February, 2020

Newly declassified FBI memos directly conflict with court filings that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team made in asking a federal judge to send former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos to prison, further calling into question the government’s conduct in investigating the now-debunked “Russia collusion” narrative...

The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2020

In a book out tomorrow, the woman who led the negotiations for the Paris Agreement calls for civil disobedience to force institutions to respond to the climate crisis.

Comments

A Pew Research Center survey released February 20 found 56 percent of Indian adults are confident of Trump's decisions on the world stage and in conducting foreign diplomacy. Trump's newfound popularity among a majority of Indians is the product of three years of skyrocketing approval. After taking office in 2016, Trump only had the confidence of 14 percent of Indian adults, according to Pew. In 2017, that number rose to 40 percent.

The girl, Bailey Nielsen, was accompanied by her grandfather, Charles Nielsen, who spoke to a House panel at the Idaho Statehouse in support of legislation that would allow visitors to Idaho who can legally possess firearms – but not necessarily do – to carry a concealed handgun in urban areas.

The new principles call for people to "exercise appropriate levels of judgment and care" when deploying and using AI systems, such as those that scan aerial imagery to look for targets. They also say decisions made by automated systems should be “traceable" and subject to testing.

Kash Patel, POTUS’s senior director for counterterrorism at NSC, traveled to India with POTUS and gave a speech with his parents in the crowd watching him. On his birthday. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/GmoAY0hqW7

— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) February 24, 2020

Eyewitnesses told investigators the motorist, who has been arrested, appeared to deliberately drive into the crowd, a police spokesman told NBC News. Between 20 and 30 people were injured, some of them severely, the spokesman said.

The court upheld the Trump administration’s June 2019 declaration that taxpayer-funded clinics must stop referring women for abortions or be stripped of their Title X funding.

President Trump has called for an investigation into a possible leak of classified intelligence unveiled during the briefing on election interference, accusing Schiff of leaking the information...

The New York Times, citing people familiar with the FBI’s Russia probe, identified Stephen A. Somma, a counterintelligence investigator who works out of the bureau’s New York field office, as “Case Agent 1” from the inspector general’s (IG) report... Somma was involved in multiple aspects of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.

FBI agent Stephen A. Somma was one of 17 officials Lindsey Graham asked Barr to make available for a transcribed interview for his review of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation and FISA orders.

Campaign offices in Chicago, Ohio and Michigan have been spray-painted with messages such as “racist oligarch fuck Bloomberg,” “corporate pig” and “eat the rich” over the past two weeks, NBC News reported. Bloomberg campaign office in Salt Lake City also had its windows smashed Friday night. Multiple rocks were found inside the office the next morning, the campaign said.

A group of seven measures to restrict gun rights in Virginia was advanced by a state Senate committee on Monday. The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee voted to pass legislation ranging from a measure that would provide for expanded background checks on any gun sales or purchases to one that would create an order allowing for the temporary removal of guns from a legal owner if a court determines that the person poses a threat of harm to themselves or others.

If hackers were to take control of these satellites, the consequences could be dire. On the mundane end of scale, hackers could simply shut satellites down, denying access to their services. Hackers could also jam or spoof the signals from satellites, creating havoc for critical infrastructure. This includes electric grids, water networks and transportation systems.
[...]
Makers of these satellites, particularly small CubeSats, use off-the-shelf technology to keep costs low. The wide availability of these components means hackers can analyze them for vulnerabilities. In addition, many of the components draw on open-source technology. The danger here is that hackers could insert back doors and other vulnerabilities into satellites’ software...

The report from national police forces of 10 EU member states, led by Austria, called for new EU legislation that would enable this interconnected database to be created “as quickly as possible.” The document was circulated among officials last November. The Intercept reports that preparatory work on the legislation is already underway.

The TSA’s announcement to ban employees from using TikTok came shortly after Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) penned a letter to its administrator, David Pekoske, requesting that the agency halt its use.

Lynch, who ran the Justice Department in the Obama administration for two years, will " lead an independent, expedited review of our Department of Public Safety (DPS)," Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud said...