Orwellian Dystopia

Over half a million UniSuper members failed to access their accounts after Google Cloud accidentally deleted the private cloud account of the Australian pension fund worth $125 billion. UniSuper, a major player in Australia's superannuation sector, caters to retirement savings needs for employees in higher education and research fields. The outage, impacting university, college, and research institution staff, originated from a unique misconfiguration on Google Cloud. https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/google-cloud-accidentally-deletes-125-billion-australian-pension-fund-124051800606_1.html

Schools in England will be banned from teaching sex education to children under nine, in new government guidance. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-69013002

As per the latest reports, Russia and India are holding talks, aiming to initiate a bilateral agreement facilitating travel ease. Scheduled to commence in June, these discussions mark a significant step towards strengthening tourism ties between Moscow and New Delhi, with plans to introduce visa-free group tourist exchanges. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/travel-news/visa-free-travel-agreement-between-india-russia-likely-by-end-of-2024/articleshow/110226629.cms

Israeli Minister Gantz sets June 8 deadline for Gaza plan. Threatens to exit government if demands unmet. Netanyahu office responds with ultimatums. In a move likely to aggravate political tension at the highest levels of government, Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a deadline of June 8 to agree to a comprehensive strategic plan for the “day after” Hamas in Gaza and threatened to leave the government if this did not happen. “Lately, something has gone wrong,” Gantz said. “Essential decisions were not made. Essential leadership decisions to ensure victory were not done. A small minority has taken over the command bridge of the Israeli ship of state and is steering her toward the rocks,” Gantz said, referring to Netanyahu’s far-right political partners, who repeatedly threatened in recent weeks that they would bring down the government if he made concessions that Gantz supported. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-801652

Proton confirms a 2500% spike in VPN sign-ups since May 15 People in New Caledonia have reportedly been turning to the best VPN services to keep accessing the TikTok app. The French government announced the ban on the popular video-sharing app yesterday (May 15, 2024) to quell violent clashes spreading across the South Pacific oversee territory among other measures, after declaring a state of emergency. The move seems not to have stopped citizens from finding a way to stay connected, though. Speaking to TechRadar, Proton VPN confirmed a 150% increase in VPN sign-ups above baseline, starting shortly after TikTok got shut down. On May 17, the VPN spike had gone up to a staggering 2500% above normal levels. https://www.techradar.com/vpn/french-tiktok-ban-makes-vpn-usage-soar-in-new-caledonia

Ukraine’s president says air defences must quadruple to halt Russian advance as morale falls among troops https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/18/volodymyr-zelenskiy-expects-russian-offensive-in-northeast-ukraine-to-intensify

Former UK Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan Commends Pro-Palestine Student Protesters - they are “filling a moral vacuum created by inadequate politicians”

The whole world is to blame for Ukraine’s failure to stop Russia’s recent advances in Kharkov Region and must now help Kiev to change the situation, President Vladimir Zelensky told ABC news It comes after Russian forces managed to capture several settlements near Ukraine’s second-largest city over the past week. Top military officials in Kiev have admitted that the situation is now “extremely difficult,” and that Ukrainian troops are struggling to hold ground due to being outgunned and outnumbered. Asked if he believes Ukraine’s failures on the battlefield to be the fault of the US, Zelensky told ABC reporters that “it’s the world’s fault,” and accused the international community of giving “the opportunity for Putin to occupy.” https://www.rt.com/russia/597745-zelensky-blames-whole-world/

According to documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense, reports of injuries and deaths following COVID-19 vaccines — including a child injured by the Pfizer vaccine during a clinical trial and a fatal vaccine-induced case of myocarditis — reached NIH researchers, Dr. Anthony Fauci and others in 2021 and 2022. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/fauci-nih-knew-covid-vaccine-injuries-deaths-emails/

More people have become infected with a deadlier strain of the monkeypox virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo over the last year, posing a “global threat” if the virus strain leaves the African country and spreads worldwide, the CDC said Thursday (May 16). An increase in cases involving the more lethal strain of the monkeypox virus—broken into two genetically distinct groups called clades—“raises concerns” the virus could spread to other countries, according to the CDC, which called for “coordinated, urgent global action” to contain the virus. The Clade I virus detected in the DRC causes more severe illness and results in more deaths than the Clade II virus that caused a global outbreak in 2022: Some 1.4% to 10% or more of Clade I cases end in death, compared to just 0.1% to 3.6% for Clade II, which killed nearly 60 Americans, the CDC said. Since 2023, the DRC has reported an “unprecedented number” of suspected Clade I virus cases, according to the CDC, which previously warned of cases in surrounding Central African countries. The global outbreak in 2022 primarily affected gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men, but in two DRC-based outbreaks of Clade I, the virus was reported among men who have sex with men and both male and female sex workers, the CDC said. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2024/05/16/more-lethal-mpox-strain-surges-in-congo-heres-why-the-cdc-warns-of-a-global-threat/