Fishermen in northeast Thailand say they have seen catches in the Mekong River plunge, while some farmers in Vietnam and Cambodia are leaving for jobs in cities as harvests of rice and other crops shrink.The common thread driving these events is erratic water levels in Asia’s third longest waterway.Water flows along the 4,300km (2,700 mile) Mekong shift naturally between monsoon and dry seasons, but non-governmental groups say the 11 hydroelectric dams on China’s portion of the river – five of…

EMS said the man died at the scene.

Alberta Health Services has ordered two Calgary businesses to close for violating provincial COVID-19 regulations.

The outbreak came just as the country has eased some social distancing restrictions and is seeking to fully reopen schools and businesses.

Proposal to Congress makes a financial argument for closing the controversial detention center

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SUKKUR: A three-year old girl Humera Baig d/o Arif Baig, resident of Tharo Khan Leghari of Sinjhoro in district Sanghar died due to Covid-19 at National Institute of Child Health, Karachi.According...

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PESHAWAR: Confusion prevailed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over cancellation of the board examinations and extension of school closure until July 15 as no decision could be taken at the provincial level...

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QUETTA: A terrorist group claimed responsibility Saturday for targeting a security convoy with a roadside bomb that martyred six soldiers, including an army major, in the country’s southwest....

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The Anti-Vehicle Lifting Cell on Saturday arrested three suspects allegedly involved in various cases of motorcycle theft in parts of Karachi.According to a spokesperson for the AVLC, the suspects were arrested during a series of raids in the Bin Qasim, Malir and Gulshan-e-Iqbal areas. Officials...

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AHMEDABAD, India: Indian security forces clashed with angry residents who flouted a pandemic lockdown in the city of Ahmedabad on Friday as the country saw a surge in coronavirus deaths and cases that is predicted to worsen. While authorities have insisted that the crisis is under control in the...

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Rawalpindi : Unruly scenes were witnessed when the shopkeepers of the city and cantonment board areas opened their shops on Saturday but were forced to close down by the local administration and police. The shopkeepers started a protest demonstration and raised full throated slogans against local...

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Rawalpindi : Another two patients died of coronavirus illness, COVID-19 in town in last 24 hours taking total number of deaths so far caused by the disease to 46 in the district while four have already lost their lives due to the illness in the federal capital.Data collected by ‘The...

NEW DELHI: Nepal has protested to India over a border road, which it claims traverses its territory, a charge New Delhi has denied, The Wire news portal said on Saturday. It said the protest also flowed from a new map of the region India drew after the bifurcation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories in December last year.

“Rumblings in Nepal about the boundary with India have now resulted in a full-scale eruption since India inaugurated a new road in Uttarakhand which leads to territory that is claimed by Kathmandu, near the border with China,” The Wire said.

On Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated by videoconference the road between Dharchula and Lipu Lekh, which will reduce the length of the Hindu pilgrimage of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra inside China by several days.

Nepalese opposition leaders immediately raised the pitch, asking for the government to clear its public stance. A day later, Nepal’s foreign ministry expressed “regret” at India’s “unilateral act” and called upon India to refrain from carrying out any activity on Nepalese territory, portal said.

A new map of the region drawn by India after the bifurcation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir also behind the controversy

In a lengthy statement, Nepal’s foreign ministry reminded that Nepal claims all territories east of Mahakali river, “including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipu Lekh” as per the 1816 Sugauli Treaty”.

“This was reiterated by the Government of Nepal several times in the past and most recently through a diplomatic note addressed to the Government of India dated 20 November 2019 in response to the new political map issued by the latter,” the statement said.

“The context of the last diplomatic note is that months ago, India had issued a new political map to show the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two new Union Territories. In it, it depicted Kalapani as part of Indian territory, which led to a strong objection from Nepal,” The Wire said.

It further pointed out that when India and China had agreed to include Lipu Lekh pass as a bilateral trade route in a May 2015 joint statement, Nepal had issued separate diplomatic protest notes to the two Asian giants for not obtaining Kathmandu’s consent.

On the latest move, Nepal stated: “This unilateral act runs against the understanding reached between the two countries including at the level of prime ministers that a solution to boundary issues would be sought through negotiation.”

Stating that Nepal sought a diplomatic solution in the spirit of friendly relations, its foreign ministry asserted: “In light of this development, the Government of Nepal calls upon the Government of India to refrain from carrying out any activity inside the territory of Nepal.”

The Kathmandu Post had reported that Nepalese Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi spoke to Indian Ambassador Vinay Kwatra on Friday.

The statement issued in Kathmandu also reiterated that Nepal had twice proposed dates for holding meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two sides after the Kalapani controversy gathered momentum last year.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali had told visiting Indian journalists in February that if India could solve longstanding and complex boundary disputes with Bangladesh, then it should be able to do so with Nepal. He had also highlighted that India had still not given a concrete response for a meeting of the two foreign secretaries.

