Category: z-Exclude

Reports: Defense News correspondent arrested in India

WASHINGTON —Indian authorities have arrested Vivek Raghuvanshi, a defense journalist and longtime correspondent for Defense News, and accused him of espionage, according to reports in the Indian press. Raghuvanshi’s arrest drew a condemnation from Sightline Media Group, the publisher of Defense News and Military Times. “We call for the immediate release of freelance reporter Vivek Raghuvanshi following his arrest in India,” said Mike Gruss, Sightline’s editor-in-chief. “Vivek has written about the Indian defense industry for Sightline publications for more than…

Russia freezes bank accounts of Finland’s diplomatic missions, prompting cash payments

Russia has frozen the bank accounts of Finland’s diplomatic representations in Moscow and St. Petersburg, disrupting money flow and forcing the Nordic country’s missions to resort to cash payments, the Finnish foreign minister said Wednesday. Pekka Haavisto said Moscow’s move at the end of April breached the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Helsinki had delivered a diplomatic note on the matter to Russia. “We’re not alone with the money traffic problem,” Haavisto told reporters during a news conference. “Also,…

Important Things At Twitter Keep Breaking, And Making The Site More Dangerous

  It turns out that if you fire basically all of the competent trust & safety people at your website, you end up with a site that is neither trustworthy, nor safe. We’ve spent months covering ways in which you cannot trust anything from Twitter or Elon Musk, and there have been some indications of real safety problems on the site, but it’s been getting worse lately, with two somewhat terrifying stories that show just how unsafe the site has…

Lebanon’s central bank governor calls French arrest warrant violation of law, vows to appeal

Iran Press TV Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has slammed French prosecutors for issuing an arrest warrant against him, saying he would appeal against the decision. Salameh made the remarks in a statement on Tuesday, after an international arrest warrant was issued earlier in the day following his failure to appear before French prosecutors to be questioned on corruption charges. Salameh denounced as “a violation of law” the arrest warrant, vowing to challenge it by filing an appeal. He…

Biden Cancels PNG, Australia Trips for Talks Over US Debt Ceiling

President Joe Biden canceled his trips to Papua New Guinea and Australia next week to continue debt ceiling talks with congressional leaders that he held Tuesday at the White House. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the president would to return to Washington on Sunday, following the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, “in order to be back for meetings with congressional leaders to ensure that Congress takes action by the deadline to avert…

US Announces Charges Related to Efforts by Russia, China, Iran to Steal Technology

U.S. law enforcement officials on Tuesday announced a series of criminal cases exposing efforts by Russia, China and Iran to steal sensitive U.S. technologies. The five cases, which spanned a wide range of protected U.S. technologies, were brought by a new “strike force” created earlier this year to deter foreign adversaries from obtaining advanced U.S. innovation. “These charges demonstrate the Justice Department’s commitment to preventing sensitive technology from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, including Russia, China, and Iran,”…

Pakistan Faces Backlash Over Plans to Try Civilians in Military Courts

Human rights defenders have sharply criticized Pakistan for announcing plans to use military laws to prosecute those responsible for arson during recent protests sparked by the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. In a statement on Tuesday, Amnesty International described the controversial move as alarming and contrary to international law, and demanded it be struck down immediately. “This is purely an intimidation tactic designed to crack down on dissent by exercising fear of an institution that has never been…

Germany Plans to Send Ukraine Largest Military Assistance Package Worth $3Bln – Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The German government has made a decision to provide Ukraine with additional weapons worth 2.7 billion euros (almost $3 billion), which will become Berlin’s largest military assistance package to Kiev, media reported on Saturday, citing sources. The German Chancellor’s office and other ministries have agreed during secret negotiations to send to Ukraine “additional weapons worth about 2.7 billion euros” in the coming weeks and months, according to the report. Berlin plans to transfer Ukraine 20 Marder infantry…

Canada’s Trudeau wants to be ‘best of friends’ with South Korea

Canada must become the “best of friends” with South Korea, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told lawmakers in Seoul on Wednesday, as the two countries seek to counter China’s growing regional influence. Trudeau is on his first official visit to South Korea, where he will meet President Yoon Suk Yeol. “I’m here to tell you that it’s no longer enough to be friends. We need to be the best of friends,” Trudeau said during a speech to Seoul’s National Assembly. He…

Abortion pill case moves to appeals court, on track for Supreme Court

  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Legal arguments over women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion move to a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday, in a case challenging a Food and Drug Administration decision made more than two decades ago. The closely watched case is likely to wind up at the Supreme Court, which already has intervened to keep the drug, mifepristone, available while the legal fight winds through the courts. Three…

UK sees record number of people off work due to long-term sickness

The number of people in the UK not working because of long-term sickness has risen to a record high partly because of ongoing health problems related to the coronavirus pandemic, official figures showed Tuesday. The Office for National Statistics found that 2.55 million people were not able to work in the three months to March, which is over 6% of the country’s working population. That was up nearly 100,000 on the previous quarter. The agency said the pandemic is likely…

Crypto exchanges exit Canada but Coinbase intends to play the ‘long game’

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, said last week that it would stop servicing Canadian customers due to “new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges.” But while the exchange said it will return to the country “someday,” its exit leaves behind a huge gap that its competitors are aiming to fill. Coinbase is one of the big players in the space planning to do just that.   Coinbase, close behind Binance as the world’s No….

DOJ reveals charges in 5 cases of Russian, Chinese plots to steal technology

The charges describe schemes to steal computer programming or sensitive materials that could benefit militaries of hostile foreign countries. The alleged recipients of the technology were Russia, China and Iran, according to charging documents. WASHINGTON – A Greek national allegedly buying technology for the Russian military and intelligence services. A Chinese citizen allegedly stealing thousands of documents from Apple related to autonomous vehicles. Another Chinese national allegedly scheming to provide Iran with materials used in weapons of mass destruction. These…

Apple blocked 1.7 million apps for privacy, security issues in 2022

Apple’s App Store team prevented more than $2 billion in transactions tagged as potentially fraudulent and blocked almost 1.7 million app submissions for privacy, security, and content policy violations in 2022. As part of its ongoing efforts to fend off account fraud, the company also terminated 428,000 developer accounts for potentially fraudulent activity, deactivated 282 million fraudulent customer accounts, and blocked 105 million developer account creations for suspected fraudulent activities. The App Store team also protected Apple users from hundreds of…

US announces criminal cases involving flow of technology, information to Russia, China and Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department announced a series of criminal cases Tuesday tracing the illegal flow of sensitive technology, including Apple’s software code for self-driving cars and materials used for missiles, to foreign adversaries like Russia, China and Iran. Some of the alleged theft highlighted by the department dates back several years, but U.S. officials are drawing attention to the collection of cases now to highlight the work of a task force created this year to disrupt the transfer…

US charges Apple ex-employee for trying to steal technology, fleeing to China

  WASHINGTON – The US Justice Department said on Tuesday it has charged a former Apple Inc engineer with attempting to steal the firm’s technology related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China. The case was among five announced on Tuesday aimed at countering efforts to illicitly acquire American technology by nations including Russia and China. The actions were the first announced by a “strike force” formed in February in part to keep sensitive technologies away…