Guy Verhofstadt’s bombastic Twitter video, challenging Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini to a debate, has drawn more than a few chuckles from commenters who don’t believe the Belgian MEP can deliver on his words.

Verhofstadt, who is currently campaigning for the European Union’s top job on behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group, released the awkward video in which he accuses Salvini of “being paid by Putin to destroy Europe.”

“Just like you, your extreme right-wing friends, Le Pen, Strache, Farage and Orban are constantly plotting and paid by Putin to destroy Europe,” the 66-year-old said.

“Hereby I challenge you to a one-on-one debate, as people have the full right to know what devil’s plan you have in mind,” he added.

The overwhelming majority of the respondents don’t fancy Verhofstadt’s chances should the mooted debate ever occur.

“It is not too wise to initiate a debate you are clearly going to lose,” one person responded. Another asked: “Why would he waste the very last days of campaigning to debate someone nobody in Italy knows?”

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Many others joked that the MEP had hit the bottle before throwing the gauntlet down.

Verhofstadt’s challenge came after Salvini joined a group of representatives of nationalist parties from a range of EU countries at a rally in Milan on Saturday, ahead of the EU parliamentary elections this weekend.

Euroskeptic parties are polling well ahead of the vote and look set to gain seats at the expense of the Parliament’s main groups, including Verhofsdtad’s ALDE.

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The far side of the moon is weirder than we previously thought and new research indicates that, in the distant past, the moon could have faced off against an unknown object in a massive collision that changed its face.

On the near side that faces Earth, we can see large dark areas of volcanic basalt dotting the lunar landscape. Meanwhile, on the dark side, thanks to the Soviet probe Luna 3 which orbited the Moon in 1959, we know that surface is riddled with thousands upon thousands of craters.

While many might posit that the Earth has simply protected the near side from aeons of meteorite impacts, new research suggests that the real answer may not be so simple (the Earth is too far from the moon to provide enough anti-meteor defense anyway).

Analysis of data from 2012 reveals that the dark side of the moon has an extra-thick crust (some 20km or 12.5 miles deep) which contains a 10km thick layer of magnesium and iron enriched material not found on the near side.

Previous theories suggested our moon may actually have been formed when two smaller moons merged.

Another popular theory is that a particularly large asteroid, known as a planemo, slammed into the moon, and this latest research indicates this might be the real reason our satellite looks so odd.

Researchers, led by astrophysicist Meng Hua Zhu of the Macau University of Science and Technology, ran computer simulations of 360 impact scenarios to see if they could recreate the moon’s particularly unusual asymmetry and, in one of the tests, involving an object 780km (480-mile) in diameter, they managed just that.

This object, roughly a quarter of the moon’s size, would had to have packed quite a punch, travelling at some 22,500kph (14,000mph). A slightly smaller object, 720km across and travelling at 24,500kph, could also have done the trick but in both cases the effects would be the same: a massive, dusty impact which would dramatically reshape the moon forevermore, shifting its crust and creating a five to 20km deep crust of previously foreign material. Quite the black eye.

The estimated time this celestial smash might have taken place would had to have been early enough in the solar system’s life for the Moon to have still been warm inside, allowing it to settle back into a rounded shape, erasing the giant impact crater in the process.

“This is a paper that will be very provocative,”said planetary scientist Steve Hauck of Case Western Reserve University. The research was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

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Iraq will send diplomatic delegations to both Tehran and Washington, its prime minister has said, after weeks of military posturing and insult trading has prompted fears of open conflict between the two rivals.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said the teams’ aim was to help “halt tensions” between the US and Iran. It’s not an official mediation though. Iraq considers both Iran and the US as allies, with both giving substantial support to Baghdad in its battle against Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists.

“Iraq is making high-level contact, and its view to resolve the crisis is so close to the European view,” Mahdi said, referring to many European nations’ who want normalized relations with Iran. He added that both US and Iranian officials had confirmed to him that they do not want conflict with each other.

Mahdi’s push for de-escalation follows calls by several influential Iraqi Shia leaders against any military action. Prominent cleric and politician Muqtada al-Sadr feared a US-Iran conflict would be “the end of Iraq” and pushed for “peace and reconstruction.” Hadi al-Amiri, an Iraqi politician and former military commander warned that war would “burn everyone.”Delete

Governments in the region have been on high alert in recent weeks after Washington upped its military presence by sending a “message to Iran” in the form of an aircraft carrier group, bombers, and extra missile defenses to the Persian Gulf. Iran has repeatedly said it does not want conflict with Washington, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei believing there is a similar line of thinking in the US.

“Neither we nor they seek war. They know it will not be in their interest,” he said.

