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A dual U.S.-Greek national working for Meta Platforms Inc. was hacked by the Predator spyware for around one year in Greece, the New York Times (NYT) revealed on Monday.

At the time, Artemis Seaford was in Greece working as a trust and safety manager on Meta’s security policy team.

Why she was hacked is unclear, but it’s now certain that her phone was hacked by Predator. According to NYT, this could make her the first known case of an American spied on in Europe using such technology.

Predator spyware is made by a company called Cytrox, a firm headquartered in Skopje, North Macedonia. In 2021, it was one of several surveillance-for-hire companies that Meta banned on its platforms after it was discovered they were surveilling as many as 50,000 of Meta’s users....

Meta Executive Working in Greece Hacked by ‘Predator’ Spyware

I’ve been wondering about this too. From what I can tell, MSNBC is maintaining its anti-Trump stance but CNN is going to do a modified Crossfire strategy with a Trump liar on one side, a DeSantis toady on another and a reporter in the middle. Think about how that goes. Puck’s Tara Palmieri and Dylan Byers discussed the possibilities today: Tara: … Beyond Fox, how do you think the rest of the networks will cover Trump and other candidates on the campaign trail? I’m not seeing a lot of Trump, while Glenn Youngkin and Mike Pence both got “town hall” events at CNN. How do they rate? And will we see more of them?  Dylan: Well, we know what MSNBC’s posture will likely be: “a pox on all their houses.” The open question—and it will be fascinating to watch—is CNN. In its new iteration under Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN has positioned itself as a nonpartisan, news-first outlet catering to Republicans and Democrats alike.

Problems plaguing the NBN stem from years of Coalition incompetence and the repercussions are stalling its progress. read now...

In “A Simple Solution to the Banking Crisis That No Country Will Implement” (Patreon link; Substack link—both open access), I argued that The Fed could end the current crisis simply by buying all outstanding Treasury Bonds at face value. After that, in future The Fed should either let Treasury run an overdraft on its account … Continue reading "The Fractured Fairy Tales That Led To Today’s Banking Crisis"

This coming Saturday, March 25th—one week after a hysterical all-caps social media post in which...

Preparation time: 2 hours 5 minutesCooking time: 30-35 minutesTo serve: 4 You will need1 medium-sized cauliflower3 onions1 clove garlic½ teaspoon ginger powder½ pint (U.S. 1¼ cups) yoghurt1 teaspoon sugar1 teaspoon salt1½ oz. Cooking fat¼ pint (U.S. ⅝ cup) hot water1 teaspoon garam masala (see Card No. 2) Divide cauliflower into flowerets. Slice 1½ onions finely. […]

The series of fortunate astrophysical events that gave us Ceres.

The post The Dwarf Planet on Our Doorstep appeared first on Nautilus.

The Australian Greens have today called for the immediate banning of the traditional Election Day sausage sizzle, declaring that it is highly insensitive to vegetarians and that the phallic nature of the sausage is intimidating to female voters. “For too... Read More ›

Mao’s cultural revolution inspires Trump: Actually, it’s probably more like Pol Pot’s version. He sent all the urban professionals and intellectuals to the country to learn to be good communists. This is something he actually accomplished while in office. Recall that he moved the USDA researchers to Kansas City to be closer to the people. The last I heard a bunch of them quit and the department is now much smaller.

I am completely at a loss as to why the UK should seek to join in with the US in considering China an enemy, and in looking to build up military forces in the Pacific to oppose China. In what sense are Chinese interests opposed to British interests? I am not sure when I last […]

The post Why Would China Be An Enemy? appeared first on Craig Murray.

One year after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the International Criminal Court charged him with war crimes.

The post  For 20 Years, Team Bush Has Escaped Prosecution for Their War Crimes in Iraq appeared first on scheerpost.com.

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

Lol. They should know better than to ask him for a biblical reference by now. “I’m not sure I can hear you, if you’d like to say something, I’d like to hear that.” But don’t ask me for anything specific ok? I don’t have a clue about prayer and the Bible, ok? Lucky for him they don’t care. Remember this? There were a few stumbles during Donald Trump’s sojourn to Liberty University on Monday. He mispronounced a book of the Bible. He cursed — twice. And on Martin Luther King Day, the GOP presidential candidate said he was honoring the slain civil-rights leader by dedicating to him the record crowds he says he drew for the school’s opening convocation. (Students are required to attend.) “We’re going to protect Christianity. I can say that. I don’t have to be politically correct,” he thundered at the beginning of his speech at the conservative evangelical university. Then he moved on to cite “Two Corinthians 3:17, that’s the whole ballgame. … Is that the one you like?” Trump asked.

The banking crisis that hit Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last week has spread. We recall with a shudder two recent financial contagions: the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which led to a deep Asian recession, and the 2008 Great Recession, which led to a global downturn. The new banking crisis hits a world economy already disrupted Continue reading »

As the Government seeks to respond to an increasing number of questions about what it extolls as the game-changing decision to purchase nuclear powered submarines (SSN’s) it has been tweaking the spin about the reasons it has taken for this budget shaking decision. Our two AUKUS partners – the US (and even the British) – Continue reading »

Our Defence Minister said that Australia has not given any guarantees to the USA about what we would do with our submarines in the case of war but would take our own decisions at the time. This is welcome but what are the implications? Does it only apply to the submarines? As always, the devil Continue reading »

We just need to look at the facts to see how foolish the assertion is that SSNs have the capacity to prevent disruption to our trade in the event of a war. Forty percent of our exports are to, and 20% of our imports are from, China. Throwing money at submarines weakens the national economy. Continue reading »

An interesting comment was made this month about the New South Wales Coalition’s intention to raise Warragamba Dam in order to store floodwaters and thus mitigate the problem of flooding downstream. The comment as retailed by ABC Online came from the Liberal MP and candidate for the seat of Hawkesbury in the coming state election, Continue reading »

There is a simple, relatively costless government move that should give about half a million Australians confidence in homeland security. While not exactly the same sort of security, and not to be too flippant about the peril that the AUKUS deal puts us in, this move would cost 0.000000272 of the $368 billion subs’ contract Continue reading »

On Saturday, March 18, a small rally to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War gathered in a park outside the Lismore Memorial Baths. The Iraq War was an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation, Iraq, by a group of nations who called themselves the ‘coalition of the willing’: Australia, the UK and the Continue reading »

ATTENTION JOURNALISTS: It is never, ever acceptable, under any circumstances, to cite think tanks funded by governments and the military industrial complex as sources of information or expertise on matters of national security or foreign affairs. If you do cite them (and, again, don’t), then at the very least you need to disclose the conflict Continue reading »

“What you use your personal money for is your own personal business,” the Speaker of the House said.