Walters: Drought has big impacts on California agriculture

Farmers are reacting to shortages in three, often intertwined ways

In this Aug. 22, 2021, file photo a kayaker fishes in Lake Oroville as water levels remain low due to continuing drought conditions in Oroville, Calif. California’s reservoirs are so low from a historic drought that regulators warned Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021, it’s possible the state’s water agencies could get nothing from them next year, a frightening possibility that could force mandatory restrictions for residents.

 (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

By DAN WALTERS, CALMATTERS |
PUBLISHED: December 2, 2021 

As California experiences a second year of drought, with no end in sight, the effects on California’s largest-in-the-nation agricultural industry are profound and perhaps permanent.

State and federal water agencies have cut deliveries to some farmers to zero while others, thanks to water rights dating back more than a century, still have access to water.

Farmers are reacting to shortages in three, often intertwined ways — suspending cultivation of some fields or ripping up orchards for lack of water, drilling new wells to tap into diminishing aquifers, and buying water from those who have it.

All three have major economic impacts. They are driving some farmers, particularly small family operations, out of business altogether, accelerating the shift to large-scale agribusiness corporations with the financial resources to cope, changing the kinds of crops that can be profitably grown, and supercharging the semi-secretive market for buying and selling water.

By happenstance, all of these trends are occurring just as the state begins to implement a 2014 law aimed at limiting the amount of water that farmers can pump from underground aquifers.

A couple weeks ago, the state Department of Water Resources announced that it had rejected as inadequate the underground water management plans of four San Joaquin Valley agencies, including the huge Westlands Water District, indicating that the state will be aggressive in enforcing the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

“We’re not going to accept a plan to do a plan,” Paul Gosselin, deputy director for the California Department of Water Resources, Sustainable Groundwater Management Office, told the Sacramento Bee. “We’re looking for very concrete, measurable changes to address these deficiencies.”

If anything, however, farmers are drilling more wells to cope with the current drought, the Bee also reported.

“I could work seven days a week if I wanted to,” Fresno County well driller Wesley Harmon told the Bee. “In my area, everybody’s pumping. You can’t blame the farmers. They’re trying to make a living, they’re trying to grow food for everybody.”

The drought is obviously one motive for drilling hundreds of new wells that must go ever-deeper as the water tables drop from overpumping, sometimes leading to the collapse of land above. But another is that farmers know a crackdown is coming and are doing what they can before it arrives.

The Public Policy Institute of California has estimated that full implementation of the groundwater sustainability act could force 750,000 acres of California farmland out of production, or “fallowed.”

The increased activity in California’s water markets, meanwhile, is beginning to draw attention. It’s sometimes more profitable for farmers to sell water than use it to grow crops, with prices surging to over $1,000 an acre-foot (about 326,000 gallons).

Environmentalists have complained that when Sacramento Valley rice growers received a major allotment of water from the federal government earlier this year, much of it was sold to water interests to the south while rice acreage continued to decline.

Recently, GV Wire, a San Joaquin Valley news site, published a lengthy article from an affiliate, SJV Water, about multi-million-dollar water sales by major agribusiness operations that left small farmers in Kings County in the lurch and forced them, if they can, to drill wells.

There even have been hints that farmers have sold their water allotments for high prices and then sustained their own crops by drilling more wells that exacerbate groundwater overdrafting.

These are serious issues that will become even more intense if drought continues but unfortunately are receiving scant attention from federal and state officials.

Dan Walters is a CalMatters columnist.

From burials to grieving, how we deal with death changes with the times

Do I have to be embalmed? What does a nontraditional funeral look like? A Twin Cities mortician answers your pressing questions about dealing with the dead. 

By Katie Moritz Star Tribune

 

DECEMBER 2, 2021 — 

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Even death changes with the times.

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Even something as old as death — and how we deal with it — changes with the times, according to a local mortician.

Do I have to be embalmed? And what does that even mean?

No, you don't. Embalming is not required by law, except in specific circumstances. The practice is common only in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Funeral Consumers Alliance, where many people believe it's a mandatory part of the funeral process. (It's not.)

Embalming is a surgical procedure — blood and other fluids are drained from the body and replaced with formaldehyde-based chemicals that delay decomposition. More and more, people are choosing funerals that don't involve an invasive process or the use of chemicals. Some may not want to delay the natural processes that return our bodies to the earth.

