BREAKING NEWS ~ Continuously Updated

[Michi]

Friedrich Merz fails to secure majority in first round of the German Chancellor election:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=zAfrHsOxUQU

[Vicus]

[Jaak]

https://x.com/i/status/1919741692074168742

[Jaak]

Saw before how China promised to support Pakistan if something happens.
Now things seem to be happening. Will Russia take the side of India ?

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1919976265005560203

[Eva2]

'Conclave live: white smoke signals election of new pope at Vatican'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...olic-cardinals

It is easier to read from the link for full content - there is a video streaming live -

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JaZiPxQZmm0

[Vicus]

Live | Russia Victory Day Parade 2025 | Putin Military Parade in Moscow's Red Square

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdMXSXbJgV0

[video=youtube;JdMXSXbJgV0]https://youtube.com/watch?v=JdMXSXbJgV0[/video

sorry:

This parade is from Last Year. The parade for this year is in almost 3 Hours 5pm AEST (Australia eastern standard time) 10am Moscow RU.

vicus comment:

NOT my fault! just a you turd dirty trick...

Live streaming TeleSUR English (for real)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qP2Gnp8I9sY

[Tintin]

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1919976265005560203

Related, but in a political sense, and shared by Debi Evans (UK Column) on her X feed. Alarming development, if true, in Singapore: the curse of Bill Gates...

[TrumanCash]

Google Hit with Historic $1.375 Billion Settlement for Secretly Tracking People’s Movements, Private Searches, Voiceprints, and Facial Data

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has delivered a knockout punch to Google, securing a record-shattering $1.375 billion settlement for the Big Tech’s covert surveillance of everyday Americans.

This staggering sum is nearly a billion dollars more than what 40 states combined were able to wring from Google for similar offenses — a testament to Paxton’s unrelenting crusade against Big Tech tyranny.

In 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a 44-page lawsuit against Google, accusing the multibillion-dollar corporation of “systematically misleading” and “deceiving” Texans for years in order to secretly track their every move — and rake in obscene profits from it.

The lawsuit lays out a damning case against Google, alleging that the tech behemoth “covertly harvested” users’ precise geolocation data, voiceprints, and even facial geometry — all while leading users to believe they had turned off such invasive tracking.

According to the lawsuit, Google duped its users by creating a maze of confusing and misleading settings, falsely telling Texans they could protect their privacy by turning off features like “Location History.” But in reality, Google was still logging user data using obscure and hard-to-find settings like “Web & App Activity,” storing data in shadowy internal databases with Orwellian names like “Footprints.”

The lawsuit outlines that the data harvested by Google could reveal:

Home and work addresses
Political and religious affiliations
Medical conditions and support group attendance
Sexual orientation and income level
Life milestones like marriage, divorce, or childbirth

Even with location services “turned off,” Google reportedly continued to track users through Wi-Fi signals, Bluetooth, and IP addresses, deceiving consumers and violating their right to privacy.

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/SprinterObserve/status...28444485439783

[John Hilton]

Badlands News Brief: Ceasefires, Cheap Drugs, & A Flying Palace

https://badlands.substack.com/p/badlands-news-brief-e0f

[grapevine]

Posted by TrumanCash (here)
Google Hit with Historic $1.375 Billion Settlement for Secretly Tracking People’s Movements, Private Searches, Voiceprints, and Facial Data
[/B]

... snip ...

But who receives the settlement? Bet it's not those violated.

[Bill Ryan]

A body language expert weighs in.

Body Language Analysis: What did Macron hide so Sneakily?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LYPUbc-Js7Y

[norman]

https://t.me/disclosetv/15755



JUST IN - European Court of Justice has ruled that the EU Commission violated transparency rules by not granting access to the text messages between Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer.

The ECJ ruled that the EU Commission must release the text messages exchanged between Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during the coronavirus pandemic.


https://www.politico.eu/article/pfiz...urla-covid-19/

May 14, 2025 3:25 pm CET
By Elisa Braun

BRUSSELS ― EU judges dealt the European Commission a stinging defeat — and transparency campaigners a major win.

In a long-awaited ruling with huge political and legal implications, the EU’s General Court ruled against the Commission over its refusal to release text messages between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the height of Covid-19 vaccine negotiations in 2021.

Here’s what you need to know.

What was Pfizergate all about?

The Commission's denial of a journalist’s request for access to documents breached the principle of good administration, enshrined in EU law, according to Wednesday's General Court ruling.

The case stems from an access to documents request filed in 2022 by New York Times journalist Matina Stevis-Gridneff, who asked to see communications — including text messages — between von der Leyen and Bourla, after their existence was revealed in an interview.

