SINGAPORE: In November, two telecommunications cables were cut in the Baltic Sea in a span of 48 hours, prompting suspicions of "sabotage" and "hybrid warfare" . The severing was reportedly linked to a Chinese ship. Beijing has said it's ready to assist in the investigation, while Russia has denied involvement. A similar incident occurred last year when a Chinese vessel damaged - in a post-facto admission - an undersea data cable connecting Estonia to Sweden. Since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, there have been at least three incidents of possible sabotage to the dozens of telecommunication cables that run along the Baltic seabed. What are subsea or undersea cables? They are fibre-optic lines laid on the ocean floor, to transmit multiple terabits of data per second between continents. They are said to be as thick as garden hoses, with diameters ranging from 2cm to 5cm or more, depending on whether there's additional protective armour. According to TeleGeography, a telecommunications market research company, there are more than 600 active and planned cables globally. These cables are typically designed to last at least 25 years. They were traditionally owned and operated by telecommunication carriers forming consortiums with parties interested in using the cables. Over time, more private companies have invested in the infrastructure and today, the big tech likes of Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are either individually or jointly operating subsea cables. Why are they important? Subsea cables are seen as critical information and telecommunications technology. Often described as the "backbone of the global internet", they can carry more than 99 per cent of the world's data traffic, including email, webpages and video calls. They also transmit more data at a lower cost compared to satellites. Sensitive government communications also rely heavily on subsea infrastructure, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The United States-based think-tank also noted that subsea cables have helped increase access to high-speed internet worldwide, and thus fuelled economic growth. How is a cable installed, and what happens when it's cut? First, seabed surveys are conducted to map out routes for the cables. A specially-rigged ship then carefully unspools and lays out the cable. Cables nearer to shores are buried under the seabed for protection from fishing trawlers or anchors. But in the deep sea, they are laid directly on the seabed. Damage to subsea cables is relatively common, with up to 150 severed each year, mostly from fishing equipment or anchors, said CSIS. The impact can vary. A BBC report noted that many countries have more cables than what's minimally required, so even if some are damaged, they can still rely on the others. However there are times when internet service can be disrupted due to cable cuts, as was the case in East Africa in May. Apart from physical armour, electronic monitoring systems are also used to safeguard cables. The systems can detect changes or anomalies in the seabed environment and alert operators of potential harm, CSIS noted. Why are disruptions happening more frequently? It's more the case that there's now more attention on these incidents due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and tensions in the Taiwan Strait, said Ms Asha Hemrajani, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). All the same, such geopolitical tensions across multiple hotspots are likely a key factor in some recent subsea cable disruptions, she said. Ms Hemrajani cited examples such as the Taiwan's outlying Matsu Islands, which had its internet cables severed by Chinese ships early in 2023. Then there is also the technology rivalry between the US and China, with mistrust spilling over to other key sectors including subsea cables, she noted. Other hotspots include parts of Europe, as well as the Middle East. Long-simmering tensions in the South China Sea - most of which Beijing claims - have also affected subsea cables, particularly the process of laying them out. For example, the shortest route for a cable from Singapore and Japan would be through the massive body of water. "But various cable operators have mentioned that it’s been getting difficult to get permits from China to lay the cables," said Ms Hemrajani. "The Chinese government has been particularly slow in giving these permits - slow to the degree that some companies have selected alternate routes." This increases the time and cost of laying the subsea cables. A longer route also means lower speeds, she added. What are global efforts to protect the cables? There are several international organisations in this space. The International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), for one, was founded back in 1958. It has more than 230 member organisations from over 70 countries, who build, operate and maintain submarine telecommunications and power cable infrastructure. The ICPC also recently joined forces with the International Telecommunication Union to launch a global advisory board, shortly after the Baltic Sea incident. At a United Nations General Assembly in September, a joint statement was also issued to declare collective commitment to the security and resilience of undersea cable infrastructure. Recommendations included encouraging operators to have transparent ownership and partnerships. "China believes these particular statements are a way to suppress Chinese companies which operate in the undersea cable space," said Ms Hemrajani. She added that this was an important statement for Singapore - which endorsed it - and its status as an open economy highly connected to the rest of the world. What's at stake for Southeast Asia? Undersea cables have become increasingly valuable - and vulnerable - for countries in Southeast Asia, said Ms Elina Noor, a senior fellow in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank. She wrote in a research paper that by virtue of its geographical location, Southeast Asia is a key node in the web of undersea cables around the world, and acts as a communications gateway to North America and Africa. By 2025, an estimated 10 major cable projects in and around Southeast Asia are due to come online to meet growing bandwidth demand. Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore have been ramping up efforts to boost their subsea cable capabilities. Malaysia currently has 29 submarine cable networks, including those under construction, and six cable landing stations. By next year, it aims to have the most cables landing in Southeast Asia, according to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority. Earlier this year, Vietnam also unveiled a plan to construct at least 10 new undersea cable routes by 2030, bringing its total to 15. As of 2023, Singapore had 26 subsea cables landed across three sites, with plans underway to double the number of sites and add more cables. What are challenges faced by Singapore? An RSIS policy report published in May noted that Singapore was "geographically disadvantaged" in efforts to protect its cables, by virtue of it being unable to claim the full suite of maritime zones afforded to it under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea due to proximity with neighbours Indonesia and Malaysia. Another significant risk to cables serving Singapore is from damage that occurs in spaces under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of other states, said the paper, which counts Ms Hemrajani among its four expert authors. The report recommended that Singapore designate cables and landing stations as critical information infrastructure (CII), and for companies operating these to be designated as CII service providers. They would then need to notify authorities of any break in service due to deliberate vandalism, acts of war or accidental damage. Other suggestions included improving cooperation between agencies, as well as partnerships through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN. "Effective protection of subsea cables requires both regional and international cooperation, and cannot be done by Singapore alone," the experts wrote.The adjustments are based on data relating to inflation. The Social Security Fairness Act would eliminate policies that limit payouts to beneficiaries. The bill would add an estimated $195 million to the federal deficit over the next 10 years if passed. WASHINGTON - The Senate is pushing toward a vote that would pass a law to provide full Social Security benefits for millions of Americans. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday the bill would "ensure Americans are not erroneously denied their well-earned Social Security benefits simply because they chose at some point to work in their careers in public service." RELATED: Social Security: It'll be harder to qualify for retirement benefits starting in 2025 — what to know The Social Security Fairness Act would eliminate policies that currently limit payouts for roughly 2.8 million people. If passed, the bill would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that broadly reduce payments to two groups of Social Security recipients: people who also receive a pension from a job that is not covered by Social Security and surviving spouses of Social Security recipients who receive a government pension of their own. It would add more strain on the Social Security Trust funds , which were already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035. It would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office . The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget also estimates that if passed, the policy would hasten the Social Security program's insolvency date by about half a year as well as reduce lifetime Social Security benefits by an additional $25,000 for a typical dual-income couple retiring in 2033. FILE - In this photo illustration, a Social Security card sits alongside checks from the U.S. Treasury on Oct. 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo illustration by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) The legislation passed the House on a bipartisan vote, and a Senate version of the bill introduced last year gained 62 cosponsors. But the bill still needs support from at least 60 senators to pass Congress. It would then head to President Joe Biden. Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in leadership, acknowledged that the policy has strong bipartisan support, but said some Republicans also want to see it "fixed in the context of a broader Social Security reform effort." Information for this story was gathered from The Associated Press and the Social Security Administration website.Kayla Oaddams/FilmMagic have made their red carpet debut! After seven years together, the couple finally walked the carpet side-by-side at the Los Angeles premiere of Hoult's new film, Hoult, 35, channeled the trend in a chocolate brown suit, including a brown shirt and brown tie. Bryana, 31, opted for a black satin gown with a square neckline. She added a subtle pop of color with red nail polish and wore her blonde hair in loose curls. Hoult stars in the Robert Eggers-directed horror film along with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, , and . Kayla Oaddams/FilmMagic Related: Hoult seemingly confirmed that he and Holly were married at the 2024 Governors Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 17, when While chatting with about Holly's scared reaction to the horror flick, the actor said, "Afterwards, I remember I had my wife's nails imprinted on my hand. I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this was tense.'" Jon Kopaloff/Getty In an interview with PEOPLE, the actor said of speculation around the couple's marital status, "I think it's fairly clear." "I feel like it's fairly from my comments," he added. Hoult and Holly, a model, have been together for nearly eight years and share two kids: son , 6, and a second child born in 2022, whose name and sex have yet to be announced. In March, Hoult and son Joaquin made , sitting courtside at an Atlanta Hawks' home game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Allen Berezovsky/Getty The family keeps their private life out of the spotlight, but in December 2023, Holly made a rare post on social media about her longtime love, sharing a featuring the couple in honor of their seventh anniversary. For the upcoming holidays, Hoult looks forward to enjoying some family traditions. "I play this really silly game where you have to roll dice," the actor told E! News, "and when someone gets a six, they have to put on oven gloves, a hat, a scarf, and then grab a knife and fork and try and eat the chocolate bar, and eat as much as they can of the chocolate bar before the next person in the circle rolls a six. It's [a] fun game." is in theaters Dec. 25. Read the original article on
Cosy and inclusive
Social media users are misrepresenting a report released Thursday by the Justice Department inspector general's office, falsely claiming that it's proof the FBI orchestrated the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The watchdog report examined a number of areas, including whether major intelligence failures preceded the riot and whether the FBI in some way provoked the violence. Claims spreading online focus on the report's finding that 26 FBI informants were in Washington for election-related protests on Jan. 6, including three who had been tasked with traveling to the city to report on others who were potentially planning to attend the events.Kruger Products exploring advancing construction of new tissue plant
UCF and Tulsa will test their mettle against each other on Saturday afternoon in the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic in Sunrise, Fla. The Knights will make their first appearance in the event since recording a two-point loss to Missouri in 2022, while Tulsa's last trip to the Orange Bowl Classic was a loss to Florida State in 2012. UCF (7-2) may have something to prove being away from Addition Financial Arena. The Knights are 7-0 at home, whereas a November trip to the Greenbrier Tip-Off in West Virginia produced an 86-70 loss to Wisconsin and a triple-overtime setback against LSU. The Knights relied heavily on their defense in Sunday's 66-51 win over Tarleton State. After a sluggish start offensively, UCF found its rhythm during a 37-point second half. Jordan Ivy-Curry finished with a game-high 16 points and freshman center Moustapha Thiam collected 10 points, nine rebounds and six blocks. UCF's Big 12 opener draws closer (at Texas Tech, Dec. 31), but head coach Johnny Dawkins remains focused on daily improvement. "I feel a sense of urgency to get better, not with regards to Big 12 play to be quite frank, but every game," Dawkins said. "I don't look too far in the future. Pretty much I've always been in the moment as a player and as a person, and so for me it's about just getting better because it's our standards." Tulsa (4-6) looks to stop a three-game slide following a 70-66 home loss to Southern University last Saturday. Keaston Willis scored in double figures for the sixth time this season, netting a season-high 23 points off the bench. But Isaiah Barnes, one of three Golden Hurricane players to start all 10 games, was injured in the first half and played only eight minutes. To complicate matters, head coach Eric Konkol's team is 0-6 when trailing at halftime. "We got to get some guys healthy that can be healthy for next Saturday (against UCF)," Konkol said. "We got a couple other guys dealing with some different things, but then (also) having some planning to figure out what's the best way going forward for this group." --Field Level Media49ers' visit gives Packers a chance to damage the playoff hopes of their postseason nemesis GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — After losing to San Francisco in the playoffs three of the last five seasons, the Green Bay Packers wouldn’t mind seeing the 49ers get left out of the postseason entirely. Steve Megargee, The Associated Press Nov 22, 2024 2:57 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Green Bay Packers' Jayden Reed celebrates his touchdown catch with John FitzPatrick and Christian Watson during the first half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — After losing to San Francisco in the playoffs three of the last five seasons, the Green Bay Packers wouldn’t mind seeing the 49ers get left out of the postseason entirely. The Packers (7-3) could damage San Francisco’s playoff hopes Sunday by beating the 49ers at Lambeau Field. San Francisco (5-5) dropped to .500 after losing at home to the Seattle Seahawks, though the 49ers remain just a game behind the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West. “I think we’re motivated to keep winning more than anything,” Packers center Josh Myers said. “Obviously, they have knocked us out quite a bit. There’s that extra motivation behind it, but at this point, we’re just trying to churn out wins.” The 49ers will be playing this game without starting quarterback Brock Purdy, who injured his right shoulder in the Seahawks game. Although an MRI showed no structural damage, Purdy's shoulder didn't improve as the week wore on. Brandon Allen will start in Purdy's place. Green Bay is third in the NFC North and two games behind the Detroit Lions, but the Packers appear on track to at least earn a wild-card playoff berth. History suggests their path to a potential Super Bowl would get much clearer if the 49ers aren’t standing in their way. The 49ers trailed 21-14 in the fourth quarter before rallying to beat the Packers 24-21 in the divisional playoffs last year on Christian McCaffrey’s 6-yard touchdown run with 1:07 left. Now, it’s the 49ers who are struggling to protect late leads, as they’ve blown fourth-quarter advantages in three games against divisional opponents. “You could look at, ‘Hey, we’re three possessions away from being 8-2,’ but you can’t really live like that,” 49ers tight end George Kittle said. “Those are the mistakes that we’ve made to be 5-5. It’s not exactly where we want to be. It is frustrating. The nice thing is we have seven games left to go out there and play Niners football and take advantage of those opportunities.” Green Bay’s recent history of playoff frustration against the 49ers also includes a 13-10 loss at Lambeau Field in the 2021 divisional playoffs and a 37-20 road defeat in the 2019 NFC championship game. Even the Packers players who weren’t around for last season’s playoff loss realize what this game means. “I think one of the first meetings that I was in here, we had a conversation about the Niners beating us,” said Green Bay safety Xavier McKinney, who joined the Packers this season. “So I understand how important it is, and we all do.” Red-zone concerns Both teams must figure out how to convert red-zone opportunities into touchdowns. The 49ers are scoring touchdowns on just 48.8% of their drives inside an opponent’s 20-yard line to rank 27th in the NFL. The Packers are slightly worse in that regard, scoring touchdowns on 48.7% of their red-zone possessions to rank 28th. In their 20-19 victory at Chicago on Sunday, Green Bay drove to the Bears 5 without scoring on two separate series. Injury issues Purdy isn't the only notable player who won't be participating in Sunday's game. San Francisco won't have four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Nick Bosa available after he hurt his left hip and oblique against the Seahawks. Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander (knee) and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (hamstring) also have been ruled out. Kittle expects to play for the 49ers on Sunday after missing the Seahawks game with a hamstring injury. 49ers left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) is questionable. Seeking takeaways Green Bay’s defense feasted on turnovers the first part of the season, but hasn’t been as effective in getting those takeaways lately. The Packers have 19 takeaways – already exceeding their 2023 total – but haven’t forced any turnovers in their last two games. Heavy load 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan hasn’t eased McCaffrey back into the lineup in his return after missing the first eight games with Achilles tendinitis. McCaffrey has played 91% of the 49ers’ offensive snaps the past two weeks. Jordan Mason, who rushed for 685 yards during McCaffrey’s absence, has just five snaps on offense the last two games. Shanahan said he’d like to get Mason more opportunities, but it’s hard to take McCaffrey off the field. Delivering on third down Green Bay nearly lost to the Bears because of its third-down struggles on both sides of the ball. The Packers were 1 of 5 on third-down opportunities, while the Bears went 9 of 16. The Packers’ defense could have a tough time correcting that problem against San Francisco, which has converted 45.4% of its third-down situations to rank fourth in the league. ___ AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Steve Megargee, The Associated Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Football (NFL) Brock Purdy will miss Sunday's game for the 49ers with a shoulder injury Nov 22, 2024 3:28 PM 49ers attempt to bounce back and boost their postseason chances as they visit Green Bay Nov 22, 2024 3:09 PM Winston's performance in snowy win over Steelers adds new layer to Browns' quarterback conundrum Nov 22, 2024 2:58 PM
