Google Shut Out Privacy and Security Teams From Secret China Project
The secrecy surrounding the work was unheard of at Google. It was not unusual for planned new products to be closely guarded ahead of launch. But this time was different. The objective, code-named Dragonfly, was to build a search engine for China that would censor broad categories of information about human rights, democracy, and peaceful protest.
In February 2017, during one of the first group meetings about Dragonfly at Google’s Mountain View headquarters in California, some of those present were left stunned by what they heard. Senior executives disclosed that the search system’s infrastructure would be reliant upon a Chinese partner company with data centers likely in Beijing or Shanghai.
Locating core parts of the search system on the Chinese mainland meant that people’s search records would be easily accessible to China’s authoritarian government, which has broad surveillance powers that it routinely deploys to target activists, journalists, and political opponents.
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/29/google-china-censored-search/
ABC News: Skull & Bones Ritual Caught on Tape!
Come Mr tally man, Tally me bananas
Polish supermarket finds US$21 million of cocaine in bananas shipped from Ecuador
Grocery clerks in Poland have discovered bricks of cocaine hidden among bananas that were shipped from Ecuador to a local supermarket chain, police said on Monday.
“We’ve confiscated over 160kg (350 pounds) of what appears to be cocaine that was shipped from Ecuador,” said officer Dawid Marciniak, a spokesman for Poland’s national police headquarters.
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2175094/polish-supermarket-finds-us21-million-cocaine-bananas-shipped
Iranian hacking spree hit hospitals, other entities in 43 US states
Two Iranian hackers charged Wednesday in a federal indictment were accused of attacking the computer networks of hospitals and other targets in 43 states, a broad criminal extortion campaign that walloped a heart hospital in Kansas and disrupted one of the nation's largest diagnostic blood testing companies in North Carolina.
Federal prosecutors said the three-year cybercrime spree caused tens of millions of dollars in damage from coast to coast. It marked the first U.S. indictment against foreign hackers engaged in a for-profit ransomware and extortion scheme.
The two hackers developed unique tools to hold U.S. computer networks hostage from Iran, prosecutors said. The two Iranians, Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, remain at large, presumably in their homeland, officials said.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski sidestepped a question about whether Iran's government sponsored the two, saying only that the indictment contains no such allegation.
The three-year ransomware campaign hit at least 200 victims in the United States, collecting more than $6 million in extortion payments and causing more than $30 million in losses, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-iranian-hacking-spree-hospitals-entities.html#jCp
Iran: Protests, Strikes Across The Country
The recent, endless, brave strikes by Iranian workers prompted the regime to send the henchman Sadegh Larijani, the head of the regime’s judiciary, to the scene on November 26, to intimidate the participants.
According to a report by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the clerical regime, which has become furious and aggravated by recent work stoppages and demonstrations of workers of the Haft Tappeh sugar cane mill, on Thursday, November 29 arrested Mr. Ali Nejati, former president of the Haft Tappeh sugar cane workers union, along with his son, and transferred them to an unknown location. The repressive forces arrested and beat him while he was suffering from heart disease and was badly ill.
Despite these arrests and the presence of suppressive forces in the city of Shush, the workers of the Haft Tappeh sugar cane mill continued their protest for the 25th day. They chanted in the gathering in front of the regime’s governorate – Imprisoned worker must be freed! The governor, a regime MP, and the head of the Revolutionary Guards went to the area to force the workers to end the strike by giving deceptive promises. However, they were faced with a negative response from the workers. Workers interrupted the speech of the member of the regime’s parliament by chanting slogans.
https://tsarizm.com/news/2018/11/30/iran-protests-strikes-across-the-country/
Do The Freddie
U.N. Secretary: Rise of Nationalism Threatens Fight Against Climate Change
United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Thursday that the trend in favor of nationalist policies around the world is making it harder to promote a global approach to fighting climate change.
“I think that it is clear to me that the world is more polarized. We have more and more nationalist approaches being popular and winning election or having strong election results,” Guterres said. “We see the trust between public opinions and institutions — governments, political establishments but also International organization … being eroded.”
The BBC journalist who interviewed Guterres pressed him on President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
“Is it a problem that the world’s most powerful man is a climate change skeptic?” BBC’s New York correspondent Nick Bryant asked Guterres.
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/11/29/u-n-secretary-rise-of-nationalism-threatens-fight-against-climate-change/
Former Trump lawyer Cohen asks for no prison time
Dec. 1 (UPI) – Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, has asked if a federal judge can opt against sentencing him to prison, citing his cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen's lawyers filed the request in a memorandum late Friday night citing his contrition and cooperation with Mueller's investigation.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/12/01/Former-Trump-lawyer-Cohen-asks-for-no-prison-time/9741543669946/
On This Day: 'Big Three' meet, pledge to defeat Nazis
On Dec. 1, 1943, ending a "Big Three" meeting in Tehran, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Russian Premier Josef Stalin pledged a concerted effort to defeat Nazi Germany.
Small plane crashes in Sao Paulo, killing 2 and injuring 12
Nov. 30 (UPI) – A small plane crashed Friday afternoon in a northern residential area of Sao Paulo, killing at least two people and injuring a dozen others.
The airplane, a Cessna C-210, fell on top of a residential area near the Campo de Marte executive airport at about 4 p.m. local time, according to a G1 Globo report.
According to preliminary data, there were two people dead and 12 injured, some with first- and second-degree burns, lieutenant firefighter Andre Elias told G1 Globo.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/11/30/Small-plane-crashes-in-Sao-Paulo-killing-2-and-injuring-12/2851543606453/
Former Sinaloa drug cartel boss Damaso Lopez sentenced to life by U.S. court
Nov. 30 (UPI) – A U.S. court in Virginia on Friday sentenced Sinaloa drug cartel leader Damaso Lopez to life in prison.
Lopez, 52, aka "El Licenciado," received the sentence after an agreement with U.S. officials, Animal Politico reported, citing Mexican state news agency Notimex. As part of the deal, he declared himself guilty of a drug trafficking charge and offered to help with Mexican investigations of the 2017 death of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, the report said.
Lopez, who said he led the Sinaloa Cartel for 15 years, offered "apologies to the people of the United States" at his sentencing. He'd previously accepted a seizure of $25 million.
Defense attorneys said he's ready to cooperate investigators in Valdez's death as soon as the Mexican government requests.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/11/30/Former-Sinaloa-drug-cartel-boss-Damaso-Lopez-sentenced-to-life-by-US-court/5691543601942/
The hypocrisy knows no boundary
House Democrats promote anti-corruption legislation
Nov. 30 (UPI) – House Democrats unveiled an anti-corruption bill Friday, the group's first legislation since taking control of the chamber earlier this month.
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California announced House Resolution 1 during a news conference at the Capitol. She called the legislation "transformative."
"One of the issues that emerged in the campaign … is the integrity of government as part of our for-the-people agenda," she said.
The legislation seeks to reduce the role of money in the government and protect voting rights.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/11/30/House-Democrats-promote-anti-corruption-legislation/9241543606553/