| UN rights chief urges Mali to probe abuse by security forces Posted: 26 Jun 2020 03:24 PM PDT |
| Egypt secures $5.2 billion IMF loan amid coronavirus fallout Posted: 26 Jun 2020 03:17 PM PDT  The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved Egypt's request for a $5.2 billion loan as the country's economy reels from the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The one-year arrangement, which comes on top of a separate $2.77 billion emergency financing announced last month, aims to boost Egypt's social spending, spur job creation and advance structural reforms to "put Egypt on a strong footing for sustained recovery," the IMF said in a statement. Egypt had been one of the fastest-growing emerging markets in the world before the pandemic.
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| UN experts urge world to ensure China respects human rights Posted: 26 Jun 2020 03:07 PM PDT |
| Low-key 75th anniversary of UN's birth because of pandemic Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:57 PM PDT  The United Nations marked the 75th anniversary of its birth with a scaled-down event Friday because of the coronavirus pandemic, one of many challenges a deeply divided world faces along with poverty, inequality, discrimination and unending wars. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the virtual commemoration of the signing of the U.N. Charter that "global pressures are spiraling up" and "today's realities are as forbidding as ever." "Today's marches against racism were preceded by widespread protests against inequality, discrimination, corruption and lack of opportunities all over the world — grievances that still need to be addressed, including with a renewed social contract," he said in the video address.
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| Q&A: Overturning 'Obamacare' during a pandemic Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:49 PM PDT  The decade-old health care law that has divided Americans even as it expanded coverage and protected people with preexisting conditions is being put to yet another test. Amid a pandemic, President Donald Trump and some red states want the Supreme Court to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. A decision isn't likely until next year, which means the ACA stays in place for the foreseeable future.
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| Macron 'confident' of progress in Russia ties after Putin talks Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:18 PM PDT  French President Emmanuel Macron is confident of progress in key areas with Russia, including notably the crisis in Libya, his office said on Friday after a video conference summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin. Macron is "confident that we can make progress with Russia on a number of subjects," a senior French presidential official told reporters, citing "a common interest in the stabilisation of Libya and the reunification of its institutions." Macron has in recent months pursued a policy of rapprochement with Russia, reaching out to Putin over key areas of disagreement such as Ukraine, in an approach that has discomforted some EU allies.
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| Coronavirus task force briefs — but not at White House Posted: 26 Jun 2020 01:57 PM PDT  There was no presidential appearance and no White House backdrop Friday when the government's coronavirus task force briefed the public for the first time since April — in keeping with an administration effort to show it is paying attention to the latest spike in cases but is not on a wartime footing that should keep the country from reopening the economy. The briefing at the Department of Health and Human Services was held as the number of confirmed new coronavirus infections per day in the U.S. soared to an all-time high of 40,000 — higher even than during the deadliest stretch in April and May. In light of the new surge, task force briefers chose their words carefully to update the public about COVID-19, which has become both a public health and political issue. Vice President Mike Pence had the most delicate line to walk.
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| North Korea and Trump: Is it back to square one, only worse? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 12:58 PM PDT |
| Trump says he's signed a 'strong' order to protect monuments Posted: 26 Jun 2020 12:26 PM PDT  President Donald Trump used Twitter on Friday to call for the arrest of protesters involved in this week's attempt to pull down the statue of Andrew Jackson from a park directly in front of the White House. Trump retweeted an FBI wanted poster showing pictures of 15 protesters who are wanted for "vandalization of federal property."
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| Israeli military says 2 Gaza rockets hit southern Israel Posted: 26 Jun 2020 12:24 PM PDT  The Israeli military said Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into southern Israel late Friday, shattering months of near-total calm. In response, Israeli aircraft attacked two military facilities for Hamas, the Islamic group ruling Gaza. There were no reports of injuries in either incident and no Palestinian militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.
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| Virus hits Venezuelan city, raising fears of broader crisis Posted: 26 Jun 2020 12:10 PM PDT  Hospitals in the capital of Venezuela's main oil-producing state are filled with coronavirus patients and dozens of health workers have been infected, witnesses said this week in the first reports of the pandemic overwhelming the country's debilitated health care system. Health experts have long feared the impact of COVID-19 on Venezuela, where hospitals are dilapidated and there are constant shortages of medicine and essential supplies after years of economic and political crisis. Until now, Venezuela has appeared to avoid major outbreaks even as other South American countries see thousands of new cases daily.
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| Judge blocks 25% capacity rule for religious services in NY Posted: 26 Jun 2020 11:58 AM PDT  A federal judge on Friday blocked New York state from enforcing coronavirus restrictions limiting indoor religious gatherings to 25% capacity when other types of gatherings are limited to 50%. Judge Gary Sharpe enjoined Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Attorney General Letitia James from enforcing some of the capacity restrictions put in place by executive order to contain the spread of the virus.
