BUENOS AIRES: Diego Maradona has lent a hand in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in his hometown by autographing an Argentina national team jersey for a raffle. The sale raised money for an underprivileged area on the outskirts of Buenos Aires affected by quarantine rules....

BRUNSWICK: Many people saw more than the last moments of Ahmaud Arbery’s life when a video emerged this week of white men armed with guns confronting the black man, a struggle with punches thrown, three shots fired and Arbery collapsing dead.The Feb. 23 shooting in coastal Georgia is drawing...

BEIRUT: Usually the kingdom of water tanks and satellite dishes, Lebanon´s rooftops have recently been graced by unlikely scenes of locked-down residents fleeing their flats. Deprived of rehearsal rooms or workshops by restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, or just...

TUNIS: Jet fuel tanks at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport were targeted in an attack on Saturday that caused a large fire, Libya’s National Oil Corp said.Mitiga is the last functioning airport in the Libyan capital, though civilian flights stopped in March because of repeated shelling even...

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minster Pedro Sanchez warned Saturday that the coronavirus pandemic remains a threat, lying in wait as the country moves towards easing its strict lockdown. One of the worst-hit countries, Spain plans a phased transition through to end-June, with around half of the 47 million...

LONDON: Britain could introduce a 14-day mandatory quarantine for international arrivals to stem the spread of coronavirus, an airline association said on Saturday, sparking alarm in an industry already hard hit by the global pandemic.Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, the trade body...

TUNIS: A Tunisian NGO has set up a food bank that dispenses aid by text message to some 300 needy families rendered more vulnerable because of the coronavirus pandemic.The initiative, which had been long in the making, was finally launched at the end of April to coincide with the start of the holy...

LONDON: Britain’s coronavirus lockdown has deepened the nation’s love affair with gardening at the same time as threatening the future of traditional businesses in the sector.Some 83 percent of homes in England have some private outdoor space, according to 2016 government figures,...

Islamabad : Tarnol Police on Friday raided a fake beverage factory in its area and confiscated thousands of empty and filled bottles of various brands, a police spokesman said on Friday.Following directions and guidance of IGP Islamabad Muhammad Aamir Zulfiqar, the police spokesperson said that...

Islamabad : The founder of Islamabad Chamber for Small Traders and former President ICCI Shahid Rasheed Butt on Saturday lauded the decision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to restart the economy revival.The COVID-19 will affect the economy for months, maybe years, but reopening businesses cannot...

Islamabad : Parliamentarians and civil society representatives while participating in a virtual conference urged the government to urgently develop an integrated mechanism engaging different stakeholders and active civil society organizations to reach out to a variety of daily workers and...

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...

Rawalpindi : Once more, a 13-year-old rape victim has been left with no other options but to move mountains in pursuit of seeking justice against the culprits who had ruined her life and are now taking every advantage with illegal support of some police officials in twisting facts and realities in...

KABUL: At least six people were killed when protesters angry over what they saw as unfair food aid distribution during the coronavirus pandemic clashed with police in Afghanistan’s western Ghor province on Saturday, according to officials.

Four civilians and two police officers died in the incident, according to Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.

“A delegation will be sent from Kabul to investigate today’s incident in a comprehensive manner,” he said, adding that 10 police officers and nine civilians were injured.

Gulzaman Nayeb, a lawmaker representing Ghor, said that seven people were killed and more than a dozen wounded during the protest, sparked by growing discontent at the distribution allegedly favouring people with political connections.

Police had opened fire after some among the around 300 protesters threw stones, started to fire guns and tried to enter the governor’s house, said Mohammad Arif Aber, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Ghor. He put the toll at two dead and five wounded. He denied that aid was being unfairly distributed.

War-ravaged nation has reported 4,033 cases of Covid-19 and 115 deaths

Among the dead was Ahmad Naveed Khan, a local volunteer radio presenter who was sitting in his nearby shop and was hit in the head by a bullet, according to Ahmad Quraishi, executive director at the Afghanistan Journalists Centre.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is looking into the “worrying reports of police firing on protesters”, its chairperson Shaharzad Akbar said on Twitter.

Rights group Amnesty International also called for an independent investigation into the use of police force.

The government has been distributing food aid around the country as the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic have led to many job losses and rising food prices. Akbar said this week that the commission was being inundated with complaints from the public that food aid is being distributed unfairly.

“We hear repeated complaints from people that the ones who are receiving the limited aid that is there are not the ones that are most deserving, they are the ones who have connections to local authorities or local officials,” she said, adding it was not possible to verify the extent to which it was happening.