The Commission initially claimed the messages didn’t qualify as documents according to its internal rules due to their ephemeral nature, and that no such texts could be found in its archives. It maintained ambiguity over their existence, and at the same time denied their importance ― while never truly clarifying how it handled the request.

That led to suspicions it simply didn’t really look for them ― despite rules that apply to EU administrations regarding transparency obligations, the court ruling said.

"The Commission breached the principle of good administration by confining itself ... to invoking the non-existence of the requested documents without providing any explanation as to why the requested documents could not be found," the court said.

Why should we care?

It is a landmark legal decision ― as well as a political bombshell for von der Leyen herself.

“Cases related to access to documents from European institutions are often highly political, because if the matter ends up before a judge, it's usually because the Commission or another institution is stubbornly refusing to disclose information that could cause it political harm," said Vincent Couronne, a researcher in European law at Paris-Saclay University.

The ruling doesn’t just say the Commission got it wrong — it says it should have known better.

The judges scolded the Commission for effectively demanding that the applicant prove the texts existed, which is an “impossible” standard for ordinary citizens.

The ruling is also particularly damaging because of the profile of the players involved. Von der Leyen is the EU’s most powerful official and guardian of the EU treaties. Bourla is one of the most powerful pharma executives in the world. It's the biggest contract the EU has ever signed, the European Court of Auditors said.

And it's critical for the Commission as a whole, which seems to have only reluctantly observed EU laws when it meant holding its own boss accountable.

Transparency advocates, who argue the Commission should set the standard for openness, not dodge it, claim a major victory.

“This ruling is about more than transparency: it is about reinstating the institutional accountability the European Commission has been sorely lacking,” said Shari Hinds, policy lead on EU political integrity for NGO Transparency International.

So where does that leave doing politics by WhatsApp?

The case underscores a major gray zone in EU transparency rules: Are text messages official documents?

“Documents are any content, whatever its medium, concerning the policy of the European Union so from this point of view ... it’s hard to argue that SMS messages are not documents,” Couronne said. “This ruling could encourage European elected representatives and civil servants to prefer oral exchanges to SMS. In today’s business communications ecosystem, the line between SMS, email, WhatsApp, Slack and the like has become very thin.”

The court didn’t say every text is a public record. But it did confirm that messages can fall under transparency laws if they concern official business. It’s a warning shot to EU institutions and all those who try to influence them: Digital messages aren’t automatically off the books, and you can’t totally avoid scrutiny by using them. In practice, it remains to be seen how far one can access any texts.

Are things going to heat up for von der Leyen?

Probably.

Critics from across the spectrum — especially the Greens and far right — have long kept the issue alive. But now mainstream political heavyweights are chiming in, calling the ruling a major embarrassment for the Commission.

Dutch MEP Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle from centrist group Renew branded the decision a “slam dunk for transparency."

Ultimately though, real EU power still lies in national capitals — and there's very little uproar coming from them after the decision.

Where does the Commission go from here?

The Commission will now likely have to reconsider the initial request for access, conduct proper searches and provide new legal reasoning if it fails to disclose those documents again. It will also have to pay the legal costs for the New York Times, judges ruled.

The court noted that the Commission’s interpretation of what qualifies as a document — and for how long it must be kept — didn't deprive anyone of their rights to request a document or on the Commission’s obligation to search for it.

Internal practices may now come under scrutiny and the Commission might have to clarify its own rules internally.

The Commission also has two months to decide if it appeals the Court's ruling.

So, will we ever get to see these text messages?

Maybe — but don’t hold your breath.

The ruling concedes that retrieving the messages might be difficult. Phones may have been changed. Data might be gone.

“When questioned on that point at the hearing, the Commission stated that it assumed that its president’s mobile phone had been replaced” since the New York Times brought the case, “as it was a mandatory rule for security reasons,” the ruling said.

But pressure is mounting on the Commission to at least do proper searches now and provide a proper legal reasoning if it says again it can’t retrieve the documents.

From its early statement on Wednesday morning after the ruling, it seems that the Commission is leaning towards providing new reasoning as to why it can’t fulfill its transparency obligations, saying it would "adopt a new decision providing a more detailed explanation.”

There is another route though. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is already conducting a criminal probe into vaccine procurement. That means investigators could, in theory, access telecom providers or app servers to retrieve deleted messages — depending on local data retention laws.

[bojancan]

The current "Pax Bukele"... a state of emergency in which constitutional rights have been invalidated, was only made possible by a secret deal between President Nayyib Bukele and some of the country's most violent gangs, which actively assisted Bukele's rise.