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| As virus grows, governors rely on misleading hospital data Posted: 26 Jun 2020 11:45 AM PDT  Governors in places seeing huge spikes in coronavirus infections often cite statewide data to assure the public they have plenty of hospital capacity to survive the onslaught, even as the states routinely miss the critical benchmarks to guide their pandemic response. Public health officials and experts say the heavy reliance on statewide hospital data is a misleading and sometimes irresponsible metric to justify keeping a state open or holding back on imposing new limits.
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| Police: Illinois warehouse shooting suspect killed himself Posted: 26 Jun 2020 11:29 AM PDT |
| Putin, Macron discuss closer cooperation in video call Posted: 26 Jun 2020 11:25 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed international crises during a video call Friday and vowed to cooperate more closely to tackle global challenges. Putin, noting that it was the 75th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations' charter, spoke of the need to pool efforts to combat common threats such as the coronavirus pandemic, international terrorism and climate change. Putin mentioned a Red Square parade held in Moscow on Wednesday to belatedly commemorate the 75th anniversary of World War II's end in Europe to hail France's contribution to defeating the Nazis.
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| Appeals court: Trump wrongly diverted $2.5B for border wall Posted: 26 Jun 2020 11:14 AM PDT  A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the Trump administration in its transfer of $2.5 billion from military construction projects to build sections of the U.S. border wall with Mexico, ruling it illegally sidestepped Congress, which gets to decide how to use the funds. In two opinions, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a coalition of border states and environmental groups that contended the money transfer was unlawful and that building the wall would pose environmental threats. The rulings were the latest twist in the legal battle that has largely gone Trump's way.
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| Thomas Blanton, KKK bomber of 16th St Baptist Church, dies Posted: 26 Jun 2020 10:36 AM PDT  Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, died Friday in prison, officials said. Gov. Kay Ivey's office said Blanton died of natural causes. In May 2001, Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
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| Coronavirus in Ethiopia: 'Incredible recovery of man aged over 100' Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:32 AM PDT  Aba Tilahun, who is 114 according to his family, was discharged after two weeks of treatment.
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| House adopts bill to make DC 51st state; Senate GOP opposes Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:34 AM PDT  Lawmakers approved the bill, 232-180, largely along party lines, marking the first time a chamber of Congress has passed a D.C. statehood bill. Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson was the sole Democrat to oppose the bill.
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| Seattle mayor meets with protesters over dismantling zone Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:34 AM PDT  Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan met with demonstrators Friday after some lay in the street or sat on barricades to thwart the city's effort to dismantle an "occupied" protest zone that has drawn scorn from President Donald Trump and a lawsuit from nearby businesses. Crews arrived with heavy equipment early Friday morning at the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, an occupied protest zone in Seattle, ready to dismantle barriers set up after protesters seized the area June 8 following clashes with police.
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| Texas shuts down bars as hospitalizations surpass 5,000 Posted: 26 Jun 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Republican Gov. Greg Abbott shut down bars in Texas again on Friday and scaled back restaurant dining, the most dramatic reversals yet as confirmed coronavirus cases surge to record levels after the state embarked on one of America's fastest reopenings. The abrupt closures began just days after Abbott described shutting down business as a last resort, and reflect how urgently Texas is scrambling to contain what is now one of the nation's biggest hotspots. In the last four days alone, Texas has reported more than 23,000 confirmed new cases, and Friday surpassed 5,000 hospitalizations for the first time — a threefold increase from a month ago.
