All posts tagged: officials

Even More Venmo Accounts Tied to Trump Officials in Signal Group Chat Left Data Public

Even More Venmo Accounts Tied to Trump Officials in Signal Group Chat Left Data Public

Published by skeptic

Venmo did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment. In a statement given to WIRED in response to questions about the Waltz and Wiles accounts, spokesperson Erin Mackey said, “We take our customers’ privacy seriously, which is why we let customers choose their privacy settings on Venmo for both their individual payments and friends lists—and we make it incredibly simple for customers to make these private if they choose to do so.” “From my perspective, as a veteran, everyone is entitled to use the applications and services they feel are necessary to live their lives,” says Tara Lemieux, a 35-year veteran of the US intelligence community including the National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and supporting agencies. “That said, when you post anything in those third-party applications and you don’t understand how that information can be shared or exploited, you are taking a risk for our nation—and that’s not acceptable.” For Lemieux, while public transactions on Venmo might appear harmless, foreign intelligence services—particularly signals intelligence agencies—look for patterns: who’s paying whom, how often, …

As Trump officials demonize faith-based partners, government grants are called heresy

As Trump officials demonize faith-based partners, government grants are called heresy

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(RNS) — In late January, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced $30 million in grants to fund his state’s recovery from Hurricane Helene. Included in that total was $6 million for two faith-based groups helping rebuild homes after the storm: $3 million for Habitat for Humanity, a housing nonprofit based on Christian principles; and $3 million for Baptists on Mission, an auxiliary of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. The Baptists plan to use their $3 million to buy building supplies to repair as many as 1,000 homes in the coming year, said Richard Brunson, executive director of Baptists on Mission. Brunson told Religion News Service that accepting the grants made sense. “More than half the cost of building is labor, but with volunteers providing the labor we can double or even triple the number of families that we can get back in their homes,” Brunson said in accepting the grant. He also thanked Stein for a previous state grant of $5 million for disaster relief. But the Baptists’ decision to accept the grant …

Russian Officials Who Looted Southern Ukrainian Museums Identified

Russian Officials Who Looted Southern Ukrainian Museums Identified

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A Russian military officer and three Russian-appointed officials from occupied Crimea illegally removed more than 33,000 historical artifacts and artworks from two museums in the Ukrainian city Kherson in the fall of 2022, the Kyiv Independent reported Thursday, calling it the largest museum theft in Europe since World War II. The looting was carried out while Russian forces were fleeing a Ukrainian counteroffensive. A journalist working for the Kyiv Independent posed as a Russian television producer and investigator to identify local collaborators who helped Russian troops with the looting. Through the investigation, it was discovered that Russian officer and head of communications of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Dmitry Lipov, who served as the city’s commandant during the city’s occupation, secured the collections during the government-sanctioned removal and personally sealed the trucks transporting the stolen items. Related Articles Sergey Patrushev, who was appointed by Russian authorities to lead the museum department of the Crimean Ministry of Culture, moved paintings from the Kherson Art Museum to Crimea. During the theft, two Russian-appointed directors of the Crimean museums, …

Sally Mann Photos Scrutinized as ‘Child Porn’ by Texas Officials

Sally Mann Photos Scrutinized as ‘Child Porn’ by Texas Officials

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Photographs by Sally Mann on view in a group exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas have been decried by locals and elected officials as containing what they have deemed as inappropriate depictions of children. Sally Mann has spurred controversy for years over her photographs of her rural Lexington, Virginia, home, which include nude depictions of her underage children. In 1992, the New York Times Magazine cover article, “The Disturbing Photography of Sally Mann,” for instance, detailed a federal prosecutor having informed Mann that “no fewer than eight pictures she had chosen for the traveling exhibition [“Immediate Family”] could subject her to arrest.” Related Articles The Fort Worth exhibition, titled “Diaries of Home,” and co-organized by chief curator Andrea Karnes and assistant curator Clare Milliken, features the work of 13 women and nonbinary artists who, according to the museum’s website, “explore the multilayered concepts of family, community, and home.” The website includes a warning that the show features “mature themes that may be sensitive for some viewers.” Mann’s family photographs were dubbed …

