Mattis’s Future | A Tech Mogul’s Playbook | 1 Billion Electronic Identities Compromised

“We live well enough to have the luxury to get ourselves sick with purely social, psychological stress.” – Robert Sapolsky

“Medicine is a social science, and politics nothing but medicine on a large scale.” – Rudolph Virchow

R(ussian)T(rolls): Russia’s international broadcaster, RT, may have had their plans backfire on them. The channel recently aired an interview with the two men who are accused of poisoning Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. The goal was to give the two men a platform to tell their side of the story and hopefully encourage the general public to sway in their favor. However, once the interview aired, many viewers (even Russian citizens) stated that it made them distrust the two men.

The Washington Post compared comments and likes on videos related to the two men before the interview and the comments/likes on the actual interview and saw a dramatic shift in opinion following the release of the interview. Many viewers who had previously supported and believed the men quickly changed sides due to RT’s coverage. One viewer said, “Until today I perceived this Skripal story as Britain’s provocation. But once I saw these two idiots, my view has been shaken.” RT’s biased coverage of these two men only raises questions as to its quality of journalism and whether or not it is a propaganda machine for Russia.

Additional Reads:
– Margarita Simonyan, the reporter who conducted the interview on RT, recently did a phone interview with BBC’s Kirsty Wark. Following Wark’s questioning of the validity of Simonyan’s journalism and the validity of RT in general, Simonyan abruptly hung up. (BBC Video)

– There was another poison scare on Sunday in the same English town where the previous poisoning had taken place. A man and his wife fell ill with similar symptoms to the nerve agent used on Sergei. Following the announcement that the couple who fell ill were Russian (which was not confirmed by the authorities), the town of Salisbury went into a panic. Police have since confirmed that the couple did not become ill due to the same poison used before. (Guardian)

– “Don’t Fear the Russian Military: The week-long exercises, which kicked off yesterday, are intended as a show of might. But the country is in no position to wage a real conflict.” (Atlantic)

The Old “Cut The Baby In Half” Approach: Up until recently, the US has sponsored programs designed to establish peace between Palestine and Israel. On Friday, the Trump Administration announced that they will cut funding for the programs (which included a youth program and a program for children with disabilities) due to Palestine refusing to cooperate with peace efforts. One of the main forces delaying the peace is the Trump administration itself. A few months ago, the Trump administration officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which greatly upset Palestinian officials. Many officials who truly want peace are questioning the current plan. Senator Patrick Leahy spoke with NPR and stated, “What possible good can come from a policy that drives these people further apart? This is no way to build the trust and confidence needed for real peace in the Middle East.” (NPR)

Australia’s Strawberries & Sewing Needles: You’ve seen poison candy, you’ve seen killer clowns–now get ready for the new horrifying thing scaring the world… Australians are scrambling to figure out who is putting sewing needles in all the strawberries. Dozens of Australians have posted pictures of needles and pins that they have discovered inside their fruit and at least one person has claimed to have swallowed one. Authorities are still trying to find the perpetrator and uncover their motive. The sales of fruit in Australia have already decreased dramatically since this crimewave began. (WaPo)

– “The authenticity of the data stored in India’s controversial Aadhaar identity database, which contains the biometrics and personal information of over 1 billion Indians, has been compromised by a software patch that disables critical security features of the software used to enrol new Aadhaar users, a three month-long investigation by HuffPost India reveals.” (HuffPost)

– “Could a grid of giant filters help clean up Delhi’s polluted air?: Thinking big in the fight against smog, architects have designed 100m-high pollution-absorbing towers for India’s capital city” (Guardian)

– “Air pollution particles found in mothers’ placentas: New research shows direct evidence that toxic air – already strongly linked to harm in unborn babies – travels through mothers’ bodies.” (Guardian)

– “What Happened to Fan Bingbing, China’s Most Famous Actress?: Ms. Fan, who turns 37 on Sunday, has dropped out of public view for more than three months — the victim of a sudden and precipitous fall from grace.” (NYT)

– “China Can’t Afford a Cashless Society: A mania for mobile payments is leaving the poor behind.” (Foreign Policy)

– “Typhoon Mangkhut Reaches China As The Philippines Searches For Survivors.” (NPR)

The Hurricane Continues: It’s a couple days into Hurricane Florence and experts are claiming that it will only get worse from here. At least 18 people have already been killed and over 900 people have been rescued. It is expected to rain around 40 inches throughout the Carolinas and the storm has also knocked out power to upwards of 800 thousand homes. The biggest danger facing those still in the states is the flooding cutting off certain towns and cities from any type of rescue. Some rivers are expected to begin to overflow. Hundreds of volunteers have joined forces in Lumberton to prevent a levee that cracked during Hurricane Matthew from cracking again. (CNN)

The Plot Thickens: The previously anonymous woman who wrote a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein recounting an assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has decided to come forward. Professor Christine Ford has admitted to penning the letter and is now adding more incriminating information to the previous allegation. Ford claims that when she and Kavanaugh were 17, Kavanaugh and a friend trapped her in a room. Kavanaugh then held her down on a bed groped her over her clothes as he attempted to remove them. When she tried to scream, Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth–causing her to fear for her life. While these are some serious allegations that will be looked into, the validity of the letter is still in question. Ford’s husband recounts her telling him this story in 2012 and specifically mentioning Kavanaugh. Ford also told the story to a counselor however the therapist’s notes do not mention Kavanaugh by name. In response to these claims, Kavanaugh stated, “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.” (WaPo)

Serial Killer Caught: A US border patrol officer in Texas was arrested for the murder of 4 women and the kidnapping of a fifth woman. The killer would find and pick up sex workers, drive them out into seclusion, then pull out a gun and shoot them. His fifth victim, familiar with one of his previous victims, had become suspicious of him after he picked her up. Following a brief altercation, she was able to escape from him and find a police officer. The man was found in a hotel parking lot and arrested. He faces four murder charges and one count of aggravated kidnapping. (BBC)

– Fraying Ties With Trump Put Jim Mattis’s Fate in Doubt. Mattis who Pnut’s publisher met at Stanford is an exceptional leader and we hope he stays on as Secretary of Defense for as long as possible. (NYT)

– “If Jeff Bezos wants to help low-income people why not just pay them better?: The Amazon boss’s philanthropy fund flies in the face of the way he treats his workers. Yet he wants to be seen as a messiah.” (Guardian)

– “The Math of Jeff Bezos’ Astounding Greed: Jeff Bezos’ approximate net worth: $163 billion. Jeff Bezos’ largest-ever commitment to charity: $2 billion. Percentage of Jeff Bezos’ net worth charity donation represents: 1.2%.”

– The Bezos backlash: Is ‘big philanthropy’ a charade?” (BBC)

– ““Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his wife are buying Time Magazine: They are buying Time Magazine for $190 million from Meredith Corp. “The Benioffs will hold Time as a family investment,” Time editor in chief Edward Felsenthal told his staffers when the deal was announced on Sunday night. ” (CNN Money)

– A tech mogul’s playbook: start a company that provides an incredible service and where customers love the product, build this company into a monopoly and aggressively defeat competitors or co-opt (acquire) emerging companies, the company becomes too powerful and the plebeians rebel at its power over the masses, pursue philanthropy to preserve one’s legacy and because it’s the right thing to do, and acquire a media company (Mark Zuckerberg has the largest media company ever in Facebook, Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post and is the largest distributor of books, and Marc Benioff now owns Time). Welcome to the new Gilded age.

– “Insanely Good: Making Big Business Out of Social Philanthropy. Can tech entrepreneurs like Ankur Jain make money helping people with down payments and baby food?” (New Yorker)

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