Top Tollywood star arrested after woman dies in crowd crushJimmy Carter, peacemaker guided by moral vision but laid low by politics
None
AP News Summary at 2:19 p.m. EST‘Growth-focused’ Labour cannot shirk the blame for our dismal economic figures
By AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official on Wednesday said at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that a number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could still grow. Related Articles The U.S. believes that the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said. “We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters. She added that Biden has been briefed on the findings and that the White House “has made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.” The Chinese embassy in Washington on Tuesday rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance. “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. The embassy did not immediately respond to messages on Wednesday. Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed reporting.A Conversation with an AI Bot About Patents
By RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has reaffirmed her ruling that Tesla must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick on Monday denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys , who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million. The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package. McCormick concluded in January that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. The compensation package initially carried a potential maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla’s stock price.Trudeau told Trump Americans would also suffer if tariffs are imposed, a Canadian minister saysHow to protect your communications through encryption
Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolvedDelaware judge reaffirms ruling that invalidated massive Tesla pay package for Elon MuskIn a demonstration of its strengthening military power, China has unveiled the world's largest amphibious assault ship. The launch closely followed reports of the communist nation testing flights of its new sixth-generation heavy stealth fighter jet, reportedly named the J-36, which features a tailless design aimed at enhancing stealth and manoeuvrability. Beijing is expanding its military capabilities at a wartime footing, with the country's defence spending witnessing an increase of 7.2 per cent to 1.67 trillion yuan in 2024. China has also become the world's largest shipbuilder, with a capacity 230 times greater than that of the US. About China's Amphibious Assault Ship The Chinese Type 076 amphibious assault ship entered the water on Friday at a shipyard in Shanghai, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) said in a statement. Named Sichuan after a southwestern Chinese province, the independently new vessel is hailed as a "key asset" by PLAN for advancing the Navy's transformation and enhancing its long-range operational capabilities in the far seas. China's first domestically developed and built Type 076 amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan, left the dockyard in Shanghai on Sunday morning. https://t.co/jZwRmYGacl pic.twitter.com/FT9ZY0NbC1 — CCTV+ (@CCTV_Plus) December 29, 2024 The Sichuan has a full-load displacement of over 40,000 tonnes, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua News agency. It also reportedly features a dual-island superstructure along with a full-length flight deck. Furthermore, the vessel incorporates electromagnetic catapult and arrestor technologies, enabling it to carry fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and amphibious equipment. Only one other warship in service worldwide, the US Navy's newest aircraft carrier 'USS Gerald R Ford' employs the electromagnetic catapult system, according to a report by CNN. On Thursday, unverified images of what is being termed a Chinese sixth-generation fighter aircraft went viral on social media. The jet is reportedly named the J-36. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, the aircraft was seen flying over Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province in broad daylight, flanked by a fifth-generation J-20 fighter jet. It had a triangular tailless design, fueling speculation about its potential to shift the global balance of aerial dominance. The Chinese government and military have not officially commented on the jet. However, the timing of its debut, which coincided with the birthday of Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, indicates deliberate messaging. The emergence of the J-36 signals a major leap in China's military aviation capabilities and poses a challenge to existing US aerial superiority. It came a month after China's Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) unveiled its Baidi White Emperor 'B Type' sixth-generation fighter jet at the Zhuhai Airshow in November. China has made a rapid ascent in the military sector since the People's Liberation Army's first push for modernisation in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping. This included regular updates in its doctrine, organisational structure, equipment, and weapons systems to better reflect the changing needs of modern warfare. But Beijing's rapid military growth has tipped the scales of regional strength in the Indo-Pacific, which has been largely dominated by the US since the end of the Second World War. Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