Afghanistan has reported 4,033 cases of the coronavirus and 115 deaths.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2020

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

Palo Alto, CA – Aha by HARMAN™ today announced that the new 2014 Mazda3to be launched in North America and Europethis fall will offer access to Aha's free service withthe ability to select presets from more than 40,000* audio and information stations.

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.

CHICAGO, IL –HARMAN and Hyundai Motor America today announced the 2015 Genesis will offer the Aha Radio service in the North American market. Aha Radio will be a part of the next generation infotainment systems also debuting in the 2015 Genesis. Hyundai Motor America has integrated the Aha Radio service into Genesis to give its U.S. drivers the ability to access over 100,000 music, entertainment and news stations as well as location-based services in an intuitive manner using their connected iPhone.

A major U.S. airline trade group on Saturday said it backed the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checking the temperatures of passengers and customer-facing employees during the coronavirus pandemic.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out a five-tier warning system for the coronavirus in England on Sunday when he outlines the government's plans to begin slowly easing lockdown measures, British media reported.

Vanessa Bryant filed a claim against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, contending deputies shared unauthorized photos of the site where her husband and daughter died in a helicopter crash in January.

As the NBA begins to allow practice facilities to reopen on a team-by-team basis, with state and local rules regarding reopening dictate which teams can welcome players back, one NFL coach wants his league to take a different approach when pro football gets back to work.

Search teams bring in more bodies from the AirAsia crash to a military base in Indonesia. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

Apr. 13 - A team of self-described geeks in Taipei have taken to the streets on a bicycle equipped with a 3D printer which they're using to turn plastic waste into useful products. They call their printer the "Mobile Fab" and say it not only helps promote recycling, but also demonstrates how technology can be applied in a socially responsible way. Tara Cleary reports.

* PM Johnson to detail Britain's next steps on Sunday (Adds comment from transport minister, Balpa, updated death toll)

A major U.S. airline trade group on Saturday said it backed the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checking the temperatures of passengers and customer-facing employees during the coronavirus pandemic.

The skywatching event lasts about a week, with the best views arriving before dawn on Tuesday.

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Making learning fun through gamification is now used for serious outcomes: building a team environment, making employees more engaged, aiding retention, and increasing profits. In […]

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Throughout the coming weeks, we will be releasing several new series on working in workplace post quarantine. These series of courses are separated for employees, […]

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Ryzen CPUs are some of the best on the market, and thanks to Newegg, could be yours for a discounted price.

The moves would clear the way for an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Analysis: It's rare to get a behind-the-scenes look at how federal investigators do their jobs.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign is beefing up its digital staff, just as it had been hit by a series of technical problems at a virtual event on Thursday -- and amid alarm bells from Democratic allies that it is lagging behind the Trump campaign on the digital battlefield.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kevin Love was one of the few players to enter a training facility Friday as the NBA slowly begins its path back to normalcy but the five-time All-Star described his first day back on the court in almost two months as any but normal. 

She thought we wouldn’t notice.

On Thursday, the Professional Beauty Federation of California published a press release to the “Hot Topics” section of their website. It was titled: “Time to Sue Governor Newsom.” 

The release came in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement that the following morning, California would officially enter “Phase Two” of the “Safer at Home” order. Select businesses, from florists to clothing retailers to toy stores, would be able to resume operations in a limited capacity. But absent from the list of acceptable businesses: beauty salons. Newsom placed businesses like nail salons and barbershops in “Phase Three”—a stage he believes to be “months, not weeks” away. 

“This whole thing spread in the state of California—the first community spread—was in a nail salon,” Newsom said in a press conference last week, without providing details about the date or location of the case. “Many of the practices that you would otherwise expect of a modification were already in play in many of these salons, with people that had procedure masks on, were using gloves, and were advancing higher levels of sanitation.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Appearing in an Instagram live chat with soccer star Megan Rapinoe on April 30, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden made a spontaneous, vague statement about how he’s been “speaking to a lot of Republicans,” including “former colleagues, who are calling and saying Joe, if you win, we’re gonna help.”

Then he showed his hand: “Matter of fact, there’s some major Republicans who are already forming ‘Republicans for Biden,’” the former vice president said. “Major officeholders.”

The comment hardly received any attention at the time. But in declaring it, Biden ended up tipping off the earliest stages of a brewing effort that’s starting to get underway in certain Republican circles behind-the-scenes. 