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Boston 107, Minnesota 105DETROIT – The Tuesday after the Detroit Lions’ Week 7 win over the Minnesota Vikings felt like any other day for Megan Stefanski — or so she thought. She’d clocked out from her job as a school librarian and swung by her family’s restaurant, Yooperman’s Bar and Grill in Goetzville, to meet a friend for a drink. Nothing out of the ordinary. But the moment she walked through the doors, everything changed. Detroit Lions mascot Roary, the cheerleaders, members of the marketing team and even the iconic Lions superfan Crack Man were waiting inside, holding signs and cheering: “Congrats! You’re going to the Super Bowl!” The Lions had selected Stefanski as their 2024 Fan of the Year, kicking off what could be described as a whirlwind experience. Since the announcement, her calendar has been filled with interviews, appearances, tailgates and more – all part of the fanfare surrounding her recognition as one of the team’s most dedicated supporters. On Thursday, Stefanski was among a group diehard Lions fans and social media influencers at a meet-and-greet for Detroit Lions legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson. The event was held at The Shadow Gallery in Detroit’s Eastern Market, a fitting backdrop just hours before the Lions squared off against the Green Bay Packers on Thursday Night Football. Stefanski took a moment to reflect with MLive , sharing her thoughts on the surreal journey to the Super Bowl, her game-day predictions and what it would mean to watch the Lions make history by playing in the NFL’s biggest game. You’re already heading to the Super Bowl, but how much sweeter would it be if the Lions were the team playing in it? Been dreaming of it my whole life. It’s... We took over New Orleans last December (for Week 13). If it’s the Super Bowl, it’s going to be all Lions fans everywhere. Tonight’s game is a big one against the division rival Green Bay Packers. It won’t necessarily decide the division, but it’s crucial for the standings. How are you feeling about it? It’s must-win football, and the guys know that. And nothing stopped them so far. They know what they have to do and how many games they have to go. So I don’t think anything’s going to stop us. Nothing. Who do you think will be the biggest difference-makers in tonight’s game on both offense and defense? I think the boys (David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs) are going to be running. You’re going to see both Sonic and Knuckles just going for it today. I think Ben Johnson is going to pull some fun stuff out. And our defense? Those new guys, they’re ready to go to WAR for (defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn). They’re just going to come in (and) they don’t need plays. They’re just going to be running and blitzing like crazy. The Lions have 13 defensive players on injured reserve. Does that worry you at all? I mean, it’s not the greatest, but we have so much depth that I believe it’s just next man up. They’re all ready to go. What about Green Bay? Is there anything about their offense or defense that concerns you? No. I mean, yeah, they’re ready to win. Every team’s ready to win. But I think the home-field advantage is going to be huge for us today. You know, we’re basically the 12th man. Seattle (Seahawks fans) have always claimed it, just like the Dallas (Cowboys) claimed to be America’s team. But nobody wants it as much as Detroit right now. That makes a big difference. What’s your score prediction for the game? I think we’ll have (multiple) touchdowns on them. I think we’ll give up one, maybe two, but maybe 42–18. 42–18? That’s a big one! I think they’re going to put points down. Ben Johnson’s ready to play today.
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The controversy around a religious Christmas sign that was taken down in downtown Kelowna continues. Two days after a sign stating 'Keep Christ in Christmas' was removed from the nativity scene display at Stuart Park, Kelowna-Centre MLA Kristina Loewen went to social media to express her opinion on the matter. "We believe that it's an important detail that Christmas is a Christian holiday," said Loewen in her video, referring to 'we' as all of the MLAs for the Central Okanagan. "We will be standing united and defending all British Columbians rights to religion and freedom of expression, speech, thought, belief," she added. "Canada is an incredible country full of diverse cultures and religions, and a wide variety of views, and I think that's one of the things that makes us so incredible." Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong agreed with her fellow Conservative, quote-tweeting the video and saying "a great message from a colleague and friend. I'm proud to be part of a team that stands for what's right." Macklin McCall, MLA for West Kelowna, also quote-tweeted Loewen's post. However, Kelowna-Mission MLA Gavin Dew appears to not have commented on social media. The nativity scene is put up by the Knights of Columbus every year and a permit is given from the City of Kelowna to do so. When the 'Keep Christ in Christmas' sign was displayed beside the scene on Monday, Dec. 9, some people in the community, including the Kelowna Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists Association (KASHA) took issue. A letter by KASHA to Black Press Media on Dec. 9, stated the nativity scene is part of Christmas, just as "lights, festive trees, and other decorative displays" are also. "This message is not merely festive—it is political, advocating for a specific religious interpretation of the holiday," said KASHA about the sign. The next day, the sign was taken down and the City of Kelowna confirmed that the sign was not part of the Knights of Columbus' permit for the nativity scene. The Knights of Columbus had no comment regarding the matter. Capital News reached out to Loewen for further comment but was met with an automatic e-mail reply. Additionally, the City of Kelowna stated it had no comment on Loewen's video. However, Ian Bushfield the executive director of the B.C. Humanist Association did have a comment. "Freedom of religion in Canada includes freedom from religion," said Bushfield in an e-mailed statement. "Ms. Loewen and all Christians are obviously free to celebrate Christmas as a Christian holiday but our governments have a clear duty of religious neutrality. That means neither endorsing nor prohibiting any religion over any other. That sign, and arguably even the nativity scene, being on public property breaches that duty. She can put the sign up at her church or at her own house but we do not live in a theocracy." Bushfield has previously stated that BCHA is an organization committed to secular values. “Part of that is the separation of religion and government," said Bushfield. The City of Kelowna also said it received five letters on the matter when the sign was up but none since it's been taken down.By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly” despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health, according to a new report published Thursday by the Pew Research Center. As in past years, YouTube was the single most popular platform teenagers used — 90% said they watched videos on the site, down slightly from 95% in 2022. Nearly three-quarters said they visit YouTube every day. There was a slight downward trend in several popular apps teens used. For instance, 63% of teens said they used TikTok, down from 67% and Snapchat slipped to 55% from 59%. This small decline could be due to pandemic-era restrictions easing up and kids having more time to see friends in person, but it’s not enough to be truly meaningful . X saw the biggest decline among teenage users. Only 17% of teenagers said they use X, down from 23% in 2022, the year Elon Musk bought the platform. Reddit held steady at 14%. About 6% of teenagers said they use Threads, Meta’s answer to X that launched in 2023. The report comes as countries around the world are grappling with how to handle the effects of social media on young people’s well-being. Australia recently passed a law banning kids under 16 from social networks, though it’s unclear how it will be able to enforce the age limit — and whether it will come with unintended consequences such as isolating vulnerable kids from their peers. Related Articles National News | American released from Syrian prison is flown out of the country, a US official says National News | How to protect your communications through encryption National News | Companies tighten security after a health care CEO’s killing leads to a surge of threats National News | Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge National News | Unidentified drones spotted flying at locations across NYC, including LaGuardia Airport Meta’s messaging service WhatsApp was a rare exception in that it saw the number of teenage users increase, to 23% from 17% in 2022. Pew also asked kids how often they use various online platforms. Small but significant numbers said they are on them “almost constantly.” For YouTube, 15% reported constant use, for TikTok, 16% and for Snapchat, 13%. As in previous surveys, girls were more likely to use TikTok almost constantly while boys gravitated to YouTube. There was no meaningful gender difference in the use of Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Roughly a quarter of Black and Hispanic teens said they visit TikTok almost constantly, compared with just 8% of white teenagers. The report was based on a survey of 1,391 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024.
