The United States Senate on Tuesday will decide which direction to go next with regard to the USA Freedom Act, the supposed surveillance reform bill that already has passed the House and been endorsed by the president. According to its backers, passage of the Freedom Act would ensure that critical counterterrorism tools remain at the disposal of federal investigators but also rein in the Nation [...]

Over 1400 individuals are under investigation by British police as part of an inquiry into a historic VIP sex abuse network believed to include celebrities and politicians. Information released by Operation Hydrant, the group of police officers tackling the alleged ring, said that the 1,433 suspected offenders included 76 politicians, 43 musicians, and 135 from film, television and radio. [...]

The death of Sergeant James Brown in a Texas jail was an outrageous "torture operation," author and US Army veteran Rory Fanning told RT. But the odds that police officers involved get indicted are very low, unless there are massive protests, he added. A video obtained by KFOX14 has revealed aggressive force being used by officers during Brown’s time in custody in 2012. [...]

Warsaw has paid €230,000 to two former inmates of CIA "black site" prisons, which used to be on Poland's territory - a move that has raised questions in the country. "Poland has fulfilled the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights," Deputy Foreign Minister Rafał Trzaskowski said on Thursday, RIA Novosti reports. [...]

Cuban President Raul Castro has promised to attend all Pope Francis's masses when the pontiff visits Cuba. Castro said he may even go back to praying and church if "the pope continues to talk as he does." The talks between the Cuban leader and the pontiff in Vatican were strictly private and lasted for about an hour. [...]

The NSA has reportedly sought the help of Germany's intelligence agency in spying on Munich-based Siemens over the company's suspected business with Russian intelligence, Bild am Sonntag newspaper revealed. Siemens has denied any connection with Russia. The revelation came from an unknown US intelligence source speaking to Germany’s Bild am Sonntag, and is the latest report in a spy scandal i [...]

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden accused Australia of undertaking mass surveillance of its citizens and passing laws on the collection of metadata that he says do not protect society from acts of terrorism. Snowden, addressing the Progress 2015 conference in Melbourne via satellite link, criticized Australia's new metadata laws, which allow the government and intelligence agencies to keep a con [...]

A record number of Americans gave up their US citizenship in the first quarter of 2015, according to IRS data. This is blamed on the taxation of income earned outside the US, along with laws expanding offshore bank account and asset reporting. A total of 1,335 people renounced US citizenship during the first three months of the year, topping the previous record by 18 percent, according to data [...]

The collection of telephone metadata by US intelligence services "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized," a federal appeals court has ruled in a major blow to the National Security Agency. On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the American Civil Liberties Union can sue the director of national intelligence over the NSA’s bulk collection program, reversin [...]

From Afghanistan to Yemen we are told we must fight terrorism over there to keep us safe here at home. The historical record tells us a very different story. Washington’s so-called war on terror has only created and motivated more violent extremists and destroyed states. As a result of failed wars, terrorism flourishes around the world. CrossTalking with Phyllis Bennis, Bruce Fein, and James [...]

At a congressional hearing on Wednesday, witnesses said creating a way to grant authorities access to encrypted communications to aid in criminal probes will inevitably by exploited by adversaries. Amid a growing reliance within the tech industry to enable [...]

Angela Merkel's government has been accused of lying to the country's parliament after it was alleged that it knew German spies were conducting economic espionage for the NSA. Revelations show that some spooks were even spying on German companies. Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, who is a close ally of Chancellor Merkel denied on Wednesday that he had lied to parliament about [...]

The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments on lethal injections for the first time in nearly a decade, following a botched execution in Oklahoma and amid a nationwide shortage of the drugs used in the procedure. On Wednesday, the state of Oklahoma and lawyers for three death row inmates there presented their arguments to the Supreme Court, where the nine justices appeared to be sharply split bet [...]

Travis Sanders was out with his family at a lava lake at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park last week when he was tasered to the ground for trying to take some snaps of the lava with a small toy drone. Sanders was minding his own business and flying his drone over the lava lake when he was apprehended by a park ranger who told him to land it at once. [...]

As Victory Day looms closer, Russia remembers the millions of Soviet lives lost in WWII to make the Nazi defeat possible. RT is launching a project that amongst personal stories and letters will also feature a unique battle map of the Eastern Front. World War II was the world's biggest and bloodiest military conflict. It affected 61 countries with a total population of 1.7 billion people. [...]

The recent killings in Ukraine are reported in Western media in a completely distorted way says investigative journalist Tony Gosling. It's a dangerous situation that may provoke further killings and less reporting of certain points of view, he told RT. Opposition journalist Oles Buzina was killed near his home in Kiev on Thursday. Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has ordered a full investi [...]

Iceland is planning to formally withdraw its EU application, the country's prime minister told the national radio station. Reykjavik also wants to lift capitals controls imposed on Iceland by Brussels after a financial crisis hit the country in 2008. Despite expected public protests, Iceland is going to make a second attempt to withdraw its application to become a member state of the European U [...]

At the height of mass protests last year in Ferguson, Missouri, the state’s National Guard referred to demonstrators as “enemy forces” and “adversaries,” according to internal documents obtained by CNN. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, the news network obtained files authored by the Missouri National Guard last year as it readied to deploy in the St. Louis suburb of Fergus [...]

Results from two new polls found the majority of Americans support making cannabis legal, with the large majority of young adults crossing party lines and states to support the idea. Nationally, 53 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. [...]

Easter should be a time of celebration for Christians, but for those of the faith living in the Middle East, there hasn't been too much to celebrate in recent years. "Kill the Christians" is the title of a new BBC documentary, to be broadcast this week. [...]

An International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has slammed conditions faced by migrant workers building Abu Dhabi's $27-billion Saadiyat Island cultural hub, set to feature new branches of the Louvre and the Guggenheim museums. [...]

A mother who has taken flight with her son to prevent his circumcision could face a prison sentence if she fails have the boy undergo the procedure, a judge ruled, in a case that has become a rallying cry for ‘intactivists.’ The case, which began as a domestic dispute between Heather Hironimus and her husband, Dennis Nebus, over whether or not to circumcise their four-year-old son, has caug [...]