Alice Ross

Death From Above: The New Statesman’s Drones Issue

As reports of ‘kill lists’ have emerged and murmurs of increasing use of surveillance drones over US soil – not to mention the London Olympics – have grown louder in recent months, drones have leapt onto the news agenda and into public debate. In a special report this week’s New Statesman special looks in detail […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
In this Jan. 31, 2010 file photo, an unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan, on a moon-lit night. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

As reports of ‘kill lists’ have emerged and murmurs of increasing use of surveillance drones over US soil – not to mention the London Olympics – have grown louder in recent months, drones have leapt onto the news agenda and into public debate. In a special report this week’s New Statesman special looks in detail at the expansion of drones both in

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Are Welfare-To-Work Schemes Getting Away With Fraud?

Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has made tackling benefit fraud a key plank of his welfare reforms. Backing a Sun campaign encouraging people to report benefit cheats, he wrote: ‘When people cheat the welfare system, they take money out of the pockets of those who need it.’ But a Private Eye special report reveals that […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
Duncan Smith: the quiet man listens. (Photo by Foreign & Commonwealth Office via Flikr)

Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has made tackling benefit fraud a key plank of his welfare reforms. Backing a Sun campaign encouraging people to report benefit cheats, he wrote: ‘When people cheat the welfare system, they take money out of the pockets of those who need it.’ But a Private Eye special report reveals that his

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Shell’s $4bn Lobbying Campaign Cleared The Way For Arctic Oil Drilling

Offshore oil drilling in the Arctic has long been considered off-limits – but as the New York Times revealed yesterday, a sustained and ingenious campaign by Shell has overcome all objections. The campaign to win permission to drill in the Arctic is a masterclass in major-league lobbying: Shell has spent seven years and an incredible […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
While restrictions to drill oil offshore in the Arctic are strictly imposed, Shell has overcome many hurdles to drill due to their strong lobbying abilities. (Photo by Daniel Lobo)

Offshore oil drilling in the Arctic has long been considered off-limits – but as the New York Times revealed yesterday, a sustained and ingenious campaign by Shell has overcome all objections. The campaign to win permission to drill in the Arctic is a masterclass in major-league lobbying: Shell has spent seven years and an incredible $4bn

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Huge variation in police spying powers raises concerns

Research by the Bureau raises questions over the supervision of police access to phone and email records, as the government prepares to expand the access police and other authorities have to communication data. Freedom of Information requests reveal worrying inconsistency in how often police forces are granted permission to access phone and email records under […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
NYPD officers at Occupy rally in NY. (Photo via Flickr photo stream of Paul Stein)

Research by the Bureau raises questions over the supervision of police access to phone and email records, as the government prepares to expand the access police and other authorities have to communication data. Freedom of Information requests reveal worrying inconsistency in how often police forces are granted permission to access phone and

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America’s new data centre makes UK surveillance plans seem petty

In the small town of Bluffdale in the Utah desert, the US government is halfway to completing a gargantuan complex designed to store and trawl through billions of phone calls, emails, and other global communications. As the UK government reveals its own plans to carry out mass surveillance, a lengthy piece in May’s Wired reveals the full […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
The National Security Agency by @mjb via Flickr Creative Commons

In the small town of Bluffdale in the Utah desert, the US government is halfway to completing a gargantuan complex designed to store and trawl through billions of phone calls, emails, and other global communications. As the UK government reveals its own plans to carry out mass surveillance, a lengthy piece in May’s Wired reveals the full extent of

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