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UPDATE 5-Tesla sues California county in virus factory closure fight, threatens to leave

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.




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Apex Legends Mobile Release Date News: iOS, Android soft launch set for 2020?

Apex Legends might finally be getting a mobile version, at least that's what EA's latest financial briefing seems to suggest




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Injustice 3 release date rumours: PS5 launch, Neo, Watchmen content and more

A WB Games leak that has so far proved accurate suggests Injustice 3 will introduce even more extended universe characters




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Aquarium asks public to FaceTime shy eels under lockdown

"It seems like the spotted garden eels are getting used to a non-human environment and have forgotten about people."




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NASA's big SpaceX launch is just weeks away — and it's taking no chances with the coronavirus

NASA is asking people to refrain from traveling to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to witness the historic launch May 27.




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What To Consider Before Schools And Universities Conduct Classes Online

Most schools, if not all, are in a race to force-fit their existing programs into a virtual space and deliver it to their students. But […]

The post What To Consider Before Schools And Universities Conduct Classes Online appeared first on e-Learning Feeds.




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5 Ways To Score Leads For Success By Targeting The eLearning Community

Lead scoring might remind you a bit of the “pursuit of happiness.” They are both hard to achieve. However, they are important for your well-being, […]

The post 5 Ways To Score Leads For Success By Targeting The eLearning Community appeared first on e-Learning Feeds.





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Hollywood Punks and Hippie Scientists: New VOD Movies to Stream This Weekend

How are musical Valley Girl remake, Clark Duke's Arkansas, and Spaceship Earth? Here are our reviews.




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Brutal murder of woman found in burned out car still a mystery 28 years later

Natasha Atchley, 19, was found dead in the trunk of her burned out Chevy Camaro hatchback on May 3, 1992, in Shephard, Texas, about a mile down a rural dirt road from a party she attended the night before. The Texas Ranger Unsolved Crimes Investigation Team is investigating.




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Tesla sues California county over plant shutdown

Alameda County ordered the facility closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus and said it was working with Elon Musk's electric car company to resolve the issue.




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Pink: Battling COVID-19 with my son was terrifying. But my experience isn't unique.

I know you would do anything to protect your own child, so let’s make sure every mama has the same opportunity and resources to protect theirs.




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Defense lawyers rail about unfair prosecutions. Flynn's case shows why.

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




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US spars with China over pro-WHO language in UN Security Council ceasefire resolution

A Chinese push to include support for the World Health Organization in a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a global ceasefire is  putting the entire text in limbo – after strong U.S. opposition to the Beijing effort. 




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Obama White House may have seen 'opportunity to disrupt' Flynn, ex-FBI official says

It would be "abominable" if the Obama White House was behind the FBI's controversial interview of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a former assistant director of intelligence for the bureau said Friday night.



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NCAA president says no fall sports unless campuses are open to all students: 'It’s really that simple'

The NCAA has made it clear that unless college campuses are open to the entire student body in the fall, there are no plans to risk the health of student-athletes for the sake of sports. 




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NHL possibly holding early draft leaves mixed feelings around hockey world

The NFL's successful virtual draft and uncertainty surrounding the resumption of hockey this season have raised the possibility of an NHL draft held before the Stanley Cup Final.




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Dan Harmon Sort of Maybe Confirmed That a Community Movie Is in the Works

“Conversations are happening that people would want to be happening.”




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Drunk Fox News Host Jeanine Pirro Chugs Bleach on SNL

Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong was portraying Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as an out-of-control drunk long before the real Jeanine Pirro appeared to actually be drunk during a live broadcast from home during the coronavirus pandemic. 

So the season finale of SNL at Home was the perfect time for Strong’s Pirro to join “Weekend Update” anchor Colin Jost from her home to talk about the lockdown protests happening across America. 

“Good evening, Colin, I hope you’ll forgive me,” Pirro began. “I had to do my own makeup while looking into a spoon.” Asked how she’s holding up under quarantine, she said, “I’m perfectly fine. Although I’ll admit that it’s been tough for all of us. For what seems like forever, I’ve been sitting at home, drinking and complaining to whoever would listen. Then this whole coronavirus thing happened!” 

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Reuters: Jared Kushner Had Undisclosed Contact With Russian Envoy, Say Sources

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)

 




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Donald Trump's White House Counsel Has One Main Job—And He's Failing At It

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."




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Trump WH: Birth Control Mandate Is Unnecessary Because of Planned Parenthood, Which We’ll Also Defund

The Trump administration's argument for letting lots of employers opt out of covering birth control is…not exactly bulletproof.

Yesterday, Vox reported that the Trump administration is considering a broad exemption to Obamacare's mandate on contraceptive coverage, according to a leaked draft of the proposed rule. If passed, the rule would allow virtually any employer, not just a religious one, to remove birth control coverage from its insurance plan if contraception violates the organization's religious beliefs or "moral convictions"—a broad and murky standard.

