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China
November 23, 2019 China is estimating it has already deployed 176 million cameras to monitor public spaces across the country. That number is expected to expand to 2.76 billion, or nearly two for each citizen, by 2022. Chinese firms are omnipresent at a Paris homeland security trade show, capitalising on their vast experience in developing surveillance systems for Beijing to conquer the global market despite concerns the technology has been used to violate human rights. With 89 out of 1,100 companies demonstrating their wares at the Milipol security trade fair, China is the best represented of the 53 nations present save for host nation France. Organisers closed the stand of one Chinese firm at the previous fair in 2017 after human rights campaigners from Amnesty International called them out for allowing it to display handcuffs that deliver electric shocks and other equipment that could be considered torture instruments that are banned in the EU. (Source: BangkokPost)
Iran
November 27, 2019 "The joint wargame between Iran, Russia, and China, which will hopefully be conducted next month, carries the same message to the world, that these three countries have reached a meaningful strategic point in their relations, with regard to their shared and non-shared interests, and by non-shared I mean the respect we have for one another’s national interests," the commander of Iran's navy, Rear Admiral Khanzadi, said. (Source: TheWashingtonFreeBeacon)
Iraq
29 November 2019 Iraqi Prime Minister Mahdi announced his resignation today after the country's senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government rocked by weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest. Young, unemployed and unarmed protesters have led calls for an overhaul of a political system they say is endemically corrupt and serves foreign powers, especially Baghdad's ally Tehran. Iraqi forces have killed hundreds of mostly young, unarmed demonstrators people since mass anti-government protests broke out on Oct. 1. More than a dozen members of the security forces have also died in clashes. At least 436 people have died in less than two months. The burning of Iran's consulate in the holy city of Najaf in November 27 escalated violence and drew a brutal response from security forces who shot dead more than 60 people nationwide yesterday. Sunni areas decimated by the fight to defeat islamic state have mostly been quiet, partly because of fears that is militants could exploit unrest to grow an ongoing insurgency. (Source: Reuters)
Israel
28/11/2019 Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used daily by Israel's military in and around its borders, whether dropping tear-gas canisters on Palestinian demonstrators, monitoring Hezbollah positions in Lebanon or striking Islamic Jihad bases in Gaza. The senior echelons of the country's industry are populated by former military and intelligence officials, many of whom became founders or engineers in local startups. Development cycles are therefore short. Ttiny Israel is now a global force in the multibillion-dollar UAV industry, competing against China and the US. The global drone market is estimated to be worth around $12 billion in 2019, with that expected number to double in a decade. Drones play an increasingly pivotal role in revolutionising agricultural practice, whether it be spraying, harvesting or pollination. (Source: AFP)
Persian Gulf
November 23, 2019 The deployment of 14,000 additional American troops to the Persian Gulf region since the spring. The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln passed through the Strait of Hormuz last week, the first time a Navy carrier had traversed the Persian Gulf since April. Navy officials have noted that the Lincoln has been at sea for months in the Gulf of Oman without regular port calls for the crew. A report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency last week predicted that Iran will deploy increasing numbers of more accurate and lethal ballistic missiles and field new land-attack cruise missiles. In seven months the Pentagon was pulling Patriot missile-defense systems out of Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain as part of a realignment of firepower toward Russia and China. Speaking today at a regional security conference in Manama, Bahrain, the home of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, General McKenzie the head of the military’s Central Command pledged a continued American security commitment to the Gulf despite a Trump administration policy shift to prioritize threats from China and Russia. He urged regional partners like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Oman to work with Washington in confronting any Iranian aggression. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the Emirates have joined the United States, Britain, Australia and Albania to form a maritime coalition to ensure safe passage through Middle Eastern waterways after a series of attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf this past spring. The Emirates has broken ranks with President Trump’s hard-line approach to Iran, sending a Coast Guard delegation to Tehran in July to discuss maritime security issues. (Source: MsN / TheNewYorkTimes)
