| MAGA Ambush of Liz Cheney Backfires Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:57 PM PDT  For the first time ever, Congress' most MAGA contingent on Tuesday decided to test the rule that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is the only high-profile Republican who can criticize President Trump and get away with it. By the end of the day, their efforts had made abundantly clear that Cheney can, in fact, still get away with it—at least for now—with her reputation largely unscathed. At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans—their first fully in-person meeting since early March—several lawmakers who present themselves as unflinchingly loyal to Trump took the opportunity to execute what struck some as a coordinated broadside on the third-ranking House Republican. According to Politico, Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Chip Roy (R-TX), and others attacked Cheney for being insufficiently supportive of Trump and his agenda, for supporting Dr. Anthony Fauci, and for backing a primary challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), among other things. After the news of the meeting broke, Gaetz upped the ante by publicly calling on Cheney to step down from her position as conference chair. "Liz Cheney has worked behind the scenes (and now in public) against @realDonaldTrump and his agenda," tweeted Gaetz. "Liz Cheney should step down or be removed." The call was amplified with a well-timed release of an episode of Gaetz's podcast, "Hot Takes with Matt Gaetz."At least one high-profile denizen of Trumpworld clearly heard the call: The president's son, Donald Trump, Jr., piggybacked on Gaetz's tweet, saying "We already have one Mitt Romney, we don't need another." Trump, Jr. is an influential and well-connected figure in House GOP circles. But, as Cheney pointed out at a press conference later, Trump's son is "not a member of the House Republican conference."Ultimately, none of Gaetz's band of rabblerousers backed his call to remove Cheney from her post—even those who reportedly aired their grievances against her Tuesday morning. In fact, one after the other, those reportedly involved changed the subject. "I am focused on making sure the President wins re-election and helping us take back the majority. I want to stay focused on that, that should be what we're doing," said Jordan, when asked if he had confidence in Cheney. "We had a good robust private conversation," Roy said—and called Cheney a friend, "just like all my other colleagues in this conference are friends. We're going to get busy making sure we're going to win this fall."And Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), who was not at the meeting but is close to the Trump family, also declined to take the bait on Cheney, telling The Daily Beast, "I've gotten along with her the entire time that she's been here. And my interactions with her, where we're aligned on issues, has been only positive."Other Republicans chided the push: Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI), who is retiring, said it was a bit "extreme" to try to oust Cheney over her views on Trump. "She's done what she thinks is right," said Mitchell. "I'm not endorsing it, it's just if that's the criteria we use, I don't think unquestioning support of the president is in the job description of conference chair." Trump himself, meanwhile, did not publicly weigh in on the dust-up, and to date has never publicly attacked Cheney in the merciless style he's gone after other Republicans he views as critical of him. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Cheney and the GOP meeting. With the would-be insurgents largely silent, Cheney ended the day pocketing public praise from allies and the full backing of House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who appeared beside her at a press conference and proclaimed "we're honored to have her as conference chair."Privately, too, many Republicans seethed at the optics of outspoken male lawmakers going after a highly visible Republican woman. "Where is the party struggling right now? With women," said one House Republican aide. "And the game plan is to go after the top female elected Republican in all of Congress?""There is zero appetite," said another House Republican aide, "to get rid of the only woman in leadership."Indeed, it was unlikely that a fit from House conservatives, who historically love to rattle their leaders, would result in any meaningful effort to oust Cheney. But their first shot at it may portend future turbulence within the Republican Party—especially a post-Trump party that so many believe that Cheney is positioning herself to lead. The timing of the attack, which was unconnected to any specific bit of news or provocation by Cheney, was "quite intentional," according to a former House Republican aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe conference dynamics freely."It's also misplaced and purely personal. Cheney is a strong supporter of the President, wants him to win in November, and is arguably more conservative than those chirping," said the aide. "But, those that have risen in influence because of President Trump's personal and punch-driven politics made it clear today they will not go quietly if he falls in November. The fight for the future of the Republican Party has broken out into the open." The third-term congresswoman's willingness to push back on Trump at all—where she could easily remain silent or supportive of him—has given rise to chatter that she is planning for a future where the party has moved on from Trump. Her criticisms of Trump have hardly risen to the level of someone like Romney, who voted with Democrats in an impeachment Cheney slammed as permanently damaging to the country. According to trackers like FiveThirtyEight, Cheney has voted more frequently with Trump's agenda in her career than detractors questioning her loyalty to the president, such as Gaetz, who did time of his own in the White House doghouse in January