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald McGahn, like all White House counsels who have served before him, has a broad portfolio but one fundamental charge: to keep his boss, the president of the United States, out of trouble. To say McGahn hasn't fared well in this department is an understatement. President Donald Trump and his administration have been besieged by scandal from the outset. And lawyers who worked in past administrations, Democratic and Republican, have questioned whether McGahn has the judgment or the clout with his client to do the job.

Four months in, despite having yet to confront a crisis not of its own making, the Trump administration faces a growing list of controversies, legal and otherwise. The FBI is reportedly investigating retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, who for 22 days served as Trump's national security adviser, for his lobbying on behalf of Turkish interests and for his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office. There are two congressional probes examining Flynn's actions and two more looking at whether anyone connected with the Trump campaign interacted with Vladimir Putin's regime when it was interfering with the 2016 presidential race. And the Justice Department recently appointed a special counsel to oversee the FBI's probe into Moscow's meddling and the Trump-Russia connections. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a close adviser; former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort; and Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, face FBI or congressional scrutiny.

All presidents, Democratic and Republican, experience their share of scandals. But the pace and magnitude of the controversies engulfing the Trump White House are on a different level and pace. (Recall that Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre—when he fired the special prosecutor investigating Watergate—didn't happen until nearly five years into his presidency.) And each leak and drip of new information raises more questions about McGahn, the man whose job is to steer Trump clear of potential land mines before they explode into breaking-news bombshells.

An election lawyer who served five contentious years on the Federal Election Commission, McGahn first met Trump in late 2014 and was one of the mogul's first hires when he launched his presidential run. He endeared himself to Trump by fending off an effort to remove Trump from the New Hampshire primary ballot and coordinated the campaign's well-timed release of a list of potential Supreme Court nominees, a move that helped to attract ambivalent evangelical and conservative voters.

Shortly after winning the presidency, Trump rewarded McGahn's loyalty by picking him to be White House counsel.

About six weeks later, on January 4, according to the New York Times, McGahn spoke with Michael Flynn, the retired general whom Trump had selected as his national security adviser a week before he hired McGahn, about a sensitive matter. In August 2016, Flynn's consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, had signed a $600,000 contract to lobby on behalf of Turkish interests; Flynn's client was a Dutch company run by a Turkish businessman who is an ally of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At the time, however, Flynn did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires lobbyists and advocates working for foreign governments to disclose their work.

Now, with Trump's inauguration almost two weeks away, Flynn reportedly told McGahn that he was under federal investigation for failing to disclose his lobbying on behalf of foreign interests.

What McGahn did with this information is unclear—but it's nonetheless revealing to former White House lawyers that Flynn went on to receive a top White House post, arguably the most sensitive job in the White House. (McGahn, through a White House spokesperson, declined to comment for this story.) Alums of the counsel's office in previous White Houses say it was unimaginable to hire a national security adviser who faced legal questions regarding foreign lobbying, let alone one who was under federal investigation. "In the White House counsel's office I was working in, the idea that somebody was under investigation was a big red flag and it would be doubtful that we would go forward with that person," says Bill Marshall, a former deputy counsel in the Clinton White House. "That's not even saying it strong enough."

Flynn remained on the job and, during the transition, reportedly told the outgoing Obama administration that it should delay a joint American-Kurdish military strike on an ISIS facility in the Syrian city of Raqqa—a move that conformed with the desires of the Turkish government.

In a short ceremony at the White House on January 22, Flynn was sworn in as national security adviser and McGahn as chief counsel. Four days later, Sally Yates, the acting US attorney general, and a senior official in the Justice Department's national-security division met with McGahn at the White House. Yates informed McGahn of a troubling development: the US had credible information to suggest that Flynn had not told the truth when he denied that he had discussed sanctions during conversations with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States. Yates added that Flynn had been interviewed by the FBI.

Flynn had lied. What's more, his mention of sanctions was potentially illegal under an obscure law known as the Logan Act. (Since the law's creation in 1799, not one person has been convicted under the Logan Act.) Yates warned McGahn that the discrepancy between Flynn's public statements and what he said to the Russian ambassador left him vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians.

"If Sally Yates had come to me with that information, I would've run down the hall like my hair was on fire," Rob Weiner, another former counsel in the Clinton White House, told me. Because the messenger in this case was a holdover from the Obama administration, Weiner added, the Trump White House "might not have had a lot of trust in Yates at that point. Even so, that should've been something to cause alarm bells to go off." Jack Goldsmith, a former senior Justice Department lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, echoed Weiner's observation. Writing at the website Lawfare, Goldsmith weighed in: "Especially coming against the background of knowing (and apparently doing nothing) about Flynn's failure to report his foreign agent work, the information Yates conveyed should have set off loud alarm bells."

