Led by Biden, the Dems’ new ‘Squad’ wants Israel gone

 Minnesota’s Democrat Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith recently joined 17 other senators in their party’s leftward lurch by urging the Biden administration “to take decisive action to bring about a two-state solution once and for all” and calling for “U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state” after the conclusion of the war in Gaza. 

In doing so, they are ignoring reality, refusing to apply the lessons learned from past peace attempts, tossing our ally, Israel, under the bus, and incentivizing terrorists around the globe by providing strategic rewards for the tactical atrocities they carry out to further their malign ambitions.

By engaging in these dangerous fantasies, these senators have revealed themselves to be little more than a mirror of the Progressive Squad in the House led by Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5). 

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Sen. Tina Smith was one of 17 senators who have recently championed the establishment of a Palestinian state, despite no clear realistic path for securing that state’s borders.REUTERS

President Joe Biden bears much of the responsibility for exacerbating this fissure.

Sure, the Squad has long derided Israel, has little use for America’s traditional alliances, and often dabbles in antisemitic tropes and identity politics, but the party’s old guard always told us that they were merely outliers in the Democrat Party. The proverbial center would hold.

But in the wake of the horrific October 7 massacres and kidnappings in Israel, it wasn’t Ilhan Omar and company who beat a path to the center of the political spectrum.

It was President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Minnesota’s Senator Amy Klobuchar—the Democrats’ so-called moderates—who raced to the left to hoist the flags of the Squad.

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Despite the destruction brought about by Hamas’ actions, more than 70% of Palestinians support the Oct. 7th massacre.AFP via Getty Images

This trajectory, where the once fringe views of the left are becoming increasingly mainstream in the Democrat Party, is unmistakable.

Their new initiation rite appears to be wire-brushing Israel in public as a nod to their ever-growing and restive base of anti-Israel and antisemitic voters.

In recent months it’s become clear that President Biden no longer supports Israel’s goals of removing the Hamas terrorist group from power and securing the return of all hostages in Gaza.

Instead, he now favors a unilateral ceasefire by Israel, which he hopes to further expand for the expressed purpose of creating a Palestinian state.

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Pres. Biden is caving into pressure from the extreme left of his party to abandon Israel in favor of the Palestinians.Saquan Stimpson – CNP / MEGA

To that end, Biden has only applied pressure on Israel, rather than on Hamas or their patrons in Qatar and Iran, which ensures Hamas’ rejection of any agreement, including the latest proposal this week.

He sealed the fate of the 129 hostages held in Gaza since October 7—including six Americans—when he ensured a one-sided UN Security Council resolution passed in March with a U.S. abstention that de-coupled a ceasefire in Gaza from the release of the hostages.

The predictable results are increasing demands by Hamas and the leftward sprint by Senate Democrats.

There’s a recognizable method to the White House madness.

The administration began cynically portraying a non-existent divide between the Israeli public and their democratically elected leaders as cover for its increasingly searing invective against Israel.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer then declared Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu “an obstacle” to peace and two-state solution and called for an early election.

Schumer justified his push for a wartime regime-change in the Jewish State by opening his speech with a nod toward himself for being the first Jewish Majority Leader of the United States Senate.

Never mind that Schumer and Team Biden have made no similar calls regarding the regime in Iran, which paints “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” on their missiles.

Not even last week’s unprecedented launch of over 300 ballistic and cruise missiles and attack drones against Israel from Iranian territory could shake this sentiment loose from either Biden or the Senate Majority Leader.

Within a week, 19 Democrat senators—almost half of the Democrats in the Senate—called for fast-tracking the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Not to be outdone, 39 House Democrats including the so-called moderate former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urged the Biden administration to reconsider the transfer of arms to Israel.

Throughout it all, the White House continues to gaslight the American people, saying the obvious change in U.S. policy was, in fact, no change at all.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing pressure from his own citizens to resign.REUTERS

A strategy based on a faulty premise is bound to fail. President Biden’s new Gaza policy relies on a Palestinian society that only exists in Western Democrats’ fantasies. 

Despite President Biden’s claim that “the overwhelming majority of Palestinians are not Hamas.

And Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people,” or Secretary of State Blinken’s belief that the majority of people in Gaza “are just like our families,” such statements are untethered from reality.

