While Sinclair Broadcast Group is not a household name, it is one of the most powerful TV companies in the nation. It owns 173 local TV stations across the country, including affiliates of all the major networks. And it’s attempting to grow even larger by purchasing Tribune Media—a $3.9 billion deal currently under regulatory review. Sinclair has been widely criticized for its close ties to the White House. But Sinclair is facing new scrutiny after it ordered news anchors at scores of its affiliate stations to recite nearly identical “must-read” commentaries warning of the dangers of “fake news” in language that echoes President Trump’s rhetoric. The commentaries reached millions of viewers last month and drew widespread attention after the website Deadspin published a video over the weekend showing side-by-side comparisons of the broadcasts from 45 Sinclair-owned stations. We speak to Andy Kroll, senior reporter at Mother Jones magazine. https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/3/media_giant_sinclair_under_fire_for[with embedded video, and transcript]
MLK’s Final Days: The Rev. James Lawson Remembers King’s Assassination & Support for Memphis Strike
Published on Apr 3, 2018 by Democracy Now!
Fifty years ago today in Memphis, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final sermon, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” Less than 24 hours later, King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. King was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers. We speak to Rev. James Lawson, who invited King to come to Memphis to support the strike. At the time, Lawson was the pastor of Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis. King called Rev. Lawson “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/3/mlks_final_days_the_rev_james[with embedded video, and transcript]
He Gave His Life in the Labor Struggle: MLK’s Forgotten Radical Message for Economic Justice
Published on Apr 3, 2018 by Democracy Now!
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 50 years ago this week while in Memphis, where he was supporting striking sanitation workers and building support for his Poor People’s Campaign. We look at King’s long history of fighting for economic justice, with the Rev. James Lawson and historian Michael Honey, author of the new book “To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice [ https://www.amazon.com/Promised-Land-Martin-Economic-Justice/dp/0393651266 ].” https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/3/he_gave_his_life_in_the[with embedded video, and transcript]
Web Bonus: Rev. James Lawson & Michael Honey on MLK’s Vision of Worker Solidarity & Economic Justice
Published on Apr 4, 2018 by Democracy Now!
Extended interview with Rev. James Lawson and historian Michael Honey on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Lawson is a civil rights icon who King once called “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.’ Honey is the author of many books; his latest is out today, “To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice [ https://www.amazon.com/Promised-Land-Martin-Economic-Justice/dp/0393651266 ].” https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/3/web_bonus_rev_james_lawson_michael[with embedded video, and transcript]
David Knight has been talking for months about why President Trump is REQUIRED to defend the border with Defense Dept & defense budget and today Trump announced that he will confront the ‘Caravan’ of foreigners demanding their ‘right’ to live in America. Then, the Mockingbird legacy media attacks Sinclair for talking points” by using “talking points” and Zuckerberg has a plan for control and we’ve seen it before. And, Saudi Crown Prince rents ENTIRE Beverly Hills luxury hotel but even more amazing is his interview where he claims he’s never heard the term “Wahhabism” & Islam is a “Religion of Peace”.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Call with King Salman of Saudi Arabia
Issued on: April 3, 2018
President Donald J. Trump spoke yesterday with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. King Salman thanked the President for hosting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House. President Trump expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia following the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-enabled Houthi ballistic missile attacks against civilian targets in Saudi Arabia on March 25. The leaders discussed a range of regional issues, including the importance of achieving a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians and opportunities to strengthen the American-Saudi strategic partnership. The leaders agreed on the significance of reinvigorating a political process to end the war in Yemen. On Syria, the President and the King discussed joint efforts to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and counter Iranian efforts to exploit the Syrian conflict to pursue its destabilizing regional ambitions. President Trump emphasized the importance of resolving the Gulf dispute and restoring a united Gulf Cooperation Council to counter Iranian malign influence and defeat terrorists and extremists.
Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Call with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar
Issued on: April 3, 2018
President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar. The President thanked the Emir for Qatar’s continued commitment to counter terrorist financing and extremism. The leaders discussed Iran’s increasingly reckless behavior in the region and the threat it poses to regional stability. The President and the Emir discussed the obstacles to restoring unity in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The President thanked the Emir for his commitment to help restore GCC unity and emphasized that it is critical to end the Gulf dispute. The President and the Emir agreed on the importance of regional unity to address security threats and to ensure the prosperity of the people in the region.
Artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in our lives, in private and public spheres, in ways large and small. Machine learning tools help determine the ads you see on Facebook and routes you take to get to work. They might also be making decisions about your health care and immigration status.
Government agencies at the local and federal level are exploring, and in many cases already using, automated tools to allocate resources and monitor people. This raises significant civil rights and civil liberties concerns.
In some cities, police are using artificial intelligence to predict where crimes might occur and to deploy officers and surveillance technologies accordingly. The Trump administration wants to collaborate with Silicon Valley to build a system to mine the social media accounts of foreigners to determine who might be a "threat." In one Pennsylvania county, an algorithm determines which children are at risk of abuse.
Worse, such algorithms tend to be shrouded in secrecy, closed off to external auditors who might be able to test them for bias and make needed corrections. Because of that secrecy, often imposed by private companies that refuse to reveal their source code, people can’t effectively contest the decisions made by these tools. The data and algorithms used to make fateful decisions about people’s lives are simply out of public reach.
In many contexts, the government’s use of automated tools to increase efficiency and assist in decision-making is appropriate. However, safeguards are necessary to give human beings a role in their creation, oversight, and deployment. Without democratic participation, we have no way to ensure that artificial intelligence isn’t exacerbating inequality and obstructing human agency — possibly, without our ever knowing.
This week Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice discuss the differences between AI and machine learning with special guest, MKBHD himself, Marques Brownlee.