A slow-down in TV commissioning has led to a "crisis" behind the cameras, with growing numbers of freelance crews leaving the industry altogether. Despite the success of Christmas TV shows like Gavin and Stacey, the union Bectu said half of freelancers were out of work as broadcasters grappled with tighter budgets and falling advertising revenue. The head of one independent production company said it had been "frightening" to see other companies go bust in 2024. Freelancers who had seen drastic reductions in their work said they were struggling to get by. Producers said changing priorities by broadcasters had led to fewer programmes being commissioned, particularly entertainment shows and documentaries. Commercial broadcasters have faced rising costs and falling advertising revenue, while the BBC is also cutting costs. The lack of work for freelance crews eventually forced Amy Mills to quit the industry altogether. "I couldn't understand how I was going to make it work," she said, having spent 10 years working on network TV productions in Wales before the jobs stopped coming. "I had to make the decision to put everything else first." Significant changes have taken place, including the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic and a boom in productions which followed before quickly going bust. Amy, from Bridgend, now works in public relations for a charity and said her friends who are freelancing were "hanging on" in the hope the situation improved. "They are really starting to consider other options." She said she felt "grief" for the career she had left behind, but now had greater financial security in a reliable job. Freelancers who were considering leaving TV could also continue to use their skills. Amy said: "In TV, we are born multi-taskers. We are used to working to high-pressure deadlines, quick timelines, and those skills are useful in so many other industries." TV and games composer Ben Randall is one of the freelancers hoping to ride out the storm. "I had to sell a bunch of gear to get through," he said, reflecting on how he coped with a lack of work in November. "It was completely dry." And he is not alone. "Unless you're an A-list Hollywood composer, you're struggling." Some new commissions have now arrived, but the 22-year-old from Port Talbot said he was anxious about the future. "I'm not really good at anything else, so I don't have another game plan," he said. There's also a mental strain on freelancers who face greater uncertainty than ever when looking for work. "There's a psychological element," he said. "I was quite lucky that when I left uni, then I met all these brilliant people, and I was really busy for a few months, like most of the year. "And then suddenly, dry. You get no replies. "The events get either more exclusive or more expensive, and just trying to convince people online through email to hire you is becoming harder and harder." Unscripted programmes, such as entertainment shows and documentaries, have been particularly badly hit by reduced commissioning from broadcasters. Bectu said over half of its freelance members were out of work, with 78% reporting that they were struggling to pay their bills. Carwyn Donovan, who leads the Wales branch of Bectu, said: "Nearly half of this workforce is considering how to leave the industry within the next five years, and that should be of significant concern to the Welsh government, but also the UK government. "The screen industry is a significant success story and a significant contributor to our economy. But the success of the industry is underpinned by those workers, and one cannot overstate the role that they play in culture as well, in telling Wales' story to the rest of the world." Bectu wants the UK government to create a freelancers' commissioner to oversee the workforce and protect their rights. In a statement the UK government said: "Without the self-employed, our first-class TV industry would not be able to entertain millions of people around the world and drive billions into our economy. These workers must feel that a creative career is sustainable for them. "We welcome the work the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority is doing to put a robust set of standards in place to ensure the sector remains one of the best in the world to work in." The Welsh government said it was "a challenging time for the TV industry" and that its investments in the creative industries were "targeted towards strengthening the industry for the long term". Welsh independent production company Wildflame closed in August, along with Label 1 which had made Saving Lives in Cardiff for BBC Wales. BBC Wales said broadcasters were "having to adapt and change the way they commission programmes" in light of changing audience behaviour. It said it was "investing in more content from Wales for our online services" and "premium titles" from BBC Wales had included dramas like Lost Boys and Fairies and "impactful" documentaries. Welsh language broadcaster S4C said it "continued to commission as usual" but it recognised "how difficult the media landscape is for freelancers" in Wales. "It has been frightening for a lot of companies," said Emyr Afan. As the chief executive of Afanti, he makes programmes for the BBC, Channel 5 and S4C. "We've lost a few companies in the last few months, which has not been easy. But we also need to pivot," he added. The company had already diversified for "a more digital era, where people are consuming television in a different way, where the budget is