Link: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141923739

Nguyen Van Hoa, was found guilty of spreading anti-state propaganda for producing videos and writing about protests over the toxic spill, news agencies reported.

The discharge, which occurred when a new Taiwan-owned steel factory flushed cyanide and other chemicals through its waste pipeline, killed marine life and sickened people along a 120-mile stretch of coastline. It is one of Vietnam’s largest environmental disasters.

Link: https://www.rt.com/business/411106-bitcoin-record-10000-exchange/

The first decentralized peer-to-peer payment system, bitcoin, has broken through the $10,000 mark on South Korea’s Bithumb, one of world’s biggest exchanges for cryptocurrencies. The price of bitcoin this year has jumped more than 10-fold.

The digital currency is still unrecognized or regarded as an asset by most central banks. It started the year at below $1,000. Two weeks ago, bitcoin saw it's price drop by 30 percent to $5,500. It has since nearly doubled to over $10,000.

Link: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Anger_over_Greek_plan_to_sell_weapons_to_Saudi_Arabia/61835/0/38/38/Y/M.html

A political dispute in Greece over a controversial arms deal with Saudi Arabia is deepening, with opposition politicians and critics decrying plans to sell 66m euros ($78.7m) worth of surplus missiles and bombs to the Arab Gulf country.

Opposition politicians have accused the government, which is currently headed by the leftist Syriza party, of not following the proper procedures for an international agreement, while critics have decried selling weapons to a country engaged in war.

Saudi Arabia is currently leading a coalition of countries waging war in neighbouring Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab region.

Link: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Genetically_Engineered_Mosquitoes_To_Be_Released_In_20_States/61841/0/38/38/Y/M.html

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the use of mosquitoes which have been genetically engineered to carry a common bacterium designed to kill mosquitoes that carry dangerous viruses. The news was reported in Nature, and later confirmed to Gizmodo by MosquitoMate, the company behind the GE mosquitoes, and the EPA. The EPA said they officially registered MosquitoMate’s Asian Tiger mosquito with a five-year license to sell their lab mosquitoes in 20 states across the nation.

Link: https://www.rt.com/usa/411102-chicago-bakery-loses-third-staff/

A Chicago, Illinois bakery that makes McDonald’s hamburger buns is struggling after a third of its workers were detained by immigration enforcement. The company is facing pressure to raise wages in order to attract replacements. About 800, or 35 percent, of the workers at Cloverhill Bakery had to be replaced. In the first six months of President Donald Trump’s administration there was a spike in the number of immigrants arrested by federal agents in Chicago

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/411120-israel-tel-aviv-explosion/

A powerful explosion has rocked Jaffa, the southern part of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, causing a building to collapse and triggering a massive fire. At least four people have reportedly died in the incident.

Link: https://www.ecowatch.com/costa-rica-renewables-2511342138.html

Costa Rica has run 300 days of 100 percent power generation from renewable energy sources. Costa Rica currently receives 99.62 percent of its electricity from five renewable sources, the highest proportion since 1987. This year, 78.26 percent of electricity came from hydropower, 10.29 percent from wind, 10.23 percent from geothermal energy and 0.84 percent from biomass and solar.

Link: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-24/america-gave-thanks-homelessness-set-new-records-major-cities-all-over-nation

Within the past two years “at least 10 cities or municipal regions in California, Oregon and Washington” have declared a state of emergency because the number of homeless is growing so rapidly.

Municipal leaders said that a recent count over several nights found 55,188 homeless people living in a survey region comprising most of Los Angeles County, up more than 25% from last year. things are so bad in Seattle that “400 unauthorized tent camps” have popped up…

Link: https://www.alternet.org/drugs/sessions-war-weed-waste-time-former-gop-attorney-general-gonzales

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s apparent plans to prosecute medical marijuana distributors in states that have legalized it are a waste of time, according to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who said the U.S. had bigger priorities to focus on. With respect to everything else going on in the U.S., this is pretty low priority," Gonzales: “To prosecute an act that is otherwise lawful under state law, one could make the argument [that] as a matter of policy, we’ve got other priorities we ought to be spending our resources on.”

Link: https://www.activistpost.com/2017/11/larry-silverstein-set-receive-another-95-million-new-911-settlement.html

New York City businessman, and World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein, scored another post-9/11 windfall this week, after Silverstein properties reached a $95 million dollar settlement in a civil litigation suit against American Airlines and United Continental Holdings.

The settlement, filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, comes after 13 years of ‘hard fought’ litigation. Silverstein, who signed a 99-year lease on the World Trade Center just 2 months prior to the attack, has received over 4.5 billion dollars stemming from post 9/11 lawsuits.

Link: https://www.activistpost.com/2017/11/judge-rules-seattles-income-tax-on-wealthy-is-illegal.html

A Seattle King County Superior Court ruled that a controversial piece of legislation meant to tax wealthy households is illegal, Seattle Times reported. In a judgment, Judge John R. Ruhl said the city ordinance adopted in July is not authorized under state law. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes and Seattle Mayor Tim Burgess said in a joint statement that their goal is to eliminate the state’s “over-reliance on regressive sales taxes” and ensure the wealthy pay their fair share and the ruling was “disappointing,” but they would continue their efforts and appeal the decision.