One need not look further than the recent poll published by the well-respected Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) earlier this month.

According to the March survey, 71% of Palestinians back the October 7 massacres. 

They also chose “armed struggle,” not negotiations or non-violent resistance, as the most popular strategy to end Israeli occupation among 46% of Palestinians.

So much for the majority of Palestinians being just like us. 

The same poll makes clear that Hamas has double the support of Fatah (34% to 17%), which is the main party of the Palestinian Authority.

Fifty-nine percent say Hamas should control Gaza after the war is over.

Fatah is the corrupt group that ostensibly controls the West Bank but in reality, can barely extend their control beyond the city of Ramallah.

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Sen. Chuck Schumer took the unprecedented step of calling for Israel to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.AP

Now they are the Democrats’ great white hope.

Put simply, the new lunacy they are peddlingas policy is a recipe for repeating disasters.

Telegraphing to the world that America doesn’t have Israel’s back tempted Iran to launch from its own territory the largest barrage of drones, and cruise and ballistic missiles in the history of warfare.

By urging Israel not to respond, Biden is guaranteeing it will happen again—a position no American ally could or should accept.

Likewise, in Gaza, the current Biden plan is preventing Israel from finishing the war by going into Rafah, the last terrorist stronghold in Gaza along the border with Egypt.

No one wants to see innocents killed but This delay only prolongs Palestinian suffering.

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More than six months after Hamas’ attack on Israel, hostages such as Noa Argamani remain trapped in Gaza.AP

We should support Israel’s mission to destroy Hamas and make sure they never pose another threat again. It’s what the American people would demand if we were likewise attacked. America must return to a policy where we stand with our allies and push back against our adversaries. 

Unfortunately, under Biden’s leadership and that of Senate Democrats, there has never been a worse time to be our ally or a better time to cash in on being our enemy.

Joe Fraser is a retired intelligence officer who spent 26 years serving our country in the United States Navy. He is the Republican candidate for the United States running to defeat Amy Klobuchar in November.    

Dalia al-Aqidi is the Executive Director of the American Center for Counter Extremism and the Republican candidate running against Ilhan Omar in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/20/opinion/led-by-biden-the-dems-new-squad-wants-israel-gone/

What's Next After the Ukraine Mistake?

 The House has passed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s $95 billion foreign aid package.

The House took several votes on the foreign aid package. As The American Conservative has explained, Johnson chose a procedural maneuver called a MIRV to consider the foreign aid package, which meant the House passed one rule to govern the process over each part of the four-part foreign aid package. As Johnson had to rely on Democratic support on the Rules Committee to advance the package to the House floor, Johnson once again found himself relying on Democratic support.

The House passed Ukraine aid 311 to 112, with 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans supporting the legislation. One hundred twelve Republicans voted against. As for Israel aid, 173 Democrats joined 193 Republicans in voting for the legislation. The final tally was 366 to 58. Indo-Pacific aid, mostly directed towards Taiwan, was the least contentious of the bills considered, and passed 385 to 34. The final part of the legislation, the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, passed 360 to 58.

While Democrats saved Johnson’s foreign aid package—not out of the goodness of their hearts but because it favored their priorities—it remains to be seen whether Democrats will save Johnson’s speakership. Yesterday, Rep. Paul Gosar came out in favor of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate. Between Green, Gosar, and Massie, Johnson’s critics could have the votes at a moment’s notice to invoke privilege and oust Johnson. Massie told the press that he does not expect the anti-Johnson operation to be taken today, but the clock is ticking as the House enters a week-long recess.

It’s a can’t-lose for Democrats.

Allowing Johnson to be ousted, once again throws the GOP into chaos, well beyond the House. Former President Donald Trump has claimed he supports Johnson and some within Trump’s orbit have reportedly said Mar-a-Lago is unhappy with the divisiveness in the House. Ousting Johnson throws Trump into conflict with some of his biggest supporters in the House. The GOP controlled House will once again seem incapable of governing, this time even closer to an election. The risk, however, is that there are enough Republicans in the conference angry enough at Johnson’s handling of appropriations, FISA, and foreign aid that they’ll replace Johnson with a more conservative speaker with a reputation for being a fighter—someone like Rep. Jim Jordan. Nevertheless, it feels unlikely; if Johnson is ousted, someone cut from the same cloth will probably replace him.

