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What Is Our Government Telling Us? Federal Employee Data Breach Now Said To Compromise 18 Million Records

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Word has leaked early Tuesday that the personal data of an estimated 18 million current, former and prospective federal employees was stolen by attackers in a cyber breach at the Office of Personnel Management, far more than currently disclosed by the Obama administration.

Specifically, it is four times worse than the 4.2 million records the agency has publicly acknowledged.

Which was five times more than the agency first acknowledged, as we reported here and here.

The 18 million number is even expected to grow, according to anonymous U.S. officials aware of the investigation.

Despite no disclosure to American taxpayers about the extent of the mishandling of employee records, FBI Director James Comey has nonetheless been using the 18 million estimate in a closed-door briefings to Senators in recent weeks.

That assessment is apparently based off of the OPM’s own internal data, according to U.S. officials.

Yet the agency, and the Obama administration, refuses to level with the public, and potential victims, about the extent of the security lapses.

It is now understood that those affected include people who applied for government jobs, but never actually ended up being employed by the government.

The same hackers, who have been confirmed to be agents of the Chinese government, responsible for the breach of OPM’s data are believed to have last year compromised an OPM contractor, KeyPoint Government Solutions, according to U.S. officials.

When the OPM intrustion was discovered in April, investigators identified KeyPoint security credentials that were used to breach the OPM records system.

It remains unclear as to why, after the intrusion last year, OPM officials did not block all access from KeyPoint, as doing so could have prevented more serious damage.

According to OPM officials, of course speaking anonymously, they don’t believe such a move would have made a difference because the OPM breach is believed to have pre-dated the KeyPoint breach.

According to one official, the Chinese hackers had the “keys to the kingdom” for many years.

U.S. investigators have called the attack the largest data breach of the federal government in history but aside from that have refused to level with the public about just how serious the attack is and when investigators first knew about the breach.

North Korea Sentences Two South Koreans To Hard Labor For Life

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In what is sure to inflame relations between the hardline South Korean government and its neighbor, North Korea, the North announced today that two South Korean citizens detained inside the hermit kingdom on charges of spying have been officially sentenced to hard labor for life, according to the South Korean Ministry of Unification.

The arrests of Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil were announced by North Korea in March. The two are among four South Koreans confirmed to be imprisoned by the communist country.

North Korea alleges that former missionary Kim, and businessman Choe, were spying for South Korea’s intelligence service. It has accused them of committing “terrorism” and bringing in “large quantities of forged currency,” a North Korean official said anonymously in March.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has repeatedly denied either of the men were working for it.

With government minders present, the two gave a lengthy staged interview to CNN in march, during which they gave elaborate confessions, each with similar talking points.

It is likely that the two men are being used as pawns in the political power struggle between the isolated North and the prosperous South.

Australia’s Top Two Terrorists Reportedly Killed In Drone Strike

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Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says authorities are in the process of confirming reports that two of the country’s most wanted terrorists have been killed while fighting for ISIS in Iraq.

Australian media are reporting that Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar were both killed by a drone strike that took place in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Sharrouf gained infamy last year when he tweeted a picture of his seven-year-old son holding a severed head, captioned “That’s my boy.”

Sharroufsonhead

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry referred to the picture as “one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed.”

Sharrouf and Elomar are notorious ISIS murderers, frequently tweeting pictures of themselves with the decapitated heads of Syrian government fighters. After seeing the pictures, Australian Federal Police issued arrest warrants for the pair in late July.

Bishop told reporters late Monday that the government knew about the reports and was working to confirm them.

But the ISIS-controlled areas of Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria are not accessible to Australian forces, making the reports difficult to confirm.

“It’s very difficult to gain the information necessary given that it is a war zone,” she said. “There is a conflict going on, and Australians should not be there.”

There was no official confirmation of who carried out the attack but it is believed that the drone was operated by the U.S. Air Force.

Big Healthcare Keeps Getting Bigger As Anthem Ups Its Bid for Cigna

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A $54-billion bid by Anthem Inc. to purchase chief rival Cigna Corp. will result in more consolidation of the health insurance market and potentially higher premiums and less choice for Americans looking for health insurance.

Anthem, the nation’s second-largest health insurer, is offering $184 a share for Cigna in cash and stock, or $54 billion, including debt, but has expressed frustration that talks had stalled in recent days over the future role of Cigna’s chief executive as it could let in another company to vie for the Bloomfield, Conn. based Cigna which is the nation’s fifth-largest health insurer.

Anthem said its purchase of Cigna would result in $115 billion annual revenue and serve 53 million members making it the industries leader ahead of UnitedHealth Group Inc. in terms of membership.

Cigna has been negotiating its own deal for Humana Inc which is prized for its strong Medicare Advantage business, while UnitedHealth has made merger overtures to the nation’s third-largest company, Aetna Inc.

Each of the companies with their merger and takeover bids are looking to take advantage of rising revenues from the Affordable Care Act and Medicare and Medicaid’s growing privatization.

Although health law expansion of subsidized, private coverage and Medicaid, the joint state-federal insurance program for the poor, has benefited the health insurance sector, expanding membership and revenue hasn’t seen bigger profits for much of the industry.

Health insurers are hoping consolidation will assist them to squeeze out more costs and negotiate better prices with hospitals, doctors and drugmakers.

Anthem sells Blue Cross plans in 14 states. It also has a big Medicaid managed-care business in many states.

Healthcare experts have expressed deep concern that any savings likely won’t be passed along to employers and consumers and that these deals raise serious antitrust concerns given the lack of choice in the market already.

The FTC has not indicated at this point if it will object, though any deal of this size will receive significant regulatory scrutiny.

Google Will Get Massive Fine From The European Union For Abuse Of Competitive Position

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Google Will Get Massive Fine From The European Union For Abuse Of Competitive Position

The European Union made clear on Monday that it intends to levy fines on Google Inc. large enough to act as a deterrent to other monopolies as punishment for squeezing out rivals in the comparison shopping market.

The EU’s competition commission (EC) told the search giant that it could face a fine based on its AdWords revenue attributed to European users, according to the EC statement of objections released to Google. The EU will also dictate to Google how its shopping services are displayed on the search engine going forward.

The EC “intends to set the fine at a level which will be sufficient to ensure deterrence,” the document reads. It further “considers that, based on the facts described in this statement of objections, Google committed the infringement intentionally or, at the very least, negligently.”

Google took a dim view of the EC’s complaint, which eventually led to the patience of the European regulator running out after three settlement bids were rejected by Google. Rival companies complained that Google unfairly promotes its own services and paid ads over direct competitors. The EU began their probe in 2010.

Microsoft Corp., Expedia Inc., and other web publishers asked the EU to examine complaints that Google favors its own services over competitors and interferes with specialized search engines that compete with it.