tighter and we have to work differently," Mr Afan said. After a boom in spending on programmes after the pandemic, Mr Afan said the "crash" over the past two years had been "more difficult than Covid" for TV workers. "The broadcasters aren't responsible for us. We're responsible for our own future. I don't believe in a handout culture, we work hard for the ideas we win," he said. "And as hard as it gets, winning those commissions are even more treasured than they were before," he said, adding that succeeding in business was about "innovation, it's about entrepreneurship. And I think, unfortunately, we are going to see a period of survival of the fittest."The AI Chip King’s Bold Moves! Nvidia’s Strategic Cash PlayHow investors might try to turn £10,000 into a chunky passive income The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and is not intended to be, nor does it constitute, any form of personal advice. Investments in a currency other than sterling are exposed to currency exchange risk. Currency exchange rates are constantly changing, which may affect the value of the investment in sterling terms. You could lose money in sterling even if the stock price rises in the currency of origin. Stocks listed on overseas exchanges may be subject to additional dealing and exchange rate charges, and may have other tax implications, and may not provide the same, or any, regulatory protection as in the UK. When investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you put in. You're reading a free article with opinions that may differ from The Motley Fool's Premium Investing Services. Become a Motley Fool member today to get instant access to our top analyst recommendations, in-depth research, investing resources , and more. Learn More . I often find myself day dreaming about building a chunky passive income. The urge to escape the 9 to 5 by establishing a sizeable alternative source of income is a strong one. The hard part is figuring out where to start. Now,... Ken Hall
Reports: Kings fire coach Mike BrownPrime Minister Narendra Modi praised the farmers of the Golamunda block in Odisha’s Kalahandi district for their remarkable achievements in bringing about a “vegetable revolution” in the area. During his monthly broadcast of ‘Mann ki Baat’ on Sunday, Modi commended the farmers for establishing a farmer producer organization (FPO) and for adopting modern technology that transformed Kalahandi, which was once known for its severe poverty and migration issues. “Once, farmers were forced to leave their homes in search of better opportunities. Today, the Golamunda block in Kalahandi has become a hub for vegetable production. How did this transformation happen?” he asked. ଓଡ଼ିଶାର କଳାହାଣ୍ଡି ଜିଲ୍ଲାର ଗୋଲାମୁଣ୍ଡା ଆଜି ଏକ ‘ପରିବା ହବ୍’ ରେ ପରିଣତ ହୋଇଛି। କୃଷକମାନେ ଆଜି ସେଠାରେ ‘କୃଷକ ଉତ୍ପାଦନ ସଂଗଠନ’ ଦ୍ଵାରା ଯୋଡି ହେବା ସହ ଆଧୁନିକ ଚାଷ ପଦ୍ଧତିରେ ଚାଷକାର୍ଯ୍ୟ କରୁଛନ୍ତି। ଏଥିରେ ୨୦୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ କୃଷକ ଯୋଡି ହୋଇଛନ୍ତି ଯେଉଁଥିରେ କି ୪୫ ଜଣ ମହିଳା ଚାଷୀ ମଧ୍ୟ ସାମିଲ ହୋଇଛନ୍ତି। – ଯଶସ୍ଵୀ... pic.twitter.com/DybCVRcKEk — Mohan Charan Majhi (@MohanMOdisha) December 29, 2024 It all began with a small group of just ten farmers who came together to form an FPO called ‘Kisan Utpad Sangh’. By utilizing modern farming techniques, their organization is now conducting business worth crores of rupees. Modi explained that over 200 farmers are now involved in this FPO, which includes 45 women. “Together, these farmers cultivate tomatoes on 200 acres and bitter gourd on 150 acres. The annual turnover of this FPO has now exceeded Rs 1.5 crore,” Modi stated. He added that vegetables from Kalahandi are being distributed not only across various districts in Odisha but also to other states, with local farmers learning new techniques for cultivating potatoes and onions. He emphasized that the success story of Kalahandi illustrates what can be achieved with determination and collective effort. “I urge all of you to promote FPOs in your area and join these organizations to strengthen them,” Modi advised. He remarked, “Remember, significant changes can start from small beginnings. All we need is determination and teamwork.” Krushna Nag, who was once a truck driver, now cultivates vegetables on 15 acres of land and is able to provide for his family without having to leave home for months. “I am truly happy and grateful to the Prime Minister for recognizing our efforts,” Nag expressed. In a post on X, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said, “Golamunda in Kalahandi district of Odisha has today become a ‘Vegetable Hub’. Farmers are now joining hands through Farmer Production Organizations and using modern farming methods. More than 200 farmers have joined this, including 45 women farmers. – Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi #MaanKiBaat”. In a post on X, Odisha’s Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment department secretary Arabinda Padhee said: “Proud to see our Agriculture Production Centre (APC) initiative featured in Hon Prime Minister’s #MannKiBaat today! The FPO in Golamunda, Kalahandi is a shining example of its success. I’ve had the privilege of visiting the village and witnessing the transformative firsthand.” BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sujeet Kumar, who represents Kalahandi district, thanked the Prime Minister for highlighting the vegetable revolution in the area. “Thank you, Hon’ble PM @narendramodi Ji, for highlighting the remarkable story of Kalahandi’s ‘Vegetable Revolution’ in #MannKiBaat,” he posted on X.