over his high-profile fight to rein in Trump's war powers on Iran. But within the House GOP's Trump cheering section, Cheney's at-times harsh criticism has stuck out—particularly when it comes to Trump's national security platform and the petty controversies the president reflexively kicks up regularly—putting her in contrast with Republicans like Jordan, who have thrown in their lot so clearly with the president that the association will be hard to shake, no matter what happens to him in November. Indeed, Trump's political fortunes were a focal point of the closed-door discussion Tuesday morning, with Cheney's critics accusing her of undermining the president's chances at reelection and saying she wasn't a "team player." Cheney, a top fundraising officer on the Trump campaign, reportedly parried the attacks with subtle digs at her rivals, wishing Gaetz luck on his new HBO documentary and raising Jordan's past reputation as anything but a team player.But leaving that meeting, Cheney illustrated a reason why she's been able to get so far while lodging criticism of the president—picking her battles. "We had an exchange of views," Cheney told reporters, saying not a word about what she'd just confronted. "I think it's all clear we're unified in terms of recognizing the danger... if Joe Biden were elected President. We talked at length about Vice President Biden, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and the kind of America we'd be living in if they prevail. That was really the focus of it. We had a healthy exchange of views."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Coronavirus: How the outbreak has hit tourism in Africa Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:20 PM PDT  Africa's tourism sector is battling to survive as coronavirus keeps away holidaymakers from abroad.
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| Nile dam dispute: Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan agree to resume talks Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:09 PM PDT  The Grand Renaissance Dam reservoir has been a source of huge diplomatic tension for almost a decade.
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| AP Exclusive: Aid from top donors drops even as need soars Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:01 PM PDT  A new snapshot of the frantic global response to the coronavirus pandemic shows some of the world's largest government donors of humanitarian aid are buckling under the strain: Funding commitments, for the virus and otherwise, have dropped by a third from the same period last year. "We have not seen substantial funding for COVID, yet the situation is going to get worse," Rosalind Crowther, South Sudan country director for the aid group CARE, told the AP in May, saying "some donors have backtracked on earlier commitments." In Somalia, a mother of twin baby boys told Amnesty International she had to give birth in her makeshift home in a camp for displaced people because no local health clinic was open.
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| Egyptian army: 2 troops killed in militant attack in Sinai Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:33 PM PDT |
| Medical Central Vacuum Systems Market by End-user, Application, Technology and Geography - Forecast to 2025 Posted: 21 Jul 2020 01:58 PM PDT |
| Prosecutors: Company, CEO tried to export chemicals to China Posted: 21 Jul 2020 01:33 PM PDT |
| Heavily armed US agents on city streets: Can Trump do that? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 12:55 PM PDT  The Trump administration has deployed agents with tactical gear to confront protesters in downtown Portland, Oregon. Trump issued an executive order June 26 to protect monuments and federal property after protesters tried to remove or destroy statues of people considered racist, including a failed attempt to pull down one of Andrew Jackson near the White House.
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| EU's coronavirus relief deal may have benefited from Brexit, economist suggests Posted: 21 Jul 2020 12:32 PM PDT  After days of negotiations, European Union leaders on Tuesday agreed to a "historic" $2.1 trillion deal, which includes $857.33 billion in recovery funds to help member states climb out of the economic recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Does the bloc have Brexit to thank for getting it done?In his positive analysis of the deal Erik Fossing Nielsen, the chief economist at UniCredit, described the pact as perhaps the "first clear sign" of the United Kingdom's controversial departure actually benefiting the EU. Nielsen theorizes that if London was at the table, a deal "of this magnitude" would have been unlikely. That's because, as he sees it, the U.K. "would have demanded a myriad of opt-outs" that the so-called frugal four — the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, and Denmark (and in this case Finland) — may have gone along with.> "This agreement may be the first clear sign of the benefits to the EU of Brexit," says UniCredit's @ErikFossing. "I strongly doubt that the EU could have reached a deal of this magnitude with the UK as part of the EU." https://t.co/iONZgAnhlh> > — Michel Rose (@MichelReuters) July 21, 2020In actuality, those states were able to win some concessions without torpedoing the deal completely. Ultimately, Nielsen says the agreement represented "a great deal of solidarity among the bloc," though he noted France and Germany came away as big political winners, since they mostly got their way. He also deemed the U.K. a loser despite its absence, predicting that EU policies will continue to affect the country, which will in turn lack any sort of influence. Read the full analysis here.More stories from theweek.com The GOP's rising tide of unpopularity Serena Williams' 2-year-old daughter is now the youngest owner in pro sports Trump officials, top Republicans split over what to put in coronavirus relief bill: 'What in the hell are we doing?'