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Le Pen’s National Rally is likely to be tied with “lobbyists close to the American government,” the French president claimed as polls show his party is losing support just days ahead of the European Parliament vote.

Recent polls show Macron’s party La République En Marche (LREM) is trailing behind Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally and the president chose to lash out once again at its main rival.

Macron’s fresh rant was triggered by the figure of Steve Bannon, a former Trump’s advisor, whom French media suspect of backing the National Rally’s campaign. Bannon, who is currently visiting Paris, insists he came as an “observer” but the president clearly feels it is not the whole story.

“I see for the first time a collusion between the nationalists and foreign interests, whose objective is the dismantling of Europe,” Macron said on Monday, adding that Bannon is a “lobbyist close to the American government.”

Macron’s words were preceded by harsh remarks by his fellow party members. Nathalie Loiseau, LREM’s top contender for the upcoming election earlier said that Bannon “absolutely does not hide his desire” to interfere into the elections while National Rally members are trained according to the “Bannon method” which implies “disinformation” and “lies.” Apart from this Macron’s former political consultant and number six in the LREM list Stéphane Séjourné called Bannon’s actions “an attack on the sovereignty of elections.”

Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen (while admitting that she previously used Bannon’s services as a political adviser) indicated that he “plays no role” in the current campaign. Bannon, for his part, clarified that at times he acts as an “informal adviser” who only “makes remarks to certain parties and gives advice on fundraising,” but doesn’t get paid for that.

Pressure on Eurosceptic parties across Europe is high in the final days of the electoral campaign. On Monday, a prominent liberal EP lawmaker and former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt accused Marine Le Pen and four other right-wing politicians of being “paid by Putin” to destroy the EU.

The politician also urged to support the pro-European parties in order not to let “our continent become a playground for Trump & Putin’s puppets.”

The price for the US-made F16 jet fighters is “higher than expected” and “unjustified,” the Bulgarian defense minister has said as Sofia continues negotiations on the purchase of the Lockheed Martin’s warplanes.

While the price issue is not currently on the table, officials in Bulgaria think the terms of the deal are disadvantageous for Sofia. That’s according to Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov who made the point as he was speaking on local TV.

The deal is loaded with options for which it makes no sense to pay, the official lamented giving an example of language training for pilots. These courses are obsolete as all pilots have already been trained in the US, the minister said.

He also said that Bulgaria will try to bargain the deferred payment for the US aircraft as the single-time purchase would be a heavy burden to the country’s military budget that could hamper proper funding of the existing projects.

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The F-16 talks kicked off in January as Bulgarian lawmakers approved the government plan to buy eight new US fighter jets, which are expected to replace the country’s aging MIG-29s. The deal, estimated to be worth $1.05 billion will mark the country’s biggest military procurement since the collapse of the Communist rule back in 1989.

The US offer for F-16s was preferred by Bulgaria over two alternative bids, including Sweden’s new Gripens and Italy’s second-hand Eurofighters. Karakachanov earlier said that unlike the Italian and Swedish variants, the F-16 fighter jets do not need additional agreements for supplies of the necessary weaponry.

Meanwhile, many politicians in Bulgaria, including President Rumen Radev, have criticized the decision in favor of the US aircraft. Radev who previously served as a commander of the Bulgarian air force slammed the deal for the lack of transparency calling it a “triumph of lobbying.” He also noted that the maintenance of F-16s will cost twice as much as their acquisition and will place excessive demand on the military budget.

A database containing contact details and records of more than 49 million Instagram users, including popular food bloggers and celebrities, has been leaked online by an Indian marketing company, which somehow obtained the list.

Instagram has long transformed from a photo sharing social network into an ad app on which “influencers” – users with thousands of followers – promote products and services for money or barter.

READ MORE: Facebook helps phone companies gather user data, including their ‘creditworthiness’ – report

Now it has emerged that millions of phone numbers, email addresses, photographs, numbers of followers and prices per post of such users were dumped unprotected for anyone to view, IT news site TechCrunch reported.

Journalists found out that the database was linked to social media marketing company Chtrbox, located in Mumbai. It describes itself as “the leading platform for brands to discover and collaborate with all kinds of talented influencers in India,” which means it pays social media celebrities for posting sponsored content.

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None of the listed influencers contacted by TechCrunch, however, could confirm they had a contract with Chtrbox.

The firm refused to comment on the story, but soon after the request, the database was closed. Facebook, which owns Instagram, said that it was looking into the issue “to understand if the data described – including email and phone numbers – was from Instagram or from other sources.”

