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Category Archives: Fail!
How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments – The New York Times
About four miles from where the McKinsey consultants discussed their work, which includes advising some of China’s most important state-owned companies, a sprawling internment camp had sprung up to hold thousands of ethnic Uighurs — part of a vast archipelago of indoctrination camps where the Chinese government has locked up as many as one million people. One week before the McKinsey event, a United Nations committee had denounced the mass detentions and urged China to stop.
President Trump, hostage taker? – Los Angeles Times
Trump’s statement that he may intervene in the case against Meng could be one of his most dangerous “break the norms” moments since he won the White House. By putting her arrest in play as a bargaining chip in trade talks, Trump has told the world that hostage-taking is now a part of his approach to international negotiations too. It also is a further erosion of the independence of the Justice Department. Trump has already demanded that it investigate his political foes, including Hillary Clinton, though so far the department has refused to follow his lead. It’s unclear how much it could resist him in the Meng case, but to swap her prosecution for a trade deal tells the world that U.S. arrest warrants can be made to go away if Trump gets a trade concession. While Trump may have the legal authority to intervene in a specific case, that he is willing to do so not for reasons of justice, but for political gain, is an appalling blurring of policy goals and our concept of an independent and professional Justice Department.
‘They don’t care’: Facebook factchecking in disarray as journalists push to cut ties | Technology | The Guardian
Current and former Facebook factcheckers told the Guardian that the tech platform’s collaboration with outside reporters has produced minimal results and that they’ve lost trust in Facebook, which has repeatedly refused to release meaningful data about the impacts of their work. Some said Facebook’s hiring of a PR firm that used an antisemitic narrative to discredit critics – fueling the same kind of propaganda factcheckers regularly debunk – should be a deal-breaker. “They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR,” said Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor of Snopes, a factchecking site that has partnered with Facebook for two years. “They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck … They clearly don’t care.”
New Zealand courts banned naming Grace Millane’s accused killer. Google just emailed it out | Toby Manhire | World news | The Guardian
this is next-level. You didn’t have to go searching to find the name on the internet. Google put it right in your inbox. You didn’t even need to click to open the email. His name was in the subject field. Shouldn’t Google then be hauled before the courts? What did they have to say for themselves – was this defensible, and what processes did they have in place to stop this sort of thing happening? A spokesperson for Google in New Zealand (based in Australia) responded to those questions by saying, “we wouldn’t comment on specifics”. That’s a no-comment on the specific fact that they dispatched an email with the name of the accused – information unequivocally suppressed by NZ courts – in the headline.
Mattis Erupts Over Niger Inquiry and Army Revisits Who Is to Blame – The New York Times
A senior officer who escaped punishment for the ambush that killed four American soldiers will be reprimanded. A junior officer’s reprimand is rescinded.
Revealed: the hidden global network behind Tommy Robinson | UK news | The Guardian
A separate study of about 600 Twitter accounts, believed to be directly tied to the Russian government or closely aligned with its propaganda, found significant numbers had tweeted prolifically in Robinson’s defence.
Source: Revealed: the hidden global network behind Tommy Robinson | UK news | The Guardian
John Kelly interviewed by Mueller’s team and expected to quit – report | US news | The Guardian – “Building their own wall and circling the wagons for last stand”
Chief of staff answered questions related to potential obstruction of justice, CNN reported, and is not on speaking terms with Trump
Source: John Kelly interviewed by Mueller’s team and expected to quit – report | US news | The Guardian
Inoreader – An Elkhart Police Officer Was Convicted of Drunken Driving — Then the Chief Promoted Him
Despite the charge and conviction, Roundtree was never disciplined by Windbigler, according to Roundtree’s personnel file. Instead, Windbigler promoted Roundtree to detective this June, less than a year after the guilty plea. The command staff neglected to inform the oversight commission of the move, even though the commission must approve such promotions, according to Jim Rieckhoff, the commission’s chairman. He says the oversight panel was notified of the promotion in a letter this week from Todd Thayer, the acting police chief. Rieckhoff also seemed unaware until told by a reporter Thursday that Roundtree had pleaded guilty.
Source: Inoreader – An Elkhart Police Officer Was Convicted of Drunken Driving — Then the Chief Promoted Him
Farewell to the INF Treaty (II) – GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com – Military-Industrial Complex wants contracts to build weapons no one needs!
If Russia does not cease its alleged violations of the INF Treaty within 60 days, Washington will withdraw from the treaty. Credible evidence for those alleged violations is as absent today, as sound proof of the alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The western debate is still ignoring solid Russian evidence that the USA is violating the INF Treaty with the installation of NATO’s missile defense systems in Romania and Poland. Yesterday, NATO foreign ministers blamed Russia for the abrogation of the treaty. Berlin seeks to avoid the installation of US medium-range missiles in Europe, because they would restrict the EU’s planned military autonomy. Government advisors are suggesting other armament measures against Russia.
Source: Farewell to the INF Treaty (II) – GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com
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