United States
Nov 30, 2019 The sinister scientist behind the CIA’s mind-control mayhem. Gottlieb, the Bronx-born son of Hungarian Jews, became a man who would earn comparisons to a ghoulish Nazi doctor. After getting a doctorate in biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology, Gottlieb joined the CIA in 1951. American troops were fighting in Korea. Washington was increasingly worried about what many believed was the existential threat posed by the Soviet Union. Gottlieb was on the job for a few weeks, when he was tapped “to invigorate” what would be known as the Artichoke project. Artichoke gave Gottlieb broad license to carry out mind control projects. A CIA memo describes the mission: “the investigation of drug effects on ego control and volitional activities, i.e., can willfully suppressed information be elicited through drugs affecting higher nervous systems? If so, which agents are better for this purpose?” The CIA aimed to create truth serum to use on prisoners and other compounds that would help wipe away memories of events that would cause trouble for the agency. Intelligence officers would have the ability to program people to carry out missions. Artichoke included the “dosing (of) unwilling patients with potent drugs, subjecting them to extremes of temperature and sound (and) strapping them to electroshock machines." Artichoke squads worked with impunity at American military sites in Europe and Asia. Such projects were closely guarded secrets. Gottlieb oversaw a scientific unit at Maryland’s Camp Detrick (since renamed Fort Detrick), where chemists researched the effects of LSD, heroin, and other drugs. Gottlieb became intimately familiar with LSD’s mind-altering effects. In 1953, Dulles, one of Gottlieb’s ardent backers, got the CIA’s top job. He wanted “to intensify and systematize” the work done under Artichoke, and he tapped Gottlieb to head a new program: MK-ULTRA with a generous budget and an “effectively unlimited supply” of LSD (the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly manufactured the hallucinogenic drug for the CIA). A key MK-ULTRA initiative involved medical professionals who agreed to administer drugs to their patients - often without the patients’ knowledge or consent. Dr. Pfeiffer used inmates at the federal prison in Atlanta and at a juvenile detention center in Bordentown, New Jersey, administering depressants and hallucinogens in volumes that resulted in seizures and hallucinations that lasted for days. Another doctor - a New York allergist named Abramson, who got an $85,000 MK-ULTRA stipend, developed a special curiosity about the impact of mind-altering drugs on children. He closely monitored experiments, including one in which 12 ‘pre-puberty’ boys were fed psilocybin, and another in which 14 children between the ages of six and 11, diagnosed as schizophrenic, were given 100 micrograms of LSD each day for six weeks. Gottlieb prepared a pre-poisoned tube of toothpaste meant for Congolese Prime Minister Lumumba (it went unused) and ran a scientific team that considered a plot to disgrace Castro. Believing that the Cuban leader’s charisma was linked to his facial hair, Gottlieb wanted to have thallium salts sprinkled in his boots. (Source: TheDailyBeast)
November 27, 2019 Presidential candidate Bloomberg said that the United States needs "an awful lot more immigrants rather than less." On his second day campaigning for the Democratic nomination, the former New York City mayor contrasted his views on immigration with President Trump's restrictive policies and laid out a vision of a multicultural society enriched by immigrants. "We need immigrants to take all the different kinds of jobs that the country needs - improve our culture, our cuisine, our religion, our dialogue and certainly improve our economy," the billionaire told. (Source: Fox5NewYork)
November 23, 2019 On the trail of a fourth Soviet spy at Los Alamos. The world’s first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexican desert - a result of a highly secretive effort code-named the Manhattan Project, whose nerve center lay nearby in Los Alamos. Just 49 months later, the Soviets detonated a nearly identical device in Central Asia, and Washington’s monopoly on nuclear arms abruptly ended. Seborer was born in New York City in 1921, the youngest child of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He attended City College of New York, studied electrical engineering. Seborer joined the United States Army in October 1942 and was assigned to the Oak Ridge complex in Tennessee, a giant industrial arm of the Manhattan Project that became its headquarters. He was transferred to Los Alamos in 1944 and worked there to 1946. His Soviet code name was Godsend, and he came to Los Alamos from