30 Jan
News and Analyses, A Foreign Perspective
State Department censors 22 emails after confirming for the first time that the Democratic frontrunner’s home server contained closely guarded secrets
Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday. Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPA
Associated Press
The Obama administration confirmed for the first time on Friday that Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained some of the US government’s most closely guarded secrets, censoring 22 emails with material demanding one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes just three days before the Iowa presidential nominating caucuses in which Clinton is a candidate.
The State Department will release its next batch of emails from Clinton’s time as secretary of state later Friday. But the Associated Press has learned seven email chains are being withheld in full because they contain information deemed to be “top secret”.
The 37 pages include messages recently described by a key intelligence official as concerning so-called “special access programs” – a highly restricted subset of classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs such as drone strikes or government eavesdropping.
Department officials wouldn’t describe the substance of the emails or say if Clinton sent any herself. They also wouldn’t disclose whether any of the documents reflected information that was classified at the time of transmission, but indicated that the agency’s Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus have begun looking into that question.
“The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP, describing the decision to withhold documents in full as “not unusual”. That means they won’t be published online with the rest of the documents, even with blacked-out boxes.
Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has insisted she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time. No emails released so far were stamped “CLASSIFIED” or “TOP SECRET”, but reviewers previously had designated more than 1,000 messages at lower classification levels for public release.
Friday’s will be the first at the top secret level………………..
Licensed firearm retailers will still be able to advertise on the site, but updated policy will forbid individual users from coordinating peer-to-peer sales of guns
Updated Facebook policy will forbid individual users from coordinating peer-to-peer sales of guns. Photograph: Julie Dermansky/Corbis
Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco
Facebook announced that it is banning the private sale of firearms on its social network, which can take place without background check.
While licensed firearm retailers will still be able to advertise on the site, the updated policy will forbid individual users from coordinating peer-to-peer sales of guns. Facebook already prohibits the private sale of marijuana, pharmaceuticals, and illegal drugs.
“Over the last two years, more and more people have been using Facebook to discover products and to buy and sell things to one another,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of product policy, said in a statement. “We are continuing to develop, test, and launch new products to make this experience even better for people and are updating our regulated goods policies to reflect this evolution.”
Facebook first limited posts about firearms in 2014. The social network had become “one of the world’s largest marketplaces for guns”, according to the New York Times………………..
Saudi-backed negotiating committee demanding an end to government airstrikes takes part after hours of uncertainty and diplomatic pressure
Bashar al-Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to the UN, at the opening of renewed Syrian peace talks in Geneva. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Ian Black in Geneva
Efforts to launch talks aimed at ending the war in Syria have got off to a confusing start in Geneva but the opposition finally announced it had decided to take part following a first meeting between the UN envoy and representatives of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The late-night decision by the opposition’s negotiating committee, meeting in Saudi Arabia, came after hours of uncertainty and heavy diplomatic pressure on Friday, with rumour and speculation engulfing the Palais des Nations. Holding a few meetings looked like a significant achievement.
Ahmad Fawzi, the UN’s spokesman, hinted at the fast-moving and chaotic nature of the talks, telling reporters: “I don’t have a time, I don’t have the exact location, and I can’t tell you anything about the delegation.”
The leader of the occupation at the Malheur national wildlife refuge argued that the protest wasn’t violent and ‘there was never an armed standoff’
‘It is not that we don’t respect the government,’ Ammon Bundy said during the hearing. ‘In fact, it is just the opposite. I’m a federalist … My only desire is to protect freedom.’ Photograph: ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Sam Levin in San Francisco and Matthew Berger in Portland
A federal judge ordered Ammon Bundy and other leaders of the armed militia in Oregon to remain behind bars without bail at a hearing in Portland.
By the Friday afternoon hearing, 11 people associated with the standoff at the Malheur national wildlife refuge in rural Harney County had been arrested and charged with federal felony offenses – and only four holdouts remained at the occupation of federal buildings.
In a packed courtroom hundreds of miles away from the wildlife refuge that rightwing protesters first seized on 2 January, prosecutors argued that the militia protesters were “flight risks” given their well-documented criminal activities and anti-government statements over the past month.
The hearing came days after police stopped Bundy and several others on a remote highway outside of the town of Burns, arresting five people and fatally shooting protest spokesman LaVoy Finicum. Six more people were subsequently arrested, including three who left the refuge voluntarily and turned themselves in to FBI officials at nearby checkpoints……………..
US politics
A sloth crossing the road, a hippo chasing cheetahs and a giant Malagasy chameleon are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
A New England porcupine chews on a twig for food in Vermont, US.
Photograph: Paul Williams/REX/Shutterstock
Opinion
Two things are clear: radical new ways of getting rich have been invented, and things have probably never been this unequal since before the second world war
‘Historical figures show how important military and legal force was for wealth accumulation, from the lands of Genghis Khan in the 13th century.’ Photograph: Imagebroker/Alamy
Oxfam’s latest report claims that income inequality has reached a new global extreme, exceeding even its predictions from the previous year. The figures behind this claim are striking – just 62 individuals now hold the same wealth as the bottom half of humanity, compared with 80 in 2014 and 388 in 2010. It appears that not only have the global elite weathered the financial crisis, but their fortunes have collectively improved.
Our objections to inequality, the report notes, are not driven simply by a desire to improve our own material standard of living. Rising inequality is one of the surest signs of the failure of economic growth to make things better for us all. The accompanying decline in the income shares of the bottom 50% since 2010 suggests that although governments across the world have been quick to tout their role in bringing about a global “recovery”, the rewards of that recovery have been very selectively spread.
It would be foolish to pretend wealth inequality is a product of the liberal capitalism of the past couple of hundred years. Peppered throughout recorded history are examples of exceptional wealth deriving from the spoils of empire and warfare – the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus is thought to have controlled the equivalent of $4.6tn – one-fifth of the total wealth of the empire. The richest man in history, according to Time magazine was Mansa Musa, the king of Timbuktu, who ruled from 1280 to 1337 when his kingdom was the biggest producer of gold in the world. His wealth, says Time, is beyond calculation: [he was] “richer than anyone could describe”.
Historical figures show how important military and legal force was for wealth accumulation, from the lands of Genghis Khan in the 13th century (once the largest empire in history), to the Chinese emperor Shenzong, who possessed up to 30% of global GDP at the height of his power in the 11th century…………….
