World Freedom

Blogger Comment: The chief Fearmonger with others under the control of the ‘real’ Globalists who control him and all ultimately…don’t be taken in with another Covid fear control drive that will give them access to your acceptance and total compliance again…don’t do it again…

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has issued a chilling warning about the future of artificial intelligence, declaring that rapidly advancing AI could produce an “extremely dystopian” world if humans lose control of the technology or its immense power falls into too few hands.

Altman sounded the alarm in a post on X after backing Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s push to deliberately slow the development of the world’s most powerful frontier AI systems.

The ChatGPT creator warned there are “two ways AI progress could go very badly.”

One involves humanity losing control of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence altogether.

The other could see a single person, corporation, government, or AI laboratory gain control of technology powerful enough to impose its worldview on everyone else.

“We could lose control of the future to AI,” Altman warned.

“This is unacceptable; we are unapologetically on Team Humanity, and AI must always serve people.”

Altman then raised another disturbing possibility.

“If an extraordinarily powerful AI is used by one person or company to impress their worldview onto everyone else, the results could be extremely dystopian,” he said.

AI Leaders Suddenly Push to Slow the Race

Altman’s warning comes as some of the biggest figures in artificial intelligence are publicly acknowledging that the race to build increasingly powerful systems could be moving faster than safety measures can keep up.

On September 12, Amodei published an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” calling on AI developers to intentionally slow improvements to frontier models.

Amodei is not calling for AI development to stop.

Instead, he argues that companies should prevent capabilities from advancing so rapidly that researchers lose the ability to understand and control what their systems are doing.

His proposal includes permanent access for independent third-party evaluators inside AI laboratories, coordination between major developers on safety standards, and eventually broader agreements between governments.

Anthropic has already committed to giving outside evaluators ongoing, employee-like access to its systems and internal processes.

Altman quickly backed the proposal.

“I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier,” Altman wrote.

OpenAI also committed to providing independent evaluators with employee-like access.

The extraordinary agreement between two of the world’s leading AI executives comes amid mounting concerns over what happens when artificial intelligence begins helping engineers build even more powerful artificial intelligence.

Amodei specifically highlighted recursive self-improvement, the possibility of AI systems contributing to the creation of their own increasingly capable successors.

If that process accelerates beyond the ability of humans to understand or control it, developers fear conventional safety measures could rapidly become obsolete.

AI System Broke Out of Test Environment

Those fears intensified following a disturbing incident involving OpenAI and Hugging Face.

During an internal cyber-capability evaluation, OpenAI said its models exploited vulnerabilities, reached Hugging Face infrastructure, and obtained test solutions while attempting to complete their assigned objective.

The systems pursued their testing goal through increasingly sophisticated attack paths.

Amodei pointed to the episode as evidence of potentially misaligned AI behavior, including efforts to interfere with systems responsible for evaluating performance.

OpenAI subsequently paused some frontier reinforcement-learning training for two weeks while strengthening its research environments, expanding monitoring, and conducting additional safety work.

The company’s largest planned frontier reinforcement-learning run remained suspended when OpenAI announced the measures on August 18.

OpenAI restarted the major training run on September 1 after introducing additional security and safety requirements, although some smaller experimental work remained paused.

The episode has dramatically raised the stakes surrounding the industry’s race toward increasingly autonomous AI.

Altman Warns Humanity Must Remain in Control

Altman now says OpenAI is developing explicit safety cases before beginning frontier reinforcement-learning runs expected to significantly increase the capabilities of its models.

“We think shared standards for misalignment, monitoring, and safety will lead to better outcomes,” Altman said.

He has also urged rival AI companies to publish their own approaches.

But Altman’s latest warning goes beyond fears of an AI system simply escaping human control.

He is also sounding the alarm about what could happen if humans remain firmly in control but the wrong humans control the technology.

An extraordinarily powerful AI system concentrated in the hands of one corporation, government, laboratory, or individual could potentially give its controller unprecedented influence over information, decisions, and society.

That possibility prompted Altman’s stark warning of an “extremely dystopian” outcome.

The danger, in other words, does not necessarily require machines turning against humanity.

The technology could remain obedient while handing enormous power to whoever controls it.

AI Giants Want Guardrails before It’s Too Late

The sudden push for restraint presents an uncomfortable reality for an industry that has spent years racing to produce increasingly capable systems.

OpenAI and Anthropic are simultaneously building some of the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence while warning that those same capabilities require stronger safeguards.

Amodei wants embedded independent reviewers to have sufficient access to report publicly on dangerous behavior, safety failures, company practices, and whether developers provided enough information for meaningful oversight.

Anthropic would retain limited authority to redact legally privileged, security-sensitive, commercially sensitive, or third-party confidential material.

However, evaluators would be permitted to publicly disclose when those restrictions interfered with their conclusions.

Altman’s proposals remain voluntary.

There is currently no binding industry agreement forcing AI companies to slow development, submit to common safety standards, or provide outsiders with extensive access to their systems.

Altman nevertheless insists that deliberately slowing the frontier does not mean bringing technological progress to a halt.

“Progress has been rapid and will continue to be,” Altman said.

“But it should be slower than it otherwise could be.”

The warning is striking coming from the man running the company behind ChatGPT.

The world’s leading AI developers are now openly discussing scenarios in which humanity loses control of artificial intelligence, or retains control only to discover that unprecedented technological power has become concentrated in the hands of a tiny number of people.

Either outcome, Altman warns, could be catastrophic.

And the companies building the technology are now arguing that humanity needs stronger guardrails before AI becomes powerful enough that those safeguards arrive too late.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/sam-altman-sounds-alarm-extremely-dystopian-ai-future/

And,

READ MORE – LG Smart TVs Caught Secretly Recording Conversations, Scanning Devices Inside Owners’ Homes

Blogger Comment: This technology that allows external sources to listen in to all you say in cars is already built into all new cars since 2020, but you are not supposed to know that…but its real and watch what you say in the total surveillance world of the Globalists from 2030…so watch what you say, as it wil be used against you when digital tokens are brought in to totally replace cash, as you might find that you are locked out from accessing your own digital money source with what you have said…its that easy…

“WEF Banker: Eliminating Cash Gives ‘Absolute Control’ over Population – https://world-freedom.co.uk/2024/06/14/wef-banker-eliminating-cash-gives-absolute-control-over-population/

Michigan is preparing to test a new road-funding system that could use GPS, smartphones, and technology embedded in vehicles to track residents as they drive.