a family of spies. In 1951, Mr. Seborer fled the United States with his older brother Stuart, as well as his brother’s wife and mother-in-law, and defected to the Soviet Union, where, in 1964, he received the Order of the Red Star, a prestigious military award. He died in Moscow in April 2015 under the assumed surname Smith. “Enormous” was the K.G.B.’s code name for the American project. The identities of the other three Los Alamos spies have long been known. Fuchs, a physicist, was arrested in early 1950, shortly after the first Soviet detonation. His testimony led to a second spy, Greenglass, a machinist, who was also taken into custody. Not until 1995 was the third spy, Hall, the youngest physicist at Los Alamos, identified publicly. By then he had moved to England and was never convicted of espionage. (Source: msn)
Salvador
November 30 2019 El Salvador’s homicide rate reached over 100 murders per 100,000 residents in 2015, over the past two decades connected in some way to a three-way gang war among members of the two largest gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 (La 18), and government security forces.The country’s defense ministry estimates that as many as 500,000 Salvadorans are involved in gangs - in a country of 6.5 million- either through direct participation or through coercion and extortion by relatives. Public killings are common, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all murders. The emergence of an intricate gang culture with its own traditions, rules, and structures has transformed the act of killing into a ritual, filled with intentional references to sadism and satanism. Often, the aim is not just to kill, but to torture, maim, and dismember the victim. The roots of El Salvador’s current violence lie in the country’s civil war during the 1980s. Many Salvadorans fled to the United States, and in particular to Los Angeles, where Salvadorans teenagers joined together in ethnic solidarity to protect themselves against other established gangs in the city. Following the end of the civil war in 1992, immigration policies in the United States became more restrictive, and migrants who had been convicted of crimes were sent home. Both major gangs have operated in a decentralized way, usually financed through daily extortion promises, which range from just $2 to $3 for small businesses and $5 to $20 for medium-sized businesses and distributors with estimated revenues of $31.2 million for MS-13. The money spent because of gangs, either through extortion or buying private security, combined with the money lost because of violence, amounts to a staggering $4 billion per year, about 15 percent of the country’s GDP. In the 2014 elections the eventual winning party, the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, promised up to $10 million in microcredit to gang leaders in exchange for an electoral victory. The election in February of Bukele - a young president from neither of the two major parties - has brought some measure of hope. He has pledged to eradicate gangs in the country within three to four years. (Source: ForeignPolicy)
Globalization
November 30, 2019 Global protests in 2019. Algeria. In February, after President Bouteflika announced his intent to run for a fifth term, an estimated 3 million protesters in Algiers demanded a complete overhaul of Bouteflika's regime. Bouteflika resigned in April. Elections are scheduled for December. Bolivia. After elections in October, Bolivians in La Paz protested claims of election fraud against President Morales. In November, Morales announced his resignation and fled to Mexico. His supporters have demanded his return. At least 31 people have been killed. Chile. Protests began in October in the capital, Santiago, over proposed hikes in subway fares. Protests soon spread around the country, with Chileans demanding income equality, better health care and more money for education. At least 22 people have been killed. Colombia. Protests began in November over a list of issues, including lack of a national economic plan, corruption and the killing of human rights activists. Protests have drawn more than 250,000 people. At least three people have been killed. Czech Republic. In November, more than 200,000 people in Prague demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Andrej Babis over allegations of fraud. Ecuador. Protests and riots erupted in October over President Moreno's austerity measures that proposed ending fuel subsidies and cutting the benefits and salaries of civil servants. The protests ended after indigenous groups and the Ecuadorian government reached a deal. Egypt. Rare protests were held in Cairo, Alexandria and several other cities Sept. 20 and 27, accusing top officials of using public funds for personal fortunes. More than 4,000 people - including 11 journalists and more than 100 children and foreigners - were arrested. France. In November, thousands protested, demanding changes in stagnant wages, rising prices and income inequality. More than 145 people were