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| Virus antibodies fade fast but not necessarily protection Posted: 21 Jul 2020 11:13 AM PDT  New research suggests that antibodies the immune system makes to fight the new coronavirus may only last a few months in people with mild illness, but that doesn't mean protection also is gone or that it won't be possible to develop an effective vaccine. "Infection with this coronavirus does not necessarily generate lifetime immunity," but antibodies are only part of the story, said Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. The immune system remembers how to make fresh antibodies if needed and other parts of it also can mount an attack, he said.
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| Ethiopia, Egypt reach 'major common understanding' on dam Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:48 AM PDT  Ethiopia's prime minister said Tuesday his country, Egypt and Sudan have reached a "major common understanding which paves the way for a breakthrough agreement" on a massive dam project that has led to sharp regional tensions and led some to fear military conflict. The statement by Abiy Ahmed's office came as new satellite images show the water level in the reservoir behind the nearly completed $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is at its highest in at least four years. Ethiopia has said the rising water is from heavy rains, and the new statement said that "it has become evident over the past two weeks in the rainy season that the (dam's) first-year filling is achieved and the dam under construction is already overtopping."
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| US presence cause of insecurity: Khamenei tells visiting Iraq PM Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:42 AM PDT  Iran's supreme leader told Iraq's visiting premier on Tuesday that Tehran will not interfere in Baghdad's relations with Washington, but warned that the US presence next door to the Islamic republic was a cause of insecurity. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi of Iraq met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Iranian capital during his first trip abroad since taking office. "Iran will not interfere in Iraq's relations with America but expects Iraqi friends to know America and realise that their presence in any country causes corruption, ruin and destruction," the Iranian leader said, according to his official website.
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| UK government failed to probe Russian 'meddling', say MPs Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:30 AM PDT  British lawmakers slammed the government on Tuesday for failing to look into possible Russian meddling in UK politics, particularly the divisive 2016 Brexit referendum, as they released a long-awaited report into the issue. The document by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) had been expected to shed light on possible Kremlin interference in the landmark vote that saw Britain leave the European Union.
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| A new UN report says air conditioning is absolutely killing our planet Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:25 AM PDT |
| Report Cites Russian Interference In Britain Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:08 AM PDT  A new report from British Parliament accuses the government of "actively avoiding" investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum. The 55-page report says Russia views Britain as one of its "top intelligence targets" in the West and criticizes the British government for being "slow to recognize the existence of the threat." The report goes on to say that British politicians allowed Russians to recycle illicit finances in London and then invest that money into a wide sphere of British establishments including "PR firms, charities, political interests, academia and cultural institutions."
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| Report Cites Russian Interference in Britain Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:08 AM PDT A new report from British Parliament accuses the government of "actively avoiding" investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum. The 55-page report says Russia views Britain as one of its "top intelligence targets" in the West and criticizes the British government for being "slow to recognize the existence of the threat." The report goes on to say that British politicians allowed Russians to recycle illicit finances in London and then invest that money into a wide sphere of British establishments including "PR firms, charities, political interests, academia and cultural institutions."
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| Trump's new immigration fight: how to redraw House districts Posted: 21 Jul 2020 09:55 AM PDT  President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Tuesday that seeks to bar people in the U.S. illegally from being included in the headcount as congressional districts are redrawn, a move that drew immediate criticism and promises of court challenges on constitutional grounds. Trump said including them in the count "would create perverse incentives and undermine our system of government." Seats in U.S. House of Representatives are redistributed every 10 years based on changes in population found in the census.
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| Private proms during pandemic: 'Footloose' or loose cannons? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 09:42 AM PDT  Bedford High School canceled its senior prom, and a persistent pandemic means prospects for dances to be held this fall are slim to none. In New Hampshire, at least, officials are largely staying out of the way as long as organizers and participants follow distancing guidelines meant to keep the coronavirus in check. "We're asking folks to be smart about it, but I'm not going to be the guy in 'Footloose' who says, 'No dancing in my town,'" Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, said last month.