According to the full version of the document the EC sent to Google in April, fines could be based on a variety of factors, including clicks for which google was paid, the number of search queries it handle or the number of searches conducted for which competitor sites should have been displayed.

A fine is certain at this point, as the report said the EC has reached the “preliminary conclusion that Google’s practice of positioning and displaying more favorably, in its general search result pages, its own comparison shopping service compared to competing comparison shipping services constitutes an abuse by Google in the relevant markets for general search services.”

The big question is: How much will the fine be?

Given Microsoft paid billions for similar transgressions, you can imagine Google will be paying somewhere north of that.

Federal Trade Commission Petitioned To Stop Uber Spamming From Your Phone, Tracking You 24/7

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A privacy group filed a formal legal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding taxi service Uber’s pending “unfair and deceptive data collection practices.” The group is asking federal authorities to halt the unneeded data collection which is due to take effect on July 15, as we covered in late May.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a 23 page complaint on Monday, taking issue with the fact the company will begin collecting location data even when the app is running in the background. The change will not be visibly disclosed to users, instead it will just be a small edit to its lengthy and vague privacy policy.

EPIC has been successful in filing similar complaints against Google and Facebook, resulting in a negotiated settlement to stop the abusive practice.

The complaint also takes issue with another backdoor tactic that allows the scofflaw taxi company to access your address book and use its contents to send unsolicited text messages promoting its service.

The new privacy policy slips that one in there, too. Use the app and you by default agree.

For Uber, a company that notoriously flouts the law, it comes after a November 2014 incident when a company executive proposed hiring private investigators to look into the personal lives and Uber records of journalists in order to “give the media a taste of its own medicine.”

The company also has a terrible track record of protecting user privacy, as in an October 2014 incident company executive displayed a real-time activity map of thirty of its “notable users” at a launch party in Chicago.

The map was a backend feature of Uber’s platform known as “God View,” which lets company officials see a map of all active Uber cars and their passengers. News of this flagrant violation of user privacy only leaked because one of the users on the map found out he was being tracked when an attendee of the party began texted him his Uber’s exact location.

Chris Hoofnagle, a lecturer in law at the University of California, Berkeley, said “I’m willing to bet that the FTC is already investigating Uber. The FTC loves to target the whales in industry because matters bought against large companies generate headlines and bring smaller companies to heel as well.”

Uber spokeswoman Molly Spaeth said that “There is no basis for this complaint. We care deeply about the privacy of our riders and driver-partners,” yet it remains to be seen how this squares with the company’s well documented track record of both flouting the law and flagrantly abusing user privacy.

Uber refused to comment directly on the FTC investigation or the changes, except that they were disclosed in its privacy policy – which nobody currently running the app will ever read.

Utah University Unveils ‘Texting While Walking’ Lanes To Improve Campus Safety

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Utah Valley University may be blazing a trail for urban planners everywhere by giving students glued to their smartphones a designated lane for texting while walking.

The school painted neon green lanes on the stairs to the gym in an effort that was originally intended as a lighthearted way to brighten up the space and get students’ attention, said spokeswoman Melinda Colton.

The effort worked extremely well, with a picture of the lanes creating widespread buzz on social media after it was posted online.

While the lanes are just in the school’s recreation center, 22-year-old student Tasia Briggs wouldn’t mind seeing them deployed across campus.

“There’s nothing worse than walking behind someone who’s texting, and you can’t get around them and go anywhere,” Briggs said. Smartphone messaging is increasingly a big part of how the younger generations communicate, leading to new issues for building and city planners.

Student Chelsea Meza, 22, said “it’s kind of funny. You walk down the hallway and instead of saying hi, everyone is walking and texting,” she said.

While new to America the dedicated lanes have been tried elsewhere in the world.

The Chinese city of Chongqing created a smartphone sidewalk lane that served as a reminder to people that staring at phones while on the go can be extremely dangerous, especially in cities with cars and buses.

While the lanes may seem funny or be used to get attention, they may end up being used to both manage congestion and avoid accidents. Most major cities already heavily use dedicated lanes for cyclists and its not a stretch to think that the concept could be applied to sidewalks, especially in high traffic or particularly dangerous areas.

Amazon To Pay Authors Based On How Many Pages You Read

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If the fabulously wealthy Taylor Swift thinks music royalties are too low you can imagine what authors will think of a new idea from eBook giant Amazon, which announced Monday a new pricing plan that will see its Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library authors paid based on the number of pages users read.

Amazon is looking to compensate writers for their work on longer titles while at the same time encourage quality material. In order to avoid cheating, by say wider margins or larger font sizes, Amazon will use a normalized page count that compensates for how much content is actually in a book, so that the rate will be the same no matter the layout.

This may change the format of what you read, as images will count as content, so there may be novels with a few extra illustrations.

Yet the move may punish authors of textbooks, industry guides and other reference books that aren’t likely to be read cover-to-cover. The new pricing also raises the concern that writers will compromise stories by including more cliffhangers, epilogues and other tactics designed strictly to make you read more but not necessarily better content.

The impact is not likely to be felt right away, given this will only affect how authors are compensated on Amazon’s subscription services. Users can buy titles at regular prices, but depending on how its trials go Amazon may well unveil this model to its regular eBook distribution system.

Martha Stewart Sells Her Namesake Company For Discount Price

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Former media tycoon and do-it-yourself maven Martha Stewart sold her unprofitable lifestyle business Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, for a near clearance price.

Once valued at $2 billion after it went public at the height of the dot-com bubble, the company is selling for a much smaller yet still respectable $353 million in a cash-and-stock deal to Sequential Brands Group, which licenses and promotes a number of brands such as pop star Jessica Simpson’s collection and bedroom retailer Linens N Things.

Martha Stewart herself is expected to stay on as chief creative officer of the brand and will also still be a “significant stockholder” of the new company once Sequential and Martha Stewart Living have combined. Showing their faith in the domestic diva, Ms Stewart will also be nominated to serve on Sequential’s board of directors.

Stewart still owns 49% of her company’s Class A shares, making her future ownership stake in the combined company logical.

“This merger is positioned to further the growth and expansion of the unique Martha home and lifestyle brand,” Martha Stewart said in a statement. “With our media business operations now successfully transitioned to Meredith, we now have the opportunity to tap into Sequential’s expertise and resources to expand our merchandising business both domestically and abroad.”

Since Ms Stewart was jailed for insider trading in 2004 the company has faced some tough challenges and remains mired in annual losses and sliding sales. Total sales fell to just $142 million last year from $231 million in 2010.

The company has reported an annual loss for every year during that five-year stretch due to declines in circulation and advertising revenues for the company’s magazines, a trend affecting the broader print magazine industry as well.