So if I'm not being embalmed, how will my body last long enough for a funeral?

With refrigeration and the use of portable refrigerants, like dry ice or Techni Ice, a public visitation can occur within six days of the death without embalming.

How would you characterize a funeral that's considered "traditional" in the U.S.?

What many call a traditional funeral is the modern practice that includes embalming and cosmetics, steel or hardwood caskets, visitation and service at a funeral home or house of worship, and burial at a cemetery using concrete outer burial containers and granite or bronze markers.

What many do not know is that there is no state law that requires a concrete outer burial container — cemeteries require them, and they can choose not to require them. The increase in green, natural or hybrid cemeteries means more choices for families.

What funeral choices are people making that diverge from that?

Natural death care encompasses a wide variety of options that are aimed at reducing a person's impact on the Earth after death. These may include the use of refrigeration in lieu of embalming, choosing flame-based or water-based cremation instead of burial, or burial without the use of a concrete outer burial container, metal or hardwood casket, or granite or bronze memorials.

A home funeral, or any community-led death care, occurs whenever families or communities care for their own dead. It may include those closest to them washing and caring for their body, making a casket or item for them, holding a vigil with their body at home, or organizing and participating in their burial or cremation.

Families who choose these options find that slowing down and being present with the dead helps them process their feelings.

Do you think COVID-19 changed the way people think about death?

The pandemic certainly has changed a lot about our rituals at the end of life. During 2020, there was so much heartbreak with folks dying alone and uncertainty about funeral services. I think those heartbreaks have given us a new appreciation for the power of ritual and the value of coming together to mourn. Grieving is an individual experience, but mourning requires the support of others. It's a sacred time for which there is no substitute and no shortcut.

Do you ever work with families that had never experienced natural burial before?

I'm a firm believer in learning what ways the family would like to honor, commemorate and celebrate the life lived and helping them understand and navigate the options available to them. Whether or not they choose more natural options, the most important thing, to me, is that they feel included, encouraged and lifted up in their decisions. That can make an enormous difference in a person's grief journey.

How is what you do now different from what you learned as a student?

I feel there's been a progressive change toward more cremation services, a greater focus on personalizing services for families and an influx of greener options at the end of lif

How can people get more comfortable with death? Any book recommendations?

People can get more comfortable with death by understanding it as a natural part of life. Spending time with the dead helps us see and experience the peace and stillness. Some folks meditate about their own deaths, and that reduces their anxiety. There are a host of books that speak frankly and eloquently about death, from "Tuesdays With Morrie," to "Beloved" and "Making Friends With Death."

I think that whether a person looks to a funeral director, an end-of-life doula, a pastor, a counselor or a friend, it's important to talk about death and dying, because it's a natural part of life itself.

Angela Woosley is a mortician and owner of natural funeral home Inspired Journeys in St. Paul.

Romania’s spy chief meets head of CIA, FBI on U.S. visit amid Russia tensions
De Alison Mutler
-2 decembrie 2021

Foto: INQUAM/Octav Ganea

Romania’s intelligence chief has met the directors of the CIA and FBI to discuss regional security during a visit to Washington which came amid growing tensions with Russia.

Eduard Hellvig, director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) met William J. Burns, CIA director, and Christopher Wray, who heads the FBI, the Romanian agency said Wednesday. It did not provide the dates of the visit.

It was the highest-level meetings in Washington ever held by a Romanian intelligence chief in a sign of the strong bilateral relations and escalating security concerns on NATO’s eastern flank.

Security

The two sides discussed regional and global security, focusing on intelligence sharing and cooperation. NATO member Romania is a stalwart U.S. ally in the Black Sea region and hosts a number of bases on its territory with American troops.

The officials analyzed the complicated regional security situation and looked at ways to boost joint capabilities to counter threats to U.S. and Romania’s national security.

Tensions between the U.S. and Russia rose on Wednesday after Russia said it was ordering U.S. Embassy staff who have been in Moscow for more than three years to fly home by the end of January.

‘Retaliatory measures’

Moscow said it had resorted to “retaliatory measures” after the Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov said 27 Russian diplomats and their families would have to leave the U.S on Jan 30. Another 27 diplomats would need to depart by June, because their visas have not been extended by the American authorities.

