[Reuters] A tanker ship collided with a luxury paddle wheeler docked in New Orleans on the Mississippi River on Friday, causing the cruise vessel to roll over and sink as passengers scurried to disembark and dozens were flung into the water.
All aboard the stricken ship were accounted for after harbor personnel, firefighters and onlookers scrambled to pull fallen passengers to safety, New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno told a press conference.
Hailing the outcome as "a miracle on the Mississippi," she said 32 passengers from American Cruise Lines paddle wheeler American Heritage were hospitalized, but "none with any type of critical injuries."
Moreno said roughly 180 to 190 passengers and crew members were aboard the American Heritage at the time of the mishap. The cruise ship has a capacity for 150 passengers and was built in 2015, American Cruise Lines said on its website.
The accident occurred about midday when the tanker ship, the Atlantic Asphalt, "lost control and collided" with the docked cruise vessel, Moreno said.
As passengers began fleeing, the cruise ship started to sink and eventually "toppled over and flipped," dumping people into the river, the mayor said.
[NYP] The LAPD needs more mental health professionals to help respond to 911 calls, Chief Jim McDonnell told the California Post in an exclusive interview — a tactic mayor-elect Nithya Raman has pledged to support as the two try to bury the hatchet and address the city’s mental-health crisis.
The chief met with Raman Thursday for a “get to know each other” session as they hunted for common ground on policing and public safety, finding a place for agreement on the point that too many cops are wasting their time trying to help out the city’s mentally ill.
McDonnell has said that roughly “one-third” of the LAPD’s 1.45 million calls per year are now for people suffering a mental health crisis, sucking precious police resources into the endless cycle of mental illness and homelessness plaguing the city.
“The mayor is in alignment with the way we’re doing business, as far as trying to be able to get increased civilianization and expertise to deal with issues such as people experiencing a mental health crisis,” McDonnell told The Post. The chief is trying to hang onto his job after Raman pledged to replace him on the campaign trail.
McDonnell said he’s completely behind the socialist mayor’s plan for “increased civilianization” of the department.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani will announce on Monday the rebranding of the NYPD’s controversial Strategic Response Group as he faces pressure from his lefty allies to ban the elite tactical unit.
Mamdani promised to get rid of the SRG during his mayoral campaign after activists for years complained about the way in which the 500-strong police unit handled protests.
Hizzoner is slated to say he’s “decoupled” the SRG’s duties of responding to demonstrations from its counterterrorism tasks, insiders briefed on the plans told The Post.
The hastily cooked-up ploy is meant to appease the far-left wing of his party — which has recently loudly advocated for Mamdani to make good on his campaign promise, sources said.
Mamdani will pitch the move as a “massive overhaul” of how the city deals with First Amendment-protected gatherings — but insiders claimed the announcement would have little-to-no effect on the ground.
Sources described it as more of a revamp in which the SRG will continue operating under a different name, and still respond to active shooters and other potential mass casualty or terrorism-related events.
[DM] Britain's biggest and most expensive warship has been held up on its latest mission – by fog.
The captain of HMS Prince of Wales, a state-of-the-art £3.5billion aircraft carrier, refused to sail the 65,000-ton giant into a narrow fjord in Norway because he said it was too risky.
The 920ft warship, which has been beset with problems since it was brought into service nine years ago, was on its way to a major security conference in the capital, Oslo, set to be attended by naval top brass this week.
The decision to avoid sailing in the heavy fog delayed the carrier's arrival by about 24 hours over the weekend, with the Norwegian armed forces' operational HQ in Bodø confirming: 'The captain thought there was too much fog.'
A defence source told the Daily Mail the setback was an example of 'good seamanship' and that there was no 'operational imperative' to risk the British flagship.
However, naval observers mocked the move, with one saying: 'We will go anywhere, except if it is a little misty.' Another added: 'Bloody Russians with their fog machines.'
The warship, built specifically to carry the new F-35B stealth jet, was taking time out of her deployment to the Arctic and High North to attend the security event.
She was escorted into the port city by HMS Dauntless, a £1billion missile defence destroyer, and Norwegian coastguards and police.
#1
The decision to avoid sailing in the heavy fog delayed the carrier's arrival by about 24 hours over the weekend, with the Norwegian armed forces' operational HQ in Bodø confirming: 'The captain thought there was too much fog.'