Despite being an ‘omnimedia’ company, the brand never fully transitioned to digital and instead refocused in the last few years on retail products bearing Ms Stewart’s iconic name.

Europol Launches Online Crackdown On ISIS Social Media Accounts

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An elite European police team is being set up to track and take down ISIS affiliated social media accounts it was announced Monday.

While Europol, the Europe-wide police agency, didn’t say which networks it would target first it’s clear that the move came after a report revealed that at least 46,000 Twitter accounts are controlled by ISIS.

This marks the first move from a government organization against ISIS supporters on social media, although as we covered yesterday the FBI seems to have been carefully following the group’s activities since 2013.

On March 16, hacktivist group Anonymous, which the the world’s governments usually hate, released 9,200 ISIS supporter Twitter account names to put pressure on the social network to suspend them. The group released a further 25,000 account names for the same purpose.

Europol is apparently thinking that it is capable of doing better and also will be able to arrest operators who live within its borders.

ISIS, as we covered previously, is a top social media spammer, with its active accounts sending an estimate of 100,000 tweets everyday.

The formal crackdown will begin on July 1st.

Europol director Rob Wainwright said of the offensive:

We will have to combine what we see online with our own intelligence and that that is shared with us by European police services, so we can be a bit more targeted and identify who the key user accounts are… and concentrate on closing them down.

He also stated that Europol will also be hunting down money used to fund ISIS. “Where you follow the money trail, it helps find who they are, what they are doing and who their associates are,” Wainwright said.

Another UN Reports Finds Israel Is Committing War Crimes Against Palestinians

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In what will only strengthen the case for the Boycot Divest Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, a United Nations investigation has found “serious violations of international humanitarian law” consistent with “war crimes” by both Israeli militants in the Gaza Strip during their bloody battle last summer. A report on the incident was released on Monday in Geneva.

Written by a two member independent commission of inquiry and submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, found that “impunity prevails across the board” for Israeli forces in Gaza, and called on Israel to “break with its recent lamentable track record in holding wrongdoers accountable.”

We’ve covered Israel’s track record of genocide, notably here and here, which is consistent with the report published today.

“Comprehensive and effective accountability mechanisms for violations allegedly committed by Israel or Palestinian actors will be a key deciding factor of whether Palestinians or Israelis are to be spared yet another round of hostilities and spikes in violations of international law,” the report stated.

The report is expected to provide a road map for the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, who are conducting an ongoing investigation into Israel’s massacre of civilians and genocide against the Palestinian people.

General Mills Announces It Will Remove All Artificial Colors And Flavors From Its Foods. But Is That Enough?

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In a major indication of the pressure large food processors are receiving from consumers looking for healthier food choice, General Mills Inc, maker of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cheerios cereals, announced on Monday that it would stop using artificial flavors and colors in nearly all of its cereals.

The processed foods maker said it plans to have 90 percent of its cereals artificial flavor and color free by 2016, up from approximately 60 percent today.

The company will begin on the notoriously unhealthy Trix and Reese’s Puffs cereals, using ingredients such as fruit and vegetable juices, cocoa, natural vanilla and peanut butter flavors, with new versions hitting stores this winter.

U.S. restaurant chains and food companies are under significant pressure to remove synthetic ingredients from their products amid growing awareness that such ingredients cause health problems.

Kraft Foods Group announced in April that it was removing synthetic colors and preservatives from its popular Kraft Dinner products.

Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Subway and Nestle USA have all made similar moves as consumer dollars shift to healthier products.

Yet the trend may still not be in General Mills’ favor, as cereals like Trix and Reese’s Puffs are still nutritionally awful, containing immense amounts of sugar and virtually no nutrients whatsoever. Nutrition experts are now recommending to avoid the so-called ‘inner aisles’ of the grocery store, as virtually all canned and packaged goods, accounting for nearly all of General Mills’ revenue, are loaded with chemicals and purged of nutrients, leading to long term health consequences for those who eat them regularly.

Federal Government Caught Using School Lunch Programs To Track Children

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The Hazleton Area School District in Pennsylvania will now provide free meals to all students, regardless of need. But there’s a gigantic catch: It is scanning students’ thumbprints to track all of their lunch purchases and is then turning the data over to the federal government, according to a new report.

The move raises questions about the true motive for the federal government program that incentivizes school districts to provide more meals to more students, so long as they track their pupils with biometrics.

“We will at least break even, if not come out ahead because of federal reimbursement,” said district superintendent Craig Butler.

In order to qualify for the program, the district purchased biometric software to track students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches. The student’s thumbprint is scanned each time he or she receives a meal.

“This data provided by the biometrics was made available to the district and federal government for tracking purposes,” local newspaper The Citizen’s Voice reported.

Administrators refused to clarify just why they had the privacy invading tracking and said they were “unsure” whether they will continue the tracking scheme.

But, like most tracking programs across the nation, the district didn’t indicate how the data was being protected, if it could be used to identify an individual student or how long the federal government would retain it.

Similar fingerprint and tracking initiatives, usually in return for ‘free’ food, have been met with stiff resistance from parents, when they have been disclosed.

Massachusetts’ North Adams Public Schools deployed a similar lunch payment program using scanners.

While the district “wanted to make sure those transactions are as transparent as possible,” it specifically does not want to make it transparent what data is collected, who is using it, for what purpose or for how long.

“No child should have to have a body part scanned to get a meal! There was no problems with those swipe cards that we were never made aware of,” said one parent on Facebook, who replied that she would send her child with a bag lunch before allowing a fingerprint scan.

“Let us not allow our children to allow privacy to become a thing of the past. Our duty is to educate and protect them, not to catalog them like merchandise,” parent Cara Roberts wrote in a letter to the mayor and a news outlet.

“Our duty is to teach them to protect and care for their bodies. What message are we sending when we tell them their body is a means of identification, a tool for others to use to track them?”

Despite promising to be the most transparent administration in history, the Obama team is notoriously tight-lipped on such initiatives and has refused to clarify anything about the data collection and what it would be used for.

Officials also declined to specify why fingerprints were necessary to track lunch purchases rather than swipe cards or other, more effective, authentication measures.

EU Planning Military Action To Fight Human Traffickers

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EU members states have authorized a military crackdown against people traffickers in the Mediterranean, after a weekend meeting in Brussels.

Approximately 100,000 illegal migrants have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, most landing in Italy, Greece and Malta which all want their fellow EU members to share in controlling the flow.

According to one EU diplomat “Everything is now in place” so that EU foreign ministers meeting today (Monday) can approve beginning of operations.

Apparently EU member states have promised to provide ships and aircraft to allow an initial intelligence-gathering phase to start.

Forced to take action in April after the loss of some 800 illegal migrants when their “rickety” boat sank off the southern Italian coast, EU leaders met at an emergency summit to draw up a comprehensive plan to strike at the source of the problem.

