Record 1 In 16 People Worldwide Now Use Drugs, UN Report Says

Tehran-Aligned Militia In Iraq Frees American Journalist In Prisoner Swap An Iran-backed militia in Iraq has announced it will release an American freelance journalist kidnapped in Baghdad a week ago. Shelly Kittleson was abducted on March 31, and her captors in Kataib Hezbollah announced Tuesday that she can go free as long as she exits Iraq immediately. Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official in the group, has been cited in international reports as saying, "In recognition of the national stances of the outgoing prime minister, we have decided to release the American defendant Shelly...

'Convergence': Secret Labs Already Deployed Lifelike Female Androids While Public Watches Optimus Toy Demos Authored by Madge Waggy, Technology has an unusual habit of revealing itself twice. The first version appears quietly, almost unnoticed, inside research papers, patent filings, laboratory demonstrations and corporate presentations that attract little attention beyond specialists. The second version arrives years later, polished into a consumer product that suddenly convinces everyone the breakthrough happened overnight. History repeatedly favors this illusion. By the time society begins discussing a technological revolution, thousands of engineers have already spent years solving problems...

Rogue AI "Regulation" - A Potential Worst Case Scenario Authored by Kit Knightly via OffGuardian, We're now several weeks into our new global fear narrative - "Rogue AI is going to kill us all". The problem is stated, the reaction stage-managed, and we're heading for the "solution", which will inevitably be some kind of "regulation". They have been diligently vague about what this "regulation" might entail, and that means only one of two things - either they don't really know yet and are keeping their options open, or they know it will be so...