A record-equalling 188 countries on Tuesday condemned the five-decade-old US embargo against communist Cuba in an annual UN General Assembly vote that signalled hardening opposition to US sanctions. Only Israel joined the United States in opposing resolution, the smallest number ever. Last year two allies voted with the US government. Three Pacific island states normally close to the United States -- Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau -- abstained as the barrage of criticism of the embargo reached a new peak in the 22nd annual vote at the UN Assembly. China, Iran, which has launched a bid to thaw relations with the US administration, Latin American and African nations all publicly condemned the United States. "The US policy against Cuba is suffering from an absolute international isolation and discredit and lacks every ethical or legal ground," Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said.

Despite US President Barack Obama rejecting the idea that he was aware of Washington’s spying on world leaders, the nation’s top spymaster said Tuesday that the president had been informed about the surveillance activities. During a House Intelligence Committee hearing, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said that the National Security Agency and the CIA cannot tap into any leader’s private communications without permission from the White House. The New York Times said Clapper did not specifically say whether Obama was told of the spying efforts, “but he appeared to challenge assertions in recent days that the White House had been in the dark about some of the agency’s practices.” Clapper’s remark contradicts Obama’s claim that he didn’t know about the spying efforts.

US President Barack Obama has “recently ordered” the National Security Agency to stop tapping the UN headquarters in New York amid the review of electronic surveillance programs, Reuters reported, citing official sources. It is understood that the UN headquarters and diplomatic missions have for decades been the target of aggressive spying, including that of the NSA, but details of such surveillance at the present time are scarce.

Business Insider: NSA May Have Spied On The Vatican During The Papal Conclave
Washington Post: NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide
VoR: 'NSA is spying on everyone including Congressmen and Senators' - Anonymous

El Mundo says it has obtained document detailing collaboration between US intelligence agency and foreign countries. ● The widespread surveillance of Spanish citizens by the US National Security Agency, which caused outrage when it was reported this week, was the product of a collaboration with Spain's intelligence services, according to one Spanish newspaper. In the latest revelations to emerge from the documents leaked by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Spanish agents not only knew about the work of the NSA but also facilitated it, El Mundo reports. An NSA document entitled "Sharing computer network operations cryptologic information with foreign partners" reportedly shows how the US relies on the collaboration of many countries to give it access to intelligence information, including electronic metadata.

El Mundo: El CNI facilitó el espionaje masivo de EEUU a España

Barry Grey: US spy chiefs defend wiretapping of foreign leaders, mass surveillance programs ■ The fallout from the diplomatic crisis within the American state and political establishment is spreading. The Obama administration and Democratic Party leaders have launched an effort to limit the political damage and distract the public from the essential issue in the spy program revelations—the exposure of flagrantly unconstitutional policies and the development of the apparatus of a police state in America. As far as Obama and both big business parties are concerned—as well as the corporate-controlled media—the crisis does not arise from the destruction of democratic rights, but rather the exposure of the state conspiracy against those rights, and the growing anger of the population, which is deeply opposed to such police state measures.

WUWT: Telegraph’s Booker on the “climategate” scandal

A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters inadvertently demonstrates that climate models don't even have the so-called 'basic physics' of the greenhouse effect correct. According to the paper, climate models show that "With CO2 at or below 1/8 of the 1950 value [i.e. ~39 ppm], runaway sea ice does occur as the planet cascades to a snowball Earth climate with fully ice covered oceans and global mean surface temperatures near – 30 °C." However, -30°C is much colder than the -18°C calculated* for an Earth with no atmosphere or oceans or greenhouse effect at all! Further, -30°C is much, much colder [i.e. 35°C colder] than the +5°C global mean temperature calculated using the IPCC formula** for CO2 forcing using a CO2 level of 39 ppm. It is astonishing that the authors, who claim to be top experts on the physics of CO2 radiative transfer, did not realize that their computer model is outputting physically-impossible GIGO.

The "rebels" used chemical weapons in north-eastern Syria near the border with Turkey on Tuesday, a Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen reported. ● The toxic shell exploded near a Kurdish defense forces’ checkpoint close to the border with Turkey in the city of Ras al-Ayn al-Hasakah. The attack was reported by Kurdish defense forces who are conducting military operations against the rebels in the region. They are quoted as saying they saw toxic yellow smoke that followed the shell explosion, while some of them had symptoms of severe chemical intoxication accompanied by nausea. The reported chemical attack comes amid the second day of fierce fighting in the town. The Kurdish forces have successfully repelled several attacks by armed groups of extremists of the Nusra Front ( Jabhat al-Nusra), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, killing 28 militants.