For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services.
But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.
Since 2017, when the N.S.A. lost control of the tool, EternalBlue, it has been picked up by state hackers in North Korea, Russia and, more recently, China, to cut a path of destruction around the world, leaving billions of dollars in damage. But over the past year, the cyberweapon has boomeranged back and is now showing up in the N.S.A.’s own backyard.
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The National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland. A leaked N.S.A. cyberweapon, EternalBlue, has caused billions of dollars in damage worldwide. A recent attack took place in Baltimore, the agency’s own backyard.CreditCreditJim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via REX, via Shutterstock
Sen. Kamala Harris pushed back Saturday against online attacks about her race, comparing the latest jabs to racism faced by former President Barack Obama, as fellow 2020 candidates rallied to her defense.
During Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate, Donald Trump Jr. retweeted to his millions of followers a Harris critic who took issue with her identity.
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“Kamala Harris is *not* an American Black. She is half Indian and half Jamaican,” the critic, who identified as African American, wrote. “I’m so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It’s disgusting. Now using it for debate time at #DemDebate2? These are my people not her people. Freaking disgusting.”
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Trump Jr. shared the tweet with the comment, “Is this true? Wow.” He has since deleted the tweet and a spokesman for President Donald Trump’s son told the New York Times that it was a misunderstanding.
For many, he’s an international pariah, but you wouldn’t know it by the lavish reception Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received at the G-20 summit this week.
He beamed as he stood front and center, sandwiched between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for a group photo. He exchanged an impish grin as he sat down next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He posed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and a group of flag-waving kids ahead of an earlier signing ceremony for $8 billion in deals.
Even as rebukes pile up elsewhere — a U.N. expert has called for an investigation of his alleged role in the killing of a prominent journalist, and a growing number of Americans are questioning their nation’s support for his kingdom and its role in the war in Yemen — some leaders in Osaka have gone out of their way to make sure the prince feels comfortable.
It’s not clear if he was pressed privately over concerns about the killing last October of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who had criticized the Saudi heir in columns for The Washington Post. But the prince seemed completely at ease in public on Friday and Saturday.
Luis Alvarez, the retired police officer who along with Jon Stewart appeared before Congress earlier this month to plead for consistent health benefits for 9/11 first responders, has died.
The Ray Pfeifer Foundation, a nonprofit that helps first responders who became ill after 9/11 with medical needs not covered by insurance, shared the news on social media Saturday morning.
“We lost another 9/11 first responder. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of NYPD Detective Luis Alvarez,” the organization wrote on Twitter.
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Retired Fire Department of New York Lieutenant and 9/11 responder Michael O’Connell, left, FealGood Foundation co-founder John Feal, and former Daily Show Host Jon Stewart, right, applaud retired NYPD detective and 9/11 responder Luis Alvarez during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on June 11, 2019 in Washington.Zach Gibson / Getty Images file
A new iteration of Donald Trump’s racist and fallacious “birtherism” attack on former President Barack Obama is suddenly surging on social media, this time against Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
The apparently bot-aided onslaught is claiming the senator doesn’t represent U.S. blacks because her father was born in Jamaica. Harris, an American of both Jamaican and Indian descent, was born in Oakland, California.
Donald Trump Jr. retweeted the original attack but later deleted it. Meanwhile, the president’s former campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson tried to discredit Harris another way, indicating she is not African enough to run as a minority presidential candidate. She tweeted that “while Obama is actually African-American — Harris is not,” even though people of African descent have lived in Jamaica for centuries.
In May, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a behind-closed-doors appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. As details of Tillerson’s testimony begin to become public, what they reveal is that America had two completely separate sets of foreign policy initiatives. There were those put forward in the normal, typical, legal way … and a set of secret meetings conducted by Jared Kushner, the contents of which are still unknown.
The Washington Post reports that Kushner “operated independently,” and left Tillerson and other officials “out of the loop.” This didn’t just include Kushner’s trips to visit with Saudi Arabian prince Mohammed bin Salman. It also featured lining up secret meetings with Mexican officials, including one in which Tillerson stumbled upon a get-together between Kushner and Mexico’s foreign secretary simply because others assumed that the secretary of state had to be aware that a top White House adviser was engaged in a meeting about critical policies.
President Donald Trump threatened Iran with “obliteration” on Tuesday, saying that an attack on “anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force.”
“In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry & Obama!” the President tweeted.
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Speaking in the Oval Office later in the day, Trump said he believes Iran still takes his threats seriously after he canceled a planned military strike and told reporters he does not need an “exit strategy” from the increasingly tense situation.
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.Trump also said his message to Tehran following the recent exchange of hostile words between the US and Iran — including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani saying the White House is suffering from a “mental disability” — was that he wants to negotiate.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Kamala Harris
G-20
Kamala Harris
‘obliteration’?
James' World 2 