WHITE Extremists posing as aid workers urge NC locals to tear down cell towers and hit military

Jordan Green, Investigative Reporter
November 1, 2024 

Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer booking photo from 2018 (Courtesy Tucson Police Department)

A group of anti-government extremists who showed up in western North Carolina promising to provide disaster relief after Hurricane Helene is now threatening to destroy cell-phone towers and sabotage military vehicles.

The group, Veterans on Patrol, attracted attention by setting up a disaster relief staging area in the parking lot of the Ingles grocery store in Lake Lure, about 50 miles from Asheville.

But locals, including some who initially cooperated with the group, began to complain about threats and harassment.


Over the past three weeks, members of the group, which falsely claims that Helene was caused by a “weather weapon,” have been making conspiracy-driven claims that the U.S. military is attempting to kill U.S. citizens with “directed energy weapons.”

Veterans on Patrol’s channel on the encrypted social-media platform Telegram posted a message on Thursday displaying photos of what appears to be a cell tower on a mountaintop. The message asserted that locals “are in Live Exercises where the United States Military is permitted to destroy your homes, bodies and minds,” while suggesting that equipment on the tower “is solely for providing the U.S. military the means to murder Americans.”

“Focus on tearing down their weapons,” the message reads. It continues, “All it takes is one weapon tower being toppled with the stated reason spoken boldly.”


Another message posted in the group’s Telegram channel appears to advocate for sabotaging military vehicles and assets.

“Simple acts of pouring sugar into fuel tanks of military equipment, backup power systems, and personal vehicles of military personnel can wreak havoc on those who murdered all these people out here,” reads the message, which was posted on Wednesday.

Soldiers from Fort Liberty and Fort Campbell have deployed to western North Carolina to assist in the disaster response, along with National Guard members from nine states.


Veterans on Patrol is led by Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, who has a long history of anti-government extremism, dating back at least 10 years. Meyer, according to the extremism watchdog group Southern Poverty Law Center, is not a veteran.

Reached by phone on Friday, Meyer doubled down on the threats.

“Jesus used bullwhips and flipped tables,” he told Raw Story. “We’re going to use our bullwhips and topple towers.”


At first during the interview, Meyer argued that the Telegram messages weren’t advocating for targeting cell towers, saying instead that the group would “surgically” remove the supposed “directed energy weapons." He went on to say that they would provide Appalachian residents with generators and Starlink boxes so they could maintain power and communication links.

Asked about the message referencing “pouring sugar into fuel tanks,” Meyer told Raw Story: “We’re going to destroy your tanks…. You want to get dirty? That’s what we should be doing.”

Veterans on Patrol has promoted multiple conspiracy theories based on false claims since arriving in western North Carolina.


One message posted on Telegram on Oct. 22 claimed that “Helene was a Weather Weapon steered to destroy the area, while also claiming that the investment fund BlackRock is attempting a “land grab” and describing the storm and its aftermath as “an act of war perpetrated against the People.”

As the final day of voting in the presidential election approaches, posts on the group’s Telegram channel have taken on an increasingly urgent tone.

The Oct. 22 post claimed that “stolen elections” are a real phenomenon, along with “weather weapons,” “Satanic pedophiles” and “adrenochrome," which refers to a QAnon conspiracy theory that a cabal of elites tortures children to extract a chemical from their bodies which is then used as a recreational drug.


In another post last week, a Veterans on Patrol member nicknamed “Shepherd” claimed that the U.S. Air Force command is instructing pilots “to deploy additional weather weapons.” The post goes on to say, “These people don’t have 2 weeks to wait for vote and 3 months to hopefully wait for a Regime change.”

Another message on the group channel that was published on Wednesday suggests without basis that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is the beneficiary of BlackRock’s supposed landgrab.

Speaking to Raw Story, Meyer seemed to all but dare law enforcement to intervene.


“For people to go and do something to prevent weapons from being deployed — that’s not a crime,” he said. “If they want to bring this to court and charge us with conspiracy, then let’s go.”

The FBI did not respond to an inquiry about Veterans on Patrol's activities, but Meyer told Raw Story in an email that he "would imagine the FBI knows full well what we are attempting through Operation Leaning Tower."

Meyer told Raw Story that he notified the office of Gov. Roy Cooper about his "operation." Cooper's office did not immediately respond to a voicemail message from Raw Story.

Phone calls from Raw Story for this story to officials in Lake Lure and Rutherford County, which surrounds the town, went unreturned.


Meyer’s history of extremism dates back to the Bundy Ranch standoff, when armed militants faced down the FBI and other federal agencies in 2014 during a dispute over rancher Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees. Meyer’s involvement in the Bundy Ranch standoff came to light later, when the Oregonian reported that he and a group of friends got into a brawl with other anti-government extremists during the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which Bundy and a group of armed supporters had occupied.

Meyer founded Veterans on Patrol in Arizona in 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Prior to presenting itself as a disaster response group in the aftermath of Helene, Veterans on Patrol has claimed its efforts were directed towards rescuing children from sex trafficking, addressing veteran suicide and dubious claims that the military is maliciously harming civilians. Meyer’s activities have frequently landed him in trouble with law enforcement.

Meyer was arrested twice in 2015 after emergency responders talked him down from a light pole in Surprise, Ariz. in 2015.


