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Russian cyber firm, Kaspersky Lab, helped NSA bust 50TB data breach


RT
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 18:19 UTC
Kaspersky lab
© Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin
Kaspersky Lab may be portrayed by the US media as an extension of the Russian government using its antivirus software to snoop on gullible Americans, but in 2016 it helped the NSA to bust a massive security breach.

Harold T. Martin III is currently standing trial for abusing his job as an NSA contractor and taking home an estimated 50 terabytes of data from several US government offices over a two-decade period. The data includes some of the NSA's most sophisticated hacking tools - which were also sold by a group called the Shadow Brokers and repurposed by several high-profile attacks throughout the years.

But Martin's arrest by the FBI in 2016 didn't come as a result of the US government ramping up security procedures and rooting out potential moles and leakers. Rather it came after a tip-off from the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, which got alerted by five cryptic messages sent by Martin to two of its employees.

The Russian firm "linked the Twitter account to Martin and his work in US intelligence community," Politico reports, then a Kaspersky employee sent the five messages, and the evidence that identified the sender, to an NSA official.
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X

President Trump cancels Davos trip due to government shutdown

David Jackson
USA Today
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 01:26 UTC
Trump
President Donald Trump said Thursday he is canceling this month's trip to a world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, because of the ongoing partial government shutdown.

"My warmest regards and apologies," Trump tweeted just hours after he had told reporters the trip was still on - but that he would not go if the government was still shut down.

Trump's announcement about the Davos trip comes as the shutdown enters its 20th day, making it the 2nd longest in U.S. history. If the shutdown goes through Saturday, it will become the longest ever.

Trump's tweet is a sign the shutdown could last at least another 11 days - he was scheduled to leave on Jan. 21 for the Davos conference that starts the next day.

He tweeted out the announcement while en route to a border inspection tour in southern Texas.
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Jet5

Japan purchases an island for noisy US landing drills, faces local opposition


RT
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 19:33 UTC
Landing base
© Reuters/Kyodo
Tokyo is shelling out $150 million to enable US pilots practice aircraft carrier landings on a small eastern island, but people living nearby are less than happy with the deal - which they were never given a chance to debate.

The US and Japanese governments have been interested in Mageshima Island as a new site to run the training exercises, known as field carrier landing practices, since 2011, but have only recently been able to seal the deal. The uninhabited 8km-square island is part of the Ōsumi archipelago in the East China Sea. While the island is administered by the city of Nishinoomote on nearby Tanegashima island, it is owned by a Tokyo-based development company, which the government negotiated with.

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Bad Guys

Seattle TV station caught doctoring Trump video during national address


RT
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 20:07 UTC
Trump doctored video
© YouTube / MyNorthWestA screenshot from the allegedly doctored video
As the nation tuned in to President Trump's national address on border security, one Seattle TV station apparently manipulated its coverage on the fly, editing the footage to show Trump sticking out his tongue at viewers.

In a side-by-side comparison, Q13 Fox in Seattle appears to have edited its coverage of Trump's address, turning the president's skin color a ludicrous shade of orange. In between sentences, the station seems to have doctored the footage to show Trump sticking out his tongue and licking his lips.

Q13 told MyNorthWest that the footage was indeed doctored, and that the culprit has been placed on leave.

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Bad Guys

US continues smear campaign against China by slapping export ban on US-based Huawei subsidiary

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 19:53 UTC
Huawei
© REUTERS/Thomas PeterA woman uses her phone as she walks past a Huawei shop in Beijing, China, December 19, 2018.
Despite the first round of US-China trade talks reportedly reaching an "optimistic" conclusion as the two sides made progress on a number of issues - including China's controversial officially-sanctioned IP theft - the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the US is continuing its crackdown on Huawei Technologies by prohibiting a US-based Huawei subsidiary from exporting technologies developed in a Silicon Valley lab back to the mainland.

The escalation comes as the US is warning its allies to avoid Huawei's telecoms equipment due to concerns about its vulnerability to infiltration by the Chinese government, to which Huawei reportedly maintains close ties (though Huawei insists that it is an independent company cooperatively owned by its employees). The US is also in the process of extraditing Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou over charges that she knowingly lied to banks to try and conceal violations of US and EU sanctions against Iran.