On Friday evening, India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded that the road section “lies entirely within the territory of India”. “Under the present project, the same road has been made pliable for the ease and convenience of pilgrims, locals and traders,” The Wire quoted MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava as saying.

He added that both countries had an established mechanism on boundary matters and that the delineation of the boundary was still an “ongoing process”. “India is committed to resolving outstanding boundary issues through diplomatic dialogue and in the spirit of our close and friendly bilateral relations with Nepal,” said Srivastava.

On the demand for a meeting of foreign secretaries, he said that the meeting would be held “once the dates are finalised between the two sides after the two societies and governments have successfully dealt with the challenge of Covid-19 emergency”.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2020

CES 2014, LAS VEGAS – HARMAN, the premium global audio and infotainment group (NYSE:HAR), unveiled two new services for the automotive market that leverage the Aha by HARMAN Cloud Platform and HARMAN’s infotainment system design leadership to ensure safe, personalized and connected driving experiences throughout the life of the vehicle. Extending beyond the popular Aha Radio interactive content service, the new Aha Updates and Aha Analytics services take HARMAN’s expertise and investments in cloud infrastructure into new directions.

Tesla Inc sued local authorities in California on Saturday as the electric carmaker pushed to re-open its factory there and Chief Executive Elon Musk threatened to move Tesla's headquarters and future programs from the state to Texas or Nevada.

Transport Minister Grant Shapps said at the government's daily news briefing on Saturday that more Britons should cycle or walk to work when the country's coronavirus lockdown is eased to take the pressure off limited public transport capacity under social distancing requirements.

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One attendee joked that, because she was coughing, she probably had the virus, a city of Pasadena spokeswoman said.

Just this week, the Justice Department got behind a rural Virginia church's claim that the state improperly discriminated against it by limiting its gatherings.

"I'm so honored to be your validictator," he says.

Last week, the Icelandic government rolled out several new environmental policies and proposals addressing climate change as part of the country's second COVID-19 economic stimulus package.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has warned two tribal leaders she will take “necessary” legal action if the tribes don’t remove coronavirus checkpoints on their reservations.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has warned two tribal leaders she will take “necessary” legal action if the tribes don’t remove coronavirus checkpoints on their reservations.

This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here. 

This week: 

Adele shocked the world when she posted a photo on her birthday thanking fans for their nice messages and also taking the opportunity to honor front-line workers. In the photo, she had lost a significant amount of weight, and looked great. As if it was going to be left at that.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

By Ned Parker and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, seven current and former U.S. officials told Reuters.

    Those contacts included two phone calls between April and November last year, two of the sources said. By early this year, Kushner had become a focus of the FBI investigation into whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, said two other sources - one current and one former law enforcement official.

Kushner initially had come to the attention of FBI investigators last year as they began scrutinizing former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s connections with Russian officials, the two sources said.

    While the FBI is investigating Kushner’s contacts with Russia, he is not currently a target of that investigation, the current law enforcement official said.

The new information about the two calls as well as other details uncovered by Reuters shed light on when and why Kushner first attracted FBI attention and show that his contacts with Russian envoy Sergei Kislyak were more extensive than the White House has acknowledged.

    NBC News reported on Thursday that Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI, in the first sign that the investigation, which began last July, has reached the president’s inner circle.  

    The FBI declined to comment, while the Russian embassy said it was policy not to comment on individual diplomatic contacts. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Multiple attempts to obtain comment from Kushner or his representatives were unsuccessful.

In March, the White House said that Kushner and Flynn had met Kislyak at Trump Tower in December to establish “a line of communication.” Kislyak also attended a Trump campaign speech in Washington in April 2016 that Kushner attended. The White House did not acknowledge any other contacts between Kushner and Russian officials.

BACK CHANNEL

Before the election, Kislyak’s undisclosed discussions with Kushner and Flynn focused on fighting terrorism and improving U.S.-Russian economic relations, six of the sources said. Former President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia after it seized Crimea and started supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

After the Nov. 8 election, Kushner and Flynn also discussed with Kislyak the idea of creating a back channel between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could have bypassed diplomats and intelligence agencies, two of the sources said. Reuters was unable to determine how those discussions were conducted or exactly when they took place.

Reuters was first to report last week that a proposal for a back channel was discussed between Flynn and Kislyak as Trump prepared to take office. The Washington Post was first to report on Friday that Kushner participated in that conversation.

Separately, there were at least 18 undisclosed calls and emails between Trump associates and Kremlin-linked people in the seven months before the Nov. 8 presidential election, including six calls with Kislyak, sources told Reuters earlier this month. . Two people familiar with those 18 contacts said Flynn and Kushner were among the Trump associates who spoke to the ambassador by telephone. Reuters previously reported only Flynn’s involvement in those discussions.

Six of the sources said there were multiple contacts between Kushner and Kislyak but declined to give details beyond the two phone calls between April and November and the post-election conversation about setting up a back channel. It is also not clear whether Kushner engaged with Kislyak on his own or with other Trump aides.