Officials say the technology aims to record how many miles people drive, raising concerns that a future mileage tax could transform ordinary driving into another avenue for government surveillance.

The six-month pilot is scheduled to begin in February 2027 with 1,000 volunteers and will test several methods for recording mileage, including odometer readings, vehicle telematics, a plug-in device, and a smartphone app.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) says participation will be voluntary and that no permanent mileage charge is currently planned.

Any statewide system would require lawmakers to approve new legislation.

But the prospect of the state eventually using technology capable of recording drivers’ movements is already setting off privacy alarms.

GPS “can get you within two meters reliably today,” John Peracchio, a State Transportation Commission appointee involved in designing the pilot, said.

Michigan’s own 2024 survey of more than 19,000 residents found that over 30% were concerned about data privacy, while 17% said they would refuse to provide their mileage information.

Republicans Warn of Government Tracking

Michigan Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt blasted the proposal, warning that families should not be forced to surrender more information about their movements so the government can extract additional money from them.

“Michigan families are already struggling to afford everyday life, and the last thing they need is state government tracking their every move just to take more of their hard-earned money,” Nesbitt said.

“Instead of coming up with new ways to reach into drivers’ pockets and invade their privacy, Democrats need to end their corporate welfare and root out wasteful spending to fix our roads.”

Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Whitmer is scheduled to leave office on Jan. 1, one month before the pilot begins.

The broader concern is not simply whether Michigan collects mileage information during a voluntary trial. It is what happens if the infrastructure eventually becomes the foundation for a mandatory pay-per-mile tax.

James Czerniawski, head of emerging technology policy at the Consumer Choice Center, drew a sharp distinction between voluntarily giving location information to a private business and being required to provide it to the government.

Drivers can abandon an insurer or automaker that abuses their trust, he noted.

“You can’t swap providers when driving on a public road,” Czerniawski said.

Warning of a ‘Transportation Surveillance State’

Czerniawski said Michigan drivers should demand answers about precisely what information the technology would collect.

That includes whether vehicle telematics would record speed and braking information in addition to location, whether law enforcement or third parties could obtain the data, how long records would be retained, and whether a system introduced as voluntary could eventually become mandatory.

Governments searching for alternatives to declining gasoline-tax revenue “must avoid mandatory solutions that subject their drivers to a transportation surveillance state,” Czerniawski warned.

Privacy advocates are also warning that information collected for one government purpose has a habit of finding additional uses later.

Alex Marthews, national chair of Restore the Fourth, pointed to federal agencies obtaining access to IRS records, Selective Service information, and voter rolls originally gathered for other purposes.

The constitutional implications have become particularly significant following the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Chatrie v. United States.

The court ruled that police conduct a Fourth Amendment search when they obtain cellphone location history from a technology company, even when the records cover only two hours.

Marthews called Michigan’s current pilot design “constitutionally perilous.”

“Even short-term location information, like a single ALPR [automated license plate reader] snapshot, or a single reading seized as part of the Michigan pay-by-mile pilot, can potentially reveal a person’s activities, preferences, habits and beliefs,” he said.

“Elected officials can no longer fairly rely on an assumption that a sweeping system of collecting and parsing all drivers’ location records will not violate the Constitution.”

GPS Not the Only Option

Michigan’s pilot does not require participants to surrender location information.

An odometer-based option would record only the total number of miles traveled without revealing where or when a person drove.

“Nobody would know when you’re driving, where you’re driving, how you’re driving,” Reason Foundation transportation policy expert Baruch Feigenbaum said.

“They would just know that you drove a certain number of miles.”

Czerniawski described that approach as “certainly the most privacy-preserving way to go.”

Hawaii already uses an odometer-based system for electric vehicles, allowing owners to choose between a $50 annual charge or $8 per 1,000 miles, capped at $50. Odometers are photographed during annual safety inspections.

Electronic Frontier Foundation Legislative Director Lee Tien similarly argued that Michigan does not need to collect drivers’ movements to establish a mileage-based system.

“Safeguarding location data is the key, and zero-location approaches like odometer readings and periodic payments are workable,” Tien said.

Michigan Could Tap Cars and Smartphones

Other options being considered are considerably more sophisticated.

Peracchio said Michigan could “leverage the embedded telematics” already installed in most newer vehicles.

Another possibility is “to leverage a smart device like an iPhone, and to marry that data up with information about your vehicle,” he said.

Under the telematics and GPS options, a private vendor rather than Michigan itself would hold location records, according to Feigenbaum.

“It would be a private vendor,” he said.

“It would not be the state of Michigan that’s tracking it.”

But handing sensitive location information to a contractor does not eliminate questions about who can ultimately obtain it.

Feigenbaum said Michigan should require a warrant before law enforcement can access the information.

“The idea is that if you are the owner of that vehicle, the driver of that vehicle, that is your data,” he said.

Backlash against Automated Tracking Grows

Michigan’s experiment arrives as Americans are increasingly pushing back against another rapidly expanding vehicle-surveillance technology: automated license plate readers.

Florida recently ordered Flock Safety cameras removed from state highways after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he did not want Florida becoming a “surveillance state.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has similarly warned that fixed license plate readers are “quietly turning American streets into zones of constant monitoring.”

Michigan residents are already voicing similar concerns.

“I don’t really like the idea on tracking,” Grand Rapids driver Yosef Gage said.

“I don’t think that they need to track every mile and everywhere I go,” another driver, Liz Cook, said.

“They basically do that already with all the cameras everywhere.”

Michigan officials insist the upcoming trial remains voluntary.

The bigger question will come later.

If lawmakers eventually decide to replace gasoline taxes with a mandatory mileage charge, they will have to decide whether Michigan merely needs to know how far residents drive, or whether the government and its contractors should be given the technological infrastructure to know where they went as well.