Last month, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu asked U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to consider boosting the U.S. troop presence on the Black Sea to defuse tensions with Russia.

Senior Romanian intelligence officials traveled with Mr Hellvig to the U.S. and met Avril Haines, the director of the National Intelligence. They also met Robin Dunnigan, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central and Eastern Europe in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Risk factors

Both parties reaffirmed their strong engagement to counter the risk factors leading to the current security challenges to the two states, to the regional and global security. Mr Hellvig also visited Brussels for talks on regional security.

Debt collectors can now text, email and DM you on social media


In this photo illustration, the Facebook and Instagram apps are seen on the screen of an iPhone.
CREDIT: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

Joe Hernandez
DEC 02, 2021 at 3:00 AM NPR

The next time someone tries to friend you on Facebook or follow you on Instagram, it could be a debt collector.

New rules approved by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that took effect on Tuesday dictate how collection agencies can email and text people as well as message them on social media to seek repayment for unpaid debts.

Kathleen L. Kraninger, the former CFPB director who oversaw the rule changes, said last year that they were a necessary update to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which is more than four decades old.

"We are finally leaving 1977 behind and developing a debt collection system that works for consumers and industry in the modern world," Kraninger said in a blog post.

But consumer advocates say borrowers risk missing key information about their debts or falling prey to illegal scams if they're contacted online.

"The rules are really disappointing and concerning in a number of ways," said April Kuehnhoff, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

The new rules set limits for debt collectors

Under the new rules, debt collectors who contact you on social media have to identify themselves as debt collectors but can attempt to join your network by sending you a friend request. Collectors must give you the option to opt out of being contacted online, and any messages they send have to be private — collectors can't post on your page if it can be seen by your contacts or the public.

Collection agencies can also email and text message debtors, but must still offer the ability to opt out. Industry officials praised the move as a welcome change to the outdated methods currently used by the collections industry.

"Consumers in the collections process deserve to be on a level playing field with others in the financial services marketplace with recognition of their preference to use email and text messaging over other outdated methods, such as faxes as outlined in the current law," Mark Neeb, CEO of ACA International, a trade association for debt collectors, said in a statement.

Advocates say consumers will pay the price

Kuehnhoff said consumers should have been given the ability to opt into electronic messages rather than being forced to opt out of them. She suggested that consumers who don't check social media regularly or miss an email may fail to see critical information about a debt. Many people don't have regular access to the internet either, she added.

Allowing debt collectors to email, text and use social media to contact consumers also gives criminals a new avenue to try to swindle people out of their money, a practice Kuehnhoff expects to increase in the future.

"I have actually already gotten my first spam debt collection email even before the new rules took effect," she said. "So certainly we should anticipate more bad actors who are trying to scam people into paying them money on alleged debts."

Kuehnhoff suggested that consumers shouldn't click on links from people they don't know and said they could report any problems with debt collection messages to the CFPB.

The new rules were devised during the Trump administration, when the bureau became more business-friendly than it had been in the past. Kraninger resigned in January at the request of President Biden, who nominated Rohit Chopra to be the agency's new director.

The new rules also set a limit for the first time on how often debt collectors can call you. Agencies will be restricted to seven calls per week per account in collection. [Copyright 2021 NPR]

High Stakes For Outgoing Honduras President Hernande

By Moises AVILA
12/02/21 

Juan Orlando Hernandez faces an uncertain future when his scandal-marred reign as Honduras president ends in January, along with the immunity from prosecution that the position gave him.

His National Party (PN) presidential candidate Nasry Asfuera has conceded defeat to leftist Xiomara Castro, who will be sworn in as her country's first ever woman president in less than two months.

Hernandez, 53, told AFP earlier this year that he intends to "step away from public life" to write his memoirs.

But US prosecutors have accused Hernandez of protecting drug traffickers in exchange for bribes.

"He's been under investigation since 2004... he runs the risk that (the US) requests his extradition," Ernesto Paz Aguilar, a former foreign minister, told AFP.

Juan Orlando Hernandez's reign as president of Honduras ends in January

 Photo: POOL via AFP / ANDY BUCHANAN

His brother Tony, a former PN legislator, is already serving a life sentence in the US for drug trafficking.