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| Israeli court gives Palestinian attacker life sentence Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:47 AM PDT |
| Trump's show of federal force sparking alarm in cities Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:30 AM PDT  President Donald Trump is using the Department of Homeland Security in unprecedented ways as he tries to bolster his law and order credentials by making a heavy-handed show of force in cities around the nation in the lead-up to the November elections. Trump has already deployed Homeland Security agents to Portland on the grounds of protecting federal buildings from protesters, drawing intense criticism from local leaders who say the federal presence has only exacerbated tensions rather than promoting public safety. Under Trump's latest plan, yet to be publicly announced, about 150 Homeland Security Investigations agents would go to Chicago to help local law enforcement deal with a spike in crime, according to an official with direct knowledge of the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.
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| Pandemic poses challenges for Argentines seeking therapy Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:25 AM PDT  Romina Caira has hidden in her bathroom, the door closed tightly so she doesn't wake her 4-year-old daughter. Mariana Fevre finds privacy in her parked car or sitting in the stairwell of her apartment building. Coronavirus quarantines pose a special challenge for Argentines seeking a quiet moment to talk their problems over with their therapist.
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| German working to support Iraqi art kidnapped in Baghdad Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:21 AM PDT |
| Facing federal agents, Portland protests find new momentum Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:16 AM PDT  Mardy Widman has watched protests against racial injustice unfold in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, for more than seven weeks but stayed away because, at age 79, she feared contracting the coronavirus. On Monday, a masked Widman was in the street with more than 1,000 other Portlanders — a far larger crowd than the city had seen in recent days, as it entered its eighth week of nightly protests.
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| Virus concerns nudge some teachers toward classroom exits Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:03 AM PDT  As pressure mounts for teachers to return to their classrooms this fall, concerns about health risks from the coronavirus are pushing many toward alternatives, including career changes, as others mobilize to delay school reopenings in hard-hit areas. Among those opting for early retirement is Liza McArdle, a 50-year-old high school language instructor in New Boston, Michigan. Teachers unions have begun pushing back on what they see as unnecessarily aggressive timetables for reopening.
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| Virus hits frontline workers in taxed public health system Posted: 21 Jul 2020 07:58 AM PDT  As a veteran public health worker, Chantee Mack knew the coronavirus could kill. Mack, a 44-year-old disease intervention specialist, lost her life this spring after COVID-19 struck the Prince George's County Health Department in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. The coronavirus infected at least 20 department employees, some of whom had attended a staff meeting where they sat close together, union leaders said. Such outbreaks are a grim threat facing overburdened and underfunded health departments across the nation.
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| Feds probe men's rights lawyer in 2nd killing Posted: 21 Jul 2020 07:45 AM PDT  Federal investigators are examining whether a suspect in the ambush shooting of a federal judge's family in New Jersey also killed a fellow men's rights lawyer in California, a law enforcement official said. The federal agents are trying to determine whether Roy Den Hollander, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound the day after an attack that killed the judge's son and wounded her husband, had any role in the killing earlier this month of Marc Angelucci. Angelucci, like Den Hollander, was involved in lawsuits alleging gender discrimination against men.
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| Ohio House speaker, 4 others arrested in $60M bribery case Posted: 21 Jul 2020 07:17 AM PDT  The powerful Republican speaker of the Ohio House and four associates were arrested Tuesday in a $60 million federal bribery case connected to a taxpayer-funded bailout of Ohio's two nuclear power plants. Hours after FBI agents raided Speaker Larry Householder's farm, U.S. Attorney David DeVillers described the ploy as likely the largest bribery and money-laundering scheme that had "ever been perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio." Gov. Mike DeWine, also a Republican, called on Householder to resign immediately, saying it would be impossible for him to be an effective legislative leader given the charges against him.
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| Pompeo and Johnson discussed China's actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Posted: 21 Jul 2020 06:00 AM PDT |
| How to handle layoffs with compassion and transparency Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:21 AM PDT  In the business world, this is where we find ourselves, trapped somewhere between the economic boom of the previous half-decade, and the doomsday scenario of a global recession as predicted by some economists. According to the United Nations, nearly half of the global workforce is in danger of job loss due to COVID-19. A recent poll of 114 human resources professionals conducted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce and Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, backed this up, stating that the leading strategy employed by businesses to date, in an effort to cut costs, was laying off workers.