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| 3 moral virtues necessary for an ethical pandemic response and reopening Posted: 26 Jun 2020 06:20 AM PDT  The health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are not equally felt. From the United States to Brazil and the United Kingdom, low-wage workers are suffering more than others and communities of color are most vulnerable to the virus.Despite the disparities, countries are reopening without a plan to redress these unequal harms and protect the broader community going forward. Our ethics research examines the potential for using virtues as a guide for a more moral coronavirus response. Virtues are applied morals – actions that promote individual and collective well-being. Examples include generosity, compassion, honesty, solidarity, fortitude, justice and patience. While often embedded in religion, virtues are ultimately a secular concept. Because of their broad, longstanding relevance to human societies, these values tend to be held across cultures.We propose three core virtues to guide policymakers in easing out of coronavirus crisis mode in ways that achieve a better new normal: compassion, solidarity and justice. 1\. CompassionCompassion is a core virtue of all the world's major religions and a bedrock moral principle in professions like health care and social work. The distinguishing characteristic of compassion is "shared suffering:" Compassionate people and policies recognize suffering and take actions to alleviate it. As the French philosopher André Comte-Sponville said, compassion "means that one refuses to regard any suffering as a matter of indifference or any living being as a thing."Individual acts of compassion abound in the coronavirus crisis, like frontline health care professionals and neighbors who deliver food, among other examples. Some pandemic-era policies also reflect compassion, such as regulations preventing evictions and expanding unemployment benefits and giving food aid to poor familes.A compassion-guided reopening aimed at preventing or reducing human suffering would require governments to continually monitor and alleviate the pain of their people. That includes addressing new forms of suffering that arise as circumstances change. 2\. SolidarityIn a global pandemic, the actions people do or don't take affect the health of others worldwide. Such shared emergencies require solidarity, which recognizes both the inherent dignity of each individual person and the interdependence of all people. As United Nations officials have emphasized, "we are all in this together." Public health measures like stay-at-home orders, social distancing and wearing masks reflect solidarity. While compliance in the United States has not been universal, data indicate broad approval for these measures. A new study found that 80% of Americans nationwide support staying home and social distancing and 74% support using face coverings in public.To achieve these acts of solidarity, the leaders most praised in their countries and abroad – from U.S. National Institutes of Health director Dr. Anthony Fauci to New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern – have relied primarily on moral persuasion, not threats of punishment. By delivering clear information, giving simple and repeated behavioral guidance, and setting a good example, they've helped convince millions to take personal responsibility for protecting their community. 3\. JusticeJustice focuses on the fair distribution of resources and the social structures that enable what the Dutch philosopher Patrick Loobuyck has called a "condition of equality." Justice-oriented policies are necessary for a moral reopening because of the pandemic's disproportionate health and economic impacts. The evidence clearly shows that communities of color, low-income populations, people in nursing homes and those on the margins of society, such as homeless people and undocumented immigrants, are hardest hit.Justice-oriented policies would aim for equitable balancing of necessary pandemic resources. That means directing testing and health equipment toward vulnerable communities – as identified by COVID-19 tracking data and risk factors like housing density and poverty – and ensuring free, widespread vaccine distribution when it becomes available. In the U.S., economic justice will also require aggressively investing in minority-run businesses and poorer areas to guard against further harm to owners, employees and neighborhoods. Similarly, all American school children have lost critical classroom hours, but lower-income children have been disproportionately damaged by remote learning in part due to the digital divide and loss of free lunch programs. Justice would demand channeling additional resources to the students and schools that need them most. A moral reopeningUsing virtues to guide social policies is an old idea. It dates back at least to the Greek thinker Aristotle. New Zealand is a good example of virtuous pandemic policymaking, even considering its advantages in having wealth, low density and no land borders. Its coronavirus response included not only aggressive public health measures but also a well articulated message of being united in the COVID-19 fight and recurring government payments so workers did not have to risk their health for their job.Note that it isn't enough to apply just one virtue in a crisis of this magnitude. Policies built on compassion, solidarity and justice should be deployed in combination. A compassionate post-pandemic response that does not address underlying inequalities, for example, ignores certain communities' specific needs. Meanwhile, tackling specific injustices without engaging everyone in efforts like mask-wearing endangers the public health.Bolstered by scientific evidence, virtue ethics can help nations reopen not just economically but morally, too.[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Megacity slums are incubators of disease – but coronavirus response isn't helping the billion people who live in them * Coronavirus versus democracy: 5 countries where emergency powers risk abuseSarah B. Garlington is affiliated with Showing Up for Racial Justice through local chapter and statewide organizing work in Ohio. Mary Elizabeth Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| In first, Iraq detains pro-Iran fighters accused of anti-US rockets Posted: 26 Jun 2020 06:20 AM PDT  Iraqi security forces were Friday interrogating pro-Iran fighters detained for planning a rocket attack in the first such raid in a country caught in the tug-of-war between Tehran and Washington. Since October, nearly three dozen deadly rocket attacks have hit US military and diplomatic installations in Iraq, with the US blaming pro-Tehran faction Kataeb Hezbollah. Infuriated, Washington has demanded Iraq take tougher action to hold the perpetrators accountable and Thursday's unprecedented raid appeared to be a response to this call.
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| Police not treating Glasgow stabbings as terrorism Posted: 26 Jun 2020 06:12 AM PDT  A male suspect stabbed and wounded a police officer before he was shot dead in Glasgow on Friday. Authorities are not treating the incident that left five other men wounded as terrorism, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said. The suspect died at a Glasgow hotel that appeared to be largely housing asylum-seekers and refugees.
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| Joint Saudi-UNDP Technical Team Formed to Work in Yemen Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:48 AM PDT  The Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) has formed a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) following a meeting between SDRPY Supervisor Ambassador Mohammed bin Saeed Al Jaber and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Nahed Hussein on Wednesday.
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| Coronavirus in Kenya: Police kill three in motorcycle taxi protest Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:42 AM PDT  The police order the arrest of the officers involved, as they come under scrutiny for excessive force.
