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Terrorists killed posing as World Central Kitchen staff in Gaza: IDF
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
CDC shooter had police contacts over suicide, used father's guns in attack: officials
[FoxNews] Patrick White fired 200 rounds at CDC buildings before taking his own life Friday, officials said

The man accused of killing a police officer while shooting at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta on Friday had previously been reported to police for suicidal thoughts and launched the deadly attack with his father’s weapons to send a message against COVID-19 vaccines, authorities said Tuesday.

Patrick Joseph White, 30, is suspected of killing DeKalb County Police Department Officer David Rose, 33, shortly before 5 p.m., in an attack that saw him unload around 200 rounds into six CDC buildings. White's driver's license image was released publicly for the first time on Tuesday.

Rose, who previously served as a Marine in Afghanistan and joined the DeKalb County Police Department in September 2024, was responding to the scene and died from gunshot wounds.

Five firearms were recovered by law enforcement, mostly long guns, with more than 500 shell casings found at the scene, authorities said at a Tuesday press briefing.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Director Chris Hosey said law enforcement made contact with White about mental health warning signs.

"The shooter had no known criminal history. Evidence in this investigation indicates that the shooter had recently verbalized thoughts of suicide, which even led to law enforcement being contacted several weeks prior to the incident," Hosey said.

He said investigators are getting with the law enforcement that made those contacts to find out the details, but did not provide further information. White died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Hosey said.

White, who was from the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw, had police called on him three different times about being suicidal in the past year, Fox Atlanta reported. In at least one of those calls, White's father told dispatchers that his son had gotten a gun from his father’s locker.

In a September 2024 call, White told police his health had declined after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and that his deteriorating condition had led to suicidal ideation. Officers said White stated he was in pain and had back surgery a decade ago. He claimed taking a gun from his father’s locker was "only a cry for help."

After that incident, White was taken to Kennestone Hospital but refused mental health treatment on subsequent calls, per the report. Two other calls took place in April and July of this year.

Hosey said that for Friday’s attack, White broke into his father’s safe to get the guns, noting they had been locked away.

"All indications in our investigation was that they were secure and that he forced his way into the safe that contained the weapons," said Hosey, adding that the suspect did not have a key to the gun safe: "He broke into it," Hosey said.

Hosey said that during a search of his residence, authorities found documents expressing anger towards the COVID-19 vaccine. He said there were no direct threats made in the writing, but it was described as personal manifesto to "make the public aware" of his views.

"A search warrant executed at the residence of the shooter revealed written documentation that expressed the shooter's discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations," Hosey said.

"I would describe it as more of a public awareness. There was no direct threat... but it was his making the public aware, in his words, of his discontent with the vaccines itself," Hosey said in response to a reporter’s follow-up question.

Hosey said the materials are being reviewed by certified behavioral profilers and shared with the FBI.

White had been stopped by CDC security guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street, where he opened fire from a sidewalk, authorities said. The bullets pierced "blast-resistant" windows across the campus, pinning employees down during the barrage. More than 500 shell casings have been recovered from the crime scene, the GBI said.

In the aftermath, officials at the CDC are assessing the security of the campus and making sure they notify officials of any new threats.

Posted by: Skidmark || 08/13/2025 01:40 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Nut Jobs


Do Kwon to plead guilty in $40B crypto collapse
[NYPOST] Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two charges of conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud.

Kwon, 33, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, entered the plea at a court hearing in New York before US District Judge Paul Engelmayer.

He had pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
in January to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSD — a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1 — Kwon pleaded guilty to the two counts under an agreement with the Manhattan US Attorney's office, which brought the charges.

He faces up to 25 years in prison when Engelmayer sentences him on Dec. 11, though prosecutor Kimberly Ravener said the government had agreed to advocate for a prison term of no more than 12 years provided he accepts responsibility for his crimes.

Kwon is one of several cryptocurrency moguls to face federal charges after a slump in digital token prices in 2022 prompted the collapse of a number of companies.

Prosecutors alleged that when TerraUSD slipped below its $1 peg in May 2021, he told investors a computer algorithm known as ''Terra Protocol'' had restored the coin's value.