"The general rule is that the United States doesn't take any measures against presidents," said Paz Aguilar.

"There's no formal accusation" in the US but "he was mentioned as a co-conspirator in his brother's case," said Reina Rivera, an analyst and human rights defender.

Until recently, the US was a keen and close ally.

Hondurans don't expect Juan Orlando Hernandez to face trial, either at home or abroad Photo: Honduran Presidency via AFP / Handout

While the opposition and international observers questioned Hernandez's 2017 re-election, the US was the first country to congratulate him.

Washington also saluted his efforts to combat drug trafficking and he helped extradite several drug barons to face trial in the US.

But several of them then accused Hernandez of involvement in the illicit trade.

He denies that and insists the accusations are motivated by "revenge."

Should US prosecutors launch a case, Castro, who branded Hernandez a "narco-dictator", would be unlikely to protect him.

"One way out (from extradition) would be if they open a trial here... when a person has a pending trial in Honduras, they cannot be extradited," said Rivera.

Juan Orlando Hernandez would likely find a safe haven in Nicaragua 

Photo: AFP / Orlando SIERRA

In a case that has since been buried, Honduran prosecutors claimed Hernandez's 2013 election campaign benefited from embezzled funds.

But the opposition has also accused him of corruption linked to the acquisition of infrastructure and supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Hondurans don't expect Hernandez to face trial, either at home or abroad.

"If he committed crimes he has to pay for it," said Kenia Maldonado, 32, a street vendor.

"The problem is that here there are no laws, no-one can do anything to him here. There are laws for the poor but not for the rich."

Oscar Edmundo Arzu, 59, does not think Hernandez will be extradited.

"How could he not realize what his brother was involved in? But if the gringos (US) had sufficient evidence against him, they would already have asked for his extradition," he told AFP in central Tegucigalpa.

Another option for Hernandez would be to flee into exile, away from the reach of either Honduran or US justice "but his options are limited," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue.

"He is toxic and surely would be unwelcome in most countries."

There is one place that he would likely find a safe haven.

"The strong relationship that Hernandez has with (Nicaragua President) Daniel Ortega could mean an escape from his complicated legal situation," said Gustavo Irias, executive director of the Center for Democracy Studies.

Ortega is a pariah in Washington's eyes and the two countries have no diplomatic relations.

Hernandez's first foreign visit after he was elected was to see Ortega and should he go there, he wouldn't be alone.

"There is precedent in two former El Salvador presidents that were given a Nicaraguan refuge having been accused of corruption: Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren," added Irias.

Nicaragua granted Sanchez Ceren citizenship in July, having already done so for Funes in 2019, meaning neither can be extradited to El Salvador to face charges.

"The realistic option is Nicaragua, it's one the gringos would probably accept," said Paz Aguilar.
Copyright AFP. All rights reserved.

Arrested development: the unfinished church dividing Kosovo

Kosovars think the unfinished church in Pristina is a reminder of Kosovo's bloody past (AFP/Armend NIMANI)More

Ismet Hajdari and David Stout
Thu, December 2, 2021, 

At first glance, the half-built Orthodox church in the heart of Kosovo's capital seems little more than a napping spot for stray dogs splayed out in a patch of unkempt weeds near the padlocked entrance.

But for nearly three decades the hulking structure has cast a long shadow over Pristina, serving as a potent symbol of the unresolved dispute between Kosovo and Serbia.

"This church must be destroyed," Jahir Islami, a 77-year-old retiree, tells AFP, citing painful memories of Kosovo's bloody past when the land was divided along ethnic lines during years of violent unrest.


Disputes over religious sites remain simmering flashpoints between the bitter rivals since Kosovo declared independence in 2008 -- with Serbia still refusing to acknowledge the breakaway province's sovereignty.

Kosovo is home to some of the Serbian Orthodox Church's most revered monasteries, with many of the centuries-old churches now residing in largely ethnic Albanian towns where Islam predominates.

The fate of those churches and Kosovo's shrinking Serb minority has continued to thwart efforts to reach a deal between the two sides that have achieved little progress in recent years.

Unlike the storied Orthodox monasteries in the countryside, the unfinished church in Pristina belongs to a more recent and brutal history.