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| SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK: Election-year retirement unlikely Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:40 AM PDT  The last time a Supreme Court justice announced his retirement in a presidential election year, most of the current justices were too young to vote. The nomination to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren failed in that turbulent year, and no justice has retired in an election year since. The pattern is not likely to be broken in 2020, despite persistent chatter that Justice Clarence Thomas could give President Donald Trump a seat to fill before the election.
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| Inside Barr's Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in New York Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:22 AM PDT  Shortly after he became attorney general last year, William Barr set out to challenge a signature criminal case that touched President Donald Trump's inner circle directly and even the president's own actions: the prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime fixer.The debate between Barr and the federal prosecutors who brought the case against Cohen was one of the first signs of a tense relationship that culminated last weekend in the abrupt ouster of Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. It also foreshadowed Barr's intervention in the prosecutions of other associates of Trump.By the time Barr was sworn into office in February, Cohen, who had paid hush money to an adult film star who said she had had an affair with Trump, had already pleaded guilty and was set to begin a three-year prison sentence, all of which embarrassed and angered the president.But Barr spent weeks in the spring of 2019 questioning the prosecutors over their decision to charge Cohen with violating campaign finance laws, according to people briefed on the matter.At one point during the discussions, Barr instructed Justice Department officials in Washington to draft a memo outlining legal arguments that could have raised questions about Cohen's conviction and undercut similar prosecutions in the future, according to the people briefed on the matter.The prosecutors in New York resisted the effort, the people said, and a Justice Department official said Barr did not instruct them to withdraw the case. The department official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, noted that Cohen was convicted and sentenced in December 2018, before Barr was sworn in, so there was little he could do to change the outcome of the case.Still, Barr's unexpected involvement in such a politically sensitive case suggested that he planned to exert influence over prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, long known for operating independently of Washington. Barr and other officials have told aides and other U.S. attorneys that the Southern District needs to be reined in.Ultimately, Berman was ousted in a dizzying series of events, heightening criticism that Trump and Barr were purging the government of people perceived as disloyal to the White House.In an interview with NPR on Thursday, Barr said Berman was "living on borrowed time from the beginning" because the president had not appointed him.And when Jay Clayton, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, indicated an interest in running the Manhattan office, Barr said, it created "an opportunity to put in a very strong person as a presidential appointment to that office.""I certainly was aware that given the current environment, anytime you make a personnel move, conspiracy theorists will suggest that there's some ulterior motive involved," Barr said.More than any other federal prosecutor's office, the Manhattan office had pursued investigations that angered Trump. During the case against Cohen, for instance, prosecutors had indicated that Trump directed the hush money payments, although the office was not seeking charges against the president.In addition to prosecuting Cohen, the president's former personal lawyer, the office has been investigating his current one, Rudy Giuliani, over his actions in Ukraine.Other points of contention included how to proceed against a state-owned Turkish bank that was eventually indicted in an alleged scheme to avoid U.S. sanctions on Iran, and the Justice Department's decision to assign the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn to oversee all investigations into matters related to Ukraine. Berman's office successfully fended off that oversight.The conflict erupted publicly last Friday, when Barr announced that Berman was stepping down and would be replaced temporarily by an ally of the administration. Berman then issued his own statement saying he had no intention of resigning. By Saturday afternoon, amid the unusual standoff, Barr informed Berman that Trump had fired him and that he would be replaced temporarily with Berman's own deputy.Barr's role in the Cohen case also presaged his involvement in two other high-profile prosecutions of Trump associates: Michael Flynn, the president's former national security adviser, and Roger Stone, a political operative close to Trump who was convicted of lying to Congress and other crimes.Last month, Barr ordered that prosecutors in Washington drop the case against Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about phone calls with the Russian ambassador. Barr also overruled a sentencing recommendation from career prosecutors in Washington for Stone, which he viewed as excessive, prompting the office to backtrack.Even before he became the attorney general, Barr had criticized the special counsel's inquiry into whether Trump had obstructed justice, submitting an unsolicited memo to the Justice Department attacking what he called a "novel and legally insupportable reading of the law."Berman had been recused from the case against Cohen for undisclosed reasons, leaving it in the hands of other senior prosecutors in his office. In August 2018, facing the threat of an indictment, Cohen pleaded guilty to personal financial crimes and campaign finance violations, one of which stemmed from a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.In pleading guilty, Cohen pointed the finger at the president, saying he had acted at Trump's direction.The New York Times reported previously that Barr had questioned the legal theory of the campaign finance charges against Cohen, but it was not known that the attorney general went so far as to ask for the draft memo or had raised his concerns more than once.The memo, written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, addressed the Southern District's somewhat novel use of campaign finance laws to charge Cohen. Before Cohen's guilty plea, the only