ATLANTA — President Jimmy Carter’s work making the world a better place will continue because of his faith, a dogged determination to leave a mark on the planet and a curious late-night dream. He left the White House in bitter disappointment and frustration in early 1981 at not having a second term because of the ascendance of Ronald Reagan. The ambitious Carter was not content to build a presidential library and rest on the laurels of a Mideast peace treaty, a nuclear arms deal with the Soviet Union, expanding national parks and reemphasizing human rights in American foreign policy. There was much left undone, in his estimation, but how to go about it now that he was out of the bully pulpit? He and his wife Rosalynn decided to leverage the prestige of his being a former president into opening doors and continuing work addressing poverty, illnesses and democracy around the world. Carter said in a 2009 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that they realized there could be advantages in working without the shackles of congressional approvals, presidential protocols or inter-party politics. He and Rosalynn would later talk about whether he was able to accomplish more in the world through the Carter Center than he would have as a second-term president. “I think yes,” Carter told the AJC. He reemphasized his satisfaction with his decision during an August 2015 press conference. He said, in retrospect, given the choice between winning a second term or founding the Carter Center, he would have chosen the Carter Center. The well-funded and globally respected nonprofit will carry his work and ideals well into the future. The Carters dived — freelance and sometimes to the chagrin of the White House — into brokering peace between warring groups, addressing global health, shoring up human rights, freeing hostages, spreading democracy and increasing food production. It led to a passel of recognitions and awards — including his 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. The idea for the center came to him in a night-time dream of cabins built on a patch of wooded land, incongruously, within the shadows of Atlanta’s skyline, Carter told the AJC. His center was to be a re-creation of the wooded presidential retreat at Camp David, the location where he orchestrated, through stubborn refusal to accept “no” from either side, the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. He found a patch of land east of downtown, but he had to plead with his former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, who was then mayor of Atlanta, to spare the land from a proposed highway project. The Israel-Egypt peace deal was a foreign-policy coup in the Mideast that no one has come close to replicating, and Carter’s hopes of re-creating the highlight of forging peace between implacable enemies grew into the ever-evolving Atlanta institution. The Carters wrestled with what the center’s other roles should be before turning to their personal experiences with poverty in south Georgia during the Great Depression. They recalled small-town values of neighborly help and their deeply held Christian values and applied those to Carter Center work. At the center’s founding, his work focused on mediating peace between warring groups, such as helping end a conflict between Ethiopia and its breakaway region of Eritrea. “And we still do some of that,” Carter said, but the focus of the center’s work changed and shifted with world need. They looked for causes few others were working on and used their status to leverage donations and attention, ultimately tipping the balance in battles against various human ills. The Carters’ work moved into fostering democracy by monitoring national and village level elections. Carter and his staff monitored more than 113 elections in 39 countries. As president, he helped normalize relations with China, and its government invited him in the 1990s to help standardize the vast array of electoral procedures in rural areas. The Carters adopted mental health issues, something Rosalynn had worked on since their days in the Georgia governor’s mansion, as well as press freedoms, human rights and government transparency. They threw themselves into food production programs in African villages, something Carter had worked on as president. But it was a visit from an old Georgia friend and former White House staffer Dr. Peter Bourne that opened the former president’s eyes to the issues on which a lion’s share of Carter Center money is spent: the eradication of little-known but devastating diseases. Bourne continued working on world health issues after leaving the White House, but the former president had him come to the Carter Center in May 1985 to talk about Guinea worm disease. Bourne and others believed it could be wiped out, which would make it the second human disease in history to be eliminated, after smallpox. Later that year, Bourne and the Carters were together in Wales indulging in one of their favorite pastimes, fishing. Bourne told them that others had some success eradicating Guinea worm at local levels in Africa and south Asia, where about 3.5 million people were affected. They knew that once the parasitic, water-born cycle was broken, it would be wiped from the earth. But those working on it didn’t have the political clout to convince countries to get involved at the highest levels. Carter could bring that, Bourne told them. Carter thought about it a few weeks, then called Bourne to say he was in. “He has been the driving force in getting the political will necessary ever since,” Bourne said. With Carter raising the profile of the illness and money — the center’s assets were more than $925 million according to its 2020 annual report — governments and nonprofits got behind it. Guinea worm was down to 14 reported cases in 2021 in four African countries, the center said. “We analyzed every human illness on earth to ascertain which ones of those might theoretically be ... eradicated,” Carter said. And they chose four others in addition to Guinea worm. River blindness was found in Africa and parts of Central and South America. By 2015, the center’s work coordinating nonprofits and governments pushed the disease into a few isolated deep-jungle spots in Venezuela and Brazil. With a great deal of optimism, the center moved in 2014 to declare a war on eradication of river blindness in Africa, where more than 100 million people are at risk. The center also began programs for trachoma, an infectious eye disease causing blindness; two diseases carried by parasitic worms, elephantiasis and schistosomiasis; and malaria in the Caribbean. The center will carry the couple’s work well past their demise. “I think 100 years from now we will still have the Carter Center as an independent entity,” Carter said. “I hope they are still doing the kinds of good things we have done so far.” ©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.A knock at the door. A police search. A rose gold iPhone. Child pornography allegations. Shocking as the charges were against his son, a Woodstock father says the family ordeal that followed shattered his faith in the justice system. Brian Williams reports. A knock at the Spina household’s front door started the family’s waking nightmare. Andrea Spina answered, then rushed back to her husband, Mario, slowly getting out of bed. Get dressed, she urged him. He heard “heavy boots” and “marching” inside the house, Mario said. He was shocked to discover six police officers equipped with firearms and a search warrant for the suburban home in northeast Woodstock, a city of about 48,000 in southwestern Ontario’s auto belt. “We had no clue why they were here,” Mario said. Mario, Andrea, her mother, the couple’s daughter and their 19-year-old son, Kristian, lived in the bungalow at the time. Kristian was at work that morning, Jan. 19, 2022. “We thought something happened to Kristian,” Andrea said. The family was “sequestered in the living room” as Woodstock police officers searched the house, said Mario. Det. Mike Haegens of Woodstock police explained the investigation involved a Snapchat account with a handle connected to Kristian. Snapchat is an app that allows users to send and receive videos and photos that automatically delete after being viewed for 10 seconds, longer if left unopened. An old email address used by all family members was also connected to the investigation, and both the Snapchat handle and email address were linked to uploading and sharing child pornography, police told them. “We never thought for a million years that there was anything, because that’s not who my son is,” Mario said. Woodstock police seized numerous phones from the Spina residence, including a rose gold iPhone belonging to Kristian that was no longer used. Police showed up at Kristian’s workplace, auto parks maker Vuteq. “The first thought that went through my head was something happened to my family,” Kristian said. Kristian was told his Snapchat account had been flagged for uploaded child pornography. “I was at a loss for words,” he said. “I know what I do on my phone and I know that this isn’t one of them.” Kristian handed over his phone to police, gave the password and said his Snapchat account had been hacked. “That’s why I gave them (the phone), no