NSA Secretly Breaking Into Google, Yahoo Data Links
The Washington Post reports the National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main links connecting Google and Yahoo data centers around the world, allowing it to vacuum up millions of records every day, including those belonging to Americans. Citing documents released by Edward Snowden, the Post says the NSA is working with its British counterpart to operate a project called MUSCULAR, that involves sweeping up vast quantities of data flowing across fiber-optic cables between the tightly guarded data centers. In a statement, Google’s head legal officer said the company is “outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks.”
[Hahaha…This is the people who completely gave full access to users data to govenment saying this now is laughable.]
Washington State Machinists Reject Pension, Benefit Cuts.
The union of 30,000 machinists in Washington state has rejected a contract proposal from the aerospace giant Boeing that called for major concessions in return for guaranteed jobs. Boeing had offered workers a $10,000 signing bonus for decades of work on its 777X aircraft in return for large cuts to workers’ pensions and health benefits. But on Wednesday, the union rejected the plan by a 67 percent margin. Boeing has previously threatened to move its 777X production out of state. In a bid to entice Boeing, Washington recently approved the largest corporate tax break by a state to a single corporation in U.S. history. Signed into law this week, the measure hands Boeing $8.7 billion worth of incentives through 2040 to build the 777X in Washington. The new package comes a decade after Washington gave Boeing more than $3.2 billion in incentives to build its 787 airplane in the state.
Striking Nestlé Worker Shot Dead in Colombia
In Colombia, a Nestlé worker has been shot dead after his union received death threats from a right-wing paramilitary group. Oscar López was shot four times at a local bar by unknown gunmen over the weekend. He and other union workers had been on strike from a Nestlé factory as part of a struggle for union organizing rights. Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for union members. A recent report by a pair of U.S. lawmakers found 22 unionists were murdered for their organizing last year alone.