Link: https://www.rt.com/business/410970-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-breaks-9000-barrier/

The world's most valuable digital currency has smashed another all-time high. Bitcoin has surpassed the $9,000 level on Sunday on growing signs of mainstream adoption. The price of bitcoin has jumped nearly nine times in value this year amid increased interest from institutional investors.

Link: https://www.rt.com/usa/411007-police-spying-imsi-stingray/

Dozens of police departments across the US are using special devices to track suspects without warrants. However, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catchers also capture data from regular people on the street.

The technology, which was developed for the military, mimics cell phone towers and tricks phones into routing signals through them. This allows police to a track suspect's location. The machines even allow police to get the location of a phone without the user making a call or sending a text.

Link: https://www.rt.com/usa/410956-fbi-black-friday-record-gun-checks/

Bargain hunting weapons enthusiasts were out in force on Black Friday with the FBI receiving over 200,000 requests for background checks in a single day.

That figure smashes the previous two years, both also record showings for checks in a single day, as trigger-happy Americans flocked to pick up their bargain basement weapon of choice.

Link: http://www.france24.com/en/20140207-french-inmate-freed-after-fax-runs-out-ink

A suspect in the 2011 lynching of a young DJ in a Paris suburb has been released because a fax machine ran out of ink, prosecutors confirmed on Thursday.

The man was reportedly freed because staff at a Paris court of appeal were unable to read a fax containing his appeal before the legal deadline expired.

Claudy Elisor, a 33-year-old DJ, was beaten to death in the early hours of January 1, 2011, by a group of people he had refused to let into his New Year’s Eve party.

His widow, Fabienne Elisor, said on Thursday she was outraged by the blunder.

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/las-vegas-pot-dispensaries-offer-black-friday-deals-51350354

Big-box stores won't be the only ones offering discounts to shoppers in Las Vegas this Black Friday. Marijuana dispensaries are rolling out deals, too.

More than 40 dispensaries in the Sin City area will offer discounts on marijuana flower products, edibles such as chocolates, and concentrates, the Las Vegas Sun reported Wednesday. This will be the first Black Friday since legal sales of recreation marijuana began in Nevada.

"It's a great stocking-stuffer, you can treat it like alcohol in that regard," said state Sen. Tick Segerblom, who helped legalize recreational pot in the state. "As long as no kids can get to it. It's for adults only."

Some dispensaries will offer an eighth of an ounce of select flower products for $35, down from $53. One dispensary will gift shoppers a 10-pack of fruit chew edibles with any purchase, while another one will have a buy-one-get-one-free special on edibles.

Legal sales of recreational marijuana began in the state July 1. Those 21 and older with a valid ID can buy up to an ounce of pot. People can only use the drug in a private home as it remains illegal to consume it in public

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/11/14/adventurer-declares-himself-king-unclaimed-land-in-north-africa.html

An Indian adventurer dodged terrorists in the barren desert to stake ownership to a strip of land between Sudan and Egypt that neither country has claimed.

Syash Dixit, a computer coder from Indore, India, undertook a perilous six-hour drive and declared himself king of the Kingdom of Dixit in Bir Tawil, an 800-square mile tract that Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings said in a 2011 article was there for the taking if anyone was up to the challenge. The land is believed to be the largest area unclaimed by any recognized nation. Bir Tawil's existence is the result of a border drawn up by the British at the end of the 19th century.

“The route that I took is under Egyptian military (it is an international border) and is an area of terrorists so military have 'shoot at sight' orders,” Dixit said on Facebook, Dixit has also created a website, encouraging others to apply for citizenship.

Link: http://tass.com/science/976276

Pharmacologists from southern Russia are launching clinical tests for a new painkiller that outperforms morphine in effectiveness but does not cause addiction. Department head of the Volgograd State Medical University, and RAS Member Alexander Spasov told TASS about this innovative medical breakthrough on Friday in Pyatigorsk.Together with our colleagues from the South Federal University, we created a drug which still has no specific name but is only referred to as RU-1205. Based on its effect, it outperforms such well-known painkillers as morphine and promedol and does not cause addictive side effects.

Link: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-21/psychology-desperate-people-15-dead-40-injured-food-stampede-morocco

Food was being distributed in a rural market in Sidi Boulaalam, a poor village. Women had come to the market with baskets to get food for their families, when suddenly, what could only be described as a stampede erupted.

At least 15 women died and five were wounded in a stampede during a food distribution operation on Sunday morning in rural Morocco, government officials said.

The victims were crushed as hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered to collect baskets of food at the market…

Link: https://www.rt.com/business/410588-boeings-sold-taobao-online/

Online shopping in China is reaching a new level after two Boeing 747 planes were sold on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao. This is the first time airliners have been purchased via an online auction.

The jets were bought by Chinese cargo airline SF Airlines for more than 320 million yuan ($48 million) from the Intermediate People’s Court in the city of Shenzhen, southeastern China, Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post reported. The court seized the Boeings after Jade Cargo International went bankrupt in 2013.