Saturday, April 19, 2025
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Polaris of Enlightenment

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

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https://nordictimes.com/world/mysterious-drones-spur-calls-for-stricter-uav-laws-in-the-us/

World

“Mysterious” drones spur calls for stricter UAV laws in the US

Published 17 December 2024
– By Editorial Staff
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sees drones as a threat that must be closely monitored.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

US authorities must be given more power and authority to manage unmanned aerial vehicles and introduce the use of high-tech detection technology after a large number of “mysterious” drones were spotted over the country’s east coast.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer and Governor Kathy Hochul are among those calling for this.

Sightings of unidentified aircraft have been reported in New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, among other places, according to numerous media reports. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed frustration on Sunday that nothing is really known about the drones, even though there seem to be so many of them.

– If the technology exists for a drone to make it up into the sky, there certainly is technology that can track the craft with precision and determine what the heck is going on.

Expanded powers

Schumer has asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use a specific high-tech tracking system manufactured by Robin Radar Systems, which is claimed to be able to provide better “answers” on what the craft is.

He also urged lawmakers to support a bill filed earlier this year in the Senate that would authorize all state and local governments to use a specific drone control technology that is currently only allowed at the federal level.

Similarly, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has called for increased federal resources to deal with high-profile drones, advocating for a new separate law that would expand the federal government’s powers to “respond” to unmanned aircraft systems.

The bill, under consideration by the US House of Representatives, “will give New York and our peers the authority and resources required to respond to circumstances like we face today”, it claims.

Private drones – a big problem?

Senior officials from the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have also expressed their support for the same bill. FBI Assistant Director Robert W. Wheeler Jr. says he wants to make it easier for authorities to combat unidentified aerial vehicles at the local, regional and national levels as quickly as possible.

However, there is no evidence that the drones are dangerous or pose any threat to anyone, and they appear to be American-made.

Nevertheless, the daily use of drones by thousands of US citizens and businesses is a major concern, according to the US authorities, and even the DHS chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, wants to see increased powers and restrictions to monitor and “stop” them.

Critics argue that the purpose from the very beginning, when the “mysterious drones” were first highlighted in an alarmist manner, was to fabricate a false threat against the US. This, in turn, would be used to justify new laws restricting public access to drones and similar unmanned aerial vehicles.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/world/us-shuts-down-bidens-censorship-agency/

World

US shuts down Biden’s censorship agency

Donald Trump's USA

Published yesterday 9:57
– By Editorial Staff
Members of the Trump administration have long expressed concerns about how freedom of expression is being restricted and curtailed in various ways.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The United States has now officially shut down an agency that, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was used by the Biden administration to systematically censor US citizens with uncomfortable views.

The Global Engagement Center (GEC) was established in 2016 within the US Department of State, with a mission to “recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation”.

In December, the center was renamed Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), but on Wednesday, Marco Rubio announced that it had been permanently shut down.

– Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving, Rubio said.

– This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America.

In an interview published Wednesday with conservative activist Mike Benz, Rubio explained that the GEC was initially intended as a tool to combat extremist propaganda from groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, but that the operation later began “going after individual American voices”.

– We ended government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department, he declared.

“Worst offender in US government censorship”

Rubio added that the Biden administration had supported groups that “literally tagging and labeling voices in American politics – Ben Shapiro, The Federalist, others – tagging them as foreign agents”.

The GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and employed about 120 people. In December, Republican members of Congress refused to provide continued funding for the unit.

President Donald Trump and his supporters have long accused Democrats of using government institutions to silence conservative views online. In 2023, tech billionaire Elon Musk also criticized the GEC, calling it “worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation” and “a threat to our democracy”.

Journalist Matt Taibbi also accused the center of trying to suppress discussions on COVID-19 under the pretext of fighting “Russian personas and proxies”.

Already last year, a group of Republican members of Congress harshly criticized the GEC in a letter to then Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The letter accused the Center of bias in favor of “American progressives” and of trying to silence opinions that were “deemed politically inconvenient or disagreeable”.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/world/reports-the-white-house-demands-uk-abolish-hate-speech-laws/

World

Reports: The White House demands UK abolish hate speech laws

Published 17 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Donald Trump's administration is reportedly very concerned about the repression of dissent in the UK.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

According to reports in The Independent, Donald Trump’s administration is demanding that the United Kingdom abolish the law on incitement to racial hatred as a condition for the conclusion of a new trade agreement between the two countries.

The demand, which is linked to Vice President JD Vance’s view of freedom of expression as fundamental to democracy, has reportedly met with resistance from the UK government.

An anonymous source close to the US administration told The Independent that Trump is “obsessed by the fall of Western civilisation” and that the president is deeply concerned that free speech is being undermined in the UK.