person known to face criminal charges for payments meant to keep negative information buried during a political campaign was former senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who was not convicted.Barr argued, among other things, that such cases might be better suited to civil resolutions by the Federal Election Commission than to criminal prosecutions, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.Cohen, who reported to prison in May 2019, was recently released on furlough and is serving his sentence at his Manhattan home after citing health concerns related to the coronavirus.There is no indication that the Justice Department planned to issue a formal opinion on the campaign finances charges. Such a step, if taken, might have raised questions about the validity of the case against Cohen and affected any future effort to investigate Trump or others in his circle for similar conduct.Although the Southern District referred to the president as "Individual-1" in court papers and said he directed Cohen to pay the hush money, long-standing Justice Department policy prevents federal prosecutors from pursuing criminal charges against a sitting president.In July 2019, the Southern District disclosed in court papers that it had "effectively concluded" the hush money inquiry and had ended an investigation into whether "certain individuals" lied to investigators or tried to obstruct the inquiry. At least one of those individuals included a senior executive at Trump's company, according to people with knowledge of that investigation.A spokesman for the Southern District declined to comment on Barr's involvement in the case involving Cohen, as did a spokeswoman for the Justice Department.Barr's maneuvering in the Cohen case was not his only attempt to insert himself in Southern District cases. After Barr was sworn in, one of his first actions was to seek briefings on politically sensitive investigations in the office and elsewhere, people briefed on the discussions said.One matter that Berman's office described to Barr early on was the growing investigation into Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Soviet-born businessmen who were helping Giuliani unearth potentially damaging information in Ukraine about Trump's political rivals.Berman eventually announced charges against the two men, in October 2019, and the Southern District has continued to investigate whether some of Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine violated lobbying laws. Giuliani has not been accused of wrongdoing, and he has said he acted appropriately on behalf of the president.For months, the Southern District prosecutors have been consulting officials in Washington about major investigative steps in the inquiry, according to two people briefed on those discussions.The arrival of the coronavirus in New York forced Southern District prosecutors to cancel interviews with witnesses in the investigation into Giuliani and his former associates, people briefed on the matter said.The pandemic also forced a delay in the trial of Parnas and Fruman from this October until next February, putting off what could have been an embarrassing spectacle for the president until after the election.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Russian Criminal Group Finds New Target: Americans Working at Home Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:20 AM PDT  A Russian ransomware group whose leaders were indicted by the Justice Department in December is retaliating against the U.S. government, many of America's largest companies and a major news organization, identifying employees working from home during the pandemic and attempting to get inside their networks with malware intended to cripple their operations.Sophisticated new attacks by the hacking group -- which the Treasury Department claims has at times worked for Russian intelligence -- were identified in recent days by Symantec Corp., a division of Broadcom, one of the many firms that monitors corporate and government networks.In an urgent warning issued Thursday night, the company reported that Russian hackers had exploited the sudden change in American work habits to inject code into corporate networks with a speed and breadth not previously witnessed.Ransomware allows the hackers to demand that companies pay millions to have access to their own data restored.While ransomware has long been a concern for U.S. officials, after devastating attacks on the cities of Atlanta and Baltimore and towns across Texas and Florida, it has taken on new dimensions in an election year. The Department of Homeland Security has been racing to harden the voter registration systems run by cities and states, fearing that they, too, could be frozen, and voter rolls made inaccessible, in an effort to throw the Nov. 3 election into chaos."Security firms have been accused of crying wolf, but what we have seen in the past few weeks is remarkable," said Eric Chien, Symantec's technical director, who was known as one of the engineers who first identified the Stuxnet code that the United States and Israel used to cripple Iran's nuclear centrifuges a decade ago. "Right now this is all about making money, but the infrastructure they are deploying could be used to wipe out a lot of data -- and not just at corporations."A leaked May 1 FBI warning said ransomware attacks delivered "to U.S., county and state government networks will likely threaten the availability of data on interconnected election servers, even if that is not the actors' intention."A cyberattack attack late last year on a Louisiana internet services company allowed hackers to target the Louisiana secretary of state and nine court clerk offices the week before an election. And in Tillamook County, Oregon, in January, ransomware attackers prevented voter registration personnel from accessing voter registration data as they readied the data for the May primaries.Symantec declined to name the companies that were the targets of the Russian hackers, citing the usual confidentiality of its client base. But it said it had already identified 31, including major American brands and Fortune 500 firms. It is unclear whether any of those companies have received ransomware demands, which would only come if the malicious code was activated by its authors. Chien said the warning was issued because "these hackers have a decade of experience and they aren't wasting time with small, two-bit outfits. They are going after the biggest American firms, and only American firms."The hackers call themselves "Evil Corp.," a play off the "Mr. Robot" television series. In December, the Justice Department said they had "been engaged in cybercrime on an almost unimaginable scale," deploying malware to steal tens of millions of dollars from online banking