Bulk data gathering programs used by US intelligence have no effect in combating terrorism and have failed to prevent any attacks in their 10 years of operation, whistleblower and former NSA contactor Edward Snowden, claims in a recent interview. “In the wake of the revelations of mass surveillance the [US] president [Barack Obama] appointed two independent commissions to review the efficienc [...]

Controversial changes to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal brought in by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, following its election in October 2015, have been blasted as "crippling" and undermining the basic principles of democracy. A report by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe — a separate body from the European Union founded in 1949 to protect democracy, human rights and the rule [...]

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, whose novel Time of the Octopus provided the basis for the upcoming movie “Snowden” shot by Oliver Stone, spoke to RT about the unexpected challenges filmmakers encountered in the US. Simply called Snowden, the biographical thriller directed by Oliver Stone tells the story of the US National Security Agency whistleblow [...]

In a troubling sign of domestic operations by the US military, the Pentagon has admitted to flying spy drones over the continental United States during the past decade. Human rights activists have long questioned the ethical implications of Washington’s drone use. [...]

The United Nations human rights chief on Friday warned that the U.S. government risks opening a "Pandora's Box" if it successfully forces Apple to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the suspected San Bernardino shooters. "Encryption and anonymity are needed as enablers of both freedom of expression and opinion, and the right to privacy," [...]

Governments worldwide in 2015 capitalized on supposed national security threats to trample over human rights. That's Amnesty International's assessment of global human rights in its latest report. "Your rights are in jeopardy: they are being treated with utter contempt by many governments around [...]

Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the US for alleged drug trafficking, has told reporters about numerous violations of his rights and “deliberate attempts to kill him” through cruel conditions and poor medical treatment. [...]

Most people believe that we are living in a more enlightened age of increasing press freedom, but the latest censorship reports tell a different story. Censorship is still a big issue around the world. Censorship remains at high levels in many countries, despite the fact that we tend to think we live in a world without that much of it (at least in the so-called “enlightened and developed West [...]

What can I say that I have not said before? I guess I can start by saying see you later to all of those who have passed in the last year. We Natives don’t like to mention their names. We believe that if we speak their names it disrupts their journey. They may loose their way and their spirits wander forever. [...]

UN working group says WikiLeaks founder should be offered compensation for being confined to Ecuadorian embassy. The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained by the UK and Sweden for more than five years and should be released immediately with compensation, according to a United Nations report. [...]

One of the epic miscarriages of justice of our time is unravelling. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention — — the international tribunal that adjudicates and decides whether governments comply with their human rights obligations — has ruled that Julian Assange has been detained unlawfully by Britain and Sweden. [...]

One of the epic miscarriages of justice of our time is unraveling: The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention – the international tribunal that adjudicates and decides whether governments comply with their human rights obligations – has ruled that Julian Assange has been detained unlawfully by Britain and Sweden. [...]

People ask what can be done about the elite control system. The answer lies with taking concrete steps toward understanding where the control truly is. Done sneakily, or under the illusion of democracy, in recent times more oppressive laws have been made than ever before. Between us being subjected to more and more ordinances, rules, restrictions and outright laws then demonizing our dissension [...]

“One of the greatest stories of the 20th century was that we doubled the life expectancy of adults,” Terry Fulmer, head of the John A. Hartford Foundation, remarked recently. In the last quarter-century, Washington has helped fight this trend. Consider the dark news Health Affairs delivered this month. Mexico saw a “decline in life expectancy from 2005 to 2010 among men nationwide,” mai [...]

A U.S. rendition plane was ready and waiting in Copenhagen in June 2013 to nab National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, a Danish news website reported this week. At the time, Snowden had fled Hong Kong and was stuck at the airport in Moscow. [...]

The Gracchus brothers of Rome, Indian Emperor Ashoka, and Jesus were all left-wingers, former Uruguayan president José Mujica told RT, as he shared a fascinating history lesson on the constant struggle between liberal and conservative ideas. [...]

A German court has ruled Facebook’s ‘friend finder’ function, which allows the social network to market services to non-users, illegal. The court said the promotion is “intrusive” and that Facebook had not adequately informed its members about it. [...]

After an Austrian bar announced that it was "free of refugees," with people expressing their outrage on social networks, claiming that such measures reminds them of the Nazi regime. A local bar in the small town of Bad Ischl, Austria, has banned asylum seekers from entry and has caused outrage among the local population, media reported. [...]

Dark money groups have spent $143 million on the 2016 U.S. presidential election since last July—nearly four times as much as the candidates' own campaigns, Politico reported in a new analysis on Tuesday. The origins of most of that funding will never be revealed, while some of it will be made public at midnight on January 31, just hours before the Iowa caucuses, writes Politico's chief inves [...]