[GaroweOnline] The Trump administration lifted sanctions on Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... n Defense Forces and other entities in Eritrea on Friday in a move analysts have said could boost US ties to the African nation given its strategic location along the Red Sea shipping route.
The move, announced in a notice posted on the Department of Treasury's website and welcomed by the Eritrean government, comes as the war in the Middle East has expanded, with additional attention on the Red Sea, where Eritrea's coastline is opposite Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... Rooters previously reported that Republican US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... 's administration was planning to remove the sanctions, citing an internal government document.
Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass.... had imposed sanctions in 2021 against Eritrea's ruling party and military as well as senior Eritrean officials for their role in a war in neighboring Æthiopia, where Eritrean forces backed Æthiopian troops fighting regional authorities in the northern Tigray region.
Yemane Gebremeskel, Eritrea's information minister, told Rooters that the sanctions had caused incalculable damage to the country.
"The unilateral sanctions imposed by the Biden Administration five years ago were not warranted by any metrics... In this respect, we welcome the gesture and remedial measures by the Trump Administration," he said.
[ShabelleMedia] Somalia’s Defence Minister Ahmed Moallin Fiqi held high-level talks with his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, on strengthening bilateral relations and expanding cooperation in defence and security, Somalia’s government said.
The meeting focused on the longstanding relationship between Somalia and China, with both sides discussing ways to deepen defence and security cooperation amid evolving security conditions in Somalia and wider regional and international developments.
The two ministers stressed the importance of basing bilateral cooperation on mutual respect, illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the Somali government.
Fiqi briefed Dong on Somalia’s progress in security and stabilisation, including its campaign against holy warrior groups and efforts to rebuild the Somali National Army. He said strengthening a trained and equipped national military capable of defending the country and taking full responsibility for national security remained a priority for the Somali government.
Dong praised what he described as Somalia’s progress in security, state-building and development of its armed forces, and underscored the importance of further strengthening bilateral ties and cooperation. Fiqi, meanwhile, thanked China for its longstanding support and continued backing for Somalia.
The ministers also agreed to accelerate the implementation of existing agreements and expand cooperation in defence and security. The two sides said they wanted to translate their strategic relationship into practical measures supporting peace and stability in Somalia and the wider region.
[HumanAngleMedia] In Minna, North Central Nigeria, 37 young people and children, one as young as 11, have turned up dead in state custody barely 24-48 hours after being arrested by the NSCDC. HumAngle spoke to parents, a survivor, and family members about the events. Here is what happened.
By Abdulsalam Mahmud
It was like any other day for some young men, teenagers, and children – one as young as 11 – who left their homes for mining sites in Minna, Niger State, in North Central Nigeria, on Wednesday, Sept. 16. They went with the hope to return with enough money to buy food, support their parents, or contribute to household expenses.
Hassan Ismaila, one of those young men, said that shortly after they resumed work early that morning, about seven patrol vehicles belonging to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) arrived at their site along Maitumbi Road. According to Hassan, who has been an artisanal miner for over four years, the operatives began shooting into the air and chasing miners at the site. He said some, including himself, managed to escape while others were arrested and taken away.
By Thursday evening, Sept. 17, many of the families of those arrested were standing outside the Minna General Hospital, waiting to identify their dead relatives.
NSCDC Niger State Command said that 37 of the arrested miners were found dead in the cell on Thursday morning “following a suspected outbreak of disease”. Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, the state Commandant who has since been suspended, noted that the bodies were deposited at Minna General Hospital for medical examination to establish the actual cause of death.
Several family members who spoke to HumAngle in Minna said their relatives left home in good health. Hence, the official explanation has not answered the questions surrounding the deaths of their children, brothers, and breadwinners.
[NYT] It’s not just one handpicked AI safety “watchdog” that Anthropic has on a leash – it’s an entire phony ecosystem of woke elitists that’s supposedly policing artificial intelligence’s alleged threats to humanity, The Post has learned.
Redwood Research – a Berkeley, Calif.-based group that co-authored a bombshell report last month detailing how a swarm of rogue OpenAI agents hacked rival firm Hugging Face – is one of a handful of nonprofits that Anthropic has corralled in its questionable plan to avert a Terminator-like apocalypse, according to industry experts.
As The Post reported, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei caused an uproar this week by endorsing another AI watchdog — Model Evaluation and Threat Research, or METR — which is backed by leaders of the cult-like Effective Altruism movement, which has counted disgraced crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried among its devotees.
Redwood, the most prominent AI safety research nonprofit aside from METR, also shares cozy Anthropic connections — including the fact that one of its original board members, Holden Karnofsky, is not only an Anthropic employee but also is married to the CEO’s sister, Daniela Amodei.
Redwood received a $36 million grant last November from Coefficient Giving – the leading Effective Altruism fund formerly known as Open Philanthropy — which is also co-founded by Karnofsky. After the Hugging Face report went viral, Coefficient’s grantmakers recommended giving another $70 million to help Redwood “scale up their work.”
The rampant “organizational incest” linking Anthropic, METR, Redwood and EA-linked funds like Coefficient Giving make it impossible for those groups to serve as an independent arbitrator for the AI industry, according to Perry Metzger, chairman of Alliance for the Future, a Washington, DC-based AI policy group.