systems. The Treasury Department placed sanctions on them, and the State Department offered $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the group's leader.The indictment is one of many in the past few years against Russian groups, including intelligence agents and the Internet Research Agency, accused of interfering in the 2016 election. Those indictments were intended as a deterrent. But Moscow has protected Evil Corp.'s hackers from extradition, and they are unlikely to stand trial in the United States. In the Treasury Department sanctions announcement, the United States contended that some of the group's leaders have done work for the FSB, the successor to the Soviet KGB.The December indictment and the sanctions both named Maxim Yakubets, said by the Treasury Department to be "working for the Russian FSB" three years ago and "tasked to work on projects for the Russian state, to include acquiring confidential documents through cyber-enabled means and conducting cyber-enabled operations on its behalf."Symantec said it had briefed federal officials on the findings, which are echoed by at least one other company monitoring corporate networks. The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did not immediately respond to questions about whether it had seen the same activity or planned to issue a parallel warning.But the attack's methodology suggests it was intended for the work-at-home era.The malware, Chien said, was deployed on common websites and even one news site. But it did not infect every computer used to go shopping or read about the day's events. Instead, the code looked for a sign that the computer was part of a major corporate or government network. For example, many firms have their employees use a "virtual private network," or VPN, a protected channel that allows workers sitting in their basements or attics to tunnel into their corporate computer systems as if they were at the office."These attacks do not try to get into the VPN," Chien said. "They just use it to identify who the user works for." Then the systems wait for the worker to go to a public or commercial website and use that moment to infect their computer. Once the machine is reconnected to the corporate network, the code is deployed in hopes of gaining access to corporate systems.The indictment was intended to put Evil Corp. out of business. It failed. In the month after the indictment, Evil Corp.'s hackers dropped off the map, but they picked up again in May, according to security researchers at Symantec and Fox-IT, a security company that is a division of the NCC Group. For the past month, they have been successfully breaking into organizations using custom ransomware tools.Evil Corp.'s hackers managed to disable the antivirus software on victims' systems and take out backup systems, in what Fox-IT's researchers said was a clear attempt to thwart victims' ability to recover their data and in some cases prevent "the ability to recover at all."While Symantec did not say how much money Evil Corp. was generating from its recent attacks, Fox-IT researchers said they had previously seen the Russian hackers demand more than $10 million to unlock data on a single victim's network."We've seen them ramp up their ransom demands over the past few years into the millions of dollars as they hit bigger targets," said Maarten van Dantzig, a threat analyst at Fox-IT. "They are the most professional group we see deploying attacks on this scale today."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| US police registry would fail without changes in states Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:13 AM PDT  Without major changes in almost every state, a national police misconduct database like what the White House and Congress have proposed after George Floyd's death would fail to account for thousands of problem officers. Lawmakers nationwide are struggling with how to reform policing following massive demonstrations, increased calls for change and a stark shift in public opinion on the topic. Democrats want to create a policing registry that would catalog disciplinary records, firings and misconduct complaints; President Donald Trump's executive order calls on the attorney general to create a "database to coordinate the sharing of information" between law enforcement agencies.
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| Spacewalking astronaut loses mirror, newest space junk Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:11 AM PDT  A spacewalking astronaut added to the millions of pieces of junk orbiting the Earth on Friday, losing a small mirror on his sleeve as soon as he emerged from the International Space Station for battery work. Commander Chris Cassidy said the mirror quickly floated away. The lost item posed no risk to either the spacewalk or the station, according to NASA.
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| Iraqi forces arrest men suspected of attacks targeting US Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:08 AM PDT  Iraqi security forces arrested over a dozen men suspected of a spate of rocket attacks against the U.S. presence in Iraq, the Iraqi military said Friday — the strongest action to date by the new government in Baghdad against perpetrators suspected of ties to Iran. Two senior Iraqi officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the 14 men who were arrested had ties to an Iran-backed militia group.
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| Annexation Would Make Israel Bigger, Not Safer Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| As COVID cases rise, White House seeks to scrap 'Obamacare' Posted: 26 Jun 2020 04:33 AM PDT  As coronavirus cases rise in more than half of the states, the Trump administration is urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act. The administration's high court filing at 10:30 p.m. Thursday came the same day the government reported that close to half a million people who lost their health insurance amid the economic shutdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 have gotten coverage through HealthCare.gov. The administration's legal brief makes no mention of the virus.
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| Putin reform referendum reveals Russian generation gap Posted: 26 Jun 2020 04:27 AM PDT  Ludmila Yudina, a retired speech therapist and supporter of President Vladimir Putin, has been butting heads recently with her grandchildren. The 81-year-old is backing constitutional reforms the longtime Russian leader proposed earlier this year, which Russians are voting on in a nationwide ballot that will end on Wednesday. The reforms, the first major changes to Russia's basic law since 1993, will reset presidential term limits, potentially allowing Putin to serve two more terms.