But Democrats could also save Johnson by voting against the motion to vacate at large enough margins to overcome Johnson’s conservative objectors. This also makes sense. Johnson has given Democrats almost everything they’ve asked for and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t have a chance at becoming speaker, so why rock the boat? The question becomes: Has Johnson run out of things to give Democrats to incentivize keeping him in the House’s top spot? If so, then the last thing Johnson can give Democrats in his brief tenure is to create another crisis in Republican ranks on the way out.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/has-ukraine-aid-cost-speaker-johnson-his-job/

'Telltale signs of AI-generated images, video and audio'

 The internet is increasingly subjecting users to AI-generated images and text in advertisements, videos and social-media posts, whether many of us are aware of it or not.

But we really should be aware of it, in a perfect world.

Due to advancements in generative artificial intelligence (or generative AI, as it’s commonly called), it can become increasingly difficult to tell the difference between genuine and synthetic media. In many cases, these types of images and video are created and shared with no ill intent — but that’s not the case among the creators looking to mislead or misinform the public, or misuse AI for purposes of fraud or blackmail.

“All the media we have today, the majority, are in the digital format, and we rely on digital media to gain knowledge, information, on what is happening in the world,” Dr. Siwei Lyu, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the co-director of the school’s Center for Information Integrity, told Nexstar.

“If someone has the ability to manipulate or fabricate this media, and users cannot tell the difference … [it can] influence their decision-making, and by doing so, affect our lives and society and democracy,” Lyu said. “That’s a critical concern and threat to the well-being of everyone.”

Even with no malicious intent on behalf of the creator, the generative-AI industry is operating — and evolving — with little oversight.

“The rise of these big tech companies has created this interesting environment where anything, even faulty or if it has glitches, is put out there, because there is not a regulatory agency,” Amarda Shehu, the associate dean for AI Innovation at George Mason University’s College of Engineering and Computing, said. “The incentive to make money is so strong, the attitude is, ‘We’ll do it now and deal with what comes later.’”

This photograph taken on March 25, 2024, shows an AI-generated image of a model on the screen at The Clueless, an advertising agency in Barcelona. (Photo by Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images)

Shehu is also not yet concerned about AI itself spiraling out of control; right now, it’s more an issue among the bad actors at the controls.

“We don’t need to be afraid of AI doing stupid things,” Shehu said. “We have humans for that.”

That’s not to say all generative AI is bad. The technology is brimming with the potential for beneficial applications, especially in the engineering and medical fields, Shehu told Nexstar. But without widespread oversight protecting the public from bad actors using AI tools maliciously, it’s up to us consumers to vet what we’re seeing.

So, how can we tell what’s real?

Both Lyu and Shehu are well aware of the sophisticated tools to detect deepfakes and digital forgeries, some of which are powered by AI themselves. Lyu even likened one of the tools he’s helped develop to a pet, which he trains to recognize any signs of a fake.

The experts said, however, that deepfake image generators have yet to produce “perfect” results, meaning there are usually telltale signs of fakery visible — even to the average eye.

“You could find a very realistic AI image, everything looks real … and the person [in the picture] has hands with six fingers,” Lyu said. “Or, the hands are in a configuration that is very strange, and does not look like a pose someone would make with real hands.”

Lyu also identified a giveaway often present in the eyes of some human subjects in AI-generated images.  

“In the real world, when I’m looking [at something], the reflections in my two eyes will be the same, but this will not be the case with AI-generated images,” Lyu added. “The reflections may look very different, almost like they are looking at two different things.”

Shehu said a close look at any human subject’s skin may also hold the key, as some AI programs may generate mismatched skin tones or pore-free skin. These types of flaws (and others), she said, contribute to an image’s “weirdness factor,” of the degree to which it evokes an unsettling feeling.

A photo taken at the headquarters of The Clueless, an advertising agency in Barcelona, shows printouts of AI-generated models which are offered to promote various companies’ services or products. Experts say it’s still possible to detect AI-generated imagery, but the tools for outsmarting our eyes are getting better and better. (Photo by Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images)

The background of the image may have several giveaways too.