ATIF Announces Plan to Change its Nasdaq Ticker Symbol to "ZBAI”U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI, along with Tribal and local law enforcement officials, announce second 'Don’t Click December' consumer protection campaign
Processa Pharmaceuticals stock hits 52-week low at $0.85
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has reaffirmed her ruling that Tesla must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick on Monday denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys , who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million. The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package. McCormick concluded in January that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. The compensation package initially carried a potential maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla’s stock price. Following the court ruling, Tesla shareholders met in June and ratified Musk’s 2018 pay package for a second time, again by an overwhelming margin. Defense attorneys then argued that the second vote makes clear that Tesla shareholders, with full knowledge of the flaws in the 2018 process that McCormick pointed out, were adamant that Musk is entitled to the pay package. They asked the judge to vacate her order directing Tesla to rescind the pay package. McCormick, who seemed skeptical of the defense arguments during an August hearing, said in Monday’s ruling that those arguments were fatally flawed. “The large and talented group of defense firms got creative with the ratification argument, but their unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law,” McCormick wrote in a 103-page opinion. The judge noted, among other things, that a stockholder vote standing alone cannot ratify a conflicted-controller transaction. “Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here due to multiple, material misstatements in the proxy statement,” she added. Meanwhile, McCormick found that the $5.6 billion fee request by the shareholder’s attorneys, which at one time approached $7 billion based on Tesla’s trading price, went too far. “In a case about excessive compensation, that was a bold ask,” McCormick wrote. Attorneys for the Tesla shareholder argue that their work resulted in the “massive” benefit of returning shares to Tesla that otherwise would have gone to Musk and diluted the stock held by other Tesla investors. They value that benefit at $51.4 billion, using the difference between the stock price at the time of McCormick’s January ruling and the strike price of some 304 million stock options granted to Musk. While finding that the methodology used to calculate the fee request was sound, the judge noted that the Delaware’s Supreme Court has noted that fee award guidelines “must yield to the greater policy concern of preventing windfalls to counsel.” “The fee award here must yield in this way, because $5.6 billion is a windfall no matter the methodology used to justify it,” McCormick wrote. A fee award of $345 million, she said, was “an appropriate sum to reward a total victory.” The fee award amounts to almost exactly half the current record $688 million in legal fees awarded in 2008 in litigation stemming from the collapse of Enron.
King Machine Expands Its Beverage Filling Solutions With Cutting-Edge Monoblock Technology For Diverse Beverage ApplicationsISTANBUL – In the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad's ouster, Syria remains territorially fractured as the rebels who defeated Assad work to consolidate power. The country's uncertain future has raised questions about the fate of the U.S.-backed Kurdish coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This week, Syria's new leadership took steps to dissolve the different rebel factions and unite them under the new Syrian army. But the SDF did not join in. In a statement, SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami said the group wasn't opposed to joining the Syrian military in principle, but that the matter required negotiations with Damascus. The realities of the new Syria, however, have left the SDF with few options to maintain its status quo. The SDF controls a third of Syria's territory In 2014, the Islamic State extremist group began taking large pieces of territory in northeast Syria as the country was embroiled in a civil war. With the help of the United States, a coalition was formed of Kurdish militia groups to help fight ISIS and take back the territory. That's how the coalition came to control about a third of Syria, from the Euphrates River and eastward along the borders with Iraq and Turkey, according to Yerevan Saeed, director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at American University. "The Kurdish control of these areas really came in a time when there was a vacuum of power. All of these areas were taken over by ISIS, and the local population was very happy to have the SDF clear ISIS elements from all of these areas," Saeed says. After the territorial defeat of ISIS in Syria in the spring of 2019, the SDF continued to guard the prisons and camps holding thousands of ISIS fighters and their families, something it still does now. A majority of the population living under SDF control are Arabs The Kurds are one of the world's largest ethnic groups without their own state. They are a minority spread mainly across several Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. For a long time, some Kurds and their allies had hoped that the area the SDF carved out in northeastern Syria would eventually turn into an autonomous Kurdish zone, similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq. But that goal was unrealistic, according to Denise Natali, the director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University and expert on U.S.