Thanks to the pressure of civil liberties organizations and heavy-hitters in the tech industry, President Barack Obama will now have to publicly comment on his position on strong encryption. The savecrypto.org petition requested the Obama administration to publicly affirm their support for strong encryption and “[r]eject any law, policy, or mandate that would undermine our security.” [...]

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair “misrepresented” military intelligence in order to secure approval to invade Iraq in 2003, Dr Hans Blix, the head of the UN inspection team at the time, has revealed. Blix, who inspected Iraq for weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) before the US and British-led invasion, told former-Telegraph journalist Peter Oborne the intelligence gathered was not accuratel [...]

The subsidiary of the Russian Space Center and French satellite provider Eutelsat has signed a long-term launch contract. “Several Proton-M carrier rocket launches with Eutelsat satellites will be carried out between 2016-2023 from the Baikonur space center,” Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Thursday. [...]

It’s long been known that authorities can use the secretive Stingray tools to track people by their cell phones. Now it’s been revealed that police are actually able to listen in on calls using the device. Stingrays, cell-site simulators, are suitcase-sized devices that work by mimicking cell towers and intercepting the signals of mobile phones. [...]

The majority of European Parliament members have voted in favor of asking constituent states to grant protection to whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has described the move as a ‘game-changer’ and a ‘chance to move forward’. MEPs have urged EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent ext [...]

Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was elected Speaker of the House, defeating Democrat Nancy Pelosi. The 45-year-old has become the youngest congressman to serve as the House leader since 1869. Of the 432 votes cast, 236 went to Ryan and 184 to Pelosi. [...]

The International Monetary Fund will go ahead with the promised $17.5 billion loan to Ukraine even if Kiev defaults on its $3 billion debt to Russia due in December, reports The Wall Street Journal. Current IMF policy forbids it loaning to countries that default on other governments.   [...]

The US would not be keen to pursue a trade deal with Britain if it were to leave the European Union, one American official has said.It marks the first public acknowledgement by the US of a stance on the upcoming referendum. [...]

Threatening continued assaults on the Kurdish militia in Syria, the Turkish president has warned he will not request anyone’s permission to do whatever is necessary to prevent the spread of support for Kurdish autonomy, even if it requires bombing US-allied rebels.   [...]

Over 80 percent of the asylum seekers recently arrived in Germany have no formal qualifications, and only eight percent have a college degree, local media reported citing research by the country's Federal Employment Agency. Germany (population 80 million) may receive 1.5 million asylum seekers this year alone. [...]

Sir John Chilcot has told Prime Minister David Cameron that the long-delayed, highly controversial report into the legality of the Iraq War will certainly be published in June or July 2016. In an official letter to Cameron, Chilcot said the text of the report would be completed by April 18, 2016, at which point “national security” checking of the content will commence. [...]

Hand guns and rifle sales are spiking in Austria, with some shops reporting they are running out of stocks of shotguns, since no license is needed to buy them. “Yes, I can confirm, the demand in Austria for weapons is growing. My revenue doubled in September. And in October it has doubled again, and we are still in October,” a gun shop owner told RT. [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted the government for turning a blind eye on US dollar payments in the domestic oil trade. "I would like to mention one crucial issue in the development of the energy industry, and the economy as a whole. It is a question of finally stopping the use of foreign currency in internal trade,” said Putin at the fuel and energy presidential commission on Tuesda [...]

The Iraqi government never asked for and does not need any US involvement in ground operations against Islamic State terrorists. The eye-opening statement came only a day after the Pentagon promised its partner more ground support if it was required. “This is an Iraqi affair and the government did not ask the US Department of Defense to be involved in direct operations,” spokesman Sa'ad al- [...]

Rock star politician and ex-Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has brushed off accusations by the Times of London that he is raking in cash for speaking engagements by publishing his expenses. On Tuesday, the paper published a piece claiming Varoufakis was merely moonlighting as a “libertarian Marxist,” while in fact acting like a “highly-paid capitalist,” raking in six-figure fees [...]

Something really fishy is going on in Syria, US Marine combat veteran Gordon Duff notes, adding that Western mass media remains suspiciously mute about the matter. There are lots of battles being fought across Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Libya, accompanied by various local conflicts, US Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War and senior editor of Vet [...]

Die Terrorgruppe Islamischer Staat hat erstmals ein Video nur auf Deutsch veröffentlicht. Die Fanatiker töten zwei Männer, rufen Muslime zum Mord an „Ungläubigen“ auf und drohen Kanzlerin Merkel. Zum ersten Mal hat die Terrorgruppe "Islamischer Staat" ein Video nur auf Deutsch veröffentlicht. Darin drohen sie Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel, rufen zum Morden auf und erschießen zwei Geis [...]

Once again, whatever hangs in the future for Syria on both the political and military fronts depends on the new Battle of Aleppo. The city and its outskirts, with the influx of internal refugees, may be harboring up to three million people by now. It’s always about Aleppo. Here’s what’s going on, essentially, on the ground. West Aleppo is controlled by Damascus, via the Syrian Arab Army ( [...]

In three days of operations, the Russian aviation group in Syria has hit 258 targets belonging to the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terror groups, the Defense Ministry said. "Over the past three days, the warplanes of the Russian air group have carried out 164 sorties, hitting 285 targets,” Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said Monday. [...]

If Middle East strongmen Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in this world, it would have been a better place, because what came instead is much worse, US presidential candidate Donald Trump said. Asked by CNN's Jake Tapper on his State of the Union show whether the world would have been better off with Hussein and Gaddafi still ruling in Iraq and Syria, Trump said “100 percent.” [...]

Former UK PM Tony Blair should be indicted by the International Criminal Court for leading Britain into an illegal war with Iraq, resulting in millions of deaths and the rise of Islamic State, says Neil Clark, a journalist and a broadcaster. The former British Prime Minister admitted in an interview with CNN that there are “elements of truth” to the supposition that the US-led Iraq invasio [...]

Thousands rallied in Cologne on Sunday as supporters of the ‘Hooligans against Salafists' far-right group and their left-wing opponents took to the streets. Police had to deploy a water cannon in an attempt to control the counter-protest. Law enforcers had earlier sought to ban Sunday’s demonstration by the far-rights. [...]