Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
The Poignant Gulag Art by Stalin’s Doomed Meteorologist
February 28th, 2018Via: Atlas Obscura: AN ARCTIC FOX, A HEN, wild berries, a reindeer, a single candle glowing in the darkness, glaciers floating at sea, and an aurora borealis. These are some of the subjects of delicate, precise illustrations created by a man imprisoned in a Soviet gulag during the 1930s. The man’s drawings and letters, teeming […]
China Sets Stage for Xi to Stay in Office Indefinitely
February 25th, 2018Via: Reuters: China’s ruling Communist Party on Sunday set the stage for President Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely, with a proposal to remove a constitutional clause limiting presidential service to just two terms in office.
Apple Moves to Store iCloud Keys in China, Raising Human Rights Fears
February 24th, 2018Via: Reuters: When Apple Inc begins hosting Chinese users’ iCloud accounts in a new Chinese data center at the end of this month to comply with new laws there, Chinese authorities will have far easier access to text messages, email and other data stored in the cloud. That’s because of a change to how the […]
Academic Investigating Chinese Influence Peddling in New Zealand Had Break-Ins at Home and Work
February 19th, 2018Via: New Zealand Herald: A New Zealand academic who made international waves researching China’s international influence campaigns has linked a number of recent break-ins to her work. University of Canterbury professor Anne-Marie Brady, speaking today from Christchurch to the Australian Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee in Canberra, outlined three recent events which caused her concern. […]
Brazil Military Takes Control of Rio de Janeiro’s Security
February 16th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: Brazil’s military will take control of public security in the state of Rio de Janeiro as a wave of violence rattles the population and dominates media coverage ahead of this year’s presidential election. President Michel Temer will issue a decree on Friday putting the military in charge of Rio’s security forces, his press […]
Stimulus Puts U.S. Debt On An Upward Trajectory
February 9th, 2018Via: AFP: As part of a pledge to “Make America Great Again,” President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers are pursuing aggressive economic stimulus while slashing taxes at the same time. The result, budget analysts say, is likely to be swelling debts and deficits for the world’s largest borrower. America’s budget deficit was already on an […]
Satire: FBI Warns Republican Memo Could Undermine Faith In Massive, Unaccountable Government Secret Agencies
February 6th, 2018Via: The Onion: “If we take away the people’s faith in this shadowy monolith exempt from any consequences, all that’s left is an extensive network of rogue, unelected intelligence officers carrying out extrajudicial missions for a variety of subjective, and occasionally personal, reasons.” At press time, Wray confirmed the massive, unaccountable government secret agencies were […]
The Breakneck Rise of China’s Colossus of Electric-Car Batteries
February 3rd, 2018Via: Bloomberg: The next global powerhouse in the auto industry comes from a small city in a tea-growing province of southeast China, where an unheralded maker of electric-vehicle batteries is planning a $1.3 billion factory with enough capacity to surpass the output of Tesla and dwarf the suppliers for battery-powered cars by GM, Nissan and […]
U.S. Government Owned 5G Network?
January 29th, 2018Update: Trump Team Idea to Nationalize 5G Network to Counter China Is Rejected — Via: Reuters: President Donald Trump’s national security team is looking at options to counter the threat of China spying on U.S. phone calls that include the government building a super-fast 5G wireless network, a senior administration official said on Sunday. The […]
ICE Is About to Start Tracking License Plates Across the U.S.
January 27th, 2018Via: The Verge: The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has officially gained agency-wide access to a nationwide license plate recognition database, according to a contract finalized earlier this month. The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians. […]
