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Uprising’s guest expert Arun Gupta, Independent Journalist and regular contributor to the Guardian, In These Times, The Progressive, and Truthout, and co-founder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and the Indypendent, analyzes today’s news headlines:

American tech companies have known about government surveillance programs for years according to an NSA attorney. During a hearing yesterday, NSA General Counsel Rajesh De was asked if data is being gathered with the “full knowledge and assistance of any company from which information is obtained,” to which he replied, “yes.” The admission contradicts months of denials by companies like Facebook. Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.

And in news that only the foreign press seems to be reporting, UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay said at a press conference in the Central African Republic today that violence in that country “remains at a terrifying level.” Pillay just wrapped up a visit there and described violence so horrifying, particularly against children, that I cannot even relate it on the air. About 15,000 Muslims, who represent a persecuted minority, remain trapped in various areas. Click here for an SBS article about the story.

And finally, in another gruesome indicator of inhumane conditions in US prisons, a homeless veteran in New York named Jerome Murdough, died of overheating in his prison cell at Rikers Island. A prison official, speaking to the Associated Press anonymously said “he basically baked to death,” due to malfunctioning equipment which led to indoor temperatures of over 100 degrees. Murdough was arrested for trespassing after he slept on a stairwell at a public housing project. Click here for an article in The Grio.