The source claims that the White House wants the Labour government to withdraw hate speech laws, including those targeting LGBTQ groups or various ethnic minorities, in order for a deal to be reached.

– No free speech, no deal. It is as simple as that, the source told the newspaper.

Britons arrested for social media posts

Vance, who is leading the negotiations from the US side, has previously expressed optimism about a new agreement:

– I think there’s a good chance that, yes, we’ll come to a great agreement that’s in the best interest of both countries, he said in an interview with UnHerd.

The UK authorities’ crackdown on ‘opinion criminals’ has long been seen as a major problem by people close to Trump.

The president’s adviser, Elon Musk, has been one of the most vocal critics and has repeatedly highlighted the fact that British authorities arrest people for posts they make on social media.

During Keir Starmer’s first visit to the White House, Vance also warned that freedom of expression was under attack, pointing to how US tech companies are being forced into unacceptable censorship by new European laws introduced under the pretext of protecting citizens from “cyber hate”.

An elite afraid of its own people

The Nordic Times has previously reported how Vance during the security conference in Munich also attacked the European establishment politicians.

– I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be, quote, “hateful content”

Mr. Vance also touched on Sweden’s verdict against the murdered Iraqi Quran burner Salwan Momika’s colleague who was convicted of participating in the actions.

– As the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant, and I’m quoting, ‘a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief’.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/world/uk-supreme-court-womanhood-is-something-one-is-born-into/

World

UK Supreme Court: Womanhood is something one is born into

The LGBT lobby

Published 17 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Many British women consider the court's decision a great victory.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the term “woman” in the country’s equality legislation refers to biological sex and nothing else.

The ruling rejects the Scottish Government’s interpretation, which included trans women in the definition and quotas for biological men who have “changed sex” as women in the workplace.

A panel of five judges, led by Justice Patrick Hodge, ruled that the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

The ruling means, among other things, that transgender people should not be counted as women for the purposes of the Equality Act’s quotas – although the court was careful to emphasize that they should continue to be protected from discrimination on the basis of their gender identity.

The case stems from a 2018 Scottish law requiring public authorities in Scotland to have at least 50% women on their boards. According to the Scottish Government’s interpretation, trans women were included in this quota. However, the women’s rights group For Women Scotland (FWS) disputed this, arguing that the definition of woman cannot be extended beyond biological sex.

“Refers to reality –  not to paperwork”

An early court ruling in 2022 was appealed to the Supreme Court, which has now agreed with FWS.

Maya Forstater of the group Sex Matters considers the ruling a “great victory”:

– The court has given us the right answer: the protected characteristic of sex – male and female – refers to reality, not to paperwork, she says.

FWS director Trina Budge previously warned that a broader interpretation of gender risks filling quotas with “50% men, and 50% men with certificates”, which would undermine the purpose of the law.

Supported by J.K. Rowling

The group also highlighted that transgender access to women’s toilets, women’s prisons and women’s wards in hospitals can have very negative consequences and create insecurity.

FWS lawyer Aidan O’Neill argued during the trial that gender must be understood in law as a “expression of one’s bodily reality. It is an immutable biological state”.

For Women Scotland has received support from well-known author J.K. Rowling, who has reportedly donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the group. Rowling has long argued in the past that it is unreasonable for trans women’s rights to be at the expense of biological women.

However, not everyone is applauding the ruling – on the contrary, the human rights organization Amnesty International is highly critical and claims that transgender people now risk having their human rights violated.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/world/us-tightens-visa-controls-social-media-to-be-scrutinized/

World

US tightens visa controls – social media to be scrutinized

Published 16 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Anyone who has expressed support for any of Israel's enemies is expected to be denied entry to the United States.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The U.S. will begin denying visas based on the content of applicants’ social media – including posts, shares, and messages that express support for what are considered anti-Semitic messages, for example.

The country’s immigration agency, USCIS, will begin reviewing social media for all immigrants applying for lawful permanent residence, work authorization, visas, as well as foreign students and people affiliated with educational institutions.

What will be looked for are, for example, posts or messages supporting groups labeled terrorist in the United States, such as Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthi movement in Yemen. Anti-Semitic messages are also included and will constitute “negative factors” when deciding on a visa or residence permit.

– There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here, said Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at DHS, in a press release.

The proposal has raised concerns among immigration and free speech advocates because it could also affect people already in the country legally – not just those applying for entry. Critics also point out that it is unclear how “anti-Semitism”, for example, should be defined, and there is concern that virtually all criticism of Israel will be rejected.

According to AP News, social media monitoring by immigration authorities has been going on for over a decade, starting under the Obama administration and expanding during Donald Trump’s first term.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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