In 2018, was arrested by the police in Tucson, Ariz. for trespassing and an outstanding warrant for an assault charge, after occupying a tower on an industrial property. A press release from the Tucson Police Department claimed that Meyer “found an abandoned homeless encampment” on the property, “and fictitiously declared, without evidence or corroboration, that the area was the site of a sex-trafficking ring.”

The Tucson police said they received complaints from Tucson residents that Meyer and his followers had threatened and intimidated them, and Meyer made “multiple threatening and hostile remarks directed towards various elected and appointed officials” through social media.

In the summer of 2024, before Hurricane Helene, Veterans on Patrol was active in Spokane, Wash. In Telegram message from July 2, 2024, Veterans on Patrol announced to the police that it “would no longer be safe” for one of its officers “to work his beat.” The channel also posted the home addresses of city council members.


Jordan Green is a North Carolina-based investigative reporter at Raw Story, covering domestic extremism, efforts to undermine U.S. elections and democracy, hate crimes and terrorism. Prior to joining the staff of Raw Story in March 2021, Green spent 16 years covering housing, policing, nonprofits and music as a reporter and editor at Triad City Beat in North Carolina and Yes Weekly. He can be reached at jordan@rawstory.com. More about Jordan Green.

To hell with Trump's voters

D. Earl Stephens
October 28, 2024 

A supporter of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a MAGA hat during a rally at Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado, U.S., October 11, 2024. REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. 

I have heard way more than enough of this grotesque garbage that perhaps we should try to understand what makes the Trump voter tick, and somehow sympathize with their support of an unapologetic loudmouth who is so vile he sees “good people” on both sides of a violent white supremacist rally.

Have you seen or heard any of this crap?

Have you seen or heard this heated drivel that Kamala Harris and other Democrats have done an inadequate job of connecting with Trump voters who see nothing dangerous about a man who refers to human beings as “vermin,” and has adopted Adolph Hitler’s talking points at his odious campaign rallies?

Have you seen or heard this absolute low-grade nonsense that we should work to lower the temperature in this country, and maybe not take it so personally when one party has gone completely in the tank for a hideous man who told the people who attacked America on January 6, 2021 that he “loves them?”

It is deplorable, and I’m here to remind you it is not normal.

These Trump supporters are shattered people, who have proven only one thing the past eight years: They can ALWAYS go lower, even if it means diving into the dumpster themselves to prove that they truly do believe in their lower cause.


Do not allow yourselves to be gaslit during this the most important election since the Civil War. Understand: If you support the Democratic Party, it does not make you perfect, but is does put you squarely on the right side of human decency and history.

This not only needs to be said out loud, and over and over again, but SHOUTED, because if you are telling me you support the despicable Donald Trump, you have essentially told me everything I need to know about you.

-You have told me you don’t really believe in “law in order” because in fact you support a convicted felon, who is currently facing scores of other felony charges for all manner of crimes, instead of supporting the career prosecutor who locked cheating lowlifes like Trump away behind bars ...


-You have told me you don’t believe in democracy, because you support the traitor who helped plan and execute the first attack on our Capitol since 1812, and attempted a violent coup that was one corrupt vice president away from possibly succeeding.

-You have told me you don’t believe in truth and honesty, because you support the man who told an astonishing documented 30,573 lies and mistruths during his epically awful presidency, and does nothing but lie from the time his fat little feet hit the deck in the morning until he finally passes out from overexposure at midnight.

-You have told me you don’t believe in our children’s future or the future of our planet, because you support the complete imbecile who is a sworn enemy of science, thinks climate change is a hoax, and that wind turbines cause cancer.


-You have told me you don’t have a shred of respect for the women in your lives, because you support the felon who physically attacks and berates them, and does not believe they should have the same rights men do.

-You have told me you don’t believe in a strong economy because you support the guy who wrecked the perfectly good one he inherited from Barack Obama so magnificently by failing to pass the only real test of his gross presidency. His multi-pronged failures to answer the COVID crisis, was among the greatest failures in American history. He simply couldn’t find it in his dark, empty soul to drum up even a shred of compassion for the millions of Americans who were sick and dying, and even went so far as suggesting that maybe we try drinking Lysol to combat COVID’s terrible effects. Even wearing masks was a bridge too far for the guy who would have died from the disease if he had listened to is own sickening counsel.

-You have told me you don’t believe all Americans deserve affordable healthcare, because the guy you support tried to do away with that without any plan to replace it, and now pathetically tells us he has “a concept of a plan” to make it better. Can you really be this damn stupid?


-You have told me you don’t really support blue collar, working Americans because you support the guy who passionately hates unions, refuses to support raising minimum wage, and has relentlessly stood up for the corporations, starting with Big Oil, who grease his bottomless pockets.

-You have told me you really aren’t Christian, if I am to understand this religious orthodoxy at all, because I just don’t think Jesus Christ would have much respect for a foul-mouthed, abusive slob, who dutifully avoids church, belittles people who have less than him, and pawns off Bibles online like they are some steak, sneaker, or watch to pay off his endless stream of lawyers, and pad a lifestyle spent behind locked gates, where he cheats at golf and avoids working-class Americans at all costs.

-You have told me you don’t really support the men and women in uniform because you bow to a reprehensible draft-dodger who calls our fallen “suckers and losers” and just weeks ago disgraced the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery for a cheap, campaign photo op. The last two chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of staff, including one he appointed are telling you that the man you support means our country harm, so kindly save all that phony patriotic garbage you are trying to dump on the rest of us.


