A UK government-appointed panel studied the issue of massive surveillance, and recommended making ISPs keep records of all sorts of things internet users do.

The report included one recommendation that the government does not like: ministers would not be allowed to approve use of this data personally. Rather, a special court would have to approve these.

I have not made a link to an article about this recommendation because all the articles I have seen present this court as a tremendous step forward, calling it the "balance" that makes total surveillance acceptable.

I don't think so. The US FISA court has hardly checked surveillance at all, so why expect this one to do any more?

Anyway, government ministers are very unhappy about the prospect of losing this personal power. They want total surveillance and personal control of it.

The UK government responded, through a cronyish newspaper, with a story composed of leaks (!) by anonymous spook officials, claiming that that Russia and China both got copies of Snowden's files and decrypted them.

The article has several claims that are known to be false, and there is no reason to believe a word of it.

More information.

Liberty, roughly the UK equivalent of the US's ACLU, says that this is the standard deceptive practice of the surveillance state.

Pioneering jihadi recruiters proclaim their regret for having opened the path that now leads to PISSI.

One says that the repressive nature of many Muslim families contributes to alienating their children.

The investigation report of the killing of Tamir Rice has been published. The killer claims to have shouted a warning, but other witnesses say the killer shot before the warning.

European countries are negotiating to send Eritrean refugees back to repression in Eritrea.

Unlike North Korea, Eritrea has no nuclear weapons. How about asking a neighboring country to arm Eritrean refugees to go back in and change their regime?

Scientist Ron Naveen has counted penguins in Antarctica for 30 years. He says that global heating's effects are responsible for the decline of several species.