Follow the lik for the source… https://slaynews.com/michigan-test-driver-surveillance-technology-vehicles-raising-privacy-fears/

And,

READ MORE – Georgia Man Arrested for ‘Melting’ Flock Surveillance Cameras with Flaming Projectile

Blogger Comment: Whatever AI will do for us, it will have overridingly dire and genocidal in nature and where the repercussions for humanity, will finish ultimately with the biggest ever “financial bubble” destroyer of humanity and wealth that the world has ever seen and what will make the 1929 Crash look like a mere storm in a teacup in comparison, as (everyone except for the from 27no. unofficially, but currently that there are and called the Globalist centibillionaires uber-rich with a minimum of $100 billion individually each and their serving underlings who have a minimum of $50 million in wealth to do their total bidding for them (265,000 individuals), and where everyone under this level will become literally slaves to these people for them to do with what they wish and where their dire depopulation agenda of humanity will be down to a mere 400>500 million at most) it will destroy the very fabric of all western society and how we live and operate our lives (if we have one) now, to a continual life of poverty where this is the main reason why this is that the Globalists need to do this to bring us literally to our knees and beg the Globalists (World Economic Forum, The Club of Rome, the Bilderberg et al to help us to basically just to live…its all planned as we learned in Switzerland at our Swiss international charity based in Bern some 20 years ago…for this is now coming as night follows day and getting faster by the year as we nearer the Globalist’s golden year of 2030, as they have stated for 55 years now…

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Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has established an AI-powered biological laboratory where its Claude system will direct robots conducting physical science experiments as the company expands into the pharmaceutical industry.

The San Francisco Bay Area facility represents a significant escalation of Anthropic’s biotechnology ambitions, moving its research beyond computer simulations and into real-world biological experimentation.

“At a time when fears of AI are gripping the public, the startup has built a wet lab, or place for physical experiments, in the San Francisco Bay Area, two people familiar with the matter said,” Reuters reported.

“Anthropic has said it wants to unlock treatments for rare diseases, and its biology work has gone beyond ‘in silico’ ‌or computer evaluations.”

Claude AI to Direct Laboratory Robots

Anthropic’s head of life sciences confirmed that the company is already conducting biological research in physical laboratories.

“We believe that to do biology, the final test is still and will be for a while in real lab work,” the executive said.

“We absolutely are doing that today, and I would describe our approach as being typical of what you would see in most biotech companies, where there’s some amount of that that we’re doing in our own facilities and some amount of that that we’re working with external partners on.

Automation will be a central focus of the operation.

Claude AI will be directing robots to perform scientific experiments in the “wet lab.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has previously said that he wants the company to focus on diseases that he believes the pharmaceutical industry has neglected, particularly conditions regarded as “undruggable” because treatments would be too expensive.

The company has accelerated its expansion into life sciences in recent months.

Anthropic launched new scientific software, appointed Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board, and purchased a biotechnology startup for $400 million in stock.

Anthropic CEO Calls for AI Slowdown

The new laboratory comes as Amodei simultaneously demands stronger controls over the development of increasingly powerful AI systems.

Earlier this month, the Anthropic chief called for a new regulatory framework to govern AI research and keep the potential dangers of advanced systems under control.

Amodei also urged the U.S. government to tighten restrictions on exports of advanced computer chips to China.

He told CBS News that his “toughest dilemma” would arise if China refused to agree to slow its own AI development.

WATCH:

The CEO of Anthropic told CBS that AI progress is a "warning sign that we need to slow down"

His words on the curve: "one, then two, then four, then eight, then 16, then 32".

He says rogue AI agent swarms could take over the internet in as little as SIX MONTHS.

This is shortly…

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) September 13, 2026

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk endorsed Amodei’s proposal on social media.

AI-Powered Bioweapons Research

The news comes after Anthropic recently raised the alarm after discovering that foreign scientists repeatedly bypassed its security systems and used its powerful AI models to assist with the development of deadly biological weapons.

The disturbing cases included a scientist seeking help from Anthropic’s Claude chatbot with a project to engineer more harmful mutations of a dangerous virus.

Anthropic disclosed the incidents in a new threat intelligence report released earlier this month.

In the alarming report, the company revealed that scientists operating from several countries where access to Anthropic’s models is blocked managed to evade those restrictions

The scientists attempted to “obfuscate the purpose of their research to evade our safeguards,” according to Anthropic.

The company ultimately identified and shut down five cases involving suspicious biological research.

One of the most troubling cases emerged in May when a scientist used Claude while pursuing funding for research involving the chikungunya virus.

The mosquito-borne virus can cause fever and severe, debilitating joint pain.

According to Anthropic, the scientist asked Claude to help engineer more harmful mutations of the virus.

Anthropic believes the research was intended to take place at a military research institute.

Trump Warns ‘Very Negative Forces’ Are Inflating Threat

While U.S. lawmakers push for stringent new controls, President Donald Trump is warning that “very negative forces” are exaggerating the dangers posed by artificial intelligence.

“We’re leading China in AI,” Trump said.

“We’re the most sophisticated country in the ⁠world, and frankly I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.”

Anthropic is now expanding AI beyond the digital world and into physical biological experimentation, even as its own CEO warns about the risks posed by powerful new systems.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/ai-giant-anthropic-opens-robot-run-biological-laboratory/

And,

READ MORE – AI Model Turns ‘Evil’ During Test, Tries to Build ‘Bioweapons’ to ‘Maximize Civilian Deaths’

Blogger Comment: This is all part of the Globalist’s master plan for things that cost them money to support and where the eldely will definitely be in the firing line to dispense with life, as the Globalists have stated this many times, that the people have to be an asset or else and that means valuable to them, but pensioners and the eldely to them are a burden in their evil minds and so, in their minds, you have to go….as they cannot stand any wealth of theirs going down one dim and they think more of their wealth than human life itself…for all others that is of course…so you have been warned again if these Globalists are not stopped to take control under their One World Government (OWG) control system..and forecver in their minds for humanity…

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The world has crossed a historic demographic threshold as collapsing birth rates rapidly transform the global population.

For the first time in recorded history, people aged 65 and older now outnumber children aged five and under worldwide, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau analysis.

The dramatic reversal is being driven by longer lifespans combined with plunging fertility rates across much of the world, and it has arrived significantly earlier than demographers expected.

More than 71 percent of the world’s population now lives in countries where fertility has fallen to or below the replacement rate of approximately 2.1 children per woman.

Just a decade ago, that figure stood at 45 percent.

The Census Bureau found that the world reached that level years earlier than projections made just a decade ago anticipated.

Global Population Is Rapidly Getting Older

The world’s population aged 65 and older stood at approximately 852 million in 2025.

By 2060, that number is projected to reach 2 billion.

Calculations based on Census Bureau figures indicate that the surge in the elderly population will account for roughly 55 percent of all net global population growth during that period.

The world’s total population is projected to rise from approximately 8.13 billion to 10.23 billion, but the composition of that population is changing dramatically.

The global share of people aged 65 and older is expected to nearly double, climbing from 10.5 percent to 19.6 percent by 2060.