As well as increasing search and rescue efforts, the summit asked EU foreign chief Federica Mogherini, to come up with military options against the traffickers who exploit the thousands of people looking to get to Europe illegally by crossing the Mediterranean.

The second phase of the crack down is supposed to see the boarding of ships in the Mediterranean, arresting the traffickers and disabling the vessels, followed by a third phase which would extend similar actions in Libyan territorial waters and possibly inside the country itself.

Britain and France favor moving quickly to Phase 2 and 3, but other EU nations are not so sure about direct involvement in Libya where rival factions are battling for control and the internationally-recognized government has set up in Benghazi after fleeing the capital Tripoli.

To smooth over these fears the EU April summit decided that Phase 2 and 3 would go ahead only under Libyan consent and a resolution from the five member UN Security Council (UNSC).

A senior EU official who wanted to remain anonymous said permanent UNSC member Russia wants “a clear Libyan consent” which the EU is working towards.

“We are rather optimistic that in the end there will be a UNSC resolution to go on with the other phases; there is no absolute certitude but there is a very good prospect,” the official said.

The European Commission has proposed that 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean asylum-seekers who have arrived in Europe should be redistributed and that 20,000 Syrians living in camps outside Europe should be resettled across the 28-nation bloc.

While many member states say they will help with humanitarian efforts of search and rescue, they are not in favor of accepting more migrants or the EU’s military option.

Migration is a sensitive issue and far-right political parties are using public concerns about an influx of refugees against more established parties.

World’s Digital Watchdog Accuses Facebook of Selective Censorship

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) a “leading non-profit Organization defending civil liberties in the digital world” has found that Facebook differentiates from country to country in the number of “content restrictions” it has fulfilled in its Government Request Report, calling it a “sanitized term for censorship.”

In a report posted to its website, the EFF claims that in the United States, Facebook’s home country, the “content restrictions” category is “conspicuously missing”, but not for other countries.

“It restricts access to three items of content on its site to comply with Brazilian court orders, restricted access to 15 pieces of content to comply with Israeli laws banning Holocaust denial, restricted access to 3,624 pieces of content in Turkey and another 5,832 pieces of content in India, all under “a variety of nefarious censorship laws” said the organization.

EFF said this was strange “considering that Facebook has been suspending the accounts of inmates in the U.S. for at least four years at the requests of prison officials, and even had an easy and confidential “Inmate Takedown” form corrections officers could fill out to make the profiles disappear”.

According to the article written by EFF writer David Maass, Facebook complied with 74 requests for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 2014 and that between California and South Carolina, Facebook processed more than 700 takedown requests over the past four years.

Maass claims EFF could file public records requests in all 50 states to learn more, but “since Facebook’s system allows prisons to file these requests without creating a paper trail, only Facebook knows how many requests it has complied with nationwide”.

” In direct response to Facebook’s secrecy, as well as inconsistencies in Facebook’s explanations of the takedown process, we have added a new category to “Who Has Your Back?”, our annual scorecard that evaluates how companies handle government requests. To earn a star in the category for “Disclosing Government Content Removal Requests,” companies do not have to reject government requests, but just be transparent about how they handle these requests,” read the article.

In contrast to Facebook, Twitter not only produces the data, but it publishes an interactive map that shows details about content removal requests, while Google also provides data about government requests to remove content, including examples with information on the nature of the request and the outcome.

“Based on information we have received through public records requests filed in several states, inmates are more often caught using Facebook than any other service. But this isn’t just about prisoner accounts. The fact that Facebook has not been reporting these takedown requests raises larger questions about what other kinds of censorship Facebook has been hiding,” read the report.

“In its report, Google gave examples in the U.S., such as a request from a law enforcement officer asking the company to remove a link to a negative news story from its search results and a request from a government agency to remove an allegedly defamatory video about a school administrator. (Google complied with neither request, but included both in its transparency report.)”

“If Google received requests to takedown this kind of content, then we believe it is highly likely that Facebook has received them as well. In the coming months, we may even see more direct evidence of this through crowdsourced reports at OnlineCensorship.org, an alpha-stage project co-founded by EFF Director for International Freedom of Expression Jillian York”.

The article concluded by urging Facebook to “publish the data and show U.S. government agencies that censorship shouldn’t happen in the dark”.

IRS Urged to Investigate Walmart’s Use Of Overseas Tax Havens

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Walmart has used foreign tax havens to shelter $76 billion in assets avoiding having to pay $3.5 billion in income tax over the last six years according to a Americans for Tax Fairness report.

The report —”The Wal-Mart Web: How the World’s Biggest Corporation Secretly Uses Tax Havens to Dodge Taxes” – shows the company used a “network of 78 subsidiaries and branches in 15 overseas tax havens, which may be used to minimize foreign taxes where it has retail operations and to avoid U.S. tax on those foreign earnings.” .

Research for the study was carried out by the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union.

The report said Walmart subsidiaries that account for 10% or more of a company’s assets and income, are required by law to be listed in 10.K filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission—but the company “had simply failed to do so”.

It said Walmart shell companies in just two countries, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, account for $76 billion in assets—which is 90% of the assets in the company’s International Division, as well as 37% of its $205 billion total assets—decisively higher than the SEC’s 10% requirement.

Tax Experts refer to Luxembourg, where Walmart has registered 22 of its shell companies, the “magical fairyland” because profits seem “supernaturally protected from taxation in the tiny country”.

The report claims Walmart transferred more than $45 billion in assets to its subsidiaries in Luxembourg, reporting tax payments of less than 1% to the country on $1.3 billion in profits between 2010-2013—even though the company does not even have one store in there. One third of Walmart’s annual profits come from its International Division, yet the majority of its foreign companies are owned by subsidiaries in these tax havens.

Walmart company spokesperson Randy Hargrove said the Americans for Tax Fairness report was incomplete and “designed to mislead.” He claimed Walmart has “processes in place to comply with applicable SEC and IRS rules, as well as the tax laws of each country where [they] operate.”

Americans for Tax Fairness has called on U.S. and foreign authorities to carry out their own investigations with several key points to address. It said there was an obvious need for an IRS audit to track the “elusive assets”. It has also recommended the European Commission to investigate whether Luxembourg’s actions as a tax haven amount to “illegal state aid.”

Twitter Launches Pinterest Rival In Effort To Boost Profits

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News broke on Saturday evening that Twitter is experimenting with a couple of new e-commerce features on its platform, in an effort to fight rival Pinterest and gain a cut of its lucrative e-commerce referral business.

In the first move, Twitter has launched new pages dedicated to specific places and products.

For example, searching for the name of a popular book leads to a page where there’s a description of the book, top tweets related to it, and other related media like photos and videos.

