Cambridge Analytica: Undercover Secrets of Trump's Data Firm

(VIDEO) An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign - and may have broken election law. Executives were secretly filmed saying they leave ‘no paper trail’.

Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 / 0 comments / Read More

Google faces hefty EU fine in shopping case by August

(Reuters) EU antitrust regulators aim to slap a hefty fine on Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google over its shopping service before the summer break in August, two people familiar with the matter said, setting the stage for two other cases involving the U.S. company.

The European Commission's decision will come after a seven-year investigation into the world's most popular internet search engine triggered by scores of complaints from both U.S. and European rivals.


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Posted on Friday, June 02, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Nest security camera knows who's home with Google face tech

(AP) Nest Labs is adding Google's facial recognition technology to a high-resolution home-security camera, offering a glimpse of a future in which increasingly intelligent, internet-connected computers can see and understand what's going on in people's homes.

The Nest Cam IQ, unveiled Wednesday, will be Nest's first device to draw upon the same human-like skills that Google has been programming into its computers - for instance, to identify people in images via its widely used photo app. Facebook deploys similar technology to automatically recognize and recommend tags of people in photos posted on its social network.

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Image: Patrick Barry 

Posted on Thursday, June 01, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Despite Trump, cleaner energy growth expected to carry on

(AP) President Donald Trump may abandon U.S. pledges to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, but that step seems unlikely to stall the push to adopt cleaner forms of energy.

Around the world, coal-fired power plants are being shuttered as governments and private companies invest billions in wind turbines and solar farms.

Even in regions of the U.S. where coal is plentiful, electric utilities are increasingly shifting to cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas. In the absence of federal action to address climate change, some left-leaning states such as California and New York are moving ahead with ambitious clean-energy policies of their own.

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Posted on Thursday, June 01, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

UK's Farage 'person of interest' in Trump-Russia investigation: Guardian

(Reuters) Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage is a "person of interest" in the U.S. investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the Guardian reported on Thursday citing unidentified sources.

The London-based newspaper said Farage had not been accused of wrongdoing and was not a suspect or target of the U.S. investigation. But it said he was "right in the middle" of the relationships being looked at.

The newspaper said the former leader of the UK Independence Party had "raised the interest" of FBI investigators due to his connections with Trump and Julian Assange's Wikileaks, which published leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee during the campaign.


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Posted on Thursday, June 01, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

VIDEO: Spicer Condemns Kabul Attack, Defends 'Covfefe'

(AP) President Donald Trump has spoken with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani about the massive truck bomb that killed nearly 100 people in Kabul. Spokesman Sean Spicer says the call occurred Wednesday afternoon. (May 31)

Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Secretive Bilderberg Group to talk Russia, Trump & ‘war on information’

(RT) Many of the world's most powerful people are gathering for the annual meeting of the mysterious Bilderberg Group this week. Russia, the Trump administration and ‘The war on information’ are among key topics up for discussion.

This year’s gathering takes place in Chantilly, Virginia, less than 30 miles from the White House, and goings on in the Oval Office are top of the agenda for the 131 people who’ve confirmed they’re attending.

Many top White House figures will be at the four-day event, including the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, National Security Advisor HR McMaster and Assistant to the President Christopher Liddell.

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Photo: Mark Taylor 

Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Tax burdens prompt more Americans to ditch their citizenship

(CNBC) Americans abroad have just about had it with Uncle Sam's tax filing requirements.

Those were the findings from a recent survey of more than 2,100 U.S. expatriates, according to Greenback Expat Tax Services, which specializes in working with American taxpayers residing overseas.

Just over 4 in 10 respondents said that while they aren't planning to renounce their U.S. citizenship, they wouldn't rule it out, and 19 percent said they're seriously considering it.


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Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

WikiLeaks’ Assange defies warnings, will publish any evidence of corruption

(RT) Responding to comments from newly elected Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno warning Julian Assange not to ‘interfere’ in South American politics, WikiLeaks’ founder said Ecuador can be “confident” that any evidence of corruption will still be published.

Speaking at a ceremony at the Cochasqui archeological site in the Northern Andes on Thursday, President Moreno “respectfully” called on Assange “not to interfere in Ecuadorian politics, nor in the politics of its allies.”

“His status does not allow him to talk about the politics of any country, let alone ours,” he said, according to CapitalNews.
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Posted on Friday, May 26, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Germany readies to speed up failed asylum seeker deportations

(AFP) Germany, which has taken in over one million asylum seekers since 2015, on Thursday readied plans to speed up expulsions of those denied refugee status -- but controversy flared over sending people back to war-torn Afghanistan.

Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who faces a re-election bid in September amid a voter backlash against the mass influx -- was to discuss a series of measures with leaders of Germany's 16 state governments.

Among the proposals are setting up national "deportation centres" to streamline expulsions, financial incentives for those who return voluntarily, and heightened pressure on countries that refuse to take back their nationals.

