News — At The Edge — 5/4
By all accounts we remain a primitive civilization — global arms sales, bigger militaries, massive surveillance — at the mercy of mindless despots.
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Trump Moves To Withdraw U.S. From U.N. Arms Trade Treaty —
“[Treaty] sets global standards for regulating transfers of conventional arms, from rifles to tanks and airplanes…known as the ATT…in effect since [2014]…but has not ratified…long been a target of the NRA, which claimed…[as] threat to Second Amendment rights….
More than 100 countries have ratified or are abiding by the ATT…[but] major arms exporters such as Russia and China are not part of the deal….
[Decision] criticized by the Stimson Center…[abdicating] ‘America’s leadership role in the world and undermined international efforts to reduce human suffering…peace and security, increase irresponsible and illegal sales of conventional weapons.’” https://www.npr.org/2019/04/26/717547741/trump-moves-to-withdraw-u-s-from-u-n-arms-trade-treaty
Global military spending at new post-Cold War high, fueled by U.S., China —
“[The] global military spending in 2018 hit $1.82 trillion….
[U.S.] accounted for 36 percent of total global military expenditure, nearly equal to the following eight biggest-spending countries combined….
[China] saw military expenditure rise 5.0 percent to $250 billion….
2018 marked the first increase in U.S. military spending since 2010….
The other top spenders…in declining order, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Russia, Britain, Germany, Japan and South Korea….[Russia] dropped out of the list of the top five spenders in 2018 following an annual decline of 3.5 percent.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-world-defence-spending/global-military-spending-at-new-post-cold-war-high-fueled-by-u-s-china-think-tank-idUSKCN1S50ZU
Unregulated Business of your Location Data (6 Min. video)
An inside look at how advertisers track our location through our phones and how criminals could exploit that information.
More than 1,000 apps reportedly collect location data, fueling an estimated $21 billion market. But lawmakers and some tech leaders argue it must be regulated.
US border agents assert ‘broad unconstitutional’ power to search citizens’ devices —
“’The border is not a lawless place, ICE and CBP are not exempt from the constitution, and the information on our electronic devices…[have] Fourth Amendment protections’….
[Lawsuit] filed by the ACLU…Electronic Frontier Foundation by ten U.S. citizens…including a NASA engineer and a journalist…devices were searched at the border….
CBP searched more than 30,000 travelers’ devices last year…four-times the number from three years prior…[under] a doctrine said to stretch 100 miles inland…for a broad range of reasons, including enforcing tax, bankruptcy, environmental, and consumer protection laws…[plus] requests from other law enforcement agencies — including foreign agencies….
Any data collected by CBP or ICE without a warrant can be shared with federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement…despite a directive in April 2017 barring officers from accessing cloud-based data from a device.” https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/30/unconstitutional-searches-border/
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Doc Huston