Importantly for Twitter, there’s a button that allows for the purchase the book directly from Twitter.

The concept will apply to most major products, not just books.

The company also announced “Collections” that are curated lists of products, a very similar idea to Pinterest’s ‘boards.’

Talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres has a ‘collection’ entitled “Best of the Ellen Shop,” which contains a curated selection of items from DeGeneres’ official store.

Unlike Product pages, Collections – at least for the moment – do not allow users to buy something directly from the page, instead connecting users to the online store where they can complete the purchase. Such linking to stores means Twitter can begin charging for referrals to them and taking a cut of sales transactions. The timing of this feature is notable, as it will be fully in place for the lucrative holiday shopping season this fall.

Like the specific product pages, Collections will show tweets, images and videos relating to all the products that are listed in a collection. It appears collections aren’t designed to be a comprehensive listing of all the products a brand, but rather themed assortments designed to appeal to specific groups – for instance Nike Running or Martha Stewart’s Favorite Kitchen Gadgets.

Twitter currently has 41 different partners signed up for the service, including major brands like TechCrunch, Nike, The Wirecutter and Reese Witherspoon.

While Twitter does not yet take a cut of sales from transactions that are completed through its new shopping features, it will likely do so be the time the all important holiday shopping season comes around.

The new shopping features are available on Twitter’s website, Android and iOS apps.

Polish Airline LOT Grounds Flights After Hack Attack

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In the latest sign that hacking attacks are increasingly compromising safety systems, 1,400 passengers of Polish flag carrier LOT Polish Airlines were stuck in Warsaw after the company discovered it was unable to file flight plans for its departing aircraft due to a sophisticated attack on its computer network.

According to reports the airline’s ground computer system, which is used to issue flight plans, was hacked on Sunday afternoon.

The system was supposedly “fixed” after five hours, but the incident resulted in ten cancellations and more than a dozen flights being delayed.

LOT stated that it had “encountered IT attack, that affected our ground operation systems. As a result we’re not able to create flight plans, and outbound flights from Warsaw are not able to depart.”

“We’d like to underline, that it has no influence on plane systems. Aircrafts already airborne will continue their flights. Planes with flight plans already filed will return to Warsaw normally,” it further elaborated.

A LOT spokesperson claimed that the company had taken care of the passengers on Sunday night and stated it was providing hotels for those who needed to stay the night in Warsaw.

Spokesman Adrian Kubicki went on record as saying that at no point was the safety of ongoing flights compromised.

“We’re using state-of-the-art computer systems, so this could potentially be a threat to others in the industry,” Kubicki said.

Yet the attack is now being investigated by the authorities and in these cases its best to assume the worst rather than what the victim is telling you, given they have every incentive to downplay the significance.

Its likely in this case that attackers didn’t mean to disrupt the safety of the airline yet likely did so accidentally or potentially could have. Any compromise of an airline reservation system, for instance, could allow unauthorized passengers to board the aircraft.

The full scope of the damage won’t emerge for a few weeks, as the FBI and other EU agencies are all investigating, showing just how serious the incident was.

European Parliament Votes To Extend Sanctions On Russia

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The gathering of European Union foreign ministers on Monday in Luxembourg resulted in the extension of sanctions against Russia. The sanctions had been imposed because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, an EU spokeswoman stated, and will now be continued.

The sanctions began a year ago to punish Russia shortly after its troops moved over the border in Crimea and re-took the area that in Soviet times was a Russian enclave. While Russia has denied involvement, the world almost immediately saw through the thinly disguised Russian troops, tanks, armored vehicles and sophisticated missile systems.

The sanctions mean the assets of some Russian companies and individuals will remain frozen and travel bans will remain in place against certain officials.

A Kremlin spokesman, predictably, condemned the extension.

“Russia, naturally, considers these sanctions to be unfounded and illegal, and we have never been the instigators of sanction measures,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

In typically deluded Russian thinking, likely driven by its increasingly irrational dictator Vladimir Putin, Peskov said Russia would respond by extending its own sanctions against the European Union, including restrictions on the import to Russia of foodstuffs from the EU.

Given the EU imports very little to Russia, the sanctions aren’t exactly offsetting.

The sanctions continue to wreak havoc on the Russian economy, which is struggling with high unemployment, a falling Ruble and low oil prices. Oil and related products are Russia’s main export.

Taylor’s Tantrum Leads To Apple Music Policy Change

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In what can only be described as the rich squabbling with the richer, Taylor Swift’s announcement she would pull her album from Apple’s new streaming service has the company changing its tune.

Just hours after the super wealthy pop-star criticized Apple in an open letter posted online, the Cupertino based maker of iDevices announced Sunday that it will indeed pay royalties to artists and record labels for music played during a free, three month trial of its new streaming music service.

Previously Apple had negotiated with the record labels to waive such fees during the free trial period.

Tantrums, predictably, ensued.

Apple will share revenue from $10 per month paid subscriptions to its new Apple Music service with artists but Swift, who notoriously hates the idea of people having access to radio, said she would withhold her latest album because Apple wasn’t planning to pay artists and labels directly for the use of their music during the free trial period.

Yet the move has more to do with Swift’s disdain for the concept of radio than it does Apple’s opportunistic cash grab. Swift has withheld her music from other streaming sites she feels simply don’t pay enough, despite the fact music has made her fantastically wealthy.

“When I woke up this morning and I saw Taylor’s note that she had written, it really solidified that we needed to make a change,” said Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, in a rare press interview.

Apple maintains that it negotiated revenue sharing at rates that are slightly higher than the industry standard, in order to compensate for the three months that it plans to offer its streaming service for free.

“We had factored that in,” Cue said Sunday. But asking rich pop-stars to do math is clearly a bridge too far, especially when those artists want to use advances in technology to push music back to medieval times, where only the very rich could afford to purchase playable music.

Swift’s comments show just how out of touch the diva is with reality, as Apple has been the lead advocate for that medieval repression, stubbornly pushing its iTunes service, which requires users to pay a high rate for each and every song the listen to.

But as we covered earlier, the reality for most Americans is that both iTunes and even services like Apple Music are just too expensive.

This is why radio worked. It was delivered at no cost for listeners and used a promotional tool by record labels. By promoting a small group of artists, those that could afford to pay bought albums and concert tickets, which created the rockstar, a musician who could become fantastically wealthy.

That wealth was created only because a select few artist got fed into the gigantic no cost promotional machine that was radio. Over the air television, again delivered at no cost, also played a major role.

In Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify and all the other streaming music services the same concept holds, except record labels, broadcasters and artists have all decided to use the new medium to extract even more fees from their fans. $10 per month, to be precise.

In short, Big Music wants you to pay for the privilege of them promoting to you.