But, in a curious twist, part of the Trump administration's justification for the move hinges on the existence of hundreds of Planned Parenthood clinics, many of which the White House is actively trying to close by "defunding" Planned Parenthood.

As the draft text explains, the administration believes the past rationale for Obamacare's contraception mandate is insufficient. The document lists several reasons why this is the case. Here's one of them:

"There are multiple Federal, state, and local programs that provide free or subsidized contraceptives for low-income women, including Medicaid (with a 90% Federal match for family planning services), Title X, health center grants, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. According to the Guttmacher Institute, government-subsidized family planning services are provided at 8,409 health centers overall. Various state programs supplement Federal programs, and 28 states have their own mandates of contraceptive coverage as a matter of state law. For example, the Title X program, administered by the HHS Office of Population Affairs (OPA), provides voluntary family planning information and services for clients based on their ability to pay.

...

"The availability of such programs to serve the most at-risk women identified by IOM [Institute of Medicine, now known as the National Academy of Medicine] diminishes the Government's interest in applying the Mandate to objecting employers."

The implication here is that since there are already programs like Medicaid and Title X to help low-income women afford contraception, the requirement that most employers provide no-cost birth control is less pressing.

But there are a couple of glaring contradictions here: First of all, of the 8,409 health centers that provide Medicaid and Title X family planning services, as cited in the rule, 817 of them are run by Planned Parenthood—the very group that Congress and the administration are trying to exclude from using Title X and Medicaid funds to provide health care.

Trump has already signed a bill into law allowing states to exclude Planned Parenthood and other providers who offer abortions from receiving Title X family planning funding—never mind that Title X funding is used exclusively for nonabortion services. Beyond that, there are several more proposals moving through government—including in the House's American Health Care Act and in the Trump budget proposal—to withhold Medicaid and other federal dollars, including Title X, specifically from Planned Parenthood.

The problem with the White House's logic boils down to this: As the nation's largest provider of federal Title X-funded care, in 2015 Planned Parenthood centers served more than 40 percent of women nationwide using Title X-funded family planning care—a whopping 1.58 million patients. But if Planned Parenthood can no longer receive a single federal dollar to provide contraception and other family planning care—an oft-repeated goal of the Trump administration—then these nearly 1.6 million low-income patients will suddenly lose their family planning care. And now their employers may not cover that care either.




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How Trump and His Allies Have Run With Russian Propaganda

The concept is straight from the Soviet playbook: Plant false information and use it to influence the attitudes of another country’s people and government. This “active measures” technique from the Cold War era appears to have been resurrected with alarming success by the Kremlin in its attack on the 2016 presidential election—and has been echoed in tactics used by President Donald Trump and his associates, according to Clint Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

“Part of the reason active measures have worked in this US election is because the commander in chief has used Russian active measures at times against his opponents,” Watts, a former FBI agent, recently testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Key to this equation have been RT and Sputnik international, two Russian state-sponsored news outlets. Both reach only relatively small audiences in the US (RT is estimated to reach about 8 million people via cable television), but their impact has been magnified greatly online, with their stories reposted on what Watts calls “gray” conspiracy sites like Breitbart News and InfoWars. Twitter bots and other social media accounts further amplify the stories. And in several cases, Trump or his associates have directly cited phony Russian propaganda in a speech or interview. Here are some examples:

A false report of a terrorist attack at a NATO base in Turkey: Last July, RT and Sputnik each reported on a fire at the Incirlik base, framing it as potential sabotage. Pro-Russian and pro-Trump Twitter accounts spread and magnified the false reports, but mainstream news organizations didn’t pick up the report because it wasn’t true, as Watts explained in a piece for the Daily Beast. Yet, in mid August, Paul Manafort—Trump’s campaign chairman at the time—escalated the story to a terrorist attack, complaining on CNN that US media outlets were not adequately covering it. Politifact debunked Manafort’s claims, noting that Turkish authorities had reported small, peaceful demonstrations outside the base, but no actual assault on the base.

The case of the phony Benghazi email: On October 10, Wikileaks released a batch of emails hacked from campaign chairman John Podesta’s email account. About 5 pm ET that day, Sputnik News published a story about leaked Clinton campaign emails with the headline “Hillary confidante: Benghazi was ‘preventable’; State Department negligent.” Roughly an hour later, Trump told supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania that Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal had called the Benghazi attack “almost certainly preventable.” “This just came out a little while ago,” Trump said. Those words weren’t actually Blumenthal’s and Sputnik later deleted the story – but by then the headline had spread far and wide.

