On the same day theWorld Food Programmewas awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its fight against hunger, fresh numbers from the U.S. government showed that tighter crop supplies could worsen the food-inequality crisis that’s sweeping the globe. . . the report indicated that global food prices could keep climbing, making adequate nutrition more expensive as millions are thrown out of work and economic woes deepen. . . The crop outlooks and higher prices come as the World Food Programme warned of “hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions,” unless it and other groups with a similar focus get the financial backing they need to do their work.
Just this week, the United Nations released its gauge of global food prices, which showed costs rose 2.1% in September, mainly driven by grains and vegetable oils. The index is approaching a multi-year peak set in January. The USDA figures show that the increases could continue as China imports more soybeans and wheat, tightening the global balance sheet.
Prices are rising as the world is forecast for a sharp rise in food insecurity because of Covid-19’s impact. As many as 132 million more people globally may fall into the grip of hunger this year, including in many places that used to have relative stability.
Water is a precious commodity. It can be bought-and-sold --- so why did WATER FUTURES get the attention of regulators? ____________________________________________
Oct.09 -- In today’s “Futures in Focus," Rostin Behnam, commisioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, discusses the impact of extreme weather events on financial markets, and the launch of water futures trading on the CME. He speaks with Bloomberg's Scarlet Fu and Guy Johnson on "Bloomberg Markets."
This year’s Black Lives Matter protests draw on a long tradition of global justice movements and culture. MSNBC’s Ari Melber explores that history with reggae icon Ziggy Marley, who has carried on the musical and political traditions of his father, Bob Marley, while also releasing new children’s music for the pandemic. This is the full video of Marley’s conversation – excerpts from this interview aired on The Beat in October 2020. (This interview is from MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber, a news show covering politics, law and culture airing nightly at 6pm ET on MSNBC. http://www.thebeatwithari.com). Aired on 10/9/2020.
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"Facebook has banned the U.S. marketing firm that was behind a campaign to disseminate deceptive political content on behalf of Turning Point Action, a political advocacy group for young conservatives with ties to President Donald Trump.
"Facebook said it removed 200 Facebook accounts, 55 pages and 76 Instagram accounts tied to Rally Forge.
( INTERRUPT - PAUSE - BLOGGER NOTE
Note how it sounds like Valley Forge (an allusion to history and George Washington in the faux absurd appeals to patriotism.
Rally Forge is a direct-marketing firm here in Arizona )
Rally Forge employed people who used use fake names and profile pictures while commenting on content posted by other users or mainstream media outlets, Facebook's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said Thursday. The firm did that work on behalf of Turning Point and Inclusive Conservation Group, a hunting advocacy organization.
> More on the campaign:Facebooksaid it removed 200 Facebook accounts, 55 pages and 76 Instagram accounts tied to Rally Forge. Those accounts also spent just shy of $1 million on advertising, a figure that Gleicher said reflects all of Rally Forge's spending on Facebook, including ads not tied to deceptive campaigns.
> Twitter also taking action: A spokesperson for Twitter said Thursday that the social network suspended 262 accounts connected to Rally Forge for violating its own policies against manipulation and spam.
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VIDEO:
Ep 22 | Peaceful Protests Or Domestic Terror?
1,974 views
•Premiered 2 hours ago
When Americans have grievances with the government they have the right to peacefully assemble. Everybody agrees with that.
However, has what we’ve seen the past few months been peaceful assembly? This week, Benny Johnson investigates the protests that have occurred in Washington D.C. the past few months with one goal: to determine if groups like BLM and Antifa were protesting, or engaging in DOMESTIC TERRORISM?
SPOILER ALERT: when you're assaulting cops, hurting pedestrians, burning businesses and churches, destroying statues, and desecrating public property, you’re NOT being peaceful.
Tesla is by far one of the most successful companies in modern history. They popularized fully electric cars and created a massive demand among the public. With a market cap of around 380 billion dollars, Tesla is growing by the day. But to keep up with orders Tesla built a futuristic facility called the Gigafactory. Today we’re taking a look inside the Tesla Gigafactory.
Tesla currently produces about 350,000 cars a year—far fewer than the public demands. But they have ambitions to ramp up production to more than 20 million cars a year. This bold strategy will require numerous advances in their current chain of production, including several larger factories, which are currently being built all over the world. But the bedrock of Tesla’s production line is their Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.
The company’s first fully built factory will serve as the model for what eventually could be a dozen massive Tesla factories globally.
The US Department of Defense has awarded $600 million to several well-known companies to begin the government’s 5G experimentation, including testing at five US military bases. Meanwhile, the US Space Development Agency has chosen four contractors to build the first-ever 28 data relay satellites. Now the search is on to find the best company to launch those satellites into space. RT America's Trinity Chavez reports. ___________________________________________________ Projects will include piloting 5G-enabled augmented/virtual reality for mission planning and training, testing 5G-enabled Smart Warehouses, and evaluating 5G technologies to enhance distributed command and control.__________________________________________________________
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DOD Announces $600 Million for 5G Experimentation and Testing at Five Installations
OCT. 8, 2020
Today, the Department of Defense announced $600 million in awards for 5G experimentation and testing at five U.S. military test sites, representing the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use applications in the world. Each installation will partner military Services, industry leaders, and academic experts to advance the Department’s 5G capabilities. . .
“The Department of Defense is at the forefront of cutting edge 5G testing and experimentation, which will strengthen our Nation’s warfighting capabilities as well as U.S. economic competitiveness in this critical field. Through these test sites, the Department is leveraging its unique authorities to pursue bold innovation at a scale and scope unmatched anywhere else in the world. Importantly, today’s announcement demonstrates the Department’s commitment to exploring the vast potential applications and dual-use opportunities that can be built upon next-generation networks,” said Michael Kratsios, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. . .
The bases were selected for their ability to provide streamlined access to spectrum bands and mature fiber and wireless infrastructure, support new or improved infrastructure requirements, and conduct controlled experimentation with dynamic spectrum sharing. Details on each base are listed below.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), Washington – Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Training
Naval Base San Diego (NBSD), California – 5G Smart Warehousing (Transshipment)
Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) Albany, Georgia – 5G Smart Warehousing (Vehicular)
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada – Distributed Command and Control
The objective of this effort is to develop a testbed for use of 5G technologies to aid in Air, Space, and Cyberspace lethality while enhancing command and control (C2) survivability. Specifically, a 5G network will be employed to disaggregate and mobilize the existing C2 architectures in an agile combat employment scenario.
Hill Air Force Base, Utah – Dynamic Spectrum Utilization
This project addresses the challenge of enabling Air Force radars to dynamically share spectrum with 5G cellular services. The project will develop sharing/coexistence system prototypes and evaluate their effectiveness with real-world, at-scale networks in controlled environments. The objective of this effort is to develop effective methodologies to allow the sharing or coexistence between airborne radar systems and 5G cellular telephony systems in the 3.1 – 3.45 GHz band...
5G communications technology is a foundational enabler for all U.S. defense modernization programs, and vital to U.S. national and economic security.
DoD’s efforts focus on large-scale experimentation and prototyping of dual-use 5G technology that will provide high speeds and quicker response times, connect many more wireless devices than current wireless technology, and enable leap-ahead capabilities for the U.S. military.
Today’s announcement builds on DoD’s previously-announced 5G prototyping efforts and is part of a 5G development roadmap guided by the Department of Defense 5G Strategy.
It represents the first tranche of awards on 5G experimentation and testing, with additional sites to be announced in the future.