Former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic facilitated its construction in the mainly Albanian city during a bloody crackdown on the community in Kosovo, which led to a brief but vicious war in the late 1990s that only ended after NATO intervention.

- Church and state -

"They did not only commit crimes against our bodies but also wanted to erase our history, to attack our identity, to implement their project of ethnic cleansing of Kosovo," Hajrulla Ceku, Kosovo's minister of culture, tells AFP.

Kosovo officials have long accused Belgrade of using the Orthodox Church as a proxy, with the clergy acting as emissaries on the ground carrying out Serbia's will.

Tensions have been steadily rising over the future status of Kosovo's Orthodox churches since the election of Prime Minister Albin Kurti in 2021.

The left-wing leader has since called for four Serbian Orthodox churches to be taken off the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list.

The churches were listed as endangered following rioting in 2004 that saw mobs target Orthodox sites after unfounded rumours about Serbs murdering Albanian children sparked days of fighting that killed at least 19 people.

For years, NATO troops were positioned outside most of Kosovo's Orthodox establishments to prevent further violence.

But since then, religiously motivated attacks have declined, with NATO troops only guarding the picturesque Visoki Decani Monastery in western Kosovo.

"This is a very important indication that the situation is much better than in the past," said former NATO commander in Kosovo Franco Federici.

Other churches are guarded by special units made up of Kosovo police, but some establishments have no security at all.

- Tensions -

The progress, argues the Kosovo government, also supports their calls to be recognised by the UN as the sovereign party responsible for the four listed churches, instead of Serbia.

Serbian Orthodox officials refused to comment on the matter when contacted by AFP.

But Belgrade has roundly dismissed any such moves to change the status quo.

"They want to present Kosovo as an oasis of peace and Pristina as needing to look after and protect Serbian cultural treasures," said Petar Petkovic, the head of Serbia's office for Kosovo.

"It's a hypocritical act by Pristina and an attempt to deceive the international community," he added, saying more than 135 churches and monasteries have been destroyed since 1999.

Similar claims have been made on the Albanian side, who say more than 200 mosques were damaged or destroyed by Serb forces amid bouts of ethnic cleansing.

But even as Kosovo officials point to a drop in recent violence, hostilities are again rising in Pristina.

In June, members of the Serbian Orthodox Church held a rare liturgy service inside the unfinished church, triggering protests and vandalism including the scrawling of graffiti saying: "Jesus hates Serbs".

The church's future is being hashed out in the courts following years of litigation between Orthodox officials and the University of Pristina, where the structure resides.

Even as tensions flare again, many residents in Pristina say they do not want the church to be demolished but rather to serve as a memorial to help remember Kosovo's troubled past.

"Perhaps this facility can be transformed into a cultural facility and help to build trust between Albanians and Serbs," says Nexhmi Statovci, a 66-year-old retiree.

"Let's not ruin it but use it for positive rather than negative things."

ih-ev-ds/imm/ah

 

Shuttered Hong Kong democracy

paper wins press freedom award

Date

12/2/2021 

(MENAFN- AFP)

Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai and the staff of his now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper have been awarded a prestigious press freedom prize by the World Association of News Publishers.

Apple Daily, formerly Hong Kong's most popular pro-democracy newspaper, collapsed in June after authorities froze its assets under a national security law imposed by Beijing to curb dissent.

Lai, the paper's outspoken founder, and multiple senior executives and editors have been detained on "foreign collusion" charges over Apple Daily's support for international sanctions against China.

Warren Fernandez, president of the World Editors Forum, said this year's Golden Pen of Freedom award highlighted the "fears and challenges" of journalists who face increasing curbs in Hong Kong, a regional media hub.

"The jailing of a publisher, the arrest of an editor-in-chief and his senior colleagues, the shuttering of a newsroom, and the closure of a media title –- the 2021 Golden Pen award recognises, and reflects on, all of these," Fernandez said at a virtual ceremony on Wednesday.

Apple Daily was renowned for its acerbic criticism of China's leaders and Beijing made no secret of its desire to see the tabloid silenced.

Sebastien Lai, receiving the award on behalf of his father, said there will be "less and less people shining light in these dark corners" given Apple Daily's shutdown and the ongoing crackdown on journalism in the region.

In a statement announcing the award, the World Association of News Publishers called Lai an "outspoken critic of Beijing's control over Hong Kong and a high-profile supporter of the pro-democracy movement".