“Another thing that people have started to notice is lack of context,” Shehu said. “The background is not connected.”

In flawed images, she said, the computers might “mix and match” elements from several types of backgrounds, creating odd-looking text, inconsistent details, or an overall “lack of physics” not possible in the real world.

“No shadows, no reflections. If you see crowds of people in the background, some will be well defined, others will look like they are missing pixels,” she said.

“I call it ‘lack of coherence.’”

As for video, Lyu offers another trick for detecting deepfakes: Watch the lips.

“Notice the inconsistencies between the sound being pronounced and the movement and the shape of the mouth,” he said. “What sounds like a ‘b’ or ‘p’ or ‘m’ being pronounced, as it requires lips to be tightly closed. But deepfakes may not have that perfect synchronization of sound.”

Audio and text, Shehu said, are more difficult to pick apart, with less information available to the user. But Lyu said there’s one sound to listen for — or rather, the lack of a sound.

“One thing we notice is the lack of background sounds,” he said. “In real speech … there are pauses, and ‘uhs,’ and breathing along the way. In AI-generated voices, you do not hear all this separation. Voices sound super calm, you don’t hear the breathing sound at all.”

When it comes to text, Shehu said it may be possible for tools to detect AI-generated copy, but it’s not as reliable yet.

“I follow a lot of the AI detection tools, they have a very high false-positive rate,” she said, regarding AI and text. “They have a very hard time to detect that text is synthetic.”

At the same time, the generative AI tools are becoming better and producing more realistic media. Right now, some of these tools are being improved to specifically reduce or correct the flaws mentioned above.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” Shehu said. “Whenever someone comes in and says they have a good AI detector, the next [deepfake generator] is made to evade that. Very much like in cybersecurity.”

Lyu said one of his jobs now is to make it harder and more expensive for deepfakes to be produced. But he and Shehu warn that the government should be giving more attention to the subject, or support the education sector’s efforts to mitigate any harm that may come of the new technology.

“I was never told that what we were working on could potentially harm people,” Lyu said.

“The first thing that needs to be done is to educate the next generation of science and engineering students to be more mindful of the technology they’re working on. … Even starting with very lofty intentions could have unintended effects.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4608307-the-telltale-signs-of-ai-generated-images-video-and-audio-according-to-experts/

Fire breaks out on crude oil transportation line in Syria's Al-Furqlus, state media says

 A fire broke out on a crude oil transportation line east of Syria’s Al-Furqlus in the town of Homs and firefighters were working to put out the blaze, Syrian state media said on Sunday.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Fire-breaks-out-on-crude-oil-transportation-line-in-Syria-s-Al-Furqlus-state-media-says-46487079/

'Cisco Will Use AI to Keep AI Systems Safe From Attack'

 Cisco is embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to protect AI infrastructure from cyber attacks, addressing one of the major issues of our time when AI is increasingly being used for malicious purposes. The company has launched Cisco Hypershield, described as one of Cisco's most significant advances in cyber security in four decades. This innovation aims to rethink security on an unprecedented scale, enabling cyber threats to be countered in an automated way, in the face of the speed with which vulnerabilities are exploited by hackers, now reduced to days or even hours.

In partnership with NVIDIA, Cisco is exploiting technological advances in hardware acceleration and AI to develop advanced defences. Hypershield offers rapid protection for out-of-date infrastructures, crucial for the security of key sectors such as hospitals and financial institutions. Introduced for the first time in the UK, Hypershield has been welcomed as a major innovation by leading IT security executives, highlighting its uniqueness in the market.

Hypershield will be priced on a workload basis, with availability scheduled for August. Cisco aims to reach a broad market, targeting a large number of customers quickly. The company is also emphasising the importance of human supervision in defending critical infrastructures, allowing users to choose between automatic system updates with or without human validation.

Cisco is targeting all organisations, large and small, wishing to secure their data centres against cyber attacks, thus affirming its position as a leader in the provision of cybersecurity solutions on a global scale.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/CISCO-SYSTEMS-INC-4862/news/Cisco-Will-Use-AI-to-Keep-AI-Systems-Safe-From-Attack-46471810/

Contracts Between US Universities, China Total More Than $2 Billion: Investigation

 By Micaiah Bilger of The College Fix

Report comes amid concerns about CCP’s influence, human rights violations...

