Menu



error This forum is not active, and new posts may not be made in it.
Promote
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/6/2018 5:34:58 PM

Snow wreaking havoc on roadways; more snow, ice, heavy rain bearing down

Feb 5, 2018, 5:45 PM ET


WATCHNew storm takes shape, sweeping across to the Northeast


Snow and ice are wreaking havoc on roadways today as the eastern half of the country braces for more snow, ice and heavy rain.

A quick-moving clipper system is sweeping across parts of the Midwest this afternoon, bringing snow to Nebraska, Iowa and northern Illinois.

Today, the snowfall rate reached 1 inch per hour in some places, leading to lower visibility and quickly disappearing roadways.

In Nebraska, multiple semi-trucks were stranded in median and ditches, the Nebraska State Patrol said. State police say one person died in an accident in the Omaha area.

PHOTO: A Nebraska Department of Transportation sign warns drivers of winter weather on Interstate 80 East on the edge north side of Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 22, 2018.
Ted Kirk/The Journal-Star/AP

A Nebraska Department of Transportation sign warns drivers of winter weather on Interstate 80 East on the edge north side of Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 22, 2018.

Serious crashes were also reported in Iowa. At least seven people died in weather-related accidents across the state today, authorities said.

Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Nathan Ludwig said they handled four of the fatalities: one on Interstate-80 between Des Moines and Iowa City; a 17-year-old boy and his 14-year-old sister, who died in the northeast part of the state; and on Interstate-35 in Ames after a 50-car pileup.

The other three deaths were handled by local authorities, including two on Interstate-380, where weather played a part in two deaths.

In Missouri, five people died in weather-related traffic deaths. The victims ranged in age from 26 to 63 years old.

The snow will begin to fall in the Chicago area this afternoon, where it could potentially be heavy at times, creating a treacherous evening commute.

On Tuesday, a winter storm will take shape over the southern Plains, and on Wednesday it will bring snow, ice and heavy rain to the Northeast.

PHOTO: In addition to the snow, a light glaze of ice from freezing rain could make for icy and roads. Some areas will see a few inches of snow and then a light glaze of ice on top of that.
ABC News

In addition to the snow, a light glaze of ice from freezing rain could make for icy and roads. Some areas will see a few inches of snow and then a light glaze of ice on top of that.

By Wednesday morning, snow will be falling from the Great Lakes into Pennsylvania and western New York.

PHOTO: A winter storm will be taking shape over the southern Plains later on Tuesday and moving into the Northeast on Wednesday bringing snow, ice and heavy rain. ABC News


A winter storm will be taking shape over the southern Plains later on Tuesday and moving into the
Northeast on Wednesday bringing snow, ice and heavy rain.
e +

The precipitation will move into Washington, D.C., and Baltimore early Wednesday morning and could briefly mix with snow and ice before warming up to rain. Philadelphia, New York and Boston may also see snow in the morning before the precipitation changes over to rain.

Areas of heavy rain is expected in parts of the South as well, potentially causing isolated flash flooding.

By Wednesday afternoon, heavy rain will be falling along the Northeast coast and along much of the Interstate 95 corridor. It's expected to wrap up Wednesday night.

PHOTO: The precipitation will move into Washington D.C. and Baltimore early Wednesday morning and could briefly mix with snow and ice before changing to rain. ABC News
The precipitation will move into Washington D.C. and Baltimore early Wednesday morning and could briely mix with snow and ice before changing to rain.

Through Wednesday night, accumulating snow is forecast from the Midwest to
New England.

PHOTO: A woman takes a drink as she walks in the snow past U.S. Bank Stadium, Feb. 3, 2018, in Minneapolis.Mark Humphrey/AP
A woman takes a drink as she walks in the snow past U.S. Bank Stadium, Feb. 3, 2018, in Minneapolis.

The biggest snowfall totals will occur across interior parts of the Northeast, where 6 to
10 inches is expected
.

Isolated snowfall amounts topping 6 inches could also occur in parts of Iowa and Illinois, south of Chicago.

In Washington, D.C., New York City and Boston this will be a mainly rain event once again, but the precipitation could briefly start off as snow or a wintry mix. These areas could also see a light glaze on the roadways.