Established in 1961, the Golden Pen of Freedom is an annual award that recognises outstanding contributions to the defence and promotion of press freedom.

In authoritarian China, all local media is censored and state controlled while foreign media face significant reporting hurdles and visa denials.

Hong Kong has long served as a regional media hub, though it has tumbled down press freedom rankings in recent years as Beijing asserts greater control over the city.

Suppression of local media has increased in the wake of huge and often violent democracy protests two years ago and the subsequent imposition of the security law.

International media maintain a strong presence in the city with organisations including the Financial Times, AFP, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg having regional headquarters in Hong Kong.

But the security law and crackdown on dissent have rattled nerves.

Last month an Australian correspondent from The Economist was denied a visa -- the fourth foreign journalist to be refused one without an explanation since 2018.

The New York Times relocated its Asia news hub to South Korea last year citing both the security law and multiple visa delays.

MENAFN02122021000143011026ID1103291165

Military Trends on TikTok Make It Easier for Chinese Intelligence to Track Troops

Christopher Burgess / Dec 2, 2021CYBERSECURITY

There are over 100 million TikTok users in the United States, and a good many of those no doubt are associated with the United States government – including service men and women.  Since it became popular several years ago the federal government has been concerned if those users’ data is at risk because of the app, its terms of service, and it’s Chinese ownership. So, does the app pose a counterintelligence threat?

REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS POSITING A NATIONAL SECURITY RISK

In June 2021, the White House directed the Secretary of Commerce (with the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, director of Office of Management and Budget and any other entity the Secretary deems appropriate) to provide a recommendation to the Assistant to the President and the National Security Advisor which addresses the “risk associated with connected software applications that are designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned or controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of, a foreign adversary.”

According to a spokesperson within the Department of Commerce, “The department submitted an initial set of recommendations to the administration’s key national security advisers” in mid-October 2021.  Meanwhile, a CIFIUS review on TikTok continues.

INFORMATION WARFIGHTER EXERCISE

A recent Social Media Information Warfighter Exercise, hosted by Safe House Global, worked through a scenario where the Chinese Ministry of State Security ordered the Chinese firm, Bytedance (owner of TikTok), to provide access to the TikTok codebase to allow for a programmatic approach to identify U.S. military members and their families. The scenario continued that using both Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and this unique data set, that artificial intelligence (AI) could be implemented to achieve a number of objectives: (1) location of service member; (2) travel patterns; (3) potential for compromise; (4) susceptibility to disinformation; and (5) espionage. Jeffrey Carr, founder of Safe House Global, told the UK’s Express, “the ability to micro-target professions or people of interest is a critical component of any threat management programme. There’s already high-level concern about this technology on young military service members, who are all over TikTok,”

Carr explained to ClearanceJobs that while TikTok has ordered its data storage for U.S. users to be located in the U.S., with backups in Singapore, the source code and updates are crafted in China and pushed to users around the globe. This, he continued, formed the basis for the scenario. The exercise concluded with the realization that TikTok could not say no to the MSS; may attempt to ameliorate the situation with an adjustment to their terms of service; and espionage is here to stay.

OSINT AND TIKTOK

Carr’s observation on the ubiquitous nature of TikTok within global military community was easily verified. A search of the hashtag #MilitaryTikTok reveals the hashtag has received 26 billion views. The hashtag #armyrecruiter has been viewed 30.1 million times. A peek at both hashtags provides exactly what the scenario projected – readily available information on individual users to add to the substantial targeting dossier which China has been building for a good number of years.

For the skeptics among us, we can start the collation of data by China with the infamous OPM data breach of 2015, add to that the Tricare and Equifax data breaches, and then top it off with the Ashley Madison breach for a bit of salacious content. The use of LinkedIn, Facebook and TikTok provides a stream of data to round out the image of the potential target. The leveraging of the Chinese owned app by China in its current state, even without the scenario’s “insertion of code,” is not a heavy lift. The urge to post “TMI” (too much information) is strong and available for exploit.