Truth is, I could go on for three full pages here pointing out your wretched hypocrisies, and gladly would if I thought it would have the positive effect of shaking some damn sense into you.

But I’m not interested in wasting my time with that. You have successfully proven you are broken beyond repair. So congratulations for that.

I am only interested in making good and damn sure people know that YOU, and YOU alone, are responsible for the extreme danger that this country finds itself in right now.


You are complete frauds and phonies, who are most likely white, male and angry to the point of violence. You are going nowhere in life, except lower because you are weak in character, and have allowed gravity and depravity to tug you in that lazy, misguided direction.

You want everything done for you and handed to you on a silver platter, because despite your despicable selves, you somehow think you are owed everything simply because of the color of your lily-white skin.

In fact, you are racist as hell, even if you’d like to somehow think you aren’t, because you lack the capacity to do even the minimal amount of introspection needed to attain the most basic understanding that in this country ALL men (and women) are supposed to be created equal.

You don’t believe in a better America, you believe in an America where you can legally drag good people through the dirt, who you still somehow think are lesser than you, and then have a good laugh about it.


You support the monstrous, orange man because he has given you license to be just as completely awful as you want to be. He brings out the very worst in you, and because you are weak in character, you somehow get off on it.

I will always blame the gross “leadership” in your broken party — 80 percent who know better — for the predicament we are in, as we fight tooth and nail to keep this anti-American loudmouth out of our White House, and preserve our republic.

How dare you put this on us, and threaten to end a country 250 years in the making so casually and pathetically.


And I will alway blame my former brethren in the bought-off, reprehensible corporate media for normalizing one of the worst people in world history. They have done catastrophic damage with their refusal to cover one of the biggest stories ever with the weight and vigor it deserves.

He will do everything he can to end us, and YOU know it, damn you.

But it is you, Trump voter, who I reserve the majority of my disdain. You have been coddled long enough in this country. You aren’t misunderstood. The truth is you have very effectively spent the past eight years making it crystal clear to anybody paying even the slightest amount of attention just how revolting and toxic you truly are.


I understand you all too well, and hope you all go straight to hell for the damage you have done to America, the majority of our people, and the brave souls who gave their lives defending her.

NOW READ: Kamala's secret weapon against Trump: The F-word that's changing everything


D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.

It's official: Conservatism is dead — and what's replaced it is far worse

Lindsay Beyerstein, Alternet
November 1, 2024

Donald Trump Jr., son of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, in New York, U.S., October 27, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Conspiracist ideology has consumed the Republican Party. At his rally at Madison Square Garden, Trump pledged to demolish the deep state, drive out the globalists, and rout the fake news media. Speaker after speaker referenced the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, a dogma that was once confined to the manifestos of mass shooters, but which is now the Trump campaign’s closing argument for the presidency.

Former Fox host Tucker Carlson, who promoted the Great Replacement over 400 times on his now-defunct show, told the crowd at Madison Square Garden that the political class “despises [the people] and their values and their history and their culture and their customs; really hates them to the point that it’s trying to replace them.”

The former president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr, was even more explicit.

“The Democrat[sic] Party has forgotten about Americans. Rather than cater to Americans, they decided, “You know what? It would just be easier to replace them with people who will be reliable voters.”

"Our elections are bad, and a lot of these illegal immigrants are coming in, they're trying to get them to vote," Trump Jr., said last month

The Republican National Committee under Lara Trump is claiming that millions of undocumented migrants could vote next week. A vast body of research, including recent audits by Republican-controlled states like Georgia, has found that voting by non-citizens is essentially nonexistent.

By hyping this fake threat, Republicans are creating a pretext to challenge the election if Trump loses, putting a racist spin on their perennial allegations of voter fraud, and creating excuses for Republican governors to purge their voter rolls.

However, this obsession with noncitizen voting goes deeper than that. The lie of mass voting by undocumented migrants is the conceptual glue that binds the three major components of their conspiracist ideology: The Deep State, the Big Lie, and the Great Replacement.


Let’s review their delusional belief system:

The Deep State is a shadowy network of elites inside and outside of government who supposedly direct the course of history. This cabal is responsible for everything from Trump’s impeachments and prosecutions to voting laws and immigration policy. Some say it controls the weather.

The Big Lie is the debunked claim that voter fraud cost Donald Trump the 2020 election. Trump kicked off his Madison Square Garden rally by vowing to “totally obliterate the Deep State.”

The Great Replacement is the charge that the Deep State is deliberately importing migrants in order to replace white Americans, a process sometimes known as “white genocide.” The lie of massive noncitizen voting explains why the Deep State is supposedly importing all these migrants to commit election fraud.

These beliefs meld seamlessly into a paranoid whole. Trump told rallygoers in Atlanta that the Democratic immigration policy must be the result of evil or stupidity. “Well, they’re not stupid because anybody that can cheat on elections that good is not stupid,” Trump told rallygoers in Atlanta. “But I never really talked about the third reason because it’s so sinister, but they want to sign these people up to vote, and if they do that, this country is destroyed.”

Trump has been blaming migrants for his political failures for years. In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote and blamed it on millions of illegal voters. Incredibly, Trump claimed that he would have won deep blue California – a state he lost by 30 points and 4 million votes – if not for those improbably civic-minded migrants. Trump convened a special commission to investigate voter fraud, which fizzled without finding evidence of the conspiracy.