arrested. Haiti. In February, protesters in Port-au-Prince demanded the resignation of President Moïse. They also demanded a transitional government and the prosecution of corrupt officials. At least 40 people have been killed since September. Hong Kong. Protests began in March opposing a proposed bill that would have allowed Hong Kong citizens to be extradited to mainland China. The protests quickly turned into wider calls for democracy. Approximately 2 million people participated in a rally June 16. Two people have died since March. Indonesia. In September, students in major cities protested the weakening of the Corruption Eradication Commission. At least two were killed. Protesters also demanded the government overturn new laws that penalized people for insulting the president, and banned extramarital sex, and gay and lesbian relations. Iran. In November, protests erupted across Iran after the government announced a 50% increase in gasoline prices. More than 140 protesters have been killed in 22 cities. More than 1,000 have been arrested in a nationwide crackdown. Iraq. Since October, anti-corruption protests have been held in Baghdad and the south of the country. By the government's own count, more than 350 people have died and nearly 1,000 have been injured. Lebanon. Since October, protesters throughout the country have demanded an end to corruption, calling for a new government made up entirely of "technocrats," or non-politicians. Protesters also demanded more jobs and improved services such as electricity, water and health care. Russia. Since summer, approved and unapproved protests have occurred in Moscow, sparked by the city council elections from which opposition candidates were barred. More than 1,500 protesters have been arrested, some sentenced to long prison terms. Demonstrators now demand the release of jailed protesters Spain. Pro-independence demonstrators in the Catalonia region flooded the streets in October after nine separatist leaders were given long prison sentences for holding an illegal referendum in 2017. (Source: VoA)
Nov. 24, 2019 World Wide Web inventor Berners-Lee released an ambitious rule book for online governance - a bill of rights and obligations for the internet - designed to counteract the growing prevalence of such anti-democratic poisons as misinformation, mass surveillance and censorship. For instance, the contract proposes a framework for protecting online privacy and personal data with clearly defined national laws that give individuals greater control over the data collected about them. Independent, well-resourced regulators would offer the public effective means for redress. Current laws and institutions don’t measure up to that standard. His nonprofit foundation’s top donors include the Swedish, Canadian and U.S. governments and the Ford and Omidyar foundations. (Source: MarketWatch)
11. 22. 2019 In October, dark web researcher Vinny Troia found one such trove sitting exposed and easily accessible on an unsecured server, comprising 4 terabytes of personal information- about 1.2 billion records in all. While the collection is impressive for its sheer volume, the data doesn't include sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, or Social Security numbers. It does, though, contain profiles of hundreds of millions of people that include home and cell phone numbers, associated social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Github, work histories seemingly scraped from LinkedIn, almost 50 million unique phone numbers, and 622 million unique email addresses. The IP address for the server simply traced to Google Cloud Services. A data broker based in San Francisco called People Data Labs. claims on its website to have data on over 1.5 billion people for sale, including almost 260 million in the United States. It also touts more than a billion personal email addresses, more than 420 million LinkedIn URLs, more than a billion Facebook URLs and IDs, and more than 400 million phone numbers, including more than 200 million valid US cellphone numbers. Wyoming-based data broker Oxydata claims to have 4 TB of data, including 380 million profiles on consumers and employees in 85 industries and 195 countries around the world. Neither data broker could rule out the possibility that one of their customers mishandled their data. At the beginning of this year, 2.2 billion records were found distributed on hacker forums across several tranches known as Collections #1-5. In March a single email marketing firm called Verifications.io had left 809 million records publicly accessible. In 2018 the marketing firm Exactis leaked a database of 340 million personal records, and a breach of the sales intelligence firm Apollo exposed billions of data points. In aggregate, these troves can create real risk by enabling identity theft, credential stuffing, and phishing scams. Much of the data also winds up on the dark web, which has seen a recent explosion of stolen credentials. (Source: Wired)
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