hesitation,” Kristian said. That day was the beginning of what would become a year-long family struggle to clear Kristian of child pornography charges, a struggle that a digital forensic expert warns can happen to anyone with a phone and social media accounts. The account of what happened to the Spinas is based on interviews with family members, a court ruling, expert reports and a summary by the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA), an independent civilian oversight agency of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. For the Spinas, there would be financial setbacks, health scares, uncertainty and a draining emotional toll. And now, for Mario, a search for accountability. “Is it negligence or is it ignorance?” he said. “At the end of the day, what the heck is the difference to the accused?” The year before, on July 17, 2021, Kristian received an email from Snapchat to an email address the family had stopped checking. The email from Snapchat advised him his account had been accessed by an unknown device in Hamilton that he didn’t own. On Aug. 5, 2021, Kristian was locked out of the account. “I did what every guy my age would do and just made a new one (account),” Kristian said. About the same time, a potentially illegal video was uploaded to the old account, an investigation later found. Snapchat reports the upload of potentially illegal videos to the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In Kristian’s case, information about the upload was sent to Canada’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre, then the RCMP, then Woodstock police. The responsibility for mining the devices seized fell to Woodstock’s digital examiner, a civilian employee, Special Const. Robert Gower. Gower’s search of the Kristian’s former iPhone, the rose gold one, revealed eight still images, some reproduced multiple times, for a total of about 50 thumbnails, meeting the police definition of child porn. The thumbnails — small images of pictures or videos — found on the phone matched the video connected to Kristian’s account that was first flagged by Snapchat and passed along to Woodstock police. In February 2022, police advised Kristian his phone contained images of child pornography and that charges would be laid. “I don’t have a clue how it happened, what happened, because I’ve never seen any of this stuff,” Kristian said. “That was a bomb,” Mario said. “We thought, there’s an explanation for this.” Before then, the 19-year-old’s only brush with the law had been a speeding ticket. Mario and Andrea drove Kristian to the police station the next morning. At age eight, Kristian was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system. He made a full recovery after six months. “When that cancer bomb goes off, everyone comes to help you — they come from everywhere. The doctors, the oncologists, the therapists, the counsellors, your family, your friends, your neighbors. You come home, your snow’s shoveled, your grass is cut — all that stuff,” Mario said. This struggle felt much different. “Imagine him going into this police station with all these police officers looking at him,” Mario said. “The door opened up to go into the belly of the station. It felt like a walk of shame for my son, and he didn’t do this.” His son was booked and held for a bail hearing. “I got back in the car, and I was in shock with tears,” Mario said. “My wife was waiting for me in the car and we were terrified. We didn’t know what to do.” Andrea recalled the heartbreak of dropping her son off at the police station. “It was horrible to leave him behind, and not knowing exactly what he’s going to go through,” she said. Watching his son appear on a courtroom video feed later “was gut-wrenching,” Mario said. Kristian was released later that afternoon. He faced three charges: One each of distributing, possessing and accessing child pornography. “There’s no parenting courses on what to do in case your son’s arrested for something he didn’t do,” Mario said. Before Mario could tell family members of his son’s plight, Woodstock police named Kristian and the charges against him in a news release. Now, Kristian had to deal with a second court: public opinion. “(People assume) when they see this example, the charges and a name associated with it, the police must have quite a lot of evidence here,” Mario said. Only Mario, his mother-in-law and Kristian were home the morning of March 26, 2022, about a month and a half after his arrest. Suddenly, Mario heard his mother-in-law “screaming like that wild scream, something’s really wrong.” Mario had watched his son battle cancer. He’d watched Kristian’s final year of high school stolen by the Covid-19 pandemic. He’d watched him be charged by police. That morning he watched his son dying, Mario said. “I fly out of the kitchen, and my son’s on the bed violently convulsing, foaming at the mouth,” Mario lamented. “He went grey, his lips were blue, he was dying.” Mario called 911 and Kristian was taken to hospital. Kristian had never had a seizure before, Mario said. “I just couldn’t believe where we were going, and why we’re going there, after what happened only weeks prior,” Mario recalled. Kristian was diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation — a tangle of blood vessels that can cause bleeding in the brain, stroke or brain damage. Kristian spent a week in the hospital after the seizure. Mario wonders whether the stress his son was under triggered the health scare. Kristian doesn’t believe that was the main trigger for his seizure, but “I think it played a huge part.” He made a full recovery and attended Fanshawe College in the fall of 2022, trying to put the weight of the charges against him to the back of his mind. “When I was in school, I started off well, and then as time went on the stress was just putting weight on my shoulders that I couldn’t do any more,” he said. “I had to drop out.” Mario knew he needed big legal muscle to help his son. “Basically, what you have to have is a war fund,” Mario said. “You can’t just make a race to the bank and you’ll get a loan – you got to have money, liquid money.” The Spinas sold a rental property they owned, which was part of their retirement fund. They hired Michelle Biddulph from the Toronto law firm Greenspan Humphrey Weinstein. Kristian’s defence team enlisted digital forensic examiner Jason Conley, who was working then for Envista Forensics, to examine how it was possible for another person to access Kristian’s Snapchat account, and how the images could wind up on the rose gold iPhone without his knowledge. Conley’s report broke down how that could happen. His probe also uncovered apparent evidence of Kristian’s innocence and raised questions about the police investigation. Highlights of what Conley found: Vulnerability at home Conley found that the Spina household’s Internet Protocol (IP) address for its router, its email address and social media accounts had been compromised and were available to cyber criminals months before Snapchat flagged Kristian’s account for child pornography. The thumbnails The thumbnails created by Snapchat were discovered deep in a restricted area on the iPhone, where only an expert with investigative software would find them. The thumbnails were automatically synched to Kristian’s device from the mystery device responsible for uploading the illegal video to Kristian’s account. Content synchronization Conley tested a hypothesis – that a Snapchat account syncs on all devices where it is located, essentially enabling a hacker to send child pornography from one device with the account to another device with the same account. He set up two identical versions of a Snapchat account on a Samsung Android phone and an iPhone. After logging in to the same Snapchat account on both devices, it became apparent to him that Snapchat automatically synchronized all of his “snaps” (messages) and the media content within them. Because Kristian had not clicked on and seen the video containing child pornography on the rose gold iPhone, the thumbnails created on that phone were not erased, Conley told The Free Press. Any other digital forensic examiner could have replicated the process and made the same conclusion, he said. Without Snapchat confirmation, it’s not 100 per cent possible to know if that’s how the thumbnails ended up on Kristian’s phone, Conley said. Still, there’s an overwhelmingly strong possibility the synchronization led to the images on the rose gold iPhone, he said. Conley also went through Kristian’s search history and concluded there were no searches or content related to child pornography, which are commonly present when someone is deliberately searching for such illicit images or videos. ”(The police) looked at all the devices from the home, including Kristian’s current phone, and found nothing,” Conley said. “That’s a huge red flag.” Conley said he was also concerned by what appeared to be police reluctance to investigate a notification from Snapchat indicating Kristian’s account had been accessed from an IP address in Hamilton in July. At the time, Kristian was in Woodstock, his father said. “Whilst he may have been in physical possession of this device, there is evidence that suggests that Mr. Spina was the victim of credential theft and he was