Marvel announced Wednesday that Steve Rogers, the longtime Captain America, has been “robbed of his superior strength and vitality,” forcing him to trade in his uniform for a “sturdy cane.” Rogers will hand over his shield and duties to Sam Wilson, formerly known as Captain Falcon.
alJazeera
Damned commies.The [BRICS] group of emerging economies signed the long-anticipated document to create the $100 bn BRICS Development Bank and a reserve currency pool worth over another $100 bn. Both will counter the influence of Western-based lending institutions and the dollar.
The new bank will provide money for infrastructure and development projects in BRICS countries, and unlike the IMF or World Bank, each nation has equal say, regardless of GDP size.
RT
Thinking ahead (and back).The BRICS bank will be headquartered in Shanghai, India will preside as president the first year, and Russia will be the chairman of the representatives.
[...]
The $100 billion crisis lending fund, called the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), was also established. China will contribute the lion’s share, about $41 billion, Russia, Brazil and India will chip in $18 billion, and South Africa, the newest member of the economic bloc, will contribute $5 billion.
The idea is that the creation of the bank will lessen dependence on the West and create a more multi-polar world, at least financially.
“This mechanism creates the foundation for an effective protection of our national economies from a crisis in financial markets," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Russia has also proposed the countries come together under an energy alliance that will include a fuel reserve, as well as an institute for energy policy .
The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, “amplif[y]” sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be “extremist.” The capabilities, detailed in documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old standby for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call.
[...]
But as the U.K. Parliament today debates a fast-tracked bill to provide the government with greater surveillance powers, one which Prime Minister David Cameron has justified as an “emergency” to “help keep us safe,” a newly released top-secret GCHQ document called “JTRIG Tools and Techniques” provides a comprehensive, birds-eye view of just how underhanded and invasive this unit’s operations are.
Glenn Greenwald
On Monday, the White House sent a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asking the congressman to consider attending a closed-door meeting with administration officials on Tuesday in lieu of having an Obama aide answer questions on the Hill.
[...]
Issa responded to the White House’s silence by sending a subpoena last Friday to Simas’ office, requesting specifically that the director appear before Congress and speak as to OPSO’s role with regards to political campaigns and compliance with the Hatch Act.
“In an effort to appease its political allies, the Obama administration broadcast its intention to re-open a political office within the White House to assist in partisan election efforts and fundraising,” Issa said at the time. “This hearing will examine abuses of taxpayer funds for political gain and the level of White House commitment to preventing them.”
RT
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive for five years in Afghanistan until he was traded May 31 for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo, has completed his U.S. military-led reintegration treatment and has been assigned to an Army unit in Texas [Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Houston] to continue his military service.
McClatchy
What more do you people want?President Obama is “absolutely” the most transparent president in history, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Sunday after the White House received a letter from signed by a dozen top journalists’ groups complaining about the administration’s policies toward the media.
[...]
The letter, signed by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Poynter Institute, among others, accuses the White House of "politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies." It asks the president to create an ombudsman charged with enforcing his goal of government transparency, and asks Obama "issue a clear directive telling federal employees they're not only free to answer questions from reporters and the public, but actually encouraged to do so.”
[...]
Earnest noted that previous administrations had “gone to the Supreme Court” to prevent the release of White House visitor information, but that the Obama administration “releases it voluntarily on the Internet on a quarterly basis.” “Reporters for years clamored to get access to fundraisers the president hosted or attended that were hosted in private homes,” Earnest continued. “Reporters now have access to those when this president goes to a private home.”
The Hill
Shocking – or predictable?Four years after the Deepwater Horizon explosion devastated the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 and gushing more than 200 million gallons of oil into the water, the company found responsible has shut down an internal claims program utilized by small business owners, injured rig workers and even casino companies affected by the disaster.
[...]
In an emailed statement, BP announced that the program’s closure would affect very few people. “The fact is that 99 percent of the claims received by the BP Claims Program have been resolved,” said Geoff Morrell, senior vice president for the company’s U.S. communications and external affairs.
But lawyers representing Gulf Coast clients say that the company’s statement is simply not true — and that as many as 10,000 people could be affected by the decision.
[...]
“It’s quite shocking for me that a company that has admitted responsibility for an unlimited amount of money would cut off all negotiations with the thousands of victims, thousands of clients, who are not part of the class-action settlement,” said lawyer Stuart Smith, whose many clients come from Louisiana and were affected by the spill. “BP has a legal and moral obligation to expeditiously adjust and pay these claims.”
alJazeera
In a letter responding to a June 27 FOIA request from The Desk, the NSA’s chief FOIA officer Pamela Phillips wrote that while the agency has retained records related to [Edward] Snowden’s employment as a contractor, they are being withheld from public examination because, among other things, releasing the records “could interfere with law enforcement proceedings, could cause an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, could reveal the identities of confidential sources or would reveal law enforcement techniques and procedures.”
[...]
The Desk‘s original FOIA request was for “and and all e-mails sent by Edward Snowden using the e-mail address ejsnowd@nsa.ic.gov to any and all NSA officials, including officials at the Office of General Counsel, for the time period between January 1, 2013 and June 1, 2013.”
[...]
The letter marks the first time the NSA has publicly acknowledged retaining communication and employment records related to Snowden’s time as a contractor.
[...]
The NSA informed The Desk that the agency has a process for appealing FOIA requests that are denied or to challenge the withholding of certain records. The Desk will be taking advantage of this process.
Matthew Keys/The Desk
The German government has asked the top representative of America's secret services in Germany to leave the country.
[...]
Clemens Binninger, a member of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, who chairs the committee that oversees the intelligence services, explained that the move came in response to America's "failure to cooperate on resolving various allegations, starting with the NSA and up to the latest incidents".
The move comes in response to two reported cases of suspected US spying in Germany and the year-long spat over reported NSA spying in Germany, including claims that Merkel's phone was tapped.
Guardian