Instead, they said, he arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price.
Posted by: Fred || 08/13/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:


Texas Target shooting suspect Ethan Nieneker's mugshot after 3 dead, including a child
[NYPOST] The maniac arrested for allegedly opening fire in the parking lot of a Target in Texas, killing two adults and a child, was identified Tuesday — as cops released his bruised and bloodied mugshot.

Ethan Nieneker, 32, is accused of gunning down the victims in Austin on Monday afternoon before making a dramatic getaway that involved two stolen cars and a police chase.

Nieneker, whom cops had earlier described as having a ''mental health history,'' ended up being detained with the help of a Taser on the other side of the city.

His mugshot showed blood oozing from a gash beside one of his eyes, as well as several scratches across his face.

Nieneker is being held in the Travis County Jail on a slew of murder charges.

He already has a lengthy rap sheet in Travis and Williamson counties — including for assault — family violence, criminal mischief, DWI and possession, Fox7 Austin reported.

The deadly saga unfolded when Nieneker allegedly stormed the Target parking lot just north of Austin around 2:15 p.m. Monday, cops said.

An adult and the child were pronounced dead at the scene, while the second adult died at the hospital, according to police.

A fourth victim, who suffered unrelated injuries, was treated at the scene.

Nieneker is accused of fleeing in one of the slain victims' cars and crashing it soon after.

He allegedly hijacked another vehicle from a Volkswagen dealership before he ended up being detained some 20 miles away in the city's south end, cops said.

Police haven't released any details on the victims.

Investigators are also still probing a motive for the bloodshed and are planning to hold a news conference later Tuesday to provide an update.
Posted by: Fred || 08/13/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [25 views] Top|| File under:



-Obits-
Remains of British meteorologist missing 66 years found in Antarctica
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The remains of British meteorologist Dennis "Tink" Bell, who disappeared without a trace in 1959 during an expedition, have been found in Antarctica. This was reported on August 12 by the British publication LADbible.

Bell, who worked for the Falkland Islands Dependent Areas Survey (now the British Antarctic Survey), went with colleagues and two dog teams to climb the glacier when he disappeared on 26 July 1959.

According to reports, Bell, 25, was riding ahead of the group, trying to encourage the tired dogs, when he fell into a crevasse. An attempt to rescue him with a rope was unsuccessful: the rope was tied to his belt instead of his body, causing him to become stuck in a narrow space, the belt snapped, and he fell deeper. His cries were no longer heard after that, and searches were unsuccessful.

In 2025, a team from the Polish Antarctic station named after Henryk Arctowski on the same island discovered the body of the explorer along with more than 200 personal items - radio equipment, a flashlight, ski poles and a watch with an Erguel engraving.

The remains were returned to the Falkland Islands by the research vessel BAS Sir David Attenborough and then flown to London. DNA testing confirmed the identity of the deceased, matching samples with those of his brother David Bell and sister Valerie Kelly.

"We were shocked and amazed when we learned that our brother was found after 66 years," said the brother of the deceased meteorologist.

Posted by: badanov || 08/13/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [18 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
These Are The Best-Selling Cars In The US So Far In 2025
[ZERO] The first half of 2025’s best-selling cars in the U.S. confirms America’s long-standing love affair with trucks and SUVs.

Pickup models from Ford, Chevrolet, and Ram continue to dominate the top ranks, while compact SUVs from Toyota and Honda also make strong showings. Sedans, once the default choice for many households, are now largely absent from the bestseller list.

This ranking, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, showcases the 20 best-selling vehicles in the U.S. from January through June 2025 using data from Cox Automotive and Automotive News via Kelley Blue Book.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/13/2025 00:54 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:


July CPI increase in line with expectations
Link goes to advisorperspectives.com.
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX - JULY 2025

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in July, after rising 0.3 percent in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment.

The index for shelter rose 0.2 percent in July and was the primary factor in the all items monthly increase. The food index was unchanged over the month as the food away from home index rose 0.3 percent while the food at home index fell 0.1 percent. In contrast, the index for energy fell 1.1 percent in July as the index for gasoline decreased 2.2 percent over the month.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.3 percent in July, following a 0.2-percent increase in June. Indexes that increased over the month include medical care, airline fares, recreation, household furnishings and operations, and used cars and trucks. The indexes for lodging away from home and communication were among the few major indexes that decreased in July.