Flynn, with two federal investigations hanging over his head, remained on the job for another 18 days. He joined Trump in the Oval Office for calls with foreign dignitaries, including the leaders of Australia and Russia. He presumably sat in on daily intelligence briefings and had unfettered access to classified information. It was only after the Washington Post on February 13 reported on Yates' warning to McGahn about Flynn's susceptibility to blackmail that Trump fired Flynn.

The question looming over the entire debacle was this: How had Flynn been allowed to stay on the job? At the media briefing on the day after Flynn's dismissal, Sean Spicer, the press secretary, addressed McGahn's role in the Flynn controversy. McGahn had conducted his own review after meeting with Yates, Spicer explained, and "determined that there is not a legal issue, but rather a trust issue."

It was a mystifying answer, especially given the facts that later emerged: Flynn was allegedly the target of active investigations. "It is very hard to understand how McGahn could have reached these conclusions," wrote Goldsmith, the former Bush administration lawyer. McGahn, Goldsmith noted, could not know all the details of the investigations targeting Flynn. (Indeed, Yates later testified that McGahn appeared to have not known that the FBI had interviewed Flynn about his calls with the Russian ambassador.) "Just as important, the final word on the legality of Flynn's actions was not McGahn's to make," Goldsmith went on. "That call in the first instance lies with the FBI and especially the attorney general."

The steady stream of revelations about the Trump White House and its various legal dramas has only cast a harsher light on McGahn and the counsel's office. After the Post reported that White House officials had pressured the director of national intelligence and the National Security Agency chief to downplay the FBI's Russia investigation, Goldsmith tweeted, "Asking again: Is WH Counsel 1) incompetent or 2) ineffective because client's crazy and he lacks access/influence?"

Lawyers who have represented Democrats and Republicans agree that Trump is about as difficult a client as they can imagine. "One gets the sense that Mr. Trump has people talking to him, but he doesn't either take their advice, ask for their advice, or follow their advice," says Karen Hult, a Virginia Tech political-science professor who has studied the White House counsel's office. C. Boyden Gray, the White House counsel for President George H.W. Bush, said few, if any, presidents have had more financial and ethical entanglements than Trump. "I didn't have anywhere near the complexities that Don McGahn had," he told me earlier this year. Bob Bauer, a former counsel in the Obama White House, recently questioned whether any lawyer could rein in Trump: "Is the White House counsel up to the job of representing this president? We may find out nobody is." There is some indication that Trump does trust McGahn. When Trump wanted to release statements of support for Flynn and Kushner after the naming of a special counsel to oversee the Trump-Russia investigation, it was reportedly McGahn who convinced Trump not to do so.

But part of the job, former lawyers in the counsel's office say, is giving the president unwelcome advice and insisting that advice be followed. "It's always very hard to say no to the president and not do what the president of the United States wants," says Bill Marshall, the former Clinton White House lawyer. "But the long-term interests of the president of the United States can often be not doing something he might want to do, and if you do, it can come back and hit you from a direction that you never anticipated."

It seems clear now why the Trump administration fought so hard to avoid making public the details of the waivers it granted to White House staffers who might otherwise have been in violation of the president's self-imposed ethics rules. They show that President Donald Trump, who made "drain the swamp" a campaign battle cry, has enlisted numerous swamp-dwellers—former lobbyists, consultants, corporate executives—to staff key positions in his White House and has granted them broad exemptions to work on issues directly related to their former jobs and clients.

After repeatedly slamming DC lobbyists during the campaign, Trump used one of his first executive orders to lay out ethics rules for his new administration. The January 28 order barred Trump officials from working on issues related to their former employers for at least two years, and these rules applied not only to lobbyists, but to anyone who worked for a business or organization potentially affected by federal policy decisions. The prohibitions were not absolute: Waivers would be available in certain cases.

The Trump administration initially balked when the Office of Government Ethics demanded the White House hand over the waivers it had granted. But after a standoff the administration relented late Wednesday and released about 14 waivers covering White House staffers. They make clear that Trump's ethics rules are remarkably flexible and that his top staffers don't need to worry too much about staying on the right side of them. On paper, Trump's rules are similar to those imposed by President Barack Obama, but it appears that Trump is far more willing to hand out exemptions. At this point in the Obama administration, just three White House staffers had been granted ethics waivers. So far, Trump has granted 14, including several that apply to multiple people.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and adviser Kellyanne Conway were both granted waivers to deal with issues involving their previous employers. In the case of Priebus, this narrowly applies to the Republican National Committee. But Conway is now free to work on issues involving her ex-clients from her previous life as an operative and pollster—clients that included political campaigns, nonprofit activist groups, and corporations.

