Turkish Banker Is Convicted in Plot to Evade Iran Sanctions New York Times – Benjamin Weiser – Jan 3, 11:10 AM A Turkish banker was convicted on Wednesday of taking part in a billion-dollar scheme to violate American sanctions against Iran, in a case that painted a picture of high-level corruption in Turkey and heightened tensions … Read more
MHP, AKP in 11th-hour debate on federalism The two main supporters of the “Yes” camp have become embroiled in a last-minute row over whether the shift to an executive presidential system constitutional amendments will introduce a “federal state structure,” with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan denying claims that Turkey’s unitary system will be eroded President Erdoğan slams OSCE … Read more
Twitter sues US government over order to reveal anti-Trump account The Next Web by Abhimanyu Ghoshal Twitter is suing the Trump administration over the demand for the company to reveal the identity of the user behind the account @ALT_uscis, which is critical of the current government’s immigration policies. A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent … Read more
Central European University Under Threat in Populist Hungary Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog by Andria Timmer As guest blogger for the month, I’m going to be talking about Hungary, where I’ve been doing field research in since 2004. In doing so, I also have to talk about Trump. I don’t … Read more
Encrypted technologies and terrorism Hacker Noon – Medium by Andreas Sandre An armed police officer stands guard opposite the Houses of Parliament after the March 22, 2017 London attack. (Photo credits: AFP) The Wikipedia for Spies—And Where It Goes From Here Wired Top Stories by Emily Dreyfuss Yes, the intelligence community crowdsources, too What the Public Knows About Cybersecurity … Read more
Turk in Sanctions Case Adds Rudolph W. Giuliani to Legal Team NYT > Turkey by By BENJAMIN WEISER and MAGGIE HABERMAN The former mayor is close to President Trump, raising the question of whether he was retained to help resolve Reza Zarrab’s case with the Trump administration. Halkbank Deputy General Manager Arrested in US Bianet :: English … Read more
Debate: EU at 60: celebrations in turbulent times euro|topics On March 25, 1957, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the Treaties of Rome – effectively the birth certificate of the European Union. Sixty years on the leaders of 27 EU states will once again convene in Rome and address the question of where … Read more
Forget Russia, new menace in Western Balkans is Trump-style populist politics EurActiv.com by Denis MacShane A new menace is stalking the Western Balkans: the region’s political leaders themselves. Many are now retreating from serious engagement with Europe in order to play internal political games, writes Denis MacShane. Black flags from Rome: Mafia and Isis, as before Mafia … Read more
Don’t Let WikiLeaks Scare You Off of Signal and Other Encrypted Chat Apps Wired Top Stories by Brian Barrett Despite some initial confusion, the CIA hasn’t undermined Signal and other important end-to-end encrypted apps. The CIA Didn’t Break Signal or WhatsApp, Despite What You’ve Heard The Intercept by Sam Biddle There’s been one particularly misleading claim repeated … Read more
Welcome to our short summary in english of the PPNL 2017 election program. Can the populist far-right win the elections in the Netherlands? Ideas on Europe by Alliance Europa Second post on our series on the Dutch general elections. On Wednesday 15 March, Dutch voters will head to the polls to elect a new parliament and … Read more
How Peter Thiel’s Palantir Helped the NSA Spy on the Whole World The Intercept by Sam Biddle Donald Trump has inherited the most powerful machine for spying ever devised. How this petty, vengeful man might wield and expand the sprawling American spy apparatus, already vulnerable to abuse, is disturbing enough on its own. But the outlook is … Read more
How cryptocurrency will cripple today’s governments – and they won’t see it coming Falkvinge on Infopolicy – Discussions on information policy and civil liberties by Rick Falkvinge Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency will cripple governmental ability to collect taxes, and they won’t see it coming. When it’s already happened, expect major changes to take place in how society is organized … Read more
Directorate of Religious Affairs recalls ‘spy’ imams in Germany Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) announced on Feb. 10 the recall and discharge of Turkish imams who were accusing of spying by Germany. ‘Russian Jet Accidentally Hit Our Soldiers’, Says Turkish Armed Forces Bianet :: English In an operation into ISIS in al-Bab, a Russian … Read more
Cooperation and competition in social anthropology Anthropology Today by J.L. Molina, M.J. Lubbers, H. Valenzuela-García, S. Gómez-Mestres The emergence of cooperation in human societies has received ample academic attention from different disciplines, and is usually considered as an adaptive response to competition over scarce resources. In this article, the authors review the specific contribution that … Read more
Study: Conservatives more likely to believe fake news The Next Web by Bryan Clark A UCLA-led study found that political views have a lot to do with how likely each of us are to believe information about potential threats — As a presidential election looms in France, Google and Facebook team up with news outlets to factcheck … Read more