Code Faces Free Speech Clash

Efforts to implement California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code continue to face resistance from both the tech industry and digital civil liberties groups, who argue that the law’s restrictions violate constitutional protections and would compel sweeping surveillance and censorship online.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which represents companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, and eBay, recently filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case NetChoice v. Bonta.

Stephanie Joyce, the group’s senior vice president and director of its litigation center, condemned the legislation in blunt terms: “The Constitution prohibits the government from dictating what lawful content readers can see, and it extends that protection regardless of the reader’s age.

Though well-intentioned, California’s internet age restriction law is unconstitutional, and the court of appeals should affirm the decision to block it.”

The case marks the second time this legal clash has reached the Ninth Circuit. Previously, the court blocked only a portion of the law and returned the rest for further review.

Now, with renewed scrutiny, the court could determine whether the entire statute fails to withstand constitutional challenge.

NetChoice, an industry coalition that includes many of the same members as the CCIA, has led the charge against a wave of so-called “age assurance” laws.

These policies would require digital platforms to verify the ages of users and potentially restrict minors’ access to content deemed unsuitable. But free speech advocates warn the consequences would be broader and more dangerous than legislators admit.

Groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) have also weighed in with their own amicus brief, arguing that the law’s age estimation mandates undermine essential First Amendment rights. “CDT and EFF’s brief argues that the appeals court should uphold the injunctions solely on the basis of its overbroad, unconstitutional age verification requirement because that requirement is not severable from other provisions and should doom the entire statute.” The brief warns that such mandates not only chill access to lawful speech but also erode online anonymity and place users’ personal data at risk.

They also emphasize that minors’ ability to engage freely online is a critical part of their development and civic participation. “Social media helps minors develop their own ideas, learn to express themselves, and engage productively with others in our democratic public sphere,” the brief states.

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Trump’s Pick For Traffic Safety Agency Will ‘Double Down’ On Marijuana-Impaired Driving Warnings As More States Legalize

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead a key federal traffic safety agency says he’s prepared to “double down” on increasing awareness about the risk of marijuana-impaired driving in partnership with the White House.

During a Senate committee hearing, the nominee to serve as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Jonathan Morrison, was pressed on the need to develop technology to detect impairment from THC and also educate the public about the issue.

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), who has long focused on promoting public safety around cannabis and driving, noted at the hearing that while there’s a national standard for assessing alcohol impairment, “currently, there is no uniform national standard to measure marijuana impairment.”

“Creating a national standard marijuana impairment is going to ease the burden of law enforcement, prosecutions, help clarify legal requirements for states and, without question, save countless lives,” the senator said.

The NHTSA nominee agreed and added that he feels “there isn’t necessarily public consciousness that when people are using marijuana, that it has an impairing effect on their ability to drive a vehicle.”

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FBI Director Kash Patel EXPOSES Obama-Clinton Grand Conspiracy with Larry Kudlow — CONFIRMS Russiagate, FISA Court Abuses, and Mar-a-Lago Raid Was a Political Hit Job

FBI Director Kash Patel joined Larry Kudlow in a bombshell interview this week, and it’s ten minutes every American needs to see.

On Larry Kudlow’s show, FBI Director Kash Patel unleashed a series of bombshells that confirm what millions of Americans have long suspected: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the masterminds behind the phony Russiagate hoax and the illegal invasion of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Now, Patel has confirmed it on national television, Obama and Hillary Clinton were at the very top of the conspiracy.

Kudlow pressed Patel on how the FBI could justify invading the private home of a former president, something unprecedented in American history.

Patel laid it out plainly: Russiagate, the FISA Court abuses, and the Mar-a-Lago raid were all connected. A “political operation,” not a legitimate investigation.

Kudlow also asked Patel point-blank if Obama and Hillary were the architects of this grand conspiracy.

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Citizen Lab Director Warns Cyber Industry About US Authoritarian Descent

Ron Deibert, the director of Citizen Lab, one of the most prominent organizations investigating government spyware abuses, is sounding the alarm to the cybersecurity community and asking them to step up and join the fight against authoritarianism. 

On Wednesday, Deibert will deliver a keynote at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, one of the largest gatherings of information security professionals of the year. 

Ahead of his talk, Deibert told TechCrunch that he plans to speak about what he describes as a “descent into a kind of fusion of tech and fascism,” and the role that the Big Tech platforms are playing, and “propelling forward a really frightening type of collective insecurity that isn’t typically addressed by this crowd, this community, as a cybersecurity problem.”

Deibert described the recent political events in the United States as a “dramatic descent into authoritarianism,” but one that the cybersecurity community can help defend against.

“I think alarm bells need to be rung for this community that, at the very least, they should be aware of what’s going on and hopefully they can not contribute to it, if not help reverse it,” Deibert told TechCrunch.

Historically, at least in the United States, the cybersecurity industry has put politics — to a certain extent — to the side. More recently, however, politics has fully entered the world of cybersecurity. 

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into former CISA director Chris Krebs, who had publicly rebuffed Trump’s false claims about election fraud by declaring the 2020 election secure. Trump later fired Krebs by tweet. The investigation ordered by Trump months after his 2024 reelection forced Krebs to step down from SentinelOne and vow to fight back.

In response, Jen Easterly, another former CISA director and Krebs’ successor, called on the cybersecurity community to get involved and speak out.

“If we stay silent when experienced, mission-driven leaders are sidelined or sanctioned, we risk something greater than discomfort; we risk diminishing the very institutions we are here to protect,” Easterly wrote in a post on LinkedIn. 

Easterly was herself a victim of political pressure from the Trump administration when her offer to join West Point was rescinded in late July.

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