The Grayzone spoke with veteran Salvadorian journalist Walter Raudales about the stunning revelations of Bukele's covert arrangement with the cartels, and interviewed human rights lawyer Alejandro Diaz about the corruption and cruelty underlying Bukele's notorious CECOT mega-prison project.

The Grayzone
435K subscribers

Bukele's secret deal with the devil exposed

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=sJg32rmrEvA

[Ravenlocke]

Recent solar flare activity

Text:

M Class Solar Flare In Progress M 1.89
Possible Increase In Interference of HF Radio, Satellite & Space Weather Health Affects Expected
Get real-time solar flare alerts, data, & diagnostic tools @ https://carrington.app

https://x.com/CarringtonApp/status/1922611873934909693

Text:
A 5.3 M-Flare just exploded on the eastern limb of the Sun! This was from active region 4087 which just rotated into view, so we could have up to 2 weeks of this! This triggered a brief R2 radio blackout over Asia and Australia. What a turnaround in flare activity! BOOMSHAKALAKA
#spaceweather #solaractivity #solarmaximum #solarflare #solarcycle25

https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/1922497647547711862

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
A body language expert weighs in.

Body Language Analysis: What did Macron hide so Sneakily?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LYPUbc-Js7Y

The Body Language Guy does indeed weigh in, and concludes that this is a nothingburger.

He leads his audience, for most of the L= 16:30 vid, with look/expressions of suspicion and talk about baby powder and a small spoon. Talks up the drug angle, includes social media screen pics where posters opine drugs.

Then he shows better pics (I assume screen-caps, from the left one of the 2 witness cams), which clearly show a crumpled white paper napkin, and not a spoon but a kind of stir stick.

Uploaded 2 days ago, 226k views and 3,901 comments. So, a moneymaker. Clickbait vids like this, are why I unsubscribed from this chan 1-2-3 years ago.

He has improved his mannerism a bit, is slightly less annoying, so I’ll give him that. And I find valuable, his assertion that neither of the 2 POV vids could currently be done with AI, let alone convincingly show the same scene. He claims great familiarity with AI, and says he thinks that that capability is at least 6 months in the futur.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇬🇱🇺🇸 NASA has accidentally rediscovered Camp Century — an abandoned U.S. military base hidden beneath Greenland’s ice. The secret Cold War-era facility was originally built to house nuclear missiles.

Constructed in 1959 under Project Iceworm, the base featured 21 tunnels stretching nearly 3 kilometers and was powered by a nuclear reactor. It was ultimately shut down due to the glacier’s instability.

The discovery confirms the long-standing and covert U.S. military presence in Greenland — a legacy that continues to spark political controversy.

https://x.com/ViralBased/status/1923039044063101302

Text:
🚨🇺🇸🇬🇱 NASA EXPOSES SECRET NUKE BASE UNDER ICE

NASA scientists testing new radar equipment over Greenland accidentally stumbled upon Camp Century, a classified U.S. nuclear missile base buried under 100+ feet of ice since 1967.

The underground facility was part of "Project Iceworm," an ambitious Pentagon plan to store 600 ballistic missiles beneath Arctic ice—because apparently someone thought frozen nuclear weapons were a good idea.

NASA scientist Chad Greene:

"It's like flying over another planet, and it's hard to imagine anyone or anything ever being able to survive there."

The base, complete with 21 interconnected tunnels, a nuclear reactor, gym, and mess hall, housed 200 military personnel who joked "there was a pretty girl behind every tree"—except there were no trees in the frozen wasteland.

Now Trump wants to buy Greenland while Denmark nervously reminds everyone the U.S. already has base rights there, proving some Cold War relics never truly stay buried—they just get awkwardly rediscovered!

Source: Wall Street Journal

https://x.com/AlexkennedyIran/status...59643656614238

[rgray222]

James Comey, Former Director of the FBI, makes reference to killing Donald Trump.

Comey says he was walking on the beach and saw the numbers 8647 made with shells in the sand. The term 86 has been American mafia jargon for decades, referring to killing an enemy. It means you should take someone you want to kill 8 miles out of town and bury them 6 feet under to get away with the murder. Of course the 47 is referencing Trump being the 47th president. He posted the image to his Instagram account and later deleted it.



Trump administration officials say Secret Service is investigating Comey’s ’86 47' social media post

The chances that this is a coincidence or happenstance are almost nil.
R

Source: https://apnews.com/article/comey-tru...ad41a3d1339d4e

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

^^ It gets weirder!

https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1923223833961468334