Ms Swift doesn’t seem to appreciate any of this, still thinking of herself as a homely old artist just making a living. Yet she, and her tens of millions, exist precisely because her music hasn’t been kept locked away but because it has been shared far and wide, for free.

The most obvious way she benefited from this free distribution is that she rose to fame on the Nashville record circuit doing both free concerts and then signing a with a major label, which broadcast her for free across the nation on radio.

She won the lottery to be fed into the no cost promotion machine and didn’t drop the ball. Fame, fortune and an army of Swifties predictably followed.

But Swift has clearly forgotten all this or never bothered to look into it, as she announced on her Twitter account last night that she was “elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us.”

Just what exactly she’s relieved from should probably be filed under the hashtag #popstarproblems, while just who exactly she means by ‘us’ is equally quizzical.

Ms Swift is in the top .01% of artists globally in terms of earnings thanks specifically to the mass promotion offered by radio and the rockstar phenomena that promotional juggernaut created.

She can either be a rockstar with no cost radio or a regular artist making an average living with 100% paid music distribution.

We’re betting she’ll keep her tens of millions.

Taliban Stage Deadly Assault On Afghan Parliament In Kabul

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Taliban militants attacked the Afghan parliament with bombs and rockets Monday in an attempt that wounded dozens of civilians and shocked lawmakers.

The terrorist group detonated a large car bomb near the outer wall of the parliament compound, sending dense smoke into the sky. As the chaos unfolded, six Taliban militants then tried to storm inside, according to police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi.

Afghan security forces were able to defeat the attackers who, once pushed out, moved into a nearby building, where they continued attacking with rocket propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles. Yet all six attackers were eventually killed in the firefight, according to Karimi.

Inside the parliament building the blast shattered glass and shook loose the ceiling which filled the hall with dust. Lawmakers were assembled and in a meeting when the first explosion occurred.

The general meeting was for Mohammad Masoom Stanikzai, the nominee for defense minister, and he was to be introduced before presenting his plans and policies ahead of a confirmation vote.

According to the police spokesman all of the lawmakers were unharmed and evacuated from the parliament building in short order.

Yet 31 civilians were wounded in the attack, including three children, according to Dr. Kabir Amiri, chief of Kabul Central Hospitals.

The Taliban took to one of their Twitter accounts and informed the world that the group chose to target the parliament specifically because it was the day the defense minister was to be introduced.

The UN mission in Afghanistan swiftly condemned the attack, deeming it “a clear and deliberate affront to democracy in Afghanistan.”

The U.S. Embassy said the attack showed “blatant disrespect for democracy and the rule of law.”

Monday’s attack is just the latest in a string of high-profile attacks by the Taliban in the Afghan capital.

The militants have recently been targeting hotels housing foreigners, and attacked the Park Palace Guest House last month, killing more than a dozen people.

Afghan forces continue to struggle with a Taliban offensive across different parts of the country and American troops pulled out of the country last year.

Hawaii Makes History As First State To Raise Smoking Age To 21

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In what surely should have been done years ago, Hawaii became the first state in the union to raise the legal smoking age statewide to 21, after its governor signed the bill into law on Friday.

The new law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2016, and in addition to smoke and smokeless tobacco will also ban the sale, purchase or use of electronic cigarettes as well.

“Raising the minimum age as part of our comprehensive tobacco control efforts will help reduce tobacco use among our youth and increase the likelihood that our keiki [children] will grow up to be tobacco-free,” said Governor David Ige.

The new ban wasn’t the only anti-smoking legislation signed into law on Friday as Ige also signed a bill banning smoking and e-cigarette use at state parks and beaches. Smoking and e-cigarette use are already banned in all city and county parks.

In most U.S. states the legal smoking age is 18, while a small number have set it at 19, though some cities and counties, including New York City and Hawaii County, have already raised the age requirement to 21.

Lawmakers in Washington state and California will likely take notice of the new measure, as they have been pushing to raise the legal smoking age to 21 in their own states.

Roughly nine out of 10 smokers in Hawaii begin smoking before the age of 21 according to the governor’s office.

According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, tobacco use kills 1,400 people and costs over $526 million in medical bills annually in the state of Hawaii.

Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, accounting for over 480,000 deaths annually, or one of every five deaths overall, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Louisiana Governor Vetoes License Plate Readers Over Invasion Of Privacy

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In an all too rare move against the continued deployment of automated license plate readers (LPRs), Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) vetoed a plan to acquire the scanners in the state, citing grave privacy issues. The move to use the readers had previously passed both houses of the Louisiana legislature by a large margin.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide are increasingly relying on these specialized cameras to scan cars and compare them at incredible speeds to a “hot list” of stolen or wanted vehicles or people. The data collected is kept for weeks, months, or even years and can be used for a variety of purposes, amounting a mass dragnet of people-tracking that greatly erodes privacy.

Jindal wrote in detail about his reasons for rejecting the legislation.

Senate Bill No. 250 would authorize the use of automatic license plate reader camera surveillance programs in various parishes throughout the state. The personal information captured by these cameras, which includes a person’s vehicle location, would be retained in a central database and accessible to not only participating law enforcement agencies but other specified private entities for a period of time regardless of whether or not the system detects that a person is in violation of vehicle insurance requirements. Camera programs such as these that make private information readily available beyond the scope of law enforcement, pose a fundamental risk to personal privacy and create large pools of information belonging to law abiding citizens that unfortunately can be extremely vulnerable to theft or misuse.

For these reasons, I have vetoed Senate Bill No. 250 and hereby return it to the Senate.

The bill would have limited the retention period to 60 days, though still allowed private companies and other parties to use the records of law abiding citizens.

Technology website Ars found earlier this year that of 4.6 million license plate records collected by police in Oakland, Calif. over four years just 0.16 percent of those reads were “hits.”

The site also discovered that the data is incredibly revealing, as they were able to find the address of a member of city council using nothing but the records, a data visualization tool, and his license plate number.

The move towards the license plate readers creates a vast dragnet of information, similar to the phone records collected by the NSA, that allow for detailed tracking of individual people in near real-time.

LPR data being used by third parties effectively turns police departments into trackers, whereby police track the movements of people and then sell the data to companies and other groups for a profit, allowing them detailed access to law-abiding citizens movements.

LPR technology has been widely condemned by human rights groups for its invasive nature and ineffectiveness as a policing tool.

History Making Human-Like ‘Pepper’ Robot Sells Out In Under A Minute

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Usually consumer gadgets that sell out in a minute carry a certain fruit logo but Japanese tech giant Softbank has a new type of hit product on its hands: Human-like robots.

SoftBank’s newly launched Pepper robot is proving to be an iPhone-like hit as the former mobile carrier said 1,000 units of the household robot sold out in one minute on Saturday.