Intel Officials Warned Police That US Cities Aren’t Ready for Hostile Drones

Intel Officials Warned Police That US Cities Aren’t Ready for Hostile Drones

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In the memo obtained by WIRED, DHS displays less confidence in its ability to detect menacing drones. The document, which authorities were instructed not to make public, states that “tactics and technology to evade counter-UAS capabilities are circulated and sold online with little to no regulation.” In reality, the ability of police to track errant drones is hindered by a range of evolving technologies, the memo says, including “autonomous flight, 5G command and control, jamming protection technology, swarming technology, and software that disables geofencing restrictions.” The mystery in New Jersey and similar phenomena in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland, among other states, have put a spotlight on the ongoing efforts of state and federal legislators to expand the government’s access to counter-UAS technology. Speaking to reporters via Zoom on Saturday, a DHS official said the agency is urging Congress to “extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities,” and ensure “state and local authorities are provided the tools they need to respond to such threats as well.” Currently, only a handful of federal agencies—including DHS and the …

7 things we learned from DfE officials at PAC

7 things we learned from DfE officials at PAC

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More from this theme Recent articles The last government’s plan to improve the SEND system “didn’t go far enough”, a senior Department for Education official has said. MPs were also told limiting access to EHCPs “isn’t the goal” of its deficit-management schemes. DfE permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood and other senior civil servants were quizzed by the public accounts committee this week. It follows a damning report by the National Audit Office that found whole-system reform was needed and it was “financial unsustainable”. Here’s what we learned… 1. Improvement plan ‘didn’t go far enough’ In March last year, the previous government published a long-awaited SEND and alternative provision improvement plan setting out reform of the system. But Juliet Chua, director general for schools, said part of the challenge was “recognition that actually the improvement plan just didn’t go far enough”.  She said they needed to go further in “understanding the levers and incentives around inclusive mainstream, looking more deeply at the ways in which local authorities were finding that without some of the levers they needed, …

Senior European officials facepalm over Scholz’s Putin call   – POLITICO

Senior European officials facepalm over Scholz’s Putin call   – POLITICO

Published by Sam

“We need to act unified, we need to coordinate, this call was not coordinated between allies, even [though] we got a very deep brief later on,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. Scholz said that during his phone call with Putin, he urged the Russian president “to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to withdraw its troops.” According to a German government spokesperson, Scholz had informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the call beforehand. “The Federal Chancellor urged Russia to be prepared to negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” the spokesperson said in a statement. Asked whether he would speak to Putin, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said: “I don’t think so.” He added: “It doesn’t look like he [Putin] is willing to negotiate, to the contrary.” “What I see in general is that Putin only listens to facts on the ground,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp about the call. Source link

EU officials blast Hungary’s Orban over Ukraine stance, democratic decline | European Union News

EU officials blast Hungary’s Orban over Ukraine stance, democratic decline | European Union News

Published by Sam

Lawmakers belt out antifascist anthem, prompting European Parliament president to declare: ‘This is not Eurovision’. Top European Union officials have slammed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over democratic backsliding at home and his Russia-friendly stance that has blocked military and financial aid to Ukraine. Orban, whose country currently holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, came under fire on Wednesday after warning officials gathered in Strasbourg, France, about the “migration crisis” and the war in Ukraine as he addressed the European Parliament. Leading the charge against Orban, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took aim at Budapest’s stalling of EU support for Kyiv and refusal to join Western efforts to arm Ukraine to fight off Moscow. “The world has witnessed the atrocities of Russia’s war. And yet, there are still some who blame this war not on the invader but the invaded,” said von der Leyen. “There are still some who blame this war not on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s lust for power but on Ukraine’s thirst for freedom.” In July, Orban stoked controversy when …

Ground operation in Lebanon could be imminent, officials say

Ground operation in Lebanon could be imminent, officials say

Published by Sam

Fears are growing that “no one is safe” in Lebanon after Israel’s airstrike in central Beirut, according to the executive director of a humanitarian nongovernmental organization working to support families displaced by the bombing campaign. Humanitarian workers were “shocked” by the strike in Beirut’s Cola district, Jihan Kaisi, the Executive Director of the Union of Relief and Development Associations, or URDA, told NBC News. “This Cola area is crowded with families, with displaced families, who came to this area thinking it’s safe,” she said. “It’s a very crowded area.” And the strike targeting the area, just a couple of miles from downtown Beirut and the city’s Zaitunay Bay, she said, showed there was “no safe place guaranteed in Lebanon.” She added that a deadly strike in the Sidon or Saida area in southern Lebanon on Sunday, had also heightened fears in that part of the country. Thousands of families have been sheltering there under the belief that the heavily populated area would be safe and now they don’t know where else to go, she said. Some …