#4
@3 more likely the fog would prevent visual identification of shoals and other things soon enough to prevent avoiding them. There may even been sunken ships from WWII in some of those fjords.
Text taken from the Telegram channel of china3army
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.:
[ColonelCassad] PLA PURGES
The third consecutive commander of the People's Armed Police Force has been stripped of all his posts. General Wang Ning (71, pictured) has been officially removed from his position as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and vice chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The decision was made on November 4 at a meeting chaired by Wang Huning. The reasons have not been officially stated.
Wang Ning's Biography: Wang Ning was born in 1955 in Nanjing, a "second-generation Red." His father was a deputy division commander in the Nanjing Military Region (NMR).
His father-in-law was Lieutenant General Du Ping, a former political commissar in the NMR. His maternal uncle was General Gu Hui, a former commander of the NMR. His career was entirely focused on the Nanjing front and the 31st Army. He rose from division commander to commander of the 31st Army. He later served as Chief of Staff of the Beijing Military Region and Deputy Chief of the PLA General Staff.
In December 2014, he was appointed Commander of the People's Armed Police (PAP). In 2015, he was promoted to general and joined the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. In this position, he oversaw the 2018 reform, which saw the PAP fully subordinated to the Central Military Commission.
In December 2020, he retired due to age. In 2021, he became Vice Chairman of the Constitution and Legislation Committee of the National People's Congress.
In March 2023, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Since March 2026, he has ceased appearing at public events, including the "two sessions." He is the third consecutive PAP commander to lose his senior position in 15 years. "Everybody Wang Chung tonight!"
Wang Jianping's predecessor was investigated in 2016, and his successor, Wang Chunning, was expelled from the party and the military in 2025. At the same meeting of the CPPCC Standing Committee, the following were subject to persecution: Shen Changyu (63), former head of the State Intellectual Property Administration and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Officially, he is "no longer a member of the Standing Committee"; his resignation has been accepted. The statement still refers to him as "comrade." Apparently, he "laid down his life for someone."
Zhang Jianming, chairman of the Sichuan company Mingyu Group. His CPPCC membership has been revoked. Yu Yanhong, former member of the party committee of the National Health Commission and head of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. His membership has been revoked. Wang Tongzhou, former chairman and secretary of the party committee of China Communications Construction Company. His membership has been revoked. According to Chinese media, he was "taken away in a crater" back in June 2025.
[NYP] A new AI-supported air traffic system was rolled out to all of FAA’s control centers three days before an extremely rare ground stop halted planes across the US Friday, according to the agency.
The new technology — known as Strategic Management of Airspace or “SMART” — was expanded to 22 air route traffic control centers across the country Tuesday, according to the Washington Times.
The tool merges about 200 “data streams” — focused on flight paths, schedules, weather and other factors — onto a single platform to anticipate airspace constraints and other issues, the outlet reported.
The FAA announced the nationwide ground stop at 4 p.m. Friday due to “extraordinary circumstances” and did not immediately link the travel disturbance to the new system.
The stoppage was potentially caused by an upgrade to new software, a source told The Post.
#1
'Non-uniform' code on subscriber systems compromised by Microsoft's Terrible Tuesday release?
Sounds like a configuration management practices problem. Someone didn't validate the Microsoft build scripts before deployment. Or not all subscriber systems were at the same build level. Or both.
I'd still be spending time in Kansas if I didn't verify package checksums and deploy to a sandbox oven for burn-in testing.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] American IT corporation Microsoft has fixed the cause of the outage in its services and is continuing to restore them. The company's press service reported this on November 13.
"We deeply regret the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We understand the trust they place in our services, and we take this responsibility extremely seriously," the corporation's press service noted on social media.
According to the company, service operations have largely been restored and stabilized.
Microsoft has ruled out any connection between the incident and cyberattacks, artificial intelligence, or AI agents. The issue arose during a previous network capacity upgrade and resurfaced after a recent change in network performance. Recovery efforts are still ongoing for some customers and regions.
Due to high demand, Microsoft restored services in stages, testing their stability at each stage. The company estimates that this approach took longer but helped ensure a sustainable recovery.
Earlier that day, a Microsoft outage was reported in more than 70 countries. Users reported the unavailability of Outlook, Teams, Copilot, and other services. The company attributed the problems to increased infrastructure load. Some social media users linked the widespread Microsoft outage to the " end of the world " predicted by scientists back in 1960.