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| Explosion rocks Tehran near military complex Posted: 26 Jun 2020 04:08 AM PDT  A gas tank explosion rocked Tehran overnight near a military complex that had come under scrutiny five years ago from the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran's defence ministry said Friday. The tanks blew up at around midnight, with Fars news agency saying "a number of social media users reported seeing an orange light" in the east of the Iranian capital. Amateur footage aired on state television showed what appeared to be a massive orange fireball on the horizon in the middle of the night.
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| Denmark gives Norwegian-Iranian 7 years for spying for Iran Posted: 26 Jun 2020 03:05 AM PDT |
| Plan advances to allow dismantling Minneapolis Police Dept. Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:44 AM PDT  The Minneapolis City Council on Friday unanimously advanced a proposal to change the city charter to allow the police department to be dismantled, following widespread criticism of law enforcement over the killing of George Floyd. It also comes amid a spate of recent shootings in Minnesota's largest city that have heightened many citizens' concerns about talk of dismantling the department. The proposed amendment, which would replace the police department with a new "Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention" that has yet to be fully defined, next goes to a policy committee and to the city's Charter Commission for a formal review, at which point citizens and city officials can weigh in.
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| Iraq raids offices of powerful Iranian-backed militia Posted: 26 Jun 2020 01:36 AM PDT  Iraqi security forces have raided the offices of one of the country's most powerful Iran-backed militias, signalling a possible crackdown on Tehran's military influence in Baghdad. The raid on Thursday night saw the arrest of more than a dozen members of Kataib Hezbollah, a Shia militia group blamed by the US for numerous rocket attacks on American bases in Iraq. The group's activities ultimately led to last January's US airstrike in Baghdad that killed Qassem Solaimani, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander who sponsored them. The arrests may be a sign that Iraq's new pro-Western prime minister, Mustapha al-Khadimi, is trying to clamp down on the presence of Tehran-backed militias in Iraq. The raid took place at a Khataib Hezbollah headquarters in southern Baghdad, although the exact circumstances were unclear. Some said that those detained had been taken into government custody. Others, though, claimed they had been transferred to the custody of an internal security wing of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, or PMF. The PMF is a Shia paramilitary organisation set up six years ago to fight Islamic State, and has a number of factions with close links to Tehran. Transferring them to PMF custody could be a tactic to avoid aggravating tensions with Tehran. According to one report by Reuters, one of the arrested commanders was an Iranian.
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| After waves of virus deaths, care homes face legal reckoning Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:42 PM PDT  The muffled, gagging sounds in the background of the phone call filled Monette Hayoun with dread. Was her severely disabled 85-year-old brother, Meyer, choking on his food? Meyer Haiun died the next day, one of the more than 14,000 deaths that tore through care homes for France's most vulnerable older adults when they were sealed off to visitors during the coronavirus' peak.
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| Yemen asks for help as seawater seeps into abandoned tanker Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:38 PM PDT  The United Nations said an abandoned oil tanker moored off the coast of Yemen loaded with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil is at risk of rupture or exploding, causing massive environmental damage to Red Sea marine life, desalination factories and international shipping routes. Internal documents obtained by The Associated Press show that seawater has entered the engine compartment of the tanker, which hasn't been maintained for over five years, causing damage to the pipelines and increasing the risk of sinking. Rust has covered parts of the tanker and the inert gas that prevents the tanks from gathering inflammable gases, has leaked out.
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| Seawater seeping into decaying oil tanker off Yemen coast Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:18 PM PDT  The United Nations said an abandoned oil tanker moored off the coast of Yemen loaded with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil is at risk of rupture or exploding, causing massive environmental damage to Red Sea marine life, desalination factories and international shipping routes. Meanwhile, Houthi rebels who control the area where the ship is moored have denied U.N. inspectors access to the vessel. Internal documents obtained by The Associated Press shows that seawater has entered the engine compartment of the tanker, which hasn't been maintained for over five years, causing damage to the pipelines and increasing the risk of sinking.
