Defense Secretary James Mattis steps down

The man who led the Department of Defense for the first two years of the Trump administration will wrap up his tenure early next year. Retired Marine General James Mattis will leave his post by February 28, 2019. Mattis, who retired from the Marine Corps in 2013, received a special congressional waiver to serve as […]

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Europe issues a deadline for US’ Privacy Shield compliance

The European Commission has finally given the U.S. a deadline related to the much criticized data transfer mechanism known as the EU-US Privacy Shield . But it’s only asking for the U.S. to nominate a permanent ombudsperson — to handle any EU citizens’ complaints — by February 28, 2019. If a permanent ombudsperson is not […]

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The U.S. surrendered its climate leadership on the world stage

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When the dust cleared and the gavel dropped, the United States’ place at the 2018 global climate negotiations — a two-week long affair in Poland attended by nearly 200 nations — had been sealed.

The superpower’s behavior will almost certainly be remembered as equal parts bizarre and unhelpful, not least for its resistance — on the global stage — to climate science that has been intensively studied for decades, confirmed and re-confirmed by distinguished institutions like NASA.

After wrapping up talks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference late Saturday night, Earth’s nations did eventually find an agreeable way to keep the historic 2015 Paris climate agreement alive, which is humanity’s emerging plan to dramatically reduce today’s extreme and unprecedented rise in carbon emissionsRead more…

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Indonesia e-commerce leader Tokopedia raises $1.1B from Alibaba and SoftBank’s Vision Fund

Indonesia-based e-commerce firm Tokopedia is the latest startup to enter the Vision Fund after it raised $1.1 billion Series G round led by the SoftBank megafund and Alibaba. SoftBank and Alibaba are existing investors in the business — the Chinese e-commerce giant led a $1.1 billion round last year, while SoftBank recently transitioned its shareholding […]

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Snoop Dogg smoked a blunt in front of the White House in a very rebellious stunt

Snoop Dogg, clearly the voice of the people, made an extremely subversive statement by smoking up a blunt in front of the White House.
The artist formerly known as Snoop Lion posted a video on Instagram on Thursday and told his followers that he “jus…

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Stephen Colbert says Sarah Huckabee Sanders sharing doctored video is ‘grounds for dismissal’

Late show hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have both referred to Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ decision to share a doctored video as a fireable offence.
Colbert tore into the White House press secretary on The Late Show Thursday for tweeting the …

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CNN’s Jim Acosta slams reason for White House press pass suspension: ‘This is a lie’

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Trump’s fiery exchange with CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta has led to the reporter’s press credentials being revoked.

On Wednesday evening, Acosta tweeted that he was denied entry to the White House grounds by the Secret Service, after his pass was taken off him.

I’ve just been denied entrance to the WH. Secret Service just informed me I cannot enter the WH grounds for my 8pm hit

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018

A video posted by Acosta shows a Secret Service officer informing the reporter that he was “just told to do it.” Read more…

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Audit Facebook and overhaul competition law, say MEPs responding to breach scandals

After holding a series of hearings in the wake of the Facebook -Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal this summer, and attending a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg himself in May, the European Union parliament’s civil liberties committee has called for an update to competition rules to reflect what it dubs “the digital reality”, urging EU institutions […]

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VP Pence calls on Google to end work on a search engine for China

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence called for Google to end its development of a search engine custom built to accommodate China’s disposition for censorship. Pence gave the speech at a conservative think tank in D.C., dipping into a range of anti-Beijing sentiments, from intellectual property concerns to tariffs and the trade war. Pence didn’t […]

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ZTE hit with 2-year ‘monitoring’ extension after breaking probation terms

Embattled Chinese tech firm ZTE narrowly survived after the U.S. Department of Commerce hit it with a $1 billion fine and forced changes to its business earlier this year, and. Now it is back in the news for negative reasons after it was judged to have broken the probation around a fine that it copped in […]

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Protesters call on Salesforce to end contract with border patrol agency

A dozen or so people accompanied by a 14-foot, 800-pound cage gathered in downtown San Francisco Tuesday morning to protest Salesforce’s contract with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security responsible for enforcing the Trump Administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy. Today is the first day of Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual user conference that […]

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Trump’s new cyber strategy eases rules on use of government cyberweapons

The Trump administration’s new cyber strategy out this week isn’t much more than a stringing together of previously considered ideas. In the 40-page document, the government set out its plans to improve cybersecurity, incentivizing change, and reforming computer hacking laws. Election security about a quarter of a page, second only to “space cybersecurity.” The difference […]

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