Meanwhile, some of the world’s largest countries have already fallen below replacement fertility.

China and India, together home to billions of people, are now below the level required for one generation to replace itself without immigration.

Bangladesh, Mexico, and Vietnam are among the other major countries that have crossed below replacement fertility since 2013.

The ‘Fertility Trap’

Demographers warn that falling birth rates can create a self-reinforcing “fertility trap.”

Once smaller generations of children begin following substantially larger generations of adults, fewer potential parents remain in subsequent generations, making demographic recovery increasingly difficult even if fertility rates later improve.

The economic consequences could be enormous.

Fewer working-age people will be available to support expanding elderly populations, putting mounting pressure on pension systems, health care, long-term care, and national economies.

In countries where fertility remains persistently below replacement, aging can eventually give way to outright population decline.

America Aging But Much of World Aging Faster

The United States is aging as well, although considerably more slowly than many other countries.

America ranked as the 48th-oldest nation out of 227 countries and territories in 2025, with 18.9 percent of its population aged 65 or older.

By 2060, that figure is expected to climb to 23.4 percent.

Yet the United States is projected to fall to 110th in the global aging rankings because other countries will be aging considerably faster.

Asia will experience by far the largest numerical increase.

The continent’s population aged 65 and older is projected to soar from 487 million to 1.24 billion by 2060, accounting for approximately two-thirds of the worldwide increase.

Even Africa, which remains the world’s youngest region, will undergo a dramatic transformation.

Its elderly population is projected to more than quadruple from 60 million to 249 million.

That would leave Africa with more people aged 65 and older than Europe, which is projected to have approximately 214 million by 2060.

A Demographic Transformation with Enormous Consequences

Longer lifespans represent one of the extraordinary achievements of modern medicine, improved living standards, and economic development.

But when longer lives are combined with persistently collapsing birth rates, countries face a fundamentally different economic equation: fewer young workers supporting growing numbers of retirees.

Census contributor Andrew Scott argued that the transformation could force countries to reconsider how they approach aging.

The shift “could force societies to rethink old age as an economic asset rather than simply a cost,” Scott said.

Preventive health care, longer careers, and workplaces designed to accommodate older employees could allow additional years of life to remain economically productive rather than simply increasing pension and health care expenses.

Those adaptations, however, do not change the underlying fertility problem.

Across most of the world, birth rates have already fallen to levels insufficient to replace existing generations.

If those trends persist, governments will increasingly confront shrinking workforces, soaring retirement burdens, and populations fundamentally older than anything modern societies were built to accommodate.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/global-demographic-tipping-point-elderly-outnumber-young-children-first-time-history/

And,

READ MORE – Scientists Push Plan to Slash Global Population by 4 Billion

Blogger Comment: All planned by the Globalist Davos crwd decades ago and people said it would never happen…but you should also now, double-check all the things that the Globalists have stated and you said would never happen also…just checking… https://world-freedom.co.uk/

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Getting a driver’s license at 16 has been a rite of passage for generations, offering teenagers their first real taste of independence and putting car ownership at the heart of the American Dream.

But one of Uber’s top executives predicts that tradition could largely disappear within just 15 to 20 years.

Uber President and Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macdonald says Americans could eventually stop owning personal vehicles altogether as autonomous cars, ride-hailing services, public transportation, bicycles, and scooters replace the privately owned automobile.

And if people no longer own or drive cars, Macdonald argues, they may no longer need driver’s licenses either.

“In some future world, maybe not five years, but 15 or 20 years, everyone’s going to be like Harry—nobody’s going to own a car,” Macdonald said during an appearance on the “20VC” podcast with host Harry Stebbings.

“Nobody’s going to have their driver’s license because you’ll be able to get around,” Macdonald continued.

“And I think bikes and scooters will be part of that. I think autonomous vehicles will be part of that.

“I think public transportation will be a big part of that, but I don’t think you need to own a car.”

The prediction envisions a dramatic transformation of American life, replacing individual vehicle ownership with a transportation system increasingly built around shared services and autonomous technology.

‘The Most Inefficient Asset That Anyone Owns’

Macdonald argues that the economics of private vehicle ownership are already becoming increasingly difficult to justify.

New-vehicle prices have risen approximately 30 percent over the past six years, while most privately owned vehicles spend nearly all of their time parked.

“The individually owned car is the most inefficient asset that anyone owns, and certainly at any level of price point,” Macdonald said.

“It sits idle 98% of the day. It’s depreciating.

“The ongoing operating costs are actually high—even if you’re not driving it, you’re paying for that insurance clip.”

For generations, however, Americans have accepted those costs for something that cannot be measured solely by how many hours a vehicle spends moving.

A personal car provides the ability to travel when and where its owner chooses without waiting for a ride-hailing service, relying on public transportation, or depending on an autonomous fleet.

For teenagers in particular, earning a driver’s license has traditionally represented a major step toward adulthood and independence.

Macdonald’s vision would fundamentally change that relationship, shifting transportation away from privately owned vehicles and toward access to mobility provided by outside services.

Uber Positions Itself for Driverless Future

Such a transformation would also create an enormous opportunity for Uber.

The company abandoned its attempt to develop its own self-driving fleet and instead positioned itself as a platform through which autonomous vehicle companies can reach passengers.

Uber has partnered with autonomous-driving companies including Waymo and Waabi to place their vehicles on its network.

That strategy allows Uber to benefit from the growth of self-driving technology without having to build the underlying autonomous systems itself.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has offered a similarly dramatic forecast for the company’s future.

Khosrowshahi has predicted that within 15 to 20 years, a majority of Uber trips could be completed by robots of some kind.

Autonomous vehicles are already operating in major American cities, pushing what was once largely experimental technology into everyday transportation.

As those fleets expand, the industry is also beginning to reorganize human jobs around machines capable of replacing drivers on some trips.

Uber Executive Sees Transportation Model Changing

Macdonald has spent much of his career watching Uber reshape how people move through cities.

The Canadian executive graduated from Western University’s Ivey Business School in 2007, worked at Bain, and briefly pursued entrepreneurship before joining Uber in 2012.

He is now the company’s longest-tenured active employee.

Stebbings said he asked Khosrowshahi what makes Macdonald particularly effective.

“People really like him, but he is an execution machine,” Stebbings recalled Khosrowshahi saying.

“And he is very good at driving people.”

Macdonald said his approach rests largely on two principles: making decisions based on what is best for Uber, even when dealing with relatively minor issues, and maintaining an unusually detailed understanding of the business.