False claims of pervasive voter fraud: RT has been attempting to delegitimize the American electoral process since 2012 by calling the U.S. voting system fraudulent, according to the declassified version of the report the Director of National Intelligence released this past January. In his Senate testimony, Watts called this the “number one theme" pushed by Russian outlets. In October 2016, a Kremlin-controlled think tank circulated a strategy document that said Russia should end its pro-Trump propaganda “and instead intensify its messaging about voter fraud to undermine the U.S. electoral system’s legitimacy and damage Clinton’s reputation in an effort to undermine her presidency,” according to a Reuters investigation

That same month, Trump pushed hard on the theme that the election was rigged; on Oct. 17 Trump tweeted “Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day.” The sources his campaign pointed to were all debunked by Politifact, which noted that Trump had also tweeted in 2012 about dead voters delivering Obama’s win.

The Swedish attack that wasn’t: Trump’s strategy of running with false information didn’t stop when he won the election – and hasn’t been limited to Russian-owned media properties: He’s also used Fox News reports in a similar way. In February, Trump appeared to imply at a Florida rally that a terrorist attack had occurred the previous night in Sweden. Sweden itself had no idea what he meant and the Swedish Embassy reached out to ask for clarification. Twitter users, including many Swedes, ridiculed Trump’s statement, with references ranging from IKEA to the Swedish Chef character from the “Muppets.” Trump later said that he was referring to a Fox News story on violence allegedly perpetrated by refugees. That report, which aired the night before Trump’s rally, did not mention a specific terror-related attack; it focused on reports that rape and gun violence had increased since Sweden began taking in a record number of refugees in 2015.

Wiretapping claims pushed by a Fox News personality: In March, even though Trump's claim about Obama wiretapping Trump Tower had been directly debunked by top US intelligence officials, the president seized on a baseless claim by Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano that British spies had wiretapped Trump at former President Obama’s request. Fox News later disavowed Napolitano’s statement. Trump continued to repeat his conviction that he’d been wiretapped, even though American and British intelligence officials insist there is no basis for the claims.

The murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich: Trump allies recently pushed another story that started as a conspiracy theory online and was fueled by Russian news outlets. Fox’s Sean Hannity aired several segments focusing on the unsubstantiated claim that Rich was behind the Clinton campaign email leaks and then murdered for his actions, even though police have said he was likely killed in a robbery attempt. When the claims were thoroughly debunked, Fox retracted the story from its website – but not before it had been spread by Trump ally and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Even after Fox pulled the story, Gingrich told the Washington Post, “I think it is worth looking at.”

In his Senate testimony, Watts noted that Trump is vulnerable to further manipulation by the Russians: He warned that Russian-linked Twitter accounts are actively trying to engage the president by sending him conspiracy theories. “Until we get a firm basis on fact and fiction in our own country, get some agreement about the facts,” Watts said, “we’re going to have a big problem.”




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नई Hyundai Tucson SUV बाजार में आने को तैयार, साउथ कोरिया में चल रही टेस्टिंग, जानिए फीचर्स

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।




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Hashtag Trending – Free internet access for the vulnerable; Elon Musk under fire; Conspiracy theories

The City of Toronto partners with tech giants to provide free temporary internet access for vulnerable Torontonians, Elon Musk is under fire for recent Tweets, and a bizarre conspiracy involving Bill Gates is circulating online.   The City of Toronto is partnering with technology and telco companies to provide free temporary internet access for residents…




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Challenges and opportunities in the COVID era and beyond – CMO Talks with Wipro CMO Ved Bhat

The pandemic has had a huge impact on the economy. However, even with all that’s happened, Wipro CMO Ved Bhat sees opportunities for companies to stand apart, and to take their products and brands to the next level. In a recent CMO Talks discussion, Bhat focused on people as he answered ITWC President and CEO…




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CompTIA launches a new cybersecurity analyst certification worldwide

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has updated its cybersecurity analyst (CySA+) certification exam, the association announced this week. The new exam applies behavioural analytics to the information technology (IT) security market, validating an IT professional’s ability to defend and continuously improve the overall state of organizational security. It addresses changes in the cybersecurity environment,…




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Microsoft announces Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3

Microsoft this week revealed the new Microsoft Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3 convertible tablet PCs. Microsoft Surface Go 2 Microsoft’s Surface Go fills the role of an affordable tablet PC that can run the full Windows 10 operating system. Its lower pricing was especially attractive to the education and front-line sectors. The Surface…




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Cyber Security Today – World Password Day advice, GoDaddy hosting accounts hacked and WordPress sites under attack

World Password Day advice, GoDaddy hosting accounts hacked and WordPress sites under attack. Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Wednesday May 6th. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com. Tomorrow is World Password Day. So follow safe password practices so you don’t help criminals steal data. How bad are you? Here’s are few…




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Cyber Security Today – Canada hit by COVID cheque fraud; Webex, Teams under attack, more COVID email scams and three big data breaches

Canada hit by COVID cheque fraud; Webex, Teams under attack, more COVID email scams and three big data breaches Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Friday May 8th. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com. To hear the podcast click on the arrow below: It didn’t take long for cybercriminals to take advantage…




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The Helpers: GoFundMe set up to provide supplies to La Loche residents

"I never really thought it would get this big, but I think it just speaks to how we are all in this together and everyone is just trying to do what they can to help this community that's been hit particularly hard."