Also, check out this MKBHD video where Neil, Chuck, and Marques talk some serious tech:
Tuesday, April 3rd 2018[, with Paul Joseph Watson hosting the fourth hour]: Caravan at the Gates - The organizer of an illegal alien invasion promises to continue northward to America. Trump says Congress must take action immediately to secure the border. The president will cut foreign aid to all countries involved. Joining today’s show is political commentator Dr. Jerome Corsi to discuss his inside knowledge of the Deep State’s tactics to thwart Trump and his new book. Also, SEAL graduate and novelist Matt Bracken speaks truth on the left's assault on the 2nd Amendment.
Kelly Jones, ex-wife of Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, joins David to discuss the truth about Alex Jones, his snake oil supplements, conspiracy theories, the alleged brainwashing of their son, and much more.
Ted Nugent is the original maverick, ever since he started challenging the creeping Marxism of the 1970's with the spirit of 1776. The guitar legend was instrumental in getting Donald Trump elected in 2016 and now he sits down with Alex Jones to talk guns, conservation, and the indomitable American spirit in the face of democratic onslaught.
RWW News: Alt-Right Activist On State Of The Movement: ‘We Are Fucked’
Published on Apr 3, 2018 by RightWingWatchdotorg
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, Colin "Millennial Woes" Robertson complains about infighting and turmoil in the racist alt-right movement, going on to declare that the movement is "fucked." http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alt-right-activist-on-state-of-the-movement-we-are-fucked/
RWW News: Frank Amedia And The Resurrection Of An Ant
Published on Apr 3, 2018 by RightWingWatchdotorg
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, right-wing pastor Frank Amedia recounts the recent miracle in which he brought back to life an ant that he had killed and crushed into pieces. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/frank-amedia-and-the-resurrection-of-an-ant/
The Wise Christian thinks that he's the commander of the world because he talks to god.
He also seems incredibly close to coming to the revelation that his religion is nonsense. He realizes that his holy book is obscenely immoral and full of cruelty, but instead of realizing it's nonsense, he has decided to boil his religion down to one word - love.
A recent internet meme asks users to "Name something a Christian says when they're losing an argument to an atheist." We explore some all-too-familiar responses.
Kim Noble is an artist with a difference – twenty of them, in fact. After suffering childhood abuse, Kim's mind split into twenty distinct personalities to cope with the trauma. Over a dozen personalities are painters, including Judy the bulimic teenager, a gay man named Ken, and a mother called Patricia.
While Kim was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID) and raising her daughter Aimee, she and her various personalities began painting as a way of understanding their own complex mind.
Now Aimee is at university studying law, and Kim is a world-renowned artist who exhibits her work internationally. VICE meets her on the eve of her group show at the Zebra One Gallery in London, aimed at raising awareness of mental health in art.
Breaking news as the War Room was live today, a shooter went into YouTube headquarters in San Bruno California and unleashed gunfire in what has been reported as a crime of romantic passion. Meanwhile, Roger Stone discusses the latest fake news attacks on him alleging a meeting between him and Julian Assange that never happened. We also cover the wave of refugees attempting to pour in from the southern border.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
On April 3, US President Donald J. Trump and the Presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia met for the first time together in Washington, DC marking the historic US-Baltic Summit. Following the day’s meetings, this private high-level dinner [full-event YouTube, including these remarks by McMaster, next below] serves as a celebration of the US-Baltic partnership on the centennial of the Baltic State’s independence. The discussion highlights the accomplishments and incredible transformation of the Baltic States from “captive nations” to frontline allies and as key members of the transatlantic community. The dinner includes keynote remarks from US National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, as well as a moderated conversation with President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania, President Raimonds Vejonis of Latvia, and President Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia.
100 Years of US-Baltic Partnership Reflecting on the Past and Looking to the Future
Streamed live on Apr 3, 2018 by AtlanticCouncil
100 Years of US-Baltic Partnership Reflecting on the Past and Looking to the Future
On April 3, US President Donald J. Trump and the Presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia met for the first time together in Washington, DC marking the historic US-Baltic Summit. Following the day’s meetings, this private high-level dinner serves as a celebration of the US-Baltic partnership on the centennial of the Baltic State’s independence. The discussion highlights the accomplishments and incredible transformation of the Baltic States from “captive nations” to frontline allies and as key members of the transatlantic community. The dinner includes keynote remarks from US National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, as well as a moderated conversation with President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania, President Raimonds Vejonis of Latvia, and President Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia.
Malcolm Nance: Trump is “gaslighting” public on Mueller probe
The Beat with Ari Melber 4/3/18
Bob Mueller hands down his first sentence in the Russia probe. Lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan, who is tied to Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, has been sentenced to 30 days in jail. Intelligence Analyst Malcolm Nance, Watergate Prosecutor Nick Akerman and CNBC Editor at Large John Harwood join The Beat.
Harwood: Trump militarizing U.S.-Mexico border is “dangerous”
The Beat with Ari Melber 4/3/18
Trump calls for the military to guard the U.S. Border with Mexico until “there’s a wall.” The Daily Mail's Francesca Chambers and CNBC's John Harwood join The Beat.
What the U.S. could learn from Canada about integrating immigrant students
Published on Apr 3, 2018 by PBS NewsHour
In Canadian public schools, the children of new immigrants do as well as native-born children within three years of arriving. There kids don't just get language and academic support; their home cultures are celebrated as they are integrated into classes. And strong social services and healthy education funding help too. Special correspondent Kavitha Cardoza of Education Week reports.
Protests continued over the weekend in Sacramento after a family-ordered autopsy showed an unarmed black man named Stephon Clark was shot in the back at least six times by two police officers. The protests ratcheted up pressure on Sacramento law enforcement and attracted national attention when protesters twice blocked most fans from entering the Sacramento Kings arena.
