“It is our view that we cannot have a situation where the debt ceiling is extended as part of a budget negotiation process for only six weeks, which would put us right back in the same position that we’re in now,” Carney said.

This week the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations released a report about the crackdown on peaceful protests in democracies around the world – the tactics include excessive (sometimes deadly) police force and the criminalization of dissent. This is the introduction to the study, „Take Back the Streets,“ which details cases of suppression in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Israel, Egypt, Argentina, South Africa, Kenya, and Hungary.

Nach einigen Absagen und Zusagen wird die Militärhilfe der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika an Ägypten jetzt gekürzt, allerdings wird nur ein Teil der jährlichen $ 1,5 Milliarden davon betroffen sein.

The Central African Republic teeters on the brink of becoming the next Mali. Is it the next front in Europe’s battle with radical Islam for control of North Africa?

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday aimed at stabilizing the Central African Republic, a dangerous and dysfunctional country that has descended into near-total chaos over the last half year.

Foreign Policy magazine has an article highlighting how NSA employees are pissed off that President Obama hasn‘t been defending the NSA strongly enough these past few months. While many (including us) have been quite critical of President Obama‘s weak defense of the NSA programs, folks inside Ft. Meade are pissed off that he‘s not out there defending them more strongly:

James Clapper (centre), the US director of national intelligence, is sworn in last month. ‚More unexpected are the words of James Clapper that some of the NSA debate, actually needed to happen – rather hard to square with MI5‘s claim that the Guardian is guilty of dangerous treachery.‘

Hillary Clinton has called for a „sensible adult conversation“ to be held in a transparent way, about the boundaries of state surveillance highlighted by the leaking of secret NSA files by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

„What we said to the opposition is very simple: Return to the assembly so you finish your work in finalizing the constitution and the election commission and we will give up government in return,“ he told Reuters.

„Give the Tunisian people who elected you the constitution they elected you to produce, and we will give up the government.“

This article provides an overview of the United States’ historical and current policies relating to nuclear, chemical, biological and missile proliferation.

http://t.co/HSvfR5R8fU

Half a dozen law enforcement, intelligence and Congressional officials with direct knowledge of the supervisor’s report were contacted for this article. All of the officials agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing criminal investigation.

Founded in 1983, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) describes itself as “the world’s only global association of financial institutions” with a membership that includes “most of the world’s largest commercial banks and investment banks,” along with sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, law firms, multinational corporations, development banks, multilateral agencies, credit ratings agencies and an assortment of other global financial and economic organizations. In short, the Institute of International Finance is the very visible hand of the global financial markets.

As the IIF notes on its website, its „main activities“ include providing so-called “impartial analysis and research” to its members in order to “shape regulatory, financial, and economic policy issues….influence the public debate on particular policy proposals….[and work] with policymakers, regulators, and multilateral organizations… with an emphasis on voluntary market-based approaches to crisis prevention and management.“