Portside

Over 1 in 10 US jobs is in retail trade. The notion that these workers are mostly young, lazy and unskilled is false.

Dear Portside Reader

Dear Portside reader . . .

The substance of the accord reached in Geneva is a breakthrough, but the politics of the agreement is equally important. President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry signed the deal in explicit, full-frontal defiance of American hawks, neoconservatives and hardliners, the Israel lobby, and anti-Iran partisans in Congress. What exactly has been agreed, what are the next steps and how effective will it be in preventing Tehran from developing atomic weapons?

Detroit’s bankruptcy is, at its core, a cash flow problem caused by its inability to bring in enough revenue to pay its bills. Detroit’s bankruptcy was primarily caused by a severe decline in revenue and exacerbated by complicated Wall Street deals that put its ability to pay its expenses at greater risk.

This video tells the story of the “Detroit Sleeper Cell,” the first terrorism trial after 9/11. Here, a reporter who covers terrorism for The New York Times recalls the charged atmosphere at the time and the consequences for the Justice Department.

In 1988 there were 350,000 cases of polio worldwide. Last year there were 223. But getting all the way to zero will mean spending billions of dollars, penetrating the most remote regions of the globe, and facing down Taliban militants to get to the last unprotected children on Earth.

The NSA computer attacks are performed by a special department called TAO (Tailored Access Operations). Public sources show that this department employs more than a thousand hackers. According to the Washington Post, the NSA has been carrying out this type of cyber operation since 1998.