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Video Friday: Startup Unveils Agile Robot Dog That Costs Less Than $10k

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos




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Lisa Lazareck-Asunta, IEEE’s Women in Engineering Chair, Is Just Getting Started

One of her goals is to make speaker panels and conferences more inclusive




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COVID Moonshot: Can AI Algorithms and Volunteer Chemists Design a Knockout Antiviral?

This pro-bono initiative crowdsourced 4,500 drug designs, synthesized 311, and is now testing them against viral proteins




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1st batch of Indians stranded in UK to arrive early morning Sunday




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Rahul Gandhi Demands Audit of PM-CARES Fund, Says 'Record of Money Received & Spent Should be Made Available to Public'

New Delhi, May 9: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should ensure an audit of PM-CARES. Rahul Gandhi said that PM-CARES fund received huge contributions from public sector units (PSUs) and organisation, including Indian Railways.





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Centre Allots 2.1 Lakh Tonnes Free Food Grain to Karnataka Under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana Package

The Central government will bear the total cost of Rs 2,351 crore for supplying the free food grains to beneficiaries in Karnataka for the three months.





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Centre Allots 2.1 Lakh Tonnes Free Food Grain to Karnataka Under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana Package

The Central government will bear the total cost of Rs 2,351 crore for supplying the free food grains to beneficiaries in Karnataka for the three months.





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Indian Moms Are Now Back To School For Their Kids, And It’s Not Always Fun

Are online classes and assignments proving to be the last stubby pencil on the camel’s back?





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Scientific Consensus Shows Covid-19 'Not Genetically Engineered', India Funding Vaccine Development: DBT Secretary

Ministry of Science and Technology's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Dr Renu Swarup says that based on the latest WHO consensus, Covid-19 as a 'lab release' theory is likely to be false.





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Scientific Consensus Shows Covid-19 'Not Genetically Engineered', India Funding Vaccine Development: DBT Secretary

Ministry of Science and Technology's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Dr Renu Swarup says that based on the latest WHO consensus, Covid-19 as a 'lab release' theory is likely to be false.





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Books of the week: From Vaasanthi's biography of Karunanidhi to Sonali Gupta's Anxiety, our picks

Our weekly roundup of books that should be on your radar.





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NGOs for disabled facing severe financial crunch as funds get diverted for tackling COVID-19




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Mexican President Says U.S. Can Still Apologize For Botched Obama-era 'Fast & Furious' Gun-Running Sting

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reignited demands this week for either clarity or an apology over a botched Obama-era United States gun-running operation dubbed "Fast and Furious."




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As Obama Prepares to Join Campaign, Trump Moves to Discredit Russia Probe Started Under His Watch

A newly released memo shows that Robert Mueller was given wide latitude to investigate Michael Flynn, whose prosecution the Justice Department is attempting to drop.




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Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Alameda County, Relocate Tesla Over Shelter-in-Place Disagreement

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is threatening to sue San Francisco’s Alameda County and move the company out of California over the county’s strict shelter-in-place rules. Musk went on Twitter Sunday to express his disagreement with the county’s decision not to let certain businesses reopen, despite other areas of the state allowing it. On Friday, California […]




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Who Needs Photoshop When These 23 Unbelievable Pictures Are Completely REAL? Whoa.

It's not a trick - each of these photos are completely real.




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He Doesn’t Use Photoshop, But This Makeup Artist Still Makes His Clients Look Way Younger

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





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Royal Mountain Records: Prioritizing Mental Health for Musicians

Earlier this year, Toronto-based indie label Royal Mountain Records (PUP, Mac DeMarco, Alvvays, U.S. Girls) created a first-of-its-kind fund to support its artists’ mental health. Each act on the label now has access to $1,500 each – completely confidential and non-recoupable – to use on mental health wellness and addiction treatment.

The label is run by Hollerado frontman Menno Versteeg, who joins us this week to talk about the fund’s creation and, more generally, mental health in the music community. Menno is open and honest about how his own history as a touring musician inspired the fund, and why labels, managers, agents, and others who earn their living off of musicians need to do more to support artists’ well-being.

And since Hollerado just released their final album and will soon embark on their last tour, we also fit in a quick chat about the band.