Conservative ideology as we knew it is dead.

Conspiracism is all.

Elon Musk-backed super PAC hit with class action lawsuit from its canvassers: report

Matthew Chapman

RAW STORY
November 1, 2024



A group of canvassers working on behalf of America PAC, the pro-Trump political organization funded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has filed a class-action suit against their employer, WIRED reported Friday.

America PAC, which along with its subcontractor Blitz Canvassing is tasked with independent get-out-the-vote operations for former President Donald Trump and a number of other Republicans, is effectively standing in for what in previous years the Republican National Committee and GOP presidential campaigns did in-house.

Named plaintiffs Tamiko Anderson and Patricia Kelly, who were doing voter outreach work for Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), allege they were hired under the pretense they would be paid an hourly wage, but once onboarded, were told their pay would actually depend on how many doors they knocked, significantly jeopardizing the amount they thought they would earn.

According to the report, the canvassers are also suing over a "failure to reimburse business expenses and for allegedly being provided inaccurate wage statements."

This comes after separate reporting that canvassers said they were abused and overworked, being threatened that they wouldn't be compensated for their hotel rooms and airfare if they didn't meet wildly inflated work quotas like knocking 1,000 doors a week. At least one of them said they weren't even told the job would involve canvassing for Trump and Republicans, or on behalf of Musk, when they applied.

All of these allegations provide context for other reports that some of the door-knockers working with Blitz Canvassing had resorted to fabricating data with GPS spoofing, to the point that up to 25 percent of their voter contacts in the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada may have been faked.

Blitz Canvassing has reportedly threatened employees against talking to the press.

Meanwhile, America PAC has faced multiple threats of criminal investigation, including allegations that they improperly obtained voters' personal information through a nonfunctional voter registration portal, and allegations that Musk's $1 million a day lottery for registered voters who sign his "pro-Constitution" petition is an illegal vote-buying scheme.

Columnist shreds Trump’s economic playbook that tariffs made manufacturing great

Erik De La Garza
November 1, 2024 

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. October 15, 2024. 

REUTERS/Joel Angel Juarez

Did tariffs make America great? According to a New York Times op-ed published Friday, the short answer is no.

Peter Coy, a veteran business and economics columnist for the Times, dug into a report written by two leading economists who set out on a mission to discover if steep tariffs imposed “during America’s Gilded Age – roughly 1870 to 1900” could be credited with the rise of American manufacturing during the period.

What they concluded undercuts former President Donald Trump’s economic plan for the country, which includes imposing huge new tariffs, in he returns to the Oval Office.

“Their conclusion: ‘The era’s high tariffs are unlikely to have helped the United States become a globally competitive manufacturer,’” Coy notes in his op-ed, citing the report by Alexander Klein and Christopher Meissner, which was issued by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in London.

Coy adds that Trump “isn’t the first to attribute America’s manufacturing success to the tariff wall that made imported products expensive compared with those produced at home.”

“In reality, though, tariffs didn’t make much difference in the United States because the domestic economy was both large and relatively isolated from world trade, Klein and Meissner wrote in their paper,” Coy wrote.


He noted that the economists found that the one area that tariffs did make a difference “was to reduce rather than enhance the productivity of labor, which is the output of goods per hour of work.”

Coy ended his column Friday by telling readers that Klein and Meissner do not directly reference Trump’s fascination with tariffs in their report, but added that “their title gives a hint: ‘Did Tariffs Make American Manufacturing Great? New Evidence from the Gilded Age.’”

Nosferatu creeps up on the Alban Film Festival


By Dr. Tim Sandle
November 1, 2024

St Albans Cathedral at night. Image by Tim Sandle

A screening of the full-length version of the German silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror took place at St. Alban’s Cathedral, Hertfordshire, UK. The cathedral is the second oldest in England, with construction starting in the 11th century, commissioned by the new ruling Normans.

The screening was accompanied by a live organist and various electronic additions (also performed live). This special screening – on Halloween – was part of the Alban Film Festival 2024, playing to a full house of 450 people.

The 1922 film is directed by F. W. Murnau and it features the actor Max Schreck as Count Orlok. Schreck plays a vampire who preys on the wife (Greta Schröder) of his estate agent (Gustav von Wangenheim) and brings the plague to their town.

If the plot sounds similar to Bram Stoker’s Dracula that is no coincidence. This was an unauthorized and unofficial adaptation, which led to legal action being taken and an instruction for every copy of the film to be destroyed.Getting ready for the screening inside the cathedral. Image by Tim Sandle

Luckily some prints remained and the movie, now acknowledged as a fine example of the earliest forays into the horror genre, remains available for modern audiences to become acquainted with.

The name of the titular vampire – Nosferatu – derives from the archaic Romanian word Nesuferitu, meaning “the offensive one”.

The film is an example of German Expressionist cinema, so named as the emotions of the artist (or director) are central to the film and take precedence over the plot. This wave of film-making continued until the early 1930s (when political currents brought this wave of German cinema to an end)

.

Bird sculptures inside St Alban’s Cathedral as film goers mingle. Image by Tim Sandle.

Murnau was an acknowledged leader of this movement. He made 21 films, although only 12 survive in their complete state. Murnau was killed at the young age of 42 in a road traffic accident.