#1
Talking in circles to explain it away. Not good.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/14/2026 4:44 Comments ||
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#2
[AI] hacking Active Directory
**Active Directory (AD) hacking** is a multi-stage penetration testing process focused on enumerating the domain, escalating privileges, and moving laterally to achieve domain control. The methodology typically progresses from **Initial Access** (obtaining the first foothold) to **Enumeration**, **Privilege Escalation**, **Lateral Movement**, and finally **Persistence**.
### 1. Initial Access and Credential Harvesting
Attackers often begin by gathering credentials without direct login, exploiting network protocols or weak configurations.
* **LLMNR/NBT-NS Poisoning**: Tools like **Responder** and **Responder.py** are used to spoof network responses, capturing NTLMv2 hashes from users who attempt to resolve non-existent hosts.
* **SMB Relay**: Using **impacket-ntlmrelayx**, captured hashes can be relayed to other services to authenticate as the victim.
* **AS-REP Roasting**: Targets accounts that do not require Kerberos pre-authentication, allowing attackers to request and crack offline authentication responses.
* **Phishing/Malware**: Spear-phishing or exploiting web vulnerabilities to install implants or steal cached credentials.
### 2. Enumeration and Mapping
Once a foothold is established, attackers map the domain structure to identify high-value targets and attack paths.
* **BloodHound**: The primary tool for visualizing AD relationships. It uses **SharpHound** to collect data and identify privilege escalation paths (e.g., GPO abuse, unconstrained delegation).
* **Impacket Toolkit**: Provides scripts like `secretsdump.py` and `ntlmrelayx.py` for remote enumeration and credential dumping.
* **PowerView/PowerShell**: Native Windows PowerShell modules (e.g., `Get-ADUser`, `Get-NetGroup`) allow for deep internal reconnaissance without external tools.
### 3. Privilege Escalation and Lateral Movement
Attackers exploit misconfigurations and weak credentials to move from a low-privileged user to Domain Admin.
* **Kerberoasting**: Requests service tickets for accounts with Service Principal Names (SPNs) and cracks the hashes offline using **Hashcat** or **Rubeus**.
* **Pass-the-Hash (PtH) / Pass-the-Ticket (PtT)**: Uses stolen NTLM hashes or Kerberos tickets (via **Mimikatz**) to authenticate to other machines without knowing the plaintext password.
* **DCSync**: With replication permissions (often gained via Domain Admin or specific ACLs), attackers use **Mimikatz** to request password hashes directly from the Domain Controller.
* **Golden Ticket**: Forges a Kerberos Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) using the **KRBTGT** hash, granting persistent, undetectable access to the entire domain.
### 4. Persistence and Exfiltration
To maintain access and steal data, attackers target the Domain Controller (DC).
* **NTDS.dit Extraction**: Attackers copy the AD database (`ntds.dit`) and the SYSTEM hive using **Volume Shadow Copy** or **ntdsutil.exe** to extract all user hashes offline.
* **AD CS Abuse**: Misconfigured Certificate Services (e.g., **ESC1**, **ESC8**) allow attackers to forge authentication certificates, potentially escalating to Domain Admin.
* **Golden Certificate/SAML**: Steals CA keys or AD FS token-signing keys to impersonate users in cloud environments (Azure AD/M365).
### Common Tools
* **Mimikatz**: For dumping LSASS memory, passing hashes, and DCSync.
* **BloodHound**: For attack path analysis.
* **Impacket**: For SMB, LDAP, and Kerberos protocol interactions.
* **Rubeus**: For Kerberos ticket manipulation and Kerberoasting.
* **CrackMapExec (CME)**: For rapid lateral movement and credential testing.
### Learning Resources
* **Hack The Box (HTB)**: Offers dedicated AD paths and machines (e.g., "Active Directory 101").
* **TryHackMe**: Features modules like "Compromising Active Directory."
* **GOAD**: A GitHub project providing a vulnerable AD lab environment for practice.
* **TCM Security**: Offers live training and courses on defending and attacking AD.
Noting Microsoft’s alert system appeared not to work, Moussouris said: “Something really bad must have happened that the cascade was not only as long lasting, but they couldn’t recover.”
The disruption came during a challenging time for the tech giant.
It recently offered buyouts to over a quarter of its workforce — 60,000 employees — as it looked to cut costs and restructure its staff to meet the AI moment.