The humanoid machine is a personal robot and is designed to become a member of the family. While it can’t do housework, it can converse, recognize emotions, develop its own “feelings” and pull information from the Internet such as emails and weather forecasts.

SoftBank describes Pepper as the world’s first personal robot to have its own emotions.

While nearly all of the Peppers were purchased online Saturday, 30 were made available by a lottery process on Friday at a SoftBank store in Tokyo.

A SoftBank spokesman did not provide information as to the identity of the initial buyers but did confirm that the company plans to make more Peppers available in July.

The robots were designed by Softbank-owned Aldebaran Robotics of France and feature has a wide array of sensors and a cloud-based artificial intelligence system.

At $1,600 it’s still a major purchase but cheap compared to other robots of comparable sophistication. There is also a small monthly fee for mobile data usage and insurance.

Pepper’s strong first day may put big tech giants like Apple, Google and Amazon on notice as a global rollout of Pepper will start next year by SoftBank.

Interestingly Pepper is manufactured by Apple’s number one iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn Technology Group, in partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. The three companies are working on business applications for Pepper starting this fall.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, said Thursday that the partners are willing to sell Pepper at a loss for at least four years, but he sees the business as a major contributor to SoftBank’s revenue in 20 or 30 years. Partners Terry Gou of Foxconn and Jack Ma of Alibaba all envision robots becoming as important as automobiles and consumer electronics in the coming decades.

Surely in California, Google, Apple, Facebook, Tesla and others are taking note of the development and watching closely.

Italy Charges Bank Of China In Massive $5 Billion Money Laundering Scheme

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China’s government and businesses aren’t know for their ethical conduct and the world continues to take notice of this backward behavior, the most recent example being Italian prosecutors, who announced on Friday that are seeking to indict 297 people and the Bank of China itself for their role in a massive money laundering scheme uncovered earlier this month.

The accused are mostly Chinese migrants residing in Italy though they also include four senior managers of the Chinese state bank’s branch in Milan. Italian prosecutors have found that suspects even used Mafia-like techniques, including intimidation, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported Saturday.

The case shines a spotlight on the large underground Chinese economy in Europe and the inability to government and law enforcement officials to regulate the close-knit communities as well as the economic ties, both legal and illegal, that connect China with the West.

Prosecutors discovered that more than $5.1 billion in ill-gotten profits from counterfeiting, prostitution, labor exploitation and tax evasion rackets that were sent to China in less than four years using the money-transfer service that funneled the funds through the Bank of China.

China’s state banked earned over $1 million in commissions, according to Italian investigative documents. The money had been parceled into small amounts to avoid detection and the bank’s management and audit staff didn’t report suspicious transactions and instead helped conceal the source and destination of the funds.

China, which is currently looking for Western help in hunting its own economic criminals, refused to cooperate with the investigation, Italian officials said.

Once the money left Italy, it vanished, preventing Italian police from continuing their investigation in China, but the news reporters were able to track some of the missing funds to a large state import-export company that has previously been accused of repeatedly shipping counterfeit goods, including to the United States.

China’s government, via its state-run Global Times newspaper, defended the Bank of China and criticized the AP’s report as “strange.” The article quoted a ‘law expert’ saying that the Bank of China has “no obligation to cooperate with Italian police.”

While issuing the denial and not cooperating, the Chinese are increasingly pressuring Western governments to help hunt corrupt officials who have fled overseas.

Italy and China did sign a memorandum of judicial cooperation last September but so far, like so many Chinese deals, the collaboration has been decidedly in Beijing’s favor.

Italy extradited a Chinese national in February accused of stealing more than $225,515 during her employment at a securities company in Heibei province. According to China’s Ministry of Public Security tt was the first time anyone had been extradited from Europe for an alleged economic crime.

In Italy, institutions as well as individuals can be ordered to stand trial and it appears likely the latest case will see both individuals and the Bank of China itself charged.

The case has been ongoing for years, involving operations carried out between 2007 and 2010.

ISIS Booby Trapping Ancient Roman Ruins Of Palmyra With Mines And Bombs

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While ISIS hasn’t yet destroyed the UNESCO world heritage site of Palmyra is captured in May, it has now planted mines and bombs in the ancient part of the central Syrian city, amid the Roman-era ruins according to a group monitoring the war.

On Sunday The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was unclear whether the terror group was preparing to destroy the ancient ruins or had planted the explosives to deter government forces from advancing on the city.

“They have planted it yesterday. They also planted some around the Roman theater, we still do not know the real reason,” said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory

Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s head of antiquities, confirmed the reports, saying the accounts “seemed true.”

“The city is a hostage in their hands, the situation is dangerous.”

The radical Islamic group seized the city of 50,000 people and home of some of the world’s most best-preserved ancient Roman ruins in May.

The Islamic State has created a self-styled stat in Syria and Iraq, where it rules residents with strict Islamic law backed by sexual violence and death.

Its militants have a history of carrying out mass killings and rapes in the towns and cities they capture. They’ve also destroyed ancient monuments which they consider to be evidence of paganism.

Northeast Ohio Man Becomes Second U.S. Resident Charged With Supporting ISIS

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While the Obama administration fumbles with ISIS on the battlefields of the middle east, the FBI has a firm strategy at home: Arrest anyone supporting or trying to support the terror group.

That’s exactly what the agency did on Friday when it arrested a northeast Ohio man, alleging he attempted to provide support to the Islamic State terrorist group while residing in the Cleveland area.

Amir Said Abdul Rahman Al-Ghazi, 38, was arrested in the suburb of North Olmsted while attempting to purchase an AK-47 assault rifle from an undercover FBI agent, according to the criminal complaint. An FBI affidavit said Al-Ghazi had chatted with confidential informants about buying the rifle for use in an ISIS recruiting video.

Al-Ghazi used to be known as Robert McCollum, but changed his name earlier this year. During a search of Al-Ghazi’s apartment on Friday agents found a sword and an Islamic State flag.

Al-Ghazi, according to the charges, began using social media in July 2014 to pledge his support to the militant group and to recruit people to join the group.

While chatting online with FBI sources the man made remarks that he wanted to stage terrorist attacks in the U.S., such as the derailment of a train, according to the sworn affidavit by FBI agents.

In shocking remarks to undercover FBI agents Al-Ghazi said he wasn’t interested in a suicide attack, but did say would cut off the head of his non-Muslim son if Muslims were to go to war in America.

On another occasion he told undercover agents that he wanted to kill non-Muslims and said in an online chat: “You don’t fear death anymore its like walking thru a door for a martyr u know.”

Stephen Anthony, the agent in charge of the Cleveland FBI field office, said in a statement that “it is clear that no area is immune from the influence of ISIL [ISIS] and its recruitment machine. We hope this arrest will serve as a strong message to others who may consider providing support to terrorists.”