While the frigid air will stay focused over the upper Midwest, it will be a bitter cold start to Tuesday from the Midwest to Northeast. Wind chills will be below zero from Minneapolis to Chicago. It will feel like the teens from St. Louis to Indianapolis and Boston.

PHOTO: While the frigid air will stay focused over the upper Midwest, there will be a bitter cold start to Tuesday from the Midwest to Northeast. Wind chills will be below zero from Minneapolis to Chicago. ABC News

While the frigid air will stay focused over the upper Midwest, there will be a bitter cold start to Tuesday from the Midwest to Northeast. Wind chills will be below zero from Minneapolis to Chicago.

On Tuesday afternoon, temperatures will rebound into the 30s across much of the Northeast with some lower 40s along the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to New York City. It will remain well below freezing across much of the Midwest throughout the day on Tuesday.

ABC News' Rachel Katz contributed to this report.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2018 12:48:22 AM

CHINA BUILDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE–POWERED NUCLEAR SUBMARINE THAT COULD HAVE 'ITS OWN THOUGHTS,' REPORT SAYS

BY

A senior scientist confirmed that China is building artificial intelligence–powered nuclear submarines that can think for themselves, according to a report.

According to a researcher involved with the program, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the project, the AI-augmented submarine with "its own thoughts" would reduce the commanding officers’ workload, eliminate human error and give China’s navy a competitive edge in underwater battles, reported theSouth China Morning Post.

“Though a submarine has enormous power of destruction, its brain is actually quite small,” the researcher said.

This undated picture shows a nuclear-powered submarine of the People's Liberation Army Navy's North Sea Fleet preparing to dive into the sea. A senior scientist has confirmed that China is building artificial intelligence–powered nuclear submarines that can think for themselves.GETTY

In the past, nuclear submarines had been almost exclusively controlled by naval personnel. But AI technology is quickly catching up with the inner workings of a human brain, and through machine-learning the submarines will be able to gather knowledge, independently improve skills and develop new strategies without human intervention.

The researcher said the AI-infused system must produce basic demands but also be "compact and compatible" with the submarine’s existing computer systems.

“It is like putting an elephant into a shoebox,” the researcher told the South China Morning Post. “What the military cares most about is not fancy features. What they care most is the thing does not screw up amid the heat of a battle.”

Zhu Min, lead scientist in China’s deep-water exploration program and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Acoustics, said AI weaponry was the next step for China’s military but warned that the systems must be programmed carefully to safeguard from a “runaway submarine with enough nuclear arsenals to destroy a continent.”

“This is definitely a risk the authorities should consider when introducing AI to a sub,” he said.

However, Deng Zhidong, a computer science professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, told the Post there was zero chance of a machine uprising—at least with the technology that is currently available to us.

“An AI-powered machine is still a machine. It does not have a life,” he said. “You can shut it down and shift to manual anytime. It will be the same on a nuclear submarine.”

The U.S. produced the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine in the early 1950s. The idea for the USS Nautilus was proposed by Ross Gunn, of the Naval Research Laboratory, in 1939.

Widely considered to be one of the most sophisticated war machines, a nuclear submarine can take more than 20 years to develop from an idea into a finished product.


(newsweek)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2018 9:40:20 AM
US begins reducing troops in Iraq after victory over IS


FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2017 file photo, U.S. Army soldiers stands next to a guided-missile launcher, a few miles from the frontline, in the village of Abu Ghaddur, east of Tal Afar, Iraq. American troops have started to draw down from Iraq following Baghdad’s declaration of victory over the Islamic State group last year, according to western contractors at a U.S.-led coalition base in Iraq. (Balint Szlanko, File/Associated Press)

AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq — The U.S. has started to reduce the number of its troops in Iraq following Baghdad’s declaration of victory over the Islamic State group last year, an Iraqi government spokesman and Western contractors said Monday.

The move marks a shift in priorities for the U.S. following the collapse of the extremists’ so-called caliphate late last year. It also comes about three months ahead of Iraqi national elections in which paramilitary groups with close ties to Iran are set to play a decisive role.