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Posted on Thursday, February 09, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Police strike leaves 90 dead, Brazilian city in chaos

(Post-Gazette) At least 90 people are reported dead in a wave of violence in the Brazilian city of Vitoria after the police force there went on strike.

The number of registered murders had risen to 90 since military police stopped patrols on Saturday, Globo reported, citing figures received from a police union.

The mood in the southeastern state of Espirito Santo remained tense Wednesday as armed forces continued patrolling the streets for the fifth straight day.

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Posted on Thursday, February 09, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

EU resettled some 15,000 refugees out of a planned 160,000

(RT) EU member states have only relocated slightly more than 15,000 asylum seekers from Italy, Greece and Turkey out of 160,000 the EU initially pledged to resettle from these overburdened countries under the controversial mandatory refugee quota system.

The number of refugees resettled from Greece and Italy to the other EU member states and associated countries, including Switzerland and Norway, has reached 11,966, the latest European Commission progress report on relocation and resettlement schemes says.

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Posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Rights groups challenge Israel's new settlements law in court

(Reuters) Rights groups petitioned Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday to annul a heavily criticized law that retroactively legalized some 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

The law, approved by parliament on Monday, has drawn condemnation from Europe and the United Nations and has been described by Israel's attorney general as unconstitutional.

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Posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Amazon And Google May Face Antitrust Scrutiny Under Trump

(Forbes) Powerful tech platforms have platform privilege -- the incentive and ability to prioritize their own products and services over those of competitors. In my last Washington Bytes post, I wrote about Facebook competing against news publishers that depend on its platform to reach customers. In the same way, Amazon competes against merchants and Google competes against websites that depend on them.

Because platform privilege involves leveraging market power to alter the competitive playing field, it can lead to antitrust problems. Google has born the brunt of antitrust enforcers’ ire to date, but is Amazon next?

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Posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

VIDEO: Qatar spending $500m a week on FIFA World Cup projects

(AFP) High-spending World Cup 2022 hosts Qatar are splurging almost $500 million every week on major infrastructure projects for football's biggest tournament, the country's finance minister said.

Posted on Tuesday, February 07, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Trump is not the first president to ban foreigners. So why is this time different?

(McClatchy) Donald Trump’s travel ban isn’t new.

Six of the last seven presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have relied on the same federal law to keep certain groups of foreigners out of the United States.

Jimmy Carter denied entry to Iranians in April 1980 after a failed rescue mission for American hostages in Iran. Ronald Reagan barred migrants arriving at the borders from “the high seas” in September 1981, targeting Haitians and Cubans. Bill Clinton in November 1999 barred those responsible for repressing civilians in Kosovo. And George W. Bush in June 2001 banned those who planned or carried out wartime atrocities in the Western Balkans.

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Posted on Tuesday, February 07, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Facing new claims, Poland's ex-president Walesa denies spying

(AFP) Poland's Solidarity hero Lech Walesa on Tuesday flatly denied allegations that fresh handwriting analysis proved he had collaborated with the communist-era secret police in the early 1970s.

The country's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which prosecutes crimes from the Nazi and communist eras, said last week there was "no longer any doubt" that Walesa had signed a collaboration agreement as well as receipts for payment from the secret police.

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Photo

Posted on Tuesday, February 07, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Pollution-fighting Vertical Forest buildings coming to China

(CNET) China has pollution problems, and one Italian architect could have some answers.

The Chinese city of Nanjing is getting a Vertical Forest, a set of two buildings stylised with around 1,100 trees and a combination of over 2,500 shrubs and plants.

But it's not all about how it looks: The Nanjing Towers will absorb enough carbon dioxide to make around 132 pounds (60 kilograms) of oxygen every day, an official press release claimed. China's Vertical Forest is scheduled to be completed sometime next year.

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Posted on Tuesday, February 07, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

Vizio smart TVs tracked viewers around the clock without consent

(Ars Technica) Vizio, one of the world's biggest makers of Smart TVs, is paying $2.2 million to settle charges that it collected viewing habits from 11 million devices without the knowledge or consent of the people watching them.

According to a complaint filed Monday by the US Federal Trade Commission, Internet-connected TVs from Vizio contained ACR—short for automated content recognition—software. Without asking for permission, the ACR code captured second-by-second information about the video the TVs displayed. The software collected other personal information and transmitted it, along with the viewing data, to servers controlled by the manufacturer. Vizio then sold the data to unnamed third-parties for purposes of audience measurement, analysis, and tracking.

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Posted on Monday, February 06, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More

VIDEO: American burns his passport during anti-Trump rally in London

(RT) More than 20,000 people marched through the streets of London, Saturday, to condemn UK Prime Minister Teresa May's refusal to cancel the planned state visit of US President Donald Trump to the UK, despite Trump's so-called 'Muslim ban'.

Posted on Monday, February 06, 2017 / 0 comments / Read More