An FBI spokeswoman said at this stage in the investigation there is no evidence that Al-Ghazi traveled to the Middle East.

Robert McCollum, Al-Ghazi’s previous legal name, had a criminal history in Cleveland for drug offenses and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Also included in the indictment is an allegation he sold nearly 4.5 pounds of marijuana to a confidential informant starting in February 2014.

Al-Ghazi has been under surveillance by the FBI since the fall of 2013, following a complaint to the FBI about Al-Ghazi’s online activity.

It is estimate that ISIS has thousands of members like Al-Ghazi in the United States, who recruit and do other low level tasks for the terror group. The man is the second charged by the FBI, who promised more arrests in the coming weeks and months.

The fact Al-Ghazi was under surveillance for over two years show that the FBI is deeply connected to the online terrorist underworld and likely has a number of suspects it is poised to arrest.

The FBI refused to discuss such plans, citing ongoing operations.

Wildlife Officials Crush More Than One Ton Of Elephant Ivory In The Middle Of Times Square

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The world is increasingly getting angry with China and other Asian countries who, as we’ve covered before, continue to tolerate the illegal poaching and subsequent sales of endangered species derived products.

To highlight the United States’ resolve on the issue, law enforcement destroyed more than a ton of elephant ivory in New York’s Times Square on Friday.

The public display of outrage saw conservationists, lawmakers, wildlife officials, and bystanders watch as seized ivory was turned into sand-like powder by an industrial rock crusher.

“Today, we are not just crushing illegally poached ivory; we are crushing the bloody ivory market,” said Cristian Samper who is the president of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“We are crushing any hopes by the poachers that they will profit by killing off our Earth’s majestic elephants. Criminals, take notice.”

Poaching is reducing elephant populations at an alarming rate, and the numbers are getting especially grim in Africa, where most of the giant animals are targeted.

“Elephant poaching is at its highest level in decades and now exceeds the species’ reproductive potential,” said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which organized the Times Square crushing.

Despite full awareness of just how perilous elephant and rhino survival has become, the illegal ivory trade has doubled worldwide since 2007. China and the United States are among the largest markets for the illegal ivory.

Such crushing started two years ago, when the United States crushed a six ton stockpile of ivory in Denver. Other nations, such as Gabon, Kenya and the Philippines have followed suit and destroyed large quantities in recent years.

The bulk of the ivory crushed Friday was confiscated during undercover operations by law enforcement, including a horde of ivory seized by a Philadelphia art dealer who pleaded guilty in federal court to smuggling African elephant ivory.

African elephants are classified as threatened under the endangered species act, while Rhinos are considered endangered.

The United States strictly prohibits commercial imports and rigorously regulates domestic trade of ivory products to ensure no new ivory is making it into the country.

About 35,000 elephants are slaughtered annually as the demand for ivory grows worldwide, particularly in China, where it is prized as art and used in quack medicine.

Taxi App Uber Banning Americans For Exercising Second Amendment Rights

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Ride sharing company Uber is positioning itself as a firm supporter of gun control, as it silently changed its policy on June 10th to ban any drivers or passengers caught carrying a firearm in ‘their’ taxis.

The policy is interesting, as Uber doesn’t actually own the taxis and doesn’t even consider itself legally a ride sharing company, preferring to instead license its ride coordination service and collect a fee for doing so in order to avoid regulation as a taxi service.

Yet despite its claim to not be a taxi operator, it plans to nonetheless control what you carry in taxis chartered through its service.

Uber said in a statement last week that it is banning firearms of any kind during rides arranged through the Uber platform, and drivers or riders who violate the rule will be banned from the service.

The company cited feedback from riders and drivers as the motivation for the decision, though it likely has to do with the philosophical beliefs of the company’s Californian owners, who are notoriously anti second amendment, than actual user feedback.

The new policy puts the company at odds with local law enforcement on the issue, as most communities regulate the transportation of firearms in taxi cabs.

Previously the company had honored local laws on the issue, but given the company’s frequent flouting of local laws, it should comes as no surprise they have once again decided to play by their own rules.

Report Finds All 50 U.S. States Fail To Meet Police Use Of Force Standards

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Coming on the heels of shocking police brutality in Missouri, Baltimore and Charleston caught on video, a new report by international human rights group Amnesty International has found that a stunning 50 of 50 U.S. states fail to comply with international standards on the lethal use of force by law enforcement officers.

The report, published by the groups U.S. division, found a further 13 states that fall beneath even lower legal standards of the U.S. constitutional law.

Shockingly nine states currently have no laws on record to deal with the issue.

Executive director for Amnesty USA, Steven Hawkins, said the findings show a “shocking lack of fundamental respect for the sanctity of human life”.

“While law enforcement in the United States is given the authority to use lethal force, there is no equal obligation to respect and preserve human life. It’s shocking that while we give law enforcement this extraordinary power, so many states either have no regulation on their books or nothing that complies with international standards,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins called the analysis the first of its kind as it compared state laws on police use of lethal force with international laws, particularly the United Nations principle of limiting lethal use of force to “unavoidable” instances “in order to protect life” after “less extreme means” have proved insufficient.

Amnesty found that, in all cases, state written statutes were too broad to be in compliance with these international standards, concluding that “none of the laws establish the requirement that lethal force may only be used as a last resort with non-violent means and less harmful means to be tried first. The vast majority of laws do not require officers to give a warning of their intent to use firearms.”

The comes just weeks after the recommendations of Barack Obama’s police taskforce were criticized for not doing anything substantive to prevent police violence. Obama’s commission found that “not only should there be policies for deadly and non-deadly uses of force”, but that a “clearly stated ‘sanctity of life’ philosophy must also be in the forefront of every officer’s mind”.

The ‘sanctity of life’ philosophy is an internationally recognized principle for the treatment of human life by militaries and law enforcement around the world.

The Amnesty review found only eight states that require a verbal warning to be issued before an officer uses lethal force.

In fact, nine states – Michigan, Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Wisconsin – have no law enforcement lethal force statutes at all.

“Those states can of course argue that they follow common law or supreme court standards, but is that good enough?” Hawkins stated. “Certainly we would expect that international human rights standards are what should govern and our fear is that, unless these are clearly quantified, a citizen in any state can’t look at what the law is. That’s critically important to ensuring accountability.”

Amnesty’s report advocates for UN international standards to be applied to all fatal incidents involving law enforcement, which would mean mandatory reporting of lethal incidents and impartial investigations into each and every one.

The federal government does not track these incidents, relying on the the FBI-run voluntary program where law enforcement choose to submit a number of “justifiable homicides” each year.

Yet because the system is optional, most departments submit only partial statistics and re-classify incidents to avoid public scrutiny and the associated costs.

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