Dozens of U.S. soldiers have been transported from Iraq to Afghanistan on daily flights in the past week, along with weapons and equipment, the contractors said.

An Associated Press reporter at the Al-Asad base in western Iraq saw troop movements reflecting the account by contractors. The contractors spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations and declined to reveal the exact size of the drawdown.

“The battle against Daesh has ended, and so the level of the American presence will be reduced,” said government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi, who used the Arabic language acronym for IS.

Al-Hadithi stressed that the drawdown — the first since the war against IS began more than three years ago — was still in its early stages and doesn’t mark the beginning of a complete pullout of U.S. forces.

“Continued coalition presence in Iraq will be conditions-based, proportional to the need and in coordination with the government of Iraq,” Army Col. Ryan Dillon, a coalition spokesman, told the AP.

One senior Iraqi official close to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said 60 percent of all U.S. troops still in Iraq will be withdrawn, according to the initial agreement reached with Washington. The plan would leave about 4,000 U.S. troops to continue training the Iraqi military. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

As of late September, there were 8,892 U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a Pentagon report released in November.

The U.S. first launched airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq in August 2014. The intervention was described at the time as “limited,” but as Iraq’s military struggled to roll back the extremists, the coalition’s footprint in the country grew steadily.

“We’ve had a recent change of mission, and soon we’ll be supporting a different theater of operations in the coming month,” U.S. Army 1st Lt. William John Raymond told the AP at the Al-Asad base.

He spoke as he and a handful of soldiers from his unit conducted equipment inventory checks required before leaving Iraq. Raymond declined to specify where his unit was going because the information has not yet been made public.

In the lead up to the Iraqi elections slated for May, the indefinite presence of U.S. troops in the country continues to be a divisive issue.

Al-Abadi, who is seeking another term, has struggled to balance the often competing interests of Iran and the United States, both key allies who have backed him against IS.

While the U.S. has closely supported key Iraqi military victories over IS in places like the city of Mosul, some of the Shiite-led paramilitary forces with close ties to Iran have called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. The prime minister has stated that Iraq’s military will need U.S. training for years to come.

“This is a message to those who doubt the government’s decisions regarding the presence of American (forces in Iraq): There are rules and the promise of a withdrawal,” al-Hadithi said.

Some in Iraq’s Sunni minority community view the U.S. presence in Iraq as a buffer against the country’s Shiite-dominated central government.

“The (drawdown) is an abdication of responsibility by the coalition,” said Fahad al-Rashed, a member of the provincial council in Anbar province, which has a Sunni majority. He said he recognized that the decision fell within the jurisdiction of the central government, but that local officials in Anbar would have asked the U.S. to reconsider.

The drawdown also follows the release of the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy that cited China’s rapidly expanding military and an increasingly aggressive Russia as the U.S. military’s top national security priorities.

“Great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last month in outlining the strategy.

Iraq declared victory over IS in December after more than three years of grueling combat against the extremists — fighting that largely took place with close U.S. support. In 2014, at the height of the Sunni militant group’s power, IS controlled nearly a third of Iraqi territory.

While the self-styled caliphate across parts of Iraq and Syria has crumbled and the militants no longer hold a contiguous stretch of territory, the group still poses a security risk in Iraq, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials.

IS maintains a “cellular structure” of fighters who carry out attacks in Iraq aimed at disrupting security, U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. James Glynn told reporters at a Pentagon briefing last month.

Glynn pledged continued support for Iraq’s security forces but acknowledged that coalition “capabilities” in Iraq would likely shift now that conventional combat operations against the group have largely ended.

There were about 170,000 U.S. troops in Iraq in 2007 at the height of the surge of U.S. forces to combat sectarian violence unleashed by the U.S.-led invasion to topple dictator Saddam Hussein. U.S. troop numbers eventually fell to 40,000 before the complete withdrawal in 2011.


Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad. Associated Press writer Muhanad al-Saleh in Baghdad contributed.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2018 10:09:47 AM



Israel Claims George Soros Is Funding Protests, Demands African Migrants Leave

February 5, 2018 at 7:36 am

(MEE) Israel began warning thousands of African migrants on Sunday that they must leave by the end of March, officials said, under a plan that could see them jailed if they refuse.