For Facebook users, the revelation probably didn’t come as a big surprise as the company has recently apologized for several data leaks and has been accused of privacy breaches. In April, it emerged that some 48 million people had their personal details exposed after a data search firm left a huge collection of profiles unprotected in an Amazon cloud service dump. In March, Facebook admitted that a billion users’ passwords had been kept unprotected on the company’s servers for almost a decade.

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The scandalous video that has cost the Austrian vice chancellor his job plays into the hands of establishment parties elsewhere in Europe, and at the same time attacks Russia, which is seen as the right-wing’s backer, experts say.

“Such a scandal plays very well into the hands of establishment parties elsewhere in Europe and there’s another element involved in this because they can basically kill two flies with one blow: it’s against the populism in Europe in general, and, of course, against Russia,” Peter Schulze, professor of International Relations at University of Gottingen, told RT. The rise of the right has been a serious thorn in mainstream parties’ sides, he said, calling the video scandal “basically a two-pronged attack.”

The timing of its release is strange, however. It leaves the now-resigned vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache’s Freedom Party (FPO) with room to regroup and recover in time for the September snap elections at home, which he believes are more important for the party than the European Parliament elections coming up this weekend. In the end, “It may be a kind of an individual revenge act,” Schulze theorized.

The scandalous footage, revealed by the German media last week, showed Strache and another high-ranking FPO member talking to a woman, claimed to be a “niece of a Russian oligarch,” during a drunken get-together in Ibiza. They discuss support for the party’s campaign during the 2017 general election in Austria in exchange for future preferences in getting government construction contracts.

Trick too cheap to fall for?

Potential fallout aside, the video itself looks strikingly like a cheap spy movie, Hugh Bronson from the German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) told RT, arguing that EU voters will never fall for it. Right-wing parties are going strong ahead of the European Parliament elections and the political crisis in Austria won’t change that, Bronson insists.

The leak “will have some effect and, probably, [Strache’s right-wing] Freedom party (FPO) will lose some points when it comes to polling day on Sunday, but it won’t have the big effect that some others hope it will have on the right spectrum of the political agenda,” he said.

The video could actually “backfire against the so-called establishment parties because simply of the way the video was presented,” Bronson argued.

“Lots of vodka; beauties with money to spare; a house on a party island in the Mediterranean; two powerful men intoxicated and ready to talk – all this has the quality of a C-Rated spy movie. I don’t believe that Europeans and voters will fall for this,” Bronson said, adding that it was still just “a singular incident,” involving a major right-wing European figure.

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Facebook has supplied phone companies with customers’ private data without their knowledge or consent, and even helped those companies use Facebook behavior to evaluate users’ creditworthiness, documents reportedly show.

The social network supplied data on location, interests, and friend groupings to phone carriers and manufacturers without users’ permission – data that went far beyond mere technical specs. Users’ activity on Facebook, Instagram and even Messenger was fair game for data-mining, and the platform encouraged and even assisted over 100 global telecoms to use customers’ data for purposes including evaluating their creditworthiness, according to documents seen by the Intercept, which suggest the program is still going on.

Facebook data scientists working on its “Actionable Insights” program developed an algorithm to exclude customers with poor credit history from future promotions by a client, determining creditworthiness through users’ online behavior, according to the document, which presented this case study as an example of what clients could achieve through the program. Such an algorithm, replicated across the platform through a targeting mechanism called “lookalike audiences” that lumps together users who share attributes, could allow Actionable Insights clients to negatively “profile” users, denying them services based on their failure to fulfill metrics they didn’t even know existed, based on behavior they didn’t know was being surveiled.

Actionable Insights was announced in August, at about the same time Facebook’s secretive and possibly illegal data-sharing partnerships with other tech companies were being exposed – and while Facebook was insisting such non-consenting data-sharing was wholly in the company’s past. Like the “trusted partnerships” program, Actionable Insights is ostensibly free, allowing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to continue to claim that Facebook doesn’t “sell users’ data” – but access was provided with the understanding that companies would purchase Facebook ads, now expertly targeted thanks to the user data they could access.

The program serves up information on demographics, location, personal interests, and “friend homophily,” meaning how similar a user is to their friend groups, in addition to functional data like use of WiFi, cell networks and device information. According to the leaked document, the data is “aggregated and anonymized;” while a Facebook spokesperson told the Intercept that the collection of location data stopped at the zip code level, any phone with location turned on pinpoints its owner’s whereabouts quite precisely, and researchers have demonstrated that a record of a person’s movements over the course of a month can reliably identify that person no matter how “anonymized” they are. 

