"The Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a series of covert cyber operations against Iran and other targets since winning a secret victory in 2018 when President Trump signed what amounts to a sweeping authorization for such activities, according to former US officials with direct knowledge of the matter," Yahoo News reported Wednesday. Is the US escalating cyberwarfare or responsibly responding to the new battlefield?
"The Twitter accounts of major companies and individuals have been compromised in one of the most widespread and confounding hacks the platform has ever seen, all in service of promoting a bitcoin scam that appears to be earning its creator quite a bit of money," The Verge reported Wednesday. Among those whose accounts were hacked were former US President Barack Obama, former US Vice President Joe Biden, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Apple, Uber and music star Kanye West. We knew this was coming, and now we are here. Technology and security analyst Patricia Gorky gives commentary.
In a speech at the White House's Rose Garden on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump announced new sanctions on China under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, due to Beijing's “interference” in its own Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. The president said that he was placing “massive tariffs” on Beijing and that he had signed an executive order mandating that Hong Kong would now be "treated the same as mainland China," with “no special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies.” What’s the real motivation behind all of this?
"Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a top Trump donor who has given more than $2 million to the GOP, warned employees that the agency needed to make 'difficult' decisions to stay afloat," Salon reported Wednesday, citing an article in the Washington Post. Some of these decisions could impact the timing of mail delivery and affect requests for absentee ballots and how they are returned. Is this an attempt to steal the upcoming November election?
"US consumers boosted spending at stores and auto dealerships in June for the second straight month as states reopened for business, but the recent increase in coronavirus cases could again damp job growth and retail spending," the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Is this really a positive indicator for the US economy?
A Wednesday headline in The Grayzone read: "Assange’s father speaks out, calls oppression of WikiLeaks founder a 'great crime of 21st century.'” Journalist and author Daniel Lazare elaborates.
"The May 25 killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota shocked the world and set off mass protests against racism and police brutality in dozens of cities from the mid-western United States to the European Union, all in the midst of a global pandemic," journalist Max Parry wrote in June. "In the Twin Cities, what began as spontaneous, peaceful demonstrations against the local police quickly transformed into vandalism, arson and looting after the use of rubber bullets and chemical irritants by law enforcement against the protesters, while the initial incitement for the riots was likely the work of apparent agent provocateurs among the marchers." How concerned should we be?
GUESTS:
Dr. Yolandra Hancock - Board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist
Mark Sleboda - Moscow-based international relations security analyst
Patricia Gorky - Political organizer and technology and security analyst
Michael Wong - Vice president of the San Francisco chapter of Veterans for Peace
Greg Palast - Investigative reporter
Dr. Dania Francis - Professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Boston
Daniel Lazare - Investigative journalist
Wyatt Reed - Sputnik News analyst and producer for By Any Means Necessary
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