Thematically, Nosferatu is seen by some film critics as representing the fear of ‘the Other’ (or suspicion of ‘Otherness’ – alien cultures, different ways of life, immigration and other socio-cultural factors).

The music captured Hans Erdmann’s original score, with some additional features designed to enhance the feature. Such features were necessary since a large proportion of the original film score has been lost.

The quality of the film was very good, moving between monochrome, sepia and blue-ish white. Whatever the scheme, Orlok – the inhuman and corpse-like vampire – remains slightly terrifying

.

Nosferatu shadow, created from a candle light. Image by Tim Sandle

The screening was very atmospheric, both for being within the cavernous cathedral and due to the live music accomplishment. Being on Halloween too add that extra special touch.

For those less enamoured with film history, a remake of Nosferatu, written and directed by Robert Eggers (who made The Lighthouse), opens in December 2024 / January 2025 (depending on territory).

Nuts! NY authorities euthanize Instagram squirrel star

By AFP
November 1, 2024

New Yorker Mark Longo said he rescued Peanut after seeing his mother killed by a car, going on to bottle feed the baby black squirrel, similar to the one pictured here - Copyright AFP/File Eva HAMBACH

A squirrel named Peanut who was propelled to the heights of internet celebrity has been euthanized, New York authorities said Friday, biting a government staffer on the way out.

With 537,000 followers on Instagram, the domesticated black squirrel had fans around the world who delighted in his exploits, such as nibbling on waffles and doffing tiny costumes.

New Yorker Mark Longo said he rescued the animal after seeing its mother killed by a car, going on to bottle feed the baby squirrel before attempting to release him into the wild.

However, the animal lost part of its tail and returned to Longo, living with him for seven years and starring in posts on the Instagram account peanut_the_squirrel12.

“Internet, you WON. You took one of the most amazing animals away from me because of your selfishness. To the group of people who called (the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation), there’s a special place in hell for you,” Longo wrote in an Instagram post.

He said he was “in shock, disbelief, and disgusted… for the last seven years, Peanut has been my best friend.”

The Chemung County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement Friday that Peanut, along with a racoon living with Longo, were possessed illegally, and had been euthanized to test for rabies.

“On October 30, DEC seized a raccoon and squirrel sharing a residence with humans, creating the potential for human exposure to rabies,” the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said.

“In addition, a person involved with the investigation was bitten by the squirrel. To test for rabies, both animals were euthanized.”

The department called on anyone exposed to the animals to consult a doctor.

Longo wrote that “the fight goes on” and called on supporters to donate to his legal bills and plans for an animal sanctuary.

TRICK OR TREAT

OpenAI releases ChatGPT search engine, taking on Google

By AFP
October 31, 2024

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that search is his favorite feature since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 - Copyright AFP Jason Redmond

OpenAI on Thursday beefed up its ChatGPT generative AI chatbot with search engine capabilities, as the startup takes on Google’s decades-long dominance of web search.

The upgrade enables users to receive “fast, timely answers” with links to relevant web sources –- information that previously required using a traditional search engine, the company said.

The significant upgrade to ChatGPT enables the AI chatbot to provide real-time information from across the web.

ChatGPT’s homepage can now also offer direct tabs to sourced material on topics ranging from weather forecasts and stock prices to sports scores and breaking news, the company said.

These would link to news and data from providers that have signed content deals with OpenAI, including France’s Le Monde, Germany’s Axel Springer and the UK’s Financial Times.

Examples of the new interface shown on the OpenAI website closely resembled search results on Google and Google Maps, though without the clutter of advertising.

They also resembled the interface of Perplexity, another AI-powered search engine that offers a more conversational version of Google with sources referenced in the answer.

Both OpenAI and Perplexity are facing lawsuits from the New York Times for scraping or linking to copyrighted content without permission.

Rather than launching a separate product, OpenAI has integrated search directly into ChatGPT for paying subscribers, though this will be expanded to users that use the free version of the chatbot.

Users can enable the search feature by default or activate it manually via a web search icon.

The company added that any website or publisher can opt-in to appear in ChatGPT’s search results, with OpenAI actively seeking feedback from content creators to refine the system further.
Favorite feature

Since their launch, data on AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude have been limited by time cutoffs, so the answers provided were not up to date.

This has been seen as a weakness of AI chatbots, especially at OpenAI, which does not have a stand-alone search engine providing more timely data. In contrast, Google and Microsoft both combine AI answers with web results.

For now, the feature would not include advertising, allowing ChatGPT to offer much cleaner results than Google.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote Thursday on X that search is his “favorite feature we have launched” on ChatGPT since the bot’s debut in 2022.

“I find it to be a way faster/easier way to get the information I’m looking for,” Altman added on Reddit.

The launch will raise more questions about the startup’s link to Microsoft, a major OpenAI investor, which is also trying to expand the reach of its Bing search engine against Google.

Altman has set his company on a path to become an internet powerhouse.

He successfully catapulted the company to a staggering $157 billion valuation in a recent round of fundraising that included Microsoft, Tokyo-based conglomerate SoftBank and AI chipmaker Nvidia as investors.

Enticing new users with search engine capabilities will increase the company’s computing needs and costs, which are enormous.