“Dario wants people that will let him do what he wants and will prevent the people he doesn’t like from doing what they want,” Metzger said. “This is absolutely the reason that you try to set up something like this. None of these people are independent, none of these people are arm’s length.”
Everyone building artificial intelligence agrees on one thing: it needs an off switch. The companies racing ahead, the governments scrambling to regulate, even the man who just blocked a bill demanding one.
What they fiercely disagree on, with the future of the technology at stake, is who gets to control it.
President Donald Trump gave his own answer this week, just days after the U.S. Senate blocked a bill that would have required an emergency shutdown for advanced AI.
In his view, AI safety does not need a switch, a regulator, or an independent watchdog.
He believes it needs him.
"The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a strong and smart (high IQ!) president, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades," Trump wrote on Truth Social, dismissing the broader safety debate as "a hoax."
That reads like simple denial: a president ignoring the dangers of new technology. But that's not the real story in Washington.
Everyone involved in this debate, including AI's own creators, agrees an off switch is necessary.
Anthropic's Jack Clark says most major labs already have ways to "pull the plug."
The real fight isn't whether the switch exists, but who controls it.
#2
Be emperor genius or tard,
Still, pulling the plug can be hard.
"Sure, he may be a nut
And/or god-robot, but...
He's our nut," sez Praetorian Guard.
[DM] President Trump expressed his passionate support for artificial intelligence, announcing the formation of an 'AI Force' to monitor the new technology in a push to rebrand 'an attack on our data centers' as a 'Democrat hoax.'
The President posted a lengthy rant on Truth Social on Saturday afternoon, likening concerns surrounding the environmental impact of data centers to climate change and a slew of other hot-button issues.
'We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!' Trump said of AI.
'However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System.'
He then unveiled the 'AI Force' and promised to appoint an 'AI Czar' to seemingly monitor AI development.
In a separate post, Trump pitched changing AI from 'artificial intelligence' to superior intelligence, extreme intelligence or supreme intelligence, branding the technology an 'ever-growing revolution.'
The President offered limited details on how the AI Force would operate, but compared it to Space Force.
Trump launched Space Force in 2019 as the sixth branch of the US military. It is unclear if the AI Force would also fall under the Department of Defense.
[Euro News] Rail travel across large parts of the Netherlands ground to a halt on Tuesday after authorities discovered tubes tied to tracks at roughly 20 locations, in what officials are treating as coordinated sabotage.
"Materials were found at multiple locations on the track that were deliberately placed there," said ProRail in a statement. ProRail said deliberately placed objects had triggered widespread track-circuit failures. The devices caused signaling systems to read affected sections as occupied, halting all trains through them regardless of whether one was actually present.
The disruption occurred on the same day as Prinsjesdag, the Netherlands' annual Budget Day, when the King traditionally processes through The Hague before large crowds.
Authorities have not said whether the two are connected.
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[NYP] President Trump’s new Greenland security deal comes just 17 days after a US-based company quietly closed a deal to purchase a Greenland mining company that would produce more than a third of the world’s rare earth magnet supply outside of China.
On Sept. 1, Greenland Mines, a NASDAQ listed US-aligned firm headquartered in North Carolina, closed a deal for the Sarfartoq Rare Earths Project in southwest Greenland.
The company announced that it planned to produce NdPr oxide – a compound of neodymium and praseodymium used in the manufacturing of magnets for EVs and wind turbines, as well as defense capabilities.
It said it planned to produce about one-third of the amount refined globally outside of China, as the US and other world powers position for access to vital rare earth minerals.
The company says the project has an estimated value of $2.05 billion.
The preliminary acquisition of the Sarfartoq Rare Earths Project was first announced in May when it was valued at $35 million, and points to new potential economic ties between the US and Greenland.
President Trump, in his Friday night statement, announced that the US, Denmark, and Greenland have entered into an agreement “that gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many US concerns.”
“From now on, no US adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The three governments are expected to sign the agreement next week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
[JTN] Postal workers entrusted to deliver election ballots and paychecks faked their own customer satisfaction scores with two schemes that manipulated required consumer surveys, and their managers failed to properly stamp out the "underlying culture" of cheating, the mail service's internal watchdog revealed in a bombshell report.
The U.S. Postal Service inspector general (IG) found that "widespread manipulation" of C360 customer service surveys resulted in an inflated 5 percent spike in consumer satisfaction with mail service between 2023 and 2025, and data doctoring persisted even after one cheating scheme was uncovered. The USPS IG said in a statement that it "evaluated controls implemented after the Postal Service reported a scheme of manipulated surveys to our office. We also analyzed 40.2 million customer service requests and responses from FYs 2023 to 2025."
"We found employees created fake issues so when they received the customer satisfaction survey at their personal email addresses, they could complete the surveys with favorable results," the watchdog reported. "Secondly, we found a coordinated 'booster' effort in one area where employees improperly entered normal interactions (like daily mail delivery) as customer issues to generate surveys that were then manipulated to inflate local C360 scores."
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.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
[Euro News] Rail travel across large parts of the Netherlands ground to a halt on Tuesday after authorities discovered tubes tied to tracks at roughly 20 locations, in what officials are treating as coordinated sabotage.