On 3 January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced implementation of a plan to deport about 38,000 migrants who had entered the country illegally, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese.

The controversial plan gives them until the end of next month to leave voluntarily or face jail and eventual expulsion.

Immigration authority spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told AFP that officials began issuing migrants letters on Sunday advising them that they had 60 days in which to leave the country voluntarily.

For now, the notices are being given only to men without families, officials said.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz said “anyone recognised as a victim of slavery or human trafficking, and those who had requested asylum by the end of 2017 but haven’t gotten a response” would also be exempt for now.

It added that this left the number subject to near-term deportation at “between 15,000 and 20,000 people.”

The authority is offering those who agree to leave a grant of $3,500, a flight ticket and help with obtaining travel documents.

Should they not leave by the deadline, the grant would be reduced and “enforcement measures” would be taken against them and anyone employing them, the authority says.

Israel refers to the tens of thousands of African migrants who entered the country illegally from neighbouring Egypt as “infiltrators”.

Israeli officials tacitly recognise that it is too dangerous to return Sudanese and Eritreans to their troubled homelands, but local media say the notices do not specify where departing migrants would be sent.

Aid workers and media have named Uganda and Rwanda, although both countries deny being a destination for migrants being expelled involuntarily.

Public opposition to the plan has been slow to build, but some Israeli airline pilots have reportedly said they will not fly forced deportees.

Academics have published a petition and Israeli Holocaust survivors wrote an open letter to Netanyahu last month pleading with him to reconsider.

Netanyahu on Sunday accused US Jewish billionaire George Soros of being behind the campaign against the forced deportations, Haaretz also reported.

“George Soros is also funding the protests. Obama deported two million infiltrators and they didn’t say anything,” he said at the weekly Cabinet meeting.

The UN refugee agency has called on Israel to scrap the plan, calling it incoherent and unsafe.

A 2016 UN commission of inquiry into Eritrea’s regime found “widespread and systematic” crimes against humanity, and said an estimated 5,000 people flee the country each month.

The International Criminal Court has indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide linked to his regime’s counter-insurgency tactics in the Darfur conflict.

By MEE and agencies / Republished with permission / Middle East Eye






"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2018 10:24:27 AM

CHINA SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTS ANTI-MISSILE TEST AMID TENSIONS OVER NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND MISSILES PROGRAM

BY AND

China has successfully conducted another anti-missile test, amid rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and Beijing’s own militarization of the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said in a brief statement the “ground-based midcourse anti-missile intercept technology” had been tested on Monday within China’s borders.

“The test reached its expected goals,” the ministry said. “This test was defensive and not aimed at any country.”

Members of a military honour guard rehearse ahead of a welcome ceremony for British Prime Minister Theresa May in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on January 31, 2018. China successfully conducted an anti-missile test on Monday.GETTY

Beijing has been ramping up research into all sorts of missiles, from those which can destroy satellites in space to advanced nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, as part of a modernization scheme overseen by President Xi Jinping.

While China, along with its ally Russia, have repeatedly expressed opposition to the U.S. deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea, it has not stopped Chinese research into such technology.

China and Russia have also held simulated anti-missile drills, most recently last year.

China fears the THAAD system, with its powerful radar, can look deep into Chinese territory and threaten its own security. It also says it will do nothing to help ease tensions with North Korea over Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs.

South Korea and the United States say the THAAD deployment is simply designed to deter North Korean missile attacks.

China has given few details about its own missile programs, aside from occasional brief statements by the Defense Ministry or in state media.

In 2016, the Defense Ministry confirmed it was pressing ahead with anti-missile system tests after pictures appeared on state television.

State media says China has been conducting anti-missile system tests since at least 2010, when the first ground-based “mid-course” missile interception test was launched. It says such technology is needed for its own national defense and security.

Earlier this week, aerial photographs by Inquirer.net showed the extent of China's militarization of the South China Sea.

(newsweek)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1


facebook
Like us on Facebook!