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| Turkey Has Eclipsed Emmanuel Macron's Libya Dreams Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:30 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- The art of the diplomatic put-down seems lost in the age of "dotard" and "Rocket Man," not to mention the jejune tirades of China's so-called wolf warriors. So let us savor the old-school sting of "an eclipse of the mind," Turkey's latest barb in the direction of French President Emmanuel Macron.Take a bow, Hami Aksoy, spokesman for Turkey's foreign ministry.The jab is on the nose: Macron's pronouncements on Libya have devolved from hyperbole and hypocrisy to something approaching hysteria. Having backed a suspected war criminal against a United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli, Macron now accuses Turkey of "playing a dangerous game" in Libya. And having lost any leverage France might have had in the civil war, he avers that he "will not tolerate" the Turkish interference.Perhaps he suffers from a lapse in memory. Given all the recent twists and turns in the Libyan civil war, and the complexities introduced by at least a dozen foreign players, France's foundational contribution to the conflict might get lost in the shuffle.Macron might just be able to blame his predecessor, Francois Hollande, for involving France in the civil war. When the death of three French soldiers in a July 2016 helicopter crash brought Hollande's intervention to the world's attention, Macron had not yet announced his bid for the presidency.Or, he might have fingered Hollande's then-Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian for mischaracterizing the rebel commander Khalifa Haftar as a partner in the fight against Salafi-Jihadi terrorism in the Maghreb and the Sahel. This view required willful ignorance: there are Islamic extremists on both sides of the civil war. For all Khalifa's posturing against terrorism, his forces include a sizeable cohort of Madhkhalists, followers of an obscure Saudi cleric whose worldview is more Taliban than liberté, égalité and fraternité. Macron could have quietly pulled away from Haftar; instead, having made Le Drian his foreign minister, he dialed up French involvement. While denying reports it had supplied the rebels with arms — inconveniently, Javelin anti-tank missiles sold to France turned up at one of Haftar's bases — Macron appointed himself peacemaker. Two months after taking office, he hosted a summit outside Paris, and preened as Haftar and Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the Government of National Accord agreed to a cease-fire and elections.All Macron had really done was to legitimize the rebel commander, who never gave up his ambition to take Tripoli by force. With other, more committed allies behind him — notably, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia — Haftar was able to treat his French patrons as they had treated the UN-backed government, with blithe disregard.But Macron had painted himself into Haftar's corner and would not abandon his man. While France was reduced to sniping with Italy over energy interests in Libya, the mantle of peacemaker was passed to other pretenders: Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both hosted summits; more recently even Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi tried to engineer a cease-fire.The only leader moving the Libyan needle was Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose backing — in word and kinetic deed — of the GNA has forced Haftar into headlong retreat. This turn of events has led to still more embarrassing revelations for Macron and Le Drian: The discovery of mass graves in territory liberated from the rebels suggests that France's champion was presiding over industrial-scale atrocities.It does not take Macronian cynicism to see his rhetorical bluster toward Turkey as a desperate effort to distract attention from French culpability. He has other battles with Ankara, including the contest over energy rights in the Eastern Mediterranean. A more charitable suggestion might be that Macron retains fantasies of French influence in the southern Mediterranean. The Libyan reality be what it may, France's president is certainly not displaying an eclipse in ambition.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UNICEF: Millions of Yemeni children may starve amid pandemic Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:08 PM PDT  Millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across war-torn Yemen amid a "huge" drop in humanitarian aid funding, the U.N. children's agency warned Friday. The stark prediction comes in a new UNICEF report, "Yemen five years on: Children, conflict and COVID-19." "As Yemen's devastated health system and infrastructure struggle to cope with coronavirus, the already dire situation for children is likely to deteriorate considerably," warned UNICEF.
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| Rayshard Brooks struggled in system but didn't hide his past Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:07 PM PDT  Rayshard Brooks didn't hide his history. About five months before he was killed by Atlanta police in a Wendy's parking lot — before his name and case would become the latest rallying point in a massive call for racial justice and equality nationwide — Brooks gave an interview to an advocacy group about his years of struggle in the criminal justice system. "That's a hard feeling to stomach," he told the group Reconnect, as he lamented the lack of support, both in prison and once released.
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| Mueller report witness gets 10 years on child sex charges Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:03 PM PDT  A Lebanese American businessman who was a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's report and who helped broker the release of American hostages was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison sentence on child sex charges. George Nader pleaded guilty in January to bringing a 14-year-old boy from the Czech Republic to the U.S. 20 years ago to engage in sexual activity. Nader's name appears more than 100 times in the Mueller report.
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| Iran warns against US-led efforts to extend arms embargo Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:38 PM PDT |
| South Korean police raid office of anti-North activist Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:31 PM PDT  South Korea police on Friday raided the office of an activist whose anti-North Korea leafleting campaign has intensified tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Police said officers visited the Seoul office of Park Sang-hak to confiscate leaflets, account books and other related materials. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said that Park will be summoned soon for an investigation.
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| 'A problem that we need to solve': Harris takes on policing Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:30 PM PDT  When pressed to take a position on tough issues during the Democratic presidential primary, Kamala Harris often replied with a variation of "we need to have that conversation." As one of two Black Democrats in the Senate, Harris took a lead role this week in blocking Republican-backed legislation to overhaul policing. In an interview with The Associated Press, Harris said she wouldn't be "played" by GOP leaders seeking to move the bill without input from Democrats and called on Americans to do more to acknowledge racial injustice in policing.
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