American universities have entered more than $2.3 billion in contracts with China in the past decade amid on-going concerns about the influence of its communist government on U.S. higher education, a new investigation found.

These contracts included agricultural research regarding orange crops, trainings for airline pilots, and medical trials for a tumor treatment drug developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The investigation uncovered approximately 2,900 contracts from 2012 and 2024 between Chinese businesses and about 200 U.S. public colleges and universities in all 50 states.

Some involved specialized training, such as $37 million in contracts between Chinese airlines and the University of North Dakota to train and license pilots.

Another $1.8 million in contracts with China’s Institute of Navel Orange at Gannan Normal University and the University of Florida involved researching tree genetics and diseases affecting citrus fruit, according to the investigation.

But others were less specific.

For example, “all three of China’s major government-owned oil companies have funded contracts for $100,000 or more at the University of Texas at Austin, which the school describes only as ‘research activity,’” the investigation found.

The report continued:

Some of the biggest-value China contracts feature franchise-type arrangements for overseas satellite campuses. New York University, which the Education Department database shows has been the largest single recipient of Chinese funding, reported two contracts totaling over $46.5 million for 2021 alone for its Shanghai branch.

The Juilliard School has disclosed over $133 million in such funding over more than a decade for its Tianjin Juilliard School near Beijing, appointed with some 120 Steinway pianos.

These partnerships have U.S. politicians, academics, and students concerned. The Chinese Communist Party has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, from free speech censorship to forced labor and torture to genocide of the Uyghurs, an ethnic minority population.

According to the report:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies warn that China’s state has encouraged theft of technological secrets at universities, spread pro-Beijing propaganda, stifled campus debate and harassed students.

Beijing dismisses such characterizations. Its officials say ethnic Chinese students and professors have been unfairly targeted in the U.S., including on American campuses, and urged the U.S. to be mindful of its reputation for academic freedom. The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to detailed questions about the university contracts.

American defense officials raised similar concerns about China and artificial intelligence technology in a 2021 report by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

“China’s domestic use of AI is a chilling precedent for anyone around the world who cherishes individual liberty,” the report stated.

Meanwhile, the Athenai Institute, a bipartisan student-led organization, is urging U.S. universities to divest from Chinese government-controlled entities, The College Fix reported this month.

Lawmakers also have been taking action. In 2023, for example, Florida enacted a law restricting public universities and colleges “from accepting grants from or participating in partnerships or agreements” with China and other foreign countries “of concern.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/contracts-between-us-universities-china-total-more-2-billion-investigation

'UN food program agrees to assist AID in Gaza aid distribution by sea'

The United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) will work with the U.S. on getting aid to Gaza by way of the sea, according to the Biden administration.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) confirmed to The Hill Saturday that it will work with the WFP to get humanitarian aid to Gaza by way of the sea. 

“This is a complex operation that requires coordination between many partners, and our conversations are ongoing. Throughout Gaza, the safety and security of humanitarian actors is critical to the delivery of assistance, and we continue to advocate for measures that will give humanitarians greater assurances,” a USAID spokesperson said in a statement.

U.S. and WFP officials are working on how they can deliver aid to Palestinian civilians “in an independent, neutral, and impartial manner,” they added.

President Biden announced the construction of a pier on Gaza’s coast to get aid into the territory during his State of the Union speech last month. He has faced increasing criticism for his handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, especially in the wake of a recent Israeli attack that killed seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen, which Biden said left him “outraged and heartbroken”.

“Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen,” Biden said the day after the attack. “Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians. The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties.”

A WFP spokesperson also confirmed the partnership in a statement to The Hill Saturday.

The U.N. “has agreed to work with the US and other partners on the maritime corridor as an additional route for relief to Gaza, on the condition that humanitarian principles can be ensured and that land access is also expanded,” the spokesperson wrote.

“Our objective remains to bring as much food to starving Gazans as possible, to avert looming famine,” they added.

WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said earlier this month that people in Gaza were on the edge of famine.

“We’re literally on the brink of going over the edge — over the cliff — with famine and not being able to recover from it,” McCain said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/4608168-un-food-program-agrees-assist-gaza-aid-distribution-sea-route/