The all items index rose 2.7 percent for the 12 months ending July, after rising 2.7 percent over the 12 months ending June. The all items less food and energy index rose 3.1 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index decreased 1.6 percent for the 12 months ending July. The food index increased 2.9 percent over the last year.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
A Federal funds rate cut is now likely in mid Sept based on this report and the current trends in T bonds.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 08/13/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
AI LLMs' ‘’simulated reasoning’’ abilities are a ‘’brittle mirage,’’ researchers find
[ArsTechnica] In recent months, the AI industry has started moving toward so-called simulated reasoning models that use a "chain of thought" process to work through tricky problems in multiple logical steps. At the same time, recent research has cast doubt on whether those models have even a basic understanding of general logical concepts or an accurate grasp of their own "thought process."

Similar research shows that these "reasoning" models can often produce incoherent, logically unsound answers when questions include irrelevant clauses or deviate even slightly from common templates found in their training data.

In a recent pre-print paper, researchers from the University of Arizona summarize this existing work as "suggest[ing] that LLMs are not principled reasoners but rather sophisticated simulators of reasoning-like text." To pull on that thread, the researchers created a carefully controlled LLM environment in an attempt to measure just how well chain-of-thought reasoning works when presented with "out of domain" logical problems that don't match the specific logical patterns found in their training data.

The results suggest that the seemingly large performance leaps made by chain-of-thought models are "largely a brittle mirage" that "become[s] fragile and prone to failure even under moderate distribution shifts," the researchers write. "Rather than demonstrating a true understanding of text, CoT reasoning under task transformations appears to reflect a replication of patterns learned during training."
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 08/13/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [33 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm beginning to think that AI is just bull.
Posted by: Grom the Affective || 08/13/2025 2:53 Comments || Top||

#2  AI brings a gargantuan productivity increase in fields related to esthetics. Commercial art, illustrations for ad campaigns, commercial jingles etc is AI's strength.

But AI is unreliable when it comes to facts.

If thoroughly checking AI output for accuracy and suitability is easy then AI is an appropriate tool with a disruptive impact.

If thoroughly checking AI output is hard, perhaps harder than creating on original work using other tools AI will decrease productivity.

The standard SF trope that an AI would resemble an unemotional, fact oriented, rational human mind has turned out not to be true.

AI is more like a simulation of a excentric gifted artist's mind during a fever dream, a product of complex computational activity without consciousness.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 08/13/2025 4:11 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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3Govt of Syria/HTS
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2Narcos
2Mob Rule
1Lawfare
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1MS13
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Nut Jobs
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
1[untagged]
1Commies
1Fatah
1Govt of Sudan
1Hezbollah
1Human Trafficking
1Islamic State

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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2025-08-13
  Terrorists killed posing as World Central Kitchen staff in Gaza: IDF
Tue 2025-08-12
  Terror group leader pleads guilty to recruiting hit men in plots to murder federal officials
Mon 2025-08-11
  Video shows Syrian forces executing medical worker inside Al-Suweida Hospital
Sun 2025-08-10
  US shifts focus to Puntland and Somaliland after halting Danab and AUSSOM support
Sat 2025-08-09
  Following the Lebanese government’s unanimous vote to disarm Hezbollah, Islamists have taken to the streets
Fri 2025-08-08
  Spanish town bans Muslim religious festivals provoking outcry
Thu 2025-08-07
   Hezbollah rejects Beirut’s call to disarm as ‘major mistake’
Wed 2025-08-06
  UN says 88% of its Gaza aid is being looted before it reaches its destinations
Tue 2025-08-05
  Illegal immigrants accused of trying to run over ICE officers
Mon 2025-08-04
  4 Illegal Aliens arrested in a SWAT standoff in Cobb County
Sun 2025-08-03
  IDF declares defeat of Hamas battalion in Beit Hanoun, as operatives shown surrendering
Sat 2025-08-02
  Four killed in Thursday's Israeli strikes on south, east Lebanon
Fri 2025-08-01
  Islamic State in Sahel raided Burkina Faso Army Base in Oudakan
Thu 2025-07-31
  Strategic Town Lost as SNA Troops Flee: Al-Shabaab Gains Ground Amid Crumbling Defenses
Wed 2025-07-30
  In 1st, entire Arab League condemns Oct. 7, urges Hamas to disarm


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