US Election Tampering. Merkel and May. Mad Hat Outing

Thirteen individuals and three Russian companies have been charged with interfering in the US presidential elections by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in a detailed document. They were part of "Project Lakhta", which included the Internet Research Agency, an organisation based in Russia, and which had a budget of over $1 million per month.

Key points identified by media analysis of the document included the following allegations: With the start of the presidential campaign, even before Trump joined in, the individuals and organsiations initially researched hot and divisive topics and possible swing areas. This information was then used to promote misinformation and themed groups on social media. Whilst there was a trend to denigrate the Clinton campaign, the general trend was to foment arguments and disrupt the electoral process. They purchased US server space and set up faux American identities which acted as nuclei to fire up others to amplify the disruptive and divisive effects.

Significantly, the document did not suggest collusion by US individuals with the process.

Prime Minister Theresa May met with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel with no clear new information revealed. Merkel expressed polite curiosity about what the UK's position would be, but it required a deeper internet search to find German reports on the meeting.

The next topic on the speech agenda is on security tomorrow. Leaving the EU could mean the loss of the close cooperation on security and information sharing currently in place. The aim is to have a new system in place in time for Brexit which mirrors the current status as closely as possible.

Cambridgeshire was bathed in sunshine again and the wind had died down too. I donned the Mad Hatter's hat I made for L & S's wedding as part of my speech and set off for the Friday Networking at the A14 and at Huntingdon. Five people started conversations due to the hat, three cars hooted or shouted out comments, a number of passers by smiled whilst the majority took the British approach of pretending nothing unusual was happening. Photojournal of the day here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156372713468689.1073741833.664098688&type=1&l=ec304c891f

Spent some time at the Norris Museum trying out macrophotography of one or two items in cabinets. This was in preparation for my talk to the University of the Third Age U3A on macrophotography next week.