HOW KUSHNER CAME UNDER SCRUTINY

    FBI scrutiny of Kushner began when intelligence reports of Flynn’s contacts with Russians included mentions of U.S. citizens, whose names were redacted because of U.S. privacy laws. This prompted investigators to ask U.S. intelligence agencies to reveal the names of the Americans, the current U.S. law enforcement official said.

Kushner’s was one of the names that was revealed, the official said, prompting a closer look at the president’s son-in-law’s dealings with Kislyak and other Russians.

    FBI investigators are examining whether Russians suggested to Kushner or other Trump aides that relaxing economic sanctions would allow Russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to Trump, said the current U.S. law enforcement official.

    The head of Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank, Sergei Nikolaevich Gorkov, a trained intelligence officer whom Putin appointed, met Kushner at Trump Tower in December. The bank is under U.S. sanctions and was implicated in a 2015 espionage case in which one of its New York executives pleaded guilty to spying and was jailed.

The bank said in a statement in March that it had met with Kushner along with other representatives of U.S. banks and business as part of preparing a new corporate strategy.

    Officials familiar with intelligence on contacts between the Russians and Trump advisers said that so far they have not seen evidence of any wrongdoing or collusion between the Trump camp and the Kremlin.  Moreover, they said, nothing found so far indicates that Trump authorized, or was even aware of, the contacts.

    There may not have been anything improper about the contacts, the current law enforcement official stressed.

    Kushner offered in March to be interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also investigating Russia’s attempts to interfere in last year’s election.

The contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials during the presidential campaign coincided with what U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was a Kremlin effort through computer hacking, fake news and propaganda to boost Trump’s chances of winning the White House and damage his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

 (Reporting by Ned Parker and Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by John Walcott, Warren Strobel and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Ross Colvin)

Hillary Clinton appeared at Recode Wednesday in conversation with founders Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, and to steal a headline from myself, she is out of fucks.

It was fascinating to watch. She didn't hold back. You can watch the full thing below or continue on for some highlights.

Here are some good bits, courtesy of the recode live blog:

On emails!!!

"The over riding issue that affected the election that I had any control over — because I had no control over the Russians. Too bad about that — was the use of my emails. The way that it was used was very damaging. The New York times covered it like Pearl harbor.

On Goldman Sachs speeches

"I have to say, Walt I never thought someone would throw out my entire career...because I made a couple of speeches…Men got paid for the speeches they made...I got paid for the speeches I made…I take responsibility for every decision I made, but that's not why I lost”

On the vast right-wing conspiracy
"What is hard for people to accept, although now after the election there's greater understanding, is that there are forces in our country...who have been fighting rear guard actions for as long as I've been alive…We were on a real roll as a country despite assassinations, despite setbacks, expanding rights to people who never had them in any country was frankly thrilling. I believe then as I believe now that we're never done with this work. Part of the challenge is to maintain the focus and energy to move forward but you have to understand the other side is never tired either."

On fake news
"Fake news...lies that's a good word too...The other side was using content that was just flat out false and delivering it in a very personalized way. Above the radar screen and below."

On the DNC

"I inherit nothing from the Democratic party. It was bankrupt. It was on the verge of insolvency. I had to inject money into the [DNC] for it to keep going."

On the RNC

"They raised...best estimates are close to $100 million...to build this data foundation. They beta tested it. They ran [hundreds of thousands of surveys]. Trump becomes the nominee and is [given] this tried and true...platform."

On Russia collusion
"I think it's fair to ask how did that actually influence the campaign and how did they know what messages to deliver. Who told them? Who were they coordinating with or colluding with?…The Russians in my opinion could not have known how best to weaponize that information unless they had been guided by Americans."

"Within one hour of the Access Hollywood tapes being leaked, the Russians or say Wikileaks—same thing—dumped the John Podesta emails. They were run of the mill emails. "Stuff that were so common. Within one hour they dumped them and then began to weaponize them. They had their allies like Infowars say the most outlandish, absurd lies you could imagine. They had to be ready for that."

On Putin

"It's important that Americans...understand that Putin wants to bring us down. He was an old KGB agent."

On Obama

"Barack Obama saved the economy and he doesn't get the credit he deserves, I have to say that [because people don't know that.]" Clinton re: democrats not investing in creating content.

This post is being updated.

On Monday, the Intercept published a classified internal NSA document noting that Russian military intelligence mounted an operation to hack at least one US voting software supplier—which provided software related to voter registration files—in the months prior to last year's presidential contest. It has previously been reported that Russia attempted to hack into voter registration systems, but this NSA document provides details of how one such operation occurred.

According to the Intercept:

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the US election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed US government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.

While the document provides a rare window into the NSA's understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying "raw" intelligence on which the analysis is based. A US intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.

The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into US voting systems than was previously understood. It states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document:

Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.

Go read the whole thing.

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He's able to hide so many flaws that make his clients self-conscious.