5: 

TTIP is a ‘revolution against international law’, says UN Expert

“Globalization cannot be allowed to become the grand global casino where investors rig the system to guarantee that they always win.” UN human rights expert Alfred-Maurice de Zayas doesn’t mince his words when it comes to the new generation of trade deals like TTIP.

He believes the corporate court system at the centre of the deal, which allows foreign companies to sue governments in secret “is tantamount to a revolution against law, it is retrogression in terms of legality and predictability, a no-man’s land of arbitrary arbitrations.”

De Zayas was speaking to the UN Human Rights Council and his transcript is well worth reading in full. He believes the privileges which big business is gaining through trade agreements like TTIP “constitute an attack on the very essence of sovereignty and self-determination, which are founding principles of the United Nations.”

UN

4: Teen Who Hacked CIA Director’s Email Tells How He Did It

A HACKER WHO claims to have broken into the AOL account of CIA Director John Brennan says he obtained access by posing as a Verizon worker to trick another employee into revealing the spy chief’s personal information.

Using information like the four digits of Brennan’s bank card, which Verizon easily relinquished, the hacker and his associates were able to reset the password on Brennan’s AOL account repeatedly as the spy chief fought to regain control of it.

News of the hack was first reported by the New York Postafter the hacker contacted the newspaper last week. The hackers described how they were able to access sensitive government documents stored as attachments in Brennan’s personal account because the spy chief had forwarded them from his work email.

WIRED

3: 

Britain First’s Far-Right Rally This Weekend Was a Complete and Utter Embarrassment

The far-right group, notorious for “invading” mosques and shouting at restaurateurs for serving halal chicken, called a protest this weekend against plans to build “the biggest mosque in Europe” in the Staffordshire town of Burton on Trent.

I wasn’t sure why this would be a problem – freedom of religion is very much A Thing in the UK – and given that Burton on Trent has a population of around 65,000, I had my doubts as to how true it was. After spending literally 30 seconds researching it on Google, my thoughts were confirmed: the plans were to build an extension on to an existing mosque, which would then accommodate a minimum of 1,500 people. South London’s Morden mosque can hold 10,000, meaning the Burton one wouldn’t even be the largest in the UK, let alone Europe.

VICE

2: 

Canada: Right-Wing PM Stephen Harper Ousted by Justin Trudeau

Canadian voters have unseated right-wing Prime Minister Stephen Harper after nearly a decade in office. In a surprise result following the closest election campaign in recent history, the centrist Liberals jumped from third place to a parliamentary majority. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau becomes Canada’s next prime minister.

Democracy Now

1: 

Equal pay on the way for women?

The government has set up a taskforce to look into pay equity issues, which could lead to a change to the current law.

Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Woodhouse said unions and employers had agreed to a working group to establish principles for dealing with pay equity claims.

It had been prompted by a recent Court of Appeal decision on pay rates in the aged care sector, which found women in predominantly female workforces were paid less.

RADIO NZ