Conway's relationships with these clients were murky to begin with; she was never required to disclose who she worked for. We do know that she repped virulently anti-immigration and anti-Muslim groups. The names of some of her corporate clients also have trickled out, including Major League Baseball, Hasbro, American Express, and Boeing. The waiver may have been granted to help smooth the way for Conway after evidence emerged that she continued to operate own her polling and consulting company even after she'd gone to work in the White House—a possible violation of conflict-of-interest laws that drew the attention of congressional Democrats who have begun probing her relationship with the company.

Conway's waiver was not retroactive, but there is another that specifically allows White House employees to communicate freely with former employers and coworkers at media organizations—and applies back to January 20. Trump's executive order didn't simply prohibit any of his hires from working on matters relating to a former employer—it specifically covered "any meeting or communication relating to the performance of one's official duties." This means at least two of Trump's top aides, former Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon and his assistant Julia Hahn, would be prohibited from chatting with their former colleagues at Breitbart about anything work-related—a rule that Bannon appears not to have followed. While not named, it seems likely that protecting the Breitbart alums from ethics complaints was the aim.

Another takeaway from Trump's waivers is that they appear to be far less restrictive than Obama administration waivers. Many Obama waivers (there were only 10 total granted to White House employees during his administration) were very narrowly tailored. For example, James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, was granted a waiver to allow him to introduce Bill Clinton at an event for the Atlantic Council, even though Jones had previously worked for the group. John Brennan, at the time one of Obama's deputy national security advisers, had previously worked for The Analysis Company, and he was granted a waiver to use the company's data while investigating the so-called "Underwear Bomber" incident. Brennan was not cleared to talk to any of the company's employees, however.

Trump's waivers, on the other hand, are broad.

For instance, Trump granted a waiver to Michael Catanzaro, who is the president's most senior energy policy aide, allowing him to work freely on "broad policy matters and particular matters of general applicability relating to the Clean Power Plan, the WOTUS [Waters of the United States] rule, and methane regulations." Catanzaro worked as a registered lobbyist for several oil and gas companies as recently as January, which made the waiver necessary. On his most recent lobbying disclosure form—filed on behalf of one of his clients, natural gas company Noble Energy—Catanzaro wrote that he was working on "EPA and BLM's proposed and final regulations covering methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas facilities." Nearly identical language appears in his most recent lobbying disclosure on behalf of another natural gas company, Encana. In other words, Catanzaro is now making policy on the very issues he was paid by corporations to lobby on. There are no restrictions in Catanzaro's waiver relating to his previous clients.

Another lobbyist turned Trump aide is Shahira Knight, who was previously employed as vice president of public policy for mutual fund giant Fidelity and now serves as Trump's special assistant for tax and retirement policy. Her waiver grants her permission to work on "matters of general applicability relating to tax, retirement and financial services issues." Fidelity's most recent lobbying report—filed while Knight ran its lobbying shop—lists the main issue areas targeted by the company's lobbyists: finance, retirement, banking, and taxes.

While the Obama administration reluctantly granted waivers for narrow sets of circumstances, the Trump waivers appear to be written to carefully exempt the previous lobbying work done by White House aides.

And this is just the beginning. The administration released only the waivers granted to White House employees—the release does not include waivers granted to administration officials who work for federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency or the Treasury Department. The White House will turn those waivers over to the Office of Government Ethics on Thursday, but it's not clear when they will be made public.

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.

टेलीकॉम कंपनी एयरटेल (Airtel) ने उपभोक्ताओं के लिए खास प्लान की सीरीज बाजार में उतारी है, जिसका नाम 'फैमिली पोस्टपेड प्लान' है। यूजर्स को इस प्लान में अनलिमिटेड कॉलिंग के साथ पर्याप्त डाटा और प्रीमियम एप्स की सब्सक्रिप्शन मुफ्त में मिलेगी।

There were nine new cases and one death related to COVID-19 reported Saturday by the Windsor Essex County Health Unit. The health unit update said a female in her 90s died Friday. She was a resident of a long-term care facility. As of Saturday, there have been 694 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 263 cases are […]

Hyundai कंपनी अपनी नई जनरेशन कार Tucson SUV को बाजार में उतारने की तैयारी कर रही है। कंपनी इसे घरेलू बाजार में अगस्त 2020 में लॉन्च करने की योजना बना रही है। इस कार को ऑटो एक्सपो 2020 में भी प्रदर्शित किया गया था।