Climate shifts and urbanisation drive Nepal dengue surge


By AFP
November 1, 2024

A patient undergoes treatment for dengue in Nepal, where more than 28,000 have been infected by the mosquito-borne illness so far this year - Copyright AFP PRAKASH MATHEMA
Paavan MATHEMA

Nepal is fighting a surge in dengue cases, a potentially deadly disease once unheard of in the country’s high-altitude Himalayan regions, as climate change and urbanisation nurture fever-bringing mosquitoes in new zones.

Only a single case of dengue was recorded in Nepal in 2004. Two decades later, thousands of cases are being reported across the country.

Once confined to tropical regions in the country’s plains, dengue-carrying mosquitoes have begun breeding in the valleys and even cool mountainous areas, reaching elevations where its bite was once unknown.

Twelve people have died and more than 28,000 people have been infected this year, including 18 cases in Solukhumbu district, home to Mount Everest.

Doctors say the real number might be higher, as not everyone is tested.

“It should not be seen here at all,” Suman Tiwari, district health chief for Solukhumbu, which sits at an altitude of some 2,500 metres (8,202 feet).

“What is surprising is that some people with no travel history have also tested positive for dengue”.

In the worst cases, dengue causes intense viral fevers that trigger bleeding, internally or from the mouth and nose.

The capital Kathmandu, at an elevation of approximately 1,400 metres (4,600 feet), has seen over 4,000 cases.

“Unfortunately, it is expanding itself geographically,” said Sher Bahadur Pun, a doctor at Kathmandu’s Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital.

“Once upon a time, it was just seen in a certain area, but it is moving up towards mountainous regions, even up to the Himalayan foothills.”



– ‘Grown exponentially’ –



In some districts, hospitals have been overwhelmed with dengue patients suffering from crippling fevers, body aches and rashes.

“In the last decade, it has grown exponentially,” Pun said.

“After every outbreak, the number of infected people has increased… and my experience is that after every outbreak, it has become more deadly.”

In October, the UN health agency said the number of reported dengue cases worldwide has approximately doubled each year since 2021, with over 12.3 million cases, including more than 7,900 deaths, reported in just the first eight months of 2024.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the global spread an “alarming trend”.

Experts say changes in temperature and rainfall patterns driven by climate change and urbanisation are creating favourable conditions for Aedes aegypti, the mosquito responsible for transmitting dengue.

That means it can survive and breed at higher elevations.

Narayan Gyawali, a virologist who specialises in zoonotic diseases, said that urbanisation and increased mobility of people were also driving the dengue surge.

“When microclimates are established with urbanisation in new areas, internal temperatures become warm and there is humidity,” Gyawali said.

“A favourable environment is created for breeding and survival.”



– ‘Injustice’ –



This is the third consecutive year that Nepal has seen a dengue outbreak — an apparent shift from cyclical patterns where outbreaks are expected every two to three years.

The country’s worst outbreak was in 2022, with 88 deaths and nearly 55,000 cases, according to government figures.

Last year, 20 people died, with more than 50,000 cases.

“Dengue used to be reported in a cyclical trend, but in the last few years, it has been seen every year,” said Gokarna Dahal of the Health Ministry’s Epidemiology and Disease Control Division.

“Our preparation now is to fight with it every year”.

Dahal said it was an “injustice” that a developing country like Nepal — which makes a minimal contribution towards the burning of fossil fuels driving the planet’s warming — should shoulder greater impacts of climate change.

Meenakshi Ganguly, from Human Rights Watch, said that while the primary responsibility to protect its public’s health lies with Nepal, countries most responsible for global emissions also have an obligation.

“Those countries which are primarily responsible for global emissions need to do a lot more to protect people in countries like Nepal from the consequences of global warming,” Ganguly said.

“Combatting mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, which are spreading fast to new areas, needs to be part of that.”

‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank

By AFP
November 1, 2024

Palestinian-American entrepreneur Jamal Zaglul, in front of his olive press in Turmus Aya, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, speaks fondly of former US president Bill Clinton - Copyright AFP Zain JAAFAR

Chloe Rouveyrolles-Bazire and Hossam Ezzedine

As Palestinian-American entrepreneur Jamal Zaglul stood by his olive press at the end of harvest season in the occupied West Bank, his mind was far away on next week’s US election.

Like other US passport holders living in Turmus Aya — where they form the majority — he was sceptical the ballot would bring change to the region.

“Here we have problems. Nobody (in the US) cares about us,” said the businessman in his 50s.

Violence in the West Bank — occupied by Israel since 1967 — has surged since the Gaza war erupted after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Zaglul spoke fondly of former US president Bill Clinton, under whose administration the landmark Oslo Accords were signed, creating arrangements between the Palestinians and Israel.

“This time we need to start changing. We have to have another party, a separate party, independents,” Zaglul said. “The other ones, they’re not helping us.”

Fellow dual national Basim Sabri planned to vote for a third party candidate in protest after “eight years of miserable administration”.

The Minnesota-based native of the northern West Bank did not mince words about the current White House occupant, calling Joe Biden a “war criminal”.

He was equally critical of Biden’s predecessor and current Republican contender Donald Trump, calling him a “maniac, racist”.

Sabri said he would vote for Jill Stein, the perennial Green Party candidate who is on the ballot in nearly every battleground state this presidential cycle.

Stein ran in 2012 and 2016, securing just 0.4 percent and one percent of the vote, respectively.