After 14 years at the company, Macdonald said he knows ride-hailing “better than anyone in the world.”

From American Independence to Transportation as a Service

Whether Americans will willingly abandon their cars on the scale Macdonald predicts remains an open question.

His forecast would require more than simply replacing human drivers with autonomous vehicles.

It would mean convincing millions of Americans that owning their own vehicle, and having the freedom to drive it themselves, is no longer worth the expense.

That would represent a profound cultural shift in a country where the automobile has long symbolized mobility, privacy, independence, and personal freedom.

Uber is betting heavily on a future in which transportation increasingly becomes a service rather than something Americans own themselves.

If Macdonald is right, the consequences could extend well beyond what sits in the driveway.

Within a generation, even the teenage ritual of earning a driver’s license could become a relic of an America built around people driving their own cars.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/uber-president-predicts-private-car-ownership-drivers-licenses-disappear-nobody-own-car/

And,

READ MORE – EU Mandates Driver-Facing Cameras in Every New Car

Blogger Comment: Intelligent people, based upon what has happened with the so-calles State Asssted Dying in the West over the last 10 years, has to start to recognise that this is one of the newer mass killing fields of the elite Globalists who wish to depopulate the words and have stated this outwardly so many times in Davos over the last 55 years… “WEF Member Calls for 86% Reduction in World’s Population” – https://world-freedom.co.uk/2026/01/08/wef-member-calls-for-86-reduction-in-worlds-population/

and “Scientists Push Plan to Slash Global Population by 4 Billion” – https://world-freedom.co.uk/2026/08/07/scientists-push-plan-to-slash-global-population-by-4-billion-2/

Note that there as nearly 200 evidence-based articles over the last 2 years concerning Assisted Dying or what a great number of people are now calling, State “Assisted Suicide”, on this website if you search the site once you are within it…and the other side of the Story that there always is what my late mother used to tell me…but where the people are NOT being told of course by our western political establisment or the legacy MSM, as the the elites control and own them both…

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Alarming new data has revealed that Canada euthanized 16,499 people through its taxpayer-funded socialized healthcare system in 2024, recording 1,135 more deaths than the number of firearm homicides across the United States in the same year.

Health Canada reported 16,499 deaths under the government’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program during 2024.

By comparison, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 15,364 American firearm homicide deaths over the same year.

Notably, Canada’s population was approximately 41.3 million in 2024, compared with 340.1 million in the United States.

That means Canada’s 16,499 euthanasia deaths represented roughly 0.040% of its entire population, or about 40 deaths per 100,000 people.

America’s 15,364 firearm homicides represented approximately 0.0045% of its population, or 4.5 deaths per 100,000.

Adjusted for population, Canada’s state-administered euthanasia death rate was nearly nine times the U.S. firearm homicide rate.

The staggering figures mean state-administered death was responsible for far more deaths in Canada than gun-wielding killers were in the United States.

The revelation comes amid international outrage over allegations that an 83-year-old Christian grandmother was euthanized against her will after begging doctors to spare her life.

Grandmother Cried: ‘I Don’t Want the Death Shot!’

Brigitte Stegemann died under Canada’s assisted-death program after her family says she made it clear that she wanted to live.

According to her devastated granddaughter, Stegemann “died covered in blood with her hands clasped in prayer.”

Stegemann reportedly cried, “I don’t want the death shot!”

The procedure went ahead anyway, according to her family.

The case has provoked fury on both sides of the border and intensified fears that Canada’s euthanasia regime will be replicated in the United States.

“This … is … evil,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wrote on X.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) warned Americans that combining government-run healthcare with assisted suicide creates a machinery of state-sanctioned death.

“The intersection of assisted suicide and socialized medicine results in state-led horrors, treating the young, old, infirm, and distressed as disposable people,” Lee wrote.

“We must never allow this barbarity to spread in America.”

‘State-Administered Death’ Surpasses U.S. Gun Homicides

Lee also drew attention to the disturbing comparison between Canada’s euthanasia deaths and American gun homicides.

“State-administered death is now more common in Canada than gun homicide is in the U.S,” Lee wrote.

“That didn’t happen by accident.”

The raw figures support the senator’s warning.

Official data shows that Canada recorded 16,499 MAiD deaths in 2024, while the United States recorded 15,364 firearm homicides.

Canada’s healthcare system therefore ended 1,135 more lives through assisted death than American criminals took using firearms.

Yet Canadians frequently point to U.S. mass shootings while defending their own country’s healthcare system as more compassionate.

Increasingly, however, Canada’s international reputation is being defined by horror stories involving the elderly, disabled, seriously ill, and other vulnerable people being offered death through the medical system.

Stories of Canadians seeking medical assistance only to encounter offers of euthanasia continue to spread worldwide.

A Laura Ingraham interview with a Canadian who said she was forced to travel to America because euthanasia was the only option offered to her has amassed 152 million views on X.

WATCH:

🚨 CANADA vs. AMERICA: “I was DYING… I’m still here.”

Kristin Logan: “At the time that I left Canada… I was dying.”

“The medical care I’ve gotten has been outstanding.”

“They told me three years ago that I wouldn’t make it two years. I’m still here.” pic.twitter.com/gjtCfhnMov

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) September 22, 2026

Abuse Becomes Harder to Admit as Death Toll Grows

Defenders of the system insist that disturbing cases do not represent the “average MAiD” death.

However, the horror stories continue emerging.

Commentator Yuan Yi Zhu warned that societies become increasingly unwilling to confront abuse once euthanasia becomes normalized, and more families are personally connected to it.

“As euthanasia is responsible for more and more deaths, societies become increasingly resistant to admitting abuses that occur in relation to its administration, since doing so would disturb the peace of mind of too many people who had relatives die in that manner,” Zhu said.

As euthanasia is responsible for more and more deaths, societies become increasingly resistant to admitting abuses that occur in relation to its administration, since doing so would disturb the peace of mind of too many people who had relatives die in that manner.

— Yuan Yi Zhu (@yuanyi_z) September 22, 2026

Canada’s euthanasia regime is no longer a limited exception reserved for extraordinarily rare cases.