Last year, the company laid off 9,000 employees.
Industry experts and users on social media were quick to conjecture that Microsoft’s cost-cutting measures brought on the outage, though they offered no evidence.
The tech giant has been doubling down on building AI infrastructure and securing partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic.
Lord Garth summarizes for us. Graphs and discussion at the link.
[DeptOfLabor] link goes to weekly unemployment insurance filings
- New Unemployment filings are at historically low rates
- The BLS measured CPI in October was up 0.4% fro September
- Yield Curve shows relatively steep increases in yield with time to maturity
this and other info make the odds high (Kalshi and Polymarket) for a Fed Funds interest rate hike at the Dec 8-9 meeting of the Federal Reserve
The recent decrease in gasoline prices hasn't changed the betting much on this. However, if these prices go down another 10 cents/gallon, I think the Fed might hold off.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/14/2026 00:00 ||
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#1
I predict the new US Congress will vote to increase its pay and benefits and will continue massive spending.
[The Daily Caller via Liberty Daily] Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is reviving the name of America’s legendary World War II spy agency as part of a sweeping overhaul aimed at giving elite special operations forces greater power, funding and influence within the Pentagon.
Hegseth elevated the Assistant Secretary of War for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict to a position equivalent in precedence to an under secretary, while renaming the office after the World War II-era Office of Strategic Services (OSS), according to a Thursday Pentagon press release. The restructuring includes at least $45 million in annual reallocated funding, 100 dedicated military and civilian positions and expanded acquisition authority, while the Pentagon pursues legislation to establish a permanent Under Secretary of Strategic Services.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The initiative would "increase investment in SOF [Special Operations Forces] modernization, major platform recapitalization, and increased readiness" according to the release. The Assistant Under Secretary would still require Congressional approval.
"It is time for a bold, foundational change," Hegseth said in the statement. This move is indicative of a higher prioritization of special forces in current and future conflicts.
The Trump administration has heavily prioritized special operations and clandestine activities. CIA operations were authorized in Venezuela in Oct. 2025, according to the Washington Post. The CIA’s activity eventually led to Delta Force ousting Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Special forces have additionally conducted anti-cartel and narco smuggling operations.
#1
I'd hold off on the assignment orders. This has been suggested for decades. The spanner in the approval gears remains the congress.
I had a co-worker who received orders to the 46th Company, at Fort Narai, Lopburi Thailand. He never heard from a sponsor and just flew on to Bangkok. When he arrived at Fort Narai, he learned from the advisory office that the company had been disbanded and sent back to Bragg.
[NY Post] An Indian man died Tuesday after eating an explosive that was disguised as a sweet dessert dumpling.
The 35-year-old victim, Rajendra Barautiya, had finished eating dinner with his family and was sitting by a bonfire outside his home when a neighbor handed him what appeared to be a rasgulla — a popular sweet made from cottage cheese, according to India Today.
The supposed traditional treat was actually a ball of cheese dough filled with gunpowder, which is a trick used by villagers in Madhya Pradesh’s Dindori district to kill wild boars.
The bomb instantly detonated when Barautiya put it in his mouth, cops said.
"The bomb, used by some tribal people in the area to kill wild boars, was offered to this man," police officer Rekha Singh told the AFP wire service. "It exploded in his mouth."
Barautiya reportedly suffered severe injuries from the explosion and was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A homicide case against the neighbor, Ram Bhagat Barotiya, and another man was pending and officials were looking into how he obtained the crude bomb and why he offered it to Rajendra, according to reports.
"We do not know whether the intention was to kill him or whether it was a malicious prank. That will be determined during the investigation," Singh said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2026 01:37 ||
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[SDUT] Federal officials on Thursday announced new funding to explore the medical potential of ibogaine, a controversial psychedelic drug championed by veterans, conservative lawmakers and podcasters aligned with President Donald Trump.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his department is awarding up to $4.9 million to prepare for the first U.S. studies of ibogaine for post-traumatic stress disorder, a hard-to-treat condition linked to higher suicide and substance abuse rates among veterans. If it works...
The money will not go directly to patient research, Kennedy said, but to lay the groundwork needed to manufacture, dose and design studies of the drug.