– ‘Overlooked’ –



Deeply shocked by the Gaza war, Sabri hopes the United States will push more for peace.

“It’s the only country in the world that’s vetoing the decision of the majority of the world to stop the war and condemn Israel,” he said.

Hamas’s attack on Israel last year resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s response has led to the deaths of 43,259 Palestinians in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, deemed reliable by the United Nations.

California resident Odeh Juma, who returns to Turmus Aya several times a year, pointed bitterly to US military support for Israel.

“As Palestinians, we feel our concerns — like ending wars globally, in Palestine or Ukraine — are overlooked in favour of the politicians’ own electoral interests,” he said.

Juma planned to watch election night coverage but would not cast a ballot.

“If we don’t vote now, it will highlight the importance of the Arab, Palestinian and Muslim voices for future elections,” he said.

There are about 172,000 Palestinian-Americans in the United States, according to a 2022 census survey, with many from swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Thousands of Palestinian Americans live in the West Bank, a community shaken by the killings of an American and two dual citizens this year.



– Fear –



Juma’s son Adam said “people tend to be scared to vote for anybody, and especially for Trump”.

He recalled that during Trump’s first presidential run, some hoped he would be “different”, but he dealt numerous blows to Palestinians once elected.

Trump’s administration notably broke with US precedent by declaring it did not see Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.

These settlements are considered illegal under international law.

Adam Juma has been following the election but will not vote, believing the United States no longer influences global conflict resolution.

“It won’t change anything if we vote for anybody… It’s not like how it used to be,” he said.

Ramallah resident Leila said she voted for Stein.

“The ongoing genocide is at the top of my mind and Harris has done absolutely nothing to win my vote in that regard,” she said.

Sanaa Shalabi, a Palestinian American, said she also planned to sit out the election.

“Here, no one cares about us… There is an American embassy here, but it does nothing,” she told AFP.

“They do not stand with us. In fact, Israel is the one that controls America.”



US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term


By AFP
November 1, 2024

Israeli-American Eliana Passentin, 50, says that unlike the Democrats, Trump understands Israel's right to defend itself - Copyright AFP Sharon ARONOWICZ
Ruth Eglash

Less than a week before the United States chooses its next president, American citizens living in faraway Israel know exactly who they hope it will be: Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Recent polls show that a majority of Israelis, 66 percent according to one conducted by Israel’s Channel 12 News, dream of the days when the former president inhabited the White House.

Trump prioritised Israel during his previous term, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognising Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights and helping to normalise ties between Israel and several Arab states under the so-called Abraham Accords.

Now, many Israelis believe Trump will offer yet more support as the country battles Iran-backed militant groups in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as Iran itself.

“I’m proud to tell you that I voted for President Trump,” Eliana Passentin, 50, who moved to Israel from San Francisco as a child, told AFP.

For Passentin, a mother and grandmother, the stakes are higher than for the average Israeli.

For the past 29 years she has lived in Eli, part of a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the heart of the West Bank.

The area has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but it could become Palestinian sovereign territory under a two-state solution favoured by the international community.

– ‘Our greatest ally’ –

Passentin is employed by the local regional council.

She recalls how successive administrations in Washington pressured Israel to stop expanding settlements in an attempt to mediate peace between Israelis and Palestinians and reach a two-state solution.

“United States of America, our greatest ally, we thank you, but please understand we know how to run our country,” Passentin said.

In her backyard, with sweeping views of the entire area, Passentin points to nearby Israeli and Palestinian towns.

“I don’t think that Israelis living here are an obstacle to peace. On the contrary, I think that the Israelis living here are building the region for everyone,” she said.

She said the region was a hub for Jews in Biblical times, and claims that under international agreements Israelis have a right to live here.

International law says otherwise, however, and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal by the international community.

Among Israelis who vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling right-wing coalition, 93 percent support Trump’s candidacy, according to the Channel 12 poll.

“Things have changed since October 7,” Passentin said, referring to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on that day in 2023 which sparked the war in Gaza.

“Now it’s a whole different story — it’s not about Judea and Samaria, it’s about Israel,” she said, using the Biblical terms for the southern and northern West Bank.

“We have a right to defend ourselves… and I think President Trump respects and understands that.”

Gedaliah Blum, 45, a neighbour who was born in New Jersey, also said he voted for Trump based on the question of “what kind of future we want to have here in Israel”.

“Do we want a future that has an embargo threatened on Israel every time we defend ourselves?” he asked.

– Embargo threats –

“Trump is not going to pressure Israel to sign a ceasefire that will let Hamas remain in power in Gaza. They’re not going to push Israel to sign a peace agreement with Lebanon that will allow Hezbollah to remain in power.”

With Kamala Harris in the Oval Office, Israel will be under constant “pressure”, Blum said.

“We’re going to get pressure, we’re going to get embargoes, we’re going to get Iranian money in their pockets. It’s not in the best interest of Israel.”

In the nearby settlement of Shiloh, where an estimated 20 percent of residents hold US citizenship, New York-born Yisrael Medad, 77, said he believed Trump would be good not only for America but also for “America’s friends abroad, including Israel”.

“I think the policies that a Republican candidate such as Trump are promoting are most beneficial for the administration, Congress and the American people,” he said.

On Israel, Medad said he believed that Trump would treat Israel more “fairly in terms of not denying its rights to defend itself… not only in a physical sense but also on the ideological front”.