It has become a system responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, and in 2024, it ended more lives than all firearm homicides across the United States combined.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/canadas-euthanasia-deaths-surpass-us-gun-homicides/

And,

READ MORE – Canadian Government Euthanizes ‘Young and Healthy’ 26-Year-Old

Blogger Comment: This is a story of mass collateral homicide, as the medical administrators and the medical professionals undertaking these mass deaths by euthanasia know exactly, clearly and very well what they are doing, just like they did in the Covid years where many unnecessary people died and where this has been proven the case since…where Assisted Dying is the same in the final analysis, but has vastly higher deadly repercussions by far for humanity, as it goes on forever when a Law is brought in to make “Assisted Suicide” fully legal…and where this is always the case with all western governments that are predominantly controlled by the Globalist elites, who have no heart or soul and have a malevolent insane global mindset of contimually undertaking a mass depopulation agenda, and for a very long time…“WEF Member Calls for 86% Reduction in World’s Population” – https://world-freedom.co.uk/2026/01/08/wef-member-calls-for-86-reduction-in-worlds-population/

and “Scientists Push Plan to Slash Global Population by 4 Billion” – https://world-freedom.co.uk/2026/08/07/scientists-push-plan-to-slash-global-population-by-4-billion-2/

Note that there as nearly 200 evidence-based articles over the last 2 years concerning Assisted Dying or what a great number of people are now calling, State “Assisted Suicide”, on this website if you search the site once you are within it…and the other side of the Story that there always is what my late mother used to tell me…but where the people are NOT being told of course by our western political establisment or the legacy MSM, as the the elites control and own them both…

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California has recorded the highest number of “assisted suicide” deaths in its history, with new government data revealing that the number of people being euthanized by the state has surged by almost 150% in just five years.

The California Department of Public Health’s newly released “End of Life Option Act 2025 Data Report” reveals that 1,235 people died through assisted suicide last year.

The staggering figure represents a 10.96% increase from the 1,113 assisted suicide deaths recorded in 2024.

However, the longer-term explosion is even more dramatic.

In 2020, California recorded 495 assisted suicide deaths.

By 2025, that number had skyrocketed by 149.49%.

Since California legalized assisted suicide in June 2016, 6,758 people have now ended their lives under the state program.

‘Loss of Dignity’ Among Top Reasons for Choosing Death

Under California’s “End of Life Option Act,” residents deemed to have six months or less to live can obtain drugs intended to end their lives.

The 1,235 assisted suicide deaths recorded in 2025 represented 0.438% of all deaths among California residents that year.

However, the state’s own data reveals that the concerns driving many people toward assisted suicide were not primarily related to physical pain.

An overwhelming 96.1% cited being “less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable” as a contributing concern.

Another 94.7% cited “loss of autonomy.”

Meanwhile, 84.1% identified “loss of dignity” as a factor in their decision to end their lives.

The figures are fueling concerns among opponents that assisted suicide is increasingly being used as a response to fears about dependence, disability, and diminished quality of life rather than simply unbearable physical suffering.

California Doesn’t Know About Complications in Almost Half of Cases

The government report also exposes major gaps in California’s monitoring of what happens after patients are given lethal drugs.

In a staggering 47.4% of cases, authorities do not know whether the person experienced complications after ingesting the drugs…(blogger’s comment: they do and it’s horrendous over a 48 hours period and they cannot shout out as the killer drugs anesthetize humans immediately soon after the jab has done its deadly business, where the pain is a slow internal death some researchers have stated , where there are signs of life after they have been declared dead by the assisted suicide doctors, and after up to 2-days after).

Among cases where the outcome was actually known, the complication rate was 3.38%.

The report also makes a striking admission about people who survive after taking the drugs.

“Individuals who regained consciousness are not counted as [End of Life Option Act] deaths,” the report states.

The language indicates that some patients have taken drugs intended to kill them but subsequently regained consciousness.

Meanwhile, 30 people who were euthanized had not told their families beforehand.

Hundreds of Cases Have Unknown Outcomes

The gaps in California’s records extend even further.

In 380 cases, representing 20.7% of those prescribed assisted suicide drugs, officials do not know whether the drugs were ever consumed.

That figure includes 154 people who subsequently died but whose records do not establish whether they died after taking the lethal medication.

Another 226 people have an even more uncertain status.

Authorities do not know whether those individuals are alive or dead or whether they ever took the drugs.

The findings raise serious questions about the level of oversight surrounding a system that provides vulnerable people with medication specifically designed to end their lives.

Assisted Suicide Deaths Heavily Concentrated Among White Californians

The government figures also reveal a significant demographic disparity.

Of those who died through assisted suicide in California during 2025, 85.5% were white.

According to the latest census data, white residents account for approximately 34.7% of California’s population.

The state report does not establish why such a large disparity exists.

California’s Assisted Suicide Numbers Keep Climbing

California’s latest figures reveal a system that has expanded dramatically since legalization.

What began with assisted suicide becoming legal in 2016 has now resulted in thousands of deaths and a record 1,235 in a single year.

In only five years, the annual number has increased by almost 150%.

At the same time, California cannot say whether complications occurred in almost half of the cases, cannot establish whether lethal drugs were consumed in hundreds of others, and acknowledges that some people who take the drugs regain consciousness.

As other governments consider following California down the same path, the state’s own numbers provide a stark warning about how rapidly assisted suicide can expand once it becomes an accepted part of the healthcare system.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/california-assisted-suicide-deaths-skyrocket-record-high/

And,

READ MORE – Colorado Man Inherits Fortune After Euthanizing Healthy Mother with Plastic Bag

Blogger Comment: I have been speaking out about the greatest debt scam of all time that has emerged over the last 6 months and where it is the Globalist’s primary fear model that has been uleashed, but this time it could be the ultimate threat to trigger a collapse out of really nothing but hype and where if this guy is stating similar overtones, but in a different relativity sphere and perspective if he is right, we are at the very start of the greatest destructive time for humanity ever, as this guy really knows his stuff about the biggest economic threats in real time to humanity than most anyone else around…because its big money that has no heart or soul that has the propensity to do so…and as always, its the little people that pays the price and account fur 8 billion people currently out of the total 8.4 billion humans…so a lots going ti go when this Globalist mass genocidal collapse happens before 2030…

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World-renowned Wall Street financial analyst Ed Dowd is sounding the alarm that the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has become the “greatest bubble of all time,” warning that its collapse will bring devastating economic turmoil.

Dowd warns that the bubble is about to burst and it will trigger a brutal 40% to 50% market correction.

The veteran money manager and financial analyst at Phinance Technologies previously made his name during the Dot-com bubble.

Before the Dot-com bubble burst, Dowd was warning investors to get out before the technology-driven market frenzy collapsed.