not exclusively in control of his Snapchat account,” Conley wrote. “A second user of this account could easily have sent or received this video without Mr. Spina’s knowledge, and the video could have been synchronized to Mr. Spina’s phone as a result,” he added. The report gave the family some comfort “Here’s a true professional, a true digital forensic examiner who completely showed us that this thing is completely full of holes,” Mario said. But the report seemed to have no impact when provided to the police, Conley said. “My terrible gut feeling in the situation is they just didn’t care, they just ran with it and they just refused to backpedal,” he said. It’s not clear whether the police investigated the findings in Conley’s report. Asked that in an email correspondence with The Free Press, Woodstock police Chief Rod Wilkinson didn’t answer the question. However, in his email exchanges with The Free Press, the chief said the force has the tools and training for such investigations. Two weeks before an October 2022 pre-trial hearing, Conley’s report was submitted to the Crown, Mario said. Conley said he believes the report wasn’t examined seriously by law enforcement or the Crown, and that it should have had a greater bearing on the case. “The worst part was (police) read my report and proceeded anyway,” Conley said. “That was the biggest indicator that something’s very, very, very off.” By Jan. 26, 2023, the first day of the trial, the Crown had dropped the child pornography distribution charge, but Kristian still faced two other child porn charges. At age 20, he was staring at a potential jail sentence, a minimum of six months to one year, and a lifelong sex offender status attached to his name. “Obviously, I was a little nervous my first time going into a courtroom (because) if anything goes bad, then I’m gone, basically,” Kristian said about the first day of the trial. Both Haegens, the lead detective, and Gower, the special constable, testified on the first day. Gower became the subject of a voir dire hearing, held to help a judge determine legal issues such as the admissibility of evidence, or whether witnesses are qualified to give expert testimony. Justice M. Edward Graham presented his voir dire analysis to both the Crown and defence by document. The Free Press obtained a copy of the analysis from Mario, who acquired it from Kristian’s defence lawyer. Although Gower had “extensive expertise in extracting data from devices,” he “does not have sufficient training or expertise to further analyze and interpret that data,” Graham wrote. Gower acknowledged he didn’t have training on Snapchat or other social media applications, Graham wrote. It wasn’t just Gower’s inexperience with Snapchat that was of concern to the judge, but also his lack of expertise with the device on which the thumbnails were found. “He also does not have any formal training on the Apple iOS operating system,” Graham wrote. “In my view he is not qualified to provide opinion evidence even in a general sense of the strengths and weaknesses of that system.” Graham concluded that Gower has a “solid foundation to build upon,” but would need to take more courses in “this rapidly evolving area” to provide expert testimony. The charges were dismissed. “(My parents) never gave up. I never gave up. As a family we pushed together and we succeeded,” Kristian said. “Knowing that he can start his life again, because it had been put on hold for such a long time — it was a huge relief,” Andrea said. Two months after the charges were dismissed, Kristian had successful brain surgery to repair the arteriovenous malformation. With the court case in the past, Kristian has returned to Fanshawe, studying to become an electrician. “I feel like I’m back to my myself,” the now 22-year-old said. His son has been made whole but the system remains broken, Mario said. “I’m not saying the police officer on the street isn’t doing their job,” he said, but “I don’t have faith in (the system).” “My job as a responsible father, as a responsible citizen . . . is to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else who is innocent.” Mario hired a private security and investigations firm, Investigative Solutions Network Inc., to examine the Woodstock police investigation of his son. The investigation was conducted by Bill McGarry, the company’s director of cyber operations and a former Toronto police officer with extensive experience in its child exploitation unit. McGarry’s report concluded that Woodstock police appeared to take “a very basic approach to the investigation, accepting all information as valid without conducting an inquiry into the information received.” ⦁ Police should have used a forensic examiner familiar with investigating devices for offences related to child pornography, who would have made various queries such as checking search engine history related to child pornography, his report said. ⦁ The files located on Kristian’s rose gold iPhone were “deep within the Snapchat application database that are inaccessible to the phone user,” McGarry wrote. “The files would only be accessible ‘via expensive software’ used by a person that requires extensive training and experience to use.” ⦁ McGarry called “the reliance of an unqualified digital forensic examiner” with inadequate training “to investigate iOS devices nor social media applications such as Snapchat” one of the “biggest missteps taken” by Woodstock police. ⦁ Police failed to search for a potential alibi, such as the correspondence between Snapchat and Kristian indicating the account had been compromised. “Reasonable and probable grounds” to support a charge of possession would have “evaporated and ceased to exist” had investigators examined further factors such as the Spinas’ compromised IP address. The Free Press asked Wilkinson whether Woodstock police had contacted outside forces, such as the OPP or another source experienced with iOS devices and social media applications, to help investigate. Wilkinson didn’t indicate whether or not that had been done. The chief said his force “continually” develops officers’ skills and qualifications to adapt to “rapidly changing technology involved in such complex investigations.” The Free Press also asked Wilkinson in its email correspondence whether the investigating officers had looked into whether Kristian’s account had been hacked as an explanation for child pornography uploaded to his Snapchat account. He confirmed that was investigated, but did not say whether police had contacted Snapchat. A digital forensic examination had revealed “a device contained materials that met the Criminal Code definition of child pornography” and gave police “reasonable and probable grounds to proceed to lay charges,” the chief wrote in an earlier email. Mario filed an official complaint to LECA, the provincial police oversight agency, in April 2023. Mario’s complaint alleged police conducted a “negligent investigation, which caused the family stress, trauma, and financial loss,” according to the LECA report. The report concluded that a LECA investigator found insufficient evidence to support Mario’s concerns that “discreditable misconduct or neglect of duty” had occurred. Asked through email about Mario’s allegation the investigation against his son was negligent, Haegans replied, “I am unable to comment.” Gower did not respond to a similar email seeking comment about the allegation and declined to answer questions when contacted by phone. Wilkinson responded to that question by noting that LECA, the provincial oversight agency, had found Mario’s complaint “unsubstantiated.” Unsatisfied with the LECA response, Mario said he spoke to Ernie Hardeman, the Woodstock-area MPP, who recommended he go before Woodstock’s police service board that oversees the city police. Mario tried to appear before the board to present information “to prevent this from ever happening to another innocent person in our community.” But he balked at conditions the board wanted to place on his appearance. The board requires someone provide a written statement before appearing, and can’t allow discussions that might involve individual officers to be held in public, Ken Whiteford, chair of the police board, told The Free Press. “It’s in a closed room and nothing can be shared,” Mario said. “That doesn’t leave me a real good, comforting feeling.” Mario filed a complaint about the police board in April 2024 to an oversight office called the Inspectorate of Policing. The inspectorate replied in August it agreed with the police board decisions. Mario said he’s not after an apology from the police, but would like them to publicly note that all charges against Kristian were dismissed, something McGarry’s report noted was the “only way to clear his name.” “They are the ones who printed his name on grains of evidence that they didn’t understand, using a forensics expert who wasn’t qualified, who’d never done that before on a cell phone,” Mario said. “They published my son’s name (in the first place), they could publish my son’s name now saying he has nothing to do with this.” The issue isn’t dead for Mario. “I’m not the kind of guy that just goes away that easy,” he said. “Hopefully, this story is going to have some type of an impact to allow this to be heard . . .”