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| Russian cyberthreat extends to coronavirus vaccine research Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:12 AM PDT  A Russian cyberespionage group that hacked into election networks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine information from researchers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. The governments of those three countries issued a warning on July 16 saying that the group known as APT29 or "Cozy Bear" is targeting vaccine development efforts. The group, which is connected with the FSB, Russia's internal security service, had gotten inside the Democratic National Committee networks prior to the 2016 election.This latest incident illustrates yet again how, beyond carrying all of our phone, text and internet communications, cyberspace is an active battleground, with cybercriminals, government agents and even military personnel probing weaknesses in corporate, national and even personal online defenses. Some of the most talented and dangerous cybercrooks and cyberwarriors come from Russia, which is a longtime meddler in other countries' affairs.Over decades, Russian operators have stolen terabytes of data, taken control of millions of computers and raked in billions of dollars. They've shut down electricity in Ukraine and meddled in elections in the U.S. and elsewhere. They've engaged in disinformation and disclosed pilfered information such as the emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, following successful spearphishing attacks.Who are these operators, why are they so skilled, and what are they up to? Back to the 1980sThe Russian cyberthreat dates back to at least 1986 when Cliff Stoll, then a system administrator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, linked a 75-cent accounting error to intrusions into the lab's computers. The hacker was after military secrets, downloading documents with important keywords such as "nuclear." A lengthy investigation, described in Stoll's book "The Cuckoo's Egg," led to a German hacker who was selling the stolen data to what was then the Soviet Union.By the late 1990s, Russian cyberespionage had grown to include the multi-year "Moonlight Maze" intrusions into U.S. military and other government computers, foretelling the massive espionage from Russia today.The 1990s also saw the arrest of Vladimir Levin, a computer operator in St. Petersburg. Levin tried to steal more than US$10 million by hacking Citibank accounts, foreshadowing Russia's prominence in cybercrime. And Russian hackers defaced U.S. websites during the Kosovo conflict, portending Russia's extensive use of disruptive and damaging cyberattacks. Conducting advanced attacksIn more recent years, Russia has been behind some of the most sophisticated cyberattacks on record. The 2015 cyberattack on three of Ukraine's regional power distribution companies knocked out power to almost a quarter-million people. Cybersecurity analysts from the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the SANS Institute reported that the multi-staged attacks were conducted by a "highly structured and resourced actor." Ukraine blamed the attacks on Russia.The attackers used a variety of techniques and adapted to the targets they faced. They used spearphishing email messages to gain initial access to systems. They installed "BlackEnergy" malware to establish remote control over the infected devices. They harvested credentials to move through the networks. They developed custom malicious firmware to render system control devices inoperable. They hijacked the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system to open circuit breakers in substations. They used "KillDisk" malware to erase the master boot record of affected systems. The attackers even went so far as to strike the control stations' battery backups and tie up the energy company's call center with thousands of calls.The Russians returned in 2016 with more advanced tools to take down a major artery of Ukraine's power grid. Russia is believed to have also invaded energy companies in the U.S., including those operating nuclear power plants. Top-notch cybereducationRussia has many skilled cyberoperators, and for good reason: Their educational system emphasizes information technology and computer science, more so than in the U.S. Every year, Russian schools take a disproportionate number of the top spots in the International Collegiate Programming Contest. In the 2016 contest, St. Petersburg State University took the top spot for the fifth time in a row, and four other Russian schools also made the top 12. In 2017, St. Petersburg ITMO University won, with two other Russian schools also placing in the top 12. The top U.S. school ranked 13th.As Russia prepared to form a cyberbranch within its military, Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu took note of Russian students' performance in the contest. "We have to work with these guys somehow, because we need them badly," he said in a public meeting with university administrators. Who are these Russian cyberwarriors?Russia employs cyberwarriors within its military and intelligence services. Indeed, the cyberespionage groups dubbed APT28 (aka Fancy Bear) and APT29 (aka Cozy Bear and The Dukes) are believed to correspond to Russia's military intelligence agency GRU and its state security organization FSB, respectively. Both groups have been implicated in hundreds of cyberoperations over the past decade, including U.S. election hacking.Russia recruits cyberwarriors from its colleges, but also from the cybersecurity and cybercrime sectors. It is said to turn a blind eye to its criminal hackers as long as they avoid Russian targets and use their skills to aid the government. According to Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of the security firm CrowdStrike, when Moscow identifies a talented cybercriminal, any pending criminal case against the person is dropped and the hacker disappears into the Russian intelligence services. Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, wanted by the FBI with a reward of $3 million for cybercrimes, is also on the Obama administration's list of people sanctioned in response to interference in the U.S. election. Bogachev is said to work "under the supervision of a special unit of the FSB." Allies outside official channelsBesides its in-house capabilities, the Russian government has access to hackers and the Russian media. Analyst Sarah Geary at cybersecurity firm FireEye reported that the hackers "disseminate propaganda on behalf of Moscow, develop cybertools for Russian intelligence agencies like the FSB and GRU, and hack into networks and databases in support of Russian security objectives." Many seemingly independent "patriotic hackers" operate on Russia's behalf. Most notably, they attacked critical systems in Estonia in 2007 over the relocation of a Soviet-era memorial, Georgia in 2008 during the Russo-Georgian War and Ukraine in 2014 in connection with the conflict between the two countries. At the very least, the Russian government condones, even encourages, these hackers. After some of the Estonian attacks were traced back to Russia, Moscow turned down Estonia's request for help – even as a commissar in Russia's pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi admitted launching some of the attacks. And when Slavic Union hackers successfully attacked Israeli websites in 2006, Deputy Duma Director Nikolai Kuryanovich gave the group a certificate of appreciation. He noted that "a small force of hackers is stronger than the multi-thousand force of the current armed forces." While some patriotic hackers may indeed operate independently of Moscow, others seem to have strong ties. Cyber Berkut, one of the groups that conducted cyberattacks against Ukraine, including its central election site, is said to be a front for Russian state-sponsored cyberactivity. And Russia's espionage group APT28 is said to have operated under the guise of the ISIS-associated CyberCaliphate while attacking the French station TV5 Monde and taking over the Twitter account of U.S. Central Command. One of many cyberthreatsAlthough Russia poses a major cyberthreat, it is not the only country that threatens the U.S. in cyberspace. China, Iran and North Korea are also countries with strong cyberattack capabilities, and more countries will join the pool as they develop their people's skills. The good news is that actions to protect an organization's cybersecurity (such as monitoring access to sensitive files) that work against Russia also work against other threat actors. The bad news is that many organizations do not take those steps. Further, hackers find new vulnerabilities in devices and exploit the weakest link of all – humans. Whether cyberdefenses will evolve to avert a major calamity, from Russia or anywhere else, remains to be seen.Editor's note: This is an updated version of an article originally published Aug. 15, 2017.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Tracing the sources of today's Russian cyberthreat * Russians hacked into US electric utilities: 6 essential readsDorothy Denning 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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| Astronauts squeeze in last spacewalk before SpaceX departure Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:35 AM PDT  Making their fourth and final spacewalk in under a month, NASA's Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy whipped through a variety of maintenance tasks outside the International Space Station. Behnken had to scrape away a shiny metallic blob — some sort of debris — from the round rim of the port. SpaceX will launch this first-ever commercial airlock this fall.
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| Omar al-Bashir: Sudan's ex-president on trial for 1989 coup Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:23 AM PDT  He is accused of overthrowing a democratically-elected government to assume power.
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| The daily business briefing: July 21, 2020 Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:21 AM PDT |
| Jordan PM hints at support for one Israeli-Palestinian state Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:57 AM PDT |
| 10 things you need to know today: July 21, 2020 Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:51 AM PDT |
| Official Russia Report: U.K. ‘Actively Avoided’ Probing Kremlin’s Role in Brexit Referendum Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:43 AM PDT  LONDON—Britain's Conservative government never bothered to find out whether the Brexit referendum was influenced by the Kremlin, according to a scathing report by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee.The extraordinary finding was at the heart of a report that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly sought to delay—despite it being ready for publication nine months ago. Kevan Jones, a Labour member of the committee, said it was a "scandal" that No. 10 had never ordered Britain's extensive intelligence agencies to look into the safety of British elections despite seeing evidence of interference in the 2014 Scottish election and the leak of Democratic emails ahead of the U.S. presidential election in 2016."The outrage isn't that there was interference. The outrage is that no one has wanted to know if there was interference," Jones said.The committee members called on No. 10 to launch a full investigation into Russian interference in the Brexit referendum."The question is, Who is protecting the British public from interference in our democratic process? Well, in a nutshell, we found no one is," he said. "This needs to be gripped. Now."The Intelligence and Security Committee is a powerful body responsible for overseeing the security and intelligence agencies including MI6, MI5, and military intelligence. When members asked for everything they knew about Russian interference, they were shocked to find that virtually nothing had been gathered. "We have sought to establish whether there is secret intelligence which supported or built on these studies. In response to our request for written evidence at the outset of the Inquiry, MI5 initially provided just six lines of text. It stated that [REDACTED]."Although it was not allowed to publicly repeat what MI5, the domestic intelligence agency, had said, the committee made it clear they were disappointed