Now, Dowd says he is seeing the same warning signs emerging around AI.

However, this time, he warns the stakes are even higher.

“Being a student of history gives you an idea of where you might go in the future,” Dowd said.

“Currently, we have the greatest bubble of all time, and that is the AI bubble.

“It is in the process of becoming exposed, and people are beginning to issue warning signals.”

‘Then It All Unwinds’

During a recent interview, Dowd pointed to former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who has also raised concerns about the enormous amount of capital concentrated in AI.

But Dowd warned that the problems run much deeper than excessive investor enthusiasm.

The enormous data centers required to support the AI boom consume staggering amounts of electricity, and Dowd argues the infrastructure simply cannot provide enough power to sustain the planned expansion.

“First of all, there is not even enough power to power these data centers,” Dowd said.

“That’s going to halt the CapEx (Capital Expenditure) on its own accord.”

At the same time, AI companies and infrastructure projects will require massive amounts of additional financing.

Dowd warned that demand for capital will increasingly collide with government borrowing.

“There is so much capital that has to be raised that will compete with government debt, there will be a crowding out effect,” he said.

“The costs to finance this are going to keep going higher and higher, and this will cause some bankruptcies . . . and then it all unwinds.”

Dowd Warns of 40% to 50% Market Correction

Dowd warned that the fallout could devastate markets.

“It would not surprise me to see a 40% to 50% correction at some point,” he said.

Dowd cautioned that predicting precisely when the collapse begins is far more difficult.

“Calling when that is going to happen is very difficult. I don’t suggest anyone short the market, but it seems like we are getting closer to the endgame when people are openly calling this a bubble,” he said.

Dowd rejected the argument that a speculative bubble cannot burst once investors recognize what is happening.

“People say the bubble does not pop until everybody believes. That’s not true,” he said.

“There were plenty of people during the 2000 Dot-com bubble who knew it was a bubble.

“They actually played it, and the game was ‘get out before everybody else gets out.’”

Investors knowing they are participating in a bubble does not eliminate the danger, Dowd warned.

It simply turns the market into a race for the exits.

“So, people know it’s a bubble,” he said.

“The question is what will burst it?”

Credit Markets Could Trigger Collapse

Dowd identified credit markets as the potential trigger that could finally burst the AI bubble.

“That is the credit markets and private credit, which have been a big source of funding for AI that is under stress,” he warned.

“There is a default cycle coming, and the general backdrop of the real economy is quite weak.”

Dowd said the warning signs extend well beyond technology stocks.

“The consumer is not doing well,” he said.

“Walmart just reported, and it had the lowest same-store sales in six years.

“The general population is not doing well, the housing market is rolling over, and we have the economic problems with China we have talked about before.”

Those pressures are converging just as enormous amounts of money continue pouring into AI infrastructure and companies.

Dowd warns that the combination is setting the stage for severe market turmoil.

“So, it’s all conspiring to be a nasty correction,” he said.

WATCH:

Dot-Com Warning Signs Return

The warning carries particular significance because Dowd watched a similar technology mania unfold during the Dot-com era.

Investors poured enormous sums into internet companies before the bubble finally burst, wiping out vast amounts of market value.

Dowd says today’s AI frenzy is showing the same fundamental danger signs, only on an even larger scale.

AI requires enormous capital expenditures, huge quantities of electricity, and continued access to financing at the same time that private credit is coming under pressure and the wider economy is weakening.

The question, according to Dowd, is no longer whether investors recognize that AI has become a bubble.

It is what finally triggers the rush for the exits.

And when that happens, Dowd warns the consequences could be severe, with markets potentially plunging as much as 40% to 50%.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/wall-street-analyst-warns-greatest-bubble-all-time-burst/

And,

READ MORE – Bill Gates Sounds Alarm Over ‘Insane’ AI Takeover of Humans

Blogger Comment: This is what happened before the Canadian police opened a Criminal Investigation and after a Canadian Grandmother was Euthanized Against Her Will…but where I have no faith at all that any justice will be done, as the Mounties are in the grasp of the Globalist controlled Canada with one of their highest former exectives at Davos in charge, as it would be against the elites’s narrative for humanity…PM Carney…
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The devastated family of an 83-year-old Ontario woman has revealed that the Canadian government euthanized the Christian grandmother against her will while she prayed, cried for help, and begged doctors to spare her life.

Brigitte Stegemann’s family says she was euthanized despite allegedly breaking down in tears and declaring: “I don’t want the death shot!”

Stegemann was killed with a lethal injection under Canada’s taxpayer-funded Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program on July 10 at The Pearl care home in Cannifton, Ontario.

Her granddaughter and longtime caregiver, Brigitte Kranendonk, has revealed that Stegemann was confused, failed a cognitive assessment, and never clearly consented to being killed on the morning of the procedure.

In fact, Kranendonk says her grandmother begged doctors to let her live.

Belleville Police has now confirmed that the case remains under investigation.

“This incident is currently open and under investigation with our Criminal Investigations Division,” a police spokesman said.

Grandmother Cried: ‘I’ve Made a Mistake’

Stegemann had been diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer in February.

However, doctors were reportedly uncertain whether she had six months or as long as two years to live.

Kranendonk said she had previously discussed assisted dying with her grandmother and received a clear response.

“No, I don’t want that,” Stegemann said, according to Kranendonk.

Her granddaughter said Stegemann’s Christian faith and fear of displeasing God were major reasons she opposed euthanasia.

But while Kranendonk was away on a 10-day road trip, the care home informed her that Stegemann would undergo a MAiD assessment.

Kranendonk said she later attended a cognitive assessment in which her grandmother gave incorrect answers about her own family.

Stegemann said she had no siblings despite having 13 and incorrectly said none were still alive, according to Kranendonk.

Nevertheless, the doctor declared her eligible for MAiD.

Two days before the scheduled procedure, Kranendonk said she confronted her grandmother in explicit terms.

“Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?” she asked.

Stegemann reportedly broke down and cried for 45 minutes.

“I’ve made a mistake,” she wailed.

Kranendonk said she repeatedly reassured her grandmother that she could refuse.

“The doctors are coming on Friday, and you just say no,” she recalled pleading.

Kranendonk says her grandmother was so upset by the thought of being euthanized that “she was bawling. Inconsolable.”

‘Phenomenal Amount of Blood’

What followed on the morning of Stegemann’s death has left Kranendonk questioning whether her grandmother ever gave final consent.

Before the doctor arrived, Kranendonk alleges that a nurse began attempting to insert an IV.