Referring to a recent incident at a Democratic campaign rally in which Harris did not push back against a demonstrator who said Israel was committing a “genocide” in Gaza, Medad said: “That’s not the type of candidate I want in the White House.”

Israeli analyst says Netanyahu 'putting his bets' on Trump victory

Jake Johnson,

 Common Dreams
November 1, 2024 

Benjamin Netanyahu (RONEN ZVULUN/AFP)

An Israeli political analyst said Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "praying and putting his bets on the victory" of former U.S. President Donald Trump as Israel's military continues to bombard the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, dashing any lingering hopes of an imminent cease-fire agreement and deepening the region's war and humanitarian catastrophe.

Akiva Eldar, who previously headed the U.S. Bureau for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, toldAl Jazeera that Netanyahu believes if Trump—who has signaled he would give Israel's government free rein in the Middle East—defeats Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on November 5, the Israeli prime minister "will be able to manipulate the president."

"There is another deadline for Netanyahu," Eldar added, pointing to "the first week of December when he will have to start testifying in his corruption trial, and he will do anything to avoid it. The best excuse or pretext that he has... [is that] he is busy with multi-frontier wars and he shouldn't waste his time in court, because we're talking about looking at four days a week for at least six weeks that he will have to spend in court."

Eldar's assessment came as Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Friday that the Israeli military's "expansion of the scope of its aggression" in Lebanon makes clear that Netanyahu is opposed to "all efforts being made to secure a cease-fire."

"Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel's stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction," Mikati said in a statement.

Israeli bombings on Friday, including attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs, killed more than a dozen people. Reuters reported that "the strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 separate neighborhoods."


"The attacks began before the final series of orders were published," Reuters added. "The hostilities have whittled away any hope a truce could be reached before the November 5 U.S. presidential election."

"There's no need for an elaborate 'October surprise' theory. Mr. Netanyahu's own cabinet members are accusing him of acting for political rather than military ends."

The Times of Israel's Ron Kampeas noted Friday that "Netanyahu had a famously close relationship with Trump and his administration, which fulfilled a checklist of Israeli government wishes" during its four years in power.


"In 2019, Netanyahu featured Trump prominently in his own reelection campaign," Kampeas wrote. "The prime minister likewise has had a series of high-profile clashes with Democratic presidents, from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama and, recently, [Joe] Biden."

While Trump has publicly tried to appeal to Muslim and Arab American voters by posturing as a "peace" candidate, Trump has privately given Netanyahu a green light to continue attacking Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

"Do what you have to do," Trump reportedly told Netanyahu during a phone call last month.


The Washington Post recently observed that "Netanyahu, for his part, has spent years cultivating Republicans and has shown a clear preference for Trump in this election."

"People familiar with the situation said he is trying to regain Trump's favor after antagonizing him by congratulating Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election, a victory Trump has never accepted," the Post added.

Palestinian rights advocates have warned that Trump could be willing to allow Netanyahu and other far-right extremists in Israel's government to pursue annexation plans for the illegally occupied West Bank and Gaza. New York magazine's Elizabeth Weil reported earlier this year that Miriam Adelson, an Israeli American billionaire who has spent tens of millions of dollars backing Trump's White House bid, views annexation of the West Bank as a top priority.


"Beyond unconditional support for the Israel-Hamas war, one can assume she'll press for the unfinished items of Trump's Israel agenda from last term," Weil wrote. "Top of that list: Israel annexing the West Bank and the U.S. recognizing its sovereignty there."

Speaking to reporters last month, Biden himself acknowledged speculation that Netanyahu was sabotaging cease-fire talks at every turn in order to influence the outcome of the 2024 election, nodding to concerns that outrage over U.S. complicity in Israel's assault on Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon could cost Harris critical support.

"No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None. None. And I think Bibi should remember that," Biden declared in early October. "And whether he's trying to influence the election, I don't know, but I'm not counting on that."

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was explicit about his concerns, tellingCNN last month that he's worried Netanyahu "is watching the American election as he makes decisions about his military campaigns in the north and in Gaza."

"I hope this is not true but it is certainly a possibility that the Israeli government is not going to sign any diplomatic agreement prior to the American election as a means, potentially, to try to influence the result," said Murphy.

In a column on Friday, The Globe and Mail's Doug Saunders wrote that Netanyahu's "refusal to follow any informed advice from the United States to stop bombing civilian areas now that top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been killed, or to step back from violent escalations that could trigger a regional conflagration, have led a growing number of observers to call this what it really is: deliberate interference in the U.S. election."

"There's no need for an elaborate 'October surprise' theory. Mr. Netanyahu's own cabinet members are accusing him of acting for political rather than military ends," Saunders wrote, pointing to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's criticism of Netanyahu's approach.

"Mr. Gallant, despite being nominally involved in the organization of the war, has repeatedly questioned why Mr. Netanyahu is continuing to prosecute it in such a needlessly brutal fashion, without an end game or any willingness to seek a settlement, a surrender or a return of the hostages," Saunders continued. "This strategy-free tactic, he warned in June, will force Israel into a lengthy de facto occupation of Gaza costing the country 'blood and many victims, with no aim.'"

"It now appears that there is an aim," added Saunders. "It's a goal that might rescue Mr. Netanyahu’s political hide, and surround him with an international alliance of similar-minded elected autocrats. The price of that aim, in innocent human lives, is unspeakable."