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Speaking to the Intercept, Ashkan Sultani, one of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) employees who drew up the 2011 “consent decree” forcing Facebook to get permission from users before sharing their data, likens the secretive behavioral algorithms used to denote “good credit” or “bad credit” to redlining, the illegal practice of denying home loans to entire demographic groups. Given that studies have already shown Facebook’s ad delivery algorithms are racially biased – the company has paid out at least $5 million to settle multiple lawsuits regarding ad discrimination in employment, credit and housing ads – the addition of an unaccountable behavioral metric is ripe for abuse.

Facebook insists it does not perform creditworthiness evaluations, though the company notably refused to deny it supplied data to others who performed the checks, a distinction that may not exempt it from relevant laws, according to a legal scholar who spoke with the Intercept. Facebook also claimed that partners were only permitted to use the data for “internal” purposes; for an idea of how enforceable that provision is, one need only look to Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook also said that the data supplied to the phone companies is nothing beyond what the platform was already collecting, a rather disingenuous statement given that Facebook was caught in December sharing users’ data with over 150 companies without their consent, in violation of its 2011 FTC consent decree, and is already under criminal investigation for those “partnerships” in New York. Facebook, it seems, knows its behavior is wrong – it just hopes users don’t know.

Huawei isn’t going away just because the US government has tried to ban it from its markets, company founder Ren Zhengfei has said, declaring that the Trump administration “underestimates our strength.”

“Huawei’s 5G will absolutely not be affected” by the Commerce Department’s ban on selling or transferring US technology to the company, Ren told Chinese state media. “In terms of 5G technologies, others won’t be able to catch up with Huawei in two or three years.”

The 90-day grace period before Huawei is officially blacklisted from doing business with US companies does not have much impact on the company, Ren claimed, adding: “We are ready.”

A Huawei spokesperson assured reporters that nothing would change for US residents with Huawei devices, or even those planning to buy a device in the future – possibly because the Chinese firm is already in talks with Google on how to manage the ban.

Huawei has bracing for such a ban after the company watched fellow Chinese telecom ZTE struggle with a similar blacklisting maneuver last year. Unable to do business with US firms and unable to fill the equipment void itself, ZTE closed its doors for four months, throwing itself on the mercy of the US government and reopening its business more than $1 billion poorer. Not so for Huawei: not only has it been developing its own mobile operating system since 2012 to break dependence on Google’s Android, but it already makes half the chips used in its devices.

“We cannot be isolated from the world,” Ren boasted, adding that while Huawei was at odds with the US government, it was not the enemy of US companies.

While Trump’s emergency order last week did not mention China or Huawei by name, it clearly targets both, giving the Secretary of Commerce the right to block any activity posing an “unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.” The Commerce Department then moved to blacklist Huawei and 68 related companies from doing business with US firms.

The US has tried to convince its allies that Huawei is an unconscionable security risk, feeding information directly to the Chinese government through backdoors in its equipment. For its part, Huawei has accused the US of discrimination, claiming American telecoms cannot handle competition and pointing out the US’ own record of backdooring allies’ communications. Washington’s efforts to convince the EU and its member nations to bar Huawei from their 5G networks have failed so far – although Australia has agreed to adopt such a ban.

The battle over Huawei reflects the ongoing trade war between the US and China. Both countries have slapped additional tariffs onto the other’s exports after trade talks fell apart earlier this month, and Trump has threatened to dramatically expand the categories of goods taxed this summer.

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An Islamic State offshoot has amassed around 5,000 militants in northern Afghanistan on the border of post-Soviet republics of Central Asia, the director of Russia’s FSB has warned, adding that many of them have fought in Syria.

“Especially worrying is re-deployment of terrorist groups into northern provinces of Afghanistan,” Alexander Bortnikov told chiefs of ex-Soviet intelligence services in Dushanbe. He warned that ‘Wilayat Khorasan’, a local Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) affiliate, had managed to gather 5,000 fighters in the area.

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Terrorist cells are now infiltrating into former Soviet countries where they are forming ties with organized crime. To keep a low profile, they try to pose as refugees and migrants, according to Bortnikov.

Islamists have suffered a series of defeats in Syria and Iraq, but they still remain a danger. “Now they are trying to regroup in areas which Syrian government doesn’t control, or hide out in refugee camps,” the FSB chief noted.

Another alarming trend is that terrorist groups are relocating their forces to other parts of the world, including Northern Africa and Southeast Asia.

Despite military losses, terrorist organizations are accumulating massive foreign funding to prepare for attacks “all around the world.” Notably, they resort to cryptocurrencies and online payment services to receive money from abroad. Revenues from “illicit oil trade, human trafficking and other criminal activities” also are used by terrorists to stay afloat.

Last month, the FSB director warned of IS militants returning to their countries of origin and creating terrorist cells at home. More than 1,500 of 5,000 jihadists from Europe who earlier joined IS managed to return from the Middle East, Bortnikov said at the time.

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