(CNN) — Senior Biden White House aides, administration officials and prominent defense attorneys in Washington, DC, are discussing potential preemptive pardons or legal aid for people who might be targeted for prosecution by President-elect Donald Trump after he retakes power, multiple sources told CNN. Reports of these conversations have captured the attention of Trump’s legal advisers, who, according to a source familiar with their strategy, believe President Joe Biden would be setting a new precedent in terms of the scope of pardons that they could take advantage of, down the line, to help their own allies. Biden’s senior aides inside the White House have been deliberating for weeks about the possibility of issuing preemptive pardons, according to the sources familiar with the discussions. The move, which would cover people who haven’t ever been formally accused of any crimes, would be an extraordinary step and shows the grave concerns many Democrats have that Trump will prosecute a range of figures that he considers to be his enemies. Trump has publicly called for the jailing of people like Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney, who served as vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, as well as special counsel Jack Smith , who brought federal criminal cases against Trump. One former senior White House official said aides inside the White House and across various federal agencies are intensely worried about the possibility that the incoming Trump administration will prosecute anyone deemed as having antagonized the president-elect. Additionally, several prominent white-collar lawyers across Washington have fielded calls in recent weeks from government officials, including investigators from Smith’s office, who are concerned they could be targeted by the incoming Trump administration. Biden and his top aides view Trump’s public threats – particularly against current and former government officials – as unprecedented, and some believe that it would be reckless and irresponsible for Biden to leave office without granting preemptive pardons. “You have got (an incoming) president that has basically said he’s going to go after all these people,” a source familiar with the discussions told CNN. “Why not do it?” A White House spokesperson declined to comment. According to Politico, which first reported on the internal debate, the discussions are being led by White House counsel Ed Siskel and other senior aides to the president, including chief of staff Jeff Zients . The former White House official who spoke to CNN, who is intimately familiar with the workings of the White House counsel’s office, said it would be typical for Siskel and his team to first put together a detailed memo to be presented to Biden. In that situation, that memo would include a list of individuals that Biden might consider pardoning preemptively, the context about any prior legal precedent, and a discussion of the wide range of potential ramifications if the president does move forward with these pardons. The calls among worried government officials and top white-collar defense lawyers in DC, appear, at this point, to be precautionary. One private attorney told CNN that they’re “feeling out what they should do if something happens” once Trump takes over. A spokesman for Smith’s special counsel office declined to comment on whether he would seek a preemptive pardon. CNN previously reported that Smith intends to step down before Trump takes office, instead of being fired, as the president-elect has pledged to do . As Democrats brace for the political and legal scrutiny that could come from the new president, his administration, and the GOP-run Congress , one significant concern for many current and former administration officials is the possibility of mounting legal bills. Multiple sources said there have been discussions about setting up legal funds to help support those who would not be able to afford thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees. Some of the private practice bar have discussed if influential white-collar practices could work together to help career Justice Department workers – and others who are exiting the federal workforce – to possibly provide them low-cost or pro-bono representation. And at least one progressive group is working on assembling resources – such as lawyers, security experts and communications professionals – who could help government officials placed under investigation during the Trump years, some of the people familiar with the discussions said. A source familiar with Trump legal strategy says his team believes Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter has set a new precedent for presidents to issue expansive pardons to their children – and this could be something Trump chooses to do before he leaves office. The Hunter Biden pardon was notable for not only forgiving the crimes in his tax and gun indictments, but also for protecting him from being charged with any offense he “may have committed or taken part in” between January 2014 and December 2024. There’s also the president’s brother James Biden, who hasn’t faced charges but whose overseas business dealings attracted intense scrutiny from congressional Republicans. Several GOP-run House committees urged the Justice Department to prosecute James Biden in connection with lying to Congress. (He denies all wrongdoing and declined to comment for this story.) If Biden goes even further and grants preemptive pardons to an expansive list of individuals, Trump’s team believes that move would also create a new precedent and give Trump political cover to do the same for his allies, according to the source. CNN reported in 2021 that before Trump left office during his first term, he considered – but did not grant – preemptive pardons for family members , political allies, his personal attorneys, and even for himself , including in the wake of the January 6 insurrection. Attorneys across the political spectrum have raised concerns about blanket pardons to protect against future investigations or prosecution. “It’s just such a different use of the pardon power,” said Neil Eggleston, former White House counsel to President Barack Obama. “You would create the beginning of a tit for tat where, when any administration is over, you just pardon everybody.” Presidential pardons protect against federal Justice Department prosecutions, but do not shield individuals from state-level criminal cases or congressional investigations. While Trump has publicly said he wants his Justice Department to go after his perceived adversaries, the system has built-in checks against abuses of power, such as judges that can throw out charges, grand juries that can refuse to indict, juries that can return “not guilty” verdicts, and other safeguards to protect against purely vindictive prosecutions. Some prominent former Justice Department officials have said they wouldn’t want a preemptive pardon from Biden, because it might imply they’re conceding there was wrongdoing during their work for the federal government, according to a source familiar with their thinking. Trump has a well-documented history of pushing – both publicly and privately – for investigations and prosecutions of his political opponents, almost always based on unproven, baseless and conspiracy-tinged allegations about their supposed activities. Many of his recent threats targeted prosecutors who charged him with crimes: Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He has publicly called for investigations into prominent lawmakers: Cheney and the rest of the January 6 committee members (who he said “should go to jail”), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (for her supposed “ties to Russia”), Senator-elect Adam Schiff (for his role in the Trump-Ukraine impeachment saga) and a host of other Democratic lawmakers. Still, members of Congress have immunity from the Constitution’s “speech or debate clause” that offers such broad protections for their legislative work that even members of the defunct January 6 committee would be unlikely to take seriously any legal threats. Trump also has said Vice President Kamala Harris “should be ... prosecuted” for letting undocumented immigrants into the country. After the election, Trump called for probes of Iowa pollster Ann Selzer (for “election fraud,” by releasing a poll with Harris ahead), and into stock traders who spread “illegal rumors” about his investment in Truth Social. During his first term, some of Trump’s calls for probes were apparently heeded, leading to investigations into 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton , former FBI director James Comey , and former FBI deputy director Andy McCabe , now a CNN contributor. None of them were ever charged with crimes. Some of Trump’s longtime foes who worked on the Russia probe around the 2016 election may not have much legal exposure now because their government service ended so long ago and statutes of limitations may have lapsed. There are plenty of other figures that, despite Trump’s calls, weren’t investigated during his first term, but could be scrutinized when he returns to power: former President Barack Obama (for “treason”), former Secretary of State John Kerry (for his contacts with Iran), and even MSNBC host Joe Scarborough (based on a conspiracy theory that he was possibly able to “get away with murder” after one of his interns died in 2001). Attorneys who might defend top targets have their own fears, too. Representing Trump administration and political officials had largely gone out of fashion for large DC defense firms in recent years, with few willing to take on clients, especially after January 6. The view at Washington’s elite firms – which tend to lean liberal – may be shifting back toward getting involved, but it’s still not clear how much pushback the next Trump presidency may receive from the capital’s powerful law firms, several prominent attorneys told CNN this week. “There could well be a fear now by law firm leaders that if we take on those cases, could we ourselves be targeted?”one white-collar lawyer who regularly represents high-profile political figures told CNN on Thursday. Some liberal-leaning and criminal justice reform groups are pushing Biden to focus his final clemency efforts less on family members, political allies or Trump’s potential targets – and instead to help incarcerated Americans whom they believe deserve relief. One group, FWD.us , is airing TV ads in the Washington, DC, market, pressing Biden to “give people a second chance,” by granting clemency to Americans with “outdated” prison sentences that they argue would be shorter under today’s laws and policies. They’ve pointed to Obama’s record-setting commutations as a model. He reduced the punishments of more than 1,300 convicts, including 500 people serving life sentences. “The thousands of people serving disproportionately long and racially disparate sentences in federal prison have been waiting for relief long before the politics of this particular moment,” Zoë Towns, executive director of FWD.us , said in an email. “It is our hope that whatever comes next includes a robust clemency effort focused on them.” CNN’s Curt Devine contributed to this report. The-CNN-Wire TM & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.Early Wednesday morning, Brian Thompson was walking into a hotel in Manhattan, when a figure in a hoodie stepped out from behind a car and shot him in the back. Since then, it feels like there is no other topic on social media. The entire country was talking about