USA
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The Strategic Consequences of Edward Snowden’s Revelations (I) By Dmitriy Sedov
In the final days of last year, the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor addressed the international community in a televised speech in order to once again point out the seriousness of the problem. In his speech Snowden referred to George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, saying that the means of monitoring people described by Orwell (the… Continue reading
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Privatizing the Internet: US telecoms seek to make internet enhanced form of cable TV’
On Tuesday, January 14, the DC Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “net neutrality” rules. This is one of the fundamental principles of the internet, meaning equal access to everything online. The initiative was pushed by Verizon, the largest mobile phone operator among telecom providers, which demanded that high-speed broadband providers… Continue reading
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Climate Activists Slapped With Terrorism Charges for Devon Energy Protest By Richard Smallteacher
Two climate activists who staged a protest at the headquarters of Devon Energy, a Fortune 500 company based in Oklahoma city, have been charged with a “terrorism hoax” after black powder drifted down from a banner that they unfurled. Continue reading
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Press release: Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) – Environment Chapter
Today, 15 January 2014, WikiLeaks released the secret draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Environment Chapter and the corresponding Chairs’ Report. The TPP transnational legal regime would cover 12 countries initially and encompass 40 per cent of global GDP and one-third of world trade. The Environment Chapter has long been sought by journalists… Continue reading
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Video: Corporate Deregulation To Blame for Toxic Spill in West Virginia
A toxic spill in West Virginia’s Elk River has left 300,000 local residents without water for the past week. The leak came from a storage facility for chemicals used to process coal, and it’s left many wondering if industry regulations are too lax, especially for the company responsible for the leak, Freedom Industries. Continue reading
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The West Virginia chemical disaster By Andre Damon
The release of a toxic coal-treatment chemical into the drinking water of nine counties in West Virginia, shutting off water supplies for over three hundred thousand people for five days, is the latest in a string of industrial disasters resulting from the systematic gutting of corporate regulations in the United States. Continue reading
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Fracking study finds combustible levels of methane in water after EPA gave the all clear
A report has found contaminated drinking water in parts of Texas, infuriating residents who had pressured the EPA to test for methane only to see the agency back off when the company allegedly responsible claimed that its own tests proved otherwise. Continue reading
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TAO: The NSA’s Band of Technology Criminals By Alfredo Lopez
The TAO unit, founded in 1997 and now comprised of an estimated 1,000 technologists and support staff in a half dozen offices nationwide, attacks highly selective and well-protected targets. It steals data, conducts on-line denial of service and other attacks against computers and servers in other countries (including government servers and websites), sneaks into offices… Continue reading
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U.S. Human Radiation Experiments Covered up by Public Broadcasting By William Boardman
When the military scientists of an advanced technological nation deliberately explode their largest nuclear bomb (and 66 others) over Pacific islands and use the opportunities to study the effects of radiation on nearby native people, which group is best described as “savage”? And what should you call the people who prevent a documentary about these… Continue reading
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American and British Spy Agencies Have INTENTIONALLY Weakened Security for Many Decades
Norway’s largest newspaper (Aftenposten) reports today that British spies pressured the developers of cellphone standards in the 1980s to intentionally weaken the cellphone’s encryption. In other words, hackers can break into cellphone calls much more easily because the British spies intentionally made the encryption 1,000 times weaker than it otherwise would have been. Continue reading
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Video: How Indigenous Mexicans Stood up against NAFTA “Death Sentence”
On the same day North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 1994, the Zapatista National Liberation Army and people of Chiapas declared war on the Mexican government, saying that NAFTA meant death to indigenous peoples. They took over five major towns in Chiapas with fully armed women and men. The uprising… Continue reading
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Edward Snowden declares “Mission Accomplished,” reflects on NSA revelations By Barton Gellman
Edward Joseph Snowden emerged at the appointed hour, alone, blending into a light crowd of locals and tourists. He cocked his arm for a handshake, then turned his shoulder to indicate a path. Before long he had guided his visitor to a secure space out of public view. Continue reading
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US: The Monitoring of Our Phone Calls? Government Spooks May Be Listening
The American government is in fact collecting and storing virtually every phone call, purchases, email, text message, internet searches, social media communications, health information, employment history, travel and student records, and virtually all other information of every American. Continue reading
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U.S. Navy Sailors Sue TEPCO over Cluster-Fukushima Snafu By William Boardman
The core of this story is the lawsuit filed December 21, 2012, by attorney Paul C, Garner of Brooks & Associates of Encinatas, California, on behalf of nine plaintiffs (including a one-year-old), all of whom “were among the members of the U.S. Navy crew and attached to the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), whose home port… Continue reading
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How the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are Fueling Massive Global Inequality By Steve Rushton
Benjamin works as the local authority manager for the U.K. campaign Move Your Money and is investigating how much public money authorities lost in the financial crisis. Founded in early 2012, Move Your Money — which has parallel groups like this oneoperating in the U.S. — has helped over 2 million people in the U.K.… Continue reading
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EU and US both threatened by secret trade talks By Magda Stoczkiewicz and Erich Pica
This week’s talks, like the previous rounds, will happen behind closed doors. The negotiating texts will be kept secret from the public but not from the approximately 600 corporate representatives who have been named ‘cleared advisors’ for the United States. Continue reading
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Former Top NSA Official: “We Are Now In A Police State”
32-year NSA Veteran Who Created Mass Surveillance System Says Government Use of Data Gathered Through Spying “Is a Totalitarian Process” Continue reading
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Trans-Pacific trade talks fail to meet Obama’s deadline By Mike Head
Despite bullying and cajoling by the US, closed-door talks in Singapore this week on its Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact broke up without a final agreement, failing to meet the Obama administration’s deadline for a deal by the end of 2013. Continue reading
