(2021-04-09). Saudi Arabia Calls On people To Sight Ramadan Crescent On Sunday Evening. eurasiareview.com 
Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has called on people in the Kingdom to try and sight the crescent moon signalling the beginning of the month of Ramadan on Sunday evening. | Anyone who sights the crescent, either with the naked eye or with the help of binoculars, should inform the nearest court of the sighting, the court said. | The start of Ramadan is determined by the lunar calendar which, unlike the Gregorian calendar, follows a 29- or 30-day cycle determined by the cycle of the moon. | Ramadan 2021 is due to start on either Monday or Tuesday in the Kingdom. | Muslims anticipate the end of Shaaban, the month pr…
(2021-04-09). 'This Is A War In The Woods 2.0'. popularresistance.org Port Renfrew – "Activist headquarters" is an encampment just outside of Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island. That is where the fight to prevent 200 hectares of ancient old-growth forest from being cut down continues. | "We haven't been served (with an injunction), no," said Molly Murphy, one of the many people calling the encampment home on Monday. | The injunction was granted by the B.C. Supreme Court on April 1. It orders the demonstrators to take down the blockades that they had set up to prevent forestry company Teal-Jones from accessing its logging operation in the area. | "We're waiting for Teal-Jones to serve t…
(2021-04-09). Artificial Intelligence Could 'Crack The Language' Of Cancer And Alzheimer's. eurasiareview.com 
Powerful algorithms used by Netflix, Amazon and Facebook can 'predict' the biological language of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, scientists have found. | Big data produced during decades of research was fed into a computer language model to see if artificial intelligence can make more advanced discoveries than humans. | Academics based at St John's College, University of Cambridge, found the machine-learning technology could decipher the 'biological language' of cancer, Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative diseases. | Their ground-breaking study has been published in the scientific…
(2021-04-09). How Bellingcat Launders National Security State Talking Points into the Press. mintpressnews.com 
For a self-proclaimed citizen journalism outfit, an alarming number of Bellingcat's staff and contributors come from highly suspect backgrounds, including high-level positions in military and intelligence agencies.
(2021-04-09). Chip Gibbons on Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale. fair.org 
Daniel Hale | This week on CounterSpin: The idea that you don't "shoot the messenger" dates back, evidently, to Sophocles. It echoes today as a man named Daniel Hale stands convicted nominally of breaking a law aimed at spies sneaking intel to foreign enemies, but actually with revealing things the US government didn't want known about its drone warfare programs—the ones elite media have often presented as precise in separating "bad guys" from "innocents," and so superior to other methods of (what we are to understand is) "counterterrorism." | Big media have shown little interest in the case. We'll get a b…
(2021-04-09). Scheer Intelligence: "Moffie" Links White Supremacy And Homophobia As Macho Perversions. popularresistance.org "Moffie," a new South African movie billed as an apartheid-era "queer war film," tells the story of the closeted 16-year-old Nicholas (Kai Luke Brummer) and his conscription into South Africa's military service to fight a war against communist Angola in the 1980s. The film, in movie theaters and On Demand platforms, is based on André Carl van der Merwe's autobiographical novel "Moffie"—a homophobic slur. It explores with great nuance the complex realities of apartheid-era South Africa and the dangerous ideologies pervasive in its solely white male armed forces. On this week's installment of "Scheer Intellig…
(2021-04-09). Vicious Daraa Attack Leaves Three Syrian Intelligence Officers Dead. southfront.org 
Illustrative image | Early on April 9, three officers of the Syrian Political Security Directorate were killed in a vicious attack in the northern Daraa countryside. | Unidentified gunmen ambushed then killed three officers on a road leading to the town of Ghabagheb. The town is located near the administrative border between Daraa and Damascus Countryside. | The slain officers were identified as Osama al-Khalid, Rami Jamous and Ali Barakat. All three victims were originally from…
(2021-04-08). Standing With Daniel Hale, Standing With Whistleblowers. popularresistance.org Join us for a special broadcast featuring DRAD Policy Director Chip Gibbons, Jesselyn Radack head of Whistleblower and Source Protection Program (WHISPeR) at ExposeFacts, and whistleblowers who have faced Espionage Act charges. | Last week, Daniel Hale, a drone whistleblower, pled guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act. Hale admitted in court that he gave to an investigative reporter documents detailing human rights abuses pertaining to the US's troubling assassination program. Although this information was in the public interest, the government nonetheless indicted Hale under the Espionage Act. | Thi…
(2021-04-08). How the Supreme Court Gave Cops a License to Kill. thenation.com How the Supreme Court Gave Cops a License to Kill…
(2021-04-08). Report: Israeli Spy Chief Headed to Washington to Work Against Iran Deal. news.antiwar.com According to a report from Israeli TV, Israel's Channel 13 reported on Wednesday that Cohen will be making the trip in the coming days and is expected to meet with senior White House and US intelligence officials. The report said Israel is trying to arrange a face-to-face meeting between Cohen and Biden. | Cohen is expected to claim that Iran is hiding deta…
(2021-04-08). Grassroots Organizers Mobilize to Defend Kshama Sawant Against Recall Effort. truthout.org 
On April 1, Washington State's Supreme Court The forces arrayed against her are formidable…
(2021-04-08). Locations Of US Carrier Strike Groups — April 8, 2021. southfront.org 
This is the newest update of the 'U.S. Carrier Strike Groups Locations Map' exclusive series showing the approximate locations of U.S. Carrier Strike Groups. SouthFront: Analysis & Intelligence tracks locations of U.S. aircraft carriers using the available open-source information. No classified information was used in production of the map. | click to see the full-size image | Carrier strike group (CSG) is an operational formation of the United States Navy. It is centered on an aircraft carrier and a carrier ai…