the assassination of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare (UHC), the largest health insurance company in the United States, with a market valuation of almost half a trillion dollars. Pretty much everyone was celebrating, and the jokes were endless. Would he be denied coverage if he was picked up by an out-of-network ambulance? Or get turned away from the hospital because the bullet wound was a pre-existing condition? Did his plan cover assassination? A vacuous statement from UHC has gotten over 33,000 laugh reacts! There were also long, moving testimonies from clients of UnitedHealthcare about when they were denied medical care, sent enormous bills, or forced to spend months on the phone. And former call center employees recalled the ongoing pain of being forced to deny people’s claims. The assassin fled the scene on a Citi Bike and disappeared into Central Park. Yet everyone assumed that the shooter was motivated by the near-universal hatred of these parasites. According to news reports , the bullet casings said “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” — seemingly a reference to a book called Delay, Deny, Defend about how and why insurance companies avoid paying insurance claims. The motive for the killing might be quite close to the popular imagination. In the United States’ for-profit healthcare system, an insurance company, which is theoretically responsible for financing health care, makes money by denying healthcare to people. Thompson was a champ at this. According to one widely circulated chart , UHC denied a higher percentage of claims than any other insurance company. Thompson had driven up profits and took home $10.2 million last year. The New York Times writes that “chief executive officers of healthcare companies often receive threats because of the nature of their work.” But really, there is nothing “natural” about this. In a rationally organized society, the people in charge of the healthcare system would not be objects of hatred. Yet capitalism puts all of society’s wealth into the hands of people who act like murderous psychopaths. The shooter in Manhattan is, by any definition, a murderer — even if they might have had noble reasons for ending a life. Yet the victim is, of course, also a murderer — one who killed on a scale several orders of magnitude higher. Denying people healthcare is no less deadly than pulling a trigger, but on a much grander scale. Friedrich Engels talked about this in his study of the working class in England in the middle of the 19th century: When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live — forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence — knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains. So in Engels’s words, every insurance company CEO is guilty of “social murder.” If Thompson was killed as retribution for his countless, systematic murders, then we as Marxists cannot offer any ethical objection. We can express our initial admiration for a person who appears to have tried, at enormous personal risk, to defend the dignity of working people — although we are of course waiting for more information. Making healthcare CEOs scared could literally save lives. And yet Thompson was on his way to an investors’ meeting. It is noteworthy that, after a brief announcement of what had just happened outside the door, the participants proceeded with their agenda: how to further increase profits by denying health care to people in their care. This is an interesting comment on the “hard work” done by C.E.O.s. — no one even notices if they simply disappear. More than that, though, it shows that such acts of individual revenge will not be enough to end the screaming injustice of this system. With Thompson gone, some other soulless parasite will take his place, and the machine will keep running over the bones of hundreds of millions of working people. This is why we, as Marxists, object to these methods of “international terrorism.” Not because we would ever shed a tear for the early departure of an exploiter, but rather because such tactics are ultimately not effective. In 1911, Leon Trotsky wrote that if we oppose terrorist acts, it is only because individual revenge does not satisfy us. The account we have to settle with the capitalist system is too great to be presented to some functionary called a minister [or a C.E.O. — NF]. To learn to see all the crimes against humanity, all the indignities to which the human body and spirit are subjected, as the twisted outgrowths and expressions of the existing social system, in order to direct all our energies into a collective struggle against this system—that is the direction in which the burning desire for revenge can find its highest moral satisfaction. As Marxists, we do not seek to “extinguish the proletariat’s unfulfilled feeling of revenge, but on the contrary to stir it up again and again, to deepen it, and to direct it against the real causes of all injustice and human baseness.” In another essay, Trotsky wrote: “Not the lone avenger but only a great revolutionary mass movement can free the oppressed.” To anyone thinking about shooting another healthcare CEO, we would say: think bigger! And seek another road! No single avenger with a hoodie, a CitiBike, and a pistol will be able to save us from the endless humiliations of capitalism. Instead, we need a movement of millions of working people, and their working-class organs like unions, with the bravery stirred by a shared vision of a different world, to radically change this system. The mass, gut reaction to the shooting — the outpouring of support — shows just how deep the hatred of a healthcare system and its millionaire CEOs runs. It’s not enough to get rid of onea CEO. We need to topple all these bloodsucking capitalists, and have them do productive work alongside us. Health CareNew Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi announced Friday that Jake Haener will be the team’s starting quarterback for Sunday’s home matchup against the Washington Commanders . Week 15 will mark the first start of Haener’s young NFL career with Derek Carr listed as doubtful after suffering a left hand fracture during last week’s 14-11 win over the New York Giants . Haener played five snaps and was sacked on his only passing attempt during New Orleans’ final two offensive series in the fourth quarter. Advertisement The 2023 fourth-round draft pick out of Fresno State has appeared in seven games this season, completing 14-of-29 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown. Most notably, Haener went 9-of-17 for 122 yards in place of backup Spencer Rattler , then starting for an injured Carr, during a Week 8 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers . Washington (8-5) enters Week 15 with a middle-of-the-pack defensive unit allowing the 12th-fewest yards (327.7) and 17th-fewest points per game (22.8). However, Joe Whitt Jr’s unit — which will see former Saints Pro Bowl cornerback Marshon Lattimore make his team debut Sunday after November’s trade deadline deal — is particularly stingy against the pass, allowing only 190.7 yards per game, good for fifth-best in the NFL. Haener and the Saints (5-8) will now look to pick up their fourth victory in the last five games, the start of a season-ending four-game stretch that may not include Carr with the veteran considered week-to-week going forward. Required reading (Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
MUAN, South Korea: The stench of gasoline hangs over Muan International Airport. Behind a police cordon, plane seats, suitcases and twisted bits of metal are scattered, close to the wrecked fuselage of Jeju Air flight 2216. The Boeing 737-800 carrying 181 people from Bangkok to South Korea crashed as it attempted an emergency landing Sunday, smashing into a wall and bursting into flames, leaving all but two people aboard feared dead. Hundreds of emergency workers put out the fire and combed through the wreckage, but only two people, both flight attendants, were rescued alive, with 177 confirmed dead. By late afternoon, floodlights illuminated the twisted wreckage as a huge yellow crane lifted the fuselage, allowing officials to continue the search and rescue mission. Behind a police cordon tape stretched across the wire fence at the edge of the runway, plane seats and other chunks of metal could be seen, offering a glimpse into the catastrophic impact of the crash. Inside the airport terminal, family members gathered to wait for news, many looking stunned and tearful. One woman was carried away on a stretcher, apparently having passed out from shock. The boards typically used for arrival and departure information were instead displaying the names, dates of birth and nationalities of the victims. “I had a son on board that plane ... He has yet to be identified,” one elderly man waiting in the airport lounge, who asked not to be named, told AFP Wailing and screaming echoed through the two-storey airport, as the names and identities of victims were confirmed. Many of the passengers, who were all Korean nationals except for two Thais, had been returning home after their winter holidays. “My younger sister went to heaven today,” one 65-year-old woman who gave only her surname Jo told AFP. Her sister had been in Bangkok with her friends on holiday, the woman, wearing a mask and a grey knit hat, said. “My husband is now trying to check whether she’s been identified,” Jo added. The flight had 175 passengers, including two Thai nationals, and six crew onboard. According to authorities, the youngest passenger was a three-year-old boy and the oldest was a 78-year-old. Five of the dead were children under the age of 10, authorities said, citing the passenger manifest. The only sounds near the crash site were the whirring of cameras and the murmur of reporters broadcasting live, as hundreds of relatives, lost for words, awaited news of their loved ones aboard the burned plane. In the area around the runway, AFP reporters could see duty-free booklets and sanitary gloves worn by the flight crew scattered across the field, not far from the charred tail of the aircraft. It is the deadliest aviation accident on South Korean soil and the worst in years involving the country’s carriers. A moment of silence was held at sporting events, including volleyball and basketball games, on Sunday. All major South Korean broadcasters changed their schedules to emergency news programming. End-of-the-year entertainment award shows and comedy shows were cancelled. The accident comes as South Korea is in the midst of political chaos, after suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached earlier this month over his ill-fated attempt to declare martial law. The acting president was also impeached Friday, leaving the country with its third leader in three weeks. Civic groups said they were reviewing whether to postpone mass impeachment rallies in light of the accident. Heartbreaking stories of family members were also shared online, with one saying his mother and his five aunts were one the plane. “I was told they would arrive around 8:50 am today, so I came to the airport to pick up my mother and aunts, but I’ve heard no word from them,” he told local media anxiously. The message from the parent and passenger reads: “Wait, a bird is stuck in the wing. Unable to land now... Should I leave a will?” It was the last message, sent at 9:01 am. Their child replies: “Why can’t I make a call with you?”. It was delivered at 9:37 am and has remained unread. — AFPECU CB Shavon Revel Jr. declares for NFL draft