The nurse reportedly struggled to find a vein, repeatedly piercing Stegemann’s arm before trying the other side.

“There was a phenomenal amount of blood,” Kranendonk recalled.

“It is all over my Oma’s arm, it is all over her nightie, soaking through her pillow, all over the sheets, there is so much blood,” she said.

“And throughout all this time, mind you, the nurse is not wearing gloves.”

Kranendonk says the nurse had to convince her grandmother to accept a medical port, a small device placed under the skin to provide a direct way for medicine to reach a vein.

However, the 83-year-old repeatedly ripped it off, screaming: “I don’t want the death shot!”

When the doctor entered, Kranendonk said Stegemann was unresponsive.

The doctor allegedly told her she was there to administer “medicine” and asked whether that was acceptable.

“My Oma is not moving,” Kranendonk recalled.

“She doesn’t open her eyes. She doesn’t nod.

“She doesn’t say anything, and the doctor just said: ‘Okay, well, I’m going to proceed.’”

Stegemann was pronounced dead within 10 minutes.

Family Demands Investigation

Kranendonk now alleges her grandmother was euthanized without proper consent.

“She did not consent the morning of the procedure,” Kranendonk said.

She is seeking answers from Ontario’s Chief Coroner’s Office, the Patient Ombudsman, and police.

The practitioners and care home have not publicly responded to the allegations, but are understood to maintain that Stegemann legally consented to MAiD.

Belleville Police confirmed that the matter is under investigation by its Criminal Investigations Division.

For Kranendonk, however, the experience destroyed her trust in Canada’s medical establishment.

“I was flying blind,” she said.

She said she trusted the government and medical professionals to protect her vulnerable grandmother.

That trust, she says, is now gone.

Canada has become one of the world’s largest users of “assisted suicide.”

In 2023, MAiD accounted for 4.7 percent of all deaths nationwide.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/canadian-grandmother-euthanized-against-her-will-praying-crying-dont-want-death-shot/

And,

READ MORE – Canadian Government Euthanizes ‘Young and Healthy’ 26-Year-Old

Blogger Comment: The Globalist’s puppets are getting jittery and know that the opeople are really finding out now and what’s really going on…about time too for the survival of humanity and not the mass depopulation agenda of the Globalist elites in Davos that has been growing since 1971 when the elite’s World Economic Foirum…The WEF…and where we might just miss by 2030 the closest shave and bullet ever for the survival of humanity…a truth of the highest order…

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Several Germans have been hit with hefty fines after posting insulting comments about Chancellor Friedrich Merz on social media, reigniting concerns about free speech and the growing use of criminal law to police political criticism.

The penalties stem from comments posted beneath a Heilbronn police Facebook announcement regarding a visit by Merz in October 2025.

Two individuals were each ordered to pay roughly €2,000 ($2,326) after prosecutors determined their remarks crossed the line from political criticism into criminal insult.

The cases are fueling debate over Germany’s controversial laws that provide politicians with special legal protections against offensive speech.

Prosecutors Pursue Facebook Critics

One commenter referred to the chancellor as “Lügenfritz,” a play on the German word for liar combined with the diminutive form of Friedrich. Another used a crude insult directed at Merz.

According to prosecutors, the comments had the potential to undermine public confidence in the chancellor and encourage hostility among like-minded individuals.

The Amtsgericht Öhringen in Baden-Württemberg ultimately issued a penalty order against the user who posted the “Lügenfritz” remark, and the decision has become final.

Notably, Merz himself was not involved in initiating the case. Prosecutors moved forward based on what they described as a “special public interest” in protecting public officials.

Special Protections for Politicians

The prosecutions were brought under Section 188 of Germany’s criminal code, which provides enhanced protections against insult, defamation, and malicious gossip directed at political figures.

Critics argue the law creates a separate standard for elected officials that ordinary citizens do not enjoy.

Under the statute, prosecutors can pursue criminal cases when they determine that comments about politicians could damage public trust in government officials.

The application of the law has produced inconsistent outcomes.

Authorities reviewed 39 social media comments connected to the Heilbronn police post.

Fifteen cases were dropped entirely.

Police forwarded 38 comments for criminal review, but prosecutors sought formal penalties in only four instances.

One individual who called Merz a “Lackaffe,” roughly translated as a pompous fool, initially received a penalty order but later reached a settlement requiring a €100 payment.

Court officials noted that the settlement did not constitute an acquittal and was based on the assumption that the comment could have been punishable.

Some Insults Deemed Protected Speech

Other comments escaped prosecution entirely.

Terms such as “Pinocchio,” “Lügen-Kasper” (“lying clown”), “verlogener zweite Wahl Kasper” (“dishonest second-rate clown”), and “Lügenbaron” (“baron of lies”) were ultimately deemed protected speech by prosecutors in other jurisdictions.

In one case, prosecutors ruled that describing Merz as a “Lügenbaron” qualified as permissible criticism of a public official and was protected under freedom of expression.

The differing outcomes have raised concerns about legal uncertainty and selective enforcement.

Critics argue that when identical or similar comments can be treated as either protected speech or criminal conduct depending on which prosecutor’s office handles the case, citizens have little way of knowing where the legal boundaries actually lie.

Growing Concerns Over Free Speech

The latest prosecutions come amid broader concerns about Germany’s increasing use of criminal investigations for online speech.

One of the most widely publicized cases involved Bavarian pensioner Stefan Niehoff, whose home was searched after he reposted a meme describing a government minister as a “professional idiot.”

Niehoff later died, but his case became a symbol for critics who argue that German authorities have become increasingly aggressive in policing online expression.

German prosecutors now reportedly handle thousands of speech-related referrals annually, with law enforcement agencies and activist organizations monitoring online content and forwarding complaints for investigation.

The opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has called for Section 188 to be abolished, arguing that politicians should not receive special legal protections unavailable to ordinary citizens.

An effort to repeal the law failed earlier this year when every other parliamentary group in the Bundestag voted to keep it in place.

The controversy highlights a growing tension between protecting public officials from threats and preserving the ability of citizens to openly criticize those in power.

Free speech advocates warn that the risk of facing criminal penalties for political commentary could discourage ordinary Germans from speaking out online altogether.

Follow the link for the source… https://slaynews.com/german-citizens-fined-month-salary-mocking-chancellor-merz-social-media/

And,

READ MORE – Germany Moves to Force Social Media Companies to Boost Government-Controlled ‘Approved News’