U.S. ARMY RECRUITERS, SIDESTEPPING THE BAN

A recent piece in Defense One details how U.S. Army recruiters are leveraging TikTok by sidestepping the prohibition of having the app on government devices and placing the app on personal devices. In the piece,  Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, who leads the Army Recruiting Command is quoted, “They’re on TikTok, and they’re doing other things with Twitter.”  He continued, “We’ve got to learn them. We’ve got to understand. We do know that most of Generation Z lives in the virtual space, they live online, they live with social media. And so we have to be savvy with how we evolve in our recruiting operations.”

An Army recruiter has a personal TikTok with over 500,000 followers, and is leveraging TikTok with videos targeting recruits. The recruiter’s TikTok efforts were so successful he was asked to join the team building the “next generation of social-media-recruiting strategies.”

OSINT IS HERE TO STAY

What’s not going to change is every potential adversary to the United States is scraping the OSINT off the internet. The September 2020 splaying of China’s OSINT efforts in the SSRN study “Chinese Open Source Data Collection, Big Data, And Private Enterprise Work For State Intelligence and Security: The Case of Shenzhen Zhenhua” identified the existence of the Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB). That effort in support of the Chinese military and intelligence arms should be sufficient to convince any skeptic of China’s intentions in their data collection efforts.

Hopefully U.S. Army strategies infuse a healthy dosage of counterintelligence OSINT reality and acknowledge every TikTok engagement leaves breadcrumbs for adversaries to collect, collate and put away for potential future exploitation.

Christopher Burgess (@burgessct) is an author and speaker on the topic of security strategy. Christopher, served 30+ years within the Central Intelligence Agency. He lived and worked in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe, and Latin America. Upon his retirement, the CIA awarded him the Career Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the highest level of career recognition. Christopher co-authored the book, “Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost, Preventing Intellectual Property Theft and Economic Espionage in the 21st Century” (Syngress, March 2008). He is the founder of securelytravel.c

Donald Trump Claims Black Lives Matter's Original Message Was 'Kill the Police'

NEWSWEEK

BY EWAN PALMER ON 12/2/21 

Former President Donald Trump has falsely suggested that the Black Lives Matter movement encouraged violence against police officers during an interview on British television.

In his conversation with Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, now a host on GB News, Trump mentioned the debunked conspiracy theory that left-wing activists took part in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, as well as claiming that an anti-police chant heard at a 2015 protest was the original message of Black Lives Matter.

"It's shocking that it started off with 'pigs in a blanket,' right? You know that, right? The expression 'Fry 'em like bacon,'" Trump told Farage.

"That was about our great police. And all of a sudden this becomes mainstream? I don't really think so.

"And antifa. Very bad," Trump added. "They had antifa in that rally, they had antifa leading a lot of people on that day on January. And I will say that it's pretty incredible that nothing happens to them."

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Farage asked Trump to clarify if he believes the Black Lives Matter movement, which began in 2013 to protest police brutality against African Americans, is mainly about racial equality.

"They're about politics, but I think they're about a lot of other things," Trump said.

"If you go back to their original founding and what they were saying. 'Kill the police.' What they're saying is 'kill the police'. And that becomes mainstream? Not good."

The "fry them like bacon" chant Trump mentioned was sung at a protest march held by a Black Lives Matter group in St Paul, Minnesota, in 2015.

CNN reported in July 2020 that the chant was sung by a group that was independent from the national Black Lives Matter organization and has never been an official, national or prominent slogan of the movement.

Trump frequently made reference to the "horrible" chant during his years in the White House, claiming it was the first time he became aware of the Black Lives Matter movement.

He also mentioned the "pigs in a blanket" chant during the final presidential debate against Joe Biden in October 2020, while claiming he was the "least racist person in this room."

Despite the former president's claims, the Black Lives Matter movement did not begin with a call to kill police officers.

It began in the summer of 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager. Zimmerman shot dead the 17-year-old in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012.

The movement's call for an end to police violence against Black people gained national prominence after three officer-involved deaths in the space of a few months in 2014: Eric Garner, 43, in New York in July; Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, in August; and Tamir Rice, 12, in Cleveland, Ohio, in November.

Black Lives Matter has since became a global movement, as seen by the protests that broke out worldwide in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.

Newsweek has contacted Black Lives Matter for comment.

Donald Trump discussed the Black Lives Matter movement during an interview on a British news channel.DREW ANGERER/SEAN RAYFORD/GETTY IMAGES