with the response. "The brevity was also, to us, again, indicative of the extreme caution amongst the intelligence and security agencies at the thought that they might have any role in relation to the U.K.'s democratic processes, and particularly one as contentious as the EU referendum.Why Putin Is Meddling in Britain's Brexit Vote"This attitude is illogical; this is about the protection of the process and mechanism from hostile state interference."Stewart Hosie, a committee member from the Scottish National Party, said, "There has been speculation that this report was going to reveal either that Russia had interfered in or sought to influence the referendum. In the committee's view, it's worse than that. The report reveals that no one in government knew if Russia had interfered in or sought to influence the referendum because they did not want to know. The U.K. government has actively avoided looking for evidence that Russia interfered. We were told that they haven't seen any evidence, but that it is meaningless if they hadn't looked for any.""The public was allowed to go into that election without knowing that the government had not sought to investigate whether hostile states had been interfering in U.K. democratic processes and I find that shocking."The Russia report was mostly compiled by the Intelligence and Security Committee in 2017 and it was completed and ready for publication nine months ago. However, the governing Conservative party refused to release it before December's election, prompting widespread speculation that its contents would be damaging to Johnson's party. The government blamed further hold-ups this year on the delayed reconstitution of the committee, which is traditionally chaired by a politician with experience working with the intelligence agencies. "The reasons put up for the delay are simply not true," said Jones.No. 10 tried to install a loyalist as a stooge chairman, but that was defeated this month after a Conservative with an independent streak conspired with opposition lawmakers to take control of the committee. The first thing the new chairman did was to announce that there would be no more delays, and the Russia report would be made public before Parliament entered the summer recess. The report concludes that "until recently, the Government had badly underestimated the Russian threat and the response it required." It does not offer an explanation for why that might have been, but it does have a lengthy section on the growing influence and political donations of Russians in London, who are close to Putin."Several members of the Russian elite who are closely linked to Putin are identified as being involved with charitable and/or political organizations in the U.K., having donated to political parties, with a public profile which positions them to assist Russian influence operations. It is notable that a number of Members of the House of Lords have business interests linked to Russia, or work directly for major Russian companies linked to the Russian state—these relationships should be carefully scrutinized, given the potential for the Russian state to exploit them," the report said.The committee recommends that Britain create a version of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, as it is not currently against the law for Kremlin acolytes to seek to influence British politicians so there is a limit to how much the national-security services are able to intervene."The current legislation enabling action against foreign spies is acknowledged to be weak," the report said. "Crucially, it is not illegal to be a foreign agent in this country."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iran reports record daily toll of 229 coronavirus deaths Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:22 AM PDT  Iran on Tuesday reported a new single-day record death toll of 229 from the novel coronavirus, after weeks of rising numbers in the Middle East's worst-hit country. "Sadly, we lost 229 of our compatriots to the COVID-19 infection in the past 24 hours," health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said. Iran announced its previous record COVID-19 death toll of 221 on July 9.
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| Fear of China driving Hong Kong extradition concerns Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:58 AM PDT  A year ago, an extradition bill in Hong Kong that could have sent criminal suspects to face trial in mainland China sparked the semi-autonomous territory's largest protests and its biggest political crisis since its return to China in 1997. After China cited the sometimes violent demonstrations as justification to impose a sweeping new security law in Hong Kong, the U.K. this week became the fourth country to suspend its extradition treaty with the former British colony, joining the United States, Australia and Canada. As with Hong Kong's withdrawn extradition bill, the concern was the possibility that people could be handed over to mainland Chinese law enforcement and disappear into its opaque and frequently abusive legal system.
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| Coronavirus: How fast is it spreading in Africa? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:34 AM PDT  The World Health Organization has voiced fears that the disease is accelerating in Africa, so what are the key trends?
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| Biden unveils caregiver plan, says Trump 'quit' on country Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Joe Biden offered a massive plan on Tuesday to create 3 million jobs and improve care for children and the elderly as he accused President Donald Trump of having "quit" on the country during a deadly pandemic. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee promised to spend more than three quarters of a trillion dollars — $775 billion over 10 years — to increase tax credits for low-income families, bolster care-giving services for veterans and other seniors and provide preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds. "This is about easing the squeeze on working families" and showing families the "dignity and respect they deserve," he said during a speech in New Castle, Delaware.