The Kings have taken the unusual step of embracing the protests. So far, it’s worked: No protesters stopped Kings fans from walking into a Saturday game against the Golden State Warriors.
One player finds himself at the center of the team’s foray into social activism: Garrett Temple, an undrafted 6-foot-5-inch guard who at 31 years old doesn’t have many contracts left.
“It’s too many lives being took, there’s too many lives just being took for mistakes,” Temple said. “You guys are trained. You know the difference between a cell phone and a gun. You could have tased him. You shooting a man because of some broken windows and you don’t even know if that’s the right person.”
One demonstrator was injured Saturday night when she was struck by a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department cruiser, and confrontational protests with police stretched into the night.
When asked if he would consider a more disruptive protest than wearing warm-up gear printed with Stephon Clark’s name, Temple said demonstrations on their own have a limited shelf life.
"Walking off the court isn't gonna erase implicit bias. Kneeling isn't gonna erase implicit bias. Talking to the chief of police about how to get police in the community .. and build a relationship with people,” Temple said. “That's what's gonna erase those implicit biases.”
Why The Best Hope For Gun Control Isn’t Congress — It’s With The States (HBO)
Published on Apr 3, 2018 by VICE News
As hundreds of thousands of people marched on Washington and local state legislatures, exercising their rights to vocally protest the gun lobby, advocates across the country have also been toiling away on a less visible plan for gun reform, taking it state by state.
In Colorado, three gun rights activists who lost family members in Columbine, Aurora, and Sandy Hook testified for lawmakers at two hearings. At the first, they spoke in support of legislation that proposed a ban on bump stocks — the accessory used in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire faster. In the second hearing, they fought against a bill to repeal the current ban on high-capacity magazines.
Colorado is generally a pro-gun state, and so far, activists like Tom Mauser, Tom Sullivan, Jane Daugherty and other mass shooting survivors have had more losses than wins.
Though they believed their chances might be better this time around with the renewed momentum behind the national gun debate, state lawmakers didn’t take the bait. And even among those directly touched by gun violence, a consensus remains elusive: Patrick Neville, a Columbine survivor and lawmaker, tells us he doesn't buy the idea that increased gun control will create safer schools or communities — and he's far from alone.
What John Bolton's Past Tells Us About His Future As Trump's National Security Adviser (HBO)
Published on Apr 3, 2018 by VICE News
When John Bolton becomes Donald Trump’s national security advisor later this month, he’ll assume more influence over U.S foreign policy than he’s ever had before.
That has a lot of people nervous: Bolton has rarely seen a military intervention he didn’t like — he supported the war in Iraq (and still does), regime change in Iran, and a first strike against North Korea’s nuclear program.
But the last time Bolton was up for a big job — his 2005 nomination for ambassador to the United Nations — what tripped him up wasn’t his policies; it was testimony about his penchant for berating subordinates, and a refusal to listen to information that countered his personal beliefs.
Carl Ford, Jr., was the director of the State Department bureau responsible for intelligence analysis in 2002, when Bolton was under secretary of state for Arms Control. At the time, the Bush administration was building up evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq — wrongfully, as it turned out — and Bolton was seeking to make the case that another country, Cuba, was working on its own biological weapons program. (It wasn't.)
Ford’s analysts disagreed, and Bolton, Ford says, didn’t want to hear it. He called the analyst into his office, and threatened to have him fired. Ford fought back.
“I was steaming,” Ford recalled. “I explained to him… ‘John, if you want to say this, that you believe it — be our guest. But you cannot say that it's the intelligence community's view.”
The drama that ensued followed Bolton for years, and nearly kept him out of the UN job. He was later granted a recess appointment by the president. But more than a decade later, former colleagues say it’s much more worrisome as a sign of how Bolton might deal with intelligence that contradicts his views in his much more powerful position.
“It is the best evidence we have of how he will behave in the future,” said Greg Thielmann, another former State Department intel analyst who worked with Bolton. “These things might be academic but this is how you build the case for war.”
Trump under investigation but not criminal target: Report
All In with Chris Hayes 4/3/18
Special Counsel Robert Mueller told President Trump's attorneys last month that Trump is still under investigation but is not currently a criminal target, reports the Washington Post.
Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine, the first person receiving jail time as a result of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
President Trump is under investigation, but not as a criminal target says Mueller
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/3/18
Rachel Maddow speaks with Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig who reports that Trump’s lawyers say the special counsel is investigating the president but does not believe he is a criminal target at the moment.
Special Counsel Office press office now confirms that the ‘senior assistant special counsel’ referenced on p.42 of today’s filing is indeed Andrew Weissmann. https://twitter.com/maddow/status/981367485537705984 [with comments]
Alex van der Zwaan is first person sentenced in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/3/18
Alex van der Zwaan is given a 30 day sentence and a $20,000 fine, becoming the first person sentenced as a result of the Mueller investigation – penalties which shouldn’t be a problem given his close connection to Russian oligarch German Khan.
Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, on Trump Era Activism: "Do more than you ever thought you could."
The Rachel Maddow Show 4/3/18
Cecile Richards, longtime president of Planned Parenthood, speaks with Rachel Maddow about her new book “Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead,” progressive activism in the Trump era, and the future of Planned Parenthood.
Lawrence on Trump, Mueller and 'subject' v. 'target'
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 4/3/18
Lawrence O'Donnell walks through new reporting that Robert Mueller has told Trump's lawyers the president is a "subject" of the Russia investigation, but not currently a target and what it means.
Trump's day in review: Troops to the border, Russia, and Amazon
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 4/3/18
Trump said he will send the "military" to the Mexican border, after failing to secure funding for the wall from the GOP Congress. Neera Tanden says it's an admission his wall "is never going to happen." Ron Klain also joins to react to Trump's latest Russia claim.
Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson joins Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss Trump's strategy of distracting from scandals going on in the White House. Levinson also talks about his new movie, "Paterno," which delves into the Penn State football sexual abuse scandal.
WAPO: Trump remains under investigation by Mueller
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 4/4/18
The Washington Post reports that Special Counsel Mueller told Trump's attorneys in March that he is still investigating the president but doesn't not count him as a criminal target in the investigation at this point. Our panel reacts.
Trump allies divided over report Mueller is investigating him
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 4/4/18
With The Washington Post reporting that Robert Mueller told Trump's legal team the president is a subject, but not a criminal target, of his Russia probe, Trump's allies are reportedly split over the news.
President Trump appoints his physician Ronny Jackson as the secretary of Veterans Affairs, but critics argue that he is deeply unqualified for the role.
Michael Wolff - Exposing the Trump White House in “Fire and Fury” | The Daily Show
Published on Apr 3, 2018
Michael Wolff discusses his book "Fire and Fury," which details President Trump's child-like temperament as well as the dysfunction within his administration.
Jordan breaks down the battlefronts of the war on men, including a greedy conspiracy to put women on money and the diabolical feminist plot to steal the male essence.
Jim addresses the Trump administration's move to add a citizenship question to the U.S. census and lists the reasons why immigrants are justifiably skeptical of answering it.
Seth moderates Late Night writers Ally and Amber as they share conflicting points of view on important issues, like President Trump's memorandum banning transgender people from serving in the military.
On the president's Make America Great-A-Thon, he tests his counselor Kellyanne Conway (played by Kathy Griffin) to see just how far she'll go to defend mankind's worst.
Trump Current Events; Donald and Mad Dog Mattis want the Military on the Border, Daddy Trump told Ivanka and Jared it was a mistake for them to come to Wash DC, REALLY ? lmao. China is not backing down on a Trade War, which will put America Down, because we build Nothing and they Build Everything, again lmao !!! Chaos at Youtube HQ.., Because of Censorship ?
From Thai Jail, Sex Coaches Say They Want to Trade U.S.-Russia Secrets for Safety PATTAYA, Thailand — A pair of self-described sex instructors from Belarus have been stuck in a Thai detention center for weeks. They say that they have evidence demonstrating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States, and that they have offered it to the F.B.I. in exchange for a guarantee of their safety. Their claim — that they are targets of a covert Russian operation to silence them because they know too much — might seem outlandish, but their case certainly includes some unusual circumstances. They have influential enemies in Russia. They were arrested with the help of a “foreign spy,” according to the Thai police, and locked up on what is a fairly minor offense: working without a permit. And the F.B.I. says it tried to talk to the pair, suggesting that American investigators had not dismissed their account out of hand. “They know we have more information,” one of the pair, Alexander Kirillov, 38, told The New York Times last month in an unauthorized phone call from the detention center, in Bangkok. Mr. Kirillov said his co-defendant, Anastasia Vashukevich, 27, had angered some powerful people. “They know she knows a lot,” he said. “And that’s why they made this case against us.” Ms. Vashukevich certainly knows how to get attention. In February, a top critic of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, released a video that included footage she recorded during a brief affair she had with a Russian aluminum tycoon while working as an escort aboard his yacht in 2016. The evidence included photos she posted of the tycoon and his guest, Sergei E. Prikhodko, a deputy prime minister, and a recording of them talking about relations between the United States and Russia. The aluminum tycoon, Oleg V. Deripaska, has close ties with Mr. Putin and with Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, who has been indicted on money laundering charges by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel looking into election interference. The escort and her seduction coach have been held largely incommunicado since March 5, when reporters for The Times and other news media outlets were kicked out of the detention center for speaking to them. They now face deportation and fear what might happen to them if they are sent home to Russia, where they live, or Belarus, the former Soviet republic where they grew up, which remains firmly within Russia’s influence. (Mr. Kirillov was traveling on a Russian passport.) Neither of them is accustomed to silence. They and their circle of friends say they make a habit of recording everything they do as they go about their campaign of teaching seduction techniques and trying their skills on strangers, sometimes in public. The two were arrested along with eight others on Feb. 25 when dozens of plainclothes police officers raided a workshop they were conducting for Russian tourists at a hotel in Pattaya, about 70 miles south of Bangkok. The seminar was aimed mainly at male Russian tourists and offered instruction in how to seduce women. It was not illegal. The police arrest report says that a “foreign spy” infiltrated the Russian-language seminar and provided the Royal Thai Police with information about the training. Cellphone messages show that the agent signaled the waiting officers when it was time to raid the Ibis Pattaya Hotel conference room. The work permit charge is relatively minor, and Mr. Kirillov had been conducting training sessions in Pattaya for years. But high-level officials appeared to take an unusual interest in this case: Six police generals and two colonels had responsibility for the raid, according to the arrest report. Since the arrests, the government has tried to keep a tight lid on information. Friends said they had not been allowed to visit Ms. Vashukevich and Mr. Kirillov for weeks. A law enforcement official said the F.B.I. tried to speak with the two but was not successful. A Thai police spokesman, Lt. Col. Krissana Pattanacharoen, would not comment on whether Russia was behind the arrests, but he said it was not unusual for the police to use foreign operatives. “Investigations are not one size fits all,” he said. “It depends entirely on the situation.” Few other police officials have been willing to talk about the case. The American Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment. The Russian Embassy asked that questions be submitted in writing, but did not answer them. After the pair’s arrest, Mr. Kirillov sent a handwritten letter to the American Embassy in Bangkok asking for asylum for all 10 detainees. (At the time, Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, dismissed the case as “a pretty bizarre story” and indicated that the embassy had no plans to talk with them.) Financial records show that companies controlled by Mr. Manafort owed millions of dollars to Mr. Deripaska, the aluminum tycoon. During the 2016 race, Mr. Manafort offered to give him private briefings about the campaign, though there is no indication that the tycoon took him up on the offer. Ms. Vashukevich, who goes by the name Nastya Rybka online and recounts her story in a book, “Who Wants to Seduce a Billionaire,” became an escort under the guidance of Mr. Kirillov, better known as Alex Lesley, who has gained popularity in Russia for his advocacy of sexual freedom. At the time of the yacht visit, Ms. Vashukevich had shaved six years off her age to pose as 19. She was sent by a Moscow modeling agency to a yacht off Norway along with six other escorts, according to her account. She said she followed Mr. Kirillov’s instruction to record all her interactions with her target, the yacht’s owner, who turned out to be Mr. Deripaska. Ms. Vashukevich told The Times in a brief interview last month at the detention center that she had more than 16 hours of recordings from the yacht, including conversations with three visitors who she believes were Americans. She has called herself the “missing link” in the Russia investigation. Her posts from 2016 came to prominence only after Aleksei A. Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, included them in a video in early February that made accusations about official corruption. Mr. Navalny also charged that Mr. Deripaska had delivered Mr. Manafort’s campaign reports to the Kremlin. “Deripaska simply transmits this information to Putin,” Mr. Navalny said. “He’s very close to Putin after all.” Before traveling to Thailand, Mr. Kirillov grew worried about repercussions from the exposé and asked a childhood friend, Eliot Cooper, to contact United States authorities on his behalf, Mr. Cooper said. Mr. Cooper, who lives in Canada, said in a telephone interview that he called an F.B.I. hotline in February and proposed trading the recordings for the pair’s safety. He said he had told the hotline agent about one recorded conversation in which Mr. Deripaska and Mr. Prikhodko discussed wanting Mr. Trump to win. “I explained all of that to the F.B.I.,” he said. “They should have a transcript of everything and a recording of my voice.” Mr. Cooper said he had never heard back from the agency. The F.B.I. declined to comment. Mr. Cooper said that Mr. Kirillov had hidden copies and instructed associates to release them if he or Ms. Vashukevich were killed or went missing. “There is no investigation,” Mr. Cooper said. “The Americans are not interested. They want them to disappear, and Nastya in particular, because she is a living witness.” By the standards of Pattaya, a city notorious for its adult entertainment, the sex seminar for about 30 Russian tourists was tame. A hotel spokeswoman, Joyce Ong, said the workshop was run like a “normal corporate seminar,” and she denied earlier reports that the staff had called the police. None of those arrested were charged with sexual misconduct. Ms. Vashukevich was both Mr. Kirillov’s star pupil and one of the instructors at the seminars. The chief of Thailand’s Immigration Bureau, Suttipong Wongpin, said his department had restricted the pair’s visitors because letting them talk freely could harm Thailand’s relations with the United States and Russia. “The detainees,” he said, “will just say whatever they want.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/world/asia/nastya-russia-trump-election.html
Scott Pruitt Bypassed the White House to Give Big Raises to Favorite Aides The embattled EPA chief used an obscure provision last month to increase the salaries of a pair of staffers by tens of thousands of dollars. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/pruitt-epa/557123/
Trump administration seeks to close immigration ‘loopholes’ WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration officials said they’re crafting a new legislative package aimed at closing immigration “loopholes” after the president called on Republican lawmakers to immediately pass a border bill using the “Nuclear Option if necessary” to muscle it through. “The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our “Weak Laws” Border, had better be stopped before it gets there. Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!” Trump tweeted at daybreak Tuesday. The president also tweeted about “caravans” on Sunday and Monday. [...] https://www.apnews.com/ba7d6bd7df9f4557933bbfa3187f0235/Trump-administration-seeks-to-close-immigration-'loopholes';;
For Russia, Trump Was a Vehicle, Not a Target By Clint Watts Mr. Watts testified on March 30, 2017, at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing and presented a statement, “Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns [ https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-cwatts-033017.pdf ].” Last week, in a sentencing memorandum for the lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan, the special counsel’s office noted that Rick Gates and “Person A” — an unnamed figure who has ties to a “Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016” — “were directly communicating in September and October 2016.” What coverage there was of this staggering claim — evidence of a direct link between a member of Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian intelligence — and the Van Der Zwaan filing was quickly overtaken by controversy over the president’s relationship with an adult film star. It’s been a year since I testified to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Russian interference in the presidential election of 2016. The revelations from Robert Mueller’s indictments since then have provided so much clarity on how Russia interfered in our democracy — yet Americans seem more confused about the question of possible collusion with Russia. That is, in a way, by design — Russia’s design. Its infiltration and influence on America is difficult to understand, even with vastly more detail about Russia’s influence efforts. A lot of the focus on the Mueller investigation has fallen on Donald Trump: Did he obstruct the investigation? Was he a “Manchurian Candidate” or just a Russian ally, by ideology or business interests? In my view, as a former F.B.I. special agent who has watched the Kremlin’s infiltration of America since 2014, the answer may be neither. A standard Russian approach would have been to influence Mr. Trump through surrogates like Mr. Gates and Paul Manafort rather than through direct command through an individual — in this case, the candidate and then president. Russian intelligence develops options and pathways over many years; as objectives arise — like the election of Mr. Trump — they focus and engage all available touch points. The revelation last week about Mr. Gates’s connection is another piece of evidence to support that view. Russia’s efforts to influence, known by the Kremlin moniker Active Measures, did not seek a single pathway into the Trump team. Instead, they targeted a wide spectrum of influential Americans to subtly nudge their preferred policy into the mainstream and sideline foreign opponents. Russian intelligence services establish campaign objectives and compromise foreign targets through espionage, but their principal focus is to recruit agents of influence. Typically, the Kremlin deploys layers of surrogates and proxies offering business inducements, information or threatened reprisals that can individually be explained away by coincidence while masking the strings and guiding hands of the Kremlin’s puppet masters and their objectives. When called upon by the Kremlin, oligarchs, contractors, criminals and spies (current or former) all provide levers for