–Kurdish relations. "This was not in any part of the trajectory of Syrian history," Natali said. "And not sustainable from a perspective of local power dynamics, not from an economic perspective, not from a security perspective." Unlike in northern Iraq, a majority of the population in northeast Syria isn't Kurdish. They are Arabs. And while Kurds are living in the area, not all support the SDF, which follows a secular, libertarian socialist ideology that local Sunni Syrian Kurds do not share. The Kurdish towns and villages are also scattered and not contiguous, making it even more challenging to form a cohesive, autonomous region. Since the fall of Assad on Dec. 8, some Arab residents under SDF control in cities like Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa have been demonstrating and demanding to be governed by the rebels in Damascus instead. "With Assad out of the scene, local Arab communities in eastern Syria are uncomfortable with a sort of Kurdish militia group having ultimate authority in their areas," said Nicholas Heras, a senior director with New Lines Institute. "They have an alternative, another choice." NATO ally Turkey sees the Kurdish militia groups as a threat An even bigger challenge to the Kurdish coalition comes from Turkey – Syria's neighbor to the north. The rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) who toppled Assad were supported by Turkey, giving the country significant influence over Syria and its new leaders. Turkey says the main militia force in the U.S.-backed Kurdish coalition is the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party – an insurgent group better known as the PKK which it has been fighting in Turkey for decades. Both Turkey and the U.S. designate the PKK as a terrorist organization. The U.S. decision to arm the Syrian branch of the PKK – which is known as the YPG – in the fight against ISIS has been a sticking point in U.S.–Turkish relations for years, according to James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for the mission to defeat ISIS. "Because of the huge role the PKK has played since I was first in Turkey in 1984, the Turks can never formally accept what the U.S. is doing with the SDF," Jeffrey says, referring to Washington's support of the Syrian Kurdish coalition. Turkish officials made it clear soon after the fall of Assad that one of their strategic priorities in Syria is to see the YPG dismantled, either by the new Syrian leaders in Damascus taking control of all of Syria and uniting it, or by a major Turkish military offensive targeted on areas controlled by the YPG in Syria's northeast. In a speech to the Turkish parliament this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that the Kurdish militia groups "will either lay down their arms or will be buried with their arms in the lands of Syria." U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, have threatened sanctions against Turkey in case of a military offensive against the Kurdish fighters in Syria. Syria's new administration seeks to unite the country Last Sunday, during a press conference in Damascus with the Turkish foreign minister, Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said he would not allow any existing weapons in Syria to be outside state control, "whether from the revolutionary factions or from the factions present in the SDF region." As the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition is already due to be disbanded in Iraq , Turkish officials have been encouraging Syria's new leadership also to eventually take control of ISIS prisons and camps in Syria from the SDF. "The Syrian administration told us it is ready to take the necessary initiative to take over these prisoners," Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said in the press conference with Sharaa. Analysts expect a diplomatic agreement will eventually be reached between Damascus and the SDF, without a Turkish military offensive into SDF areas. "I think a more realistic prospect is some form of decentralized administration in which the Kurdish cities have local self-administration," Natali said. U.S. officials are concerned about ISIS resurgence, but Syria is not a strategic priority Natali, who served as assistant secretary of state for conflict and stabilization operations during President-elect Donald Trump's first term, says the United States' yearslong arrangement in Syria with the Kurdish coalition is no longer strategically viable, due to changes both in Syria and in Washington. "We are in a different situation," she says. "We have a new administration that has clearly identified what their priorities are, and Syria is not a priority." Instead, she says Trump's priorities are ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza . "And these types of priorities are going to need strategic partners, such as Turkey," Natali says. In his first term, Trump pushed but failed to bring back home the 900 U.S. troops on the ground in Syria. During his campaign this year, he made ending wars and not getting involved in other conflicts a big part of his message, and he is expected to want to withdraw troops from Syria again. But given the scale of destruction during Assad's violent reign on Syria's physical infrastructure and the fraying of social dynamics, many experts remain skeptical that Syria won't end up a fractured state. And U.S. officials are concerned about ISIS taking advantage of a vacuum and reemerging, making it all the more challenging for a full U.S. withdrawal from Syria. In an interview on Sunday with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Trump's pick for National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said that while the U.S. did not need to have troops on the ground in Syria, it won't be able to turn away from what's going on there. "Tens of thousands of fighters and families that are sitting in prison camps guarded by our friends the Kurds, supported by us, and we can't have that unleash again," Waltz said.
Cybercell shields women and children; tackles 759 cases of online harrasmentBy AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official on Wednesday said at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that a number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could still grow. The U.S. believes that the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said. “We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters. She added that Biden has been briefed on the findings and that the White House “has made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.” The Chinese embassy in Washington on Tuesday rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance. “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. The embassy did not immediately respond to messages on Wednesday. Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed reporting.Matías Tarnopolsky to become New York Philharmonic CEO, teaming with Gustavo Dudamel