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| Iran's president calls Iraqi premier's visit 'turning point' Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:25 AM PDT  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called a visit Tuesday by the new prime minister of Iraq, where the U.S. military has a presence, "a turning point" in the countries' relations and vowed to continue supporting the neighboring Arab nation. Mustafa al-Kadhimi arrived in Tehran on his first official visit abroad since taking office more than two months ago, Iranian media reported. The TV outlet said al-Kadhimi would meet top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Rouhani.
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| Group: Israeli strikes in Syria killed 5 foreign fighters Posted: 21 Jul 2020 01:33 AM PDT |
| Sudan’s ousted ruler back in court for trial over 1989 coup Posted: 21 Jul 2020 01:28 AM PDT  Sudan's ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir was back in court Tuesday, this time facing charges of plotting the 1989 Islamist-backed coup that removed an elected government and brought him to power. Al-Bashir appeared in court wearing a traditional white robe and turban.
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| Report: UK officials 'avoided' looking into Russian meddling Posted: 21 Jul 2020 01:19 AM PDT  A long-awaited report on Russian influence in British politics criticized the British government for neglecting to investigate whether Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum, describing its utter lack of curiosity about the threats to democracy as being a major failure at the heart of power. The parliamentary report's authors accused the British government of "actively avoiding" looking into evidence of the Russian threat to the EU referendum. The authors found this particularly unforgivable given the evidence that emerged of Russian interference in the U.S. elections and in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.
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| U.S. wants to build coalition to counter China's 'disgraceful' menace, Pompeo says Posted: 21 Jul 2020 12:21 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States wants to build a global coalition to counter China as he accused Beijing of exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to further its own interests. U.S. President Donald Trump identifies China as the United States' main rival, and has accused President Xi Jinping of taking advantage over trade and not telling the truth over the novel coronavirus outbreak, which Trump calls the "China plague". Pompeo, on a visit to London, lauded Prime Minister Boris Johnson for ordering a purge of Huawei gear from its 5G mobile phone network, saying it was the right decision as data could have ended up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
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| Contact tracing falters in Barcelona amid virus spike Posted: 21 Jul 2020 12:09 AM PDT  When Sonia Ramírez was told by her local clinic that she had tested positive for the coronavirus, she expected to be asked about anyone she had come in close contact with recently. Instead, like an unknown number of Spaniards in the northeast region of Catalonia, she was left on her own to warn family, friends and co-workers that they could have been exposed amid a new surge of infections. "They didn't ask me who I had been with," said Ramírez, a 21-year-old cleaner in the greater Barcelona area.
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| Chicago restaurateur joins mission to feed America's hungry Posted: 20 Jul 2020 11:59 PM PDT  Before coronavirus arrived, Manish Mallick's trips to this city's South Side had been limited to attending graduate classes at the University of Chicago. Now Mallick is a South Side regular — and a popular one.
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| Macron and Merkel Deliver an $859 Billion Breakthrough Posted: 20 Jul 2020 11:18 PM PDT |
| ACLU and lawyers sue to free ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen Posted: 20 Jul 2020 09:45 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer sued Attorney General William Barr and the Bureau of Prisons director Monday, saying he's being unjustly held behind bars to stop him from finishing a book that criticizes Trump. The lawsuit on behalf of Michael Cohen was filed late Monday in Manhattan federal court, alleging his First Amendment rights were violated when he was returned to the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, on July 9. Cohen's campaign finance charges related to his efforts to arrange payouts during the 2016 presidential race to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal from airing claims of extramarital affairs with Trump.
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| Get my plane! Virus-era EU summit not all smiles and elbow bumps Posted: 20 Jul 2020 09:32 PM PDT  European Union leaders had hoped the relief of seeing each other face-to-face after five months apart under coronavirus lockdown would ease their fraught debate. It did not turn out that way -- despite beginning with cheerful elbow bumps and birthday gifts for 66-year-old Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor and a veteran of Brussels' conference rooms. When the 27 leaders emerged into the dawn light on Belgium's national day on Tuesday to unveil their post-virus recovery plan, they had been locked in a formal summit for four days and nights -- more than 90 hours of horsetrading.
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