Comment: It's must just a big coincidence that the US happens to be targeting Huawei during trade negotiations with China. What a bunch of unsubstantiated nonsense! See also: US makes lame attempt to smear China's Huawei for its business links to Iran and Syria

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Footprints

Skripals likely still in the UK and working with MI5

Victoria Ward
The Telegraph
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 19:28 UTC
Skripals restaurant
Sergei and Yulia Skripal are still living in the UK, have contact with friends and may even have been given work by the security services, experts believe.

From the moment they were released from Salisbury District Hospital in April the pair disappeared, becoming invisible not only to the public but to friends and family too, with the careful help of a London-based MI5 team responsible for the security service's secretive resettlement programme.

Well-placed sources have now revealed that far from living in isolation in a far flung country, as many believe, the Skripals likely remain in southern England, under the continuing treatment of the close circle of medical experts who have proven to be utterly discrete.

One security source said that they could "easily fix Yulia up with a job," providing her with her own income and reintegration into society while at the same time, ensuring she remains in a protected, contained environment in which discretion is guaranteed. Her native command of Russian could also prove useful.
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Stop

No surprise: Theresa May's Tory govt warned 'UK won't leave EU on March 29'


RT
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 10:22 UTC
Theresa May UK parliament
© Reuters / handoutPrime Minister Theresa May addresses UK parliament
Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer has warned Theresa May's Tory government that the UK will not leave the EU on March 29, accusing them of "pushing parliament away," during the first day of debate on the PM's deal.

May called off a vote on her deal in December after admitting that it "would be rejected by a significant margin" if MPs voted on it. She claimed that having listened to concerns from MPs, she would seek the necessary changes in order to get her Brexit plan through Parliament.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, opening up the debate, laid out concessions being put forward by the government to address the issue of the backstop. Crucially though, he gave no legal assurances, a prerequisite for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and many Tory hardline brexiteers.

Comment: Brexit: A Political Farce Based on a Public Lie

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Bullseye

Merkel 'inspects the desert she made': Varoufakis slams German chancellor's visit to Greece


RT
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 18:39 UTC
greece protests
© Reuters / Alkis Konstantinidis
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, ahead of a two-day visit by Merkel to the austerity-stricken country.

"Mrs Merkel is in Greece to inspect the desert she made and to call it... recovery," Varoufakis tweeted on Thursday. "Ironically, her Greek triumph unleashed deflationary forces that hit Germany (eg -ve interest rates) and wrecked her career. Never before has a German Chancellor wasted so much political capital."

Merkel's visit to Greece is her first since 2014, and the first since left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took office in 2015. Before arriving on Thursday, Merkel said that Greece can "continue to count on its partnership and friendship with Germany."
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Light Sabers

Hungary PM Orban: I must fight French President Macron on immigration


Reuters
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 18:35 UTC
macron and orban
© GEORG HOCHMUTH/AFP/Getty
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday said he considers French President Emmanuel Macron the leader of Europe's "pro-immigration forces", and therefore he had a duty to oppose him.

"There is no denying that Emmanuel Macron is an important figure, moreover, the leader of the pro-immigration forces," Orban told a press conference.

"It is nothing personal, but a matter of our countries' future. If what he wants with regards to migration materializes in Europe, that would be bad for Hungary, therefore I must fight him."
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Eye 2

Pentagon denies knowledge of prisoner abuse by US-backed forces in Yemen, but doubts linger


RT
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 18:32 UTC
aden yemen
© AFP / Saleh Al-Obeidi
Amid mounting allegations of rape and torture of prisoners in Yemen by US-backed troops, the Pentagon says it's not aware of any cases. That denial may signal Washington's own involvement in the wrongdoing, RT was told.

A recently unclassified version of a report from the US Department of Defense to Congress claims the Pentagon doesn't know anything about the alleged abuse of detainees in Yemen.

The denial contradicts reports from journalists, accounts of former prisoners, human rights groups, and even a UN panel, which allege the existence of a well-established system of torture, including by US-backed forces. This refers particularly to United Arab Emirates troops, which are part of the Saudi-led military campaign in impoverished Yemen.

According to the damning UN report issued last August, an unfortunate individual who ended up in a UAE-controlled prison was subjected to virtually all forms of abuse, including being "beaten, electrocuted" and even"drowned." The UAE denies the allegations and claims it has never run any secret prisons in Yemen.
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