Ibogaine is made from a shrub native to West Africa. It can cause intense hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, tremors and sometimes deadly irregular heart rhythms. Ibogaine is currently illegal, in the same ultra-restrictive class as LSD, ecstasy and most other psychedelic drugs. Which can be had at most any rave
Veterans organizations and psychedelic advocates contend that ibogaine has great promise for intractable conditions such as PTSD, severe depression and opioid addiction. U.S. research on the drug has essentially been frozen for decades due to ibogaine’s restricted status.
Kennedy said the government will receive data and treatment guidance from Beond Inc., a Texas-based company that has treated more than 3,000 patients with ibogaine in Mexico, where the drug is not illegal.
"That is going to allow us to dramatically accelerate the clinical trial process," Kennedy said. "We’re going to have, I think, a record drug approval process."
Additional funding awards may explore ibogaine’s use for addiction, he said.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, who joined Kennedy for the announcement, said the collaborative effort would focus first on safety and "best-in-class research."
"For veterans living with PTSD, we owe them both urgency and the best science we can produce," Collins said.
Kennedy and Collins have previously voiced support for the potential of psychedelics, citing the experiences of veterans who have traveled abroad for therapy with ibogaine and other mind-altering substances.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2026 01:13 ||
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#1
Word in some vet circles is that it helps. Not sure how, but with research they can figure it out. My 2 cents, at least we are looking into it. So often, like ivermectin and covid, the agendas and propaganda machines take over and the drug never gets an honest look.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/14/2026 4:32 Comments ||
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#2
Ibogaine has been a substance of interest for 20 years.
#3
Is the treatment that you trip so hard and so long that all the other stuff in your life becomes meaningless?
Psychedelics will do that to you. That's why they call it a door. And you cant ever close it.
But I've been around, never seen ibogaine sold at any rave or street corner block. Think you'd have to know a chemist or botanist who had a niche for that type of thing.
Not a street drug. This stuff is hard core ceremonial vacation with a 18-36 hour trip with pronounced insomnia. It does not seem fun, and when you are up three days, you start to hallucinate naturally, so I couldnt imagine being strung out on a psychedelic to boot.
[Reuters] SpaceX launched the 15th flight of its Starship spacecraft from Texas on Friday on a mission the company hopes will be the first round-trip rocket voyage into orbit and back to the very spot where it left Earth, a key test of Elon Musk's bid to build a fully reusable rocket system.
Plans call for Starship's uncrewed upper-stage vessel to re-enter the atmosphere after nearly a day in orbit and return to its launch tower on Saturday for an engine-controlled touchdown assisted by the giant mechanical arms of a pioneering catch-landing mechanism.
SpaceX had intended to use the same return-flight and "chopstick"-arm technology to recover Starship's lower-stage booster rocket shortly after the two parts of the spacecraft separated within minutes of the launch.
But the Super Heavy booster, for reasons not immediately clear, was diverted from its return flight path to the Gulf of Mexico and momentarily hovered aloft before exploding a short distance over the sea surface.
SpaceX mission controllers hoped to have better luck in steering Starship's upper stage back to home base at the end of its flight. The vehicle reached orbit about 27 minutes after launch, SpaceX said.
Bringing the top portion of the spacecraft intact back to the platform where it was launched would mark a breakthrough in the ambitions of Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, to reduce spaceflight costs by developing a fully recyclable rocket system.
The combined vehicle, consisting of the main Starship cargo-and-crew vessel perched atop its Super Heavy booster rocket and standing 40 stories high, roared off its launch pad from SpaceX's South Texas Starbase complex along the gulf near Brownsville.
The flight marked Starship's 15th test flight since 2023 and the second to deliver a batch of operational Starlink satellites to orbit. SpaceX reported that all 26 were released within the first two hours of Friday's flight.
That makes the mission both a revenue-generating endeavor for SpaceX's satellite-connectivity business and a high-stakes test for a rocket ship still under development.
Musk's space and AI business sees Starship as key to expanding its network of Starlink internet satellites and deploying a future swarm of orbital AI data-processing centers dubbed Starmind as the company positions itself as a high-tech infrastructure provider.
SpaceX last launched Starship in September, taking the rocket and a payload of satellites to orbit for the first time despite some rocket engines malfunctioning in mid-flight. That mission, planned to last 10 hours, ended after roughly three hours with an upper stage splashing down intact into the Pacific Ocean before bursting into flames.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NY Post] An Indian man died Tuesday after eating an explosive that was disguised as a sweet dessert dumpling.
