politics

It will soon be a lot harder for Internet users in Russia to access anything outside of government-sanctioned or region-locked sites and services. Vladimir Putin has just signed into law a bill that makes it illegal to use Internet proxy services, including VPNs or virtual private networks. While the law is primarily aimed at curbing anti-government activities, it also puts other legitimate or excusable uses of proxies at terrible risk.

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France has announced an aggressive plan to ban the sale of all gas and diesel cars in the country, aiming to promote EVs and and other green vehicles. The move is part of the French government's attempt to meet the emissions targets it has committed to for the Paris climate accord, the pact by most in the global community to voluntarily reduce their contribution to climate change. However, unsurprisingly the switchover won't happen overnight.

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Experts are divided on whether North Korea has passed another worrying missile milestone, with the clandestine and controversial country claiming to have successfully tested its first ICBM. The Hwasong-14 missile test was confirmed on North Korean television today, July 4th, along with claims about the details of its flight. While the missile traveled further in altitude than it did in horizontal distance, it's the implications of that which have many concerned.

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Data security firm UpGuard is bringing our attention to a very severe data exposure today. This "leak" of sorts left the personal data of nearly every registered voter in the US exposed, making this the "largest known data exposure of its kind," according to UpGuard's Cyber Risk team. In all, the data for 198 million registered voters in the US was left exposed, which is a ridiculous number of people when you consider that it's 61% of the country's population.

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President Trump has announced that he is pulling the US from the Paris Agreement, the accord on climate change that his predecessor, Barack Obama, was instrumental in establishing. Trump cited his concerns that the deal, which was named after the city in France where it was agreed upon and signed, was unfair to American interests. However, the President also suggested that he would seek to renegotiate a new deal.

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With reports President Trump will pull the US from the Paris climate agreement, Tesla's Elon Musk has confirmed he will withdraw from his advisory role should that happen. The Paris Agreement, otherwise known as the Paris climate accord, was finalized late last year, with more than a hundred countries committing "to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so." That, it seems, would be a deal-breaker for Musk.

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You may not know this if you live elsewhere in the world, but South Australia has something of an energy problem at the moment. Energy shortages have been causing blackouts across the state, and now Tesla sees the opportunity to step in. Yesterday, Tesla vice president of energy products Lyndon Rive said that Tesla could solve SA's energy problems in 100 days through the installation of battery packs, which is a pretty big promise all its own.

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The Doomsday Clock has moved 30 seconds closer to midnight and global destruction, with President Trump's apparently cavalier attitude to nuclear weapons and climate change spooking scientists. Founded in 1947, by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, the clock was originally intended solely as a symbol of the threat of nuclear war. In the seventy years since then, its role has expanded to encompass the collective threats of climate change and more.

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President Trump is still using his old smartphone, new reports claim, despite the Android handset being unsecured. The newly-instated US president, in his first week in office, was believed to have exchanged his phone for the requisite secured device, but that may not in fact be the case. According to a New York Times report, Trump has controversially kept hold of the handset.

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Sources say the Trump administration has put a freeze on contracts and grants by the EPA, a controversial action that some say is not unprecedented. One source goes on to state the freeze is thought to effect the Environmental Protection Agency across the nation -- the duration for which it is in place is unclear at this time -- and is aimed at preventing the agency from engaging in any activities the administration doesn't want the EPA involved in.

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I've compiled a list of alternatives to the inauguration of Donald taking place today in Washington DC. It's a good time to get distracted - start the protest tomorrow at the Women's March on Washington or a local sect near you. In fact, take what I've compiled below and watch it all while you're making your own protest poster to carry with when you hit the streets tomorrow morning. It's a perfect combination to take to heart.

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US and German automakers find themselves in the midst of a war of import tariffs and car comparisons, following President-elect Trump's threat to hit Mercedes, BMW, and others with eye-watering rates. The prospect of a 35-percent import duty to car manufacturers bringing in vehicles from outside of the US was met vocally by German politicians, this week. According to them, Trump's characterization of car sales as a "one-way street" is all down to American automakers.

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