advancing President Vladimir Putin’s assault on democracies. In Trump and his campaign, Mr. Putin spotted a golden opportunity — an easily ingratiated celebrity motivated by fame and fortune, a foreign policy novice surrounded by unscreened opportunists open to manipulation and unaware of Russia’s long run game of subversion. Mr. Putin has succeeded where his Soviet forefathers failed by leveraging money and cyberspace to subtly infiltrate and influence Americans while maintaining plausible deniability of their efforts. And the Kremlin’s ground game “cut outs” — intermediaries who facilitate communication between agents — conducted a more complex game. Each Mueller indictment and investigative lead illuminates more Kremlin influence avenues into President Trump’s inner circle. Mr. Van Der Zwaan, whose father-in-law is the Russian oligarch German Khan, lied to investigators about his conversations with Mr. Gates, the Trump deputy campaign manager, and a Person A, whom the F.B.I. assessed as a Russian intelligence agent and many believe to be Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate of both Mr. Gates and Mr. Manafort, a Trump campaign manager. Evidence of Russia’s intent to interfere in the election is overwhelming, and documentation of Trump campaign members’ collusion not only exists but is growing. The special counsel’s investigation into collusion ultimately comes down to two questions. First, did President Trump or any member of his campaign willingly coordinate their actions with Russia? And did President Trump or any member of his campaign knowingly coordinate their action with Russia? Trump campaign members certainly colluded with Russian influence efforts, some willingly, some possibly knowingly. The president denies the Kremlin’s hand, either still unaware or in denial of being manipulated by Mr. Putin’s minions. For Mr. Putin, it’s likely everything he hoped for — America riddled with political infighting and mired in investigations, a weakened NATO alliance vulnerable to aggression and a United States president seeking his adoration, obstinate and ignorant of the great caper the Kremlin just orchestrated. The problem for the president is that ignorance is not immunity. The problem for America is that ignorance of Russian interference is vulnerability. Clint Watts (@selectedwisdom) is the Robert A. Fox fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a former F.B.I. special agent and author of the forthcoming book “Messing With The Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News [ https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062795984/messing-with-the-enemy ].” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/opinion/trump-russia-mueller-election.html
A new study suggests fake news might have won Donald Trump the 2016 election President Trump has said repeatedly that Russian interference didn't matter in the 2016 presidential campaign, and he has suggested — wrongly — that the intelligence and law enforcement communities have said the same. His overriding fear seems to be that Russian interference and the “fake news” it promoted would undermine the legitimacy of his election win. Trump won't like this new study one bit. The study [full text https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4429952-Fake-News-May-Have-Contributed-to-Trump-s-2016.html ] from researchers at Ohio State University finds that fake news probably played a significant role in depressing Hillary Clinton's support on Election Day. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed but which may be the first look at how fake news affected voter choices, suggests that about 4 percent of President Barack Obama's 2012 supporters were dissuaded from voting for Clinton in 2016 by belief in fake news stories. Richard Gunther, Paul A. Beck and Erik C. Nisbet, the study's authors, inserted three popular fake news stories from the 2016 campaign into a 281-question YouGov survey given to a sample that included 585 Obama supporters — 23 percent of whom didn't vote for Clinton, either by abstaining or picking another candidate (10 percent voted Trump, which is in line with other estimates). Here are the false stories, along with the percentages of Obama supporters who believed they were at least “probably” true (in parenthesis): 1.Clinton was in “very poor health due to a serious illness” (12 percent) 2.Pope Francis endorsed Trump (8 percent) 3.Clinton approved weapons sales to Islamic jihadists, “including ISIS” (20 percent) Overall about one-quarter of 2012 Obama voters believed at least one of these stories, and of that group 45 percent voted for Clinton. Of those who believed none of the fake news stories, 89 percent voted for Clinton. This alone does not prove that fake news made a difference, of course. A recent Princeton-led study of fake news consumption during the 2016 campaign found that false articles made up 2.6 percent of all hard-news articles late in the 2016 campaign, with the stories most often reaching intense partisans who probably were not persuadable. And it wouldn't be surprising if Obama voters who weren't reliable Democratic supporters were more apt to believe fake news stories that affirmed their decision not to vote for Clinton. So the researchers sought to control for other factors such as gender, race, age, education, political leaning and even personal feelings about Clinton and Trump using multiple regression analysis, a method to measure the relative impact of multiple independent variables. According to the researchers, all of these factors combined to explain 38 percent of the defection of Obama voters from Clinton, but belief in fake news explained an additional 11 percent. For those defecting from Clinton, believing fake news had a greater effect than anything except being a Republican or personally disliking Clinton. Obama voters who believed one of these fake news stories “were 3.9 times more likely to defect from the Democratic ticket in 2016 than those who believed none of these false claims, after taking into account all of these other factors,” the researchers write. “We cannot prove that belief in fake news caused these former Obama voters to defect from the Democratic candidate in 2016,” they write. “These data strongly suggest, however, that exposure to fake news did have a significant impact on voting decisions.” Exactly how that translates into raw votes and whether it swung the election is the big question — and the one that seems to preoccupy Trump. It's difficult to know how fake news played specifically in the three states that delivered him the presidency: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But the fact that Clinton lost each of these divisive states by less than one percentage point means that even a slight impact by Russia and/or fake news — or even then-FBI Director James B. Comey's announcement about Clinton's emails or some other factor — could logically have changed the result. But we can use this study to glean clues and even rerun a hypothetical 2016 election. The Washington Post's polling director, Scott Clement, ran a predictive probability analysis using the OSU team's data and compared the existing 2016 election to a hypothetical election in which these fake news stories didn't exist. The result: Clinton lost 4.2 percent more of Obama's votes in the race with fake news vs. the hypothetical race without it. If we multiply that 4.2 percent drop-off by Obama's 2012 vote share in the three key states that delivered the presidency to Trump, it suggests that fake news cost Clinton about 2.2 or 2.3 points apiece in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And Clinton lost Michigan by just 0.2 points and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by 0.72 and 0.76 points, respectively. These are rough estimates, to be clear. But notably, Clinton's estimated drop-off in each state would be about three times bigger — or more — than the study's impact of fake news. That would mean that, for fake news not to have made the difference (according to these data), Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would have had to be uniquely impervious to the effects of fake news, compared with the rest of the country. The survey also notably doesn't measure what effect fake news might have had on increasing Trump's support, instead only focusing on how it depressed Clinton's. That could increase the shift. But even with this limited purview, it suggests it made a significant difference. And it suggests it may well have cost Clinton the presidency. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/04/03/a-new-study-suggests-fake-news-might-have-won-donald-trump-the-2016-election/
A White House spouse who can’t be forced to shut up The Trump administration has found its Martha Mitchell. His name is George Conway. Mitchell, for those too young to remember the darkest days of Watergate, was the outspoken Arkansas-born wife of President Richard M. Nixon’s 1972 campaign manager and former attorney general John Mitchell. Known as “the mouth of the South,” she became known for her late-night calls to reporters, in which she said that the Nixon White House was trying to make her husband a scapegoat for its own nefarious acts. There was more than a little truth to her claims, and her husband did indeed go to prison. But at the time, the president's men dismissed her as an alcoholic, and crazy to boot. No one would say that about Conway, a lawyer of sterling conservative credentials who early on in the Trump administration took himself out of consideration for a top Justice Department job. He is also the husband of Trump counselor and cable news warrior Kellyanne Conway, whom he married in 2001. Their love story began when he asked a friend, the arch-right pundit Ann Coulter, to arrange an introduction with the Republican pollster he had seen on TV. He dialed back his own career with a top New York law firm to move their family down to Washington, so she could pursue hers. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-white-house-spouse-who-cant-be-forced-to-shut-up/2018/04/03/7aa7d9fc-3759-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html
Liberals just won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court by a huge margin Another defeat for Republicans in state elections during the Trump era. Liberal candidate Rebecca Dallet has won election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, according to Decision Desk. Dallet defeated her conservative opponent for the open seat, Michael Screnock easily, and her victory will cut the conservative majority on the court from 5-2 to just 4-3. [...] https://www.vox.com/2018/4/3/17195062/wisconsin-supreme-court-election-results
First sentence handed down in Mueller probe A London-based lawyer was ordered to serve 30 days in prison [and $20k fine] after a federal judge Tuesday handed down the first sentence in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Alex van der Zwaan, 33, a son-in-law of a prominent Russian-based banker, pleaded guilty Feb. 20 to lying to the FBI about his contacts in September and October of 2016 with a business associate of onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and with Manafort’s deputy, former Trump aide Rick Gates. Prosecutors said van der Zwaan also destroyed emails the special counsel had requested. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/first-sentence-handed-down-in-mueller-special-counsel-probe/2018/04/03/23e9b21e-3693-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html
Oklahoma teachers: 'Our education system has failed' Teachers in Oklahoma are the latest to walk out of classrooms in protest at sharply cut education budgets. They say what happened to their schools should be a warning for other states. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43623216
On [50th] anniversary of King’s death, some white evangelicals are reexamining their role during the civil rights movement - tie https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=103100000 As America remembers the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his assassination Wednesday, segments of one influential American demographic are reflecting on their role in perpetuating the white supremacy that the civil rights leader rallied against. Many of the issues King fought against continue to dominate today's headlines, which has led some white Christian evangelicals to examine their actions — or lack thereof — in responding to King’s message, and how that position impacts the country’s current politics. In his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” King wrote about how white Christians did not fight racism but aided it. The Presbyterian Church in America — one of the country's largest Presbyterian denominations — barred black people from being members and supported segregation. Some white evangelical leaders partnered with white supremacist groups such as the White Citizens' Council in criticizing those advocating the civil rights of black people by calling them disruptive and questioning their Christian faith altogether. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, recently wrote about how poorly many conservative Christians responded to King's call to dismantle racism, often using their faith and the Bible to reject support for integration. Moore wrote in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal last week: “Conservative Christians must be careful to remember the ways in which our cultural anthropology perverted our soteriology and ecclesiology. It is to our shame that we ignored our own doctrines to advance something as clearly demonic as racial pride. So, regardless of our backgrounds, it is appropriate that we pause and consider not only Dr. King’s life and legacy, but also our own past and future. As we do so, we are reminding ourselves of how far we have to go as Americans to see the promise of racial justice realized.” Moore's group is partnering this week with the Gospel Coalition, a network of conservative evangelicals, to host MLK50 in Memphis to take an “opportunity for Christians to reflect on the state of racial unity in the church and the culture.” Race has consistently been an issue in national politics, most recently with police shootings of unarmed black men, immigration, NFL protests and a violent rally over the removal of a Confederate memorial in Charlottesville. But these debates aren't new; King criticized white Christians 50 years ago for their relative silence toward the suppression of rights for black Americans. Years before his death, King wrote in 1956 what he believed the Apostle Paul would have said to predominantly white churches in America: “I understand that there are Christians among you who try to justify segregation on the basis of the Bible. … Oh my friends, this is blasphemy. This is against everything that the Christian religion stands for,” he wrote. “I must say to you as I have said to so many Christians before, that in Christ ‘there is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.’ ” This unity was not always one that white evangelical leaders embraced, something Matthew J. Hall, dean of Boyce College, a Christian school, wrote about in the Gospel Coalition: “In all of my research on the long history of racial justice and the black freedom movement, I find that my fellow churchmen who supported the cause of justice were more often the exception, not the rule. Instead, my research — and that of historians far more accomplished than me — makes quite clear that white evangelicals throughout the South were overwhelmingly opposed to the civil rights movement. … White evangelicals — particularly those in the South — were deeply invested in efforts to either uphold Jim Crow or to try to slow down its dismantling.” Some white evangelical leaders did embrace King and his message, to a point. The Rev. Billy Graham integrated his “crusades” and shared his stage with King — moves that were relatively progressive for a white evangelical in the 1960s. But he has also been criticized for not going far enough. “His opposition to the civil rights movement’s tactics of transformative disruption, his alignment with the political Religious Right and his failure to preach against the horrors of church-based homophobia and sexism demonstrate the limitations of relegating the gospel of Jesus Christ to little more than eternal fire insurance,” Broderick Greer, an activist and a priest, wrote after Graham's death in February. Jemar Tisby, a history doctoral student at the University of Mississippi, wrote for The Washington Post this year that even when white evangelicals sympathized with King's message, there were limits. “Many white evangelicals agreed with King’s affirmation of racial equality. They may have believed all people should be treated fairly. They objected to the notion that the government should play a role in bringing about equality and that Christians should concern themselves with material issues rather than simply focusing on conversion.” These issues are center stage again as white evangelicals prove to be one of the most influential voting blocs in a political climate where race is at the forefront — and there's no sign they are losing influence. But some within the group are asking themselves: When it comes to race in America, what side of history will they be on? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/04/03/on-anniversary-of-kings-death-some-white-evangelicals-are-reexamining-their-role-during-the-civil-rights-movement/
The question that haunts Martin Luther King's last day in Memphis [...] American history is full of grim what-if questions. What if President Lincoln's bodyguard had not decided to get a drink and leave Lincoln unguarded that night at Ford's Theatre? What if Robert Kennedy had decided not to take a shortcut through the kitchen at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where an assassin was waiting for him on the night he was killed? As the nation remembers King's assassination in Memphis 50 years ago, there's another largely unspoken question: What if King had survived? Would he have changed the trajectory of events that shaped a post-1968 America? And how would events have changed him as the country evolved? I asked those questions of some of the people who knew King best. They include a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer whose work revealed some of King's most private inner struggles, scholars who have studied and taught King's life for decades, and a close friend who was with King at the Lorraine Motel and remembers his peculiar mood during his last moments. They cited four possible scenarios, had King lived. These may seem trivial to consider in light of King's murder. But part of the reason so many people still deeply mourn King a half-century later is not just because of what the world lost -- it's the tantalizing possibility of what more it could have gained. [...] https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/us/mlk-memphis-what-if/index.html
Martin Luther King: How diverse is US politics? The civil lights leader Martin Luther King Jr, in a 1957 speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, called on Congress to introduce equal voting rights for all Americans. By Reality Check team BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43557210
'Punish a Muslim' scorned by Grangetown community Three weeks ago, letters urging people to "Punish a Muslim" on 3 April arrived in homes in Bradford, Leicester, London, Cardiff and Sheffield. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-43632366
Muslim women are told to hide their hijabs and not to pick up children from school alone ahead of sick 'Punish A Muslim Day' WhatsApp messages are warning people to not go outside on April 3 after threat Letters circulated across country advocating violence against Muslims on day Horrifying points system said 10 points for verbal abuse and 50 for throwing acid http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5569499/British-Muslim-women-told-not-outside-ahead-Punish-Muslim-Day.html
Unusual forms of 'nightmare' antibiotic-resistant bacteria detected in 27 states About one in four antibiotic-resistant germs from hospitals and nursing homes had a gene that helped spread resistance 221 "especially rare" genes were found in germ isolates gathered in 27 states https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/health/nightmare-bacteria-cdc-vital-signs/index.html
[Federal health officials say] Federal Efforts To Control Rare And Deadly Bacteria Working Federal health officials say a network they set up last year to identify deadly "nightmare bacteria" is helping control these germs, but the system would be more effective if more hospitals and doctors participated. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focuses on particularly odious germs that live primarily in the gut and cannot be killed with "antibiotics of last resort," called carbapenems. CDC Deputy Director Dr. Anne Schuchat calls them "nightmare bacteria" because "they are virtually untreatable." As many as half of patients with these infections die, she says. [...] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/04/03/599194350/federal-efforts-to-control-rare-and-deadly-bacteria-working
Dinosaur tracks on Skye 'globally important' New light has been shed on a little understood period of dinosaur evolution after giant prehistoric footprints were discovered on the Isle of Skye. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-43620237
Artificial Intelligence Could Help Find Planets That Host Alien Life Artificial intelligence could help astronomers in the search for alien life, according to new research from Plymouth University in the United Kingdom. Scientists there are training so-called artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict the probability of life on other planets, in the hopes of identifying promising targets for future interstellar space missions. The new findings will be presented at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Liverpool on April 4. “We’re currently interested in these ANNs for prioritizing exploration for a hypothetical, intelligent, interstellar spacecraft scanning an exoplanet system at range,” Christopher Bishop, a researcher at the Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems at Plymouth University, said in a statement. [...] http://www.newsweek.com/how-artificial-intelligence-could-help-us-find-planets-may-host-alien-life-870296